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PAGE 2—MARCH, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
Candidate Folsom Scores Mob Violence;
Says Desegregation in State Far in Future
MONTGOMERY
P rmer Gov. James E. (Big j
Jim) Folsom, running for a |
third term, which would be with
out precedent in Alabama politi
cal history, continued his attacks
on mob violence in stump speeches
during February.
If elected again, he promised, the
mob would not be allowed to take over
as he said happened during the “free
dom ride” violence last May.
State and local officials knew the
riders were coming, Folsom said, “yet
they allowed them (white toughs) to
go around swinging baseball bats, lead
pipes and rubber hoses.”
Had he been governor at the time,
Folsom said, he would have thrown
the “freedom riders” in the same cell
block at Atmore Prison with “100 of
the biggest, blackest buck Negroes I
could find.”
As for the white attackers: “I would
have arrested them too and put them
in jail. Without law and order nothing
is worth anything—your life, your
home, your business, your money,
nothing. Mob rule makes business
afraid; it makes people afraid; it drives
away business. We have got to have
law and order if we are going to main
tain a free government.”
Does Not Promise
In no speech did Folsom promise his
audience that segregation could be pre
served indefinitely.
“I can’t promise you we won’t have
integration, but I’ll tell you one thing—
Alabama will be the last state to get
it.”
For most schools in the state, he
added, desegregation will come “be
yond mine and your lifetime.”
In earlier speeches this year Folsom
used the word “nigger.” He has now
reverted to his customary “Negro” or
“colored people.”
In his previous campaigns and his
two terms of office Folsom rarely men
tioned the race issue. When he did,
it was usually to scoff at the acts of
extremists or such legislative efforts
as the state’s nullification resolution,
which he ridiculed as “like a hound
dog baying at the moon.” In his last
term he said he opposed the conversion
of public schools to private because if
that were done, “they might make
apartment houses out of them.”
Answers Political Attacks
Nowadays Folsom almost never omits
reference to the segregation question.
This change, observers say, is intended
to answer the smear sheets and politi
cal attacks on him as pro-desegrega
tion. Aside from his ridicule of segre
gationists during his last term, Folsom
must answer for his actions in enter
taining Rep. Adam Clayton Powell at
the governor’s mansion, where they
sipped scotch together. This incident
figures prominently in most of the
anonymously distributed anti-Folsom
literature.
Fred Folsom, Cullman attorney and
nephew of the former governor, ap
peared at a Selma rally, to which all
gubernatorial candidates had been in
vited, as Big Jim’s proxy.
He caused a stir when he said, “No
man in his right mind can promise you
there will never be integration in
Alabama.”
Such a public acknowledgment of
inevitability is considered impolitic.
But, unlike Fred Folsom, Jim Folsom
is not challenged by his audience when
he makes a similar statement.
Surprise Entry
A surprise entry in the gubernatorial
race was a leader of States Righters in
the state, former State Senator Bruce
Henderson. Henderson was one of the
presidential electors who refused to
cast his electoral vote for John Ken
nedy in 1960.
Henderson, who finished fourth in
the gubernatorial race in 1950 (which
Folsom won), said he had decided to
run again because “I want to be sure
that there is one segregationist running
for governor.” He proposed “new ma
chinery” to put schools “beyond the
reach of integration.”
The other candidates were bewil
dered, or amused, by this statement
since they have unanimously pledged
resistance to school desegregation at
tempts. Besides Folsom, the list in
cludes Lt. Gov. Albert Boutwell of
Birmingham, principal sponsor of the
state’s basic segregation laws; Birming
ham Police Commissioner Eugene (Bull)
Connor, well known for his segrega
tion efforts; State Senator Ryan de-
Graffenried of Tuscaloosa, who has
stated his opposition to desegregation
Alabama Highlights
Former Gov. James E. Folsom,
campaigning for an unprecedented
third term as governor, continued
his drumfire attack on mob violence,
at the same time assuring his au
diences that there would be no
school desegregation during his ad
ministration.
The president of Alabama A&M
College (for Negroes) at Huntsville
was relieved of his job after 35 years
at the school—one of two state-sup
ported Negro colleges. Gov. John
Patterson charged that Dr. Joseph
W. Drake had failed to prevent stu
dent desegregation demonstrations
in Huntsville.
repeatedly; Attorney General Mac
Donald Gallion, who has been much
in the news for his legal activity
against desegregation moves and in
federal voting cases; and former Cir
cuit Judge George Wallace, who risked
jail to withhold voting records from
federal agents while he was on the
bench in Barbour County.
Tantamount to Election
Although the Democratic nomination
is still tantamount to election in Ala
bama, state Republicans hit hard on
the race issue and the Kennedy admin
istration’s involvement in it.
State Republican Chairman Claude
O. Vardaman denounced the admin
istration’s handling of the “freedom
rider” violence last May, when 600
federal marshals were dispatched to
Montgomery after mob action at a
downtown bus station.
Republicans said they would run
“some good men in against the Demo
crats in the forthcoming election” and
expressed confidence that some would
be elected.
Alabama’s senior senator, Lister Hill,
will face at least two prominent segre
gationists in the primary: Retired Ad
miral John G. Crommelin of Wetump-
ka, a perennial candidate, and Donald
P. Hallmark of Montgomery, a Citizens
Council official, who has never sought
office before.
Crommelin has been a persistent
critic of Hill’s “liberal” record and
Hallmark is distributing literature con
trasting the senator’s stands on issues
with those of such Southerners as
Senator Byrd of Virginia. Hill, in Hall
mark’s view, has aligned himself with
the “radical left-wing” in the Senate.
COLUMBIA
ie Greater Columbia Parent-
Teacher Council has called
for the re-enactment of compul
sory school attendance laws to re
place those abandoned some years
ago as an anti-desegregation meas
ure.
State laws requiring attendance were
repealed in 1955 and replaced with
laws that established “visiting teachers”
as a means of promoting attendance,
although the legal requirement of
attendance was eliminated. The change
was made to implement the General
Assembly’s determination that white
children should not be forced into
desegregated schools in the event fed-
S. C. Highlights
Parents and teachers of the Co
lumbia area called for the re-enact
ment of compulsory school attend
ance laws as a means of requiring
school age youngsters to attend
school. The old laws on attendance
were repealed in 1955 as an anti
desegregation measure.
The state legislature moved into
the second month of its 1962 ses
sion with hardly a ripple of attention
directed at segregation matters.
The state’s school building and
expansion program, aimed at both
equalization and improvement of fa
cilities, gained an additional $408,-
000 allotment in February.
The Rev. Alvin A. Horn, an Alabama
Klan leader, filed Feb. 16 to run for the
Democratic nomination for lieutenant
governor. Horn, 49, was among those
permanently enjoined by the U.S. Dis
trict Court in Montgomery from inter
fering with “freedom riders.” In that
order last year, he was described as
head of U.S. Klans, Knights of Ku
Klux Klan, Inc.
Schoolmen
State Board Orders
Alabama A&M College
President Replaced
The Alabama State Board of Educa
tion ordered the replacement of the
president of Alabama A&M College at
Huntsville, one of the state’s two
Negro colleges.
A committee was named at the Feb.
13 meeting to screen applicants to
succeed Dr. Joseph W. Drake, presi
dent of the institution for most of his
35 years there.
Dr. Drake is eligible for retirement
July 1 and the board said he would
be retained on salary as a consultant
until that time. According to board
members, Dr. Drake requested a leave
of absence a year ago, giving ill health
as his reason. However, no action had
been taken on the request and Dr.
Drake said he did not know of plans
to replace him until the decision was
announced after the meeting.
Gov. John Patterson, ex-officio chair
man of the board, said a change in
administration was indicated in the
light of recent sit-in demonstrations
in Huntsville. Patterson said he had
evidence that two CORE representa
tives were recruiting A&M students for
demonstrations in Huntsville and that
at least 33 students have already par
ticipated in the protests.
Require Discipline
The racial demonstrations, Patter
son said, made it essential and urgent
to get a president “who will require
discipline, make the students behave
themselves and make them study.”
Drake has done a good job through
the years, Patterson said, but has been
inactive recently because of ill health.
After the replacement decision was
announced, State Superintendent of
Education W.A. (Bing) LeCroy denied
that the sit-in demonstrations had any
thing to do with the action. Dr. Drake
was being replaced, he said, because
of “ill health, age and nearness to
eral court decisions called for an end
to segregation.
A resolution from the PTA Council
to the Richland County legislative dele
gation urged that compulsory attend
ance laws be restored. The repeal of
former laws, the resolution said, “has
worked to the detriment of many chil
dren in that many parents are failing
to see the necessity for keeping chil
dren of school age in school . . . (This)
. . . could lead to juvenile delinquency
and is presenting a problem in effective
law enforcement.”
It added that lack of compulsory
attendance laws also could have “an
adverse influence in our community,
culturally, economically, politically and
spiritually.”
Schoolmen
Finance Commission
Allocates $408,568
South Carolina’s Educational Finance
Commission on Feb. 8 approved a
$408,568 allocation for school-building
projects in the state.
This latest authorization brings to
more than $210,208,000 the total alloca
tions for construction and improve
ment since the state initiated in 1951
a massive equalization and expansion
program for its public schools.
That program, supported by a three
per cent general sales tax, had as a
major goal the providing of equal edu
cational facilities for Negro and white
children.
retirement.”
The president of Alabama’s other
state-supported Negro college, Ala
bama State College in Montgomery,
was ordered to take a year’s leave of
absence Jan. 1 (Southern School
News, January). Dr. H. Councill Tren-
holm had been attacked by Gov.
Patterson for failure to maintain order
in February, 1960, when students par
ticipated in a series of anti-segregation
demonstrations downtown and on cam
pus. Some 50 students were disciplined
and Dr. Trenholm was warned to “clean
up” the college—faculty as well as
student body.
President 35 Years
Trenholm had been president of his
institution for 35 years.
Beyond the release of the two presi
dents, the state board expressed con
cern over the loss of accreditation of
the two Negro institutions. Both were
dropped from the approved list of the
Southern Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools last December.
Neither had ever held full membership
in the association. But for a period of
four years, 1957-61, they were listed on
a separate, tentative list, pending the
correction of deficiencies.
Gov. Patterson has directed a study
of the situation to determine what
must be done to get the colleges ac
credited. He said the state must take
whatever steps necessary, “even if it
means going to the legislature.” The
state board voted to take immediate
action.
★ ★ ★
The Rev. Uriah J. Fields, Negi
minister in Montgomery, announced L
will again try for election to the Mont-
gomery City-County Board of Educa
tion in the May primary.
Fields broke with Dr. Martin Luther
King’s Montgomery Improvement Asso-
ciation and
formed his own
Montgomery Am
elioration and
Restoration Asso
ciation. In that
capacity he
charged that King
and the MIA had
created racial ten
sion and discord.
However, he has
not defended the
status quo.
Fields was de
feated in his bid for election to the
board in 1960. He now points to an
improved “racial climate in Mont
gomery” (SSN, February) and said he
believed cooperation between whites
Legislative Action
State Legislature
Virtually Ignores
Segregation Issue
The South Carolina General Assem
bly virtually ignored all questions of
segregation, school and otherwise, as
the 1962 session entered its second
month in February.
One of the few pertinent measures
still hanging fire in the legislature was
a bill that would require the payment
of school tuition for children whose
parents are not residents or taxpayers
in the state. The proposed measure
does not refer to race, but one of the
factors back of it is the relatively high
incidence in some counties of Negro
children who are residing with friends
or relatives in the absence of their
parents.
The bill, which already has been ap
proved by the House of Representa
tives, states:
“If any child attending the public
schools of the state has one or more
parents residing outside the state and
neither parent lives or is a freeholder
within the state, the trustees of such
school shall be empowered to assess
tuition against the person with whom
the child resides in an amount equal
to the per capita cost of education
within the district.”
The bill currently is under commit
tee consideration in the State Senate.
# # #
SOUTH CAROLINA
Return of Attendance Law Advocated
FIELDS
f
K
S'
Si
r
James E. Folsom
‘I’ll tell you one thing . .
ft
and Negroes was now possible.
Present white members of the boars 1
are doing a good job, he said, but “the '
fact remains that nobody understands ^
Negroes like Negroes.”
Fields holds degrees from Alabama *
State College.
Ml
EJ
Under Survey
Annual Report Notes •
4 Air of Uneasiness’ p
The 48th annual Tuskegee Institute
report on race relations, released Feb,
1, said that while “an air of uneasi
ness” prevailed in the South during
1961, the year was marked by “notable
advances in democratic living.”
Specifically, the report cited the
“freedom ride” movement as a “land
mark in the history of the Negro,"
a challenge that “demonstrated not
only that discrimination on account ot
race had become an intolerable burden
to those against whom it is practiced,
but also that the present generation of
Negroes and their supporters know it
no longer has to be borne . . .”
Although there was “misunderstand
ing by some segments of the public"
as to the purpose and method of the
rides, “the activities of freedom riders
advanced citizenship status signifi
cantly and helped build a firm base for
wholesome race relations.”
Court decisions during the year, the
report continued, “further strength
ened the constitutional rights of citi
zens and clarified the superior rank of
federal laws over local laws in voting,
education, transportation, public ac
commodations and recreation. Th*
executive branch of government too*
the lead in promoting civil rights. 7h {
attorney general publicized his belief
that all people are created equal and
that integration should take in all P u “"
lie facilities in every section of th c
country.”
The report was signed by Dr. Luther
H. Foster, Tuskegee president.
Leeal Action
State Court Bans
CORE From Alabama
A temporary restraining order ***
issued by Montgomery Circuit J ut ~f
Walter B. Jones Feb. 3 against
Congress of Racial Equality (C0®vj
banning it from qualifying to do bus
ness in Alabama.
Mrs. Bettye Frink, Alabama’s seef^
tary of state, had rejected a CO
application for authority to operate
the state as a foreign corporation.
Atty. Gen. MacDonald Gallion,
obtained a permanent injun^L
against NAACP operations in Alabajj
Dec. 29 (SSN, January), asked f° r
restraining order against CORE.
Sponsored ‘Freedom Rides
■‘free- N
CORE sponsored some of the
dom rides” into Alabama last > ^
Gallion charged at the time that CD
was headed by unknown radicals. ^
with long association with com 111
front groups.
oft’f
Mrs. Frink based her rejection o \
CORE application on Judge Jones
ing in the NAACP case.
aled
Attorneys for CORE app eai , n5 on
U.S. District Judge Frank M. J° ^
Jr. to dissolve the injunction, - f
plaining that the attorney gencr ^
“in conspiracy with the secretariat
state ... to nullify respondent s j;
to carry on business activities • • • ^
Judge Johnson had not set a
for hearing CORE’S motion, ° r (o
lion’s motion to remand the c
state courts, at the end of F 0 ^’ 11 * '