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PAGE 2—OCTOBER I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
LOUISIANA
Orleans Board Proceeds with Desegregation Planning
MTTW HDT a xto x . .
I
NEW ORLEANS, La.
F our members of the Orleans
Parish school board, facing de
mands that they be removed from
office, planned for desegregation
of New Orleans public schools un
der federal court order Nov. 14.
The state took no further steps to
intervene.
The fifth board member stump
ed the city declaring that schools
would not be desegregated. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
White enrollment in New Or
leans public schools dropped
sharply as schools opened Sept.
8. Officially, school authorities
blamed technical difficulties rath
er than the fact that first grades
are scheduled for desegregation
at the end of the first quarter of
the school year. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis, ending a long
period of silence, said he has no plans
to call the Legislature into session to
deal with the New Orleans school in
tegration issue. (See “Legislative Ac
tion.”)
Negro enrollment at Louisiana State
University’s New Orleans branch
dropped off despite an overall increase
in the number of students. The school
has been integrated for all of its three
years. (See “In the Colleges.”)
The Federal Civil Rights Commis
sion conducted hearings in New Or
leans Sept. 27 and 28, receiving testi
mony from 35 Negroes who charged
discrimination and intimidation, con
nected with their attempts to register
or vote in Louisiana. A storm of pro
tests arose from vote registrars who
wished to be heard in rebuttal. (See
“Legal Action.”)
not far apart in their predictions of
the degree of integration expected.
Louis G. Riecke, vice president of the
school board, said he expects fewer
than 100 applications from Negroes
wanting to attend previously all-white
schools with probably 12 to 25 of them
being admitted.
A. P. Tureaud, NAACP Louisiana
attorney, said he anticipates 65 to 70
applicants, with about half the number
finally admitted to previously white
first grades.
Both men cautioned that they were
forecasting and had no advance, con
crete information on the number of
applicants there will be.
aid in the event of court-ordered de
segregation.
ROOM FOR TRANSFER
School board members, including
President Lloyd J. Rittiner, have said
publicly they do not believe the use of
a pupil placement plan for assigning
students would be inconsistent with
Judge Wright’s order. The judge left
room in his order for transfer of stu
dents from one school to another pro
viding such transfers are not based on
Four of the five members of the Or
leans Parish school board, repeating
their declaration that they would
rather have integrated public schools
than no schools at all, prepared to re
ceive applications from Negroes after
Oct. 3 for admittance to previously all-
white schools Nov. 14.
The board is under an order from
Federal District Judge J. Skelley
Wright to desegregate the first grade
under a system where the child would
select the previously all-white or pre
viously all-Negro school nearest his
home.
The board members are advancing
a pupil placement plan for screening
the applicants but declare their final
plans for meeting the court order
would be formulated after the number
of applicants is determined.
Negro representatives have not pub
licly challenged the position of the
school board members who set out to
plan for desegregation after the U.S.
Supreme Court on Sept. 1 turned down
the last state plea aimed at blocking
desegregation.
But while the majority of the board
planned for the day of integration,
board member Emile A. Wagner Jr!
continued to declare that no desegre
gation will occur.
He has advocated in a steady stream
of speeches both in and out of New
Orleans that:
X) The Legislature take over control
of the public schools so that the fed
eral courts would have to enjoin the
Legislature and all of its 140 members
before implementing desegregation.
2) The school system be abolished
and replaced by private schools au
thorized by state law to receive public
DENY SCHOOL USE
The school board Sept. 26 ruled that
parent groups seeking to set up private
schools if public educational facilities
are closed because of integration could
no longer use public schools for their
meetings.
A ruling followed Wagner’s appear
ances at a number of the educational
cooperative meetings in which he made
a pitch for his candidacy as a States-
Rights elector.
“We have asked Mr. Wagner on sev
eral occasions not to engage in poli
tics, and he has continued his activi
ties,” said Rittiner, noting the school
board has rules against school build
ings being used for political meetings.
Rittiner said that the cooperative or
ganizations planning private schools
had become “involved in politics.”
SUPPORT WAGNER
The Citizens’ Council of Greater
New Orleans rose up in support of
Wagner’s position and began circulat
ing petitions to request Gov. Jimmie
H. Davis to address out of office the
four members of the school board
planning to obey the federal order to
desegregate.
The four took no action other than
to proceed with their program of de
segregation by pupil placement. The
Citizens Council said:
“The thinking of the four board
members is not in keeping with the
community and therefore they are not
serving a useful purpose.
“With the removal of these four men
the governor could appoint four per
sons in their place who would best
serve the interests of the community.”
The four whose removal is sought
are Rittiner, Riecke, Matthew Suther
land, and Theodore Shepard.
TAKE POTSHOTS
They all took potshots at Wagner,
who had:
JACK P. F. GREMILLION
‘Den Of Iniquity’
1) Outlined publicly the method for
addressing board members out of
office.
2) Declared that the four with whom
he disagrees had gone “begging on
their knees for crumbs” from Judge
Wright on the day they succeeded in
delaying school desegregation from
Sept. 8 to Nov. 14.
NOT FAR APART
In interviews with Southern School
News, representatives of the school
board and the National Assn, for the
Advancement of Colored People were
U.S. JUDGES RULE ON NEW ORLEANS SCHOOLS
Judges Herbert Christenberry, Richard Rives, T. Shelly Wright
3) Accused the four members of
meeting in private at Rittiner’s home
without notifying him that a meeting
was forthcoming.
General denials were made of Wag
ner’s claims.
SHARP DROP
Despite the fact that schools opened
as usual on a segregated basis, there
was a sharp drop-off in the number of
white students.
Registration in white public schools
was 37,490, as compared with 40,498
last September.
Negro schools registered 51,113 stu
dents as compared with 49,121 a year
ago.
The decrease in white school enroll
ment was small at the junior and se
nior high school levels but greater in
the elementary schools. The number of
white elementary pupils dropped from
24,426 to 21,816.
Total registration in public schools
amounted to 88,603. There were 89,619
pupils last September. Between 94,000
and 95,000 were expected this year.
SEEK PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Privately, school officials will con
cede a movement to private schools
and possibly to parochial schools be
cause of the integration crisis.
Technical changes in the method of
registration were also being blame /
Said Supt. James F. Redmond: jr
“Although some of the loss experjtr
enced by the white schools may
accounted for by the transfer to oth> q
schools, two additional factors are alj ,
causing many children to be withher* 1
from enrollment in any schools at th: a
time. 1st
“The first of these is the change j c£
state law which makes it mandator () j
that every child must present a birt
certificate upon initial entry into
school. f r
“Prior to this school year affidavit ^
were acceptable in lieu of a birth cer in
tificate. w
“In addition, superintendents t H
parish schools were authorized in th
past to permit children to enroll pend
ing receipt of a birth certificate.
('
1960 MEASURES
“Both of these changes were mad S
by the Legislature in the 1960 sessioi 1
“In addition, permits for transfer
from a school of the attendance dis
trict in which a child lives to an;
other school have not been issued thi® 1
tic
Ui
year.
“It is believed when this restrictioi
is lifted some changes will be made ii
the individual school enrollment fig
ures/
di
12
These are the figures announced b: ^
the school board for Orleans Parish
a
WHITE SCHOOLS ve
1960 1959 Decrease ac
Elementary 21,816 24,426 2,610 cr
Junior High 8,632 8,690 58 ■
Senior High 7,042 7,382 340
Total 37,490 40,498 3,008 0 f
NEGRO SCHOOLS le;
1960 1959 Increase gr
Elementary 37,230
Junior High 7,782
Senior High 6,101
35,797 1,433 th
7,306 476
6,018 83 p
Ul
Gov. Davis put a halt to claims that
he was ready to call the Legislature
into session to deal with the Orleans
Parish school desegregation issue.
“I don’t know anything about one,
period,” he said at a press conference,
the first in several weeks.
Despite this position, he continues to
maintain that the schools of Orleans
will not be integrated. In late August
he said he would disclose a plan
shortly for preventing integration. At
the end of September no plan had been
announced.
KEPT OUT
During the month he and other state
officials kept out of the public school
affairs in New Orleans.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 30
had upheld lower courts, which set
aside Davis’ seizure of the public
school system of New Orleans and re-
(See LOUISIANA, Page 3)
luting J„ 7L, Orfeans Cc
ade
Louisiana’s Segregation Laws Are Declared Unconstitutional
A special three-judge federal court at New Or
leans decided on Aug. 27 that Louisiana laws per
taining to school segregation were unconstitutional.
The decision in Bush v. Orleans Parish School
Board follows in part:
“These consolidated cases are before the court at
this time on application for a temporary injunction
restraining the governor of Louisiana, her attorney
general and other state officers as well as a state
court judge, the members of the Orleans Parish
School Board and its superintendent from enforc
ing, executing, or enacting under the authority of
a certain Louisiana state court injunctions as well
as under various statutes passed by her Legisla
ture. The basis for the application is the allegation
that the state court injunction, and the statutes,
directly or indirectly, require or promote segrega
tion of the races in the Orleans Parish public
schools in violation of the equal protection and due
process provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.
There is a further allegation that the state court
injunction is in the teeth of an injunction previ
ously issued by this court, sitting with one judge,
requiring the Orleans Parish School Board to be
gin desegregation of the public schools in Orleans
Parish in September, 1960. . . .
Sections I, II and IV of Act 496
“Sections I and II of the Act provide for separate
public schools for non-Negro and Negro children.
Under Section IV ‘the State of Louisiana reserves
to itself exclusively through its Legislature, the
right to institute or reclassify schools on a racially
integrated basis.’ It is Section IV on which the
state court relied for its injunction restraining the
Orleans Parish School Board from desegregating,
stating that this statute ‘satisfies the letter and
spirit of the requirements of the doctrine set forth
by the U. S. Supreme Court in the case of Brown v.
Board of Education . . because ‘the Legislature
can act with “all deliberate speed” to admit chil
dren to the public schools “on a racially non-dis-
criminatory basis” ’. Assuming the Legislature
would be so inclined, . . . the statute is still un
constitutional on its face because it gives the Leg
islature the right to decide whether a public school
shall be segregated or not, and the Brown case
teaches that no one has the right. ... ‘In short,
the constitutional rights of children not to be dis
criminated against in school admission on grounds
of race or color declared by this Court in the Brown
case can neither be nullified openly and directly
by state legislators or state executive or judicial
officers, nor nullified indirectly by them through
evasive schemes for segregation whether attempted
“ingeniously or ingenuously.”’ (Cooper v. Aaron.)
in his sovereign capacity, shall supersede such
school board . . . and shall take over . . . the ex
clusive control, management and administration of
the public schools . . . on a racially segregated
basis until . . . the Legislature shall classify or
reclassify schools to place into operation therein
a plan of racial integration.’ The governor, acting
under authority of this statute, has taken over
the control of the public schools in New Orleans
and, in compliance with the statute, has issued
orders to his administrator, the defendant James
F. Redmond, superintendent of the Orleans Parish
public schools, to operate them on a segregated
basis. This statute is also unconstitutional on its
face. It specifically provides that the governor shall
operate the schools on a segregated basis. And, as
above stated, not even the governor can do this.
He, like the state Legislature and the state judicial
officers, is bound by the command of Brown. . . .
Section V of Act 496 of 1960
“Section V provides that where a school board
is under court order to desegregate, ‘the governor,
Acts 495 and 542 of 1960 and
Act 256 of 1958
“Act 256 of 1958 gives the governor the right to
close any school in the state ordered to integrate.
Act 495 of 1960 gives the governor the right to
close all the schools in the state if one is integrated.
And Act 542 of 1960 gives the governor the right to
close any school threatened with violence or dis
order. All these acts have as their sole purpos
continued segregation in the public schools. The:
are but additional weapons in the arsenal of th
state for use in the fight on integration. Although
the right of the governor to close schools unde
Act 542 of 1960 is not in terms predicated on the*
integration, the purpose of the act is so clear tha
its purpose speaks louder than its words. . . . Th:
act may be more sophisticated than Act 495 of 1$
and Act 256 of 1958, but it is no less unconstitu
tional. . . .
Act 333 of 1960, Act 319 of 1956
and Act 555 of 1954
These acts specifically provide for segregate
of the races in the public schools and withhol
under penalty of criminal sanctions, free scho<
books, supplies, lunch and all state funds fro 1
integrated schools. They are, of course, unconsfi
tutional on their face. .
“Various other statutes, passed by the Legist
ture of Louisiana and dealing with the subj g£
generally, are alleged by the plaintiffs to be un
constitutional. Since these statutes are unrelato
to this litigation, we neither consider these alk
gations nor intimate opinion. Ruling was reverse 1
on \ anous motions made by the defendants du r
ing the course of the hearing. This opinion dispo^
of those motions. ’ # # '