Newspaper Page Text
page 4—MARCH 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Three Court Cases Dominate School
Scene in Arkansas; U. S. Intervenes
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
'T'heee court cases dominated Feb-
ruary developments in Arkansas
on the question of desegregation in
the public schools.
NAACP attorneys, including
Thurgood Marshall, filed suit in fed
eral court at Little Rock against the
Little Rock school district, largest in
the state. The suit, to test the school
board’s plan for gradual integration
beginning at the high school level
in 1957 or 1958, asks an immediate
end to racial segregation. (See “Legal
Action.”)
The Justice Department announced
it would intervene in the Hoxie in
tegration case which has been ap
pealed by segregation forces to the
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals at
St. Louis—the first legal effort by
the federal government to back up
the Supreme Court decision against
racial segregation in the public
schools. (See “Legal Action.”)
A suit brought in a state court
against the Hoxie school board by
segregation forces charging illegal
employment and purchasing prac
tices was dismissed but the court
ordered the board to meet promptly
with patrons opposed to the integra
tion of Hoxie schools. (See “Legal
Action.”)
FAUBUS REPORT
Other major developments were:
1) Gov. Faubus released a report
by a five-man committee studying
ways to avoid racial integration in
public schools and said he would “be
on the side of those attempting to
prevent sudden and complete inte
gration.” The committee, headed by
the chairman of the state board of
education, recommended that Ar
kansas adopt the Virginia interposi
tion resolution and a pupil assign
ment plan similar to those proposed
in Virginia and enacted in North
Carolina. (See “Under Survey.”)
2) Without passing on the validity
or content of a proposed constitu
tional amendment, designed to main
tain segregation, Atty. Gen. T. J.
Gentry approved the ballot title and
popular name of the measure which
James D. Johnson of Crossett, lead
er of the White Citizens Council of
Arkansas, hopes to place on the No
vember general election ballot. (See
“What They Say.”)
3) James D. Johnson, in the name
of the White Citizens Council of
Arkansas, asked Gov. Faubus to call
a special session of the legislature
so it could reconsider a school “as
signment” bill designed to maintain
segregation, which was turned down
by the 1955 legislature. (See “What
They Say”)
4) About 1,400 persons attended a
rally at England Feb. 24 to hear
segregation leaders of Arkansas,
Georgia and Mississippi call on the
people of Arkansas to force the fed
eral government to recognize the
sovereignty of their state. (See “What
They Say.”)
On Feb. 8, the NAACP filed suit
in federal court at Little Rock for
33 Negro children, asking an im
mediate end to racial segregation in
the Little Rock district, which has
about 13,000 white pupils and 4,400
Negro pupils.
The suit (John Aaron, et al v. Dr.
William G. Cooper, board president,
et al, Civil Action 3113, Eastern Dis
trict of Arkansas, Western Division)
was filed by NAACP attorney Wiley
A. Branton of Pine Bluff. Also listed
as NAACP attorneys of record were
Thurgood Marshall and Robert L.
Carter of New York and U. Simpson
Tate of Dallas.
The case fell by chance on the
docket of federal Judge Thomas C.
Trimble, who had granted a tempor
ary injunction in November against
interference with the operation of
integrated classes at Hoxie. No date
has been set for a preliminary hear
ing.
‘Barking Up the Wrong
Tree’
^Mediate, J
//v l£(5KATl0d
GRADUAL 't
progress!!:
witw
PUBLIC
, SUPPORT -
■Arkansas Democrat
Filing of the suit followed by 16
days an unsuccessful attempt to en
roll 27 Negro pupils at four schools
reserved for whites.
It was the second NAACP suit in
Arkansas. At Van Buren, the school
board is under federal court order
to report by Aug. 15 on its plans and
progress toward integration. (Caro
lyn Jane Abernathy, et al, v. J. J.
Izard as board president, et al.)
On Feb. 22, A. B. Caldwell, head
of the Justice Department’s civil
rights division, said at Washington
that the department would enter the
Hoxie case as a friend of the court
on the side of the Hoxie school board.
The case before the Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals is an appeal by
Hoxie segregation forces against a
permanent injunction obtained by
the Hoxie school board. The order
prohibits the anti-integration group
from interfering with the operation
of racially integrated classes.
Caldwell said he would file the
brief about mid-March. No date has
been set for hearings but the case
(Hoxie School District No. 46 of
Lawrence County, et al, v. Herbert
Brewer, et al) is expected to be heard
sometime in May.
GEORGIA ENTERS
The intervention also will pit the
government against the State of
Georgia. Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook of
Georgia has said he will file a friend
of the court brief supporting the
segregationists.
The Hoxie board, in its argument
against the appeal, contends that
school directors have the civil right
to be protected by the federal gov
ernment in their attempts to obey
federal laws. The board members
say they have taken an oath to up
hold the federal Constitution and
should not be hindered in doing so.
The segregationists charge the in
junction, granted Jan. 9 at Jonesboro
by federal District Judge Albert L.
Reeves, violates their right of free
dom of speech. They have denied
allegations that they proposed or
encouraged violence in their protests
against the integration of Hoxie
schools.
COURT OVERRULES
On Feb. 6 at Walnut Ridge, Chan
cellor Thomas F. Butt overruled
complaints filed against the Hoxie
school board by pro-segregationists
who alleged administrative and fi
nancial irregularities.
Racial integration, apparently the
basic cause of the suit, was not men
tioned in the complaint.
Judge Butt, as requested by the
plaintiffs, ordered the board to meet
with the protestants within 10 days.
He ruled that a petition asking for
a meeting the day after it was pre
sented didn’t allow a reasonable time
but that it was a legal demand
which the board must meet.
UNDER SURVEY
Gov. Faubus released a report
Feb. 25 on a study which he had
asked five men to make on Virginia
efforts to prevent racial integration.
Committee members are Marvin
E. Bird of Earle, state board of edu
cation chairman; J. L. (“Bex”) Shav
er of Wynne, former lieutenant gov
ernor and Faubus’ legislative secre
tary in 1955; R. B. McCulloch Sr. of
Forrest City, an attorney who helped
prepare the Arkansas friend of court
brief in the school segregation cases
before the U. S. Supreme Court and
a former member of the Public Serv
ice Commission; Charles T. Adams
of Hughes, a member of the Game
and Fish Commission as a Faubus
appointee, and Bert G. Dickey of
West Memphis, a planter, business
man and one-time East Arkansas
political leader.
All five live within 50 miles of the
Mississippi River and within 50 miles
of each other in East Arkansas cotton
country where the Negro population
is large.
FURTHER STUDIES
In addition to recommending the
adoption of the Virginia interposition
resolution and a pupil assignment
law, the Bird committee said it would
make further studies on Virginia’s
proposed tuition grant plan.
All committee members except
Adams spent two days in Virginia
talking with Gov. Stanley and others.
The trip was privately financed.
On Jan. 27, Faubus had said about
85 per cent of all people in Arkansas
were opposed to integration of the
races at present and that “I cannot
be a party to any attempt to force
acceptance of a change to which the
people are so overwhelmingly op
posed.”
In releasing the committee report,
Faubus said he now would be a party
to efforts to avoid integration—and
he agreed to a suggestion that he
had moved from a passive to an ac
tive stand.
Faubus said he and the committee
propose legal steps which would cir
cumvent rather than attack directly
the Supreme Court decision.
“Every effort must be made to pro
tect the rights and the inclination of
the vast majority of the people of
Arkansas and the South and in the
prevention of the ill effects that could
come from the Supreme Court’s de
cision,” he said.
Faubus said he thought the assign
ment plan “has a better chance” than
the tuition plan and that he contem
plated supporting legislation to ac
complish it. He said he didn’t think
now that a special session of the leg
islature would be necessary.
On Feb. 3, Atty. Gen. T. J. Gentry
approved the ballot title and popu
lar name for a proposed constitu
tional amendment designed to cir
cumvent the desegregation rulings
of the U. S. Supreme Court.
The proposal was submitted by
James D. Johnson of Crossett, direc
tor of the White Citizens Council of
Arkansas. The attorney general is
required by law to approve or re
vise the initiative petition form, the
popular name and the ballot title.
About 33,000 signatures of registered
voters will be required to place the
measure on the November general
election ballot.
In approving the title and name,
Gentry wrote: “This letter is not to
be considered in any way as an opin
ion as to the validity of the pro
posed amendment under the United
States Constitution, nor is this letter
to be considered an approval or dis
approval of the contents of the pro
posed amendment.”
The proposal would require the
legislature to pass laws “opposing in
every constitutional manner the un
constitutional desegregation rulings”
and to pass other laws to include the
“interposing of the sovereignty of
the state ... to the end of nullifica
tion of these and all deliberate in
vasions” upon powers not delegated
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an obiective, fact-finding agency established by southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate,
unbiased information to school administrators, public officials and interested
lay citizens on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme
Court opinion of May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the public schools
unconstitutional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor
anti-segregation, but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state by state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th
Ave., S., Nashville, Tenn.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the au
thority of the act of March 3, 1879.
OFFICERS
Virginius Dabney Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice-Chairman
Don Shoemaker Executive Director
Patrick McCauley, Assistant to the Executive Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis
Commercial Appeal, Memphis,
Tenn.
Gordon Blackwell, Director, Institute
for Research in Social Science,
University of N.C.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Virginius Dabney, Editor, Richmond
Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va.
Coleman A. Harwell, Editor, Nash
ville Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Henry H. Hill, President, George
Peabody College, Nashville. Tenn.
Charles S. Johnson, President, Fisk
University, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte
Observer, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor,
Nashville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Exec. Director Sou.
Education Reporting Service
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charles
ton News & Courier, Charleston,
s. c.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
P. B. Young Sr., Publisher, Norfolk
Journal & Guide, Norfolk, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Editorial
Writer, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
Thomas D. Davis, Asst. City Editor,
Arkansas Gazette
DELAWARE
William P. Frank, Staff Writer,
Wilmington News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Jeanne Rogers, Education Writer,
Washington Post & Times Herald
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Staff Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The
Macon News
KENTUCKY
Weldon James, Editorial Writer,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Leo Adde, Editorial Writer, New
Orleans Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Evening Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial-Appeal
MISSOURI
Robert Lasch, Editorial Writer, St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
Jay Jenkins, Raleigh Bureau
Chief, Charlotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer,
Oklahoma City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Cor
respondent, Columbia, S. C.
TENNESSEE
James Elliott, Staff Writer, Nash
ville Banner
Wallace Westfeldt, Staff Writer,
Nashville Tennessean
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Editorial Writer,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Frank A. Knight, Editor, Charles
ton Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 5, Tenn.
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to the United States nor prohibited
to the states by the federal Consti
tution.
ASKS SESSION
On Feb. 13, Johnson sent a tele
gram to Gov. Faubus asking him to
call a special session of the legisla
ture so it could reconsider an anti
segregation bill it turned down dur
ing the 1955 regular session.
Johnson said many legislators
were facing defeat this summer be
cause of their vote against the “as
signment officer” bill designed to
prevent or delay racial integration
through a long series of administra
tive steps. He said those legislators
“probably concur with me when I
request the special session where
they might rectify their grievous
wrong to the people of Arkansas.”
Johnson accused Gov. Faubus of
“opposition and defeat” of the bill.
Speakers at the pro-segregation
rally at England, which was ar
ranged by a committee headed by
former Mayor Pat Henderson of Eng
land, included James D. Johnson of
Crossett, director of the White Citi
zens Council of Arkansas; former
Gov. Ben. T. Laney of Altheimer;
Roy V. Harris, former Georgia state
senator and publisher of the Augusta
(Ga.) Courier; Robert B. Patterson
of Indianola, Miss., president of the
Mississippi Association of Citizens
Councils, and Amis Guthridge of
Little Rock, a leader in White Amer
ica, Inc.
By a standing vote, the crowd
adopted a resolution pledging them
selves to obtain 300,000 signatures in
60 days on petitions to have an inter
position amendment proposed b>
Johnson placed on the November
general election ballot.
Laney said the “problem” of racial
integration would have to be at
tacked “legally and politically.’
MINISTERS CALL
On Feb. 23, a group of Negro min'
isters representing the Greater L>t ®
Rock Interdenominational Minister 1
Alliance called on Gov. Faubus an
urged him “to see” that the Suprem^
Court decision on racial segreg 3 **
in public schools was carried
“within a reasonable time.”
Rev. Roland Smith, pastor of e
First Baptist Church of Little no ^
said Faubus had no comment oti
“statement of position” read to
by the group.
At Hot Springs, a war of econ f^_
retribution against opponents o ^
cial integration was demanded
15 by 13 bishops of the Atri ^
Methodist Episcopal Church, ° n .
the nation’s largest Negro deno
tions.
The resolution, released by ° ^
cil President S. L. Green of A
also urged Negro voters to °P n ->
politicians who urge ’£ ra j; Ua ret ne
in complying with the Sup
Court decisions.
(Continued on Page 13)