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PAGE 10—MARCH, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
NORTH CAROLINA
Lawyers File Statements With Court on Concord Suit
WINSTON-SALEM
A ttorneys for Negro plaintiffs
filed questions, and lawyers
for the Concord school board
filed an answer Feb. 14, in con
nection with a suit in which par
ents of 47 Negro children are
seeking full desegregation of the
Concord city school system for
pupils, teachers and all personnel.
The case, Gill et al. v. Concord
City Board of Education, was
filed in the U.S. Middle District
Court in Greensboro Dec. 12,
1963.
The school board will have to re
spond under pretrial rules to questions
by the Negro plaintiffs. The plaintiffs
want the board to “state what obstacles,
if any, will prevent the complete de
segregation of the school system in
the city of Concord at the beginning
of the 1964-65 school year.”
The plaintiffs also want to know the
number of schools, white and Negro
students, teachers and other personnel
in the school system, whether Negroes
are assigned to schools outside the city,
and whether the school board operates
attendance zones for assignment and
transfer of pupils.
In answer to the original suit, the
school board noted that no Negro has
made a formal request for transfer
or reassignment to a white school.
“Voluntary Separation’
Concord schools are operated “by
custom, tradition, and student choice,”
the board said, resulting in “a volun
tary separation of the races.” The city
system does not use school buses, the
board said, but operates schools within
walking distance for all students in a
setup that has been “harmonious and
uninterrupted by racial incidents or
events.”
The board accused the Negro plain
tiffs of seeking to “reorganize the
schools and school system . . . accord
ing to special racial objectives.”
Negroes first complained of segre
gation in Concord schools Sept. 3, 1963,
when they filed a petition seeking a
school board plan for integration of
schools.
In the Colleges
Central Piedmont
Operating Only
As Night School
The Central Piedmont Community
College of Charlotte announced Feb. 14
that it is closing its two-year-old $325,-
000 Beatties Ford Road campus that
was once Mecklenburg College, except
for night classes.
Enrollment of the college, which
moved from Second Ward High School
to new quarters at Mecklenburg Col-
Missouri
(Continued From Page 9)
eted the board offices and homes of
board members. On one occasion,
marchers prevented some buses from
moving by standing in front of them.
Legislative Action
School Choice Open,
Speaker Declares
St. Louis’ new freedom.of-residence
ordinance was reviewed on Feb. 3 by
Morris M. Hatchett at a meeting of
the St. Louis branch of the NAACP.
Hatchett, a lawyer, is chairman of the
NAACP branch committee on housing.
“No longer can you complain about
Jim Crow schools,” Hatchett said. “If
you live in a Jim Crow neighborhood
and send your children to school there,
it’s because you want it that way. It’s
up to you to live where you want to
live.”
The new ordinance prohibits discrim
ination in the sale or rental of real
property. It was passed 15 to 4 by the
Board of Aldermen on Jan. 31.
The law prohibits any person from
committing an act of discrimination in
such transactions because of religion,
race, ancestry or national origin.
It applies to all living places in St.
Louis except for rooms in single-family
dwellings not regulated by the city’s
rooming-house ordinance.
North Carolina Highlights
Attorneys for 47 Negro children
seeking desegregation of Concord
schools filed a series of questions
with the U.S. Middle District Court
in Greensboro. The Concord Board
of Education filed an answer to the
original suit, filed Dec. 12, 1963.
The student Legislature at the Uni
versity of North Carolina voted to
encourage students not to trade at
businesses practicing racial discrimi
nation.
A new football coach, Bill Tate of
Wake Forest, offered athletic schol
arships to two Negro high-school stu
dents from Dudley High in Greens
boro.
I. Beverly Lake, who seeks the
Democratic Party nomination for
governor, stated that he favored seg
regation in schools, public accommo
dations and employment.
lege with 21 teachers and 300 students,
had dwindled to 86 pupils. It is now
returned to its original status as a night
school, founded in 1949.
Objection to the campus has come
from Negroes since its inception. At
the time the campus was built, Char
lotte operated two community colleges,
Charlotte College, predominantly white,
and Mecklenburg, all Negro.
With the start of the 1963-64 school
year, Charlotte College, under a new
state law, has been permitted to be
come a four-year community college
under state jurisdiction. Goals of this
school include becoming a part of the
University of North Carolina system.
Earlier Troubles
Mecklenberg, which first was Carver
College, was then combined with the
Industrial Education Center, and the
setup was renamed the Central Pied
mont Community College.
Mecklenberg College troubles came
to the front May 15, 1961 in the case of
Wynn v. Charlotte Community College
System Trustees (these trustees oper
ated both Charlotte and Carver col
leges), when Negroes sought injunction
against the building of the new cam
pus. Judge Susie Sharpe refused the
injunction May 22, 1961, on the grounds
that no student had been barred from
either school on the basis of race. The
State Supreme Court upheld this deci
sion Nov. 8, 1961.
Alhough the new campus was built,
Negroes refused to support the campus.
White students have not come to the
campus under the new Central Pied
mont name, but have studied at the
industrial education center campus.
This campus now has 1,350 students.
Future of the campus is not known.
★ ★ ★
Bill Tate, newly signed football coach
of Wake Forest College in Winston-
Salem, announced Feb. 14 that he has
offered grant-in-aid scholarships to
two Negro football players of all-
Negro Dudley High School in Greens
boro, N.C.
He offered the awards to 6-4 Charles
Sanders, a 200-pound all-state (Negro)
end, and 6-2 Kenneth (Butch) Henry,
a 190-pound quar
terback. Both boys
are expected to
choose between
Wake Forest and
Minnesota, a Big
Ten school which
features a former
Dudley basketball
star on its var
sity squad.
Wake Forest
has admitted Ne
gro students for
the past two years. They are eligible
for all student activities on campus.
Tate had told reporters when he came
to the campus that he would recruit
the best available players who met aca
demic, character and athletic standards
of the college.
Tate and Bill Sexton, an assistant
coach, visited the homes of both boys.
They also have seen films of the boys
in action and have seen them play
basketball.
Both Henry and Saunders are good
students at Dudley. Henry’s parents
are Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Henry. His
father teaches driver training, and his
mother is dean of girls at Dudley.
Sanders is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Sanders. His father teaches en
gineering at A&T College in Greens
boro. His mother teaches school in
Hillsboro.
The boys had not announced their
decisions at the end of February.
★ ★ ★
Trustees of Atlantic Christian Col
lege in Wilson voted Feb. 28 to drop
from the college charter a clause lim
iting the student body to members of
the Caucasian race. If the State Con
vention of Christian Churches approves
the board action, the school will be
open to Negro students. The chinch
convention will meet April 24-26 in
Washington, D.C.
★ ★ ★
Students from Winston-Salem State
College, Wake Forest College and Bap
tist Hospital participated in an inter
racial three-day Baptist conference on
human relations, Feb. 28, 29 and March
1 on the three campuses.
The conference was co-sponsored by
the Forsyth Baptist Missionary Fellow
ship of the city and college Baptist
student organizations.
★ ★ ★
A Negro organization, the Joint
Council on Health and Citizenship, in
vited three Democratic Party guberna
torial hopefuls or their representatives,
to meet with it. One candidate, L.
Richardson Preyer, was represented by
his campaign manager, Nat Townsend.
Townsend met with 160 members of
the council in Washington, in eastern
North Carolina, where most Negroes of
the state live.
Dan K. Moore, a candidate who did
not accept the invitation, called the
meeting a “secret” affair. He said
Preyer said other candidates were in
vited. Moore’s campaign manager, Joe
Branch, said unfavorable publicity
about this caused Preyer “to inject”
Moore’s name in this matter.
Preyer answered the accusation by
saying Branch tried to “make this
open public meeting appear wrong or
sinister.” He added:
“It is my earnest hope, however,
that we can get through this campaign
and the years ahead without adding
to the fuel of misunderstanding.
“As governor, I pledge now that I
would not endanger our people and
our state by refusing to discuss prob
lems with any public spirited citizens
who are interested in promoting the
welfare of all our people. . . .
“Candidate Moore has refused to
meet with this group. I think we need
to keep the lines of communication
open with this group and with all
groups seeking understanding and a
better life for our people.”
Miscellaneous
CORE Chairman
Praises Teachers
Floyd B. McKissick of Durham, na
tional chairman of CORE (Congress of
Racial Equality) commended Negro
teachers in a speech to the Asheville.
Buncombe Teachers Association Feb
13.
He said:
“Look at the Negro teacher who
comes to school and teaches the ill-fed,
the ill-clothed, the diseased with books
the white schools no longer would use
And yet, the Negro teachers have been
able to produce many outstanding
individuals.”
★ ★ ★
The Rev. B. Elton Cox of High Point,
state field secretary for CORE, was
quoted as saying Feb. 8 in Chapel Hill:
“If I thought it would do any good,
I would come to Chapel Hill and talk
to city officials and university (of
North Carolina) officials. That failing,
I would bum myself.”
Cox later revised the statement with
“if I were not a Christian.”
A state NAACP official also denied
offering himself as a human sacrifice.
The Rev. W. E. Banks of Thomasville,
state youth advisor for the NAACP,
said, “Any statement which went out
concerning any plan on my part to
suffocate myself for the cause of social
justice was ill-advised and grew out of
heightened emotional stress over per
sisting social injustices in the city of
Asheboro.”
★ ★ ★
The state of North Carolina will
sponsor a program designed to cut
down the number of civil-rights dem
onstrations and move the solving of
civil-rights problems to the conference
table.
Capus Waynick, chief race-relations
adviser to Gov. Terry Sanford, an
nounced the project Feb. 18.
Chapel Hill Faces RaceProblem
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
fjpHE city of Chapel Hill, gen-
as
erally acknowledged
community with good race rela
tions, is currently in the midst of
racial problems growing out of
demonstrations against a few
places that refuse to desegregate
their facilities.
Feb. 1 was D-Date, when the Con
gress of Racial Equality (CORE) prom
ised a new type of action against
racial segregation. Various activities
have involved schools in these ways:
• For about one week, as many as
70 students boycotted the all-Negroi
Lincoln High School, which has an
enrollment of 225 students. This boy
cott spread to sporadic boycotts of
all-Negro Frank Graham elementary
school and desegregated Guy Phillips
Junior High School.
• The University of North Carolina
has become involved because a number
of its students have been among the
demonstrators. This has resulted in a
trial of two demonstrators by the stu
dent government and a statement on
integration and segregation by the stu
dent government.
By the end of the month, a mora
torium had been declared on demon
strations, and the Human Relations
Committee along with other city
groups is studying a proposal to meet
the city’s racial problems.
Here was the situation in Chapel
Hill early in March:
Political Action
Lake Reaffirms Segregation Policy
Dr. I. Beverly Lake, a candidate for
governor in two previous Democratic
primaries on prosegregation platforms,
said on Feb. 10 he still believes in
school segregation. Speaking before the
Mecklenburg County Kiwanis Club in
Charlotte, he advocated a policy of
convincing North Carolinians that sep
arate schools are best for both races.
He said:
“As governor, I shall seek to per
suade the people of North Carolina of
both races that our system is best. For
I believe that informed public opinion
peacefully and quietly expressed, can
be relied upon to convince our people
that our long-established school system
is in the best interest of all our
children.
“As governor I would not rely upon
or permit the use of force or threats
of violence to bring about that result
even though I believe in it, for such is
not in keeping with the dignity of this
office. ...
“I believe that decision (U.S. Su
preme Court decision of 1954 overruling
separate-but-equal doctrine) is a vio
lation of the rights of North Carolina
under the constitution of our country,
but I do not advocate and never have
advocated the use of violence or of
Dr. I. Beverly Lake
Stands for segregation.
state troops or police officers to prevent
enrollment in a school of a pupil pur
suant to the order of a court of the
United States.
“As governor of North Carolina, I
have no intention of going myself or
permitting any person on my behalf
to go to any school and physically
prevent a child from going into it. . . .
“The experience of North Carolina
has demonstrated the wisdom of our
long-established system. The experi
ences of the city of Washington and
cities of other states in pursuing a
different policy have not demonstrated
its superiority.”
Lake said he does not support a
public-accommodations law, and if one
is passed he would join in a court
attack on the constitutionality of such
a law. He also expressed opposition to
a fair-employment practices law.
He offered a program to develop
opportunity for Negro youths to be
trained for professional jobs and other
employment.
Lake advised “responsible, good Ne
gro citizens” to take over leadership
of their race from “outsiders and
troublemakers of both races, who are
leading them into a blind alley of
resentment where the cold comfort of
a court decree will be a sorry substi
tute for respect and friendship.”
LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOI^-All boy
cotting students except two, who were
permanently suspended, had returned
to classes. The protesters had listed as
grievances:
• Lincoln High is not equal to
Chapel Hill High School.
• Dr. Howard Thompson, superin
tendent of Chapel Hill schools, forbade
the distribution of “freedom” lean®
and the holding of integration rallies
on schools grounds.
• Lincoln High and the predomi
nantly white Chapel Hill High ha
not been consolidated as promised.
Chapel Hill schools operate on a
“free option” assignment program
which students are free to trans e
from one school to another on a
available” basis. An estimated 20“
gro students attend school with w ,
Dr. Thompson recommended s ® v ®. t
months ago to the school board
the city’s two high schools be con ^_
idated into one. This proposal 1S ^
tingent on the school board s
able to sell the Chapel Hill High Sc^
property and an elementary s
next door to a buyer, he said. _
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAR
LINA — Possible university ac
against 35 campus students of ^
races involved in sit-in cases
ended Feb. 13 when the UNC M
Honor Council ruled that Thomas ^
num, 19, a Negro freshman, wa , nor
guilty of violating the campus - on
code by participating in antisegre
demonstrations. eight-
The trial took three hours. The
member honor council took 20 waS
to come to a decision. Byn ^
arrested five times in December d
January on charges of trespass 15-
resisting arrest during various
strations. . , „, nn£ tra-
All students arrested
tions were reported to the hono ^ eS
cil in accordance with camp u
The decision in favor of Bynum ^
the other cases to be dropped, te A
eating that students who demo 0 f
will not be considered in vio
the campus honor code. v0 ted
The UNC Student Legislature ^ts
22-11 for a resolution asking 0 p
to boycott businesses still opera ^
a segregated basis. The reso w j e L
offered first by Michael •
president of the student bo y«