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GEORGIA
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST, 1962—PAGE 7
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Judge Sees No Discrimination in Atlanta Placements
Dixieland Jazz for Sanders
At candidate’s campaign opener in Americus the tunes were foot-tappers.
MACON
S. District Judge Frank A.
• Hooper withheld ruling im
mediately on the motion to speed
up Atlanta’s desegregation pro
gram, but he did remark after a
two-hour hearing July 31 that
there was “not a scintilla of testi
mony” to indicate discrimination
against Negroes under the pupil
placement plan.
“I don’t see that you have proved
there are any standards applied to Ne
groes and not to whites,” the judge
told the plaintiffs. Judge Hooper also
stated during the hearing that he
thought it “significant” that no Negroes
rejected under the plan had appeared
at the hearing.
The district judge delayed his ruling
until he could read a recent federal
appellate court’s decision, which was
cited as precedent by an NAACP law
yer, Mrs. Constance Baker Motley of
New York.
In addition to the request to increase
Atlanta’s school desegregation, the
NAACP asked desegregation of teach
ing staffs, citing the U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals decision in the Es
cambia County, Fla., case. Judge Hoop
er expressed surprise that the Negroes
were asking for teacher desegregation,
as the plaintiffs originally had brought
class action on behalf of pupils.
Mrs. Motley cited the circuit court
opinion as precedent for her request.
The school board’s attorney. Newell
Edenfield, replied that this decision had
said that desegregation of students
should be settled first.
Current Plan
The NAACP proposal asked that the
current pupil placement plan be thrown
out and Atlanta’s public schools com
pletely desegregated by 1965. Under the
suggested plan, all high school grades
would be desegregated by 1963, the
fourth through the seventh grades by
September, 1964, and the remaining
grades by 1965.
Atlanta desegregated its 11th and 12th
grades under court order last year and
is adding the 10th grade this year un
der the grade-a-year plan.
In arguing against the pupil place
ment plan, Mrs. Motley said “this plan
is operated to put a burden on Negroes
not applied to whites” and is “dis
criminatory on its face.” The NAACP
attorney cited testimony that white stu
dents were allowed to transfer “infor
mally” to other white schools through
out the school year.
“It is known,” she said, “that May
1-15 is the time when Negroes apply to
attend white schools” and that white
students are allowed to make applica
tions at other times. “I don’t think the
court can close its eyes to what every
body else knows,” she told Judge Hoop
er.
Mass Transfers
Mrs. Motley also attacked what she
described as the dual white-Negro
school system. And she argued that mass
transfers, such as those from Key Ele
mentary School, were in fact “contro
versial.”
The school board opposed the speed
up request on two major points: 1) the
desegregation plan has been approved
oy the court and it was not appealed
by the plaintiffs at the time of approval;
”) the plan has been administered fairly.
Atlanta’s school superintendent, Dr.
John Letson, explained the different
Procedures for handling formal and in
formal transfer requests. The formal
requests, he said, come between May 1-
Sclioolmen
Some white residents of Atlanta’s
Grant Park area threatened at a meet-
the Atlanta Board of Education
0 blow up” Key Elementary School
rather than see it used by Negroes.
School Supt. John W. Letson had
recommended that Key School, its staff
fud its 300-odd white students, be re
fused in a portion of Smith High
hool, another white school in the
ar ® a w hieh suffered a declining white
school population. Dr. Letson said the
Present Key School could be renamed
d used to house students from John-
s °u, Pryor and Stanton elementary
Sc ools, three Negro schools which now
sutler serious overcrowding.
The board so voted and the meeting
exploded into shouts and angry threats.
Some protested that transfer of the
school would panic white home owners
15 and are appealable; the informal
transfers are allowed at other times for
such reasons as educational programs
and change of residence.
Dr. Letson said “some” of the pupil
placement plan criteria were used in
judging informal transfer requests, but
that Negroes wanting to change to Ne
gro schools are treated in the same
manner. Special tests given to transfer
applicants last year have been aban
doned, and all students take the same
tests now, he testified.
Forty-four new pupils have been ap
proved for transfer when school opens,
and various athletic events, clubs and
other school activities have been de
segregated, the superintendent reported.
Answering Questions
In answering Mrs. Motley’s questions
about the conversion of Key Elementary
School from an all-white to an all-Ne
gro enrollment, Dr. Letson said the
change resulted from “changing com
munity patterns.” He said the pupils
were sent to white schools because the
pupil placement plan’s grade-a-year
provision had not yet reached down
into the elementary level.
“We are and have been in the process
of moving from a segregated system to
a desegregated system. We make no
contention we have moved all the way,”
he said.
The superintendent conceded that
segregated Negro elementary schools
“feed” Negro high schools and white
elementaries feed white high schools.
But Dr. Letson said the descending
stairstep feature eventually would
change the pattern.
On July 5, the NAACP attorneys had
appeared before Judge Hooper to re
quest an earlier hearing on their com
plaint. At that session, Hooper com
mented that the Negroes appeared to
be seeking “a package deal” for com
plete desegregation after accepting the
grade-a-year placement plan.
in the area into selling their homes to
Negroes. Some threatened to “beat your
heads off.”
The angry group milled around in
the hallways of City Hall for 30 min
utes and board members were finally
given police escorts to their cars. School
detectives maintained a special vigil in
the vicinity of Key.
Protests related to the Key contro
versy were also heard from Negroes.
Spokesmen said that while four all-
Negro high schools (Tinner, Washing
ton, Price and Howard) are seriously
overcrowded, most all-white or nomi
nally desegregated high schools are
operating at far less than capacity.
Smith High is in the general vicinity
of Howard High, an all-Negro school
which is seriously overcrowded.
Georgia Highlights
Segregation in the schools was
discussed by both major candidates
for the Georgia governorship, but
both promised to keep the public
schools open.
Federal Judge Frank A. Hooper
on July 31 heard arguments on an
NAACP motion to throw out the
existing pupil placement plan and
completely desegregate Atlanta’s
public school system by 1965.
Oral arguments were heard in an
appeal case over whether Emory
University would lose its tax-exempt
status if it admits a Negro student.
The president of Mercer University
in Macon said he favors desegrega
tion of his school.
Changing over of a former all-
white to an all-Negro school in At
lanta brought protests to the board
of education from whites and Ne
groes.
Slight response was reported to de
segregation plans of Catholic schools
in the Atlanta Archdiocese.
Judge Hooper said no attack on the
present plan had been made in the
higher courts, and no Negro pupil had
complained of discrimination to his
court.
Mrs. Motley said the present plan
should have resulted in “substantial de
segregation” last year, instead of being
limited to nine Negro students.
Judge Hooper, who issued the order
for desegregation and approved the
plan now in use, said the Negro attor
neys had not asked for “wholesale and
immediate” desegregation in the orig
inal suit, on which he ruled in June,
1959. The judge praised the attitude
shown by city officials and the people
of both races in Atlanta and said he
thought “things were in a very desir
able status.”
Says Race is Basis
The NAACP lawyer said the present
plan calls for the Atlanta Board of Ed
ucation to assign all students according
to standards set up in the plan, but
these criteria in practice are applied
only to Negro students seeking trans
fer. She argued that a biracial (sep
arated) system still exists because even
students transferred are done so on a
basis of race.
Judge Hooper said the court did not
start out with the assumption that every
child in school has got to be changed
to another school. Rather, he said, the
pupil placement plan sought gradually
to eliminate discrimination and “satisfy
the end of the law” without violence.
Use of Placement Laws
Scored by NAACP Leader
An indication of the NAACP’s cur
rent view of pupil placement plans was
given in a speech by Robert L. Carter,
NAACP general counsel, at the organi
zation’s annual convention in Atlanta.
Southern Negroes were urged to
break down pupil placement laws by
aiding students and parents to apply in
massive numbers for school transfers.
Carter urged a “door-to-door” cam
paign to boost applications.
Such a campaign was launched in
Durham, N.C., by NAACP college stu
dents, and some 960 students applied,
according to attorney Floyd B. Mc-
Kissick.
Another lawyer, S. W. Tucker of Em
poria, Va., said pupil assignment laws
are being used as “roadblocks” to
genuine integration. Tucker agreed that
application drives might be tactically
useful, but said the U.S. Supreme Court
desegregation decision places a positive
duty on school boards to eliminate seg
regation, and that the burden should
not have to be on the pupils.
Tucker said courts have been “whit
tling down” the scope of pupil place
ment criteria and insisting that both
white and Negro students be subjected
to the same standards.
Political Activity
Race Relations
Become an Issue
In Governor’s Race
Politics heated up with the official
opening of the gubernatorial campaign,
and the handling of racial relations be
came an issue in the contest between
State Senator Carl Sanders of Augusta
and former Gov. Marvin Griffin of
Bainbridge.
Griffin charged Sanders was being
backed by Dr. Martin Luther King and
others he described as integrationists.
Opening his campaign in Americus,
Griffin said he wanted to join hands
with Govemor-nominate George Wal
lace of Alabama (who was on the plat
form and made a brief speech in sup
port of Griffin) and the segregationist
governors of South Carolina and Mis
sissippi to form a solid Deep South
front against integration.
Sanders said he was not going to
stand with Georee Wallace or wHn
Martin Luther King. “I’m going to stand
with the people of my state,” he said.
He called for a halt of racial disturb
ances at Albany and said that, as gov
ernor, he would not tolerate agitators,
whether it be King or Marvin Griffin.
Sanders accused Griffin of bringing in
Alabama Klansmen to create violence
in Georgia. Griffin denied it.
Griffin said there is “insidious propa
ganda” making the rounds in Georgia
that “if we are going to make progress
we can’t maintain our institutions and
traditions” and that “we must take the
bitter medicine offered us by the fed
eral courts.”
He contended that during his admin
istration there was no school desegre
gation, and no acts of violence either.
He said the people of Alabama have
“taken the word ‘inevitable’ out of their
vocabulary” and that Georgia can do
the same under his leadership.
Sanders, who helped guide Gov. Er
nest Vandiver’s “open schools” legisla
tion through the General Assembly last
year, said Georgians “need never fear
your educational system will have a
padlock put on it at any time while I
am governor.”
Both candidates promised the public
schools would not be closed because
of desegregation, and Griffin added
“we are going to try to rid ourselves
of token integration.”
Community Action
Catholic School
Policy Arouses
Slight Response
Only slight response was reported to
lowering of racial bars in Roman Cath
olic schools in the Archdiocese of At
lanta (SSN, July). Archbishop Paul J.
Hallinan said only five Negro Catholic
students had registered to attend pre
viously white elementary schools and
six to attend white high schools.
Some 4,700 pupils in 18 elementary
and five high schools in the 71-county
diocese are involved. But the arch
bishop said the success of desegregation
does not depend on the number of
transfers.
★ ★ ★
The Newsletter of the Greater Atlanta
Council on Human Relations listed
schools and colleges in the area which
“have accepted or indicated willingness
to accept applications from all.” The
list includes:
Certain Atlanta public schools (11 of
21 will be desegregated as of this fall).
Catholic schools.
Georgia Tech (two Negroes attended
last term; others have applied for ad
mission in September).
Georgia State College (one Negro has
attended).
Oglethorpe University.
Agnes Scott College (beginning 1963-
64 term.)
Westminster School (Presbyterian-
related).
Trinity Presbyterian School.
Columbia Theological Seminary.
In the Colleges
High Court Hears
Arguments in Suit
On Tax Exemption
Oral arguments in the case of whep-
er Emory University can admit a Negro
student without losing its tax exemp
tion were heard by the Georgia Su
preme Court. Attorneys for Emory, a
private school near Atlanta, appealed
an adverse decision by Judge Frank
Guess of DeKalk Superior Court (SSN,
July).
Chief Justice W. H. Duckworth re
marked from the bench that he did not
think state law could be construed to
bar Emory from admitting a Negro
student.
A Negro has not yet been admitted
to Emory but the school sought judicial
interpretation of the laws after an
nouncing it wanted to admit a Negro
to the dentistry school this fall.
Sees Possible Conflict
George Dillard, attorney for DeKalb
County, said Georgia’s laws requiring
segregation in tax-exempt colleges may
conflict with U.S. Supreme Court anti
segregation decisions. But in that case,
he said, the entire tax-exemption law
is invalid and all private colleges in
the state would have to pay taxes on
endowments.
Officials of the university said Ne
groes had never been admitted and
some had been turned down. But it was
added that Chinese, Koreans and East
Indians had been accepted. # # #
Also at Americus: Griffin and Guests
Alabama govemor-nominate George Wallace, the candidate and Augusta lawyer
Roy V. Harris
Residents Irate After Board
Decides To Convert School