Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH 1956—PAGE 3
Editor Calls for ‘Positive Thinking' in Mississippi Crisis
JACKSON, Miss.
ditor Oliver Emmerich Sr., of the
McComb Enterprise-Journal,
sums up Mississippi’s current racial
situation in a 21-word paragraph in
an editorial urging the current legis
lative session to adopt “A Declara
tion of Principles.” It reads:
“Never before in a Mississippi crisis
has there been so little positive think
ing—except for the militantly positive
will to negate.”
Editor Emmerich said “this declar
ation of affirmative action should
clarify three categories of thinking
which relate to this racial crisis.” He
lists them as:
1) Mississippi must assert herself
as being positively and firmly op
posed to brutality, bigotry, intoler
ance and lawlessness.
2) This declaration of principles
should boldly assert a program of
continued improvement for the Negro
people. There are multiplied thous
ands of faithful Negro citizens who
have been cooperative and loyal with
the white people of the state.
CLARIFY REASONS
3) This declaration should clarify
the reasons why Mississippians de
mand a continuance of the dual sys
tem of schools. Millions of people in
America think that segregated schools
are the exclusive products of prej
udice, injustice, intolerance and
wickedness.
The editorial suggestion by the
member of the Board of Trustees of
State Institutions of Higher Learn
ing was made as the legislature com
pleted action on a series of bills
designed to strengthen Mississippi’s
position against enforcement of the
integration decisions of the U. S.
Supreme Court. (See “Legislative
Action.”)
It also came amidst:
Gov. J. P. Coleman’s strongest
statement on preserving and main
taining segregation: that “Mississippi
will close any white public school or
college forced by the courts to accept
a Negro student.” (See “What They
Say.”)
Preparation by a legislative com
mittee of Mississippi’s “resolution of
interposition” against enforcement of
-he Supreme Court’s integration man
dates. (See “Under Survey.”)
RELIGION WEEK EPISODE
Cancellation of religious emphasis
week at the University of Mississippi
at Oxford, following weeks of con
troversy over withdrawal of an
invitation to an anti-segregation
speaker, Rev. Alvin Kershaw, Epis
copal rector of Oxford, Ohio.
Resignations of a University of
Mississippi professor and a member
of the faculty of Mississippi State Col
lege because of the asserted threat to
freedom of speech and academic
freedom due to the “screening” of
speakers on the campuses of the
^fate-owned and operated colleges.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
Legislative commendation of the
heads of the two major state educa
tional institutions for immedate ac
ceptance of the faculty resignation.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
Charge by two Clarksdale Negroes
that they were fired from jobs at the
oahoma County Hospital because of
eir activities in the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of
olored People. (See “Community
Action.”)
Adoption of a resolution by the
Jackson Citizens Council “dedicated
I? Preservation of segregation” urging
. e t= roes who believe in segregation
join hands” in keeping segrega-
i°n. (See “Community Action.”)
n ’EGRO raps measure
A statement by a group of Negro
1 'J cat ° rs expressing concern over
legislative passage of a bill requiring
eachers, white and Negro, to sub-
j, . affidavits listing memberships
in ° u 1 ^ ty P es °f organizations dur-
S the past five years (See “What
rhe y Say.”)
Approval of additional school dis-
kj? consolidations under a 1954
s !f sl fve program to equalize Negro
of S an .^ opportunities with those
m whites in the face of a move-
«, n omong some legislators to repeal
ana £ ro § rarn - (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Four of seven bills recommended
by the Legal Educational Advisory
Commission, created in 1954 to seek
legal bypasses to the Supreme Court’s
school integration decision, have been
passed at the current legislative ses
sion and signed into law by Gov. J. P.
Coleman.
Three others, which developed after
the Supreme Court’s desegregation
decisions on interstate transportation
and public parks and golf courses,
likewise are new additions to Missis
sippi’s law books.
Two of the other LEAC bills are
still in committee, and the third, al
though suggested by Gov. Coleman,
has been vetoed by him.
The LEAC approved bills are:
House Bill No. 13—Abolishing com
mon law marriages, recognized since
the days of the “circuit” riding
ministers whose infrequent visits
prevented ceremonial marriages of
couples who began living together as
man and wife. Immediate effective
ness of the new bill makes children
bom in common law from now on
“illegitimates.”
NO EXPLANATION
No explanation was made as to how
the law fits into the segregation pic
ture, its sponsors merely telling the
legislators, “You know what this bill
does.” However, it is expected to
bolster the state’s use of a 1954 pupil
assignment law based on morals,
health and welfare of the community.
Of the 56,724 babies bom in Missis
sippi in 1953, 7,337 were bom out of
wedlock, and of that number 7,070
were Negroes.
House Bill No. 17—Requiring su
perintendents, principals, teachers,
instructors and professors in all state-
supported institutions to file, as con
ditions precedent to such employment,
an affidavit listing the names and
addresses of all incorporated and/or
unincorporated associations and or
ganizations of which each is, or within
the past five years, has been a mem
ber, or to which each is presently
paying, or within the past five years
has paid, regular dues or to which
each is making, or within the past
five years, has made regular contri
butions.
House Bill No. 31—Repealing the
compulsory school attendance law,
which has never been enforced, es
pecially with reference to Negro
children. Proponents wanted to get
that law off the statute books in event
it becomes necessary to use a “stand
by” constitutional authority given
the legislature to abolish public edu
cation.
CURTAILS SOLICITATION
House Bill No. 33—Prohibits fo
menting and agitation of litigation,
and the solicitation, receipt or dona
tion of funds for the purpose of filing
or prosecuting lawsuit. Purpose of
the act is to curtail solicitation of
funds by the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.
The penalty for violation, upon con
viction, is one year in the peniten
tiary.
Gov. Coleman vetoed Bill No. 30,
which sought to prevent FBI agents
from making civil rights investiga
tions in Mississippi. It sought to make
it unlawful for any person to conspire
to injure, oppress, threaten or intimi
date any citizen of Mississippi in the
free exercise or enjoyment of any
right, privilege or immunity secured
to him by the constitution or laws
of the state of Mississippi.
Gov. Coleman vetoed the bill be
cause “there has been a material
change in the conditions which ex
isted when I was prompted to recom
mend the law.” At the time, FBI
agents were in Mississippi investi
gating the Democratic primary and
questioning citizens and county of
ficials on matters the governor said
are “wholly within the jurisdiction
of the state and which we are amply
able, willing and anxious to control
in strict keeping with our constitu
tion and laws.”
But he added: “Let no man mis
takenly interpret this action as
evidencing any lack of unrelenting
‘Fishing in Fresh Water’
—Jackson Daily News
determination to preserve that which
we know to be right.”
Mississippi’s resolution interposing
its sovereignty against the United
States Supreme Court’s desegrega
tion decisions, introduced Feb. 29,
states its “firm intention to take all
appropriate measures honorably and
constitutionally available to us, to
avoid this illegal encroachment upon
our rights, and we do hereby urge
our sister states to take prompt and
deliberate actions to check further
encroachment by the federal govern
ment, through judicial legislation,
upon the reserved powers of all
states.”
The title reads:
“A concurrent resolution condemn
ing and protesting the usurpation and
encroachment on the reserved pow
ers of the states by the Supreme
Court of the United States and de
claring that its decisions of May 17,
1954, and May 31, 1955, and all simi
lar decisions are in violation of the
constitutions of the United States
and the state of Mississippi, and are
therefore unconstitutional and of no
lawful effect within the territorial
limits of the state of Mississippi; de
claring that a contest of powers has
arisen between the state of Missis
sippi and said Supreme Court and
invoking the historic doctrine of in
terposition to protest the sovereignty
of this and the other states of the
union, and calling on our sister states
and the Congress for redress of
grievances as provided by law, and
for other purposes.”
EASTLAND LAUDED
The House and Senate also adopted
a resolution (House Concurrent No.
8) commending Sen. James O. East-
land (D-Miss.) for “his untiring ef
forts in the battle against subversive
and un-American activities within
the United States,” and House Con
current Resolution No. 19, commend
ing all Mississippi congressmen “for
their continuous stand in defense of
the South and outspoken and unre
lenting fight to preserve the principles
and traditions for which she stands
against political activities designed to
destroy them.”
Other LEAC bills are still in the
House Judiciary “A” committee.
Among them is House Bill No. 34
which extends laws of libel, defama
tion and slander to prohibit libeling,
slandering and defaming states,
counties, cities, communities, their
inhabitants, their institutions and
their government by words, oral or
printed.
The bill defines defamatory matter
as “any word or statement, oral or
written, not libel or slander, but
which nevertheless, if true, would
tend to expose a person to hatred,
contempt or ridicule, to degrade or
disgrace him in society or to injure
him in his business or occupation.”
Gov. Coleman still considers Mis
sissippi’s pupil assignment law “ab
solutely constitutional,” despite a
federal court in Louisiana striking
down a somewhat similar law of that
state. He said the Louisiana law was
overruled because it called for use of
the state’s police powers, which he
has always contended “is not the
answer to preserving segregation.”
Also, he pointed out that the Mis
sissippi law does not mention “color,”
as did the one in Louisiana, but relies
on health, morals and community
welfare factors. He said Mississippi’s
assignment law is similar to one he
said a federal judge upheld in North
Carolina.
The governor said the time is not
opportune to consider a bill offered
in the house of representatives setting
up one University of Mississippi with
headquarters in Jackson, and using
the white and Negro colleges as at
tendance centers. Its author, Rep.
Stanford Young of Wayne County,
said it would solve the question of
segregation on the college level in
that assignments would be made by
the Jackson headquarters on the basis
of available accommodations at the
institutions, under which segregation
could be maintained.
PROTESTS MEASURES
Prof. R. N. Burger of Hattiesburg,
president of the Mississippi Negro
Teachers Association, and members
of its legislative committee, in a
public statement, said some of the
legislative actions aimed at preserv
ing segregation “are frightening to
us.” Mentioned specifically was the
act requiring all educators to list their
organizational memberships.
“Many of us belong to or have held
membership in churches and other
organizations that presently hold
views in conflict with those now held
by local white citizens of Mississippi,”
the statement said. “Such member
ship was accepted when questions
now before us were not considered
at all. Thus, many Negroes are ex
posed to dangers today for member
ship in organizations which but a few
days ago would have brought them
higher status and praise.”
Prof. Burger said “we feel that such
laws as prescribe the freedom of
speech and peaceful assembly, when
directed against any specific freedom
of speech and peaceful assembly,
when directed against any specific
group, create tensions and force un
derground many such activities that
would have been better dealt with
openly.”
Cancellation of an invitation to the
Rev. Alvin Kershaw, Episcopal rector
of Oxford, Ohio, to appear on the
religious emphasis week program at
the University of Mississippi, set off
chain-action in withdrawals of other
ministers and the resignations of two
faculty members. Objection was ex
pressed to “screening” speakers on the
campus and in that way curtailing
freedom of speech and academic
freedom.
The Kershaw controversy arose
when he was purported to have an
nounced over a nationwide television
network that he planned to give part
of his winnings in a TV show to the
NAACP. Demands for withdrawal of
the invitation were made, and the
Board of Trustees of State Institutions
of Higher Learning conducted an in
vestigation. It led to the conclusion
that the minister had been “mis
quoted,” and Dr. J. D. Williams,
chancellor of the university, was left
the decision.
Chancellor Williams had decided to
permit the invitation to stand, until
Kershaw corrected the impressions
gained by the college board members.
He said he was a member of the
NAACP, as was his bishop, and the
invitation was withdrawn.
OTHERS REJECT BIDS
Immediately, five other scheduled
lecturers rejected their bids in pro
test. Kershaw was scheduled to lead
a seminar on religion and modem
drama. On that basis, the campus
newspaper said he should be per
mitted to keep his engagement, as did
73 per cent of the students polled by
the campus weekly and the Campus
Senate.
The campus newspaper stated that
“barring any citizen merely because
of his own personal views on a sub
ject is an infringement on the con
stitutional right of freedom of speech.”
Gov. Coleman said the controversy
over “screening” speakers at the
state’s colleges “is not simply a ques
tion of freedom of speech.
“Anybody who wants to can get
a soap box and get on the street com
em of Oxford or Jackson or any
where else,” he said. “But, as far as
the educational institutions are con
cerned, we’ve got to show some dis
cretion and regard to the people who
support those institutions.”
PROFESSOR RESIGNS
When the invitation to Kershaw
was withdrawn, Dr. Morton King,
chairman of the University of Mis
sissippi sociology department since
1946, resigned from the faculty. He is
a native of Tennessee and a Vander
bilt graduate.
Dr. King said he resigned because
of a professional principle involving
academic freedom—not the segrega
tion issue. He said the Kershaw in
cident was only “the last straw” in
a series of happenings which have
deeply concerned him during the past
few years. He had encountered the
state’s “screening process” for college
speakers on other occasions.
The controversy jumped south
ward from the University of Missis
sippi to Mississippi State College at
Starkville. There, Dr. William Buch
anan resigned because of the asserted
“screening processes.”
The religious emphasis week pro
gram at Mississippi State began to
feel the effects of the edicts.
Due to asserted “pressure on both
sides of the segregation question,” six
scheduled minister-speakers with
drew from the program.
LEGISLATURE APPLAUDS
The Mississippi legislature took
cognizance of the two college faculty
resignations, in commending Chan
cellor Williams and President Hilbun
for accepting them and “safeguard
ing our culture and traditions from
vicious attacks and influences con
trary to the beliefs of the people of
Mississippi and the South.”
The resolution stated that “our
state-supported institutions of higher
learning should reflect the thinking of
our people and, of right, should be
the primary exponent and protectors
of our culture and traditions.”
Despite “smouldering” legislative
opposition to the school consolidation
features of the 1954 Negro-white
school equalization law, the State
Education Finance Commission con
tinues to approve larger districts de
signed to provide better buildings,
teaching staffs and opportunities.
Reorganizations have been ap
proved in Warren, Jasper, Hancock,
Carroll, Jefferson, Stone, Forrest,
Tallahatchie, Humphreys and Desoto
counties.
There is a court challenge on the
proposed reconstitution of the school
districts in Adams County. It has not
been set down for trial.
Acceptance of the commission’s
recommendations is a condition to
receiving state aid for new buildings.
A resolution by the Jackson Citi
zens Council urging cooperation of
Negroes who are opposed to integra
tion, was said to have the “full
support and cooperation” of Gov.
Coleman and Mayor Allen Thomp
son.
Asserting that the council has al
ways been interested in the welfare
of the Negroes as reflected in its
charter and by-laws, the resolution
stated:
“There has always existed harmony
and understanding among the races
in and around Jackson, which is now
being menaced by outside agitators.”
At Clarksdale, two Negro women
said they were fired from the Coaho
ma County Hospital because of their
activities in the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People. The two women, Gussie P.
Young and Lurleander Johnson, had
signed a petition asking for desegre
gation of public schools.