Integration: Cooling It in the Schools

"It has been so quiet that I'm afraid to say anything," commented a Chicago school-board member, foreseeing that schools would open without racial clashes. Knock-on-wood optimism was the prevailing mood among local officials last week, as the first of 41.2 million American public-school children bustled into classrooms for the 1964-65 term. Having obstreperously demanded more integration and better schools in boycotts and demonstrations over the past year, responsible Negroes are now mostly satisfied with quiet but significant improvements all over the country—and they do not want to stir up more white resentment before the election. Among Negroes, the word...