Alabama, the Cradle of the Confederacy, was the center of resistance. George Wallace tuned up for his presidential campaign by swinging around the state, telling devotes about the perils of Freedom of Choice. Those black children are goin' into the schools, George said, and that means that the whites ones are goin' to leave. George said that he was shore nuff sorry, but it looked like the state of Alabama wouldn't be able to keep a public school system goin' no more, because there wouldn't be any support from the legislature and the entire white public would resist.

The Federal judges in Alabama were not impressed. They clamped down Freedom of Choice, and George Wallace, as he had done before in the University of Alabama doorway, backed down. A few whites migrated to the private schools, but they came back soon. Public schools continued.

Unfortunately, part of the reason that Wallace backed down was that he and everyone else saw quickly that Freedom of Choice wasn't much more of a threat than the old '54 order had been. Because a black kid who was theoretically "free" to choose his school could be convinced in a lot of ways that he shouldn't choose the white schools. Teachers and students could make it pretty miserable for pioneering black students. If that did not give them the idea, employers and merchants could subtly let black parents know that their economic future would be brighter if their children "chose" the black schools.

Even school boards thought up clever ploys. In Greene County, the school board told Negro residents of Tishabee that their children could attend either the Greene County High School (white) or the Greene County Training School (black). However, both schools were 20 miles from Tishabee, and the school board said that it was sorry, but it could only provide busses to the Training School.

Once white Alabama learned about this soft underbelly of Freedom of Choice, the people who had resisted it so vehemently suddenly found themselves defending it as "the best hope for quality education in our state." Obviously it wasn't going to turn their schools into segregated ones; and if it did, it would do it more slowly than any other plan. At the same time, the Justice Department and many black lawyers also realized that a new system was needed. So they began yet another legal battle against the sturdy Southern schools.

This summer's court session in Alabama saw two major trials, each illustrating one phase of the fight against Freedom of Choice. The first, held in early August, was mainly valuable as a theatrical production. The name of the suit--The United States of America vs. The United Klans of America--hinted what kind of an affair it would be. An inexperienced Justice Department lawyer brought a parade of 50 residents of Crenshaw County, Ala., to the stand and had them tell what the Klan had been doing to keep Freedom of Choice from working in the county's schools.

The evidence was juicy. Black parents told of cross-burnings, huge KKK's painted on their houses, midnight Klan rallies, and assorted other harrassments designed to keep black kids out of white schools. A few reluctant white witnesses, appearing under Federal subpoena, grudgingly admitted that the white citizens of Crenshaw County had circulated a petition to enforce an economic boycott against all black families who integrated the schools.

The defense's case was even more picturesque than the prosecution's. Ira Dement, a sometimes-liberal lawyer with a hound-dawg face, cross-examined each of the black witnesses, always beginning with the question, "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" His defense case was as straightforward as it was absurd, consisting of character-witness testimony from assorted Klan members.

That trial turned out all right. The judge ordered an injunction prohibiting the Klan from giving the black people trouble. But even the Justice Department realized that this was a short-term victory, and near the end of August Federal lawyers launched a massive court battle against the whole Freedom of Choice system.

Working from statistics that showed that 97 per cent of Alabama's black children had "chosen" to stay in black schools, and quoting a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Freedom of Choice when it didn't "speedily end the dual school system," the Justice Department asked for more radical measures. Specifically, it wanted the court to close many black schools and begin bussing and zoning plans to achieve racial balance in the schools. And it wanted all of this done before the 1968 school year opened.

The State of Alabama's case was identical to the one it had made earlier when Freedom of Choice was introduced. If zoning and bussing start, Wallace protegee Gov. Albert Brewer said, whites will flee the shools, and the legislature will end the public school system.

The court didn't buy Alabama's argument, but it still wouldn't end Freedom of Choice. In a compromise decision, it gave the state one year to make Freedom of Choice work, and invited the Justice Department to file a new suit next summer if it has not.

The decision made many Negroes pessimistic. By next summer, it may be too late. Even ardent Wallacites admit that Richard Nixon will probably be President by then, and many of them know that he has promised to call off the Justice Department suits. So Freedom of Choice may go on, and the schools will continue. And a more violent showdown may come