NEARLY 105 years after the end of the Civil War, and in a week in which much of the nation closed government offices, banks and schools to honor Abraham Lincoln, the struggle for equality still tormented and divided the nation.
Although the constitutional right of black children to attend schools with whites has long been legally established, Southern politicians were again stirring up opposition to school desegregation. They found a surprising ally in Connecticut's liberal Senator Abraham Ribicoff, who echoed Southern sentiment by charging that the North is guilty of "monumental hypocrisy" and...