Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—APRIL, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
Mobile, Madison Parents Ask All-Biracial Facilities
(Continued from Page 1)
facilities, the approval of curricula and
extra-curricular activities on the basis
of race, the continued construction of
schools which are to be limited to at
tendance by one racial group or an
other, and making any other racial
distinctions in the county system.
Ask for Plan
The petitioners request an order to
direct the defendants to submit a
complete plan, within a period of time
to be determined by the court, for the
reorganization of the entire school sys
tem “into a unitary non-racial system
which shall include a plan for the re
assignment of all children presently
attending” schools in the county.
Further requested is that the court
retain jurisdiction until total desegre
gation is completed.
The suit alleges that the defendants,
“acting under color of the authority
vested in them by the laws of the
State of Alabama, have pursued and
are presently following” a practice of
operating the schools on a basis that
“discriminates against plaintiffs and
other Negroes . .
The plaintiffs contend they asked the
board Nov. 13, 1962, to end segregation
and were told on Jan. 15, 1963, by the
board that “it would be ill-advised
and not to the best interests of your
people for us to attempt to present
a formula for integration of the public
schools at this time.” (SSN, February.)
On Jan. 30, the suit recalls, four
minor plaintiffs—Mae Womie Bolton,
John Jones, Lloyd Morris and Vernon
Ruffin—made an unsuccessful attempt
to transfer from a Negro to a white
high school. On the following day,
plaintiffs say, an application for trans
fer was filed with Dr. C. L. Carbor-
ough, assistant superintendent of
schools, “but to date plaintiffs have not
been informed as to what, if any, ac
tion was taken” on the transfer request.
(SSN, February.)
Second Suit
This was the second suit filed against
the Mobile board this year. On Jan.
18 (SSN, February), the U.S. Depart-
meit of Justice filed suit, simultane
ously with similar actions against the
Huntsville and Madison County boards
and other school boards in the South,
contending that segregation of children
of servicemen and other federal work
ers violates the 14th Amendment and
is harmful to the morale of service
men and federal civilian workers.
The board members and Dr. Bums
filed a motion to dismiss the action
Feb. 8, contending that there is no
warrant at law for the federal gov
ernment to institute such proceedings,
that the suit seeks to assert rights of
individuals whereas the power to do
this is vested by law only in the in
dividuals themselves.
No hearing date has been set on the
dismissal motion and Judge Thomas
granted a stay Feb. 27 on answers to
a Justice Department list of 29 inter
rogatories calling for detailed infor
mation about the school system.
Brookley Air Force Base and other
federal facilities are located at or near
Mobile. The county has been receiving
substantial impacted areas assistance.
J. L. LeFlore, Mobile postal worker
and Negro leader, said after the March
27 suit was filed:
“We were hopeful that public
schools here may have been volun
tarily desegregated as has already
Alabama Highlights
Negro parents in Mobile and
Huntsville filed class action suits in
March seeking desegregation of local
schools.
Military installations in three
areas—Anniston, Ozark and Mont
gomery—were directed to build on-
base desegregated schools for chil
dren of military personnel, with
operations to begin in the fall.
Two young Negro scientists at the
space complex at Huntsville applied
for admission to the University of
Alabama’s extension center in
Huntsville. One of them said his
application for the spring quarter
was rejected on “what seems to be
a technicality.”
Gov. George Wallace, continuing
his attacks on federal intervention
and repeating his vows to maintain
segregation, called for a “dramatic
breakthrough” in education. State
Supt. of Education Austrin E.
Meadows warned that “segregation
cannot survive in second-rate
schools.”
happened in at least 20 other Southern
cities, including five in our sister state
of Florida.
“The federal courts have made it
clear that school boards have the re
sponsibility to initiate such action in
compliance with a ruling of the U.S.
Supreme Court on this question . . .
We are convinced that segregation does
not help race relations, but quite ob
viously worsens them.”
Huntsville Case
The five Huntsville Negro parents
who filed suit against the Huntsville
school board March 11 also asked for
a speedy hearing and a class action
ruling directing the board to desegre
gate or, as an alternative, present some
plan for desegregation. The petitioners
requested a preliminary injunction so
Negroes can attend desegregated
schools this year.
Named as defendants are the board,
its chairman, Arnold V. Sneed; School
Supt. Raymond Christian and board
members L. A. Davis, Melton Frank,
Jarmon McKinney Jr. and Marvin
Drake.
The suit, before Birmingham fed
eral District Judge H. H. Grooms,
charges that the Huntsville school
system is based on a dual scheme or
pattern of school zone fines, noting
that all extra-curricular activities are
segregated and new school facilities
are constructed “with a view to their
use” by each race separately.
The Negroes claimed that a deseg
regation petition to the board last
September had not been answered.
Placement Law
The suit charged the board with
maintaining segregation through the
use of the state’s school placement
law. This was held constitutional “on
its face” by the U.S. Supreme Court
in 1958. The ruling briefly affirmed a
three-judge district court’s finding that
while there was nothing wrong with
the law if impartially used, it might
later prove unconstitutional “in appli
cation.” (SSN, June. 1958.)
In the Colleges
Negro Scientists Reported
Rejected By University Unit
Two young Negro scientists were
reticent about their reported efforts to
enroll at the University of Alabama
Center in Huntsville, where Redstone
Arsenal, the Marshall Space Flight
Center and other space and rocket fa
cilities are located.
Dave M. McGlathery, 26, said his
application for the spring quarter was
rejected on what “seems to be a tech
nicality.”
The other, Marvin P. Carroll, 27,
would say only, “This is something
between the university and me.” Uni
versity officials would not comment.
McGlathery said he intended to re
apply but that his plans “aren’t firmed
up yet.”
The Justice Department in Washing
ton said the two men had been inter
viewed earlier in the month by Burke
Marshall, assistant U.S. attorney gen
eral in charge of civil rights. “The
government’s role in the case has not
been determined,” the Justice Depart
ment said. “He (Marshall) just heard
about it and wanted to be informed.”
McGlathery, a native of Huntsville
and a graduate of Alabama A&M,
works for the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration as a math
ematician in the nuclear and ion
physics branch of the research products
divisions at the Marshall Space Flight
Center. He wanted to take the course,
“Introduction to Atomic and Nuclear
Physics” at the University Center.
Carroll is an electronics engineer
for the Army Missile Command at
Redstone Arsenal.
The University of Alabama is under
a permanent injunction dating from the
Autherine Lucy case, which brought
violence when she was admitted to the
campus at Tuscaloosa in 1956 under a
federal court order opening the insti
tution to all qualified Negroes. None
has since been admitted, though uni
versity authorities have said there
have been applications. Several are
pending.
Huntsville, the suit alleges, “has not
employed the Alabama school place
ment law as a means of abolishing
state imposed racial distinctions, nor
has it offered to plaintiffs and other
Negro children, by means of the school
placement law, a genuine method for
securing attendance in non-segregated
schools.”
The petitioners request an order to
prevent the board from subjecting
Negro children seeking reassignment,
transfer or admission to schools to
“criteria, requirements and prerequi
sites not required of white children.”
Government Suit
Judge Grooms also has before him
the Justice Department’s Jan. 18 de
segregation suit directed at Huntsville,
as well as another filed at the same
time against Madison County school
authorities.
Judge Grooms granted the boards a
delay until March 13 in filing answers
to the government’s demands for de
tailed information about the two sys
tems, which serve personnel of Red
stone Arsenal and related space and
rocket facilities.
But he extended this deadline March
12, giving the boards at least two
months more. He set May 14 as the
date for hearing the boards’ motion
for dismissal of the suits. The motions
for dismissal, as in the Mobile Justice
Department action, are based primari
ly on the contention that the govern
ment has no authority to file suits in
behalf of individuals.
★ ★ ★
U.S. To Operate Schools
On Military Reservations
It was announced in March that on-
base desegregated school facilities are
to be built for school children of mili
tary personnel at Maxwell and Gunter
Air Force bases in Montgomery; Fort
Rucker in Dale County, near Ozark;
and Fort McClellan at Anniston.
The Department of Health, Educa
tion and Welfare announced from
Washington that the facilities would
be “federally operated in every sense”
by the Department of Defense, not lo
cal school boards. Only elementary
school children will be provided facili
ties, which are to be ready by fall.
The on-base school at Maxwell, home
of the Air University, will cost an
estimated $486,000, officials said. The
Air Force said last fall that 700 chil
dren of elementary school age lived on
base, including seven Negroes.
HEW announced last year that local,
segregated schools would no longer be
considered “suitable” for children of
military personnel.
To Lose $104,345
The Maxwell school will serve chil
dren of personnel on that base as well
as those from Gunter. The Montgom
ery city-county school system stands
to lose an estimated $104,345 in im-
pacted-areas assistance. The capital
city system has operated the Maxwell
Elementary School, near the eastern
edge of the air base, for a number of
years, serving both children of gov
ernment personnel and civilian families
living in the area.
Montgomery City-County School
Supt. Walter T. McKee said about 500
students from Maxwell and Maxwell
Heights residential area attend the
school and 112 students from Gunter
attend the Capitol Heights Elementary
School. An undetermined number at
tend local private and parochial
schools.
Fort Rucker’s commander, Brig.
Gen. Robert R. Williams, was ordered
to submit an application to the U.S.
Commissioner of Education for tem
porary school facilities at that instal
lation in Dale County, near Ozark.
Dale County School Supt. George
W. Long had said earlier that about
1,000 students would be affected, only
18 of them Negroes. “It’s a big ex
penditure of the taxpayers’ money for
a pretty small percentage,” Long said.
“They wouldn’t do it if I’d go ahead
and integrate but I told them I
wouldn’t do that.”
What They Say
Superintendent Says
Racial Pride Needed
Speaking to the Alabama Education
Association in March, State Supt. of
Education Austin R. Meadows called
for more money for education, with
the warning:
“It is time for us to outwit the
forces that would destroy us or delay
us in our date with destiny. It is for
us to teach racial
pride to each
race, no matter
where the feder
al courts may
place a pupil.
Any race that has
not pride in its
own racial integ
rity is doomed.
Any race that
does not respect
the other race is
headed for disas
ter. Segregation
MEADOWS
cannot survive in
second-rate schools. Our public image
must mirror first-rate education, not
second class . . .
“We cannot look to Washington for
federal aid to education unless we get
the Constitution of the United States
amended to outlaw federal control of
education. We stand a chance to lose
millions of dollars in defense-con
nected pupils because there is no Judas
Iscariot among us who will sell our
racial integrity for the proverbial 30
pieces of silver.”
★ ★ ★
Governor Criticizes
U.S. Fund Policies
At the end of March, the Alabama
legislature was in special session, called
by Gov. George C. Wallace to consider
providing new revenues for schools.
In his address to the legislators March
19, Wallace said:
“Special problems are being created
by the federal authorities in Washing
ton in connection with the education
of the children of parents who work
on federal installations in the state.
“Approximately 26 Alabama cities
and 31 county school systems have, or
are, receiving federal funds under
provisions of Public Law 874. The
greatest impact of this program is cen
tered around Huntsville, Mobile,
Montgomery, Ozark and Anniston.
“The children from these military
installations have attended our public
schools in the past. As far as I have
been able to determine, they have
been satisfied with school conditions
They have been outstanding students,
good athletes, band members and good
campus citizens.
“I have said to federal authorities
before and I say again today: Why
(See ALABAMA, Page 9)
Political Activity
Record Birmingham Vote Elects
Boutwell New Government Head
Birmingham voters turned out in
record numbers April 2 to elect former
state Lt. Gov. Albert Boutwell as their
mayor under a new mayor-council
form of city government.
Boutwell, soft-spoken 58-year-old
lawyer, beat City Commissioner Eugene
(Bull) Corner 29,630 to 21,648 in a
runoff election.
Both men describe themselves as
segregationists. Boutwell headed a state
committee which drafted most of Ala
bama’s post-1954 segregation legislation,
including the school placement act.
However, Boutwell is regarded as
more “moderate” on the issue than
Connor, who said during the runoff
campaign he would close schools, if
he could, before seeing them deseg
regated. Two school desegregation suits
now are pending in Birmingham U.S.
district court and a decision is expected
soon.
In the general election last Novem
ber, city voters approved a plan to
change their government from its pres
ent structure—three commissioners, in
cluding Connor—to the mayor-council
plan—a mayor whose function it will
be to administer the policies of the
nine-member council.
Negroes Defeated
Two Negroes made the runoff for
council seats but both placed at the
bottom in vote totals. All council mem
bers were elected at large.
Boutwell led in the first primary
March 5 by 3,500 votes, but lacked a
clear majority. In the campaign leading
up to that vote, the race issue was
muted. The candidates devoted most
of their speeches to their respective
qualifiations to lead the city in progress
and prosperity.
Mayor-Elect Boutwell
Defeated Bull Connor
Boutwell continued much the same
kind of campaign in the runoff, but
Connor reverted to his strongly segre
gationist position. He frequently re
ferred to the Negro “bloc vote,” which
he said would go to Boutwell. He re
signed from the Birmingham Cha®
ber of Commerce because, he said,
business organization was trying
“integrate Birmingham.”
Connor also attacked the “foreign
owned” newspaper backing of his °P(
ponent. Both the Birmingham Nevis
an-1
^uucin. uuui uic -- ..
the Post-Herald supported Boutw® •
Gov. George C. Wallace fi g ured ,
the first campaign. A published 1
from him promised his full co-OF’
ation with Conner “when the ra ^,
over.” The letter was regarded as
lace’s endorsement of Connor. __
Both Connor and Boutwell ^ ^
gubernatorial candidates last y e
itiof
Connor taking a strong se ® re ?^ B a-
stand, Boutwell criticizing race ^
goguery, in obvious reference to
lace. Boutwell withdrew from the
for reasons of health. ^ i
Connor did poorly but declar .
ft w*
support for Wallace in the runo
State &
another racial “moderate,
Ryan DeGraffenreid.
easily.
that Boutwell’s supporters
•ff-
• Wallace,
easily. But it was generally p
veil ^
DeGraffenried, although Boutw<
not publicly endorse him.
Denounces ‘Agitators
Connor, a veteran of 22 1
Birmingham city governn'ief’ ^
strongly denounced “Negro
state’s 1948
He led the state’s Jim \
walk-out from the Democratic
convention.
IIP 1
The new mayor-council et fl-
authorization of the change 0 Q 0-
ment last November, to ir
April 15. However, the presen ^ g0 c
sioners contend that no change ^
ernment can take place
terms expire in 1965. 0
seems inevitable.
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