Professors Term Ruling Small Step

Several professors yesterday agreed the Supreme Court's refusal to review a lower court decision prohibiting segregation of Negroes on railway cars was a small step--but a step forward, at any rate--in the fight against Jim Crow laws in the South.

In 1948, William C. Chance, a Negro, was ejected from an Atlantic Coastline train in Virginia when he refused to move to a Negro coach. He sued, and the Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond decided in 1951 the Company's segregation rule was invalid. The Supreme Court now, in effect, has ruled that lines may no longer require Negroes to ride between states in "Jim Crow" cars.

Constitutional Stand

Arthur Sutherland, professor of Law, thought the case, "from a constitutional lawyer's point of view, is a great step forward. It comes down to this: under the interstate commerce law alone, the railroad is forbidden to put this man out of the coach. Chance made his stand on the fact that a private corporation's interfering with interstate commerce, is improper."

Robert G. McCloskey, associate professor of Government, thought it "a step in the right direction, but I'm afraid, a very small step. It's just an extension of the Morgan vs. Virginia case--in 1944--when the Court ruled bus lines could not segregate Negroes. However, the Court has been proceeding, at a very slow pace, towards elimination of Jim Crow rules."