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PAGE 10—MARCH 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Court Action Is Anticipated in Two Oklahoma School Entry Cases
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
J^psw Federal Court Action to force
1 integration of white and Negro
children in at least one state train
ing institution and in a public school
district appeared likely in Oklahoma.
There are complications in both situa
tions. One involves the Oklahoma School
for the Deaf at Sulphur and the attempt
of an Oklahoma City Negro girl’s par
ents to get her admitted there. The
leadership of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People
indicated it has decided to wait no
longer for state agencies to take action.
(See “Legislative Action.”)
The other case centers around NAACP
efforts to get 70 Negro pupils admitted
to white schools at Morris in eastern
Oklahoma. However, the attitude of the
white residents of the community pre
sented a possible stumbling block. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Despite urging by Gov. Raymond
Gary and the introduction of a merger
bill, the legislature has taken no action
to consolidate white and Negro state
training schools.
Because of this the NAACP appeared
ready to file a federal district court suit
in behalf of an Oklahoma City Negro
couple, Mr. and Mrs. George E. Bailey
Jr., against the State Board of Affairs
which supervises the training institu
tions. The Baileys, with the help of
NAACP leaders, have sought for some
time to enter their nine-year-old
daughter, Veronica, a deaf mute, in the
Sulphur school. Sulphur is 47 miles
closer to Oklahoma City than is Taft
where Negro institutions for deaf, blind,
and orphan children and incorrigible
girls are located. The Baileys insist the
Sulphur school is the only one at which
their daughter can receive the proper
instruction.
Jimmy Stewart, president of the Okla
homa City branch of the NAACP, en
listed the aid of State Sen. George
Miskovsky, Oklahoma City. The sena
tor relayed the request to Dr. Oliver
Hodge, state superintendent of public
instruction; Clarence Burch, chairman
of the Board of Affairs; and Dr. L. B.
Hall, superintendent of the Oklahoma
School for the Deaf at Sulphur.
SCHOOL POLICY
In his reply to Sen. Miskovsky, Dr. Hall
said the policy of the Sulphur school
is such that it would be willing to ac
cept the Bailey girl but that if it did
so it would have to take other Negro
children also. This would mean not
only “robbing” the Taft school of its
students but also boosting expenses of
the Sulphur school with no correspond
ing increase in appropriations, Dr. Hall
pointed out.
“Any time the legislature, the officials
at Taft and the Board of Affairs see fit
to transfer the deaf Negro children from
Taft to Sulphur along with sufficient per
capita funds, we will be happy to accept
them,” Dr. Hall wrote. “But we can’t
enroll a Negro child from time to time
as a result of individual applications be
cause we would soon have all of the
pupils and none of the funds. It would
also cause dissension between the two
schools.”
The Sulphur school superintendent
went on to explain his administration
had informed the State Board of Educa
tion it would be happy to accept Negro
children at any time the institution at
Taft will release them and also release
the per capita funds. The State Board
of Education members concluded it was
not their problem, Dr. Hall said, inas
much as they have already adopted a
policy of integration for public schools.
That leaves the matter up to the Board
Affairs, he said, adding that he under
stands it is “perfectly willing” to make
the change but the administration and
employes at the Taft school are not
ready.
SEES JULY ADMISSION
Stewart said that despite Sen. Miskov
sky s intercession, Burch has made no
move to call state officials and NAACP
leaders together to effect admission of
the Bailey girl to Sulphur. He quoted
the Board of Affairs chairman as saying
no such meeting is necessary because
the child probably will be admitted in
July anyway. He apparently referred
to the possibility of legislative action
on the proposed merger.
The NAACP local president indicated
this was not satisfactory assurance and
said he feels “reasonably sure” court
action will be initiated. U. Simpson
Tate, regional NAACP attorney from
Dallas, was in the state Feb. 22 and
Stewart said he planned to give the
lawyer information needed for drawing
up a lawsuit, including names of state
officials to be made defendants.
Meanwhile, State Rep. Robert O. Cun
ningham, Oklahoma City, author of the
state training school merger proposal,
said he will insist on a floor vote on
the measure if it is not reported out
of committee before the current session
ends. It is in the hands of the committee
on county, state, and federal govern
ment, which has held no hearings on it
yet.
SAVINGS EXPECTED
Cunningham declared his bill was
aimed to promote not integration, but
economy of state funds and the welfare
of the children involved. He pointed to
a possible savings of $471,000 to the state
every two years, according to calcula
tions of Bert Logan, budget director, if
the merger is put in effect.
The Cunningham proposal would
transfer (1) 43 Negro boys from Boley
to a white training school for boys at
Helena, (2) a half-dozen deaf Negro
boys and girls from Taft to Sulphur,
(3) a half dozen blind Negro boys and
girls from Taft to the School for the
Blind at Muskogee, (4) the incorrigible
Negro girls at Taft to the white training
school for girls at Tecumseh and (5)
orphaned Negro boys and girls at Taft
to a Pryor state institution.
The facilities at Taft would be used
to handle an overflow of patients from
a Negro mental hospital across the
street, under the Cunningham plan. The
legislator said the boys transferred from
Boley to Helena could be put into
separate buildings with Negro super
visors to avoid any criticism about inte
gration.
He claimed, however, that the only
objections he had heard have resulted
not from the integration aspect, but
from the threatened loss of political
patronage.
Another objective of Atty. Tate’s trip
to Oklahoma on Feb. 22 was to investi
gate the Morris situation. Accompanied
by Roscoe Dunjee, editor of the Black
Dispatch, Oklahoma City, and a long
time NAACP leader, Tate conferred
with James Broadhead, Morris superin
tendent of schools. According to Broad-
head, the men made no request that
Negroes be admitted immediately to the
Morris schools. Rather, he said they
asked what the school board’s plans are
for the coming year and whether it had
adopted any resolution or policy on in
tegration.
At present 70 Negro students in the
Morris transportation area, including
some secondary pupils in nearby non-
high school districts, are transferred to
Negro schools at Grayson, seven miles
southwest of Morris. Broadhead esti
mated about 25 of them are high school
students and the rest in grade school.
The superintendent said board offi
cials had a meeting last June with the
Negro parents in the community.
“We thought all of them agreed to
transfer their children this year,”
Broadhead said. “One child went to
Okmulgee but the others transferred to
Grayson. Then in December we learned
that one Negro family had kept its four
children out of school.”
STAY HOME
A similar situation was revealed in
January at Earlsboro, in Pottawatomie
County where four Negro children
from two families stayed home from
classes from September until they were
admitted to the white high school by
federal court order Jan. 17.
The Morris superintendent said he
told Tate and Dunjee his school board
has made no plans for integration in
1957-58. He indicated his belief to the
SSN correspondent that integration may
come at Morris next year but declared
any attempt last fall to force it would
almost certainly have brought trouble
in the community.
In the absence of any school board ex
pression of policy on integration, it ap
pears likely the NAACP will undertake
court action to force the Morris schools
open to Negro pupils. At Earlsboro
where integration was planned for
1957-58, a lawsuit was filed because the
school board would not desegregate im
mediately.
The Morris schools have a total white
membership of about 450 pupils, of
whom 160 are in high school.
regardless of how much you spend,” he
said.
Payne cited the case of the Negro high
school at Ponca City that has since been
integrated. When it was in operation it
had 75 students and money was no ob
ject, he said.
“We spent $1,000 per student yet v?e
still couldn’t offer a comprehensive pro
gram,” he said. “There were not enough
students for a band or athletic program
and the two or three pupils enrolled in
special courses had no opportunity for
interplay of ideas with other students.”
The savings from elimination of the
separate school system in Oklahoma
have been estimated at $1 million a
year. A hint of the reason for this came
in a remark by a schoolman during dis
cussion of a bill pertaining to one of
Oklahoma’s biggest educational prob
lems right now, redistricting. The
measure would provide for reorganiza
tion of marginal school districts into
larger, more economical administrative
units.
In a meeting in which the bill was
presented to Gov. Gary and members
of the House and Senate education com
mittees, J. Winn Payne, Ponca City
superintendent and president of the
Oklahoma Education Association, spoke
in favor of the plan.
“You can reach a point where a school
gets so small that you can’t operate it
Disclosed in New York for the first
time was the reason for cancellation by
the National Council of Presbyterian
Men of its scheduled southwestern
meeting in Oklahoma City a year ago:
refusal of hotels to accommodate mem
bers on a non-segregated basis.
Paul Moser, the council’s executive
secretary, would not state directly that
this was the reason. He referred merely
to failure to “complete satisfactory ar
rangements ... in respect to hotels and
our requirements.”
He pointed out the council, a lay or
ganization of 400,000 men, is bound by
a rule of the Presbyterian Church in
the USA against holding meetings where
facilities are segregated. Moser made the
statement in response to questions con
cerning reports at an eastern regional
meeting of the council that racial pol
icies in Oklahoma City had caused the
change.
In Oklahoma City, the Rev. Douglas
Magers, Synod executive, confirmed that
the meeting was called off because
hotels refused to house Negro delegates.
Oklahoma City’s municipal and trans
portation facilities, however, have been
fully desegregated.
Mississippi Governor Presents Four-Point Program
JACKSON, Miss,
^ov. J. P. Coleman, whose approach to
the racial question is credited with
existence of asserted “peace and tran
quility” in Mississippi, has outlined a
four-point program for accomplishment
before he leaves office in January 1960.
One is obviously a “tip-off” of his
reported plan to oppose senior Sen.
James O. Eastland (D.-Miss.) in the
August, 1960 campaign. It was made in
a speech at Houston, Miss., on Feb. 22,
in which the governor said:
“We must spend much time and ef
fort in restoring Mississippi to her once
high position of leadership in the nation.
Like L. Q. C. Lamar, J. Z. George and
John Sharp Williams (former senators)
who could open any door in the na
tional government, we must have that
sort of leadership.”
WASHINGTON WITNESS
Giving weight to the political implica
tion in the statement was the fact it
was made shortly after Gov. Coleman
returned from Washington as a witness
before the House Judiciary subcom
mittee in opposition to President Eisen
hower’s civil rights bills. (See “What
They Say.”)
A statement made by Gov. Coleman
to the congressional committee that
“there is no intimidation of Negroes in
Mississippi” has been challenged by the
Mississippi Conference of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People. (See “What They
Say.”)
Other developments in Mississippi on
the race-school front included:
Atty. Gen. Joe T. Patterson told the
House Judiciary subcommittee that all
the civil rights bills pending in the
Congress are “another broad step
toward centralization of the powers of
the states in the federal government.”
Also appearing in opposition to the
civil rights proposals were junior Sen.
John C. Stennis (D.-Miss.) and two of
the state’s representatives, Frank E.
Smith of the Third (Delta) Congres
sional District, and Jamie Whitten of
the Second District. (See “What They
Say.”)
DISTRICTS CONSOLIDATED
Mississippi continues its program to
equalize Negro public schools with those
of the whites by consolidating districts
and allocating funds for new facilities.
Of the estimated $12 million allocated,
80 per cent has gone for Negro schools.
(See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
The all-white Delta Council, com
posed of leaders in the 18 counties in
that heavily Negro-populated sector,
has endorsed a fund-raising drive for
a religious-social center at the Missis
sippi Vocational College for Negroes at
Itta Bena. (See “In the Colleges.”)
A new president was named for Al
corn Agricultural and Mechanical Col
lege for Negroes in the southwestern
section of the state. (See “In the Col
leges.”)
Mississippi will issue $9,987,000 in
revenue bonds for dormitories and
family apartments at six state colleges,
including Jackson State College for
Negroes. (See “In the Colleges.”)
The sixth annual meeting of the
Regional Council of Negro Leadership
will be held at Greenville on April 26.
It has been held at the all-Negro town
of Mound Bayou up until last year
when officials of the town refused to
permit the meeting to be held there,
saying they “feared rabble-rousers
would be present and disturb friendly
relations between the races.” The 1956
meeting was transferred to Jackson.
Rev. Theodore Trammell is president of
the council which for years was headed
by its organizer, Dr. T. R. M. Howard,
Negro physician, who sold most of his
property at Mound Bayou and moved
to Chicago.
RELOCATION PLAN
The Mississippi Association of Citizens
Councils has written President Eisen
hower suggesting that relocation of
Negroes in areas advocating racial inte
gration would “ease racial tension” in
segregated states. (See “Community
Action.”)
The Junior Chamber of Commerce at
Indianola, birthplace of the Citizens
Councils, withdrew from state and na
tional affiliation on grounds that organi
zations on those levels are supporting
groups “proven unfriendly to the
South.”
A Mississippi woman-editor has been
cited by the Fund for the Republic be
cause her newspaper “has consistently
maintained the highest standards of a
free press in the face of community
criticism.” She is Mrs. Hazel Brammon
Smith of the weekly Lexington Ad
vertiser, who has criticized the Citizens
Councils and defended Negroes from
what she said was unfair treatment by
law enforcement officers. (See “Mis
cellaneous.”)
posed the convention which drafted the
1890 constitution which it now seeks to
retain.
Major opposition to the convention
surrounds proposed reapportionment of
the legislature which at present is based
on three “grand divisions” without re
gard to population. A change on a pop
ulation basis would give the dominant
white section of south Mississippi rep
resentation in excess of the heavily
Negro-populated and smaller counties
in the state.
PRESENT APPORTIONMENT
The northeastern section, which has
many counties with heavier Negro pop
ulation, has a population of 473,087 and
57 of the 189 legislative seats. It cast
25.5 per cent of the votes in the 1955
race for governor. The western grand
division, mostly the heavily Negro
populated delta with a population of
857,149, has 64 legislative seats. It cast
26.9 per cent of the votes in 1955.
On the other hand, the southeastern
division with 848,678 population, mostly
white, has 68 legislative seats. It cast
47.6 per cent of the votes in the 1955
primary.
Overall, less than 10,000 Negroes voted
in that election.
A major objective by Gov. Coleman
at the January, 1958, session of the
legislature will be a constitutional con
vention for a reworking of the 67-year-
old document adopted in 1890. It ties
in with his efforts to continue “peace
and tranquility” between the races.
Gov. Coleman said major opposition
is coming from the heavily Negro-pop
ulated Delta and Mississippi river coun
ties “who stand to profit most.” He also
pointed out that the same section op
In his testimony before the House
Judiciary subcommittee, Gov. Coleman
said the “basic reason” for the small
Negro vote is that “the whites have al
ways been more interested in voting.”
He said questions prerequisite to regis
tering were the same for both races,
and that classes are available to the Ne
gro to study the questions and prepare
answers “if he is interested enough.”
Gov. Coleman warned that the civil
rights proposals would “hurt” race re
lations in the South and “won’t change
the voting statistics.”
Gov. Coleman said the proposals
would set back race relations in Missis
sippi at least 25 years. He branded
them as acts of “totalitarianism aimed
at a patriotic section of the country
which needs help with its problems and
not harassment.”
‘UPROAR . . . STRIFE’
“Establishment of a separate civil
rights division in the Justice Depart
ment would be a continuous source of
uproar and a fomenter of strife between
the races,” he said. “The laws of the
state are administered with justice and
fairness to all the citizens without re
gard to race, color or creed.
“I have never condemned the entire
Negro race because of what a few
wrongdoers have done, and I hope the
entire South will not be condemned for
what a few troublemakers do,” the gov
ernor said.
Defending the poll tax as a pre
requisite to voting, Gov. Coleman told
the committee that: “Any man who
wants to exercise his right to vote
should be willing to contribute $2 to
his county’s schools.” The tax goes for
local schools.
NAACP TAKES ISSUE
The Mississippi Conference of the
NAACP said Gov. Coleman “must have
been misinformed when he said there
is no intimidation of Negroes in
Mississippi.” An official NAACP state
ment said:
“We deplore the statement by the
governor that Negroes are not intimi
dated when teachers had to sign an
oath that they were not members of the
NAACP. Negroes who seek their civil
and human rights are subject to eco
nomic reprisals.
“The civil rights legislation may be
late for some Negroes, but it will not
be too late for 985,000 Negroes who still
live in a state where police brutality
is on the increase. It will not be too late
for Negroes in the state who cannot get
justice in the courts, and where white
people take the law into their own
hands.”
‘WHOLLY UNNECESSARY’
Atty. Gen. Patterson told the House
subcommittee that the civil rights pro
posals are “wholly unnecessary.” H e
said setting up of a special commission
would “create the greatest source of
political harassment ever” and “p re '
supposes that the states have failed to
protect the rights of their citizens.”
The attorney general defended the
Citizens Councils “as organizations to
defend and protect the rights of their
members. Certainly a man has as much
right to join a white citizens council as
he does to join the National Associa"
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People,” he said.
Junior Sen. Stennis told the comm'*'
tee that passage of the administration
civil rights bills “would be the fi n
knockout blow of states as units of g° v '
ernment.”
INJUNCTIVE PROCESS
Sen. Stennis said the bills would S 1 '
iost
„ the
law—the injunctive process of a federal
court.” ^
“It is a sad day for any nation 30
the children of that nation of whatev^
color, when the public schools a .^
handled by courts and politicians ^
such a fashion that they have
operated through injunctions and cr ^
inal statutes. A public educational sy^
tern should be grounded on the n
(Continued On Next Page)
the federal attorney general “the
powerful legal weapon known to