Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY, 1964—PAGE 15
Mississippi
(Continued From Page 1)
tt -ho took office the day before. Gartin
u-ho had held the number two office in
the administrations of Gov. Hugh White
gnd Gov. J. P. Coleman, called on Mis-
sissippi 3113 to:
"Be ready to wage a brave, deter
ged and continuing battle against any
invasion, from any source, by any
group, of our heritage, sovereignty,
constitutional rights and Southern tra
ditions.”
Lt. Gov. Gartin also pledged “in this
battle I stand ready to make any per
sonal or political sacrifice.”
In a second message, delivered in
person to the legislature Jan. 28, Gov.
Johnson outlined some of the programs
he will seek, and likewise bypassed
any reference to segregation, sover
eignty, national politics or states’ rights.
It was labelled “the death of medio
crity” in the “pursuit of excellence”
and contained far-reaching recom
mendations for stepped up research in
all fields.
Legal Action
U. S. Court Upholds
Judge’s Dismissal
Of Federal Suits
The U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap
peals ruled Jan. 7 that the U. S. De
partment of Justice lacked authority to
file public school desegregation suits
for individuals in military “impacted”
areas. It upheld U. S. District Judge
S. C. Mize, who had dismissed suits to
desegregate the public schools at Gulf
port and Biloxi.
The decision also affected a similar
suit filed to integrate public schools in
Madison County, Alabama.
In each case, the Department of Jus
tice had asked for an injunction against
school authorities to prevent them from
assigning chlidren of military personnel
and federal employes to schools on a
segregated basis. The action was based
on the premise that the school boards
had accepted federal school aid as “im
pacted areas,” which gave the govern
ment jurisdiction in pupil assignment.
The government also contended that
in accepting the aid, the school authori
ties had contracted not to segregate
children of military personnel.
‘Not Under Obligation’
“We think it clear that the defendants
are not under such a contractual obli
gation,” the three-judge panel of ap
pellate Judges Richard T. Rives and
Ben F. Cameron, and District Judge
Edwin F. Hunter Jr., said.
“No one would be so rash as to
claim that a local school board in either
the ‘hard core’ states of Alabama
and Mississippi would intentionally en-
Correction
A missing line caused an erroneous
context in the Mississippi report for
January.
h» reference to a lawsuit pending
on appeal before the U. S. Fifth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals in New Or
gans, in which a Greene County
teacher, Ernestine Talbert, charged
•hat her employment contract was
copped after she tried to register to
v ® ■ the report should have said:
The U. S. Department of Justice
Wed the suit, but U. S. District Judge
w ‘ ham Cox of Jackson ruled there
us no evidence to support the
c urge that her civil rights had been
'lolated.
- s
to D mt °. a cont ract which it understood
tlo fr de ^ or even Partial desegrega-
der > races l n public schools un-
A rn S iccc^diction,” the judges said,
b, ■ 0re Improbable action can scarcely
tmagined.”
Provj4j C ° Urt sai< d that the federal law
specjg 1118 t° r impacted area funds
av ailabf sc h°°l facilities will be
ai ents 6 to children for whom pay-
th e i 316 made “in accordance with
schoof^ S the state in which the
^ district is situated.”
of th e , n d e< J out was the contention
tegrg . e ral justice department that
*ar jL 10n burdens the exercise of the
er of the United States.
War Power
‘Wet consequences of any attempted
fde mui t erc ' se °t the war power out-
^ti° n ^ ar y bases without any author-
a y on gress and during peace-
S^ble^,. 6Xtreme as ' to be
‘ le d a dist ’• the court asserted. It
***8 bag I1C t court decision that Con-
not e nacted a law providing
Mississippi Highlights
Mississippi’s new governor, Paul
B. Johnson, said in his inaugural ad
dress Jan. 21 that Mississippi is a
part of the United States and its citi
zens are “Americans as well as Mis-
sissippians.” He sidestepped racial
issues and pitched his message to
wards establishing an improved na
tional image for Mississippi.
The U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled that the federal justice
department lacked authority to bring
school desegregation suits in military
“impacted” areas.
A federal district judge refused to
order a Negro woman re-employed as
a school teacher.
a uniform national policy for educa
tion of children of military personnel.
The panel said the impacted area
legislation left pupil assignment to the
dictates of state law.
“No occasion can arise for the sug
gested unprecedented and extremely
dangerous exercise of the war power to
affect the operation of the public
schools of the state,” the court said.
★ ★ ★
Court Refuses to Order
Negro Teaelier Re-liired
Citing a 1952 U. S. Supreme Court
decision that “school authorities have
the right and duty to screen the of
ficials, teachers and employes as to
their fitness to maintain the integrity
of the schools as a part of ordered so
ciety,” U.S. District Judge Claude Clay
ton refused to order the Coahoma
County Board of Education to rehire
a Negro teacher.
Mrs. Noelle M. Henry, wife of Aaron
Henry of Clarksdale, state president of
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, had
taught in the county’s Negro schools
for 11 years. She contended the board
failed to rehire her for the 1962-63
school year because she and her hus
band are engaged in civil rights activi
ties.
Mrs. Henry later amended her peti
tion to add that she was not re-em
ployed because of her husband’s in
volvement in lawsuits and a criminal
prosecution. The husband is challeng
ing alleged discriminations against Ne
groes in gaining voter status. He was
also involved in a morals charge.
Refused Amendment
Judge Clayton ruled out the amend
ment to the original petition because it
changed the entire character of the
case and was not presented promptly
at the close of the hearing on the
original complaint.
The district judge also held that the
evidence that formed the basis for the
amended petition “came into the case
in response to questions from the bench
and did not result nor was it devel
oped by questions from counsel.”
However, Judge Clayton said in his
order that the U. S. Court of Appeals
may have the benefit of the court’s
views with respect to these aspects of
this case, and in event of an appeal,
“it will be dealt with just as if the
plaintiff’s motion to amend had been
sustained here.”
Judge Clayton pointed out that in
Mississippi, teachers have no tenure
but are employed on a one-year con
tract basis.
Principal Recommends
“These contracts develop by the prin
cipal of each attendance center recom
mending to the county superintendent
of education teachers for employment
in his school,” Judge Clayton said. “If
the county superintendent agrees with
these recommendations, he recommends
to the county board of education that
the people so recommended be em
ployed for that school as teachers for
the next school year.
“If the county superintendent does
not agree with the recommendations
made by the principal, he makes rec
ommendations on his own initiative. In
either event the board of education is
powerless to employ anyone as a
teacher in such a public school system
unless that person is recommended by
the county superintendent.
“The evidence here is plain and un
contradicted that the county superin
tendent did not recommend plaintiff for
employment. Hence, the board was
without any authority to employ her
and should not, therefore, properly be
in this case. The board would be prop
erly in the case (if it should be at all)
only if the superintendent had recom
mended plaintiff and the board had de
clined to follow the recommendation.
Plaintiff is entitled to no relief against
the board.”
Stating that the question raised in
VIRGINIA
Four More White Children Enroll
In School Founded by Association
RICHMOND
TH he number of white children
in classes conducted by the
Prince Edward Free School As
sociation increased from four to
eight in January.
The two sons and two daughters of
Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Lewis began
attending the schools in January, ac
cording to Dr. Neil V. Sullivan, super
intendent.
Approximately 1,600 Negroes are
enrolled in the schools, which were
opened last fall on a tuition-free basis.
The association was formed through
co-operation of federal, state and local
authorities, and is financed by private
contributions.
The four newly enrolled white chil
dren had not attended formal classes
since the county’s public schools closed
in 1959 to avoid court-ordered desegre
gation.
Confusion Before
Most white children of the county
have been attending classes conducted
by the Prince Edward School Founda
tion, but Lewis said “a lot of us were
unable to send our kids to the private
school.”
He said that was not the only reason
he didn’t send them. “As far as I was
concerned,” he said, “I was willing to
let my children go to the public school
anyway. I had no objection to inte
grated schools.”
the proposed amendment to the com
plaint was done by the court itself,
Judge Clayton said:
“Responding to questions put from
the bench, the county superintendent
stated that the reasons for his refusal
to recommend plaintiff for employment
were that the husband of the plaintiff
had been convicted in a court of rec
ord on a morals charge; that two libel
suits were pending against the husband
by the chief of police of Clarksdale and
the Coahoma County prosecuting at
torney (since upheld by the state su
preme court), and, that he had been
reliably informed that plaintiff would
probably be sued to set aside as fraudu
lent, conveyances of property made to
her by her husband.
“In essence as the court understands
it from the sparse record made on trial,
his position was that plaintiff’s husband
had become notorious in the com
munity and that plaintiff was ‘tarred
with the same brush’ in the public
mind by reason of her marriage and
that she, too, probably would become
personally and unfavorably involved in
the public mind with the aforemen
tioned fraud action.
“And, that because of these circum
stances she has become unsuited to
teach young children. Assuming argu
endo for the moment that the super
intendent’s discretion is subject to judi
cial review, it has long been recog
nized that a teacher of young people
occupies a sensitive position.”
‘Uncontradicted Evidence’
“In fact, the plain, uncontradicted
evidence is that neither her member
ship nor the membership of her hus
band in the NAACP, nor the activities
of either or both of them in working
for the goals and objectives of this
organization had anything to do with
the refusal of the county superintend
ent to recommend her to the board of
education for re-employment for the
1962-63 school year,” he said.
In support of that holding, Judge
Clayton said the record shows that “she
was recommended for re-employment
and that she was re-employed for many
years (11) after her membership and
the membership of her husband in the
NAACP, and the activities of both in
the ‘civil rights’ area were well known
to the defendant superintendent and
his predecessor in office.”
“There are no racial or civil rights
overtones in this record with respect
to plaintiff’s relationship with the pub
lic school officials of Coahoma county
nor with respect to the fact that she
was not recommended for re-employ
ment as a teacher,” he said.
Mrs. Henry also had attacked a state
law requiring that teachers file annually
an affidavit fisting all organizations of
which they are members.
“Inasmuch as plaintiff in her present
status as a non-teacher is not affected
by this requirement, this issue is now
moot,” Judge Clayton said.
The style of the case was Noelle H.
Henry v. Coahoma County Board of
Education et al.
Virginia Highlights
Four more white children enrolled
in classes of the Prince Edward Free
School Association, bringing to eight
the number of Prince Edward whites
attending school with Negroes.
A delegation of Negro educators
complained to the State Board of
Education that some textbooks used
in Virginia’s public schools do not
properly portray minority groups.
S. W. Tucker, an NAACP attor
ney active in many school desegre
gation cases, announced his candi
dacy for a congressional seat from
Virginia’s Southside “Black Belt”
area.
Spottswood W. Robinson, III, a
Negro attorney formerly active in
desegregation suits in Virginia, was
sworn in as a federal district judge.
Lewis, a tobacco and cattle farmer,
explained that he did not enroll his
children in the free schools in Septem
ber because “there was just so much
confusion about the thing; I didn’t want
to be rebellious to the community.”
The Lewis children are Thomas
Gene, 14; Betty Jo, 13; Edith Ann, 12,
and James Ray, 10. James has never
attended school before.
★ ★ ★
Juvenile petitions were sworn out
Jan. 23 against six Prince Edward
County youths, charging them with
damaging an automobile owned by Dr.
Neil V. Sullivan, superintendent of the
Prince Edward Free School Association.
Dr. Sullivan’s 1963 Buick was dam
aged while he and his wife were out
of town Oct. 31 and Nov. 5. (SSN,
December, 1963.)
William F. Watkins Jr., the county’s
commonwealth’s attorney, said after
the charges were filed in January that
the incident occurred Halloween night,
Oct. 31. The convertible top of the car
was slashed, wax was smeared over
the body and air was let out of the
tires.
According to Watkins, five of the
six youths said they did not know that
the superintendent of the free schools
lived at the address. The car was
parked in an open garage at the Sulli
vans’ rented home in the Kingsville
community about eight miles south of
Farmville, the county seat.
The juveniles, all white and ranging
in age from 16 to 18, were to appear in
the county’s juvenile court.
Text of Order for Hearing
Of School-Closing Issue
As reported in the January Southern
School News, the U.S. Supreme Court
on Jan. 6 agreed to hear arguments
March 30 on whether Prince Edward
County may legally keep its schools
closed.
Here is the text of the court’s per
curiam (by the court as whole) order
in the case (Griffin v. County School
Board of Prince Edward County):
“This case is one of the school segre
gation cases which we dealt with nearly
a decade ago in Brown v. Board of
Education, 347 U.S. 483, 349 U.S. 294.
After remand, numerous opinions were
written by the District Court and the
Court of Appeals but the mandate
issued at the time of the Brown case
has never been implemented.
“In 1956 the Board of Supervisors
decided not to levy taxes or appropriate
funds for integrated public schools;
and white children have attended
white-only schools operated by the
Prince Edward School Foundation,
which has received state support. The
District Court enjoined allowance of
such support (198 F. Supp. 497) and
that the public schools could not re
main closed while public schools in
other counties stayed open. 207 F. Supp.
349.
Certiorari Granted
“Thereafter litigation was instituted
in the Virginia courts which resulted
in a ruling by the Virginia Supreme
Court of Appeals that the Virginia
Constitution compels neither the state
nor the county to reopen the public
schools in Prince Edward County or to
furnish funds for that purpose. The
Court of Appeals, prior to that decision,
vacated the judgement of the District
Court with instructions to abstain from
further proceedings until the Virginia
state decision became final (322 F. 2d
332)—a judgement which was stayed
by Mr. Justice Brennan on Sept. 30,
1963, ‘pending the timely filing and
disposition of a petition for a writ of
certiorari.’
“The case is here on a petition for
certiorari which raises not only the
propriety of the judgement of the
Court of Appeals insofar as it directed
the District Court to abstain until the
Virginia courts had acted, but other
issues going to the merits.
“In view of the long delay in the
case since our decision in the Brown
case and the importance of the ques
tions presented, we grant certiorari
and put the case down for argument
March 30, 1964, on the merits as we
have done in other comparable situa
tions of Appeals. See 28 U.S.C. 1254 (1);
Youngstown Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S.
579, 584; Wilson v. Girard, 354 U.S. 524
U.S. 524, 526.
Schoolmen
Negro Educators
Protest Textbooks
Before State Board
Some textbooks used in Virginia
schools do not properly portray minor
ity groups, a delegation of Negro
educators told the State Board of
Educations on Jan. 23.
Dr. J. Rupert Picott, executive sec
retary of the Virginia Teachers Associ
ation (Negro), who headed the delega
tion, told the board at a meeting in
Richmond that he could cite about 20
instances in which textbooks are at
fault in dealing with questions involv
ing Negroes. He said the instances are
both in “omission and commission.”
Dr. Picott said he would supply fur
ther details to Dr. Woodrow W. Wil-
kerson, state superintendent of public
instruction.
Ask Better Treatment
The delegation asked the board to
inform book publishers that it favors
better treatment of Negroes in text
books. And the group urged that sup
plementary texts be issued, where nec
essary.
The board said it would refer the
matter to its textbook committee.
Dr. Picott also urged members of the
board to use their influence to have a
Negro appointed to that body. He said
this would be “to the advantage of the
whole state of Virginia.” (Members of
the board are appointed by the gov
ernor.
★ ★ ★
The State Department of Education
has dropped racial designations from
the fist of schools in its annual educa
tional directory. The latest directory
was distributed early in January.
Previously, the letter “N” has ap
peared in parentheses after the name
of each Negro school.
The department also is dropping
racial designations from schools listed
in its annual report.
★ ★ ★
On July 6, 1963, Forrest E. Paulett
was one of the members of the Albe
marle County School Board ousted by
the Board of Supervisors because the
former body refused to rescind its ban
on extracurricular activities in the
schools.
On Jan. 2, 1964, Paulette was named
chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
He had been elected to the board in
November.
Paulett was chosen as chairman by
a 4-to-2 vote.
All six members of the school board
were dismissed by the county govern
ing body as a result of last summer’s
dispute, but the two members who had
voted to rescind the ban were reap
pointed. Paulett was one of the four
not reappointed. (SSN, August, 1963.)
★ ★ ★
Twenty-one additional Negroes were
assigned to predominantly white schools
by the State Pupil Placement Board on
Jan. 13.
The assignments included four to one
school in Prince George County, one to
one school in Lynchburg, and 16 to
three schools in Alexandria.
(See VIRGINIA, Page 16)