About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1963)
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1963—RASE 7 Discrimination Charge Probed By Government MIAMI T he drive to desegregate schools and all other public facilities ■ Brevard County, which in cludes Cape Canaveral, has re sulted in a federal investigation into alleged discrimination. Other action is anticipated by the NAACP which has been pushing for s^me federal move for more than a Cavid L. Lawrence, chairman of the President’s Committee on Equal Op portunity in Housing, said on April 25 that the group has found evidence of ll !l Sa ke: vit ticti the! firs I r«| ire > C H ?sa: c tb 5US- ne; *\ lanj ant i in* DC* hi ire # & it- i* Whfle this committee is interested only in housing, the NAACP has said repeatedly that segregated housing is used as a means of geographical seg regation in schools and is a key barrier to equal opportunity. A. suit to desegregate schools in Bre vard County has been pending for several months. The NAACP said it is hopeful that the federal government will become associated in the litigation since the schools serve hundreds of families employed at Cape Canaveral and other federal installations. Over a year ago the Florida NAACP proclaimed Brevard a special target, contending that world attention was focused on space activities there and made segregation particularly damag ing to the national image. The national office of the NAACP has adopted this as one of its objectives. Letter to Kennedy Writing to President Kennedy, Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of NAACP, said more than 1,000 Negroes are employed in the space effort in the Cape Canaveral area but are de nied access to white schools and other public facilities. In the area of housing, he said, Ne groes are unable to buy FHA-financed homes in white sections, although more than 300 Eire available on the market. “I cannot urge too strongly,” Wil kins wrote the President, “the neces sity of action to remove the racial dis crimination. I believe you will agree with me that full and speedy exercise °f the presidential power can and should accomplish this purpose.” The NAACP executive’s letter con tinued: Federal space and military instal- intions predominate in the area. The entire local community, including tourist accommodations, banking facili- * le s, schools and public facilities, is ependent directly and indirectly on ^PPort of the federal government, cderal grants and loans for urban tonewal and low-rent housing to meet ucipated expansions are imminent. e government’s role as principal em- °>er in this area is apparent.” Florida Highlights Segregated schools and other fa cilities in Brevard County, site of Cape Canaveral, are facing a fed eral investigation. The University of Miami has di rected its student publications to ban advertising of firms which refuse to serve Negro students. Federal District Judge Carswell took under advisement objections to his order requiring desegregation of Leon County schools. Also affected are the student year book, Ibis and the magazine, Tempo. The order was issued by the uni versity’s board of publications, includ ing faculty and student members. It was approved by President Henry King Stanford. The step was taken after several let ters were received and printed in the Hurricane, protesting that Negro stu dents were banned from restaurants which had published ads in the news paper. The Hurricane’s student editors ac cepted the ban wholeheartedly, al though two connected with the busi ness side resigned. In an editorial by L. E. (Skip) Rozin, editor, the prize - winning newspaper stated the decision by the board was “as courageous as it was correct.” “It reflects fur ther credit,” the editorial contin ued, “on a uni versity administration which has con sistently dealt with the problem of integration in a progressive manner.” The Hurricane recalled that the in stitution in 1961 became the first private university in the lower South to adopt voluntary desegregation. There are now Negroes in all phases of univer sity activity, including the teaching staff. Those who resigned from the Hur ricane management were Gerald Liss, general manager and Steve Schemer, advertising manager. Both emphasized in their letter of resignation that they were not op posed to the university’s policy of full equality for all students. They objected to the “manner and method” in which the policy was put into effect and particularly to the short notice given the weekly publication staff. A special mail-away edition had to be cancelled. Student sources said that most busi ness establishments in the campus area had followed the university’s policy of desegregation and that only a few were affected by the order. RUZIN Legal Action Leon County Suit Decision Pending ^iami University ^ ans Student Paper of Some Firms gaa U^versity of Miami, which be- a Negro students under two v Cy complete desegregation Miam; a £o, has instructed the •tomu Hurri icane, student weekly firms k-’ re ^ use advertisements of s todenbf licl1 re ^ use to serve Negro Louisiana lati Ve (C ° ntinued From Page 6) Pott Of cut off state sup- >Jot i conh. a scho °ls in the desegrega te , ur °versy. ^Proven °k serv ed that relations have fie add since then. that the board needs the 'Ps as n S * n meeting such prob- l;--6ase s • Vlding needed teacher pay r , ecruit ing more and bet- Oh? 1 Probl f > m teac hers and in coping r re d h«*. stemming from court- „ r^egation. Ori e ry Edward F. * ' ■ * le Sisu!r delegation, >1 thi lV \ com mittee rv^’U car. SC j°° ls here > smd: S ^slafed upon « W &ut T j , as far as OH C C'on trnl d ° n t we h V vi ° Ver ^ finance you do.” Final decision in the Leon County school desegregation suit has been re served by Federal District Judge Harrold Carswell after hearing ob jections that the plan submitted is inadequate. The school board at Talla hassee proposed that desegregation start with the first grade in Septem ber and that an additional grade be added each year thereafter. The proposal has become known in Florida as the Escambia Plan since it was first proposed by the Escambia school board last year. Three other counties under court orders to desegre gate also have proposed similar plans. NAACP attorneys objected, in a hearing before Judge Carswell April 22, that the process was too slow. It excludes all Negro children now in school from ever attending desegre gated classes, they said. The plaintiffs also found fault with a provision that parents must apply for mally, and within specified periods, in order to have their children trans ferred from an assigned school. Reas signment would be contingent on such factors as school capacity, teacher loads and availability of transportation. These factors, the attorneys said, could be used effectively to maintain segregation. Judge Carswell gave no indication when he will rule on the objections. An appeal is expected in any event. CARSWELL GEORGIA Albany, Macon, Augusta Groups Demand School Desegregation MACON lb any Negroes filed a school desegregation suit against the Dougherty County Board of Edu cation. And Macon and Augusta Negroes demanded school deseg regation in their respective com munities. Atlanta is the only desegregated school district in the state although petitions requesting that color bars be removed have been filed in more than half a dozen other localities. In a suit filed April 5, a permanent injunction to bar school officials from continuing to operate separate schools for white and Negro students weis asked. As an alternative, the suit asks that school officials be ordered to draw up a complete plan of desegregation within a period of time to be deter mined by the court. The 16 Negro plaintiffs are repre sented by C. B. King, who said the court action was instituted because the Dougherty board failed to respond to formal requests for voluntary desegre gation asked in a petition nearly three months ago. “Up to the filing of this petition, there has been no official re sponse,” King said. J. J. Cordell, superintendent, said the petition had been turned over to a committee of the board and the com mittee had not reported. Negro students were turned away last September when they sought to enter white schools in Albany. In Macon, it was expected that Ne groes would file a desegregation suit against the Bibb County Board of Education. Meetings Inconclusive A series of meetings between the board and the Bibb County Coordinat ing Committee, a group of Negroes with William P. Randall as spokesman, was inconclusive. Randall said the Negroes were un der the impres sion that an April 8 meeting was ar ranged to discuss problems in cident to segrega tion. The Negroes called the meeting a “farce.” On April 24 the board voted to ask Bibb County Superior Court to rule “whether the board can legally operate other than separate schools for white and colored pupils as provided in the charter.” Judge W. D. Aultman set a hearing on the petition for a declaratory judg- Georgia Highlights A desegregation suit was filed in Albany. There was the possibility of another being initiated in Macon. Augusta Negroes asked that the schools there be desegregated. Three school systems turned turned down tuition grants for attending private schools. Georgia Tech announced that its athletic teams will play against bi- racial athletic teams in Atlanta in the future. Mercer University trustees voted to accept qualified Negro students. ment for May 29. Members of the board, a self-per petuating body, said there was some question as to whether the board, with the charter powers granted by the state, and as distinguished from the state, can legally operate other than separate schools for white and Negro children. Meanwhile, it was learned that if a federal court suit is filed to end racial segregation in the schools of Bibb County, it may seek total desegrega tion rather than the gradual approach tried in some other Southern cities. The suit, if filed, would be handled by the NAACP legal staff on behalf of the local plaintiffs. NAACP attorneys have been moving away from pupil placement plans and “token integra tion.” Action In Augusta In Augusta, a delegation of five Ne groes appeared before the Richmond County Board of Education April 11 to ask that a plan of school desegregation be prepared “so that our children may get a better education.” Negro attorney J. D. Watkins, spokesman for the group, asked that the Richmond County desegregation plan be submitted within 30 days. The Augusta Chronicle and Herald said the choice was between resistance which might lead to violence and a lo cally prepared plan keeping the best interests of both white and Negro stu dents in mind. More than half the Protestant clergy men of Augusta adopted a resolution supporting voluntary desegregation of the Richmond County school. The resolution of the Evangelical Ministerial Association, composed of ministers from about 60 of Augusta’s 100 churches, adopted April 29, said: “We believe that voluntary desegre gation done in a Christian spirit is the most effective solution to this particu lar problem.” The Rev. Comer Brownlow, president of the association, said the resolution expressed the sentiment of ministers, not necessarily that of church members. Schoolmen 3 School Systems Veto Tuition Grants Three school systems turned down tuition grants for students attending private schools. They were Fulton, Bibb, and Walker counties. The At lanta and Decatur systems are ex pected to take similar action and sev eral others may vote against supplying part of the tuition money for private education. The tuition grant law originally was designed to provide state assistance for students desiring to transfer to private segregated schools if their public schools were desegregated. But in its 1963 session, the legislature voted to leave it up to local boards and pro vided that part of the grants must be paid out of local funds. ★ ★ ★ Douglas Barnard, executive secretary to Gov. Carl E. Sanders, became the first official representative of any gov ernor of Georgia to address the Geor gia Teachers and Education Associa tion, an organization of Negro teachers. Barnard spoke at the annual con vention of the association in Atlanta April 4 and said he hoped Georgia teachers’ salaries would reach the na tional average by fiscal 1967. What They Say Attorney General Praises Georgia For Helping Self Attorney General Robert Kennedy visited Gov. Carl E. Sanders April 26 and praised Georgia’s progress in “working out its own problems” in the raciEd field. Kennedy said, “A great deal has been accomplished during the Kennedy ad ministration—in the peaceful desegre gation in the schools in Atlanta and Dallas.” He said that Mississippi was some- (See GEORGIA, Page 15) RANDALL In the Colleges Tech to Host Rivals’ Biracial Teams Georgia Tech athletic director Bobby Dodd announced April 12 that the board of regents of the university sys tem of Georgia would permit the At lanta school to play against biracial athletic teams in Atlanta in the future. The regents previously had an un written policy that Georgia and Geor gia Tech could compete against teams playing Negros away from home but not in this state. A questionnaire from the University of Kentucky concerning Tech’s attitude toward playing biracial teams at home was referred by Dodd to the board. (See Kentucky report.) The University of Kentucky’s ques tions were: • Would you play against Negroes on your own campus? • Would you play against Negroes away from your own campus? • Would you continue to schedule Kentucky teams if Negroes played? Dodd said he answered “yes” to all three questions after hearing from the officials. “This means of course,” Dodd said, “that we would not only play Ken tucky at home or away but any other team that uses Negroes on the same basis.” Official comment on the University of Georgia’s policies on the matter was declined by Howell Hollis, acting di rector of athletics at the school. ★ ★ ★ By a 13 to 5 vote, Mercer University trustees April 18 voted to open the Coach Bobby Dodd The answers were yes. doors of the Baptist school at Macon to all qualified students, regardless of race. Mercer is the third church-related school to agree to desegregate. Emory University in Atlanta, a Methodist affiliated institution, was desegregated in 1961 sifter a court ruled it would not lose special tax status as a private school if Negroes were admitted. Co lumbia Theological Seminary in De catur, a Presbyterian school, has been desegregated for some time. The Mercer vote came after a year of deliberation. A decision apparently was forced by the application of Sam Jerry Oni, 22, of Takoradji, Ghana, an honor graduate of Fijai secondary school in Sekondi, who officials say is the first qualified Negro who has ap plied at Mercer. Oni is expected to enter Mercer in September and another Negro, Lewis Freeman of Atlanta, has applied for admission to file Southern College of Pharmacy in Atlanta, which is operated by Mercer. No mention of use of dormitory fa cilities by any Negroes who might be admitted under the new policy was made in the Mercer announcement. Dr. Walter J. Moore, chairman of the spe cial trustee committee, said file ques tion of dormitory usage did not fall within his group’s province. ★ ★ ★ In Athens, a University of Georgia spokesman announced that Hamilton Earl Holmes, one of the first two Ne groes admitted to the university, has won a Phi Beta Kappa key for excep tionally high grades. Holmes, who will receive a Bachelor of Science degree in pre-medicine in June, was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa as of the spring quar ter. The Atlanta Negro has been ac cepted at Emory University medical school and will become its first Negro student in September.
