But the Constitution is not self-executing in the protection of individual rights. Implementing legislation is required if the Federal Government is to have the power to protect their rights.

The rights of free speech, assembly, and petition are subject to reasonable regulation and control under the police power of the States, but State laws or orders which are discriminatory in effect must be struck down by the courts as a clear violation of the 1st and 14th amendments. In a similar manner, there is much evidence that equal protection of the laws in this area has been denied by the action of local officials who harass peaceful demonstrators by arrest and prosecution. The Civil Rights Commission has found in Jackson and Birmingham not only a pattern by police to maintain segregation and to suppress protest, but support for that policy by the local prosecutors and courts. There is much evidence that such practices are also maintained in other cities. That such official action is violative of the Constitution was again reiterated this year by the Supreme Court in Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229 (1963). Here, a group of Negro demonstrators, who were making known their grievances to the State legislature and the public, were arrested and convicted for breach of the peace. The Court, finding that the demonstrators had been orderly, had not obstructed traffic and that there had been no threat of uncontrollable violence from bystanders, reversed the convictions. "(1)n arresting, convicting, and punishing the petioners under the circumstances disclosed by this record, South Carolina infringed the petitioner's constitutionally protected rights of free speech, free assembly, and freedom to petition for redress of grievances" (p. 235). The Court concluded that the exercise of the first amendment freedoms could not be abridged "*** unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or unrest" (p. 237).

No man should be forced to bear unwarranted discrimination and thus be denied the equal protection of the law because he cannot fully invoke in a court of law the constitutional protections that are his by right.

TITLE IV-EDUCATION

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States in the momentous Brown v. Board of Education decision held that enforced racial segregation in public education is a denial of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed under the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and of the due process of law required by the 5th amendment. Overturning the heretofore constitutional "separate but equal" doctrine, the Court held that "separate educational facilities are inherently inequal." The Court said that the opportunity for an education, "where the State has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."

In implementing the decision of the Supreme Court, we urge the Congress to be guided by two fundamental premises: (1) The American system of public education-an essential bulwark of a democratic system of government-should be preserved unimpaired; (2) the constitutional right to be free from racial discrimination in public education must be realized.

A number of communities-in response to the Court decision-took immediate steps to implement desegregation in the public schools.

Greatest initial progress in the 17 States and the District of Columbia which had required segregation occurred in metropolitan areas (Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, St. Louis, and Kansas City, Mo.) and in the border States: Missouri, Oklahoma, Maryland, West Virginia, and parts of Texas. Desegregation in these areas was accomplished largely without incident.

The following chart outlines the early progress in the desegregation of school districts.

TABLE 1.-Progress in desegregation of school districts, 1954-59

Source: From the Report of the U S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1959, p. 296.

By the close of the school year 1956-57, a total of 699 southern and border school districts had implemented desegregation plans. Significantly, only 9 of the 699 acted under the compulsion of Court order. By May 1959, there were 797 desegregated biracial districts-a small fraction of the number of districts which could be desegregated. The period 1959-61 was marked by two significant trends which slowed the pace of school desegregation. Progress was hampered by consolidation of school districts and by the failure to implement desegregation plans.

The following chart indicates that heavy consolidation of school districts occurred in Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky and especially Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas which caused a reduction in the number of biracial districts. The reduction which occurred in Missouri and Oklahoma caused a decline in the total number of desegregated school districts.

TABLE 2.-Progress in desegregation of school districts, 1959-61

Source: From U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report on Education, 1961, p. 236.

A second factor was responsible for the decrease in the total number of desegregated school districts from 797 in 1959 to 775 in 1961. Although desegregation had taken place in 44 school districts during that period, a number of school districts which had commenced desegregation either reverted to segregation or failed to take any steps to carry out their own desegregation policy. It is also clear that as opposition to the Supreme Court decision hardened there has been an increased reliance on court action creating the necessity for the Attorney General to intervene as a friend of the Court.

TABLE 3.-Status of desegregation of school districts, 1962-63 (Aug. 1, 1963)

During this most recent period the number of desegregated school districts has increased. Progress was centered primarily in Delaware, Kentucky, and Texas. In spite of progress, however, three States, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina, continued to have no Negroes attending school with white students below the college level. What perhaps is most remarkable about recent patterns of school desegregation is that while consolidation of school districts continued unabated during the period 1962-63, the number of biracial districts has shown a substantial increase. This has in turn caused a percentage decline in the number of the desegregated school districts. For the crux of the matter is that while there may be more biracial school districts which have commenced desegregation, there are almost as many segregated school districts in late 1963 as there were at the end of 1959. In short, by running hard we have succeeded in standing still.

With the commencement of the 1963-64 school year, some 150 school districts, including districts in Alabama and South Carolina (according to the Southern School News), spurred by the tragic rush of recent events announced that they would begin desegregation sometime during the present academic year. We hope that this will be an augury of progress. Nevertheless, at this pace, it will still take until the year 2063 before the compliance order of the 1955 Supreme Court decision which called for school desegregation in biracial school districts. "with all deliberate speed" will be carried out. This must be remedied by affirmative congressional action.

During the past decade vigorous opposition to desegregation has led to legal measures aimed at restricting and circumventing the mandate of the Brown decision. The various legal attempts to avoid the consequences of desegregation can be divided into four major categories: (1) A number of Southern States have introduced one or more of the multiple variables of the pre-Civil War doctrines of interposition and nullification. The Supreme Court has dealt summarily with devices. such as a State withdrawing its consent to be sued or justifying segregation as an exercise of police power. (2) Other States have entered upon a course of action aimed at disqualifying potential plaintiffs most notably the NAACP (which in the absence of governmental initiative has by default shouldered most of the burden of instituting litigation) from bringing court actions to end segregation. The basic issue came before the Supreme Court in 1958 in N.A.A.C.P. v. Alabama ex. rel. Patterson (357 U.S. 449 (1958)), when the court struck down the Alabama law which compelled the NAACP to produce records indicating the names and addresses of members and agents on the ground that such a requirement was an unconstitutional restraint upon the members' right to freedom of association and thus a denial of due process of law. (3) A number of States have imple

mented pupil placement and assignment laws which alter the theoretical basis of separation from a classification based on race to one dependent on such factors as "scholastic aptitude," "room and teaching capacity," "free choice of pupil," and "home environment." In the crucial case of Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education (358 U.S. 101 (1958)) the U.S. Supreme Court upheld as valid on its face the Alabama pupil placement law on the assumption that the law would be administered in a constitutional fashion. (4) The fourth category comprises the various devices employed to separate the operation of the schools from the state. This generally involved the establishment of a "private-public" school system as a means of circumventing desegregation and in some cases the closing of schools. But this device has failed to provide an effective escape from the law of the land. In 1959, the Supreme Court of Virginia decided after action had been instituted by white parents seeking the reopening of the Norfolk public schools that the State school closing laws violated the Virginia Constitution, Harrison v. Day (106 S.E. 2d 636 (Va. 1959)). Nevertheless, the net result has been massive delay in implementing the mandate of the Court.

In our judgment the Congress has a clear obligation to act in three

areas.

The Government has for some time abdicated its responsibility to acquire accurate information concerning the state of public education in the United States. If the Nation is to achieve desegregation in public education, it requires complete and accurate information concerning the ethnic composition in the public schools.

Therefore, the Judiciary Committee, in H.R. 7152, has authorized the Commissioner of Education to conduct a survey and report to Congress within 2 years concerning the lack of availability of equal educational opportunities for individuals by reason of race, color, religion, or national origin in public educational institutions at all levels in the United States.

The transition from all-Negro to integrated schools is at best a difficult problem of adjustment for teachers and students alike. Many teachers and officials have been harassed and obstructed from doing their jobs. The gap in scholastic achievement of students is often considerable. The hurdles that must be overcome in teaching biracial classes and in administering biracial school systems are similarly tremendous. There is an obvious need to provide special counseling, guidance, and remedial instruction to overcome the past deprivation caused by inferior schools. For no matter how the opponents of this legislation may complain to the contrary public education may have been separate but it was seldom equal.

It is clear then that the Congress must enact legislation empowering the Federal Government to disseminate information concerning desegregation plans, problems, and possible solutions, and that it must provide technical and financial assistance to local school officials to enable them to overcome the difficult problems which accompany the desegregation of the public schools.

The committee, therefore, authorized in title IV the Commissioner of Education to extend technical and financial assistance to school boards and school personnel where such assistance would aid in solving problems of desegregation. The committee failed to extend this assistance to problems frequently referred to as "racial imbalance,”