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PAGE 2—JULY 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Florida’s First Admission Action Is Filed in Miami Surprise Suit Set Against Desegregating W. Va. Area MIAMI, Fla, r J^HE first sun for admission of Negro A students to white elementary schools in Florida was filed in the Federal Dis trict Court at Miami. The action came at a time of increas ing racial tension. Several incidents oc curred during the month (see “Miscel laneous”) which brought official expres sions of alarm. Legislators prepared for a special session to enact segregation laws, possi bly in July. The attorney general at tacked the Supreme Court for “abso lutism” and called for a four-point legis lative program. (See “Legislative Action.”) Florida’s first suit for admission of Negro children to white public schools was filed in the Federal District Court in Miami. Brought by six Negro parents against the Dade County school board, the suit pointed out that a petition asking that segregation be abolished was filed Sept. 7, 1955. Since that time, the suit said, “the Board of Public Instruction has re fused to desegregate the schools as soon as was practicable.” The petitioners asked an interlocutory injunction “prohibiting the school board from violating the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” They also asked that a three-judge court grant a “speedy hearing and enter a declaratory decree that the segrega tion of the infant plaintiffs, because of race, violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” The school board should be required “to promptly present a plan of desegre gation which will expeditiously desegre gate” the schools of Dade County, the suit said. BOARD SURPRISED School board officials said the suit came as a “complete surprise.” Dr. Joe Hall, associate school super intendent, who was nominated as super intendent in the recent Democratic primary, said the board has been making a study of the situation since the peti tions were filed last September. The suit was filed under the auspices of the National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People. Thurgood Marshall, general counsel for the NA- ACP, appears as one of the attorneys of record. There was no immediate date set for a hearing. Attorneys for both sides an ticipated lengthy litigation. Thomas D. Bailey, state superinten dent of education, informed of the suit, declared that the NAACP was “en dangering public education by its ag gressive action to end segregation.” He criticized NAACP leaders for “haughty and dictatorial statements.” CALLED ‘PREMATURE’ Bailey called the suit “premature” and said the NAACP tactics antagonize lib erals and moderates and force them into the camp of the extremists. Thurgood Marshall said that the suit was filed “because Dade County is ready for integration.” “There is no rhyme or reason why the schooLs in Miami should be segregated,” he said. The battle of Virgil Hawkins, Daytona Beach Negro, for admission to the Uni versity of Florida, entered a new round in June. Atty. Gen. Richard W. Ervin filed a brief with the Florida Supreme Court calling for an indefinite stay of the order requiring UF to accept Hawkins as a law student. This brief outlines the shift ing policy of Florida officials toward maintaining segregation by legal means. Both the Florida and the U. S. su preme courts have ruled there are no legal grounds to bar Hawkins. Ervin argued that Hawkins’ immedi ate acceptance “would lead to violence, public mischief and a disruption of the state’s system of higher education.” The attorney general said racial relations were 'deteriorating and cited recent in stances or threats of violence at Delray Beach (see “Miscellaneous”), a bus boy cott at Tallahassee and a threatened bus boycott in Miami. ERVIN’S CONTENTION “Courts of equity may properly take into account the public interest in the elimination of such obstacles in a sys tematic and effective manner,” he said. “The supreme court of Florida repre sents the majesty of the state and may, in its discretion, implement the rights 1 d powers of the state where the pub lic welfare, including good order and education, is involved. “There is no conflict between federal and state Taws, since Congress has not enacted any legislation on the subject of state school segregation and the only ap parent conflict is between the sociologi cal theories of the U. S. Supreme Court and the inherent powers of the state of Florida under the 10th Amendment of the federal constitution to safeguard the peace and welfare of its people through the administrative process provided by the state constitutional and legislative provisions, and through the application of equitable principles in the public in terest by the supreme judicial body of this state.” Coincident with the appeal for delay, Hawkins asked for a prompt final ruling. Through his attorney, Hawkins asked to be accepted by the University of Flor ida “as immediately as admission is available to any other first-year quali fied student.” In other court action, a Leon County jury awarded State Rep. Prentice Pruitt a $15,000 damage verdict in his suit for libel against Dr. Von D. Mizell, a Fort Lauderdale Negro physician. The suit grew out of a statement made by Mizell during discussion of segregation bills introduced by Pruitt at the last session of the legislature. Mizell notified the court that he will not appeal the verdict. Gov. LeRoy Collins announced he is ready to call an extra session of the legislature to consider segregation as soon as his special commission, appointed to develop a program to maintain separate schools, makes its report. There were indications in Tallahassee that the report will be made in time for a session in July. The commission, which includes con stitutional attorneys and leaders of the legal profession, has indicated it will recommend revision and strengthening of the state’s pupil assignment law. The group has been studying legislation adopted in North Carolina, which is much stronger than Florida’s statute. It includes a maze of appeal procedures designed to keep the cases in court. 4-POINT PROGRAM Atty. Gen. Ervin, who has been mak ing frequent speeches throughout the state, proposed a four-point legislative program. This includes: 1) Extension of the 1955 assignment law to provide additional procedures and other devices for delay at the elemen tary, secondary and college levels. 2) An interposition resolution de signed to maintain, if possible, the state’s power of local regulation under the 10th Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. 3) Laws conferring on the governor additional powers to take “emergency preventive action to avoid public dis order and breaches of the peace arising out of racial conflict or imminence of the same as the result of attempts to implement desegregation decisions of the federal courts.” 4) A system for calling referendums in any county or district on the ques tion of abolishing any public facility or service as a protection against enforced integration. State Supt. Bailey said tests given senior high school students on which admission to state universities is based, showed this year that “there was no Negro student who scored up to the level of the top 20 per cent of white students.” “Only one per cent of the Negro stu dents scored as well as the top 30 per cent of the white students on most of the tests, while only two per cent of the Negro students scored as well as the top 48 per cent of the white students,” he said. If the present admission policies for the [white] universities adopted by the board of control were to be used at Florida A. & M. University [for Negroes] next year, based on this year’s scores of seniors in Negro schools, it would seem that only five per cent of all who took the tests would be eligible to enter that university.” TEACHERS CHALLENGED Speaking at a conference of Negro public school principals at Daytona Beach, Bailey said “there might be some reason for this situation existing in the past, but I submit you are challenged to require a higher degree of performance in the future. Excellent school facilities are being provided with improved ma terial as tools with which to work. “Standards of Negro teachers have been improved to the point where edu cational qualifications, on a percentage basis, are almost equal. “There seems to be no reasonable ex cuse for a continuation of this lag be tween the achievement of students of the two races,” Bailey said. DADE COUNTY TESTS The Dade County school board re leased the result of a study of eighth grade pupils. It said white children were ahead of the national average in reading and about average in arithmetic. Negro students were about two years be hind in both. Results of sixth grade tests, announced earlier, showed somewhat similar results. The school administration blamed eco nomic conditions for the difference in the ratings. They pointed out that stand ards for teachers are the same for both races and that facilities generally are equal. Dr. Richard V. Moore, president of Bethune-Cookman College, at Daytona Beach, said the tests were “not realistic.” “White children are tested at least three times yearly, while Negro chil dren are tested only once,” he said. Dr. Moore said the Negro children were “not test-ready.” County school superintendents, hold ing their annual session at Gainesville, excluded representatives of the press from a discussion of segregation. Ed Henderson, executive secretary of the Florida Education Association, was reported by the Tampa Tribune to have warned the county officials that public schools might suffer from the increasing tension. After the session, Henderson said, “In the face of problems facing Florida at the present time, we hope the people will continue to be careful in the moves they make so as not to destroy the public school program. “A study commission has been appointed by the governor and I hope they can make recommendations which the people can accept and which will stand in law.” Many voices were raised in Florida as conflicts and tensions increased over the racial issue. Atty. Gen. Ervin, whose arguments for “gradualism” before the U .S. Supreme Court helped form the policy of proceed ing “with all deliberate speed,” attacked the high court for its “strait-jacket absolutism.” Ervin asked Negroes to “cooperate in a realistic adjustment to immutable facts of life despite the innovation of an arti ficial judicial fiat.” COURT ‘COLOR-BLIND’ The U. S. Supreme Court, Ervin said, “has become absolutely color-blind in considering segregation cases. Its de cisions oversimplified a many-sided and and varied problem in the South and in effect ignored considerations of degree and long-recognized state customs and regulations. As a result the South and the nation are now oaught in the net of an unrealistic judicial dilemma.” Another Florida official who made a target of the U. S. Supreme Court was Sen. George A. Smathers. “The present Supreme Court imagines itself a super-legislature, and even though its function is not to make policy or enact laws, it is nonetheless so doing,” he said in a commencement address at Bolles Military Academy, Jacksonville. “The court today has turned its back on precedent and has departed from those constitutional and historic limita tions recognized by previous courts.” A state-wide Citizens Council was formed at a meeting of representatives of 11 counties in Tallahassee. All were from North and Central sections of the state. Dr. W. H. Petty, Pensacola, was named temporary president. Sam Peacock, president of the Brooks- ville Chamber of Commerce, was the principal speaker. He said the entire South should organize to present a united front in resisting integration. Attempts to mix schools, Peacock said, “would lead to violence not seen since the Civil War.” KKK UPS ACTIVITIES The Ku Klux Klan also stepped up its activity, holding a public initiation in Jacksonville. About 150 men and women were taken into the organization, while CHARLESTON, W.Va. 'J'he filing of a surprise suit by the National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People against the Cabell County Board of Education and the completion of integration in the state’s industrial schools were the high lights during June in West Virginia. The NAACP was thought to be reasonably pleased with the progress of integration in Cabell, which touches on the borders of both Ohio and Kentucky, and this correspondent had so report ed to Southern School News last month. But suddenly a suit was entered June 8 in the U. S. district court in Charles ton which named the board as a cor poration, its five members as individuals and Supt. Olin C. Nutter. President T. G. Nutter of the NAACP state chapter said the suit was being brought because “Cabell County is making no real ef fort to desegregate its schools.” Willard L. Brown, NAACP’s legal ad visor, said it was the sixth suit against West Virginia counties, and added: “Furthermore, we may take further action in two counties already sued and where the court has ordered them to integrate.” Without naming the counties he add ed, “We feel the two counties are dis obeying the court’s orders as shown by the fact that they’ve ordered Negro teachers to the same segregated schools for the 1956-57 term.” The counties where suits were settled by agreement were Greenbrier, Mercer, Raleigh, Mc Dowell and Logan. ‘ONLY HANDFUL’ Brown said only a “handful of Negro students attended white schools in Cab ell County during the last term. We now find they have no intention to keep their promise made last year to integrate. They have not had a mixed faculty ap pointment to any school in the county.” This statement conflicted with an earlier declaration by Supt. Nutter which said all but the fourth, fifth and sixth grades in McKinney and Barnett districts will be desegregated next Sep tember. The first, second, seventh and eighth grades were desegregated in 1954, making Cabell one of the first counties in the state to take action. The remainder of Cabell’s grades were to follow with the fall term of 1957. Another question of what to do with a Negro teacher arose in Mason County, which adjoins Cabell. Out of a total of 5,833 students there are only 24 Negroes and “all who wish” have been integrated to date according to Supt. C. H. Withers. Complete integration is being held up a year, he said, because the county’s one Negro teacher—who has taught 34 years—has requested “that she be per mitted to teach her last year before retirement in her little one room school of colored children. “After next year,” Withers added, “this school is expected to be discon tinued.” He also told Southern School News that in classes where integration has been accomplished the pupils are mixing fairly well “although it hardly can be said they are ‘chumming’ with each other.” He reported some degree of “strangeness” at the start. “Our schools,” Withers summarized, “are all opened to colored children who wish to attend provided they live in the vicinity. Like wise any white pupil may attend the one room school taught by the colored teacher on the same conditions.” He delgations from Tallahassee and Orlando observed proceedings. The press was invited. Candidates were required to answer a series of questions, one of which was: “Are you a native-born, white Gen tile?” Each candidate was required to take an oath to uphold white supremacy. The Board of Managers of the Florida Congress of Parents and Teachers, meet ing in Tallahassee, recommended “modi fication” of the state’s segregation laws, “if the recent decisions of the U. S. Su preme Court relating to integration are allowed to prevail.” Avoiding specifics, the PTA group said the Supreme Court rulings render obso lete the state laws, including a constitu tional ban on mixed schools. admitted there were still some objec tors to integration in Mason County and that they were influential. In Ohio County the school board announced during May the closing of the last Negro grade and high school. Facing uncertain futures were 14 teach ers and Principal Phillip Reed, a veteran Negro educator. On June 19 Reed was transferred to the board’s administrative office. The teachers, who hold continu ing contracts and are eligible for reas signment in the county system, have not been placed, Board President Rob ert C. Hazlett said. A similar problem exists in Kanawha County, largest of the state’s 55 counties and seat of the state government. Gar net high school, the county’s only Negro high, is being converted into a technical school this September for all students who can qualify. Two hundred and seventy Garnet students will be distrib uted among the county’s other schools but there will be some difficulty placing about 20 teachers. These include Garnet’s two coaches— Jim Jarrett and Marvin Richardson—• who will have to be given teaching as signments and then wait for develop ments in the county’s coaching ranks. There will be no athletic program at the new technical high school, which by no stretch of the imagination will be a “trade school.” It is to be a fully aca demic institution, with emphasis on math and technical subjects that will prepare students for careers in engi neering and other industrial fields, ac cording to L. K. Lovenstein, Kanawha’s new superintendent of schools. In fact, the number of prospective stu dents was so low at one time that coun ty officials considered keeping the for mer Garnet building closed. Since then more than 100 applicants for the tenth grade have registered and many more are expected by next fall. Now the board has decided to open as sched uled in September. Clearing the way for immediate racial integration of state industrial schools for boys was accomplished June 14 with the dedication of the state’s first forestry camp for youthful law violators at Blackwater Falls, near Davis. Among the 30 youths already attend ing the camp were 12 Negroes trans ferred from the Industrial School for Colored Boys at Lakin. Seventeen oth ers from Lakin have been transferred to the Industrial School for Boys at Prunytown, heretofore an all-white in stitution. The Industrial School for Colored Girls will be moved from Huntington to the Lakin property. PARK WORK At Blackwater Falls the youths, who eventually will total 125, will work on projects in a state park under the su pervision of the conservation depart ment’s parks division. Both officials of that department and the State Board of Control participated in the brief dedi cation ceremonies at the camp which ii aimed at improving the rehabilitation chances of young first offenders. Ellsworth H. Harpole, superintended of the Lakin school, called the integra tion a “reverse” of an action taken in 1923 which segregated industrial school 1 in the state. The colored girls who will replace thf colored boys at Lakin will be integrated into the West Virginia State Girls In dustrial School at Salem as room be comes available. Only major comment during Juri came from Gov. William C. Marland who recently won the Democratic nom ination for U. S. Senate to succeed tb late Harley Kilgore, himself an actiV integrationist. Marland, who with State Superin tendent of Schools W. W. Trent, ws among the first to applaud the 1954 Su, preme Court ruling, said he did n< expect the segregation issue to corn before the annual conference of soutl em governors when the group meets i White Sulphur Springs in September.