YOUTH MARCH FOR INTEGRATED SCHOOLS

In the last few months, the question of integrating the public schools in the South has assumed a critical position. Governor Faubus of Arkansas and many other leading political figures of the Southern states started an intensive propaganda campaign, which tried to show that the only ones interested in integration were the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and so-called "Communist-inspired" groups. A number of leading liberal figures banded together in an attempt to show that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including the students of the United States, favored integration in the public school system of the nation.

This group felt that, if it could get a small representative delegation of students to participate in a demonstration of solidarity with the students of the South, the propaganda of the racists could be counteracted.

In September, letters went out to many different youth groups throughout the country, informing them that a Youth March for Integrated Schools would take place in Washington, D.C., on October 25, 1958. The committee had hoped that one thousand students would be able to take part in the march. It is indeed a tribute to the youth of America that over ten thousand students participated. Here, at last, was a chance for the students themselves to express their own opinion on this crisis that affected them so closely. Groups came from as far as Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and almost every major city of the Midwest and the Eastern seaboard. Every major college, church, and civic organization in the North and South was represented in the march. This was a call to youth, and the youth responded.

The demonstration started near the White House, where the different groups from across the nation gathered. In solemn procession, the students marched down Constitution Avenue to the Lincoln Memorial. Here, they rededicated themselves to the principles of equality of all, colored and white, on the steps of the memorial to the great president who had done so much to protect these rights.

Leaders in the fight for equal rights for the colored people addressed the marchers. At the same time, a delegation of students attempted to present the resolution of the Youth March to President Eisenhower. This resolution, expressing the support of the students for integrated schools, was adopted at the Lincoln Memorial. The President, however, refused to see the delegation. Resolutions were also adopted which called for the strengthening of the NAACP and for the obtaining of the signatures of one million students in support of the integration of all schools in the United States.

This demonstration was certainly a significant one. For the first time, the youth of America expressed themselves, and forcefully, in favor of equal rights for all peoples in obtaining the best education possible. For us, the Jewish people, it was especially important. We have, for so many centuries, been subjected to all kinds of humiliations and restrictions that we must stand in the forefront in the fight for equality for all. The world has learned from bitter experience that, when one man is persecuted, no man is free. To the Jewish people this lesson is even more clear. The battle for integration is not one that the Negroes must fight alone; all who believe in human dignity must fight with them. The Jewish people must fight with them.

We can indeed be proud that Habonim took part in the Youth March. Our place was there, and we filled that place. We should, however, note that, although there are so many Jewish youth groups in the United States, only Habonim was represented in the march. We must do our best in the future to see that the thousands of other organized young Jews are marshaled in the cause of freedom. And we ourselves cannot rest upon our laurels by saying that we participated in the march. Our movement has always fought for the basic principles in which we believe. No matter what shape or form the battle may take, we must be there. The Youth March is over, and it was a success. It was a success because the participants really believed in the idea of freedom and equality upon which it was based. But we cannot stop here. We must go on and fight until our goals are attained.

May 17, 1959, will mark the fifth anniversary of the decision of the Supreme Court which legally ended segregation. Let us hope that, by that date, integration is not just the law but the reality of our life. On this date, a second Youth March for Integrated Schools will take place. The petitions for integration will be presented to the President. Habonim and other Jewish youth groups must participate in this call to preserve and safeguard the basic tenets of a free and democratic nation.

GLADYS ROCK, New York, 1959