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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.”