Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY I960—PAGE 3
Alabama
(Continued From Page 1)
regation in local schools and at parks
and playgrounds.
The double-barrel attack charged
that the city maintains a “dual set of
school zone lines” that overlap in
some areas where both Negro and
white children live.
“The bi-racial school system is
predicated on the theory that Negroes
are inherently inferior to white per
sons and, consequently, may not attend
the same public schools attended by
white children who are superior,” the
petition said. Similarly, it continued,
the bi-racial system assumes that Ne
gro teachers are inferior to white and,
therefore, “may not teach white chil
dren.”
Asking a permanent injunction, the
plaintiffs insist that the state’s school
placement law provides inadequate
administrative relief, which the peti
tioners have admittedly not exhausted.
A direct challenge to the constitu
tionality of the 1955 placement law was
rejected May 9, 1958, (Southern School
News, June 1958) when a special three-
judge court sitting in Birmingham held
the law “valid on its face.” The court
warned, however, that the act might
later be proven unconstitutional in ap
plication.
The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed
this finding Nov. 24, 1958. Since then
Birmingham Negroes, led by the Rev.
F. L. Shuttlesworth, who was promi
nent in the first challenge, have on
several occasions sought admission of
Negro students to specific white schools.
Each time they were rebuffed.
ASK INJUNCTION
In the new action, Shuttlesworth,
James Armstrong Sr., and Vann Eng
lish ask a permanent injunction abol
ishing school zones based, as they al
lege, on race; assignment of pupils and
teachers on the basis of race or color;
requirements and prerequisites for Ne
gro children seeking admission not re
quired of white children; and budgets
and policies which perpetuate or sup
port a segregated school system.
As an alternative, the petitioners re
quest a court order reorganizing the
school system on an integrated basis.
The suit was filed in the names of
' two Shuttlesworth children, four chil-
' dren of Armstrong, and a daughter of
English. Named as defendants are the
’ city school board, its members, School
6 Supt. Theo R. Wright and Public
Improvements Commissioner Eugene
(Bull) Connor. Because of racial sep-
H aration in city schools, the suit says,
the plaintiffs and other “members of
their class” have suffered “irreparable”
injury.
The park suit is similar to one filed
' last October. In that action federal
' Judge H. H. Grooms dismissed the city
| a s a defendant. The new suit, Negro
' attorneys say, makes the. case against
■ the city more clear.
e AGENTS BARRED
e Montgomery Circuit Judge Walter B.
i Jones barred federal agents from see-
l mg voting records in every county in
j the state in an injunction handed down
e June 6, two weeks before the U.S. Su
it preme Court opened the way for Civil
Rights Commission investigations in
. Louisiana.
i Judge Jones set July 7 for a hearing
d on whether the injunction is to be
i] made permanent.
The Justice Department, thwarted by
i! l ^ e injunction, asked the U.S. District
J ^' our *- in Montgomery to assume juris-
i oiction and dismiss the restraining or-
i der. Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson
. r. set July 13 for a hearing on the
I motion.
i In Mobile, government attorneys
f " s ^ e d the U.S. District Court there to
& a similar injunction issued May
® by Selma Circuit Judge James A.
„ are denying agents the right to check
Wilcox County records.
. Eor the first time in 19 months, pros-
f P e °tive white and Negro voters in Ma-
( con County filled out voter registration
applications in June. The county has
i een without a functioning board of
f , e " lstr ars since the Civil Rights Com-
j ^‘on inquiry into its activities
• u ° n ® with other counties) in Decem-
, oor 1958
f There was no attempt at mass Negro
[ "^lustrations as whites had feared. Six
i T e §roes, escorted by an officer of the
ruskegee Civic Assn., filled out appli-
, cation papers in a store in the Little
I n . eX< "" S & community, where the board was
c eetmg under a 1959 act authorizing it
‘dav C ° + L Vene ° n 20 of ^ 50 meeting
I . this year in various precincts in-
ad of the courthouse in Tuskegee.
o SUES TIMES
G. ov - Tohn Patterson has filed s
gainst the New York Times and f
’ cg ro leaders for one million dolla
, f ,? governor charges that a reel
t . a d in the Times soliciti
, ds f °r the Rev. Martin Luther Kj
GOVERNOR OFFERS REDDICK PICTURE AS EVIDENCE
Gov. John Patterson, Left, and Legal Advisor Bob Bradley
Jr. subjected him to “public contempt,
ridicule and shame.”
The governor’s suit also named King,
now a resident of Atlanta, the Rev.
F. L. Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, the
Rev. J. E. Lowery of Mobile, and the
Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy and the Rev.
S. S. Seay Sr., both of Montgomery.
The Times retracted parts of the ad
May 16, (SSN, June) specifically a
section charging that Alabama State
College for Negroes had padlocked its
cafeterias in an effort to starve into
submission students participating in
racial demonstrations. But Patterson
contends that it was not a “full and
fair” retraction.
City officials in Montgomery also are
suing the Times for libel in connection
with the King ad. Officials in Birming
ham and Bessemer have filed suit for
stories about the two communities
written by Times reporter Harrison
Salisbury.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., ac
quitted in late May by an all-white
Montgomery jury on charges that he
falsified state income tax returns (SSN,
June 1960), faces a second perjury in
dictment. However, Montgomery Cir
cuit Solicitor William Thetford has
declined to say whether he will prose
cute in view of the acquittal in the
first case.
EIGHT FINED
Seven Montgomery Negroes and a
white minister from Massachusetts
were fined $100 and cost each by Spe
cial Circuit Judge Same Rice Baker
June 7 for their participation in an in
tegrated luncheon at a local Negro cafe
in April. On May 10, a Montgomery
jury had acquitted 10 white students
from Illinois arrested on the same oc
casion. The jury also acquitted the wife
of the group’s sociology professor, but
convicted the professor himself, Dr.
Richard Nesmith, who was fined $100
and costs. (In Washington it was re
ported that Nesmith, a MacMurray
College professor, has complained about
his treatment in Montgomery and that
FBI inquiries have been made.)
All eight have appealed. Less than
four hours after the court had assessed
the fines, the single white defendant,
Rev. R. Edwin King, 23, was jailed
when he took one of the Negro defend
ants, Elroy Embry, to the dining room
of the Jefferson Davis Hotel and de
manded service.
King, a Boston University theology
student and part-time minister, was
asked to leave with his guest. When
he refused, police were called and both
refused again in the presence of the
officer, witnesses said. They were
charged with trespassing and failing to
obey an officer.
Failing to make bond, they spent
three days in jail before being tried.
They were sentenced to 10 days and
fined $200 each, then released on bond
pending appeal.
State Rights candidates for presi
dential elector won a six to five edge
over party Loyalists in the Democratic
run-off primary May 31, final tabula
tions revealed.
This means that five of the state’s
electors are pledged to casting their
votes for the Democratic nominees for
president and vice president, regardless
of who they are, when the electoral
college meets in December.
The six States Righters, on the other
hand, have promised to withhold their
vote should the nominees be men
“hostile to the South.”
Most of the delegates elected to go
to the Democratic National Convention
who have stated a preference favor
Sen. Johnson. Next is Sen. Russell and
a weak third is Sen. Symington. Sen.
Kennedy can claim only one “maybe”
delegate, despite the strong backing he
has from Gov. John Patterson.
The State Board of Education ordered
the expulsion of a faculty member of
the Alabama State College for Negroes
(Montgomery) June 14 after Gov. Pat
terson had branded the professor an
agitator and communist sympathizer.
By a vote of nine to one, the board
directed college President Dr. H. Coun-
cill Trenholm to fire Dr. Lawrence D.
Reddick “before sundown today.” Red
dick, 50, has been head of the history
department at the college for six years.
Trenholm said he notified Reddick of
his dismissal a short time after learn
ing of the board’s directive.
Patterson also said the board should
also give serious consideration to re
placing Trenholm: “I’d like to see
someone heading up the school who is
loyal to the state of Alabama.”
It was “inexcusable,” Patterson said,
that Reddick was ever hired. When
state investigators first asked for Red
dick’s file following student racial
demonstrations, Trenholm refused, Pat
terson said. At the time of the pro
integration demonstrations in February
and March, Patterson charged that the
students were supported by some fac
ulty members.
PRODUCED PHOTOSTAT
Patterson produced a file on Reddick
which contained a photostatic copy of
a New York Times account of a 1946
“Get Together With Russia” rally in
New York with a picture showing
Reddick with Andrei Vyshinsky, then
Soviet delegate to the UN. The file also
contained records of the Fulton Coun
ty (Georgia) Bureau of Criminal In
vestigation purporting to show that
Reddick was a speaker at a 1948 meet
ing of writers, identified in the Daily
Worker as being “Marxists and other
anti-Fascist writers.” Another docu
ment, identified as a letter from the
New York City police department,
identified Reddick as a lecturer at a
communist-sponsored school.
Casting the lone dissenting vote to
the firing was board member Robert
Locklin of Mobile who said he object
ed to firing a teacher without a hear
ing: “I wonder if we aren’t setting a
dangerous precedent.”
Reddick replied to the charges that
his appearance on the same platform as
Vyshinsky “makes me no more a com
munist than Gov. Patterson’s confer
ence with presidential candidate Ken-
FLQRIDA
Daytona Beach Group
Files New School Suit
MIAMI, Fla.
EGAL ACTION CONTINUED to
dominate the school segrega
tion picture in Florida. There
were developments in three
courts.
One new suit filed in northeast
Florida was announced as the
forerunner of a massive legal as
sault on school segregation dur
ing the summer months. (See
“Legal Action.”)
Gov. LeRoy Collins’ Commit
tee on Race Relations, in its first
public statement, called for “cool-
headed negotiation” to solve the
state’s segregation problems. (See
“Community Action.”)
The last Negro student attending the
University of Florida was dropped for
failing to maintain her grades. (See “In
the Colleges.”)
A Negro professor at Florida A&M
University was fired for his role in the
lunch counter sit-in demonstrations.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
Florida’s top legal expert on race
matters predicted Florida’s schools can
not legally be kept segregated indefin
itely. (See ‘What They Say.”)
LEGAL AC
TION
The first step in what NAACP lead
ers said was a massive legal assault on
school segregation in Florida was taken
in the federal district court in Jack
sonville.
There a suit was filed in behalf of
39 Negro children, residents of Volusia
County (Daytona Beach). It charged
that the Volusia County school board
was operating a compulsory bi-racial
school system. The board “maintains
a secondary system of colored or Ne
gro schools limited to attendance by
Negro children,” it was asserted.
Francisco A. Rodriguez, NAACP at
torney from Tampa who filed the suit,
listed Thurgood Marshall, general
counsel for NAACP, as associate coun
sel.
DIRECT CHALLENGE
The suit was a direct challenge to
segregation on constitutional grounds.
The petition said:
“The compulsory bi-racial school
system is predicated on the theory that
Negroes are inherently inferior to
white persons, and consequently, may
not attend the same public schools at
tended by white children who are su
perior.”
The court was asked to enjoin the
dual school system, to forbid dual and
overlapping school zones, and to halt
nedy makes the governor an integra-
tionist.”
He said the dismissal was in the
nature of persecution because he had
already resigned his job effective at
the close of the summer session. The
racially tense atmosphere at the school
was his reason, he said. Because of his
work, Reddick said, he is frequently
called on to confer with white his
torians and educators and, in the pres
ent atmosphere, these people “might
be molested or even arrested.” He said
he has had teaching offers from Ni
geria, Laos and in the U.S.
The Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, Dr.
King's successor as leader of the
Montgomery Improvement Assn, wired
the governor in protest to Reddick’s
dismissal: “If you are bent upon de
stroying Alabama State College and
driving our best teachers away, then
you force us to withdraw our sons and
daughters from it and send them to
other institutions of our state that are
supported by our tax dollars.”
The American Assn, of University
Professors, the Civil Liberties Union,
the NAACP, and other groups joined in
protesting the firing. Patterson said if
these groups opposed him, he must be
right.
The Alabama State Teachers Assn.,
a Negro organization, called on Patter
son to reconsider his recommendation
that Dr. Trenholm be dismissed: “As
president of Alabama State College Dr.
Trenholm has for some 30 years un
selfishly and unstintingly given us his
energy and service for the develop
ment of public education in our state.”
The ASTA wire did not mention
Reddick. # # #
assignment of pupils, teachers, admin
istrative personnel and other employes
on a racial basis. The injunction also
would cover the budgeting of school
funds for a segregated operation.
NAACP attorneys said it was the
most extensive school suit ever filed
in the nation.
ASKS REORGANIZATION
The plaintiffs asked that the school
board be required to present within a
reasonable time a plan for complete
reorganization of the Volusia schools
on a non-racial basis.
Rodriguez said the suit had been long
in preparation and would serve as a
model for future petitions filed in
Florida federal courts. Five others in
central and north central Florida were
in process of being filed, he declared,
although the names of the counties in
volved were not announced.
Whereas previous suits have simply
asked for desegregation of a particular
school or county system, or the accept
ance of specific Negro children in a
specific white school, the Volusia suit,
explained Rodriguez, used the injunc
tive technique in seeking total deseg
regation throughout every phase of
school operation.
EXPLAINS MOVE
There was no particular strategy
in beginning this planned court fight in
Volusia County, he said.
“We simply felt that Volusia County
had the right climate for action at
this time,” he explained.
Plaintiffs in the new suit are the
same persons who, in March, petitioned
the school board to adopt a desegrega
tion plan. School authorities went into
court, seeking a declaratory decree
against the petitioners. They asked the
court to rule the petition signers had
no authority to do so, and that the
school board was not under obligation
to act on the plea. This suit is pend
ing.
The Daytona Beach Morning Journal
reported the Volusia suit was part of
a pattern by the NAACP to combat
a precedent set in North Carolina that
holds desegregation is an individual
right and therefore remedy must be
sought in individual suits.
OTHER SUITS
Other long-pending Florida suits
were active.
In the Palm Beach County case
(Holland vs. Board of Public Instruc
tion of Dade County), plaintiff William
Holland Sr. asked the federal district
judge in Atlanta to bar by injunction
the application of Florida’s pupil as
signment law.
The request was an amendment to
the three-year-old suit which has been
to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
on three occasions. The court ordered
two years ago that the Palm Beach
school board proceed with a plan for
desegregation.
Holland’s latest court move followed
another refusal by the Palm Beach
authorities to accept his son, now 10,
in a white school. The board denied
Holland’s contention that school dis
tricts were gerrymandered to keep his
son from receiving the same education
as white children living in the same
general neighborhood.
The board also said Holland’s con
tention that Palm Beach County has a
segregated school system was “un
founded.”
BOUNDARY LINE
“The board stands on the uncontro
verted fact that the boundary line (ap
plying in the Holland case) has been
established for many years,” said one
of the members.
Holland contended the school district
line in question ran down the center
of the street on which he lived. Re
cently he moved across the street to
get legally within the district of the
white school.
Board members said the line actually
runs at the rear of Holland’s present
lot.
The board said it would stand by its
decision, replying on the pupil assign
ment law.
“We cannot allow individual students
or their parents, because of their in
dividual or group desires, to select each
year the school they prefer their child
to attend,” said School Supt. Howell
Watkins. “To do so would create chaos
in the administration of all our
schools.”
The Pensacol^^Spc 1 * * * ''LiWuiisjttts vs.
Board of PubUriM&v\jMl)/hf$
(See FLORIDA,-Eage. 4) r \