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ALABAMA
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY—PAGE 9
Pupil Placement Law No Guarantee, Patterson Says
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
A labama’s school placement
law will not prevent all inte
gration, Gov. John Patterson has
warned the state.
“There’s no point in kidding
ourselves,” Patterson said. “The
first time it is used to preserve
segregation, then I am sure the
Q.S. Supreme Court will declare
it unconstitutional.”
Although there are no school
integration cases now pending in
the state, Patterson expressed ap
prehension for what might unfold
in 1960. (See “Legal Action.”)
The state braced for what
might well be its first school in
tegration showdown, in Hunts
ville. The Justice Department in
Washington announced some
move would be made during the
year to integrate a school serving
Redstone Arsenal. Patterson has
threatened to call out the Na
tional Guard to prevent the ac
tion. (See “Legal Action.”)
The state Democratic Executive
Committee opened the door Jan. 23 for
another possible bolt like that in 1948.
Under the rules adopted by the com
mittee, presidential electors this year
may vote for whomever they choose.
(See “Political Activity.”)
LEGAL ACTION
The South must face the fact that it
may have to close its public schools to
maintain segregation, Gov. John Pat
terson warned in a statement question
ing the effectiveness of placement laws.
Alabamians are clinging to false
hopes, the governor said, if they expect
the state’s assignment statute to pre
vent all integration. Although the law
has been held valid on its face by the
federal courts (Southern School News,
June and December 1958), “the first
time it is used to preserve segregation,
then I am sure the U.S. Supreme Court
will declare it unconstitutional,” Pat
terson said.
“We need to stop talking and let
them know that we won’t integrate our
schools. We must make it plain that we
will close our schools first.”
White parents must prepare to make
sacrifices to support private schools,
Patterson continued. The abolition of
public schools will hurt Negroes worse
than whites because Negroes cannot fi
nance private facilities, he said.
Patterson said there have been
“rumblings” suggesting that the state
may have some integration cases by
September. But, he added, “If a school
is ordered to be integrated, then it will
be closed. The people of Alabama will
not tolerate integration.”
HUNTSVILLE MOVE SLATED
As the governor expressed these
opinions, a spokesman for the civil
rights division of the Justice Depart
ment said in Washington that some
move would be made this year to in
tegrate an elementary school in Hunts
ville.
Gov. Patterson threatened last Nov.
13 (SSN, December 1959) to call out
the National Guard if the government
attempts to carry out the plan. At the
time, Patterson said the move was “the
opening battle of an all-out war to
destroy our customs, traditions and
way of life.” The state will resist
“every step of the way,” he said.
In a year-end report, Joseph M. F.
Ryan, acting head of the Justice De
partment’s civil rights division, served
notice that the government “will take
swift and vigorous action to protect
the rights of citizens” if states fail to
do so.
The Huntsville school is said by
government officials to be one of only
two on federal property still segregat
ed. The other is at Dyess Air Force
Base in Texas.
Dr. Raymond L. Christian, Huntsville
school superintendent, has denied that
the school in question—Madison Pike—
is operated exclusively for children of
Redstone personnel. He said not more
than 50 per cent of the total enroll
ment is made up of military depend
ents. Huntsville school officials also
insisted that the land on which the
school was built, although formerly a
part of the arsenal, had been deeded to
the city.
As soon as other court actions are
disposed of, the Justice Department
spokesman said, the Huntsville case
will have top priority.
U.S. Civil Rights Commission agents
continued their investigations in at
least four Alabama counties during
January—Montgomery, Lowndes, Dal
las and Wilcox.
A commission investigator said 45
NORTH CAROLINA
Negroes Seek Injunction
Against Yancey Board
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
A n attorney for 27 Negro stu
dents has filed a motion for an
injunction to prevent the Yancey
County school board from operat
ing segregated schools. (See “Le
gal Action.”)
An old suit against the school
board in Greensboro has been
held moot and a federal judge has
said he would dismiss it. (See “Le
gal Action.”)
Chapel Hill School Board mem
bers have been asked by a citi
zens’ committee to explain details
of their proposed plan of desegre
gation which is expected to be
come effective next fall. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Ruben J. Dailey, Asheville Negro at
torney representing 27 Negro students
from Yancey County, filed a motion in
Western District Federal Court asking
for a preliminary injunction against the
Yancey County school board.
The injunction would prevent the
Yancey board from operating segregat
ed schools. Accompanying the motion
was a formal request for admission of
the Negro children to Yancey’s white
schools.
The motion for the restraining order
said that “unless restrained by this
court, the defendants will continue to
ommit the acts referred to in this com
plaint (segregation on a racial basis),
which acts will cause further irrepar
able injury, loss and damage to plain
tiffs.”
The action is a continuation of a legal
move begun by Dailey Nov. 11 when
he filed a complaint charging that Yan
cey County Negro children were being
deprived of their constitutional rights.
He based the action on the ground
that there is no school in Yancey Coun
ty for Negro children and they are not
being admitted to white schools in the
county.
NEEDED REPAIR
The Yancey County Board of Educa
tion closed the county’s only school for
Negroes—a one-room unit—in 1958. It
was in need of considerable repair and
Negro parents had declined to send their
children to it.
Last fall, the parents of the Negro
children petitioned the Yancey board
for admission to white schools. During
the 1958-59 school year the students
had made an 80-mile-a-day round trip
by bus from Burnsville (Yancey County
seat) to Asheville schools, in adjacent
Buncombe County.
The Yancey board denied the requests
for admission to white schools and, in
August of 1959, again assigned the Ne
gro students to Asheville city schools
under a continuing agreement with the
Asheville system.
The 27 students in the current suit
represent almost the entire elementary
Negro school population of sparsely set
tled, mountainous Yancey County which
has about 4,000 white students.
The Negro students this fall declined
to make the daily bus trip to Asheville.
(See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 10)
voting complaints have been checked
in Montgomery.
“They sneaked in and sneaked out,”
said Montgomery Sol. William F.
Thetford.
A. H. Rosenfeld, head of the commis
sion’s field division, said his agents had
attempted to inspect voting records in
Wilcox, Lowndes and Dallas but had
not been able to gain access to the doc
uments.
Rosenfeld was quoted as saying Gov.
Patterson had been party to an agree
ment to permit CRC agents to see the
records in the three counties. Patterson
denied this, saying:
“The trouble with Rosenfeld is his
word ain’t no good. There was no
agreement.”
But, the governor added:
“If he made an agreement, it was to
not sue the state and he repudiated his
own agreement. This commission has
used lies, intimidation and harassment
against our public officials.
“I don’t think we should cooperate
in any way with the Civil Rights Com
mission. It is the most unconstitutional
body there is. They are trying to de
stroy our schools and stir up race con
flict. If the President wanted to help
the country, he would kick that bunch
out.
“Let them go to New York City
where you can’t even walk down the
street safely.”
DELIGHTED’
The governor said that if there had
been any agreement, as Rosenfeld said,
the “civil righters broke it.” But, he
added, if he had caused the commis
sion any difficulty he was “delighted.”
There had been an agreement for the
agents to see records in Macon Coun
ty, Patterson said, “but what did they
do? They went ahead and sued us
anyway.”
This was a reference to the federal
suit challenging the right of two Ma
con registrars to resign, as they had,
leaving the county without a function
ing board of registrars.
U.S. District Judge Frank M. John
son Jr. of Montgomery ruled last year
that the men had the right to resign
before the suit was brought and could
not be made a party to it. Further
more, he ruled, the state could not be
sued under the Civil Rights Act. The
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld
his view. The case is now pending be
fore the U.S. Supreme Court.
Macon Negroes have, since January
of 1958, petitioned Gov. Patterson once
every week, by registered mail, to ap
point a “publicly functioning” board of
registrars in Macon. No board has op
erated in the county since Dec. 10,
1958, when the two registrars, State
Rep. Grady Rogers and E. P. Livings
ton, resigned. They quit in the face of
a Civil Rights Commission hearing in
Montgomery that month. Both were
the targets of the federal suit, which
Judge Johnson rejected.
Three registrars were appointed last
November but they have neither ac
cepted nor rejected the appointments.
PARK, BUS SUITS
A group of Birmingham Negroes are
seeking a hearing in federal court on
park segregation.
A Negro leader in the city said that
Negroes were sitting without difficulty
wherever they chose on city buses
after circulars were distributed urging
them to “ride desegregated.”
In Mobile, U.S. District Judge Dan
iel H. Thomas denied a petition for a
summary judgment ordering buses de
segregated.
The stage is set in Alabama for a
repeat performance of 1948, when the
state’s electoral votes went to the
Dixiecrats.
The state Democratic Executive
Committee adopted a rule Jan. 23 that
leaves Alabama’s 11 presidential elec
tors free to vote for any candidate—
Democrat, Republican or possibly a
third-party nominee.
The vote on the rule, similar to the
one in effect in 1948, was 44-24 after a
states right leader, Frank Mizell Jr. of
Montgomery, denounced the national
party:
“The South and the southern Dem
ocrats are the very backbone of the
Democratic Party. And we are tired of
having our consistent support and
loyalty rewarded by being the party’s
idiot and whipping boy.”
The committee also approved a res
olution calling for the election of a
huge delegation to the Democratic Na
tional Convention—56 delegates, with a
half-vote each, and 28 alternates.
Hubert Baughn, editor of South
magazine and a Patterson administra
tion supporter, said earlier that the
Alabama delegation would go to Los
Angeles “uninstructed and damn
doubtful.”
WHAT THEY SAY
Race relations in the South did not
change appreciably in 1959, according
to the 46th annual report of Tuskegee
Institute.
Some Tuskegee conclusions in the
Jan. 23 report:
“Despite the urgency of America’s
aspiration to promote peace, which was
highlighted by President Eisenhower’s
late December visits to several world
capitals, there was—on balance—little
compelling evidence that America it
self was able, during 1959, to advance
human understanding significantly
within its own boundaries.
“Efforts to remove barriers struc
tured in segregation continued despite
adamant opposition in some areas of
the southern region. In sum, the year
showed further legal support and eco
nomically based rationalization for
public desegregation, limited extension
of desegregation practices, successful
action by many state and local govern
ments to avoid desegregation, and a
hesitancy by America’s citizens to face
the moral implications of continued
segregation.”
Although Negroes continued to sup
port agencies working for equality, the
report continued, “most American citi
zens found their energies devoted
chiefly to the daily requirements of
living, a task demanding the very best
they could do . . .”
Mass communication media “com
mented extensively on desegregation
and tended to highlight the arguments
for segregation, either directly or by
implication,” the report said. “A va
riety of community services by Ne
groes and their organizations remained
largely unreported.” Result: “The gen
eral public tended to form opinions of
the citizenship role of the Negro based
upon the often sensational and nega
tive reports disseminated by the mass
media.”
Because of the barriers to communi
cation between the races, whites failed
to understand “the aspiration of Ne
groes ... to share the full rights and
duties of American citizenship.”
Although some church groups and
other organizations attempted to face
the desegregation issue, “there were no
momentous accomplishments.”
COMPLIANCE AND DEFIANCE
The report reviews federal, state and
local action—defiance as well as com
pliance—and voluntary group action.
Of school boards, for example, the re
port said:
“One of the main functions of school
boards using pupil placement plans
appeared to be to keep as many Ne
groes as possible from entering schools
of their choice.”
The report said there was further
evidence of Klan resurgence in several
states.
“The Klan forced persons from their
jobs and homes and burned crosses on
private and public property. But the
most obvious indications that the Klan
was in favor with the people and with
some city and state authorities were
the various signs of welcome that ap
peared on highways just before visitors
enter certain cities.”
The annual report was originally a
lynching survey. But this was aban
doned several years ago with the ex
planation that lynching was no longer
an accurate barometer of race rela
tions in the South.
GOVERNOR’S CONTENTION
Gov. Patterson contends that some
Negro teachers in Montgomery have
protested the school integration effort
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his
Montgomery Improvement Assn.
Patterson said he had been “reliably
informed” that King failed to get the
support he expected and this was a
reason for his decision to move to At
lanta Feb. 1 (SSN, January 1960).
“A number of Negro school teachers
in this community have told Martin
Luther King that they didn’t like his
way of doing things,” Patterson said,
“that they weren’t behind him in his
school integration efforts, and that they
were satisfied with the state’s school
program.
“I am further informed that his fail
ure to gain support led to his decision
to leave Alabama.”
The governor said his information
indicated Negroes are afraid schools
will be closed and that they will lose
their jobs.
In his Dec. 3 speech to the Montgom
ery Improvement Assn., (SSN, Janu
ary 1960), King said his reason for
moving to Atlanta was to establish a
better base of operations for the South
ern Christian Leadership Conference,
which he heads. But he did attack those
Negroes who would "sell their souls for
a mess of pottage.”
In response to the governor’s con
tention about the reason for his leav
ing Montgomery, King denied that any
disagreement had figured in his deci
sion. He reiterated his plans to expand
his integration work on a regional basis
through the Southern Christian Lead
ership Conference.
SHOULDN’T HAVE POWER
Louis Eckl, editor of the Florence
Times, told a discussion group at the
second Education Roundtable in Mont
gomery that no man should have the
power to close the public school sys
tem to prevent integration.
Eckl said that while he favors seg
regation, “If we in Alabama are so
cowardly as to let that happen then we
deserve anything that comes.”
Segregation, Eckl said, is being de
stroyed by its friends.
The Education Roundtable is spon
sored by the Alabama Committee for
Better Schools.
Two Negro men who applied last
spring for admission to the state voca
tional trade school in Mobile have re
peated their demands to be enrolled.
Clay Knight, school director, said he
had received a letter from Ernest L.
Koen and Frank E. Lee saying:
“Our applications have not been
acted upon . . . although an uncon
scionable period of time has elapsed.
Moreover, applications by other Negro
citizens have similarly been ignored.
We therefore demand that we be forth
with admitted to our requested pro
grams of training.”
The state operates seven trade
schools. One, near Birmingham, is for
Negroes.
LIBRARY DIRECTOR RESIGNS
Miss Emily W. Reed, state director
of the Alabama Library Service who
was attacked by segregationists last
year, has resigned to accept a library
consultant job in Washington.
Miss Reed found herself in the mid
dle of a furore last year over the li
brary service’s distribution of a chil
dren’s book, The Rabbit Wedding,
about the courtship and marriage of a
white rabbit with a black rabbit.
Principal critic was Sen. E. O. Ed-
dins of Marengon County who threat
ened to block the budget for the li
brary service. Eddins also denounced
the library service’s circulation of a list
of “notable books of 1958” which in
cluded, he charged, some with pro-in
tegration leanings (Southern School
News, September 1959). Among the
books so listed was Martin Luther
King’s Stride Toward Freedom-
In her statement of resignation, Miss
Reed told the State Library Board:
“There have been many difficulties,
but there have also been so many
stimulating, pleasant and heart-warm
ing contacts and experiences.”
Her resignation was accepted “with
regret.” A native of North Carolina,
Miss Reed was appointed library serv
ice director in 1957. # # #
MISS EMILY REED
Takes New Job