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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST 1959—PAGE II
MISSISSIPPI
Board Votes Confidence
In University Personnel
JACKSON, Miss.
C hancellor J. D. Williams of
the University of Mississippi
and some faculty members, ac
cused of advocating integration
and of apostasy, have been given
a vote of confidence by the Board
of Trustees of State Institutions
of Higher Learning. The accusa
tions were made against 14 pres
ent and former faculty and staff
members, including the chancel
lor, by four men, one a member
of the legislature. (See “In the
Colleges.”)
The Mississippi department of
the American Legion in annual
convention charged that textbooks
advocating integration have been
approved for use in the state.
(See “Community Action.”)
Dr. Laurence Jones of the Piney
Woods school for Negroes near Jackson
rejected integration in urging good
schools and housing for members of his
race. (See “What They Say.”)
Dist. Atty. Armis Hawkins, candi
date for lieutenant governor, criticized
forces injecting the racial issues in the
current campaign for state offices. (See
“Political Activity.”)
The editor of the National Citizens
Council newspaper asserted Thurgood
Marshall, NAACP attorney, had given
the all-white organizations “grudging
praise.” (See “Miscellaneous.”)
Charges made against University of
Mississippi personnel last November
have just been disclosed. They were
filed by state Rep. Wilboum Hooker of
Lexington; former state Rep. Edwin
White, also of Lexington; W. M. “Chub
by” Ellis Jr. of Columbus, former em
ploye of the university, and school
Supt. Roma L. Thom of Shaw.
The accusations charge Chancellor J.
D. Williams has “temporized with some
situations at the university relating to
racial views of some of the faculty
members.”
Also, the charges state, “it appears
inescapable that the chancellor, and a
large number of others in key positions
at the university, have for some time
been operating on a plan to break our
southern attitudes and our southern
educational points of view. They are
undertaking to change our southern
civilization by molding the minds of our
young people away from our estab
lished principles.”
OTHERS NOT NAMED
No official paper has been issued list—
mg the names of the faculty members
criticized in the charges filed with the
college board. An official report is
scheduled at the Aug. 20 meeting of the
board by a subcommittee headed by
Charles Fair of Louisville.
Pending the report, which is expected
to clear all those involved, board chair
man R. D. Morrow has issued a state
ment expressing full confidence in
Chancellor Williams. Alumni associa
tions over the state have done likewise.
Morrow said, in a formal statement
, u ly 11 after existence of the charges
had been disclosed, that “all the mem-
® rs of the board have confidence in
he chancellor of the university and his
administration.”
COMPLETELY SATISFIED’
Prior to the appointment of Chan
ce lor Williams in 1946, the board of
rustees was completely satisfied as to
ls attitude on the matter of segrega-
10 n and his religious beliefs,” Morrow
said. “Never, since then, has there been
an y equivocation on his part when such
objects were discussed, as they fre
quently were.
By his expressed beliefs, by his
J-^actices and by his administration,
, ancellor Williams deserves and has
e full confidence of the members of
me board.
The members of the board have
confidence that Chancellor Williams in
e future, as in the past, will take
appropriate action to continue to oper-
a e the university within the frame
work of Mississippi’s laws and will do
80 with accustomed intelligence, with
out bombast, and with due regard for
the standing and dignity of our state.”
Alumni associations voting full con
fidence in Chancellor Williams and his
administration include Hinds County
(Jackson); Lee County (Tupelo), and
Grenada County (Grenada).
The Mississippi department of the
American Legion in convention at Jack-
son July 10-12 resolved that:
“It has been found that several text
books recently adopted for use in the
public schools and institutions of high
er learning in our state have contained
statements and/or sections which do
not conform to states’ rights, racial in
tegrity and Americanism—the underly
ing principles of government in the
state of Mississippi.”
The resolution, unanimously adopted,
said “the rating committee, composed of
competent and professionally trained
educators, who are used to appraise the
various textbooks offered for adoption
in the state, are more concerned with
the literary quality of the books and
do not have sufficient time properly
to read, study, evaluate and appraise
the subversive contents of the various
textbooks offered for adoption.
LAY MEMBERS SUGGESTED
“Believing that the people of Missis
sippi, as well as the professional educa
tors, should have voice in what is
taught the children of this state, we
believe that it would be of great bene
fit not only to the rating committee, as
presently constituted, but also to all of
the people of our state and the chil
dren, if qualified lay members compe
tent to detect subversive authors and
subversive contents in the textbooks
were added to the Mississippi State
Text Book Purchasing Board and the
rating committees.”
On that premise, the Legion urged
the 1960 Legislature:
1) To amend the law to include on the
state rating committee a sufficient num
ber of qualified lay members competent
to detect subversive authors and sub
versive contents in the textbooks.
2) To amend the law to add the same
type citizens to the Mississippi State
Textbook Purchasing Board.
3) To amend the law “to make illegal
the teaching or adoption of any text
book which advocates integration or
amalgamation of the races or teaches
the destruction of the sovereignty of
the state of Mississippi, or attempts to
deprive the state of its constitutional
powers and to cede the same to a world
government.”
In another resolution, also unan
imously adopted, the Legion said a sur
vey by the Mississippi society, Daugh
ters of the American Revolution, “re
vealed a large number of books now
being used in the public schools of
Mississippi contain theories contrary to
the fundamental concepts of constitu
tional government, necessary in the
preservation of state sovereignty.”
COMMITTEE CHOSEN
The convention authorized the ap
pointment of a three-member commit
tee to cooperate with the DAR “in a
textbook study of books being used in
the public schools of Mississippi for the
purpose of detecting theories of com
munism, socialism, one-worldism and
philosophies contrary to the customs
and traditions of Mississippi.”
Dr. Laurence C. Jones, founder of
the Piney Woods School for Negroes
near Jackson, hailed a new Negro
housing unit at Gulfport as “a sign to
my people.” He spoke at dedication of
the 124-unit project named in his hon
or.
“This kind of housing is a sign to our
people as are the good schools I’ve seen
in this area,” he said.
Turning to a group of white officials
attending the ceremonies, Dr. Jones
said:
“We don’t want to come into your liv
ing rooms. We are not asking for social
equality, but we do want good schools
and good housing and we have been pa
tiently waiting a sign. This project is a
sign to my people.”
Deploring racial tension in New York,
the noted Negro educator said: “We
don’t have anything like that in Mis
sissippi. There is no reason for it. We
understand each other.”
Dist. Atty. Armis Hawkins of Hous
ton, in northeast Mississippi, a candi
date for lieutenant governor, said in a
political speech, “The forces of dem
agoguery now stalking the state must
not be permitted to disrupt the amica
ble race relations now existing in Mis
sissippi.
“This problem will not be solved by
loud noises, waving of arms and stomp
ing of feet,” he said. “Now, more than
ever, it is essential that public officials
and private citizens continue to pro
mote and develop a racial relations cli
mate that will be conducive to the best
interests of all our people.”
W. J. Simmons of Jackson, editor of
the national Citizens Council newspa
per, said July 8 that Thurgood Marshall,
NAACP attorney of New York, “ad
mitted July 7 to the Fisk University
Race Relations Institute in Nashville,
Tenn., that his side is losing the fight
for northern public opinion.”
Marshall was quoted by United Press
International as saying the integration-
ists are “losing the battle for public
opinion in the North because norther-
ers are beginning to feel sympathy for
the ‘southern problem.’ ”
Simmon’s statement said in part:
“This top official of the NAACP gives
the Citizens Council movement grudg
ing praise, saying ‘the constant flow of
literature is beginning to get results.’
“Marshall added that the good people
of the North ‘have found it hard to ac
cept the U. S. Supreme Court desegre
gation decision as morally right. We
must make this a moral issue.’
“It may interest Lawyer Marshall to
know that the Citizens Councils are ex
actly five years ahead of him. The Cit
izens Councils have recognized from the
beginning that the infamous ‘Black
Monday’ decision is a moral issue. And
we have waged our fight accordingly.
“That is why our newspapers and
other literature are getting results in
the North. That is why more and more
thinking northerners are in sympathy
with the South’s position. That is why
we are winning this fight.” . . .
# # #
Tennessee
(Continued From Page 10)
the first member of his race to be elected
to the Memphis City Commission.
Sugarmon is opposed by five white
candidates for the post of public works
commissioner in the Aug. 20 election.
About 60,000 of Memphis’ 190,000 reg
istered voters are Negroes, and if they
vote as a bloc they could elect Sugar
mon.
A. W. Anderson, another white candi
date, withdrew from the race July 23
and gave as his reason “the probability
of bitter racial discord in Memphis if
the Negro candidate is elected by a
minority bloc of voters.”
Still another white candidate, Sam L.
Clark, was disqualified by the Shelby
County Election Commission because he
owns no property in Memphis.
There are no run-offs in Memphis
elections, and the candidate with the
largest number of votes wins.
Two other Negroes, Roy Love and Dr.
Henry Bunton, are running for the city
school board on a platform of integrating
the public schools.
Other Negro candidates are the Rev.
Ben Hooks for juvenile court judge, and
Eliehue Stanback for tax assessor.
MISC
Segregationist John Kasper entered
the federal prison at Tallahassee, Fla.,
July 23 to begin a six-month term for
his second contempt conviction in the
Clinton, Tenn., desegregation disorders.
Kasper, who had been visiting his
friend, retired navy Admiral John C.
Crommelin at Wetumpka, Ala., first
tried to give himself up to federal
marshals at Montgomery. He was or
dered, however, to surrender himself
at Knoxville, since his bond was re
turnable there.
He was arrested in Knoxville, July
16, at the home of Lee Foster, Knoxville
segregationist.
# # #
KENTUCKY
Slight Increase Expected
In Integration Program
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
acing an estimated Septem
ber enrollment of 540,000
white and 42,000 Negro pupils,
Kentucky school officials expect a
slight increase in an integration
program that for two successive
years has reported more than 80
per cent of the state’s school-age
Negroes in “integrated situa
tions.”
The increase for 1958-59 (four
per cent for whites, three per cent
for Negroes) was said to be a bet
ter prediction-yardstick than the
increase in desegregating districts
(15 per cent). Two districts have
announced expansion of integra
tion programs already begun (Da
viess County and Owen County),
a few others are expected to ex
pand without announcement. But
no still-segregated district (52 of
the state’s 175 bi-racial districts)
has yet announced any change in
policy.
ACCENT ON CHOICE
Dr. Robert R. Martin, state superin
tendent of public instruction, said he
expected that the fifth year of Ken
tucky’s experience with integration
would show, as in the past, a strong
accent on the permissive or free-choice
feature. In 1958-59 this helped to ac
count for the fact that while 123 dis
tricts had desegregation programs, only
105 of these actually had mixed classes
(149,392 whites, 11,492 Negroes), with
only 29 per cent instead of the “more
than 80 per cent” of eligible Negroes
enrolled.
Owen County (four per cent Negro
enrollment) will expand its program
under court order (see Southern
School News, March 1959, et ante). Its
high school last fall enrolled 370 whites
and nine Negroes—also under court or
der. The district court in February re
jected the county’s proposed four-year
plan for staggered desegregation of its
elementary schools, ordering, instead,
complete elementary school integration
next September. Expected enrollment:
about 1,440 white pupils, 76 Negroes.
Daviess County school officials an
nounced July 7 that they would inte
grate eight additional schools in Sep
tember. The county had desegregated
two schools (Masonville and Whites -
ville) in 1956-57, but, with a Negro en
rollment of only one per cent had been
paying the Owensboro (City) system
$100 tuition for Negro students from
non-integrated schools. The county has
some 3,600 white, 1,100 Negro pupils.
TUITION UPPED
This year the Owensboro school
board announced it would increase the
tuition to $180, whereupon the county
board voted to integrate the eight ad
ditional schools. County Supt. Fred T.
Bums said he anticipates “the same
casual acceptance” of integration in the
eight schools as in Masonville and
Whitesville.
Owensboro (with a Negro pupil per
centage of seven—7,049 whites, 527 Ne
groes) desegregated its high schools
in 1955-56, last year had only three Ne
groes in classes with 1,332 whites.
In Christian County (Negro enroll
ment 24 per cent) the state-urged clos
ing of one and two-room schools in
July posed a unique problem but no
suggestion of integration. The county
board closed five such schools for Ne
groes, proposed to transfer their 220
pupils to the formerly white commun
ity-built Lafayette school and to trans
fer Lafayette’s 240 white pupils to
South Christian Junior High.
On July 14 a delegation of 20 white
residents of the Lafayette community
presented petitions (signed by 200)
against the move. They contended that
the Lafayette school had been built by
the community and paid for by local
fund drives, and that turning it over
to Negro pupils would damage local
property values.
County School Supt. T. W. Stewart
said he would seek a building-tax elec
tion in August to enlarge two of the
county’s Negro schools to accommodate
the pupils displaced by the closing of
the one- and two-room schools.
No schools in the Christian County
system are desegregated, but the county
seat, Hopkinsville (with a 30 per cent
Negro enrollment—2,000 whites, 850
Negroes), last year had three Negro
pupils attending two schools with 715
whites.
Year-end figures at Kentucky’s state-
supported Negro boarding school, Lin
coln Institute in Shelby County, mean
time, showed yet another aspect of the
state’s free-choice approach to desegre
gation. Without legal compulsion, 32
districts sent 362 Negro pupils to Lin
coln in 1958-59, at costs to the district
ranging from $14.17 to $27.22 a month
per pupil.
BY PREFERENCE
This occurred, President Whitney
Young said, because pupils and parents
preferred Lincoln to integrated schools
at home—and local superintendents and
boards of education agreed voluntarily
to send them.
President of the institution since
1934, Young said the school’s enroll
ment had dropped from 581 to 436 in
the four years of Kentucky’s desegre
gation program. But he expressed con
fidence that it had a bright future in
catering to special needs of a segment
of Negro youth.
This segment, he said, consists of
three groups—brilliant Negroes who
prefer the superior academic advan
tages of the Class A school and enroll
as a matter of free choice between it
and an integrated school, pupils who
drop out of integrated schools because
they can’t quite make the grade there
but can do so “in the quieter racial
harmonies” at Lincoln, and Negro boys
and girls too retarded for academic
achievement but eager for vocational
training.
Young said the school would ask the
1960 legislature for a new trades build
ing costing $333,690. This, he said,
would make it possible to build a com
bination academic and trades program
around 22 basic industrial units, and
would insure an “enduring” enrollment
of 500 to 600 each year.
RATING HIGH
Top-rated by both the state Depart
ment of Education and the Southern
Association of Colleges and Secondary
Schools, Lincoln currently operates at
an annual cost of $251,620, will draw
$175,795 in state funds for 1959-60,
makes up the difference from private-
student fees ($50 per month) and
grants from the Lincoln Foundation
and other private donors. Its campus
of 16 buildings and 416 acres is valued
at $2,000,000.
Dr. Robert R. Martin, state superin
tendent of public instruction, on July
10 told a conference of school superin
tendents at Bowling Green “there is
still room for hope” that the Court of
Appeals will modify its June ruling
that public-school salaries may not ex
ceed $7,200 a year (see Southern
School News, July 1959).
He noted that a petition for re-hear-
ing had been filed by Atty. Gen. Jo M.
Ferguson, and suggested that the edu
cators—59 of whom draw pay up to
$12,000 a year—engage in no public
discussion while the case is pending.
Dr. Martin declared that if the Court
of Appeals refuses to reopen the case,
“public educators will have no choice
but to fight for a constitutional amend
ment either to raise salary limits or to
take away all limits.”
University of Kentucky trustees,
meantime, decided to hire an attorney
to “protect the interests of the univer
sity” in the salary-ruling case, explain
ing that “it is the position of the uni
versity that such counsel would pre
sent the point of view that the present
salary structure and policies of the uni
versity are proper and legal.”
POLITICAL ACTIVITY
Gov. A. B. Chandler, whose faction
lost in the May Democratic primary,
rated as the principal achievement of
his administration the winning of
greater financial support for public
education at every level. He said he
might run again for governor in 1963,
guessed that the Democrats in 1960
again would hand the presidential
nomination to which he has aspired to
Adlai Stevenson.
# # #