The Search for Facts

• Date: 01 March 1956
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625630400106
• Author: Philip H. Coombs
• Subject Matter: Articles

26

The

Search

for

Facts

By

PHILIP

H.

COOMBS

A FEW

weeks

ago,

the

American

cor-

respondent

of

Dagens

Nyheter,

Sweden’s

largest

newspaper,

called

at

the

office

of

the

Fund

for

the

Advance-

ment

of

Education

in

New

York

to

pick

up

a

copy

of

the

November

issue

of

Southern

School

News,

and

took

the

occasion

to

thank

the

Fund

for

having

helped

to

enhance

his

stature

as

a

jour-

nalist.

To

a

member

of

the

Fund’s

staff

who

was

puzzled

by

this

expression

of

gratitude,

the

Swedish

correspondent

gave

an

unusual

explanation.

On

May

16,

1954,

he

had

cabled

a

long

dispatch

to

his

paper

on

the

background

of

pub-

lic

school

segregation

in

the

United

States,

and

on

the

following

day,

when

the

Supreme

Court

of

the

United

States

handed

down

its

historic

decision

over-

turning

the

Plessy

doctrine,

his

paper

was

in

a

unique

position

to

comment

intelligently

on

the

implications

of

the

Court’s

decision.

&dquo;My

editor,&dquo;

he

went

on,

&dquo;was

im-

pressed

by

the

timeliness

of

my

dis-

patch,

and

I

want

to

thank

the

Fund

because

the

dispatch

was

based

on an

advance

copy

of

The

Negro

and

the

.Schools

which

you

sent

me

the

week

before.&dquo;

1

This

apparent

master

stroke

of

jour-

nalistic

timing

was,

of

course,

nothing

but

pure

luck-not

only

for

the

Swedish

correspondent

but

also

for

the

Univer-

sity

of

North

Carolina

Press,

which

re-

leased

the

book

the

day

before

the

Court’s

ruling

and

thereby

provided

a

fitting

climax

to

one

of

the

most

un-

usual,

and

in

many

respects

most

re-

warding,

projects

supported

by

the

Fund

since

its

establishment

by

the

Ford

Foundation

in

April

1951.

The

episode

illustrates

the

keen

de-

mand

for

objective

facts

about

a

highly

important

and

controversial

issue

of

American

society

which

the

Fund’s

sup-

port

of

the

&dquo;Ashmore

Project&dquo;

and

of

the

Southern

Education

Reporting

Serv-

ice

was

intended

to

serve.

In

the

Fund’s

view,

these

projects

put

to

trial

the

fa-

miliar

premise

that

if

people

in

a

demo-

cratic

society

are

given

impartial

and

accurate

facts

about

a

social

problem

or

issue,

their

attitudes, decisions,

and

actions

will

be

wiser

and

more

effective,

and

the

process

of

social

adjustment

made

necessary

by

such

problems

will

be

improved.

This

article

attempts

to

tell

the

story

behind

these

particular

projects,

in

the

hope

of

shedding

additional

light

on

some

of

the

basic

forces

that

are

bring-

ing

rapid

improvement

in

the

status

of

the

Negro

in

American

society.

THE

FUND

AND

NEGRO

EDUCATION

For

reasons

outlined

below,

the

ac-

tivities

of

the

Fund

concerning

the

edu-

cation

of

Negroes

have

departed

con-

siderably

from

the

well-beaten

path

set

by

older

philanthropic

agencies.

In

the

first

place,

the

Fund’s

basic

mandate

was

to

work

toward

the ad-

vancement

of

education

of

all

American

youth.

This

goal

could

best

be

pur-

sued,

its

directors

and

officers

believed,

if

the

Fund’s

program

were

concen-

trated

on

a

relatively

few

critical

prob-

1

Harry

A.

Ashmore,

The

Negro

and

the

Schools,

Chapel

Hill:

University

of

North

Carolina

Press,

1954.