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PAGE 16—FEBRUARY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Louisiana Court Decisions
Keep Colleges Integrated
NEW ORLEANS, La.
ederal court orders opened the way
for continued integration in state
colleges by restraining them from de
nying registration to “non-certified”
Negroes.
The orders affect Louisiana State
University, Southwestern Louisiana In
stitute, Southeastern Louisiana College
and McNeese College.
LSU’s president, Gen. Troy Middleton,
said the university would “abide by the
law.” But any more specific statement
waited on the decision reached by a
conference of the state attorney general
and his staff with LSU attorneys. All
LSU law graduates were invited to sit
in.
OTHER SUITS READIED
The attorney who represented LSU
graduate student Amease Ludley, a
Negro, before Federal Judge Herbert
Christenberry said similar suits were
in preparation. Attorney A. P. Tur-
eaud Sr. said the court would be asked
to keep Negro undergraduates in three
other state colleges, pending a full hear
ing on two 1956 segregation laws.
A federal court took under advise
ment an appeal by the Orleans School
Board from a year-old integration ord
er. (See “Legal Action.”)
The attorney for New Orleans school
authorities argued that the 1954 state
law involved was not a segregation
statute and that a judge erred in citing
segregation decisions in other states.
The attempt to legislate Louisiana’s
tax-supported colleges back to a segre
gated status was headed for an early-
February showdown. When the second
semester begins in the four integrated
colleges, Negroes will head for the class
rooms of all four with federal court
backing.
Federal Judge Christenberry signed,
a few hours after it was presented to
the court, an order restraining Louisi
ana State University from barring Ne
groes solely because they do not have a
“moral eligibility” certificate now re
quired by Louisiana law.
This court action took place in New
Orleans Jan. 17, at a time when about
200 integrated Negro collegians were
taking final fall semester exams. This
was to be their last activity in the for
merly all-white colleges—or so the
Georgia
(Continued From Page 9)
Nixon the Negro leaders asked that he
make a tour of the South “similar to
the one made in behalf of Hungarian
refugees.” The group said: “We told him
that through such a trip he could report
to the President and the American peo
ple the economic boycotts and reprisals,
the bombings and violence directed
against the persons and homes of Ne
groes who assert their rights under
the Constitution.”
R. Carter Pittman of Dalton, presi
dent of the States’ Rights Council of
Georgia, Inc., said the Negro leaders
meeting in Atlanta, called on Mayor
William Hartsfield “and he delivered
according to plan.” Pittman also
charged in a telegram to the President
that Communists were responsible for
bombing Negro churches and resi
dences in the South. Pittman asked co
operation of the FBI with state authori
ties in halting such outbreaks.
Open criticism of the legal conduct of
Horace Ward, Atlanta Negro seeking
entrance to the University of Georgia’s
school of law, and of Ward’s attorneys
was voiced by U.S. District Judge Frank
A. Hooper of Atlanta.
Judge Hooper, presiding at a hearing
to clarify points raised during the re
cent trial of Ward v. Board of Regents
of the University System of Georgia
(Southern School News, December,
1956), said Ward should have informed
the court in September that he had been
accepted as a student by the North
western University law school in Chi
cago instead of waiting until the start of
the trial in December to make the dis
closure. The judge said the court made
every effort to bring the suit to an early
decision under the mistaken impression
that Ward wanted to enter the Georgia
law school last fall. Judge Hooper said
Ward’s attorneys did everything they
could to keep the action from coming
to trial in September.
Ward first applied for admission to
drafters of two 1956 legislative acts be
lieved.
Then, on Jan. 28, Judge Christenberry
signed orders, requested on behalf of
Negro students, affecting SLC at Ham
mond and SLI at Lafayette. The same
day Judge J. Skelly Wright granted a
similar request applying to McNeese at
Lake Charles.
The 1956 laws under fire are Act 15,
which requires the certificate, signed
by high school authorities, from all
state college registrants; and Act 249,
which says that a school official can be
fired for promoting racial integration.
The bill’s authors made it clear that
signing a certificate for a Negro who
declared his intention to register at a
once all-white college would be a firing
offense.
This barrier to integration was air
tight, segregationists declared, and be
cause of it racial mixing would end in
colleges, after six court-backed years,
with the registration for the spring
semester. This was to be the first time
the certificates would be required of
both old and new students. In the fall,
1956, semester only first-time registrants
were barred because they did not have
certificates.
Then, a 23-year-old Ruston Negro,
Arnease Ludley, asked the District
Federal Court to restrain LSU officials
from denying her registration because
of her “inability, solely because of race,”
to secure a certificate. Her petition
claimed that “immediate and irreparable
damage” would follow if she were bar
red from LSU. Miss Ludley is one se
mester away from a master’s degree in
sociology.
SCOPE OF ORDER
Judge Christenberry signed the order
and applied it to “all others similarly
situated.” Named in the suit were Mrs.
Margaret Dixon and the other members
of the LSU board of supervisors.
LSU President Troy Middleton said
the university would “abide by the law,”
and that his intention included abiding
by state laws as long as they stood on
the books.
But before issuing a flat statement
that they would or would not readmit
Negro graduate students (LSU remains
segregated at the undergraduate level)
LSU authorities huddled with private
and elected attorneys.
State Atty. Gen. Jack Gremillion
called a conference in Baton Rouge for
Jan. 29. He said it was to analyze the
state’s legal position in the light of the
the all-white university six years ago
and sought federal court relief when he
was turned down. The state argued
Ward was denied admission because
he was unqualified and not because
he is a Negro. Judge Hooper said that
in view of this position, the most the
court could say is that the Negro’s re
jection is “tainted with the spirit of
discrimination.” When a university
spokesman declared that a qualified
Negro applicant would be accepted by
the law school, the judge said, the issue
became one of individual qualifications
and not racial discrimination as in most
such litigation.
Herman Talmadge, one of the South’s
leading pro-segregation spokesmen,
took his seat as U.S. Senator from Geor
gia. Commenting on the President’s
State of the Union address, Sen. Tal
madge said that the creation of federal
agencies to reinforce civil rights “is a
curtailment rather than a protection of
civil rights and a step toward totali
tarian government.”
WILKINS SPEAKS
Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive sec
retary, told a “Freedom Dinner” audi
ence in Atlanta that the organization
is growing stronger despite attacks by
the southern states. “The opposition plan
is to cripple the NAACP,” he said. “If
they can keep us busy in court defend
ing ourselves and keep us paying out
money in fees and fines, they hope to
kill us.” Wilkins added that the NAACP
was having “a rough time . . . but we
are far from dead.” He said that south
ern school bonds are being snubbed by
financial houses and those that are be
ing purchased are at an all-time high
interest rate.
District of Columbia
(Continued From Page 10)
of the full committee, agreed with most
subcommittee members that efforts to
restore segregation would be fruitless.
However, he said, he hoped for some
“palliative” measures.
i
JUDGE HERBERT CHRISTENBERRY
Enjoins Colleges
federal order. Expected to attend were
several of Gremillion’s staff who are as
signed to segregation matters and LSU’s
legal counsel. Invited were “all LSU
alumni, especially law school gradu
ates.”
Another topic at the conference was
to be a loophole discovered by four
other Negro students. They are Louisi
anians who attended high school outside
the state. During the first days of spring
term registration they filed their certifi
cates, signed as required, with LSU
registrar Albert L. Clary Jr.
The Ludley petition, filed by attorney
A. P. Tureaud, requested a full hearing
before a three-judge court on the state
laws involved. The laws infringe upon
the equal protection guaranteed by the
federal constitution, Tureaud said.
RAINACH RAPS ORDER
State Sen. William Rainach of Homer
saw “the whole sordid affair” as “the
price we are paying for an era of judi
cial lawlessness.” Rainach is chairman
of the legislative segregation committee.
The Orleans Parish (county) school
board’s appeal of a February, 1956 de
segregation order was in the hands of
a three-judge federal appeal panel after
a hearing in January.
Judges Richard T. Rives of Birming
ham, Elbert Tuttle of Atlanta and John
R. Brown of Houston, of the U. S. Fifth
Circuit Court, took the Orleans plea
(in Bush v. Orleans School Board) un
der advisement after hearing 45 min
utes’ argument by each side.
Most of the time was given over to
discussion of administrative remedies
Meanwhile members of Congress
were studying sections of President
Eisenhower’s state of the union mes
sage dealing with federal aid to schools
and civil rights legislation. The Presi
dent reiterated his call for a four-point
civil rights program (shelved last year
in the Senate after House passage) and
urged that high priority be given to the
administration’s program for reducing
the shortage of classrooms.
Alluding to last year’s Powell (anti
segregation) amendment, the President
expressed hope that at this session fed
eral school aid can be “enacted on its
own merits, uncomplicated by provi
sions dealing with the complex prob
lems of integration.”
On Jan. 28 the President sent a spe
cial message to Congress calling for ap
propriation of $325 million a year for
four years for school construction aid.
The states would provide matching
funds after the first year according to
a formula which takes into account
school-age population, relative financial
ability and total effort within the states
to provide funds for public schools.
The 17 southern and border states
would fare this way:
State
Federal Allotment
Per State Per Child
State or
Local
Matching
Funds
Alabama
..$11,148,000
$13.48
$5,573,000
Arkansas
.. 6,620,000
13.51
3,310,000
Delaware .....
381,000
4.95
762,000
D.C
.. 1,333,000
9.01
1,333,000
Florida
.. 6,309,000
8.97
5,437,000
Georgia
.. 11,926,000
12.63
5,962,000
Kentucky ....
.. 8,917,000
11.63
4,458,000
Louisiana ....
.. 9,204,000
12.34
4,601,000
Maryland ...,
.. 4,496,000
7.86
5,809,000
Mississippi ..
.. 7,772,000
12.95
3,885.000
Missouri
,. 5,885,000
6.96
6,424,000
N. Carolina ..
,. 14,615,000
13.01
7,306,000
Oklahoma ....
,. 5,998,000
11.38
3,496,000
S. Carolina ...
,. 8,727,000
13.51
4,363,000
Tennessee ...,
,. 10,144,000
11.99
5,071,000
Texas
.. 19,842,000
9.79
13,846,000
Virginia
. 9,275,000
10.92
6.018,000
West Virginia
6,699,000
12.64
3,349,000
As Congress convened, Rep. Adam
Clayton Powell (D-N.Y.), author of last
year’s Powell amendment, said he was
“toying with the idea” of introducing
legislation to cut off any federal educa
tion funds from areas resisting Supreme
Court desegregation decisions.
Among early legislation introduced
under the pupil assignment law (Act
556 of 1954) against which the original
suit was in part directed.
Gerard A. Rault, special attorney for
the school board, said the 90 Negroes
who brought the suit should have taken
their request first to the school board
and then to the state court. He said the
plaintiffs made only a half-hearted ap
peal to the school board and then
skipped the other appeal steps to take
the matter to federal court.
Robert L. Carter of the NAACP’s New
York office argued the other side.
The law does not require “futile ap
peal,” he contended. “The school board
was put on notice that these children
would seek a change in their school
assignment. Instead of setting a date
for a hearing,” Carter continued, “the
school board hired legal counsel. There
was no suggestion that if all adminis
trative remedies were exhausted the
matter would not wind up in federal
court anyway.”
Rault said the year-old order by
Judge J. Skelly Wright should be set
aside for other reasons as well: because
this was a case of the state being sued
without its permission; and because the
plaintiffs sought an affirmative action
by the school board (revamping of its
entire system) by pleading “an essen
tially negative amendment” of the U. S.
Constitution, the Fourteenth.
CITES ‘NEGATIVE AMENDMENT’
Rault said that Judge Wright erred
in citing both the Fourteenth Amend
ment and the Brown v. Board of Educa
tion ruling of the Supreme Court. “The
Bush suit tried to get the school board
to re-vamp its entire system by putting
it on a compulsory integrated basis,”
Rault argued. “That would mean an af
firmative action by the state, something
not covered by the essentially negative
Fourteenth Amendment.
“The Brown case,” he continued, “is
no magic key which opens the golden
path to desegregation. That case does
not solve everything, and jurisprudence
which tries to make it do so will have
a bad effect in the future.”
Rault pointed out that the 1954 Su
preme Court desegregation ruling for
bids state action requiring segregation
of children in public schools, but does
not require integration of races “which
this suit attempts to do.”
The section of Act 556 which is di
rectly challenged, Rault said, “is not a
segregation law. There is no mention
of race. It merely spells out a power
which is inherently a part of any school
administrator’s job, assigning pupils.”
QUESTIONS FROM BENCH
It was at this point that questions
from the appeals judges drew Rault into
topics not covered by his written brief.
in the House was a bill by Rep. E. L.
Forrester (D-Ga.) providing that no
federal court, administrative or execu
tive agency could have either original
or appellate jurisdiction in matters af
fecting state school systems.
The smooth process of integration in
Washington Catholic schools was
praised recently by Father Albert S.
Foley, S.J., of Spring Hill College, Mo
bile, Ala.
The Jesuit sociologist, in a paper on
desegregation in the nation’s capital pa
rochial school system, cited the quiet,
behind-the-scenes efforts of Archbishop
Patrick A. O’Boyle of Washington
which he said made the transition pos
sible.
The priest noted that Catholic
school desegregation in Washington was
“paralleled and accompanied by the
problem of the premature panic evac
uation of parish neighborhoods by white
parishioners whose families formed the
backbone both of school and of parish
life.”
‘PANIC EVACUATIONS’
Father Foley said if the “panic evac
uations” continue it could amount to a
“re-segregation of areas that have be
come desegregated in recent years.”
Father Foley said that there are 186
non-whites in 13 out of 16 schools in
the Catholic secondary school network
today. The priest added that in the
summer of 1949, a committee of parish
pastors and the director of archdiocesan
education decided to admit to the lower
grades kindergarten to third—any
bona fide Negro Catholic applicants
whose parents were residents of their
respective parish.”
The Washington experience,” Father
Foley said, “has demonstrated that the
vast majority of students on both the
elementary and secondary level accept
the change of policy and the admission
of Negro students without overt nega
tive reactions.”
Judge Brown said “the section of the
act you refer to does not mention ‘race’
but if a school board superintendent
chose to assign a Negro to a white
school, wouldn’t he go to jail under the
criminal provision of another part 0 f
the act?”
Rault answered he “could not assume '
what a superintendent might do. The
matter would have to go to the courts.”
“I think we can assume,” Judge
Brown answered, “that the affidavits '
and arguments in this case encompass
the total legal segregation scheme.”
Carter was also drawn from the line
of argument in his written brief hv *
judicial questioning. Did he “construe
Judge Wright’s ruling as prohibiting
voluntary segregation,” he was asked
“No,” Carter said, “but every single r
person has the right to make his own 1
decision as to whether he wants to he
segregated.”
A “friend of the court” brief was also |
before the panel. It was filed by state
Atty. Gen. Jack Gremillion. He asked
for dismissal of the suit on several
grounds: lack of federal jurisdiction in
a suit against the state; the lower court’s
“error” in basing a decision affecting
Louisiana laws on evidence from Kan.
sas and Delaware cases; and because a 1
single judge instead of a three-judge
court ruled on a question of constitu
tionality.
NAACP LISTS MEMBERS
During the month the NAACP took
one step toward reactivation—filing its
membership roster in Baton Rouge. But
it did not take the second step, holding
organized meetings.
“The state court’s injunction of March
29, 1956, still stands as far as I’m con-
cemed,” Atty. Gen. Gremillion said. He
admitted he was “confused, just like
everybody else,” by a state appeal
court’s ruling which reverted the status
of the anti-NAACP suit (Louisiana v. '
John G. Lewis et al) to March 28, the
day the NAACP filed for removal to
federal court.
“If they make a move in federal court,
I’m ready with a motion for removal
back to state court,” Gremillion said.
The NAACP, however, sat on its legal
hands during January, after it filed its ’
lists.
GROUPS FILE LISTS
Louisiana law requires private, non- ,
religious organizations to list their
membership with the secretary of state
between Dec. 15 and 31. It is a 1924
law, largely ignored until last year, (
when it was dusted off and used on the
non-filing NAACP.
Putting aside its expressed fear of
“reprisal and discrimination” against
members, the NAACP listed 475 mem
bers from various state chapters.
Kentucky
(Continued From Page 12)
qualified Negro teachers lost their jobs
as a result of desegregation. Seventeen
were reported having left Kentucky,
with 10 still in the state unemployed or
working at non-teaching jobs.
The report quoted one principal as
saying his two Negro teachers are
highly competent and have no difficul
ties with pupils or parents.”
Praise instead of censure was gi ve0 ,
the teachers of Clay in a report by th e
National Education Association on J 3 ®'
11.
Last fall some stories erroneously ft" ,
ported that some teachers at Clay ha
deserted their classrooms during deseg
regation disorders. After CalifonUj
teachers by resolution had express* 1 ^
“reasonable concern for the enttt®
teaching profession” over the inciden
the NEA’s defense commission i nv ® stI
gated. Its findings, summed up by Ri® 1 " J
ard B. Kennan: ,
“Rather than censure, the cer *^?f!
teachers of Clay and particularly “J
principal, Mrs. Irene Powell, deser7 e
the strong commendation of their c° “
leagues. They did not desert th*f
classrooms, but carried on patient,
and faithfully.
All-Negro teams as well as raclS ^
mixed quintets are ranked high am° ’
basketball championship prospects
the Kentucky High School Athletic ^
sociation tournament in March.
Negro high schools located in deseg*^
gated districts are eligible for the ^
gional and state tournaments. Two
these, Louisville Central and Coving*^
Grant, currently top statewide te^
ratings. Louisville Central, not elig 1 ^
for membership in the KHSAA
Louisville’s desegregation program ,
gan last fall, won the Negro Natm^,
High School championship the pa s *
years.
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