Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-04-13
VIRGINIA AND MITIGATION

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The article appearing in The Star OF
April 9, 1855. setting forth Virginia's
objections to indignation was a sad
commentary on American democracy.
That any group of citizens could
live in country such as this and oe
illiterate, unhealthy and in low state
of morality while we preach to other
countries the virtues of the American
way of life" can only be looked upon
throughout the world as the biggest
piece of hypocrisy that could be i'm
agined.
Rather than lettering the Supreme
Court from implementing its decision,
every thoughtful American must see
in the Virginia Attorney Generals
statements all the more reason for in
tegration, since those statements re-
fleet the shocking price of segregation.
Everything this State official has said
points out the great need for Negro
children to be afforded the same edli-
cational opportunities as white chill
dreu have experienced.
For 10 years the writer was en-
ployed in the United States Office Of
Education and had the opportunity to
study at first hand the inequities in
the distribution of educational funds
to Negro children in Virginia and
throughout the South. The inequities
were shameful and they were pointed
out in many studies made then and
since that time u930-194D. Had it
not been for the Jeanes and Rosenwald
Funds and other philanthropic agen-
- hotxx,naya tho oAIl-
cation of white and Negro children
would be even worse than that cited
by the attorney general.
Most of the data set forth by the
attorney general regarding the health
statistics are considered fallacious. Re
liable health officers who have been
consulted state that the vast majority
of white persons suffering from syphilis
or gonorrhea rarely are treated in pub
lie institutions, but rather by their
private physicians. Under these cir
cumstances it is impossible to get
reliable figure since it is assumed that
the figures used by the attorney gen.
eral are based on statistics compiled by
public institutions. No lprivate physi-
clan would divulge such information.
For the country as whole. in 1850
almost As per cent of Negro men had
wage credits of less than $1,000 as
compared with only Is per cent OF
white men, It Is to be expected then
that Negroes might show a greater
incidence of tuberculosis. since this
disease thrives in underpaid. poorly
housed. undernourished, uneducated
families. and certainly Virginia has its
share of Negroes in this category. The
average wages paid Negro workers and
the kind of housing available to them
in Virginia are all too well known.
Virginia should hide it's head in
shame and should take immediate steps
to correct the educational deficiencies
about which it so brazenly and proudly
boasts in it's brief to the Supreme
Court. Instead of taking steps to pro-
tect it's citizens, white and black alike,
the State now prefers to use its own
laxity to prove a contumely-that its
Negro youth is unfit to Join its white
youth in common education. It would
seem to me that the psychology OF
the whites" involved here must be the
overwhelming sense of guilt
Perhaps the State Of Virginia should
view it's brief for what it really is-a
condemnation of it's own practice in
allowing any part of its citizenry to go
"ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished" and
uneducated. ~ ~s,Tg
Ethel Graham Greene.
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The arguments advanced by the
State of Virginia for delaying school
indignation are based on falsehoods.
No study ever made in this country has
shown any significant relation between
skin color and health. The differences
cited in their brief are differences be-
tween social and economic classes.
masked by the gratuitous splitting of
children into white" and "colored."
Will any State politician in Vir"inia
claim that the children of, say, Negro
physicians or lawyers differ in health
from the children of white physicians
or lawyers? Will they claim that the
children of Negroes with third-grade
education or less and an income of less
than $1,000 year differ in health from
children of white parents of similar in
come and education? Thanks to seq
regated education. and general preju-
dice, Negro children will tend more
often to come from families of de-
pressed economic status, but this is
hardly an argument for continuing
segregation.
The State of Virginia is actually
arguing against mixing social and eco
nomic classes in its schoolrooms. There
is a place for this argument, but that
place is hardly democracy.
The States second argument rests
on alleged differences in learning abil-
ity or scholastic achievement. If there
is real difference land the odds are
that no one was honest enough to check
the validity of the study, what hap
pens to the oft-repeated claim that
separate facilities were equal? Are
they now claiming that a Negro child
of given I. @. did not, in an all-Negro
school. have the same learning oppor-
tunity as white child, of the same
I. O., in an all-white school? My
goodness. what rapid about-face. And
how Is this an argument against inte-
gration?' Do they want 20 years to
eaualize facilities before migrating?
To the old argument that facilities
were equal. the Supreme Court said.