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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER, 1962—PAGE 15
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ALABAMA
All Public Schools Rei
ain Segregated
MONTGOMERY
T hree attempts were made by
Negroes to enter all - white
schools in Alabama as the fall
term began with the state’s 114-
district system still segregated.
Two of the challenges came in Gads
den, where six Negroes tried to enroll
in the Gadsden High School Sept. 4 and
26 tried again the following day.
The third attempt was in Huntsville.
Mrs. Marvin Burnett, wife of a Negro
sergeant stationed at Redstone Arsenal,
applied for the admission of her daugh
ter to Madison Pike Elementary School.
Gadsden authorities told the Negro
applicants they had been assigned to
Carver High School for Negroes under
the state’s placement law.
Enrollment Said Ended
The initial group of six appeared at
the white high school during an assem
bly marking the opening of the new
term. City Supt. of Education I. J.
Browder told the group that enrollment
procedures in all Gadsden schools had
ended Aug. 30 and that under no cir
cumstances could students register after
that date.
Browder termed the incident “irreg
ular” and a “publicity stunt.” He said
the Negroes argued they wanted to take
advantage of “Gadsden High’s new sci
ence building.” Comparable facilities do
not exist at Carver, they said.
Browder said, “We try to give the
Maryland
(Continued From Page 13)
six elementary, one junior high and
one special-education school. All will
be biracial, as are the county’s 106 other
schools, but not all will have biracial
enrollments because the county has less
than five per cent Negro enrollment.
Last year 1,744 of its 4,010 Negro pu
pils attended 68 biracial schools.
The three counties not expected to
have any actual desegregation are
Queen Anne’s, Somerset and Worcester.
The superintendent for Queen Anne’s,
Harry C. Rhodes, said in mid-August
that no Negro transfer requests had
been received and that it was the
school board’s policy to prefer applica
tions by June 1. Somerset County’s su
perintendent, John L. Bond, said that
an Aug. 10 deadline for transfer re
quests had been publicized, but no re
quests had been received. Worcester
County was reported in the Baltimore
■Sun as not having had transfer requests.
Community Action
NAACP Campaigns
Against Deadlines
On Pupil Transfers
A campaign throughout Maryland to
have Negro parents disregard transfer
deadlines and apply for the transfer of
heir children to the nearest schools
was reported in August by Mrs. Juanita
Jackson Mitchell, secretary of the
Maryland NAACP’s legal redress com-
Bmttee. The drive was part of a stepped-
U P NAACP effort to speed desegrega-
Negro schools the type of instruction
that will best train them in courses
they both need and want.” He pointed
out that Carver has industrial arts, cos
metology and diversified occupation
programs which two white high schools
lack.
The six left quietly and without in
cident. But the following day, Sept. 5,
26 Negroes tried to enroll at Gadsden
High. Again they were turned away
with the explanation that registration
had closed.
Browder said the fact that the Ne
groes appeared at school opening rather
than during registration earlier indi
cated it was a “publicity stunt.”
The Huntsville desegregation attempt
came when Mrs. Burnette appeared at
the Pike Madison School Sept. 4 re
questing enrollment of her fourth-
grade daughter.
Mrs. Burnett had tried to register her
child at the school in August. She was
given an application blank which she
presented when she appeared at the
school in person.
Principal Louis Morris referred Mrs.
Burnette to Dr. Raymond Christian,
city superintendent of education, who
told her that her daughter had been
assigned to Cavalry Hills School for
Negroes.
Mrs. Burnette also has written to the
Huntsville Board of Education asking
that her child be admitted to the school,
which is adjacent to the Redstone Ar
senal. Her husband, a sergeant, is sta-
Delaware
(Continued From Page 14)
Ware State Police, denied his board
Was resisting desegregation.
n^ ler a ^> 23 per cent of our children
Rose Hill are Negroes,” he said.
Schoolmen
Laurel Opens First
Biracial Schools
i ! ea st one, and probably more,
f ac j districts will be desegregated in
as well as policy as classes resume.
c j e ^ e Delaware’s 90-odd districts are
, legated in policy under a court
.... er > only 30 have whites and Negroes
tiding the same schools,
c , e ^° Pupils have applied for the
re . lrne a t Laurel, one of the few
d;_, airun S segregated special school
have CtS * Twent y-two Negro pupils
enrolled at Laurel’s white schools,
tint, , extent 1962-63 desegrega-
untii will not become known
*; °ctober, after enrollment statis-
are compiled as of Sept. 28.
# # #
tioned there. The board said it would
hold a hearing on the request, without
setting any date.
Legal Action
tion in Maryland.
“Some counties, especially on the
Eastern Shore, set transfer deadlines
in May and June,” Mrs. Mitchell ex
plained. “We feel that seven years after
the Supreme Court’s final decree is too
late for arbitrary deadlines on the ex
ercise of constitutional rights. We are
urging parents to apply now for trans
fers or take their children to the near
est school on opening day.”
Mrs. Mitchell said the NAACP in
the Eastern Shore city of Cambridge
was working with three student groups
in a door-to-door campaign to have
more transfer applications. Their goal
was 75 transfers, she added. Cambridge
is in one of the five Maryland counties
that will have some Negroes in white
schools for the first time this fall. The
county superintendent in August would
say only that there had been a “few”
applications and all “bona fide” ones
would be accepted.
One Negro girl, Patricia Bryant, has
been transferred to a white high school
in Chestertown as a “first” for Kent
County, Mrs. Mitchell said, “although
she did not apply until August. So if
it can be done there, it can be done in
other counties.” The NAACP spokes
man also said that the campaign had
stimulated more transfer applications
in Easton, county seat of previously de
segregated Talbot county.
Six-Point Program
The campaign was part of a six-point
school desegregation program that was
adopted by Maryland NAACP officials
at a state conference in July. Pointing
to the fact that 70 per cent of Mary
land’s Negro children remain in all-
Negro schools, the conference set forth
these action steps:
• Documentation of the extent of
de facto segregation.
• Examination of the quality of edu
cation given Negro children plus guid
ance, curricula, teacher assignment and
physical facilities.
• Educating community to findings
• Recommendations to Board of Ed
ucation.
• Mass community demonstrations, in
event negotiations with board fails.
• Legal redress, in the event that all
else fails.
Mrs. Mitchell said the NAACP was
looking at the situation in Baltimore
city as well as in the counties and so
far had obtained evidence suggesting
that administrative policies in the city
were serving in some instances to foster
all-white or all-Negro schools.
Another concern of the NAACP,
Mrs. Mitchell said, was reports from its
17 Maryland branches indicating that
the majority of county school systems
were refusing to hire qualified Negro
teachers even though vacancies in
white schools were critical. (SSN,
July.)
Two lawsuits involving the hiring
policies in Frederick and Harford coun
ties are being prepared, Mrs. Mitchell
reported, and an NAACP teachers
committee under the chairmanship of
J. C. Parks, a retired supervisor of Ne
gro schools in Charles County, has
been organized to make an intensive
study of hiring practices. The commit
tee had its first meeting on Aug. 11.
# # #
Tribunal Refuses
To Order Speedup
In Birmingham Suit
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap
peals in New Orleans refused Aug. 17
to order a Birmingham district judge
to set an immediate hearing in the sec
ond of two suits seeking desegregation
of Birmingham schools.
The first case, Armstrong et al v.
Birmingham Board of Education, was
filed June 17, 1960, (SSN, July, 1960)
in the court of U.S. District Judge Sey-
bourn Lynne of Birmingham.
The second, Nelson et al v. Birming
ham Board of Education, was filed June
13, 1962, in the court of U.S. District
Judge H. Hobart Grooms of Birming
ham. On that date, Judge Grooms re
jected a request for a preliminary in
junction (SSN, July), noting that the
action “encompasses claims similar in
all respects” to those asserted in the
Armstrong suit. Judge Grooms said he
would defer hearings until after that
case had been tried by Judge Lynne,
who set Oct. 3 as the day to hear the
earlier suit.
Plaintiff T. M. Nelson appealed
Groom’s ruling to the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals, which directed
Grooms to answer Nelson’s petition for
a writ of mandamus seeking to compel
an immediate hearing.
Grooms replied to the petition July
10 (SSN, August), informing the Court
of Appeals that to take time to hear
the second suit before the Armstrong
action had been heard in October would
be a “useless and wasteful consumption
of time and needless expense.” There
appeared to be a “race” on between the
plaintiffs in the two cases, Grooms said.
Nelson again appealed, contending
that although the defendants were the
s< 1 tie, the plaintiffs were different and
that postponement was tantamount to
a refusal to hear the case.
Court Refused
The Court of Appeals refused to or
der Grooms to set an immediate hear
ing, commenting:
“Where two actions involving the
same parties and the same issues are
pending before two federal courts it
has been held that the court in which
the second proceeding is initiated will
normally, in the absence of counter
vailing factors, stay the proceedings
pending the outcome of the prior sim
ilar suit ... It seems clear to us that
the District Court (that is, Judge
Grooms) has not abused its discretion
in this cause, and the petition for writ
of mandamus is denied.”
The opinion was written by Judge
Richard T. Rives of Montgomery, with
Judges John R. Brown of Houston, Tex.,
and Minor Wisdom of New Orleans
concurring.
RIVES
BROWN
However, Judge Brown, in a separate
concurring opinion, conceded he had
“some real misgivings.” Without men
tioning Judge Lynne by name, Brown
was critical of the Birmingham Judge’s
long delay in setting a hearing on the
1962 suits. No problem exists regarding
Judge Grooms’s action, Judge Brown
said, but the picture was quite different
considering the action of the Birming
ham district court as a whole. The
court has a duty to act “with reasonable
j promptness,” Judge Brown said, add-
| ing:
“It is simply beyond belief that this
‘very same case’ should have been al
lowed to depend undecided since 1960.
While some of the relief sought may be
novel, the case is the very, very simple
one of a federal court order to put an
end to a segregated school system—a
matter as to which, I gather, there is
no real dispute.
“Why it should have taken this long
to get pleadings, motions, etc., in shape,
I cannot imagine. Just what is going to
be so complicated about the trial now
scheduled for October is likewise be
yond my knowledge.
“The matter is simple: Does Birming
ham have a segregated system? If—and
there is really no if—that is so, then
the question is: What is being done to
eradicate it? We have now made it
plain by cases which are an affectation
to cite that a plan (emphasis is Judge
Brown’s) of desegregation must be of
fered or the district court must fashion
its own plan.
“Here it is 1962. This is eight years
after the warning to commence with
deliberate speed. More than that, the
case about to be heard to consider non
existent defenses will not take place
until October. That means that for yet
another year Birmingham has put off
the ‘evil’ day, for by the time the case
is heard, argued, briefed and submitted
the opening of the Fall term will have
passed and it will be too late adminis
tratively to accommodate the school
system to the constitution.”
‘Unfortunate Technique’
Judge Brown said that a mandamus
proceeding is an “unfortunate tech
nique,” putting the judge in adversary
position and, in this case, a judge who
“has so lately come into contact with
the case.” But, he went on:
“. . . The case—Negro children who
seek only their constitutional rights—
is now an old and ancient one. Perhaps
the best proof that there is a need for
a ‘second’ class action seeking identical
relief is the singular lack of success in
getting anything effectively done by
those presuming to represent the class
in the first case.
“I think the district court, by what
ever judge its members choose to as
sign, has a duty to proceed here and
now to the disposition of a case of first
importance. Those aspects which may
be novel should, or may, be put to one
side. In the meantime there should be
an early and effective declaration of
rights and the issuance of appropriate
injunctions so that the wheels may at
least start to turn at some speed wheth
er deliberate, or, if the past is any
indication, more likely at a slow, if not
a snail’s, pace.
“This is a matter of clear right. It
ought not to be encumbered by the
embarrassing predicament of attacking
a conscientious, vigorous, energetic
judge, as is Judge Grooms, for non
performance of duty. The class is the
victim of impermissable delay. But so
is Judge Grooms the victim of an un-
supportable charge that he has failed
in the discharge of his personal duty.”
A Birmingham newspaper, comment
ing editorially on Judge Brown’s opin
ion, said it probably meant desegrega
tion of Birmingham schools next year.
(See “What They Say.”)
Court Upholds Dismissal
Of Reeds Chapel Suit
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap
peals upheld Aug. 6 an Alabama fed
eral court’s decision dismissing a suit
in which a Negro sought readmission
to a Washington County school.
Willie M. Reed, the plaintiff through
his father, Wilmer Reed, was admitted
Community Action
Alabama Highlights
Alabama public schools opened in
late August and early September
still segregated throughout the 114-
district system, although two groups
of Negroes sought unsucessfully to
enroll at Gadsden High School and
a Negro was denied enrollment at
an elementary school in Huntsville.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals in New Orleans refused on
Aug. 17 to order a federal district
judge to set an immediate hearing
on the second of two suits seeking
desegregation of Birmingham schools
—the only public school desegrega
tion cases pending in Alabama. One
of the concurring judges, in a sep
arate sharply worded opinion, noted
that for “yet another year” Bir
mingham would have a segregated
school system.
The Court of Appeals also re
jected as “a family squabble among
Negroes of mixed blood” a suit
brought by a Washington County
Negro boy because of his expulsion
from Reeds Chapel School.
to the Reeds Chapel School Jan. 3,
1961, and attended for three days. On
Jan. 6, parents of other children attend
ing the school appeared at the school
and created a disturbance, threatening
further action unless young Reed were
expelled.
The principal dismissed the entire
student body on Jan. 6 and the school
remained closed until Jan. 16, at which
time it was reopened to all enrolled
children except Reed. The boy’s father,
failing in his attempt to get Willie re
admitted, filed‘‘suit against the Wash
ington County Superintendent of Ed
ucation, Theodore B. Peterson, and oth
ers (Reed v. Pearson, et al), in the
U.S. District Court in Mobile. (SSN,
April, 1961.)
The court dismissed the suit, enter
ing a final order Aug. 21, 1961. The
plaintiff appealed to the Circuit Court
of Appeals.
‘Mixed Blood Group’
The appeal alleged that the Reed
boy “is not discriminated against by
the white race, but by people of his
own race, color, mixed blood group and
by his own relatives, all for and on ac
count of his race, color and blood
group.”
The complaint continued:
“. . . The community of Reeds Chapel
... is populated by people of a mixed
blood . . . Your complainant’s paternal
and maternal grandfathers were a part
of this mixed blood group, and were
related, as is your petitioner, by blood
and marriage, to the great majority of
the patrons of the Reeds Chapel School
. . your petitioner’s maternal and pa
ternal grandmothers were not of this
mixed blood group of the community of
Reeds Chapel; the former came from
Choctaw County, Alabama, and the lat
ter from Clarke County, Alabama . . .
The reason for the refusal of the trus
tees of the Reeds Chapel School for
the admittance of your petitioner . . .
was because of your petitioner’s race
and color acquired through his paternal
and maternal grandmothers . . .”
The appellate court agreed with the
(See ALABAMA, Page 17)
U.S. Judge Opens Montgomery
Library, Museum to Negroes
Montgomery’s public library and
museum, a modern structure used ex
tensively by white school children for
parallel reading and term paper re
search, was ordered desegregated Aug.
7 by U.S. District Judge Frank M.
Johnson of Montgomery.
All chairs and tables were immedi
ately removed from the facilities but
both institutions were left open. A
number of Negroes visited the library
and on application were given cards
and allowed to withdraw books.
The removal of the chairs prompted
a flood of letters to the Montgomery
Advertiser. Several prominent white
citizens, including two local surgeons,
urged that the chairs be replaced. Oth
ers insisted that, whatever seating ar
rangements were provided, the library-
museum should not be closed, as the
Montgomery Citizens’ Council and sev
eral individuals insisted should be done.
Many writers commented on the im
pact the closing would have on edu
cation.
The $735,000 building downtown
houses the Montgomery Public Library,
opened in June, 1960, and the Museum
of Fine Arts, dedicated in September,
1959.
In May, 1960, the city opened a
$72,000 branch library for Negroes near
a populous Negro residential area.
The facilities are operated by au
tonomous boards, appointed by the City
Commission, but the commission ap
propriates operating funds. One of the
three commission members, Frank
Parks, announced publicly that he fa
vored closing. Mayor Earl James and
Commissioner L. B. Sullivan declined
comment.
Police were present in force when
Negroes visited the library the first few
days. There were no incidents and the
surveillance was curtailed.
The suit to desegregate the building
was brought by an 18-year-old Negro
student, Robert L. Cobb, who attempted
a sit-in March 15 with others. They
were asked to leave. On Aug. 13 Cobb
again visited the library, checking out
Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Noth
ing.”