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EOLITH CAROLINA SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL, 1964—PAGE 5 Desegregation Suit Filed Against Orangeburg County COLUMBIA O rangeburg County, in the heart of South Carolina’s agricultural Low-Country, be- ca me the sixth of the state’s 46 counties to become the target of a school desegregation suit dur ing March. In upstate Greenville, a school board was ordered to act on Negro applica tions by April 6. The Greenville order was issued by US. District Judge J. Robert Martin, a Greenville resident who ordered the state’s first public-school desegregation in Charleston last August. “I want to get this thing over as soon as we can,” Judge Martin told lawyers and interested parties attending a hear ing on a motion to add plaintiffs to a school desegregation suit brought last August by the father of seventh-grader flaine Whittenberg, who now attends all-Negro Gower Elementary School. The girl was the only plaintiff in the original suit (Whittenberg v. School District of Greenville County, et al) but it was brought as a class action. More Plaintiffs Purpose of the hearing was to rule on a motion by Negro attorneys to add other Negro plaintiffs who had pre viously applied for transer to all-white schools. Greenville school attorney E. P. (Ted) Riley asked the court to dis miss the motion as well as the original suit but was unsuccessful. Instead, four new Negro plaintiffs were added—Sara Thompson, Lewis Ronald Byrd, Mary M. Baker and Don ald James Sampson Jr. The latter, son of one of the Negro attorneys in the case, was the first of his race to apply for transfer to one of Greenville’s all- white schools. The new plaintiffs had all applied for transfer previously and entered new applications on February 24 and March 5. Riley told the court the new appli cations still were pending before the hoard. He argued that the applications constituted new action on the part of the plaintiffs. But Judge Martin said, “I am going to give that board an opportunity to act. Anybody ought to be able to make up his mind in 30 days.” Then he set the April 6 deadline for decision. He directed Riley to notify the Delaware (Continued From Page 4) at Jf as t 4,420 in September. 6 current enrollment is '"®> of which 1,415 are in graduate sohools and 3,036 are taking extension courses. The current overall budget is $15,- .000, with about one-third supplied the state, which provides 100 per cant °t the operational cost at the Ne- ?r ° state college. yhile mindful of expansion, Dr. Per- arirf the JFC that the University abl ^ aware State College should be ne h * *° ^ an< He the higher education hitur s t a te in the foreseeable it sa^ 6 - un i vers ity is desegregated, j ** < t° es not keep records on the bow. r Negroes enrolled. Estimates, j ever, put the number at about two ueator Backs holier Training ^^hoolg R aVe a responsibility to pro- *^° v >dhi >Ul1 ^- * nter S rou P relations by kaeher- 11 ® in-service training for Md , ’ ac cording to a Baltimore, ^ educator. rv C. Bard, president of Bal- Tw e Junior H. Xol A , . . Th e “.jU^nistrators in Smyrna. ^tur e aree C’s,” he said, are child ^'Utitv <.* Ur , r * cu ^ um revision, and com- S tudy. *^ced (b ® a Himore as an example, he Hty. 6 Path of desegregation in that JHoolg u /Jip r 0 i e saic i> should take a lead- '"“iects 6 an ^ Heal with controversial “A . 1 W e sa iH> “can teach that and worth, and teach College, proposed a or e tv, “ P ro gram in an address 6 Delaware Association of X [ c Wate° f USe em P at hy and develop X" 0 democracy as a dynamic school board of his order and asked further that its members outline a broad policy on what it intends to do with similar transfer applications and initial assignments. Judge Martin said that, if the school board did not act by the deadline, “I’ll assume they want the court to act. The court has no desire to move in on any school dis trict as long as it is complying and acting in good faith.” He added that he agreed that the board had not had time to act on last year’s appli cations before the beginning of the martin September, 1963, term. Riley, who just retired as State Chairman of the Democratic Party, in sisted the board was not trying to dodge issues. He said it is possible that the trustees might rule favorably on the new applications and said he had “no objections to having the case tried on its merits.” Indications were that such a trial will rather quickly follow the April 6 dead line. Orangeburg Case In Orangeburg, 23 Negro children joined as plaintiffs in a suit filed March 20 against Orangeburg County School District No. 5, which includes the city schools of the county seat of Orange burg (1960 pop. 13,852). Defendants in the action are the dis trict, Supt. H. A. Marshall, Board Chairman Larry W. Wells, and trustees Dr. Harry Atwell, R. S. Williams Jr., Tally Smith and Edgar Culler. The suit was filed as a class action in U.S. District Court in Columbia by three NAACP attorneys who have been connected with most racial litigation in this state, Jack Greenberg of New York and Matthew Perry and Lincoln Jenkins of Columbia—plus two Orange burg lawyers, Zack E. Townsend and Early W. Boblyn. The complaint alleges that the dis trict operates an unconstitutional seg regated school system, that the plain tiffs have requested the practice be stopped, and that their request has been denied. The suit was not unexpected. A number of the plaintiffs have previous ly asked to be transferred to all-white schools. Went Before Committee Orangeburg school officials went be fore the State School (Segregation) Committee last month, apparently to discuss the transfer requests and the expected court suit. Chairman of the committee is Sen. L. Marion Gressette of adjacent Calhoun County. No announcement was made as to what transpired at the meeting, but an informed source said a plan for vol untarily desegregating the city’s schools was discussed and rejected. Orangeburg, home of two Negro col leges, has been the scene of more antisegregation demonstrations than any other South Carolina city. One of the plaintiffs in the case is Lurma Rackley, daughter of Mrs. Glo ria Rackley, an Orangeburg Negro school teacher who was dismissed last fall following her participation in a downtown demonstration. A short-lived boycott of schools by Negro pupils followed. Mrs. Rackley is also a state official of the NAACP. Other Plaintiffs Other plaintiffs are Rudolph W., Brenda and Theodore R. Adams, Alice Smith, Winthrop E. Cottingham, Ar thur Rose Jr., John E. Brunson n, Patricia Rhone, Heidi Williams, Leona Ferguson, Brenda Joyce Smiley, June Sheralyn Manning, Rosetta Lata Good en, Ann Thomas, Tyrone Romeo Rob inson, Barbara Fields, Jacquelyn, Eve lyn and Tyrone Dash and Thomasina Moss. The suit, titled Adams et al v. School District No. 5 of Orangeburg et al, asks for the normal type of specific injunc tions against the operation of a segre gated system, including the assignment of teachers and administrative person nel and planning of budgets, policies and new construction designed to maintain separate schools. As an alternative, the prayer of the complaint asks for a decree requiring the school district to present a com plete plan, within a specified period of time, for the reorganization of the en tire school system into a “unitary, non- racial system.” South Carolina Highlights The state’s sixth public-school de segregation suit was filed in Orange burg County and a federal judge ordered a Greenville school board, already under court attack, to act on Negro transfer applications by April 6. A number of local contests in the June Democratic primary are ex pected to have racial overtones with a number of Negro candidates filed. A bill to allow local school boards to charge tuition to federally con nected pupils in the event impacted area funds are cut off passed the House of Representatives. Political Action Negroes Seeking Loeal Offices In Party Primary Several local races in South Caro lina’s June Democratic primary are expected to have strong racial over tones. A number of Negroes, including sev eral who have been prominent in de segregation activities, filed for office on or before the March 16 deadline. The greatest activity of this type will likely come in Richland County, which includes the capital city of Columbia. Ten Negroes filed for the county’s 10 seats in the House of Representatives. Nineteen whites, including seven in cumbents, will seek the same seats. Also in Richland County, four Ne groes qualified to run for school-board positions. NAACP Lawyer In Greenville County, Negro lawyer Donald James Sampson became a can didate for the House. It was Sampson, along with other lawyers associated with the NAACP, who brought the de segregation case (Whittenberg v. School District of Greenville County et al) that is currently pending in U.S. Dis trict Court in Greenville. In addition he has requested the Greenville trus tees and administration to allow his son to transfer to an all-white school. Negro businessman James Shulton is running for the House in Orangeburg which is 62 per cent Negro. Candidates for the Richland School District 1 board include two Negro women, Mrs. Harriet G. Liverman and Mrs. R. Rebecca Monteith. The latter, a Columbia school teacher, is the mother of Henri Monteith, the Negro teenager whose suit broke the color line of the University of South Carolina last year. In School District 5, which includes part of suburban Columbia, two Ne groes, Joseph Stroy and Lewis N. Scott, are among seven candidates. Schoolmen BOULWARE Nine of the 10 Negro House candi dates in Richland surprised by filing shortly before the deadline. They were the Rev. William McKinley Bowman, a Columbia radio personality and a perennial candidate for public office; mortician A. P. Williams, the Rev. J. W. Mungin, lawyer Hemphill P. Pride II, mortician A. Manigault Hurley, Mrs. Mattie L. James, printer Wilson Miles, Negro Director of Citizen Education Benjamin J. Mack, and Dr. Henry D. Monteith, an uncle of Henri. Bouhvare Runs Attorney Harold R. Boulware, who handled cases that opened the then all-white Democratic primary to Ne groes and ob tained equal pay for Negro teachers in the 1940s, filed earlier. Boulware was one of the original lawyers in the Briggs v. Elliott case, one of the group on which the Su preme Court school desegrega tion decision of 1954 was based. Dr. Monteith, who has said he sees no need for civil-rights legislation be cause adequate laws are in effect if enforced, the Rev. Mr. Mangin and Mrs. R. R. Monteith, the school-board candidate, were among the six Ne groes who entered previously all-white adult evening classes at Dreher High School in Columbia in January. White candidates for the House in Richland include restuarant owner Maurice Bessinger, a leader in groups opposing desegregation. Legislative Action Bill Would Permit Tuition Fees If Aid Withdrawn by U. S. A bill to give local school boards a weapon against federal threats to cut off impacted-area funds because of segregation was approved by the South Carolina House of Representatives March 11. It awaited Senate action. The measure would allow trustees in such districts to charge federally connected pupils a tuition fee equal to the per-pupil cost of education. More than 30 school districts in the state receive impacted-area funds. Most are located near military bases. After the first federal threat was issued last year, two military bases— Fort Jackson near Columbia and Myrtle Beach Air Force Base—opened biracial schools on-base. But many children of parents attached to these bases still attend public schools adja cent to the bases. The bill won key second reading in the House March 11. The Senate must have considered it before expected ad journment of statewide matters on March 9 or it would die. A bill that would have banned youths under 17 from participating in racial demonstrations was killed by a 46-26 vote in the House of Representatives March 5. The measure was introduced by Rep. Jerry M. Hughes Jr. of Orangeburg County, who said it was in the best interests of the youths’ welfare and education. He said young demonstrators were being “exploited.” Charleston Rep. A. T. Smythe, fight ing the measure, said it would limit the constitutional rights of persons under 17. Miscellaneous Training Provided For Uneducated On Biracial Basis Louis Hatchell, 45-year-old man of odd jobs, and J. S. Weatherly, a some time construction worker, ride daily to school from their home in Sumter to Camden, 29 miles away, with Rob ert McKenzie and Thomas Goodman. McKenzie owns the car. He and Goodman are Negroes. Hatchell and Weatherly are white. Their mutual destination is a new type of educational institution for South Carolina. Located in a former Camden garage, the school serves 78 South Carolinians from three counties as a base for a new type of educational opportunity. The Camden unit is the first of a projected group of 30 such schools un der the federally subsidized Special ized Training for Economic Progress (STEP). Federally Financed The undertaking costs South Caro lina nothing. Gov. Donald S. Russell, on a trip to Washington, learned that $5.6 million was available to this state under the Manpower Training and De velopment Act. Since the authorization expired Jan. 1, 1964, he moved rapidly to establish the program and announced it shortly before the deadline. He admitted at the outset that the program would be, under law, com pletely biracial. It provides the most basic training in reading, writing and arithmetic for the completely illiterate, and vocational programs ranging through 33 courses from auto mechan ics to landscape gardening for the un dereducated. For instance, Mrs. Louise Jamison, Negro mother of 11, is studying gar ment-making in the hope, she says, of obtaining a job that will enable her to supplement her husband’s earnings as a sawmill worker and keep the seven of her children currently in school there. The S.C. Employment Security Com mission will attempt to place people trained under STEP after they have finished their courses. Improvement of Negro Schools Asked A committee of Negro teachers pre sented a five-point program for im provement in Columbia’s Negro schools Feb. 11 and called for “immediate at tention to it.” Appearing before the Board of Trus tees of Richland County School District 1 (Columbia) were six Negro educa tors, including Mrs. Rebecca R. Mon teith, mother of Henri Montieth, the teenage girl who went to court last year in a successful effort to break the color line at the University of South Carolina. The committee asked: • That Negro kindergartens be es tablished. • That class loads be reduced to an average of 26. • That special classes be set up for mentally retarded and physically hand icapped children. • That technical training be pro vided at the junior high level. • That vocational education teacher loads be reduced. The group said its recommendations were submitted in order to help over come conditions “which obstruct ef fective teaching in the Negro schools.” The trustees expressed general agree ment with most of the plan. But John H. Whiteman, supervisor of Negro schools, said some of the findings of the survey made by the group were incorrect. The committee, appointed by the executive committee of the Columbia (Negro) Teachers Association, admitted that it may not have looked deeply enough into some of the problem areas. During the discussion which fol lowed the presentation, Dr. Guy L. Varn, district superintendent, pointed out that the school system’s most com prehensive and expensive trade-school program was operated at all-Negro Booker T. Washington High School. Whiteman told the group that not enough students wanted business and technical courses to justify buying equipment for them. Mrs Monteith, chairman of the com mittee, said she felt that “in the past they didn’t take these courses because there were no jobs for Negroes in this area. Now there are jobs and the stu dents are not qualified.” (Negro employment opportunities have improved in the Columbia area over the past several years. For ex ample, several textile mills now are hiring Negroes for their production lines. One mill executive said recently his plant was actively recruiting Ne groes but had found few who were qualified.) Whiteman also reminded the group that adult classes for Negroes are not filled. (Mrs. Monteith’s son and two other relatives were among several Ne groes who registered for adult educa tion classes at Columbia’s all-white Dreher High School last month. They said that the Negro adult-education program at Booker T. Washington did not have the courses they wanted. They were admitted without incident. Oth erwise, Columbia’s schools remain segregated.) Board Chairman Caldwell Withers, who had earlier expressed some dis pleasure because the Negroes had given the press a copy of their recommen dations before the meeting, told the committee it was welcome to come back at any time. He said the report would be investi gated further.