Evening star., 1962-09-02
INTEGRATIoN ROW IN NEW JERSEY
Vt Couldn't Happen in Montc|air. :.
By SID MOODY
Associated Press Staff Writer

MONTCLAIR, N. J.-Built on
a hill, this blue blood suburb has
an upper and lower end. It's hav-
ing some trouble finding a mid
die.
An integration fight, which al
ways seemed to be happening in
Alabama or Georgia or some place
like that, happened right here.
Like an AK, it split the town. And
it saddened it, too.
It's painful suddenly to learn
that you can grow up with peo-
pie. go to the same schools and
colleges, play golf week ends and
yet never really know them, nev-
er know that you would no long
er be close because you favored
letting Negroes into an all-white
school and they didn't.
We've been asked to q party
tonight" said a woman who had
favored integration. 'I know
there's going to be a friend of
mine there who was against it.
Well Just pretend nothing hap
pened. But I wish I didn't, have
to CO."
But she was going. Montclair
doesn't throw dynamite or burn
crosses. 1t has manners. That
doesn't make the hurt any less,
though.
Fashionable Suburb
Montclair is one Of the fash
tonable name" suburbs of the
country. It's even had an auto
mobile model named after it as a
synonym for elegance. But there
have been changes. Some towns
people were frankly taken aback
to read the other day Montclair
wasn't on the list Of the 10
wealthiest towns in the Nation.
They thought it was a misprint
when the local weekly wrote that
adjacent Cedar Grove had a
higher median income.
The changes are coming from
the south end of town, where the
Negroes live. The town itself runs
like a rectangle along a ridge
that looks through many shade
trees for a majestic panorama of
the Manhattan skyline. Homes
that cost as much as $500, 900 to
build brood on the top Of the
ridge like Rhenish castles.
OF Montclair's 40,000-odd peo-
pie, over 20 per cent are Negro.
The Negroes in the lower part
of town used to be the buffers,
gardeners, maids and chauffeurs
for the well-to-do. They came
from the south and there are still
Negroes who belong to Virginia"
and North Carolina clubs" even
though they've lived most Of their
lives here.
Barely educated themselves,
they saw to it their children got
through high school. Now the
third generation has come Of age.
1t went to college. It does not
want to live in the south end Of
town in crowded houses fur
nished with hand-me-downs do
mated by the madam" on the
hill. 1t is moving outwards.
The Big Change
Fifteen years ago this was a
white neighborhood," said Alvin
D. Moore, jr., seated on a wicker
couch in his peaceful, shaded back
yard midst the status symbols Of
suburbia-a station wagon in the
driveway and boxer dog stirring
Sleepily under q bush. It had the
looks Of a pleasant middle-class
neighborhood, some Of it much
like Upper Montclair. an all-white
section Of town q few miles away.
But Mr.. Moore and his neigh
bors are Negro.
They claim a Negro can't get a
mortgage to buy a house in Upper
Montclair.
"I really don't know" said a
white lawyer. "All ! know is there
are no Negroes in Upper Mont
clair. You can draw your own in
ference"
But the fight didn't being about
housing, or even integration. 1t
started with schools, something
the town has long been proud of.
There are four Junior high
schools in Montclair. Glenfield is
almost 80 per cent Negro. Hill
side and George Inness are BIZ
racial and Mount Hebron in