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PAGE 14 —Oct. I, 1954—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Virginia
RICHMOND, Va.
tate Sen. Garland Gray of Wav-
erly has been elected chairman
of the 32-member Virginia Commis
sion on Public Education appointed
by Gov. Thomas B. Stanley to study
school problems posed by the Su
preme Court’s anti-segregation de
cision.
Sen. Gray, an outspoken opponent
of integration, has set up an execu
tive committee consisting of 11 mem
bers of the commission, in accordance
with instructions from the parent
body.
Serving on the executive committee
are Chairman Gray and Vice-Chair
man Harry B. Davis, of Princess Anne
County, as ex-officio members, with
four State Senators and five mem
bers of the House of Delegates.
They are:
From the Senate: Sens. Robert F.
Baldwin Jr. of Norfolk; A. S. Harri
son Jr., of Lawrenceville; Dr. J. D.
Hagood of Halifax, and Currey Car
ter of Staunton.
From the House: Delegates J. Ran
dolph Tucker Jr. of Richmond; W.
Tayloe Murphy of Warsaw; Joseph
E. Blackburn of Lynchburg; J. May
nard Magruder of Arlington, and
Russell M. Carneal of Williamsburg.
One Meeting Held
The executive committee held its
first session at the State Capitol in
Richmond on Sept. 22. The meeting
was closed to the press. After the
meeting, Sen. Gray released the fol
lowing statement:
The full membership of the executive
committee of the Public Education Com
mission met Sept. 22, 1954. It is preparing
a plan for submission to the full com
mission whereby the views of the public
on the matters under study may be ob
tained The full commission will make an
announcement on this in the near future.
In answer to a question from re
porters, Senator Gray expressed
doubt that the commission would
have any report ready in time to be
used by the attorney general in pre
paring the brief which Virginia will
submit to the Supreme Court prior
to the court’s December 6 hearing
on the decree to carry out the anti
segregation decision. (Atty. Gen. J.
Lindsay Almond, Jr., and T. Justin
Moore, attorney for the Prince Ed
ward County School Board, which
is involved in one of the segregation
cases before the court, said they ex
pected to file a brief by Nov. 15.)
The executive committee’s refer
ence to obtaining the views of the
public was taken to mean that a
series of public hearings was being
planned in accordance with a sug
gestion made by Gov. Stanley when
he addressed the full commission at
its first session on Sept. 13. He sug
gested at that time that such hear
ings be held in various parts of the
state “to ascertain the wishes of the
people of Virginia.”
Sen. Gray, who heads the commis
sion, also served as chairman and
spokesman for a group of approxi
mately 20 Southside Virginia state
legislators who met in mid-June and
adopted resolutions recording their
“unalterable opposition to the prin
ciple of integration of the races in
the schools” and expressing their
“determined purpose to evolve some
legal method whereby political sub
divisions of the state may continue
to maintain separate facilities for
white and Negro students in schools.”
At its first meeting, the full com
mission adopted a rule which said:
“All meetings of the commission shall
be executive and its deliberations
confidential, except when the meet
ing consists of a public hearing or it
is otherwise expressly decided by the
commission.”
That rule, and the general makeup
of the commission itself, have come
in for criticism from various quarters
in the state.
Delegate Robert Whitehead of Liv
ingston, who is considered a leader
of Democratic Party forces which
frequently oppose the dominant
Democratic faction in Virginia poli
tics, criticized Gov. Stanley for ap
pointing an all-white commission.
Sen. Dalton, unsuccessful Republi
can candidate for governor against
Mr. Stanley last year, was also criti
cal of the absence of Negroes on the
commission.
Newspaper editorial comment in
cluded the following:
Lynchburg News:
There were those, “The News” among
them, who believed that the governor’s
commission should be bi-partisan and bi-
racial. Another view, that of Governor
Stanley among others, was that while the
desirability of that could be accepted, it
was more important that the commission
be a legislative one, composed altogether
of members of the body that would have
to meet the problem in the end. Since
there are no Negroes in the General As
sembly, that made it impossible for the
governor to find any compromise. . . . That
the governor made the better decision will
be disputed. Negroes of the State will re
sent their exclusion and it is going to be
difficult to explain to them the reasons.
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot:
The original mistake was Gov. Stanley’s
decision—contrary to his original excel
lent announcement—to confine the com
mission entirely to legislators. That elim
inated Negroes. It eliminated women
(there is only one in the General As
sembly). It confined the membership to
politicians or at best to men surrounded
in the Legislature by the atmosphere of
politics. . . . The legislative commission,
in adition, has struck an ominous note of
secrecy. ... To start off with the an
nouncement that all commission sessions
are to be closed ... is to erect a barrier
that is wrong in principle and will prove
increasingly difficult to defend. . . .
On the other hand, the Richmond,
News Leader endorsed the gover
nor’s action, in an editorial which
said, in part:
Governor Stanley was on the right track
yesterday, when he created a commission
to study problems of school segregation
and confined its membership to legisla
tors only. Like the governor, this news
paper earlier had fetlt that if a study
commission were to be named at all, a
bi-racial citizens’ group would be helpful;
but like the governor, we also have come
around to thinking that because this prob
lem finally will be the General Assembly’s
to resolve, it is best to let the Assembly
do its own investigating.
Other Developments
In other developments in Virginia:
(1) Local school boards and county
boards of supervisors from various
sections of the state have been adopt
ing resolutions, forwarded to the
governor, urging continuation of seg
regated schools. The governor’s office
reported that such resolutions had
been received from approximately 25
of the state’s 98 counties.
(2) Delegate Armistead L. Boothe
of Alexandria sent out a question
naire on school segregation to the
140 members of the General Assembly
and received replies from about one-
third. He reported that by more than
10 to 1, the legislators “feel that no
child of either race should be com
pelled to attend a school for children
of the other race”; that by 7 to 1 they
“seem to wish to retain Section 129
of the Constitution (requiring a pub
lic school system),” and that more
than 10 to 1 feel that no white teach
ers should be assigned to colored
schools and no colored teachers to
white schools. He reported also that
“the answers voted 3 to 1 for segre
gation between the sexes (that is,
separate schools for boys and girls)
if we cannot have segregation be
tween the races.”
(3) W. Lester Banks, executive
secretary of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple Virginia State Conference, and
David E. Longley, executive board
chairman of the Richmond branch,
charged that Atty. Gen. J. Lindsay
Almond Jr., had expressed “contempt
of the highest court of the land” in
his comments on the court decision.
West Virginia
in West Virginia
Integrated Completely
Partially
No Action Taken Yet
Delayed by Protest
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
W/est Virginia, which split with
** the South during the Civil War
over the slavery issue, appeared to
hold the dubious distinction of being
a “test” state on segregation within
its schools and colleges after almost a
month of the 1954-55 term.
In 25 of its 55 counties, Negro and
white children went to school togeth
er for the first time during Septem
ber.
But in two of these—Greenbrier
and Boone—near-violence occurred
and student picket lines were formed.
Integration appeared to be pro
ceeding on a “voluntary” basis in
Greenbrier County, which borders
on Virginia, until the second week of
the school year. The board of educa
tion had decided to permit those Ne
gro pupils who wished to attend white
schools to make their own choice.
Then suddenly students appeared
with crudely-painted signs reading:
“No Negroes Wanted in Our
Schools.”
Some 300 of 440 White Sulphur
Springs High school students struck
on Monday, Sept. 13. Negro children
were threatened with bodily harm if
they returned to “white” classrooms.
Board Reverses Action
So Greenbrier’s board of education,
after a session which lasted more
than 12 hours and with threatening
parents standing outside their meet
ing room, reversed its previous ac
tion and called off partial integration.
Negro students were ordered to re
turn to the schools they attended last
year. At last count all but a few had
obeyed.
There is no doubt but that the dis
turbance was inspired by the par
ents of the striking students—and
other adults—who haven’t accepted
the U. S. Supreme Court ruling that
compulsory segregation is unconsti
tutional. Press and magazine writers
who visited Greenbrier were solidly
of this opinion after interviewing a
number of persons.
Greenbrier has 444 Negro pupils,
amounting to 4.68 per cent of the to
tal school population of 9,489, and
only 23 of these were enrolled at
White Sulphur Springs High and
about 14 at Rupert High, where 100
students out of an enrollment of 900
dropped out of classes.
How It Started
The trouble at Rupert actually
started on Thursday, Sept. 9, when
Principal E. V. Core reported that
about 20 automobiles filled with
adults drove to the school ground and
told the children arriving for classes
to return home. Until that time he
said that “white students accepted
Negroes and tried to help them.” At
White Sulphur, Principal Robert J.
Nickel said “it was somewhat notice
able that the colored children
grouped to themselves, but that is a
normal tendency for any new stu
dents.”
Reports that two colored football
players had replaced two white play
ers on the White Sulphur High team
were found to be untrue, as were a
lot of other rumors. One of these was
a story circulated that a Negro boy
had passed a note to a white girl.
Boone County, where the more re
cent trouble occurred, apparently
had worked out its difficulties only
to have plans upset. At first, the inte
gration of 18 Negroes into afternoon
classes at Madison’s Scott High
School because of the lack of equal
facilities caused 11 white students to
complain to County Supt. C. D.
Tamplin. So Tamplin and Scott High
Principal E. C. Brown decided to
work it out “in a democratic way,”
calling a special assembly of the stu
dent body where it was explained
that the Negroes were being admitted
for courses they couldn’t obtain at
Carver High, the local Negro school.
Luther Jones, editor of the local
weekly Coal Valley News, analyzed
the Supreme Court decision for the
students.
The result was “unanimous en
dorsement” by the student council of
the board’s action in sending the 18
Carver students to Scott. Further
more, white shop students voted in
favor of bringing in a Negro instruc
tor when certain vocational classes
faced curtailment because of over
loading.
No sooner had Principal Brown’s
statement that “this is a fine way to
handle it” appeared in the state press
than anti-integration demonstrations
flared up in both Madison and nearby
Seth, also in Boone County. Sudden
ly, too, a few students appeared in a
picket fine in Madison with signs
reading “Out with the Black Gigs”
and “Down with the Negroes.”
Board Calls Meeting
The Boone County Board of Edu
cation agreed to a meeting that eve
ning (Sept. 20) in the county court
house. About 150 gathered, including
the curious, and an elderly man
wearing overalls and describing him
self as “a minister of the gospel”
took charge. He did not otherwise
identify himself, and a few people in
the audience referred to him as “the
gentleman from Alabama.”
After stating that the purpose of
the meeting was to protest whites
“going to school with Negroes,” the
self-made chairman introduced an
other whom he identified as a “a min
ister” from nearby Danville, a Mr.
Kessinger.
Kessinger, according to Reporter
William Keenan of The Charleston
Gazette, exclaimed:
Map Courtesy Charleston Gazette
They can put me in jail if they want
to, but my child will not go to school un
til they chase the colored children out.
A check by newspapermen did not
reveal a Rev. Kessinger residing at
Danville, but County Supt. Tamplin
said he had heard he was a former
resident of the Madison area who had
recently returned to the Madison
area.
Fifteen or 20 male students began
picketing at Sherman High School in
Seth, also in Boone County, on Fri
day, Sept. 17. Principal Curtis P.
Smith said the strike was started by
“four trouble-makers” and that at
least one of the ringleaders will be
dismissed from school for academic
deficiencies after “things cool down.”
He added the four were poor scho
lastic pupils who had “never been
interested in education.”
Smith also said the trouble began
shortly after the Greenbrier County
incident was widely reported.
Story ‘Played Down’
Because of this reaction, newspa
pers in the capital city of Charleston
decided to “play down” the Boone
County difficulties. The Gazette did
not publish a photograph it had taken
of the Sherman High pickets, who
asked to be identified but weren’t,
and the Charleston Daily Mail
skipped the story except to report an
appeal to Gov. William C. Marland by
“We are shocked to realize the close
parallel between your statements and
thinking and those of the late Adolph
Hitler,” they said. They said they
were referring to newspaper reports
of a speech in which Mr. Almond
was reported to have said that the
court decision was “a clear and un
equivocal violation” of the Tenth
Amendment to the Constitution.
(4) The Presbyterian Synod of
Virginia, meeting at Staunton,
adopted a statement that racial seg
regation “is discrimination which is
out of harmony with Christian the
ology and ethics.” Among other
things, the Synod urged trustees of
institutions of higher education re
lated to the Synod to adopt a policy
of opening the doors of those schools
to all races.
(5) President Robert P. Daniel of
Virginia State College, Petersburg,
a State-supported institution, said
that the school had rejected “more
than a dozen” enrollment applica
tions submitted by white persons. He
said the applications were turned
down because the state segregation
law prohibits Negro institutions
from accepting white students.
(6) Racial integration, which began
on a limited scale in Virginia’s Cath
olic parochial schools this Fall, thus
far “has worked out magnificently,
without a ripple of discontent,” ac
cording to the Rev. J. L. Flaherty,
superintendent of schools for the
Richmond Diocese, which includes all
but six of Virginia’s 98 counties.
Msgr. Flaherty did say, however,
that several white children did not
return to the schools this fall because
of the presence of Negro pupils.
Negroes are enrolled in 10 schools
(four high and six elementary
schools) which formerly accepted
only white students. They constitute
a fraction of the overall enrollment-
39 out of a total of 3,527 pupils in the
10 schools. The largest ratio of Ne
groes to whites in any of the schools
is six in a student body of 138.
a delegation from the NAACP that he
issue a statement denouncing insti
gators of school strikes.
As this was written, Gov. Marland
was understood to be planning a
statement, but otherwise neither his
office nor that of State Supt. of
Schools W. W. Trent—both of which
had said West Virginia would abide
by the law when the Supreme Court
handed down its ruling—was taking
any action.
Supt. Trent refused to interfere,
saying, “At the present time boards
of education are free to act. I shall
take no action.”
And the office of the state attorney
general, telephoned by the Green
brier board at the height of its con
troversy, was reliably reported as re
fusing to be quoted.
Elsewhere in State
Yet despite this clouded picture, 12
counties have completely integrated
their white and Negro pupils, 13 have
partially desegregated, 18 are wait
ing, 11 have no Negro pupils. Green
brier is the only county out of the
55 which has actually delayed inte
gration, but even there most observ
ers expect integration by the fall of
1955.
The others are without Negro pu
pils.
The state department of education
says there are 25,646 Negro students
in the total school population of 451,-
999. More than three-fifths of the Ne
gro school population is centered in
the six southern counties of McDow
ell, Raleigh, Kanawha, Fayette, Mer
cer and Logan—all of which delayed
action until 1955. Six or seven Ne
gro students applied for admission to
two Bluefield elementary schools, but
were directed to enroll at Negro
schools, Asst. Supt. Brooks Hardy
said.
Barbour County, where first re
sentment to integration was report
ed, now appears to be working out
integration without further difficulty-
In fact, Supt. of Schools Bretsel Har
ris said newspaper reports of parental
protest in mid-August “were grossly
exaggerated.” He added that “Vf e
have almost complete integration” al
though the county’s nine Negr°
teachers still “are at six predonU'
nantly colored schools.” About eight
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