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MGE8—JULY, 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
LOUISIANA
66 Orleans Negroes Apply For Biracial
First Grade
Picket on Last School Day
White parents and children turned out at Frantz Elementary School June 9 to
show that their protest over the desegregated school was still alive.
NEW ORLEANS, La.
ixty-six Negro children ap
plied for admission to the first
grades of white public schools in
New Orleans for the term open
ing in September.
The number of applicants received
prior to the June 2 filing deadline was
less than half the total who applied
when desegregation of the city’s public
schools began on a grade-a-year, pu
pil-placement basis in November of
1960.
A. P. Tureaud, Louisiana attorney
for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, said
he could only speculate that intimida
tion, threats and abuse to which last
year’s applicants were subjected had
curbed the number seeking admission
for the new term.
Evaluation and Testing
O. Perry Walker, sworn in July 1 as
the new superintendent of the Orleans
school system, announced his staff had
begun the evaluation and testing of ap
plicants for transfer under the same
procedure followed last year.
He said that under the pupil-place
ment procedure being followed, all ap
plicants for transfer from one school
district to another must be screened
according to 17 criteria—involving apti
tude, psychological adjustment, avail
able classroom space, the possibility of
friction in the schools, and other areas
of adjustment set forth in the state
pupil placement act (No. 492 of 1960.)
In addition to the 66 Negro applicants
for transfers into white districts, he
said, 144 applications were received
from white children asking moves to
other white schools and 21 from Ne
groes asking transfers to other Negro
schools.
135 Applied Last Year
Last year, 135 Negroes applied for
transfers to white schools. Five were
accepted for admission after screening
and four later entered formerly all-
white schools—three in McDonogh No.
19 and one in William Frantz.
The fifth student accepted for ad
mission last year dropped the applica
tion for transfer before schools were
desegregated Nov. 14.
Walker announced that the four Ne
groes at McDonogh No. 19 and Frantz
schools would move up to the second
grades in the same schools next year.
Plan Differs From Others
New Orleans’ plan of grade-a-year
desegregation differs from others in
itiated in the South in that it contem
plates desegregation of only the first
grade each year.
The Negroes accepted in 1960 would
move up to second year in 1961, third
in 1962, etc., but at this time there is no
plan for further desegregating the up
per years.
★ ★ ★
At Baton Rouge, the East Baton
Rouge parish school board ousted Dr.
Lloyd V. Funchess as superintendent
and Gov. Jimmie H. Davis’ four new
appointees to the board were behind
the move.
Reports circulated that the majority
of the board—which was increased
from 7 to 11 members by legislative
action at the height of the desegrega
tion controversy this year—reported to
the governor that Funchess would not
co-operate on budget and segregation
matters.
Denied Charges
Funchess denied the charges but lost
his first round in court June 28 in his
attempt to upset the board’s decision to
replace him with Lloyd Lindsey, prin
cipal of Baton Rouge Junior High
school.
The legislature in early 1961 in
creased the membership of the East
Baton Rouge Parish school board to
assure the state administration a ma
jority vote on segregation matters.
Two taxpayer suits were filed in
Baton Rouge in June challenging the
state act under which the membership
was enlarged. Dr. Howard Henson and
Joseph Gehrung said in their suits that
Act 7 of the second special session of
the 1961 legislature is unconstitutional.
Says Governor Involved
The school board, which is under an
order to desegregate with all deliberate
speed, is headed by I. P. Collier, who
charges that Davis is directly involved
in the Funchess controversy.
“I very definitely think he should
make a comment,” said Collier of the
governor, “because he is the genesis of
the whole thing. The governor is right
in the middle of this thing.
Louisiana Highlights
The Orleans Parish school board
announced that that 66 Negro first-
graders applied before the June 2
deadline for admission to white
schools in September. Processing of
the applications is under way.
Dr. Lloyd V. Funchess was re
moved as superintendent of East
Baton Rouge parish public schools.
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis was accused
of being directly involved.
A brief filed by the U.S. Justice
Department in the St. Helena Parish
school desegregation case says that
states, under the 14th amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, must provide
public education. Louisiana said in
another brief that education is a
gratuity of the state and may be
withdrawn. Other states are accept
ing the federal court’s invitation to
file briefs on the issue of whether
public schools are an obligation of
the states.
The legislature at the closing of
its fiscal session took steps which
could lead to a cutoff in funds for
the desegregated public schools of
Orleans Parish. But in the absence
of direct action, the Orleans Parish
school board adopted a wait-and-see
attitude.
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis says he has
no plans for a special legislative ses
sion during the summer months.
“He never has heard of home rule.
He’s doing the same thing to us that
he is complaining about the federal
government doing to him.”
Davis and the legislature have re
peatedly protested federal interference
with the public schools of the state.
★ ★ ★
The Orleans Parish school board also
was involved in a dismissal in which
the issue of segregation was injected.
Albert T. Tichenor Sr., a frequent
anti-integration picketer, was fired for
incompetency and neglect of duty June
27.
The school board said at a prolonged
trial that Tichenor, a teacher at Francis
W. Gregory Junior High School, was
guilty of refusing to permit school su
periors to enter his classroom to ob
serve teaching methods, lacked profes
sional skill, refused to obey orders, and
was unable to work with his superiors.
Tichenor and his wife, Ruth, a teach
er at Sophie B. Wright High School,
charged that the board singled him out
because of his stand for segregation
and accused the board of being pro-in
tegration and in sympathy with Com
munism.
Legal Action
U. S. Says States
Legally Obligated
To Provide Schools
The U.S. Justice Department told a
three-judge federal court in Louisiana
that it is the obligation of the states to
provide public schools under the 14th
amendment of the U.S. constitution.
Its brief was filed in the St. Helena
Parish school desegregation case (Hall
v. St. Helena School Board, 1952).
While it appears the decision in the
St. Helena case will set precedent far
beyond the issue of whether St. Helena
is entitled to close its public schools,
there was no definitive court action
indicating St. Helena would be ordered
to desegregate this fall.
Briefs Due Aug. 4
The three-judge court continued un
til Aug. 4 the deadline for the filing of
briefs it has asked from the 50 states
and from “friends of the court” on the
issue of whether states are obligated to
maintain a system of public education.
The issue was raised in the St. Hele
na case after the school board called
an election to determine whether the
residents of the parish would rather
have desegregated public schools or
have no public schools at all.
The vote—taken after an “all delib
erate speed” order was issued to the
St. Helena board—was overwhelmingly
in favor of closure.
Technically, the case now revolves
around Act 2 of the Second Extraordi
nary Session of the Legislature of 1961
—the act which authorized the calling
of the election on the issue of desegre
gation.
But the three-judge court—composed
of District Judges J. Skelly Wright and
Herbert W. Christenberry and Judge
John Minor Wisdom, U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals—asked the attorneys
general of the 50 states to file briefs on
whether states should provide public
education.
The Justice Department brief said
the right of all American children to a
public education is directly related to
their rights as adults to vote.
Literacy Test
Louisiana, like 17 other states, said
the brief, maintains a literacy test for
voting. Such tests have been held valid
by the Supreme Court.
“Accordingly,” the Justice Depart
ment said, “we believe that the impo
sition of such a requirement as a con
dition to the exercise of the most basic
of all rights of a citizen may well im
pose a corresponding duty upon the
state of Louisiana to furnish its citizens
with the means by which the conditions
can be met.”
‘Portals of Learning’
The government brief said in part:
“If the portals of learning are closed
to the citizens of certain states, those
individuals will be reduced to second,
third or fourth-class citizenship as
compared with citizens of other states
which continue to fulfill their educa
tional obligations.
“Such persons will be unable to com
pete with citizens of other states in the
struggle for professional and economic
achievement.
“Where a state takes the drastic step
of depriving its citizens of so significant
an opportunity, the federal constitution
demands that the state come forward
with a showing that its action is not
irrational or discriminatory. If the state
is unable to do so, the due process
clause will stay its hand.”
‘Absolute Necessity’
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
released a statement at the time of the
filing of the brief declaring:
“In America of the ’60s, education
for all is an absolute necessity.
“The loss of an education to a child
in his formative years is an irreplace
able loss of his dignity as an individual
as well as to the resources of the na
tion. It is a . . . stunting of a child’s
growth that cannot be rectified. It will
affect his opportunity for jobs, his ac
cess to a better life and even his right
to vote.
“To deprive a child of this is to deny
him his rights to both liberty and prop
erty in the most fundamental sense.”
Motive Questioned
The Justice Department said that the
Louisiana act authorizing elections
which could lead to school closure was,
in effect, an attempt to avoid court-or
dered desegregation.
Its brief, the department said, showed
sufficient reasons to void the school
closure act on the basis that it would
circumvent court orders.
The Justice Department believes, the
brief said, that a state’s abandonment
of public schools violates the 14th
amendment’s due process of law clause.
“Without the force of law,” the brief
said, “private property cannot exist.
Without the accepted and essential
contribution of state maintenance of
public education, the dignity and free
dom of the individual as a citizen of
the state would, for the same reasons,
be lost.”
Powers—Not Duties
Louisiana argued, however, in a brief
filed by Attorney General Jack P. F.
Gremillion, that the 14th amendment
“cannot be construed as turning the
inherent powers of the states into du
ties which they must perform.”
Gremillion argued that a federal
court ruling against the closing of
schools by St. Helena Parish would
enable the federal government to dic
tate to the public through the states.
He said that the local option law on
school closure does not violate the due
process clause of the 14th amendment.
Schools Called Gratuity
“The power to provide an education,”
he said, “is not delegated to the federal
government nor prohibited to the state
and must be considered as a gratuity
flowing from the state to its citizens. It
is a well-established axiom of law that
a sovereign may withdraw any gratuity
conferred on its citizens.”
Louisiana stated in its brief:
“It (the 14th amendment) can be in
terpreted at best as a federal restric
tion upon the manner in which the
state may exercise its power if it should
decide to do so, for the constitution is
not a grant of powers, but merely a
limitation of powers.
“To decide otherwise would mean
that a state decides to exercise a power
reserved to it by the constitution, it
must not only exercise the power in
conformity with the 14th amendment,
but may not cease to exercise that
power should it decide to do so.”
Other Ideas
Here is a sampling of other opinions
that continue to come in to the U.S.
court clerk’s office at New Orleans:
Utah—The field of education is one
exclusively for the states to regulate so
long as there is not a violation of the
federal constitution. The federal con
stitution is not violated by a state
merely because it withdraws from the
field of public education.
New York—“Public education, in
grade and high schools at the very
least . . . today demands the protection
of the due process clause not alone for
the well-being of our citizens of to
morrow but as an absolute essential
for the preservation of our free Amer
ican way of life against the onslaught
of foreign ideologies.”
Florida—The constitution does not
guarantee a free public education to
every child. “Such a right can only be
determined by the will of a majority of
the people of the state itself acting
within the framework of the constitu
tion.”
Minnesota—“A minimum for public
education falls within the same ambit
of affirmative obligations that the Con
stitution imposes upon the states in the
second half of the 20th century—first,
because an educated citizenry is indis
pensable to a civilized community, and
second, because education is as much a
part of the welfare of children as their
physical and mental health.”
Arkansas—“The privilege of attend
ing a state educational institution is not
conferred by national citizenship and as
such its abolition does not offend the
14th Amendment.”
Save Our Schools, Inc., New Orleans
(filing as an organization dedicated to
preservation of public education)—The
state does not have to provide public
schools but if it provides them for
some citizens it must provide them for
all. “The state may not consistently
with due process and equal protection
provide public schools for some of its
citizens and deny them or permit them
to be denied to others. The alleged va
lidity of a local option plan rests on
considering a county or parish as a
unit for non-discriminatory, non-eva-
sive closing. The argument for validity
of the closing fails since the equal pro
tection laws speaks for the state and
not the county.”
★ ★ ★
Invalidation of Board
Replacement Affirmed
In other legal action, the U.S. Su
preme Court rejected three state ap
peals and summarily upheld the de
cision of a three-judge federal court at
New Orleans that Act 4 of the Third
Extraordinary Session of the legislature
of 1960 was invalid.
The act created an appointed school
board for Orleans Parish to replace the
elected board, which had voted the pu
pil placement plan of desegregation in
November.
Samuel I. Rosenberg, attorney for the
school board, reported that the board
for the first time since desegregation
began was now free of any challenge
to its validity and could exercise its
powers to borrow bank funds.
The board, however, took no action
immediately to do so, since it had fin
ally disposed of almost all financial
obligations that had piled up during
the desegregation crisis. The board had
been stymied by state actions which
prevented it from transacting financial
affairs.
Legislative Action
Amendment To Fund
Measure May Cut
Off Two Schools
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis signed into
law a general appropriations bill total
ing $514 million after the Louisiana
Legislature, in a last-minute action
added an amendment apparently aimed
at cutting off funds for New Orleans’
two desegregated schools.
The amendment provided that state
funds would not be paid to public
schools in which enrollment has
dropped 75 per cent below that of ei
ther of the two preceding years.
After the Nov. 14, 1960, desegregation
of McDonogh No. 19 and William
Frantz schools in New Orleans, a mas
sive white boycott was initiated. The
result: McDonogh 19 was without
white students the remainder of the
school year though its prior enrollment
was 463. Frantz’ enrollment dropped
from 540 to an average of 15. Three
Negro children attend McDonogh and
one Negro attended Frantz.
Wait-and-See
New Orleans school officials were ap
prehensive about the new budget pr°'
vision but adopted a wait-and-see atti
tude.
They declared that the amend
ment was written in such a way as to
make it legally impractical to enforc®
at the opening of the city’s schools 10
September. , ,
The New Orleans spokesmen pointed
out that the amendment provided tha
funds would not be paid in any caS f
where average daily attendance drops
more than 75 per cent of the ADA 0
either 1959-60 or 1960-61. The ADA
for the upcoming school year is not es
tablished until the schools close nex
June.
Obviously, however, the legislat‘d®
action was directed at cutting off s *f
funds at any school where an effect
white boycott is established.
Passed Easily
The amendment swept through the
Senate before anyone knew it was
the general appropriations bill and <- a "
ily won House approval. Rep. Salvad 0
Anzelmo of New Orleans angT"*
charged that “we are now in the
ess and we are now phase number 0
of closing the public schools of
isiana.”
“If we keep this amendment as
curred in, we are closing our P uD
schools,” he said.
(See LOUISIANA, Page 9)