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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—July 6, 1955—PAGE 15
Supreme Court Issues Mandate To Federal Bench In Virginia
RICHMOND, VA. five cases directiv tk.
RICHMOND, VA
*7IRGINIA’s public schools will
' continue operating on a segregat
ed basis during the coming year, if a
policy formally adopted by Gov.
Thomas B. Stanley and the State
goard of Education is carried out by
the local governing bodies.
The policy declaration says, in ef
fect, that Virginia would not have
time, prior to the opening of schools
in September, “to adjust to a new
end different basis for the operation
0 f public schools.”
In another recent development in
the Virginia school segregation pic
ture, the federal district court at
Richmond received a mandate from
the U. S. Supreme Court directing it
to take action in accordance with the
higher court’s decrees of May 17,
1954, and May 31, 1955.
The three-judge federal district
court will convene here at 10:00 a.m.
July 18 to begin hearings on the de
segregation decree to be issued in the
Prince Edward County case, one of
the cases involved in the United
States Supreme Court’s anti-segrega
tion opinion.
The hearing date was set on July
1 by District Judge Sterling Hutche
son, of Richmond. The other two
judges in the case are Circuit Judge
Armistead M. Dobie of Charlottes
ville, and District Judge Albert V.
Bryan of Alexandria.
The policy statement issued by the
Governor and the State Board of
Education declares that it has not yet
been possible for the state’s segrega
tion study commission to propose and
for the General Assembly to enact
“appropriate legislation” to meet the
requirements of the Supreme Court’s
decision outlawing racial segregation
in the schools.
Indications are that virtually all
counties and cities plan to operate
segregated schools next year, in ac
cord with the official state policy.
PRINCE EDWARD PLAN
But one county—Prince Edward—
»ay abandon its public schools en-
, y l n order to be absolutely cer-
fam that there will be no integra-
»on of the races in the classrooms.
Prince Edward feels that it is in a
somewhat different position from the
In Prince Edward
Bet there be no mistake, the peo-
V e of Prince Edward are deeply
concerned about the education of
® children in this county, and,
ls state. Nowhere will one find a
Person who would advocate abo-
1 ion of education. But they are
so ute in their position of sep-
m e schools. The fate of the Ne-
0 schools is as much a concern as
but t { ate °f the white schools,
« the moment the white peo-
/ are unable to take any steps
icept those of integration) to
tn _, ra , <e the school system on a nor
th' . as * s ' This they will not do.
Conr+ W n0t defying the Supreme
Oeti ’ n ° r trying to ereate an emer-
Prj y ™ Virginia. The people of
ce Edward are standing sim-
a nd T' 6 have always stood,
for i,. * s ^ or separate schools,
^ch they have good and suf-
n rea sons.—Farmville Herald.
I?*®* Virginia’s coun ties and cities,
Bogj., . e Prince Edward School
^ ls the defendant in one of the
five cases directly involved in the
Supreme Court’s anti-segregation
decision. Prince Edward is under di
rect orders from the court to make a
“prompt and reasonable start” toward
integration.
In light of that fact, the county’s
Board of Supervisors has declined to
appropriate funds for operation of
the schools next year.
A group of Prince Edward citizens
has formed a private corporation to
raise $212,830 to assure the 63 white
teachers of salaries next year. The
plan is for the corporation to operate
schools for the approximately 1,500
white children. No plan has been an
nounced for schools for the 1,850 Ne
gro children in Prince Edward. Ne
groes constitute 44.6 per cent of
Prince Edward’s 15,398 population.
FUNDS HELD UP
Boards of Supervisors in two other
counties—Nottoway and Sussex—
also have refused thus far to appro
priate funds to operate public schools
next year. Their action does not en
tirely parallel that of Prince Edward,
however.
Prince Edward’s supervisors ap
parently have slammed the door tight
against the operation of public
schools next year. They took the
money which originally was ear
marked for schools and appropriated
it for other county purposes.
The supervisors in Nottaway and
Sussex, on the other hand, still have
funds available which can be appro
priated for schools. The general feel
ing is that the boards in those two
counties will appropriate money to
the schools a little at a time, thus
being ready at a moment’s notice to
abandon the schools entirely if at
any time it appears that integration
is going to be forced on them. The
normal procedure is for the coun
ties to appropriate lump sums suffi
cient to operate the schools for an
entire year.
The James City-County Board of
Supervisors also is holding on to the
purse strings as a safeguard against
integration.
On April 18 the board adopted a
$415,704 school budget to finance the
county’s share of the coming year’s
cost of the joint school system oper
ated by the county and the city of
Williamsburg. Later, however, some
members of the board became con
cerned over what they considered
pro-integration sentiment among
members of the Williamsburg school
board.
On June 27, the school board cut
$111,019 from the previously ap
proved school appropriation and put
the money into a contingency fund.
The amount left after the cut is
enough to pay teachers’ salaries, debt
service and other fixed charges for
the entire year, but is only a small
percentage of the needed operational
funds. If an attempt is made to inte
grate county schools, the board’s con
trol over finance will enable it to
cripple operation of the school sys
tem.
The policy statement adopted by
the governor and the State Board of
Education was in line with recom
mendations made earlier in the
month by the State’s Commission on
Public Education, the 12-member
group of legislators appointed by the
governor last year to study the im
pact of the segregation decision on
Virginia and to propose a course for
the state to follow.
The gist of the commission’s rec-
r»
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_ State
Virginia State Sen. Garland Gray is shown handing Gov. Thomas B. Stanley
(right) the report of the Commission on Public Education recommending that
Virginia schools remain segregated at least through next year. Others in the
picture are: Delegate Harry B. Davis, commission vice chairman (at left)
and Atty. Gen. J. Lindsay Almond.
ommendations was contained in this
paragraph from its report:
“It is the recommendation of this
commission that Your Excellency and
the State Board of Education declare
that it is the policy of the state to
continue schools through the school
year 1955-56 as presently operated.
Further, it is the judgment of this
commission that an adjustment, at
this time, to a school system not
based on race would not be practica
ble or feasible from an administrative
standpoint or otherwise.”
NAACP MAPS PLANS
While state officials are searching
for ways to prevent integration in
the schools, the Virginia Conference
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People is
making plans to try to bring about in
tegration at the earliest possible mo
ment.
State NAACP leaders have au
thorized local NAACP branches to
petition local school boards to end
segregation “with all deliberate
speed.”
More than 1,000 persons, attend
ing an NAACP rally in Petersburg,
Va., on June 12, heard Atty. Oliver
W. Hill declare:
“I am confident that an intensive
program of persuasion based upon
moral and factual grounds will great
ly facilitate the program of deseg
regation. But, of course, where such
efforts do not bring forth appropriate
results, court action will have to fol
low.”
NAACP lawyers here have made
no public statement as to how many
petitions they expect to be filed be
fore schools open in September.
In view of all the developments
up to the present, it appears extreme
ly unlikely that any Virginia public
schools will operate on a non-segre-
gated basis next year—unless, of
course, they are forced into such op
eration by court school order.
When the policy declaration was
issued by the governor and the Board
of Education, Board President Blake
T. Newton and Gov. Stanley were
asked by reporters whether any
integration could take place in Vir
ginia under the policy as adopted.
Mr. Newton said he would rather
not answer, but the governor replied:
“There’s nothing in this action that
suggests to them (the localities) to
do it.”
In answer to another question, Mr.
Newton said there was “a possibility
the State Board of Education could
withhold state funds from any local
board which tried to put integration
into effect, but Mr. Newton added
that he was not suggesting that this
be done.
Virginia’s General Assembly has
not met since early in 1954, and it
will not meet again in regular session
until January, 1956. But the Assem
bly is very much in the news these
days, as the result of a controversy
over whether the lawmaking body
should be called into a special ses
sion.
Some legislative leaders are asking
for a special session to deal with the
segregation problem. A number of
local governing bodies are supporting
this view, as is also the anti-integra
tion organization, the Defenders of
State Sovereignty and Individual
Liberties.
On the other hand, the Commission
on Public Education declared in its
report to the governor on June 9: “It
is the view of the commission that an
extra session of the General Assem
bly should not be called at this time.”
Gov. Stanley endorsed that recom
mendation.
By early July, however, there was
considerable speculation that the As
sembly would be called sometime
after the July 12 Democratic prima
ries in Virginia.
Proponents of a special session ar
gue that the regular session next year
will have its hands full with other
state problems and will not have ade
quate time to devote to the segrega
tion issue. Another argument is that
a special session could demonstrate
to the courts that Virginia is making
a start toward solving the segrega
tion problem. Still another argument
is that any proposed constitutional
changes (such as eliminating the re
quirement for the operation of public
schools) should be approved by the
Assembly in time to be submitted to
the voters in the November general
election.
In the 2,500-word statement urging
immediate special session of the Gen
eral Assembly, the Defenders of
State Sovereignty and Individual
Liberties said, in part:
“We call upon the General Assem
bly to initiate procedure to amend
Sections 134 and 141 of Chapter IX
of the Constitution so as to remove
any doubt that, in case of necessity,
state and local monies may be used
to pay the tuition and other school
expenses in private schools, of chil
dren of localities in which it becomes
necessary, as in Prince Edward, to
close the public schools. . . .
“We call upon the General Assem
bly to take out of our law all mention
of compulsory education. We have
yet to hear one single man advocate
that compulsory education be re
tained in Virginia, and that any man
be prosecuted and convicted who may
elect to hold his child out of school
rather than subject him to - the de
grading influences of an integrated
school. . . .
“We call upon the General Assem
bly to enact such laws as may be
needed to prevent the expenditure of
$1 of public monies, state or local,
in the support and maintenance of
any racially mixed public school...
But State Delegate Robert White-
head, of Nelson County, a leader of
forces opposing the dominant Dem
ocratic organization in Virginia pol
itics, told the Virginia State Federa
tion of Labor meeting in Roanoke on
June 6, that he was “squarely op
posed” to a special session of the leg
islature.
The federal district court at Rich
mond on June 28 received a mandate
from the U. S. Supreme Court direct
ing the lower tribunal to take action
in accordance with the high court’s
decisions of May 17,1954, and May 31,
1955.
u The mandate told the district court
“to take such proceedings and enter
such orders and decrees consistent
with the opinions of this (the Su
preme) Court as are necessary and
proper to admit to public schools on
a racially non-discriminatory basis
with all deliberate speed the parties
to this case.”
The “parties to this case” are Ne
gro children of Prince Edward Coun
ty, who instituted suit in 1951 to gain
admittance to white schools of the
county.
On June 29 NAACP attorney Oliver
W. Hill filed a motion with District
Judge Sterling Hutcheson here ask
ing him to arrange an early hearing
on the type of decree that must be
entered to carry out the mandate re
ceived by the court the previous day.
HILL’S STATEMENT
In a prepared statement given to
newsmen, Hill said, in part:
“We are aware of the agitation
which some of the adherents of segre
gation are trying to stir up to block
an orderly and sensible process of
desegregation. But we trust that the
white people in Virginia and else
where in the South will face up to
the realities of life—racial segregation
is doomed.
“The elimination of racial segrega
tion is inevitable, not simply because
the Negro wants it eliminated or be
cause the United States Supreme
Court ordered it to be eliminated, but
primarily because the vitality and
continued growth in accordance with
American principles of our religious,
economic and political institutions,
and an unrelenting world public
opinion demand the elimination of
racial segregation.
“Originally we instituted this case
because we knew that racial segre
gation was detrimental to Negroes
and because we believed that racial
segregation was unconstitutional.
“Now that our opinion of the ille
gality of racial segregation has been
confirmed, we intend to press for
ward until every vestige has been
removed from our daily lives.”
The Supreme Court’s mandate was
directed to a three-judge court con
sisting of Judge Hutcheson, District
Judge Albert V. Bryan, of Alexan
dria, Va., and Circuit Judge Armis
tead M. Dobie, of Charlottesville, Va.
In addition to directing the Ne
groes to be admitted to the county’s
public schools on a non-segregated
basis, the Supreme Court’s order di
rected the defendants (the Prince
Edward School Board and school su
perintendent) to pay court costs for
the plaintiffs, totaling $2,975.19. Pre
sumably this will be paid by the
Board of Supervisors out of public
funds.
Spootswood W. Robinson, III, one
of the NAACP attorneys who repre
sented Prince Edward County Ne
groes in their unsuccessful suit
against segregation in the schools,
told an NAACP mass meeting that
petitions to be filed with some local
school boards this summer will seek
“desegregation this fall with all de
liberate speed.” He said the Supreme
Court recognized “administrative dif
ficulties” as the only valid reason for
a locality to delay putting integration
into effect, and he added:
“We propose to indulge these com
munities (with administrative diffi-
(See Virginia, Page 16)