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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL I960—PAGE 7 Arkansas (Continued From Page 6) EUGENE SMITH Little Rock Police Chief charge at Central High on Sept. 23, 1957, also, when a segregationist mob stormed the barricade put up by the police. LEGAL ACTION As ordered by U. S. District Judge J. Smith Henley, the Dollarway School Board filed a statement of “affirmative policies” designed to end compulsory segregation in the district. But the school board asked newsmen not to re fer to it as a “plan” and said it was not a plan. The policies contained in the state ment may, as the nine-page document mentioned, lead to integration. The statement said that in making pupil assignments for 1960-61, the board would “insofar as possible” as sign first grade students in accordance with preference of the parents. It said it would adhere to its previous policy of not approving transfers from one school to another in other grades, except in unusual cases. Since Dollarway has only two schools, one for whites and one for Negroes, each covering grades 1 through 12, the effect of the policy statement would limit the start of desegregation, if any, to the first grade. This policy statement was required in the suit in which three Negro high school students asked to be admitted to the white school. Their request has been denied and they have appealed. The three Negro plaintiffs appealed to the Eighth Circuit Appeals Court from the ruling made Feb. 19 by Judge Henley. The points they appealed were: Judge Henley’s refusal to order Dollarway to admit the plaintiffs to the white school; and his ruling that the two sides in the case should pay their own court costs. A hearing on the appeal was sched uled for May 12. After the Negro plaintiffs had ap pealed, the Dollarway board also ap pealed. The board appealed Judge Henley’s ruling that the plaintiffs, hav ing completed all other administrative procedure as set out in the state pupil assignment law, could skip the state courts and carry their complaint direct ly into federal court. The case is Dove v. Parham. hold hearings Federal Judge John E. Miller of Ft. Smith held hearings March 22 and 23 at Little Rock on the Little Rock School Board’s use of the state pupil place ment law. The board admitted eight Negro students to two white high schools last fall out of 59 who asked ad mission. The Negro plaintiffs challenged this and contended that under the assign ment law and under the original court- approved desegregation plan at Little Rock, any student was entitled to at tend the school in whose attendance area he lives. The hearing was part of the original Little Rock case (Aaron v. Cooper, now known as Aaron v. Tucker), filed in 1956 and originally heard by Judge Miller. He made it clear this time that he thought this case had stood about all the litigation that it could hold and that he hoped this would be the final hearing in this case. Hereafter, he said, any complaints will have to filed individual ly- The school board took the Negro plaintiffs by surprise in the opening minutes of the two-day hearing with the announcement that it would not start desegregation on the junior high school level (grades 7-9) in the fall of 1960. Junior high desegregation was to follow the “successful completion” of senior high desegregation and this was estimated to be in the fall of either 1959 or 1960. Wiley A. Branton of Pine Bluff, Ne gro attorney for the plaintiffs, objected strenuously to the introduction of the policy resolution. Judge Miller said he did not intend to approve or disapprove the policy resolution but took it as a matter of information. Board members testified unanimously that they had tried to apply the assign ment law in the same way to white and Negro students, and that it had not oc curred to them to try to use the assign ment law to hold down the number of Negroes admitted to the white schools. Everett Tucker Jr., board president, said conditions were much better than in the 1957-58 school year. He said the white students still shunned the Ne groes, that the Negro students were go ing through school in a kind of isolation, which he called “a cruel sort of situa tion.” Judge Miller called for briefs from both sides and said he planned to hand down his ruling in July. APPEAL TO HIGH COURT Nineteen persons arrested Aug. 12, 1959, when the police broke up a segre gationist march on Central High at Little Rock on the opening day of school, have appealed to the state Su preme Court in their effort to have their trials transferred from Little Rock Municipal Court to some other court. Both the Municipal Court and the Cir cuit Court of Pulaski County have re fused to grant the change of venue. The trial of Samuel Graydon Beavers, the last of the five men charged in con nection with the 1959 Labor Day dyna- mitings at Little Rock, has been sched uled for Sept. 7. That date will be the first anniversary of the explosions. Beavers has received several delays because of his own illness and then the illness of his attorney, Gordon H. Sul livan. The other four men all were con victed. Beavers’ is charged in connec tion with the explosion at the private business office of Mayor Werner C. Knoop. TRIAL DATES SET Trial dates have been set for the two Negro suspects in the dynamiting of the home of Carlotta Walls, one of the five Negro students at Central High, on Feb. 9. Herbert Odell Monts, 17, will be tried May 16; Maceo Antonio Binns Jr., 31, will be tried June 7. Both are free on bonds of $15,000 each. At a press conference one day Gov. Faubus said he had been told that a Negro had paid $50 to have the Walls home dynamited. He wouldn’t answer any questions about this remark and re ferred newsmen to the authorities, who declined to confirm or deny. There has been a rumor ever since the Walls ex plosion that a payoff was involved but no one in authority has ever confirmed it nor even mentioned it until Faubus did. Mrs. Wera Frieke, a German em ployed by the United States Informa tion Service in West Berlin, where she works with German teenagers, spent two days at Little Rock on a tour of the country. She said German teenagers were very interested in everything American, especially race relations, and that they considered Gov. Faubus’ ac tions in the Little Rock school crisis “very bad.” “Now I can tell them something pos itive. Everything they have heard about it before has been negative. Now I can tell my group that there are people here who are working and trying to solve the problem,” she said. BATES SPEAKS At Dallas, Tex., L. C. Bates of Little Rock, Arkansas field secretary to the NAACP and husband of the state NAACP president, spoke at a regional NAACP meeting. “The Supreme Court decisions de claring unconstitutional the state laws designed to hamper the operation of the NAACP will remove some of the fear and pressure from our organization, but it cannot remove the hatred gen erated in many white men’s hearts by the fight over the integration of the Little Rock schools,” he said. # # # MISSISSIPPI Teachers Effective Rap Textbook Charges; Communication Urged JACKSON, Miss. ISSISSIPPl’s WHITE TEACHERS, meeting in Jackson, criti cized the State Daughters of the American Revolution for its in vestigation of textbooks and the claim that 44 had subversive and unfit material. (See “Community Action.”) Negro teachers urged Gov. Ross Barnett and other top lead ers to show “statesmanship” in starting a movement for more ef fective communication between the races on problems of common interest. (See “Community Ac tion.”) The Legislature passed a bill to permit local congregations to withdraw from their “parent” jur isdictional denominational bodies in protest to integration policies and retain possession of their church properties. Opponents threaten to take the issue to court. (See “Legislative Action.”) Laws inflicting stiff penalties for “sit-in” demonstrations were approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ross Barnett. (See “Legislative Ac tion.”) White and Negro teacher associations opposed “third factor” measurement based on national teacher’s examina tion in determining salary raises now gauged by training and experience. The issue is before the Legislature, where teachers are asking for a $600 across- the-board salary raise and the governor is offering $300 now and $300 at the 1962 session. (See "School Boards and Schoolmen.”) The Mississippi Education Assn., composed of white teachers, criticized the DAR for its recent “expose” of various phases of textbooks used in Mississippi schools. The DAR reported that 44 textbooks used in Mississippi contain “subversive” material and are “unfit” for use in the public schools. Many of the textbooks, with the areas criticized underscored, were put on display in Jackson for the legisla tors, now in biennial session, to inspect. They were displayed in the lobby of the King Edward Hotel, where most of the lawmakers stay while in Jackson, and then moved to the state capitol. The DAR accused book company rep resentatives of “picketing” their dis plays. The MEA resolution said the associ ation is “opposed to investigations of our textbooks made by irresponsible parties.” “Our association condemns such book purgings which are, in effect, ex pressions of a lack of confidence in the integrity, loyalty and good judg ment of the teachers of Mississippi,” the resolution stated. “We commend the Mississippi plan of textbook selec tion as one of the best . . . and the MEA welcomes investigations by the Legislature in support of valid pur poses.” Committees of teachers are selected by State Supt. J. M. Tubb to study the books and are cautioned to watch closely for objectionable material. URGE LEADERS Mississippi’s top leadership was urged by the Mississippi Negro Teach ers Assn., also meeting in Jackson, to lead in seeking the establishment of more effective communication between the whites and Negroes on “problems of common interest.” They suggested that Gov. Barnett take the initiative through bi-racial committees on the community and state levels. The organization of 7,000 Negro teachers said such a movement wi “require the full sanction of Missis sippi’s top leadership” because “the fear of reprisals now stifles action in this direction.” A resolution at the state convention said such bi-racial committees would be more productive of better human relations “than the professional in former who is dangerous to both groups.” “We feel that positive action in all areas will prove fruitful,” the resolu tion asserted. “White Mississippians cannot afford to be misinformed about Mississippi Negroes.” “Such an approach will be evidence of the statesmanship of Mississippi’s progressive leadership and would not in any way be an invasion of the state’s traditions,” the resolution pointed out. “This procedure would tend to re establish the cooperative approach to the solution of our problems.” “Since Negroes are best informed about their own problems and are more seriously concerned about improving those areas of state services which ef fect them directly, we recommend membership of Negroes, even if token, associate, advisory or assistants, on all boards, committees or departments where Negroes are affected. In this way, these agencies could more ef fectively achieve their stated objec tives.” Pointing out that Mississippi’s pub lic school building equalization program has made “phenomenal progress in the past few years,” the association said “we are rapidly approaching the time when first-class high schools are the equal of any in the nation and will be available for every Negro child in every county of the state.” “However, the time has come when we must improve our Negro colleges in the same proportion,” the resolution stated. It recommended that work at the three Negro colleges be coordi nated into a first-class system of higher education. Mississippi’s new and controversial church law permits 66%rd of the adult membership of a local congregation to petition chancery court for removal of trustees over their church properties. It applies when “there exists a deep- seated and irreconcilable hostility or tension between them and any or all of the said trustees or others exercising authority over said properties.” It ap plies to trusts of any “educational, charitable or religious organization.” The new statute affects primarily the Methodist Church because of its jurisdictional system of control of church properties. Senate bill 1619 was authored by Sens. W. B. Lucas of Macon and W. B. Alexander of Cleve land. It was identical to House bill 220 by Reps. Wilburn Hooker of Holmes County (Lexington) and Thompson McClellan of Clay County (West Point). The new bill was a replacement for an original measure, which applied only to Protestant churches and was sidetracked because of its questioned constitutionality as applying to one specific group. State Sen. Flavous Lambert of Bel mont in Tishomingo County, who op posed the bill, said he may go to court to test the constitutionality of the new law. It was passed by the Senate, 26 to 19, and by the House, 87 to 43. ‘SIT-IN’ BILLS Various phases of “sit-in” demon strations are involved in three new laws, which provide stiff penalties for such demonstrations. They were rushed through the Legislature as “emergencies” after demonstrations in the South by Negroes protesting seg regation. Representatives McClellan and Hooker, authors of the House “church bill,” which was sidetracked for an identical Senate measure, said the new laws could be used in event of “sit- ins” in Mississippi. A bill introduced by Sen. George Yarbrough of Red Banks in Marshall County, the president pro tern of the Senate and Gov. Barnett’s floor leader, seeks to give the attorney general power to examine books and records of corporations doing business in Mis sissippi. Senate bill 1679 is aimed at the National Assn, for the Advance ments of Colored People. A similar bill was passed at the 1958 legislative session but vetoed by then Gov. Coleman, who said it would open records of corporations, regardless of their nature, to public inspection. Information obtained under the Yar brough proposal would be kept secret “unless the state welfare deems other wise.” Corporations concealing their books or resisting efforts of the at torney general to secure them would lose their rights to operate in Missis sippi. Purpose of the bill is to secure the records of the NAACP, along with its membership. At the 54th state convention of the DAR, Mrs. Ashmead White of Bangor, Maine, the president general of the na tional organization, said “a stand on the segregation issue would split the DAR wide open.” “We have no national policy about the racial issue,” Mrs. White said. “Any stand on the matter would split our society wide open.” Relative to the state organization’s study of textbooks and its charge that a number of them used in Mississippi are “subversive, un-American, advo cating integration of the races through' communist propaganda,” the president general said: “Mississippi has gone deeper into the textbook matter than any other state. Certainly, there are books used in schools throughout the country which are objectionable. They debunk our heroes, the men that made this coun try great.” DEAN SPEAKS Addressing the Millsaps (Methodist) College student body in Jackson, Dr. Robert J. Nelson, dean of the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, used as his subject, “Christian Reconcilia tion and World Crisis.” In an interview, Dr. Nelson was quoted as saying he was “opposed to segregation.” “Let’s say I am an outspoken ad vocate of Christian living,” he said. “I believe in speaking out about things I believe in.” The two associations of teachers in Mississippi—white and Negro—are in accord on several issues now before the Legislature. They agree that salaries should be raised $600 across-the-board on a basis of training and experience. They are unwilling to accept an as serted “compromise” suggested by Gov. Barnett to provide $300 at the current biennial session and the other $300 at the 1962 assembly. The white group contends that Bar nett “promised” the $600 raise during his campaign for the governorship last summer. The governor says he prom ised “whatever the state’s economy would justify.” The plan being insisted on by the teacher groups will require 132 million dollars in the new biennium commenc ing July 1. That compares with the 98 million voted for the current two- year period. Barnett’s proposal will require 117 million dollars at this time. A “third factor” measurement on the basis of a national teacher’s examina tion, proposed by some legislators, would require 121 million dollars. The House voted the $600 figure and the bill is now before the Senate Fi nance Committee, along with an amendment calling for the “third fac tor” measurement. The factor proposal would provide raises up to $500 for teachers making first category grades, and $450 for those in the next group ing. Opponents contend it would down grade an estimated 50 per cent of the 17,000 teachers, affecting Negroes to a larger extent. # # #