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PAGE 8—DECEMBER 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Louisiana Legislative Committee Plans New Laws at ’58 Session
NEW ORLEANS, La.
he May, 1958, session of the
Louisiana legislature will act
on laws for closing any of the
state’s schools which are desegre
gated.
But the closure would be tem
porary, say the legislative segre
gation leaders. “We will continue
to have public schools, and I mean
racially segregated ones,” de
clared the chairman of the joint
segregation committee. (See “Leg
islative Action.”)
The Orleans Parish (New Orleans)
public school system dedicated its only
facility which is not in conformity with
the Orleans school board’s “separate but
equal facilities” policy.
It is Benjamin Franklin Senior High
School for “exceptionally gifted chil
dren” (IQs of 120 or over). Only white
children attend. There is no equivalent
school for Negroes. The attorney for
the Negro plaintiffs in the suit which
resulted in a federal court integration
order for Orleans Parish said no action
is now planned on the Ben Franklin
High situation. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
State Sen. William Rainach of Homer,
who steers segregation laws through
the legislature, and bayou country po
litical leader Leander Perez who writes
most of the laws, have taken some of
the wraps off their next maneuver to
maintain segregation.
It is a law, or possibly a series of
laws which will close down schools
faced with imminent desegregation
through federal court order. The plan
which Rainach will present to the
spring legislative session will have a
tit-for-tat rider.
“For every white school that is forced
to close,” he told a Citizens Council
gathering in New Orleans, “we will
close down a Negro school.”
But the intention wasn’t to destroy
the state’s public education system, he
explained.
“After the schools are closed,” he said,
“and the message has had time to sink
in, we’U have plans to re-open the
schools again. We will continue to have
public schools, and I mean racially seg
regated ones.”
The “closure before integration” law
would go beyond any law Louisiana
now has on the books. Presently, the
most the state could do is suspend the
compulsory attendance requirement at
any school, public or private, which is
desegregated.
SCHOOL BOARDS SESSION
Rainach’s declaration of the proposed
law’s intent came on Nov. 18. Formula
tion of the legislative maneuver began
Nov. 2 when the Rainach committee
met with the Louisiana School Boards
Association in Baton Rouge.
They agreed, by unanimous vote of
all 19 persons present, to start the
Rainach committee’s legal staff on a
series of meetings with “affected
groups” around the state to get ideas
on what the new laws should provide.
W. M. Shaw of Homer heads the legal
staff. Some of the meetings, he said,
will be with the Louisiana School Su
perintendents’ Association, the Louis
iana Teachers’ Association and the
United School Committee, all quasi
official agencies.
Some of the legal wrinkles he already
has in mind, Rainach revealed, are
“added police powers for the governor,”
and means of “economic protection” for
teachers of schools which are closed.
Recent developments made it clear
that Louisiana segregation leaders were
holding up Gov. Marvin Griffin of Geor
gia as a model of statehouse leadership
over Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas.
Gov. Griffin appeared before a Cit
izens Council rally of about 3,500 in
New Orleans, a week after Gov. Fau
bus spoke before a Veterans’ Day
gathering of 1,200 in front of City Hall.
Faubus, who criticized the Eisen
hower administration, said that the last
previous time “bayonets and rifles or
federal troops were used on American
citizens” was under another Republican
administration. (This was a reference
to the so-called bonus march during
the administration of Herbert Hoover.)
“It is my understanding,” said Fau
bus, “that an officer in the contingent
of federal troops that used rifles and
bayonets on defenseless American cit
izens that day was Dwight David Eisen
hower.
“The members of the bonus army .. .
were shown no mercy or understand
ing. . . . No patience, tolerance or un
derstanding were exercised at Little
Rock by another Republican adminis
tration, the first since the one men
tioned previously was voted out of of
fice.”
(At the White House in Washington,
Presidential Press Secretary James C.
Hagerty said: “I haven’t any comment.
I suggest that anyone interested in look
ing up the history, do so.”)
Gov. Faubus and his tactic of keep
ing Central High open while he re
sisted federal integration were indirect
ly criticized at the Citizens Council
rally.
CHEERS FOR GOVERNORS
There were cheers when Rainach said,
“the governors of Georgia, Virginia,
and South Carolina are leading the
fight to stop integration in the South,
but the rest are far behind.”
There were cheers again when Gov.
Griffin said, “Washington might send
troops down to parade in front of our
schools. But they will do their parading
in front of empty buildings, because
we don’t do business that way in Geor
gia.”
Boos also punctuated the meeting.
They came at the mention of names of
some directors of the Urban League,
notably Archbishop Joseph Francis
Rummel of New Orleans, who once de
clared segregation “a sin,” and newly-
appointed federal district Judge John
Minor Wisdom. More boos greeted
names of public officials invited to the
rally but who “sent regrets.” These
included Mayor “Chep” Morrison of
New Orleans.
POLL PREDICTIONS
“We’re going to have a mayor of New
Orleans who will be in this battle fight
ing all the way,” Rainach said, to more
cheers. “In 1960 we will elect fighting
governors throughout the South and by
1964 a President who will take the
South’s side of the issue.”
Sen. James O. Eastland of Mississippi,
another rally speaker, called Louisiana
and Virginia “the primary targets now
under attack by the NAACP in its cam
paign to conquer the South.”
With a system of racially integrated
schools, this country “could not hope
to match Russia in the training of sci
entists,” Eastland also charged. This was
because, he explained “standards in in
tegrated schools are lowered so that
the Negroes can keep up.”
VETS’ DAY SPEAKER
Faubus appeared at the Veterans’ Day
ceremonies at the request of the First
District American Legion.
Faubus’ appearance met with some
critcism. Legion Post 555 in New Or
leans protested to national headquar
ters that Faubus’ invitation violated the
by-law which states the American Le
gion “shall not be used for the dissem
ination of partisan principles.”
Another protest came from three
NAACP members, who said: “the Fau
bus appearance is a slur on the mem
ory of soldiers who died to preserve
rights he has denied. [The appearance]
may arouse animosities which have
been dying a slow death.” The three
were Dr. Leonard Burns, first Negro
volunteer for World War II from New
Orleans; Raymond B. Floyd, student
counsellor at Xavier University, and
Emile LaBranche, Jr., a major in the
active Army Reserve.
‘UNTIMELY,’ BUT . . .
The Interdenominational Ministerial
Alliance (of 250 Negro ministers in New
Orleans) said Faubus’ talk was “un
timely” but added that “freedom of
speech is one of the things Negroes are
fighting for throughout the nation.”
The Louisiana Baptist Convention,
meeting in Baton Rouge, turned down
a resolution offered by a member min
ister for a meeting of 20 white and 20
Negro Baptists as a step toward easing
of interracial tensions. The Rev. Greene
Strother of Pineville, a retired mission
ary, asked that such meetings be under
taken as policy at the state and higher
levels.
The New Orleans chapter of the Ur
ban League heard its national director,
Lester B. Granger, call the attackers of
the League’s work persons who are “de-
Kentucky Governor Asks South to Accept Integration
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
ov. A. B. Chandler, an an
nounced candidate for the
Democratic Presidential nomina
tion in 1960, made a strong appeal
for acceptance of racial integra
tion in the public schools of the
South. He expressed belief that
a third-party movement could
carry no more than four states.
And he proclaimed the anniver
sary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Ad
dress “Equal Opportunity Day” in
Kentucky. (See “Political Ac
tion.”)
The Louisville school system
announced the resignation of Dr.
Joseph H. Hadley, after a three-
month tenure as assistant super
intendent, to return to his former
post in Alabama. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Completion of a State Department of
Education survey, highlights of which
were reported in Southern School
News last month, showed Negro enroll
ment in desegregated schools ranging
from a single pupil in several small
districts to 7,647 in Louisville. (See
“Under Survey.”)
With his control of the Kentucky Gen
eral Assembly strengthened by the re
sults of the Nov. 5 elections, Gov. A. B.
Chandler continued a series of pro-in
tegration statements and actions.
As part of the program sponsored by
the National Urban League, the inter
racial agency dedicated to improving
economic opportunities for Negroes, he
designated Nov. 19, the anniversary of
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,
as “Equal Opportunity Day.”
His proclamation urged “every citizen
of our state to do everything in his pow
er to advance this truly American cause
of equal opportunity so that all Ameri
cans will understand and appreciate the
great advantages of our democratic way
of life, and will also assume the respon
sibilities essential to the preservation
of our freedom.”
On Nov. 20, speaking to the Kentucky
Motor Transport Association, Gov.
Chandler made a plea for abolishing
racial segregation in the schools of the
South.
“I believe in states’ rights,” he said,
“but I believe in a state’s obligations,
too . . . Kentucky is 90 per cent inte
grated because of the good sense and
good judgment of the people of Ken
tucky. We’re the bright shining light
of the South.”
The governor expressed “a fervent
wish” to make “a significant contribu
tion to racial amity” during his term in
office, and, declaring that “all men stand
equal in the sight of God,” urged the
bankers and businessmen in his audi
ence to help further this goal.
Noting that Chandler is a candidate
for the Democratic Presidential nomi
nation in 1960, The Louisville Times
observed that his speech “seemed to be
aimed at a much larger audience than
the 500 or so Kentuckians who heard
him.”
Earlier in the month, in a comment
on Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, Ken
tucky’s chief executive said he thought
that leading a third-party movement in
the South “had been in the back of Fau
bus’ mind from the beginning.” He ex
pressed belief that such a movement
might carry South Carolina, Georgia,
Mississippi and Alabama—“but not Ar
kansas.”
On Nov. 15 Louisville School Supt.
Omer Carmichael announced “with
keen regret” the resignation of Dr. Jo
seph H. Hadley as assistant city school
superintendent in charge of instruction,
a post Dr. Bradley came from Alabama
to assume on Aug. 1.
Dr. Carmichael said Dr. Hadley would
return to his old post in Alabama as
assistant state superintendent of educa
tion at the end of November, this time
to work on the program of the recently-
created Alabama Education Commis
sion.
Completion of a State Department of
Education survey, major details of which
were reported in Southern School
News last month, showed that Negro
enrollment in Kentucky’s desegregated
schools (114 of a total of 217 districts
now have “integrated situations”)
range from a single pupil in several
small districts to 7,647 in Louisville.
The report showed a 1957 increase
(over 1956) of 2,800 Negroes and 12,875
white students in integrated schools. Of
the state’s 600,000 white pupils, 133,182
are now in mixed classes; of its 40,000
Negro pupils, 10,897. (Forty-seven dis
tricts have no Negro school-age popu
lation).
A breakdown of enrollment in mixed
schools by
districts follows:
County Districts
White
Negro
Adair
1,445
108
Bell
407
14
Boone
1,846
13
Bracken ....
443
6
Breathitt . ..
1,021
5
Breckinridge
494
35
Bullitt
2,922
58
Clark
1,944
39
Clinton ....
61
8
Daviess ....
371
10
Fayette ....
8,561
252
Fleming ....
462
17
Floyd
797
9
Franklin ...
2,315
26
Gallatin ....
269
2
Green
1,259
3
Hancock ....
427
19
Hardin
2,101
50
Harrison ...
1,392
11
Hart
1,433
33
Henderson .
874
6
Henry
268
4
Hopkins ....
194
1
Jefferson
17,986
388
Kenton
1,539
8
Knott
780
15
LaRue
1,897
28
Lawrence
1,247
3
Logan
660
71
Madison ....
720
30
Marion
596
4
Mason
1,347
54
McLean ....
1,644
24
Meade
424
10
Mercer
947
27
Oldham ....
673
4
Pendleton ..
316
2
Perry
1,558
70
Pike
2,304
20
Powell
246
14
Pulaski
385
7
Robertson ..
443
2
Russell
627
10
Scott
1,725
197
Spencer ....
789
4
Union
230
18
Wayne
751
11
Woodford
520
5
Total
72,267
1,756
Independent Districts
Ashland ....
2,327
90
Augusta ....
304
8
Barbourville ....
579
11
Berea
538
9
Burgin
308
7
Carlisle
342
20
Caverna
785
101
Covington
3,613
37
Erlanger
832
44
Falmouth
507
17
Frankfort
336
49
Georgetown
808
46
Greenup
149
15
Harrodsburg
258
31
Hazard
724
46
Henderson
787
50
Irvine
690
6
Jackson
478
8
T,phannn
329
2
Leitchfield
688
18
Lexington
1,855
20
London
890
33
Louisville
28,147
7,647
Mayfield
534
14
Maysville
228
34
Midway
290
64
Monticello
789
17
Murray
458
1
Newport
2,211
159
Owensboro
931
39
Paducah
2,213
40
Pikeville
317
5
Pineville
634
41
Richmond
189
41
Russellville
342
34
Shelbyville
707
8
Somerset
531
34
Walton-Verona ..
402
19
West Point
178
27
Williamsburg ....,
806
15
Williamstown
397
1
Winchester
511
134
Total
60,915
9,141
Grand Total .
133,182
10,897
..
WHAT
THEY SAY
■
Editor Emeritus Tom Wallace in his
column in The Louisville Times:
“My grandparents on both sides were
slave owners . . . No descendant of one
of them, inheriting their sentiments,
would take part in or view otherwise
than with disgust some of the manifes
tations of hatred of Negroes ... I think
it due to the decent people of the South
for somebody to say that only the hood
lum element of the South’s population
hoots at and throws stones or sticks at
Negro school children or their parents;
only the element of population which
slaves called ‘po’ white trash.’ As no
body else seems to have said that in
print, I say it.”
Dr. Charles H. Parris Jr., University
of Louisville Negro sociologist, before
the Louisville Presbyterian Theological
Seminary:
By and large, all of the movements
in the direction of compliance with the
Supreme Court’s ruling have been led
by ministers of the gospel ... In areas
where racial integration of schools has
been in effect the longest, the rate of
racial intermarriages remains at less
than one per cent of the total.”
praved, wicked, misinformed and psy.
chologically frightened.”
The Urban League was dropped as a
United Fund agency for the 1957 drive
in New Orleans. The Citizens Council
says it is largely responsible for the
cutting off of this source of Urban
League financing.
Postal worker Arthur J. Chapital, Sr.
re-elected president of the NAACP
New Orleans chapter, said the organ,
ization “shall continue to pursue its ob
jectives of first-class citizenship, fuU
freedom and equal opportunities.”
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
There was unofficial indication the
NAACP would wait until appeals are
completed in the New Orleans school in
tegration case (Bush v. Orleans Parish
School Board) before taking action in
regard to Benjamin Franklin Senior
High School.
The school, for students with IQ S of
120 or over, opened this fall with a
freshman class, and was dedicated Nov.
11. All its 100-odd pupils are whites.
Ben Franklin High is the only Orleans
public school facility for whites which
does not have a counterpart for Ne
groes.
Results of intelligence tests given
public school ninth graders are kept
confidential. Atty. A. P. Tureaud, Sr.,
who has handled integration suits in
New Orleans and elsewhere in the state,
said: “When a Negro child with an ex
ceptional IQ comes to our attention, we
will take the matter up with the school
board. In the meantime we are not go
ing out of our way to look for trouble.”
Tureaud disclosed last month that the
proposed Louisiana State University
branch at New Orleans would have Ne
groes at its doors, applying for admis
sion the day it opened.
LSU BRANCH DISCUSSED
The LSU branch will occupy land
leased to the state college by the Or
leans Parish Levee Board. Speaking be
fore the Young Men’s Business Club in
New Orleans, levee board President
Claude W. Duke replied:
“I believe LSU can fight its own bat
tles on the matter of integration.”
Duke added that the LSU board had
“considered” the segregation aspect,
and was going ahead with plans to
open the LSU branch in 1958.
The question of Negro voting had two
state political figures in the limelight in
November—U. S. Sen. Russell Long and
Democratic National Committeeman
Camille Gravel.
Sen. Long said in a New Orleans
interview and again later in Baton
Rouge that the disenfranchisement of
10,000 Negro voters in northern Louis
iana was embarrassing to him in Wash
ington and was hard to explain.
All qualified citizens should vote.
Long added, and the NAACP drive w
get Negroes registered was commend
able. The removal of the Negroes fr°®
the state’s voter registration rolls, he
said, gave the then Atty. Gen. Herbert
Brownell ammunition which he “exag
gerated and used to help get the ci'
rights bill passed.”
ILLEGALLY REGISTERED’
A north state official, state Rep.
H. Lancaster Jr., of Tallulah, counted”
that the 10,000 persons whose naO
were removed were “illegally reS®*
tered.” Lancaster showed a resoluo
signed by officials of East Carroll, M 3
ison and Tensas parishes.
The resolution said that “Sen. L®®^
position is undoubedly based on if?*”
ranee. The action taken was in str *»
conformity with the laws of Louisin 112
C. R. Blair, president of the
Parish Citizens Councils, said Sen.
“should have challenged Brownell ^
stead, and told Congress the true P
ture in the state.”
GRAVEL WONT RESIGN
Gravel, for the fifth straight
denied reports that he would resig 1
der fire as the state’s Democrats^
tional committeeman. He also cr ’°£ r0 ir
the removal of Negroes’ '’" rrlps
names
voter rolls, laying it to Citizens ^
cils by name, where Sen. Long di ^
“I have said many times I
the civil rights bill passed by C° n ^ t tP
because of its protection of the
vote,” Gravel stated in his latest
of his resignation. “I will not
cause I support the party’s pl a ®
he said.
The chairman of the State | a 1
Committee, Rufus Hayes, said
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