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PAGE 8—JANUARY 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Kentucky County Drops Racial Bars After First Test Suit
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
n Kentucky’s first school desegre
gation suit, federal District Judge
Mac Swinford ruled that the Adair
County high school should be opened
to Negroes by Feb. 1, 1956, and that
integration of the county’s element
ary schools “should be effective with
the beginning of the school year in
August or September, 1956.” (See
“Legal Action.”)
The Louisville Board of Education
on Dec. 12 unanimously approved the
12-point desegregation plan of Supt.
Omer Carmichael (detailed in De
cember’s Southern School News.)
The free-choice plan will end com
pulsory racial segregation next Sep
tember. One board member, how
ever, urged that assignment of more
than one school to a district should
be avoided because “it would be a
travesty if one school [in a district]
tinned up all white and one turned
up all dark.” Local NAACP officials,
though critical of some provisions,
called the Carmichael plan “basically
good.” (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Kentucky’s Court of Appeals on
Dec. 16, citing the Supreme Court’s
Nov. 7 decision in the Baltimore case,
banned racial segregation in all pub
lic recreation facilities—parks, play
grounds, and swimming pools—
throughout the state. It held that a
lower court’s earlier finding uphold
ing the “separate but equal” doctrine
had been overruled by the Supreme
Court “insofar as public recreational
facilities are concerned.” (See “Le
gal Action.”)
Text of the Adair County ruling—
Willis v. Walker—is elsewhere on this
page. Detailed background was re
ported in earlier issues of SSN.
The suit was heard by a three-
judge court in Louisville in Septem
ber. But two members—Circuit
Judge Shackleford Miller and Dis
trict Judge Henry L. Brooks—upheld
defendants’ contention that an issue
of constitutionality was not involved,
hence held that the opinion should
be delievered by one judge. District
Judge Mac Swinford dissented, but
since the suit had been filed in his
court (at Bowling Green), it was his
obligation to decide the case.
The Kentucky NAACP had filed
the suit on behalf of 28 Negro pupils
and their parents in the area of Co
lumbia, Adair’s county seat. Judge
Swinford’s earlier deadline for high
school integration took note of the
fact that the county now has no high
school facilities for Negro pupils and
held that “education is a thing that
cannot wait.” The delayed deadline
for elementary school integration
was based on the judge’s observation
that the situation of Negro elemen
tary pupils is “not as acute as is the
question of high school pupils.”
241 NEGRO PUPILS
The ruling affects 241 Negro pu
pils and 4,141 white pupils in Adair’s
countywide district. It may also ob
viate other litigation. Atty. James A.
Crumlin, Kentucky president of the
NAACP, said after the Adair ruling
that his organization did not plan to
sue any districts proposing to begin
desegregation by September, 1956.
The Adair County Board of Educa
tion met the day after the ruling was
published and Board Atty. Earl Hud
dleston reported that a majority had
decided they would not appeal the
ruling “and that they would comply
with it.” The Courier-Journal re
ported that the prospect of early de
segregation found many residents of
Columbia in a “so-what” mood.
Adair County Supt. Harbert Walker
said, “We will do the best we can,”
and Columbia’s two-term mayor,
Ralph Willis, observed:
“It was bound to come. I think it
will work out all right. Of course,
there may be a little hell-raising on
both sides, but the good people aren’t
going to cause any trouble. We have
to educate them [the Negro stu
dents], In these days we need the
best citizens we can get.”
The Kentucky Court of Appeals
public-recreation ruling, though
based on a Louisville case, affects the
entire state—including 25 state parks,
only one of which hitherto has been
for Negroes. Mayor Andrew Broad-
dus of Louisville said that “we will
observe the spirit as well as the let
ter of decision,” and city legal au
thorities said this would end a fed
eral court suit filed last May by par
ents of Negro school children who
demanded in particular “full park
privileges used in adjunct with pub
lic schools.”
NOT ENFORCED
Mayor Broaddus also disclosed
that on his orders—but without pub
lic announcement—Louisville police
have not been enforcing parks or
playgrounds segregation for several
months. He said there was no public
announcement because “we wanted
this change to grow gradually . .
and we were afraid such a pro
nouncement would bring about fric
tions which we wanted to avoid.”
The mayor’s step climaxed a long
series of desegregation moves in
Louisville and left only seven swim
ming pools and 14 community recre
ation centers still segregated.
George Cordery, president of the
Louisville branch of the NAACP,
said that “we were not aware that
the police were no longer enforcing
segregation in the parks,” and that
he was not ready to praise the city
administration for its decision.
“Mayor Broaddus,” he said, “saw the
handwriting on the wall, and was
just going along because it was fu
tile to fight it further. He should
have deserved commendation for
ending segregation if he had done
this before we filed suit to force him
to.”
Paris, Ky. (1,105 white pupils, 294
Negroes) became the state’s 51st dis-
J^ollowing are the pertinent pass
ages from the opinion of Judge
Mac Swinford of the U. S. District
Court for Western Kentucky in the
case of Fred Willis, et al, v. Harbert
Walker, et al. The case involves seg
regation in the public schools of
Adair County, Ky.
The plaintiffs are Negro citizens of
the United States and of the Com
monwealth of Kentucky. . . . Four
teen of the plaintiffs satisfy all re
quirements for admission to the high
school of Adair County. Thirteen of
the plaintiffs satisfy all requirements
for admission to the elementary
schools of Adair County, Columbia
District. . . . The plaintiffs bring this
action for themselves and on behalf
of all other Negroes similarly situ
ated whose numbers make it imprac
ticable to bring them all before the
court. . . .
In compliance with the prayer of
the complaint, a three-judge court
was convened and . . . heard the case
on its merits. It was understood . . .
that the court had serious doubt of
its jurisdiction as a three-judge
court, that it would proceed to hear
the case and determine the issue of
jurisdiction first; and that if it should
be determined that the court was
without jurisdiction, the case would
then stand submitted to the judge of
the Bowling Green court to pass
upon the issues of law and fact pre
sented by the record.
It was determined by the three-
judge court that it was without juris
diction. This decision was based upon
the fact that the pleadings disclosed
that the defendants were not relying
either upon the constitutional provi
sion of the Kentucky Constitution or
upon the Day law. It was stated in
open court by counsel for the defend
ants that no reliance was placed upon
the Kentucky laws as a defense and
that in fact the defendants conceded
the unconstitutionality, under the
federal Constitution, of both Section
187 of the Kentucky Constitution and
KRS 158,020 on the authority of the
JUDGE SWINFORD
Downs Kentucky Bar
trict to appoint a desegregation-
study committee. The Paris School
Board named Grover Baldwin Jr.,
Paris attorney, chairman of the
group to recommend action to the
board.
In Henderson County the school
board’s Interracial Advisory Com
mittee, after asking its Negro mem
bers to get the reaction of Negroes
to desegregation, got a petition “rep
resenting 95 per cent of the county’s
Negro school patrons” asking for “a
first-class school of our own.”
Henderson County has 3,664 white
pupils, only 272 Negro pupils—but
its Negro high school of some 200
draws pupils from the city of Hen
derson (3,034 white pupils, 514 Ne
gro). The petition presented to the
Henderson County board said:
decision of the United States Supreme
Court in Brown v. Board of Educa
tion . . .
In consequence . . . the case now
stands submitted for decision by this
court.
In Brown v. Board of Education,
■ . . segregation of white and Negro
children in all public schools in the
United States was declared abolished.
In the opinion, the court well said:
“Because these are class actions, be
cause of the wide applicability of this
decision, and because of the great va
riety of local conditions, the formu
lation of decrees in these cases pre
sents problems of considerable com
plexity.”
On May 31, 1955, . . . the court,
recognizing the full import of its
earlier decision and the fact that it
was dealing with a longstanding tra
dition and varied local problems
which must be considered in making
this transition, sought to set out guid
ing principles of law and equity by
which this change might be affected
with the least possible difficulty. . . .
I will endeavor to determine the
issues presented by the record here
in the light of the principles stated
by our highest court.
It is disclosed by the record that
there are 34 high school pupils who
are eligible for admission. There is a
consolidated high school in Adair
County which was built and equipped
within the past three years at a cost
of $458,000.
There is a consolidated grade
school in the City of Columbia with
an enrollment of 640 pupils. In addi
tion to this consolidated grade school,
there are 50 one-room schools for
white children, six one-room and one
two-room grade schools for Negro
children. There are 207 Negro chil
dren who qualify for the elementary
school work. The record is clear that
these schools for the white children
are crowded and many of them have
sub-standard conditions. It is also
clear from the record that the schools
for the Negro children are sub
standard, although it is testified by
“We are not sure that integration
is the answer to our educational
problems in Henderson County. We
are a minority race and would have
little control over the education of
our own children.
“Therefore, we petition the Hen
derson County Board of Education
to build and maintain one consoli
dated school for the colored students
of Henderson County with adequate
classrooms, cafeteria, and gymna
sium for the first nine grades.
“Give us a first-class school with
adequate teachers of our own race
and we will send our children to it.”
AGAINST POLICY
State NAACP officials said such a
petition was “completely contrary”
to the national NAACP policy. In
New York NAACP spokesmen said
that there have been a “few” such
cases in Southern states but that
they are “rare exceptions,” and
added that despite such occasional
group requests the NAACP would
support any individual in such com
munities who wanted to go to a non-
segregated school because “the rights
are individual rights, not group
rights.”
But a group of Western Kentucky
school superintendents—at least 11,
according to R. A. Belt, superin
tendent in Dawson Springs in Hop
kins County — concluded that Ne
groes in that part of Kentucky “want
their own schools rather than inte
gration.” This was a hand-showing
revelation at a desegregation discus
sion during the Dec. 16-17 meeting
of the Kentucky Association of
School Administrators in Louisville,
attended by 200 school executives
(there were 30 in the desegrega
tion discussion group). Representa
tives of only two districts—Louis
ville and Maysville—indicated that
their districts were planning faculty
certain witnesses that the conditions
of the Negro children are in some in
stances better than those for the white
children.
On July 15, 1955, the plaintiffs pe-
tioned the Board of Education of
Adair County, Columbia District, to
abolish segregation in the schools in
their district On Aug. 29, 1955, the
plaintiffs and other Negro children
were received and registered in both
the high and elementary schools of
Adair County, Columbia District. On
Aug. 30, 1955, the principals of both
the elementary and high schools, act
ing under the orders of the super
intendent and the board of education,
ejected the plaintiffs and all Negro
children who had previously regis
tered. The record discloses that since
that time white children have been
admitted to the schools. It is clear
from the record that the only reason
these plaintiffs and those for whom
they plead were denied was because
they were Negroes.
I am of the opinion that a distinc
tion may be made between the ele
mentary and high school pupils.
With a new high school building the
integration of 34 Negro students
should not be delayed longer. It is
true that the county board has offered
to send them to the county seat of an
adjoining county for their high school
work. This is a denial of their rights
under the Supreme Court decision.
It is an application of the doctrine
“separate but equal” as announced
by the Supreme Court in Plessy v.
Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, back in 1896,
and which was apparently abolished
in Brown v. Board of Education . . .
While the court is entirely mindful
of the problems confronting the de
fendants, I must also recognize the
directive imposed upon this court
when it said: “While giving weight
to these public and private consid
erations, the courts will require that
the defendants make a prompt and
reasonable start toward full compli-
anc with our May 17, 1954, ruling.”
There are apparently no high
school facilities for Negro pupils in
(Continued on Next Page)
as well as student integration. And
only two—Louisville and Providence
—reported that Negroes in those
cities wanted desegregation.
O’Leary Meece, chairman of the
discussion group, said the “common-
sense” approach to desegregation is
to “comply with federal laws.” But
he added that desegregation is a lo
cal problem demanding local solu
tion, and said that “state-level de
cisions on this matter should be kept
to a minimum.”
The desegregation plan formally
approved by the Louisville Board of
Education on Dec. 12 calls for re
districting “without regard to race”
and “with no gerrymandering or
other establishment of unnatural
boundaries.” It will permit pupils
and parents to request transfers to
schools outside the district in which
they live. Though joining in the
unanimous approval accorded the
plan, Board Member Dann C. Byck
said he wanted inserted in the rec
ord his belief that assignment of
more than one school to a district
“should be avoided wherever possi
ble.”
“We all sincerely desire to deseg
regate,” he said, but it would be a
travesty if one school [in a district]
tinned up all white and one turned
up all dark.”
Earlier, on Dec. 4, the Louisville
branch of the NAACP had discussed
the plan. On the basis of that discus
sion President George T. Cordery,
had written as follows to the board
several days before it voted:
PLAN PRAISED
“We believe that the tentative plan
for desegregation in the public
schools is basically a very good plan
and that the superintendent de
serves a lot of commendation for
such a positive plan.
“However, the NAACP feels that
the provision which permits parents
of students of a school in which they
are in the minority to transfer to a
school where they will be in the
majority, solely because of race, is
contrary to the Supreme Court de
cision.
“We believe that a flexible trans
fer plan based on curriculum and
without regard to race is desirable.
“While this is a tentative plan,
no plan for desegregation is com
plete that does not include the teach
ers. No school is completely deseg
regated if the faculty is still segre
gated. We urge that the final plan
approved by the board will include
the teachers.”
Supt. Carmichael reported to the
board that he had replied:
“It is my belief that this plan is
not inconsistent with the Supreme
Court decision and that it will be
appreciated by the community, both
Negro and white.
“With respect to the teacher ques
tion, I have, from the original [Su
preme Court] decision on May 17,
1954, held that desegregation of pu
pils means, in time, desegregation of
faculties as well. . . .
“It is my judgment that specific
recommendations can be more wise
ly made later when we have infor
mation in regard to the reassign
ment of pupils.”
The year ended with remarkably
little public discussion, pro and con,
of desegregation in Kentucky. No
incidents have been reported in the
24 school districts which desegre
gated in 1955—or in the Louisville
parks, desegregated without public
announcement several months ago-
And to date, though a variety ®
school board announcements in*"'
cate that far more than half of the
state’s Negro pupils will be in deseg
regated districts by late 1956, no or
ganized opposition to desegregation
has appeared.
How Court Held in Adair County Case