Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 14—NOVEMBER, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA
Negroes File
Second Public
College Lawsuit
(Continued From Page 1)
cause of her race.
The girl is presently a freshman pur-,
suing a pre-medical course at The Col
lege of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Md
She applied to the Roman Catholic
college for women a month after he
rejection by South Carolina. Financia
problems which temporarily stood in
the way of her going to Baltimore were'
solved by two separate scholarship]
funds for Negro students and some
financial assistance from the College c£
Notre Dame.
Miss Monteith was graduated las
June from St. Francis de Sales High
School in Powatan, Va., a private insti
tution. She was class president and 1
ranked high scholastically.
Legal Action
Trial Set Nov. 19
In Fast-Moving
Clemson Lawsuit
Moving swiftly at the behest of the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S
District Judge C. C. Wyche has set Nov
19 as the date for a full trial of a case
in which a Charleston Negro seeks ad
mission to all-white Clemson College.
Sitting in Columbia on Oct. 18—
less than two weeks after the case was
remanded to him from the Fourth Cir
cuit — the veteran
jurist fixed the
date of the
trials of the action
brought by 19-
year-old Harvey
Gantt and said he
would hear it at
Anderson, a city
near Clemson.
At the request
of Matthew Perry
a Columbia Negro
attorney who is
one of the battery of lawyers repre
senting the plaintiff, Judge Wyche
granted counsel for Gantt the right to
inspect applications to Clemson for
1961-62. He fixed the times when such
inspections would be allowed and des
ignated the room in the Clemson ad
ministration building in which the in
spection would proceed—“a drawer at
a time.”
Cites Problems
Clemson counsel W. L. Watkins told
the court earlier in the hearing that
the “mechanics of the problem” of the
records examination would be “im
mense.”
He said there are 5,000 applications
to be considered, 500 of them transfer
applications like Gantt’s. Gantt is now
an architectural student at Iowa State
University. Watkins suggested that the
probe be limited to transfer applica
tions.
Perry insisted that a thorough exam
ination was necessary to his case
Gantt’s counsel maintains that the for
mer high school athlete was rejected
solely because of race. Clemson has in
sisted in earlier hearings that his appli
cation for transfer did not meet its
requirements.
Perry told the court he wanted to see
whether white applicants had been ac
cepted with lesser qualifications than
Gantt’s.
Judge Urges Speed
Judge Wyche pointed out that he wa
anxious to try the case in November
“I want to comply with the order o
the Court of Appeals.” The Fourth Cir
cuit, in remanding the case, which i
had on appeal from Judge Wyche’
refusal to grant a temporary inj unc
tion admitting Gantt to Clemson pend
ing a full trial of the case on its merits
had requested “a prompt trial, prefer
ably in 15 days.”
Perry said he was sure he could com
plete the examination and be ready fo
trial on Nov. 19.
Judge Wyche made it clear he wan tec
“an officer of the court” to do the exam
ining. “I know you and you are trust
worthy,” the jurist told Perry. “But
don’t know about any foreign lawyers
The examiners should be persons with
in the jurisdiction of this court.”
The apparent reference was to New
York NAACP lawyers, among then
Jack Greenberg and Mrs. Constancy
Motley, who represent Gantt.
After the hearing, Perry wen
WYCHE
S. C. Highlights
A class action to desegregate the
University of South Carolina was
filed by a Columbia Negro who now
is a freshman at a Catholic college
in Baltimore.
Nov. 19 has been set as the date
for a full trial of the action brought
by Harvey Gantt to enter Clemson
College.
South Carolina Gov. E. F. Hol-
lings told a press conference in
Copenhagen, Denmark, that the state
“won’t have a Little Rock or an Ox
ford” if schools are ordered desegre
gated.
promptly to work. By month’s end,
he announced that he had screened al
most 1,000 applications to Clemson, in
eluding both transfer and regular stu
dents, and that he felt his probe was
about completed.
He refused, however, to reveal to
newsmen what he had learned from
his study.
In the meantime, reports persisted
that Clemson officials were prepared to
abide by the ruling of the court in the
Gantt case.
And it appeared to knowledgeable
persons that South Carolina statutes
which would apparently prevent this
are without effect. Laws requiring the
closing of South Carolina colleges in
the case of court-ordered desegregation
are premised on the fact that appro
priations to them are made on a seg
regated basis. This restriction has not
appeared in the last two appropriation
bills.
What They Say
Gov. Hollings Fields
Questions Asked
By European Press
South Carolina’s “lame-duck” gover
nor, E. F. (Fritz) Hollings, fielded ex
pected questions from the European
press concerning segregation in South
Carolina with an expected statement:
“We won’t have a Little Rock or an
Oxford if integration comes to our
state.”
The youthful governor, who leaves
office in January, headed a 35-man
group of South Carolina businessmen
on a trade mis
sion to Western
Europe during
October.
Rumor had it
that, in view of
the outcry over
the University of
Mississippi crisis
the federal gov
ernment had ask
ed Hollings to
postpone the long-
planned trade
mission. The trip, however, went on as
scheduled.
Queried in Copenhagen
The segregation issue arose early in
the journey in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Gov. Hollings pointed out to ques
tioners that there is “tremendous good
will” between the Negro and the white
in South Carolina. “There is no rabble-
rousing,” he said, “but there are pro
fessional groups coming in to raise dis
cord.”
He said he thought the Negroes in
his state feel they are being treated well
and added, “We’re aware that we can
not advance unless the Negro is being
advanced.”
The governor conceded to his Danish
questioners that he does not approve
of school desegregation “because of
social, economic, religious and other
differences” between the races.
Questions Barnett Stand
But he somewhat obliquely expressed
disapproval, as he has at other times, of
Gov. Ross Barnett’s position in the Mis
sissippi crisis.
“I don’t think it is an intelligent ap
proach,” Hollings said, “for a governor
to say he would rather go to prison
than approve school integration.”
The South Carolina governor added,
however, that he would not criticize
either Gov. Barnett or President Ken
nedy “on this trip.”
Added Hollings: ‘We abide by the
law and the school boards make the
decisions. ... I can’t order school
leaders to exclude some groups. But I’ve
got to maintain peace.”
At another level, a field representa
tive of the White Citizens’ Council said
in Columbia on Oct. 8 that violence
will not solve the desegregation woes
of South Carolina.
HOLLINGS
SPECIAL REPORT
13 Northern and Western School
Districts Extend Desegregation
A n additional six school dis-
tricts outside the South have
desegregated or extended desegre
gation, making 13 school systems
m the North and West that acted
voluntarily this fall. Two others
have announced similar plans to
become effective in 1963.
Before school opened, desegregation
plans had been announced by school
officials in Eloy, Ariz.; Mt. Vernon, Ill.
Jersey City, Montclair, Morristown and
Newark, N.J.; and Coatesville, Pa
(SSN, September). New desegregation
steps have been taken this fall in Chi
cago, Danville and Peoria, Ill.; Ports
mouth and Xenia, Ohio; and Twin Oaks
Pa.
School officials in Washington, Pa.
have announced a desegregation pro
gram would begin in January, 1963. A
desegregation plan involving the Stam
ford, Conn., high schools was postponed
for one year until September, 1963.
The question of discriminatory prac
tices in public schools has been raised
in 69 communities in 15 states outside
the South, according to records kept by
Southern Education Reporting Service
Lawsuits have been filed in 24 of these
communities and over half of these are
now active in the courts.
Activity Increased
The National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People in recen
months has increased its activity in the
field of public school discrimination in
the areas outside the Southern and bor
der states. Under the direction of Miss
June Shagaloff, special assistant for
education, the NAACP has sponsored
school surveys, negotiated with local
school boards, organized community
support, and picketed and boycotted
schools.
The NAACP’s general counsel, Robert
L. Carter, has filed 18 legal actions in
connection with the organization’s pro
gram. These included six formal peti
tions filed with the education commis
sioners in New Jersey and New York,
where state laws provide quasi-judicial
action at this level.
The states and the number of school
districts involved in the controversies
about public school segregation, includ
ing those of the NAACP and individual
groups, are: Arizona, three; California,
eight; Colorado, one; Connecticut, one;
Illinois, ten; Indiana, one; Kansas, four;
Michigan, one; Minnesota, one; New
Jersey, ten; New York, sixteen; Ohio
five; Oregon, one; Pennsylvania, five;
and Washington State, two.
Chicago Plan
In Chicago, where Negroes have filed
two lawsuits and conducted a series of
boycotts and picketing in protest of
school policies, the Board of Education
began a plan of limited open-enroll
ment. The Negro parents had protested
that their children were forced to attend
inferior, overcrowded schools because
of a neighborhood-schools policy, while
schools with white majorities were
under-utilized (SSN, September and
previous). Under the plan, which Supt.
Benjamin C. Willis proposed, children
in classes of more than 40 students can
transfer to schools having fewer than 30
children in a class.
Protests by Negroes in Danville, Ill.,
led to the school board’s agreement to
redraw the zone lines of elementary
school. The NAACP had charged that
the old zone lines were racially gerry
mandered.
Peoria, HI., employed the first Negro
teacher in the high school after months
of efforts by the NAACP. The city
schools already had Negro teachers at
the elementary level (SSN, June).
Negro parents in Portsmouth, Ohio,
protested about school zoning last
He was Donald Poteat of Charleston,
who, when asked if attempts to deseg
regate should be met with violence,
declared: “Nothing can come of that.”
But he added that non-violent means
can be found to effectively squelch
desegregation.
A segregationist newspaper and South
Carolina’s largest, the Columbia State,
also adopted a non-violence position.
After suggesting that South Carolina
should “go the last mile in legal resist
ance” in the present attempt to deseg
regate state-supported Clemson College,
The State in an editorial declared:
“. . . But beyond that, as has been
clearly demonstrated in state after state,
there would appear to be no ‘last mile’
for truly law-abiding, non-violent peo
ple.” # # #
spring, and the school board promised
after a study that the zone lines would
be redrawn. Vigorous objections by
white parents caused the board to drop
the plan and the Negroes boycotted an
all-Negro elementary school and en
rolled in other elementary schools. The
board then announced a new zone for
the controversial school and promised
to rezone the entire system to achieve
maximum desegregation, effective in
September, 1963.
The Xenia, Ohio, Board of Education
took two similar steps following com
plaints about an all-Negro elementary
school. The board permitted Negro par
ents to enroll their children in other
city schools and agreed to rezone the
entire elementary school system.
The NAAQ? conducted a parents’
boycott of an elementary school in Twin
Oaks, Pa., on grounds that the school
had two grades in a room, compared
with one grade to a room in white
schools. The Twin Oaks Board of Edu
cation then acted to eliminate the
NAACP complaints of segregation.
At Washington, Pa., the Board of
Education agreed to initiate, at the be
ginning of the spring, 1963, term, new
policies to meet the protests of the
NAACP about discrimination.
Princeton Plan
Under the Stamford, Conn., desegre
gation program rescheduled for Sep
tember, 1963, the Princeton Plan will be
used for two high schools. All freshmen
and sophomores will attend one high
school and the juniors and seniors will
go to the other. One school has a high
proportion of Negroes, Puerto Ricans
and low-income students, and the
newer high school has a predominantly
white, higher-income enrollment. (SSN,
June).
California’s Board of Education has
adopted a three-point program to im
plement its earlier statement of policy
on school desegregation (SSN, June
and September). At its Oct. 18 meet
ing, the board acted to:
• Require local school boards to con
sider “ethnic composition” in establish
ing school zone lines.
• Amend the California Administra
tive Code to require consideration of
“ethnic composition” in the selection of
school sites.
• Direct county committees on school
district organization, and county super
intendents of schools, to consider
“present and possible future ethnic
composition” in the reorganization of
local school districts. (The state legis
lature last year called for reorganization
and consolidation of local school dis
tricts. The reorganization plans require
approval of the State Board of Educa
tion.)
Here is a state-by-state summary of
other developments that have occurred
on the school desegregation issue out
side the South, since the last report in
the September Southern School News.
California
The Berkeley Board of Education has
agreed to examine its public schools in
order to achieve greater desegregation.
In its statement to the board, the
NAACP said it did not “advocate a fixed
percentage of Negro and white children
in every school” but urged the board to
adopt “the principle of integration as
one of the cardinal principles of zoning
along with the traditional criteria of
safety, zoning, etc.”. . . .”
Los Angeles has a special citizens
committee studying the problem of
schools predominantly of one race. The
NAACP called off scheduled picketing
of five Los Angeles high schools and
two elementary schools in September
after the Board of Education and the
superintendent of schools said at a
special meeting that every effort would
be made to solve segregation problems.
Several organizations complained to the
special citizens committee in October
that Negro teachers are restricted to
predominantly Negro schools in the city.
The NAACP filed suit against the San
Francisco school board after it refused
to meet the demands to adopt a policy
on de facto segregation. The NAACP
had reported to the Board of Education
that it had found 17 elementary schools
and one junior high school with pre
dominantly Negro enrollments, and
charged that Negro teachers were as
signed largely to predominantly Negro
schools. At its Sept. 18 meeting, the
board appointed three members to study
the problem and report in April.
A few days later, the NAACP an
nounced that after seven months of
“fruitless negotiation” with the school
board, the organization could not accept
the city has “the largest number
of
segregated schools in any New Yor^
school system except New York City-
The board was urged to re-examine tn
entire system to provide maximum de
segregation in the elementary and sec
ondary schools by next September.
A recent racial census by the state
found that Buffalo had 17 elementary
schools with an enrollment of over ‘
per cent Negro. The NAACP told
board that school segregation “is e'
more sharply focused” by its finding 5
that:
• Of 80 elementary schools, 17 v,e ^j
predominantly Negro or all-Negro,
(See NON-SOUTH, Page 15)
another seven-month delay without a
clear cut statement of policy. On Oct. 2,
the NAACP filed suit in U.S. District
Court on behalf of 159 Negro and white
children. The case is titled Brock et al
v. Board of Education of the San Fran
cisco School District et al.
The suit asks for a preliminary and
permanent injunction restraining the
board and superintendent from operat
ing racially segregated schools. The
court is asked to order the officials to
submit a citywide desegregation plan.
The counsels for the NAACP were
listed as Robert L. Carter, NAACP gen
eral counsel; Terry A. Francois and
Garfield Steward of San Francisco; and
Loren Miller of Los Angeles.
Indiana
Arguments were heard on Sept. 10-14
in the NAACP suit against the Gary
Board of Education and superintendent
of schools. The suit filed in U.S. District
Court in June seeks injunctions to stop
an addition to an all-Negro school and
to restrain the city from maintaining
schools on a racially segregated basis.
(SSN, September).
Kansas
In the NAACP-sponsored suit in
Kansas City, Downs et al v. The Board
of Education et al, NAACP attorneys
said in their arguments Sept. 18 that
the school system should be reorganized
to end the “containment” of Negro pu
pils in predominantly Negro or all-Ne
gro schools. The court was asked to
order a desegregation plan for the en
tire Kansas City school district.
New Jersey
Gov. Richard J. Hughes on Sept. 7
urged the Englewood Board of Educa
tion to settle “without delay” the issue
of racial imbalance in the city’s schools.
The governor made his statement after
a three-day boycott of one elementary
school by students and parents, and a
sympathy boycott at another school. The
governor warned that court action un
doubtedly would result unless the local
officials acted.
On Sept. 9, Englewod Mayor A. N.
Volk said that the New Jersey commis
sioner of education probably would
have to institute any change. The mayor
reported that his citywide mail poll on
the question indicated strong support
for neighborhood schools and “a general
feeling” that segregation was not an is
sue. The NAACP filed a formal petition
with the state commissioner of educa
tion, asking that he order the board to
eliminate “all aspects of segregation.”
A survey ordered by the New Bruns
wick Board of Education found that in
the eight elementary schools, four had
enrollments less than 25 per cent Ne
gro, three were 55 to 60 per cent Negro,
and one school was 69 per cent Negro.
The board called for further study of
the quality of teaching and class size at
each school.
Plainfield Complaint
The NAACP has filed a formal com
plaint with the state commissioner of
education, opposing the desegregation
plan adopted by Plainfield’s Board of
Education. The board in July rejected
two other plans involving rezoning and
adopted an open-enrollment program-
The NAACP said the board had chosen
“the least effective desegregation plan.
A group of Negroes in Union have
charged that one school was 95 per cent
Negro. The Board of Education said on
Sept. 26 it would study the complaint of
racial imbalance.
At a special meeting of Southern New
Jersey NAACP branches on Oct. 13>
Miss June Shagaloff of the NAACP an
nounced that the organization would
examine existing school segregation
the area.
New York
Buffalo’s Board of Education heard
charges by the NAACP on Oct. 24 tha