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Factual VOL. Ill, NO. 8 13-* r .4*^-3 (HFV 0 3N8D8SO *1 * b 21 101 L 9 3wnr HI 1 V) li NASHVILLE, TENN. $2 PER YEAR Objective FEBRUARY, 1957 Background Power to Assign Pupils Is Studied In 7 States Placement Acts Occupy Legislatures, Courts jOupiL placement—the assignment of students to specific schools under various criteria usually ex- 'eluding race—as a method of delaying or avoiding school desegregation is getting increasing attention from southern legislatures. And also from courts. Tennessee last month joined Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia in the adoption of pupil placement acts. Legislation of this type was praised by Florida’s Gov. LeRoy Collins as preventing integration (which he regarded as inevitable under the law) in the “foreseeable future” in his state. And Gov. Orval Faubus urged the Arkansas legislature not to tamper with a placement act adopted by referendum. Meanwhile, Virginia’s placement law was found unconstitutional “on its face” by a federal judge. A sim ilar ruling was returned in January, 1956, by a federal court dealing with Louisiana’s segregation statutes. These laws in both North Carolina and Florida also were under attack in federal court actions. rpm: power of local school boards to assign students to particular schools on the basis of factors other than race appears to be soundly imbedded in school administrative procedures, edu cation authorities say. Court decisions indicate the validity of express legisla tion for this purpose will depend upon the intent with which the power is granted and the execution of such laws on a non-discriminatory basis. This is likely to be the standpoint from which other courts will view the pupil assignment acts that seem to be the focus of state legislatures seeking methods of resolving the problems raised by the Supreme Court’s school segregation decisions. Assignment acts already have been adopted by the leg islatures in Alabama, Florida, Louisi ana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia; adopted by referendum in Arkansas, and are under consideration by the legislature of Texas. Authorities in school administration are of the opinion that the power to assign individual pupils to particular public schools is an inherent one, es sential to the efficient operation of the schools. However, in the absence of express laws it appears to be a discre tionary power, and the criteria on which it is based must have a clear relevance to an educational purpose, these authorities maintain. RECOGNIZED AUTHORITY Says the recognized authority on this subject, Newton Edwards of the Uni versity of South Carolina, in The Courts und the Public Schools: “As a rule, the statutes authorize boards of education to determine what particular school a pupil shall attend. So long as the board acts reasonably and does not abuse its discretion, a pu pil must attend the school to which he is assigned. Where a school board in good faith assigns a pupil to a school m the promotion of the best interests °f education as it conceives it, its dis cretion will not be overruled by the courts. It is not necessary that a child ■ nssigned to the school most conven iently located for his attendance, but a child cannot be required to attend a school so situated as to jeopardize the life of the child in approaching it or so far removed from the residence of the child as to make the distance an un reasonable one to walk.” Legal precedents upon which this interpretation of school boards’ pupil assignment powers are based clearly uphold the authority of school boards to assign pupils on the basis of factors relevant to education and the efficient administration of the school systems. The judicial insistence is equally strong, however, that the powers of the boards, expressed or discretionary, be exer cised in a manner free of abuse or dis crimination. KEY IN LEGISLATION The key to the future of the pupil assignment acts then lies in the acts themselves, in companion legislation and in the administration of it. As can be seen in the accompanying table (page 2), the pupil assignment meas ures have several aspects in common. All except Louisiana’s express or imply the intent of the acts as insuring effi cient education and school administra tion, promoting health, safety and wel fare of the students. The Louisiana act, No. 556, adopted by the 1954 legislature, has been construed by a district court as having for its purpose to implement Act. No. 555 which specifies its intent is to preserve segregation in the schools. On this basis, the 1954 legislation in Louisiana was declared invalid by a three-judge federal court in the case of Bush et al v. Orleans Parish School Board in January, 1956. Said Federal Judge J. Skelly Wright in his opinion on the case: “Act 555 of 1954 implements that constitutional provision [for maintaining segregation through the exercise of the police pow ers] by providing that ‘all public ele mentary and secondary schools in the state of Louisiana shall be operated separately for white and colored chil dren’ and Act 556 of 1954 details the (See ASSIGNMENT LAWS, Page 2) One more district (in Oklahoma) be gan the desegregation process, bringing to 673 the number of districts in the southern and border states having be gun or accomplished desegregation since 1954. Some 3,000 having pupils of both races remain segregated. Two districts in Kentucky where disorders brought the National Guard to the scene at school-opening last Sep tember—Clay and Sturgis—announced Inside • Virginia’s Pupil Place ment Act Invalid ‘On Its Face,’ Says Federal Judge. Text on Page 6. • Alabama’s Doors Close to Autherine Lucy. What the Court Said, on Page 15. • Baltimore’s Third Year of Desegregation — A Special Report. Story on Page 4. • More Time Is ‘Impera tive,’ Federal Judge Tells Virginians in His toric Prince Edward Case. Text on Page 11. desegregation plans. A federal district court upheld the plan of Nashville, Tenn. for first grade desegregation in 1957-58 but directed the school board to return by Dec. 31 with a more complete plan for further desegregation. And in Houston, the nation’s largest segregated district, school trustees indi cated they would present a plan for compliance with the Supreme Court’s decisions by May 1. Five pro-segregation bills, the first adopted in Tennessee, cleared both houses and were signed into law by Gov. Frank Clement, who had spon sored them. A “Tennessee Manifesto” (criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court) was adopted in one house but was awaiting action in the other. In four legislatures including Ten nessee’s, more than a score of bills were pending, all of them designed to strengthen existing school segregation laws. COURT ACTION Other key court decisions involved Memphis State University, where a “stairstep” or five-year desegregation program was ruled invalid by the Sixth Circuit Court, and— • Prince Edward County, Va., where a federal district court refused to set a time limit for previously court-ordered desegregation. • The Autherine Lucy case, in which a federal court upheld the right of Uni versity of Alabama officials to expel the former Negro coed, apparently fore closing her attempts to enter the uni versity but leaving the door open to other qualified Negroes. • South Carolina’s ban on state em ployment of members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, transferred from feder al to state courts in a three-judge split decision. • Louisiana’s effort to remove Ne groes from state colleges, enjoined by federal court orders. A state-by-state summary of major developments follows: Alabama The attempt of Mrs. Autherine Lucy Foster to enter the University of Ala bama apparently ended with a federal court ruling which upheld her expul sion from the university for unproven charges that authorities had conspired in the Feb. 6, 1956 riots on the campus. However, the ruling was interpreted as leaving the university’s doors open to other qualified Negroes. Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus warned against tampering with the state’s pupil assign ment act lest it be “jeopardized” as the legislature opened a 60-day session. No bills on school segregation-desegrega tion had been introduced by the end of January. Delaware A special study of classroom teacher salaries made in the area outside Wil mington shows that a slightly greater percentage of Negro teachers have more college training than whites and that the median salary for white teachers is slightly higher. District of Columbia In a report to the board of education Supt. Hobart M. Corning rejected changes in the school system recom mended by congressional investigators and, in effect, charged the probers with having made up their minds in advance of the hearings. Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins told Floridians in his inaugural address that integration was inevitable as a matter of law but said that the state, under its pupil as signment law, has found a way to keep schools segregated for the “foreseeable future.” Georgia New legislation designed to augment the state’s segregation laws—one giving the governor broader powers to deal with disorders—occupied the General Assembly in the first weeks of its ses sion. Kentucky Three western counties, including two where disorders occurred last Sep tember (at Clay and Sturgis) filed de segregation plans. Under court direc tion a fourth county filed a new plan to speed up completion of the desegrega tion process. Louisiana A federal court ruling apparently opened the way to continued integra tion in state colleges, with an actual showdown predicted this month after Negroes seek to re-register. Maryland The number of Negroes enrolled in Baltimore’s formerly all-white schools in the third year of desegregation is now double that of the last school year, according to a survey, but a large ma jority remains in all-Negro schools. Some movement of Negroes back to an all-Negro high school is reported from desegregated Montgomery County. Mississippi Gov. J. P. Coleman announced that a special session of the legislature, report edly concerning in part the school seg regation-desegregation question, would not be called. Missouri A flare-up of racial tension following a murder and rape occurred in the “bootheel,” a section which has been slower than the rest of the state to be gin school desegregation. North Carolina The legislature may be asked to re enact pro-segregation tuition grant and school-closing legislation passed at a special session last year and later writ ten into the constitution by referendum. Oklahoma A federal court ordered four Negroes admitted to the Earlsboro district high school (the 184th district in Oklahoma to report mixed classes) but permitted the district to segregate other pupils until the 1957-58 school year. Gov. Ray mond Gary, citing economies under a state integration policy, told the legis lature that these savings and improved finances would permit more “liberal” support for schools. South Carolina A handful of new pro-segregation measures has been introduced in the state legislature. A suit arising over a law banning public employment of NAACP members was transferred from (See PLACEMENT ACTS, Page 2) College Segregation-Desegregation Issue Revived By New Court Action J?EDERAL-.JUDICIAL AND STATE-LEGISLATIVE Ruthoritv met head-on last month in ?. case involving segregation-desegrega- ,.°n ln Louisiana colleges and universi- ' e s. At the same time, other legal action , rou ght into sharp focus again the is- f at the higher level of education er e the segregation wall was first br ®ached 22 years ago. s a federal district court enjoined Ur Louisiana institutions from imple- to ent ' ng a 1956 legislative plan designed a j e ' se S re gate state-supported colleges Universities, these other develop- m ®nts occurred: of ^‘ e University of Alabama board coi ? Stees vvas a U. S. district Aubi ') lat was “justified” in expelling , e rine Lucy Foster last February v e rs> Se << l )ase l ess ” charges that uni- fi ot f y au thorities had conspired in the ~ drove her from the campus. ^"NESSEE PLAN UPSET p^ a j y 16 Sixth Circuit Court of Ap- Aw. keld that the Tennessee five-year Hot gre ® a lj° n plan for state colleges did Ccurt° mply w ' tPl the U. S. Supreme 3) tr ^ ese gregation decision. a gain , ear ' n ?s ’n the Horace Ward case w, s the Georgia University System i r dicat° mP ' etecl w 'lh the federal judge th e his decision would turn on plj c ^ Mastic qualifications of the ap- crim; anc ' not on alleged racial dis- ■p^ation. the ] S cons titutes the current phase in Hi ch attack against segregation frajjj^hagan in the 1930s within the doetrj or h of the separate but equal Ut iiv 6r *" ases involving colleges and h g ® Itles laid the groundwork for the 17, i3 .;P^me Court decision of May »Ublj c ^hich held that “in the field of ''as n. , Uca tion ‘separate but equal’ 10 Place,” The Maryland Court of Appeals in 1S35 was the first court to apply literally the separate but equal doctrine. In a case brought by Donald Murray seeking admission to the University of Mary land law school this court became the first to specify desegregation as a rem edy where no other was readily avail able. Murray was the first Negro thus to enter a heretofore white college or university under a court order. He was graduated in 1938. In that same year the, U. S. Supreme Court held state scholarship arrange ments to provide Negroes the education they sought outside the state did not satisfy the separate but equal require ment in the case of Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada. The decision also held that the right to equal education was an individual one that had to be met within the state. Ten years later in the Sipuel case, the Supreme Court expanded this decision to hold that the equal facilities required under the separate but equal doctrine had to be extended to one race as soon as they were provided for the other. The court refused in further prosecu tion of the case to rule directly on the question of segregation. In 1950 the court, in the McLaurin case also involving graduate level edu cation at the University of Oklahoma, held that once a student was admitted under the separate but equal doctrine, he was entitled to “the same treatment at the hands of the state as students of other races.” IMPOSSIBLE TO MAINTAIN On the same day, June 5, 1950, how ever, the court in the case of Sweatt v. Painter set criteria so exacting for pro viding a legal education for a Texas Ne gro that separate but equal facilities on the graduate and professional levels were impossible to maintain. The cri teria included such tangibles as the size of the library, the number of instruct ors, the existence of professional or ganizations; and such intangibles as the reputation of the school and the posi tions within the profession held by graduates of the school. In consequence of these decisions and of actions taken by university directors in the light of such decisions, at least 110 of the 208 publicly-supported col leges and universities in the South now have policies under which Negroes may be accepted. Between 95 and 100 insti tutions actually have Negroes on the campus. The number of Negroes attend ing formerly all-white schools is not known but estimates indicate it prob- (See COLLEGES, Page 2) Index State Page Alabama 15 Arkansas 3 Delaware 3 District of Columbia 10 Florida 7 Georgia 9 Kentucky 12 Louisiana 16 Maryland 4 Mississippi 12 Missouri 14 North Carolina 5 Oklahoma 14 South Carolina 10 Tennessee 8 Texas 13 Virginia 6 West Virginia 5