Newspaper Page Text
Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
T j£E most significant development
in Arkansas during March on the
subject of racial integration in public
schools was the action of the Ar
kansas Senate in turning down a
House-approved bill designed to
preserve segregation with adminis
trative red tape.
There were many other develop
ments, meetings and statements in
volving school integration and re
lated subjects. In chronological
order, this was the March picture
in Arkansas:
panel discussion
On March 4, racial integration
in public schools was one of several
subjects discussed by eight high
school pupils at the annual state
wide conference of the Arkansas
Council on Children and Youth.
When school integration was
brought up, Joyce Smith of
Marianna, one of three Negroes on
the panel, said she thought that
everyone was entitled to a good
education because all people are
created equal.
A. Walton Litz of Little Rock, rep
resenting the Arkansas Economic
Council-State Chamber of Com
merce, said at that point: “I feel
that teen-agers would handle in
tegration very, very well.”
Joyce replied: “It’s not up to teen
agers.”
Flo Jean Perry of Hot Springs, a
white student, said: “We can’t solve
it without you [adults]. You created
it.”
SENATE KILLS BILL
On March 8, the Arkansas Senate
in effect killed a bill designed to
preserve segregation in the public
schools. The Senate did this by
amending the measure to delay its
effective date two years. Two days
later, the General Assembly ad
journed without having taken fur
ther action on the bill.
The segregation bill (House Bill
488), guided through the House
Feb. 21 by a group of East Arkansas
representatives, did not specifically
require non-integrated schools. In
stead, it provided that every school
district must appoint an assignment
officer to place each child in a school.
The assignment officers would have
had wide leeway in making their de
cisions, and the measure provided
® implicated procedure for appeals
rom the decisions of the assignment
officers.
Sponsors of the measure said that
e administrative and appeal pro
cedure was designed to delay the
entrance of any Negro child into a
de school for months or years—
not forever. Under present law,
ny Negro patron can go straight
0 ederal court to charge discrimi
nation.
^!f n House Bill 488 came up for
nsweration in the Senate, Sen.
u . Long of Forrest City, who
the c. mtro ^ uce d an identical bill in
jl en ate, served as floor leader for
measure. (The Senate had taken
ty-i^Y 1011 on Long’s bill and had
, * or a House action on the sub-
!, OWELL leads opposition
Wto”' Max Howe11 of Little I
to t , ma de all the motions whicl
officer CHpplin g °f the assign!
be r mea sure, was the only n
str ° *^ e Senate to speak
against it.
feetiv aaien dment delayed the
1, i,l date of the bill from
ti me 1 to Jul y 1. 1957. By
Court 1 United States Supi
states v k ave ruled on how
Vision ° Uld carr y o ut the Co
school. against segregation in
■*mse rn i- il and the Arkansas Gei
*essi on y wd l have held anc
As
the aS ^ en ' Long callet
r ead ^ ’ Howell moved that' i
After an un usual procei
hong b ms was done, Howell
t®ry .®an a series of parliar
C: !ma x neuvers which came
^tidiy,the adoption of
J*®Ve tb en *i . ff° we ll first trie<
av ® kib jtil tabled. This w
R^ded i'll h outri g ht - Long
J 16 mm; d §ot a r oH ca H v °t
^ated i°? to table, which
J 12 to 13.
Howell then moved that the bill
be placed back on second reading
so it could be amended. This pro
duced the significant vote, with 17
senators supporting the motion and
15 opposing it.
The motion caused a three-way
discussion among Long, Howell and
Sen. W. E. (“Buck”) Fletcher of
Scott, a staunch supporter of the
bill.
REALISM URGED
Howell argued for the two-year
delay so the Supreme Court could
act.
“1 am against the bill very strongly
and will vote against it,” Howell said.
“We are supposed to have equal
rights in a democracy. Just because
Alabama or some other dyed-in-the-
wool southern state jumped in haste
to preserve something doesn’t mean
Arkansas should. Don’t be impet
uous. Be realistic about this.”
Howell said he had received one
letter favoring the bill and more
than 50 letters and telegrams against
it.
Long spent most of his time fend
ing off the attempts to kill the bill
by indirection. He said other south
ern states had acted on the subject
and he warned that “the Supreme
Court may not rule in favor of us.”
Fletcher said that 99 per cent of
the white persons and 95 per cent
of the Negroes in Arkansas were
for the bill.
SCHOOL FUNDS CUT
On March 10, the Arkansas Gen
eral Assembly adjourned without in
creasing taxes to provide the addi
tional $12,500,000 a year in state aid
which school forces had requested
when the 60-day session began.
Instead, the schools will receive
an estimated $1,600,000 a year less
from the state than the $29,500,000
they now receive. The reduction will
be caused by declining state revenues
and the action of the legislature in
voting to exempt commercial live
stock and poultry feed from the two
per cent sales tax.
School forces had sought the extra
money primarily to increase teach
ers’ salaries and to take steps to
ward equalizing the school program
between urban and rural districts
and between white and Negro
schools.
SHORTER TERMS FORESEEN
To provide an increase in state
aid to schools, Gov. Faubus had pro
posed to increase the sales tax from
two to three per cent and to in
crease the income and tobacco taxes.
All were turned down by the legisla
ture.
On March 10, after the legislature
adjourned, State Education Com
missioner Arch W. Ford said the
education department would admin
ister “willingly and cheerfully” the
money voted to it by the legislature.
But he said he believed the failure
of the legislators to vote additional
money would mean shortened terms
in some school districts.
Before the legislature adjourned,
it passed legislation designed to force
local school districts to raise more
money by increasing and equalizing
property assessments.
ASSESSMENT REVISION SET
The assessment measure gives the
state a club it never has had before
to force assessments upward. The
act provides that the state can with
hold a portion of state aid from any
county, city or school district which
fails to get its assessments up to 18
per cent of actual value. Most prop
erty in the state now is assessed be
low that figure although the state
standard—previously without any
practical way to enforce it—has been
20 per cent. The new assessment plan
won’t be effective until Jan. 1, 1957,
when all the property in the state
will be re-assessed on a local level.
In a related action, the legislature
placed on the November, 1956, general
election ballot a proposed constitu
tional amendment to limit the school
tax rate to 30 mills. It would not
affect millage already pledged to
retire bonded indebtedness. There is
no limit now on the school millage
rate. Sponsors of the measure to put
the 30-mill limit question on the
general election ballot argued that
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—April 7, 1955—PAGE 3
SEN. MAX HOWELL
Fought Arkansas Bill
assessment reforms could not be
made without a limit on school mill-
age.
On March 14, the state board of
education agreed to try to keep
teachers’ salaries at present levels—
even if it meant cutting school terms
by a month or two.
The board voted to check the en
tire state education program to see
what services and workers could be
dropped to provide the extra money
for salaries.
MORE INTEGRATION SEEN
On March 15, Education Comis-
sioner Ford told the Arkansas Asso
ciation of School Administrators at
Little Rock that finances and in
tegration were the two big questions
facing Arkansas school leaders dur
ing the coming year.
He said the failure of the legisla
ture to provide more school revenue
meant that “there will be no state
assistance to help meet the impact
of a United States Supreme Court
decision on integration.”
“We must be realistic on integra
tion,” Ford said. “I don’t take either
extreme view. I think Arkansas is
going to have more integration next
year than it had this year. When
you have six Negroes living in an
area of 650 white children, the Ne
groes are going to the white school.”
Ford said, “We’re not going to
have any trouble out of the children”
on integration “if the parents will
just leave them alone.
“Integration can only be worked
over a long period of years on a
district-to-district basis. Conditions
are not the same in the various dis
tricts of the state and they never will
be.”
1955 GOAL IMPRACTICAL
Ford said the speed with which
the pupils were integrated would
depend on the leaders of both races
in the districts.
“I do not agree with the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People in reference to a
September, 1955, target date for com
plete integration,” he said. “I don’t
think it’s practical.”
Ford said he also disagreed with
the view of other extremists that
“we’ll never have integration in pub
lic schools.”
“When considered in the light of a
generation or two,” Ford said, “I
think it is apparent that the Consti
tution of the United States will be
enforced. This does not mean the end
of segregation is in sight, but only
that we must work in a spirit of
understanding toward solving the
great social problem, and we must
take as much time as is required by
the people to accomplish the task.”
LEGISLATORS THANKED
On March 15, a group of Negroes
sent a message of gratitude and ap
preciation to the legislators who
voted against the bill designed to
maintain segregation in schools
through assignment officers.
The message praised the legislators
for their “statesmanship and cour
age” and said the defeat of the bill
(House Bill 488) was valuable to the
fight against communism.
It was signed by C. H. Jones, I. S.
McClinton, T. W. Coggs, Mrs. L. C.
Bates, Ozell Sutton, the Rev. E. C.
Dyer, the Rev. J. C. Crenshaw, Thad
D. Williams, the Rev. C. C. Walker
and Frank W. Smith, all of Little
Rock.
He said he had not known the
talk was to be given at a public
meeting and that he was not pre
pared for an address that would be
reported.
Caldwell said he had asked Wylie
“I thought politely and graciously
not to report it.”
“I have great respect for the
press,” Caldwell said. “I regret the
incident very much. I have the high
est opinion of the function of the free
press, but in this case I thought the
interests of the university would be
served by not having the talk widely
publicized.”
He said Wylie was a “wonderful
fellow” whose newspaper “means a
whole lot to the university.” But he
said he was “sure my motives were
misunderstood.”
The integration question, Caldwell
said, has been “wisely handled at
the university—so successfully, in
fact, that I think a continuation of
this wise handling without any fan
fare or public crediting of statements
is the best policy.”
GRISWOLD APPOINTED
On March 17, the Arkansas Coun
cil on Human Relations, an inter
racial group concerned with work
ing out practical solutions in the
field of race relations, announced
that it had hired Nat Griswold of
Austin, Texas, a former associate
professor of religion at Hendrix Col
lege at Conway, as executive direc
tor.
Fred K. Darragh Jr. of Little
Rock, council chairman, also an
nounced that Christopher C. Mercer,
Jr., a Negro attorney at Pine Bluff,
had been hired as assistant execu
tive director to work on a half-time
basis.
Darragh said Griswold and Mercer
probably would begin duties April
15 at Little Rock.
The council, affiliated with the
Southern Regional Council with
headquarters at Atlanta, Ga., was
organized in December, 1954. It will
operate the first year under a $13,000
grant from the Fund for the Republic
and funds raised by the state organi
zation.
YOUTHS DISCUSS PROBLEM
On March 21 at Little Rock, about
120 white and Negro high school
students, joined by a sprinkling of
adults, discussed youth problems
that will come with racial integra
tion in the schools at a meeting of
the Youth Forum at the Dunbar
Community Center for Negroes.
The audience, about 90 per cent
Negro, reached no conclusion unless
it was that the real problems lie with
the adults and not with the youth.
Lawrence Joyner, Youth Forum
chairman and a student at Dunbar
High School for Negroes, said, “In
tegration means more than going to
the same schools—it means accept
ance of each other as individuals.”
The adults, although in the minor
ity, dominated the discussion and
several made speeches which had
little bearing on the subject, “Youth
Problems in the School as Centered
Around Integration.”
At one point, a Negro youth said:
“I think the real problem lies with
the adults. The youths probably will
take integration in their stride. So
I want to ask, how can the adults be
reached?”
A white high school student re
plied: “I don’t think we can ever
reach the adults. We eventually will
be the adults so it doesn’t make much
difference whether we reach them or
not.”
COURT CRITICIZED
On March 25, at England, Ark., at
a meeting of Lonoke County resi
dents opposed to racial integration in
the public schools, an Indianola,
Miss., businessman said that the
United States Supreme Court was
“a packed group of so-called law
yers” and was “subversive.”
Dave Hawkins, one of four repre
sentatives of the Mississippi Associa
tion of Citizens Councils who spoke
at the rally, said the court delayed
its decision five years “to bring com
placency and spring it on us when it
was unexpected.”
About 500 persons attended the
meeting, held in the England high
school.
“Why should nine men think they
can tell us who we must allow into
our schools, churches, picture shows
or what have you?” Hawkins asked.
“I want you to understand that I’m
not anti-black or anti-nigger. I work
niggers. I have five who have worked
for me 32 years. But they’re still
niggers.
“We’ve given them everything they
have, and they’ve made much more
progress than any race in history.
They have all the privileges we have.
They can have their own farms, cars
and service stations—as long as they
stay where they belong. In Missis
sippi we want to help them. The
Citizens Council can be one of the
greatest humanitarian groups we’ve
ever had.”
Hawkins said, “We wouldn’t be
in this trouble” if Southern senators
and representatives had “kept a hand
on those Supreme Court judges.”
COUNCILS’ PLAN TOLD
Herman Moore, an Indianola bank
er, said, “It will take numbers to
convince our politicians who got us
into this trouble that we don’t want
integration in our schools.” He said
it took a Supreme Court decision “to
awaken us from a slumber of about
30 years.”
A. E. B. Britt, a youthful planter
from Indianola, explained the work
ings of the Citizens Councils. He
said he made the explanation “be
cause you won’t read it anywhere;
the newspapers have a unique way
of getting it twisted every time they
try to print it.”
Britt said the Citizens Councils
were operated “strictly on a com
munity level.”
He said the group had a Political
& Elections Committee to screen
candidates for office. He said the
committee took no part in elections
in which the candidates did not take
a stand on segregation. But, he said,
it “takes a hand” when one of them
“starts playing for the off-color vote”
and, if necessary, would “organize a
white primary.”
DOSSIERS GATHERED
The Information & Education
Committee, Britt said, “gathers in
formation on people who are giving
trouble—agitators and groups—and,
in general, educates the people of
the community.”
The other committee, he said, is
the membership and finance group.
He said membership was open to
“white people who are determined
to fight to the life, if it means it, to
preserve segregation—men deter
mined to remain white men and de
termined that our children shall re
main white people.”
Britt said charges that the Citizens
Council is “a highfalutin’ Ku Klux
Klan” were wrong and that the
group advocated no violence.
AD ASKS ELECTION
On March 27, a political adver
tisement for White America, Inc.,
signed by Poynter, C. E. Garman Jr.,
secretary, and Bruce Taylor, treas
urer, appeared in the Arkansas
Democrat at Little Rock. It listed
the White America mail address as
Postoffice Box 597, Pine Bluff, Ark.
(White America was incorporated
as a profit organization, but Poynter
said that had been a typographical
error in the incorporation papers.
He said the papers had been amended
to make it a non-profit organization.)
The advertisement said:
“Notice . . .
“To the citizens of Arkansas who
desire to retain our present system
of segregated public schools in the
state of Arkansas:
“The recent ‘brave’ action taken
by our state legislature in the han
dling of this question leaves no doubt
in our minds that the wishes and
desires of the majority of the white
citizens of this state have been dis
regarded by our state legislature
and that we have been abandoned
by those in whom we placed our
trust and depended upon to protect
our interests.
“It is now clear in our minds that
we are strictly upon the defensive,
and that it is now up to the citizens
to defend themselves by the only
means left to us: that of our consti
tutional privilege of the use of the
ballot.
“You are invited and urged to
enlist with us, the only organized
body now in operation in this state
who are prepared to voice your
views for you. The only way we can
obtain our objective is to let our
views be known.
“Remember: A silent vote is a vote
for integration.”