Surrender in Mississippi

To most white Mississippians, integration has always been something to be resisted, not accepted. Rallying behind the cry of "Segregation forever," citizens of the state have resorted to violence, intimidation and a Byzantine series of legal maneuvers as they sought to avoid compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision. Now the unthinkable has become the inevitable. In October, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the delays by which 30 of the state's school districts have managed to maintain "separate but equal" education. Beginning this week, school desegregation will become a reality for 67,813 black and 55,461 white Mississippi schoolchildren.

There are some diehard segregationists who refuse to recognize defeat and vow to continue the fight. It is doubtful that they can. Their leaders have so far offered more rhetoric than resistance. Former Gubernatorial Candidate Jimmy Swan called a meeting in Jackson to protest the exploitation of Mississippi schoolchildren by "tyrannical Federal Government bureaucrats." But his call for massive resistance has lost its impact as a battle cry, and the best he could do was urge parents to keep their children out of integrated schools.

No Reprieve. Nor do state officials, who once led the fight against integration, seem willing or able to lead yet another charge on the Constitution. Offering less leadership than sympathy, Governor John Bell Williams, father of two school-age children, delivered an equivocal statement calling for support of the public school system while expressing understanding of the problem faced by parents who contemplate keeping their children out of school. But unlike former Governor Ross Barnett, who once stood in a doorway to keep James Meredith from entering the University of Mississippi, Williams offered no hope of reprieve. Recognizing what many of his fellow citizens would not, he said that Mississippi had fired its last legal shot and had no choice but to surrender.

For this reason, opposition is expected to be vocal, not violent, as the desegregated schools open this week. Taking their cue from State Superintendent of Education Dr. Garvin Johnston, most local school authorities have spent the past several weeks in a frenzy of activity, working to shift equipment and portable classrooms, pleading with teachers to remain on their jobs, and urging parents to give desegregation a chance. Though some picketing is anticipated, federal officials expect that at least two-thirds of the 30 districts affected will desegregate without serious incident. "The word has apparently gone out to the power structure in Mississippi that it's going to be peaceful and orderly," said one federal official.

Segregation Academies. In some districts, this will undoubtedly be the case. Philadelphia, near where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964, is expected to desegregate without incident. So is Yazoo City, a west central Mississippi community of 12,100. Instead of waiting vainly for last-minute deliverance, local leaders called a public meeting to appeal for calm and compliance. They will probably get both. A majority of the 1,200 attending left the meeting convinced that the public school system could survive the integration of the town's 2,014 white and 2,089 black students.

Still, many Mississippians hope to avoid what they cannot delay. In the pattern of Virginia, Louisiana and other Southern states where many more than 200 private schools have been established in order to exclude blacks, more than 30 new private schools have been set up in Mississippi since September. They are in addition to 56 "segregation academies" already in existence. In the Canton Municipal District, where black students outnumber whites three to one, some 90% of the whites are either enrolled or attempting to enroll in the private Canton Academic Foundation. In Holmes County, where black students outnumber whites by more than five to one, hysterical parents are planning to abandon the public schools entirely.

Ordeal of Change. Despite local fears, neither integration nor the exodus from the public schools is likely to destroy public education in Mississippi. Many parents cannot afford the $40 or more monthly tuition charged by most of the private schools. Past experience has shown that those who boycott newly integrated schools soon begin to trickle back.

Mississippi's ordeal of change will soon be shared by other Southern states. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare still lists 926 Southern school districts as segregated and has voluntary agreements from 118 to desegregate next fall. Four hundred more are under court orders that will probably be revised to require them to desegregate by then too.

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