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PAGE 2—FEBRUARY—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
(Continued From Page 1)
into the 12th grade in September will
ask to attend present all-white schools.
Court-ordered integration would cause
the specific schools integrated to be
closed. Judge Hooper has said that the
closing of one school system would mean
the closing of all school systems in
Georgia.
One key to legislative action is the
attitude of the governor, who has fairly
good control of the Legislature.
In his State of the State address to
the lawmakers, Vandiver said: “We are
going to resist again and again and
again . . . We will exhaust every legal
means and remedy available to us . . .
to keep the schools segregated.
Later, Vandiver said he supposed fed
eral intervention by troops in “over
whelming numbers” could force token
integration on Georgia.
VARIETY OF PLANS
But even as the legislators wildly
cheered the governor’s opening day
message, a variety of plans were in var
ious stages of preparation. They in
cluded:
1) A resolution introduced in the
House to take a “straw vote” on the is
sue over the state. Rep. E. Culver Kidd
of Milledgeville proposed an election in
June in which voters would vote for
(a) closing of the public schools in
event of any integration; (b) shutting
down of public schools and sale or lease
of facilities to private operators; (c)
segregated schools but a preference for
integrated public schools as to no public
schools; (d) segregated schools only. If
a majority of the votes were in favor of
any of the last three choices on the bal
lot, the governor would be asked to call
the Legislature into special session im
mediately to initiate appropriate legis
lation, Kidd said.
Rep. Frank Twitty and Senator Carl
Sanders, floor leaders in the House and
Senate, said they opposed a “straw
poll”)
2) A recommendation that a state
commission on school desegregation
problems be established to study the
situation.
(Judge Hooper said he had “no
objection” to the Legislature appoint
ing an “able and fair” commission, but
added that he had never said that such
a group alone “would satisfy the
court.”)
3) Legislation reportedly being pre
pared by two influential legislators that
would give Georgia voters an oppor
tunity to repeal a section of the state
constitution that forbids racially inte
grated schools.
4) Bills by Rep. Smith to do away
with the governor’s power to close in
tegrated schools and to repeal a 1959
act prohibiting the use of taxing pow
ers to support integrated schools.
The first bill is not expected to pass.
The second was amended by Rep. Ralph
McClelland of Fulton and Rep. Twitty
so as to “not tie the hands” of the
school board on its taxing powers “until
every segregated school is closed.” (It
has a much better chance of being ap
proved).
5) The “parent option” plan sponsored
by Rep. James Mackay of DeKalb
(Southern School News, January 1960)
which gives parents of children in af
fected schools a choice of accepting
integration, closing the school or send
ing their children to private schools.
6) A thorough study of the state’s
school crisis and a summer session of
the Legislature to consider recommen
dations of the investigating commission,
suggested by Rep. Hugh McWhorter of
DeKalb.
7) A proposal by Rep. Joe C. Under
wood of Montgomery County to have
private schooling supported by aid for
students based on federal welfare laws.
8) An appeal by Sen. J. Douglas Car
lisle of Macon that the private school
plan, authorized by the people in a con
stitutional amendment approved in 1954,
be tried out on a pilot plant basis.
PUBLIC STATEMENTS
As the tension increased, there was
no demand for integration from any in
fluential white individual or group. The
demand was for continued operation of
the public schools and almost every
statement was preceded by an avowal
of preference for segregation.
Some prominent persons closely asso
ciated with Gov. Vandiver, former Gov.
Marvin Griifin or U.S. Sen. Herman Tal-
madge have made statements of vary
ing intensity along the line that it would
be inconceivable for Georgia to close
the public schools.
James S. Peters, chairman of the
State Board of Education, predicted that
“some form of integration is inevitable”
and that it indirectly may spell political
doom for Talmadge. In a letter to Roy
Harris of Augusta, a figure of statewide
political prominence, Peters said he be
lieved former Gov. Ellis Amall and “the
proponents of integration” hope Van
diver will close the schools and create
an issue for the 1962 gubernatorial race.
Amall might be difficult to defeat, Pe
ters wrote, and Talmadge’s political
power might be toppled.
The letter was a personal one and
both men denied making it public. Tal
madge said he wouldn’t comment on a
private letter, but others did.
Amall forecast the 1962 election for
governor would be decided solely on the
issue of an “open school program."
Harris said Peters had exhausted his
usefulness to the state school board.
And Rep. Underwood, assistant House
floor leader, took the floor on personal
privilege to assail the statement by Pe
ters.
Others rallied to the defense of Pe
ters.
Mrs. Bruce Schaefer of Toccoa and
Francis Shurling of Wrightsville, mem
bers of the State Board of Education,
said Peters had a right to express his
views.
W. R. Bowdoin, prominent Atlanta
banker and former purchasing agent in
the Vandiver administration, urged “full
consideration in this hour of crisis” of
Peters’s proposal that the state reconcile
itself to some form of integration.
WAR OF WORDS CONTINUED
Rep. Marvin Moate, House speaker
when Marvin Griffin was governor, said
“closing the schools would be the great
est mistake we could make.”
R e P. Herschel Lovett, influential leg
islator and former member of the State
Board of Education, said “it is time to
make plans if we are ordered to inte
grate.”
Robert Patterson, executive secretary
of the Mississippi Citizens Council, told
a rally in Atlanta on the night the Leg
islature opened its session that segre
gated schools could be maintained if
white citizens stand together.
The grand juries in the two counties
across which Atlanta sprawls—Fulton
and DeKalb—urged that the public
schools be kept open.
The DeKalb grand jury endorsed the
“parent choice” plan and rapped “dis
regard for the law.”
The Fulton grand jury asked the Leg
islature to find a way to insure that
Georgia schools will never close. This
prompted Superior Court Judge Dur-
wood T. Pye, who received the term-
end presentments in which the declara
tion was made, to say that one way to
keep schools open is through “unified
public sentiment” against integration
suits.
Mills B. Lane Jr., prominent in Geor
gia banking, said that obviously the so
lution in the school crisis would not be
to shut them down.
SAYS SUPPORT GROWING
A. C. Latimer, president of the At
lanta Board of Education, said support
for keeping the schools open was grow
ing.
Mayor William Hartsfield of Atlanta
urged the people of Atlanta to get
“squarely behind” the effort to keep
schools open.
Sen. Robert Culpepper of Camilla,
Vandiver’s Senate floor leader, said 90
per cent of the people of Georgia ap-
The Shore Dimly Seen?
‘Happy New Year!”
' * .
S&riPSB
—Atlanta Journal
qi>o nrrfm r*
prove the position the governor took in
the controversy.
An appeal to make necessary changes
in Georgia laws “to allow our public
school system to continue” was sent to
Vandiver by a group of Georgia church-
women of all major faiths.
The Christian Index, a Georgia Bap
tist Convention publication, said loss of
the public school system is inevitable
without compromise in the integration
crisis and school closing would be sec
ond only to closing the churches.
Rep. Twitty, of Mitchell County, said
a straw vote in Fulton County might
surprise some of those wh'-
local option on integration
The Atlanta Chamber t
and Atlanta Jaycees were :
paring to make a statemen
amid other reports that tl
office had asked the Atla
not to endorse a proposed
resolution.
Peter Zack Geer, the gc
ecutive secretary, told a r
Vandiver administration h
tion of “knuckling under” to integra
tion.
SEEKING CHAPTERS
Hope, Inc. (“Help Our Public Educa
tion”) continued to attempt to organize
chapters over the state to fight off clos
ing schools.
The Metropolitan Assn, for Segregat
ed Education, an Atlanta organization,
asked the plaintiffs in the Atlanta de
segregation suit to withdraw litigation
and cease integration efforts in the in
terest of both white and colored chil
dren, and to preserve good race rela
tions.
James Cherry of DeKalb County, su
perintendent of the largest county
school system in Georgia, urged local
control to avert integration.
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of
the National Assn, for Advancement of
Colored People, said in New York that
if any school is closed in Georgia, it
will be the fault of state officials and
not the NAACP.
Lt. Gov. Garland Byrd said Georgia
laws upholding segregated schools
would remain inviolate during this ses
sion of the Legislature.
Gov. Vandiver said he was getting a
splendid reaction to his segregation
stand, with only a few letters of dis
agreement. Noting statements on the
situation by those close to him, he as
serted that he alone spoke for his ad
ministration on the issue.
Sen. R. E. Cannon of Clayton, a segre
gationist who favors doing “whatever
it takes to keep the public schools
open,” said he was bombarded with
telegrams supporting his stand.
SWAMPED WITH MAIL
Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook and Lt. Gov.
Byrd said they were being swamped
with letters urging that they not relent
THOMPSON
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Daily newspapers in the larger cities
of the state have generally taken an
editorial line insisting that the pub’ic
schools must be kept open. More smaller
city dailies and country weekly news
papers are now editorializing in the
same vein. The Vienna News said the
alternative to token integration would
be closing the schools. The Cobb Coun
ty Times said Georgia can take no other
course than to preserve public educa
tion. The Cartersville Tribune News
urged readers to talk to legislators in
appeals to save the schools.
One bill introduced in the Legisla
ture did not touch on the looming school
crisis but was related to racial matters.
Aimed bluntly at the Civil Rights Com
mission by its authors. Rep. Marvin
Summers of Crisp and Rep. Buford
Carr of Dooly, it would permit a board
of voter registrars to dispose as it saw
fit of voter registration application
forms that are rejected.
Desegregation of the school systems
of Cobb County and of the city of Mari
etta was asked in petitions by an
Statements By Governor, Mayor
VANDIVER
Gov, Ernest Vandiver delivered his annual address and
budget message to the Georgia Legislature at Atlanta on Jan.
11. A portion of the speech covering Georgia schools follows:
“During recent weeks events have moved us closer and
closer to the threat of open conflict between Federal author
ity and State authority over operation of Georgia’s public
schools ...
It can be avoided by the exercise of good judgment and
common sense by our people—with the races in Georgia
working in harmony and voluntarily
under our traditional pattern of segre
gation—for concrete advancement in
those programs which I have outlined
to you today.
“I call upon the responsible people of
this State through unified public opinion
—both white and colored—to make it
certain that Georgia will not be the
victim of conditions like those which
exist in Washington, D. C.; Detroit,
Mich.; New York; Chicago; that even
now are plagued by racial tension, con
flict, hatred, bitterness and violence . . .
“Let me assure the mothers and fathers of Georgia that this
General Assembly and the Vandiver administration are dedi
cating their full talents and energies toward permitting the
continued education of your children in segregated schools
and, if it should become necessary, I will keep this Legisla
ture in session constantly to help me in protecting the wel
fare of our children . . .
“Let there be no mistake about this on the part of anyone:
“The Georgia Constitution and the laws of this State re
quire that if the Federal Courts should finally order integra
tion in any Georgia school—State funds for operation of that
school would be shut off . . .
“If those few who are agitating so vigorously, and so voci
ferously, for mixed schools—would join us and would work
just as vigorously for separate schools—we would have
segregated education in Georgia without any conflict.
“But if they do persist, mark this and mark it well:
“It is my duty to—and I will—uphold the Constitution and
laws of Georgia. We are going to resist—and—We are going to
resist again and again and again . . . We will exhaust every
legal means and remedy available to us—And when I say,
every legal means and remedy, I mean every legal means and
remedy!” # # #
Church Head
Says Attacks
Are Unfair
AUSTIN, Tex.
D r. Ernest Trice Thompson of
Richmond, Va., moderator of
the General Assembly, Presbyte
rian Church U.S. (Southern), said
in Austin that much criticism of
the church’s role in integration is
“unfair.”
“We are not lagging, or dragging our
feet,” said Dr. Thompson.
“The fact is that church fellowship
constitutes an intimate social relation
ship, more so than
sports or athletic
events and even
more so than in
school areas.
“The churches
have taken a po
sition of quiet
leadership in in
tegration. Protes
tant churches have
not done as much
as they should to
further integration, but they have done
more than most people realize.”
on said that white and
and others now work
rod organizations outside
h, and that some church
e integrated. The church-
opposition exists to in-
;h activity, and said in
families have refused to
ildren to an integrated
r camp.
en Southern and North
ern Presbyterians has been stalled, Dr.
Thompson said, by the U.S. Supreme
Court decision on school integration.
Before racial feelings were stirred by
the school decision, negotiations to
ward uniting the Presbyterians were
far along. Many southern churches re
fused to go along with the program,
mainly because of the northern group’s
all-out advocacy of integration.
# # #
NAACP chapter to the school boards
concerned.
Both systems are in the Atlanta met
ropolitan area. They became the sev
enth and eighth systems to face deseg
regation demands, earlier compliance
having been asked in Atlanta, Chatham
County, Waycross, Bibb County, Val
dosta and Muscogee County.
The NAACP petitions to the Cobb and
Marietta boards reportedly cited in
stances in both systems where Negro
students lived near white schools and
had to attend segregated schools some
distance away.
A three-man committee from the
Cobb County Board of Education pre
pared to study desegregation possibili
ties but Marietta School Supt. Henry
Kemp said he didn’t plan to do any
thing about integrating classes.
HARTSFIELD
Atlanta’s mayor, William B. Hartsfield, urged preservation
of public education in his annual message to the Atlanta
Board of Aldermen on Jan. 4. These are excerpts from his
report.
“As the regional capital of the southeast, and as the great
distributing center of the South, Atlanta has a close com
munity of interests with the balance of the nation. We are
in the mainstream of American life. What happens in At
lanta profoundly affects the nation. It is for these reasons
that we cannot afford to abandon for
one moment public education in our
midst. Such a futile and anti-social act
would brand us as doubly foolish, in the
light of plain experience elsewhere.
“Atlanta is now so big and so much of
its growth depends upon federal policies,
that we, not only in Atlanta but all Geor
gia, must find a way to become, not less,
but more a part of the nation, taking part
in, and influencing the great decisions
upon which the future of our nation rests.
The Deep South has too much at stake
to become a little isolated section ig
nored by those of all national parties who shape the decisions
of our nation.
“If our schools are closed, we can no longer boast of our
great material progress. It will do little good to brag about
more brick, stone and concrete, or of our advantages in dis
tribution or culture, while a shocked and amazed world
looks at a hundred thousand innocent children roaming the
streets.
“Therefore, I regard the vigilance and support of our citi
zens to the cause of continued public education, as the most
important thing which confronts us during the fateful year
of 1960 . . .
“I know the people of Atlanta, who are proud of their city,
its marvelous growth and good reputation, will rise to this
challenge. There are those who will, as usual, shout hatred
and confusion, but the great majority will live up to the
best traditions of our town.
“I, therefore, urge that the entire city government and all
our citizens in every walk of life place themselves squarely
behind the preservation of public education and make the
same known to the members of the Georgia Legislature.”
# # #
U. S. District Judge Boyd Sloan or
dered Dobbs House Restaurant at At
lanta Municipal Airport to stop seg
regating customers.
The decision came in a suit filed by
H. D. Coke, a Birmingham Negro in
surance executive who claimed he was
discriminated against by being placed
behind a screen to eat at the restaurant.
Officials of the U. S. Klan, Knights of
the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., said the organi
zation planned to establish segregated
private schools in Atlanta, Macon, Sa
vannah, Columbus, and Moultrie.
A campaign to register 1.1 million
additional Negroes to reach a total of
2.5 million in urban and rural areas
throughout the South was announced
in Atlanta by the NAACP and the
Southern Christian Leadership Confer
ence.
Atty. Gen. Cook said state investiga
tors had uncovered Negro plans to or
ganize a mass “civil disobedience” dem
onstration in Atlanta, seeking to inte
grate public places and public trans
portation without violence.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who
Cook said would lead the demonstration,
denied such protests were planned now
or in the future.
Gov. John Patterson of Alabama, an
swering a Georgia newsman’s question
about Alabama’s pupil placement plan,
said Georgia should abandon public
schools rather than accept desegrega
tion. # # #