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PAGE 10—JUNE 1958—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ARKANSAS-
Little Rock School Graduates First Negro; Board Asks '61 Delay
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
L ittle Rock Central High
School peacefully graduated
602 seniors on May 27—one of
them a Negro—after eight months
and six days of integration pro
tected by federal troops. Local
police and the troops gave heavy
protection at the graduation cere
monies but only one minor inci
dent occurred. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
The Little Rock school board,
in its plea to federal district court
for a delay in integration, asked
that the starting date be set back
to January 1961. A hearing is
scheduled June 3. (See “Legal Ac
tion.”)
The Thomas Plan for a voluntary ap
proach to desegregation, outside the
courts, was allowed to die when neither
Gov. Orval E. Faubus nor the state
Board of Education acted on it. (See
“Political Activity.”)
The Little Rock school board
awarded diplomas May 27 to 601 white
seniors and one Negro senior. Two days
later the last 425 Arkansas National
Guardsmen were released from federal
duty—protection of the eight Negroes
in Central High—and scattered from
Camp Robinson at North Little Rock to
their homes. Thus ended eight months
of school integration under a federal
court order backed up by federal
soldiers. There was to be no integra
tion during the summer term so the
troops weren’t needed.
At a press conference a few
days before commencement President
Eisenhower emphasized that he had
used troops at Little Rock “not be
cause of an argument or a statement
by a governor about segregation” but
because a court order was being de
fied. (See text on this page.)
Whether the troops would be back
next September wasn’t determined.
President Eisenhower, when he an
nounced the date that the troops
would be withdrawn, said that depend
ed on whether state and local author
ities supported the federal court order
for integration at Little Rock. Pressed
for further details, James C. Hagerty,
presidential press secretary, said, “I
think it is quite clear where the respon
sibility lies. We will just have to wait
and see.”
MIGHT USE GUARD
Gov. Faubus said the troops might be
needed again if the Negroes try for
readmission to Central High. Reporters
asked him if he would use the Na
tional Guard again in September to
keep the Negroes out and he answered
that that might happen. He paused,
then went on, “There are a number of
things that can happen.” What things?
He wouldn’t say. A special session of
the legislature? Maybe, he said.
As the graduation dates drew near—
baccalaureate on Sunday, May 25 and
commencement Tuesday, May 27—con
siderable tension developed in Little
Rock.
The school board and Supt. Virgil T.
Blossom announced that they were
determined to have a normal and dig
nified graduation. To insure that, two
steps were taken. One was to restrict
the activity and coverage of both re
porters and photographers at the cere
monies. The other was to have extra
police available in addition to the
soldiers.
PRESS LIMITED
The school board issued tickets for
reporters and allowed them to work
only in the stadium press box. Only
three news photographers and no tele
vision cameramen were allowed on the
field.
The Rev. Wesley Pruden, president of
the segregationist White Citizens Coun
cil, protested the restrictions and
called for a public protest against them.
Both services went off quietly but
leaving the baccalaureate service a boy
in the senior class spat in the face of a
Negro girl in the party with Ernest
Green and was promptly arrested by
Little Rock policemen. During com
mencement there was no incident, not
even a boo.
OTHERS MAY APPLY
Negroes also may apply for admission
to two other all-white Little Rock high
schools next fall, Mrs. L. C. Bates of
Eisenhower’s Statement
Here is the text of President
Eisenhower’s May 7 statement on
Little Rock:
Since last September the fed
eral government has stationed
soldiers at the Little Rock (Cen
tral) High School to prevent
obstruction of the orders of the
United States District Court.
Since the summer recess starts
at Central High School on May
28 and since there will be no
further present need for the
Guardsmen, I have directed they
be released May 29.
Following that date I trust that
state and local officials and citi
zens will assume their full re
sponsibility and duty for seeing
that the orders of the federal
court are not obstructed.
The faithful execution of the
responsibility will make it un
necessary for the federal govern
ment to preserve the integrity of
our judicial processes.
Little Rock, Arkansas president of the
NAACP, said. These are the Technical
High School, which has a citywide at
tendance area, and Hall High School,
which has an attendance area in North
west Little Rock including all of the
wealthy residential area known as
Pulaski Heights. There are only a
handful of Negro families in the Hall
High area and whether they have chil
dren of high school age isn’t known.
Mrs. Lois Pattillo, mother of Melba
Pattillo, one of the eight Negroes in
Central High School, said her teaching
contract with the North Little Rock
School district has not been renewed be
cause of her participation in the inte
gration issue at Little Rock. She said
the superintendent, F. B. Wright, had
told her that she should have con
sulted him before allowing her
daughter to enroll at Central High.
Wright would neither confirm nor
deny Mrs. Pattillo’s accusation. She has
taught English for seven years at the
North Little Rock Negro high school.
ALL PASS WORK
J. W. Matthews, principal at Central
High, announced that all eight of the
Negro students had made passing
grades and that one of them, whose
name he wouldn’t give, had made the
honor roll. Mrs. Bates of the NAACP
said the honor roll student was Carlotta
Walls, a sophomore.
It was learned that Ozark High
School, 125 miles northwest of Little
Rock, had been integrated again at
mid-term in January. Ozark school
authorities have a no-publicity policy
and would not confirm or deny this.
Observers at Ozark said that two Ne
gro girls entered the school at mid
term and attended classes the rest of
the semester without incident. There
are about 475 white students in the
high school. Ozark integrated last
September with two Negro boys and
one Negro girl in the high school, but
they were harassed by whites and left
the school after two days of classes.
Ozark is the ninth Arkansas school dis
trict to start desegregation.
The Little Rock school board amend
ed its petition for a delay in integra
tion at the order of Federal District
Judge Harry J. Lemley. Originally the
school board had asked the court to de
lay its integration plan until the con
cept of “all deliberate speed” could be
defined. Judge Lemley said that was too
indefinite. Amending its plea the school
board struck out that request and asked
for a delay until January 1961.
No explanation was given as to why
that particular date was selected. It
would be at a mid-term instead of the
start of the school year. Attorneys for
the eight Negro students in Central
High filed a motion calling the school
board request “inappropriate and irrel
evant” and asking the court to deny it.
Judge Lemley scheduled a hearing on
the petition for June 3.
In a brief filed later the school board
listed the reasons it believes that inte
gration has caused a deterioration in
the quality of education at Central High
School. The reasons listed were about
40 racial incidents inside the schools and
20 to 30 bomb scares, plus other inter
ference.
The board said the White Citizens
Council helped create the tension just
before school opened last fall and that
Gov. Faubus and the legislature had
tried to block the gradual integration
plan. It complained of lack of help
from local, state, and federal authorities
in trying to comply with the court or
der, pointing out that no one had been
prosecuted in federal court and that all
suspects arrested at the school had
been turned loose in Little Rock Mu
nicipal Court.
SUIT FILED
The Arkansas NAACP filed suit in
Chancery Court in Pulaski County to
test the constitutionality of Act 85 of
1957. This is the law that requires the
NAACP and other organizations to
register with the state Sovereignty
Commission and file certain information
with it. This is the third suit involving
the constitutionality of this law. No
decision has been given in any of them
so far.
The NAACP and the Legal Defense
and Education Fund, Inc., an arm of
the NAACP, had asked the circuit court
judges in Pulaski County to dismiss two
suits by state Atty. Gen. Bruce Ben
nett who accused the two organizations
of the illegal practice of law. The
judges, J. Mitchell Cockrill and Guy
Amsler, after a joint hearing, denied
the motions for dismissal.
When School’s Out
—Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal
Oil Pulitzer Prize
—Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
The Department of the Army denied
that its mission at Little Rock Central
High School had not been successful.
This was in letters to the NAACP and
to U. S. Rep. E. C. Gathings of West
Memphis (Democrat). John W. Martyn,
administrative assistant to the Secretary
of the Army, wrote Gathings, “The De
partment of the Army is fully aware of
its responsibility for executing the mis
sion that it has been assigned. I con
sider it a grave disservice to the na
tion and to the United States Army
for irresponsible accusations to be made
that attempt to discredit and bring cen
sure upon the Army regarding the ex
ecution of this mission in Little Rock.”
He also said the cost to the Army of
the Little Rock mission would be $3,-
693,000. Gathings had inquired about a
newspaper article saying the Army had
failed at Little Rock.
FBI investigation of the school vio
lence at Little Rock cost $86,700, J. Ed
gar Hoover reported to Congress.
The National Newspaper Publishers
Association, a Negro group, cited Pres
ident Eisenhower for distinguished
service for his handling of the Little
Rock school crisis.
WATCH BATES HOME
At her request the Little Rock police
began keeping watch over the home of
Mrs. L. C. Bates, Arkansas NAACP
president. She said people had been
driving by and cursing or throwing ob
jects at the house.
The Arkansas Gazette, morning
newspaper at Little Rock, won two Pu
litzer Prizes for its handling of the Lit
tle Rock school crisis. One went to
Harry S. Ashmore, executive editor, for
his editorials defending the Little Rock
school board’s gradual integration plan
and criticizing Gov. Faubus for inter
fering with troops. The other was for
the paper’s news coverage. A third Pu
litzer went to Reiman Morin of the As
sociated Press for his story on the vio
lence last Sept. 23 at Central High.
The Guardian, weekly newspaper of
the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock,
won a national first prize from the
Catholic Press Association for an edi
torial published Sept. 20. The editorial
said both Little Rock newspapers, the
Gazette and Democrat, helped set the
stage for trouble at Little Rock by the
way they reported the news. It said both
papers lacked “objective reporting and
circumspect editing.”
The Columbia University graduate
school of journalism gave its first
Columbia journalism award to J. N.
‘But Is There Anything New
. . . Like Respecting The
Courts?’
—Arkansas Gazette
Purple Heart-Ache
—Dallas (Tex.) Morning News
Heiskell, editor and president of the
Arkansas Gazette, May 29 for his “sin
gular journalistic performance in the
public interest” during the Little Rock
school crisis.
Dr. Charles E. Thompson of Little
Rock, a clinical psychologist at the Vet
erans Administration Hospital at North
Little Rock, said integration was a
worthwhile ideal but that both sides in
Arkansas had been acting “like misera
ble children.” Negroes need an educa
tional equality with the whites and emo
tional maturity before integration can
be successful, Dr. Thompson said. He
made the remarks to an assembly of
students at Philander Smith College
(for Negroes) at Little Rock.
‘STEP FORWARD’
An NAACP attorney, Mrs. Constance
Motley of New York City, in a speech
at Memphis, Tenn., said the Little Rock
crisis was a big step forward in the in
tegration move. “Little Rock was bad
publicity for the government,” she said,
“but we now know what the United
States government is willing to do. The
executive branch is willing to back up
the Supreme Court.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Negro
Baptist minister from Montgomery,
Ala., where he is a leading figure in the
anti-segregation movement, spoke at
commencement at Arkansas AM&N
College for Negroes at Pine Bluff on
Year-End Summary
1) Little Rock’s plan for grad
ual integration, approved by
federal court, was blocked tem
porarily by National Guard
troops called out by Gov. Orval
E. Faubus, then proceeded un
der the protection of federal
soldiers.
2) After six months of integra
tion, marked by frequent racial
incidents and strife despite the
presence of federal troops, the
Little Rock school board peti
tioned federal court for a two-
and-a-half-year delay in the
start of its plan.
3) Three more Arkansas school
districts, Fort Smith, Van Buren,
and Ozark, started integration.
Two, North Little Rock and Pine
Bluff, delayed planned integra
tion because of the turmoil at
Little Rock.
4) The U. S. Eighth Circuit
Court denied the appeal of Gov.
Faubus in which he sought to
overturn a temporary injunction
by a district judge to prevent his
interfering with court-ordered
integration at Little Rock, and
the court went on to censure the
governor for using troops to pre
vent integration.
5) Gov. Faubus, riding a popu
larity wave for his attempt to
keep Negroes out of Little Rock
Central High School, filed for a
third term which is almost un
precedented in Arkansas. Three
other men are opposing him in
the Democratic primary.
May 27 and told an audience of about
1,000 that colored people all over the
world were winning independence.
He advised the 233 graduating seniors
to go out “determined to revolt against
segregation and discrimination every
where” but to do it without violence
and without hate. He was applauded
frequently. Arkansas AM&N is the
only state-supported college for Ne
groes in the state.
The Thomas plan for a voluntary ap
proach to the desegregation situation
in Arkansas apparently is dead, al
lowed to die by inaction. For it to be
come effective the first step was for
the state Board of Education to adopt
it and submit it to federal district court
as a means of achieving racial harmony
without violence or force. For the state
board to adopt it, Gov. Faubus, who
appointed the board members, would
have to approve it. Neither the gover
nor nor the board ever said how they
felt about the plan. (See Southern
School News, May 1958.)
The Rev. Wesley Pruden, president of
the Capital Citizens Council, told a
Council rally that Gov. Faubus had told
him that the election of a new Little
Rock school board and the approval of
the proposed states’ rights amendment
would be almost enough to keep Ne
groes out of Little Rock schools. Th e
amendment has several provisions in
cluding one for recall elections ot
school board members. The governor
wouldn’t back up Pruden but said this
“might have been part of what we
talked, about.”
‘NOT A HATER’
Two Little Rock candidates for Con
gress commented on integration dur
ing the month. Rep. Brooks Hays is op
posed for re-election by Amis Guth
ridge, attorney for segregatiorus
groups. Hays, recalling his attempts
mediate the Little Rock crisis last f
and to work out a compromise between
President Eisenhower and Gov. Faubus.
said he wasn’t sorry he had tried.
“I am not a hater,” he went on. “If n 1 -
district wants a hater, I am not the mau
When the time comes to choose, I v °
the way my conscience tells me.
Guthridge was asked whether he
thought Little Rock people had ac
cepted integration as an accomphs e
fact. “I definitely do not think it has
been accomplished,” he answered,
think it has been a flat, dismal failure-
I think integration can be stopped, that
it will be stopped and that it has been
stopped. I mean here and all over the
(Continued On Next Page)