Newspaper Page Text
f j0 Factual
no. i
Southern School
VOL. 10, NO. 4
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Where Dynamite Killed Four Children
Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
ALABAMA
Three Arrested, Dynamite
Seized in Birmingham
MONTGOMERY
T'hree white men were arrested
and 135 sticks of dynamite
seized in the investigation of ra
cial bombings in Birmingham, in
cluding an explosion on Sept. 15
which killed four Negro girls at
the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church.
The church bombing, which left 23
others injured, occurred five days after
the desegregation of three Birmingham
schools.
Street demonstrations and rioting by
white students and adults, along with
white boycotts of the schools, from
*Pt. 10 to Sept. 14 preceded the Sun-
a 7 Morning blast, which brought out
cries and Negro demonstrations from
across the nation.
Although the delayed admission of 24
‘ egro students to nine previously all-
w ite schools in four Alabama cities
? the state’s historic separation of
e races in the classrooms, the church
Mbing overshadowed the other
events.
Birmingham was shocked, with some
Wammg Gov. George C. Wallace’s
iHjREGION
Desegregation
Reaches 161
^lore Districts
X HE . NEw school year opened
dist at ^ eas f 161 public school
hord 1CtS * n Southern and
(i „ er re gion desegregating for
t hrst time.
duri n 'I ^ se § re gation activity reported
total j P t em ber raised to 1,141 the
^~stat ^ ese gregated districts in the
tricts 1 reg r° n - The desegregated dis-
fegi on ’ ep ^ esen t over a third of the
whites T®® districts having both
3 J44 . Negroes enrolled. The other
^'Whit nCts * *he region have either
Tljj. 6 0r a U-Negro enrollments.
r cgi 0tl t ^ le 1962-63 school year, the
^cticg 3 districts desegregated in
^hhom ° 1 * * * ', .I’c’lMy- This included one
tabled 8 that acted in 1962 but
^“lunta Unre P°rted until last month.
^hiUmbT < l ese g re gation continued to
r rJ' great ly those ordered by the
coup, districts acted this fall
Volunt 6rS ’ an< l hie remaining 141
l^tan, , r ^' l* * 1 * some instances, the
law S u' C * tl0ns resu hed from threat-
defiance of the federal courts and his
“inflammatory” speeches. Others blamed
the “Kennedys and Kings” and the U.S.
Supreme Court (See What They Say.)
Killed in the church explosion were
Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson and
Addie Mae Collins, all 14, and Denice
McNair, 11.
Within hours after the explosion, two
white youths fatally shot a 13-year-old
Negro boy, and policemen shot to death
a 16-year-old Negro boy who, they
said, had been throwing rocks at cars.
Two Major Fires
Two major fires, believed to have
been set, broke out that night amid
confusion and scattered incidents of
violence. Rock-throwing by Negroes
was reported in many areas of the city.
Gov. Wallace rushed in 300 state
troopers and alerted 500 National
Guardsmen in Birmingham.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
and Birmingham police joined in the
intensive probe.
State investigators early on Sept. 30
arrested two men, Robert E. Chambliss,
59, and Charles Cagle, 22, both of Bir
mingham, in connection with the
bombings. Two days later, John W.
Hall, 36, of the urban Birmingham com
munity of Gardendale, also was taken
into custody.
Hall and Chambliss were released
under $300 bond on a charge of illegally
possessing dynamite; Cagle was held in
jail on the same charge.
All three faced hearing on Oct. 8.
Col. A1 Lingo, commander of the
State Highway Patrol, announced on
Oct. 1 that state investigators had
found 133 sticks of dynamite in a wood
en crate and two half sticks nearby in
a wooded area in North Birmingham,
just outside the city limits.
(See LARGE, Page 10)
Objective
OCTOBER, 1963
Priority for Civil Rights Bill
Indicated by Leaders in Senate
WASHINGTON
S enate Democratic leaders in
dicated on Oct. 1 that they had
decided to give civil rights legis
lation priority over the President’s
tax cut proposal in the remaining
months of this session of Congress.
With both major programs still
awaiting action—and with the civil
rights bill facing a certain filibuster in
the Senate—the question of precedence
had prompted speculation that civil
rights might go over until next year.
But Sen. Hubert Humphrey CD-
Mum.), assistant Democratic leader in
the Senate, old newsmen after a White
House conference of Congressional
leaders that if both measures could
not be cleared in this session, the tax
cut would be deferred until next year
to permit action this year on civil
rights.
A House Judiciary Subcommittee
wound up weeks of closed-session
work on the civil rights bill Sept. 25
and approved a version which went
considerably further than President
Kennedy’s proposals. The measure was
expected to reach the House floor in
the latter part of October, and to come
up in the Senate after passage by the
House.
The subcommittee broadened a sec
tion dealing with the Attorney General’s
right to initiate desegregation cases.
The administration had sought this
power only for education suits in which
individual plaintiffs are unable to bring
actions, but the subcommittee bill
would give this “Title III” authority to
the Attorney General in all civil rights
fields.
In This Issue
State Reports
Alabama 1
Arkansas 13
Delaware 9
District of Columbia 1
Florida 14
Georgia 7
Kentucky 4
Louisiana 15
Maryland 17
Mississippi 1
Missouri 12
North Carolina 5
Oklahoma 6
South Carolina 16
Tennessee 18
Texas 7
Virginia 3
West Virginia 12
Special Articles
The Region 1
Civil Rights Commission 1
Books and the Issue 11
Negroes Teach Both Races 20
Texts
CRC Recommendations 9
The subcommittee bill also included:
• A permanent extension of the U.S.
Civil Rights Commission, instead of the
four-year extension proposed by the
administration.
• A stiff public accommodations
clause based on both the 14th Amend
ment and the interstate commerce
clause of the Constitution, and barring
discrimination in virtually every estab
lishment offering goods or services to
the public, except for small owner-
occupied rooming houses.
• A Fair Employment Practices
Commission with power to ban job
discrimination in private employment.
President Kennedy had endorsed such
a bill, but did not include it in his
civil rights package.
• A broadened voting rights section
covering state as well as federal elec
tions.
The subcommittee’s action on the
public accommodations clause threaten
ed to alienate Republican Congressmen
whose votes will be needed to pass
the legislation. Rep. William M. Mc
Culloch (R-Ohio), senior Republican
on the committee and influential among
House Republicans, said he would op
pose the section.
But the subcommittee bill drew strong
support from civil rights leaders. Fol
lowing a day-long conference on Sept.
30 of leaders of 60 organizations, in
cluding organizers of the Aug. 28 march
on Washington, Roy Wilkins of the
NAACP called for a “massive national
campaign” for passage of the bill.
A statement issued by the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights declared:
“Any intimation that a civil rights bill
may be postponed until next session
is fantastic in the light of what has
been happening throughout the coun
try.”
Wilkins declared that failure to pass
the bill or postponement would be a
“monumental political blunder for
either political party,” and would have
an “explosive political effect on the
Negro population.”
In the Senate, Southerners led by
Sen. Richard Russell (D-Ga.) denounc
ed the House subcommittee bill as a
“witches’ brew,” and reaffirmed their
determination to try to block the
legislation by filibuster.
Race Rider on Aid Bill
Killed in Close Vote
A $236.4 million program to assist
medical and dental schools was ap
proved by 71-to-9 vote of the Senate
Sept. 12 after narrow defeat of an
anti-segregation amendment. The meas
ure was identical to one passed by
the House last April.
The civil rights amendment, offered
by Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-N.Y.), was
(See SENATE, Page 8)
Rights Commission Urges
Desegregation Deadline
WASHINGTON
T he U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights urged Congress on
Sept. 30 to set a 90-day deadline
for segregated school districts to
adopt plans to provide nonsegre-
gated public education for all
school-aged children.
Where such plans are not adopted or
implemented, the commission said,
Congress should authorize the attorney
general to institute court action for
compliance.
The recommendation was one of a
series submitted by the commission to
Congress and the President in its 268-
page report for 1963. The report covered
fields of education, voting, employment,
housing, justice, health facilities and
services, urban areas and armed serv
ices.
The commission’s recommendation for
MISSISSIPPI
or pressures exerted by
h - **a eral /Sencies in connection
- H te d 974 Un ds. Since 1954, an esti-
' :||,i !,.,j districts voluntarily have
■LNc—
e lroes to schools
(See 161, Page 14)
with
University Expels Only Negro
JACKSON
T he University of Mississippi
expelled Cleve McDowell on
Sept. 24 for violating a regulation
against students carrying con
cealed weapons on the campus.
The expulsion returned the insti
tution to an all-white status.
McDowell, 21-year-old Negro of Drew
in the delta’s Sunflower County, was
convicted Sept. 28 in a Lafayette County
justice of the peace court at Oxford
on a charge of carrying a concealed
weapon and was fined $100. The maxi
mum sentence that could have been
pronounced was 90 days in jail and
a $100 fine.
Through his attorney, Jack Young of
Jackson, McDowell is appealing the ex
pulsion to the Board of Trustees of
State Institutions of Higher Learning,
and the conviction to county court.
McDowell, an honor graduate of Jack-
son State College for Negroes, was the
second Negro admitted to the Univer
sity of Mississippi, which had main
tained segregation for 114 years until
James H. Meredith was enrolled Oct.
1, 1962, under a federal court order.
Meredith was graduated in August to
become the first Negro awarded a de
gree from the University.
Unlike Meredith’s enrollment, which
brought 30,000 federal troops and 500
U.S. marshals, and a resultant riot
which ended with two men killed and
several hundred injured, McDowell en
tered the School of Law in June in a
calm atmosphere. McDowell’s admission
also was ordered by the federal court.
U.S. marshals remained on the cam
pus for Meredith’s protection, but were
removed after his graduation. No fed
eral protection since had been given
McDowell, who was in summer school
earlier this year with Meredith.
McDowell was arrested Sept. 23 by
Lafayette County Sheriff Joe Ford after
he left his 10 a.m. class. Ford said he
had been tipped by a student that a
small pistol dropped from the Negro’s
pocket in class.
The sheriff said he met McDowell as
he left class and asked:
“Are you Cleve McDowell?”
Upon receiving an affirmative answer,
the sheriff said, he asked McDowell
whether he was carrying a weapon, and
that the student replied, “Yes.”
McDowell was taken before Justice
of the Peace W. H. Jones, but declined
(See UNIVERSITY, Page 2)
enforcement of the Supreme Court’s
1954 school desegregation decision went
considerably further than the adminis
tration’s pending civil rights bill. The
bill merely would authorize the attor
ney general to initiate school desegre
gation actions in cases where circum
stances make it impossible for individ
ual plaintiffs to bring such suits.
The commission also asked authoriza
tion from Congress to provide “tech
nical and financial assistance to those
school districts in all parts of the
country which are attempting to meet
problems resulting from school segre
gation or desegregation.”
Such assistance is also provided in
the administration’s civil rights pro
gram, but the legislation would assign
the function to the U.S. Office of Edu
cation rather than to the civil rights
commission.
In other recommendations affecting
education, the commission proposed
that:
• The President call a White House
conference of “distinsmished educators
(See CRC, Page 9)
Not Much Room to Talk
About the South, These Days
Knox, Nashville Banner