Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
1969: After 15 years, 5 months and 12 days of ‘all deliberate speed,’ the Supreme Court has announced flatly and unanimously it will tolerate no further delay in school desegregation.
“‘The obligations of every school district is to terminate dual school systems at once and to operate now and hereafter only unitary integrated schools,’ the high court declared in a brief but history ruling handed down late Wednesday.
“The first major opinion issued by the court since President Nixon appointed Warren E. Burger chief justice was a sharp setback for the administration.
“The Justice Department had urged the court to allow more time for the integration of 33 school districts in Mississippi The court’s decision dealt specifically with the Mississippi case.
“But the language of the opinion left virtually no room for doubt the same strict rule of desegregation now will be applied to other areas of the South where some degree of segregation still prevails in more than three fourths of the public school districts.”
• The San Jon Sportatorium will host a senior play, “The Sky’s the Limit,” later in the week. Meanwhile, a production of “Finian’s Rainbow” will hold its opening night tonight at the Tucumcari junior-high auditorium.
• A psychedelic Halloween: First-graders at Zia School decided to “do their thing” by drawing cats in all different colors instead of the traditional black for the holiday.