Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—Feb. 3. 1955—PAGE 5 Kentucky LOUISVILLE, Ky. ELAY by the Supreme Court of rulings implementing its May 17 decision probably means that a new state administration will have to work out the details of Kentucky’s integration program. Kentucky’s biennial legislature does not meet this year. Gov. Law rence W. Wetherby, who long ago announced his intention “to comply with the law as set forth by the Su preme Court,” and who last Novem ber refused to join seven other southern governors in a protest against integration, is not eligible to succeed himself. The primaries next August, when a new governor, other high officials, all 100 members of the State House of Representatives and half those of the 38-seat State Senate will be nominated, are expected to be the hottest—at least for the domi nant Democrats—that Kentucky has experienced in many years. Personalities and factionalism, however, not integration, are expect ed to account for the heat. Integration has not yet been injected as an issue by anyone. Administration support ers believe that the Wetherby line of postponing action until the Supreme Court rules explicitly on what must be done and how, and then to comply with that, will keep integration out of Kentucky’s 1955 politics. The chief clash, however, is ex pected to be between Judge Bert T. Combs, supported by the Wetherby- Barkley-Clements or “administra tion” group for the Democratic gub ernatorial nomination, and A. B. “Happy” Chandler, former governor, senator, and baseball commissioner linked in the past with States’ Rights forces opposed to integration. COMMITTEE MEETS Late in December Gov. Wetherby held his first meeting with his ad visory committee on desegregation, appointed last July. Continuing study was promised by the eight-person board, two of whom are Negroes, be fore its ideas and suggestions are submitted to the March meeting of the state board of education. In Louisville, where roughly one- third of Kentucky’s Negroes live, City School Supt. Omer Carmichael was re-elected for another four-year term by the city board of education on Jan. 24. Mr. Carmichael, who last summer initiated continuing staff- level studies and parent-teacher dis cussions of desegregation problems, told a Negro business club earlier in the month: “As for me, the govern ment has spoken, and I expect to im plement the integration program, as the board of education has directed, in whatever way the court decrees.” On Jan. 24, another Louisville par ent teacher group, which also in cludes members from the eastern end of Jefferson County, devoted a sec ond meeting to discussion of integra tion problems. This was the Eastern Council on Moral and Spiritual Values, a white organization. The Council had ended a similar discussion at its November meeting with agreement that the next session would include Negro guests. About 20 of these, parents and teachers, were on hand for the January meet ing, including two panel members, Dr. Charles H. Parrish, professor of sociology at the University of Louis ville, and Miss Viola Baker, of the Duval Junior High School. Other panel members were Dr. Hugh A. Brimm, president of the Kentucky Council on Human Relations and pro fessor of sociology and human rela tions at the Carver School of Mis sions and Social Work, and Dr. Her bert Waller, Associate Rabbi of Temple Adath Israel. FAST CHANGE URGED Consensus of the panel-and-audi- ence discussion was that integration should come, that it was the law of the land, and that study should be devoted to achieving it in the best possible manner. Negro speakers generally advocated fast progress but not at the cost of increasing the diffi culties of transition. “It is the desire of all parents,” Miss Baker said, “that their children reach the high est possible attainments, moral as well as legal.” Advocating church participation in smoothing the way to transition, Dr. Waller said that “Organized religion should be an instrument of social change. On the basis of moral and spiritual values, no church can up hold segregation.” The luncheon meeting, attended by 125 persons, was held at the Univer sity of Louisville School of Music. On Feb. 9 police officers from all over the South will hear a four-man panel discuss the Supreme Court rul ing and its implications—and quiz the panelists. The Southern Police Institute of the University of Louis ville will present Thurgood Marshall, special counsel of the NAACP, on implications of the ruling and what can be looked for in the future; Hod- ding Carter, Pulitzer-Prize-winning Mississippi editor, on the decision’s impact on the South; Weldon James Louisville Courier-Journal editorial writer, on the historical background of the segregation fight; and Mark Ethridge, publisher of The Courier- Journal, as moderator. The morning session will be open to university students, faculty and community guests; the afternoon session will be limited to Police Institute personnel. In neighboring Ohio students of segregation litigation are awaiting a ruling on the Hillsboro case, in which NAACP lawyers contend a school zoning resolution adopted last year amounts to segregation. The case was initiated in 1954, but U. S. District Judge John H. Druffel in Cincinnati declined to rule pending a further ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court. On Dec. 29, however, after NAACP attorneys had petitioned the U. S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, to order him to rule, Judge Druffel heard additional evidence. The school board contends its zon ing resolution was designed to pre vent overcrowding of two schools, and that as soon as school additions are completed Lincoln School, now all-Negro, will be abandoned and its pupils integrated. Two formerly all- white schools now have 12 Negro pupils. Attorneys for both sides asked for a transcript of the proceedings in the two-part hearing. The court reporter said he could not complete the rec ord for several weeks, and Judge Druffel said after the hearing that he could not rule until the record was available. The Carl Braden story continued. (See earlier issues of SSN for back ground): Convicted on Dec. 13 for advocating sedition, Braden was formally sentenced by Criminal Court Judge L. R. Curtis on Jan. 17 to 15 years’ imprisonment and pay ment of a $5,000 fine. Judge Curtis sustained a motion for an appeal, and set Braden’s appeal bond at $40,000. Later Judge Curtis overruled a mo tion to have Braden declared a pau per (a transcript necessary for the appeal would cost him $4,000, the court stenographer estimated). Earli er, on Jan. 17, the American Civil Liberties Union announced appoint- ent of Louisville attorney Louis Lus- ky as co-counsel for Braden in his appeal. The ACLU’s interest, according to Executive Director Patrick Murphy Malin in a New York statement, “is in the constitutional rights of all Amer icans; the organization took no posi tion on the factual questions involved in the trial.” It was taking action, he said, “only because of the large num ber of important civil-liberties issues in the appeal, some of which have not been resolved previously by the courts.” Florida MIAMI, Fla. pLORIDA has had its second inci dent in which a family was forced to remove its children from a white school on the accusation that they were part Negro. Again the scene was midstate Lake county and again a figure in the case was Sheriff Willis McCall. The latest incident involved Mon roe Taylor, his wife and twin step sons, Lloyd and Floyd, 15. Taylor came to Florida from Dillon, S. C., to seek work as a fruit picker. The boys enrolled in an Avon Park school where they remained briefly before transferring to the school at Eustis. At midnight on Jan. 11, the Taylor family was aroused by a noise at the door of their small rented quarters. This is Mrs. Taylor’s description of what happened. ‘I told my husband he better go to the door, ‘When he opened the door he was SUr Prised to see the crowd of men standing and walking around the yard. The larger of the two men at the door told my husband: We don’t w ant any trouble in our schools,’ and ordered him to take the boys out and kave town.” Taylor, a World War II veteran w ho fought in France, and his wife, ^ ere laid off by their employer earlier -at day. When Taylor was notified . 4 be was no longer needed and ?ryen his back pay, he was handed an envelope which his employer, Elmer aatam, said had been left for him at the office. <,>Jt contained a card with the words, , u Kltix Klan, Mt. Dora, Fla.” janted in large block letters. There as no other message. Mt. Dora is y a short distance from Eustis, in e same county. tr C m atam t°ld Taylor that the °uble over the school attendance w accusa tion that his stepsons wfuf ,f. art Negro had nothing to do Mr t ^missal. He said Mr. and tk e ' Taylor were laid off because ;„„ re , Was no more work at the pack- ,n 8 Plant. 'NDIAN BLOOD htdian 01 " Sa *^ that his wife is part TT>e father of the boys was a a ft er e , ^ nan who deserted his family the K 6y were bom. Taylor married bvirT J**^ one d wife and adopted the s^d as tbs own. One has light tsrk^h ■*’ the other has straight The boys attended white schools at McCall, Hamer, Little Rock, and Clio in South Carolina, as well as schools in North Carolina where Taylor worked on farms. Taylor said no question of their racial origins ever had been raised and they were con sidered to be white. After the incident at Eustis, the Taylors packed their belongings and headed back to South Carolina. Tay lor said he would make no issue. “I could make a case of it,” he declared. “But I want to protect my family, so I’ll leave.” C. A. Wilson, superintendent of the schools at Eustis, said the Taylor twins had been accepted as transfers from the Avon Park school and were considered white by the school au thorities. They mixed well with their fellow pupils. There had been no complaints. THE PLATT CASE The Taylor episode developed only a short time after a special investi gator for Gov. LeRoy Collins had checked into a previous incident in volving the Platt family. The five Platt children were barred from the school at Mt. Dora, on complaint of Shreiff McCall that they had Negro blood. The Platts maintained they were part Indian. The study of the Platt case by Col lins’ emissary was conducted on a confidential basis. The identity of the investigator was not disclosed. The governor said this would allow him to check the facts without being sub jected to community or individual pressures. Collins had been in office only a few days when he was faced with this problem. He received a letter from Platt, whose situation was al most identical with that of Taylor. Platt protested that his children were being denied an education since they were forced out of school in October. “Mr. McCall is sheriff of Lake county and I am told that it is danger ous in this county to antagonize him and that many law-abiding citizens are afraid of him,” Platt wrote in his appeal for a state-level investigation. “My experience with him shows this to be true. I am helpless under those conditions. I have no other re course but to appeal to you to make a thorough investigation so that jus tice may be done.” In announcing receipt of the letter, Gov. Collins said, “Platt asked for an investigation and he makes a prima facie case which justifies one. An investigation will be made and made promptly.” There has been no announcement of the outcome of this investigation. No further word has come, either, from a study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation requested by Federal District Atty, James L. Guilmartin, Miami, to determine if the Platts’ civil rights had been violated. HOST AT BARBECUE The incident involving the Taylor family occurred only a few hours after Sheriff McCall played host to the Florida Sheriff’s Association at a barbecue in Eustis. At this affair, State Sen. B. C. Pearce of Palatka praised McCall for his handling of the Platt case. Pearce called McCall “one of the greatest law enforcement officers in Florida.” McCall is immediate past president of the Sheriffs’ Association. He has been active in the National Associa tion for the Advancement of White People, and spoke under its auspices at Milford, Del. This sequence of events prompted editorial comment by several news papers. They called attention to the “guinea pig” study of public senti ment on the Supreme Court’s segre gation ruling which Atty. Gen. Rich ard W. Ervin had made before prep aration of his brief suggesting grad ual approach to integration. This study cited “a widespread lack of confidence in the ability of peace officers to maintain law and order ...” if trouble develops as the result of integration. “This is particularly true of the peace officers themselves,” the report added, pointing out that a majority of the peace officers re sponding to the questionnaire fa vored continued segregation. CASE BEFORE COURT A legal action for admission of a Negro student in which the Supreme Court decision was specifically cited came before the Florida Supreme Court. It was a petition in behalf of Virgil Hawkins, 48-year-old public relations director of Bethune-Cook- man College in Daytona Beach. Hawkins is seeking admission to the University of Florida’s law school. The suit actually was begun in 1949 when Hawkins and four other Negroes asked the court to order their admission on grounds that equal facilities were lacking elsewhere. On three occasions the hieh court held that Florida A & M University for Negroes at Tallahassee did provide suitable educational opportunities. In renewing the action and citing the May 17 decision as grounds, Horace E. Hill, Daytona Beach at torney, said the issue raised would not affect the public schools. Nor would it break the still-existing ban in the state constitution against the mixture of races in public schools. On this point, Mrs. Constance Mot ley, New York attorney associated in the appeal, told the court: “In this case the court is not faced with conditions of wide applicabil ity. This applies only to the graduate law school of the University of Flor ida and would not affect file public schools.” In legislative caucuses now in progress over the state, in prepara tion for the session that begins in May, opinion is expressed that the segregation issue must be faced. Florida’s legislature meets biennially and if no action is taken this year, the next opportunity, other than at a special session, will be in the summer of 1957. However, no concrete pro posal has been advanced as a basis for discussion. The only leader to take a definite stand is State Sen. Charley E. Johns, who has just stepped down as acting governor. Johns is heading a drive for an ap peal to Congress for a constitutional amendment leaving the question of racial makeup of public schools to the states. So far the struggle—if any—is en tirely behind the scenes. PUBLIC DISCUSSION Elsewhere the public discussion re mained lively. The Tampa Tribune’s political writer, Jim Powell, selected Atty. Gen. Ervin as Florida’s “man of the year,” basing the citation on Ervin’s ‘leadership in guiding Flor ida through the first sensitive months that followed the.... decision against segregation in the schools. “Ervin could have chosen the easy path that some southern states took, simply ignoring the decision rather than trying to make the best of it. He gambled his political future in a statesmanlike presentation of Flor ida’s case for long delay and substan tial local option. “Only a few men like Lake county’s Sheriff McCall waved the bloody banner of racial prejudice. Ervin urged moderation and calm. “Despite the early uncertainties and perils that followed the edict, Ervin stepped into the vacuum and helped lead Florida toward a general ly safe and sane approach.” Others spoke up. At a public forum sponsored by the Greater Miami Chapter, American Jewish Commit tee, Dr. Kurt Peiser, former vice president of the University of Penn sylvania, said: “The implementation of the Su preme Court decision on public school segregation is a responsibility not only for our law enforcement agencies but for all private citizens who are actively involved in the life of their communities.” Segregation was the theme of the national convention in Miami of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, first organized at Cornell in 1906 for Ne gro students and opened to white membership as well in 1946. Dr. A. Maceo Smith of Dallas, fra ternity president, urged the United States to set a world standard in handling the segregation issue. “The time has come for America to close ranks in its defense to develop a bulwark and fortress—and ex amples so set will lessen tensions throughout the world,” Dr. Smith said. He predicted that integration will be effected throughout the South without violence, and urged “edu cation and orientation of both white and Negro citizens in the moral as pects of the problem.” Another national figure, Sen. Rus sell Long, of Louisiana, discussed segregation in a Florida address. He cited the Supreme Court decision as illustrating “a tendency to use the ends to justify the means.” Tuskegee Abandons Report On Lynehings TUSKEGEE, Ala. Tuskegee Institute, in its first an nual survey of racial problems in the U. S., praises the Supreme Court’s May 17 decision outlawing segrega tion in public schools. The decision, the survey says, "allows the individ ual freedom to work out race rela tions rather than legally denying or restricting freedom in their being worked out.” The new survey replaces the old annual lynching report which for many years had been used by the fa mous Negro school as a yardstick for measuring racial friction, or the ab sence of it. Pres. L. H. Foster abandoned the lynching survey after the report for 1953. He said it no longer serves as an accurate index of racial progress. The 1954 survey points to the “great body of laws on the statute books . . . legislating race relations.” Such laws, the surveys suggests, hin der rather than help racial rela tions. But the Supreme Court’s decision shows the way toward a “permissive” doctrine which would remove legal bans and permit “individual freedom to work out race relations,” the sur vey concludes.