Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 16 —Dec. I, 1954 — SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Text Of Talk At Forum
For Further Reading
(Here is the text of a talk given at
the recent New York Herald Tribune
torum by C. A. McKnight, executive
director of the Southern Education Re
porting Service.)
• * *
OU have heard Mr. Ashmore place
in its regional and national con
text the Supreme Court opinion in
the school segregation cases. Mr.
Mitchell has described the organiza
tional resources within the southern
region for meeting peacefully and
democratically the problems posed
by the Court ruling. Mr. Hammer
talked about the expanding economic
base for providing better educational
facilities for all of the children in the
South. I want to say a few words
about the great reservoir of individ
ual leadership in the South, and to
stress the importance of providing
those individuals with objective,
trustworthy, factual information.
But first, I must make this “De
claration of Independence.” The
cardinal rule of the Southern Educa
tion Reporting Service, of which I
am director, is its complete objectiv
ity. The Reporting Service is not an
advocate in the segregation-deseg
regation issue. It is neither pro-seg
regation nor anti-segregation. It ex
presses no opinions of its own on any
controversial phase of the issue. It is
self evident, therefore, that my ap
pearance on this forum in no way
indicates agreement with any view
points which may be advanced by
other speakers.
The story is told about a leading
southern newspaper which queried
its correspondents on May 18 asking
for reaction in their communities to
the Supreme Court opinion. One
Deep-South correspondent replied in
these words: “In the wake of the
historic Supreme Court segregation
opinion, the appeals for calmness in
this community were beginning to
border on the hysterical.”
The story may be apocryphal, but
it illustrates a point that should not
be overlooked in thinking about the
southern region, i.e., that the news
papers of the region and many other
responsible voices were in close har
mony in urging calmness, patience,
dignity, and the preservation of law
and order in those first tumultous
hours after the Court opinion was
announced. The editorial pages of the
southern region—and there are many
truly distinguished ones—met the
challenge — and the opportunity —
of the May 17 decision in the finest
tradition of responsible journalism—
even those which were in strongest
and most conscientious disagreement
with the Court’s reasoning.
I cannot say the same thing for
the front pages of the newspapers
within and without the region in the
weeks that have followed.
EDITOR’S VIEWPOINT
As an editor, I have long been
painfully aware of, and deeply con
cerned over, some of the inherent de
fects of high-speed, competitive
American journalism. Newspapers
are written and edited by human be
ings and they partake of all the faults
of human nature, not the least of
which is the imperfect judgment of
the reporter and the desk man.
Moreover, news is gathered and
processed at a fast speed—and haste
sometimes gives rise to error, to
wrong emphasis on facts, to over
playing or underplaying a story in
such a way as to mislead the reader.
Beyond that, there is the eternal
problem of space in this day of high-
cost newsprint. Somehow the enorm
ous volume of news must be com
pressed and synthesized so that the
reader who is in a hurry, and most
people are in a hurry these days, can
glean the important and pertinent
facts. Newspaper reporters are train
ed to this task, but they are human
and, hence, prone to err.
Finally, the American press all too
often tends to single out the sensa
tional and the controversial, to para
mount the area of disagreement and
either to ignore or to give but passing
attention to the area of agreement,
which is sometimes more significant.
It is a journalistic truism that “The
conflict is the news,” and that is
simply an inversion of the old pro
verb that “No news is good news.”
And so it has happened that the
news reporters, the competitive wire
services and the managing editors of
the nation have paid what I believe
to be disproportionate attention to
the areas of conflict, tension and dis
agreement in the desegregation story,
and not enough attention to the quiet,
successful adjustments that many
communities have already made.
News is also change. And if the
emphasis on pickets and student
strikes in Milford, Baltimore and the
District of Columbia may be looked
upon as one side of the coin, the
other side is the frequency of front
page references to two relatively
small, atypical communities in west
ern Arkansas which accepted a hand
ful of Negro students in white high
schools in September without incid
ent. If you read the front pages only,
you get the impression that Arkansas
has moved significantly toward de
segregation—an impression that does
not correspond to the facts.
ORIGIN OF SERS
The problem of reporting ade
quately the big story growing out
of the Supreme Court opinion had
been anticipated by southern editors
before May 17. In April, a group of
them met in Washington with repre
sentatives of the Fund for the Ad
vancement of Education, which had
financed the Ashmore Project. These
editors, whose own personal convic-
tious about the segregation issue
covered a wide range, agreed on this
premise: that in the event of a court
opinion declaring segregation uncon
stitutional, there would be a need for
objective, accurate and authoritative
facts on developments arising in the
wake of Court action; that these facts
should be made available to a wide
audience of public officials, educators,
newspapermen and interested lay
citizens throughout the southern
region; and that the facts should be
presented in greater volume and finer
detail than the average newspaper,
with its general readership, could
afford to print them. It was from this
conference that the Southern Educa
tion Reporting Service came into be
ing—a service that is unusual, if not
unique, in the history of American
journalism.
In May, a board of directors in
cluding southern editors and educa
tors was formed.
In July, a grant of almost $100,000
was made to the Southern Education
Reporting Service by the Fund for
the Advancement of Education.
By the first of August a central
office in Nashville had been staffed,
and top-flight newspapermen ap
pointed throughout the region to
serve as regular correspondents for
the Reporting Service.
By the time the first issue of
Southern News School was dis
tributed on September 3, requests for
the publication numbered almost 10,-
000. By October 1, when the second
issue was published, the mailing list
was pushing 20,000. These requests
have come from all of the 48 states
and several foreign countries.
A number of my friends have asked
why I was willing to take a leave of
absence from the relatively comfort
able editorship of the Charlotte News
to become director of a project that
might become involved in controver
sy, in spite of our best efforts to
maintain complete objectivity. The
answer is an easy one.
First of all, I am an editorial writer
by trade, and per se somewhat of a
softhead.
Secondly, I am a native South
erner. I love the South, and I want
to see the South adjust to this great
new problem peacefully and without
serious setbacks to public education.
Thirdly, I have long been con
vinced of the inherent collective wis
dom of the American people. I am
persuaded that the American people,
or any part of them, can solve by
democratic processes any problem
they may face, provided they are
given all the facts. I saw in the Re
porting Service a unique opportunity
to make those facts available to in
terested persons throughout the
region.
I did not miscalculate the intensity
of interest and the depth of concern
among the thoughtful people in the
southern region. The most reward
ing part of my job so far has been
reading the flood of letters and post
cards that followed the establish
ment of the Reporting Service and
the distribution of the first issue. The
letters have come from people who
live in all sections of the region, and
who work at many trades and pro
fessions ... a mother of five in Flo
rida ... a housewife in Etowah,
Tennessee ... a member of the
American Association of University
Women in Birmingham ... the Albe
marle League of Women voters in
Virginia . . . the legislative chair
man of a Texas Council for Parents
. .. the chairman of a bi-racial study
group in South Carolina ... an open
forum church class in North Caro
lina ... a high school English teach
er in Kentucky ... a social science
teacher in Mississippi ... a lawyer
in Mobile . . . the president of an
aircraft corporation in Maryland . . .
a school superintendent in Louisi
ana ... a legislator in Arkansas.
The letters by now number in the
thousands. They come from people
on both sides of the controversy . . .
the Virginia man who wrote that his
“father fought in the Confederate
army against the North and therefore
I can never agree to the white and
colored using the same school” . . .
and the Birmingham minister who
said “I sincerely hope that your paper
will be a helpful instrument in the
educational process that must come
about in this transition period. . . .”
They come from people like the
Miami teacher who confessed that
“being a native Georgian, I have a
definite Southern viewpoint,” but “I
might modify this viewpoint by a
better knowledge of the facts.”
For the most part, however, the
letter writers have not put their
thoughts on display. It is not clear
whether they have convictions, or
what those convictions may be. But
what they do say over and over, in
different language, is this: “Give us
the facts, and we will work out this
problem.”
‘INTERESTED CITIZENS’
An analysis of over 600 of the re
quests from individuals who wanted
to receive Southern School News
shows that more than half of them
came from people who described
themselves as “just an interested
citizen,” but who invariably showed
an appreciation for a factual and
objective account of what is happen
ing in the South. These interested
citizens most often were participat
ing in local community groups—
primarily civic and church groups.
However, nearly one-fourth of them
did not indicate any group affiliation
but mentioned only their own deep
concern and interest in the subject
as a parent, a grandparent, or, again,
just a citizen who wanted to know
more about the subject.
From these thousands of letters I
have concluded that there is another
tremendous resource in the South,
the size and power of which have
been greatly underestimated. I know
of no better term for describing this
resource than “latent leadership.”
These people have been voiceless and
faceless in the uncertain years of the
past. They have listened with one
ear to the voices of the white su
premacists, and with the other ear
to the appeals of the integrationists.
Many of them are not yet irrevocably
committed to either side of this great
issue. But one thing they have in
common—a great hunger for all the
Ashmore, Harry S., The Negro and
the Schools, Chapel Hill: Univer
sity of North Carolina Press, 1954,
p. 228.
A clear and authoritative text,
based on a study by a group of
some forty-five sociologists, educa
tors economists, and lawyers under
the over-all direction of the
author, sets forth the history of
educational segregation, the course
of recent litigation in this area;
the efforts of the South to equalize
educational facilities; and recent
attempts at desegregation both in
universities of the South and in
public school systems in the non-
South. This is an excellent book
for those interested in the prob
lems attending desegregation of
schools. The emphasis is on statis
tical analysis of schools and popula
tion. The text of the decision has
been incorporated in the newest
edition.
Clark, Kenneth B., “Desegregation:
An Appraisal of the Evidence,” The
Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 9, No.
4, May, 1953, pp. 1-76.
A soicial scientist discusses deseg
regation under the following head
ings: (1) The Background; (2)
The Question Posed and the Stra
tegy of the Reply; (3) Findings;
(4) Some Implications for a Theory
of Social Change.
Johnson, Guy B., “The Impending
Crisis of the South,” New South,
Vol. 8, No. 5, May, 1953, pp. 1-6.
A summary of the factors which
have led up to the present crisis
in the South with a plea for wise
and mature handling of the transi
tion period.
Leflar, Robert A., and Wylie H. Davis,
“Segregation in the Public Schools,
1953” Harvard Law Review, Vol.
LXVII, January, 1954, pp. 377-435.
The authors, writing before the
Supreme Court opinion, stated that
the legal problems inherent in the
elimination of racial segregation go
far beyond the issues directly pre
sented in the five cases before the
Supreme Court of the United States.
It was the authors opinion that
whatever the court decided, new
litigation would be initiated by each
of the two opposing groups with
the purpose of getting the court to
take some position more in line
with their own position. The
authors of the study write: “Analy
sis of the legal situation as it exists
just prior to the Court’s decision
factual information they can devour
—information that is not only trust
worthy and complete but also in
balanced perspective.
It is an axiom of the editorial writ
ing profession that one should never
underestimate the intelligence of the
reader, nor overestimate his informa
tion. The full meaning of that axiom
has been firmly impressed upon me
by these thousands of letters. With
all due respect to the advocates and
action groups on both sides of this
issue, I venture the prediction that
a new and highly effective leader
ship in meeting what is perhaps the
American Democracy’s greatest
challenge will come from this legion
of thoughtful, studious individuals
from whom we are just now begin
ning to hear.
will have a special value, not only
as a pictured moment in history but
also as an aid to understanding the
litigation that lies just ahead.”
Lovejoy, Gordon W., “The Manifold
South: Suggested Levels of Action
for Practitioner Agencies,” (a
memorandum to the Committee on
Integration of Minority Groups in
American Education of the Com
mission on Educational Organiza
tions of the National Conference of
Christian and Jews)
“Next Steps in Racial Desegregation
in Education,” The Journal of Ne
gro Education, The Yearbook Num
ber, XXIII, Summer, 1954.
This volume essays to determine
how past experiences in the area
of desegregation might be utilized
to best advantage in making the
transition from segregation to de
segregation in education. This issue
attempts to make a critical ap
praisal of the present situation, to
ascertain what lessons have been
learned from recent experiences
with desegregation, and to sug
gest how these lessons may be
utilized in future courses of action.
“Segregation and the Catholic
Schools: A study,” The Catholic
Committee of the South (512 Ebe-
nezer Avenue, Rock Hill, South
Carolina)
This study composed of the follow
ing sections: Population and eco
nomics; trends; reactions and re
sistance; teaching of the church;
objections; thoughts on education
toward integration; and what we
might do, is being distributed to
the Ordinaries of the Dioceses of
the Southeast to be used as a basis
for desegregation of the Catholic
schools.
“Integration of Washington Schools,”
American Friends Service Com
mittee, Community Relations Pro
gram, 104 C Street, N.E., Washing
ton, D.C.
A pamphlet devoted to a consider
ation of the questions most often
asked about the process of integra
tion. School officials and citizens are
thinking and asking about how the
transition should be carried out.
What steps should be taken? What
can we anticipate and plan for?
What are the problems? How can
we do the best job? This pamphlet
attempts an answer.
Emory University Journal of Public
Law, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1954 spe
cial issue: “Segregation in the
Public Schools.”
A series of articles, written by out
standing authorities in the field,
in which an approach to diagnosis
and direction of the problem of
segregation in the public schools is
discussed against a background of
the concept of equality in a demo
cratic society; legal analysis of
the Supreme Court opinion; some
of the problems attending the im
plementation of the opinion; and
the impact of the opinion on south
ern communities.
“Let’s Talk It Over,” A Seminar
Series on Integration, American
Friends Service Committee, Wash
ington, D.C.
Sec. 34.66, P. L. & R.
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