Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6—JUNE, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
Court Tells University of Alabama
To Admit Three Negro Students
(Continued from Page 1)
Mate) asked the court to enjoin Dean
of Admissions Hubert Mate from “re
fusing to consider the applications of
Negro residents of Alabama . . . upon
the same terms and conditions appli
cable to white students.”
Directed to show cause why Mate
should not be held in contempt, the
board of trustees announced in advance
of Grooms’ May 21 order that Miss
Malone and McGlathery would be ac
cepted. But they requested more time
to permit the current racial unrest to
subside.
In rejecting the delay, Judge Grooms
noted that he had granted a delay in
the Autherine Lucy case and it was
concurred in by
Judge Richard T.
Rives of the U.S.
Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals.
However, he said,
“the Supreme
Court promptly
slapped both of
us down. I don’t
see that I have
any alternative
about the matter.
This court ... is
not a free agent in the matter of seg
regation or integration.”
‘Faced With Choice’
Announcing the trustees’ decision to
accept two of the students, Gessner T.
McCorvey of Mobile, president pro
tein of the board, said:
“The board was faced with the
choice between the admission of some
of the applicants or the outright dis
obedience of the order of the federal
court with consequent prison sentences
and other severe penalties for the dean
of admissions and any successor ap
pointed for him, and everyone else of
ficially connected with the university—
which punishment would not prevent
the admission.
“It has therefore directed the dean
of admissions to notify two Negro ap
plicants who have been found quali
fied of their admission to the univer
sity, one at the Huntsville Center and
one at Tuscaloosa for the sessions
which begin June 10, 1963.”
Grooms agreed to consolidation of
the Tuscaloosa and Huntsville cases.
Hood, who earlier was identified as
the student who wanted to begin
classes in Tuscaloosa in June, was no
tified that he must first take the
Standard College Ability Test, Dean
Mate testified. He said it would be
“academically dangerous” in his judge
ment “to take students from a school
unknown to the university without re
quiring them to take the test.” Hood
now attends Clarke College in At
lanta.”
The beard of trustees accepted Hood
for enrollment on June 3.
Miss Malone is now a junior in busi
ness education at Alabama A&M at
Huntsville. McGlathery, a mathemati
cian at the Marshall Space Flight Cen
ter at Huntsville, is an honor gradu
ate of A&M. He at first asked to attend
a graduate class at the Huntsville
Center (SSN, May), later changed to
an undergraduate application when
told his references were incomplete.
Gov. Wallace Announces
He W ill Block Admission
Gov. George Wallace immediately
announced he would exercise his con
stitutional authority to block the ad
mission of the Negroes. He said he
would appear personally on the cam
pus to turn back “any Negro who
attempts to enroll at the univer
sity. . . .”
This was Wallace’s campaign pledge,
subsequently reaffirmed repeatedly as
in his January inaugural statement of
total defiance (SSN, February).
Wallace, who is ex-officio president
of the board of trustees, said he would
act as “the highest constitutional of
ficer” in the state and use powers su
perseding the authority of the board.
He would, he said, exercise his “police
power to see that the laws are faith
fully executed and safeguard the
health, safety and welfare of the
state.”
“I embody the sovereignty of this
state,” he said. “This is legal resistance
and legal defiance.”
The governor said he intends to raise
previously untried constitutional ques
tions and that he will test “the consti
tutional standing that I possess as gov
ernor and as the direct representative
of the people of this state.”
Alabama Highlights
U.S. District Judge H. Hobart
Grooms of Birmingham directed the
University of Alabama to admit
three Negro students—two to the
main campus at Tuscaloosa and
the other to the University Cen
ter at Huntsville.
The University Board of Trustees
had agreed to admission of the Ne
groes but asked for a delay because
of racial strife in Birmingham. The
request for delay was denied.
Gov. George C. Wallace, who an
nounced he would intervene per
sonally at one or both of the uni
versity facilities, was enjoined from
doing so on June 5 by U.S. District
Judge Seybourn Lynne.
Racial turmoil in Birmingham cul
minated in two bombings May 11
and rioting by Negroes. The violence
followed negotiated concessions made
by Birmingham leaders meeting with
Negro leaders. The U.S. government
moved 3,000 troops to two Alabama
military installations for possible
use in Birmingham. However, one
contingent, of 600, was ordered back
to home bases May 25.
U.S. District Judge Seybourn
Lynne refused to order the Birming
ham Board of Education to begin
desegregating immediately. He
warned the board that racial dis
crimination under the state Pupil
Placement Law would not be toler
ated.
U.S. District Judge H. Hobart
Grooms ruled that the Justice De
partment was “without authority” to
bring desegregation suits in Hunts
ville and Madison County.
As a member of the board of trustees,
Wallace said, he voted against admit
ting Negroes “under any circum
stances.” He said he was not sure that
a governor would go unpunished for
such defiance, but expressed the belief
that courts “hesitate” to take such
action.
Silent on Patrol Use
He declined to say whether he would
use highway patrolmen to prevent vio
lence, but promised to “take whatever
action I think is necessary in the in
terest of the student body and the
peoDle. . . .”
He repeated his opposition to vio
lence and promised “law and order
will not break down.” While he said,
manv who “believe in constitutional
government and segregation” will re
sent Grooms’ order, he expressed con
fidence that “the people of Alabama
will conduct themselves in a manner
that will speak well of them.”
Grooms’ order, he said, is “another
example of unwarranted interference
by some federal courts with the inter
nal affairs of this state.” Wallace, who
has frequently spoken of the “lousy,
irresponsible federal judiciary,” said
some judges “have gone to ridiculous
extremes to impose an unjust, un
workable, unconstitutional social ex
periment on the people of this country
while blindly ignoring the rights of
white citizens.”
Justice Department
Receives Injunction
Wallace’s stand did not go unchal
lenged for long. The Justice Depart
ment petitioned for an injunction bar
ring his interference. U.S. District
Judge Seybourn H. Lynne at Birming
ham on June 5 granted the Justice
Department’s petition and pleaded for
law and order.
The Justice Department’s petition
contended that a governor “has no au
thority by ‘interposition’ or otherwise
to obstruct or prevent the execution
of the lawful orders of a court of the
United States.”
The action to restrain Wallace, the
government said, was “brought by the
United States in its sovereign capacity
to safeguard the due administration of
justice in its courts and the integrity
of its judicial process.”
After his 1958 defeat in his first bid
for governor, Wallace, then a circuit
judge, refused to comply with the or
der of U.S. District Judge Frank M.
Johnson Jr. of Montgomery to supply
voting records in his circuit to Civil
Rights Commission investigators. John
son cited Wallace for contempt, but
freed him when the records were pro
duced through what Johnson called
“devious means” for political purposes.
Terms of Injunction
The Justice Department’s injunction
petition was drawn to prevent the
governor, “his agents, employes, sub
ordinates and successors, together with
all persons in active concert or partici
pation with them from:
“Preventing or seeking to prevent or
interfering in any way with the en
rollment and attendance of Vivian J.
Malone and David M. McGlathery at
the University of Alabama;
“Obstructing or interfering by any
means or in any manner with the im
plementation of this court’s orders of
July 1, 1955;
“Otherwise obstructing or interfer
ing with the due administration of
justice by the courts of the United
States. . . .”
In Washington, Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy said the court ac
tion was aimed at testing Wallace’s
announced position of resistance and
defiance.
Wallace Stand
Opposed By Aide
Alabama Attorney General Rich
mond Flowers, who split with Wallace
on the issue of defiance even before
their inauguration and made an inau
gural statement diametrically opposed
to Wallace’s (SSN, February) again
took an opposite stand.
He said he had no intention of join
ing Wallace at the university door and
warned that the governor’s defiance
may trigger violence.
“When the governor stands in de
fiance of federal authority,” Flowers
said, “he encourages others to join him
—and that brings
on racial violence.
If federal troops
are used in Ala
bama, those who
defied the courts
and provoked vio
lence would be to
blame.”
Flowers said the
wiser course
would be to oust
Negroes after they
are admitted. He
said he had not been allowed to advise
the governor, who is relying on a
special committee of prominent Ala-
Kennedy and Wallace
Salutations at Muscle Shoals.
GROOMS
LYNNE
bama lawyers for his legal counsel.
The board of trustees, Flowers said,
“fought an excellent fight but had gone
as far as they could without subjecting
the dean of admissions or some other
official of the University.. .to a con
tempt citation which could have brought
prison sentences and other severe pen
alties.”
Suit Filed over Tioops
Wallace filed suit in the U,S. Su
preme Court May 18, challenging Presi
dent Kennedy’s authority to dispatch
troops for possible use in Birmingham
racial troubles. (See Comunity Action.)
The suit was filed even as Wallace
met with President Kennedy during
the President’s tour of TVA facilities
in North Alabama. The President ig
nored the racial issue during his visit,
and his exchanges with Gov. Wallace
were described as outwardly cordial.
Wallace said he had no personal ani
mosity for the President and found him
courteous.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
said in Washington that federal author-
ties welcomed the suit because “the
courts are the proper forum for settling
disputes of this sort.” He added:
While these new legal questions
sound like the long discredited doctrine
of interposition, nonetheless the way
to determine this is the courts, not in
the streets or by the confrontation of
military or police forces in Alabama.”
Community Action
The U.S. rejected Wallace’s suit Mav
27.
Wallace had claimed that the fed- ^
eral law under which the President
said he had authority to dispatch the
troops violated the Constitution be
cause no state official had asked fob
federal help.
The high court said Wallace’s com
plaint was premature because the:
President had done nothing except
prepare to exercise his authority un
der the law in question.
“In essence,” the court said, “the
papers show no more than that the
President has made ready to exercise
the authority conferred upon him by
10 United States Code Section 333 by
alerting and stationing military per- 1
sonnel in the Birmingham area. Such
purely preparatory measures are and
their alleged adverse general effects:
upon the plaintiffs afford no basis for
the granting of any relief.”
Flowers again challenged Wallace's
position: “How can he question the
President’s right to move troops to gov
ernment installations?” In a speech in
Mobile, he said that the governor's
defiant stand “could wreck the state’s
economy.”
Crowds in Muscle Shoals roared and
applauded at the President’s arrival:
they also cheered Wallace. The Presi
dent said: “The people of this area
(See COURT, Page 7)
Judge Declines to Order
Birmingham Desegregation
The Birmingham Board of Education
directed the expulsion or suspension of
1,081 Negro students arrested in Bir
mingham racial demonstrations during
May.
The students, aged six to 16, partici
pated in a series of demonstrations
which began April 3 (SSN, May) when
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared
Birmingham the center of the desegre
gation movement of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference.
Dr. Theo R. Wright, Birmingham
superintendent of schools, said the ex
pulsion was in keeping with the board’s
policy of truancy. Students were ad
vised they could apply for makeup
work in summer school.
In quick order, U. S. District Judge
Clarence W. Allgood refused to order
Dr. Wright to readmit the students and
said his court would not intervene in
school disciplinary problems as long as
the board of education stayed in
bounds.
Allgood said he was “shocked to see
hundreds of school children . . . run
ning loose and wild without direction
over the streets of Birmingham and
into business establishments.”
However, Chief Judge Elbert P. Tut
tle of the U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals directed that the children be
readmitted pending appeal. “It is
shocking,” Judge Tuttle said, “that a
board of education should thus destroy
the value of one term of schooling for
so many children.”
The school board had offered to give
each of the suspended students a hear
ing to determine whether there were
legitimate reasons for their absences.
‘Illegally Arrested’
Judge Tuttle held that the pupils
were “engaging in legally permissible
activities” and were “illegally arrested
for exercising this constitutional right.”
Bowing to Judge Tuttle’s order,
school authorities directed immediate
reinstatement of the suspended stu
dents, but an appeal was planned.
The suspensions and reinstatements
followed weeks of demonstrations in
Birmingham biracial committee of
irmingham leaders, meeting with Nf
ro leaders, finally agreed May 10 ot
roposals to end the racial eon “.
r hich has resulted in the arrest °-
bout 2,100 Negroes. .
The terms of the agreement, thou?
isavowed by the incumbent three
ian city commission, along with neg
lected Mayor Albert Boutwell, we
tese: ^
• Desegregation of lunch eotur e-
:strooms, sitting rooms and drinK 11
>untains in planned stages within
ays- . . . ij e .
• The upgrading and hiring 01 ..
roes on a nondiscriminatory
his would include the hiring o _
roes as clerks and salesmen w 1
5 days - „ bone
e Arrangements for release on
r personal recognizance of all
rrested during racial demonstra
• Communications between
nd white persons to be re-esta ^
>oking toward a biracial conu m
?t up a school desegregation
le. f)ie
New violence exploded °)' e . c: 1
'eekend of May 11-12. The ° ^
le Rev. A. D. King was virtual^
lolished shortly after midwg ’ ^
l by two bomb blasts, followe y.
lore at the A. G. Gaston Mo f’ ’
uarters of the desegregationis
le week’s long campaign. a j th {
Thousands of Negroes S ather ni ght c ’’
lenes and fanned out in a
iolence. firen 1 ^
Nearly 50 persons, including ^ ^
nd policemen, were hospita 1Z
iot continued until dawn- sta'j
Reinforced police, backe ^
fficers—a total armed i oc k at**
ran 1,000—roamed the 28
•here the rioting occurred. Jlc;
Three fires occurred a ** a son a* 1 '
roes were charged with a& *
arceny after a building v' a ® faters^.
Heaviest fire loss was at ^yet 1 ?
ion of 15th Street and , two a
rorth where a grocery an“ A m*
fining houses were destroy tte d •.
aarket across the street w ^ 0 f v-
ames Firemen were kePgr^.
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