About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1963)
PAGE 14—JUNE, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS SOUTH CAROLINA Assembly Enacts Private Schools Tuition Grants Plan COLUMBIA he South Carolina General Assembly enacted a bill for a private schools tuition grants plan designed as a “safety valve” in the event of public school de segregation. The bill had been the subject of al most continuous discussion since it was proposed by Gov. Donald S. Russell in his mid-January address to the legis lature. The Senate’s third reading of the House-passed measure on May 30 was anti-climactic. Only the day before, on second reading, it was the subject of heated debate as a handful of oppo nents made a last-ditch stand. The bill, nevertheless, passed 35-4. Three weeks earlier the House had ap proved it 78-28. The legislation itself provides no funds but permits school districts to grant $155 a year to pupils who wish to attend accredited private schools that have no religious affiliation. It also includes a local option feature. It is generally agreed that the districts, using local funds rather than those raised at the state level, will have to supplement the base figure. Leading proponents, including Gov. Russell and Calhoun County Sen. L. Marion Gressette, whose state school (segregation) committee drafted it, rarely if ever mentioned racial aspects in their espousals of the plan. They in sisted it would promote a healthy com petition between public and private schools and upgrade education. Faimer’s Argument Dillon Sen. Roger Scott, a farmer from the agricultural Pee Dee section of the state, centered his last-day op position on this line of argument: “We may as well say it,” he told the Senate, “it’s about white people and Negroes.” He said that under U. S. Supreme Court rulings, there is “no escape . . . and we need not fabricate one.” Scott predicted the plan would “drive a wedge” between upper class whites and other whites and end up forcing “two-thirds of our white people to join with the Negroes.” Gressette and others were on their feet to deny it was a “rich man’s bill.” But Scott insisted the “meager” $155 would not be sufficient to send all stu dents to private schools. The Dillon senator, who ran for gov ernor in the 1940s, said he had heard many senators mention the Constitu tion and noted that the “same constitution ap- plies to both races.” He added that, “this is the most inconsistent stand I have seen.” He said he re alizes he might be “plastered as an integra- tionist” but we have a responsibility to each and every person in the state re gardless of his color or creed ... I’m not going to shirk my responsibilty. “We are not going to travel too fast as long as half of our population spends its time trying to hold the other half back.” He said persons of minority religions should be “proud we got the Negroes.” If not, he declared, the minority re ligions would be treated in a “Hitler” fashion. Support From Afar Scott found his main support in a distant part of the state. Greenville Sen. P. Bradley Morrah and Spartanburg Sen. Charles Moore, both representing populous industrial counties in the northwest corner, spoke out against the proposal. Morrah said he objected because the bill would allow “a diversion of public monies for private purposes.” He said South Carolina already is near the bot tom of the list in education because of lack of funds. Moore, agreeing, said that “putting public funds into private pockets will in no way solve the problem. Tax money does not lose its identity by taking it out of the state treasury and putting it into private pockets.” Sen. J. P. Harrelson of Colleton in troduced an amendment which would withhold the grants from students cur rently attending private schools. Sta tistics show that fewer than 3,000 of the state’s 365,000 white pupils are at tending the state’s 18, white, nonsec tarian schools. The Harrelson amend ment was killed. Gressette, in defending the bill against Scott’s attack and that of oth- Soutli Carolina Highlights ' A tuition grants bill, designed as a “safety valve’’ in the event of pub lic school desegregation, passed the General Assembly a day after it was violently attacked by Dillon Sen. Roger Scott. The incoming president of the University of South Carolina stu dent body called on students to “act with dignity” in the event the school is desegregated next year. But stu dents staged a mild, anti-desegrega tion demonstration on the campus. Harvey B. Gantt, completing his first semester as Clemson College’s first Negro student, said he had been treated well by faculty and students and added that he plans to at tend both sessions of summer school. The U. S. Supreme Court refused to review a Clarendon County, S.C., lower court’s decision that a deseg regation suit should not be brought as a class action. ers, said he had never heard a “weaker attempt to torpedo a bill. “It is my impression that these sena tors want the bill to pass but want to say to a few school teachers back home that they did not vote to destroy public education.” (Public opposition from teachers’ groups, P-TAs, etc., had cen tered from the beginning in Greenville, Spartanburg and other big counties.) Insists Education Helped Gressette insisted the bill would help, not destroy, public education. Gressette insisted the bill could “stand apart” from the segregation is sue because, he said, it benefits educa tion. He said he resents the charges that the Gressette Committee would do any thing to injure education and insisted that it had worked since its formation in 1951 “to satisfy both races. “There has been no discrimination,” In the Colleges Gressette declared, “but we have no in tention, so long as I live, to let the NAACP or the national government take over the schools of South Caro lina.” He said that in the event of any emergency, the people of the state are not going to look to school teachers but to “this General Assembly and the gov ernor of the state for protection.” Gressette was supported by a num ber of senators. Sumter’s Henry B. Richardson called the legislation “a safety valve.” Horry’s James P. Stevens charged that Scott, who represents an adjoining county, is ready to “roll over and play dead to the U. S. Supreme Court . . . “The Supreme Court, including the Socialist from the State of California has set race relations back 50 years . . . Let the Supreme Court know that this General Assembly will throw up every possible roadblock.” Similar Debate A similar, if somewhat milder, de bate on the bill took place in the House on May 9, when key second reading came. There Clarendon Rep. Joseph O. Rogers Jr., vice-chairman of the Gres sette Committee, guided the legislation. Lexington Rep. Ryan Shealy said the bill “is not a last-ditch stand against the forces of integration. This is a graceful capitulation.” He argued that the dual-school plan “will lead us blindly and headlong into disaster. We’d better prepare for the eventualities, because within the next 50 years, we are going to have to face up to it . . . we are going to have to accept some form of token integration in our lifetime.” Shealy suggested a committee of non-politicians, appointed by the gov ernor, that would lay the groundwork by long-range planning “to face the problems we have to face.” Charleston Rep. Robert Scarborough said he wanted to make the plan ap plicable to parochial schools. His amendment failed when Hampton Rep. Clyde Eltzroth, a Catholic, branded it as “foreign to what we consider American.” After passage, Gov. Russell said he was “gratified.” Schoolmen Gantt to Attend Both Sessions Of Summer School Harvey B Gantt, concluding an un eventful first semester at Clemson College, says he plans to attend both sessions of summer school to work to ward his degree in architectural en gineering. The only Negro student enrolled in South Carolina’s state-supported white schools told Zalin Grant, a columnist on the student newspaper, that his ac ceptance at Clemson has surprised him, “although I never really had visions of another Ole Miss.” The summer school work will make up the ground he lost when he trans ferred from Iowa State, where he was a junior, to Clem son, which he en tered as a junior, tered as a second semester soph omore. Gantt told Clemson officials when he wanted no interviews and as little publicity as possible. The college, agreeing, has carefully screened outside telephone calls and denied direct interviews on campus. Gantt’s admittance, although accom panied by considerable fanfare, was peaceful. Shortly before exam time, Gantt told student writer Grant that “it would be presumptuous for me to comment on my grades until final examinations are over, but I can say that I’m pleased with my semester’s work.” Other sources said his grades were in the neighbor hood of ‘B.’ Continuing Gantt said: “The instruc tors. .. have been fair in every manner. The students I have come in contact with have always conducted themselves well and I have had no trouble of any kind. The apparent attitude.. .has be® one of indifference.” The few minor occurrences that fob lowed his entrance in January r e _ portedly were not repeated. A source close to Gantt reported occasional “joint study sessions” with white students. Said this person: “H e remarked to me the other day that he knows of no school he would rather be in than Clemson.” Gantt’s hall supervisor, Dennis Crock, er, a senior from the Spartanburg County cotton mill town of Pacolet, was quoted as saying: “Harvey Gantt has conducted him self in such a manner that even the most conservative of students have to grudgingly admit that he has ‘guts’ and ‘good sense.’ “Here on the hall, he has kept to himself, not in an aloof manner, but waiting for the other person to make any friendly overtures, to which he responds well. “...His room is usually one of the cleaner, if not the cleanest, for room inspection which I conduct... most of the students on the hall seem to have accepted him, with the exception of one or two.” ‘Almost Unobtrusive’ Another student commented that Gantt’s presence is hardly noticed. “He moves about the campus in an almost unobtrusive manner,” the student said. Gantt’s attorney, Matthew Perry of Columbia, said that the 20-year old Charlestonian has spent most of his free < time with Negro friends in Anderson 1 or Seneca, near the Clemon campus; dating a girl friend who is attending a I Columbia Negro college; or at his Char- j j leston home. Gantt entered Clemson under a court t order that was construed by the federal s courts to be a class action. Clemson officials said on May 23 that it has no other applications from Negroes on hand. They added that they have many inquiries and could not say if they were P from whites or Negrces. 0 While Gantt was completing his se- 6 mester’s work, Clemson, through Wash ington, D.C., attorney Eugene Gressman, K filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme j Court, asking a review of the ‘class ac- t j tion’ label. He said it was “too broad and not , j. justified by the facts in the case.” The i brief argued that college admissions “have to be considered on the basis o ; U the individual applicant.” ™ The petition did not ask for the re- st moval of Gantt. i oi ‘Dignity’ Plea Ends College Year GANTT As the University of South Carolina ended its school year, there was an obvious preoccupation on the part of a number of students over the possibility that, when they return in the fall, the university will be desegregated. Reaction to the prospect took two forms: • An impromptu but nonviolent anti desegregation demonstration; • A plea from the incoming presi dent of the student body for students to “act with dignity” if the first Negro in the school’s modern history is ad mitted. The flurry may have been prompted by a letter written to JoAnn Coker, edi tor of the student newspaper, by Henri Monteith, a Negro girl from Columbia who last fall filed suit (Monteith v. University of South Carolina et al) after she was denied admittance to the state university in Columbia. The letter, printed in the USC news paper, The Gamecock, May 10, came from Baltimore, where Miss Monteith is completing her freshman year at the College of Notre Dame for Women. It responded to an editorial by Miss Coker. Miss Monteith’s Letter Wrote Miss Monteith: “I heartily agree with you when you say that people too often become sym bols. I do not wish to be a symbol . . . but rather just an ordinary college girl. “. • . A few weeks ago, I was made very proud to be a South Carolinian. The occasion was the peaceful admis sion of Harvey Gantt to Clemson Col lege . . . I’m sure that all South Caro linians can hold their heads just a bit higher because of the integrity shown by the officials and students of Clem son College. I do not expect another Mississippi in South Carolina. The peo ple of South Carolina have passed the first real crisis . . . and made a beau tiful showing . . . “I would like to thank those who have written letters of encouragement to me ... I hope I will be able to meet all of you in the near future and thank you in person for your kindness. “I feel confident that the student body at the university will act in accordance with their better judgment. It is through education that we are en lightened and become truly wise. The course taken by students at my en trance will determine to educators whether they are being successful in their life’s work . . .” Miss Monteith also noted that she was studying pre-med at Notre Dame, hoped to become a doctor and join the Peace Corps. In the next issue of The Gamecock, Todd Wilson, newly elected student body president from Greenville, au thored a column in which he noted the “challenge” the student body may face next fall. Said Wilson: “In the event that integration does come, the future of Carolina is at stake. At such time we must act with dignity and in accordance with the regulations of the university and our state. Our reaction to integration will not mean that we individually accept it or re ject it . . . “We have already seen two incidents —Mississippi and Clemson. The univer sity of Mississippi, with her bloody hand, tore down the fabric of dignity and the ability to live within an atmo sphere of academic pursuit. But Clem son has risen to greater heights with the combined itelligence and rationality of the students and administration. From these two, we see the path is clear... “It is most important that we realize that we are not following a policy of defeatism. We do not want integration. Neither do we want to be blamed for the loss of dignity and integrity throughout our area. We must rise above the bonds of prejudice . . . “In the final analysis, the state gov ernment, our administration and our student government will do all in then- power to insure peace and rationality. Still, the most important decision is in your (the student body’s) hands. You must personally and individually decide your action. I place my greatest con fidence in you... in preparing USC for this event...” Three days after Wilson’s column appeared, a portion of the student body offered another reaction. Early in the evening of May 20, a group of young Negroes from Booker T. Washington High School, across the street from the southern edge of the USC campus, finished rehearsal for a class play and headed home. Their course took them up a street running between the university’s fra ternity row and a group of dormitories. Catcalls Shouted Shouted catcalls between the Negroes and some students in the dormitories resulted, according to reports. A num ber of students poured out of the dorms. The group of Negro children hastened through three more blocks of campus area and dispersed. Some 200 students, according to esti mates, actively took part in an anti desegregation demonstration in the area —in front of a girls’ dorm. Scores of others gathered to watch. Then the group surged to the univer sity’s main campus. Estimates of its size at this point ranged from 400 to 1,000. A makeshift cross was burned in front of the home of President Thomas F. Jones, who was out of the city. Eventually a portion of the student group swarmed up Sumter Street, a principal thoroughfare, to the State House grounds, a block away. The demonstration continued for a few minutes around the Confederate Monument in front of the State House before campus police and news pho tographers dispersed the group. No arrests were made and the Uni versity took no disciplinary action. The next day, S.C. Attorney General Daniel McLeod termed the incident “not serious.” Negro attorney Matthew Perry, who has handled a number of desegregation cases including that of Miss Monteith, said: “It’s spring and exam time. Students have been sitting in their rooms all day studying. They needed an outlet and integration is a popular topic. Someone shouts, ‘two, four, six, eight’ and it starts. It’s similar to the panty raids you hear about...” Legal Action Supreme Court Refuses to Review Clarendon Ruling itrict. the ifter a preliminary hearing on go. e, Judge Wyche ruled on Ma> ^ 2 that the 42 Negro plantiffs e (Brunson et al v. c ^ re \^i jmty School District No. 1) bring suit as a group. , of nstead of proceeding with * ar0 e- case, attorneys for the h ealed Wy che’s ruling tothe ^ . fltl euit and won. It was this have reviewed by the uri. . n v n the meantime, the case^ putrid ed out. icb^ 1 1 OUT.. ,t- e . the meantime, whites in „ rn iiie r ^ rict, which is centered in = ^ ^ ii. - 1 nnuntn; SGCOnU » v * the rural country’s second 5ee SOUTH CAROLINA, Page se af ar to The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower court 4 eC Liit lich said a pending desegregation ainst Clarendon County School ict No. 1 could be brought as a c tion. . on The action reached the high court .peal from the Fourth Circuit Appeals which earlier had 0 p q mlintf Via/ Foderal Judg© . an gr be Po tie sai op< he med a ruling by Federal Judge f vche of South Carolina s w LUH CU1U VYUll. AK it the school district’s trustees so e jU gW SUP^ 6 I Pea lad spe th e >wded docket of the U.S. D jpal urt at Charleston awaiting ^ ieral court work in South fcf 5 been slowed for some rn0 , !?eS friP i o vacancies in the four jU I igned the state. . Several of the plaintiffs in J) Clarendon School Distrrc : o were parties to South ^ (■ ginal desegregation case t foil* iott), which was one of ies decided by the Supreme ^ its decision of May 17, ‘separate-but-equal doctr 5 Pp: ■;tl (Cr > ^62 % 17) I *^ci
