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Factual Soi viObO3 *VO ‘SN3H1V C JO A.ilS«3AINn 11VH fc 3 T Q N V D 3Nboeso *i •a El 101 LS 3Nnr rv-A J hool News Objective 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)