The Press: Blackout in Houston

When does a daily newspaper, even with the best of intentions, have a right to suppress a major news story in its own backyard? Nowhere was this question more heatedly debated last week than in the city rooms and among the readers of Houston's three newspapers: the Post, the Chronicle, and the Press. The issue involved the toughest problem facing the U.S.'s largest segregated city: integration.

Two weeks ago, to end lunch counter sit-ins, white and Negro Houston civic leaders thrashed out an agreement desegregating the city's lunch counters. So that there would be no flare-ups when the change took place, all...