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PAGE 4—DECEMBER 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
N. C. Supreme Court Hears Arguments
Of White Parents in Placement Case
RALEIGH, N.C.
^T'he North Carolina Supreme
■*" Court heard arguments as 41
white parents in Greensboro ap
pealed a lower court decision up
holding the legality of the admis
sion of Negro students to all-white
schools in that city. (See “Legal
Action.”)
In Durham, the city council
voted to establish an interracial
committee and similar steps were
urged in Charlotte and Greens
boro. (See “Community Action.”)
The North Carolina Student Legisla
ture adopted a resolution asking states
to rescind bans on intermarriage and
drew criticism from Gov. Luther H.
Hodges and Rep. Harold D. Cooley. (See
“In the Colleges.”)
Messengers (delegates) to the Baptist
State Convention in Raleigh adopted a
committee report urging churches to
establish interracial committees, as two
other denominations discussed the race
question. (See “Miscellaneous.”)
Members of North Carolina’s Supreme
Court posed questions as attorneys ar
gued an appeal by 41 white parents in
Greensboro from a lower court ruling
which cleared the way for admission of
six Negroes to previously all-white
schools.
The parents had sought an injunction
from Superior Court Judge L. Richard
son Preyer to prevent reassignment of
the Negro students last September.
Judge Preyer denied the request, and
from that ruling the parents appealed.
For the parents, attorney J. J. Shields
asked the supreme court to find Judge
Preyer in error, and to return the Ne
gro children to their segregated schools
until a jury can pass upon the case.
WHO’S AGGRIEVED?
Under the Pupil Assignment Act, per
sons aggrieved by school board assign
ments may appeal to superior court.
Shields asked the higher court to find
that the 41 parents have been aggrieved.
Judge Preyer ruled that aggrieved
persons were only persons who had been
parties to actions before the school
board. None of the 41 parents were par
ties to such actions, since none requested
reassignment for their children when the
Negroes were reassigned.
Welch Jordan, attorney for the school
board, contended Judge Preyer was cor
rect in his definition of “aggrieved per
sons.” As he began giving the legal defi
nition, Associate Justice Carlisle Higgins
interposed: “It means more than just
getting your feelings hurt.”
derstanding.” It will also “serve as a
public forum in which the views of
different groups may be sought and
expressed without fear of recrimina
tion.”
Mayor Evans said the committee will
consist of from seven to nine members.
A well-known Charlotte attorney,
Fred B. Helms, has been the leading
proponent of an interracial committee in
the state’s largest city. Referring to this
“new period in which we have a dan
gerous vacuum in leadership,” Helms
called for leadership from “business and
professional men and women.”
When the Charlotte City Council
showed reluctance to act on his sugges
tion, Helms took his case to the Cham
ber of Commerce, which now is consid
ering the idea.
In Greensboro, Dr. William M. Hamp
ton, former city councilman and now
the only Negro on the Greensboro school
board, asked for creation of an inter
racial commission to keep open the
channels of communications between
the two races.
“Much of the gloom settling over the
situation might be dispelled” by such a
group, Dr. Hampton said. No immediate
action was taken.
In Raleigh, Irving Carlyle, well-
known Winston-Salem attorney and
leading Baptist layman, spoke to the
Conference on Christian Faith and
Human Relations. “I should like to
mention some of those things that are
doing so much damage, against which
we should take our stand,” he said.
“1) Abuse of the Supreme Court of
the United States ... in order to make
the court a scapegoat . . . The vitupera
tion being hurled against the court in
this state and elsewhere does no harm
to the court or its members—it only
undermines the respect of the people
for the court and for law. Therefore,
it only hurts the people . . .
“2) The failure of local and state au
thorities to uphold law. By now, it is
apparent to all that a courageous and
impartial enforcement of the law by
local authorities is the only insurance
we have against the use of federal force
to protect the Constitution and the
courts . . .
‘PUNITIVE LAWS’
“3) Punitive laws and spite legisla
tion intended to cripple the NAACP and
put it out of business. Thanks to the
courage and clear thinking of the 1957
General Assembly of this state, we were
spared this type of legislation . . .
“4) And worst of all, appeals to racial
prejudice by men seeking public recog
nition or personal profit . . .”
In Asheville, a meeting of school prin
cipals was told that “the South is in the
throes of prejudice and fear which
threaten the very existence of the re
gion and of individual states. Education
is in the center of this issue,” said Guy
B. Phillips, member of the state board
of education and former dean of the
School of Education at the University
of North Carolina.
right to request transfers on racial
grounds.
In Greensboro, a brick was thrown
through a large window of the home of
City School Supt. Ben Smith. Nobody
was injured, but glass was scattered
over a large part of the front room of
the home.
Smith has been harassed since the
school board voted to admit six Negro
students to previously all-white schools.
Police said the incident, however, may
have been the work of juveniles.
In Charlotte, the Mecklenburg County
commissioners voted to submit a $6 mil
lion school bond issue to the voters upon
the request of city and county school
boards. The money will be used for new
classrooms. City School Supt. E. H. Ga-
ringer said the $6 million will be only a
stopgap in skyrocketing school needs.
STUDENT CONFERENCE
In Asheville, student delegates from 14
Asheville and Buncombe County high
schools called for a national conference
of high school youth to counter acts of
violence attending integration of public
schools.
The delegates appealed to President
Eisenhower to “call or sponsor” the con
ference. The action came at the sixth
annual Youth Institute on Human Rela
tions, sponsored by the National Con
ference of Christians and Jews.
At the 21st session of the N. C. Stu
dent Legislature in the Capitol building,
the delegation from Duke University’s
woman’s college sponsored a resolution
asking the states to rescind laws and
constitutional provisions against inter
marriage. It passed the House by a lop
sided vote and the Senate approved it,
21-16.
Gov. Hodges said the student legis
lators were “somewhat immature, some
what irresponsible.”
The governor raised the question,
“Whom do they represent.” Student
leaders said their institutions—16 white,
5 Negro—recognize the legislature and
in some instances pay part of the cost
of the annual affair.
‘SHOCKED SENSIBILITIES’
Rep. Harold D. Cooley, addressing the
legislators, said he was “shocked” by
the resolution. “You have shocked the
sensibilities of our people,” he said.
Student legislators said Gov. Hodges’
suggestion that future agendas will be
examined before permission is granted
for use of the state Capitol “is an en
croachment on our rights to assemble
and openly discuss any issues.” They
added that passage of the resolution
did not represent approval of inter
marriage.
HEALTH INJURY QUESTIONED
Associate Justice R. Hunt Parker
asked Jordan whether the parents had
not alleged possible injury to health.
“That,” said Parker, “is not just a hurt
feeling.”
Jordan said leading cases hold “no
persons can be aggrieved in a legal sense
by exercise of another person’s legal
right.” To questions, he acknowledged
that if any of the 41 white parents had
had a request for reassignment rejected,
such persons would have been ag
grieved.
Jordan also contended that the joint
appeal by the 41 parents violated provi
sions of the assignment act which spell
out that assignment rights are individ
ual rights and cannot be pursued as
class actions.
A decision is expected in about one
month.
In Durham, the city council voted to
create an interracial committee to medi
ate situations which might arise from
“changes in the traditional behavior of
the white and Negro races.” This group
was requested in a petition signed by
“30 of the leading citizens of Durham,”
said Mayor E. J. Evans.
The petitioners said the committee was
needed to keep communications chan
nels clear between the races by breach
ing the “impregnable walls of misun-
In Waynesville, Jesse Helms—execu
tive director of the N. C. Bankers As
sociation—suggested that citizens of the
South raise a fund of at least a million
dollars for a “truth campaign” in the
northern press.
A member of the Raleigh City Coun
cil, Helms said he proposed “no emo
tional appeal. We cannot justifiably ask
for more than the truth. The South, as
a geographical area, has no cause for
shame; we have nothing for which to
apologize.”
In Charlotte, the school board took
the first step toward putting a time
limit on one of the “safety valves” in the
state’s school laws. It asked school offi
cials and the board’s attorney to suggest
a cut-off date on applications for pupil
reassignment on grounds of opposition
to integration.
The question was raised when Linda
Carol Holder, a white girl, requested
reassignment from Piedmont Junior
High, which has one Negro student.
Earlier, her request for reassignment on
other grounds had been rejected. She
renewed the request, citing opposition
to integration this time.
Approving the reassignment, the
board then moved to fix a cut-off date
on applications. One board member,
who voted against the request, said he
felt parents who accepted integration
for a number of weeks waived their
In Raleigh, the Baptist State Conven
tion—representing 800,000 members of
the state’s largest religious denomina
tion—adopted a report urging each
church to establish a race relations com
mittee.
The report said that many Baptist lay
men “are insisting that the church dare
not remain silent” on the issue and that
“there are indications that a sizeable
minority of Baptist people are ready to
move forward toward the Christian so
lution to this problem.
“Increasingly,” said the report, “pas
tors have found themselves facing di
lemmas which involve a compromise of
their personal integrity.”
‘REWRITTEN BIBLE’
In the convention sermon, the Rev.
C. O. Greene of Lawndale said, “We
have rewritten the Bible to suit us bet
ter.” He quoted the Bible: “God has
made of one blood all nations of men for
to dwell on the face of the earth.”
He added, “And we’ve said, ‘Now, God,
you know white people are just a little
better than colored people’ and have
lived on that assumption.”
In Winston-Salem, a conference of
Negro churchmen adopted a resolution
condemning one of its members — a
Charlotte Negro minister and publisher
—for giving aid to segregationists.
The 67th session of the Western North
Carolina Conference of the AME church
criticized Dr. J. N. S. Treas “for the part
he has played in behalf of those who
would stave off integration.” It said he,
as AME Zion Church pastor and pub
lisher of the Charlotte Post, had print-
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. SER$
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
mercial-Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Vander
bilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster. President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.
Coleman A. Harwell, Editor, Nashville
Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight. Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk University,
Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Exec. Director, Sou.
Education Reporting Service
Bert Struby, Editor, Macon Telegraph,
Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Assistant
Editor, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette
DELAWARE
William P. Frank, Staff Writer, Wil
mington News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Jeanne Rogers, Staff Writer, Wash
ington Post & Times Herald
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Staff Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Macon
News
KENTUCKY
Weldon James. Editorial Writer,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Leo Adde, Staff Writer, New Orleans
Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial-Appeal
MISSOURI
William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
Jay Jenkins, Raleigh Bureau Chief,
Charlotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
James Elliott, Staff Writer, Nashville
Banner
Wallace Westfeldt, Staff Writer,
Nashville Tennessean
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bureau,
Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station. Nashville 5, Tenn.
Return Postage Guaranteed
ed stories and articles “which were al
leged to favor segregation.”
At the same time, the conference
pledged the support of its more than
100,000 members to fight for complete
integration. It attacked white Citizens
Councils and said their programs “are
to be abhorred by Christians and de
cent people everywhere.”
In Fayetteville, a delegate attending
a special session of Methodists to launch
a $5 million fund-raising campaign for
Methodist institutions attempted to in
ject the race question into the meeting,
but was ruled out of order.
W. E. Perry, a layman from Warren-
ton, sought a “clear-cut statement” of
policy toward the admission of Negroes
to Methodist schools. Bishop Paul N.
Garber ruled the question out of order.
FACT-FINDING SESSION
In Charlotte, meanwhile, segregation
dominated two days of hearings by a
Methodist fact-finding board which met
to get expressions on the jurisdictional
system of the Methodist Church.
Paul Ervin, Charlotte attorney and
member of the church’s judicial council,
said abolition of the jurisdictional sys
tem—which created the all-Negro Cen
tral Jurisdiction—would cause a breach
in the church. He said the present set
up is “accepted as the South’s safe
guard.”
The lone dissent to that view among
30 speakers on one day came from A. Y.
Huff Jr. of Wofford College, president
of the South Carolina Methodist Youth
Fellowship. He said the jurisdictional
plan is a “compromise which is basically
discriminatory. The very existence of
the Central Jurisdiction serves as a con
tinual reminder that our nature as men
is fallen.” He said it would be “disas
trous” to dissolve the jurisdiction im
mediately, but “we must work within
the present order for change and recti
fications.”
Attorney Hugh Sims of Orangeburg,
S. C., said, “We are not going to inte
grate our schools or our churches. And
very frankly it doesn’t make any differ
ence what the Supreme Court does or
what the Methodist Church does. This
attitude will not change.”
Three ministers said segregation is
contrary to Christian principles. They
were the Rev. Robert Wallace of Ala
mance County, the Rev. Harmon 1
Smith of Burlington and the Rev. Jaci
Crum of Raleigh. They said they
they represented “almost 100 per cent ■
of the younger ministers of the church-
in Charlotte, the Mecklenburg Patri
ots of North Carolina, Inc.—pro-seg^j
gation group — launched a direct m*-
campaign designed to force the remo' 1
of a Negro student from Central H$
School. The Patriots mailed out aboit |
1,000 letters.
At the end of a week, the Patriots ha-
onlv one reply. “It’s going slowly,”
a Patriots spokesman. The Patriots &
asking white parents to request rea*"
signment for their children from ^ et ’
tral High.
KLANSMAN ACQUITTED
fa
In Concord, the leader of a major :
Klux Klan group was acquitted ,
charges of assaulting a news •
pher who tried to photograph j_,
rally near there. Judge Clyde L. Pr°^ j
Jr., sitting without a jury, ruled •
state’s evidence insufficient to eon'
Eldon L. Edwards of Atlanta, Ga,
I*-
1
perial wizard of U. S. KlanS,
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. ^
Judge Propst warned Edwards tb e
that he got a fair trial doesn’t mea®
encourage
here.”
the operation of the
P-
■9*
In Raleigh, the National Labor ^
tions Board turned down a unio®^
n
quest for reconsideration of an
at the meter plant of Westw *
Electric Corp. The International .
of Electrical, Radio and Machine
ers (AFL-CIO), which lost the
tion, contended the company ml
.fluei
votes by comments on racial
In Charlotte, state NAACP
Kelly Alexander said the
plans
campaign to increase ^
Carolina Negro voting registration j i
135,000 to 250,000 by 1960. “We’r e ”-
into the rural areas and the back' #
in i
We’re going
towns.”
house to house
-ay W A i*