The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Southern Case For Segregation For a long time, I have been asking for a good statement of the case for segregation. I have now received a letter which...
...Casey seems not to object to change in these areas...
...We all regret the terrible incident in Mississippi...
...You point with pride to integration in Baltimore, and some point to Washington.Has this not been foisted on persons who are powerless to help themselves...
...Ten of them have made some progress in the direction of accepting the judgment of the Supreme Court...
...But I think that we must have separate schools for a long time to come...
...I have now received a letter which satisfies some of my requirements...
...She is Mrs...
...He should be allowed to travel, eat in restaurants and have other privileges now denied him...
...They are willing to do away with the public schools and make any sacrifice to send their children to private schools...
...Here are two large high schools...
...Personally, I think that the Negro should not be segregated...
...I can paraphrase Mrs...
...Casey: Are you sure that you know enough about the problem...
...Their problem is the old one of what to do when an irresistible force meets an immovable object...
...Why this strange distinction...
...Both are consolidated schools serving large areas...
...In restaurants, theaters, trains, all should live together...
...She insists on segregation for only seven states out of the 48...
...We think--and can you disprove it...
...To be plain, why should integration be enforced in Burgaw, where no white person wants it and no Negro has requested it...
...There is no power on earth and no leadership of the population which could effect integration without turmoil in areas where Negroes are 50 per cent of the population or thereabouts...
...Is it not possible for the South--and the Negro along with the white man--to retrogress instead of progress with integration...
...We want schools supported and attended by all of our people...
...Its head is a man loved by white and colored people alike...
...Will not this happen in Baltimore...
...Have you thought that this may not result from greater morality but from plain economics...
...I am told that Washington is becoming a black man's town, that white people are rapidly moving outside the city to restricted areas...
...This is what we strenuously object to: the lowering of public-school standards...
...I go out in the county on the bookmobile, and I know the mind of the people...
...We are doing our best to avoid tension, because we know that out of it anything may happen...
...Only in schools will it do them harm...
...We simply ask for understanding, though it simply seems impossible for a person not rooted in Southern mores to understand them...
...Both the Negro and the white are crowded with children...
...Our system will be greatly disturbed if integration is attempted...
...The Supreme Court decision probably makes school administration easier in some cases...
...for seven states out of the 48 she is insisting on an arrangement which runs counter to the mores of the great majority and which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional...
...Schools are going to be integrated where there are only a few Negroes involved--perhaps where there are 25 per cent as in Baltimore...
...We think that, far from being unfortunate, the Negro is lucky to be able to attend a good school filled with his race and taught by them...
...Are you sure that you know enough about the problem...
...We cannot risk the loss of our school system, which would be the sure result of speedy integration.' If I had a chance to ride with Mrs...
...On his face is written the travail connected with the problem posed by the decision of the Supreme Court...
...That is...
...that, far from stunting and warping the Negro's personality, the separate school system gives him a better chance of development...
...Our School Board is composed of fine, intelligent men who are actually suffering over the situation...
...These are the states in which the Negroes are distinctly in the minority...
...that private schools are widely used...
...After some brutal excisions enforced by space, this is the way her argument runs: "I believe that you and others like you do not realize the utter seriousness of the problem confronting the South...
...Casey on her bookmobile or she had a chance to visit with me the integrated schools of Wilmington, Delaware, I think we would have a good chance of getting closer together in our thinking...
...I am told that in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the public schools are not attended by many of the so-called better people...
...It comes from a cultivated Southern woman who writes with restraint and deep conviction...
...Eleanor D. Casey of Burgaw, N. C, who signs herself as Bookmobile Librarian of Pender County...
...There are 17 states which have carried on segregated schools...
...We don't want such a thing to happen here...
...Across the hall from this library is the office of the Superintendent of Public Schools of Pender County...
...At the very end, my correspondent show's she does not really believe in this artificial separation of races...
...North Carolina and the six states immediately along the Gulf...
Vol. 38 • October 1955 • No. 41
