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GEORGIA oOUTH-FRN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1961—PAGE 3 Court Ruling May Come On Registration Deadline MACON, Ga. J an. 9,1961, is an important date for Georgians concerned with segregation and desegregation is sues. U. S. District Judge William A. Bootle has said he will attempt to rule by that day on efforts of ‘ two Negro students to gain ad mission to the all-white Univer- c sity of Georgia. Jan. 9 is the last day that students can register for the university’s winter quarter (See “Legal Action.”) It is also the day on which the Gen eral Assembly of Georgia convenes. As the opening of the Legislature neared there was no indication as to whether members will do anything, and if so what, about segregation and desegrega- t tion laws (See “Legislative Action.”) January 9 Also Deadline For Winter Registration U. S. District Judge William A. Boo tle of the Middle Georgia District Court said at the conclusion of a four-and-a- half day hearing in Athens that he would try to rule by Jan. 9 on whether the University of Georgia discriminates against Negro student applicants and should be ordered to admit two who have been applying since July, 1959. Jan. 9 is the last day that students ; can register for the winter quarter at : the university- It is also the day that the General Assembly of Georgia con- i venes in Atlanta. Judge Bootle told attorneys he would j not promise to deliver his ruling on any date but he would attempt to make a decision in the case by Jan. 9. He asked opposing lawyers to file a series of briefs and suggested findings and orders by Jan. 4. The first question Judge Bootle must t decide is whether there has been dis crimination in the cases of the two ap plicants, Charlayne Hunter, 18, and Hamilton E. Holmes, 19, both Atlanta : Negroes, who brought the suit for an injunction and for damages. Should he j find there was discrimination against either or both, he then would have to determine when and how to order their admission, as well as the amount of damages, if any, to award them against the defendant, university Registrar waiter N. Danner. Ask $5,000 Damages The plaintiffs ask an injunction to Prevent discrimination against them , i*nd others of their class and $5,000 amages. They want to be admitted , 0r ™ e winter quarter, even though ; , th are now students at colleges hose semester systems conflict in time Uh Georgia’s quarter system. They a d sought admission last fall- udge Bootle said their transfer from e semester system to the quarter , S would involve some “economic s df the students lost credit for a 6 Present semester. But he stipulated ' tnark 6 WaS n0t in< di cat ing by his re- g r s that he was eliminating winter <L.? r enrollment a* Georgia from sideration. Enrollment for the win- quarter begins Jan. 3. the 6 ^ r ° attorney D. L. Hollowell said o rJ nl aintiffs ‘hd not wish to waive any -rtunity to be admitted in January. Worn!Tt r testified th at Miss Hunter 1 fjjj °e eligible for admission next suceef ,?° Ssibly “ the spring if she ^ar T A y com P let es her work this sity h Detroit ’ s Wayne State Univer- ‘ fight 6 Said Holmes was rejected out vie-, °?,,th e basis of a personal inter- standi th ° U S h the Negro had an out sell.] g scholastic record in both high 1 lanta u “1 Morehouse College, At- thrndd j re he enr °Ued after being Ge °rgia d ° Wn at tHe Universit y of Outlined Questions h°r, s ? e ®°otle outlined the main ques- ?ers • 6 panted covered by the law- they n their briefs, asking first tha c rirnin ■ wh ether there was racial dis- ^Plioat- 1011 h 1 the handling of the twc l hei r fj* 0ns with both sides “to pu they re j^f on the evidence on whicl htioty 'honally, the judge wanted t< °f H 0 , the pre-enrollment interview ants, p es , hy Danner and two assist- P hel ps au t R- Kea and Morris O iUs tifiAi VaS con Hucted in a proper anc Tesp 016 man ner. ' Vas ask n °, ny brou ght out that Holmes 11 'tetriot, w hether he took part in sit- thrtiej ^rations, went to inter-racial ° r knew‘sited houses of prostitution ' °t a red-Hght district in joint^ V * S h e d “tea houses” or beat- s - All of these questions he JUDGE WILLIAM T. BOOTLE Target Date: Jan. 9 answered in the negative. The inter viewers said he was untruthful because he said he had never been arrested and they had information he had gotten a ticket for speeding. Asked Again The judge also asked again about the contention of the Negroes that the ad ministrative remedy or appeal proced ure set up by the University System Board of Regents is inadequate to gain them fair consideration for the appli cations, and said he wanted to know whether they should be required again to follow this procedure before seeking court action. He asked especially in the case of Holmes, since he was rejected after his interview and Miss Hunter was told her interview was satisfactory, whether Holmes particularly needs to appeal his rejection through the normal admin istrative channels to the university president, chancellor of the University System and finally to the Board of Regents. Judge Bootle wanted to know what, if anything, now is lacking on Miss Hunter’s application and, if Holmes does not have to appeal again, what his status as an applicant is. Finally, he asked what the Negro ap plicants “think they are entitled to right now.” Mother Testified Mrs. Althea Hunter, mother of Char layne Hunter, testified that she had spent a total of $3,174.46 to send her daughter to Wayne State since Sep tember, 1959, including transportation back to Georgia for the interview for admission and for the trial. She said that, according to the University of Georgia’s catalogue, her daughter’s ex penses, including an estimated $50 for travel between Athens and Atlanta, would have amounted to $1,403.50 for the same period of time. Mrs. Hunter said she would have saved a difference of $1,770.96 by sending her daughter to Georgia. Asked about his ticket for speeding, Holmes said his parents paid a $20 fine for him without his going to court and that in August his driver’s license was suspended for 30 days by the State De partment of Public Safety on the basis of that offense. He said he wasn’t asked about traffic offenses and that he has never been arrested. Danner testified that he favors the admission of Negroes to the university “if they are qualified.” Others testifying in the case included Dr. O. C. Aderhold, president of the university; Dr. Harmon W. Caldwell, chancellor of the University System; William Tate, dean of men; John E. Drewry, dean of the School of Journa lism; Joseph Williams, dean of stu dents; Harold Callaway, a member of the Board of Regents; and Miss Grace Costa, housing secretary in the office of the dean of women. The case was handled for the de fendants by Attorney General Eugene Cook, Deputy Attorney General B. D. Murphy and Deputy Attorney General Freeman Leverett. Attorneys for the plaintiffs are Hollowell, Mrs. Constance B. Motley and Horace Ward. State Legislature Convenes On Day Court Decision Due The state Legislature convenes on the second Monday in January, the ninth, but no one can say for sure what, if anything, it will do about seg regation or desegregation laws. U. S. Judge Frank A. Hooper of At lanta has ordered desegregation in the public schools of Georgia’s capital on May 1, 1981. The judge has suggested that the Legislature adopt a pupil placement plan and a local option plan if closing of the public schools is to be headed off. State law now requires the cutting off of public funds to integrated schools. The Sibley School Study Commis sion, a Legislature-appointed body, which sampled public opinion on the issue over the state, has recommended the local option and pupil placement plans. John W. Letson, Atlanta city school superintendent, and Paul West, Fulton County school superintendent, said the Sibley commission recommendations offer the best solution available to Georgia’s school desegregation prob lems. Fulton Legislators Two Fulton County legislators, Rep. Ralph McClelland and Sen. Charlie Brown, said the 1961 Legislature wasn’t going to do anything about repealing existing school segregation laws but, if things get hot next spring, Gov. Ernest Vandiver likely would recall the body into special session in an effort to pass some sort of open-schools legislation. Gov. Vandiver said the forthcoming legislative session will present a his toric challenge to lawmakers, but he gave no hint of what action should be taken. Rep. A. A. Fowler of Douglasville said he will introduce “a package plan” for setting into motion a segregated private school plan approved by Georgians in a referendum six years ago. Rep. David Newton of Colquitt County said he would propose legisla tion to empower each *f the state’s 197 school boards to draw their own pupil placement regulations. Sen.-elect Howard Overby of Gaines ville, Senator floor leader in the Grif fin administration, said he was for pu pil placement and local option, and called for “positive, definite action” by the Legislature in January “to the end that public schools remain open.” ALLEN OVERBY Ivan Allen Jr., newly-elected presi dent of the Atlanta Chamber of Com merce, said, “Atlanta’s public schools must stay open and the chamber should provide its share of vigorous leader ship in seeing that they do.” Allen said the Atlanta organization would ask the General Assembly to enact legislation along the lines recom mended by the Sibley Commission. State Senator Carl Sanders com mented on the subject in several speeches over the state. In Augusta, he said the Legislature is willing to try anything, including interposition, but he doesn’t think that will be the ulti mate solution. In Dublin, Sanders said the Legislature will try to the very last to maintain the present segre gated system. Before the Tenth District Association of County Commissioners, Sanders said there may be some inte gration in some areas of Georgia if a federal court voids the state’s school segregation laws. Two former presidents of the Georgia Bar Association, Howell Hollis of Co- Mail’s Gift to the Christmas Season Atlanta Constitution lumbus and Newell Edenfield of At lanta, predicted the state will lose con trol of its schools unless segregation laws are changed before a final deseg regation order is entered for Atlanta. Edenfield said, “Whatever we should do, we should do it now, while we are still allowed some discretion as to what our actions will be.” Lt. Gov. Garland Byrd said he be lieves it will be at least two years be fore the question of school integration reaches the crisis point in Georgia be cause it can be litigated that long. Some observers believe administra tion leaders want to wait and see what happens after May 1, 1961, when Neg roes will apply for admission to At lanta’s schools the following September. It is thought that the Legislature would go into special session if some Negro applicants should actually gain admis sion to white schools. The Associated Press polled legisla tors and reported little indication that there will be any backing away from the massive segregation approach to the problem. A big Negro school in Atlanta was dynamited in the early hours of Dec. 12, and Mayor William B. Hartsfield said political demogogues and indif ferent civic leaders must assume major blame. A Negro student-adult liaison com mittee concerned with sit-ins in down town Atlanta stores asked the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the At lanta Merchants Association to help get lunch counters integrated. These groups refused and the Rev. William Holmes Borders, committee chairman, said the demonstrations may continue for many years. In Atlanta, evangelist Billy Graham was asked his views on Negro sit-in demonstrations and said that even un just laws must be obeyed unless they interfere with the free worship of God. Negro college students picketed a department store on one side of the street and white-robed hooded Klans- men marched on the other in down town Atlanta. Police Guarantee Silas Norman, leader of Negro sit-in demonstrators in Augusta, said his group will stage no further sit-ins un til police guarantee “adequate pro tection.” The Atlanta YWCA opened its public dining facilities to Negroes. The At lanta YMCA said Negroes would not be served. Lester Maddox, Atlanta businessman, said the “Georgians Unwilling to Sur render” organization would ask white Roommates Public SCMOOC OOTLOOK Atlanta Constitution ‘Mainly We Just Meet and Play with Matches’ Atlanta Journal employers to fire Negro employes if the sit-ins continued, and would ask whites to boycott white employers of Negroes. Ivan Allen Jr., who will take over presidency of the Atlanta Cham ber of Commerce in January, termed the proposals “ridiculous” and added he was speaking personally and not as a chamber official. The bi-racial Georgia Council of Churches urged the governor to do everything possible to keep the state’s public schools open and called on Christian churches to welcome all who come to worship without regard to race. C. C. Perkins, a member of the Car- roll County Board of Education, told a Klan rally in Atlanta that all public schools ordered to integrate should be closed. At the same meeting, James R. Venable, a Stone Mountain lawyer, said an answer to the school integration question would be to close or burn the schools. Robert Lee Davidson of Macon, im perial wizard of the U. S. Klans, said “if it takes buckshot to keep the black race” down, Klansmen will use it. The State Board of Education an nounced that 921,632 children are en rolled in Georgia public schools, ex cluding public kindergartens and pub lic higher education units. There are 626,377 whites and 295,255 Negroes enrolled for the 1960-61 term, an increase of 18,020 in the total for the same period last year. Officials said an increase in the total each month is ex pected. Educators also noted that 94 per cent of the increase is in high schools. The Southern Regional Council pub lished a report that said that “existing, traditional, Southern police attitudes and training are not likely to be ade quate for dealing impartially with the young generation of Negroes.” George McMillan, a South Carolina writer, made an analysis of police handling of racial violence in Chatta nooga, Montgomery and Little Rock for the council, a bi-racial organization, which favors integration. “The greatest danger to law and or der in the South,” the report said, “is a public official . . . trying to meet the new problems with old unassisted ideas.” Grand Dragon C. F. Craig of Atlanta told a reporter that the Ku Klux Klan is seeking public acceptance and sup port and wants to show it is not re sponsible for the many reprehensible acts attributed to it. The Klan set up stands beside all major highways lead ing into Atlanta and gave away free coffee and literature for four days in late November. In Eatonton, 22 Georgians accused of traffic violations in connection with a Ku Klux Klan parade were fined on charges of speeding. Three of the men were fined additionally on charges of using unauthorized sirens and signal lights. Judge W. W. Walker of the Putnam County Court said the Klan demon stration was a “despicable; cowardly and anonymous intimidation . . . frightening our citizens, particularly women and children, whether they be white, black, Jewish or Catholic.” WHAT THEY SAY ■ Oliver Hill, a Richmond, Va., Negro attorney, told the Atlanta chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity that profes sional men and women “need to come more to the front with their influence and financial aid in fighting the Ne gro battle for equal opportunities and equal justice and protection of the law.” Roy V. Harris, Augusta lawyer, said a large pro-segregation demonstration is planned in January when the Leg islature is in session. At the same meeting, Arkansas Congressman Dale Alford urged a strongly segregationist group, “Georgians Unwilling to Sur render” (GUTS), to join with con servative organizations throughout the nation to save states’ rights. (Continued on Next Page)