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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER, 1962—PAGE 17
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OKLAHOMA CITY
T he Oklahoma City school
board has asked federal court
to dismiss a racial discrimination
suit against it on grounds the Ne
groes involved have not been de
prived of their rights.
The board also asked the court to
eliminate three intervening plaintiffs
from the case, claiming they already
were fully represented in the class
action.
These were the latest developments
in a battle by a young Negro student,
Robert L. Dowell, to have the board of
education declared guilty of discrim
inating against his race in granting
special transfers between schools.
A hearing in the case, Dowell v
Board of Education, in the U.S. District
Court for Western Oklahoma was
scheduled for Sept. 28. However, it had
to be postponed because the judge
Luther Bohanon, was occupied in a jury
trial.
Late October
He told a Southern School News
correspondent that, because of commit
ments taking him out of the city for
several weeks, it might be late October
before he will be able to hear the mo
tion.
Filed Sept. 11 by W. A. Lybrand, at
torney for the school board, the motion
makes four requests.
One is for outright dismissal of the
plaintiffs’ second amended petition on
grounds the facts state no act by any
defendants that has unconstitutionally
deprived any member of the class rep
resented by the plaintiffs—that is, Ne
gro students—of any right.
The defendants include, besides the
school district, the members of the
board, the superintendent, Dr. Jack
Parker, and various other administra
tive officials.
Status of Intervenor
The motion also requests that the
petition be made more definite regard-
ing the status of one of the intervening
plaintiffs, Vivian C. Dowell, and that
allegations of teacher assignment to
schooL on the basis of race be stricken.
Vivian Dowell is a sister of the orig
inal plaintiff. Both are children of Dr.
A. L. Dowell, a Negro optometrist who
ives in the Pleasant Hill dependent
school district, adjoining the Oklahoma
Lity district.
The board asks that the petition
specify the district in which she lives,
W offers the grade she is en-
ea to attend and whether she has
PP led for a legal transfer under state
1962 63 Oklahoma City district for
A S ?r .°V nds for the request, the board
ws it is informed the girl is entitled
f„ , ®hd the eighth grade, which is of-
7 aer home district, and that she
the fTLi ? pplied for a legal transfer to
rent a h°ma City district for the cur-
ren t year.
Class Action
p ! ea in the board’s motion is
“Uerv^” 88 ^ ° f the Petition as to the
action °*j S ' ? ar ffues the case is a class
do net u 1116 intervenors cannot and
class Jti° W Why they > members of the
the onin- 11 , n °, t ke fully represented by
80 the p a mtiff- Particularly is this
the same' 1 “"tends, since they have
anginal nLWiff'• Wh ° . represented the
the caeeJ , , m earlier petitions in
a U memL "^ch alleged he represented
The u> erS tke cdass -
t^oweil 6r mtervenors, besides Vivian
fifth-. pr 'J re E dwina Houston Helton, a
has soup-lT at ^"Ihertson School who
the de«m unsuccessfully to transfer to
Gary Rli ; ey fted Harmony School, and
l0 th-graUe 1 ’ n D °uglass High School
Antral wa nts a transfer to
segfggg^^h School, which is also de-
tcansfer^T 61 !,. girl asked for a legal
^strict i Oklahoma City school
brother w 9,51 at the same time her
^oweliv, j.- as x ^^ted one. Robert
? eil uned - pu ^ e # w ith the school board
*“» from SlV*® re ^ to transfer
? ese greg at JN tSi 0 Douglass Hi gh to
taok an P ,„ 0rtheast High unless he
t° him at “tromcs course unavailable
The s the form er.
tbe Oklah^m a ™ en ded petition asserted
o gns teachers s< ? ho °l system as-
tkat their racp 0tker Personnel so
maj °ritv rrft 1S , the ^e as that of the
, The }x, arr ,, PUpiIs in that school.
** st ricken 8 mt>ti ° n asks that this part
°r disprove a ^ oun ds it does not prove
; at any 311(1 does not sJl0W
£. de Priv^2 ber ° f the Plaintiffs’ class
a^ause of it a ° y con stitutional rights
Oklahoma Highlights
The Oklahoma City school board
moved for dismissal of a racial dis
crimination suit against it in federal
court but a hearing on the motion
was delayed.
A second elementary school in
Tulsa was assigned a biracial fac
ulty as Negro students attained a 68
per cent majority.
September activity in the Dowell case
also brought answers by the superin
tendent, Dr. Parker, to 31 interroga
tories posed by the plaintiffs.
However, the answers were not filed
in court and were not made available
to the press. Parker’s office, on advice of
the board’s attorney, declined to release
them, explaining that the answers were
sent to the plaintiffs’ attorney and
should be released by him.
The latter, John E. Green, contacted
Sept. 29, said he had just received the
answers and would not have time to
discuss them until later.
Unanswered Questions
However, he indicated some of the
questions were not answered, the su
perintendent stating that the informa
tion was “not available” or merely re
ferring to the motion pending in court.
The interrogatories deal with the
board’s student transfer and teacher
assignment policies, comparisons of bi
racial and separate-school enrollments
in 1954-55 and 1961-62, operation of
buses on a racially separate basis, op
eration of technical, business and “col
lege entrance” schools and the number
of Negroes enrolled, and per-capita
amounts of capital investments and
operational expenditures at predomin
antly white and predominantly Negro
schools.
In addition, the superintendent was
asked whether the school board has a
definite target date for achieving “full
racial integration” in the public schools
of Oklahoma City and, if so, to state the
date.
Schoolmen
Biracial Faculty
Named for Second
School in Tulsa
A second public school in Tulsa has
been assigned a biracial faculty, it was
learned.
A board of education spokesman said
Emerson Elementary School, where
Negroes now make up 68 per cent of the
enrollment, opened the fall term with
10 white teachers and four Negro
teachers.
Burroughs Elementary School had a
biracial faculty last year.
Enrollment figures reported at the
end of the second week of the term
indicated Emerson is following the same
resegregation path already traveled by
Burroughs.
Resegregation
At that time, Emerson had 259 Ne
groes out of a total student enrollment
of 378. On the opening day of the fall
term, it had 343 students, 216 of them
Negroes.
Like Burroughs, the Emerson school
is located in Tulsa’s north side, near
the Negro residential area. A consider
able migration of Negro families into
the Emerson neighborhood has taken
place, said Morgan Powell, public rela
tions officer for the Tulsa Board of Edu
cation.
Powell said late enrollments at Bur
roughs raised the membership from 831
on opening day of classes to 1,066 at the
end of the second week. But the school
received no white pupils and the stu
dent body remained all Negro. The
school had three whites when the 1961-
62 school year ended.
Despite the all-Negro enrollment,
Burroughs retains its biracial faculty,
with 15 Negro and 14 white teachers
and a white principal, Powell said.
Six other grade schools, four junior
high schools and four senior high
schools have biracial student bodies.
Community Action
Biracial Housing
Effort Reported
An effort to get biracial housing in
other parts of Oklahoma City to take
the desegregation pressure off the
northeast section was reported under
way in September.
A northeast businessman said the ef
fort will be made on three fronts—be
fore the school board and with the loan
companies and real estate interests.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Court Refuses Immediate Action
In Clemson College Desegregation
COLUMBIA
he Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals at Alexandria, Va.,
refused Oct. 5 to grant a tempo
rary injunction for the immediate
admission of a Negro to Clemson
College. The court also has under
advisement another South Caro
lina school case involving Claren
don County.
Harvey Gantt has asked to be ad
mitted to Clemson, a state-supported
land-grant college in northwestern
South Carolina. The appellate court
withheld a final decision in the case
to give the district court time to con
duct a “prompt trial preferably within
15 days.”
The Court of Appeals heard oral ar
guments on Oct. 4. The NAACP attor
neys, Lincoln Jenkins, Matthew Perry
and Mrs. Constance Baker Motley, rep
resenting the 19-year-old applicant,
told the court there was no question,
regardless of what the college claimed,
that it bars Negroes because of race.
Mrs. Motley pointed out that South
Carolina maintains a separate Negro
college and provides financial aid for
students wanting courses it does not
offer so that they can attend out-of-
state colleges. Young Gantt is now re
ceiving such aid as a junior in archi
tecture at Iowa State University.
Several Times
Gantt, a native of Charleston, has
applied several times to Clemson. The
college insists he has never turned in
a completed application. Gantt brought
suit last summer when Clemson asked
for a portfolio of drawings, to be con
sidered with his application.
Mrs. Motley told the court that such
a portfolio had never been claimed be
fore as a basis for admittance, but only
as a basis for placement of a transfer
student.
The New York lawyer conceded that
Gantt, already back at his studies at
Iowa State, may now elect to remain
there and not enter Clemson until the
start of the second semester in Feb
ruary. But she argued he was entitled
to an injunction now allowing him the
choice of entry now or later.
Her plea countered that of W. L.
Watkins of Anderson, an attorney ap
pearing for the college, who asked that
the case be remanded to the Novem
ber term of Western District Federal
Court in South Carolina for a full hear
ing “on its merits.”
Orderly Manner
Pledging the defense would make no
attempt to delay proceedings there, he
said the question could be settled in an
orderly manner in that fashion and still
permit entry of Gantt at the second
semester if the court ruled in his favor.
That, he argued, would be better for
both the college and the applicant be
cause—in either event—Gantt would
not lose credit for the time he spent
at Iowa State and would start even
with the rest of his class if admitted.
Mrs. Motley reported that additional
delay in a decision would be both un
fair and unnecessary. She asserted
there was no question as to the plain
tiff’s qualifications for admission other
than the fact that he was a Negro.
In her contention of racial bias in
the case and her challenge of the
“separate but equal” South Carolina
policy, the NAACP attorney cited state
statutes stipulating that state-supported
colleges such as Clemson shall be
closed if there is any student admis
sion by court order. The South Caro
lina College for Negroes at Orangeburg
would also be closed under those laws,
she said.
Watkins argued that those statutes
were not a part of the current case
and, if challenged, should be challenged
in a separate proceeding. He flatly de
nied that Clemson had practiced dis
crimination in Gantt’s case, contending
the applicant had been treated “fairly
and courteously” and his request han
dled in the same way as that of any
other applicant.
Kirby Conley, proprietor of a drug
store near Longfellow Elementary
School, desegregated for the first tima
this fall, said policies of the loan com
panies and real estate people have re
stricted Negroes to east and northeast
Oklahoma City residential areas.
Conley said the effort to open up
other parts of Oklahoma City to Negro
residents will be undertaken by an in
formally organized group. Most of the
persons in it are members of the North
east Oklahoma City Chamber of Com-
(See OKLAHOMA, Page 19)
S. C. Highlights
The Fourth Grcuit Court of Ap
peals has ruled on one South Caro
lina school desegregation case and
has another under advisement. The
appeals came from District Court
rulings against Negro plaintiffs
seeking to enter all-white Clemson
College and the white public schools
in Clarendon County.
The U. S. Supreme Court will
hear the case of Negro students ar
rested after a mass march on the
South Carolina capitol.
NAACP lawyer Jack Greenberg
told a South Carolina audience that
the state was the next target in the
desegregation struggle.
If anything, Watkins asserted, the
college tended to “lean over back
wards” to assure proper treatment. The
applicant’s failure to provide the
proper and essential information at the
proper time was the reason for denial
of the application prior to the filing of
suit last June, he said.
Judge Simon Sobeloff, hearing the
case with Judges Morris Soper and
Clement Haynsworth, challenged the
college attorney on that point. He asked
why the college could not continue to
process the application even after filing
of the suit, provided Gantt was still
desirous of admission.
Watkins replied that the college felt
the suit challenged its right to estab
lish policy and procedures and that if
Gantt chose to proceed by law the
matter was out of the Clemson authori
ties’ hands.
Watkins referred indirectly to the
current Mississippi controversy with
out specifically mentioning it.
‘Strange Feeling’
The Clemson lawyer commented that
“I have a strange feeling the court is
being urged to settle this case on the
basis of evidence presented in another
Southern state, not on the evidence in
this case.”
Shortly before leaving Clemson to
attend the hearing, President Robert C.
Edwards went on the campus radio sta
tion to deny a rampant rumor that the
college was prepared to admit Gantt
voluntarily and immediately.
“I have no knowledge of this fact
and assure you that at the moment
there is no basis for the rumor,” Dr.
Edwards said.
Other rumors persisted that some
Clemson students were building up
hidden hordes of various kinds of
brickbats in anticipation of desegrega
tion.
The Clarendon case, involving an ap
peal by 42 Negro youngsters who de
sire to enter the public schools in
Clarendon County, has reached the
point of an answer to an appeal brief
filed by NAACP lawyers.
Clarendon’s answer reiterated previ
ous arguments and contended that the
case is not yet properly within the
Fourth Circuit Court’s jurisdiction.
This is the first issue on which the
court must rule.
Judge Wyche’s Rulings
Both the Clemson and Clarendon
cases reached the Circuit Court of Ap
peals on appeal from rulings by Dis
trict Judge C. C. Wyche of Spartan
burg.
The Clemson case, particularly,
moved along at a rapid clip during
September. On Sept. 7, Judge Wyche,
sitting at Greenville, denied a request
by Gantt’s attorneys for the prelimi
nary injunction that would have ad
mitted Gantt to Clemson for the fall
semester while the merits of his case
were being argued. His order came
two weeks after he heard the motion
for the injunction.
In his order, Judge Wyche said he
could not make the required finding of
fact on the “incomplete record” before
him. “The plaintiff’s claim of discrimi
nation must therefore await the devel
opment of all the revelant and ma
terial facts upon the trial,” Judge
Wyche said.
The judge’s decision said:
“• . . The action of the District Court
on a motion for preliminary injunc
tion is not predicated on an antici
pated determination of issues of fact
or questions of law which may be in
volved in the case.
“Consequently, where the granting of
a preliminary injunction would give to
a plaintiff all the actual advantage
which would be obtained by the plain
tiff as a result of a final adjudication
of the controversy in favor of the plain
tiff, a motion for a preliminary in
junction should be denied.”
Judge Wyche further noted that
there was no evidence that any white
applicant for admission to Clemson had
received different treatment from
Gantt. He pointed out that 50 other
applicants for transfer had also been
turned down by Clemson in August
because too little time remained to
process the applications before the
September term began. Young Gantt is
seeking to transfer from Iowa State,
where he is studying architecture.
Advanced Case
The Fourth Circuit Court received
an appeal from this decision on Sept.
17 and agreed to advance the case for
an early hearing on Sept. 25. Under
normal circumstances, the appeal prob
ably would not have been heard until
January.
On September 25, Circuit Judges Si
mon Sobeloff of Maryland, Morris A.
Soper of Virginia and Clement F.
Haynesworth of South Carolina listened
to arguments by Gantt’s attorneys, Lin
coln Jenkins and Matthew Perry of
Columbia, for an hour and a half and
rejected the plea for a preliminary in
junction, but said they would have a
full-scale hearing on the case on Oct.
4. Clemson attorney W. L. Watkins was
given until Oct. 2 to reply to the brief.
South Carolina sources felt this delay
would effectively prevent Gantt’s en
rollment for this semester because late
registration at Clemson is usually cut
off on the first of October.
Clemson officials have insisted that
they have no racial policy but that
Gantt’s application was incomplete and
had not been fully processed at the
time he brought suit in July.
Judge Sobeloff asked Watkins at the
Sept. 25 hearing if he felt the filing of
the suit justified termination of action
on Gantt’s application. Watkins said
he did.
Argue Clarendon Case
Lawyers Jenkins and Perry also ar
gued the Clarendon case before the
circuit court. In this case, Judge Wyche
had ruled that it could not be entered
as a “class action” and that all but
Bobby Brunson of the original 42 Ne
gro plaintiffs be stricken from the rec
ord.
Several of the minor plaintiffs in this
action (Brunson et al v. Clarendon
District No. 1) were also parties to the
Briggs v. Elliott case from Summerton
in Clarendon County, which was one
of five cases decided by the Supreme
Court in its famous 1954 desegregation
decision. Briggs v. Elliott was cited as
a precedent in the Sept. 24 hearing on
the case before Judges Haynesworth,
Soper and Spencer Bell.
After his order declaring the Claren
don case could not be brought as a
class action, Judge Wyche gave plain
tiff’s attorneys 20 days to file amended
complaints. Instead they chose to chal
lenge his decision in the Fourth Circuit.
The move was designed to eliminate
the necessity of filing separate suits in
each desegregation action.
Call Suit Groundless
The Clarendon Board of Trustees,
through a Columbia attorney, David
W. Robinson, argued that the suit was
groundless since Bobby Brunson, the
first name on the original complaint
filed April 13, 1960, had already fin
ished high school, thus could no longer
be a complainant against Clarendon.
The Negro attorney, Perry, argued
that Clarendon’s refusal to admit the
other 41 plaintiffs constituted the same
violation as that which Brunson com
plained and the case was still valid.
Perry charged that Clarendon’s board
was using South Carolina’s Pupil As
signment Law as a device for defying
rather than complying with the Su
preme Court decision in Briggs v. El
liott.
Both Perry and Robinson were criti
cized by the circuit court—particularly
Judge Sober—for lack of documenta
tion of their respective cases.
Perry was chided for “vagueness” of
his brief and for failure to include such
details as which schools the complain
ants were attending and which ones
they sought to enter.
Perry also admitted that his clients
had not exhausted all administrative
remedies prescribed by the Pupil As
signment Law.
Robinson came in for criticism for
not citing cases to back up his con
tention that the case could not be
(See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 18)