Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Factual •VO *S N3 HiV VI08030 JO * A IN n 3031130 010 L02 3 N H 0 • j • y £110 1-8-6$ 3 n T VOL 5, NO. 8 $2 PER YEAR 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 The assembly also repealed the com pulsory school attendance law and adopted a statute making it a felony for any person over 14 to threaten to bomb any public or private building.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)