Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—July 6, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Alabama Senate Unanimously Votes
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
HE Alabama Senate approved
June 24, by unanimous vote, a bill
designed to preserve racial segrega
tion in the public schols. Thus the
state began to move out of the “wait-
and-see” column in which it had
been since the Supreme Court hand
ed down the segregation decision
more than a year ago.
The bill would empower local
boards of education with broad au
thority in assigning pupils to schools
on an individual basis according to
“qualifications, motivations, aptitudes
and characteristics.” While not spe
cifically mentioning race as a cri
terion for assignment, the bill does
provide that “no child shall be com
pelled to attend any school in which
the races are commingled when a
written objection of the parent or
guardian has been filed with the
board of education.”
Gov. James E. Folsom, who has re
fused to commit himself to any of the
prosegregation plans and has been
especially critical of the “private
school” proposals, said the assign
ment bill could cause “complica
tion.”
posed academic programs; the suit
ability of established curricula for
particular pupils; the adequacy of
the pupil’s academic preparation for
admission to a particular school and
curriculum; the scholastic aptitude
and relative intelligence or mental
energy or ability of the pupil; the
psychological qualifications of the pu
pil for the type of teaching and as
sociation involved; the effect of ad
mission of the pupil upon academic
progress of other students in a par
ticular school or facility thereof; the
effect of admission upon prevailing
academic standards at a particular
school; the psychological effect
upon the pupil of attendance at a
particular school; the possibility or
threat of friction or disorder among
pupils or others; the possibility of
breaches of the peace or ill will or
economic retaliation within the com
munity; the home environment of the
pupil; the maintenance or severance
of established social and psychologi
cal relationships with other pupils
and with teachers; the choice and in
terest of the pupil; the request or
consent of parents or guardians and
the reasons assigned therefor.”
—Dallas Morning News
part of the increased demands, par
ticularly of the bond issue, stems from
view of both Folsom and Meadows
that Negro facilities must be brought
up to a par with those of white chil
dren. Meadows has said that such
action will offset any threat to segre
gation, which he pledged to preserve
in his campaign last year.
NO COMMENT ON VETO
Later, at a press conference June
28, he declined comment when asked
whether he intended to veto the bill
if passed by the House as seems like
ly. But he did say: “I could never
get all excited about our colored
brothers. They’ve been here three
hundred years and I estimate they’ll
be here another three hundred years
or more.
“I’m not going to get my ulcers
in an uproar. I find them to be good
citizens. If they had been making a
living for me like they have for the
Black Belt, I’d be proud of them in
stead of cussing and kicking them
all the time. I have always felt that
Alabama has the best race relations
of any state, except for a few agita
tors on both sides.”
Black Belt legislators have led
most attempts to enact measures de
signed to preserve segregation. The
area, so-called for its rich black soil,
is also a center of heavy Negro popu
lation. .
As originally introduced by Sen.
Sam Engelhardt of Macon County
(84% Negro), the proposal called for
the institution of “boards of place
ment” in each school district in the
state. The substitute bill recommend
ed by the Senate Education Com
mittee and endorsed on the floor by
a 32-0 vote omitted the placement
board plan, granting instead assign
ment powers to local boards of edu
cation. The original bill had also de
signated members of the placement
boards as “judicial officers” and
hence theoretically immune from
lawsuit. This, too, was omitted in the
substitute bill. (The judicial officer
proposal had been criticized as un
constitutional by Prof. Jay Murphy
of the University of Alabama Law
School — Southern School News,
April 7.)
CONSTITUTION UNDISTURBED
The substitute Engelhardt bill
leaves undisturbed Section 256 of the
state constitution which makes free
public education and segregation fa
cilities a mandatory responsibility of
the state. A special legislative com
mittee studying segregation recom
mended last fall that this section be
erased to give the legislature flexi
bility in meeting the challenge to the
state’s segregation policy. Bills to this
effect, as well as the other recom
mendations of the committee, are now
pending before the legislature, but
none has been reported out of com
mittee. In fact, of all the segrega
tion bills so far introduced, includ
ing Sen. Engelhardt’s “free private
school” plan, the various bills draft
ed by the segregation committee and
others, only the assignment bill has
at this writing received serious at
tention.
The assignment bill grants local
boards of education the right to con
sider the following factors in placing
each student:
“Available room and teaching cap
acity in the various schools; the
availability of transportation facili
ties; the effect of the admission of
new pupils upon established or pro
The bill declares, in an apparent
reference to the Supreme Court’s
decision, that “any general or arbi
trary reallocation of pupils hereto
fore entered in the public school sys
tem according to any rigid rule of
proximity of residence or in accord
ance solely with request on behalf
of the pupil would be disruptive to
orderly administration, tend to in
vite or induce disorganization and
impose an excessive burden on the
available resources and teaching and
administrative personnel of the
schools.”
Aside from assuring efficiency in
the public school system, the bill is
designed “to assure the maintenance
of order and good will indispensable
to the willingness of . . . citizens and
taxpayers to continue an educational
system as a public function . . .”
Appeals from assignments of the
local boards would go to the circuit
court of the judicial circuit in which
the school board is located, but an
appeal bond would be required.
As the Senate gave its approval to
the Engelhardt bill, an identical bill
was approved by the House Educa
tion Committee at a secret session.
Reason for the secrecy, according to
Committee Chairman Vernon Sum
merlin of Crenshaw was to allow
school officials more freedom in ex
pressing their ideas.
The Senate Education Committee
which agreed on the revised form for
the Engelhardt bill was headed by
Sen. Albert Boutwell of Birmingham,
who also headed the special segre
gation study committee which has
prepared a number of segregation
bills yet to be acted on.
OTHER LEGISLATION
In addition to the school assignment
bill unanimously approved by the
Alabama Senate, other segregation
matters before the legislature dur
ing June included the following:
Atty. Gen. John Patterson, testi
fying before the Senate Finance and
Taxation Committee June 2, asked
for at least four additional attorneys
for his staff “primarily” to handle
segregation suits.
“I think we are going to have a lot
of litigation coming up,” Patterson
said, “but if you give us the appro
priation we ask, I feel sure we can
fulfill our mission.”
He added that the “initial suits”
would be the most important and
warned “we must be ready to handle
them properly.”
In the tax-writing House Ways and
Means Committee, the problem of
more money for schools was still to
be resolved. Gov. Folsom has backed
State Superintendent of Education
Austin R. Meadows in a request for
an additional $43,000,000 for educa
tion in the coming fiscal year. Folsom
also has endorsed Meadows’ request
for a $150,000,000 bond issue to finance
construction of new schools. A great
FOUR ADDITIONAL BILLS
Sen. Roland Cooper of Wilcox
County (79% Negro) dropped in four
bills in the upper house intended to
give city, county and state school au
thorities the right to have separate
schools “where necessity exists there
for,” but providing no child could be
compelled to attend classes where
the races “commingle.”
Rep. Gregory Oakley of Wilcox in
troduced a resolution, quickly shunt
ed into committee, calling on presi
dents of all institutions of higher
learning in the state “to apply with
all vigor our laws requiring segre
gation in the public schools.”
COURT IMPEACHMENT ASKED
Sen. Albert Davis of Pickens
County (48% Negro) introduced a
resolution calling for the impeach
ment of the U. S. Supreme Court, a
proposal advanced at a White Cit
izens Council rally in Selma two days
before. The resolutions, which was
killed in committee after Gov. Fol
som said he’d “veto the devil out of
it” if passed by the legislature,
charged that the Supreme Court’s
decision was based “solely and alone
on psychological, sociological and an
thropological considerations.” Never
before in the history of the country,
the resolution continued, has there
been an instance “when an appellate
court of the United States relied
solely and alone on pseudo-scien
tific authority to sustain a legal de
cision.” Comparing the court’s deci
sion to the German high court’s vali
dation of Hitler’s racist laws and to
the system of jurisprudence in Rus
sia today, the proposed resolution
called on the Alabama congressional
delegation to take whatever steps
necessary to initiate impeachment
proceedings against the entire Su
preme Court.
U. S. District Judge H. Hobart
Grooms July 1 ordered the Univer
sity of Alabama’s dean of admissions
not to deny any applicant admission
because of race.
Two days previously Judge Grooms
had enjoined Dean of Admissions
William F. Adams from denying ad
mission to two Negro women because
of their race. At that time Grooms
said he would reserve his opinion
as to whether the suit represented a
class action. His July 1 order extended
the injunction to include all mem
bers of the Negro race as well as the
two plaintiffs.
Judge Grooms’ order said that the
university is “permanently enjoined
and restrained from denying the
plaintiffs and others similarly situ
ated the right to enroll in the Uni
versity of Alabama solely on account
of their race or color.”
The suit was brought in the names
of Arthurine Lucy and Polly Ann
Myers, “both for themselves and all
other Negroes similarly situated.”
Both graduates of Miles College in
School Assignment Bill
Birmingham, they had applied by
mail for admittance to study at the
university. They were accepted for
room assignments at the university
and had mailed their transcripts and
formal applications when they ap
peared before Dean Adams to com
plete their registration.
While noting a dispute in the testi
mony as to the exact conversation
which took place between Adams and
the two plaintiffs, Judge Grooms said
it was not disputed that Adams re
turned their room deposit and told
them that the courses they sought
were available at Alabama State Col
lege (for Negroes) in Montgomery.
“It is also undisputed,” Judge Grooms
said, “that their applications were re
jected at that time.”
Testimony showed that the matter
was brought to the attention of Dr.
John Gallalee, then president of the
university and the board of trustees,
Grooms said. Gallalee attempted to
have the two women persuaded to
withdraw their applications and ap
ply elsewhere.
The board of trustees did not act
on the matter, pending a decision of
the U. S. Supreme Court.
“On the occasion that Dr. Gallalee
and the board of trustees considered
the applications,” Judge Grooms said,
“neither Dr. Gallalee nor the board
. .. took any steps to deny the appli
cations on grounds other than race
or color of the applicants.”
The university has a department
of journalism in the college of arts
and sciences and also offers courses
in library science, Judge Grooms
said. Miss Lucy applied for courses
in library science; Miss Myers, jour
nalism.
“The evidence reveals,” Judge
Grooms continued, “that Dean Adams
is vested with sole authority to re
ceive or reject applications for ad
missions to the university. There is
no written policy or rule excluding
prospective students from admission
to the university because of race or
color; however, there is a tacit pol
icy to that effect, and . . . Adams has
pursued such a policy in denying ap
plications for admission.”
W. C. Patton, Alabama field secre
tary of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
said: “We are jubilant over the rul
ing, and the young ladies anticipate
going to school at the University of
Alabama.” They would enroll, he
said, “not later than next fall.”
Patton added, “Others of our race
will be asked to apply” for admis
sion to the university.
Former Gov. Herman Talmadge of
Georgia urged a crowd of more than
5,000 at a Dallas County White Citi
zens Council rally in Selma June 22
not to hesitate to use economic pres
sure on those “who would force ra
cial integration on the South.”
Talmadge was main speaker at the
meeting of the group which is pledged
to the preservation of segregation.
The Black Belt county of Dallas is
65 per cent Negro.
Although the former chief execu
tive was billed as the main speak
er, heaviest applause of the crowd
went to Circuit Judge Tom P. Brady
of Brookhaven, Miss., who called for
the impeachment of the U. S. Supreme
Court—“those fawning politicians.”
“The Supreme Court refuses to
recognize,” Judge Brady said, “that
it cannot by a mandate shrink the
size of a Negro skull which is one-
eighth of an inch thicker than a white
man’s. . . . The court refuses to rec
ognize that it cannot straighten the
Negro’s hair or uplift the Negro’s
nose—only God can do that.”
NAACP FLAYED
Judge Brady called NAACP “a will
ing and ready tool in the hands of
Communist front organizations.”
What the South needs, he said, is an
organization as a slingshot to “hit
between the eyes of that giant mon
ster,” NAACP, which the judge said
is pledged to the “mongrelization
of the South.”
Talmadge likened the Supreme
Court’s ruling against racial segre.
gation in public schools to the power
seizures of foreign dictatorships. De
scribing the decision as “the great
est single blow that ever has been
struck against constitutional gov.
ernment,” he said those who support
the decision “are assisting in the de
struction” of this kind of government.
“The present judges on the Su.
preme Court are not fit to empty the i
waste baskets of those judges who I
wrote those previous decisions (up- ■
holding segregation).”
In his address, Judge Brady pro
posed that Supreme Court justices be
elected instead of appointed.
TALMADGE’S SUGGESTIONS
To white southerners in Alabama
and elsewhere Talmadge offered !
these suggestions:
1. The possibility of abolishing the
public school system as the voters of
Georgia have given their legislature
the right to do.
2. The cutting off of public funds
to any schools where white and Ne
gro pupils attend.
3. “The united opposition of all the
voters” against anyone “who sells
the South down the river.”
4. A social boycott of the “scala
wags and carpetbaggers of the mod
em era” who fail or refuse to join the
fight to preserve segregation.
A number of state legislators at
tended the meeting. Talmadge was
introduced by State Sen. Walter C.
Givhan of Dallas County. Givhan has
been active in the White Citizens
Council movement in Alabama since
its inception. Also present were Sens.
Albert Boutwell of Jefferson County
(Birmingham) and Sam Engelhardt
of Macon County. Boutwell presided
over the sessions of a special legisla
tive committee which investigated
public school segregation and offered
a number of recommendations last
fall designed to preserve separate
classroom facilities. Engelhardt is the
author of a number of pro-segrega
tion bills including the assignment bill
already approved by the state Sen
ate.
A bi-racial council of Negro and
white community leaders, called the
first of its kind in Alabama, was or
ganized in Wadley June 23. Purpose
of the group is to ease racial tensions
and prevent flareups between the
races.
The organization of the group came
four days after a church conference
at Southern Union College in Wad-
ley, attended by members of both
races, was broken up by a threaten
ing white group. Southern Union is
a Congregational Christian Church
college attended by whites only.
Heading the bi-racial council lS
Wadley Mayor W. B. Feckler. Tn e
other members of the city council also
serve on the council, along W1
three ministers, a banker, business
men, Negro teachers and a Negr°
business man.
‘HOODLUMS’ BLAMED
White hoodlums disrupted the in
terracial conference at Southe
Union, according to President Cly
C. Flannery. ., t
Mayor Fackler said the inci ®
was the first disturbance in ^ ie f ?° ST0 ,
munity, which is 55 per cent Nos
Fackler released the following s
ment: mis-
“We are of the opinion that a
take was made when Negro gn®^ g
were placed on the second Ao^ 1 " ae
dormitory at Southern Union Co
June 20 while the first floor had
rented to a white family. ,v,
“We earnestly desire that the P
lie should know that a great I P a - l ° -jy
of citizens of Wadley are _ne.
sorry that a small group of P t heir
attempted to take the law in ° jy
hands. We further wish to c
state that we do not condone
rule in any form. .i on
“This newly formed Coun le dge
Human Relations wishes to ^
itself to promote harmony an , j eB1 s
ful settlement of all future P r
arising in the community.