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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—DECEMBER 1957—PAGE 7
South Carolina
(Continued From Page 6)
tional parties want power so badly they
w ill go to extremes for votes . . . Even
if the President had had the authority,
it showed a lack of wisdom which his-
1 tory will bear out.”
U. S. Rep. Robert T. Ashmore of the
Fourth District said at Greenville on
Nov. 14 that “The U. S. Supreme Court
ought to resign ... and let nine new men,
fresh from the people, go in.”
U. S. Rep. John L. McMillan, referring
to the 1960 Presidential campaign in an
Oct. 31 statement: “I can tell you this:
I’m not going to vote for or support any
one who is going to try to cram integra
tion down the throat of the South.”
‘PUTTING UP BARRIERS’
Mrs. Russell B. Guerard, of the Men
tal Health Clinic at Charleston, speaking
to the Charleston Exchange Club on
Nov. 7: “. . . the race issues are putting
up barriers that weren’t present before.
They have tended to erase our former
warm relations with Negroes. When
they come to the clinic, we can forget
they’re Negro but they can’t forget we’re
white.”
State Rep. Osta L. Warr of Darling
ton County on Nov. 1 before the coun
ty’s Life Underwriters Association: “If
we mean to maintain separation of the
races, then we are going to be forced
to change our present method of operat
ing public institutions of every kind. The
federal government can force integra
tion in public institutions. It cannot
force us to operate public institutions
as such.”
Thomas P. Inabinet, formerly of
Charleston but now head of audio-vis
ual education for the Disciples of Christ,
told a South Carolina gathering of
Christian churches on Nov. 15 (at Char
leston) that the church should “begin
looking for the answer to the race prob
lem and not wait for another group to
solve it.”
Messengers (delegates) to the annual
State Baptist Convention, held in mid-
November in Charleston, refused to ap
prove a resolution expressing concern
over race relations issues brought up
within the Southern Baptist Convention
and instead adopted a resolution reaf
firming the organizational purpose of
the state convention and the autonomy
of the local churches.
A number of individual churches,
however, have censured the Southern
Baptist Convention for what they con-
sider to be integrationist tendencies,
and additional criticisms of that type
were recorded during November. In
early November, the Santee Baptist As
sociation adopted resolutions criticizing
distribution by the Christian Life Com
mission of the Southern Baptist Con
vention of “material encouraging inte
gration of the races” and recording the
association’s belief that “the solution to
the race problem is not to be found in
such Supreme Court decisions.”
DESEGREGATION opposed
Later in the month, the First Baptist
hurch of Gaston adopted a non-inte
gration resolution opposing the admis-
: S1 °n of Negro students to the Southeast-
ertl Seminary at Wake Forest, N. C.
Several Methodist laymen and clergy-
en L°m South Carolina appeared at
: n 6 i ° Se October before a traveling
anel of Methodist officials to oppose
y alteration of the church’s jurisdic-
w ° na system. One point of discussion
' Ce\ P oss *Lle elimination of the
entral Jurisdiction, into which all
gro Methodist churches of the coun-
“y are organized.
• Lewis of Winnsboro
aiiH t “ e P ane ^ that many Methodists
(jj, Methodist churches would with-
Srnn, ^ le * r lo >' alt y an< d support if the
, « eastern (white) jurisdiction were
tion’’ iC6d u P on the altar of integra-
*°CIOLOGICAL FAD’
of e Lterature and pronouncements
.e church are largely devoted to
fr om ^, to Brainwash the membership
e rs , r® religious tenets of the found-
" logical f ^oehsrn to embrace the socio-
Uade (ad of integration, masquerading
Su Dl , r t " £> ^constitutional edict of the
the if 1110 Lourt of the United States as
' tive s 't °, f t* 1 ® land, and under the direc-
as pi° . the high command of our church
j-nristianity.”
G* 61 ® October, the South Carolina
‘ e $ We t nCe ^vent Christian Church-
Uon ,, on accord as favoring separa
tor the races.
U cond H ° rry Oounty Citizens Council
’> schoQ, Uc ting a series of visits to high
, ^iectiv °* t * le county to explain the
'dsnt V6S the Citizens Council move-
The Spartanburg City Council on
Nov. 6 unanimously passed an ordinance
requiring municipal approval for out
door public meetings. Enactment of the
ordinance came within a few days of a
white-Negro brawl on Halloween night
during a street dance type of “rock and
roll party” sponsored by a local radio
station. In the aftermath of the fracas,
the city council was told that some
eight or 10 Negro gangs dedicated to
vandalism have been operating in Spar
tanburg.
Negro-white friction also was report
ed at Anderson, where police had to
break up rock-throwing and other vio
lence between youthful groups.
A Horry County case involving the al
leged violation of the civil rights of
three Negroes and one white man by
county law enforcement officials has
been set by Federal Judge Ashton H.
Williams for early February. Defend
ants are Horry County Sheriff John T.
Henry and eight of his deputies.
MASKER FINED
Spartanburg County Judge Charles M.
Pace on Nov. 19 imposed a $100 fine
against a Kershaw mill worker for vio
lating the state’s anti-mask law. The
defendant, Sammy Eubanks, was ar
rested for and pleaded guilty to, wear
ing a mask on public property follow
ing a Ku Klux Klan rally Aug. 26 near
Woodruff.
Superintendents of education repre
senting 33 counties of South Carolina in
late October expressed their approval
of the state’s present pattern of school
laws, including the non-compulsory at
tendance requirements. The action was
taken during a Columbia meeting at
which Sen. L. Marion Gressette, head
of the state’s Special Segregation Com
mittee, explained the laws recommended
by that committee for preservation of
separate schools in the state.
Andre Toth, the Hungarian refugee
who this fall became the first white
student at a Negro college in South Car
olina, is reported to have made “a very
good adjustment” at Allen University,
in Columbia. The evaluation was made
to the Southern School News reporter
by the director of student personnel at
the Negro Methodist institution.
Toth was described as being happy
in his surroundings and doing well in
his work. He is majoring in art. The
young Hungarian, who fled his native
country during last year’s anti-Com-
munist revolts, was admitted to Allen
University on a scholarship through the
sponsorship of the Institute of Interna
tional Education.
Candidates for state office in 1958 are
beginning to initiate campaigns for se
curing the Democratic nomination for
their respective goals, and most of them
are adopting firm positions favoring con
tinued racial segregation in the schools.
No one has yet formally announced
for the governor’s race, but two of the
most probable candidates are making
numerous speeches throughout the state
and are condemning federal encroach
ment upon states’ rights. They are Lt.
Gov. E. F. Hollings of Charleston, and
Donald S. Russell, whose resignation as
president of the University of South
Carolina became effective Nov. 30.
Paid political advertisements boosting
another likely candidate, Mayor William
C. Johnston, of Anderson, have appeared
in most of the state’s daily newspapers,
but no reference has been made therein
to the matter of segregation.
LOCAL CAMPAIGNS
Meanwhile, the race question has aris
en to some degree in local contests about
the state. In Charleston County a Negro
lawyer, John H. Wrighten, is among five
candidates for a vacancy in the state
House of Representatives. A general
election has been set for Dec. 3, and
there have been efforts to designate one
of the form white candidates as the re
cipient of solid white support in order
to forestall the possibility of the Negro’s
being elected by a bloc vote of Charles-
m at ^Jliey. Said
\lews of ‘Moderates’ in ‘South Carolinians Speak
Robert Beverly Herbert
Columbia, attorney
Let us appeal to our brother Americans who are so fortu
nate as to live in sections where there is no race problem,
states where the Negro population is less than 5 per cent. Let
us ask them to believe that our people are as good as theirs,
as kind and Christian and patriotic and that we have done
and are doing our best to solve our problems. That we are not
Negro-baiters or Negro-haters is shown by the fact that the
great majority of Negroes prefer to live in our less prosperous
section although under present conditions they could easily
move to other sections. Let us ask them to remember that we
have spent millions on Negro schools and made them as good
as the white schools. Let us beg them not to be blinded by
the old prejudices and hatreds and by oft-repeated slanders,
but to inform themselves of the true facts. Let us implore
them to try to understand that they can help us help our
Negro friends if they will not alarm our people by laws or
suggested laws that recall a dark past and thus quench the
spirit of justice and liberality among us, and that the spirit
of justice in the breast of man does not change at the Mason
and Dixon line. If they will do this, we will have a better
America.
Edgar Nelson Sullivan
Clinton, medical doctor
Progress toward integration, however slow, is mandatory.
Planning toward that objective should be at the state level,
it should be gradual, and each step should be carefully
evaluated before the succeeding step is taken. The speed with
which integration can be accomplished depends largely upon
the desire, the sincerity, and the endeavor of the colored race.
The standards of the race as a whole must improve before
the Negro will be accepted without reservation and without
prejudice into the white schools. I shall never believe that
the sensible Negro would have it otherwise.
Helen Burr Christensen
Beaufort, former librarian
Social changes take time. The new era requires new men
with changed attitudes. Old customs die hard. The Negro
himself is conditioned now by the inequalities that lie im
bedded in his past. Time must pass before he will be able to
make full use of the opportunities afforded. While he gains
in status, it is certainly the responsibility of the white com
munity to provide equal opportunity, both educational and
economic. In his turn, the Negro must realize equality cannot
be bestowed; it must be earned.
Andrew McDowd Secrest
Cheraw, editor
The presence of a few Negro children in a student body
essentially white cannot create any real scholastic, educa
tional or social problems. Any turmoil which occurs in such
a situation is artificially imposed by troublemakers or vic
tims of fear psychosis. It is the moderate’s task to prepare
the people for this inevitable test.
J. Emmett Jerome
Rock Hill, mayor and merchant
I am aware of the racial problems which exist in our won
derful Southland. I believe the only common denominator or
common meeting ground is at the foot of the Cross of Calvary.
I don’t believe any organization which is founded on hate,
resentment and misunderstanding, regardless of its name, can
cope with our problems adequately. Only men of good will
can find the solution.
prived of an opportunity to contribute in full measure toward
the general economy of the nation. Here we had millions of
potential consumers of the products of farm and factory, and
yet, by a system of practical serfdom toward the Negro and
an attitude of general jealousy against him, the people as a
whole were kept in poverty and without the benefits of the
good things of life which lay at their very doorsteps.
Julia Rees Reynolds
Sumter, retired educator
... Immediate or forced integration is not the answer; in
my opinion, its benefits to the Negro would be of questionable
value. But I believe in the principle of joint conference.
White people alone are not wise enough or great enough to
work out a formula for ideal race relations . . . One thing we
can be sure of: present conditions are not static; there will
be changes . . . To be specific, changes for which, as I think,
the time is ripe are: more widespread representation of col
ored citizens on school boards, on city councils, on juries, in
legislatures; admission to graduate and professional schools
on the basis of intellectual and moral qualifications; admission
to professional organizations on merit; above all, the right
to offer oneself as a candidate for office or for admission to a
public institution without danger of physical violence.
Prentice McLeod Kinney
Bennettsville, medical doctor
As citizens of the United States, we are bound ... to
abide by the “law of the land” when it is constitutional or
until it is proved unconstitutional ... If we as southerners
put our thoughts together, surely some means of providing
adequate and equal educational opportunities can be found
to the satisfaction of all concerned. In order to insure the
continued progress of the rapidly revitalized South, some type
of educational opportunities must be made available to all
our peoples. Should this equality of opportunity find no
solution except in integration of our schools, personal free
dom of choice and association in social relations must be
maintained.
John Clyde Barrington
Dillon, food processor
In the field of education there are activities on which a
majority of us can agree now, as a start, if we are not afraid
to talk and act along the lines of our traditional spirit of
friendship and good will between the races. School principals,
supervisors and grade teachers of both races can meet and
work together professionally to improve the quality of in
struction; the instruction is what really matters, not just
books and buildings . . . Abolishing legal segregation does not
mean forced integration in our schools. With sound thinking
and a cooperative spirit among both races (especially among
educators) there would be little demand for mass integration
at present.
Claudia Thomas Sanders
Gaffney
The social customs of a people, their taboos, the thought
patterns of generations cannot be changed overnight. First
the idea of desegregation must be accepted, then practical
steps taken that will lead us to the desired result. I believe
that each community can work out its own problems. There
should be a meeting of minds, Parent-Teacher Associations
colored and white together, school boards and parent groups,
leaders in youth organizations, teenagers and adults.
Andrew Peeples
Bamberg, public health worker
The earnest desire of our state and local officials, from the
governor and the legislature on down, to help rather than
hinder the progress of the Negro in South Carolina has been
clearly demonstrated for all the world to see in our vast
educational and public health programs. With their continued
support and encouragement, bi-racial committees working on
the local level in every school district in the state can evolve
a plan of voluntary segregation that will satisfy both races
and nullify the need for enforcement of the Supreme Court’s
edict of 1954.
Arthur Locke King
Georgetown, attorney
It is the considered opinion of the author of this statement
that the time will come when it will be recorded that the
greatest folly that any people ever committed was that
whereby the Negroes of the United States in the southern
area of the country were for so many years deliberately de-
John W. Moore
Mt. Pleasant, retired educator
I understand how segregation with the sanction of law has
a detrimental psychological effect on the Negro group, being
interpreted as denoting the inferiority of Negroes; but now
that segregation with the sanction of law can no longer exist
in the United States, how can psychological harm come to
Negro children who choose, or whose parents choose for
them, to attend their own schools where, being in congenial
and peaceful surroundings, they will be happier and will
therefore work better? Over the years, I have accepted seg
regated public schools as the wisest and best solution of a
difficult problem, though all the time regretting that, in our
land of professed belief in democracy, there should be a law
requiring segregation. Now I find myself alarmed at the
prospect of enforced integration in the public schools, believ
ing as I do that the peace of every community in the deep
South and the welfare and happiness of every child and every
school official and every parent and everybody else will be
adversely affected by the irritations and turmoil that will
prevail if integration is forced on the public schools.
# # #
ton County Negroes, who make up 41
per cent of the county’s population.
Wrighten has denied the existence of
any Negro bloc vote in the county and
says voters should support the best
qualified candidate.
At Georgetown, a Negro named Alex
Alford Jr. has filed as a candidate for
city council in a late November elec
tion. Another Negro, the Rev. H. B. But
ler, was an unsuccessful candidate for
council in 1953.
Two Horry County towns, Conway
and Myrtle Beach, have provided fi
nancial assistance to local National
Guard units following an October deci
sion by the county board of commis
sioners to withhold county funds from
Guard units.
Disputes within the ranks of various
Ku Klux Klan organizations in South
Carolina were marked during November
by these developments:
The “Exalted Cyclops” of two Rich
land County “Klavems” wrote Gov.
George Bell Timmerman Jr. to protest
against his attack on the Klan as a mon
ey-motivated organization which is aid
ing the Communist cause. The letters
bore the names of Roy Chapman and
W. E. Strange, as spokesman for two
units of the U. S. Klans, Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan.
KKK OFFICIAL QUITS
The top York County official of the
South Carolina Association of Ku Klux
Klans, a separate organization, resigned
his office (but did not reveal his name)
in early November. He said hundreds
of Klansmen likewise were resigning
in protest against violence and unau
thorized cross-burnings. The disclosures
were made in the Evening Herald, of
Rock Hill.
The News and Courier, over the by
line of Eldridge Thompson and a Ma
rion date-line, reported that three sep
arate KKK organizations are operating
in the state. They are the two cited
above and a newer and apparently
smaller one termed the National Ku
Klux Klan, S. C. Knights of the KKK.
# # #