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VOL. 9, NO. 11
:la- MISSOURI
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School Policies Blamed
For ‘Resegregation’ Trend
ST. LOUIS
S t. Louis school officials and
the board of education dur
ing April faced allegations from
various individuals and groups
that school policies had brought
about “resegregation” of schools.
The city’s schools were desegregated
promptly following the U.S. Supreme
Court decision of 1954, and St. Louis
has been praised nationally for the
manner in which desegregation was
carried out.
The criticisms have come with vary
ing intensity from the West End Com
munity Conference, which is a
neighborhood organization with a
white-Negro membership; from the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, from two
Negro members of the board of edu
cation, James Hurt and the Rev. John
Hicks, and from City Alderman Wil-
nam L. Clay, a Negro.
Center of Protests
Protests have centered around board
° education plans to shift Harris
e aehers College from the heavily
cgro West End to the present Vashon
k tj ^ c ^°°l * n central St. Louis; to
3 ^°°^baH stadium at Soldan High
ool in the West End; and to build
new elementary schools in the West
v area where large numbers of
Have moved in recent years.
HSN, April.)
mov ® enera H it is alleged that these
es will tend to prepetuate de facto
j, ^iion or contribute to overcrowd-
ajg’ C0l }S e sti o n. and deterioration of an
hjy w Here white and Negro citizens
kadiood^ 1 * Huild up a stable neigh-
St. Louis Supt. of Instruction Philip
J. Hickey and Deputy Supt. William
Kottmeyer have defended the proposed
actions as logical and essential. They
have replied that school officials were
the first to point out that “resegrega
tion” was taking place in the schools.
But they insist that the cause of it has
been discrimination against Negroes in
housing, and not board of education
policies.
Hickey and Kottmeyer prepared a
detailed 117-page reply to 136 allega
tions of segregation. Meanwhile, a
citizens advisory committee had been
named to look into the situation. Its
chairman is the Rev. Trafford P. Maher
S. J., who heads the Department of
Education at St. Louis University and
is a leading Missouri figure in the fields
of civil rights and human relations.
More than 100 spectators were pres
ent at a special April 23 board meet
ing and another 200 waited in the
downstairs lobby. Outside, the Board
of Education building at 911 Locust
St. in downtown St. Louis was pick
eted by placard-bearers representing
the NAACP, the Congress of Racial
Equality and a group of Negro min
isters. One sign had the wording, “In
tegration, Not Segregation, From Top
to Bottom.”
To Await Inquiring
The board promised that it would
not take action on matters under in
quiry by the Maher committee. In a
five-page report, Father Maher said
that “frictions in the community, real
and imaginary, have generated a great
amount of hostility and, regrettably, a
great amount of emotional irrationality.
“In this emotional climate, the Board
(See ST. LOUIS, Page 16)
ItlLREGION
2 Orders, 3 New Suits
tev REGATION OI- ders in
suits filij ^hool districts and
S rou P s o:
ftietitc • highlighted dev
the o 111 ^ federal court cas
^' t fina a ern an d border s
S<w 8 ApriL
^opted °Jh er districts volur
'•kisses kj\. f to conduct bi
In 0 ., egJnn ing in September.
^ legist, action during the n
' re 4 ))j], res of four states c<
^ion .rating to the school <
!?hges - j - Two church-affi
%i to • universit ies anno
10 race stu dents without r
t-H-S. ’ At+
• Sedy’f 0mey General Robe
f 0cil „ V ‘ sit to three Son
^ool new attention oi
° desegregate their :
Qf eeu n September were the Be
the^r 1 ° f Education in Ken
Charleston Consolidated
trict 7 of Mississippi County in Mis
souri.
The court directives called for bi-
racial classes at all levels simultane
ously.
In the Kentucky case, U.S. District
Judge Mac Swinford also ordered de
segregation of teachers and other school
personnel at the same time.
New suits seeking school desegrega
tion were filed by Negro plaintiffs
against the Dougherty County Board
of Education at Albany, Ga., and School
District R-6 in Pemiscot County, Mis
souri, while three Negro college stu
dents asked federal court in Birming
ham to order their admission to the
University of Alabama.
Public school districts which an
nounced voluntary plans to begin de
segregation in September included
Monroe County and Campbellsville dis
tricts in Kentucky and five systems in
Texas.
One of the Texas districts is Sterling
City, where the board of trustees voted
to abolish its segregation policy, effec-
"Oismo s»'o?ulr n Si;
MAY, 1963
S 3 I y V y g i t
J0 AINn
8002-y — £9 Nnr
issiuii vJalls for Cutoff
Mississippi
Funds to
L/fiRAftiE 3 WASHINGTON
Tn an Lijureport”
on April 16, the iecteral Civil
Rights Commission called on
President Kennedy to consider
the possibility of withholding
government funds from Missis
sippi until the state ends its “sub
version of the Constituttion.”
The idea was flatly rejected by the
Administration, but drew some support
from Northern liberals of both parties
in Congress, and apparently triggered
a new wave of “Powell amendments”
to domestic legislation.
Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-N.Y.),
chairman of the House Education and
Labor Committee and original author
of the “Powell amendment,” announced
on April 27 that he was calling off his
“truce” with the Administration on
civil rights matters.
The Civil Rights Commission said
that “since October, 1962, the open and
flagrant violation of constitutional
guarantees in Mississippi has precipi
tated serious conflict. Each week brings
fresh evidence of the danger of a com
plete breakdown of law and order.”
Suggests ‘Exploration’
The commission did not actually pro
pose a cutoff of federal funds to the
state, but suggested that President
Kennedy “explore his legal authority”
to do so and that Congress “consider
seriously” the possibility of legislation.
In fiscal 1962, the report said, the
federal government received $270 mil
lion in taxes from Mississippi and paid
to the state $650 million in support of
educational, scientific, medical and
other programs.
The commission’s report was unani
mously endorsed by the six members,
including two Southerners—Robert G.
Storey of Texas and Robert S. Rankin
of North Carolina.
In an appearance before the annual
meeting of the American Society of
Newspaper Editors on April 19, Presi
dent Kennedy said:
“I don’t have the power to cut off
the aid in a general way as was pro
posed by the Civil Rights Commission
and I would think it would probably
be unwise to give the President of the
United States that kind of power . . .”
Letter to Chairman
A few hours later Kennedy released
a letter to Commission Chairman John
A. Hannah in which he stressed that he
shared the commission’s “stated goal of
assuring for all citizens of the United
States the full enjoyment of the rights
guaranteed by the Constitution,” but
said that the funds cutoff proposal
“raises difficult and far-reaching con
siderations.”
Aside from legal considerations, the
President suggested, withholding of
federal funds from Mississippi would
“serve to further disadvantage those
whom I know the commission would
want to aid. For example, hundreds of
thousands of Negroes in Mississippi
receive Social Security, veterans’, wel
fare, school lunch and other benefits
from federal programs.”
At a press conference April 24, the
President again rejected the commis
sion’s idea. But he said the federal
government would continue to make
every effort to promote civil rights in
Mississippi. He said he hoped for co
operation from state and local authori
ties, but “where they don’t do it, the
federal government will do it within
the limits of our authority.”
Senators Aroused
Southern members of Congress, led
by Sens. James O. Eastland and John
C. Stennis (D-Miss.) denounced the
commission for allegedly exceeding its
authority. They indicated that they
would put up a stiff fight against ex
tending the commission’s existence
when that question comes up for a vote
later this year.
But a number of Northern senators
and representatives called on the Presi
dent to issue an executive order or
draft legislation to bar federal grants
for segregated programs. Sen. Jacob
K. Javits (R-N.Y.), among others, in
dicated he planned to offer a desegre
gation rider—the “Powell amendment”
—to all domestic spending programs in
this session. The Senate tabled the
amendment when it was proposed for
the public works bill on May 1. In the
House, an unsuccessful attempt to at
tach the amendment to a medical edu
cation bill was made by Rep. Abner
Sibal (R-Conn.).
When the Senate education subcom
mittee opened hearings on federal aid
to education April 29, Sen. Winston L.
Prouty (R-Conn.) questioned Secre
tary of Health, Education and Welfare
Anthony J. Celebrezze about his power
(See D. C., Page 10)
MISSISSIPPI
State Probers Accuse
Marshals of Brutality
In This Issue
Slate Reports
Alabama 2
Arkansas 5
Delaware 11
District of Columbia 1
Florida 7
Georgia 7
Kentucky 12
Louisiana 0
Maryland 11
Mississippi 1
Missouri 1
North Carolina 15
Oklahoma 13
South Carolina 14
Tennessee 3
Texas 13
Virginia 4
West Virginia 16
Special Articles
The Region 1
Pupils on U.S. Bases 10
Texts
Mississippi Legislative Committee 8
U.S. Justice Department 8
Reported
j <
tive immediately. Reports to the Texas
Education Agency, however, indicated
that no Negro students had been en
rolled in biracial classes.
The four other Texas districts sched
uled to begin desegregation in Septem
ber are near federal installations and
receive “impacted-area” funds. They are
Mineral Wells in Palo Pinto County,
Burkbumett in Wichita County, Potter
County Consolidated School District No.
3 near Amarillo and Connally Inde
pendent School District in McLennan
County.
In addition, the newly consolidated
Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
School Board in North Carolina ap
proved an assignment policy which
could result in additional desegrega
tion.
Catholic schools in Memphis and
Shelby County, Tennessee, also will
desegregate the first four grades in
September under a gradual plan an
nounced by Bishop William L. Adrian.
Southwestern at Memphis, a Pres
byterian college, reported it will accept
(See THE REGION, Page 13)
JACKSON
ississippi’s permanent Gen
eral Legislative Investigat
ing Committee, in a formal report
April 24, charged that “deliberate
and repeated brutalities were car
ried out by United States marsh
als at a detention stockade set up
in a garage by the Justice Depart
ment at a remote spot off the
Oxford campus of the University
of Mississippi” during the deseg
regation controversy last Sept. 30
and Oct. 1.
The report by the committee which
has been investigating the rioting that
resulted in two deaths is based on tes
timony from more than 90 witnesses,
including university officials, law en
forcement officers, students and citizens.
Chairman Russell L. Fox said, “This
section of the report deals with the
brutalities of 97 penitentiary guards, 336
border patrolmen and 123 marshals
who were deputized and used as mar
shals by the Justice Department at the
University of Mississippi.” He said
another section, to be released later,
will “reveal that dormitories to which
students had withdrawn when the viol
ence erupted Sept. 30 were deliberately
gassed by the penitentiary guards, bor
der patrolmen and other deputy mar
shals.”
Report Denounced
In Washington, the Justice Depart
ment was quick to denounce the com
mittee report as “an untruthful docu
ment” and a “grievous slander against
a courageous group of deputy mar
shals” who it said “deserve the greatest
credit for their courage and dedica
tion.”
Mississippi’s two United States sena
tors—James O. Eastland and John C.
Stennis—commended the committee for
“revealing a heretofore untold chapter
in the tragic story of Oxford,” and
revealed that they had co-operated
and supplied material to the state com
mittee checking federal treatment of
prisoners in the university disorders.
The two senators also said that the
charge of brutality should be placed
before state and federal grand juries
“and those guilty brought before the
bar of justice and punished.”
John C. Satterfield of Yazoo City,
immediate past president of the Amer
ican Bar Association, prepared the re
port for the committee of House and
Senate members. He said the names
were not divulged because the com
mittee operates as a grand jury whose
reports are confidential.
It was known, however, that among
those questioned by the committee
were Col. T. B. Birdsong, head of the
state highway patrol, and his patrolmen;
Mayor Richard Elliott of Oxford and
other city officials; members of the
Lafayette County (Oxford) board of
supervisors; Chancellor J. D. Williams
of the university and other officials and
staff members, and Lt. Gov. Paul B.
Johnson.
Johnson is under criminal contempt
charges of the U. S. Fifth Court of
Appeals for defying two federal court
orders for admission of Negro James
Meredith, which caused the rioting and
(See LEGISLATIVE, Page 9)
Happy To Have Something
To Jump On
£0 P
Alley, Memphis Commercial Appeal
