Griffin, Javits Disagree Sharply In Forum Debate on Integration

Governor Marvin Griffin of Georgia last night charged that the Supreme Court's segregation decision represents a "palpable and flagrant" usurpation of states' rights and an attempt "to transmute socialistic theory into law."

Speaking before a hostile but courteous Law School Forum audience, the Governor said that interposition was Georgia's hope of "preventing a situation which would lead to the abandonment of the public school system." If that fails, the Supreme Court cannot force Georgia to levy taxes, Griffin maintained.

Debating the segregation issue with Griffin, Jacob K. Javits, Attorney General of New York State, predicted that wherever public funds and public authority are involved, all attempts at interposition will be "swept aside."

Javits called Griffin's speech an "erudite analysis of the old Southern position," but said that the Fourteenth Amendment had precluded the Governor's argument. The question is now, Javits said, "What is right for the United States?" especially in the light of the international effect of continued segregation.

Javits Lauds lke

The New York Attorney General emphasized that he did not favor the use of force and coercion in the South, but held that there must be "earnest, persistent and forward moving effort to sustain the rule of law." He said that more had been done for civil rights in the Eisenhower Administration than in the preceding twenty years.

Griffin, aside from his legal arguments, pointed out the efforts of Georgia to make Negro schools equal in every respect to white facilities.

While the prepared addresses were for the most part dispassionate, the question period brought sharp attack on Griffin from an Ethiopian student at the Law School. Seyoum Haregot 2L asked the Governor, "Do you think, after listening to you, I should go back to my people and say that we should go along with the United States when down in your part of the country they call us 'niggers'?"

Griffin said he though Haregot had "gone a little too far."