Education: A Judge Under Siege

Public officials are natural targets of criticism, but few confront such threats and abuse as Judge Robert R. Merhige, who has been pressing the integration of Richmond schools. TIME Correspondent Arthur White visited the Merhige home last week and reported:

A FEW hours after announcing his school decision, Judge Merhige picked up the telephone. "You'll be a dead man by midnight," snarled a man's voice. The experience has become almost routine; there have been bomb threats too. At a restaurant recently, an unknown woman approached Merhige and his family and hissed, "You son of a bitch."

The judge's beautiful 13-room Georgian brick home...

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