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PAGE 4—JUNE I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
Two Negroes Apply for Admission
To University Center in Montgomery
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
A new integration attempt was
made in May at the all-white
University of Alabama Center in
Montgomery.
Applications for enrollment in
the summer quarter were filed by
two Negroes who were among the
13 to ask for admission in the cur
rent quarter. Those applications
were turned down. No action has
been taken on the two new re
quests. (See “In The Colleges.”)
For a second time, Gov. John
Patterson dispatched a study
group to Virginia to look at legal
aspects of the segregation-deseg
regation situation there. The gov
ernor said the purpose of the trip
was to “enable us to be better
prepared when and if we are con
fronted with a similar school seg
regation crisis in Alabama.” (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
The race question in its broadest di
mensions figured prominently in the
Alabama Democratic primary May 3.
State Righters polled a larger vote than
party Loyalists in the contests for con
vention delegate and presidential elec
tor. At bottom, the issue was whether
the state would maintain its traditional
allegiance to the Democratic Party or
bolt as in 1948. (See “Political Activi
ty.”)
Two Negroes applied in early May
for admission to the University of Ala
bama Center (an extension service fa
cility) in Montgomery.
It was the second challenge at the
all-white center this year. In March
(Southern School News, April 1960)
13 Negroes applied at the center for
enrollment in the spring quarter.
Among these were the two who have
now reapplied for admission in the ses
sion to begin June 13. The 13 were told
by university authorities (SSN, May
1960) that they did not complete their
applications by the April 4 deadline.
Only five provided the required tran
scripts of previous school records, uni
versity authorities said, and these were
late arriving. Officials declined com
ment on whether or not any of the
group would be considered for later
enrollment.
AMONG ORIGINAL 13
Dr. W. W. Kaempfer, director of the
center, declined to identify the two
Negroes applying in May except to say
that they were among the original 13.
University policy forbids release of
names of applicants, he said. The ap
plications will be forwarded to the uni
versity’s main campus in Tuscaloosa
for action there, Kaempfer said. The
same procedure was followed in the
case of the 13.
The University of Alabama is still
under injunction to admit any and all
qualified Negro students—a federal
court ruling stemming from Miss Au-
therine Lucy’s three-year fight to enter
the state institution. She was admitted
under court order in 1956, but driven
from the campus by a series of riots.
The university board of trustees sub
sequently expelled her for publicly ac
cusing university officials of conspiring
in the demonstrations.
The U.S. District Court in Birming
ham, which had ordered the school
open to her and other Negroes, ruled
that the expulsion was a lawful use of
disciplinary authority.
SOUGHT SERVICE
Two Negroes who were expelled from
Alabama State College for pro-integra
tion activity in Montgomery in Feb
ruary appeared at the white-only state
capitol cafeteria May 17 and sought to
be served.
The two, Elroy Emory and St. John
Dixon, were asked if they had employe
identification cards. When they said
they didn’t, cafeteria employes told
them they could not be served. They
left, then visited the Montgomery pub
lic library, where they were referred
to a newly opened Negro branch li
brary.
Emory said the visits were intended
as an observance of the sixth anniver
sary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s school
decision. He said other students at Ala
bama State held a prayer meeting as
part of the commemoration. Police, on
the lookout for mass demonstrations
that day, reported no other incidents.
The two were among nine ASC stu
dents expelled following a sit-in dem
onstration at a county courthouse snack
bar in February. The State Board of
Education, urged to act by Gov. John
Patterson, ordered the expulsions
March 2 (SSN, April 1960).
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
For the second time in recent weeks,
Gov. John Patterson dispatched two of
his legal aides to Virginia to study han
dling of racial problems there.
Robert P. Bradley, the governor’s le
gal adviser, and Ralph Smith, a mem
ber of the Public Service Commission
and former legal adviser, arrived in
Virginia May 17 for a five-day study.
Previously the governor had sent
Bradley and another member of his
cabinet—State Insurance Director Ed-
mon L. Rinehart—to Virginia.
Commenting on the trips, Patterson
said the information so collected would
help Alabama “be better prepared
when and if we are confronted with a
similar school segregation crisis.”
Among the governor’s interests are
private school operations in Prince Ed
ward County. The cities visited were
Farmville, Front Royal, Alexandria,
Charlottesville, Norfolk and Richmond.
PICTURE BRIGHTENS
The financial plight of Alabama
schools, now faced with a 10 per cent
reduction in current funds because of
declining revenues, took a turn for the
better in April. Total revenues ear
marked for schools were up more than
19 per cent over collections a year ago,
but still short of the anticipated 28 per
cent increase on which the budget was
based.
The sales tax, major source of school
money, was up almost 7 per cent, but
still well below predicted increases.
Commenting on the shortage of funds,
which has been the cause of frantic
scrounging by local school districts in
recent weeks as they adopted make-do
measures to finish out the school year,
Gov. Patterson said:
“No one can be blamed. But we must
all share the loss to education . . . The
man on the street is willing to dig
down in his pocket and pay the way
for public education.”
Although state school funds are pres
ently short by 13% million dollars,
Patterson pointed to the fact that
schools have received 20 million dol
lars more in the current year than in
1958-59.
Gov. Patterson, bucking popular sen
timent evidenced in the first Democrat
ic primary May 3, threw his full weight
behind the election of national party
loyalists in the May 31 run-off.
At stake were 10 presidential elector
places. Bidding for these were 10 States
Righters and 10 committed to vote for
the national party nominee — “Loyal
ists.” The States Righters have implied
that they would cast the state’s 11 elec
toral votes for a sympathetic southern
er or pro-southerner should the Dem
ocratic ticket prove unacceptable to the
Dixie viewpoint.
Voters who turned out May 3 favored
the States Rights elector candidates.
One of them—J. Bruce Henderson of
Millers Ferry—won a clear majority
and the Dixiecrat slate in general led
the Loyalists, though the margin was
not sufficient to give victory to any
other than Henderson. Thus the contest
was to be determined in the May 31
run-off.
Also at stake, but not so important,
were convention delegates. Gov. Pat
terson called on all candidates for elec
tor and delegate to declare themselves.
Unless the 20 candidates for the 10 re
maining elector posts said whom they
would vote for, Patterson warned the
state, it would be “like buying a pig
in a poke.”
Patterson favors Sen. John Kennedy
(D-Mass), whom he personally en
dorsed last spring. The governor said in
a May press conference that either
Kennedy, Symington, Stevenson or
Johnson would get the Democratic
nomination: “And I think every person
running for elector should make it
known to the people immediately . . .
who they will vote for and who they
will not vote for of these four ... You
might even add the name of Nixon to
the list, as he will certainly be the Re
publican nominee. The elector candi
dates should be asked if they would
vote for Nixon.”
Henderson, titular leader of the States
Righters by virtue of his clear majority
May 3, answered that whether electors
would vote for one of these or someone
not mentioned “will depend on what
they have to say about the issue para
mount to us”—the race question.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously
reinstated a suit against Alabama to
enforce Negro voting rights in Macon
County, home of Tuskegee Institute.
The original suit was brought under
the 1957 civil rights act, but a U.S.
District Court in Montgomery and later
the Circuit Court of Appeals held that
a state could not be sued under the
act. Both courts also ruled that two in
dividual registrars named in the action
could not be sued, since they had quit
before the suit was filed.
Justice Department attorneys agreed
to drop the case against the former
registrars since the new law empow
ers the government to proceed against
the state itself.
STUDENTS ACQUITTED
Ten college students from Illinois
and the wife of their sociology profes
sor, all arrested in April for having
lunch with a group of Negro students
in a Montgomery Negro cafe, were ac
quitted May 10 of disorderly conduct
charges.
However, their professor, Dr. Richard
Nesmith, who led the southern field
trip, was found guilty and fined $100
and costs. The Nesmiths and the 10
students had appealed convictions from
city court, where they had been fined
along with seven Negro students and
another white student.
The jury returned verdicts of not
guilty in the case of the white stu
dents, but found their professor guilty
as charged. He has appealed. The sev
en Negro students and the remaining
white man were to be tried without a
jury before special Judge Sam Rice
Baker.
TWO CONVICTED
Two Alabama State College students
arrested in March for pro-integration
demonstrations near the campus (SSN,
April 1980) were convicted on appeal
to Montgomery Circuit Court.
David McMillian and Pitts Edward
Jefferson Jr. were fined $100 and costs
on each of two charges — disorderly
conduct and failure to obey police offi
cers. They had appealed their convic
tions in Montgomery City Court along
with a group of 30 other students ar
rested at the time for demonstrations,
which police said threatened to provoke
a dangerous situation.
Following the conviction of the two
who elected to face trial, the remaining
30 agreed to plead guilty and pay fines
totaling $101 plus $70 in costs each.
PRINTS REBUTTALS
The New York Times, faced with li
bel suits by Gov. Patterson and Bir
mingham and Montgomery city officials
has retracted part of a paid advertise
ment and has published rebuttals by
Alabama industrial development lead
ers.
The ad, seeking funds for “The Com
mittee to Defend Martin Luther King
and the Struggle for Southern Free
dom,” appeared in the Times March 29.
It was signed by prominent actors,
writers, entertainers, clergymen and
others, as well as Alabama integration
leaders (SSN, May 1960).
The ad was retracted in part by the
Times May 15.
Gov. Patterson’s May 9 letter had
complained that the ad charged him
with “grave misconduct and of im
proper actions and omissions” as gov
ernor and ex-officio chairman of the
State Board of Education.
The Times retracted these para
graphs:
“In Montgomery, Alabama, after stu-
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. SERS
is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation, but simply
reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tenn.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the authority
of the act of March 3, 1879.
OFFICERS
Frank Ahlgren
Thomas R. Waring
Marvin D. Wall
Jim Leeson, Assistant to the
Chairman
Vice Chairman
.... Acting Executive Director
Executive Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com
mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Edward D. Ball, Editor, Nashville Ten
nessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.
Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk Univer
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Editorial Page Editor,
Miami Herald, Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Assistant Edi
tor, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette
DELAWARE
James E. Miller, Managing Editor,
Delaware State News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Erwin Knoll, Staff Writer, Washing
ton Post & Times Herald
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Ma
con News
KENTUCKY
Weldon James, Editorial Writer,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or
leans States & Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
L. M. Wright Jr., Assistant City Edi
tor, Charlotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
Tom Flake, Staff Writer, Nashville
Banner
Garry Fullerton, Education Editor,
Nashville Tennessean
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tenn.
dents sang ‘My Country ’Tis of Thee’
on the state capitol steps, their leaders
were expelled from school and truck-
loads of police armed with shotguns
and tear gas ringed the Alabama State
College campus. When the entire stu
dent body protested to state authorities
by refusing to re-register, their dining
hall was padlocked in an attempt to
starve them into submission . . .
“Again and again the southern viol-
lators have answered Dr. King’s peace
ful protests with intimidation and viol
ence. They have bombed his homes, al
most killing his wife and child. They
have assaulted his person. They have
arrested him seven times—for ‘speed
ing,’ ‘loitering,’ and similar ‘offenses.’
And now they have charged him with
‘perjury’—a felony under which they
could imprison him for 10 years.”
Gov. Patterson had no immediate
comment on whether he still intends
to sue.
Montgomery city commissioners have
filed suit against the Times for alleged
defamation they suffered as individuals
by publication of the ad. However, the
Times did not direct its retraction to
the commission, instead filed a motion
See Anything Sire?
Birmingham News
to quash the suit in Montgomery Cir
cuit Court May 20.
STATEMENT PUBLISHED
Earlier, the Times had published a
joint statement from two business-civic
groups in Birmingham answering a se
ries of articles on the city by Harrison
Salisbury, Pulitzer Prize-winning re
porter for the Times.
Salisbury had pictured Birmingham
as a city seized by a reign of terror
and threatened by “the emotional dy
namite of racism,” where telephones
are tapped, mail is intercepted and
opened and where the “eavesdropper,
the informer and the spy have become
a fact of life.”
The joint statement by the Birming
ham Chamber of Commerce and the
city’s Committee of 100, a business and
industrial development organization,
was published by the Times on page
one, as the Salisbury pieces had been.
The rebuttal called the series “biased,
warped and misleading,” full of out
right misstatements “or, what is worse,
half truths.”
KING ACQUITTED
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,
prominent Negro leader, was acquitted
of a perjury charge by an all-white
Montgomery Circuit Court jury May
28. King had been indicted by a Mont
gomery grand jury on charges that he
had falsely sworn to statements in his
1956 and 1958 state income tax returns.
After his request for a change of
venue was rejected, King was tried on
the indictment for 1956. His lawyers
had argued that the former Montgom
ery minister, who won national fame
for his leadership of the Montgomery
bus boycott, could not get a fair trial
in the Alabama capital.
Solicitor (prosecutor) William T.
Thetford would not comment on the
disposition of the second indictment.
In a sermon May 29 at his Atlanta
church, King called the acquittal the
“dawn of hope” in the South. The state
had contended that he had reported
only $9,150 in taxable income in 1956
when the total should have been
$16,162. # # #