Leave It to the Kids

The school board of Galax, Va. (pop. 5,200) is composed of shrewd men who know how to kill two birds with one stone. Galax has long had a contract to take in white high school students from adjacent Grayson County, and the 285 students cost money. When a federal court recently ordered Galax to take in eight Negro county students as well, the board saw its chance. To save both money and segregation, it simply canceled the contract with Grayson County.

The board did not reckon with the students themselves. Last week 590 of the 598 students at Galax High School fired off a petition demanding that the 285 white students from Grayson be admitted --along with the eight Negroes. The kids raised such a fuss that 1,900 grownups signed similar petitions. Protestant ministers called sharply on the board to act "with respect for every human being and regard for the democratic privileges open to all persons." Faced with such a reaction, the school board hustled lawyers off to Baltimore to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals to stay the integration order. Chief Judge Simon E. Sobeloff refused, and the board had nowhere to go. Result: the kids of Grayson County--white and black--will go to school in Galax.

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