About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1963)
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^. 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