Georgia Desegregation Progress Presents Hope for Other States

The peaceful desegregation of Georgia's public schools during the past two years suggests that such achievements are possible in a supposedly hopeless situation if the people are given rational alternatives, according to a newspaperman who observed the Georgia accomplishment.

Bruce Galphin, a Nieman Fellow and race relations reporter for the Atlanta Constitution; told a Dunster House Forum last night that Georgia's experience may offer hope for similar progress in Mississippi and Alabama. He warned, however, that the absence of certain educational and economic factors in these states may prove the hope to be a false one.

Galphin said that public opinion in Georgia changed from a position of "massive resistance" as late as 1958 to one favoring nominal desegregation in 1961. He attributed the change to the public hearings held throughout the state in March, 1960.

Convened by a special state commission directed by John Sibley, a popular and respected Atlanta lawyer and banker, the hearings were held in each of Georgia's ten Congressional districts and resulted in a recommendation that the state change its laws and begin desegregation of public schools.

White witnesses were asked whether they preferred maintaining segregation and having the schools closed or whether they favored preserving the public schools and allowing integration. In five of the ten districts, citizens decided to accept integration rather than have the schools closed.

The Sibley Commission succeeded in changing public opinion, said Galphin, because it posed the question as a choice between open or closed schools instead of segregation or integration. No one favored closed schools, Galphin said, although many failed to understand the question and responded by flatly declaring, "I'se for segregation."

From the transcripts of the hearings, Galphin has found that local government officials were the largest group in favor of closing the schools and resisting integration.