Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—DECEMBER 1956—PAGE 13
Alabama’s Bus, College Cases Highlight Activity During Month
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
E xcitement over the race controversy
in Alabama, which had noticeably
cooled in recent weeks after fall school
openings brought no major new chal
lenges, was rekindled Nov. 13 when the
U.S. Supreme Court upheld a U.S. dis
trict court decision invalidating segre
gation on buses.
Although Montgomery will be the
only directly affected city when the for
mal notice of the ruling comes down,
probably in mid-December, the lower
court apparently had established a fed
eral precedent by applying the school
segregation ruling to municipal tran
sit, declaring unconstitutional both city
and state laws relating to bus segrega
tion. Thus the decision seemed to apply
to bus segregation generally, throughout
the state and the South. (See “Legal
Action.”)
The ruling brought statements of de
fiance from the Montgomery City Com
mission, the Alabama Public Service
Commission, White Citizens Councils
and others. (See “What They Say.”)
And some legislators were already talk
ing of ways to thwart the ruling by
measures to be introduced when the
lerislature meets next May. (See “Leg
islative Action.”)
GROOMS RULING
Added to this was the latest action
by U.S. District Judge Hobart Grooms
in the Autherine Lucy case. On Nov.
15, Judge Grooms gave the University
of Alabama board of trustees 15 days to
show cause why it should not be held
in contempt of court for refusing to re
admit the Negro as a student. (See “Le
gal Action.”)
A week before, University President
0. C. Carmichael announced his resig
nation. Although reports persisted that
the nationally prominent educator has
disagreed with the trustees over the
Lucy case, both Dr. Carmichael and the
board issued denials. (See “In the Col
leges.”)
Ku Klux Klan activity increased over
the state. Some 350 hooded klansmen
toured Montgomery’s downtown streets
Nov. 24 for several hours in a “show
of force” apparently in response to the
Supreme Court bus ruling. Most came
from the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham
areas and Tennessee. However, reaction
of shoppers reportedly varied from in
difference to obvious disapproval. Turn
out for a rally near the city that night,
though well advertised, was about 700,
including newsmen, the curious, and
hecklers. (See “Miscellaneous.”)
BALANCE OF POWER’
Although Alabama went Democratic
again in the Nov. 6 election, President
Eisenhower got 40 per cent of the vote
^ compared to 35 per cent in 1952. Ne-
Sio leaders claimed voters of their race
'' o apparently voted for Eisenhower
y heavy majorities may have been the
alance of power which swung Ala-
ama s three largest counties—Jefferson,
; and Montgomery—and others
into the Republican columns. (See “Po-
ntical Activity.”)
Although the Alabama legislature
j 063 not meet until next May, many
^gislators were already thinking about
a ys to preserve bus segregation de-
? . th e Supreme Court’s ruling de-
ar wg it unconstitutional.
ariH^fu Mont g° mer y City Commission
sio Public Service Commis-
n are both pledged to maintain sep-
of r a °f the races, but neither had
som l any pIan * or doing so. Thus
tyjj. 6 l awm akers searched for measures
gall m ^=bt make non-compliance le-
^ Possible. Rep. N. S. Hare of Mon-
“fre ri Unty ’ wbo helped draft Alabama’s
of choice” school law, spec-
Uiori *he legislature might au-
“for n, bus drivers to seat their riders
H ar , convenience of passengers.”
a ][ 0 ^_ a s ° suggested a law which would
e ntir Women passengers to occupy an
^th S6a * refuse to share it with
o r er rider, without mention of race
\ Allegation. “That,” Hare said,
pejpk, benefit Negroes as well as white
^GELHardt BILLS
G^uit 6 Sen - Sam Engelhardt of Macon
Bation^i per cent Negro), pro-segre-
ecut; v lea der in the legislature and ex-
c btiorf secretar y of the Alabama Asso-
“25 0r Citizens Councils, said he had
f segregation bills in the pro-
thaj ° drafting.” He added, however,
ti 0Q p ®11 are related to bus segrega
ted k'Selhardt said the best idea he
o\va e d ^ r d Was one proposing privately
With n buses > operated by cooperatives,
Stg* Rogers restricted to members.
Mo nt 6 b e n. Vaughan Hill Robison of
' , ’'Sislat >tner y sa *d he felt confident the
bus gg re "dll take steps to preserve
e ® at l°n if possible. Others ex-
^^atio SIm ^ ar sentiments and deter-
In a development almost lost in the
excitement of the Supreme Court’s bus
decision (see below), on Nov. 15 U.S.
District Judge Hobart Grooms of Birm
ingham gave the University of Alabama
board of trustees 15 days to show cause
why it should not be held in contempt
for refusing to readmit Mrs. Autherine
Lucy Foster to the university.
However, Grooms limited his action
to the board of trustees, clearing from
any contempt liability President O. C.
Carmichael, Dean of Admissions Wil
liam F. Adams and board secretary Ru
fus Beale.
Judge Grooms wrote the original or
der which, after appeal, opened the
doors of the university to Mrs. Foster
(then Miss Lucy) last February. She
was driven from the campus by riots
Feb. 6, subsequently readmitted by
Judge Grooms, then “permanently ex
pelled” by the board of trustees Feb. 29
for her formal accusation that the uni
versity had conspired in the riots.
In October, Judge Grooms ordered
the university to readmit the Negro.
Then, on Nov. 15, he directed the board
of trustees to show cause why it should
not be cited for contempt for failing to
comply.
The university contends that the right
of such expulsion is conferred on it by
the state constitution.
LINKED TO SCHOOLS
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Nov. 13
ruling that segregation on Montgomery
and Alabama public conveyances is
unconstitutional was a direct legal evo
lution from the school decision.
The court’s brief order, without addi
tional comment, upheld the June 5 de
cision of a three-judge U.S. district
court panel in Montgomery. In that de
cision, the court (one judge dissenting)
said:
“In their private affairs, in the con
duct of their private businesses, it is
clear that the people themselves have
the liberty to select their own associates
and the persons with whom they will do
business, unimpaired by the Four
teenth Amendment. . . . There is, how
ever, a difference, a constitutional dif
ference, between voluntary adherence
to custom and the perpetuation and en
forcement of that custom by law.”
Tracing the background of the school
segregation decision, the court noted the
evolution of the law after the “separate
but equal” of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
By 1938, the court said, this doctrine
had been weakened by the Supreme
Court, and, with the school decision, is
now completely “destroyed.” Thus, the
district court said June 5:
“We cannot in good conscience per
form our duty as judges by blindly fol
lowing the precedent of Plessy v. Fer
guson . . . when our study leaves us in
complete agreement . . . that the sep
arate but equal doctrine can no longer
be safely followed as a correct state
ment of the law. . . . There is no ra
tional basis upon which the separate but
equal doctrine can be validly applied to
public carrier transportation. . . . Stat
utes and ordinances requiring segre
gation of the white and colored races
on . . . motor buses of a common carrier
of passengers . . . violate the due pro
cess and equal protection of the law
clauses of the . . . Constitution.”
LINE ENJOINED
The court enjoined the city bus line,
drivers, police, etc., from enforcing seg
regation, but suspended the injunction
upon appeal. The injunction will be re
stored when the Supreme Court’s de
cision is formally delivered, probably
in December. Although the injunction
is restricted to Montgomery, the prin
ciple of law, since upheld by the Su
preme Court, applies generally, in the
opinion of lawyers.
The action which resulted in the rul
ing was brought by four Montgomery
Negro women, Aurelia S. Browder et
al against the Montgomery City Com
mission, Montgomery City Lines, Inc.,
the chief of police, two bus drivers and
the Alabama Public Service Commis
sion as defendants.
The Supreme Court’s bus decision
(see “Legal Action”) stirred up racial
controversy once again in Alabama,
where the previous weeks had been
marked by a kind of return to normalcy.
Among the comments:
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,
Montgomery Negro minister who has
SEN. SAM ENGELHARDT JR.
Drafting New Legislation
led the year-old boycott of Montgom
ery buses by Negro riders: “The Su
preme Court decision places a basic re
sponsibility before the Negro and white
community of Montgomery. All persons
must recognize the difficulty of adjust
ment and seek through the principles of
love, understanding and good will to
work in harmony.”
Montgomery Mayor W. A. Gayle:
“Like thousands of our Montgomery
citizens, the city commission . . . de
plores the . . . decision. ... At the same
time we ask our fellow citizens to re
main calm and coolheaded, while your
commissioners work diligently and ear
nestly to do all legal things necessary
to continue enforcement of our segre
gation laws and ordinances of all kinds
. . . enacted in recognition of long-es
tablished customs, morals and habits of
our people.... We shall continue to en
force segregation. ...”
State Sen. Sam Engelhardt, executive
secretary of the Alabama Association of
Citizens Councils: “As far as I am con
cerned they can move the Montgomery
City Lines lock, stock and barrel, to
Washington, D.C.”
BAPTIST REPORT
Report of the Christian Life Commis
sion to the Alabama State Baptist Con
vention in Montgomery, on the race
situation in general in Alabama:
“Certainly it is not amiss to say that
the relationship between the white and
colored man in Alabama is at a peak
period of intensity. These things have
been aggravated by actions and words
from parties both inside and outside
the South. . . . The recent case of a Ne
gro woman desiring admission to the
University of Alabama became the fo
cal point for the NAACP. This young
woman has continued to perform as the
seeming tool for this association. Along
with this has been the bus boycott in
Montgomery. ... In Montgomery, an
old city of the South where race rela
tions have in times past been upon a
good level, emotionalism has affected,
we feel, some decisions of the legislators
and certain magistrates. ...
“The re-emergence of the Ku Klux
Klan is unfortunate and the worth
whileness of the White Councils (sic)
and their subsequent action have been
debatable, especially if the Nat King
Cole incident in Birmingham is an ex
ample.
‘EXTREME GROUPS’
“Nevertheless there are issues before
us which cannot be ignored. Two ex
treme groups are seeking the minds of
the people. The NAACP is on one ex
treme and the White Councils are on
the other. Both are offering an “either-
or” policy. Most Christians feel they are
in the middle. Most Christians which
comprise the body of our churches are
not at this time identified with either
of these groups.
. . . There is a constant pressure ex
tended by the White Councils to move
with them. Because of the lack of an
alternate course many white Christians,
normally moderate, are finding them
selves closely linked with stands not
their persuasion.. . .
“There is hate engrained on both
sides. . . . Those who could be called the
‘hotheads’ have taken control. . . .
Churches have become conspicuously
quiet and failed to suggest a way for the
earnest Christian who is troubled over
the dilemma.
ON ‘UNDERSTANDING’
What shall we say to these things?
We often say the North doesn’t ‘under
stand’ the problem of the South. On the
other hand, if we will be honest enough
to admit it, many southerners do not
‘understand’ the yearnings or the de
sires of the Negro people to have a fair
er share of life itself. We are unrealistic
indeed if we premise our whole actions
upon the idea that we have a perfect
Christian society in Alabama. Even if
we believe in separate but equal schools
we have not, in the past, provided such
schools, although ... much progress had
taken place. Now matters are at a stand
still.
“This commission cannot feel that a
forced policy, as of this writing, which
would cause race to be against race,
man against man, child against child,
with threats, whipping and intimidation
exhibited on all sides both day and
night, to be the will of God for our
state in 1956....
“We realize the difficulty of defining
the great middle course ... it does seem
feasible to us, and this is a suggestion,
for the more independent Negro minis
ters to meet with their neighboring
white ministers to discuss ways and
means of eliminating this untoward ten
sion. If such meetings could be held
they should be made up, we believe, of
those who do not hold membership in
the NAACP or the White Council . . .
the Christian white man [should] re
solve that he will do all he can for his
Negro brother.
‘WEIGHT OF RESPONSIBILITY’
“The white people of Alabama have a
long way to go and to this we should
readily admit . . . [but] the Negro race
has not achieved as developed a stand
ard as our own. . . . Prejudice is against
us. Emotionalism has affected the ad
ministration of laws in Alabama, and
also, the everyday attitudes of the great
races which must necessarily live side
by side. Every person of every color
should feel the weight of responsibility
in seeking now an answer to the prob
lem which involves us all.”
(Previously a small Baptist group, the
Alabama State Baptist Association, rep
resenting about 16 missionary Baptist
churches in Alabama with a reported
membership of 800, had adopted a reso
lution in Montgomery declaring inte
gration as sinful and a violation of the
Scriptures.)
Dr. Oliver C. Carmichael, who accept
ed the presidency of the University of
Alabama three years ago, resigned Nov.
5 amid reports of his disagreement with
the university board of trustees over a
policy toward integration.
Dr. Carmichael and the board denied
the reports. At the time of the February
campus riots which followed the enroll
ment of the university’s first Negro,
Miss Autherine Lucy (now Mrs. Fos
ter) , Dr. Carmichael was quoted by the
New York Herald Tribune as telling one
of its writers that his continued service
as president of the university depended
on the return of Miss Lucy as a student.
Dr. Carmichael denied making the
statement, but the Herald Tribune in
sisted the quote was accurate.
In his statement of resignation Nov.
5, Dr. Carmichael said that the reason
for his leaving was to accept a position
with the Fund for the Advancement of
Education to make an appraisal of pro
grams of higher education for the Eng
lish-speaking countries. “I feel that it is
the greatest opportunity that has come
to me,” he said.
REGRETS EXPRESSED
His resignation brought expressions of
regret from the board of trustees and
the student body. Although one board
member said in advance of the resigna
tion that “it has been exceedingly dis
agreeable” in Tuscaloosa for some time,
there was no official confirmation of any
disagreement between Dr. Carmichael
and the board. On the contrary, the
board, in accepting the resignation Nov.
15 said:
“Throughout Dr. Carmichael’s tenure
as president there has been harmony
on all matters of policy between him
and the board. The board deeply regrets
published, untrue statements to the con
trary. The board is grateful to Dr. Car
michael’s unexcelled leadership . . . [his
resignation] is received with a great
sense of loss.”
“I do not believe,” chairman pro tern
Hill Ferguson said, “that anyone can
cite a single instance during the past
30 months while Dr. Carmichael has
been president... where there has not
been accord, good will and cooperation
between him and the board ... The
board had no part in Dr. Carmichael’s
decision to accept a very attractive
foundation offer.
TOOK RESPONSIBILITY
“Our board months ago assumed full
responsibility for the admission or reg
istration of Negro students at the uni
versity, and relieved Dr. Carmichael
and his staff of any responsibility there
for.
“I’m afraid the forces at work in our
nation to force upon the South a differ
ent way of life have sought to take ad
vantage of Dr. Carmichael’s wide na
tional reputation to further their cause
and embarrass the people of Alabama.”
Dr. Carmichael, 64, came to the uni
versity in September, 1953. He had been
president of the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching in
New York. Prior to that he had been
president of Alabama College at Monte-
vallo and chancellor of Vanderbilt Uni
versity. He was bom in Clay County,
Alabama.
At a meeting Nov. 25, the board of
trustees failed to name a new president
and announced it would probably make
a temporary appointment until a full
time president can be agreed upon.
Political Activity^
Despite predictions that Republicans
would get fewer votes in Alabama this
year than in 1952, President Eisenhower
received 40 per cent of the popular vote
compared with 35 per cent four years
ago.
Some of the increase was undoubted
ly due to Negro voters switching to vote
Republican. In the state’s three largest
counties, Jefferson (Birmingham), Mo
bile and Montgomery, the Negro vote
for Eisenhower was possibly the decid
ing factor which edged the counties into
the Republican column. In Montgomery,
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Negro
leader of the year-old boycott of Mont
gomery buses, said he voted for Eisen
hower, as did, in his estimate, some 80
per cent of Montgomery’s Negro voters.
Dr. King attributed the switch in
large part to the slogan, which he said
he heard often, “A vote for Stevenson
is a vote for Eastland.” While Dr. King
said he did not personally subscribe to
so simple a view, he believed this was
largely responsible for the crossover.
FIVE TO ONE
In the black belt county of Macon,
where the Negro percentage (84) of the
total population is reportedly highest in
the nation, Negro voters apparently
went heavily for Eisenhower. In one
predominantly Negro box, Eisenhower
won by better than five to one.
Voters also ruled on a series of con
stitutional amendments, only one of
which was even remotely related to seg
regation. That was Amendment No. 1,
called a legislative “re-apportionment”
measure. Gov. James E. Folsom, who
had campaigned for election with reap
portionment as one of his major pro
posals, supported the amendment.
Shortly before the election, a circular
was printed in a state print shop argu
ing, among other things, that a vote for
Amendment No. 1 would be a vote for
segregation. The reasoning was that
Black Belt counties were disproportion
ately represented in the legislature and
that so much bloc power was a threat
because the Black Belt is heavily pop
ulated with Negroes.
Newspapers and opponents of the
amendment answered that this was
spurious because it had been the Black
Belt bloc in the legislature which has
led the pro-segregation fight. However,
neither of the arguments seemed to have
much effect on the voting. The amend
ment lost, most observers believe, be
cause it alone of all those offered the
voters was identified with the Folsom
administration, the popularty of which
is now said to be relatively low.
Sporadic Klan activity was again re
ported over Alabama with the most
dramatic exhibition in Montgomery Nov.
24 following the Supreme Court’s rul
ing on bus segregation.
Some 350 robed and hooded, but un
masked, Klansmen gathered in the state
capital Saturday morning, toured the
streets in small groups during the day,
handed out leaflets urging attendance
at a rally that night and rode buses.
There were no reports of attempted in
timidation or disorderdly conduct.
Reaction of white Montgomerians
who saw the Klansmen downtown
seemed to vary from curiosity to
amusement to visible disgust. Many
simply ignored the visitors, or seemed
to try to.
Additional evidence of the Klan’s poor
reception was attendance at the “big
rally” that night. Only 700 attended, in
cluding a battery of newsmen, the cur
ious and hecklers. The Rev. Alvin Horn,
a Talladega Baptist minister, who de
scries himself as the Grand Dragon of
Alabama, was principal speaker.
Although membership was urged, few
signers were seen at the rally.