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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY, 1964—PAGE 9
WEST VIRGINIA
College Head
Strikes Back
At His Critics
CHARLESTON
P resident William J. L. Wal
lace of West Virginia State
College struck back at critics Jan.
9 and defended hiring practices
and the desegregation policy of
the college.
“It’s surprising to me how many
young Negroes are segregationists and
how many Negro leaders talking inte
gration are segregationists,” Dr. Wal
lace declared before the Charleston
Business and Professional Men’s Club.
He defended the academic reputation
of the college and supported his state
ments with reports by the North Cen
tral Association of Colleges and Sec
ondary Schools and by the Association
of American Colleges.
Although Dr. Wallace mentioned no
names in replying to critics, it was ap
parent that he referred to recent
charges made by Joseph C. Peters, re
search analyst for the State Board of
Public Works and one of the highest
salaried Negroes in state government.
Peters said in November that “employ
ment opportunities at the college for
qualified Negroes are almost as difficult
to secure as a job in many places that
are being picketed by racial groups.”
Peters also said, “The trend is so
one-sided until there are records of
unqualified and unethical whites being
employed purely for the sake of saying
we are integrated.” At West Virginia
State, he said, a member of the State
Board of Education had observed a
double standard is being used. “A Ne
gro must have the minimum of a mas
ter’s degree and a white man must be
white.”
Wallace Denied
Dr. Wallace in his Jan. 9 speech de
nied the existence of a double standard.
He said:
“There are as many Negroes without
degrees as there are whites on the col
lege faculty. Each of these persons has
competence to recommend them for the
positions they hold.”
He rebutted charges that he selects
and hires professors and other person
nel at the college:
Deans and chairmen of departments
make recommendations for faculty ap
pointments. Clerks and secretaries are
chosen by the people for whom they
work.”
He added, “The charges that people
•flake that I am a dictator are abso
lutely silly.”
Largest College
West Virginia State College at In
S n Ute ^ ear Charleston is the larges
f°uege in West Virginia. An all-Negr
Institution until the 1954 U.S. Suprem
0Ur t desegregation ruling, it has de
-legated to such an extent that ap
■joximately 70 per cent of its enroll
">cnt now is white.
-A.f' Wallace, a Negro, said som
B es in Kanawha County and othe
fail S state are disturbed ove
] V re _°f some elements of Negr<
eerf 6 - to su PP° rt the college and a
am criticisms made by Negroes.
to n t ^ le c °Hege, “We are try in;
t * lat Negroes and whites ge
ther for noble purposes.”
Action
^egro To Enter
State Primary
■*** l aw yer from New York ;
gini a >y* ^ an ’ ® he will enter West \
as a a R Inferential presidential prim
be r fi epu blican candidate. Paul B. i
tary ,’ ®fld he would file with Sec
Week • doe F. Burdett the ]
Was Jvl d anu ary. The final filing d
He e ^'
Was tcT*^ , one °f his purposes in fil
to ex pu H the Negro vote into a b
( !eseg re ress . dissatisfaction with sdh
tr obl err ^ at j, on ar> d other civil rig
flence S .h er has gained some pro
na honally in Northern sch
2uW S t tl ° l n cases -
H>e v?d first said he would en
y>difj a; lr £inia primary as a write
"ifti a w hich could only guaran
hw. n. °“ en vote under West Virgi
^etary a t er decision to file with
^te k e : °' s tate would seem to in
r ac Ljiiei'e serious about mak
i^te i’ * ee a presidential c;
S>ed, *1,000, and Zuber had f
Vn*. Save this fee.
N» C Jy- Cecil H - Underwood s
9,1 • 1 that he would seek
W. Va. Highlights
The president of West Virginia
State College, a former all-Negro in
stitution now 70 per cent white,
denied that his school discriminated
against Negroes in hiring professors
and clerical personnel.
The Kanawha County school su
perintendent defended as antidis-
criminatory the school board’s poli
cies in the location of a new high
school in an exclusive neighborhood.
A former governor, outspoken
against school segregation, filed for
re-election.
election to the office he held between
1957 and 1961. He is a Republican, the
first elected in West Virginia in more
than a quarter century.
Underwood, an outspoken school de
segregationist, served as chairman of
the Southern Regional Education Board
for two years.
In his announcement statement, Un
derwood made no specific reference to
his civil rights views but made it clear
that he would follow essentially the
same policies if re-elected as he did
before. West Virginia is primarily a
Democratic state, and Underwood will
be fighting an uphill battle, according
to authoritative political sources.
Only one of four Democrats who
have filed for governor has taken a
stand on the school desegregation issue.
He is Bonn Brown, Elkins lawyer, who
said he will endeavor to see that de
segregation is fully accepted in aH pub
lic schools. There are some parts of the
southern tier of counties where the
schools are only partially desegregated.
Schoolmen
County Official
Answers Critics
On New School
Kanawha County School Supt. L. K.
Lovenstein answered his critics Jan. 9
by saying George Washington High
School will serve areas in Charleston
under established administrative pro
cedures rather than discriminate by
catering to a particular exclusive area.
George Washington is a new school
being built under a $20 million building
program, in what is generally consid
ered one of the most exclusive areas of
West Virginia’s largest city. The Ka
nawha County school system has been
fully desegregated since 1956 and has
long had the reputation of being a
model of desegregation in West Vir
ginia.
The Charleston Gazette, an outspoken
defender of racial desegregation,
brought into the public domain a feel
ing about the high school in saying
editorially Jan. 1:
“. . . Evidence of the board of edu
cation’s class bias was its decision to
build the most modem experimental
high school in the county’s wealthiest
area. No one questions the need for
George Washington High in the South
Hills area. And a first-rate experimental
school is always welcome anywhere. But
it’s revealing that the South Hills school
was selected as the experimental one
from among several new high schools
“Some of Charleston High’s best
teachers already have been reassigned
to George Washington when it opens.
The board shouldn’t permit Charleston
High’s facilities and faculty to deterior
ate. And it should consider a policy of
transporting Negro and other deprived
children to George Washington for two
reasons: To prevent it from becoming
a typical suburban school insulated
from the world’s realities, and to give
deprived children an opportunity to
benefit from its experimental pro
grams.”
Report to Board
In a report to the Board of Education,
Lovenstein said:
“George Washington High School is
not an experimental school. Some of the
newer ideas and facilities that have
been incorporated into the school have
also been included in some of the other
schools, such as Hoover and Sissonville
high schools.
“Nothing in the George Washington
program is so new that it has not been
tried already in some other school in
the county.”
He said the new school was not de
signed to serve the South Hills area
exclusively but will draw students from
three schools — Charleston, South
Charleston and Washington. It was lo
cated, he concluded, consistent with the
rest of the building program to put
schools where the children are and not
in specially favored areas.
The Charleston Daily Mail defended
the board’s position, saying:
ARKANSAS
Governor’s Attack on Council
Hints He May Seek Fifth Term
(Continued From Page 8)
have had no success.
Carter said he thought biracial hous
ing would help “break down the icy
coldness that a Negro first feels when
he gets to the campus.”
Every person applying to enter the
university must send a picture of him
self with his application, Carter said.
He reported that the university insists
on interviewing Negro students before
admitting them but not white students.
He praised the faculty. “I have the
finest set of faculty members that I’ve
ever had in all my school days. There
is no discrimination on the part of the
faculty.”
Carter is a graduate of Horace Mann
High School where he was president
of the student body.
★ ★ ★
National Baptist Board
Policy Stirs Argument
The Executive Board of the National
Baptist Convention, about 600 persons,
met Jan. 22 and 23 at Hot Springs and
called for a moderate “goodwill” ap
proach in seeking civil rights and criti
cized militant methods such as school
boycotts and demonstrations. The Hot
Springs NAACP objected strongly and
protested throughout the meeting.
The Baptist convention, headed by
Dr. J. H. Jackson of Chicago, has about
5,000,000 Negro members. One of them
is the Rev. James Donald Rice, pastor
of the Roanoke Baptist Church of Hot
Springs and president of the Hot
Springs NAACP.
The conflict began with Dr. Jackson’s
opening speech. He called for a moder
ate, goodwill, patriotic, law-and-order
approach, disapproved of what he
called drum-beating or getting out the
sword and criticized direct methods
such as demonstrations and boycotts.
“We must keep the struggle within
the framework of law and order or so
many ‘isms’ can develop. The atmos
phere has to change or anarchy awaits
us,” he said. “Our last hope of action
is Congress. We’ve gambled on that.”
The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record, re
port on the speech also included, “Ob
viously referring to the more militant
Negro and white groups, Dr. Jackson
said that some ‘ought to be eliminated.’
He named no specific groups.”
The executive board then adopted a
resolution asking Congress to pass a
strong civil-rights law as a living
memorial to the late President Ken
nedy.
Criticizes Jackson
The Rev. Mr. Rice criticized Dr. Jack-
son for his remarks about the militant
Negro groups and said that Jackson did
not represent the majority of the con
vention members. “Obviously, Congress
would not have any meaningful civil-
rights bill before it at all were it not
for the very groups and their methods
which Jackson criticizes,” he said.
Next day, the convention’s Commis
sion on Civil Rights brought in a reso
lution following the moderate, law-
and-order approach and condemning
school boycotts. Like the appeal to
Congress the day before, this one was
adopted enthusiastically and over
whelmingly, according to the Hot
Springs newspaper. The board also
called for the Rev Mr. Rice to “refute,
retract and correct” his statements
about Dr. Jackson and the convention.
This provoked another attack by the
Rev. Mr. Rice. He said he had nothing
to retract but that he was being critical
of Dr. Jackson, not the convention.
“We’ve had enough of that from Bar
nett and Wallace.”
As for Congress being the last hope
for Negroes, the Rev. Mr. Rice said,
“It seems to me that for a religious
body like Dr. Jackson heads, God
would be the last hope. It is not con
scientiously, philosophically or morally
possible to consider Congress our last
hope for freedom and dignity. We are
as much opposed to black segregation
ists as we are white segregationists,
no matter what office he holds.”
“The new high school, far from serv
ing an upper middle class clientele, will
draw its student body from way into
the hinterland and embrace almost ev
ery ‘class’ in the socio-economic scale.
Whether this achieves a perfect bal
ance is, of course, debatable. In any
case, it is clear that the new school was
not established to give South Hills an
unfair advantage.”
The Fayetteville Ministerial Associa
tion adopted a resolution Jan. 14 sup
porting the Fayetteville Junior Cham
ber of Commerce and the Fayetteville
League of Women Voters in calling for
desegregation of the grade schools “as
soon as feasible.” All Fayetteville
schools are desegregated except for
the Lincoln Elementary School for Ne
groes.
★ ★ ★
The Greater Little Rock Conference
on Religion and Human Relations,
which has been operating with tem
porary officers since its organization
last year after the National Race and
Religion Conference at Chicago, in
stalled its first permanent officers Jan.
21.
They include the Rev. Donald K.
Campbell, pastor of the Grace Presby
terian Church, chairman; Mrs. Edwin
Mendel, secretary; and the Rev. David
A. Boileau, treasurer.
Members of the steering committee
are the officers and the Rev. Sam J.
Allen, executive director of the Arkan
sas Council of Churches; Nat Griswold,
executive director of the Arkansas
Council on Human Relations; the Rev.
John D. Bright, bishop of the AME
church; the Rev. David Johnson, pas
tor of the Good Shepherd Episcopal
Church; the Rev. Kenneth Teegarden,
executive minister of the Arkansas
Christian Churches (Disciples of
Christ); the Rev. Preston H. Russell,
pastor of the Bethel AME Church; the
Rev. Tom Logue, state director of the
Baptist Student Union; the Rev. N.
Charles Thomas, director of religious
education for the Episcopal district of
the CME church; the Rev. William
Gentry, director of the Wesleyan Foun
dation at Little Rock University; the
Rev. N. Mitchum, pastor of the Bul
lock CME Church; the Rev. C. R.
Thompson, pastor of Payne’s Chapel
AME Zion Church; Mrs. Booker Wor-
then, Mrs. Bill Yeatman, Mrs. W. Pay-
ton Kolb, Mrs. Edgar F. Dixon and
Mrs. Lee Kretchmar.
About 200 attended the meeting.
Father Boileau, chairman of the com
mittee on community problems, told
them a brochure would be prepared
out of recommendations made at prev
ious meetings on equal opportunities
in education and employment, and that
then the committee would call on the
school board and on employers.
Legislative Action
Rep. Gathings Hits
Civil-Rights Bill
U. S. Rep. E. C. (Took) Gathings of
West Memphis (D-Ark.) testified Jan.
23 at Washintgon before the House
Rules Committee against the civil-
rights bill. He said the condition of
the Southern Negro is a good one, and
he described one of the counties of his
First Congressional District, Phillips
Legal Action
The U.S. Court of Appeals at St.
Louis upheld Jan. 21 the dismissal of a
$450,000 civil-rights damage suit
against the estate of the late Eugene
G. Smith, former Little Rock police
chief.
The suit was filed by nine persons
in protest of the way Little Rock police
and firemen, commanded by Smith,
broke up a segregationist demonstration
near Central High School on Aug. 12,
1959. Eight of the nine plaintiffs were
among the 19 demonstrators arrested
that day.
The plaintiffs contended that their
civil rights, particularly of free speech
and assembly, had been violated and
asked damages of $50,000 each.
In Federal District Court at Little
Rock, Judge Gordon E. Young had
members of an “unlawful and riotous
assembly,” that there was probable
cause for their arrest and that only the
minimum force necessary to make the
arrests had been used, and he dis
missed tlie suit. All of his findings
County (Helena and West Helena) as
proof.
“The Negro in the South is a happy
person. He enjoys the life he lives. He
understands the members of the white
race and they understand him,” he
said.
In his report on Phillips County, he
mentioned specifically the “separate but
equal” high schools at Helena-West
Helena, Eliza Miller High School for
Negroes and Central High School for
Whites.
Gathings is the most outspoken of
the four Arkansas House members
against the civil-rights bill. His district
covers most of East Arkansas where
the Negro population is concentrated.
Miscellaneous
Little Rock Men
Write New Book
On Racial Issues
A book on race relations, A Look
Down the Lonesome Road, by Ralph
Creger and Dr. Erwin McDonald of
Little Rock, is scheduled for publica
tion in the spring by Doubleday &
Co., New York.
Creger, a train dispatcher, whose
son Carl was a senior at Little Rock
Central High School during the de
segregation crisis of 1957, wrote a book
about that year called This Is What
We Found, published in 1960. Dr. Mc
Donald is editor of the Arkansas Bap
tist Newsmagazine, published by the
Arkansas Baptist State Convention.
They said the new book deals with
race relations on both national and
world levels but will give considerable
space to the Little Rock situation.
★ ★ ★
Another Faubus Relative
Disagrees with Governor
Another member of Gov. Orval E.
Faubus’ family, a sister, Mrs. Bonnie
Salcido, of Buena Park, Calif., does
not agree with the governor’s position
on civil rights. His father, Sam Faubus,
76, of Combs, made known his dis
agreement in December.
Mrs. Salcido told the Arkansas Ga
zette of her position by telephone Dec.
31.
She said, “I don’t agree with my
brother’s beliefs, but we are still
friends. The thing I differ with him
most on is civil rights. It is pretty well
known how he stands on that. I want
you to know I do respect my brother
very much. He is a wonderful leader,
but I do take issue with him over
civil rights,” she said.
were upheld by the appeals court.
The plaintiffs with their ages as of
1959 were Mrs. Lela Sosebee, 69; J. D.
Bass, 65; Mrs. Mary Ellen Pritchard,
32; Calvin Parrish, 18; Marilyn Paul,
14; Glenna Paul, 16; Larry W. Buster,
12; Charles J. Bailey, 16; and Leon
Kyzer, 16. All except Mrs. Sosebee
were arrested.
Aug. 12, 1959, was the day Central
High School was being reopened, with
token desegregation, after being closed
for a year by Gov. Orval E. Faubus.
In protest, several hundred segrega
tionists gathered that morning on the
steps of the state Capitol, heard a talk
from Gov. Faubus and marched
through the streets toward Central
High. At W. 14th St. and Schiller Ave.,
a block from the school, the marchers
were met by the police and firemen
under Chief Smith. When the “riotous
assembly” did not disperse on order,
Smith ordered fire hoses turned on
them. The march was broken up and
classes went on at the school without
difficulty.
Dismissal of ‘Rights’ Suit
Upheld by Appellate Court