The Psychic Cost of Segregation

An important part of the signif of the Supreme Court segregation outlawing decision of May 17, 1954, is that 'the psychological facts of life have received judicial recognition for the first time.' The decision was based in part on the belief that segregation has an important psychological impact on the personality development of those subjected to it. The authors raise the question of the correctness of this assumption and conducted an empirical study to contribute toward its answer. The test of authoritarianism developed in The Authoritarian Personality was administered to 102 Negro and 94 White Coll freshmen, all with southern family backgrounds, in segregated U's in the same city in the South. With a maximum score of 7 and a minimum of 1, the (mean - average) score for Negroes was 4.68 and for Whites 3.86 (p = .001). Since the S's appear to come from similar class backgrounds, the factor of class as an explanation of the higher level of authoritarianism among Negro S's is rejected. The explanation lies in the southern pattern of segregation. Personality traits are the product of the total pattern of social organization and will change only when that pattern of organization changes. C. C. Sherwood.