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VOL. 5 NO. 7
NASHVI1LE, TENNESSEE
$2 PER YEAR JANUARY 1959
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Some Top Events of 1958
‘Segregated’
How Long?
—The Nashville Tennessean
Careful Boy! That’s Parole,
Not Freedom
—Memphis Commercial Appeal
—Reprinted in the Montgomery Advertiser —Atlanta Journal
. . This Is Going to Be a
Tough' Row to Hoe’
—Arkansas Gazette
‘Federal Civil Rights Agents,
Pa’
OFFICIALS S'
i
pTj
r
i
—Baltimore Evening Sun
School Crisis Litigation
In Upturn At Year’s Start
T he battle over segregation-
desegregation in the South
entered the new year with legal
maneuvering at a high point and
with prospects of the pace pick
ing up sharply in 1959.
The thorny question of civil
rights edged to the forefront to
share the spotlight with the school
crisis as the 86th U.S. Congress
got ready for its opening session.
In Virginia, where public
schools stayed shut in three com
munities, the state administration
laid groundwork for a new pro
gram if its present “massive re
sistance” is knocked out.
Arkansas, with schools closed also
in its capital city of Little Rock, expe
rienced a period of comparative quiet in
the closing days of December.
Negroes who directed the bus boycott
in Montgomery announced on New
Year’s Eve they would direct a concen
trated attack early in 1959 on school
segregation in that Deep South capital
of Alabama.
Elsewhere, new decisions came from
federal courts in Florida and Louisiana.
The total number of school districts
which have begun or completed the
desegregation process remained at 796,
as it has for the past two months. This
left more than 2,000 bi-racial districts
still segregated.
Other developments by states:
Alabama
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. an
nounced in Montgomery plans for a
move, early in 1959, against the segre
gation barriers at schools in that city.
Arkansas
A special House committee in Wash
ington voted 5 to 0 that the election of
segregationist Dr. Dale Alford over
Rep. Brooks Hays should be investi
gated. The same committee voted 3 to 2
that Alford not be seated until comple
tion of the investigation.
Delaware
The State Board of Education failed
to reach agreement on a general de
segregation plan, ordered by a federal
court.
District of Columbia
A bi-partisan group of senators
urged the Eisenhower administration to
seek funds and other assistance for re
opening schools closed by segregation
disputes.
Florida
Gov. LeRoy Collins, after a secret ses
sion with school leaders, issued a state
ment that no county in Florida is ready
Tops Two Lists
Segregation-desegregation de
velopments accounted for one of
the world’s top 10 news stories
in 1958.
The continuing racial issue was
voted first place by United Press
International editors and eighth
place by Associated Press editors
in the annual polls of the two
news services.
Both AP and UPI agreed on
eight of the 10: segregation-de
segregation, the Middle East Cri
sis, missiles race and entry into
space, November elections, Death
of Pope Pius and election of a new
Pope, Adams-Goldfine case, Chi
cago school fire and Recession-
Recovery.
AP’s other top stories included
Nautilus under the North Pole
and death of Fourth French Re
public—DeGaulle’s victory. UPI’s
other two were the Stompanato
Case and China-Quemoy.
for desegregation. A federal judge ruled
in a long pending case that six Negro
children are not entitled, “at this time,”
to an order admitting them to a white
school.
Georgia
Support appeared to be increasing
in Atlanta—but not elsewhere in Geor
gia—for a local option decision on
whether public schools would be closed
or desegregated.
Kentucky
Attendance in public schools climbed
to an all-time high total of 541,154.
Louisiana
After a nine-year battle racial segre
gation was ended in New Orleans
City Park by U. S. Supreme Court de
cree.
Maryland
Enrollment data compiled by the state
Department of Education showed the
state had an increase of 92,956 white
and 33,168 Negro pupils in five years.
Mississippi
The state ended 1956 with segregation
complete at all levels but at mounting
cost in a school equalization program
aimed at thwarting integration.
Missouri
An educator’s report said achievement
levels had been raised in a group of
Negroes through emphasis on incentives.
North Carolina
Because bomb hoaxes had reached
epidemic proportions, Gov. Luther H.
Hodges said the Legislature will be
asked for stiff penalties for the perpe
tration of such hoaxes.
Oklahoma
Reviewing his four-year term, Gov.
Raymond Gary called peaceful deseg
regation of public schools a major ac
complishment of his administration.
South Carolina
A Charleston newspaper suggested
early consideration of a plan for private
schools to be established by individuals
through private rather than public ac
tion.
Tennessee
With Nashville’s school system the
only one in the state undergoing de
segregation, considerable more litigation
over the issue appeared in prospect for
1959.
Texas
A new survey showed little addi
tional desegregation in 1958, with 3,250
Negroes attending classes with 265,000
white students in the 125 districts
which are integrated.
Virginia
Rulings from both federal and state
courts were anticipated in January on
the constitutionality of the state’s
“massive resistance” laws.
West Virginia
Bomb scares but no explosions swept
the state as hoaxers harassed one com
munity after another.
Alabama 6
Arkansas 14
Delaware 12
Dist. of Columbia . 8
Florida 7
Georgia 5
INDEX
Kentucky 4
Louisiana 10
Maryland 16
Mississippi 13
Missouri 12
North Carolina .... 15
Oklahoma II
South Carolina . ... 10
Tennessee 7
Texas 3
Virginia 9
West Virginia 15
Segregation-Desegregation No Nearer Solution At Year’s End
r p H E crisis over school segregation-de-
segregation remained far from a solu-
*°n after 12 months of headline-making
^velopments, including the first school
c osings, in 1958. Here is a year-end re-
view compiled from reports by Southern
c Hool News correspondents.
tee in a surprising upset in the May and June pri
maries.
3) The U.S. Supreme Court June 30 nullified a
$100,000 contempt fine against the Alabama
NAACP. The fine had been imposed by Mont
gomery Circuit Judge Walter B. Jones after the
NAACP refused to submit its membership records
to the court.
Sept. 15 by order of Gov. Orval Faubus to keep
Central High from being desegregated. The Little
Rock Private School Corp. was chartered Sept. 17
and began operating a private school for white
pupils.
2) For the first time extreme segregationists
dominated all elections in the state except the
the trouble there in 1955 ran for the board and was
defeated.
3) In a special session starting Aug. 26, the Gen
eral Assembly adopted 17 new laws, all designed
to preserve segregation or linked to that purpose.
One (Act 4) gives the governor power to close any
public school for a variety of reasons and at his
discretion.
Alabama
lA ^6e state’s 1955 Pupil Placement Law was
j u not unconstitutional “on its face” by a three-
U-S. District Court panel in Birmingham
y 9 and by the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 24
a v . Cla ^ reac ti° n to the validation was that it was
fici f° r segregation. But privately some of-
*iee S Conce ^ e< ^ that token integration might be
t ut - essar y to avoid the law’s being ruled unconsti-
py, to application. No official, however, has
pled lcl y endorsed even token integration. All are
§ e d to total resistance.
^ le segregation issue dominated the Ala-
democratic primary. Atty. Gen. John Pat-
lt, e Pointing to his record of legal action against
w as yACP and other Negro groups in the state,
governor. States’ Righters captured
10 the state Democratic Executive Commit
4) Atty. Gen.-elect MacDonald Gallion an
nounced in October an “Alabama Education En
dowment Foundation” had been formed as a stand
by measure in case schools are closed because of
integration rulings.
5) The Commission on Civil Rights held its first
public hearings in Montgomery Dec. 8-9 to investi
gate charges that Negroes had been denied the
right to vote in Macon, Dallas, Wilcox, Bullock,
Barbour and Lowndes counties. Circuit Judge
George Wallace refused to answer the Com
mission’s subpoena and faced a contempt ruling
as did five registration officials from the affected
counties. Negroes appearing at the two-day hearing
told of delay and frustration in their efforts to be
registered.
Arkansas
1) The four Little Rock high schools were closed
school board elections in December. Gov. Orval
Faubus swamped two opponents in the July 29 pri
mary and Jim Johnson Crossett, segregationist
leader, defeated a veteran member of the Arkansas
Supreme Court.
In a special election Sept. 27, Little Rock School
District residents voted 19,470 to 7,561 against
school integration. Dr. Dale Alford, outspoken
segregationist member of the Little Rock school
board, ran as a write-in candidate in the general
election against Congressman Brooks Hays, a mod
erate on the racial question, and defeated him.
In the school elections Dec. 6: At Little Rock,
three of five candidates called “integrationist” by
Faubus were elected and three on the Citizens
Council slate were elected. At Van Buren, the
president of the new Citizens Council ran for the
school board but lost. At Hoxie, a candidate sup
ported by the segregationists in the forefront of
4) Desegregation cannot be postponed because
of popular and demonstrated opposition to it, the
Eighth Circuit Appeals Court and the U.S. Su
preme Court ruled in overthrowing a two and one-
half year delay in integration as requested by the
Little Rock school board. The appeals court ruled
Aug. 18 and the U.S. Supreme Court Sept. 29
against the delay granted June 20 by Judge Harry
J. Lemley.
Rxiling Nov. 10 that the Little Rock School Dis
trict could not lease its public high schools, while
closed, to a private school, the appeals court said
desegregation at Little Rock must proceed, partly
on orders the school board would receive from the
district judge and partly on the board’s own
initiative.
5) Little Rock Central High School, completing
a year of desegregation under federal troop guard,
graduated one Negro and 601 whites May 27. After
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