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page 14—AUGUST I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
School Desegregation Issue Is Cast in Major Political Roles
(Continued From Page 1)
northern Virginia school desegregation
cases. Kennedy said his campaign role
would not be limited to civil rights
matters.
There were indications that the civil
rights issue might get a pre-campaign
airing when Congress reconvenes in
August. Some Republicans were re
ported eager to exploit a possible split
in Democratic ranks by pressing for
action in this session to implement par
ty platform pledges.
The political situation in the states
follows:
Alabama
^chool segregation is not a direct is
sue in Alabama political contests.
But it, and the whole race question,
comes up obliquely in campaigns for
virtually every office.
All serious contenders for office
avow their belief in segregation as a
matter of course. What difference there
is between the views and records of
the various candidates lies in degree.
Frequently the race issue comes up
in this fashion: A candidate will pro
duce returns of an earlier election and
point to the pattern of Negro voting
for his opponent as indicated by tabu
lations from predominantly Negro
boxes. Sometimes this works, sometimes
it doesn’t.
PARADOX EMERGES
A paradox has begun to emerge for
Negro voters in Alabama and probably
elsewhere in the Deep South. One ob
server put it this way:
“By bloc voting, Negroes can pun
ish one candidate for his past sins but
they cannot, at this point, insure any
deferential behavior in office from the
man they vote for. Their political
strength is thus negative and will
probably remain so until they get
enough voters registered to present
something more formidable.”
In primaries this spring, Alabama
voters elected five presidential electors
pledged to cast their votes for the
Democratic ticket regardless of who
was on it, but elected six others pledged
to withhold their vote from any candi
date “unacceptable to the South.”
Thus the way was paved for a partial
bolt from the national party this elec
tion year.
Not even the presence of Sen. Lyn
don B. Johnson on the ticket is com
forting to some of the States Righter,
or independent, electors. In fact, his
nomination made the ticket less accept
able to at least one of the electors who
called Johnson “a black-and-tan Dem
ocrat because he had a Negro nomi
nate him for the vice presidency.”
SUPPORTS KENNEDY
Gov. John Patterson, who announced
his support for Sen. John Kennedy in
spring 1959, said in July that despite
criticism he is pleased with the sen
ator’s nomination. The governor said
he will try to get Kennedy to campaign
actively in Alabama. Kennedy has been
criticised nationally for conferring with
Patterson and winning the governor’s
support.
Segregation and civil rights are at the
heart of the controversy between the
party Loyalist electors and the States
Richters. Johnson’s work in engineer
ing the passage of the 1960 Civil Rights
Act is deeply resented by some States
Righters. Moreover, they consider the
party’s civil rights plank repugnant.
They have not said what form, if any,
their bolt will take.
In sum, the race question is and it
isn’t an issue in Alabama. It touches
almost every race, but there is no fun
damental disagreement between serious
contenders. This much is certain: In-
Running FOR Something
Or FROM Something?
Birmingham News
finitely more campaign oratory is de
voted to it now than before 1954.
Arkansas
Jn six years, the issue of school de
segregation has come to dominate
Arkansas politics as no other recent
issue.
In the recent campaign for governor,
the four candidates opposing Gov. Or-
val Faubus argued for their own seg
regationist beliefs but all insisted they
would obey the law and keep the schools
open.
Faubus repeated his tactics of 1958,
castigating the U.S. Supreme Court and
declaring his readiness to do again ev
erything he has done.
In other races, every candidate made
sure the voters understood that he was
a southerner and a segregationist, no
matter how low the office or how far
removed from direct connection with
the school issue.
Nearly all of Faubus’s pro-segrega
tion measures in the Legislature have
been endorsed by 100 per cent of the
membership—35 state senators and 100
state representatives. In some instances,
legislators absent when one of these
bills was voted on would have his vote
recorded after his return, even though
it wasn’t needed for passage. This
would register his pro-segregation vote
in the record.
Delaware
gcHooL desegregation hasn’t been a
major campaign issue in Delaware
since the Supreme Court decision in
1954, and it isn’t expected to play much
of a role in the 1960 campaign.
For the most part, candidates for
statewide office have been content to
leave the matter to the federal courts,
which have been grappling with the
issue since 1956, when Negro pupils
first sued to enter seven white schools.
Neither party will select candidates
for major offices, such as governor,
lieutenant-governor, U.S. senator, and
U.S. representative, until late August.
Candidates for the General Assembly
also will be selected at that time.
Candidates from southern Delaware,
where segregation is still practiced in
the schools, aren’t expected to alienate
voters in the north by a strong stand
for continued segregation. Northern
Delaware, where desegregation is prac
tically completed, has a preponderance
of the population.
Florida
X R E segregation issue unexpectedly
played an important part in the
run-off election in Florida in May. It
had made scarcely any impact in the
first primary when all candidates for
governor played down the issue, taking
the position that they would use all
lawful means to continue segregation.
In the run-off election between Far
ris Bryant of Ocala, former House
speaker, and State Sen. Doyle E. Carl
ton Jr., of Wauchula, segregation
promptly became a major issue. Carl
ton charged that Bryant, while posing
as a segregationist, had attended a
meeting of Negroes in Jacksonville to
ask for their votes.
This opened the question and Bryant
charged that Carlton was soft on the
issue. Carlton was in a group that had
fought hard to block measures consid
ered extremist in the 1957 Legislature.
ATTACKED CARLTON
Actually, followers of the two candi
dates went far beyond the statements
of the candidates themselves. Segrega
tionists circulated literature attacking
Carlton as an integrationist. They
worked hard for Bryant, who carried
every section of the state where seg
regation sentiment is strong. It was
generally agreed that the campaign tac
tics of the segregationists contributed
substantially to Carlton’s defeat.
Another factor was a last-minute plea
for Carlton’s nomination by Gov. Le
roy Collins. He stressed Carlton’s
moderate approach to race questions
and said this qualified him to lead the
state along progressive lines.
Newspapers and political observers
interpreted Carlton’s defeat as a re
pudiation of Collins’s policy of moder
ation and a strengthening of the seg
regationist hand. It must be said, how
ever, that Bryant, who faces Republi
can opposition in November, did not
seek to raise this issue.
POLITICAL CAPITAL
In one other Florida race, segregation
played a part. Jesse Yarborough, mem
ber of the Dade County Board of Pub
lic Education, was a candidate for sec
retary of state. His opponents made po
litical capital out of the fact that the
Dade school board had approved token
integration at Orchard Villa school, the
first in Florida, while Yarborough was
a member of that body.
Yarborough issued a statement ex
plaining his action in the Orchard Villa
matters and declared that he was a
segregationist. He said the token in
tegration, in a bi-racial neighborhood,
actually strengthened the pupil assign
ment law and made it easier for other
counties to avoid court orders to de
segregate schools.
When Yarborough was decisively
beaten, he said that “undoubtedly” his
action in the Orchard Villa case con
tributed to his defeat.
Georgia
A statewide check indicates that
there is little chance the General
Assembly of Georgia in 1961 will ap
prove the Sibley commission’s major
ity report to allow local option in deal
ing with public school desegregation.
U. S. District Judge Frank A. Hooper
of Atlanta has ruled that the Atlanta
system must desegregate May 1, 1961.
This means that administrative ma
chinery can be put into motion so that
Negroes will be at some white schools
in September of that year. But the
state has a law against racial integra
tion and officials have indicated the
federal government will be forcing
them to close Georgia’s public schools.
With this situation in the back
ground, a school study commission held
hearings over the state and found di
vided opinion. A majority recommend
ed local option. A strong minority
wants to retain Georgia’s strict segre
gation laws and rely on private schools.
LEGISLATURE'S CHOICE
Hooper said the 1961 Legislature
could (1) enact a statewide pupil place
ment law, or (2) allow Atlanta to vote
through local option on whether it pre
ferred to obey the desegregation order
or close its schools.
As of the time of the survey last
month, however, 60 per cent of the
1961 House membership had already
been filled by early primaries or
through lack of opposition. Very few of
the incumbents have open-school rec
ords. Most of those in key positions in
the House favor retention of the school
closing law. The same situation pre
vails in the Senate.
Whether the Legislature will act to
head off possible school shutdowns has
not even been an issue in most elec
tions in rural counties. In those areas,
local issues have been predominant in
contested races with all candidates
merely stating that they are all-out for
segregation.
This is not true in the more pop
ulous counties. For instance, in Bibb
Comity, one of the five largest in
Georgia, all three candidates for a sin
gle legislative post are on record as
favoring keeping the schools open. This
is characteristic of other metropolitan
areas, and in some medium-size coun
ties.
IMPACT ON VOTERS
By and large, however, the choice
put to the Legislature by Hooper—do
something about it or see the schools
closed—has not had an impact on the
voters who chose their representatives
in most of the counties of Georgia.
Some observers contend that the
heavy Negro vote in some thickly pop
ulated counties accounts for the cam
paign promises to keep the public
schools operating.
Legislative leaders say that there will
be no change in the thinking of mem
bers of the House and Senate when
those bodies convene in Atlanta in
January.
EFFECT IN ’62
What happens to the public schools
is expected to have an effect on what
happens to the Georgia gubernatorial
candidates in 1962.
There are expected to be four can
didates: Lt. Gov. Garland Byrd, Com
missioner of Agriculture Phil Camp
bell, former Gov. Marvin Griffin and
former Gov. Ellis Amall.
Amall has said that he will offer for
the governorship only if the public
schools are closed because of integra-
gration. Political observers believe a
shutdown of public education, if it
came about some time before the 1962
campaign and nothing was done about
it, would greatly increase Amall’s
chances. At the same time, these ob
servers do not believe Arnall would
have a chance unless he had such an
issue on which to base his appeal for
votes.
DELEGATES BITTER
Reverberations from the Democratic
national convention in Los Angeles
were still being felt in Georgia. Bitter
ness toward the civil rights plank has
led Gov. Ernest Vandiver and other
delegates to threaten use of the state’s
independent electors law to withhold
electoral votes from the Democratic
candidates.
Support for the Democratic ticket
came from Congressmen Carl Vinson,
J. L. Pilcher and Erwin Mitchell; for
mer governors Marvin Griffin and Ellis
Arnall; and Lt. Gov. Garland Byrd.
Notably absent so far: Senators Rich
ard B. Russell and Herman Talmadge.
Kentucky
^^"ot since 1954 has school desegre
gation been a political issue in
Kentucky. It will not be in 1960.
Political observers say, however, that
the civil rights stand and the cam
paigning of the two major parties at
the national level could affect the out
come of the U. S. senatorial race be
tween John Sherman Cooper, the GOP
incumbent, and liis Democratic chal
lenger, former Gov. Keen Johnson.
Both men are on record, like every
Kentucky governor since 1954, as be
lieving the school desegregation ruling
“the law of the land.” Sen. Cooper has
always drawn a fair amount of Negro
support, and is considered likely to do
so again. Johnson, backed by the ad
ministration of Gov. Bert Combs, may
benefit from the fact that the Combs-
dominated General Assembly this year,
in response to Negro and white pres
sures, created the state’s first Human
Relations Commission, an advisory
group.
Whether the state goes Republican
or Democratic depends on some meas
ure to the success of Louisville Negro
leaders in their current attempt to get
every Negro voter registered—and on
whether they can be induced to vote
as a bloc. In a close state race, the
populous Louisville-Jefferson County
area could determine the outcome.
Most of the state’s Negro voters are
concentrated in it, but only 21,400 of
51,000 eligibles are registered. The Ne
gro block-to-block registration drive
is non-partisan, but if successful, and
if the resultant huge “new” electorate
were largely captured by a single par
ty, it could be pivotal.
Louisiana
J^ouisiana candidates for public office
are all segregationists on the stump.
Their declarations against integration
vary only in degree.
Since Louisiana is still without any
integrated grade schools, state and local
politicians have adopted generally the
same stand—they will preserve segre
gation in public education.
Some have pledged new court fights,
others run for office on verbal blasts
at the NAACP, and others simply say
they will do everything within their
power to maintain segregation.
But none of the candidates for ma
jor office, nor any of the successful
candidates for minor office, have shown
any inclination to be the first out of
the gate on a moderate segregation pro
gram or pro-integration plan.
WEIGH OTHER MATTERS
Louisiana voters, however, have
shown that they weigh matters other
than segregation in voting for governor.
At a time when Orleans Parish (coun
ty) schools faced an order to integrate
in September, Louisiana elected a gov
ernor who took the second strongest
position on segregation.
William M. Rainach, for six years
chairman of the joint legislative com
mittee on segregation and a Citizens
Council leader, ran third in this year’s
gubernatorial race.
The voters turned instead to Jimmie
H. Davis, who was inaugurated in
May. Davis didn’t get tough on the
segregation issue until after he had run
second in the first primary, behind
Mayor deLesseps Morrison of New
Orleans.
Maryland
jtjCHOOL segregation-desegregation is
not a political issue in Maryland.
Schools in the heavily populated
counties have been desegregated since
1955, and in Baltimore since 1954. Both
political parties in the statewide cam
paigns of 1958 had platform planks that
favored extension of desegregation but
there has been no reference to them
since that time.
Candidates on a statewide basis fol
low a moderate pro-integration line.
They try to capture Negro votes, of
which there are more than 100,000 in
Baltimore alone, without antagonizing
the unknown quantity of pro-segrega
tionists.
While many factors go Into an elec
tion, the results of a gubernatorial race
in 1954 suggested that pro-segregation
expressions had been harmful to one,
candidate, whereas the strongly pro.j
integration reputation of former Gov.‘
Theodore McKeldin was believed to^
have cost him votes in last year’s Bal
timore mayoralty contest. Hence, the
political popularity of the middle
ground. 1
Mississippi
jypssissippi Democratic forces are
heading for a split over the civil 1
rights platform adopted at the Los An
geles national convention. The plat
form is in direct conflict with the one
adopted in June by the state’s Demo
cratic Party.
It’s certain that a slate of “independ
ent” presidential electors will be field
ed in opposition to those pledged to the
nominees and platform. A definite de
cision by state leaders now in control
‘But Where Am I Going
To Go?’
Jackson Daily News
of the party’s affairs was expected at a
planned reconvening of the state con
vention July 30.
The upcoming campaign for presiden
tial electors is expected to be a re-play
of the 1959 governor’s race, with Gov.
Ross Barnett’s forces on one side and
those of former Gov. J. P. Coleman
riding with the national party.
WILL NOT VOTE
Barnett announced shortly after his
return from Los Angeles that party
leaders were “seriously considering”
reconvening the Democratic state con
vention to determine the official party’s
course in the upcoming campaign.
Some action was evident in the face of
a statement by one of the presidential
electors chosen at the June state con
vention, State Sen. W. B. Alexander of
Cleveland, Miss., that he would not
vote for the party nominee.
Indicative of the conflict between the
state Democratic party’s June 30 plat
form and the one adopted at the July
national convention is this provision
from the one adopted in Mississippi:
The Democratic party of Mississippi
condemns the 1954 desegregation deci
sion of the U. S. Supreme Court, and
subsequent decisions “striking down
state constitutions and laws providing
for the conduct and operation of public
schools and public education within the
states as gross abuse of its judicial au
thority and flagrant usurpation of legis
lative function and an unwarranted in
vasion of rights of the sovereign states
in direct conflict with the Tenth
Amendment.”
Missouri
Tn Missouri, local and state polities
now have little or no apparent effed
on the course of civil rights and school
desegregation issues. There is very
little political oratory on these subjects
since all politicians of -standing profess
devotion to equal rights for all.
This is not to say that conditions arc
perfect in Missouri from the minority
standpoint. At state and municipal
level, success in obtaining passage of
anti-discrimination laws has beer
slow in coming but the issue does do*
loom large.
North Carolina
'JpHE race issue—specifically, what t®
do about North Carolina’s program
of limited desegregation in pubb c
schools—was a frequent and primer-
point of debate in this state’s recefl*
Democratic election in which moderate
Terry Sanford was nominated for
emor.
The loser, former Wake Forest la'*
professor I. Beverly Lake, defended th g
(See POLITICS, Page 15)