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PAGE 6—SEPTEMBER 1958—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
VIRGINIA
Norfolk Board
(Continued From Page 1)
would hear appeals from any rejected
Negroes who had taken the tests and
interviews.
Also on the same day Justices Willis
D. Miller and Harold F. Snead of the
Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals is
sued a temporary injunction restrain
ing Norfolk authorities from making
any school assignments. (Coley v.
Brewbaker.)
The injunction, effective until Oct.
15, was obtained by segregationists
who feared the Norfolk board might
assign some Negroes to white schools.
The petitioners, Mr. and Mrs. Cole
man H. Coley, contended that, under
Virginia law, only the State Pupil
Placement Board is empowered to
make school assignments. The case was
carried to the State Supreme Court
after Judge Clyde H. Jacob of Norfolk
Circuit Court had declined to grant
the injunction, saying he could not take
such action until the board actually
enrolled or assigned children to schools.
53 ASK DIRECT ORDER
Thirty of the Negroes denied ad
mission to white schools by the Nor
folk board asked District Judge Hoff
man on Aug. 19 to direct the board to
admit them to the schools to which they
applied. Twenty-three more of the chil
dren joined the request later, bringing
the total to 53. In the court the next day
the board cited the possibility of racial
strife as its principal reason for turn
ing down 24 of the children.
In a further hearing on Aug. 22, Judge
Hoffman said he would permit the Nor
folk board to continue operating seg
regated public schools if the U.S. Su
preme Court approved a two and one-
half-year cooling off period in Little
Rock. “If the United States Supreme
Court overrules the Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals, you come back here
and I’ll end all your troubles,” the
judge told City Attorney Leonard H.
Davis.
By Aug. 25 the case, for all practi
cal purposes, had been narrowed down
to 16 Negro children who had been
denied admission to white schools
solely because of their race.
RECONSIDERATION ORDERED
Referring specifically to these, Judge
Hoffman told the board it could not
refuse to admit a Negro to a white
school on the ground the child’s pres
ence might lead to violence, nor could
it deny a Negro admission because the
child would be “isolated” among white
children. The judge told the board to
reconsider all the Negroes’ applications
and to report back to him four days
later, Aug. 29.
Thus during that four-day period the
board found itself caught between (1)
a directive from a federal court vir
tually ordering it to admit some Ne
groes to white schools, and (2) a State
Supreme Court injunction prohibiting
it from assigning any pupils to schools.
APPLICATIONS CALLED UP
On Aug. 27 the Pupil Placement
Board sent telegrams to the Norfolk
and Charlottesville school boards sug
gesting that those local bodies turn the
Negroes’ applications over to the state
body. The telegram, signed by G. F.
Poteet, executive secretary, said, in
part, “The Pupil Placement Board can
not see how the furnishing of such in
formation could possibly be construed
as contempt of any court . . .”
Disregarding the state board’s tele
gram, the Norfolk board went back
into district court Aug. 29 and told
Judge Hoffman it had decided to en
roll 17 of the Negro applicants in three
high and three junior high schools
formerly attended only by whites.
These were children whose applications
originally had been rejected solely on
the basis of race. (Earlier in the month
the board had said there were 16 chil
dren in this category, but re-examina-
tion of records disclosed one additional
child in this group.)
The schools affected and the number
of Negroes assigned were: Northside
Junior High, 1; Norview Junior High,
6; Blair Junior High, 2; Norview High,
6; Granby High, 1; Maury High, 1.
These six schools last year had a
combined enrollment of just under
11,000.
Announcement of the Negro assign
ments was followed by another delay
ing opening of Norfolk’s schools until
Sept. 22.
Norfolk has 36 white schools and 20
Negro schools. Last year there were
32,163 white pupils and 15,171 Negro
pupils enrolled. Estimated school ex
penditures for the year will be $6,600,-
Assigns
000 in local money, $2,439,000 in state
funds, and $1,240,000 from the federal
government.
Arlington—Thirty Negroes applied to
enter six white Arlington County
schools. Included are five (of the origi
nal seven) who last year won a court
order directing they be admitted to
specific white schools.
Unlike Norfolk and Charlottesville,
Arlington County has not adopted a
local assignment plan, so the Arlington
board announced Aug. 8 it had for
warded the school records of the Ne
gro applicants to the state Pupil Place
ment Board in Richmond. It also for
warded the records of two white chil
dren who had applied for admission
to Negro schools in what segregation
ists explained was a “tit for tat” move
to force the closing of two Negro
schools.
ALL APPLICATIONS REJECTED
After a representative of the Pupil
Placement Board had interviewed the
applicants, the board rejected all the
applications.
On Aug. 26 the Arlington school
board filed papers in Federal District
Court asking for guidance from Judge
The Sword of Damoeles
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
Albert V. Bryan, who issued the orig
inal desegregation order against Arling
ton July 31, 1956. (Thompson v. Coun
ty School Board of Arlington.)
One member of the board, James G.
Stockard, said he favored petitioning
Gov. Almond to reopen any county
school closed for more than a few days
by integration. (Under Virginia law,
the governor may, but is not required
to, turn back to a locality any school
closed by integration. Any such school
could then be operated by the locality
on an integrated basis, but no state
funds would be available.)
$11.5 MILLION BUDGET
Arlington schools last year had an
enrollment of 22,975 whites and 1,555
Negroes. Of the $11,536,000 school
budget, about $1,673,000 comes from the
state.
Arlington schools open on Sept. 4. In
preparation for entering formerly all-
white schools on that day, the Negro
applicants held five “human relations”
workshops, Among the speakers was
Josephine O. Boyd, the only student of
her race enrolled in the Greensboro
Senior High School, Greensboro, N. C.
She advised the Arlington children to
strive to love their neighbors regardless
of the neighbors’ behavior, and to “keep
smiling.”
Charlottesville — In Charlottesville,
where schools open Sept. 15, all 34
Negro children seeking admission to
white schools boycotted tests and in
terviews originally set for late July
under the city’s pupil assignment plan.
(See SSN, August.)
They asked U.S. District Judge John
Paul at Harrisonburg to invalidate the
entire pupil assignment plan. (Judge
Paul on Aug. 6, 1956 issued the original
desegregation order for Charlottesville
in the case Allen v. Charlottesville
School Board.)
GOOD FAITH ASSUMED
Judge Paul refused to invalidate the
plan. Instead, on Aug. 11 he said the
children must take the tests and inter
views. He said he could not assume
that the board was acting in bad faith.
He added if the board failed to act
in good faith, he would “end up sup
planting the school board and assign
ing the children.”
As to another part of the plan—the
new geographical district for the Ne
gro Jefferson Elementary School—
Judge Paul said he was inclined to dis
regard that district because “it appears
to be gerrymandered.” All of the Ne
gro applicants live within that district,
but 12 of the 34 were seeking admis
sion to the white Lane High School,
and the district lines would not apply
in their cases anyway.
On Aug. 20 two white fathers, Weir
E. Wharton and Lynwood G. Preddy,
petitioned the Charlottesville Corpora
tion Court to enjoin the Charlottesville
school board from making any pupil
assignments. This move was similar to
the one made in Norfolk, the purpose
being to keep control of assignments
in the hands of the State Pupil Place
ment Board.
Eight days later, Judge George M.
Coles issued the injunction, effective
until Oct. 15. This put the Charlottes
ville board, like the board in Norfolk,
in a squeeze between conflicting federal
and state court orders.
Judge George M. Coles granted the
injunction on Aug. 28.
TEST RESULTS ASKED
On Aug. 26 Judge Paul declined to
approve in its entirety the school dis
tricting plan adopted by the Char
lottesville board. He also said he would
ask to see the results of the tests and
interviews given the Negro pupils.
During the hearing, which had been
requested by the board in an effort to
get a definite ruling on the validity of
the districting plan, parents of several
Negro elementary pupils testified their
homes are closer to white schools than
to the present Negro Jefferson school,
although the district lines would re
quire the children to attend the latter.
On the other side, Dr. Ralph W.
Cherry, dean of the School of Educa
tion of the University of Virginia,
which is located in Charlottesville, tes
tified he considered the district lines
acceptable.
On Aug. 28 the school board post
poned the opening date of Charlottes
ville schools from the originally sched
uled Sept. 2 to Sept. 15. It was believed
the U. S. Supreme Court’s ruling in
the Little Rock case would be made
by the later date.
There were 3,529 whites and 1,096
Negroes in Charlottesville schools last
year.
Newport News—District Judge Wal
ter Hoffman’s original desegregation
order against Norfolk also applied to
Newport News, since the two cases had
been considered as one. (The Newport
News case is Adkins v. School Board
of the City of Newport News.)
NEW LEGAL ISSUE
On July 1, 1958, however, Newport
News consolidated with the city of
Warwick, with the new city being
called Newport News. Attorneys for the
city contend the original desegregation
order does not apply to the new city,
but the point has not been settled in
court.
Meanwhile, the state Pupil Place
ment Board Aug. 27 denied the appli
cations of eight Negroes to transfer to
white schools in Newport News.
Negroes also have applied for ad
mission to white schools in Richmond,
Alexandria and Warren County, and in
each case the applications were sub
mitted by the local boards to the state
Pupil Placement Board where they
were rejected. Six applied to attend
two white schools in Richmond; 14 to
enter four white schools in Alexandria;
and 30 to attend two white schools in
Warren County.
The lawyers for 26 of the Warren
County applicants then filed suit in the
federal district court at Harrisonburg
asking Judge Paul to enjoin the school
board from denying the Negroes en
rollment because of race.
Subsequently, attorneys in Richmond
filed suit seeking admission of the six
Negro children to white schools there.
This made a total of seven such suits
pending in Virginia.
MORE TIME GIVEN
In Prince Edward county there was
a different story. On Aug. 4 Federal
District Judge Sterling Hutcheson at
Richmond gave Prince Edward a seven-
year breathing spell in which to get
ready for school integration. (See ex
cerpts of the opinion elsewhere on this
page.)
Regardless of what happens in this
case on appeal, Judge Hutcheson’s or
der eliminated Prince Edward from the
list of Virginia localities where a show
down over the school crisis might come
this September.
The Prince Edward case (Allen v.
School Board of Prince Edward Coun-
PATRICIA GODBOLT
Among Norfolk Pupils Admitted
ty) was one of the five cases involved
in the U.S. Supreme Court’s original
desegregation decision of May 17, 1954.
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of
the NAACP, said in New York: “The
NAACP regards the seven-year delay
‘Contrary Do
17 Negro Pupils Placed In Schools
Following is a portion of the Norfolk school board’s Aug-
29 statement admitting 17 Negroes to the city’s formerly all-
white schools in the case of Leola Pearl Beckett, etc., et als
v. the School board of the City of Norfolk, U. S. District
Court or the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division:
... 1) Contrary to what all of the members of the school
board and the division superintendent of schools honestly
and sincerely believe is in the best interests of the applying
children, the children in the affected schools and the public
in general, but pursuant to the law as interpreted by the
court and the duties required of the defendants under the
injunctive order dated Feb. 26, 1957, as the school board un
derstands the court’s interpretation and application of the
same, the . . . children who objected to the action of the
school board on Aug. 18, 1958, denying their applications,
will be assigned to and enrolled in the grades and schools
set opposite their names for the school year 1958-’59. . . .
2) The application of the children who failed to take the
tests or to submit to the personal interviews are denied.
This action is taken in accordance with the school board’s
understanding of the court’s remarks contained in the last
complete paragraph on page 5 of the mimeographed copy
thereof. . . .
3) The applications of the children who, or whose parents
or guardians, did not file in this court by Wednesday, Aug.
27, 1958, at 10 am., appropriate objections to the action of
the school board on Aug. 18, 1958, denying their applications
are denied. This action is taken in accordance with the
school board’s understanding of the court’s remarks con
tained in the last paragraph on page 9 of the mimeographed
copy thereof. . . .
4) The application of the objecting child who resides in a
home nearer to the previously all-Negro school attended by
him during the prior school year is denied. This action is
taken in accordance with the school board’s understanding
of the court’s remarks contained in the first paragraph on
page 10 of the mimeographed copy thereof. . . .
5) The applications of the objecting children whose scho-
latsic achievements and abilities do not justify the transfers
and enrollments sought by said children are denied. This
action is taken in accordance with the school board’s under
standing of the court’s remarks contained in the first para
graph on page 13 of the mimeographed copy thereof. . . .
6) The applications of the objecting children who seek to
attend Norview Elementary School this school year (1958-
59) but who, if they do, will be transferred to the Rosemont
Elementary School as of the beginning of the next school
year (1599-60), and who thus will be too frequently trans
ferred are denied.
ordered by the federal court as far too
great and will exhaust every means to
secure earlier compliance by Prince
Edward County.”
NAACP LAW ATTACKED
In another legal development the
NAACP Aug. 18 filed suit in Federal
District Court challenging the consti
tutionality of a law enacted by the 1958
Virginia General Assembly requiring
organizations promoting racial litiga
tion to disclose membership lists.
The law, Chapter 373 of the Acts of
1958, created a seven-man legislative
committee known as the Committee on
Offenses Against the Administration of
Justice to investigate enforcement of
laws relating to promotion of litiga
tion by persons not parties to the suits.
The NAACP contends its constitu
tional rights are being violated in that
the legislative committee is authorized
by the law to subpoena the NAACP’s
records.
THREATENS SUPPORT'
“The statute,” the NAACP charges,
“threatens to deter financial support
for and membership of plaintiff or
ganization and thus destroy the effec
tiveness of the plaintiff in accomplish
ing its aims and objectives.”
Meanwhile, transcripts of testimony
given during investigation of the
NAACP by two earlier legislative com
mittees in 1956 and 1957 were turned
over last month to the Virginia State
Bar.
Ethics committees of the bar will ex
amine the documents to determine if
there is evidence justifying disciplinary
action against NAACP attorneys who
have been engaged in desegregation
suits. The transcripts have not been
made public.
There apparently will be no confer
ence—not at the present, anyway—-be
tween President Eisenhower and Vir
ginia’s Gov. Almond on the school seg
regation issue.
In July, Republican Rep. Joel T.
Broyhill of Virginia’s Tenth District,
which includes Arlington county, said
he had made some tentative inquiries
of friends at the White House concern
ing a possible meeting of the President
and the governor on the school prob
lem.
In a press conference last month, the
governor indicated he was cool to the
idea, saying “I do not invite any further
comment from Mr. Broyhill or anyone
else on that subject.”
•REASONABLE AMERICAN’
Later, reporters who presumably had
not heard of the governor’s comment,
asked the President at a press confer
ence if he would meet with Gov. Al
mond. President Eisenhower replied
that he considered the governor “a rea
sonable American” and that “if he
would like to talk to me, I would like
to talk to him.”
Informed of the President’s remarks,
Gov. Almond said only: “It was my
privilege to know President Eisenhower
when he was chief of staff, and I was
a member of the old Military Affairs
Committee of the 79th Congress. I hold
the President in high respect.”
A few days later Rep. Broyhill said
he agreed with a statement made by
the governor that the school problem
“is exclusively a state matter and state
responsibility” and he would make no
further inquiries looking toward any
conference between the two executives.
COUNCILS ORGANIZE
The Commonwealth of Virginia As
sociation of Citizens’ Councils was
formed at a meeting in Richmond Aug.
9.
The new organization is made up of
councils in the Arlington, Brunswick,
Lunenburg, Mecklenburg and Fairfax
county areas and from the Peninsula
section of eastern Virginia.
Manning Gasch of Fairfax was
elected president. Edmund A. Gibson,
president of the Arlington council, said
the new statewide group has no con
nection with John Kasper or with white
Citizens’ Councils in other states. He
said the main purpose of the associa
tion is to strengthen the local councils
in their fight to preserve states’ rights.
RIOT SQUAD READY
A 42-man Richmond police riot squad
has completed basic training begun last
April. Chief O. D. Garton says the
squad, which includes several Negroes,
will be ready “for any unusual situa
tions.” Some officials here say privately
that uncertainty over the school situa-
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