About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1955)
* PAGE 2—March 3, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Arkansas LITTLE ROCK, Ark. T THE end of the sixth week of Arkansas’ two-month legislative session, school forces still faced an uphill fight in their effort to obtain an increase in state aid which would be used in part to equalize school facilities and salaries of whites and Negroes. The school forces, by the end of the fourth week, had enlisted the support and leadership of Gov. Orval E. Faubus to their cause, but in turn had to cut their request for an an nual increase in state aid from $12,- 500,000 to $10,300,000. School forces took the lesser figure in exchange for a spot in an omnibus Faubus tax plan which would aid primarily the public schools and, to a lesser de gree, colleges, welfare, and other state agencies and services. To raise the money, Gov. Faubus proposed an increase in the sales tax from 2 to 3 per cent and in creases in income and tobacco taxes. But even with the governor’s sup port, school leaders admitted they would be fortunate indeed to get anything—much less $10,300,000— from the 1955 legislature. Much of the difficulty arose from Gov. Faubus’ sponsorship, as a cam paign obligation, of an act which exempts livestock and poultry feed GOV. ORVAL E. FAUBUS Speaking at rally of school forces seeking increase in state aid from the state sales tax. The act passed Feb. 17 will benefit primarily Northwest Arkansas poultry grow ers. It will cost the state about $1,- 500,000 a year. Some legislators now say they couldn’t support adminis tration measures to increase taxes after the legislature voted—at Gov. Faubus’ insistence—to cut taxes for a particular group. School leaders say more state aid is needed to increase teachers’ sala ries and to take steps toward equal izing the school program for city and rural districts and for whites and Negroes. ‘WHITE AMERICA’ FORMED On Feb. 3, the incorporation papers of an organization to promote the continued segregation of whites and Negroes in Arkansas were filed with Secretary of State C. G. Hall. Three Pine Bluff men were listed as in corporators of the profit organization —White America, Inc. Listing authorized capital stock of $10,000, the papers identified the in corporators as L. E. Taylor, J. L. Po- teet and L. D. Poynter. The corpora tion’s main office will be at Pine Bluff and Poynter was named resi dent agent. Hall said the incorpora tion papers were mailed to his office by Hendrix Rowell, a Pine Bluff attorney representing the incorpora tors. Among the objects of the organi zation: “To promote, sponsor, foster, and encourage the continued segregation of the Negro and white races by every lawful means whatsoever, and to engage in any and all lawful projects to accomplish the acquisition thereof. “To invest corporate funds in law ful enterprises consistent with the purposes thereof and to establish branch offices wherever and when ever deemed feasible.” On Feb. 18, Poynter said that petitions calling for a vote on inte gration of white and Negro children in public schools would be presented to the General Assembly and the governor. Poynter said the petitions were being circulated in Jefferson, Pu laski, Grant, Cleveland, Lonoke and Desha counties. The petitions “be seech our esteemed governor and the honorable body of our legisla ture to take such action as is neces sary to prevent desegregation in our public schools and, if necessary, re fer this matter to the people of Ar kansas.” He said 100 petitions with space for 50 signatures on each were being circulated. “At least 95 per cent of the persons asked to sign have done so,” Poynter said. NAACP HOLDS MEETING On Feb. 5, Vernon McDaniels, a field secretary from the national of fice of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo ple told about 50 Arkansas NAACP members at Little Rock that “the first task before us is to bring all forces interested in integration into a cooperative move.” McDaniels said he had spent two months in Arkansas gathering in formation on attitudes about inte gration and had found “tremendous support” for the Supreme Court decision against racial segregation in public schools. “It is extremely vital that this in terest be directed and coordinated,” he said. McDaniels said the NAACP mem bers could make the integration process move more smoothly by sell ing the idea to the natural leaders of the community. “We cannot overlook the influence that certain people have in their community,” he said. “Their leader ship ability and ability to command others must be used in our favor.” McDaniels said that many Negro teachers had the impression that there would be wholesale firing of teachers if integration came. “We must fight this type of propaganda and assure our teachers of our sup port,” he said. McDaniels said he was one of three field secretaries employed by the NAACP since May 17 to work on the desegregation problem. He said the CIO gave $75,000 to the NAACP for this work. ISSUE IN LEGISLATURE The subject of possible desegrega tion in the public schools of Arkan sas wasn’t mentioned on the floor of the legislature until Feb. 8, about the mid-point in the 60-day legis lative session. This first mention of the school segregation issue led primarily to the Senate defeat of a resolution (Senate Resolution 6) asking Con gress to vote money for schoolhouse construction. The resolution was introduced by Sen. Roy L. Riales of Mena. It fol lowed a special message by Presi dent Eisenhower asking Congress to appropriate seven billion dollars for nationwide school building. Arkan sas’ senior U. S. senator, John L. McClellan, is among the sponsors of federal legislation for school con struction aid. State Sen. W. E. (“Buck”) Fletcher of Schott warned his colleagues in the Senate that acceptance of federal aid might jeopardize the traditional status of segregation in Arkansas public schools. The resolution failed by two votes to get the 18 votes necessary for pas sage. The roll call showed 16 for, 8 against, and 11 not voting. Attributing part of the higher cost of education to the Supreme Court decision on racial segregation in schools, the resolution said: “The federal government must join in the responsibility for public education.” The resolution said that within the next six years, Arkansas would need 8,113 new classrooms costing about 180 million dollars; 12 million dol lars to repair and remodel existing classrooms; $2,300,000 for new school sites, and 21 million dollars to equal ize facilities for white and Negro Proponents, Opponents of Segregation Bill REP. ROGERS SEN. LONG SEN. FLETCHER Sponsors of Arkansas Bill To Keep Segregation STATE SEN. ROY W. MILUM of Harrison, Arkansas, receives a resolution protesting House Bill 488. designed to maintain segregation in public schools, from a delegation of Negro leaders including, left to right, I. S. McClinton, president of the Arkansas Democratic Voters Assn., Mrs. L. C. Bates, presi dent of the Arkansas Conference of Branches of the NAACP, and T. W. Coggs, president of Arkansas Baptist College. students. It said that Arkansas schools already had debts totaling 72 million dollars and that many dis tricts had reached the limit of their ability to pay for new construction. “We can’t afford to accept any federal money because to do so would be to invite the end of segre gation,” Sen. Fletcher said in speak ing against the proposal. “I’m afraid to accept this money,” he said. “We might have to do away with segregation. We might be in viting plenty of trouble. The United States Supreme Court has not said when we will have to do away with segregation, but I’m still afraid of it.” ANOTHER BILL PASSED On Feb. 11, the Arkansas Senate approved a bill (House Bill 183) enabling the state to accept federal aid for school construction if it be comes available. Approval by a vote of 20-9 came despite another warning that ac ceptance of such aid might break down racial segregation in the pub lic schools. Nearly all of the nine negative votes came from senators representing East Arkansas, where the percentage of Negro population is highest. Sen. Robert Hays Williams of Russellville called up the school aid bill which had been introduced in the House by his representative, Paul Van Dalsem of Perry county. The bill has been passed by the House without stirring up any con troversy. Sen. Williams said the bill merely would authorize the state education department to determine where fed eral aid for construction—if avail able—should go. Sen. Fletcher said that if Arkansas accepted federal school funds “they might put the pressure on us to desegregate.” “If we accept this money they are going to tell us what to do with it,” Sen. Fletcher said. “I would vote for every tax measure Gov. Faubus has proposed if I thought it would help us keep segregation.” Williams said he was against fed eral control, too, but that he was “not willing at this time to say we should not accept money to help our public schools.” Sen. Riales told the Senate it was “asinine” not to take federal money for construction when the schools needed it as they do. SEGREGATION MEASURE Legislation designed to keep Ar kansas schools segregated was in troduced Feb. 16 in the General As sembly by identical bills which mentioned neither “segregation” nor “Negro.” The bills (Senate Bill 319 and House Bill 488) were the first legis lative response to the Supreme Court decision which said racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The bills would set up a procedure on the assignment of pupils which would be new in Arkansas. Similar legislation has been proposed in Tennessee. Sponsors are Sens. Fletcher Long of Forrest City and W. E. (“Buck”) Fletcher of Scott, Rep. Lucien C. Rogers of Crittenden county and several other East Arkansas repre sentatives. It is believed that the administra tive procedure outlined, if adopted, would delay the admission of Negro children to the white public schools for months or years— if not forever. The state now has no such pro cedure and a Negro school patron whose child has been denied admis sion to white schools could now ap peal directly to a federal district court. Sen. Long said federal courts have held that appeals cannot be taken to federal district courts until all state remedies have been ex hausted. “This bill would give them lots of remedies to exhaust,” Long said. DETAILS OF SYSTEM The system would work this way: 1. Each school district would name an “assignment officer.” 2. The assignment officer would assign each school child in the dis trict to a school. 3. If the child’s parent—or any other taxpayer—objected to the as signment he could protest to the assignment officer. 4. The officer would be required to hold a hearing. 5. If dissatisfied with the decision, the protestant could appeal through the local school boards, the county board of education, the state board of education, the circuit court, the Arkansas Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. LIST OF FACTORS The assignment officer would be empowered to consider various fac tors in assigning a child to a school. The bills mention specifically: 1. The welfare and best interest of the child. 2. The welfare and best interest of all the children in the district. 3. The geographic location of the residence of the child as related to the location of the various schools of the district. 4. The availability of school facili ties, including sanitary conditions and availability of qualified teach ers. 5. Health and moral factors in the schools and in the district. 6. Aptitude, previous school train ing and home environment of appli cants. 7. Any or all other factors which the assignment officer may consider pertinent. After these factors are considered, the assignment officer would send each child to the school which “will best promote the applicant’s ability to study, to engage in discussions, recreational activities and exchange of views with his school associates.” Each applicant for admission to school, the bills say, must be as signed to the school which “will have a tendency to eliminate or de crease any feeling of inferiority on the part of the applicant as to his status in the community. . . .” The bills state that nothing in them may be construed as depriving any child of school age of the right to a free public education. The purpose of the legislation, according to the bills, is to “assure equal education opportunities for all the children of Arkansas who are entitled to free public school educa tion in a manner which is wholly consistent with and required by the inherent police power of the state of Arkansas to promote and protect the public health, peace, safety, hap piness and morals of all the people of Arkansas.” LIMITS FOR APPEALS The bills list time limits of 10 days to 30 days for various steps in ap peals by protestants. If the maxi mum time is used for each step, it would require 370 days to carry an appeal from the admission officer to the circuit court. On Feb. 17, Gov. Faubus declined to comment on bills introduced in both houses with the aim of getting around or delaying any integration order by the Supreme Court. But he said he thought more money for public schools might help to solve the segregation problem in Arkan sas. Faubus said he thought that segre gation in some degree could be maintained if teachers’ salaries and plant facilities were equalized to the point that the Negroes would be reluctant to seek integration through court action. He said the inequality of salaries for white and Negro teachers was one factor on which he based his decision that the schools needed more money. Faubus pointed out that a large portion of the extra money sought by the school forces would be used to equalize the teach ers’ salaries and the plant facilities of the white and Negro schools. A survey by the state education department on 1953-54 school opera tions showed that 12.9 per cent of the total public school plant in Ar kansas was devoted to Negroes, who made up 24.06 per cent of the en rollment. The report showed the average white teacher’s salary was $2,306 a year, compared with $1,962 for the Negro instructors. SPEECH BY BISHOP On Jan. 26 at Hot Springs, Rt. Rev. R. Bland Mitchell of Little Rock, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, uged his churchmen in a convention address to “meet the segregation issue squarely.” Bishop Mitchell said the Supreme Court decision on segregation ® public schools “is but the logic of our federal Constitution and demo cratic form of government, tinge® perhaps by the philosophy of the social thinking of today.” On Feb. 21, House Bill 488, de signed to preserve segregation m Arkansas’ public schools, was ap' proved 58-20 by the House of Rep re " sentatives. The emergency clause on the measure, which would make it et ' fective at once, failed despite a sec* ond vote engineered by the but proponents. The proposal received less tha® three minutes’ consideration—I®* 5 time than was devoted to the debat® on the second try to tack on t® emergency clause, which required ® votes. « Cries of “call the roll” greet®® Rep. Lucien C. Rogers of Crittende County when he called up his ® which would set up an assign® 6 ® procedure to maintain segregation- Rogers spoke less than a min® ^ declaring that everyone knew the measure was about. He said established an administrative P r ® cedure which could be utilized ' Continued On Next Page
