About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1963)
PAGE 12—MAY, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS KENTUCKY UK Desegregation of Athletics Could Have Far-Reaching Effects Future ‘Hilltoppers’ Welcomed At Western Kentucky State College, assistant basketball coach Charlie Osborne (left) and Head Coach Ed Diddle (right) welcome their first Negro players, Mike and Robert Redd, with their mother. LOUISVILLE n a move which could have far- reaching effects on intercolle giate sports in the South, the Uni versity of Kentucky Athletics As sociation adopted on April 29 a policy of desegregated athletics. Then, seeking to preserve UK’s mem bership in the Southeastern Conference in which competition is traditionally all-white, the athletics board postponed implementation of the new policy and asked that UK President Frank G. Dickey confer with other conference members on the matter. Dickey said he had “reason to expect a favorable reaction from a majority of SEC members.” He indicated that his consultations would be made in the next few weeks before he leaves UK to become director of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in July. UK is the first SEC school to adopt a desegregated-sports policy. Other schools, however—including Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and Tulane—have in dicated their willingness to compete against desegregated teams in the con ference. Dr. Dickey, in calling the board’s action at Lexington a significant one, said: “We have to remember that until yesterday there was no official policy on this. . . . Now it’s a matter of trying to find the time and the means for implementing the policy.” Trustee Disappointed On the other hand, UK trustee Sam Ezelle, who has been among those urg ing athletics desegregation (April SSN), said: “It’s a disappointment. I think they did less than their duty.” Ezelle’s statement, and reaction from other desegregation backers, made it clear that UK will be under pressure to implement the new policy quickly, regardless of problems with football and basketball schedules. Elsewhere in Kentucky, athletics de segregation gained momentum. West ern Kentucky State College at Bowling Green granted scholarships to two Negro brothers who would be the first of their race to play at the school. Mike Redd made All-State this year at Louisville’s Seneca High, and Robert Redd played on a service team. The University of Louisville signed All-Stater Clem Haskins to a basketball grant-in-aid. Haskins, of Taylor Coun ty, had received scholarship offers from about 130 schools. The U. of L. first started recruiting Negro athletes a year ago. Legal Action Full Desegregation Of Schools Ordered At Bowling Green The school board of Bowling Green, the major city of south-central Ken tucky, was ordered to desegregate its school system at all grade levels in the fall of this year. U.S. District Judge Mac Swinford, in a ruling handed down at Bowling Green on April 8, sharply criticized school officials for failing to desegre gate sooner. Kentucky Highlights The University of Kentucky be came the first school in the South eastern Conference to adopt a policy of desegregated athletics. Meanwhile, Western Kentucky State College and the University of Louisville signed sought-after Negro athletes. A U.S. district judge ordered de segregation of all grades as well as faculty and school personnel at Bowling Green. Negro plaintiffs asked that a school-board desegregation plan for Frankfort be rejected. Two boards of education acted voluntarily to start desegregation programs in the coming school year. The two principal contenders for the Democratic gubernatorial nomi nation took stands favorable to de segregation and Negro rights. stand on the depositions, the pleadings, and the previous rulings of the court. The defendants, offering no evidence, asked a delay in a ruling to give time to develop a plan. Judge Swinford then sustained a motion for a summary judgment order ing complete desegregation in the next school year. At this point, when the defendant asked to give evidence, the judge agreed to hear it. A number of wit nesses, school officials and longtime residents of Bowling Green, said the climate was not right for desegregation, that the people did not want desegre gation, that overcrowding of some schools could result, and that there would be administrative problems for school officials. Crumlin, the plaintiff’s lawyer, in questioning the witnesses, made the contention that they were giving per sonal opinions rather than evidence. He sought to show that the witnesses were ignoring peaceful school desegre gation in other Kentucky communities, and that desegregation of the student body at Western Kentucky State Col lege in Bowling Green had worked out satisfactorily. Plan Rejected When the defendants offered a plan which would desegregate grades 9-12 this fall, 5-8 in 1964, and 1-4 in 1965, Judge Swinford rejected it and ordered complete desegregation for this fall. The judge said he had “more faith in this community” than many of the wit nesses. He said that although the board had ample notice to move toward de segregation, he felt that if the board had not been sued, “you would never have had a plan.” And he called the plan the board did submit a subterfuge. At the end of the hearing, Judge Swinford observed that he may have seemed emotional, adding, “But if the heartbreak of little children doesn’t stir emotions, I don’t know what would.” Crumlin and officials of the adjacent Warren County district disclosed they were discussing the situation there and hoped to avoid litigation. ★ ★ ★ Court Asked To Disapprove Proposed Stairstep Plan A brief filed in U.S. District Court at Frankfort on April 11 asked that the court disapprove a plan for gradual elementary-school desegregation sub mitted by the Frankfort Board of Education. Attorney J. Earl Dearing of Louis ville, representing Negro plaintiffs, called the school-board plan “the most cleverly contrived scheme to perpet uate racial segregation that the federal courts in Kentucky have ever been asked to approve.” Dearing’s brief criticized provisions of the plan which (1) give both races the right to choose between the all-white Second Street School and the all- Negro Mayo-Underwood School; (2) allow transfers based on racial con siderations, and (3) postpone desegre gation of grades 5 through 8 until the 1964-5 term. Frankfort school officials in their brief filed March 8 told Judge H. Church Ford there are no tricks or gimmicks in their plan. The case, Mack v. Frankfort Board of Education, seeks complete and imme diate desegregation of a school system in which the high school and part of the first grade already are desegre gated (SSN, March and previous). ★ ★ ★ Trial of Damage Suit Over Expulsion Delayed U.S. District Judge H. Church Ford again postponed trial of a $650,000 civil damage suit brought by 11 former stu dents and two former faculty members of Kentucky State College. In a hearing at Frankfort April 29, Judge Ford sustained a motion by the plaintiffs to discharge the State and the college’s board of regents as defendants. The action now is against individuals only—Supt. of Public Instruction Wen dell P. Butler, former KSC president Rufus B. Atwod, members of the board of regents and members of the col lege’s executive council. The suit was brought in 1960 follow ing demonstrations at the predominant ly Negro school and the expulsion of some students and firing of the two faculty members. (SSN, August, 1962, and previous.) Schoolmen Two Boards Take Voluntary Action Two school boards acted voluntarily to initiate desegregation in some of their schools for the first time in the 1963-64 academic year. The Monroe County Board of Educa tion voted unanimously on April 25 to desegregate the county’s two high schools and the Fountain Rim elemen tary school in September. The board estimated that savings will amount to about $15,000 a year, which has been the cost of sending high- school Negro students to classes in other districts and of maintaining a one-room Negro school at Fountain Run which will be closed. Officials said the action was recommended by the State Department of Education. The Campbellsville school board voted unanimously to desegregate high- school students who have been attend ing the Negro Durham High School. Younger pupils will continue to attend Durham Elementary School, under the plan, through the coming year. Supt. T. F. Hamilton said the two-step de segregation plan will facilitate the handling of teacher placements. ★ ★ ★ Lexington Superintendent Honored by Association John M. Ridgway, superintendent of Lexington schools, was honored at an April 19 session of the Kentucky Edu cation Association annual convention for accomplishments in school desegre gation. The 51-year-old educator received the Lincoln Key award for his “leader ship in planning and accomplishing suc cessfully the ra cial integration of Lexington schools, in spite of threats of violence to his person by segre gationist elements of the commu nity.” Ridgway also was commended for extending desegregation t o parent and teach er organizations and to summer schools, and for showing no racial bias in employing teachers. The citation said Ridgway “prompt ly complied with” the Supreme Court school-desegregation decision of 1954. Miscellaneous Group Offers Aid To Negro Teachers The State Commission on Human Rights advised Negro teachers to no tify the commission if they lose their jobs or feel their employment is threatened “because of race or color.” Galen Martin, commission executive director, told Southern School News that as of April 26 three Negro teach ers had contacted the commission on the question and that their situations were being looked into. “We are concerned,” Martin said, “because our recent study shows that more than 25 school districts which had Negro teachers in 1956 now have none.” He said there now are about the same number of Negro teachers in Kentucky (an estimated 1,450) as in 1956, although the number of Negro public-school pupils has increased. Martin cited an opinion of Attorney General John Breckinridge that school districts must give priority to and re tain better qualified teachers regard less of race. Political Action Major Candidates Back Negro Rights The two chief contenders for the Democratic nomination for governor vied in championing Negro rights as the primary campaign entered the final month with voting set for May 28. Former Gov. and U.S. Sen. A B. (Happy) Chandler said on April 19 31 a speech typifying his stand on racial matters: “On one of the most vital issues f aC " ing Americans today, the question of equal opportunity for all, it is ironic that at about the same time my ad ministration (1955-9) was desegregating the schools, the parks, and had P r0 vided over 500 good jobs to Negroes in state government, my opponent was 130 Attend, Some Shun Police Institute The judge also ordered desegregation of teachers and other school person nel, an issue still pending in many areas. And in a decision of legal interest, the judge permitted the defendants in the case (Lawrence v. Bowling Green Board of Educa tion, SSN, March and previous) to present evidence and a desegrega tion plan after they had first in dicated no desire to offer evidence. The Bowling Green system has about 3,200 white pupils and 835 Ne gro pupils. All the Negroes attend the 12-grade High Street School. White students in grades 9-12 attend Bowling Green High School and there are several elementary schools for white pupils in grades 1-8. At the start of the trial, attorney James A. Crumlin of Louisville said the Negro plaintiffs were willing to Law-enforcement officials from Lou isiana and Mississippi shunned invita tions to attend a conference on “Police Responsibility in Race Tension and Conflict” at the Southern Police Insti tute of the University of Louisville. Some Alabama officials who did at tend asserted that their state will not back down on its opposition to deseg regation. The conference, with financial sup port from the Ford Foundation, pro ceeded as scheduled April 8-10 despite the opposition and lukewarm support it received from some quarters. A charge that it would “brainwash” policemen had been denied earlier (April SSN). Here are a few sample quotations from speeches and panel discussions at the sessions, which drew an attend ance of about 130: • Carl F. Hansson, chief of police, Mesquite, Tex.—“A show of force often reduces the need for force. . . . The mere presence of a sufficient number of men in uniform is what is meant by a show of force. This awes the crowd so that it becomes unnecessary to use force.” • W. D. Blake, chief of police, Chapel Hill, N.C.—“The demonstrators (in Chapel Hill) trust the police. We’re usually advised days before anything happens so we can plan for it. We told them back in 1960 that if they wanted protection, that’s the way it would have to be.” • A. O. Folsom Jr., police chief, Day tona Beach, Fla.—“You may not be lieve in it, but it is the law.” • Walter L. Allen, a division chief in the Alabama Department of Public Safety—“I may be beaten, but I will not be conquered. We have determined to stand up for Alabama and our genu ine faith. . . . Where would the Negro be today if we had not protected his rights at the risk, many times, of our fives and reputations? Not one of his so-called peaceful demonstrations would have ended without bloodshed but for the active protection afforded him by the white Southern police of ficer.” Allen also denounced as “drivel” the idea that the U.S. Supreme Court’s school-desegregation ruling is “the law of the land.” • William M. Marable, police chief, Tuscaloosa, Ala.—“It all boils down to one thing—that it’s the responsibility of police to enforce the law.” • Ray Pope, chief of police, Way- cross, Ga.—“. . . It all comes down to this question: What are we going to enforce? Laws or customs? We don’t have any choice. I’m from as far south as anyone, but I’m going to enforce the laws.” • James Farmer, New York, direc tor, Congress of Racial Equality—“We do not ask that the police be partial and on our side. We ask that they be impartial. If we violate the law, we expect to be arrested. A police officer’s duty should not be to maintain segre gation.” • Roy Wilkins, executive secretary, NAACP—“The new industrial South cannot afford racial expression and violence.” William J. Simmons of Jackson, Miss., national administrator of the White Citizens’ Councils, was scheduled to be a speaker but canceled his ap pearance a week before the conference. still supporting segregation.” Chandler charged that Edward (Ned) Breathitt supported segregate 11 by refusing to vote as a member of State House of Representatives on bill to eliminate railroad-car segrega tion. For his part, Breathitt, campaign^ with the support of Gov. Bert . said April 22 that “1,500 jobs have bee® made available for Negroes in government” under Combs and I s n open up still more job opportunities- Breathitt charged that Chan ® ^ “record is in opposition to equal rig » Tip and opportunities for Negroes. Chandler “entertained Strom mond, racist Dixiecrat candidate President,” and that a newspa ^ owned by Chandler endorsed bond. . MuD® Republican candidate Louis ^ naf y, lacks major opposition in the P
