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PAGE 6—APRIL I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Files Desegregation Policies; Faubus to Run Arkansas Segregation -Desegregation Status Number of districts, 422: 228 biracial; 9 desegregated. Total state enrollment: 315,806 white; 104,205 Negro. Enrollment of desegregated districts: 50,272 white; 9,750 Negro. Enrollment of 14 desegregated schools: 8,092 white; 98 Negro. Enrollment by desegregated districts and by schools: White Bentonville 1,440 white, 2 Negro Wing Elem. & Jr. High 730 Negro 2 Van Buren 2,410 white, 67 Negro Van Buren Sr. High 603 9 Van Buren Jr. High 434 14 Fort Smith 9,653 white, 1,049 Negro DuVal Elem. School 244 4 Little Rock 13,949 white, 5,366 Negro Central High 1,510 5 Hall High 730 3 Pulaski County (Rural) 12,780 white, 2,251 Negro Little Rock AFB Elem. 828 10 Charleston 600 white, 8 Negro Elem., Jr. and Sr. high 600 8 Hot Springs 5,058 white, 901 Negro Adult class in mechanics 8 4 Fayetteville 3,441 white, 98 Negro Fayetteville Jr. High 612 21 Fayetteville Sr. High 925 10 Hoxie 941 white, 8 Negro Hoxie Elem. 397 4 Hoxie Sr. High (Grades 7-12) 371 4 TOTALS 8,092 98 ARKANSAS Dollarway LITTLE ROCK, Ark. he Dollarway School Board filed a statement of affirmative policy on desegregation, as re quired by a federal judge. It ap parently means that the board will allow desegregation to begin only in the first grade. (See “Legal Ac tion.”) During a two-day hearing on the Little Rock School Board’s use of the state pupil assignment law, school officials testified that the Negroes are “isolated” and “shunned” by the white students. (See “Legal Action.”) Gov. Orval E. Faubus, who swept to an overwhelming third- term victory two years ago on the strength of his resistance to school desegregation at Little Rock, announced as a candidate for a fourth term as governor. (See “Political Activity.”) The Arkansas Methodist Stu dent Movement called for Hen drix College, a Methodist school for white students, at Conway, to eliminate all racial barriers. (See “Community Action.”) The Arkansas Education Assn, has a lot of doubts about the wisdom of a constitutional amendment, proposed by Gov. Faubus, to be voted on in Novem ber. It would give school districts a way to disband their school systems to avoid desegregation. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Negro students at Philander Smith College at Little Rock began staging lunch counter sit-downs in downtown stores. Five of them were arrested and fined. (See “Miscellaneous.”) Gov Orval E. Faubus, 50, filed Mar. 16 for nomination as a candidate for a fourth term as governor. He is the sec ond governor in the history of the state to serve three terms and is the first in history to try for a fourth. The fourth-term try does not scare him. He said he had already gone over two hurdles bigger than that one—the first in 1954 when he was elected over a governor who was trying for the al most-automatic second term, and the second in 1958 when he won his almost- unprecedented third term. Besides he had had a public opinion poll made and it showed, he said, that his voting strength was just as strong or stronger than it was two years ago when he smashed two opponents and carried all 75 counties. He was smiling and happy as he made the announcement. He already has one opponent, state Atty. Gen. Bruce Bennett, and there is talk that one or two others may get into the race. NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT Three days later the States Rights Party held a convention at Dayton, Ohio, and nominated Faubus and Adm. John G. Crommelin of Alabama for president and vice president respec tively. Up to that time the governor had avoided committing himself on whether he was available for a third party movement. In announcing for a fourth term he had said that that should discourage those who had been booming him for president, but he was referring to the Democratic nomination then for he went on to say, “It should be evident that I’ve never given any serious con sideration whatsoever to being a candi date for president. . . The machinery at the Democratic convention will be so well-controlled that a person like my self will have only a look-in.” A few days later he cancelled an ap pointment to speak on April 1 at a Fau bus for President rally at Los Angeles, Calif. He said the television stations out there had refused to sell time to his sponsors for Faubus. Also, the Los An geles Examiner, digging into the back ground of the Faubus sponsors out there, was trying to show they were linked with Gerald L. K. Smith. Faubus called this just a smear of “guilty by association.” Late in February it became known that John F. Wells of Little Rock had asked Rep. Dale Alford of Little Rock (D-Ark) whether he was going to run 'or renomination this year. If so, the letter said, Wells would contest Alford’s right to rim in the Democratic primar ies on the ground that Alford had dis qualified himself in 1958 by running against the party nominee, Brooks Hays. Alford did not bother to answer Wells’ letter but Wells got an answer of another kind within a week. The Dem ocratic State Committee was called to gether and adopted a resolution that expressly forgave Alford and any Dem ocrat who voted for him in the general election of 1958, restoring them all to the good graces of the party. There were only a few protests in the committee. “You have to be practical,” said one of the party stalwarts. “The ins make the rules and the outs complain.” Alford won the 1958 congressional race by running as a staunch segrega tionist against Hays’ position of mod eration. During the civil rights debate in Congress, Alford fired off a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers, tak ing Rogers to task for constantly refer ring to Little Rock in his appeals for civil rights legislation. The Arkansas Methodist Student Movement has called for an end to ra cial segregation at Hendrix College at Conway and a more complete accep tance of it at Philander Smith College at Little Rock and in the state-support ed colleges. The resolution was adopted at a meeting of the Student Movement in February but not made public until March 9. Hendrix and Philander Smith are owned by the Methodist Church. Hen drix is for white students. Philander Smith is for Negro students but has had white students from time to time and has had white members on its faculty. A statement issued with the resolu tion said that it was adopted unanimous ly. Dr. A. W. Martin, director of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, said that about 150 students attended the meeting, rep resenting all the state-supported col leges, plus Hendrix and Philander Smith. The resolution said the students were “firmly convinced that all people, re gardless of race, color or creed, are equal in the sight of God and, therefore, are brothers.” It said that as Methodists they were “acutely aware that our ac tions and practices, both individual and group, concerning racial matters fre quently contradict directly our publicly announced policies and doctrines.” It noted that there was “partial and incomplete acceptance of equality in our state schools” and that the boards of the colleges had “considered serious ly the problems involved in removing these racial barriers.” It urged the Hen drix Board to “take definite steps re moving all racial barriers, lest the Church be the last institution to grant equal rights to all of the children of God.” URGE STRONG BILL At the annual meeting of the Arkan sas Christian Movement, resolutions were adopted calling for Congress to adopt a strong civil rights bill and for Negroes to vote in this summer’s Dem ocratic primaries. The Movement is an organizaion of Negro ministers, formed in 1957 to car ry on a lawsuit against the four segre gation laws adopted by the Legislature that year. Through this lawsuit the ef fectiveness of the State Sovereignty Commission was reduced to virtually nothing. Rev. Roland Smith of Little Rock, president, said the Movement had no further litigation in mind. Some of the doubts that the organ ized school forces have about a pro posed amendment to the Arkansas con stitution were expressed by Forrest Rozzell, executive secretary of the Ar kansas Education Assn, in a speech to the Women’s Emergency Committee for Public Schools, at Little Rock. Proposed Amendment 52 is part of the package offered by Gov. Faubus and approved by the 1959 Legislature. It is designed to give a school district when threatened with court-ordered desegregation the opportunity by local option election to disband its public school system and to distribute school money equally among all pupils in the district. Rozzell said the proposed amendment had implications for school people that went far beyond the desegregation is sue. In his speech he put his doubts about the proposal in the form of questions about it. Some of them fol low: What would it do to the present con stitutional guarantee that “the state shall ever maintain a general, suitable and efficient system of free schools?” Since the proposal would have school money distributed among all students in the districts—apparently taking in parochial school students—would this violate the federal constitutional doc trine of church-state separation? What would become of the existing public schools and equipment? What would happen to teacher contracts? What would happen to teacher retirement systems: If teachers are paid under their contracts and since most school districts spend about 70 per cent of their budgets on teacher pay, where would the money come from to pay the students? Since this amendment would allow other amendments to be voted on at special elections any time, instead of only at general elections bi ennially as now, would this diminish constitutional stability and rational" changes in the constitution? Other questions dealt with taxes, bonds and interest rates. The Board of Trustees of Arkansas AM&N College (for Negroes) at Pine Bluff met with the Legislative Council in March and asked that the Legislature make a decision on whether the college is to have exclusive responsibility for Negro undergraduate work. The board recommended that the col lege be furnished enough money to offer a complete university-type selec tion of undergraduate courses. Other wise, it said, it will have to operate as just another state-supported college. Behind this is the theory that if AM&N offers everything, there will be fewer Negro applications for admission to the white colleges and the University. WON’T SEEK FUNDS Meeting without notice to the press or public, the Little Rock School Board decided by a vote of 4 to 2 not to file suit to try and recover any of the $187,- 768 of Little Rock’s state aid given by the state to other schools during 1958- 59 when the four Little Rock high schools were closed. The board had asked its attorneys for advice. Everett Tucker Jr., board president, said the attorneys had found that the board probably had a legal claim to the money but that the weight of their recommendations was “negative.” The schools were closed by Gov. Faubus and the money was withheld and paid to other schools under Acts 4 and 5 of 1958, both of which had been held unconstitutional by the federal courts. Of the amount paid to other schools, $71,907.50 went to the Little Rock Private School Corp., a fact that had its effect on the board’s decision. Tucker said the board felt that it might work a hardship on the 124 public school districts that received money, if they were sued, and that it might be in consistent if the board sued only the Private School Corp. FIRST PAYMENT The State Board of Education ap proved a payment of $5,000 to the Dol larway School District to cover some of the legal expenses of defending itself against a desegregation lawsuit. Dollar way had made the request in June 1959. This is the first payment made out of $100,000 appropriated by Act 358 of 1959 to help school districts resist de segregation suits. Five of the nine board members were present and they all voted for the mo tion made by Chairman Marvin E. Bird of Earle. “I think this is of direct concern not only to Dollarway but to Earle, Forrest City and other school districts,” Bird said. “It concerns all of us who are concerned with integration” Dollarway is represented by the firm' of Mehaffy Smith & Williams of Little Rock. There were anonymous bomb threats at Little Rock Catholic High on March 10 and at Little Rock Central High on March 16. No bomb was found in either case. About 50 young Negroes entered the F. W. Woolworth Co. store in downtown Litte Rock about 11:30 am. March 10, and about 23 of them obtained seats at the lunch counter which serves food to white people only. While they sat there without receiving service, the assistant manager of the store went to the tele phone and called the district Woolworth office at St. Louis and received instruc tions to close the food counter but not 1 to order the Negroes to leave. While the call was going through, some unidentified person called the police, and a throng of officers headed by Police Chief Eugene G. Smith quickly arrived. Smith spoke to the as sistant manager, J. L. Bailey, and Bailey ordered the counter closed. Smith and other officers then walked along the counter which has seats for 59 persons and told the Negroes that it was closed and asked them to leave. All but five got up and left. Those five were arrested, on charges of loiter ing, under a city ordinance, and were released under bonds of $100 each, posted by the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People. After they were released, Chief Smith called the offices of both the prosecuting at torney in the courthouse and the state attorney general in the capitol, then charged them with violating two state laws, Act 17 of 1958 and Act 226 of 1959. These are two of four state laws adopted in 1958 and 1959, all sponsored by Atty. Gen. Bennett and inspired by the Negro sit-downs in Oklahoma in the summer of 1958. The bills were de signed to cope with attempts by Ne groes to gain service usually reserved for whites in stores. Acts 17 and 226 are phrased in general terms which make a crime of any conduct that breaches or threatens to breach the public peace. The other two laws, Acts 14 and 169 of 1959, cover the same situation but under them the crime is for the Negroes to refuse to leave a store when the mana ger or owner asks them to. POST BONDS In Municipal Court next morning, the defendants posted additional bonds of $500 each on each of two new charges. They were identified as stu dents at Philander Smith College. They said the demonstration had de veloped spontaneously among students at the college, after reading about sit- downs at other places in the South, and that they finally decided to go through with it only the morning of the sit- down. They said that before leaving their dormitory, they telephoned Mrs. L. C. Bates of Little Rock, state presi dent of the NAACP, and told her of their plans. When they were taken to headquarters after their arrest, L. C. Bates, field secretary for the NAACP, and a Negro bondsman were waiting, to bail them out. A week later the five students were tried in Municipal Court and convicted of violating Act 226. Judge Quinn Glo ver, after dismissing the other two charges for fear of possible double jeopardy, fined them $250 each and sen tenced them to 30 days in jail each. They served notice of appeal. TOOK SEATS Leaving the courtroom about 25 to 40 young Negroes, including some girls this time and apparently all students, marched to Main Street half a mile away and in succession took seats at five lunch counters. All the stores closed their counters; none of them asked the Negroes to leave. As the police swarmed along the street, the Negroes left. There was no trouble and no arrests. Reactions to the sit-downs included the following: The NAACP at a membership rally volunteered to support the Negro stu dents and to help finance an effort to test the validity of the anti-sitdown laws. Amis Guthridge, counsel for the Cap ital Citizens Council, charged that Mrs. Bates was directing the demonstrations and demanded that she be charged and arrested. The Board of Trustees of Philander Smith College said that it neither ap proved nor disapproved the students’ action, remembering that the students were entitled to express their opinions “so long as they act within the frame work of the law.” Gov. Faubus said Little Rock was in consistent by accepting integration in its schools but rejecting it in the Main Street stores. At East Lansing, Mich., Ernest Green, the first and only Negro graduate of Little Rock Central High, now a stu dent at Michigan State University, led a protest line in front of the S. S. Kresge store. The East Lansing store serves Negroes at its lunch counter but south ern Kresge stores do not. CHIEF SHOOTS SELF Little Rock Police Chief Eugene G. Smith, 47, famous since last Aug. 12 when police and firemen under his com mand broke up a segregationist march on Central High School, shot his wife to death, then killed himself the night of March 18 at their home. No note was left and the motive was not known. Smith received much praise for his handling of the situation at Central High last August but segregationists hated and reviled him and never let up in their condemnation of him. Smith as assistant chief then, had been in (See ARKANSAS, Page 7)