Atlanta Daily World

Student Riots Opposing Whole Tradition Of Law Wilkins Says

CLEVELAND, Ohio - (INS) - Assistant Labor Secretary J. Ernest Wilkins said Sunday that demonstrators against integration of whites and Negroes in public schools are opposing "the whole tradition of law and order."

In an address prepared for delivery before a meeting of thousands and thousands of boys and girls, Negro and white, of the Cleveland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, Wilkins declared:

OPPOSING LAW

"This fact is often lost sight of in the headlines that are made by a few young scatterbrains and their elders. What they are opposing is not integration.

"What they are opposing is the whole tradition of law and order, the whole concept of law and order, the whole concept of human rights, on which their security is founded."

Wilkins praised the NAACP for its leadership in the long court battle against school segregation that culminated in last May's Supreme Court decision against separate facilities.

MINDS AND SOULS

The Labor Department official said: "May 17, 1954 will be noted in history as a day on which another great milestone was reached in the horizon of free thinking Americans was widened."

"Within the past few weeks, a few young scatterbrains and their elders. What they are opposing is not integration."

Wilkins is the first Federal government official to comment on the recent demonstrations and strikes protesting de-segregation in Milford, Del., Baltimore, and Washington, D. C.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, will begin listening Dec. 6 to arguments on how the May decision should be carried out. Representatives of seven Southern states will make their views known.