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PAGE 10—NOVEMBER 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Alabama Parties Blame
Each Other on Schools
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
^labama’s Democratic and Republican
party leaders have blamed each
other for the South’s segregation prob
lems.
The Democrats argued the whole
thing was the doing of President Eisen
hower and that the Republican platform
is more anti-southern than the Demo
cratic one.
Republicans replied that “the people
of Alabama interested in preserving seg
regation have but one logical choice . . .
to vote for Mr. Eisenhower,” and that
the Republican platform is more favor
able to southern interests.
A slate of independent electors, hop
ing to capitalize on the dispute, argued
that the dilemma of the segregation-
minded voters can only be resolved by
voting for them.
DISASTROUS ATTACK’
2) State Superintendent of Education
Austin R. Meadows charged that public
education in Alabama in the past year
has suffered the most “disastrous at
tacks” in the history of America. He
said the state had the poorest, or next
to the poorest, school building program
in the nation. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
3) In Birmingham, the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People, already enjoined against
operating in the state and fined $100,000
for contempt, denied it helped Mrs.
Autherine Lucy Foster enroll at the
University of Alabama. The denial
came in answer to interrogatories in one
of four suits, each asking $1 million
damages from NAACP. (See “Legal
Action.”)
4) The Montgomery County Board of
Registrars is under FBI investigation for
denying registration to three Negro
women. From Washington, the FBI an
nounced a similar inquiry into voter
registration in Macon County. And in
Barbour County, court action was un
derway to remove the names of 32 Negro
voters from the registration rolls, after
a grand jury had charged they were il
legally qualified. (See “Legal Action.”)
Circuit Judge George C. Wallace in
the South Alabama county of Clayton
granted 32 Negroes the right to inter
vene in a suit seeking to remove their
names from the county’s voting list.
Former Gov. Chauncey Sparks, speak
ing in behalf of two of the Negroes, told
the court that the action invited NAACP
and federal intervention. He therefore
urged the court to give the Negroes a
chance to be heard, and Judge Wallace
so ordered.
Sparks said a group of whites had
registered under circumstances identi
cal with those of the 32 Negroes. “Why
not call everyone who was registered
under similar circumstances, white or
black? Why deny these people (the Ne
groes) the right to come into court and
defend themselves?”
After granting the Negroes the right
to intervene, Wallace postponed action
on the hearing. A decision is likely in
November.
shortage of funds, but the State Revenue
Department has said funds are sufficient
to meet current needs.
VOTERS SEEM INDIFFERENT
But the average voter seemed indif
ferent to all the claims. Interest in the
Presidential election was generally re
garded as the lowest in many years,
though few seriously questioned the ex
pectation that Alabama would again go
Democratic by a comfortable margin.
(See “Political Activity.”)
Also during October:
1) The Montgomery PTA revolt con
tinued, with about 20 of the county’s
27 PTA units having voted either to
withdraw from the national organization
or to withhold funds. Over the state a
few other local units joined the seces
sion movement, but the momentum
seemed to be checked by the action of
the board of managers of the National
Congress of Parents and Teachers.
MANDAMUS IS SOUGHT
The suit, a petition for mandamus
filed by Circuit Solicitor Seymore
Trammell, same after a Barbour County
grand jury had charged the 32 Negroes
had been illegally registered. The solici
tor charges that the Negroes were reg
istered by one member of the board of
registrars, W. A. Stokes Jr., without ap
proval of a majority of the three-mem
ber board as required by law. Trammell
says the Negroes were registered at
Stokes’ grocery store in Eufaula in
stead of at the courthouse.
FBI PROBES CHARGES
Meanwhile, the Montgomery Board of
Registrars was under investigation by
special FBI agents checking on the
charges of three Negro women that they
had been illegally denied the right to
vote. Board members, hotly denying the
allegations, said the Negroes had not
properly completed their registration
forms. The board added that it had
registered “hundreds and hundreds” of
Negroes.
‘POOREST IN NATION’
In view of the shortage as cited by
Dr. Meadows, “the state has no school
building program but can advertise it
self as having the poorest, or next to
the poorest, school building program in
the nation.”
The Minimum Program Fund has
been cut, he said, which “leaves us noth
ing to do to stop overcrowding in class
rooms.” As a result of this cut, and
others in textbooks, vocational rehabili
tation, college and other funds, the “state
will suffer economically and culturally
until these facilities are provided,” he
said.
A statewide survey paid for with state
and federal funds proved that Alabama
needs over $300 million worth of public
school construction, Meadows said.
A county grand jury indicted Stokes
and Elijah Franklin, a Negro, for vio
lation of election laws. Franklin was ac
cused of sending or taking applicants to
Stokes’ store. Wallace threw out the in
dictments on technical grounds but
ordered them restored to the docket for
the next grand jury to consider in
November.
Dr. Austin R. Meadows, state super
intendent of education, charged Oct. 15
that public education in Alabama has
suffered the most “disastrous attacks” in
the history of the nation in the past
year.
Dr. Meadows has been at odds for
some time with legislators who have
challenged his proposed school financing
programs. A plan for a supplemental
income tax, earmarked for schools, was
heavily defeated in an amendment
referendum last December. Since then,
Meadows has repeatedly predicted a
Alabama Republicans and Democrats
disagreed sharply during October over
the question of which party was chiefly
responsible for the integration problem
and which would be the most pro-
southern in the future.
GOP Chairman Claude O. Vardaman
of Birmingham said: “The people of
Alabama interested in preserving segre
gation have but one logical choice, and
that is to vote for Mr. Eisenhower. Some
people have tried to say that the plat
forms of the two parties are the same
on the subject . . . that is not so. The .
Democratic platform contains a clause
urging that the right of filibuster in the
U. S. Senate be abolished ... If that
ever happens, then all sorts of civil
rights legislation will be enacted into
law.”
Circuit Judge George C. Wallace, a
member of the Platform Committee at ,
the Democratic National Convention and
a prominent state political figure, said,
“We in the South must support the
party that gives us the most strength
in Washington. When the Republican ’
party is in control, we have no voice in
the executive branch of the government
. . . However, when the Democratic
party is in control, southerners control *
the legislative branch of government
and have an entree into the White
House through all the southern gov
ernors and senators and a great major- '
ity of the House members who are
Democrats . . . [The South], which is a
minority section, actually controls one-
third of the government—the legislative •
branch.”
These were typical of the exchanges
between Democrats and Republicans.
Attempting to capitalize on the debate *
and the “a plague-on-both-your-
houses” attitude of many voters, in
dependent electors hoped to withhold
the state’s 11 electoral votes from either >
major party. Although one of the in
dependents confessed it was a “long
shot ... a possibility but not a prob
ability,” he added: “. . . . If we can get
the message over, we might have a
(See ALABAMA, Page 16)
New Suit to Speed Desegregation Is Filed in W. \ a.
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
new suit to hasten desegregation in
West Virginia schools was brought
in federal district court in October by
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People. (See “Le
gal Action.”)
T. G. Nutter, state NAACP president,
said here that his group isn’t satisfied
with desegregation policies in Harrison
County, where a graduated program
has been under way for two years.
Elsewhere in the state, desegregation
has been moving smoothly since several
minor outbursts marked school open
ing in three southern counties, pre
viously segregated, in September. They
were Mercer, McDowell and Logan.
The civil rights question has been in
jected into the West Virginia election
campaign, but not by any of the princi
pals seeking high state offices. They’ve
ignored it completely since their re
spective parties wrote civil rights
planks regarded as vague into party
platforms in August. (See “Political
Activity.”)
The Harrison action is the ninth
brought by the NAACP in the last two
years. The first, in Greenbrier County,
ended in agreement by the board of
education to start desegregation on a
first-come-first-served basis last Feb
ruary, and make it all-inclusive this
fall.
Other suits, also to force the counties
to take positive action on the desegre
gation question, were brought in Mc
Dowell, Mercer, Logan, Summers and
Raleigh counties. Agreements were
reached, based on the Greenbrier case,
without going into court.
segregation affairs, says the number is
between 18 and 20.
Main reason given for the small dis
placement is the shortage of teachers
in West Virginia.
MOST TEACHERS PLACED
School consolidations have taken
place in many counties as desegregation
occurred, but teachers displaced were
shifted to other assignments as retire
ments and resignations created vacan
cies.
Right now there are approximately
140 schools in West Virginia without
board refused to hire him. ,
He brought suit, but before it came to
trial the board last year agreed to put
him on the substitute teaching list. This
fall he was given a fulltime teaching as
signment.
Only other person to publicly protest
treatment of Negro instructional per
sonnel since the court’s ruling was (
Harry E. Dennis, former principal of
Charleston’s Garnet High School. He re
signed from the county’s technical high
school in August with a blast that the
school board was discriminating against
Negro administrative personnel.
The county-by-county segregation-
desegregation status of West Virginia
school districts appears in the following
list. Total enrollments, including white
and Negro pupils, are shown as of Sep
tember, 1956. Since records by race are
no longer kept the Negro enrollment
figures are for 1954, the last school year
during which such statistics were avail
able.
DISTRICTS PARTIALLY
DESEGREGATED
The National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People has denied
helping Mrs. Autherine Lucy Foster en
roll at the University of Alabama. In
answer to interrogatories in one of four
suits, each asking $1 million in dam
ages, the Negro organization said:
“The NAACP, Inc., did not represent
Autherine Lucy (her maiden name) in
any action against W. F. Adams [Dean
of Admissions, University of Alabama]
in the federal courts or in any other
judicial forms.
“No attorney was authorized by
NAACP, Inc., to either prepare or file
motions.
“The NAACP has not paid Arthur D.
Shores [Mrs. Foster’s attorney during
her long court fight to enter the univer
sity] any compensation for services
rendered in the Lucy case.”
The Harrison County suit (Della Jean
Wilkinson et al v. Board of Education of
Harrison County) was filed in the
Northern District Federal Court at
Fairmont. Judge Harry Watkins hasn’t
yet set a date for the trial or for pre
trial conferences.
School attorneys asked for a month’s
delay to prepare an answer to the
NAACP’s allegations. Nutter objected
to it. He said 35 children are out of
school in four sections of the county;
and because they are, an emergency
exists which makes speedy action nec
essary.
The NAACP alleges that the children
should be allowed to attend Towers,
Summit Park, Hepsibah and Linden
elementary schools in their respective
areas. These schools now are for white
children. The Negroes are transported
to Kelly-Miller elementary school in
Clarksburg, some as much as seven
miles. The board pays transportation
costs.
DISTRICTS COMPLETELY
DESEGREGATED
County
(1956)
Enrollment
Brooke 5,474
Clay 4,212
Hancock 7,411
Kanawha 56,915
Lewis 3,629
Lincoln 6,236
Marion 14,020
Marshall 6,902
Monongalia 11,382
Morgan 1,987
Nicholas 7,486
Ohio 9,355
(1954)
Negroes
106
16
330
2,968
0
1
799
18
274
20
0
443
County
(1956)
(1954)
Enrollment
Negroes
Barbour
4,272
350
Boone
9,257
122
Braxton
4,342
23
Cabell
21,449
823
Fayette
19,735
2,728
Grant
2,149
47
Greenbrier ..
9,454
444
Hardy
2,335
127
Harrison
16,627
375
Logan
19,372
1,591
Mason
5,667
13
Mercer
17,586
1,930
McDowell ...,
24,481
5,728
Mineral
5,347
169
Mingo
14,185
854
Monroe
3,011
108
Pendleton ...,
2,116
42
Pocahontas ..
2,788
77
Raleigh
23,399
3,190
Summers
4,022
181
Wyoming ....
11,567
615
The State Board of Education was
brought back to full complement last
month with the appointment of Dr.
Samuel J. Baskerville, Charleston Ne
gro dentist, as a member of the policy
making body.
He replaced Harry E. Dennis, who .
left the state after resigning from the
Kanawha County teaching post. Dennis
was on the board only a short time as
successor to James Rowland, former ,
Beckley lawyer who also has left West
Virginia.
Gov. William C. Marland appointed
Scott M. Brown of Charleston to the (
board after Dennis resigned, but with
drew his name upon discovering Brown
couldn’t qualify.
The state board’s main duties are ad-
ministering the nine state colleges m
West Virginia. At a meeting last month,
the board discussed with Concord Col
lege President Virgil H. Stewart a
financing plan he is considering f° r
dormitories at the southern West Vir
ginia school.
DISTRICTS SEGREGATED—
NO ACTION TAKEN
Preston
7,400
16
Berkeley
... 6,267
196
Randolph
7,003
61
Hampshire
... 2,811
19
Taylor
3,613
41
Jefferson
... 4,203
688
Tucker
2,162
2
Tyler
2,278
2
DISTRICTS
HAVING
NO
SUITS FOLLOW RIOT CHARGES
The damage suit was brought by Ed
Watts of Tuscaloosa, who along with the
plaintiffs in the other three similar
actions directed at the NAACP, had
been named in Mrs. Foster’s court
charge last February that the university
had conspired in the riots which drove
her from the campus Feb. 6. Watts and
the other plaintiffs—Earl Watts (a
brother) of Tuscaloosa, Kenneth L.
Thompson of Tuscaloosa and R. E.
Chambliss of Birmingham—were ar
rested in connection with the riots.
In answer to the Watts interrogatory,
the NAACP refused to list its former
NAACP charter organizations in Jeffer
son County and the state because, the
organization said, the plaintiff is hostile
to NAACP and “such information in the
hands of the plaintiff would result in
injury to members and officers.”
BEGAN IN HIGH SCHOOL
Harrison started desegregation at the
high school level, but still has the lower
grades to be merged. Least affected
grades so far are the second, third and
fourth.
Judge Watkins is expected to take
some action in a few days. The last of
papers setting forth the NAACP com
plaint and the board’s plea for delay
reached him late in October.
Nutter said no other suits are con
templated at this time, but he expects
to visit the Jefferson County Board of
Education soon to discuss the deseg
regation question.
Jefferson is one of three West Vir
ginia counties which have taken no ac
tion since the Supreme Court ruled in
1954. The others are Berkeley and
Hampshire.
Jefferson has 688 Negro pupils in a
system of 4,200. Harrison has 375 in a
total enrollment of 16,627.
Upshur 4,457
Wayne 10,521
Wetzel 4,553
Wirt 1,143
Wood 14,855
9
0
1
4
109
Three districts having no Negro pupils
have announced desegregation policies.
NEGROES AND NO
ANNOUNCED POLICY
Calhoun ... 2,347 Pleasants .. 1,532
Doddridge . 1,885 Putnam .... 5,797
Gilmer .... 2,134 Ritchie .... 2,506
Jackson .... 3,643 Roane 4,003
Webster 4,622
Just last month a suit filed in Cabell
County to expedite desegregation also
was brought to an amicable conclusion
short of the courtroom. The board
agreed to desegregate in areas contest
ed by the NAACP.
UNDER SURVEY
teachers, but these, mostly rural, are
being filled slowly as county superin
tendents find recruits who will take the
rural assignments.
Major reason for the closures is a
State Board of Education ruling which
tightened up on teacher certification
and disqualified those with less than
one semester of college training.
An informal survey conducted last
month disclosed that 58 teachers have
left the West Virginia school system out
of a total of 16,000 since desegregation
started in 1954.
Nutter contends that only 16 have lost
their jobs as the result of the program.
T. Hairston, assistant state superin
tendent who concerns himself with de-
ONE TEACHER SUES
Only one court action has stemmed
from the desegregation program. It was
brought by Richard Woodard, former
Brooke County school teacher. Woodard
lost his job in a school consolidation
four years ago, and after desegregation
started he tried to get back into the
system. There was some question as to
the validity of his contract, and the
State and federal candidates csui'
paigning in West Virginia have side
stepped any mention of the civil rign
question in their appearances, but M ■
Eleanor Roosevelt, here early in Octo
er, commented that what conce . aS
Americans in their everyday lives
an important bearing on foreign policy-
The way they react to school desegr®
gation will reflect either favorably
unfavorably abroad, she told a
crowd at a Democratic gathering he
America is a minority in the white ra
she continued, dealing with a great ni
of dark-skinned peoples in other co^
tries. It is, therefore, important that ,
guarantee equality of opportunity
everybody regardless of race, she
dared.
Later in October, a States’ Righter ^
Mercer County, scene in September
pro-segregation activity, said T. C° ^
man Andrews hasn’t much of a cha
to be elected President. “But we ha ve y
start somewhere,” explained ri.
Slemp, part-time Matoaka preac ^
lumber supply dealer and segregate
ist. in
Slemp, one of the prime movers ^
the Matoaka segregation effort ear y
September, said an effort would be 111
in West Virginia to put Andrews on
West Virginia ballot as a write-in can
date.