Education: Groton's Intention?

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The small printed circular was certainly sedate enough to come from such a blue-blooded prep school as Massachusetts' Groton. But to the hundreds of alumni who received it in the mail last week it was, to say the least, something of a shock. "As desegregation is clearly the prime social duty facing the country today," said the circular, "Groton wishes to do all a school can towards complete eradication of the evil of segregation ... In consistence with Christian doctrine and the teachings of the Bible and in consistence with the human beliefs of two of Groton's most eminent graduates, New York's Governor Averell Harriman and the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Groton announces its irrevocable intention to increase the number of Negroes from a few students to not less than one quarter and not more than one third of its total enrollment."

With that, the circular invited friends, alumni—and the N.A.A.C.P.—to help find eligible Negroes, grandly declared that money would be no object. "Groton pledges, if necessary, the full use of its entire endowment fund towards scholarships for this purpose."

Before long, the school (which already has three Negroes) began to get phone calls and telegrams. Just what was going on at good old Groton? Not a thing, the school replied hastily: though "we are open to all qualified candidates regardless of race, religion or creed," the circular was a fraud, its author unknown. Said one alumnus as he chucked his circular away: "And I was just about to write them out a check."