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PAGE 4—JULY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
S. C. Legislators Raise New Defenses
Against Desegregation of Schools
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. SERS
is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation, but simply
reports the facts as it finds them, state by state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tenn.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the authority
of the act of March 3, 1879.
OFFICERS
Frank Ahlgren Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice-Chairman
Don Shoemaker Executive Director
Patrick McCauley, Assistant to the Executive Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com- Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash-
mercial-Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Vander- George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk University,
bilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee Don Shoemaker, Exec. Director, Sou.
Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. Education Reporting Service
Coleman A. Harwell, Editor, Nashville Bert Struby, Editor, Macon Telegraph,
Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn. Macon, Ga.
Henry H. Hill, President. George Pea- Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
body College, Nashville, Tenn. News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
C. A. McKnight. Editor, Charlotte Ob- Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
server, Charlotte, N.C. Schools, Richmond, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA MISSOURI
William H. McDonald, Assistant Robert Lasch, Editorial Writer, St.
Editor, Montgomery Advertiser Louis Post-Dispatch
ARKANSAS
Thomas D. Davis, News Editor, Ar- N ° RTH CAROLINA
kansas Gazette Ja . y Jenkms Raleigh Bureau Chief,
DELAWARE Charlotte Observer
William P. Frank, Staff Writer, Wil- OKLAHOMA
mington News Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla-
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA homa City Oklahoman-Times
Jeanne Rogers, Education Writer,
Washington Post & Times Herald
FLORIDA w - D - Workman Jr., Special Corre-
Bert Collier, Staff Writer, Miami spondent, Columbia, S.C.
Herald TENNESSEE
GEORGIA James E ||i 0tti staff Writer. Nashville
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Macon Banner
ITT Km fry Y Wallace Westfeldt, Staff Writer.
K W T U CKY I rj.i . | w .. Nashville Tennessean
Weldon James. Editorial Writer,
Louisville Courier-Journal TEXAS
LOUISIANA Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bureau,
Leo Adde, Editorial Writer, New Or- Dallas News
MABYiAwn VIRGINIA
c j , . . . XA/ Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer, R!chmond Time s-Dispatch
Baltimore Evening Sun
MISSISSIPPI WEST VIRGINIA
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau, Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Memphis Commercial-Appeal Editor, Charleston Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 5, Tenn.
Return Postage Guaranteed
COLUMBIA, S. C.
outh Carolina legislators con
cluded their next-to-longest
session in history with a record
which included a sprinkling of new
statutes designed to further pro
tect racial segregation in the state.
(See “Legislative Action.”)
A federal court test of a 1956
legislative enactment reached an
impasse, at least for the time be
ing, with the repeal of the act in
question and the return by the
U.S. Supreme Court of the case to
the district court in South Caro
lina. Criminal proceedings in state
court against six men charged with
flogging a school man for alleged
integration remarks collapsed
when a grand jury refused to in
dict them. (See “Legal Action.”)
Ku Klux Klan activity continued at
a stepped-uo pace during the month of
June (see “Miscellaneous”) and a na
tional magazine article on racial segre
gation in the state stirred comments
from Citizens Councils and from
NAACP spokesmen. (See “Community
Action.”) Reports of integration pro
clivities by the Southern Baptist Con
vention brought sharp reaction from
some South Carolinians. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
The General Assembly ended its 1957
session (second longest on record) on
June 21 with a number of pro-segrega
tion measures incorporated in its en
actments of the current year. One of
the measures was an act vesting the
governor with considerable emergency
authority.
This particular act (S.197) pulled to
gether in one package the governor’s
existing authority over the militia and
law enforcement' agencies and added to
it new power to discontinue or take
over any “transportation or other pub
lic facilities” and to secure compliance
with his proclamations “by injunction,
mandamus, or other appropriate legal
action.”
In even broader terms, “The gover
nor is hereby authorized and em
powered to take such measures and to
do all and every act and thing which
he may deem necessary in order to
prevent violence or threats of violence
to the person or property of citizens
of the State and to maintain peace,
tranquility and good order in the State,
and in any political subdivision there
of, and in any particular area of the
State of South Carolina designated by
him.”
OTHER ENACTMENTS
The legislature this year also enacted
these statutes:
(S.25) An act defining barratry and
imposing strict penalties against per
sons or organizations which promote
litigation with which they are not di
rectly and properly concerned.
(H.1462) An act requiring applicants
for public employment to apply in
writing for such jobs, and to show on
their application forms the names of
organizations and associations to which
they belong. This act replaces a 1956
statute which flatly prohibited the pub
lic employment of NAACP members.
(See “Legal Action” for lawsuit in
voking the 1956 act.)
The State Appropriations Bill
(H.1287) this year, as last, included
several stipulations that appropriations
are made for “racially segregated”
schools, colleges and parks.
Another new statute which is indi
rectly connected with the racial prob
lem is H.1369, an act permitting the
private placement of state institution
bonds if other requirements of law are
met. (This is expected to simplify the
placement of bonds if questions arise as
to the effect of racial integration upon
the continued operation of state insti
tutions of higher learning.)
PASSED ONE HOUSE
Among bills and resolutions which
passed the House of Representatives
but which had not passed the Senate
by the end of the session are these:
(H.1230) A concurrent resolution
establishing a State Sovereignty Com
mission to work toward enlisting the
support of other states in the cause of
states’ rights.
(H.1282) A bill authorizing the attor
ney general to investigate the records
of foreign and domestic nonprofit corp
orations in the state.
(H.1403) A bill to require blood
banks to label white and Negro blood
separately.
(H.1506) A bill empowering school
trustees to assess tuition fees for pu
pils attending school in districts where
in their parents do not reside.
Numerous other measures were left
in committee or in local legislative
delegations at the session’s end. Eight
counties enacted local acts to require
organizers and membership solicitors
to obtain permits before engaging in
such solicitation. These bills did not
specify the organizations affected, and
would apply equally to labor unions,
the NAACP, and other organizations.
Several of the bills specifically ex
empted railroad unions from their pro
visions.
The U. S. Supreme Court, on June
24, sent back to the Eastern District of
South Carolina a lawsuit challenging
the constitutionality of a 1956 state law
barring the public employment of
NAACP members. That law was
repealed and replaced this year by an
other act which establishes no bar to
employment but which requires job
seekers to make written applications
for public employment and to indicate
on their applications the organizations
«nd associations to which they belong.
The 1956 act was tested by 17 Negro
teachers of the Elloree school system
of Orangeburg County, who contended
that the law was in violation of the
federal constitution.
In declaring the issue moot by virtue
of the act’s repeal, the Supreme Court
nevertheless specified that the NAACP
(which supported the lawsuit) be per
mitted to amend its pleadings “either
to safeguard any rights that may have
accrued to them ... by virtue of the
operation of the repeal act, or to set
forth a cause of action based on the
operation of the new act.”
INDICTMENT REFUSED
In the state courts, a Kershaw Coun
ty grand jury on June 24 refused to
indict six men charged with the
flogging of a former Camden man, Guy
Hutchins, in late December. The same
grand jury earlier this year had re
duced, on its own volition, the charges
against four of the six defendants from
assault and battery of a high and
aggravated nature to simple assault. It
was after that episode that Fifth Cir
cuit Solicitor T. Pou Taylor carried the
case to the state supreme court in an
effort to prevent the matter from de
scending to a magistrate’s court. At
that time, the prosecuting attorney and
the defense agreed that indictments for
the more serious offense would again
be sought from the grand jury in June.
This time, the grand jury turned the
men loose.
The presiding judge at the Kershaw
County term of court had harsh words
to say about the U. S. Supreme Court.
(See “What They Say.”)
UNDER SURVEY
The state’s Special Segregation Com
mittee was granted a $25,000 appro
priation in the state appropriations bill
for 1957-58. The 15-man committee,
headed by State Sen. L. Marion Gres-
sette of Calhoun County, is charged
with maintaining a continuing surveil
lance over, and with making appro
priate legislative recommendations con
cerning, racial matters in general. The
committee consists of five senators, five
representatives, and five non-legislators
appointed by the governor. It first was
created in 1951, and has been periodi
cally extended since then.
Judge G. Duncan Bellinger of the
Fifth Judicial Circuit said in his charge
to the Kershaw Comity grand jury at
Camden on June 24: “By judicial de
cree the members of the Supreme
Court relegated to themselves the
power to amend the Constitution and
take from the people that right . . .
“It is my humble opinion, that as
surely as there is a God in Heaven,
this decision will be eventually re
versed, though it may take years . . .
The states will gain their sovereign
rights under the Constitution of the
United States . . . Unabated lawless
ness will, instead of helping the situa
tion, make it worse ... We shall only
win our cause through lawful and
peaceful resistance to the decisions of
the Supreme Court of the United States
to place upon us integration of the
races and to further wipe out the rights
of the states as guaranteed by the Con
stitution of the United States.”
JOHNSON HEARD
Judge J. Henry Johnson of the 14th
Judicial Circuit in his charge to the
Beaufort Comity grand jury on June
24 charged the U. S. Supreme Court
with being “soft” on communism and
warned southern churchmen to watch
their denominations to see that they
don’t follow the integrationist line.
“Are the churches getting their religion
from the U. S. Supreme Court or from
God?” he asked.
The Rev. Archibald T. Carey. Jr.,
acting chairman of a special White
House committee on employment prac
tices, told the graduating class of Allen
University on May 30 that President
Eisenhower “has done more than any
one since Abraham Lincoln” to further
the cause of civil rights. He listed
Eisenhower’s leadership as one of the
four factors which had led Negroes up
to their present position. The other
factors, he said, were the “goodwill” of
individuals and of organizations “like
the NAACP and the Urban League;”
the “shrinking of the world” which
brought white and colored people to
the same conference tables; and the
“achievement” of minority groups, es
pecially in the fields of literature, di
plomacy, and sports.
Gov. George Bell Timmerman Jr.,
during an interview on June 22 at the
National Governors’ Conference, Wil
liamsburg, Va.: “South Carolina will
never be integrated in a thousand years.
There is no demand for integration in
my state among either the Negroes or
the whites. The opposition to it is just
as strong as it ever has been. With us,
segregation is not a matter of politics.”
A number of Baptist groups and in
dividuals were critical of initial reports
from the Southern Baptist Convention
which met in Chicago in late May. An
Associated Press statement to the effect
that “the Southern Baptist Convention
tonight called for an end of resistance
to integration of races” prompted ad
verse reaction from many laymen and
several Baptist ministers who had not
attended the convention. Several who
did attend returned to say that the press
reports were misleading, and that what
was intended was a call for an end to
lawlessness and a protection of Negroes
and others against violence stemming
out of the racial dispute.
The Carolina Baptist Fellowship (an
organization of ministers) also was
critical of what it considered to be pro-
integration tendencies of evangelist
Billy Graham.
COUNCIL STRENGTH
The state chairman of the Citizens
Council in South Carolina, Thomas D.
Keels of Sumter, said on June 20 that
the organization was stronger than ever
in South Carolina today. He said there
were 57 local councils in the state, with
a combined membership of approxi
mately 55,000 persons. Keels and his
associates deplored the activities of
agitators such as John Kasper (see
“Miscellaneous”) and termed the Ku
Klux Klan “rabid, radical pressure
groups,” which have not gained any
foothold at all where Citizens Councils
exist.
At Summerton, the president of the
Citizens Council, W. B. Davis Jr., said,
“People just can’t be forced to inte
grate.” His remark was made to a
Charleston News and Courier reporter
in the wake of a Saturday Evening Post
article entitled, “The Town That Lit
the Integration Fuse,” second in a series
reporting on the racial segregation sit
uation in the South.
Also in the wake of the Saturday
Evening Post story about Summerton,
Billy Fleming, a local spokesman for
the NAACP, said a rally was planned
for July 1 which would be “a black
night for Citizens Councils.” Later,
Fleming said the meeting would be
sponsored not by the NAACP but by
the Clarendon County Improvement
Association, of which he is a member
also. He said two prominent white
speakers would address the group and
that the occasion would be “the biggest
story that has come out of Clarendon
County in years.”
Meanwhile, the Saturday Evening
Post story has drawn varied reaction
from South Carolinians. Many persons
have written letters to local newspapers
complaining of the attitude of the article
and terming it an affront to Summer-
ton. Others have said it seems to seek
a truthful portrayal of the facts as they
can be gathered by a northern news
paperman.
PLANS QUESTIONS
The North Charleston Citizens Coun
cil announced in the latter part of June
that it planned to submit the following
list of questions to all ministers in
Cooper River School District No. 4, the
area generally represented by members
of the Citizens Council:
“Do you think segregated schools and
churches are best for both races?
“Do you think it is a Christian atti
tude to integrate people against their
will?
“Do you agree with what the
NAACP is working for?
“Do you agree with what the Citizens
Councils are working for?
“Do you think the World Council of
Churches is right in endorsing integra
tion?”
J. A. Shuler, chairman of the Citizens
Council, said, “We are not trying to put
pressure on any minister. We are only
trying to get information that we may
find the understanding to make a bet
ter community in which to live. We
hope that each minister will cooperate
in answering these questions that we
might keep our Council on a Christian
basis.”
MISCELLANEOUS
Ku Klux Klan meetings in South
Carolina during June included a rally
on the outskirts of Greenville at which
John Kasper, itinerant segregationist,
spoke to an audience which started off
at about 500 persons and dwindled to
approximately 200 by the end of the
meeting. Bill Hendrix, of Florida, iden
tified as Imperial Councilman of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, also
spoke. The two men, with a third who
was not identified, bitterly attacked
racial integration, the U. S. Supreme
Court, communism, and Jews.
Another Klan meeting was held near
Fort Mill, in York County, on the night
of June 22. Reference was made during
the meeting to a “reorganization” of
the KKK in York County, due in part,
so the speaker said, to the exposing of
improper Klansmen by the Rock Hill
Evening Herald. The principal speaker,
identified as the “Grand Kaliff of the
Association of South Carolina Klans,
denounced Billy Graham, various high
government officials, including a mem
ber of the Supreme Court, the Presi
dent, the Vice President, and a number
of local York County folk who send
their children to an integrated paro
chial school.
He also enumerated a list of products
and firms, local and national, which he
said contributed their profits to the
NAACP or otherwise to the cause of
integration and suggested that they he
boycotted.
# # *
School Issue
(Continued From Page 1)
tion case involving the Wichita Fall 5 '
Texas schools.
PRIVATE SCHOOL DECISION
April 29, 1957—In the Girard Collet
Case (re: application of William Ashe
Foust), the Supreme Court revers
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, ho
ing that separation in a private sch
operated by public officials, though aC ^
ting in a non-public capacity, is 1111
constitutional.
May 20, 1957—The Supreme Cou£
denied certiorari in the case of Boo
v. Board of Education, wherein ^
Sixth Circuit Court had reversed ^
district court decision approving te
ual desegregation of Memphis & }
College, and other Tennessee msn
tions. j
June 17, 1957—The Supreme Co
denied certiorari in the case of Or
Parish School Board v. Bush, thus
holding district and circuit court .
terminations that Louisiana’s P u ^ n <j
placement act is unconstitutional
that Negroes must be admitted to
lie schools in New Orleans on 3
discriminatory basis. » f
# tf