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PAGE 4—JUNE 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MISSISSIPPI
Negro Leaders, Governor Meet;
Atmosphere of Cordiality Noted
JACKSON, Miss.
ississippi Negro leaders be
lieve they have established
“contact” with state officials as the
result of a biracial meeting with
Gov. Ross Barnett, has first ac
knowledged conference with their
spokesmen since he took office 16
months ago.
The May 16 conference in the gov
ernor’s office in the State Capitol was
arranged by the newly formed Council
of Federated Organizations composed
of Negro fraternal, religious, civic and
business groups.
Sitting in the more than two-hours-
long conference with Gov. Barnett
were Attorney General Joe T. Patter
son and Director Albert Jones of the
Sovereignty Commission, the state’s
segregation “watchdog” agency.
Representing the council were Aaron
Henry, pharmacist of Clarksdale and
state president of the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Col
ored People; the Rev. S. L. Webb of
Jackson, representative of the Lower
Mississippi Conference of Methodists,
and J. M. Houston, retired Vicksburg
businessman.
Present 5-Point Plan
The Negro leaders presented a five-
point plan for the complete elimina
tion of segregation and discrimination
against Negroes qualifying as voters in
a move to “give Negroes equal rights
and privileges as citizens of Missis
sippi.”
In a prepared statement after the
meeting, Gov. Barnett said:
“It was a very harmonious meeting,
but as to be expected there was a
difference of opinion on some of the
matters discussed.”
President Henry, spokesman for the
Negro group, said after the meeting:
“The greatest amount of cordiality
existed in the conference. We were
pleased and happy to have the oppor
tunity to express our attitude on cer
tain matters. There was no expression
of bigotry or unwelcome—everybody
was friendly and participated in the
discussions.”
Says Door Left Open
The NAACP president said that Gov.
Barnett “left the door open” for them
to return whenever “we wished.”
In that connection, he said the con
ference “opened the door of communi
cation and I feel no hesitancy now to
express my feelings to the governor
and to ask him for co-operation and
to offer mine to him in the areas in
which we can work together.”
“Although there was no agreement
on the maior issues, I feel we estab
lished contact—something we did not
have in the past,” President Henry
said. “We expressed the desire that
this type of communication would be
come a reality as it is the best way to
resolve differences and to become ac
quainted with possible remedies.”
He said from the beginning of the
conference “we were made very wel
come and asked to express our feel
ings without any reservations—and we
did just that.”
No Punches Pulled
Reports from the conference were
that neither side “pulled punches” in
discussing issues of compliance with
the U.S. Supreme Court’s desegrega
tion decisions.
The Negro leaders said they planned
to “break” the segregation barriers
through legal processes, and the offi
cials said they planned to challenge
them along the same lines.
In a formal presentation to Gov.
Barnett, the representatives of the
Council of Federated Organizations
said “Mississippi has a wonderful po
tential once the problems of racial
prejudice, segregation and discrimina
tion are solved.”
Suggestions
Suggesting ways “that, perhaps, you
(the governor) can, and will, assist us
in solving them,” the Negro leaders
said with that accomplishment “we
can all walk in dignity, being proud
to have had a hand in the improve
ment of our great state.
“However, we believe that before we
can make the type of contribution
which we believe ourselves capable,
certain problems must be seriously
faced,” they said.
The issues they raised included reg
istration and voting by Negroes, atti
tudes of police and public officials in
law enforcement among Negroes, em
ployment opportunities and freedom of
Negroes to join NAACP or other or
ganizations without reprisals, and “the |
Mississippi Highlights
Mississippi Negro leaders feel
they have re-established “lines of
communication” following a confer
ence with Gov. Ross Barnett at
which racial problems were dis
cussed. It was the governor’s first
biracial meeting with spoksmen for
Negroes since he took office 16
months ago.
Chancellor J. D. Williams of the
University of Mississippi said the
decision as to whether senior educa
tional institutions faced with de
segregation will be closed will be
made “in Jackson” and not on the
campus.
Lt. Gov. Paul Johnson in an ad
dress to the Jackson Citizens Coun
cil said he will not offer protection
to “outsiders” seeking to integrate
Mississippi. He said Negroes in Mis
sissippi “are not only satisfied but
happy with the present segregated
way of life.”
NAACP field secretary Medgar
Evers has appealed to the state su
preme court from a Forrest County
circuit court conviction for “con
tempt” based on an out-of-court crit
icism of the conviction of another
Negro.
right to be treated as other citizens.”
Relative to higher education, the
statement questioned “the wisdom of
continuing the state’s program with
reference to graduate and professional
study for Negro people.”
“Many of our people do benefit from
the assistance (financial) granted by
the state, but it seems somewhat in
consistent to help Negro people to
leave the state to study in predomi
nantly white institutions of higher
learning when they could do the same
thing in our fine (white) institutions
of higher learning.”
Mississippi has an out-of-state-
grant-in-aid program under which
Negroes are given funds for studies
outside Mississippi’s segregated col
leges.
Public Schools
Relative to public schools, the Negro
leaders requested Gov. Barnett’s as
sistance “in initiating a definite plan
to implement the May 17, 1954, and
the May 28, 1955, desegregation deci
sions of the Supreme Court of the
United States.”
They also requested the governor’s
assistance “in seeking state legislation
for a compulsory school attendance
law” because “too many young people
are not in school every day,” asserting
that “many of our problems would be
non-existent if all of us were better
educated.”
At a previous session, the legisla
ture repealed the compulsory school
attendance law. The repeal act was
one of a series of laws designed to
thwart efforts to desegregate public
schools.
“We believe that Negroes should not
have any preferential treatment, but
that they should be granted the privi
lege of using all facilities with all of
the protection granted everyone else,”
the submission stated.
“We pledge our full co-operation to
assist you in effecting the programs
you outline in the fulfillment of the
concerns which we have outlined,” the
spokesman for the council said.
Barnett’s Statement
Gov. Barnett, in his prepared state
ment, said he outlined the following
to his conferees:
• During the 1959-60 school year
there were 955 white elementary and
secondary schools and 989 such schools
for Negroes, or 34 more for Negroes.
• That there is one Negro teacher
to approximately every 140 Negro cit
izens, while in Ohio and New York
‘and some other states,’ there is only
one Negro teacher to every 475-500
Negro citizens.
• That since 1953, Mississippi has
spent $59 million in improving school
facilities for Negroes and $29 million
for white facilities.
• That Mississippi has 7,674 Negro
principals and classroom teachers
drawing more than $19 million in sal
aries annually.
• That the average salary for fac
ulty members in state-supported Ne
gro colleges is $5,200 a year, and that
there are about 34 professors with a
salary range from $6,400 to $8,100 a
year.
• That there are 12,000 Negro agri
cultural and extension workers in
Mississippi.
In the Colleges
Ole Miss Head Says
Race Rules To Come
From State Capitol
S teps to prevent desegregation
of Mississippi’s white senior
colleges will not be determined
by the individual institutions.
They will be mapped “in Jack-
son,” by the governor, legislature
and board of trustees of state in
stitutions of higher learning.
That statement was made May 10 at
the University of Mississippi by Chan
cellor J. D. Williams. The university
has been the scene of two desegrega
tion efforts, and reports are that others
are planned by Negroes.
Addressing a student convocation,
Chancellor Williams said any decision
about closing the university to prevent
its desegregation “will not be made at
the university.” He noted that Geor
gia segregation laws are patterned
after Mississippi statutes, “yet the Uni
versity of Georgia did not close when
integration came last January.”
“The best thing we can do until the
time comes is to continue doing what
we are here for and to do our very
best,” Chancellor Williams said. “I do
not know the answer to the question
as to what Mississippi will do.”
Calls For Freedom
Emphasizing the need for a “free”
university, Chancellor Williams said
“only a mature society understands
and appreciates why a university must
be free to explore, to create, to ana
lyze, to search, to report and to teach.”
“All these must go into a university
in order for it to contribute its best
to the society that supports it,” he said.
Lesal Action
NAACP Leader Takes
Contempt Conviction
To Supreme Court
M edgar Evers, Mississippi field
representative of the Nation
al Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, has ap
pealed to the State Supreme Court
from a Forrest County Circuit
Court contempt conviction. He
was fined $100 and given 30 days
in jail by Circuit Judge Stanton
Hall for an out-of-court criticism
of the conviction of Clyde Ken-
nard, Negro, for theft of five sacks
of chicken feed.
Kennard was the unsuccessful Ne
gro applicant for admission to the all-
white Mississippi Southern College at
Hattiesburg. He was convicted and
sentenced to the state penitentiary for
seven years. His conviction has been
upheld by the State Supreme Court,
but is on appeal to the United States
Supreme Court.
Jack Young, Negro attorney of
Jackson representing Evers, argued his
client’s case before the State Supreme
Court May 15. A decision was likely
in two weeks.
Attorney Young said Evers’ criticism
of the state court was “no more con
temptuous than attacks hurled by
Mississippi public figures against the
United States Supreme Court.” He said
if Evers was held guilty of contempt
for his criticism “it will prevent the
free exercise of free speech and of free
press.”
Attorney Young said Evers had a
right to criticize the court “as long as
it did not impede the administration
of justice.” He noted that the criti
cism was after the conviction of Ken
nard.
Evers had called Kennard’s convic
tion “the greatest mockery to judicial
justice ... in a courtroom of segre
gationists apparently resolved to put
Kennard legally away.”
Assistant Attorney General Garland
Lyell, for the state, said in “view of
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Souther
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
.7 *7, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstitu-
tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Av e
S., Nashville, Tennessee.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the authoritv
of the act of March 3, 1879. ^
Frank Ahlgren
Thomas R. Waring
Reed Sarratt . .
OFFICERS
Tom Flake, Associate Director
Jim Leeson, Assistant Director
.... Chairman
. . Vice Chairman
Executive Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com
mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Edward D. Ball, Editor, Nashville Ten
nessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk Univer
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Reed Sarratt, Executive Director,
Southern Education Reporting Serv
ice
Don Shoemaker, Editorial Page Editor,
Miami Herald, Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Assistant Edi
tor, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette
DELAWARE
James E. Miller, Managing Editor,
Delaware State News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Erwin Knoll, Staff Writer, Washing
ton Post & Times Herald
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Ma
con News
KENTUCKY
James S. Pope Jr., Education Editor,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or
leans States & Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
L. M. Wright Jr., City Editor, Char
lotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
Ken Morrell, Staff Writer, Nashville
Banner
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
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P.O. Box 6155, Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tenn.
the local situation, the statement by
Evers could adversely affect or preju
dice cases involving Negroes in For
rest County.”
“Evers seemed bent on destroying
what has in recent years been an ever
increasing spirit of mutual respect be
tween the races,” Lyell said.
Community Action
Lieutenant Governor
Says He Would Deny
Integrationists Aid
L t. Gov. Paul B. Johnson,
keynoting a May 17 Jackson
Citizens Council celebration of
“Seven Years of Successful Seg
regation” said he would not help
integrationists get a foothold in
Mississippi by giving assistance
as a state official. He is expected
to run for governor in the 1963
campaign.
“There will never be on my part any
assistance or help to those seeking to
integrate Mississippi under any cir
cumstances,” Lt. Gov. Johnson said.
“Those wanting to come in this state
and agitate are taking upon themselves
an unusually large chance—not only
criticism or bodily injury, but injury
to others.”
Asserting that “we have sold to the
rest of the country the image of a
peaceful state with expanding growth,”
Johnson said “the reason is that mem
bers of all races have confidence in
their leaders.”
“Negroes now are finding out that
they have been helping to support
something that wasn’t in the NAACP
and other similar organizations,” he
said. The Negroes of Mississippi are
not only satisfied, but happy despfe
the efforts of integrationists.”
‘Frightening Years’
“The reason we have successful seg
regation and racial harmony is becau®
of a unity of purpose and firm de
termination on the part of Missis?"
pians that their principles will not
traduced,” he said. “We are
some frightening years, but our p® 0 ?'
have met them before, armed
truth—something the integration^ 1
can’t endure.” ,
“We have captured the high g roU j
of truth and facts. The high £ r( V.
leads to eventual victory. From
high ground there will be no retr® 3 ;_
Johnson said the Citizens Coun
with their radio-TV “forum” h*.
“carried the message of Missis 9 *
and the South to the rest of the
tion” and have “done more in ^
fight to preserve segregation than
group I know of.”
Circuit Judge T. P. Brady of B r ^
haven, Mississippi’s Democratic ,
tional Committeeman, in presenting
ihety^
Court 1
Gov. Johnson asserted that “the
nical United States Supreme
been lowered in the eyes of th®
tion because of its school dese:jT
tion decision of 1954.” He said f
grationist propaganda “to a Urge ,
tent has now been recognized J*
mouthings of pseudosociologist 9 .
Asserting “there is no^ ,
ground.” Judge Brady said }
either in one army or the othe i
we know who you are.” jon j
He said there are segreg 3 ^ s
and states righters on the 0I ^j e f
and the gradualist who is a m
and conformists on the other.
Judge Brady said “the
Mississippi ate their supper to ,
peace and harmony because g
efforts of the Citizens Councils- ^
a state officer in the organizatm
cated to preservation of segreS ^