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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE 1957—PAGE 13
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
rfiHE Alabama legislature con-
1 vened May 7. A number of pro
longation bills, nullification res
olutions and declarations of inten-
;, on to preserve segregation “by
'll lawful means” were introduced.
Ogee “Legislative Action.”)
In his address to the legislature,
r oV James E. Folsom, criticized
■ the past for his “soft” stand on
aggregation but more recently an
advocate of continued separation
0 { the races in public schools, ig
nored the issue in his 75-minute
speech.
Less than 48 hours earlier one
0 f Folsom’s key legislative leaders
— Sen. Broughton Lamberth of
Tallapoosa County—had predicted
that the governor would make a
pro-segregation statement in his
speech. (See “What They Say.”)
Focal point of most of the pro-seg
regation bills introduced so far in the
1957 Alabama legislature seems to be
the ultimate abolition of public schools
if necessary to preserve racial separa
tion.
The legislature was given carte
blanche authority to do that in a ref
erendum last August. Voters approved
the deletion of constitutional require
ments for maintaining free public edu
cation in the state. The amendments so
ratified have been labeled the “freedom
of choice” plan which, in theory, sub
stitutes voluntary segregation for com
pulsory segregation, as the constitution
had provided for before the amend
ments.
When “freedom of choice” was first
proposed by a legislative study com
mittee set up by the 1955 legislature, the
possibility of limited, voluntary inte
gration was discussed, but this possi
bility has been soft-pedaled or re
nounced entirely in recent months.
BOUTWELL BILLS
On the opening day of the legisla
ture, Sen. Albert Boutwell of Birming
ham, head of the legislative committee
which offered the freedom of choice
plan, introduced bills to implement the
amendments. Briefly, his proposals
would:
1) Designate school authorities as
judicial officers and thus make them
theoretically immune to lawsuits.
2) Require the attorney general to de
fend segregation suits brought against
local boards of education.
3) Protect teachers against loss of
retirement benefits if transferred to
kee private schools” or some other
alternate system.
Boutwell promised that other legisla
tion would be introduced designating
how school funds would be handled if
Public education is abolished; how
s ubsidies would be made available to
students; how school property would be
^d to private corporations which
W °uld administer the “private” schools.
T ° REGULATE transition
hi the House, Rep. Gregory Oakley of
of Coun ‘y h as introduced a series
bills to regulate some phases of the
ransition from public to private schools
s h *° prov * d e h° r the closing of any
°ol facing integration. Among the
h s favored by Oakley is one permit-
0n ® dle abolition of individual schools
tr petition from a majority of the pa-
° ns °f the particular schools,
of ^ ena te, Sen. Gerald Bradford
am , County has introduced a bill
Sch °, r ’ z ‘ n £ the closing of any public
°°1 where white and Negro pupils
® uitegrated.
re . n ‘ Boutwell emphasized, as he has
edly, that the legislature is de-
l e p a |, ne< -f to preserve the color barrier
a( j / ^ Possible. “I think we will
ti^ . onl y measures to keep segrega-
. 111 3 legal manner, and that we are
Kentucky
j (Continued From Page 12)
v! ^ AAcp cooperated with us even
ficj g . *hey were not completely satis-
a-', some phases of our program.”
in °f NAACP activity in the South
aggre era1 ’ he said: “ The NAA -CP’s
fa^ SS ’ Veness is pressuring things too
a * 00 Bard and all have suffered
g0od deal for it.
*^ISE FOR NAACP
to tr c °untry is greatly indebted
toc s j 6 NAACP for keeping it on its
\»h en T f lreve nting discrimination. And
Sa yin 1 criticize the NAACP, I am not
Sin j g the y are wholly responsible nor
exonerating the lethargy in white
Alabama Legislature Gets Measures
To Maintain Segregation in State
going to do it with a great deal of de
liberation,” Boutwell said. “We don’t
want to abolish schools except as a last
resort. But we must be ready to do it
if necessary.”
Efforts will be made during the cur
rent session, he said, to avoid “sensa
tional” acts and to concentrate on “an
honest, fair effort” to operate the
schools without forced integration.
INVESTIGATION PROPOSED
On May 25, State Sen. Vaughan Hill
Robison of Montgomery introduced a
resolution calling for a broad legisla
tive investigation of organizations “re
sponsible ... for attacks” on segregation
in Alabama. The measure is aimed not
only at the NAACP, which is still un
der a court order restraining it from
operating in Alabama (see “Legal Ac
tion”), but other organizations formed
since the NAACP injunction. The in
vestigating group would have power to
subpoena witnesses and records, ad
minister oaths and take testimony. The
resolution stipulates that the report
should be made to the legislature with
in 40 days after the resolution is passed.
The resolution notes a “planned at
tempt on the part of a certain undesir
able, irresponsible element of our so
ciety to subvert and destroy the estab
lished social order of this state.”
McKAY’S OFFERING
Rep. Charles W. McKay Jr. of Tal
ladega County, author of Alabama’s
interposition resolution and subsequent
pro-segregation measures, introduced a
bill to require the governor and other
elected state and city officials to refrain
from carrying out any Supreme Court
decisions which the legislature has de
clared “null and void.” Failure to do so
would be construed as “malfeasance,
misfeasance or nonfeasance” in office.
McKav also introduced a bill pro
hibitin'’ race mixing at athletic con
tests. public parks and amusement
places.
Ren. Judson C. Locke Sr. of Perry
Countv said 'n late Mav he mav intro
duce a bill to make the teaching of un-
segrefated classes in Alabama schools
a criminal offense. The measure would
annlv to Negro teachers as well as
white. Locke said, adding: “When I’m
convinced it’s constitutional, then I’ll
introduce it.”
WOULD ABOLISH MACON
Among the many proposals offered,
planned or hinted at by State Sen. Sam
Engelhardt of Macon County is one he
says he may introduce to abolish Ma
con County. Under the Engelhardt bill,
which he has previously mentioned,
Macon would be cut in five pieces and
each of these annexed to one of the
five surrounding counties.
The purpose would be to dilute Ma
con’s Negro population (84.4 per cent
of the total, according to the 1950 census,
highest of any countv in the nation).
Famous Tuskegee Institute would be at
the center of the pie-cut and its cam
pus parceled out to all five counties.
Engelhardt has expressed the fear that
shou’d the Eisenhower civil rights pro
gram be enacted, it would be only a
matter of time before Macon Negroes
would take command of all elections.
The plan might be of value to 12 other
counties, Engelhardt has said, where
Negroes are in the maiority.
FnoelViorHt has also prenared a bill
dpsicmorl to assure continued white
control in Tuskegee citv elections. The
local bill, as advertised in a Tuskegee
weekly paper, would gerrymander the
city limits, now in the shape of a sauare,
so as to remove from the city predom
inantly Negro sections.
Although no official records are avail
able, it has been estimated that Ne
groes comprise 30 to 40 per cent of the
total vote in Tuskegee, home of Tuske
gee Institute. Negro voter registration
has been heavy in the city, posing the
possibility that a Negro could be elect
ed to municipal office.
leadership in the South. For whenever
political leadership handicaps educa
tional leadership, it has sinned griev
ously against human values, and in this
connection I am greatly distressed that
this has been the situation in some
places.”
On May 27 Carmichael was one of
four honorary-degree recipients at the
90th annual commencement exercises
of the University of Kentucky in Lex
ington, accepting a doctor-of-laws de
gree. Among the others: Native Ken
tuckian Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer
Prize-winning novelist and poet now
teaching at Yale, whose newest (1956)
book is Segregation: The Inner Conflict
in the South (Random House).
# # #
The Old Hive Is Humming
—Birmingham News
LEGAL ACTION
The U.S. Supreme Court on May 27
agreed to review the contempt case
against the Alabama NAACP. Not at
issue before the high court at this time
was the injunction against NAACP ac
tivities in the state. Hearing on the
contempt appeal probably will be set
for next fall.
In a brief filed in mid-May with the
U. S. Supreme Court, Alabama Atty.
Gen. John Patterson contended that it
was the NAACP’s own “recalcitrance”
which led to its inability to test a state
ban against its operation.
The organization was temporarily re
strained from all operations in the state
by a Montgomery circuit court order
last June. When, in subsequent hear
ings, the organization refused to produce
membership lists and other records,
Judge Walter B. Jones imposed a $100,-
000 contempt fine.
The Alabama Supreme Court refused
to review the contempt fine and the
NAACP appealed to the U. S. Supreme
Court which, Patterson argues, should
also refuse to review the fine. Patter
son’s brief said: “The petitioner has at
tempted to make of this a segregation
case. It is not. It involves merely the
power of a state to compel foreign cor
porations operating within its borders,
whatever their purpose ... to conform
to the laws.”
NAACP CONTENTION
NAACP lawyers have contended the
organization cannot contest the iniunc-
tion itself, and thus regain its right to
operate in Alabama, until it purges it
self of the contempt citation and fine.
To this Alabama’s attorney general
answers in his brief: “That the petition
er is entitled ultimately to a hearing
on the merits of the case is basic to
our law. But it is the petitioner’s own
recalcitrance which has prevented its
nroeeedinct to the merits. The rule of
law forbidding a party in equity who is
"ontempt of court from continuing
further is neither novel nor unfair.”
An assistant professor at Alabama
Polytechnic Institute has been dismissed
because, he says, of a letter he wrote
to the student newspaper, The Plains
man.
The letter from the professor, Bud
R. Hutchinson, was critical of a
Plainsman editorial on integration
efforts in New York. Hutchinson’s let
ter said in part:
“What is refreshing about the New
York approach is their obvious willing
ness to come to grips with the difficult
problem of effectively integrating their
education system . . .
“Rather than sneer at the attempts
of the New York City Board of Educa
tion to cope with this social problem, all
who would really love humanity should
strongly commend them for their cour
age and intelligence . . .”
‘CONTRARY VIEWS’
In explaining Hutchinson’s dismissal,
API President Ralph Draughon said the
instructor had expressed views “con
trary to the views of the Alabama Poly
technic Institute.”
“And in the face of all the tension in
this areas,” Draughon continued, “he
being in his first year of employment
and holding those views, I did not feel
that he could expect to advance here
and it would be better for him and the
institution if he sought employment
elsewhere.”
Hutchinson, a native of Detroit who
has taught at Michigan State Univer
sity and the University of Southern
California, said, “I’m willing to put up
a fight.” He has appealed his case to
the local chapter of the American As
sociation of University Professors on
the contention that the administration
had violated academic freedom.
KLAN REBUKED
The University of Alabama student
legislature unanimously adopted May
14 a resolution “strongly rebuking” the
Ku Klux Klan for picketing a univer
sity discussion group.
Some 70 Klansmen, one reported
wearing a pistol, picketed a meeting of
students and faculty members in Cant
erbury Chapel, an Episcopal-owned
student center adjoining university
property. The Open Forum, the group
meeting at the chapel, had previously
been denied use of university property.
The ban, and the Klan’s subsequent vis
it, followed revocation of Open Forum’s
charter by the student legislature.
The resolution condemning the Klan
charged that the demonstration, in Klan
costume, “gives the impression of an
attempt to interfere with such student-
faculty groups through physical pres
ence, which is but a step removed from
more direct physical coercion.”
TROUBLE FEARED
A university spokesman told South
ern School News that anti-Klan feel
ing on the campus was high following
the incident. Should the Klansmen re
turn, the spokesman continued, there
might well be trouble, perhaps vio
lence.
As one student put it, ”We have re
scinded and rebuked, and now we are
in a position to do something construc
tive.”
Two days before Gov. James E. Fol
som’s speech at the opening of the 1957
legislature, one of his top leaders,
State Sen. Broughton Lamberth of
Tallapoosa County said the governor
would make a strong pro-segregation
statement.
He further predicted that the admin
istration leaders would push segrega
tion legislation. “We’ll do everything
possible to keep segregation in the
schools,” Lamberth said.
However, Folsom did not once men
tion the segregation question in his
speech.
In an address before the 97th Gen
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church, U.S., Dr. Edward D. Grant of
Louisiana attacked the silence of
churches in public affairs.
Dr. Grant, director of institutions of
the state of Louisiana, said: “We face
in the world today an outbreak of color
conscience such as no other generation
has ever seen. This is but the fruit of
the teaching of the Christian church
around the world, for it has developed
in men’s hearts everywhere the desire
for personal freedom, and racial free
dom . . . Pity the church that keeps
silent and looks the other way in a
day like ours.”
COMMUNITY ACTION
- -- - •
In what was admittedly a “stepped-
up campaign” to increase the number
of Negro voters in Montgomery County,
some 250 Negro applicants showed up at
the Montgomery County Board of Reg
istrars May 6.
Rufus Lewis, Negro businessman and
chairman of the voter registration com
mittee of the Montgomery Improve
ment Association (headed by Dr. Mar
tin Luther King Jr.) said of the mass
attempt to register:
“There are only 2,300 Negro voters in
Montgomery County out of a Negro
population of 61,000. And there are
26,000 white voters in a population of
about 80.000. During the past 18 months
some 800 new white voters have been
registered, but only 65 or 70 Negroes
have been registered. The Negroes who
have registered represent about 800 ap
plicants. We have many to apply but
few to be registered. We don’t think
the board is fair to us.”
The chairman of the board of regis
trars, Mrs. C. B. Willis, said in reply:
“Those who are qualified will be reg
istered. Those who aren’t won’t be, re
gardless of whether they are white or
colored.”
In Elmore County, also on May 6,
about 60 Negroes applied for registra
tions. It was “the largest number we’ve
had in a long time,” said a member
of the Elmore Board of Registrars.
KING LEADS PILGRIMAGE
Some 200 Montgomery Negroes, led
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., attend
ed the “Prayer Pilgrimage for Free
dom” in Washington on the third an
niversary of the Supreme Court’s de
segregation decision.
Before leaving, King had said: “We
hope this will change the conscience and
spirit of the nation in the whole area
of civil rights.”
MISCELLANEOUS
The first defendant tried in Birming
ham’s Ku Klux Klan shooting case, Ira
N. Evans, was acquitted by a Jefferson
County Circuit Court jury May 23.
Evans, Citizens Council leader Asa E.
Carter. Harold McBride and Louey C.
1) Alabama voters approved far-
reaching “freedom of choice”
school amendments in a referen
dum last August. The amendments,
passed despite disagreement even
between Citizens Councils as to
effects, opened the door for legis
lative abolition of public schools if
deemed necessary.
2) U. S. District Judge Hobart
Grooms ruled that the University
of Alabama was justified in expel
ling Autherine Lucy for her un
proven charges that the university
conspired in the riots which drove
her from the campus in February,
1956.
3) The Alabama NAACP was
banned and fined $100,000 by
Montgomery Circuit Judge Walter
B. Jones in a case now on appeal
before the U. S. Supreme Court.
4) The shift of Negro voters
from traditional Democratic alle
giance to Republican in the 1956
election helped swing the state’s
three largest counties (Jefferson,
Mobile and Montgomery) to Eis
enhower.
5) The U. S. Supreme Court
ruling that segregation is uncon
stitutional in the Montgomery bus
case was followed by dynamiting
and shooting in Montgomery and
Birmingham, affecting an already
tense race situation.
Curry were all charged with shooting
James P. Tillery in a fight during a
Klan meeting. Each was indicted on
charges of assault with intent to murder
in connection with the shooting which
followed Tillery’s challenge of Carter’s
“one-man rule” during the meeting.
Carter denies being present at the
meeting.
The remaining defendants will be
tried in the fall, Deputy Solicitor Wil
lard McCall said, despite the acquittal
of Evans.
3 CLAIM KLAN BEATING
In Prattville, three Negro men re
ported to police that they had been
beaten by robed Ku Klux Klansmen
during a night rally in the small South
Alabama town May 18. Because of the
incident, Police Chief O. C. Burton said
he did not think “the city council will
be kind enough to let them [the Klan]
have the park [Pratt Park] again.”
Two of the Negroes required medi
cal treatment for cuts and bruises.
Principal speaker at the rally, which
drew several hundred persons, was
State Sen. Albert Davis of Aliceville.
E. C. Barnard, Mobile Klan leader
and gunsmith, has formally qualified
for the Mobile City Commission race.
Barnard, 53, filed for Place No. 1 held
by former State Sen. Joseph Langan,
a Catholic.
Running on a “white supremacy”
platform, Barnard said, “there will not
be any mixing of the white and Negro
races in our schools, housing, cafes,
parks and other places of amusement
or in any public place.”
Barnard calls himself imperial wizard
of the Gulf Ku Klux Klan.
BOMBING TRIALS
Two Montgomery white men, arrest
ed in January on charges growing out
of the bombing of homes and churches
of Montgomery Negroes were arraigned
in Montgomery Circuit Court May 20.
Charged specifically with bombing
the occupied home of a Negro minister,
Henry Alexander and James D. York
face possible capital sentences under
Alabama law. Trials were to begin
June 3.
Two other defendants indicted in con
nection with the dynamitings were
acquitted during the present term of
court. They are Raymond C. Britt Jr.
and Sonny Kyle of Livingston. They
were charged with bombing unoccupied
dwellings, a lesser crime.
# # #