St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1954-08-27

much as anyone about the Sout
Courts decision outlawing seq
and Negroes have urgent busin'
to work out a total school syst,
accommodate it to rapidly char
Harry s. Ashmore, executive
editor of the Arkansas Gazette
and author Of The Negro and
the Schools" a Ford Foundation
study Of biracial education, has
urged calm on the part of the
South saying, There is every rea-
son to expect segregation in local
schools to survive for a good many
years in many districts on a vol
untary basis. Obviously, the inn
pact Of the courts action will not
be felt evenly throughout the
South. In a very real sense, then.
the new education policies which
must be shaped to conform to the
courts decision will be determined
Dy local OFFICIALS.
Mr.. Ashmore says that a paral-
lei might be seen in the fact that
the Supreme Court several years
ago outlawed restrictive covenants
barring Negroes from ownership of
real estate. Such covenants, he
says, have remained in effect,
however, without sanction of law,
and there has not been any signi-
ficant change in the pattern of
residential segregation anywhere
in the South.
Over lunch, Mr.. Ashmore smiled
when we told him we had had diff
ficulty in getting a copy of his
book. 1t came out fortuitously the
week end prior to the courts an
nouncement of its decision, and de-
mands scared for this authoritative
treatise in which Mr.. Ashmore
gives a summary and interpreta-
ton Of the findings of more than
40 scholars scattered throughout
the South. 1t will be followed by
three additional works to be pub
lished by the University of North
Carolina Press which will present
in greater detail the material
gathered.
Encouraging Signs
These are: an essentially socio-
logical work based upon field stud
les of communities in transition
from segregation to Indignation
in the public schools, a collection
of field studies Of southern insti-
tutions of higher education which
have admitted Negroes lately. and
a composite of public school ad-
ministration, population, and eco
nomic studies. In addition a report
of the basic legal research under
taken for the Ashmore project has
been published already in the Har-
ward Law Review.
Mr.. Ashmore sees encouraging
significance in the South's calm
reaction to the courts decision
with a lack of racial incidents.
and in the cautious approach Of
the politicians with the exception
of Georgia. He says he does not
believe any state will abolish its
public school system in view of
the LOCALITIES, the prohibitive costs
and intricate inducements in keep
ing records and control Of money
such a step would involve. He
mentions, as others have, the pros
pect Of attempted enforcement of
the court ruling involving suits in
many school districts in the states
where segregation is required.
As Mr.. Ashmore views the scene
the border states already have in
dicated that segregation viii be
gone within a few years. The up
per southern states, already with
pockets Of segregation and some
Indignation in the higher institu-
tons Of learning. show what the
trend is and will be. The Deep
South states provide segment OF
direct opposition to the courts de-
cision and will attempt TO preserve
the unchanging South with efforts
TO nulhfy the courts mandate. he
believes.
Mr.. Ashrnore sounded as though
ne were writing an epitaph TO the
Old South as ne painted a rapidly
changing picture with mechanical
ton in progress. the exodus Of Ne
groes 70 urban areas and to the
North Arkansas lost 10 percent
OF its Negro population between
1910 and l950).
As the Negroes economic status
rises and he gets into labor organ
izations. he buys more goods, and
the white merchants from a self
interest standpoint must deal with
him properly, Even conservative