Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

I PAGE 2—FEBRUARY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS LOUISIANA Racial Issues Major Factor in McKeithen’s Nomination NEW ORLEANS 13 acial issues were a key fac- tor in the Jan. 11 victory of John J. McKeithen over deLes- seps S. Morrison for the Demo cratic nomination for governor of Louisiana. But race has been soft- pedaled thus far in the campaign ing heading for the March 3 gen eral election. Contenders in that election will be McKeithen, Re publican Charlton Lyons and Thomas S. Williams, nominee of the States’ Rights Party of Lou isiana. McKeithen, 45-year-old Columbia attorney and farmer, polled 495,400 votes in the runoff to 452,391 for Mor rison, former mayor of New Orleans and recently U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States. Lyons, an elderly Shreveport oil man, has mounted one of the most vigorous campaigns for governor ever staged by a Republican in this normal ly Democratic state. He is sticking close to issues of economics and gov ernment in stumping the state. Wil liams, an East Feliciana Parish busi ness man, pledges to support segrega tion and preserve states’ rights. However, the state’s long Democratic party tradition is expected to place McKeithen on May 12 in the new mil- lion-dollar mansion at Baton Rouge built by outgoing Gov. Jimmie Davis. Barely Visible Undercurrents of race that were barely visible during the first primary campaign coursed to the surface soon after the Dec. 7 voting. Adopting the tactic that was decisive in the I960 gubernatorial campaign and the 1962 New Orleans mayorality election, Mc Keithen accused Morrison of corailing the “Negro bloc vote” in the first pri mary. He cited first primary election returns from predominantly Negro precincts in New Orleans and other cities to make his point. As the Jan. 11 election approached, McKeithen intensified this line. “There has not been a racial dem onstration in Louisiana since Roy Wil kins, national secretary of the NAACP, visited the city of New Orleans four days prior to the first primary in the governor’s race,” McKeithen said on Jan. 2. He accused Morrison and his sup porters of making a deal to permit mass Negro voters registration in re turn for “bloc” support. On Jan. 5, Mrs. Blanche Long, widow of former Gov. Earl Long and cam paign manager for McKeithen, said at rallies in the river towns of Reserve and Gonzales: “You and I don’t want a man like deLesseps Morrison who would probably entertain Lena Home in our governor’s mansion.” Cards Appeared During the day, cards appeared in several Louisiana towns bearing this inscription: “Chep Morrison & The NAACP—or John McKeithen—It is up to you!” And on Jan. 9, newspaper ads “paid for by John McKeithen” carried this final line: “Let us refer to Chep Mor rison’s Record as an Integrationist.” Morrison, confident that this third try for governor would be the charm, conducted what he called a “positive campaign.” He stuck to economic (and by comparison, colorless) issues. He campaigned as a segregationist “with in the rule of reason.” He denied McKeithen’s charges of “deals” and “bloc votes.” And Morri son partisans showed that in Mc Keithen’s previous election as public service commissioner for the fifth dis trict he had polled majorities in pre dominantly Negro precincts of Alex andria in Central Louisiana that ri valed or exceeded the Morrison vote in the Dec. 7 primary in those same precincts. Nonetheless, McKeithen carried the race-conscious northern half of the state by proportions ranging up to 90 per cent. He carried about half of the Florida parishes (above Lake Ponchar- train bordering Mississippi), and even the Seventh Congressional District of Southwest Louisiana which has been Morrison country in previous elections. The school segregation-desegregation questions featured in the campaign obliquely. Early in January, letters were mailed out to persons receiving state tuition grants saying: “Your only hope to continue to get state cheeks to help your children go to private schools is by electing John McKeithen Gov. Nominate McKeithen Undercurrents of race. on Saturday, January 11.” Enclosed was a facsimile of a clip ping of Sept. 20 quoting Morrison as saying he was opposed to the grant- in-aid program. The letter, on state Senate stationery, was signed by Sen. E. W. Gravelot Jr., chairman of the Louisiana Financial Assistance Com mission. In one of the few direct references to the school question, McKeithen was asked by an opponent group, “What is your stand on segregation in the public schools?” He answered: “My father taught me that the worst thing that can happen in this state is to put religion against religion and race against race. I am not a hell-raising segregationist; I am frankly in favor of having all the candidates make the same statement on segregation and LYONS WILLIAMS dismiss the issue from the very be ginning and let each man be elected on his merits. “I will do everything legally possible to maintain our Southern way of life, but I will not close the schools to keep them from integrating.” First fallout from the election touched the school segregation-deseg regation issue. Frank Voelker Jr. of Lake Providence submitted his resig nation as chairman of the State Sov ereignty Commission, and it was promptly accepted by Gov. Davis. The commission has been a chief architect of the state’s segregation defenses. Voelker, once an announced candi date for governor who changed his mind, announced his support of Mor rison on Jan. 8. On Jan. 15, McKei then said he felt Voelker had de stroyed his usefulness as head of the commission. And on Jan. 15 the Citi zens’ Council of Greater New Orleans took up the demand for Voelker’s res ignation. Legislative Action State Legislature Convenes on May 11 The Louisiana legislature, which will convene May 11, will have a large con tingent of new faces. As a result of the Jan. 11 Democratic primary and the March 3 general election, there will be 60 new members in the 105-seat House of Representatives and 16 new mem bers in the 39-seat Senate. Selection of the new members has not been completed yet, however. Twenty-six Democratic nominees in nine parishes face opposition. Twenty- five Republicans and one States’ Rights candidate are contesting for legislative seats. With the large turnover in member ship (55.1 per cent), the tenor of the new legislature will remain unclear for some months. Thus far, pre-filed legis lation has not touched on the school issues. However, many of the leading segregation advocates will be back, in cluding such men as Sen. E. W. Grave- lot Jr. of Plaquemines Parish, Rep. Welbom Jack of Caddo Parish, Rep. John S. Garrett of Claiborne Parish, Rep. Lantz Womack of Franklin Par ish, Rep. Parey Branton of Webster Parish. Among the probable newcomers will be J. D. DeBlieux (pronounced “W”), who is chairman of the Louisiana Ad visory Committee to the U.S. Commis sion on Civil Rights. A former state senator and active liberal, DeBlieux defeated incumbent Wendell Harris of East Baton Rouge Parish, a conserva tive and segregationist. DeBlieux will be challenged March 5 by Floyd C. Crawford, Republican. Legal Action Two Suits Filed For Desegregation Of State Colleges Desegregation of state-operated col leges and universities was sought in two cases filed in federal courts. One of them was on behalf of a white school teacher seeking enrollment at all-Negro Southern University, New Orleans. (Welch v. State Board of Education) Virginia Cox Welch on Feb. 3 asked for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to prohibit the defendants from acting in accordance with a state law that limits attendance at Southern to Negroes. The petition asked that the plaintiff be admitted to the branch university for the spring se mester which began Feb. 4. Defendants are the Louisiana State Board of Education; Dr. Boyd Wood ward, its president; Shelby M. Jackson, state superintendent of education; Dr. Felton Clark, president of Southern University; Dr. E. W. Bashful, dean; and Herman F. Plunkett, registrar. Northeast Louisiana State College at Louisiana Highlights John J. McKeithen won the Democratic nomination for governor in a runoff campaign that featured racial issues. He will face Republi can Charlton Lyons and State’s Rights candidate Thomas S. Wil liams in the general election March 5. The Louisiana legislature will have 76 new members when it meets May 11. Lawsuits seek to desegregate all- Negro Southern University at New Orleans, Northeast Louisiana State College at Monroe and the Iberville Parish public schools. Negro children applied at a New Orleans private school attended by white pupils receiving state grants- in-aid, and legal action was threat ened either to place them in the school or to overthrow the tuition- grant program. A Catholic school in Plaquemines Parish, boycotted and damaged by an explosion last year, remains closed, although repaired, because building permits have not been is sued. Monroe is the target of a desegregation suit filed by a Negro plaintiff in U.S. District Court at New Orleans. Plaintiff in the suit, filed on Jan. 15, is Sarah Louise McCoy of Monroe. Respondents are the State Board of Education, William J. Dodd, board president; Shelby M. Jackson, state superintendent of education; George T. Welker, president of Northeast State College; Lake C, Oxford, registrar; and C. C. Hanna, dean of instruction. The case is styled McCoy v. State Board of Education. The petition asked the federal court to grant a temporary restraining order without notice against the defendants so that the plaintiff can enter the col lege in the spring semester. The docu ment asserts that Miss McCoy attended Southern University at Scotlandville (near Baton Rouge) for one semester and Grambling College at Grambling for two summer sessions. The petition states: Efforts to obtain application forms for enrollment at Northeast were barred in 1961 and 1963; and an appli cation sent to the school on Dec. 3, 1963, had elicited no response at the time the petition was filed with the court. The petition also asks that the de fendants be restrained from acting in accordance with Act 527 of 1950 which, in changing the name and the super visory body of the institution, described Northeast as “a school of higher educa tion in the arts and sciences for the education of white children in the state of Louisiana.” ★ ★ ★ Three court cases were filed asking for desegregation of public elementary and secondary schools in Iberville and Calcasieu parishes. Two of the cases were filed with the U. S. District Court for the Western Ju dicial District at Shreveport. They in What They Say Abuse of Tuition Grants Charged The Louisiana School Boards Asso ciation, in convention here, heard sharp criticism of alleged “abuses” in the state financial assistance (tuition- grant) program and heard warnings against federal interference in school affairs. H. A. Norton, Calcasieu Parish school board member, sounded off against abuses in the grant-in-aid pro gram. He said some pupils in Louisi ana have fallen vicitm to ‘“fly-by- night” schools operated with tuition grants. “Legislation should strictly prohibit sectarian teaching and profit-making,” Norton asserted. “Any school that par ticipates should be required to meet the standards set by the Southern As sociation of Colleges and Schools on physical facilities, curriculum and teachers,” he added. He identified no particular school by name as the target of his critical re marks. Some 60 schools, the majority in New Orleans and vicinity, are at tended by children receiving the tui tion grants. During the biennial convention of the school board members, U.S. Rep. F. Edward Hebert warned: “Federal funds mean federal controls (over the schools). Today it’s brick and mortar for the buildings; tomorrow it will be the text books.” “Without hesitation, I can say I pre fer not to have a single classroom in the country open if it’s going to be under the direction of the national government.” In a similar vein, outgoing State School Supt. Shelby M. Jackson told the gathering in New Orleans that the question of state versus federal control of public education “transcends in im portance all other issues which face the American people today.” Jackson added, “Our schools have been close to the people and their programs have been diversified in keeping with local needs and purposes.” “Every sincere school person,” he said, should “stand up against all at tempts of the federal government to destroy the state’s sovereignty and gain control of our public schools.” Among its formal actions, the Lou isiana School Boards Association adopted resolutions: • Asking clarification of the com pulsory school attendance law and ap proving in principle the concept of compulsory school attendance. • Opposing federal aid to education. • Opposing local taxation in lieu of state equalization for teachers pay. Leon M. Knight, a member of the Washington Parish School Board, was elected president of the organization for the next two years. Harry McKen zie of Claiborne Parish was elected first vice president, and Fulton J. Bacon of Evangeline Parish, second vice president. volved public schools in Calcasieu ish and in the port city of u' Charles which is part of Calcasieu!/ which operates one of four indepenj ent city school systems in the state The cases were filed on behalf 0 ; five Negro parents who had applied f 0t enrollment of their 14 children in ^ Lake Charles system (Conley v. Lak ' Charles School Board) and for f 0Uf Negro parents whose eight children had been denied enrollment in whit e schools of the Calcasieu Parish system. (Booker v. Calcasieu Parish Schorl Board) A. P. Tureaud, attorney for the Na- tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who represents the plaintiffs, said he had asked authorities of the two school systems on Aug. p to end discrimination but had received no reply to his request. The cases were filed on Feb. 3. In the petitions, the plaintiffs asked the court to order school authorities to submit plans for desegregation within a period to be specified by the court. Immediate and total desegregation o! all Iberville Parish public schools was sought in a suit filed in U.S. District Court at Baton Rouge Jan. 23. The action was brought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on behalf of 11 Negro parents acting for their children. The plaintiffs asked that all levels of all public schools be desegregated, and. ‘ if immediate relief could not be grant ed, that the court direct the school board to submit a plan for total de segregation within a year. They asked • that any grade-a-year plan be rejected. (Williams v. Iberville Parish School Board.) Iberville Parish is a Mississippi River parish just south of Baton Rouge. Pla quemines, the parish seat, was the scene of racial tension and civil rights demonstrations last summer. In 1962-63, the parish public schools enrolled 3,088 white pupils and 4,525 Negroes. » Schoolmen Negroes Attempt To Desegregate Private School Negroes in New Orleans launched ) the first attempt to desegregate private schools receiving grant-in-aid support j Two Negro parents appeared on Jan 24 at the Ninth Ward Elementan I School, requesting enrollment of three children. They were denied admittance. The school was organized by w "' e parents in 1961 after desegregation be gan in the Frantz school of the same general area. Last year the prj va ® school had enrollment of 1.291 and re ceived under the state financial ass> ance program grants in aid total®.. $333,204. Negroes making the attempt wer Mrs. Lorraine Poindexter, with ^ seven-year-old son, and Robert with his 11-year-old daughter an 10-year-old son. A. P. Tureaud Sr., chief counsel the National Association for the vancement of Colored People m isiana, said: “We will look in o matter with a view of getting them ^ mitted to this school.” He adde . g will take the position that t s public school operating under the gu of a private school. Legal Attack id said the move was not ^ n the grant-in-aid progr but if the effort to n to the school should fai ■ , s le system of using sta e ho0 ls upils’ tuition at privat ^ e brought under legal (erS ;rant-in-aid program n New Orleans, first of _ to have begun schoo vea r For the current schoo ^ an 10,000 students f ave 1 for receipt of tuition ^ 546 of them in New icent areas. ,,blish^ ?nt statistical report p Orleans Parish Schoo n0 „- that enrollment in P* 1 ' a ah i schools in the pansh jubled, from 5.946 0 . 31 when the tuition gr®* pI -i- is inaugurated. Six of iv inf hools with pupils u a vil>£ in aid are new ones