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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 '
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