Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

page 4—APRIL I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS SOUTH CAROLINA Demonstrations by Negro Groups Bring Legislative, Other Action COLUMBIA, S. C. R acial tensions heightened in South Carolina during March from numerous anti-segregation demonstrations by Negro students in groups ranging from small handfuls to many hundreds. Mass arrests were made in sev eral localities and trials were get ting under way by the month’s end. Relatively little violence was involved either in the demonstra tions or the arrests, despite the large numbers involved. (See “Community Action.”) The effects of the demonstra tions spilled over into public com ment (See “What They Say”), into actions of the South Carolina General Assembly (See “Legisla tive Action”), and into school af fairs. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen” and “In The Col leges.”) Gov. Ernest F. Hollings played an increasingly significant role in the executive handling of the events stem ming from the demonstrations. (See “Political Activity.”) <£1a\ COMMUNITY ACTION March was marked by a series of demonstrations by young Negroes against racial segregation of various types. The demonstrators, mostly college or high school students, grouped to gether in assemblies ranging from two or three up to crowds approaching 1,000 in number. The demonstrations took numerous forms—sit-down protests at white lunch counters, massed marching and singing, demands for service at white libraries. During the first part of the month, as during the closing days of February, law enforcement officials observed the demonstrations closely but allowed them to proceed as long as no violence developed. With heightening tension be tween the races, however, state and lo cal officials began forbidding such dem onstrations later in March. Police offi cers started arresting Negroes individu ally and in groups when they refused orders to disperse. Several acts of violence occurred, which may or may not have been stimu lated by or linked with the demonstra tions. In Charleston, for example, three young Negroes were arrested as mem bers of a larger group that had beaten, robbed and slashed the back of a white man. The victim, N. A. McMakin, had almost 100 stitches taken in his back to sew up knife gashes, some of which seemed cut in an attempt to carve “KKK” on his back. ATTACK DRIVE-IN In Columbia, a number of Negro col lege students were arrested and fined on charges growing out of a club-wield ing attack on cars parked in a white drive-in restaurant located near the city’s two Negro institutions, Benedict College and Allen University. Report of a cross-burning on Negro college grounds was admitted a hoax by one of the Negro defendants, who said he had started the rumor while rounding up fellow students. At Orangeburg, location of two other Negro colleges, police used two canisters of tear gas and firemen turned on water hoses to break up a massed demonstra tion by approximately 1,000 Negro stu dents who refused police orders to dis perse. A threatened march by Columbia Ne groes on the state capitol building drew a warning from Gov. Ernest F. Hollings that further demonstrations would not be permitted (See “Political Activity”). TRIALS BEGUN By the end of the month, demon strations seemed to be giving way to litigation as trials began for the scores of defendants arrested on charges vary ing from breach of the peace to tres passing and resisting arrest. The demonstrations were generally denounced by the newspapers of the state and by public officials. New legis lation to curl) such developments was introduced in the General Assembly (see “Legislative Action”). Varied com ments came from adult Negro leaders, and a partial defense of the demonstra tors came from the bi-racial South Carolina Council on Human Relations. The following is a brief city-by-city summary of protest developments in South Carolina communities during March: COLUMBIA Scattered demonstrations at lunch counters of variety stores and drug stores resulted in several arrests for trespassing. Fifteen Negro college stu dents were sentenced for a stick-swing ing attack on cars at a white drive-in near the college campuses. ROCK HILL Police arrested 65 Negro students on charges of breach of the peace and five others on trespass charges. A cross was burned in front of a Negro church. The evacuation of Friendship Junior Col lege, from which most of the demon strators had come, followed a night-time bomb threat, the second within a week. The local chapter of the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People adopted a resolution to boycott stores where racial discrimination is practiced. A Citizens Council was formed by an estimated 350 to 400 white citizens of the community. ORANGEBURG A parade by some 400 Negro students through the downtown business section on March 1 was attended by two minor disturbances involving spectators. A March 15 parade of some 1,000 Negroes was finally dispersed with the aid of fire hoses and tear gas after the students ignored police directions to break up. The arrest of some 375 students fol lowed. GREENVILLE Two Negro students entered the white public library. The first incident ended with the library closing by direction of the library trustees. The second demon stration resulted in the arrest of seven students on charges of disorderly con duct. SUMTER Lunch-counter demonstrations at three establishments resulted in the ar rest March 4 of 26 Negro students of Morris College. DENMARK Following a Feb. 29 demonstration at two drug stores by Negro students, City Council passed an ordinance re quiring a permit for any parade or dem onstration. About a dozen students were arrested on Feb. 29 but released to au thorities of Voorhees Junior College. FLORENCE Two demonstrations were held on March 3 and 4 at a local variety store lunch counter. The first incident in volved about 25 young Negroes thought to be from some other community. Hie second involved local high school stu dents, 48 of whom were arrested when they returned to the store after having once been ousted by police. eral Constitution. The measure was sent to committee, where a number of Hart’s bills already have been con signed. Among such measures is one calling for the expulsion from school of students who engage in demonstrations. Rep. George Sam Harrell of Florence proposed requiring a $5,000 annual li cense for firms that operate lunch coun ters in addition to other lines of mer chandising. That bill went to commit tee. Another Harrell bill approved by the House this year requires the labeling by race of blood stored in blood banks. A Senate Judiciary Committee bill strengthening the state’s trespass law passed the Senate and was before the House at the end of March. Rep. George E. Campsen Jr. of Charleston sponsored a bill in mid- March that would permit life sentences for persons convicted of mayhem. The proposal was prompted by the Charles ton incident in which a white man was badly slashed by a group of Negroes. (See “Community Action.”) The House and Senate concurred on a resolution commending the state’s two U. S. senators for “their courageous stand in opposing the proposed ‘civil rights’ legislation pending in the U. S. Senate.” The concurrent resolution was adopted while southern senators were staging a filibuster against civil rights bills. Lt. Gov. Burnet R. Maybank told the Timmonsville Chamber of Commerce in mid-March that the “racial unrest in South Carolina is fostered by outsiders who are interested in nothing of value for either the Negro or white people of our area.” The rash of sit-down demonstrations by Negroes is a shame and a black eye to our history of sound, reasonable race relations in South Carolina,” Maybank said. “But the whole affair has been and is being conducted from the outside. The cool, deliberate manner by which the incidents have been handled by our law enforcement officers is commend able.” The Rev. H. P. Sharper, Negro minis ter of Florence and state NAACP presi dent, said: “Because of the strong-arm, fascist like tactics of peace officers (in coping with demonstrations at Orangeburg and elsewhere) ... we conclude that appeal to federal agencies is our last resort. Regretfully, these appeals will be made immediately, for responsible officials of our state and municipalities have shown no inclination to hear the students’ grievances or to seek a democratic so lution to the problems posed by their protests.. The South Carolina General Assembly reacted to the demonstrations of Ne gro students about the state during March (See “Community Action”). A number of new bills were introduced to curb lunch counter sit-downs, along with additional measures related to ra cial protests. The House of Representatives ap proved a bill by Speaker Pro Tem Rex L. Carter of Greenville, redefining “trespass” so as to strengthen its appli cation against demonstrators. Rep. John C. Hart of Union intro duced a number of bills, including a measure to allow the State Board of Health to revoke licenses of eating es tablishments when “the practices and policies of the establishment are caus ing public disorder or provoking civil strife.” Hart also sponsored a bill that would require newspapers to publish in each issue a list of persons owning as much as 10 per cent of the stock. This was aimed, he said, at “northern carpet bagging interests” in the southern news paper field. This bill prompted consid erable debate in the House but was tabled on a roll-call vote on March 24. Another Hart proposal would with draw the South Carolina ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the fed Southern School News Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by southern newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation, but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state. Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave., S., Nashville, Tenn. Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the authority of the act of March 3, 1879. OFFICERS Frank Ahlgren Chairman Thomas R. Waring Vice Chairman Marvin D. Wall Acting Executive Director Jim Leeson, Assistant to the Executive Director BOARD OF Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. Edward D. Ball, Editor, Nashville Ten nessean, Nashville, Tenn. Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea body College, Nashville, Tenn. C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob server, Charlotte, N.C. DIRECTORS Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn. George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk Univer sity, Nashville, Tenn. Don Shoemaker, Editorial Page Editor, Miami Herald, Miami, Fla. Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga. Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston News & Courier, Charleston, S.C. Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of Schools, Richmond, Va. CORRESPONDENTS ALABAMA William H. McDonald, Assistant Edi tor, Montgomery Advertiser ARKANSAS William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar kansas Gazette DELAWARE James E. Miller, Managing Editor, Delaware State News DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Erwin Knoll, Staff Writer, Washing ton Post & Times Herald FLORIDA Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami Herald GEORGIA Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Ma con News KENTUCKY Weldon James, Editorial Writer, Louisville Courier-Journal LOUISIANA Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or leans States & Item MARYLAND Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer, Baltimore Sun MISSISSIPPI Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau, Memphis Commercial Appeal MISSOURI William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch NORTH CAROLINA L. M. Wright Jr., Assistant City Edi tor, Charlotte Observer OKLAHOMA Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla homa City Oklahoman-Times SOUTH CAROLINA W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre spondent, Columbia, S.C. TENNESSEE Tom Flake, Staff Writer, Nashville Banner Garry Fullerton, Education Editor, Nashville Tennessean TEXAS Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu reau, Dallas News VIRGINIA Overton Jones, Associate Editor, Richmond Times-Dispatch WEST VIRGINIA Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the Editor, Charleston Gazette MAIL ADDRESS P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tenn. The Charleston city school board adopted a resolution on March 9 ban- ning participation of city school students in unauthorized demonstrations during school hours or on school property. Par ticipation would be grounds for expul sion. The resolution came to the general public’s attention only after the Charles ton chapter of the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People pro tested. Board Chairman Charles A. Brown said, “The board feels that school prop erty must be devoted to school purposes only and that during school hours stu dents must devote their time to the pre scribed curriculum.” The resolution, Brown said, was sent to the principal of each school in the city, both white and Negro, with in structions that it be read in all classes. The school board’s ban on demonstra tions was termed “Hitleristic” by the Charleston NAACP chapter at a March 24 meeting. The Rev. I. De Quincy New man, NAACP field secretary, said the school board was carrying “race rela tions to the slaughter pen” by adopting the resolution. J. Arthur Brown, local NAACP presi dent, urged the crowd of about 200 per sons to back the association, saying: “Were it not for the NAACP, God help the Negro.” A formal resolution adopted asked the school board to rescind its action. A group of Negro students of the Mayo High School at Darlington are asking the removal of their principal, Bennie A. Gary, because of his reaction to a student boycott of milk being served in the school cafeteria. The stu dents and their parents have initiated legal action to oust the principal, con tending that he “created a reign of ter ror” after some 40 or 50 students began habitually dumping their milk cartons into a waste basket without drinking the milk. One of the Negro students, Arthur W. Stanley Jr., was quoted by the Associ ated Press as saying the milk distributor was on a list of firms that Negroes were urged to boycott. Elliott D. Turnage, Negro attorney representing the plaintiffs, said, “This local situation is the outgrowth of a statewide decision on the part of Negro pupils not to drink this milk.” The ouster suit is directed against Principal Gary but also names as de fendants the Darlington County Board of School Trustees and District Supt. G. C. Mangum. The State Educational Finance Com mission approved in March construction allocations totalling $363,679. That makes a total $199,426,323 in allocations since South Carolina’s school equalization and expansion program was launched in 1951. propriate disciplinary action will be tak en at a later board meeting, he said. The college administration, White told the students in a statement, was not only responsible for the conduct of the students but owed a responsibility to parents for the safety of their children at the college. He said that, due to re cent developments in the state, any par ticipation by a student in any type of demonstration off the campus would tend to provoke violence, regardless of the purpose, and jeopardize the safety of the student. Accordingly, he said, any such student participating thereafter would be summarily expelled. REPORT EXPULSIONS Two days after the trustee statement, a Negro leader of Columbia, John H. McCray, said that more than 20 State College students were to be expelled at the end of the current semester for hav ing taken part in the student demon strations. McCray, who is chairman of a Negro political group known as the Progressive Democrats, wrote to Chair man White and to the governor, saying: “Expulsions of this sort must be con strued to be vengeful and partisan and depriving one body of students—a frac tion of the total number of students in volved over the state—of the right to express themselves on the issue. It is noted that no punitive action is planned against white youths who have launched counter demonstrations against colored students.” The trustees (all white) of South Carolina State College (for Negroes) at Orangeburg, warned students against defying college policy by participating in mass demonstrations of the types conducted in downtown Orangeburg. (See “Community Action.”) Trustee Chairman Bruce W. White told the press on March 17 that it was apparent that the State College stu dents arrested at the demonstration act ed in defiance of the administration. He said defiance would not be tolerated. An investigation has been begun, he added, to determine who participated and what leaders were responsible. Ap Gov. Ernest F. Hollings had remainec in close contact with local officials dur ing the early racial demonstrations ii South Carolina but had avoided inject ing his office into the situation. He broki his relative silence March 10 in the fao of a threatened Negro student march oi the state capitol. (See “Community Ac tion.”) The governor, in a prepared statemen issued to a special news conference said the chief of the state law enforce ment division had told the presidents o both Negro colleges at Columbia tha (See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 5)