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VOL. 10, NO. 5
MISSISSIPPI
Governor-Elect
Renews Pledge
For Segregation
JACKSON
L t. Gov. Paul Burney Johnson
will take office on Jan. 21,
1964, as Mississippi’s 54th gov
ernor, pledged to “resist the in
tegration of any school anywhere
in Mississippi.”
The son of a former governor (1940-
43) and candidate of the Mississippi
Democratic party which claims no al
liance with the national party leader
ship, won the office in the Nov. 5 gen
eral election over Rubel Phillips, Re
publican nominee and first serious chal
lenger of the long-dominant one-party
system since the Civil War Reconstruc
tion Era. Phillips, a former Democratic
office-holder, turned Republican last
year.
Johnson won an easy victory. In
complete returns late on election night
gave Johnson 151,356, Phillips 86,448.
Johnson’s assertion that “we can and
will maintain a system of segregated
schools’ will face challenge shortly af
ter he succeeds Gov. Ross Barnett, who
had given Mississippians that same as
surance in 1960 when he took office.
However, Gov. Barnett was forced by
federal-court orders to witness Mis
sissippi’s first public education desegre
gation with the enrollment Oct. 1, 1962,
of Negro James H. Meredith in the
University of Mississippi and his grad
uation the following June before the
second Negro likewise gained federal-
court-ordered admission to the Oxford
institution.
Expulsion of the second Negro stu
dent, Cleve McDowell, from the School
of Law Sept. 24, for violating a uni-
versity rule against carrying concealed
weapons on the campus, returned the
115-vear old university to a segregated
s*atus. «’•
As Johnson prepared for his inaugur-
ation, Meredith awaited action on a
uetition to re-enter the University of
, sissippi as a student in the School
of Law.
Petition Refiled
Also pending for action, following a
C , an ^ e °f plans, is the refiled petition
® ohn Frazier, 22-year-old Greenville
, e ^ ro ' f° r enrollment in the University
F .them Mississippi at Hattiesburg.
L razi ® r “ad announced earlier through
York attorney, George B.
, . ’ *kat he had decided not to seek
^mission this fall.
for Frazier seek admission
w erm s next year. Their petitions
ver^t? en< ^ ng . be f° re the respective uni-
Tn, * officials and the Board of
L^arnkjg ^ ate Institutions of Higher
announced in Washington
s ; on . " at he had applied for admis-
School° It University of Mississippi
ti ext Law. The next term begins
e redith s application was on the
(See JOHNSON, Page 6)
This Issue
>,ate Reports
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News
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Objective
lUNIV^n^
,;G IAI
NOVEMBER, 1963
The Rev. John J. Hicks
Elected unanimously.
MISSOURI
School Board
Elects Negro
As President
ST. LOUIS
T he Rev. John J. Hicks, a
Negro, was elected president
of the St. Louis Board of Educa
tion Oct. 8. He is the first member
of his race to serve as the board’s
president. Three Negro members
are on the present board and the
St. Louis public schools are now
estimated to be more than 40 per
cent Negro.
An outspoken proponent of civil
rights, the Rev. Mr. Hicks, 48 years old,
was elected unanimously. He had served
as vice president under Daniel L.
Schlafly, whom he succeeds as presi
dent. The Rev. Mr. Hicks was elected
to the board in 1959 and is aligned with
a reform-minded faction that now con
trols the board.
The Rev. Mr. Hicks, pastor of Union
Memorial Methodist Church, received
his bachelor of divinity degree from
Gammon Theological Seminary in At
lanta in 1941. He also holds a master of
theology degree from the University of
Southern California and an honorary
doctorate from Gammon.
He was pastor of Methodist churches
in Atlanta, Marietta and Bamesville,
Ga., before he assumed a pasorate at
Los Angeles for 12 years. He came to
St. Louis nine years ago.
In accepting the presidency of the
board, the Rev. Mr. Hicks said he would
work with William Kottmeyer, acting
superintendent of instruction, to bring
about maximum desegregation of the
public schools.
He praised the work that had been
done by Schlafly and said Schlafly had
“lent stature to the office.” He said
board members, as elected officials,
“cannot be expected to be captive of
(See FIRST, Page 5)
9 "' lf vMBIA
NOV 1 5 ’63
LIBWVRUS
Compromise RigKTsBill Approved
By House Judiciary Committee
WASHINGTON
T he House Judiciary Com
mittee broke a five-week
deadlock Oct. 29 when it ap
proved a compromise civil rights
bill which had the blessings of the
Kennedy Administration as well
as of House leaders of both
parties.
The compromise measure, produced
by intensive behind-the-scenes nego
tiations which involved the President,
his brother, Attorney General Robert
F. Kennedy, and congressional leaders,
was approved by a final 23-to-ll vote
of the committee.
The vote followed committee rejec
tion, 19-to-15, of a stronger civil rights
bill which had been approved in sub
committee. Administration and con
gressional leaders were convinced that
the stronger version could not master
the bipartisan support needed for pass
age.
The compromise measure was warm
ly endorsed by President Kennedy, the
Attorney General, and key Democratic
and Republican spokesmen in the
House, but was termed “inadequate”
by the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, which had held out for the
tougher version. Some civil rights lead
ers accused the administration of a
“sellout” in working for modification of
the subcommittee bill.
Though Judiciary Committee ap
proval of the compromise measure was
hailed as a “major breakthrough” for
the civil rights bill, congressional ob-
‘He’s in Good Shape—Just
Minus a Few Teeth!’
Crockett, Washington Star
servers cautioned that it by no means
assured passage of the legislation in
this session.
The measure still faces delays in the
powerful House Rules Committee, a
probably lengthy debate on the House
floor and a certain filibuster in the
Senate.
Here is a summary of key provisions
affecting school desegregation:
Desegregation Suits—The administra
tion’s original civil rights bill would
have empowered the Attorney General
to initiate and maintain school desegre
gation suits in cases where individual
VIRGINIA
Prince Edward Negroes
Ask High Court Action
RICHMOND
A ttorneys for Prince Edward
County Negroes petitioned
the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct.
30 to “dispose of in convenient
haste” the legal issues relating to
the shutting down of the county’s
public schools. (Griffin v. Prince
Edward School Board.)
The petition was for a writ of cer
tiorari for a review of the U.S. Fourth
Circuit Court’s decision of Aug. 12.
In that ruling, the circuit judges
held, by a two to one vote, that federal
courts should abstain from acting in
the Prince Edward case until state
courts have decided the constitutional
issues involved.
But the plaintiffs told the Supreme
Court Oct. 30:
“After 12 years of litigation, it is
time all issues are settled and settled
with finality. For the federal courts
to refuse, at this late date, to resolve
this controversy amounts to federal
abdication, not federal abstention.”
The ultimate decision must come
from federal courts anyway, the pe
titioners declared, because there are
federal issues involved. They continued:
“In view of the protracted nature
of this litigation, the fundamental im
portance of its resolution to petitioners
and to the country at large, it is ur
gently and respectfully requested that
this petition and all issues involved
herein should be disposed of in such
convenient haste, as will give respon
se NEGROES, Page 7)
plaintiffs are unable to enter litigation.
The subcommittee’s version, which was
retained in the compromise, would ex
tend the Attorney General’s right to
all public facilities, including parks,
playgrounds and libraries as well as
schools. The compromise bill retains
the administration’s proposal to pro
vide financial and technical assistance
to deseg-egating school districts.
Part Three—This provision, named
for a clause dropped from the 1957
civil rights acts, would permit the At
torney General to initiate suits to pro
tect all constitutional and other legal
rights of all persons. It was not men
tioned in the administration’s proposals
this year, but was added to the legisla
tion by the subcommittee. In the final
compromise version, the Attorney Gen
eral is authorized to intervene as a
party after an individual has filed suit
alleging denial of equal protection of
the law.
Federal Aid—The administration re
quested authority to cut off federal aid
from any state or locality that discrimi
nated as to race in its use. The com
promise version limits the cutoff au
thority to specific projects or programs,
and provides authority for court review
of any government decision to withhold
funds.
Community Relations—An adminis
tration proposal for a mediation serv
ice to help settle racial disputes was
dropped from the compromise bill.
Civil Rights Commission—The ad
ministration’s proposal for a four-year
extension of the commission was ex
panded to make the commission a per
manent agency, with additional power
to investigate alleged vote frauds.
Court Actions—The compromise bill
includes a subcommittee proposal, not
requested by the administration, that
the right of appeal be granted when a
federal court refuses to accept transfer
to it of a civil rights case from a state
court.
★ ★ ★
Sen. Humphrey Sees
Full Desegregation
Far in the Future
Citing fall enrollment statistics com
piled by Southern Education Reporting
Service, Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-
Minn.) told the Senate Oct. 7 that “it
may be two or three generations before
we will have a truly democratic public-
school system.”
Humphrey noted that “18 school se
mesters have passed since the Supreme
Court ruled that racial segregation in
public schools is illegal and a denial
of rights guaranteed by the Constitu-
(See RIGHTS, Page 16)
OUTSIDE THE SOUTH
Major Cities Face School-Race Problems
T he major cities of Chicago,
New York, Boston, Los An
geles and Cleveland experienced
education problems connected
with de facto school segregation
during the first two months of the
new school year.
Clashes between Negro and white
students occurred in Philadelphia, In
dianapolis and Oakland.
A federal circuit court upheld a
lower court’s refusal to order Gary,
Ind., to end its neighborhood school
policy, which had resulted in de facto
segregation in the public schools.
Chicago’s controversial school super
intendent, Benjamin C. Willis, resigned
in protest against school board and
court rulings on student transfers, but
returned to office after the board re
fused to accept.
New York City school officials had a
key provision knocked out of their pro
gram to end de facto segregation when
a state judge ruled against transfers
based on race. School leaders now are
awaiting an appeals court decision on
whether the city may transfer white
pupils from neighborhood schools to end
racial imbalance.
Boston’s School Committee initiated
an open-enrollment plan of free trans
fers this year, although it denied the
existence of de facto segregation in the
school system.
The Los Angeles school board began
consideration and adoption of recom
mendations by a special committee ap
pointed to study de facto segregation
in the city schools.
* * ¥
Negro protests over the education
policies of Chicago School Supt. Ben
jamin C. Willis finally led to his resig
nation, but the school board refused
to accept and the superintendent agreed
to continue.
Chicago’s superintendent, whose $48,-
500 annual salary makes him the na
tion’s highest-paid school administrator,
has been the center of a long attack by
Negro groups over the issue of de
facto segregation. The 61-year-old Wil
lis staunchly defended the policy of
neighborhood schools and refused re
quests by Negroes to permit transfers
from their overcrowded schools to all-
white or predominantly white schools
with available space.
One of Willis’s answers to overcrowd
ing was to purchase mobile classrooms,
to be set up on the campuses of
crowded schools. The Negro sit-ins,
boycotts and protest marches of the
summer months finally reached their
height with rock-throwing incidents
and the burning of several of the mobile
units.
In late August, Willis publicly stated
that some of the Chicago schools were
racially imbalanced. He supported a
resolution, passed by the Board of
Education, authorizing a study of de
facto segregation in the schools by a
group of outside experts. The decision
(See BIG CITIES, Page 15)
‘Look Away! Look Away!
Look Away to Dixie Land’
Haynie, Louisville Courier-Journal