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PAGE 14—JULY 1958—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MISSOURI-
Faculties Desegregated
In Larger Communities
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
he U. S. Supreme Court rul
ing on school segregation-de-
segregation was discussed from
opposing points of view in a de
bate held during the midwest
regional meeting of the American
Bar Association here June 12.
(See “Legal Action.”)
Extent of faculty integration in
Missouri was illuminated by an
interview with a Negro teacher.
(See “School Boards and School
men.”)
A new state agency, the Missouri
Commission on Human Rights, held an
organizational meeting in St. Louis.
(See “Community Action.”)
The Bar Association debate was on
the question: “Whether the Appellate
Power of the Supreme Court Should
be Limited or More Expressly De
clared.” The immediate question was
the attitude that ought to be taken to
ward the Jenner-Butler proposal for
congressional action to curb the court’s
appellate powers.
Charles J. Bloch of Macon, Ga., for
mer president of the Georgia Bar As
sociation, argued in the affirmative and
said the legislation should have the
wholehearted support of American
lawyers. Speaking in the negative, Jef
ferson B. Fordham, dean of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania School of Law,
said the proposal was “so bad that it
does not merit more than momentary
attention.”
It was recognized by both speakers
that the cases which brought the Su
preme Court under fire in the Jenner-
Butler bill were decisions involving
loyalty or security, and most of the de
bate dealt with such matters as the
Watkins case, which involved a witness
charged with contempt of Congress for
refusal to answer when asked whether
certain persons had been members of
the Communist Party.
DISCUSS SCHOOL CASE
However, the integration decision
came in for its share of attention.
Bloch, who took the view that Con
gress has the authority to limit the
court’s appellate power under the Con
stitution, said the segregation cases of
fered a “glaring, striking example of
judicial legislation.”
“If there had been pending before a
state legislature a bill forbidding the
segregation of children in the public
schools of the state on account of their
race or color, the opinion would be an
argument for an affirmative vote on the
bill. The opinion is simply a statement
of reasons why a legislative body ought
not to enact a segregation statute.”
Quoting pertinent excerpts from the
court ruling Bloch said they would
make fine arguments on the pros and
cons of pending segregation legislation,
but were not statements of law. He re
called that 45 years previously the
court had been asked to set aside an
ordinance of the city of San Francisco
on the basis of “opinions of scientific
men.” The court refused to do so, and,
speaking through Justice Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, said:
“Traditions and habits of the com
munity count for more than logic in
determining constitutionality of laws
enacted for the public welfare under
the police power.”
FORDHAM’S ARGUMENT
Dean Fordham said the Constitution
of the United States is a political in
strument, and its interpretation is nec
essarily, in a sense, a political process.
“Philosophically,” he told the Bar
Association meeting, “the ‘curb the
court’ attitude is cut from the same
cloth as the Bricker amendment attack
upon the treaty nower [ of the President]
and the Reed-Dirksen attack upon the
taxing power of Congress. In each in
stance the philosophy is negative and,
carried to an extreme, could be utterly
nihilistic. It has depressed me beyond
words that this kind of self-defeating
point of view is as widely embraced as
it is in a land of free men who should
have faith in their institutions and
should be dedicated to a positive ap
proach to the resolution of human
problems.”
Fordham said that if the court’s most
criticized decisions were reviewed, an
alysis would show that nearly all were
concerned with the relationship of the
‘Go Slow, Child. That’s What
They Said 80 Year Ago.’
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
individual with government. He praised
the court for its sensitivity to human
values, adding:
“We hear endless talk about states’
rights and national security without
even a passing apology for the way
state authority has been exercised de
liberately to deny equal treatment un
der the law to Negro citizens. I will
mention one example. The continuing
efforts of southern legislatrues to dis
franchise Negro citizens is a mockery
which shames me as a native of that
region. . . .
CITES AMENDMENT
“It is not significant here that the
14th amendment fails to refer specifiic-
ally to public education. A broad safe
guard of human rights is not the sort
of thing that would be so drafted as to
refer explicitly to this or that area of
governmental jurisdiction. What the
14th amendment does, among other
things, is to make it the law of the
land that the states, as members of the
national union, bear an enforceable
responsibility to live by the rule of law
in dealing with persons under their
jurisdiction.”
Faculty integration has proceeded on
a time-scale paralleling integration of
student populations in Missouri’s larger
cities, but in many localities of smaller
size this has not been true. The con
sequence has been loss of teaching jobs
by Negroes when schools were inte
grated. In some instances, Negro
teachers were able to place themselves
in nearby communities which still had
segregated or semi-segregated schools.
Some Negro teachers have moved out
of the state; others have moved to Mis
souri’s larger cities to find employment.
There are no official data on the
number of Negro school teachers in
Missouri who have been dislocated—
temporarily at least—by the integration
process, but a highly-qualified Negro
teacher who recently came into the St.
Louis system from central Missouri
estimated the total at between 100 and
200.
The teacher, who discussed the situa
tion with Southern School News but
asked that her name not be used,
joined the St. Louis public schools last
September after passing the required
examination. She now teaches kinder
garten in an elementary school which
has about 600 children, nearly all Ne
groes. Her salary in St. Louis is almost
double what she was paid in the small
central Missouri town (pop. 3,000)
which released her when schools were
integrated three years ago.
TAKE COURSES
Not only is her salary much higher
in St. Louis, but she has been able to
take courses in education at Harris
Teachers College tuition free, and she
is teaching only one grade compared
with four in the small town. She be
lieves things have turned out better for
her because of integration, and that
integration will provide greater oppor
tunities for Negroes generally.
Miss X, as the teacher may be called,
has unusual background and experi
ence. She was born on a central Mis
souri farm. Her father got only as far
as the eighth grade in school, but was
well read. Her mother was a teacher.
The family had newspapers and books,
and sent four children, including Miss
X, to Lincoln University High School
in Jefferson City.
“Grandmother was a slave and died
when she was 101 years old,” Miss X
recalled. “When freedom came, she
went to school to learn to read and
write.”
STUDIED CHEMISTRY
For Miss X, continuing high school
meant leaving her farm home and liv
ing in a dormitory after she was 13
years old. She attended the Lincoln
University High School for three years
and went on to Lincoln University,
then all-Negro. She took her AB de
gree in chemistry, summa cum laude,
in 1933. After that she taught for two
years in the rural school her father had
attended. Then she taught 23 years in
the small central Missouri town.
The school was all-Negro, ranging
from 30 to 100 students. She taught all
grades, from first to tenth, at various
times, and served as instructor in
music for the school. There was one
other teacher, a University of Iowa
master of arts. When the elementary
schools were integrated, both received
notices their services were no longer
required.
Miss X did not teach the first year
after her release. The next year she
went to a nearby town which still had
segregated elementary schools. In this
town, two Negro teachers had lost their
jobs when high schools were integrated
in 1956. Miss X taught a year and had
been asked to return at an increase in
salary when she moved to St. Louis.
HEADED NAACP
During 10 years of her career in mid-
Missouri, she was president of the local
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People. She obtained
a considerable knowledge of conditions
in her part of the state. Most Negro
teachers she knew who lost out because
of integration found other teaching
jobs, she told SSN, but the lack of
teacher integration in central Missouri
is discouraging to Negroes who plan to
become teachers.
Miss X is one of 21 teachers at the
St. Louis elementary school where she
now is working with kindergarten
children. All the faculty are Negro. In
her opinion, one of the major problems
facing the urban system is the “tre
mendous job of taking care of the chil
dren of families coming up from the
South.”
She said it was difficult to tell, in
some instances of poor progress,
whether children were retarded or were
victims of poor environment. She dis
cussed the rather comprehensive tests
that are given at kindergarten level,
and the corrective measures that are
taken.
“Get rid of lazy lips, we call it,” she
said. “The kindergarten, first and sec
ond grades mean so much. If they don’t
get a good foundation, they are crip
pled from then on.”
The Missouri Commission on Human
Rights held its organizational meeting
June 6 at St. Louis University. It is
sued a “statement of general philos
ophy” based on the Universal Declara
tion of Human Rights adopted by the
United Nations.
Under terms of a Missouri law en
acted last year, the new state agency
has the task of receiving and investi
gating complaints of racial or ethnic
discrimination, recommending means
of eliminating injustices, and otherwise
discouraging discrimination. It has no
enforcement powers and no authority
to subpoena witnesses.
The Rev. Trafford Maher, S.J., of St.
Louis University, chairman of the 11-
member commission, made it clear that
the agency intends to work within the
scope of the present law while working
for a strengthening of the commission’s
powers in some areas. He stated the
commission’s concept of civil rights:
‘GUARANTEED BY LAW’
“The commission interprets civil
rights as referring to those rights and
privileges which are guaranteed by law
to each individual regardless of his
membership in any ethnic group.
“The right to work, to education, to
housing, to the use of public accommo
dations, of health and welfare services
and facilities, and the right to live in
peace and dignity without discrimina
tion, segregation or distinction based
on race, color, ancestry, national origin
or place of birth.”
Gregory E. Shinert has been ap
pointed executive director of the
agency. Shinert, 32 years old, is a
graduate of Catholic University in
Washington, D.C. He has completed
work for the degree of master of edu
cation in human relations at St. Louis
University.
# # #
SOUTH CAROLINA-
Question Of
COLUMBIA, S. C.
HE SEGREGATION QUESTION Was
caught up in politics as
South Carolinians nominated a
new governor and other state offi
cers in Democratic primary elec
tions held during June. The pres
ent lieutenant governor, E. F.
Hollings, was nominated for gov
ernor. Like all other candidates
for governor and other state offi
cers, he is a supporter of con
tinued racial segregation. (See
“Political Activity”)
The state Board of Education restored
teacher-training approval to Allen Uni
versity, a Negro college at Columbia
which had been under fire from Gov.
George Bell Timmerman Jr. (See “In
the Colleges.”)
South Carolina Democrats nominated
an outspoken segregationist, Lt. Gov. E.
F. Hollings of Charleston, as their new
governor. A hotly contested Democratic
primary ended June 24 in a run-off be
tween Hollings and Donald S. Russell,
Spartanburg lawyer and financier and
former president of the University of
South Carolina. A third candidate, May
or William C. Johnston of Anderson,
was eliminated in the first primary June
10.
Democratic nomination in South Car
olina virtually assures the nominee of
election in the November general elec
tion.
Segregation was not an issue in the
campaign except as to which of the
candidates stood most firmly against in
tegration. During the two weeks be
tween the first and second primaries,
Hollings and Russell each said that he
was better able to maintain segregation,
E. F. HOLLINGS
Up a Rung to Governor
and each implied that his opponent was
receiving Negro support in certain areas.
Hollings, who had the support of a
large percentage of incumbent legisla
tors (a factor which Russell sought to
make into an issue), won in the run-off
by a 45,000 vote margin.
OTHERS FOR SEGREGATION
Strong segregation stands also were
taken by the other Democratic office-
seekers who won nomination in the
June primaries for state office. They are
Rep. Burnet R. Maybank, for lieutenant
governor (he is son of the late U. S.
senator); Col. Frank D. Pinckney, for
adjutant general; Daniel R. McLeod, for
attorney general; Jesse T. Anderson, for
superintendent of education (re-nom
inated); and William L. Harrelson, in
cumbent, for commissioner of agricul
ture. (Segregation figured less in the
agriculture race than in the others.)
Several Negro spokesmen said that
the stand of the various candidates on
segregation tended to neutralize one as
against the other, leaving the choice
among candidates to be determined on
other bases. E. D. Tumage, executive
secretary of the Palmetto State Voters
Association (Negro), said that Negroes
realized that no one could be elected to
state office unless he took a stand
against integration and that Negroes
held little antipathy to the candidates
on that score.
Negroes registered in appreciable
Segregation
numbers (about 11 per cent of the total)
and there was little report of any effort
to prevent them from either registering
or voting. They attended a number of
the joint campaign meetings, without
incident, and sought office in a number
of local contests.
NO NEGROES WIN
None of the four Negroes seeking
nomination to the state legislature was
elected, but there was said to be ap
preciable and peaceable participation
of Negroes in the political proceedings.
One such candidate, John H. Wrighten,
Charleston attorney, wrote a letter to
the editor of The News and Courier
expressing gratitude at the respectful
hearing accorded him at a well-attended
county campaign meeting in Charles
ton. He trailed the ticket but received
3,055 votes. In Richland County, the
three Negro candidates for the House
of Representatives also trailed the tick
et, but received between 3,000 and 4,200
votes each.
The principal speaker at a Ku Klux
Klan meeting in the Greenville-Spar-
tanburg area said that white men who
did not vote in the forthcoming Dem
ocratic primaries were joining the en
emies of the southern way of life. Sev
eral hundred persons attended the rally,
in which some 50 robed and hooded
Klansmen took part.
A self-styled Klan leader of Green
ville, James Bagwell, said after the first
primary that the KKK was supporting
Hollings for governor, but such support
was promptly disavowed by Hollings,
who termed it “a political trick.” A sim
ilar disavowal came from George
Tinker, leader of a pro-segregation
group known as the Association of
Southern Red Shirts. Bagwell had
linked the Red Shirts with the Klan in
his statement, and Tinker declared
there was no connection and that the
Red Shirts were not linked with any
organization in political activity.
Federal Judge Harry J. Lemley’s or
der suspending integration at Little
Rock Central High School drew favor
able reaction from South Carolinians in
official position. Atty. T. C. Callison said
he was glad to see the ruling, adding:
“It will serve the useful purpose of
giving the people a chance to get their
feet on the ground and see just what
may be ahead of them. Then they can
make the decisions that are up to the
people who pay for and operate the
schools.”
U. S. Sen. Olin D. Johnston urged
President Eisenhower to shun “the in
temperate advice of hotheads” and avoid
any action to nullify Judge Lemley’s
order. Said Sen. Johnston: “No child, no
matter what his or her race or color, is
to be deprived of decent schooling un
der decent conditions. . . . This is the
meaning of Judge Lemley’s ruling. He
is dealing with a living problem. His
recognition of all the factors counseled
his persuasive and remedial ruling.”
U. S. Sen. Strom Thurmond reiterated
his belief that the Little Rock school
matter was not one for the federal
courts to handle but added this com
ment: “The contrast between Judge Da
vies’ [integration] and Judge Lemley’s
[delaying] decisions and actions empha
sizes the necessity for adhering to the
law requiring that locally-resident
judges be appointed to vacancies on the
federal courts. It further illustrates the
fallacy of allowing non-resident judges
to sit in judgment on cases where local
questions arise.”
A seven-months-old case involving
the dynamiting of a Cherokee County
home was being heard during the clos
ing days of June by Magistrate I. B.
Kendrick of Gaffney. The four white
defendants are charged with having
blasted the home of Dr. and Mrs. J. H.
Sanders on Nov. 19, 1957, a few weeks
after publication of a booklet in which
Mrs. Sanders had suggested beginning
integration of South Carolina schools
at the first grade level.
The issue before Magistrate Kendrick
is whether the defendants should be
bound over for trial at the court of
general sessions. He indicated on June
28 that it might be several days before
he reaches a decision.
South Carolina’s special Segregation
Committee held a mid-June meeting to
(Continued On Next Page)
Figures In 2nd Primary