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SOUTH CAROLINA SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY, 1964—PAGE II Charleston Holds Segregation Aids Negroes; Appeal Rejected COLUMBIA T he Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected on Jan. 27 an appeal by officials of South Carolina’s only desegregated school district. The decision came a week after lawyers for Charleston’s School Dis trict 20 had contended before the ap peals court, sitting in Richmond, Va., that Negro education is helped rather tlran hurt by racially segregated schools. The brief opinion in denying the claim recited in summary the lower court action, said it (the circuit court) was in accord and adopted it as its own. The appeal sought a reversal of an order issued on Aug. 22, 1963, by U.S. District Judge J. Robert Martin which opened Charleston white schools last September to 13 minor plaintiffs in a desegregation suit. (Brown et at v. School District 20 of Charleston Coun ty). Ten of the 13 Negroes now are enrolled in white schools; two moved away and one dropped out to return to his former all-Negro school after a few days. Complete Desegregation A second portion of the ruling orders complete desegregation of the district in September of 1964. All five members of the Court of Appeals were called to sit on the ap peal instead of the usual three-judge panel. However, South Carolina’s rep resentative on the court, Judge Cle ment F. Haynsworth of Greenville, was- ill and the case was heard by Chief Judge Simon E. Sobeloff of Baltimore, and Judges Herbert S. Boreman of Parkersburg, W. Va., Albert V. Bryan of Alexandria, Va., and J. Spencer Bell of Charlotte, N.C. The request that they be allowed to use “recent scientific studies” in an effort to prove that segregated school ing actually benefits the Negro child was the main line of attack used by school district lawyers headed by George S. Leonard of Washington, D.C. In the event the court refused that request, the school district asked the «>urt to call on the U.S. Supreme Court to declare whether its 1954 decision was based on law or on fact. This request prompted Mrs. Con stance Baker Motley of New York, ?? NAACP attorney appearing for the egro plaintiffs, to suggest that narleston officials “want a second crack ” at the 1954 ruling The Charleston legal battery was j C Ua Uy divided into two groups— t^nard and former Lt. Gov. Burnet Maryland (Continued From Page 10) on*a^ y faCe or sex w °uld be made tion non P°htical basis with considera- Man , S1V j n to outsiders as well as, Pram a , ers - Checked in late January, "’he P said he did not know exactly indie j hiterviews would begin but stat e \ 6d t ^ ley would start shortly. The supeH ? ard ex P ects to name the new Puller,’ e ? c * ent well in advance of Dr. ^ s departure from office. duanjt *’ e ' T e ® rarn sent in December, Mrs. of t i lo a ,': ac hs o n Mitchell, as president had ur ® ry i an d NAACP Conference, Dr n, , T' rarn Ptom not to consider ty>‘ 'l“ ar W. Willis, Harford Coun- te iegram° j superintendent. The NAACP super;-, “escribed Willis as a district iiaintajj. ndent . who had “fought to and c i . Public school segregation,” still but d^at even now “there is in “ken desegregation of pupils °f teach° rd Count y and the program least j-, Gr desegregation is among the jj^Pressive in the state.” out of'Tf Cuupty, as of last faff, in 21 "Lite anH Public schools had both ’he hj[,u„ Negroes enrolled, giving it vr sta* i^r cen tage of mixed schools ^ogroeg _ e ' twenty-five per cent of its sohoois ’,,. r ,^° me 540 pupils, were in the ^ a higbp ” white classmates, which 111 n)o re Percentage than prevailed n'd distr; + 11 °f the other Mary- dorford b = C j S su bject to desegregation. j °n of H- . n , ot yet begun desegrega- Hicts b j a ching staff, which 10 other *Vatn f done - th an ln f ^ ai d in late January that a dlis, b e 6 NAACP opposition to df^t conrm n0t , aware °f any protests for arat ion of specific candi- e Pullen post. ■$ / si- ' '- ■■ \ X.. J South Carolina Highlights The Fourth Circuit Court of Ap peals rejected an appeal by Charles ton school officials in a suit that brought about South Carolina’s first public-school desegregation last September. Six Negro adults were admitted without incident to previously all- white evening classes at Columbia’s Dreher High School. The annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina took no action on a move to desegregate its facilities and activities, including schools. Attorneys representing a Darling ton school board argued in answer to a 20-month-old desegregation suit that Negro plaintiffs had not been denied privileges guaranteed under the Constitution. R. Maybank Jr. for a group of inter vening white parents and Charles H. Gibbes and Huger Sinkler for the school board. Gibbes, who joined Leonard in oral arguments, told the court that Judge Martin had “foreclosed” consideration of factual question in his district court decision by arbitrarily concluding that a system of compulsory segregation prevailed without examining the merits of the school board’s earlier decision in refusing to permit the 13 Negro children to transfer to the white schools. Mrs. Motley, in contesting arguments by both Leonard and Gibbes, said the Supreme Court had indeed “fore closed” factual determination of the effect of segregation on Negro children when it declared that state segregation action branded Negro children as in ferior and was unconstitutional. The matter, she added, “is no longer open to question.” She said Judge Martin had decided properly that he was not at liberty to rule on certain facts in the Charleston case. Leonard, saying the overriding con sideration should be “a better educated Negro population,” contended that re cent scientic studies support the claim that Negroes do better in all-Negro schools. Heredity vs. Environment He said the research showed that the personalities and mental charac teristics of children are matters of heredity rather than of environment. He stressed “difference” rather than “superiority” and “inferiority” in his arguments. He claimed it is “the business of the district court to find out where the facts are.” Up to now, he contended, it has simply been assumed that seg regation hints the Negro, whereas, in the light of new evidence, the reverse is true as a matter of provable fact He urged the court to review all scientific evidence available on the point. Both Mrs. Motley and Judge Sobeloff indicated disagreement with Leonard’s argument. The jurist said he did not think the research was related to the case and added, “. . . nor would it bowl me over if it did.” Mrs. Motley contended that poor Negro grades on achievement and other tests were primarily due to in ferior schools and unequal facilities. School District 20 comprises what is known as peninsula Charleston—the old part of the city between the Ash ley and Cooper rivers. The area in cludes most of the historic landmarks associated with the city that was founded in 1670. It has more Negro school children than white. ★ ★ ★ Darlington District Says Constitution Not Violated Darlington County School District No. 1, answering a desegregation suit Jan. 30, denied that the Negro plain tiffs in the case had been denied any of the immunities and privileges guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Representing the defendant in the case of Stanley et al v. Darlington County School District No. 1, attorneys also alleged that: • The administrative remedies pro vided by South Carolina law had not been exhausted by the plaintiffs. • The plaintiffs are not members of a “class.” • No one has been injured by the operation of the schools in the dis trict. The case was brought May 29, 1962, by the parents of five Negro children, all of whom live in the district that includes the City of Darlington, the county seat of the rich agricultural county in the heart of the state’s to bacco-growing Pee Dee section. The school board’s answer followed a refusal on Jan. 14 by U.S. District Judge J. Robert Martin to dismiss the action. Dismissal had been requested at a hearing Dec. 18. Schoolmen Evening Classes Admit Negroes Six Negroes, most of them long identified with desegregation activi ties in Columbia, were admitted to adult evening classes at the Capital City’s all-white Dreher High School Jan. 27. The action came without advance publicity, but the chairman of the school board of Richland County School District 1 (Columbia) said the applications, submitted by mail, were processed in advance with knowledge that they came from Negroes. Chairman Caldwell Withers said in a prepared statement after newsmen discovered the entrance: “After three applications were detected, it was de cided that personal publicity was de sired by the applicants. Consequently, the applications were processed in the hope that publicity would be lessened.” Dreher High, and all of Columbia’s schools, remain completely segregated. Dreher’s facilities are used for adult improvement courses—all non-credit— which are taught once a week for six weeks each year. The school system offers a similar program for Negroes at Booker T. Washington High School. The enrolling Negroes were Mrs. Modjeska Simkins, Dr. H. T. Monteith, Richard Monteith, the Rev. John W. Mungin, Mrs. W. P. Lassiter and Lewis Hall. Miss Monteith’s Relatives Mrs. Simkins, long a leader in the Columbia Negro community, is an aunt of Henri Monteith, the Negro girl in whose name the suit was brought that resulted in desegregation at the Uni versity of South Carolina, also in Columbia. Dr. Monteith is her uncle. It was in the yard of his suburban home that a bomb was exploded last summer be fore Miss Monteith, who lived nearby, entered USC. Richard Monteith, 21, is her brother. The Rev. Mr. Mungin has been a leader in recent downtown antisegre- Community Action Before the First Adult Evening Class Lewis Hall, Mrs. Modjeska Simkins, Dr. H. T. Monteith, the Rev. John W. Mungin. gation demonstrations in Columbia. Mrs. Simkins, Dr. Monteith, Mungin and Hall enrolled in a business law class taught by a young Columbia at torney. Mrs. Lassiter took vocabulary building. It was not immediately known what course Richard Monteith took. Mrs. Simkins told newsmen the Ne groes enrolled at Dreher because they were dissatisfied with courses offered at Booker T. Washington. White adult education, a 30-year- old program, offered 38 courses this year; the Negro school 14. The regis tration fee for whites—$4.00—is one dollar more than for Negroes. Over 500 persons took courses at Dreher last year. ★ ★ ★ Restoration of a compulsory attend ance law was urged Jan. 23 by Dr. Henry Hill, president emeritus of Pea body College, Nashville, Term., in a wideranging speech on education be fore the S.C. Association of School Boards. Such a law was repealed by the General Assembly following the Su preme Court’s decision of 1954 against school segregation. Dr. Hill is consultant to a legislative committee studying public education in South Carolina. On the day of his speech, the committee recommended to the legislature that school oifiicials “vigorously pursue the task of bring ing about regular school attendance, using the full power of the law and the courts.” The recommendation was interpreted to advocate greater use of a state law providing for punishment of parents convicted of contributing to the de linquency of a minor. In The Colleges No More Negroes Known to Enroll No additional Negroes apparently enrolled at state-supported colleges at the beginning of the second semester of the current school year. The six who entered last September reportedly all passed and were back in school. Neither the University of South Carolina at Columbia, which has four Negro students, nor Clemson College, which has two, officially will discuss Negro enrollment and progress as such, but a Negro source told the Associated Press that all of the present Negro students were continuing and that they had no knowledge of any others en rolling. At USC, Negro co-ed Henri Mon teith, a sophomore transfer from the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, said she got two A’s and a couple of B’s in her premedical course. Political science junior Robert G. Anderson Jr. said he had maintained a B average. Graduate student James L. Solomon Jr. said he did “all right.. about average.” There was no direct comment from Harvey B. Gantt and Lucinda Brawley at Clemson or Sgt. James H. Hollins, a Negro Marine who is attending the university’s branch at Beaufort near Parris Island Marine Base. Legislative Action Punishment Sought For Demonstrators And Their Parents Fines and prison terms for juvenile racial demonstrators and their parents were spelled out in a bill introduced in the S.C. House of Representatives by Orangeburg Rep. Jerry M. Hughes Jan. 18. The measure would provide fines of $100 or 30-day jail terms for young sters under 17 who participate in demonstrations or picketing of any kind. Parents or guardians would be liable for the same penalties. “We’ve got to teach these 11- and 12-year-olds some respect for the law and those enforcing it,” Rep. Hughes said. The bill obviously was an out growth of recent antisegregation dem onstrations in downtown Orangeburg that brought about arrest of more than 1,500 Negroes. Episcopalians Leave Issue Undecided The annual convention of the Epis copal Diocese of Upper South Carolina failed to act on the issue of desegre gating its schools and other diocesan activities when it met in Greenville Jan. 28-29. The matter was brought up in a motion by the Rev. John I. Kilby of Greenville. It asked that racial dis crimination be banned in ail diocesan activities and on all diocesan property. The Rev. Mr. Kilby told the con vention: “In my mind, it is blasphemy to deny a child the teaching facilities and the training facilities of the dio cese.” He moved that the officials of the diocese be instructed to remove all bases of discrimination in all diocesan- owned or related properties and in stitutions. He also moved that the treasurer of the diocese be prohibited from distributing any funds to any institutions owned or related to the diocese that maintain discriminatory barriers. A roll call was ordered on the mo tion to table that immediately fol lowed the Rev. Mr. Kilby’s action. The clergy, with four exceptions, voted overwhelmingly against tabling. The lay delegates voted 52-48 against tabling. After further parliamentary ma neuvering, the motion was referred to a committee appointed by the Rt. Rev. John A Pinckney, recently ordained bishop of the diocese. On the second day of the conven tion, the committee failed to report the matter back to the floor and it died. In his opening address to the con vention, Bishop Pinckney had ap plauded moves to end segregation within the diocese but he expressed disapproval of recent resolutions and statements issued by the national Episcopal Church and the National Council of Churches in regard to seg regation. He urged church members not to react against these pronouncements by ceasing or decreasing church financial support. ★ ★ ★ Church Near Marine Bases Accepts Negro Members A Methodist Church in an area of Beaufort County that has known school desegregation for several years has voted to admit Negroes to its congregation. The church board of the Laurel Bay Methodist Church took the action after a Negro family had requested permis sion to attend services. The area contains military housing for families of men stationed at two nearby Marine Corps installations. The church has 222 military members and only four civilans. The Laurel Bay elementary school was sold by Beaufort County to the United States government several years ago for a nominal sum. It is operated as a biracial school for children of Marines under the Com mandant of Parris Island Marine Base. Few—if any—other church congre gations in South Carolina admit both whites and Negroes.