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PAGE 12—Jan. 6, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
North Carolina
RALEIGH, N. C.
AS the date for the convening of
x the 1955 N.C. general assembly
approached, there were indications it
will send an expression of its senti
ments on school desegregation to the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Such a course of action has been
recommended by Rep. Larry I.
Moore, of Wilson, who has no oppo
sition for the powerful position of
Speaker of the House. Moore agreed,
however, that any legislation on the
subject would be premature pending
the implementation decree.
The “no legislation” adherents thus
include the three key figures in the
Assembly: Moore, Gov. Luther
Hodges and Sen. Luther Barnhardt
of Concord. The latter is without op
position for the job of president of
the Senate, over which he will pre
side.
Barnhardt said the Assembly
would be “leaping in the dark” if it
acted on the school segregation issue,
and Gov. Hodges called this “a sensi
ble statement.” The governor also
praised the Federal government’s
position that implementation should
be accomplished gradually.
OPPOSES INTEGRATION
A lawyer-farmer and long a power
in political circles, Moore left no
doubt that he personally opposes in
tegration. He said, “We owe it to the
Supreme Court to give them our
‘slant’ on segregation. We should give
them an indication of how we feel
about it.
“I don’t think it would be entirely
fair to say to them ‘We’ll accept
100% what you send down’ if we are
not going to do it. I think we ought
not to give them the impression we
are going to buck if we’re not or that
we’re going to accept everything if
we’re not.
“I think we should let them know
where we are planning on heading—
to lay it down cold unless we are
willing to accept what they give us.
“We should send up something
reasonable, fair and logical instead
of making a sounding board for a lot
of speeches. We ought not to pass
any final law, because we can’t pass
anything final until they pass some
thing final.
“It is not my opinion that either of
the races will be benefited by it (in
tegration) at the present time, and I
think we ought to let the Supreme
Court know that.
“I don’t think we should go so far
as to threaten the court. We should
declare our stand in a nice way.
“The General Assembly may see fit
to say to them that if they do so and
so, the only alternative for us here
would be to do so and so, but we
should not make a threat.
STATE NOT READY
“We should tell them, I think, that
North Carolina is not ready to accept
non-segregation in the schools, and
that to impose it now would be to
create bitterness between the races
instead of to improve the relations
we have tried for years to build up.
“North Carolina has the reputation
among Southern states of a moderate
in race relations. We want to do
what’s best for both white and col
ored children, and to bring about
mandatory non-segregation at the
present time wouldn’t be for the best
interests of either. Nor would it bet
ter relations between them.
“For the General Assembly not to
say anything at all would, on its face,
appear smart. But I think we owe it
to the court, and to our people, to
give a good, logical, concise state
ment of the way our people feel.
They just don’t want it at the present
time, and it would be very difficult
for them to accept it now. We
shouldn’t just sit back and let the
court think that we’re ready, just
waiting for them to tell us what to
do, and then have trouble somewhere
when they put it into effect. They
are entitled to our feelings on the
subject.”
Another legislator, Sen. Arthur
Kirkman of High Point, told a meet
ing of the North Carolina Associated
Press News Council that he had been
approached on the subject of school
segregation by a number of col
leagues. A few—“a very few”—have
suggested that public schools be
turned into private schools. “I don’t
think that’s the answer,” he said,
adding:
“The proposal I have heard most
discussed among my legislative col
leagues goes no further than decen
tralization of the schools, which are
now operated statewide.
“This would make it so that the 100
counties of North Carolina may be
come the sole defendants in possible
lawsuits, rather than the state. This
would make 100 possible defendants
instead of one. It would further the
ideas of those who wish to delay in
tegration legally.
“I have some reservations in my
mind on this point. It poses a finan
cial problem. Would the financial re
sponsibility also be shifted back?
“These proposals are not answers,
but aimed at delay.” Kirkman said
the “calm, deliberate way” North
Carolina has approached the problem
“makes me proud of my state.”
GOVERNOR PETITIONED
Meanwhile, a professor of anatomy
at the University of North Carolina
Medical School—Dr. W. C. George—
originated a petition to the governor
and General Assembly asking con
tinuation of segregation “in the in
terest of protecting both races from
destruction.”
Dr. George said commingling of
white and Negro children in the
schools would lead to “destruction of
the races” and that the segregation
problem is “purely a biological and
PROF. W. C. GEORGE
social one.” The petition “deplores
the efforts of some people to identify
a program of integration of the races
with Christianity. There are vital
reasons why destruction of the white
and colored races should not be pro
moted. It is unbelievable that we
should passively accept such an out
come by edict.”
On the biological aspect, Dr. George
said, “No cattle breeder would want
to cross up his productive stock with
a stock with an unproven record ...
We should do all in our power to
develop their (the Negroes’) capaci
ties but not destroy ours ... When
you cross up different breeds of ani
mals, including man, you spoil the
breed.” He added:
“It is better for the two races to
make their own contributions to civi
lization without destroying their ca
pacities by blending. What I have in
mind in this: The Negro race has not
yet proved its capacity to develop a
civilization. All great civilizations of
ancient and modern times are from
some branch of the Caucasion or
Mongoloid races.”
The petition:
We, the undersigned residents of the
State of North Carolina, earnestly petition
you to do everything in your power to
maintain separate schools for white and
Negro pupils. The members of the two
races signing this petition wish to live on
terms of peace and good will and help
fulness with one another under a program
of separateness in social life. A spirit of
good will and helpfulness has been in
creasingly present in recent years where
agitators have not interfered.
Inasmuch as a careful reading of the
New Testament reveals that Christ never
said one word about the race problem, we
deplore the efforts of some people to
identify a program of integration of the
races with Christianity. It is rather a
biological-social problem. There are vital
reasons why destruction of the white and
colored races should not be promoted. It
is unbelievable that we should passively
accept such an outcome by edict.
Dr. George has not released figures
on the number of signers. In mid-
December, a month after he launched
it, he said he had received more than
350 communications about it. “The
reactions in these communications ...
indicates approximately a 30-to-one
sentiment in favor of my position,”
he said.
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT
Another educator — Dr. Mason
Crum, professor of Biblical literature
at Duke University—took a different
view in The Christian Advocate, na
tional Methodist weekly. A native of
South Carolina and grandson of a
slave-holding minister, Dr. Crum
wrote:
“To most Southerners the abolition
of segregation in public educational
institutions was inevitable, as was
the abolition of slavery.
“Churches that have been spirit
ually embarrassed for years have
welcomed the Supreme Court deci
sion. The greatest fear in the South
is social equality, or compulsory so
cial intermingling. But the Supreme
Court decision has nothing to do with
personal social relations. It is aimed
at equality of opportunity in tax-sup
ported educational institutions . . .
The removal of racial barriers in tax-
supported institutions is perhaps the
first great step in the direction of a
new order in the South. Who knows
but what it may be the dawning of a
new day?
“You may talk to farmers, laborers,
trainmen and professional people, and
they will generally agree that the de
cision was inevitable and right.
“There is, of course, some loose
talk when the thought is motivated
by a deep-seated prejudice which
has over the years formed the culture
pattern. Whenever the accepted cus
toms of generations have been chal
lenged, there is always a spontaneous
resistance to new ideas.
“For years Southerners have suf
fered from an inner emotional con
flict. Their ideals of social justice
have been at cross purposes with the
prevailing practices of their region.
But now that which they knew in
their heart of hearts was right and
just has been declared by the high
est court in the land ...
“In spite of the difficulties...
most Southern people are willing to
tackle the problem and meet what is
perhaps the most momentous situa
tion since Emancipation...
“Too much attention has been giv
en to the aggressive wing of the
Negro group. Not everyone is a
meddler and a strife stirrer who de
sires to effect some justifiable change
in the customs of a region.”
EQUAL SCHOOLS ASKED
In Newton, a delegation of 25 Ne
gro patrons of the Maiden Negro
Elementary School told the Catawba
County Board of Education they had
no desire to see integration effected,
that they did want equal school fa
cilities. A delegation of Negroes from
the Catawba and Sheriffs Ford sec
tion some weeks ago had asked the
school board to order integration in
Catawba as soon as possible.
Clarence D. Wilson of Maiden was
spokesman for the anti-integration
delegation. He said, “We don’t want
that at all. We want our boys and
girls to stay like they are.” He added
that his group wanted equal facili
ties, however.
Maiden elementary students now
attend school in a three-classroom
building without central heat or
sewer facilities. In Catawba and
Sheriffs Ford, Negroes have a mod
em school plant.
“We don’t want to mix and min
gle,” said Wilson. “We think it will
cause trouble, and that a lot of edu
cation through the churches and
schools is needed before we are ready
for desegregation.” He said another
century may be required before in
tegration can be effectively carried
out.
Hary M. Arndt, superintendent of
county schools, said that $150,000 had
been earmarked for Maiden school
improvements, but the money is be
ing held up pending further Supreme
Court decrees. Approximately 60
Negro families, most of them home-
owners, live in the Maiden com
munity.
The delegation, like the pro-inte
gration one, was thanked by the
board which said it could not take
action in view of the pending decree.
In Greensboro, the Right Rev.
Vincent Waters, bishop of the Cath
olic Diocese of Raleigh, announced
an interracial parochial high school
for white and Negro Catholic chil
dren will be built there. Earlier, inte
gration of other Catholic high schools
in the state had been ordered.
“We are going to integrate Cath
olics,” Bishop Waters said, “but we
are not going to integrate non-
Catholics.”
STUDENTS DEBATE ISSUE
In Winston-Salem, high school
speech and debate students voted in
favor of gradual desegregation in the
public schools. The occasion was a
meeting of the Carolina district of
the National Forensic League, at
tended by 60 students from North and
South Carolina.
A resolution calling for gradual
desegregation was passed as a sub
stitute resolution for one which ad
vocated the abolition of public
schools. Most of the speakers on the
subject favored immediate integra
tion. Said Mary Anny Bryant of
Greenville, N. C., “They could inte
grate the schools tomorrow and it
wouldn’t make a bit of difference to
me.
Two students said they were “ap
palled” at the segregation stands
taken by their parents, who favored
continued segregation. John Barn
hardt of Concord, N. C., calling the
resolution premature, said he would
vote for it nonetheless.
Walter Carl of Sumter, S. C., op
posed it. Each race, he said, has its
own purposes and “complete integra
tion will result in the obliteration of
one of the races.”
CARROLL’S SPEECH
Dr. Charles F. Carroll, state su
perintendent of public instruction,
told a school group that North Caro
lina is probably farther advanced in
its approach to the segregation prob
lem than any of the other states con
cerned.
“By abstaining from anticipatory
and precipitate administrative ac
tion,” Dr. Carroll said, “our leaders
have not confused nor have they in
flamed the minds and emotions of the
people.” No “responsible” person in
the state has made a statement or
committed an act that he had to re
tract or regret later.
“Instead, our governors, legislators,
attorney general, advisory commis
sion members, school boards, educa
tors, newspapermen and others have
consciously striven to create and sus
tain an atmosphere in which people
can think clearly and act intelligent
ly.
“This procedure is characteristic
of the manner in which North Caro
linians have always approached
grave problems and decisions. It is
this approach that causes many peo
ple elsewhere to look to us for guid
ance.
.. All these events are integral
parts of North Carolina’s plan to pre
serve the public school system, re
spect community attitudes, and solve
properly the manifold social, legal
and economic aspects of the perplex
ing problem.
“Under the calm and stable leader
ship of Gov. Hodges and the General
Assemblies of the years ahead, I am
confident that this state will resolve
the issue of segregation to the satis
faction of all who genuinely want it
resolved.”
TREND IN COLLEGES
Dr. Guy B. Johnson, University of
North Carolina sociologist, said that
Negro graduate and professional
students are being integrated into
Southern institutions of higher learn
ing “with little indication of undue
friction or strain.” He based his ob
servations on a tour of southern
states in which Negro graduate stu
dents have been admitted.
“In contrast to all the talk about
preserving segregation in the public
schools in spite of the Supreme
Court’s decision, the colleges and
universities of the South have quietly
undergone a ‘revolution’ in the last
five or six years,” Dr. Johnson said.
He added:
“As a result of court decisions and
voluntary action, at least 30 publicly
supported institutions and about 40
private and church colleges have
opened their doors to Negro students
... All of the state universities in the
South except South Carolina, Geor
gia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi
now have some Negro students en
rolled. This transition from complete
segregation to some degree of inte
gration has been accomplished with
little fanfare and a single incident of
interracial friction.
“The great majority of Negro stu
dents are graduate and professional
students. Very few undergraduate
students have been admitted to the
state universities as yet; hence the
Negro students have been mature
serious-minded people who are
working toward definite vocational
goals. Perhaps this is fortunate, be
cause it has made the transition
process possible under the most
favorable circumstances.
“When the state institutions start
admitting Negro undergraduates, as
they are bound to do in the next
year or so, the undergraduates will
profit by the pioneering which the
older Negro students have done.”
In general, Dr. Johnson said, Ne
gro students are not coming up to
the white students’ performances ir
the classroom. He said, “But I think
it is significant that I ran across no
one who wanted to attribute this to
some ‘racial’ inferiority of the Ne
gro. Rather there was simply a rec
ognition of the practical situation,
namely, that many of the Negro stu
dents, perhaps the majority of them,
have come up in a segregated school
system which is below standard and
which has not prepared them to com
pete on even terms with white stu
dents.”
Negro students, Dr. Johnson said,
take an active part in campus affairs.
But “in the strictly social aspects of
student life, such as dating, dancing,
going to parties, sorority and fra
ternity activities, the amount of in
terracial contact is close to zero.
Here both groups have recognized
certain long-standing traditions, and
neither group has intruded upon the
private social world of the other
group.”
CHURCH ACTIONS
In Raleigh, the Raleigh Ministerial
Association passed a resolution to
establish the policy that in the fu
ture all community ecumenical serv
ices sponsored by the association will
be on an interracial basis. A commit
tee was appointed to implement the
interracial resolution.
At the Baptist State Convention in
Charlotte, some 2,700 delegates
adopted a committee report calling
for restrained emotions. It also said
that “in the South race relations is
a biracial matter” and added:
“The Christian citizens in the
South, if the spirit of the court’s de
cision is taken seriously, must re
affirm their belief and teaching about
man as having infinite worth in the
sight of God. The crux of the Chris
tian attitude is to view other humans
as being of equal worth and thus
worthy of equal rights and responsi
bilities, until those persons prove
themselves unfit for rights and re
sponsibilities.”
Other proposals for action on the
segregation questions were referred
to committees for study.
In Chapel Hill, approximately 6®
persons formed an interracial com
mittee “to consider ways in which
the community can help meet the
problems posed by the Supreme
Court’s decision.”
ntegration Totals
>8% In Wilmington
WILMINGTON, Vel
In his latest report on the progres-
f integration in the Wilmin&^V
:hools, Supt. Ward I. Miller said tha
bout 68 per cent of the elemental
ublic school pupils in the city n °'
ttend integrated schools.
The remaining 32 per cent, he sai^
ve in neighborhoods where the s
junding population is either
'hite or all Negro.
So far, there has not been one pu
cized incident within the Wilm ^
)n public school system and only
;tter to the editors of the WilrninfP^
apers, opposing integration m \
ity schools since the open®^
ffiool. That was a letter from a ' v ^
arent who complained abou
bild being taught by a Negro teac