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PAGE 4—MARCH, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
GEORGIA
Legislature Considers Measure
Tightening Tuition Grant Law
MACON
n the fifth week of the Gen
eral Assembly of Georgia ses
sion, a bill revising the controver
sial tuition grant law enacted two
years ago passed the Senate and.
with the help of Gov. Carl E.
Sanders, was expected to be ap
proved by the House.
The tuition grant law was passed in
early 1961 as a part of former Gov.
Ernest Vandiver’s “open schools” pack
age. It would make it possible for the
state to give individuals funds for edu
cational purposes.
Although race is not mentioned in
the law, it has generally been inter
preted as a means whereby the state
could pay for the schooling of those
who preferred to move to a private
segregated school if the public school
which they attended was forced to de
segregate.
The measure has been labeled a
“sop” by some political observers, who
said that it had to be included, as the
only way to get through the legisla
ture other Vandiver proposals which
had the effect of keeping the public
schools open.
Misuse Charged
With this background, Sen. Garland
Byrd, former lieutenant governor, an
nounced early in this session that he
would introduce a bill to repeal the
tuition grant law. Criticism of the law
has been sharp and charges have been
made that it has been misused.
Byrd srot his repeal plan through the
Senate Education Committee and then
ran into trouble. In addition to facing
natural enemies of his repeal idea, Byrd
collided with Lt. Gov. Peter Zack Geer,
president of the Senate. It has been
reported that both Geer and Byrd want
to run for governor and that they may
be opponents in 1966. This has brought
on a power struggle in the Senate and
Geer, predicting defeat of Byrd’s bill,
then brought out his own.
Geer’s substitute measure would
“tighten up” the tuition grants. It would
make them possible only after a local
board of education and the board of
county commissioners have jointly re
solved there is a need for the grants.
This “need,” presumably, would be
court-ordered desegregation of schools.
The applications for the grants then
would be reviewed by the board of
education and, if allowed, would be
paid out of existing and available
school funds allocated to local systems
by the state and derived from local
sources.
Sen. Byrd said the Geer measure
would eliminate the abuses which he
was trying to stop and that he would
drop his own bill and back Geer’s plan.
Opposed by Negro
The substitute bill passed the Senate,
48 to 3. One of the three votes against
it was cast by Negro Sen. LeRoy John
son, who said he favored outright re
peal. “The law,” he said, “serves no
useful purpose ... it is merely a sub
terfuge since school integration has
actually been accomplished.”
The same week the Geer bill was sent
to the House, the state mailed out its
first tuition grant checks to students
enrolled in some private schools in
Georgia.
The initial 185 payments were for
$89.33 each but the impending legisla
tive action may reduce the volume.
The House approved a bill introduced
by Rep. Denmark Groover of Bibb
County (Macon) which would require
a majority vote in all elections. Oppon
ents argued the cost of holding elec
tions would be prohibitive. Proponents
argued it would prevent minority blocs
from splitting a field of candidates and
controlling an election.
Schoolmen
U. S. ‘Impact’ Policy
Believed Eased
For Some Schools
The U. S. Department of Health, Edu
cation and Welfare apparently has
modified its plans to withdraw “im
pact” money from county school sys
tems which subject children of military
personnel to segregation.
In this event, it appeared that fed
eral money will continue to be used
to support segregated schools in at
least two Georgia systems. These are
Houston County, which serves Robins
Georgia Highlights
A greatly modified tuition grant
bill was on its way through the state
legislature.
Plans were changed for some coun
ties which had faced a choice of
desegregation or loss of some federal
funds.
Chief Justice Earl Warren spoke in
Atlanta without incident.
Negro children attending desegre
gated schools in Atlanta reported >
on what had been happening to
them.
Is an African applicant to be con
sidered a Negro student or a foreign
student? This is Mercer University’s
quandary.
A suit by a group of whites urged
that a school be desegregated rather
than attended solely by Negroes.
Air Force Base and has eight Negroes
involved, and Liberty County, which
serves the Army’s Fort Stewart and
has 22 or 23 Negroes involved.
Former HEW Secretary Abraham
Ribicoff announced some time ago that,
beginning in September, 1963, the fed
eral government would no longer con
sider segregated schools suitable for
the education of students whose par
ents live and work on federal installa
tions. A warning was given that im
pact funds would be withdrawn from
segregated school systems and used to
operate government schools on the
bases themselves.
In preparing to implement the plan,
the government first narrowed down
the number of systems and installa
tions to those having significant num
bers of children involved. It was also
decided to work only on the elementary
school level.
Further Modifications
Now the original plan is to be modi
fied further by these provisions, ac
cording to HEW officials:
• Students who do not want to at
tend the new “on-base” schoo’s may
continue at the regular—and segre
gated—county schools, and the county
systems will continue to get impact
money for the children who elect to
stay where they are.
• The county systems are being
asked if they will run the new de
segregated schools on the bases. If they
do, they will receive pay for undertak
ing administration. Classroom space
would be provided by the government
and the county systems would get im
pact money for the students they were
educating in the desegregated schools.
The result will be a three-school sys
tem in counties affected. One s'hool
will be for whites only. One school will
be for Negroes only. One school, lo
cated on the base and operated by the
county, will be desegregated.
Discussions have been held with of
ficials of two Georgia school systems
concerning the plan, an HEW spokes
man said. It is believed he referred to
Houston and Liberty counties. It is not
known what the changing policy may
mean to two other systems which
In the Colleges
The application of a Ghanaian stu
dent put Mercer University in a quan
dary.
Mercer, a private Baptist school, is
located in Macon. A few Negroes have
been turned down for admission. Dr.
Rufus C. Harris,
president, says he
favors desegrega
tion but that it is
up to a special
committee ap
pointed by the
board of trustees.
The school has
about a dozen for
eign students but
none is a Negro.
The Ghanaian,
Sam Jerry Oni, is
an African, however, and the question
is whether to turn him down, admit
would be affected: Dougherty (Albany)
with a Marine Corps Depot and Turner
Air Force Base nearby, and Muscogee
(Columbus), with Fort Benning near
by.
HEW Assistant Secretary James
Quigley said earlier in the month that
he “had a feeling” nothing would be
done about Dougherty’s schools this
year. While the local school board had
voted not to desegregate this year, he
said, the fact that its members sought
a solution “indicates that while they
can’t do anything this year, there is a
possibility that they can next year, or
the next.”
In Atlanta, Gov. Sanders said he had
made no deals with federal officials on
desegregation in federal impact school
districts.
★ ★ ★
Board Asked to Desegregate
Dougherty County Schools
In Albany, Negro attorney C. B. King,
acting for 11 Negro parents and guard
ians of 27 children, petitioned the
Dougherty County Board of Education
to end segregation in the public schools.
A number of Albany Negroes sought
admission to the white schools in Sep
tember at the beginning of the 1962-63
term and were turned back.
★ ★ ★
In Atlanta, Smith-Hughes became the
first desegregated, state-supported vo
cational school in Georgia. Two Negro
students in their twenties began attend
ing classes without incident.
The school is administered by the
Atlanta Board of Education, serves as
vocational school for the Fulton County
Board of Education and is financed
largely by state and federal funds.
Desegregation resulted after several
conferences between officials of the At
lanta, Fulton and Georgia education
departments.
Legal Action
Savannah Suit Goes
To Appellate Court
A suit by 11 white Savannah resi
dents who are protesting use of a for
mer white school for Negro children
went before the Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals.
Plaintiffs would prefer a desegre
gated school to an all-Negro school at
the Barnard Street facilities, Aaron
Kravitch, a lawyer representing prop
erty owners, said. He sought an in
junction to prevent continued opera
tion of the school as an all-Negro fa
cility.
The original suit said property val
ues would be damaged and social prob
lems created by allowing Negroes to
use the school.
The suit was dismissed at Brunswick
in September, 1962, by U. S. Judge
Frank Scarlett, who said administra
tive remedies had not been exhausted
and that the issue was up to the state.
The State Board of Education denied
the appeal from the ruling of the Chat-
him as a Negro or admit him as a
foreign student.
Oni was converted to Christianity by
a missionary who is a graduate of
Mercer, and he wants training as a
minister in order to preach to his peo
ple.
The Christian Index, a Georgia Bap
tist paper, said “We either admit him
or we are in greater need of missionary
preaching than Ghana.” The Index
urged that the Ghana student be sepa
rated from the desegregation issue.
The Macon News editorially sug
gested that Mercer would have to make
up its mind on the desegregation con
troversy.
The Mercer Cluster, student news
paper, called for admission of the
Ghana student and said he would be
welcomed as any other freshman.
Mercer University Undecided
Over Application of Ghanaian
Southern School News
2
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in educalion arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstitu
tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation,
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tennessee.
Second class postage paid at Nashville, Tennessee.
F
0
OFFICERS
Bert Struby Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice Chairman
Reed Sarratt Executive Director
Tom Flalte, Director of Publications
Jim Leeson. Director of Information and Research
BOARD OF
Frank R. Ahlgren, Editor, The Commer
cial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
DIRECTORS
Reed Sarratt, Executive Director, South
ern Education Reporting Service
John Seigenthaler, Editor, Nashville
Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Editor, Miami Herald
Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, The News
& Courier, Charleston. S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
Stephen J. Wright, President, Fisk Uni
versity, Nashville, Tenn.
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GEORGIA
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KENTUCKY
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LOUISIANA
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MARYLAND
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OKLAHOMA
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TENNESSEE
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Banner
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WEST VIRGINIA
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Editor, Charleston Gazette
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ham County Board of Education against
the plaintiffs, saying that the local
board has discretion to place schools
where they are needed.
What They Say
Attorney General
Sees New Attitude
Georgia Attorney General Eugene
Cook: “I believe 99 per cent of the
people of Georgia have abandoned the
feeling that we should close every
school in the state rather than admit
one Negro . . . All the legal arguments
against segregation have been re
solved.”
★ ★ ★
Fulton County State Sen. Leroy
Johnson, only Negro legislator in the
Georgia General Assembly: “I am not
in the Senate to make any enemies for
the Negroes, but it will be my effort
to try to make friends for the Negro
. . . I hope to open a new line of
communications with other citizens—of
the white race.”
Community Action
Warren Is Speaker
At Georgia Teeh
Chief Justice Earl Warren of the
U. S. Supreme Court made his first
visit to the Deep South since the school
desegregation ruling of 1954, speaking
on Lincoln’s Birthday at Georgia Tech
in Atlanta.
Justice Warren has been on the re
ceiving end of harsh words from indi
vidual citizens and governmental bodies
in the South but—except for some “Im
peach Earl Warren” signs and anti-
Warren handbills distributed on fjj
desks of legislators—everything
smoothly.
Warren was closely guarded whik®
Atlanta and newsmen were barred a*"
the welcoming ceremonies.
No reference to the race question®
desegregation decision was made •
Warren in his talk, but he did
advances in the field of law to ®
the challenge imposed by scien
achievements.
★ ★ ★
Negro Pupils Give Repo 1 *
On Their School Progre? f
Twenty-five of the 48 Negro cWl^,
now attending previously a ^'ULj 1
they are not be
ing accepted is in
the school cafe
teria.
The students
agreed there were
some incidents of
harrassment at
the start of schools
but they are rare
now.
The council pro
vided tutors for
STEPHENS
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28 of the Negro students last tan-
six now are being tutored.
Dr. Rual Stephens, deputy
tendent of the Atlanta schoo s - ^
praised the behavior of white &
gro children. He said the IP* 3 ^
the Negro students “were not so
as we had hoped, but most are
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schools in Atlanta attended a
sponsored by the Greater Atlanta j
cil on Human Relations, held PI
to see whether the children nC *°^ j
scholastic help.
Mrs. Walter Paschall, director, |
the children reported they are ^
accepted in varying degrees, W*
one area in which
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