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The Mississippi pullback was just the latest of a series of moves by the Administration that has alarmed civil rightists. Other items:
∙ In an earlier case where the Office of Education was asked to write desegregation plans affecting 21 districts in South Carolina, HEW staff members wanted immediate action on 16 of the 21. Finch limited the demand to just four of the districts.
∙ Finch and Mitchell in July put out a joint statement saying that Washington, while still requiring "compliance now" with federal guidelines, would avoid imposing a "single arbitrary date by which the desegregation process should be completed in all districts." A product of intra-Administration compromise, the statement was open to varying interpretations. Then HEW drafted a letter to school superintendents, making it clear that the Finch-Mitchell statement could not be used as an excuse to delay. The letter was never sent.
∙ The House of Representatives recently passed a Southern-sponsored measure that would virtually cripple HEW's desegregation activities. Mitchell made a special trip to Capitol Hill to ask that Republicans refrain from opposing it. Although the amendment is expected to die before the final enactment stage, Mitchell's lobbying was clearly hostile to civil rights forces.
Ultimate Lever. HEW and the Justice Department have differing methods of attacking segregation. HEW's main weapon, if friendly persuasion fails, is to cut off federal financial aid to a district that refuses to comply. Justice works through the courts, where the ultimate lever is the application of federal force, as in the famous Little Rock case. It was HEW's dollar power, granted in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, that pushed many Southern communities beyond token compliance with the 1954 Supreme Court decision against "separate but equal" education. The Nixon Administration's approach is to stress court action instead.
One argument in favor of this switch of emphasis is that federal money is most often used to help pupils in the impoverished areas. Cutting off aid usually penalizes Negroes first. However, the legal route is frequently slow, and Mitchell's Justice Department has not rushed to set any litigation records. So far this year, the Justice Department has brought 15 integration suits; in the comparable period last year, the figure was 31.
Lost Momentum. There are still 1,534 school districts in the Southern and Border States that once had dual systems for black and white and that are still not formally classified as desegregated. Many of these either are under court order to integrate or are in the process of voluntary compliance. With Washington now willing to consider new delays, however, the incentive for prompt action is considerably lessened.