Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY 1957—PAGE 13
Federal Judges Hold Louisiana Laws Invalid, Enjoin 4 Colleges
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NEW ORLEANS, La.
F ederal judges declared two
1956 segregation laws unconsti
tutional, in a decision which also
imposed injunctions on four inte
grated state colleges seeking to
oust Negroes. (See “Legal Ac-
tion. )
Placement of elementary school
pupils on a segregated basis for
the September, 1957 term was un
der way. This was made possible
when Orleans Parish School Board
obtained a stay of the federal court
order invalidating the 1954 pupil
assignment law and ordering inte
gration of New Orleans schools.
(See “Legal Action.”)
Acts 15 and 249 of the 1956 legislature
were held to be “integrally related”
and a “transparent device” to dodge the
equal protection clause of the Four
teenth Amendment—and hence uncon
stitutional—in an opinion written by
Federal Judge J. Skelly Wright of New
Orleans.
The opinion was issued by Judges
Wright and Chistenberry in a com
bined case against four state colleges
fighting integration. (Arnease Ludley
v. LSU Board of Supervisors; Jack
Bailey v. State Board of Education, a
suit against McNeese College; Alma
Lark and Verdie St. Julien v. State
Board of Education, a joint suit against
Southeastern and Southwestern col
leges.)
The opinion was handed down April
15, and on April 25 State Atty. Gen.
Jack Gremillion asked the federal court
to set aside the decision and order a
new trial. Gremillion’s motion to the
federal district court said constitution
ality of laws can be decided only by a
three-judge panel. He also asked the
court to rehear the state’s contention
that the three suits were against the
state itself, which cannot be sued with
out its consent.
In the college case opinion, Judge
Wright said the matters of a three-
judge court and state immunity from
suit had been considered and rejected
in the Orleans school board suit. (See
text of the opinion on this page.)
100 NEGROES ENROLL
About 100 Negroes enrolled in the
four formerly all-white colleges for the
current semester under protection of
the restraining order. The Negroes did
not have to provide the certificates at
registration, but white persons, not
covered by the order, did.
One New Orleans high school instruc
tor, working for an advanced degree at
LSU, complained to a newsman that he
and many others like him were bitter
at “the discrimination against whites.”
“I don’t mind having the Negroes in
the colleges,” he said, “but I do object
to being penalized because the state is
trying to fight it.” He said he referred
to the four trips between New Orleans
and Baton Rouge he had to make to
first obtain the certificate, get the nec
essary signatures, present it to the LSU
registrar and finally register.
A poll of college registrars turned up
no case of full-time white students be
ing denied registration because they
could not get signed certificates. Two
of them said a few part-time students
decided “it wasn’t worth all the trouble”
and did not complete registration.
SOME NEAR-MISSES
But there were some near-misses by
students who were intent on register
ing. One case involved several Italian-
born and -educated nuns from Rimini.
The nuns, of the order of Our Lady of
Sorrows, came to the United States to
teach at St. Mary’s School for Retarded
Children in Clarks, La., in the north
east part of the state. They were con
fronted with the eligibility certificates
when they applied for part-time enroll
ment at LSU. School authorities agreed
there was not enough time to get the
certificates signed in Italy and re
turned. They were allowed to register
after the superintendent of Catholic
parcchial schools in their area signed
Mississippi
(Continued From Page 12)
destroyed,” Carter said, admitting that
his newspaper’s circulation had dropped
Mong whites because of his position
(gradualism) on desegregation.
On the other hand, Percy Greene, a
,ij^° e< ^ tor fhe weekly Jackson
Advocate at Jackson, who has taken a
Moderation stand, said Negroes have
dropped his newspaper.
Addressing the second annual con-
' en _ti Q n of the Negro American Legion
» Jackson April 27, Rev. F. L. Shuttles-
*orth, pastor of Bethel Baptist church
j" Birmingham, Ala., urged his listeners
■a become more
become part
American.”
A1 must improve ourselves,” the
abama integration leader, whose home
as bombed last Christmas, said. “With
PPortunity comes responsibility.”
Meanwhile, the two white posts of the
erican Legion in Jackson announced
Joint meeting for May 6 with the
ckson Citizens Council at which Sgt.
f0 U f Badeaux, intelligence officer
Jj, New Orleans police department,
th S i >ea k- Sgt. Badeaux will discuss
techniques of Communist infiltra-
11 and subversion.
of $15 per Negro child in school for
Negro schools, and $12 per white child
for white schools.
Thus far, the commission has allo
cated an estimated $17,100,000 for new
buildings. About 80 per cent of the
funds have been for Negro schools.
In addition, the Educational Finance
Commission has approved reorganiza
tion of school districts in 71 of the 82
counties. Indicative of the impact of the
new setup is the disclosure that the
number of school districts in the 71
counties has been reduced from 1,200
to 124. When all 82 counties are reor
ganized—the deadline is July 1— the
number of districts will not exceed 150.
of
civic-minded and
everything that is
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SC
The
for
® rst series of state bonds
(j/ 00 buildings to be offered pur-
r ° n ^ ay 29 Lie for $10 mil-
th e q “ e sa ^ e bas been authorized by
Gov ate N°nd Commission headed by
ov e ^°bman. The bonds will extend
aj, r a 16-year-period with the usual
u al repayment installments.
if l( j Edition to the state’s full faith
t(, e cre dit, the bonds are backed with
fr otfl ea ^ rnar king of $6 million a year
einj " e state’s $50 million annual rev-
Witk ^J^ducing 3 per cent sales tax.
• . at backing and the fact that
has only $10 million out-
tf °Uld’ * n general obligation bonds, no
Th 0 e is anticipated in their sale.
fav 0r P factors will also serve to gain a
.j^able interest rate,
issqg . state ’ s segregation v. integration
hi no way involved in the solv-
* of the bonds.
f| A\
All,
d le allocations
kajj^^ft’ens for school buildings are
Si same five-man educa-
H>p ro atlance commission which
&isL es the district reorganizations.
Se ments to counties are on a basis
Petitions asking that Negroes be hired
as policemen, firemen and bus drivers in
Jackson were rejected by Mayor Allen
Thompson and City Commissioners
Chalmers Alexander and D. L. Luckey.
The request was filed by the Jackson
Progressive Voters League, a Negro
organization.
The League had also asked for
appointment of a bi-racial committee
to improve race relations. The city offi
cials made no reference to that in a
formal statement rejecting the other
proposals.
“As we have repeatedly said, there
will be no change in our segregation
policy in any manner, shape or form,”
the city officials said. “We have the best
city in the U.S.—the best facilities for
every citizen—both white and Negro.”
GRIFFIN TO SPEAK
Gov. Marvin Griffin of Georgia will
address a delta-wide Citizens Councils
meeting at Greenville May 7. He will
be presented by Atty. Gen. Joe T. Pat
terson of Mississippi, a member of the
council. The address will be in the
Greenville High School auditorium.
The state association of the all-white
Citizens Councils has begun a weekly
series of televised forums originating in
Jackson over station WLBT (Channel
3) each Monday night at 10:45 p.m.
W. J. Simmons of Jackson, secretary
of the state association and editor of the
official monthly paper of the organiza
tion, said the telecasts “are intended to
acquaint the public with the serious
problems affecting states’ rights and
race relations and with steps being
taken to meet them.”
# # #
the certification of their “good moral
character.”
The Orleans case (Bush v. Orleans
Parish School Board) will go to the
U. S. Supreme Court on an application
for writs before the May 11 deadline,
school board attorney Gerard A. Rault
said. This action came after the appeals
court turned down the school board’s
plea for a rehearing, but did grant a
stay of the injunction against operating
segregated schools.
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
While the appeal to the Supreme
Court is under preparation, Louisiana’s
school system operates unchanged. The
state attorney general’s office is defer
ring any opinion on statewide applica
tion of the Orleans decision. The pupil
assignment law (Act 556 of 1954), one
of those invalidated, remains in effect.
The office of Orleans School Supt.
James Redmond reported it was contin
uously assigning students who were
transferees from other school systems
as required by the 1954 act—on a seg
regated basis. Kindergarten registration
for this September was held April 25-26.
The Negro children were being assigned
to Negro schools, the white children to
white schools.
At the end of this term, the superin
tendent’s office said, each school will
return to the office its expected enroll
ment list for September, advancing each
qualified student one grade in the same
school. The superintendent will auto
matically reassign each pupil to the
same school. Each elementary school
will send its sixth grade list to the
“appropriate junior high school”—the
white or Negro junior high school in its
district—which in turn will submit it to
the superintendent. Junior high schools
will send their ninth grade lists to the
“appropriate senior high schools” and
the same procedures will be followed.
Pupil assignment in the state’s 66 other
school districts works the same way.
WHAT THEY SAY
A Negro service organization of busi
ness and professional men, the New Or
leans chapter of Frontiers of America,
Inc., heard a Cuban labor leader say,
“Integration is good for the United
States, enhancing its position as a world
power.”
Samuel Powell, chief of the interna
tional division of the Cuban sugar
workers union, was the speaker. He was
in the U. S. on the State Department’s
international educational exchange pro
gram.
“The United States must cease living
hypocrisy, which it does by preaching
equality and practicing segregation,” he
said.
Dr. A. W. Dent, New Orleans educa
tor, spoke on the special problem of
Negro colleges in the South at a meet
ing of the United Negro College Fund
in New York. Dr. Dent is president of
Dillard University, privately-supported
Negro college. Both the colleges and
the students, he said, have to work
twice as hard because Negroes receive
“inferior education in elementary and
secondary schools.” What results, he
said, is a cultural lag which must be
closed up in college.
COMMUNITY ACTION
The Citizens Councils, silent during
the spate of federal court decisions
affecting Louisiana schools, issued two
statements during the month. Both were
signed by Dr. Emmett Lee Irwin, chair
man of the Citizens Councils of New
Orleans.
One statement criticized the civil
rights proposals before Congress as
“calculated to destroy the American
right of local self-government.” The
other criticized the assigning of Negro
policemen in New Orleans to duties
which bring them in contact with white
persons.
The National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, from its
New York headquarters, refuted a wit
ness who testified at hearings held by
the joint legislative committee on seg
regation that the NAACP had Commu
nist links.
The witness was a former Commu
nist, Manning Johnson of Washington,
Johnson was described in some press
reports as “director of research for the
Justice Department in Washington.”
Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive secre
tary, said inquiries at the Justice De
partment produced statements that
Johnson had no official position and
that his statements did not reflect Jus
tice Department views or findings.
# # #
m at the C^ourl .Said
Wright, Christenberry Bar College Segregation
Following is the text of the opinion
issued April 15 hy Federal Judges J.
Skelly Wright and Herbert Christen
berry in three cases involving 1956 leg
islation designed to resegregate Louisi
ana colleges and universities. The cases
were listed as Ludley v. Board of Su
pervisors of LSU, Bailey v. Louisiana
State Board of Education, and Lark v.
Louisiana State Board of Education.
This litigation concerns another at
tempt by the Louisiana legislature to
preserve, by law, segregation in the
educational institutions of the state.
This attempt, while more subtle than
its predecessor, nevertheless fails be
cause the Fourteenth Amendment of
the Constitution “nullifies sophisticated
as well as simple-minded modes of dis
crimination.”
The plaintiffs in these three class
actions are now attending various state
institutions of higher learning in Louisi
ana under temporary restraining orders
issued by this court. The authorities of
these institutions had indicated that the
plaintiffs, and all Negroes similarly sit
uated, would be refused registration un
less they presented the certificate of
eligibility and good moral character
signed hy their former principals and
superintendents as required by Act 15
of 1956 of the Louisiana legislature.
Plaintiffs have been unable to obtain the
certificate because Act 249 of 1956 by
the same legislature provides, in effect,
that the principals and superintendents
will lose their jobs if they sign the cer
tificates.
Plaintiffs, in these proceedings seek
ing declaratory judgments and injunc
tive relief, attack the constitutionality
of Act 15 of 1956 as well as Act 249 of
the same year. Act 15, in pertinent part,
provides that “No person shall be reg
istered at or admitted to any publicly
financed institution of higher learning
of this state unless he or she shall have
first filed with said institution a cer
tificate addressed to the particular in
stitution sought to be entered attesting
to his or her eligibilty and good moral
character.” The certificate “must be
signed by the superintendent of educa
tion of the parish, county, or munici
pality wherein said applicant graduated
from high school, and by the principal
of the high school from which he grad
uated. Act 249 of 1956, in pertinent
part provides that “A permanent
teacher shall not be removed from office
except upon written and signed charges
° • • - advocating or in any manner
performing any act toward bringing
about integration of the races within the
public school system or any public in
stitution of higher learning of the state
of Louisiana . . Plaintiffs contend
that it was the plan of the Louisiana
legislature in passing Acts 15 and 249
ot 1956 to prevent the registration of
Negroes at institutions designated by it
as exclusively for white students by
jeopardizing the job of any principal or
superintendent who certified eligibility
of any Negroes for such institutions.
Defendants contend that Acts 15 and
249 of 1956 are entirely unrelated and
must be considered separately. They ad
mit that while there may be some ques
tion as to the constitutionality of Act
249, they earnestly contend that there
can be no question as to Act 15, which,
they say, merely requires a certificate
of good character before a student may
enter an institution of higher learning
in the state. Defendants have also moved
to dismiss on the grounds that the case
is one for three judges and that the de
fendants, being state agencies, are im
mune from suit. These latter contentions
were rejected in Bush v. Orleans Parish
School Board . . . and need not be con
sidered further here.
Since the constitutionality of the two
statutes in suit will depend, at least to
some extent, on the intention of the
legislature which enacted them, we turn
to that consideration. The Louisiana
legislature at its regular session in 1956,
without a dissenting vote in either the
Senate or House of Representatives,
passed thirteen acts designed to main
tain separation of the races in schools,
in parks and playgrounds, in athletic
events, in toilet, eating and drinking
facilities, and in waiting rooms for pas
sengers in intrastate commerce. Two of
the measures proposed amendments to
the State Constitution, the first prevent
ing suits against agencies of the state,
such as school boards, without consent
of the legislature, and the second pro
posing various barriers to voting regis
tration.
This segregation legislation was
sponsored by the Joint Legislative
Committee on segregation. This com
mittee was supported during the fiscal
year 1955-56 on moneys received from
the Board of Liquidation of the State
Debt. In his application to the board
for the allotment of the money for the
committee, the chairman of the Joint
Legislative Committee wrote:
“Although we have strong laws upon
our books which will enable the State
of Louisiana to make a very strong
fight for separation of the races in our
public schools, the greater part of our
work still lies ahead of us. This com
mittee must aid in coordinating the
state’s defense of its official policy of
segregation, and we must also make
studies of every legal and social at
tack made upon the state’s policy in
order to formulate any additional leg
islation that may be needed to pre
serve, affirm and extend this policy.”
In addition to this statement by the
chairman of the Joint Legislative Com
mittee on segregation, respecting the
purpose of segregation legislation gen
erally, there are various other state
ments . . . indicating that the specific
purpose of the two acts in suit is tot
prevent the registration of Negroes at
institutions of higher learning in the
state designated as exclusively for white
students. These statements show beyond
question that it was the intention of the
legislature that any teacher who signs
a certificate for a Negro student to go
to a white school will sacrifice his
tenure.
The legislation has operated in prac
tice pursuant to the intentions of its
authors. Not a single principal of a pub
lic school or superintendent of a public
school system has signed a certificate
for a Negro to go to a white school. The
combined effect, therefore, of the legis
lation in suit, Acts. 15 and 249 of 1956,
is the same as if the legislature had
simply provided, as it did in 1954, “All
public . .. schools in the state of Louisi
ana shall be operated separately for
white and colored children.” The fact
that a transparent device is med, calcu
lated to effect this same result, does not
make the legislation less unconstitu
tional . . .
The defendants’ earnest suggestion
that', irrespective of the constitutionali
ty of Act 249, Act 15 of 1956, merely
requiring a certificate of good charac
ter for admission to a state institution
of higher learning is not unconstitution
al, is also without merit. Act 15 does not
merely require a certificate of good
character. It requires a certificate of
good character addressed to the par
ticular institution sought to be entered.
Addressing a certificate of good char
acter for a Negro to a particular insti
tution, a white institution for example,
jeopardizes the job of the principal or
superintendent addressing the certifi
cate. Thus Acts 15 and 249 are integral
ly related. They are both part of the
same transparent device. Moreover, the
requirement in Act 15 that the certifi
cate be signed by both the principal
of the school and the superintendent
of education makes assurance doubly
sure that no Negro will be able to ob
tain such a certificate. If, for example,
a Negro graduate of a parochial school
were successful in obtaining the signa
ture of the principal of his school, such
principal not being subject to the state’s
tenure law, the signature of the parish
superintendent of education would still
be unavailable because his position
would be jeopardized by his signing.
This scheme of dividing d'serimina-
tory legislation into two separate acts,
one apparently inocuous, was used by
the 1954 Louisiana Legislature and was
condemned in Bush v. Orleans Parish
School Board . . . There a statute, ap
parently valid on its face, became un
constitutional when applied in tandem
with discriminatory legislation. Even
considered alone and without reference
to Act 249, Act 15 would still be uncon
stitutional for the reason that the ob
vious intent of the Legislature in pass
ing the act was to discr'm nate again it
Negro citizens and thus to circumvent
the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment.
Decree to be drawn by the court.
# # #