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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER, 1962—PAGE 5
'GEORGIA
2
5 Unsuccessful Desegregation Attempts
5 Made at Albany, DeKalb County Schools
MACON
N ineteen Negro students
sought to enter white schools
n Albany Sept. 4. They were
turned away and no violence en
sued but a spokesman said if the
Board of Education refuses to end
segregation in the schools a fed-
;ral court suit will be filed.
The group included 14 high-school-
ige students, two junior high pupils,
ind three applicants for a vocational
chool.
They were permitted to go through
police line which had been set up
a case of trouble after Negroes had
nnounced earlier they would attempt
lesegregation at the school.
The Negro children were accom-
lanied by Dr. W. G. Anderson, presi-
lent of the Albany Movement; the Rev.
tndrew Young of the integrationist
iouthern Christian Leadership Confer-
nce, and five Negro women.
They were met at the door of the
chool by Albany Police Chief Laurie
). Pritchett and taken to the office of
larold E. McNabb, school principal,
ifter about 30 minutes, they were tak-
n to the oSice of School Supt. J. J.
lordell, who told them that pupil as-
ignments for the term already had
een made and could not be altered
ntil next spring.
( | a . Administrative Problem
Dr. Anderson, who took his 14-year-
Id daughter, Laurita, to Albany High,
uoted Cordell as saying this posed an
dministrative problem.
'■lie Anderson said a petition asking
:hool authorities to remove all racial
arriers within the city-county system
u ' ad been tentatively drafted and would
e presented to the Board of Education
tor, 1 an effort to achieve voluntary de
legation. If this is rejected, as the
r egroes expect, they will go to the
the Moral courts.
★ ★ ★
|5 Negroes Apply at Schools
n Suburban DeKalb County
five Negro parents and students unsucc
essfully attempted to desegregate five
f hite schools in DeKalb County, a part
f metropolitan Atlanta.
DeKalb School Supt. Jim Cherry said
egroes had visited principals at
-outhwest DeKalb, Stone Mountain,
larkston and Chamblee high schools
ite md Tucker Elementary School.
1« ‘In such instances,” Cherry said, “the
averincipal of the white school referred
, . e a PPlicant to the principal of the
1 6 i. e ^ r ° scbo °l where the applicants are
- y signed. There was no disorder. Negro
I®rents and students were received
roperly ... No Negro pupil has been
. “nutted to a white school.”
Under rules of at least 10 years’
^ u Cherry said, students already
‘S 1 , e ^Kalb system receive new
y regcJ- yea f' s assignments in the pre
ion. i spring, and after schools open
iverS* u 6 * a ^’ transfers are made only on
or St em f gency ”. basis -
^risL ra !! s f er applications have to be ap-
AU 6 ,, P r i nc ‘pals of both the schools
>ught y attenc * e d and the schools
„ R, D :!:;" ions ma y be appealed, first to
laniKito j™ 06 °ffkers, then to the super-
1 bef Pa dent ’ next to the DeKalb Board
Cot a Ucation > and last to the state board.
rom‘^ proxima tely 48,000 whites and 4,000
ticel.J!'!*- 5 are enrolled in the DeKalb
iberlj. rr !. T Tbere are H white high schools,
U; C nt e ® ro high schools, 50 white ele-
nt C 1 .. ry sc hools and five Negro elemen-
y schools.
that
t0 P Sixtee
★ ★ ★
it "’)mn 6n , ^ e Sr° students, many ac-
. Se'. r- anifea by their mothers, showed up
the ... sunir Pulaski School on the open-
on ^annaM of th e Chatham County (Sa
ms. ^ t , schools, but they were there
ould er a tempt to break the color bar-
H tC ho a t°j ding t0 Mrs - Mabel Dawson,
ieir chna 8S spokesman - but to get
a p € r A , ren enr °Ued in the system.
pie# led Tn °pk desegre S atio n suit has been
ling Wore ttqT? 11 311(1 is now Pending
astoI1 The isj Judge Frank M. Scarlett.
■s, pissed K e ^ r u eS? a PP^ cat l° ns were pro-
lore ad r> ^ sarne staff which earlier
llicit ;m scwf S TK d white studen ts new to
ie sfjth ' Die registration forms, along
radi^trirt white newcomers to the
ask orma ’ T U g ° to Supt D - Leon Mc-
pinfS It 1 w ill be up to his office to
roes a decision.
# '
Demonstrators Pulled To Their Feet
Police in Atlanta drag youthful white demonstrators from seated positions on
sidewalk outside West Fulton High School. Boys carried signs and Confederate
flags to protest desegregation of the school. They were arrested and jailed.
Atlanta Schools
Admit 44 Negroes
On Biracial Basis
Atlanta public schools quietly began
their second year of racial desegrega
tion on Aug. 29, when 42 Negroes at
tended nine predominantly white
schools. Two more Negroes went to
classes at a 10th primarily white school
when it opened on Thursday, Aug. 30.
Nine Negroes had attended four
previously white schools in Atlanta in
1961, when the 11th and 12th grades
were desegregated. Five graduated. The
four remaining, who are seniors this
year, were joined by 40 other Negroes,
including 10th graders, when schools
opened.
Forty-four Negroes had been chosen
by the Atlanta Board of Education to
attend white schools when the 1962-63
term opened, but four withdrew prior
to the opening of schools.
Under a federal court-approved pupil
placement plan, the Atlanta schools are
being desegregated on a desecending
grade-a-year basis.
Conditions Normal
Principals said conditions were nor
mal and Pat Watters, a columnist for
the Atlanta Journal, estimated that
“the stress and tension was about 90
per cent less than that of the first year
situation,” although opening of the At
lanta schools to desegregation in 1961
was considered quiet and orderly.
Two incidents were noted by police
and school officials this year. At West
Fulton High School, three young boys,
members of a white supremacy organi
zation, were arrested Aug. 29 when they
refused officers’ orders to cease picket
ing and move on. At the same school
on the same day a 17-year-old student
was expelled when he showed up in
the cafeteria with a sign bearing a Nazi
swastika and legend.
Officials said some of the Negro stu
dents would continue to be escorted to
and from their schools by plainclothes
detectives for a few days. On the first
day, they arrived a little late and left
a few minutes early.
Dr. W. G. Anderson
Heads Albany Movement
Georgia Highlights
Unsuccessful school desegregation
attempts were made in Albany and
in DeKalb County, and in Albany
litigation was threatened. In Chat
ham County (Savannah), Negroes
showed up at a white school, not to
try to desegregate, but in an effort
to get registered in the system.
Seventeen Negro pupils were en
rolled in six previously white Cath
olic schools in Atlanta, Marietta and
Athens.
The Atlanta public school system
began its second year of desegrega
tion as Negroes entered six more
previously white schools in the city
and officials expressed gratification
at the orderly transition.
More applications for private
school grants than had been antici
pated were received by the State
Dept, of Education.
The racial issue was a hot one in
Georgia’s gubernatorial fight as the
major candidates, former Gov. Mar
tin Griffin and State Sen. Carl San
ders, entered the home stretch of
the campaign.
Dr. Rual Stephens, deputy school su
perintendent, reported individual prin
cipals were gratified at the orderliness
which prevailed
and gave a lot of
credit to the
28,000 high school
students in the
city.
Dr. Stephens
said:
“W e are, of
course, very de
lighted with the
peaceful and nor
mal opening of
the schools. Stephens
“I think basically that the students
of the schools deserve a tremendous
expression of gratitude for the pride
which they take in their schools.
Political Activity
“They are imbued with school spirit,
and they would be resentful of any
situation detracting from the good
name of the school.”
Jerry Q. Dutton and Ronald Thomas
Farmer, both of Decatur, and Norman
W. Snellgrove of Stone Mountain, all
| 19 years of age, were involved in the
West Fulton demonstration. They were
| identified as members of the American
States Rights Party.
Three Youths Charged
They were bound over to Fulton
Criminal Court on state charges of
creating a disturbance at a school, and
Municipal Judge Robert Sparks fined
the defendants $17 each on additional
charges of resisting arrest.
Farmer and Dutton were arrested
last year at Murphy High on similar
charges.
The youths carried signs saying:
“Communist and Jews seek destruction
of the white race” and “Negroes must
go back to Africa.”
Detective Captain R. E. Little, head
of a special police security squad, said
the three sat down on the sidewalk
and linked arms when they were or
dered to move. Officers carried them
off to headquarters after picking them
up bodily.
C. E. Langston, principal at West
Fulton, said he expelled a 19th grader
after the boy appeared at the cafeteria,
where two Negroes were eating, with
this sign on his clipboard:
“I hate race-mixing. We’re back. The
American Nazi Party.”
His teachers said he previously had
shown an intense interest in Nazism.
School officials said he had refused to
saluate the Flag since seventh grade
and had referred to a school detective
on Aug. 29 as a “Communist.”
Same As In 1961
As was the case in 1961, news media
representatives and others not con
nected with the schools were not per
mitted on the school grounds. Police
were stationed at or near the schools
where desegregation took place in the
system, which has about 100,000 stu
dents.
Atlanta School Supt. John Letson
credited Dr. Stephens with laying the
groundwork for the transition from
segregated to desegregated status for
the schools this year, and said Stephens
“co-ordinated this whole thing and has
done a very fine job of it.”
Schools desegregated last year were
Brown, Grady, Murphy and Northside.
Schools desegregated this year are
West Fulton, O’Keefe, Fulton, Smith,
Roosevelt and Bass.
Twenty-three Negroes are attending
schools desegregated in 1961. Twenty-
one Negroes are attending schools de
segregated for the first time this year.
★ ★ ★
Catholic Schools Quietly
Desegregated in 3 Cities
Six previously white parochial ele
mentary and high schools in the Arch
diocese of Atlanta were quietly deseg
regated by 17 Negro Catholic students
Sept. 4. The schools are in Atlanta,
Marietta and Athens.
Plans to desegregate the Catholic
schools had been announced earlier in
the summer by the Most Rev. Paul J.
At KKK Rally
Grand Dragon Calvin Craig addresses
Ku Klux Klan rally near Albany, Go.,
on Sept. 3. F. E. Miller (seated) of
Savannah, master of ceremonies, an
nounced a Klan membership drive.
Hallinan, Archbishop of Atlanta. The
Archbishop declined to release the
names of the students because he said
“They are attending school not as Ne
groes but as American Catholic chil
dren.”
★ ★ ★
State School Supt. Claude Purcell
said applications for private school tui
tion grants are running 10 per cent
ahead of estimates. He noted 1,641 had
been received by Aug. 9 and more were
expected. This compared with the 1,500
predicted.
Assistant School Supt. Allen Smith
said individual grants are expected to
run between $185 and $190. Even at
the lower figure, if all applicants are
ruled eligible, the obligation would ex
ceed the $300,000 set aside in the State
Department of Education budget.
Deadline for applications for 1962
tuition grants was Aug. 1.
Community Action
Race Issue a Reason
For Defeat of Bonds
A proposed large bond issue failed in
Atlanta, and Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. said
the segregation issue was one of the
reasons for the failure. A bond issue
for new schools was barely defeated,
but bonds for a cultural center lost by
a big margin. Allen said the segrega
tion issue had been “falsely injected”
into the cultural center debate.
Mayor Allen said he believed “this
negative vote will be with us for a
long time to come” and said there was
a parallel between the “no” vote and
the vote for his opponent for mayor,
Lester Maddox, last year.
Maddox, a strong segregationist,
polled more than 36,000 votes in At
lanta and is now running for lieutenant
I governor.
Race Becomes Hot Issue in Campaign
Georgia’s gubernatorial candidates
went into the home stretch with voters
to choose a Democratic nominee Sept.
12. Democratic nomination amounts to
election since the Republican guberna
torial nominee was killed in an auto
mobile accident this summer, and the
GOP did not put up another nominee.
The race issue continued to crop up
in the hard-fought campaign.
Former Gov. Marvin Griffin said
Georgia is the only broken link in the
chain of segregation and promised, if
elected governor, to join hands with
South Carolina and Alabama and to
“restore sovereignty” to Georgia.
State Sen. Carl Sanders said he be
lieved in progress for both races but
j he was loyal to the state’s traditional
relationships between the races.
Griffin charged a Negro bloc vote
would go for Sanders in an effort to
control politics in the state. Sanders
has emphasized that as a legislator he
voted to keep the public schools open
in the University of Georgia desegrega
tion crisis in January, 1961.
The Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, an inte
grationist leader of the Southern Chris
tian Leadership Conference and a close
associate of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., said he is thinking about voting
for Griffin because Griffin’s extremism
will help the Negro cause in the long
run. Griffin quickly said that Walker’s
was one Negro vote he did not want.
Sanders said racial troubles in Al
bany have attracted outside influences
to that city and they have served no
useful purpose.
Gov. Ernest Vandiver said it was
“obvious” to him that people interested
in the governor’s race have been “stir
ring up” the situation in Albany. The
Governor said he was not talking about
local authorities.
Vandiver has not publicly endorsed
either of the leading candidates, Grif
fin or Sanders, but has been highly
critical of Griffin.
The racial issue has also come up in
the contest for lieutenant governor.
Nine candidates are running and Grif
fin said he loved eight of them, the ex
ception being Mayor Ed Wilson of Ma
con, who Griffin said was attempting
to obtain a Negro “bloc vote.”
# # #