Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10—MAY, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
FLORIDA
First Lawsuit Involving ‘Impact’
Funds is Planned in W ashington
Florida Desegregation
County
Enrollment
Negroes
Biracial
Date
White
Negro
w/whites
Schools
Deseg*
Broward
60,138
8,882
56
3
1961-V
Dade
154,731
32,108
583
10
1959-V
Hillsborough ..
73,014
11,201
3
2
1961-V
Palm Beach ...
38,021
6,480
4
3
1961-c
Volusia
22,305
3,212
2
1
1961-V
TOTALS
*V—Voluntary;
348,209
C—Court Ordered
61,883
648
19
MIAMI
ederal officials announced
in Washington that Florida
may be the first target of a suit
to force desegregation of schools
in order to qualify for federal aid
to impacted areas.
Sixteen of the state’s 67 counties re
ceive compensation from the national
treasury for serving children of per
sons who reside on government prop
erty. Last year, according to state
school officials, these local school
boards were paid about $829,000 to help
pay tuition for 4,885 such children. They
ranged from large numbers of young
sters of military personnel to the chil
dren of isolated national park employes
and families on Seminole Indian res
ervations.
Of the nine counties principally af
fected, only one—Dade—has begun de
segregation, but three—Escambia, Bre
vard and Duval—are defendants in
school suits.
Whether the government planned to
file an original suit or intervene in one
of the pending cases, or perhaps both,
was not clear. Florida Attorney Gen
eral Richard Ervin had not been noti
fied of any possible action but said that
if a suit is filed, it will be up to the
county to handle what course to follow.
Ready to Assist
If it decides to resist, the facilities of
the attorney general’s office will be
available to assist on request.
The possibility of a suit was sug
gested by U.S. Assistant Attorney Gen
eral Burke Marshall in an appearance
before a House education subcommittee
considering several measures to speed
the desegregation process. A law or
court order requiring compliance with
desegregation rulings as a prerequisite
for federal school aid would be prefer
able, he said, to simply withholding
federal funds. This, he suggested, was
negative and punitive.
“A successful suit of this kind,” he
said, “would be the most effective
means of solving the problem of dis
crimination in impacted school areas.”
If the government’s drive is widened
to include children of employes who
five outside federal installations, the
effect would be much more sweeping
More than $4 million in construction
funds might become involved.
$1.4 Million Allocated
Several days after the Washington
announcement, the government allotted
$1,400,000 to assist in public school con
struction in Duval County. The money
will go into two junior high schools
near naval installations that will be at
tended by a number of children of
personnel there.
Duval County has no desegregated
schools. During the trial of the federal
court suit that is now at the point of
decision, school authorities contended
this was not the result of racial dis
crimination but was by choice of the
Florida Highlights
Florida may be the first target of
a federal suit to require school de
segregation as a requisite for receiv
ing aid to impacted areas. The na
ture of the suit was not clear, but
Florida officials expressed concern
over the effect of the new govern
ment policy.
Orange County, in booming Mid
dle Florida, became the defendant
in the state’s 11th school desegrega
tion suit.
In a sizzling contest for Congress
in the 4th (South Dade-Monroe)
District, school segregation turned
up as an important issue.
Four Negro institutions were ac
cepted as members of the Florida
Association of Colleges and Univer
sities.
persons involved and operation of the
pupil assignment law.
Should the court rule that segrega
tion by race in fact exists, school offi
cials said the allotment might be af
fected.
Officials Concerned
Florida officials reacted with concern
to the federal moves. Thomas D. Bailey,
state school superintendent, said it
was “regrettable” that allocations of
federal aid were being considered in
connection with segregation practices.
Bailey has consistently urged federal
aid for schools. But he commented:
“The education of children and the pro
viding of federal funds in lieu of taxes
should be the basis for allocating fed
eral funds. The school segregation issue
should be dealt with on a legal basis
since it is within this framework that
decisions are to be made.”
House Speaker William V. Chappell
of Ocala, long-time opponent of fed
eral aid to schools, said:
“This should be a lesson to all who
advocate direct federal aid to educa
tion for teachers’ salaries, construction
or other purposes.”
Legal Action
Latest School Suit
Filed at Orlando;
Orleans Case Cited
Orange County, in flourishing middle
Florida where the space industry is
causing unprecedented growth, is the
latest target of a school segregation
suit.
The petition was filed in federal
district court at Orlando by eight Ne
gro families a few days after a federal
district judge had ruled out New Or
leans’ method of applying the Louisiana
pupil placement law. (See Louisiana
report.) The Orange County petitioners
cited Judge J. Skelly Wright’s order
for complete desegregation of grades
one through six in New Orleans public
schools, and they used it as the basis
for their plea that Orange schools be
immediately desegregated at all levels.
The suit said Orange County operates
a school system that is “compulsory
and biracial.” Its placement policy was
“originally decreed by state law which
is now followed, maintained and per
petrated by defendants as a matter of
custom and usage.”
Discrimination Charged
The assignment law becomes opera
tive, said the suit, only in cases where
Negro students seek to enter white
schools. This results in discrimination
against Negro children.
The decision in the Louisiana case,
the plaintiffs argued, gives the court
jurisdiction even though all adminis
trative remedies set up in the assign
ment law have not been used.
The Orange County case increases
the number of Florida school suits to
11. Six of these suits are still active.
In the case of Hillsborough and Duval
counties, testimony has been completed
and briefs filed. Decisions are expected
at any time.
In Brevard County, site of the Cape
Canaveral missile base where a suit
(Weaver v. Board of Public Instruction
of Brevard County) was filed last Octo
ber, school authorities asked for a dis
missal on grounds administrative reme
dies were not exhausted.
Hearings have not yet been set on
suits in Leon and Orange counties.
In the Colleges
Association Accepts
Four Negro Colleges
The Florida Association of Colleges
and Universities, holding its annual
meeting in Miami Beach, dropped a
29-year tradition and voted to accept
four Negro institutions as members.
Three granted full membership in
cluded the Florida Agricultural and
Mechanical University at Tallahassee,
one of the five branches of the state
university system. FAMU is nationally
recognized, with an international stu
dent body, and is fully accredited.
Other members are the Bethune-
Cookman College, Daytona Beach, and
the Florida Normal and Industrial Me
morial College, St. Augustine. Associate
membership was voted for Gibbs Jun
ior College at Tampa.
All four institutions were accredited
by the Southern Association of Col
leges and Secondary Schools.
N. C.
(Continued From Page 7)
gether total impressions or results—
indeed, most of the students involved
said they expected no particular result
beyond better understanding.
One professor, Dr. W. R. Coleman
from Smith, accompanied the students
to Dubuque. Prof. John Knox Coit
came with the Dubuque students. The
professors exchanged classes for a
week.
Students made swaps, too. The Du
buque students took the rooms left
vacant by the Smith students and,
person for person, followed the sched
ules of the Smith students. At Dubuque,
the same things were happening to the
Smith students in reverse.
Both groups said it was an interest
ing week. There was talk at the end
of the week of trying the experiment
again, though there was also some criti
cism.
Some Criticism
The criticism came from Dubuque,
not Smith. There, one student wrote
The Que, the college weekly news
paper, “Although this student exchange
may have a dubious publicity value for
the University of Dubuque and other
groups, I doubt that it has any real
significance.”
Carol Stevens, editor of The Que
and one of the exchange students, said:
“We’ve found that the things that are
different are little things. But on the
whole we’re all students and we have
the same variety of interests and goals.”
The Dubuque students, they said,
discussed racial problems, but mostly
with Smith students from the North
who, they think, are more used to talk
ing to white people about racial mat
ters than are Southern Negroes.
Prof. Knox said the only reference
he heard to race was in a joke, when
one teacher laughed as a student said
he would take her to lunch at a certain
downtown restaurant. Knox did not
understand what was funny until he
was told that the restaurant, previously
segregated, had desegregated but had
been found to be too expensive for
most Negro students.
One Dubuque student said: “Over the
past three years there had been maybe
Schoolmen
20 minutes of talk about race” on the
Dubuque campus. “But during the last
few weeks . . .”
Dubuque students included Sandi
Nelson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Carol
Stevens of Waukegan, Rl.; Harold Sud-
meyer of Chicago; Ruth Flage of Qua-
kon, Iowa; Dan Frump of Fort Wayne
Ind.; Bob Noth of Bettendorf, Iowa;
Ronna Schwartz of Wellman, Iowa'
Brian Difford of Elkader, Iowa, and
Kent Herron and Mary Couchman of
Dubuque.
At Dubuque, Barbara Ferguson, ed
itor of Smith’s University Student,
was told by a student there that she
didn’t believe sit-in demonstrations
ever really took place.
Miss Ferguson, who had participated
in sit-in demonstrations and been a
picket against segregated theaters, ho-
tels, restaurants and hospitals in Char
lotte, wrote a guest article for The
Que, relating some of her experiences.
Few Arguments
Most Smith students said they spent
their week answering a lot of ques
tions about Southern racial problems,
but they got into few arguments.
They said they found Dubuque stu
dents much like other college students
they knew—they were somewhat apa
thetic about politics and campus or
ganizations, and the girls talked a lot
about diamond rings.
Smith students on the trip included
Lydia Aiken, Niathan Allen, James
Outlaw, Mary Roberts, Alfred Robert
son, Queen Roseborough, Kinneth
Washington, Mary Elizabeth White
and Thomas Wright.
Dubuque students were kept busy
with special dinners and other social
events throughout much of their stay
outside of classes. Smith students re
ported social activity at Dubuque at a
somewhat slower pace.
Dr. Coleman of Smith said he found
students at Dubuque “pretty much like
ours. Some of them pay attention; some
of them don’t. They don’t respond to
questioning as ours do.”
Smith students said they found the
food at Dubuque “refreshingly differ
ent.” And Dubuque students, who were
eating mashed sweet potatoes and grits
for the first time, said much the same
things.
Desegregation is Discussion
Subject for PTA Panelists
Wan on the (Fench
Carswell is One of a Rare
Breed; Turned to the GOP
J udge G. Harrold Carswell of
Tallahassee, the federal judge
under whose orders Escambia
County will desegregate its
schools this fall, is one of a rare
breed in the South, a life-long
Democrat and son of a prominent
Democratic official, who turned
Republican from conviction.
As a young practicing attorney in
Tallahassee, where he was once in the
law firm of former Gov. LeRoy Collins,
Judge Carswell
became a leader
in the Democrats-
for - Eisenhower
movement. This
group was cred
ited with a deci
sive part in Eis
enhower’s Florida
victory in 1952,
and in the follow
ing year Carswell
was appointed U.
S. Attorney for
North Florida. carswell
When he was elevated to district
judge in 1958 he was, at 38, one of
the youngest men on the federal bench!
The only criticism of the nomination
was on the ground of youth and in
experience. But Carswell found power
ful support among Democrats as well
as Republicans. In the face of Demo
cratic objections, Gov. Collins wrote
a letter of endorsement, explaining that
it was an attestation to his fitness
rather than an endorsement. He stated
that “Mr. Carswell has the qualifica
tions to make an excellent judge.”
Florida’s Sen. George Smathers, who
had pledged a fight against Carswell’s
confirmation, withdrew his objections.
Made News Early
Judge Carswell made news even be
fore assuming his post. When he ap
peared before the Senate Judiciary
Committee under Chairman James O.
Eastland (D.-Miss.), he was asked to
pledge himself by oath not to partici
pate in any decision “designed to alter
the meaning of the Constitution.”
Although this was an unprecedented
step, Carswell readily agreed and took
this oath as read to him by Sen. East-
land:
“Do you, in contemplation of the
(See CARSWELL, Page 11)
Political Activity
Segregation Issues
Highlight Campaign
For Representative
The sizzling political contest in
Florida’s Fourth (South Dade) Con
gressional District developed surpris
ing heat in the closing days over the
segregation issue.
The question was implicit in the race
from the beginning. Incumbent Rep.
Dante Fascell had been the only mem
ber of the Florida delegation who did
not sign the so-called Southern Mani
festo in 1956. His challenger for the
Democratic nomination, State Rep.
David Eldredge, won his seat in 1958 by
defeating Rep. Jack Orr on a purely
segregation issue. Orr received the
Freedom Foundation Award for his
opposition to segregation measures in
the Florida Legislature.
Against such a background, racial
charges flew.
Called a Provoker
In a large newspaper advertisement,
Eldredge charged Fascell was intent on
stirring racial strife.
“Under the leadership of such men as
David Eldredge,” said the ad, “Florida
has a record of peaceful race relations—
no violence, no paratroopers. Thanks to
the Pupil Assignment Law which Da-
(See FLORIDA, Page 11)
A student, a minister and a school
principal participated in a panel dis
cussion of desegregation at a Parent-
Teacher Association meeting at Sedge-
field Junior High School in Charlotte
(April 10).
Sedgefield is not desegregated, but
Dilworth Elementary School, a feeder
school for Sedgefield, has a Negro stu
dent in the sixth grade this year.
J. B. Davis Jr., the Dilworth prin
cipal, said: “I think I planned for the
worst and hoped for the best.”
Robert Whitten, a Myers Park High
School senior, said: “I think a student
body that is informed and interested
in having it go well, they can make
it work.” Myers Park has one Negro
student this year among about 1,300
students.
Dr. Sidney L. Freeman, pastor of
Charlotte’s Unitarian Church, said:
“Treat our children as persons of worth,
so that perhaps they in turn will treat
others as persons of worth.”
Time to Foresee
At Dilworth, Principal Davis said,
“I tried to think through all the po
tential trouble spots. I tried to foresee
all the potential difficulties that might
arise.”
Davis said he figured he could control
anything that might happen inside the
school. But he wasn’t sure about what
might happen outside. So, for the first
two weeks, he asked the five Negro
students to come a few minutes late
and leave a few minutes early.
“As I look back on it,” he said, “I
don t think we had any need to worry
about this.” There were no incidents.
This is the first year of desegregation
for Dilworth School, though some other
Charlotte schools have had some de
segregation since the fall of 1957.
Nor, he said, had there been any
incidents at any time during the year.
One mother wanted to withdraw her
child because of desegregation. Davis
suggested she go home and talk it over
with her husband. She never returned
to renew the request.
“The strangeness of a new situation,
I think, struck all of us,” Davis said,
“and yet it’s hardly a conscious f aC *
that we are integrated now.”
No Preparation
At Myers Park there was no tim e
for preparation. The school was deseg
regated in October when Don A. Grig=
su.cessfully argued his own transf er
request before the Charlotte-Mecklen'
burg Board of Education. „
“It was a surprise to most peopl e ’
Whitten said. “Most people didn’t thin 11
Myers Park would be integrated. The>
were wrong about that. Then m° s
people didn’t think it would work. Th e >
were wrong about that, too.” . .
Most of the students weren’t worn ^
about desegregation, he said. Most
them accepted it as a challenge to P r0 '
themselves.
There have been, he said, a f eW ^
cidents—a shout from a passing car ’
word scrawled on a blackboard.
But for the most part, he said, s ^
dents were too proud of their school
cause trouble: “Nobody wanted *7,,
bad publicity for Myers Park Sch°°