The Strategists

As the primary race for the governorship officially got under way last week, Georgia found that its eight male Democratic candidates were at least agreed on one thing: not one had any intention of doing away with segregation in the public schools. Lest there be any doubt, seven of the would-be governors had gone on record before the 21-man, all-white Georgia education commission, especially set up to explore ways and means of circumventing the U.S. Supreme Court's historic anti-segregation decision. Unlike the only woman in the race--Lawyer Grace Wilkey Thomas, past president of the Women's Bar Association of Georgia ("There does not seem to me to be anything to do but obey the law")--the seven all had various strategies:

P:Lawyer Ben Garland of Jackson: empower local school boards to segregate the schools on the basis of sex, color, or whatever other qualifications they wish.

P:Charles Gowen of Brunswick: empower county superintendents to designate the school and class each student should attend, and if the Supreme Court doesn't like that, "close the schools."

P: Lieut. Governor S. Marvin Griffin of Atlanta: let city and county school boards assign each student to a school. Griffin also suggested a residency requirement to keep "foreign agitators" out of the state. "Social equality," said he, "is impossible. The schools are not going to be mixed come hell or high water."

P:Fred Hand of Pelham, speaker of the house: adopt not one plan but many, and keep all these a secret in order to thwart the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "If we run out of plans, I'd be in favor of the private-school plan ... I believe in segregation so strongly . . . that I'd gladly go to jail."

P: Former Acting Governor Melvin E. Thompson of Valdosta: amend the U.S. Constitution to give the states exclusive rights over the schools.

P:Tom Linder of Hazlehurst, commissioner of agriculture: let the state support segregated schools and perhaps give educational grants to persons willing to attend "mixed" schools. But such persons ("a mere lunatic fringe," according to Linder) might well be required to take a psychiatric test first.

P:Edmond Barfield of Atlanta, president of the National Association of Handicaps: abolish the Supreme Court.

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