Newspaper Page Text
10L.8. NO. I
VIRGINIA
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Objective
Court Refuses U. S. Entry
Into Prince Edward Suit
RICHMOND, Va.
rigs United States Justice De-
1 partment’s attempt to inter
ne in the Prince Edward Coun-
^ school desegregation case was
Ejected by U.S. District Judge
0jen R. Lewis on June 24. (Allen
, School Board of Prince Ed-
&d County)
Judge Lewis said “the granting of
jjervention will unduly delay and
jejudice the adjudication of the rights”
5 the Negro plaintiffs and the county
jhool board.
The Justice Department, in a peti-
jB filed April 26, had sought to enter
4e case on the side of the Negro plain
ts, who are seeking to force reopening
tfthe county’s closed public schools,
le motion was argued in Federal Dis-
rict Court at Richmond May 8 and 9.
In his memorandum opinion, Judge
!*wis was especially critical of that
part of the government’s motion asking
ie court to prohibit Virginia from ex
uding funds to maintain public
schools anywhere in the state until
Prince Edward public schools reopen.
\egro Leaders
Map New Drive
On Segregation
WASHINGTON, D.C.
]^egro leaders are considering
' a massive drive against school
segregation anywhere in the
^tion when a new academic year
lets under way this fall.
Statements to that effect were made
■“nag June by Thurgood Marshall,
yl counsel of the National Associa-
* for the Advancement of Colored
’tople; Dr. J. H. Jackson, president of
National Baptist Convention board
l Erectors; and the Rev. Dr. Martin
Wier King Jr., head of the Southern
-“nstian Leadership Council.
King said he would call on Presi-
Kennedy to bar by executive order
j^gation in all public places. Dr.
"^son called for protest movements
|™st segregation, to be carried on
;• Methods in accord with the federal
^■tution.
Jhrshall denounced “token desegre-
i oa ” and urged Negro patients in
South to present their children for
?°lhnent in now-segregated schools.
^ Promised renewed NAACP efforts
oppose segregation in Northern
Y° ls as well.
an address to the 18th annual
(See MARSHALL, Page 4)
This Issue Is Later
^utlVot ‘Late ’;New
<Q hedule Adopted
issue of Southern School
i 8 reaches subscribers later than
V,, en the custom. It is not
Hijj,.’ however. The printing and
schedule has been changed
'PH.i 6 benefit of both the reader
‘ne staff.
jfeji. the new schedule, the copy
is the first day of each
'■isf ^hi s will make it possible
corres P on dents to write a
*i 6 j* ete report on the events of
l 4^ ce< li n S month. Under the old
!ate r U f’ the paper was mailed no
*han the first day of the
hh 6r ’ an< l some late developments
"j 616 mireported, inadequately
it ^ in last-minute insertions,
W * e< ? over rmtil the next month.
| ttUl ing with this issue, South-
ke r < ?° 0L News will be mailed no
“an the 10th of the month.
W?°Pies will reach subscribers
lr nately 10 days later than in
Rast.
He said such an order “could jeop
ardize the education of several hundred
thousand Virginia children who have
had no responsibility whatsoever for
the closing of the public schools in
Prince Edward County.”
Judge Lewis’ other findings include
these:
1) The government’s intervention at
tempt was without legislative authority
and apparently contrary to the wishes
of Congress.
2) The government’s motion raised
state constitutional questions that a
federal court normally would not deal
with.
3) There was “serious question in
the court’s mind” as to whether the
Justice Department waited so long to
make its intervention move that it vio
lated the federal rule requiring “time
ly” filing of such motions.
4) Contrary to the government’s con
tention, “there has been no known de
fiance of this court’s order, either by
the state of Virginia or the county of
Prince Edward.”
★ ★ ★
As an indicator of Virginians’ present
feelings on the school racial issue, the
result of the current campaign for
lieutenant governor may be more sig
nificant than the outcome of the contest
for governor.
Here is the background, in brief:
Two tickets are seeking the state’s
three elective positions.
A. S. Harrison Jr., former attorney
general, is running for governor on a
slate with state Sen. Mills E. Godwin
for lieutenant governor and state Sen.
Robert Y. Button for attorney general.
A. E. S. Stephens, present lieutenant
governor, is running for governor, with
state Sen. Armistead Boothe for lieu
tenant governor and T. Munford Boyd,
University of Virginia law professor,
for attorney general.
The Harrison ticket—especially Sen.
Godwin—has been associated in the
public mind with the policy of massive
resistance to school desegregation.
The Stephens ticket—especially Sen.
Boothe—has been associated with the
“moderate” viewpoint.
General Support
During the current campaign, how
ever, all the candidates have expressed
general support for Virginia’s present
school laws.
There have been some differences of
opinion. Boothe has called for re
opening of the Prince Edward schools
(See POLITICAL, Page 2)
Which Way Do We
Go From Here?
Pletcher, Jackson Daily News
‘Just Sign Here, Esau’
Eight School Boards
Raise Biracial Total
A s the 1960-61 school year ended, school boards in eight Southern
cities and counties assigned almost 1,050 additional Negro chil
dren to biracial schools next fall. At the same time Negro leaders
called for a massive drive against school segregation in the South.
Atlanta accepted 10 Negroes to enter
Knox, Nashville Banner
Out Behind the School House
f< z "
f 4'
V 616-61 Tfegp 0. SEieEL.^
Seibel, Richmond Times-Dispatch
white high schools in September. This
will be Georgia’s first desegregation
below the college level. Little Rock,
Ark.; Miami, Fla.; Raleigh, N. C.;
Charlottesville, Va., and Montgomery
Harford and Carroll Counties, Md., an
nounced assignments that would expand
desegregation in their school systems.
And Delaware received court approval
of a plan to open all grades in all its
schools to Negroes.
Initial desegregation occurred at the
University of Miami, Wake Forest Col
lege, St. Petersburg Junior College
and the University of Tennessee’s
Martin Branch as the schools enrolled
Negroes for summer sessions.
In several speeches in the South
during June, Thurgood Marshal, chief
counsel of the NAACP’s Legal Defense
Fund, denounced “token desegregation”
and urged Negro parents to present
their children for enrollment in white
schools. NAACP officials in several
Southern states backed up his demand
for increased desegregation efforts.
Georgia Moved Closer
Georgia moved closer to its first high
school desegregation with the assign
ment in Atlanta of 10 Negroes to the
11th and 12th grades in white schools
next September. It was considered pos
sible that Negro attorneys would go
to the federal courts with the cases
of 38 other Negroes turned down for
transfers to the white schools. The
change to biracial schools in Atlanta
Index Is Published
For SSN, Volume 7
The index to Volume 7 of South
ern School News has been printed
and mailed to all subscribers. It was
published as a separate four-page
supplement to the June issue and
covers the period July, 1960, through
June, 1961.
Previously, the index to a volume
has been incorporated into the first
issue of the next volume. The
change is intended to make the in
dex more useful and to simplify its
binding with the issues of the volume
to which it belongs.
Additional copies of the index are
available without charge to sub
scribers who request them.
DELAWARE
New School Plan Ends 5-Year Fight
DOVER, Del.
cpHE legal fight by Delaware
Negroes to enter white schools
has ended successfully, in the
opinion of Louis L. Redding, Wil
mington attorney, who initiated it
in 1956.
Redding said he would not appeal the
federal district court order of June 26
by Chief Judge Caleb M. Wright, who,
with certain modifications, accepted the
State Board of Education plan.
Redding said Judge Wright’s decision
means full and immediate desegregation
for the public schools. The modified
plan, he added, is wholly acceptable to
the Negroes whom he represented.
Judge Wright, in general, approved
both the short-and long-range aspects
of the new State Board plan, which was
filed with the court on Dec. 29, 1960.
The new plan was presented after the
Circuit Court in Philadelphia held that
the grade-a-year program did not
represent deliberate speed for Delaware.
Under the short-range plan, all Ne
groes who so desire will be allowed to
enter white schools in September at all
grade levels.
The long-range plan calls for total de
segregation by 1970 by the adoption of
a new school code by the General As
sembly. The new code would put out of
existence any school district which does
not include grades 1-12. Under a tenta
tive lineup, this would reduce the num
ber of Delaware districts from 91 to 29.
Judge Wright generally upheld regis
tration, transfer, and transportation
features of the state’s plan, but cau
tioned that they must be on a “racially
nondiscriminatory basis.”
Transfer Provisions
He ruled out the state tuition act of
1959 to the extent that it would “pro
hibit, condition, or otherwise qualify”
pupil transfers. The legislation forbids
transfer of a pupil from one district to
another when the sending district has
instruction at his grade level.
Several modifications were directed in
the portion of the plan dealing with
adequacy of school facilities.
The court held that “transfers should
not be subject in the first instance to
such a test,” but “should it appear that
the influx is greater in particular in
stances than was anticipated, the court
will entertain an appropriate motion for
temporary relief.”
Judge Wright made clear that the
standard of geographical location relates
only to the question of which white or
biracial school the pupil desiring trans
fer shall attend.
“No pupil desiring to transfer from a
colored school to a white or integrated
school shall be denied admission on the
grounds that the Negro school is nearer
to his place of residence,” the opinion
stated.
Judge Wright rejected as “not well
taken” objections to the long-range plan
in that it “conditions total integration
upon speculative legislative action.”
Details of the proposed code are not
important, Judge Wright said, “for it
suffices to say racial discrimination in
public education is eliminated.”
The court, he said, does not “find it
necessary or proper to dissect and
evaluate all aspects of the proposed
code.
“So long as it eliminates all distinc
tions in public education based on race,
it satisfies the requirements of the Con
stitution of the United States.”
Judge Wright likened the Delaware
school system to a “crazy-quilt pattern.”
“Even aside from the problem of in
tegration, it may well be in need of a
legislative overhaul,” he said.
But the “most orderly process of in
tegration,” he said, and the one having
the least adverse effects upon all stu
dents, “can be achieved through legis
lative action.”
Suggests Assembly Study
Therefore, he said, the General As
sembly, “acting with the advice of the
state board and state superintendent,
should have the first opportunity by
which the ultimate goal can be
achieved.”
In conclusion, Judge Wright stressed
(See JUDGE, Page 15)
would leave only Mississippi, South
Carolina and Alabama with completely
segregated public schools.
Delaware, which operated its schools
under a grade-a-year plan up through
last term, received federal court per
mission to go ahead with its new
desegregation plan. Under the new
plan, which was ordered by the U. S.
Third Circuit Court of Appeals last
year, all Negroes will have the choice
of entering white schools at all grade
levels in September.
Dade County (Miami), Florida’s first
and only desegregated district, assigned
Negroes to six more schools, which
would make 10 biracial schools next
fall. School officials plan massive de
segregation at one school, Earlington
Heights Elementary. The school, which
had 356 whites last year, will have
about 200 Negroes and 160 whites in
the fall, according to a school survey.
Closes Negro Schools
Montgomery County, Md., will close
its last three all-Negro schools and
will reassign the pupils attending them
to biracial schools; based on 1960-61
enrollment, this will place an additional
764 Negro children in schools with
white children. Carroll County has
accepted five new applications for
predominantly white schools, and Har
ford County reported approval of 14
Negro transfers. Two Eastern Shore
counties, Kent and Queen Anne’s, con
cluded their application periods without
receiving any transfer requests from
Negroes. Other Maryland counties were
in the process of receiving applications
for transfer under voluntary desegre
gation programs.
Little Rock will have desegregated
junior high schools next fall for the
first time. The board has assigned 49
Negroes to the formerly all-white
junior and senior high schools, 38 more
than attended biracial schools last year.
The Dollarway School District at
Pine Bluff, Ark., promoted to the
second grade of its white school the
one Negro girl who attended the first
grade there last year. The board re
jected two Negro boys applying for the
school’s first grade.
Orleans Parish school officials began
processing the 66 Negro first graders
applying for admission to New Orleans
white schools in September. The ap
plications received before the June 2
deadline were fewer than half those
made when public school desegregation
first began in 1960. The four Negroes
who entered white schools last year
will be moved up to the second grade
of the same schools.
Enroll Second Negro
Two North Carolina school boards
approved assignments of Negroes to
already desegregated schools. The
Raleigh board enrolled a second Negro
student at Murphey Elementary, the
city’s only biracial school. The Char-
lotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
reassigned one Negro student to Be-
thune Elementary School for next fall.
(See SURVEY, Page 10)
On the Inside
State Reports
Alabama 9
Arkansas 14
Florida 16
Georgia 5
Kentucky 6
Louisiana 8
Maryland 12
Mississippi 6
. Missouri 12
North Carolina 11
Oklahoma 10
South Carolina 16
Tennessee 7
Texas 3
West Virginia 10
Text
Prince Edward (Va.) 2
Special Articles
Attorney General Kennedy 9
Mecklenburg County (N.C.) 11
Intergroup Officials 15