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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.” # # #