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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE 1961—PAGE 5
^jORTH CAROLINA
Court Asked to Order Construction Halt
On One of Two Charlotte College Units
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
T wo Charlotte doctors have
filed a petition for an injunc
tion in Mecklenburg County Su
perior Court to halt the construc
tion of Carver College.
Carver is one of two community
colleges for which new campuses are
no w being built. The other, Charlotte
College, is a predominantly white col
lege. Carver has an all-Negro student
body.
The two colleges now have classes
in high school buildings. Charlotte
College classes are in what was Cen
tral High School. Carver’s classes are
in Second Ward High School’s build
ings. Central High is feeing turned into
an industrial education center. Second
Ward is an all-Negro public high
school.
Support for the two colleges comes
from Mecklenburg County taxes and
from tax funds from the state of North
Carolina.
The case is Wynn v. Trustees of the
Charlotte Community College System.
The doctors filing the suit (on May
15) were Dr. Roy S. Wynn and Dr.
James D. Martin. Both are Negroes.
Charges Waste
The suit is a taxpayer’s suit. It con
tends that construction of two colleges
is an unnecessary waste of taxpayers’
money; that one college, Charlotte Col
lege, would be adequate. (Details of
the public discussion of the wisdom of
building two new colleges were con
tained in a special article in Southern
School News, May, 1961.)
Further, the doctors contend that
construction of two colleges will result
in the perpetuation of segregation and
that such a course of action is an un
constitutional application of the author
ity granted the trustees under the
state’s community college* act.
The suit is brought against the
trustees collectively and individually.
Trustees are Thomas M. Belk, C. A.
McKnight, John A. McRae, Dr. E. A.
Beaty, Sheldon P. Smith, Dr. Thomas
Watkins, Sr., J. Murrey Atkins, R. L.
Taylor, John Paul Lucas, Addison M.
Reese, Linn D. Garibaldi and Oliver
R. Rowe. Also included in the suit are
T N. Pease & Co., Inc., architects and
®gineers, and Dickerson, Inc., the
general contractor for Carver College.
Construction Under Way
Construction at the Carver site be-
<an in March. Most grading is done
j*d some foundation footings have
* en Poured. Two classroom buildings
a heating plant are scheduled for
wipletion late this year to permit use
buildings for the spring term
*mch is to begin in January, 1962.
Some Charlotte College buildings,
under construction, are to be
for use in September.
The trustees of the Charlotte Com-
’J'ty College System have their
^thority under the state’s Communi-
Colleges Act. The single group of
is the governing board for
“ Charlotte and Carver.
51 Allegations Made
J^uded in the list of allegations,
.Bering 51 in all, the plaintiffs con-
Charlotte College is named for
Roll °f Charlotte while Carver
is namec * f° r George Wash-
jP Carver, a Negro educator,
k, . the enrollment at Carver Coi
tal,. ls about 261 students, while the
ji , “Bent at Charlotte College is
j, * 696 students.
Charlotte College has been
ity by the trustees under author-
!*°rth ant * in tehalf of the State of
^ w Ca i olin , a as a segregated col-
*hh \T members of the white race,
ttLfaculty, instructors, adminis-
foU e , e Personnel and regularly en-
'hth stu dents ah being white and
Hisses being held in a public
i 'ulding in Charlotte that was
’■iaUy W occupied by pupils substan-
fj! a 1 °f whom were white.
Carver College is operated as a
3toy s etel y segregated college for Ne-
the faculty, instructors, ad-
'■eitjg ra hve personnel and students all
Wlij . Negroes and with classes being
v><J j 111 a public school building now
0rtner ly occupied by Negro chil-
■jx Engineering Courses
>*ts * the Charlotte College catalog
°h e i a , Urses in engineering offered in
ron with a program which may
^ Feted in the third and fourth
^ hale 4 ^ or th Carolina State College
*®h, a college with faculty, ad
N. C. Highlights
A North Carolina Superior Court
has been asked to issue an injunc
tion which would stop construction
on Carver College, the Negro half
of the two-part Community College
System in Charlotte for which two
new campuses are now being built.
In Greensboro, a federal district
court judge has ordered the City
Board of Education to assign four
Negro students “in accordance with
their constitutional rights.” They
have been seeking admission to a
desegregated school since 1958.
Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel
for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, has
urged a massive assault by North
Carolina Negroes on the state’s seg
regated public schools.
At Chapel Hill, a Negro has been
elected editor-in-chief of the Law
Review at the University of North
Carolina’s Law School.
ministration and student body substan
tially all white.
That Carver College’s catalog lists
courses which indicate that the third
and fourth years may be completed at
North Carolina Agricultural and Tech
nical College in Greensboro, where the
faculty, administration and student
body are substantially all Negroes.
That the Carver College catalog
states that medical treatment is avail
able to Carver students at Good Sa
maritan Hospital in Charlotte, the
only general hospital in Charlotte op
erated exclusively for Negroes.
Accreditations
That Charlotte College is a member
of the North Carolina College Confer
ence, the Southern Association of
Junior Colleges and the American
Association of Junior Colleges and is
accredited by the Southern Association
of Colleges and Secondary Schools
while Carver College is a member of
the North Carolina College Conference
and the American Association of Jun
ior colleges but is not accredited by the
Southern Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools.
That the 50-acre site for Carver
College is in an area occupied pre
dominantly by Negro residential sec
tions, while the 267-acre Charlotte Col
lege site is in an area well-removed
from Negro residential sections.
That if both of the college units are
constructed, Charlotte College will
continue to be operated by the trustees
as a segregated or largely segregated
institution for members of the white
race and that Carver College will con
tinue to be operated as a segregated
institution for members of the Negro
race.
Segregation Predicted
That if both Charlotte and Carver
College are constructed, a large ma
jority of students attending these col
leges will reside in Mecklenburg
County and will have received their
preparatory training from the Char
lotte and Mecklenburg County public
school system, which is “to all intents
and purposes a racially segregated
public school system,” and that if both
proposed college units are constructed
the graduates of this system will feed
into a segregated Charlotte Community
College System, the result of which will
be “an unlawful perpetuation of racial
segregation” with the full support of
the State of North Carolina.
That the trustees in their official ca
pacity under authority of and in be
half of the State of North Carolina
have set upon a course of conduct in
violation of the 14th Amendment of
the U. S. Constitution.
That such an application of the
authority granted in N. C. General
Statutes 116-47 to 116-42 (the Com
munity Colleges Act) is a violation of
the 14th Amendment and are there
fore unconstitutionally applied.
‘Manifest Abuse’
That the trustees, by setting out to
construct two separate colleges with
separate classrooms, faculties, eating
facilities, athletic facilities and other
separate facilities are acting in a man
ner which amounts to a “manifest
abuse” of their discretion, resulting in
a greatly increased cost and therefore
a “needless waste” of public funds.
That the construction of only one
college facility under the Charlotte
Community College System would be
adequate and would more efficiently
discharge the purpose of the system.
That 267 acres of land obtained for
Charlotte College contains adequate
area in which to construct needed fa
cilities for all students enrolled in the
Charlotte Community College System,
and that full utilization of this tract
of land would more easily and effi
ciently discharge the purpose of the
Community College System while sav
ing hundreds of thousands of dollars
of public money.
That approximately $267,000 has
been allocated for Carver College and
that expenditure of such money for
an “unneeded separate college is “a
manifest abuse of the trustees’ discre
tion.”
Taxation Cited
That plaintiffs and other taxpayers
will be taxed to repay that part of the
Carver costs which comes from an
already-approved $975,000 bond issue.
That administrative remedies have
been exhausted and no plain, speedy
or adequate remedy at law exists out
side the court.
The petition asks that until a final
injunction can be obtained, a tempo
rary injunction be issued which will
order a halt to construction on Car
ver College.
Attorney for the plaintiffs is J.
Charles Morris of Charlotte. The case
is scheduled to be heard before Su
perior Court Judge Susie Sharp.
★ ★ ★
Greensboro Board Directed
To Reassign Negro Pupils
The Greensboro Board of Education
has been directed to assign four Negro
pupils to “an appropriate school in
accordance with their constitutional
rights,” and the students have been
directed to make their school choices
known.
The decree was entered in U. S.
Middle District Court in Greensboro
on May 12 by Judge Edwin M. Stan
ley. The case is McCoy v. Greensboro
City Board of Education, first filed
Feb. 10, 1959, in Middle District Court.
Judge Stanley’s decree said that if
the children’s constitutional rights “are
improperly denied by the board,” they
may apply to the federal court “for
further relief.”
The students are Valerie, Eric and
Thetus McCoy and Michael Anthony
Tonkins. Parents of the children
brought suit after the board had failed
to grant transfer requests in the fall
of 1958.
Appeals Court Mandate
The recent decree by Judge Stanley
was in accordance with a mandate
from the U. S. Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals. The circuit court had re
versed an earlier ruling in the case by
Judge Stanley,
In the earlier ruling, Judge Stanley
had dismissed the suit and ruled that
the children had been admitted to the
school to which they originally had
sought admission.
The students had been attending all-
Negro Pearson Street Elementary
School. In the fall of 1958, they were
denied transfer to all-white Caldwell
Elementary School. In their suit, they
contended that the Board of Education
had denied them their constitutional
rights.
Then, in the summer of 1959, the
Greensboro Board of Education con
solidated Pearson Street and Caldwell
schools. The campuses are adjacent.
In the fall of 1959, the four students
were admitted to what was then called
only Caldwell School.
However, in the same summer, 1959,
the Greensboro Board of Education had
granted transfers to all white students
formerly assigned to the Caldwell
School. Further, the board assigned
only Negro teachers and other school
officials to the consolidated Caldwell-
Pearson School for the fall of 1959.
The result was an all-Negro school.
Original Ruling
It was upon this situation that Judge
Stanley ruled: that the students had
been admitted to the school to which
they sought admission and that the
case should be dismissed.
An appeal on that ruling resulted in
the Fourth Circuit Court opinion. The
Circuit Court said the board’s actions
were contrary to the admonition of the
Supreme Court in its 1954 ruling and
added: “Obviously this conduct can
not be approved.”
Neither the Circuit Court’s ruling
nor Judge Stanley’s recent decree sug
gested specific steps for the board to
follow in making assignments for the
four children for the 1961-62 school
year.
No Specifications
Both rulings decree only that the
board is to assign the students “in ac
cordance with their constitutional
rights.”
In his decree, Judge Stanley noted
that the board was scheduled to make
assignments for the 1961-62 school
year on May 30 and that attorneys for
the four students had said they did not
wish reassignment during the current
school year. The current year is to end
June 2.
The students’ attorneys were told to
inform the court within 10 days of the
specific school to which each child
wishes to be assigned for 1961-62.
In The Colleges
Negro Named Editor
Of Law Publication
At State University
A soft-spoken 24-year-old stu
dent, Julius LaVonne Cham
bers, will be the editor-in-chief of
the University of North Carolina’s
Law Review next year. He is the
first Negro ever to hold the job.
Chambers, a native of Mount
Gilead, N.C., is top man in his class.
His selection was announced quietly
by the university’s news bureau, with
out reference to his race, and it was
published in many newspapers in the
state without reaction. Several days
later, when his racial identification was
published, there still was no reaction.
The director of the news bureau, A.
G. (Pete) Ivey, said the original story
was handled “for just what Chambers
is—another student. But I knew this
was a big story, and I decided to have
the complete . . . information in reach
and to offer it freely and willingly if
asked.”
Chambers, who will be a senior next
year, maintains an “A” average in the
law school. He was selected, univer
sity officials said, by the standards
which are used each year in picking
the editor-in-chief.
Standards Listed
The standards include academic
standing, writing ability, and achieve
ment on the staff of the Law Review
during the first two years in the law
school.
Following the prescribed method of
selection, the editors during the 1960-
61 school year nominated eight stu
dents from among those who will be
third-year students next fall. These
eight are academically at the head of
their class.
The law school faculty then selected
four of the eight and picked from those
four the person they thought had the
best combination of achievements in
the academic-writing-accomplishment
fields which are the guides.
By these measurements, Chambers
was acknowledged as the leading man
in his class and was named to the
editorship.
In the current issue of the Law Re
view, Chambers has an article en
titled: “Specific Perfortnance of an
Oral Contract to Devise Real Prop
erty.” For the next issue he has writ
ten an article entitled “Torts Survey.”
Five Negro Students
Of the 314 students enrolled in the
116-year-old law school of the Uni
versity of North Carolina, five are Ne
groes. Seven Negroes have received
law degrees at the university since
1952.
The university has an enrollment of
8,500 students, of whom 35 are Negroes.
Twenty-eight of these are in graduate
schools, and the remaining seven are
in the undergraduate school.
Chambers, who is married, was
graduated from North Carolina Col
lege at Durham and did graduate work
on a scholarship at the University of
Michigan where he received an M.A.
in history. He enrolled in the Univer
sity of North Carolina law school in
1959.
Scholastic Record
He has a record of A’s and B’s from
elementary school in Mount Gilead
through Peabody High School in Troy
and in college, where he was grad
uated summa cum laude.
His parents and grandparents have
Julius Chambers
Law Review Editor
lived in the Mount Gilead-Troy area
for several generations. His father,
William Lee Chambers, owns and op
erates a service station-garage in
Mount Gilead.
Chambers’ wife, the former Vivian
V. Giles of Kannapolis, is a graduate
of Winston-Salem Teachers College.
She teaches at Northside Elementary
School in Chapel Hill.
W hat They Say
Thurgood Marshall
Calls For Broader
Desegregation Drive
T hurgood Marshall, chief
counsel for the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of
Colored People, has called for a
massive assault by Negroes on
segregated schools in North Caro
lina.
Speaking to approximately 3,000 Ne
groes at a statewide Freedom Day
rally held May 7 by the state NAACP
in Raleigh, Marshall said “token in
tegration” in North Carolina schools is
“an insult to your intelligence.”
“Every Negro in Raleigh should de
cide this day: ‘This is the last day my
child will attend a segregated school,’ ”
he declared.
“The Negro in every hamlet, town
and city in North Carolina should try
to register his child at a segregated
school,” he said. “They should stop
waiting for someone in a big Cadillac
car to drive up to their door and take
them to the schools.”
‘Take Your Children’
Marshall said the only way for Ne
groes to get desegregated schools “is
to want them and to take your chil
dren to the school” and apply for ad
mission.
“The NAACP is behind you,” he
said. “The country is behind you.”
Ralph Campbell, president of the
Raleigh NAACP, said the Freedom Day
rally was designed to arouse North
Carolina residents “to a more active
participation in the total program of
the national organization and to a
greater and larger contribution in the
expense.”
Marshall, in his speech, said Negroes
want the rights accorded white people.
“If the white schools are teaching
white supremacy,” he said “we want
the opportunity to take it. We might
like it,” he added, and his comment
brought chuckles from his audience.
Says Dual Schools Costly
Marshall said: “Dual education sys
tems are mighty expensive.” He sug
gested that Raleigh desegregate schools
and use the savings to “aircondition
this building.” The meeting was in
Raleigh’s city-owned Memorial Audi
torium.
“Freedom is not relative,” Marshall
declared. “If you don’t have your
rights in proportion to where you are
living, you are being denied your
rights. All of us may die before we
get our equal rights. But let’s make
one pledge: our children won’t.”
First Negro Councilman
Campbell, in his introductory re
marks, noted that Raleigh had recently
elected its first Negro city council
man, John H. Winters.
“This.” Campbell said, “is a new day
for Raleigh.”
Marshall contended that desegrega
tion in North Carolina was definitely
less than token integration and said
the state should “hang its head in
shame for the racial situation in its
schools.”
North Carolina’s 173 school districts,
with more than 1,100,000 students, more
than a fourth of whom are Negro, has
fewer than 100 Negro students attend
ing schools with white students in 10
different school systems. # # #