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PAGE 2—JUNE I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Louisiana
(Continued From Page 1)
plan for integration by the May 16
deadline.
Three hours later Wright issued a
brief order, in the form of a four-
paragraph minute entry, directing the
board:
1) To begin in September the inte
gration of the first grade under a plan
whereby “all children entering the first
grade may attend either the formerly
all-white public school nearest their
homes, or formerly all-Negro public
school nearest their homes, at their
option.”
2) To prohibit making transfers from
one school to another if the transfers
are based on consideration of race.
Though Wright’s order did not spell
out specifically a grade-a-year plan of
integration, it was generally accepted
as such. He earlier had told the school
board he favored such a plan.
MEET WITH GOVERNOR
The school board, deferring action
on school construction jobs on the
grounds that there may be no public
schools in September, met with Gov.
Jimmie H. Davis, Atty. Gen. Jack P. F.
Gremillion and others at Baton Rouge
to discuss the federal order.
Davis issued a brief statement after
wards saying that a course of action
had been agreed upon but neither he
nor any of the other conferees would
say what legal or legislative action is
planned.
The Orleans board contends the
question of integrating is out of its
hands.
In their final appeal to Judge
Wright before his order was issued
they contended that Act 319 of the 1956
Legislature specifically gives to the
Legislature the sole authority to deter
mine which schools shall be for whites
and which for Negroes.
But the act has been declared by
Wan on the d3encli
Judge Wright
Once Taught
Local School
By EMILE COMAR
NEW ORLEANS, La.
ederal District Judge James
Skelly Wright, who issued
his own plan May 16 for deseg
regating New Orleans public
schools, both studied and taught
in the Orleans Parish (county)
school system.
During the three years (1933-
35) that he taught at Fortier
High School, Judge Wright was
elected the most popular teacher.
The jurist was admitted to the bar
in 1934 after his graduation from Loy
ola University’s law school. He had
won the scholar-
ship to Loyola
while attending a
New Orleans pub
lic high school.
After his brief
teaching career,
Wright was ap
pointed an assist
ant U.S. attorney at
New Orleans in
1937 and served
until 1946. After
two years in private practice in Wash
ington, he was appointed U.S. attorney
at New Orleans in 1948 and served
until he was named to the bench of the
Eastern District of Louisiana in Oc
tober 1949.
Thirty-eight years of age at the time
of appointment, Wright was one of the
youngest federal jurists in the nation.
He is a Catholic, a Democrat and a
native of New Orleans. During World
War II he served in the U.S. Coast
Guard.
Wright is a faculty member of Loy
ola’s law school. He is a member of
the standing committee on rules of
procedure in federal courts and the
committee on revision of the law of
the judicial conference of the United
States.
On the federal bench, he previously
has ordered integration of institutions
of higher learning in Louisiana. More
recently, Wright directed that 1,300 Ne
groes be restored to the voting rolls
in the state-federal dispute over voter
registration. # # #
WRIGHT
Judge Wright to be unconstitutional,
though the State Supreme Court later
ruled it was constitutional.
The school board, headed by Lloyd
Rittiner, said the matter is in the hands
of the governor.
BIDS HELD UP
Board members first openly talked of
school closure at a meeting one week
before the desegregation order. They
voted to hold up bids on school con
struction jobs pending final decision on
what will be done in September.
But on May 25, the board took the
position that it would continue to fight
the federal court integration order
while adopting, for the present, a policy
that the schools will be kept open.
Four of the five members approved a
statement of policy which said in part:
“. . . The board, without making a
prediction, is necessarily adopting for
the present time the policy that the
schools will be open.”
It is impossible, said the board, “to
determine at this time whether the
schools will be opened or closed this
September.”
HAS CLOSING POWER
Under state law, the governor has
the power to close schools ordered to
integrate. At the current legislative
session, a bill introduced would em
power the governor to close all schools
to maintain peace and order in the
wake of court integration orders.
On May 3, in answer to a school
board post-card poll of parents or
guardians of all children in public
schools, white citizens voted 12,229 to
2,707 to close the public schools rather
than accept even token integration.
The Negro parents voted 11,407 to
679 to keep the schools open despite in
tegration.
Board President Rittiner said the
board was considering the vote of the
white parents only as it determined its
course of action. The board, he said,
would “try to follow the will of the
majority of the white parents.”
TWO ANSWERS
There are 41,894 white children in
the public schools of New Orleans and
50,704 Negroes. A total of 61.37 per
cent of the white parents and 47.03 of
the Negroes answered the post-card
poll, which gave two alternative an
swers:
1) I would like the schools kept open
even though a small amount of inte
gration is necessary.
2) I would like the schools closed
rather than being integrated in small
amounts.
Of immediate importance also in
New Orleans is the status of the Cath
olic schools, which serve about 35 per
cent of the total school population in
Orleans Parish.
Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel
of New Orleans has said he would de
segregate Catholic schools at a date
no later than public school desegrega
tion. He has made no statement of
policy since the Wright order but it is
assumed the Catholic schools will fol
low the same plan as the public schools,
excepting closure.
Private schools in New Orleans serve
only 3.5 per cent of the school popula
tion.
FILED IN 1952
The Orleans case before Judge
Wright, a native of New Orleans and
a former pupil and teacher in the Or
leans public school system, was filed
in 1952. On Feb. 15, 1956, he ordered
the school board to desegregate “with
all deliberate speed.”
After Wright issued his final order,
Rittiner complained the judge’s inte
gration plan was “ambiguous.” Rittiner
said Judge Wright’s plan presents com
plications since white schools are
overcrowded now and “some white
schools are now being by-passed and
the white students taken across town to
schools which can accommodate them.”
Gov. Davis said of the Wright rul
ing:
“I deeply regret that Judge J. Skelly
Wright has failed to recognize the se
rious situation which exists in our
southland by ordering, upon his own
motion, the immediate integration of
the public schools system in New Or
leans, without considering the serious
repercussions that might result there
from ... I wish to assure all the peo
ple that we will continue our legal
efforts to protect their rights.
“Having been elected by a majority
of our citizens, I will exercise every
power granted to me by the Constitu
tion of the state of Louisiana as gover
nor to see that the wishes of those
people are fulfilled.”
The final order of Judge Wright was
on the original suit of Bush v. Orleans
Parish School Board.
ORDERS DESEGREGATION
Judge Wright, following up on a
summary judgment of April 29, or
Text of Judge Wright’s Order
V. S. District Judge J. Skelly
Wright presented his own school
desegregation plan to the Orleans
Parish (county) school hoard on
May 16 after the hoard did not offer
a plan of its own. The complete
text of the decision follows:
“It appearing that on Feb. 15, 1956,
the defendant herein was ordered
to desegregate the public schools in
the parish of Orleans with all de
liberate speed; it appearing further
that on July 15, 1959, the defendant
herein was ordered to file a plan of
desegregation by March 1, 1960; it
appearing further that on Oct. 9,
1959, the time for filing the plan was
extended to May 16, 1960; it appear
ing further that on this date, May
16, 1960, the defendant has failed to
file a plan,
“It is ordered that, beginning with
the opening of school in September,
1960, all public schools in the city
of New Orleans shall be desegre
gated in accordance with the fol
lowing plan:
“A. All children entering the first
grade may attend either the former
ly all-white public school nearest
their homes, or formerly all-Negro
public school nearest their homes,
at their option.
“B. Children may be transferred
from one school to another provided
such transfers are not based on con
sideration of race.” # # #
dered the parish school boards of St.
Helena and East Baton Rouge to deseg
regate. He said in his judgments:
“It is ordered, adjudged and decreed
(that the boards) are restrained and
enjoined from requiring segregation of
the races in any school under their
jurisdiction and from engaging in any
action which limits or affects the ad
ministration to, attendance in, or edu
cation of plaintiffs or any other Negro
child ... on the basis of race or col
or . . .”
Wright said integration was to begin
“after such time as may be necessary
to make arrangements for admission of
children to such schools on a racially
nondiscriminatory basis with all delib
erate speed.”
APPEAL FILED
The East Baton Rouge school board
filed an appeal immediately with the
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals at
New Orleans, asking reversal of
Wright’s decision.
Six trade schools are also affected.
Wright ordered desegregation of trade
schools in Crowley, Natchitoches,
Greensburg, Lake Charles, Opelousas,
and Shreveport. He had also issued a
summary judgment against segregation
in these schools April 29.
The Baton Rouge case is Davis v. the
East Baton Parish School Board. In St.
Helena the case is that of Hall v. the
St. Helena Parish School Board.
Wright in the two public school cases
also denied petitions for intervention
filed by parents of white children who
claimed their children would suffer if
integration were ordered.
USES NEW LAW
In a civil rights action, U.S. Atty.
Gen. William P. Rogers sent FBI agents
into East Carroll, East Feliciana, and
Ouachita parishes to demand inspection
of voter registration records. East Car-
roll and East Feliciana parishes are two
of four parishes in the state where
there are no Negroes registered. There
are 700 Negro registrants among 23,000
voters in Ouachita. Rogers used the
1960 civil rights act in his move.
Atty. Gen. Jack P. F. Gremillion an
nounced his intent to file suit to block
the investigation. He said that Rogers
was attempting to conduct a probe that
had been declared unconstitutional
when it was tried by the U.S. Civil
Rights Commission.
Louisiana challenged the civil rights
investigation in north Louisiana par
ishes and won a federal court judg
ment that the inquiry was unconstitu
tional on grounds that voter registrars
were not faced by their accusers.
COMMUNITY ACTION
An organization has been formed in
a move to keep the New Orleans pub
lic schools opened.
Known as “Save Our Schools in New
Orleans,” the organization is dedicated
to use “all legitimate means (to fur
ther) a statewide system of free pub
lic education and to offer support to
all elected or appointed public officials
in their efforts to continue free educa
tion.”
It was the first public move made by
any citizens group in New Orleans to
keep the public schools from closing
in the face of the federal court order
to integrate the first grade in Septem
ber.
The organization was formed after
the Orleans Parish school board an
nounced its intention to poll parents
of public school children on the ques
tion of whether schools should inte
grate or close.
A number of prominent persons in
New Orleans were named to the board
of directors of SOS, which said it
would not take sides on segregation-
integration questions. They include
Mrs. Robert Wauchope, Dr. Harold
Lief, Dr. Harold Lee, Victor Hess, Mrs.
Moise Cahn, Mrs. Charles Keller and
Label A. Katz.
Dr. Forrest LaViolette, chairman of
the department of sociology and an
thropology at Tulane, said on an SOS
panel that closing of public schools
would result into a “retreat to intel
lectual feudalism.”
Co-chairman of SOS are Rabbi Jul
ian B. Feibelman, the Rev. Joseph
Fichter and the Rt. Rev. Girault M.
Jones.
The organization said of its position:
“The closing of public schools in
evitably means an increase in juvenile
delinquency, as thousands of youngs
ters are left to their own devices. It
means loss of accreditation, loss of fed
eral funds and the shifting of addition
al tax burdens to all the citizens of
Louisiana.
“It means the sacrifice of the health-
protecting services not available to
public school children, such as physical
examination, immunization and the
school lunch program.
“It means economic stagnation, be
cause new industries refuse to move
into an area in which the public
schools have been closed.”
The Citizens Council of Greater New
Orleans asked federal and state au
thorities to investigate the financial
backing of the organization. The re
quest was directed to Congressman
Francis Walter of the House Un-Amer
ican Activities Committee, among oth
ers.
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis, taking the
initiative on segregation legislation, had
his administration leaders introduce a
bill to create a state sovereignty com
mission and a score of other bills on
segregation.
The sovereignty commission, made up
of 13 members, would have broad pow
ers to prevent the encroachment by the
federal government on powers reserved
to the state, the bill says.
The commission would have the pow
er to subpoena witnesses, conduct hear
ings and maintain secret records. The
bill does not limit the subject matter
of the commission’s inquiry and pro
vides penalties for persons who refuse
to testify or produce records.
The Legislature also passed a meas
ure continuing the joint legislative
committee on segregation, headed in
the past by former state Sen. William
M. Rainach. Rep. John S. Garrett, vice
chairman under Rainach, is expected
to become chairman.
SOUGHT DELAY
Davis administration leaders at one
point attempted to delay action on the
continuation of the segregation com
mittee, pleading time for study to see
whether its duties would overlap the
sovereignty commission. But Garrett
led the successful move for immediate
approval as Rainach and Davis jock
eyed for position of leadership on the
segregation issue.
The new governor didn’t wait for
the joint legislative committee to as
semble all segregation legislation and
introduce it as committee action, as
has been done in the past.
Instead, Davis utilized the services
of several district attorneys to work up
a segregation program, which includes
the following measures directly or in
directly affecting segregation:
1) Expand the criminal mischief law
to include a provision making it a
crime for a person to remain in a place
of business after being requested to
leave by a business employe in author
ity. The maximum penalty is increased
to $500 fine and a year in jail.
2) Increase the penalties under the
trespass law to $500 fine, six months
in jail, or both.
3) Make it a crime for a person to
instigate trespassing; penalty $500, six
months, or both.
4) Prohibit the obstruction of side
walks or other public passageways, also
with a maximum $500 fine and six
months jail term.
5) Provide that interference with a
business by disturbing the peace will
be punishable by $500 fine, six months
in jail, or both.
6) Stipulate a jail term up to 10
years for a person who causes a breach
of the peace which results in injury,
maiming or death.
7) Provide that a person giving a
false statement that civil rights have
been violated shall be imprisoned up
to five years and fined up to $1,000.
8) Under a proposed constitutional
amendment, provide that illiterates be
prevented from voting, that persons
convicted of certain crimes be disquali
fied, and grant the Legislature power
to create new or additional voter quali
fications.
9) Prohibit a person from coercing or
influencing a registrar of voters with
penalties up to five years imprisonment.
OTHER BILLS
Other bills deal with common law
marriages and illegitimacy, one of them
making it a crime to give birth to an
illegitimate child.
The joint legislative committee on
segregation announced measures that
would prohibit integration at eating
places.
Members of the committee also in
troduced a bill authorizing the gover
nor to close all schools in the state to
maintain peace and order. Presently the
governor has the power to close only
those schools specifically ordered in
tegrated. The school closure bill would
continue to permit schools to be sold
to private agencies if closed perma
nently by the governor.
In a broadening of an existing act,
No. 319 of 1956, the segregation com
mittee proposed that the Legislature
designate a committee of its members
to stipulate which schools shall be for
white and Negroes.
Presently the law applies only in
New Orleans. Act 319 has been ruled
unconstitutional by Judge J. Skelly
Wright, but state authorities continue
to maintain that it is constitutional un
der Louisiana court rulings.
Thurgood Marshall, director-counsel
of the Legal Defense and Education
Fund, Inc., National Assn, for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, spoke at
a Catholic school in New Orleans be
cause he was denied use of Municipal
Auditorium.
Mayor deLesseps Morrison confirmed
that he had ordered the publicly owned
auditorium not to rent its halls to the
NAACP.
“I thought that their use of the au
ditorium would promote controversy
MARSHALL MORRISON
and was not in the interest of the peo
ple of New Orleans,” Morrison said.
Ernest N. Morial, general counsel for
the fraternity that sponsored Marshall’s
talk on the sit-in demonstrations, said
of the mayor’s action:
“If the White Citizens Council can
have Gov. Ross Barnett and Orval Fau-
bus as speakers in the auditorium, then
we should also have the permission to
have a speaker here.”
PICKET LIBRARY
At Baton Rouge, five youthful Ne
groes picketed the Louisiana State Li
brary on the capitol grounds, protesting
a rule under which Negroes may do
library work on the third floor only-
The pickets had placards, marched for
two hours, and left without incident.
State Librarian Essae M. Culver said
some students from a Negro high school
had come in and asked to see the cata
logue. But, she said, the library re
stricts direct service to state officials,
state legislators and state employes.
“Our services are integrated,” she
said. # # #
