Public Broadcast Laboratory; 202; Hear Us, O Lord

It is Sunday evening December 8th and this is PBL 2nd season. The Public Broadcast Laboratory, an experiment in public television. Tonight, a theme broadcast about whites and the racial prices. First, hear us, O Lord, the plea by many white Americans, fearful of and threatened by the government's efforts to impose integration with blacks. And some reactions and comments about those fears by those responsible in the federal government. US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and US Commissioner of Education Harold Howell. Also, the personal point of view of PBL Chief Correspondent Edward P. Morgan.

This evening, PBL 2nd season's program on whites and the racial crisis will last 90 minutes. Now here is Elizabeth Farmer for PBL. Good evening. In recent times, all three branches of our national government have promoted racial integration. It started with the Supreme Court. Fourteen years ago, the court declared that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. In a series of decisions, the court has been telling the nation that Negroes must be treated in accordance with the ideas of equality and justice which underlie our basic law, the Constitution. And that federal power should be used to achieve this goal if other means fail. While moving more cautiously, both the executive and the legislative branches have reinforced this principle over the last decade. Civil rights legislation and presidential orders have allied all three branches of the federal government in support of a national policy that no man's rights may be limited because of his race.

To make this principle real in the field of education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 empowered the Attorney General of the United States to sue in behalf of persons whom he believed to be discriminated against and who are unable to bring suit themselves. In the United States District Court of Northern Illinois, he brought the first such suit in the North, the judge ruled in favor of the Attorney General. Tonight, PBL will show you the reverberations in one white community of enforcing the national policy against segregation. Our aim is not to judge the merits of the case, but something more modest, to show you how people feel in one town under court order to mix black and white. The United States of America plaintiffs versus School District 151 of Cook County Illinois defendants. It is hereby ordered a judged and decreed that the defendants be enjoined from discriminating on the basis of race or color in the operation of School District 151.

As set out more particularly in the body of this degree, the defendant shall take affirmative action to disestablish school segregation. The defendant shall provide such school bus transportation as is necessary for the full and effective implementation of the requirements. Signed Julius Hoffman, United States District Court. This is the first day of school in South Holland, Illinois, one of the towns affected by Judge Hoffman's order. South Holland is a white suburb of Chicago. Its original settlers were proud Dutch Calvinists whose values still shape the community. Its schools are white. Under Judge Hoffman's order, all schools within District 151 would be integrated by cross-bussing. This would make integrated classes about 30% Negro, 70% white. As part of his plan, Judge Hoffman directed that white 7th and 8th graders be bust from South Holland to a newly established junior high at Cootage School in Phoenix, another town in District 151. Phoenix is separated from South Holland by a two-mile stretch of No Man's Land. Phoenix is a black town and Coolidge has been a Negro school.

The order has been appealed by the school board of District 151, but the decision of the appeals court is not yet in. Can this be America? No, no. They pass the law and they say you have to send your child or children to school September 4th, but you don't hear the appeal until the 18th after this thing has started. Now to me this can't be America.

I don't want my children bust out from South Holland bust away from my corner school. I'm not going to cause any disturbance, create any disturbance. I'm keeping her in that house until the appeal goes through and I don't give a darn what the federal government says. They are not running my home. I'm the birth certificate of each of my children. I am listed as the father. They have a mother listed by name. I don't see some other politician. I don't see some other judge. I don't see someone else that is guilty. This is not white racism. This is not white supremacy. There's nothing about the white race in these verses that I'm talking about. The problem we have in this country today is because we are not willing to leave the Negro race where it was. The scripture says whatsoever, a man's soul that shall he also read. And certainly we see the proof of that in the problem before us.

In our country today, in our town tonight, we're paying a terrible price for the sins of the past. Thanks, Perry School District 151. There's a school board postponed. Opening of all schools, definitely. I'm in favor of us. I think it is possible for the citizens to petition the school board not to open school and it's possible for the school board to agree with them and not open school. But don't you think that you're more or less hurting the children by not letting them die school on the day that they're supposed to? I mean, the children are getting so mixed up in this. And I do think it's wrong for the children to be mixed up in it the way they are. Okay, thank you very much. Well, I hope it does some good. I'm sure it will. Okay, bye. I usually run on the mail cases where the board has charge of at schools and has been working to do anything at all. The board could, they could postpone the opening of school and they want to talk to October 15th. In fact, you are standing here as actually the guardians of the gate fighting a battle on behalf of people all over this country who are yet unaware of the complications that you face and the complications that they face.

This country belongs to you. It doesn't belong to any self appointed social manipulator. So we are opposed to government power being used to homogenize men racially and culturally. And I believe as well that when school buses and school houses are used for that purpose, then these instruments which have a good and a righteous purpose are being abused and are being used in the cause of wickedness. If it is true that the hearts of our children as well as adults are simple, then it necessarily and logically follows that our children pick up the worst that they find in other people. All of us are by nature sponges that have a selectivity for that which is wrong and immoral. It is God who in his providence has created neighborhoods and he has created them for a purpose.

Now that is not an airtight division, but God has divided men to restrain the wickedness of the hearts. You ever take an ice cube tray from the refrigerator, fill it with water and leave the divider out and try to carry that tray filled with water across the kitchen floor. You get halfway through the refrigerator and slosh it all over the place. You put the divider in, fill it up with water and you can walk across the floor and jiggle it around all you want and the water doesn't splash in the floor. Why? Because it has been divided. The Bible clearly teaches that God is divided men in order to restrain the wickedness of the natural man. Let's apply this matter now to the matter of the school. Tonight, PBL wants you to be with the South Holland family during the three weeks that led up to the opening day of school. The family is the langs. Their children are Dean and Debbie.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

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The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The family is the langs.

The family is the langs. The family is the langs. The board of education finds itself in an extremely awkward situation. It has traveled two roads at the same time. By the same token, it feels that it has the responsibility to all the citizens in the district to appeal the decision of the district court. This is an obligation it has to each and every citizen of this district, as well as to the children that it is responsible for educating. As far as the opening of school in September, I would have to completely concur that the board has no choice but then to open the doors September 4, 1968.

Any of the other board members like to comment on either of these items? I would like each and every one of you to put yourself in the place of each board member up here and ask yourself what would I do? We're all Americans, and we've got to stand for the right. But on the other hand, we feel like we are being wronged, and this board is fighting this thing all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. I'd like to speak to the board. I have four children, the four, fifth, sixth, and seventh grade, and I can appreciate the position of the school board is in. I wouldn't want to be there.

I can say that I hope the school board is cognizant of the fact that there are over 2200 signatures there, and regardless of what decision you make, remember that the majority of people in South Holland like this community and wanted to stay the way it is. My 12 year old is in seventh grade, and we'll schedule the bus to Phoenix. You will not be going there because he begged us to make sure he can go to school anywhere else but there. I will say to the school board, my feeling is I don't want my children bus out from South Holland bus away from my corner school. I have worked on my life real good and good worker. I have worked in the community for this because this is my American way of life. I grew up this way, my mother and father taught me this way, and I want my children to think that way also. As part of that, I'd like to say evidently that you have not taken a vote on accepting a petition, but it's evident that you do not intend to delay the opening of the school in your comments.

I would like to suggest that I know some of what is behind these petition. There's a lot of hard work and a lot of tears. There are wise words separated from their husbands. There are children who are being separated from their parents because this is the parent's decision. And as the ministers who spoke at our meeting last Friday so elegantly put it, it is up to the parents to decide what is best for their child, not the federal court and not even the school board. But I would like to suggest that these petition on which so much hard work is gone, be submitted to the appellate court because this surely should tell them how the people feel. Mrs. Edwards, you took the words out of my mouth. I really think that when there's this large expression from a group in the community, it deserves to be recognized, to be heard.

I do feel that if our attorney can, if our attorney can, I'd like to make a motion that they be submitted in our next report to the court. I suggest that between now and September 18, you can have 10,000 signatures. I have never been in the streets for 22 years. What am I paying taxes for for them to post their kids from my school move around my kids? I'll leave more to kids over there by now.

I just want to state that I for one will not let my daughter get on that bus. I live directly across the street from the school. Why should she have to walk that distance in the winter when she has to walk for two minutes to the school? Does that make sense? I'll keep her home. I don't, I don't, I'm not going to cause any disturbance, create any disturbance. I'm keeping her in that house until the appeal goes through. And I don't give a darn what the federal government says.

They are not running my home. The government really doesn't care whether you send your child to school or not. Like I said at the school board meeting a week or two ago, let's not fight with our kids, let's fight it in the courts. Mr. Wersman, we are no longer holding a school board meeting with questions being asked you providing a forum, which is not what the school board is for. I think that a motion for adjournment would be in order. If you go hard, that's right. He doesn't have anybody that's concerned. We have a community that is concerned and I'll stay here till midnight if I feel like I can help anyone. Hey, listen, you great mouth. You know what? You, I'm talking to you. Don't hit me with anything, lady. That's a song you know what happened last time.

Oh, shut your mouth. If we, or if they close the school, then they are in contempt of court. Then in the same breath they say they aren't. So, wording is same. It's just a bunch of wishy-washy stuff when you get done. And we still don't have the answer. The only answer that you have when you left there tonight is you have to send your kids September to force. A few of them are sending them out of state to their grandparents. And there's a few that are as far as at least temporarily going to take their children out on a vacation. All they're doing is diving the issue. I don't know. What are they gaining? I really wouldn't say that. You know from our traveling experience, we went out west and we went out south.

And there's a lot of these places that haven't had any problems like this. Well, no, but they're not in the same state that we are. Am I going to leave my job and everything or send a board to kid out some other state? We may. Then you might as well send them to Christian school because it'll cost you double. It depends on how far. It depends on how far the federal government tells me what I can do with my children. Whether I'll pay or not anywhere else. Well, I mean it hasn't come to that all over yet at least. No, but it will. You know, Dean, if I hadn't known, there were some boys and girls that did come along with their parents. But I didn't know that this was going to be the case.

I would have brought you along because then you could have seen for yourself what the school is like and what the neighborhood is like and so forth. You know, I was thinking like now maybe over the weekend when Dan is home, when daddy is home, that maybe we could go for a ride and show you what Phoenix is like. I don't think you've ever rolled through Phoenix, have you? Not really. What do you mean this is all colored Dean? Well, look at the houses. Yeah, but look at the kids. Yeah, but look at the houses. What he means to say is it doesn't look like a color. This is the newer section, Dean. Some of it is. Yeah, those are the inside are all right.

See? This is all colored. Nice, look at them over there. Sure, this is the newer section. Yeah, slow children. I think the only old section is there. Yeah, I really know where the old section is. It's back. I wrote down by the real clock in there and further down on the side. Because I really, I don't think we've taken down as a... This is the one, isn't it? Yeah, this is cool. They have swings and everything back there. At least by Kennedy there now. I don't know if they're allowed to go there. They'll find out, you know. Remember, I mentioned that to the other guys. I didn't think that I thought I was mistaken. I thought it was something shiny. Well, what in the world did you go around here? Goodness me, this is terrific.

They must purposely just come and break past fouls or something. They must take their school. Look at the windows broken out there. Yeah, look at the windows. That was when they almost tried to burn down the new one. Why did they want to try to burn down the new one? Well, we really don't know. This is the old section, but they added on a new section. And I thought that's what I saw the other night when I visited. This is all glass. For the seventh great parents. And I couldn't believe that. It really could be glass, you know, because I never seen anything like that around our school. Right, how do you get out of it? Don't worry. You have to turn around. I got to go all the way around. It's a nice looking school from the outside. There's nothing wrong. What do you think a boy, your age, would be like a colored boy you'd like to be?

I don't care. How would he be different? How would he be the same? Well, they probably had different bikes than I said. They're really different, but you know. What about sports? Well, they probably won't want to watch the football game, or they probably would want to watch the baseball game. Some things they would and some things they want. How is it going to be when the blacks and the whites go together? It's going to be clear. How come? I just... Come on, don't. You know something about it, why don't you? Well, I'm never hanging so cold up in the room with a black hat, because they have bedpugs on them. And we're going to have to hang our coats next to them,

and the bed looks going to get harder. Cut, our coat. See, they want to live in the white neighborhood. They want to live in the black neighborhood. All the white kids are going to feel about going with me. I think they're going to hate it. How come? They're going to hate it at least. I'm really scared too, because when I get up in the upper grades, if it doesn't change, I'll have to go. It's a college, and I'm kind of scared of them. Because they're so... I don't know. Tell me what they are. I'm just... scared of them. Debbie, tell me. When I look at a colored, I see that a skin is brown, whereas my skin and the skin are pink. What else is different? Now, if you take a person, and you think about his eyes, or his heart, or his brains... Well, they're not no different than whites, but some of them are mean. I wouldn't care if I was colored,

but I like... I don't care about the color or anything. But your skin... They have a soul like us and everything, just because their skin is black. I saw. But yet, you're scared. How come? Well... I'm just scared. The flying colored, I'm scared to be beaten up, and you know all the others are. But I doubt it if they would do it in school. Stakes, follow them. Ha, ha. Debbie and Dean, do you want to split? No, I don't want to hold. I didn't ask you. So, you're 15, and you're 15. Part of my... Debbie, would you please use your heart? Why don't you put some on your plate, Debbie? I'm taking it out. You just did it. According to the eternal purpose,

which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the face of Him. Wherefore, I desire that you think not at my tribulation for you, which is your glory. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. I turn to Christ. Thank you for seeing us through that. Thank you for the food that you brought upon us, and thank you for the roofs overhead. Thank you for the form of fields in London and Gloria. Well, preach more and more about God each day and hope that there will be safe in Africa. Thank you for the grace and everything in this world. Thank you for just 10 questions, and... It's not air for cover. They are soft.

They are. The following is a pre-recorded paid political broadcast sponsored by the Wallace Cantae. Governor George C. Wallace has a winning way with people. He goes to them and he gets with them. He talks a language that you and most Americans can understand. He knows your problems and shares your concerns. He is truly a man of the people. Well, I think that some of them think they're seeing on their eyes, but they're not on their eyes. You know, you know, as you know, the method of institutions, which includes a public school system, a public school. Yes.

It's like a clock stopping back out for the people of the city in this state who are right to learn your schools and how to use it. I'm with you too much. I'll give them my vote now. I just thought that he... You had a good chance. I have any kind of a team. I surely would. But I'm afraid because he doesn't have the bathroom, that's the dimmer grip, and the recovery. Once you get into the air, the power of the color too much. I think he would. No. He's gone a long way in politics, so I think it's right. The Washington is going to be used to push you, to push your child anywhere. There you go. So let me say in conclusion, that if you will continue to support us in New Mexico, as they are supporting us throughout the country, you and me together are going to help return some sanity to the American governmental scene. You know, all of the special methods for all of us. The governor George is still a lot of against him. He's a lot of good American people

that believe in the good democratic way and in law and order and honor for their country. And everything. And I think if they had the chance to really vote for him and everything, they will. September 4th, the opening day of school in South Holland. You think it's going, huh? Where is it? Did Pam go? Is Pam going to be the one? She's going to mind us. Come on. All right. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Welcome to Coolidge Upgrade Center.

I hope that's the first time you've heard that. I am Mr. Crary, the principal of Coolidge Junior High School. First of all, at the very onset before I introduce the teachers, I want you to know that we are going to do everything within our power to make this school the finest in this city or in the country for that matter. We need your assistance because this is your school. Whether you like it or not, it is. And it's going to be for at least a year for the eighth graders and two years for the seventh graders. There is much that you can do to make this school the greatest school. We win, Emily.

We win the last school. Good time, Emily. Learn buttons. Be mine. The law is done. Go along with me. Go ahead. Well, maybe after the first week or two, we'll... You can't just sit and be still. Maybe. So it doesn't calm down. Everybody say, well, this is great. We'll just let it be this way. Well, this is the thing. I'm willing to go along with it until it comes up in court and find out what it was. But I'm still not condoning it by any means.

I don't... You're doing it because you want to be law-biting. You're doing it. That's the way leading. You want to come in, Santa? Come here for varice.... Yes, with as much, or one more? No, just dance floor. 50 friends. You made 55 friends? Barclays. I make 16 and I want it with all the colors and the way I'm going to ask you so. On the screen, you're welcome. Now, a teacher didn't give us nothing to do. She didn't give us by talking to us about any notebooks or nothing. We didn't give you anything. Well, now what's... He says he wants to start math until Friday. Cool. Mr. Lennon.

Is that your teacher? Mm-hmm. It's a man teacher. Is he a waiter? What? He's white. We can choose guns. We can choose guns. We can choose guns. We have permission. Ha-ha-ha. We can choose candy. You have permission. But... I don't think I have permission. I don't think I have permission. I am. I am. I am. I'm going to teach you how to teach me. How do you like your teacher? I like it. Three colors and all of that's white. Oh, and do you like the teacher? Mm-hmm. Do you have a color teacher or white teacher? White. White. Yes. He is white. Yes. He started by the name. He said he can tell by the name that it will be a color teacher. There's more white than colors in that school right now. It's already old. Right now. Two. You know. It's good to see. Yeah. How did you like it? I had a black bird. You know. It was really funny though. It was really funny though. It was really funny though. He's actually going to be here, or he's wearing a mask, no.

And it's all just, what do y'all want to do? No, there was a kid there. Yeah, we're a cold maker. You go on. And he get up, blood are all around. He's just like, he's going to beat up somebody. Yeah, I saw that. I saw the laundry. I thought it was funny. And he was just pretending to work. No, I don't know. Maybe he meant it, don't he? Maybe. Maybe that one's all right. Almost all ball, less than half an head, the big fuzz. Yeah. He was almost all ball. And came up in the big fuzz. He's not right there. Oh, that knee. Defendant shall forthwith, and in the future, undertakes such planning and other actions with respect to student assignment and transportation as is necessary for the full and effective implementation of the requirements of this order. For the 1968-69 school year and thereafter. The court hereby retains jurisdiction over this case to assure full compliance with its degrees.

United States District Court, Northern District, Gavilla Noy. This is April 60, PBL. For a conclusion to this past two weeks of being interviewed, meetings, and so forth, I just want to say one thing that this is our opinion that we are not trying to upgrade our ways or degrade the colors in any respect, but that we think in our own mind that the people that are living in South Holland believe in what we are doing at the present time. And they want to maintain this status of living in this school bushing or the neighbor school system as we have it now. And that bus in the other territories. I think what they're trying to do is trying to force colored and white to live together. And I don't think you can force anybody to do anything.

I think this has to come from within your heart. And if you are forced to do a thing, it's like trying to force somebody to love me, or me to love somebody else. This cannot be done. You can't force things on people. I think it just has to be done with, well, I just don't know how to explain that it has to be done, but I don't think it's going to come through force. I think there's an old saying you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. And this is the same idea with the American or the white people. You can bring the colored into their neighbor area and if they don't like it, they're not going to stay there. Say Dean, after he graduates, after associating with the colored and grammar school and high school, and he accepts this, then where does he live? Will the colored accept him?

I doubt it. And will the white accept him? Then are they going to start a community of their own, which would strictly be for inner marriages? I mean, your idea has changed. Your ways of life change. And if he did bring home a colored girl, I know we'd drop through the floor and I might throw them out, I don't know. This I can't tell you until that situation actually become a fact. Sometimes people have different emotions about things and it seemed like I could close my eyes that night and go to sleep and just kind of leave it to the Lord that what would be within his will and praying that if it could be his will, that he would really have his own way with District 151. And if it was really adjusting which we felt it was, that his will would be done,

that the courts would decide to let us continue to have the neighborhood schooling. The decision of the Court of Appeals isn't in yet, but the langs are okay. The children don't like school anymore or any less than they ever did. Their parents voted for Mr. Nixon after all. School board meetings are still pretty acrimonious. 15% of the white pupils have dropped out of District 151 schools. Some have moved to other safer districts, but most have transferred to church schools. The school board has made preparations to stop the busing as soon as it legally can. For the town hasn't accepted the message that the national government has been sending out for the last 14 years. When it is applied to them, South Hollanders reject the idea that one nation indivisible and equal justice before the law means that white and black should live together in full community. The federal government tries to make them conform to that idea. There are a lot of people like them, people that have voted with their feet,

deserting the central cities for the white suburbs, arranging themselves in school districts in such a way that southern segregation by law has been replaced by northern segregation, in fact. No national leader speaks of abandoning the American dream that we may all someday live in brotherhood in a national community where a difference is tolerated without pain and conflict is resolved without violence. But if the dream is right, has the strategy been wrong? Mrs. Lang said that change has to come from within your heart. You can't force things on people. As a general proposition about the power of law, that doesn't hold up very well. Law may not immediately change the way people feel, but it does affect what they do, and that eventually changes the attitudes of the community. When things are in order, law embodies the leading notions of morality in the community and most people conform to it. But in a free country, there are many ways of evading unwelcome consequences of the law without defying the law, and many Americans are doing that

when they devise ways of keeping their children together with their own kind. There is more segregation today than there was 14 years ago. It seems to follow that if we as a nation really wish to create a multiracial community, the idea and its practical consequences must be made more attractive to white people. Where desegregation suits are brought, shouldn't someone from the national government be trying to persuade the citizens that the American ideal of equality requires that there be an end to Negro schools? Judge Hoffman has said this in his opinion, but no community relation service has tried to convince South Holland of it or tried to win the cooperation of the parents. No agency of government is empowered to administer to district 151, a sweetener along with the bitter draft of the court order, special help in building a new junior high school perhaps. Have those of us in favored positions responded to the fears and objections of those who are experiencing at first hand the effects of the mass migration of Negroes to our great cities?

Have we told angry people not to think bad thoughts? Rather than sitting down with them and examining the basis of their fears? Or have we preached at them rather than conversed with them? Have secure and well-educated people urged actions on others that they won't take themselves? Though the goal of integration is right, it is obvious that somewhere in the tactics to achieve it, we have gone wrong. Our rethinking of the tactics should be high on the nation's agenda. This is Elizabeth Farmer. Still to come on TBL's second season this evening, from Washington, D.C., Attorney General Ramsey Clark. Commissioner of Education Harold Cowell. And from Chicago, the Langs' own congressman from Illinois's fourth district,

Edward J. DuWinsky will argue whether the federal government must interfere in order to force local school integration. Also on TBL's second season tonight, the personal point of view of chief correspondent Edward V. Morgan. TBL's second season continues in one minute. Now, TBL's second season continues its theme broadcast of whites and the racial crisis,

with a discussion between those responsible in the federal government for enforcing federal policy integrating local schools. U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and U.S. Commissioner of Education Harold Howell from Washington, D.C., and from Chicago, the Langs' own congressman in Illinois's fourth district, Edward J. DuWinsky. TBL's Dave Duggan is the moderator. Good evening. I'd like to reiterate a point that Mrs. Farmer made in her introduction to the film. We're not here to judge the legal merits of the case of the United States of America versus school district number 151. But we are interested in talking about the attitudes of the Langs and their neighbors, because they are so important to what kind of a future we're going to have in the United States. Attorney General Clark, I know it's somewhat delicate because the case is still in the courts,

and we have to be very careful about your comments. But I wonder if you could comment just generally if you're surprised about the kinds of attitudes that were expressed in the film by the Langs and their presidents of the town. Well, let me say first that what I say will be from my general experience and without reference to this particular lawsuit, I would feel it very improper for me to comment outside the court room on the matter that before the courts it would not be fair to the parties in the case. About the attitudes, no, I'm not surprised. We've been litigating in this field in the south and the border states and more recently in areas outside the south for the good many years now. Mr. Clark is an example. Mrs. Lang says the federal government is trying to force color and white to live together. She says it has to come from the heart.

What happens when the heart fails? Well, that's where we are. We waited a long time after the emancipation proclamation to see where the heart would carry us. I would like to Commissioner Howe to get your reaction to the Langs and the Ratitudes. You've been involved as the United States Commissioner of Education. In many cases such as this, at least you're aware of them. The minister is an example in a film, said that it's God and his providence who created neighborhoods. He said God did this to restrain the wickedness of a natural man and he gave that example the ice cube tray if you don't have the petitions in there, the water slops out on the floor. Sort of an implication, I think, that you liberals in Washington here almost going against the word of God. How does that... We've been accused of all sorts of things. It's the first time I've picked that one up. Let me say that I'm not surprised by the attitudes. These people are undergoing a very difficult change. I admire some of the attitudes as a matter of fact,

because among these people, although there's deep feeling and deep concern, there is a basic respect for law. I'd say also that in the attitudes you find here, that the attitudes of the youngsters themselves, after they've been to school for a day, interested me very much indeed. I felt that many of the apprehensions and anxieties with which they approached that first day at school came perhaps from their parents and other adults in the community. And yet, when they came back from that first day of school, if I interpret the film correctly, those anxieties were somewhat relieved. It wasn't all that terrible. It made me wonder what would have happened if those parents had had a similar experience when they were young. Whether this film could have been made of these same parents. All right, Congressman Duinsky, you know the people very well. This is your district. How has it worked out? There wasn't any problem whatsoever.

In the opening of schools, there wasn't any violence, there wasn't any picketing boycotts. It was an absolutely calm and completely trouble-free adjustment. Well, that was the impression I got from the film. Right. My basic concern, which happens to be complicated by my personal residency in South Holland, is the fact that the Congress did not intend, in my opinion, to have either the Justice Department or the HEW conduct a campaign of deliberate integration throughout the country. All right, now we've got a specific issue. Let's talk about South Holland. We've got a specific issue. Right. And Congress, I believe, has clearly said that it wanted deliberate segregation ended. I think there's a substantial difference between effective programs and necessary legal tests and segregation, and then a much broader step to deliberately producing integration. Well, spring in the Commissioner of Education, Mr. Ha.

I think that there needs to be a greater realization in this conversation of how the Negro in America feels, what racial isolation means to a Negro child, about when he begins to think of himself as a second-class citizen of the country because he is racially isolated. And it's that racial isolation which is caused by public costs by the action of a school board or of a state, which is discriminatory and nature. And it's that kind of racial isolation that the federal government has the power and indeed the obligation into the law to do something about. Mrs. Farmer, the producer of the film, concluded that the goal of integration is right, but that somewhere the tactics to achieve it have gone wrong. Would you agree with that Commissioner Ha? I don't, I wouldn't say that the tactics have gone wrong. I would say that it's turned out to be a lot tougher job than many of us thought. How do you get the people to buy the message? Has the salesmanship not been there? Why haven't you been able to convince Congressman Gerwinski as an example who's sitting there in Chicago

but you need more money to do precisely this? Let me comment on that. I would have, because again, I think our friend, the young lady who introduced his film, commented here quite pertinently. It seems to me that we have had a real problem in selling the notion of the constructive aspects of school desegregation. And I think one of the least popular programs in the Congress of the United States is school desegregation. It has difficult political implications for many congressmen. But to take a specific example, I've gone before the Appropriations Committee of the Congress over the last three years to ask for additional funds to make possible both standard resources on our part and program grant monies to give to local school districts not to get at the law enforcement kind of thing but to get at the kinds of programs that title four of the Civil Rights Act makes possible. And again, those funds have been reduced to minimal level.

Congressman, I really asked $30 million for this number of years ago and ended up with eight. I've now worked it up, I think, to 11. If the administration would have told the Congress any time in the last eight years that the priority measure was one of these facets. They have control enough of the Congress to, I'm sure they would have received enough funds. The competition for the federal dollar is tremendous. And here in this program, we're preoccupied very properly so with the problems of education. But there are people who equally feel that the greatest menace to the country is not the, say, social tensions, but the great menace could well be water and air pollution that could kill us all off regardless of race, creed, or color. So how much of the priority quite quickly? You can put your priorities down. I've made my priorities quite clear that I don't believe that the federal government is helping in its intended goals by bringing unnecessary and impractical pressure to bear. I believe that the states and local communities

could far more effectively solve programs with this nature than a detached, official in Washington who has no concept of the local situation. And I think the film that we saw demonstrated, the fact that the theoretical federal approach was completely out of line with overwhelming local majority thinking. And we're still a government of the majority. You know, I sort of have to agree with the congressman about a lot of things he said. And I certainly agree that a very large proportion of this problem has got to be solved at the local level by people who grasp a hold of a nettle and work with it constructively, and that the only appropriate role of federal officialdom in this school desegregation problem relates to making sure that people are not denied their rights. Well, this is what our needs rights are guaranteed by their government. Do you feel that there is any sweetener of that political word that can be given to the whites in this country to make them more anxious

as it were to go along with it? I think there are a variety of sweeteners. But I think we've probably underestimated the people. I think the people are very much concerned about this problem. I think they're frustrated about it, and they're not quite sure where the solution is. But the sweetener is really, is resources. We're not doing the job and education that we should do because we're not devoting the resources that should be devoted to it. And as you devote and expand your resources, you have the opportunity to create new patterns, new patterns that can increase desegregation in your student bodies. In the long run, though, it's going to be a housing pattern problem and its resolution. And only that will really, finally, significantly reduce the segregation that we find in our central city,

our urban area school system. Well, may I comment on the sweetener possibility? The Attorney General puts emphasis on sweetener, but keeping in mind the continued application and pressure from the Justice Department. It seems to me that the real sweetener that should be involved is to show the parents of the country that education is constantly being improved. The greatest investment that the parent has is in his children, and that is the thing around which he builds his life. And I think if parents could be convinced that quality education is what they're receiving. I don't think you'll find half the complications, but they seriously doubt as this film reveals whether the quality of education was going to be improved. I think it's a question really between selfishness and our willingness to share because we have a very deprived group of people and we have got to help them.

We have a moral obligation, and in many areas here we have a legal obligation, a constitutional obligation. And it's purely a question of the will of the American people. There has never been a nation that so clearly had the resources at its command to resolve an issue as we have this one if we care enough. Are there any new approaches that you would recommend, Attorney General, for things that haven't been tried? Well, you know, we haven't tried most of the things that we say we've tried. That's one of our very major problems. We haven't really tried. We've tinkered around on the edges. Now, I think we see the basic methods of solution if we really care. I think it's a matter of getting in and really doing something about it. Now, we've passed, the Congress passed this year, the Housing Act, federal open housing, a magnificent achievement. The Senate of the United States voted roughly 70 to 20 after the filibuster was broken, after the culture was voted, for its approval, and that was before Dr. Martin Luther King

was killed. But when we came to request money to enforce the law, this bold proclamation of equality for American citizens to own and live and raise a family in a home, we couldn't get the money to enforce it. And the thing that we cannot stand, I don't believe, is to profess great ideals, and then turn our backs on the effort required to fulfill them. The Congresswoman Durinsky, you've heard of a very impassioned plea from the Attorney General for action in our country. How would you feel about that? Oh, I agree completely. We need action where I... Different kind of action. That's right. Is there some concept here that's accepted by obviously by the Attorney General, that the federal government, or at least some of it's official, feel that they somehow or another have the formula by which they could lead or, if necessary, force people to accept conditions that the public isn't ready to take?

And I think if we have confidence in our structure of democracy, we've got to recognize that the government is supposed to serve the overall public need. And that if someone isn't a militant integrationist, he necessarily isn't a racist either. There's a broad difference. And that if a person wishes to move along carefully, methodically, and effectively, he isn't being old-fashioned, progressed in and of itself, isn't an instant virtue. And of course, I could go on and on in this field, but... I think you decided very well. Let me go to Commissioner Howe then. The congressman who's laid down the gauntlet, you've followed here at Washington, there seems to be a very interesting sort of the nub of it all, as I listen to you, if you had more money and more action, things would be accomplished. The congressman feels that maybe if things sort of take more of a natural course, things would develop a little better. I think he's coming up with a doctrine that we've heard in another phrase, with all deliberate speed,

with emphasis on the deliberate. And I seem to recall that a member of the Supreme Court commented just the other day, that it might have been just as well, that phrase had not been included in the great court decision in which it appeared. I think that we've made a piece of progress that we ought to recognize. And both you and the attorney general feel very strongly that the federal government has a very large role to play in this progress. Correct, gentlemen? Yes, sir. And Congressman Durinsky obviously feels that's not the case, or at least your proportional arrangement would be slightly different. No, I'm equally optimistic, but I'm optimistic because I think there's more basic fundamental common sense at the grassroots level of the country than there is and the people are trying to interpret it at some levels of the federal government. And I think that the American dream will be a great and successful and ever-growing dream. But it's going to come because of the natural strength of the country, not some of the artificial

or hasty dramatic perhaps efforts that we now debate. And now, a child goes forth. What would happen if a white child and a black child were suddenly thrown into each other's worlds for the first time? Is it possible that it might look sound and feel something like this? Dr. Raleigh and the final hour of training today is on the outside. Most ringed factors included rising auto prices, increased living costs, oh, you look wonderful and pink. Yes, we're clear about 120,000 on the Higgins' deal. Well, no, we can't. We're closing the summer house this weekend. You know, I think we're going to have to open that new plant in Georgia next month. One in three eights. The rigid terms announced later were considered favorable to the United States. Hello, this is Mrs. Howard. Please send over six lobster tails, a tin of autichoke hearts, peaches and brand-aids,

some asparagus tips. This model is really great. The dad spent $50, but it's worth it. You know, this thing's really great. First point is the closing of 69 of the house. The National General of the Great is 52 of the house. They'll pass all that. Now, Jonathan Darling, the company is coming any minute and I want you to go to your room. You can watch television, but as soon as the show is over, I want you to turn off the set and go to sleep. It's a bad loss. I guess I'll have to fly the coast tonight. I will have the duck. Look at it, right here conducting the slow-walk to La Manacorquistra. Call-collect-free, secreted information area, food by 16, IV-3778. Let Heinz in to me,

but you in the glove, a seat of a late model, Gatti. Call-collect today, huh? Let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's go, let's go, let's go. You had to wait late. You had to do this late. What you had to do late? Nothing. It's all about him. Someone with some of these horns. I'm telling you. Well, I'm not going to let you go. You married me, but you're going to save us me. You can't make me do nothing. No, you won't. Don't leave me. Come back here, darling. As long as they can guess you and bomb you and do whatever they want to do with you and they all say, but that's the law, babe. We are going to haveAll-Try into the Black Mines.

He is going to get out of here and use physical force Black power, black power, black power, black power, black power, black power, black power, I don't think I'd go out and put you on earth if I had no way. Now, here is chief correspondent Edward P. Morgan with his personal point of view. The country is relatively calm, hanging in suspense between two seasons and two presidents. But there is more threat than promise in this hiatus if we think we have solved anything. The nation is still deeply divided. What if the fighting in Vietnam goes on and on? What if the white parents of South Holland Illinois win their appeal against the court order to halt segregation in their schools? What if youngsters in black slums, boiling with impatience, continue to lose in a hostile society which is demanding more from them every day?

When are we going to stop looking for causes of conflict which we already have found from Brooklyn to San Francisco State and start activating solutions at the velocity required? Nearly 15 years after the Supreme Court declared racially segregated education unconstitutional, black Americans in school and out are still largely being deprived of their basic human rights. Is this progress in the space age as education commissioner Howe noted, just as black suggests the Supreme Court's all deliberate speed dictum was too slow that interminable delays and dodges in desegregation should not have been allowed. Who cares? Plainly, the majority of Americans still fail to see any real need for haste except perhaps in turning a fast buck when it comes to the urgent necessity for social change that's okay providing it doesn't involve sacrifice for me or my family. It was in this mood beguiled by the possibility of simplistic solutions that white suburban America elected Richard Nixon President.

Problems however are never solved by magic and for all his campaign promises pragmatically made, Richard Nixon knows this. Nearly nine months ago President Johnson opened the way to negotiations in Vietnam. Until the war goes grimly on, only now the synthetic Saigon government aims to join the Paris talks, providing as her block puts it, it enters through the arc to tree on. This is cause for celebration, I suspect that in our hearts we know it isn't right to operate national policy like a slot machine gambling on spectaculars like a moonshot but blowing hot and cold on the dull truism that the real jackpot comes slowly from wise spending on say education. We are the worst planners in the world. We are cranking up a trillion dollar gross national product and the public schools of young Stan Ohio are closed for lack of funds. We talk about national priorities but we never set any. Lyndon Johnson broke his presidency trying to run a 30 billion dollar war in Vietnam and

a war on poverty at home at the same time. I suggest we know we can't go on like this. The changes must be made, changes which won't be free or easy but which we can easily afford. Americans are supposed to have an innate sense of fairness, an instinctive reach of empathy for the underdog. But who is the underdog today? The langs of South Holland with two cars in their garage think they are. It may not be their fault that they neither identify with nor understand America's social revolution but the fault must be corrected. Americans, bigotry, racial prejudice are not, of course, American inventions. They are universal phenomena. But America was going to be different. Her national beginnings held special promise. The trouble is that though they still inspire revolutionaries around the world, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights have not inspired many Americans in high places or low lately.

We either have a government with equal justice under law or we don't. As Attorney General Clark indicated earlier, we don't. To paraphrase George Orwell, some people are still far more equal than others. Does the majority, coseted by the affluent society, really treasure private comfort over social justice, can a minority president facing a younger generation rebelling against the status quo and the Congress with scant taste for change? Can he not only unite a divided country but make it care enough in Ramsey Clark's words to stop temperizing and really start tackling its problems? Whether he likes it or not, this is Richard Nixon's challenge and the rest of us must face it too. Now, PBL's pointed view of the news and outrageous look at the real events that daily reflect the distorted world around us. Good evening, James Karen reporting.

Paris Sunday, December 8th, United Press International. Representatives of the South Vietnam delegation to the Paris Peace Talks have arrived in Paris. President Nguyen Ventu of South Vietnam had earlier refused to attend the Peace Talks, claiming that his government did not recognize the NLF. Well, President too, nobody is perfect. But just for future reference, this is how you recognize the NLF. He's the one with the Black Pajamas. On Sunday, December 8th, 1968, U.P.I. As the Saigon government arrived in Paris for the Peace Talks, the shape of the Peace Table and the seating arrangements around it were still undecided. As shown in these time magazine drawings, the United States' favours are rectangular table or one that emphasizes the two sidedness of the talks. An oil on the other hand insists on a square table where all parties are equal. As one US official said, we may put the French furniture industry to a real test before we throw. Don't you have anything else in the back? Well, Monsieur, I do have some individual tables, individual tables.

Of course, that's perfect. Very good. I'll take four of those right away. Palm Springs, California, December 6th, Associated Press. In an address to the Republican Governor's Conference, Vice President-elect Spiro T. Agnew called the New York Times an executionary journal fit for bird cages, and thus renewed his bitter fight with that newspaper whose critical editorials during the campaign had deemed him unfit for office. Hello, my name is Spiro T. Agnew, and these are the times that try men sold. The US Florida Tuesday, December 3rd, Associated Press. The National Airlines jet was forced at gunpoint to fly to Havana, Cuba. This was the 18th Miami-bound jet to be sky-jacked to Cuba this year. Come on down! Hello, I'm Jackie O'Nassus.

Welcome to Greece. I'd like to show you how I've redecorated the Parthenon in place of these columns here. I've put in a little phone number, and then we'll use some help. New York Sunday, December 1st, it is now illegal in New York State to list newspaper want ads in male-wanted and female-wanted categories, although gender can be recommended it can no longer be required. Hi, I'm your funny Bob. Washington, D.C., newly elected members of Congress were urged to reside in the district of Columbia rather than in the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, because the district is the direct responsibility of Congress. Neighborhood show is changing. Now a story of America in black and white, past and present.

The Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's the situation in black and white. So where do we go from here?

So white America has come up with one of the answers. The social engineer. His job is to design a better life for everyone through planned living. For a closer look at this phenomenon, we take you now to Marion Hailey. Hello there. This is Marion Hailey talking to Fred Weston, president of Weston Associates, a leading firm of social engineers. Mr. Weston was busing children from their local schools to distant points. One of your major breakthroughs. A sensational idea. Kids mingling and mixing with kids like never before. Think of it. Miles away from home with other kids from every type of background. Why it's like a minor miracle. I see. How will your own children feel after they fit it into this scheme? Well, my kids don't exactly bus you see. They're up there at Phillips Exeter Academy. Out there in the country, marvelous facilities, and they really love it up there. Quite sort of people. Yes. Are your new integrated communities working out as well as you had predicted? They're unbelievable. Believe me. Proving grounds.

Every one of them. Better understanding for all the races is right around the corner. So watch for it. Best darn idea I ever had. Yes. How is it working out with your own community? Well, you see I'm from White Haven. It's a little town in the classic American mode. It really wouldn't do to fool around with it. Well enough along. It's fabulous in the fall though. Wonderful colors, falling leaves, trees, the whole bit. And if you're having the neighborhood, please drop in. Thank you very much. I'll try. Call ahead though. We'd like to tell the guards you're coming. Thank you, Mr. Weston. Next Sunday, VBL's second season returns with Can This Be America? When creative artists, the Roy Jones, Jonas Mekis, Ed Pinkis and David Newman. Ricky Leecock, Wendell Niles, Jr. and Barrel Fox. Cinematically probed where they feel America is at. And National Urban Coalition Chairman, John W. Gardner, joins them for an allegorical look at where America is when viewed from the year 2300 A.V.

PBL's second season, Salute Public Television Station, WUFT in Gainesville, Florida on its 10th anniversary. Public Television Station, KERA in Dallas, Texas on its 9th anniversary. And Public Television Station, WERA in Roanoke, Virginia on its 1st anniversary. Tonight's special assistance was received from Public Television Station, W-E-T-A in Washington, D.C. W-E-T-A W-E-T-A

This has been the second in a continuing series of interconnected broadcasts produced by the Public Broadcast Laboratory of NET. It is Sunday evening December 8, and this is PBL's second season.