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PAGE 20—FEBRUARY, l?63—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
THE REGION'S LEGISLATURES
Five States May Enact Major School-Race Bill
$
L egislatures of 14 Southern
and border states meet in
regular sessions this year, hut no
more than five are expected to
consider major measures pertain
ing to school segregation-desegre
gation.
Alabama’s new governor, George
Wallace, took office last month with a
strong pledge to combat desegregation.
Thus, the new administration was be
lieved likely to present a pro-segrega
tion program to legislators when they
convene in May, or in an earlier special
session.
In Georgia and South Carolina, where
state assemblies already are in session,
pro-segregation measures were expect
ed to be introduced. In both states,
however, new governors have counseled
against stringent actions such as those
taken in connection with desegregation
at the University of Mississippi.
A session of the Louisiana legislature
starting in May will be limited to finan
cial measures, but some of these are
expected to deal with funds for school
programs involved in segregation-de-
segregation issues. Texas legislators,
now meeting, may consider repeal of
the state’s desegregation referendum
law, which has been declared uncon
stitutional by the state attorney-gen
eral, and some members are expected to
propose repeal of other pro-segregation
measures.
Other states with regular legislative
sessions this year include Arkansas,
Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri,
North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee
and West Virginia. It is an off-year
for legislatures of Kentucky, Missis
sippi and Virginia unless special ses
sions are convened.
Several assemblies met during 1962.
Alabama and Mississippi state legis
latures, both busy with problems of
reapportionment of their memberships,
made it clear that they strongly re
sisted desegregation. However, Ala
bama legislators’ only formal action
was a joint resolution for an informa
tion campaign directed against deseg
regation, and it was pocket-vetoed by
Gov. John Patterson on ground that
“the responsibility of maintaining seg
regation in the public schools rests pri
marily with the governor.”
Newly inaugurated Gov. Wallace is
expected to call a special session of the
legislature about March 12 to consider
finances and segregation. Regularly, the
assembly does not convene until May.
Wallace has said he will ask the leg
islature for authority to intervene per
sonally where desegregation is in pros
pect. At an organizational meeting last
month, the legislators adopted a strong
ly worded pro-segregation resolution.
In Mississippi, the legislature reduced
its appropriation for the State Sover
eignty Commission, the state’s pro
segregation agency, from $350,000 to
$250,000 but in several other actions
sought to bolster the state’s legislative
barricade against biracial education.
After urging the State Board of Edu
cation to make the book Race and
Reason by Carlton Putnam a part of
the course of study, the lawmakers
moved against the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
people by requiring that an out-of-
state nonprofit corporation must be
“domesticated” before it can operate in
Mississippi. Another measure forbade
admission to state colleges of anyone
having a criminal charge of moral tur
pitude pending against him.
Mississippi also provided that all
acts, words and conduct of any state
officer in the interest of keeping state
higher learning institutions segregated
were adopted as “acts of the state”
and not of the individuals. Thus, the
governor’s and lieutenant-governor’s
refusals to admit James Meredith to
“Ole Miss” may be construed under
state law as official state actions.
Legislators in Mississippi called on
the federal government for “redress of
grievances,” asking that U. S. officials
remove Meredith, troops and marshals
from the campus of the University of
Mississippi. Late in the year, the legis
lature considered but never acted on a
resolution which would have criticized
the Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools for its warning as to ac
creditation of Mississippi institutions.
Georgia’s 1962 assembly revised its
law providing state tuition grants
for educational purposes, allowing the
State Board of Education to set up
regulations. The legislature repealed a
limitation on the ages of undergradu
ate and graduate students wishing to
enroll in units of the University Sys
tem of Georgia. Legislators refused to
repeal the compulsory education law,
a step which has been taken by some
Southern states to counter required bi
racial attendance.
The Georgia legislature has a Negro
member for the first time since 1870.
He is State Sen. Leroy Johnson, repre
senting a predominantly Negro district
of Atlanta.
In the Louisiana legislature, at least
15 measures during 1962 bore on racial
attendance in public schools, adding
substantially to the South’s largest vol
ume of state legislation on the sub
ject. Louisiana legislators convene in
regular sessions annually, and in re
cent years have convened in several
extraordinary sessions.
Among other actions, the assembly
last year made provision for disburse
ment by the state superintendent of
education of New Orleans school funds
kept under legislative control in the
running fight on New Orleans desegre
gation. Four million dollars was trans
ferred from the educational expense
grant fund to the general fund to help
bolster state finances, but state leaders
assured that the shift would not be al
lowed to hamper the tuition-grant pro
gram under which Louisiana pupils
may obtain public funds to attend pri
vate rather than public schools. A Fi
nancial Assistance Commission was set
up to handle the educational expense
program.
Louisiana’s compulsory school at
tendance law was repealed, and an
other act provided that no child shall
be compelled to attend any school in
which his race constitutes less than
half of the total registration. An ap
propriation of $100,000 was voted to re
imburse the St. Bernard Parish School
Board for expenses in providing edu
cational facilities for New Orleans stu
dents who left Orleans Parish schools
during the desegregation crisis.
In November, Louisiana voters ap
proved tuition grant provisions for the
state constitution but voted down a
proposal that up to $20 millions in
bonds be authorized to finance the pro
gram. Officials said they believed
enough money was available from
revenues. Special elections for future
educational amendments to the consti
tution were approved by referendum,
as was an amendment prohibiting ap
propriation of state funds to private or
sectarian schools. Tuition grants are
paid directly to pupils, rather than to
the private schools they attend.
THE REGION
Both Violence and Quiet Mark Month’s Actions
(Continued from Page 1)
rights developments in 1962, U.S. At
torney General Robert F. Kennedy not
ed “great progress” but warned that
difficult problems remain and “ugly in
cidents like the Mississippi riot may
occur again.” The attorney general said
that “the responsibility and respect for
law displayed by the great majority of
the citizens of the South” far out
weighed the violence at the University
of Mississippi.
George Gallup reported these results
of one of his latest surveys of the pub
lic’s evaluation of desegregation in the
South:
• “Despite James Meredith’s troubles
on the Ole Miss campus, hopes of im
proved racial relations in the South
have sharply increased over the last 18
months.”
• “. . . for the first time in nearly
six years, more Americans now look
for the South’s racial picture to get
better than fear it will grow worse.
This reverses a trend—dating from 1957
—in which more and more persons had
grown pessimistic about the Southern
racial outlook.”
Shooting in N.C.
Following seven years of litigation, 16
Negroes entered three formerly all-
white Caswell County schools at Yan-
ceyville, N.C. Jasper Brown, father of
four of the children, was charged a few
hours later in the shooting of two
young white men on a rural road. Both
victims, one the son of a school board
member and the other an industrial
worker, suffered minor wounds.
Brown claimed that his life had been
threatened and that he had been har-
rassed and reviled by groups of whites
who followed him. Several school
teachers reported receiving abusive
and threatening telephone calls.
A similar incident occurred at Dol-
laway, Ark., where a Negro girl en
tered the already desegregated Dollar
way School. At the end of the second
day, the girl’s uncle, William Howard,
had the windows in his car broken
when he arrived to pick up the two
Negro students at the school. A white
boy in the 12th grade was stabbed, and
Howard was arrested. The Negro girl,
Sarah Howard, reported that other stu
dents had kicked and shoved her and
had thrown things at her.
The mother of two white children at
the school, Mrs. Florence Hudman, dis
closed that her daughters had been
abused for befriending Sarah Howard.
The two Negro students and the two
Hudman children were removed from
the school for several days and then
returned. Mrs. Hudman’s oldest daugh
ter stayed for only half a day and then
returned home crying, saying she had
been called names and spat on. Her
mother planned to enter her in a busi
ness school.
In the county adjoining Caswell
County, N.C., two Negro children re
ceived school board approval of their
request for reassignment to nearer
white schools at Reidsville. School
Supt. C. C. Lipscomb said the two ele
mentary students were received with
out “fanfare, fuss or unfriendliness,”
and added that “we expect none.”
Several other districts in the South
experienced initial or additional de
segregation without any trouble. Put
nam County, Tenn., voluntarily ad
mitted two Negroes into formerly all-
white high schools after a Negro school
had burned. Jackson, Term., which vol
untarily desegregated last year, ad
mitted four more Negroes into schools
with whites by a court order. Abilene,
in West Texas, started voluntary de
segregation in January, admitting Ne
groes to a school that serves personnel
from a nearby Air Force base.
Federal troops and marshals covered
the University of Mississippi campus
for the return of James Meredith. State
officials placed the Clemson College
area under strict control for the arrival
of Harvey B. Gantt.
The Ole Miss campus has been under
watch of federal officials since two men
were killed during the riots over de
segregation on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 of
last year. Meredith had said he might
not return for the second semester be
cause of student harrassment, but he
announced Jan. 30 he would come back.
University Chancellor J. D. Williams
has issued strict rules governing stu
dent behavior and restricting inter
views by faculty and students.
The arrival of Harvey Gantt at
Clemson on Jan. 28 had been preceded
by repeated pleas by state leaders for
peace and order. Authorities maintained
strict security on the campus, and offi
cers set up roadblocks on all highways
leading to the school. Gov. Donald S.
Russell reportedly received a telephone
call from Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy, who expressed concern about
the impending Clemson situation. Rus
sell was reported to have answered that
South Carolina was “perfectly capable”
of maintaining order and “we are not
going to have any violence.”
The desegregation at Tulane Univer
sity and Lee College was conducted
with much less fanfare. Eleven Negroes
enrolled in routine fashion for the
graduate and undergraduate divisions
of Tulane, which desegregated volun
tarily after a federal court had ruled
it was a private school and could not
be forced to admit Negroes. The first
Negro enrolled at Lee College in Bay-
town, a tax-supported junior college.
In his survey on the possibility of
trouble over desegregation in the South,
Dr. Gallup used this question:
“Do you think the situation in the
South between the races will get better
or worse during the coming year?”
Over the years, for the nation as a
whole and for the South, the survey
found these percentages of people who
believe the situation in the coming year
would get better or would get worse,
who saw no change, or had no opinion:
Nationwide
No
No
Better Worse
Chng.
Opin.
%
%
%
%
Jan. ’57
41
35
11
13
Aug., ’57
32
42
9
17
Oct., ’58
29
48
9
14
June, ’61
29
53
7
11
Today
44
32
13
11
South
No
No
Better Worse
Chng.
Opin.
%
%
%
%
Jan. ’57
33
46
10
11
Aug., ’57
25
51
8
16
Oct., ’58
23
59
6
12
June, ’61
21
65
6
8
Today
36
36
15
13
West Virginia
(Continued from Page 19)
dropout problem. Many Negro children,
seeing no future for them, leave school
before graduation and go north in
search of jobs.
The commission report said 50 of
those interviewed were white and 37
of them are attending college on a full
time basis. Twenty-four of the Negroes
interviewed are attending college.
“This is far above the national aver
age,” Stanley said. “It means that 74
per cent of the whites interviewed and
58 per cent of the Negroes are attend
ing college. The national average is
under 40 per cent.”
Jobs Compared
Of the white high school graduates
now working, their job titles include
electronics technician, service station
operator, insurance salesman, construc
tion laborer and theater usher.
Negro graduates now working include
a grocery clerk, janitor, construction
laborer, practical nurse, bookkeeping
machine operator, a domestic, and a
chemical plant laboratory assistant.
The commission directed its subcom
mittee to continue its investigation and
follow up on high school graduates now
attending college.
G. E. Ferguson, commission member,
reported that he had attended a con
ference with chemical plant executives
and got the impression that they really
are seeking qualified Negro employes.
“There has been a change of attitude,
I believe,” said Ferguson, “because this
plant does not have a good record in
this regard. I believe there now is a
definite lack of qualified Negroes for the
jobs available. Industry is particularly
to blame for this because its past hiring
pattern did not encourage the Negro
to prepare himself for such jobs.”
What They Say
Archivist Urges
New Proclamation
The state historian and archivist, Dr.
James L. Hupp, called upon President
Kennedy Jan. 8 to issue a second Eman
cipation Proclamation to help end “a
century of delinquency” against Amer
ican Negroes.
Dr. Hupp, professor of education at
West Virginia Wesleyan College from
1942 to 1961, was appointed state his
torian and archivist by Gov. W. W.
Barron. He has worked for years to end
racial discrimination, and he testified
in one of the suits that led to the 1954
Supreme Court decision as an expert
witness on the damage segregated
schools do to Negro children.
Explaining why he thinks a second
Emancipation Proclamation is needed,
Dr. Hupp said at a luncheon meeting
of the Charleston Ministerial Associa
tion:
“We have witnessed a century of de
linquency in the shameful denial of
elementary democracy to American Ne
groes.
“We have denied them adequate
J schooling as children. We have denied
j them access to the ballot box as citi-
j zens. We have denied them adjacent
homes as Negroes.
“This year can mark the end of a
socially blighted century, and become
the threshold of an unlimited democ
racy, ending all barriers to the rights
of all Americans.”
★ ★ ★
A report released Jan. 4 by the West
Virginia Human Rights Commission
said significant progress has been made
toward ending segregation in public
schools, although a very real problem
centers about the development of
proper guidance programs to make
“minority youth” aware of greater op
portunities for them.
V0
During the 1963 meeting in May,
isiana legislators are expected to revb
and strengthen the tuition grant p t0 . rij
gram moneywise, and moves are ^J11
pected toward formulating -
° - net | .
method of allocating state money to % 1
public schools as well as to private L
nonsectarian schools. Leaders have it.
- - ” • ^ Ui.
cheated support for a concept of “tL
an ; . il l :l J » T T . "
money following the child.” In Louis;,
ana, approximately 80 per cent of school
finance comes from the state.
F
Some kind of standby financial an. ^
thority is expected to be considered fa I I
the Financial Assistance Commission I ^
Although Acts 147 and 148 of 1962 pro-l^ 1
vided that the commission should g e ;
$200,000 a month from the general fun:
out of sales tax revenues to finance tui-
tion grants, sentiment for a financial
“cushion” has developed since defeat of
the bond referendum in November
This sentiment is based on a possibility
of a large influx of private school stu
dents which might cause a financial
usir
min
T1
Edu
of
area
and
HEV
pro\
“surge” beyond existing tax resources inst;
Legislative Action Looms
School segregation-desegregation is-
fuse
n
filed
schc
tary
join
opei
Pi
first
excl
new
He
tech
disti
segr
of £
I Coll
T1
dve
fulfi
equ;
port
a:
Edu
plan
on
dep<
sues may arise as major matters
the South Carolina legislature this
year, with a growing number of de
segregation suits in the courts. The .
state school committee, established as j schc
a “watchdog” of segregation, is study
ing a grants-in-aid tuition plant simi
lar to those already enacted in Vir
ginia, Louisiana and Georgia. South
Carolina eliminated its constitutional
requirement of a free public school
system in 1952—a provision which has
been the subject of litigation attacking
closed public schools in Virginia. He
cent state appropriation bills have
Recent state appropriation bills have
omitted a previous requirement that , cone
the money be used “on a racially seg- j tf, e
regated basis only.
In Texas, Rep. Don Gladden (D., Fort
Worth) said he had signatures of more
than 30 of the 150 state representatives
on a bill to repeal the state’s desegre
gation referendum law. The state’s ne»
attorney-general, Waggoner Carr, has
said he intends to abide by an opini*
of former Attorney General Will Wils®
that the 1957 law is unconstitutional
and will not be enforced. Passage of the
repealer, however, was considered' re g s
doubtful. ' trie!
Rep. Gladden said other legislator 5re .
were expected to introduce bills to re
peal all the pro-segregation measure
enacted in 1957. Indications were tha
the laws would remain on the books.
Two Texas legislators have appos
ed part-time Negro secretaries, to sen*
with full-time white secretaries. L'
appointments were the first since he-
construction, when Negroes also sat
the Texas governing body.
Not an Issue
When the Arkansas legislature
vened on Jan. 14, there was no id
eation that any legislation re ^ ate Lji| t
school segregation-desegregation w o j
come up. When Gov. Orval Faubus
livered his fifth-term inaugural ad
the following day, he made no &
ence to racial issues.
Tennessee’s General Assemb!Ijt^
vened on Jan. 7, but school se ^ e eS .
tion-desegregation issues were no
pected to be raised.
Florida’s legislative concern
school segregation-desegregation ^
parently has almost ceased. The j k
lature, in the midst of a dispute * J ^
;apportionment, this yean w ^I ire,
major school
a:
ana
regc
be <
fede
pan
tost
the
*gr
15 ’
had
In
*n>i
Ibe;
ishi
onl\
=ant
kse
v**. with major school
•oblems. Prospects are that the
ill be greatly increased, and thejjJ
on of biracial attendance
is been subordinated to the P
>mplete overhaul of education
rncing. li*
Virginia legislators enacted ^
; emitting teachers to termina e ^
nployment contracts any tin* if
ihools become biracial at el
udent or faculty level. ^ f
North Carolina legislators " ^
>nvene this month, but they ha ^
iced no laws pertaining t0 gfi
>pects of school attendance
156 and none were expected. .
In Maryland, State Sen.
r elcome, a Negro from Baton*
le did not expect to re '/d for e *
easures she has sought ,, p
iminate references to ‘ w , wS . &
:olored” in various school 1® pr
iid she was told that the = tjpgf
irtment of Education was up
hool laws for future legislate
id that the racial referenc ^
ould be omitted as a matter
Missouri legislators were co _ c3 p»
:tion to upgrade public e
ith emphasis on schools in s go 1
ipulated largely by Negr . jy ^
ihn M. Dalton told the assem -
S
schc
iDor
ft
A!
Aj
D,
t>
Pi
G,
Ri
l<
to
to
to
N.
0|
Sc
L
T<
Vi
X
fl
in M. Dalton told tne jjpia <
inth that he looked toward^ P
/aneement “in equality
u fovr all Missouri citizens.
j