Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-05-12
BY JAMES G. DEANE

Three years ago next Saturday.
one day after the historic Supreme
Court decision outlawing racial
segregation in Americas public
acknowledgements Board of Ed
ucation agreed that there was no
legal reason for deferring what
appeared, by virtue of the previous
days decision, to be inevitable.
Within a. few weeks thereafter,
school leaders had laid the ground
work, in policy announcements and
administrative orders. for what has
amounted to the complete merging
of two separate school systems into
a single, unified organization. OPP
Grating without regard to race.
Washington's schools have come
far and fast in carrying out the
Supreme Courts epochal mandate
farther and faster, in all likeli-
hood. than those of any other
American city.
On May II. 1854, the Capitals
1900 public school children were
as sharply divided as those of any
community of the deep South, and
their teachers and administrators
almost as much SO.
A Negro pupil could not even
appear on stage before white
school children, and, white school
officials rarely set foot in a Negro
school building. What went on in
one half of the school system was
virtually closed book to the other.
There was mutually of goals, cd
vocational methodology and re-
sources on paper, but in reality
there were wide and educationally
very significant differences.
Decision to Act Swiftly
In many other communities there
was-and is-serious doubt about
the desirable and permissible pace
of compliance with the courts de-
cision. Washington, however, chose
to move at once.
Some of the reasons for this
decision are apparent. The city
literally surrounds the courts own
doorstep, and also that of the
White House. President Eisenhower
expressed hope that it would serve
as a model, and this wish did not
encourage dalliance. At least some
members Of the Board Of Educa-
ton were also conscious of the
key position Americas Capital oc-
cupies in the eyes of the world.
There were also internal pres
sures. At the hour when Chief
Justice Warren was reading the
high courts decision, some $4,000
Negro children were reciting their
lessons. in crowded claSSrooms in
tended to house nowhere near that
many. while barely $4,000 white
(and Chinese, and otherwise ex-
ternally Distinguished youngsters
were luxuriating, relatively speak
ing, in space that could have ac-
commodated another $4,000. There
were even some empty classrooms
in white-occupied buildings.
Only few days before the court
decision, Negro parents had been
pressuring the Board of Education
to transfer a half-empty North
west elementary school to their
children, while white parents were
ready to argue equally fervently
to keep it for their own. Twenty
white school buildings had been
transferred in the preceding sew
eral years. The board ultimately
could only face the reality of num-
bers.
There was pressure. also, from
parents-not all Of them Negro
who felt that Negro children were
the victims of a basic injustice.
The board had been reminded re-
peatedly Of this feeling, and even
before the high courts proclama-
ton had found it increasingly hard
to ignore.
Thorough Mixing
Thus. for many reasons WASH
ington school leaders decided to
move Immediately when the SUI
preme Court spoke. They rejected
"gradualism' in their detailed
desegregation plan. Any attempt
to spread the process over a period
of years. such as by moving a grade
at a time. under Washington's con!
ditions was considered unavoidable.
So racial barriers were dropped
practically forthwith.
The school system today. is
thoroughly integrated. OF the 1865