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VOL 5, NO. 8
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FEBRUARY, 1959
Schools Re-open As Massive Resistance Falls
New Plan Given
Quick Action
After Ruling
RICHMOND, Va.
S even Virginia public schools
opened on an integrated basis
Feb. 2, two weeks after “massive
resistance” had collapsed in state
and federal courts.
Six of the schools, located in
Norfolk, had been shut down
since September under Virginia’s
school-closing law which the
courts declared unconstitutional
on Jan. 19.
The seventh school—Stratford Junior
High in Arlington County—opened in
tegrated after Chief Justice Earl War
ren of the U. S. Supreme Court on Jan.
31 turned down the county’s last-
minute plea for a delay in enrolling
four Negroes in the school of 1,076
students.
The 21 Negro pupils—17 in Norfolk,
plus the four in Arlington—entered
their respective schools without inci
dent. Police kept crowds from gath
ering.
In Arlington, a plea issued earlier by
the Defenders of State Sovereignty and
Individual Liberties that white stu
dents boycott the integrated schools
apparently failed. School officials said
the day’s 74 absentees were even less
than the normal number. One white
girl left the school after classes had
begun when she learned a Negro girl
had been assigned to her gym class.
Two other girls left later, saying their
parents would not let them attend
classes with Negroes.
In Norfolk, enrollment in some of
the integrated schools was reported
less than had been anticipated.
NEW LEGISLATION
Accepting the inevitable of integra
tion, the Virginia General Assembly on
Jan. 31 completed action on a program
proposed by Gov. J. Lindsay Almond
designed to lessen the impact of de
segregation and to prevent any child
being forced to attend a racially mixed
school if his parents object.
The legislators earmarked a $3 mil
lion fund out of which tuition grants—
not to exceed $250 per child—will be
paid to children whose parents request
it. Purpose of this is to make it pos
sible for such children to attend pri
vate schools.
The assembly also repealed the com
pulsory school attendance law and
adopted a statute making it a felony
for any person over 14 to threaten to
bomb any public or private building.
CHARLOTTESVILLE SEGREGATED
In contrast to the opening of inte
grated schools in Norfolk and Arling
ton, Charlottesville’s Lane High and
Venable Elementary Schools, closed
since September under Virginia’s now-
defunct no-integration laws, planned to
re-open Feb. 4 on a segregated basis.
This was made possible by Chief
Judge Simon E. Sobeloff of the U. S.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, who
granted a stay of a district court de
segregation order. The two schools are
expected to continue on a segregated
basis throughout the remainder of the
current school year.
These developments left only one
Virginia school closed—Warren County
High. Attorneys for 22 Negro children
ordered admitted to the school asked
the school board on Jan. 29 to re-open
the facility on an integrated basis. The
board planned to meet during the week
of Feb. 2 to consider the matter.
A telephone poll conducted by a
group of Virginia newspapers showed
that more than two out of every three
Virginians questioned endorsed Gov.
Almond’s policy of holding integration
to a minimum. That policy was strong
ly opposed by certain legislators and
segregationist groups which favored
drastic action to prevent even token
integration.
On the same day—Jan. 19—the Vir
ginia Supreme Court of Appeals at
Richmond and a special three-judge
federal court at Norfolk struck down
key statutes in Virginia’s “massive re
sistance” package.
By a 5-to-2 decision, the state court
ruled closing schools and cutting off
State funds to prevent integration vio
‘Immovable Object Moves"
-Miami Herald
T he court-inflicted demise of massive resistance to integration
brought resumption of classes in Virginia’s closed public schools
and spurred hurried reassessment of segregationist stands elsewhere
in the South.
Attendance of white and Negro pupils in mixed classes for the first
time in the Old Dominion came in the midst of these rapidfire devel
opments:
• Legislatures of Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia gave
close scrutiny to new laws dealing with the issue. Other southern leg
islatures meeting shortly planned to follow suit.
• Alabama Gov. John Patterson, newly inaugurated on a no-inte-
gration platform, conceded the situation had altered in the short time
since his oath-taking and that “it is going to be tough to maintain seg
regation.”
• Sen. Herman Talmadge of Georgia introduced a proposal in
Congress for a constitutional amendment to put control of schools in
local hands.
The opening of schools on a deseg
regated basis in Norfolk and Arlington
County, Va., brought to 798 the num
ber of school districts that have begun
the process in southern and border
states. With 2,896 bi-racial districts in
the region, this leaves 2,098 still seg
regated.
The Virginia desegregation also put
approximately 5,000 Negro children in
integrated situations although no more
than 21 will attend mixed classes now.
This brings the total of Negro children
in the region in integrated situations
to 407,403.
The term “integrated situation” is
used to designate, not the number of
children in mixed classes, but the
number enrolled in a district at grade
levels which have begun desegregation.
Other developments by states:
Alabama
U. S. District Judge Frank M. John
son Jr. cleared former Circuit Judge
George C. Wallace of Clayton on
charges of contempt arising from Wal
lace’s refusal to hand over voting rec
ords to the U. S. Civil Rights Commis
sion.
Arkansas
Gov. Orval Faubus presented the
Arkansas Legislature a new plan aimed
late the Virginia Constitution. (Harri
son v. Day. Excerpts from the opinion
are carried on page 5.)
The case turned on whether Section
129 of the Constitution was still valid
or whether it had been made invalid
by the U. S. Supreme Court’s anti-seg
regation decision of 1954. Section 129
reads: “The General Assembly shall
establish and maintain an efficient sys
tem of public free schools throughout
the state.”
JOINT CONSTRUCTION CLAIMED
The state had argued that when the
1954 decision invalidated Section 140
of the state constitution—the section
providing for segregated schooling—it
also automatically invalidated Section
129. The state maintained it was the
intention of the framers of the con
stitution that the two sections be con
sidered together and that 129 would
never had been enacted without 140.
Consequently, according to the state’s
argument, it could close schools if and
when it wanted to do so.
But five of the seven justices on the
state’s highest bench disagreed. They
said Section 129 still was in full force
and, further, the state statute defining
an “efficient” school as a segregated one
was unconstitutional. The word “ef
ficient” in the constitution must be
given its usual “plain or ordinary
meaning,” said the court, and the sep
aration of the races alone does not
constitute an efficient system.
5-TO-2 DECISION
Chief Justice John W. Eggleston
wrote the majority opinion. Concur
ring in it were Justices C. Vernon
Spratley, A. C. Buchanan, Kennon C.
Whittle and Lawrence W. I’Anson.
Dissenting, and holding the view Sec
tion 129 was no longer in force, were
Justices Willis D. Miller and Harold
F. Snead.
In the minority opinion, Justice
Miller offered several quotations from
debates in the 1901-02 constitutional
convention to support the conclusion
that members of the convention
deemed segregation “a necessary and
indispensable condition” to the opera
tion of Section 129.
The state announced on Jan. 27 it
would seek a rehearing of the case
before the state supreme court.
The three-judge federal court at
Norfolk threw out the laws by which
(See VIRGINIA, Page 4)
School, Rights Questions
Spark Congress Opener
WASHINGTON, D. C.
A FLURRY OF CIVIL RIGHTS and
school desegregation activity
marked the opening of the 86th
Congress. In the Senate, Majority
Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-
Tex.) scored a major victory on
his compromise proposal to curb
filibusters, then introduced legis
lation to (1) establish a commun
ity relations service in the federal
government to mediate civil rights
disputes, (2) crack down on inter
state bombing conspiracies, (3)
grant the attorney general sub-
peona powers in voting rights
cases, and (4) extend the life of
the Civil Rights Commission to
Jan. 31, 1961. (See “National Af
fairs.”)
LIBERALS COUNTER
In the House of Representatives, lib
erals led by Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-
N.Y.) introduced their answer to the
Johnson bill—a measure designed to
aid and, if necessary, force the South
to desegregate its schools. The Celler
bill, introduced in the Senate by Sen.
Paul H. Douglas (D.-Ill.), provides for
conciliatory efforts to be followed by
compulsory arbitration to order an end
to segregated schooling.
LOCAL LEVEL PLAN
Another measure introduced in the
Senate by Sen. Herman Talmadge of
Georgia, with concurrence of a group of
fellow Southerners would amend the
Constitution to place control of schools
at the local level.
In an accompanying speech Talmadge
said the Supreme Court desegregation
decision is “an accomplished fact” but
that the overwhelming majority of
southerners “will neither accept nor
submit to the forced implementation of
that bill.”
Between these two fires, Talmadge
added, public education in the South
will be destroyed unless something is
done. He said his proposed amendment
offered a way out.
At his Jan. 28 news conference, Pres
ident Eisenhower said he was not ac
quainted with the provisions of the
Talmadge proposal and therefore
wouldn’t comment until he’d studied it.
ASKS SUPPORT
In his State of the Union message,
President Eisenhower called on Con
gress to join him in supporting the Su
preme Court’s ruling against school
segregation. He spelled out no details,
but said he would soon send Congress
proposals for new civil rights legisla
tion.
Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers said a
pupil placement law fairly applied ap
peared to be a valid approach toward
compliance with the Supreme Court
rulings. He said “there would seem to
be no constitutional obstruction” to as
signment laws “administered without
any discrimination on account of race.”
The District of Columbia’s top school
(See DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
Page 12)
Index
State Page
Alabama 16
Arkansas 14
Delaware 7
District of Columbia 1 & 12
Florida 15 T , ,. , ... ,
Georgia 10 January of continued and lively oppo
at avoiding school desegregation. His
advisers said it was beyond reach of
federal courts.
Delaware
The state Board of Education will
present federal court in mid-March a
desegregation plan providing for a
stairstep start at the first grade this
fall with desegregation to be complete
in 1970.
District of Columbia
The school crisis and civil rights
shared the spotlight at the opening of
the 86th session of Congress. Sen. Her
man Talmadge of Georgia introduced
a proposal to amend the Constitution
to place control of schools in local
hands. Majority Leader Lyndon John
son won approval of his compromise
filibuster measure.
Florida
Members of the state Legislature
prepared for presentation at the April
session a dual state school system, su
perimposing a “voluntary” integrated
system on top of the present segre
gated schools.
Georgia
The state’s first ruling against public
school segregation came from a federal
judge who directed Georgia State Col
lege to stop refusing admission to
qualified Negroes. The new Legislature
quickly adopted six major segregation
tightening bills sent up by newly-in
augurated Gov. Ernest Vandiver.
Kentucky
The 1959 gubernatorial campaign be
gan to warm up with Gov. A. B.
Chandler’s presidential ambitions an
interesting issue but with school seg
regation not an issue. Better than 80
per cent of the state’s Negro school
age population now is in desegregated
districts.
Louisiana
The U. S. Civil Rights Commission
announced it would look into charges
of Negroes being denied voting rights;
Democratic leaders predicted a possible
bolt from the national party over the
civil rights issue.
Maryland
Montgomery County’s school system
became the first in the state to set a
definite date for termination of deseg
regation at all grade levels.
Mississippi
The head of the state Democratic
Executive Committee invited National
Democratic Chairman Paul Butler to
come to Mississippi and apologize for
allegedly telling the South to accept
integration or get out of the party.
Butler declined, saying he hadn’t been
that blunt.
Missouri
Kansas City, with a start on deseg
regation in 1955, reported integration
of both pupils and faculties had pro
gressed year by year.
North Carolina
Gov. Luther Hodges predicted North
Carolina’s Pearsall Plan for dealing
with school desegregation would stand
up despite the knockout of massive re
sistance in neighboring Virginia.
Oklahoma
Although segregation is legally dead
in Oklahoma evidence appeared in
Kentucky 6
Louisiana 15
Maryland 9
Mississippi 11
Missouri 12
North Carolina 3
Oklahoma 7
South Carolina 8
Tennessee 6
Texas 2
Virginia 1&4
West Virginia 8
sition to integration.
South Carolina
Former Lt. Gov. Ernest F. Hollings
took over as the state’s new governor
with an inaugural pledge to maintain
racial separation in public schools.
Tennessee
Negro parents appealed to federal
court for immediate total desegregation
in place of the previously court-ap
proved stairstep plan in Nashville.
(Continued On Page 4)