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PAGE 6 —Nov. 4, 1954 —SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Delaware Southern School News Southern School News Is the official publication of the Southern Education Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by southern newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation, but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state by state. OFFICERS Virginius Dabney Chairman Thomas R. Waring Vice-Chairman C. A. McKnight Executive Director BOARD OF DIRECTORS Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Charles S. Johnson, President, Fisk Commercial Appeal, Memphis, University, Nashville, Tenn. ^" enn * C. A. McKnight, Editor (On Leave) Gordon Blackwell, Director, Institute Charlotte News, Charlotte, N.C. for Research in Social Science, , . University of N.C. Charles Moss, Executive Editor, . . , |. Nashville Banner, Nashville, Tenn. name Branscomb, Chancellor, Van derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charles- Virginius Dabney, Editor, Richmond ton News & Courier, Charleston, Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va. * Coleman A. Harwell, Editor, Nash- Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of ville Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn. Schools, Richmond, Va. Henry H. Hill, President, George P. B. Young Sr., Editor, Norfolk Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn. Journal & Guide, Norfolk, Va. CORRESPONDENTS ALABAMA MISSOURI William H. McDonald, Editorial Robert Lasch, Editorial Writer, St. Writer, Montgomery Advertiser Louis Post-Dispatch ARKANSAS _ Thomas D. Davis, Asst. City Editor, NORTH CAROLINA Arkansas Gazette Ja Y Jen,!ins ' Staff Writer, Raleigh DELAWARE News & ° bserver William P. Frank, Staff Writer, OKLAHOMA Wilmington News Mary Goddard, Staff Writer, Ok- DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA lahoma City Oklahoman-Times Jeanne Rogers, Education Writer, Washington Post & Times Herald SOUTH CAROLINA FLORIDA W. D. Workman Jr., Special Cor- Bert Collier, Staff Writer, Miami respondent, Columbia, S. C. Herald TENNESSEE GEORGIA James Elliott, Staff Writer, Nash- Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The v j|| e Banner Macon News ... . . i/cMTiirvv Wallace Westfeldt, Staff Writer, KENTUCKY K , , ... T ... , , , -j*. • i \a# •, Nashville lennessean Weldon James, Editorial Writer, Louisville Courier-Journal TEXAS LOUISIANA Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu- Mario Fellom, Political Reporter, reau, Dallas News New Orleans Item V,R0,NIA c , , , rj*. • i \a/ *± Overton Jones, Editorial Writer, Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer, . ' . D ... c • c Richmond Times-Dispatch Baltimore Evening bun r MISSISSIPPI WEST VIRGINIA Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau, Frank A. Knight, Editor, Charles- Memphis Commercial-Appeal ton Gazette MAIL ADDRESS P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 5, Tenn. WILMINGTON, Del. N UNEASY TRUCE prevails in southern Delaware after the con troversy that flared up in the middle of September over the admission of less than a dozen Negro youngsters to the white high school in Milford. The truce was declared, so to speak, by the Delaware State Supreme Court, composed of three justices, two of whom had handed down a public school integration opinion two years ago. In effect, the State Supreme Court on Sept. 22 stayed a Court of Chan cery order that would have forced the readmission of 10 Negro children to the Milford high school from which they had been removed by the Mil ford board of education in the face of attendance boycotts, agitation by the National Association for the Ad vancement of White People and a general situation in Sussex County that had been referred to as “an up rising against law and order.” The State Supreme Court of which Clarence A. Southerland is chief jus tice in effect declared that the Negro youngsters should continue to go to the Negro high school in nearby Georgetown, Del., the county seat of Sussex county, and that the case on behalf of the Negro punils seeking readmission to the Milford high school would be heard Dec. 13—one week after the scheduled start of hearings before the U.S. Supreme Court on how its integration opinion should be translated into a mandate. CAUSE FOR RELIEF While Louis L. Redding, attorney for the Negro children involved and also attorney for the NAACP, ob jected to the truce, it was received with considerable relief throughout Delaware for various reasons: 1. It was hailed as a cooling off period in which tempers and bitter arguments over integration could ease off. 2. It was applauded by politicians because it means that the final days of the politicial campaign could be conducted without an open conflict staring them in the face. 3. Citizens who are willing to abide by the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court but who do not necessarily welcome integration, believe that discussion of integration in a more calm atmosphere will be beneficial to the state. 4. Middle-of-the-roaders greeted the truce with favor because it meant that there would not be, for a time at least, any more threats of boycott or violence in southern Delaware. 5. Citizens who may or may not favor integration but nevertheless do not favor the expansion of the NAAWP, hoped that the organization would not have any more opportun ity for getting additional support. The News-Journal papers of Wil mington said editorially: This (the State Supreme Court’s truce) should put a temporary end to the hotly contested battle over integration in south ern Delaware and we feel that nearly every one involved will welcome this truce in the hostilities. What Delawareans on both sides of the controversy need more than anything else at this point is time to cool off and take stock. And practically all Delawareans, regardless of their points of view on integration or segregation, were re lieved when the so-called “Milford incident” got off the front pages of Delaware newspapers and national papers. Delawareans particularly re sented remarks about their state that were broadcast over Radio Moscow and heard in Delaware—remarks that were intended as reflections not only upon all Delawareans but upon democracy. But the truce declared by the State Supreme Court was only one of a number of events that rocked Del aware during October. The difficulty started on Sept. 17 when an almost spontaneous rally was held in Mil ford as a protest against the admis sion of Negro students to the Milford (white high school.) The anti-integration movement gathered momentum, involving the sudden expansion and nationwide publicity given to the NAAWP and its national president, Bryant Bowles. Conflict in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md., was said to have been stirred up by the outbreak in Milford. EVENTS IN OCTOBER Highlights of October in Delaware were: 1. A hearing before Delaware Chancery Court, Vice Chancellor William Marvel sitting. He declared that the 10 Negro children removed from the Milford high school should be immediately readmitted because they had “a clear legal right entitling them to immediate relief.” 2. An appeal taken by the Milford board of education to the State Su preme Court that stayed the order of the lower court. 3. The arrest of NAAWP president Bowles in two of Delaware’s three counties on charges of conspiring to urge people to violate state laws. 4. The action of the state’s attorney general, H. Albert Young, to revoke the charter of the NAAWP which was granted in Delaware under the state’s corporation laws in December of 1953. 5. The lengthy statement by Del aware’s senior U.S. Sen. John J. Wil liams who lives in Sussex county, and who declared that while the U.S. Supreme Court took upon itself too great a responsibility “in determin ing so important a social question” as integration, the laws of the nation and state must be upheld and re spected. 6. The demand by Bowles that Del aware’s governor, J. Caleb Boggs, re move Atty. Gen. Young because the latter had changed his name from Yanowitz to Young—a demand that was ignored by Gov. Boggs. The at torney general of Delaware is a con stitutional officer of the state elected by the people. 7. The demand by NAAWP officials that Gov. Boggs resign his office— also ignored. 8. A promise issued by Wilming ton’s mayor, August F. Walz, that NAAWP president Bowles would be arrested on any one of 14 possible charges if he tried to undertake a school attendance boycott in Wil mington where the elementary schools are integrated. 9. A stand taken by the Wilming ton chapter of the NAACP that any school district in Delaware that does not have an integration program under way by September 1955, will be brought into court. 10. Pro-integration positions of the Delaware State Education Associa tion and the Federation of Delaware Teachers (AFL-affiliate) reaffirmed in their respective conventions. 11. Bowles’ attack upon members of the Wilmington press and the Southern Education Reporting Serv ice in the course of speeches at NAAWP rallies. REPUBLICAN THREAT 12. Threat of Republican State Chairman J. Clair Killoran that any Republican candidate for any office —state or county—who signs an NAAWP pledge to fight integration will be removed from the Republican ticket. 13. Controversy within the State Republican Party top ranks when Atty. Gen. Young (Republican) de clared in court of chancery that the laws of Delaware will be enforced even if it takes “the governor of Del aware and our two United States senators to lead these Negro children by the hand back into the Milford school.” (This statement was immediately attacked by Sen. Williams who de clared Young had no authority to speak for him. U.S. Sen. J. Allen Frear (Democrat running for reelec tion) took the same attitude as Sen. Williams. Young later said he was speaking only figuratively.) 14. Pro-integration steps taken by the Delaware Congress of Parents and Teachers. 15. Widespread support of inte gration given by church leaders and civic organizations, particularly in northern Delaware. 16. A deluge of pro and con letters- to-the-editors of newspapers in Wil mington, Dover, and Georgetown. 17. An invitation from the NAACP in Peekskill, N. Y. to Bowles to speak at the New York State NAACP con vention—an invitation that was later withdrawn upon direction from the national office of the NAACP. 18. A public opinion poll on inte gration taken officially by the board of education of Laurel in Sussex county. The result: 1,258 voted against integration; 31 voted for. 1,248 voted for expansion to the Laurel Negro high school; 99 voted against. (There was only one polling place —in the Laurel (white) high school. Only seven Negroes took part in the referendum. Although Laurel itself has a population of 2,300 of which 12.3 per cent is non-white, the Laurel school district has about 4,000 eligible voters.) 19. The board of education of Sea- ford (3,000 population of which 13 per cent is non-white) in Sussex county recommended a 12-year inte gration plan to start only when the U. S. Supreme Court hands down its mandate. THE MILFORD INCIDENT These highlights give only an inkling of the controversy that raged through Delaware during October, centered chiefly in the southernmost county of Delaware—Sussex. But practically the entire contro versy roared around the Milford high school which admitted 11 Negro children on the first day of school in September. The board of education that approved this partial integration program later resigned because it declared it didn’t have the full sup port of the state board of education. Then the state board of education officials took over the school for several days but were faced with at tendance boycotts that spread to nearby school districts. Finally, a new Milford board of education was organized and its first move was to oust the Negro children from the Milford high school. Almost immediately suit was brought in the court of chancery. Oddly enough, this was the first case to be heard by Vice Chancellor William Marvel soon after his ap pointment to the bench by Gov. Boggs. The suit was brought by NAACP attorney Redding on behalf of the Negro children, asking the court to compel the Milford board of educa tion to readmit them. Atty. Gen. Young declined to rep resent the Milford school board in court—as he ordinarily would have been called upon to do—because, he said, the Milford board had ousted the Negroes against his legal advice. The Milford board then used the legal services of Howard E. Lynch, Sussex county attorney, but Mr. Young took part in the hearing as a friend of the court. It was in the course of this hearing that he made his statement about the governor and two U. S. senators leading the Negro children back to the Milford school —a statement that exploded still an other controversy in Sussex county. COURT RULING AT ISSUE This was probably the first court hearing in any one of the so-called segregated states that brought into the record and argument the May H decision of the U. S. Supreme Court. The hearing was held in the old court house in Georgetown, Sussex county, while outside the court house milled a large throng of NAAWP members. Bowles himself was among them and according to a statement he gave the press, he did not try to attend the hearing because it was not “segregated.” Two days after the hearing, Vice Chancellor Marvel handed down his (Continued on Page 7) Wilmington News-Journal Photo BRYANT BOWLES. NAAWP president, watches intently as Magistrate Morris Gloverman of Milford, Del., signs the documents placing Bowles under $3,000 bond on charges of conspiracy. A few moments later, Bowles was free and on his way to the Harrington airport to address a mass meeting.