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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER 1957—PAGE 9
MACON, Ga.
S OUTHERN SEGREGATION LEADERS
met to discuss tightening voter
requirements and to plan for bet
ter presentation of the regional
viewpoint, but a spokesman said
formation of a southwide organi
zation of Citizens Councils and
States’ Rights groups was “unlike
ly.” Georgia States’ Righters said
Little Rock developments had
greatly increased interest in the
state council. (See “Community
Action.”)
Third party talk was in the air in
Georgia and GOP hopes in the South
were generally regarded as dead. (See
“Political Activity.”)
Gov. Marvin Griffin vetoed the idea
of a special legislative session to be
held because of events in Arkansas.
(See “Legislative Action.”)
The Atlanta chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, convicted of contempt,
lost the latest round in a legal battle.
(See “Legal Action.”)
Criticism of President Eisenhower
for ordering federal troops to enforce
, integration at Central High School at
Little Rock, Ark., continued hot and
heavy among Georgia public officials.
(See “What They Say.”)
Some 60 persons representing states’
rights and citizens councils groups in
southern states met in Atlanta. The
meeting, however, was not expected to
result in a southwide organization of
councils. Roy V. Harris, Augusta at
torney and newly-elected president of
the States’ Rights Council of Georgia,
Inc., said such a course was “unlikely.”
( The group announced it discussed
tightening voting requirements and
plans for a better presentation of the
South’s arguments in favor of contin
ued racial segregation. Specific recom
mendations were not disclosed.
A Georgia Council leader, Charles J.
Bloch of Macon, recently proposed that
all voters participating in the Georgia
Democratic primary be required to
swear to state party principles up
holding states’ rights and denouncing
{ r ccent U. S. Supreme Court decisions
before being permitted to cast ballots.
RAINACH HEARD
W. M. Rainach, a Louisiana state
senator who served as chairman during
the two-day meeting in Atlanta, said
‘the key to honest elections” in the
South and in the nation “will be found
in the removal from the registration
rolls of the illegally registered pur
chasable votes that are on the rolls in
violation of state laws.”
William T. Bodenhamer, executive
secretary of the States’ Rights Council
°1 Georgia, said the organization was
■ven a terrific shot in the arm by the
President’s action sending federal
tro °Ps to Little Rock.
Some 700 persons attended the an-
i nua l dinner of the group in 1956. This
Vear approximately 1,600 were present,
■ncluding all high state officials and
senators and congressmen. The council
J Wa nts to enroll every white man and
white woman in Georgia as members,
Harris said.
ANSWER is ‘GOSPEL’
The social service commission of the
quanta Baptist Association said in its
re P°rt on racial relations that it is a
Problem that “’cannot be solved by
egislation, or force, mob violence, or
mtality. The only answer is the gospel
,' *-hat transforms men and teaches
em to live together in love.”
the statewide level, a report by
e Georgia Baptist Convention’s social
jjT'oce commission was prepared for
>. 1 organization’s annual session in
S( ?J® m ber. It says, “Christian con-
a t* ei ? ces everywhere have been shocked
the reports of incidents of incite-
nt to riot, of mob violence, and of
"(sonal brutality associated with ra-
"th ar "^ other tensions” and asks that
e convention appeal to all persons
jPublic and private life to maintain a
u “O? poise, dignity, and balance in
^ times of tension.”
POLITICAL ACTIVITY
The
e Georgia Republican Party was
J bittf ra ^ y regarded as a casualty of the
v 0 * 01683 engendered among white
th e 6rS k y events in Little Rock. But
^national Democratic Party was also
the. and much third party talk
^ ln the air.
executive committee of the Re-
Iea n State Central Committee of
Segregation Leaders Confer in Georgia
On Tightening \ ote Requirements
Georgia issued a policy statement up
holding President Eisenhower’s en
forcing of the law in Little Rock but
termed the Arkansas situation “ex
tremely regrettable.”
Political observers who attempted to
gauge the GOP loss in Georgia also
said, however, that the setback would
be somewhat offset by big gains in
Negro votes.
‘NO BASIC DIFFERENCE -
Georgia Democrats bristled at the
plea of the Democratic Advisory Coun
cil for prompt enforcement of the
civil rights bill. John Sammons Bell of
Atlanta, Georgia Democratic Party
chairman, said there is “no basic dif
ference on issues” now between the
two major parties and that the ulti
mate result will be “either a third par
ty or a realignment within both
parties.”
Third party action may be necessary
eventually for self-protection of the
southern states, Sen. Herman Tal-
madge said in Augusta.
Sen. Richard B. Russell, speaking in
the same city later in the month, how
ever, said talk of such a move was
“premature and ill-advised.” Russell
indicated he wouldn’t support a third
party movement, at least at this time,
and said the South’s best interests still
lie with the Democrats.
Earlier, Roy Harris, newly-elected
president of the States’ Rights Council
of Georgia, Inc., said he hoped either
Russell or Talmadge would be a can
didate for President in 1960, but would
not say whether he had in mind a
campaign to form a third party in the
South.
VOTE INCREASE SHOWN
“The Negro Voter in the South,” a
booklet prepared by Mrs. Margaret
Price for the Southern Regional Coun-
C-l, estimated there are at least 1,238,000
Negroes on voting rolls in the South,
an -ncrease of 229,400 over the 1,008,614
registered in 1952. “Despite this
growth,” the report continues, “the
current figure represents only 25 per
cent of the 4,980,000 Negroes of voting
age in the region, as compared to a 60
per cent registration among eligible
white southerners.”
The report estimated 163,389 Negroes
are registered in Georgia but John
Wesley Dobbs of Atlanta, president of
the Georgia Voters League, at a meet
ing in Macon called to stimulate inter
est in registration, said the figure was
175,000 and the goal in Georgia was
300,000 Negroes registered.
CANDIDATES SPEAK
One official and two unofficial guber
natorial candidates for the 1958 pri
mary continued to discuss racial prob
lems in speeches. And a fourth possible
candidate, Comptroller General Zack
Cravey, said if he runs for governor it
will be as a “strong states’ Tighter.”
The announced candidate, former
State Highway Board Chairman Roger
Lawson, said the South is now in the
“throes of a second Reconstruction”
and said President Eisenhower should
be given a sixth star as “conqueror of
Little Rock.”
The unofficial candidates are Lt. Gov.
Ernest Vandiver and Ivan Allen Jr., an
Atlanta businessman.
BARS INTIMIDATION’
Vandiver, generally believed to be
the leading candidate, said federal
military forces “will not intimidate”
Georgians. He said violence must be
prevented in this state and added this
can be done only by maintaining and
improving segregated education sys
tems for both races.
Allen denounced “rabble rousing” in
the fight against integration and said
segregation must be maintained with
dignity and honor.
GOV. REFUSES TO ATTEND
Gov. Griffin had been named at the
Southern Governors Conference in
September as one of five members of
a committee to confer with President
Eisenhower, but the governor of Geor
gia refused to attend. He said he would
not discuss the operation of the public
schools of Georgia with the President.
Before making the decision not to
participate in the conference, Griffin
conferred with Atty. Gen. Eugene
Cook, Roy Harris, Charles J. Bloch, B.
D. Murphy, and Allen Post. All are
advising the governor on legal strategy
in maintaining segregation.
Gov. Griffin and his advisers re
portedly feared attendance at the
White House conference would put
Georgia in the position of disagreeing
with the majority viewpoint and that
federal forces might put more pres
sure on Georgia for desegregation.
SENDS TELEGRAMS
Telegrams to the 47 other governors
warning that sending federal troops to
Little Rock transcended integration or
segregation and may set a precedent in
the states’ internal matters were dis
patched by Griffin a few days after his
decision not to meet with Eisenhower
as a member of the Southern Gover
nors Conference committee.
Griffin also became involved in a
dispute with Army Secretary Wilber
M. Brucker. Copies of the governor’s
proposed speech at Clarkesville were
distributed to the press prior to de
livery and said “bayoneted soldiers
have pushed teen-age girls down the
streets” in Little Rock. Continuing, the
abstracts said members of the 101st
Airborne Division had been arrested
in cities “somewhat distant from Little
Rock as they engaged in drunken
brawls.” Finally, according to the ad
vance text, Griffin was scheduled to
have said “these specially trained elite
corps soldiers” gave “themselves over
to abandoned revels which would be
horrifying in an occupied enemy coun
try . . .”
Before the scheduled speech was
made, Secretary Brucker said Griffin
was attempting to “defame” the famous
Army division, which contained many
men from the South and from Georgia.
He said Griffin’s allegations sounded
“like those of a demagogue” and said
the only incident involving Army per
sonnel in Little Rock was the taking
into custody of three soldiers who were
absent without leave.
REMARKS DELETED
Gov. Griffin deleted the remarks to
which Brucker objected in the actual
delivery of the speech at Clarkesville
and said the advance was given to
newsmen by error. He said he had rea
son to believe the statements were true,
but he planned not to use them because
he had not had an opportunity to
check the facts.
Later, Brucker, dealing with another
public official from Georgia, reported
to Sen. Russell, chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, that Gen.
Maxwell D. Taylor, Army Chief of
Staff, had issued the quickly-rescinded
order for special training of troops to
handle civil disturbances of the Little
Rock type.
Sen. Russell had asked for a copy of
the document, saying, “I want to find
out if the Army has formulated plans
for the occupation of the entire South.”
The suggestion that the Georgia
General Assembly meet in special ses
sion to bolster state segregation bar
riers :n the light of Little Rock de
velopments was vetoed by Gov. Mar-
v n Gr ffin. The governor said he did
not believe a special session was nec
essary at this time and when it was
he could call it.
Members of the Georgia Education
Commission, created by the legislature
to find means of circumventing the
Supreme Court desegregation decision,
met in Atlanta and were told an un
dercover agent “infiltrated” a “racial
strife” workshop over the Labor Day
weekend at Highlander Folk School in
Monteagle, Tenn.
STATE EMPLOYE THERE
T. V. Williams Jr., executive secre
tary, said that leaders of every recent
major racial incident in the South at
tended to discuss “methods and tactics
of precipitating racial strife and dis
turbance.”
He said a state employe, Ed Friend,
worked as an “undercover agent” and
made pictures of mixed dancing and
other social activities by those present
at Monteagle. Williams placed in evi
dence some 50 exhibits including pam
phlets and photographs allegedly made
by Friend at the meeting. Later, re
productions of the pictures were dis
tributed and mailed out in pamphlets
to the press.
The GEC placed an order for 100,000
such pamphlets but Gov. Griffin said
later the commission would have to de
cide whether to go ahead with distri
bution. The printing and wrapping cost
for that many pamphlets was quoted
as being $2,975.
Myles Horton, director of the High
lander Folk School, said all meetings
were open to and covered by the press.
Accounts of speeches and discussions
and photographs of integrated audi
ences, were published at the time, he
said.
Horton said the school had sponsored
workshops on the subject of integra
tion since 1953.
In his report to the GEC, Williams
had said that “since 1928 there has
been a history of relations between
communism and subversion and race
relations in the South.”
Horton retorted, “We had no Com
munists here. If we can find anybody
who calls us Commies in so many
words, not weasel words like Griffin’s,
we’ll sue them.”
Gov. Griffin reacted to the retort,
saying, “You lie down with dogs and
you’re going to get fleas.”
M
ISCEL
22
ous
A plan to move southern Negro
families into predominantly white
neighborhoods in other sections of the
country has been changed from a pub
lic to a private status.
State Rep. A. A. Fowler Jr., the
plan’s sponsor, said the change was
made because a constitutional amend
ment would have been necessary to
effect legislation required. Fowler,
State Welfare Director Allen Kemper,
and Roy Harris, States Rights Council
president, instead obtained a charter as
the American Resettlement Founda
tion.
About 40 robed Klansmen showed up
in Columbus at what the Knights of
the Ku Klux Klan had billed as a
“state convention.” A crowd of approx
imately 100 persons heard Klan speak
ers denounce Negroes, integration and
the Columbus Ledger.
The Georgia Court of Appeals unani
mously ruled against the NAACP’s re
quest that Fulton Superior Court
Judge Durwood T. Pye be ordered to
sign a bill of exceptions to expedite
an appeal.
The case began last December when
John H. Calhoun, president of the At
lanta branch of the NAACP, and the
organization itself were convicted of
contempt for failure to show the state
certain financial records in superior
court. NAACP lawyers said an ap
proved record of the contempt trial
was needed in order to appeal and re
quested the appellate court to force
Judge Pye to accept the organization’s
record of the trial.
The Court of Appeals held that the
bill of exceptions was not accurate.
Two major sections of the trial tran
script were at issue in the dispute over
what should be included in the record.
The decision leaves the NAACP with
the choice of appealing the contention
over the trial record to the Georgia
Supreme Court or of appealing the
convictions with the use of Judge Pye’s
version of the record.
COOK OPINION ISSUED
Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook issued an
official opinion and a legal memoran
dum in connection with racial matters.
Cook’s opinion was that a transition
from public integrated to private seg
regated school systems in Georgia
would not void a teacher’s contract
with a local board of education “or
dered by a court to integrate.”
The attorney general’s legal memo
randum to Gov. Griffin said that Pres
ident Eisenhower acted illegally in
calling out federal troops in Little
Rock to enforce school integration and
in federalizing the Arkansas National
Guard.
WHAT THEY SAY
Denouncement of the President’s or
dering of federal troops to Little Rock
continued to dominate the public
utterances of Georgia’s state officials,
congressional representatives and sen
ators.
Sen. Talmadge said he had “great
respect for the man who led American
troops in North Africa, through Europe
and finally conquered Germany,” but
he had none “for the conqueror of
Little Rock.” He said he wished he
could vote for President Eisenhower’s
impeachment and suggested that pri
vate schools is the only ultimate an
swer in Arkansas.
Sen. Russell said there is no inte
gration problem in areas in which
Negro populations involved are only
four or five per cent. He said, “If a man
wishes to have his children in an inte
grated school, let him move to some
other state where integration is exer
cised.” Of the U.S. Supreme Court,
Russell said, “ I can only respect a
court which respects the Constitution.”
CITES ‘AGITATORS’
Gov. Griffin said “paid agitators” who
are exploiting Negroes for political
reasons have set racial relations back
50 years in the South. He said that if
Georgia schools lose accreditation be
cause the systems are transferred from
public to private status in an attempt
to avoid integration, parents are “pre
pared to make some sacrifices and
suffer some inconvenience for princi
ple.”
Rep. James C. Davis of Atlanta said
the NAACP is the “radical group” that
has “called the tune” in Little Rock.
District leaders of 26 American Le
gion posts in the Third Congressional
District unanimously condemned Pres
ident Eisenhower for sending troops to
Little Rock.
EDITORS SPEAK
Emory University near Atlanta
launched a lecture series for adult
classes in which southern editors dis
cussed racial problems. Reed Sarratt of
the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal-
Sentinel said southern states would be
wise to permit local school boards to
deal with desegregation in their own
way. Joseph B. Parham of The Macon
News questioned whether whatever
gains local integration may win in the
South will be worth their cost in bit
terness and resentment engendered
among whites. Sylvan Meyer of the
Gainesville (Ga.) Daily Times warned
state segregation laws enacted could
“plunge the state into chaos and turn
it into a dictatorship overnight.”
Speaking to an Atlanta University
(Negro) Charter Day convocation, Dr.
Stephen J. Wright, president of Fisk
University, said Negro children lag be
hind the educational standard of the
average American, and unless the pub
lic school system is strengthened to in
clude all children, Americans will feel
the result.
MAJORITY ‘LAW-ABIDING’
Arthur Levin, director of the South
eastern office of the Anti-Defamation
League, told the Hungry Club of At
lanta that the majority of southerners
are law-abiding and would accept social
changes instead of mob rule.
Harry L. Alston, director of the
Southern Field Division of the National
Urban League, told a meeting of the
Atlanta chapter of Frontiers that oppo
sition from white Citizens Councils and
their affiliate groups is creating prob
lems for Negroes and there is a great
need for such organizations as the
Urban League.
The State Department of Education
said 1957-58 enrollment figures had not
been broken down by race as yet, but
reported 21,878 white and 9,336 Negro
teachers employed. White teachers
average $3,483 and colored teachers
$3,301 in annual salary.
Mississippi
(Continued from Page 8)
J. M. Tubb. Named assistant supervisor
of Negro education in the state depart
ment, effective Jan. 1, is Prof. A. A.
Alexander, who has served as principal
of Negro schools of Brookhaven since
1932. He is also a former president of
the Mississippi Negro Teachers Asso
ciation.
MISCELLANEOUS
Atty. Gen. Joe T. Patterson told the
county sheriffs that “unity on the seg
regation issue will permit Mississippi
to meet the threat of integration in a
way it hasn’t been met anywhere else.”
He made no disclosures. “I think we
will have plenty of time to meet it
[integration] differently than it has been
handled in some other places,” Patter
son said.
POLITICAL ACTIVITY
Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.)
mentioned for the 1960 Democratic
nomination for President, said in ad
dressing the Young Democrats of Mis
sissippi on Oct. 17:
“I have accepted the Supreme Court
decision on segregation as the law of
the land. I know we do not all agree
on that issue. I think, however, that
most of us do agree on the necessity to
uphold law and order in every part of
the land.”
According to a United Press dispatch
from Jackson, Sen. Kennedy, who had
also criticized the Eisenhower adminis
tration’s foreign and domestic policies,
“received a standing ovation” at the
end of his speech. # # #