Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—JANUARY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA
Hearings Begin on Darlington County Desegregation
COLUMBIA
reliminary motions in an 18-
month-old suit aimed at de
segregating the public schools of
Darlington County were heard by
U.S. District Judge J. Robert
Martin Dec. 18.
Although the case, Stanley et al v.
Darlington County School District No.
1, was first filed on May 29, 1962, the
hearing came unexpectedly.
Judge Martin, who last August or
dered South Carolina’s first—and so far
only—public school desegregation in
Charleston, was conducting a term of
federal court in Florence, 10 miles from
the Darlington County seat of Darling
ton.
He and Judge C. C. Wyche have
worked alone against jammed and
growing court dockets in the state for
more than a year. During that period,
South Carolina’s other two federal
judgeships have been vacant—the ob
jectives of a number of active candi
dates.
It is understood that the nomination
of U. S. Rep. Robert Hemphill of South
Carolina’s Fifth Congressional Circuit
was in President Kennedy’s desk at
the time of his assassination. State Rep.
Charles Simons of Aiken is most
prominently mentioned in connection
with the other vacancy, primarily be
cause his name was on lists submitted
to the Justice Department by both S. C.
senators.
The Darlington case was one of four
desegregation actions affected by the
judicial logjam.
Toward the end of the Florence term,
Judge Martin remarked that he ex
pected “pressure from everywhere
about the first of
March” and add
ed, “We might as
well go ahead and
hear it (the Dar
lington case).”
The five minor
defendants in the
case are Theodore
W. and Emily
Stanley, children
of Mr. and Mrs.
Arthur W. Stan
ley, and Whitfield
MARTIN
Texas
(Continued From Page 7)
where integration has proceeded more
peacefully than in any state or large
city in the South.”
Political Action
President’s Friend
Wins Congress Race
J. J. (Jake) Pickle, long-time po
litical associate of President Lyndon
B. Johnson, was elected Congressman
from the Tenth District of Texas by a
margin of 27,206 to 16,037 in a runoff
with Jim Dobbs, conservative Republi
can.
Pickle, a Democrat, resigned as
member of the Texas Employment
Commission to make the race to suc
ceed Homer Thornberry, who became
a U.S. d is t r i c t
court judge.
Pickle, 49, de
scribed himself as
a “personal
friend” of Presi
dent Johnson, but
added “I’m no
rubber stamp.”
He indicated pos
sible differences
with the presi-
d e n t on civil-
rights legislation,
although promising to support “a bill
to give all Americans full civil rights.”
Most Negro voters apparently had
supported former State Rep. Jack Rit
ter Jr. in the race, but Ritter was
eliminated in the first election on Nov.
9 and gave a last-minute endorsement
to Pickle.
★ ★ ★
At Houston, former City Councilman
Louie Welch won the mayor’s race
against Bob Hervey, a political new
comer. Bill Elliott, a Republican, de
feated Dr. C. W. Thompson, Negro
physician and Democrat, by 72,954
votes to 43,855, in one of four races
for council membership. The council
has white members only. Hervey ran
for mayor as “a personal friend” of
U.S. Attorney General Robert Ken
nedy.
Jr., Cordel and Forrest Sims, children
of Mr. and Mrs. Whitfield Sims.
Sims told a reporter his children are
in the 11th, 10th and ninth grades and
the Stanley youngsters are in the sev
enth and fourth grades.
Among the several defendants in the
action are the board of trustees of the
Darlington district, Area 1 Supt. G. C.
Magnum and County Supt. of Educa
tion Russell C. King.
Reside in City
All five children live in Attendance
Area 1, centered in the City of Darling
ton. Other attendance areas in the dis
trict are centered at Hartsville and La
mar.
Routine motions were heard at the
Dec. 18 hearing. Judge Martin asked
the attorneys to file summaries of their
arguments, and he promised rulings on
them after Jan. 6. Such rulings could
clear the way for a trial of the suit.
In one motion heard, the defense
asked that the names of all but the
first of the plaintiffs (Theodore Whit
more Stanley) be stricken from the
complaint.
Another defense motion asked dis
missal of the suit on grounds that the
federal court did not have jurisdiction.
The other concerned the plaintiffs’
request, filed Dec. 7, 1962, for informa
tion on Darlington County’s school en
rollment and pupil-assignment pro
cedures. The defense filed a motion
shortly thereafter saying such infor
mation was immaterial.
Class Action
Arguments at the hearing centered
on the class-action matter brought up
in the first defense motion. Darlington
attorney R. Greer, speaking for the
school board, contended the complaint
did not properly set forth a class ac
tion because it had not been joined by
other persons and does not show that
there are “others similarly situated.”
Attorneys for the Negroes cited other
cases which had been declared class
actions.
Darlington is primarily an agricul
tural county located in the state’s
northeastern Pee Dee section. Tobacco
is the main crop. The city is nationally
famous in racing circles as the home
of the Darlington International Race
way, site of the “Southern 500,” oldest
major stock-car race in the country.
The county’s 1960 population was 52,-
928.
Its 15,723 school children—slightly
more than half of whom are Negro—
attend 15 white and 12 Negro schools.
Negro high schools, however, outnum
ber white, 4 to 3.
The list of plaintiffs’ attorneys in the
Stanley case include most of those who
have argued other desegregation cases
in the state. The group is headed by
Matthew J. Perry and Lincoln C. Jen
kins of Columbia and includes the
NAACP’s New York staff of Jack
Greenberg, Mrs. Constance Baker Mot
ley and James M. Nabrit III.
Legislative Action
Technical Program
Lauded; Attitude
Of Group Pondered
S.C. Highlights
U.S. District Judge Robert Martin
began hearings on an 18-month-old
suit to desegregate the public schools
of agricultural Darlington County.
Members of the House Ways and
Means Committee praised the
progress made by the state’s new
and partially desegregated technical
training program as the state’s
School (Segregation) Committee
called for an improved program of
vocational education in the public
schools that could provide more
students for the advanced technical
progress.
Segregation Committee Chairman
L. Marion Gressette again came out
against re-enactment of a compul
sory school attendance law after a
number of individuals called for
such action following a census of
school dropouts.
A Negro woman, who had an
nounced as a candidate for a Rock
Hill School Board, was ruled in
eligible. The election board of York
County said she had filed too late.
(SSN in December reported that
centers at Greenville, Columbia and
Pendleton had Negro students and that
the one at Spartanburg was expected
to follow suit.)
Among the legislators praising the
progress made in technical education
was Rep. Joseph O. Rogers of Claren
don County, vice-chariman of the S. C.
School (Segregation) Committee, a
body created in the 1950’s to safeguard,
as far as possible, the state’s separate
school systems for whites and Negroes.
Later in the month (on Dec. 19), the
Segregation Committee, better known
as the Gressette Committee after its
chairman, State Sen. L. Marion Gres
sette, met and
“reviewed the
status of the
schools of the
state generally in
regard to what
might be neces
sary” in the light
of recent court
orders.
Such orders
have recently de
segregated the
University of
South Carolina, Clemson College and
the public schools of school District 20
in Charleston County.
Problems Lighten
A statement released after the closed
meeting said that “incident” to its pri
mary mission, the committee is con
cerned with the progress of public edu
cation and “finds that the problems
tend to diminish in intensity with the
general improvement of the public
schools and the advancement of the
general economic level.”
The statement further said that the
committee had appointed a subeommit-
Schoolmen
tee to work with the governor and
other committees concerned with edu
cation to improve vocational education
in the public schools.
It said its purpose was to assure that
“more graduates can qualify for jobs
or admission to the several technical
education centers for advanced train
ing . . .”
(The SSN article in December on
technical education quoted an official
of the program as saying that, although
20 Negroes are currently studying in
the various desegregated centers, be
tween 400 and 500 others had been
turned down for lack of qualifications,
along with several thousand whites.)
Committee’s Course Pondered
The Gressette Committee statement
on vocational education caused at least
one political columnist (the unsigned
author of the State House column in
the Columbia State) to ponder whether
the committee is changing its direction.
The column noted that another special
committee and several special ones are
working on general education problems
and that the Gressette Committee was
specifically created to handle segrega
tion matters.
In another portion of its statement,
the Gressette Committee said it is stu
dying additional plans to “more posi
tively assure” all parents the “full
freedom of choice” as to the type of
schools their children would attend.
It said “further recommendations to
this end may be ready for submission
to the General Assembly during the
1964 session.”
This reference concerned the state’s
tuition-grants program to finance pri
vate-school education in desegregated
areas—a program passed by the Gen
eral Assembly after it was prepared
and introduced by the Gressette Com
mittee last year.
No Funds as Yet
The bill authorized the program but
appropriated no funds. Several school
districts, including Charleston, have in
dicated they plan to operate under the
program.
An Associated Press sampling of
legislative opinion indicated the funds
needed would be provided, although
perhaps at the expense of the local
school districts rather than the state.
Twenty-two lawmakers who replied
to the AP questionnaire said they
would vote for such funds; nine said
they would not and four gave no firm
answer. (There are 46 senators and 124
representatives in the S. C. General
Assembly.)
The strongest opposition, perhaps,
came from Rep. Harris P. Smith of
Pickens. “I did not support the tuitions
grants bill,” he said. “My position is
that it could not stand a court test
and would be detrimental to the public
school system . . .”
Says Plan ‘Won’t Work’
Rep. Pat Lindler of Lexington said,
“One hundred and seventy legislators
know the tuitions grants thing won’t
work in the long run.”
Sen. Francis B. Nicholson of Green
wood said he would vote to implement
the program if an amendment is added
to assure that “there shall be deduct^
from the total state funds going to tha*
school district a sum representing the
state per-pupil expenditure, regardless
of whether that pupil was transferring
from a public school or had previously
attended a private school.
“Otherwise, a district or county could
receive grant funds for pupils who
previously had enrolled in private
schools and were not being counted for
state allocations. And if that were per.
mitted, obviously allocations for other
counties and districts would be re
duced.”
Community Action
State NAACP Lists
Goals for 1964
Among its goals for 1964, the South
Carolina NAACP says, are early rul
ings in pending desegregation cases
against school districts in four counties
of the state.
On federal court dockets are suits
from Greenville, Clarendon, Sumter
and Darlington counties. Charleston
city schools underwent token desegre
gation in September, 1963, and face a
court order to remove all racial bar
riers in September, 1964.
A stepup in voter registration was
emphasized by the Rev. I. DeQuincey
Newman in an interview on 1964 Ne
gro aims in the state. Newman is state
field secretary of the NAACP.
“But I don’t like the idea of deciding
what is first, second and third in im
portance,” he said. “All phases of the
movement are important.”
In The Colleges
Campus Democrats
Adopt Resolutions;
Arouse Controversy
The Young Democrats of the Uni
versity of South Carolina stirred up a
controversy on and off the campus in
early December by adopting a wide-
ranging series of resolutions in sup- .
port of doctrines and issues frequently
opposed in this area.
Among the means suggested to g uar )
antee “the protection of civil liberties
was “the right of an individual to at -
tend a school, vote, or hold a job with
out limitation because of sex, race, re
ligion or political affiliation.”
Other resolutions advocated the
abolishment of the House Un-Ameri
can Activities and the Senate Int^ 112
Security committees and supported a
cabinet-level Department of Urban
Affairs, the U.N., the Peace Corps, th<-
nuclear test ban, the right of self- e
termination of all peoples, academy ^
freedom for faculty members of 1113
tutions of higher learning and no
discrimination in labor unions.
(See S. C., Page 9)
GRESSETTE
The accomplishments of South Caro
lina’s new technical education program,
which was opened to Negro applicants
almost from its inception, were praised
Dec. 11 during a session of the state
House Ways and Means Committee.
The accolades came during the ap
pearance of O. Stanley Smith, chair
man of the State Technical Education
Commission. Smith asked that his bud
get for fiscal 1964-65 be increased by
$214,000 to expand the program.
Smith noted that 3,468 people had
been placed in better paying (by an
average of $9 per week) jobs as of
September, 1963—or before the ma
jority of the modem centers were
opened in major South Carolina cities.
This, he said, accounted for additional
personal income of $1.5 million.
Smith was asked about the policy of
admitting Negroes. He said that, since
the physical facilities for the centers
are financed primarily out of local
funds, there is no statewide policy in
regard to Negroes and local centers are
free to adopt their own admission rules.
In other words, he added, the admis
sion policy is based strictly on qualifi
cations.
He admitted to the money-bill writ
ers that “several” are desegregated.
This was the first public statement on
this, although the policy had been
previously announced.
Negro Dropouts Outnumber White
A statewide census to determine the
number of school dropouts in South
Carolina showed that more than 10,000
school-age children are not attending
school. Two-thirds of them are Negroes,
who constitute about 40 per cent of
the state’s population.
The incomplete figure, announced by
the State Department of Education
Dec. 4, was 10,413. It exceeds the total
population of the state’s smallest coun
ty, McCormick.
Still to be heard from were Green
ville, the state’s second most populous
county, and Dillon. The delay in
Greenville was due to the fact that the
school district there, which includes the
whole county, was undertaking an
elaborate census to be used in project
ing attendance figures and school hold
ing power over a period of years.
Economic hardship was given as the
No. 1 reason for leaving school.
The census was ordered by the legis
lature when statistics showed South
Carolina youth faring poorly in Selec
tive Service mental tests and other ed
ucational criteria.
As the state moved to attack the
dropout problem, the most recently
heard proposal for a solution was the
re-enactment of a compulsory-attend
ance law.
This step was strongly opposed by
Calhoun County Sen. L. Marion Gres
sette in a statement Dec. 11. Sen. Gres
sette heads the S. C. School Commit
tee, which is charged with maintaining
segregation in the state’s schools. At
the suggestion of the Gressette Com
mittee, an earlier compulsory-attend
ance law was taken off the state’s books
in 1956.
He said such a law would “greatly
endanger our present school system in
view of what we are facing at this
time.”
He said attendance was better now
than when the law was in force and
insisted that laws on the books are
sufficient if they are enforced properly.
He referred to a child-neglect law
which, among other things, makes par
ents over 21 responsible if they will
fully and knowingly encourage a mi
nor “to become and be habitually tru
ant.”
Sen. Gressette said he believes that
persons who favor a compulsory-at
tendance have not “given sufficient
thought to the subject.”
★ ★ ★
York County Board of'
ssioners ruled Dec. 30 tha .
man, who had announce j
ite for the county’s Dis
board, filed too late ana
ffble to run in the Jan.
Maggie S. Bailey, a Ro<^
, attempted to file Uec.
d she was probably too ‘ 5
filing deadline, underlaw,
;fore the election, or Dec. ^
Bailey said she had no
las Day in figuring the to ^
lection board asked fl.
of Attorney General
1 before ruling her inel P t
was a candidate for vo tes-
in 1961 and polled 18» ^
being declared niehgi ^ n ,
e was disappointed but ^
o the decision. She a ha ve
ught it would be use
o on the board an iibei a
have worked for a m0 ,^. gein eB*
ave policy and for enlarged
■crowded schools. a gai r -