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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