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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL 1961—PAGE 7
VIRGINIA
Delaware
Keeping Strong Public Schools
May Be Major Political Issue
(Continued from Page 2)
Krebs No. 21, Richardson Park No. 20,
and Oak Grove No. 130.
The group proposed a merger of its
three boards with Newport 106. The
other district would consist of Stanton
and Marshallton.
Major Complication
^ £ RICHMOND, Va.
“no Otate Sen. Armistead L. Boothe
**<* J of Alexandria entered the race
X)lc : or lieutenant governor on March
vhio 14 and said that the advancement
of public education was his major
concern.
Boothe, seeking the Democratic nomi
nation for the state’s No. 2 post, is
being opposed by State Sen. Mills
Godwin of Suffolk. In the General
Ve • Assembly, Boothe has been a leader
rt ; of the “moderate” viewpoint on school
rarj ^segregation, while Godwin has been
4® a leader of the “massive resisters.”
j0Ci In his statement, Boothe said:
“First of all, I am running to help
:ect assure, without any ifs, ands or buts,
ern the existence and advance of public
re t( education in the commonwealth. We
sa - must have a system of public schools
; a! second to none in the country. We
P* r ' must guarantee to every Virginia child
>lde -and I mean every child—an oppor-
tunity for free education through
ac ' elementary and high schools.”
itict
art Gubernatorial Candidate
w0r The two candidates for the Demo-
™ cratic nomination for governor—Lt.
an . Gov. A. E. S. Stephens and Attorney
General A. S. Harrison—both endorsed
‘ Virginia’s tuition grants program, over
which there has been considerable
jk controversy in recent months,
de- However > Stephens said that the law
— has been “to some extent abused” and
jj r that it ought to be carefully re-exam-
ined and “loopholes closed.”
. Harrison, on the other hand, said he
; didn’t feel that the program has been
ror abused and that he does not regard
or it as a threat to public schools.
£[ , Stephens made his comment in a let-
^ ter responding to a query from the
,'its Lakewood PTA of Norfolk. Harrison
jl ? ave his views at a press conference.
(Some persons argue that the tuition
Srants were intended to go to children
to use to avoid attending desegregated
fee schools but many grants are being used
ney f or purposes not related to the racial
tt ‘sue. Defenders of the grants say this
ioi does not constitute an “abuse” of the
aic Program and that the law is working
uty ou t fine.)
iot
ha: Schoolmen
n *"*
1 Tuition Grants
1 For School Year
* Now Total 7,282
ial I'WENTY-ONE ADDITIONAL appli-
lt- cations for tuition grants were
iot approved by the State Board of
ve ^ucation on March 24.
[jjj JJkfs brings the total for this school
? e ar to 7,282, compared to 4,768 last
h‘ ?ear '
ic i. » ota d cos t of the program this year
r. f, '44,749, including $972,878 in state
jd 7® and $671,871 in local funds. The
^imum grant is $275.
Art
★ ★ ★
p 'Rigton County Resumes
ll pil Assignment Control
Arlington County has become the
''cality in Virginia to reassume
^bools OVCT assignment °f pupils to
IjJjd 1 ® county board (the governing
on March 25 adopted an ordi-
a ut i 6 transferring pupil placement
iwTdty from the State Pupil Place-
Board to the local school board,
in took over pupil assignment
'Wr ’ hut a 1959 statute, which
cjjj,. dy became effective, permits lo-
to resume this function if they
>| l J 1C ! er the Arlington plan, a Negro
»hi te aVes in a district served by a
Cot 6 Sc b°ol will be permitted, but
chjl^Tffred to attend it. No white
scboQ, be required to attend a
^orit ^ w d®ich whites are in a
has had some school de-
Jgation by court order since Feb-
^ 1959.
S3 * * *
^0 Localities
e Attendance Laws
at the State Department of
J2°i On -Show that 53 of Virginia’s
Ho* have enacted local coin
cide,. ^hool attendance ordinances.
act .°f the 1959 General As-
’ docalities have the option of
Virginia Highlights
Early campaigning in the races
for governor and lieutenant governor
of Virginia indicates that preserva
tion of a strong public school system
may turn out to be a major issue.
A total of 7,282 Virginia children
are receiving tuition grants to attend
private nonsectarian schools or pub
lic schools outside their own com
munities.
The United States Supreme Court
agreed to review a Virginia Supreme
Court decision that the NAACP has
been unlawfully soliciting legal busi
ness in connection with school
desegregation cases.
adopting or not adopting such ordi
nances.
Legal Action
High Court Agrees
To Study Lawsuit
Solicitation Case
T he United States Supreme
Court on March 20 granted
a review of the Virginia Supreme
Court’s ruling that Chapter 33 of
the 1956 Extra Session Acts of
the General Assembly is consti
tutional and that the NAACP has
violated that law. (NAACP v.
Harrison.)
Chapter 33 makes it unlawful for a
person or organization to engage in
“running and capping,” which is defined
as the soliciting of business for an
attorney.
The Virginia Supreme Court, in an
opinion Sept. 2, 1960, said the intent of
the law is to “further control the evils
of solicitation of legal business for the
benefit of attorneys by a person who is
not a party to a proceeding and in
which he has no pecuniary right or
liability. . .
“When we apply the plain language
and meaning of the statutes to the
evidence,” the court said at that time,
“it is perfectly manifest that the
NAACP . . . [is] engaged in the un
lawful solicitation of legal business. . .”
The basic question presented to the
U.S. Supreme Court is whether Chapter
33 violates the NAACP’s rights under
the federal constitution.
★ ★ ★
Attorney Otto L. Tucker filed suit
in Federal District Court March 11
asking Judge Albert V. Bryan to strike
down Arlington County’s policy of
segregated interscholastic athletics.
(Thompson v. School Board of Arling
ton County.)
Tucker filed a similar suit Feb. 16
against Fairfax County’s segregated
athletics policy, and five days later the
Fairfax School Board revoked that
policy. (See Southern School News,
March.)
★ ★ ★
Damage suits totaling $60,000, claim
ing libel and breach of contract, were
filed March 24 by Arthur L. Ribble
against the Charlottesville Education
Foundation and Rock Hill Academy.
Ribble was dismissed last March as
director of instruction at Rock Hill, a
segregated school set up when Char
lottesville public schools were ordered
desegregated. (Southern School News,
April.)
In the suits, filed in Charlottesville
Corporation Court, Ribble says state
ments made to the press by Foundation
and Rock Hill directors were libelous
and damaging to his credit and reputa
tion.
★ ★ ★
‘Moderate’ NAACP Leader
Wins Recall Election
The “moderate” president of the
Norfolk branch of the NAACP has
withstood a challenge by 31 NAACP
members who charged him with “in
activity” and a “lack of militancy.”
Robert D. Robertson, chapter presi
dent, said in a statement Feb. 28:
“So long as we are accomplishing the
ends we seek through peaceful negotia
tion, with the courts as a last resort,
we will continue to follow that line of
procedure and not become out-and-out
radicals. . .”
The 31 dissidents forced a recall of
Robertson’s December re-election, and
a new election was ordered for March
13, under the supervision of Oliver W.
Hill, Richmond attorney. Robertson won
by a margin of about 8 to 1, according
to Hill. # # #
Newport’s nine-grade school, Absa
lom Jones, would go to the Krebs-
Richardson Park-Oak Grove group,
and that is one of the major compli
cations.
While the school itself is presently
located in the Krebs district, the ma
jority of the pupils who attend Absa
lom Jones reside in the Marshallton
district.
This unique situation is caused by
the fact that Delaware’s Negro school
districts seldom have boundaries as
such, and are frequently superimposed
over two or more white school districts.
This is true of Newport, where the
pupil attendance area includes both
Krebs, where the school is located, and
Marshallton.
Absalom Jones has 362 pupils. Under
the proposed consolidation, approxi
mately 200 would go to Marshallton.
The remaining 162 would stay with
Krebs-Oak Grove-Richardson Park.
Two High Schools
Two high schools, Conrad and John
Dickinson, presently serve the six dis
tricts, none of which has a school with
classes beyond the ninth grade. Under
consolidation, Dickinson would serve
Stanton and Marshallton. Conrad would
serve the other group.
The consolidation proposal led to a
heated discussion at a hearing before
the State Board.
State Board President Vincent A.
Theisen, for instance, was annoyed be
cause no representative from Absalom
Jones had been invited.
“You can’t iron out the boundaries
without the consent of Absalom Jones,”
he told Krebs-Oak Grove-Richardson
Park representatives who were there
to push for a two-district setup.
And Darrell F. Long, supervising
principal at Conrad, also was critical
of discussion during the absence of
Absalom.
“Absalom should be here. I think it
is grossly unjust to even talk about
consolidation without them,” he told
Krebs-Richardson Park-Oak Grove.
‘No Authority’
Dr. George R. Miller, State Superin
tendent of Public Instruction, also
pointed out that “we have no authority
to consolidate a district without the
consent of the board of trustees.”
Under the Krebs-Richardson Park-
Oak Grove proposal, the Newport 106
district lines would be wiped out, and
the attendance area for the Absalom
Ex-Editor Dure Tours South
To Promote Free-Choice Plan
By OVERTON JONES
RICHMOND, Va.
eon S. Dure Jr. might be
called a missionary for free-
dom-of-association.
This 54-year-old editor-tumed-far-
mer, who has never held public office,
has been spreading throughout much
of the South a new theory of govern
ment’s role in education.
He believes the states should abandon
the traditional idea of providing public
schools for all or nearly all children.
Instead, he favors allowing children
(through their parents) the choice of
attending:
1. Public schools in their own com
munities, or
2. Other public schools or private
schools anywhere that can and will
accept them.
To each child who chooses No. 2, an
educational grant would be made. This
grant (or “scholarship”) would be used
to pay tuition.
Some Public Schools
Some public schools would always be
necessary, Dure believes. But under
his program, he foresees widespread
growth of private schools. And he
thinks the competition between public
and private schools will have highly
favorable effects financially, education
ally and otherwise.
The Dure idea, in essence, is already
in effect in Virginia. More than 5,000
Virginia children are receiving grants,
which they are using to pay, or help
pay, tuition costs at private schools or
at public schools outside their own
home localities. Some of these children
are attending schools outside Virginia.
Virginia’s program, as well as similar
Leon S. Dure Jr.
A new theory
ones adopted or under consideration in
other Southern states, is an outgrowth
of the Supreme Court’s school desegre
gation decision. But Dure emphatically
insists that while the decision was the
reason for the program’s adoption, the
program itself has no racial connota
tions whatever.
Any Child May Get Grant
Any child, white or Negro, may get
a grant in Virginia, and the money may
be used to attend a public or private,
segregated or desegregated, school.
(Some children who otherwise would
be attending segregated schools are
using the grants to attend desegre
gated schools.)
Drue, who operates a 720-acre farm
not many miles from the University of
Virginia, got into the school contro
versy in the fall of 1957 as a result of
accepting an invitation to commute 80
miles over the Blue Ridge Mountains
to teach a class on “Law of the Press”
in Washington & Lee University’s
school of journalism.
He went to the library to bone up
on the subject and, as he put it later,
“The Virginia freedom-of-choice school
plan grew out of the chance accident
of reading the Supreme Court desegre
gation decisions on the very day that
freedoms of speech and press were
being inquired into.”
Reads Opinions, Concludes
Even Justices Missed Point
He was “thunderstruck,” he declared,
by the notion that all these decisions
were one and the same thing and that
apparently nobody, including the jus
tices of the Supreme Court, was aware
of that fact.
He put his plan on paper, sent copies
to half a dozen lawyers. Most of them
responded that it wouldn’t stand up in
court.
He bought five colums of space in
the state’s largest newspaper, the
Richmond Times-Dispatch, to describe
“A Plan of Action.” (The ad cost him
20 lambs—“many of them hand-de
livered and some of them even oven-
thawed.”)
Response was “somewhat less than
inspiring,” but Dure was now in the
fight with a passion.
Works Hard
He began bombarding newspapers
with letters, issued pamphlets, spoke to
(See LEON DURE, Page 15)
Jones school no longer would include
Marshallton.
And that is not acceptable to New
port 106, according to the chairmen of
the board of trustees.
At the suggestion of President Thei
sen, a meeting of all six boards will
be held in April with state board rep
resentatives. Theisen promised to at
tend, noting that “you have a number
of high hurdles to resolve.”
Among them is the question of
bonded indebtedness. Each district, for
instance, has a different tax rate.
Vocational High School
Desegregation Discussed
The question of desegregation at the
Sussex County Vocational High School,
now under construction at Georgetown,
was another item of discussion at the
state board meeting.
“Is this going to be an integrated
or a segregated high school?” asked
Howard B. English, a board member
from Laurel.
“I get that question all the time,”
replied Paul M. Hodgson, assistant
state superintendent in charge of vo
cational education.
To Follow Current Policy
“My answer is that it will follow
whatever desegregation policy is in
effect at the time that it’s completed.”
“Who’s setting the policy for the
school?” asked President Theisen.
“Why, the local board of trustees, I
assume,” answered Hodgson.
“It will conform to the general de
segregation policy of the state board,
won’t it?” asked Ralph Grapperhaus,
a board member from Selbyville.
“I would hope so,” added Theisen,
and the discussion ended.
Opens In September
The Sussex school, which will serve
13 districts, is expected to be com
pleted in August and open for classes
in September.
A similar school planned for Kent
County has not yet been started. The
question as to whether the Kent unit
would be a desegregated school was
one of the obstacles which has stalled
construction for more than two years.
The board also approved an addi
tional $150,000 for additional construc
tion at William W. M. Henry Compre
hensive High School, which serves Ne
gro pupils from all of Kent County.
The cost all will be borne by the state.
School In Sussex
The state board also moved ahead to
construct a $543,000 school to serve
four small Negro districts in Sussex
County.
An opinion poll held in February to
determine whether the residents want
ed the consolidated school got a favor
able vote, but touched off a controversy
between the state board and the
NAACP.
Despite the controversy, the state
board has purchased a site for the
school, which will have 12 rooms and
serve Slaughter Neck, Lincoln, Ellen-
dale, and Milton.
“We’re going right ahead with it,”
said Dr. Miller.
Funds for the school were provided
by the General Assembly, and the
state will bear the full operating costs.
Community Action
Attorney Redding
Cited by Catholics
For Legal Battle
T ouis L. Redding, the Negro
attorney who has led the legal
battle to desegregate Delaware’s
schools, has been cited by the
Catholic Interracial Council of
Delaware.
He also will be honored with a testi
monial by the NAACP on April 15 at
the Booker T. Washington school in
Dover.
Redding received the Bishop Fitz-
maurice Interracial Award, which was
accepted by his wife. The Wilmington
attorney was in Washington at the
time preparing to argue a Delaware
civil rights case before the Supreme
Court.
Herbert Hill, labor secretary for the
NAACP, lauded the work of Redding.
‘Deep Sense of Integrity’
“In giving him this award, you do so
not only for his many accomplishments
in fighting racial injustice but honor
him for the deep sense of integrity
which he has brought to the field of
interracial justice,” Hill said.
Hill called the civil rights problem
the number-one and most fundamental
problem in our national life, and of
first significance in our relations with
the rest of the world.
“Indeed, much of our foreign policy
is negated because other nations of the
world know that not all of our citizens
are fully free,” he concluded. # # #