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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1958—PAGE 15
Act Upheld by Virginia Court; Federal Ruling Asked
Placement
RICHMOND, Va.
irginia’s Pupil Placement Act
remained in the legal spotlight
during December. The state su
preme court ruled the act valid
* under the state Constitution,
while in another case the state
asked the U. S. Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals to say specific
ally which parts of the act, if any,
are in violation of the federal
Constitution. (See “Legal Ac-
\ tion.”)
The Southern Association of
Colleges and Secondary Schools,
holding its annual meeting in
Richmond, admitted 18 Negro
colleges to membership, the first
Negro institutions to become
members of the organization.
(See “In The Colleges.”)
Preparations were being made for the
convening of the Virginia General As-
' sembly on Jan. 8, but neither outgoing
Gov. Thomas B. Stanley nor incoming
Gov. J. Lindsay Almond Jr. has an
nounced publicly what recommenda-
i tions they will make to the legislators
concerning the school racial issue.
Efforts to revive the Ku Klux Klan
in Virginia led to issuance of a state
ment by top religious leaders declaring
that “the Klan way is not the Virginia
way to handle our problems.” (See
“Miscellaneous.”)
Virginia’s Pupil Placement Act—
, which has lost several rounds in fed
eral courts—received a favorable ruling
from the state supreme court last
month.
The court held that the act does not
, violate the Virginia Constitution. The
court did not rule on the validity of the
i | act under the federal Constitution.
The case in question was that of De-
! Febio v. School Board of Fairfax
I County. The litigation arose as the re
sult of the refusal of Mrs. Theo T.
DeFebio, white, to sign required school
i placement forms for her two sons. As
a result of her refusal, Fairfax authori
ties suspended the boys from school
last April.
Mrs. DeFebio brought suit to force
readrpission of her sons. The state su
preme court last month ruled against
Her. Her attorneys said they would ap
peal to the U. S. Supreme Court.
NO RACE ISSUE
Since the DeFebios are white, the
state supreme court ruling is not con
sidered here to be of great significance
w the controversy over school desegre
gation.
Mrs. DeFebio alleged that the place
ment act violates the federal Constitu
tion because it operates to preserve
segregation, thereby discriminating
against Negroes. But the court declared
, since the DeFebio boys are white,
“ley are not being discriminated against
oy enforcement of the act.
The plaintiff also had argued that
, creation of the Pupil Placement Board
folates Section 133 of the Virginia
onstitution, since the section vests
Delaware
(Continued From Page 14)
j'eighborhoods, should not rim away-
' th e situation but should stay to
rve. Negroes moving into such neigh-
rhoods should know where they are
"H C0Ine ’ an( i churches that have de-
' to serv e the neighborhood should
’"ake this known.
Housing in changing neighborhoods—
, e residents can circumvent ‘whis-
. campaigns’ of wholesale Negro
Upancy by resisting panic selling and
He' sympathetic or wavering
not b ° rS tilat tncoming Negroes are
, )les trying to depreciate property val-
^dercurrent of fear
' Ord sc k°°l desegregation — The
erly process of desegregation in
umington was facilitated by a liberal
^ 5^ °t pupil transfers. An undercur-
ists ^ 6ar rac tal amalgamation ex-
Littf 171011 ® some Parents and pupils. The
e Rock affair did create tension
° n g some school children.
f e the opening remarks of the con-
' Of Urf' .hh- Earl C. Jackson, principal
“mington’s Bancroft Junior High
JUst i sa * c *’ “Desegregation is not
l e a Lgal problem. It is a moral prob-
* of S r eat magnitude. Racism is the
f e glaring gap in our ideological de-
, es; the most vulnerable point in
Am erica.”
- # # #
supervisory powers in local school
boards.
To that contention the court replied:
“If the legislature deems it advisable
to vest the power of enrollment or
placement of pupils in an authority
other than the local school boards, it
may do so without depriving local
school boards of any express or implied
constitutional powers of supervision.”
Meanwhile, the U. S. Fourth Circuit
Court was asked to clear up any doubts
as to the legality of the Pupil Place
ment Act under the federal Constitu
tion.
The request was contained in a brief
filed by Atty. Gen. Kenneth G. Patty
and attorneys for the Arlington school
board who are contesting District Judge
Albert V. Bryan’s order that Negroes
be admitted to Arlington white schools
(Thompson v. County School Board of
Arlington).
Oral arguments in the case will be
heard by the three-judge court on Jan.
9 at Charlotte, N. C.
CLEAR DEFINITION ASKED
In a brief filed with the circuit court
early in December, the state and county
asked that tribunal to clearly define
which parts of the act, if any, are in
valid.
In another desegregation case (School
Board of the City of Newport News v.
Atkins and School Board of the City of
Norfolk v. Beckett), federal courts
have held that the placement act offers
no adequate remedy to Negroes in
their efforts to gain admittance to
white schools.
In the district court at Norfolk, where
the Norfolk-Newport News case orig
inated, Judge Walter E. Hoffman de
cided for the Negro plaintiffs last Jan
uary and declared that the placement
act was “unconstitutional on its face.”
His decision was sustained by the
Fourth Circuit Court, and in October
the U. S. Supreme Court refused to
review the case. The general opinion
here is that the decision eliminated the
Pupil Placement Act as an effective de
terrent to integration, and that while
the law may remain technically valid
in some respects, it is not useful for
the purpose for which it was enacted.
PRINCE EDWARD EXTENSION
On Dec. 5 Prince Edward County
was given another extension in its legal
fi?ht to prevent integration of its
schools. (Allen v. County School Board
of Prince Edward.)
Chief Judge John J. Parker of the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed
to stay the court’s order for a prompt
start toward desegregation, pending re
sults of an appeal to the U. S. Supreme
Court. (Background on this case may
be found in the December 1957 South
ern School News.)
The dispute between the NAACP
and state legislative investigative com
mittees continued in court. Arguments
were heard early in December in the
case in which the NAACP is fighting
subpoenas which ordered the associa
tion to turn over certain information to
the General Assembly’s Committee on
Offenses Against the Administration of
Justice.
5 ERRORS CLAIMED
The case is before the Virginia Su
preme Court on appeal from the Rich
mond Hustings Court. The NAACP
contends that the lower court erred in
five ways by refusing to quash sub
poenas it had issued earlier against the
Negro group.
The legislative committee in question
has gone out of existence after making
its report (see last month’s Southern
School News), but it is considered
likely that the General Assembly,
which convenes in January, will set up
another committee to carry on the
probe.
The NAACP alleges, among other
things, that the subpoenas violated due
process because the association was not
given a chance to be heard before the
subpoenas were issued, that the sub
poenas should have defined what por
tion of NAACP records the committee
was to inspect, and that the court did
not require the committee to show
why the information sought was neces
sary to its investigation.
SCULL APPEALS CONVICTION
David H. Scull, the Annandale
printer who was fined $10 and sent
enced to 10 days in jail for refusing to
answer questions of the General As
sembly’s Committee on Law Reform
and Racial Activities, is appealing to
the state supreme court. Scull was con
victed by Judge Emery H. Hesmer of
Arlington Circuit Court. (Background
on this case may be found under “Leg
islative Action” in Southern School
News for November 1957.)
For the first time, Negro institutions
have been admitted to membership in
the Southern Association of Colleges
and Secondary Schools. Eighteen Ne
gro colleges were admitted by the as
sociation it its 62nd annual meeting in
Richmond early in December.
A plan for inclusion of qualified
Negro institutions was approved by the
organization in 1956, but specific
schools were not voted on until this
year’s session.
During the year, 63 Negro colleges
were investigated by the association,
and 18 of them met the group’s stand
ards, according to Leo Chamberlain of
Lexington, Ky., chairman of the com
mission on colleges and universities.
RACE QUESTION RAISED
Earlier, the president of the associa
tion, T. P. Baker of Austin, Texas, told
the commission on secondary schools
that “there are many of us who feel
that we are playing into the hands of
the integrationists when we say a Ne
gro [secondary] school cannot be ac
credited . . . when they cannot become
a member of the organization.”
The Negro schools, both colleges and
secondary schools, have been members
of the Association of Colleges and Sec
ondary Schools, the Negro counterpart
of the Southern Association. The Negro
group also held its annual meeting in
Richmond early in December.
The Negro senior colleges admitted
to the Southern Association are Albany
State College, Albany, Ga.; Atlanta
University, Atlanta; Bennett College,
Greensboro, N.C.; Clark College, At
lanta; Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.;
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee;
Fort Valley State College, Fort Valley,
Ga.; Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.;
Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tenn.;
Morehouse College, Atlanta; North
Carolina College at Durham, N.C.; Tal
ladega College, Talladega, Ala.; Touga-
loo Southern Christian College, Touga-
loo, Miss.; Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee,
Ala.; and Virginia State College, Peters
burg.
JUNIOR COLLEGES, TOO
Negro junior colleges admitted are
Daniel Payne College, Birmingham,
Ala.; St. Phillip’s College, San Antonio,
Texas; and Voorhees Junior College,
Denmark, S.C.
A racial question arose during the
final session of the Southern Associa
tion’s meeting when Rapheil Teagle,
director of secondary education for the
State Department of Education of Lou
isiana, moved that New Orleans be
selected as the 1959 convention city.
When his motion was ruled out of or
der on grounds that the executive com
mittee must choose the convention site,
Teagle took the floor again and said
that an association official had told him
earlier “that we can’t meet in New
Orleans because of the racial problem,”
“I wasn’t aware of the fact that we
had a racial problem in the Southern
Association,” Teagle said. “I hope we
in the Southern Association never reach
the point where we . . . cannot meet in
a city of the deep South.”
RESOLUTION ADOPTED
He changed his motion to a resolu
tion that the executive committee con
sider New Orleans as the site for the
convention, and it was adopted.
The association approved a revision
in the standards for accreditation of
secondary schools, raising the minimum
starting salary from $2,400 to $3,400.
Fred W. Young, superintendent of
schools in Yazoo City, Miss., said the
action was discriminatory, because in
places where not enough money is
available to raise salaries of all teach
ers, the pay of teachers in white high
schools may be raised to prevent loss
of accreditation.
‘GREATEST NEED’
In an address to the Negro associa
tion, Dr. William F. Quillian Jr., presi
dent of Randolph-Macon Woman’s Col
lege, Lynchburg, Va., said:
“In my opinion, one of our greatest
needs is the development of an en
lightened public opinion which under
stands so clearly the importance of our
whole system of education that it will
turn a deaf ear to any suggestions for
closing of public schools.
“Any such move within a state would
result in serious setbacks to its educa
tional institutions and, indeed, to the
whole life of that state.
“This is not mere speculation. Even
the suggestion of such a possibility is
already creating problems for many of
us in keeping present faculty members
and in attracting new ones. And why
wouldn’t a young man with a family
think twice about accepting a position
in a state where the school attended
by his children might be closed?”
Virginia law provides for the closing
of schools if necessary to prevent inte
gration.
REGIONAL EDUCATION FUNDS
Virginia spent $165,000 last year to
help 557 Negro graduate students pur
sue courses of study not available to
them in Virginia, at 47 colleges outside
the state.
Of that total, $35,000 went to the
Southern Regional Education Fund as
Virginia’s contribution to Meharry
Medical College in Nashville and
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The
rest of the money went in individual
grants, ranging from a low of $39.40 to
a high of $1,500.
Copeley Hill is a residential unit for
married couples at the University of
Virginia. Last summer a controversy
developed after university officials as
signed James L. Williams, a Negro en
gineering student, and his family to
Copeley Hill. The officials said later
they did not know Williams’ race at
the time of the assignment.
LETTER TO COUNCIL
After leaving the university Williams
wrote a letter to the student council
which administers Copeley Hill saying
that he and his family were “proud of
the fact that we were chosen to bear
a small portion of the Negro’s drive in
America to make democracy a reality
not for the self-chosen few but for all
of its citizens.” He told the council to
“accept this letter as a harbinger of the
Negro’s drive for equality, and you can
be certain that he will not be deterred
by contemptuous terms and acts of
violence.”
Last month the Copeley council an
nounced the results of a survey of
Copeley residents concerning the racial
issue. Sixty-six per cent of the resi
dents, or 329 individuals, participated.
Asked if they approved assigning
qualified students to Copeley Hill with
out regard to color, 47 per cent ap
proved, 13 per cent were indifferent,
and 40 per cent disapproved.
33% WITHOUT OBJECTION
As to having a qualified Negro stu
dent as a neighbor, 33 per cent said
they would not object, 27 per cent were
indifferent, and 40 per cent said they
would object.
Seventy-six per cent said they did
not believe there would be violent ob
jection to the assignment of Negroes to
the housing project.
The Arlingtonians for a Better Coun
ty (ABC), generally described as the
liberal-moderate faction in Arlington
politics, received a setback last month
in its efforts to gain control of the
county school board.
As reported in last month’s Southern
School News, the victory of Herbert L.
Brown Jr. in his contest for a seat on
the Arlington County Board (the
county governing unit) assured ABC
of a 3-2 edge on that body when Brown
goes into office Jan. 1.
The school situation is directly
affected by the complexion of the gov
erning body, since that group appoints
members of the school board.
COURT FIGHT
Two terms of the five-member school
board expired Dec. 31, 1957. The con
servative Arlington Independent Move
ment, which controlled the govern
ing board, and the ABC got into a
court fight over whether the successors
to the retiring school board members
were to be appointed by the old county
board, or by the new board after Brown
takes office. The Arlington Circuit
Court ruled in favor of the old board,
and last month the Virginia Supreme
Court of Appeals refused to grant a
writ of error in the case. So late in
December the board made the appoint
ments.
This mean that, barring deaths or
resignations, the conservative faction
in Arlington will have a majority on
the school board until the terms of
three members expire Dec. 31, 1959.
The governing board, meanwhile, will
be under the control of the liberals,
who oppose the state policy 0 f closing
schools if necessary to prevent inte
gration, at least insofar as that policy
may apply to Arlington.
Gov. Stanley has appointed a 14-
member Virginia Educational Facilities
Committee to study how the state might
make better use of its school buildings,
equipment and teaching staffs.
The governor has pointed out that
present school buildings are in use only
about 180 days a year. He has suggested
that fuller use of the buildings—pos
sibly through a 12-month school plan
or school on Saturdays—would be in
the interest of economy and help solve
the school shortage.
The commission, headed by State
Sen. M. M. Long of Wise County, will
also study possible curriculum changes.
The group has an initial allocation of
$25,000 to finance its work.
19% INCREASE BY 1962-63
The State Department of Education
estimated last month that enrollment in
Virginia’s public schools will increase
more than 19 per cent by 1962-63. This
would bring the total to 924,500 stu
dents.
A million dollar bond issue intended
for school construction in Spotsylvania
County was voted down by county citi
zens in a referendum on Dec. 9. The
vote was 1,158 to 412. County officials
expressed the belief that the school
segregation issue was one cause of the
defeat.
An effort to revive the Ku Klux Klan
in Virginia began the night of Dec. 7
with a rally in a rain-soaked field
near Danville in Southside Virginia’s
Black Belt, close to the North Carolina
border.
The crowd which attended was ad
dressed by a man who refused to give
his name but who said he was the
grand wizard. He said he was an or
dained minister from eastern North
Carolina. Reporters at the scene said
all, or most, of the 13 robed Klansmen
present were from North Carolina.
About 60 automobiles were parked
in the field at one stage of the proceed
ings, but many left early.
SEEK YOUR HELP’
The grand wizard told the crowd,
“We’re not here to help you but to
seek your help, because in North Caro
lina we have Negroes going to white
schools.”
He added that “if you took the North
Carolinians out of Virginia, the Negroes
would take over before sunset.”
The Klansmen, none of whom was
masked (appearing masked is a viola
tion of Virginia law), said other Klan
rallies will be held in Virginia.
Later in the month, top leaders of
the state’s three major religious faiths
issued a statement through the Virginia
offices of the National Conference of
Christians and Jews and the Anti-Def
amation League of B’nai B’rith which
said in part:
‘SERIOUS CONCERN’
“The recently held Klan meeting and
cross burning in Southside Virginia by
North Carolina klansmen, and an
nouncement of plans for additional ral
lies in our commonwealth, are cause
for serious concern to religiously mo
tivated persons and decent people
everywhere.
“The Klan’s terrorist tactics and its
appeal to the evil passions of hatred
and bigotry violate our common Ju-
daic-Christian heritage and democratic
traditions . . . Irrespective of current
social problems, there is agreement
among Virginians that the Klan way is
not the Virginia way to handle our
problems.”
Signers of the statement were the
Most Rev. Peter L. Ireton, Bishop of
Richmond; Francis Pickens Miller,
president of the Virginia Council of
Churches; and Joseph Goldman, chief
of the Central Virginia and Hampton
Roads Rabbinical Associations.
DISCRIMINATION BLAMED
U. S. Sen. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) told
a University of Virginia gathering on
Dec. 3 that “discrimination within edu
cation has directly contributed to our
failure to develop fully the capabili
ties of young Americans, including
those in the minority groups.”
Javits, who spoke at a meeting spon
sored by the student legal forum, said
that “continued and even violent op
position to this constitutional civil right
[of school integration] represents one
widely noted defect in our spiritual
leadership in the cold war.”
He said that at the next Senate ses
sion he will introduce legislation to
deal with civil sanctions for enforce
ment of the Fourteenth Amendment.
RICHMOND POPULATION SHIFT
The Richmond City Planning Com
mission issued a report showing that
during the past six years the city’s
white population had declined by 5,000
persons while the Negro population
gained 15,000.
The report said that in 1956, Negroes
made up 46 per cent of the public
school enrollment, during the current
year they constitute 49 per cent, and
next year they are expected to make
up more than half the total enrollment.
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