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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE 1961—PAGE II
11
District
Of Columbia
(Continued From Page 7)
provide judicial and administra-
'rjjnedies against discrimination by
/Lejs firms and labor unions in hir-
firing or promotions.
I Empower the attorney general to
Tea ^
hy ^ p'
civil injunction suits in federal
io prevent denial of any civil
,1s on grounds of race, color or
^ fpljminate the poll tax as a re
cent for voting in federal elec-
irne;
Mai.
t ti
vs t
dous-
leg
Dya:
mb;
dec-
t tl»
mt
bee
n J
[OIL"
poll
den
loir
i.
'rari
tit
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f «
is
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^Eliminate literacy tests as a re-
^ment for voting.
White House Disassociated
-i e White House took pains to dis
rate itself from the legislation,
i^idential Press Secretary Pierre
yjrger commented that the Presi-
pt “does not think it is necessary at
’esej «time to enact civil rights legisla-
. n
r 1 Noting the absence of White House
Sen. Kenneth B. Keating (R-
astr. j] charged that the administration
n k * “still somewhat timid and reluc-
on civil rights and added that
without persistent White House
jiing there is little likelihood that
majority party in Congress will
forward.”
Pic administration’s position was
a ^f y, criticized by Roy Wilkins, execu-
* secretary of the National Associa-
for the Advancement of Colored
lie, who charged in a May 10
®' <l ® gtement that President Kennedy was
81118 coring the fact that “accomplishment
statutory compliance with the
school desegregation ruling by 1963, as
in the Democratic platform, is
Itossible unless legislation to that
dect is approved and moves forward
without delay in the present session.”
Wilkins praised the administration’s
actions on the executive level and the
‘dements of the President himself,
bit complained that the legislative
'ranch has lagged far behind the
executive and judiciary in implement-
n? the Supreme Court’s 1954 deseg-
xfation decision.
Cactus Bouquet
The decision to leave this sorry
fgislative history undisturbed consti-
‘ites an offering of a cactus bouquet
Negro parents and their children on
* seventh anniversary next Wednes-
k’ of the Supreme Court school de-
'ffegatiton ruling,” he said.
The administration also was taken
task on its civil rights stand by the
; beral organization Americans for
'Wcratic Action, which met here
% 14.
However, Attorney General Ken-
% drew praise from civil rights
■’oponents for his May 6 speech at
University of Georgia, in which
pledged to enforce the law—in
going the desegregation decision—
porously, without regional bias or
^gation ruling,” he said.
Closed-Door Testimony
; closed-door testimony before a
appropriations subcommittee,
»/ e public May 20, Attorney General
J* e dy reported that the Justice De
cent got “a very satisfactory re-
the Louisiana school desegre-
cases. But “we will have more
, ems in September,” when schools
hen, he added.
ne attorney general said the gov-
and Louisiana legislature have
Hnized that “these two schools will
L Operated on a desegregated basis.”
^ added:
6 ha ’
to them (in Louisiana) that
e have kept on the pressure. We
^cated to them (in Louisiana) that
^Partment of Justice is going to
^ Up 1 Si- JS--S1
the court
and follow
use its full
up contempt
★ ★ ★
Passes Kennedy
^ to Education Bill
>> 25 the Senate passed the ad-
t^^ r ation’s $2.55 billion aid to edu-
5^ hill. The vote for passage was
y and came after floor managers
ii^j^cred the bill past threatening
Hgf^pnts offered by pro- and anti-
O^ationists.
O^gly to kill an amendment
j^ r cd by Sen. Prescott Bush (R-
supported by a majority of
:,:lj %j ICans , which would have pro-
■ ^ allocation of federal aid funds
j^gated schools. The amendment
iIa y 22 the Senate voted over-
tiiat formerly backed in the
{(, ^Rep. Adam Clayton Powell
kejj 'RY), who has said he will not
this y ear -
= ^ips t R° era l Democrats lined up
the Bush amendment, which
w 61 to 25, despite some sug-
'l?f 8 hy Bush and others that the
■Silk as timely in light of the Ala-
riots.
MISSOURI
Board Ends Legal Controversy;
Zone Changed To Admit Negroes
‘JFK? No, I Don’t Know
Dot Name!’
Atlanta Journal
Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-
Mont) said the Alabama disorders
“should cause us, as a nation, to hang
our heads in shame,” but appealed to
the Senate to consider the school aid
measure “without reference to race
and without reference to religion, but
solely on the merits of the bill.”
To Attract Votes
In an effort to attract votes, Bush
modified his amendment during the
debate to permit allocation of federal
funds to any state “which, in good
faith, is proceeding toward full com
pliance with the constitutional re
quirement that racial discrimination be
ended in public schools.”
The change failed to soften the op
position of the Democratic leadership,
however. Senate Democratic Whip Hu
bert H. Humphrey (Minn) and Sen.
Wayne Morse (D-Ore), sponsor of the
bill, backed Mansfield’s position that
a civil rights amendment would only
lead to the ultimate defeat of aid-to-
education legislation and that it had
no place in the bill.
Morse said the time to pass civil
rights legislation will come in due
course, after the Senate tightens its
filibuster rules. Mansfield reiterated his
pledge to the Senate to bring in an
amendment tightening the debate
rules before Congress adjourns this
year.
Prohibited Withholding
Five days earlier, the Senate beat
down, 70 to 25, an amendment to the
school bill by Sen. Strom Thurmond
(D-SC) which would have specifically
prohibited withholding of federal
funds from segregated schools.
A similar amendment sponsored by
Sen. Herman E. Talmadge (D-Ga)
was defeated 61 to 30.
In an effort to allay Southern con
cern, Secretary of Health, Education
and Welfare Abraham Ribicoff assured
legislators May 18 that federal funds
in the administration bill could not
be withheld from states with segre
gated schools. Ribicoff had made the
same point in earlier testimony on the
legislation.
Senate leaders were confident that
they had cleared the major hurdles
confronting the education bill and
could bring it to final passage. But
further difficulties were expected when
the measure reaches the House floor.
Byrd Cites Perils
Justice Department intervention in a
Virginia suit seeking reopening of the
closed public schools of Prince Ed
ward County was cited by Sen. Harry
F. Byrd (D-Va) as an illustration of
the perils inherent in federal school
aid.
“I have always opposed federal aid
to education and my position is inten
sified by this act of intimidation,”
Byrd declared.
He referred to a Justice Department
move late in April to seek reopening
of the county schools (shut two years
ago to avoid a desegregation order)
or to suspend all state assistance to
schools pending the re-establishment
of educational opportunity for Negro
pupils in the county.
Responding to Virginia criticism of
the federal action, Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy issued this state
ment April 27:
“During these trying times it is in
cumbent on the Department of Justice
to take all steps to uphold the dignity
and integrity of the courts. The court’s
orders have been circumvented and
nullified in Prince Edward County.
We have taken steps to rectify that
situation. The conversations that I, as
well as members of our staff, had with
public officials in Virginia sought to
achieve an amicable voluntary solu
tion. Court action was taken only after
this proved impossible.
“No school in Virginia need be
closed. All that is necessary is for the
State of Virginia and Prince Edward
County to reopen the county’s public
school system.
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
n suburban St. Louis County,
the Maplewood - Richmond
Heights Board of Education de
cided to rezone the school district
to permit the two children of Dr.
Harold G. Russell Sr., Negro phy
sician, to enter the previously all-
white West Richmond Elemen
tary School in September. The
action was announced April 29 by
School Superintendent Milton W.
Bierbaum.
The board’s decision ended a legal
controversy that started Oct. 7, 1959,
when Dr. Russell brought a man
damus action in St. Louis County
Circuit Court at Clayton (SSN, No
vember, 1959). The attorney for Dr.
Russell, Henry L. Twigg, said the ac
tion would be dropped and that the
Russell children would be enrolled in
West Richmond next fall.
Dr. Russell’s suit was brought on
behalf of his son, Harold Jr., then
eight years old, and his daughter,
Lillette, then five. His petition said
he tried in September, 1959, to enroll
them at West Richmond, about 100
yards from his residence, but was
instructed that they would have to at
tend the all-Negro Lincoln School,
about a mile from his home.
At the time Dr. Russell filed his suit,
the Maplewood-Richmond Heights
school district had been desegregated
officially for several years, and there
were reported to be 40 Negro children
in the junior high school and 45 in
the senior high. However, five of the
system’s elementary schools were all-
white and one, Lincoln School, was all-
Negro.
Under the new board action, chil
dren living in the vicinity of the Rus
sell residence at 7920 Bennett Avenue,
Richmond Heights, can choose between
two schools—West Richmond or Lin
coln.
Under Survey
Advisory Committee
Reports On Survey
Of Urban Renewal
T he Missouri Advisory Com
mittee of the U.S. Commis
sion on Civil Rights last month
reported on a survey on housing
and urban renewal in Missouri.
Previously the committee had re
ported in 1959 and 1960 that seg-
“I cannot believe that anyone can
support a principle which prevents
1,700 of our children from attending
public schools.”
‘Ruthless Action’
On May 3 Byrd told the Senate that
the Federal action amounts to “in
temperate and ruthless action,” and
added:
“If non-elected federal officials will
go to the extremes they are applying
in Virginia now, who can imagine the
ruthlessness of federal bureaucrats
with the power of the federal purse to
force their domination over the schools
in our states and localities.”
In a May 12 speech, Byrd asserted
that “the NAACP alone is responsible”
for the lack of schooling for Negro
children in Prince Edward County.
Federal District Court Judge Oren
R. Lewis heard final arguments on the
case in Richmond May 9, and gave
lawyers until the end of the month to
submit briefs. He promised a speedy
ruling.
★ ★ ★
Supreme Court Upholds
Temporary Injunetion
The Supreme Court on May 22 up
held a temporary injunction issued by
a lower federal court against the en
forcement of two Louisiana laws that
would have required the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People to reveal its member
ship lists.
In an opinion by Justice William O.
Douglas, the court noted that the in
junction was temporary and that it did
not know what would be revealed by
full hearings in the case. But the opin-
Missouri Highlights
A legal controversy ended when
the Maplewood-Richmond Heights
Board of Education in suburban St.
Louis County rezoned its district to
permit two Negroes to enter an all-
white school next September.
A 13-year-old Negro boy picketing
the Kansas City Board of Education
building was knocked down by an
unidentified white boy.
The survey on housing and urban
renewal by the Missouri Advisory
Committee to the U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights indicated that the
Negro’s mobility in the state “is re
stricted by discriminatory housing
practices coupled with an inability
to afford most of the new housing
to be constructed in urban renewal
areas after slum clearance.”
Three Missouri colleges, in re
sponse to a Southern School
News survey, commented in some
detail on their admission of Negro
students.
regation in housing existed in
varying degrees in all sections of
the state, with Negroes generally
being excluded from suburban
and other outlying residential
districts.
In its survey the committee sent
questionnaires to 17 Missouri localities
where urban renewal was under con
sideration or in process of being car
ried out. These included St. Louis,
St. Louis County, Kansas City and
other communities where neighborhood
segregation has tended to maintain
school segregation, even though schools
are officially desegregated.
Survey findings indicated that most
of the families being relocated by urban
renewal are Negro, and that most
Negroes will be unable to afford new
housing that will be built in urban
renewal areas after slum clearance.
The committee made a number of rec
ommendations it considered essential
if the “national housing goal” is to be
achieved, and if urban renewal is to
be successful. Among these were:
1) The federal government should
declare its policy of a decent home and
suitable living environment for every
American family in a free and open
housing market.
2) The President of the United States
should be asked to appoint a National
Committee on Equality of Opportunity
in Housing, to assure that benefits of
federal housing laws are available to
all.
ion indicated that the laws will have
tough sledding if the state tries to en
force them.
One of the laws requires officers of
all organizations to file affidavits that
all persons connected with out-of-state
branches are non-Communist. The
court said this was an impossible re
quirement because no one can be re
quired to swear to something he can
not know.
The other law proved more difficult
for the court. It was passed in 1924 to
curb the Ku Klux Klan, and requires
the principal officer of any “fraternal,
patriotic, charitable, benevolent, liter
ary, scientific, athletic, military or so
cial organization” operating in Louisi
ana to file an annual membership list.
Similar Law Upheld
In 1928, a similar law in New York
was upheld as it applied to the Klan.
The court did not mention that deci
sion in dealing with the Louisiana law.
Justice Douglas wrote that where
disclosure of membership lists results
in hostility toward and reprisals against
members of an organization, disclosure
is not required. State laws, he added,
must be selective in this area.
At one extreme is criminal conduct,
which “cannot have shelter in the First
Amendment,” Justice Douglas wrote,
apparently referring to the Klan cases.
“At the other extreme are regulatory
measures which, no matter how so
phisticated, cannot be employed ... to
stifle, penalize or curb the exercise of
First Amendment rights.”
Justices John Marshall Harlan and
Potter Stewart concurred in the unani
mous decision but not in Justice Doug
las’s opinion. # # #
Community Action
Negro Youth Hit
While Picketing
L awrence Darden Jr., 13-year-
old Negro member of the
Kansas City NAACP Youth
Council, was struck in the eye
and knocked down last month by
an unidentified white youth,
about 19 years old. Darden was
taking part in picketing the Board
of Education building in protest
against alleged segregation prac
tices at a private amusement park.
The Darden boy, a seventh grade
student at Central Junior High School,
which is more than 95 per cent Negro,
was treated at a hospital and sent
home, where he remained for two days
before returning to school. There was
no other violence in connection with
the picketing, and this was the first
such incident since NAACP youths
began equal rights demonstrations a
year ago.
The picketing of the school board
began April 7 in protest against dis
missal of school children from classes
to attend the annual PTA-sponsored
picnics at Fairyland Park. Negroes had
complained that their children were
permitted to enter the park for such
picnics, but not at other times. The
picketing ended about May 12. Fairy
land Park is in south Kansas City,
where schools are almost wholly white
in enrollment.
Negro groups had appeared before
the board this spring to protest the
use of the park for the money-raising
picnics. But in each case, the decision
was to go ahead since plans had been
made months previously.
In the Colleges
3 Public Colleges
Reveal Results
Of Desegregation
'T'hree publicly-supported colleges in
- 1 - Missouri reported last month on
their experience in desegregation, re
sponding to an SSN survey of higher
education in the state. Glynn E. Clark,
president of Harris Teachers College,
supported by the St. Louis Board of
Education, said Negro enrollment now
was approximately 45 per cent, com
pared with 40 per cent in 1954. The
faculty has 59 white members, and 23
non-white.
“We are delighted with the results
which we are having academically in
an integrated setting,” Clark reported.
“To be sure, there have been many
problems, but with a dedicated and
integrated faculty, we seem to be able
to solve these problems as they devel
op”
H. Tudor Westover, superintendent
of the Flat River Public Schools and
head of the Flat River Junior College,
said four Negroes had applied for and
received admission to the college since
1958. Of the four, one graduated with
distinction and will graduate with hon
ors this year from the University of
Missouri School of Mines at Rolla. One
is still in the junior college; the other
two dropped out because of “poor
academic progress.”
Very Few Negroes
“There are no Negroes living in this
community,” Westover added, “and
very few in this area of Missouri.”
Walter H. Ryle, president of North
east Missouri State Teachers College
at Kirksville, a state-supported insti
tution, said the college was desegre
gated in 1953 and now had 38 Negro
students. He said the number of Ne
groes had increased somewhat in the
last five years.
“We have no problems to speak of,
with the exception that housing in
private homes is difficult to get for
Negro students,” Ryle said. “We have
no problem with college housing fa
cilities.”
There are no Negro faculty members
at Flat River or Northeast Missouri
State Teachers College. # # #