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PAGE 6—MARCH I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
Governor Is Challenged on Closings;
King Arrested on Income Tax Charge
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
ov. John Patterson’s posi
tion that the state’s public
schools should be closed before
yielding to even token integration
has been challenged.
Writing in the Birmingham
Post-Herald, John Temple Graves
said that while token integration
would be objectionable, it would
not be intolerable and the South
should accept it rather than de
stroy its school system.
In the resulting controversy, Gov.
Patterson expressed alarm over this
kind of thinking. He has said repeated
ly that he would close all the schools
before seeing a “single Negro child” go
to a white school.
Joining the controversy, the Mont
gomery Advertiser said Patterson “is
spoiling to close the schools of Ala
bama.” But, the Advertiser asked, “what
then?” (See “What They Say.”)
A Negro woman was bludgeoned on a
downtown Montgomery street February
27 following a three-day series of
demonstrations by Negro students from
Alabama State College. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. left
Montgomery Feb. 1 to move to Atlanta.
Two weeks later, the Negro leader was
arrested in the Georgia capital on Ala
bama charges of falsely swearing to
state income tax returns. (See “Legal
Action.”)
Warning that “token integration re
sults either in chaos and violence or full
integration,” Gov. Patterson denounced
a column by Birmingham Post-Herald
writer John Temple Graves as “alarm-
ing.
In early February, Graves wrote:
“If keeping schools open requires to
ken but not massive integration, I say—
and Charleston’s Editor Tom Waring
and many other southerners are saying
—the South should accept it, no matter
how many politicians are committed to
a bitter-end fight.”
This seemed directed at Gov. Patter
son, who has repeatedly voiced his “bit
ter-end” sentiments, arguing that re
sistance must be total or mass integra
tion is inevitable.
The Graves column, which provoked
considerable discussion, continued:
“With massive integration out, token
integration would still be objectionable
but not intolerable. Not so intolerable as
closed schools. And the ‘tokens’ would
be face-saving martyrs, increasingly
unhappy, hard to replace, meaningless,
and not worth the NAACP’s while. They
would dwindle from near nothing to
nothing . . .
“We find in the top court’s repeated
acceptance of placement laws clear hope
that it begins to see massive integration
won’t work. My own hope goes further.
I believe the court may not even require
tokens where they would bring the psy
chological evils named in the Alabama
criteria for assignment . . .
“If the court’s decisions assure against
massive integration, I believe that even
though the tokens are still to be resisted
with all our power they are not worth
closing the schools. And if they save
face for the Supreme Court of my coun
try ... I am happy that the face of the
court can still be saved in spite of what
has been done to it by the court’s own
folly, politics and unconstitutionalism.”
PUBLIC DISCUSSION
The column, reprinted over the state,
precipitated public discussion of a ques
tion usually reserved for private con
versations. Some agreed, others dis
agreed with Graves.
Patterson disagreed strongly.
“That’s all they want,” the governor
said in immediate response to the col
umn. “Let one Negro in and they’ll all
come in. Bolting before the fight begins
is not for me.”
Later, Patterson conceded that he had
no “crystal ball” to foresee develop
ments after school closing. Replying to
an editorial in the Montgomery Adver
tiser, Patterson said: “I wish I could
solve the problem in advance and turn
the solution over to (the Advertiser’s)
editor. But I can’t.”
As for what would happen after clos
ings, Patterson mentioned private
schools. “They’re doing it in Farmville,
Va.,” he observed.
Private schools failed in Little Rock
because of a “split in opinion,” he said,
but added that this would not happen in
Alabama because there is no difference
of opinion on the point. To advocate to
ken integration, he said, is a “sign of
weakness.” Experience has shown, he
said, that “token integration results
either in chaos and violence or full in
tegration.”
The Advertiser editorial he referred
to said Feb. 7:
“Every public statement Gov. Patter
son has made indicates that he is spoil
ing to close the schools of Alabama. Re
peatedly has he said he would close
every school . . . rather than see ‘one
Negro child’ in a white school. But nev
er has he thrust through to the heart of
the issue. That is, what happens after
the schools are closed?
“How long will they remain closed?
A semester, year or forever?”
The editorial also raised the question
whether military installations in the
state would stay in Alabama with no
public schools for military dependents
to go to.
KING LEAVES
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., tak
ing his leave of Montgomery Feb. 1, told
his people that they should institute
more boycotts but none that would
“humiliate or defeat the white man—we
cannot hope to attain first-class citizen
ship by using second-class methods.”
King resigned as pastor of Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church to move to At
lanta, where he now heads the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference and is
co-pastor with his father of the Eben-
ezer Baptist Church.
He was arrested in Atlanta Feb. 17
after being indicted in Montgomery for
falsely swearing to state income tax re
turns. (See “Legal Action.”)
In his farewell address to his Mont
gomery church and to the Montgomery
Improvement Assn., which he led
through the bus boycott, King promised
that if needed in Alabama in future boy
cotts, “I will come back from Atlanta
and help you carry them out.”
The Rev. Uriah J. Fields, a Negro
leader who split with the Improvement
Assn, after being an officer in it during
the early part of the bus boycott, re
sponded to King’s urging for future ac
tion:
“We believe that boycotts bring dis
harmony and are damaging to both boy-
cotters and boycotted. And we do not
agree with anybody who orders boy
cotts.”
Fields now heads the Montgomery
Amelioration and Restoration Assn.,
which has frequently been at odds with
King’s MIA. Fields also is author of a
recent book about the bus boycott, The
Montgomery Story.
MORE DISSENT
Another Negro leader, E. D. Nixon of
Montgomery, dissented from remarks
attributed to King in Charleston, W. Va.
King was reported as telling a church
group there that the “vast majority” of
his race would prefer Vice President
Nixon, if he is the GOP presidential
candidate, to a man like Sen. Lyndon
Johnson (D) of Texas. King was also
quoted as saying Sen. John F. Kennedy
(D-Mass.) would be unacceptable be
cause of his apparent support by south
ern conservatives.
Nixon, former president of the
Alabama NAACP and now president of
the Montgomery division, Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, disagreed.
King’s views “do not meet the general
approbation of Negroes,” Nixon said.
“There will be Negroes who will sup
port the Democratic nominee.”
Gov. Patterson signed extradition pa
pers Feb. 19 to return King to Alabama
to face trial for perjury.
King is charged with falsely swearing
to his 1956 and 1958 state income tax re
turns. Indicted by a Montgomery Coun
ty grand jury for allegedly failing to
report $27,000 in income for the two
years, he was arrested in Atlanta Feb.
17.
It is charged that King reported his
1956 income as $9,150 when it was
$16,162, and his 1958 income as $25,348
instead of $45,421, which the indictment
said he received.
In Atlanta, King said, “There just
isn’t any $27,000 and the state of Ala
bama knows it.” However, King said he
would not fight extradition: “I have
nothing to hide. I can honorably go
back to Alabama to face trial.”
Montgomery Circuit Sol. (Prose
cutor) William Thetford said the case
originated with the State Department of
Revenue and had been referred to the
capital city grand jury “in a routine
matter.”
AIRPORT PETITION
A petition filed in February by Mont
gomery Negroes demanded that the
Civil Aeronautics Board order integra
tion of airport facilities at Montgomery’s
Dannelly Field.
In Washington, a spokesman for the
board said it had no such authority, a
view previously expressed by Alabama
Atty. Gen. MacDonald Gallion.
Violence erupted briefly in Mont
gomery Feb. 27 as a white man clubbed
a Negro woman with a ball bat in an
altercation in a Saturday afternoon
shopping crowd.
The incident followed three days of
demonstrations by students from Ala
bama State College, located in Mont
gomery. Some 25 Negro students ap
peared in the county courthouse Feb.
25 requesting service at the basement
snack bar which is operated privately
for whites only. The room was closed
and the Negroes ordered outside.
On Feb. 26, about 200 students
marched from their campus and lined
the corridors for a short time. One
spokesman for the group said the sec
ond appearance was a protest over the
case of a student who had been charged
with falsely swearing to a voter regis
tration application.
The second demonstration, like the
first, was peaceful. The Negroes pa
raded back to the campus and held a
rally. Some threatened to try to enroll
at the University of Alabama and Au
burn University if Gov. Patterson suc
ceeded in forcing the expulsion of the
first-day ring leaders.
Patterson had ordered college Presi
dent H. Council Trenholm to expell all
students who participated in the dem
onstration. Trenholm said he had “no
alternative” but to comply. The gov
ernor threatened to cut off state funds
unless immediate action was taken.
Shortly after noon Feb. 27, another
group of Negro students headed for
town but stopped short of the downtown
area. Some 25 white men, most of them
armed with small ball bats, patrolled
downtown streets.
Christine Stovall, a Negro about 20,
was clubbed and her scalp badly cut by
a white man. She said she was not a
student. Police made no immediate ar
rests.
Three other Negro women reported
that they had been slapped by white
men during the afternoon and a 14-
year-old Negro boy said two white men
hit him in the face that night.
In Macon County, the same day, 300
students from Tuskegee Institute pa
raded around the city square carrying
placards reading “strike out color in
voting” and “to be free is to vote.”
The record school budget adopted by
the 1959 Legislature ran into trouble
when collection of taxes earmarked for
education fell far below estimates,
especially in sales tax receipts.
The result may be proration of funds,
although educators and state revenue
officials disagree on the imminence oi
that possibility.
The Legislature raised the school
budget from 120 million dollars to 148
and a half million—the increase to be
provided principally by removing state
sales tax exemptions.
But so far, sales tax collections have
increased only seven percent. They must
climb 30 per cent to fulfill expectations
on which the budget was based. Other
education taxes are falling below pre
dictions too. Collectively, their increase
has been only half the anticipated
revenue. The steel strike has been one
factor.
State Supt. of Education Frank
Stewart said that, for the third consec
utive year, it may be necessary to
prorate school funds:
“Local schools, which were already
in the red when the school year began,
have borrowed money to pay their
teachers and bus drivers in expectation
of this increased revenue.
“So far the increase is only 14.39 per
cent and we still have four months to
go before the schools close in May. . .
We are in one hell of a mess.”
State Revenue Commissioner Harry
Haden, while refusing to say that pro
ration will be necessary, blamed the
situation on a fundamental defect in the
state’s tax structure. It is too dependent
on “unstable” taxes, he said, primarily
income and sales taxes which are vul
nerable to economic changes. Only 20
per cent of the revenue comes from
relatively stable taxes, such as the
property tax, he said.
In the “stable tax ratio,” Haden said,
Alabama ranks at the bottom of the
nation. Ideally, there should be a 50-50
ratio, he said, while conceding that this
seemed unlikely in the immediate fu
ture.
Haden, a former University of Ala
bama law professor, accepted his ap
pointment to the job with one over
riding ambition—to force equalization of
property taxes over the state. Under
fire during the search for school
revenues, he retreated from his pro
gram.
Alabama’s national Democratic com-
mitteewoman for the past 20 years, Mrs.
Nanna Thomas of Montgomery, has an
nounced that she will not run for re-
election.
Her announcement came on the heels
of criticism by Gov. Patterson who
said: “The only woman in Alabama I
know of who is for Sen. Lyndon John
son of Texas is Mrs. Nanna Thomas.”
Last year Patterson announced his
support for Sen. John Kennedy ID-
Mass), but has not been so vigorous in
his support of Kennedy since Protestants
denounced the election of a Catholic as
a threat to the separation of church and
state.
Mrs. Thomas also had been rebuked
by Sam Englehardt, chairman of the
State Democratic Executive Committee,
who accused her, by implication, of de
fending National Party Chairman Paul
Butler.
Butler is currently in disfavor in Ala
bama, as in some other southern states.
Englehardt has approved withholding
funds from the national party “until
Paul Butler and other party leaders get
the idea Alabama is still in the union
and entitled to some consideration in
party affairs.”
SENATOR’S RACE
Sen. John Sparkman will be opposed
in the May Democratic primary by re
tired Adm. John Crommelin, friend of
segregationist John Kasper and long
time critic of the “Jewish-communist
conspiracy,” which he says is behind
integration efforts.
Crommelin was retired by the Navy
in 1950 after his attack on Pentagon
policies. He ran as an independent
against Sen. Lister Hill that year,
against Sparkman in 1954, Hill again in
1956, for the gubernatorial nomination
in 1958 and for mayor of Montgomery
last year.
He lost all contests, never receiving
more than a sprinkling of votes.
Patterson, Hill and Sparkman testified
in Washington in February against pro
posed bills to establish federal controls
over voter registration.
Grand Dragon Bobby Shelton of the
Ku Klux Klan in Alabama says he was
fired by B. F. Goodrich Co. because of
his Klan activities.
Shelton’s name figured prominently in
the news in 1958 because of his support
of candidate John Patterson. It was
charged during the governor’s race that
Shelton promoted Klan backing for
Patterson.
Last year his company received a
one-million-dollar tire contract with
the state and Shelton was the salesman.
The Patterson administration scoffed at
charges of “pay-off,” pointing to the low
bid Goodrich made and the money saved
by the state.
Shelton said company officials called
him on the carpet about his Klan ac
tivities, explaining to him that after 13
years with Goodrich he had a bright fu-
Memphis Area
Private Schools
Show Growth
MEMPHIS, Tenn.
EMPHIS HAS BECOME the hub
of private school education
in the Tri-State area since the
U.S. Supreme Court desegrega
tion ruling of six years ago.
The count stands at nine major
schools, mostly denominational,
all running at peak enrollment.
Until Little Rock schools were re
opened in September, the Mem
phis schools reported heavy en
rollments of Little Rock students.
One of the major private schools that
was started after the Supreme Court
action, Memphis University School, re
cently launched a $350,000 campaign to
expand. The non-denominational school,
with plant facilities worth one million
dollars and with an enrollment of 250,
hopes to enroll 350 students by next
September.
SPENDS HALF MILLION
The Church of Christ has spent over
$500,000 developing Harding Academy
of Memphis as a branch of its acade
my on the campus of Harding College
at Searcy, Ark. The Memphis academy
includes grades one through 12.
Among other private schools that
have appeared on the scene are Grace-
St. Luke’s Episcopal Day School, now
building a new educational building;
St. Mary’s Episcopal School; St.
George’s Episcopal School, started last
September; Memphis Hebrew Acade
my; Presbyterian Day School; St.
Dominic’s School for Boys; and the
Lutheran Day School.
As the integration picture now stands
in Memphis, only one previously all-
white institution has Negro students.
Memphis State University enrolled
eight Negroes without incident, in Sep
tember, after losing a five-year court
fight.
Neither public nor parochial schools
have integrated their student bodies.
Catholic schools of Memphis remain
segregated with Negroes attending St.
Augustine and Father Bertrand schools.
Christian Brothers High School and
Christian Brothers College, also Cath
olic, remain segregated. # # #
ture if he would sever KKK connec
tions. Shelton said he refused and was
notified later that his services were no
longer needed because of a cutback in
personnel.
Shelton said he had learned from
“reliable sources” that Jewish organ
izations had threatened to boycott
Goodrich because of his activities.
Asked what he is now doing, Shelton
replied: “I’m kluxing.” He said he has
traveled extensively in the North and
Midwest meeting with KKK officials in
those areas.
In Akron, Ohio, Goodrich officials
denied Shelton’s version of his release.
The company spokesman said an em
ploye’s outside activities are of no
consequence as long as his work is satis
factory.
FLOGGING REPORTED
A Columbiana Negro told authorities
he was taken from his home Feb. 18 by
a band of white men, stripped, tied to a
tree and flogged.
Junior Buie, 28, said he was forced
to walk naked through woods to his
home after the beating. He was treated
for facial cuts.
Buie said the men accused him of
hauling illegal liquor. This is the latest
in a series of incidents in the area in
the last year and a half.
# # #
Statement Opposes
Closing of Schools
DENTON, Texas
HIRTY-THREE SOUTHERN educators,
meeting in Denton, Texas, issued a
statement predicting “collapse” of dem
ocratic society if public schools are
closed.
If the South reverts to private schools,
said the group composed mostly of
teachers college deans, it would mean
that “the great majority would find
themselves unable to provide educa
tional opportunities for their children.”
Abandonment of public schools and
compulsory attendance laws, they said,
would increase juvenile delinquency
and unemployment, reducing communi
ty economic standards. # # #