About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1955)
PAGE 8—Jan. 6, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Kentucky Louisville Times Photo LOUISIANA STATE University President Dr. Troy H. Middleton, left, told educators of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools he opposed integration of Negro students in his state. Dr. Philip Davidson, right, University of Louisville president, reported that desegregation has worked smoothly at the institution he heads. LOUISVILLE, Ky. HE Southern Association of Col leges and Secondary Schools ad journed its convention here last month without taking official recog nition of the racial integration issue, though its members were warned by a Catholic priest that they “should not turn away from a problem that is very acute in 1954.” The warning came from the Rev. Andrew C. Smith, a Catholic priest who is president of non-segregated Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala bama. Earlier in the convention Pres ident Smith had asked for a resolu tion on segregation, and when the resolutions committee did not men tion segregation, he then asked to know “the attitude of this organiza tion toward seeing what we can do to give equal education to all our citizens. “We’re dodging ... if we do not face the problem before us,” he said. President Smith said he was “not trying to cause strife,” and asked the resolutions chairman, F. Edward Lund, to propose such a resolution. Lund, president of Alabama Col lege at Montevallo, said the resolu tions committee felt that the Asso ciation had faced the problem in its studies of the segregation question and in previous talks heard during the convention. “We felt there was nothing we could do by taking action,” Lund said. As soon as Lund sat down, the As sociation president, Dr. Carlyle Chamberlain, Raleigh, N. C., called for a vote on the routine resolutions proposed. They were approved, and Chamberlain moved on to other busi ness. DIXON ADDRESS The previous talk to which Lund referred was made by J. Curtis Dix on, Atlanta, vice president and ex ecutive director of the Southern Ed ucation Foundation, in which he said: “Segregation has actually been on its way out for a long time and has been breaking down at the edges for more than a generation. In two great wars we, along with other free peo ples, have preached the right of men everywhere to be free and equal. We have encouraged long oppressed peo ples to rise, and that which is hap pening in our own country is noth ing more or less than the formula we prepared and presented to people in other sections of the world. “We must realize that the old con cept of master-servant in the rela tionship of Negro and white in the South is now gone and will never return again. “It would seem logical for us to recognize that there can be no per manent forestalling of integration.” Dixon said that, contrary to many southern opinions, he does not be lieve the decision of the court will produce revolution. He said that the court decision is “the beginning of a tremendous job for all of us, the job of integration, a job which requires patience, tact and understanding.” PRACTICAL PROBLEMS Financial and practical problems such as what to do with two sets of schools and two sets of teachers must be faced, Dixon said. He added that he believes that various plans pro posed for circumventing the decision would not be legal. These include proposals to transfer all education to a private-school basis, and to gerry mander school districts so as to make them all-white or all-Negro. Dixon urged a “positive, coopera tive study to bridge the gap in atti tudes between people.” “The real decision will be made by Negroes and whites sitting around a table in Podunk and working this thing out,” he said. What some of the attending edu cators termed “an indication of con vention attitude,” however, came earlier in the session when a large audience applauded former Lt. Gen. Troy H. Middleton, president of Louisiana State University, as he de scribed the many court fights in which LSU has opposed opening its various schools to Negroes. Middleton spoke on a program in which he and Dr. Philip Davidson, president of the University of Louis ville, told of their schools’ contrasting attitudes toward racial integration. At LSU, acceptance of Negroes was by court order only, said president Middleton. At the University of Louisville, in tegration has been voluntary and successful, said Dr. Davidson. “This was our approach—to op pose with dignity in the courts the admission of Negroes,” said Middle- ton. “You can well understand the reluctance in that part of the country to admit Negroes to a white institu tion.” Not all of the LSU schools are now open to non-white students, he added. “We will continue to admit them by court order only, at least for the time being,” he said. President Middleton said that there have been 368 Negro students ad mitted to LSU since 1950. Last sum mer 232 Negroes, mostly teachers in Louisiana public schools, attended the Graduate Summer School. The uni versity now has 92 Negro students in graduate schools. The only Negro student admitted so far to the College of Arts and Sci ences entered in 1953 after winning a court fight. The decision was later overthrown in a higher court, how ever, and the student is now enrolled elsewhere. THE LOUISVILLE STORY A different story was told by Dr. Davidson, who declared that integra tion has been successful on the Uni versity of Louisville campus. “No dispute on the U. of L. campus has had a racial basis,” he declared. “Immediately after Negro students were first admitted, a lot of white students leaned over backwards to have a Negro student on every com mittee, and things of that sort. But now student committees are picked on the basis of the best man for the job.” All U. of L. schools were opened to Negroes in 1951. This year, according to Dr. Davidson, there are “about 200 Negro students, but we don’t know the precise number because no rec ord is kept by the school to show whether a student is white or Ne gro. “We are not trying to promote ra cial equality or social reform, but we are trying to operate a first-class ed ucational institution in every way,” Dr. Davidson declared. Dr. Davidson admitted that he has been “troubled” by the fact that in tegration of the old Municipal Col lege, which was all-Negro, with the University, meant “we were unable to take on many able people who for merly taught at the Negro institution. And there have been fewer Negroes attending U. of L. than attended Mu nicipal College,” he said, explaining that “the fairly high tuition has been a barrier to both white and colored students. “The Negro community, however, feels that the trend is in the right direction,” Dr. Davidson declared. “We are building a solid experience that I hope will be of value to the rest of you.” UNIVERSITY PROGRAM While Dr. Davidson and Mr. Mid dleton were outlining their school policies for the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Dr. Frank Dickey, dean of the Col lege of Education of the University of Kentucky, was outlining the univer sity’s integration policies to a con vention of the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, composed of Negro college and school officials. The two conventions were held at the same time but at different sites in Louisville. At the University of Kentucky ad mission of Negroes has been partly by court order and partly voluntary, Dean Dickey said. He told the group that since 1949 the school has en rolled 347 Negroes, including 32 un dergraduates who were admitted for the first time this fall, and has granted degrees to 34 Negroes. “For years the university has been trying to show its belief that segrega tion should be abolished,” he said, “and we believe the university com munity had been somewhat condi tioned to accept Negro students by the court fight in Lexington in 1949.” This referred to a suit brought by Lyman Johnson, Louisville Negro, to gain admittance to the U. of K. Grad uate School. Federal Judge H. Church Ford ruled in favor of John son, and after he was admitted other Negroes enrolled for graduate courses not offered at Kentucky State College (for Negroes) at Frankfort. Dr. Dickey said that there has been no violence or threat of violence since it became known that under graduates also would be admitted. The Kentucky State Board of Ed ucation has promised “the most care ful consideration” of a plan, proposed by the Citizens Committee on De segregation, to ease problems arising from racial integration in Kentucky schools. The plan was proposed by a com mittee composed of James A. Crum- lin, president of the Kentucky Con ference, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Mrs. Anita W. Robinson, executive secretary of the Kentucky Teachers Association, Harry McAlpin, attorney and board member of the NAACP, and Dr. R. B. Atwood, president of Kentucky State College, Frankfort. It suggested that the board of ed ucation: (1) Set up a statewide pool of qualified teachers, white and Negro, who may be forced out of jobs by integration, consoli dation and merger. These qualified “pool” teachers would then be used to replace emergency teachers now employed. (2) Create within the state department of education a new division to devote full time to integration problems. (3) Ask the governor to allocate money from his emergency fund to carry on the work of the desegregation committee as long as it is needed. “We are not trying to usurp the powers or functions of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Desegregation,” said McAlpin. “We are only concerned that qualified persons do not suffer because of the color of their skin.” McAlpin pointed out that while the state currently hires many teach ers that are not fully qualified, and who hold only emergency certificates, nearly all of Kentucky’s 2,000 Negro teachers are qualified. State law allows emergency teach ers to be employed only with the ap proval of the state board of educa tion, and a superintendent wishing to hire an emergency teacher must state that he is unable to find a qualified teacher. Under the “pool” plan, Mc Alpin explained, the state board could refer such superintendents to one of the qualified teachers. “The problem,” he said, “will be solved where thought is given and efforts are made to make it work.” The concern expressed by mem bers of the Citizens Committee re flects the general belief among state educational circles that employment of Negro teachers will be foremost among the problems created by the integration process. Dr. Atwood earlier this year pointed out to the National Conference on the Courts and Racial Integration that the merg er of Louisville’s all-Negro Muni cipal College with the University of Louisville had resulted in 17 of the 18 Negro teachers at Municipal Col lege losing their jobs. On that occasion, only Dr. C. H. Parrish retained his position when Negroes were admitted to the Uni versity of Louisville and Municipal College was dissolved. The danger that this experience will be repeated under integration was expressed by Allan M. Trout, writing in the Courier Journal. If the present staff of 1,453 qualified Negro teachers is frozen out in the inte grated system, the integrated classes will suffer in proportion. Unmixed white classes taught by 5,000 unqualified teach ers simply would become mixed classes taught by 6,500 unqualified teachers. So grave a contingency would send Ken tucky’s literacy rating into another nose dive. A further discussion of the Negro teachers employment problem was given priority by the annual confer ence of Kentucky school superinten dents which convened in Frankfort on Dec. 10. PROBLEMS CITED In a discussion led by Omer Car michael, superintendent of Louisville public schools, the group concluded that these will be the principal prob lems facing Kentucky school admin istrators when the Supreme Court lays down its pattern for carrying out integration. 1. The Negro elementary teachers with a continuing contract, and all Negro teachers generally. 2. Pupil assignment and how flexible to make integration. 3. When and where integration should begin. During the discussion, some mem bers contended that integration should begin in high schools because Negro high schools in the state gen erally offer limited facilities and cur ricula. Several superintendents, how ever, thought the court should offer total integration immediately as su perior from a financial viewpoint. This year may well be the “year of decision” for both the Negro and the South, James M. Nabrit, secretary and law professor of Howard Univer sity, Washington, told a meeting of the Association of Colleges and Sec ondary Schools at Central High School here. The transition to desegregation will not be easy, Nabrit said, but added that “the South can no more cling to the customs and mores of institutionalized slavery than it can halt the advances of technocracy.” Nabrit, who argued one of the cases on which the Supreme Court gave its no-segregation ruling, urged the Ne gro educators to take these steps in behalf of integration: 1. Be more intelligently active in poli tics. 2. Study local school systems and sug gest improvements for the benefit of all children, regardless of race. 3. Know and confer regularly with school officials and school personnel. 4. Enlist the support of community groups favoring the Supreme Court deci sion. 5. Attempt to demonstrate to Southern whites that desegregation has distinct advantages—spiritual and ethical, legal economic, international, educational and social—in order to ease the shock it has caused them. Nabrit described desegregation in schools as a step in a process that has included breakdowns in discrim ination in transportation, armed forces and primary elections. BRADEN CONVICTED Carl Braden, copy-reader for the Courier-Journal, and one of the principals in the much-publicized “Wade case” that has deeply dis turbed people interested in improv ing race relations in Kentucky, was found guilty of violating Kentucky’s 20-year old and never-before used Sedition Law and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and a $5,000 fine. The jury found Braden guilty after hearing Mrs. Alberta Ahearn, a 44- year-old seamstress identified as an undercover worker for the FBI, testify that she had attended Com munist Party meetings at Braden’s home and paid party dues to him. Braden, who had denied party mem bership, again denied Mrs. Ahearn’s story. The November Jefferson County grand jury indicted Braden, along with his wife, Anne, Vernon Bown, I. O. Ford, and Lewis Lubka on charges of conspiring to damage property to achieve a political end. More specifically, they were charged with dynamiting the home of Andrew Wade IV, a Negro electrical contractor, to arouse racial hatred and thus serve the ends of the Com munist Party. BACKGROUND OF CASE This is the background of the “Wade case.” On May 10, Braden and his wife bought a house in Rone Court, near Shively, a Louisville suburb. It was a white neighborhood of homes in the $12,000-$15,000 class. A few days later, the Bradens transferred title to Andrew E. Wade IV, a young Ne gro electrical contractor. There were immediate neighbor hood disturbances. Shots were fired into the house. A cross was burned on a lot adjoining the property. County police set up an around- the-clock watch at the house, and Wade was joined in the house by volunteers who helped him keep watch. One June 22, police discon tinued the day guard. On June 27 the house was seriously damaged by an explosion, although neither Wade nor his three co-watchers were in jured. Meanwhile, the South End Federal Savings & Loan Association, which had issued an $8,000 mortgage on the home, sued to foreclose, charging the Bradens with failing to notify properly the bank on transferring title to the Wades. This case has not yet been heard. Soon afterward, a “Wade Defense Committee” was formed for the avowed purpose of helping the Wades to keep their home in peace. During the summer, Wade and a friend were arrested during an argu ment with the police guard at the home. The police said that the list of Wade’s friends, given by Wade to police guards, did not contain the friend’s name, and tried to prevent him from entering the house. Wade was fined $100 and given a 30-day jail term in Quarterly Court for the altercation that followed. He was re leased on bond. A hearing on his ap peal is pending. On Sept. 15, the Jefferson County grand jury opened an investigation of the explosion. Some of those sum moned as witnesses declined to an swer questions dealing with mem berships in various organizations- Several were held in contempt 0 court for their refusal to answer. On Oct. 1, the grand jury returne indictments on the charge of ad vocating sedition against the Bradens- Vernon Bown, I. O. Ford, Miss Louise Gilbert and Miss Larue Spiker. Bo"" 11 was also indicted on a charge of se ting off the explosion. The November grand jury in®, cated the Bradens, Bown, Ford, an ^ Lewis Lubka on charges of consp 11 ’ ing to damage property to achieve political end. The Commonwealth decided to - Braden first. Key witness in his ca ^ was Mrs. Alberta Ahearn, who sal she was brought into the Communis 1 party by the Bradens. Braden is expected to appeal.
