Last June, after all sorts of boast ful promises to "stand in the school-house door" to prevent integration at the University of Alabama, Governor George Wallace conducted a charade of defiance, then backed away in the face of superior federal power. But last week Wallace was back at the business of defiance, and this time he was confident that he had a much less sticky wicket to stand on — after all, he could now seem to side with God Himself.
Wallace called upon the state school board to ignore the United States Supreme Court decision that declared un constitutional the reading of prayers and the Bible as a part of prescribed classroom exercise. The board did so, ordered that school devotionals continue, and for good measure condemned the court for "trying to take God out of the public affairs of this nation." For his part, Wallace vowed that if the Supreme Court should try to stop Bible reading in any Alabama school, "I'm going to that school and read it myself."
As usual Wallace made the most noise, but others, too, were of a mind to ignore the Supreme Court on this one. Said North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford: "We will go on having Bible readings and prayers in the schools of this state just as we always have." Said Georgia School Superintendent Claude Purcell: "If the schools want to include a reading of some sort, that would be up to them."
Some states were taking steps to abide by the Supreme Court decision. in New York last week, State Education Commissioner James E. Allen Jr. ruled that the fourth stanza of America* could not be sung in opening school exercises because its use "deliberately set out to evade the constitutional prohibition." The attorney generals of both New Jersey and Massachusetts handed down opinions supporting the Supreme Court in their states, although some local school boards threatened defiance of those opinions as well as of the Supreme Court.
This time, Wallace and those of like mind found little possibility that they would even suffer the humiliation which they suffered in defying the law of the land on integration. No Federal Administration would be likely to cal out the troops to enforce a prohibition of prayer.
* Our fathers' God, to Thee, Author of liberty, To Thee we sing; Long may our land be bright With Freedom's holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King.