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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 ■ t a » \ ivT A Page J-»V