Education: Focus on Prince Edward

Peaceably in Atlanta, heatedly in New Orleans, the South last week went ahead desegregating its schools—notably, this year, its Roman Catholic parochial schools. Less in evidence than in any recent year were the contorted faces of picketers crying "Nigger, go home!" And more conspicuous by contrast was Virginia's Prince Edward County (pop. 14,121), the only U.S. community to close all its public schools rather than desegregate them. In 1865, Prince Edward County was the scene of General Robert E. Lee's desperate last-ditch retreat toward Appomattox. Now this tobacco-growing farmland 70 miles southwest of...