Education: The F

Bryant Bowles, president of the Negro-baiting National Association for the Advancement of White People, was feeling sorry for himself. After all, he had made great sacrifices for the cause. He had made many speeches (and collected contributions). He had even moved into Houston, Del. so that he could carry on at closer range the fight to keep the area's schools segregated. But were the people grateful for all he had done? Bryant Bowles thought not.

Only last October they had flocked to him. Some 3,000 had applauded in Milford when he held up his three-year-old daughter and cried: "Do you think this little girl will attend school with Negroes?" His answer: "Not while there's a breath in my body or gunpowder burns!" Then came the white boycott of the Milford schools because ten Negroes had been let in, and people approved when Bowles crowed: "The only thing black in the schools . . . will be the blackboards." Even when he was arrested for conspiring to violate the Delaware school-attendance laws, thousands remained loyal. They paid no attention when the state attorney general accused him of fomenting mob rule; nor did they seem to mind that he had once been in trouble with the Baltimore police for failing to pay some workmen. Bryant Bowles was leading the Cause.

Last week in Harrington, Del., Bowles told an audience of 300 that things had changed since then. His audiences had dropped from thousands to hundreds, and so had audience contributions. Meanwhile, the Negroes were gaining. Soon, warned Bowles, they would not only be attending church on a desegregated basis, they might even pop up in clubs—"except those country clubs that don't let the Jew in." Therefore, said Bowles, he had decided to quit the N.A.A.W.P. presidency. "I don't feel like helping people who won't try to help themselves," said he. "If the people don't want to turn out now and keep the Negro out of school, I'm not going to do anything for them after they get the Negro in." The gesture had its effect. A few nights later, hundreds of people crowded around Bowles's house to demand that he stay.

Said Bowles: "As long as that kind of people stand out there, I will never stop fighting." Delaware racists had their leader back.