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PAGE 12—MARCH I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ARKANSAS
Dollarway Told to Submit Plan;
Admission
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
n the Dollar way desegregation
case, a federal district judge
dismissed the supplemental com
plaint of three Negro plaintiffs
asking immediate admission to the
white high school.
The court did order the Dollar
way board to submit within 30
days a plan to eliminate segrega
tion. The decision contained many
points dealing with the use of the
state pupil assignment law. (See
“Legal Action.”)
The U.S. Supreme Court threw
out the convictions of two Ar
kansas officers of the National
Assn, for the Advancement of
Colored People who had refused
to obey municipal ordinances re
quiring them to submit lists of
NAACP members and contribu
tors. (See “Legal Action.”)
The State Supreme Court unani
mously upheld Act 10 of 1958, which
requires affidavits from teachers on
their membership in organizations as a
condition of employment. (See “Legal
Action.”)
A dynamite explosion the night of
Feb. 9 slightly damaged the home of a
Negro girl attending Little Rock Cen
tral High School. No one was hurt. Ten
days later, police arrested two Negro
neighbors of the family. No motive has
been disclosed. (See “Miscellaneous.”)
A small national veterans organization
announced that it would investigate the
treatment of Negroes at Little Rock
Air Force Base, stirring a storm of
protest. (See “Community Action.”)
There was a lot of talk and two out-
of-state developments on the prospect
that Gov. Orval E. Faubus of Arkansas
might be a candidate for president this
year. (See “Political Activity.”)
Federal District Judge J. Smith
Henley handed down his decision Feb.
19 on the supplemental complaint by
three Negro students in the Dollarway
case (Dove v. Parham). The complaint
was that the Dollarway school board
had used the state pupil assignment law
illegally to maintain segregation.
The three plaintiffs asked immediate
transfer from Townsend Park (Negro)
School to the Dollarway (white)
School. Judge Henley dismissed the
complaint but ordered the Dollarway
board to submit to him within 30 days
an “affirmative policy or plan” to
eliminate compulsory segregation in
the school district.
This was the second appearance by
Dove v. Parham in District Court. The
suit was filed in February 1959 and, in
the slimmer of 1959, was heard in U.S.
District Court at Little Rock by Judge
Axel J. Beck of South Dakota. While
upholding the pupil assignment law on
its face, Judge Beck ordered the three
plaintiffs admitted to the white high
school.
The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals reversed the part of that decision
about immediate admission and the
Negro plaintiffs then finished out the
administrative appeals listed in the as
signment law. When their transfer to
the white school was denied again,
they filed a supplemental complaint in
federal court.
OTHER POINTS
Here are some points made on the
Pupil Assignment Law (Act 461 of
1959) by Judge Henley in his memo
randum opinion:
1) Although law required it, the Ne
gro plaintiffs did not need to (they
hadn’t) appeal from the school board
to the state courts, for two reasons: (1)
Such an appeal is judicial in character,
not administrative; (2) The complaint
would be that a federal constitutional
right was being violated and there is
no need to go into state courts with
that.
2) A school board has the right to
give “reasonable” tests and examina
tions to students who request transfers
to schools attended by another race.
Such tests and examinations may not
be of a character that cause discrimi
nation.
3) Under the 1954 Brown decision, a
Complaint
school board must initiate a policy
eliminating compulsory segregation,
once it’s demanded.
4) the race of a student requesting
a transfer may be considered to a lim
ited extent, under certain circum
stances. One circumstance is that the
school board must be operating under
a plan leading to the elimination of
segregation.
5) Some standards (not listed) set
by the Dollarway board, by which
transfer requests are to be judged, are
vague but appear to be susceptible of
a constitutional application.
6) If in the future, initial student as
signments are based on race (as at
Dollarway) and if assignment law
standards are applied only to those re
questing reassignment (as at Dollar
way), then “such application would be
invalid.”
7) The Dollarway board’s approach
to the situation is essentially negative.
It claims to recognize the Brown deci-
sion, yet it has not announced any af
firmative plan for eliminating segrega
tion. Until it does so, it has not
discharged its duties under the Brown
decision. Such a statement of policy
will be required to be submitted within
30 days.
8) It would serve no good purpose to
order the three plaintiffs admitted im
mediately to the white school nor to
send their requests back to the Dol
larway board for new consideration. It
is too late in the school year and the
board also has a policy against such
transfers at the higher grade levels.
Judge Henley noted that his decision
would mean that one of the three
plaintiffs, a senior, would have to com
plete her schooling in the Negro school.
He said this would not cause her to
suffer “educationwis” and that her
personal interest did not outweigh the
larger interests that the court had to
keep in mind.
THREE APPEAL
E. A. Lauderdale Sr., 48, an officer
of the Capital Citizens Council at Lit
tle Rock, was sentenced Feb. 17 to
three years in jail and was fined $500
in the dynamiting of the Little Rock
school board office last Labor Day.
Pending his appeal to the State Su
preme Court, he remains free under
$50,000 bond.
Appearing in Circuit Court for the
sentencing, Lauderdale made his first
public statement since his arrest last
September. It was “I’m not guilty.” He
had not testified during his trial.
Two men, Jesse Raymond Perry, 24,
and John Taylor Coggins, 39, were
sentenced during February—Perry to
three years and Coggins to three years
plus a $500 fine. Both are appealing to
the State Supreme Court.
KILLS CONVICTION
In a unanimous decision Feb. 23, the
U.S. Supreme Court nullified the con
victions of two NAACP officers for re
fusing to obey two municipal ordi
nances requiring them to disclose the
names of NAACP members and con
tributors.
Mrs. L. C. Bates of Little Rock, state
NAACP president, and Mrs. Birdie
Williams, president of the North Little
Rock branch of the NAACP, had been
fined $25 each under the “Bennett or
dinances of the two cities. Their con
victions had been upheld by the State
Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
the disclosure requirement violated the
First Amendment to the Constitution.
“There was substantial uncontro
verted evidence,” the court ruled,
that public identification of persons in
the community as members of the or
ganizations have been followed by ha
rassment and threats of bodily harm.”
The court did not rule the ordi
nances unconstitutional but only that
they could not be used to force the
NAACP to give up the names.
The ordinances are called occupa
tional privilege tax ordinances and
were invented in 1957 by State Atty.
Gen. Bruce Bennett, who says 28 cities
in Arkansas have adopted such laws.
Bennett, who has never made any
secret that the ordinances were aimed
at the NAACP, called the decision only
a temporary victory for the NAACP
and said that he was working on new
ways of handicapping the organization.
The next day Bennett coined a new
word—“de-integrate.” He said he was
working on a program that he would
use, if elected governor, to “de-inte
grate” the schools, buses and other
Dismissed
facilities that now accept Negroes on a
basis equal with the whites.
He wouldn’t go into detail but said
the schools could use the pupil assign
ment law to remain or return to an all-
white situation.
The State Supreme Court ruled Feb.
8 that Act 10 of 1958, the Teacher Af
fidavit Law, was constitutional on its
face, but that it could be made invalid
if used in a “discriminatory manner.”
The plaintiffs, Max F. Carr, former
music teacher at the University of
Arkansas, and Ernest T. Gephardt,
printing instructor at Little Rock Cen
tral High School, asked for a rehearing.
The decision affirmed an earlier de
cision by Judge Murray O. Reed in the
Chancery Court of Pulaski County
(Little Rock). In another suit the law
has been upheld also by a three-judge
federal district court and is on appeal
to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The law was adopted at the 1958 spe
cial legislative session called to deal
with the desegregation crisis at Little
Rock. All public school and college em
ployes must file, as a condition of em
ployment, an affidavit listing all the or
ganizations to which they belong or
have contributed in the last five years.
Justice George Rose Smith wrote the
unanimous opinion, which noted that
the court was not passing on the wis
dom of the law.
Part of the evidence submitted to the
plaintiffs was the threat made by the
Citizens Council to examine the teacher
affidavits to find out which teachers
belong to the NAACP, the Urban
League and other organizations op
posed by the Citizens Council, and to
have these teachers discharged. (The
Citizens Council has not carried out
this intention.)
On this point the court ruled, “The
most that can be said is that at least
some members of the Citizens Councils
are so ill-advised as to advocate that
course. ‘Ill-advised’ is the proper term,
since such an effort, if successful,
would defeat its own purpose by ren
dering the Act invalid.”
NEW LAWSUIT
The NAACP filed a new lawsuit in
Chancery Court at Little Rock against
four laws adopted at the 1958 special
session—Acts 12, 13, 14 and 16. All
were sponsored by Atty. Gen. Bennett
to restrict NAACP activities.
A similar suit was filed previously in
federal district court, which said that
the state courts should be allowed to
rule first.
About 11:10 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 9—
a night of thunder, lightning and rain—
an explosion occurred beneath a living
room window at the home of Carlotta
Walls, 16, one of five Negro students
attending Little Rock Central High
School.
The explosion knocked a hole about
two feet square in the brick wall and
broke windows in the Walls house and
in a house across the street. Mrs. Walls,
Carlotta and two younger daughters
were in bedrooms on the opposite side
of the house and were not injured.
Walls was away.
Ten days laters, police arrested and
charged two Negroes, friends and
neighbors of the Walls family. Author
ities later said the explosion consisted
of three sticks of dynamite.
The suspects are Maceo Antonio
Binns Jr., 31, who lives four blocks
from the Walls house, and Herbert
Odell Monts, 17, who lives half a block
away. They are charged under the
same statute as five white men in con
nection with three Labor Day explo
sions. The next day, police questioned
10 more Negroes, including Cartelyou
Walls, the father of Carlotta. All were
released.
MOTIVE UNKNOWN
Was the explosion connected with the
desegregation situation in Little Rock?
Prosecuting Atty. J. Frank Holt said
that it was possible but that so far the
motive was unknown. He said he had
found nothing to show that revenge or
animosity toward Walls or Carlotta was
behind the dynamiting.
Binns is a chauffeur and handyman
for the owner of a Little Rock paper
company, who spoke of the suspect as
kind and mild-mannered. Binns and
Cartelyou Walls have known each
other for years. He has no criminal
record.
Monts, an 11th grade student at Hor-
NEGRO STUDENT’S HOUSE BOMBED IN LITTLE ROCK
Police in Car Guard Negro Home of Central High Pupil Carlotta Walls
ace Mann (Negro) High School, has
lived near the Walls family all his life.
Neighbors said he and Carlotta grew
up playing together.
Binns and Monts were arraigned Feb.
23 in Circuit Court and entered pleas
of innocent. At the request of their at
torneys, bonds were reduced from
$50,000 to $15,000. No trial date was set.
Nothing was said in court about a mo
tive for the dynamiting.
Reaction the day after this explosion
was considerably more subdued than
that after the Labor Day explosions. W.
F. Aector, president of the Chamber of
Commerce, called it “a minor incident,
blown up out of all proportion by the
press over the entire nation.” He said
the Labor Day explosions had blown
up the chances of getting a 30-million-
dollar industry for Little Rock and
that nine industrial prospects were be
ing courted at the time of the Walls
explosion. Two days later the Cham
ber of Commerce put up $2,500 reward
money.
Mrs. L. C. Bates, state NAACP presi
dent, snapped back at Rector for call
ing it a minor incident and for think
ing first of its possible effect on new
industry instead of the Walls family.
Neither Carlotta nor any of the other
Negro students missed a day of school
because of the explosion.
At Washington, the American Vet
erans Committee (AVC, not the
AMVETS) announced it had Defense
Department and Veterans Administra
tion approval for a nationwide investi
gation at VA and military facilities of
the treatment accorded veterans and
Negroes.
Their announced schedule included
the Little Rock Air Force base on
March 4-6. This drew a torrent of ob
jections. Atty. Gen. Bruce Bennett and
the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce
fired off telegrams to Washington. All
major veterans organizations in the
state issued statements protesting the
investigation. The state’s congressmen
in Washington also protested and asked
the government agencies to reconsider
their approval of the investigation.
The AVC, founded in 1945, is a rela
tively small organization.
There was much talk in February
about the prospect that Gov. Faubus
might run for president of the United
States this year. There were some con
crete developments in Louisiana and
California.
At the first of the month, Faubus an
nounced that he had accepted an in
vitation from William P. Gale to speak
on April 1 at a states rights rally at
Los Angeles, Calif. Gale, a retired
Army colonel, then called a press con
ference to announce that he was start
ing a Faubus-for-president organiza
tion.
A former Republican who now is a
member of the Constitution Party, Gale
said: “This thing is going to bust wide
open at the Democratic National Con
vention because of the wide variety of
candidates.”
Faubus said he would keep the
speaking engagement at Los Angeles
but that he was going out there as “a
Democrat and a free citizen,” not as a
presidential candidate.
A couple of weeks later, the Faubus-
for-President Committee held a rally at
Hollywood and Gale said he would
urge Faubus to let his name be entered
in the presidential primary in Cali
fornia
Back at Little Rock, Faubus said that
“if I decide I want my name in a pri
mary somewhere, I’ll do it mystelf.” At
another point he said that “at this time
I’m not interested in running for presi
dent.”
SEEMED TO APPROVE
While all this was going on, Tom
Igoe of Ruston, La., wrote the governor
that he had a good chance to be a dele
gate to the Democratic Convention and
that if so he’d like to cast his ballot
for Faubus for president. Faubus sent
back a telegram, seeming to approve
Igoe’s plans.
Igoe released the telegram to the
newspapers and the resultant publicity
seemed to irk the governor. Faubus
said the telegram meant only that he
had no objections to whatever Igoe
wanted to do, that he wasn’t advising
Igoe one way or another.
CANDIDATE ANNOUNCES
J. Frank Holt of Little Rock, prose
cuting attorney, announced as a candi
date for state attorney general. He
drew a prompt rebuttal from the Capi
tal Citizens Council of Little Rock,
which accuses Holt of working with
the “race-mixing crowd” in his suc
cessful prosecution of the Labor Day
dynamiters.
Arkansas has 517,897 white persons
and 72,604 Negroes eligible to vote in
the Democratic primaries this year, ac
cording to the unofficial biennial sur
vey made by state Auditor Jimmy
Jones. This gives Negroes 12 per cent
of the votes, compared to 24 per cent
of the population. Fourteen of the 75
counties have no Negro voters and 25
more have less than 500.
In a surprise move the Little Rock
School Board instructed its attorneys
Feb. 25 to find out if it could recover
any of the money withheld by the state
and paid to other schools during the
year the high schools were closed.
The amount is $187,768. Of that,
$71,907.50 was paid to the T. J. Raney
High School, a private school set up by
Gov. Faubus and his supporters at Little
Rock, and the rest, $115,860.50, to va
rious public schools in the state.
A total of $510,220 was withheld by
the state during 1958-59 when the four
Little Rock high schools were closed by
Faubus to prevent the second year of
desegregation at Central High. Only
$187,768 of that was actually paid to
Raney and other public schools because
the enforcement of the laws, Acts 4 and
5 of 1958, was halted by court injunc
tion before the school year was com
pleted. Later the two laws were de
clared unconstitutional by the federal
courts.
INSPECT SCHOOLS
Three representatives of the North
Central Assn, of Secondary Schools
and Colleges visited Little Rock in
February to inspect Central, Hall and
Mann high schools and to determine
whether the three schools should be
re-accredited. Their recommendation
won’t be made known until the NCA
meeting in April.
The three high schools lost their
accreditation during the 1958-59 school
year when they were closed by Gov.
Faubus to avoid a second year of de
segregation at Central.
Students who left Little Rock during
the year the schools were closed are
still drifting back. The school board, at
its meeting at the end of January, as
signed 28 more of them to various high
schools.
Three anonymous threats of bombs
in Hot Springs junior high schools were
made during February but no bombs
were found. The schools involved are
all-white. Hot Springs has no desegre
gated schools but the school district
conducts an adult class in mechanics
for both races. # # #