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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY 1957—PAGE 9 Georgia Legislature at Work on More Bills to Keep MACON, Ga. G eorgia's General Assembly began to grind out more state laws designed to maintain segregation, against a back ground of several racial incidents over the state. Bills giving the governor broader powers, permitting the Georgia Educa tion Commission to subpoena witnesses and protecting the pension rights of teachers who transfer from public in tegrated to private segregated schools were being hastened along the legisla tive route. But a proposal to repeal the compulsory school attendance law was apparently to be shelved unless deseg regation actually began. (See “Legisla tive Action.”) In Atlanta, six Negro ministers who were arrested on charges of refusing to sit in seats assigned by a city transit system bus driver said they welcomed a test of Georgia’s segregation laws. (See “Miscellaneous.”) The introduction of measures de signed to strengthen segregation de fenses was the first order of business following organization of the 1957-58 General Assembly of Georgia. Four bills recommended by the Geor gia Education Commission, an agency created by the legislature to find means of legally circumventing the U. S. Su preme Court’s public school desegrega tion ruling, were introduced in the House. The House swiftly approved three of them and the Senate was expected by observers to follow suit. The measures receiving a green light in the House would: 1) Continue retirement and pension benefits for public school teachers who accept employment in non-sectarian private schools when Georgia imple ments its “last resort” private school plan of segregation defense. 2) Give the governor new powers and Tennessee (Continued From Page 8) spoke on the moral and spiritual aspect of the segregation question. Kershaw said: “The tragedy of America today is that the well-meaning liberal has been mis led into believing that segregation is based on race hatred. To segregate with mutual respect is Christian love. To ► integrate is to destroy racial differences and therefore, in the most profound sense, it is an expression of racial hatred tor it has no respect for cultural and i racial differences.” NECESSITY DISCLAIMED Dr. Preston Valien, a Negro, is pro fessor of sociology at Fisk University. He said: If these bills demonstrate one thing, they demonstrate that no educational Measures are necessary for the orderly desegregation of the public schools in Tennessee. The legislation proposed is e gally unconstitutional, administra- hvely unworkable and totally unneces- * sery. They show people struggling with ®eir consciences. They are unwilling to ™ what is wrong and they are unwill- to do what is right.” • He said the bill permitting voluntary s egregation would create three types 0 schools, “one white, one for Negroes ®d one American.” t One of the few colloquies of the hear- *g took place when Rep. Harry Lee *' ter of Bristol asked Valien if de legated schools are American, “does * , a t m ean the state of Tennessee has ^ operating un-American schools?” w slien replied: “I wouldn’t say that elways so but it is so since the U j^ eme Court decision.” th ? 6r then asked: “Do you think bad ^ Upreme Court is a policy-setting Hiat they determine what is 1 Sa^ Can an< ^ w h ,at is un-American?” „ a *d Valien: “As far as the law is ^ned, yes.” ?et>i ® course °f testimony, two • k amendments were suggested s ‘ ren gthen” the Clement bills. S< j?°OLFIELD’S PROPOSAL $ c j i yMinal Court Judge Raulston esta/?. old of Chattanooga proposed ’dent k ent a state pupil assign- be rs t>°ard composed of seven mem- atKj f the legislature, three senators *° uld °“f representatives. His proposal a Utho • ves t local school boards of any ter lty m assigning pupils and trans- to jj^Plete authority in this function S$hn r ®commended state board, for Crownover of Nashville, counsel Goy ® federation for Constitutional *.!£*■*, suggested a bill to cut off bUr 0,^ to integrated schools “as tion.” y rea l defense against integra- permit him to promulgate and enforce his own rules and regulations with the force of law in integration disorders or in any case in which the chief execu tive believes an emergency exists. 3) Grant the Georgia Education Com mission subpoena powers for investiga tions. A fourth House bill, which would re peal the state’s compulsory school at tendance law, remained bottled up in committee after education officials and several legislators expressed opposition. Proponents argued the present law would force white children to attend school with Negroes in event of inte gration. ESTIMATE 10% DROP Educators, estimating school attend ance would drop 10 per cent with out right repeal of the law, suggested com pulsory attendance be required so long as the schools are segregated. Gov. Marvin Griffin said “if it can be done constitutionally,” he would go along with the compromise. “I just don’t want any little old thing hanging like they had in Clinton, Term.,” he said. “Judge Taylor wanted the school inte grated and then they tried to force par ents to send their children to the in tegrated school under the compulsory school law.” Although the bill to repeal the com pulsory school attendance law was ap parently not to be pushed by admin istration forces, the other legislative recommendations of the GEC received only token opposition in the House. PROMOTE VIEWPOINT Another administration proposal ex pected to gain swift legislative approval would authorize the GEC to present “the Georgia and southern point of view” on racial problems relating to education, with the state paying the expenses. A Senate committee approved a bill to prohibit all interracial dancing, so cial functions, entertainments, athletic the education committees of both House and Senate approved the school bills. Two days later, the bills passed through the House with only four dissenting votes. And the dissenting votes were cast on only two of the bills, the pupil assignment and voluntary segregation laws. SENATE ACTS SLOWLY Passage of the bill in the 33-member Senate, however, was somewhat slower. On Jan. 17, the same day the House passed the bills, the Senate judiciary committee recommended four of the bills for passage but withheld action on the fourth—the voluntary segregation law—pending further study. At the meeting, the senators called in a Nashville attorney, Val Sanford, one of the authors of the bills, and ques tioned him on the constitutionality of the program. Sen. James Cummings of Cannon County asked if it would not be wise to insert somewhere in both the pupil assignment and voluntary segregation bills a sentence “clearly stating that nothing in the proposed laws would prevent a school system from desegre gating should it desire to do so.” He said he was worried about the voluntary segregation bill’s constitutionality, and particularly about the fact that if con sidered along with the other bills, it might be the cause of all being declared unconstitutional “and leave us standing there naked.” PERMISSIVE FEATURE NOTED Sanford said he did not subscribe to their worries over the constitutionality of the bills. He pointed out that the pupil assignment law was “permissive in nature” and had no binding effect on any local school board. The same was true of the voluntary segregation bill, he said. Sen. Clifford Allen of Nashville chal lenged both bills as to their constitu tionality and their “permissiveness.” “What does the [assignment] bill mean by ‘established social relationships’ other than segregation,” he asked. “This bill would not be upheld even by the supreme court of our own state. SENATE VOTE After one more meeting to consider the voluntary segregation bill, the Sen ate passed all five of the measures with ease on Jan. 22. The assignment bill received only three dissenting votes, four were cast against the voluntary segregation bill and one was cast against the measure permitting school boards to transfer pupils from one system to another. , . , ,, The only other major legislative pro posal on the school issue was a resolu tion deploring and denouncing the Su preme Court school segregation rulings. Fulton County’s Greatest Challenge ’ iw-i -Atlanta Constitution training, games, sports or contests “and other such activities”; and to require separate seating, drinking water and sanitary arrangements for members of the white and Negro races at any enter tainment or athletic contests where the public is invited or may attend. The author of the measure, Sen. Leon E. Butts of Lumpkin, said it was de signed to “get the Negroes out of base ball.” Gov. Griffin said he approved Sen. Butts’ bill. COOK’S NAACP BILLS Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook said he had drafted legislation for submission to the General Assembly which would: 1) Have the legislature designate the NAACP as “an organization subversive to the constitution and laws of the state of Georgia.” 2) Create a legislative committee with authority to investigate the internal af fairs of such organizations as the NAACP. 3) Call on U. S. Atty. Gen. Herbert Brownell Jr. to place the NAACP on This resolution, called by some the “Tennessee Manifesto,” was introduced in both houses on the day the Assembly convened. The resolution was intro duced separately in each house and since it was not a joint resolution, its passage by each house would require no action by the governor. The resolution was adopted by the House the same day it approved the school bills by a vote of 71 to 7. The Senate has not acted on the resolution. LEGAL ACTION Federal Judge William E. Miller has accepted the Nashville School Board’s proposal to desegregate city schools at the first grade beginning next Septem ber. He gave the board until Dec. 31 to submit definite plans for desegregation of the other 11 grades. In its answer to a suit in behalf of 19 Negroes and two white children who first sought to enter schools with white students in 1955, the school board pro posed the first grade integration plan as a “good faith” attempt to comply with the U. S. Supreme Court ruling. The board had offered to decide by next December what to do about segre gation in other grades. Pending submis sion of the complete plan, the court withheld action on the request of the NAACP for an injunction prohibiting segregation in public schools of the city. Z. Alexander Looby, Nashville attor ney who represented the NAACP in the case, said he would have to study Mil ler’s opinion in detail before deciding whether to appeal it. Edwin Hunt, one of two attorneys for the school board in the matter, said he will recommend the board’s compliance with the court order. KNOXVILLE CASE In Knoxville 14 Negro children filed a petition in U. S. district court seeking admission to two all-white secondary and two all-white elementary schools. The petition said the Negroes, 11 girls and three boys, sought admission to white schools last September but were turned away by school authorities. The Negroes asked the court to issue a permanent injunction “forever re straining and enjoining” school officials from refusing to admit them and “other persons similarly situated” as students in all Knoxville public schools. The city school board last May re jected a plea by Negro leaders that it desegregate Knoxville schools with the opening of the September term. The board referred the suit to the city law department, saying it was “ready and the federal subversive list 4) Ask the judiciary committee of the U. S. House of Representatives to hold a public hearing on civil rights meas ures. 5) Give the governor of Georgia pow ers similar to those employed by Gov. LeRoy Collins of Florida in temporarily suspending operation of city buses in Tallahassee because of violence over integrated seating. Rep. David C. Jones of Worth County introduced a bill in the House which would deal with the integration prob lem through migration. Jones’ plan would establish a com mission to give state money to send children of “integration-minded” par ents outside Georgia for their educa tion. The commission would have eight members, including three “intelligent” Negroes. An initial appropriation of five mil lion dollars to finance activities of the commission was asked by Jones. GRIFFIN SPEECHES Gov. Griffin touched on racial mat ters in two speeches before joint ses sions of the House and Senate. In his state of the state report, the governor promised to “protect both our white and colored citizens in Georgia from mob violence, abuse and unbridled intimidation from whatever source it may come.” He added, “As long as I am your governor, there will be no break down in the pattern of segregation in this state.” This statement drew the heaviest applause. “No matter what any court may rule,” said Griffin, “the Constitution of the United States and the crystallized pub lic sentiment of an overwhelming ma jority of the people remains ‘the law of the land’.” In his annual budget message, Gov. Griffin said, “We are determined to pre vent any such unfortunate incidents from taking place in Georgia like those which have occurred in some of our sister southern states.” willing” to hire special lawyers, if nec essary, to handle the case. MEMPHIS CASE The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Cincinnati, reversed a deci sion by a Memphis district judge in which he had refused to order, in ef fect, the admission of five Negroes to Memphis State University (formerly Memphis State College). In a 2 to 1 decision, the court ordered the case sent back to District Judge Ma rion Boyd for further action. It was one in which Ruth Booker, Nellie Peoples, Mardes Knowles Vanhook, Elijah Noel and Joseph McGhee, Jr., sought an in junction to prevent the Tennessee State Board of Education and officials of the university from denying them admis sion to the school. In his decision, given Nov. 22, 1955, Judge Boyd denied the injunction re quest but approved a plan proposed by the Board of Education under which there would be total desegregation at the school within five years. Circuit Court Judges Charles C. Simons of Detroit and Florence Allen of Cleveland voted to reverse the decision while Judge Shackleford Miller Jr., of Louisville, Ky., dissented. NOT EQUIPPED In its defense of the case, the school board declared the University was not equipped to admit a freshman class in excess of 1,000 students and proposed the five-year plan. This calls for the ad mission of properly qualified graduate students in September of 1955, seniors in September 1956, juniors at the begin ning of the next school year and sopho mores and freshmen in successive years. In Nashville, Atty. Gen. George F. McCanless said he plans to seek a re view of the decision by the U. S. Su preme Court. The contempt of court cases against 16 residents of Clinton and Anderson County, originally scheduled to be heard on Jan. 28, were postponed indefinitely. The cases were based on charges re sulting from disturbances at the Clinton high school in December. No reason was given for the post ponement. Addressing a meeting of the National Newspaper Publishers Association at Fisk University in Nashville, NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall stressed the need for action at the community level in support of public school desegrega tion. “We are finding that this problem is not going to be solved in the courts Segregation Racial incidents were reported in sev eral Georgia communities. In Atlanta, six Negro ministers were indicted by the Fulton County grand jury on charges of refusing to occupy seats assigned by the bus driver. A. T. Walden of Atlanta, spokesman for the attorneys representing the de fendants, said they would not press for an early trial but would wait and let the cases come up through regular chan nels. Georgia’s bus segregation law would be attacked on the “overall ground that it is in conflict with the Supreme Court’s rulings,” Walden said. This is the first bus integration inci dent to come up in Georgia. MILITIA ALERTED Gov. Griffin reacted to the situation by putting the state militia on a stand by basis. The governor said he had no specific plan or legislative proposal to counter the Negro move but vowed order would be maintained in Georgia. The bus integration case came just prior to an Atlanta meeting of southern Negro leaders “to spur the campaign for integrated transportation.” About 60 Negroes from nine states attended. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of Montgomery, Ala., was named chairman of a permanent body formed out of the group and predicted the completion of bus integration all over the South before 1960. PRESIDENT’S AID ASKED President Eisenhower was asked in a telegram from the group to make a speech in a major southern city “urging all southerners to abide by the Supreme Court’s decision as the law of the land.” In another telegram to Vice President (See GEORGIA, Page 16) alone ... It will be solved on the com munity level by voting and other means,” said Marshall. “I don’t blame the legislators. If they can kick the Negro voters around and get away with it, they ought to.” Marshall told the NNPA publishers and editors that some daily metropoli tan newspapers have failed to report “the good features” of desegregation. He said no daily paper has gone to any ex tent to report the favorable conditions accompanying school integration in Ok lahoma and West Virginia. At the same meeting, W. Beverly Car ter, publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, said in an interview the Negro press feels a grave responsibility “to help re solve the problems of racial conffict. We feel we can best work toward this end by not being inflammatory but by attempting a reasonable approach and by assuming all Americans are seriously concerned about the problem.” PROMISE REPRISALS In Memphis the Ministers and Citi zens League, a Negro organization, promised reprisals against the Shelby County delegation and other Tennessee legislators who signed the “Tennessee Manifesto.” “Any elected member of the Tennes see state legislature who sponsors such circumventing legislation will be met at the polls by concerted campaign efforts to defeat the legislator,” the statement said. At a meeting in Nashville, the state president of the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government said the NAACP wants to “turn our free schools into federal prisons.” Addressing the ad visory committee of the Nashville-Da- vidson County chapter of TFCG, Donald Davidson applauded the school segrega tion proposals of Gov. Frank Clement but said they do not go far enough. COMMUNITY ACTION Leaders of two race relations groups in Memphis, one white and the other Negro, expressed confidence that by joint effort acts of violence such as seen in other southern cities can be avoided in Memphis. W. W. Scott, chairman of the Greater Memphis Race Relations Committee, said his organization hopes to meet soon with its Negro counterpart, the Mem phis Committee for Progress. In Knoxville, the Rev. Ted. R. Witt, pastor of Lincoln Park Methodist Church, said he and “at least half a dozen other ministers” have been vic tims of “abuse by anonymous telephone callers. I suppose they are trying to si lence us because the Knoxville Minis terial Association has been actively sup porting integration moves,” Witt said.