Unlocking Atlanta

A key step toward integrating Atlanta's segregated schools was taken last week by U.S. District Judge Frank A. Hooper. After declaring segregation illegal, he granted an injunction against discrimination in the schools, whose 67,000 white and 46,000 Negro students are 10% of Georgia's school-age children. Carefully, Georgia-born Judge Hooper did not order integration by next September; he ordered the city's board of education to submit a plan within a "reasonable" time. He had reason for caution: arch-segregationist Georgia already has a ticklish law allowing Governor S. Ernest Vandiver to close integrated schools in order to "preserve peace and good order."

Judge Hooper's decision, which keeps the schools open, is intended to "clarify the issues"--in effect, to challenge the state law. Said he: "Even the most ardent segregationists in the land, though bitterly opposed to such ruling, now recognize that segregated public schools are not permitted by law."

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