Newspaper Page Text
Factual
VOL. V, NO. I
Index to Volume IV With This Issue
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Objective
JULY, 1958
Three Major Cases Claim Area’s Attention
Coming...
ED BALL DON SHOEMAKER
SERS Executive Directors
... and Going
Ed Ball Will Succeed
Shoemaker At SERS
A FEDERAL COURT IN ARKANSAS ORDERED A 2%-YEAR DELAY OF INTEGRATION AT LlTTLE Rock’s BELEAGUERED
Central High School and a court in Tennessee let Nashville pace its desegregation program to a
record-slow 11 years, but in Florida immediate desegregation was ordered in graduate schools of the
state university and state officials indicated they would comply.
These were the major court actions in a month which saw a bustle of activity on several school segrega
tion-desegregation fronts.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma d.^closed that at least six m ore districts were quietly desegregated during the
year, bringing the number in that state to 222. With the Oklahoma figure the picture as schools closed
for the summer was:
Number of school districts in 17-state area—8,500 Number now desegregated—770
Number of bi-racial districts—2,889 Number segregated—2,129
■jn d Ball, veteran Associated
Press executive, will succeed
Don Shoemaker as executive di
rector of Southern Education Re
porting Service and editor of
Southern School News.
The announcement was made by
Frank Ahlgren, chairman of the board
of SERS and editor of the Memphis
Commercial Appeal.
Shoemaker resigned effective August
1 to accept appointment as editor of the
editorial page of the Miami Herald. He
joined SERS three years ago after serv
ing as editor of the Asheville (N.C.)
Citizen.
Ball is chief of bureau of the Asso
ciated Press in Tennessee, where he
moved in 1946 after three years as an
AP war correspondent in the European
Theater of Operations during World
War II. He is retiring from the Asso
ciated Press as of July 15 after more
than 31 years’ service.
AHLGREN STATEMENT
Announcing the selection of the suc
cessor to Shoemaker, Chairman Ahl
gren said:
“We were most fortunate in getting
a man of Ed Ball’s caliber to serve as
executive director. The selection was
made after a broad survey of southern
journalism to find a man with experi
ence in the field of objective and factual
reporting and a knowledge of the
region.
“We regret losing Shoemaker to the
Knight organization and the Miami
Herald. However, the board realizes
that this is a splendid professional op
portunity for him. We think we have
been singularly fortunate in the man
agement of SERS, dedicated as it is to
public service. This tradition will con
tinue under Ball.”
Ball, a native of Marion Junction,
Ala., and a graduate of Auburn, en
tered newspaper work as a staff mem
ber of the old Birmingham Age-Herald.
He worked in the Montgomery, Birm
ingham and Atlanta bureaus of the As
sociated Press before going to New
York in 1935 where he served on the
AP foreign news desk. He went over
seas in 1942.
Mr. and Mrs. Ball live at Brentwood,
Term., a suburb of Nashville. She is
the former Lucy Shivers of Eatonton,
Ga. Their daughter, Martha Cooper
Ball, enters junior high school in Sep
tember. Their son, Milner Shivers Ball,
a 1958 graduate of Princeton University,
will enter Harvard Divinity School this
fall. The Balls are members of the First
Presbyterian Church of Nashville.
Shoemaker was named editorial page
editor of the Miami paper June 12. In
announcing the appoint -lent, Executive
Editor Lee Hills said:
“Mr. Shoemaker will team up with
Associate Editor John D. Pennekamp
in the conduct of the editorial page and
formulation of day-to-day editorial
policy.
“We feel fortunate to be able to add
one of the South’s outstanding editors
to The Herald’s staff. This is another
step in our constant striving for a bet
ter newspaper and better service to the
public.”
BEGAN IN NORTH CAROLINA
Shoemaker began his newspaper ca
reer in Greensboro, N. C. as reporter
and telegraph editor of The Greensboro
Record after graduation from the Uni
versity of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
In 1937 he went to Asheville, N. C.
as telegraph editor of The Asheville
Times, later becoming associate editor
of The Asheville Citizen and editor in
1947.
In 1957 he planned and edited With
All Deliberate Speed, published by
Harper and Brothers and now in its
second printing. In 1950 he edited Henry
George: Citizen of the World, by Anna
George deMille, and in 1952 he wrote
Middle East Journey. He has been a
frequent contributor to magazines and
has appeared on numerous college plat
forms and on television and radio pro
grams.
As executive director of SERS he
launched a second publication, “Cur
rent Status of School Segregation-De-
se'relation,” which is widely used bv
educators and news media. He also
planned and edited the forthcoming
“Facts on Film,” a microfilm of the
more than 100,000 items in the SERS
library which is being sold to institu
tional libraries, newspapers and study
commissions.
Mrs. Shoemaker is the former Lyal
Reynolds of Chapel Hill and Greens
boro, N. C. The Shoemakers have one
daughter, Elizabeth, age 6. They will
move to Miami in late July.
Actually, 10 of the districts listed
among the 770 “now desegregated” have
no Negro pupils but have announced
desegregation policies.
On June 30 the U.S. Supreme Court
refused to rule on a direct appeal from
the Little Rock decision but said in a
brief unsigned order that it believed
the Eighth Circuit Court (to which
another appeal had been directed)
would see the “vital importance of the
time element in this litigation” and will
act on it “in ample time to permit ar
rangements” for the next school year.
While the Little Rock situation drew
most attention, court action elsewhere
had a bearing on the region-wide
status of segregation-desegregation.
• In Virginia, Norfolk and Newport
News were added to the list of districts
under court order to desegregate this
fall. Virginia has a state law which re
quires closing of desegregated schools,
and it was widely predicted that this
would be the “showdown state” in
September.
9 In Maryland, Harford County won
approval (by the U.S. Supreme Court)
of a “gradual” seven-year program for
desegregation which pel ’its entry of
Negroes into now all-white igh schools
through a screening process.
• In Florida, the action of a federal
court opening graduate schools to Ne
groes marked the end of the years-long
Virgil Hawkins case. However, Hawkins
has been adjudged not acceptable for
enrollment in the University of Florida
law school.
WIDE REPERCUSSIONS
The order suspending (or “rolling
back,” some said) desegregation at
Central High School had repercussions
through the region and in Washington.
There, President Eisenhower met a
delegation of four Negro leaders who
requested federal intervention in the
appeals taken from the Little Rock
ruling. Reportedly, he gave no commit
ments though a Justice Department
official indicated there might be fed
eral government participation in the
actions.
One state legislature was in session.
Louisiana’s General Assembly added
six new pro-segregation measures, in
cluding a pupil placement act and a
school-closing act, to a body of legisla
tion designed to forestall public school
desegregation. A legislative committee
also began questioning of college pro
fessors who signed a petition opposing
the new legislation, and this brought
protests from professional bodies and
others.
A summary of major developments
state-by-state during June follows:
Alabama
Atty. Gen. John Patterson, running
on his record as an opponent of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People and “Folsom-
ism,” was the second primary victor in
the Democratic gubernatorial election.
A Negro leader involved in the Birm
ingham school entry suit said he would
carry an attack on the state pupil
placement act to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Arkansas
Little Rock’s school board was
granted a 2%-year postponement of
integration at Central High School by
federal district court. Immediate ap
peals were taken by Negro plaintiffs to
the Eighth Circuit Court and the U.S.
Supreme Court. The latter by infer
ence referred it to the lower court.
Delaware
Faced with a court order to draft a
general desegregation plan for Dela
ware, the state Board of Education may
go to the U.S. Supreme Court for an
appeal. New Castle made arrangements
to complete desegregation of its school
system.
District of Columbia
President Eisenhower received a
delegation of Negro leaders who asked
for Justice Department intervention in
the Little Rock litigation over a delay
of desegregation. The President report
edly gave no commitments on this and
a proposed nine-point civil rights pro
gram.
Florida
The University of Florida was or
dered by federal court to open its
graduate schools to Negroes—an order
which, if implemented, would bring the
first desegregation at any public school
level in that state. Gov. LeRoy Collins
did not plan an appeal.
Georgia
Three candidates are in the race for
governor, all of them strongly advocat
ing maintenance of segregation, and
five qualified for the contest for lieu
tenant governor.
Kentucky
The state quietly completed its third
year of desegregation, which now in
volves more than 80 per cent of Negro
pupils. Two church colleges were or
dered desegregated in 1959.
Louisiana
The legislature ordered investigation
of pro-integration sentiment at nine
state colleges. Six new pro-segregation
measures were adopted by both houses
and sent to the governor for approval.
(Continued On Page 2)
# # #
Alabama II
Arkansas 7
De'aware 12
Dist. of Columbia . . 3
Horida 15
Georgia 2
INDEX
Kentucky 9
Louisiana 16
Maryland 5
Mississippi 13
Missouri 14
North Carolina ... 12
Oklahoma 7
South Carolina . . . 14
Tennessee 6
Texas 10
Virginia 4
West Virginia 10
Where -Are flou,?
And Who Was i Brown?’ Well . . .
Who is the “Brown” of Brown
v. Board of Education, the style
of the famous School Segregation
Cases of 1954, and where is he (or
she) now?
Southern School News assign
ed a Topeka, Kan., reporter to
the search for “Brown.” And the
person most immediately con
cerned, he found, is a girl, 15-
year-old Linda Carol Brown. She
will be among the record-large
class of 923 sophomores who en
ter Topeka High School this fall.
Brown v. Board of Education
was filed by Rev. Oliver Brown,
Linda’s father, on behalf of his
daughter, and by others. No oth
er plaintiffs are listed in the U.S.
Supreme Court proceedings, and
anyway the Topeka case is some
what confused by prior and sub
sequent events.
GRADUATED THIS SPRING
Linda was graduated this
spring, writes newsman Nelson
R. Ober of the Topeka Daily Cap
ital, from Curtis Junior High
School, earning A’s in algebra,
English, world geography and
orchestra and a B in home eco
nomics. Her year-end grades
have never been less than a B
through her school career.
Some schools were already de
segregated in Topeka when the
Supreme Court ruled in the
Brown case. For the most part
the issue was moot. Ironically,
LINDA CAROL BROWN
Case of Note
however, Linda would eventually
have attended an integrated
school anyway without her court
suit.
Linda began her school career
in Monroe Elementary School,
one of four schools then segre
gated for Negro students. She
was in the third grade there
when her father, Oliver Brown,
pastor of St. Mark’s African
Methodist Episcopal Church, and
others brought suit against the
Topeka Board of Education.
In the three years the case was
in the courts, Linda completed
the elementary grades, although
she transferred in 1953 to McKin
ley School, another segregated
building.
PLAN BEGAN IN 1953
Topeka’s step-by-step plan for
integration was begun in 1953,
following by two years the orig
inal filing of the suit, with the
formal resolution by the board of
education to “terminate the
maintenance of segregation in the
elementary grades as rapidly as
practicable.” For years Topeka
has had integrated junior and
senior high schools. In the fall of
1955, just after Linda completed
the sixth grade, the last five of
the city’s grade schools were in
tegrated.
Linda likes school. She is plan
ning to go on to college, although
just where has not been decided.
“With her father in the minis
try,” says her mother, Mrs. Leola
Brown, “we can’t be sure. We
might be moved.”
One of her majors in college,
she is sure, will be music, a fa
vorite school subject now.
So “Brown,” or the person who
loaned a name to the most cele
brated of modern-day legal ac
tions, is a girl.