The most remarkable incident arising out of school desegregation occurred at Hillsboro, in southern Ohio. Hillsboro has an unsegregated high school, but maintains a segregated 50-pupil elementary school for Negroes. This year the school board decided to desegregate, but proposed to do so in a gradual two-year program.
The delay ruffled Philip Partridge, 43, the county engineer, who is white and a vehement opponent of racial segregation. He reasoned that if the Negro school did not exist the authorities would have to desegregate immediately. Accordingly, he set fire to the Negro school. After $4,000 worth of damage, firemen saved the building.
Partridge was...
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