Education: We Care

In Mt. Dora, Fla. one day last week, someone drew a chalk line down the school sidewalk for all the pupils to see. One side was labeled "White People," the other "Nigger Lovers." Reason for the line: 65 of the pupils had just signed a special petition to TIME about the plight of the five children of Orange Picker Allan Platt (TIME, Dec. 13). Though the Platts had insisted that they are of Irish-Indian descent—and had documents to prove it—Mt. Dora's Sheriff Willis McCall arbitrarily decided that they are Negroes, and ordered them out of the school. TIME'S story had said...