Newspaper Page Text
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.