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VOL. 9, NO. 7
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50UTH_CAROU
Leaders U
Calm As Suits
Near Decision
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Objective
SEE
JANUARY, 1963
COLUMBIA
T he voice of restraint, of
moderation, was heard in
South Carolina with increasing
frequency as legal moves con
tinued against operation of raci
ally segregated public schools.
Even as attorneys for state-sup
ported colleges and secondary schools
struggled to keep South Carolina
schools segregated, state officials, school
leaders and editorial writers sounded
the call for public calm and order in
the event desegregation is ordered.
At various stages during December
were lawsuits attacking segregation at
Clemson College, the University of
South Carolina and three school dis
tricts (see below).
Barnwell County Sen. Edgar A.
Brown, dean of the State Senate,
chairman of its powerful Finance
Committee and a life trustee of Clem
son, made this statement on Dec. 18:
“We are not going to close Clem
son. The people of South Carolina and
the student body have too much sense.
The board of trustees and the admin
istration have enough sense to know
that if we win, we win—and if we
lose, we lose.”
Sen. Brown also said no violence
would be countenanced at Clemson.
Byrnes’ Statement
James F. Byrnes, also a life trustee
at Clemson, a former U. S. senator,
U. S. Supreme Court justice, “Assist
ant President” under Roosevelt and
S. C. governor, said he was not ready
to admit that Clemson would lose the
current case in which Negro Harvey B.
Gantt seeks admission to Clemson.
Byrnes suggested that an appeal to
the U. S. Supreme Court was possible
if the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,
which has promised to review the
Gantt case in January, were to rule
against the college. Byrnes was the
first to suggest publicly that an appeal
to the highest court was contemplated
in the Gantt case.
“However, should the Supreme
Court decide against Clemson,” Byrnes
aaid, “there would be sufficient time
to decide the course of action.”
Other Trustees
Other Clemson trustees contacted
''ere firmly behind Sen. Brown’s stand
tbe school would remain open.
The most outspoken was Charles E.
aniel, a Greenville building execu
tive who once served as U. S. senator.
( an j e l said: “I am absolutely opposed
o closing Clemson under any circum
stances. I don’t agree with the law
j. . desegregation decision) but
the law and we must-abide by it.
e want to avoid any tragedy like
-Mississippi ...
and we aren’t
nnch now.”
Jftf Quattlebaum .Tr. of Charleston
e thought it was the “unanimous
iment” of the boa rd .that Clemson
g at - e Pt open in the event of desegre-
]„_■ , n ' " e suggested, however, that
a we action might alter this,
(bee SPEAKERS, Page 15)
We are a great state
going to get in the
This Issue
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Pecial Articles
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PRISON OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION
Southern & Border States
59-63
Prepared by
Southern Education
Reporting Service
Negroes Enrolled In
Public Schools
Negroes Enrolled In
77
Desegregated Districts
Negroes In Schools jB
1
With Whites
KEY
i
59-60
— 2
— 1
60-61
School Years
61-62
62-63
— 0
MISSISSIPPI
Meredith May Withdraw
At Mid-Term, He Says
JACKSON
J ames H. Meredith said on Jan.
7 he had decided against
registering for the second semes
ter at the University of Missis
sippi “unless very definite and
positive changes are made to
make my situation more condu
cive to learning.”
He issued a written statement which
brought an immediate appeal from
U. S. Attorney General Robert F. Ken
nedy for state and university officials
to “take appropriate steps” toward
meeting Meredith’s conditions.
Meredith, the Negro who brought
Mississippi’s first educational desegre
gation in October, had indicated lasf
month that he was determined to re
main a student in the institution. In his
announcement, he emphasized that his
decision was solely against “Ole Miss”
next semester “under present circum
stances”—not against ever seeking to at
tend again.
Text of Statement
Here is Meredith’s statement:
“For sometime I have considered my
course of action for the future. There
are many factors, many issues, many
aspects, and equally as many conse
quences.
“I have decided not to register for
classes during the second semester at
the University of Mississippi unless
very definite and positive changes are
made to make my situation more con
ducive to learning. This decision was
based on a consideration of all the ele
ments pertinent to the ‘Mississippi
crisis’ at its deepest meaning and of all
the aspects of my personal relation
ship in it, with it, and to it.
“It should be noted that I have not
made a decision to discontinue my ef
forts to receive educational training at
the University of Mississippi. Rather
my decision is not to attend the univer
sity next semester under the present
circumstances.
‘. . . A Bitter War . . .’
“We are engaged in a war, a bitter
war for the ‘equality of opportunity’
for our citizens. The enemy is deter
mined, resourceful, and unprincipled.
There are no rules of war for which he
has respect. Some standard must be set.
Some pattern must be established so
that those who are fighting for equality
of opportunity and those who are fight
ing for the right to oppress can clash
in the struggle without disaster falling
upon either group. Presently, there is
too much doubt and uncertainty re
garding the procedure to be followed
in settling our problems. No major is
sues have been decided legally or offi
cially, illegally or unofficially.
(See MEREDITH’S, Page 8)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Rights Commission
Urges End to Delay
WASHINGTON
T he “prompt and reasonable
start” toward public school
desegregation called for by the
Supreme Court in 1955 now means
“immediate placement of some
Negro students in some white
schools,” the federal Civil Rights
Commission said in a study pub
lished Dec. 1.
“The time for community prepara
tion has passed,” the study declared,
“and an eight-year history of resistance
or indifference to compliance with the
law of the land no longer serves as an
excuse for delay.”
The study also found that:
• Pupil assignment acts appear to be
losing their effectiveness as a defense
against desegregation.
• Local delaying tactics, including
grade-a-year assignment plans, are no
longer generally accepted by the courts.
• Some federal courts are no longer
enforcing requirements that Negro
plaintiffs exhaust all possible legal
remedies before filing suit for deseg
regation.
The 217-page Commission report,
“Civil Rights U.S.A.: Public Schools
Southern States 1962,” was written by
law school faculty members and con
tains chapters on Kentucky, North
Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. A
companion volume on Northern cities
was published at the same time.
In publishing the reports, the com
mission said it believes studies of
“smaller areas in greater depth” than
it had made previously “would lead to
better understanding of the deseg
regation process and its problems.”
Trend of Decisions
An introduction by the commission’s
staff, which called for “immediate
placement” as a “prompt and reason
able start” toward desegregation, noted
that the trend of federal court deci
sions during the past year has been
to strike down “unconscionable” de
laying tactics by local boards.
“Until this year, the pupil placement
acts were relatively successful when
proferred as desegregation plans,” it
said. However, last March the U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held
that Memphis could not use the Ten
nessee pupil placement act as a deseg
regation plan. A similar finding had
been made by the Fifth Circuit court.
“The pupil placement acts have been
held invalid as desegregation plans be
cause they manifested a continued pol
icy of segregation even though they
did not expressly incorporate race as a
factor in pupil assignment,” the report
said. “If this is a trend, it threatens the
last strong artifice of segregation.”
However, the report added, pupil as-
POLITICS IN 1962
Race Issue Leads in Deep South
S CHOOL DESEGREGATION Was a
major political issue in the
Deep South during 1962. In other
Southern and border states it at
tracted diminishing public atten
tion, or none at all.
There was evidence that attitudes
toward segregation-desegregation have
been a factor in an apparent trend
toward political realignments in some
parts of the region. For the first time
since the Civil War, Republican candi
dates for statewide offices showed
strength in the Deep South. This is
attributed at least partly to feelings
against Democrats who have held of
fice during the federal government’s
movements seeking desegregation.
Biracial Schools Main
Alabama Political Issue
In Alabama biracial schools re
mained the top political issue. Alabama
has no biracial education at any level,
although the University of Alabama is
under court order to admit qualified
Negroes.
Gov.-elect George C. Wallace placed
WALLACE
the school desegregation issue above all
else in his successful election cam
paigns. In his campaign speeches, Wal
lace criticized the federal judiciary and
promised personally to block Negroes
from entering school buildings. Wal
lace and Ryan deGraffenried last May
1 were thrown into a Democratic pri
mary runoff election after eliminating
former Gov. James E. (Big Jim) Fol
som and several other candidates.
Wallace held a first-primary lead of
45,000 votes over deGraffenried, who
was critical of “hot heads and loud
mouths” although he asserted his be
lief in segregation. Folsom endorsed
deGraffenried, but Wallace won the
nomination in the runoff on May 29
by more than 70,000 after continuing
to excoriate the U. S. courts for up
holding desegregation.
Winning easily in the Nov. 6 general
election, the incoming governor con
tinued to inveigh against both the pro
ponents of desegregation and the
“moderates” who late in the year called
for peaceable approaches to federal-
state differences as to race relations.
The immediate issue was the admis
sion policy at the state university, but
efforts to obtain desegregation of pub
lic schools for the first time were un
der way in the courts.
Wallace Supports Barnett
Wallace, who succeeds John Patter
son in the governorship, has strongly
supported the stand of Mississippi Gov.
Ross Barnett in opposing admission of
James Meredith to “Ole Miss.”
Major national attention was cen
tered on the near-victory of a Republi
can, James D. Martin, Gadsden busi
nessman, over incumbent U. S. Sen.
Lister Hill, a 39-year Democratic vet
eran in Congress. Martin campaigned
(See SCHOOL, Page II)
D. C. Highlights
A report of the U. S. Commission
on Civil Rights said “immediate
placement” of some Negro students
in formerly white schools is now the
only acceptable answer to the Su
preme Court’s call for a “prompt and
reasonable start” toward desegrega
tion.
President Kennedy said the course
he pursued in the University of Mis
sissippi desegregation crisis was the
only one possible in the circum
stances. The state of Mississippi
asked the U. S. Supreme Court to
review and reverse lower court find
ings in the case of James H. Mere
dith. A Houston lawyer was appoint
ed to represent the government in
the criminal contempt case against
Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett.
Rep. John Bell Williams (D-Miss.)
called for a congressional probe of
racial disorders that followed a
Thanksgiving Day high school foot
ball championship game in the Dis
trict of Columbia Stadium.
For the first time in eight years,
the District’s non-public school en
rollments showed a slight increase.
signment laws have been held valid on
their face in two other circuits, the
fourth and eighth, covering Virginia,
the Carolinas and Arkansas.
Relax Requirements
“Perhaps ‘he most significant devel
opments in the current law of desegre
gation,” the study noted, are steps tak
en by the Fourth Circuit Court of Ap
peals to relax its requirements that
Negroes must exhaust state adminis
trative remedies before seeking deseg
regation in a federal court.
The report also pointed out that the
Fourth Circuit court last year allowed
Negroes in Lynchburg and Roanoke,
Va., to bring “class suits” for desegre
gation. The significance of this lies in
the fact that if the Negro plaintiffs win
their case, other Negro children in the
school system “do not have to follow
individually the labyrinth of adminis
trative steps in the pupil placement
act.” This position also has been taken
by the Fifth and Sixth Circuit courts.
Citing an appellate court decision
that Knoxville, Term., did not show
good faith in presenting a grade-a-year
plan and must therefore desegregate
more rapidly, the commission studv
said:
“The Knoxville case and sever-
ers derided in 1962 give ri Kr
ference that perhaps the .
ing on grade-a-year plans.”
Highlights of States
These were among the higt'igh'
the state reports: -r
• Kentucky (by L.f
Knowles, University
School of Law)—Althou
tudes have changed in
years, and now ± og»ri’ gregation
as an inevitable process, segregation
persists because there is no one—in
many communities—to initiate deseg
regation action.
“Local school administartors are not
willing to risk the political unpopularity
which would fall to them if they initi
ate desegregation. Even in the school
districts which will accept Negro ap
plicants in white schools there is little
publication of the policy, and no en
couragement of Negro applicants. Here
again, to give any suport to desegre
gation is thought a politically unwise
act.
“Negro parents and community lead
ers have been hesitant to request de
segregation. The fear of economic or
other reprisals, perhaps justified eight
years ago, still carries over, even
though the climate of the community
may have changed. Negro teachers,
high in the respect of the Negro com
munity, generally have not furnished
leadership in school desegregation.”
In the absence of Negro efforts to
initiate desegregation activity, “a sub
stantial amount of segregation will
probably continue.”
(See CIVIL RIGHTS, Page 12)