Newspaper Page Text
^3 Factual
M./O
\i]0. 3
Southern School News
£01
Objective
VOL. 10, NO. 3
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
SEPTEMBER, 1963
the region
150 Mo
chool Districts Desegregate
ALABAMA
Governor Bars
Negroes’ Entry
At 3 Schools
MONTGOMERY
A labama’s first public-school
desegregation occurred quiet
ly at Huntsville on Sept. 9, but
state troopers on orders from Gov.
George C. Wallace prevented
Negroes from entering schools
which federal courts had ordered
desegregated in Birmingham, Mo
bile and Tuskegee.
Schools in the four cities were to
have opened the week before, with
admission of a total of 24 Negroes to
previously all-white schools, but the
openings were delayed on order from
the governor, accompanied by deploy
ment of state troopers.
When the schools did open Sept. 9,
troopers under an executive order from
Wallace turned away Negroes but al
lowed white pupils to enter school
buildings in Birmingham, Mobile and
Tuskegee. The governor did not in
clude Huntsville in this order. He gave
no immediate explanation for the omis
sion.
Later on Sept. 9, five federal Judges
in Alabama’s three judicial districts
issued orders restraining Gov. Wallace
from further interference with school
desegregation.
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President Scores Wallace
Late that afternoon in Washington,
President Kennedy issued a statement
accusing Gov. Wallace of being “des
perately anxious to have the federal
government intervene in a situation in
which we have no desire to intervene.”
The President charged that Wallace
was motivated by “his own personal
and political reasons.” He said the gov
ernor knows that (1) the U. S. gov
ernment must carry out court orders;
(2) most citizens of the four cities are
willing “to face this difficult transition
with the same courage and respect for
he laws as did communities in neigh -
°ring states,” and (3) “. . . there was
and is no reason or necessity for inter
vention by the federal government un-
ess he wishes and forces that result.”
Kennedy said the government would
. ° whatever was necessary to see that
enal orders for desegregation were
Jj^ed out in Alabama, but he added:
e hopeful that Gov. Wallace will
nable the local officials and communi-
r 6s *° meet their responsibilities in this
ffard as they are willing to do.”
j _ n ^he morning of Sept. 10, the Presi-
G n federalized the Alabama National
ar d. That was the situation at SSN’s
Pre sstim e .
Gov
, V ' Wallace's actions were opposed
. eeal school boards and officials, and
c ^ ar - ts and others in the affected
iw' "bite parents taunted troopers
the schools, and in Huntsville
(See WALLACE, Page 2)
h This Issue
Report,
^bama ,
Kansas .... 2 1
P^aware 19
^rida ° f Columbia 1
^gia : Jj
f e htuck y *
fe^iana ^ “
SSSS-. >
r-S*' ::::::::::::::: i«
Ih'ginia 7
Only the Faculty Was Admitted
Teacher (left) and Principal E. W. Wadsworth approach school.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Total Reaches 1,129;
Largest Since 1956
TJublic schools in the Southern and border region opened for the
A 1963-64 year with at least 150 districts desegregated for the first
time.
It was the largest number of public school districts to begin biracial
classes in any year since 1956, when more than 200 systems dropped
racial barriers. This makes 1,129 districts with white and Negro stu
dents attending classes together in the 17-state region.
Districts desegregating for the first time included 130 that acted
voluntarily and 20 districts that were ordered to begin biracial classes
by the federal courts.
The number of newly desegregated districts was more than three
times the 46 systems that admitted Negroes to previously all-white
schools in the fall of 1962 and over four and a half times the 1961
total of 31.
962 Voluntary Actions Since 1954
Since the 1954 Supreme Court decision, an estimated 962 districts
have acted voluntarily to bring about desegregation policies while an
estimated 167 others have been ordered by federal courts to admit
Negroes to previously all-white classes.
The region has a total of 3,053 districts in which both whites and
Negroes attend school; there are a total of 6,197 districts in the region.
Violence flared in Alabama, which experienced the first public
school desegregation below the college level, and in a few other dis
tricts in other states in the region. In South Carolina, which also began
desegregation of its first public school district, there were other inci
dents of trouble related to desegregation of the Charleston district
and the University of South Carolina. (See accompanying story.)
In 11 States
Charleston Desegregates
Schools Without Fanfare
This year’s newly desegregated districts were scattered throughout
11 of the states in the region. The states and the number of districts
to desegregate included:
Alabama, four; Arkansas, two; Florida, six; Georgia, three; Ken
tucky, 16; Louisiana, one; North Carolina, 21; South Carolina, one;
Tennessee, 11; Texas, 61, and Virginia, 24.
Opening of the fall term left Mississippi the only state in the region
to maintain segregation in all elementary and high schools.
The newly desegregated districts included 113 which were reported
in a survey by Southern School News in its August issue and 37
which announced desegregation policies, or were ordered by the courts
to begin biracial classes, since the survey was completed.
Here is a state-by-state summary
of desegregation activity in districts
which began biracial classes for the
first time, including a repeat listing
of the districts from the August SSN
survey:
Schools Open
With Incidents
COLUMBIA
HARLESTON BECAME the state’s
first and only desegregated
school district on Sept. 3, when
11 Negro children began classes
with whites in four high schools.
At the same time 15 Negro Catholics,
taking advantage of a special order by
Bishop Francis H. Reh, head of the
South Carolina Diocese, attended
formerly all-white parochial schools in
the seaport city.
Although Charleston historically has
been a center of opposition to Negro
movements, the desegregation took
place with even less fanfare than that
which attended the entrance of Harvey
B. Gantt to Clemson College last Jan
uary.
When Gantt, a Charleston native in
cidentally, broke the state’s college
color line, he was heavily guarded
by state troopers who virtually sealed
off the upcountry campus to head off
possible violence.
Only one or two city policemen—
mostly crossing guards—were in evi
dence at each school on Aug. 30, when
the Negroes enrolled, and on Sept. 3,
when classes began.
Charleston Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard
WASHINGTON
EGISLATIVE PROSPECTS for the
administration’s civil rights
program including measures de
signed to accelerate the pace of
school desegregation, remained in
doubt despite the formidable dis
play put on by 200,000 Negroes
and whites who massed in Wash
ington Aug. 28 to demonstrate
“for jobs and freedom.”
Leaders of the March on Washington,
whose platform included a demand for
total school desegregation this year,
met with Congressional leaders before
the mammoth demonstration and with
President Kennedy afterward.
From the former, they received as
surances that Congress would not ad
journ this year without acting on a
civil rights package. From the latter,
said, however, that other police units
were poised and could have been on
the scene in minutes had trouble
arisen.
The mayor said he had left it up
to Gov. Donald S. Russell to send
agents of the State Law Enforcement
Division (SLED) if he felt it necessary.
It was learned that both SLED and FBI
agents were on the scene as “observ-
ers.
Bomb Threat
“A young male voice” called Rivers
High and said that a bomb was planted
in the school set off to explode “in
20 minutes.” Principal Frank M. Hart
quickly called a fire drill, and the
building was emptied in 90 seconds.
Police arrived and searched the prem
ises. Less than half an hour after the
alarm had sounded, children were back
in their classrooms.
Hart wrote the hoax off as a child’s
prank. “This occurs from time to
time,” he added.
In the building at the time were
two of the 11 Negroes admitted to the
public schools. They were Jacqueline
Ford, 12, and Millicent Brown, 15,
(See SCHOOLS, Page 22)
they received praise for the “orderly
manner” in which the march was car
ried out and the comment that “the
cause of 20 million Negroes has been
advanced” by it.
But the civil rights leaders received
only lukewarm support on Capitol Hill
for their suggestion that the civil rights
legislation be strengthened by the ad
dition of the so-called Title in power,
which would give the Justice De
partment broad authority to initiate
actions for injunctive relief in civil
rights matters. A more limited form of
Title III, permitting Department inter
vention in school desegregation cases
under certain conditions, is included
in the administration package.
Chairman Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.)
of the House Judiciary Committee,
who had earlier predicted that the
civil rights package would reach the
floor of the House of Representatives
Alabama
Public attention was focused upon
Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, who
used state troopers to interfere with
desegregation scheduled to begin un
der court order in Birmingham, Mobile,
Macon County (Tuskegee) and Hunts
ville.
The state troopers forced a delay in
the opening of classes at Tuskegee,
where 13 Negroes had been accepted in
biracial high school classes. The gov
ernor then sent troopers to Birming
ham but he made no move to stop
the enrollment of two Negroes at the
previously all-white Graymont Ele
mentary School the next day, Sept. 4.
Violence in the city resulted in closure
(See DESEGREGATED, Page 17)
by about the third week of September,
told the civil rights leaders that the
timetable might be delayed by the
long Labor Day recess.
The legislation is expected to en
counter difficulties in the powerful
House Rules Committee, necessitating
the time-consuming process of a dis
charge petition to bring it to the
floor.
On the Senate side, where a civil
rights filibuster is considered all but
inevitable, leaders are agreed that
waiting for a House-passed version
offers the best chance of enactment.
But there continues to be much disa
greement over the controversial public
accommodations section of the Presi
dent’s program, as well as over the
order of precedence between civil
rights and the tax cut bill. President
Kennedy has stressed the importance
(See DESPITE, Page 5)
In Five States
I ncidents connected with school
desegregation occurred in
five states as schools opened for
the new year in late August and
the first week of September.
The incidents of shootings, explosions
and telephoned threats in South Caro
lina, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas
districts were related to new school de
segregation. In Louisiana, fire damaged
a Catholic parochial school desegre
gated since last year but boycotted
completely by students.
Since the Supreme Court decision on
school desegregation in 1954, the 1961-
62 school year has been the only one
completely free of school desegregation
violence.
The acts of violence reported in the
first weeks of the new school term in
clude:
Baton Rouge, La. — Initial desegre
gation of East Baton Rouge Parish
schools, beginning with the 12th grade,
included on opening day one tele
phoned bomb hoax and one quickly
dispersed picket.
Birmingham, Ala.—The home of a
Negro leader and attorney, Arthur D.
Shores, was bombed twice within 15
days. The second bombing, on the night
of Sept. 4, damaged the home and
injured his wife. Rioting touched
off in the Negro community by the
latter explosion resulted in the death
of one Negro and the injury of several
persons, including policemen. Earlier
in the day, city police had quickly
quelled jeering disorders outside two
of three schools desegregating for the
first time, by order of federal courts.
Buras, La.—Our Lady of Good Har
bor, which has been boycotted by stu
dents since it desegregated in the fall
of 1962, was damaged by a gasoline fire
and explosion on the night of Aug. 27.
The parochial school in Plaquemines
(See FIVE, Page 24)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Prospects for Program in Doubt
