NATIONAL AFFAIRS

THE SUPREME COURT The Powerful Tide

This time there was no simple sentence that meant "guilty" or "innocent," no terse phrase that decreed a statute "unconstitutional" or "constitutional." Yet the 1,000 words that Chief Justice Earl Warren read off to the crowded Supreme Court chamber one day last week released a powerful tide of law that will change the social face of the South before it has rolled to its farthest reach. A year ago the court decreed Negro segregation unconstitutional in public schools of the U.S. Now, after long consideration of pleas by Negro and Southern white lawyers, of advisory briefs from the Department of Justice and eleven Southern states, the court was outlining its unanimous ruling on how the historic transition was to come about.

As Chief Justice Warren read slowly from his sheaf of papers, both the Southern and Negro lawyers mentally underscored the key points that they would have to live with for years to come:

P: "All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting [racial discrimination in public education] must yield" to the principle that discrimination is unconstitutional.

P: The process of desegregation shall be supervised by federal district courts "because of their proximity to local conditions." These courts will be guided by "equitable principles" and "the public interest" in making the big transition.

Justice Warren ended his reading with the traditional closing words, "It is so ordered," and put down his papers. The court had set no deadline for the desegregation, but said it should be carried out "with all deliberate speed."

It was the great virtue of the court's decision that it clearly and unequivocally demanded desegregation, and then left the time and latitude for each community to find its own way to the goal set. No one could forecast precisely how the great new tide of law would feel its way around obstacles. But with the court's new mandate, it was clear that the tide was running, and, as long as the U.S. remained a government of law, the ultimate conquest of segregation was inevitable. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.