Newspaper Page Text
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funds have been withdrawn or with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
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