Atlanta Daily World

Human Relations Council's Opinion
Economic Decline Seen in Closing of Schools

An opinion that the closing of schools in the state to avoid desegregation of schools would bring on an economic decline in the short run and economic disaster in the long run evolved from a Thursday meeting that brought together representative Negro and white citizens to discuss the Georgia school crisis, including court decisions, community action and other aspects of the current conflict.

The Rev. Edward Cahill, chairman of the sponsoring Greater Atlanta Council on Human Relations, said the members of the "Desegregation and School" Workshop were in agreement regarding the economic set-back that the closing of public schools would cause to the whole state.

Cahill said it was agreed that the short run effect of school closing would be very painful but that the long-run effect would be even more disastrous to the economy of Georgia.

The all-day workshop was split into two sections, with the morning session featuring a symposium on desegregation and the public schools with "The Current Scene" and "What Desegregation Means to the Negro" as program topics.

The audience of 150 persons heard Paul Anthony, administrative assistant, Southern Regional Council, hail the current scene as constantly changing in favor of good sense.

Anthony reportedly said that the extremist pro-segregationist is disappearing as a major swaying voice upon the actions of his fellow citizens.

He further declared that sound, good reasoning in the face of the apparent tragedy of rash action is slowly replacing the die-hard who has to have everything the old way.

At the afternoon session, it was T. M. Alexander and Jim Montgomery, business editor of the Atlanta Constitution, who predicted a bad economic consequence in case of a mass school closure.

The legal aspects of school desegregation were enumerated by Donald Hollowell, attorney for the Atlanta Branch NAACP and principal figure in the recently concluded successful desegregation trials in federal court, and C. Lanier Randall, attorney for HOPE (Help Our Public Education), an organization dedicated to public education in Georgia no matter what occurs in courts.

Both men listed the cases now pending in courts that seek to break through the racial barriers, with special emphasis upon the pending Atlanta public school desegregation suit.

Then Dr. Edward Weaver of Atlanta University, and Harry Boyte, executive secretary of HOPE, lead a discussion on community education that involved the ways and means of conveying to the general public the total facts involved in desegregation of schools.

Rev. Cahill presided over the morning general session, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild gave the invocation and Father James Bovee also participated in the Thursday activities.