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PAGE 2—JULY l96(£^s6UTHERN*StHOOL NEWS
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NORTH CAROLINA
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Sanford Defeats Lake
In Democratic Runoff
1 CHARLOTTE, N.
n a vigorous month-long cam
paign waged almost com
pletely on the race issue, North
Carolina Democrats have nomi
nated for governor a moderate
who firmly endorsed the state’s
four-year-old approach to school
desegregation.
In a runoff primary, Terry San
ford, youthful Fayetteville attor
ney who led in the voting in the
first primary on May 28, defeated
I. Beverly Lake, former Wake
Forest College law professor who
vowed to create a climate of opin
ion that would drive the National
Assn, of Advancement of Colored
People from the state. (See “Poli
tical Activity.”)
Another federal law suit, this
one in Caswell County, has been
filed in an effort to gain admission
of Negro students to white
schools. (See “Legal Action.”)
Several school boards over the state
are considering transfer requests from
Negro students who wish to attend
desegregated schools next fall. Chapel
Hill’s school board voted to admit
three Negroes to a white school.
The existing pattern of token, limited
desegregation is expected to be fol
lowed again next fall, but the number
of school districts involved will not be
determined until somewhat later in the
summer when school boards have
acted. (See “School Boards and School
men.”)
C. lina school plan, publicly supported
Sanford.
Larkins, a Trenton lawyer and long
time state Democratic party official and
member of the state Legislature, did
not announce a preference in the sec
ond primary, but his campaign manager
joined the Sanford group.
The voting in the second primary:
Sanford: 352,739.
Lake: 275,495.
These returns, unofficial, are based
on figures from 2,074 of the 2,094 pre
cincts in North Carolina’s 100 coun
ties. Sanford carried 65 counties and
got 56 2 per cent of the vote. Lake car
ried 35 counties and got 43.8 per cent
of the vote.
'J&l
LEGAL ACTION
A federal court suit for desegrega
tion in Caswell County (county seat,
Yanceyville) has been filed against the
Caswell County school board on behalf
of 44 Negro students.
The suit alleges that the board is
practicing a policy of segregation and
seeks a restraining order to prevent
further segregated operation of the
public schools.
Since the suit was filed, seven Negro
students from among the 44 participat
ing in the suit have requested trans
fers to white schools in Caswell. The
Caswell school board has denied the
requests.
isr
Political Activit
SANFORD
In a campaign tied only to two ma
jor issues—North Carolina’s approach
to school desegregation and state fiscal
policy — North
Carolina Demo
crats have select
ed as their nomi
nee for governor
the man who took
the moderate
stand on the race
issue and the man
who favored more
spending by gov
ernment, particu
larly for public
schools.
The race issue—specifically the North
Carolina plan for limited desegregation
which leaves pupil assignments to lo
cal school boards but would, in the
final analysis, let school patrons vote
on whether to keep a specific school
open if there was sufficient objection—
figured considerably in the campaign
for the votes in the first Democratic
primary on May 28.
But in the second primary, held a
month later on June 25, the race issue
was dominant throughout. Dr. I. Bev
erly Lake repeatedly spoke on the sub
ject, attacking the wisdom of desegre
gation already being practiced in North
Carolina and pledging his efforts to end
it if elected.
The school board at Chapel Hil
(home of the University of North
Carolina) voted unanimously June 21
to accept the applications of three Ne
gro students for the first grade of ar
all-white school. This would be the
first desegregation in the school system
of 3,500 students.
The board unanimously rejected the
applications of nine Negro students for
the all-white junior high school.
The Chapel Hill board rejected a
transfer request last summer, but an
nounced that it would assign students
solely on the basis of geography begin
ning this year with the first grade.
Supt. Joseph Johnston has declined
to give the names of the Negro stu
dents seeking transfers, but has con
firmed that one of them is 11-year-
old Stanley B. Vickers, who has sought
admission to a white school two previ
ous years.
BOARD STATEMENT
The board’s statement last summer
on assignment policy said that “subject
to the limitations of space, applications
for reassignment of prospective first
grade pupils, based upon geographic
proximity, will ordinarily be granted
Three students were accepted in the
first grade at Estes Hills elementary
school. The others were refused trans
fers from the local Negro school to the
downtown Chapel Hill Junior High
School.
A suit seeking a desegregation or
der is also pending against the Chapel
Hill board.
ATTACKED PRESS
He did this while, at the same time,
making repeated attacks on major
newspapers in the state because they
called him a segregationist and because,
he said, they failed to report his whole
program to the voters.
Terry Sanford, in contrast, spent
much of his time answering Lake at
tacks on the school policy, contending
that Lake would bring about more de
segregation than ever by a return to
an outright segregation policy.
There were four candidates in the
first primary. All except Lake had en
dorsed generally the state’s token de
segregation policies. First primary vot
ing went this way:
Terry Sanford: 269,463.
I Beverly Lake: 181,692.
Malcolm B. Seawell: 101,148.
John D. Larkins: 100,757.
In the second primary, Seawell, who
resigned as attorney general to enter
the race and who spoke publicly and
with pride of his role in the federal
courts as a defender of the North Caro-
REQUESTS PENDING
In Charlotte, where one Negro stu
dent attended Garinger High School
during the past year and has already
been reassigned to the same school for
next fall, four other Negro students
have transfer requests pending.
Greensboro schools, which had token
desegregation this past year, have one
transfer request pending.
Requests are also pending in other
North Carolina communities, but school
boards have not acted on them.
In the past, the pattern for desegre
gation in September has not been clear
before August when most boards make
final decisions.
COMMUNITY ACTION
••
A limited number of summer school
students from Johnson C. Smith Uni
versity in Charlotte resumed demon
strations against lunch counter segre
gation. They did so after they learned
from a special committee appointed by
Mayor James S. Smith to study the
Texas
(Continued From Page 1)
about three million dollars a year in
state funds.
Judge Davidson expressed doubt that
the state law could be enforced against
a school district. It has never been tried.
“If a court, the (U. S.) Supreme
Court, can set aside the laws of a state
(calling for segregated schools), that
court can also set aside the provisions of
the statute requiring an election,”
Davidson declared.
The judge said the Dallas school offi
cials could go ahead with the referen
dum, adding that a majority for desegre
gation would cause the court to order
“immediate wholesale integration.”
He explained that if the state at
tempted to penalize the district for
desegregating without voter-approval,
an appeal could be taken directly to the
U. S. Supreme Court.
Franklin E. Spafford, president of the
Dallas board, said the adopted plan
would permit a child to go all the way
through school in integrated classes, if
chosen, or to attend only segregated
schools.
The Dallas board must set an election
date before the end of July.
Lloyd S. Riddle, president of the
White Citizens Council in Oak Cliff, a
Dallas suburb, complained that the
problem that merchants at major
downtown stores had declined to dis
cuss the problem with the committee.
The students, led by theological stu
dent Charles Jones, resumed the dem
onstration without prior announcement
by sending about 30 students to seven
downtown lunch counters.
The following day they were joined
by about 20 ministers, members of the
Catawba Synod of the Presbyterian
Church, U. S. A., then in session at
Johnson C. Smith University. Smith is
supported by the Presbyterian Church,
U. S. A., an interracial church whose
southern membership is largely Negro
and whose northern membership is
predominantly white.
WHAT THEY SAY
r.r...'
Federal Circuit Court Judge William
H. Hastie, speaking at the graduation
ceremony at Johnson C. Smith Uni
versity, said:
“Suddenly this semester, the current
wave of student demonstrations against
racism struck the South and the entire
nation with an impact, the full force
of which we cannot yet calculate. One
of the measures of the impact of these
events is the great number of things
people have been moved to say and
do because of them. Indeed, the fact
that these demonstrations are of a kind
that people cannot ignore points to one
of their most important characteristics.”
GOVERNOR ‘PROUD’
Gov. Luther H. Hodges, commenting
on the victory of Terry Sanford over
I. Beverly Lake for nomination for
governor in the second Democratic pri
mary, said the campaign “tested and
proved North Carolina’s policy in the
heat of battle.” He added:
“I am very proud of North Carolina.
They have elected a young, vigorous,
progressive man with a vision. North
Carolina, it seems to me, supported in
the heat of political battle the program
we embarked on in 1956, the pupil
placement program which leaves the
assignment of students at the local
level.” # # #
board should not have encouraged the
signing of petitions for an election.
“People in most cases signed the peti
tions as if they were going into segrega
tion,” said Riddle at a school board
meeting.
More than 70,000 Dallas citizens
signed the petitions.
Of the 27 Negro students who applied
in September 1955 for admission to
Dallas schools for white children, the
Dallas News reported that 10 still are
attending school there. Eight have grad
uated. Others have moved or dropped
out.
The Dallas News predicted that voters
in the district will defeat the integra
tion proposal, as Houston recently did.
(See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
HEARING POSTPONED
Court hearing of an application to in
tegrate schools at Galveston was post
poned at least until next January (Rob
inson v. Evans).
U. S. District Judge Ben C. Connally
passed over the non-jury docket at Gal
veston, which had been scheduled for
June 20. Instead, he entered an agreed
pre-trial order stating that Galveston
school officials realize that “the dual
system . . . must be abolished with
deliberate speed.”
However, attorneys for the district
said they are prepared to show the
court that it would be “impractical, if
not altogether impossible” to integrate
Galveston schools this September.
Galveston had planned to desegregate
its schools in 1957, before the Legisla
ture passed the referendum law. Twen
ty-three per cent of the Galveston dis
trict’s voting-age population is Negro.
Meanwhile, President Eisenhower ap
pointed another federal judge for south
Texas. T. Everton Kennerly, son of a
retired U. S. district judge, was named
to succeed the late James V. Allred.
Kennerly, 57, was defeated in 1958 as a
Republican candidate for Congress in
the Houston district.
Kennerly said he probably will live in
Corpus Christi, near the center of the
judicial district.
Houston, largest segregated school
system in the United States, voted two
to one against integration at a special
election on June 4.
The school board previously had sub
mitted to U. S. District Judge Ben C.
Connally an area desegregation propos
al, after the court had called for com
pliance with its “deliberate speed”
order. (Ross v. Rogers, SSN, June 1960
and previous.)
Details of the school board’s plan are
lacking, but it announced that desegre
gation would be ordered first in areas
voting heaviest for integration. This
drew a rebuke from Judge Connally,
who advised the board “this is not a
popularity contest.”
Judge Connally still is studying the
plan submitted by the Houston Board.
Thirty-two predominantly Negro pre
cincts voted for integration in the June
4 referendum, in some cases by majori
ties up to 13 to one. Opposition was
greatest among voters living at the edge
of the district, ranging up to seven to
one against integration.
Houston stands to lose $5,250,000 a
year in state funds if it integrates
against the expressed wishes of its
voters.
Dr. J. W. Edgar, Texas commissioner
of education, said that if Houston inte
grates he will be forced to withhold
state funds. Either court or legislative
action could change this, and some
Houston legislators have indicated they
intend to ask for a change in the law to
protect court-ordered integration fro®
penalty by the state. A similar sugg es
tion has come from Dallas. (See “Legs
Action.”)
Attorneys for Negroes involved in th<
Houston lawsuit have asked Judge Con.
nally to order all schools opened on j
non-discriminatory basis in Septembe
1960. They called the board’s plan “ne.
farious” and said it seeks in effect tc
get court sanction for operating sonii
schools on a segregated basis.
Canvassing the opinion of parents ot
the question “is not a prerequisite unde*
the U. S. Constitution for desegregating
the schools,” said the NAACP lawyers, i
The Houston board had voted five t£
one to submit the area desegregation
proposal to Judge Connally. Its memi
bers on both sides said the outcome ojj
the referendum was as expected. %
“The results of the election serve if
emphasize the antipathy that does exisft
locally to the integration of our schools,
said Dr. Henry A. Petersen, board pres-5
ident. 5
“It also would definitely indicate the®
need for time, patience and a slower ap..
proach to a solution than has thus farf
been permitted. It would likewise em-<
phasize failure of any plan unless such'
was based upon voluntary participation c
Force, in the face of apparent opposi-l
tion, would be unthinkable.” :
(
i
BLAMES CONFUSION „
Mrs. Charles E. White, Negro member <
of the Houston board, asserted that the"!
election will “in no way invalidate” J
Judge Connally’s order. She contended!
there was so much confusion among* 1
voters over the effect of signing the pe- 1 ]
tition and voting. 1
Other members of the board’s major-1
ity took the vote to be an endorsement)
of its segregation policy. S
However, the president of the Hous- -
ton Assn, for Better Schools, which sup- 1 '
ports integration, held a different view,!
Dr. Albert Abrams said the referendum
showed “a large number of Houstonians
are prepared to move ahead in compli
ance with the law of the land . . .”
“. . . All of us must look upon the
antics of the Houston school board with
dissatisfaction and concern for having
defeated the referendum and jeopard
ized continued state funds and school
accreditation.”
Another development affecting Hous
ton was the disbanding of a special bi-
racial committee named by Mayor
Lewis Cutrer to discuss race relations
The group met only briefly. One cause
of its dissolution apparently was a dis
agreement over whether to censure
students of Texas Southern University
(for Negroes) for participating in lunch
counter sit-downs.
BROWNSBORO DISPUTE
Overtones concerning the alleged in
feriority of Negro schools at Browns-
boro, a small east Texas town, came
up at a June hearing before J. W
Edgar, Texas commissioner of educa
tion.
However, this was only part of the
difficulty in connection with the entire
school system operation. A school
board meeting in mid-June had broken
into a fight that left one man dead and
others injured. Three participants were
charged with felonies and nine with
misdemeanor offenses.
The dispute apparently had smol
dered for years. It came to the surface
when a newly elected board fired
Homer D. Bass, superintendent of
Brownsboro schools for 23 years.
Bass appealed for reinstatement
to Commissioner Edgar. Testimony
brought out at his hearing revealed
that an attorney for the National Assn
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple recently had visited the schools at
Brownsboro and charged there was
discrimination against Negroes. The
district has more than 400 white and
300 Negro students.
CRITICIZED BASS
The new board criticized Bass-
among other things, for failing to apply
for federal assistance on getting science
equipment at the Negro school.
Bass testified that the board had
been reluctant to spend money at the
Negro school after the U.S. Supreme
Court decision against school segrega
tion because “nobody knew what tc
do.” As a result, he continued, bond
money that otherwise would have beer
spent for improving the Negro school
went for other things.
The Brownsboro system is under 8
“warning” from the Texas educatios
agency that it might lose accredited
standing, partly because of conditions
at the Negro school. Other shortcom
ings were charged, however.
Bass blamed the situation up on
“wrecking crew” tactics of a school
board minority starting in 1958, when
a bond issue was defeated. This year
voters elected an anti-Bass majority-
Numerous grievances other than con
ditions at the Negro school were cited
at the hearing. # # jf