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PAGE 2—AUGUST 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Add to Your Vol. II Index—K
Most W. Va.
Racial Bans
Out By Fall
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
ESEGREGATION IN WEST VIRGINIA will
be nearly complete in September in
both the public schools (see “School
Boards and Schoolmen”) and the state-
maintained institutional system (see
“Miscellaneous”).
Three school systems will remain
segregated—in the eastern Panhandle
counties of Berkeley, Hampshire and
Jefferson where a strong southern sen
timent from neighboring Virginia ex
ists.
State School Supt. W. W. Trent, after
a visit this month to the Panhandle
area, said: “Practically all counties
have desegregated or have taken steps
to desegregate.”
Trent reported that Hardv and Grant,
two other Panhandle counties, will be
gin desegregation with the fall term,
and complete it later. The National As
sociation for the Advancement of Col
ored People is satisfied with the Hardv
and Grant plans, state President T. G.
Nutter said.
In another field, desegregation moved
a step ahead this month. On July 26,
State Board of Control President James
M. Donohoe announced that the Negro
Industrial School for Girls at Lakin
will be closed Aug. 15, and the 25 or
less girls transferred to a previous all-
white industrial school at upstate Sa
lem.
Donohoe said plans call for complete
ly integrating them into the Salem pro
gram, and the Lakin property will be
put in caretaker status pending a deci
sion later on final disposition.
A suit has been brought by the
NAACP against the Cabell County
school authorities. It is styled Michael
D. Pierece et als. v. the Board of Edu
cation of Cabell County. Nutter said
Federal Judge Harry E. Watkins has set
it for hearing Sept. 5.
The Cabell action, entered in U. S.
District Court here June 8, was brought
because Nutter and other NAACP offi
cials were dissatisfied with desegrega
tion there. “Cabell County is making no
real progress to desegregate its schools,”
Nutter said.
The NAACP also is manifesting some
concern about desegregation plans in
downstate counties which announced
last winter they would carry out the
program this fall, but have rehired
teachers on the same basis as in pre
vious years.
Counties being watched are Raleigh,
Summers, Greenbrier, McDowell, Lo
gan and Mercer, Nutter said. Green
brier and Raleigh started desegregation
on a limited basis last January, follow
ing a federal court hearing before
Judge Ben Moore in Greenbrier four
months before.
Only a few Negro children trans
ferred after the status of their schools
was changed, especially in Raleigh
where violence was threatened last
September when the board tried vainly
to institute a five-year desegregation
program.
Nutter said last week reports are
reaching him to the effect that in Ra
leigh quiet efforts are being made to
prevent further desegregation, when
schools open this fall, by trying to con
vince Negro children they’ll do better
under the old system of separate but
eoual opportunities.
Trent reported that Hardy County
will place a Negro teacher in a white
school for the first time this fall, and
intends to completely desegregate the
schools next year.
GRANT COUNTY PLAN
Grant, which previously sent Negro
children to a Negro high school in ad
jacent Hardy, will move them into a
previously all-white school at home this
year. The program would have been
made more extensive, but Negro fam
ilies petitioned the board of education
to maintain their present Negro school
for another year.
C. T. Hairston, assistant state super
intendent who has been active in the
program of bringing Negroes and
whites into a common educational pro
gram, said one of the drawbacks in
holdout counties is deciding what to do
with Negro teachers.
In the two years the program has
been in effect in West Virginia Trent’s
reports show that 52 teachers have lost
jobs as the result of school consolida
tions.
As things now stand, complete deseg
regation will be in effect in 20 coun
ties this fall. Total number of children
in those systems is 183,198.
15 PARTIALLY MIXED
Partial desegregation will be carried
out in 15 counties with 120.118 pupils,
and “creeping desegregation” will con
tinue in the six big southern coal coun
ties under NAACP surveillance. They
have 103,041 school children.
As stated, the eastern Panhandle
counties of Hardy and Grant, with a
total of 4,484 pupils, will start desegre
gation in September. Their segregated
neighbors, Jefferson, Hampshire and
Berkeley, have 13,281 school children.
Eleven other West Virginia counties,
with 38,265 children in school, have no
Negroes, hence no desegregation prob
lems.
COMPLETE DESEGREGATION
Counties that recently announced
plans to join the ranks of the completely
desegregated this fall are Kanawha, the
state’s largest and seat of the state Cap
itol, and Ohio, center of the Ohio Valley
steel industry.
Kanawha has 56,915 school children,
Ohio 9,355. Mingo, a coal mining coun
ty neighboring on Kentucky, also will
start desegregation this fall, Trent said.
The Mingo school population is 14,185.
The Lakin girls’ industrial school, in
operation only a month at its present
location, will be closed for economy
reasons, Board of Control President
Donohoe explained.
He said the action taken by the board
was on its own initiative and not by
legislative directive. Sufficient space
was available at Salem for the girls, and
further operation at Lakin appeared to
be a needless expenditure of state funds,
he added.
The legislature appropriated $21,000
for the Lakin home. Efforts will be
made to absorb at Salem employes from
the closed institution, but funds saved
in the merger cannot by law be trans
ferred to Salem.
West Virginia’s new rehabilitation
center, workshop and homebound in
dustries center was dedicated last Sun
day with Dr. Leonard M. Elstad, pres
ident of Washington’s Gallaudet Col
lege, as principal speaker.
FOR BOTH RACES
The center and workshop facility,
for both whites and Negroes, was pre
sented by Lawrence R. Lynch, presi
dent of the State Board of Education.
Formerly known as the West Virginia
School for the Colored Deaf and Blind,
the property was transferred to the
State Rehabilitation Division last year
after the children at the institute fa
cility were transferred to the previous
ly white deaf and blind school at Rom
ney on legislative order.
The center has dormitory space for
65 disabled persons, classroom and shop
space for 130 and cafeteria service for
100. Remodeling and repair work now
in progress will provide space in which
more disabled persons may be served.
—THOMAS F. STAFFORD.
Court Cases
(Continued from Page 1)
in cases involving admission to colleges
and universities as the Supreme Court
made clear in the cases of Florida ex rel
Hawkins v. the Board of Control, Fra
zier et al v. Board of Trustees of the
University of North Carolina; Auther-
ine Lucy et al v. Adams et al, and
others.
ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDIES
A trend more consistently followed
regionwide has been that courts have
held that administrative remedies must
be exhausted by plaintiffs seeking
school desegregation before the cases
are brought into federal courts. The
most publicized case of this kind was
Carson v. the McDowell County Board
of Education in North Carolina where
the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
specifically referred to the state’s pupil
assignment law which provides such
administrative remedies. Similar rulings
were made in the case of Woodrow
Hood et al v. the Board of Trustees of
Sumter County School District No. 2 in
South Carolina, and most recently in
Rose Marie Robinson et al v. St. Mary’s
County Board of Education in Mary
land.
Other significant decisions in cases
specifically seeking desegregation have
been rendered in Bush v. Orleans Par
ish School Board, which was the first
holding unconstitutional segregation
legislation adpoted since the 1954 deci-
KANAWHA COUNTY
Announces two-yr deseg prog S 2:1. • Enrolmnt
new tchncl cnty sch low; supt says integ not
cause Je 11:5
KANSAS CITY
Suit revived N 2:5 • Ng tchrs protest lack of
tchr integ 0 14:1
KEFAUVER, Sen Estes
Says Sup Ct rul "law of the land" J 2:4-5
• "Very shy" on use of fed trps enfrce integ
Mr 13:3 • Refuses sign So Manifesto Ap 1:1
• Miss Demo prty Idrs say "not acceptable"
My 15:5
KENT COUNTY
Adopts vol desg policy My 13:3-4
KENT COUNTY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Votes change const; drop rcl ban Je 15:5
KENT, Fred
Chrmn FI,a bd cntrl take no immed act Virgil
Hawkins case N 4:3 • Attmpts form thrd prty
fight for contd seg Mr 13:3 • Believes mjrty
both races oppose integ F 11:2
KENTUCKY
Begins limited integ in cos and cty schs S 5:1-5
KENTUCKY COUNCIL ON HUMAN RELATIONS
Studies future of two Ky all-Ng schs S 5:1
KENTUCKY STATE COLLEGE
Says will admit wh studs if apply S 5:1
KENTUCKY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
Says will keep Ng org until sch integ 0 7:5
• Disbands: joins KEA Je 12:2-3
KERSHAW, Rev Alvin L
Invit to appear relig emphasis wk prgrm Univ
of Miss cancelled Mr 3:4-5 • Says Ngs greatest
need "forgiveness and understanding" Mr 7:5
KERSHAW, Jack
Says TFCG will intervene Chatt sch bd attempt
deseg sc-hs S 13:3
KILGORE JUNIOR COLLEGE
Reconsiders applica admiss Ng studs rejected
s'ons; and Booker et al v. Tennessee
Board of Education et al, approving a
gradual desegregation plan for colleges
extending over a five-year period.
Not all cases charging discrimination
in the public schools have been brought
by Negro parents. White parents are
listed among the plaintiffs in cases
a'<ainst the Nashville, Tenn., board of
education and against the Arlington
County, Va., board, while in Texas a
case was brought in behalf of Latin
American children at Carrizo Springs.
Similar actions have been taken on be
half of Turkish children in Sumter,
S. C., and for children claiming to be of
Indian descent in Lake County, Fla.
PRO-SEGREGATION ACTIONS
On the other side of the issue, the
legal effort has been pitched largely at
halting disbursements of state funds to
desegregated schools. Such cases have
been filed in the state courts of Geor
gia, Tennessee and Texas. Both in Texas
and in Tennessee, these actions have
resulted in state courts holding invalid
the school segregation laws while ruling
that state funds could not be withheld
from school districts choosing to end
segregation. This was done by the Texas
Supreme Court in the case of McKinney
v. Blankenship which involved the Big
Spring school district, and by the Da
vidson County chancery court in the
case of Davidson v. Cope, involving
Austin Peay College and East Tennes
see State College. In Georgia, a similar
action, Georgia v. Valdosta Board of
Education, has been dismissed.
Other anti-desegregation suits have
been brought in the federal courts in
the District of Columbia (Walter M.
Sabine et al v. Melvin Sharpe et al) and
in Maryland (Walter E. Burr et al v.
Walter Sondheim Jr. etc.) seeking to
enjoin school officials from implement
ing policies of desegregation. Both
ended in decisions for the defendant
school boards. More recently, 110 Jef
ferson County (Louisville) residents
sued in a Kentucky state court de
manding enforcement of state segrega
tion laws. In this case, Grubb v. Chand
ler, defense briefs filed in Mav dis
claimed the defendants’ resnonsibility
for operation of the schools. No hearing
is likely before fall.
TEACHERS IN COURTS
Among the lawsuits growing out of
the segregation-desegregation issue are
three in which school teachers claim
breach of contract. Two such cases have
been filed in Missouri and one in Okla
homa. In Mildred King George v. Joint
School District No. 5 of Kingfisher
County, Okla., a federal court petition
asked $3,600 for the salary Mrs. George
would have received for the 1955-56
school year. She claimed she was not
rehired, solely because of race, after the
school at which she was principal had
been desegregated. Also in federal court
in St. Louis is the case of Naomi Brooks
et al v. Moberly School District. Supt.
Clark Henderson et al, in which six
former Negro teachers claim discrimi
nation resulted in their not being re
tained in the district’s integrated school
system. Pre-trial depositions have been
taken and hearing of the case has been
set for Aug. 20. In St. Louis County
Circuit Court, two former teachers at
Webster Groves have asked $145,000 in
damages, charging discrimination re
sulted in their firing. This is the case of
Ruth G. Dixon and Albert G. Shaw v.
Webster Groves Board of Education,
Supt. Leonard A. Steger et al. No hear
ing date has been set.
In three other cases filed prior to the
school segregation decisions, teachers in
Arkansas and Alabama sued for equali
zation of pay claiming discrimination in
the disparities between white and Ne-
KILLIAN, Lewis M
Says "outside pressure" influence integ in So
0 15:4
KILPATRICK, James J
Proposes resol in suppt intrpstn J 14:5
KINCHELOE, Samuel
Says integ has to work gradually; "educa Has
to grow up" Je 16:5
KING, Mrs. Hester V
Says NAACP so far pleased with Prince George
Co (Md) integ plans S 8:5
KING, Dr Morton
Resigns frm faculty Univ Miss protest academic
freedom Mr 3:5
KINGSTREE METHODIST CHURCH
Offcl bd adopts resol censur Meth conf resol
vs Citizens Cncls N 11:5
KIRKPATRICK, Dr Dow
Tells Ga Cncl of Churches Ga atmosphere denies
freedom speech D 12:5
KIRKS, Rowland F
Says addtnl tchrs alone won’t solve D C sch
prblms Je 2:3 • Suggests transfer D C studs
bldgs other than those zoned Je 2:3
KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE CHRISTIANS
City of New Orleans says will_prosecute if funds
collected wtht citv permit Ag 5-4
KNOXVILLE MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION
Apprvs unan resol callng integ city schs Mr 15:3
KU KLUX KLAN
Holds mtng Sumter Co Jy 14:1 • So Assoc Atty
Gnls issue statmnt condemn rebirth KKK in
So S 16:5 • Atty Gen Cook says will not oppose
KKK; does not resort violence S 16:2 • Atty
Gen Shepperd chrgs activity Texas cos S 9:4
• Burns cross Florence Co, S C S 7:5 • Charter
is granted in Georgia N 16:5 • Renews activity
in Fla 0 15:5 • Demonstrates in Orangeburg
Co J 5:5:13:5 • Burns cross near Maryville
Tenn Mr 15:5 • Revived in Tuscaloosa; Tarrant
Ctiy (Ala) My 5:4 • Stage large public meet
Jacksonville, Fla Nly 4:5 • Brookwood spkr
warns Icl man begin "doing right" Je 11:2
gro teachers’ salary scales The Ala
bama case of Ruby Jackson Gaines et al
v. Jefferson County School Board, be
gun in 1942, was dismissed from federal
court last year with a ruling that the
court was without authority to grant
the relief sought. The Arkansas cases of
James Wise v. the Board of Directors of
the Gould Special School District No.
40 of Lincoln County and the case of
Wiley v. Gasaway in the same district,
filed in 1954, are still on the court dock
et but no action has been taken this
year.
BOND ISSUE CASES
The segregation issue has been raised
in state court cases involving the is
suance or sale of school bonds. Six cases
of this kind have sought to halt the use
of revenue from school bonds for build
ing or improving segregated schools on
grounds that the bonds were approved
by the voters when “separate but
equal” was a valid legal concept and
then issued or put up for sale after the
U. S. Supreme Court struck that con
cept down. State court cases include
Florida v. Special Tax School District
No. 1 of Dade County; Board of Public
Instruction of Manatee County v. State
of Florida; Constantian v. Anson Coun
ty (N.C.) Board of Education; Matlock
v. Board of County Commissioners of
Wagoner County, Okla.; and Shelton v.
School Board of Hanover County, Va.
In all these cases, the state supreme
courts eventually held the school bonds
valid regardless of the change in the
separate but equal concept as did a fed
eral court in the case of H. K. Biddle
et al v. Board of County Commissioners
of Wagoner County, which was an out
growth of the Matlock case mentioned
above.
The National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, which
has provided counsel in most of the
federal cases seeking school desegrega
tion, became a party to three suits in
state courts. In Alabama and Louisiana,
state courts enjoined further operations
of the NAACP on charges that it had
not registered as required by state law.
In North Carolina’s Wake County, the
NAACP filed suit for a declaratory
judgment to head off a suit aimed at
halting the organization’s activities un
der state laws requiring registration of
foreign corporations and Groups influ
encing public opinion. The Alabama
and Louisiana cases are under anneal.
The North Carolina case has still not
been cleared for hearing on its merits.
INDIVIDUALS CAUGHT UP
Individuals have been caught up in
the segregation controversy in Virginia
and in Maryland under comnulsory
school attendance laws. In the Virginia
state court case of James Dobbins v. the
Commonwealth, Negro parents received
jail sentences and fines for refusing to
send their children to segregated
schools. The case has been under ad
visement by the state supreme court
since March, 1955. In Maryland, white
parents in two instances were faced
with sentences and fines when they re
fused to send their children to deseg
regated schools. Both cases were left
hanging when the families moved out
of the state.
Libel has been the principal issue al
leged in two other state court cases in
Florida and South Carolina. In the case
of Prentice Pruitt v. Dr. Vcm D. Mizell.
a Leon County, Fla., jury awarded Rep.
Pruitt $15,000 damages against Dr. Mi
zell on charges growing out of Mizell’s
statement about Pruitt’s introduction of
segregation bills in the legislature. No
appeal is contemplated.
In Sumter County, S. C., Shepard K.
Nash, an attorney, sued 12 individuals,
including NAACP officials, for $120,000,
Key Decisions
(Continued from Page 1)
Missouri
Competing candidates for the Repub
lican senatorial nomination are vying
with one another in support of desegre
gation. The winner will face Democratic
Sen. Thomas C. Hennings, Jr., who led
the unsuccessful fight to bring civil
rights legislation to the Senate floor in
the session just ended.
North Carolina
A special four-day session of the leg
islature voted to submit to the people
Sept. 8, a “package” constitutional
amendment providing for state-paid
tuition to children not wishing to at
tend integrated schools and permitting
“local option unit” elections on whether
or not to close a school under court
order to desegregate.
Oklahoma
A survey showed 119 school districts
—many more than had been reported
earlier—had “integrated situations” in
1955-56 and that 31 more planned to de
segregate this fall.
South Carolina
The school segregation question was
overshadowed by the “southern unity”
drive of Gov. George Bell Timmerman
among southern states preceding the
Democratic national convention.
Tennessee
Contrary to forecasts, school segrega
tion did not materialize as a concrete
political issue as some 300 persons cam
paigned for seats in the state legisla
ture. Nashville’s school board was re
ported to be considering a “free choice”
desegregation plan, at first affecting the
first grade, to present to a federal
court this fall.
Texas
Democratic voters approved three
pro-segregation questions in a refer
endum and generally favored candi
dates of a similar viewpoint in the July
28 primary. A Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals decision in the Mansfield
school case held that adverse public
opinion alone is insufficient grounds to
deny admission of Negroes to an all-
white school.
Virginia
Gov. Thomas B. Stanley put himself
on the side of “massive resistance” to
desegregation in a call for a special
legislative session Aug. 27. Meanwhile,
in the first action of its kind in the
area, a federal court ordered desegre
gation this fall of the Charlottesville
schools and a second decision ordered
desegregation in Arlington County
schools beginning early next year.
West Virginia
A survey showed that 20 county
school systems will have complete de
segregation this fall, 15 will have par
tial desegregation, six will have “creep
ing desegregation” and four will remain
segregated. The remaining 11 have no
Negro pupils.
charging they damaged his reputation
in claiming he had intimidated parties
to a segregation suit to bring about
their withdrawal from the action. This
case has yet to be heard on its merits.
OTHER CASES
A variety of other suits have been
brought in state and federal courts,
such as:
Imo Shackleford et al v. Howard
Vance, et al. In Lawrence County
Chancery Court, Judge Charles Light
last month denied motion for dismissal
of this suit asking for an accounting of
about $72,000 in school funds by the
pro-integration board of the Hoxie,
Ark., school district.
Herbert Brewer et al v. Leslie How
ell, president of the Hoxie, Ark., school
board. In a state court, a pro-segrega
tion group sought to halt desegregation
by bringing charges of irregularities in
administration of the school system.
This case has been dismissed.
Hoxie School District No. 46 of Law
rence County, Ark. v. Herbert Brewer
et al. A federal court injunction was is
sued Jan. 9 against interfering with the
Hoxie board’s desegregation program. ■
This case is due a hearing on appeal
before the Circuit Court in St. Louis
this summer.
Adams v. the Attorney General of
Louisiana. In state court, four Negroes
sought to halt - the use of $100,000 in
state funds authorized for expenditure
in the legal fight against desegregation, i
The case was decided for the defend
ants.
J. Lindsay Almond Jr. v. Sidney C.
Day Jr. The Virginia state supreme i
court of appeals was asked to decide
whether state funds could be expended
for private schooling. When it was de
cided they could not be so spent, a con- ■
stitutional convention changed the
state’s basic law to permit the expendi
tures.
1952 Ag 2:4