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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY, 1964—PAGE 5
LOUISIANA
Negro Vote Returns as Issue in Governor’s Election
NEW ORLEANS
he racial issue—which was
largely an undercurrent in the
campaigning prior to the Dec. 7
Democratic primary — surged to
the surface in the early hours of
the runoff campaign for the gov
ernor’s office in Louisiana.
The issue, couched in terms of the
•“bloc Negro vote,” was aimed at front
runner deLesseps S. Morrison by chal
lenger John McKeithen. It is the same
tactic that was credited with defeating
Morrison in 1960 when he went into
hre runoff 65,000 votes ahead of Jimmie
S Davis only to lose the nomination
by 73,000 votes.
Morrison, former mayor of New Or
leans, recently President Kennedy’s
ambassador to the Organization of
American States, a moderate on racial
matters, led the field of 10 candidates
in the Dec. 7 voting. He polled 299,702
votes, approximately a third of the total
number cast. It was more votes than
but about the same percentage he re
ceived in 1960 in the second of his three
tries for the governor’s office.
McKeithern, currently Louisiana
public service commissioner from the
northeast portion of the state, received
157.778 votes, about 17 per cent of the
total, to place him in the runoff with
Morrison.
Backed by Mrs. Long
McKeithen ran with the support of
one faction of the old Long family po
litical machine headed by Mrs. Blanche
Long, widow of Gov. Earl Long. She
served as McKeithen’s campaign man
ager.
The other faction of the Long or
ganization supported U. S. Rep. Gillis
Long of Alexandria, who ran third with
137.778 votes. His principal backing
came from his distant cousin, U. S. Sen.
Russell Long, son of the late Huey P.
Long.
Robert Kennon, governor of the state
from 1952 to 1958, ran fourth with 127,-
870 votes. He campaigned on a gener
ally conservative platform, recalling the
record . of governmental economy his
McKeithen morrison
previous administration compiled and
his role in leading Louisiana into the
Republican column during the 1956
presidential election. Kennon received
the endorsement of Leander Perez Sr.,
political leader of Plaquimines Parish
and one of the state’s most vociferous
segregationists.
Shelby M. Jackson, state superin
tendent of education since 1948, was
conceded, however, to have won the
vote of the unyielding segregationists.
He polled 103,949 for fifth place.
Oblique Approach
During most of the primary cam
paign, which began in September, the
racial issue was approached obliquely,
in terms of advocacy of states’ rights
and criticism of the Kennedy admin
istration’s civil rights policies.
Shortly after the primary returns
were in, however, McKeithen, who had
been sharply critical of Gov. Davis’ ad
ministration, visited the governor and
emerged denouncing the “bloc Negro
vote” which he said went to Morrison.
He has ridden the issue hard in tele
vision and stump appearances around
the state.
Morrison has countered that this is a
“false issue” and that the economic and
educational development of the state
are the real issues in the campaign.
Morrison’s supporters have pointed out
that in past elections McKeithen re
ceived votes in predominantly Negro
wards in about the same proportion
that Morrison tallied in the primary.
Winner of the Jan. 11 runoff will face
Republican Charlton Lyons, Shreveport
oil man, in a general election March 3.
Oklahoma
(Continued From Page 4)
factor. We want to be completely fair
about it.”
One important answer being sought
the questionnaires is the degree
j® which principals participate in the
hiring of teachers in other cities. In
Oklahoma City, Parker said, the prin-
upals judgment is a key factor and
administrative officials rely on it in
eciding whether to hire a person to
eac h in the system.
The superintendent said he and
ard members have had several in-
°nnal meetings with a group of eight
^ 10 Negro citizens, led by F. D.
• oon, retired principal of Douglass
H 'gh School.
Ihe Negroes asked that all school
m s em personnel be hired strictly on
« an d ability, not race. This would
enf f * eac hers, secretaries, cafeteria
^ °y es and maintenance workers,
horn™* 08 t0 ^ e ^ v ‘ n Porter, Okla-
v ,. a < - it y branch president of the
‘° nal Association for the Advance-
4e N°^ C°l° re d People. He is one of
B tv, egr ° es w ^° met with the board,
ij Parties agreed the major issue
ser\-eH er em Pi°y men t. Dr. Parker ob-
<j 0 that some of the Negro leaders
tlto 0 have the same perception of
« v --Plex administrative problem
-, ve d as does Moon, a veteran
School;
man.
Another Meeting
the ' n dicated another mee
Pear f 6 ? 1 " 0 grou P will be he
.^future. He said:
in j? su mmary, what we’re
! enis as e ff°rt to work out
Lge nf as we can to th
sge of 7, , as we can to
district |Lth® children in
This involves
<t.
adn bnistrI*‘-‘" mvolves a f
othe r „ aUve complexities
“p COm Plexities.
11 in „ au , re the board is v
bav e - ^ taith. I am, too.
il *Ps in some significan
’fill * he Past year and I
year ahead” 6 make SOr
Tilling
“rise if laac her vacancies
“a the k . va rious schoc
v, lt , asis °f the person n
J° som e tv Ut regard to race
chorna p'f 8 un P rece, dented
rj « a y schc>o1 system. ’
^“ved g /° teaeh ing in a
r°m the normal !
dential sections or even the fringe
area of biracial enrollments. Another
possibility would be a white teacher
assigned to an all-Negro school, such
as Douglass or Moon.
Have Reservations
Porter said this appeared to be the
chief point on which the board mem
bers held reservations.
“They seemed to be worried whether
the teachers would be able to adjust
and the pupils, too,” the attorney said.
“I got the impression the board felt
it’s an area in which it had to move
cautiously.”
Porter said the Negro group took
the position that adjustment would not
be a problem.
“If there is a vacancy in physics and
a Negro teacher happened to be avail
able and qualified, there would be no
adjustment problem,” he insisted. “It’s
our feeling a Negro teacher would
produce more efficiently in an inte
grated situation than in a segregated
one. It’s true in any profession. The
competition is keener (for Negroes in
a desegregated situation).”
National Surveys
Porter said national surveys by the
NAACP, and studies of desegregated
schools by other organizations show
that, where Negro teachers are assigned
to all-white schools, adjustment is not
a problem.
“They are among the best teachers
because they produce at the maximum.
Where they are in a segregated school,
they may be inclined not to produce
as hard because there’s not so much
pressure. The same thing is true of
Negro pupils in a desegregated school.”
As for board fears of possible pres
sure from white parents to forestall
there might be minor incidents initially
but expressed confidence these would
disappear in a period of time.
The Negroes asked the board to take
the initiative in issuing a general
policy statement that would “condi
tion” the public for unrestricted use of
Negro teachers.
“We felt that, if the board took the
lead and announced an ‘open door’
policy, it would keep down any forces
that might try to discourage it (full
faculty desegregation),” Porter said.
Louisiana also is in the process of
electing a new legislature, all 105 rep
resentatives and 39 senators, and of
choosing a new 105-member State
Democratic Central Committee. Many
runoffs will be required before the
makeup of these bodies is determined.
The state legislature has played an
important role in the segregation-de-
segregation controversy in this state,
having placed scores of laws on the
statute books bearing on the subject.
The central committee composition is
important at this time because the cur
rent governing body of the Democratic
Party has by resolution moved toward
the selection of unpledged electors for
the 1964 presidential election. The
movement originally was aimed at de
priving President Kennedy of the elec
toral votes of Southern states and was
sparked in Louisiana by leading seg
regation spokesmen.
Other primary races with possible
bearing on the school segregation-de
segregation question included those for
attorney general and state superin
tendent of education. Incumbent P. F.
(Jack) Gremillion, who as the state’s
chief legal officer has played a major
role in the legal battle over the schools,
defeated Marksville attorney Charles A.
Riddle Jr. 545,962 to 183,171. William J.
Dodd, president of the State Board of
Education, defeated five other contend
ers, all professional educators, for the
top school post. (See Schoolmen.)
Schoolmen
William J. Dodd
Wins Nomination
For Superintendent
Education in Louisiana for the next
four years will be under the strong in
fluence of William J. (Bill) Dodd, long
a prominent political figure in this
state, who on Dec. 7 won a first pri
mary victory for the office of state
superintendent of education.
Dodd, for the past four years presi
dent of the State Board of Education,
defeated five opponents—all of them
professional educators—for the Demo
cratic nomination. No Republican can
didate has yet appeared to challenge
Dodd in the March 3 general election.
Moderate in political and on racial
matters, Dodd figured in the State
Board of Education decision ordering,
under court prodding, an end to racial
discrimination in receiving and proc
essing applications for enrollment at
the state’s 27 trade and vocational
schools. Under terms of state law,
Dodd will continue to serve the board
as secretary ex-officio after he becomes
superintendent.
The new superintendent will succeed
Shelby M. Jackson who has held the
powerful state education post since
1948. Jackson, an ardent segregation
ist, elected superintendent four succes
sive terms, ran for governor in the
December primary and came up fifth
in the field of 10.
Dodd’s political career began in the
1940s under the tutelage of the late
Earl Long. Dodd was Long’s lieutenant
governor from 1948 to 1952. Later they
broke politically and Dodd in 1956 was
William J. Dodd
A powerful position.
elected state auditor, campaigning with
the Long ticket but not on it.
Dodd has twice sought the nomina
tion for governor, unsuccessfully. His
attainment of the education office, gen
erally deemed second only to the gov
ernor’s office in influence, is viewed as
a significant advancement of his po
litical potential.
★ ★ ★
Dr. Boyd M. Woodard of Lake
Charles in January will succeed to the
presidency of the State Board of Edu
cation. He was the unanimous choice
of the board at its Dec. 13 meeting to
replace William J. Dodd who will re
sign to assume the office of state super
intendent of education.
A physician, Dr. Woodard has served
on the board throughout Louisiana’s
segregation-desegregation crisis. He
served under Dodd as vice president
of the board and has been an out
spoken champion of the prerogatives
of the board against alleged encroach
ments by such other state agencies as
the Legislative Budget Committee and
the State Bond and Building Commis
sion which administers state capital
funds.
Louisiana Highlights
“The Negro bloc vote” issue was
raised again in Louisiana’s guberna
torial primary runoff campaign as it
was four years ago. DeLesseps S.
Morrison, who led the field of 10
aspirants in the first primary, was
tire target of John McKeithen on the
subject of race.
William J. Dodd, president of the
State Board of Education, was nom
inated for state superintendent of ed
ucation.
No further desegregation of schools
in East Baton Rouge Parish will take
place during the spring term of the
1963-64 school year.
One of the state’s largest private
schools which draws support from
pupils receiving state tuition grants
is experiencing financial difficulties.
Rittner and Riecke Head
New Orleans School Board
Two New Orleans School Board
members, caught up in the heated seg
regation-desegregation debate in the
1962 school board election, on Dec. 10
were elected to the top offices of the
board for 1964.
Lloyd J. Rittner was chosen presi
dent of the board and Louis G. Riecke
was selected vice president. Rittner
succeeds Matthew R. Sutherland; and
Riecke will fill the post from which
Rittner was advanced to the board’s
chief office.
Rittner and Riecke have been mem
bers of the board since 1956 and
throughout the period when New Or
leans was struggling to make the court-
ordered transition to desegregated
schools against state opposition.
They were re-elected to the board
Nov. 6, 1962, following a vigorous cam
paign during which their role in the
segregation-desegregation crisis was
sharply attacked. Opponents have ac
cused the incumbents of choosing
which state laws to obey and which to
ignore in coping with racial problems
before the board.
★ ★ ★
No further desegregation of public
schools in East Baton Route Parish will
take place during the spring semester,
Assistant School Supt. Robert Aertker
said on Dec. 5.
Under a court-approved “reverse
stairstep” desegregation plan, 28 Negro
high-school seniors were assigned to
four previously all-white schools last
September. No more will be transferred
to white schools during the spring term
of the 1963-64 school year, Aertker said,
and none of the 28 pupils transferred
to white schools last fall has indicated
a desire to move back to their former
schools.
The school board’s desegregation plan
approved last summer by U. S. District
Judge E. Gordon West provides for a
period prior to the opening of each
school year when Negro pupils at
designated grade levels may apply for
transfer to white schools. The 28 12th-
graders now in white schools were as
signed to desegregated schools accord
ing to this plan last fall, and 11th- and
12th-graders will apply for transfers
before the end of the current school
year for assignment next fall.
Applications for transfer in the next-
lowest grade will be received each en
suing summer.
Miscellaneous
Negroes Cancel
Carnival Event
A Negro Carnival organization on
Dec. 3 announced that it has canceled
its Carnival ball this year. The action
of the Original Illinois Club, according
to its president, Bobbie Francois, was
taken in support of the civil-rights ef
fort.
The club, organized in 1895, has held
a ball each Mardi Gras season since
then with the exception of the World
War years, when most carnival activi
ties were suspended, and 1957 and 1960.
Private School Faced With Problems
One of the largest private nonsec
tarian schools, founded in New Orleans
after the public schools were desegre
gated, ended 1963 in financial and
health regulation troubles.
The Junior University of New Or
leans, with an enrollment in excess of
900 from kindergarten to the first year
of college, is said to be some $50,000 in
the hole. And two days before the
start of the Christmas holidays, the
school’s newly purchased building on
exclusive St. Charles Avenue was or
dered closed by the city health officer
because of alleged unsanitary condi
tions.
James Fountain, director of the
Louisiana Financial Assistance Com
mission which administered the pupil-
grant program from which JUNO
draws most of its financial support,
confirmed the school’s financial difficul
ties.
“There is a possibility a few parents
may have received grant checks and
not paid tuition,” he asserted. “But we
anticipate this to be a negligible
amount.”
Fountain explained that the commis
sion pays tuition grants up to $40 per
month for nine months to the parents
or guardians of pupils enrolled in pri
vate nonsectarian schools such as
JUNO. The payments are made at the
end of each month. JUNO on the other
hand has asked parents for tuition in
advance, Fountain continued, so that
about $40,000 of the $50,000 due was
for December.
The Financial Assistance Commis
sion began mailing out December
checks on Dec. 20. Total amount dis
tributed for the month was $314,280,
of which $22,056 was for pupils attend
ing JUNO.
Earlier in the month, at a JUNO
PTA meeting, Fountain discussed the
school’s financial dilemma with the par
ents and explained the function of the
financial assistance commission. He
called attention to “the seriousness of
receiving grant checks and not paying
tuition.” Under the law, that is a fel
ony.
During the previous year, Fountain
said, there were “maybe a dozen and
a half cases” all over the state involv
ing amounts ranging from $40 to $120.
After a study of the situation at
JUNO, he said, it is expected that the
number of grants-in-aid not being
passed on in payment of tuition is very
small, “a handful of parents,” he said.
Among the consequences of the
school’s financial difficulties: some
teachers were not paid, one lawsuit and
three liens were filed against the
school.
Adding to these troubles, city health
inspectors said they found unsanitary
conditions prevailing in the halls, class
rooms, toilet rooms and janitor’s closet.
The school was ordered closed on Dec.
17 but did not do so until Dec. 18,
when police appeared to enforce the
health department order.
School officials said the conditions
complained of would be corrected by
the time the Christmas holidays ended
Jan. 2. Parents and students pitched in
over the holidays to help put things
in order.
On Dec. 28, a group of 27 parents of
JUNO pupils charged that the school
was being used as a political football
by pressure groups and urged public
officials to turn their attention to state
and city schools which, they said, are
in greater need of it.