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PAGE 10—JULY 1959—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA
Leader Reaffirms Stand For Separate Classrooms
COLUMBIA, S. C.
outh Carolina’s official de
termination to close public
schools rather than have them
desegregated was reaffirmed in
June by State Sen. L. Marion
Gressette, who heads the state’s
Special Segregation Committee
and exercises considerable influ
ence in the General Assembly.
He made his declaration in the
course of a speech endorsing the
Citizens Councils of South Caro
lina. (See “Under Survey.”)
Former Gov. James F. Byrnes,
who made a similar declaration
in 1951 while chief executive of
the state, renewed his attack on
the Supreme Court’s desegrega
tion ruling in an address before
the Georgia Bar Association.
(See “What They Say.”)
Hints at renewed efforts for
court rulings to break down seg
regation came during June in
opposite parts of the state—Spar
tanburg and Charleston. (See
“Legal Action.”)
The chairman of South Carolina’s
Special Segregation Committee on June
23 officially reiterated the state’s deter
mination to close its public schools
rather than to submit to enforced inte
gration. State Sen. L. Marion Gressette
of Calhoun County made the statement
in a speech endorsing the Citizens
Councils of South Carolina and the role
they are playing to maintain racial seg
regation. Speaking before a group of
some 100 Citizens Council leaders from
throughout the state, Sen. Gressette
said:
“The people of South Carolina intend
to operate their schools in accordance
with their own wishes so long as they
are allowed to do so. When this right is
denied to them they will close the pub
lic schools and seek some other method
for the education of their children.”
REAFFIRMS BYRNES
The Gressette statement was a virtual
reaffirmation of the official policy voiced
March 16, 1951 by then-Gov. James F.
Byrnes: “If the (Supreme) Court
changes what is now the law of the land,
we will, if it is possible, live within the
law, preserve the public school system,
and at the same time maintain segrega
tion. If that is not possible, reluctantly
we will abandon the public school sys
tem.” Since then, the General Assembly
has enacted legislation which would
automatically close the schools in the
event of court-ordered integration.)
Sen. Gressette reported to the Citizens
Councils on various legislative and legal
safeguards recommended by the Special
Segregation Committee to insure con
tinued segregation, but added:
“Our committee and the General As
sembly and the governor have gone as
far as we think we should at this time.
We are prepared to go further and we
are studying every development that
occurs and every idea that is advanced.
But we do not pretend to know all of
the answers. . . . We need the active ad
vice and assistance of organized groups
throughout the state, whatever may be
their name or origin. We need organ
ized groups who are prepared to pre
sent ideas and to prevent lawlessness.
We are a God-fearing and a law-abid
ing people. We do not propose to act
otherwise. But there is a restlessness in
the land that should disturb us all.”
‘COMPARABLE TO MILITARY’
He likened the Citizens Councils to
the military forces of national defense.
“We may never need it but it is good to
know that it is available. ... It is good
to know that you are organized and
that your influence and support can be
depended upon to crystallize the right
sentiment and attitude on the part of
our people.”
Earlier in June, when questioned
about the possible effect on South Caro
lina of federal decisions such as the
ones invalidating Arkansas laws on
school financing, Sen. Gressette told the
Associated Press South Carolina likely
would not be affected. He said he and
his committee feel the state’s position is
firm and safe with respect to closing
schools if the need arises.
Following a June 24 meeting, the
Gressette Committee announced that a
special subcommittee had been named
to confer with public school officials
whose schools might be threatened with
court-directed integration. The subcom
mittee will be headed by State Rep.
Joseph O. Rogers Jr. of Clarendon
County.
Hints at judicial or administrative
directions for school integration in
South Carolina followed announcement
of the federal court order which di
rected integration in Atlanta. The Rev.
I. DeQuincy Newman, Spartanburg
minister who heads the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Colored
People in South Carolina, said June 5
that the Atlanta order “is a source of
encouragement to all Southern Negroes.
And with things moving so fast in this
generation, it is altogether possible that
this same thing might happen in this
state by or during the coming school
term. This thing is moving closer and
closer all the time.”
PREDICTS ACTION
And in Charleston, a visiting journal
ist reported in The News and Courier
that school segregation in that city
would be challenged “in the very near
future.” The statement was incorp
orated in one of a series of stories writ
ten by Alec C. Papageorge, of South
Africa’s “Pretoria News,” currently
visiting the United States as an ex
change journalist.
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
he Cabell County school sys
tem, second largest in West
Virginia, has moved more deeply
into an integrated program
through the placement of a second
group of Negro teachers in for
merly all-white schools.
The action, sanctioned by the
school board last month, will be
come effective with the beginning
of the fall term. Teacher integra
tion on a limited scale was started
last year.
Two Negro teachers have been
assigned to the former white
Simms Elementary School, and
one each to the Linclon, Guyan-
dotte, Oley, and Johnston schools.
Four white teachers also have
been assigned to Barnett Elemen
tary, formerly a Negro school.
OPEN TO ALL
All schools in Huntington, which
makes up most of the county, were
opened to children of both races previ
ously, the only requirement being that
they reside in the district where the
school is located.
Cabell was one of several counties in
the state where the NAACP brought
federal court action to force the school
board to integrate. The suit was settled
without a trial.
Kanawha County, the state’s largest
county, has been fully desegregated as
regards both pupils and teachers for
three years.
Twenty-eight counties have voted in
the last few weeks on excess levies for
public schools, and 22 voted affirma
tively, six counties negatively. Boone,
the last to vote, was among the latter
six.
According to the West Virginia Edu
cation Assn., the excess levies passed in
the 22 counties will produce $6,500,000
more a year for teachers salaries and
program enrichment.
The rash of special levy elections were
an outgrowth of the better schools
amendment, ratified last fall by the
voters of West Virginia. It empowered
the school districts to pass levies for
five instead of a maximum of three
years and at 100 per cent rather than
50 per cent of the tax rate.
A New York educator said at Morgan
town on June 18 that only in West Vir-
Papageorge quoted Charleston NAA
CP president J. Arthur Brown as saying
this:
“We have been contacted by several
parents disgusted with the inequalities
in local schools. They are conferring
with our lawyers.”
KKK LITIGATION
Federal Judge C. C. Wyche in early
June refused to support a claim of the
Georgia Ku Klux Klan to exclusive
right to certain KKK rituals, titles, and
procedures. The Georgia Klan, headed
by Eldon L. Edwards of Atlanta, was
seeking an injunction against the Asso
ciation of South Carolina Klans to for
bid that organization’s use of rites and
designations allegedly the property of
the Georgia group. Judge Wyche ruled
that the publication in dispute was not
an original copyright, but a revised
version of other copyrights.
Former Gov. James F. Byrnes, ad
dressing the Georgia Bar Assn, at Sa
vannah on June 19, said it was “absurd”
to denounce criticism of the Supreme
Court as unpatriotic.
“Those who wish to clothe with in
fallibility the segregation decision as the
law of the land should remember that
the doctrine of separate but equal
school facilities for the races had been
upheld by the Supreme Court for 58
years. During that period some of the
same people who now denounce South
erners for failing to cooperate in en
forcing the court’s decision, themselves
had persistently demanded a reversal of
the separate but equal doctrine. . . .
ginia has he observed “an organized
effort at every level to improve school
instruction.” “This is unique in the na
tion,” said Dr. Glyn Morris, assistant
superintendent of the Lewis County,
N. Y., school system.
He spoke at the final session of a
week-long conference of state educa
tors sponsored by the West Virginia
College of Education and the state De
partment of Education.
“EVERYBODY PITCHING”
“There is no smugness about how good
the educators are at their jobs in West
Virginia,” Dr. Morris said. “Everybody
is pitching in for school improvements.”
He warned West Virginia educators to
avoid setting national norms as their
educational goals. “Aspire rather to
furthering the genius that is solely West
Virginian,” he advised.
“And consider the individual the most
important concern—not national defense
or some other artificial goal,” Dr. Morris
continued. “The education of children is
our ultimate moral concern. Keep in
mind what kind of world they will be
living in ten years hence and what kind
of education they will need.”
Two Negro scholastic football stars
have declined West Virginia University
scholarship offers, says Morgantown
Post Sports Editor Tony Constantine.
They are Tom Bloom, all-state back at
Weirton (an integrated school system
in the Northern Panhandle), and Dave
Robinson of Morristown, N. J.
Constantine said both have indicated
that they will enroll elsewhere in Sep
tember, although they were offered
football scholarships by West Virginia
Coach Art Lewis.
“The big factor in their decision to go
elsewhere was the traditional color line
here,” said Constantine. “Both admitted
they did not like to be the first to try
that barrier, especially when they had
a choice of going to outstanding colleges
where Negro athletes have been wel
come for years.”
Constantine said Lewis had listed
four Negroes among the original pros
pects for his next freshmen squad. After
a further check, he halved the number
to two, Bloom and Robinson.
GOING ELSEWHERE
Robinson reportedly is going to Penn
State, where such Negro players as
Lenny Moore and Roosevelt Grier won
national honors. Bloom is headed for
Purdue.
“It is our duty to let the people of
other sections know that the attitude
of the South is due not to racial pre
judice but to the firm belief that the
court has arrogated to itself the power
of a third legislature and if not curbed
by the Congress, will destroy local gov
ernments.”
Byrnes also took issue with ministers
who contend that segregation is un-
Christian:
“For more than a century, in churches
North and South, preachers have led
their flocks in segregated congregations.
The people have looked to the church
for theological guidance. If a preacher
honestly believed segregation was un-
Christian, it was his duty as a Chris
tian leader to make known his views.
However, I do not recall ever hearing
this ‘un-Christian’ charge until after
the segregation decision of the Supreme
Court on May 17, 1954.”
Allocations of state money for school
expansion and equalization reached a
total in excess of $192 million with the
June earmarking of $600,646 for new
construction. The expansion program
was begun in 1951, when the state
adopted a retail sales tax to provide
financial support for construction,
transportation and allied educational
activities not handled through the
State Department of Education itself.
Criticism of the state’s lack of com
pulsory school attendance laws was
Constantine said it may be several
years before Negroes cross the color line
at the University, adding:
“Officials here naturally will be very
selective about the first choice. Prospects
with outstanding qualifications deemed
necessary will be in demand by other
colleges and are more likely to go there.”
West Virginia University is a desegre
gated institution, but has only a
sprinkling of Negroes on the campus. Its
graduate school has been desegregated
for more than a decade, the undergrad
uate schools since the U.S. Supreme
Court ruling in 1954.
COMMUNITY ACTION
Charleston Mayor John Copenhaver
created by executive order June 6 a
Commission on Human Relations to
work toward solution of racial discrim
ination in the city. It will be composed
of 13 members, who, in his opinion, are
“men and women of standing and repu
tation in the community.” Nine are
white, four Negro.
Copenhaver said he hoped the com
mission would work out understanding
and adjustments with employers and
operators of public service establish
ments “which will steadily eliminate
any discriminatory practices based on
race.”
A statement accompanying the order
was complimentary of the orderly
school integration in Charleston and
Kanawha County. In this regard the
statement said:
“This achievement is all the more
remarkable when it is remembered that
public education was almost the only
area where segregation was imposed
by state law. All other such practices
were merely custom, tradition, or
prejudice.”
Copenhaver said successful school
integration may offer encouragement to
the commission in its efforts to open
other areas to Negroes.
Thurgood Marshall, special legal
counsel for the NAACP, commended
West Virginia June 8 as a “good state”
in carrying out public school desegrega
tion in compliance with the Supreme
Court’s rulings.
“There is more integration and more
cooperation in West Virginia than in any
other state with the possible exception of
Oklahoma,” Marshall said. His remarks
voiced in Greenville June 8 at a meet
ing of representatives of Negro schools
of the community. The South Carolina
attendance law was repealed in 1955
along with enactment of other legisla
tion designed to thwart attempts at de
segregation of public schools.
OTHER ISSUES RAISED
Other criticisms of Negro school con
ditions at Greenville included allega
tions that the book rental system causes
many children to remain out of school,
that school buses are overcrowded and
cause excessively long bus rides, that
some buildings are hazardous, that
classrooms are insufficient, that some
teachers are poorly trained, and that
there was inadequate supervision for
the Negro school program. Most of these
criticisms were linked to efforts to re
move the existing ceiling on school
taxes in the county.
Methodist laymen of Fairfield County
in June adopted a resolution calling for
withdrawal of the Methodist Church
from the National Council of Churches.
The group of approximately 70 laymen
thus followed earlier action by the First
Methodist Church of Marion and other
Methodist groups in the state which are
seeking to have the denomination end
its affiliation with the National Council.
The withdrawal resolution, however,
was defeated by a vote of 258 to 124 at
the annual South Carolina Methodist
Conference held at Columbia. The chief
source of strength against the resolu
tion, according to the Associated Press,
came from the clerical delegates to the
conference. All but about 40 of the lay
delegates supported the resolution, and
among the anti-resolution voters were
several wives of ministers. The issue
came to a vote on June 25.
preceded a speech he made at Institute
to the Grand Lodge of F&AM Prince
Hall Masons.
In citing “good” and “bad” states,
Marshall labeled Mississippi, Georgia,
and Alabama as the “bad ones.” In these
states, he said, “you have a government
that is dedicated to keeping itself in of
fice without considering the consent and
will of the people.”
He viewed results of the recent school
board election in Little Rock, Ark., as a
sign that the “people are coming to their
senses.”
WILL TAKE TIME
Looking then at the total desegrega
tion picture, he said, “It will take time
to get complete integration, but we are
willing to stay in the courts to do it.”
The NAACP doesn’t have its full at
tention on the South, Marshall said. It
it working also on the “subtle discrim
inations against the Negro in the North.”
A majority of the Negro race, he ob
served, is “hesitant about integration
and there are some who want it on a
silver platter. But in a democracy you
push for what you want within the law.”
COMMENDS MOVE
The Charleston Daily Mail, in com
menting on Mayor Copenhaver’s Human
Relations Commission said:
“For those who think that there is
still some hope of wholesome change in
deeper understanding and greater toler
ance, the city’s Commission on Human
Relations ... is a welcome departure.
It is a sign, we take it, that we may yet
move voluntarily and in good conscience
as we ought to move where it might be
difficult and even impossible to com
pel us. . . .
“The experience of four years lays the
groundwork for further exploration.
What seemed so frightening to some
people (in the Supreme Court decision)
was not . . . catastrophic. In the same
direction lies the hope of further im
provement. . . .”
OTHER COMMENT
The Huntington Herald-Dispatch,
after five years of desegregation, had
this to say:
“How much integration has taken
place in the half decade since the (Su
preme Court) ruling? An integrationist
will say ‘not much’ and a segregationist
will say ‘too much.’
“The problem is a grievous one in
many areas, and a workable solution
is not apt to please extremists of either
persuasion. But despite occasional
flareups and even violence, the transi
tion has, in the main, been orderly.”
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WEST VIRGINIA
Negro Teachers Added In County’s Integration Plan