Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—JANUARY, HM-SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
VIRGINIA
U. S. Supreme Court To Hear
Arguments on School-Closing
(Continued From Page 1)
federal courts should abstain from act
ing in the Prince Edward school clos
ing question until the state courts had
acted.
In the brief filed Dec. 11, the justice
department declared that the answer
to whether the closing of the schools
violates the 14th Amendment “doesn’t
depend upon any point decided by the
Virginia court.”
Governor’s Guess
Earlier, on Dec. 4, Gov. Harrison
told his press conference that if the
U. S. Supreme Court should uphold
the right of Prince Edward officials
to close the schools, it was his ‘guess”
that those officials would move within
48 hours toward reopening the schools.
The governor presumably had in
mind that if the court took such a
position, tuition grants (now outlawed
by another court order in Prince Ed
ward) would become available, and
that most white children would con
tinue attending the private segregated
school system, while public schools
would be open largely for Negroes.
In answer to a question, the gover
nor said he did not believe the closing
of schools in Prince Edward had ad
versely affected Virginia’s industrial
development as a whole but that it
probably had harmed the county’s bid
to attract industrial plants.
★ ★ ★
Court Overrules Effort
To Name NAACP Supporters
A state legislative committee’s effort
to force the NAACP to reveal the
names of contributors was overruled
by the Virginia Supreme Court Dec.
2. (NAACP, and NAACP Legal De
fense and Educational Fund, Inc., v.
Committee on Offenses Against the
Administration of Justice)
The committee, set up by the General
Assembly in 1958, contended that it
needed the list of donors of $25 or more
in order to check on reports that some
such persons had improperly claimed
the contributions as state income tax
deductions.
The court held, however, that only
overriding and compelling state inter
est can justify state intrusion into
constitutionally protected areas of free
dom of association, and that no such
interest was involved in the case in
question. Even if every donor of $25
or more had been in the highest in
come tax bracket and had claimed the
deduction, the state would have lost
only $830 in a three-year period, the
court declared.
‘Amount Insignificant’
The court continued:
“Thus, it can be seen that the amount
of taxable revenue involved is conjec
tural and insignificant. But more im
portant still is the fact that the infor
mation sought by committee is in the
possession of the state on the returns
of those subject to the payment of in
come taxes.”
The court said there was evidence
that some of the donors felt that dis
closure of their names would bring
upon them “harassment, intimidation,
enmity and social and economic re
prisals.”
And the court added:
“One would have to be deeply in
sensible to the affairs of present day
life, or a modern Rip Van Winkle, to
fail to observe .the opposition in Vir
ginia and in many parts of the nation
to the activities of the NAACP and its
affiliates in the field of racial relations.”
★ ★ ★
The city of Richmond’s school de
segregation plan was attacked by Negro
attorneys during a hearing in federal
District Court at Richmond Dec. 20.
(Bradley v. Richmond School Board)
The plan provides that children al
ready in a school advance to the next
grade in the same school unless they
apply for a transfer. Children entering
school for the first time, or being pro
moted from one school to another, must
specify the school of their choice.
The plan also provides that the dis
tance a child lives from a school may
be considered if the number of appli
cations for a particular school exceed
capacity.
Negro attorneys argued that the plan
as a whole is invalid because it does
not require city school authorities to
initiate desegregation. They were criti
cal of the distance-from-school factor
because, they said, it could be used to
discriminate against Negroes.
U.S. District Judge John D. Batzner
Virginia Highlights
The U.S. Supreme Court set March
30 to hear arguments on whether the
state is obligated to operate free public
schools in Prince Edward County.
A “big push’ to end all racial
segregation in Virginia classrooms
will be launched soon, according to
the chief legal counsel of the state
NAACP.
The Virginia Supreme Court of Ap
peals held that a legislative commit
tee could not require the NAACP to
reveal the names of persons contri
buting $25 or more to the organiza
tion.
Jr. suggested to attorneys for city
school authorities that since the dis
tance factor could be applied in a dis
criminatory manner, perhaps it should
be removed from the plan.
H. I. Willett, city superintendent of
schools, testified that the State Pupil
Placement Board had approved every
transfer request made by Neg-oes
seeking admission to white or predomi-
natly white schools in Richmond this
year. (There are 371 Negroes in 12
desegregated schools, out of a total en
rollment of 17,636 whites and 26,117
Negroes.)
Judge Butzner took the case under
advisement.
Community Action
Attorney Predicts
‘Big Push’ To End
All Segregation
The chief attorney for the NAACP in
Viryinia said Dec. 14 that a “big push”
to end all segregation in Virginia’s pub
lic schools would be launched soon.
S. W. Tucker told a desegregation
workshop in Farmville that the
NAACP is preparing petitions to be
distributed to civil rights leaders
throughout the state. The petitions, he
said, will seek an end to token deseg
regation and also to segregation in
school administrations and faculties.
Citizens will be asked to submit the
petitions to their local school boards.
If favorable action is not forthcoming
from local boards and governing
bodies, remedies will be sought in the
courts, Tucker said.
“Not a single school district in the
state has an adequate plan for a total
end to school segregation,” the NAACP
attorney told the approximately 35
persons attending the workshop at the
First Baptist Church (Negro) in Farm
ville, Prince Edward County seat. “An
end to segregation will come only
when there are no white and Negro
schools in Virginia, only public
schools.”
Tucker said he hoped the court order
in the Powhatan County case, requir
ing the county to pay the Negro peti
tioners’ legal expenses, would become
fixed policy in all desegregation cases.
He said he would like to see individual
school board members required to pay
such fees out of their own pockets.
“If you hit their pocketbooks it may
force even their beloved segregation
to go,” Tucker remarked.
The workshop was sponsored by the
American Friends Service Committee,
a Quaker organization.
Political Leaders
A resolution calling on the state’s
political leaders to “implement and go
beyond” the school desegregation de
cisions of the courts, was adopted by
the Virginia Council on Human Rela
tions at a meeting in Richmond Dec. 6.
The council said it deplored the fail
ure of the state’s leaders “to take ac
tion to resolve the situation of closed
public schools in Prince Edward Coun
ty-”
The resolution added that the estab
lishment of the Prince Edward Free
School Association last summer had
mitigated “the scandal of closed pub
lic schools in Prince Edward.”
★ ★ ★
Officials Want Free School
To Be Opened Only One Year
The free school system for Negroes
in Prince Edward has been a tremen
dous success, but it should not operate
beyond its presently scheduled closing
date in August, two men closely in
volved in the program said in Wash
ington, D. C., Dec. 18.
Neil V. Sullivan and Wiliam J. van-
den Heuvel expressed hope that the
U. S. Supreme Court would resolve
the Prince Edward school closing dis
pute in time for public schools to be
reopened next fall. Sullivan is super
intendent of the free schools, while
vanden Heuvel is the justice depart
ment representative who brought to
gether federal, state and local officials
to reach an agreement providing for
establishment of the system. The
Scroll Honors the Late President Kennedy
Signed by Prince Edward students.
schools are attended by about 1,600
Negroes and four whites. The Negroes
had been without formal education
since public schools in the county were
closed in 1959 to prevent desegrega-
t : on.
Sullivan and vanden Heuvel SDoke
at a luncheon meeting at National
Education Association headquarters, at
which a check for $5,612 was presented
to the school svstem from the District
of Columbia Education Association.
‘Second To None’
“We’ve probably the best equipped
school system in the United States—
bar none.” Sullivan said. “We have
team teaching, teaching machines and
educational TV . . . Our vocational
education program probably is second
to none in the South ... We have
extensive business courses ... We
probably have the finest school library
in the South ... We have very small
classes, with some children getting in
dividual tutoring . . .”
Vanden Heuvel told the meeting that
the Prince Edward Free Schools are
public schools in the finest sense of the
word, since they belong to the nation.
Figures presented at the luncheon
showed that of the school system’s goal
of one million dollars to operate this
year, about $850,000 has been raised.
Approximately $150,000 of this has
been contributed by individuals, $30,-
000 by educational organizations, and
the remainder by foundations.
★ ★ ★
The free school system’s superinten
dent, Dr. Sullivan, was quoted in the
Richmond News Leader Dec. 13 as
saying that while a superintendent’s
10 School-Race Measures Approved
In 1963, Lowest Total Since Decision
IT! en laws were enacted by
Southern and border state
legislatures in 1963 relating di
rectly to school segregation-de
segregation. In 10 previous years,
more than 400 such laws or reso
lutions were enacted or adopted.
It was by far the lightest year in
legislation pertaining to the issue since
1954—the year the U.S. Supreme Court
handed down its school desegregation
decision. In 1962, 30 measures were
approved, 15 of them in Louisiana and
10 in Mississippi. Peak year was 1956,
when 86 measures became law or policy
in the 17 states.
Of last year’s 10 enactments directly
involving the races in education, three
pertained to tuition-grants programs
under which public funds are provided
for use of pupils in attending schools
other than those to which they norm
ally are assigned. South Carolina be
came the eighth state to authorize such
a program; Georgia and Louisiana
amended their previous laws on the
subject.
Heavy Opposition
Backed by Gov. Donald S. Russell
and drafted by the State School Com
mittee, the South Carolina measure
was enacted despite heavy opposition.
Professional educators, including offi
cials of the State Department of Edu
cation, were cool toward it. No action
was taken on a $1 million appropriation
to get the local-option program started.
Georgia amended its tuition-grants
law (1) to provide that portions of
payments must be from local funds
and (2) to place on local officials the
burden of determining the need for
the grants. Louisiana appropriated
$300,000 a month from the state sales
tax for distribution as tuition grants to
pupils attending private, nonsectarian
schools.
Alabama legislators in two acts gave
local school boards state authority to
separate students of “disparate ability,
background and achievement” and
provided for special classes, instruction
and whatever grouping is considered
necessary “in the best interest of the
students and the entire student body
...” Backers of the measures said they
provide for separation of pupils either
by sex or by race within any school
which is desegregated.
Public Accommodations
Public-accommodation laws with
partial reference to education were
enacted in Delaware and Maryland,
and half the counties. Oklahoma legis
lators voted to establish a human rights
commission; Missouri took no action
when one was proposed; Tennessee
got such a commission last month by
executive order of the governor rather
than through legislation.
Oklahoma voted to desegregate edu
cational facilities for mentally retarded
children.
Efforts to repeal or modify existing
laws with reference to race in educa
tion failed in several instances. Dele-
ware legislators, in enacting a school-
construction bill, continued, over
objection of Gov. Elbert N. Carvel, the
state’s policy of paying 100 per cent of
the construction cost for Negro schools
and 60 per cent for white schools.
In South Carolina, the legislature
wrote its general appropriations bill
in such a way as to circumvent a law
enacted previously to require that state
funds be cut off from a school which is
desegregated by court order—or a
school from which a pupil has trans
ferred to a desegregated school.
Other Sessions
Legislatures which met last year and
took no actions pertaining materially
to educational segregation-desegrega
tion included those of Arkansas, Flori
da, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Virginia and West Virginia.
The 86 laws and resolutions voted
in 1956 included 26 in Virginia, then at
the height of establishing its “massive-
resistance” program. In 1960, there
were 65 measures on the subject, of
which 53 were enacted by the Louisi
ana legislature during its regular ses
sion and three extraordinary sessions.
Bills and resolutions voted in other
years included six in 1954, 28 in 1955,
61 in 1957, 34 in 1958, 50 in 1959 and
26 in 1961.
A large number of these measures
either have been declared unconstitu
tional by the courts or have not been
invoked by state or local officials.
office is generally a very busy place,
“not one member of the white com
munity has stopped here to talk with
»
me.
Dr. Sullivan, who is on leave from a
school superintendency in New York
state, was reported to be greatly dis
appointed over the relationship be
tween the white citizens of Prince Ed
ward and the free schools.
He told of a recent school assembly
at which a political science authority
from Washington and Lee University
spoke. Students of the private segre
gated Prince Edward Academy had
been invited, as had other white per
sons of the community, and students
of the free school had dressed up es
pecially for the occasion and had a
committee in the corridors ready to
welcome visitors. But none showed up,
according to Dr. Sullivan.
★ ★ ★
A book honoring the memory of the
late President Kennedy was signed by
each of the approximately 1,600 stu
dents of the Prince Edward Free
Schools and taken to Washington Dec.
18 for presentation to Attorney Gen
eral Robert F. Kennedy, who in turn
was to give it to the late president’s
widow.
It was under President Kennedy’s
direction that the federal government
launched the effort that led to estab
lishment of the schools for Prince Ed
ward Negroes. The book, 18 by 23
inches in size and covered in dark blue
velvet, carried an inscription on the
front saying, in part:
“Our beloved President John F.
Kennedy once considered us in our
distress. We, the students of the
Prince Edward County Free Schools
in Farmville, Va., think of Caroline-
John and Mrs. Kennedy in their sor
row. It is also ours.” ,
Some of the signatures in the boo
were in the scrawling handwriting 0
children who had just learned to write
race.
Books
and the Issue
The following books on race re
lations have been acquired by t e
library of Southern Education e
porting Service:
PREACHING ON RACE .
by Dr. R. Frederick West. The Be
any Press, St. Louis, 160 pp. ,
The first part offers suggested e
niques for a minister’s approach 0 ^
subject of race in his sermons, an
second part includes 10 sermons
ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK rEG '
MENT Wie ginson-
by Thomas Wentworth rhgS ^
Collier Books, New York,
Col. Higginson not only conun I n< the
but recorded his experiences ' V1 a
First South Carolina Volunteer^
regiment formed in 1862 after jjie
Lincoln reversed his policy agai y n j 0 ri
ii co of freed Negroes in the
use of
Army.
THE STORY OF MAN
THE ORIGIN OF RACES
Carleton S. Coon. Alfred
A-
and I* 4
by wo-. -
Knopf, New York, 438 PP-
These two anthropological stu “*f S r0 -
by the curator of ethnology _ ;ver -
fessor of anthropology at tn
sitv Museum, Philadelphia.