A3 ELA gr9 23-24 Form C Online 5 of 105 of 10 Item s Feature from “Black Educators and the United States Supreme Court Decision of May 17, 1954” By George Breathett Read the 1954 letter from a group of Southern Black educators in response to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, and then answer the questions. We, a group of Southern Negro Educators, representing fourteen Southern states and the District of Columbia, have assembled here in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to express our collective point of view with respect to the Supreme Court’s decision, May 17, 1954, declaring segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. We believe that by virtue of the position which we occupy in American life, we are obligated to express our views. We welcome the decision and look upon it as another significant milestone in the nation’s quest for a democratic way of life and the Negro’s long struggle to become a first class citizen. The Supreme Court’s decision is a part of an evolutionary process which has been going on in the South and in the Nation for a long time. The decision was not a sudden leap out of the American tradition. It was the right and moral thing to do. [...] The Supreme Court was not dealing solely with a local issue or with the issue of whether Negro and white children attend the same public school. World leadership has been thrust upon the United States. It became America’s responsibility before and after World War II not only to fight against racism and aggression, but to defend democracy in the free world. America’s leadership in the world and not alone the citizenship of fifteen million Negroes was at stake. The nation cannot consistently stand as leader of the democratic forces of the world and harbor the undemocratic practice of racial segregation at home. We are convinced that there is a fundamental sense of fair play abroad in the South. Southern people have accepted previous decisions of the Supreme Court and the social c
