Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PAGE 10—JUNE I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS SOUTH CAROLINA Legislature Approves In School Segregation Changes Measures COLUMBIA, S. C. S outh Carolina legislators agreed to change certain seg regation statutes during May after being assured that the change would not relax the state’s stand against integration. (See “Legislative Action.”) Anti-segregation demonstrations of Negro students remained in the public eye during May, through court trials and a contin uation of demonstrations. (See “Legal Action.”) Negro leaders in upper South Carolina are seeking establish ment of a state-supported junior college for Negroes in the area. (See “In The Colleges.”) The South Carolina General Assem bly approved, after serious and some times bitter debate, a modification of the state’s anti-integration laws. The approval came after Gov. Ernest F. Hollings and the state’s Special Segre gation Committee both had assured the Legislature that no change was being made in South Carolina’s basic policy of resistance to school integra tion. The issue revolves about the in clusion of the words “for racially seg regated schools only” in a number of educational items appearing annually in the state’s general appropriations bill. The legal staff of the Special Seg regation Committee, headed by Sen. L. Marion Gressette of Calhoun County, recommended that those words be de leted. Representatives of the committee ap peared before both House and Senate in closed sessions to explain the rea sons for the proposed change. There after, the Senate approved the change without opposition of record and the House overwhelmingly followed suit. The purpose is to strengthen laws enacted in 1956 requiring that appli cants for reassignment pursue an ad ministrative procedure before going into the courts. The laws border on but are not actually pupil placement laws. The essence of them is the requirement that pupils proceed individually in tiieir bids for transfer to other schools. These laws tend to forestall class ac tions whereby plaintiffs in a law suit could act “for others similarly situ ated” and seek to nullify the entire pattern of racial segregation. ALTER BILL To change the law, the general ap propriations bill for 1960-61 was al tered to delete the words “for racially segregated schools only” in line items, and to put that same restriction in one paragraph applying to the various line items of appropriations. Subsequently, another bill repealing that particular paragraph was approved by both House and Senate and went to the governor ln the closing moments of the 1960 session. Gov. Hollings, therefore, can postpone action on the bill until the convening of the 1961 session. Mean while, he can sign or veto it, depend ing on circumstances. The proposed change was bitterly fought by S. Emory Rogers, a Sum- merton lawyer who was one of the de fense lawyers in the Clarendon County case, which went to the U. S. Supreme Lourt and resulted in the May 17, 1954 desegregation decision. Also fighting the change were three politically ac tive brothers of Florence, Sol. Richard G. Dusenbury, Rep. Bernard D. Dusen- bury, and former Rep. Julian Dusen bury, until recently chairman of the Florence County Democratic Executive Committee. These individuals and a few other legislators who subscribed to their point of view feared that removal of the words “for racially segregated schools only” might invite integration of schools in areas where school boards might be “soft” on segregation. Some of the opponents of the change ex pressed willingness to begin immediate ly a system of private schools. Some fears of “local option” action by school boards were allayed by a provision within the revised appropri ations bill vesting the State Budget and Control Board with supervision over the expenditure of funds earmarked for educational purposes. Another and permanent state law still requires the closing of any schools involved in the transfer of pupils by court order. The effect of this law will be to close the white school to which a Negro student is assigned by court order and simultaneously to close the Negro school from which he came. Also enacted during the closing days of the 1960 session was a long-pending bill aimed at curbing Negro demonstra tions in business establishments. The law, sponsored by Rep. Rex L. Carter of Greenville, makes it illegal for a person to refuse to leave a place of business when asked to do so by the management. Violations would carry fines up to $100 or jail terms of up to 30 days. m xi LEGAL ACTION The South Carolina Advisory Com mittee to the U. S. Civil Rights Com mission on May 19 heard complaints from Negro students involved in a March 15 mass demonstration at Or angeburg. At the conclusion of the hearing, Chairman E. R. Mclver said the police had acted “with constraint” in dis persing the demonstrators. Meanwhile, trials continued through out much of May for Negro students charged with trespass and other of fenses connected with a series of anti segregation demonstrations conducted in February, March, April and con tinuing into May. At Orangeburg, 91 Claflin and State College students were convicted of breach of the peace charges May 7, and were fined $50 or 30 days in jail. This made a total of 329 defendants tried and convicted for participation in the March 15 mass demonstration. At Rock Hill, 10 demonstrators were convicted of breach of the peace on May 5. Ten others had been convicted the preceding week, at which time trespass charges were dropped against five others. In nearby Lancaster, 15 white youths were fined $100 or 30 days in jail on charges of disorderly conduct after the youths created a disturbance in a Ne gro section of town. At Spartanburg, both whites and Negroes were sentenced for participa tion in a racial scrap involving some 50 to 60 youths. The Rev. I. DeQuincey Newman, state secretary of the NAACP in South Carolina, told the Negro Baptist Edu cational and Missionary Convention at Greenville that the 41 demonstrations by Negro students in the last three months in South Carolina “have been the most meaningful, most moving, most inspiring, and most dramatic ap peals for citizenship of anything I’ve seen in all my 49 years.” At the same convention, the Rev. Dr. W. L. Wilson of Spartanburg called for better behavior on the part of Negroes: “People cannot be loud on buses and go wild on a back street on Saturday night and then be recognized as first- class citizens on Sunday.” SCHOOL BOARDS AND SCHOOLMEN School construction funds approved under the state’s equalization and ex pansion program of 1951 moved beyond the 200 million dollar mark in May. The State Educational Finance Com mission allotted $928,000 on May 12 to school projects throughout the state. This brings total allotments to date to $200,268,142. IN THE COLLEGES Negro leaders of the Oconee- Pickens-Greenville area of upper South Carolina are seeking establish ment of a state-supported junior col lege for Negroes in the area. Dr. Harry Thomas, a Seneca dentist and leader in the movement, is urging that the state take over the buildings of the defunct Seneca Junior College, which folded because of financial dif ficulties in the late 1930s, and convert the plant into a Negro junior college. Thomas’ group hopes to meet with a special committee authorized by the 1959 Legislature to study problems of higher education in the state with par ticular reference to the possibility of providing community colleges. The committee is headed by a Hartsville financier, A. Lee M. Wiggins. “We assume,” says Thomas, “that the Wiggins committee is designed to con sider the needs of all groups in South Carolina. It is common knowledge that Negro education facilities supported by the state are inadequate and grossly out of proportion to those accorded to some of the citizens.” The contest for the Democratic nomination to the U. S. Senate finds Sen. Strom Thurmond being chal lenged by an 80-year-old Columbia at torney, R. Beverley Herbert. Herbert contends that Thurmond and the other southern senators have fought inef fectually against civil rights and racial integration. Sen. Thurmond is basing much of his bid for re-election on a citation of his own fight to preserve segregation, while Herbert contends that other courses could have been employed more effectively. Herbert argues that neither Thurmond nor any other southern senator has been able to get the southern story across to the nation. # # # Delaware (Continued From Page 9) that the Alonzo H. Shockley Jr., case will come up in Superior Court in Sussex County on June 3. Shockley, a Negro, was dismissed as principal of Laurel’s Dunbar School two years ago on charges of willful in subordination. Shockley claimed bias on the part of the Laurel board because he tried to register his child at the white school in Milford, where he re sides. The State Supreme Court ruled that the Laurel board had shown ample evidence of insubordination, but order ed the board to re-examine the matter again in the light of Shockley’s bias claim. Subsequently, the board held a new hearing, took testimony from its mem bers and re-affirmed its original action. Shockley appealed this ruling to the Superior Court. VOTE INVESTIGATION At Milford, deputy attorneys general for two counties are investigating charges of voting irregularities in the May school board election, in which Joseph Penuel defeated John S. Rogers by a vote of 874 to 572. One of those involved, by his own admission in a statement issued by his attorney, is Edmund F. Steiner. Steiner was president of the Milford Board of Education after the previous school board resigned en masse in 1954 in the dispute over integration on Lakeview Avenue School. Steiner, in his statement, admitted that he received ballots at each of the three voting places in the district, but denied that he voted three times. “The ballots which I received at Lakeview Avenue School and the Banneker School were not cast by me as a vote, but were mutilated and tom in two pieces. “This Mr. (Max) Corder (president of the Milford board) knows to be true because after the polls closed I per sonally delivered the torn portion of each ballot to Mr. Corder . . . before witnesses, and explained to him that due to the inadequate safeguards pro vided at each polling place I was not questioned as to my qualification at each polling place and could have cast three votes.” MISSISSIPPI Legislature Ends Session; Adopts Textbook Measure JACKSON, Miss. T he 1960 biennial session of the Legislature adjourned in May after passing several laws designed to preserve segregation in Mississippi. One bill provides for “screening” public school text books to prevent usage in Mis sissippi of books advocating inte gration. The legislators approved two proposed constitutional amend ments that would free the state of the mandatory obligation of providing public schools. (See “Legislative Action.”) The first federal suit in Missis sippi involving the racial issue was filed by the Justice Depart ment in an effort to open to Ne groes the Gulf of Mexico beach in Harrison County, which has been restricted to whites. (See “Legal Action.”) The Legislature tightened reg istration statutes in a move to prevent widespread Negro quali fications as voters. (See “Legis lative Action.”) In connection with possible federal investigations of voting rights for Ne groes in Mississippi, the Legislature passed three bills, all signed by the governor. One prescribes maximum prison sentences of five years and a $1,000 fine for making false statements to federal agencies “with intent or purposes to deceive or cause an in vestigation.” The new acts also make it unlaw ful for anyone to make sworn false statements to any agency of the U. S. government that he has been deprived of certain rights and privileges by agents of the state of Mississippi. Under the law, “corroboration or proof by more than one witness to establish the falsity of testimony or statements under oath is not required in prosecutions.” APPLICATION FORMS Another act eliminates any require ment that the application forms for voter registration be numbered or in dexed or be public records or be pre served. Under the former statute, the applications, which include written ex aminations given applicants, were re quired to be preserved as public rec ords. Under another bill signed into law, persons objecting to registration of certain persons could present docu mentary evidence to support their po sitions before county election commis sions. The Legislature also approved for submission to the voters in the Novem ber general election a proposed amend ment to the State Constitution of 1890 to require those seeking to become qualified electors to “be of good moral character.” Former Gov. J. P. Coleman, now a member of the Legislature from Choc taw County, opposed the proposed amendment on grounds that it leaves the “moral character” of an applicant to be determined by the county regis trar (circuit clerk). A similar amend ment in 1952 was rejected by the vot ers. SERIES OF LAWS The legislators also passed a series of laws setting up heavy fines for “sit- in” demonstrations. Although they do not name any particular group, the bills were rushed through during Ne gro student demonstrations in other southern states in protest of segrega tion. An early legislative enactment was a law authorizing local trustees to close any one or more schools under (See MISSISSIPPI, Page 11) Legal action in the case is uncertain. George Wright, deputy attorney gen eral for Kent County, said he is not certain the statutes for school elections would permit prosecution in the case even if irregularities are proven. Frederick Whitney, deputy attorney general for Sussex County, did not comment. Milford lies in both coun ties and its four-member school board is divided. AWAITS DECISION The State Board of Education is awaiting a federal court decision as to whether its grade-a-year desegregation plan is acceptable. The plan, which went into effect last September, was reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District in Philadelphia in April. Normally, the court makes a decision within 60 days. The state board held a special regis tration for first and second graders (both grades will be desegregated in September) but did not release any en rollment statistics. However, it did re quest local districts to file the enroll ment by race. At Laurel, it was learned there was a 50 per cent drop in the first grade at Dunbar (Negro) School. Only 20 Ne gro pupils registered, compared to 40 last year. Enrollment at the North Laurel elementary white school fell off from 137 to 104. Rep. Chester Bowles (D-Conn) warned at a Law Day program on civil rights and civil liberties in Wilmington that difficult days for racial under standing lie ahead. Bowles, former ambassador to India, cited the school integration problem in the United States, saying that “we have lost the optimistic mood of 1954.” He noted that when President Harry S. Truman issued the executive order ending segregation in the armed forces the order was readily accepted. At the time, he said, the national mood was ready for the change. “But that national mood of under standing and moderation has been lost,” he added. The nation must have the mood under which laws can be made to function, he said. Dr. Jerome H. Holland, 44, president of Delaware State College since 1953, will become president of Hampton In stitute at Hampton, Va., in July. Enrollment at Delaware State, pre dominantly Negro, has grown from less than 100 to more than 400 dining the tenure of Dr. Holland. More than three million dollars worth of new facilities were constructed. In his letter of resignation, Holland called upon “the citizens of Delaware, both openly and through their Legis lature, to support the growth and de velopment of the college.” Hampton Institute is a privately en dowed college founded in 1867. Its present enrollment is approximately 1,400. PLANS TO RESIGN Another Delaware educator, Dr. Wil liam B. Simpson of Caesar Rodney, an nounced his plans to resign his position no later than 1962. Dr. Simpson, who last month took sharp issue with the State Board of Education over its policy of registra tion of Negro pupils, said he thought the citizens in his district wanted a change. He made his announcement during the election campaign of James R. Ben nett, Caesar Rodney Board of Educa tion president, who Simpson backed for re-election. RETAINED POST Bennett, who retained his board post, has supported Simpson in his dispute with the state board. Both Bennett and Simpson objected to a registration policy adopted by the state board which allowed Negro pu pils who had not attended white schools in the first grade to enter white schools at the second-grade level. The state board held that the Negro pupils had that right under the grade- a-year desegregation order from the U.S. District Court. The state board rejected, by taking no action, a request from Caesar Rod ney to “call a meeting of the school boards of the state ... in order to de velop some reasonable substitute for the directive issued.” # # $