Newspaper Page Text
rn
A JT
N0 ' S ""° SNofjn's?no3»
"SSHVs'XM
8002 — y —1>9 N/)r
INrVJI I T lUUk.,
News
Objective
MARCH, 1964
>fo Compromise
On Rights Bill,
j Johnson Says
WASHINGTON
R umors that the administra
tion may be willing to com
promise the civil-rights bill in
order to obtain early passage in
the Senate “are strictly Repub
lican in origin,” President John
son said at a news conference
Feb. 29.
Johnson said the bill, which the
House of Representatives passed by
290-to-130 vote on Feb. 10, should be
approved by the Senate “exactly in its
present form.”
The measure contains provisions to
speed the pace of school desegregation,
as well as to promote racial equality in
employment opportunities, public ac
commodations, voting rights and public
facilities. It also would extend the life
of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission
by four years and give the federal
government authority to withhold aid
funds from racially segregated or dis
criminatory programs.
President Johnson said he under
stood some senators favor strengthen
ing the bill and others would like to
weaken it.
“But so far as this administration is
concerned,” he said, “its position is
firm and we stand on the House bill.”
Long Debate Expected
The Senate was expected to begin
debating the measure during the first
week of March, with a Southern fili
buster stretching the debate out for
weeks and perhaps months.
“We intend to fight this bill with all
the vigor at our command,” said Sen.
Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.), leader of
the Southern forces. He announced
Reb. 19 that 18 Southern senators were
prepared to debate the bill 24 hours a
day, if necessary, to prevent passage.
Rut Senate Majority Leader Mike
Mansfield (D-Mont.) said Feb. 28 that
the Senate would hold ’round-the-
elock sessions only under “extreme”
circumstances. Mansfield said the Sen
ate would meet early and stay late,
aud would sit on Saturdays, once the
civil-rights debate was joined.
Mansfield announced that four sen
ators would serve as floor managers
•or the civil-rights measure. They are
Majority Whip Hubert H. Humphrey
w-Minn.), Chairman Warren G. Mag-
nuson (D-Wash.) of the Commerce
ommittee, Sen. Joseph S. Clark (D-
a.) of the Labor Committee and Sen.
. P A. Hart (D-Mich.) of the Judi-
CBr y Committee.
Over the strenuous objections of the
uthern senators, the Senate voted
. -to-37 on Feb. 26 to place the civil-
n *ts bill on the calendar, bypassing
“ 6 Senate Judiciary Committee headed
y Sen. James O. Eastland (D-Miss.)
jj more than five hours of debate,
ussell repeatedly accused the leader-
bv' P °*. try * n ? t° “gag” the opposition
w av ?iding the customary referral to
®oUttee. The 17-vote victory margin
ur P r ised the leadership, which had
(See JOHNSON, Page 2)
h* This Issue
tatc Reports
^? b ama 1
^ ansa s 7
In ,j Ct of Columbia 1
l lon da ..4
v .. " 5
, nt uckv ?
Jf^a 14
S**nd .... 3
w^Ppi ... 1
Missouri .... 9
J^ahoma ... 15
Vn 1 Carolina i6
^nnessee
S“iia
8
to 6Uua .... in
681 Vir ginia 12
j^ial Articles
ft* Picture 1
CL We gion 1
Hill’s Problems 10
^ Ide the South 16
Meeting Adjourned
gl ^ I 4, |||
Brooks, Birmingham News
ALABAMA
Laws, Actions
May Be Probed
By U. S. Judges
MONTGOMERY
A three - judge federal court
panel indicated Feb. 22
that it intended to take a broad
look at Alabama’s school laws
and administrative actions.
At the conclusion of a two-day hear
ing growing out of the court-ordered
desegregation of Tuskegee High School
last September, presiding Judge Rich
ard T. Rives of the Fifth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals called for briefs from
both sides addressed to the following
questions:
• Whether Gov. George C. Wallace,
State Supt. of Education Austin R.
Meadows and the State Board of Edu
cation should be enjoined from inter
fering with desegregation in any local
school system in Alabama.
• Whether an order should be issued
desegregating all public-school systems
in Alabama based on claims that the
governor, the state board and the su
perintendent of education had assumed
central control in ordering Tuskegee
High closed Jan. 30 and in authorizing
tuition grants Feb. 4 for children to
attend a private institution.
• Whether the Alabama Pupil Place
ment Law should be declared uncon
stitutional in application.
• Whether the Alabama grant-in-aid
statutes should be declared unconsti
tutional in application, or whether their
use is unconstitutional when used in
perpetuating segregation in the state.
• Whether an existing restraining
order preventing Gov. Wallace and the
state board from interfering with de
segregation in Macon County should
be broadened into a preliminary in
junction.
• Whether any public funds have
been used to the extent that the private
Macon Academy in Tuskegee had been
made a party to the Macon County
desegregation case (Lee et al vs. Macon
County Board of Education et al), on
the contention of petitioners that it has
become a public institution and a part
of the Alabama public school system.
Speculation on Outcome
Most observers believed that the
court would enter some kind of state
wide desegregation order, but the con
sensus seemed to be that the court
might not go so far as requested by
the petitioners and order desegregation
of all school districts in the state on
the basis of the state board’s inter
vention in Macon.
More likely, it was thought, the gov
ernor and the board would be directed
not to interfere with desegregation —
this and perhaps a ruling on the eligi
bility of private schools, such as the
Macon Academy, for state assistance.
To a large extent, the State Supreme
Court and the board itself rendered
both questions moot. On Feb. 18, the
state’s highest court ruled, in an advis
ory opinion requested by Gov. Wallace,
that the board has no control over
local systems and no authority to close
them.
The same day, the board met in
emergency session and rescinded its
(See COURT, Page 6)
MISSISSIPPI
First Public-School Desegregation
In State Ordered for September
JACKSON
P ublic school desegregation —
the first in Mississippi since
the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court de
cision—was ordered March 4 by
U.S. District Judge Sidney C.
Mize for the cities of Biloxi and
Jackson and rural Leake County.
The order was a temporary injunc
tion for desegregation of the schools
sought by the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People on
behalf of 64 Negro children.
Judge Mize’s order was in conformity
with a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals mandate that he give the in
junction petition “prompt considera
tion.” The court of appeals order, issued
at New Orleans Feb. 13, was in a deci
sion reversing Judge Mize’s earlier dis
missal of the three suits on grounds the
plaintiffs had not exhausted administra
tive remedies on the local level.
At the same time, Judge Mize set
May 18 for a hearing on the merits
of the suits. In the meantime, he or
dered officials of the schools to submit
plans by July 15 for desegregation of
the schools in at least one grade during
the school year beginning in the fall
(August and September).
Judge Mize noted that issuance of the
temporary injunction is not final and
could be affected by the May 18 hearing
of the issues on their merits.
He ruled that the school boards in
volved “are temporarily restrained and
enjoined from requiring segregation of
the races in the schools and that stu
dents must be assigned to classes on a
nondiscriminatory basis with all de
liberate speed.”
Judge Mize said the desegregation
plans he called on the boards to submit
by July 15 “shall include a statement
that the maintenance of separate schools
for the Negro and white children shall
be completely ended in at least one
grade during the school year commenc
ing in September.”
He also said they must provide for
desegregation of at least one additional
grade in each school year thereafter.
Meanwhile, the Jackson Municipal
Separate School District board an
nounced it would “continue to resist
and oppose public school integration.”
The board, through attorney Thomas
Watkins, said the preliminary injunc
tion “was issued without permitting
counsel for any of the parties to offer
evidence.” The court, however, assured
all parties that full opportunity would
be given to present all relevant and
competent evidence at the trial on the
merits.
Relative to attorney Watkins’ request
for postponement of the temporary in
junction order, Judge Mize said:
“I consider it my duty under the
mandate of the Court of Appeals to
grant the temporary injunction. There
is no necessity as I see it, for further
delay.”
He told the parties that “integration
should be made fully without any vio
lence and discord.”
“I have given thorough consideration
to this procedure (for grade-by-grade
desegregation) and as much tranquility
should be sought as possible,” he said.
In refusing to hear testimony in the
cases at the March 4 court session,
Judge Mize said the Court of Appeals
decision “makes it compulsory that I
proceed now.”
At the May 18 court session, Judge
POLITICAL PICTURE
School-Race Issues Get
Less Campaign Attention
By TOM FLAKE
S chool SEGREGATiON-desegrega-
tion continues to diminish as
an open political issue in South
ern and border states, although
the subject is known to receive
major political consideration in
many state capitols, county court
houses and city halls.
“There is no popular position on the
race issue,” Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. of
Atlanta said last month, observing that
it is a major challenge to mayors of
large cities nationwide.
Political campaign positions in the
17 state still range from those advo
cating expanded school desegregation
to those pledging efforts for mainte
nance of separate schools. In West Vir
ginia, Democratic gubernatorial candi
date Bonn Brown has promised his
efforts toward complete desegregation
of schools which remain uniracial, and
Republican candidate Cecil H. Under
wood was an outspoken advocate of
desegregation while governor in 1957-
61. In North Carolina, Dr. I. Beverly
Lake is campaigning for the governor
ship on a pro-segregation policy al
though opposing use of force to prevent
or deter court-ordered desegregation
of schools.
Issue Omitted
In Mississippi, where Paul B. John
son won the governorship last year
in a campaign which stressed resist
ance to desegregation of education, the
incoming governor omitted direct ref
erence to the subject when he deliv
ered his inaugural address in January.
Johnson also by-passed the issue later
in presenting his program to the legis
lature.
However, Mississippi legislators made
several moves last month, including
introduction of a segregation-by-sex
bill, that emphasized continued deter
mination to resist or counteract fed
eral-court orders for admission of
Negroes to schools with whites. The
state’s new lieutenant governor, Car-
roll Gartin, said in his inaugural ad
dress that he was “ready to make
any personal or political sacrifice” to
maintain Mississippi’s prosegregation
position.
Ross Barnett, who was succeeded by
Johnson in the governor’s office, has
announced that he has no intention of
seeking the U.S. Senate seat now held
by John Stennis, who is expected to
seek re-election this year. Barnett and
Johnson, formerly lieutenant-governor,
are awaiting further court action on
(See SCHOOL-RACE, Page 13)
Mize will begin testimony on the merits
of the Jackson case, followed by that
of the Leake County (Carthage) board.
The Biloxi hearing on the merits of
the case will take third place and will
be heard at Biloxi.
Derrick Bell, NAACP attorney, ob
jected to the July 15 date for filing
desegregation plans, asking that they
be submitted earlier. However, Judge
Mize said the date allows ample time
for any objections which may be raised
to the desegregation plans.
White Parents Intervene
Two white parents of Jackson filed
as intervenors in the Jackson case ask
ing for an injunction against the school
board’s desegregation of the schools.
Judge Mize allowed the petition to
intervene to be entered “because the
white parents also are entitled to their
day in court.”
The cases are styled Evers et al. v.
Jackson Municipal Separate School
District Board et al.; Mason et al. v.
Biloxi Municipal Separate School Dis
trict Board et al.; Hudson v. Leake
County School Board et al.
In appealing the lower court dismis
sals, attorneys for the NAACP said they
had not attempted to utilize provisions
of the state pupil-assignment act for
a transfer to white schools because “the
exhaustion of remedies provided in the
act would prove futile and inadequate
in view of the state policy of segrega
tion.”
Asserting that the petitions to the
school boards provided “ample basis
for the grant of relief,” the Court of
Appeals ordered Judge Mize to give
the suits “prompt consideration.”
The Court of Appeals said “the
premise for the theory” that no ap
pellant had sought and been denied
entrance to any particular school “is
that any segregation in these school
systems is purely voluntary in light of
the Mississippi Pupil Assignment stat
ute and that appellants cannot be heard
to say to the contrary without at least
applying for assignment to schools be
ing attended by members of the white
race.
“This is particularly so, the argument
goes, in view of the absence of com
pulsory school attendance laws in Mis
sissippi and the resulting necessity to
apply for admission and assignment an
nually,” the court said. “This premise
is buttressed by a line of authorities
that require exhaustion of administra
tive remedies and denial of constitu
tional rights to appellants individually
before relief may be granted.
“However,” the Court of Appeals
said, “the difficulty in sustaining this
position lies in the fact of other Mis
sissippi laws. For example, and without
(See COURT, Page 11)
THE REGION
Private-College Policies
On Race Before Courts
r I 1 he legal status of segregated
private colleges was the prin
cipal issue of two cases in the
courts in February.
A U.S. District Judge in Florida dis
missed a desegregation suit against the
University of Tampa on grounds that
the private institution was not subject
to court mandates requiring desegre
gation.
A state district court judge in Texas
is considering the verdict of a jury that
ruled in favor of Rice University trus
tees, who want to end the all-white
restrictions placed on the school by
the will of the founder, William Marsh
Rice.
The Tampa suit, Hammond v. Uni
versity of Tampa, was filed in March,
1963, by two Negroes, who charged that
the university should be required to
desegregate because it received large
federal grants and loans. The school
has maintained a segregation policy by
a formal vote of the board of trustees.
U.S. District Judge Joseph P. Lieb
ruled Feb. 4 that “the university is a
private academic institution whose ac
tivities have been carried on without
significant state participation.”
Texas Judge William M. Holland, of
the 127th District Court, indicated he
would rule in March on the jury’s ver
dict that held “impracticable” the re
strictions placed on Rice University by
the founder. The school’s trustees, in
Rice v. Carr, sought permission to ad
mit Negro students to the all-white
school and to charge tuition.
Rice officials testified at the hearing
that the university could not get fed
eral funds or hold top staff members
without desegregating. The school lost
a $10-million research grant from the
Ford Foundation and is threatened with
the loss of the Navy ROTC program,
they said. The chancellor, Dr. Carey
Croneis, said the campus might be
come “an intellectual desert” unless the
court permitted the school to admit Ne
groes and to charge tuition.
(See THE REGION, Page 11)
