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PAGE 16—MARCH I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Extended Sessions Ordered for Debate on Civil Rights WASHINGTON, D. C. ONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITY On Civil rights moved into high gear with expectations that both houses might pass voting and school de segregation measures in March. After six months of delay, the House Rules Committee cleared a civil rights bill for floor debate starting March 10. The Senate started full-dress debate Feb. 15 and moved into extended sessions at month’s end. (See “National Affairs.”) As the battle was joined, a mem ber of President Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Commission said southern com pliance with the Supreme Court’s six- year-old school desegregation ruling has been unimpressive. (See “National Affairs.”) Acting in response to southern con gressmen’s charges that large numbers of Negro children come to the District to attend desegregated schools, the House passed a bill stiffening tuition payment requirements for non-resident pupils. School officials face court suits filed by students protesting the tuition charges. (See “District Schools.”) The House Rules Committee ended a six-month blockade of civil rights legislation Feb. 18. Chairman Howard W. Smith (D-Va.), a strong foe of civil rights action, let go of the bill only after being outvoted seven-to-four as the result of a Republican vote swing. Smith announced, however, that the bill will not be called up on the House floor until March 10 under a rule per mitting 15 hours of general debate and unlimited House amendments. It was regarded as unlikely that the House could complete action before March 20—well past the half-way mark in this election-year Congress. ‘WATERED-DOWN’ The House bill, described as a “wa tered-down bill with very little teeth” by Judiciary Committee Chairman Emanuel Celler (D-NY), is an abbre viated version of President Eisen hower’s 1959 proposals. It would make it a crime to oppose court desegrega tion orders by force or threats; require preservation of local voting records; crack down on “hate” bombing; and provide continued schooling for chil dren of servicemen in areas where public schools close in desegregation disputes. The Rules Committee also cleared Atty. Gen. William P. Roger’s new plan for court-appointed voting ref erees to protect Negro suffrage. In the Senate, Majority Leader Lyn don B. Johnson (D-Texas) kept his promise to bring civil rights to the floor by Feb. 15. He announced that a minor “This Ain’t Easy, Pardner .. . Even For A Texan!” Greensboro Daily News House-passed bill leasing Army land to a Missouri public school district would be the “vehicle” for civil rights amendments. The maneuver was necessary since no House-passed civil rights bill was before the Senate and no Senate bill had been cleared by committee. John son’s parliamentary device was de nounced by southern senators, led by Sen. Richard B. Russell (D-Ga), who called it “hell-hacking the South” and “lynching of orderly procedure.” Southern Democrats, Russell charged, “are apparently the only minority without any minority rights.” Johnson said he hoped all interested senators would offer, “in a spirit of constitutional, responsible and non partisan dedication to human rights, the proposals they believe will best serve the needs of protecting the con stitutional rights of American citizens.” ADMINISTRATION PACKAGE Minority leader Everett M. Dirksen (R-IU) asked the Senate to approve the seven-point civil rights package proposed by the administration last year. In addition to the provisions of the House bill, it would define the Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling as the “law of the land,” authorize fiscal and technical assistance to com munities trying to desegregate their schools, and give statutory authority to a Commission on Equal Job Opportun ities, similar to one now headed by Vice President Nixon. Dirksen said the administration will not seek the so-called Title III power this year. The controversial title, knocked out of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, would empower the attorney gen eral to institute civil suits in support of individuals’ constitutional rights. Chairman Thomas C. Hennings (D- Mo) of the Senate Rules Committee accused the administration of “back ing away” from its support of Title III in 1957. He said: “This might be a good time, when the attorney general is discussing pow ers of federal courts, for him to com ment on the possibility of similar func tions in cases of constitutional rights other than voting.” POSES SCHOOL QUESTION Referring to the administration’s vot ing referee plan, Hennings wondered why the attorney general “does not consider appointment of special mas ters in chancery or referees by federal district courts to assist in drawing up public school desegregation plans.” There were indications that northern liberals in both houses would try to amend civil rights measures to include the Title III proposals and other strengthening provisions. Sens. Paul H. Douglas (D-Ill) and Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) announced they will introduce a comprehensive new civil rights bill covering many of the points put for ward by a 15-member liberal bloc last session. Sen. Harry F. Byrd (D-Va) charged Feb. 19 that civil rights advocates were trying to “use confusion for enactment of punitive, vindictive and unconstitu tional legislation.” Byrd complained that the proposal to provide federal aid for school desegre gation would “appropriate funds for use in attempts to bribe state and local officials to accept the Supreme Court’s school decision.” As the debate unfolded, it was un certain whether the Senate would pass its own bill and send it to the House, whether the Senate would wait to act on a House-approved measure, or whether both houses would act inde pendently and then try to resolve then- differences in conference. The last of these courses is often hazardous to controversial legislation. HITS COMPLIANCE George M. Johnson, a member of the Civil Rights Commission and former law school dean at Howard University, added some fuel to the civil rights de bate Feb. 21. He said southern compli ance with the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision leaves much to be desired. In the 11 states, plus the District of Columbia, where there has been some compliance, he reported, 15 per cent of the Negro students were in desegre gated schools as of last May 5. Robert S. Rankin, chairman of the political science department at Duke University, was nominated by the President Feb. 18 to be a member of the Civil Rights Commission, succeed ing former Gov. John S. Battle of Vir ginia, who resigned. AID BILL PASSED The Senate voted 51 to 34 Feb. 4 to pass a 1.8 billion dollar school aid bill, which administration leaders said would run into a certain presidential veto. Nine Republicans joined 42 Dem ocrats in voting for passage; 11 Demo crats and 23 Republicans were opposed. The measure, more modest than a school aid bill now pigeonholed in the House Rules Committee, would pro vide federal funds for classroom con struction and teachers’ salaries at the rate of 917 million dollars a year for two years. It is not as far-reaching as many liberal Democrats wanted. But it goes further than President Eisenhower and Republican leaders said was acceptable. POWELL UNDER FIRE Announcement by Chairman Graham Barden (D-NC) of the House Labor and Education Committee that he plans to retire this year put Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY) in line for the chairmanship. The Negro congressman was de nounced as an “extreme racist” by some newspapers and congressional ob servers. In a Feb. 7 statement, Powell challenged his colleagues in Congress “to demonstrate a more democratic non-racial attitude than I do.” “I represent a district that is 90 per cent colored and 90 per cent Protes tant,” Powell said. “Yet my Washing ton staff is one-half non-colored and one-half Roman Catholic.” The District branch of the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People deplored what it called “intem perate attacks” on Powell and assailed “a deliberate and calculated attempt to discredit (him) solely for his articulate and forthright stand against all badges of second-hand citizenship . . .” ROGERS PLEASED Atty. Gen. Rogers said Feb. 18 that he thinks the nation’s rate of school desegregation is “surprisingly good when compared with the legal prob lems involved.” His comment came during an informal discussion with leaders of the National Organization of Women for Equality in Education, which sponsored a “NOW for Equality” conference in the capital. Rogers cited desegregation in parts of Virginia, Arkansas and Florida. “But there are many practical prob lems,” he warned. “One is that the states simply don’t have to have public schools.” Vivian Mason, past president of the National Council of Negro Women, asked Rogers what his department would do if there were a mass closing of public schools throughout the South next fall. “I don’t want to say, because I hope we won’t have any experiences like that,” he replied. “But obviously if that becomes widespread, something will have to be done.” ATTACKS SEGREGATION At another session of the three-day conference, Kenneth Clark of New York’s City College charged that “un equal and segregated education is un realistic for the white child. By invol ving him in a violation of democratic principles, it can make him ethically flabby on all moral issues.” Eleanor Roosevelt, who also spoke at the women’s conference, said the gov ernment is not doing “everything in every state that could be done” to eliminate discrimination and denial of civil rights. She suggested that if the government investigated alleged dis crimination and made the findings public, it would “go a long way toward getting public action” to correct the situation. Col. Lynn F. Woodworth, principal of the District’s Eastern High School, told the women’s groups that “we’ve been living integration up to the hilt in Washington for the past six years.” He said “there have been tensions in only three schools—and no violence.” DISTRICT SCHOOLS The director of attendance for Dis trict public schools told Supt. Carl F. Hansen that increasing numbers of children are coming to Washington from southern states to live with friends or relatives and go to school here. In a memorandum to Hansen, Alice C. Sheldon called for “stricter control of reserving free District education for bona fide District residents.” She suggested that children whose parents live elsewhere should be re quired to have legal guardians in the District or pay non-resident tuitions ranging from $222 a year for elemen tary pupils to $913 for pupils in crip pled children’s classes. BROYHILL BILL PASSES Mrs. Sheldon’s proposal was in line with a bill sponsored by Rep. Joel T. Broyhill (R-Va), which the House passed earlier in February. There has been no action in the Senate. When Broyhill introduced the bill last year, he charged that many Negro children were being sent to Washing ton by their families “in order to send them to integrated schools.” The meas ure to stiffen tuition requirements was opposed by the school board. Under present law, pupils are ex empted from tuition payments if they are not in Washington primarily to at tend school and if they live here with adults who support them and exercise control over them. MEMO DISCLOSED Mrs. Sheldon’s memorandum to Han sen came to light at a School Board committee meeting Feb. 11 when board member Wesley S. Williams charged that “there are many things in it that don’t make sense to me.” Williams said children of “serfs” and sharecroppers are living with relatives here, and asked: “Should they stay down on the plan tation and starve?” SUIT COPIES SERVED At a Feb. 17 board meeting, Hansen said Mrs. Sheldon’s report had not changed his basic opposition to the Broyhill bill. In the course of the meeting, the board and Hansen were served with copies of the second suit filed here by students protesting non resident tuition charges. In the suit, a 17-year-old Roosevelt High School senior and her aunt charged that they were unfairly billed for tuition. Williams complained that tighter residence standards were being applied in anticipation of enactment into law of the Broyhill bill. Board President Walter N. Tobriner said each pupil has a right to appeal Louisiana (Continued From Page 5) court drop an injunction which has prevented enforcing segregation on streetcars and busses. He said state laws on which the in junction rests have been repealed by the Legislature. Irwin told Southern School News that the city and Public Service had submitted his request to their attorneys for study and the Citizens Council would wait a “reason able period” before making another move. Public transportation has been inte grated in New Orleans since May 31, 1958, and there have been only scattered reports of friction between the races. VOTERS RESTORED On Feb. 29, the U.S. Supreme Court restored voting privileges to 1,377 Ne groes whose names were stricken from registration rolls of Washington Parish. The state had appealed a lower court decision. At issue was the Louisiana law which says a person can be striken from the rolls for even a minor flaw in his regis tration. The appeal was from a decision of federal court at New Orleans that the voter registrar at Washington parish would have to return 1,377 Negroes to the voting rolls. They were among hun dreds of others in the state knocked from the rolls in Louisiana’s continuing purge of its voters. The purge has been directed particularly at Negroes, though this has been denied. Despite the purge, a state report on voter registration showed a 6,000 in crease among Negro voters during the last three months. The total number of Negroes registered is now 156,938. This represents 15.9 per cent of the total registration in the state. Dr. George Iggers, Dillard University professor, prepared a report on New Orleans public school enrollments and submitted it at meeting of the Frontiers of America. His principal complaint is that “the policy of segregation has arti ficially created a lack of space.” In 1959, he reported, white school ca pacity utilization was 73 per cent and in Negro schools it was 114 per cent. A total of 1,687 Negroes were on ilf-day sessions. No white children to the school board if he is adversely affected by a new non-resident classi fication. But Hansen said such appeal procedures would “overwhelm” the board because there are 1,920 cases now under review. RATING PLAN APPROVED The School Board gave its approval Feb. 17 to a plan to put District teach ers’ job performance under a contin uing review and to dismiss those who receive unsatisfactory ratings. The plan’s major features were endorsed by teachers’ organizations at a public hearing Feb. 3. Ruth B. Spencer, a School Board member since 1956, announced Feb. 17 that she was resigning because of ill health. One of three Negro members on the nine-member board, Mrs. Spen cer inaugurated her service by taking a firm stand against the maintenance of school records based on race. In accordance with statute, a succes sor will be selected by the judges of the Federal District Court here. BOUNDARIES ANNOUNCED Boundaries for the new Ballou Sen ior High School, which will open next fall in southeast Washington, were an nounced at a Feb. 12 press conference by Supt. Hansen. He said students liv ing in an optional zone, which encom passes the Southwest redevelopment area, will be given a choice of attend ing either Ballou or Cardozo Senior High in northwest Washington. Hansen said the optional zone was devised after conferences with city planners and real estate developers who “want to establish a balanced community—not all Negro and not all white” in the urban renewal area. “There must be some assurance that school opportunities will also be bal anced,” Hansen said. “Ballou will not be an all-white school by any means, but it will be better balanced than Cardozo.” When District schools made their annual racial count last fall, Car dozo had two white students and 1,208 Negroes. # # # were on such half-day program, Iggers said. “The present New Orleans public school plant is large enough to house all public school children. The system of segregation has resulted in a dis criminatory and wasteful use of the school plant which has resulted in extra costs and in retarding the education of Negro children.” The Orleans Parish school board is under federal court order to produce an integration plan by May 16. The board is still studying laws to deter mine whether it will submit such a plan to Judge J. Skelly Wright. Louisiana’s growing budget for the board of education is a recommended 239 million dollars for the coming fiscal year—203 million of it for elementary and high schools. The budget must be approved by the Legislature in May. Loyola University of Chicago, with a Negro player from New Orleans on the team, met Loyola University of the South in a basketball contest in New Orleans. It was the first inter-racial sports meet since federal court ruled last year against Louisiana’s ban on in ter-racial sports contests. POLITICAL ACTIVITY Camille F. Gravel Jr., Louisiana na tional Democratic committeeman, said he now anticipates no further action will be taken to remove him from office before the July Democratic national convention. He made the statement after a meet ing of the state Democratic Central Committee to certify Jimmie H. Davis, Shreveport, as the Democratic nominee for governor. The committeeman was voted out of the post in 1959 because of his moderate views on segregation but the national committee overruled the state body and retained Gravel. Meanwhile, Davis forces kept an eye on the April 19 general election though they did no campaigning. Davis’s nom ination by the Democrats is considered tantamount to election. But he faces both a Republican and States Rights candidate. Kent Courtney, States Righter, and Francis C. Grevemberg, Republican, are making limited stumping appearances in the state but Republicans say they will increase the pace. # # #