About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1963)
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY, 1963—PAGE 5 ALABAMA Gov. Wallace, Ordered by Guard, permits Negroes to Register tes. ind as- the ark (Continued From Page 1) u are going to stand in the door and that you are not going to carry out the orders of the court and you are going to resist us from doing so. Is that so?” Wallace replied: “I stand according to my statement.” Three times more, Katzenbach asked Wallace to get out of the door. Wallace stood erect and mute. He did not re spond even when Katzenbach said that (he two Negro students “will register today, go to school tomorrow, and go to school this summer.” When Wallace said nothing, Katzen bach said “very well,” and retired from the scene. Marshals escorted the two students to their dormitories and Jus tice Department spokesmen said, at this point, they considered the students enrolled. The governor remained in the audi torium, even as the order went our fed eralizing the Alabama National Guard, some 16,000 to 17,000 men in all. Wal lace waited for the troops to arrive, as they did at 3:17 p.m., dressed in green denims and green helmets, with rifles slung on their shoulders — bayonets fixed but sheathed. In command was Brig. Gen. Henry C. Graham of Birmingham, former state adjutant general. With four en listed men, he approached the door, where Wallace had once again sta tioned himself. Graham saluted Wallace; Wallace re turned the salute. “It is my sad duty,” Graham said, “to ask you to step aside.” Wallace asked whether he might make a brief statement. Graham said that he might. ‘Bitter Pill’ It was at this point that Wallace said he knew it was a “bitter pill” for Guardsmen—men he had summoned from Tuscaloosa as a precautionary measure—to be forced to desegregate the university. He called on the people °f Mabama to remain calm, adding that the preservation of peace “will help me in this fight.” The state must “have no 'iolence today or any other day,” he said. Hie governor then retired from the scene and returned by car to Mont gomery; the National Guard airplanes nod his party took to Tuscaloosa ■id been federalized. After the Negroes were registered, hood said: “This is our first and last aews conference. We are very happy 0Ur registration has taken place with- °'A incident. We hope to get down to purpose—study.” ®ss Malone expressed a similar hope, Adding that study “is all we want to do here.” Shortly thereafter, they went to a book store to buy their text iles. Hood’s first class—he is a psy- Tj 0,0 Sy major—he said: “I think the ersity of Alabama should be a •i 6 to Hie nation. I think the faculty, ■°osa the people of Tusca- ® re to be commended. I am grate- diouirt gratified. All of the universities Wall no * e the situation here.” hme ? Was Picketed in New York as he appeared on “Meet The s$L During the interview, he re sell?" ^ hitentions to “stand in the *as B 0Use door.” Elaborate protection v ided by New York police. '^11; 5 % ace Makes No Move 8t Huntsville Entry W 11 *' tig the C j decided not to attempt block- ! **>1 27 ac “ n * ss i°n of David M. McGlath- *-4iter 1 ad the university’s Huntsville days later. McGlathery’s ^ New Addition Wallace and Katzenbach The hall was brief. admission was ordered by the univer sity board of trustees, and the district court injunction against Wallace’s in terfering applied to the Huntsville man as well as to Hood and Miss Malone. In a telegram to Dr. Frank Rose, uni versity president, Wallace said June 12: “At 3:30 p.m. yesterday (June 11) President Kennedy, with the use of armed federal troops, assumed control of the campus of the University of Ala bama, which includes the campus at Huntsville. “Due to this illegal and unwarranted military occupation, I will not be pres ent on the Huntsville campus tomorrow (June 13). However, we will continue relentlessly our fight against forced in tegration of the University of Ala bama.” Campus Reaction Both Miss Malone and Hood said they had been well received by most stu dents. Some, however, coldly ignored them in public. Dormitory mates of Miss Malone described her as “soft- spoken, unassuming and gracious.” One coed said she acted just like any other transfer student. Once, as U.S. marshals followed, a group of white students hissed Hood, but most seemed to pay little attention. One white student directed Hood to his classroom after he had made a wrong turn. Two white coeds escorted Miss Malone to her first class. By the end of June, the vast force— about 3,000 state and local officers and National Guardsmen—had been re duced to an estimated 300 Guardsmen and perhaps 100 state officers. Some What They Say 13,000 of those federalized June 11—of whom only about 2,000 were actually on duty in Tuscaloosa at the peak de ployment—were released from duty June 16. Other forces were phased out, but with warnings by Wallace, in a tele gram to President Kennedy June 17, that protection of the students was a federal responsibility. Exchange of Telegrams “You have created the situation ex isting in Tuscaloosa,” Wallace wired in answer to the President’s wire calling on the governor to take all necessary steps to permit release of the federal ized Guard. Kennedy said the troopers would remain federalized until there was assurance that state and local offi cials could maintain order. In his reply, Wallace said: “I can and will guarantee that there will be no sustained violence in . . . Alabama. But with our limited re sources, physical and financial, Alabama cannot insure absolutely the personal safety of individual students. “You cannot usurp the powers re served to . . . Alabama and then place the burdens therefor on my shoul ders. . . . “Therefore, the defederalization of the Guard is a matter that you have to determine for yourself. I will not be intimidated by your calculated attempt to pass to me the responsibility for the duration of duty of the National Guard. Surely you realize that a continuous cause of the tension in Alabama is the presence of three Negro students on the campuses of the university and I sug gest that you immediately secure their removal.” Advanced Mathematics McGlathery, the student enrolled at the Huntsville Center, registered and attended his first classes without inci dent. A mathematician employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Ad ministration’s Space Flight Center at Huntsville, he is taking an advanced course in mathematics. A few state troopers and federal marshals, along with newsmen and a handful of the curious, were on hand when he enrolled. U. S. Court In junction Handed Down on June 5 The court injunction which confront ed Wallace when he made his stand at the university door June 11 was hand ed down June 5 by U.S. District Judge Seybourn Lynne of Birmingham. It en joined Wallace and others from “pre venting, blocking or interfering with, by physically interposing his person or that of any other person under his di rection and control the entry” of the Negro students. In his order (Malone v. Mate), Lynne Alabama Highlights Gov. George C. Wallace stood in a doorway when two Negroes arrived to enroll at the University of Ala bama, although a U.S. court injunc tion and a presidential proclamation had ordered him not to intervene. The governor turned back three fed eral officials accompanying the stu dents on the morning of June 11, but yielded to federalized National Guardsmen in the afternoon and the Negroes were registered. Enrollment of Vivian J. Malone and James A. Hood came without dis orders. Gov. Wallace had pleaded for Alabamians to stay away from the campus, which was ringed by state officers and the National Guard. Two days later, another Negro, David M. cited the 1955 permanent injunction of Judge H. H. Grooms (Lucy v. Adams) opening the university to all qualified students. Miss Autherine Lucy attend ed classes three days in February, 1956, before she was driven from the Tusca loosa campus by riots. She was later expelled—and Judge Grooms upheld the expulsion—for accusing university officials of conspiring in the mob action. No other Negro until now had been enrolled at the university, although the injunction remained in force. Personal Pronoun In the opinion accompanying the June 5 order, Judge Lynne added an un usual appeal: “May it be forgiven if this court makes use of the personal pronoun for the first time in a written opinion. I love the people of Alabama. I know that many of both races are troubled and, like Jonah of old, are ‘angry even unto death’ as the result of distortions of affairs in this state, practiced in the name of commercialism. “My prayer is that all of our people, in keeping with our finest traditions, will join in the resolution that law and order will be maintained, both in Tus caloosa and in Huntsville.” Dave M. McGlathery At Huntsville Center. tftle, Nashville Tennessean Wallace Will Continue Resistance Gov. George Wallace, who stood in the University of Alabama door June 11, said June 28 that he would also resist desegregation in the high schools. “At the moment,” Wallace said, “there is no court order telling us to admit Negroes to our high schools. Whenever the time comes I will take appropriate action in keeping with the dignity of our state. I can assure you it will be a forceful stand, whatever I do.” Asked if he planned to “stand in the schoolhouse door” again, Wallace did not give a direct answer, saying only that he would continue to flight “tamp ering with the school system.” School suits are pending seeking de segregation in Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville and Madison County and Macon County. ★ ★ ★ State Sen. Vaughan Hill Robison of Montgomery said of any future school door stands: “His (Wallace’s) promise was to stand in the schoolhouse door and I feel he has done this. He said his purpose was to raise constitutional questions—not create violence. These questions will probably be settled by the time the next public school term commences.” Other state senators and representa tives offered similar views—that Wal lace has carried out his campaign promises and raised the constitutional questions, and that physical interven tion is not required in future resistance. Most politicians supported Wallace’s stand at the university, but other citi zens and groups denounced it—though many dissenters agreed after the con frontation that Wallace had carried it off with “dignity however futile it might have been. ‘Traveled a Great Distance’ Lt. Gov. James B. Allen warned be fore the confrontation that disobedience of federal court orders can only lead the state down a “blind alley.” Afterward, h e praised Wallace for having “trav eled a great dis tance from inaug uration to June 11.” The Wallace who “waved the bloody battle flag and rattled the ALLtN sabers” in his in- aguration speech (SSN, February) was far different, Allen said, from the Wal lace who on June 11 “raised constitu tional questions ... in the best tradi tions of the South.” Between inauguration and the univer sity confrontation, Allen said, Wallace “matured as a statesman.” Allen added: “I preferred the Tuscaloosa way, the University of Alabama way, and the George Wallace way . . . to the Mis sissippi way, the Oxford way and the Ross Barnett way of last fall.” On the eve of the confrontation, Ala bama’s entire congressional delegation— eight congressmen and both senators— issued a brief statement: “We share in Alabama’s struggles for the principles of constitutional government and join with the people of Alabama in their call for law and order at the univer sity.” Individually, some of the members were more definite in their support of Wallace’s position. Methodist Bishop Nolan B. Harman, who presides over the North Alabama Conference of his church, said before the confrontation that Wallace’s de fiance was a “moral mistake and in the long run a political blunder.” The university’s board of trustees, while acquiescing in the court order, approved of Wallace’s presence on the campus. His being there, the trustees said before the door scene, would help preserve law and order. More than 200 residents of Tusca loosa—judges, newspaper officials, pro fessional and business men—took an op posite view. They implored Wallace not to carry out his promise. McGlathery, was admitted to the Uni versity of Alabama Center in Hunts ville. U.S. District Judge Daniel H. Thomas of Mobile ordered the Mobile County School Board to present a de segregation plan for the 1964-65 school year by Nov. 14. Negro plain tiffs, who had asked for immediate desegregation, appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the question of whether Birmingham schools should be re quired to begin desegregation in September. U.S. District Judge Sey bourn Lynne had refused May 28 to enter an immediate order. Thus, for the first time since Miss Lucy’s brief attendance in 1956, Ala bama’s solid front of school segregation was broken. Gov. Wallace said publicly that he was in contempt of Lynne’s order: “The Justice Department should have cited me for contempt and tried me in court. I wanted to test some questions in the court and that is why I defied the marshals. “But they didn’t go into the cotuts because that wasn’t fast enough for them. They brought in the Army in stead. I resent this action because it is a threat to the liberty and freedom of the people of this country.” Legal Action Court Tells Mobile To Present Plan For 1964-65 Term U.S. District Judge Daniel H. Thomas of Mobile ordered the Mobile County School Board June 24 to present a de segregation plan for the 1964-65 school term. In so doing, he denied a request for an injunction requiring immediate de segregation of the combined city- county schools. Plaintiffs in the suit filed March 28 (Davis et al v. Mobile County Board of School Commissioners et al—SSN, April) filed notice of ap peal, challenging the delay. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was to hear the appeal July 8. Thomas set Nov. 14 for a hearing on the suit, by which time the school board, he directed, should present its desegregation plan. In a brief filed June 10, the school board said “it is not practicable as an administrative matter to submit a plan for desegregating the schools of Mobile County for the 1963-64 terms.” Attor neys for the board argued that esti mated enrollments already had been set up for individual schools, teachers had been allotted and individual assign ments were under way. Plea for More Time “Wholesale reshuffling,” the board said, would result in “chaotic condi tions jeopardizing the education of all the pupils, were it to be required on a hurried or ‘crash’ basis.” The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap peals had refused May 24 (SSN, June) to order the board to submit a plan of desegregation within 30 days, but the appellate court did say that district courts should make “prompt and rea sonable starts.” In his seven-page June 24 opinion, Judge Thomas said: “Mobile is perhaps the most desegre gated city in the South, with no un fortunate incidents. “The schools of Mobile County are, and have been since the end of World (See WALLACE, Page 6) One More Nail Howie M Jackson Daily News
