Arkansas State press. [volume] (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959, 1958-11-07
Complete Text of wilkins Address
Continued from page Eighty

The price is too righ 1t is too high for the white
students, some lew OF whom are receiving makeshft
schooling and others none at ALL 1t too high for the
Negro students who being their eonstitu
tonal rights and education And too high for our
country which desperately needs and better educa
ton for all its youth.
Over in Virginia, where school doors have been shut
to $4,000 students in three Cities re-appraisa of the
states massive resistance" policy is under way
The Roanoke, Va, Times in an editorial October 5
declaris
to the bitter and inevitable fnaity In the light of
this opinion (of the u Supreme Court September 29)
it apparent that plan of segregated public
cation tainted with state action be maintained
yielding Court is onerous but deprive Virgnia's
children white and colored of education or to give them
defective education IS an greater evil The latter
would be misfortune FROM which Virginia might not
recover for generations. u
The Roanoke paper then urged removal of state
control from public education and the shifting of
sponsbiy to the localities enabling the latter make
their plans.
The Virginia paper agrees, then, that the price of
segregation is high This price demands the destruc
ton of the public school system and the sacrifice of the
future of all our children
Tsyentysx white Virginia parents also agree. They
have filed suit demanding the reopening of the schools
and the finding that the states resistance laws
unconstitutional The governor and other state officials
are named defendants
Virginia teachers agree, also, that the price
high. In its convention last Thursday October 3d. the
Virginia Educational Association voted to ask Governor
Lindsey Almond to the General Assembly and
pass laws to reopen the schools So strong the
tment that softening resolution tabled by vote
of $50 to Isl.
In his address to the teachers, Governor Almond
once tried the NAACP to Virginians,
but people beginning to through this DOGGY
man" bluff.
There has been clumsy attempt by state officials
and by the segregaonss fasten the blame for the
school closing the Federal Government and the NAA
CP.
But the Federal Government did not pass any laws
ordering schools 10 be closed
The NAACP does not have the power to pass bills
in the Arkansas legislature We did draft the bills
to close schools We did not pass them, sign them into
law after they passed We don't want schools closed
want them opened-for all children white and color
ed.
The NAACP has been used by politicians to place
white citizens under the hypnosis of hate When they a.
woke from the trance they found the schools closed ana
their children scrambling for an education
But of want schools opened in accordance
with the ruling of the u S. Supreme Court and with the
specific orders of the Federal Courson an unsegregaeo
basis
The states have the obligation of providing public
education accordance with law Our constitutional MS
tory has shown that where the states fail the people,
the Federal government in the general welfare
The general welfare certainly requires IN nlS Gay anu
time the possible education for all our chloren Ii
is conceivable that the states choose to deny everyone
education rather than give up segregation the Feoeral
government will find way to fill the breach
We believe it to be the obligation of the states TO
obey Supreme Court and the Constitution Inc states
can refuse to obey under only condition. that uey
secede from the Union They disagree and CRITICIZE
but they cannot defy and remain partners In Ieoerd
ton of states under federal Constitution
We have heard a great deal about states rights
The do have rights, but these must not De IN con-
flict with the rights the Constitution grants " Oh
citizens of the United States
The fundamental difficulty of the segregaionists is