In Support of the Boycott

For six months, the School Committee has pretended that racial problems do not exist in Boston. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other large cities are also embroiled in racial disputes, but school boards in these cities are at least willing to recognize the problem and to talk with Negro leaders about it.

Since August 15 the Boston Committee has refused to meet with the NAACP. The Committee's objections, voiced most frequently by Louise Day Hicks, follow a sinuous line of reasoning which centers on three assumptions:

* In Boston there is no de facto segregation and thus no racial issue.

* Even if there were segregation, it would not be the responsibility of the School Committee to fight it.

* Even if it were the Committee's responsibility, any cure would be worse than the disease. In other words, only cross-town busing and an extreme gerrymandering of school zones could change the racial composition of the city's schools.

These assumptions and the facts disagree. De facto segregation does exist in Boston. Many elementary schools are over 80 per cent Negro. Several exceed 95 per cent.

Mrs. Hicks' second assumption, that school authorities are not responsible for social integration, clearly contradicts the spirit of the 1954 Supreme Court decision. Further, most sociologists trace the origins of prejudice to the early school years, and the integration of elementary schools should be a first step for any city sincerely interested in inter-racial harmony and cooperation.

The School Committee has gathered support by constantly repeating Mrs. Hicks' third assumption, that the cure would be worse than the disease. Few parents, white or negro, want their children bused to an unfamiliar school many miles away from home. However, Mrs. Hicks' exploitation of this issue is dishonest, for meaningful integration can be achieved in Boston within the context of the neighborhood school, without busing. The Negro community lives in a long, thin crescent which bisects Roxbury. The present school zones are narrow strips running lengthwise with the crescent. By rotating these zones ninety degrees, they would extend outside the crescent, and nearby white schools could be paired and integrated with those in the Negro areas. No child would have to walk much further than he does now.

Because the NAACP refuses to sponsor a specific integration plan, the School Committee has accused the Negro leadership of "insincerity." This is obfuscation on the Committee's part. The Committeemen should realize, as does the NAACP, that only qualified specialists can develop a detailed, practical, and fair program of rezoning.

Negro leaders are simply asking the Committee to accept a reasonable timetable for arriving at an integration plan. This just request has met with silence for six months. Hence, in order to dramatize its position and rally the Negro community, the NAACP has called for a one-day boycott of public schools on February 26. Many usually reasonable people, Cardinal Cushing among them, are horrified, fearing that the stayout will confuse and disturb the children involved. While sincere, this fear reflects the "ignorance is bliss" attitude that has long blocked racial progress in the city. Prejudice must be recognized and wrestled with; it will not vanish on its own.

Last Thursday, the School Committee finally started to move. Eisenstadt and Lee for the first time joined Gartland in asking for communication with the boycott organizers. This change in attitude took courage and deserves praise. Hopefully, the Committee will make the change official at its meeting today. The members should not insist, as does Mrs. Hicks, that the boycott be cancelled as a prelude to discussions. Such a demand would oblige the Negro community to surrender its only bargaining advantage and to trust blindly in the good faith of the Committee. The attitude of school authorities over the last half-year doesn't justify such trust. Until the Committee adopts a timetable or drawing up an integration plan, the stay-out should remain scheduled.

Besides being an effective protest for integration, the boycott provides a valuable education for those participating. The Freedom Schools, set up around the city, are designed to give the Negro student a new respect for learning, as well as to help him find a place in the national civil rights movement. The boycott's planners are asking for volunteers to help prepare and execute the stay-out. For months many Harvard students have vocally deplored the injustice of the white communities of Birmingham and Jackson. There is injustice here, too, and it demands student action.