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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH I960—PAGE 15 GEORGIA Legislature Creates Study Group MACON, Ga. reation of a study commis sion was the Legislature’s an swer to a federal court judge’s rul ing that Georgians must decide whether they want desegregation or closed public schools. The commission will report May 1 but the Legislature did nothing about the pupil placement plan, prepared by the Atlanta Board of Education at the insistence of the U.S. District Court. (See “Legis lative Action.”) The Legislature’s failure to act, an attorney for the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People said, meant that Negro plaintiffs in the Atlanta case would ask the federal court to implement immediately the desegregation plan. (See “Legal Action.”) The General Assembly of Georgia ad journed after a 40-day session without taking any action on the school deseg regation issue other than to create a study commission. The commission, although unofficially said not to be an administration idea, was nevertheless reported to be backed by Gov. Ernest Vandiver and his key lieutenants. The 19-member group, called the General Assembly Committee on Schools, is headed by John A. Sibley, 71-year-old Atlanta banker. He is chair man of the executive committee of the Trust Company of Georgia and presi dent of the University of Georgia Alum ni Society. The other members, all white, include eight presidents of statewide organiza tions, three state senators, five House members, and three Georgia school and college officials. They are: Samuel J. Boykin, a su perior court judge from Carrollton and president of the Georgia Superior Court Judges Assn.; Robert O. Arnold of Cov ington, chairman of the State Board of Regents; Homer M. Rankin of Tifton, president of the Georgia Press Assn.; Charles A. Cowan, mayor of Carters- ville and president of the Georgia Muni cipal Assn.; John P. Duncan of Quit- man, president of the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce; James W. Key- ton of Thomasville, president of the Georgia County Commissioners Assn.; Zade Kenimer of Waverly Hall, chair man of the Georgia Education Cabinet; Harmon W. Caldwell of Atlanta, chan cellor of the University System of Geor gia; Claude L. Purcell of Atlanta, state school superintendent; Rep. Battle Hall of Floyd County, chairman of the House Education Committee; Rep. George B. Brooks of Crawford County; Rep. James R. Hill of Meriwether County; Rep. Howell Hollis of Muscogee County; Rep. Henry W. Parker of Screven Coun ty; Sen. John Greer of Lakeland; Sen. Wallace L. Jemigan of Homerville, chairman of the Senate Education Com mittee, and Sen. H. E. Clary of Thom son. CALLS FOR FACTS At its first meeting, Chairman Sibley told members the commission must come up with facts. He said Georgia must decide soon whether to accept federal court desegregation orders or to establish a segregated private school system. The commission will hold public hearings in every congressional district in the state and report by May 1 with recommendations to the 1961 Legisla ture as to whether Georgia laws should be revised. Legal counsel was to be hired and ap parently the Sibley Commission will study the legal route pursued by similar study groups in Virginia and North Carolina. A question remains as to how a fed eral court which ordered desegregation of the Atlanta school system will react to the study commission. Judge Frank A. Hooper of the U.S. District Court of Atlanta has said he did not object to formation of such a study commission but he would not say that it would nec essarily satisfy the court which has or dered desegregation. Sibley said that in addition to finding facts, the commission must also find methods by which opinions, convictions and desires of the people may be accu rately determined and recorded. Rep. Herschel Lovett of Laurens County said he hoped the commission would consult with Negroes as well as whites. The resolution creating the commis sion was amended from its original House version to include two more sen ators and four more House members. A phrase saying Judge Hooper was bound by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court was also deleted. TRANSFER DEADLINE The May 1 reporting date for the study commission’s findings coincides with the date that Negro applicants for transfer to white schools under the At lanta pupil placement plan, devised by the city Board of Education, must file papers to get desegregation machinery in motion. Copies of the pupil placement plan, in the form of a resolution adopted by the Atlanta board, were placed on the desks of legislators and were read in the House and Senate. But it was never conceded a chance of being approved. Gov. Vandiver had said he would veto all legislation leading to integration and the House State of Republic Commit tee, dominated by administration sup porters, killed such measures and re ferred them to the Sibley study com mission. Among the casualties were a parent option plan proposed by Rep. James Mackay, a proposed constitutional amendment to allow Georgians to say how they felt about closed schools vs. integrated schools, and several desegre gation measures offered by Rep. M. M. Smith of Atlanta, Fulton County rep resentative (See Southern School News, February 1960). OTHER MEASURES There was action on other more or less minor bills dealing with racial mat ters. A proposal to make it illegal to give a blood transfusion without labeling the bottle as to race of the donor was tabled. A measure reportedly aimed at the NAACP, stiffening penalties for barra try—inciting or promoting litigation— was approved. A bill making it a misdemeanor for anyone to stay on the premises of any place after being asked to leave by the owner has as its objective avoiding race incidents such as occurred at chain store lunch counters in North Carolina and other southern states. Approval was given a bill to permit county voter registrars to destroy rec ords of voter applicants who are re jected. An effort to repeal the college age limit law, passed in an effort to discour age Negroes from attempting to enter public white colleges, failed. OCCUPIED TIME Even though the Legislature failed to act on the pupil placement plan and created the study commission as its only major act in the school desegregation controversy, the subject occupied a good part of the time of the lawmakers. Several legislators spoke up for local option or against closing the public schools under any conditions but these were countered by absolutely-no-inte- gration manifestos, which a number signed. A battle of petitions raged as groups purporting to be against integration at any price on the one hand or for keep ing the public schools open no matter what the cost on the other, presented their views to the governor or to indi vidual legislators. The gallery on many days was occu pied by representatives of HOPE, Inc., (“Help Our Public Education”) or oth ers who carried signs urging that schools not be closed. On one occasion, a white professor of history at a Negro college in Atlanta, Dr. Ovid Futch of Morehouse, took a seat with two of his Negro students in a roped-off section of the House gallery reserved for Negroes. They said they had been escorted there. Atlanta Constitution Doorkeeper J. R. Smith ordered Futch to move. The professor took a seat across the rope about two seats away from the Negroes. Smith insisted they were still sitting side-by-side and flout ing Georgia segregation laws. He threat ened to throw Futch out bodily when the professor protested he was sitting where Smith had told him to sit. Futch and the Negro students left. Legislators on the floor below, who had overheard the incident, cheered. CHURCH-STATE DISPUTE As the running desegregation debate continued over the state, a dispute be tween church and state cropped up when a bill was introduced to permit local Georgia churches to quit their parents denominations if integration of congregations were ordered, or if the national governing bodies stood in the way of housing segregated private schools in churches. Methodist Bishop Arthur J. Moore ap proved emergency use of church build ings for private schools but said if leg islators “want to make the laws, they ought to let us run the church.” There was speculation that the Legis lature would be back in special session before fall to deal with the school de segregation issue. But administration leaders said they did not expect a special session would have to be called. E. E. Moore Jr., Negro NAACP attor ney handling the Atlanta school deseg regation case for Negro plaintiffs, said that since the Legislature failed to pass new laws permitting the Atlanta Board of Education to put its pupil placement plan into effect, immediate action to im plement the plan would be asked of the federal court. Moore said the school study commis sion is not considered by Negroes to be an acceptable answer to the court ruling requiring desegregation. He was also critical of the grade-a-year placement proposal, saying it appeared more re strictive than those in other states. The Atlanta board moved for dismis sal of its appeal to the U.S. Fifth Cir cuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans from the original desegregation ruling of Judge Hooper of the U.S. District Court in Atlanta. This was interpreted as an effort to keep settlement of the issue in the hands of Hooper rather than federal appellate judges. A test of Georgia’s school closing laws in federal court before Gov. Van diver actually closes the public schools to avoid desegregation was reportedly being considered by an Atlanta group headed by Attorney Morris Abram. Judge Luther Alverson of Fulton Su perior Court (Atlanta) had suggested a declaratory judgment by the federal court on the constitutionality of the laws be sought. James H. Gray, editor and publisher of the Albany Herald and a strong seg regationist, was named by Gov. Van diver to be the new state Democratic Party chairman. Addressing the Legislature, Gray said “there is no hope in accepting token in tegration; there is only defeat.” The speech of Gray, a native New Englander who moved to Georgia in 1946, was called “forceful” by a num ber of legislators, but Rep. Mackay of DeKalb County called Gray “a carpet bagger in reverse” and said the speech Not A Bit Too Soon I i L(je> Atlanta Journal , Adjourns JAMES H. GRAY Named Democratic Chairman was an attack on the statement of Chairman Sibley of the newly created study commission (see “Legislative Ac tion”). Some political maneuvering for the 1962 gubernatorial election was appar ent. POSSIBLE CANDIDATES Former Gov. Ellis Amall said some time ago he would run if the public schools were closed in 1962. State Com missioner of Agriculture Phil Campbell said if Amall runs, he will also run to keep Georgia’s conservative regime in tact. Lt. Gov. Garland Byrd has been run ning for some time. At a segregation rally in Atlanta, he said it would take the U.S. Army to close schools in Geor gia and Georgians should not surrender to desegregation. Gov. Vandiver, on political outs with former Gov. Marvin Griffin, said Grif fin told him he was already running for governor in the 1962 election. In his weekly newspaper, the Bainbridge Post Searchlight, Griffin suggested that Geor gia give parents private school tuition grants to solve the desegregation crisis. A final possible entry in the 1962 gu bernatorial race is Roy Harris, gen erally acknowledged the most outspoken segregationist in Georgia. A former speaker of the House and a longtime power in Georgia politics, Harris has said that if the right kind of candidate doesn’t show up, he will run himself. ADVOCATES PHONE CALLS Harris advocated that harrassing telephone calls be made to those favor ing keeping the schools open in the face of integration. But the plan backfired when Hamilton Lokey, a former legis lator, routed Harris out of bed a 5 a.m. after Lokey’s sleep had been disturbed by an anonymous caller. Mrs. Thomas M. Breedon Jr., HOPE chairman, said Georgians who have spoken out for keeping the schools open have exposed themselves “to all sorts of abuse, slander and ‘Harris- ment.’ ” Gov. Vandiver disagreed with the telephone harrassment plan proposed by Harris. Harris stepped up the pace of his talks at segregation rallies, calling his campaign to head off token integration a “holy crusade.” Shortly before the Legislature ad journment, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Harris by Vandiver to the State Board of Regents. Spokesmen for groups insisting that the public schools be kept open said U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell and Her man Talmadge indicated when inter viewed in separate meetings that the problem would have to be solved by the Legislature. Later, in various speeches, the two senators said they would do what they could in Washington to help Georgia maintain segregated schools. James M. Dorsey, a HOPE official, told the Atlanta Civitan Club that pub lic opinion would eventually force the governor and Legislature to take action to keep the schools open. The Dalton Ministerial Assn, adopted a resolution urging state officials to take steps to keep the schools open. Former U.S. Rep. Brooks Hays of Little Rock told the Atlanta Kiwanis Club that Georgia’s desegregation prob lem was none of his business but “At lanta could learn a lot from studying the history of the Little Rock school crisis.” Joseph B. Parham, editor of the Ma con News, told the Canton Rotary Club that while there was no lessening of preference for segregation in Georgia, it appeared that some integration would have to take place to keep the public schools open. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Negro integration leader who moved from Montgomery to Atlanta recently, was arrested in Atlanta on charges of perjury in connection with the filing of Alabama state income tax returns. King, who is now co-pastor at his fath er’s Atlanta church, said Alabama offi cials were harrassing him because of his integration activities. A group of young Atlanta Negroes published a pamphlet alleging that in equities between the races exist in edu cation, recreation, housing, employment, health, justice and law enforcement and policy-making in Georgia’s capital city. # # # Delaware (Continued From Page 9) whether the state board or the local district boards were responsible for a desegregation plan. The appellate court upheld the district court and ordered the state board to submit a plan, which was approved by Judge Caleb R. Lay- ton III last July. Redding contends that the grade-a- year plan bypasses his clients, who are already past the first grade, and pro vides no desegregation except for chil dren who were too young to enter school when the suits were filed. In defending the plan, the state cites such obstacles as finances, different achievement levels between Negroes and whites, and the impact on a pre dominantly southern society. Briefs were filed by three other at torneys endorsing the state board plan. James M. Tunnell Jr. represents Mil ford, Seaford, and Laurel; Everett F. Warrington represents Milton; and James H. Hughes also represents Mil ford. 1 1 LOST CHARTER The National Assn, for the Advance ment of White People failed to pay $67.50 in state taxes and lost its char ter as a Delaware corporation. The president of the NAAWP, Bry ant W. Bowles, is serving a long term in a Texas prison on a murder charge. Bowles, who founded the NAAWP as a Delaware corporation on Dec. 14, 1953, was still listed on the corporate papers as its president. The NAAWP led the opposition to integration of Milford schools in 1954. Memberships cost $5, but “silver” and “gold” memberships were sold for $25 and $50. No accurate total on membership was ever revealed by Bowles, but anti integration rallies called by the NAAWP frequently drew as many as 5,000 persons. But the NAAWP has been inactive, for the most part, since 1955, when Bowles left Delaware. He returned at times for a weekend visit until he ran afoul of the law in Texas. # # # Florida (Continued From Page 14) tor of the Legislative Reference Bu reau, said that in addition to about a million students in public schools, there are 11,000 in junior colleges and 24,000 in colleges and universities. Present costs are about 300 million dollars a year. Cunkle projected figures to show the 1965 school population at 1,300,000, plus 48,000 in state-support ed universities and 40,000 in junior colleges. MISCELLANEOUS The lunch counter demonstrations by Negroes reached Florida in the middle of the month. A group of Negroes “about high school age” marched from a Deland park to a downtown variety store Feb. 12 and quietly filled the 27 seats. The Negroes left after the counter closed. The next day, nine Negroes—two from high school, seven from Florida A&M—sat at the counter of a Talla hassee store. The counter was shut and the students left under the heckling of white youths. The next week, 11 Negroes were charged with disturbing the peace dur ing a similar protest demonstration. # # #