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PAGE 10—APRIL, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
Justice Department Asks Statewide Desegregation Order
MONTGOMERY
T he Justice Department, in a
brief filed in Montgomery
March 13, asked a three-judge U.
S. District Court to outlaw school
segregation in a statewide order.
The brief was filed in accordance with
the court’s directive Feb. 22 (SSN,
March) after hearing testimony on the
state’s interference in court-ordered de
segregation of Tuskegee High School.
Both sides were given 50 days in which
to file briefs.
The court hearing the case (Lee vs.
Macon) indicated it intended to take a
broad look at Alabama’s school law§
and administrative actions in light of
the State Board of Education’s action in
closing Tuskegee High, transferring
teachers and reassigning pupils to other
schools.
The school, previously all-white, was
desegregated under orders of U. S.
District Judge Frank Johnson Jr. of
Montgomery last September. All 250
white students, however, immediately
withdrew from the school leaving only
12 Negroes in classes.
In addition to a statewide desegrega
tion, the Justice Department asked the
court to:
• Enjoin Gov. George C. Wallace
from interfering with court desegrega
tion orders anywhere in Alabama.
• Declare that the state’s school
placement law, held valid on its face
by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1958,
had been illegally administered because
local boards had used racial criteria in
enforcing the law.
• Forbid the use of state funds as
tuition grants for white students who
attend private schools rather than go
to public schools with Negroes.
Court Warned
The 1958 validation of the placement
law, by a three-judge district court
panel sitting in Birmingham and later
by the Supreme Court, warned that the
law might later be shown to be uncon
stitutional in application.
The Justice Department also asked
that a temporary restraining order in
the Macon case be enlarged into a pre
liminary injunction against both Macon
County and state officials, including thq
governor, the state superintendent of
education and the State Board of Ed
ucation. The brief contended that they
should all be enjoined from interfering
with desegregation anywhere in the
state.
In a brief filed March 23, Negro plain
tiffs in the case contended that the
official acts of Wallace supported the
request for a statewide injunction. They
cited testimony in the case (SSN,
March) of one school official with the
argument that it proved an unconsti
tutional application of the placement
law in Macon County.
The plaintiffs’ brief also cited the
state’s authorization of tuition grants to
students electing to attend private
schools as evidence of “perpetuating
racial segregation in the state’s public
school system.”
Flowers Brief
State Attorney General Richmond
Flowers, filing a brief in behalf of the
Macon school board, argued that the
state board had no control over the
assignment of pupils and therefore
should not be placed under injunction.
Flowers, who did not serve as the
state board’s attorney in the February
hearing, said “there is not now any
statewide system of segregated schools,”
since schools in Huntsville, Birmingham
and Mobile have desegregated as well
as the University of Alabama, Auburn
University and Florence State.
Flowers criticized Wallace’s handling
of the Macon case.
“One may resolute (sic) as he pleases
about the attorney general of Alabama
and his advice to the Macon County
board (which, from Flowers, had been
to comply with federal court orders)
and he in turn may point to the desire
of some, politically, to have had Presi
dent Johnson send federal troops to
Macon County . . .,” he said.
Flowers argued that the state board
was without authority to transfer pupils
or teachers, to provide grants-in-aid for
private education or to close public
schools, as the state board had at
tempted to do. The board, he said, “has
permanently repented” of its efforts*
recognizing that “by so doing it has
already placed in jeopardy the entire
public school system in all counties and
cities of this state.”
The state board rescinded all its di
rectives to the Macon board. (SSN,
March.)
Flowers further contended that the
Alabama Highlights
The Justice Department and at
torneys for Negro plaintiffs filed
briefs asking a three-judge federal
court to order statewide desegrega
tion of Alabama schools but State
Attorney General Richmond Flowers
contended in another brief there was
no basis for a general desegregation
order.
Gov. George C. Wallace, who is
leading a slate of independent elec
tors in Alabama, entered presidential
primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland
and Indiana with the civil-rights bill
as his principal target.
Tuskegee Institute said in its 50th
annual race relations report that
there had been “heartening advances
of significant accomplishments” in
1963 but also that there had been
setbacks.
plaintiffs in the Macon case had no
legal right to ask for desegregation of
schools outside their own county. Since
desegregation has occurred elsewhere,
he argued, they cannot support the con
tention of a segregated state school
system.
As for grants-in-aid, Flowers said
simply that none had ever been paid,
that the state board had renounced its
authority to order them and that the
question had not, therefore, arisen.
He said no ruling is required on the
constitutionality of the Alabama pupil
placement law, even though it was
violated in transferring white students
in Macon. This violation, he said, was
due to “the unusual pressure-packed
situation then existing.” Before ruling
on the constitutionality of the law in
application, Flowers said, the court
should wait to see how the act is applied
“in a moral normal climate.”
Flowers did not address his brief to
another question on which the court
had asked for a discussion: whether the
private Macon Academy (see Com
munity Action), formed after the de
segregation of Tuskegee High last Sep
tember, should be joined in the suit.
Wallace, commenting on the Justice
Department’s demand for a statewide
desegregation order, said:
“We are going to continue to have
segregation in the public schools of
Alabama . . . We expected this . . . We
are not shocked at anything the Justice
Department does. It is just a brief that
they have filed. We’ll wait and see what
happens. But we are going to continue
to have segregation in the public
schools of Alabama just as they do in
most states of the union.”
Tuskegee High was closed by orders
of the State Board of Education Jan. 30.
Judge Johnson agreed that the opera
tion of the school was uneconomic,
with only 12 Negro students attending
taught by 13 faculty members. How
ever, Johnson ordered the 12 admitted
to other Macon high schools, at Shorter
and Notasulga, where many of the 250
white students had enrolled after boy
cotting Tuskegee High.
Boycotts by whites continued at both
Shorter and Notasulga highs, with only
six Negroes attending each. Enrollment
swelled at the newly-formed Macon
Academy.
Legal Action
Supreme Court
Asks for Record
In NAACP Case
The U. S. Supreme Court indicated
March 24 it intended to cut through
legal red tape which has banned the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People from operating
in Alabama since June 1, 1956.
The court directed Assistant Attorney
General Gordon Madison to supply
within 20 days an entire record of the
state’s eight-year battle to keep NAACP
out of the state.
“The court,” said Chief Justice Ear]
Warren, “is disposed to consider the
merits” of the case rather than ques
tions such as whether the organization
should have numbered the paragraphs
in briefs filed before the Alabama Su
preme Court.
The 1956 injunction against NAACP,
issued by the late Montgomery Circuit
Judge Walter B. Jones, was made
permanent in 1961 on directions from
the U. S. Supreme Court. The NAACP
filed appeal with the Alabama higlT
court, which cited alleged procedural
errors in the presentation as its reason
for not ruling.
NAACP attorney Robert L. Carter
argued that because of “dilatory tactics
on the part of Alabama and the refusal
of the Alabama Supreme Court to fol
low previous Supreme Court orders,”
the U. S. Supreme Court ought to take
jurisdiction and decide the case in
favor of the NAACP.
Appeal Criticized
Madison, speaking for the state, said
the form of NAACP’s appeal to the
Alabama court did not follow routine
rules and prac
tices.
NAACP was
first enjoined at
the request of then
attorney general,
John Patterson,
later governor, for
failing to register
as an out-of-state
corporation and
for creating race
strife. Judge Jones
also fined the or
ganization $100,000 for contempt in re
fusing to submit certain records, in
cluding membership lists.
The contempt fine was thrown out by
the U. S. Supreme Court in 1958.
Carter argued that unless the na
tion’s high court assumes jurisdiction
on the permanent injunction the Ala
bama court “will never reach the merits
of this case, because it knows the in
junction cannot be sustained by the
merits.”
After the 1958 reversal of the con
tempt conviction, the Alabama court
reaffirmed the fine.
The Supreme Court again reversed
the Alabama court and subsequently
National Resources
Alexander, United Features
directed the case to be heard on its
merits by Jan. 2, 1962, or jurisdiction
would be forfeited. In December, 1961,
a hearing was held and a permanent
injunction entered. The appeal from
that ruling remains the issue before
the U. S. Supreme Court.
Political Action
Governor Wallace
Enters Primaries
In Three States
Gov. George C. Wallace entered
presidential primaries in Wisconsin,
Maryland and Indiana during March,
campaigning against what he called
the encroachments of the Federal Gov
ernment on private affairs.
A primary target was the civil-rights
bill, but Wallace also hoped to get a
vote which would embarrass the ad
ministration of President Lyndon B.
Johnson.
Back in his home state, Gov. Wallace
was leading a slate of independent
presidential electors, not committed to
the nominees of the National Demo
cratic Convention. If nominated in May .
they could vote for anyone they chose
after the November elections.
★ ★ ★
Members of the National Guard As
sociation were urged March 7 to write
their congressmen and senators in an
effort to defeat the civil-rights bill.
Col. Edwin V. Taylor, president, said
the association wholly “endorses and
supports the opinions and goals of our
great governor.”
In urging members of the association
to participate actively in protesting the
bill, Taylor said: “Your governor and
commander-in-chief is working his
heart out to alert our nation to the
horrors of this bill.”
PATTERSON
WALLACE
JOHNSON
What They Say
King Announces
Anti-Segregation
Plan in Alabama
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announc
ed in Montgomery on March 4 a five-
point assault on segregation in Alabama,
“the chief target of our program for
1964.”
The program includes voter drives,
selective buying and support of the
civil-rights bill. “The hour has come
for Montgomery to face the truth, this
is Montgomery’s hour of truth,” King
said. School desegregation was not
listed as part of the program.
★ ★ ★
Full Desegregation
Called ‘Pipedream’
A Birmingham businessmen, one of
the first men to call for a moderate
approach to racial problems in the
state’s largest city, said March 25 that
complete desegregation and perfect
equality are “a liberal pipedream.”
Even so, said Johnson A. Williamson
in a speech before the Southern Asso
ciation of Chamber of Commerce Ex
ecutives, “We must consider giving our
local Negro leaders more recognition
and some civic responsibility.”
He warned against “alienating our
selves from the rest of our country by
our extremism in civil rights,” declar
ing:
“We in the South can get little sym
pathy in most sections of the country
for failure to desegregate our schools,
however gradually. It is my opinion
that most people in these United States
believe that children should go to their
neighborhood school, regardless of race,
creed or color. However, gradually we
might have to change in the South,
change we must on this issue.”
Williamson said these two “great
fallacies” must be faced by Southem-
• That all Negroes are ignorant,
immoral and incompetent. “It takes only
one intelligent, moral and capable Ne
gro to disprove this blanket indict
ment,” he said.
• That because the Negro is ignorant,
immoral or incompetent, he should be
subjected to legal restrictions and dis
criminations not imposed on ignorant,
immoral or incompetent white men.
“This fallacy is disproved by the law
itself, which does not recognize ign° r '
ance, immorality or incompetency, bu
discriminates solely by the color of a
man’s skin,” he added.
The Negro today, Williamson con
tinued, is “fanatically concerned abou
rights and wonderfully forgetful abou
responsibilities.”
This, he said, is “where we have
right to question, to ask, even to a
tack. But how can we question or a
or attack? How can we talk about re
sponsibilities when we refuse to admi >
in fact and in law, that the Negro ir
responsible. How can we demand r
sponsibility when we deny hope.
The voices of moderation must spe
for the South, he said.
Community Action
Macon’s Second
Under Survey
Private School
Tuskegee Notes National Race Issue
Tuskegee Institute’s 56th annual race
relations report, released March 10, said
1963 was a year in which the race issue
became national.
The year was marked by a “continued
vigorous involvement of youth and the
growing awareness of the serious na
tional consequences of prolonged in
justice in the North as well as the
South,” the report said. “The demon
strations in the South were echoed in
the North in at least 57 cities by citi
zens, both white and Negro, protesting
de facto school segregation, segregated
housing, discrimination in employment
and many other phases of the depriva
tion of Negroes.”
Race relations in the South “were
characterized by both crisis and a sense
of urgency to make improvements,” the
report continued. “There were hearten
ing evidences of significant accomplish
ments where citizens had the opportu
nity to work together in confidence” but
uneasiness prevailed “in other situa
tions where the tight reins of govern
ment restrictions were evident.”
Opposition to desegregation declined
in effectiveness dining the year, the
report said. But there were bombings
in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina
and Virginia, and violence between
whites and Negroes “mainly as a result
of the segregation-desegregation con
troversy.”
Speaking at the Founder’s Day exer
cises at Tuskegee, Dr. Harlan Hatcher,
president of the University of Michigan,
said education is the ultimate answer
to Negroes’ problems in the country.
“It is easy to understand,” he said, “the
outlet in bus rides, sit-ins, freedom
marches, where more effective means
of attaining goals are frustratingly de
nied,” he said. But he added that when
“the march is over” there is “still the
heavy drag left by ignorance, by in
adequate training . . . and a lack of a
nurtured environment.”
Referring to the “self-defeating
cycle,” Dr. Hatcher said: “We must
find a way of identifying and encour
aging promising youth no later than
high school age—and help them on
ward to full preparation for the excit
ing new era that is opening up before
our people of all races.”
★ ★ ★
Former President Dwight D. Eisen
hower, new chairman of Tuskegee In
stitute’s national advisory council, was
quoted by General Lucius D. Clay as
praising the institute’s “experience in
providing motivation, skills and leader
ship to America’s disadvantaged.” Fail
ure to educate all citizens is “a major
threat to our social and economic
ability,” Eisenhower’s statement, read
in New York, said.
Begins Operations
A second private school f° r , V ’ ( j^ r -
students in Macon County opeh
ing the month. first si*
Thirty boys and girls in the 0 f
grades were present for the ope a j_
the school at Shorter. TW. °, ^hoot
tended the combined public rug 0 ut
and grammar schools but waJ* ygli-
(SSN, March) along with white ^
school students after six Neg 1 ^ . ge<?
transferred from the closed
High School (See Legal Action)
court orders. , pre ie-
Only the high-school classes " u„ol
segregated, but the grammar '
students joined the boycott, a j], e
to Mrs. Billy Mack Segrest, bec£i g{
building has no separate l 1111 , gad
toilet facilities for high sc
grammar students.
bran
i ch
The new private school is a " 0 pl?
f the Macon Academy, attend
iy high-school students who ^
ut of Tuskegee High and, e ,
ear, high schools in Shorter
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