situation there, a seven-point program for community organization, in support of desegregation programs, was suggested to league leadership.

A closed conference of about 100 Negro leaders from 18 southern and border States held shortly after the announcement of the Supreme Court decision, and called by the NAACP, advocated "a spirit of give and take" without sacrifice of principle. (New York Times, May 23, 1954.)

The Southern Regional Council, with headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., has continued its widespread and constructive program of education in southern communities following the Supreme Court decision. One of its main targets is to encourage and facilitate discussion on the local level. Field trips conducted before and after the decision, in different communities throughout the South, have all pointed to the bottleneck of lack of adequate communication and discussion on the local level. These field investigations point to the need for encouraging and organizing local exchange of opinion as a basic and almost universal need in the communities affected most by this decision. The Council has also published a pamphlet entitled, "Answers for Action-Schools in the South," which seeks to outline generally the next steps in the South. The pamphlet presents the background of the decision, its specific nature, and sets it in its historic framework. Further, it reports the comments of various church organizations and discusses the prospect of defiance, evasion, or compliance throughout the South. It evaluates some of the problems which were raised by the decision, some of the questions which are on people's minds, and suggests positive things which may be done on the local level, to meet the spirit as well as the letter of the law. A grant from the Ford Foundation will enable the council to place specially qualified fieldworkers in each Southern State.

Shortly after the decision was announced the leadership of the two principal national labor federations announced their support of the Court. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) urged Congress to set up a billion dollar fund to help the South build new schools to aid and carry out the racial desegregation program. The Phillip Murray Memorial Foundation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) presented $75,000 to the NAACP for promoting full acceptance of the civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution. In October, the executive board of the CIO issued a statement deploring "the spread of lawless resistance to the actions of local and State officials in going forward with the peaceful integration of the public schools." The statement affirmed that "the sequence of events makes it clear that in the absence of outside agitation and stimulation by elements seeking to subvert the law of the land, integration of the public schools can proceed peacefully and successfully." The statement pointed to the relationship between the events in Milford, Baltimore, and Washington, as proof of the fact that outside intervention had stimulated the original disturbances and that these had passed from one community to another. The board called upon the Attorney General of the United States "to take firm and fast action," and called for immediate investigation as to whether the Federal civil rights laws had been violated. The CIO board concluded "There is no question of States' rights here. Local and State school authorities initially elected to comply with the law of the land. We commend them for that action."

The formation of the Southern Education Reporting Service, shortly before the announcement of the Supreme Court decision (May 11, 1954), represents one of the significant and constructive responses of private citizens to the then anticipated Supreme Court decision. With headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., this new group publishes the Southern School News with the support of the Fund for the Advancement of Education. The chairman of the board of directors is Virginius Dabney, editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch and vice chairman is Thomas R. Waring, editor of the Charleston News and Courier. Its executive director is C. A. McKnight, editor of the Charlotte News. The Reporting Service maintains correspondents in 17 southern and border States and in the District of Columbia. Its purpose is to provide a factual, objective, and comprehensive report on "the adjustments which various communities in the southern region make as a result of the Supreme Court's recent decision and forthcoming decrees in the five cases involving segregation in the public schools." (Letter of Mr. Dabney to President Clarence H. Faust of the Fund for the Advancement of Education, July 5, 1954.) Mr. Dabney set forth the purpose of the Southern School News as follows:

"The Southern Education Reporting Service has therefore been established with the aim of assisting responsible local and State leaders, and particularly

school administrators, in developing practical and constructive solutions to their own particular school problems by supplying them with objective facts about the developments in other communities. It is our resolve to report the facts as we find them, to refrain from taking sides on any controversial issue or advocating any particular point of view." (Southern School News, vol. I, No. 3, Nov. 4, 1954, p. 1.)

The people speak

Perhaps more important than the reaction and statements of political, religious and civic leaders is the attitude and opinion of the people in the areas most affected. Obviously, such opinion will change from time to time. However, an article in the New York Times magazine section of September 26, 1954, gives some inkling of the reaction of southerners. This article reports that of 100 letters to the editor of the Charlotte News, largest evening paper in the Carolinas, on the Supreme Court's decision, 41 upheld segregation, 30 opposed it, and the other 29 were of a general nature. The author, and editorial writer of the News, comments as follows:

"Most Negro writers approved the decision, but emphasized that equal opportunities rather than comingling is their desire. Most of the whites deplored the decision. But many of them, including native southerners, denounced segregation. About one-fifth of the letterwriters based their arguments on the Bible, which was used as 'documentation' by segregationists as often as by antisegregationists."

He then quotes from a cross-section of these letters and observes, "Among native-born, white southerners, a service station attendant and an Army private were the most outspoken advocates of nonsegregation." After quoting from some of the more bitter opponents of desegregation he concludes as follows: "It remained for a South Carolina stockbroker to take a long-range view of the problems now facing the South, and to be encouraged and hopeful. 'No Christian,' he writes, 'can quietly sit by himself and successfully defend segregation as morally right. However, he can reason that sudden abolition of custom is wrong, or at least will cause trouble. Then he may recall that Christ caused trouble, that the Declaration of Independence caused trouble, too. Trouble forces the solving of our problems. Let's face the trouble." "

A brief filed with the Supreme Court, on the question of implementing decrees, by the U.S. Justice Department on November 24, 1954, speaks of "popular hostility" to the decision in certain States. It is important to note that this hostility is not 100 percent even in the States, such as Georgia, which passed legislation to circumvent the Court's ruling.

Comments of the Nation's press

On the days following the Supreme Court ruling, the New York Times published a summary of editorial comments throughout the Nation. The summary covered 40 daily papers, 4 college papers, and 4 Negro papers. They were classified under the following headings:

Comments from Segregated States (25).

Comments from Nonsegregated States (15).

Comments from College papers (4).

Comments from Negro Papers (4).

The comments fell roughly into three categories: (a) those expressing forthright approval, (b) those accepting the ruling, but emphasizing difficulties immediate or long-range, and (c) those which were unequivocally opposed.

According to this rough classification, 4 papers in segregated States approved the ruling, 14 accepted the ruling, and 7 opposed.

In the nonsegregated States, 13 approved the ruling and 2 accepted; none opposed.

Two of the college papers approved the ruling, one accepted, and one opposed. The four Negro papers approved the ruling. (Please see appendix A for a digest of the comments of each of these papers.)

In general, those papers approving the decision saw it as a healthy one, the end of a long and inevitable process, a reaffirmation of our political faith, and a powerful blow against Communist propaganda. Those accepting the decision, emphasized the difficulties which it raised, stressed the need for caution, and made an appeal for clear thinking and calmness. They insisted on the need for adequate time to make adjustments. Both those approving and accepting the decision recognized the real problems and the need for wisdom. Those opposing the decision saw it as a blow against States rights, harmful to public education, and as disturbing the existing system of relationships in the South.

World press comment

A London dispatch of the Associated Press (the Star Telegram, Fort Worth, Tex., May 19, 1954) reported that the Court's decision had received a good press throughout the non-Communist world. The powerful Indian Express newspaper chain in New Delhi, Bombay, and Madras declared that the ruling represented a "healthy change in enlightened American opinion."

The story was also played up in other Indian papers even though there was no editorial comment. In London the Daily Herald of the Labor Party said that the ruling "will make every friend of humanity and every believer in democracy cheer," and called it a "great liberal victory and a sign that America is going the right way about a problem it does not always recognize for what it is a colonial problem within its own borders."

A columnist in the Daily Mail (Conservative) Don Iddon, writing from New York said "The ruling has helped to spike the Communist propaganda that Americans treat their colored people like dogs and worse. It is a beacon light to the Asiatics in Korea, in Indochina, and the entire Far East."

The London Daily Mirror, frequently anti-American declared that the ruling would "rank in sociological significance with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation."

French newspapers also commented. Le Monde, also often critical of the United States, devoted its regular front page editorial to praise of the decision. The ruling, it said, "marks a victory of justice over race prejudice, a victory for democracy."

L'Aurore hailed the decision as an "important victory for the colored people of the United States."

The one exception to this praise of papers in the non-Communist world was found in South Africa where the Cape Town Die Burger declared that in the decision the "most important bastion in America's color bar policy now has fallen and the Court's ruling has started a serious and lengthy internal conflict, the forms of which are not foreseeable."

Organized opposition

Organized efforts of groups of private individuals, in contrast, or as distinct from public officials, to nullify or evade the Court's ruling developed by the end of the summer. The first group to make headlines was the National Association for the Advancement of White People, which started court action in Milford, Wilmington, Baltimore, and Washington, to prevent the voluntary desegregation program of the local school authorities. This group and its organizer-president, B. W. Bowles, is responsible for stimulating and organizing the public demonstrations, student strikes, and other unrest which broke out first in Milford and then in other communities where voluntary desegregation programs were undertaken. This group publishes a fortnightly sheet called National Forum and is open only to whites over 18 years of age.

Two other prosegregation groups have attained some local influence and are seeking affiliates in each of the States affected by the decision. The first is "a new type of anti-Negro vigilante movement using boycotts instead of bull whips" which has arisen in the State of Mississippi.

(The New York Times, Nov. 21, 1954, Associated Press dispatch.) The local units are called citizens councils. The councils are secret and plans are under way to organize 1 in each of the 82 counties of Mississippi.

A reporter from the Birmingham News has described the councils in these words:

"A refined descendant of the Ku Klux Klan is 'riding' again in the South to protect Dixie's school system from the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This time there are no bedsheet robes, no violence thus far, and none of the ritual mumbo jumbo of the night riders of the Reconstruction era.

"In place of bullwhips, the citzens councils have substituted economic pressure to handle what they term 'agitators'-both white and Negro-who think the Supreme Court way rather than the southern way of segregation." (The Birmingham News, Sept. 20, 1954; cited in Facts, Vol. 9, No. 6, September 1954.) Efforts to apply this economic pressure have already been reported. One instance was against a Negro dentist in Columbus, Miss., who was head of the State branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which organization had sponsored some of the Supreme Court cases. A restaurant operated by this dentist was summarily closed by municipal authorities on the grounds of an alleged complaint that it was a nuisance. His restaurant was located in a building owned by the local Negro post of the American Legion. The

charter of the post was suspended. (Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Sept. 12, 1954.)

Another potentially influential prosegregation organization is called the American States Rights Association, Inc., formed in Birmingham, Ala., by the head of a large insurance company and other businessmen. This association is dedicated to resisting the antisegregation laws and any modification of the traditional segregation system of the Southern States.

Seven other new groups have been reported as being in the process of organization and planning to fight the desegregation ruling of the Supreme Court. They are: The National Association for the Preservation of the White Race, Inc., Augusta, Ga.; the National Association for the Advancement and Protection of the Majority of the White People, Inc., Griffin, Ga.; White Brotherhood, Atlanta, Ga.; the Southerners, Mobile, Ala.; Florida States Rights, Inc., Miami, Fla.; Heritage Crusade, Gulfport, Miss. (Facts, September 1954, vol. IX, No. 6, published the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith.)

Four old white supremacy groups are reported also to have renewed their activities around the desegregation ruling of the Supreme Court. They are: The Dade County Property Owners Association, Miami, Fla.; the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, Inc.; the National Citizens Protective Association, St. Louis, Mo.; and the Christian Anti-Jewish Party, Chattanooga, Tenn. Several publications related to such groups have been cited as campaigning against the Court's ruling. They are: Common Sense (July 1, 1954); the Cross and the Flag; the American Nationalists; the Economic Council Letter; Coser Up; Williams Intelligence Summary (Facts, September 1954, vol. IX, No. 6). Reaction of church bodies

National Council of Churches.-By coincidence, the general board of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, was meeting in Chicago at the time the decision was announced. The board adopted a statement in which it declared that the decision "gives a clear status in law to a fundamental Christian and American principle. The decision will have farreaching effects in the whole Nation and the world. It offers the promise of further steps for translating into reality Christian and democratic ideals. The decision is a milestone in the achievement of human rights, another evidence of the endeavor to respect the dignity and worth of all men."

The statement recognized that there would be difficulties in the application of the decision in certain localities, but expressed the confidence "that the churches and individual Christians will continue to exert their influence and leadership to help the authorized agencies in the several communities to bring about a complete compliance with the decision of the Supreme Court."

United Church Women.-Shortly thereafter, representatives of the United Church Women, an affiliate of the National Council of Churches, from 15 Southern States, meeting in conference in Atlanta, Ga. (June 21, 1954), adopted a statement in which they declared that because of their "high calling of God in Christ Jesus" and their belief "in human brotherhood and the inclusiveness of Christian fellowship * * * we feel we are impelled to promote a Christian society in which segregation is no longer a burden upon the human spirit. We accept with humility the Supreme Court decision as supporting the broad Christian principle of the dignity and worth of human personality and affording the opportunity of translating into reality Christian and democratic ideals."

The statement expressed confidence that by working together, constructive and positive solutions would be built and affirmed the desire "to build Christian emotional maturity to meet the new challenges to our patience, understanding, and creative action."

African Methodist Episcopal.-Representatives of this church from all sections of the country, meeting at its annual connectional council at the end of June, passed a resolution in which they hailed the decision as "vindicating the timehonored position of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in proclaiming the absolute equality of all men before God." We commend "the Supreme Court for this far-reaching decision and urge the support and cooperation of our entire constituency in its implementation."

African Methodist Zion.-The board of education of this denomination, meeting in August, drew attention to the fact that it was organized in 1796 as "a protest against segregation and proscription based on color" in the church. The resolution thanked God for the decision, reaffirmed confidence in the "inevitable fulfillment of American democracy under the Constitution," and recommended that its 44 annual conferences with 723,000 members in the continental

United States cooperate actively "with local school boards in implementing the program of immediate desegregation," and called upon the leaders of the church to help "create the climate of public opinion favorable to desegregation in every form of American life." The resolution concluded, "we authorize, empower, and urge our secondary schools and junior colleges to amend their charters and/or their rules and regulations, if necessary, so as to provide for integrated faculties and student bodies."

American Baptist convention.-Meeting shortly after the decision was announced, this convention adopted a resolution (May 28, 1954), in which it commended the Court decision, affirmed the Christian principle of the worth and dignity of each person, and urged "American Baptists to increase their opposition to other areas of segregation-housing, employment, recreation, church participation." The resolution concluded, "we urge local churches to carry forward educational programs dealing with this issue and we propose cooperation with other Christian bodies of like mind."

Southern Baptist convention.-The Southern Baptist convention meeting in June declared that it recognized "the fact that this Supreme Court decision is in harmony with the constitutional guarantee of equal freedom to all citizens, and with the Christian principles of equal justice and love for all men." It commended the Court for allowing time for further study of methods of transition and urged "our people and all Christians to conduct themselves in this period of adjustment in the spirit of Christ." It expressed confidence in the public school system and hope that they would not be impaired by the necessary readjustments occasioned by the decision. The statement concluded by urging "Christian statesmen and leaders in our churches to use their leadership in positive thought and planning to the end that this crisis in our national history shall not be made the occasion for new and bitter prejudices, but a movement toward a united Nation embodying and proclaiming a democracy that will commend freedom to all peoples."

Roman Catholic Church.-A trend toward desegregation of Roman Catholic schools in the South since World War II has been noted by some observers. A survey made by the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service showed that by the end of September, there were "only six States where no official step has been taken to integrate Catholic schools on the primary and secondary level," namely, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. (Paul W. McCloskey, National Catholic Welfare Conference, in Civil Liberties Bulletin No. 39, October 1954.) Roman Catholic efforts to desegregate church schools have met with opposition, but have been on the whole successful and easier than such efforts in public schools. Three factors have been cited as contributing to the spread and success of Roman Catholic efforts: the "complete authority in matters affecting faith and morals in their own locales" which the bishops have; the antiracial teachings of the Popes over a long period of time; the "relatively small number of Negroes who are" Roman Catholics. (McCloskey, ibid.)

More than a year before the Court's ruling was announced, the Roman Catholic bishops of the South issued a joint statement, calling on Roman Catholics to "set the pattern" of brotherhood free of racism. They said: "We sincerely hope that the day will come when the ideal of Christian brotherhood will displace from our southern scene all traces of the blight of racism. Let us Catholics, true to our convictions, set the pattern."

The most far-reaching and successful desegregation of Roman Catholic schools has been in the following dioceses: Washington, D.C., on all levels since 1949: Arkansas; Delaware on all levels; Missouri on all levels prior to the Court's ruling; Raleigh, N.C., almost all primary and some elementary schools; San Antonio, by order of the archbishop in the spring of 1954; certain areas of Virginia; and West Virginia, where it was begun several years ago.

Church of the Brethren.-The annual conference of this church, meeting during the summer of 1954, passed a resolution hailing the decision and urging members of that church to "lead out in effecting these social changes in every area of our life."

Congregational Christian Church.-The general council of the Congregational Christian Church, meeting on June 30, recalling its repeated summons "for a nonsegregated church in a nonsegregated society" recommended "that local churches, where segregation has prevailed move toward ways in which they and all churches can open their membership to all persons on a simple basis of faith and character." The council said, "we call upon Congregational Christian