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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. # # #