Education: Miracle on the Potomac

Of the big Southern cities that have ended segregation in their public schools, none have attracted more attention—or produced more controversy—than the nation's capital. Last December a House subcommittee headed by Georgia's James Davis declared that integration had "seriously damaged-the public-school system," and recommended that it be stopped. Last week a more reasonable judgment came from Washington's Assistant School Superintendent Carl F. Hansen. Integration, says he in a study published by B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League, has been nothing less than a "miracle of social adjustment."

Introduction via TV. When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in May 1954, Washington's tall...