What's Wrong in Milford
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
What's Wrong in Milford Behind the school crisis By William E. Bohn WILMINGTON, DELAWARE WE HAVE three counties down here in Delaware. New Castle County lies in the north. Wilmington, with the...
...But, as in the time of the Civil War, there are not many of them??not enough to cut any great figure in an election or a war...
...Its population has been largely infiltrated by Northerners...
...When the situation is described in this way, it becomes easy to see why there is sharp opposition in the states which made up the Confederacy...
...One towering fact looms large in the picture which my friend sketched for me...
...It is contrary to our Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court...
...We must adapt ourselves to this situation as best we can...
...What is thought, said and done in this county is not necessarily indicative of popular opinion in the southern part of the state...
...It is near Milford and Georgetown that Bryant W. Bowles, head of the National Association for the Advancement of White People, has been holding his widely advertised mass meetings...
...But the Supreme Court decision is now a basic element in the entire situation...
...Milford, especially, is characterized by an old-fashioned quaintness...
...Obviously, the Northern states would not permit it to succeed...
...Our old South is being coerced by the other areas of the United States, but also, in a more remote way, by the opinion of all mankind...
...Most of them are not of the most prosperous group of farmers, but they are genuine Delaware farmers who hold their belief in white superiority and racial separation very seriously...
...There is little use in arguing the question with them...
...We believe in voting, in running the Government according to the will of the majority...
...And what Mr...
...On October 11, Senator Williams issued a statement which instantly became the focus of the state's thinking on the whole problem of integration...
...The great majority of the citizens of Kent and Sussex Counties are in favor of segregation in school and everywhere else...
...What interests him is getting the picture straight??and then passing it on to his readers or listeners...
...They furnish the followers of Bryant W. Bowles and the members of the National Association for the Advancement of White People...
...He is a man who has sufficient standing in the state to make leadership come easy...
...The Negroes themselves do not seem very excited...
...It is possible that, as time goes on, it will have wide influence throughout the South...
...The anti-segregationists are divided three ways...
...No one even suggests trying to take such a step...
...But, in this case, no one asked the opinion of the people of the South...
...As usual, they did their little best to make things worse...
...In quiet towns like Dover, Milford and Georgetown, there is the authentic charm of the old South...
...There is, first, the smallest group of all, the convinced believers in race equality...
...That statement can be broadened...
...They are honest in their belief that white and black people can get along better separately...
...From here the Senator goes on to say that there are only two ways of defeating a decision of the Court...
...But that statement does them an injustice...
...As you go south, you come to Kent and Sussex Counties??in that order...
...He knows exactly what is happening among the segregationists of southern Delaware, but, after talking with him for an hour, I had not the slightest idea of whether he was for segregation or against it...
...Furthermore, a unanimous vote by the members of the United States Senate supported by a unanimous vote of the members of the House of Representatives and the President all working together could not override a decision of the Supreme Court...
...It is true that the man is a low-class rabble-rouser who will sooner or later probably land in jail...
...except that Bill is an intelligent man and fellows like Bowles are naturally against intelligence...
...One is to pass an amendment to the Constitution??and that is impossible in this instance...
...The segregationists have had rabble-rouser Bowles ?? who is just naturally followed by crowds...
...Here is the heart of the Senator's thinking: "Personally, I felt that the nine comprising the Supreme Court of the United States took upon themselves too great a responsibility in determining so important a social question for 160 million Americans...
...Attorney General H. Albert Young, who carried the state's fight against integration to the Supreme Court, made an eloquent plea in the Court of Chancery for the ten Negro students who had been thrown out of Milford High School...
...This part of the situation, however, seems to be righting itself...
...I am speaking of Senator John J. Williams, whose reputation thus far has rested largely on his ability to track down crooks and land them in jail...
...As time has gone on, the respectable people of the state have been shocked by the disorder...
...It is also true that part of his audience comes from outside the state.But it cannot be denied that the solid core of his following is made up of the farmers of southern Delaware...
...however, we are now confronted with the situation where the Supreme Court has acted, and their decision is the law of the land, and as law-abiding citizens we have no alternative other than to uphold the law? "There are those who are in disagreement with the decision and who oppose integration in our public schools, who raise the question, 'Why doesn't the Governor or the members of Congress do something to stop the enforcement of this order?' "The fact of the matter is that a Governor unanimously supported by the legislature of his state cannot override a decision of the Supreme Court...
...One after another, influential organizations have come out in favor of completing integration if only to put an end to the mobs...
...So segregation in our schools is out...
...On the other hand, according to my friend Frank, when the Negroes hold a meeting in a church they are lucky to draw 350 people...
...The United States as a whole is, through the opinion of our highest court, imposing its attitude on the people of these eleven states...
...Even the Governor, who gave an expert exhibition of pussyfooting during the early days, has now come out in favor of enforcing the law...
...He looks at everyone and everything with a sharp and slightly jaundiced eye...
...How many of them can eventually be rallied, no one knows...
...To find out what this means and how it has come about, I interviewed Bill Frank, the columnist of the Wilmington Morning News...
...Frank is a radio and television broadcaster and, in general, a man-about-the-state...
...Here is his final appeal: "I conclude with this direct appeal to every citizen in our state: Regardless of our own personal opinions, we all must join together as American citizens with one determination, and that is that we shall solve this problem and, in so doing, uphold the laws of the State of Delaware and of the United States of America...
...The recent fashioning of our national thought on racial matters has taken place partly as a result of international pressures...
...As soon as the trouble spurted up in the Milford area, the Communists were on hand...
...They are Southerners and have thought this way for a couple of centuries...
...A leader has asserted himself ?? not on the anti-segregation side, but on the law-and-order side...
...But Kent and Sussex Counties have inherited more from the South than lovely gardens...
...As things are stacked up now, said my friend Bill Frank, the people of Kent and Sussex Counties are divided into four groups...
...My own personal opinion is that this question should have been left with each of the 48 states to solve...
...Frank said about southern Delaware would, of course, be true of the eleven Southern states...
...Apparently, their numbers are diminishing...
...The other is to overthrow the Government of the United States...
...And as for money??they can't raise as many hundreds as Bowles can thousands...
...Wilmington, with the central organization of the duPont industries, lies at the heart of it...
...Among these have been the Protestant churches, the Catholic Church and various elements in the American Legion...
...Various persons in Delaware have expressed their concern to me over what has seemed to them a lack of leadership on the anti-segregation side...
...People who are alert to this aspect of the affair are eager to have the colored students taken into the schools as quickly and quietly as possible...
...The only way to reverse it would be to adopt an amendment to the Constitution...
...Besides being a columnist, Mr...
...in them breathes the spirit of William Lloyd Garrison...
...Then comes a small contingent of citizens who are concerned about Communism...
...If there had been a referendum on the matter before the Supreme Court's decision was handed down, the great majority would have voted to keep things as they were...
...It has been said that, if the chicken business had not gone down as far as it did, there would be fewer of them...
...It seems to me that wide circulation of Senator Williams's statement might help promote the increased understanding between North and South which we so much need in this troubled time...
...For my purposes, the chief good point about him is that he is a miraculously unprejudiced old cuss...
...More than once in this sparsely settled region, he has gathered crowds of four or five thousand...
...And they resent it...
...Senator Williams's conclusion is that we must all accept the law and use such brains as we have to enforce it in ways which will arouse the least opposition and lead to the least trouble...
...The need of finding allies, of having friends in Asia and Africa, has had its influence on official American opinion...
...There are, first of all, those who remain staunch segregationists...
...I have often driven far out of my way to see again the giant wistaria vines bursting with purple bloom high in the air atop great oak and gum trees...
...I have always had the feeling, as we motored southward, that there was a change of atmosphere somewhere along the way...
...But the growing group, the group that is obviously on the way to becoming the dominant element, is the law-and-order crowd...
...They are descendants of the Abolitionists...
...Rabble-rouser Bowles denounced him the other day, but there is no good reason why he should...
Vol. 37 • October 1954 • No. 43
