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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1962—PAGE 7
? Few Legislative
\Ieasures Touch
! On School Issue
(Continued From Page 1)
I | school racial problems has been cen-
* jtered, there were indications that the
i (state administration would prefer to
I Lvoid a legislative wrangle on at least
| one phase of the issue—the recently
1 ordered desegregation of Catholic
I ' schools in the Archdiocese of New Or
leans. The state’s urgent financial
problems could overshadow all else at
Baton Rouge this year.
Nevertheless, a New Orleans repre
sentative pre-filed a bill which would
remove tax exemptions from property
operated by churches and charitable
f institutions for profit or income. The
measure is considered a retaliation
against both the Catholic school de-
i segregation move and the recent court
order for desegregation of Tulane Uni
versity. Both the Catholic archdiocese
and the university own business prop-
’ erties as investments,
i Catholic schools in Louisiana receive
1 free textbooks from the state and get
] some bus transportation of pupils when
* facilities are available. Church schools
also participate in the state-federal hot
: lunch program. A spokesman for seg-
) regationist forces in the legislature has
i warned in broad terms of possible leg-
, islation against Catholic schools, but he
was not specific.
New Problem
In many states, a new problem
1 pushed school desegregation into the
: background. Special legislative sessions
; were in prospect in several capitols as
an outgrowth of the Supreme Court’s
recent decision that state legislative re
apportionment lawsuits may be tried
and decided in federal courts. In Geor
gia, a three-judge federal court on
April 28 enjoined use of that state’s
traditional county unit system for
counting votes in state primaries—an
issue linked to the reapportionment
situation. The injunction came shortly
after the state legislature, called into
special session by the governor, had
liberalized the unit law somewhat in
favor of urban voters. An appeal to the
U.S. Supreme Court was announced
immediately.
The reapportionment issue, which
was brought to a head in Tennessee,
has a considerable though incidental
connection with questions of race re
lations in schools and elsewhere. Ulti
mately, as viewed by many political
and legal leaders, changes in ratios of
urban and rural representation could
bring notable changes in legislative
Philosophies and motives. But no such
outcome is considered immediately
ahead.
Tuition Grant Laws
Two states with tuition grant laws—-
Provisions for public funds to be used
for education outside a pupil’s normal
Public school district—took steps to
Proceed under their accompanying
“freedom-of-choice” programs.
In Virginia, the House Education
Committee unanimously killed a bill
I which would have permitted localities
I *0 withdraw from the state tuition
grants program. Georgia legislators
moved to simplify their tuition grants
setup by providing (1) that all the
money may come from the state with
out local contributions being required,
mid (2) that its administration shall be-
eonie a state rather than a local re
sponsibility.
The withdrawal proposal in Virginia
?rew from a controversy over whether
the “freedom-of-choice” program is be-
big abused. The Virginia Education As
sociation and some local governing
bodies have contended that public
funds are being used improperly to fi-
funce private education of students
who would attend private schools with
out receiving public money for it. In
Virginia, a child may get a tuition grant
40 attend either a nonsectarian private
School or a public school outside his
°Wn district.
Among Virginians who oppose the
Program, the argument is that it should
limited to helping children to avoid
^tending desegregated schools. But
^te officials and legislators take the
Position that any law so restricting the
S'&nts would be declared invalid by
e deral courts, and hence there are no
re strictions on who gets the grants.
Georgia Concept
I Georgia’s tuition grants concept is
^uuilar, except that it limits the funds
I 0 use in nonsectarian private schools
/ hi public schools outside the state.
amended, effective July 1, grants of
s JUe $182 a year will be provided from
funds for any child in the state
iWeen six and 19 years old. Local
Pool boards may supplement such
a Uts. Children already attending pri
vate schools are eligible. Private schools
must meet minimal standards pre
scribed by the state board of education.
The tuition-grant concept will be ad
vocated further in the Louisiana Leg
islature, according to State Sen. E. W.
Gravolet Jr., vice-chairman of the
joint legislative committee on segrega
tion. Public funds now are being used
by pupils attending a newly construct
ed private school in New Orleans.
Gravolet said late in April he be
lieved the legislature should cease try
ing to maintain segregation by state
laws but instead should concentrate on
the “freedom-of-choice” concept simi
lar to Virginia’s—giving pupils and
parents an option on schools to be at
tended. The option: desegregated pub
lic schools or private schools with
scholarships (grants) provided by the
state.
The senator called for some changes
in the scholarship law, including di
vorcing its program from the state de
partment of education and setting up a
separate fund for it.
Compulsory Attendance
All three states which have modified
or expect to alter their tuition grant
statutes also have considered related
questions of compulsory school attend
ance.
In Virginia, where 56 of the 131
school districts have their own local
compulsory attendance laws, a legisla
tive committee killed unanimously a
bill which would have restored com
pulsory attendance as a statewide law
but would have allowed localities to
remove themselves from it. Georgia
senators approved a proposal to allow
local school boards to suspend or re
instate compulsory attendance laws,
but the measure died in the House
when it failed to gain consideration
before adjournment.
Mississippi legislators—still in session
this month after starting in January—
received a recommendation from a leg
islative education study committee that
they re-enact the compulsory attend
ance law which was repealed in 1954
in a move to counter desegregation.
The committee said the law should be
restored “due to neglect and indiffer
ence on the part of parents toward the
education of their children.” No action
had been taken at the end of April.
Among other actions, the Mississippi
legislature provided that organizations
such as the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People must
qualify under state corporation laws or
face injunction suits. A number of
measures, still pending in the legisla
ture’s 18th week, were considered pos
sible counters against federal court de
segregation orders. (See Mississippi re
port.)
Rights Commissions
While legislators of some states con
tinued moves designed at least to offset
objections to compulsory desegregation,
the West Virginia legislature increased
from $15,500 to $22,327 its appropriation
for the State Human Rights Commis
sion, which seeks primarily to promote
racial equality. In Delaware, Gov. El
bert N. Carvel recently appointed
members of a Human Rights Commis
sion authorized by the legislature last
December. The assembly reconvened in
February but took no further actions
involving race relations.
Efforts to remove racial references
from state school laws were unsuccess
ful this year in Maryland and Ken
tucky, as they were last year in Okla
homa. Although such references no
longer have application to actual prac
tices under desegregation policies in
Maryland, Kentucky and Oklahoma,
leaders of Negro organizations have re
peatedly urged that the terminology be
stricken.
Other Actions
Among other legislative actions:
Virginia enacted a law permitting
teachers to terminate their contracts if
their schools become desegregated.
Georgia repealed a college age-limit
law which had banned enrollment in
the state university system of under
graduates over 21 and graduate stu
dents over 25 years old. The law had
been considered a means to minimize
college desegregation.
In Kentucky, a bill which would
have abolished the state’s only pre
dominantly Negro college, Kentucky
State, died in committee.
Mississippi (still in session) consid
ered a proposal for a “constitutional
rights division” in the state attorney
general’s office to assign the handling
of all federal court suits and civil rights
cases in which the state or its subdi
visions are involved.
Mississippi removed the word “Ne
gro” from its law allowing students
who cannot attend a graduate school
in Mississippi to attend one in another
state at Mississippi’s expense. Sponsors
of the deletion said it would lessen the
chance of the law being overturned by
a federal court as a segregation device.
When Mississippi legislators were
considering a law to require that
boards of education publish their pro-
NORTH CAROLINA
Wake Forest College Trustees
Vote Immediate Desegregation
Two Colleges Exchange Students
White exchange students from the University of Dubuque talk with Negro students
on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.
CHARLOTTE
ake Forest College in Win-
, ston - Salem, the largest
Baptist college in North Carolina
with an enrollment of more than
2,500 students, will desegregate
its undergraduate classes.
The decision, by the college’s board
of trustees—men appointed by the
North Carolina State Baptist Conven
tion to govern the college—was by a
17 to 9 vote. Four of the 30 trustees
at the meeting (held in Winston-Salem
on April 27) abstained.
The action, the trustees said, is effec
tive immediately.
The trustees approved the dropping
of racial bars in the college, which was
founded in 1834, when they acted upon
a recommendation of a race relations
committee, especially appointed earlier
to study the subject.
L. Y. (Stag) Ballentine, North Caro
lina’s commissioner of agriculture, was
chairman of the trustees’ race relations
committee.
Resolution Adopted
After an hour and a half of debate
in a session that was closed to the
public, the trustees adopted a resolu
tion read by Judge Walter Crissman of
High Point.
It said: “This committee recommends
to the trustees that we carry out the
will expressed by the Baptist State
Convention last November and allow
qualified students to enter Wake Forest
College regardless of race.”
The action completed a series of
events at the college which began in
the spring of 1960.
A group of students headed by J.
Glenn Blackburn Jr. began planning
to bring an African student to Wake
Forest College.
In February, 1961, the college’s fac
ulty voted by a large majority to re
quest the trustees to modify “the cus
tom of excluding Negroes.” The faculty
request specifically mentioned that a
change was needed to permit the en
rollment at the college of Edward Rey
nolds, the student from Ghana whom
the Wake Forest students were trying
to help.
Graduate Schools
In April, 1961, trustees voted to per
mit the admission of Negroes to the
college’s graduate school, law school
and medical school. None has entered
so far, however.
In June, 1961, the trustees extended
the admission policy on Negroes to in
clude undergraduate courses in the
summer school and in the college’s
night school, but said these courses
could not be used for credit in the
regular undergraduate college.
Three Negroes attended classes dur
ing the summer session in 1961. All
were day students and did not live on
the campus. Several other Negroes are
enrolled in night classes.
At their meeting in January of this
year, the trustees directed the race
relations committee to study the pos
sibility of dropping all racial barriers,
specifically those remaining in the Col
lege of Liberal Arts and the School of
Business Administration. Liberal arts
and business administration students
account for about 2,000 of Wake For
est’s 2,500 students.
Effective Immediately
A spokesman for the trustees said
the action would be effective immedi
ately. He said details pertinent to the
decision—housing for Negroes on the
campus, for example—would be han
dled by the administration which is
headed by President Harold Tribble.
The spokesman said the principal ob
jection raised by opponents to the
change was that more experience
should be gained with desegregation
for another year in the graduate and
summer schools.
College officials indicated they ex-
pecied no large influx of Negro stu
dents. However, one official noted it
was likely that Reynolds, the student
from Ghana who has been attending
Shaw University in Raleigh and making
all A s, would apply for admission
next fall.
Mars Hill, a Baptist junior college
at Mars Hill with about 1,000 students,
ceedlngs, one opponent said it might
show that white schools got more
money than Negro schools. “If you put
this in the paper,” he declared, “you
are just building up a case for inte
gration.” The bill was amended to allow
boards the alternative of posting their
minutes on courthouse doors. # # #
became the first Baptist college to de
segregate in this state. That was last
fall when one Negro girl entered.
★ ★ ★
Negro Law Student Gets
Highest Campus Honor
Another honor has come to Julius
L. Chambers, the first Negro ever to
be editor of the
University of
North Carolina
Law Review.
Chambers, a na
tive of Mount
Gilead (N.C.), has
been chosen for
membership in the
Order of the Gol
den Fleece, the
highest honor a
university student
may attain.
Chambers was named editor of the
Law Review last spring on the basis
of his academic achievement during his
first two years in the law school at
Chapel Hill. He is serving this year.
The Order of the Golden Fleece se
lects about half a dozen members a
year, some of which sometimes include
faculty members.
Membership is not based on grades,
though good grades contribute to the
student’s selection. Qualities of leader
ship and similar factors play an im
portant part in the selection.
★ ★ ★
White and Negro
Students Exchange
In an experiment in race relations,
10 Negro students from Johnson C.
Smith University spent the first week
in April at the University of Dubuque
in Iowa, and 10 white students from
Dubuque spent the same week at Smith
in Charlotte.
What They Say
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, has been
critical of North Carolina Negroes for
“twiddling your thumbs” instead of
fighting for desegregation.
Wilkins, speaking to about 700 per
sons attending a rally at Charlotte’s
Pa.k Center sponsored by North Caro
lina NAACP branches, said that be
cause the race is
sue did not stir
up violence and
bloodshed here
“you refuse to get
excited about it.
“Well, you ought
to get excited,”
he said.
“You’re in bad
shape here. You
have token deseg
regation and it’s
not as large a
N.C. Highlights
Trustees of Wake Forest College,
the state’s largest Baptist institution
of higher learning, have voted to
desegregate the college.
Ten white students from the Uni
versity of Dubuque in Iowa and ten
Negro students from Johnson C.
Smith University in Charlotte ex
changed campuses and classes for
a week in a novel racial experiment
sponsored by the United Presby
terian Church, U.S.A., and that
church’s Board of Christian Educa
tion.
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People has
been critical of North Carolina Ne
groes for not pressing for more
school desegregation. North Caro
lina’s token desegregation is a
smaller token than Virginia’s he
said, and at the present rate it may
be smaller than Georgia’s by next
year.
Both schools are affiliated with the
Northern Presbyterian church (United
Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.).
Smith, though it has a policy of de
segregation, is an all-Negro institution.
In the past, only an occasional white
student has enrolled.
Dubuque, largely a white college, has
about a half dozen Negroes enrolled.
Total enrollment at Dubuque is slightly
more than 700. Smith’s enrollment is
about 825.
Met in Chicago
The students traveled by air, met for
a two-hour visit at a Chicago airport,
then completed their journeys on Mon
day, April 2. They repeated the pattern
at the end of the week.
No effort has been made to put to-
(See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 10)
token as Virginia’s. You’re behind Vir
ginia, and you’re behind Florida. If you
keep on the way you’re going, you
could be behind Georgia next year.”
(North Carolina has 203 Negro stu
dents attending school with white stu
dents in 11 desegregated districts of
the state’s 173 districts.)
Wilkins said that in states where
desegregation still lags behind that of
North Carolina (he listed them as Mis
sissippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia
and South Carolina), “the trouble is
with the white people, not the colored
people.
“But you see,” he said, “you haven’t
got a lot of ignorant white people in
this state. That’s why I don’t under
stand why you’re sitting on your
hands.”
Wilkins asked: “Who’s bragging? Are
you bragging about being ahead of
Mississippi?”
W ilkins Criticises Negroes
For Twiddling \our Thumbs’
WILKINS