Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

T EN years in review SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1964—PAGE ll-B ALABAMA White Schools in Four Districts Admit Negroes by Court Order MONTGOMERY esegregation in Alabama public schools did not begin un til the start of the 1963-64 school year, when 24 Negroes en tered previously all-white schools in Huntsville, Birmingham, Tus kegee and Mobile by federal court orders. Gov. George C. Wallace, who was elected in 1962 on a pledge to “stand in the schoolhouse door,” briefly at tempted to block the admission of the Negro students but backed away in face of federal court orders directing him not to intervene. All white students, some 250, with drew from Tuskegee High in Septem ber with the admission of 13 Negroes. (One Negro subsequently was expelled for disciplinary reasons). The State Board of Education ordered the school closed early in 1964 because its opera tion was uneconomic, with only 12 stu dents and 13 faculty members. U.S. District Judge Frank M. John son Jr., who had ordered the Negroes admitted, agreed that the operation of the school was uneconomic, but ordered that the 12 remaining stu dents be admitted to white high schools at Shorter and Notasulga. White students boycotted both of these schools as well and the Ne gro students re mained the only ones attending them. In April, a fire blamed on arsonists destroyed the high school at Notasulga. The school board transferred the Ne gro students to the all-Negro high school. No Biracial Schools Many of the boycotting white students enrolled at Macon Academy, a private school formed last fall to accomodate the students who withdrew from Tus kegee High. Huntsville, Mobile and Birmingham We Negroes attending schools with whites. MALONE HOOD 1955 Pupil Placement Law without dis crimination. That law was upheld as valid on its face in 1958 by a three-judge federal district court sitting in Birmingham and, on appeal, by the U.S. Supreme Court the same year. The decision warned, however, that the law could later prove unconstitutional in appli cation. This is the issue pending before a new three-judge court, which in Feb ruary, heard arguments in the Tuske gee case (Lee v. Macon.) The plaintiffs have asked for a statewide desegrega tion order predicated on the contention that the State Board of Education and Gov. Wallace demonstrated central con trol of local schools in intervening in Macon. The board later rescinded all its or ders relating to Macon schools, and asked the court to find that its inter ference did not constitute assumption of central control, since it had recanted. The board’s argument is that it had no authority to intervene, recognized this and reversed its orders. Excluding the Macon Negro chil dren in the boycotted schools, there are now 21 Ne groes attending classes with whites in Birm ingham, Mobile and Huntsville. Further desegre gation is all but certain in the three areas next fall. On the college level, the first desegregation oc curred in 1956 with the admission of Miss Autherine Lucy to the main campus at the University of Ala bama in Tuscaloosa. After attending classes for a few days in February that year, she was driven from the campus by rioting and was later ex pelled by the board of trustees for publicly accusing university officials of conspiring with the mob. The expulsion was upheld by the U.S. district judge, H. H. Grooms of Birmingham, whose 1955 order (Lucy v. Adams) had opened the doors to her. Grooms ruled the board’s action a valid use of discipHnary authority. However, Grooms’ injunction re mained in effect, applying to all quali fied Negroes. Under his injunction, two Negroes, Vivian J. Malone and James Hood, were ordered admitted to the main campus last June. Gov. Wallace attempted to intervene, appearing per sonally to forbid their admission. But he retired from the “schoolhouse door” when the late President Ken nedy federalized the Alabama Guard to enforce the federal court’s orders. Subsequently, the university accepted another Negro at its extension facility at Huntsville and, at mid-term, two more to its center in Birmingham. Florence State College enrolled its first Negro student in September under court orders, as did Auburn University Jan. 4. Hood, accused of maligning University of Alabama officials, with drew late last summer. The segregation issue has played a dominant, perhaps decisive, role in Ala bama politics since 1954. John Patter son was elected governor in 1958 largely on his record as attorney gen- GROOMS LUCY JOHNSON PATTERSON Gov. Wallace at ‘Schoolhouse Door’ Brig. Gen. Henry C. Graham had his orders. eral in obtaining an order banning the NAACP from the state. (That 1956 order is once again before the U.S. Supreme Court—Alabama v. NAACP.) In 1962, George Wallace was elected governor after a campaign in which he concentrated his attack on the fed eral courts and promised unyielding opposition to desegregation suits. When he was inaugurated in January, 1963, he pledged “segregation now, segrega tion tomorrow, segregation forever.” He won a substantial vote in the Wis consin presidential primary April 7 and has entered primaries in Indiana and Maryland. His campaign has been di rected principally at the civil rights bill pending in the U.S. Congress. The Pupil Placement Law passed in 1955 was the most significant legislation resulting from the 1954 Brown decision, but the legislature has also passed a group of other laws designed to pre vent or contain court-ordered desegre gation. In addition to the possibility of in creased desegregation in Macon County (Tuskegee), Madison County (Hunts ville), Birmingham and Mobile, other school districts could desegregate. Gadsden has been ordered to get school desegregation started, although no defi nite date has been set. Should the three-judge federal court, which heard the Macon suit in Feb ruary, decide that the State Board of Education could be enjoined to end segregation on a statewide basis—be cause of its actions assuming local con trol—it is conceivable that all of the state’s 114 school districts would receive desegregation orders before schools open in September. Four Negroes began attending deseg regated classes in Huntsville in Sep tember, 1963, followed by 10 more Jan. 21. Two were admitted in September to Murphy High in Mobile and five to three schools in Birmingham. Boards in all four areas, including Macon, are under orders to proceed with general desegregation plans, applying Alabama’s Maryland (Continued from Page 10-B) [dared policy included a statement that Procedures respecting transfer, bus transportation and assignment shall ap- ^ Lyitheut regard to race.” White demonstrations or other overt act s of opposition occurred during the early years in parts of Carroll, Mont gomery, Anne Arundel, Prince ^rge’s, Talbot and Baltimore coun- t®* ^d in Baltimore city. In several r^wces one or several Negro chil- were withdrawn by their parents ‘ oa > white schools because of the hos- I but in no recorded instance did . s °bool officials back down from U'wusly adopted plans, er f 6gr ° c °urt actions, appeals and oth- 0rrns °f pressure were a desegre- t 0r( j 0n factor in Cecil, St. Mary’s, Har- an d Prince George’s counties, to tin exten t of stimulating action or get- fjQj , a uoore liberal program. A bi- spy, 8r°up in Baltimore last year ing e ° changes in transfer, district- lievg 911 ^ transportation policies to re- s°,n e O ’’ er crowded Negro schools and g a y 0 °f the effects of de facto segre- ' ®ut the only place where street de Se „ nstra tions played a role in school city af egati °n was in the Eastern Shore adjjjtj ^ am bridge. Desegregation of an dentni na three grades was an inci- but u P ar t last year of the turmoil, Ual car ne a major part of the event- gPcacehd settlement. kt targe the desegregation pace has kJMand during the first decade =cti 0ri the pace set not by court °f thn e S* s lative action or the actions ra e f° r or against separation of ’M Sa v S| but by local school boards •tate Q ?.°t officials in response to a With d~?7. cy °f “voluntary compliance ue hberate speed.” LOUISIANA Legislature Built Largest Legal Barrier NEW ORLEANS ouisiana’s legislature was in session on May 17, 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation in public edu cation unconstitutional. It was a prophetic circumstance for this state. For before it adjourned the legis lature had enacted the first three measures intended to raise a legal bar rier against court-ordered desegrega tion. By the end of the decade, that barrier included 131 legislative enact ments, more than twice the number adopted in any other state. The federal judicial and state legis lative issue was joined when, within two years, a U.S. District Court in Louisiana invalidated the first of the numerous measures Southern states were to adopt in their efforts to pre vent, deter or control school desegre gation. Louisiana’s public elementary and secondary schools maintained their traditional segregated status for the first six years of the decade, although a state university had desegregated by court order as early as 1950. Legal Rope In 1960, the Orleans Parish public schools played out the end of the legal rope stretching back to 1952 and be gan a grade-a-year desegregation pro gram. In Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, U.S. District Judge J. Skelly Wright on May 16, 1960, ordered the board to begin desegregation on Sept. 6. Acting under legislative authority, Gov. Jimmie S. Davis on Aug. 17 seized control of the city’s schools to block the pending desegregation. A three- judge federal court on Aug. 27 de clared the act unconstitutional and returned the schools to the school board’s administration. On Aug. 30 Judge Wright stayed the implementa tion of his previous order until Nov. 14. OAVIS WRIGHT On Nov. 14 four Negro girls escorted by federal marshals enrolled at two public schools in middle-class neigh borhoods. Crowds gathered around the two schools—McDonogh 19, which re ceived three of the Negro pupils, and Frantz, which received one. The gath erings were orderly but whites shouted and booed persons entering the schools and cheered those who took their children out. By Nov. 18 an almost complete boycott had set in against the two schools. Three white pupils of the 1,040 enrolled showed up. First Violence New Orleans’ first violence occurred on Nov. 15. Following a Citizens’ Council rally the previous evening, an estimated 800 whites converged on the school board offices. Mounted police and firehoses dispersed the throng. Gangs of white youths hurled rocks, bottles and insults at Negroes during the day. At night gangs of Negro youths assaulted several whites. A specially trained police unit, con stantly on alert for six days, moved swiftly to trouble spots around the city and prevented rioting. There were many arrests but no serious injuries. Judge Wright previously had en joined all state and local officials— including the legislators and the gov ernor—from interfering with the sched uled desegregation. As the legislature moved to take over administration of the Orleans Parish schools, Judge Wright as promptly struck down the acts. The boycott at Frantz and Mc Donogh 19 continued almost total for the remainder of the school year. The following fall, desegregation spread without incident to four other schools and included 12 Negro pupils at the first and second grade levels. End Attendance Zones U.S. District Judge Frank B. Ellis ordered the school board to eliminate white and Negro attendance zones for the first five grades by the fall of 1964. In the fall of 1963, 333 Negroes enrolled in grades 1-4 of 26 predominantly white elementary schools of Or leans Parish along with 10,901 white students. Fourteen Negroes were among the ELIIS 453 pupils enrolled at a special high school for superior students. One white child attended a Negro school with an enrollment of 1,439. White enrollments in most of the desegregating schools were down somewhat in comparison with their pre-desegregation total. But early in the fall of 1962 and again in 1963, school authorities said that enroll ments in those schools had stabilized to an extent that day-to-day counts were not collected after the first few weeks of the school year. Louisiana’s only other desegregated school district is East Baton Rouge Parish. Under court order, a “reverse stair step” plan was inaugurated in Sep tember, 1963. Twenty-eight Negro 12th graders were enrolled in four high schools in the capital city of Baton Rouge, along with 5,280 white pupils. There were no incidents. Another school district under court order to desegregate “with all delib erate speed” is rural St. Helena Par ish, on the Mississippi border. Higher Education In the realm of higher education, de segregation in Louisiana predates the 1954 segregation decisions. Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, un der court order, in 1950 opened its graduate and professional schools to Negroes but still maintains segrega tion at the undergraduate level on the main campus. LSU’s undergraduate branch at New Orleans has been de segregated since its inception in 1958. Three other state institutions of higher learning desegregated under court orders issued after the Brown decision, and another accepted its first Negro students after a brief court ac tion in 1963. Thus six of the state’s 10 formerly all-white campuses are de segregated. Three Negro institutions remain segregated. Private schools play a large role in education in Louisiana. About 15 per cent of all elementary and secondary pupils in the state are enrolled in non public schools. In New Orleans, the percentage rises to 35 per cent. Among white pupils, 20 per cent are in non public schools statewide, while the proportion in New Orleans is 55 per cent. Parochial Schools The non-sectarian private schools throughout the state maintain the tra ditional segregation. Among the paro chial schools in heavily Catholic Louisiana, those of the archdiocese of New Orleans are desegregated. The archdiocese embraces all or part of 10 civil parishes (counties) in the south eastern part of the state. Desegregation in the diocesean schools, reaching to all grades, was inaugurated in the fall of 1962. It af fects principally Orleans and adjacent parishes, but diocesean school authori- (See LOUISIANA, Page 12-B)