The Houston school board, which runs the nation's largest (159,200 students) segregated school system, last week found itself in an unsettling situation—its newest member, 42-year-old Mrs. Hattie Mae White, is a Negro. A former public school teacher and mother of five children, Mrs. White startled Houston citizens when she announced her candidacy ten weeks ago. She was written off as a crusading eccentric when she ignored a vacant seat on the school board, decided instead to run against Board Member Dr. John K. Glen, a staunch segregationist.
At the outset, the liberal Houston Association of Better Schools, of which Mrs. White is a member, proved itself not quite liberal enough to ignore her race, refused to endorse her candidacy. But a milk-bottle collection in Houston's Negro districts boosted funds to some $4,000, and Candidate White began a hard campaign. Pointedly, she talked of issues, e.g., Houston schoolchildren pay 4¢ more a half-pint for lunchtime milk than children in surrounding districts because the hyperconservative school board has refused to accept federal aid. She did not orate for integration. But she visited Negro schools, some of which lack libraries, cafeterias, permanent buildings, reported wryly: "I have found them very separate, but not quite equal."
Last week Moderate White won a handy victory over Segregationist Glen. That she outpulled her opponent in a surprising number of white districts holds real hope for Houston; almost inevitably during her four-year term, the city will have to choose between integration and the educational atrophy of a Little Rock.