Milford chronicle., 1959-05-01
u. s. Court Approves
Sl0IU ITstegratiOR
For State Schools

continued from page one)
of attending the nearest school in
his district or going to the school
he would have attended before the
integration order-not yet issued
| took effect
Judge Layton's comment was !:
Now, it is a fact that in George
town, for example, the majority of
the Negroes live in a community
known as The Hill. The colored
school is close by. The white
school is at much greater dis
tance."
Because of this, he said, "it
would seem that no Negro stu
dent whose family resides on The
Hill may ever enter the white
school,. He ordered the provisions
of Paragraph 4 stricken.
Paragraph 5 provided that no
white student intending to enter
the first grade Of school at this
fall term need register but that
all Negro children must do SO.
mo one seems to remember just
how or why this paragraph crept
into the plan. the judge noted.
II am sure that it was not in
tended to be discriminatory, but
1t savors of discrimination and
should be eliminated.
He also rejected a plea by the
town of Milton, which asked de-
lay in desegregation if the grade
involved is overcrowded in the
opinion of the local school board.
"The short answer to this, de-
clared Judge Layton, "is that the
power of delay, resting in un-
friendly hands, is tantamount to
the power to defer interminably
or to defeat altogether. This re-
quest must be rejected"
A similar request was made by
representatives OF, the Caesar Rod
ney District during hearings on the
plan held in March and early April
this year, but was not mentioned
in the opinion.
Large sections of Judge Layton's
opinion are dedicated to a discus
sion of personal feelings of resi-
dents in Kent and Sussex Counties
and the possibility of violence if
immediate desegregation were at
tempted there.
First of all, in turning down the
NAACP proposal for an across
the-board move of Negro students
into white schools. the judge says
the language of y. S. Supreme
Court decisions of 1854 and 1855
plainly permit more gradual
transition if the circumstances re-
quire"
Quoting from magazine article,
he says in a footnote that 1.-THE
farmers of Southern Delaware are
as Dixie-oriented as their neigh
Dors on the Eastern Sho' of Mary
land
Going on to speak of total de-
segregation in high schools, Judge
Layton notes, by the high school
age, prejudice has unfortunately
had ample time to take root. These
prejudices will inevitably make
themselves felt in the classrooms"
This, he said, would place an
emotional strain upon the whole
educational SYSTEM"
Later in the opinion he declares.
that in the Milford riots of 1854.
and afterward the State Board of.
Education acted with consider
able courage" and that under no
circumstances could it be accused
of acting in bad faith.
Speaking of Milford, Judge Lay
ton says:
"The deep and lasting animosi-
ties, threats of violence and dam
age to school morale occasioned
by that unfortunate incident, to
the embarrassment of US all, have
become matter of record in the
public press throughout the entire
country"
Under the circumstances, he
said, the Board is justified in de-
vising plan which would "both
get desegregation. under way at
once and, at the same time, create
the least possible opposition"
Further supporting this view.
Judge Layton states that the shock
of sudden desegregation in sec
ton where racial prejudices exist
may cause violence in the COM
munity affected
Standing alone. he continues,
This might be said to be a re-
grettable community problem quite
irrelevent to a consideration of
whether or not plan of fntegra-
tion is reasonable.
1.-THE difficulty is, that as prac-
iical matter, some demonstrations
can never stand alone. Inevitably,
they overflow into the classroom
and then we have Little Rock. ;"
Attorneys who participated in
the hearings and other phases of