Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER 1958—PAfafc n
ALABAMA
Schools Open Without Any Plans
For Changing Segregated Setup
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
s Alabama schools prepared
to open for the fall semester,
there were no reports of planned
integration attempts.
The only pending challenge is an
appeal from a three-judge U.S.
District Court’s decision of May 9
(see Southern School News,
June 1958) that Alabama’s pu
pil placement law is not unconsti
tutional “on its face” though it
may later prove unconstitutional
in application.
Negro petitioners, seeking to knock
out the law and thus open the way for
four Negro children to enter Birming
ham schools, have appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court. The high court is ex
pected to review the district court’s
ruling after convening in October (SSN,
August).
Thus Alabama public schools remain
segregated. The present governor and
the govemor-nominate, who takes of
fice in January, are pledged to maintain
separate facilities at all costs (See “What
They Say.”)
OTHER PROBLEMS
But if they faced no immediate inte
gration crisis, Alabama educators and
legislators had other serious problems.
Because of declining revenues from
taxes earmarked for education, all state
school money has been prorated so that
all county systems in the state have
immediate, pressing financial problems.
A special education study commission,
instituted to determine Alabama’s pres
ent and future needs, met in August
and was told state schools must have
millions more now just to keep from
slipping back. (See “Under Survey.”)
Estimated enrollment for the 1958-59
school year is 765,000 of which 482,000
are white; 283,000, Negro.
Alabama has three choices in facing
up to its mounting school finance prob
lems, the chairman of the Alabama Ed
ucation Commission told commission
members in mid-August:
“1) Stay where we are.
“2) Find additional revenue and go
forward.
“3) Do nothing and go backward.”
The third choice, according to the
chairman, State Rep. Joe Dawkins, is
responsible for the current plight of
Alabama schools.
“In my personal opinion,” Dawkins
said, “we’ve got to have more money to
stay where we are, because we’ve got a
$10 million deficit now.”
He referred to the current 10 per
cent proration of state school funds,
necessitated by unpredicted drops in
revenue from major school taxes.
$340 MILLION NEEDED
But beyond the stop-gap needs, the
commission saw far greater financial
requirements for the future. Hayes
Tucker of Tuscaloosa, former state sen
ator and former state finance director,
told the study group the state needs
$340 million “to meet the staggering
school building needs through 1960.”
So great will be the construction de
mands in the next two years, Tucker
said, “there’s no use to go through esti
mates for a decade.” (The commission
was established by the legislature to de
termine school needs and ways to meet
them for the next 10 years.)
However, Tucker conceded, the capi-
REP. JOE DAWKINS
Heads Education Study
tal outlay indicated is far greater than
the ability or willingness of taxpayers to
pay. But Tucker, chairman of the sub
committee on school buildings and capi
tal outlay, insisted the state must accept
the fact that more money must be forth
coming.
COLLEGE PROBLEMS, TOO
Not only the public schools but the
state supported colleges as well face
monumental problems, Tucker said. In
fact, the enrollment increases will hit
institutions of higher learning harder.
In the next 10 years, Tucker estimated,
public school enrollment will increase
five per cent. But in the same period
college enrollment is expected to jump
88 per cent.
Tucker reminded commission mem
bers that there are 1,081 public schools
in the state with no sewerage facilities;
183 with no lights; 194 with no water;
and 430 with no central heating.
The commission is made up of busi
nessmen, legislators, labor representa
tives and professional men. Preliminary
reports from three of the six subcom
mittees were the subject of the mid-
August meeting. Final reports are to be
drafted this fall for submission to the
1959 Legislature.
WHERE’S MONEY?
As yet there have been no recom
mendations advanced as to where to
get the additional money. And this, of
course, is the heart of the matter. But
from the preliminary subcommittee
findings, the commission got a glimpse
of the problem. For instance:
1) If the state is to attract and hold
the teachers it needs, a minimum salary
of $3,600 must be offered teachers hold
ing a bachelors degree, $4,100 for
teachers with their masters. This com
pares, according to the subcommittee on
personnel, to current averages of $3,360
for AB teachers and $3,660 for MA
teachers.
2) Of a total of about 500 secondary
schools in Alabama, only about 100 are
accredited by the Southern Association
of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
3) Some 10 per cent of students tak
ing general science are being taught by
teachers with no training in the field.
Only 4,395 Alabama boys and girls are
taking advantage of a “very limited
physics program under the direction of
teachers, many of whom, have had lit
tle or no specialized preparation.” Only
29 per cent of these physics teachers
have college training in the field
amounting to a major or a minor.
4) In mathematics, more than 25 per
cent of the teachers teaching 22 per cent
of the state’s pupils have no mathe
matics training beyond high school. Only
33 per cent reported having training
equal to a college major or minor.
5) The average age of all teachers in
Alabama continues to rise, indicating a
shortage of young people entering the
profession.
NEGRO INCREASE NOTED
6) Negro enrollment is expected to
increase faster than white enrollment
in years ahead. At present white en
rollment is 11 per cent over the 1940-41
level; Negro enrollment is up eight per
cent. But by 1970-71, Negro enrollment
will have leaped 18 per cent above the
1940-41 base while white enrollment will
have gained only one percentage point,
to 12 per cent.
7) Although the birth rate continues
at a high level, some of the most acute
school problems will be created by the
shifts in population from rural to urban
areas.
The NAACP went back into Mont
gomery County Circuit Court Aug. 20
to ask Judge Walter B. Jones to grant
a hearing on the merits of a complaint
which has barred the organization from
operating in Alabama since June 1956.
It was then that Judge Jones issued
a temporary restraining order, still in
effect, banning the Alabama NAACP.
He subsequently fined the organization
$100,000 for contempt for refusing the
court’s order to produce membership
lists and other records. NAACP attor
neys explained that to have done so
would have subjected members to har
assment and perhaps violence.
The NAACP appealed the fine to the
state supreme court and finally to the
U.S. Supreme Court. The high court
nullified the fine June 30, holding that
the order for producing membership
lists “must be regarded as entailing a
substantial restraint upon the exercise
by petitioners ... of their right of
freedom of association.”
PURGE OF CONTEMPT
However the court did not dissolve
the temporary injunction because the
case had never been heard on its mer
its. Judge Jones had denied such a hear
ing until the organization had purged
itself of contempt.
The Supreme Court’s decision pre
sumably did that, but Atty. Gen. John
Patterson, the govemor-nominate and
the man who instigated the original
action against the NAACP, argued in
court Aug. 20 that the Supreme Court’s
decision had not been officially received
by the Montgomery court.
‘This Pace Is Killing Me’
Until it is, Patterson’s assistant told
the court, the NAACP motion for a
hearing on the merits and a hearing on
dissolution of the temporary injunction
is “premature.”
Jones took the motion under advise
ment.
SECOND CASE PENDING
Meanwhile another Patterson action
against Negro organizations is pending
before the state supreme court. This is
directed at the Alabama Coordinating
Association for Registration and Voting,
which Patterson says is the “alter ego”
of NAACP and is thus operating in con
tempt of the 1956 injunction.
Attorneys for the organization chal
lenged Judge Jones’ impartiality (SSN,
July and August) because of campaign
statements he made while running for
renomination in the May primary. Judge
Jones refused to recuse himself, and
the association’s attorneys appealed to
the state supreme court, where the case
is still pending.
INCIDENTAL ISSUE
School segregation came up inciden
tally in an action brought by a group of
Eufaula Negroes against the Eufaula
Housing Authority and the city.
The plaintiffs complained that under
a project financed by the Federal Urban
Renewal Administration, 72 Negroes will
be removed from an area where homes
would be built under a “tacit agree
ment,” that they would be sold to whites
only.
The 10 plaintiffs are property owners
in the section of Eufaula which is to
be cleared as a blighted area. In addi
tion to new homes, plans call for space
for a city park and recreational area
and school facilities if deemed neces
sary.
Refusing to issue an injunction against
the project, U.S. District Judge Frank
M. Johnson Jr. of Montgomery ruled:
‘RECOGNIZE THE LAW’
“The court assumes the defendants,
their agents and successors in office will,
upon completion of the project, recog
nize the law . . . the law being to the
effect that there can be no government-
ally enforced segregation solely because
of color.”
There was no “presently existing jus
ticiable controversy” before the court,
Tennessee
(Continued From Page 10)
plaintiffs have served notice they w
oppose the motion.
Federal Judge Robert L. Taylor w
urged to throw out the case becau
it was not amended to include tl
names of three school board membe
who have taken office since the si
was filed.
Both sides were given until Sept,
to file briefs relating to the motion.
Judge Taylor customarily hoi
hearings on such motions in contr
versial cases, and it was consideri
possible that this might bring about an
early decision on the desegregation is-
S R 6 w *^ ou t a trial. This occurred in
the Clinton desegregation proceedings
which ended with Negroes being ad
mitted to the high school there.
The court has granted two delays in
trying the case, which was filed in
January 1957 by 12 Negro parents and
their children.
John Kasper was among a crowd of
150, mostly Negroes, ordered by police
to leave Clark Memorial Methodist
Church near Fisk University while
they and firemen searched for explo
sives reported set to blast the building.
It proved a false alarm.
The forum meeting had been called
by the leaders of several groups to dis
cuss the local school situation. City
School Supt. W. H. Oliver was present
on invitation to explain the court-ap
proved setup. Presiding was Vivian
Henderson, economics professor at Fisk.
A speaker was Anna Holden, a white
research associate at Fisk and chair
man of the Nashville Committee on Ra
cial Equality.
Kasper and several other persons had
entered the church while Oliver was
speaking. He told newsmen: “I just
came over to hear what they had to say
and to see what was going on.”
CHURCH VACATED
Police stationed near the church re
ceived a radio message that both police
and fire headquarters had received tel
ephone calls in which an unidentified
voice said the church would be “blown
up” at 4:30 p.m. The same message was
received by newspaper switchboards at
4:25 pjn.
A detective lieutenant walked rapidly
down the church aisle and whispered
to Oliver and Henderson. The latter
then announced:
“The meeting temporarily is suspend
ed. I have been requested to ask all of
you to file from the building—one group
to the back and others out the side
door, please.”
At 4:29, the building was empty. Po
lice opened windows first. Then they
and firemen searched almost a half-
hour for the explosive while the crowd
stood outside. Then the meeting was al
lowed to resume, but in another part
of the building.
John Kasper, in and out of Nashville
while awaiting trial in criminal court
Nov. 3 on a state charge of inciting to
riot, made this reply when asked if he
intended to lead resistance to Nashville
school integration again this year:
“The federal courts are running the
schools.”
Memphis Police Commissioner Claude
Armour said Kasper had been warned
he would be unwelcome in Memphis
and would be arrested when police
found him there. He had been told that
Kasper was considering making Mem
phis headquarters for his new political
party.
Armour’s statement brought this re
tort from Kasper: “My visit to Mem
phis comes under the constitutional
right of unrestricted travel, which is a
basic right of every American. There
is no power to restrict this.”
Kasper said students at Memphis
State University had asked him to come
there. He declared that admission of
Negroes to MSU would bring “more
violence than there was at the Univer
sity of Alabama in the Autherine Lucy
case.”
Gov. Frank Clement said school
opening violence in Tennessee this
year was “possible,” but added that he
expected none.
“However,” he told interviewers in
Toledo, Ohio, “should the same thing
occur as did in 1956, I am fully pre
pared to see that law and order pre
vail ... I just hope we have no fur
ther difficulties along the same line.”
He referred to the Clinton desegrega
tion disorders.
Clement also said, “I am convinced
and have been for some time that the
people of Tennessee, both whites and
Negroes, want segregated schools.”
The Memphis city commission was
scheduled to discuss action soon on a
petition filed by a Negro organization
requesting integration of all facilities in
Judge Johnson said, because if there
were the court would have to assume
that:
“. . . the redeveloping plan will be
executed, that the school board will ac
quire land and construct a school and
that qualified Negroes will seek admis
sion and be denied solely because they
are Negroes; and that they will apply
for housing and if eligible be discrimi
nated against.”
All this Judge Johnson refused to as
sume, dismissing the complaint.
TUSKEGEE CASE
Time ran out in late July for Atty.
Gen. Patterson to appeal Circuit Judge
Will O. Walton’s refusal to grant a per
manent injunction against the Tuskegee
Civic Association.
The Civic Association had been tem
porarily enjoined, at Patterson’s request,
from directing the boycott of Tuskegee
merchants. The boycott followed en
actment of a bill last summer gerry
mandering almost all of Tuskegee’s Ne
gro voters outside the city.
In a separate action, 12 Tuskegee Ne
groes have filed suit in the U.S. District
Court in Montgomery challenging the
constitutionality of the gerrymander
law. The suit asks for injunctions re
straining city and county officials from
enforcing the act. The petitioners con
tend they have been denied such mu
nicipal services as street improvements,
policemen at school zones, etc., in addi
tion to the right to vote.
Atty. Gen. John Patterson, who won
the Democratic nomination for governor
in June partly on the strength of his
opposition to integration, reaffirmed his
position during August.
Although pointing to Alabama’s law
to close public schools in event of ra
cial strife, Patterson said:
“I don’t think this is quite strong
enough. You now can’t close the schools
without giving one week’s notice. We
need a law like Virginia’s, which I
think is very good and which provides
that schools be automatically closed, in
case federal troops are sent in ... You
can’t operate schools with federal
troops occupying them.”
Patterson said he would have such a
bill drafted for presentation to the Leg
islature next May.
He also urged strengthening laws for
combating the NAACP and other “agi
tators.”
FOLSON LAUDS FAUBUS
Gov. James E. Folsom praised the re
nomination of Gov. Faubus of Arkansas
as a blow to “bureaucracy in Washing
ton.” The election proved, Folsom said,
that “Washington cannot take the mili
tary authority away from the states.. .
And above all it proves the old theory
that those powers not granted to the
federal government are reserved to the
states, which means we will settle our
differences in our own neighborhoods.”
MacDonald Gallion, who resigned as
Atty. Gen. Patterson’s top assistant to
run, successfully, for attorney general
himself, said he considered his nomina
tion a “public mandate to carry on an
all-out fight to maintain segregation.”
“That is uppermost in the minds of
the people,” said the 45-year-old Mont
gomery lawyer, “and I intend to con
centrate on that above everything else.
I plan to develop within my depart
ment a staff to concentrate on those
problems and devote the majority of
their time to them.” # # #
the city, with emphasis on tax sup
ported facilities.
Meantime, a pending federal court
suit seeks to integrate the city’s public
libraries. An unsuccessful effort was
made previously to desegregate public
transit vehicles.
Local 246 of the American Federa
tion of Teachers at Chattanooga was
ousted from the union at its conven
tion in Milwaukee Aug. 26 for failure
to integrate with Negro teachers. The
action came on a voice vote following
three hours of debate.
The union in 1956 notified segregated
locals to integrate by Dec. 31, 1957, cr
face loss of charters. At that time, five
southern locals withdrew from the na
tional organization.
Willard Millsaps, chairman of Local
246’s legislative committee, said “we
have never refused an applicant be
cause he or she was a Negro.” Sup
porters of the Chattanooga group de
clared it had removed a section from
its local constitution which provided
for discrimination.
But the convention adopted the
charge that Chattanooga union mem
bers were discriminating racially, and
a New York delegate, Rebecca C. Sim-
minson, said “we stand unalterably be
hind the Supreme Court decision for
integration.”
# # #