Arkansas State press. [volume] (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959, 1955-05-13
Have you entered
your baby in the
Healthy Baby
Contest?

system to desegregate John M.
Dalton, attorney general of the
State of Missouri, indicated local
school boards were free to deseg-
regate Immediately but We're not
required to do so until the Su-
preme Court formulated its de-
crees, Thus any immediate steps
to desegregate were voluntary
NAACP lawyers maintain that
any school board may proceed to
integrate its schools, state con-
situations and statutes providing
for segregation Notwithstanding.
Attending the newly desegre-
gated schools are an estimated
100000 Negro and white children,
Admittedly, this is only a tiny
minority of the 1921 900 white
and 2,397000 Negro children en-
rolled in schools in the segre-
gated areas. Except in Washing
ton, Negro boys and girls are in
the minority in most of the
schools of mixed attendance.
Included in the 500 desegregat-
ed schools are those located in
four of the six communities in
volved in cases ruled on by the
Supreme Court. Following the de-
ciSlon, Washington, D. C., initiat-
ed desegregation. Earlier the To-
peka, Kansas. school board vot-
ed Ito terminate segregation in
the elementary schools as rapid
~ as practicable"
The two school districts in the
Delaware case already had admit
ted Negro pupils in compliance
with state supreme court rul-
ing. Only Clarendon county So
Carolina, and Prince Edward
county. Virginia have refused to
heed the Courts decision.
Peaceful Transition
The extent to which successful
indignation has been ignored in
the press of the nation is some
thing of journalistic scandal.
The inspired strikes, the demon
stration of resistance in White
Sulphur Springs, West Va, Mil
ford Del, Baltimore and Wash
ington have been widely publ
cized However, for every Mil
ford incident, there have been
scores of unheralded instances of
Negro children being welcomed
by their new white schoolmates
and teachers. Indeed, this has
been the rule; the hate demon
STATIONS, the exception.
Addressing the American So
ciety of Newspapers Editors last
month, Charles A. Mcknight,
former editor of the Charlotte,
IN. c. News, now director Of
the Southern Education Report
ing Service, charged that there
has been minimum of cover
age" of the quiet constructive
and unspectacular" progress in
school indignation.
"Desegregation more often than
not has been accomplished in the
past year directly and without
incident" he told the nations
leading editors. Further, he said,
more often than not southern
political leaders have not accu-
rately reflected the views of
many responsible southerners. Yet
the total picture which has e.
merged from the press coverage
of this story in the past year, in
my opinion, is precisely the OPP
posite that is, desegregation
is usually accompanied by turmoil
and near violence"
The real story has been obscur-
ed, as Mr., Mcknight pointed out
to his fellow editors. The children,
the teachers and the school au-
thorities in a hundred localities
have demonstrated that children
of different races can play to-
gether and attend classes togeth-
er without friction. Even the
widely publicized demonstrations
in Baltimore and Washington
never involved more than a small
minority of the total student
bodies
Parochial Schools
Although private schools are
not subject to the Supreme Court
ruling of May II. many paro-
chial schools, particularly those
of the Roman Catholic church.
have not only complied with. but
have, in many instances, antici-
pated the Courts ruling. Thus the
Catholic schools Of Washington
and St Louis let down the color
bar fully four years before the
May II decision.
Following the decision, several
Catholic dioceses in the Deep
South instituted steps to integrate
the church schools. In Texas. Ok
lahoma and Arkansas. in Tennes-
SEQ Virginia and N1rtb C,,,1i,,-