THE JUDICIARY: Curdled

Many Southerners, including the citizens of Manatee County, Fla. stepped up school construction last year. One motive: to make their "separate but equal" school facilities equal and thus head off a U.S. Supreme Court decision against segregation.

When the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation (TIME, May 24), some Manatee County taxpayers wanted to cancel their $1,750,000 school building authorization. Last week the Florida Supreme Court refused their plea, arguing that the new schools were needed and that it would take a long time to desegregate. Florida Justice Glenn Terrell said the U.S. Supreme Court decision was "a great mistake" and would "retard rather than accelerate" the removal of the inequalities that Negroes now suffer. He added: "To homogenize Topsy . . . and Mary who carried her little lamb to school is going to be slow and tedious."