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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—July 6, 1955—PAGE II
Georgia Awaits Counsel Of Special Education Commission
MACON, GA.
indication of Georgia’s next
move to maintain segregation
despite the U. S. Supreme Court’s
original decision outlawing separate
schools for white and Negro children
^nd the Court’s May 31 decision that
the transition shall be made “as soon
as practicable” is expected at a meet
ing of the Georgia Education Com
mission in the very near future.
Gov. Marvin Griffin had earlier
announced the Commission, created
by the state legislature to find legal
means to circumvent the decision,
would meet following the June emer
gency session of the General Assem
bly.
Wire services stories and a story in
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on
Sunday, June 5, all quoted Gov.
Griffin as indicating Georgia may
have to scrap its proposed “private
school” system for some other plan
which he said would be “more ex
pensive” and “which is not exactly
desirable.” The stories said he did
not elaborate on what the “other
plan” might be.
A reporter for the Macon Tele
graph & News, checking for clarifica
tion of the report, however, was told
by the governor no such comment
had been made and a search of his
recorded statements failed to reveal
anything of the sort.
Abandonment of the private school
plan would have been a complete
about-face for Gov. Griffin, who
staked his political future on the
stratagem aimed at making state
grants to individual students in seg
regated private schools.
KID DERBY INCIDENT
The first evidence of any activity
on the part of Georgia’s only known
organized anti-integration citizens’
group cropped up in Augusta.
The States Rights Council of Geor
gia Inc., demanded that the annual
Soap Box Derby be called off after
two Negro contestants entered.
The Derby, scheduled for July 13,
was cancelled after the sponsors, the
Augusta Chronicle, Henry Darling
Inc., and the Augusta Chapter of the
American Business Clubs, said a
number of white youths withdrew
and a survey of parents disclosed
that a large percentage did not care
to have their sons participate.
The sponsors denied outside pres
sure brought by the Council caused
the cancellation and said had a suffi
cient number of parents permitted
their sons to participate, the race
would have been held.
Hugh G. Grant is listed as presi
dent and Roy V. Harris as first vice-
president of the Council. Both are
from Augusta and Harris is a former
speaker of the Georgia House of Rep
resentatives. „
The June emergency session of the
state legislature was for tax-raising
purposes only and no measures
bearing on segregation were intro
duced or discussed. Gov. Griffin said
he did not anticipate it would be
necesary to call the legislature back
into special session as a result of the
May 31 decision.
The third petition asking integra
tion of white and colored children in
the public schools has been filed in
Georgia.
“Immediate steps” to abolish seg
regation were asked of the Atlanta
school board in a petition listing the
names of nine parents of Negro chil
dren filed by the Atlanta branch of
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People.
Similar petitions had earlier been
filed in Macon and Columbus.
A suit seeking school integration
was filed in 1951 by NAACP attor
neys and is still pending in the U. S.
District Court of Atlanta.
A letter accompanying the Atlanta
petition said there would be no need
for pressing for court action on the
suit if the board was in a position to
Maryland Officials
(Continued from Page 10)
not be done in just two or three
Months.”
Western Maryland
Running westward from Baltimori
ounty are five counties which havi
• e gro school enrollments ranginj
°m less than ten per cent down ti
^ (in westernmost Garrett Coun-
AT Ehe area is one of fertile farm;
n a few scattered industries, witl
e nnsylvania cultural affinities oi
y. e nor th and more than a touch o
Ir ginian influences on the south ii
C ° Unty like Frederick. All of th.
hav * les 7' exce Pt Garrett, of course—
e maintained separate schools foi
Mr small numbers of Negro chil-
n ’ and also Negro school buses.
W °, We stern Maryland countie;
to e ® rea dy made decisions leading
desegregation. Frederic!
-A* with 9.1 per cent Negrt
^ 1 Pupils, has announced tha'
!em° r anc * sen i° r high school stu-
!a][ , would be integrated in thf
of following the completior
fhnn' 66 neW sc b°°ls now in the
Kill s * a £ e - Elementary school;
a e desegregated gradually or
C°Untv me£ d basis. In nearby Carrol
5.1 per cent Negro en-
a] 6r ent > the school board voted tc
white and Negro athletic pro
as qj and such county-wide event;
•5g a Slc an d dance festivals, pend-
W e P°rt on full integration by £
“nuwttee and school staff,
tent N Ueehany County, with 2 pel
6 ^ r ° stdlo °l enrollment, schoo
tisticgl ® em bers have received sta-
^hoo] . f rom the professional
"‘lorertf °n the location of the 32(
Several yb 00 ^ children in the county
- f“ministrative questions have
Sducau erred t0 the State Board oi
kgr atlo ° n - An announcement of in-
bi -nr P.ns is expected soon.
'■"‘aa t s mngton County, with less
'olbw? cen t colored school en-
, the school board on June 2c
Willing (Continued)
named a 13-member study group and
set July 13 as the meeting date for a
discussion of integration. The county
school superintendent, William M.
Brish, said immediately after the
May 31 decision that desegregation
in this county would be “no great
problem.”
SOUTHERN MARYLAND
The division of a state into local
areas is always subject to interpre
tation, but on the basis of racial atti
tudes southern Maryland may fairly
be said to start with Howard County,
which is more often linked geograph
ically with western Maryland. So
far the Howard school board has only
said that it was studying problems
related to desegregation and that
“such a study has been in progress
for some time and will be continued
until sufficient information has been
obtained upon which to base a course
of action.” The county school super
intendent, John E. Yingling, has been
quoted in the press as saying, “We’ll
probably get some form of action at
out next meeting July 5.” Howard
County has 19.4 per cent colored pu
pils in its schools.
Southwest of Howard lies Mont
gomery County, which is heavily
white suburban at the southern end,
where it borders the District of Co
lumbia line, and white rural at its
upper half, where Negroes represent
about 25 per cent of the school popu
lation. Montgomery was the first to
announce a definite integration pro
gram, which will start with down-
county elementary schools and in
clude some secondary-level mixing.
In Calvert County, which is the
only one to have more Negroes than
whites in its schools, the school board
met the day after the Supreme
Court’s final action in the school seg
regation cases and resolved that its
president “appoint a committee of
representative citizens to make rec-
move toward integration now. Board
members did not comment on the pe
tition or the letter.
The Atlanta petition follows the
strategy outlined at an NAACP
meeting in Atlanta early in June.
This calls for:
(1) Filing a petition with each
local school board, calling attention
to the Supreme Court decision, of
fering NAACP assistance in solving
transitional problems and requesting
action by school authorities.
(2) Following up with periodic in
quiries as to what is being done in
compliance.
(3) Going into court to try to force
action if the local school boards have
made no move toward integration
by the beginning of the September
school term.
No action has been taken on any of
the three petitions and court suits
are expected to be filed in the fall un
less Negro petitioners believe moves
toward integration are being made.
35 NAACP BRANCHES
There are 35 branch organizations
of the NAACP in Georgia and peti
tions will be filed in every city where
there is a branch, according to Dr.
William Boyd, state NAACP presi
dent. He said the state branch would
give help to Negroes in those areas
where there are no NAACP branches.
Commenting on the NAACP strat
egy, Gov. Griffin said he would have
no alternative under the laws of the
State of Georgia and the Georgia
Constitution “but to withhold all
public funds, which is my duty and
my oath of office” if the organization
tries to force integration during the
summer, getting ready for the fall
term.
The question of whether the Su
preme Court’s desegregation order
had invalidated school bond financing
in Georgia and other southern states
came up following the decision of a
judge in a Virginia case.
The Virginia judge enjoined a mil-
lion-dollar bond issue for Hanover
County on the grounds that it was
voted for “segregated schools,” which
have since been declared illegal.
George P. Whitman Jr., of Atlanta,
chairman of the Georgia School
ommendation for the implementation
of the May 31, 1955, Supreme Court
decrees relative to the desegregation
of schools.” The resolution said that
the board recognized its obligations
to operate schools in accordance with
federal and state laws and the by
laws of the State Board of Education.
In Charles and St. Mary’s coun
ties, which lie across the Potomac
from Virginia and have Negro en
rollments of 45.3 and 30.2 per cent,
respectively, the school boards have
discussed desegregation during the
past year but no announcement of
plans have been made.
BALTIMORE CITY
Baltimore schools, desegregated
last fall, completed their initial year
of mixed classes in orderly fashion—
a year generally acclaimed by school
officials and others as having been
successful. The city runs summer
courses in three high schools for stu
dents who have work to make up
because of poor grades, long absences
because of ill health, etc. This sum
mer the courses are given at two high
schools that have been predominant
ly white and one that has been all-
Negro. In the summer courses, fac
ulties are mixed.
School officials have given out no
figures on summer school enrollment
by race, but the schools from which
students have been drawn indicate
that for the first time there is a sig-
nifiicant movement of white students
into a predominantly colored school.
More than 150 white boys and girls
will be in Douglass high school,
which will have about 1,500 Negro
students. There were no white stu
dents in colored secondary schools.
The proximinity of Douglass to white
neighborhoods, in comparison to the
other two schools where summer
course are given, is considered to be
the reason for the mixing.
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Building Authority, said the decision
would have no bearing in this state
because in Georgia the school bonds
were issued by an agency connected
with the state.
Church groups in Georgia in June
took definite stands in favor of con
tinued segregation.
Members of the Atlanta Methodist
Ministers Association, composed of
some 150 ministers of the denomina
tion in the Atlanta area, unanimously
asked the Methodist General Confer
ence to retain the all-Negro Central
Jurisdiction of the church.
“We Methodists of the South united
with other branches of the church in
1939 with the understanding that the
Central Jurisdiction, providing for
segregation within the church, would
be maintained,” said the Rev. Gordon
Thompson, Association president.
Removal of the Central Jurisdiction,
he said, would be a “breach of faith.”
The suggestions of some of the
groups in the North in regard to in
tegration “just are not practical. In
tegration will not work in the South,”
the Rev. Mr. Thompson said.
OTHER METHODIST ACTIONS
The North Georgia Methodist Con
ference, meeting in Athens, and the
South Georgia Methodist Conference,
meeting in Savannah, also went on
record for continued separate Negro
churches.
The northern group, asking that
ways be sought to improve race rela
tions, directed a memorial titled “A
Christian Solution to Race Problems”
to the Southeastern Jurisdictional
Conference of the Methodist Church.
It said:
“We recognize that the society in
which we live is in the process of
changing and that our church cannot
in loyalty to her Master fail to sup
port the movement toward a peace
ful Christian solution to this prob
lem.”
Ways should be sought to provide
“points of contact for better under
standing among races, thus making
our jurisdictional system to be an
effective instrument to work toward
a more Christian society,” the memo
rial continued.
The South Georgia Methodist group
also asked that the present jurisdic
tional setup be continued, in effect
asking for a continuance of segrega
tion.
A flurry of comment developed as
a reaction to the Supreme Court de
cision of May 31. Several public fig
ures later elaborated on their orig
inal statements.
Sen. Walter F. George said the seg
regation problem must be handled on
a state level. “We can’t hope to secure
anything in legislation on the na
tional level on an issue as politically
involved as this one is,” he said. “The
best we’ve been able to do (in Con
gress) for the last 30 years is to de
feat certain things. We can’t do any
thing positive.”
Whatever is done, he said, must be
done by “thoughtful people of both
races.” The Georgia senator added
that “you can’t get rid of the Supreme
Court’s decision until you get nine
justices to overrule it, and that just
isn’t going to happen.”
Sen. George’s remarks on the sub
ject were heard with interest in this
state where it has been generally
speculated that he will face opposi
tion in a bid for re-election next
year from former Gov. Herman Tal-
madge. Reports have been that the
ex-govemor will campaign against
George with a charge that the senator
did not denounce the Supreme
Court’s original decision outlawing
segregation.
Gov. Griffin said, “Many Southern
ers who rushed to applaud the Su
preme Court’s implementation edict
are doing a double-take now that
they 'have read its provisions. Most
of the early comments by southern
leaders came before they had a
chance to read and study what the
court had to say. As a result, some
construed it as a retreat or ‘backing
down,’ which certainly is not the
case.”
The governor said, “The strategy is
to lull the South to sleep with a little
mixing of the races here and there
until the ultimate end of complete
integration in the schools is accom
plished.”
The NAACP will press for action
in admitting students to state-en
dowed southern universities if qual
ified Negro applicants ask for help,
Thurgood Marshall, chief attorney of
the organization, said in Atlanta.
To this end, he declared, the
NAACP will reopen action in a dor
mant suit seeking admission of a
Negro, Horace Ward, to the Univer
sity of Georgia Law School at Athens.
The suit was filed some years ago
and the plaintiff, now in the Army, is
scheduled to leave military service
in the near future.
Marshall said, “If he gets out one
day, we’ll have him in court the next
day.”
In Columbus, adoption of a six-
year-old child by white foster parents
who claim the boy now appears to
have Negro blood was nullified by
Superior Court Judge T. Hicks Fort,
who said, “My heart bleeds for the
unfortunate youngster.”
The adopting couple, a 36-year-
old Army master sergeant and his
wife from Anniston, Alabama, re
quested nullification.
The judge closely inspected the
boy’s hair, eyes and skin with the
aid of a hand magnifying glass.
Solicitor General Russell C. David
son urged Judge Fort, “For the ben
efit of this child sitting there who
looks mighty bright and alert to me,
don’t pass an order saying he’s a Ne
gro. Don’t pass an order saying he’s
feeble-minded. If you make him a
Negro, he’ll have to go to a Negro
institution.”
Judge Fort decided the child “may
or may not be” of partial Negro an
cestry. “I don’t know,” he said, but
he said he felt it was best that the
boy be removed from the home where
he had been named “by the people
who ought to love him” as being of
mixed blood.
He placed the child in temporary
custody of juvenile court authorities
and ordered that a program for his
future be worked out by the State
Welfare Department “carefully, hu
manely and solicitously.”
In Fulton County (Atlanta), Negro
deputies sheriff were employed for
the first time. Negro policemen have
worked on city and county police
forces in several other Georgia com
munities for some years.