Throwing Rocks

UNWILLING TO WAIT even for the arrival of their new conservative brethren, the men and woman of the U.S. Senate, under the inspiring direction of Strom Thurmond, last week launched a vigorous and vicious assault on racial justice and the United States Constitution.

The first target of their attack was a long-standing conservative shibboleth--school busing to achieve racial balance or alleviate segregation. The Senate attached "riders" to several appropriations bills that would prohibit the Justice Department from suing local school districts in an effort to balance school racially through busing programs.

There are those who say busing hasn't worked, and indeed it has failed to end racism or to vastly improve educational opportunities for any urban students. But then, isolating minority youth in the ghetto didn't solve any problems either. And there is hope and some evidence that, especially in cities like Cambridge where racial antagonism is not so deep, racially balancing the schools will help to break down stereotypes and build up relationships.

It is especially ironic that men like Thurmond, who label themselves champions of the letter of the Constitution, should choose to interfere with the operations of the Justice Department in pursuit of their goals. Telling the Justice Department what parts of the Constitution--as defined by the Supreme Court--it can and cannot enforce overrides Alexander Hamilton's notion of a delicate balance between the branches of our government, and threatens legislative tyranny.

An end to Justice Department intervention in busing cases--intervention that has been crucial in many instances--would certainly lessen the chances of desegregating existing systems and of continuing desegregation in other cities. But perhaps even worse is the symbolic import, for the busing controversy seems only the prelude to a deluge of legislation threatening our government's relatively few programs to deal with racism.

The new Right has long regarded busing as a "moral issue," and in a sense that is correct. When busing began in Boston five years ago, groups of white parents and students stood near South Boston High to shower rocks and bottles on busloads of Black students arriving from Roxbury. With the official encouragement of dozens of politicians, groups like ROAR (Restore Our Alienated Rights) and the South Boston Marshals did their best to disrupt the city with their rhetoric of race-hatred and neighborhood-pride.

If as august a body as the Senate tries to end the nation's experiment with desegregation, it will be vindicating only leaders like Louise Day Hicks and Pixie Palladino, vindicating those who gathered each morning and afternoon to throw rocks.