Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Page 14—JANUARY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Mississippi Enters 1957 With Segregation Intact JACKSON, Miss. jyjississiPPi entered 1957 with racial segregation intact at all levels. Thus far, there has been no legal move to force compliance with the inte gration decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, either in the public schools, on buses or in other public areas. At the moment, Negro leaders are centering on efforts to gain voting rights and are urg ing members of their race to seek quali fication under the promised protection of the U.S. Department of Justice. Meanwhile, a 1954 program to equal ize educational opportunities and facili ties for Negroes with those of the whites, designedly to discourage integration efforts, was stepped up under a Missis sippi Supreme Court decision placing final approval of the school reorganiza tion plans on the state level rather than in local authorities. (See “Legal Ac tion.”) Supreme Court Justice John Kyle, a Rhodes scholar, onetime attorney gen eral and state senator, wrote the opin ion vesting the State Educational Fi nance Commission with final authority in approving school district reorganiza tion plans submitted by city and county school boards. The reorganizations must be completed by next July 1 in order for local schools to continue to receive state funds. 40 OF 82 APPROVED At the close of 1956, a total of 40 of the 82 counties had received approval of their district reorganizations and sites for new equalized buildings. Only 10 counties have yet to take the neces sary action on the local level to ready their plans for consideration by the State Educational Finance Commission. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Summing up the situation in a special message written for the United Press, Hodding Carter, Pulitzer-prize winning publisher of the Greenville, Miss., Delta Democrat Times, said “the third anni versary of the Supreme Court’s school integration decision is less than six months away, but any meaningful im plementation of the decision in the Deep South appears at least as distant today as it did in May, 1954.” (See “What They Say.”) Other developments include: The Jackson Progressive Voters League, composed of Negroes, named committees to seek registration of Ne groes as qualified electors. (See “Com munity Action.”) SEES BROWNELL A United States district attorney dis cussed Mississippi’s legislative-enacted segregation statutes with U.S. Atty. Gen. Herbert Brownell in Washington. (See “Under Survey.”) Gov. J. P. Coleman indicated the necessity for a special session of the legislature in February has lessened in view of a decision of the U. S. Depart ment of Justice to wait on local action in the qualification of Negroes as voters. (See “Legislative Action.”) Two northeast Mississippi cities mapped plans for huge bond issues for improved school facilities. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Establishment of a non-profit educa tion fund to “compete” with the Na tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People was announced by the Mississippi Association of Citizens Councils, an all-white organization “dedicated to preservation of segrega tion.” (See “Community Action.”) U.S. Rep. Frank Smith of the third (Delta) congressional district, said the main job confronting southern congress men at the 1957 session of the Congress will be preventing the execution of the U. S. Supreme Court’s integration decrees. (See “What They Say.”) Failure of U.S. Atty. Gen. Brownell to demand immediate action by federal district attorneys in the 14 southern states to seek compliance with desegre gation decisions has caused Gov. J. P. Coleman to see less need for an im mediate special legislative session to take counter-action. State officials had feared “for the worst”, and had planned to bolster pre viously enacted statutes strengthening Mississippi’s legal efforts to block in tegration. They saw in the asserted “voluntary compliance” approach fur ther delaying steps. Mississippi’s next regular biennial as sembly meets in January, 1958. LEGAL ACTION State level authority in the reorgani zation of local school districts under the Negro-white equalization program as a condition to receiving state funds was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court in the case styled Adams County School Board v. the State Educational Finance Commission. Justice John Kyle, in the unanimous decision, said the equalization statute calling for district consolidations in order to reduce their number for im proved educational opportunities for both races, gives the state commission full and final authority to reject plans submitted by local school boards. The decision backed up the commission’s action in rejecting a two-unit school dis trict plan proposed by the county board and recommending a one-unit plan for the county under the Natchez Munici pal District. It was the first state supreme court test of the minimum foundation educa tion program to equalize educational op portunities between the races and up grade the entire state system. SECOND. YEAR Mississippi is now in the second year of a projected 20-year program to cost an estimated $120 million for new and equalized school buildings. The Adams County board had chal lenged the powers of the commission and charged that its order was “arbi trary and capricious.” Justice Kyle said plans submitted by county boards do not involve a ques tion for judicial determination but one of policy to be determined solely by the administrative agency to which the leg islature has delegated that power. “School districts are mere agencies of the state and may be abolished or dis solved at the will of the legislature, sub ject of course to constitutional limita tions,” the court said. “Maintenance of the uniform system of free public schools to insure and provide substan tial equality of educational opportunity is the joint responsibility of the state and the local taxing districts.” The equalization-reorganization pro gram is intended to do away with the small, inefficient school districts, some with only one school. Under it, the counties and cities get substantial state aid for a minimum teacher salary and school construction program. It was en acted just in advance of the May, 1954 decision of the United States Supreme Court outlawing segregation. Mississippi’s segregation problems were explained to Atty. Gen. Brownell in a Washington conference in Decem ber with U. S. attorneys on ending bus segregation by Robert Hauberg of Jack- son, of the Southern Mississippi federal court district. “Mississippi’s problem was presented,” Hauberg said on his return. He had taken copies of all segrega tion-preservation statutes enacted by the Mississippi legislature since 1953 to Washington. They included those on public schools. Hauberg would not comment on the discussions, other than to say it was his understanding that the federal govern ment will seek “voluntary compliance” with the Supreme Court’s rulings de claring segregation on common carriers to be unconstitutional. There has been no effort to desegre gate city buses or those of the major passenger bus lines. Signs, placed by local authorities, still call for segregation in waiting rooms for “intrastate pas sengers.” There has been no attempt to disregard the local mandates. Editor Hodding Carter’s specially written statement on segregation as serting that integration “appears at least as distant today as it did in May, 1954,” said: “Most advocates of compulsory deseg regation, and some opponents, gener ally believed two and one-half years ago that the decision means virtually the end of a long ideological war. “What most extremists on both sides, as well as more moderate observers, agree upon now is that the decision represented a major victory but no ul. timate triumph. Ahead lies many a year of anti-integration legal campaign; and extra-legal resistance on state and community levels . . . “Here and there a few Negro children may gain entry through court action They will have had to make their way through a maze of legal obstructions created by legislative action, and such other and no less effective barriers as economic pressures or intimidation by- organized or spontaneous white groups.” In a speech at Indianola, birthplace of the Citizens Councils, U. S. Rep Frank Smith said before the Rotary- club (Dec. 18) in previewing the 195; congressional session that southern con gressmen will have a “busy year.” He said their paramount effort will be in seeking to prevent the execution ol the U. S. Supreme Court’s integration decrees. “We can expect a tough fight on civil rights legislation.” By the deadline next July 1 for reor ganization of Mississippi’s present 827 school districts in the 82 counties, the number is expected to be reduced to 120 districts under the Negro-white equalization program. The present num ber of districts compares with 5,406 in 1930. The reorganization status at the end of 1956 was: Reorganizations approved in 40 coun ties; hearings completed on five coun ties’ plans; ready for hearings, 11 coun ties, plans on file but incomplete, six; held in abeyance, four; rejected and not 1 yet re-filed, six; surveys completed and awaiting action by local schools boards, 10. CUT TO 68 The number of school districts in the 40 counties already approved have been reduced from 480 to 68. The number of attendance centers has been cut from (See MISSISSIPPI, Page 16) Alabama Trustees Face Contempt Proceedings in Lucy Expulsion MONTGOMERY, Ala. 'J'he University op Alabama board of trustees will face contempt proceed ings this month growing out of the Autherine Lucy case. In a hearing set for Jan. 18 in Birm ingham, the trustees must show cause why they should not be held in con tempt of court for expelling Miss Lucy (now Mrs. Foster) after U. S. District Judge Hobart Grooms ordered her re admission to the university Feb. 29, 1956. (See “Legal Action.”) Meanwhile the board of trustess, fol lowing a series of meetings which had failed to produce a successor to Dr. O. C. Carmichael whose resignation was effective Jan. 1. (Southern School News, December), finally agreed, Dec. 28, on the appointment of Dean of Ad ministration James H. Newman as in terim president. (See “In the Col leges.”) OTHER RACIAL ISSUES Eclipsing, however, the university’s troubles and other news bearing on ra cial matters was the U. S. Supreme Court’s order, reinstating a lower court’s injunction, which ended segregation on Montgomery buses Dec. 21. The ruling brought renewed determination by of ficials to hold the line against integra tion in all its phases. (See “Legal Ac tion.”) In Montgomery, a Negro woman was wounded in the legs when the bus she was riding Dec. 28 was fired on by a sniper. In Birmingham, the home of a Negro minister leading a challenge to bus segregation there, was blasted by dynamite. Other violence was reported in both cities. (See “Legal Action.”) Gov. James E. Folsom, in a statement Dec. 30, said that state forces were ready to swing into action if needed to “safeguard human lives and the rights of property” in the disturbances over the “much agitated question of segrega tion.” (See “What They Say.”) At a bi-racial seminar on “non-vio lence and social change,” sponsored by the Negro organization supporting the Montgomery bus boycott, speakers praised Montgomery Negroes and their “passive resistance” as giving hope to Negroes all over the South. (See “What They Say.”) A hearing on contempt proceedings against the trustees of the University of Alabama has been set for Jan. 18 in Birmingham. The university trustees have been directed by U. S. District Judge Hobart Grooms to show cause why they should not be held in con tempt for expelling Mrs. Autherine Lucy Foster last February. After Mrs. Foster (then Miss Lucy) attended classes in Tuscaloosa for three days in early February, riots and dem onstrations drove her from the campus. The board of trustees, which had been ordered by Judge Grooms to accept her and all other qualified Negro students, suspended her temporarily because of the riots and “for her own good.” Back in district court Miss Lucy won, Feb. 29, an injunction ordering the univer sity to readmit her. A few hours later the trustees “permanently expelled” her for her charges that the university had conspired in the campus disturbances. TRUSTEES DEFEND ACTION It is for this action that the university has now been called to account. The trustees contend that their action was not in contempt, that it had nothing to do with the fact that Miss Lucy was a Negro. They point to the fact that a white student, Leonard Wilson of Selma, was also expelled for his attacks on the university and his part in the demon strations. Both expulsions, the trustees argue, were within the administrative powers granted them by the state con stitution. If Judge Grooms agrees with the petition for contempt filed by Mrs. Fos ter through her attorney, Arthur Shores of Birmingham, the trustees may face jail, fines or both. The Alabama Supreme Court Dec. 6 upheld a $100,000 contempt of court fine against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The fine had been levied by Montgomery Circuit Judge Walter B. Jones after the NAACP refused to produce certain rec ords, including membership rolls, in connection with a suit brought by the attorney general to drive the organiza tion out of the state. MUST PURGE OF CONTEMPT Judge Jones also issued a restraining order for the organization to cease op erations in the state. Lawyers and court officials explain the NAACP must purge itself of the contempt citation before appeal will be heard on the restraining order. The supreme court based its affirma tion of the $100,000 fine on a 1949 de cision in which the court ruled that the Ku Klux Klan could be forced to open its membership records to a grand jury in Birmingham. The decision was unan imous. “It is clear,” the court said, “that the circuit court had authority to order the petitioner to disclose names, addresses and dues paid by petitioner’s members, officers, agents and employes and that the petitioner could be held in contempt of court for non-compliance with the court’s order to produce.” ‘BRAZEN DEFIANCE’ Holding the NAACP has been given ample time to produce the records, the state’s high court said the refusal was in “brazen defiance” of the circuit court order. Judge Jones initially fined the or ganization $10,000, then increased that to $100,000 when the records had not been produced by the expiration of a second deadline period. “Neither fine,” said the supreme court, “was severe enough or the petitioner would have produced the documents within the time allowed instead of of fering partial compliance with the court’s order on the last day of grace.” Referring to the 1949 Klan decision, the court quoted part of its previous ruling: “The first duty of every citizen is al legiance to the constitution and laws of the state and nation and the lawful judgments and decrees of the courts . . . Only privileged communications and facts made so by the law or lawful gov ernment regulations are protected from disclosure. The identity of the member ship of said organization [the Klan] does not fall within such privileged class.” BUS DECISION IN EFFECT The U. S. Supreme Court’s decision outlawing bus segregation became ef fective in Montgomery Dec. 21. Despite the city commission’s contentions dur ing the hearings that led to the decision that integration would result in violence and bloodshed, Negroes sat anywhere they chose on buses — some in front, some as always in the rear—without in terference. In Montgomery buses were fired on on four occasions in late December. In the most serious case, a young Negro woman, Mrs. Rosa Jordan, was hit in both legs by a bullet fired through the side of the bus in which she was riding. Later, after the bus had been taken to police headquarters for interrogation of passengers, it was again fired on in the same neighborhood where the first at tack occurred. In the first incident, there were six white passengers and six Negroes on the bus, all observing traditional segrega tion (as most passengers have been de spite the court’s injunction). In the sec ond, there were only whites on the bus and the shot struck near the front, tra ditionally the white section. In Birmingham, the home of the Rev. F. L. Shuttlesworth, Negro minister, was dynamited and heavily damaged Christmas night. Shuttlesworth is a leader of the Ala bama Christian Movement for Human Rights which staged a one-day defiance of Birmingham bus segregation laws following integration of Montgomery buses. Twenty-two Negroes were ar rested during the day. Dec. 30 a Birmingham city bus, with 30 passengers aboard, was hit four times by gunfire. Six Negro boys were ar rested in connection with the shooting. Earlier, shots were fired into the Negro section of a bus and two white youths were reported seen running from the scene. White reaction was generally calm but still disapproving. Many whites ex pressed the view that bus integration was one thing, school integration quite another, implying far greater opposition in the latter challenge to the state’s traditional separation of the races. RENEWED INTEREST The reality of integration in Mont gomery has apparently brought re newed interest in the broad aspects of segregation. This interest was spurred still more by the Dec. 23 statement of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., boycott leader, who listed the future aims of the boycott-sponsoring Montgomery Im provement Association. These included voting, parks and education. Of the latter King said: “Here we are going to lose many of our white friends that helped us during the bus boycott. Still we must have in tegrated schools as the Supreme Court in 1954 ruled we can. That is when our race will gain full equality. We cannot rest in Montgomery until every public school is integrated.” Vowing that “good order must be maintained,” Gov. James E. Folsom said state forces were ready to swing into action if necessary. In a statement Dec. 30, the governor said: “It is a prime responsibility of a gov ernor to maintain law and order in the state . . . Governors do not intervene . . . with the full power of their office and the forces under their jurisdictions except in two conditions.” , These two conditions the governor described as the breakdown of local law enforcement or its inadequacy to cope with a “critical situation.” i Speakers at an “Institute on Non-Vio lence in Social Change” in Montgomery Dec. 3 to 9 praised the year-old Mont gomery bus boycott (which ended Doc 21 when buses were integrated) as heartening to Negroes everywhere. Excerpts from a few of the speeches follow: * Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., boycott leader—“We have discovered a new and powerful weapon: non-violent resist ance . . . Nobody has been able to con vince me that the vast majority of white people in this community, or in the whole state of Alabama, are willing t° use violence to maintain segregation- It is only the fringe element, the hood lum element, which constitutes a nu merical minority, that would resort to the use of force . . . We must continue to believe that the most ardent segre- gationist can be transformed into * e most constructive integrationist. j also “Legal Action” for King’s la e statement on integrated schools.) L. D. Reddick, director of the A»* bama State College (for Negroes) nj tory department—“[The boycott shown] there is a way, even under , most distressing conditions, to transfo the old, obsolete pattern of life- , should be grateful for this example, . some of us had feared and conc ^L v - that we would have to fight it out. ^ we know that the transition can made peaceably.” j WHITES ‘BRAINWASHED’ Rev. Glenn Smiley, Fellowship of ^ conciliation, New York City 1 n white people of the South] have brainwashed. We can’t forgive tha , we can understand it.” . . tet , Dr. Homer Jack, Unitarian rninl ,. er Evanston, Ill.—“There must be an ° ^ Rosa Parks [the Negro woman w arrest Dec. 5, 1955 precipitated t e ’ j cott and subsequent court a (Continued On Next Page)