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Page 8—JANUARY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
N. C. Negro Parents Go to Court in Challenge of ‘Pearsall Plan’
RALEIGH, N. C.
group of Caswell County Negroes
have filed suit in federal court ask
ing that schools in their county and in
North Carolina be integrated.
In the suit, recently enacted state con
stitutional amendments relating to
schools were brought under attack.
(See “Legal Action.”)
In Charlotte, a Superior Court judge
granted an injunction which means that
Negroes can play on the Bonnie Brae
(Municipal) Golf Course. In Greens
boro, six Negroes were given 30-day jail
terms after they were convicted of tres
passing on a golf course. (See “Legal
Action.”)
TIGHTEN REQUIREMENTS
Institutions of higher learning are
tightening their entrance requirements,
an Associated Press survey disclosed.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
In Greensboro, a Negro high school
basketball team is using the gymnasium
of Greensboro Senior High (white) for
its home basketball games this year.
(See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Negro rural residents have accounted
for the biggest share of North Caro
lina’s 181,201 migration loss since the
1950 census, an N. C. State College pro
fessor reported. (See “Miscellaneous.”)
The Advisory Committee on Educa
tion, which sponsored the state consti
tutional amendments relating to schools
that were approved in September (see
October SSN) met in Raleigh “to re
view recent developments in the public
school situation.”
The committee said it considered
“some minor amendments to the [1955]
School Assignment Act but reached no
definite conclusions at this meeting.”
Another meeting is scheduled for Jan
uary.
Committee Chairman Thomas J.
Pearsall in a statement called for in
creased attention to school building
needs “for all of our children.” The
Raleigh News and Observer said he ob
viously meant that local school units
should equalize school facilities.
defeat the spirit and purpose of the
laws of the United States.”
Also, the plaintiffs pointed to a “Res
olution of Condemnation and Protest,”
passed by the state legislature in July,
1955, during a special session. They al
leged the resolution was a declaration
of “public policy” to “continue segre
gation of the races in public education
... in violation of the Constitution and
laws of the United States.”
The Negroes petitioned the Caswell
school board on Aug. 6, 1956, to abolish
segregation. When the board declined
to do so, they appealed to the State
Board of Education. This board disal
lowed the appeal.
MONTGOMERY CASE
The Caswell suit follows a similar
action filed from Montgomery County,
which still is pending in Middle Dis
trict Court. In the Montgomery case, the
Negro plaintiffs have asked the court to
permit them to amend their complaint
so as to bring under attack the legality
of the “Pearsall Plan,” or school
amendments.
A hearing on the question of amend
ing the complaint has been continued
indefinitely because of the illness of the
attorney for the Montgomery school
board. The hearing is expected to be
held soon after the first of the year.
Meanwhile, Judge Johnson J. Hayes
of the Middle District Court has given
the Caswell County school board until
Jan. 15 to file an answer to the most
recent suit.
GOLF RULING
In Charlotte on Dec. 5, the state’s
only woman Superior Court judge—
Judge Susie Sharp—ruled that segre
gation had to be ended at Bonnie Brae
(Municipal) Golf Course within 90 days.
It was the first court order directly af
fecting any public facilities in the larg
est city in the two Carolinas.
Judge Sharp ordered that the Char
lotte Park and Recreation Commission
be permanently enjoined from denying
Negroes the right to play on the course,
which is a part of Revolution Park. “I
think that the court has no alternative
but to grant the injunction,” she said.
The 90-day grace period was pro
vided to give the commission a chance
to save 60 acres of the park which might
be lost under reverter clauses. City
Atty. John Shaw indicated that the
right of eminent domain could be ex
ercised over a reverter clause in that
time.
Judge Sharp’s ruling climaxed a legal
battle by 16 Negroes which began early
in 1952. They contended they had been
denied the right to play on the public
course illegally because of race.
CLAIM CONCEDED
City Atty. Shaw, representing the
commission, conceded that the Negroes
had been turned away because of their
race, but denied that this was illegal. He
argued that court decisions upholding
the validity of a reverter clause in a
deed to part of the park property pro
vided legal justification for continued
segregation on the course.
The clause applied to property deed
ed in 1929 by Osmond L. Barringer. It
specifies that the property revert to the
owner if any portion of the park is
opened to Negroes.
Before Judge Sharp issued her ruling,
she asked Spottswood W. Robinson III
of Richmond, Va., attorney for the Ne
groes, if he was willing to work out a
compromise under which Negroes would
get golf facilities while Bonnie Brae
would continue segregated.
“I could not accept anything less than
the privilege of playing at Bonnie Brae,”
said Robinson. He had argued that the
only question was whether the plain
tiffs were denied their rights under the
Fourteenth amendment to the U. S.
Constitution.
SIX ARE SENTENCED
In Greensboro, Superior Court Judge
W. H. Burgwyn gave six Negroes jail
terms of 30 days each after a jury con
victed them of trespassing on a publicly-
owned and privately-operated golf
course—Gillespie Park Golf Course. The
Negroes said they will appeal.
“You men have done your race just
about as much harm as you could possi
bly do,” Judge Burgwyn said in passing
sentence. “I am satisfied that it was a
deliberate move to play on the course
contrary to the wishes of those in pos
session for the purpose of showing that
the Negro race was going to play on that
golf course. There was no rhyme, reason
or excuse for it.”
Judge Burgwyn said the men should
have sought adjudication of their rights
by seeking an injunction in court. They
played on Dec. 7,1955, after placing their
green fees on a counter in the club
house, although they had been advised
they could not play.
In Durham, Dr. Alfonso Elder, Negro
president of North Carolina College in
Durham, told a Duke University student
meeting the young Negro college student
in America “is willing to work for a
stabilization of the struggle between the
races at the level of equality.”
Dr. Elder said the young Negro stu
dent also is willing “to look to the fu
ture with good will, and to let bygones
be bygones.” Outlining some of the
characteristics of the “modern Negro,”
Dr. Elder said one of the most significant
of these characteristics is “the develop
ment of self-confidence.”
“This development of self-confidence
on the part of the Negro is in a very real
sense evidence of the partial fulfillment
of the promise of America,” he said.
Enrollment standards at North Caro
lina’s institutions of higher learning are
going up, the Associated Press reported
after a survey. College officials were
quoted as saying prospective students
will find it even more difficult to enroll
unless they have good academic records.
Of 2,400 male students who applied for
admission at Duke University last year,
only 700 were accepted. Of 1,600 girls
who made application, only 300 were ac
cepted. The University of North Caro
lina reported it admitted slightly more
than a third of the 3,000 students who
filed application.
In December, the State Board of Edu
cation allocated $793,552 in school bond
funds and approved a request for $2
million more in the next two years to
spur the vocational-technical education
program in the public schools.
The bond fund allocations, all for
building purposes, went to schools in all
sections of the state. They brought to
$36,767,313 the amount spent out of a $50
million bond issue approved by the peo
ple in 1953.
In Greensboro, the city school board
voted to permit a Negro school—Dudley
High School—to play its home basket
ball games in the Greensboro Senior
High (white) gymnasium. The first
game was played there Dec. 6.
Arkansas Voters Acted on Possible ’57 Legislation
The Caswell County school suit filed
in U. S. Middle District Court in
Greensboro was brought by attorneys
C. O. Pearson and William A. Marsh,
Jr., of Durham, in the names of a num
ber of minor Negro citizens of the “sta
tutory age limit of eligibility to attend
public schools” and who “possess all
qualifications and satisfy all require
ments for admission.”
Named as “next friends” of the minors
are parents and guardians. The suit was
brought as a “class action, also on be
half of all other Negro children attend
ing public schools in Caswell County.”
The suit asks the court to convene a
three-judge court to enter a temporary
injunction or restraining order enjoin
ing the defendants—the Caswell school
board and other such boards in the state
—from enforcing sections of the state
constitution and general statutes. These
sections, the plaintiffs contend, per
petuate segregated schools.
REQUEST A PLAN
The plaintiffs in the suit asked the
court to issue interlocutory and perma
nent injunctions ordering the defend
ants promptly to present a plan of de
segregation to the court “which will
expeditiously desegregate the schools
of Caswell County and forever restrain
ing and enjoining the defendants...
from thereafter requiring these plain
tiffs and all other Negroes of public
school age to attend public schools in
Caswell County and the state of North
Carolina on a segregated basis.”
Under attack are sections of the con
stitution relating to assignment of stu
dents to schools. Recently approved
constitutional amendments—called the
“Pearsall Plan”—likewise were at
tacked.
These amendments authorize state
tuition grants for private schools, local
option elections on the closing of
schools, and provide a student cannot
be held in violation of the compulsory
school attendance law if he objects to
attending a mixed school.
PLAINTIFFS’ CONTENTION
The Negro plaintiffs contend the
amendments “have as their singular and
sole purpose and effect the continuation
of racial segregation in the public
schools of the state by circuitous meth
ods that will abort, modify, nullify or
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
'J'he Arkansas General Assembly,
which will open its regular 60-day
biennial session Jan. 14, apparently
won’t have much to consider in the way
of legislation on racial segregation in
public schools.
Arkansas voters disposed of most of
the issues in the Nov. 6 general election
by adopting Constitutional Amendment
47 which directs the legislature to
“nullify” the Supreme Court decisions
on racial segregation, Initiated Act No.
2 which gives local school districts the
power to assign pupils to particular
schools and an Initiated Resolution
which proclaims a state policy of in
terposition on the Supreme Court’s de
segregation decisions. (See “Legislative
Action.”)
Other Arkansas developments in
cluded:
Attorneys for the Little Rock school
board, which plans to start desegrega
tion at the high school level in 1957 un
der a plan approved by a federal dis
trict court, said the three anti-integra
tion measures approved in the general
election won’t have much effect on the
board plan. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
The superintendent of Bentonville
schools, where it was revealed last
month that integration had been in
effect two years without incident or
publicity, said that economy had been
the major factor in the board’s de
cision to integrate. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
The legislature will consider and
probably adopt enabling legislation as
directed by Amendment 47—measures
designed to “nullify” the Supreme Court
desegregation decisions and to proclaim
the police powers of the state in an
effort to enforce segregation.
One legislator said he had heard
“some talk” that a measure might be
introduced to require all school chil
dren, regardless of race, to take pe
riodic physical examinations for such
things as tuberculosis and social dis
eases. Such a law possibly could be used
by school districts to supplement the
pupil assignment law in maintaining
racial segregation.
The legislature will be asked to in
crease taxes or adopt new taxes to in
crease the present annual state budget
for public schools from about $30 mil
lion to $48 million.
The extra $18 million a year would
be used to increase teachers’ salaries,
improve facilities and upgrade the
quality of education for both white and
Negro pupils. Some legislators argue
that part of the extra money would help
programs of equalizing white and Ne
gro educational facilities and therefore
would tend to reduce pressure by Ne
groes for integrated facilities.
to accept the Negro as his equal, and
the American Negro is no longer will
ing to accept anything less.”
Harry S. Ashmore, executive editor
of the Arkansas Gazette, in a speech
Nov. 26 at the Freedom Forum of the
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith
at Washington, said that time and the
law were working on the side of the
Negro in his struggle for opportunity.
“Powerful forces are working to pre
serve segregation,” Ashmore said, “but
in every significant test for the last 20
years the forces working against segre
gation have proved stronger.”
Ashmore said that both inside the
South and out of it, the Negro had come
by “a long and tortuous road” to a point
reached by previous generations of im
migrants.
“He is still in his time of horizontal
migration, from farm to city, and from
South to North,” Ashmore said. “But his
vertical migration is beginning, and it
will accelerate. He, too, will break out
of his ghettoes and gain greater accept
ance as his improved opportunities en
able him to earn it.”
TIME’ ELEMENT
Ashmore said the American Negro
faced higher walls of prejudice than
other minorities and added:
“But time is working on his side, and
the law—and the moral force which has
made him a burden on every white
American’s conscience throughout our
national history,” Ashmore said.
He said the dilemma of race relations
facing the South was coming to apply
with equal force to every community
in which Negroes were congregating
in large numbers.
The dilemma, Ashmore said, may be
reduced to this summary statement:
“The American white is not yet ready
Virgil T. Blossom, superintendent of
Little Rock schools, asked the school
board attorneys to outline what effect
the three anti-integration measures
approved in the general election would
have on the Little Rock plan for grad
ual integration.
These are the questions he asked and
the answers given by the attorneys,
A. F. House and Leon Catlett:
Q. How and when do the measures
(Amendment 47, the Interposition Res
olution and Initiated Act. No. 2 for pu
pil assignment) become effective?
A. December 6, 1956.
Q. What effect, if any, do the above
measures have on the Little Rock
School District plan of integration as
approved in the federal district court
by Judge John E. Miller?
‘NO EFFECT’
A. The measures have no effect on the
plan of integration as adopted by the
Little Rock School District. The amend
ment merely directs the legislature of
Arkansas to enact laws opposing the
decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
rendered May 17, 1954, and May 31,
1955. The resolution is only the expres
sion of an attitude and petitions citizens
of the United States and the state to
unite in an effort to amend the federal
Constitution in such a way as to give
the states complete control of the pub
lic schools. The pupil assignment law
is an administrative measure. As long as
it is applied in such a way as not to
discriminate on the basis of color, it
will be upheld. If used as an evasive
tactic, it will rim counter to the federal
Constitution and the federal courts will
halt its enforcement.
Q. Do any, or all, of the above meas
ures alter the federal court’s position
with respect to supervision of Little
Rock’s plan of integration?
A. No.
Q. Is it possible for the Arkansas
General Assembly to enact new legisla
tion as a result of the passage of
Amendment 47 that will alter our plan
of integration in any way?
A. No.
In Raleigh, Dr. C. Horace Hamilton of
the Rural Sociology Department of N.C.
State College reported that non-white
rural residents accounted for the big
gest share of migrants from the state
since the 1951 census. Total migration
was 181,201.
Dr. Hamilton said that while some
whites who left the farms resettled in
North Carolina cities, most of the Ne
groes moved out of the state. He said a
1940-50 study showed that 48.6 per cent
of rural Negroes with more than a year
in college left the state, and expressed
the opinion the same trend is continuing
now. For whites of the same educational
level, the loss was 40.3 per cent.
In Greensboro, the Interracial Com
mission of Greensboro announced that
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Negro
Baptist minister and leader of the
Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott, has ac
cepted an invitation to speak at an in
terracial meeting in that city in March.
The Greensboro Ministers Fellowship,
an interracial group, “enthusiastically”
endorsed King’s appearance. The
Greensboro Council of Church Women
is helping to arrange details of the meet
ing.
ADDITIONAL LAW
Q. Should the Little Rock school
board avail itself of any additional Ar- i
kansas law in the Aaron v. Cooper
(gradual integration) case in the Fed
eral Court of Appeals. (John Aaron et
al v. William G. Cooper et al, Civil Ac- ,
tion No. 3113, U.S. District Court, East
ern District of Arkansas, Western Di
vision.)
A. For the time being, no. According »
to news items, certain school districts
under federal court supervision in the
states which have adopted the pupil
assignment law have petitioned the fed- t
eral courts to dismiss the supervisory
proceedings. In our opinion, no pupil
assignment law can displace federal
court supervision. If, however, our con- (
elusion proves to be incorrect, at the
appropriate time we should ask that the
supervision being given by Judge Miller
be terminated.
Q. Should the Little Rock School
District comply with the pupil assign
ment law?
A. Yes. It is made applicable to all ^
school districts.
Blossom presented the answers u 1
mimeographed form at the Nov. 29
meeting of the Little Rock school t
board without comment.
NO DEADLINE
The school board’s plan calls for in
tegration of the 12th grade in the 1957'
58 school year, with integration fol
lowing in order downward through the
grades. No deadline for completion 0
the process has been set.
The board plan, which was chal'
lenged in a federal court suit by 33 Ne
gro children under NAACP sponsor
ship, was upheld by Federal Distric 1
Judge John E. Miller. NAACP attorneys
had argued that the board’s plan
too slow and too vague.
i
BENTONVILLE DETAILS
R. E. Baker, superintendent of ^
Bentonville School District of Bento ^
County, gave additional details on •
month’s report that the Bentonville dis
trict had integrated two years ago.
He said that in the 1953-54 and 19
55 school years, the district had o -
one Negro of school age—Carl
—who was tutored privately by a
gro woman hired by the district ° n
part-time basis.
Baker said the board decided that
the
expense did not justify such an arrange
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