Immediate
Reaction to the Decision:
Comparing Regional Media Coverage
As
reprinted in "Editorial Excerpts from the Nation's
Press on Segregation Ruling," New York Times,
May 18, 1954.
Read
the following excerpts from editorials in newspapers and consider
these questions:
- Does the editorial seem to support or reject the Supreme
Court's decision in Brown? Find sentences that support
your position.
- How are the editorials similar? How are they different?
What do you believe accounts for the differences in perspectives?
Times
(New York)
"All God's Chillun"
May 18, 1954
.
. . It is true, of course, that the court is not talking of
that sort of "equality" which produces interracial
marriages. It is not talking of a social system at all. It
is talking of a system of human rights which is foreshadowed
in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence,
which stated "that all men are created equal." Mr.
Jefferson and the others who were responsible for the Declaration
did not intend to say that all men are equally intelligent,
equally good or equal in height or weight. They meant to say
that all men were, and ought to be, equal before the law.
If men are equal, children are equal, too. There is an even
greater necessity in the case of children, whose opportunities
to advance themselves and to be useful to the community may
be lost if they do not have the right to be educated.
No
one can deny that the mingling of the races in the schools
of the seventeen states which have required segregation
and the three states which have permitted it will create
problems. The folkways in southern communities will have
to be adapted to new conditions if white and Negro children,
together with white and Negro teachers, are to enjoy not
only equal facilities but the same facilities in the same
schools.
.
. . The highest court in the land, the guardian of our national
conscience, has reaffirmed its faith-and the undying American
faith-in the equality of all men and all children before
the law.
Defender
(Chicago)
"End of Dual Society"
May 18, 1954
Neither
the atom bomb nor the hydrogen bomb will ever be as meaningful
to our democracy as the unanimous decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States that racial segregation violates
the spirit and letter of our Constitution. This means the
beginning of the end of the dual society in American life
and the . . . segregation which supported it.
Post
and Times Herald (Washington, D.C.)
"A 'Healing' Decision"
May 18, 1954
The
Supreme Court's resolution yesterday of the school segregation
cases affords all Americans an occasion for pride and gratification.
The decision will prove, we are sure-whatever transient difficulties
it may create and whatever irritations it may arouse-a profoundly
healthy and healing one. It will serve-and speedily-to close
an ancient wound too long allowed to fester. It will bring
to an end a painful disparity between American principals
and American practices. It will help to refurbish American
prestige in a world which looks to this land for moral inspiration
and restore the faith of Americans themselves in their own
great values and traditions.
Daily
News (Jackson, Mississippi)
"Bloodstains On White Marble Steps"
May 18, 1954
.
. . Human blood may stain Southern soil in many places because
of this decision but the dark red stains of that blood will
be on the marble steps of the United States Supreme Court
building.
White and Negro children in the same schools will lead to
miscegenation. Miscegenation leads to mixed marriages and
mixed marriages lead to mongrelization of the human race.
Constitution
(Atlanta)
"The
Supreme Court Has Given Us Time"
May 18, 1954
. .
. The court decision does not mean that Negro and white children
will go to school together this fall. The court itself provides
for a "cooling off" period. Not until next autumn
will it even begin to hear arguments from the attorneys general
of the 17 states involved on how to implement the ruling.
Meanwhile, it is no time for hasty or ill-considered actions.
It is no time to indulge demagogues on either side nor to
listen to those who always are ready to incite violence and
hate.
It is a time for Georgia to think clearly. Our best minds
must be put to work, not to destroy, but to seek out constructive
conclusions.
Herald
(Boston)
"Equality Redefined"
May 18, 1954
The
Supreme Court's history-making decision against racial segregation
in the public schools proves more than anything else that
the Constitution is still a live and growing document.
. . . The segregation ruling is frankly expedient. It recognizes
the growing national feeling that the separation of Negro
(or other minority) children from the majority race at school
age is an abuse of the democratic process and the democratic
principle. But it is also the culmination of a series of judicial
opinions which circumspectly prepared the way for change.
Cavalier
Daily (University of Virginia)
" 'Violates' Way of Life"
May 18, 1954
It
is too early to tell what effect the Supreme Court decision
to abolish segregated schools will have on the South. . .
. Although it is hard from a strict legal point of view to
justify any action contrary to law, we feel that the people
of the South are justified in their bitterness concerning
this decision. To many people this decision is contrary to
a way of life and violates the way in which they have thought
since 1619.
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