Education: Organized Hope

At a mass rally in Atlanta last week, Southern moderates spoke with a fervor and eloquence they often lack. Said Sylvan Meyer, 37, editor of north Georgia's Gainesville Times: "Our state leaders have failed us miserably. The doctrine of state sovereignty died at Appomattox and was reinterred at Little Rock." His applauding listeners: 1,500 parents, civic leaders and students, members of a brand-new organization of protesting moderates, HOPE, Inc. (for Help Our Public Education) and its student counterpart, SOS (Students for Open Schools).

The meeting climaxed a winter of hopeless worry. With a school integration decision pending in federal district court, Atlantans...