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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—DECEMBER 1957—PAGE 3
East Oklahoma District Gets More Time; Another Desegregated
OKLAHOMA CTTV tt o o ^ . _ , __ . .
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
A N EASTERN OKLAHOMA School
**• district, previously desegre
gated at the secondary level, has
been granted additional time by a
federal court to end segregation
among elementary pupils.
The judge pointed to U.S. Su
preme Court opinions placing with
local school authorities the respon
sibility for working out problems
brought about by integration.
(See “Legal Action.”)
Another school district whose segre
gation-desegregation status was pre
viously unknown has been reported as
having desegregated. It is Kinta in Has
kell County. This brings to 215 the num
ber of Oklahoma school districts now
desegregated in practice or policy.
LANGSTON UNDER FIRE
A Negro university, under fire for
high per capita operating costs, dropped
an agricultural course from its curric
ulum to save money. Nevertheless, a
legislative council committee went
ahead with plans to study the school’s
financial picture. (See “In the Col
leges.”)
Negroes attending the annual state
convention of the National Association
for the Advancemetnt of Colored Peo
ple were urged to militant action in
behalf of equal rights. They were also
told “both God and the law” are on
their side. (See “What They Say.”)
The Preston school district in Okmul
gee County was given until next Sep
tember to desegregate its grade schools.
The ruling was handed down by Judge
Eugene Rice of the U.S. District Court
for Eastern Oklahoma at Muskogee in
connection with a suit (Simms v. Hud
son) which earlier ended segregation
in Preston High School. A 14-year-old
freshman Negro boy was admitted to the
previously all-white high school for the
fall term (see Southern School News,
October, 1957).
At that time Judge Rice had post
poned a decision on the admission of
Negro children to a white elementary
school in Preston, asking attorneys to
submit findings of facts and rulings of
law. The Negro elementary school, with
some 50 pupils, is located across the
wad from the white grade school in
Preston.
In his November ruling Judge Rice
Arkansas
(Continued From Page 2)
The GGC slate was composed of sev-
. ® well-known business and profes-
r'onal people, four of whom had pre-
nously won elective office. All seven
° the segregationist slate were “un-
ST 8 ” in a P°htical sense and most
taem had never been in the public
>e until the integration controversy
at Central High.
i Faubus said he had expected
o Good Government slate to win by
> and officially denied that he had
en an y part in the campaign.
exar nination of the vote by boxes
slatted the Good Government
cited U. S. Supreme Court opinions rec
ognizing, he said, “that the change from
segregated schools to integrated schools
presented problems relating to admin
istration arising from the physical con
dition of the school plant, the school
transportation system, personnel, re
vision of school districts and attendance
areas into compact units to achieve a
system of determining admission to the
public schools on a non-racial basis.”
LOCAL RESPONSIBILITY
The Supreme Court charged to local
school authorities the responsibility for
solving these problems, Judge Rice
wrote.
He added that the Preston Board of
Education, “although not in complete
accord” with the Supreme Court rul
ing, recognizes it as the law but desires
more time to desegregate its grade
schools.
“In the court’s opinion a change-over
from a completely segregated to a com
pletely integrated system in the grade
schools in this district will, and should
require some additional time,” Judge
Rice stated.
TIME GRANTED
“For the purpose of giving the school
board additional time in which to con
sider problems relating to administra
tion and personnel, the court will not
order integration in the grade schools
at the present time but will require that
the school board present plans evidenc
ing good faith compliance with the law
prior to the beginning of the school
term in 1958. . .
Reiterating his earlier opinion con
cerning desegregation of the high
school, Judge Rice called for prepara
tion of an appropriate order directing
the district to admit qualified Negro
high school students to the white high
school on their application for enroll
ment. It is understood this applies to
Negro students not admitted to Preston
High School this year because they had
already legally transferred out of the
district.
the school has only 26 students en
rolled in agriculture this semester but
maintains a staff of seven instructors
in that field.
In addition, the nearness of Oklahoma
State University (formerly Oklahoma
A. & M. College) and its vast agricul
tural teaching facilities make it less
feasible for Langston to continue such
a program, Dr. Harrison stated.
INTEGRATION RESPONSIBLE
Then he revealed public school inte
gration was at least partially responsi
ble for the situation.
He pointed out Langston agriculture
graduates in the past had obtained jobs
as county agents and vocational agricul
ture teachers. But, he said, “since de
segregation has been in operation, not
many of the recent agriculture grad
uates have been employed in these
fields.”
The Negro university has been under
fire from State Sen. Lewis Ritzhaupt of
Guthrie, who charged some Langston
instructors teach only one class a week
there. Dr. Harrison told the A. & M.
regents the student-teacher ratio at
Langston this autumn is one full-time
teacher to each 15 students. But he said
this does not give a complete picture of
the work of the instructors, insisting
they teach an average of 78 students
each week.
Nevertheless, less than two weeks af
ter Dr. Harrison made his report to the
regents, the executive committee of the
state legislative council, interim gov
erning body of the legislature, set up
a committee to study Langston’s oper
ating costs. The study was authorized
at Sen. Ritzhaupt’s request.
At Phillips University in Enid, a 20-
year-old Negro coed from Little Rock,
Ark., was elected queen of the junior
class. She is Lois Mothershed, whose
16-year-old sister, Thelma, is one of the
nine Negro students attending Little
Rock’s Central High School. Phillips, a
private college sponsored by the Disci
ples of Christ, has an enrollment of
more than 1,000 students.
that the Good Government
l. e got its victory margin in the
w where the Negro vote was heavi-
: s tocF 1< i» in Pulaski Heights, the “silk
King 1 section where most of the
s We ll-to-do whites live.
j^lVashington, D.C., the Justice De-
■ ent decided not to prosecute al-
5t p a gitators during the disturbances
w,? n t ra l High School unless more
^abl 6 occurre< i- This came from re-
»3j 6 Purees in the department and
-r a j '“'firmed as “authentic” by Fed-
'■frtU i str ' c t Attorney Osro Cobb at
P n k ’ although Att y- Gen. Wil-
sm},„ i fi°S ers said no such story was
*°rized.
I^j^-ution had been expected. At-
!»ev e , aad ' 3een made by the mobs to
• e execu tion of the federal
kh 0o i° rdera for integration at the high
ffi e FBI had spent weeks
. at ‘ ng information about indi-
? f tt npr ,! nvolved ' Both the Justice De-
[Wi es , and Federal Judge Ronald N.
Ioi aad ff* e FBI report, but no-
| y e ke has seen it.
^ TRIALS
p e ^ s came out the day after
i^Pal °° lnson started trying in mu-
Vtig o C ° Ur t the suspects arrested
'’ ; 1 R: .ePlember and October at Cen-
Sed School and in incidents that
Lift] ated fl 16 school trouble,
'rs 6 cify policemen and
of the Arkansas National
Langston University, the state’s sole
Negro institution of higher education,
won approval of the Board of Regents
for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Me
chanical Colleges to drop agriculture
from its curriculum effective next year.
The action came on recommendation
of the Langston president, Dr. G. L.
Harrison, who estimated the move will
save $50,000 a year. He told the regents
Guard on federal duty had made the
arrests, all on misdemeanor charges.
In five days of trials Judge Robinson
disposed of 37 cases. Twenty-one sus
pects were dismissed, 10 were convict
ed and fined. Six were fined but their
fines were suspended. These six in
cluded five white men who were identi
fied by Little Rock police witnesses as
the leaders of mob activity at the school
the morning of Sept. 23. Of the 37, 19
white persons were arrested at the
school and 12 of them were dismissed.
Of the other 18, arrested elsewhere in
Little Rock, 11 were Negroes. Seven of
them were fined. Seven were whites and
two were fined. The one white man fined
for his activity at Central High was
made into a special test case.
This was the case of Vernon H.
Duncan, 47, a Little Rock white man,
who was arrested by a National Guard
officer on October 3, the day of the abor
tive “walkout” by segregationist stu
dents. Duncan was charged with dis
turbing the peace and resisting arrest.
The disturbance charge was dismissed
and at his request the resisting charge
was altered to make it failing to obey
an order of an Army officer acting at
the direction of the President. The an
nounced purpose of this was to appeal
the case to higher courts for a test of
the validity of the order of President
Eisenhower in sending troops to the
school to enforce the court integration
order.
OTHER LEGAL ACTIONS
Another suit over the federal troops
was in the Eighth Circuit Court at St.
Louis and preliminary motions were
disposed of. This is Mrs. Margaret C.
Jackson and Charlene and Sandra
Jackson, minors, v. Col. William A.
Kuhn, commanding officer of the 101st
Airborne Infantry and Maj. Gen. Ed
win A. Walker, commanding officer of
the Arkansas Military District. Mrs.
Jackson, whose daughters, Charlene
and Sandra, then were Central High
students, asked for removal of troops
from the school on the ground that it
was unconstitutional for them to be
there.
Judge Davies dismissed the suit on the
ground that it raised no substantial con-
Although some 50 school districts in
Oklahoma remain segregated, praise for
the state’s peaceful integration of its
education system came from Baptists, a
visiting governor and the Negroes them
selves.
The Baptist General Convention of
stitutional question that had not already
been ruled on. Mrs. Jackson appealed,
asking the Circuit Court for an imme
diate hearing on her petition or that it
be sent back to district court for imme
diate hearing by a three-judge panel.
The court refused both requests. It also
denied a government motion for dis
missal. These rulings left both sides
where they were after Judge Davies dis
missed the suit in district court. They
now may file briefs in Circuit Court as
a basis for further action.
Another appeal from Little Rock
reached the Circuit Court. This was the
plea by Gov. Faubus and the National
Guard commanders for the dissolution
of the injunction against the use of the
Guard to interfere with the district
court order for integration. The appeal
was docketed for hearing in the March
1958 term.
3-JUDGE COURT NAMED
In the NAACP attack on the consti
tutionality of Arkansas Act 85 of 1957,
establishing the State Sovereignty
Commission, (NAACP v. Orval Faubus,
et al.) a three-judge court was named
on Nov. 8: John B. Sanborn of St. Paul,
Minn., John E. Miller of Fort Smith,
Ark., and Roy W. Harper of St. Louis,
Mo. No hearing date has been set.
In another area of legal action Little
Rock, North Little Rock and other cities
were using special new city ordinances
to expose the NAACP and the NAACP
was struggling to avoid exposure.
Among other things they require any
organization on request to file specified
information about finances, officers and
members within a city.
Up to Nov. 22, 12 Arkansas towns had
adopted them. In addition to Little Rock
and North Little Rock, they are Hughes,
Pine Bluff, Crossett, Stamps, Stephens,
McGehee, Dermott, Hamburg, El Dor
ado and Monette.
Both Little Rock and North Little
Rock have asked the NAACP, and other
groups, to file information and the
NAACP has refused. The NAACP has
filed two federal court suits, one against
the Little Rock ordinance (civil case No.
3454) and one against the North Little
Rock ordinance (civil case No. 3473.)
In the Little Rock case the NAACP
Oklahoma, in its 52nd annual session in
Tulsa, adopted a report commending
Oklahoma for “sober and sensible” inte
gration of Negroes into the public school
systems.
Gov. William G. Stratton of Illinois
told newsmen in Tulsa he believes Ok
lahoma has done a “remarkable” job
in handling integration.
“Gov. [Raymond] Gary and the peo
ple of the state are to be complimented
for the way they have solved the prob
lems here,” he said.
NAACP COMMENDATION
The 27th annual convention of the
Oklahoma Conference of Branches of
the NAACP adopted a resolution in
Tulsa lauding Gov. Gary and the state
attorney general’s office for “helping the
cause of freedom for the Negro in Ok
lahoma.” This was in reference to pub
lic school desegregation.
However, the NAACP was not so
complimentary regarding other fields.
In another resolution the organization
called for all persons in government,
business and religious fields to end dis
crimination and urged elimination of
racial designation signs on employment
forms.
In the same convention U. Simpson
Tate of Dallas, southwest regional coun
sel for the NAACP, challenged the Ne
groes to “stand up and slug it out be
fore God and man” for equal rights.
However, he made it clear he does not
suggest violence, but, rather, militance.
SUBTLE TONE REJECTED
He rejected suggestions that the
NAACP voice its demands in subtler
tones.
“We must do a little living, a little
more standing up and being counted,”
Tate asserted. “The world has a habit of
venting its spleen on the weak, and we
are the weak. Now, however, we have
both God and the law on our side and
the time is nigh when Negroes and
whites alike must take sides in the
burning issues of the day.”
Another speaker at the convention
was Mrs. L. C. Bates, president of the
Arkansas Conference of Branches of the
NAACP. She predicted troops will be
removed “in the very near future” from
Little Rock Central High School but
said the action will depend on “Gov.
Orval Faubus, the white students of the
school and the people of Little Rock.”
PEOPLE ‘CALMED DOWN’
“We’re working to return Little Rock
to normality,” she said. “It will take a
lot of work on the part of everyone
concerned. I don’t believe the federal
paratroopers are necessary any more
because people seemed to have calmed
down.”
Mrs. Bates, who played a leading role
in the Little Rock racial controversy,
said the decision to send the nine Ne
gro students into the once-segregated
high school was taken because “we are
willing to pay the price.”
The special-transfer policy of the Ok
lahoma City Board of Education was
still under study by the NAACP at
the end of the month. The executive
committee of the Oklahoma City
branch of the NAACP turned the mat
ter over to its legal redress committee
for study and recommendation.
The group complains the board al
lowed a number of white children at
the integrated Culbertson elementary
school on the city’s east side to transfer
to all-white Harmony school but de
nied the same privilege to seven Negro
pupils who requested it.
The board’s policy is to let a student
transfer to a school where his race
predominates if it’s in the best interest
of the pupils and where space and fa
cilities permit. The NAACP has hinted
it may challenge the special-transfer
policy in court.
Norman, in Cleveland County, which
quietly admitted two Negroes to its
high school in 1956-57, was disclosed
for the first time in November to have
integration on the elementary grade
level, too. Authorities confirmed that
two Negro boys, one in the first grade
and the other in the fourth grade, are
enrolled in a Norman grade school.
They are sons of a graduate student in
the University of Oklahoma. Norman
has no Negroes among its regular resi
dent population. The Negroes who en
tered Norman High School last year
were transferred from Stella, in eastern
Cleveland County.
The State Department of Education
reported during the month that Kinta,
a Haskell County district where the
segregation-desegregation status has
been in doubt, has admitted 11 Negro
pupils to its white high school. They are
attending classes with approximately
110 white youngsters, based on 1956-57
enrollments.
The district is still operating a one-
teacher separate elementary school for
Negroes, with an enrollment of 24 pu-
Pils. # # #
asked for a temporary order to prevent
enforcement of the ordinance but this
was refused on Oct. 30 by Judge Roy
W. Harper. Next day was the deadline
for filing the information and when the
NAACP didn’t file the Little Rock City
Council in a special meeting ordered the
arrest of NAACP officers. In the next
two days, the Rev. J. C. Crenchaw,
president of the Little Rock NAACP
chapter, and Mrs. L. C. Bates of Little
Rock, state NAACP president, went to
police headquarters, were arrested and
released under bonds of $300 each.
They are scheduled to appear Dec. 3
in Little Rock municipal court.
Judge Harper heard on Nov. 4 another
NAACP motion for a restraining order
and again refused it. Instead he tried
to get the city and the NAACP to com
promise, with the city postponing any
prosecution under the ordinance until
it had been tested in the courts. No com
promise was reached.
Later this compromise was effected.
Judge Harper met Nov. 15 with George
Howard Jr. of Pine Bluff and Thad D.
Williams of Little Rock, attorneys for
the NAACP, and Joseph C. Kemp, act
ing Little Rock city attorney. Under the
compromise the city can proceed against
Crenchaw and Mrs. Bates but will post
pone any other action until the validity
of the ordinance is determined.
At North Little Rock the City Coun
cil asked for information from six or
ganizations. They were the NAACP,
Urban League, East End Civic Club (a
Negro group), American Civil Liberties
Union, Pike Avenue Civic Club, and
Cherokee Club (a night club). The
sponsoring alderman, Paul O. Duke, said
the Capital Citizens Council had been
omitted by mistake and he had it add
ed to the list.
In Pulaski County chancery and cir
cuit courts, too, the NAACP was fight
ing to protect its records in suits filed
by state Atty. Gen. Bruce Bennett.
In a circuit court suit (State v.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, No.
44679) Judge J. Mitchell Cockrill heard
arguments Nov. 20 on a motion by Ben
nett that the Legal Defense Fund fur
nish its books and records to him. He
is suing for $5,000 on the ground that
the Legal Defense Fund failed to regis
ter with the state as a foreign corpora
tion.
In a chancery court suit (State v.
NAACP, No. 108363) the NAACP failed
to show Bennett its records and in lieu
of that deposited $437.50 with the court
($50 a year corporation franchise tax
for seven years plus penalties, the ba
sis of the suit). Bennett said the
NAACP was too late and should be
held in contempt of court.
Chancellor Murray O. Reed refused
to hold the NAACP in contempt but did
award the $37.50 to the state as a de
fault judgment. The state then moved
that the NAACP records be impounded
pending final outcome of the suit.
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of
the NAACP, told an NAACP rally Nov.
3 in New York that the NAACP would
give up records only if the U.S. Supreme
Court said it had to. In a federal court
hearing on the Little Rock Bennett ordi
nance an NAACP attorney said his side
would appeal all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court if necessary.
Another indication of the NAACP at
titude came in a statement by Clarence
Laws, an NAACP field secretary now
working out of Little Rock: “For those
who say that 3% years was not enough
to prepare a community to integrate
nine Negro children in a school with
an enrollment of 2,000 let them ponder
this: In less than three weeks a city
ordinance was conceived, enacted, in
voked, and warrants issued for the ar
rest of those who had not complied with
its provisions.”
Three lawsuits against the NAACP
and the ordinances are the work of
Bruce Bennett, state attorney general
who has been mentioned as a candidate
for governor next year. Early in Octo
ber he sent copies of the proposed ordi
nance to every city in Arkansas. He said
at the time that the NAACP member
ship and financial support in Arkansas
were so small that the NAACP would
be embarrassed to disclose them and
that the organization’s political power
in the state was ‘“highly exaggerated.”
He said the trouble came from a well-
financed headquarters in New York.