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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.