Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—May 4, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss.
JJEAFFIRMATION of the liberal
racial policies of the Methodist
church, calling for special guidance
toward the integration of all groups
’ into the life and work of the deno
mination, was voted April 26 at the
annual meeting in Jackson of the
Women’s Society of Christian Service
for the Mississippi Conference.
The action followed by several
months organization of the “Missis
sippi Association of Methodist Min
isters and Laymen to Maintain Racial
Customs in the Churches, Schools,
Conferences and Jurisdictions.”
Mrs. Sam Smith of Louise, secre
tary of the segregation-maintenance
group and a delegate to the Women’s
Society conference, proposed that the
latter rescind its acceptance of the
charter of the Methodist church em
bodying the racial policies.
The conference rejected the pro
posal, 129 to 62.
The charter was adopted on a na
tional level in 1952 and ratified by the
Mississippi Conference in 1953.
CHARTER EXPLAINED
In opposing the motion, an official
of the society explained that the
charter “represents goals and ideals
toward which we will work and a
policy which individual members can
consider and does not have the power
of bylaws.”
Addressing the Jackson conference,
Dr. Dan Whitsett, pastor of the First
Methodist Church at Sylacauga, Ala.,
branded the organizing Citizens
Councils of “white males dedicated to
preservation of segregation” as “bar
riers to good racial relations in the
South.”
“While leaders of the councils may
be quite sincere, the organization it
self opens the gates for a large num
ber of people to give release to their
hatreds and prejudices under the
cloak of good citizenship,” he said.
Meantime, Mississippi continued to
organize for the preservation of seg
regation.
Three new groups have been
formed for that purpose.
One is a women’s auxiliary to the
previously reported Mississippi Citi
zens Councils composed of “white
males dedicated to preservation of
segregation.”
One of the others is a Methodist
church group formed to maintain
segregation in the two Mississippi
conferences, and the other a State’s
Rights Association patterned some
what along the lines of the Citizens
Councils.
None of the organizations has any
secrecy involved in its membership,
purpose or plans. Their meetings are
open to the public and the press.
Officials of the segregation-main
tenance groups insist violence has no
part in their makeup. NAACP offi
cers contend, however, that the Citi
zens Councils in some areas are using
asserted economic pressure, as one
way to gain their objectives.
FUNDS MADE AVAILABLE
To meet the attempted use of eco
nomic pressure against Negroes, the
NAACP has launched a nationwide
drive to secure deposits in a special
loan fund in the Tri-States Bank of
Memphis, for use in cases where
Negroes are denied money for farm
ing, business and other operations.
The loans will be made on sound col
lateral.
The NAACP fund-raising move
ment was launched at the suggestion
of Dr. T. R. M. Howard, Negro phy
sician of the all-Negro Delta town of
Mound Bayou. Dr. Howard is also
president of the Regional Council for
Negro Leadership which met April
29.
Featured at the regional meeting at
Mound Bayou was U. S. Rep. Charles
C. Diggs Jr., (D. Mich.) who recently
attacked the Mississippi Citizens
Councils, accusing some of them of
using various forms of economic
pressure to discourage Negroes from
attempting racial integration in the
public schools.
Dr. Howard claims 4,000 members
in the Regional Council and says it is
the largest Negro civic organization in
Mississippi. He said organization
members live in 42 of the 82 Missis
sippi counties.
Meanwhile on the strictly educa
tional front, the Mississippi Teachers
Association (Negro) in recent annual
convention in Jackson, went on rec
ord favoring the new Negro-white
public school equalization program
designed by the legislature to dis
courage efforts to integrate the dual
system.
L. S. Alexander of Jackson, execu
tive secretary of the MTA, said the
convention took no action on the U.
S. Supreme Court’s desegregation
decision.
He said that in endorsing the new
44-million-dollar annual equalization
program, the MTA called on the state
department of education to check
certain reports of continued inequi
ties. Secretary Alexander said some
Negro school officials had reported
that state funds for salary supple
ments for principals and superin
tendents were not equitably distrib
uted by local school authorities, and
that in some counties Negroes were
being given old school buses and new
ones were assigned to the whites.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Other developments in Mississippi
include:
Enactment at a recent special ses
sion of the legislature of a statute pro
hibiting “persons of the white or
Caucasian race from attending
schools of high school level and low
er, wholly or partially supported with
state funds, which are also attended
by a member or members of the col
ored or Negro race.” It was authored
by Rep. James Robertshaw of Wash
ington County (Greenville) who is
also attorney for Pulitizer-prize win
ning Editor Hodding Carter’s Green
ville Democrat-Times daily news
paper.
A statement by Atty. Gen. J. P.
Coleman, who sat in as an observer
during the recent Supreme Court
arguments, that “Mississippi has
enough laws now to preserve segre
gation, regardless of the decisions
handed down by the Supreme Court.”
A meeting of Mississippi’s 25-mem
ber Legal Educational Advisory Com
mittee, headed by Gov. Hugh White,
which drafted the new constitu
tional standby authorization for
abolition of public schools in the
event that it is necessary as a “last
resort” to prevent integration.
A survey of Mississippi’s institu
tions of higher learning recommend
ing enlargement of the graduate
study program at Jackson College for
Negroes, with use of staff members
from other colleges.
A special survey of public schools
in DeSoto County (Hernando) for
consolidation of the 50-odd Negro
elementary schools into three or four
large, new schools, and development
of a high school for grades 7 through
12 for all Negro pupils at Hernando.
DeSoto county has no tax-supported
high school for Negroes, with many
students being “bootlegged” into ad
joining Shelby County, Tennessee,
(Memphis).
SURVEYS CONDUCTED
Surveys are being made in 57 of
the 82 counties looking to a general
consolidation and strengthening of
white and Negro schools under a new
Negro-white public school equaliza
tion program. Many counties have
been working on the consolidation
program for the past few years, and as
a result the number of school districts
has been reduced from 3,562 in the
1950-51 school year to 971 at the pre
sent time. Major reason for the big
reduction is the formation of county
units for Negro schools, which pre
viously were counted each as a sep
arate district.
Tied into the consolidation program
is a legislature-authorized school
building program for which bonds
totaling 60 million dollars have been
authorized. The state department of
education has estimated it will take
117 million dollars to equalize Negro
and substandard white schools with
other existing facilities.
Already in effect is an equalization
formula for teachers’ salaries, trans
portation and administration from the
state level. That program is now cost
ing 38 million dollars annually, com
pared to the 25 million dollars au
thorized at the 1954 regular session.
G. J. Cain, statistician in the state
department of education, has esti
mated an additional one million dol
lars a year for at least five years will
be required to equalize teachers’ sal
aries due to degree upgrading which
places them in a higher salary brack
et. Most of the upward readjustments
are taking place among Negro
teachers.
The new women’s auxiliary to the
Citizens Councils was formed at
Sumner in Tallahatchie County. It is
headed by Mrs. Harvey Pennington
of Stover, wife of State Sen. Penning
ton. It is the first such affiliate to be
formed in the state. Reports from the
Winona, Miss., headquarters of the
Association of Citizens Councils, state
that over half of the 82 counties now
have councils.
METHODIST OFFICIALS
Oscar Wolfe Jr., of Duncan in Bo
livar County, a former state senator
and representative, is president of the
new Mississippi Association of Meth
odist Ministers and Laymen to Main
tain Racial Customs in Churches,
Schools, Conferences, and Jurisdic
tions. Mr. Wolfe is lay leader in the
North Mississippi Methodist Confer
ence.
Other officers of the Methodist
group are E. W. Hooker of Lexington
(Holmes County) businessman and
farmer, and J. M. Ewing, president of
Copiah-Lincoln Junior College at
Wesson and former president of the
Mississippi Education Association,
both vice presidents; Garner M. Les
ter of Jackson, businessman, treas
urer, and Mrs. S. U. Smith of Louise,
secretary.
Two requests have been sent to the
General Conference of the Methodist
Church national convention which
meets next year:
1. To enact no legislation altering
or modifying the jurisdictional sys
tem as contained in the constitution
of the Methodist church.
2. To enact rk> legislation imposing
compulsory changes in the present
established relationships between the
racial groups within the Methodist
church.
White and Negro churches are un
der two separate “jurisdictions” in the
South—the Southeastern Jurisdiction
for whites, and the Central Jurisdic
tion for Negroes.
Heading the newly-formed and
chartered Jackson State’s Rights As
sociation is Ellis W. Wright Sr.,
owner of a large funeral home. Its
vice president is C. H. King, vice
president of a large road machinery
company, with William Simmons, son
of the chairman of the board of the
Deposit Guaranty Bank & Trust Co.,
as secretary-treasurer.
One of the purposes of the State’s
Rights group is maintenance of har
monious relations between the races
in the vicinity of Jackson. It is incor
porated under the laws of Mississippi.
Rep. Robertshaw said his proposal
was prompted by a feeling that “we
have been taking the wrong approach
to the situation.”
PENALTIES IN NEW LAW
The new law prohibiting mixed at
tendance at schools carries a penalty
of a fine of $1 up to $25, and-or im
prisonment in the county jail for six
months. An unsuccessful effort was
made to remove the penalty on
grounds it would apply to children.
However, it was explained the parent,
as well as teacher, would be the guilty
party.
Opposing the proposal to remove
the penalty application, Rep. Wind
ham of Prentiss County (Booneville),
said:
“If any white parent sends his child
to a school with a Negro, he should be
sent to jail.”
Returning from the recent Wash
ington Supreme Court arguments,
Atty. Gen. Coleman said Mississippi’s
1954 statute for assignment of pupils
is one of its strong provisions against
integration. He said:
“The Supreme Court will long re
member their decision on May 17,
1954, and I am more convinced now
Alabama
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
■yF/HEN the Alabama Legislature
meets for its regular biennial ses
sion May 3, the attitude of some law
makers toward a proposed increase
in the school budget as well as a big
bond issue for building new class
rooms may be affected somewhat by
the impending U. S. Supreme Court
decree spelling out how states must
comply with the segregation decision.
Alabama school forces, led by State
Supt. Austin R. Meadows and backed
by Gov. James E. Folsom, are asking
for a public school budget of 104 mil
lion dollars for the next two years—
an increase of 36 million dollars over
present school expenditures. In addi
tion, the educators propose a 150-
million-dollar bond issue to finance
construction of badly needed class
rooms. Gov. Folsom, in backing the
bond proposal, has stressed the need
for more and better schools for Negro
children. Negro children must be re
moved from the “shotgun shacks”
now serving as schools in some coun
ties, he said.
Gov. Folsom has displayed con
siderable influence over the Legisla
ture in the three special sessions he
has called since taking office in Jan
uary. (The sessions were called to
consider his road, welfare and reap
portionment proposals.) But some
opposition to the school bond issue
and the increased school budget may
be expected.
WOULD LIFT EXEMPTIONS
Dr. Meadows, whose proposals so
far have been backed by Gov. Fol
som, wants the Legislature to remove
present exemptions on the state’s 3%
sales tax and to repeal a law permit
ting Alabamians to deduct federal
income taxes in computing state in
come taxes. Together, these measures
would go a long way toward paying
for school needs, Dr. Meadows be
lieves.
Coming as they do after the legisla
ture has already enacted several new
taxes to pay for Folsom’s road and
welfare programs, these proposals
may meet the opposition of economy-
minded legislators. Other resistance
may come from those legislators,
notably the delegation from Ala
bama’s predominantly Negro “Black
Belt,” who want to see what the Su
preme Court is going to do before
okaying an accelerated school pro
gram.
To further complicate matters, the
recommendation of a special com
mittee studying public school segre
gation (the Boutwell committee) will
be ready for action, as will other
“private school” bills. The Boutwell
committee’s recommendations would
pave the way for the abolition of
public schools if necessary, in the
opinion of the legislature, to main
tain order.
Speaking before the Race Relations
than ever before we can preserve se
gregation in our public schools.
“Even though the court hands
down the decision, [the justices] do
not have the executive power to en
force the decision.
“Mississippi is at the bottom finan
cially as well as educationally. It is
high time all this talk [about integra
tion] be stopped and we begin to
progress with equalized segregated
program.
“Segregation will be enforced. If
needed, we can abolish our public
schools for one day and reinstate
them the next should the Supreme
Court cite officials of Mississippi with
contempt of court for not allowing
integration.”
Atty. Gen. Coleman said that suits
challenging the segregated system
would have to be filed individually
against schools or districts, and if
cited by the court, they could be
abolished under the new constitu
tional provision, and later reorganiz
ed and reinstated.
WHITE IS SPEAKER
Meanwhile, at the fifth anniversary
celebration of the Mississippi Voca
tional College for Negroes at Itta
Bena, Gov. Hugh White was the
principal speaker. The governor
called for cooperation between whites
and Negroes “to make Mississippi a
greater and better state.”
Institute in Birmingham on April 1,
Dr. Gordon Blackwell of the Univer
sity of North Carolina’s Institute for
Research in Social Science said that
the “attempt of the United States to
set itself up as an example of de
mocracy to the rest of the world has
been weakened by race relations in
the South.”
The two-day institute was spon
sored by the Jefferson County (Bir
mingham) Coordinating Council, an
organization composed of representa
tives from social agencies and civic
groups in and around Birmingham.
An estimated 800 delegates attended
the unsegregated sessions at Meth
odism’s white Birmingham Southern
College. It was reportedly the first
unsegregated meeting on this scale
ever held in Alabama.
Dr. Blackwell reported progress in
race relations and in the Negro posi
tion as a result of dynamic changes
in the South. However, the South is
on the spot in the cold war with
communism because of its “tradition
al practices in regard to the Negro,”
he said.
“The place of the Negro in Ameri
can and Southern society is cited as
an irreconcilable behavior pattern
in what is otherwise the nearest ap
proximation to democracy the world
has seen,” he said. “And now imme
diately upon us is the challenge in
some way to move toward the Su
preme Court decision relative to
integration in public schools.”
Dr. Blackwell said that the move
ment of the Negro to the cities has
brought him better schools and an
increased social acceptance. He noted
the emergence of “more rational poli
tics with occasional indications of
statesmanship rather than demago
guery.” He commended some South
ern religious groups for a “rather
liberal stand on race relations” in
recent years.
BOARD CRITICIZED
Dr. Donald S. Strong, professor of
political science at the University of
Alabama, criticized the Jefferson
County Board of Registrars for “il
legal tactics” against both white and
Negro citizens. The board is restrict
ing registration, Dr. Strong said, by
asking “all manner of fabulous ques
tions” as a basis for qualifying pros
pective voters.
Dr. Strong said that North Ala
bama is almost completely without
discrimination in the registration of
Negro voters. South Alabama is lag
ging but making progress, he said. In
the past 10 years Negro registration
in Alabama has risen from 2,800 to
54,000 (in 1952), he said.
Dr. F. D. Patterson, former presi
dent of Tuskegee Institute and now
director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund,
New York, noted a correlation be
tween educational opportunities for
Negroes and employment prospects-
For example, he said, Alabama spent
about four times as much in educat
ing a white child in 1939-40 as it did
in the education of a Negro. And the
rejection rate for illiteracy was three
times as great for prospective Negro
draftees as white, he said. He noted
that 49% of Negroes are classified as
“unskilled labor.”
‘SECOND RECONSTRUCTION’
At another big interracial meeting
in Alabama during April, the 43rd
annual convention of the John A-
Andrew Clinical Society at Tuskegee
Institute in Alabama’s Black Bej
county of Macon (population 84 c
Negro), Dr. Ambrose Caliver, assist"
ant to the U. S. Commissioner 0
Education, saw a “second Recon
struction” for the South. Dr. Caliver-
one-time student at Tuskegee In^ 1 '
tute, said of the Supreme Court’s de
cision outlawing classroom segreg 3
tion: ,
“... A crisis need not develop 311
will not unless through indifferen
and fear we permit undemocratic an
obstructionist forces to gain the 3 -
cendancy.” _ .
Some 500 physicians, medi
teachers, research and clinical P®^
sonnel, public health experts, e ’
white and Negro, attended the n
day interracial, intersectional he
conference. They came from 38 sta