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i 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«