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V
PAGE 6—APRIL 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
Students Move Into New School
Fourth-graders from Old Morriss School enter building named for Louisville’s late
superintendent, Omer Carmichael.
KENTUCKY
Negro Leaders Say City
Resting On Its Laurels
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
D ay after day, just after school
hours, hundreds of Negro stu
dents and a sprinkling of whites
assembled by a chapel just west
of Louisville’s main business dis
trict.
They received instructions from adult
spokesmen and then, singing and ob
serving traffic signals, they marched
into the heart of the city.
Their aim: complete racial desegre
gation of all stores, restaurants, theaters
and other business establishments.
(Some were already serving Negroes.)
Negro leaders argued that Louisville
had won an international reputation for
race-relations progress when the public
schools were desegregated in 1956.
Since then, they contended, the city
had been content to rest on its laurels.
Varying Tactics
Tactics varied. Some days the demon
strators merely marched and sang and
carried placards. Sometimes they form
ed rotating circles attempting to buy
tickets at theater box offices. Again,
they would picket restaurants refusing
to serve Negroes.
Special targets were two central-
area cafeterias managed by L. Eugene
Johnson, a member of the Louisville
Board of Education. Johnson, who has
served as president of the school board,
which includes one Negro member,
claimed that desegregation would hurt
his cafeterias.
The downtown demonstrations were
halted for a time after Mayor Bruce
Hoblitzell formed an emergency com
mittee of civic leaders to negotiate both
with desegregation groups and with
businessmen.
More Time Sought
After 13 days the Mayor’s committee
reported considerable progress—two
additional store lunchrooms and two
theaters had reportedly agreed to ad
mit Negroes—and asked for more
time.
Negro leaders said the progress was
not enough, and the demonstrations
were resumed. Hundreds of students
and about a dozen adults were arrested.
Police said arrests were based on the
blocking of pedestrian traffic.
The students generally were charged
with delinquency and disorderly con
duct and paroled to their parents. The
adults, charged with disorderly con
duct, were released under cash bonds.
Along with the demonstrations went
a non-buying campaign by Negroes
designed to deflate the Easter-season
sales boom.
All this racial activity came after
Louisville Courier-Journal
Kentucky Highlights
Adult leaders of student demon
strations charged that Louisville has
failed to live up to the reputation
in race relations resulting from its
school desegregation program of
1956.
The largest all-Negro school in
the state was desegregated by the
admission of its first white student.
Louisville school officials opened
the new Omer Carmichael Elemen
tary School, named in honor of the
late superintendent who won na
tional prominence for the 1956
school desegregation.
Negro leaders had announced opposi
tion to the nomination for Mayor of
William S. Milbum, principal of the
desegregated Louisville Male High
School, by the Democratic Party or
ganization. (See Southern School
News, March, 1961.)
Schoolmen
State’s Largest
All Negro School
Gets White Pupil
S he’s showing our students
that the desegregation pro
gram works in both directions.
So said Atwood S. Wilson, principal
of Louisville’s Central High School, of
the first white student to enter his
school. Central, with an enrollment of
1,500 Negroes, was Kentucky’s largest
all-Negro school.
Wilson revealed that Birdie McHugh,
a white junior at the desegregated du-
Pont Manual High School, had trans
ferred voluntarily to Central in Jan
uary.
“She wants to pioneer in a new era,”
Wilson said. “She’s setting the pace for
other white students.”
Miss McHugh’s mother, Mrs. Gloria
Wenk, is a substitute teacher for the
Louisville public schools.
Expects To Graduate
Wilson said Miss McHugh has a
good record—A’s and B’s—and is a
member of Youth Speaks, a student-
discussion group. He said she hopes to
become Central’s first white graduate
next year.
Wilson, himself a graduate of the
predominantly Negro Fisk University
in Nashville, said Miss McHugh wants
to enter that school eventually and
that he hopes to help her qualify for a
scholarship.
The principal told Southern School
News that a few other white students
had applied for admission to Central
since Louisville schools desegregated
five years ago but had been rejected
“because we felt they would be prob
lems rather than assets.” He said the
applicants were primarily interested in
athletics.
Miss McHugh, he said, is getting
along fine. He is convinced that her
action in entering Central will work to
her advantage in the years ahead.
★ ★ ★
About 715 pupils, whites and Ne
groes, packed their school materials
and moved from two small, drab and
ancient buildings into one large new
building.
Their new Omer Carmichael Ele-
(See KENTUCKY, Page 16)
Gov. Patterson Would Reject j
U. S. Aid If ‘Strings’ Attached i
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
TAespite Alabama’s acute need
for new school funds, Gov.
John Patterson said March 9,
he would reject federal funds
authorized under the Kennedy
program “if there are strings
attached.”
Such grants would only be acceptable
in Alabama if “we could maintain full
power to operate our schools as we
see fit without
interference from
the federal gov
ernment,” Patter
son said.
“We cannot give
an inch on that,”
the governor ad
ded. “If we do,
it won’t be Jong
before the gov
ernment will be
telling us what to
teach, how to
teach and who can teach.”
Patterson, an early supporter of
Kennedy, has repeatedly pledged all-
out unyielding resistance to school
desegregation in any form or degree.
He would close the schools before per
mitting any breaks in the state’s tra
ditional pattern of school segregation,
he has said on many occasions.
Urges States Be ‘Cautious’
All states should be “very cautious”
of accepting federal school money, he
said, lest they find themselves in the
position of having to submit to federal
control or giving up the money after
it is budgeted: “We must not get our
selves extended to the point where we
would be absolutely subservient.”
If adequate guarantees of state con
trol were given, Patterson continued,
the federal funds would be a great
help to Alabama: “We have reached a
point where we can’t hardly (sic)
afford the school system that we need
and envision. Practically everybody
pays heavily in federal income taxes,
and we need to get back as much as
we can. This is one method.”
Budget Increase Sought
Education forces are seeking an in
crease of $65,000,000 in the state’s school
budget, plus another $40,000,000 for
construction. The 1959 legislature ap
proved a record school budget and
construction program but, because of
declining school tax collections, oper
ating funds to local districts are cur
rently prorated 9.4 per cent. Proration
has also been necessary in four previous
years.
Educators have warned of teacher
salary cuts if the situation is not cor
rected. But Gov. Patterson has said
on several occasions that the people
will not support any new school taxes
and he will not recommend any to the
legislature, which convenes in regular
biennial session in May.
Legal Action
Hearing Set April 10
On Move To Dismiss
Lawsuit In Mobile
T ] S. Distict Judge Daniel H.
• Thomas has set April 10
for a hearing in Mobile on a
defense motion to dismiss a suit
seeking to desegregate an all-
white male vocational school in
the city.
The suit was brought last August
by two Mobile Negroes, Ernest Leon
Koen and Frank E. Lee, against Direc
tor H. Clay Knight of the school, State
School Supt. Frank R. Stewart of
Montgomery and members of the State
Board of Education.
The motion for dismissal was filed
by Attorney General MacDonald Gal-
lion.
Koen and Lee sought to enroll in
the school in 1959 and again last year.
Knight said they were given information
forms which were forwarded to the
State Education Department. The State
office has had no comment on the
applications.
The state board operates six all-
white trade schools in the state and
one, near Birmingham, for Negroes.
Plans are being drawn for another
Alabama Highlights
Gov. John Patterson said he
would refuse to accept federal edu
cation funds under the Kennedy
program “if there are any strings
attached.” He added, however, that
the state has reached the point
where it can hardly afford the
school system it needs and that
federal assistance would be a great
help.
U.S. District Judge Daniel H.
Thomas of Mobile set a hearing for
April 10 on a suit demanding de
segregation of a white state trade
school at Mobile.
A suit was filed in the Mobile
District Court on behalf of a six-
year-old, Willie B. Reed of Mc
Intosh, contending that when he
attempted to attend the Reeds
Chapel School in Washington County
he was discriminated against “by
people of his own race, color and
mixed blood group.”
The Alabama Education Associa
tion cancelled a scheduled address
by John Ciardi, poetry editor of
the Saturday Review, after the
Tarrant City Citizens Council criti
cized the speaker for a Saturday
Review article, “Jim Crow Is Trea
son.”
Negro school near Mobile, for which
the state has set aside $439,000.
★ ★ ★
Suit Charges Rejection
By Boy’s Own Race Group
A federal suit was filed in the Mobile
District Court in late February in be
half of six-year-old Willie B. Reed of
McIntosh, the petition contending that
the child has been discriminated
against “by people of his own race,
color and mixed blood group” in
Washington County.
The suit names the Washington
County school superintendent, board of
education, trustees of Reeds Chapel
School and four women accused of
causing “a disturbance and threatening
violence” at the school.
The court was asked to order the
boy admitted to Reeds Chapel and
protected. No hearing date has been
set. The petition alleges that after con
ference with the officials of the school
and the board, the boy was enrolled
and started attending classes Jan. 3.
Reeds Chapel is a mile from his home.
Alleged Disturbance
On Jan. 6, the suit alleges, four
women—identified as Minnie Reed,
Maggie Jane Orso, Viola Snow and
Virginia Weaver—created a disturbance
at the school and threatened violence if
young Reed were not expelled.
The school principal, Mrs. Margaret
Dickinson, dismissed school that day, a
Friday, and it remained closed through
the next week. The school was re
opened Jan. 16, according to the suit,
with orders from the school board not
to admit students enrolled after Dec.
16. That excluded the Reed boy.
According to the court complaint, the
community is populated by people of
mixed blood and the “complainant’s
paternal and maternal grandfathers
were a part of this mixed blood group
and he is therefore related to most of
Isn’t This A Bit Silly?
Birmingham News
PATTERSON
Hi U1V wuiuiuuiiy,
boy’s neighbors attend the school, t}
complaint continues, and he is n
discriminated against by the white rao S
but by people of his own race, col*
and mixed blood.” ' (o
Reeds Chapel is listed as a * \\
school.
★ ★ ★ ° f
Judge Limits Civil Rights
Cases To Local Lawyers
On March 17, in what may prove; ^
significant ruling in all racially re !
lated cases, U.S. District Judge Fran; °
M. Johnson Jr. set a pattern f 0:
future civil rights hearings. Lo- a
attorneys must carry the ball in tb
future, he direct,
ed. The govern f
ment will be rep. "j
resented, he saic “
by at least one at. °
tomey “who pet- *
manently reside ”
in this district anc „
is regularly ad- ^
mitted to practie-
before this court.
This was con
strued as meanirc
that Justice IV ®
partment lawyers from Washington, ant ^
conceivably NAACP attorneys fror. y
out-of-state, would be excluded i:
favor of local counsel.
Specifically, the ruling means that the
incoming U.S. Attorney, Ben Harde-
man of Montgomery, will be require: ^
to handle civil rights cases personally ^
His predecessor, Harwell Davis, hac
kept clear of such hearings, confinin' *
his activities to signing court docu- a |
ments only. Federal attorneys fror ^
Washington and elsewhere have don-
the courtroom work. Judge Johnsor
said he wanted the court to “have the ^
benefit of assistance, counsel and advice
from local counsel . . . speaking for al
litigants. g,
‘Perform His Duty’
JOHNSON
“The order will also have the effec *
of requiring the United States attorney 1
for this district, who is under oath ft ^
uphold and defend the Constitutor
of the United States and who is pat p
to do so, to actively perform his duty
in this most important field of litigator
and not sit back with an attitude tto ;
‘it is being done from Washington.
Johnson said it is unfair to let civt r
rights cases be carried on only
“attorneys from other areas who, ever j
though they may be well versed n
the applicable law, know nothing of to 1
social problems involved.”
His order noted the court’s awarenes f
of “not only the legal but the soc
problems involved.” To have only oUl ,
siders involved in the cases “does no- ‘
make for the proper and efficient #
ministration of justice.” The exclu'Jy'
use of outside attorneys renders !
court’s burden in this type of litig 3 ' !
more difficult in that assistance to ^
court is not immediately available ro- i
counsel actively participating ®
fully cognizant of all aspects of s 1
cases.” tolS
Hardeman, the choice of Sena
Lister Hill and John Sparkman
replace Davis, had no comment.
Schoolmen
Ciardi Speech Befoi (
Teachers Cancelled
Following Protest
A scheduled address hy . £
Ciardi, poetry editor ° .
Saturday Review was canC f jC .
by the Alabama Education ^
ciation after a protest by th®
rant City Citizens Council- ^
was to have addressed the ^
annual convention of A
Birmingham in mid-Marc • ^
The cancellation came offi c ' 9 '
Council sent letters to sc “°° ire e»'
and members of the legist
closing photostats of a Sat ur Q[0’ >
article by Ciardi entitled, ,
Is Treason.” The article app e
4 - , rp secret
Dr. C. P. Nelson, executive jjr
of the AEA, said Ciardi w
vited last September
annual meeting of his group- ^go-
The Rev. Alfred W. H °k
of the Unitarian Church at ^ sp 6 ;
Road, promptly invited Cim. aCC gpto
to his church group. Ciar # f
for April 17.