Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—MARCH, 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Authorities Say Words
Cannot Be Interchanged
(Continued From Page 1)
who may be regarded as experts in
the language of their fields.
Dr. Kenneth B. Clark of City Col
lege of New York declared last fall
in his presidential address to the So
ciety for Psychological Study of Social
Issues that desegregation is “an ob
jective social, legal and political
process” while integration is “a sub
jective, psychological and attitudinal
process.”
Dr. Clark whose reports on segre
gation were cited by the Supreme
Court in its decision, maintains that:
• Desegregation consists of “social,
political, legal, judicial, administrative
or community processes” for removal
of racial barriers. It “can be and
usually is brought about by laws and
governmental authority.”
• Integration “involves problems of
personal choice, personal readiness and
personal stability. Its achievement nec
essarily requires a longer period of
time .... (It) cannot be coerced by
law or governmental authority.”
In Dr. Clark’s opinion, there is a
need for psychologists “to help the
public and its leaders to understand
the difference between desegregation
and integration.”
Contrast of Terms
A contrast of the terms was voiced
to Southern School News, by Dr. H.
James Crecraft, a Nashville psychia
trist and a member for three years of
the American Orthopsychiatric Asso
ciation’s Committee on Problems of
Minority Groups, who made this state
ment:
“In the beginning, the words ‘inte
gration’ and ‘desegregation’ were gen
erally used interchangeably by most
people, but in the past year or so we
have noticed a subtle change develop
ing in word choice.
“On the part of those who favor
elimination of racial segregation, it
was first believed—somewhat naively,
I think—that desegregation would carry
integration along with it; that inte
gration would be the almost automatic
outgrowth of desegregation.
“But there has been a gradual dis
illusionment among these people. They
now are realizing that desegregation is
primarily a legal and physical change
of status as to race while integration
involves emotional and attitudinal
change.
“With the increase of desegregation
in the South, we may actually be
farther from integration than we were
before. Many Southerners, and other
Americans as well, because of the
desegregation issue, now have become
more conscious of racial differences
that had been more or less dormant,
and new emotional conflicts have
developed.
“Because of adult attention to the
subject, it has been absorbed by
adolescents and children who perhaps
previously had little occasion to be
aware of its implications. It thus ap
pears that, to some extent at least, the
emotional conflicts relative to race may
have been passed down to the younger
generation to a greater degree recently
than in the preceding two or three gen
erations, and so these things seem like
ly to remain around for quite a while.
“For these reasons, it seems clear
that desegregation is the logical choice
of words to denote a legal end of segre
gation. The definitions of integration
simply do not apply to what is happen
ing in the Southern schools.”
Psychiatric Aspects
The following commentary came in
1957 from Psychiatric Aspects of
School Desegregation, a publication of
the Committee on Social Issues of the
Group for the Advancement of Psy
chiatry:
“School desegregation as a behavioral
change may in the long ran lead to
attitude changes which can be called
integration, that is, to a much greater
degree of social interaction between
the races. If and when there is a shift
in the direction of integration, this
would show itself as a shift toward
greater mutuality and breadth of shared
experience between whites and Negroes
in their total relationship.”
Some Newspapermen
Make Distinction
In the field of journalism, General
News Editor Earl J. Johnson of United
Press International recently made this
report without comment to executives
of client newspapers.
“A Tennessee editor writes that,
strictly speaking, integration ‘means
full union of the races in all fields,
physical, intellectual and spiritual.’
“Desegregation, he says, ‘means the
removal of restrictions on the move
ments of the members of the Negro
race, especially as citizens in the use
of tax-paid (or public) facilities.’ ”
Precision in Choice
The trend toward more precision in
the choice of words apparently has no
necessary relationship to favor or dis
favor for biracial schools. An editorial
in The State, Columbia, S.C., last
November declared:
“ ‘Integration’ is an overworked word
in the news reports nowadays. ‘Inte
gration’ conveys the meaning of com
plete mixing or amalgamation of the
races. A more appropriate word for
the forced acceptance of Negro stu
dents by white public schools in the
South is ‘desegregation.’ ”
Sylvan Meyer, editor of the Gaines
ville, Ga., Daily Times and chairman of
the Georgia Advisory Committee to
the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
wrote in a booklet published by the
Southern Regional Council last year
that he considered the word ‘integra
tion” as it is used pertaining to the
Supreme Court decision to be “erron
eous and inaccurate.”
Meyer contended that the court “did
not order ‘integration’ or hardly even
‘desegregation,’ which also implies a
positive program rather than a mere
change in assignment rules. ‘Gradual
desegregation’ possibly is more accu
rate.”
The Georgian, however, suggested
that people called “moderates” tend
to use “desegregation” over “integra
tion” “because it sounds, somehow, less
aggressive.”
Meyer said there are indications that
repeated use of the term “integration”
in the racial sense may be driving it
out of the English language as it
applies otherwise. He commented that
Georgia’s poultry industry, with its
companies extending into various levels
of production from growing chickens
to processing them, admitted with some
hesitation that such a process in in
dustrial terminology is called “vertical
integration.”
Suggests Term Misused
William D. Workman Jr., a South
Carolina journalist, in a chapter called
“The War of Words” in his The Case
for the South (Devin-Adair, 1960),
suggests that the term “segregation”
may be misused in its racial appli
cation; then he calls the word “de
segregation” “an artificial antonym”
which is “unaccompanied hy anything
approaching a precise meaning.”
In Workman’s view, “the most gen
eral and seemingly most acceptable
meaning of ‘desegregation’ is that of a
reversal of segregation. Its relationship
to the companion word, ‘integration,’
is none too clear, but the latter is at
least dignified with a dictionary de
finition.”
Webster’s New International Diction
ary defines the transitive verb “inte
grate” this way:
“ ... To form into one whole; to
make entire; to complete; to round
out; to perfect. To unite (parts or ele
ments) so as to form a whole; also to
unite (a part or element) with some
thing else, especially something more
inclusive. To indicate the whole of; to
give the sum or total of.”
(This standard dictionary did not yet
list the word “desegregate,” but the
prefix “de” denotes reversal of the
verb “segregate,” and “segregate is
defined as follows: “To separate or cut
off from others or from the general
mass or main body; to set apart; to
isolate; to seclude; to cause to segre
gate.”)
Educators Prefer
Term ‘Desegregation’
The assistant state superintendent of
schools in Maryland, Dr. David W.
Zimmerman, recently described de
segregation as “the elimination of com
pulsorily segregated schools.” He said
integration is “a term we do not ordi
narily use,” it being “something more
complete” than desegregation and “a
matter of degree.”
As further evidence that a distinction
between desegregation and integration
has not come overnight but had several
origins in the past, this statement was
made in 1957 by Hobart M. Coming,
then superintendent of schools in
Washington, D.C., and an advocate of
both desegregation and integration:
“Desegregation, the mechanical mov
ing of people and things, virtually
has been completed (in Washington).
But integration, the conversion of the
two segments of the schools into a
smooth-running single system, still re
quires the work of all.”
Coming’s comment, which appeared
in With All Deliberate Speed, published
by Southern Education Reporting Ser
vice (Harper & Brothers, 1957), was
quoted in 1959 by T. B. Maston in his
Segregation and Desegregation: A
Christian Approach, and Maston ob
served that “the terms are closely
related, but they should not be equated
with each other.”
“More Positive Content’
Maston referred to a statement by
Liston Pope in The Kingdom Beyond
Caste that integration “has a more
positive content than the term desegre-
ation.” Then Matson made these
observations:
“Integration involves more than the
removal of barriers and the elimination
of compulsory segregation. This may
be accomplished by desegregation. The
latter is legal and more or less formal.
Integration is voluntary and social.
This means that integration is a much
slower process than desegregation.
“ . . . Integration in the strictest
sense involves a great deal more than
the mere mixing of the races. There
might be a great deal of this mixing
with little if any true integration. In
the deepest sense, integration has taken
place only when those of another race
or class are accepted as full and equal
partners. . .
“Desegregation of the schools or of
community life in general may or
may not lead to genuine integration.
Whether it does or does not will depend
on the attitude of white and Negro
people toward one another.”
Comments in Yearbook
A former chairman of the Department
of Social Sciences at Fisk University,
Dr. Preston Valien, made this comment
in the 1958 Yearbook of The Journal
of Negro Education, devoted to “De
segregation and the Negro College”:
“If desegregation is defined as the
process of bringing Negro and white
students into the same schools by the
removal of racially restrictive admis
sion barriers, and integration is defined
as the participation of Negro and white
students in extra-curricular and school
related activities, as well as classroom
activities, it becomes apparent that we
are dealing largely with desegregation
and not integration in this Yearbook.”
Writing for the November, 1960, issue
of Interracial Review, published by the
Catholic Interracial Council of New
York, Executive Director Harold G.
Fleming of the Southern Regional
Council made this comment as a pro
ponent of desegregation and integra
tion:
“We must beware of that progress
which means substantial desegregation
but almost no integration. Integration
means the acceptance of one another
as individuals, not as members of a
particular racial group. This kind of
easy, natural acceptance is hard to
come by, and Utopian processes of
desegregation that have gone on have
not encouraged it.”
Difference Recognized
Early by Dictionary
An early distinction was established
in Dictionary of New Words by Mary
Reifer (Philosophical Library, 1955),
noting that:
• Desegregation is “the abolition of
segregation, particularly as it applies to
the public school system, pursuant to
the Supreme Court decision on May
17, 1954.”
• Integration is (1) “a social process
which tends to harmonize and unify
diverse and conflicting elements,” and
as a psychological term it is (2) a state
of adjustment of the personality in
which it is free of all inner conflicts.”
Take Dim View
Taking a dim view of the word “in
tegration” in all its various present-
day uses were Bergen Evans and
Cornelia Evans in A Dictionary of
Contemporary American Usage (Ran
dom House, 1957), as they noted that
“in mathematics, as anywhere else, to
integrate means to bring parts together
into a whole. It is rarely used in a
literal sense . . . hut it has become a
vogue word in education, advertising,
and especially psychological circles.
“Programs are always being inte
grated, plans are integrated, campaigns
are integrated—indeed, anything at all
that can be combined or joined may be
said to be integrated. The diverse and
conflicting elements of character or
personality are continually being inte
grated by those who approach the
mind or spirit in brisk, businesslike
way. . . . Outside of mathematics, the
word needs a rest.”
Having made this excursion into
semantics, Southern School News has
determined, for its own use, the fol
lowing definitions of these two key
words:
Desegregation—Change from segre
gated to biracial or multiracial status,
either in practice or in principle.
Integration—Absence of all racial
distinctions. # # #
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstitu
tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation,
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tennessee
Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the authority
of the act of March 3, 1879.
OFFICERS
Frank Ahlgren Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice Chairman
Reed Sarratt Executive Director
Tom Flake, Associate Director
Jim Leeson. Assistant Director
BOARD OF
Frank Ahlgren, Editor Memphis Com
mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Edward D. Ball, Editor, Nashville, Ten
nessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
DIRECTORS
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk Univer
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Editorial Page Editor,
Miami Herald, Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Assistant Edi
tor, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette
DELAWARE
James E. Miller, Managing Editor,
Delaware State News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Erwin Knoll, Staff Writer, Washing
ton Post & Times Herald
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Ma
con News
KENTUCKY
James S. Pope Jr., Education Editor,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or
leans States & Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
William K. Wyant Jr. Staff Writer,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
L. M. Wright Jr., City Editor, Char
lotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
Ken Morrell, Staff Writer, Nashville
Banner
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156. Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tenn.
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Perspective
(Continued From Page 1)
Court ruling in the school segregation
cases.
The courts last month continued to
be a source of important developments
on the issue. President Kennedy fig
ured in two legal moves. A suit seek
ing to block the use of federal funds
for segregated schools named the pres
ident and three other federal officials
as defendants. Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare Abraham Ribi-
coff, one of the defendants, has ex
pressed opposition to denying federal
aid to segregated schools.
Within hours after the president re
ceived an appeal for help from the
Orleans Parish school board, the U.S.
Department of Justice applied more
pressure to end state interference in
the New Orleans public schools. New
civil contempt proceedings filed against
State Education Superintendent Shelby
M. Jackson attempt to force him to
release state and federal funds to the
financially pressed school board and to
certify qualified New Orleans teachers.
President’s Position
At his Feh. 8 press conference, Pres
ident Kennedy stated that he “will
attempt to use the moral authority or
position of influence of the presidency
in New Orleans and in other places.”
The scope of the Supreme Court’s
1954 ruling broadened in Maryland to
cover juvenile correctional institutions.
The state’s highest court ruled that the
Maryland reform school for boys was
part of the public education system
and subject to the Supreme Court’s
decision. The Court of Appeals held
that the federal court’s ruling applied
to all forms of public education,
“without regard to type of school.”
The school board of Florida’s only
desegregated district, Dade County
(Miami), admitted another Negro to a
predominantly white school. The hoard,
which is considering the feasibility of
desegregating two additional schools,
approved the boy’s admission without
the public hearings held in previous
instances.
Ten Negroes requested registration
forms after the private University of
Miami announced it would admit stu
dents without regard to race.
The Georgia Legislature’s concert
with the school issue had continued
over from the 1960 session, when W
controversy then involved a federi
court’s order for Atlanta public school
to desegregate. The desegregation o*
the University of Georgia in January
gave the problem added importance
One of the four school hills approved
hy the legislature and signed by G**-
Ernest Vandiver in February repealed
all the old school segregation laws,
eluding one that would have closed
any school desegregating. The legist -
ture passed new laws to keep the P u ' r "
lie schools open and at the same tin*
resist desegregation.
In addition to repealing the old seS'
regation laws, the new acts provide
tuition grants for students to att®”
private schools, allow local option -
closing and reopening public schoo
during desegregation crises, revise aP"
peal procedures on the pupil placer®
ient
plan, and provide, subject to a const
tutional amendment referendum,
dom from “compulsory association
all levels of public education.” #
The Louisiana legislature, holding
fifth consecutive special session on -
New Orleans school desegrega'
itior
quickly passed seven new segreS 8 i
measures. The first act—a variation,
local option—would permit sc '\i.
hoards to close and sell public sch ^
when local voters approve, but it
no provision where local voters nu.^.
favor retaining public schools eve®
desegregated.
See Softening „
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis’s admin' 5 ^,
tion leaders said the local °P**‘®g- ' J
implied no acceptance of token d e -^.. x
regation. But well-informed leg^
sources said privately they saw a *
ening of the segregation leaders
stand against any desegregation-
Although segregation-desegr e = a v . i
was not the major issue in th e $ -1
kansas assembly, several propo sa i
the subject caused a controversy- g li
Faubus proposed two amendr®
One would provide for amending ^ I
state constitution within a mini 111 ^ 1 l
33 days instead of the [
months, and the other would
every child a free public '
without being required to attend uf
with another race. The latter )
a policy similar to that adopted ^ t ■
new Georgia legislation. *