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PAGE 16—JULY, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA President Asks Power for Attorney General To File Suits, Authority to Withhold Funds (Continued From Page 1) ants are unable for financial or other reasons to pursue legal action, and • He determines that his role in such a suit “will materially further the orderly progress of desegregation in public education.” Kennedy also asked Congress to authorize federal financial and techni cal assistance to desegregating school systems “which are in need of guid ance, experienced help or financial as sistance in order to train their person nel for this changeover, cope with new difficulties and complete the job satis factorily (including in such assistance loans to a district where state or local funds have been withdrawn or with held because of desegregation).” The President cited lagging educa tional attainments and high unemploy ment among Negroes, and asked Con gress to provide additional funds for the Manpower Development and Train ing Program, to enact the pending youth employment bill and to approve proposals for expanded federal as sistance to vocational education. Relations Service Promised Kennedy said he would establish by executive order—and, if Congress ap proves, by statute—a community re lations service to work behind the scenes as a mediation and conciliation agency in racial disputes. On the question of racial segregation in federally assisted programs, the Pres ident said that “simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpay ers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, en trenches, subsidizes or results in racial discrimination.” Kennedy said current legislation does not give officials the right to withhold funds from many segregated programs. He rejected once again a recent sug gestion by the Civil Rights Commission that all federal assistance might be cut off in a state defying court de segregation orders. “Instead of permitting this issue to become a political device often ex ploited by those opposed to social or economic progress,” the President said, “it would be better at this time to pass a single comprehensive provision mak ing it clear that the federal govern ment is not required, under any statute, to furnish any kind of financial as sistance—by way of grant, loan, con tract, guaranty, insurance or otherwise —to any program or activity in which racial discrimination occurs.” A few hours after submitting the civil rights message to Congress, Ken nedy met at the White House with about 250 educators representing all parts of the country and all levels of education. The meeting was one of a series of conferences the President held with lawyers, clergymen, business lead ers and other groups to discuss the civil rights situation. Participants in the educators’ meet ing said Kennedy urged them to work for improved racial relations at the local level and to organize a national committee. Aims and functions of the committee were not spelled out during the White House conference. ★ ★ ★ Southern Senators Say Filibuster Is Planned Initial reaction to the President’s message on Capitol Hill centered main ly on its public accommodations pro vision, which drew objections from many Republicans who gave general backing to other aspects of the civil rights package. Southern senators pledged a fili buster to block enactment of the Presi dent’s program, and Northerners voiced determination to remain in session “un til the snow flies” to bring the legisla tion to a vote. Nine Republicans joined 37 Democrats as co-sponsors of the ad ministration’s omnibus bill in the Se nate. Sixty-seven votes would be re quired to invoke cloture in the Senate and break a filibuster. Leaders of civil rights organizations announced that 100,000 to 300,000 Neg roes would converge on Washington to demonstrate in behalf of the legislation in the event of a filibuster. The “march on Washington” was tentatively sched uled for the latter part of August. ★ ★ ★ The House Education and Labor Committee voted 15 to 14 June 5 to reject a “Powell amendment” in the bill providing additional federal funds for vocational education. The amend- ‘That Was for Paving the Road, Not Blocking It’ Herblock, Washington Post ment barring funds for segregated schools was supported by all 12 Re publicans on the committee and by two Democrats—Rep. Edith Green, D-Ore., and Rep. James Roosevelt, D-Calif. The same committee had voted earlier to include the anti-segregation rider in bills extending the aid program for federally-impacted school districts and the federal library services program. ★ ★ ★ Rep. William M. Tuck, D-Va., intro duced a bill June 27 to bar racial de monstrators from crossing state lines. Tuck said the measure, which would impose fines up to $5,000 and imprison ment of up to five years on violaters, would “correct most of the evils and mischief in the present racial trouble.” ‘Tide Of Discontent’ Threatens Public Safety - - Kennedy Two hours after the Alabama Nation al Guard was federalized and Gov. George C. Wallace ended his resistance to enrollment of the first Negro stu dents at the University of Alabama on June 11, President Kennedy addressed the nation on radio and television. He urged every American to help Following is the text of the por tion of President Kennedy’s civil rights message to Congress pertain ing to desegregation of schools. (Subheads are inserted.) In my message of February 28, while commending the progress already made in achieving desegregation of education at all levels as required by the Con stitution, I was compelled to point out the slowness of progress toward pri mary and secondary school desegrega tion. The Supreme Court has recently voiced the same opinions. Many Negro children entering segregated grade schools at the time of the Supreme Court decision in 1954 will enter seg regated high schools this year, having suffered a loss which can never be re gained. Indeed, discrimination in edu cation is one basic cause of the other inequities and hardships inflicted upon our Negro citizens. The lack of equal educational opportunity deprives the individual of equal economic oppor tunity, restricts his contribution as a citizen and community leader, encour ages him to drop out of school and imposes a heavy burden on the effort to eliminate discriminatory practices and prejudices from our national life. ‘Competence and Courage’ The Federal courts, pursuant to the 1954 decision of the United States Su preme Court and earlier decisions on institutions of higher learning, have shown both competence and courage in directing the desegregation of schools on the local level. It is appro priate to keep this responsibility large ly within the judicial arena. But it is unfair and unrealistic to expect that the burden of initiating such cases can be wholly borne by private litigants. Too often those entitled to bring suit on behalf of their children lack the economic means for instituting and make a peaceful and constructive re volution in race relations. “The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city,” Kennedy warned, and a “rising tide of discontent threatens the public safety. The President referred to the surge of civil rights concern and activity as “primarily a moral issue” and called on every citizen to “examine his con science” and help the nation to “fulfill its promises.” “The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Ameri cans as we want to be treated,” Ken nedy said. He began his speech by criticizing Gov. Wallace’s “threats and defiant statements” and praising the peaceful conduct of University of Alabama stu dents. They met their responsibilities “in a constructive way,” the President said. Kennedy appealed to Negroes to up hold the law, but asked whether many whites would be “content with the counsels of patience and delay” if they were in the Negroes’ place. He called on the nation to recognize that it faces “a great change,” and added: “Our task, our obligation is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.” ★ ★ ★ Kennedy Asks Wallace To Stay Off Campus On June 10, on the eve of the Uni versity of Alabama’s desegregation, President Kennedy “urgently” request ed that Gov. Wallace stay away from the campus in Tuscaloosa. (See Ala bama report). In reply to a telegram from Wallace announcing that the governor had cal led out the National Guard to patrol the campus, Kennedy sent this tele gram: “I am gratified by the dedication to law and order expressed in your tele gram informing me of your use of National Guardsmen at the University of Alabama. The only announced threat to orderly compliance with the law, however, is your plan to bar physically the admission of Negro students in de fiance of the order of the Alabama district federal court and in violation maintaining such cases or the ability to withstand the personal, physical and economic harassment which sometimes descends upon those who do institute them. The same is true of students wishing to attend the college of their choice but unable to assume the bur den of litigation. These difficulties are among the principal reasons for the delay in carrying out the 1954 decision; and this delay cannot be justified to those who have been hurt as a result. Rights such as these, as the Supreme Court recently said, are “present rights. They are not merely hopes to some future enjoyment of some formalistic consti tutional promise. The basic guarantees of our Constitution are warrants for the here and now . . .” New Title In order to achieve a more orderly and consistent compliance with the Su preme Court’s school and college de segregation decisions, therefore, I rec ommend that the Congress assert its specific Constitutional authority to implement the 14th Amendment by including in the Civil Rights Act of 1963 a new title providing the follow ing: (A) Authority would be given the Attorney General to initiate in the Federal District Courts appropriate legal proceedings against local public school boards or public institutions of higher learning—or to intervene in existing cases—whenever (1) he has received a written complaint from students or from the parents of students who are being denied equal protection of the laws by a segregated public school or col lege; and (2) he certifies that such persons are unable to undertake or other wise arrange for the initiation and of accepted standards of public con duct. “State, city and university officials have reported that if you were to stay away from the campus, thus fulfilling your legal duty, there is little danger of any disorder being incited which the local town and campus authorities could not adequately handle. This would make unnecessary the outside intervention of any troops, either state or federal. I therefore urgently ask you to consider the consequences to your state and its fine university if you per sist in setting an example of defiant conduct and urge you instead to leave these matters in the courts of law where they belong.” ★ ★ ★ In another telegram to Wallace on June 15, the President told him that the Alabama National Guard, called into federal service on June 11, would be kept under federal orders until there were assurances that local and state officials would maintain order at the state’s university. Kennedy asked the governor to “take the necessary steps” that would permit release of the troops from federal ser vice. “The duration of their duty is large ly up to you,” Kennedy said. The Defense Department announced June 14 that 13,000 of the 17,000 Guardsmen called into federal service would be released at midnight on Sun day, June 17. Most of the others were released from duty on the following weekend, but about 300 Alabama Na tional Guardsmen were kept in active federal service. JFK Says Education System Must Provide ‘Fair’ Opportunity In a June 6 address at commence ment exercises of San Diego (Calif.) State College, President Kennedy cal led for “a fair educational break” for every American child—the son of the Negro sharecropper in Alabama as well as the banker’s son on Long Island. “If our nation is to meet the goal of giving every American child a fair educational break,” the President said, “we must move swiftly ahead. “And we must recognize that segre gation in education—and I mean the de maintenance of such legal proceed ings for lack of financial means or effective legal representation or for fear of economic or other injury; and (3) he determines that his initia tion of or intervention in such suit will materially further the orderly progress of desegregation in public education. For this purpose, the At torney General would establish cri teria to determine the priority and relative need for Federal action in those districts from which com plaints have been filed. Aid in Districts (B) As previously recommended, technical and financial assistance would be given to those school districts in all parts of the country which, volun tarily or as the result of litigation, are engaged in the process of meeting the educational problems flowing from de segregation or racial imbalance but which are in need of guidance, experi enced help or financial assistance in order to train their personnel for this changeover, cope with new difficulties and complete the job satisfactorily (including in such assistance loans to a district where State or local funds have been withdrawn or withheld because of desegregation). Public institutions already operating without racial discrimination, of course, will not be affected by this statute. Local action can always make Federal action unnecessary. Many school boards have peacefully and voluntarily desegregated in recent years. And while this Act does not include pri vate colleges and schools, I strongly urge them to live up to their respon sibilities and to recognize no arbitrary bar of race or color—for such bars have no place in any institution, least of all one devoted to the truth and to the improvement of all mankind. Text of Kennedy’s Civil Rights Message Going Like 60 Kennedy, Arkansas Demoent facto segregation of the North as well as the proclaimed segregation of the South—brings with it serious handi caps to a large percentage of our | nation’s population. “Our goal must be an educational system in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence—a system in which 1 all are created equal—a system in which every child, whether bom a banker’s son in a Long Island mansion or a Negro sharcropper’s son in an Alabama cotton field, has the oppor tunity for an education that his abili ties and character deserve.” D.C. Race Relations Record Gets Defense In Kennedy Speech President Kennedy defended the Dis trict of Columbia’s record in race re lations when he spoke to about 400 mayors at a meeting in Honolulu June 9. “Much has been written about crime 1 and race relations in Washington— I much of it untrue,” Kennedy said. The President told the mayors about school desegregation in the district and other steps taken or planned to pro mote equal treatment of the races. i “We are concerned about the District’s problems,” Kennedy said, “though they are less than those of some other cities —and, more importantly, we are doing something about them. “Moreover, by striving to improve the quality of life for all the residents of the district, Negro and white alike, we are helping to ease the economic and other pressures which would other wise increase tensions.” ★ ★ ★ A week after the President spoke. Sen. Allen J. Ellender, D-La., called Washington “the cesspool of crime’ o* the nation and said it demonstrated that Negroes are incapable of self- government. , “They have control, as it were. 0 the school system,” Ellender said in a television interview. “Fifty-odd per cent of the people engaged in teaching school are Negroes, and in the admint stration of the school over 50 per cen are Negroes.” The senator charged that “you ha' the worst conditions in Washing* 0 ^ where they are at the head than °* big city in the country. To me. ^ just simply shows their inability govem ” . r iheria Ellender singled out Ethiopia, ta and Haiti as examples of nations w Negroes have demonstrated m® 1 ■ to manage their affairs. His comin f in , brought subsequent protests fr 0 ]®^ bassadors of more than 20 Air* nations. , -p The State Department issued ^ apology for the senator’s remarks. Secretary of State Dean Rusk ° ^ ambassadors of Ethiopia and that Ellender did not speak 0 majority of Americans. ^ " “I’ll be damned if I believe Ellender retorted on June 20, I speak for the bulk of the Am people.” ★ ★ ★ 3,000 Carry Placards Down Pennsylvania A' e,ul * of the 10 About 3,000 persons, m ° st ° lva nia Negroes, marched down Pe - ca j- Avenue June 14, bearing P ling for an end of racial 1S or( j e rlf tion. The demonstration was and produced no incidents. yppltet The crowd was addressed y p^jet N. Tobriner, chairman of tne ^ Board of Commissioners, wh ° pan# city would adopt open- ^ 0 uld housing regulations this year a por- also move toward equal 1 net®* tunity rules, and by Attorney a d- Robert F. Kennedy, who sam^ ministration has made m (See D.C., Page W i 1 f s t t 2 P t s ii t] t, ti 0 V c] ( \ s< q tc a: c, 0 IK IK b 5. in *>3 ec in b Co I* r e sii k ti< m ti,
