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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. # # #