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aan should be open to the public and interested people and or- danizations should be invited to participate. A. citizens’ committee can help to take pressure off the school board and permit it to act more constructively. It may help in gaining public understanding and acceptance of the desegregation plan. Cooperate with agencies such as NAACP when the school board is being petitioned by parents to admit Negro children or when legal action is necessary. Work with non-administrative organizations concerned with school policy and educational excellence. PTA's should be urged to meet together interracially even if immediate organ: izational merging is impossible. State and local color bars should be removed and PTA organizations integrated all the way up. Promote integration of teachers’ activities and pro- fessional associations. (Future Teachers of America, Na- tional Education Association, etc.) BUILDING PUBLIC SUPPORT Some suggested ideas to streas are: “We have a responsibility to implement the Supreme Court decision.” “We can have a better echool system after we integrate.” “Experience shows that desegregation ia a feasible and con- structive experience.” “We cannot solve these severe problems without desegrega- tion.” “Desegregation is more effectively accomplished in a single step than in a series of steps with delays in between.” Be willing to change the emphasis of your message us devel- opments occur. Work with the press. Encourage emphasis on school news. Get to know the reporters who will have the most to do with school news, You can often dive them leads to information which will help ther;: to get good stories, Talk with editors and editorial writers. Issue press releases on action you have agreed upon. —10— Radio and TV stations will give some free time for progr in the public interest. Interpretations of the meaning of court decision, the story of local school conditions, rep on the experience of desegregation, discussions by stuck themselves—these and other ideas which you will have make excellent programs, Discussions of integration can included in programs on human relations, mental health, + child development. Help other groups find speakers and materials. Offer come to their meetings to make a report on what you doing. Build a mailing list of interested persons including leaders organizations, ministers, and other active people. You « send out reports of projecte, facts about the schools, and : nouncements of any meetings to which the public is invit You may want to send out a regular bulletin or newsleti or distribute important printed material. Select projects which you are able to do. Do not expect tl you can do all of these things at once or that all will equally effective. Use the talent you have and the chann available to you. eae In anticipation of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Publ Schools, Highlander planned early in 1953 a series of worksho to develop plans for an orderly transition from segregated integrated schools. A “Guide To Action” was first drafted by parents, teacher clergymen, industria! workers and farmers who gathered Highlander for a five weeks workshop during the summer of 195 Experiences reported at sirnilar worshops in 1954 and 1955 hav been incorporated in this revised edition of a “Guide To Action Each suggestion is based on methods that have demonatrated the value in one or more Soutl ern communities. These workshops have been made possible by individual conty butions and by grants from the Field Foundation, Ine. HIGHLANDER FOLK SCHOOL October 1], 1455