SOUTHERN SCHOOLS

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I must take exception to an otherwise well written article by James Fallows which dealt with integration in the south. His statement that black schools in Mississippi and Alabama "without exception, are ramshackle, decaying, understaffed and overcrowded" is a simple misstatement of fact.

Granted, many of the schools are exactly as Mr. Fallows claims, but the school in which I taught summer school this past summer (Carver Junior High, all Negro, located in Meridian, Mississippi) has one of the finest physical facilities in the state. The school is less than five years old, has a complete system of air-conditioning, has readily available movie projectors, record players, amphitheaters, and is even in possession of a video-tape machine.

Of course, it is easy to find exception to such a categorical statement as Mr. Fallows made. It is considerably more difficult to pose answers to the problems he deals with. The students I taught were hopelessly behind their white counterparts. Most could read, however tedious that process might be for them. Sympathy and hard work for one summer will never be enough; one hesitates to say whether a fully equipped head start program prior to entry into a fully integrated grade school system will be enough. The Negro in the south has always been in a difficult learning situation; today the situation is more acute than ever, as high school age Negroes are cast into competition with high school whites. It is difficult to determine where the process of rehabilitating the educational system of Mississippi should begin. But it must begin. Henry E. Chatham