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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH I960—PAGE 5
VIRGINIA
Violence, Arrests Follow Demonstrations
RICHMOND, Va.
EGROES ENTERED ANOTHER for
merly all-white school in
Alexandria, bringing to 19 the
number of desegregated schools in
Virginia and to 103 the number of
Negroes attending classes with
whites. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Minor violence, mass arrests and
a boycott marked sitdown demon
strations staged by hundreds of
Negro students in protest against
segregation at lunch counters and
restaurants. (See “Community
Action.”)
The split in the Byrd organiza
tion, which began over the school
segregation issue last year, ap
peared to have widened in a fight
over Gov. Lindsay Almond’s tax
program in the General Assembly.
The governor charged that much
of the opposition to his program
I was coming from legislators who
were striking back at him because
of his stand on the school prob
lem. (See “Legislative Activity.”)
All three members of Virginia’s Pu
pil Placement Board resigned Feb. 24 in
protest against the state’s new “freedom
of choice” school segregation policy.
(See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
In compliance with an earlier court
order (Jones v. Alexandria School
Board), school authorities admitted five
Negroes to the Minnie Howard Elemen
tary School in Alexandria on Feb. 1.
Two other Negroes entered two Alex
andria schools, which already were in
tegrated. Another white school was
scheduled to be desegregated Feb. 1, but
the father of the Negro girl to be en
rolled said he did not want her to
change schools in the middle of the year
and that therefore he was keeping her
in school in Washington, D.C.
Virginia now has 19 desegregated
schools, attended by 103 Negroes, in six
localities — Alexandria, Charlottesville
and Norfolk and the counties of Arling
ton, Floyd and Warren.
BOARD RESIGNS
The three members of Virginia’s Pupil
Placement Board notified the governor
Feb. 24 that they were resigning as of
March 1.
The resignations were in protest
against the state’s “freedom of choice”
policy, which, after March 1, will allow
localities to remain under the board’s
jurisdiction or, instead, to handle pupil
assignments locally.
The law permitting this choice was
enacted by the General Assembly in
special session in April 1959, but its ef
fective date was set as March 1, 1960.
A bill to defer the effective date to
March 1, 1962, was pending in an As
sembly committee when the resignations
were submitted.
In their letter, the three board mem
bers told the governor:
“The undersigned members of the
board are not in accord with the think-
fug of those who believe that assign
ments of pupils should be on either a
local basis or on a dual basis of part-
local and part-state. The responsibility
should be centered in a state agency.”
CREATED IN 1956
The Pupil Placement Board was
created by the General Assembly in
September 1956, and the three members
~—the same three who have now resign
ed—were appointed by the governor
three months later.
Since that time they have made hun
dreds of thousands of assignments of
whites to white schools and Negroes to
Negro schools. Last year, in order to
escape a contempt citation in Norfolk
Federal District Court, they assigned
four Negroes to a predominantly white
school in Norfolk, and these four were
the only integrated assignments made
by the board.
Members of the board were Hugh V.
White, superintendent of schools of
Nansemond County; Andrew A. Farley,
vice president and general manager of
the Register Publishing Co. of Danville;
and Beverly H. Randolph Jr., a lawyer
Who practices in Richmond but lives in
Charles City County.
In six localities, federal courts have
by-passed the board and ordered Ne
groes into white schools.
A wave of Negro sitdown demonstra
tions hit lunch counters and restaurants
in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Hampton, Suf
folk, Petersburg and Richmond.
Violence accompanied the demonstra
tions at Portsmouth, with 27 youths—
including both whites and Negroes—be
ing arrested. In Richmond, 34 Negroes
were arrested when they refused to
leave a department store as ordered,
and several on other charges.
The first demonstration in Virginia
occurred Feb. 10. Students who identi
fied themselves as being from Hampton
Institute, a Negro college, occupied
seats at the lunch counter of a variety
store. Subsequent demonstrations were
held in that city and in the nearby
cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. Late
in the month, the movement reached
the state capital, Richmond.
The general pattern was for the Ne
groes to occupy all seats and to con
tinue sitting until the lunch counters
were ordered closed by the manage
ments. In a few instances, entire stores
closed to prevent possible clashes be
tween whites and Negroes.
At Portsmouth on Feb. 16, a crowd of
Negro and white youths battled briefly
in a parking lot after a sitdown at a
variety store’s lunch counter. One white
boy received a facial cut which required
11 stitches. A detective scuffled with a
Negro high school student when the
student reportedly pulled a hammer
from his pocket.
CROWD OF 500
The following day police broke up a
crowd of about 500 persons at a Ports
mouth shopping center. Many Negroes
in the group then walked the quarter of
a mile to Norcum (Negro) High School
and assembled on the athletic field,
where bricks were thrown at a police
car. At the shopping center and the
athletic field police arrested 27 persons,
25 on disorderly conduct charges and
two for carrying concealed weapons.
About half of those arrested were white.
Later, administrators of Portsmouth’s
white and Negro high schools urged
their students to stay away from racial
trouble spots.
The Richmond demonstrations began
Saturday, Feb. 20, when an estimated
200 students from Virginia Union Uni
versity staged a day-long series of sit-
South Carolina
(Continued From Page 4)
voting qualifications is a state function
and the proposals for federal action are
“legally invalid and politically outra
geous.”
He said South Carolina laws safeguard
the right of citizens to register and vote,
appeal procedures are in effect.
“There has been no appeal from a de
nial of registration in South Carolina,”
he said, “nor has there been any com
plaint, even unofficially made, from
such denial. In the face of this record,
South Carolina does not need federal
registrars to supervise its elections.”
Similar views were expressed by
South Carolina’s two senators, Olin D.
Johnston and Strom Thurmond. Both
senators also spoke out against a consti
tutional amendment aimed at removing
poll taxes as prerequisites for voting.
The author of a new book defending
racial segregation called for a greater
understanding of the South while guest
on a nationally televised program Feb.
18.
W. D. Workman Jr., appearing on the
NBC-TV morning show “Today” with
Dave Garroway, said non-southerners
generally seemed unaware that south
ern states were providing what he
termed as good an education for both
Negroes and whites as the states could
afford. He cited statistics showing that
southern states are spending more on
education in proportion to their income
than wealthier northern states.
Workman, author of The Case For the
South, also said that considerable prog
ress was being made in improving race
relations and in achieving greater work
ing effectiveness between the races pri
or to the Supreme Court’s desegregation
decision of 1954. That decision, he said,
set back the cause of interracial amity.
# # #
downs. Six stores closed their lunch
counters. One store shut down com
pletely for the day.
On Monday, in the midst of heavy
Washington Birthday sales shopping,
the Negro youths concentrated on one
of Richmond’s largest department
stores, Thalhimers. When they refused
to leave a first-floor lunch counter and
a fourth-floor restaurant, they were
charged with trespassing and police be
gan arresting them one-by-one. Thirty-
four had been arrested when university
officials appeared on the scene and pre
vailed on the remaining students to
leave.
PICKET LINE FORMED
On the following day—Thursday, Feb.
23—students from Virginia Union set up
a picket line in front of Thalhimers,
urging Negroes to boycott the store.
Pickets carried signs reading: “Don’t
Buy Where You May Be Arrested” and
“Can’t Eat, Don’t Buy.”
Mimeographed sheets were distribut
ed reading, in part: “Thalhimers had
students arrested. You must attend the
citizens protest meeting, Fifth Street
Baptist Church, Wednesday night, Feb.
24, 1960. Thalhimers has made the first
move—ordered 34 students arrested—
police threw them in paddy wagons,
carried them like common criminals to
jail—acted with utter disregard for its
Negro customers . . . Money is neither
white nor black. Don’t accept white and
black service. Don’t buy at Thalhim
ers’.”
Three Negroes were arrested—two for
refusing to move on as ordered by po
lice and one for vagrancy.
Backing for the demonstrators came
from the executive board of the Virginia
Council on Human Relations, which is
sued a statement saying it was “in sym
pathy with these young people who
have been making orderly requests at
. . . lunch counters” in stores “where
their patronage is readily accepted in
other departments.”
A new twist occurred in Hampton,
where a small shop served five Negro
students from Hampton Institute—but
at rather high prices: $1 for a cup of
coffee, $1 for cupcakes, $1.50 for barbe
cue buns, and $1.45 for hot dogs.
BUS TERMINAL CASE
In Washington, the U.S. Supreme
Court agreed to review a case in which
a Negro interstate bus passenger was
convicted of trespassing when he re
fused to leave a Richmond bus termi
nal after being denied service and or
dered to leave (Boynton v. Virginia).
Since the question of interstate travel
is involved, the decision in the case may
not necessarily apply to restaurants not
connected with such travel.
The defendant in the case, who was
fined $10 in Police Court here on Dec.
20, 1958, is Bruce Boynton, a Howard
University student. He was enroute to
his home in Selma, Ala., when the inci
dent occurred at the terminal. His con
viction was upheld by the Virginia Su
preme Court of Appeals June 19. 1959.
Dr. Samuel D. Proctor, president of
Virginia Union University, said the stu
dents who participated in the Richmond
demonstrations were acting individually
and that the school would not take any
disciplinary action against them.
“We look at this as part of a total
protest on the part of the Negro people
against the whole pattern of segrega
tion,” Proctor said. “This is one frag
ment of the total protest. I suppose we
can expect one form of protest or an
other perpetually until racism is gone.”
JUDGE RAPS SITDOWN
The sitdown as a device for obtain
ing rights or claimed rights was rapped
by Judge Walter E. Hoffman from the
federal district court bench in Norfolk.
During the course of a hearing in
which he ordered the Portsmouth pub
lic library opened to Negroes, Hoffman
commented that he would not tolerate
“sitdown artists” in the library.
“I want it understood,” he said, “that
the day there is a sitdown strike in the
Portsmouth public library, somebody
is going to account for it.”
L. W. Holt, an attorney for the Negro
plaintiffs in the library case, arose and
said the judge’s remarks were “not well
taken at this time.” Holt added that the
Negro demonstrators at the lunch coun
ters were merely seeking a constitution
al right.
“It is not a constitutional right,”
Judge Hoffman replied.
The General Assembly approved in
record time three bills presented by
Gov. Almond to combat the “sitdowns.”
The bills provide stiff penalties for cer
tain types of trespassing or for en
couraging and conspiring to trespass:
up to $1,000 fine and a 12-month jail
sentence.
Three thousand Negroes attended a
mass meeting at Richmond, agreed to
boycott eating places that refuse to
serve them and set up a steering com
mittee to lead the boycott effort.
DEADLOCK ON SALE
In Prince Edward County, where all
public schools are closed, an unexpected
move to sell the county’s white high
school failed to be approved by the
school board by the narrow margin of
a three-to-three tie vote.
In January (See Southern School
News, February 1960) the Prince Ed
ward School Foundation, which is op
erating a private system for white chil
dren, sought to purchase the white pub
lic high school. The school board at that
time took the position that the citizens
should follow the procedure set forth
in the law whereby a petition signed by
the required number of voters can bring
about a referendum on the sale of a
school. However, the foundation decid
ed not to press for the sale and decided
instead to erect its own building.
Last month, at the board’s regular
meeting, George Palmer moved that the
high school be sold. He said that appar
ently there would be no referendum on
the issue, so he wanted to exercise his
right to vote on it in the board. When
the question was put to a vote, two
other members sided with Palmer while
three voted against him.
SITE PURCHASED
Meanwhile, the private school foun
dation announced purchase of a 19-acre
site for its new high school building.
The property was purchased from the
town of Farmville for $2,400.
B. Blanton Hanbury, foundation pres
ident, said the campus-type structure
would have at least 26 classrooms and
would cost about $150,000. The money
is expected to be sought in a fund
raising drive.
TRAINING CENTERS
The first two of 10 projected training
centers for Prince Edward County’s
1,700 school-less Negro children opened
late in February.
One center, in a Farmville Baptist
church, reported an enrollment of about
75, while the second, located in a com
munity center, had about 55 pupils.
Negro leaders of the county an
nounced in January (see Southern
School News, February 1960) that they
planned to open the 10 centers early in
February to provide basic education
and recreation for Negro children. The
Rev. L. Francis Griffin, pastor of First
Baptist Church and county co-ordinator
for the NAACP, said late in February
NEW ORLEANS, La.
HREE FEDERAL JUDGES ruled at
New Orleans the National
Assn, for the Advancement of
Colored People need not file its
membership fist with the secre
tary of state. (See “Legal Ac
tion”)
Also at New Orleans, the Citi
zens Council asked the city ad
ministration to take court action
to set aside a federal ruling that
has forced integration of public
transit since May 31, 1958. (See
“Legal Action.”)
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered
1,377 Negroes restored to Washington
Parish (county) voter registration rolls.
(See “Legal Action.”)
A Dillard University professor, in a
report on public school enrollments in
New Orleans, said segregation has
artifically created a lack of space in
public schools, making Negro schools
vastly overcrowded and white schools
less than 80 per cent full. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Three federal judges at New Orleans
ruled the Louisiana law requiring or
ganizations to file membership lists
with the secretary of state is not ap
plicable to the NAACP.
The court ruled such a requirement
would violate the First Amendment’s
that he did not know when the other
eight centers would begin operation.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
The school segregation issue, as such,
received relatively little direct public
attention during the first six weeks of
the General Assembly’s eight-week
session. But many political observers
saw it as a major factor in the back
ground of the sometimes bitter fight
over Gov. J. Lindsay Almond’s tax pro
gram.
The governor had proposed adoption
of a three per cent sales tax, but in the
face of heavy opposition he revised his
program and urged a two per cent tax.
Before his program was killed in com
mittee, the governor said in a radio
statement: “It’s perfectly apparent that
much of the opposition stems and de
rives from my stand to save public edu
cation in Virginia . . . The lines are
being drawn . . . revolving around my
position...”
When all sales tax proposals were
killed, the governor issued a statement
placing major blame on House Speaker
E. Blackburn Moore and State Sen. Har
ry F. Byrd Jr.
“If these gentlemen want to play it
rough,” he said, “that suits me, for the
remainder of this administration, for the
days that shall come after the close of
this administration.”
LANGUAGE SIGNIFICANT
The governor’s strong language was
considered significant, since Moore and
Byrd Jr. are two leaders in the domi
nant faction of the Democratic Party in
Virginia led by United States Sen. Har
ry Flood Byrd. Almond has been con
sidered a member of the Byrd organi
zation, but he and those who supported
his “freedom-of-choice” school plan in
last year’s special Assembly session
were opposed by Byrd Jr. and others
closest to Byrd Sr.
Measures introduced in the current
session relating to the school issue in
cluded those:
1) To declare the Supreme Court’s de
segregation ruling null and void. (This
originally was introduced as a bill
which, if adopted, would have been
law, but it later was reintroduced as a
resolution, which simply states a posi
tion and does not have the force of
law.)
2) To permit local governing bodies
to make direct appropriations from pub
lic funds to private schools.
3) To permit taxpayers to deduct con
tributions to private schools from their
property taxes.
4) To repeal the "blank paper” voter
registration law enacted in 1958. (This
law requires applicants for registration
to supply certain information on a blank
sheet of paper without aid or guidance.
It was intended to hold down Negro
registration, but critics say it has affect
ed white registrations as much or more
than that of Negroes.) # # #
guarantee of freedom of speech and as
sembly and the due process guarantee
of the 14th Amendment.
The decision said:
“The documentary evidence sub
mitted by the NAACP shows that some
members have been subjected to certain
economic reprisals. The court’s atten
tion is called to the fact that the record
shows that a large part of the NAACP
membership was made up of teachers,
and the Louisiana statutes deny em
ployment to teachers and others who
believe in the integration of the races
in public schools.”
“After disclosure of the membership
of NAACP affiliates in Louisiana,
virtually all the teachers resigned and
the general membership was reduced
significantly,” the court said.
The court, ruling in two consolidated
cases, was made up of U.S. district
judges Herbert W. Christenberry and J.
Skelly Wright and U.S. Court of Ap
peals Judge John Minor Wisdom.
Atty. Gen. Jack P. F. Gremillion an
nounced he would appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
If the decision is upheld on appeal,
the NAACP would be free to meet
again in Louisiana. The organization has
been blocked from conducting meet
ings because of its refusal to submit its
membership lists to the state.
TRANSIT DISPUTE
In the New Orleans transit dispute,
Dr. Emmett L. Irwin, chairman of the
Citizens Council of Greater New Or
leans, asked the city and New Orleans
Public Service, Inc., to have federal
(See LOUISLANA, Page 16)
LOUISIANA
Court Exempts NAACP
From Naming Members