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PAGE 12—MARCH 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Alabama Legislators Consider Schools;
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
'T'he Alabama Legislature, which con
venes in regular biennial session in
May, will have its work cut out in the
matter of school finances, teacher sal
aries and construction needs.
Just as education leaders, headed by
State Supt. of Education Austin R.
Meadows, were preparing to go before
the governor’s budget committee to file
money requests for the 1957-58-59 bi
ennium, Gov. James E. Folsom ordered
an 8.75 per cent cut in the state’s cur
rent appropriation to education.
Indications are that Meadows, in the
hearing before the budget commission,
will request substantial increases for
education in the next two years.
Meadows also joined with the dele
gate assembly of the Alabama Educa
tion Association in urging a salary in
crease for teachers. (See “Legislative
Action.”)
Meanwhile a legislative subcommittee
studying school needs recommended
two bond issues totaling $60 million for
school construction. (See “Legislative
Action.”)
BOMBING INDICTMENTS
In Montgomery, a grand jury, which
returned indictments against four of
seven white men accused of dynamiting
Negro homes and churches during the
bus integration dispute, denounced
“cowardly stealth and violence under
cover of darkness,” but reaffirmed the
“determination of the people of Mont
gomery to preserve our segregated in
stitutions.” (See “Legal Action.”)
The March issue of Ebony magazine
charged that the February, 1956, riots
which followed the admission of Miss
Autherine Lucy to the University of
Alabama had resulted in an exodus of
“shocked and shamed” university pro
fessors. The university said its faculty
turnover for the year was “normal,” al
though six departing faculty members
had given the Lucy incident as a major
reason for their departure. (See “In the
Colleges.”)
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
The Alabama legislature will convene
in May. Aside from the segregation
problem, which seems certain to be a
primary concern of the legislators, other
school matters will demand considera
tion.
A legislative subcommittee headed by
Sen. Albert Boutwell of Birmingham
announced Feb. 5 it would recommend
two bond issues totaling $60 million to
raise additional money for Alabama pri
mary and secondary schools and col
leges.
The Boutwell subcommittee recom
mended that school financing should be
turned more in the direction of local
boards, and that most of the load should
be borne by school districts.
LOCAL TAX BOOST
The Boutwell group also proposed a
constitutional amendment which would
allow voters of any county or school
district to tax themselves an additional
5 mills ad valorem tax for school pur
poses. Such a tax, the subcommittee
said, could raise $100 million for pri
mary and secondary schools.
In Montgomery Feb. 9, the delegate
assembly of the Alabama Education As
sociation indicated the AEA would ask
the legislature for more money, more
classrooms and more qualified teachers.
The federal relations committee of the
assembly proposed an emergency school
construction platform to meet the “pre
dictable needs of 1960” (estimated at
13,000 classrooms). However, the com
mittee said, “federal grants should be
administered on a non-partisan, object
ive basis which assures no diminution
of state and local effort.”
ON ‘FEDERAL INTERFERENCE’
Furthermore, the committee said,
“legislation to enforce compliance with
the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
on the issue of segregation in public
schools contradicts the principle of fed
eral aid without federal interference.”
In support of the proposed increase in
teacher salaries, State School Supt.
Meadows said Feb. 23 that only 42 per
cent of Alabama’s 1956 college grad
uates who were qualified for teaching
certificates in the state joined faculties
at home. The remaining 58 per cent took
jobs in other states or in other pro
fessions, he said.
The competition of other occupations
cannot be overlooked, Meadows said.
In the months since the boycott of
Montgomery buses began Dec. 5, 1955,
the city experienced 19 major acts of
violence—nine bombings and 10 shoot
ings—directed against buses or the
homes and churches of Negro leaders.
A Montgomery grand jury Feb. 16 re
turned indictments against four white
men on dynamiting charges. Said the
jury:
“In returning these indictments, we
believe we are expressing the feelings
of our fellow citizens who believe in
law and order, and that they are the
great majority of our people. We are
not unmindful that there is a feeling
among some that the people connected
Courts Order
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
HREE WESTERN KENTUCKY counties
were ordered by federal court to be
gin desegregation next fall. The orders
applied to all schools in Hopkins and
Webster counties, to high schools only
in Union County. A fourth county in
central Kentucky, Scott, was under or
ders to desegregate its elementary
schools in September. (See “Legal Ac
tion.”)
Louisville Supt. Omer Carmichael
blamed the NAACP for much of “the
chaos in the South.” An NAACP
spokesman, in reply, attributed it to
“the open defiance of some southern
spokesmen” to the Supreme Court’s de
segregation ruling. (See “What They
Say.”)
The Louisville public schools got a
Freedoms Foundation award for their
efforts “to meet the problem of deseg
regation.” And California teachers apol
ogized for having criticized the teachers
of Clay, Ky., scene of racial disturbances
last fall. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
At Owensboro on Feb. 8 Federal Dis
trict Judge Henry Brooks issued deseg
regation orders to the school boards of
three western Kentucky counties, two
of them headlined in racial disturbances
last fall.
In the Webster County case (Gordon
v. Collins) the court accepted the de
fendant’s proffered plan of full desegre
gation on a “voluntary basis” effective
next September, and ordered a similar
program for all the schools in Hopkins
County (Mitchell v. Pollock) and the
high schools in Union County (Garnett
v. Oakley). This constituted rejection of
Hopkins and Union plans for gradual
desegregation programs ranging from
three to five years (the Hopkins plan
having been amended, under court or
der, from an earlier 12-year proposal).
James A. Crumlin, Louisville NAACP
attorney who brought the school suits,
objected to inclusion of the word “vol
untary” in the judgments prepared in
the three cases. He said he could detect
a possible maneuver by the schools
through which they might circumvent
the Supreme Court’s school desegrega
tion decision.
OBJECTION OVERRULED
Judge Brooks overruled the objection
and remarked: “I don’t think you
should be looking out and grasping for
something that doesn’t exist.”
The court ordered all three cases kept
on the docket, meaning that subsequent
orders will be entered if the school
boards fail to comply with the court’s
rulings.
4 Kentucky
In rejecting the gradual integration
plans proposed by Hopkins and Union
counties, Judge Brooks said he followed
the Jan. 14 decision of the Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals in the case of Booker
v. the Tennessee Board of Education—
a reversal of a Memphis district court
opinion approving Memphis State Col
lege’s five-year integration plan as ade
quate.
GRADE SCHOOLS UNAFFECTED
In the Union County case Judge
Brooks refused to permit discussion re
quested by attorneys for the plaintiffs
of orders affecting elementary schools,
noting that grade school desegregation
was not part of the suit before the court.
Late in February, Crumlin told SSN
that he hoped Union County would
“avoid further court action” by agree
ing to desegregate its elementary schools
in September. But Union County Supt.
Carlos Oakley said that as far as he
knows the county plans only to comply
with the high school desegregation or
der (affecting schools only at Sturgis
and Morganfield) this fall.
The “voluntary integration” plan un
der which the three school boards plan
to operate, common to several districts
in Kentucky, means that they will con
tinue to maintain Negro schools after
September but will give Negroes their
choice of attending Negro or white
schools.
‘CAN’T BUCK LAW’
Commenting in anticipation ot dese
gregation next fall, Editor B. Kalman of
the Sturgis News said that “the majority
of the people are sensible enough to
realize you can’t buck the law.”
Kalman added that the troubles at
Sturgis last fall could have been avoid
ed had it not been for two things—
“outside agitation” and the dispatch of
National Guard troops to Sturgis by
Gov. A. B. Chandler.
The latter “did nothing to help the
situation, but only made it worse,” Kal
man said. “We are convinced Chandler
did it because of his hatred for certain
people in this county.” (Union County
is the home of Gov. Chandler’s old po
litical enemy, former Sen. Earle C.
Clements.)
Orders requiring Scott County ele
mentary schools to desegregate next
September were filed in late January
in U.S. District Court at Lexington.
They affect about 140 Negro pupils now
attending a school in Georgetown oper
ated jointly by the city and county.
High school desegregation last fall led
to enrollment of 45 Negro pupils in
Scott County High.
Speaking to the Education Writers
Association in Atlantic City, N.J., late
in February, Louisville School Supt.
Counties to
Omer Carmichael said this:
“I don’t think we would have the
chaos in the South if the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Col
ored People had recognized the magni
tude of the Supreme Court victory and
had given things time to come to a
head.
“Our turmoil in the South comes from
the eagerness of the NAACP to push too
fast. It will take two or three years for
public opinion to catch up with the
court ruling.”
WILKINS’ REJOINDER
In New York NAACP Executive Sec
retary Roy Wilkins promptly countered
with this statement:
“Immediately after the 1954 Supreme
Court desegregation decision NAACP
leaders were advised: ‘It is important
that calm reasonableness prevail, that
the difficulties of adjustment be real
ized and that, without any sacrifice of
basic principles, the spirit of give-and-
take characterize the discussions. Let it
not be said of us that we took advan
tage of a sweeping victory to drive
hard bargains or impose unnecessary
hardships upon those responsible for
working out the details of adjustment.’
“It is in this spirit that the NAACP
has operated.
It has been met by rebuffs, calumny
and violence. The ‘chaos’ which Dr. Car
michael cites stems not from our activ
ity but rather from the open defiance of
some southern spokesmen who declare
that the South will never, never com
ply with the ruling of the nation’s high
est court.”
Louisville’s public school system was
among some 50 awarded the George
Washington Honor Medal by the Free
doms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pa.,
in February.
Sam V. Noe, an assistant superin
tendent of the city schools, said the
award was for “the effort made by all
schools to meet the problem of deseg
regation.” The schools’ entry for the
award consisted of newspaper stories
and editorials on desegregation in
Louisville.
CLAY TEACHERS LAUDED
A California teacher group retracted
earlier criticism of school teachers at
Clay, Ky., for their conduct during ra
cial troubles there last September, and
instead expressed “warm and enthusi
astic respect and commendation for
their demonstration of courage in ad
hering to the high standards of the
teaching profession and in keeping the
profession itself above the emotional
issues which were dividing the com
munity.”
The Personnel Standards Commission
of the California Teachers Association
6 Quit Over Lucy Incident
with the bombing should be unpun
ished.
“We believe this feeling can lead to a
complete disregard for law and order;
we prefer that the problem of main
taining segregation be met openly and
honestly rather than with cowardly
stealth and violence under cover of
darkness.”
However, the jurors said, the return
of the indictments “should not be con
strued as any weakening of the deter
mination of the people of Montgomery
to preserve our segregated institutions.
“We reaffirm our belief in complete
segregation. We are determined to
maintain it and to maintain law and
order as it applies both to those who
support segregation and to those who
oppose it.”
The jury’s report noted that the U.S.
Supreme Court, in recent decisions, had
“mocked and scorned” the administra
tion of justice in Alabama. Citing the
cases of two Alabama Negroes who won
Supreme Court reversals of their death
sentences, the jury said:
“The Supreme Court’s disregard of
the due legal processes of this state
lessens our people’s respect for justice
and law. We attribute our recent vio
lence partly to the decrease in the re
spect for law and order.”
1950 for criticism of defense policies and
has since run unsuccessfully three
times for the Senate in Alabama, speak
ing before a Prattville White Citizens
Council group—“Alabama is a political
proving ground for subversive organi
zations. Any time they want to try out
something, they try it here. . . . Our
greatest danger today is that our people
don’t know what is taking place.”
Rev. F. L. Shuttlesworth, Birmingham
Negro minister and integration leader-—
“At a time when our churches and
homes are being bombed, when the
darkness of each night brings physical
danger to our people, President Eisen
hower has decided not to come South
and put the moral weight of his office
against the breakdown of law and or
der.” Shuttlesworth said the President’s
refusal had occasioned widespread dis
appointment among Negro leaders, in
the North and the South, including
many who supported the President in
the last election.
‘PRECEDENT CITED’
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Ne
gro minister and integration leader in
Montgomery—“The Montgomery situa
tion has become the greatest social rev
olution ever to occur. The amazing and
wonderful thing about it is that not one
life has been lost—an unheard of prece
dent in great revolutions.”
During February, comments on the
segregation-desegregation issue includ
ed the following:
Admiral John G. Crommelin, World
War II Navy hero who was retired in
Desegregate
also voiced “special appreciation to Mrs.
Irene Powell, principal of Clay School,
for her statesmanlike leadership during
the crisis facing her school.”
The commission last October had crit
icized Clay teachers for “walking out,”
but reversed itself after a requested in
vestigation by the National Education
Association of the reported walk-outs.
More education to prepare the Negro
for expanding industry is the key to
racial job equality, a member of the
President’s Committee on Government
Contracts told the Louisville Urban
League on Feb. 14.
He was Ivan L. Willis, vice president
in charge of industrial relations for the
International Harvester Co., Chicago.
Warning his interracial audience that
he would “speak bluntly,” he made
these points:
1) Too many Negroes go into industry
with the idea that they are better qual
ified than they actually are—and when
they fail to make the grade they cry
“discrimination.”
MINORITIES MISLED
2) Negroes and members of other mi
nority groups have been too easily mis
led by subversive elements in industry.
Ninety per cent of the active pickets in
a Louisville strike called by a Harvester
union later expelled from the CIO as
being Communist-dominated were Ne
groes; inadequate educational prepara
tion probably could be blamed.
3) Too many Negroes have not
learned or do not practice the funda
mentals of home management, and wage
garnishments against them therefore
become a problem; 90 per cent of the
garnishments against Harvester work
ers have been against Negroes.
4) There are more job opportunities
for members of minority groups than
qualified workers to fill them. Instead
of only 65,000 Negro high school grad
uates each year, there should be more
nearly 165,000.
BRANHAM CHARGES DROPPED
On Feb. 6 Louisville Juvenile Court
dropped breach - of - peace charges
against Billy Branham, 18, former De
troit segregationist (see earlier stories
in SSN). Judge Louis H. Jull said: “I
rather doubt there was a breach of the
peace here. . . . You used poor judg
ment in ordering an officer around, but
I don’t think you committted the of
fense as charged.”
In a related case the Jefferson County
grand jury made no recommendation
after completing its investigation of
charges that young Branham was the
victim of “a conspiracy” to violate his
civil rights. The charges were made by
Millard D. Grubbs, chairman of the Cit
izens Councils of Kentucky, Inc.
Asst. U.S. Atty. Gen. Warren Olney
III, in a wire replying to King’s request
that the President speak on civil rights
in the South—-“The primary responsi
bility for the maintenance of law and
order is lodged in state and local au
thorities.”
Atty. Gen. John Patterson before the
House Judiciary subcommittee consid
ering the President’s civil rights pro
gram—“[The bills are] vague, indefinite
and uncertain . . . unconstitutional in
any respect [and will] reduce the states
to mere counties in relation to the fed
eral government.”
U.S. Congressman John Bell Williams
of Mississippi, in an address before the
Montgomery County White Citizens
Council—-“[Public school integration in
Washington, D.C.] is a sordid national
disgrace. . . . While ardent pro-integra-
tionists in Washington send their chil
dren to private, all-white schools, the
average man is caught in a squeeze. ...
He can’t afford to send his children to
private schools and doesn’t want to send
them to integrated schools.”
The March issue of Ebony magazine
charges that during the past year, “21
or more” teachers resigned from the
University of Alabama faculty, “some
of them as a direct result” of the Au
therine Lucy incident at the university
last February.
The magazine quoted Associate Pro
fessor of Economics Harry Shaffer, now
teaching at the University of Kansas, as
saying that principles of democracy in
which he believes were “so badly vio
lated” at the university, “I did not feel
I could remain, in spite of my sincere
love and devotion to this state, this
community and to my colleagues.”
Prof. Robert T. Daland, who Ebony
says taught at the university seven years
before the Lucy affair, resigned, as he
put it: “... Because of what I consid
ered to be the basically un-American
position taken by the trustees . . . to
gether with a spineless attitude on the
part of the majority of the faculty mem
bers. I have no doubt that the exodus of
professors interested in decency will
continue through the next several
years.”
MISSISSIPPIAN LEAVES
Ebony identified most of the teachers
who resigned as being from northern
or border states. But at least one ex
ception, the magazine continued, was
Dr. William Lampard, born in Missis"
sippi. Ebony quoted Lampard as saying-
“. . . I could not see any reason why
Miss Lucy should be treated differently
from any other student. What happened
to her made me ashamed, deeply
ashamed, to be a southern white man-
even a liberated southern white man-
Once before, I moved from the South
in disgust. A year before the Lucy case
broke I went back, believing that the
South had come to its senses. I was
wrong. The Lucy affair showed me ho"
wrong.”
In reply to the Ebony article, Univer
sity of Alabama News Bureau director
Ed Brown told Southern School News-
“The university has a normal turn
over each spring of 30 to 50 facul i
members with an overall faculty bS^ 1
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