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ARKANSAS
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY, 1963—PAGE 5
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Negro Girl Transfers at Dollarway, Incidents Occur
LITTLE ROCK
rpHE Dollarway School Board
J. transferred Sarah Etoria
Howard, 15, from the 10th grade
of Townsend Park School, for Ne
groes, to the Dollarway School at
the start of the second semester on
Monday, Jan. 21. This was done
by federal court order and over
the protest of the board.
Her first day was routine and without
incident, she said, but her second was
filled with mental and physical harass
ment. School officials said only one
“minor altercation” had been reported
to them.
Her second day at Dollarway came
to a climax when her uncle, William M.
Howard, 33, came after school for her
and for Samuel Wayne Cato, eight, a
second grader and the only other Negro
enrolled in Dollarway. During the inci
dent, Johnny Irvin, 18, a 12th grade
white boy, was stabbed in the left side,
and William M. Howard was arrested.
Sarah’s father, George Howard Jr.,
state president of the NAACP and
brother of William M. Howard, an
nounced that neither his daughter nor
young Cato would return to the school
until adequate protection had been pro
vided for them. He sent telegrams to
Gov. Orval E. Faubus at Little Rock
and to U.S. Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy asking for protection.
Neither Returned
On the next day, Wednesday, Jan. 23,
Dollarway schools were closed because
of extreme cold weather and icy roads.
They were reopened Thursday, Jan. 24,
but neither Sarah nor Samuel Wayne
went back to school.
Sarah told the Pine Bluff Commercial
that she was pushed, cursed and called
names on her second day:
“During the lunch hour a boy threw
a lipstick and hit me in the head. After
I had eaten, when classrooms were still
closed for lunch,
a boy struck me.
I told the princi
pal, and he opened
a classroom and
let me stay in
there until lunch
was over. It was
mostly boys. One
girl kicked me,
and one or two
shoved me. Some
students, mostly
boys, threw rocks
and other things at me after school,”
she said.
A white girl with whom she shares
a locker, because there are not enough
lockers for each student to have his
°wn, also was abused, she said.
(During the following weekend, Mrs.
lorence Hudman said her daughters,
arline, 17, and Cathy, 15, had befriend-
ea Sarah and had been abused by white
s udents. She withdrew them from Dol-
arway until the school authorities
Would promise protection for them. The
■ ,° Sirls told of water, ice and sand
nag thrown on them while they were
■th Sarah during the noon hour,
Tuesday, Jan. 22.)
, ara E who is 4 feet 10 inches tall
r , We ights 85 pounds, said she was
da 3 V 0 ^ ac k to Dollarway the next
y- She said she wants to go there
Nortlw-' Dollarwa y is accredited by the
se ndn 6ntra l Association, while Town-
1, r~ ar k * s n °t» and this would affect
chances of entering college.
‘Knots and Bruises’
s cWi ^ at ^ er ru kd out her return to
the k w * t 'bout protection. “I have seen
head t*^ an< ^ bruises on my little girl’s
school carmot let her go back to that
ed ” u AAbl she is adequately protect-
\ toward said.
°h w a ‘ ement by the school authorities
f°H 0W j nesd ay, Jan. 23, included the
the staff 1 Tlle ordy information that
dent’ op an ^ faonlty has of any ‘inci-
yesterd CUt 7* n § on the school property
tween e'*' * s a minor altercation be-
othe f ot Etoria Howard and an-
This v/ a U< T ent on the school grounds,
•h a rout- "endled by school authorities
°ept f ^e administrative manner. Ex-
^nia^ Ibis single incident, the cus
sed ° rder an d discipline was main-
“Th' .
s t a bbed U1C ^ e Al in which a Negro adult
high Self student of Dollarway
“Cen dism' 0ccurre<d after school had
-■e* sehoof 50 ^ and school property.
Rested au thorities are, of course,
’'bile f r .„ lr l.tbe saftey of the students
j^d th e ? ln 2 between their homes
r ' aa ds ? °pl- This matter is in the
, J ' e ar e , a l c l vi l authorities, and
’bpropr, , den t that they will take
c Sheriff H aCt '° n ”
t ,° u my m ,. 0 ^ Norton of Jefferson
t,' Pine Ri° ar way School is outside
°' v ard j u , c by limits) said George
had asked him Tuesday
Arkansas Highlights
Several incidents occurred when
the Dollarway school board on Jan.
21 transferred a Negro girl, Sarah
Howard, from the Negro high school
to Dollarway School under a federal
court order.
At the end of the second day, her
uncle and a white boy were involved
in an incident at the school. The boy
was stabbed and the uncle was ar
rested. Both Negroes at the school
and two white students who had be
friended them withdrew temporarily
because of reported harrassment.
On Jan. 25, U.S. District Judge J.
Smith Henley overruled the objec
tions of the Dollarway Board to his
Oct. 24 order for Sarah Howard’s
transfer.
I ing to the school of their choice but
| opposing the transfer of pupils in
grades above the first grade. Under that
plan, Dollarway accepted its first Negro
first grader in September, 1960.
Dollarway district has an enrollment
almost evenly divided between white
and Negro. It is about 45 miles south
east of Little Rock, in Jefferson County,
one of the strongholds of the white
Citizens Councils in Arkansas.
January’s violence at Dollarway may
be the worst but it was not first at the
school. When the first group of Negro
children were registering at Dollarway,
May 5, 1960, a 75-year-old Negro who
had driven them to school was assault
ed and beaten by two white men while
he was outside waiting for the chil
dren to register. There were witnesses
but the injured man never complained
to the police and no legal action re
sulted.
Legislative Activity
night, Jan. 22, if he would assure pro
tection for the Negro children. “I don’t
know what protection is needed,” he
said. “No one has bothered the school
kids to my knowledge. Do you know
what kind of protection he needs?”
Having called on the U.S. attorney
general, the governor and the sheriff,
George Howard then turned to the fed
eral district court, under whose order
his daughter was admitted to Dollar
way. He filed with the court at Little
Rock on Friday, Jan. 25, a motion ask
ing the court to order the Dollarway
board to assure the safety and well
being of the two Negro students in the
Dollarway School. This must be done,
he said, “to protect and preserve the in
tegrity of the judicial process of this
court, to maintain due and proper ad
ministration of justice and [their] con
stitutional rights.”
The board responded with a filing
Jan. 28, saying it was taking all neces
sary steps to maintain order and dis
cipline and that no further action by
the court was needed.
Howard’s motion said the two Negro
children were about to leave after
school in the uncle’s station wagon.
They were “attacked by a barrage of
missiles thrown from persons congre
gated on the school campus and one of
the objects shattered the glass on the
right side of the station wagon, causing
fragments of glass to scatter over the
occupants.” When the driver got out,
the motion said, he was “attacked and
assaulted by a group of white persons.”
Sheriff’s Account
Sheriff Norton gave the following ac
count: William Howard had Sarah
Howard and Samuel Wayne Cato in his
station wagon and was in the street
alongside the school when he heard
something hit the car. Howard got out
and started across the street “to call
my insurance company.” On the cam
pus, two small boys ran up to Johnny
Irvin and told him that a Negro was
chasing Johnny’s younger brother. “Ir
vin told us he ran to the west side of
the building and saw Howard. He ran
toward the Negro and, as he reached
him, he put his hand on Howard’s
shoulder and Howard turned and cut
him with a knife.” Irvin struck Howard
over the left eye, and Howard left and
started across the highway, where he
called his brother who called the sheriff,
Norton said.
Deputies sheriff took Howard into
custody and took the two Negro chil
dren home. Irvin was taken to a hos
pital and was released two days later.
On Wednesday, Jan. 23, Prosecuting
Attorney E. W. Brockman Jr. of Pine
Bluff filed a charge of assault with in
tent to kill against William Howard.
Howard posted $1,000 bond and was
released from jail. On Saturday, Jan.
26, Brockman charged Howard with
carrying a concealed weapon and
Legal Action
Howard posted a $500 bond on that
charge. Both charges were filed in the
Circuit Court of Jefferson County.
U.S. Attorney Investigating
At Little Rock, U.S. Attorney Robert
S. Smith said he was investigating the
Dollarway incident to the extent of
keeping up with it but he did not see
that any federal law had been violated.
After missing four days of school, the
two Negro children returned to classes
on Wednesday, Jan. 30. It was not
known whether any of George How
ard’s pleas for protection had been
answered. However, the school board on
Jan. 29 had sent home to parents a
letter saying that the board was going
to maintain discipline and order on the
campus. This must be done, the board
said, “if we are to keep the adminis
tration of the school in local hands.”
The two white girls, Earline and
Cathy Hudman, returned to school on
Jan. 29 but Earline went home crying
at noon. She said she had been called
names and that one boy had spat on
her. Mrs. Hudman said Earline, a high
school senior, would not return to Dol
larway but would enter a business
school.
Fifth Negro
Sarah Howard is the fifth Negro to
gain admission to Dollarway School
under federal court order, although she
and Samuel Wayne Cato are the only
two enrolled this semester. The other
three have left the state.
The Dollarway case (Dove v. Par
ham) began Feb. 6, 1959, when three
high school students filed seeking to
end desegregation in the district. They
won their case but none of them ever
got into the white school. When the
board was ordered to desegregate, it
came up with a plan providing for the
admission of first grade pupils accord-
Assembly Approves
Three Proposals
The Arkansas legislature approved,
but only after a lively scrap, three pro
posed amendments to the U.S. Consti
tution to restrict the U. S. Supreme
Court and to bolster states rights.
They are being offered in every state
legislature that meets this year by the
General Assembly of States, a part of
the Council of State Governments, in a
national effort. In Arkansas the main
objection was that the amendments
would not do what they were supposed
to do.
The first one would make it easier
for the states through their legislatures
to amend the U.S. Constitution. The
second would establish a “Court of the
Union,” composed of the state chief jus
tices, with power to overrule the U.S.
Supreme Court in cases involving states
rights. And the third would remove
from the jurisdiction of the Supreme
Court any case on legislative apportion
ment within the states.
What They Say
Gov. Faubus Says
‘Everything Right’
With Arkansas
Gov. Orval E. Faubus, Congressman
Oren Harris and a group of state offi
cials went to Star City, in Southeast
Arkansas, Jan. 22, to dedicate a new
factory of the National Wire Fabric
Corp.
“Everything is just right with Arkan-
Board
Fails
to Stop Transfer Order
U.S. District Judge J. Smith Henley
on Jan. 25 filed notice that he had re
jected the pleas of the Dollarway
school board not to require the transfer
of a Negro tenth grade student to Dol
larway School. Henley ruled that the
reasons offered by the board were in
sufficient.
Henley had ordered the board on Oct.
24 to admit Sarah Howard to the Dol
larway School from Townsend Park
School at the start of the second se
mester unless it could show reasons
other than the board’s policy against
such transfers. In response, the board
listed six criteria of the Arkansas pupil
placement law, which it said were vio
lated by the transfer.
The board admitted the Negro girl to
Dollarway School on Jan. 21 since the
judge had not acted on its pleas.
Judge Henley explained his decision
in letters to the board’s attorney, Her-
schel H. Friday Jr., Little Rock, and to
the Negro girl’s father and attorney,
George Howard Jr.:
“If the intervenor desires to attend,
as she apparently does, and if her par
ents desire as they apparently do for
her to attend Dollarway School at the
risk of some academic difficulty and
some maladjustment, the court does not
feel that the board in the circumstances
here present is justified in continuing
to exclude her from school.”
* * *
U.S. Judge Gordon E. Young tried
eight civil rights damage suits, Jan. 21-
23, for a total of $450,000, against the
estate of Little Rock Police Chief Eu
gene G. Smith, and took them under
advisement. Neither side asked for a
jury.
It probably will be a month before
he announces a decision. There are
nine plaintiffs, each asking $50,000 on
the ground that he or she was falsely
arrested or mistreated by the police
under the command of Chief Smith.
All of the suits are based on what
happened the morning of Aug. 12, 1959,
when police intercepted several hundred
persons marching from the state capitol
to Central High School to protest re
opening Central with token desegrega
tion. The school opened after having
been closed the previous school year by
Gov. Orval E. Faubus to avoid a second
year of desegregating.
The police headed by Smith blocked
the crowd’s way. Movies of it show that
the crowd and the police line came to
gether, and some of the marchers tried
to push through.
Finally the firemen, at Smith’s order,
turned fire hoses on the crowd and
scattered them. The police arrested 19
of the marching crowd.
Said They Obeyed
In court, the plaintiffs, six of whom
were teenagers in 1959, testified that
they had not done anything to cause
their arrest, that they had obeyed the
orders of the police and that they were
just walking along with the crowd or
were just observing what was going on.
The police testified that the crowd
and these nine had been unruly, had
taunted and cursed the police, disobeyed
police orders, fought and scratched the
police when being arrested and were
helping create an unusual and poten
tially dangerous situation.
The plaintiffs are Leon Kyzer of
Jacksonville, J. D. Bass of Pine Bluff
and Marilyn Paul, Glenna Paul, Calvin
GUTHRIDGE
mond Fitzmaurice
Parrish, Larry
Buster, Mrs. Lela
Sosebee, Mrs.
Mary Ellen Prit
chard and Charles
James Bailey of
Little Rock. They
were represented
by Amis Guth-
ridge, president of
the Capital Citi
zens Council, and
by Sidney W. Pro-
vensal Jr. and Ed-
f New Orleans.
Chief Smith committed suicide in
March, 1960, but the lawsuits were held
to survive against his estate. Robert C.
Downie, Little Rock lawyer, is the ad
ministrator of the estate.
Of the 19 persons arrested Aug. 12,
1959, not a one has been tried. The
charges against them, which range from
loitering through disturbing the peace,
resisting arrest, carrying a concealed
weapon and assaulting an officer, are
still pending in Little Rock Municipal
Court. Seven of the 19 are plaintiffs in
the civil rights damage suits.
sas,” Faubus said at the dedication
banquet. “Let the critics carp. They
cannot tear down what we are doing.
Our story is so good it can not be hit.
The biggest improvement we could
have in Arkansas would be in the press
—we need some bigger men running
the newspapers.”
That afternoon, while the party was
visiting another Star City factory, the
Byrd Manufacturing Co., Harris had
said that any community could do as
much as Star City in building industry
and added that the state did not want
another occasion like the 1957 school
crisis at Little Rock because the state
was finally recovering from that one.
★ ★ ★
The national Junior Chamber of
Commerce held its annual Ten Out
standing Young Men Congress at Little
Rock, Jan. 19-20, and the city heard a
few unrestrained remarks from its visi
tors. At the main awards ceremony, at
tended by 3,000 persons including Gov.
Faubus, each of the 10 spoke briefly.
Rev. Robert Castle Jr. of Jersey City,
N.J., an Episcopal minister, ended a
tiny sermon on brotherhood and love
with “You and I will never be free
until James Meredith is free” and drew
a standing ovation.
Berl I. Bernard, staff director of the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, ac
cepted his award as showing concern
for human rights by the future busi
ness leaders and he urged them to give
people the same chance to succeed that
they give products—on their merits.
Guido Calabresi, professor of law at
Yale, noted that some speakers will use
pious generalities about the law, then
proceed to attack the very system they
have praised. He cited attacks on the
courts and said the have come about
because the courts have not followed
popular demands but have protected
minorities, their traditional function, he
said, because majorities do not need
protection.
Finally, the master of ceremonies,
Bob Richards, minister and Olympic
pole vaulter, cried out to the crowd
“Do we need to emphasize that we
stand for freedom? In Little Rock, Ark.,
tonight we have honored a man who
stands for civil rights . . . another who
said that we can’t be free until James
Meredith is free ... If you’re not in
spired tonight, friends, you can’t be
touched.” And there was another stand
ing ovation.
Books
and the Issue
The Library at Southern Educa
tion Reporting Service has acquired
these books on the race issue:
CIVIL RIGHTS U.S.A.
by U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
staff. U.S. Government Printing Of
fice, Washington, 217 pp. and 309 pp.
Staff reports submitted to the com
mission are published in two volumes:
“Public Schools, Southern States, 1962”
and “Public Schools, North and West,
1962.” The volume on the South in
cludes detailed reports on Kentucky,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Memphis
and Virginia. The other volume consists
of detailed studies of Highland Park,
Mich.; New Rochelle, N.Y.; Philadel
phia, Pa.; Chicago, Ill.; and St. Louis,
Mo.
AMERICAN RACE RELATIONS
TODAY
edited by Earl Raab. Doubleday and
Co., Inc. (Anchor Books), Garden
City, N.Y., 195 pp.
Edited selections have been taken
from articles and books dealing with
what the editor describes as “post
bigotry” problems, or factors other
than discrimination that affect integra
tion.
RACE AND NATIONALITY IN
AMERICAN LIFE
by Oscar Handlin. Doubleday and
Co., Inc. (Anchor Books), Garden
City, N.Y., 226 pp.
The general problem of race and na
tionality is discussed, beginning with
historical origins, but considerable
emphasis is given to the Negro.
THE LOST WHITE RACE
by Ira Calvin. Countway-White Pub
lications, Brookline, Mass., 192 pp.
The author maintains that two
worlds, white and colored are neces
sary to insure the preservation of the
white race.