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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