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PAGE 2 — Qct. I, 1954 —SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Alabama ALABAMA’S FIRST SEGREGATION INCIDENT—On Sept. 3, 23 Negro pupils from the Abraham’s Vineyard elementary school in Montgomery, Ala., foreground, at tempted to enroll in the newly opened all-white William R. Harrison elementary school, visible in the rear, less than 300 yards away. Negro enrollment in the Vineyard school is about 80; white enrollment at Harrison, about 650. Several blocks to the left, or north, is a heavily populated white residential area, scene of some of Mont gomery’s heaviest postwar low and medium cost resi dential construction. To the right, or south, just across the road in front of the Vineyard school, is an old, popu lous Negro community, Abraham’s Vineyard, which until recent years had been considered rural. MONTGOMERY, Ala. N Sept. 3, 23 Negro children at tempted to enroll in the newly completed William R. Harrison all- white elementary school in Mont gomery. They were told that they lived in another school district. Other significant events in Alabama during September were these: (1) Local NAACP chapters in Montgomery, Anniston and Brewton filed petitions with their respective city boards of education requesting “immediate steps to reorganize the public schools under your jurisdic tion in accordance with the constitu tional principles enunciated by the Supreme Court on May 17.” (2) A special state legislative com mittee, set up by the 1953 Legislature, recommended to Gov. Gordon Per sons that a constitutional amendment be offered to the voters which would clear the way for the legislature to abolish public education in the state. (3) Acting Atty. Gen. Bernard Sykes announced on Sept. 15 that Alabama will not file a brief with the U. S. Supreme Court. To comply with the Supreme Court’s request for a brief on the “how” and the “when” of putting into effect the May 17 de cision outlawing classroom segrega tion might, Sykes said, obligate the state to conform immediately with the Supreme Court’s decision. Harrison School Incident The 23 Negro children who tried to enroll in the all-white Harrison Ele mentary school in the southern sec tion of Montgomery were residents of the Abraham’s Vineyard community near the new school. The Negroes were told they must attend the Vine yard elementary school, located less than 300 yards away from Harrison, in the same block. Construction on Harrison was completed only a few days before it opened its doors for the first time. Harrison Principal Robert Ander son explained that the district for the new school was bounded on the south by Martin Patton St. The all-Negro Vineyard community begins on the south side of Martin Patton, directly behind the new school. Dozens of Negro homes are located within a few hundred yards of Harrison. The clos est heavily populated white neigh borhood is several blocks to the north of the school, toward downtown Montgomery. As late as 1946, the area where Har rison is located was undeveloped land. But since that year, hundreds of low and medium priced housing units have been built, gradually extending the southernmost residential area of the city further southward. Because residential construction in this area was the heaviest in the city, existing white school facilities in the vicinity were impossibly overloaded. As the southward construction con tinued, first one new white elemen tary school and then another was added. Harrison is the third such ad dition to the city’s school system in the southern section. All are located within three miles of each other. Site in Fringe Area Other big residential subdivisions for whites have recently been com pleted or are still under construc tion just north of the new school. Thus Harrison and the Vineyard school, while still in the city limits, are situated where the urban area ends and the rural area begins. There are a few scattered white homes north of Harrison and the Vineyard com munity, but children from these fam ilies are transported to other white schools, according to City-County Superintendent of Education C. M. Dannelly. They are not allowed to attend Harrison because, like the Vineyard children, they are not in cluded in the Harrison district, Dr. Dannelly said. Enrollment at the Vineyard school is about 80. At Harrison it is about 650. The Vineyard school has three classrooms and three teachers (one of whom also serves as principal) for all elementary grades. Harrison has more than 20 classrooms. Teachers in both schools are paid the same, commen surate with their education and expe rience, Dr. Dannelly said. At recess, Vineyard children and Harrison children play on the same open plot of ground. There is no phys ical barrier between them or appar ent line of demarcation. However, whether by instruction or choice, they leave a no-man’s land of perhaps 100 yards between them. Background of Case The Harrison incident dates back several months. Before work began on the new school, the City-County Board of Education (in Montgomery, city and county school functions are combined) notified Vineyard resi dents that their school would be va cated and that Vineyard students would be transported by bus to other Negro schools in the city, according to Dr. Dannelly. It had been decided that the school was outmoded, Dr. Dannelly said, and that enrollment did not justify building a new school for Negroes at the location. Members of the Vineyard PTA protested, re questing that their school be painted and repaired and allowed to remain in operation, Dr. Dannelly said. The board consented. The school was moved from its old location on the north end of its present lot—fac ing, as it was, the advancing white residential area—to a position 200 yards to the south—facing the Vine yard Negro community. Harrison faces north, but is no more than 100 yards northward of the Vineyard school. In addition to general repair and painting, a new classroom was added to the Vineyard school. Electric wir ing, running water and inside toilets were installed, some new furniture provided, a third teacher added. (The principal has her M.A. degree). No lunchroom was added, Dr. Dannelly said, because the rule is that lunch rooms must be self-supporting. Be cause of the nearness to home of Vineyard’s pupils, most of them eat lunch with their families, he said. (No Vineyard pupil lives more than a few blocks from the school.) Dr. Dannelly said the Vineyard parents seemed highly pleased with “what the board had done for them.” Then, on Sept. 3, the 23 pupils, ac companied by several adults, sought to enroll at Harrison. Dr. Dannelly blamed the move on white agitators. Accompanying the Negro group was one white man, Aubrey Williams, Jr., son of the former administrator of the National Youth Administration under Roosevelt, now publisher of the Southern Farm & Home in Mont gomery. Williams Sr. has for many years been an outspoken critic of seg regation, in speeches and in editorials in his publication. It was first reported that Williams Jr. had “led” the Negro group to the school, and that the attempted enroll ment was NAACP-directed. Both Williamses and the Vineyard PTA have since disputed these impres sions. According to Williams and a statement from the Vineyard PTA, he attended at the request of the group and “because of friendly inter est.” PTA Issues Statement On Sept. 6, the Vineyard PTA is sued a statement saying that the Sept. 3 incident was to protest the failure of the county board of education to carry out its promises to improve the Vineyard School. While acknowl edging that the board has completed such improvements as new toilets and another classroom, the group said the interior had never been completed or cleaned up and that the grounds had not been landscaped. Nor had the installation of gas and electricity been completed, the statement said. T. L. Bear, chairman of the county board, said an order had been placed for installing gas service, that elec trical installation was to be done by the maintenance crew of the school system and the landscaping had been begun and would be completed. Dr. Dannelly said, “We’ve done every thing we’ve promised to do.” The group denied that the NAACP was in any way connected with the attempt to enroll at Harrison. One person who accompanied the enroll ment group is an NAACP official, the Vineyard PTA statement said, but he attended in an unofficial capacity merely as a private citizen, as did Aubrey Williams, Jr. The board of education denied the informal charge that the Harrison school district had been “gerryman dered.” Nesbitt Elmore, white attorney for the Vineyard group, said the case of the rejected 23 children would be taken to the court, unless the board made such action unnecessary. He did not elaborate. Some two weeks after the Harrison incident, it was revealed that the Montgomery County Board of Educa tion had been petitioned by the Mont gomery branch of the NAACP organi zation to “take immediate steps to re organize the public schools under your jurisdiction in accordance with the constitutional principles enunci ated by the Supreme Court on May 17.” The petition continued: As we understand these principles, chil dren of public school age attending and entitled to attend public schools cannot be denied admission to any school or be required to attend any school solely be cause of race or color. The petition called attention to the Supreme Court’s declaration that “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Among the 22 “parents of children of school age” signing the petitions were 17 residents of the Abraham’s Vineyard community. The board of education had not taken any action on the petition by Sept. 23. In the city of Montgomery, there were last year 13,314 white pupils en rolled in public schools and 8,093 Negro. Negro pupils thus comprised about 38% of the total city enroll ment. In Montgomery County (exclusive of the city of Montgomery) the pic ture is reversed. There were last year 3,863 Negro pupils to 1,693 white. Thus, 70% of the total county enroll ment was Negro. Anniston Petition A petition similar to the one filed by the Montgomery NAACP chapter was filled with the city board of edu cation in Anniston, in north Alabama, Sept. 11. There were 43 signers. No action has been taken by the board. In Anniston 4,447 white pupils were enrolled in public schools last year to 2,267 Negro (34% Negro). In Calhoun County, where Annis ton is located, there were 9,071 white pupils to 1,513 Negro (14% Negro), excluding the city systems of Annis ton, Piedmont and Jacksonville. The city board of education in Brewton, in south Alabama, revealed on Sept. 19 that it had also received a petition similar to the Montgomery and Anniston petitions, signed by 19 Negro parents of the Brewton branch Pupil-Teacher Ratio The Same MONTGOMERY, Ala. Enrolled in Alabama public schools during 1953-54 were 459,881 white pupils and 242,973 Negro pupils. Ne gro pupils. Negro enrollment was thus slightly more than a third (34.6%) of the total. During the some year, the state employed 15,744 white teachers in public schools and 7,871 Negro. Ne gro teachers thus comprised 33.4% of the total. of NAACP. No action has been taken on the petition. There were 462 white pupils en rolled in Brewton city schools last year to 468 Negro (slightly more than 50% Negro). In Escambia County, where Brew ton is located, there were 4,259 white pupils enrolled last year to 2,274 Ne gro (35% Negro), excluding the city systems of Brewton and Atmore. Es cambia is largely rural, bordering on northwest Florida. Amendment Urged State Sen. Albert Boutwell of Bir mingham announced Sept. 8 that a special legislative committee, of which he is chairman, had recom mended to Gov. Persons that sections of the Alabama constitution be re written to pave the way for abolition of public education in the state. The details of the committee’s re port, made public two weeks later, also included a plan which would let parents say whether they want seg regated classrooms. The Boutwell Committee proposal would open the way for state-subsidized private schools. It would strike from the state constitution the historic section 256, which says: Separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child ©f either race shall be permitted to at tend a school for the other race . . . The proposal also calls for the dele tion of constitutional references to “public” schools, as well as six other changes in the state’s organic law. One of the proposed amendments would authorize the legislature to make school officials and employes “judicial officers,” and thus immune from lawsuit. Another would require the state to defend them against court action. The proposed amendment to Sec tion 256, above, would give the state wide latitude in establishing non public schools and arranging for “the grant or loan of public funds and the lease, sale or donation of real or per sonal property to or for the benefit of citizens of the state for educational purposes.” In place of public schools, an amendment recommended by the Boutwell Committee says: “It is the policy of the State of Alabama to fos ter and promote the education of its citizens in a manner and extent con sistent with its available resources, and the willingness and ability of the individual student.” But, the amendment adds, “nothing in the constitution shall be construed as creating or recognizing any right to education or training at public ex pense, nor as limiting the authority or duty of the legislature to require or impose conditions of procedures deemed necessary to the preservation of peace and order.” To avoid “confusion and disorder and to promote effective and eco nomical planning for education,” it would give the right of choice to par ents who want their children to “at tend schools provided for their own race,” subject to whatever restric tions the legislature provides. Special Session Asked Most of the Boutwell Committee members reportedly favor an imme diate special session of the legisla ture, but Gov. Persons has given no indication he plans to call one. Gov. Persons has referred the Boutwell recommendations to lawyers in all parts of the state, requesting their comments. Before a change could be written into the constitution, it would have to be improved by the legisla ture and ratified by the voters, in cluding some 40,000 registered Ne groes and about 15 times that number whites. Gov.-Nominate James E. Folsom is expected to call a special session after he takes office in January, to re-write the whole constitution (for other rea sons than segregation) and to fulfill other campaign promises. The Bout well plan could come up for consid eration then. On Sept. 23, Folsom said: We’d love to be included out of the school segregation controversy. Frankly, I don’t know what we are going to do about it. I feel that if we deed our schools to private individuals, they could make apartment houses out of them; if strings are attached, the maneuver won’t hold up in the courts. Alabama’s decision not to file a brief with the Supreme Court was based on the belief that such a par ticipation might “legally or morally” obligate the state to conform immedi ately with the Supreme Court's de cision. That was the explanation of Acting Atty. Gen. Bernard Sykes. Sykes said that briefs would have to be filed “on the basis that separate schools for races are illegal,” since the Supreme Court has already said that. Therefore, Sykes reasoned, the only purpose now in joining the pending litigation “would be to help formulate decrees ordering the mixed attendance of white and colored pu pils in the public schools.” He con cluded: The facts surrounding Alabama’s sepa rate schools for white and colored have not been presented to, and are not now before the United States Supreme Court. Alabama, by filing a brief in cases not arising within its own borders, in cases based on facts not the same as those in Alabama, may find itself either legally or morally bound by decrees requiring both white and colored pupils to attend the same public schools. Alabama should not be bound nor haz ard the possibility of being bound by de crees rendered in response to matters arising in other states. Candidate Urges Special Session MONTGOMERY, Ala. Tom Abernethy, GOP candidate for Governor of Alabama, said Mont gomery, Ala. that efforts to enroll Negro children in the William R Harrison school for white children in Montgomery made it obvious that a special session of the legislature is needed. He said he hoped that Gov. Gordon Persons would call a special session, before his term expires next Janu ary, to preserve racial segregation. Abernethy promised that if elected Governor on Nov. 2, he will make 3 special session of the legislature on segregation the first order of business. Neither Gov. Persons nor Gov.- Nominate James E. Folsom has ex pressed any particular interest in 8 special session for this purpose.