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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.