About 75 white pupils walked out of the Central High School here after eight Negroes went in to-day, and one boy hung a straw effigy of a Negro from a tree. As a group of National Guardsmen advanced to the spot, where a crowd of demonstrators had gathered, a boy set fire to the effigy and flung it in the path of the troops.
The Negro pupils, three boys and five girls ╤ one girl was away ill to-day ╤were escorted by National Guardsmen. More than a hundred white boys and girls jeered and hooted in front of the main entrance when the Negroes approached with the heaviest guard yet provided for them. Inside the school men of the 101st Airborne Division had taken over patrol duties again from the local guardsmen.
The group of guardsmen and Negroes moved at a military pace about half-way up the winding walk leading to the main entrance. Then the guardsmen broke ranks and formed a human barrier across the rear of the column, and the escort of the Negroes was undertaken for the rest of the way by only two soldiers. The hooting and jeering continued, but the Negroes made their way through the main entrance without difficulty.
STUDENTS WARNED
The school authorities had given warning that any student who left classes would face disciplinary action. The school superintendent, Mr. Blossom, said that three white students were suspended for participating in an attack on two Negro boys, who were kicked. White pupils said that they wanted to make the Negroes ╥so miserable that they won╒t want to go to school.╙
The white boys and girls left the school building to-day a few minutes after the 9 a.m. bell rang. They walked quietly across the school grounds and gathered on the roadway opposite, calling to other students to join them. ╥Come on, you dirty chickens,╙ they yelled.
One girl ran from the building and joined the demonstrating group. Almost in tears, she cried: ╥I couldn╒t get anyone else. They won╒t come out. I am so ashamed I could scream.╙ Some of the girls who left the school said that the presence of the principal, standing inside the main entrance, discouraged many of the other white pupils from leaving. They said that their own parents had supported their plan to join the walk-out.
As the guardsmen moved the protesting students down the street, the boys and girls gave ground grudgingly and heckled the soldiers. ╥Why the hell do they keep pushing us,╙ shrieked one small girl. ╥Oh, they╒re big and brave!╙ another girl taunted the soldiers. One group of students, asked if they thought they would be expelled, shouted: ╥Who cares?╙
