Newspaper Page Text
page 14—MARCH. 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
States’ Rights
Issue Foremost
In Mississippi
(Continued from Page 1)
The State Sovereignty Commission of
Mississippi goes considerably beyond
Virginia’s intellectual and legalistic ap
proach. Organized by legislative act in
1956 (Chapter 365) to resist “the usur
pation of the rights and powers re
served to this state and our sister states
by the federal government . . .,” the
Mississippi organization carries out a
far-flung program including speaking
tours of Northern states, motion pic
tures, television and radio.
Gov. Ross Barnett said in a speech
to a Citizens Council at Bradenton, Fla.,
Jan. 19 that “state sovereignty and race
relations are so inter-related as to be
inseparable in today’s complex state of
affairs.”
He said “Some theorists who believe
in the concentration of all power in
Washington try to reduce the principle
of states’ rights to an absurdity. People
all over the country are becoming ex
tremely concerned with this usurpation
by the federal government . . .”
Mississippi considers its sovereignty
commission a “watchdog” agency—the
“eyes and ears” of officials in combat
ting efforts to desegregate schools and
other facilities. The commission’s in
vestigative division has extensive files.
Broad Powers Granted
Legislators empowered the commis
sion, headed by the governor, to sub
poena witnesses, books, records or doc
uments, and the group is authorized to
penalize witnesses who “willfully” re
fuse to appear before it when sum
moned. The law also authorized the
commission to co-operate with public
and private groups in movements for
Southern “custom and tradition.” The
group was empowered to pool its funds
with those of other movements and or
ganizations working for similar pur
poses.
For the past two years, the commis
sion has operated under a $350,000 ap
propriation voted by the 1960 General
Assembly on request of Gov. Barnett.
From this fund, the commission granted
an estimated $120,000 to the Citizens
Council Forum, a branch of the pri
vate-membership Citizens Council or
ganization. The grant drew protests
from the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. A tax
payers’ suit challenging legality of the
payments is pending in a federal court.
Watchdog Activities
Activities of the commission have
created major news on numerous oc
casions. Some of its “watchdog” activi
ties have led to bitter controversies
within the state.
Recent examples have been attacks
on Mrs. Hazel Brandon Smith, editor
of the Lexington Advertiser, and Billy
Barton, University of Mississippi jour
nalism student who was a candidate for
editor of the campus newspaper. Mrs.
Smith was accused of meeting with an
NAACP official and other Negroes. Bar
ton was linked with sit-in activities in
Atlanta, where he had a summer job.
Both Mrs. Smith and Barton denied the
charges.
As an outgrowth of the Barton in
cident a 22-year-old state representa
tive, Phillip Bryant of Fayette County
(Oxford), demanded that the State
Sovereignty Commission be confined to
promotion of segregation. He said he
was opposed to use of tax money for
investigations which “develop into
character assassinations.”
The legislator expressed fear that the
Sovereignty Commission would become
an agency of “state secret police.” He
said: “When any one man or group
controls the commission and develops
it into a private gestapo, it then is ob
vious what can happen to our demo
cratic processes.”
“State-Hired Spies”
Under attack by the state Young
Democrats president for use of “state-
hired spies” to promote “McCarthy-like
attacks” and scored by the state Re
publican chairman for seeking “a com
plete whitewash of their errors,” Gov.
Barnett and his supporters disclaimed
intentions of maligning the student.
“I presume the boy is honest and in
nocent,” the governor stated. “I want
him to get a square deal.”
Walter Sillers, longtime speaker of
the Mississippi House of Representa
tives and himself a member of the
commission, declared that “the toes of
the innocent” sometimes are stepped on
in the search for the guilty, “but that’s
no reason to do away with the work
of patriotic citizens who are trying to
save the country.”
One way in which the Sovereignty
Commission seeks to achieve its objec
tives is to send speakers to other states,
particularly outside the South.
In Pottstown, Pa., Erie Johnston Jr.,
public relations director of the com
mission, told a Rotary Club audience:
“Attorney General (Robert) Kennedy,
who has vowed to integrate every
school in the South, sends his own off
spring to a private segregated school.”
He added that “children of Supreme
Court families always attended segre
gated schools, even after the 1954 court
decision.”
Negro Speaker
Joseph F. Albright, a Southem-bom
Negro who moved to Mississippi from
Chicago, told a New York audience
last Oct. 16 under State Sovereignty
Commission auspices that “Mississippi
Negroes do not want desegregation.
They virtually ruled the state after the
Civil War and they chose to stay by
themselves.” He said “Negroes make
more progress as they earn it than by
forced associations and privileges
brought about by court orders or dem
onstrations.”
Among the critical reactions to the
pro-segregation speeches in the North
was that of Roy Wilkins, executive sec
retary of the NAACP. Wilkins said he
was “shocked” but “this is a free coun
try, even though it doesn’t work that
way in Mississippi. No college class,
Rotary Club or white church there
would have a speaker on segregation.”
On an earlier occasion, Medger Evers,
field secretary of the NAACP, said “the
alleged pillage, plunder and misuse of
public funds during Reconstruction
when Negroes helped to administer af
fairs of the state of Mississippi did not
compare in the least to the way in
which the present Mississippi admin
istration is creating unnecessary jobs
for patronage and misusing the taxpay
ers’ money through gifts and grants to
private organizations such as the Citi
zens’ Councils.”
Grants Called “Immoral”
In a letter to the commission direc
tor, the Rev. Richard Ellerbrake of
Biloxi, member of the state advisory
committee to the U. S. Civil Rights
Commission, said that “if the commis
sion is truly concerned with constitu
tional government, then it is rather
foolish to use extra-constitutional
means to promote your aims.” He said
grants of public money to the Citizens
Council were “immoral as well as
wrong.”
Other than the NAACP and other ad
vocates of desegregation, few voices are
raised publicly in Mississippi against
the overall purposes of the State Sov
ereignty Commission, but argument
continues as to how it can function
most effectively.
In addition to the governor’s political
critics who accuse him of using the
commission to promote his own ends,
there are those who question television
and radio programs and who believe
the speaking trips to other states ac
tually arouse desegregation organiza
tions to increase their activities in the
state.
30-Minute Movie
But the program goes on apace. A
30-minute movie, “Message from Missis
sippi,” was completed recently at a cost
of $29,000. Officials said it was intended
especially to show Northern audiences
that race relations are good in Missis
sippi. Television stations and civic
clubs are to be principal media.
Much of the filming was done in
Forest, “a typical small city.” It in
cludes interviews with Negroes and
talks by Gov. Barnett and education
officials.
In his filmed talk, the governor said:
“It’s true that we are segregated. Yet,
no student can get a better education
than is offered the colored children in
Mississippi.” He added that many Ne
groes prefer to remain in the state after
completing their schooling because “ap
parently, they prefer segregation in
Mississippi than integration in other
states.”
Louisiana Combats
‘Creeping Federalism’
The Louisiana State Sovereignty
Commission was authorized by unani
mously passed legislation in 1960 (Act
18) to combat what Gov. Jimmie H.
Davis called “creeping federalism.” It
may issue subpoenas and hold hear
ings. Gov. Davis said in a letter to gov
ernors of other states that the com
mission resolved to operate “honorably,
carefully and calmly” and with “devo
tion, integrity, dignity and intelligence.”
He solicited their support.
John Deer, executive secretary of the
Louisiana group, emphasized that the
overall purpose is to preserve “states’
rights” in all particulars, although the
issue of segregation-desegregation pres
ently is in the limelight. Under the
law, Deer said recently, the racial issue
“is just a major battle in the overall
war.”
Another paramount question for the
State Sovereignty Commission in Louis-
VIRGINIA
Committee Kills Bill to Permit
Withdrawal From Tuition Grants
RICHMOND
bill to permit localities to
withdraw from the state tui
tion grants program was killed
Feb. 8 by the House of Delegates’
Education Committee. The vote
was unanimous.
Delegate Kosen Gregory of Roanoke,
sponsor, told the committee he intro
duced the bill (House Bill 149) at the
request of his city council.
Under existing law, the state and
localities share in paying the tuition
for children attending nonsectarian
private schools or public schools out
side their own districts.
Localities now have no choice but
to participate in the program. The gov
erning bodies of several cities and
counties have taken the view that the
program is being “abused” in that it
is providing tuition for children attend
ing private schools in areas where
public schools are not desegregated, as
well as in areas where there is deseg
regation. These local officials, as well
as leaders of the Virginia Education
Association, maintain that the grants
should be used only by children who
wish to avoid attending their own
desegregated schools.
★ ★ ★
New Law Allows Teachers
To Terminate Contracts
The State Senate on Feb. 26 ap
proved, by a vote of 25 to 9, a bill per
mitting public school teachers to ter
minate their contracts if the schools
in which they work become racially
desegregated, either at the pupil or the
teacher level.
The measure (House Bill 158) al
ready had passed the House of Dele
gates.
Only one senator, William B. Hop
kins of Roanoke, spoke against the
bill in the upper chamber. He said
three Roanoke schools are desegre
gated and that the effect of the bill
would be to “void all contracts in
those schools.”
★ ★ ★
An effort to provide a new approach
to comnulsory school attendance was
killed Feb. 22 by the Senate Education
Committee. The vote was 12 to 0.
Under present law, children may be
compelled to attend school only in
those districts in which local compul-
Yirginia Highlights
A legislative committee killed a
bill which would have allowed lo
calities to withdraw from the state
tuition grants program. The legis
lature approved a bill to permit
teachers to terminate their contracts
if the schools in which they are
teaching become desegregated.
Five “training centers” for Negro
children opened in Prince Edward
County, but, as in previous years,
sponsors of the program said the
centers were not intended to serve
as schools.
The state’s newest desegregated
locality—the city of Lynchburg—
adopted a grade-a-year desegrega
tion plan for presentation to a fed
eral district court.
sory attendance ordinances are
adopted.
The proposal rejected by the com
mittee (Senate Bill 303) would have
put a statewide compulsory attendance
law on the books, but with provision
that localities could take themselves
out from under it if they wished.
State Sen. Armistead L. Boothe of
Alexandria, patron of the measure,
said: “I feel localities that choose to
do so, and not the state as a whole,
should bear the blame for repealing
the compulsory school attendance
law.”
Fifty-six of the 131 school districts
have adopted compulsory attendance
ordinances under the present law.
★ ★ ★
By voice vote, the House of Dele
gates on Feb. 28 defeated an amend
ment to the budget bill that would
have appropriated funds to operate
public schools in Prince Edward
County.
Delegate John Webb of Fairfax
County said his amendment was offered
to “correct the appalling condition”
now existing in the county, where
schools have been closed for nearly
three years.
Several delegates spoke against the
bill. They said the Prince Edward
matter is in the hands of the courts
and that the assembly should not try
to change the situation in the county
while the litigation is pending. They
also said the question of the operatic®
of schools in the county was one f 0t
the people of the county to decide.
Community Action
Negroes In Prince
Edward Again Open
Training Centers
Five training centers for school-less
Negro children opened in Prince Ed-
ward County Feb. 5. Enrollment was
reported to be 250 on Feb. 15.
The centers are similar to 15 which
operated last year with a total enroll,
ment of 650. Two of the centers this
year are in churches, one in a com
munity center, one in a lodge building
and one in a private home.
Opening of the five centers was an
nounced by Mrs. Dorothy Croner,
director.
“We are operating activity centers
to help maintain the morale of chil
dren,” she said. “The centers are not
in any respect offered as a substitute
for schools.”
No Age Limit
Operating hours for the centers were
announced as from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
five days a week, with no age limit for
participation.
This is the third year that Prince
Edward’s Negro children have been
without schools and also the third year
in which Negro leaders have operated
training centers.
A census last fall showed 1,573
school-age Negro children in Prince
Edward, with 289 of these attending
schools outside the county. More re
cent estimates are that perhaps as
many as 400 are in schools in other
localities in Virginia and in other
states.
(For other Prince Edward develop
ments, see Schoolmen.)
Schoolmen
Lynchburg School
Board Approves
Grade-a-Year Plan
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iana. Deer noted, concerns the oil-rich
tidelands areas which the Supreme
Court has decreed can be state-con
trolled three miles from shore. The
state insists on a boundary 10 5 miles
out.
The Louisiana group issued a state
ment in 1960 on “Unconstitutional Cre
ation of the 14th Amendment” (South
ern School News, December, 1960).
The treatise said the Supreme Court’s
only claim to authority in the desegre
gation decision was under the 14th
Amendment—and the validity of the
14th Amendment itself was called into
question.
14th Amendment Attacked
Renewing a long-standing argument
about ratification of the amendment by
“puppet” legislatures of former Con
federate states during Reconstruction,
the statement contended that the
amendment was made effective through
unconstitutional means.
Last December, the Louisiana or
ganization distributed a cartoon book
let titled We, the People, directed to
high school students. The booklet em
phasizes the 10th Amendment to the
U. S. Constitution, which provides that
powers not specifically delegated to the
federal government are reserved to the
states.
In the booklet, a father tells his son:
“There are some people who think that
even our state-owned schools—and a
lot of other things—all ought to be run
out of Washington.”
A fourth Southern state has a sov
ereignty commission by statute, but
only in name. Arkansas created such
a body in 1957 “to provide advice and
legal assistance to school districts on
matters relating to comingling of the
races.” (Act 83.)
Curbed by Court
The Arkansas commission, with the
governor as its ex officio chairman, was
empowered by the legislature “to ex
amine books and records, investigate,
hold hearings and to subpoena persons
and things.” The State Supreme Court
held such investigative power to be ex
cessive because it did not provide for
notices, search warrants or judicial
process. The court also ruled that legis
lators who were to comm-ise half the
commission’s membership could not
legally serve, and this ruling made a
quorum impossible. (Smith v. Faubus.)
The commission never functioned to
any appreciable degree, and aporonria-
tions for it were halted in 1959. (See
Arkansas report for related legal ac
tion.)
Georgia’s house of representatives
failed by 31 votes in 1961 to give the
necessary majority for creation of a
state sovereignty commission with
power to subpoena and punish persons
for contempt of its orders.
Dearth of Information
A proponent said such an agency in
Georgia would have decided what
course was best as to school desegrega
tion and then would have drafted pro
posed laws to carry out its plans. “Peo
ple have such a dearth of information
except from the integrationists,” he de
clared. An opponent of the bill replied:
“We’ve already been integrated. There’s
nothing we can do about it.”
Earlier, the Georgia Education Com
mission functioned, with the stated ob
jective of finding means to circumvent
implementation of the desegregation
decision. The agency was inactivated in
1959, and the Governor’s Commission
on Constitutional Government was
authorized, but it was not active. The
Educational Rights Committee was set
up in 1961 when the proposal for a
sovereignty commission was defeated.
The committee’s purpose was to seek
guarantees that proponents of desegre
gation would not be given partiality
and that segregationists retain their
rights of free speech and peaceable as
sembly.
Proposals for similar official organiza
tions have arisen in several other states
but either have been defeated by
legislators or not formally introduced.
In a number of states, criticisms of fed
eral actions and efforts to counter fed
eral court decisions against state poli
cies have been channeled through
already existing agencies and officials.
# # #
A grade-a-year desegregation pi 3 ®
was approved Feb. 13 by the Lynch
burg school board.
Action was in response to an order
by Federal District Judge Thomas J-
Michie, who on Jan. 24 gave the board
30 days to come up with a desegrega
tion plan. (Jackson v. Lynchburg
School Board.) The plan is subject to
approval by the court.
Only dissenting vote was cast by
the Negro member of the board, Carl
B. Hutcherson. He recommended de
segregation at the rate of three grades
a year, but his proposal was not
brought up for vote. He said there
would be no point in presenting 1
formally, as it would be defeated.
Among the speakers appearing before
the board was W. T. Johnson Jr., presi
dent of the Lynchburg NAACP chap -
ter, who said:
“I don’t think most of us feel there
will be any trouble unless we at the
head make it. We’ve learned to ea
together . . . We’ve learned to wor
together without fighting too much • ■ •
We’ve learned we can go to school to
gether without running into too m ucD
trouble.”
★ ★ ★
In another Lynchburg developm e ®,'
M. W. Thornhill Jr., a Negro, resign®”
from the city’s biracial committee, b
said he did so in order to “pursue
militant a course as is necessary
speed racial desegregation.
“We as a people want our freed®
and we want it now,” he said.
Lynchburg’s first school desegreg®
tion occurred in January of this t0
when two Negroes were admitted
the previously all-white E. C.
High School under federal court ord e
★ ★ ★
Prince Edward Turns Down
Massachusetts Tuitions
The Prince Edward County board °
supervisors on Feb. 6 unanimously
jected a $1,636 bill for tuition for
Prince Edward Negro children att® n ^
ing public schools in Springfield, M®
(See VIRGINIA, Page 15)