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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