Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-09-18
A-lS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1858
Some DESIGN for Decision

The quotation above is taken from
the closing words of Judge Bryan'S state
ment accompanying his decision yeSter-
day in the Arlington school case. He
has attempted not only to reach Judi
cial decision of his own based on the
law, the facts and the evidence. This
wise judge has sought "to establish for
cases of this character some design for
deciSion"-deciSion by State and local
administrative agencies struggling with
a comparable set of circumstances. That
design may not be in final or complete
form at this stage. Comparable If not
precisely similar assignment criteria in
Norfolk and Charlottesville were also
adopted. The differences which &C
counted for the acceptability of their
application in one case and non
acceptability in others will have to be
examined and refined For the time
being, however, Judge Bryan has given
assignment criteria new Importance.
Here, in the judges own words, is
the outline of the design:
Cd the Federal requirement of
avoiding racial exclusveness in the pub
lie schools can be fulfilled reason
ably and with justice if the guide adopted
is the circumstance of each child, indi-
vidually and relatively; (2) it may
be achieved through the pursuit of any
method wherein the regulatory body can,
and does act after a fair hearing and
upon evidence; 90 =. when a conclu-
sion is so reached in good faith, without
influence of race, though it be erroneous,
the assignment is no longer concern of
the United States courts.
That was the design followed by
Judge Bryan in testing the reasons adj
vanced by the Arlington County School
Board and the State Pupil Placement
Board in turning down the applications
of thirty Negro children for transfer to
white schools. OF these thirty applica-
lions, Judge Bryan found substantial
supporting evidence to justify their
refusal in twenty-Six of them. In his
judgment four of them were refused in
the face of evidence which supported
their applications for transfer. These
four he will tell the school board to
approve for admittance to Stratford
Junior High at the commencement of
the next semester.
Much of the value of Judge Bryan'S
statement lies in its detailed analysis of
the criteria, and their use by the school
board in weighing the individual APP
plicationS. The important thing here
is that the Arlington School Board did
establish criteria for assignment and
sought to apply them in good faith.
Had there been no assignment criteria
based on considerations other than race
and there were none when Judge
Bryan was presented with the same
issue in 1957-he doubtless would have
told the school board to admit all the
applicants.
Judge Bryan's design cannot be &C
cepted in Virginia without abandoning
the already doomed theory of massive
resistance. One would be hard put,
however, to spell out a more fair and
logical approach to the problem during
the transition stage from complete seq
regation to partial indignation. Airing
ton County is fortunate, not only in the
guidance from Judge Bryan, but in re-
lief from immediate tensions generated
by the prospect of closed schools this
semester. With Little Rock, CharlotteS-
vile, Norfolk and Front Royal in mind,
this brief breathing spell for Arlington
is more than refreshing. The delay I'M
til next semester in the first Indignation
step is of no consequence. AS Judge
Bryan said, Indeed, if the basic prob
lem can be solved by time, the price is
not too dear"