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\03( (c 7^/ 9 Factual 10. .// Souther AT News O f Objective VOL. 9, NO. 11 :la- MISSOURI /."i! 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