Newspaper Page Text
VOL. 2, NO. 10
NASHVILLE, TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
Resistance Grows; 36 Areas to Integrate
Manifesto
Protests
Court Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.
manifesto denouncing the Su
preme Court’s school desegrega
tion decision was signed by 101
Southern congressmen and intro
duced in the House and Senate on
March 12.
The “Declaration of Constitutional
. Principles” bore the names of 19
senators and 82 representatives from
11 states. The document has no legal
standing in Congress and requires
no congressional action.
Heart of the manifesto was con
tained in these two paragraphs:
“We decry the Supreme Court’s
encroachments on rights reserved to
the states and to the people, con
trary to established law, and to the
Constitution.
“We commend the motives of those
states which have declared the in
tention to resist forced integration
by any lawful means.”
MET WITH GEORGE
The manifesto was the idea of a
group of southern Democratic sen
ators who early last month met in
the office of Sen. Walter F. George
of Georgia to outline their position
on segregation.
George was appointed chairman
of a committee charged with pre
paring a formal statement on the
senators’ views and intentions.
Asked to write drafts were Richard
B. Russell of Georgia, Samuel J.
Ervin of North Carolina and John
C. Stennis of Mississippi. Later,
these drafts were written into one
document by Russell and Strom
Thurmond of South Carolina.
Then began a back-stage fight for
signatures. Two conservatives, Sen
ators Spessard Holland of Florida
1 and Price Daniel of Texas, said the
language of the manifesto was too
inflammatory for them. As a result
the statement was toned down and
< more moderate words substituted.
A leader in the drive for recruits
w as Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia,
who some say concocted the whole
1 idea of the manifesto. Moderate
southerners, it is said, were put on
the spot. They felt refusal to sign
would put them on the side of the
i National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, at
least in the minds of the voters back
home.
' TWO REFUSE
Two senators refused flatly to sign.
y*ey were Albert Gore and Estes
Kefauver of Tennessee, the latter
1 an avowed candidate for the Demo-
cr atic nomination for President
Kefauver said he would .not sign
because the “Supreme Court must
• be the filial authority on constitu-
I uonal questiofis” and “its decision
n °w i s the law of the land and must
I
i
i
'
SSN Receives
Russwurm Award
Southern School News is one
of the 10 recipients of the 1956
Russwurm Award from the Na-
wnal Newspaper Publishers As
sociation.
The citation was made “in rec
ognition of outstanding achieve-
nient in making possible a richer
opnception of democratic prin-
p'Ples, and in tribute for uphold-
those highest traditions
Considered as the ideals of the
Ami
encan Way of Life.”
‘Now Can We Sit Down and
Discuss the Problem?’
—Greensboro (N.C.) Daily News
be followed.” He said “chaos and
confusion” would result if a “large
segment” of the population fails to
abide by its decision.
Senate Democratic leader Lyndon
B. Johnson of Texas was not asked
to sign the manifesto. He said he un
derstood the congressmen by-passed
him because they did not want to
appear to be trying to dictate Dem
ocratic or Senate policy. House
Speaker Sam Rayburn, from Texas,
also was purposely ignored.
On the House side of Capitol Hill,
24 southern representatives refused
to lend their names to the manifesto.
One of the strongest statements was
made by Rep. Thurmond Chatham
(D-N.C.), who said:
“I, personally, will not sign any
thing that will tear down the power
and prestige of the court as the final
arbiter of justice. We sometimes for
get that, in a country ruled by a
dictator, the courts are destroyed
first.”
Rep. Harold D. Cooley, also of
North Carolina, refused to sign the
manifesto which he viewed as “a
dangerous document calculated to
aggravate the situation.”
COOLEY CRITICAL
Cooley said the manifesto “holds
out false hope” that legal means are
available for upsetting the Supreme
Court’s ban. He added: “I am and
always have been definitely and posi
tively in favor of our present system
of segregated schools.”
Seven state delegations had 100
per cent participation in signing.
They were Alabama, Arkansas,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi,
South Carolina and Virginia. There
were no signers from Kentucky or
Oklahoma and 16 members of the
large Texas delegation in the House
withheld their names.
The manifesto was submitted in
the Senate by George and in the
House by Howard W. Smith (D-Va.).
There was no comment following
House presentation. This was not the
case in the Senate.
Sen. Wayne Morse, Oregon Dem
ocrat, declared one would have
thought that “today Calhoun was
walking and speaking on the floor
of the Senate.”
He added: “A historic debate is
due . . . because Congress will have
to decide whether or not we are go
ing to follow the Supreme Court
decision, recognizing the supremacy
of the court in protecting the Amer
ican people in their constitutional
rights.”
BAR FORCE
The signers of the manifesto
pledged themselves to back all law
ful means to reverse the court de
cision and “to prevent the use of
force” in carrying it out. The signers
said the court’s “clear abuse of ju
dicial power” has fanned fires of
“hatred and suspicion” in Dixie.
Prompting Sober
Thought
—Nashville (Tenn.) Banner
Northern senators’ reaction to the
manifesto at first was shock. Later,
some expressed relief that the south
erners had not been more violent in
their stand.
What some of the signers failed to
get in the manifesto, they expressed
later. Sen. Byrd said the document
was “part of the plan of massive re
sistance we’ve been working on and
I hope and believe it will be an ef
fective action.”
Sen. Thurmond said: “It would be
submission to cowardice if we failed
to use every lawful means to pro
tect the rights of the people. We are
free morally and legally to oppose
the [Supreme Court] decision. We
must fight it to the end.”
Kefauver, on the other hand,
warned “you can’t secede from the
Supreme Court.”
Adlai Stevenson, the other an
nounced Democratic hopeful for the
Presidential nomination, said from
Chicago he disagreed with the mani
festo, declaring he did not believe
the Supreme Court exceeded its
“proper authority” in the school
case. He said the nation “must pro
ceed along the course” charted by
the court.
“It is very important to recognize
that these southern leaders . . . have
committed themselves to support
their views by legal processes only,”
he commented.
EISENHOWER COMMENT
In a similar reaction, President
Eisenhower during a press confer
ence said of the manifesto: “Now,
the first thing about the manifesto
is this: that they say they are going
to use every legal means.” Veteran
newsmen commented on Mr. Eisen
hower’s earnestness when he dis
cussed the manifesto.
The President spoke out against
extreme actions in the bitter school
desegregation problem and pleaded
for moderation on both sides: He
made these points:
• Southerners need time to ad
just their thinking and progress to
the Supreme Court’s desegregation
decision because it was a complete
reversal to previous decisions.
• The Supreme Court itself ac
knowledged compliance must be
gradual. The President said he did
not know how long it would take.
• The nation should remember
that progress already has been made
in many border states and some
southern states. He is relying on the
“good sense, the common sense” of
the people to bring about gradual
integration.
© As quickly as possible an inves
tigative commission should be au
thorized by Congress, as requested
in the President’s State of the Union
message, to look into the desegre
gation problem and the entire field
of racial rights.
(See DIST. OF COLUMBIA, Page 2)
continued hardening of opposition toward the U.S. Supreme Court’s de-
*■ cisions against school segregation was apparent during March in the Deep
South, with strong pro-segregation sentiments expressed for the first time at
the highest official levels in Arkansas and Florida.
Meanwhile, 36 school districts in four border states—Maryland, Oklahoma,
Kentucky and Texas—disclosed plans
the court decisions.
The 17 southern and border states
were still in a period of litigation and
legislation—and resolution. During
the month 101 senators and congress
men from 11 states took the spotlight
with a “southern manifesto” criticiz
ing the Supreme Court, and this had
wide political repercussions.
•
On the legislative side, at least 42
pro-segregation measures have been
adopted in the first three months of
1956 by legislatures of five states—
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South
Carolina and Virginia. These included
resolutions of interposition, which are
being considered also in Texas and
Arkansas.
On the legal front the U.S. Supreme
Court returned two significant deci
sions: one, in a case involving three
Negro undergraduates at the Univer
sity of North Carolina, affirmed the
application of the 1954 Brown case to
all tax-supported colleges; the other
ordered immediate admission of a
Negro applicant to the University of
Florida law school.
Additionally, there were petitions
filed or court actions taken in Louisi
ana, Maryland, North Carolina, Ten
nessee, Texas and West Virginia. In
the first state test case of its kind a
North Carolina court upheld the piv
otal 1955 pupil assignment law.
•
Activity by pro-segregation and
pro-integration groups also quick
ened during the month. As an after-
math of the Autherine Lucy case
Alabama, for example, reported
greatly increased membership in the
Citizens Councils of that state. Mem
phis formed an inter-racial commit
tee which took no stand on segrega
tion-desegregation but which sought
to improve community group rela
tionships.
The school districts announcing de
segregation plans or study commis
sion plans recommending desegrega
tion included 11 in Kentucky, 10 in
Oklahoma, 11 in Texas and four in
Maryland.
A state-by-state summary of ma
jor developments follows:
Alabama
An upsurge of Citizens Council ac
tivity, with increased membership
and meetings almost nightly, fol
lowed the Autherine Lucy case and
the expulsion of Leonard Wilson, a
leader in the February student dem
onstrations at Tuscaloosa, from the
University of Alabama. The legisla
ture, meeting in the fifth special ses
sion in 14 months, acted on a heavy
volume of pro-segregation legisla
tion, adopting five major measures.
Arkansas
The state administration of Gov.
Orval Faubus appeared to be moving
to the segregation side with endorse
ment of plans for a resolution of in
terposition and a pupil assignment
system.
Delaware
The State Board of Education,
which has a long-standing pro-inte
gration policy, refused to order eight
school districts (mostly in south
Delaware) to desegregate their
schools immediately.
District of Columbia
One of three District commission
ers has proposed mass demotion of
school children who show achieve
ment lags, saying “unmanageable”
achievement problems existed prin
cipally in former Negro schools since
1949 and are no better under inte
gration.
of varying degree for compliance with
Florida
The state administration appeared
to be moving from gradual accep
tance of integration to all-out re
sistance following a U. S. Supreme
Court order for immediate admission
of a Negro to the University of Flor
ida law school in a seven-year-old
suit.
Georgia
A veteran Georgia educator, Dr
Guy H. Wells, president emeritus of
Georgia State College for Women,
was stripped of his title because of
alleged pro-integration statements.
Six Negroes sought unsuccessfully
to enter Georgia State College of
Business Administration in Atlanta.
In a busy session, the legislature
adopted 10 major pieces of pro-seg
regation legislation.
Kentucky
Eleven more school districts an
nounced desegregation plans during
March with programs ranging from
first grade only or high school only
to all grades.
Louisiana
Efforts to dissolve the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People in Louisiana followed
a February court decision invalidat
ing all state segregation laws. Mean
while, two new school entrance suits
were filed in the state, and there was
renewed Citizens Council activity.
Maryland
Three county advisory groups have
recommended desegregation of their
schools this fall and a date has been
set in a fourth county for Negroes to
make applications for transfer to all-
white schools.
Mississippi
A new State Sovereignty Commis
sion of 12 members was set up to
guard against racial integration. The
commission implements the Missis
sippi resolution of interposition
adopted by the 1956 legislature along
with eight major pro-segregation
bills.
Missouri
Quick action by school authorities,
community leaders and police avert
ed a strike at a Kansas City high
school. Race was considered a minor
matter in the threatened disturbance
at the school, desegregated last year.
North Carolina
A state superior court ruling up
held the 1955 pupil assignment law,
saying it applied to individuals rath
er than groups. The decision—first
state test of the new law—has been
appealed. In a decision upholding a
federal circuit court, the U. S. Su-
(See RESISTANCE, Page 2)
Index
State Page
Alabama 5
Arkansas 8
Delaware 6
District of Columbia 1 and 2
Florida 9
Georgia 1
Kentucky 16
Louisiana 14
Maryland 6
Mississippi 10
Missouri 8
North Carolina 11
Oklahoma 15
South Carolina 12
Tennessee 4
Texas 3
Virginia 13
West Virginia 14
