Newspaper Page Text
57^7
»/'
Factual
Olfr a
Southern School News
Objective
'VOL. I, NO. 8 NASHVILLE, TENN. APRIL 7, 1955
Arguments On DecreesTo Begin April 11
T WO major new developments
highlighted the segregation-de
segregation issue during the month of
March:
1. The U.S. Supreme Court an
nounced that beginning April 11 it
would hear oral arguments on the
formal decrees in the five public
school cases.
2. The Fourth Circuit Court of Ap
peals, in a decision interpreted as
having wide implications, ruled en
forced segregation of Maryland pub
lic recreation areas unconstitutional.
Elsewhere in the region, legisla
tures either adjourned, or approached
adjournment. Legislation designed to
preserve segregation in one way or
another was adopted by the legisla
tures of Mississippi, North Carolina
and South Carolina, but failed of
passage in Arkansas and Tennessee.
Here is a capsule summary of re
gional developments during March:
ALABAMA
As the Alabama legislature com
pleted the second of two special ses
sions called by Gov. James E. Folsom
to consider his road and welfare pro
grams, Folsom served notice of what
he expects of the legislature when it
meets for the regular biennial session
in May—school aid. Meanwhile, the
report of a special legislative com
mittee, set up by the 1953 legislature
to study school segregation, was for
mally presented to the lawmakers.
A noted Alabama legal scholar at
tacked the committee’s “private
school” recommendations as uncon
stitutional and as a waste of the state’s
time, money and energy. He also crit
icized the committee’s conclusions
about race relations and its methods
of collecting data and formulating
opinions.
ARKANSAS
The Arkansas Senate turned down
a House-approved bill designed to
Preserve racial segregation in public
schools through a system of admis-
sion officers and a lengthy appeal
Procedure. The General Assembly
ended a 60-day legislative session
without providing additional reve-
nne for the schools—in fact, the
schools will get less state aid—but
Passed legislation to encourage more
effort at the local level through equal
ing an( j increasing property assess
ments. Representatives of the Missis-
s *PPi Association of Citizens Coun-
f 1 s s P°ke at a rally of White Amer-
ca> Inc., of Arkansas, attended by
out 500 persons.
Delaware
A Delaware State Board of Educa-
y° n P ro Posal that the 110 white and
ro!? 0 sc D°ol districts in the state be
seh UC f^ *° ^ fair ly autonomous
* as to distric ts, without distinction
color lines, is being interpreted
Notice
Sout hern School News is the
,
publication of the Southern
|(j., <a *' on Reporting Service, 1109
It . "'' f “ South, Nashville, Tenn.
ip^i*. * s,r 'buted free to interested
re 9Ue«t Ua " and or S anizations u P on
s CHo quiries about Southern
to SFn'o NEWS should he addressed
Sta,; O. Box 6156, Acklen
q ° n ’ Nashville, Tenn.
t he D ,
^blish i' eportm S Service was es-
Srirj ( , e< hy the southern editors
on ,/ Uca tors whose names appear
fin an e mas thead on Page 4. It is
for th / )y a 8 ran t from the Fund
an j n j Advancement of Education,
hy ( l Pe ndent agency established
A n e n? r ,d Foundation.
‘cy V j]|’e'al statement of SERS pol-
heaj^ also he found in the mast-
Here Is Background
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Supreme Court on April 11 will
begin to hear further arguments on
how and when to put into effect its
historic decision of last May that
public school segregation is uncon
stitutional.
Court Clerk Harold Willey said the
arguments on the five cases might
take the greater part of a week if all
the parties involved use their full
allotted time.
Hearings on the method and timing
of integration were slated to start last
Dec. 6. Argument was deferred be
cause of a court vacancy resulting
from the death of Justice Robert H.
Jackson and Senate delay in con
firmation of Justice John Marshall
Harlan to take his place.
in some parts of the state as a step
toward integration throughout the
state.
Dr. Raymond Cobbs, controver
sial personality in the Milford School
case, has resigned, even though more
than 700 residents of Milford have
openly expressed confidence in him.
A civil rights code has been pre
sented to the General Assembly for
approval, by a Negro resident of Wil
mington who is a Democratic repre
sentative in the legislature.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Washington Board of Educa
tion in March moved into the last
round of the ticklish problem of in
tegrating top school personnel with
out discriminating against incum
bents. The school board learned that
one phase of the job reorganization
eventually would result in an annual
$90,000 savings in salaries. The board
approved a revamping of administra
tive posts which gave many key edu
cators new duties—but postponed ac
tion on realignment of supervisory
jobs which would result in future
abolition of more than ten present
positions. Board members drew on
the opinion of large community
groups before acting on any part of
staff reorganization.
FLORIDA
In preparation for his oral argu
ments to the United States Supreme
Court, Florida’s Atty. Gen. Richard
W. Ervin rechecked the results of a
leadership survey made last summer
as a basis for his brief. He reported
an apparent stiffening of resistance
to immediate desegregation and a
tendency to more vocal opposition.
This strengthened his belief, he said,
that violence might result if integra
tion is attempted too swiftly.
GEORGIA
No change was noted in the anti
integration position of state govern
ment leaders as groups on either side
of the issue publicly called for oppo
sition to or compliance with the Su
preme Court decree outlawing seg
regation in the schools.
Plans to raise funds for a combined
CIO-AFL drive to wipe out segre
gation in the South were announced
by delegates to a meeting of United
Packing House Workers in Atlanta.
The Southern Regional Council and
the NAACP Southeastern Regional
Conference criticized Southern states
which have made no moves toward
compliance.
KENTUCKY
Increasing Negro participation in
desegregation discussions was re
ported in Kentucky. Speakers or con
sultants of the interracial Kentucky
Council on Human Relations were
Harlan, 55, a New York court judge,
took his oath of office March 28, al
most two weeks after the Senate by a
71 to 11 vote approved his controver
sial nomination.
Thus, a full bench of nine members
will hear the arguments which will
be the basis for the writing of a form
al decree for the cases involving Vir
ginia, South Carolina, Kansas, Dela
ware and the District.
Final decisions in these cases affect
all the other 17 states that maintain
separate schools for white and Negro
pupils. Most of the South has adopted
a wait-and-see attitude toward in
tegration, pending the final court
orders which now are expected by
June.
The five school segregation cases
have spanned two administrations,
active in 19 counties of the state. A
mixed panel of students from 18 Ken
tucky colleges and one Indiana insti
tution agreed that “prejudice begins
at home.” Two white Louisville or
ganizations had Negroes participate
in their meetings, and one accepted
an invitation to have its April meet
ing at the home of a Negro. Louis
ville’s school superintendent, after
desegregation talks before a dozen
groups, reported he had yet to face
“an unpleasantly aggressive or an
tagonistic question.”
LOUISIANA
Louisiana’s vast tidelands oil riches
were the prize in a tug of war be
tween highway and education forces.
Education forces are seeking $225
million to equalize the white and Ne
gro facilities all over the state.
After what appeared to be an early
agreement between the two forces
on division of the money, the rise of
a third group, calling for “pay-as-
you-go” programs on both levels, has
apparently thrown settlement of the
issue back until next month.
MARYLAND
Montgomery County has become
the first in Maryland to issue a defi
nite and detailed statement of its
plans to desegregate public schools,
once legal barriers are removed. The
County Board of Education state
ment followed a full and frank dis
cussion of the issue by many county
groups. At Annapolis, the bill to open
all public accommodations to Negroes
was defeated by the General Assem
bly, and two bills aimed at circum
venting school integration were in
troduced.
MISSISSIPPI
The Mississippi legislature ad
journed a special session on April 7
after financing a Negro-white school
equalization program designed to
preserve a voluntary segregated
school system. The plan is to make
Negro schools equal to those attend
ed by whites, and includes teacher
salaries, transportation, administra
tion and facilities. The special session
also inserted in the state constitu
tion an amendment ratified by the
voters last December which author
izes the legislature, as a “last resort,”
to abolish the public school system if
necessary to avoid integration.
MISSOURI
Kansas City, second city in the
state, published plans for integrating
both elementary and high schools at
the start of the term next Septem
ber. In St. Louis, where high schools
were integrated Feb. 1, one incident
of racial friction marred an otherwise
peaceful record of transition. Louis
ville’s superintendent of schools
On Cases
both opposed to racial discrimination.
They went to the Supreme Court in
1952. Six months after the first argu
ments, the court asked attorneys for
participants to present further argu
ments and to answer five questions
bothering the judges. This second
round of arguments was heard in De
cember, 1953.
The court’s unanimous decision
came on May 17, 1954, knocking out
the “separate but equal” doctrine
which kept school segregation legal
since 1896. Coupled with this deci
sion, however, were two questions
which the judges said they still found
perplexing: the when and how of
integration.
Briefs were filed in November in
preparation for the third set of argu
ments.
urged school administrators attend
ing a professional conference in St.
Louis to face up to the problem of
ending school segregation in conform
ity with the Supreme Court’s deci
sion. Missouri’s legislature declined
to repeal present laws providing for
segregation, although the attorney
general has ruled them to be unen
forceable.
NORTH CAROLINA
By a compromise, Gov. Hodges
headed off extreme legislation on the
school question in North Carolina.
The sponsor of a bill to spend public
funds for private schools agreed not
to push it and in return Gov. Hodges
said he would call a special session
of the General Assembly if he con
siders the implementation decree
“extreme or abrupt.” The NAACP
called for an end to all state segrega
tion laws, and Negroes presented
their views on pending school bills.
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma legislators, who have
hammered at a new school finance
structure for three months, will hand
the package to the public in a con
stitutional amendment election April
5. The omnibus proposal would wipe
out present special taxes for Negro
schools and create a replacement levy
for all schools. Gov. Raymond Gary
is publicly staking his political future
on the amendment, and it carries en
dorsement of all affected agencies.
SOUTH CAROLINA
South Carolina school laws were
altered in several respects during
March when the General Assembly
passed and Gov. George Bell Tim
merman Jr. signed six bills proposed
by a special committee studying the
school segregation problem. Chief
among the changes was one repealing
the state’s compulsory attendance
law. Another bill set up a system of
“visiting teachers” charged with pro
moting school attendance through
persuasion and influence. In an ad
dress before the South Carolina Edu
cation Association, Gov. Timmerman
condemned “integrationists” and re
newed his pledge to work toward
preservation of the right of parents
to determine the type schools to
which their children would be sent.
TENNESSEE
The big news in Tennessee during
March was Gov. Frank Clement’s
veto of several local hills designed to
maintain segregated schools by giv
ing local school boards wide author
ity over assigning pupils. Introduced
after a similar statewide measure was
tabled in committee, the bills were
described in the veto message as at
tempting “to circumvent the efficacy
of the recent opinion handed down
by the Supreme Court....” Clement’s
veto was generally praised by Ten
nessee newspapers.
TEXAS
Atty. Gen. John Ben Sheppard said
he will be in Washington during the
week of April 11 to appear before
the Supreme Court. The legislature
passed the halfway mark of a four-
month session with no sign of con
cern over the segregation problem.
No bill had been introduced to affect
the segregation system in the public
schools, although state officials are
expected to act quickly if the Court’s
decree calls for an abrupt end to seg
regation.
Many bills are pending to improve
Texas schools, and appropriations for
education will be many millions high
er than for past years, the state’s
lawmakers indicate.
VIRGINIA
The United States Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals, in a decision hand
ed down in Richmond, ruled that en
forced segregation in public recrea
tional facilities is unconstitutional. In
the decision, given in two Maryland
cases, the court specifically cited the
United States Supreme Court’s opin
ion on school segregation and de
clared that since segregation is un
constitutional in schools, then cer
tainly it also is unconstitutional in
public recreational areas. In another
major development in Virginia, the
state attempted to lease one of its
public parks to a private operator for
the summer season but the move was
temporarily blocked by a Federal Dis
trict Court injunction. The injunction
is effective until April 26, the date for
hearing of a case in which four Ne
groes are seeking the right to use the
park, which heretofore has been op
erated only for white persons.
WEST VIRGINIA
Legislators shied away from the
integration issue in their 60-day ses
sion which ended March 12 except to
pass a Senate resolution creating a
commission on interstate commerce
and joint committees on government
and finance to make a study of state-
supported colleges and the university
and report back two years hence.
Consolidation of higher education
seems to be the aim, but this doesn’t
have approval of Negro educators
who maintain that colleges now in
existence, including two former all
colored institutions, will find ample
need for their services.
Meantime, the superintendent of
schools in Boone County where two
integration flare-ups occurred last
autumn reported that since then the
program has “run smoothly” al
though complete integration is not
now planned because placement of
four colored teachers in white schools
would encounter opposition.
Index
State Page
Alabama 2
Arkansas 3
Delaware 4
District of Columbia 7
Florida 9
Georgia 11
Kentucky 8
Louisiana 8
Maryland 6,7
Mississippi 5
Missouri 10
North Carolina 12
Oklahoma 15
South Carolina 13
Tennessee 16
Texas 15
Virginia 14
West Virginia 9