Newspaper Page Text
page 14—MAY, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA
Proposed
COLUMBIA
A rambling public debate, with
strong expressions of opinion,
raged through April over the
merits of a tuition-grants plan
pending in the South Carolina
General Assembly.
Designed to provide an alternative
for attending desegregated public
schools, the plan would provide state
cash grants to students who desire to
attend private schools.
Debate on the measure finally was
focused in the House of Representa
tives chambers, where the House Edu
cation Committee, headed by Rep.
Howard Breazeale of Pickens County,
conducted a public hearing on April
16.
Within 10 minutes after the three-
hour hearing closed, the committee ap
proved the bill by a 9-to-5 vote. The
measure did not reach the House cal
endar, however, until April 23 and
other bills took precedence.
Criticism of the proposal softened
somewhat after two major changes
were made by the committee on April
10.
As originally recommended by Gov.
Donald S. Russell in his inaugural mes
sage and drafted by the State School
(Segregation) Committee, the program
would have extended to all areas of
the state and provided grants of $225
per year for elementary school stu
dents and $250 for high schoolers.
The size of the grants drew fire be
cause it was estimated that the per-
pupil expenditure in the public schools
is $150 per year.
Local Option Provided
The committee amended the bill to
provide both local option and local
participation in the plan. It further re
wrote the section
dealing with the
size of the grant
to limit it to a
sum not to ex
ceed the public
school per-pupil
expenditure.
The governor
previously had
advocated both
changes.
Amid mounting
opposition before russell
the bill was amended a sideline skirm
ish developed over a television program
explaining the measure, which was
scheduled for screening over the state’s
closed-circuit educational TV hookup.
The segregation committee, headed
by Sen. L. Marion Gressette of Calhoun
County, was to take the lead in the
ETV program. But members of the
House Education Committee objected
to the showing. Several threatened to
vote against the bill strictly because
of the Gressette Committee’s so-called
“unwarranted use” of ETV. Gressette
canceled the telecast.
Center of Opposition
Spartanburg, home town of Gov.
Russell, was one of the major centers
of opposition to the bill. The industrial
city was first heard from when its PTA
issued a statement in opposition to the
grants program.
On April 4, the Spartanburg County
Board of Education went on record as
opposing private school tuition in any
form. Board Chairman J. W. Gaston
Jr. predicted the issue would become
a battleground between the up-coun
try (northwest) and the low-country
(southeast).
W. Leonard Still, who offered the
resolution, said the plan would rip the
state’s public educational system to
pieces.
A few days later, a visiting state
senator from Georgia, James Wesbury
of Atlanta, called his state’s grants plan
“one of the worst pieces of legislation
ever passed.” The plan, he added, had
ended in failure and had helped the
rich and harmed the poor.
NAACP Statement
The state NAACP came forth with a
statement, issued by its president, J.
Arthur Brown of Charleston, threaten
ing an all-out court fight if the bill
was passed.
Brown said his group felt that the
plan “is a part of a scheme to pro
long the pattern of separate but un
equal educational opportunities” in the
state. He said the bill would put an
added burden on the taxpayers.
Brown added: “the NAACP will use
every legal means at our command . . .
to have this proposed tuition grant de
clared unconstitutional . . .”
State GOP Chairman Drake Edens
of Columbia kicked off a controversy
within his party by issuing a statement
opposing the plan.
South Carolina’s Republican Na-
Tuition - Grants
Plan Arouses Heavy Debate
S. C. Highlights
A proposed tuition grants law was
approved by the House Education
Committee amid wide controversy.
The House of Representatives
passed a bill eliminating “class ac
tions” in school transfer suits
brought in state courts, but legisla
tive leaders said the move would
have little effect on future desegre-
tion cases in federal courts.
An appropriations bill amendment
to require segregation by sex in
South Carolina schools was rejected
by the State Senate.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted
Clemson College an extension until
May 15 to perfect its appeal in sup
port of a writ of certiorari in its de
segregation suit.
South Carolina’s cost in legal fees
and for expenses of law enforcement
officers stationed at Clemson College
in connection with the enrollment of
Negro student Harvey B. Gantt has
been placed at $40,000.
U.S. Attorney General Robert
Kennedy made a whirlwind visit to
Columbia on April 25, facing numer
ous questions involving Negroes and
the schools.
Bids have been received by the
U.S. Department of Health, Educa
tion and Welfare for construction of
elementary schools at Fort Jackson
and Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
tional Committeeman, W. W. Wanna -
maker of Orangeburg, immediately said
he was for the bill. Mrs. Julia R.
Doughtery, a GOP state committee-
woman from Charleston, said she was
swamped with calls from Charlestonians
who supported the measure.
Farley Smith of Lynchburg, son of
the late segregation stalwart, U.S. Sen.
E. D. (Cotton Ed) Smith, and leader
of the South Carolina independent
movement in the 1956 presidential
campaign, attacked Edens for “criticism
without remedy.”
The Republicans made outward peace
after an April 20 meeting of the state
executive committee. This came after
the bill had been amended.
The party voted to take no official
position on the bill.
At the House Education Committee
hearing, the chief critic was the Most
Rev. Francis F. Reh of Charleston, the
state’s ranking Roman Catholic prelate.
A representative of Bishop Reh read
a statement from him which contended
the proposal is discriminatory and
undemocratic because it prohibits
grants to church-supported schools.
“The very freedom which the bill
proposes to insure and implement is,
in an undemocratic fashion, denied to
some citizens . . his statement said.
Among others speaking in opposition
to the measure were:
• L. L. Hyatt of the Spartanburg
P-TA, who said the plan would waste
millions in state funds “on an experi
ment which has proved impractical
and unmanageable in Virginia and
Georgia . .
• Professor Ray Rutledge of Clem
son College, representing the South
Carolina Chapter of the American As
sociation of University Professors, who
read a resolution from his group op
posing any form of tuition grant and
questioning the effect of “diverting
funds from public to private educa
tion” and the quality of education that
could be offered in private schools.
• Jerry Gainey, a Clemson student
from Hartsville, who presented a peti
tion signed by 168 college students op
posing the bill.
Charles Plowden, educational and
business leader in Clardendon County
where one of the current three de
segregation suits is pending, led the
proponents of the bill.
Plowden said the plan would give
children of both races “full freedom
of association.” He also said the plan
would be a formidable defense against
desegregationist attempts of “outside
agitators.”
The South Carolina Congress of Par
ents and Teachers, meeting at Green
ville, voiced opposition to tuition grants
by a 3-1 margin.
Legislative Action
‘Class Actions’
Banned In Bill
Passed By House
In an admitted gesture of disapproval
for federal court rulings in desegrega
tion cases, the South Carolina House
of Representatives passed a bill elimin
ating “class actions” in school-transfer
suits brought in state courts.
Desegregation suits now pending in
the state were brought in behalf of the
plaintiffs and “others similarly situ
ated.” Federal courts have permitted
this over the objections of South Caro
lina attorneys.
Even as the measure passed, legisla
tive leaders admitted the move would
have little effect on future desegrega
tion cases. Federal courts have taken
jurisdiction because of allegations that
(See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 15)
Segregation-by-Sex Proposal
Voted Down by State Senate
Turned down during the State Sen
ate’s lengthy late April debate over
the annual appropriations bill was an
amendment that would have required
segregation by sex in South Carolina
schools.
Union County Sen. John D. Long,
its sponsor, had called the amendment
the answer to prospective desegrega
tion in the state’s public schools. He
said he proposed the amendment to
“place a barrier between our white
women and colored men.”
Long argued that the measure would
“take the heart out of the integration
crowd, because the ultimate goal is to
conglomerate the races.”
“The Federal Government has not yet
pre-empted sex, thank God,” declared
the legislator.
Long found little support for his
measure in debate or vote.
Sen. L. Marion Gressette of Calhoun
County, chairman of the state’s seg
regation committee, voted against it,
declaring it was not needed now but
might be in the future.
Gressette spoke after Long, in pre
senting his arguments for “segregation
by sex,” had said that the January
desegregation of Clemson College and
the state’s failure to close the land-
grant institution had given the state
“the reputation of a quitter—a big
talker but no action.
“Now, you brave South Carolina
protectors of womanhood, I’m asking
you to place a barrier between our
white women and colored men, to keep
them from being insulted.”
Gressette, in reply, said his commit
tee has considered such action but has
not recommended it “for the simple
reason we don’t think we have reached
Sen. John D. Long
Segregation by sex.
the point where it is necesary.”
“There may be a day in the not too
distant future when it becomes neces
sary, and maybe I will join the senator
from Union in this proposal,” Gressette
continued.
The Long amendment failed by a
voice vote. He then proposed an
amendment simply to require non-co-
educational public schools without
mention of segregation. It failed by a
38-5 vote.
Waiting at the Columbia Airport
Attorney-General Kennedy was en route.
Miscellaneous
U. S. Attorney General Visits;
Faces Queries on Schools, Races
Questions involving Negroes and the
schools were posed during U.S. Attor
ney General Robert Kennedy’s whirl
wind visit to Columbia April 25.
The President’s brother generally re
ceived a warm reception in the city
where he is frequently criticized as he
swept through two speaches, private
talks with Gov. Donald S. Russell and
U.S. District Attorney Terrell Glenn
and at least six separate question-and-
answer sessions with various groups.
The primary point he emphasized
was that the Justice Department has
no desire to take a part in South Caro-
lian’s desegregation difficulties as long
as the state continues to demonstrate
the ability to handle them.
The conference with Gov. Russell
was not mentioned on Kennedy’s ten
tative itinerary but was predicted
three days before by State Rep. A. W.
(Red) Bethea, an outspoken segrega
tion leader in the General Assembly.
Bethea, while introducing Mississippi
Lt. Gov. Paul B. Johnson to a Citizens
Council meeting in Florence, charged
that Kennedy was coming to “integrate
the University of South Carolina.” He
predicted Kennedy would talk to the
“present governor” as he had talked to
a “former governor” on a visit that
preceded by some months the desegre
gation of Clemson College.
The “former governor” reference was
to Ernest F. Hollings, who went out of
office in January and who is widely
credited with being a leader in the
peaceful admission of a Negro student
to Clemson.
‘Preconceived Plan’
Bethea charged the Kennedy visit
was part of “a preconceived plan.”
Gov. Russell insisted that the race
issue was not brought up in his 24-
minute talk with the attorney general.
He said they did not discuss any local
matters because “we take care of our
own local affairs.”
Asked whether the Clemson desegre
gation case, now on appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court, or the pending action
against the University of South Caro
lina was discussed, Russell replied:
“No, those are state institutions.”
The governor said they discussed
world conditions and several national
problems. He said it was strictly a “so
cial call”; the attorney general later
termed it a “courtesy visit.”
Kennedy said they touched on school
dropouts, improved teaching, the labor
market for young people, juvenile de
linquency and organized crime.
The attorney general said state offi
cials had made it quite clear to him
that they did not want the federal
government to be involved in desegre
gation matters and “we have made it
quite clear that we didn’t want to be
involved.”
State Complimented
At a later press conference, the chief
legal officer complimented South Caro
lina on the desegregation of Clemson
without violence.
(His brother, President Kennedy,
had thanked a group of South Carolina
newspaper editors and publishers for
helping create a climate of opinion that
permitted peaceful desegregation at
Clemson during a White House lunch
eon on April 4.)
Asked what brought the climate
about, Robert Kennedy said from the
“outside” it looked as if the political,
business and educational leaders of
South Carolina had decided that “how
ever distasteful it may be, the laws of
the United States had to be upheld.”
In a speech before law students at
the State University, the attorney gen
eral called the racial situation “the
most difficult internal problem this
country has—and not just in the
South . . .”
He said that segregation in the North
is sometimes “more sinister than
subtle.” He said he saw the need for
“greater tolerance and understanding,”
adding that if progress is not made,
“extremists are going to take over in
all parts of the country.”
He termed South Carolina “a diffi
cult area.” Without any reference to
the state, Kennedy predicted that
“there is going to be more bloodshed’
before the desegregation problem is
solved in the nation.
Kennedy flew to Columbia from
Alabama and a conference with Gov.
George Wallace.
The attorney general was greeted at
Columbia Airport by about 100 per -
sons. These included 22 Negroes who
identified themselves as students from
Benedict College, a Baptist Negro
school in Columbia.
The Negroes carried two placards,
which read:
“Welcome to South Carolina, La nci
of Segregation and Discrimination.
“Let there be justice for all.”
★ ★ ★
‘Change of Mood’
Noted by Council
‘A very significant change of mood
in racial relationships in South Caro
lina was noted by the Christian A c
tion Council in its annual report, ^
sued April 18. .
“Racism as a political issue 'died
the elections,” said Howard G.
Clain, editor of the monthly
tion of the group, which is compos
of Protestant leaders. t
The report said that the impact o
the “vicarious suffering” the state t
for Mississippi in the Ole Miss deseg
regation crisis resulted in a growrws
opinion that “it must not happen here,
“The united and determined effo
of the state’s political and econo
leaders helped make possible ‘ dese
regation with dignity” at Clemson
lege in January, the report said. {
It adds that another important
was “the preparation of the soil <j
opinion in which many churches ^
Christians—lay and clergy—in the S* 8
had a part.” m
“There are indications that there
be greater freedom in the future^
meet and discuss our problems togs
as Christian brethren,” the report c
eluded.
★ ★ ★
The U.S. Department of Heal*
Education and Welfare during P fl f
received bids for the constructs ^
on-base elementary schools st ^
Jackson and Myrtle Beach Air
Base. aI t-
The action was a step in the uep 1 ^
ment’s plan to provide non-segreg _
facilities for children of military F*
sonnel at six Southern bases.