The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn School Integration Continues Apace I wish everyone could read the Southern School News. People in general think that the struggle over integration is going worse...
...In discussing this problem, we are dealing with 17 states including many millions of people both black and white...
...It is the great state of Texas, of course, which is divided...
...But they are far from the whole story...
...All it can think of is a scheme for circumventing the law by assigning pupils in such a way that whites and blacks are out of each other's sight...
...From such little whirlpools of drama we are not justified in concluding off-hand that the white and black people of the South are bent on preventing their children from going to school together...
...The remaining eleven-and-a-half are on the move and, within ten or fifteen years, will nearly all be lined up with the other 31...
...And Northerners should learn that the South is really up against a tough problem...
...There you will see the 17 states, differentiated by the shading of their outlines...
...The eastern part, which contains most of the state's Negroes, goes with the Deep South: the wide western section is classed with Oklahoma and Missouri...
...In Oklahoma, "26 more school districts have taken steps toward desegregation...
...And the outer rim of six-and-one-half commonwealths, which are cheerfully and with moderate speed moving toward desegregation, face the reader in near-white...
...One way to get a fair idea of the whole development is to look at the map published on the front page of the May number of the Southern School News...
...The hot statements of the anti-Supreme Court militants give proof between the lines that they are conscious that once more they are fighting for a lost cause...
...In West Virginia, a judge has decided that "discrimination on the ground of race or color in the schools of Logan County must end at the earliest practical date...
...The present outlook," we are told, "is for some form of desegregation to be in effect next fall in at least 15 of the 22 Maryland counties which contain Negroes of school age...
...I wish I could give an adequate report of what is going on in the eleven-and-a-half states which are changing...
...In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Board of Education declared last summer that the schools should be desegregated as soon as a plan could be devised...
...Five-and-a-half in the tough old Deep South are printed in rather grimy black...
...In this state, too, there is a notable movement toward unity of the races among religious groups...
...It is easy to forecast the psychological and political upshot...
...People in general think that the struggle over integration is going worse than it is...
...It expresses no hope of amending the Constitution or of defeating the union of the races in any sort of straight political conflict...
...No matter how stubborn these men may be, deep inside they realize their cause is hopeless...
...Five other states, ranged around this heartland, are paraded in medium gray...
...Out of the 17 states, only five-and-a-half are recalcitrantly sticking to their old tracks...
...Like it or not, they know that segregation is definitely on its way out...
...Now, less than a year later, this same board reports that it will postpone any change in the schools "for a period of at least a few years probably five years or more...
...There you have a typical confession...
...Altogether, these tales of race conflict may involve a dozen persons a month...
...Here and there, someone is killed, a cross is burned or a girl is thrown out of college...
...Louisville, Kentucky has made plans for desegregation next fall...
...In these many states, with their varied sorts of inhabitants and contrasting ways of doing things, all sorts of plans are being worked out...
...Their progressive action is sure to have its effect, eventually, on my charming but draggy little state...
...The determined Southerners should look about and see how white and black children get on in the newly integrated areas...
...A mere glance at this map should give our Southern friends an idea of what lies ahead and an idea which runs counter to the hopes and pretensions of the more stubborn among them...
...The territory extends from Delaware to Oklahoma and from the top of Kentucky to the Florida Keys...
...In North Carolina, an advisory committee set up by the Legislature acknowledges that the Supreme Court decision establishes the law on the subject of races in the schools...
...Except for Delaware, Maryland is the segregated state which I know best...
...I have previously reported that the two southern counties of Delaware are balking pretty seriously...
...Two of the Maryland counties which are honestly desegregating are on the Eastern Shore immediately below the Delaware line...
...What is needed is integration of citizens of the states of various shades...
...No one with decent sensitivity can talk down the suffering that goes with these incidents...
...In Hot Springs, Arkansas, an advisory committee decided that desegregation should begin in September...
...If the balky five-and-a-half remain where they are until that time arrives, there will be 42 1/2 states on one side and five-and-a-half on the other...
Vol. 39 • June 1956 • No. 23
