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PAGE 12—JANUARY 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS ARKANSAS Faubus Offers Assistance to Davis; Court Kills Teachers Affidavit Law LITTLE ROCK, Ark. G ov. Orval E. Faubus of Ar kansas offered his assistance to Gov. Jimmie Davis of Louisi ana in the New Orleans school situation, but apparently nothing came of the offer. (See “Political Activity.”) Act 10 of 1958, requiring all Arkansas teachers to file an affidavit listing all their memerships and contributions to organizations, as a condition of em ployment, was ruled unconstitutional by the U. S. Supreme Court. (See “Legal Action.”) In a hearing on the validity of four other Arkansas statutes, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gave testimony that its membership in Arkansas had fallen from 2,020 in 1956 to 884 in October 1960. (See “Legal Action.”) Five members of the Little Rock School Board, accused by a minister of using “cold war tactics” toward the Negro students in former all-white high schools, disputed that criticism and called it a “harsh disservice” to the board that reopened the chools. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Gov. Orval E. Faubus disclosed Dec. 9 that he had offered help in any way to Gov. Jimmie Davis of Louisiana in the New Orleans school situation. The offer was made some time before that date but there was no indication tKat Gov. Davis ever made use of it. The disclosure was made in the question- and-answer column of the weekly Little Rock paper Faubus bought re cently, as follows: “Q. We all remember very well how much the people of Louisiana helped us when we were having our difficult ies with the federal government. I have not noted in the news whether or not you have offered any assistance to Gov. Davis. “A. Some time ago I sent a wire to Gov. Davis, as follows: ‘I have noted with concern the difficulties in your state in the schools of New Orleans. This message is to express my moral support in your efforts to retain for the people of your state the freedoms guaranteed to them under the Consti tution. I also wish to offer my assist ance in any way that it might be used in this struggle to retain the freedoms for the people of Louisiana and Arkan sas and all other states to which the people are entitled.’ ” Scores Judiciary Faubus also referred to the “dicta torship” of the federal judiciary in a written statement issued Dec. 1. The text follows: “The ruling of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the Dallas, Tex., school controversy, and the ruling of the three-judge court in the New Orleans school controversy make it clear that a judicial dictatorship has been set up and is being imposed upon the people who are affected in the various areas. “There may be those who think this is a solution to the problem, but ty ranny imposed by any government or by whatever branch of the federal government will be no solution to these problems in America. “Naturally, the struggle will con tinue, because freedom-loving people will not submit to such tyrannical methods as a solution to any problem without a struggle.” ★ ★ ★ Gov. Faubus and the eight Demo cratic electors elected in Arkansas stayed clear of the Southern independ ent elector movement, despite its ad vocacy by State Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson. Faubus had confirmed to reporters that William M. Rainach, a top Louisi ana segregationist leader, had called on him to talk in general terms about the New Orleans situation and the independent elector plan. Johnson said Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana were ready to join with Mis sissippi to determine who would be the next president, and that this left Faubus holding the balance of power. But Faubus ignored a meeting of the independent electors in Jackson, Miss. The Arkansas electors, not legally bound but publicly pledged to the Democratic nominees, voted Demo cratic on schedule Dec. 19. ★ ★ ★ Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-Ark) was seriously considered by President elect John F. Kennedy for secretary of State, according to political reporters, but didn’t get it chiefly because he signed the Southern Manifesto of 1956 and because he stood silent during the Little Rock school crisis in his home state. ★ ★ ★ In the final official returns from the Nov. 8 general election, the Na tional States Rights Party got 28,952 votes in Arkansas to 215,049 for the Democrats and 184,508 for the Repub licans. The final count on proposed Amendment 52 (school closing) was 307,251 against, 100,145 for. Through Nov. 30, the National States Rights Party’s national total was 214,159. Gov. Faubus was the party’s nominee for president. The United States Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision Dec. 12 struck down Act 10 of 1958, which required all Arkansas teachers to list annually all the organizations to which they had belonged or contributed in the previous five years. For refusing to sign an Act 10 affi davit, two of the three plaintiffs had lost their Arkansas jobs. The act had been upheld earlier by the State Supreme Court and by a three-judge federal court, but the Su preme Court said, “The statute’s com prehensive interference with associa- tional freedom goes far beyond what might, be justified in the exercise of the state’s legitimate inquiry into the fitness and competence of its teachers.” Special Session Act 10 came out of the special legis lative session in August, 1958, which dealt solely with the school desegrega tion situation. Its purpose was to find out which school employes were mem bers of the NAACP or any other organ ization that was promoting compliance with the 1954 desegregation decision, though that purpose was not stated in the law. All the law said was that a school employe had to sign such an affidavit before he could get a job. The Capital Citizens Council had an nounced its intention of using the affi davits to find out which teachers had “liberal” associations and to try to get rid of them. So far as is known, how ever, no school district ever made public its affidavits. In the majority opinion written by Justice Potter Stewart, the Supreme Court said there was no doubt that a state had the right to investigate the fitness of its teachers, but that “to compel a teacher to disclose his every associational tie is to impair that teach er’s right of free association, a right closely allied to freedom of speech and a right which, like free speech, lies at the foundation of a free society.” Teacher ‘Pressure’ Cited Noting that the law did not require that the information be kept confi dential, the court said, “Even if there were no disclosure to the general pub lic, the pressure upon a teacher to avoid any ties which might displease those who control his professional des tiny would be constant and heavy.” The court also criticized the unlimited scope of the law. In a dissenting opinion, Justice John M. Harlan said there was no issue of racial dicrimination since the law ap plied to all teachers alike and there had been no showing that it had been applied discriminatorily. In another dissent, Justice Felix Frankfurter said he did not think Act 10 went beyond the range of state ac tion limited by the 14th Amendment, though he could see how the law could beused in such a way as to make it unconstitutional. Ruling in Two Cases The ruling was made in two cases that had been combined on appeal. In one, the plaintiff was B. T. Shelton, Little Rock Negro teacher, who refused to sign an affidavit when they were first used in September 1959 and has been unemployed since then. In the other the plaintiffs were Max Carr, former associate professor of music at the University of Arkansas, and Emet T. Gephardt, teacher of printing at Little Rock Central High. Carr refused to sign, left Arkansas and took a job at Wilmington (Ohio) Col lege. Gephardt signed under protest and kept his job. ★ ★ ★ Arkansas members in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have been declining since 1956 and the NAACP lays most of the blame on the Bennett ordinances and four state laws sponsored by At torney General Bruce Bennett through the 1958 special session, Acts 12, 13, 14 and 16. The membership figures were given during a hearing Nov. 29 before Judge Murray O. Reed in Chancery Court at Little Rock. The NAACP is suing to have the four laws declared invalid; the Bennett ordinances already have been thrown out. Clarence Laws of Dallas, regional field secretary for the NAACP, gave the following statewide membership figures: 2,020 in 1956, 1,355 in 1957, 1,444 in 1958, 1,179 in 1959 and 884 on Oct. 31, 1960. Mrs. L. C. Bates of Little Rock, state president; Mrs. Birdie Williams, presi dent of the North Little Rock Branch, and Rev. J. C. Crenchaw, president of the Little Rock Branch, all testified about their problems in soliciting both members and money since the four laws were enacted. Not Enforced No attempt has been made to enforce the laws, but the NAACP argued their mere existence was a threat to that organization. Both sides have several weeks in which to submit legal briefs before there will be a decision by Judge Reed. The laws under attack are: Act 12, allowing a county judge to require certain organizations to furnish lists of members and contributors; Act 13, allowing the attorney general, with a court order, to search the premises of certain organizations; Act 14, prohibit ing certain acts, including “unnecessary litigation,” affecting the administration of the schools; and Act 16, making a crime of certain acts considered as inducements to another person to file a lawsuit. ★ ★ ★ Negro plaintiffs in the Dollarway School District desegregation suit (Dave v. Parham) filed an objection Nov. 29 to the board’s revised plan of desegregation. District Judge J. Smith Henley called a hearing on the new plan for late December. The revised plan, virtually identical to the original plan under which one Negro girl was admittd to the first grade of the white school, “does not contain any objective and affirmative steps” toward ending unconstitutional segregation, the plaintiffs said. They said the plan places the burden of getting rid of segregation on the Negro families but that it was the board’s duty, not the Negro’s, to get rid of it. At the conclusion of a hearing on Dec. 20, Judge Henley said the new proposal wasn’t sufficiently different from the old one to comply with the “degree of objectivity” required by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He told the Dollarway attorneys to “beef up” their revised desegregation plan. “I want the board to have a plan that will last through a few rounds of liti gation,” the judge said. “I don’t want to have a new plan every week or month.” ★ ★ ★ The Pulaski County Grand Jury spent the day Dec. 13 hearing witnesses about the attempt to dynamite a build ing at Philander Smith College for Negroes at Little Rock, then adjourned subject to call without issuing any indictments. The suspects are three white men, Emmet E. Miller, 44, and Robert L. Parks, 38, of West Memphis, and Hugh Lynn Adams, 33, of Bassett. Miller and Parks were arrested by the FBI in the street beside the building early in the morning July 12 and the agents seized the bomb device, made up of dynamite sticks, a fuse and a candle, designed to explode several hours later. Later the government dismissed its charges, apparently for lack of evi dence on the point of interstate trans portation of the dynamite, and turned BOMBING SUSPECTS AWAITING GRAND JURY CALL 1 Robert Lloyd Parks, Emmett E. Miller, Hugh Lynn Adams ] the cases over to Prosecuting Attorney J. Frank Holt at Little Rock. SCHOOL BOARDS AND SCHOOLMEN Everett Tucker Jr., president of the Little Rock school board, accused the Rev. Colbert S. Cartwright of doing a “harsh disservice” to the five members of the board. The minister had charged them with using “cold war tactics” to ward the Negro students in two form erly all-white schools. Tucker denied the charge. The other four board members agreed with his statement, and two of them suggested that Cartwright should run for a place on the board if he didn’t like the way they were operating the schools. Cartwright had delivered his crit icism (SSN, Dec. 1960) in a speech to an interracial meeting sponsored by the Quakers. He criticized Little Rock leadership in general and five mem bers of the school board in particular for what he called blindness to the moral issues in the racial situation and for “flagrant violations of ordinary de mands of simple justice and human decency.” He excluded Ted Lamb, sixth board member, as not following that “path of deceit.” Cites Board’s Aim Tucker said that the aim of the board had been to resolve the legal and prac tical problems that had resulted in the closing of the Little Rock high schools during the 1958-59 school year. “It might be remembered by the board’s present critics,” he said, “that closed schools were a fairly effective bar to racial discrimination per se. To now accuse five of the board’s six members of moral weakness is in my opinion a harsh disservice to these men who have given so unstintingly of their time and talents in bringing the opening of the schools back to norm alcy from chaos which existed at the time this board assumed control. “I am reluctant to contradict a mem ber of the clergy, but I feel com pelled to refute statements attributed to Mr. Cartwright. . . . The board has never fostered a policy of isolating colored children nor has it failed to take whatever steps it deemed neces sary in discouraging any overt acts of hostility directed at them. “On the contrary, the board had several times taken affirmative action in disciplining violators of this kind and it will continue to do so in the future. “Without shirking its responsi bility in this field, I think it well un derstood that a school board cannot control people’s or children’s minds. It is my feeling that it is in this area of moral suasion that the parents and the pulpit have a greater burden than the school board.” Instructed Staffs J. H. Cottrell Jr., a board member, said the board had instructed the staffs of the two high schools to treat the white and Negro children exactly the same and that it had never given any instructions barring Negro students from any school activity. He said he had heard of no overt acts against the Negro students this year. Leonard S. Spitzer, principal of Hall High, said he had had no inci dents, and J. W. Matthews, Central High principal, said he had had “very few and all were minor.” As to whether the Negro students were isolated in the two high schools and not allowed to join extra-curricu lar activities, the fathers of two Negro students in Central High gave exactly opposite answers. One said that all of Cartwright’s crit icism was exactly right, the other said his son had no complaint whatsoever. Tacit Understanding The first father said it was just “generally understood” that Negro stu dents were not to take part in clubs, band, athletics, choruses, etc.; not that any board member had ever said they couldn’t. He said there “minor inci dents” such as throwing things, spit ting, name-calling and kicking. The second father said his son had not been excluded from anything, that he likes his teachers and that he act. ually had received some friendly tele. ' phone calls from white students. J < said he would have to disagree wit some of the criticisms made by Cat). ' wright. 1 * ★ ★ C The State Board of Education decide ' Dec. 12 to allow the Dollarway an: ’ Little Rock School Districts $7,500 eac: . toward the legal expense of carrying on their desegregation lawsuits. Dollarway had received $5,0693! ; previously so it will get $2,430.08, mat ing $7,500. Little Rock had asked fo 1 $25,469. | The money comes from $100,000 ap propriated by the 1959 legislature (4c ‘ 383) to help school districts defeat themselves in desegregation suits. Recommended by Committee t The decision to give the two district J $7,500 each was recommended by ; - committee of the board, which hac s studied the matter since the board’; f meeting a month earlier. One board member, W. D. McKay , of Magnolia, objected to giving any money to the two districts on the ground that it was setting a precedent ‘ and that there was the possibility that j many school districts might become ( involved in desegregation suits and ■ would rely on the state to pay then ( legal bills. j ★ ★ ★ As far as desegregation was con cerned, the Dec. 6 school elections h Arkansas were the quietest since 195" Not even Little Rock raised a fus this time though one of the old never- < give-up segregationists, Mrs. Margaret i Morrison, was running again. This time, her third school board race, she j opposed Russell H. Matson Jr. end ^ lost 3,838 to 908. Neither of them made a public campaign. ★ ★ ★ | One of the issues in a complex schoo. boundary dispute at Little Rock is the . federal court desegregation order ap- - plying to the Little Rock School Di 5 ’ trict. I The dispute comes from the fact tM several hundred school children on the west side of town live in an area tM ! has been annexed to the City of Lift Rock but not to the Little Rock Schoo- District. They still live in the Pulas® County (Rural) School District, wb*» financially is much poorer than Little Rock District. After months of haggling, the P al ents in that area brought the matter a head this fall with a petition ask 1 ™ for a special election on whether entire county district should be an nexed to and become a part of Little Rock District. The County , of Education (an administrative bod. not the board that operates the nm'- school district) has not acted on petition. Incumbents Opposed Then two of the leaders of the nexation plan, Meyer F. Marks and Charles W. Fowler, ran against incumbents on the rural board, ” ton G. Chandler and Paul H. Dixon Although there were many 0 ^ issues in the campaign, one that Ch^Vj ler and Dixon used was to say M ^ and Fowler favored annexation an raise the question of whether ann tion would make the Little Roc* ^ segregation order apply to the co district too. Chandler and Dixon won the elec* 1 by margins of 3 to 1. Ralph Creger, a Little Rocker! dispatcher, and his son, Carl a senior this year at Central High, h^ written a book, “This Is What Found,” to be published in J*®. - (Lyle Stuart, $1) on the Negro It is a brief history of the race up through the Little Rock ®cb (Continued on Next Page)