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PASE 14—APRIL 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA
Citizens’ Councils Get
Private School Charter
COLUMBIA, S.C.
r I ''he basis for establishing a
A system of private segregated
schools in South Carolina was
laid March 20 with the chartering
of the “Foundation for Indepen
dent Schools, Inc.”
Sponsors of the new agency, pat
terned after the Prince Edward School
Foundation of Prince Edward County,
Va., are members of the Coastal Caro
lina Citizens’ Council. One of the
incorporators, Thomas H. Carter of
Charleston, described the step as an
effort to provide “an overall umbrella
to give hope and protection” to those
who fear desegregation of the public
schools.
At this juncture, there are no plans
for the immediate establishment of any
private schools, but the groundwork
will be laid in the Charleston and
other Lowcountry areas where Citizens
Councils are backing the private school
plan. The foundation is termed “a non
political, nonprofit organization. Its pur
pose is to organize and operate a pri
vate school system in any or all counties
of the state of South Carolina.
In the Charleston region, preliminary
surveys already have been made to
determine the availability of church
buildings and other facilities which
could be used for private schools.
New Grouping
The Coastal Carolina Citizens’ Coun
cils is a new grouping of councils in
the southern portion of the state, in
cluding the First, Second, Ninth, and
14th judicial circuits, except for Aiken
County, which is on the western ex
tremity of the area.
This new combination of councils was
brought together, Carter said, because
of the common interests, geographic
proximity and greater awareness of the
possible need for providing school fa
cilities on the part of Citizens Councils
in that region of heavy Negro popu
lation.
★ ★ ★
Catholic Desegregation
Plan Stirs Discussion
Letters to the editor of various news
papers and informal discussions among
Roman Catholics during March re
flected opposition to the church’s
announced plans to desegregate its
parochial schools in the future.
The desegregation plan was disclosed
Feb. 19 in a pastoral letter read to
Catholic congregations in South Caro
lina and Georgia.
A mass meeting of Catholics was
called in Charleston for March 6 to
discuss the situation, but was called
off when considerable public attention
was attracted to the meeting and in
the light of a warning statement from
the Most Rev. Paul J. Hallinan, bishop
of the Diocese of Charleston. He said:
“Catholics who take part in meetings
called to oppose the teaching of the
church do so in contempt of the
church’s authority. Those few Catholics
who persist in acting against the
church’s teachings cannot expect that
their membership in the church will
indefinitely remain unchanged.”
In the meanwhile, Roman Catholics in
New Orleans have offered to provide
the South Carolina Catholics with in
formation “that should stop integra
tion.” The offer came from a Louisiana
organization called “Save Our Nation.”
★ ★ ★
School construction allocations total
ling $756,971 were approved March 9
by the State Educational Finance Com
mission. This agency, created in 1951
to administer South Carolina’s school
expansion and equalization program,
has approved a total of $295,333,808
for improvement of both white and
Negro facilities in less than 10 years.
★ ★ ★
Resolutions approving President
Kennedy’s program for federal aid to
education were adopted in March by
both the South Carolina Education As
sociation (white) and the Palmetto
Education Association (Negro) at their
separate conventions in Columbia. Gov.
Hollings, in an address to the white
teachers, warned against falling into
the trap of federal aid and opposed
the program.
S. C. Highlights
A private school charter, modeled
on the Prince Edward County, pat
tern, has been obtained by a group
representing Citizens’ Councils in
the southern area of South Caro
lina. The Foundation for Indepen
dent Schools, Inc., is not expected
to go into operation immediately,
but is a preparatory step.
The General Assembly was asked
to improve laws which now leave
room for absenteeism from school
since compulsory attendance laws
were repealed some six years ago.
Gov. Ernest F. Hollings has given
a clean bill of health, thus far, to
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
concerning the handling of civil
rights matters.
The president of the Rock Hill
branch of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People announced in March that at
least four Negro girls would seek
admission next fall to Winthrop Col
lege, the state school for white girls,
at Rock Hill.
Negro students, with an occasional
white youth, continued to stage anti
segregation demonstrations about
the state during March.
possibility of forced mixing in the
public schools.
On March 21, Rep. Grady C. Ballard
of Spartanburg introduced a bill calling
for restoration of the term “attendance
supervisor” instead of “visiting teacher”
for those persons charged with pro
moting school attendance.
★ ★ ★
The State Senate killed a proposal
which would have prevented magis
trates from imposing straight jail
sentences. The chairman of South
Carolina’s Special Segregation Com
mittee, Sen. L. Marion Gressette, op
posed the bill, saying: “There is a
good bit of unrest in certain areas
in this state today. I think 30 days in
jail would be more effective in this
regard than letting some outside
organization pay the fine.”
What They Say
Gov. Hollings Says
Attorney General
Makes No Threats
/^ov. Ernest F. Hollings, with
" * reference to telephone calls
and other personal conversations
had by Attorney General Robert
F. Kennedy with Southern offi
cials:
Legislative Action
Legislators Given
Plans to Improve
School Attendance
T'
a i
'WO RECOMMENDATIONS were
made to the General Assembly
during March in the interests of
improving school attendance on
the part of South Carolina young
sters.
Neither proposal was directly linked
with the segregation issue, but the
state’s compulsory attendance laws
were repealed in 1955 to forestall any
“At no time has the Attorney Gen
eral threatened or warned us, and no
time will he (concerning civil rights
matters) .... I think we’ve got a
very helpful attorney general, who is
trying to forestall civil rights suits and
discord .... He’s got a job to do and
I’ve got a job to do. We are not
meddling in each other’s affairs.”
★ ★ ★
Dr. Dewey M. Duckett, Negro mem
ber of the State Advisory Committee
to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission,
said in Greenville he thought the com
mittee was serving a useful purpose.
“Throwing the spotlight of publicity
on various communities where unfavor
able racial incidents have occurred will
prevent similar incidents in the future.
All of us want our communities to look
good.”
J. Arthur Brown of Charleston,
president of the South Carolina Con
ference of the NAACP, commenting on
a legislator’s charge that “outsiders”
have been responsible for racial demon
strations in the state:
“I feel that his statements are to
be considered as a gross insult to
Negroes of all ages in South Carolina.
Why do Negroes or their children need
OKLAHOMA
Negro Ministers Assail
College’s Race Policies
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
T wo Negro ministers protested
publicly against what they
termed racial segregation prac
tices at Oklahoma Christian Col
lege, located near Oklahoma City.
But a possible policy change allowing
admission of Negro students was due
for consideration by the college’s board
of trustees at a March 28 meeting.
Robert L. James, Oklahoma City,
and E. F. Watkins, Langston, both
ministers of Churches of Christ, said
the college has not admitted a Negro
since it opened in September, 1950.
They said Negro students have tried
to enter in the past two years but have
been refused.
James added that OCC faculty mem
bers and students have indicated they
favor admission of Negroes.
Dr. James O. Baird, OCC president,
said the school is a private institution
controlled by its own board of trustees.
A year ago the board appointed a com
mittee to study the school’s policy
regarding integration, Baird said, and
it was due to report at the March
meeeting. He added: “We have an
excellent board and I am sure it will
render a sound decision.”
Legislative Action
NAACP Campaigns
For Elimination of
All Race Reference
(See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 15)
T he state NAACP organization
launched a drive to erase all
mention of segregation or race
from the Oklahoma constitution
and statutes.
About 15 bills were prepared for
introduction in the house of represen
tatives. They also would add to the
constitution a strong statement against
segregation.
“As long as segregation laws are
still on the statute books, we feel the
state government is giving its official
stamp of approval to the shameful and
undemocratic system of second-class
NORTH CAROLINA
Durham Assignments Argued in Court
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
A ttorneys for 283 Negro Stu
dents in Durham City public
schools have contended in federal
court that, if race were not a
factor in assignments, 40 per cent
of Durham’s Negro senior and
junior high school students would
be assigned to desegregated
schools.
Their arguments were made in
Greensboro in Middle District Federal
Court before Judge Edwin M. Stanley,
who has had the case under advise
ment for several months.
The suits are in behalf of Warren H.
Wheeler, a student, and 165 other Ne
gro students, and C. C. Spaulding III,
a student, and 116 other Negro stu
dents, who had transfer requests re
jected by the Durham Board of Edu
cation in the fall of 1959 and 1960. At
the same time, the Durham board
granted some of the requested trans
fers and now has desegregated junior
and senior high schools.
Suits Consolidated
The suits were consolidated for trial
since the issues are the same—whether
North Carolina’s pupil assignment laws
were properly administered.
The attorneys contended:
• That Negro and white elementary
school children in Durham have been
assigned to schools on the basis of
school zones designated on two maps,
one for Negroes and one for whites.
• That the plaintiffs of high school
junior high school and elementary
school age live nearer to white schools
than to the Negro schools to which
they were assigned.
• That if other standards of zoning,
such as population, distance to schools
or others, were retained, but if race
were not considered, 40 per rent of the
Negro high and junior high students
N. C. Highlights
Final arguments have been heard
in a desegregation suit which grew
out of assignments by the Durham
City School Board in 1959 and 1960.
Duke University will admit Ne
groes to its graduate school for the
first time next fall.
The Orange County School Board
has denied requests for mid-year
transfers by Negro students to a
white school.
would be assigned to schools now en
tirely white. A very small number of
Negro students of elementary age
would also be assigned to white schools,
the attorneys contended.
They concluded: “It is clear that
plaintiffs were assigned to schools on
the basis of their race and were re
fused reassignment on the basis of
their race.”
★ ★ ★
In Hillsboro, the Orange Comity
Board of Education has refused to
transfer 19 Negro students to all-white
White Cross Elementary School.
The board received the requests early
in January and rejected them the first
time on February 6. Their action this
month was a reaffirmation of the de
nial, following a hearing before the
board.
★ ★ ★
without regard to race, creed or na
tional origin.”
Duke has no desegregation in its
undergraduate college, which is in
Durham.
The next largest church-related col
lege without desegregation, Wake
Forest with about 2,500 students in
Winston-Salem, has been urged in
recent faculty and student resolutions
to admit Negroes.
Other church-related colleges which
have limited desegregation include
Pfeiffer College at Misenheimer, Bel
mont Abbey College at Belmont, and
Southeastern Theological Seminary
(Baptist) at Wake Forest.
Publicly-supported institutions of
higher learning with desegregation in
clude the University of North Carolina,
North Carolina State College and the
Woman’s College of the University of
North Carolina.
★ ★ ★
Charlotte’s City Council has passed
a special ordinance as a means to con
trol pickets or demonstrators, prima
rily as a result of protests received
from downtown merchants during
demonstrations which have led to de
segregation of most major lunch
counters.
Duke University, the largest church-
affiliated college in North Carolina with
about 5,000 students, will admit Negro
students to graduate and professional
schools after Sept. 1 of this year.
The board of trustees said “qualified
applicants may be admitted to degree
programs in the graduate and profes
sional schools of the university
The more recent demonstrations,
which provided the impetus for the
ordinance, were aimed at segregated
theaters, which remain segregated.
The ordinance limits demonstrators
and picketing to sidewalks or city-
controlled right-of-way not used by
vehicles; limits the number of pickets
to 10 in a single city block; limits the
size of placards they may carry to two
feet by two feet with a wooden support
no longer than 40 inches and with a
blunt end, and provides that pickets
must march in single file no closer
than 15 feet apart except in passing.
Any person is prohibited from in
terfering with pickets. # # #
Oklahoma Highlights
i
id!
Two Negro ministers protested a
private college’s refusal to accept
Negro students, but the college was
believed ready to change its policy ^
The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored Peoph
launched a drive in the legislature
to remove all racial segregation
provisions from the statutes. A pro.
posal for uniform school district
transportation areas, correcting a
segregation-era system, was ap
proved by a legislative committee.
Oklahoma City’s superintendent
of schools conceded faculty de
segregation is proceeding slowly.
citizenship,” said Dr. E. C. Moon Jr,
state NAACP president.
The NAACP measure would repeal
among others, Article 13, Section 3, of
the constitution, establishing the separ
ate school system. It would substitute
for it the sentence: “Racial segregation
and discrimination are contrary to the
public policy of this state and are
therefore prohibited.”
Other measures would strike out
references to separate schools and uni
versities and repeal completely Artide
23, Section 11, which defines “white’
and “colored” races.
Since 1955, Oklahoma officials have
taken the position that constitutional
and statutory references to segregate)
schools were made null and void by
the U.S. Supreme Court decision and
cannot be enforced. A constitutional
amendment abolishing separate-school
financing was deemed the only step
necessary to put the state in com
pliance.
Four years ago the house education
committee began a move to clean dead
segregation provisions from the statutes
but dropped it to avoid reopening a
fight on a teacher salary bill.
r.
★ ★ ★
Approved by the education committee
in March was a bill to set uniform
school district transportation areas. It
would correct a situation existing since
the days of segregated schools.
Some separate school districts of no
more than 10 square miles were author
ized for transportation, while other
school districts had to contain at least
25 square miles before they werf
eligible.
When the schools desegregated, the
districts kept their same transportation
areas.
The new bill authorizes state aid f° r
tranportation for districts with more
than 15 square miles. Rep. Bill Shipki'
Nowata, education committee chair
man, estimated 200 districts would be
affected. The shuffle, including ne *
rates of payment, based on number o
students hauled, would cost the sta e
about $34,000 more a year, Shipley s* 1
What They Say
Biracial Facilities
Are Slow in Cominfi
D r. Melvin Barnes, Oklahon 1 -* 5
City school superintended
told an Oklahoma State Univ#
sity philosophy class desegreg®
tion of Negro and white teach er_
in Oklahoma is not moving - .
fast “from the standpoint 0
numbers.”
ver)
upi° r
Two senior high schools, a \ 0 gi>
high and 10 grade schools in Okla® ^
City now are desegregated, Barnes
But the closest his system has
to faculty desegregation was the ass^
ment last year of two Negro t eaC
—one for playground supervision g
the other in special education---
white staff at a predominantly
school. t j,as
Since then the student body ^
become all-Negro and a Negro f a
has been assigned there. < er s
Statewide, some 370 Negro tea
have lost their jobs because of des
gation and only a few have be®
tained to instruct in biracial sen
vvT
itb
“What we’re after is a society, p r
free opportunities for everyone- j 0 t
Barnes told the OSU group. u . n8 l
is to provide the best educ a ^ f
advantages for every child. *
1