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ARKANSAS
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY, 1963—PAGE 9
Little Rock Schedules Biracial Classes In Grades 1,4
LITTLE ROCK
T he Little Rock School Board
decided June 20 to begin de
segregation of the first and fourth
grades this fall, entering Phase
III (elementary desegregation) of
its court-approved plan for deseg
regation.
The Board then assigned eight Negro
children to first grade classes at white
schools—two each to Wilson and Cen
tennial and one each to Jackson, Oak-
hurst, Mitchell and Lee. Requests for
assignments of three other Negro stu
dents to white elementary schools were
denied.
The board had sent questionnaires to
the parents of children who will be in
the first grade this fall asking if they
had a school preference for their chil
dren. Before the board assigns any Ne
groes to fourth grade classes it will
have to send the same questionnaires
to the parents of some 2,200 children—
about one-third of the Negroes—who
will be in the fourth grade this fall.
The board desegregation action had
been expected, since it was revealed
June 6 that the board was mailing the
questionnaires to parents of incoming
first graders. In the past the question
naires have been sent only to parents
whose children were about to enter a
desegregated grade.
The board’s decision to begin first
grade desegregation was approved
unanimously, but Board President
Everett Tucker Jr. and member J. H
Cottrell Jr. opposed fourth grade deseg
regation, which was proposed by Rus
sell H. Matson Jr., a board member.
By desegregating two grades, Matson
said, the board would complete Phase
Missouri
(Continued From Page 8)
was Clyde X, leader of the Black Mus
lim movement in St. Louis.
The bus demonstration was planned
the previous evening at the first public
meetings of the parents’ organization,
held at Parrish Temple CME. It was
Proposed by Charles Oldham, an attor-
ne y, the national chairman of the Con
gress on Racial Equality. Other speak
ers were the Rev. Amos Ryce, pastor of
J^ne Tabernacle CME, and Clyde Ca-
’ an attorney who heads the
... ^P l e S a I redress committee in
Missouri.
Late in May, the Parents of Trans-
Parted Pupils sent a five-page mem
orandum to the board of education,
contending that the “present rigid sep-
ation of transported children” de-
ved iLe children of their constitu-
to° na , gUarantees - 'LL 0 board was urged
r . . e tbe children an integral part of
tio eiV *, n ® sc hools—in classroom instruc-
etc^ ay 3Ctivity ’ hmchroom schedules,
not later than next September.
the q early JlUle ’ Robert Allen Sedler of
who l! Rouis University school of law,
has assisted in NAACP school de-
issue^ a ^° n cases ™ southeast Missouri,
mem 3 dve ~ page mimeographed state-
raised 0 ]? Questions he said were
Ported ^ hoard’s policy on trans
fer <J, Upils - ARer reviewing the mat-
stituti , Said the board had a con ‘
chii dr ° nal duty to assimilate Negro
thev 6n into schools to which
Were transported.
g Offers Assui ance
J. Hick° U * S of Instruction Philip
Phnci spea kbig before 150 school
the S^t and adm irustrative office-s of
as SUr _ u * s system June 13, offered
trary Ce t ? lat there would be no arbi-
basis o r £ eassignrnen t of teachers on the
W set, r f Ce * n fhe system in the com-
“It h 001 year '
°ds of ^ ^ een asserted that such meth-
< f e msi 0a eaSSignment are required under
R iekey tbe Supreme Court,” said
mport b Was a re f eren ce to another
Universit e , d ' er ’ * n w hich the St. Louis
that teami acuRy mem ber contended
me nts b C erS Were choosing assign
ed teac4. CaUSe race factors. Sedler
Permit* 6 S C0U * d n °t' under the law,
SicS ^ t0 discriminate,
ty the h^ 6 erred a 13-page review
hattsm,^ ard °f education’s attorney
! Ss Ue wit , 40 the board June 12, taking
In g that th 5edIer ’ s vie wpoint and hold-
* , e Supreme Court’s desegre-
n . ls * on s do not call for arbi-
Whe, 6 ' Mandatory reassignment o
on a race basis. The board’:
III of its plan in three years instead of
six, keeping Phase in in step with
Phase I (high school) and Phase II
(junior high), which are requiring three
years each for completion.
Cottrell said that moving a child from
one elementary school to another
amounted to a “lateral transfer,” which
is against board policy, and that aban
doning that rule would mean the be
ginning of “total integration.”
In the future, he said, the board will
not have any grounds for denying lat
eral transfers at other levels of the sys
tem.
Matson said that in desegregating the
fourth grade the board would be pre
serving, to some degree, its policy
against the lateral transfers. The fourth
grade is a dividing point of the ele
mentary level, he said, with the first
three years considered the primary
grades, the second three the intermedi
ate grades.
There is a difference in instruction
and study beginning at the fourth grade,
so this seems the best place for a trans
fer within the elementary level, Mat-
son said.
The board has maintained that stu
dents should enter each level of the
school system—elementary, junior high
and high school—only at the initial
grades of each. It has made exceptions,
however. Negro students generally have
been allowed to transfer to desegregated
schools only at the seventh and 10th
grades—the initial grades of each.
Wiley A. Branton of Pine Bluff, Ark.,
and Atlanta, Ga., attorney for the
plaintiffs in the Little Rock desegrega
tion case, said that desegregation of the
first and fourth grades meant that the
school board would not be fulfilling its
obligations under the plan that has
been approved by the courts.
He said it was his interpretation that
desegregation of all 12 grades would be
completed by this fall. He said that he
would meet with his clients at Little
Rock to determine whether there will
be more litigation.
Plans Outlined
Branton had said June 18 that the
school board apparently was consider
ing desegregating only the first grade,
and that he would file new pleadings in
court requesting the “complete deseg
regation” of Little Rock public schools.
Branton had received a letter June 17
from Herschel H. Friday Jr., attorney
for the school board, notifying him
that 11 Negroes had requested to be
assigned to the first grade this fall.
From Friday’s letter, Branton said, “it
is quite obvious that thus far the board
has not contemplated any integration in
the elementary level other than at the
first grade level.
“The board evidently is going to con
tinue to follow its policy of not allow
ing lateral transfers. I’m sure that I
speak for my clients when I say that
such a plan is not satisfactory and I
would have to advise them (the school
board members) legally that it is not in
compliance with the orders of the court.
“Unless the board voluntarily changes
its plans, we will have to seek relief in
court. I’m prepared to file the necessary
pleadings almost immediately.”
The school board, June 20, also reas
signed one Negro student to a desegre
gated high school and two Negroes to a
desegregated junior high school. It ap
proved a Negro student’s request to be
attorney, Hickey said, indicated that
present board policy and practices in
all areas of school operations are within
the framework of the law.
Legal Action
U. S. Court Approves
Desegregation Plan
For Charleston
All public schools at Charleston,
in southeast Missouri’s Mississippi
County, are to be desegregated under
a plan approved June 4 by U.S. Dis
trict Judge James H. Meredith at St.
Louis. The desegregation action was
ordered by Judge Meredith April 11
at which time defendants were ordered
to file a plan of reorganization within
30 days.
The Charleston suit (Davis et al v.
Board of Education of Charleston etc.
et al) was filed last August by parents
of 10 Negro school children. Their at
torney was Clyde S. Cahill Jr., a St.
Louis Negro lawyer who is chairman
of the legal redress committee of the
Missouri NAACP. (SSN, May, 1953,
and previously).
Charleston is about 150 miles south
of St. Louis. The consolidated school
district there is reported to have about
1,160 white and 690 Negro students.
Arkansas Highlights
The Little Rock School Board said
June 20 that it will begin elementary
school desegregation in the first and
fourth grades this fall, then assigned
eight Negro children to the first grade
at white schools.
The Arkansas Supreme Court
voided four so-called anti-desegrega
tion laws aimed at the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People.
reassigned from a desegregated junior
high to a Negro junior high. Twelve re
quests for reassignment to desegregated
junior and senior high schools were
denied because they were too late.
A total of 112 Negro students now
are scheduled to attend desegregated
schools at Little Rock this fall. This
includes 104 at junior and senior high
schools and eight in first grade classes
in the elementary schools.
★ ★ ★
The United States Supreme Court’s
decision of June 3 against the voluntary
transfer of pupils out of schools where
their race is in the minority apparently
does not endanger the Little Rock
School Board’s desegregation plan.
The plan, as approved by federal Dis
trict Judge John E. Miller Aug. 29,
1956, does not mention such transfers,
and nothing has been said about them
since then in the litigation involving the
Little Rock case. Such a transfer plan
was the official policy of the board until
November 1958, but the board has not
mentioned the voluntary transfer policy
publicly since 1958.
★ ★ ★
Ted Lamb, a member of the Little
Rock School Board, said May 30 that
he objected to the Arkansas Pupil As
signment Law (Act 461 of 1959) and the
way the board was using it.
Lamb said the board was assigning
students on the basis of race although
the federal courts have ruled that racial
considerations must not enter into the
assignments he said.
The Arkansas Assignment Law has
been upheld “on its face” by the U.S.
Supreme Court but the court said it
could not be used to continue segrega
tion.
★ ★ ★
The state Department of Education
mailed out checks June 26 totaling
$6,935.18 to the Little Rock and Dollar
way (Pine Bluff, Ark.) school districts
as the state share of legal fees for de-
What They Say
Gov. Orval E. Faubus in a statement
June 11 attacked the federal courts
and praised Gov. George Wallace of
Alabama for his stand.
Faubus said Wallace was “taking the
only course open to him to prevent
violence and disorder.” He added:
“Gov. Wallace is doing his best to do
that very thing [leave matters in the
courts], notwithstanding the fact that
white people now have little more
chance for equity and justice in the
federal courts than did unfortunate
Jews of Germany in the Nazi courts
of Hitler.”
Former Gov. Sid McMath called Gov.
Faubus’s statement on comparing the
courts with Nazi courts “the height of
irresponsibility.”
McMath also said
that the statement
was “calculated to
undermine peo
ple’s confidence
in our judicial
system,” and that
it “encourages
and incites defi
ance of all law
with which we do
not agree.”
Said Faubus:
“Mr. McMath’s statement that I am
trying to discredit the federal courts
is like accusing a person of trying to
pull down a tree that has already been
cut down.”
He also accused McMath of being
“one of the secret leaders, who in
secret and closely guarded meetings is
trying to integrate everything, includ
ing private business.” McMath denied
that.
segregation lawsuits for the 1962-63
fiscal year.
Under Act 265 of 1961, the state pays
half the cost of such legal fees that are
certified by the local school districts.
Legal Action
Four Laws Passed
At Bennett Behest
Voided by Court
The Arkansas Supreme Court June
3 declared unconstitutional four laws
aimed at the National Association for
the Advancement
of Colored People.
They were
passed by a spe
cial session of the
state legislature in
1958 at the insti
gation of state At
torney General
Bruce Bennett.
The NAACP
said the laws—
Acts 12, 13, 14 and
16 — violated the
equal-protection and due-process rights
guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution.
Act 12 allowed a county judge to re
quire an organization to register and
disclose its membership and finances if
the judge thought the organization’s
activities tended to interfere with the
operation of the public schools; Act 13
empowered the attorney general to get
a chancery court order and examine
an organization’s records if he thought
it was trying to evade state taxes; Act
14 made it unlawful to instigate law
suits over school desegregation; and
Act 16 made it unlawful to solicit or
donate money to finance lawsuits over
school desegregation.
The ruling was 5-2 with dissents
from Associate Justice Jim Johnson, an
outspoken segregationist and one-time
gubernatorial candidate, and Special
Justice Boyd Tackett, sitting for Justice
Frank Holt, who disqualified himself
because as Pulaski County prosecuting
attorney when the lawsuit was filed he
was involved in the case.
The court upheld Pulaski Chancellor
Murray O. Reed—who held all but Act
13 valid—and also threw that out. The
court, in its majority opinion by As
sociate Justice Ed F. McFaddin, quoted
approvingly from Judge Reed’s decision
on Acts 12, 14 and 16. The majority
went on to say that there was no need
for it to accept Judge Reed’s reasoning
because the U.S. Supreme Court al
ready had ruled adversely on a similar
set of laws passed by the Virginia
Dr. Stephen Wright, president of Fisk
University at Nashville, Tenn., said in
a commencement speech at Arkansas
AM&N College at Pine Bluff on May
27, that “Educated Negroes are respon
sible for educating white people to “the
racial facts of life.”
He added: “Never before has it been
possible for the Negro to move more
rapidly toward first-class citizenship.
But unless the educated youth of to
day are willing to take a position as
leaders, the position of the Negro will
degenerate into protractive tokenism.”
★ ★ ★
I. S. McClinton, president of the Ark
ansas (Negro) Democratic Voters As
sociation, said on June 22 he opposes
“mob gatherings and demonstrations”
and that civil rights differences should
be settled at the conference table, al
though he sympathized with Negro
demonstrators and they should be al
lowed to demonstrate peacefully if
white people are allowed to.
McClinton disputed a statement by
Sen. John L. McClellan (Dem., Ark.)
that President Kennedy’s civil rights
proposals would “compel conformity of
association and social intercourse.” Mc
Clinton said social relationships are a
matter of choice.
★ ★ ★
A. W. Ford, Arkansas education
commissioner, testifying June 18 be
fore a House subcommittee at Wash
ington, said that he opposed federal
aid to public education that is tied to
mandatory desegregation.
Faubus Attacks Federal Courts,
Lauds Wallace Stand in Alabama
BENNETT
legislature in 1956.
The state argued that the “Bennett”
laws were not liable to trial in a court
because they had never been used. The
NAACP said that the laws had hurt its
membership anyway; that the laws
breached constitutional rights by invad
ing privacy and hindering a person’s
right to redress in the courts.
Justice Johnson’s dissent was on the
argument that the laws were not liable
to trial and that the NAACP’s own
testimony did not prove that its loss in
membership was due to the laws.”
Justice Tackett’s dissent was more
sweeping and its language was severe.
He called the U.S. Supreme Court the
“guardian for the NACCP.” He said
that the “NAACP has in some instances
engaged in stirring up strife, creating
resentment and hatred, and has violated
laws for the purpose of supplying the
U.S. Supreme Court with fodder for lit
igations.”
Bennett filed a petition asking the
Supreme Court for a rehearing of the
case.
Miscellaneous
Bid to Transfer
Case Denied
By U. S. Judge
Federal District Judge J. Smith Hen
ley on May 30 denied a request by Wil
liam M. Howard, 33, of Pine Bluff that
he be tried in federal district court on
state charges of assault with intent to
kill and carrying a concealed knife, an
outgrowth of a disturbance at Dollar
way School at Pine Bluff Jan. 22.
Howard a Negro, had argued that he
would not get a fair trial in the state
courts, but Judge Henley said he would.
Howard had gone to the school to
pick up his niece, Sara Etoria Howard,
15, and Samuel Wayne Cato, 8, the only
Negroes attending. As Howard left in
his station wagon, a rock was thrown
through a window and Howard scuffled
with Johnny Irvin, 18, a white student.
Irvin suffered a slight cut during the
encounter.
★ ★ ★
The Urban League of Greater Little
Rock at its annual meeting June 27
heard state Sen. Leroy Johnson of At
lanta, Ga., caution against misrepre
senting a split in Negro leadership.
They’re all together on the basic goal
—first class citizenship for Negroes, he
said.
South Carolina
(Continued From Page 7)
economic and cultural matters in the
state and talked with leaders in each
area.
The students also talked with a
number of other government and po
litical leaders from both parties and
interviewed Negroes prominent in the
desegregation movement.
Legislative Action
Bill to Counter
Impact Area
Policy Stalled
A bill aimed at thwarting the federal
government’s desegregation designs on
school districts receiving impacted-area
aid was left pending as the South
Carolina Legislature adjourned in early
June after a marathon session.
Passed in the last days by the Senate,
the measure would require parents
living on military bases to pay tuition
to local schools attended by their chil
dren.
The bill specifically forbids school
districts to receive federal funds if
“the United States Commissioner of
Education shall exercise any direction
. . . over the enrollment of pupils, place
ment of pupils, personnel, curriculum
. . . of any school to which funds are
allocated.”
Under the provisions of the bill,
children living on military bases would
be assigned to schools at the discretion
of the trustees of the district after
payment of the tuition fee.
After passage in the Senate June 5,
the bill went to the House, which did
not have time before adjournment to
act. It will be up for consideration
there at the next session, beginning in
January.
■Tl