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PAGE 12—JANUARY 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Delaware Political Parties Face Stand on
School Question
WILMINGTON, Del.
neasiness is beginning to creep
into the political state of affairs in
Delaware as the election year of 1956
develops; for within several months,
the leaders of the state Democratic
and Republican parties will have to
decide what stand they will take on
“the question.”
And in Delaware “the question” is
integration v. segregation in the pub
lic schools.
In the meantime, two anti-integra
tion groups in Delaware are watching
developments very closely—the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of White People and the newer
organization known as “We, The
People.”
As 1955 ended, the actual “front”
of the controversy — the public
schools of the state—was quiet.
In the meantime, the state House
of Representatives (Democratically
controlled) has passed an FEPC bill
and sent it over to the Senate where
it was put “on ice.” (See “Legislative
Action.”)
THE POLITICAL SCENE
In the summer of 1954, before the
so-called Milford incident disrupted
the peace of Delaware, both major
political parties adopted integration
plans in their respective platforms.
The wording of the planks varied,
but in essence both state parties went
on record as cheering the U. S. Su
preme Court opinion on integration
and pledged support for any program
that would proceed in an orderly
fashion toward integration.
And though the conventions of
both parties were composed of dele
gates of all shades of opinion on the
subject (though with a preponder
ance, perhaps, against out-and-out
integration in the schools) not a word
of protest was registered on the floors
of either convention.
Four times, state Rep. Paul Liv
ingston (Democrat of Wilmington
and the only Negro in the Delaware
General Assembly) tried to get an
FEPC bill passed. And four times the
bill was defeated, though supported
by the small group of Republicans but
with Democrats voting on what was
virtually a sectional basis.
Finally, in the middle of December,
Rep. Livingston managed to get
enough votes to have his bill passed.
It was immediately sent over to the
Senate whose chamber was filled
with representatives of We, The
People.
The Democratic president pro tern
of the Senate, Charles G. Moore of
Hartly, assigned the bill to the Com
mittee on Public Health of which
Sen. Hoey (out-and-out segregation
ist) is chairman.
It is generally assumed that the bill
will not be reported out, and if it
should be pried out, it will be de
feated.
UNION PUSHES BILL
Soon after this particular meeting
of the state Senate, the International
Longshoremen’s Association formed a
political action committee to work for
the passage of the FEPC measure.
Other than this FEPC bill, nothing
has happened in the past month in the
Delaware General Assembly touch
ing on the segregation-desegregation
question.
The school construction bill for
millions of dollars, the designated
Negro schools characterized with the
letter “C,” has been signed by Gov.
Boggs, but an opinion is pending in
the office of Atty. Gen. J. Donald
Craven on the constitutionality of the
bill.
The bill is interesting because in
Delaware no local funds are required
to build Negro schools. All Negro
schools in Delaware have been fi
nanced by 100 per cent state funds.
White schools are financed on a 60-
40 basis; the state paying 60 per cent
of the cost and the remainder raised
by local school districts through bond
issues.
Some legislators are afraid that the
designation of Negro schools in the
construction bond issue bill of the
state will either hamper or cancel the
chance of the state selling the bonds.
Several months ago the State Board
of Education asked some 19 local
boards of education that had declined
to undertake integration in this school
year to explain why their facilities
were not adequate enough for an in
tegration program.
To date, only seven of those 19 have
responded. However, the state super
intendent of public instruction, Dr.
George R. Miller, suggested that
more time be given for the other
school districts. He was obviously not
willing to force the issue at this time.
At the meeting of the State Board
of Education Dec. 15, the CIO of Del
aware sent a memo to the board ask
ing “that through the media of the
State Board of Education, the process
of integration be carried on in a
greater degree as prescribed by the
historic ruling of the U. S. Supreme
Court.”
In the meantime, in the little town
of Greenwood in the southern part of
Delaware, the local board held a
meeting also on Dec. 15 when the
question of integration popped up.
The principal of the school, H.
Geiger Omwake, asked one of the
board members, Wilbur Root, what
the latter meant by saying that the
Greenwood school would not partici
pate in any inter-school activities
with schools that have integration.
Root replied that he meant even such
activities as statewide school choruses
and statewide school bands were “off
limits” for the Greenwood school if
the other choruses or bands were
integrated.
Earlier in the month, a so-called
misunderstanding was straightened
out in the Laurel Board of Education
(Sussex County). There had been a
question as to whether or not the
board had actually authorized a reso
lution to the State Board of Educa
tion, asking for a certificate of neces
sity for expanding school facilities
but on a segregated basis.
Such certificates are necessary for
local districts before they go into a
bond issue referendum for school
building purposes.
RESOLUTION ASCERTAINED
It was decided on Dec. 7 that such
a resolution had been authorized,
though a week or so before, certain
members of the board declared they
knew nothing of the resolution.
At that same meeting of the Laurel
school board, the Rev. Harry L. May-
field, rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal
Church, spoke briefly and declared
that the cancelling of games between
the Laurel teams and integrated
schools had had a “demoralizing”
effect upon the school.
The board, in its reply to the rector,
said that the present policy of the
school district will remain anti-inte.
gration until the people want it
changed.
MISCELLANEOUS
While Bryant Bowles of Houston,
Del., is reported to be in California
on business, the NAAWP of which
he is national president has been very
quiet.
But the We, The People group has
been active. In the first week of De
cember, a group of citizens of Sussex
County gathered in Georgetown to
form the Sussex County Mental
Health Association.
An attempt was made by certain
people at the meeting who were iden
tified as We, The People supporters,
to block the organization of the as
sociation.
The opposition to the Mental
Health Association was led by Nelson
Abbott of Ellendale, Sussex County,
who claimed that the national mental
health organization is infiltrated with
Communists.
However, the We, The People sup
porters were declared out of order by
the presiding officer of the meeting,
former state Supreme Court Justice
James M. Tunnell Jr., of George
town.
Days later, a controversy devel
oped as to who is the official spokes
man for We, The People in Delaware
—Nelson Abbott of Ellendale or
Charles E. Boyce of Seaford.
Boyce claims he’s the spokesman
and says he has such authority from
the regional director of We, The
People who he said was Merwin K.
Hart of New York.
It is reported that We, The People,
a small but alert group in Delaware,
intends to figure in the 1956 election
campaign.
ISSUE BECAME LIVELY
But when school opened in 1954
and Milford residents discovered that
11 Negro children had been admitted
to the Milford (white) high school,
the issue became a lively one.
The election went in favor of the
Democrats on virtually a landslide
scale, with the Republicans claiming
that integration had helped to defeat
them.
Oddly enough, the fact that the
Democrats had promised support for
integration in their platform didn’t
seem to make any difference in areas
where the NAAWP was influential
and citizens were opposed to integra
tion.
Another election year is here. With
the exception of the office of governor
which is held by a Republican, Caleb
Boggs, the state government is Demo
cratic.
Two leading Republicans — state
Rep. James Snowden and former
chief deputy attorney general, Vin
cent Theisen—have expressed them
selves on a possible approach to “the
question.”
Their attitude is that their party
should recognize the existence of
“the question” and the existence of
the Supreme Court decision and that
the local communities should be
guaranteed the right to proceed
toward integration at their respective
paces.
INTEGRATION ‘NO ISSUE’
However, other Republicans have
come out to say that “the question”
is not a political issue. One of these
was state Sen. Elwood F. Melson Jr.
of near Wilmington. He declared in a
recent radio broadcast that it is not
a political issue because neither party
can do anything about the U. S. Su
preme Court decision.
The attitudes of Sen. Melson and
Rep. Snowden are significant because
Sen. Melson has said he would not
turn down the nomination for gov
ernor if it were given him by his
party’s convention and Rep. Snow
den is being regarded as a potential
candidate for the nomination.
In the Democratic ranks is Walter
F. Hoey of near Milford, currently a
state senator. He is known to be an
aspirant for the nomination for gov
ernor on a segregation platform,
either with the regular Democratic
party or perhaps a third party, pos
sibly supported by the NAAWP and
We, The People.
First Louisiana Challenge in Hands
NEW ORLEANS, La.
'J'he first DIRECT challenge to Louisi-
A ana’s segregation laws enacted in
1954 was in the hands of a special
three-judge federal court as a fateful
year for the Deep South drew to a
close.
The court has under advisement an
NAACP suit (Bush v. Orleans Parish
School Board) to open all public
schools in Louisiana’s largest parish
(county) to all races; also four state
motions for dismissal. (See “Legal
Action.”)
The NAACP geared its case toward
keeping the issue “federal” and clear-
cut—that the state violates the U. S.
Constitution by segregating its
schools.
State’s attorneys have asked the
federal court to step out of a local
dispute, all aspects of which are cov
ered by existing and valid state laws.
They also asked the court to recog
nize, in effect, the priority of the
state’s duty to protect public health
and maintain educational standards.
Attorneys opposing the NAACP
suit presented a number of affidavits
from schoolmen and physicians pur
porting to show that integration
would create a health hazard to white
public school students and lower the
standard of education which could be
offered them.
ACTION ‘PURELY LEGAL’
The NAACP’s response to these
affidavits was a refusal to budge from
its “purely legal” action. However, A.
P. Tureaud Sr., Louisiana chief coun
sel for the NAACP, said the state
ments were not based on scientific
fact.
A preliminary on the hearing,
which stems from a 1952 court action
brought by the NAACP, was a deci
sion by a Louisiana district court that
the state could legally use $100,000 in
appropriated public funds to hire
counsel in defending local school
boards against integration suits. (See
“Legal Action.”)
A backdrop to the suits, and one
which overshadowed them in public
interest, was the heated gubernato
rial campaign. All five candidates for
the Democratic nomination declared
at the outset they would be defenders
of segregation if elected. (See “What
They Say.”)
But segregation was revived as a
campaign issue as the candidates vied
to see who was willing to use the
strongest measures—such as aboli
tion of public schools—to maintain
segregation.
A suit which, if upheld, would in
tegrate Louisiana’s largest school dis
trict was taken under advisement by
a federal court in New Orleans after
a one-day hearing early in December.
Judges Wayne G. Borah, Herbert
W. Christenberry and J. Skelly
Wright prepared a decision which
will affect the future of Orleans Par
ish (county) public schools. These
schools, operated for generations on
a separation-of-races basis, and in
more recent years on a “separate but
equal” basis, are in fact almost equal
ly attended by each race. Out of a
total enrollment of 72,803 for the cur
rent school year, 36,527 are whites
and 36,276 are Negroes.
The mental and physical detriment
which would be suffered by students
of both races following integration
was one of the arguments advanced
by school attorneys — an argument
which NAACP lawyers Tureaud and
Robert L. Carter said was unscientific.
HEALTH ASPECT TIED IN
The “public health” question was
tied in with an amendment to the
Louisiana constitution passed in 1954.
This asserts that the state has the
right, through its inherent police
power, to maintain public health and
welfare by preserving segregation.
The suit, filed on behalf of 90 Negro
school children against the Orleans
Parish school board, challenges this
amendment only indirectly. The suit’s
direct attack is on two legislative acts
which stem from the amendment.
One withholds State Board of Educa
tion approval from any school which
mixes the races. The other requires
that parish school superintendents
assign each individual pupil to a
school, and sets up a system of ap
peals from the school heads’ rulings.
These laws are unconstitutional in
view of the U. S. Supreme Court’s
ruling on segregation, the petitioner
claims. The court was asked to en
join the Orleans school board from
enforcing the segregation laws.
However, the laws were not in ex
istence when the original suit (Bush
v. Orleans School Board) was filed in
1952. It was amended to attack the
laws after their passage.
The method of the suit’s amend
ment was one of the points in the
motions for dismissal made by the
school attorneys, Gerard A. Rault and
W. Scott Wilkinson.
They argued that the amended
complaint was improperly filed.
Other state contentions were that:
—State instead of federal courts
had jurisdiction in the suit, because
it was an action brought by Louisiana
citizens against a Louisiana agency.
—The action asked by the peti
tioner would be a criminal violation
of existing state laws.
—The plaintiffs had not made all
the appeals to school board authori
ties specified by Louisiana’s segrega
tion laws.
—The plaintiffs had not shown that
segregation brought them any irre
parable harm; but that integration
would harm pupils of both races.
APPROPRIATION UPHELD
Two days before the hearing of the
suit District Judge Coleman Lindsay
ruled in Baton Rouge that there was
no cause of action in an NAACP
challenge to the constitutionality of
using public funds to hire lawyers to
fight segregation suits.
The plaintiff charged (Adams v.
Attorney General of Louisiana) that
public funds could not be used in an
effort to support unconstitutional
state laws. Judge Lindsay said that,
in spending the funds to support state
laws which have not yet been in
validated, the attorney general was
doing his “sworn duty.”
The plaintiffs were “expressing a
legal conclusion, unsupported by any
judicial decree” when they “alleged
the unconstitutionality” of the state
segregation laws, Judge Lindsay
ruled. He upheld the state’s motion
for dismissal.
SLATIVE ACTION
The head of the committee which
authored Louisiana’s 1954 segrega
tion laws said he will recommend a
study of “nullification” as another
of 3 Judges
possible means of keeping the races
separate in the schools.
State Sen. W. M. Rainach said that
his “joint legislative committee for
preserving segregation” will most
likely look into the possibility of ap
plying the legal device when the leg
islature meets next May.
The first organized public objec
tions to integration in Catholic schools
of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
came in December.
Archbishop Joseph Francis Rum-
mel has called the principle of segre
gation morally unsupportable, and has
said schools under his jurisdiction
would be integrated at an appro
priate time.
Parents clubs of two New Orleans
area schools, St. Francis Xavier in
Metairie and Holy Name of Mary in
Algiers, strongly urged that segrega
tion be preserved. The resolutions
cited health hazards, dissimilar cul
tural backgrounds, and the dangers
of “fraternization” as reasons for not
integrating.
Catholic schools in the archdiocese
are attended by about 75,000 pupils—
61,250 white and 13,150 Negro.
PRO-INTEGRATION GROUPS
A second pro-integration organiza
tion was formed in Louisiana—th e
Louisiana Council on Human R e l a "
tions. Formed in New Orleans an
headed by Dr. Joseph Taylor, its fi- rst
act was to offer assistance to the Or
leans school board in making the
transition toward integration.
The only other pro-integration
group in the state, the Commissi® 11
on Human Rights of the Cathohc
Committee of the South, adopted a
statement that orderly integration ca®
be brought about by intelligent eff° |
A “Citizens’ Forum for Integration
was in-the-making in New Orlea •
headed by the Rev. John H.
Although not yet officially orgaiuz
the group held a meeting Dec- 1"
Rabouin public school auditorium
New Orleans to hear the Rev. AU e
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