The Price of a Ticket

For a modest neighborhood house of flickers, Baltimore's Northwood Theatre demanded an awfully high price for a ticket--at least for Negroes. In fact, it cost years of effort and countless hours in jail by picketing students before the first Negro was, last week, admitted to the Northwood.

The most important thing about the Northwood was that it is close by the campus of Morgan State College, predominantly Negro. Morgan State's students understandably wanted to go to the show; the Northwood would not let them in. In 1955, Morgan State students began picketing the theater in a protest that has continued off and on ever since.

Two weeks ago, the Morgan Staters renewed their effort--joined by white students from Johns Hopkins University and Goucher, a girls' college. In mixed groups, the students entered the Northwood lob by to buy tickets. Each time, the theater manager read aloud the Maryland trespass law. Arrests followed, and in seven days, 413 demonstrators were hauled off to jail. Most refused to post bail, set as high as $600, instead crowded six and seven to a cell, spilled over into corridors, and clambered around the penal premises.

In a conference last week with Balti more's Mayor Philip Goodman, who is campaigning hard for a new term, the theater management finally relented, promised to integrate if the students would call off the demonstrations. Bail set for the students was eliminated, and they were released from the jail. Only one thing marred the victory: unless police and the theater management agree to dismiss them, the students still face charges of trespass and disorderly conduct.

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