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Georgia
MACON, Ga.
ARCH saw scattered activity on
the part of both pro-integration
and anti-integration forces in
Georgia but no change in the oft-
expressed determination of state
government leaders that the races
will not be mixed in the public
schools.
The Southern Regional Council,
the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the
Georgia Negro Voters League and
delegates to a meeting of the United
Packinghouse Workers of America
(CIO) in Atlanta expressed strong
views in favor of racial integration,
while equally strong views in favor
of continued segregation were aired
by the Georgia Education Associa
tion and by various officials of the
state government.
The NAACP’s third annual South
eastern Regional Conference in At
lanta, attended by 200 delegates
representing 305 branches of the
association in Tennessee, Mississippi,
Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas,
was used as an occasion for issuing
a statement setting September, 1955,
as a target date for school integration
in the region.
According to the NAACP state
ment, “The people opposing desegre
gation in the public schools can’t
win, and they know it.” Continuing,
the statement said, “We recognize
that there are some problems relative
to segregation which must be
worked out through negotiation to
achieve our objective of first class
citizenship and equal treatment
under the law.”
COOPERATION PLEDGED
A pledge of cooperation with state
governments and school boards
"which are acting in good faith to
change their educational systems in
compliance with the Supreme Court’s
decision” was voiced, and the view
given that “We are not alarmed by
those state governments which have
adopted amendments to state con
stitutions and by other methods are
seeking to circumvent the Supreme
Court’s decision.”
„ ^ he conference declared that
these undemocratic and unconstitu
tional.methods will fail” and claimed
hat in Georgia bonds for school
construction became unmarketable
as the result of tampering with
c system of state-supported schools
and threatening to turn state prop-
^ y over to private enterprise
eiely to deny Negro citizens their
a ^. under the Constitution.”
th f S Was an °k v i°us reference to
^ T e act that Georgia voters last
ovember approved a constitutional
^ endment designed to pave the
i° r a switch to private, segre-
i ? e sc hools if public schools were
! , egr£ [ te d and to the fact that Ohio
StT “ anne d the sale of Georgia
u. ? School Building Authority
said t ^ at state - A banking official
Hi- ’ pwever, the decision forbid-
in Ok 3 6 t ' le G eor gi a school bonds
into 10 aad nothing to do with the
'“^ration issue.
said conference delegates
■n int ea< ^"- pr °S ress was being made
p r0 of e ^ at i°n and such progress was
thp n “ at i* would work even in
6 De ep South.
^ghers assured
statement continued:
from ! rea iize that the transition
system Segre ^ atec * to a nonsegregated
chan g result in some minor
o Perat eS 111 the administration and
shall ^e school system. We
teacherV 6 SUre ^ does not result in
status r lsp i acem ent or reduction in
are 0 r n or der to protect those who
tature eaent J y employed as well as
pr °gram eaCa6rs ’ anc * to offset any
agencie ° n t ^ le par t of those school
^ e gro f which seek to frighten
stand read* 6rs and principals, we
Teach 3 ^ through our Department
10 ins ur er ^iormation and Security
tenure ,, e ,“ at . em Pi°y m ent rights,
Protectpri sen iority provisions are
Th e d i and complied with.”
never' egates said, “while ‘never,
thi nkin f , P t! ches are being made,
Se gre gati people realize that de-
tor s v,h° n ltl inevitable. Many edi-
editori a ]° writing segregation
oil admU pr i va t e ly that their
ght to be planning how to
make the change gracefully instead
of breathing defiance.”
The group also urged members of
Congress to support the NAACP by
making compliance with the decision
outlawing segregation a condition
for receiving federal aid for school
construction in the bill pending be
fore the Congress.
GEA BACKS SEGREGATION
The Georgia Education Associa
tion, composed of white school
teachers and officials, went on record
in favor of segregation of the races
in the classrooms at its 88th annual
convention in Atlanta.
With only a few dissenting votes,
the group adopted a resolution asking
that “the separate but equal public
schools” be retained. Votes were by
voice and no identification was pos
sible.
The resolution noted that “in some
instances the loyalty of the teachers
of Georgia has been questioned with
respect to our southern traditions
and customs in regard to segrega
tion.” This the resolution stated in
seeking approval, has caused the
teachers embarrassment.
Addressing the convention later,
Gov. Marvin Griffin said “if the
federal Congress and the federal
Supreme Court usurp the education
prerogatives of the state through
force they must also be prepared to
pay the bill.”
The Georgia Education Association
is not to be confused with the
Georgia Education Commission. The
former represents teachers, princi
pals and other school officials. The
latter was created by the state legis
lature at the request of former Gov.
Herman Talmadge in December,
1953, and is empowered to find means
of circumventing the Supreme Court
decision outlawing segregation.
COMMISSION’S TASK
A recent session of the General
Assembly of Georgia extended the
life of the commission and directed
its members to submit to each legis
lative session drafts of suggested
laws and commission comments on
their effectiveness with reference to
continued segregation. The commis
sion was also authorized from time
to time to print and distribute, to
General Assembly members, the
public and the press, bulletins and
periodicals prepared by the group
and deemed informative of legal and
factual situations which may develop
in Georgia and other states in re
spect to education. Cooperation with
other states in printing and distri
buting such literature was also
authorized.
A statement issued by the execu
tive committee of the Southern
Regional Council noted that nine
months had passed since the Su
preme Court decision and expressed
a belief that it was time for
southerners to take stock, to look
realistically at the challenge con
fronting the region and at resources
for meeting it wisely and well.
“Joint fact-finding and planning by
all elements of the community” to
prepare for compliance with the in
tegration decrees was urged.
The Southern Regional Council is
a self-designated “organization of
southerners of both races working
together in the interest of all the
people of the South.” Organized in
1944 as a successor to the old Com
mission on Interracial Cooperation,
it is financed by contributions from
individuals, church and labor groups,
and foundations, and to a lesser
degree, by subscriptions and sales
of literature. An organization is
maintained in each of 12 Southern
states with the aim of their becoming
independent, self-supporting bodies
within a few years. The Georgia
Committee on Interracial Coopera
tion is headed by Dr. Guy Wells,
executive director and former presi
dent of Georgia State College for
Women.
The Council has a fixed member
ship of some 78 persons of both races
and various religious and occupa
tional groups in the South.
OFFICIAL LEADERSHIP HIT
The executive committee state
ment criticized official leadership in
the Deep South for “a concerted
attempt to stamp out independent
thought and stifle all dissent with
respect to school segregation.” It
declared, “There are thousands of
southerners, white and Negro, for
whom the demagogues do not speak,
and whose voices have been little
heard above the din of controversy.
Ultimately these southern voices
will repudiate fraudulent leadership
on the school issue.”
Noting measures recently enacted
in some southern states that “impose
heavy penalties on any local authori
ties or school systems that choose
voluntarily to comply with the Su
preme Court ruling,” the statement
said, “Southern authorities on con
stitutional law who have examined
these measures have agreed that
they are dodges and will not stand
in court.”
Successful school desegregation in
80 out of 129 border-state counties
was cited, and it was suggested that
“the entire country owes a heavy
debt of gratitude to the hundreds of
private citizens and public officials
whose allegiance to the law of the
land made the progress possible.”
THOUGHT PARALYSIS
Policies of “wait and see” in some
states not preparing for early com
pliance might better be described as
“look the other way,” the group con
tended. “Planning and even con
sideration of the desegration process
is discouraged on the ground that
no action is now required, and none
may be required for a long time,”
the statement said, adding: “Such
an attitude promotes paralysis of
public thought, and thereby forfeits
a valuable opportunity for advance
discussion and planning to insure
smooth transition to integrated
schools.”
Four Deep South states—South
Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and
Louisiana—were singled out as states
in which “the official leadership is
busily creating dangerous illusions
and enacting defiant measures. Some
political leaders in these states are
assuring the people that the schools
will remain segregated indefinitely,
if not forever, even though public
education may be abolished in the
process. These threats and the legal
strategems devised to carry them
out are better adapted to hoodwink
the people than to preserve segrega
tion.”
Proponents of measures which im
pose heavy penalties for voluntary
compliance with the Supreme Court
ruling “are the same spokesmen who
repeat over and over that most
Negroes and virtually all white per
sons will defend segregation at any
cost,” says the statement. “Obvi
ously,” it adds, “they do not believe
their own words.”
OFFICERS OF COUNCIL
Dr. George S. Mitchell is executive
director of the Council, which has
its headquarters in Atlanta. Marion
A. Wright of Linvillg Falls, N. C.,
is president, and the vice presidents
are Dr. Albert W. Dent, president of
Dillard University, New Orleans;
Carter Wesley, Houston, Texas,
newspaper publisher; and Dr. Gor
don B. Hancock, professor emeritus,
Virginia Union University.
Other executive council members
signing the statement were Morris
Abram, Atlanta attorney; Dr. Rufus
B. Clement, president of Atlanta
University; Mrs. Cassandra M.
Birnie, Atlanta attorney; Paul Chris
topher, Knoxville labor official;
John A. Griffin, Atlanta educator; the
Rev. Harry V. Richardson, president
of the Gammon Theological Semi
nary, Atlanta; Leonard Haas, Atlanta
attorney; the Very Rev. Maurice V.
Shean, Dean of the Oratory, Rock
Hill, S. C., and Miss Josephine Wil
kins of Atlanta.
FEDERAL AID
Eugene Cook, attorney general of
Georgia, warned that federal aid to
education, now under consideration
in Congress, could be used as “a
very effective way” to enforce the
Supreme Court decision outlawing
segregation. In an advisory opinion
to Rep. Phil M. Landrum of Georgia,
a member of the U. S. House Edu
cation Committee, Cook commented
on a provision in the aid to educa
tion bill introduced by Sen. Lister
Hill of Alabama which would cut
off the control of the federal govern
ment over such funds once they
are appropriated.
Even the inclusion of a “non-inter-
SOUTHERN SCHOOL
ference” clause in federal school aid
legislation would not prevent use
of the funds as means of forcing
integration in public schools, Cook
said.
Georgia “stands to gain nothing
and lose much” by aid bills now in
Congress, the attorney general said.
He expressed his views at a special
press conference and was joined by
Lt. Gov. Ernest Vandiver who com
mented that the “federal govern
ment can keep any and all of its
education funds if they carry with
them the provision to outlaw segre
gation in the classrooms.”
UNIONS PLAN DRIVE
Meeting in Atlanta March 26, some
150 delegates of the United Packing
house Workers, an affiliate of the
CIO, representing 15,000 union mem
bers in 13 states, made plans to
raise 10 million dollars to conduct
a combined CIO-AFL campaign to
wipe out segregation in the South.
UPAW leaders said they expected
other unions affiliated with both the
CIO and AFL to cooperate in the
plan to stage a widespread legal
test of segregation laws.
Rank and file members will be
urged to plan deliberate violations
of “Jim Crow” laws to provide court
tests, according to John H. Telfer,
program coordinator for the UPWA’s
Southeastern district.
Edmund Dumas, UPWA South
eastern director, said the proposals
adopted at the Atlanta meeting would
be submitted immediately to union
locals throughout his district and he
expected immediate adoption.
Money donated for the campaign
will be used as fast as it is received,
it was explained, to finance defenses
in test cases and, if necessary, to
carry them to higher courts.
Speakers at the meeting criticized
state government officials and other
leaders in the South for resisting
the Supreme Court decree and dis
cussed a 10-point program aimed
at helping to implement the decision
outlawing segregation in the public
schools.
A goal of 300,000 registered Negro
voters in Georgia was announced
by the Georgia Negro Voters League.
The statewide organization, which
meets twice annually and is devoted
to increasing Negro registration and
voting, said only an estimated 150,-
000 colored voters are presently
registered.
When the Supreme Court decision
outlawing segregation has been more
fully implemented, a statement said,
“we will be able to work with the
best leadership among the white citi
zens right here in Georgia to cany-
out the mandate of the high court
of our land.”
DELAY EXPECTED
League President J. W. Dobbs said
Negroes do not expect the decision
to be immediately followed and
pointed out that other constitutional
decisions concerning Negroes were
not immediately carried out. “But
we do feel that the recent decision
will stand, and that it will be worked
out in peace and harmony,” he said,
adding: “We know we must educate
our people in order to qualify them
as useful citizens. That is what we
want more than anything else.”
In Wrightsville, the Johnson
County grand jury deplored the
Supreme Court ruling against segre
gation and resolved to invite and
encourage the leaders of the Negro
race “to meet us individually and
collectively and work out this prob
lem without the interference of out
side influence.”
In Atlanta, the NAACP branch
suggested use of Negro detectives
and court prosecutors. A statement
said the city has 16 Negro patrolmen
but none have received promotions.
They might be more useful as detec
tives than patrolmen, the NAACP
said. A Negro prosecutor, the state
ment said, “would not be bound by
tradition in making an appeal in be
half of the victim’s Negro peers to
a jury.” The statement also said
“numerous complaints” have been
made that disorderly conduct cases
involving Negroes are made without
“substantial evidence.”
TO SPURN HEARINGS
Following the announcement that
the Supreme Court will hear argu
ments on how and when states
should end segregation in the public
schools during the week beginning
NEWS—April 7, 1955—PAGE II
April 11, Gov. Griffin said, as his
predecessor, Gov. Herman Talmadge
had said, that Georgia will not take
part in the hearings.
Atty. Gen. Cook said, however, he
would be “in the galleries” to listen
to the arguments. The attorney
general added that at the request of
Gov. Griffin, he will defend any
cases arising in the state as a result
of the decision, although Georgia
is not a party to any of the actual
cases before the court.
Missouri
Continued from Page 10
asserted unequivocally that schools
there will be integrated when in
tegration becomes the law of the
land. The city has “moved steadily
ahead” in plans for implementing the
court decision, he said. He praised
Negro citizens, whose children make
up 22 per cent of the school popula
tion, for applying no pressure for
undue haste.
LEADERSHIP NEEDED
Carmichael said he was well aware
that the problem is more difficult in
the Deep South. Joint leadership by
responsible white and Negro citi
zens is needed there as elsewhere,
he said.
Making no effort to minimize prac
tical difficulties, Carmichael said
Louisville had found that the aver
age Negro child was a year and a
half behind the average white at
sixth grade level. The average Ne
gro teacher is not up to the white
average, he added.
H. M. Ivy, director of the Asso
ciated Consultants in Education at
Meridian, Miss., told the clinic: “All
we ask for is more time. Our people,
white and colored, are just as rea
sonable as anywhere else.” Public
opinion must be prepared for any
drastic change from segregation, he
added.
A Negro panel member, Herman
H. Long, director of the race rela
tions department of the American
Missionary Association at Fisk Uni
versity, Nashville, Tenn., said school
boards should speak out decisively
now.
“Where policy is clearly stated and
clearly understood,” he said, “condi
tions are optimum for promoting de
segregation on a constructive basis.”
LAWS STAY ON BOOKS
At Jefferson City, the Missouri
House of Representatives refused to
repeal the state’s laws providing for
school segregation.
The state’s attorney general has
ruled these laws unenforceable as a
result of the Supreme Court decision,
but Negro members of the legisla
ture sought their repeal as a symbol
of Missouri acceptance of the deci
sion.
Some members, however, objected
to any such action prior to the is
suance of final orders by the Su
preme Court. They failed in an at
tempt to have the repealer killed in
committee, but when it came to the
House floor the bill received 74 fav
orable votes, 79 being required for
passage. Only 8 votes were cast
against the repealer, but 25 members
were listed as present and not vot
ing.
A week later, Negro members
sought to revive the repealer bill on
the plea of Rep. J. McKinley Neal,
Kansas City Negro Democrat, that
the House had “lacked the courage
and fortitude to vote for what is
right.”
The House agreed to reconsider
the bill by a vote of 88 to 31, but
after an hour’s debate the vote was
67 for passage, 24 against, and 3
present but not voting.
The principal opposing argument
was one of timing—that action should
await final Supreme Court orders.
One Democratic opponent took a
more openly pro-segregation line.
Rep. Lee C. Sutton of Paris, Mo.,
located in the north-central section
known as “Little Dixis*” declared
himself a “follower of Robert E.
Lee.”
Sutton said: “I believe in the Ne
groes’ rights to life, liberty and tile
pursuit of happiness, but by them
selves.” T
The Paris public schools have a
Negro enrollment of 38 in a/total of
439, or a little less than 10/per cen t.