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Factual South •VO ‘SN3H1V V IObO 30 JO A1ISU3AIND 11VH b 31 ON V 0 ii n 3NU08S0 • 2 I 101 3Nnr ioi News Objective VOL. Ill, NO. 2 NASHVILLE, TENN. $2 PER YEAR AUGUST, 1956 Key Decisions, New Laws 95 Law Suits On Schools Get in Court Come 95 law suits bearing directly on ^ the segregation-desegregation issue or growing out of it have been handled by state and federal courts since May 17, 1954. In addition to the five cases decided by the U. S. Supreme Court on that date, some 65 others have sought to end segregation in the public schools of the 17 states which traditionally have sep arated pupils by race. Twenty-eight of these have been filed since the begin ning of 1956. Every state in the region has been the scene of at' least one such action except Mississippi. Besides suits specifically requesting the end of segregation practices, legal actions in the region have included six cases involving teacher tenure or pay equalization claims, six involving the issuance of bonds approved prior to May, 1954 and scheduled for sale since; six aimed at halting desegregation or disbursements to desegregated schools; three involving parents who have de clined to send their children either to segregated or to integrated schools; three involving the National Associa tion for the Advancement of Colored People either as a plaintiff or as de fendant; two involving libel; and six miscellaneous cases ranging from issues concerning handling of school funds to the interference with the desegregation process. DIRECT ISSUE USUALLY In most of these cases the question of segregated public schools was directly at issue, though in a few of them the segregation-desegregation controversy was not specifically raised. Examples of this type of case are found in Virginia where state officials sought to test in court the question of use of state funds for private schooling and in Arkansas where pro-segregationists sought to reverse school desegregation at Hoxie by charging financial and administra tion irregularities on the part of the school board. In the litigations directly seeking de segregation of the schools which have thus far resulted in court decisions, all lf Ve k een decided in conformity with the principles of non-segregation laid down by the U. S. Supreme Court. Both state and lower federal courts have ©en consistent in adhering to this prin- ciple, though the extent to which it has been implemented has depended on the attitude of the area in which the action as been broueht and on the proportion of Negro population. State school segregation laws have been ruled unconstitutional by state and/or lower federal courts in Arkan sas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. results of actions Actual mixing of the races in the classroms has resulted from only 12 of ese cases and announcements of in- ent to comply with the court orders Act-, 6 keen made in six others. ,®1 desegregation in response to specific court action, other than in ansas, the District of Columbia and to a united extent in Delaware, has been untight about in Adair County, y '> one school in Cecil County, Md.; Index State Alabama Arkansas “flaware Elo^d*^ ^' 0 * um k’ a • • ■ ■ £«>rsia ’ Kentucky , ifuisiana ... Maryland J«ssissippi Missouri ^••‘h Carolina':;;;;;;:;: k, ahoma ... ~ 0uf h Carolina ennessee f ex as yjr?mi a est Virginia Page ... 4 ... 3 ... 9 ... 5 ...10 ... 5 ... 3 ...11 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ...16 ...15 ... 9 ...13 ...14 ...12 ... 2 Smothered! Kirkwood, Mo.; the University of North Carolina; North Texas State College at Denton; the Texas Western Branch of the University of Texas at El Paso; Greenbrier County, W. Va.; and Ra leigh County, W. Va. In this category also is the case of the University of Alabama which admitted Autherine Lucy to classes for several days last winter. Announcements of intention to com ply with court orders to end segrega tion have resulted from cases brought against school authorities in one and possibly two Delaware school districts, in Harford County, Md., at Memphis State College, Memphis, Temi.; Texar kana Junior College, Texarkana, Texas; Mercer County, W. Va.; McDowell County, W. Va.; and Logan County, W. Va. EFFECTS EXTENDED However, the effect* of litigation in forcing desegregation cannot be meas ured only in terms of the school districts involved. For example, the case which gained admittance for three Negro un dergraduates to the University of North Carolina also has brought about the ad mittance of two more undergraduates for summer classes at the N. C. State College at Raleigh, part of the univer sity system, and the acceptance of a third for the regular fall session. Sim ilarly, the Greenbrier County case in West Virginia led to the announcement of fall desegregation plans in Summers County prior to the filing of court ac tion in that county. And the decision of the Texas Supreme Court in the Big Spring case, holding state funds could be paid to desegregated school districts, was followed by the lowering of racial barriers in several west and south Texas districts. The major example of the broad effect of a court ruling is seen in the five original segregation cases decided May 17, 1954 which led to desegregation in the District of Columbia, Delaware and Kansas, states directly involved, as well as in Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Arizona and New Mexico, states in which the Supreme Court de cisions were officially interpreted as in validating state school segregation laws. Since May 31, 1955 when the “imple menting” decision of the court was handed down in the five original cases, four other cases have been reviewed by the court and ruled upon in conformity with the original decisions. Two more school segregation cases have been de nied review. TRENDS ESTABLISHED During the two years since the orig inal decision in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., some inter esting judicial trends have been estab lished. One of the first was set by Fed eral Judge John J. Parker in the re manded South Carolina case of Briggs v. Elliott in which he sought to define “exactly what the Supreme Court has decided and what it has not decided in this case.” While adhering to the broad constitutional principle of non-segrega tion, the statutory court for which Judge Parker was speaking said: “It (the U. S. Supreme Court) has not de cided that the states must mix persons of different races in the schools or must require them to attend schools or must deprive them of the right of choosing the schools they attend... The Consti tution, in other words, does not require integration. It merely forbids discrimi nation. It does not forbid such segrega tion as occurs as the result of voluntary action.” While saying that the Summerton District of Clarendon County, S. C. must end segregation, the court set no time limit. A closely similar decision was rendered in the remanded case of Davis v. Prince Edward County in Vir ginia a few days earlier. Perhaps with this as precedent, fed eral and state courts in the Deep South and in areas with heavy Negro popula tions have likewise ruled consistently that segregation must be ended, but set no time limits until last month. Such decisions were rendered in Bell v. Flip py at Dallas, Texas, now up for hearing on its merits, Abernathy et al v. Izard et al and Matthews et al v. Bearden School District in Van Buren and Ou achita counties in Arkansas; Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board in Louisi ana; Avery et al v. Randel et al in Wichita Falls, Texas. VIRGINIA DEPARTURE The first departure from this trend in a strongly resisting area came July 12 when Federal Judge John Paul in the Charlottesville, Va. case ruled that de segregation must be commenced next fall. He noted particularly the specific policy of delay under which the state has been operating. Meanwhile, in the border and mid- South states decisions of courts usually have set time limits for compliance, such as Willis v. Walker in Adair Coun ty, Ky.; Dunn v. Greenbrier County in West Virginia; McSwain et al v. County Board of Education in Anderson Coun ty, Tenn. This allowance for time to work out desegregation problems has not applied (See COURT CASES, Page 2) Addenda One section—the “K’s”—was inad vertently omitted from the Index to Volume II of Southern School News which appeared in the July isue. The missing section will be found on Page 2 of this issue. It may be clipped out and pasted on the Index for future reference. Highlight Month JpouR key court decisions—three of them favoring desegregation—and a mass of pro-segregation legislation adopted by three state legislatures were features of a busy summer month on the school segregation-desegregation front. In two states—Arkansas and Texas—continued school segregation was a dom inant issue of primary elections, while in a third—Tennessee—the issue was not as prominent politically as first predicted. The four court decisions, two in Virginia and one each in Maryland and Texas, opened up some new avenues of legal speculation and were regarded as highly significant. They were as follows: Virginia: A federal court, in the first such decision in the Southeast, ordered desegregation this fall of Charlottesville schools on the ground, at least in part, that the state had done nothing to im plement the U.S. Supreme Court rul ings but rather was resisting compliance. A decree had not been perfected as SSN went to press. In the second Virginia case, a fed eral court decreed on July 31 the de segregation of the elementary schools of Arlington County by Jan. 31, 1957 and of the county’s junior and senior high schools by the opening of the fall term in 1957. This was the first decree which set specific time limits for lower schools. Maryland: A federal court held that Negro children of St. Mary’s County who are petitioning to enter all-white schools must exhaust their administra tive remedies before the court can en join the county. This was the first court case to come to an actual decision in largely desegregated Maryland. Texas: The Fifth Circuit Court of Ap peals held in the Mansfield school case that local (anti-desegregation) opinion was not of itself a sufficient reason for denying Negro children the right to enroll in an all-white school. LEGISLATIVE ACTION On the legislative fronts in North Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, laws or constitutional amendments to maintain segregation generally were strengthened and new devices were introduced. The three legislatures passed all to gether 17 measures to maintain separate schools. One of these, an act requiring a constitutional amendment, was North Carolina’s “package” bill providing for state-paid tuition grants to children not wishing to attend integrated schools and permitting “local option unit” elec tions on the question of closing schools confronted with desegregation orders. A special survey of schools in Okla homa conducted jointly by Southern School News and the Oklahoma City Times disclosed a substantial increase in the number of “integrated situa tions” in that state. Together with de segregation announcements elsewhere, this raised the number of school dis tricts desegregated or in the process of some stage of desegregation to approx imately 570 districts and units. There are some 4,700 school districts in the southern and border states having Ne gro pupils. POLITICAL ACTTVITTES Meanwhile, the school segregation- desegregation issue continued to figure prominently in political activities: in Arkansas, where on July 31 Democratic voters balloted in the gubernatorial pri mary; in Delaware, where a Democratic nominee for U.S senator was being chosen; in Georgia, also the scene of a senatorial contest; in Kentucky, where a Presidential aspirant praised desegre gation; in Missouri, where two candi dates for the Republican senatorial nomination vied with one another in pro-integration sentiments; and in Texas, where school segregation was an issue in the Democratic gubernatorial of July 28. A state-by-state summary of major developments during July follows. Alabama Disagreement appeared over “free dom of choice” (three-school) amend ments to the constitution to be voted on Aug. 28 with the state superintendent of education warning that adoption would mean abolition of public schools, segregated schools and equal school terms. Arkansas School segregation was a major issue in the Democratic gubernatorial pri mary won by incumbent Gov. Orval E. Faubus, most “moderate” of three lead ing candidate, who has said that no school will be forced to desegregate while he is governor. Delaware In the south Delaware town of Milton, where the school board has offered a desegregation plan in answer to a fed eral court case, the board was over turned by an election and resignations and voted to ask the court to let it withdraw its plan for “further study and consideration.” The action followed public meetings protesting desegrega tion. District of Columbia A House subcommittee has begun an investigation of alleged “lowered stand ards” in desegregated District schools and juvenile delinquency in the cap ital. A former school board member said the investigation was a “prede termined one” and in turn was called “very highly prejudiced.” Florida In special session the legislature swiftly passed a five-point program of segregation legislation, including a broadened pupil assignment act, which Gov. LeRoy Collins believed would allow the state to maintain separate schools indefinitely. Georgia The long-pending case of Howard Ward, Negro applicant to the University of Georgia law school, was reporting closer to decision. Kentucky Gov. A. B. (“Happy”) Chandler, 1 m- ocratic Presidential aspirant, shift a his state-compliance pledge on desegrega tion to the national scene when he said in response to a question: “Segregation is one of those things that must go.” Another school district (Ashland) an nounced desegregation for the fall. Louisiana Ten pro-segregation bills directly af fecting the schools have been passed by the legislature, replacing the “police powers” amendment struck down by a federal court. One measure puts the legislature in charge of schools in the defense of integration suits. Maryland Two more counties, with heavy Ne gro populations, have announced deseg regation for the fall, one in first grades “as available facilities permit,” and the other on a transfer basis, leaving only five of the state’s counties still segre gated as a matter of policy. In a key de cision a federal court ruled Negro chil dren in St. Mary’s County must exhaust administrative remedies in school entry actions before the county could be en joined to halt segregation. Mississippi Pushing ahead with a separate-but- equal program, the state reported the teacher salary gap cut from $1,108 for white teachers and $398 for Negroes in 1945-46 to $2,609 for whites and $2,010 for Negroes in 1955-56. (See KEY DECISIONS, Page 2) FRANK A. KNIGHT Southern School News announces with deep regret the death of its West Virginia correspondent, Frank A. Knight. He had served this publication since its establishment in 1954. Knight, who was managing editor of the Charleston Gazette at the time of his death, began his newspaper career as an 8-year-old deliv ery boy. Always a “working” newsman, he regularly con tributed stories, ed itorials and columns to the pages of the Gazette. Frank Knight was . civic leader in his community and state, serving 12 con secutive years in the West Virginia House of Delegates, and he was a for mer president of the West Virginia State Newspaper Council. His contri bution in helping build SSN will be sorely missed by the central staff in Nashville and the corps of correspond ents.—The Editors. Knight