School Committee Will Meet NAACP

The Boston School Committee reversed itself last night by voting 3-2 to meet Wednesday with members of the NAACP to discuss educational problems in the Boston Schools.

Two Harvard professors, Thomas F. Pettigrew, lecturer on Social Sciences, and Gerald S. Lesser, professor of Education and Developmental Psychology, will be among the four experts who will testify on the harmful effects of segregated schools on children, an NAACP spokesman said last night.

The School Committee's decision was considered a breakthrough for the NAACP, which has been seeking a meeting with the group since August.

Voting followed an hour of excited argument about whether the Negro association actually wished to discuss educational matters. Chairman William E. O'Connor and Mrs. Louise Day Hicks said that the NAACP would attempt to bring up alleged de facto segregation in the Boston schools, which they described as a housing, rather than an educational, problem.

Joseph Lee, Thomas S. Eisenstadt, and Arthur J. Gartland, all of whom supported the motion made by Eisenstadt, declared that the Committee should not prejudge the proposals of the NAACP.

Motion to Write

Last night's special meeting of the School Committee stemmed from a motion introduced by Lee and passed at last week's meeting. He directed the Committee to write to the Negro group reaffirming its willingness to hear citizens' opinions on specific educational steps that the Committee might take to better Boston education. The NAACP reply, however, mentioned no specific measures.

Paul Parks, spokesmen for the NAACP, last night hailed the Committee's vote as an "important step in reestablishing lines of communication." He expressed "cautions hope" that the meeting might lead to agreement between the two factions, which have been feuding since last summer.

Parks said there was a "good chance" that the school boycott scheduled for Feb. 26 would be cancelled if the School Committee agreed to the integration plan that the NAACP will propose Wednesday.

Pettigrew said that he hoped to speak about segregation's effect on the intelligence and education of children. He said, however, that he was scheduled to appear before a class at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; the meeting with the School Committee begins at 7.

His testimony will probably not change the opinions of any School Committee members, but might give them a "political excuse" to change their minds, Pettigrew said. He specifically mentioned Eisenstadt and Lee, who are considered the two "borderline" Committeemen. They made possible the letter to the NAACP by joining forces with Gartland earlier this month.

As to whether or not Eisenstadt and Lee actually will support NAACP suggestions, "God only knows, and maybe even He doesn't," Pettigrew said.