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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. # # #