Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12—SEPTEMBER I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Senate Kills Republican Civil Rights Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C.
T he Senate, reconvened for a
special late-summer session,
moved quickly Aug. 9 to kill a
Republican civil rights bill, which
would have included a provision
for federal aid to communities de
segregating their public schools.
The possibility was raised of
another civil rights legislation at
tempt in the waning days of the
session, but it appeared unlikely
such an effort would succeed.
(See “National Affairs.”)
A number of southern Demo
cratic leaders rallied to the presi
dential ticket headed by Sen.
John F. Kennedy (D-Mass). Vice
President Richard M. Nixon car
ried his campaign for the presi
dency into the South, but re
affirmed his “strong convictions”
on civil rights. (See “National
Affairs.”)
An action by the Senate District
Committee, a ruling by the District
corporation counsel and a decision by
the superintendent of schools figured in
the continuing controversy over non
resident tuition charges in the District
school system. Rep. Joel Broyhill (R-
Va) has complained that large num
bers of Negro pupils not entitled to
free District schooling are being edu
cated here at the taxpayers’ expense.
(See “District Schools.”)
School Supt. Carl F. Hansen report
ed that a “three track” of grouping
elementary pupils by ability level has
proved successful in its first year of
operation. (See “District Schools.”)
their civil rights promises until they rights into the state of Mississippi for
VOTE TO TABLE
_ Hoth Kennedy and his vice presiden
tial running mate, the majority leader,
Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex), voted to
table.
Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) served
notice Aug. 12 that another civil rights
measure might be placed before the
Senate any time before the end of the
session. It was regarded unlikely, how
ever, that any such legislation would
pass in this Congress.
Clarence Mitchell, director of the
Washington bureau of the National
Assn, for the Advancement of Colored
People, said Aug. 21 that the Demo
crats would be unable to deliver on
change the committee structure in Con
gress.
NIXON IN SOUTH
Vice President Nixon took his cam
paign into the South Aug. 17, when he
went to Greensboro, N.C., and Aug. 26,
when he spoke at Birmingham, Ala.,
and Atlanta, Ga.
He told his Greensboro audience that
on civil rights questions, “everyone is
aware of my strong convictions. My
position in the South is the same as
my position in the North and West.”
Nixon said the Republican platform
was “more responsible and honest” on
civil rights than the Democrats’. He
praised North Carolina for its steps to
desegregate public schools, insure Ne
groes’ voting rights and open job op
portunities to Negroes, and voiced sup
port for the objectives of the lunch
counter sit-in movement.
Nixon said he found his chances to
carry several southern states “surpris
ingly encouraging.”
the first time. The agency announced
plans to check records in Bolivar and
Leflore counties in the Delta section,
and Forrest County in south Missis
sippi.
For years children living here with
persons other than their parents were
allowed to attend
DISTRICT SCHOOLS
BROYHILL
PLEDGE SUPPORT
Mississippi Sens. James O. Eastland
and John C. Stennis pledged their sup
port to Kennedy Aug. 18 and urged
voters in their state to ignore a list of
independent electors. Their action re
duced to four the number of southern
senators who have not endorsed the
party’s national ticket—Richard B. Rus
sell and Herman Talmadge of Georgia,
Harry F. Byrd of Virginia and Strom
Thurmond of South Carolina.
Gov. Luther Hodges of North Caro
lina was appointed to head a national
committee of business and professional
men for Kennedy and Johnson. Ken
nedy said he expects to speak in North
Carolina in September.
Gov. Ernest Vandiver of Georgia and
former Gov. J. P. Coleman of Missis
sippi both came out for the Kennedy-
Johnson ticket Aug. 22, but Mississip
pi’s present governor, Ross Barnett,
said he would stick by his support of
an independent-electors plan.
The Senate District Committee ap
proved on Aug. 17 a softened version
of a bill sponsored by Rep. Joel T.
Broyhill (R-Va) to increase collection
of tuition payments from non-resident
students in District schools. The bill
passed the Senate on Aug. 26 and the
House was expected to accept this
version.
In the original version passed by the
House, the bill would require any child
attending a District school to pay tui
tion and textbook costs unless the child
was living in the city with at least
one parent or legal guardian.
The Senate Committee, however,
amended the legislation to give the
Board of Education discretion to waive
tuition payments in hardship cases.
school free if it
was established
that school at
tendance was not
the main reason
for their District
residence.
About two years
ago, however,
Broyhill, a mem
ber of the District
Committee, began
criticizing the
school system for what he called lax
enforcement of tuition requirements.
Broyhill said large numbers of Negro
children were being sent to Washing
ton from the South to live with friends
or relatives and obtain an education at
District taxpayers’ expenses.
School officials opposed Broyhill’s
bill to tighten tuition requirements,
but acted on their own to institute a
more stringent policy. Recently tuition
has been required of children whose
residence in the District appears to be
a matter of convenience rather than
necessity.
LIBERAL INTERPRETATION
The Senate committee’s action came
a week after District Corporation Coun
sel Chester H. Gray released a legal
opinion that pointed to a more liberal
interpretation of present tuition re
quirements.
Gray ruled that children who live in
Washington with a person standing “in
loco parentis”—that is, exercising care,
custody and control over them—may
be exempted from tuition charges even
though their parents maintain a home
outside the District.
SOUGHT OPINION
School Supt. Carl F. Hansen had
sought the corporation counsel’s opin
ion in the case of two high school stu
dents who live here with their grand
mother though their parents maintain
a home in Virginia. Hansen felt that
residence in the District was “a matter
of family preference and not of need,”
and that the students should be charged
tuition.
But Gray found that the children are
in Washington “to solve a family prob
lem and not for the purpose of attend
ing the public schools of the District.”
Nonetheless, Hansen ruled Aug. 15
that the students are living in the Dis
trict by choice and must pay for the
privilege of attending public schools.
He said he preferred to reserve tuition
exemptions for children living in the
District because no other home j
available to them.
The corporation counsel’s ruli^
would have permitted a more liberj
interpretation, Hansen said, but did no
require it.
One year of “three-track” abilitj
grouping in District elementary school
has demonstrated that the system j
successful and should be continued
Hansen reported to the Board of Educa.
tion Aug. 16.
He said assignment of pupils to spe
cial classes for slow, average and rapt
learners “is functioning to the advaa.
tage of the children . . . while there re.
main areas in which improvement ca:
be obtained.”
Some board members had raise
questions about the elementary group
ing program and had suggested j
might be discontinued in the comiaj
school year, but such action seemet
unlikely in the wake of Hansen’s re
port. The next regular meeting of th
board is scheduled for Sept. 21—twi
weeks after the opening of school.
Hansen said it was his opinion tha
“if the local school system were no
now engaged in the development o:
special programs or the gifted and thi
academically slow, it would be com
pelled to begin such a program a
once.”
The track system was instituted it
elementary and junior high schools las
fall. A “four-track” program has beet
in effect in senior high schools for sev
eral years.
Reduction of the range of pupil abil
ity within classes has made for mors
effective teaching, Hansen told the
board, permitting teachers to instruct
large groups instead of singling out a
few pupils for attention while others
are neglected.
Reports submitted to him by ele
mentary school administrators “supply
convincing evidence that even in its
first year of operation, differentiated
curriculum planning is successful,’
Hansen said.
He cited gains in the slow “basic'
and the gifted “honors” tracks, as wet
as in the regular program, and said
procedures for identifying the ability
level of pupils have generally proved
satisfactory, though they deserve con
tinuing study. # # 1
NEW BATTLEGROUND
Acting amid charges and counter
charges of “politics” on the second day
of its summer session, the Senate voted
54 to 28 to kill a civil rights bill put
forward in the administration’s behalf
by the minority leader, Everett M.
Dirksen (R-IU).
The bill consisted of two provisions
that had been deleted from the civil
rights bill enacted earlier this year.
It would have:
• Given statutory authority to the
commission on non-discrimination in
government contracts, currently head
ed by Vice President Nixon.
• Provided federal financial and tech
nical aid to schools that voluntarily
comply with the Supreme Court’s 1954
desegregation decision.
block move
Northern and southern Democrats
joined forces to block Dirksen’s move.
Sen. Richard B. Russell (D-Ga) ac
cused Republicans of “purely political
by-play.” At the other end of the po
litical spectrum, Sen. Joseph S. Clark
(D-Pa) moved to table Dirksen’s bill.
Said Clark, who just weeks earlier
had fought for more sweeping civil
rights action: “Let’s stop playing poli
tics around here and get down to the
important business we came back for.”
Republicans said the bill would put
to the test pledges in the Democrats’
campaign platform. The vote to table
was along party lines, with 52 Demo
crats and two Republicans voting “Yes”
and 24 Republicans and four Democrats
voting “No.”
The two Republicans who lined up
with the Democrats were Sens. John J.
Williams (Del) and Milton R. Young
(ND). The four Democrats who voted
with Republicans against tabling were
Sens. Paul H. Douglas (Ill), Philip
Hart (Mich), Pat McNamara (Mich)
and Wayne Morse (Ore).
The bi-racial Southern Regional
Council, in a report issued Aug. 20,
said the Deep-SoutK would become the
new battleground for public school de
segregation. It said developments in
New Orleans would have a far-reach
ing effect.
“When desegregation breaches the
Deep South,” the council report stated,
“the myth of southern ability to defy
the law will have been fatally punc
tured; the consequences could be an
emotional release in the upper South
that would enable desegregation to
move without the lash of the law.
“If, on the other hand, the imminent
crisis in New Orleans is not overcome,
or even if New Orleans treads the bit
ter path of Little Rock between 1957-
59, the prospects will be gloomy for the
South and for national self-respect.”
The council saw dissatisfaction with
“the plodding gait of the law” as a
major cause of the revolt of Negro
youth in the lunch counter sit-in
movement.
WEST VIRGINIA
State’s Democrats, Republicans Adopt
Planks on Civil Rights, Desegregation
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
EXECUTIVES AGREE
Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers an
nounced Aug. 10 that a group of chain
stores executives had agreed to deseg
regate lunch counters in their outlets
in 69 southern communities.
“It is to be hoped that in the light
of this experience responsible leaders
in other communities will initiate sim
ilar programs,” Rogers said.
Rogers said he had been discussing
the lunch counter problems with chain
store representatives since June 1. He
noted that desegregation of eating
places in about 70 per cent of the 69
communities had been accomplished
without prior sit-in demonstrations.
APPROVED NOMINATION
The Senate Judiciary Committee ap
proved Aug. 22 the long-stalled nomi
nation of Harold R. Tyler Jr. as head
of the Justice Department’s civil rights
division. Sen. Eastland, the committee
chairman, and Sen. Kenneth B. Keat
ing (R-NY) said Tyler’s nomination
was approved by an undisclosed divid
ed vote. Tyler, whose nomination had
been pending since last January, has
been serving under a recess appoint
ment.
The Federal Civil Rights Commis
sion was restored to full strength Aug.
4 with the swearing-in of Robert S.
Rankin, a political science professor
from Durham, N.C.
The commission announced on the
same day that it would resume hear
ings in Louisiana Sept. 27 and 28 on
“dozens” of complaints by Negroes that
their voting rights have been denied
or taken away.
The U.S. Justice Department has ex
tended its investigation of Negro voting
T he Democratic and Republican
state parties, looking toward
support of minority groups in the
general election campaign, last
month adopted civil rights plans
that held out promise of expanded
school desegregation.
The Republicans met first, on
Aug. 6, and the Democrats Aug.
12. Civil rights was not an issue
at either party convention. The
planks were adopted without any
floor discussion or debate. (See
“Political Activity.”)
A new flare-up, reminiscent of
the racial strife that broke out
last year, occurred in Charleston
Aug. 13 following a football game.
A gang of 20 Negro boys attacked
a white boy. (See “Legal Ac
tion.”)
Negro picketing of Bluefield theaters
started again Aug. 16 after several
weeks of inactivity. Bluefield’s racially
segregated theaters have been picketed
off and on for several months by Blue-
field College Negro students. (See
“Miscellaneous.”)
In his proposal, the NAACP chief
suggested a plank to the effect that the
state “use its full powers, legal and
moral, to insure compliance with the
constitutional requirement that racial
segregation be ended in public educa
tion in every county and municipality
of West Virginia.”
A major fight over civil rights came
only during the planning stage for the
Democratic convention when the presi
dent of the West Virginia National
Assn, for the Advancement of Colored
People, the Rev. C. Anderson Davis,
asked platform committeemen to make
a strong presentation of their platform.
Davis, pastor of a Bluefield church,
told the committee that “we all recog
nize the fact that, even in our great
state of West Virginia, all citizens are
not afforded an equal opportunity in
employment, education, government
and in many other endeavors . . . be
cause of race, creed or color.”
FIVE SPECIFIC ITEMS
He asked for five specific items in
the plank. Along with a Fair Employ
ment Practices Commission and total
desegregation, he wanted a Civil Rights
Commission, attention to the cause of
sit-ins and support of the civil rights
objectives adopted at the Democratic
national convention.
The only time education came into
floor discussion at the two conventions
was when Cabell County delegates
tried to get platform endorsement for
elevating Marshall College to univer
sity status. Marshall is in Cabell Coun
ty at Huntington, and is the state’s
largest state-owned college.
At both conventions the proposal
was beaten down after some sharp floor
debate and parliamentary in-fighting.
West Virginia has only one univer
sity and there is no official sentiment
to authorize another. This attitude
grows out of three educational surveys
spanning more than a quarter century
and recommending that not until the
state adequately supports one univer
sity should it consider another one.
U.S. Rep. Arch A. Moore of Glen
Dale, First District congressman,
brought the racial issue squarely into
discussion at the Republican state con
vention in saying in his keynote speech:
“The people of West Virginia and the
rest of the nation may be justly proud
of our record in recent years, both in
the field of racial relations and reli
gious toleration. But in each case the
achievement should be attributed to
the fact that the citizens of our state
placed principle above political expe
diency in dealing with these matters.”
Charleston Aug. 13 by what he d
scribed as a group of about 20 Neg
boys. Similar such occurrances we
reported last year about the same tin
and arrests were made.
The youngster, Freddie Tipton, to
police that his attackers told him thi
were going to beat him “because y<
are white and we are colored.” Tipto
a resident of Ironton, Ohio, was
Charleston visiting his aunt.
Later, five Negro boys were hauli
into police headquarters and three we
held on felonious assault charges f
action of the next grand jury. Poll
investigation showed that 15 boys we
part of the roving gang but only thn
of them actually were believed to ha 1
beaten him.
OFFICIAL SKEPTICAL
The Charleston NAACP preside
Willard Brown, said after the incidf
was reported in the newspapers that
was “baffled and skeptical” about t
extent of the beating report. He s<
he and about a dozen other NAACP«
ficials had been “combing the city”
learn about the case. No arrests b
then been made.
“So far,” he said, “we haven’t foil
a single Negro in Charleston who ev
knows about the incident.
I don’t doubt that the boy was be:
en, but I’m inclined to doubt that
involved Negroes as was reported.”
A 16-year-old white boy was severe
ly beaten in the Laidley Field area of
Gov. Cecil Underwood has reappoi
ed State School Supt. R. Virgil R°'
bough as a member of the South'
Regional Education Board. Rohrboi
is a supporter of racial desegregat
in the public schools and colleges.
Other West Virginia members of 1
SREB, in addition to Gov. Underwc
(who also is chairman), are State S
Walter Holden of Salem, Joseph
Jeffords Jr. of Charleston and ^
Virginia University President Elvis
Stahr Jr.
Charles Saunders has been natf
superintendent of Summers Cout
(See WEST VIRGINIA, Page 13)