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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER, 1962—PAGE 9
NORTH CAROLINA
Court Rules Assignment Law Used Unconstitutionally
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WINSTON-SALEM
T he City Board of Education of
Durham was ordered to sub
net “a suitable plan for ending the
existing discrimination” or to de
sist from applying the North Caro
lina Pupil Assignment Law in “an
unconstitutional manner.”
The decision was issued Oct. 12 by
the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Ap
peals in Alexandria, Va. It came in the
appeal of two cases, Wheeler and
others v. Durham City Board of Educa
tion, filed in 1959, and Spaulding and
others v. Durham City Board of Educa
tion, filed in 1960.
The action involves 163 children in
the Wheeler case and 116 in the Spauld
ing case. The names of children
involved are overlapping in a number
of instances.
In July, 1961, Judge Edwin M. Stanley
of the U.S. Middle District Court in
North Carolina dismissed most of the
instances involved and sent back 133 to
the Durham school board. This action
arose from the refusal of the school
board to reassign Negro children to
white schools during the 1959-60 and
1960-61 school years.
Discriminatory Practices
Judge Stanley ruled that the board
did engage in discriminatory practices.
Of the 133 pupils reviewed by the Dur
ham school board, eight were reassigned
to white schools. The two cases came up
again before Judge Stanley, and he re
fused further relief.
The Negroes then appealed.
The appeals court issued an injunc
tion “enjoining the school board from
refusing admission to any school of any
pupil because of his race.” Transfers,
the court said, should not subject a pu
pil to “futile, burdensome or discrim
inatory administrative procedures.”
The court said in part:
“So long as the school board allows
its practice of racial assignments, the
injunctive order should require that it
freely and readily grant all requests for
transfer or initial assignment to a school
attended solely or largely by pupils of
the other race...
“The order should further provide
that, if the school board does not adopt
some other nondiscriminatory plan, it
Missouri
(Continued From Page 8)
Aircraft Corp., Union Electric Co.,
Universal Match Corp., General Cable
Corp. and the St. Louis Ordnance Plant.
Une team member is concerned with
me McDonnell space capsule project,
f °r example.
, These young school children
ad to take on faith the point th;
ey work hard they can get the
ey want,” Shepard explained. "
"e parade these people who are 1
breathing examples of what
“e done.”
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★ ★ ★
Social Agencies Study
^ a ys to Help Kinloch
c J, n October, representatives of 15 so
tp a § en cies started an inquiry to de
.... , me whether they could be o
Nepr 106 *° Louis County’s all
° municipality. Kinloch. Attentio:
lowin • Sed on Kinloch’s plight fol
25 q® ^ ots ar >d a school-burning Sep
by fj ngln °f the rioting was resentmen
2o. v egr °® s a t the fatal shooting of
Ulan !!{'£. Ne S r ° by a Negro police
01 Kinloch.
Sc hool 0 'if made hy the visitors disclosei
4e rat bu hdings crowded with doubli
e ighth- d Student capacity. Seventh am
ajn ders begin classes at 6:51
Use tip ” at ^ g h school students ma;
^och’^f 16 bu *^tng later in the day
than S3 win amdy income averages les:
spend* ’ , a yea 1, and its school distric
Met av° n y a h°ut half the county dis
Mrs ® rage hi its per pupil outlay,
'hpal Mt UCy Lelue, high school prin-
indents UTla * ed that 70 per cent o
hate We] f COrne ^ rom homes that receivi
r atged t ai D e P a yments. Other estimate:
jtclave ^ ° per cent. Kinloch is ai
rroun< ded by wealthier, pre-
e lv « the ^ hite districts. Efforts tc
"dth j.°°l problem by annexa-
rj4s e have „ ls trict having a better taj
Mi^ ° ” een e ff ec tive thus far.
n Strove'* S , Were to vote Nov. 6 or
»®tttuti n „ fv arne ndment to the State
p^hooi . at would permit levying
Sty Sue^ allZ \ tion tax hi St. Louis
** to a . authority would open the
Seta, of in which poorer school
c 0 U1 d hich Kinloch is the worst
Xty ’ s wealti 1 r° re eqUUably 111 1116
# # 4
shall inform pupils and their parents
that there is a right of free choice at the
time of initial assignment and at such
reasonable intervals thereafter as it
may be determined by the board with
the approval of the district court.”
The appeals court further stated,
“Here it is sufficient to state that . . .
these plaintiffs are entitled to an order
for their admission for the 1962-63
school year to the schools for which
they have applied. . .”
Durham’s school board was to hold its
next meeting Nov. 12. At this time it
was expected to take action on the court
orders. In the meantime, attorneys for
the city and for the Negro children were
scheduled to meet and discuss means
of implementing the court order.
★ ★ ★
4th Circuit Court Rules
Assignment Law Violated
The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Ap
peals on Oct. 12 ruled in the case of
Jeffers v. Whitley that the Caswell
County school board has violated the
North Carolina Pupil Assignment Law
in spirit by refusing to transfer Negro
children to white schools.
Originally filed in behalf of 43 Negro
children seeking admission to the white
Caswell County school in 1958, the case
had been inactive since 1980 based on
a ruling of the U.S. District Court for
Middle North Carolina.
At that time the district court ruled
that the Negro children had not ex
hausted their legal remedies in the
county. It also was noted that 27 of the
original 43 children were no longer in
the Caswell County school system.
Seven Children Involved
In the appeal to the Circuit Court of
Appeals, the number of children involv
ed has fallen to seven, representing the
Brown, Jeffers and Saunders families.
The appeals court ruled that Caswell
County used the North Carolina Pupil
Assignment Act “only when dealing
with interracial transfer requests.”
The record shows, the ruling stated,
“general disregard by the school board
of the constitutional rights of Negro
pupils who do not wish to attend
schools populated exclusively by mem
bers of their race.”
Caswell County has 15 schools of
which five elementary schools and one
consolidated school are for Negroes. The
county is located just south of the Vir
ginia border near Danville, Va.
★ ★ ★
Desegregation Suit Filed
By Randolph County Group
Parents of 11 Negro children filed
suit Oct. 22 in the U.S. Middle District
Court in Greensboro against the Ran
dolph County Board of Education,
charging segregation in the county
schools.
Filed by eight parents of Trinity—
Edward Belo, Homer Foster, Allen Gib
son, Alfred Gray, Pervey Gannaway,
Moses Hayes, William McCoy and Jack-
son Sibert—the suit seeks:
• An order calling on the school
board to stop operating a segregated
public school system and assign pupils
and teachers without regard to race or
color.
• A ruling ordering the school board
to submit a complete plan for reor
ganization of the school system’s as
signment program, dropping race as a
basis for assignment.
The suit came after Randolph County
refused to grant transfers to white
scnv.ols to Negro children in three
hearings Aug. 21, Aug. 28 and Aug. 29.
The suit also noted that Negro children
of the Trinity area attend the Negro
William Penn High School in High
Point in Guilford County.
In requests for reassignment, the
children sought to enter Trinity Union
School No. 2, but were denied. The
complaint stated:
TMade Every Effort’
“Plaintiffs have made every effort to
utilize the remedies provided in the
North Carolina Punil Assignment Law
without success. Moreover, exhaustion
of administrative remedies is not neces
sary where, as here, the board has
given no indication of compliance with
the Brown decision of 1954.”
The suit, styled Gamell Belo bv Ed
ward Belo et al v. Randolph "fmnty
Board of Education, notes that no Nevro
has ever attended a white school in
Randolph County.
Attorneys for the Negroes are Major
S. High of Greensboro, Co-irsd O. Pear
son of Durham and Jack Greenberg
•md Derrick A. Bell of New Yo v k City.
Greenberg is a chief counsel for the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People.
N. C. Highlights
The Durham City Board of Educa
tion was ordered by the U. S. Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals to discon
tinue operating under the North
Carolina Pupil Assignment Law in
“an unconstitutional manner.”
In another ruling on Oct. 12, the
Fourth Circuit Court held that, by
refusing to transfer Negro children
to white schools, the Caswell County
Board of Education had violated the
North Carolina Pupil Assignment
Law in spirit.
Eight Negro parents of Trinity
filed suit in behalf ot 11 children
against the Randolph County school
board, calling for an end to racial
school assignments.
Bennett College, a desegregated
Negro school for women, fired Mrs.
Alice Evans Jerome, a white teacher,
from its faculty after learning that
her husband had served a three-year
federal prison term for being a Com
munist.
The High Point Board of Educa
tion transferred three Negro children
to predominantly white Ferndale
Junior High School.
In the Colleges
Husband’s Record
Brings Discharge
Of College Teacher
Bennett College, a Methodist Col
lege for Negro women in Greensboro,
discharged Mrs. Alice Evans Jerome,
a white member of the faculty, Oct.
20 because her husband, Victor Jerome,
was convicted in 1953 of being a mem
ber of the Communist Party, violating
the Smith Act.
He served three years in the Lewis-
burg Pa., federal prison for advocating
the violent overthrow of the govern
ment.
Mrs. Jerome, who became a teacher
at Bennett in September, marched with
Negro college students from Bennett
and Agricultural and Technical College
in downtown Greensboro, demonstrat
ing against segregated eating facilities.
Action against Mrs. Jerome arose
from an accusation by Armistead W.
Sapp, an attorney for two restaurants
against which students are protesting,
that the Jeromes were sent by the
Communist Party to stir up trouble in
Greensboro.
Local officials of the Congress of
Racial Equality immediately denied that
the Jeromes were leaders in their
movement.
Refused to Resign
The Board of Trustees of Bennett
discharged Mrs. Jerome after she had
refused to resign at the request of the
college president, Dr. Willa B. Player.
In a statement, the trustees said:
“The board considered the matter
brought to its attention concerning the
participation of Mrs. Alice Jerome,
newly employed member of the teach
ing staff, in student demonstrations in
the city of Greensboro.
“On investigation, it was revealed
that Victor Jerome, her husband, with
whom she is living on the Bennett
College campus, had been convicted
and sentenced for a federal offense.
“In considering Mrs. Jerome’s status
as a teacher at Bennett, the board de
cided that her continued services as
a teacher would be subject to misin
terpretation and embarrassment to the
college.
“It therefore authorized the immedi
ate termination of her services.”
Mrs. Jerome’s Stand
Mrs. Jerome in refusing to resign
told the board:
“I have done nothing wrong, nothing
of which I am ashamed . . . My po
litical past has no cause to be involved
today . . . My husband is a free lance
writer and has no ties with Bennett
College or with CORE and its activities.
He has no mission here ... I respect
my husband and the Socialist ideals
for which he was sent to prison . . .
“I have been sent here by no one,
and I owe no allegiance to any foreign
power. I owe allegiance only to my
country and to my own conscience . . .
“If Bennett College decides to suc
cumb to the pressures of witch-hunting,
it will have to do so without my help.
I will not withdraw . . .”
Bennett College has had a biracial
faculty for a number of years. It also
has a biracial student body with several
whites included. It has for a number
of years conducted student exchange
programs with white colleges.
★ ★ ★
Davidson College in Davidson, N.C.
was omitted last month from the list
of white private colleges which have
opened their doors to all students, re
gardless to race, creed or color.
A Congolese student, Benoit Nzengu,
enrolled as a student this fall and is
reported making satisfactory progress
in the freshman class.
No American Negro students have
applied for admission to Davidson since
college trustees announced last spring
that the school was opened to all stu
dents.
★ ★ ★
A report by Dr. R. Irving Boone,
statistician of the General Baptist State
Convention of North Carolina, the
state’s Negro Baptist organization, to the
state convention Oct. 31 in Winston-
Salem, revealed that the Baptist State
Convention of North Carolina (white)
operates seven colleges in the state. Of
these, two colleges are desegregated
with a total enrollment of four Negro
students.
They are Wake Forest and Mars Hill
with two each. Gardner-Webb and
Meredith have an official policy of de
segregation, but no Negro students, the
report said.
Catawba College of Salisbury has ad
mitted the Rev. Herbert Nurst, a West
Indian Negro enrolled at the Negro
Livingstone College in Salisbury, as an
evening student, to take a foreign lang
uage not offered at Livingstone. A Ne
gro housewife also is approved for
evening study.
This does not mean a change in the
college’s policy, however, school officials
said.
★ ★ ★
A Negro student, Ozzie Faison of
New Bern, N.C., is among 26 players
seeking a spot on the freshman basket
ball team of the University of North
Carolina in Chapel Hill. A second Ne
gro was among an original 56 that
reported for drills, but was automati
cally dropped when he missed a work-
What They Say
Charlotte Mayor Urges Whites
To Recognize Negroes’ Values
White persons must recognize Negroes
as first class human beings, and white
communities must help Negroes pro
gress, Mayor Stan R. Brookshire of
Charlotte told Davidson College stu
dents Oct. 10.
Mayor Brookshire said it is a com
munity’s responsibility to encourage the
upgrading of Negroes. He said in part:
“Negroes have been subject to eco
nomic and social pressures which have
hindered their development as self
respecting and responsible citizens . . .
The basic cause of this plight is the at
titude that the white man has taken
toward the Negro since the days of
slavery.
“I do not think that we as a com
munity, a state, or a nation can afford
to maintain a second class citizenship ...
“Both those who resist change and
those who are impatient with the slow
progress of change are handicapping the
sincere and honest efforts that are being
made to improve race relations by the
simple and logical steps of lifting the
level of citizenship of underprivileged
citizens.”
Charlotte, the mayor said, is a city
with “a heart and a social conscience
that embraces the interests of all of our
citizens, regardless of race, color, relig
ion, economic or social status.” He
praised the Mayor’s Community Rela
tions Committee, headed by Dr. John R.
Cunningham, former president of Da
vidson.
The mayor recommended a “co-op
erative effort and patience” among both
races in a period of “southwide, nation
wide and worldwide social revolution.”
out.
Coach Ken Rosemond said:
“Faison, like most of the rest, was
not one of the boys we recruited. But
he’ll be given the same opportunity
to make the squad as all the other
boys.”
Schoolmen
High Point Board
Approves Transfer
Of Three Negroes
The city of High Point Board of
Education approved the transfer of
three Negroes to predominantly white
schools Oct. 26. This action was the
conclusion of an original appeal by 58
Negro children seeking reassignments
after being denied them at the start
of the school year.
One student, Smitty Harris, was
transferred from Griffin Junior High
School to Ferndale Junior High School.
The other two, Delores Ingram and
Samuel Roberts, were transferred from
William Penn High School to Ferndale.
Nine requests by Negroes for trans
fer were denied. High Point now has
a total of 20 Negro students attending
predominantly white schools.
Opposing View
Dr. Perry Little, a dentist and lone
Negro on the board, protested the
board’s approach to reassignment with
a statement:
“As a group we seem to almost close
our eyes. Out of 58 students originally
applying for reassignment only nine
received favorable action. And of the
49 remaining, all but 12 gave up hope,
and these came before the board. I
would hate to see the board turn down
a majority of these children . . .
“It is also discouraging to note some
of us thumbing the pages of the North
Carolina law for reasons not to admit
students; it occurs to me we could be
thumbing the pages of our hearts.”
Dr. Little in this pre-vote statement
also noted that a lawsuit could result
from denials of transfer requests.
All of the final 12 sought reassignment
because the white school was nearer
than the Negro school. The nine were
denied because the white school in
volved was said to be overcrowded. Dr.
Little was a dissenting voter in each
denial.
★ ★ ★
Winston-Salem Officials
Debate Board Appointments
Mayor John Surratt and the Board of
Aldermen of Winston-Salem are in a
dispute over the appointment of two
new members to the city school board.
It started at a city council meeting
Oct. 2 when the mayor surprised the
council with two nominations for the
school board, those of Mrs. Harry H.
Barnes Jr. and Flake F. Steele Jr. They
were to fill vacancies caused by the
resignation of Clifford Perry, chairman,
and the end of the three-year term of
Philip N. Froelich.
The aldermen delayed action for two
weeks, then approved Steele on Oct. 15.
The situation became involved when
Alderman Archie Elledge proposed an
other person, T. Wilson Adams, in place
of Mrs. Barnes.
Negroes Proposed
Alderman Carl Russell, the Negro
member of the city council, submitted
the names of two Negroes, Mrs. David
R. Wilson and the Rev. John H. Miller,
but these names were not seconded and
are not considered in nomination.
The council was scheduled to vote on
a new board member in early Novem
ber.
Mayor Surratt was sticking with his
original nomination, that of Mrs.
Barnes. Elledge and others were said to
be committed to Adams.
Russell was expected to hold out for
one Negro. The National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People
local branch originally advocated two
more Negroes on the school board be
cause 37 percent of the city’s population
is Negro. One Negro, Richard C. Erwin,
a lawyer, is on the school board.
“There might be repercussions at the
ballot box,” Russell said, if Negro
wishes are not satisfied. He brought
petitions with 2,500 signatures seeking
two Negroes for the school board.
C. L. Montgomery, NAACP president,
stated that Negro support elected Sur
ratt mayor over a strong Republican
candidate in 1961.
(See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 13)