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ARKANSAS
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH, 1964—PAGE 7
AAUP Criticizes State University
For Loyalty Oath Actions in 1959
LITTLE ROCK
he University of Arkansas is
under criticism from the
American Association of Univer
sity Professors (AAUP) for its
treatment of four faculty mem
bers who refused to abide by Act
10 of 1958, a teacher-loyalty law
which later was declared uncon
stitutional.
The university is to be considered for
possible censure by the AAUP in April
in connection with one of the four,
John L. McKenney, who had been an
assistant professor of philosophy.
This was disclosed in the winter issue
of the AAUP Bulletin, dated December,
1963 (Volume 49, Number 4, Pages 344-
351), which contains a report by the
AAUP committee that investigated
complaints by the four faculty mem
bers. The investigating committee’s re
port will be considered April 7-8 at St.
Louis by the Committee on Academic
Freedom and Tenure as to whether
censure of the university should be
recommended. If censure is recom
mended, that will be considered by the
AAUP in convention April 10-11 at St.
Louis.
I The issue is part of the aftermath
of the Little Rock Central High School
desegregation crisis which started in
September, 1957.
Legislative Session
In August, 1958, Gov. Orval E. Fau-
bus called the Arkansas legislature into
a special session to adopt the laws that
were used to close the Little Rock high
schools for the 1958-59 school year, and
the legislators added measures of their
. own.
One such law was Act 10, introduced
and sponsored by the late state Sen.
Artie Gregory of North Little Rock. It
1 provided that every teacher or admin
istrative officer of any school or college
Arkansas Highlights
An investigating committee of the
American Association of University
Professors criticized the University
of Arkansas for its handling of four
faculty members who lost their jobs
in 1959 after refusing to sign an
affidavit under a teacher loyalty law,
since held unconstitutional.
The Texarkana School Board an
nounced a desegregation plan which
it intends to put into effect in the
first two grades in September.
The family of the white boy who
enrolled in a Negro school near Little
Rock last September has moved to
Kansas.
Of the faculty members at the Uni
versity of Arkansas who have ex
pressed an opinion, a majority are in
favor of desegregating the university
athletic teams.
Mrs. Medgar W. Evers told an
NAACP meeting not to be satisfied
with token desegregation.
supported in whole or in part by public
funds must sign an affidavit, as a con
dition of employment, listing the names
of all organizations the individual has
belonged to or contributed to within
the previous five years.
Gregory said at the time that the bill
was aimed at the NAACP, to make
known the public employes who were
members of the NAACP.
Lawsuits were filed attacking Act
10. State courts upheld the law but the
U. S. Supreme Court ruled it uncon
stitutional on Dec. 12, 1960.
In the meantime, four faculty mem
bers at the university had not received
reappointments for the 1959-60 school
Schoolmen
Texarkana Plans Desegregation
Of Two Grades This September
The Texarkana School Board in a
statement Feb. 28 announced the de-
i segregation plan that it intends to put
1 * to effect in September for the 1964-
. sc hool year. It will begin with the
, two grades and continue upward
two grades a year.
1 1 th^ 6 - k° ar ^ had said last November
at it would begin desegregation in
| J school year. This was after
"l N " a< ^ received nine requests from
i students for assignment to white
°ols in the 1963-64 school year. It
n jl ecte< ^ all nine because, it said, all
JO !(3. e 9 ues ts were received after Aug.
r.f .L too close to the beginning
Jhe school year.
5 e es sentials of the announced plan
°nd
* U hiose entering the first and
grades next September will have
^ kjcpiciuucl W U.1 lid VC
*° wL? ortunit y to choose the school
T}^ they wish to be assigned.
the <Jil US ! he done by July 13. Then
1 n ■ u vilC Uj w Lll < y lvi A11CX1
^ hed Board will make the assign-
tjgu^' Those who object to their as-
5l e ,, ent: °r wish reassignment must
by (i eir Protest on a form furnished
tejyj^ 6 hoard within ten days of re-
All tVi t ^ le ' r n °tice of assignment,
h this ° Se *** grades through 2 through
to year are automatically assigned
big 0r sc hool they have been attend-
in *he case of sixth and ninth
to the junior high or senior
0iienK^ ere *hey took school-sponsored
In tVid fnllrYwincr crTinnl
’■'ear
In the following school
the pupils in the first
~ i tue pu^jiib ui me in o i
>fess ■ wil l have a chance to ex-
JUe ♦ eir Preference. This will con
ag L, 0 more grades each year, bar-
°reseen circumstances.
Cll CUlllbldllCCb.
** school 6 ?^ egroes and whites already
-i ^111 remain senarated if thev
■*» a v remain separated if they
^ktne^t- 6 . ® rst tWO gr a< ^ es - The
^snt rg U Potions the board’s assign-
? does ^ at * ons In several places, but
5ssi g t Un e n ? t 1 men tion the state pupil-
J tiost aW ’ w ^n c I 1 b as been used
> d e - die school districts that
^is 0 c ^^Sated since the Little Rock
19 5b
?*■ Th® X ? rkana District has 5,511 pu-
SrtT toum ”
^‘ OWn is 28 per cent Negro.
^5 ls split by the Arkansas-
**** bo ar , te ^ ne > a nd this action is by
°f the school district on the
Arkansas side. No action has been
taken toward desegregation on the
Texas side.
A white boy who was enrolled last
September in an elementary school with
718 Negro students in the Pulaski
County (rural) School District (near
Little Rock) has left the state with his
family.
He was withdrawal from the school
Jan. 13 but this did not become public
until Feb. 12. when the Salina (Kan.)
Journal published an interview with
his mother about the experience. Supt.
E. F. Dunn then checked with the
school and confirmed that he was gone:
The boy, Steven Fitts, 6, is the son
of an airman, Kenneth J. Fitts, who
was stationed in Alaska last Septem
ber. He has now been transferred to
the Schilling Air Force Base near Sa
lina.
★ ★ ★
At a meeting Feb. 13, the North
Little Rock school board was asked
about its proposed desegregation plan
by Mrs. Rufus Norman, president of
the Lakewood Elementary School PTA.
She said parents did not want their
children subjected to a disorderly scene
on the first day of school next fall.
B. Hurshel Ball, president of the
board, said the board had a plan “un
der consideration and study” and that
it would be announced before the end
of the current school year.
Supt. F. B. Wright explained later
that the board had more work to do
with its attorneys but that the plan
would be announced in the next two
months. “We already have done quite
a lot of work on it; probably more
than would be imagined,” he said.
Five Negro students applied last Au
gust for admission to the white junior
and senior high schools but all were
denied admittance on the ground that
the applications were filed too near the
beginning of the school term. At the
time it denied the applications Aug. 27
(SSN Sept. 1963), the board announced
that it would begin desegregation in
September, 1964, and would make
known its plans before the end of the
school year.
year because of their failure to sign the
Act 10 affidavit. They were McKenney;
Max Carr, an associate professor of
music; Frederick G. Friedmann, profes
sor of philosophy, and Thelma W. Tay
lor, instructor in philosophy. After Act
10 was thrown out, only McKenney
made formal application to the univer
sity for reinstatement, and it was
refused.
The AAUP investigating committee
concentrated on three questions:
Whether the university had a duty to
(1) take the initiative in remedying the
effects of Act 10 enforcement, (2) re
instate faculty members dismissed be
cause of Act 10, and (3) make good the
financial losses which faculty members
experienced as a result of Act 10.
The investigation held that the uni
versity did have all three duties and
had not met them. The university made
a 42-page reply to the committee’s re
port, parts of which are published with
the report in the AAUP Bulletin.
Members of the investigating com
mittee were C. Dallas Sands of the
University of Alabama, law professor;
John Honnold of the University of
Pennsylvania, law professor, and Theo
dore Ropp of Duke University, history
professor.
★ ★ ★
University Faculty Polled
As to Biracial Athletics
A majority of University of Arkansas
faculty members who have expressed
an opinion on the desegregation of uni
versity athletics are in favor of it.
This was reported Feb. 12 to the
University Senate and to President
David W. Mullins by Dr. Delbert
Schwartz, chairman of the Senate Com
mittee on Athletics. Members of the
Senate—faculty members with the
rank of assistant professor or higher
and who have been at the university
at least two years—were asked in De
cember by the Senate chairman, Dr:
Hardy Wilcoxon, to tell the chairman of
the athletic committee of their views.
Dr. Schwartz said about 20 per cent
of the members had responded either
verbally or in writing. No action was
taken by the Senate.
The athletic committee controls ath
letics under policy laid down by the
administration. The university Board of
Trustees on Nov. 22 decided to con
tinue the policy of segregated athletics.
The university is a member of the
Southwest Conference whose other
seven members, all located in Texas,
have decided to desegregate.
★ ★ ★
The College Profile of Feb. 10 at'
Hendrix College, Conway, published a
letter from a student responding to the
editorial of Jan. 13 declaring that the
Methodist school was ready for full
integration.
The letter writer, Arthur Epley, ’63,
said he thought the editorial naive and
expressed doubt that all of the students
were as ready as the newspaper had
said.
“Even if the students are ‘ready,’ ”
the letter said, “how about the alumni
and the Methodists in Arkansas? How
are these good people going to take
this? Hendrix is an organ of the Meth
odist Church and abides by its policies.
To my knowledge every Methodist
church in Arkansas is segregated, and
these people are a major financial sup
port of the College.
“But even more important in my
mind is the thought of Hendrix losing
the warmness, friendliness, and close
ness which is shared by the students
and faculty, and which is the College’s
most prized feature.”
The editorial had been inspired by
a statement the college sent to the
alumni in December saying that the
problem of desegregation was under
study and that a policy probably would
be announced in the spring.
★ ★ ★
A Human Rights Committee was
formed by students at Arkansas AM&N
College for the purpose of improving
race relations in Pine Bluff. It is headed
by Henry Beecher Hicks Jr., 20, of
Columbus, Ohio, a senior who is presi
dent of the student body.
Hicks said the students were con
cerned because four demonstrators ar
rested at a segregated truck stop were
college students, including the editor of
the student newspaper and the editor
of the yearbook.
The committee adopted a resolution
At Notasulga, Only Whites Entered
The mayor was in the doorway.
Alabama
(Continued From Page 6)
segregated Macon Academy, formed
last fall to accommodate most of the
students who walked out of Tuskegee
High after the admission of 12 Negroes.
(See Legal Action.)
At the end of the first semester, the
academy had an enrollment of 140, but
more than 200 others applied after the
total white boycott at Shorter and
Notasulga. Accommodations were made
available immediately for 45 seniors
whose graduation would be jeopardized
by a prolonged absence from class
rooms. Many of the others waited for
new facilities.
Some 430 white students walked out
of the high schools at Tuskegee (in
September), Notasulga and Shorter (in
February, after Tuskegee High was
closed and these schools ordered de
segregated) .
The drop in public-school attend
ance would mean a substantial cutback
in state appropriations to Macon Coun
ty schools next year. Appropriations
are based on attendance.
The Macon Academy operates on
private contributions and tuition of
$10 or more a month from parents, de
pending on their financial ability. Gov.
Wallace has called for contributions
from over the state. State employes
have contributed about $2,400. Some
desks and other equipment have been
donated. The school, consisting of eight
classrooms, a library and offices, is
Selioolhouse Doors
Graham, Arkansas Gazette
recommending that selected students
begin negotiations “with qualified citi
zenry” for further desegregation in
Pine Bluff.
What They Say
Mrs. Evers Warms
Against ‘Tokenism*
Mrs. Medgar W. Evers, widow of the
NAACP office* who was ambushed and
assassinated last
year in Jackson,
Miss., warned
about 400 persons
at a Little Rock
NAACP meeting
against being sat
isfied with “tok
enism” and that
the struggle for
their rights was
not over.
The meeting on
Feb. 16 had been MRS - EVERS
scheduled as a dinner in the downtown
Marion Hotel, but the manager, Ben
R. Shelley, cancelled the reservation
six days before the meeting on the
ground that Mrs. Evers was “contro-
(See ARKANSAS, Page 11)
across the street and a block away
from the padlocked Tuskegee High
School. A group of parents in Shorter
planned to organize a grammar school
branch to the Academy.
In The Colleges
Birmingham Negroes
Enter University
Extension Center
Two Birmingham Negro teachers
were admitted to the University of
Alabama Extension Center in Birming
ham in February, and attended their
first classes in the previously all-white
facility Feb. 3.
The university’s main campus and
the extension center in Huntsville
were desegregated last June after Gov.
Wallace made a show of defiance by
“standing in the door” in Tuscaloosa.
The two Birmingham Center students
were identified as Miss Ruth Benella
Lewis, counselor at Miles College in
Birmingham, and Luther Lawler, Eng
lish teacher at Ullman High School.
Both held a press conference before
their first appearance in class and ex
pressed gratitude for being able to
further their education.
J. Jefferson Bennett, university vice
president, said: “With the enrollment
of these two students the university
continues to meet its obligation.”
1956 Court Order
He said the two Negroes were reg
istered in accordance with a U.S. Dis
trict Court order in 1956 (Lucy vs.
Adams). Autherine Lucy attended
classes at the main campus in Tusca
loosa for a few days in February of
that year, but was driven from the
campus by mob action. She was ex
pelled for accusing university officials
of conspiring with the mob.
The district court which had ordered
her and all qualified members of her
race admitted, upheld the expulsion as
a valid exercise of disciplinary au
thority. The permanent injunction re
mained in effect, but it was not until
June 11, 1963, that two Negroes, Vivian
J. Malone and James Hood, were ac
cepted for admission despite Gov. Wal
lace’s attempt to block their entry.
Hood later withdrew under charges
that he had maligned university offi
cials. All the admissions, at the main
campus, the Huntsville Center and at
Birmingham have been made under
that original order.
Bennett said the university faculty
would make a concerted effort to pro
vide the same educational opportuni
ties for the two Negroes admitted in
Birmingham as for the 1,600 others en
rolled at the facility.
The course for which both were
admitted are taught by the College
of Education and will upgrade their
professional certificates.
★ ★ ★
On a speaking tour in Chicago, Gov.
Wallace hinted that should the three-
judge U.S. federal court which heard
the Macon County-State school board
case in Montgomery Feb. 21-22 rule
that tuition grants to the private Macon
Academy be held invalid, world famous
Tuskegee Institute might suffer.
“The state has for many years made
a substantial contribution to Tuskegee,
even though it is a private school,”
Wallace said. “My administration ap
propriated more to Tuskegee than ever
before in history. But the federal courts
may rule that we can’t make a con
tribution to this fine school even though
we want to.”