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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH 1956—PAGE 9
S. C. Legislature Adopts a Protest Against Court Decisions
COLUMBIA, S. C.
outh Carolina further crystallized
its official stand against public
school integration by adopting, in
February, a formal declaration of
protest against the Supreme Court’s
anti-segregation decision.
The South Carolina resolution,
while avoiding use of the terms “in
terposition” or “nullification,” never
theless embodied a strongly-worded
statement of “condemnation of and
protest against the illegal encroach
ment by the central government into
the reserved powers of the states and
the rights of the people.”
Meanwhile, an almost continuous
stream of measures aimed at preserv
ing segregation and at opposing the
National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People moved
into legislative channels of the South
Carolina General Assembly. Some
related especially to schools, some to
state parks, and others to segrega
tion generally. (See “Legislative Ac
tion.”)
Outside the legislature, there was
continuing and opposing action on
the parts of the white Citizens Coun
cils and the NAACP. (See “Miscel
laneous.”) A requested charter for
the Ku Klux Klan was turned down
on advice of the state’s attorney gen
eral. A visiting Baptist preacher from
Texas made headlines in the state by
his vigorous denunciation of integra
tion at a statewide Baptist conference
on evangelism, held in Columbia, and
was promntly invited to address the
General Assembly in similar vein,
which he did. (See “What They Say.”)
On the same day that Gov. George
Bell Timmerman Jr. called upon the
General Assembly to adopt a resolu
tion protesting the anti-segregation
decision of the Supreme Court, two
separate but identical resolutions of
that nature were introduced, one in
the House of Representatives, the
other in the Senate. They were
drafted by the state’s Special School
Segregation Committee. The Senate-
sponsored resolution, bearing the
names of all senators as authors,
moved more rapidly and by mid-
February had been adopted by both
{ houses and signed by the governor.
The resolution was adopted unani
mously in both House and Senate,
but eight representatives recorded
, themselves in the House Journals as
favoring an even stronger statement
°f position, one which would more
specifically declare the state’s sover
eignty.
The strongest section of the resolu
tion is its Section 5, which follows
a call upon the states and upon Con-
Texas
(Continued from Page 8)
i Elementary students will be mixed
>n 1956-57; junior high pupils the
following year; and high school stu
dents the third year. Junior and
( senior high students will use the
same facilities for shop, homemaking
and commercial courses starting this
year.
^Tie five-teacher Negro school will
be abolished after three years. Its
staff will be reduced to three teach
ers next fall. The county has about
white and 100 school-age Negro
enjldren. It is located in West Texas,
where several districts started de
segregation this year.
At San Marcos, in South-Central
exas, the school board reported on
results of integrating 44 Negroes into
™gh school last faU. Supt. Joe C.
utchinson said there was no fric-
°n and “a real effort has been made
the pa]^ Q f students and teachers
eliminate any trace of discrim-
aiation.”
scholastic problems
The report added that the Negroes
enerally are having a hard time
^^elastically. Eight dropped out of
er V S t ^ e general opinion of teach-
that most of the Negro students
u* at feast two years retarded scho-
ca Hy an d perhaps even further
gress to prevent further encroach
ment upon the reserved powers of
the states:
RESERVES POWERS
“In the meantime, the state of
South Carolina as a loyal and sov
ereign state of the Union will exer
cise the powers reserved to it under
the Constitution to judge for itself of
the infractions and to take such other
legal measures as it may deem appro
priate to protect its sovereignty and
the rights of its people.”
Meanwhile, these additional legis
lative developments occurred during
the month:
The Senate inserted into the gen
eral appropriations bill (now in a
conference committee of House and
Senate members) a proviso for the
automatic closing of any state insti
tution of higher learning threatened
by the court-ordered admission of a
student or students. That proviso has
caused some apprehension among an
undetermined number of legislators.
The Senate also inserted into the
House-approved appropriations bill
this proviso: “That the State Forestry
Commission is hereby directed to
close promptly any state park upon
commencement of litigation involving
the integration of the races therein.”
BILL TO CLOSE EDISTO
The Senate Finance Committee
sponsored, and the Senate approved,
a separate bill directing the Forestry
Commission “to close the state park
at Edisto Beach and place it under
a caretaker for safekeeping until
further action is taken by the legis
lature for the disposition of the prop
erties of the state at Edisto Beach
State Park.” Meanwhile, the park has
been closed by the Forestry Commis
sion’s administrative action pending
final legislative action on the bill in
question. (See also “Legal Action.”)
Both House and Senate have given
their endorsement, by concurrent
resolution, to the formation of Citi
zens Councils in South Carolina.
Rep. Charles C. Garrett, of Green
ville, and 24 other representatives
have introduced legislation to forbid
the employment of NAACP members
by state, county or municipal govern
ments. The House approved the bill
after adding “school districts” to the
categories of governmental agencies
forbidden to hire NAACP members.
NAACP CRITICIZED
Meanwhile, both House and Sen
ate acted favorably on a resolution
by Rep. John C. Hart of Union, and
others, requesting the attorney gen
eral of the United States to place
the NAACP on the list of subversive
organizations. The Hart resolution
listed 53 NAACP officials as being
included within the files of the House
Un-American Activities Committee
as having records of affiliation with
or participation in “Communist,
behind sociologically . . . ,” it con
tinued.
Two of Houston’s seven school
board members are backing a “two
per cent” integration plan to start
next fall.
The plan would be voluntary, with
transfers permitted across adjacent
school boundaries. Negroes would be
admitted to white schools on a first-
come, first-served basis until a two
per cent quota is reached.
The Houston board held a six-hour
session on integration Feb. 27 but
reached no decision. Both pro- and
anti-integration speakers were heard.
The United Press reported that the
meeting “turned into a circus . . .
featuring heckling, walkouts and a
Confederate flag-waving rendition of
‘Dixie’.” The news service said that
opponents of integration left after
hearing Fred W. Moore, chairman of
the Citizens League for School Home
Rule, present their views.
They stayed long enough to boo
the first of four clergymen who spoke
for desegregating schools, it was re
ported.
COMMUNITY ACTION
Associated Citizens Councils of
Texas held a quarterly meeting at
Waco. It voted to ask Gov. Shivers
to call a special legislative session
to adopt a resolution on interposition.
Communist-front, fellow-traveling or
subversive organizations.”
Other Hart-sponsored measures
(several in conjunction with other
representatives) include a resolution
denouncing Vice President Nixon for
the latter’s recent espousal of Repub
lican integration efforts, a bill to for
bid state agencies from doing busi
ness with companies sponsoring inter
racial television, radio and similar
programs, and a bill to remove the
tax exemptions from buildings (in
cluding churches) which permit their
facilities to be used for NAACP or
Communist meetings. The last-
named bill has been passed by the
House. The others are in committee.
A late bill by Rep. Ivey A. Smoak
Jr. of Colleton would provide that no
persons be admitted to state-operated
institutions of higher learning except
upon written recommendation of at
least three alumni who are residents
of South Carolina.
Rep. James P. Richards, of the Fifth
Congressional District, at the Univer
sity of South Carolina: “Interposition
to my mind does not necessarily mean
nullification. The interposition reso
lution proposed by the governor is an
assertion, a protest and a declaration
of opinion of illegality. It gives for
mality to the views of our state as to
the Supreme Court decision. In my
opinion, that is as far as the inter
position line of action should go. In
terposition, yes; nullification, backed
by force or the threat of force, never.”
Rep. L. Mendel Rivers, of the First
Congressional District, at a Citizens
Council meeting at Kingstree: “Inter
position is worthless unless it carries
with it the corresponding power of
nullification . . . The unconstitutional
action of the Supreme Court calls for
a determined action. A determined
action is the only language this out
fit will understand.”
DALLAS MINISTER’S VIEW
The Rev. Dr. W. A. Criswell, of the
First Baptist Church of Dallas, speak
ing at a South Carolina Baptist con
ference on evangelism at Columbia:
“This thing (desegregation) they are
trying to ram down our throats now
is all foolishness; it is idiocy. Who’s
stirring up all this stuff? Is it God’s
people or somebody else? I happen
to know it is somebody else. If they
will leave us alone and stay up there
with their dirty shirts, we’ll save
more souls and do more good than
they.”
Roy Wilkins, national NAACP ex-
e c u t i v e secretary, addressing a
seven-state regional meeting of
NAACP delegates at Charleston:
“The school desegregation problem
It also called for a constitutional
amendment to permit impeachment
of U. S. Supreme Court judges and
it opposed federal aid to education.
Dr. B. E. Masters of Kilgore, a
former junior college president,
charged that “the biggest enemies
we have are preachers in high posi
tions.”
“In nearly all of our churches our
children are getting literature tell
ing how to integrate,” said Dr. Mas
ters.
PARLEY WITH SHEPPERD
Thirty Citizens Council members,
mainly from East Texas, had a con
ference with Atty. Gen. Shepperd.
They asked advice on how to oppose
integration most effectively by legal
methods.
“We don’t stand for or tolerate
anything similar to the Ku Klux
Klan,” said State Chairman Ross
Carlton of Dallas.
Carlton said that his group only
wants the majority view to prevail
on the local level.
The attorney general predicted
“violent conflicts” between state and
federal courts on enforcing integra
tion. A federal court may put a local
school official in jail for refusing to
obey a desegregation order, Shep
perd said. A state court could order
release on a writ of habeas corpus.
“It may wind up as a question of
who has the jailhouse key,” re
marked one delegate.
can be solved if the South will begin
by recognizing Negro citizenship)—
unreserved citizenship. This is the
first requisite. From that point plans
can be made for a ‘good faith’ begin
ning on desegregation. Negro citizens
will meet any such beginning more
than half way with understanding
and good will. Nothing stands in the
way of easing tensions except the flat
refusal of southern whites to make
a start.”
PRO-INTEGRATION VIEWS
During February, statements from
several white persons who favor de
segregation were asked for their
views on the school segregation prob
lem.
Several, by declaration or by inti
mation, placed themselves in the
category of preferring to withhold
any exhaustive comment at the
present.
A full statement of position came
from J. M. Dabbs of Mayesville, a
farmer and former school teacher,
veteran of World War I, and descend
ant of Confederates. He wrote:
“I am too busy trying to become
a human being to be much concerned
about the largely academic question
of race. In other words, to me per
sonally segregation is nonsense.
WITHOUT GLORY
“In the second place ... as a citi
zen of the United States, I support
its laws and political institutions, in
cluding the Supreme Court. If I found
myself objecting to a decision of the
Court, I would abide by it until it
had been legally changed . . . Those
who hope to set aside the segregation
decision by interposition, nullifica
tion, or what have you, will find
themselves more disappointed in the
event than our seceding forefathers
of 1861. And the present skirmish will
not even yield glory...”
‘CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE’
Another full statement came from
the Rev. G. Jackson Stafford, pastor
of the First Baptist Church of Bates-
burg until his resignation last year
because of differences of opinion con
cerning his stand on segregation. He
wrote in part:
“I believe that the court decision
is in keeping with the constitutional
guarantee of equal freedom to all
citizens, and also is in harmony with
the Christian principles of equal jus
tice and love for all men . . .
“The most tragic result of the prob
lems involved in improving race re
lations in South Carolina is the prob
able social, economic, and political
retaliation which will be suffered by
those who express opinions contrary
to the political powers that be. Re
gardless of whether the Negro and
white children go to school together
or not, freedom of conscience and
speech should be maintained at all
costs.”
One of the few South Carolina
newspaper editors to publicly accept
the Supreme Court’s ban on racially
separate schools is Jack O’Dowd, ex
ecutive editor of the Florence Morn-
ina News. Today, he holds to the po
sition taken back on June 18, 1955,
when he voiced these sentiments edi
torially:
‘DELUSIONS, FALSE HOPES’
“Any changes we make in our pro
gram of education should be made
in full acceptance of the fact that the
South cannot maintain its policies of
racial segregation for any length of
time into the future.
“Since the Court’s publication of
its implementation decree, the South
land has been feeding itself large
doses of self-delusion and false hope.
Politicians, writers, wishful-thinkers
and the unthinking have been telling
our people that the Court’s decree can
be defeated and will be defeated .. .”
LEGAL ACTION
A federal court lawsuit seeking to
force the admission of Negroes to
Edisto Beach State Park was once
more before Judge Ashton H. Wil
liams in Charleston early in Febru
ary. The judge has announced no de
cision in the case (Etta Clark et al.
v. S. C. Forestry Commission), but
his remarks in the courtroom indi
cated that he would have little choice
but to be governed by the Supreme
Court’s upholding of the rights of
Negroes to eliter a Maryland park in
a similar case. A prooiem yet to be
resolved is wnetner tne boutn Caro
lina case is to be regarded by the
judge as a class action, or merely an
action in behalf of the four Negro
plaintiffs.
At an Atlanta meeting of NAACP
officials, South Carolina was fisted
among eight southern states in which
the NAACP said it wifi soon file ad
ditional school integration suits. By
late February, however, no suits had
been filed other than the long-stand
ing litigation involving the Summer-
ton school district of Clarendon
County.
South Carolina’s Attorney General
T. C. Calfison has agreed to file a
friendly brief for the state of North
Carolina if that state is able to gain
a re-hearing on a decision which ad
mits Negroes to the University of
North Carolina. At the same time,
Calfison said he had no intention of
having the state of South Carolina
become a party to the local school
suit in Clarendon County.
At Mullins, in Lowcountry Marion
County, a seventh grade teacher and
coach has resigned his post following
remarks he had made concerning the
Alabama University demonstration
over the admission of a Negro stu
dent. Jay Clark said:
“I simply asked the question if the
students’ attitude at Alabama was
either American or Christian. I made
no comment beyond that. I did not
mention integration or segregation.
But apparently some people interpre
ted my remarks in the wrong light.”
Clark added that he had been rein
stated by the school board after a
hearing but that he decided the best
thing to do would be to resign.
Sen. Olin D. Johnston of South
Carolina disclosed in Washington
Feb. 22 that federal employes may
join Citizens Councils without fear
of violating the Hatch Act against
political activity. The senator quoted
a letter from the Civil Service Com
mission in part as follows:
“. . . In certain circumstances ac
tivities of such organizations may
take on a character of partisan po
litical activity and, if so, the employe
who becomes a member of the or
ganization must take the responsibil
ity for seeing that the activities in
which he does engage do not become
identified with partisan issues.”
South Carolina’s secretary of state,
O. Frank Thornton, has denied a state
charter to a Georgia-born Ku Klux
Klan organization seeking to operate
in South Carolina. His denial of the
charter was based on an opinion of
Attorney General T. C. Calfison, who
said the KKK was “not qualified to
be authorized to do business in this
state.” The attorney general’s opin
ion noted that the Klan constitution
required a robe and hood for its
members, whereas South Carolina
law prohibits such masking of iden
tity. He cited other direct or indirect
conflicts with South Carolina law.
CHURCH VOTE ASKED
Presbyterians in the Harmony
Presbytery of Lowcountry South
Carolina have called upon the Gen
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church, U. S., for a church-wide vote
on the question of integration. The
South Carolina group opposes the
recommended mixing of races in
Presbyterian churches, schools, and
colleges, and wishes the question to
be submitted to a vote within each
presbytery.
The Charleston News and Courier,
investigating reports of Northern
fund and food raising drives ostensi
bly for the benefit of Clarendon
County Negroes, reported Feb. 17
that it had found no evidence that
any such help had reached Claren
don.