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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS —Nov. 4, 1954 —PAGE 9 Baltimore Sunpapers Photo STUDENTS AT BALTIMORE’S Southern high school are shown demon- | H. Fischer who, on the first day of the student picketing, said: “It looks like strating. The “germ” sign is a reference to a remark by Baltimore Supt. John | some of the germs have drifted down from Delaware.” Maryland (Continued from Page 8) attorney for Baltimore and demand ed a grand jury investigation of the causes of the unrest. And finally, one member of the delegation met in the afternoon with Police Commissioner Beverly Ober. Police Commissioner Ober had been out of the state when the dis turbances began. He is a tough old National Guardsman, almost always addressed as Colonel Ober, and upon his return showed a willingness to take any action which school officials requested him to take. While a man with great respect for civil rights, he is reported to have been sold on the “get tough” policy by two argumen tative points, in particular. For one, Colonel Ober was dis turbed by the argument that the school boycott was breeding whole sale disregard of law and order. Sec ondly, he did not like the report that organized labor was annoyed at the way the police were letting the school pickets disregard all the pol icy regulations as to proper picket ing and that he, Ober, was likely to have a hard time the next time there was a labor strike. STRONG STATEMENT After about two hours of discus sion, during which time he consulted with legal authorities, Col. Ober pounded his desk with a fist and said, “I’ll do it,” meaning “get tough.” He immediately swung into action, pre paring a statement which was broad cast repeatedly that night and into the next morning by Baltimore television and radio stations. “You, fellow citizens, have consti tutional rights to express your opin ions by assembly in halls or other appropriate places,” Col. Ober’s mes sage said, and he emphasized that the police would not interfere with orderly assemblage. “What is going on in Baltimore, however, is not an orderly expression of constitutional rights, but it is a definite violation of (Maryland laws against school dis turbances and inducing truancy).” “I feel it is the duty of this depart ment to stop all picketing or assem blage in the neighborhood of our va rious public schools. Such picketing will cease or the police will take ap propriate action.” Along with Col. Ober’s multiple warnings of impending arrests on Monday night, there was also a tele vision appeal to parents by Dr. John H. Fischer, school superintendent, to get their children back to school. “A small group of people have set in motion a carefully organized scheme to keep as many students as possible away from school,” Dr. Fischer said in a blast at “undercover operators.” “By spreading evil rumors, all of them false, they have frightened chil dren and parents.” He urged Balti moreans not to be taken in by the “misguided efforts of a handful of adults.” BOWLES HOLDS MEETING That same night Bryant W. Bowles was holding his first meeting just outside the city limits. Mr. Bowles said, “I can’t tell you to picket, and I m not telling you not to.” And then be added, “I understand the commis sioner of police is predicting he is going to arrest everyone. I don’t kliow “bn—or his color—but I do know he’ll have to build a bigger jail.” Despite Mr. Bowles’ indirect call ror continued picketing, the threat of arrests had turned the scales in Balti more. On Tuesday, Oct. 5, attendance the formerly picketed schools. The police dispersed a crowd °r youths who had gathered early nea r Mergenthaler Vocational school snd also a man at School 22 who pre viously had directed picketing there. ^ detail of pickets also arrived at chool 34, only to disappear a short “me later. Otherwise all was quiet. (Principal John A. Schwatka of outhern high school, reported an ^tendance of 902 on Tuesday, up om 503 on Monday, and said, “Ten- y 0ri has relaxed all over the school. °u can tell by the fact the students 'bugling in the halls, and in gen- al their whole attitude has changed, today n ° hostility in the school By Wednesday attendance was tern 1 - t ^ lrou 8bout the school sys- ’ vnth one exception. At School 34, where all the trouble began, police had to step in and firmly dis suade a group of would-be pickets that morning, and attendance re mained low that day. The following morning the hold-outs came back in a body, possibly because School Supt. Fischer had warned that penalties for truancy were going to be applied. SMALL NUMBER INVOLVED When the active aspects of dis content had died out, Baltimore found that the strike situation had not been as bad as it had appeared at the time. Only a half dozen schools out of the 52 with mixed attendance had been disturbed, and none of the schools with large percentages of Negroes had been drawn into the trouble. The student march was a noisy one, but the hard facts were that 97 per cent of Baltimore’s public school boys and girls were not drawn out and continued classes without interruption. Baltimore congratulated itself that its school board had remained firm and that the police had given effec tive support. And a source of relief to many was that the politicians stayed out of it. The subject came up at City Council which had its regular weekly meeting on the Monday when the disturbances were at their height. A motion was made to consider a re solution, in the files since June, call ing on the school board to maintain separate schools. The motion was de feated by a 10-8 vote. The final blow to the anti-integra- tionists was delivered by Judge James K. Cullen in Superior Court when he rejected the suit brought against the school board by the NAAWP and its local affiliate, the Maryland Petition Committee. The two groups had sought a mandamus action on the grounds that the school board had jumped the gun in desegregating schools prior to the issuance of a final decree by the Supreme Court. Judge Cullen said in his opinion, “The Court finds that the Board of School Commissioners has exercised its discretion legally and in accord ance with a final and enforceable holding and decision of the Supreme Court . . He then told the crowded courtroom that a decision of the Su preme Court could only be changed by a constitutional amendment or by the Court reversing itself and added: The (Supreme) Court has spoken, and whether an individual agrees or dis agrees with that finding, he is bound thereby so long as it remains the law of the land. The Court realizes the change which has come about in this regard, and the difficulty that some may have accepting the reality or the inevitable from the standpoint of enforcement. We live in a country where our rights and liberties have been protected under a system of laws which we know are the best known to man. We must resolve ourselves to be governed by those laws, realizing that among a vast number of people there must be a variety of opinions. The law of the land must be respected. We must all be forced to abide by it. While the active resistance to inte gration had been put down in Balti more for the time being, if not per manently, it was known at press time for this issue, that some of the op position in South Baltimore had re grouped as The Baltimore Associa tion for State’s Rights and was hold ing small meetings. As a counter move to any possible forthcoming action, the 19 civic, religious and welfare groups who had originally gotten together for an emergency meeting had, by late October, formed their own organization—the Coordin ating Council for Civic Unity. Bryant Bowles, after holding a second meet ing in the Baltimore area which drew only half the attendance of the first one, was not openly active in the state in late October. Outside of Baltimore city, in Mary land’s 23 counties, the school situation was generally quiet. The state board of education had announced shortly after the Supreme Court decision in May that county schools would re main segregated until after final de crees were handed down. Anti-inte gration groups had formed in some counties, and on the Eastern Shore there was great interest in and some attendance at segregation meetings in neighboring Delaware towns. But there was no definite state policy in Maryland for people to protest; hence, the county school situation was comparatively calm. The politicians, with all eyes on the November elections, did not stay clear of the school issue for long, however. State Sen. Edward Turner, fighting an uphill battle to unseat Republican Congressman Edward T. Miller on the Eastern Shore, had hinted in September that he was for segregation. On Oct. 2 he brought the racial issue into the open with a legislative proposal “to insure our heritage and our traditions on this Eastern Shore.” Mr. Turner said that “the Mary land Legislature should pass a law which will vest in the local boards of education for each of the counties the right to determine as a fact whether the people’s health, welfare and safety would be in danger by inte gration in the public schools.” This law should further provide, Mr. Turner said, “that if the county boards do find that the people’s health, welfare and safety would be in danger by a policy of integration, the boards would have the power to order segregation for the public schools.” MILLER FIRES BACK Congressman Miller promptly countered with a statement express ing “shock and indignation that Sen. Turner has seen fit to lower the level of the campaign and himself as a member of the Eastern Shore bar by injecting the racial issue.” Congress man Miller, however, did not go on from there and defend the Supreme Court’s segregation decision as the law of the land. Congressman Miller said that he “had no quarrel” with that part of the Turner statement “favoring local self-government and determination of the integration problem at the local level.” On Oct. 4, Dr. Harry Clifton Byrd, the Democratic candidate for gover nor, appeared with State Sen. Turner at Snow Hill, on the Eastern Shore, and warmed up his audience by say ing, “As an Eastern Shoreman, I can appreciate the feelings of Worcester Countians.” He then said, in terms explicit enough to bring whoops and hollers from Worcester countians, “You will want members of the school board appointed who will be able to deal and act in accordance with the age-old custom and tradi tions that have been a part of our way of life.” Two days later Dr. Byrd went all out in his play for the anti-integra tion vote. He issued a statement that recalled Maryland’s long-standing policy of school segregation and said that it “seems to me to be unwise to take such drastic steps as to end im mediately an educational plan that has worked with increasing bene fits to all concerned for many years, and particularly unwise to take such steps where there is strong and sincere opposition to such a change.” He advocated “home rule” in inte gration matters by county school boards, a position akin to Mr. Turner’s. Dr. Byrd’s opponent, incumbent Republican Gov. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, had issued a statement immediately following the Supreme Court decision which indicated his acceptance of integration. He has stayed clear of the subject during most of the political campaign, how ever, on the advice of his lieutenants. When button-holed on the Eastern Shore, for example, and pressed for an answer as to which people he represented, Gov. McKeldin replied, “I represent the law,” and hurried off. Gov. McKeldin was known to be itching to reply to Dr. Byrd’s racial stand. The speech was in his pocket. But he was held back until after a report in The Sun that the Byrd camp had prepared leaflets listing the names of Negroes whom Gov. Mc Keldin had appointed to the attorney general’s office, to a police magistracy and other posts. Then he cut loose. McKELDIN BROADCAST In a radio talk in Southern Mary land, Gov. McKeldin spoke of Dr. Byrd as “this native Marylander who takes the same course as the outside agitators who have sought to divide our citizens with a partition of prej udice.” Referring to a conference Dr. Byrd had held at a hotel owned by a Negro Democratic leader, McKeldin asked, “Does he really think he can get away with talking out of one side of his mouth in one area of Maryland and sneaking in a side door of Balti more’s York Hotel to talk out of the other side in the quiet of a Sunday afternoon?” The governor then con tinued, in part: Come, come, Dr. Byrd! Come out of this bigotry—out of the puddle of preju dice—out of the mire of misrepresenta tion. For the honor of Maryland and the American Association of School Adminis trators, in which you hold membership— in the name of the Free State’s great tra ditions—repudiate that which you have done or which has been done for you. Even in the depths of your desperation, remember this: There can be worse things for a man to live with than being defeated in a political campaign. If the line were not already pretty clearly drawn between the Demo cratic and Republican approaches to the race issue, the Democratic presi dent of the State Senate, George W. Della, applied the clincher on Oct. 22. Appearing in South Baltimore, his home territory, with Dr. Byrd, Mr. Della reminded a political gathering that a Republican magistrate had fined a Negro $50 and a white man $100 in cases arising from the dis turbances at Southern high school. Mr. Della then urged the election of a Democratic governor and a Demo cratic General Assembly so that “we may come back and have white su premacy again in our schools and police stations.” To understand the full significance of the Turner-Byrd-Della state ments, it should be pointed out that the racial issue had not openly been a part of Maryland political cam paigns for many years. The injection of the issue was denounced by the Sunpapers, which gave it as one rea son for their choice of McKeldin over Byrd, and by two prominent Eastern Shore weekly newspapers, as well as by a number of private citizens. And one Democratic boss in Baltimore deplored in public the Della “white supremacy” statement. It was presumed by political ob servers that the Byrd camp had lost a considerable part of the Negro vote in Baltimore and had picked up white votes in the county. But how many votes either way, nobody could make even an educated guess, be cause voters’ reactions to the racial question had never been tested in Maryland on a large scale in modern times. The feeling among many ex perts, or supposed experts, was that McKeldin had the edge up until the time Byrd took a pro-segregation stand and that the racial issue could be the factor to tip the scales in Byrd’s favor. But nobody knew for sure. In the midst of both the political furor and Hurricane Hazel, the rep resentative assembly of the Maryland State Teachers Association approved without argument a resolution en dorsing school integration.