Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 18—June 8, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Alabama
MONTGOMERY, ALA.
A s THE date neared for the Su
preme Court’s expected decree on
school segregation, Alabama had
taken no positive action to meet the
challenge to its traditional system of
separate facilities for Negro and
white pupils.
Several proposals, all designed to
retain segregation in one way or an
other had been presented to the state
legislature, now in its regular bi
ennial session. But none of the bills
had yet been reported out of com
mittee.
State Superintendent of Education
Austin R. Meadows has maintained
that the decree probably won’t affect
Alabama because this state isn’t in
volved in the cases before the court.
On May 20, Dr. Meadows said that
classroom segregation would be pre
served if his school budget and class
room construction program, endorsed
by Gov. James E. Folsom in his ad
dress to the legislature May 7, is ap
proved.
The proposed school program calls
for a record $123,000,000 budget for
the coming fiscal year—up to $43,000,-
000 over the current figure—plus au
thorization of a $150,000,000 bond is
sue to finance school construction.
Both Meadows and Folsom have em
phasized the need for bringing Negro
facilities up to a par with those of
white children. If better Negro
schools are provided, Meadows said,
“we would please 95% of the popu
lation and only about 5% would
gripe.” Folsom has said the state
must get Negro children out of the
“shotgun shacks” now serving as
schools for some of them.
GETS MIXED REACTION
Meadows’ ambitious proposals
have met with mixed reaction. Some
lawmakers agree with him that
equalization of facilities will counter
an attack on the state’s segregation
policy. Others had expressed re
luctance to go along with any bond
issue until they know what the Su-
MACON, GA.
HTHE segregation issue has been
brought into an attempt to gain
public and legislative support for a
proposed $65 million tax increase in
Georgia.
A State Programs Study Commit
tee, created at the last session of the
General Assembly, has recommended
additional taxes, with the bulk of
the extra revenue thus gained going
to education, and suggested that state
school funds be distributed to county
and independent school systems on
a per-pupil basis. At present, funds
are allocated on a per-teacher basis.
State Auditor B. E. Thrasher, a
member of the committee, told Geor
gia school leaders that the shift in
the distribution methods would help
get the state ready to defend its tra
ditional stand against integration.
Under a constitutional amendment
approved in the last November’s gen
eral election, Georgia is prepared to
implement a segregated private
school plan, with state funds dis
tributed on a per-pupil basis, as a
last resort to avoid compliance with
the Supreme Court ruling outlawing
segregation in the public schools, ac
cording to state officials.
The transition to per-pupil allot
ment of funds would tie in with plans
to distribute state money to indi
viduals “for educational purposes,”
as envisioned in the segregated pri
vate school proposal.
BOARD BANS TEXTBOOKS
Three school textbooks, character
ized as not in accord with the “South
ern way of life,” have been banned
by the state board of education.
A songbook, Together We Sing,
published by the Lafollette Company,
was banned because the word “broth
ers” had been substituted for the
word “darkies” in two of Stephen
Foster’s songs, “Old Folks at Home”
and “My Old Kentucky Home,” as
reported in the May issue of South
ern School News.
preme Court will order. Among the
latter are two Black Belt senators,
Sam Engelhardt of Macon County
(84% Negro and home of famous
Tuskegee Institute for Negroes) and
Walter Givham of Dallas County
(65% Negro).
Engelhardt is author of several
bills, already introduced, aimed at
blocking any Supreme Court action.
Givham has been active in the White
Citizens Council movement in Ala
bama. Both had said they would not
vote to authorize any kind of school
bond issue until the Supreme Court
acts.
One of Engelhardt’s bills would
submit a constitutional amendment
to the people to abolish the state’s
compulsory public school system;
another would pave the way for crea
tion of a private corporation to oper
ate the schools on a “free private”
basis; another would set up a place
ment system in each of the state’s
school districts.
In addition to the Engelhardt bills,
a lengthy set of recommendations has
been presented the legislature by
a special committee studying segre
gation. The report, although formally
presented to the legislature only a
few weeks ago, was made public last
fall. The then governor, Gordon Per
sons, refused to call a special session
of the legislature or to take any ac
tion to consider what he calls a “half-
baked plan.”
WAIT-AND-SEE STAND
Persons adopted a wait-and-see at
titude, which seems to be the posi
tion of Gov. Folsom, who took office
in January. Like Persons, Folsom
has refused to commit himself to any
plan designed to alter the public
school system of the state. His com
ments on the subject have been few,
but he has been reported as saying
that he would not “make the good
colored people of Alabama ... go to
school with us white folks.” Several
newspapers referred to this as a “new
twist.”
The company, saying someone in
Washington instigated the changing
of the words but declining to elabo
rate, offered to change the wording
which was objectionable to the board
but members decided not to adopt
the songbook even if the change was
made.
A sociology book, Our Changing
Social Order, published by D. C.
Heath Company, was banned under
the charge by George C. Dean of
College Park, a member of the pro
fessional textbook committee, that it
taught whites are unfair to Negroes
in elections, and in school and recre
ational facilities. The book, he said,
follows the NAACP line and tries to
“condition” white children to the
idea that color doesn’t matter.
Dean’s objections were stated in
a minority report of the textbook
committee. The majority report, de
livered by Harvey Brown, Man
chester school principal, declared
teachers on the committee were not
happy over recommending approval
but felt on the whole the “good out
weighs the bad.” It was felt, he said,
that Georgia teachers could adjust
the instructions to fit their classes.
A history book, America, Land of
Freedom, also published by D. C.
Heath Company, was banned at the
request of Mrs. Julius Y. Talmadge,
board member, who said it didn’t give
the South sufficient credit in the
Revolutionary War. In a discussion of
the advisability of employing teach
ers during summer vacations to re
view books for possible classroom
use, Mrs. Talmadge urged that teach
ers be “screened” to show that “they
have the courage of their convic
tions.”
‘JOURNAL’ IS CRITICAL
Plans to establish a more perma
nent working professional textbook
committee to review books and “pre
vent ‘isms’ from creeping into our
schools” were made by the board.
Board Chairman George P. Whitman
Jr. said, “There is no place in Geor-
The legislative committee studying
school segregation (headed by Sen.
Albert Boutwell of Birmingham) rec
ommended the abolition of all con
stitutional references to “public” edu
cation and the institution of a vol
untary plan of school attendance.
Theoretically, the Boutwell recom
mendations admit of the possibility
of some integrated schools, if parents
want them. But, if allowed, these
would be subject to the approval of
the legislature which could, if it
chose, abolish such schools in the in
terest of law and order. Boutwell
has said that his committee’s recom
mendations contemplate “private
schools” only as last resort. The pri
vate schools would be supported by
public funds. The recommenda
tions, if enacted, would give the leg
islature “flexibility and discretion
ary power” in meeting situations as
they arise. As analyzed by Prof. Jay
Murphy of the University of Ala
bama Law School, in a lengthy
critique of the Boutwell plan
(Southern School News, April 7),
the proposal would have this effect:
“(1) The public school system
would remain about as it is now, but
(2) white people and colored people
may elect to attend public segre
gated schools, and (3) some public
unsegregated schools may be con
ducted for those persons willing to
attend them, but (4) if Negroes seek,
against the will of white persons, to
force their admission to white schools,
then the state in the interest of pre
serving harmony, efficiency and good
order, would be under no duty to
furnish education to such persons un
der such unharmonious conditions.
And as a last step to prevent the use
of public schools under such condi
tions of disrupted order, the legis
lature may delegate to local authori
ties the power to discontinue public
schools and to grant aid to both Ne
gro and white children to permit
them to attend segregated private
schools.”
BILL KILLED IN 1953
The Engelhardt bills have been de
scribed as somewhat more drastic.
One would abolish the public school
system forthwith and set up “free
gia schools at any time for anything
that disagrees with out way of life.”
The Atlanta Journal, largest paper
in the state, editorially warned the
board that there was a risk in ban
ning or censoring a book “simply
because it may express opinions op
posite to those of some officials.” The
editorial said the “supervision should
be such that it grants the greatest
possible intellectual freedom in the
expression of opinions.”
Gov. Marvin Griffin, in a speech
attacked proposed federal aid to edu
cation plans as encroachment on “the
sovereignty and solvency ... of the
48 states” and reaffirmed a determi
nation to go to a private school sys
tem in Georgia before accepting in
tegration.
Former Gov. Herman Talmadge
has also discussed the implications of
the decision outlawing segregation in
numerous public addresses in which
he has termed the Supreme Court “a
glorified board of education.”
CIRCULARS ASK ACTION
In mid-May, circulars urging stu
dents to begin “creative political ac
tion” in studying the problem of race
relations “intelligently and objective
ly” were distributed on the Univer
sity of Georgia campus at Athens.
Arthur Warren McDonald, a senior
from Milledgeville, said the circulars
were a project of the university’s Stu
dent Citizens Committee. They urged
the reading of such books as Now is
the Time, by Lillian Smith; The Ne
gro and the Schools, by Harry Ash
more and The Christian Way in Race
Relations, by William S. Nelson, and
suggested that legislators be con
tacted to discuss ways of preparing
to “face the coming implications of
the U. S. Supreme Court decision.”
Roy V. Harris, a member of the
state board of regents which over
sees the university system, said only
seven students were involved in the
distribution of the circulars and
claimed they were dupes of the
American Friends Service Commit
tee and of the Southern Regional
Council.
Separate white and colored dele
gations to represent Georgia at the
White House Conference on Educa
tion Nov. 28-Dec. 1 have been named
private classrooms.” This bill was
killed by the 1953 legislature before
the Supreme Court returned its rul
ing outlawing public school segrega
tion. Under this plan the schools
would be turned over to privately
operated corporations made up of
school patrons supposedly free from
direct control by state or local gov
ernments. The legislature would be
given authority to make grants of
public funds to the school corpora
tions, which would have the power
to restrict attendance to either race.
Engelhardt’s school placement bill
would set up local boards empowered
with the authority to decide where
each pupil should attend school.
Board members would be designated
as judicial officers, and hence theo
retically immune from lawsuit. The
placement bill makes no mention of
race but it permits the local boards
to consider such factors as the follow
ing in designating the school for a
particular pupil:
(1) Distance of school from his
home.
(2) His educational background.
(3) His home environment.
(4) Whether or not the assignment
would sever long established
ties of friendship and place the
pupil in hostile surroundings
from which his former friends
and associates are completely
missing.
(5) The pupil’s wishes as evidenced
by written request from his
parent or guardian to be as
signed to a particular school.
(6) Whether or not, in the judg
ment of the board, the assign
ment would cause or tend to
cause a breach of the peace,
riot or affray.
COULD GIVE TESTS
Local boards would also have the
authority to give intelligence and
aptitude tests to determine which
school or class the pupil would be
best suited for. The bill defines its
purpose as the following:
“To establish a practical school sys
tem whereby the state’s school pro
gram can be adopted to each pupil’s
by Gov. Griffin. Twenty white per
sons and nine Negroes were named
with the governor emphasizing that
the committee is divided into two
segments. The two groups will travel
separately, stay in separate hotels
and will be associated with each other
only at the Washington conference.
They will attend meetings as indi
viduals and not as an integrated
group, according to the governor’s
office.
Chairman Whitman of the state
board of education is also chairman
of the white group. No chairman will
be named for the colored group.
NEW DIVISIONS SET UP
Speaking to the annual Grand
Masters Conference of Prince Hall
Masons in Atlanta, Thurgood Mar
shall, director of the Legal Defense
and Education Fund of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, said that two new
divisions have been set up within the
organization to give Negro teachers
in the South maximum protection
against discrimination during the
transition period from segregation to
integration. These divisions are called
the Department of Teachers Informa
tion and Security and the Committee
of Social Scientists.
Marshall thanked the group for
the annual contribution of approxi
mately $25,000 to the Prince Hall
Mason Legal Research Department.
The department, which works with
the NAACP, did much of the legal
research on the briefs filed in the
school segregation cases last year.
_ Many requests for research mate
rial were received from over the na
tion, Marshall said, adding that the
department has also assumed the re
sponsibility of developing necessary
legal theories to protect Negro teach
ers during the transitory period.
Desegregation was the main item
on the agenda of a joint meeting of
the Departments of Christian Social
Relations of the two Episcopal dio
ceses of Georgia.
It was decided that the two chair
men should contact leaders of the
Georgia Council of Churches and try
to arrange a meeting of the denomi
national representatives in the coun
cil to discuss implementation of the
ability to learn. To this end it p ro _
vides a modem school placemen
system, so that pupils can be ^
grouped that the less advanced pn.
pils shall not be penalized by bein E
placed in the class with pupils who
are more advanced or capable of
learning at a more rapid rate, and
conversely, that exceptionally bright
and able pupils shall not be held
back to a level below their ability
to leam. Therefore, this act shall be
liberally construed to effectuate this
avowed purpose.”
In the event that the legislature
refuses to approve either his private
school plan or his placement pro-
posal, Engelhardt has introduced a
“last resort” bill providing:
“.. . State aid for teachers’ salaries
and all other appropriations for the
operation of the public school sys
tem, shall cease and become inopera,
tive for the time that any pupil or
pupils shall by order of any court
attend a school other than that which
he or she is now attending or may
be assigned by local board of trustees
or other governing body of such
school. This provision shall not in
any way affect the operation of any
school other than the school affected
by such court order.”
IDENTICAL BILL IN HOUSE
A bill identical to the Engelhardt
placement proposal has been intro,
duced in the House by Reps. Reginald
Richardson and Charles Ramey of
Hale County (70% Negro).
Rep. Gregory Oakley of Wilcox
(79% Negro) has introduced a bill
to retain public schools but prohibit
compulsory mixed attendance. The
bill says in part:
“The legislature may provide sep
arate schools for white and colored
children whose parents, legal custo
dians or guardians voluntarily elect
that such children attend school with
members of their own race. No white
or colored child shall be compelled
to attend a school where the races
are commingled.”
No action has been taken on any
of the above plans.
None has been reported out of
committee.
Supreme Court decision. It was sug-
gested that specialists in the fields of
law and education, as well as reli- ;
gion, should be present at such a
meeting.
Hardly any public discussion meet
ings on the integration issue have
been held in Georgia in recent
months, except at the conference of
interracial groups, as is emphasized
in a report on the state at the annual
meeting of Region IV (Georgia, Flor
ida and Alabama) of the Philoso
phers of Education Society.
The report contended that Geor
gians, whose reactions to the situa
tion generated by the Supreme Court
ruling were not uniform nor settled,
have been irretrievably committe
to an inflexible and pre-set response
that segregation be maintained at a
points as it is now, regardless of the
price, even if it be the destruction
of the public schools. ,
The report continued to say tna
all public enlightenment on the q u f s "
tion has ceased for the time beine
and the machinery of public inform^
tion and education stalled. “To 6
it going again,” the educators at
meeting were told, “will P 1 ] 0 ” 3 '
take more than an implementing
cision . . . from the Supreme Cou ^
for this will only set in motion
official reaction already laid down
the state. The situation is such tha
public learning can be initiated
til the state is hit in the face by 1 ,f
ing its schools hauled into court.
SEEK ‘PILOT EXPERIMENTS’
The cessation of public discuss^
the report further stated, ^ aS . ce
prived the people of the experi ,.
of preparing the state to lay its P
lem before the Supreme Cour . ,
What is needed, it was conten ^
are “pilot experiments” in m e
tion to inform and educate on
public level, even granting ^
will be a long time before the u jjjc
proceeds to integrate any P
school in any manner or f° ujj
Finally, the report concludes ^
the assertion that “the state i oS ivC
exorably headed toward an exp ^
and unpredictable experimen
the private school device desp ijy
fact that few if any Georgian®. »
‘intend’ it this way to begin
Georgia