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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1958—PAGE 9
Troops Fewer, Court Suits
On Increase At Little Rock
Fifteen Little Rock residents incorporated the Little Rock Scholarship Fund,
started in September at the suggestion of a Unitarian minister in Maryland. Its
purpose is to provide financial help to students of either race who are attending
high school “under conditions of unusual stress.” Contributions so far total $3,000.
Receiving the charter from Pulaski Circuit Clerk Roger McNair are (from left)
Rabbi Irwin Groner, the Rev. Rufus King Young, Dr. Paul L. Day, attorney Au
gustus C. Remmel and the Rev. Dunbar H. Ogden Jr.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
'or the fourth straight month
in Arkansas all the desegrega-
' tion news revolved around Little
Rock Central High School where
a federal court integration order
, was put into effect in September
by Army troops.
In steadily diminishing num
bers the troops are still there
(though not during the Christ
mas holidays when there are no
classes) and school has gone on
in a nearly normal way. (See
“Miscellaneous” and “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
But the president of the Mothers
i League of Central High School said
the campaign to force the nine Negro
students out of the school will never
stop. To that the National Association
i for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple replied the Negro pupils have gone
too far to quit now.
( GOVERNOR SEES POLICE STATE
The governor of Arkansas said the
use of troops at Little Rock was the
beginning of a police state. The new
attorney general of the United States
said Little Rock people seem to be
handling the situation pretty well and
the best thing to do is to let it “rest
a while.” (See “Political Activity.”)
The legal campaign against the
NAACP continued. Under new city
ordinances at Little Rock and North
Little Rock, NAACP officers were fined
for not revealing their membership
lists and contributors. (See “Legal
Action.”)
During December one of the nine
Negro students at Little Rock Central
, High School was suspended for the
( first time. It happened to Minnie Jean
Brown on Dec. 17 when she dropped
or dumped a bowl of chili on two
I white boys.
' Supt. Virgil T. Blossom said the
minimum suspension was three days
and that he would determine later
whether it should be for longer in this
case.
The incident took place in the school
cafeteria at lunch. Minnie Jean was
I carrying her tray. Her way was
"locked by a white boy. Blossom said
she dumped her tray of food on him
m a “fit of temper.” Minnie Jean said
( *t was an accident. Some of the food
spilled on another boy. Neither of the
white boys was disciplined and their
names were not released.
The military force—members of the
Arkansas National Guard on active
cderal duty—guarding the school was
educed again during December. About
I men were released Dec. 18, the
ast day of classes before the holidays,
e aving 432 on active duty. The guard
®ntually at the school this month has
been 12, six inside the school and six
outside.
ALL troops removed
The day after the Christmas holidays
t gan, all the soldiers were removed
"Orn the school and the protection of
R 6 r mng Was teken over by Little
ock city police and men hired by the
i k° ar d- It was indicated that the
cl C ' 16rs wou ld be back on duty when
asses are resumed Jan. 2.
Twice later in the month, the Arkan-
' th* ^ emocrat at Little Rock reported
at a plan to replace the soldiers by
facial deputy federal marshals was
e *g pushed. No one in authority at
/ i j Little Rock or Washington could
« found to confirm this and the Jus-
S y e . department at Washington said
c h a plan was “not even under dis-
c Ussio n .”
l O _
gregationists have called attention
to the cost of having troops at the
school to protect the Negro students.
By request the Arkansas Military De
partment figured up the cost and said
it came to an average of $10 a man a
day. Through Dec. 18 that made the
total a little over $4 million. This is for
federal Guardsmen only.
Little Rock School Supt. Virgil T.
Blossom said there was no plan to ad
mit any more Negroes to Central High
School at mid-term. He said there was
a normal school policy not to allow
mid-term admissions and also that he
had not heard of any Negroes wanting
to enroll at that time. The second se
mester will begin Jan. 19.
COMMUNITY ACTION
An attempt to form a new Negro
group, described by some as “moder
ate” though it objects to that or any
other adjective, became known during
December. The Rev. O. W. Gibson said
he and some other Negroes had been
meeting to plan the organization of the
Greater Little Rock Improvement
League and that its objectives and
purposes would be announced Jan. 9
at its first scheduled public meeting.
Gibson said the Improvement League
would not be a political, partisan or
pressure group and that it would work
on employment, voting, banking and
loans, housing, street improvements,
amusements and recreation facilities
for Negroes.
As for the NAACP he said, “We dis
agree with some of their methods and
approaches. We would be considered a
group that would take a more moder
ate stand and try to solve our prob
lems through understanding and rea
son.” NAACP objectives, though, are
about the same as his, he said.
MRS. BATES CRITICIZED
Both the Mothers League of Central
High School and the Capital Citizens
Council, segregation groups, were ac
tive during the month. Both attacked
Mrs. L. C. Bates of Little Rock, state
NAACP president.
First, Mrs. Margaret C. Jackson,
president of the Mothers League, wrote
letters to Little Rock school authori
ties accusing them of showing favorit
ism to the nine Negro students. She
wrote that she had learned that Mrs.
Bates had been allowed to question
white students involved in incidents
with Negro students and protested
strongly against this. She demanded
that she or some other Mothers
League representative be allowed to
attend if Mrs. Bates questioned white
students in the future.
Both Mrs. Bates and Central High
Principal J. W. Matthews denied the
accusation made by Mrs. Jackson. He
said school policy was that the par
ents of a student and nobody else
could attend disciplinary meetings with
a student.
Within a few days the Citizens
Council made the same charges about
Mrs. Bates’ influence with school offi
cials. This was in a printed circular
which included a reproduction of the
Arkansas State Police file on Mrs.
Bates and what were presented as two
pictures of Mrs. Bates made by the
Pulaski County (Little Rock) sheriff’s
office.
When shown the arrest record Mrs.
Bates said one arrest for investigation
was made when she was 14 and was
riding in a car which was stopped for
investigation because there was a pis
tol in it. She was fined $5 on a gaming
arrest which she said was made when
police arrested the players at a pen
ny-ante poker game in a private home.
The NAACP ordinance arrest is still in
the courts. One arrest for contempt of
court, she said, came in 1946 when the
newspaper she and her husband own
published an article about the deci
sion of a Little Rock judge in a trial
of three Negro leaders. The judge held
her in contempt but the Arkansas Su
preme Court reversed the conviction
on appeal. No explanation for a sec
ond contempt arrest was given.
Women’s editors of Associated Press
member newspapers elected Mrs. Bates
as “Woman of the Year in Education”
because of her role in the Central High
desegregation issue. The AP said that
no Arkansas member paper voted in the
poll.
At Little Rock the Arkansas Ga
zette reproduced a letter which it said
had been received by Gazette adver
tisers, threatening a boycott of any
merchant who advertised in the Ga
zette. The letter, signed by “An In
dignant Group,” said that any store
that advertised in the newspaper
would be identified “with integration
of the races” because the paper had
led in trying to break down segrega
tion laws.
In an editorial alongside the letter
the Gazette said that this was “a vicious
and deliberate distortion” of the pa
per’s position. That position, the edi
torial said, is to support “every legal
effort to maintain the social patterns
of segregation” and to support the
Little Rock board in its gradual inte
gration plan as ordered into effect by
federal court.
At a Saline County Democratic Par
ty rally at Benton Dec. 13, Gov. Orval
E. Faubus said the Little Rock crisis
had raised two questions. One, he said,
is that the use of federal troops to
bring about integration is the begin
ning of police state methods and dic
tatorship “no matter how you analyze
it.”
The other is what he called the mis
use of judicial power, especially by the
U. S. Supreme Court, in integration
decisions overturning 35 previous deci
sions on the “separate but equal” the
ory. “They prate ‘law of the land’ but
there is no law of the land” that pub
lic schools must be integrated, Faubus
said.
A few days later, at a state meeting of
rural electric co-ops, Faubus said that
more industries than ever before were
wanting to locate or expand in Arkan
sas. He didn’t mention integration in this
talk.
COUNCIL MEMBERS CALL
Three members of the Capital Citi
zens Council, a segregationist organi
zation, called on the governor at his
office during the month, apparently the
first time this had happend since the
Little Rock crisis began. They were
asking about the possibility of a special
legislative session on the integration
matter. Faubus said he told them the
same thing he has been saying publicly
—that there is a good possibility that
there will be a special session. He said
they were interested in the same thing
he was, a law to close schools where
federal troops are stationed.
The new U. S. attorney general, Wil
liam P. Rogers, turned down the re
quest of Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-
Ark.), made last month, for a copy of
the FBI report on the violence at Little
Rock for his personal use. Rogers said
the report was made for the federal
court at Little Rock and that the Justice
Department did not have the authority
to release it.
Rogers also commented on the Little
Rock situation: “We ought to give the
Little Rock matter a chance to rest a
while. The Little Rock people appear
to be handling the matter pretty well
recently. My contribution should be not
to say anything which would aggravate
matters.”
LEGAL ACTION
As usual since the Little Rock vio
lence died out in September, most of
the integration action in December took
place in and around the courts. Most of
it involves laws or lawsuits designed
co expose the membership and finances
of the NAACP. Among these are the
ordinances adopted by several Arkan
sas cities, at the suggestion of state
Atty. Gen. Bruce Bennett. Under
them the cities can demand certain in
formation from various kinds of organi
zations as a means of deciding whether
they should pay city privilege taxes.
Two NAACP officers were tried in
Little Rock Municipal Court in Decem
ber because the NAACP had not filed
the information as requested. The case
against one, the Rev. J. C. Crenchaw,
president of the Little Rock NAACP
branch, was dismissed because there
was no evidence that the city had noti
fied him to file information. Mrs. L. C.
Bates, state president of the NAACP,
was fined $100 and costs of $1.50. De
fense attorney J. R. Booker said he
would appeal to Pulaski County Circuit
Court.
FEDERAL CASE PENDING
This apparently will be the only
prosecution of the NAACP under the
Little Rock ordinance until a federal
court suit over it is settled. Four other
organizations had filed information as
requested. They were the Capital Citi
zens Council, Freedom Fund, Inc., and
Mothers League of Central High School,
all segregationists; and the Urban
League.
On Christmas Eve, Crenchaw filed
without explanation all the information
wanted except the names of members
and contributors. What effect if any
this would have on the litigation was
not known.
Near the end of December another
group was asked to file by a member
of the new Little Rock City Manager
Board. This was the Arkansas Council
on Human Relations. The request came
from Letcher L. Langford, the only
board member elected with segregation
ist support. The Arkansas council, an
interracial group, filed a report but did
not include a membership list or list
of contributors.
Across the Arkansas River in North
Little Rock, where no school is desegre
gated, the sequence of events was al
most the same. Under the Bennett ordi
nance, W. A. Fair, vice president of the
North Little Rock NAACP, was fined
$25, and he appealed. Later Mrs. Bertie
Williams, president, was arrested. The
North Little Rock ordinance also was
taken to federal court by the NAACP
and another agreement was made to
hold up prosecutions under it pending
a determination of its validity.
In Pulaski County Chancery Court,
Judge Murray O. Reed refused on Dec.
4 to impound the records of the state
NAACP pending appeal of the suit
(State v. NAACP) to the state su
preme court. This is the case in which
Atty. Gen. Bennett sued the NAACP
for failing to pay state corporation fran
chise taxes for seven years, plus penal
ties, a total of $437.50.
Bennett filed two more suits against
the NAACP during December and he
called these his “big guns, after num
erous skirmishes.” One is against the
NAACP and the other against the Legal
Defense and Education Fund of the
NAACP. They are identical and allege
that the two organizations are practic
ing law illegally. Bennett asked Pulaski
Circuit Court to stop this (State v.
NAACP, State v. Legal Defense Fund).
Mrs. Margaret C. Jackson’s attorney,
Kenneth C. Coffelt, filed a brief with
the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals at
St. Louis in her suit asking for removal
of the troops from Central High because
it was unconstitutional for them to be
there (Jackson v. Col. William A.
Kuhn et al., No. 3445 in Federal Dis
trict Court at Little Rock). After the
government files a brief, the appeals
court is expected to set a hearing date.
Mrs. Jackson wants a three-judge court
to hear her petition. This was denied by
District Judge Ronald N. Davies, and
she appealed.
An old suit on Negro teacher pay was
dismissed by Federal District Judge
Roy W. Harper at the request of the
plaintiff (James Wise v. H. G. Gasa-
way et al., No. 2736). James Wise,
Negro, then a teacher at Gould (Lin
coln County) filed the suit in 1954, al
leging that Negro teachers were dis
criminated against in pay. His attorney,
J. R. Booker, asked for dismissal be
cause he said white and Negro salaries
now were being equalized.
WARRANT INCIDENT
When the Pulaski County Grand Jury
met Dec. 16 for the first time since
early in October, an incident connected
with the violence at Central High was
called to its attention. Prosecuting At
torney J. Frank Holt told the grand
jury of his refusal to issue warrants for
three members of the 101st Airborne
Infantry Division as requested by C. E.
Blake of North Little Rock. Blake con
tends the soldiers injured him without
cause near the school Sept. 25. The
Grand Jury has taken no action.
At Pine Bluff, petitions circulated by
Negroes were filed to refer to a vote
of the people the Bennett ordinance. No
date has been set. # # #
Reporters Query
(Continued From Page 8)
e rowdy element that hangs around 16th Street
*** of school.)
^Teacher (male) says that white pupils appear
he if *^ nor * n 2 Negro nine completely. Said that
gtiasn’t noticed any attempt at fraternization.
' With ^ at t ^ le Negroes have not tried to mingle
i fr. flutes. “The Negroes are isolated,” he said.
r)j g teacher said that since the mobs have been
! ba<ff rSe< ^ from before the school, the school is
i is jte normal. He said that the pace of learning
• - Dou ^ the average for this time of year. . . .
1 pi e tu Hent (male) said that he had talked to cou-
h e °* *he Negro boys between classes. Said that
• 8ot some dirty looks from several students but
that is all. Said that there are some “big shots” in
classrooms that keep fomenting trouble. Said that
he thinks most of the students feel as he does:
Get an education and get out. He said that classes
are normal and in the grind of work most pupils
forget that soldiers are around. Said that he feels
that there will be trouble when the soldiers pull
out.
Student (male): He says that he doesn’t “give a
damn” about Negroes in school. Says that he is in
class with one but he has never spoken to him.
Said that he doesn’t mingle with Negroes and
added that he doesn’t intend to. Said that “I don’t
care if they stay or go.” Said that there is plenty
of student talk about “giving the jigs a lumping”
after soldiers go. This boy added that he is inter
ested only in getting a scholarship. Said that his
parents told him to shy away from trouble
makers and he is doing just that. Said classes are
as normal as can be.
Student (female), have talked to this one before:
She is a hot-head who has baited 101st and eggs
male students to bait Negroes. She is in with sev
eral boys who band together every morning at
16th Street and Park Avenue entrance. She ap
pears to be a messenger for these boys. She says
that she is learning and adds that classes appear
tougher and teachers stricter this year than before.
She is in class with one of the Negro girls.
‘JUST A FEW’ SPEAK
As for attitude of white students, she says that
there are some, “just a few,” who speak to Negroes
in hall, class and sometimes in cafeteria. Said
that “we let these know that they better stop
this.” Said that teachers lecture students about
behaving but adds “nobody is listening to that
stuff.” Says that pupils spit at Negroes, knock
books out of arms in crowds and let them “know
that whites don’t want them.” She says that a
“bunch of good fellows are sworn in” to beat up
the Negroes when the soldiers leave.
Student (boy) says that he hears rumors about
Negroes being picked on but never saw any of
this. Commented that school is so large that “any
thing can happen” and good segment of pupils
not hear about it for days. Said that learning is up
to par but added that teachers “seem jumpy.”
Said that his sister complained to mother that
none of the girls in her group were using rest
rooms because Negro girls did. Said that he ig
nores Negroes.
# # #