Quiet Along the Potomac

Shoulder to shoulder under a purple umbrella, two girls left their porticoed high school one drizzly afternoon in Washington. D.C. They seemed identical --lumpy teen-agers with bandannas and sagging sox--except that one was a Negro, the other white. Last week, as other Southern cities rumbled angrily (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), such quiet scenes in the nation's capital spoke volumes about school integration--which Washington once viewed with frightened alarm.

The fright was triggered by Washington's "massive compliance" in 1954. As Southern Congressmen cried havoc, the school board quickly zoned the city, ordered students to attend only the schools in their areas. Effect: integration of children at the same economic levels, regardless of color--the prevailing U.S. school pattern. Current racial makeup: five all-white schools, 20 all-Negro. 20 more than 90% white, 74 more than 90% Negro.

"Years of Work." Of the "very significant results," says School Superintendent Carl F. Hansen, the best has been virtual absence of racial clashes for the past year or more. There have been few clashes in athletics, where skill is more important than prejudice. In social activities, such "dangers" as mixed dancing are avoided by student disinterest or discretion. At John Philip Sousa Junior High School (now 72% Negro), dances have been limited to the graduation prom.

Since integration, one real problem of Washington schools has been the ancient one of low-income U.S. Negroes. The total school population has risen to 73% Negro, up 13% since 1954. This may refleet a white flight to the suburbs. The problems still remain--to be confronted for the first time by Washington's white teachers. Poverty among the families of Negroes at Jefferson Junior High is so severe that Principal Hugh Smith is sometimes asked to help them raise rent money. His unwed-mother problem is "tremendous." Says he: "There are years of work ahead of us."

"Results Speak." The infusion of underprivileged Negroes into the all-white school system has brought down the scholastic level (to what the two systems would have been before if averaged together). The national ninth-grade median IQ is 101.5--Washington's is now 94. But while Negroes generally score lower than whites, there has also been consistent progress since integration. Most Negro children, notably the youngest, are advancing each year at the pace regarded as normal for whites. More and more Negroes are also breaking through into the honors classes of many high schools.

Negro parents have finally overcome shyness, become active in the P.T.A. and risen to offices in several mixed chapters. On their merit, Negro teachers have continued to rise in the school system; there are Negro assistant superintendents in charge of elementary schools, pupil appraisal, adult and vocational education. To Washingtonians and outsiders who remain pessimistic. School Superintendent Hansen says: "Some of us think our greatest contribution to the problem is to go about our business--the education of children in our city--and let the results speak for themselves."

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