Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965, January 06, 1955, Image 2
PAGE 2—Jan. 6, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Alabama
West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va.
total of 52,545 white and Negro
children are attending 135 inte
grated public schools in West Vir
ginia this year as a result of the U. S.
Supreme Court’s May 17 decision.
These figures were released re
cently by Dr. W. W. Trent, state
superintendent of free schools.
His department sent out question
naires to West Virginia’s 55 county
school superintendents, asking for a
detailed report on integration.
This survey, which produced the
first complete statistical breakdown
on integration in this border state,
revealed that:
(1) 27,337 white and 428 Negro stu
dents are attending 49 integrated
junior and senior high schools.
(2) 24,198 white and 582 Negro
children are attending 86 integrated
elementary schools.
(3) 88 school buses are transport
ing 538 Negro and 3,421 white pupils
at the same time.
(4) 19 Negro schools have been
abolished this year.
JOB LOSSES NEGLIGIBLE
Although some observers feared
that most Negro teachers would lose
their jobs as a result of integration,
no definite discriminatory pattern
has emerged in West Virginia.
A total of 15 Negroes and 998
whites are teaching both white and
Negro children.
In West Virginia’s 26 counties that
have integrated or partially inte
grated schools, eight Negro teachers
and five Negro principals have been
dropped—as compared with 1953-54.
But this doesn’t mean that all these
Negro personnel bowed out because
of integration. Some retired, some
accepted jobs in other counties. A
few without contracts weren’t re
hired.
No cases have been reported of Ne
gro teachers with contracts who
were dismissed in desegregated
counties.
Although three Negro principals
didn’t keep their jobs, the number of
Negro teachers increased from eight
to nine in Monongalia County—which
pioneered complete integration in
West Virginia.
COLLEGE PATTERN
On the college level, another sur
vey conducted by Dr. Trent’s office
revealed that Negroes are attending
10 of the 11 state colleges, which
were opened to Negroes last spring
by the state board of education.
A total of 1,245 Negro and 13,344
white students are enrolled at the 11
institutions.
West Virginia State College at In
stitute, near the capital city of
Charleston, demonstrates what can
happen under desegregation. *
One of the nation’s outstanding
Negro colleges, West Virginia State
now has 182 full-time white students
out of a total enrollment of 983.
Many other whites are enrolled on
a part-time basis since the Institute
school is the only state-supported
college in the Greater Charleston
area.
Three whites are attending West
Virginia’s other former all-Negro
college, Bluefield State at Bluefield
just across the Virginia border.
At West Virginia university, an
estimated 21 Negroes are enrolled out
of a sutdent body of 5,500. Marshall
College at Huntington, second larg.
est state school, has 35 Negro stu
dents out of 2,926.
Four Negroes are attending Shep
herd College at Shepherdstown,
which lies at the far tip of the state’s
Eastern Panhandle.
No Negroes applied for admission
to Glenville State College at Glen-
ville, the only state-supported school
without Negro students. But Negro
teachers have attended Glenville’s
Attendance Officers Workshop foi
several years.
BULLETIN’ ARTICLE
A recent article in the West Vir
ginia Association of Higher Educa
tion’s Bulletin pointed out that the
“seed of desegregation of schools has
been planted and cultivated in West
Virginia for many years.”
Educator M. B. Thomas explained
that West Virginia University “was
the first university of the South to
follow the mandates of the U. S. Su
preme Court decision in the Gaines
case in 1938.”
“A group of high state officials and
educators met and decided that Ne
groes would be permitted to enter
the graduate and professional schools
of WVU, but no publicity would be
given it,” he wrote.
Thomas cited two other examples
of “the seed of desegregation” in
West Virginia:
1. White students have been tutored
at West Virginia state “over a long
period of years.”
2. The late Gov. George W. Atkin
son received an LL.B. degree from
Howard University at Washington
and for many years served on
Howard’s board of trustees.
COMMITTEE REQUESTED
Another significant action on West
Virginia’s integration front last
month was a request that Gov. Mar-
land create a state-wide human rela
tions committee to promote “a gen
eral education program dealing with
human relationships.”
A seven-man delegation from the
State NAACP Conference proposed
the interracial committee at a recent
meeting with the governor.
The NAACP petition said:
This committee could serve a good pur
pose in our state by gathering facts, M i
making individual and group contacts, W |
publishing certain materials, by offer®
suggestions to the governor as well *
other state and local officials, and by j ir: "
moting a general education program. j
A key function of the advisor!
committee would be to help dire 0 <
integration of West Virginia’s pubk
schools.
“The governor said he would stud! '
the idea and let us know,” said Att! ;
T. G. Nutter of Charleston, preside®
of the NAACP State Conference. h
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
N the past few weeks, White Citi
zens Councils, similar to those
previously reported in Mississippi,
were organized in five counties in
Alabama’s agricultural black belt.
Prior to the organization of the first
group in Selma, Dallas County, one
of the founders explained the mission
of the White Citizens Council this
way:
Committees will be formed, the
spokesman said, with the duty of ana
lyzing information about Negroes
suspected of “agitation” to determine
which are “all right” and which
should be given the “pressure.”
The Dallas group, at a rally in
Selma, Nov. 29, disavowed all inten
tions of violence. The “pressure” to
be resorted to would be economic, it
was explained. The Selma spokes
man continued:
“The white population in this coun
ty controls the money, and this is an
advantage that the council will use
in a fight to legally maintain com
plete segregation of the races.
“We intend to make it difficult, if
not impossible, for any Negro who
advocates desegregation to find and
hold a job, get credit or renew a
mortgage.
“We are not anti-Negro; we only
want segregation maintained. And
we are not vigilantes. We will op
erate openly and violence is the fur
thest thing from the minds of council
members.
“We have lived with Negroes all
of these years without trouble, and
it is our utmost desire to continue the
happy relationship, but on a segre
gated basis.”
PRAISED, DENOUNCED
This threat of economic sanctions
against Negroes favoring integration
was denounced by some newspapers
and citizens, defended by others as a
legitimate way to preserve segrega
tion.
Vincent F. Kilborn, prominent
Mobile attorney, called on Montgom
ery Circuit Judge Walter B. Jones,
president of the Alabama Bar Asso
ciation, to “denounce in the name of
the bar” the White Citizens Councils
movement. Kilborn wired Judge
Jones:
The bar of Alabama, sworn to uphold
the constitution of the United States and
our state, and to abide by the code of
ethics your illustrious father first formu
lated (Judge Jones’ father, once governor
of Alabama, was author of a treatise on
legal ethics) will be wanting in basic
Christian duty toward our neighbors if
we do not take the lead in crushing such
movements as this.
Most of us favor segregation, but we
are unalterably against such movements
as this plan to deny work, credit and
basic human needs simply because some
Negro exercises his right to advocate
peaceably what he thinks ought to be
done.
We may disagree, but we must defend
this right to think and speak as his own
conscience dictates.
THE JUDGE’S REPLY
Judge Jones, in refusing to make
such a denunciation as Kilborn re
quested, answered:
The State Bar Association is always
concerned with the rights and privileges
of our people. Segregation is a contro
versial issue in our state today. Those
who oppose it are using, as they have
the right to do, all legal means within
their power, and the forces of such social,
political and economic pressures as they
are able to mobilize.
Those who favor segregation likewise
will doubtless use all legal, social, poli
tical and economic weapons at their dis
posal in order to hold firm what they
conceive to be their individual and com
munity rights. The lawful exercise of
those measures is the privilege of all such
citizens.
Neither side to this controversy can ex
pect to be unopposed by counter mea
sures. So long as measures taken by either
side are within our constitutional frame
work, no one can rightly complain.
The bar of the state of Alabama in
cludes all shades of political opinions
and sects and races. Those favoring the
abolition of segregation have been un
hampered by bar association pressures of
pronouncement in their political, econom
ic and social movements looking to its
abolition.
Regardless of my feelings and with
respect to the matters which you called
to my attention, I do not feel that I, as
president of the bar association, am au
thorized to censor them unless I . . .
should also take unto myself the right
to censor political, social and economic
activities looking to the abolition of seg
regation.
If, when all the facts are at hand, it
should appear that any unlawful activi
ties exist aiming at depriving any of our
citizens of their constitutional and sta
tutory rights, they have adequate reme
dies in our state and federal courts, and
will find those courts open to hear their
complaints, and members of the Alabama
bar ready to assert and defend the rights
of our citizens.
The five White Citizens Councils so
far organized are all in counties
where wnites, not Negroes, are in the
minority.
In Macon county, the population is
84% Negro; in Dallas county, 65%; in
Marengo, 69.4%; in Hale, 70.3%; in
Perry, 67.5.% In only five other coun
ties, none of them yet organized, is
the Negro population in relation to
the total population as high as 65%
(the lowest of the percentages in the
above organized counties).
All of these predominantly Negro
counties are in the old cotton-tobacco
area in the central part of the state.
More than 1,200 white men from
Black Belt areas attended the White
Citizens Councils rally in Selma, Nov.
29. Contributions totaled $1,800 as
600 Dallas county men signed up as
charter members.
The three principal speakers were
from Mississippi, where similar coun
cils had already been formed. The
three Mississippians were Rep. J. S.
Williams and Sen. T. M. Williams of
the Mississippi legislature, and the
Rev. M. H. Clark, a Presbyterian
minister.
Rep. Williams emphasized that the
Mississippi organization is “not one
of violence.” He continued:
“The citizens committee of Missis
sippi is not a Ku Klux Klan, but our
purpose is to give a direct answer to
the National Association of Colored
People. We have a heritage in the
South for which we should ever be
vigilant . . . The NAACP’s motto is
‘The Negro shall be free by 1963’—
and shall we accept that?
“We can’t have it, for if we do, it
would ruin the economic system of
the South. The men of the South are
either for our council or against it.
There can be no fence-straddling.”
Object of the councils is, he said,
“the honor-bound and Christian
cause in which we are working to
preserve segregation.”
SUPREME COURT HIT
The Rev. Mr. Clark charged in his
address that the segregation issue was
“catapulted upon us by nine obscure
men on the Supreme Court.” He
added:
“The Supreme Court is not a legis
lative body but it is designed to fol
low precedent of the law and to in
terpret the law. It is not designed to
make a declaration of policy for the
nation.”
Sen. Williams said:
“We are charged with defying the
U. S. Supreme Court. The time has
come when citizens should sacrifice
something for their country and we
need leadership in this fight.”
Williams also severely criticized
leaders of the Methodist Church for
their recent statements favoring in
tegration.
MARENGO MEETING
At the Marengo county organiza
tional meeting in Linden, Ala., Dec.
6, Alabama State Sen. Walter C. Giv-
han charged that the ultimate goal
of thte NAACP “is to open the bed
room doors of our white women to
the Negro men.” Some 400 white men
attended the meeting.
“This is a white man’s country, it
always has been and always will be,”
Givhan said. “It is our duty to train
our boys and girls to fight the same
battle as we are now fighting.”
Givhan was critical of Walter
White, head of the NAACP, and said
that it was the goal of those favoring
integration to elect a Negro vice
president in the near future.
“And after that happens, what
would prevent them from assassinat
ing the President, thus making the
Negro become President. . . You say
it can’t happen here, but I say it can
and will unless we stand up and
fight ... As far as integration in the
schools is concerned, the whole U. S.
Army is not big enough to force that
upon us.”
Dr. Lawrence Crawford, chairman
of the Perry county WCC, also warn
ed in his address of racial intermar
riages:
“Only through organizations such
as this can we keep the Negroes out
of our schools, out of our churches
and out of the bedrooms of our white
wom«n.”
Dr. Crawford quoted one member
of the Perry County Board of Regis
trars as saying: “If the WCC had been
organized a year ago to back us up,
no Negro would have been registered
to vote.”
McCain Pitts, Selma attorney who
spoke at the Linden meeting said that
if any Negro attempted to enter a
Selma school “there is going to be
blood spilled on the campus.”
Several speakers urged that the
“economic pressure program” be be
gun immediately.
Organizational meetings of the
other county Councils were of lesser
size. Only 50 white men attended the
meeting in Notasulga, Macon County,
Dec. 15 to organize a chapter in the
home county of the famed Tuskegee
Institute for Negroes. The meeting
was closed to reporters.
METHODISTS DISSENT
A special committee of Methodists
from six southern states was formed
in Birmingham to preserve racial
segregation in Methodist churches.
The program adopted at the meet
ing is in avowed opposition to the
Methodist Church Council of Bishops,
which had adopted a resolution sup
porting the outlawing of racial seg
regation in public schools. Nine
bishops from the Southeast did not
vote in favor of the resolution, ac
cording to Bishop Clare Purcell of the
North Alabama Methodist Confer
ence. No action has been taken to
abolish the all-Negro Central Juris
diction of the Methodist church,
which includes Negro churches and
missions.
Sidney W. Smeyer, Birmingham at
torney and lay leader, warned that
many northern and eastern Metho
dists favored abolishing the Central
Jurisdiction, which could, he said,
“mean the end of segregation within
the church.”
“I will warn you a vain and again,”
Smeyer said, “that there are going
to be times when we are going to have
to stand up and fight for our convic
tions.”
Although only 60 ministers and lay
leaders were formally invited to the
Birmingham committee meeting,
more than 200 attended. They came
from churches in Alabama, Georgia,
Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida and
South Carolina.
Dr. Guy McGowan, pastor of Bir
mingham’s Highlands Church, said:
“We note with exceeding grave
concern efforts being made within
our church for sudden and drastic
changes in the organic structure of
our church and in social relation
ships between the races on the con
gregational level.”
The resolution, aimed at preventing
the abolition of the all-Negro Central
Jurisdiction, urged churchmen to:
1. Use all rightful means to oppose any
statement by Methodist publications or
groups who will seek to change the pres
ent law of the church governing white
and Negro members.
2. To devise a plan of informing Meth
odists of efforts to promote a policy of
racial integration within the church.
3. To request all delegates to confer
ences to oppose any such movement.
4. To request Methodist leaders to pre
sent statements to church members on
how the abolition of the Central Jurisdic
tion would affect the church and its
agencies.
5. To recommend that groups be or
ganized to confer with Negro leaders re
garding problems that may arise out of
the “racial tension engendered by leaders
of radical groups.”
Smeyer said efforts would be made
to send delegates to the 1956 General
conference who favor continued
church segregation.
COLLEGE DESEGREGATES
The first all-white college in Ala
bama to accept Negro students—
Spring Hill College in Mobile—re
ported Dec. 22 that there had been
only one incident since the doors were
opened to Negroes in September.
Rev. Albert S. Foley, S.J., associate
professor of sociology at Spring Hill,
said one prospective woman student
decided not to register when she
learned the school would admit sev
eral Negroes to its regular day classes.
Other than this, Father Foley said,
the first few months of integration
have been uneventful.
Spring Hill, founded in 1830, is one
of Alabama’s oldest colleges. It is a
four-year Catholic liberal arts col
lege offering, in addition to the regu
lar liberal arts course of study, cur
ricula in pre-med, pre-law, business
administration and pre-engineering.
Enrollment in day classes this year
is 670, including six Negro freshmen
—three women and three men. Six
other Negroes, all men, are attending
night classes at Spring Hill. Night en
rollment is 390. Negroes comprise
33.8% of Mobile County’s total popu
lation, 35.5% of the city of Mobile.
DECISION BACKGROUND
The present integration experiment
—which is not so much an experiment
as a first step in the college’s new
policy of integration—dates back to
the summer of 1951.
Several Negro Sisters from Mobile’s
two Negro convents were admitted to
summer school classes so that they
could maintain their teacher credits.
Negro Sisters were later admitted to
Saturday classes during the regular
semester sessions.
In September, 1953, three Negro
men were admitted to the collet ^
evening classes. In his commence ^
ment address last June, Spring H® 1 . j
president, the Very Rev. Andrew ^
Smith, S.J., said that the col)® ^
would abide by the Supreme Co6l*|
May 17 decision. President Smith
native of Natchez, Miss., served,
dean of the college for some 20 y e ^ t(
before his elevation to the preside! 1 ■ tl
Formerly a men’s college, Sprj 5 ' *
Hill became coeducational in the
of 1953. This year a new club, tt
Coed Club, was chartered on ^
campus. The founders were told tc
the dean that under the school'sJj _ c
policy the club must be chartered^ sr
interracial, which it was. Negro ^
men regularly attend meetings, F 3 rf
er Foley said. . h
As to how the new Negro stud ^ cj
have been accepted, Father f, th
explained that they seem to eX Kjjfr ^
ence some isolation, and some • ^
culty in getting acquainted and ■
ing their way around. But, he a
so do most freshmen, in some 01
Since Negro students comprise
1% of the total enrollment, ^
presence is hardly noticed, he sa