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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS —Nov. 4, 1954 —PAGE 7 Delaware (Continued from Page 6) opinion. The essence of his decision —that the Negro children should be readmitted to the Milford high school —was: In the light of the sweeping declara tion of the Supreme Court on the un qualified right of all persons to a public school education in which consideration of race plays no part, it necessarily fol lows that the plaintiffs (Negro children) and those similarly situated are equitably entitled to an education at the Milford high school. Under the facts of this case, how long must plaintiffs wait? The vice chancellor also stated: I hold that plaintiffs, having been ac cepted and enrolled, are entitled to an order protecting their status at the Mil ford high school; that their right to a personal and present high school educa tion having vested on their admission, they need not wait for decrees in the cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in May as a prerequisite to the relief they seek. Even while the NAAWP was threatening more boycotts if the Ne gro children were readmitted to the Milford high school, Vice Chancellor Marvel signed the order several days later but the Milford board of edu cation took an appeal to the State Supreme Court. QUESTIONS OF LAW The State Supreme Court on Oct. 23 stayed the order of the Court of Chancery as Chief Justice Souther land said that the court found “serious questions of law” involved in the status of the Negro children. He added: This court, we think, should be given sufficient time to examine these questions without disturbing the status quo as exist ing upon the filing of the suit. In announcing this decision, the court neither expresses nor intimates any opinion upon the merits of the case. And so there will be briefs filed during November, and in the mean time, the attorney general of Dela ware prepared to appear before the U. S. Supreme Court early in De cember. Except for a continued flow of let ters to the newspapers and an oc casional meeting of the NAAWP, the “Milford incident” calmed down and October in Delaware concluded with politics on the front pages. While the headlines of newspapers, radio and television stations of the nation and even Moscow played up the “Milford fight,” secondary posi tion was given to the stand taken for integration by every major church in Delaware, by the Episcopal and Catholic bishops, labor unions, teach ers’ organizations and the State Con gress of Parents and Teachers. These resolutions and statements ranged all the way from unqualified support of integration in the public schools to a law-and-order observ ance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. They also took strong positions against the National Association for the Advancement of White People ® n d its national president, Bryant Bowles. Even some weekly newspapers in southern Delaware that have as sumed cautious attitudes toward in- egration have admitted that they do n °t relish the activities of Bowles. And many citizens of Milford—the ^al point of the conflict that be came nationwide news—insist that e issue is not integration vs. segre gation, but rather law and order vs. ^h'egation. They say that the vast ajority of people in southern Del- no * wan t integration and v ould rather the U.S. Supreme Court i a handed down its opinion, “ ’ , e y add, since the opinion has D me ’ h * s now a question of how to oceed toward integration and how 'Wckly to proceed. C< Ch FLICT GETS HEADLINES d P i men and civic leaders are pa ° rin g that the big play on news- ers » ra <dio and television is being durf 1 ,] con Bict and the rallies con- rathe k tHe NAAWP 311(1 Bowles, ajjj er , “an the positive resolutions hon a atements in favor of integra- integrati ^ 0rt ^ erly transition toward a warf°°V ^ Gatlers in northern Del ing nr , W . integration is proceed- that tb Var y* n S scales, also deplore bei n „ , e , j at * on and the world are not sand D 1 alrea< iy several thou- attenrl- e v’’ ar e school children are m g integrated classes. tricts, but the board also took the position of pledging “to uphold all law and order as the Constitution of the State of Delaware states for the protection of its citizens.” The Delaware Region of the Na tional Conference of Christians and Jews called upon “all those in posi tions of authority or leadership to speak out and act at once against any further attempts to perpetuate or re establish segregation in our schools by use of direct or implied threats of force or other illegal means.” The Delaware State Industrial Union Council endorsed a national CIO statement asking the attorney general of the United States to in vestigate possible violation of fed eral civil rights laws in the school in tegration protest in Sussex county and elsewhere. The Delaware Federation of Labor in convention adopted a resolution condemning “A shameful display of mob violence” in the Milford area and charged a lack of leadership on the part of the state’s Gov. J. Caleb Boggs and the state board of educa tion. The so-called “Milford Incident” did not catch the Delaware Congress of Parents and Teachers (white) un prepared. The president of the State Congress of Parents and Teachers—made up of Parent-Teacher Association units in all parts of Delaware—is James H. Snowden of Wilmington, father of children who go to the Wilmington public schools, and himself a chemist employed by the duPont Company in Wilmington. Months before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its integration opinion in May, the Delaware Con gress of Parents and Teachers had already undertaken study groups de voted to discussions of the problems that would come with integration. Mr. Snowden, himself a strong champion of integration, has taken a position that whatever the Delaware Congress does about integration must be the result of democratic processes among the representatives of the various local PTA units. During the summer—weeks before the opening of school—Mr. Snowden had a statewide committee on group relations working on a program deal ing with the integration of PTA units of Negro and white parents. And right in the midst of the Mil ford controversy—on Oct. 3—the board of managers of the Delaware Congress of Parents and Teachers met to take action on a report of the committee on group relations. Mr. Snowden explained that the meeting of the board of managers which includes the presidents of every local PTA in the state was not purposely scheduled for Oct. 3 so as to figure in the Milford controversy. He said the meeting date had been set before the outbreak of the con flict. The group relations committee submitted a unanimous report which was discussed at the meeting of the board of managers for several hours and then adopted without a dissent ing vote. In effect, the adoption of the report put the Delaware Congress of Par ents and Teachers behind integra tion. The gist of the report was that Negro PTA units in segregated school districts could join the Delaware Congress of Parents and Teachers (up until now a wholly white organ ization) . In the meantime, the executive committee of the Milford high school PTA—the very center of the storm that broke over Delaware—quietly met on Oct. 12 and unanimously ap proved a resolution of the board of managers of the Delaware Congress of Parents and Teachers which stated: The threat of violence has resulted in the interruption of the education of many Delaware children; it has coerced or inspired state and local officials to neglect or violate their offices; it has frightened those to whom we generally look for leadership into silence. The preservation of respect for law and order now rests squarely upon the shoulders of all good citizens. Regardless of our views on the elimina tion of segregation in the public schools, we are now seriously concerned with the maintenance of law and order and respect for our democratic institutions and their orderly process. TWO VIEWS OF NAAWP LEADER IN ACTION IN DELAWARE Wilmington News-Journal Photo Bryant Bowles addresses a rally of the National Association for the Advancement of White People at Harrington, Delaware. Veteran newspapermen in Wil mington who have covered “Brother hood Week” year after year say that those observances in February never produced such an outpouring of “brotherhood” resolutions and ser mons as did the integration conflict in southern Delaware since the open ing of school in September. Here is a digest of the stand taken by church groups and church lead ers: The New Castle Presbytery which embraces all of Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Every Presbyterian within our jurisdic tion is urged to refrain from encouraging or participating in any school strike or boycott or other like reprehensible con duct, and is urged to uphold the processes of law and order. The unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has finally settled the law of the land, leaving open only the mechanics of enforcement and in so settling the question has given the force of law to a Christian principle. In support of this resolution, form er State Supreme Court Justice James M. Tunnell Jr., a resident of Georgetown, the county seat of Sus sex county (the NAAWP battle ground), said: “The church is one place where it is better to be right than to be popular.” Mr. Tunnell is the moderator of the New Castle Presbytery. The Rt. Rev. J. Brooks Mosley, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Delaware (in a sermon in a small Sussex county church): We must be certain to take our stand on these issues of righteousness and jus tice. God weeps for those who have come to our state to take advantage of our plight. Poor misguided souls! Preaching hate—in the name of a God of love! Teaching lawlessness in the name of the United States of America. The Most Rev. Edmond J. Fitz- Maurice, bishop of the Catholic diocese of Wilmington which covers all of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: To the question, “Who is my neighbor?” the Catholic Church makes answer: "All men without distinction or exception,” for every man bears within him the divine spark. He is a son of God and hence in the truest sense our brother. ... If a Catholic does not hold to this doctrine, he denies the Catholic faith. If he fails to put it into practice, if he denies to his brother his inalienable rights and would relegate him to an inferior status, he is a recreant, disobedient member of his church. This was part of a pastoral letter, solely devoted to integration, issued by the Catholic bishop and read at all masses in every Catholic church in the diocese in the first week of Oc tober. The Wilmington Methodist Minis terial Association of the (Delmarva) Peninsula Conference: We believe that the present movement of integration truly represents the spirit and the teaching of the Christian gospel. We believe that now is the time for the Christian people of Delaware to give careful and prayerful consideration to the Christian means by which integration can be achieved. The Dover District Methodist Ministerial Association of the Penin sula Conference: The Methodist Church declares that "to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of his race, is both unfair and unchristian.” Progress can be made, though adjustments are difficult. The duty and responsibility of all Americans is to put into daily practice now, the high standards of their religious faith and national law. The problem of integration of races in the school system can be solved when sincere effort is based on this foundation. The B’nai B’rith lodges of Dela ware: What has taken place in Milford makes a mockery of our American traditions of fairness to all. A "Milford incident” lends aid and comfort to the enemies of our nation who rejoice when they see us pitted one against the other. We condemn the expulsion from their classes of Del aware children solely because of their color. The Rev. John G. MacKinnon, pas tor of the Unitarian Church in Wil mington: While denouncing integration as some thing from outside Delaware being foisted upon the good people of Delaware, this transient rabble rouser (Bryant Bowles) with a police record has entered the state and stirred up a situation to his own ad vantage. The Rev. John M. Ballach, pastor of the Immanuel Baptist Church in Wilmington: (speaking out against Manean Warrington, an evangelist, who calls himself the “chaplain” of the NAAWP): The church can take only one position in this thing, in spite of the evangelist who has been speaking his mind in the Milford area. We cannot and must not keep the Negro from the benefits of our society. Life is too short to be hateful. The Jewish War Veterans of Dela ware called for an investigation of the NAAWP and all other organiza tions “which are fomenting discord and violence” and asked that these groups be placed upon the attorney general’s subversive organization list. The board of directors of the Sus sex County Farm Bureau called for a halt of any further integration in the Delaware public schools until referenda are held in all school dis Another view of NAAWP Leader Bowles Wilmington News-Journal Photo