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PAGE 16—MAY I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
New ‘Rights’ Bill Passes; Deals Largely With Voting
WASHINGTON, D.C.
C ongress passed its second civil
rights bill since Reconstruction
Days — a “moderate” measure
dealing mostly with voting rights
but also imposing stiff penalties
for interference with court de
segregation orders.
Efforts to strengthen the bill’s
school integration provisions were
unsuccessful. (See “National Af
fairs.”)
Delegates to the White House
Conference on Children and
Youth urged President Eisenhow
er to “use all means at his dis
posal” to speed public school de
segregation throughout the nation.
(See “National Affairs.”)
Washington School Supt. Carl
F. Hansen reported that five years
of public school desegregation in
the capital have given students
rising achievement levels, better
teacher efficiency and more edu
cational services. His report
touched off a Senate debate. (See
“District Schools.”)
School officials issued new regula
tions on pupil transfers, which were
expected to result in tighter enforce
ment of neighborhood school assign
ment policies. (See “District Schools.”)
Hunipty Dumpty Sat On A
Wall
A
Lone Survivor of the Great
1960 Flood
The House of Representatives gave
final approval to the civil rights bill of
1960 on April 21 by vote of 288 to 95
and sent it to the President to be signed
into law.
The House accepted 16 Senate
amendments to the measure, thus
avoiding the delay and danger to the
bill that might have resulted from a
House-Senate conference to iron out
differences.
Like the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the
new measure has as its main purpose
the protection of voting rights of quali
fied Negroes. The 1957 act gave the at
torney general power to go into court
on behalf of Negroes whose voting
rights have been violated and obtain
orders against discrimination.
The major section in the new bill
adds another step. If a federal judge
decides in such a case that a “pattern”
of discrimination exists in the area, he
may appoint a referee to register Ne
groes who qualify under state law.
STRUCK OUT
Struck out of the bill was specific
authority for the commissioner of edu
cation to take over the closed schools
and use them for the instruction of
servicemen’s dependents.
Also knocked out of the measure
were two provisions of President Eisen
hower’s civil rights proposal. One
would have given some federal aid to
communities trying to desegregate their
schools and would have stated that Su
preme Court decisions are the law of
the land. The other would have given
statutory authority to the President’s
committee trying to eliminate job dis
crimination in government contract
firms.
Attempts to revive in the bill the old
1957 “Title HI” recommendation, em
powering the attorney general to seek
court injunctions in all manner of civil
rights cases, were unsuccessful, as were
other efforts to “liberalize” the bill.
FINAL VERSION
The measure’s final version was
called “disappointingly” weak by lib
erals like Rep. Roy W. Wier (D-Minn).
Southerners, such as Rep. William M.
Colmer (D-Miss), called it “vicious.”
Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers said it
would provide “effective” civil rights
machinery and was of “historic sig
nificance.”
Voting for the bill in the House were
165 Democrats and 123 Republicans,
with 83 Democrats and 12 Republicans
opposed.
On the Senate side, the final vote
April 8 was 71 to 18. Forty-two north
ern and western Democrats joined 29
Republicans in voting to pass the meas
ure. The 18 opposition votes came from
gOSSTHSS^ _
tESjSTAWgE
Richmond Times-Dispatch
the nine states of the “old South.” The
two senators from Texas, Majority
Leader Lyndon B. Johnson and Sen.
Ralph W. Yarborough, voted for the
bill, as did Sens. Estes Kefauver and
Albert Gore of Tennessee.
Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) de
scribed the bill as a “victory for the
old South” and Sen. Joseph S. Clark
(D-Pa) said it reversed the roles of
Grant and Lee at Appomattox.
One southerner, Sen. Harry F. Byrd
(D-Va), agreed that “in the main the
result has been a victory for the South”
when compared with what he termed
the bill’s original “punitive” provisions.
But the measure is still “objectionable,”
Byrd said.
Passage of the civil rights bill ended
a debate that virtually tied up Congress
since Feb. 15. The Senate debate set a
20th century distance record—nearly
400 hours of off-and-on talk and one
125-hour ’round - the - clock stretch,
which shattered prior filibuster records.
RELEASED REPORTS
The Civil Rights Commission released
reports from its state advisory commit
tees April 8 and a commission official
said they “clearly show” that racial
discrimination is a problem everywhere.
Advisory committees from 48 of the
50 states submitted reports but some of
them were merely terse acknowledge
ments that few investigations had been
carried out. South Carolina and Missis
sippi reports were missing because
state advisory committees were not
formed there until last December.
Commission Staff Director Gordon M.
Tiffany said the reports “clearly show
that the problem of civil rights is a
national one.”
Georgia was one of the few southern
states to send in an extensive report.
It said the “unwillingness of white
Georgians to grant such rights as the
franchise, school assignment without
statutory discrimination, or some free
dom in selecting housing depends in
great measure on just where in Georgia
the subject comes up.”
Courier-Janrn.il
Louisville Courier-Journal
The New York committee reported
“daily complaints from parents of Ne
gro children guided to non-academic
careers, discouraged in their ambitions,
scorned and stereotyped, categorized as
difficult, of low cultural background
and as coming from broken homes.”
The Pennsylvania report said there
was evidence “that housing discrimina
tion exists glaringly in the State.” It
added that “it would appear that more
than voluntary efforts are necessary to
erase it.”
ASK SPEED
Delegates to the White House Con
ference on Children and Youth, which
ended week-long sessions April 1,
called on President Eisenhower to “use
all means at his disposal” to speed pub
lic school desegregation.
In other resolutions, conference dele
gates urged federal and state govern
ment action to reopen public schools
where education is being denied to Ne
gro children. Congress was urged to
withhold federal school aid from dis
tricts which refuse to comply with the
Supreme Court decision.
Some southern delegations announced
that they did not feel bound to accept
all of the recommendations that came
out of the White House Conference.
COLLEGE PRESIDENT
President Buell G. Gallagher of the
City College of New York told one
conference session that the abolition of
segregated schools is inevitable, either
through good will or another “irre
pressible conflict.”
“It is coming, make no mistake about
it,” Gallagher said. “There will not be
a single segregated school in any cor
ner of this country. The only question
is whether we are to achieve the demo
cratic result with good will and intelli
gence and foresight or whether stub
born prejudice and blind bigotry will
successfully masquerade as patriotic
statesmanship and drag this nation into
another irrepressible conflict.”
Another speaker, Michigan Supreme
Court Justice George Edwards, told the
conference:
“I am glad that both the Supreme
Court and the youth of our land are
making clear that the days of segrega
tion and second-class citizenship for
Negroes are numbered.”
Director Harold C. Fleming of the bi-
racial Southern Regional Council urged
educational and youth-serving agencies
to intervene in desegregation suits by
filing “friend of the court” briefs in
stead of leaving the litigation strictly
to the lawyers.
Fleming also called for more out
spokenness on the part of top federal
officials concerned with desegregation
and for a massive fact-finding effort to
“dispel the fog” surrounding the issue.
CAMPUS LEADERS
A conference of campus leaders from
184 American colleges here April 23
endorsed student lunchroom demon
strations in the South. The vote was 80
to 13, with barely half of the delegates
to the National Student Conference on
the Sit-in Movement casting ballots.
The conference “endorses the phil
osophy of nonviolent action and its
manifestation, the sit-in movement,”
the resolution said in part.
The 184 delegates, about one-third of
them Negroes, represented all sections
of the country. The conference was
sponsored by the United States Nation
al Students Assn., which has 1.2 mil
lion members in 376 colleges and
universities.
UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS
Earlier in the month, the American
Assn, of University Professors voiced
support of the sit-in movement in a
resolution noting “with sorrow and in
dignation the action of college and uni
versity authorities who have disci
plined, suspended or expelled students
for protesting in peaceful ways against
racial discrimination.”
In another resolution, the professors
commended schools which “have made
progress in implementing the principle
that race should not be a condition for
educational opportunity” and deplored
“the willingness of some governmental
bodies and private groups to sacrifice
public education in order to maintain
racial segregation.”
DISTRICT SCHOOLS
Washington’s prompt compliance with
the Supreme Court’s desegregation de
cision “prepared the ground for a total
attack upon the improvement of in
struction,” District School Supt. Hansen
reported.
His findings on five years of public
school desegregation in the capital
were published April 3 by the Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai B’rith as
a 32-page pamphlet called Addendum:
A Five-Year Report. It supplemented
Highlights Of New Civil Rights Act
Congress completed approval of the Civil Rights Act of
1960 on April 21. A summary of the main provisions of the
new act follows:
TITLE I
Persons who obstruct or interfere with any order issued
by a federal court, or attempts to do so, by threat or force,
could be punished by a fine of up to $1,000 and one year.
Such acts also could be prevented by private suits seeking
court injunctions against them.
TITLE II
Made it a federal crime to cross state lines to avoid prose
cution or punishment, or giving evidence, in the bombing or
burning of any building, facility or vehicle, or an attempt to
do so. Maximum penalty: $5,000 and five years imprison
ment.
Made it a federal crime to transport or possess explosives
with the knowledge or intent that they would be used to
blow up any vehicle or building. After any bombing, the
FBI would be allowed to investigate on the assumption that
the explosives used cross state lines. Maximum penalties:
one year and $1,000 fine when no one injured; 10 years and
$10,000 when injury resulted; life imprisonment, or death
penalty if recommended by jury, when death resulted.
Made it a federal crime to use interstate facilities, such
as telephones, for bomb threats or false bomb-scares. Maxi
mum penalty: one year and $5,000.
TITLE III
Voting records and registration papers for all federal elec
tions must be preserved for 22 months. Maximum penalty
for failing to comply or for stealing, destroying or mutilat
ing the records: $1,000 fine and one year.
Upon written application, records must be turned over
to the attorney general or his representative at the office of
the records’ custodian. Federal district court could force
voting officials to comply.
Unless directed otherwise by a court, the Justice Depart
ment must not disclose the records’ content except to Con
gress, a government agency or in a court proceeding.
TITLE IV
The Civil Rights Commission empowered to administer
oaths and take sworn statements.
TITLE V
Arrangements might be made to provide education for
children of members of the armed forces should their regu
lar schools be closed by local officials to avoid integration
and the U. S. commissioner of education decided that no
other educational agency would provide for their schooling.
TITLE VI
Attorney general could ask a court to determine if there is
“pattern or practice” of depriving Negroes of the right to
vote. In such cases, Negroes could apply to the court to be
declared qualified to vote, provided he (1) was qualified to
vote under state law, (2) had tried to register after the “pat
tern or practice” finding, and (3) had not been allowed to
register. To carry out the provisions, the court could ap
point referees, who must be qualified voters in the judicial
district. # # #
another pamphlet, Miracle of Social
Adjustment, written by Hansen for the
League in 1957.
In the new study, Hansen reviewed
the progress of the District schools
“under the momentum of a new con
cept, as a system operating in the
American tradition to meet the educa
tional needs of all the children.”
PUPIL TESTING
Citywide pupil testing after deseg
regation revealed to an “appalled com
munity” that many Negro pupils lagged
far behind white children in school
achievement, Hansen said.
“Although school desegregation does
not eliminate the deep-seated causes of
social, economic and cultural impover
ishment,” Hansen asserted, “it does
provide the opportunity for an equal
sharing of educational resources, for a
greater amount of acculturation result
ing from the joining together of teach
ers and pupils in the school setting and
for a united effort to improve educa
tional services to all children.”
Citywide averages on standardized
tests, which showed lags of several
months to several years behind na
tional achievement standards five years
ago, have climbed steadily since de
segregation to approach—and in some
instances match or surpass—national
norms, Hansen said. He added:
STANDARDS HIGH
“Integration has not retarded the ad
vancement of high-quality students,
Negro or white, and educational stand
ards in the District public schools,
when examined in relation to students’
preparation and ability for learning,
are high.”
Hansen noted that academic gains of
recent years were accomplished in the
face of a steady increase in the propor
tion of Negro pupils, which began long
before desegregation and has con
tinued since. This year, about three
quarters of the District’s school enroll
ment is Negro.
Hansen called it “a defect in analy
sis” to blame desegregation for popula
tion shifts because “an examination of
the problems of every major city in this
country will show that like massive
amoebas they are ingesting, without
plan or reason, masses of economically
deprived people of every race.
“In most of these cities, schools have
been integrated from the beginning. In
some, schools are still segregated. The
least that can be done for the children
of the economic and social ghettoes is
to provide the best possible education.”
TEACHERS’ STANDARDS
Hansen said desegregation brought
no lowering of teachers’ standards in
the District, though recruiting teachers
has been complicated in part by the
“extensive adverse treatment” given
the schools by segregationists.
Special school services such as
classes for handicapped children have
expanded substantially since 1954, the
superintendent said, because of “com
munity unification for school improve
ment.”
Racial incidents in the schools are
“relatively infrequent,” he reported,
and behavior problems are usually
“those of children, not of Negroes or
whites.”
Some major problems still confront
the Washington schools—among them
the high drop-out rate of students
when they pass the compulsory school
age of 16. Hansen said these conditions
“are not caused by desegregation. It is
equally clear that desegregation does
not correct them.”
NEW REGULATIONS
District school officials issued new
regulations governing pupil transfers
April 13. In a policy statement distrib
uted to principals, Hansen spelled out
situations in which pupils may be as
signed to schools outside their residen
tial areas.
The statement said transfers are to be
considered exceptions to the overall
policy requiring children to attend “the
school which serves the residence of
their parents, or the accepted guardian
if parents five out of the city.”
Hansen said the new regulations in
volve no fundamental change in policy,
but are the first formal statement on
the question. It was expected, however,
that citywide distribution of the bul
letin might result in stricter enforce
ment of assignment rules. # # #