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i -♦Litigation (Continued From Page 14) attend the West Richmond School in the Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District. The case is expected to come up for a hearing on its merits in June in the court of Circuit Judge John J. Kelly at Clayton, in St. Louis County. In December Circuit Judge Douglas L. C. Jones decided certain questions of law in favor of the plaintiffs, Dr. Harold G. Russell, a Negro, who filed the action last Oct. 7 on behalf of his children, Harold Jr., eight years old, and Lillette, age five. That cleared the way for an equity hearing on the mer its. In his petition, the physician alleged that he had attempted to enroll his children in the West Richmond School on Sept. 8. The West Richmond School is all-white and is close to the Russell home. The suit alleged that enrollment of the children in the West Richmond School was refused and Dr. Russell was directed to the all-Negro Lincoln School, about a mile from the Russell home. In contrast, the West Richmond School was said to be only about 100 yards away. North Carolina ^ctive desegregation suits in North Carolina are spread from moun tainous Yancey County in the west to rural eastern Greene County. Two of the five suits were filed within the last month—in Greene County and the City of Durham. The Greene County suit, filed by NAACP attorneys on behalf of five Negro students, is in Eastern District Federal Court. It contends that the students have exhausted all adminis trative remedies in seeking changes of assignment from racially segregated schools. It asks for an order forbidding the maintenance of a “dual scheme or pattern of school zones based on race or color.” It also asks an order pre venting the school board from deny ing admission of Negroes to white schools and preventing the school board from making student or teacher assignments on a racial basis. No hearing in the suit has been set by Judge Algernon Butler. RECORD NUMBER The Durham case is an outgrowth of a record number of change of assign ment requests last September by Ne gro students in the city’s school sys tem. The 225 Negro students who sought admission to white schools in Durham apparently set a record for the largest number of transfers sought in any southern city. From among the 225 seeking trans fers, the Durham School Board admit ted eight to formerly all-white schools in September 1959. At the end of April, attorneys for the NAACP, who represent the par ents of 161 of the Durham students whose requests for transfers were re jected, filed suit in Middle District Federal Court in Greensboro. The class action, coming from 68 families, makes these allegations: • That prior to the beginning of the 1959-60 school year the Durham City School Board assigned all Negro stu dents to schools attended solely by Negroes. • That approximately 225 Negro children sought reassignment and that eight were granted reassignment. • That a hearing on the board’s re jection of the majority of applications was requested, but the board set the hearing on Sept. 21, 1959, after school had opened. • That after the hearing the board announced that applications entered by those not personally present were re jected and that the others were re jected without any cause given. No hearing on the case has been set by Judge Edwin M. Stanley. YANCEY COUNTY A hearing on the Yancey County de segregation suit, which was filed last October, has been set for July 11. Judge Wilson Warlick of the Western Federal District Court set the hear ing at the request of Ruben J. Dailey, Asheville NAACP attorney who repre sents the parents of 33 school chil dren—the entire Negro school age pop ulation of Yancey County. (White schools have an enrollment of about 4,000.) The Yancey suit had its origins in 1958, when the one-room, one-teacher elementary school for Negroes was condemned as unfit by a Yancey County grand jury. During 1958-59, the Yancey County School Board pro vided daily bus transportation to Ashe ville city schools, a round trip of 80 miles. Efforts during that year to locate schoo^ for Yancey school‘for for many years. The county in years had paid tuition to Asheville high schools for Yancey Negro high school students. The elementary stu dents were treated in the same man ner in 1958-59. PARENTS UNHAPPY In its final form, the old, having been filed 1950 to contest the con- of school segregation in Clarendon County’s Summer-ton Dis trict. In May 1950, the litigation had in volved a petition for equal facilities. And still earlier, the case involved of-Vwv-il hi is transportation in the dis- At the end of the 1959 term, par ents of the Negro students still had not received a satisfactory promise of a new school and they were unhappy at having their children travel 80 miles a day to school. They asked for assign ment to white schools in Yancey County (which include two new high school buildings in use now for the second school year), but were assigned again to Asheville city schools. The suit, in October, asked that the board be restrained from operating a segregated school system. The parents are trying to get a decision before next September. During the 1959-60 school year, par ents of the elementary children have refused to permit their children to at tend Asheville schools, though trans portation has been offered by the school board. Instead, the elementary children have been educated in the basement of a Negro church by a pri vately employed teacher whose salary comes from the Burnsville Educational Project, an interracial group organized to provide education for the Yancey County Negro children until the suit is settled. Yancey County Negro high school students—there are eight—are having their tuition paid at Allen High School, a private Methodist school in Ashe ville, by the same educational project, which this year has raised about $5,- 000. FACING SUIT The Chapel Hill Board of Education is facing a desegregation suit for its refusal to grant a transfer to the only Negro child who asked for a transfer to a white school last fall. The suit, in U. S. Middle District Court in Greensboro, asks that the board be restrained from making as signments solely on the basis of race. The child involved is Stanley Boya Vickers. The parents contend the board re fused to reassign their son to a white school nearer their home solely be cause of race. The school board’s answer contends that race was not the sole factor in the assignment. (The Chapel Hill Board, after its decision last fall, pub licly announced a plan to assign first grade students to the schools nearest their homes each year in the future, beginning with assignments for Sep tember 1960.) trict. In July of 1955, the case came down from the U. S. Supreme Court to a special three-judge federal court in Columbia. At that time, the late Senior Circuit Judge John J. Parker inter preted the Supreme Court’s decisions as barring exclusion of Negro students on racial grounds rather than as re quiring arbitrary integration of the schools. He paraphrased the Supreme Court’s declaration that desegregation should be accomplished “with all de liberate speed” but the litigation has remained dormant since then. Now pending in the same district court is another case seeking the de segregation of the Summerton schools of Clarendon County, but this time it involves other petitioners. This later case (Brunson v. Board of Trustees of School District No. 1 of Clarendon County, et al) was filed in April 1960. Respondents have filed two motions, both aimed generally at having the ac tion dismissed and or nullifying it as a class action. No date has yet been set for further proceedings. T ennessee rpHij E E SCHOOL DESEGREGATION suits are pending now before federal courts in Tennessee—in Knoxville, Memphis and Chattanooga. The Knoxville case (Goss et al v. City of Knoxville Board of Education) was filed last December by parents of 17 Negro children, who asked that they “and other persons similarly situated be permitted to attend any school in the city system regardless of race. It followed an earlier case (Ward et al v. Knoxville Board of Education), which was dismissed on technical grounds. Under instructions from Judge Rob ert L. Taylor to produce a plan for ending segregation in the system, the Knoxville board voted four to one to adopt the grade-a-year plan now op erating in Nashville. Negro attorneys then asked Taylor to reject the plan as too slow and as a means “of per petuating racial segregation.” No de cision has yet been given. MEMPHIS CASE The Memphis case (Northcross et al v. City of Memphis Board of Educa tion) was filed March 30 this year by parents of 18 Negro children. It also asked total, immediate desegregation of SUIT INACTIVE The Mecklenburg County suit, though inactive at the moment, is ex pected to return to the active stage in January 1961. It was delayed until then to permit the working out of assign ments during the first year of con solidation of the City of Charlotte (32,- 000 students) and the County of Mecklenburg (25,000 students) sys tems. The suit was filed in February 1959, as a result of the Mecklenburg Board of Education’s failure to grant eight requests for transfers from Negro to white schools in September 1958. The suit asks for a restraining order against racially based assignments. In a hearing this spring, Judge Wil son Warlick, with the agreement of at torneys for the school board and the NAACP, put the case off until next January. Mecklenburg has had no desegrega tion. Charlotte has had limited de segregation since 1957. Consolidation of the two school sys tems will become official July 1. It was approved by voters in the city and county a year ago. The boards have not announced an assignment policy that will be followed for September. Oklahoma ^"^klahoma has had no active court cases since the predominantly Ne gro school board of Arcadia, a north eastern Oklahoma county, lost an ap peal seeking to set aside transfer of 13 white pupils out of the district in July 1959. South Carolina ^^n the sixth anniversary of the U. S. Supreme Court’s initial school desegregation decision, South Caro lina’s racially separate schools are be ing challenged by two separate suits. One of the cases (Briggs v. Elliott) was among the five that prompted the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision but it still is docketed in the Eastern District all city schools. The board filed an answer May 6, citing its right to operate under the Tennessee pupil placement law, which has not yet been tested in the courts. The board contended the Negro chil dren had not availed themselves of their right to appeal their school as signments through normal board chan nels and asked that the suit be dis missed. There has been no decision yet. The Chattanooga case (Mapp et al v. City of Chattanooga Board of Educa tion) was filed in April of this year by four Negro children through their par ents. It introduced a new element by asking that segregation be abolished not only for students but teachers and principals as well. On May 5, however, Federal Judge Leslie R. Darr sustained a motion by the Board of Education to strike all issues relating to personnel assignment from the suit. No date has yet been set for hearing on the rest of the suit. Texas JAesegregation suits have been filed JL * * against four of Texas’s largest school districts, involving almost 20 per cent of the state’s public school pupils. These are Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Galveston. Houston is under a court order to produce a desegregation plan this month (Ross v. Rogers), after U. S. District Judge Ben C. Connally had is sued a “deliberate speed” order on Oct. 15, 1957, for abolishing segregation. Houston is the largest segregated school system in the nation. The Houston school board has called a referendum election for June 4 on the question of whether the district shall desegregate its schools. While it is doubtful that the federal court would heed an adverse vote on the proposition, it is felt that the election must be held in an effort to comply with the state law. A 1957 act of the Legislature pro hibits paying state funds to any school district that desegregates without ap SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE I960—PAGE 15 proval of its voters, and also calls for fines up to $1,000 against the school officials permitting integration with out election. Four small districts have desegregated by election under the referendum act and two have rejected such proposals. STATE FUNDS The Houston district obtains $6,500,- 000 in state funds annually. Mrs. Charles E. White, Negro mem ber of the Houston board, said its members should encourage approval of desegregation at the June 4 election. Her motion to this effect was defeated, five to two. “The main thing I’m worried about is that the people should know that the areas which want desegregation are going to get it,” said a board member, Stone Wells. “And the ones that vote for it are going to get it first. That’s what this election is for,” he added. At Dallas, U. S. District Judge T. Whitfield Davidson heard a school board proposal to start integration Sep tember 1961 under a grade-a-year sys tem starting in the first grade. He made suggestions for a plan not as broad and gave the board 20 days to submit a new proposal. Dallas has been under a court order to integrate since 1956 (Borders v. Rippy), but like other dis tricts has been caught in the conflict between a federal court mandate and the penalties of state law. BOTH COURTS Dallas attempted to get both federal and state courts (Dallas 1SD v. Edgar) to interpret its status under the con flicting authorities, but the courts turned down the idea since no viola tion of state law has occurred. The stairstep integration plan was filed by the Dallas board after the U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals set a deadline for compliance. The Dallas and Houston cases have been the most active involving Texas cities. However, Negroes at Fort Worth filed an integration suit (Flax v. Potts) and another was filed in Galveston (Robinson v. Evans), both in 1959. Neither is set for hearing. In Lubbock County, Negroes sta tioned at Reese Air Force Base filed suit (Simmons v. Edwards) to admit their children with whites at the nearby Frenship school. A few weeks later, voters in the district approved integration, leaving the lawsuit moot. Virginia S CHOOL BOARDS in 13 Virginia locali ties have faced desegregation suits. Six localities have been forced to adopt some degree of integration as a result of these cases. A seventh community has been or dered to desegregate a school in Sep tember. An eighth—Prince Edward County— also has been ordered to desegregate, but the county has closed its public schools. All 13 of the Virginia suits are le gally active and developments could occur at any tune. FURTHER ACTION The Norfolk and Newport News cases, however, are the ones where further action may be anticipated. (Beckett v. Norfolk School Board; Ad- kinson v. Newport News School Board.) Norfolk already has seven desegre gated schools, with 21 Negroes attend ing. Eighteen Negroes who were not accepted for formerly white schools are challenging the city’s school as signment criteria. A federal district judge upheld the Norfolk board and the case was ar gued on appeal on April 22 before the U. S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. That tribunal took the matter under advisement. Also at issue in the same Norfolk case is whether District Judge Walter E. Hoffman erred in overruling the Virginia Pupil Placement Board’s re fusal to admit four Negro children to white schools. The state contends that the children failed to exhaust adminis trative remedies before going to court. HOFFMAN’S ORDER In the Newport News case, the school board on April 15 complied with Judge Hoffman’s order of Dec. 1, 1959, that it submit a pupil assignment plan not based on race. Hoffman had issued his order after terming the original Newport News plan “nothing short of contemptuous.” That plan simply said that assignments would be made by the State Pupil Placement Board. The new assignment criteria submit ted in April are similar to those in the Norfolk plan. Tests may be given applicants, and in making assignments the board may consider mental and moral health, intelligence, suitability of existing curricula to the applicant, and his adaptability to the emotional and social adjustment to be made. Judge Hoffman ruled that the new plan is constitutional on its face. But attorneys for the Negro plaintiffs ar gued that it puts on the individual Ne gro pupil “the burden of extricating himself from a segregated situation by surviving tests and criteria.” PLACES TO WATCH Other places to watch in Virginia: Prince Edward County—Possibility of some action by Negroes in an effort to force the county to provide schools Negroes can attend. If the county ap propriates money for private education, as is possible under a new Virginia law, the action may be challenged in court. Pulaski County—A federal district judge on April 21 ordered 14 Negroes admitted to the county’s white Pulaski Hiah School in September. Richmond—The school board’s an nounced plan to turn over a white junior high school at the edge of a large Negro residential area to Negro use was rescinded following protests from whites. With a new white junior- senior high school scheduled to open in the same section of the city in Sep tember, Negroes claim whites have abundant classroom space while Ne groes are in crowded situations. Large- scale Negro efforts to get into the white junior high school in their neighbor hood are considered possible. West Virginia TTneorcement action within the courts to hasten racial desegregation in the West Virginia public schools is cur rently at a standstill. The only move in this area came last month when Willard Brown of Charleston, counsel for the NAACP in West Virginia, said he had asked Judge John A. Field of the southern West Virginia U. S. District Court to hold an old desegregation suit open on his docket. Brown explained that the NAACP wanted to investigate complaints of non-compliance with a previous court order. The suit is Dunn v. Greenbrier County Board of Education. RECEIVED COMPLAINTS Brown reportedly received com plaints in recent weeks that Greenbrier County was not complying with a fed eral court order. In a special session in 1955, the late U. S. Judge Ben Moore ruled that all schools in Greenbrier County should desegregate on a first- come-first-served basis, and there after voluntarily. Other counties in the southern part of the state, such as Raleigh, Mercer, Summers, McDowell and Logan, de segregated on the basis of the same ruling. Suits were held on the docket when they chose to desegregate rather than go to court. Brown said after his consultations with Judge Field last month that he is investigating reports of failure to com ply with previously stated plans 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. He has not said since what his in vestigations brought out. NINE ACTIONS Nine court actions have been brought in West Virginia since the Supreme Court ruled in 1954. All but two dealt with the problem settled by the Greenbrier County hearing. The others—Goode v. Summers County Board and Sterling v. Mingo County Board of Education—dealt with alleged discriminatory practices in teacher hiring. The latter case went to trial in fed eral court and was decided in favor of the board of education. # # # Books And The Issue The library at Southern Education Reporting Service recently received these books: WHITE AND COLOURED by Michael Banton. Rutgers University Press, 223 pp., $4.00. The behavior of the British people to wards colored immigrants described in detail, including the London race riots, intermarriage and relationships among the various colored communities. THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION by Nathaniel Weyl. Public Affairs, Press, 360 pp., $6.00. The author of “Treason” and “The Battle Against Disloyalty” presents a comprehensive study of the nation’s effort to resolve the Negro problem. # # #