Newspaper Page Text
$
<?•
7
Factual
y
SOUTHE
This be
VOL 9, NO. 9
"iuWtgs:
8002-H-C9 Nnr
^0 /
Objective
r- the region
Si
tie
■at*
ia.
tl*
isi.
l(Xj
U.S. Continues To Press
For More Desegregation
T je federal government con
tinues to press for more
school desegregation in the South,
using court action and the ad
ministration of its aid programs.
The U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, using the threat
0 f withdrawal of federal “impacted
jjea” funds, has arranged for 15 Texas
and Florida districts to desegregate.
HEW announced in February it would
provide on-base schools at six military
installations where local authorities re
fuse to co-operate.
The U.S. Department of Justice has
Sled four suits to desegregate public
schools serving large numbers of mili
tary dependents. The department has
joined in a fifth suit to force the re
opening of Prince Edward County, Va.,
schools, closed since 1959.
President’s Message
President John F. Kennedy, in his
Erst congressional message devoted
exclusively to civil rights, proposed
new legislation on schools last month.
He asked Congress to approve federal
technical and financial assistance to
districts that are in the process of de
segregating. And he asked elimination
of the “unconstitutional and outmoded
concept of ‘separate but equal’ ” from
the century-old Morrill Land Grant
College Act.
The president said that “the Execu
tive Branch will continue its efforts to
fulfill the constitutional objective of an
equal, non-segregated educational op
portunity for all children.”
Although the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare announced
plans to establish desegregated schools
»n six military bases, some military
^pendents will continue to attend seg
regated schools next year, and the dis
pels will receive federal “impacted
area” funds.
Almost a year ago the department
announced that in the fall of 1963, seg
regated public schools would no longer
j considered “suitable” to receive the
aderal funds for educating children of
Parents living or working on federal
installations. HEW tried to persuade
e segregated school districts to de-
^gregate, but the department said only
J Texas and Florida school districts
"no complied.
HEW Policies
Instead of withdrawing all the mili-
y dependents and the federal aid
j m ™ e remaining segregated districts
i» Un ° military bases, HEW adopted
t '_ po-icies for next year:
lish , n ~ base schools will be estab-
• Tu 3 * the elementary level only.
schools will be established
cant St mi,itar y bases having a signifi-
( member of children involved.
vJ 6 children of federal personnel
, he given a choice of attending a
Seated on-base school, or an all-
or all-Negro school off the base.
, Payments would be made for chil
dren
m the off-base schools.
• -
stj, I* wi ll build new temporary
reom S ° r c° nver t buildings for class-
tk a . a t Fort Jackson and Myrtle
n Air Force Base in South Caro-
P- °rt Stewart and Robins Air Force
m Borgia, and Fort McClellan
Issue
S1 ppi
la,e Reports
^abania
5&X::::L.
^orTda ° f Cdumbi:
S-gia • • ■
upland
X s **
tUSuiia
6st Virgil •;
r ^ iai Articles
Cv glon ■ •
S and the Issue
..12
.. 9
.. 9
.. 1
.. 2
.. 4-
.. 5
%\
.... 7
. :13
.. 5
.. 1
.. 3
.. 2
..15
..11
. 1
.10
and Fort Rucker in Alabama. The cost
was estimated at $2 million.
Associate Commissioner of Education
Arthur Harris said Mississippi was not
included in the plans because of pend
ing school suits there. The U.S. De
partment of Justice has filed desegre
gation suits against schools serving mil
itary dependents at Biloxi-Gulfport,
Miss.; Shreveport, La.; and Huntsville
and Mobile, Ala.
Civil rights organizations have at
tacked some of HEW’s policies for con
tinuing support to segregated schools.
Both the NAACP and the Southern
Regional Council compared the option
of attending segregated or desegregated
schools to the “salt-and-pepper” plans
overruled by the federal courts for
Houston, Dallas and Nashville.
In Mississippi, the state NAACP
president, Aaron Henry, told the state
advisory committee to the U.S. Com
mission on Civil Rights that the fed
eral government “is dragging its feet
on the civil rights issue” in the state.
The Negro leader said that federal
money that “subsidizes segregated state
agencies is being spent in Mississippi
to perpetuate a system which denies
the Negro a first class citizenship.”
Alabama Stand
Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace
said in a speech Feb. 13 that a firm
stand by the Alabama congressional
delegation had forced the Department
of Health Education and Welfare to
back away from its threat to withhold
federal funds from segregated school
districts in federally impacted areas.
According to the governor, the Ala
bama congressmen have said they will
kill the entire impacted aid program if
any funds are withheld.
The Huntsville and Madison County,
Ala., school districts, which are de
fendants in one of the justice depart
ment suits over impacted aid, have
11,000 children of military and civilian
personnel at Redstone Arsenal. These
include 750 Negroes.
Fort Rucker, Ala., which is scheduled
to receive one of the HEW on-base
schools, has about 1,000 federally con
nected white students and 18 Negroes
attending segregated Dale County
schools.
A spokesman at Maxwell Air Force
Base at Montgomery, Ala., said officials
there also had heard of the HEW plan
for on-base schools, but not in detail.
Last year the city school system re
ceived $635,000 in impacted area as
sistance.
Small numbers of Negro students
would be involved at the two Georgia
bases scheduled to receive on-base
schools. Houston County, which serves
Robins AFB, has eight Negro military
(See U.S., Page 11)
Supt. O. Perry Walker
Separation by sex?
LOUISIANA
Plan To Divide
Boys and Girls
Is Under Study
NEW ORLEANS
P roblems of curriculum, pupil
placement and personnel as
signment face the Orleans Parish
school board in deciding whether
to revert to the former system of
separate high schools for boys and
girls.
These problems, plus the cost of con
verting 30 buildings for all-boy or all
girl use, were pointed up in a special
report that Supt. O. Perry Walker sub
mitted to the board Feb. 12. The study
was made at the direction of the board
after President Matthew Sutherland
noted that desegregation eventually
will be extended to all 12 grades of
the public school system.
The report offered no recommenda
tions, and the board took no action
pending comprehensive study of the
findings. However, the board by a 3-2
vote did order that another study be
made of the feasibility of separate
classes for high school hoys and girls
within the same buildings.
Impact of segregation by sex on the
high school curriculum was surveyed in
these terms:
“The change to separate schools
would affect course offerings in the
schools.
“It is obvious that homemaking
courses would not be offered in the
all-hoy schools. On the other hand,
girls have been enrolling in certain in
dustrial arts courses, notably mechani
cal drawing and printing. Consequently,
(See NEW ORLEANS, Page 14)
DISTRICT
PresidenrC&dls for Aid
To Schools in Transition
WASHINGTON
I n his first message to Con
gress devoted exclusively to
civil - rights, President Kennedy
on Feb. 28 proposed new legisla
tion and called for an end to what
he termed “the cruel disease of
discrimination.”
The President’s message devoted
major attention to steps to strengthen
voting rights, including a renewal of
last year’s proposal to substitute a
sixth-grade education for any state
literacy requirement. In the field of
education, Kennedy asked Congress to
approve a program of federal technical
and financial assistance to school dis
tricts that are in the process of de
segregating.
The aid would bd provided through
the Office of Education in the Depart
ment of Health, Education and Welfare
to assist local communities in preparing
and carrying out desegregation plans.
No cost estimate was submitted, but
White House officials said $1 million
to $2 million would be requested for
the program at the outset.
Kennedy also asked Congress to
eliminate the “unconstitutional and
outmoded concept of ‘separate but
equal’ ” from the century-old Morrill
Land Grant College Act.
Extension of Commission
He urged Congress to extend the life
of the federal Civil Rights Commission,
due to expire Nov. 30, for at least four
years. Created by the Civil Rights Act
of 1957, the commission has in the past
been extended for two-year periods.
The President said the commission
“should be authorized to serve as a
national civil rights clearing house
providing infor
mation, advice
and technical as
sistance to any
requesting agency,
private or public.”
“The Negro
baby born in
America today,”
Kennedy told
Congress,
“regardless of the
section or state in
which he is bom,
has about one half as much chance of
completing high school as a white baby
born in the same place on the same day
—one third as much chance of com
pleting college—one third as much
chance of becoming a professional man
—twice as much chance of becoming
unemployed—about one-seventh as
much chance of earning $10,000 per year
—life expectancy which is seven years
less—and the prospect of earning only
half as much.
KENNEDY
SOUTH CAROLINA
U.S. Impact-Area Plan Attacked
COLUMBIA
T wo South Carolina state
senators attacked the an
nouncement by the U.S. Depart
ment of Health, Education and
Welfare that desegregated schools
would be established at Myrtle
Beach Air Force Base and Fort
Jackson near Columbia.
Sen. James P. Stevens of Horry
County, which includes the resort city
of Myrtle Beach, declared it was ironic
that the U. S. government should say,
'an v one hand, that South Carolina’s
School, are inadequate for children of
on-hape .ihilitary personnel and federal
■jjmpipyes and then ask Horry school
d&fey=j?s v to help them with a survey
loo|fl% toward the establishment of a
desegregated school on the bases.
The HEW order implemented a pro-
, gram announced in March, 1962, by for
mer Secretary Abraham Ribicoff, de
claring segregated schools “unsuitable”
for federally connected students.
“CHir schools in Horry are a lot bet
ter than the blackboard jungles of
Washington,” Sen. Stevens told the
State Senate. “Horry County and its
Board of Education are not in the busi
ness of integrated schools. I want South
Carolina and the whole world to know
that.
“The Board of Education has assured
me that they will not render any as
sistance in the survey,” the senator
continued. “Integration is repulsive to
me . . . and I don’t believe it will
work.”
He said he felt that the Myrtle Beach
AFB school could obtain teachers only
in the North.
Reflected Feeling
When Sen. Stevens had completed his
remarks, during the Feb. 27 session,
Calhoun County Sen. L. Marion Gres-
sette, chairman of
the state’s influ
ential Segregation
Committee, arose
and said that his
colleague’s com
ments reflected
the feeling of the
committee.
He said that
South Carolina
will not give up
control of its
schools to help
some Washington officials, “particularly
the Kennedy brothers, build up their
GRESSETTE
political standing.
“We have no objection to the fed
eral government operating schools on
its own property in any manner it sees
fit,” Sen. Gressette said, “but when it
comes to schools in the State of South
Carolina, we intend to retain the power
in our own state government.”
He said threats had been made to
withdraw federal aid, under the im-
pacted-area plan, but “we intend to
keep control of our schools.”
Thirty-four S. C. school districts have
received $29 8 million in impacted-area
aid from the federal government since
the plan was inaugurated in July 1950.
Excludes Charleston
HEW’s program to build base schools
also includes four bases in Georgia and
Alabama but, significantly, say critics,
not at Charleston, location of the great
est number of federally connected peo
ple in this state. The program is to go
into effect in September.
It appears, according to the interpre
tation of Col. William Pratt, base com
mander at Myrtle Beach, that a child
of a family housed on base may enroll
in as many as four different schools.
He was quoted as saying that on-base
(See STATE, Page 16)
Deadly Mushroom
ir
Alley, Memphis Commercial Appeal
“No American who believes in the
basic truth that ‘all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights,’
can fully excuse, explain or defend the
picture these statistics portray. Race
discrimination hampers our economic
growth by preventing the maximum
development and utilization of our
manpower. It hampers our world lead
ership by contradicting at home the
message we preach abroad. It mars the
atmosphere of a united and classless
society in which this Nation rose to
greatness. It increases the costs of pub
lic welfare, crime, delinquency and
disorder. Above all, it is wrong.”
Kennedy said more progress in civil
rights has been made during the first
two years of his administration “than
in any comparable period in our his
tory.” In addition to his proposals for
new legislation, much of the message
consisted of an enumeration of that
progress.
‘Legally and Morally Right’
In the section on education, the
President referred to the Supreme
Court’s 1954 school desegregation de
cision and said it “represented both
good law and good judgment—it was
both legally and morally right.
“Since that time,” he added, “it has
become increasingly clear that neither
violence nor legalistic evasions will be
tolerated as a means of thwarting court
ordered desegregation, that closed
schools are not an answer, and that
responsible communities are able to
handle the desegregation process in a
calm and sensible manner. This is as
it should be. . . .”
Kennedy said the “shameful vio
lence which accompanied but did not
prevent the end of segregation at Uni
versity of Mississippi was an excep
tion” to a general pattern of progress
in school desegregation. He cited suc
cessful desegregation at other Southern
state universities and in public school
systems in a number of cities, as well
as federal efforts to end segregation in
government-sponsored or assisted ed
ucation programs, including the pro
gram of aid to federal-impacted school
districts.
“In these and other areas within its
jurisdiction, the Executive Branch will
continue its efforts to fulfill the con
stitutional objective of an equal, non-
segregated educational opportunity for
all children,” the President declared.
Would Speed Process
Despite these efforts, however, Ken
nedy said “progress toward primary
and secondary school desegregation has
still been too slow, often painfully so.”
He said his proposals to provide tech
nical and financial assistance to deseg
regating school districts would be “one
obvious area of federal action” to help
speed the process.
Reaction to the President’s message
was mixed. Some advocates of govern
mental civil rights actions said he did
not go far enough in his request for
legislative action—not including, for
example, a request to grant the At
torney General authority to initiate in-
(See PRESIDENT, Page 10)