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PAGE 16—FEBRUARY—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
NAACP Lawyer Believes
‘Massive Resistance ’Over
VIRGINIA
Two Floyd County Schools Begin
Desegregation Without Incidents
RICHMOND, Va.
I ntegration extended into south
west Virginia for the first time
when 13 Negroes entered two for
merly all-white high schools in
Floyd County. This makes 98 Ne
groes in desegregated schools in
the state. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
A federal judge ordered eight
additional Negroes admitted to all-
white or predominantly white
schools in Alexandria. Two addi
tional schools will be affected,
making 20 desegregated schools
in Virginia. (See “Legal Action.”)
An effort by white segregationists to
provide private schools for Negroes in
Prince Edward County by February
collapsed when only one child applied
for enrollment. Negro leaders an
nounced plans to set up 10 “training
centers” in the county to offer basic ed
ucation and recreation for the 1,700
school-less Negro children. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
In a 14,000-word State of the Com
monwealth message to the General As
sembly, Gov. Lindsay Almond did not
mention the school segregation contro
versy. And as the first two weeks of the
session ended, it was not apparent
whether the race problem would be
come a major issue during the Assem
bly’s GO-day stay at the capitol. (See
“Legislative Action.”)
Southwestern Virginia, an area of
small Negro population, experienced ra
cial integration in the schools for the
first time Jan. 25 as 13 Negro children
entered two white high schools in Floyd
County.
No incidents were m ported as nine
Negroes entered Floyd High and four
began classes at Check High.
The 13 children had been attending
Christiansburg Institute in nearby
Montgomery County because Floyd has
no Negro high school.
The order for Floyd to integrate was
handed down by Federal District Judge
Roby C. Thompson at Roanoke Sept. 10.
(Walker vs. School Board of Floyd
County.)
One of the Negro boys said that at
tending the Floyd High School would
cut his daily round trip school bus
travel from 44 miles to one mile.
The State Board of Education has
approved accreditation for five private
schools set up to avoid integration. The
board order Jan. 28 approved the three
schools in the Prince Edward school
system and one each in Norfolk and
Charlottesville.
The northern Virginia city of Alex
andria, which already had nine Negroes
in formerly white schools, was ordered
to admit eight more in February.
(Jones v. School Board of Alexandria.)
District Judge Albert V. Bryan di
rected that five be admitted to Minnie
Howard Elementary and one to Jeffer
son Elementary, marking the first inte
gration in those two schools. Hammond
High and William Ramsay Elementary,
which already had two and five Negroes,
respectively, in attendance, will admit
one more Negro, under Bryan’s order.
TO HEAR CHARGES
Disbarment proceedings against Sam
uel W. Tucker of Emporia, a member
of the Virginia legal staff of the National
Assn, for the Advancement of Colored
People, will be heard by a three-judge
state court in Emporia Feb. 12.
Tucker is accused of unprofessional
conduct in three specifications filed by
the fourth district committee of the Vir
ginia State Bar.
He is charged with attempting to as
sist in the prosecution of a white man
accused of raping a Negro woman, and
with representing a defendant in a mur
der case and a defendant in an assault
case without having been authorized to
do so by the defendants in question or
by their families.
The national board of directors of the
NAACP issued a statement saying:
This is an ultimate test of the use
of state power to circumscribe partici
pation of a lawyer in the effort to se
cure full citizenship rights for all per
sons, regardless of race and color.”
The board said it would support
Tucker “in his fight to vindicate his
right to use his professional talents in
the interest of social justice.”
COMMUNITY ACTION
Prince Edward County—one of the
five localities directly involved in the
Supreme Court’s desegregation decision
of May 17, 1954—was the focal point of
interest in the segregation controversy
in Virginia during January.
These were the developments:
Southside Schools, Inc., a white citi
zens’ group formed to assist Negroes in
setting up schools for the county’s
1,700 school-less Negro children, an
nounced that it was postponing opening
of the schools until September.
The announcement was made after
only one child applied for admission to
the proposed school system.
The directors of the corporation issued
this statement:
“The board of directors of Southside
Schools, Inc., is surprised and disap
pointed at the lack of interest in and
response to its invitation to the Negro
parents to apply for admission of their
children to the schools of this corpora
tion. Since there has been only one ap
plication, it is manifestly impossible to
operate an efficient private school this
session.
“It is apparent that there will be no
public schools in the county within the
foreseeable future due to the court or
der entered against the Prince Edward
School Board. No other group appears
to be interested in providing schooling
for the Negro children, and we, as re
sponsible citizens of this community,
deem it incumbent upon us to assume
the obligation of attempting to educate
them.
“Feeling as we do that . is necessary
and important that all children of this
county be afforded an opportunity to
secure an education, we are proceeding
toward our objectives and we intend to
establish detailed plans for the operation
of a system of schools throughout Prince
Edward County for the school session
of 1960-61.”
10 TRAINING CENTERS
Negro leaders, who had urged mem
bers of their race not to participate in
the effort by the whites to set up Negro
schools, announced later in the month
that they would open 10 “training cen
ters” for Negro children of the county.
The project was planned at a meeting
of 21 organizations in Washington, D.C.,
on Jan. 16, under the sponsorship of the
National Council of Negro Women. The
Rev. L. F. Griffin, president of the
Prince Edward County Christian Assn,
and an NAACP leader, was named
chairman of the project.
The plan calls for use of whatever
buildings are available, including
churches and lodge halls. Certain basic
subjects, such as reading and arithme
tic, will be taught, and there also will
be a recreational program, according to
the announcement. The program was
slated to start in early February.
Griffin said the project “is not a pri
vate school, it’s strictly a morale build
er.”
NAACP state officials announced that
$16,500 would be raised to finance the
program through June and also to help
pay tuition for 50 Negro high school
seniors who are attending Kittrell Col
lege in North Carolina.
SCHOOL SALE ASKED
Meanwhile, the Prince Edward School
Foundation, which is operating a school
system for the 1,500 white children,
went before the county school board on
Jan. 11 to request that the now vacant
Farmville High School be put up for
sale. The foundation wanted the build
ing to house its high school students.
A week later, on Jan. 18, the board
held a public hearing on the matter, at
which a number of citizens spoke in fa
vor of the sale and several members of
the faculty of Longwood College spoke
against any immediate action by the
board to sell the building. (Longwood,
located in Farmville, is a state teachers’
college.)
According to the Farmville Herald,
when the question of sale of the school
was put to the audience by a citizen
attending the meeting, not more than
25 of the 400 persons present voted
against the sale.
The school board, however, took the
position that it should not accept sole
responsibility for disposing of the build
ing. The board said that under an act
passed by the General Assembly dur
ing its special session of 1959, 10 per
cent of the number of qualified voters
who voted in the last presidential elec
tion in the county could sign a petition
and thus force a referendum on sale of
the school. If the citizens want the
school sold, they should follow that
statute, the board said.
But legal advisers of the Prince Ed
ward School Foundation said that this
was an untested law, passed at the spe
cial session of the Legislature devoted
to school segregation policy, and that
its use might give rise to legal compli
cations in the private school operation.
On Jan. 19, the day following the
public hearing, the Foundation’s presi
dent, B. Blanton Hanbury, announced
that his organization “has no further
interest in acquiring” the public school
building. He said the foundation would
proceed with plans to erect its own per
manent facilities to replace temporary
quarters now used.
KING SPEAKS
Earlier in the month, on New Year’s
Day, about 2,500 Negroes gathered for
a rally in Richmond’s Mosque Auditori
um to hear an address by the Rev. Mar
tin Luther King Jr. of Montgomery,
Ala., and to protest the Prince Edward
school closing.
King told the crowd that he hoped
Prince Edward Negroes would not en
roll in the private system then being
proposed by whites.
“I hope these (Negro) citizens won’t
sell their birthright of freedom for a
mess of segregated pottage,” he saidj
“I hope they will continue to have the
power of endurance.”
After the rally, about 1,500 of the
Negroes marched the 17 blocks to the
state capitol in a “Pilgrimage of Prayer
for Public Schools.”
A resolution adopted at the Mosque
urged the General Assembly to grant
the governor emergency power to re
open Prince Edward schools. The As
sembly also was asked to repeal pres
ent laws relating to school segregation
and to appoint a bi-racial commission
“to ease the social transition across the
state in a climate of harmony and good
will.”
In another Prince Edward develop
ment, a group of white citizens an
nounced plans for a campaign to in
crease the number of qualified white
voters, in a move to counteract an
NAACP drive to increase the number of
Negro voters.
John C. Stock, a member of the coun
ty’s board of supervisors and a leader
in the vote move, said that as of Dec.
26, there were 4,299 whites and 1,020
Negroes registered to vote in the coun
ty.
SUGGEST COMMITTEE
A bi-racial group of educators and
religious leaders asked the General As
sembly to create a five-member com
mission on interracial relations. The
commission would report its findings to
the Assembly at its next regular session
in 1962. W. E. Garnett, retired rural so
ciologist of Virginia Polytechnic Insti
tute at Blacksburg, is secretary.
A proposal to “enforce” the U.S. Con
stitution by a state’s asserting whether
decisions of the Supreme Court are law
ful or unlawful was explained at a seg
regationists’ rally at Bowling Green on
Jan. 24.
John Janney, a former Virginian now
living in Nevada, told the approximate
ly 70 persons present that a law should
be passed under which Virginia could
declare a Supreme Court decision void
in this state.
Petitions asking the General Assem
bly to enact the appropriate legislation
are being circulated by a group called
Virginia Voters for Constitutional Gov
ernment.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
In a 14,000-word State of the Com
monwealth address to the opening ses
sion of the General Assembly on Jan.
13—longest such speech in the memory
of present legislators—Gov. Almond did
not mention the school segregation issue.
On the subject of public education,
he called for the largest increase in Vir
ginia’s history for the school system.
The increase recommended for the
1960-62 biennium is $35,436,537 more
NEW YORK, N.Y.
N egro lawyer Thurgood Mar
shall says the period of mas
sive resistance to school integra
tion has ended.
Marshall, attorney for the Na
tional Assn, for the Advancement
of Colored People since 1934, said
in his 1959 report that the issue
now has reached the stage of
token integration and legal ma
neuvering.
The 51-year-old lawyer said
1960 should see an increase in
school litigation testing the stair
step plan of integrating grade-by
grade and the pupil assignment
plan.
Recent developments in the South,
Marshall said, seem to insure at least
token integration in practically every
southern state within the next year.
His report noted an increase in 1959
of requests for legal help in ending
segregation in northern areas. He said
he expects a stepped up program in
1960 to eliminate segregation in hous
ing, education and other facilities in
the North as well as the South.
Since 1950, Marshall has been direc
tor-counsel of the NAACP’s Legal De
fense and Educational Fund. He won
the Supreme Court decision declaring
racial segregation in public schools
unconstitutional.
His views on the status of the segre
gation-desegregation controversy were
given before he left Tan. 1 for a two-
month tour and his first trip to Africa.
PHASE COMPLETE
“Most of the voluntary desegregation
in areas of West Virginia, Missouri,
Oklahoma and Kentucky, I think, are
about finished,” Marshall said in a
tape-recorded interview with the New
York Times.
“I don’t say there won’t be a little
spot here, or a little spot there. But
I think that phase is just about com
pleted,” he added.
“Then we have, on the other hand,
the hard-core states — five of them
(South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi and Louisiana). We know
that’s a step-by-step, tough, knock
down, drag-out battle. But bear in
mind that we have at least one case
pending in every state except Missis
sippi,” he said.
Marshall said that massive resistance
in Virginia is gone and that the state,
than appropriations for 1958-60. The
total recommendation is $195,873,178.
The governor said this is “a stagger
ing amount” but that he “cannot see
how Virginia can afford to do less.”
By the end of January, the school
question had not become a big issue in
the Assembly. Among measures which
had been introduced was a resolution
aimed at amending the U.S. Constitution
to permit segregated public schools.
Virginians have received an answer
to a question that many of them had
been asking for nearly a year. The
question:
Why did Gov. Almond make so strong
a “massive resistance” television speech
on Jan. 20, 1959, only eight days before
recommending to the General Assembly
the abandonment of that all-out segre
gation policy?
The Jan. 20 speech was considered
possibly the strongest anti-integration
address made by the governor, and it
was widely hailed by segregationists as
showing that Almond would never
agree to even token integration. Eight
days later, in an address to a special
session of the Legislature, the governor
recommended the “freedom of choice”
policy, saying that total segregation
could not be maintained.
In an article in U.S. News and World
Report last month, Virginius Dabney
editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
said Almond “now concedes that he
made a grave mistake in delivering that
Jan. 20 speech.” Dabney quotes the gov
ernor as explaining:
“I was tired, harassed and under
strain, and I wanted to reassure the
people that I was doing all that I could,
consistent with honor and law, to avoid
that which I then considered, and now
consider, a calamity. My words inad
vertently gave the impression that I
knew of some way to prevent any mix
ing of the races in the public schools,
when nothing of the sort was possible.”
# # #
along with North Carolina and Ten
nessee, has gone for token desegrega
tion.
“The people who say there will not
be any integration now are few and
far between,” Marshall said.
The two big problems now, Marshall
said, are the stairstep and the pupil
assignment plans.
His objection to the stairstep plan is
that “the children who are in school
now never get integration . . .” and it
reaches the point “where you have a
family with one child in an integrated
class and another child in a segregated
class . . .”
FUTURE PLANS
As for future plans in the integra
tion fight, Marshall said:
“We are concentrating on these two
situations: the pupil assignment plan
and the stairstep plan. We have about
40—either 40 or 60—cases right now.
This is what is slowing us down. The
Supreme Court hasn’t agreed to review
any of them. So now we’ve got to go
back and try those cases .. .”
“Now we’re in for real hard legal
maneuvering in court, counter-motions
and back and forth. They’re going to
try to delay. We’re going to try to push
ahead. It’s going to be more litigation
now than before. We’re going into what
I call a lot of fast play around second
base.”
Marshall said “I think that in many
areas of the South they will find that
the price of delay is too costly. This
litigation is very costly and it costs
them much more than it costs us.”
“Their lawyers get paid terrific fees,”
he said. “I mean, say a $25,000 retainer
and $500 a day. Our budget last year
was $300,000. I got $15,000 up until this
year. Now I get $18,000 and other
lawyers range from about $9,000 down
to $5,800. In addition we have around
50 lawyers and law professors around
the country we don’t pay anything.”
Marshall said his group would make
every effort to have more areas de
segregated by next September.
“We’re going to make that effort, and
I think we’re going to do it. If we
once do that, then I think the momen
tum will carry it through. I’m still
working for the time when the indi
vidual communities are going to work
it out themselves without me.”
# # #
Tennessee
(Continued From Page 6)
Campaign Committee, a political or
ganization; the Baptist Ministers Alli
ance; and several other organizations.
B. F. Hooks, a Negro lawyer, was
named chairman of a committee to
probe racial discrimination among Mem
phis auto dealers and other merchants.
Hooks said Memphis Negroes could
buy their cars in West Memphis, Ark.
or even Mississippi rather than patron
ize Memphis dealers. He said Negro
car purchases over the years in Mem
phis have amounted to more than $40
million.
The gathering donated nearly $200 to
St. Jude Hospital, which receives the
profits from the Auto Show.
IN THE COLLEGES
Jazz Pianist Dave Brubeck and his
quartet will appear at three Tennessee
colleges this month, although a fourth
cancelled his performance because one
member of the quartet is a Negro.
Brubeck will perform at Vanderbilt
University, the University of the South,
and Memphis State University, but the
University of Chattanooga cancelled his
appearance after learning that Bru-
beck’s bass player, Eugene Wright, is a
Negro.
Associated Press reported that Bru
beck had originally contracted for about
25 appearances in southern colleges,
but had cut the bookings to 10 rather
than replace Wright.
# # #
Civil Rights Group
Sets School Hearing
WASHINGTON, D. C.
'J'he U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
will hold a conference in Gatlinburg,
Tenn., March 21-22, to review latest de
velopments in public school desegrega
tion.
A commission spokesman said the
conference will pick up where a similar
meeting in Nashville last year left off.
# # #