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VOL. Ill, NO. 7
NASHVILLE, TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
JANUARY, 1957
13 Legislatures To Meet
In ’57, Bills Expected
On Both Sides of Issue
fTVo score or more bills designed to
*- strengthen public school segregation
probably will be introduced in southern
state legislatures this year, including
some in states which have begun to de
segregate.
At the same time lawmakers in three
border states already having substantial
desegregation are likely to consider
measures to speed up this process.
A legislative survey by Southern
School News correspondents in the 13
southern and border states whose as
semblies meet in regular session during
1957 indicated that pro-segregation leg
islation will be considered in the follow
ing categories:
• Pupil assignment—Tennessee and
Texas, with some implementing meas
ures in Arkansas where an assignment
act was adopted Nov. 6 by the initiative
and referendum process.
• Compulsory attendance law revi
sion — Georgia, Texas and possibly
Maryland.
• Tuition grants for private educa
tion—Texas.
« Restrictions on or investigation of
the NAACP—Georgia, Texas and Flor
ida.
• Reference requirements for univer
sity admission—Alabama.
• “Free choice” of schools—Tennes
see.
Texas and West Virginia. Other states
with regular sessions this year include
Alabama (beginning in May), Florida
(April) and North Carolina (February).
Southern School News correspond
ents, after querying administration and
legislative leaders, gave these previews
of 1957 lawmaking prospects:
SSN’s Alabama correspondent, Wil
liam H. McDonald, who is an editorial
writer for the Montgomery Advertiser,
wrote—“At this point it appears the
prime concern is the maintenance of
separate seating in transportation . . .
However concern also has been ex
pressed over measures to prevent inte
gration in colleges.”
One such proposal died in committee
during last year’s special session after
its sponsor, Rep. Charles W. McKay, said
it needed modification. It would require
prospective students to submit letters of
recommendation from three graduates
of the college they seek to enter. This
measure reportedly is “still favored by
some.”
McDonald also reported that State
Sen. Sam Engelhardt of Macon County,
executive secretary of the Alabama As
sociation of Citizens Councils, has said
he has “25 or 30 pro-segregation bills
in the process of drafting,” some relat
ing to transportation, others to educa
tion.
OTHER ACTION
Meanwhile in Missouri, Maryland and
Delaware — where state policy has
brought about desegregation in broad
areas—there has been some interest
shown in legislation which would fur
ther the nrocess.
The Missouri legislature probably will
receive another bill to repeal formally
school segregation laws already declared
unenforceable by the state’s attorney
general.
The Maryland legislature again will be
asked to ratify the Fourteenth Amend
ment to the U. S. Constitution under
which the school segregation cases were
decided.
And the Delaware General Assembly
will have on its agenda a measure to
reorganize the 106 school districts of the
slate, a procedure which would aid the
desegregation process.
Also, Texas legislators likely will con
sider a bill to establish state nrocedures
or effecting school desegregation rather
han to leave the matter wholly reliant
°n federal court action.
Maryland, Delaware
Some proposals which would promo
_ e segregation point of view, such ;
Popular election of school boards, ah
, av ’o been mentioned in Maryland an
111 Delaware, but do not have the suj
« °f legislative leaders.
^No legislation at all bearing on th
^rogation-desegregation question
*Pected to be introduced this year i
Uk lahoma or West Virginia
Taken in relation to the 107 measure
l954^ e ^ * n e *f>ht southern states sine
(84 of them last year) some trenc
con vf detected in the proposals to b
ila , ered ' P u Pil assignment plans sim
° i^ose suggested in Tennessee an
Alak S alread y have been adooted i
Vj r arria > Florida, North Carolina an
l^iPia. Some of these states alread
i^pslation to restrict or to prob
activities, similar to othe
q^^os under study in Florida an
ar 6 Fgla ' Tuition grant plans, such a
eff e f™P° se d in Texas, alreadv are i:
With In Virginia, North Carolina anc
si^jj s ° me variations, in Georgia. A la\
PUij- e ar ,?° Alabama proposal to re
ti 0r)s good character” recommenda
la.^ ° r c °il e g e applicants was adoptei
and ' n t * le Louisiana legislature
pr 0tT] : es having a like effect have bee:
Mksi- a t e d by administrative bodies ii
•j, Ssi Ppi and Georgia.
ab]y 5Cas , and Arkansas legislators prob
th 6 J V . consider resolutions based o:
W ete riac iple of interposition such a
and b a °°Pl ed in six state legislature
j y popular vote in Arkansas.
^meeting
MUk . sessions of the legislature
llln. 0^11 tl) 1 Cl rVI ATItlo 1 ye A v.lrnv\r,r»r. I Irtl n
Wat e e p ln Ibis month in Arkansas, Del
lah 0 Jn eor Sia, Maryland, Missouri, O
a > South Carolina, Tenness
From Arkansas, SSN Correspondent
Thomas D. Davis, news editor of the Ar
kansas Gazette reported that the action
of the voters Nov. 6 apparently makes
unnecessary any major pro-segregation
legislation in that state. Approved in
referendum were a pupil assignment act,
a resolution of interposition, and an
amendment directing the legislature to
nullify the Supreme Court school segre
gation decisions.
ASKS EXAMINATIONS
A bill calling for physical examina
tions to supplement the pupil assignment
act and legislation increasing appropria
tions for education with a view toward
reducing nressure for desegregation also
are expected.
William P. Frank, SSN correspondent
in Delaware and staff writer for the Wil
mington News, reported various “anti-
discrimination” oronosals on the agenda
for the General Assembly in that state
but only two matters relating to the
school segregation-desegregation issue.
One is a bill to reorganize school dis
tricts; the other is an amendment to pro
vide for popular election of all school
boards, some of which are now apooint-
ed by judges. Frank reported, “Reor
ganization of district lines is considered
of basic importance for ultimate integra
tion in Delaware . . . Segregationists
feel they would have a better chance if
all boards are elected.”
SSN’s Florida Correspondent Bert
Collier, staff writer for the Miami Her
ald, reported the prospects were that no
major segregation bills would be intro
duced but that some laws to curtail
NAACP activities probably will be
adopted. Referring to the five-law seg
regation program adopted in special ses
sion in July, Collier wrote: “These laws
are in the shakedown stage, not yet fully
tested, and it is not likely additional
segregation bills will be brought up un
less (1) the present laws are thrown
(See LEGISLATION, Page 2)
Index
State Page
Alabama 14
Arkansas 8
Delaware 12
District of Columbia 9
Florida 5
Georgia 16
Kentucky 13
Louisiana 12
Maryland 15
Mississippi 14
Missouri 7
North Carolina 8
Oklahoma 2
South Carolina 3
Tennessee 4
Texas 10
Virginia 11
West Virginia 5
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
LEGISLATORS
In Spotlight Again
NAACP Put
Under Fire
In 8 States
'T'he National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People,
principal protagonist in efforts to effect
public school desegregation, has been
the object of special legislation, court
action or official restraint in eight states,
according to a Southern School News
survey.
The NAACP participated in the orig
inal Brown case and has initiated or
become involved in all but a few of the
the school entry cases settled or under
litigation in the 17 southern and border
states having statutory segregation.
This has brought legislation described
as “punitive” or generally circumscrib
ing NAACP activity. In three states the
organization has been barred from do
ing business.
Other approaches against the NAACP
have included investigations launched
by legislative or administrative agen
cies and direct legal attacks seeking to
enjoin further operations under new or
existing laws.
INJUNCTIONS IN EFFECT
Temporary injunctions restraining the
NAACP from operation are in effect in
Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. In Ala
bama, where the NAACP announced its
dissolution, the state supreme court has
upheld a $100,000 contempt of court fine
against the organization for refusing to
produce certain records sought in con
nection with a suit to drive it out of the
state. The action was brought under
state laws requiring that out-of-state
corporations doing business in the state
register with the secretary of state.
A 1924 law designed to curb the Ku
Klux Klan—by requiring that lists of
membership be filed by all organizations
operating in the state except the Na
tional Guard and churches—was the
basis on which the NAACP was en
joined in Louisiana. After a state ap
peals court decision raised some ques
tion as to the jurisdiction of the lower
state court in restraining the organiza
tion, efforts to reactivate were made
last month. However, with meetings
threatened by police raids, spokesmen
for the organization announced the
group was still inactive and was con
templating compliance with the law.
OFFICER JAILED
And in Georgia, an NAACP branch
president was jailed briefly on a con
tempt charge and a $25,000 fine was
levied against the organization pending
submission of records sought by the
state in a tax investigation. The organ
ization, however, has not been barred
from operation in Georgia, though leg
islation for this purpose is under con
sideration.
(See NAACP, Page 2)
Legal Activity,
Some Violence
Highlight Month
J^egal action on both sides of the school segregation-desegregation
controversy—including the first open rebuke of the U.S. Supreme
Court by a lower federal court—drew attention in the 17 southern and
border states as 1956 ended.
Some violence was also reported.
One additional school district—Norman, site of the University of
Oklahoma—announced desegregation. This brought to 672 the number
of school districts, mostly in the border states, which have completed
or begun the school desegregation process.
Conversely, Louisiana moved in the
direction of “resegregation” with a leg
islative-backed move to deny Negro
college students readmission this term
to four once all-white colleges and uni
versities.
Observers of the region saw a major
legal issue growing out of the arrest of
16 pro-segregationists at Clinton, Tenn.,
on charges of contempt of court as fed
eral officials moved to back up an in
junction. Elsewhere the legal pattern
was varied, as follows:
Federal courts in Virginia and Ken
tucky cases ordered desegregation to
proceed or called for desegregation
plans as of a specific date. A court chal
lenge of the “Pearsall Plan” was filed
in North Carolina. A federal district
judge in Texas, dismissing pleas for
immediate desegregation in the schools
of Dallas, rapped the U.S. Supreme
Court decision of 1954 as based on
“modern psychological knowledge”
rather than law. Another suit seeking
desegregation of schools was filed in
Houston. A Florida district court dis
missed a desegregation suit in Dade
(Miami) County. In Alabama trustees
of the Universitv of Alabama faced
contempt proceedings growing out of
the Autherine Lucy case.
LINK BUSES, SCHOOLS
And the legal pattern was varied
once again when the U.S. Fourth Cir
cuit Court explicitly linked segregation
in transportation to the public school
cases, saying there is “no doubt that the
separate but equal doctrine has been
generally repudiated.”
Meanwhile, sporadic violence was re
ported in Tennessee, South Carolina
and Alabama. The Clinton (Tenn.)
High School was closed for a time after
alleged intimidation of Negro students
and a street incident involving a white
minister. A high school band leader in
South Carolina was beaten by a group
of masked men who charged he had
made pro-integration statements. In
Alabama, a home was dynamited and a
Negro woman was shot in incidents
growing out of the legal termination of
bus segregation. A state-by-state sum
mary of major developments follows:
Alabama
University of Alabama trustees, fac
ing contempt proceedings for the ex
pulsion of Miss Autherine Lucy last
year, continued their search for a suc
cessor to Dr. O. C. Carmichael as pres
ident of the university, a task appar
ently complicated by the Lucy case.
Meanwhile, violence flared as buses
were desegregated in Montgomery and
a leader in the bus boycott broadened
the scope of Negroes’ efforts to include
voting, parks and education.
Arkansas
The General Assembly prepared for
its second session since the 1954 deseg
regation decisions with apparently little
to consider in the school segregation-
desegregation matter except to imple
ment the nullification and pupil assign
ment measures adopted by referendum
in November. Economic factors were
described as the main consideration in
desegregating the Bentonville schools,
disclosed for the first time last month,
and attorneys for the Little Rock school
board said the plan to desegregate there
in 1957 was not affected by the referen
dum-adopted measures.
Delaware
School district reorganization, pos
sibly a means of facilitating desegre
gation, will be an issue in the 1957
General Assembly. An attorney for the
NAACP in the eight desegregation cases
pending in federal district court asked
that sections of the defense pleadings
predicting violence if segregation is
ended be stricken as “insufficient in
law.”
District of Columbia
Arguments were renewed over the
congressional subcommittee investiga
tion of District schools after the sub
committee majority issued its report
and recommended a return to segre
gated schools. The report was attacked
by the two minority members as deal
ing “with sordid headline items almost
entirely.”
Florida
A desegregation suit in Dade County
(Miami) was dismissed from federal
court for the second time because of
a lack of a factual, controversial situa
tion. Another suit attacking the new
state segregation laws still is pending.
Meanwhile the new Pupil Placement
Law, adopted in July, was described as
beneficial in that it has required
teachers and principals to learn more
about the home background of the stu
dents.
Georgia
Dr. Harmon W. Caldwell, chancellor
of the Georgia university system, testi
fied in a case brought to win admittance
of a Negro to the University of Georgia
law school that henceforth his policy
would be to consider as eligible any
Ne<*ro who was academicallv qualified.
The case now hinges on whether Hor
ace Ward, the plaintiff was denied ad
mission because of race or scholastic
qualifications. Meanwhile, the NAACP
made its record available to Georgia tax
examiners after the Atlanta branch
president was jailed (for two hours)
and a $25,000 fine was levied in a con
tempt case against the organization.
Kentucky
Federal district court orders in de
segregation cases involving Clay and
Sturgis called for desegregation plans
to be submitted to the court by Feb. 4,
but ruled out the “immediate” desegre
gation sought by the NAACP. In Louis
ville a young segregationist from De
troit was denied admission to the city
schools; Supt. Omer Carmichael, who
was praised by President Eisenhower
for desegregation there, was criticized
by a teachers’ union official as being
“anti-integration.”
Louisiana
New legal weapons designed to re
move Negroes from state-supported
universities and colleges (some 200 at
tended four of seven state institutions
during 1956) were to be used this
month. Preoarations were made for
hearing on Jan. 9 the appeal from the
district court ruling ordering desegre
gation of Orleans Parish schools.
Maryland
The first appeal of a local school
board’s decision which had barred a
Negro pupil from a school ended with
the school board rescinding its original
decision and admitting the student, as
the second such case moved up to the
State Board of Education. Baltimore,
meanwhile, found that 80 of its schools
had mixed classes as compared to 50
last year.
Mississippi
Segregation was still intact at all
levels and no suits had been filed as
1956 ended. The state’s Negro-white
equalization program was stepped up
under a decision by the state supreme
(See LEGAL ACTIVITY, Page 2)