Three weeks ago, the Nixon Administration asked a federal court to delay the enforcement of an order requiring 30 Mississippi school districts to integrate this fall. According to Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Robert Finch, the delay, which will forestall integration in these districts for at least a year, was necessary to prevent "chaos, confusion and a catastrophic educational setback." Last week, TIME Correspondent Marvin Zim traveled to Mississippi to examine Finch's premise in a district typical of those granted a reprieve. He sent this report:
LEAKE County, in the geographical center of Mississippi, is an area of fields, farms and forests....