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PAGE |&—APRIL 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
GEORGIA
r
Negroes Boycott Chatham County
MACON, Ga.
he possibility of a total boy
cott of Chatham County Ne
gro schools loomed over the
dismissal of a popular Negro
principal.
W.W. Law of Savannah, state presi
dent of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
said parents may be asked to keep the
14,500 Negro students in the Chatham
system at home for a set period, pos
sibly one day, as a protest against the
firing of Principal Alflorence Cheatham
of Johnson School at Thunderbolt, a
suburb of Savannah.
The school board office was picketed
and 1,300 sudents at Johnson, as well
as hundreds at Beach and Tompkins,
two other Negro schools, refused to
attend classes for four days as a result
of the action.
Cheatham, 33, who has a master’s
degree from Harvard, had been in
Savannah and principal of Johnson
School for three years. He resigned
in October, 1959—and says he has for
gotten why—but was reinstated.
Leaves Immediately
Recently, when Cheatham was noti
fied his contract would not be renewed
after this term, he asked to leave
immediately instead of finishing out
the year. The white superintendent of
schools, Leon McCormac, accepted the
resignation and immediately replaced
Cheatham with a Negro named Arthur
Dwight. Cheatham now says he would
return to Johnson if reinstated.
Negro leaders say Cheatham antag
onized the board of education by being
a member of the NAACP, working in
a Negro voter registration drive and
insisting on the board’s upholding the
rights of Johnson and its teachers.
Supt. McCormac, who names the
principals in the system, said neither
Cheatham’s affiliations nor the sugges
tions he made on behalf of the school
or its teachers had anything to do
with the decision not to rehire the
Johnson principal. McCormac would
not say what the reasons for the
decision were, but he did say that the
principal had written him an insulting
letter. Cheatham said the letter was
written in anger.
No Negro pupils showed up at
Johnson School on March 21 and 22.
Some came back for classes on March
23 and 24, but 25 pickets strolled the
grounds. They carried signs urging
reinstatement of Cheatham and asking
the new principal, Dwight, to leave.
Picket Board Office
On the previous Monday, March 22,
the school board office had been
picketed and 24 persons—one minister,
one mother and 22 students—were
arrested.
The boycott apparently did not have
the full backing of Savannah’s Negro
leadership. An organization of business
and professional men known as the
Hub opposed the boycott. One of the
Hub’s leaders is the Rev. O. W. Holmes,
an uncle of Hamilton Holmes, one of
two Negro students now attending the
University of Georgia.
Some of the Hub’s members are
officers or members of the NAACP
chapter in Savannah; but generally the
Hub organization believes in negotia
tion and gradualism, while the NAACP
chapter, having initiated sit-ins and
economic boycotts, is more action-
minded.
Board of Education President Edward
J. Bartlett declined to comment on the
controversy or to say whether the
compulsory school attendance law
would be enforced. Savannah Mayor
Malcom Maclean refused to comment
other than to issue a call for law and
order and a return to school.
Negro leaders said the school boy
cott had nothing to do with the St.
Patrick’s Day disorders in Savannah in
which 150 Negroes staged a sidewalk
parade in competition with the usual
parade, and in which 12 persons were
injured and 45 arrested after fist fights
with whites broke out.
★ ★ ★
The State Department of Education
announced that there were 299,199 Ne
gro pupils in Georgia schools, 32 per
cent of the total school enrollment in
the state.
The largest concentration of Negro
students was 48 per cent in the Sixth
Congressional District in Middle Geor
gia. The smallest was eight per cent
in the Ninth District in North Central
Georgia.
Negroes make up more than 50 per
cent of the school enrollment in 49 of
Georgia’s 159 counties. Five Georgia
counties—all in North Georgia—have
no Negro pupils.
The state report said that all Georgia
Georgia Highlights
Negro students boycotted a Savan
nah school over the dismissal of a
popular Negro principal. A threat
was voiced that the boycott would
be extended to cover all Negro
schools in Chatham County.
The Georgia legislature wound up
its 1961 session after passing Gov.
Vandiver’s “open schools” package
of recommended laws, and the gov
ernor congratulated the legislators
on their courage.
Negro coed Charlayne Hunter ate
at a student cafeteria on the Athens
campus after U.S. Judge William A.
Bootle issued a sweeping order open
ing all “facilities and opportunities”
to Miss Hunter and Hamilton
Holmes, the only other Negro at the
University of Georgia.
A Negro applied for admission to
Armstrong College, a state school
in Savannah, and another Negro
asked to be admitted to the Uni
versity of Georgia.
Negro leaders agreed to halt down
town sit-ins and boycotts in Atlanta
after white business leaders agreed
to end segregation at downtown
lunch counters as soon as the Atlanta
schools are desegregated next Sep
tember.
teachers of both races get equal pay
for equal qualifications and experience,
and said that of the state’s building
money for education, 54 per cent had
been put into Negro schools.
Legislative Action
Vandiver Commends
Legislators’ Action
On School Problems
N o General Assembly in this
century has been confronted
with such awesome responsibili
ties as those you met face to face
when you convened,” Gov. Ernest
Vandiver told the legislature,
whose members voted for an
“open schools” package of bills
recommended by the governor.
Gov. Vandiver appeared before the
House and Senate on the closing day of
this year’s session, mentioned legislation
which struck down Georgia’s school
segregation laws and congratulated
legislators for showing a “high degree
of courage” in solving problems.
The administration bills specifically
repealed: Act 82 of 1955, which forbade
state or locals funds for schools ex
pecting to desegregate; Act 11 of 1956,
which provided for the closing of
schools and extending of tuition grants;
Act 7 of 1959, which permitted the
governor to close a single school in a
system ordered desegregated; and Act
212 of 1959, which banned ad valorem
taxes for mixed schools.
Not Repealed
Acts 383 and 197 of 1956 apply to
segregation generally, not just school
segregation, and were not repealed.
Neither were Acts 12, 13, 14, 15, and
16 of 1956, which set up machinery for
disposing of property and dealt with
regulation of private schools.
The Office of Legislative Counsel,
however, said the separate but equal
provision of the Constitution of Geor
gia, as well as all other school segre
gation statutes not specifically repealed
are of no validity in view of direct
court rulings and implications in the
new laws recommended by Vandiver
and passed by the legislature.
Still Kept Busy
The legislature still kept busy on
the segregation-desegregation front,
passing some measures and killing
others.
The House voted 72-44 for formation
of a Georgia Sovereignty Commission,
but 103 votes were required for a
majority, and the bill authored by Rep.
John Sheffield of Brooks County was
31 votes shy.
Sheffield said the commission would
have decided what course was best on
school desegregation and then would
have proposed laws to be adopted.
Approval was given to a proposal
that a Senate Educational Rights Com
mission be set up. Members would
have the power to investigate any
incident of partiality shown to those
seeking to integrate any school or
college, or any incident that might
deprive opponents of integration of
their rights of free speech and peace
able assembly.
The committee will report to the
Senate, the state attorney general and
the solicitor general of the circuit con
cerned. Senator Dan Hart of Quitman,
chairman, said members of the com
mittee would visit North Carolina to
see how that state has handled its
desegregation problem.
A resolution asking the Boards of
Regents of the University System of
Georgia to bar the press from college
campuses during any future desegre
gation crisis died in the House Rules
Committee. The resolution, sponsored
by Rep. David Newton of Colquitt
County, said press coverage of the
University of Georgia desegregation
was in a large part “responsible for the
disorders which occurred.” Newton
said the bill was not designed to restrict
freedom of the press but to “preserve
order.”
The House killed a resolution urging
the Board of Regents to investigate
the University of Georgia faculty and
textbooks used on state campuses. Rep.
Chappelle Matthews of Clarke County
(Athens) said it was “one of the most
vicious things” he had ever seen and
would endanger the university’s ac
creditation.
A law setting up age limits for
public college applicants—21 years for
new applicants for undergraduate work
and 25 years for graduate studies—
was repealed (See “In the Colleges”).
The law, designed as a segregation
measure, was imposed two years ago
on Gov. Vandiver’s recommendation.
The House Education Committee
unanimously vetoed any repeal of
compulsory school attendance laws. A
Senate bill would have made school
attendance compulsory only in segre
gated school districts.
The Senate turned down an amend
ment to the recently-passed student
grant-in-aid law, which the author
of the amendment, Senator Erwin
Mitchell of Dalton, said would have set
up “safeguards and curbs” on when
grants would be available.
Legal Action
Court Opens School
Cafeteria and Pool
To Negro Students
TVining rooms at the University
of Georgia and all other facili
ties—the swimming pool in parti
cular—were ordered opened to
Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton
Holmes, two Negro students who
are the only ones of their race
attending the school with some
7,500 whites.
The ruling was given by U.S. Dis
trict Judge William A. Bootle after
Georgia Attorney General Eugene Cook
asked for clarification of the judge’s
earlier desegregation order.
Negro attorney Donald L. Hollowell
of Atlanta, representing the Negro stu
dents, had asked
that Miss ,Hunter
be permitted to
eat in a university
dining hall. He
explained that the
girl had an upset
stomach from ir-
regular eating
habits and that
Holmes, with ex
amination time
coming up, would
not always be able
to drive her in his car to meals off
campus.
Miss Hunter lives in a dormitory
suite with kitchen facilities, and Holmes
lives with a Negro family in a private
home in Athens. Both have used uni
versity library facilities, but few extra
curricular facilities.
After Hollowell made the request,
Cook asked the judge for clarification.
Hollowell then asked that the clarifi
cation cover all facilities, since it
appeared state officials were unable to
work those problems out without a
more sweeping order. Cook agreed.
Judge Bootle’s order opened all
“facilities and opportunities” to both
Miss Hunter and Holmes.
Miss Hunter and Holmes on March
20 completed registration without inci
dent for their second quarter of studies,
and that night the Negro girl ate her
dinner in a student cafeteria. There
were no incidents. Most of the students
had already finished their meals, but
the hundred or so still there paid
little attention. No university officials
or policemen escorted the Negro coed,
although several officials were seen in
side the cafeteria.
HOLLOWELL
School Over
Community Action
Businessmen Agree
To Desegregate
With Public Schools
D esegregation of Atlanta
schools in September will
signal a start to end segregation
in Atlanta downtown stores. Busi
ness leaders and Negro leaders,
who have been working for some
time to effect a satisfactory end
to the sit-in movement in Geor
gia’s capital, agreed that lunch
counter segregation would end
when school segregation ended.
Influential Negroes said they would
urge their followers to stop all sit-in
demonstrations, boycotts and picketing
at department stores, restaurants and
lunch counters.
Gov. Ernest Vandiver said Atlantans
and Georgians must exercise “restraint”
in facing changes which will take place
next fall, and repeated his often-made
plea for voluntary segregation.
Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield
congratulated “all sides . . . upon a fair
and statesmanlike approach to this
situation.” He said
settlement of the
sit-in dispute
“puts us all on
our mettle” to
prevent disorder.
He warned against
“outside interfer
ence” by “profes
sional rabble-
rouses,” saying
rumors had been
heard that they
intend to come
in from other parts of the South, but
they would be “dealt with most sternly.”
★ ★ ★
The Macon Council on Human Re
lations asked the city and county
government to re-examine laws and
attitudes on desegregation so that an
orderly transition in changing local
practices can be made without disturb
ing the traditional racial harmony of
the community.
Macon has had none of the sit-in
and other racial demonstrations which
have disturbed other cities. The school
system is segregated although a peti
tion requesting desegregation was filed
with the Bibb County Board of Edu
cation several years ago.
In response to a request by the Macon
Council on Human Relations that
immediate planning for a “new era”
in race relations begin, Dr. H. G.
Weaver, president of the board of edu
cation, said a special committee would
be named to take the request under
study and report back.
In the Colleges
Negro Marine Asks
To Attend Classes
At White College
A 26-year-old Negro applied
for admission to Armstrong
College in Savannah, a state-
supported white school in the
University System.
Cpl. Alfred Owens, who fives in
Savannah and is stationed at the near
by Parris Island Marine Corps recruit
depot, asked to enroll in the evening
school at Armstrong. He was the first
Negro to apply for admission to a
state-supported white college since two
Negroes were admitted to the Uni
versity of Georgia in Athens in
January.
Owens said he preferred to enroll
in Armstrong rather than in Savannah
State College, a Negro school, because:
(1) he likes the curriculum at Arm
strong better; (2) it would be more
convenient to walk to Armstrong from
his home than to drive several miles to
Savannah State.
Owens, who intends to study to pre
pare for entering the ministry, said
his application had never been dis
cussed with the Savannah NAACP
chapter, and he did not apply at Arm
strong for publicity.
Attorney General Cook notified Arm
strong officials that the school would
violate the state age-limit law if it
admitted Owens. The law bars graduate
students of more than 25 years of age
unless they could show they were
prevented from applying because of
military service.
The age-limit law was repealed by
the 1961 session of the General
sembly, but Gov. Vandiver had not
signed the measure.
A third Negro applied for ai
to the University of Georgia in At
She is Mary Frances Early, an At
music teacher who graduated froj]
same Atlanta school, Turner fn
as Charlayne Hunter and
Holmes, the university’s first two X
gro students.
Dean G. B. Huff of the grad®
school said the application was get®
routine processing.
:
What They Say
State Superintended
Puts Responsibility
On Local Officials
SI
N<
F:
0
A s the Georgia EducatJ p;
Association, a state organ®
tion of white teachers, opened:
annual convention in Atlant:
State School Supt. Claude Puree
said it was up to the superinte
dents of local school systems!
make Georgia’s new, open schot
laws work.
These laws passed at the 19t
session of the legislature, provided
local option
parents of cM:
ren in desegn
gated school:
Passed to mai
sure that tli
public schools ft
main open, Ik
laws give pares
a choice of sell
ing children
desegregated pub
lic schools or set
regated prival:
schools.
Dr. John Letson, superintendent a
Atlanta schools, told a civic club and
ence that tragic events in school if
segregation in other cities have pro
vided and object lesson for what ms
be avoided in Atlanta.
‘Accomplished With Dignity’
“The goal of all must be to accom
plish peacefully and with dignity wb
we are required to do,” said the sup«j
intendent. The school system has be®
ordered by a federal court to desegre
gate by May 1 but it is expected t
begin in September, 1961.
James V. Carmichael, a Georgia in
dustrialist and one-time gubematort
contender, commenting on a one bilk
dollar Air Force contract received -
Lockheed Aircraft Corp., which -
expected to provide 5,000 more jobs c
Georgia, said the federal govern®?'
never would have awarded the contra®
to a company with huge facilities '
Georgia if the recent legislature
not wiped segregation laws from
books. -
Scott Nixon, a Richmond C°^
(Augusta) political figure, said
country should proceed with the &
gration of Indians” before i° T p :
desegregation of Negroes on '' '
people of the South. #
Kentucky
(Continued from Page 6)
mentary School is named for the L°'
ville superintendent who died las* ■ ^
after planning and carrying ^
school-desegregation program °*
Carmichael was in the national
international spotlight after being
moned to the White House to be., j
ored personally by President
hower.
M iscellaneo us
Charlayne Hunter
Is Employed By
Louisville Times
/^harlayne A. Hunter, one &
^ two Negro students ^ '^re-
rolled this year at the d eS ^ |
gated University of
became the first of h e] " * ot
employed on the news s
The Louisville Times.
Miss Hunter, 19, will take a 1
ism interne position with p
newspaper this summer, manage ^
itor Norman E. Isaacs said. s*®.
She is a sophomore jo urn , 0 rt 1
dent at Georgia. She wifi v3C a<i f !
Louisville during the summer