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MISSISSIPPI
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY—PAGE 7
Ross Barnett Becomes Governor;
Speech Considered ‘Temperate’
JACKSON, Miss.
R oss R. Barnett, 62-year-old
Jackson lawyer and uncom
promising segregationist, took of
fice Jan. 19 as governor of Missis
sippi with an admonition from out
going Gov. J. P. Coleman on the
racial issue.
Coleman urged the new gover
nor to “exercise that leadership
and that statesmanship which dis
courage racial stife, which pro
mote peace and goodwill between
the real leaders of all races and
thus march forward to ever great
er heights of progress for all peo
ple.”
Barnett’s temperate inaugural
message pledged “adequate educa
tional opportunities for all the
children of Mississippi and main
tenance of segregation at all costs.”
(See “Legislative Action.”)
The first segregation bill of the cur
rent 1960 biennial session of the Mis
sissippi Legislature was introduced in
the Senate. The measure would allow
individual churches to retain property
when withdrawing from denominational
governing bodies in protest of social
policies, such as integration. (See “Leg
islative Action.”)
Mississippi’s advisory committee to
the federal Civil Rights Commission,
composed of three whites and two Ne
groes, organized with the Rev. Murray
Cox, retired Methodist minister of
Gulfport, as chairman. Officers of state
branches of the National Assn, for the
Advancement of Colored People urged
Negroes to file complaints as the advis
ory group scheduled its second meeting
for Feb. 17. (See “Community Action.”)
Mississippi’s General Legislative In
vestigating Committee branded 12 text
books used in public schools as “unsat
isfactory” on grounds they teach “sub
version and one-worldism.” (See
“Community Action.”)
Two southern governors, a governor-
elect and an announced candidate for
governor of Arkansas attended Bar
nett’s inauguration to give support to
the new Mississippi chief executive’s
call for “southern unity.” (See “Politi
cal Activity.”)
Gov. Barnett’s inaugural message was
more temperate on the racial question
than were his statements on the politi
cal stumps last summer.
There was no direct mention of clos
ing public schools to prevent integra
tion. However, the new governor did
declare that “our schools at all levels
must be kept segregated at all costs.”
Barnett said:
“Our people, both white and col
ored, throughout generations, have suc
cessfully operated a dual system of edu
cation because we know it is best for
both races. I know that this is the best
and only system and I believe that the
thinking people of both races feel the
same way about it. Regardless, our
schools at all levels must be kept seg
regated at all costs.
“We must furnish adequate education
al opportunities for all the children of
Mississippi. You know and I know that
we will maintain segregation in Missis
sippi at all costs.
“With the cooperation of all the peo
ple of Mississippi, we will establish a
foundation that will be responsible for
an aggressive campaign that will alert
the people in all walks of life in every
section of this great nation to the dan
gers of centralized government. We
have many friends in the North, East
and West, who are ready and anxious
to join in a crusade to restore sanity in
government. We know that many mem
bers of Congress are being controlled
by minority pressure groups, to the
detriment of a majority of people in
their respective states. Public opinion
must be crystallized if the people are
to regain control of their government.”
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT’
In his final message to the Legislature,
before stepping from the governorship
to take a seat in the House of Repre
sentatives from his home county of
Choctaw, Coleman said that “the pres
ervation of the public schools and col
leges of this state without strife and
discord will always stand out as the
major accomplishments of this admin
istration.” He added:
“We now hand this happy state of af
fairs on to you, in the devout hope that
four years from now we can say with
pride that the accomplishment has been
repeated. I know you are solely to serve
your state and your people and that
you will not fail in this great crisis.
“You must not fail. Our system of free
public education, available to every
child without our borders, must not be
lost. We hear much talk of closing our
schools. The thinking man knows that
this approach is not a satisfactory an
swer. If our children are deprived of
schooling, if they are denied education
al opportunity, if they are compelled by
the mistakes of their elders to grow up
in ignorance, then we shall be all the
easier victims of our well-educated
enemies.
“The one way to encompass our even
tual defeat is to lose our public schools
and colleges. Let us then exercise that
leadership and that statesmanship
which discourage racial strife, which
promote peace and good will between
the real leaders of all races, and thus
march forward to ever greater heights
of progress for all people.”
CHURCH BILL SUBMITTED
Two senators from counties with large
Negro populations have introduced a
bill that would permit Protestant
churches to retain their physical prop
erties upon withdrawing from parent
jurisdictional bodies in protest of social
policies “contrary to the way of life” of
their membership.
The bill has been referred to the Ju
diciary Committee, which is headed by
one of its authors, Sen. W. B. Alexan
der of Bolivar County. The other au
thor is Sen. W. B. Lucas of Noxubee
County.
The bill, similar to one defeated at
the 1958 legislative session, is aimed at
maintenance of segregation locally with
in the particular denomination. Many
governing bodies, or conferences, of the
churches that would be affected are on
record favoring integration.
The severance of affiliation would be
on a vote of 65 per cent of the adult
membership of the church involved. It
primarily affects Methodist and Episco
pal churches, and others with similar
jurisdictional or ruling authoritative
systems.
A section of the bill states that it is
not to be construed “as being intended
to control any doctrinal, religious, ed
ucational, social or other formula or
practice” of the parent denomination or
its governing authorities.
Under the terms of the bill, local
churches withdrawing from their juris
dictional conferences or bodies would
be able to retain title to their church
properties. In cases where debts were
owed to the controlling body, the local
churches would reimburse those
amounts without interest.
Sen. Flavous Lambert of Belmont
(Tishomingo County), who was suc
cessful in defeating the 1958 proposal,
will again oppose it. He is a Methodist
lay leader.
LEGAL ACTION
The government presented a federal
grand jury at Biloxi with evidence in
the Mack Charles Parker lynching.
However, the panel of one Negro and
20 whites announced Jan. 14 it could
not return indictments on the evidence
presented.
It was the second time a grand jury
failed to indict in the kidnapping and
slaying of the 23-year-old Negro truck
driver from a Poplarville jail last April
25. He had been scheduled for trial two
days later on a charge of raping a
pregnant white housewife.
A Pearl River County grand jury
adjourned last November without tak
ing action in the lynching case.
V. O. Campbell of Collins announced
he has refused to accept appointment
on the state advisory committee to the
federal Civil Rights Commission. In
turning down the appointment, the for
mer president of the Mississippi Rural
Carriers Assn, asked the other five
members to strive to preserve segrega
tion and at the same time seek to im
prove the status of the Negro.
Meanwhile, the committee has set its
first meeting, following organization, for
Feb. 17 in Jackson. Named chairman
was the Rev. Murray Cox, retired
white Methodist minister.
The 69-year-old Gulfport minister
said he accepted appointment in an ef
fort “to contribute what little I can to
the proper and Christian relations be
tween the races.” He asserted that the
presence of a state group does not call
necessarily for integration by law.
Meanwhile, Medgar Evers, NAACP
field secretary in Mississippi, has ad
vised state branches that the commis
sion has been set up to “accept com
plaints from you and your friends who
have been denied the right to vote, or
if your civil rights have been violated
in any way.”
Evers said his suggestion that com
plaints be prepared for submission to
the state advisory group “is intended
for whites as well as Negroes.
“Many white people are having their
civil rights denied them through eco
nomic and other forms of pressure for
voicing disapproval of the operations of
the citizens council,” he said.
W. J. Simmons, administrator of the
Citizens Councils, an organization of
whites dedicated to preservation of seg
regation, has characterized members of
the state advisory committee as “trait
ors, scalawags and integrationists deter
mined to wreck the state’s segregated
school system.” He said the members
are “giving aid and comfort to the com
munist cause.”
Despite that, the five members—two
white men, two Negro men and one
white woman—have said they will
serve on the committee “to help solve
the state’s race problems.”
AP SURVEY
An Associated Press survey of the
five members showed that “none feared
the citizens councils attacks, none
feared possible council-backed econom
ic pressure and all plan to continue on
the committee.” Here are statements
given Associated Press by the civil
rights advisory committee:
The Rev. Mr. Cox—“The committee’s
duties are to serve as a clearing house
to funnel complaints to the Civil
Rights Commission. There is a feeling
among a great many people that the
Negro has not had justice and that he
is not recognized as a person with God-
given rights. The Negro has been held
down economically. Employment has
been held over him as a club and that’s
not right.”
Dr. James Lucius Allen of Columbus,
a Negro pharmacist and a member of
the NAACP—“My idea of the commit
tee’s duties is to help let the nation
know Mississippi is not as bad as they
thing it is. What I hope to achieve is
better relaionships between the white
and colored, more government and fac
tory jobs, more voting by Negroes, bet
ter transportation facilities for the Ne
gro and better education opportunities
for Negroes that will help them help
themselves.”
Retired Admiral Robert Briscoe of
Liberty, former southeast Europe NATO
commander—“I want to help put the
civil rights issue on the basis of evolu
tion. You can’t accomplish this by legal
or by pressure policy. Unless we furnish
the commission the information from
Mississippi, we are forced to take then-
decisions without being represented.”
Dr. A. Benjamin Britton of Jackson,
a Negro physician—“I think the pro
ponents of civil rights and states rights
are missing a great opportunity to ex
press themselves. I feel the same way
as that expressed by Admiral Briscoe.”
Mrs. Wallis I. Schutt, a white Jack-
son housewife and president of the Mis
sissippi Church Council—“I view the
committee’s functions as being to pro
mote understanding and a harmonious
working together toward the attain
ment of the ideals of equal opportunity
for all men.”
TEXTBOOKS UNDER FIRE
Removal of at least 12 textbooks from
the public school curriculum in Missis
sippi on grounds they are “unsatisfac
tory” has been recommended by the
General Legislative Investigating Com
mittee. It was made following a study of
27 books by E. Merrill Root of Rich
mond, Indiana, professor of English at
Earlham College, at the request of the
committee.
The committee asked for the study
after the Daughters of the American
Revolution said the books taught “sub
version and one-worldism” and were
written poorly.
Based on the criticisms and recom
mendations of Root, the committee, in a
lengthy mimeographed report filed with
the governor and Legislature, said the
12 books listed “should be given further
study by the State Textbook Purchas
ing Board in the light of the criticisms
Gov. Ross Barnett, left foreground, scribbles notes during inaugural ceremonies
at Jackson, Miss. Seated with him are Dr. W. M. Caskey, who gave the inaugural
prayer, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jimmie H. Davis of Louisiana, Alabama
Gov. John Patterson, South Carolina Gov. Ernest Hollins, Arkansas Atty. Gen.
Bruce Bennett, Mrs. J. P. Coleman and, right foreground, ex-Gov. Coleman.
made by this authority, and unless
there be reasons to the contrary, all
such textbooks should be eliminated
from further use in the public schools
of Mississippi.”
The books listed by the legislative
committee were:
United States History by Fremont P.
Wirth (The American Book Co.); Into
Your Teens by Shacter, Jenkins and
Bower (Scott, Foresman & Co.); Good
Times Through Literature by Pooley,
Pooley, Lerda and Sellhoefer (Scott,
Foresman & Co.); Economic Problems
of Today by Klein and Colvin (Lyons
and Carnahan); Geography and World
Affairs by Jones and Murphy (Rand
McNally and Co.)
This Is America’s Story by Wilder,
Ludlum, Brown (Houghton Mifflin
Co.); The Record of Mankind by
Roehm, Buske, Webster and Wesley
(D. C. Health and Co.); Man’s Achieve
ment Through the Ages by Habberton
and Roth (Laidlaw Brothers); Your
Country and the World by Tiegs, Ad
ams, and Glendinning (Ginn and Co.);
Magruder’s American Government by
William A. McClenaghan (Allyn and
Bacon); Adventures For Readers, Book
1, by Ross, Nieman and Bowman (Har-
court, Brace and Co.); World History
by Boak, Slosson and Anderson
(Houghton, Mifflin and Co.)
Meanwhile, the executive committee
of the Mississippi Congress of Parents
and Teachers, headed by Mrs. J. M. Ew
ing of Cleveland, wife of the president
of Delta State College, in reaffirming
its faith and confidence in the school
people of Mississippi, said:
“It is parent-teacher policy to seek
and to help provide the best education
al advantages for all our children. In
asmuch as the textbook controversy is
school-centered and affects the welfare
of our children, it is suggested that local
units follow established policy in look
ing to, and seeking from school princi
pals, superintendents and teachers in
formation and guidance in the matter
of the textbook problem.”
In addition to the governor, the state
superintendent of education serves on
the adoption board with schoolmen and
women appointed by the governor.
Committees of active teachers are
named to first screen the books and
they are advised to “search out” objec
tionable matter.
Gov. Barnett, in his inaugural mes
sage relative to Mississippi and the
Democratic national party leadership,
said:
“In the past we have had sad expe
rience in our relationship with the par
ty. We have seen nothing that would
indicate that future experiences will be
any different.”
Attending his inauguration were Gov.
John Patterson of Alabama; Gov. Er
nest Hollings of South Carolina; Gov.-
elect Jimmie Davis of Louisiana, and
Atty. Gen. Bruce Bennett of Arkansas,
an announced candidate for Gov. Orval
Faubus’ Job.
Urging southern unity, Gov. Barnett
departed from his prepared text and
turned to the visiting officials. He said:
“Thanks for what looks to me like
southern unity crystallizing right here
in Jackson, Miss., today.”
Later, Gov. Patterson said he was
“very pleased” with Barnett’s state
ments relative to the national party, and
that he also, as was advocated by the
Mississippi chief executive, favors an
uninstructed delegation to the national
convention.
Gov. Hollings said Barnett’s inaugu
ration “is a step towards southern uni
ty,” and that he too has recommended
an uninstructed national convention
delegation from South Carolina.
Gov.-elect Davis said he would “as
sume a wait-and-see attitude.”
Atty. Gen. Bennett said “Gov. Bar
nett stated my sentiments exactly.”
NO CHIP ON SHOULDER
On the national party issue, Gov.
Barnett said:
“Although it will not be my purpose
to go to the convention with a chip on
my shoulder, certainly, I will not stand
idly by and see the radical, left-wing
elements of the party continue to de
stroy the inherent constitutional rights
of our people.
“It is my hope that the state conven
tion will send an uninstructed delega
tion to the national convention to vote
as a unit and that the state convention
will recess and return into session after
the national convention adjourns to de
termine the proper course of action.
“I have always believed that honor
able men and women cannot comprom
ise principles and therefore, at the na
tional convention, I will be uncomprom
ising on those issues that would cause
Mississippi and the South to break from
traditions and compromise those things
which we have so long believed to be
right.”
A special committee has been named
by the Board of Trustees of State In
stitutions of Higher Learning to inter
view prospects for the presidency of
Mississippi State University, which Dr.
Ben F. Hilbun is relinquishing under
the retirement system. Hilbun has
reached the mandatory retirement age
of 70.
Harry Carpenter of Rolling Fork is
chairman of the committee. It has re
ceived nominations from groups recom
mending 25 for the presidency. The
deadline for receiving nominations was
Feb. 1.
In an 1114 minute invocation at the
governor’s inauguration, Dr. W. M. Cas
key asked God to help the new chief
executive keep segregation during his
administration.
Caskey is professor of social studies
at Mississippi College, a Baptist school
attended by the governor, and both men
are members of the Citizens Councils.
In his prayer, he said:
“Father of all of us, during these
crowded and anxious days, grant to him
and his co-laborers the strength and
patience and fortitude to meet every
emergency with a triumphant spirit.
Give to him, and all of them, a calm
courage and an undying faith in his
southern cause, to which we must—if
we would survive—dedicate our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
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