How to End School Segregation:
KILPATRICK, WILLIAM H.
WRITERS and WRITING How to End School Segregation Schools in Transition. Ed. by Robin M. Williams Jr. and Margaret W. Ryan. North Carolina. 272 pp. $3.00. Reviewed by William H....
...These facts may prove useful to other communities in the future...
...As the authors state, de-segregation is an "uneven, shifting process, not a sudden massive change," and "each community has its own special blend of the factors that are at work to produce integration or resistance to it...
...That is to be expected, however...
...Judging from the community experiences discussed here, the most important single factor in de-segregation, except where the white community is strongly opposed, is the school authorities...
...Long-drawn-out efforts and fluctuating policies appear to have maximized confusion and resistance...
...In 13 of them, de-segregation was required...
...In some of the communities, it was found that de-segregation was delayed because the white and Negro leaders had not achieved full communication in advance...
...Reviewed by William H. Kilpatrick Professor Emeritus, Teachers College, Columbia University...
...In only one town—Cairo, Illinois—was there violence, and even in this instance no blood was shed...
...Every community that faces de-segregation in the next few years will have to meet its own particular aggregate of pertinent problems...
...and Cairo, Illinois, "where resistance was tinged with bitterness and the transition fraught with tension...
...in the other 11, it was permitted...
...There is, of course, necessary repetition, and the reader may find it somewhat difficult to keep in mind the various steps taken from community to community...
...author, "Philosophy of Education" THIS factual account of "community experiences with de-segregation" is the second book to appear under the "Ashmore Project," which is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education...
...News releases through the press and radio were uniformly favorable to school administrators, except during periods of initial hesitation...
...It is also noteworthy that, in the authors' judgment, "the transition from segregation to non-segregation —and in some measure to true integration—took place in most of the twenty-four, communities with a smoothness- and a lack of open friction which typically surprised officials and teachers...
...In such cases, the whites might, through ignorance, attribute the local call for de-segregation to "outsiders" and claim that "our own Negro people are satisfied with things as they are —it is only those outsiders who want change...
...Editorial comment on de-segregation was uniformly favorable...
...Douglas, Arizona, "where the superintendent was to wait a year until he had the unanimous support of his board before announcing a change...
...A definite problem relates to publicity and to the action of citizen meetings: "Once the board reached a decision, open meetings to explain the nature of the change in the school system usually resulted in its acceptance...
...The conclusion appears obvious that "a clear-cut policy, administered with understanding but also with resolution, seems to have been most effective in accomplishing de-segregation with a minimum of difficulty...
...School boards and school officials, as well as public-spirited citizens—all who are anxious to effect de-segregation with a minimum of trouble—can profit from this study of the experience of 24 border communities...
...Where communication has been good, however, it was usually found that the local Negroes did desire a change...
...The accounts of the transition experiences of these diverse communities could hardly be improved for objectivity of study and statement...
...Its stated purpose is not to argue either for or against segregation but to present the actual experiences of 24 communities in states bordering the South which have moved from racially segregated toward integrated public schools...
...Outstanding examples are Tucson, Arizona, "where the superintendent had his plans ready to put into action at the earliest possible moment...
...The communities covered are located in states as widely separated as New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, New Mexico and Arizona...
...In general, the authors of the study tell us, "active resistance gave way to passive resistance, and that in turn became relative indifference or positive acceptance...
...This book is a "must" for any community faced with the problem of de-segregation...
...In nearly all instances, the amount of difficulty and tension actually experienced was less than had been anticipated and predicted...
...In this, the public schools shared the same reactions found in Southern universities...
...Elkhart, Indiana, "where a school board was convinced by a reasoned appeal...
Vol. 38 • March 1955 • No. 10
