Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY, 1963—PAGE 13
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District of Columbia
(Continued From Page 12)
tjces to review all of the actions taken
by the circuit court in the case last
September and October.
Mississippi requested that the civil
contempt finding against Gov. Ross R.
Barnett be struck down and argued
that the lower federal court lacked au
thority to tell Mississippi officials not
to interfere with the registration of
Meredith at the university.
About the only judicial actions in the
Meredith case not presented to the Su
preme Court in the Mississippi petition
involved Meredith’s right to attend the
school and the pending criminal con
tempt proceedings against Barnett.
Major Fire
The Mississippi brief contended that
instead of moving against Barnett and
other state officials through contempt
actions, Meredith’s lawyers should have
brought another contempt suit against
them. The petition aimed its major fire
at the Justice Department, however,
claiming that the department should
not have been allowed to act in support
of Meredith’s efforts to enroll at “Ole
Miss.”
The petition was filed by Mississippi
Attorney General Joe T. Patterson and
six special assistants, including John C.
Satterfield, the immediate past presi
dent of the American Bar Association.
It suggested that some of the federal
officials involved may have disobeyed
the Constitution for political gain.
‘The Court of Appeals,” the brief
said, “was rushed headlong past the
most basic doctrines of constitutional
law in the haste of these parties to
secure what was, for the Department
of Justice, apparently the quintessence
of political expediency.”
The brief said that “no graver consti
tutional issue” has ever faced the Su
preme Court.
“While it is more than understand
able that every court demands compli
ance with its decree, it is less than
constitutional for that compliance to be
obtained by the extra-lawful use of
armed forces or by the assertion of a
supremacy on the part of the federal
judiciary which we, with the greatest
possible deference, submit it does not
possess,” the Mississippi brief said.
Private Lawyer
• The federal government on Dec. 22
appointed a private lawyer, Leon Ja-
worski of Houston, to handle its crim-
>nal contempt proceedings against Gov.
Barnett and Lt. Gov. Paul Johnson.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,
* ho announced the appointment, noted
that many Justice Department attorneys
ad been directly involved in the
• eredith case and “might very well be
trial ^ witnesses ” the contempt
In view of this,” Kennedy said, “wi
atje sought outside counsel and wi
j fortunate to have secured the serv
w 6 so distinguished an attorney a
Mr - Jaworski.”
Tb
attorney general said Jaworski
tiof aVe charge of the prosecu-
11 of Barnett and Johnson on charges
of willfully attempting to block Mere
dith’s enrollment.
Jaworski is immediate past president
of the American College of Trial At
torneys and is now president of the
State Bar of Texas. As an Army colonel
after World War U, he was a special
prosecutor in some of the first major
war crimes trials in Europe.
Crisis Costs
• The government announced Dec. 11
that its use of marshals and lawyers
for 46 days during the “Ole Miss” de
segregation crisis cost a total of $406,508.
The figure included all Justice Depart
ment expenses—from travel costs to the
price of tear gas pellets—but did not
cover the major expense of the opera
tion, the use of federal troops.
Most of the expense was $292,769 for
overtime pay and travel expenses for
541 deputy marshals employed in the
operation. These included specially
deputized border patrolmen and Bureau
of Prisons personnel. The overtime pay
accounted for $190,715 and travel costs
for $102,054, the Justice Department
said.
Other expenses, it added, included
$67,723 for supplies and equipment,
$23,469 for communications and $22,547
for miscellaneous items, including
$11,668 for repairs to vehicles “damaged
during rioting.”
Confirms Article
• A Justice Department spokesman,
Edwin O. Guthman, gave official con
firmation Dec. 19 to a Look magazine
article that said Gov. Barnett had secret
dealings with Attorney General Ken
nedy for four days before rioting
erupted at Oxford, Miss.
Guthman, one of the Justice Depart
ment officials who was on the scene
in Oxford during the crisis over Mere
dith’s admission, said the Look article
was accurate. He declined further com
ment.
The article contained this paragraph:
“What the segregationists did not
know is this: while Barnett was encour
aging their efforts, he was—throughout
the four days before the riot—secretly
suggesting schemes to Attorney General
Robert Kennedy that would allow Ne
gro James Meredith to enter Ole Miss.
The article went on to say that in
one secret telephone talk with the at
torney general, Barnett asked that not
only the chief U.S. marshal but all mar
shals who would face him at the gates
of the university should draw their
guns. It added:
“In his talks with Kennedy, the gov
ernor worried about how the scene
would look to ‘a big crowd.’ If only
one man drew his gun, Barnett felt
that he could not back down. So Ken
nedy reluctantly agreed to have all the
marshals draw their guns. Under fed
eral guns, Ross Barnett could surrender
to prevent bloodshed.”
The arranged scene never came off.
The magazine said that at the same
time he was dealing secretly with Ken
nedy to surrender, Barnett also was
dealing with Citizens’ Council elements
in Mississippi, who wanted to form a
“wall of flesh” around the governor’s
mansion in Jackson to prevent his ar
rest by federal officers.
John Bell Williams To Seek
Investigation of
sairTri ^ obn Bell Williams (D-Mis:
gf . ec - 10 that he will seek a coi
W ’° nal investigation of rioting
t 0 oth?§ tOn ' s high school championsh
oaii game on Thanksgiving Day.
Met a mem ber of the House Di
*°Uld < '°^ um I > I a Committee, said 1
r^it P/ess for the investigation as
Whip}, a P°I ice report given to hu
We eaves no doubt that the vii
Was racially inspired.”
am.v ^* s . tur ^ ance broke out after pri
% uian * ly White St. Johns Colie
ed Dr a Catholic school, defe:
hj, , > “ L<dllll)UL SCnOOIj Q6I6c
Hoo? 0minant ly I^ e Sr° Eastern Hi
fight ’ a Publio school. There was
Payers on the field shor
Wl w jT e garne ended, and after t
..nistle spectators from the Ea:
-m Sid la tors rrom me rsa.
aero*, f, tbe District Stadium rush
^Sl7 r, e a l St. John’s supporte
St ’ B „ I ® l Cember - 1962). After the in.
Mrioun d C anc * Catholic school offici
C SiBi Ce , a suspension of inter-hi
“Kinship competition.
10-B
Some 300 Injured
-u m' 1113 . 11 eitizens’ committee has
* 3t Pect e j e3tig . atbl S tbe disorders, and is
> short] issue a report of its find-
t et nbo y , committee learned in
Scta( Q r lhat there were some 300
injured at the stadium on
SSt
40 i Sg ivi n
' v ho' Se 1 " g - Day * n addition to about
%
,rt *dto
mjuries initially had been
Police.
D.C. Riot
In his statement, Williams said that
“policies being followed by the District
government and Washington school of
ficials in particular have served to fan
the flames of dissension between the
races. The forced intermixture of the
races in Washington during the past
eight years has brought about strife
and chaos where before there had been
understanding and harmony.”
The Mississippi congressman also
charged:
“The unprovoked mass attack by
thousands of Negroes — many armed
with clubs, knives, iron pipes, pop bot
tles and the like—against the white
spectators both inside and outside the
stadium, points up graphically the com
plete failure of forced integration here.
“The incident, coupled with the sky
rocketing rate of Negro crimes of vio
lence against white people, make Wash
ington’s ‘show of integration’ ugly
indeed.”
Williams said that District authorities
and the local press generally sought to
cover up the fact that the Thanksgiving
Day incident “was indeed a race riot of
the most vicious kind.” This, he added,
“makes it imperative that a thorough
and complete investigation be made by
the Congress in order that the truth
can be given to the American people.”
The House District committee, head
ed by Rep. John McMillan (D-S.C.), is
expected to authorize an investigation
when Congress reconvenes this month.
NORTH CAROLINA
Durham Told To Give ‘Complete
Freedom’; Court Asks New Plan
WINSTON-SALEM
J udge Edwin M. Stanley of the
U.S. District Court ordered
Durham city schools to transfer
possibly more than 200 Negro
children to schools with whites at
the beginning of the second se
mester and to submit a desegrega
tion plan by May 1, 1963.
He issued the order Friday, Dec. 21,
as a result of a U.S. Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals ruling Oct. 12, 1962,
on the Wheeler v. Durham Board of
Education and Spaulding v. Durham
Board of Education cases.
The appeals court ruled that the Dur
ham City Board of Education was im
properly administering the North Caro
lina Pupil Placement Law.
Development, step by step since the
higher court’s ruling, have been as
follows:
• The Durham board on Nov. 12 as
signed 108 new students to city schools
on the basis of the board’s present geo
graphical assignment plan.
• Attorneys for the Negro plaintiffs
and the city schools agreed to meet
between Dec. 17 and 21 to work out a
school desegregation plan to be used
Feb. 1, 1963, the start of the second
semester.
• The Durham City Board of Edu
cation on Dec. 11 named a three-man
committee of two white persons and one
Negro to “consider, study and submit
to the board within 90 days a plan for
the further desegregation of pupils in
the Durham city schools.”
Permanent Plan
Dr. John Glasson was appointed
chairman. Members are George Parks
and Eric Moore, the Negro member of
the school board. This committe is to
work out a permanent plan for assign
ment of students in city schools. It will
not recommend in connection with the
federal court orders on the possible im
mediate reassignment of 200 Negro
children.
• Judge Stanley, after meeting with
attorneys for both sides, issued his
orders Dec. 21. They cover these points:
1.) The plaintiffs (Negro children)
will have “complete freedom of choice”
in the selection of schools they want to
attend during the second semester.
With some duplications, 164 children
are involved in the Wheeler case and
116 in the Spaulding case.
2.) The Durham school board must
offer an acceptable plan for desegrega
tion by May 1 or follow a court di
rected plan until a suitable plan is ap
proved. If the plan is not approved by
July 1, 1963, the school board must
“give suitable notice to every child en
rolled in the Durham city school sys
tem at the end of the 1961-62 year that
they have complete freedom of attend
ing the school of their choice at the
beginning of the 1963-64 school year.”
The children involved must receive this
notice by Aug. 15, 1963.
Offered Suggestions
• Attorneys for both the city school
board and the Negro children offered
suggestions in connection with Judge
Stanley’s Dec. 21 action.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs made a
proposed order. School board lawyers
submitted proposals for changes in the
suggestions of the opposing attorneys.
Judge Stanley said he will consider
the proposed order and suggested re
visions. His final order will be given
before the start of the second semester.
★ ★ ★
Caswell County Ordered
To Give ‘Complete Freedom’
Caswell County was ordered to give
“every school child presently enrolled”
in its school system “complete freedom”
of choice of school he would like to
attend during the second semester of
the current 1962-63 school year.
U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Stanley
issued the order Dec. 21, 1962, in Jef
fers v. Whitley. This action, originally
filed by 43 Negro school children in
1956, now involves only seven of the
original 43. The order came as a result
of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals ruling Oct. 12, 1962, that the
Caswell County Board of Education was
not properly administering the North
Carolina Pupil Placement Law.
The Dec. 21 ruling declared:
• “The notice (freedom of choice)
prescribed shall be given to every
school child presently enrolled in the
Caswell County school system at least
10 days before the end of the current
semester.”
• “The same notice shall be given
N. C. Highlights
Durham city schools must give an
estimated 200 Negro children “com
plete freedom” to choose the school
they want to attend at the start of
the second semester. U.S. District
Judge Edwin M. Stanley also or
dered the school board to submit a
desegregation plan by May 1, 1963.
Judge Stanley ordered the Caswell
County school board to give all chil
dren in the school system “complete
freedom” of choice of schools, be
ginning the spring semester.
Queens College of Charlotte, a pri
vate women’s college, will accept Ne
gro students, the trustees announced
Dec. 7.
Enrollment at Negro colleges in
North Carolina is increasing at a
faster rate than enrollment at white
colleges in the state, a State Board
of Higher Education chart revealed.
to every child enrolled in the Caswell
County school system at the end of the
current school year ... at least 30
days before the commencement of the
1963-64 school term.”
•Thereafter, the notice also shall be
given at least 30 days before the start
of each new school term until the
county has submitted “to the court an
acceptable plan” for desegregation.
• New students enrolling for the first
time in Caswell County schools also are
to receive the same notice.
This action was to go into effect Jan.
2, 1963, if county attorneys did not file
objections by Jan. 1, 1963. Attorney
Robert Blackwell, speaking for the
school board, conceded that no plans
for desegregation of schools have been
made.
★ ★ ★
There is no racial discrimination in
school assignments in Randolph Coun
ty, the county Board of Education
stated on Dec. 31 in an answer to a
suit filed by parents of 11 Negro chil
dren Oct. 22.
In the case, styled Gamell Belo hy
Edward Belo et al v. Randolph County
Board of Education, the Negro parents
claimed that the county school board
operated a racially segregated system.
The plaintiffs seek an injunction order
ing the school board to assign pupils
Schoolmen
and teachers without regard to race or
color, and to present a plan for re
organization of the school system’s as
signment program, dropping race as a
factor.
In its answer, the board also offered
the possibility of rehearing Negro re
quests for reassignment The board de
nied transfers of Negro children to
white schools in three days of hearings
last August.
The board answer said it may “make
such reassignments as may be proper
to recognize and protect the constitu
tional right of the applicants without
regard to race.”
In The Colleges
Private College
Votes To Admit
Negro Women
The Board of Trustees of the 105-
year-old Queens College for women in
Charlotte voted Tuesday, Dec. 4, to
admit Negro women to the Presbyterian
institution.
Dr. Edwin R. Walker, president of
Queens, announced the decision to the
student body, composed principally of
young women from the South, Friday,
Dec. 7. He told the faculty of the deci
sion Wednesday, Dec. 5.
Negro women probably will not be
admitted during the current school
year. They still may apply in time for
enrollment in September, Dr. Walker
said.
“I don’t mean to say that we will or
that we won’t have a Negro student
next September,” he said. “The policy
will be applied with complete forth
rightness. Admissions standards for a
Negro will be no higher and no lower
than for any other student. This applies
to all resident and day students.”
Queens College has a current enroll
ment of more than 700 students. It will
have openings for 210 freshmen. Al
ready, there have been 430 applications.
Accept Applicants
The admissions office will begin to
accept applicants after receiving first
semester high school grades, Dr. Walker
said. Applicants meeting the admission
requirements will be accepted on a
(See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 14)
Chapel Hill Board Drops Race
From Pupil Assignment Policy
The Chapel Hill school board voted
4-3 on Dec. 13 to eliminate race from
its pupil assignment policy. This action
was designed to solidify the board’s
geographical assignment policy.
Dr. J. Kempton Jones, board chair
man whose vote broke a 3-3 tie, said:
“I believe this will increase harmony
and peace. We have less integration
this year than last. If we do this I
think we’ll have less integration next
year. But it doesn’t matter whether you
are for or against integration. The rea
son we are doing this is to be fair to
everybody—and to protect our flanks
from legal intrusion.”
The Negro board member, the Rev.
J. R. Manley, approved the new plan.
May Be Reassigned
Under the new rule, pupils may be
reassigned when they have been as
signed to a school with a majority of
pupils of the same or another race. In
addition, the new school must have
space for the transferee, and the “trans
fer must be accompanied at a time con
sistent with acceptable continuity of
academic progress.”
The old rule offered transfers to stu
dents attending a school with a ma
jority of another race in attendance.
This enabled white students assigned to
Negro schools to be transferred.
Transfer under the new rule is also
permitted when a pupil is assigned to
a school different from the one to
which other members of his family
have been assigned for the coming
school year.”
★ ★ ★
The Fayetteville city school board on
Dec. 12 denied transfer to 29 Negro
children seeking transfer from the Ne
gro E. E. Smith High School to the
white Fayetteville Senior High School
at the start of the second semester.
Transfers are permitted only for
overcrowding during a school term, Su
perintendent C. Reid Ross said. The
white school is more overcrowded than
the Negro school, he said.
All 29 children seeking transfer are
children of servicemen stationed at Fort
Bragg.
★ ★ ★
Parents of children of two Alamance
County Negro schools, Graham Ele
mentary and Clover Garden, announced
that they will seek transfer of their
children to white schools unless im
provements are made in the Negro
schools.
Parents in Cedar Grove are seeking
improvements at the Graham Elemen
tary School. They want bus service. If
they cannot get bus service, they said,
they will seek transfer of their chil
dren to the white North Graham Ele
mentary School.
C. C. Linneman, superintendent,
promised further study, but noted that
state law prohibits the furnishing of
school buses within city limits.
Clover Garden parents want new
classroom facilities or the transfer of
their children to the white Altamahaw-
Ossipee Elementary School. The par
ents complained that the school library
is used as a classroom for mentally re
tarded children.
Henry Dixon, chairman of the Ala
mance County school board, said no
action can be taken on new classroom
facilities until a budget is planned next
summer. He also said no transfers can
be made during the current school year.