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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH 1956—PAGE 13
Segregation Issue Injected Into Florida Race for Governor
MIAMI, Fla.
TYespite earnest efforts of the Flor-
^ ida state administration, segrega
tion has become the major issue in
the May primary elections.
All candidates for governor have
come out for continued segregation,
although Gov. LeRoy Collins, uncer
tain about his legal right to seek re-
election, warned the state “cannot af
ford an orgy of race conflict and
discord.” (See “Community Action.”)
Other developments:
The AFL-CIO executive council,
meeting in Miami Beach, called the
white Citizens Councils a “new Ku
Klux Klan.” (See “What They Say.”)
The case of Virgil D. Hawkins,
suing to enter the University of Flor
ida law school, was postponed until
after the May political primary. (See
“Legal Action.”)
Controversy continued over a pe
tition by some faculty members at
the University of Florida asking im
mediate admission of qualified Ne
groes. (See “In the Colleges.”)
Unexpectedly, segregation became
important in the race between Adlai
Stevenson and Sen. Estes Kefauver
for Florida delegates in their bid for
the Democratic nomination for Pres
ident. (See “Community Action.”)
Florida’s official policy of “gradual
ism” by which the state’s responsible
leaders hoped to postpone integration
for years—and in some instances for
ever—came up against the realities of
the approaching primary elections.
Speaking at a Governor’s Day cele
bration in Tampa, Collins declared:
“We can preserve segregation with
out furor. We have demonstrated
that effectively up to this time.
“As your governor, and in exer
cise of the high responsibilities of
that office, I wish to emphasize that
this is a time, perhaps above all oth
ers, when our people should be united
in a common dedication of unselfish
service to promote the welfare of all.
‘CAN’T AFFORD IT’
“Believe me when I say Florida
cannot afford an orgy of race conflict
and discord.
“I have talked to many here and
in other regions of the United States
now poised preparatory to making
substantial investments in Florida.
“One of the most effective appeals
has been that we can offer sound
ness, stability, and security. Nothing
will turn these investors away quick
er than the prospect of finding here
communities hepped up by dema-
gogery and seething under the ten
sion and turmoil of race hatred.”
This speech by the governor was
the culmination of a series of state
ments tending to establish an official
policy on segregation by his admin
istration.
Asked why he declined to attend
the conference at Richmond at which
four Southern governors discussed
the doctrine of interposition, Collins
said “no useful purpose” would have
resulted.
‘SOUND’ WAY
“I think the way we have been
proceeding in Florida is sound and
correct.
“We are not asserting our position
by defiance. We are not permitting
our emotions to destroy reasoning.
We have thus far avoided the furor
and hysteria and at the same time
have effectively supported our tra
ditions.
“Thus far no integration has oc
curred in our state and our leader
ship has been far more effective than
has been the case in many other states
in which a great deal more noise and
confusion have been generated..
ERVIN BACKS
Collins’ stand has the backing of
Atty. Gen. Richard W. Ervin who ar
gued for “gradualism” before the
U. S. Supreme Court. Ervin said the
state is endeavoring to maintain seg
regation as long as possible within
the framework of the court’s man
date.
“What we have done so far has
met with the sanction of the court
itself,” he said. “That is to say, Flor
ida’s officials have been able to dem
onstrate to the satisfaction of the
court that because of local conditions
involving problems of school admin
istration, personnel and facilities and
relevant community attitudes, Flor
ida’s schools are not presently ready
for transition to integration.
“Moreover, it is the thinking of
Florida’s officials that before transi
tion to integration becomes a reality,
so great are the physical and psycho
logical obstacles to be surmounted,
many years undoubtedly will elapse.”
FOR SEGREGATION
Not all voices raised were in this
vein. Every candidate who has an
nounced for governor so far has
called for continued segregation. One
candidate is basing his entire cam
paign on this issue.
Sumter L. Lowry of Tampa, retired
National Guard general, entered the
race “because no other candidate ap
pears willing to fight mixing of the
races in Florida schools.”
Integration, Lowry said, “is a mat
ter of gravest concern to the people
of Florida—the greatest threat to
constitutional government—and will
destroy our way of life.”
Lowry added: “It is not the south
ern people who have brought on race
conflicts and discord. The peoples of
‘Time to Resist
Temptation’
Oklahoma
(Continued from Page 12)
gee County. Eleven members of the
high school girls’ basketball squad
turned in their suits for the season
because the school board forbade
them to play in an interracial toum-
^ent. The team had been ordered
to cancel and forfeit a game sched
uled earlier in the season with
Mounds school because the latter had
a Negro second-string player. When
uie tournament edict was handed
down, six members of the Liberty
boy s cage team also hung up their
suits but were persuaded to finish
the regular season schedule. Neither
team would have actually played
against a Negro team in the tourna
ment because they fell in different
brackets, a school official said.
superintendent, asked Dr. Oliver
Hodge, state superintendent of pub
lic schools, what the money could
be used for. Hodge turned the ques
tion over to Mac Q. Williamson, at
torney general. He ruled the money
must be placed in the general fund
for use in operating Wewoke’s
schools.
Wewoke, in Seminole County,
C f ame up with a $55,621 windfall for
__ Public schools as a result of de
segregation. The district had accu-
ulated that much in its Negro
ool building fund when segrega
te* 1 was wiped out in Oklahoma’s
^nstitutional amendment vote on
j 5, 1955, abolishing separate
ugets. Ray Claiborne, Wewoke
Revealed in February was a de
cision by municipal officials in Okla
homa City to end racial segregation
in city-owned parks, including
swimming and wading pools. They
made no official announcement,
merely stating that, when the rush
to the parks occurs in the spring,
there will be no barriers. Any prob
lems will be handled as they arise,
the officials said.
However, authorities still hope the
parks will be operated on a “com
munity” basis, as in the past. For
the most part, the park system is
designed to accommodate each area
of the city, although residents of
other areas are not prohibited. The
city owns 32 “junior” pools and five
major pools. Many of them are op
erated in cooperation with the school
system.
The city eliminated separate rest
rooms in city-owned facilities several
months ago.
—St. Petersburg Times
the southern states have asked only
to be let alone, to five and work in
their homeland according to their
own laws and customs.”
Another candidate, C. Farris Bry
ant of Ocala, also supported segrega
tion.
“My line of thinking comes not only
from my life, but the lives before me
and from what I am accustomed to,”
Bryant told the League of Women
Voters in Tampa.
“In the homes of Negroes we find
different intellectual levels and moral
and sanitary standards. I feel that it
would not be good for the two groups
with such different standards to be
thrown into direct contact.”
WARREN HEARD
Former Gov. Fuller Warren of Mi
ami Beach, announcing his candidacy,
included this as his first platform
plank:
“I will do everything in my power
to maintain segregation in Florida
and I will assume active leadership
for legislation to accomplish that pur
pose.”
Unexpectedly, Sen. Estes Kefauver
of Tennessee, who chose Florida as
one of the principal arenas for his bid
for the Democratic presidential nom
ination, found segregation, not na
tional issues, the burning question.
Questioned on the subject at every
appearance during a swing through
Florida, Kefauver said he would be
“very shy” on the use of federal troops
to enforce integration decrees of the
courts.
Though he considers the use of the
military justified “in cases of rebel
lions and riots where federal prop
erty is involved,” the Tennessee sen
ator said it should be avoided “except
in a very severe case.”
Kefauver’s emphasis on the segre
gation issue resulted from a state
ment in California by Adlai Steven
son that transition must be gradual.
KENT CRITICAL
Frank Kent, Jacksonville, chair
man of the Florida Board of Control
which administers the affairs of the
three state universities, accused both
national parties of lack of leadership
in opposition to integration. He is try
ing to form a third party to fight for
continued segregation.
“My sole wish would be to have a
party in which all of us could vote
for candidates on the state and na
tional level of our own selection and
not those foisted on us by northern
Democrats,” Kent said.
Integration is being forced on the
South, he said in an address to the
Jacksonville Junior Chamber of Com
merce, because of the fight between
Republicans and northern Democrats
for the Negro vote.
WHAT THEY SAY
The Executive Council of the AFL-
CIO, at its annual winter conference
in Miami Beach, declared that the
white Citizens Councils which have
sprung up to fight integration in the
schools are a “new Ku Klux Klan.”
“The pattern followed by this new
Ku Klux Klan without hoods is omi
nous in its resemblance to the pattern
of growth of Nazi-ism and other to
talitarian movements which have fed
on hatreds and defied constitutional
democracy,” the committee’s report
said.
LEGAL ACTION
Legal showdown on the only suit
pending in Florida—the appeal of
Virgil Hawkins, Daytona Beach Ne
gro, against the State Board of Con
trol for admission to the University
of Florida school of law—has been
postponed until after the May pri
mary.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled
in October that Hawkins could not be
denied admission on racial grounds,
but appointed Circuit Judge A. H.
Murphree as commissioner to hear
testimony on whether the university
is ready to accept the Negro student
“without public damage.”
The original Feb. 19 deadline for
Judge Murphree’s report has been
extended to May 31.
To gather facts and opinions for
presentation to Judge Murphree, the
board of control sent out 61,950 ques
tionnaires to college students, their
parents, alumni and faculty members
of the state universities. They are
asked to give their reaction to the
mingling of the races in classrooms
and on the campus.
FIRST TEST
Florida may soon get its first court
test for admission of Negro children
to elementary schools.
Petitions laying the groundwork
for such suits were filed last Septem
ber in a number of counties. Thur-
good Marshall, counsel for the
NAACP, conferred in Miami with lo
cal attorneys on preparation of the
suit. Robert L. Carter, assistant spe
cial counsel for the NAACP in the
New York headquarters, said he has
been asked to assist a local attorney
institute the suit.
Dade County (Miami), the state’s
largest, and Pinellas County (St.
Petersburg) on the west coast have
been selected for the first Florida
court tests, spokesmen for the Negro
leaders said.
In a case regarded as an important
precedent, Federal District Judge
George W. Whitehurst ruled that
segregation in St. Petersburg’s mu
nicipal Spa park and swimming pool
is unconstitutional.
Several Negroes sought admission
to the Spa, a well-known tourist at
traction. They were turned back and
advised to use a nearby segregated
beach.
The suit in their behalf attacked
the “general policy” of denying tax-
supported recreational facilities to
Negroes.
Citing a recent U. S. Supreme
Court decision in a case arising in
Baltimore, Judge Whitehurst ruled
for the petitioners with the comment,
“I can see no other action that
could be taken.”
PLANS APPEAL
Asst. City Atty. Harry I. Young said
he will file an appeal. Judge White
hurst granted a stay of execution until
final determination.
In Miami a group of Negroes peti
tioned for unrestricted use of the
city-owned golf course. For two
years it has been opened for Ne
groes each Monday and for white
players on other days.
The city once before won a court
fight on grounds that unsegregated
operation would be an economic
hardship because neither group
would use it enough to support the
course financially.
This time, as the city commission
took the petition under study, City
Atty. Olavi Hendrickson said he
“doubted that court action could be
successfully defended in the light of
recent decisions.”
IN THE COLLEGES
Controversy continued over the
petition in January by the Florida
chapter, American Association of
University Professors, asking imme
diate admission of qualified Negro
students.
The board of control received a pe
tition signed by 50 citizens of Talla
hassee demanding the discharge of
the faculty members. It said they
“presumed to oppose Almighty God
who segregated the races.”
The petition asked that all profes
sors paid by state funds be required
to sign an oath to uphold the state
constitution “especially as it applies
to the segregation of the races.”
Hollis Rinehart, board member
from Miami, said the petition “ought
to be thrown in the wastebasket” But
the board voted to advise the peti
tioners that “the matter has been
brought to the attention of the board
and duly recorded.”
STUDENT PETITION
While this action involved only
faculty members, 425 University of
Florida students petitioned for ad
mission of a Negro missionary for
graduate study.
Thomas Harris, Gainesville resi
dent and a graduate of Florida Agri
cultural and Mechanical University
(for Negroes) asked permission to
take special courses in agriculture.
Harris has been a missionary in
China for two years and Borneo for
four years. He was sent by the Meth
odist Church Board of Missions.
One more Florida school—again on
a military reservation under super
vision of the federal government—
accepted a Negro pupil in integrated
classrooms without incident.
Vivian Richard, sixth-grade step
son of Sgt. Joseph T. Elliott, was en
rolled in the Tinker Elementary
School at MacDill Air Force Base
near Tampa. Although the integration
policy was adopted last September,
Vivian was the first Negro to seek
admission.
Arkansas
(Continued from Page 4)
On Feb. 14, about 60 persons at
tended a meeting with the Hoxie
school board which had been re
quested by segregationists to discuss
school finances. But most of the
patrons complained instead about
racial integration in the schools.
A patron asked the board about
its plans on racial integration. He
said he feared the consequences of
the present mixed system. Howard
Vance, a board member, said the
board would stand by its integration
order, that it had acted within the
law and had been upheld by the
courts.
The board was asked when terms
of individual members would end
and what action would force the
members to resign. Vance said the
board members had no intention of
resigning. Four of the five members
were present. The fifth, L. L. Coch
ran, moved recently to West Mem
phis.
BOARD PRAISED
Herbert Morrison, chairman of the
Hoxie Better Community Committee,
which he said was a pro-integration
group, praised the board for its in
tegration decision.
Acting Supt. Robert Williams said
that about 25 Negro students entered
the white schools with about 1,000
white in July but that about half
of the Negroes had dropped out since
then, including all the high school
students.
Herbert Brewer, chairman of the
Hoxie Committee for Segregation,
qualified Feb. 13 as a candidate for
the Hoxie school board in the March
17 election by filing a petition with
39 signatures. He is a candidate for
the seat held by Leslie Howell, board
president, who has not said whether
he will seek another five-year term.
SECOND CANDIDATE
On Feb. 20, another pro-segrega
tion candidate for the Hoxie board,
Ernest Nichols, filed his petition.
Nichols will seek the position held
by L. L. Cochran.