Monday. November 24.1975
University Daily Kansan
5
Prof argued for state in Brown
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When Paul Wilson argued for the state of Kansas in the landmark desegregation case of Brown v. Topanga Board of Education, the schools separate but equal schools, not busing.
Wilson, now a professor of law, said last week that the issue of racism in education was still an emotional one in the 365s, but was less complicated than those now. Ms. Williams said she used William said that it should be viewed within the perspective of the times.
"A great deal of water has gone over the dam in 20 years," he said.
Although he said he had been morally opposed to the concept of segregated schools, his belief at the time was that it would not require education should be decided by the state.
"I believed and I still believe government ought to be kept on the lowest level," he said. "I felt that in a very few years there would be so many jobs would have disappeared in Kansas."
Wilson said he had been more conservative in his thoughts at the time of the
controversy and added that be a public servant for some years before the case was influential in his actions. He said that supporting the state government in his role as assistant attorney general was a more appropriate office than being a government service was more revered.
The Brown case gained importance in 1950 when Linda Brown and bout 20 other black children and their parents became involved in a conflict with the Teoqueba Board of Education over whether black children attend the same schools as whites, he said.
Locally, the Brown case was representative of a larger controversy which was gaining national attention, Wilson said. "There were a sensitive issue," he added. "There was a critical issue."
The Brown plaintiffs lost their case at the U.S. district court level, Wilson said, which made him consider the Supreme Court's directio to the Supreme Court. The law provides that cases such as the Brown case, heard by three-judge panels are directly upheld to the Supreme Court, he explained.
By the time the case reached the Supreme
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Court, Wilson said, there was a threat of it becoming moat because the Topeka Board of Education was considering dropping its action in the case.
"The new people (newly elected) on the board of Education were less friendly to the students."
According to state law, Wilson said, when a state law, as the one maintaining separate but equal schools, is challenged, the attorney and the attorney general are notified.
The attorney general at the time, Harold Fatzter, who is now chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, decided that if the Topeka Board of Education was going to let the case drop, then the attorney general's office would too, Wilson said.
Later, when the Supreme Court of the United States asked that someone be given a position in the case or else let the case be presented, it was said necessary that someone from the attorney general's office be present, to decide the question of separate but equal
"I was sort of glad, because I felt in an important case as this before the Supreme Court of the United States, somebody had to defend the Kansas case," he said.
"I was an assistant that didn't have anything to do," he said.
Although going to Washington was a matter of professional duty, Wilson said, there was a certain personal excitement for him in it.
"It became evident to me that I was in something big which I don't think I had sensed before," he said of arriving at the capitol.
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Lawyers of the stature of Thurgoog Marshall, now a Supreme Court justice who was representing the case for the NAACP, were there Wilson said. John W. Davis, another prominent lawyer, advised him in his court strategy.
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The Kansas case was to be tried with five other similar cases, Wilson said. Alphabetical priority determined that the Brown case would be tried first which would lead of the arguments for the separate but equal schools side of the issue.
Many of those familiar with the case understood the position he had to assume in the Brown case, Wilson said, although there were those who considered his role otherwise.
"Many people looked upon me as a racist and a biot." he said.
Today, busing is an issue which seems far removed from the circumstances of the past. We were told that the Topeka Board of Education we brought about a controversy of their own. Wilson said that in the Brown case, black children were separated away from their neighborhood schools.
"It was a case that the whole world was aware of and I was in the limelight for a little while, ... at least, I avoided making mention of Kansae look ridiculous," Wilson said.
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