Newspaper Page Text
bama
p
^districting and
llajor Legislative
Schools
Issues
'• MONTGOMERY
I s s ome 800,000 Alabama chil-
’ (4 dren prepared for the school
^jng, state educators and legis-
were less concerned about
^gregation than the consequen-
n i of a serious shortage of school
• (ds-
T Jo school was under orders to admit
yjo students and no board of edu-
^jon had announced plans to deseg-
j-je voluntarily. Thus for the eighth
judl year since the 1954 Supreme
s jjflt decision, pupils in the state’s
IH school districts (all of them bi-
■ ial) seemed to be returning to
: jjjitionally segregated classrooms,
j jghtly more than a third of the
jjte’s public school enrollment is Ne-
i in-
"Since the regular biennial session of
j General Assembly convened in
1 Jjy, not a single bill had been passed
| feting the state’s stand against de-
| jgregation.
Discourages ‘Rides’
| But the legislature did pass, and
I ]ov. Patterson signed Aug. 23, an act
needed to discourage “freedom rides”
j ithe state—activity which touched off
nolence in Anniston, Birmingham and
I ientgomery in May.
While not mentioning riders as such,
is act sets a maximum fine of $300
id six months in jail for anyone who
Bounces intention of defying Ala-
isna racial patterns and then carries
[ | ulthe plan in a manner “calculated
nor (which) will probably outrage the
sse of decency and morals and or
j » violate or transgress the customs,
■ sttem of life and habits of the people
i Alabama as to be likely to cause
j i riot. .
Hie legislature also seemed likely to
j I® measures to give county boards
Registrars more protection from fed-
t al investigations and suits relating to
! iter registration.
★ ★ ★
kfdslature Warned
^ Proration Increase
Hie legislature’s major concern over
'•nation was centered, as in recent
!8rs ' on finances. School funds are
* prorated at 9.4 per cent below
f budgeted allocation—the result of
‘decline in revenues marked for
«ioo.s. The proration would probably
to 13.6 per cent soon, edu-
*®rs warned, unless the legislature
’'"■Med new tax sources.
. se emed unlikely. Although many
fakers shared the concern of school
, cr s, the House Ways and Means
Jijfnittee pigeonholed and thus vir-
y killed a bill providing for a gen-
■icrease in the state’s sales tax.
was the last remaining hope, ob-
. ar s felt, for a substantial increase
^ool funds.
Grave Shortages
, le Superintendent of Education
Lecroy sa ^ that 50 school sys-
,. e ' most of them county systems,
r earf raVe ^ unc * shortages. Some are
~,,; or] - v ] leav ily in debt because of pro-
v, ' At least nine systems have an-
plans to delay opening of
• A dozen or more counties have
■‘tfodi
ced bills to permit local refer-
y 1( . |e ' ls on increased property taxes.
| •: a ln S ^ s * ;ems will charge students fees
I ^PPlement available funds.
tion of state funds has now
> ^ * ac t of life for Alabama schools
successive years.
•’..otj «ouse passed a school appropri-
' W, giving education a small in-
Muj ’ bu t it was $100,000,000 below
MUtet Uca t°rs sou gl lt - Too, it would
: 'd **ely be cut by continuing,
1 Perhai
•Ps worsening, proration.
Circuit Court
Xi
Against
e nt Expulsions
<11 i^^k'ion of six Negro students
? p 5M iama State College for tak-
C‘M jjjp ^ “sit-ins” last year
' 'Rpit r 1 Au S- 4 by the U. S. Fifth
0Ur t of Appeals in New Or-
IS
■ .’S
is cour t held that the due
j aus e of the Constitution “re-
Sin i lce anc l some opportunity for
5 befi
°re students of a tax-sup-
Alabama Highlights
Alabama public schools were ex
pected to reopen this fall completely
segregated.
The legislature, in a turmoil over
congressional redistricting, had not
passed a single new law relating to
school segregation, though it had
agonized over education’s financial
crisis.
Bills were introduced to protect
voter registrars from federal suits,
and Gov. John Patterson signed into
law a measure to facilitate prosecu
tion of “freedom riders.” But that
was about the extent of the lawmak
ers’ concern with racial matters as
the legislature entered the final por
tion of the regular biennial session.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals reversed an Alabama fed
eral court’s finding that the expul
sion of six Negro students from Ala
bama State College last year for
“sit-in” activity was justified.
ported college are expelled for mis
conduct.”
The split-decision overturned the
ruling of U. S. District Judge Frank
M. Johnson Jr. in Montgomery Aug.
26, 1960. The students were among the
nine ordered dismissed March 2, 1960,
by the State Board of Education for
their part in a series of racial dem
onstrations on campus and in down
town Montgomery in February, 1930.
They contended in their suit that they
had a constitutional right to continue
their education at Alabama State.
Rejected Contention
Judge Johnson had rejected the con
tention. He ruled that their expulsions
were “justified and in fact necessary
in order that the college could operate
and be operated in a proper manner”
during the series of demonstrations.
The privilege to attend a public col
lege or university is not, Johnson had
ruled, constitutional right in itself but
is “conditioned upon an individual stu
dent’s compliance with the rules and
regulations of the institution.”
In an opinion written by Judge
Richard T. Rives (also of Montgom
ery), the Court of Appeals reversed
Judge Johnson’s finding. The appellate
court offered certain standards it said
should be following in expulsion cases
of the kind.
Notice to the students should con
tain a statement of specific charges and
grounds which, if proven, would justify
expulsion. Students should be given
the names of witnesses against them,
etc. Both sides should be heard, but
not at a “full-dress, judicial hearing.”
Judge John Minor Wisdom joined in
the opinion written by Rives, but Judge
Ben C. Cameron dissented with a
warning of the extension of federal
powers in the day-to-day dealings be
tween school authority and student
discipline and morale. Such an ex
tension, he said, “is to add to the new
crushing responsibilities of federal
functionaries the necessity of qualify
ing as a gargantuan aggregation of
wet nurses or baby sitters.”
In New York, Jack Greenberg,
NAACP Legal Defense Fund counsel,
hailed the Rives decision as “ex
tremely important.” It established “that
there must be adequate hearing be
fore expulsion of a student from a
state college for misconduct,” Green
berg said.
In The Colleges
Former Senator
Warns Committee
Of Curtailed Aid
Former State Senator John H. Pin
son of Geiger, a member of Tuskegee
Institute’s Board of Trustees for 18
years, warned the House Ways and
Means committee in August that cur
tailment of state aid to the famed Ne
gro school could lead to desegregation
at Alabama and Auburn universities.
Dr. L. H. Foster, Tuskegee president,
had just completed his explanation of
Tuskegee’s budget requests when Pin
son asked to be heard.
Pinson said that when the first state
appropriation was made to the pri
vately endowed institution in 1943, he
had “already heard rumblings” about
Negroes attending Auburn and Ala
bama. The state must “either continue
Tennessee
(Continued From Page 4)
Parents of some of the students also
accompanied the group.
Monroe County, in East Tennessee,
conducts no desegregated classes.
★ ★ ★
Legal Action
NAACP Challenges
Davidson County’s
‘Stairstep’ Program
Attorneys for the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People Legal Defense and Educational
Fund on Aug. 18 challenged Davidson
County’s “stair-step” desegregation
plan, which went into effect last Jan
uary.
In a brief filed with the U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals, the lawyers
claimed that the Davidson County
plan violates the “personal and pres
ent rights” of Negro students who are
too old to come under its provisions.
The NAACP issued this statement
in New York in connection with the
brief:
“If the appeal is successful, it will
mark a major breakthrough against
‘stair-step’ or ‘grade-a-year’ plans
which have been approved by federal
courts in Southern cities such as
Nashville and Knoxville.”
U.S. District Judge William E. Mil
ler last November ordered the first
four grades of Davidson County
schools to desegregate in January, with
an additional grade desegregated each
year thereafter. (Maxwell et al v.
Davidson County Board of Education,
Southern School News, November,
1960.) On Jan. 23, 41 Negroes enrolled
in previously all-white classes.
‘Additional Relief’
Negro plaintiffs, however, filed a mo
tion for additional relief on the basis
that several of the students involved
in the suit were not affected by Mil
ler’s desegregation order since they
were then in grades higher than the
fourth and would not be included in
the plan.
This motion was denied by Judge
Miller on Jan. 24, 1961. In ruling on
the question, Miller said that if chil
dren were “admitted to schools as
exceptions to said desegregation plan
... to grant such exception would be
in effect to invite the destruction of
the very plan which the court has held
is for the best interest of the school
system of Davidson County.”
Negro attorneys appealed Miller’s
approval of the plan and his ruling
on the motion to the appellate court
on Feb. 20. The case is expected to be
heard during the court’s October term.
‘Personal Right’
In the brief, Negro attorneys con
tended that the right to a desegre
gated education is a “personal right”
and that the rights of children who
do not come under a desegregation
plan cannot be abridged in favor of
the plan through it affords relief to
other Negro pupils.
The brief attacked the district court
opinion on admission of older children
by making exceptions to the plan. “If
the court found it necessary to formu
late a rule for dealing with the possi
bility of large numbers of future ap
plicants for exceptions . . . the court
making an appropriation to Tuskegee
or educate those people at Auburn and
at Tuscaloosa,” he said. “If you don’t
want integration at Auburn and if you
don’t want integration at the Univer
sity, then you better continue this ap
propriation.” Otherwise, he said he had
heard Negroes say, “they would just
hop on a bus or train and go over to
Auburn and Tuscaloosa and enroll.”
Only Five Subjects
Dr. Foster told the committee that
degrees were offered in only five sub
jects at Tuskegee—an observation in
terpreted to mean that curricula at the
two universities are broader, though
the president did not refer to Pinson’s
comments. Foster asked that the pres
ent state appropriation of $383,000 a
year be increased to $701,000.
The University of Alabama’s presi
dent, Dr. Frank Rose, told the com
mittee it was impossible to overem
phasize the critical financial situa
tion at his institution. A 12 per cent
pay boost for faculty members is nec
essary, he said, to prevent the loss of
some of the most able professors. “We
have had to turn away more than
1,000 students for next year,” he added.
Dr. Ralph Draughon, Auburn presi
dent, painted a similarly gloomy pic
ture of his institution. Enrollment for
women students was closed last No
vember for the coming fall term, he
said. # # #
SOUTHERN SCHOOL
can determine on the basis of . .
whether the admission of the appli
cants would present valid administra
tive obstacles which necessitate fur
ther delay in the public interests . .
the brief stated.
It also took sharp issue with the
plan’s transfer procedure, charging that
the method “expressly recognizes race
as an absolute ground for transfer
between schools.”
Davidson County school officials
made no statement on the Negro brief.
At Issue Previously
Similar arguments in behalf of Ne
gro children too old for inclusion
in a “stair-step” plan were presented
to Judge Miller before he approved
Nashville’s plan to become effective
with the first grade in 1957 and an
additional grade each year thereafter.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals in June, 1959 upheld the dis
trict court’s approval of the plan and
stated:
“We cannot say the district court’s
conclusions . . . were entirely erron
eous . . . nor can we say that the
gradual program of integration be
ginning in the first grade, and ul
timately encompassing all grades, is
clearly an unreasonable one.
Even were we inclined to differ with
the proram, and even though we felt
that it was too gradual in its appli
cation, we could not say that the
judgment approving the plan was
clearly erroneous and that the plan in
this regard was not reasonable.
Upheld on Appeal
The appellate court ruled that Judge
Miller’s findings were “sustained by
the evidence” in the case.
Later the same year, the U.S. Su
preme Court, by refusing to review
the case, placed its approval on the
Nashville plan by a six-to-three vote.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys
who filed the Davidson County brief
include Z. Alexander Looby and Avon
Williams Jr. of Nashville, Thurgood
Marshall, Jack Greenberg, James M.
Nabritt III and Norman C. Amaker of
New York City.
★ ★ ★
Suit Seeks Admission
Of Negroes At Lebanon
U.S. District Judge William E. Mil
ler at Nashville has ordered Lebanon
officials to show cause why McClain
Elementary School should not be de
segregated.
Miller signed the order on Aug. 18
after a suit was filed by the Rev. and
Mrs. Cordell Holland Sloan Sr. and
their children, Theodore and Cordell
Holland Sloan Jr., seeking to restrain
school officials from refusing to admit
Negro students to all-white Lebanon
schools.
A hearing on Miller’s order was
scheduled Sept. 5.
The Rev. Mr. Sloan attempted last
March to enroll his two sons in Mc
Clain School. “At that time, I told
him I would have to refuse . . . ad
mission because I had no instructions
from the board to admit Negro chil
dren,” Supt. Roy Dowdy said. “The
next morning the two children were
enrolled in the all-Negro Market Street
School,” he added.
The Sloan children along with
another who also asked admission to
the all-white school were denied reg
istration pending outcome of the hear
ing which was scheduled one week af
ter classes for the 1961-62 term began.
Special District
Named as defendants in the suit are
members of the 10th District Special
School Board, which operates Leb
anon’s schools for grades one through
eight, as well as the City of Lebanon,
which has no educational system of
its own.
Mayor Charles Loyd said “since the
city has no educational system, I can’t
understand why we are a party to the
suit.”
Supt. Dowdy, also named as a de
fendant, said Sloan had made no ap
plication for the transfer of his sons
to McClain School since last March.
Miller issued the order from his
home while vacationing. His action
came as the 10th District Board de
cided to meet to consider plans for
answering the suit.
Two Actions
The suit was the first of two de
segregation attempts in Lebanon,
county seat of Wilson County, during
the month.
On Aug. 24, a group of Negroes who
had asked admission to all-white
Lebanon High School failed to keep a
scheduled appointment with Wilson
County Supt. Ernest Cotton.
“The County Board of Education has
instructed me to interview the stu
dents and find out what their griev
ances are,” Cotton said.
Eleven Negro students appeared at
Cotton’s office on Aug. 23, seeking to
transfer from all-Negro Wilson County
High School to Lebanon High School
NEWS—SEPTEMBER, 1961—PAGE 5
after they had failed in an attempt
to enroll in the all-white school.
Lebanon High School Principal Charles
Neighbors referred the group to the
superintendent.
Cotton said he could not meet with
the Negroes on Aug. 23 because of
the rush of registration day activities
and because he was serving as a pall
bearer at a funeral. But he said he set
up an appointment with the group
for 1 p.m. the following day and ex
pected from 11 to 20 students to ap
pear for the conference.
One of the students, Wilma Cart
wright of Lebanon, said “We really
didn’t have an appointment” with the
superintendent. “But we didn’t go be
cause I could not get them (the other
students) all together. Some of the
kids have jobs and have to work.”
Asked if they planned to meet with
Cotton later, Miss Cartwright said:
“I will have to wait and see what
they want to do. I really can’t say
what we are going to do.”
In The Colleges
Graduation At A&I
Picketed In Protest
Against Dismissals
Thirteen Negro demonstrators pic
keted summer graduation exercises on
Aug. 13 at A&I State University, Nash
ville, protesting the dismissal of 14
students last June as a result of their
participation in “freedom rides.”
Robert White, a spokesman for the
picketing demonstrators, said the group
included members of the Nashville
Christian Leadership Council’s student
non-violent movement.
Earl S. Clanton III, public relations
director of the university, said the
pickets were “orderly and hardly
noticed.”
A. V. Boswell, vice-president of the
university and chairman of the school’s
discipline committee, said only one of
the 14 dismissed students had “even
an outside chance of graduating, as I
remember.”
The students were suspended under
a policy established by the State Board
of Education dealing with state college
pupils convicted of offenses involving
misconduct. They had participated
earlier in “freedom ride” demonstra
tions in Jackson, Miss.
* * *
Discrimination At Sewanee
Charged; Official Denies It
A leader of an Episcopal desegrega
tion group charged in Atlanta on Aug.
16 that the University of the South
at Sewanee is discriminating against
Negro students in certain university
facilities.
The Rev. John B. Morris, executive
director of the Episcopal Society for
Cultural and Racial Unity, recalled
that the University of the South an
nounced last June it would accept stu
dents without regard to race. But he
contended that two Negro students in
the university’s graduate school of
theology were denied service at Se
wanee Inn and Claramont Restaurant
which he described as “university-
owned facilities.”
Dr. Edward McCrady, vice chancel
lor, challenged the minister’s state
ment.
“The Sewanee Inn and Claramont
Restaurant are not university facili
ties,” he said. “The property is owned
by the university but is operated un
der lease by a private contractor, Mrs.
Clara Shoemate. The university’s con
tract with Mrs. Shoemate does not
give us any right to determine who
will be served or who will be denied
service.”
Miscellaneous
Bombs Reported
Thrown at Seliool
Chattanooga police reported that two
crude fire bombs were tossed at all-
white Glenwood Elementary School on
Sept. 2 and Sept. 3 but that the school
was not damaged.
Chief Police Inspector M. W. Up
church attributed the bombs to pranks
ters.
The first bomb landed on the side
walk in front of the building and the
second exploded against the north wall
of the building. A third was found on
the tennis court.
Glenwood is the school in which four
Negro pupils attempted to enroll two
years ago. A desegregation suit resulted
and now is pending outcome of an ap
peal to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals. # # #