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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. # # #