Newspaper Page Text
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JUN 8 1956
VOL. 2, NO. 12
NASHVILLE, TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
JUNE, 1956
Status of Schools Surveyed at Year’s End
Race Issue
Figures In
5 Elections
'J'he South’s school segregation-
desegregation controversy figured
in at least five major political contests
or decisions during May, according to
reports of Southern School News
correspondents.
Gov. LeRoy Collins of Florida, re
garded as a “moderate,” won sweep
ing re-election while U. S. Sen.
Lyndon B. Johnson gained control of
the Texas Democratic machinery in a
contest involving the school issue.
George Washington Williams, run
ning on a segregation platform, came
out a poor third in the Maryland
Democratic senatorial primary won
by former U. S. Sen. Millard Tydings.
In North Carolina two congress
men who did not sign the “Southern
Manifesto” were defeated for re-
election and a third who did not sign
but who endorsed segregation was
re-elected by a wide margin. Former
Georgia Gov. Herman Talmadge,
committed to national legislation de
signed to curb the powers of the U. S.
Supreme Court, became the apparent
successor to U. S. Sen. Walter George,
who did not seek re-election.
Suits seeking school entry of Ne
groes were filed in Delaware (involv
ing eight districts) and in three addi
tional Virginia communities.
Desegregation was reported during
the month (effective this fall) in two
Maryland counties, a college and a
high school in Texas, a college and
two local school districts in Ken
tucky, and plans for integration of
teaching staffs developed in two
Oklahoma districts.
The Louisiana legislature adopted
a resolution of interposition—the
sixth in the South this year.
A state-by-state summary of
major developments during May fol
lows:
Alabama
Gov. James E. Folsom was the first
major political casualtv of the segre
gation controversy, losing his bid for
election as Democratic national com
mitteeman to Dro-seeregationist State
Rep. Charles W. McKay Jr. by almost
three-to-one.
Arkansas
Four of five candidates filing for
the Arkansas Democratic guber
natorial primary are on record as
pro-segregationists and a fifth is un
committed. Seeking guidance on pro
cedure. the Fort Smith school board
was advised by two consulting at
torneys to begin desegregation in the
first grade, possibly in 1957.
Delaware
A suit has been filed by the
NAACP in U. S. District Court de
manding desegregation in eight school
restricts, seven of them in south
Delaware.
District of Columbia
Requesting funds for 180 addition-
a l teachers in the Washington school
system. Supt. Hobart M. Coming told
a Senate subcommittee that inte
gration has been a “whale of an
Undertaking.” Corning said the “job
Ca n t be accomolished without dam-
a Se to the children unless the schools
are adequately staffed.”
Florida
Gov. LeRoy Collins’ sweeping vic-
R'ry in the Florida Democratic guber
natorial primary was described as a
rjumoh for “moderation,” though
Ma L Gen. Sumter Lowry, an all-out
segregationist, ran second in a strong
field of five.
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Georgia
Former Gov. Herman Talmadge has
been virtually conceded the U. S.
Senate seat now held by Sen. Walter
F. George, who is not seeking re-
election. Talmadge says that if elect
ed he will offer a bill regulating
jurisdiction of the U. S. Supreme
Court.
Kentucky
The state attorney general’s office
has recommended that a “test case”
be brought to determine how the
U. S. Supreme Court rulings affect
teacher tenure. A state college an
nounced that it would enroll Negro
students at its 1956 summer session
and two nearby local districts said
they would desegregate.
Louisiana
During May the legislature was
writing into law an interposition
resolution—the sixth such resolution
in the South—and new pro-segrega
tion measures which legislative lead
ership hoped would replace the
legislation struck down by a federal
court decision.
Maryland
Two more counties have announced
desegregation plans for next fall,
bringing the Maryland total to fifteen.
Mississippi
Mississippi’s new State Sovereignty
Commission has announced that it
will employ secret investigators and
informants in an all-out legal effort
to oppose desegregation.
Missouri
Approximately 9,000 Negro pupils
remain in segregated school systems
after two years of general statewide
action which has resulted in the de
segregation of some 58,000 other
Negroes, according to an SSN survey.
North Carolina
Two of three veteran congress
men who did not sign the “Southern
Manifesto” were defeated for re-
election, and the third non-signer won
by a large margin. In the first test
of the state’s pupil assignment law
the state supreme court upheld
validity of the 1955 legislation.
Oklahoma
Two school systems announced
a measure of integration in their
teaching staffs while desegregation in
Tulsa, “oil capital of the world” and
scene of a 1921 race riot, was re
ported working smoothly.
South Carolina
Eighteen Orangeburg County Ne
gro teachers resigned and three re
fused to sign certificates containing
questions about membership in the
National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People.
Tennessee
A state court—the first to do so—
held Tennessee’s school segregation
laws unconstitutional. Negro students
attended the junior-senior prom with
white classmates of Oak Ridge high
school, while in Chattanooga a labor
union member established an organi
zation to oppose what he called
“forced integration” policies of the
AFL-CIO, but within the union.
Texas
U. S. Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson won
Democratic party control from Gov.
Allan Shivers in a contest interpreted
by some (including Shivers) as a
partial victory for racial integration.
Texas A. and I. College at Kings
ville raised its ban on Negro students.
Virginia
State authorities have shelved the
Gray Plan—at least temporarily—for
solving the school segregation prob
lem. In three more localities NAACP
attorneys have filed suits to end en
forced school segregation.
West Virginia
Settlement of a suit in McDowell
County will bring desegregation in
most of the schools next fall; Ohio
County has closed its last Negro
school.
Index
State Page
Alabama 10
Aransas io
Delaware 7
District of Columbia 2
Florida 12
Georgia 16
Kentucky 12
Louisiana 3
Maryland 9
Mississippi 5
Missouri lfi
North Carolina 8
Oklahoma IS
South Carolina 14
Tennessee 6
Texas 4
Virginia 13
West Virginia 11
the 1955-56 school year ended, about 540 districts in 17 Southern
and border states had taken steps toward compliance with the Supreme
Court segregation ruling. At school adjournment more than 256,000 Negro
students were in “integrated situations” (See Southern School News, March,
1956)—all but a few of them in the border states.
From the Deep South the policy of determined resistance spread north into
Virginia, south into Florida and west into Arkansas. In New Orleans, a Citi
zens Councils of America official said his organization had 500,000 members
in 11 states.
In the border states—Delaware,
Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky,
Missouri, Oklahoma—and the Dis
trict of Columbia compliance steps
ranged from the initiation of some
phase of desegregation in 40 of Ken
tucky’s 224 school districts to the end
of the second full year of complete
desegregation in the District of Co
lumbia.
By contrast, at the end of the 1954-
55 school year, when several of these
states were following a “wait and
see” policy, there had been little
if any desegregation in Maryland
(outside Baltimore), Kentucky and
Oklahoma.
2 STATES STATIC
Only in Tennessee and in Texas,
despite the integration of a few stu
dents, did the school situation re
main relatively static, at least by
comparison. Texas had 65 desegre
gated school districts in operation at
the end of the school year and in
Tennessee federally-supported Oak
Ridge had had one year of experi
ence with integrated schools.
As the year progressed color bar
riers began to fall in state universi
ties across the South. Three Negro
undergraduates were admitted to
the University of North Carolina last
fall. There were no incidents. The
University of Texas will abolish seg
regation at all levels in September.
A stair-step integration plan has
been approved for Tennessee state
colleges. Louisiana State University
has been ordered to desegregate at
the undergraduate level.
ALABAMA RIOT
At the University of Alabama,
however, the enrollment of Miss
Autherine Lucy—the climax of lit
igation dating back to 1953—was fol
lowed two days later by a campus
riot. University officials, fearful that
she might be killed, suspended her.
Miss Lucy’s reinstatement was or
dered by Federal District Judge Ho
bart Grooms of Birmingham, but the
university’s board of trustees imme
diately expelled her for contending
in her suit for reinstatement that
the university had conspired in the
February 6 riot.
By the fall of 1956, desegregation
programs are slated to be in effect in
at least 15 of Maryland’s 23 counties,
an increase of seven counties over
this year. And virtually all of Ken
tucky’s 224 districts are due to begin
some phase of desegregation by next
September.
Despite the tautness of racial ten
sion in some areas, reports of vio
lence have been light. Exceptions in
South Carolina have been the firing
of shots into homes and commercial
establishments of pro-integration
Negro leaders, and the firing by a
Negro minister on a passing automo
bile from which he charged shots
were fired at his home.
CHATTANOOGA FRACAS
In Tennessee, an inter-racial meet
ing held by the Chattanooga school
board ended on a completely sour
note when an unknown person
dropped a vial of tear gas as the
meeting was breaking up. In Ala
bama, the months-old boycott of
Montgomery buses by Negro passen
gers received new impetus as a re
sult of the university excitement
over Miss Lucy.
Six states—Virginia, South Caro-
= = = 3 = = = s = S = = = = = = = = = = s = s = = = = = = = = = = =
School doors have closed or are
closing for summer holidays in 17
southern and border states, and
the year 1955-56 passes in review.
This summary of school segrega
tion-desegregation developments
was compiled by SSN Staffer James
Elliott from year-end reports writ
ten by SSN’s 19 correspondents. In
the individual state reports will be
found each correspondent’s esti
mate of the five top developments
in his state during the school year.
lina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi
and Louisiana—officially have en
dorsed “interposition.” Other sup
porters are found in North Carolina,
Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. In
the latter three states, it is predicted
interposition will become an issue in
coming elections. But the Kentucky
General Assembly, offered an inter
position-study resolution in the
spring, let the resolution die in com
mittee.
In Oklahoma, the outlook for Ne
gro teachers continued dim. By Sep
tember an estimated 250 to 275 will
have had their jobs wiped out by
closing of Negro schools in integra
ted districts.
TEACHERS SUE
One dismissed teacher in Okla
homa brought a breach of contract
suit against the board, but the case
has not come to trial. Lawsuits also
have been filed in Missouri where
Negro teachers claim to have been
dismissed for racial reasons follow
ing integration of pupils.
In the District of Columbia, how
ever, where desegregation is com
pleted, faculties are integrated.
Court action in Tennessee, Texas,
Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas re
sulted in state laws supporting seg
regated schools being termed uncon
stitutional.
State courts held that Texas school
segregation laws were knocked out
by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling
in other states. State funds can be
paid to schools without regard to
segregation, the courts declared.
STAIR-STEP PLAN
In approving a stair-step integra
tion plan submitted by the state for
state colleges, Federal Judge Marion
S. Boyd in Memphis, declared Ten
nessee segregation laws unconstitu
tional.
In Louisiana a suit asking desegre
gation of New Orleans schools was
the first direct challenge to the laws,
and on Feb. 15 it produced a de
cision that the laws were unconstitu
tional.
In two pending suits for immediate
integration in Van Buren and
Bearden, Ark., a federal judge held
state school segregation laws invalid
and ordered the two districts to re
port this summer on their plans for
integration.
VIRGINIA LITIGATES
In Virginia the NAACP went back
to court in an effort to force Prince
Edward County and several other
Virginia localities to begin integra
tion by the start of the fall school
session.
The NAACP’s action led to de
mands from some Virginians that a
special session of the General As-
(See STATUS, Page 2)