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Georgia
MACON, Ga.
/\K January 11, Georgia will in-
” augurate as its 72nd governor S.
Marvin Grifiin, who has promised
that as chief executive the state will
never accept mixing of the races in
the classrooms and will resist it with
all resources.
A new state legislature will con
vene on Jan. 10 and is expected to
consider enacting at least three laws
recommended by the Georgia Edu
cation Commission and designed to
keep whites and Negroes separated
in the schools by local option.
The commission, set up by the leg
islature itself to chart Georgia’s
strategy aimed at maintaining seg
regated schools, met Dec. 8 and voted
to submit to the legislature the three
suggested measures drafted by Atty.
Gen. Eugene Cook, Commission
Counsel B. D. (Buck) Murphy and
Commission Secretary Durwood Pye.
If approved by the General As
sembly of Georgia, the laws would:
1. Make it a felony punishable by two
years imprisonment for any state, coun
ty, city or school official to allow any
state or local funds to be used for a mixed
school or to nay any teacher instructing
a mixed class.
2. Permit local school superintendents
to assign pupils to specific schools and
grant to the state board of education
authority to make tuition grants to pupils
dissatisfied with the school to which they
are assigned so that they could go to a
private school.
3. Authorize local boards of education
to map attendance districts and require
pupils to attend the school in the district
in which they live, the districts to be
maimed so as to “best promote public ed
ucation within the school district.”
Bill No. 1 contains a provision ex
empting state and local funds used
to pay off State School Building Au
thority bonds from the ban on use of
local or state funds for mixed schools,
stating: “... the provisions of this
act shall not apply to the annual
capital outlay funds allotted to the
local school units as referred to in
the General Appropriations Act ap
proved Feb. 20, 1953, or to any funds
hereafter appropriated for capital
outlay purposes nor to funds for
payment of principal or interest on
anv bonded school indebtedness.”
Bill No. 2 would serve as enabling
legislation for the segregated private
school amendment to the State Con
stitution adopted by Georgians in the
Nov. 2 general election. The amend
ment permits the legislature to make
tuition grants of local or state funds
to individual students in discharge of
all educational obligations and pro
posed Bill No. 2 would assign the
authority to make such grants to the
state board of education. It would
also create a “grant register,” to be
used only for education and its use
supervised by the board, by means
°f which the state board of educa
tion would keep records of the names
°f students and the amounts of tui
tion funds granted.
Bill No. 3, allowing local boards to
-eate attendance districts, states
that in addition to considering what
best promote public education
Wl thin the school districts, authori
ties will weigh such factors as dis-
tances, school bus routes, roads and
school populations. It would require
students to attend schools in their
■stricts but contains a provision
stating: “This law shall not prevent
e assignment of a puoil to another
school within the school district pur
suant to anv law authorizing the as-
SI gnment of public school pupils.”
legislators polled
t ^Parate questionnaires submitted
the members of the incoming state
cgislature by the Associated Press
d the United Press attempted to
J* u Se the sentiment of legislators on
easures propo' cd as means of de-
t' ln K integration or thwarting it
^together.
^The AP asked members of the
that Se an< ^ ® ena te if they believed
1seSre0a tion could be preserved
p r j anen tly through a ' system of
W( 7*e schools. Fortv-two answers
a- rec ei v ed, 18 giving a flat “ves”
J’iffcp^ anc * s ' x a fi a t “no” answer.
PY _ en said thev did not know or
cessed hone that it could.
imtv? 2 ' Braswell Deen Jr., said: “It is
evejjf 31 . e to accurately predict the
“ if a private school system is
used and I would only consider using
it as a last resort.”
Another representative comment
ed: “I believe segregation will be
maintained for many years in Geor
gia, but I will not guess what the
Supreme Court will say in its final
decision.”
One legislator said, .. the people
of Georgia have enough guts to pre
serve segregation whether it be by
public or private schools.”
Rep. William B. Freeman believes
segregation can be maintained by a
private school system but added,
“the problem is keeping it private.”
Asked how they felt about deny
ing state funds for mixed schools, 43
approved and two opposed.
Replies from 17 per cent of the
legislators were received in answer
to the Associated Press question
naire.
OTHER REPLIES
The United Press reported an
swers from 26 per cent of the legisla
tors to questions dealing with segre
gation and other legislative matters.
The UP said 32 of the 259 General
Assembly members are against en
acting enabling legislation at the
January session for the private
school amendment while 10 approve
of such legislation. Ten others said
they would support such action if
convinced it was absolutely neces
sary and 16 said they have not yet
made up their minds.
The 32 legislators opposing enabl
ing legislation for the segregated
private school amendment indicated
in answers to other questions that
they would go along with the assign
ment plan giving the state board of
education authority to make tuition
grants to individual students if a pro
test against his assignment by the
student is upheld.
Sponsors of this proposed law do
not believe it is enough of an en
abling act to cause a major fight in
the legislature, since the authority to
be given the state board is already
being exerted by the State Board of
Regents who operate the University
System of Georgia.
Tuition costs at out-of-state col
leges are paid by the regents for
Negro students desiring to take col
lege courses which are not available
in Georgia’s Negro colleges.
COURT DELAY HAILED
Postponement of the U. S. Supreme
Court hearings to determine when
and how the decision outlawing seg
regation in the public schools should
be implemented was hailed with “de
light” by Gov.-elect Griffin. He said:
I am delighted that Georgia will not
have to consider the matter of segrega
tion at this time.
It will suit me fine, and I am sure it
will suit all Georgia folks if we never
have to consider it again.
Two days later, President Eisen
hower told a Washington press con
ference it was his understanding the
Court was trying to work out the in
tegration problem under some sort
of decentralized process.
Gov. Herman Talmadge, who had
only a few days before pledged,
along with seven other chief execu
tives attending a Southern Governors
Conference, to “exercise every proper
prerogative” to maintain segregation
in the schools, commented immedi-
atelv on the President’s remarks.
“President Eisenhower may be
backing down a little on his segre
gation stand.” Talmadge said. The
Georgia governor attached no signi
ficance to the Supreme Court’s post
ponement of implementation hear
ings but thought Mr. Eisenhower’s
statement significant.
“Heretofore, President Eisenhower
has been rather proud of his part in
breaking down all forms of segre
gation,” Talmadge said. “It might be
that he realizes the situation is so
fraught with explosive possibilities
that he is seeking some way to back
down a little on it.”
The U. S. Supreme Court hearings
were postponed until some time after
the U. S. Senate reconvenes in Jan
uary and approves the appointment
of Judge John Marshall Harlan of the
U. S. Court of Anneals in New York
named by President Eisenhower to
succeed the late Justice Robert H.
Jackson.
Judge Harlan’s appointment was a
deliberate move to strengthen anti
segregation feeling in the court, it
was charged by Roy V. Harris, Au
gusta attorney and former speaker
of the Georgia House who managed
Herman Talmage’s successful cam
paign for reelection as governor in
1950.
Harris urged Georgians and other
Southerners to get behind a cam
paign to have southern senators
block Judge Harlan’s appointment to
the Supreme Court and to vote
against every man named to the Su
preme Court until different type men
are appointed.
COOK’S ADDRESS
In a speech before the annual con
vention of the National Association of
Attorneys General at White Sulphur
Springs, West Virginia, Atty. Gen.
Cook of Georgia, retiring president
of the body, dealt at length with the
ramifications of the decision outlaw
ing segregation in the public schools.
Cook advocated the enactment by
Congress of a bill to strip the U.S.
Supreme Court of its jurisdiction
over state educational systems, say-
ATTY.-GEN. COOK
ing such a course represents the most
effective remedy to the decision. The
decree, he contended, “had the effect
of amending the Constitution,” an au
thority which is not delegated to the
courts.
The text of a proposed bill, which
he had drafted and described as
“simple, short and devastatingly ef
fective,” was read by Cook. It said:
Be it enacted by the Congress of the
United States:
Section I: The Supreme Court, the sev
eral District Courts and Courts of Appeal,
and any and all other federal judicial
tribunals, quasi-judicial tribunals and all
administrative or executive agencies shall
have no jurisdiction to decide or consider,
either originally or on appeal, or by any
other means of review, any matter draw
ing in question the administration by the
several states of their respective educa
tional systems.
Section II: All laws and parts of laws
in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.
Cook said the wording of the bill
was not to be construed as “any crit
icism or condemnation of the United
States District Courts.” He termed it
“unfortunate” that the lower courts
would have to be circumscribed in
order to deal with the Supreme Court
but said it was necessary because
otherwise the district courts would
still be bound by former Supreme
Court decisions concerning school
segregation.
Removal of educational matters
from the court’s jurisdiction was held
by Cook to be the “only effective an
swer nationally.” Any other course,
he said, will result in “a generation
of litigation which will solve noth
ing. ...”
PRECEDENTS CITED
The Georgia attorney general listed
precedents supporting the proposed
congressional action to limit the jur
isdiction of the federal courts and
quoted from opinions by Chief Jus
tices Marshall and Taney concerning
such a course.
He said the U.S. Supreme Court
has overstepped its authority in many
instances in recent history and cited
three examples in: (1) a decision in
terpreting the Natural Gas Act; (2) a
ruling in an Arkansas tax case hold
ing that contractors employed by fed
eral agencies are exempt from state
taxation; (3) the decision outlawing
segregation itself.
Terming these as examples of
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—Jan. 6, 1955—PAGE 7
usurpation of authority not held by
the court, Cook said there are three
courses open to curb such “usurpa
tion.” The three courses were listed
as:
(1) Amendment of the Constitution
to authorize the acts prohibited by
the court as was the case in the adop
tion of the Sixteenth Amendment af
ter the court declared the federal in
come tax unconstitutional.
(2) Legislation enacted by Con
gress overriding specific decisions of
the court as was the case when Con
gress conveyed title to tidelands to
the states after the court has ruled to
the contrary.
(3) Limitation of the court’s appel
late jurisdiction as provided in Sec
tion 2 of Article III to the Constitu
tion and as suggested by Cook in the
segregation cases.
OPINION ISSUED
Earlier, Cook had issued an official
opinion as attorney general of Geor
gia that the State School Building
Authority may legally transfer its
buildings to private schools.
The opinion was given in answer
to a request by State School Supt. M.
D. Collins who, prior to ratification of
the constitutional amendment per
mitting the legislature to establish a
segregated private school system, had
questioned the legality of transfer
ring any school buildings being
financed through leases with the au
thority to private schools, in view of
alleged contract terms stating that
the structures are to be occupied by
the county and city systems.
In a letter regarding the segre
gated private school plan, Cook cited
a U.S. Supreme Court decision
which upholds the right of a state-
supported corporation to enforce
segregation, as long as the state itself
does not require segregation. The dis
closure has been interpreted in some
quarters as probably one of the
state’s big arguing points if the seg
regated private school plan is ever at
tacked in the federal courts.
The case cited by Cook, Dorsey vs.
Stuyvesant Town Corporation, in
volved a New York housing project
which was subsidized by New York
State and for which the state con
demned land.
When segregation in the housing
project was challenged, the court
ruled: “Respondents cannot be held
to answer for their policy under the
equal protection clause of state or
federal Constitutions. The aid which
the state has afforded them and the
controls to which they are subject are
not sufficient to transmute their con
duct into state action . . .”
The General Assembly of Georgia
has been constitutionally empowered
to set up state-financed organizations
to maintain segregation in the
schools.
The State School Building Author
ity was confronted early in Decem
ber with a ruling by Ohio banking
authorities that bonds issued by the
authority are not an “eligible in
vestment.”
Bonds totalling $127,909,000 have
been issued by the authority in the
past two years in a vast program
aimed at equalizing educational fa
cilities available to separate races
and improving all schools. A bond is
sue of 40 million dollars involving 42
school systems is scheduled in the
near future.
Thurman R. Hazard, Ohio bank
ing superintendent who announced
the ineligibility ruling, emphasized,
however, that it had nothing to do
with ratification of the segregated
private school amendment by Georgia
voters and that the decision was ac
tually made late in the summer.
BUILDING PROGRAM
The City of Atlanta, meanwhile, is
rushing to complete a 10-project five
million dollar school expansion pro
gram before the arrival of the flood of
new students expected for the 1955-
56 school year.
Negro schools in Atlanta will get
$2,306,190 and white schools will re
ceive $1,675,500, with the remainder
of the bond issue going for new fur
niture and equipment, paving streets
fronting schools, a renovation pro
gram and other contingencies. This
is the first time in many years that
Negro schools have received a major
portion of a bond issue for school im
provements in Atlanta.
The Bibb County Board of Educa
tion was requested to integrate the
races in the schools immediately by
the Macon Chapter of the National
Association for Advancement of Col
ored People which submitted a peti
tion signed by Negro parents. A con
ference of white and Negro citizens
to discuss the request was also asked.
Forty-two parents of Negro school
children had their signatures on the
petition, but a check by local news
papers, after some parents claimed
they had misunderstood the petition,
revealed that four thought they were
signing in the hope of obtaining more
schools, three said they “positively”
did not sign and several others said
they did not remember signing.
Dr. J. S. Williams, president of the
Macon Chapter of the NAACP, said
only Negroes employed by other Ne
groes or by the federal government
were asked to sign, in order to avoid
subjecting petitioners to economic
pressures, and added that the text of
the petition was in plain view and
understandable for all who were
asked to sign.
MINISTER IN NEWS
In Shellman, Ga., a Baptist min
ister who publicly expressed himself
as being in favor of the Supreme
Court ruling on segregation, was
ousted from his church. The board
of deacons demanded the resignation
of the Rev. Henry A. Buchanan at a
called church conference following
Sunday school. The board of deacons
had earlier voted to obtain a new
pastor for the church but agreed to
give Buchanan an opportunity to re
sign.
The minister criticized the con
gregation as “prejudiced” and said he
thought the church members were
“seekers of truth,” but found out he
was mistaken.
He went to the church rolls,
scratched out the names of himself
and his wife, and wrote in the mar
gin beside them, “Cast out,” after the
congregation voted 78 to 17 to accept
the board’s recommendation that the
pastor be ousted.
Truitt Martin, church secretary,
said the Buchanans were not being
cast out and claimed the church only
needed a change of leadership. “Why
quibble with words?” reacted
Buchanan, who is reported now en
rolled at a Baptist school in Louis
ville, Ky.
Correction
(Note: Through an error in makeup, a
portion of Ralph McGill’s review of the
new book, “Schools in Transition,” was
inadvertently omitted from the December
issue. The missing portion follows.)
One of the dismal facts of bi-racial
conditions has been, and is, the lack
of communication between white and
colored leaders. That this factor crops
up in the study is not surprising. The
following important paragraph is
from the summary:
A tendency frequently observed in com
munities where desegregation initially
aroused opposition was a lack of com
munication between white and Negro
leaders and a tendency on the part of the
whites to attribute the local call for de
segregation to “outsiders.” Sometimes re
sponsibility was imputed to national or
ganizations having a local branch or chap-
ter..Sometimes the reaction took the form
of our own Negro people are satisfied
with things as they are—It is only those
outsiders who want change.” Where defi
nite information was available, however,
it usually showed that among the local
Negro people there were proponents of
integration and that the white members
of the community did not always have the
.L k ”° wledge of the h °Pes and feelings
of their Negro co-residents.
Again, let it be said that this fac
tual study, like a patient’s hospital
chart, shows sudden uprisings, fever
ish infections; reductions of tempera
ture by the antibiotics of knowledge,
good will, common sense and under
standing, along with a malarial-like
tendency for the fever to recur. But,
all in all, the book itself is a sort of
antibiotic and one wishes it could be
widely read by all those on both sides
of the segregation issue.
While disclaiming any prophetic
quality, the authors conclude:
No detailed prophecies can be made here
as to the long-term future of integration
in the schools. Unless our experience to
date has been wholly misleading, however,
a generation from now the people of the
United States may be able with some pride
to look back on this period as a time of
successful transition, accomplished in a
characteristically American way.”
And certainly any who calls him-
self “American” must hope for the
accuracy of that prophecy.