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PAGE 16—APRIL I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS FLORIDA Parents Told of Appeal Rights Florida Segregation -Desegregation Status Number of districts, 67: 67 biracial; 1 desegregated. Total state enrollment (estimated): 789,140 white; 194,431 Negro. Enrollment of desegregated district (no longer kept racially): 155,834 Enrollment by desegregated districts and by schools: Dade County White Negro 155,834 Orchard Villa 8 490 Homestead Air Base School 745 22 TOTALS 753 512 MIAMI, Fla. ade County parents received notice of their rights to seek admission of their children to any school in the system, regardless of their race. This was done under a court-approved program toward compliance with previous court mandates. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Negro college students led dem onstrations against segregated lunch counters. Students at both white and Negro universities were urged to refrain from the demonstrations. In a special broadcast, Gov. LeRoy Collins said Florida businesses have a legal right to exclude Negroes but a moral obligation to serve them. The governor also set up a bi-racial state advisory committee and urged all lo cal communities to do the same. (See “What They Say.”) A basketball tournament game be tween teams representing white and Negro Catholic schools was broken up by police in Hialeah. (See “Miscella neous.”) Acting under a federal court order to allow pupils a reasonable oppor tunity to attend the school of their choice, the Dade County school board announced a new plan. During the month, letters were sent to all par ents pointing out their right to appeal assignments made under the state law. “If you wish to exercise your right of preference,” said the letter, “you must go to the school your child is now attending and sign a Parent School Preference Card during the week of April 18-22. If you do not sign a card by April 22, the school administration will assume your choice is the school which normally would be recommended for your child.” The letter assured parents they will have “a reasonable opportunity to ask admission to any school for which your child is eligible and to have the choice fairly considered by the board.” The numerous criteria for assignment set up in the pupil assignment law were noted. Should the request for transfer be denied, the board promised to give no tice in writing before the opening of the fall term. FORM APPROVED The form of this letter was ap proved by District Judge Joseph P. Lieb in a suit (Gibson et al v. Board of Public Instruction of Dade County) that has been in the courts over three years. He acted under a mandate from the Circuit Court of Appeals. The case came up for final action under this mandate. Judge Lieb re jected a plan submitted by the school board merely to notify all parents of the terms of the assignment law. Robert Carter, attorney for the chil dren in the suit, objected this was not enough. Carter insisted that the court require a procedure that would break up the pattern of segregation. The al ternate plan was then submitted and approved. Gov. LeRoy Collins went on a state wide radio and television network to urge an end to demonstrations to eliminate segregated eating facilities. In a speech that attracted national at tention, he said such a denial of serv ice to one group was legally sanc tioned but morally wrong. “If a man has a department store and he invites the public generally to come in and trade, I think it is un fair and morally wrong for him to single out one department and say he does not want or will not allow Ne groes to patronize that one depart ment,” the governor said. “Now he has a legal right to do this but I still don’t think he can square it with moral, simple justice,” Collins added. Collins had some definite proposals: “How are we going to work and what are we going to do? Next week I am going to announce the appoint ment of a bi-racial committee for this state. And I want local committees formed. I appeal to those communi ties—all communities—here and now to establish bi-racial committees that can take up and consider grievances of a racial character and that can honestly and sincerely and with a de termined effort try to find solutions.” Response was widespread. President Dewey Johnson of the Florida Senate and House Speaker Thomas D. Beas ley said they were considering a move for a self-convened special session of the Legislature to tighten racial laws. Both have been leaders in the move for stronger segregation measures. Under law the Legislature may con vene itself by petition of two-thirds of its members. There seemed little likelihood that this proposal would de velop sufficient support. The gover nor’s proposals did, however, inject a strong issue in the race for his suc cessor, which is just getting up steam. So far, emphasis on segregation has been lacking, but now becomes a ma jor point. PLAN TO CONTINUE Negro leaders at Tallahassee, where the most serious demonstrations have occurred, said they will continue their efforts and might extend the “sit-in” technique to fields other than lunch counters. Leon Holt of Norfolk, Va., general counsel for the Congress of Racial Equality, was in Tallahassee working with local groups when the governor’s address was made. Holt said Collin’s approach was “com mendable” but failed to go far enough. Tallahassee white leaders were un impressed. Mayor George S. Taff said Collins provided no answers and that little would be accomplished by bi- racial committees. Spencer Burress, president of the Chamber of Com merce, said his organization had previously rejected such a plan as use less. In Tampa Mayor Julian Lane said he would take no action. The city already has a bi-racial committee on racial matters. In Miami, Mayor Robert King ap proved Collin’s proposal for a bi-racial advisory committee. He called a meet ing of leading white and Negro citi zens for a preliminary discussion and said planning would proceed. Two of the four city commissioners also ap proved heartily. PICKS COMMITTEE Carrying out his intention to name a statewide committee, Collins picked Cody Fowler of Tampa as chairman. Fowler, past president of the American Bar Assn., already heads a similar group in Tampa. He said a better spirit has been created in Tampa by its work. “The direct method of contacting leaders of both races at least provides a forum for airing their views, if nothing more,” he said. “We feel this has been very helpful.” The latest series of demonstrations began at Tallahassee, where on five successive Saturdays Negroes sought service in downtown stores. But it was at Tampa that the demonstrations reached their largest size. Several hundred Negroes paraded the down town streets in support of smaller demonstration groups. In Tallahassee, however, the situa tion reached serious proportions. State troopers on one occasion broke up a march of Florida A&M University stu dents in downtown Tallahassee, using tear gas to disperse the group. This was a climax to previous dem onstrations. Gov. Collins summoned university officials to a conference. He told the executive secretary of the Board of Control, which administers the university system, to notify Dr. George Gore, FAMU president, to con fine students on the campus as ef fectively as possible. Collins also said he expected local police to disperse promptly other student groups, which “had become extremely agitated.” “Other ways must be found for the airing of grievances and the resolving of racial antagonisms,” he said. Earlier that day, white and Negro by-standers watched while a group of Negro students sought service at the F. W. Woolworth store. Threats and insults were exchanged. Police ar rested 29 demonstrators. Among them were white students from Florida State University who sat with the Negroes. Still earlier, 11 FAMU students had been arrested on charges of disturbing the peace. The application of Alan Breitler, white student at Florida State Uni versity, to attend the all-Negro Flor ida A&M University was not con sidered by the Board of Control at its March meeting, as scheduled. Dr. J. Broward Culpepper, execu tive secretary, said other urgent busi ness prevented consideration. There is no urgency about the matter, he said, since the courses Breitler wants to take will not be available until Sep tember. Semi-finals in a Catholic junior high school basketball tournament were disrupted in a public park at Hialeah, in Dade County, by police. One of the teams was composed of Negroes. The Negro boys represented the Holy Redeemer Church in Liberty City, a Negro residential area in Mi ami. They had played their way into the final eliminations and were meet ing a white team representing the St. Rose of Lima church school. Father Robert de Grandis, assistant pastor of the Holy Redeemer Church, said a police sergeant and Hialeah’s Mayor Henry Milander arrived in a police car during the game’s progress and were met by Police Chief Her bert U. Warner. “The next thing I knew, the super intendent of the park took the ball and said the game couldn’t continue,” said Father de Grandis. There was no interference with the other semi-final game between two white teams. NORMAL DUTIES James Goodlet, city clerk, said he ordered the entire park shut down be cause adequate supervisory personnel was not available. He denied summon ing police. “If the police were there it was in the normal pursuit of their duties,” he said. “The city was liable for what goes on in the park whether it is su pervised or not.” Chief Warner was quoted by Fa ther de Grandis as saying he was “afraid some hothead would start something.” The Voice, weekly newspaper of the Miami Catholic diocese, called the ac tion “wholly unjustified and unwar ranted. Thousands of spectators have seen interracial sports contests here in the past. These brought neither storms of public indignation nor police action. Why single out mere school boys now?” # # # NAACP Meeting (Continued From Page 14) liberals are much use any more to the Negro cause.” Mrs. Daisy Bates, Arkansas state NAACP leader, was quoted as saying: “The time has passed when we need white men to speak for us.” Kenneth F. Holbert, a Dallas lawyer, said that Negroes should use their vot ing rights to obtain faster integration of schools. He mentioned lawsuits at Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and Gal veston as failing to produce integration despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s opin ions. Several speakers issued calls to ac tion. Adult Negroes were exhorted to assist younger ones in combatting seg regated practices. “You have to be willing to die for these young people,” the Rev. S. J. Sykes of Oklahoma City was quoted as saying. “If you want democracy in America today, somebody’s got to die for it. Here’s one.” “Here’s two!” replied the audience. WEARY OF ‘RUN-AROUND’ Roy Wilkins said NAACP is “weary of the run-around” he claims it is re ceiving in school desegregation in Texas. “It’s coming, just as sure as God made little apples,” said Wilkins. “Seg regation is inevitable, and it might as well happen in 1960 as in ’61, ’62 or ’63. Wilkins specifically criticized the Dallas school board for failing to order desegregation. New Orleans was selected over Al buquerque for the 1961 regional NAACP meeting, a victory for mem bers who wanted to meet in the segre gated South rather than a western city without racial bars. RUSSELL CRITICIZED U.S. Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, leader of the civil rights bill filibuster, drew criticism here from Clarence A. Laws, field secretary of NAACP at Dal las. Laws termed it untrue that res taurant sit-downs were inspired by non-southerners. Meanwhile, a Houston NAACP meet ing was told by a Negro educator to avoid bitterness. “American free enterprise cannot succeed in confusion and unrest,” said Dr. Fred Patterson, former president of Tuskegee Institute and now head of the United Negro College Fund. ^* or God s sake don’t have any bit terness against any race. It’s just as wrong for us as Negroes to be mad at all white people as it is for all whites to be mad at us.” # # # Texas (Continued From Page 11) not my aim in announcing for the board,” said Mrs. Groce. The teachers’ pay-raise question continued lively in state political races. Gov. Daniel said he would not call a special session on the matter before the May 7 Democratic primary but would make a pay increase one of his main objectives for the near future. Alvin A. Burger, director of the Texas Research League, said 75 million to 100 million dollars a year new rev enue will be required for the state government in 1961-1962. This did not include higher pay for teachers, but would provide for increased enroll ment, which will mean an estimated $15,400,000 increase for next year over the current year. Liberal Democrats failed in an effort to have party members vote March 7 on proposed repeal of the poll tax. This qualification for voting is a sub stantial supporter of public schools, since each poll tax payer pays $1 to that purpose, along with 75 cents for other purposes. Tennessee (Continued From Page 5) Vanderbilt for dismissing Lawson and praised the students and faculty mem bers who had upheld him. • Yale added its name to the list of institutions that have offered Lawson scholarship aid. Others included Chi cago and McCormack Theological seminaries, Chicago; Iliff School of The ology, Denver, Colo., and the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Calif. In addition, the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education (Presbyterian Louisiana (Continued From Page 15) gation, Economy, Responsibility.” It was a rewording of the campaign slo- govemor, William M. Rainach, which read “Segregation, Economy, Responsi- gan of a segregationist candidate for bility.” Rainach was a first primary loser in December. The protest came two days after Rainach declared in a speech at Alex andria that classes were being con ducted at Dillard and Xavier universi ties to teach students how to march on segregated lunch counters. “I don’t have the information that the schools themselves are conducting the classes, but they (the classes) are being conducted out there,” Rainach said. The protest did not spread to Xavier University, a Catholic Negro institu tion also at New Orleans. Four white youths, ages 17 to 20, were arrested and booked with dis turbing the peace after they burned a cross in front of Dillard and posted signs which read “There Will be No Integration—The White Youth Speaks,” and “NAACP, Integration Is Com munism, USSR.” PASS ORDINANCE The city council of New Orleans passed an ordinance to block Negro demonstrations at lunch counters. The ordinance supplements the city’s criminal trespass law. A person vio lates the new section if he fails or re fuses “to vacate the premises of any privately owned business or establish ment when requested to do so by the proprietor or his agent.” Leander H. Perez, district attorney of St. Bernard and Plaquemines par ishes and a state segregation leader, identified Negro student leader Kin- chen as participant in the Com munist-sponsored Youth Festival in Vienna last summer. Kinchen said he went with other “loyal Americans” to counteract Com munist propaganda and to let people of the world see “both sides of the picture.” The State Board of Education, meet ing behind closed doors, pledged to back “to the limit” the presidents of state colleges who take firm measures in dealing with any incidents in their schools. Negro students of Southern Univer sity at Baton Rouge staged a sit-down at a Kress store March 28 and were ar rested by city police. After being jailed on charges of disturbing the peace, they were released on $1,500 bond. It was the state’s first lunch counter demonstra tion. Louisiana’s general election is sched uled April 19 but the Democratic can didate, Jimmie H. Davis, has done lit tle campaigning against a States- Rights and a Republican opponent. Kent Courtney, New Orleans pub lisher and nominee of the States- Righters, charged that Davis is in the clutches of northern Democrats and that segregationists have lost their grip on the Democratic nominee. Republican candidate Francis C. Grevemberg, Baton Rouge, continued his efforts to convince Democratic Louisiana that it needs a two-party system. BIGGEST BLOC Gov. Ross Barnett of Mississippi, speaking at a Citizens Council rally in New Orleans, said that the South would represent the biggest minority bloc if it is united and could with hold its 128 electoral votes from any candidate for the presidency “not ac ceptable to the South. “A united South, by withholding its electoral votes, could prevent any candidate from getting a majority of the electoral college, and thereby throw the election into the House of Representatives, where every state has just one vote,” Barnett said. “This, of course, could result in the election of a southern compromise candidate to the presidency,” he said. # # # Church, USA) has offered to pay half Lawson’s moving expenses, should he decide to accept one of the scholarship offers. At the end of the month, Lawson had not made up his mind but said he would like to remain in Nashville. Meanwhile, the Vanderbilt board of trust said it will discuss the action of its executive com mittee at its regular spring meeting in a y- # # t?