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PAGE 10—JULY. 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
KENTUCKY
Governor Bans Bias
By Licensees of State
LOUISVILLE
ov. Bert T. Combs on June 26
issued a precedent-shattering
executive order forbidding racial
discrimination by state-licensed
firms and professions, and said the
order might be used to withhold
accreditation and funds from
school districts practicing racial
segregation.
The o-der was called the first of its
kind in the Southern or border states
and the first in the nation not backed
up by antibias legislation.
It took effect immediately, but
Combs gave the departments of state
government with licensing powers up
to 60 days to prepare reports telling
how each proposes to put the order
into action.
If upheld by the courts and effec
tively enforced, the order presumably
would compel restaurants, taverns, mo
tels, barber and beauty shops, funeral
homes, nursing homes, merchandising
firms and others holding state licenses
to adopt an open-door service policy
without regard to race or face the re
vocation or suspension of their licenses.
School Districts
As for school districts, the governor
said, “If they failed to integrate, they’d
be in danger of losing state as well as
federal funds.”
Combs made it clear that the legal
implications of his order were not
fully known. But he said he thought
that, in the official antidiscrimination
climate created by the order, the State
Department of Education could hardly
afford not to apply whatever pressure
is needed to end school segregation.
The State Department of Education,
which has responsibility for issuing
teaching certificates and accrediting
schools, has considered taking punitive
action against segregated school dis
tricts, but the department and the
State Board of Education have adhered,
up to now, to a policy of persuading
holdout districts to desegregate. The
department’s latest count indicates that
only five districts still lack any degree
of desegregation or any plan or policy
for future of desegregation. (See
Schoolmen.)
Combs based his order on the pre
mise that discrimination in places of
public accommodation is “unfair, un
just and inconsistent with” the Con
stitution of Kentucky and the Consti
tution of the United States, and that
holders of state permits and licenses
are under as much compulsion to com
ply with federal law as they are to ob
serve state law.
Legislature in Session
His order was issued at Frankfort at
a time when the General Assembly
was in special session to consider hos
pital problems in East Kentucky.
The order was generally praised by
civil rights leaders who had been urg
ing that the special legislative session
be broadened to consider a statewide
antibias law. The desegregation leaders,
however, reaffirmed their desire to
have an antibias bill submitted to a
future General Assembly. They said
the order was not a substitute.
Kentucky Highlights
School districts practicing racial
segregation may be subject to the
loss of state financial aid under a
precedent-breaking antidiscrimina
tion executive order issued by
Gov. Bert T. Combs.
Student-transfer provisions in three
separate desegregation plans were
struck down in federal court and the
districts involved were ordered to sub
mit new plans providing also for
faculty hiring without regard to race.
The State Department of Education
reported that the number of school
districts which have not complied
with a request to adopt desegregation
plans has been reduced to five. Five
other districts adopted plans during
June, it was reported, and the state’s
biggest-enrollment district, Jefferson
County, moved to increase pupil de
segregation and to initiate faculty de
segregation.
The number of Negro teachers
working on biracial faculties should
increase substantially next term, said
the director of the State Commission
on Human Rights.
Some Republican leaders in the Gen
eral Assembly called for an immediate
vote on an antidiscrimination bill so
such a law could be passed. They
charged that Combs’ order was a po
litical move to persuade voters to sup
port the Democratic ticket in Novem
ber, that the order is of doubtful
legality, and that it will be in effect
only until Combs, a Democrat, leaves
office Dec. 10.
The Democratic candidate for gover
nor, Edward T. (Ned) Breathitt, said
he would keep the order in effect if
he is elected. The Republican candi
date, Louie B. Nunn, said he approved
the order’s objectives but felt the
question should have been presented
to the legislature since it was in ses
sion.
Legal Action
Court Tells Boards
To Strike Transfer
Option from Plans
Three school districts were ordered
in federal court to discard optional
transfer provisions in their desegrega
tion proposals and to submit new plans
within 30 days, all to be effective at
the start of the fall term.
U. S. District Judge H. Church Ford
based his rulings on the Supreme
Court decision of June 3 which held
that transfer op
tions in Knoxville
and Davidson
County, Tenn.,
violated the
equal - protection
clause of the 14th
Amendment.
The three Ken
tucky cases,
stemming from
separate lawsuits,
involved the
boards of educa
tion of Jessamine County, where ini
tial desegregation was sought, and of
Frankfort and Richmond, where ex
tended desegregation was the goal.
Attendance Zones
Judge Ford adhered to the view that
each school board should establish “ra
tional and reasonable” attendance
zones for each school and that stu
dents should attend the school in their
zone regardless of race.
He said, as did the Supreme Court,
that transfer options based on race
would tend to perpetuate pupil segre
gation. He also has ordered faculty
Schoolmen
The State Board of Education re
ceived on June 26 a report that only
five Kentucky public-school districts
lack plans for desegregation. The re
port said five districts had announced
plans for desegregation since a June 10
report.
Listed as not having immediate plans
for desegregation were the county dis
tricts of Fulton, Graves, Muhlenberg,
Hickman and Todd.
Listed as planning desegregation this
fall were the county districts of War
ren, Casey and Metcalfe.
Listed as changing to “a voluntary
plan pending complete integration in
1964 when school buildings now under
construction are ready for occupancy”
were Montgomery County and the
Mount Sterling city system.
The desegregation progress report
was made by Sam B. Taylor, assistant
director of instructional services, who
has been working with school district
officials to encourage desegregation.
Taylor also reported on the number
of all-Negro high schools. He said there
were 60 in the state in 1954-5. Up to
this year, 23 had been discontinued “as
of today,” he said. Of the remaining
21, he said, several are classified as
desegregated but have all-Negro stu
dent bodies because they draw from
an attendance district in which no
white students live.
Gov. Bert Combs
An executive order.
desegregation in the three Kentucky
cases, summaries of which follow:
FRANKFORT—A second elemen
tary-school desegregation plan was re
jected by Judge Ford at Lexington on
June 17 and the Frankfort Board of
Education, given 30 days to draft a
third plan, came up with it on June 24.
The judge disapproved the bulk of
the second plan including a provision
that students could choose between
previously all-white and all-Negro
schools, and a provision that students
could transfer from schools in which
they were in a racial minority.
‘Free Choice’
Ben Fowler, school board attorney,
agreed that the transfer provision was
now unacceptable but had argued for
the option privilege on the ground that
it was not discriminatory even if it led
to continued segregation. “If a student
is given a free choice, it is his choice,
your honor . . . and if it results in vol
untary segregation, it does not violate
the 14th Amendment to the Constitu
tion,” he argued. But the judge held
out for a new plan.
The school board said its latest plan,
the one offered June 24, would admit
pupils to elementary schools without
regard to race. The all-Negro Mayo-
Underwood School would be closed.
Any resulting decrease in the teaching
staff would be based on seniority and
teachers would be assigned or reas
signed without regard to race.
A hearing on the plan was set for
July 3, according to attorney J. Earl
Dearing of Louisville, who filed the
complaint Sept. 21, 1962. The case is
styled Mack v. Frankfort Board of Ed
ucation. (SSN, May and previous).
JESSAMINE COUNTY—In addition
to disapproving the attendance option,
Judge Ford told the school board to
amend a provision for retaining teach
ers now holding jobs in the system “so
as to provide that employment of
teachers for the respective schools
shall be without regard to race or
color.”
The hearing was held at Lexington
(See KENTUCKY, Page 17)
Jefferson Board Moves
To Complete Program
The Jefferson County Board of Edu
cation, which operates the largest
school district in Kentucky in subur
ban Louisville, took two steps June 24
toward completing a desegregation
program started in 1956.
The board abolished the last school
still segregated by policy, and it initi
ated faculty and central-office desegre
gation. Both actions were voluntary
but the board had been under pres
sure from desegregation leaders. (SSN,
December, 1962, and previous.)
Under the plan, the Alexander-In-
gram Elementary School, which en
rolled 87 Negro pupils in the 1982-3
year, will become part of the all-white
Jeffersontown Elementary School. The
old school building, however, will serve
as an annex housing four or five de
segregated first-grade classes in the
immediate future. The three Negro
teachers at Alexander-Ingram will be
assigned to the Jeffersontown School.
Two other Negro teachers will be
assigned to the new Jane Hite Ele
mentary School under construction at
Middletown. They had taught at the
all-Negro Forest Elementary School
which the board had ordered closed
previously (SSN, December, 1962.) A
Negro counselor at the Newburg School
was given pupil-personnel work at the
system’s control office.
The only all-Negro school remaining
in the district is the Newburg school,
also the district’s only nine-grade
school. But Supt. Richard Van Hoose
Report Says Five Districts
THE REGION
Eight School Districts
End Race-Based Transfers
(Continued From Page 1)
systems, reversing the U.S. Sixth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati
which had approved the transfer pro
visions.
Since that time, the Nashville and
Davidson County Transitional School
Board (which is now operating both
schools systems under metropolitan
government) has deleted the contro
versial section from desegregation plans
of the two districts. A spokesman for
the Knoxville district indicated similar
action may be taken prior to the open
ing of the 1963-64 school year.
At Memphis, the board of education
obtained U.S. district court approval
of a substitute provision broadening the
procedure so that Negroes attending
desegregated schools could request re
assignment to other biracial schools.
U.S. District Judge H. Church Ford,
who said he based his decision on the
Supreme Court ruling, ordered three
Kentucky school districts — Jessamine
County, Frankfort and Richmond—to
discard the transfer provisions and to
submit new plans within 30 days. Ne
gro plaintiffs are seeking initial deseg
regation in Jessamine County and
extended desegregation in the other
two districts.
In Virginia, U.S. District Judge John
D. Butzner rejected the West Point
School Board’s zoning plan because it
would allow a student to transfer from
a school in which his race is in the
minority. His decision came one week
after the Supreme Court opinion.
Roanoke’s five-year school desegre
gation plan was approved in general
by another district court, which with
held a decision on a similar transfer
procedure. Following the decision in
the Tennessee cases, the Roanoke
school board voluntarily removed the
clause.
In rejecting Lynchburg’s grade-a-
year plan as too slow on July 1, the
U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
also threw out a racially based transfer
provision.
Six Florida counties—Escambia, Du
val, Hillsborough, Orange, Volusia, and
Leon—were studying the effect of the
Supreme Court ruling on a similar fea
ture of their court-approved plans,
under which they have registered
pupils for the 1963-64 school term.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in another
decision on June 17, refused to review
an appeals court rejection of a pupil
placement plan, which included a race-
transfer provision, proposed in Char
lottesville, Va.
Oklahoma City board of education’s
Lack Plans
said Newburg is not considered segre
gated because it serves a regular at
tendance district, even though no white
pupils live in that district.
★ ★ ★
Warren County Board
Votes to Desegregate
The Warren County Board of Edu
cation voted June 10 to desegregate all
its schools at the opening of the fall
term. The 4-1 vote followed corre
spondence with Negro attorney James
Crumlin of Louisville, who had said
he hoped to avoid litigation (SSN,
May).
The school board also agreed, on the
recommendation of Supt. E. R. Ward,
that the system’s seven Negro teachers
would be retained and reassigned, pos
sibly one to a school.
The system has about 5,500 students,
including some 344 Negroes. The high
school-age Negro students—about 75—
have been attending the High Street
High School of the Bowling Green sys
tem. But the Bowling Green system,
previously segregated, was ordered by
a federal district court on April 8 to
desegregate in the fall. Attorney
Crumlin had filed the suit in that case.
Officials of Warren County schools
and Bowling Green schools were re
ported to have agreed in general terms
on a transfer of territory that would
shift about 1,000 students from the
county to the city. This would relieve
overcrowding in the county, a problem
previously cited as delaying desegrega
tion.
pupil-transfer policy, similar to the
rejected procedure, was taken before
a federal court with Negroes charging
that it was being administered in a
way discriminatory to members of their
race.
In St. Louis, a citizens’ advisory com
mittee asked the school board to adopt
policies which, among other things,
would include the right of pupils to
transfer as a means of further desegre
gation.
During June, two school districts en
rolled their first Negroes in biracial
classes. They included Bibb County,
Ga., which admitted a Negro student
to the Dudley Hughes Vocational
School at Macon, and Hopewell, Va.,
which enrolled two Negro students to
a high school summer session.
In North Carolina, the Goevmor’s
School for the Gifted opened at Win
ston-Salem with 30 Negroes included
in a student body of 400 for the sum
mer session.
Plans Formulated
As a result of voluntary school board
action and federal court rulings, dis
tricts in Texas, Georgia, Kentucky,
Virginia and North Carolina formulated
plans for desegregation this fall.
The Texas districts included Arling
ton, Birdville, Denton, Waco, Boeme,
Irving, Grand Prairie, Sherman, Mar-
tindale, Hale Center and Kemper City.
In Virginia, initial desegregation is
scheduled to occur in 17 districts—the
county systems of Albemarle, Charles
City, Culpeper, Dinwirdie, Fauquier,
Frederick, Greene, Hanover, Henrico,
King and Queen, Middlesex, Powhatan,
Spotsylvania and Surry, and the city
systems of Danville, Martinsville and
Staunton.
The Durham County, N.C., board of
education approved the transfer of
three Negro high school pupils to
biracial classes while two other North
Carolina districts took steps toward de
segregation. Burlington announced a
four-year plan with tne assignment of
13 Negroes in the first three grades in
previously all-white schools and the
Rocky Mount board of education as
signed 15 Negroes to two previously
all-white schools.
Other districts scheduled to begin
desegregation this fall include Warren,
Casey and Metcalf counties in Ken
tucky.
Court Gets Plan
In Georgia, a plan to desegregate the
Chatham County and Savannah schoo
districts beginning with the 12th g r aae
this fall was presented to the U.S. Dis
trict Court at Brunswick.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School
Board in Louisiana adopted a grade-a
year plan to begin with the 12th gn® ®
in 1964 and submitted it for distnc
court approval.
Shelby County, Tenn., school
are expected to submit a plan to
eral court in response to a suit
by the Association for the Advanceme
of Colored People.
In South Carolina, the Most R^
Francis F. Reh, bishop of the Dio
of South Carolina, announced tha
37 Roman Catholic parochial schools
the state will be desegregated by .
tember, 1964. Elementary anc T e
schools in the Savannah, Ga., dio
will be desegregated this fall- .
The Oklahoma Legislature orde
the desegregation of three state s
for the mentally retarded.
All Schools Biracial
In Florida, the Dade County s< -|) ^
board declared that the ent |’' e ^' g,
school system now is officially fl f
regated and that future assignme ^
pupils, teachers and other pe 0 f
will be made without considera
Y0 t \ff&
lefferson County, Ky., al so ''V-ion
:ulty and central office desegreg
file Warren County, Ky., sc teaC h-
1s indicated that seven (jc-
; would be retained in the
tion of the entire system.
\mong the colleges and ^ ive enr0 ll'
ention was directed to the ^ a .
;nt of Negro students Vlv j an T rever
ie and James A. Hood at the
y of Alabama as President n.
leralized National Guard GoV-
fich had been called out
«rge C. Wallace. Another
(See THE REGION, Page 11 >