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i NO I S I A I o SN0?1 iffnoiv v»OHo 3 ! 3 ]o V n»In 8002-8-29 Kfif NAbHVILLt, I EDHejjll Objective AUGUST, 1961 P1TK Deep South Governors Organize IIIending the initial meeting in Jackson, Miss., were, from left, Arkansas Gov. Orval faubus, Alabama Attorney General MacDonald Gallion, Alabama Gov. jrnof John Patterson, Alabama Highway Director Sam Engelhardt, and Mis sissippi Gov. Ross Barnett, who called the meeting. Unity’ Program Proposed At Governors’ Meeting JACKSON, Miss. Four Deep South governors 1 and 22 other officials from seven Southern states met here My 19 at the invitation of Mis sissippi Gov. Ross Barnett to dis cuss a “unity” program proposed by Barnett on issues of state sov ereignty and economic develop ment. Governors present in addition to Barnett were John Patterson of Ala bama, Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina and Orval E. Faubus of Ar kansas. All Southern governors were mvited, and representatives were sent from Florida, Georgia and Kentucky. They included Ralph Odom, an as sistant attorney general of Florida, At torney General Eugene Cook of Geor gia and Foster Ockerman, director of the Kentucky Department of Motor Vehicles. Gov. Barnett submitted a 17-page document for consideration, suggesting that the program be called “Southern Action for Expansion” (SAFE). He said it included four points including “improvement of the South’s position in its fight for the right of self-de termination and preservation of con stitutional government.” The plan also calls for expansion of Southern econ omy, Latin American trade and re search, the statement said. (See GOVERNORS, Page 2) THE REGION At Least 18 Districts tNanning Initial Desegregation This Fall A t least 18 Southern school districts plan to desegregate for the first time this fall, four by court order and 14 through voluntary programs. The districts planning their initial admission of Negroes to formerly all- white schools at the beginning of the 1961-62 term include six in Virginia, four in Texas, three in Tennessee, two in North Carolina, and one each in Florida, Georgia and Kentucky. Desegregating these districts will make 801 districts with biracial schools in the 17 Southern and border states, plus the District of Columbia. The area has 6,663 school districts but only 2,813 are biracial. A biracial district is one having both white and Negro students, whether the schools are seg regated or desegregated. In addition to these first desegrega tions announced for the fall, Southern School News correspondents report other districts already desegregated will have more Negroes in biracial classes. The number of Negroes at tending classes with whites was ex pected to remain at about seven per cent of the Negroes in the region’s public schools. Five Colleges Change Five colleges, including four private and church institutions, will admit Ne groes for the first time in the fall quarter. Georgia Tech has accepted voluntarily three Atlanta Negro fresh men. Another public college, Texas Tech, recently altered its segregation policy by quietly admitting Negroes for the summer session. The private schools desegregating this fall will be Mars Hill College, Duke University and Davidson Col lege, all in North Carolina, and Ok lahoma Christian College. The number of completely segre gated states will drop by one again this year. Georgia will have its first desegregated school below the college level when 10 Negroes enter the 11th and 12th grades of Atlanta high schools. The grade-a-year plan was ordered by a federal district court. Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina are not expected to admit any Negroes to white schools at the pub lic school or college level. Reports have been made that Negroes will at tempt to register at public colleges in Alabama and South Carolina. Chairman Predicts Orleans Parish at New Orleans de segregated last year, becoming the first Louisiana district to put Negroes in white schools. The first four Negroes involved have been reassigned to the same two schools and the school board chairman has predicted the district will have four to six biracial schools when assignments are completed. The six Virginia communities de segregating for the first time will make 17 districts in the state having biracial schools. Falls Church, which has voted itself from under control of the State Pupil Placement Board, assigned three Negroes to formerly white schools. The state board made these assignments in other districts: Stafford County, two; Prince William County, one; King Wil liam County, one; Montgomery County, two; and Roanoke County, one. State board assignments of additional Ne groes for the 11 communities already desegregated are expected to at least double the 208 Negroes attending schools with whites last year. Two large Texas cities, Dallas and Three States Enact Major School-Race Bills fjNLY THREE of 14 legislatures ^ meeting this year in Southern border states have taken Nor actions on issues of school legation-desegregation. , Louisiana and Georgia produced the of the 1961 legislation on the sub- ^ including school-closing and tui- jm-grant measures, and Arkansas viators sought to bolster their stand gainst compulsory attendance at bi- ' 5c ’ a l schools. ..Lawmakers of most other states in ' e region either bypassed the issue , touched lightly on it, some of them , rrim g attention to issues raised by ‘toedom riders” and sit-in demonstra- F 8, In four border states with laws Policies calling for nonsegregated eols and colleges, assemblies en- . or considered measures to re- H, Ve rerna unng racial aspects in their 'National programs. ^uisiana’s General Assembly, which ^ W three sessions during the first v, °I 1961, set the stage for a major t,,, whether the 14th amendment jo e U.S. Constitution requires states ^Provide public education. In Vir- pjj! a similar issue is involved in a ijg *!§ lawsuit challenging the clos- Prince Edward County public °ols in li eu c f court-ordered deseg- 'wtion. more than a dozen actions isjjtoS to races and the schools, Lou- ^ legislators enacted a law pro- tleetj 8 that school boards may call > 0(1 j ans to determine whether voters 6a Ve father close public schools than mem desegregated. ; I Overwhelmingly ■. 4, g ^hool board of St. Helena Par- to (j-Trirri county under court order SW., legate its schools “with all de rate speed,” called an election un- t> '-ary ^ aw (Act 2, Second Extraordi- ss ion), and the vote was over- • " ln Sly to close the schools. The • 'N mider attack in federal dis- ’ ^ as been tied to provisions ' l as t year for private, nonsec- -bools financed by state grants- individual pupils, and the re appropriated $4.5 million for tuition grants without specifications as to its distribution. The three-judge federal court at New Orleans, which was assigned the St. Helena litigation, invited attomeys- general of the 50 states and the United States to file briefs on the question of whether states are obligated to pro vide public schools, setting Aug. 4 as the deadline for filing. Local option by referendum on both school closing and reopening high lighted five measures on races and schools enacted by the Georgia legis lature. Under the new Georgia law, also accompanied by a revised tuition- grants law for attendance at private schools, voters within school districts not only could decide whether the schools should be closed but also whether they should bereopened. Ref erenda would be called by petitions to school boards. Georgia repealed or otherwise in validated earlier legislation which would have forbidden state or local funds for desegregated schools or those expecting to desegregate. Another law repealed would have permitted the governor to close a single school in a system ordered to desegregate. Gov. Ernest Vandiver called for repeal of such measures, terming a mandatory school-closing law “an albatross” rather than “a source of hope.” His decision followed court-ordered admis sion of two Negroes to the University of Georgia. Provide A Choice Both Georgia and Arkansas assem blies proposed amendments to their state constitutions intended to provide a choice by pupils or parents as to attendance at segregated or nonsegre gated schools. Arkansans will vote next year on an amendment, backed by Gov. Orval E. Faubus, which would specify that no child shall be denied his constitutional right to a free public education because of his refusal to attend school with a student of another race, provided the child’s school board believes that such attendance would be inimical to his welfare. The measure duplicates pro visions in four existing Arkansas laws. Georgia voters next year will decide for or against an amendment designed to spell out freedom from “compulsory association” at all levels of public edu cation. Although Louisiana legislators did earmark funds in general appropria tions bills for grant-in-aid scholar ships for pupils to attend private schools, they earlier rejected a cent- per-dollar sales tax increase which Gov. Jimmie H. Davis said was needed to finance such a program. Opponents of the increase won with their argu ment that the school segregation issue was being used as a wedge to provide an additional $28 million annually, which could be diverted to other pur poses. Continue Open Attacks Both the Louisiana and Arkansas assemblies continued their open attacks on federal courts for their desegrega tion rulings. In Arkansas, a resolution was adopted asking Congress to pro pose a constitutional amendment al lowing U.S. Supreme Court decisions to be overruled by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. Louisiana legislators, continuing to protest fed eral “encroachment” on the states, again officially condemned U.S. Dis trict Judge J. Skelly Wright, who or dered desegregation in New Orleans, and demanded by resolution that he not be promoted to the U.S. Fifth Cir cuit Court of Appeals. (See LEGISLATION, Page 2) Galveston, will desegregate under court order, while two small communities Lockney in Floyd County, and Jud- son Rural School in Bexar County, voted last spring to desegregate vol untarily this fall. About 75 Negroes are expected to transfer to a white school when Austin desegregates the sixth grade under a descending grade- a-year plan in September. Three upper East Tennessee school districts, Johnson City, Washington County and Kingsport, have voluntary grade-a-year programs beginning this fall. This will make 10 Tennessee de segregated districts. Knoxville, which started a grade-a-year plan with the first grade last year, is scheduled to desegregate a vocational high school when school opens. The Jackson, Term., public school system, which has been segregated up to now, said it would consider two Negro applications for a white high school under the state’s pupil assignment law. First Three Grades In North Carolina Asheville an nounced a desegregation policy for the first three grades but admitted five Negro students to only the first and second grades. Dunn High School in Harnett County, scene of several In dian protests over segregated schools last year, has accepted 20 Indians this year. Four North Carolina districts have increased their Negro assignments in white schools for the coming year. Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina, has put all first grade assignments on a geographical basis, which would put about 40 Negroes in formerly white schools and several whites in formerly Negro schools. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg County system will have 14 Negroes compared to two in white schools last year; Greensboro 17 compared to five; and Raleigh, ten compared to one. (See THE REGION, Page 2) In This Issue State Reports Alabama 12 Arkansas 16 Delaware 6 District of Columbia 14 Florida 2 Georgia 8 Kentucky 1 Louisiana 3 Maryland 10 Mississippi 15 Missouri 7 North Carolina 12 Oklahoma 15 South Carolina 13 Tennessee H Texas 9 Virginia 5 West Virginia 13 Special Articles Governors Meet 1 The Region 1 Legislation 1 Tuition Grants 1 Louisiana Debate 3 Judge Oren Lewis 5 Dallas Citizens Council 9 Baltimore Segregation 10 Tuition Grants Under Test In Two Courts BY TOM FLAKE C ourt decisions may indicate soon whether tuition grants from public funds legally can provide both “freedom of choice” as to school and “equal protection under the laws” within the U.S. Supreme Court’s specifications. Prince Edward County, Va., and St. Helena Parish, La., are the initial prov ing grounds. Cases from both places involve the legality of closing public schools and substituting segregated schools operated as private enterprises and financed through tuition grants relayed through the pupils. A substantial question at the mo ment is how the ultimate court de cision in either of these cases will af fect operation of tuition grants pro grams in areas where public schools remain open, as in much of Virginia, with some of the public schools bi racial, some segregated. In Virginia, elementary or high school pupils have the privilege of leaving their regularly assigned public school to attend (1) a nonsectarian private school anywhere or (2) a pub lic school outside their own district. New laws in Louisiana and Georgia are similar to that of Virginia but limit attendance under grants to non- secterian private schools. The Virginia, Louisiana and Georgia tuition grant laws contain no reference to race, nor to segregation or desegre gation. They contain within them selves no provision for closing of pub lic schools, although this may be pos sible under other statutes or simply by failure to appropriate money for public schools. They specify that the grants go to pupils—not to schools— and that the states have no responsi bility for operating the private schools other than to set minimum standards for them. All agree that grant money cannot be spent for education in parochial or church-controlled schools because of the constiutional ban on church-state involvements. Without exception, this prohibition has appeared in all tuition- grant legislation passed to date, not only in Virginia, Louisiana and Geor gia but also in Alabama, Arkansas and North Carolina. The Virginia Board of Education an nounced on June 23 a formal rule against tuition grants being used at schools operated by the federal gov ernment. The rule, already followed as a matter of policy, was made sub ject to approval as to legality by the state attorney general. Virginia appears likely to remain the center of attention on the tuition- grants issue because: (See VIRGINIA’S, Page 4)