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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY 1956—PAGE 3
Two Virginia Districts Asked to Begin School Desegregation
RICHMOND, Va.
motion asking that Prince Ed
ward County he required to be
gin school desegregation no later
than September, 1956 was filed in
Federal District Court here on April
23.
Three days later, a petition to re
quire the city of Newport News to
begin integration in its schools was
filed in the Federal District Court of
Norfolk. Except for Prince Edward,
this is the only suit yet brought
against a Virginia locality to force
an end to school segregation.
The Prince Edward case was one
of the five directly involved in the
United States Supreme Court’s orig
inal anti-segregation ruling of May
17, 1954. (Dorothy E. Davis, etc., et
al., v. County School Board of Prince
Edward County, Virginia, et ah)
The motion, filed by attorneys for
Prince Edward Negro pupils and the
National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, de
clared that “defendants continue to
operate the public schools of Prince
Edward County, Virginia, on the
same racially separate basis that ob
tained prior to the aforesaid deci
sions [of the Supreme Court] and
will indefinitely continue to do so
unless specifically ordered (a) to
make an immediate start toward de
segregation and (b) to complete this
desegregation within a prescribed
period of time.” (See “Legal Ac
tion.”)
NAACP ASKS REPORTS
During April the NAACP also sent
letters to school boards in several
Virginia communities asking for a
report on steps taken, if any, toward
desegregation. (See “Legal Action.”)
Virginia localities, meanwhile,
were going ahead with plans for op
erating schools on a segregated basis
next year. Several counties planned
to continue the practice started last
year of appropriating money for
schools on a month-to-month basis
so that the financing of the schools
can be halted almost immediately if
desegregation is ordered.
In the motion in the Prince Ed
ward case, the plaintiffs traced the
happenings in Virginia in the segre
gation-desegregation question in an
effort to show that reasonable prog
ress was not being made toward
carrying out the supreme Court’s
ruling.
passage of an interposition resolution
and other actions dealing with segre
gation, and convention which amend
ed the constitution to permit the tui
tion grants.
“Plaintiffs are informed and be
lieve, and therefore allege on infor
mation and belief,” the motion con
tinues, “that no additional time is
necessary to carry out the rulings
aforesaid in an effective manner, or
is necessary in the public interest, or
is consistent with good faith com
pliance at the earliest practicable
date.”
Two days after the NAACP filed
its new Prince Edward motion, a
seven-man delegation from that
county met with Gov. Stanley in a
one-hour closed session.
Later, the governor told reporters:
1) Prince Edward residents neither
want nor seek a special session of
the General Assembly to consider
school legislation insofar as Prince
Edward is concerned.
2) The delegation believed that 95
per cent or more of the county’s white
residents will sign a new statement
affirming their support of plans to
cease public school operations rather
than have any integration.
RESIDENTS TAKE STAND
The statement, entitled “Affirma
tion,” reads as follows:
“We the undersigned citizens of
Prince Edward County, Virginia,
hereby affirm our conviction that the
separation of the races in the public
schools of this county is absolutely
necessary and do affirm that we pre
fer to abandon public schools and
educate our children in some other
way if that be necessary to preserve
segregation of the races in the schools
of this county.
“We pledge our support to the
board of supervisors of Prince Ed
ward County in their firm mainten
ance of this policy.”
The governor said members of the
Prince Edward delegation “seemed
completely resigned to let the court
do what it will do.”
As to a special session of the Gen
eral Assembly, the governor said he
told the delegation that “I was con
tinuing to watch the situation and
would only call one if and when the
actual need appeared.”
INJUNCTION ASKED
The Newport News suit, a petition
for an injunction, was filed by NA
ACP attorneys on behalf of some 80
Negro students and their parents. It
asked Judge Walter E. Hoffman to
restrain the Newport News school
board from denying any child admis
sion to any public school because of
race.
AWAITING POLICY’
The motion said, in part:
“Plaintiffs are informed and be
lieve, and therefore allege on infor
mation and belief, that defendants
County School Board of Prince Ed
ward County, Virginia, and T. J. Mc-
Ilwaine, Division Superintendent of
Schools of Prince Edward County,
Virginia, are awaiting formulation
by defendant Commonwealth of Vir
ginia of policy and plans to be pur
sued in the public schools of Vir
ginia with reference to the aforesaid
decisions and do not propose to take
any action to effectuate a transition
to a racially nondiscriminatory school
system unless and until defendant
Commonwealth of Virginia formu
lates policy and plans therefor.
“Plaintiffs are informed and be
lieve, and therefore allege on infor
mation and belief, that defendant
Commonwealth of Virginia has not
made or started any arrangements
for the admission of plaintiffs to the
public secondary schools of Prince
Edward County, Virginia, on a ra-
dally nondiscriminatory basis, and
that it has not taken any substantial
action toward formulation of policy
and plans to be pursued in the public
schools of Virginia with references to
the decisions aforesaid except as
follow...”
EVENTS REVIEWED
The motion then deals with the
Gray Commission report, the special
egislative session which set up the
an. 9 referendum on proposed tui-
ion grants to children in private
schools, the General Assembly’s
LEASE PLAN NIPPED
The state of Virginia appears to
have lost its fight to lease its Sea
shore State Park to a private opera
tor in order to prevent use of the
facility on a nonsegregated basis.
On Aoril 9 the U.S. Court of Ap
peals for the Fourth Circuit upheld
a district court judge who had ruled
last July:
“... if said park or any part there
of is leased, the lease must not, di
rectly or indirectiv. operate so as to
discriminate against the members of
any race.” (Lavinia G. Tate et ah v.
Department of Conservation and De
velopment, et al).
The state, in annealing that ruling
of Judge Walter Hoffman of Norfolk,
had argued that the federal courts
have no authority “to dictate the
nrovisions or operations of a lease
that may be executed by the state at
some future date.”
But the three-judge appeals court
in a per curiam (by the court as a
whole) opinion declared:
“It is perfectly clear under recent
decisions that citizens have the right
to the use of public parks of the state
without discrimination on the
grounds of race. And we think it
eauallv clear that this right mav not
be abridged by the leasing of the
parks with ownership retained by the
state.”
PARK SALE ADVISED
Immediately after the decision was
handed down, Atty. Gen. J. Lindsay
Almond Jr., said nothing could be
gained by appealing the case to the
U.S. Supreme Court and that he
would advise the Department of Con
servation and Development to sell the
park outright.
C. S. Carter of Bristol, chairman of
the Board of Conservation and De
velopment, endorsed the suggestion.
And Gov. Thomas B. Stanley said he
could see no reason for the state to
hold onto the park as “an idle prop
erty.”
APPEAL CONSIDERED
Later in the month, Atty. Gen. Al
mond was reconsidering his decision
against appealing the Seashore case.
This came about as a result of his
conversation with other attorneys
general attending the Southern Re-
Dangerous Companion
—Norfolk Journal and Guide
gional Conference of Attorneys Gen
eral at Old Point Comfort, Va.
There appeared to be little if any
feeling that the state could win on
appeal. But at least six attorneys
general from other states agreed to
support Virginia if it appealed, the
theory being that persistent litigation
is helpful in dramatizing what the
attorneys general consider undue
encroachment by the federal govern
ment, particularly the judicial
branch.
This theme—federal encroachment
—was heard again and again during
the southern attorneys general
two-day conference.
RESOLUTION
The conference adopted a resolu
tion urging Congress to pass a bill
sponsored by Virginia’s Rep. Howard
Smith. The bill would say that action
by Congress on a given subject could
not be interpreted by a court to mean
that states were excluded from act
ing on the same general subject, un
less specific provisions for exclusion
of states was made in the law itself.
The Smith bill is aimed at situa
tions such as arose early last month
when the Supreme Court ruled that
Pennsylvania laws on subversion
could not be enforced because Con
gress, by passing laws against sub
version, had occupied the entire field
and had, therefore, excluded the
states.
Atty. Gen. John Ben Shepperd of
Texas told the conference that in
view of recent decisions taking from
the states the power to segregate
schools by race, to prosecute subver
sives, to control the location of dams
or regulate production of natural gas,
“people are waking up to the reali
zation that the goal of the centralists
is not merely to erase the Mason-
Dixon line but all state lines as well.”
•BRIEFS . . . BATTLE CRIES’
Shepperd, president of the National
Association of Attorneys General,
thought interposition might be of
some help but that it could not be
depended upon “as our only means
of salvation.”
“It will take a flood of briefs, bills
and battle cries to turn the tide,” he
said.
Eugene Cook, attorney general of
Georgia, called on those who sub
scribe to the concept of states’ rights
to get off the defensive and on the
offensive. He said he thought Lin
coln’s Gettysburg Address should be
rewritten to read “government of the
people, for the people, by nine sec
ond-rate lawyers.”
Southerners Shepperd and Cook
heard their views echoed, in general,
by a Northern visitor, Louis C. Wy
man, attorney general of New Hamp
shire, vice president of the National
Association of Attorneys General.
“What we do in New Hampshire
with regard to communism is our
business and not the business of the
Supreme Court,” he declared. “And
what you do in Mississippi with re
gard to segregation or equal facilities
is your business and not the business
of the Supreme Court.”
TURKS ATTACK BAN
The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals here has declined to consid
er a case involving a group of Sum
ter, S.C., residents who say they are
of Turkish descent but that their
children have been barred from
white elementary schools.
The complaint brought by the
South Carolinians was aimed at the
board of trustees of Sumter County
School District No. 2. The parents
said in written briefs:
“... We are fully aware of the op
position in segments of the country to
the admission of Negroes to the white
public schools. The instant case is no
part or parcel of that controversy. As
has been seen, the group to which ap
pellants belong are admittedly not
members of the Negro race.”
The circuit court here held, on
April 25, that the appellants should
seek administrative relief from their
state school officials. It ruled that a
lower court order (by federal Judge
George Bell Timmerman of Colum
bia, S.C.), denying the parents a
summary judgment to prevent ra
cial discrimination against their
children was not final, and that the
case thus could not properly come
before the circuit court. The circuit
court did not pass on the merits of
the case.
Two University of Virginia faculty
members, who early this year pro
posed a plan for solving the segrega
tion problem (SSN, February), re
signed last month.
They are Dr. B. J. Chandler, as
sociate professor of education, and
Dr. Douglas S. Ward, acting dean of
the school of education.
Dr. Chandler goes to the faculty of
Northwestern University and Dr.
Ward to the position of dean of the
school of education of Miami Uni
versity in Ohio.
CRITICIZED ASSEMBLY
Both men had criticized the Gen
eral Assembly for failure to enact the
Gray Commission recommendations
which would permit some desegrega
tion in localities desiring it. And they
critized the governor’s Advisory
Budget Committee for removing a
requested $75,000 appropriation
which had been asked to increase the
faculty at the University of Virginia’s
school of education. One-fifth of the
cut was restored by the General As
sembly.
Dr. Ward said the uncertainty over
the future of the public school system
in Virginia is depressing teacher
morale and effectiveness.
Dr. Chandler told a reporter:
“Long-range planning for public
school improvement in Virginia in
evitably has been retarded by the
Supreme Court decision. I don’t have
time to wait and see what is going to
happen.”
Irving L. Peddrew, ni, of Hampton,
the first Negro admitted to Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, has announced
publicly that he will not attend the
1956 Ring Dance in mid-May.
DECISION EXPLAINED
Peddrew, a member of the junior
class, said in a letter published by the
student newspaper: “. . . Many of my
classmates have been strongly con
cerned about my attending Ring
Dance. It is true my girl and I had
up to now hoped very much to come.
What junior hasn’t?
“But rather than be the cause of
embarrassment to my date or my
classmates, I would like to make pub
lic my decision not to attend. I hope
very much that in the near future,
letters like this will not have to be
written.”
The student editor of the paper
added a note in which he said, in
part:
“White students and administra
tion at VPI may now merely breathe
a sigh of relief after being spared a
difficult situation, or they may face
realization that it will be with us
from now on. What about next year’s
Ring Dance?”
William Faulkner, southern author
whose views on the segregation
problem have attracted national at
tention recently, said in Charlottes
ville on April 17 that he had turned
down an invitation from a Negro
leader to debate the segregation issue
on the courthouse steps at Sumner,
Miss.
The challenge had come from
D. W. E. Dubois of Oakland, Calif.,
one of the founders of NAACP.
NO POINT’
The Nobel prize winning author,
who has pleaded for moderation in
solving the racial problem, said he
had sent Dr. Dubois the following
telegram:
“I don’t believe there is any point
for debate between us. We both agree
in advance the position you take is
right morally, legally, and ethically.
“But if the Till case in Mississippi,
the Lucy case in Alabama, the Negro
householder in Chicago who has to
have round-the-clock police pro
tection to live in his own home and
the Negro parents in Ohio who estab
lished a sitdown strike in the super
intendent’s office to compel the ac
ceptance of their children in a white
school are not evidence to you that
my position asking for moderation
and patience is right, then we will
waste our breath in debate.”
The Eisenhower administration’s
civil rights program, presented to
Congress last month, was seen by
Virginia’s Atty. Gen. J. Lindsay Al
mond Jr. as “a move of political ex
pediency to secure and hold the
Negro vote in the coming presidential
elections.”
One effect of the program, if adopt
ed, he said, would be to deprive Vir
ginia state courts of jurisdiction over
state efforts to deal with the school
segregation problem.
He was referring to the recom
mendation that Congress pass legis
lation eliminating the requirement
that state administrative and judicial
remedies must be exhausted before
the federal courts can take jurisdic
tion.
Almond said this recommendation
is “specifically designed to prevent a
state from putting into operation a
student assignment plan” of the type
passed in North Carolina and pro
posed for Virginia by the Gray Com
mission.
Kentucky
(Continued From Page 2)
“We can’t tell just what form the
hiring pattern will take but the state
might use a short-term contract for
young teachers just out of schcool.
This would help them gain experi
ence.
In Ashland on April 17 the Ninth
District Conference of the Kentucky
Congress of Parents and Teachers
adopted a resolution urging parents
and teachers in each school “to co
operate fullv in carrying out what
ever plans for integration are in
augurated bv the local superinten
dent and board of education.”
A check of qualified sources in in
dustry, labor, and race relations re
vealed no retardation of industrial
development in Kentucky because of
racial tension and no local labor
union rebellion against national pro-
integration policies, though such
policies are far from universally
popular.