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i PAGE 2—JULY l96(£^s6UTHERN*StHOOL NEWS \ NORTH CAROLINA *. ^ _ > 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