Education: A Question of Qualifications

The foes of rapid integration won a round in Arkansas last week. Taking its cue from a U.S. Supreme Court decision, which upheld the constitutionality of Alabama's pupil-placement law last winter, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled that a similar law in Arkansas is legal. Under the law, Arkansas school boards have full authority to assign students on the basis of qualifications not essentially concerned with race.

The specific case at issue occurred in the rabidly segregationist Dollarway district near Pine Bluff (pop. 37,000), where three Negro students applied for immediate entrance to the all-white Dollarway High School....

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