Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—JANUARY 1959—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
86th Congress Faced With Segregation
And Other Civil Rights Controversies
WASHINGTON, D.C.
T he spotlight was on civil
rights and school desegrega
tion as members of the 86th Con
gress prepared to open their first
session. A group of 16 senators,
including 10 Democrats and six
Republicans, urged the Eisen
hower Administration to seek
funds and other assistance for re
opening schools closed by segre
gation disputes. A southern sen
ator said he would introduce a
bill to bring about an equal dis
tribution of white and Negro
races throughout the United
States. (See “National Affairs.”)
The Democratic Advisory Council,
made up of top non-congressional
Democrats, presented its own “State of
the Union” message and called for
legislative action to “aid, assist and en
courage the earliest possible reopening
of schools now closed” and to prevent
further closings. The Democratic Na
tional Committee voted 84 to 19 to com
mend National Chairman Paul Butler
and his “forthright utterances on civil
rights.”
President Eisenhower termed “repre
hensible” and “sad” Alabama officials’
defiance of the Civil Rights Commis
sion’s investigation of voting rights.
Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers warned
the South of the “economic implica
tions” of “community tensions result
ing from racial prejudice.” Arthur S.
Flemming, secretary of the Department
of Health, Education and Welfare, de
scribed school closings in Virginia and
Arkansas as “a tragic circumstance.”
Aided by Washington residents, 22
Negro children involved in a Warren
County, Va., desegregation dispute en
rolled in the desegregated schools of
the District of Columbia. School offi
cials said they were receiving some
inquiries about transfers from parents
of white Virginia pupils. (See “District
Schools.”).
On the eve of the convening of the
86th Congress, there was speculation
that legislation in the civil rights and
desegregation field would take these
lines:
• To amend Senate rule 22 and curb
the power of the filibuster by permit
ting two-thirds of those present and
voting, rather than two-thirds of the
entire membership, to limit debate.
• To enable the federal government
to help local school systems which want
to reopen their schools but face a loss
of state school funds if they do so.
• To renew the life of the Civil
Rights Commission and give the Justice
Department the power to act where
voting rights have been denied.
CIVIL RIGHTS MEASURE
On Dec. 11, Sen. Paul H. Douglas
(D-Ill.), speaking for 10 Senate Demo
crats and six Republicans, urged ad
ministration support for a $40 million-
a-year civil rights measure.
In letters to Atty. Gen. Rogers and
Health, Education and Welfare Secre
tary Flemming Douglas outlined a pro
gram of financial grants, technical as
sistance and other federal help in pre
paring school desegregation plans.
He said some of the money could
be used by local school systems to re
place funds withdrawn by states when
desegregation takes place.
Douglas’s program also would author
ize the attorney general and other fed
eral officials to help individuals or or
ganizations bring court action to force
compliance with the Supreme Court’s
desegregation decision.
‘DELIBERATE COMPLIANCE’
The senator said his proposals “can
help to shift the focus of the national
debate from massive defiance to de
liberate compliance, from federal-state
conflict to federal-state cooperation,
from constitutional violations and pun
ishment to constructive and orderly as
sistance.”
Ten days later in a television inter
view Douglas called for federal action
to “liberate” people in the South who
are afraid to speak up for Negro rights.
He said there was “a great body of
liberal opinion in the South which
wants a happier situation” with regard
to race relations.
In a Dec. 12 address to a National
Students Association meeting in Schen
ectady, N. Y., Sen.-elect Kenneth B.
Keating (R-N.Y.) urged the nation’s
students to speak out against school
segregation.
SOLIDARITY SOUGHT
“A unified student rejection of school
discrimination would leave no doubt of
the inevitable results,” he said. “Your
voice will be heard and heeded
throughout the land.”
Keating urged young people to ex
plain to their elders that “there is prac
tically no student who would rather be
deprived of an education than share his
classroom with a child whose skin is
another color.”
He blamed school closings in Virginia
and Arkansas on “unscrupulous persons
willing to play politics with the wel
fare of our youth,” and added:
“A plague of Faubusism has afflicted
large areas of the South. Its germs are
ignorance and intolerance.”
PREDICTS ACTION
After a conference with President
Eisenhower on Dec. 12, Sen. Clifford P.
Case (R-N.J.) predicted the adminis
tration will ask Congress to pass new
legislation dealing with racial integra
tion.
Case described the President as
“deeply in sympathy with efforts the
Department of Justice is making to
come up with something.”
In a letter sent to fellow senators on
Dec. 13, Sens. John F. Kennedy (D-
Mass.) and Sam J. Ervin (D-N.C.)
asked for support of a bill to make
the bombing of schools, places of wor
ship, businesses and community cen
ters a Federal criminal offense.
The measure would allow the Fed
eral Bureau of Investigation to step
in immediately when a bombing oc
curs. It provides for a maximum fine
of $1,000 and a maximum jail sentence
of one year for illegal transfer and
use of explosives, and for the death
penalty when a bombing results in the
loss of life.
DEMOCRATS PARLEY
After a controversial session describ
ed by one reporter as “an old-fashioned
party-splitting hoedown,” the Demo
cratic National Committee voted 84 to
19 on Dec. 6 to endorse National Chair
man Paul Butler and his uncompro
mising civil rights stand.
The committee defeated efforts of
southern members to sidetrack a reso
lution which vigorously commended
Butler’s “forthright utterances on civil
rights, and the determination by the
Democratic Party that the Constitution
... as interpreted by the Supreme
Court shall be enforced and made
effective.”
CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES
The committee took a total of four
roll calls on various phases of the civil
rights issue. First it voted 91 to 15 to
turn down an effort by the Louisiana
State Democratic Committee to remove
National Committeema n Camille
Gravel, a civil rights moderate, and re
place him with Jett Talbot, an advocate
of segregation.
Next the committee voted 72 to 29
against an effort to send the Butler
civil rights resolution to the Resolu
tions Committee. This motion was
offered by Claude Carpenter, former
administrative assistant to Arkansas
Gov. Orval Faubus and campaign man
ager for Dale Alford, who was elected
to Congress from Arkansas last No
vember in a controversial sticker
“write-in” campaign.
“PEACE” PLAN REJECTED
By vote of 79 to 27 the committee
rejected an attempt by Louisiana Com
mitteeman Gravel “to keep peace” in
the party by eliminating the reference
to civil rights from the Butler commen
dation.
On the final 84 to 19 vote endorsing
Butler, Gravel voted with the majority
but said he did not agree with the
national chairman’s view that a
“stronger” civil rights stand is called
for in 1960.
Thomas H. Pope, South Carolina
state Democratic chairman, appealed to
the committee: “Don’t thrust this down
our throat. Don’t try to make us walk
the last mile.” He accused Butler of
“virtually inviting the South to walk
out of the Democratic Party.”
CHANDLER SPEAKS OUT
Similar comments came from other
southern members. Gov. A. B. (Happy)
Chandler of Kentucky described the
resolution as “ill-timed,” and added:
“What you are doing here is forcing
down a crown of thorns on the South.
‘Might As Well Start Things
Off With A Bang’
—Washington Post and Times-Herald
You may say that you can get along
without the South, but goodness don’t
do it. Don’t break this party to pieces.”
Democratic leaders moved even far
ther in their civil rights stand on the
day following the national committee
meeting, when the Democratic Advis
ory Council issued its own “State of
the Union” message.
FILIBUSTER CHANGES
The council, composed mostly of
non-congressional figures such as form
er President Harry S. Truman and
former presidential candidate Steven
son, defined its position on all national
issues. It called for revision of the
Senate filibuster limits and of House
rules, and took this stand on civil
rights:
“Appropriate congressional action
appears to be necessary to make the
deliberations and investigations of the
Civil Rights Commission meaningful.
“The attorney general of the United
States should be authorized to start
civil injunction suits against those who
deprive persons of their rights to equal
protection of the laws on account of
race, color, religion or national origin.
CLOSED SCHOOLS CHALLENGE ..
“There is an obligation to meet the
challenge of closed schools and poten
tially uneducated children as a result
of the defiance of the law of the land
by a few state and local officials. The
present crisis over the refusals of local
officials to comply with the orders and
decrees of federal courts has not been
met by firm and constructive leader
ship from the President or his sub
ordinates. It is to be hoped that such
legislative action will be taken as will
aid, assist and encourage the earliest
possible reopening of schools now
closed, and will prevent the closing of
other schools.
“Federal legislation is needed to out
law the use of the mails for the dis
tribution of literature designed to in
flame racial and religious prejudices for
the purpose of inciting violence such as
that which has led to the recent wave
of bombings and violence.”
COOL TO COUNCIL
House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-
Tex.) and Sen. Lyndon Johnson were
cool to the Democratic Advisory Coun
cil’s advice. In an interview, Rayburn
said:
“The members of the House are glad
to have recommendations from any
source particularly interested in legis
lation. But after we meet in January,
the program must be developed by the
House. In the long run, the member
ship of the House, working with its
leadership, will have to figure out the
real program.”
EISENHOWER COMMENTS
At his Dec. 10 press conference,
President Eisenhower commented on
the refusal of Alabama officials to co
operate with the Civil Rights Commis
sion’s investigation of Negroes’ voting
rights.
“This is a rather sad sort of thing,”
the President said, “because all the
way around we are running into this
refusal of complying with the basic
laws of the land, laws that have been
upheld by our courts.”
He added that defiance is “repre
hensible” because “it means, as I see
it, showing the American public that
any member of it can at his or their
pleasure defy the laws of the land
when popular opinion in the particular
section or locality may support these
people.”
On Dec. 1, HEW Secretary Flemming
urged citizens of four communities in
Virginia and Arkansas to insist that
their closed public schools be reopened
“in harmony with decisions of the Su
preme Court.”
Flemming told a news conference
that “no one can foresee all the sig
nificant social, economic and psycho
logical effects — on the children, on
teachers, on the community — of clos
ing the doors of public schools to our
young people.”
Citing statistical data of the South
ern Education Reporting Service,
Flemming outlined the educational
losses sustained by 16,400 students af
fected in the four communities. He con
cluded:
“I am confident that as the losses
flowing from the closing of public
schools become more and more evident,
the citizens of these communities are
going to insist on decisions being made
that will result in the schools being
opened, under policies that will be in
harmony with decisions of the courts.”
SEES ECONOMIC LOSS
In a speech delivered in New York
City Dec. 7, Atty. Gen. Rogers warned
the South that “community tensions re
sulting from racial prejudice are not
without their economic implications.”
He added:
“Private enterprise, in making new
investments, will necessarily take into
account the climate of local opinion
and the public facilities that will be
available to personnel.
“By the same token, the government,
in determining the location of new or
expanded facilities, will have to give
consideration to the availability of pub
lic schools and other public conveni
ences as a matter of fairness and justice
to its personnel who will be on duty
there.”
CLINTON GETS FUNDS
On Dec. 5 the federal government
allocated $45,510 to help rebuild the
Clinton, Tenn., high school wrecked by
a dynamite blast two months ago. Offi
cials of the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare said the money
would be drawn from a fund set up to
help communities which must expand
school facilities because of increased
federal activities in their area.
Clinton students now are attending
an abandoned school at Oak Ridge
made available by the government.
NAVY HELPS PUPILS
The Navy announced Dec. 12 that
federal funds will be used to help
finance the schooling of Navy children
locked out of closed schools in Nor
folk, Va. The money will come from
funds originally scheduled to be paid
to the Norfolk school board under the
program of education aid to federally-
impacted areas.
The Navy said the money would be
paid instead to communities near Nor
folk which accept Navy children in their
schools. The federal subsidy amounts
to about $100 per child.
ATTACK ON SUPREME COURT
The Supreme Court came under fire
Dec. 11 from the American Farm Bu
reau Federation. At its Boston conven
tion the farm organization accused the
court of invading the legislative field
and called on Congress to put the
tribunal back in its place. A resolution
declared:
“We are deeply concerned with re
spect to the tendency of the U. S. Su
preme Court to override state laws
and to enact legislation by judicial
action.”
On the same day Sen. Jacob K. Javits
(R-N.Y.) said he would introduce a
constitutional amendment formalizing
the Supreme Court’s authority to pass
the constitutionality of state and fed
eral laws.
JUSTICES DEFEND COURT
While Supreme Court Justice Felix
Frankfurter recuperated in a hospital
from a mild heart attack, other justices
spoke out in the court’s defense.
Justice John M. Harlan told a group
of New York lawyers that much of
the criticism heaped on the court was
“irresponsible abuse.” He said some
discussions of court opinions were
“thoughtful and worthwhile,” but too
many reflected “the heat and excesses
of political campaigns.”
Chief Justice Earl Warren told a
West Coast audience the federal gov
ernment only becomes involved in
state matters “when the states them
selves have failed to meet the needs
of the peoeple.”
Justice William O. Douglas, speaking
at a Columbia University Law School
centennial in New York, said “courts
as an institution are too deeply fixed
in our society to take a back seat.”
He added:
“Some federal referee is necessary
if states, which often have had paro
chial views, are not to distort the con
stitutional scheme.”
AH but four of the 26 Negro pupils
involved in the Warren County, Va.,
desegregation case are enrolling in the
desegregated schools of the District of
Columbia, the Front Royal Educational
Fund Committee announced here Dec.
10.
The committee, composed of Wash
ington residents, is trying to raise $10,-
000 to pay non-resident tuitions and
other expenses for the pupils through
this school year.
District school officials said the Negro
students were given aptitude tests and
enrolled at the same grade levels they
would have been attending if their
schools were open. They were as
signed to two senior high schools and
five junior highs. Non-resident tuitions
are $352 a year for high school stu
dents and $317 a year for junior high
students.
Parents of the Negro students said
they decided on the move after efforts
to employ qualified tutors in Warren
County failed because of “extremely
tense race relations, intimidation,
threats and reprisals.”
The white Warren County High
School was shut down by Virginia law
on Sept. 15 after a federal district judge
ordered the school board to admit the
Negro pupils. The county has no Negro
high school. The 1,044 white students
are now attending private classes
sponsored by the Warren County
Educational Fund.
ARLINGTON’S SITUATION
School officials reported they were
receiving an increasing number of
transfer inquiries from parents of stu
dents at Stratford Junior High School
in Arlington, Va. The school is under
court order to admit four Negro pupils
early this year, and faces closing under
Virginia law.
School Superintendent Hansen told
the District Board of Education Dec. 17
that solicitation of contributions from
Washington pupils to help rebuild the
bombed-out Clinton high school would
not be permitted.
Hansen endorsed the “Bricks for
Clinton Fund,” but said solicitation of
school children would set a precedent
and embarrass those unable to con
tribute. He declared the fund campaign
could “lead to exploitation.” Board
members debated Hansen’s recommen
dation and decided to take the issue
up again at their January meeting.
COLLEGE CLEARED
District Teachers College reported
Dec. 5 that the Middle States Associa
tion of Colleges and Secondary Schools
has lifted its threat to the college’s ac
creditation.
A letter from the accrediting group
said the college’s good standing would
be maintained so long as it possesses
“educational integrity, professional
competence and stability as evidenced
by the sustaining support of its con
stituency.”
The Association notified the college
last May accreditation would be with
drawn unless substantial improve
ments were made in the school’s ad
ministration and program.
Since then the Board of Education
has moved to give the college a de
gree of fiscal and administrative au
tonomy, ordered it to consider revi
sions in its program and raising of en
trance requirements, and approved
plans to expand it into a general lib
eral arts school.
The Association said it would re
quire continued progress reports from
the college.
CHALLENGES REPORT
The District’s report showing con
tinued high rates of venereal disease
and illegitimate pregnancy among ju
veniles was criticized by Superintend
ent Hansen Dec. 17 for implying tha
immoral behavior among youth 13
school-connected.
Such behavior, Hansen said, is roo
ed in morally deficient home environ
ments and should be related to the so
cial and economic status of the su