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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER 1957—PAGE 13
RALEIGH, N.C.
t Raleigh school board has
t [gled an answer to a Negro
i- ,juth’s lawsuit which bids fair to
id ^me the first to constitute a
5 ^ test of the state’s 1955 Pupil
! assignment Act. (See “Legal Ac-
3 -oa.”) „ ,
i ^orth Carohna Negroes at a
i mention of the National Asso-
* ^tion for the Advancement of
" jored People were asked to
a ',-uble registration at the polls in
* ^wer to segregationist politi-
■ .jans. Another NAACP speaker
l! Seated that integration of
Jathern National Guard units
-jy be requested. (See “Political
h Uvity.”)
e Both U. S. senators strongly criticized
resident Eisenhower for using troops
3 Little Rock, but Gov. Luther Hodges
f chairman of a committee of southern
" jvernors formed to mediate the crisis
■ ./as more guarded in his comments.
5ee “What They Say.”)
„ Dorothy Counts, 15-year-old Negro
J prl who withdrew from a white school
a Charlotte after receiving a hostile
t -eception, enrolled in a private, inter-
-.dal school in suburban Philadelphia.
l See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
An explosion shook the house of a
j Sreensboro Negro whose two sons are
ending a previously all-white school
’ ; ere. There were no injuries. No ar-
■ests have been made. (See “Miscel-
l aeous”)
U. S. District Judge Don Gilliam
rimed down a motion by the Raleigh
•chool board, which asked dismissal of
isuit in which a Negro seeks admission
a> all-white Needham Broughton High
School. The board asked for dismissal
rgain, in an answer to the suit. A ruling
2 the case may not come until next
■ : ipring.
1 In the suit, the parents of Joseph
Hiram Holt Jr. ask both the admission
:t their son to the white school and an
-’junction forbidding the board to op-
' ‘-rate schools on a segregated basis.
On the motion to dismiss, Atty. J. C. B.
Iringhaus Jr., contended Judge Gil-
- am would have to rule the pupil as-
•gnment act unconstitutional in order
a grant relief to the Holts. He said the
ourth Circuit Court of Appeals has
■M that the act is not unconstitu-
ronal on its face.
S °T PART OF REMEDY
for the plaintiffs, Atty. Herman Tay-
* ^gued that the circuit court also
held that state courts do not con-
® u * e part of the state administrative
Hedies afforded under the assignment
Those remedies were exhausted be-
re l -‘e Holts went into federal court,
said. Judge Gilliam sided with Tay
°ung Holt, the only Negro to apply
■■admission to white schools in Ral-
■5“. Was turned down by the school
On appeal to the board, he was
. ^ down a second time. Court ac-
•*> followed.
in an answer to the suit, the
’ ilb° board contended Holt has not
‘ e b the proper legal procedure. It
1 , dismissal because, it alleged, the
’“'plaint:
hREE points MADE
. Does not allege a specific board
, on ibat discriminated against Holt
* as “unreasonable.”
Tails to show Holt’s admission
Delaware
(Continued From Page 12)
hysterical reaction” among white
», * n southern states and instead of
l-^hiaging “the forward looking peo-
decision threw them back on
jj^beels and congealed the white
■E Es TION raised
[.Iji 6 question of integration figured
j® re ferendum held early in Octo-
^df ? eterm ' ne whether the Gunning
- Sch ^ cEo °^ district and the Odes-
hool District would consolidate.
•, r eferendum ended in the failure
^^"solidate. The Gunning Bedford
Tjj'd v oted in favor; Odessa, against.
>*. 6 P unn * n £ Bedford District is a
.^school area, taking in the Dela-
schools, Port Penn and the
>se °dore Macdonough districts.
> districts are just about north of
-at c esa Peake and Delaware Canal
"4 across the northern neck of
| * e °f Delaware and has come to
°' v ’ n as the state’s “Mason-Dixon
hally all of the school districts
0 the canal either have actual
N. C. Board Files Answer in Suit That
May Test State’s Placement Statute
Casualty of Little Rock
—Smithfield Herald
“would be in harmony” with the as
signment act. Federal court “should not
be placed in the position of being a
supervisory school board in the admin
istration of state law . . .”
3) Asks the court to pass on questions
of fact—such as rules and regulations
—which must be determined before a
federal court decides the constitutional
question.
The Holt case has significance because
it is the first lawsuit brought by a Ne
gro student as an individual seeking
admission to a North Carolina school
heretofore open only to whites. Numer
ous other suits have been class actions,
filed on behalf of varying numbers of
applicants for reassignment.
Since the assignment act specifically
provides for individual pursuit of as
signment requests, the Holt suit could
test the act itself and the administrative
procedures set up under it.
The next regular scheduled federal
court session in Raleigh is in the spring
of 1958.
... it is sure it is losing and it is running
out of delaying tactics. The last gimmick
is physical violence.”
Of “token desegregation” in Char
lotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem,
Marshall said, “The hole is in the dike.”
He also asked his Negro audience to
remember that whites “who stand up
for the law even though they don’t like
it, in many cases demonstrate more
courage than Negroes.”
EFFECT ON PARTIES
Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive sec
retary, said, “The Little Rock tragedy
may well reshape political alignments
in this country.” He said he could not
predict what effect it will have on Ne
gro voters in 1958 and 1960, and “he
[the Negro] knows the political affilia
tions of the leading actors in the drama.
He knows what troops did what.”
He referred to the three North Caro
line cities in which there has been some
integration. “They have ventured to put
their toes into the waters of public
school desegregation and have not yet
been drowned, nor even poisoned.
“We believe they have acted with
courage to make a beginning and that
is good. I hope we will be forgiven for
offering the wholly natural and ex
pected advice given to all would-be
swimmers, ‘Come on in, the water’s
fine’.”
U. S. Sen. W. Kerr Scott compared
the dispatch of troops to Little Rock
to “a carpetbagger invasion.” U. S. Sen.
Sam J. Ervin Jr. called it “a tragic day
for constitutional government in Amer
ica.”
Gov. Hodges, chairman of the south
ern governors who tried to mediate,
said, “It was a tragic mistake.” But the
tone of all of his comments was de
scribed as conciliatory. He declined
either to condemn Arkansas Gov. Fau-
bus, or to join certain attacks on Presi
dent Eisenhower.
In September, when a Negro girl
entered the formerly all-white high
school at Winston-Salem, members of
the Reynolds High School Senior Serv
ice Club and the Key Club scrubbed
out epithets painted on the walks and
driveway leading to the school. There
were no other incidents.
sent from a small, predominantly Ne
gro audience in a church. Around 25
were present to hear Archbishop Clar
ence C. Addison, president-general of
the African Universal Church.
“God is the author of segregation and
the Devil is author of integration,” Ad
dison said. He said the northern Negro
is not as well off as his southern count
erpart.
“This man came down here to bring
hatred among us,” a Negro woman
shouted from the audience. “You’re an
other Kasper. God’s going to kill you,
trying to separate His people.”
At a state convention of the NAACP
in Charlotte, State President Kelly M.
Alexander of Charlotte said that of
550,000 North Carolina Negroes eligible
to vote, only 143,000 are registered.
“We can get 300,000 on the books by
the next election,” he said, “and if we
do that, Sen. Ervin’s going to be very
careful how he talks up there in Wash
ington.” (Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr. was a
leading foe of the Civil Rights legisla
tion.)
Dr. Edward J. Odom Jr. of New York,
national NAACP church secretary,
asked churches to conduct campaigns
to get Negroes to register and vote. “Fve
never seen politicians get religion as
quickly and get to believing so much
in brotherhood as when they know
you’ve got that vote that elects them
or beats them,” he said.
MARSHALL HEARD
Thurgood Marshall, NAACP general
counsel, hinted integration of southern
National Guard units may be sought
when he said, “Where guns are being
used, Negroes ought to be in the Guard
with the rest of them.” States which re
fuse to go along, he added, should have
federal funds withheld.
Marshall said he believed desegrega
tion is in its last phase because, “The
other side is frantic for two reasons only
desegregated situations or have deseg
regation policies—or reportedly would
not strongly oppose desegregation if
ordered to desegregate by the courts.
ONE HAS NEGROES
Of the three schools in the Gunning
Bedford District, only one has Negroes
in classes: Delaware City with 28 Ne
groes among the total high school en
rollment of 334.
The Odessa School District is just
south of the Chesapeake and Delaware
Canal. While Negroes live in the geo
graphical bounds of the Odessa dis
trict, no Negroes go to the Odessa ele
mentary school. They attend what is
known as the Louis L. Redding School,
a new comprehensive school, in nearby
Middletown.
Odessa—its school has an enrollment
of 111—is about five miles from Mid
dletown. Its pupils go to the Middle-
town High School upon completion of
the sixth year.
ISSUE CROPS UP
There was much activity within the
Odessa School District, pro and con,
and while some school and community
leaders tried to say that integration
was not involved, there were fliers,
U. S. Rep. Ralph J. Scott of Danburg
said, “The collective minds of a peace
able and well-meaning people will nev
er be convinced by demonstrations of
force.”
BLAMED ON COURT
Sen. Ervin, in a speech in Pinehurst,
referred to the Little Rock issue again.
“All of the turmoil and violence that
has occurred in the South can be blamed
on nine men—the Supreme Court of the
United States.”
U. S. Rep. L. H. Fountain of Tarboro
said that President Eisenhower “lost
his sense of balance” in using troops.
He said the President forgot that “Ark
ansas is a sovereign state—not a vassal
of a sovereign state, not a vassal of a
subjugated possession.”
In Chapel Hill, following a speech,
Adlai Stevenson told a press conference
he hopes “the soldiers can be quickly
withdrawn from Little Rock.” Steven
son, who upheld the President’s deci
sion to use troops, added, “It is time
now to bind up our wounds. I hope the
soldiers can be quickly withdrawn
from Little Rock and that local author-
ties and law-abiding citizens every
where will see to it that they are never
needed again anywhere.”
In Charlotte, a pro-segregation Negro
clergyman from New York brought dis-
broadsides and pamphlets from both
sides, bringing in the issue of integra
tion.
Those in favor of consolidation with
the Gunning Bedford District said this
was Odessa’s opportunity to join a
peacefully integrated district, while
those against said that Odessa’s inter
ests lay with Middletown which is
segregated.
The day before the referendum the
question was raised as to whether Ne
groes living in the geographical bounds
of Odessa would be permitted to vote.
Harry Hock, attorney for the Odessa
school board, decided they could not
vote because, he said, they belonged
to the Redding (Negro) School Dis
trict. Several Negroes appeared at the
Odessa polls on the day of the refer
endum and were refused ballots.
VOTE RESULTS GIVEN
The vote turned out: Gunning Bed
ford District—163 in favor of consoli
dation; 13 against.
Odessa—263 against; 103 in favor.
Under Delaware law, consolidation is
effective only when the districts in
volved in this kind of a referendum
are in favor. # # #
CALLED ‘FOOTBALL’
In Charlotte, an attorney who helped
draft the state’s plan to delay integra
tion said the Negro race has become “a
political football” in both the North and
South. Fred Helms added, “This cruelty
to the Negro race, and the resulting con
fusion to its members should be brought
to an end immediately.”
Helms said, “This crisis cannot be
accounted for as being due to the blund
ers in and the tragedies involving Little
Rock and the unfortunate use of bay
onets there. It is due to the lack of
proper leadership throughout the coun
try, including the White House, the
Arkansas governor’s chair, the city of
Charlotte and Harding High School.”
Harding High was the school which
Dorothy Counts, Negro, attended briefly
before the hostility of white students
led her to withdraw. The lack of lead
ership, Helms said, “along the lines of
moderation” has made possible “the
leadership of John Kasper, the Ku Klux
Klan or the NAACP.”
In Durham, a Negro professor at
North Carolina College said that Negro
teachers “must constantly remind them
selves that they are educators, not agi
tators.” Dr. James T. Taylor, a psycholo
gist, added, “Our responsibility and ob
ligation are to the children entrusted
to our care, and our actions and efforts
at all times should be motivated by a
dedicated interest in the physical, psy
chological and intellectual growth of all
children, irrespective of race, color or
creed.”
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
An estimated 25,100 white teachers
are teaching in North Carolina public
schools this year. The estimated average
annual salary is $3,640. There are an
estimated 10,200 Negro teachers, whose
estimated salary averages $3,700 an
nually.
An estimated 45 white teachers are
teaching the 10 Negro children enrolled
at schools in Charlotte (three Negroes),
Greensboro (six Negroes) and Winston-
Salem (one Negro).
At the college level, there is desegre
gation in the three units of the Univer
sity of North Carolina. At Chapel Hill,
14 Negroes are enrolled; at N.C. State
College in Raleigh, 10, and there are
four at Woman’s College in Greensboro.
Dorothy Counts, the Negro girl who
enrolled then withdrew from Harding
High School in Charlotte, is attending
a private, interracial school in suburban
Philadelphia. Her parents did not ident
ify the school because “we want her to
get away from everything.” She is not
attending on a scholarship, her father
said, although she received scholarship
offers from several schools.
Miss Counts’ withdrawal was the only
one to date in the limited integration
in the three cities. No subsequent in
cidents have been reported in the three
cities.
In Marion, the McDowell County
Board of Education gave a final “no” to
42 Negro students who sought assign
ment to the white school in Old Fort.
The answer culminated several hearings
and an appeal.
The board said it based its decision
on the opinion that admittance of the
Negroes “would interfere with the
proper administration and instruction”
and would “probably endanger the
health or safety” of any Negro admitted.
In Lumberton, the Robeson County
Board of Education announced it will
build a new school for the “Smiling
Indians,” one of four groups segregated
in the county. The other three: whites,
Negroes and Indians.
The “Smilings,” as they are called in
Robeson, claim they are Indians, but
the Robeson Indians won’t permit them
to attend their schools and the Smilings
won’t attend Negro schools, So the
board decided to build a new $50,000
school.
Dr. Oliver C. Carmichael, former
president of the University of Alabama
and now living in retirement in Ashe
ville, has been named to the State Board
of Higher Education. Dr. Carmichael
was president of the University of Ala
bama during the incidents that occurred
when Autherine Lucy, a Negro, at
tempted to enroll there.
Gov. Hodges called Dr. Carmichael
“an outstanding scholar and educational
leader with a national and international
reputation.” The board on which he
will serve has broad authority over the
state’s 12 state-supported institutions of
higher learning. One of the first decis
ions he will join in making will be:
should tuition rates be increased?
Meanwhile, it was reported that ac
tual enrollment at the state-supported
institutions is below estimates. On Sept.
30, the enrollment was 26,989, compared
to 26,375 a year ago. Estimated enroll
ment this year called for a 3.8 per cent
increase; the actual increase was 2.3
per cent.
In Greensboro, a blast at night threw
mud and debris on the front of a home
of two Negro boys who are attending
previously all-white schools in that
city. No damage was done to the resi
dence of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Herring,
parents of the two students: Russell,
12, and Elijah Jr., 16.
Police reported there was nothing to
indicate dynamite had caused the blast.
They found a small hole in a drainage
ditch between the street and the house.
No arrests have been made.
In Monroe, the City Council passed
an ordinance—obviously aimed at the
Ku Klu Klan—prohibiting caravans of
more than three cars unless a permit
is first obtained from the police chief.
If a permit is granted, police must pro
vide an escort.
CLAIMS CLASH
This action followed a charge by an
official of the NAACP in Union County
(Monroe) that a caravan of Klansmen
and a group of Negroes swapped gun
fire. Police denied there was gunfire.
Robert F. Williams of the NAACP
said the Klansmen, riding in about 50
cars, exchanged shots with a group of
30 or 40 Negroes near the home of Dr.
A. F. Perry, president of the county
NAACP chapter.
Police Chief A. A. Mauney, in denying
the charge, said his officers reported
hearing no gunfire. He said one officer
said he heard “what sounded like a
carbine near the doctor’s home.”
BOND POSTED
Subsequently, Dr. Perry was charged
with performing an illegal abortion on
the complaint of a white woman. A
$7,500 bond was posted by a white man
—J. Ray Shute, former mayor of Mon
roe—who said he posted bond without
knowing details of the case as a service
for the community to keep Dr. Perry
from being jailed without trial.
“I wanted to show there were un
biased whites in the community,” said
Shute. Negro NAACP leaders charged
the woman’s complaint was inspired by
a white doctor, whose car was seen in
the KKK caravan.
# # #