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PAGE 8—NOVEMBER 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Mississippi Editor Draws
10-Point Plan tor *Dav‘
•/
JACKSON, Miss.
ditor Oliver Emmerich of the
daily McComb, Miss., Enter
prise-Journal, outlined a 10-point
program for “the day the heat of
integration is put upon Missis
sippi” which assures Negroes
“they can look with dignity to a
future growth in Mississippi—not
merely a continuation of the mas
ter-slave relationship.” (See
“What They Say.”)
Gov. J. P. Coleman called a
special session of the legislature
for Nov. 5 to consider authorizing
a convention to modernize the
1890 Constitution and to tighten
the state’s hold on segregation.
(See “Legislative Action.”)
Sen. John Stennis (D-Miss.) and the
Mississippi Association of School Ad
ministrators called for a speed-up in
the public school building equaliza
tion program designed to discourage
integration efforts. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
A northern senator who said he sup
ported the U. S. Supreme Court deci
sion in a speech which attacked the
Eisenhower administration received a
standing ovation after addressing the
Young Democrats at Jackson Oct. 17.
(See “Political Activity.”)
The daily Hattiesburg American and
two Methodist ministers called for
church-operated schools to defeat fed
eral court enforced integration. (See
“What They Say”)
The Mississippi Baptist Convention
refused to cancel a speech by Rep.
Brooks Hays (D-Ark.), president of the
Southern Baptist Convention, on pro
tests of some churches that he is “an
avowed integrationist.” (See “Com
munity Action”)
Editor Emmerich’s program was out
lined in an editorial in which he said
“inevitably ahead of us is the day when
an effort will be made to integrate the
schools of Mississippi.”
“When that time comes all fortifica
tions built on negative thinking will
crumble,” he said. “Not with arms, nor
threats, nor vituperation, nor emotion
al outbursts, nor economic pressures,
nor school abolition can Mississippi
hope to find a satisfactory solution to
this school integration problem.”
Emmerich, former member of the
Board of Trustees of State Institutions
of Higher Learning, said “violence,
heated tempers, night marches, bitter
words, aroused passions, stimulated ra
cial hatred may for a brief moment pro
vide a morbid sense of self-expression,
but in the end will prove to be nothing
short of calamitous to Mississippi’s own
cause.”
WOULD ‘INJURE CAUSE’
“Applying economic pressures to the
Negro people of the South will do noth
ing other than stimulate economic aid to
Negro people from outside the South
and further injure Mississippi’s cause,”
he said. “Abolishing public schools in
Mississippi to defeat integration will in
the long ran settle no problems what
soever but will on the contrary create
even larger problems.”
“The use of public funds to operate
private schools, if attempted, will be
outlawed by the U. S. Supreme Court,”
his editorial continued. “Efforts to op
erate private schools with private funds
would prove to be so costly that only a
small percentage of our children could
attend them.”
“And,” he added, “in the light of the
recent Virginia decision, the laws en
acted by our 1956 legislature to curb the
advance of school integration will prove
to be ineffective.”
GIVES PROGRAM
Asserting that “a positive program,
dynamic in scope, must be adopted,”
Emmerich said “we must:
“1) Stop letting political writers of the
East goad us into anger with statements
purposed to drive us to panic.
"2) Build adequate Negro schools instead
of merely promising them.
"3) Be honest with ourselves, and admit
to ourselves, that good Negro schools have
been postponed far too long—and that other
racial injustices within the South have con
tributed to our current debacle.
“4) Recognize that the power of educa
tion is a constructive force and when applied
adequately to our Negro people will raise
the standard of all of our people—and re
move Mississippi from the category of ‘the
lowest income state’ of the nation.
"5) Recognize that the United States Su
preme Court has not outlawed segregated
schools, nor ordered the federal government
to integrate them.
“6) White leadership, even though belated
ly, must seek the cooperation of Mississippi
Negro leadership, a large segment of which
stands ready to cooperate for the best inter
ests of both races.
“7) Understand that many Mississippians,
irritated by integrationists, have violated
the friendship of hundreds of thousands of
good Mississippi Negroes who have indicated
no interest whatsoever in integrated schools.
,“8) Remember that Negro people, like the
people of all races, must have leadership.
White leadership commits an unfortunate
blunder when it denies leadership at home
and compels Negroes to seek leadership else
where.
“9) Capitalize upon the sincere friendship
which most of the Negro people hold for
our white people—and recognize that hun
dreds of thousands of Negro parents prefer
schools for their children as eagerly as white
parents prefer their schools.
“10) Lend encouragement to the idea of
voluntary separation of the schools of Mis
sissippi and establish a workable basis of
cooperation between our white and Negro
leaders.”
URGES CHURCH SYSTEM
The Hattiesburg American said edi
torially that a church-operated school
system with integration on an optional
basis could solve any “race-mixing
problem that may arise.”
The proposal would require Missis
sippi to use its “standby” constitutional
amendment authorizing abolition of
public education by the legislature. No
tax money for school support would be
collected.
The two ministers who see church
schools as the state’s answer to inte
gration are Dr. Gilbert Oliver, pastor
of the Forest, Miss., Methodist church,
and the Rev. Robert Hunt, pastor of
the Harperville, Miss., Methodist
church.
Asserting that “the use of bayonets to
force integration is a blight upon this
Christian land,” Oliver said “if we must
abandon our fine public school build
ings the churches ought to open the
doors of their educational rooms for
operation of schools as we have known
them.”
A bitter fight is anticipated at the
Nov. 5 special legislative session Gov.
Coleman has called. He wants the 1890
Constitution modernized and fitted to
present-day operation.
Gov. Coleman has said a revision
could bolster laws designed to main
tain segregation. He has not listed any
of the measures he has in mind because
“we do not want to tip our hand to the
NAACP.”
House Speaker Walter Sillers of Boli
var County is leading the fight against
the governor’s proposed constitutional
convention. He said “there is no need
or demand for changes in our constitu
tion to meet racial issues.”
In his campaign for constitutional
amendment, Gov. Coleman spoke Oct.
29 to 300 persons “off-the-record” and
later released this statement: “If Missis
sippi doesn’t wipe clean its educational
slate as presently written in the Con
stitution and take a new approach and
allow abolition at the district level there
will be no public schools in the state
within five years.”
It was explained that the present
amendment (adopted in 1954) provides
for abolition of schools—statewide or by
district—by the legislature rather than
by independent school board action.
This feature, the governor believed,
made the amendment vulnerable to
court attack.
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
U. S. Sen. John C. Stennis said it is
imperative that Mississippi reactivate
its multi-million dollar program to
equalize Negro schools with those of
the whites. The program had been tem
porarily held up due to high interest
rates on bonds authorized for the pro
gram. New and successful efforts began
soon after to re-offer the bonds which
carry the state’s full faith.
The junior Mississippi senator said
the equalization program, expected ul
timately to cost $120 million, “is essen
tial if we are to sell our case to the
nation.”
Stating that there is no hope that
Congress or the Supreme Court will
reverse the court’s May 1954 ruling out
lawing public school segregation, Sen.
Stennis said “the only hope for modifi
cation of the court order is to sell our
case to the nation.”
MUST KEEP PROGRAM
“We could make no worse mistake
than to abandon our present school
program,” he said. “It’s permanent and
it’s positive. We must not turn our backs
on it. If we do, we have no foundation
on which to base our cause.”
The senator said he does not believe
President Eisenhower “is yet aware that
hasty integration by force is certain to
destroy the public school system in
large areas throughout the South.” He
said a suggestion to the President to
survey southern opinions, white and
The Red Mill
—Delta Democrat-Times
Negro, for a “true picture of the sit
uation” was turned down.
Also calling for reactivation of the
fund - stymied Negro - white public
school building equalization program
were the Mississippi school adminis
trators in state convention. They called
on the State Bond Commission to sell
sufficient bonds to permit the State
Educational Finance Commission to
speed up approval of projects.
Mississippi revised its Negro-white
public school equalization program Oct.
30 with the sale of $10 million in full
faith bonds. The bonds were the same
issue on which bids were rejected last
May because of too high interest rate.
A syndicate headed by First National
City Bank of New York and including
many southern financial houses pur
chased the $10 million issue at 3.1805
per cent interest.
Immediately after sale the Educa
tional Finance Commission released
projects which have been held up for
lack of funds thus far under the equali
zation program which will ultimately
cost $120 million. The commission has
under contract $12 million in projects,
$14 million approved but not under
contract and $12 million in projects on
file.
The school administrators also en
dorsed a program to be submitted to the
1958 legislature meeting in January
calling for a starting salary for teachers
with B.A. degrees of $2,400 (now $2,000),
and those with M.A. degrees, $2,600
(now $2,200).
Rep. Brooks Hays will address the
Mississippi State Baptist Convention
opening in Jackson Nov. 12 as original
ly scheduled. Officials refused to with
draw the invitation on protest of the
Utica Baptist church and several
others, following the congressman’s
efforts to settle the Little Rock school
controversy. Little Rock is in his dis
trict.
The Utica church’s resolution assert
ed that Hays “seems to have placed
politics above principles in the Little
Rock occupation by federal troops.” It
said the congressman “has proven him
self to be an avowed integrationist and
an enemy of the southern people who
believe in the segregated way of life.”
Dr. Elmer Nielsen of Hattiesburg,
program committee chairman, said Rep.
Hays received the invitation as presi
dent of the Southern Baptist Conven
tion and he “is coming here in that
capacity to describe the work of the
convention, not as a congressman.”
STATEMENT DENIES
Medgar Evers, executive secretary of
the NAACP and field representative in
Mississippi, has denied Gov. Coleman’s
statement that the organization is “ex
periencing no success in Mississippi.”
“Apparently the governor’s informers
do not give him an accurate report on
the activities of the NAACP,” Evers
said. “God-fearing men and women,
white and black, throughout the state
and the world know that we are on the
side of right and truth and we are going
to win, regardless of the chicanery and
illegal acts of many of our elected pub
lic officials and private citizens.”
Another development among Negro
leaders was adoption of a series of
objectives by the Ministerial Improve
ment Association of Mississippi, said
Rev. W. H. Hall, pastor of Zion Chapel,
A.M.E. church in Hattiesburg, the offi
cial reporter. Rev. W. P. Taylor of Hat
tiesburg is president.
LIST OBJECTIVES
The objectives follow: (1) First class
citizenship for all the people of Mis
sissippi, regardless of race, color or
creed. (2) Integration in the areas of
public transportation, including bus and
railroad stations. (3) Petition registrars
in all the 82 counties to assist and en
courage all Negroes 21 years old and
older to register.
Appointment of a Negro educator to
the staff of the State Department of
Education has been announced by Supt.
(Continued On Next Page)
West V irginia Students
Stage Demonstrations
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
HPhe Little Rock tensions were
credited with setting off a
chain of demonstrations in three
southern West Virginia counties
last month and breaking a calm
that had lasted for almost a year.
Not since parents and other
segregation sympathizers picketed
the Matoaka High School in Sep
tember, 1956 had there been any
trouble from decisions to deseg
regate the public schools. And the
Matoaka school was one of those
which figured in the newest dem
onstrations.
It was at Beaver High School at
Bluefield, the state’s most southern
city, that students first walked out of
their classrooms late in September.
Some 75 remained away from classes
for a day.
WALKOUT AT WELCH
Next to go out—on the same day the
Beaver High students returned to
school — were approximately 400 at
Welch High School in coal-rich Mc
Dowell County. McDowell has the
state’s largest number of Negro school
children, but only nine of them were
enrolled at Welch.
The demonstrators carried signs say
ing, “We Support Little Rock,” and
though they paraded and made a lot
of noise no violence occurred. That
took place later at Matoaka. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
The National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People also grew
critical this month of interracial prac
tices in West Virginia, but its complaint
was of another sort. The NAACP hit at
what it called job discrimination against
the Negroes by Kanawha Valley in
dustry. (See “Community Action.”)
Between 100 and 150 white students
refused after the noon recess Sept. 30
to return to classes at Matoaka High
School in protest against desegregation.
Next day several of them roughed up
two Negro boys as they alighted from
a school bus.
State troopers, who had been put on
standby status at the school after the
protest walkout of the day before,
quickly intervened and the Negroes
went into the building.
However, a crowd of white students,
estimated at 200, did not go to classes.
They had gathered in front of the
school, and some shouted, “We don’t
want niggers.” There are 10 Negro
children in the school’s enrollment of
670.
NEGROES SENT HOME
About an hour after school began the
six Negro children in school that day
were escorted outside by an assistant
principal. They went home in a taxi.
Most of the crowd of protesting white
students thereafter dispersed, but one
newsman, TV commentator Bob Horan
of Charleston, was the target of an egg.
It splattered against his car.
At the Hemphill-Capels school near
Welch, in the neighboring county of
McDowell, approximately 50 of an en
rollment of several hundred white stu
dents cut morning classes the same day
of the Matoaka demonstration and
marched in protest against desegrega
tion. Most of them returned to classes
by mid-morning. There are four Negro
children in the school.
GRIDIRON FIGHT
Within six days there were four such
demonstrations in Mercer and Mc
Dowell counties, and at week’s end,
white and Negro players at a football
game in Raleigh County got into a
fi"ht. The game ended far short of the
final whistle when the white players at
Trap Hill High and the Negroes on the
Stoco High team started fighting.
Two state officials, upon hearing of
the trouble in Mercer and McDowell
counties, said they didn’t regard it as
serious.
State Police Supt. Hazen Fair said
troopers had intervened at Matoaka as
a part of their “regular routine patrol
work.” Only troopers assigned to that
county were summoned to the school,
he added.
State School Supt. R. Virgil Rohr-
bough said he wasn’t fully informed
about the several incidents, but said he
regarded them as “purely local matters
which can be handled by local school
officials within the counties.”
Officials in both Mercer and Mc
Dowell counties said they doubted ij
there was any real plan to the demon
strations. Mercer Supt. W. R. Cooke
said he felt “the great amount of atten
tion being focused on Little Rock” was
behind the trouble. McDowell Supt
George Bryson agreed.
Before the first week in October had
passed, school affairs in the two coun
ties were just about normal. Children
began drifting back to school, and no
more difficulty was reported from there.
The NAACP charged, at a meeting
last month, that the Kanawha Valley’s
big chemical plants, Carbide and Du
Pont especially, are “thumbing their
noses” at federal anti-discrimination
clauses in their government contracts.
Herbert Hill of New York City was
most outspoken of the NAACP
speakers.
Hill also charged that the West Vir
ginia Department of Employment Secu
rity “is enforcing a rigid pattern of job
discrimination” in violation of federal
regulations.
Top officials of the State Department
of Employment Security denied the
charge.
NO ENFORCEMENT POWER
Henry L. Ash said, “If there are any
specific violations, we would be as in
terested as anyone dare be.” His as
sistant, Patrick Connel, noted when
contacted that “under existing state law
we cannot enforce the hiring of Negroes
in private industry.”
The NAACP also last month singled
out former Gov. William C. Marland as
“the best friend the Negro ever had”
in state government.
“He was a man of less prejudice than
anyone who has ever been governor,”
said T. G. Nutter, president of the West
Virginia NAACP branch. He also was
high in his praise of former Kanawha
County school Supt. Virgil Flinn who
“more than any other person helped
prepare Kanawha County for peaceful
integration.” (Kanawha, with the state’s
largest population, is completely de
segregate.)
LEAD THE REGION
Nutter said men like Marland and
Flinn enabled West Virginia to lead
border and southern states in desegre
gating. “I think West Virginia is ahead
of every southern state in integrating,
he went on, “and I think Kanawha
County is ahead of every other county.
In looking at conditions in the
Charleston area, Nutter said, “I defin
itely think the Negro’s place in the
community is improving.” The big
change, he continued, “came when the
schools were integrated. But there are
other examples of improvement.”
The NAACP so far has made no
move to ask the Southern District Fed
eral Court, as it decided by resolution
at its annual state convention in Sep
tember, to reopen cases against the
boards of education in Logan, Raleigh
Mercer, McDowell and possibly Cabel
counties.
But one official said plans for a new
court move against two or three o
these counties are being made. The fi'®
boards were directed by the federal
court last year to open their schools t0
Negroes, but few Negro children h a%e
transferred.
Also, no Negro teachers have been
placed in integrated schools. This is °n c
of the most contentious aspects of t
situation, the NAACP says.
An expert from the children’s bur®
of the U. S. Department of H ea * .
Education and Welfare reconunen
this month that West Virginia open
second integrated forestry camp
for
that tbe
juvenile delinquents. He noted - ^
boys industrial school at Pruntytovrn^
crowded, and the situation can only
ndustm
ial
improved by opening another ind
school or a new forestry camp- .
The state closed its Negro boys ^
dustrial school last year, when it ^
grated the races at the Pruntytown^,
stitution and opened the first in ^
is expected to be a system oi . ^
camps. Institutions Director
T. Dorman says he will ask the
ture for enough money to create
second camp. ^ f