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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY I960—PAGE 13 KENTUCKY Candidates Show School Segregation Not An Issue LOUISVILLE, Ky. D emocratic and Republican candidates for the U.S. Sen ate made it clear at a “summit conference” of Negro leaders that school desegregation will not be an issue in their campaigns. Incumbent Sen. John Sherman Cooper (R) said Negroes not only must have the right to attend the school of their choice but also must “have the opportunity to catch up.” Former Gov. Keen Johnson, supported by Gov. Bert Combs for the Democratic nomination, praised Negro leaders for having helped the state enjoy “good race relationships, especially in inte gration of schools.” (See “Politi cal Activity.”) A special committee of educators recommended that Lincoln Institute, the state’s 49-year-old boarding school for Negroes, become the first state wide, comprehensive vocational high school, with the faculty and student body bi-racial. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) A Negro high school in Louisville drew a 46-day suspension and a one- year probation from the Kentucky High School Athletic Assn, for be havior of players and fans at a bi- racial basketball game. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Sit-in demonstrations continued in two cities and a proposed anti-tres passing ordinance in Louisville drew denunciations from both whites and Negroes. (See “Community Action.”) Gov. Combs and Lt. Gov. Wilson Wyatt received the 1960 Lincoln Key Award for their services in establish ing a state Commission on Human Rights. (See “Miscellaneous.”) vance together in order to ultimately achieve full acceptance as desirable, contributing, and first-class citizens.” School desegregation will be no is sue in their campaigns, two candidates for the U. S. Senate made clear in speeches before a “summit conference” of Kentucky Negro leaders sponsored in late March by the Louisville De fender, a Negro weekly. Incumbent GOP Sen. John Sherman Cooper, who is running for re-elec tion, told some 325 persons at the con ference in Louisville’s Henry Clay Ho tel that the United States has both a legal obligation and a moral responsi bility “to insure equality of oppor tunities.” Cooper referred to the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision as “the law of the land,” and added: “If we are to have any respect for the law and if we are to have any foundation for our government, we know the law must be observed.” He said Negroes must not only have the right to attend the school of their choice but also must “have the oppor tunity to catch up” by means of special classes and vocational schools. SUGGESTS LAW The senator also said the nation needs a law giving the U. S. attorney general power to intervene in behalf of a citizen who is denied the right to attend the school of his choice. Former Gov. Keen Johnson, who with Gov. Combs’s support is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat now held by Cooper, praised state Ne gro leaders for “having helped Ken tucky to enjoy good race relationships, especially in the integration of schools.” “You have recognized the fact,” he said, “that school integration can best be advanced by the exercise of pa tience and a spirit of good will. It re flects credit on you as leaders that substantial progress is being made in the state that we all love.” The Democratic Party, Johnson said, “has long been committed to the ad vancement of civil rights.” He praised recent enactment of a bill creating a State Human Rights Commission. Frank L. Stanley, Sr., editor and publisher of the Negro newspaper, hailed the meeting as “the first of its kind.” Its purpose, he said, was “self- examination” and to “map plans to ad- SCHOOL BOARDS AND SCHOOLMEN A special committee appointed by Gov. Combs to look into the future of Lincoln Institute recommended April 20 that the state’s 49-year-old Negro boarding school become the first state wide comprehensive vocational high school, with the faculty and student body bi-racial. The school, located in Shelby County, has an enrollment of 422, down from 586 when the state’s de segregation program began in 1955. It is supported by state and private funds and by the Lincoln Foundation. Its new role, President Whitney Young said, would be designed to offer train ing and “quality” education to persons of all races in remote areas of Ken tucky where facilities and course of ferings are limited—chiefly students who would not go on to college. SCHOOL SUSPENDED Louisville Central High School, an all-Negro institution, drew a 46-day basketball-season suspension and a one-year probation from the Kentucky High School Athletic Assn, in late March. The suspension, one of the severest penalties in the history of the K.H.S.A.A., stemmed from the be havior of two Central players and several fans in the Central-Flaget game (see Southern School News, April 1960), which almost precipitated a riot. The penalty will prevent Cen tral from playing any member teams in basketball from Dec. 16, 1960, to Feb. 1, 1961. Central will be ineligible to defend its Louisville Invitational Tournament championship late next January. Flaget, an integrated school with two Negro stars on its team, won the Cen tral game and went on to take the state basketball championship. Central Principal Atwood S. Wilson earlier had suspended the two Central players accused of violating the asso ciation’s sportsmanship rules in the game. Minor sit-in demonstrations occurred in Lexington and Frankfort. Sit-in workshops on and off the campus of Kentucky State College at Frankfort got national publicity in April. A Na tional Broadcasting Co. telecast fea tured their emphasis on non-violent demonstrations at segregated lunch counters. Arthur Norman, an assistant professor of psychology and one of the advisers to the Students for Civil Rights, a campus organization, said that “it has been a purely local af fair—no outside organization started it.” State College President R. B. At wood said the workshops were not be ing conducted by the college, but that the college had allowed the use of col lege buildings for the workshops. He said that as long as the demonstra tions were conducted in “a dignified, non-violent manner,” he saw no justi fication for disciplinary action. Atwood, Norman, and other Negro leaders met on April 7 with Frankfort Mayor Paul Judd and other Frank fort officials, ministers, and educators. Judd said he called the meeting in an effort to solve the problem “before it gets too big.” He urged a solution of the problem “without demonstrations,” and said he himself would approach restaurant, hotel, and store owners “to determine their feelings.” Several Frankfort establishments be gan serving both races, but Negro demonstrators indicated they might re sume the sit-ins in the future. State Supt. of Public Instruction Wendell P. Butler, who is ex officio chairman of the college board of re gents, said he knew of no board policy concerning such workshops on the campus of a state institution, “but it might be that we should adopt a pol icy.” ALDERMEN VOTE In Louisville, the Board of Aider- men voted 11 to one last month in op position “to any ordinance which takes away the right of an owner of a pri vate business to select his or its cus tomers or clientele.” Negro leaders vowed to begin sit-in demonstrations should the aldermen pass an anti-tres- p>assing ordinance. Such an ordinance was drafted by the city law department at the re quest of Police Court Prosecutor John Dougherty. Top city officials, including Dougherty, said it was not designed to enforce segregation in privately owned establishments but only to cover a pioint omitted when the city’s loitering ordinance was amended last April. White and Negro leaders spoke against it, the city’s two daily news papers deplored it as “almost bound to make mischief,” the Louisville De fender denounced it as certain to “in cite vicious hatreds” and as “the worst blow that can possibly be dealt to Louisville’s Negro citizens.” A Negro Baptist group, the Louis ville and Vicinity Ministers’ and Dea cons’ Meeting, with a membership of about 300, on April 19 cited “the fear of growing influence of the White Citi zens Councils upon the administration of public affairs” among its reasons for opposing the measure. Earlier in the month the bi-racial Louisville Ministerial Assn, adopted a strong stand against racial segregation in restaurants and theaters. It urged members first to seek voluntary de segregation by piersuasion through in dividual contacts with businessmen and a public pronouncement, but pledged support for an ordinance re quiring desegregation (of motels, ho tels, theaters, restaurants and cafe terias) should such tactics fail. ^^CELLANEOUs" The Kentucky Education Assn, jointly awarded its 1960 Lincoln Key to Gov. Combs and Lt. Gov. Wyatt for “outstanding contributions to the rights of human beings” in Kentucky. The citation, given annually for out standing service to the education of Negroes, gave special praise to Combs and Wyatt for their support of a meas ure creating a state Commission on Human Rights, still to be appointed. # # # Books And The Issue The library at Southern Education Reporting Service recently received these books: THE MONTGOMERY STORY by Uriah J. Fields. Exposition Press, 87 pp., $2.75. Subtitled “The Unhappy Effects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” this book presents an inside interpretation and analysis of the famous bus boycott by founder and first secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Assn. Fields later broke with the group because of alleged mismanagement. PROPERTY VALUES AND RACE by Luigi Laurenti. University of Cali fornia Press, 256 pp., $6.00. Prepared under the aupices of the Commission on Race and Housing, the report presents the behavior of real es tate prices following the entry of non whites into all-white neighborhoods in San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.; Phil adelphia; Portland, Ore.; Chicago; Kan sas City; and Detroit. # # # WEST VIRGINIA Complaints Are Reported Under Study On Greenbrier County Desegregation CHARLESTON, W.Va. A n attorney for the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People asked a federal court to retain an old school de segregation suit on its docket pending investigation of com plaints of non-compliance. (See “Legal Action.”) Trustees of Storer College an nounced April 12 that they will sell the closed Negro institution, a victim of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision. (See “In the Col leges.”) West Virginia University an nounced tentative plans to recruit its first Negro football player this fall. (See “In the Colleges.”) Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D- Minn), running for the presiden tial nomination against Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass) in the West Virginia popularity primary, said in Bluefield April 11 that, if elected, he would consider ap pointing a Negro cabinet member. (See “Political Activity.”) “The judge definitely did not threat en the Greenbrier County board at the time the case was brought Tuesday.” Brown further stated that he is in vestigating reports of failure to comply with court orders in Logan, McDowell, Raleigh and Mercer counties, and that if the facts warrant he will ask the court to reopen the cases involving those counties. Brown explained that he had simply been asked by Judge Field whether there was any reason why the case of Julian Van Rogers Dunn against the Greenbrier County Board of Education could not now be dropped from the docket. “In reply,” Brown said, “I told the court that I would like to have the case retained on the docket because I had had a report to the effect that the board was not carrying out the order of the late Judge Ben Moore to desegregate schools in Greenbrier County. I said I wanted time to investigate the reports.” It was reported on April 13 that Fed eral Judge John A. Field had said he would consider contempt proceedings against school officials in Greenbrier County if complaints about lack of de segregation warrant his attention. Judge Field reportedly made his position clear after an inquiry by Wil lard L. Brown, Charleston lawyer who represents the NAACP in West Vir ginia. Brown was quoted as saying he had received complaints in recent weeks that Greenbrier County was not com plying with a federal court order to implement the decision on school de segregation by the U.S. Supreme Court. The late Federal Judge Ben Moore, holding a special session at Lewisburg in 1955, ruled that all schools in Greenbrier County should integrate first on a first-come-first-served basis, and thereafter voluntarily. Other coun ties started desegregation after this de cision. Suits had been brought against the boards of education in those coun ties. A day after the story about Judge Field’s purported plans appeared, Brown announced that the newspaper, radio and TV reports were regrettable. NOT BEFORE COURT “Such a matter is not yet before the court,” Brown commented, “nor do I even know if there are actual facts existing to merit requesting the court to reopen the Greenbrier school inte gration case. Storer College at Harpers Ferry, abandoned since 1955, and the historic engine house where John Brown took refuge after his 1859 raid, may soon be acquired by the National Park Service. The college board of trustees voted April 12 to sell the college to the gov ernment. The park service is interested in using the property for the training of rangers. Storer was closed after nearly a cen tury of operation as the only institu tion for the higher education of Ne groes in the area. It had been supported by the North ern Baptist Assn, and the state. But West Virginia funds were cut off after the Supreme Court declared college segregation unconstitutional and the State Board of Education desegregated institutions under its jurisdiction. SCHOLARSHIP OFFERED Art Lewis, head football coach at West Virginia University until his re signation recently, confirmed on April 2 that an athletic scholarship had been offered to a Negro standout from Clarksburg. The youth who might become the university’s first Negro scholarship athlete is 220-pound Eugene Donaldson of Clarksburg’s Washington Irving High School. He played fullback and defensive end last season. Lewis noted in discussing the talented Negro athlete that Tom Bloom, a Negro from Weirton, had been offered a schol arship in 1958 but he chose Purdue in stead. If Donaldson accepts the scholarship, he will be the first Negro athlete ever to play in the Southern Conference, of which West Virginia is a member. Whether his presence on the WVU squad would affect his school’s rela tions in the conference is problemati cal. Lloyd Jordan, Southern Conference commissioner, said in Richmond that any such problem would be settled by the conference executive committee. “My duties are to carry out the wishes of the executive committee, and my experience has been that they take up problems when they come to them,” Jordan said. In any event, Donaldson cannot play football at West Virginia until 1961. As a freshman he does not play in var sity competition for the university. PAY HIKES APPROVED The State Board of Education on April 18 approved salary increases at the colleges under its authority, but not before some of its members showed themselves far apart on what should determine the amounts. The presidents at the nine colleges will get $1,500 more a year starting July 1. The salaries of their sub ordinates, both on administrative staffs and faculties, will go up less, and not all alike. The presidents were instructed to base the pay raises on merit rather than make them across-the-board. They will average out to about 10 per cent more than is being paid this year. They will total approximately 10 million dollars. Sen. Hubert Humphrey confirmed the fact in a Bluefield appearance that he would consider appointing a Negro to his cabinet if elected president. He and his adversary in the West Virginia presidential primary, Sen. John F. Kennedy, have been cam paigning vigorously throughout the state since Kennedy won the Wiscon sin primary. Humphrey’s statement was the out growth of a published report in News week magazine, which referred to a “little publicized appearance” Humph rey had made before the Capital Press Club, a Negro organization in Washing ton. “I was asked a question along that line,” Humphrey said with reference to a Negro cabinet member. “As I re member it, the question said would I consider appointing a Negro to a high post in my administration.” He con tinued: “I would appoint persons to all posts on the basis of their qualifications and ability, without regard to race, color or creed.” ASKED ABOUT CABINET Specifically, he was asked if he would consider naming a Negro to his cabinet. “If he were qualified, yes sir,” Hum phrey said. “There are men like Ralph Bunche who have proven to be great leaders. There are many others, some great Negro educators, for instance.” Humphrey stated that he would not go out of his way to pick a man from a (See WEST VIRGINIA, Page 15)