Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

< o / ^ / V 7 y sy s on scl >y fed, tended } Neg au4 rt Of egreg® be fon in bira 'hO Factual VOL. 9, NO. 4 MISSISSIPPI SNOISI A I V z VO * S N .3 H J. V 0 -Notiisinoov S3 I «VH8 U 10 y 0 3 0 JO AINft 8002-y-c9 ^nr lN/\:>n villc, ?Cnnc99R 3Meredith Enrolls Amid Riots, Tension of exteit the si i to se ' Negt five pj admit lement :hool I V Cou iegregt lesegre; igh set n Cott egate, for trz ■oluntai fials s a fede intil tb J.S. F: ossibly 5X Coui arily. ys Cou: > deseg id no 1 egregat JACKSON F ortified with three Federal court orders and backed by 15,000 federal soldiers and 600 United States marshals, James Howard Meredith on Oct. 1 be came the first Negro of record to enroll in the 144-year-old all- white University of Mississippi at Oxford. The 29-year-old Air Force veteran of Attala County, Miss., cracked the educational segregation barrier which Mississippi officials had maintained in the face of the 1954 desegregation de cision of the United States Supreme Court. Meredith’s enrollment followed his arrival on the campus the previous afternoon, Sept. 30, in company with federal marshals. At the time, there were no troops in Mississippi, standby forces having been stationed at Mem phis, Tenn., 90 miles from Oxford, “in case.” The “in case” developed at about 7 p.m. Sept. 30, when throngs of people, including students, converged on the Lyceum Building where the federal marshals stood guard. Rioting broke out and President Kennedy issued an executive order at 10:02 p.m. EDT, Sept. 30 placing the 11,000 Mississippi national guardsmen in federal service. Two Killed, Many Hurt ation : Two people were killed in the Sept. . The d 30 and Oct. 1 rioting which spread into vhites i the town of Oxford. An estimated 100 civilians and 166 marshals, additional to ity distr many guardsmen, were injured. 'gation When Meredith was flown to Oxford on Sept. 30 from Memphis, where he heduled ^ad been waiting, he successfully went j junty d Gov. Barnett Confronts Meredith Admittance was refused onto the university campus after be ing blocked twice personally by Gov. Ross Barnett and once by Lt. Gov. Paul B. Johnson. The governor confronted Meredith once on the campus and again at the office of the college board in Jackson; the lieutenant governor stood at the north gate of the campus and refused Meredith entrance when he arrived with John Doar; U.S. assistant attorney general, and James McShane, head of the U.S. marshals. The tension and subsequent rioting had its inception in an address by Gov. Barnett on Sept. 13. The governor is sued a proclamation interposing the sovereignty of Mississippi against rec ognition of federal authority in the field of education. He said he stood on the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitu tion on the grounds that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.” Defies Court Orders Defying a mandate of the Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals for Meredith’s enroll ment without interference, and a sub sequent similar order from the South ern Mississippi Federal Court District Judge, Gov. Barnett said he would re fuse to permit Meredith’s enrollment. The governor also defied an order from U. S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black which nullified four “stay” orders issued by Court of Ap peals Judge Ben Cameron of Meridian, Miss., because Cameron was not on the , DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA / voted Washington Had pplied r* Violent Reaction Not Expected in Mississippi tate F le Neg-’ ools. egroes e in Aug gation. groes I >ols by i Aug merly * :nts by : ir Neff groes * ols by _ pul the f ot lie tra# f all-"' r tate pb The s 1 iree all-'*' udge s adm' 1 the bef fitted 1 erm. ligh sd place 1 ?' to a b ge Tb 0 ' egroes * Negro » ;egrega‘; segrea # * WASHINGTON he violent reaction in Mis sissippi to the enrollment of the first Negro student at the state university was unanticipated in Washington. Up to the moment when rioting erupted on the campus in Oxford, of ficials here from the President down hoped and expected to avoid a massive showdown between the federal govern ment and the state. In the wake of the events of the night of Sept. 30, however, officials here were inclined to be guarded—even pessimistic—in their estimates of future developments in Mississippi, and in , other states of hard-core resistance “ desegregation, Alabama and South Carolina. Justice Department officials said they ex pected that the Negro student, James H. Meredith, would require a constant guard to protect him for the year and a half he intends to study at the Uni versity of Mississippi. They made it clear that there is no intention to with draw Meredith from the school. They indicated he will be guarded by mili tary police, rather than U.S. marshals, if that is necessary to ensure his safety. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy told reporters Oct. 4 that there are “still some problems” in the Mississippi crisis, but “they are not insoluble.” Aides of the attorney general said privately that the use of federal force in Mississippi was abhorrent to him. They said the administration would continue to make every effort to secure volun tary compliance to court-ordered de segregation. But where persuasion does not work, it was stressed, the admin istration will not shrink from using all Two Other Universities Had Desegregation Riots ^/"iolence similar to that at the University of Mississippi has ° CCUrT ed on two other Southern JJbiversity campuses when the Negro students enrolled “’fough court orders. ‘ °bs caused the withdrawal of a Ne- ° woman from the University of girl ™ a Negro boy and w. bum the University of Georgia in In neither of these cases did the ^Urbances result in deaths or the RuidH federal troops. A federal court (he returned the Negro students to u Georgia institution, but in Ala- na ’ a federal judge approved the expulsion of the Negro, Autherine Lucy, for accusing the school trustees of conspiring with the mob. Technically, the Alabama school still could be considered desegregated, since U.S. District Judge H. Hobart Grooms left standing his order opening the uni versity to all qualified Negroes. The school has not admitted any others, al though several applied at the Mont gomery extension center in 1960. Alabama and South Carolina are the only ones of the 17 Southern and bor der states that have no Negroes attend- (See OTHER, Page 14) legal means at its disposal to see to it that court orders are enforced. In a television interview on Oct. 1, Attorney General Kennedy said, “I think last night was the worst night I ever spent” With the possible excep tion of the ill-fated Cuban invasion of last year, the same comment could un doubtedly apply to his brother, the President of the United States. Here is the course of Washington de velopments in the Mississippi crisis: On Sept. 9, Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black nullified a series of or ders by Judge Ben F. Cameron of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that would have postponed the enrollment of Meredith. Black ruled that the Cir cuit Court, which heard Meredith’s ap- (See WASHINGTON’S, Page 11) Sideline Casualty —Alley, Memphis Commercial Appeal panel which made the decision in the Meredith case. Gov. Barnett called on “every public official, including myself, to be pre pared to make the choice whether he will submit or whether he is willing to go to jail, if necessary, to keep faith with the people who have placed their welfare in his hands.” The governor also asserted that “if there be any official who is not pre pared to suffer imprisonment for this righteous cause, I ask him to submit his resignation and it will be accepted without prejudice. A man who is pre pared to stand firm will be appointed in his place.” U.S. Gets Injunction After Gov. Barnett, surrounded by highway patrolmen, had refused to permit Meredith and a federal Justice Department attorney to enter the Uni versity of Mississippi campus at Ox ford, federal officials secured an in junction against his interference with enforcement of its enrollment mandate. Also named in the injunction were the 13-member Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and officials of the university. The trustees went into special session to consider their course. They drafted a letter to Meredith for his appearance in its offices in the Woolfolk-State office building in Jackson, for enroll ment. In the meantime, under pressure from a special legislative session then meeting, the board appointed Gov. Barnett “special registrar” in the Meredith matter. That resulted in a contempt citation against the Governor and the trustees by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Efforts to serve the summons on Barnett were unsuccessful. In This Issue State Reports Alabama 13 Arkansas 8 Delaware 7 District of Columbia 1 Florida 16 Georgia 9 Kentucky 19 Louisiana 6 Maryland 3 Mississippi 1 Missouri 5 North Carolina 18 Oklahoma 17 South Carolina 17 Tennessee . 4 Texas 2 Virginia 2 West Virginia 20 Special Articles Colleges 1 New Desegregation 1 Southern Governors 14 Texts Gov. Barnett’s Proclamation 10 Barnett’s Broadcast 11 Attorney General’s Speech 11 President’s Broadcast 12 White House Proclamation 12 Going to Class Meredith is surrounded by U.S. marshals and troops. However, the trustees, in order to purge themselves of the contempt charge, rescinded their action in ap pointing the Governor special registrar and summoned university registrar Robert Ellis to Jackson to register Meredith in its offices. However, in a move to prevent Ellis from registering Meredith, a joint leg islative committee to investigate state offices, summoned the registrar before it in a back office in the college board Gov. Barnett, surrounded by high way patrolmen, walked from the State Capitol across the street to the state office building, to await Meredith’s ar rival. When Meredith, accompanied by Doar and Marshal McShane, reached the college board office door, Barnett stood in it and refused to allow Mere dith or those accompanying him to enter. After an exchange of words as to the mission, Meredith’s party left the building. Trustees’ Resolution Here is the order of the trustees nam ing Gov. Barnett special registrar in the Meredith case which resulted in the Court of Appeals issuing contempt citations against the 13 members: “M. M. Roberts (Hattiesburg) moved that the board invest Hon. Ross R. Barnett, the Governor of the state of Mississippi, with the full power, au thority, right and discretion of this board to act upon all matters pertaining to or concerned with the registration or non-registration, admission or non admission and-or attendance or non- attendance of James H. Meredith at the University of Mississippi. That a certi fied copy of this resolution together with copies of the conflicting injunc tions of Hon. S. C. Mize (federal district judge) dated Sept. 13, 1962, (See COURT, Page 10) New Desegregation Brings Boycotts and Transfers S everal public school systems in the Southern and border states extended desegregation during the first month of the new school term. Resistance to the ad mission of Negro students result ed in student boycotts and trans fers, or loss of football opponents, in four states. A transfer provision featured in many school desegregation plans throughout the South was rejected by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Ap peals in ruling on a Charlottesville, Va., pupil assignment case. The plan had permitted students to transfer from a school where their race was a minority to one where their race was a majority. The enrollment of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi left South Carolina as the only remaining state that has never had Negroes at tending its public white schools. The University of Alabama remains under a permanent injunction to admit Ne groes, and one attended briefly in 1956, but state officials have vowed to keep all schools in the state segregated. Both South Carolina and Alabama received warnings from Negro leaders (See SEVERAL, Page 19)