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I* PAGE 16—JUNE I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS GEORGIA Judge Showdown Gives Atlanta Another MACON, Ga. I n a “last chance” decision, U. S. District Judge Frank A. Hooper ruled that an Atlanta school desegregation plan must begin in 1961. Judge Hooper said that no mat ter what the Legislature does or does not do, the desegregation plan must go into effect May 1, 1961. This means that the anticipated crisis caused by federal desegre gation laws and state laws re quiring the closing of integrated schools will be delayed until the opening of the term in Septem ber 1961. (See “Legal Action.”) A potentially explosive racial situation was defused in Atlanta when more than 2,000 marching Negro college students by-passed the state capitol. (See “Com munity Action.”) LEGAL ACTION U. S. District Judge Frank A. Hooper ordered the Atlanta school desegrega tion plan to go into effect May 1, 1961. This would allow the applications ex pected from Negro children wanting to enter white schools to be processed in time for the opening of the 1961-62 school term in September 1961. School closings probably will result if the state does not withdraw from its no-integration attitude, Judge Hooper said. He expressed hope that the Legis lature would act to prevent public school shutdowns. However, in his for mal order, he said that no matter what the General Assembly does in 1961, the Atlanta Board of Education must put the pupil placement desegregation plan into effect on May 1 next year. The plan originally called for de segregation only in die 12th grade in the first year of operation. Judge Hooper’s order said desegregation must be permitted in both the 11th and 12th grades in September 1961. Speculation had been that the plain tiffs would appeal the order but an attorney for the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People, A. T. Walden, said the wording might result in a change in plans to appeal. Walden said the order clarifies a point that had Negro counsel worried: whether legis lative inaction could delay desegrega tion. He said the formal order more or less upheld the Negroes’ argument that implementation of the plan should not depend on what the Legislature does. PRAISES COMMISSION Judge Hooper praised the Sibley school study commission, saying he be lieved that with the leadership it has given Georgia “might change its mind next January” on the segregation-in tegration issue. The Sibley commission, after exten sive hearings over the state, reported on May 1. A majority of 11 members favored local option on the desegrega tion issue. A minority of eight were against any changes in Georgia’s strict segregation laws (Southern School News, May 1960). Admitting he was “troubled” about the situation, Judge Hooper, a former state legislator himself, said the delay afforded in his order will be “the last chance” the court will give the Legis lature and to Georgians to avoid what may come. He said he was trying to be helpful and not trying to “dabble” in the af fairs of the Legislature. Two helpful things could be accomp lished by the 1961 Legislature, the judge said. One would be enactment of a statewide pupil placement law. The other would be to permit the people of Atlanta to vote on whether they wish to close their schools rather than have any integration. These things could be done, he said, without any changes in the state constitution. The present Legislature (1959-60) is made up of men who ran for office, almost without exception, on a no-in tegration platform, Hooper said. He added that many men will be running for the Legislature in September and “if those candidates go further than this (Sibley) minority report, they may find themselves in the position that they’ve got to vote against any ‘give’ at all on the Atlanta situation and force the closing of all the Georgia schools.” Hooper emphasized that the Sibley minority group report did not take an absolutely die-hard stand against change and had recommended that the Governor and the Legislature keep an eye on the situation and possibly take necessary steps to meet problems in the future. The 1961 Legislature, he said, could be composed of “a great many” legisla tors who would vote to have “some in tegration under a gradual plan” rather than see all of the public schools closed. DIFFERENT FEELING Cities and rural areas in Georgia have a different feeling about integra tion, the judge said, because cities feel that residential patterns will keep in tegration to a minimum. But, he added, the closing of all the schools in the state is “a danger our friends in the rural areas seem to have overlooked.” Mrs. Constance Motley, NAACP counsel from New York associated in the case, said that the governor and the Legislature had taken an “extreme position” for maintaining segregation and had enacted laws “expressly de signed” to prevent implementation of the desegregation law. Hooper agreed that “the mandate of the Supreme Court” must be carried out. But he said he believes the Atlanta school desegre gation plan is “reasonable” and jvill be upheld by the higher courts. Gov. Ernest Vandiver called on Ne groes to maintain voluntary segregation in the face of the court order. He said future action is up to the men Geor gians send to the 1961 Legislature. Wan on the J3ench Hooper Held House Seat From Atlanta By JOE PARHAM ATLANTA, Ga. ederal Judge Frank A. Hoop er, who has put it up to the Georgia Legislature whether At lanta’s schools desegregate or close, has sat on the U.S. District Court bench 11 years. Judge Hooper was a Georgia legislator himself before receiving his appointment as judge from President Harry S. Truman in 1949. The judge, who was born in Americus, Ga., on April 21, 1895, represented Fulton County (At lanta) in the Legislature for three years before retiring without op position. As a student at Georgia Tech, Hoop er was prevented from graduating by a serious illness. He read law in his father’s office in Atlanta, passed a bar examination and was admitted in July, 1916. He served a year as secretary to the late Sen. Walter F. George, who was a state appellate court judge at the time. Hooper served in the Navy in World War I, was a judge on the State Court of Appeals in 1933 and was an instruc tor at the Atlanta Law School for nine years. He holds three degrees, LL.B., LL.M., and LL.D., from that school. The father of three sons, the 65-year- old Hooper is married to the former Carolyn Newton of Gainesville, Ga. As a federal judge in a state in which there is no public school de segregation on any level, Judge Hoop er has been on the bench when several highly controversial cases were argued. In the Horace Ward case, in which a Negro sought entry to the University of Georgia School of Law, Hooper ruled that Ward had not exhausted all ad ministrative remedies. In an Atlanta bus desegregation case, Hooper decided in favor of the Negro plaintiffs. In connection with the Atlanta school desegregation case, Judge Hooper has said: “The decision of closing the schools is on the people of Georgia and not on this court...” # # # HOOPER Final Examination laid*. Atlanta Constitution House floor leader Frank A. Twitty said the “present makeup of the Legis lature certainly wouldn’t pass any thing” to change Georgia’s present strong segregation laws. James S. Peters, chairman of the State Board of Education, said the is sue will be fought out in the 1962 Democratic gubernatorial primary “and possibly—or probably—in the general election.” State School Supt. Claude Purcell said he anticipated further litigation. He said he believed there will be some desegregation in the schools and that under existing state laws some schools will be closed. The Rev. Samuel W. Williams, At lanta NAACP chapter president, said: “I wish we could share the optimism of the court that the Legislature will take any action to make desegregation possible.” In several county primaries for legis lative posts, it was noted, some candi dates are campaigning on promises to permit local option on whether people in affected communities wish to see their schools shut down or desegre gated. A potentially explosive racial situa tion was defused in Atlanta when more than 2,000 marching Negro college stu dents by-passed the state capitol, where armed state troopers had been stationed to prevent a demonstration. The students marched in celebration of the sixth anniversary of the U. S. Supreme Court desegregation ruling. Gov. Vandiver had warned that the demonstration at the capitol would not be permitted. Only a short distance from the capitol, the Negroes turned aside and staged a desegregation rally at a Negro church. Mayor Hartsfield of Atlanta turned down a grand jury’s recommendation for a bi-racial group to promote better community understanding, saying both races enjoy communication now and nothing could be accomplished by a big, overall committee. In Savannah, Mayor Lee Mingledorf said his special bi-racial committee to ease tensions had failed and was on an inactive sta tus. IN THE COLLEGES Gov. Vandiver said the state is in vestigating the status of private Negro colleges in Georgia whose students participate in anti-segregation demon strations. Vandiver said he wanted to know whether they are institutions of learn ing or “headquarters for demonstra tors.” POLITICAL ACTIVITY The Georgia Republican Party adopt ed a platform that included a call for keeping the public schools open and challenged the Democrats to do like wise. U.S. Rep. Erwin Mitchell of the Sev enth District, who is retiring from Con gress at the end of his term, blamed Georgia’s political leadership for com placency over the desegregation ruling. Mitchell promised to support a free- dom-of-choice plan at a save-the- schools rally in Atlanta. WHAT THEY SAY Dr. John W. Letson of Chattanooga, who will become Atlanta school super intendent July 1, predicted eventual (Continued From Page 13) students have been taught at the Grif fith AME Zion Church in Burnsville and the high school students have at tended Allen High School in Asheville, a private school operated for many years by the Woman’s Division of Christian Service of the Methodist Church. Funds for the tuition of the students at Allen and for the salary of the teacher in the Burnsville church have come from the Burnsville Educa tional Project, an interracial group whose impetus comes from members of the faculty at Allen High. The group has raised about $5,000 this year, now has plans for a summer recreation and remedial instruction program at the Griffith Church in Burnsville. The trial on July 11 will be to deter mine whether Judge Warlick will, as the pending suit requests, direct the admission of the Negro students to Yancey white schools next September. More than 637,000 Democrats voted in the May 28 primary to nominate a governor, a U.S. senator, representa tives, state legislators and many local officials. Only in the governor’s race was the school desegregation issue a publicly debated point, though it did enter, somewhat, into the race for nomination for the House of Representatives from North Carolina’s 10th District. In that race, the candidate favoring state’s rights lost. In the governor’s race, Terry Sanford, a Fayetteville lawyer, long-time party worker and a man who started his campaign at least two years ago, polled 263,563 votes to lead. He had consist ently endorsed North Carolina’s four- year-old policy of limited desegrega tion, controlled by school boards at the local level under the pupil placement laws. The runnerup, with 175,727 votes, was Dr. I. Beverly Lake (Ph.D. in law). The former Wake Forest College law professor formerly was assistant attor ney general, who during 1954 to 1956 was active in the drafting of many of the state’s school laws on assignment. Singe 1956 he has been in private law practice in Raleigh. His request for a second primary is expected to bring the racial aspects of the campaign to the fore, perhaps more so than they were during the campaign for the first pri mary. LAKE OPPOSES Lake opposes desegregation. He has said Negro children should be regard ed as invaders” when they enter white schools and has pledged that he would try to create “a climate of opinion” that would make segregation prefer able to desegregation. He has not, how ever, made specific proposals for changes in assignment or other school laws; instead, he said Gov. Luther H. Hodges has not used them the way they were intended. Lake’s vote was strongest in eastern North Carolina, the rural section of the state where the Negro population runs 40 to 50 per cent or higher. Lake car ried 25 of North Carolina’s 100 counties and received 28 per cent of the vote. Sanford carried 66 counties, partic ularly a concentration in the industrial Piedmont where the Negro population runs 25 per cent or less. He received 42 per cent of the vote. Malcolm B. Seawell, Lumberton law yer, solicitor and judge who resigned as attorney general to enter the race, carried only one county, received 100,885 votes, or about 15 per cent of the total. He was the strongest, most solution of the segregation-integration problem in Georgia’s capital city. Let- son said the spirit of Atlanta knocks out the possibility of a permanent breakdown in public education. A charter for private schools in Tift County was obtained. Rep. Henry Bos tick urged Gov. Vandiver to take the lead in encouraging formation of pri vate school groups “in every county” in order to put Negroes “on notice that the white people intend to have segre gated schools.” # # # outspoken defender of the state’s ex isting policies on desegregation. He had the tacit endorsement of Gov. Hodges, who appointed him attorney general two years ago. RUNNING LAST Running last was John D. Larkins, Trenton lawyer and state legislator. He carried eight counties, got 99,474 votes or slightly less than 15 per cent of the total. Larkins favored existing school admission policies, A second primary will be held June 25. These figures are based on returns from 2,034 of 2,094 of North Carolina’s precincts. In the 10th Congressional District, David Clark, Lincolnton lawyer who lost to Republican Charles R. Jonas two years ago, defeated Phillip N. Alexan der of Charlotte in the Democratic pri mary. Alexander had endorsed basic state’s rights position and was in part backed in Mecklenburg County (Char lotte) by former participants in some segregationists movements. Winston-Salem’s downtown variety stores have agreed to desegregate their lunch counters in accordance with rec ommendations of the Mayor’s Goodwill Committee. The 20-member committee —10 Negroes and 10 whites'—had been at work since April 2. Its final an nouncement was on May 23. Citizens committees in Greensboro and in High Point have also recom mended desegregation of lunch count ers but merchants in those cities have rejected the recommendations. A com mittee in Charlotte is studying the problem, but is reportedly making lit tle progress. Meanwhile, in Durham and Greens boro, new arrests were made as dem onstrations continued. Forty-five stu dents were arrested and charged with trespassing in Greensboro. Two of them were white girls, both from predom inantly Negro Bennett College. These were the first arrests in Greensboro demonstrations. In Durham, what was described as a free-for-all racial fight broke out May 1 during a demonstration against seg regated lunch counters in Walgreen’s Drug Store. It ended with a teen-age boy being admitted to a hospital with a possible brain concussion. Police ar rested two Negroes and a white man and charged them with assault and bat tery. On May 11, Durham police arrested 57 students, four of them white, and charged them with trespassing. Six of the girls were later held in contempt of Durham Superior Court by Judge Raymond B. Mallard. They were held to have disturbed a trial (unrelated to the demonstrations) by singing and stamping their feet in their nearby jail cell. C. B. Deane of Rockingham, presi dent of the North Carolina Baptist Convention, has been criticized for suggesting that Baptist colleges prepare for desegregation. Shearon Harris, a Raleigh lawyer and parliamentarian of the convention, said it would be unfair to the colleges to have them ‘blaze trails as the social consciences of the chinch.” He added: “Until it is the commonly and wide ly accepted practice to accept Negro members in our churches, our schools should not be called upon to do dif ferently.” # # # North Carolina