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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1956—PAGE 15
Integration Progress in ‘Core Area"
MIAMI, Fla.
Progress, or its lack, on the inte-
I gration front throughout the
was reported at meetings in
5 florida during the month.
While the regional advisory board
; 3 j the National Association for the
' advancement of Colored People said
, .ije picture in many states is dis
paraging! a southern educator de
clared integration is an accomplished
; aCt in many southern institutions
jf higher learning.
Dr. Guy D. Johnson, professor of
sociology at the University of North
Carolina, estimated that 2,000 Negro
students are attending colleges and
universities in states which once had
legal segregation. He called it “a
quiet revolution.” (See “In The Col
leges”)
PROGRESS UNSATISFACTORY’
Progress in carrying out the Su
preme Court mandate on integration
is completely unsatisfactory in the
“core area” of the South, the NAACP
said in a report.
It was issued by the Southeastern
Advisory Board which met in Tampa
to survey the civil rights scene and
draw up a program for 1956.
After hearing a description of the
situation in each state in the region,
the 31-man board said conditions in
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missis
sippi, North and South Carolina are
particularly “discouraging.”
Many officials charged with carry
ing out the Supreme Court mandate
are “doing everything possible to
circumvent and defy it,” the NAACP
group said.
“In some sections there is not only
defiance of the law but open and in
flammatory appeals to passions, ig
norance and prejudice, and a seem
ing indifference or apparent inability
of legal agencies to protect the con
stitutional rights to life and liberty
of citizens.”
Certain newspapers, the board
said, “print slanted news stories
which sing a song of hate, helping
to build up the climate in which
deeds of violence are committed.”
STATE SITUATIONS EYED
Some southeastern states were
praised, with the situation in Ten
nessee called “most hopeful.” In
Alabama, the NAACP board said,
officials are trying to remove restric
tions to voting by Negro citizens.
Certain groups in Florida “have
treated a climate of goodwill and
relations which would present an ex
cellent opportunity to take place al
most immediately.”
The NAACP report gave this
thumbnail state-by-state summary:
Alabama: Little action toward com
pliance.
Florida: Lack of action is disap
pointing.
Georgia: One of the most defiant
states.
Mississippi: Most discouraging pic
ture in the southeast.
North Carolina: Governor has
chosen to flout the law but many
citizens willing to integrate.
South Carolina: Offers little en
couragement for Negro leaders.
An official of an organization
known as the “Pro-Southerners”
said the group now has “about a mil
lion members” in every state of the
Union and is working “quietly and
peacefully behind the scenes” from
a national headquarters in Fort
Pierce, Fla. (For other news of Pro-
Southerners, see “Community Ac
tion” in the Tennessee report.)
The organization, according to M.
B. Sherrill, secretary-treasurer, is
“for segregation and against deseg
regation. We are opposed to the mix
ing of the races.”
The group, organized three years
ago, is headed by Harry Williams
Pyle, of Memphis.
His group has no affiliations with
any other, Sherrill said in an inter
view.
John Temple Graves of the Birm
ingham Post-Herald, whose syndicat
ed column appears in other news
papers, told a Miami audience that
the Supreme Court, in its integration
ruling, “has tortured the Constitu
tion. The South will torture the Su
preme Court decision.”
NULLIFICATION SUGGESTED
“If all else fails, Virginia is prepar
ing to lead the way next January
with a resolution nullifying the court
decision as Jefferson and Madison
nullified the Sedition Act in 1798.
“The Civil War settled secession
but it did not settle nullification in
such cases. If it comes to the matter
of the right of might, the South has
too much authority, training and
sympathy in Congress for a force
bill to pass.”
Atty. Gen. Richard W. Ervin of
Florida, whose friend of the court
brief is credited with influencing the
Supreme Court’s theory of gradual
ism, listed segregation as one of the
chief problems his office has to help
solve.
In an address to the University of
Miami Law School Association, Er
vin said that the decision offered the
southern states time and opportunity
ATTY. GEN. ERVIN
A “Breathing Spell”
to settle the problem without con
fusion.
‘PRESSURE DISSIPATED’
“We see the pressure of immediate,
hasty, precipitate judicial forcing
without the benefit of planning,
preparation and discussion is happily
dissipated,” Ervin said.
“At least we have a breathing spell
with time for more careful, dispas
sionate and rational consideration of
this momentous problem.”
Ervin said that the degree of local
autonomy which has been given
eases the situation and that some
schools may never undergo the de
segregation process. These are
schools in districts where there is no
mixture of the races.
Educators gathered in Miami Beach
for the meeting of the Southern As
sociation of Colleges and Secondary
Schools heard that integration has
been proceeding in southern colleges
and universities since 1948 “in a
quiet revolution.”
Dr. Guy D. Johnson, professor of
sociology at the University of North
Carolina, said more than 1,000 Ne
groes now are studying with white
students in public institutions of
higher learning, and an equal num
ber in private and religious schools.
About 80 per cent are graduate stu
dents, Dr. Johnson said. “There is a
great deal of concern about Negro
Is Called Unsatisfactory
colleges—much more than appears on
the surface. The good ones will sur
vive. The poor ones may not The
end result could be integration in
both Negro and white colleges.”
Before this comes, Johnson said,
administrative problems must be
solved, including that of the so-called
“weaker background of Negro stu
dents.”
JOINT STUDY ORDERED
The University of Florida and
Florida State University were di
rected by the State Board of Control
to make a joint study to determine
if they are ready to admit Negroes.
The survey will produce informa
tion to be presented as evidence in
the Supreme Court proceedings to
settle whether the state institutions
will be ordered to admit Negro stu
dents.
The court appointed Circuit Judge
A. H. Murphree of Gainesville as
commissioner to receive these facts
and report “without recommenda
tion.”
Placed in the role of defendant by
this procedure, the Board of Control
asked officials of the two universities
to interview students and faculty
members and others who can throw
light on racial problems on the two
campuses.
Judge Murphree has not set a date
for formal hearings, but they are ex
pected to begin in late January or
early February.
CAMPUS DEBATES
Integration was debated on two
campuses.
At Stetson University, where a
group of 21 spokesmen petitioned for
acceptance of Negro students in No
vember, the student body decided to
hold a secret referendum on the
question. The final decision is up to
the trustees.
Since the petitions were circulat
ed, debate has been spirited. At a
meeting of the Student Government
Association at which the secret bal
lot was decided, Ralph Chandler,
president, said university officials
have asked students to express their
opinions. If an integration policy is
adopted, the faculty will consider
“psychological factors” in accepting
Negro students, he declared.
The resolution on which the straw
vote is being taken sets 1957 as the
date for admitting Negro students.
Stetson is a private Baptist insti
tution. The Southern Baptist Con
vention, which helps support it, is
on record as accepting integration
as “law-abiding citizens.”
PETITIONS AT MIAMI
At the University of Miami, also
a private institution, petitions to ad
mit Negroes were circulated by a
group of 20 students headed by
George Von Holsheimer, 21, a native
Floridian.
Bulletin board notices said, “The
University of Miami is in an unex
celled position to lead in democratic
progress. It would be neglectful of
duty and opportunity if it delayed
integration.”
Signatures are still coming in and
results will be known at the begin
ning of the spring semester. Von
Holsheimer said results are “very
favorable.”
The Allen Platt case, marked by
attempted violence in November, re
mained in the news. Platt’s five chil
dren were evicted from the Lake
County white schools on grounds
that they were part Negro. Suit was
filed and Circuit Judge Truman G.
Futch ordered on technical grounds
that they be accepted as white stu
dents.
The Lake County school board de
cided not to appeal this decision when
their attorneys reported:
“We were unable to carry this
burden [of proving Negro blood] be
cause we had very little evidence.”
McCALL EXPLAINS STAND
Sheriff Willis McCall, who brought
the original accusations in the Platt
case, explained his stand on segre
gation.
In an address to the Sertoma Club
of Tampa, McCall blamed the
“NAACP, carpetbaggers and scala
wags” for their troubles “because of
my belief that Negroes should go
their way while I go mine.
“The two races can live together
in peace if outside influences leave
us alone.”
He struck at “undue criticism from
Lake County newspapers,” an ac
cusation against Mrs. Mable Reese,
editor of the Mount Dora Topic, long
a foe of the sheriff.
The Sertoma Club invited Mrs.
Reese to speak in rebuttal at the
next meeting. She told how she first
brought the Platt case to light.
“I printed the story about the Platt
children . . . because I run a news
paper,” she said.
“To me a newspaper, whether in
a small town or large town, tells the
news. It sounds the warning of dan
ger to the rights, the peace, the pros
perity of the community’s citizens.”
Maryland
(Continued from Page 3)
w hite students. An exact count is not
av ailable because the registrar’s rec-
or ds do not designate race.
The board of education hearing in
Montgomery County which drew 300
Persons was designated as a discus-
?® n °f the assignment of teachers and
ollowed an earlier (November)
earing at which half a dozen groups
•ed protested the policy of not filling
P'ere teaching vacancies in white
. ools with Negro candidates dur-
the current school year. The
county at present has six Negroes
: Jfaching mixed or all-white classes.
^ me of the speakers in December,
- "hat was considered to be a hear-
S of opposition to faster integration
tea chers, made it evident that they
PPosed not only more integration of
i ckij erS ^ ut aI W early integration of
‘dren as well, as far as the rural
P'county half of Montgomery is
deemed.
^The spokesman for the Montgomery
Farm Bureau was reported in
jjj* cou nty press as having offered at
meeting to recommend an in-
leased sc hool budget to transport
®&*"o children from the up-county
of^i area to sc h°°h in other parts
g.j me county. Roy M. Coffman of
c i\ er Spring, speaking as temporary
nnan of the new county chapter
of We, The People, opposed the hiring
of Negro teachers for white classes
and referred to studies indicating “an
alarmingly small per cent of Negro
teachers as well qualified as the white
teachers.”
QUALIFICATIONS QUESTIONED
The qualifications of Negro teachers
were questioned by several speakers.
Herbert Mertz Jr., chairman of the
Montgomery County chapter of the
Maryland Petition Committee, said
that Negro teachers were not quali
fied to instruct white children be
cause of the wide difference of cul
tural backgrounds. Everette Severe,
speaking for the same group, said
that well qualified teachers should
be assigned to Negro schools, “where
there is a crying need” for good
teachers. Richard Janney, speaking
for residents of the Brighton Dam
area, praised the handling of integra
tion in the county to date and the
manner in which school officials had
withstood the pressure of “do-good
ers” who wanted speedy integration
throughout the county.
Not all of the speakers were against
integration. The Rev. John Baker of
the Unitarian Church of Montgomery
County spoke in favor of present in
tegration policies and said that “the
placement of Negro teachers and
other school personnel is a technical
administrative matter.” Mrs. C. D.
Stolzenbach, education chairman of
the Kensington Branch of the Ameri
can Association of University Wom
en, reminded the board of education
that her organization was anxious
that integration be accomplished in a
smooth and orderly fashion and said
that a “deferred plan would not rep
resent the ideals behind integration.”
The county press reported that at
the conclusion of the prepared state
ments the president of the board of
education, Willard McGraw, thanked
the various speakers and expressed
the hope that the subject of teaching
assignments would now be considered
closed so that the board could get on
with its other problems. A sampling
of audience reaction indicated that
some felt that the two hearings on
the teacher-integration question had
not accomplished anything definite
but might have cleared the air a bit.
The meetings revealed more or
ganized resistance to further integra
tion in the county than was appar
ent in the spring, when the whole
county was involved in discussion of
desegregation methods. Mertz claimed
300 members of the county chapter
of the Maryland Petition Committee.
The chapter was not organized until
this fall. Coffman said there were 65
county members of We, The People,
which also was organized this fall.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
The Maryland General Assembly
will meet in short (30-day) session
in February. The short sessions in al
ternate years are devoted primarily
to fiscal matters, and it is not certain
that bills pertaining to segregation
would be qualified for consideration.
Study Groups
(Continued from Page 1)
point such a group. And in Claren
don County, S.C., the location of one
of the original school segregation
cases, the Summerton District trus
tees reportedly are considering ar
ranging for the study group through
the state’s official Segregation Study
Committee. The Summerton district
survey was promised July 15 when
the remanded case was heard before
the three-judge court of original ju
risdiction.
Illustrative of the methods used in
the appointment of study groups is
the procedure announced by the Da
vidson County Board of Education
at Nashville, Term. Under present
plans, the board will select its bi-
racial advisory commission from a
list of 276 names compiled from sug
gestions of principals in the county
school system who were asked to
recommend two to five outstanding
people in their school communities.
No one was to be placed on the fist
because of position or membership
in certain organizations or for rea
sons of prestige. The primary con
sideration was to select people with
children in school.
The school superintendent and
his administrative staff had asked
for a committee of 52 to be composed
of 30 parents, nine teachers, 10 prin
cipals and three members of the
system’s administrative staff. Some
debate has occurred among the
board members over the proposed
size of the committee.
A partial list of the communities
in which school boards have author
ized study groups follows:
Arkansas — Hot Springs, Pine
Bluff.
Delaware—Dover.
Georgia—Atlanta, Bibb County
(Macon), Savannah, Valdosta.
Florida — Hillsborough, Pinellas,
Broward, Dade (Palm Beach), Man
atee, Bradford and Alachua coun
ties. More than 25 other committees
are at work but their existence has
not been formally announced.
Kentucky—Adair County, Bar-
bourville (two: one white, one Ne
gro), Georgetown, Henderson Coun
ty. Forty-seven other committees
are studying the problem but their
existence has not been made public.
Missouri—Macon.
North Carolina—Asheville, Beau
fort County, Bertie County, Burke
County, Burlington, Catawba Coun
ty, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Fayette
ville, Guilford County, Greensboro,
Johnston County, Lee County, Lum-
berton, Mecklenburg County, Nash
County, Orange County, Raleigh,
Rocky Mount, Vance County, Wake
County, Warren County, Weldon,
Winston-Salem.
Tennessee — Chattanooga, David
son County (Nashville), Hamilton
County (Chattanooga), Anderson
County.
Texas — Denison, Elgin, Houston,
Harlingen, Luling,