1970 February 5 Senators John Stennis and Strom Thurmond demand that northern school districts be ordered to observe federal desegregation guidelines in the same way as their southern counter parts. On February 9, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff endorses the Stennis Amendment, a rider to the House-passed education bill then before the Senate. The Stennis bill is a virtual duplication of the text of the 1969 New York State bill prohibiting the assignment of students to schools according to race. Ribicoff condemns northern liberals who blame the South for resistance to integration while, at the same time, failing to recognize and assail similar policies in the North. He chides northern communities for their "systematic and consistent" denial of educational opportunity to black children.