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PAGE 12-B— MAY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS TEN YEARS IN REVIEW VIOLENCE CHRONOLOGY Public Protests and Violence Accompany Desegregation Moves By HOYT PURVIS tjblic protests and violence connected with school deseg regation occurred in every school year but one during the first 10 years after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on segregation. The only exception was the 1961-62 year. Every Southern and border state, and the District of Columbia, experi enced incidents in which whites pro tested school desegregation or Negroes urged more or faster desegregation of schools. Violence connected with school de segregation included shootings, bomb ings, burnings, boycotts, rioting, marches and threats of harm. Two men killed during rioting at the Uni versity of Mississippi in September, 1962, were the only deaths that occur red on any school or college campus during segregation violence. In 1963 an NAACP official suing for school desegregation was assassinated. Seven Negroes were killed in Birmingham, Ala., in racial violence in September, 1963, the same month of the city’s first school desegregation. The major incidents of violence and protests associated with school deseg regation in the Southern and border area during the first decade, listed by school years, follow: 1954-55 Sulphur Springs, Tex.—On July 18, 1954, two shotgun blasts and seven pistol slugs were fired into the empty home of the local NAACP chairman. The NAACP had petitioned the school board the week before to admit Ne groes. Greenbrier County, W. Va.—A week after Negroes entered White Sulphur Springs and Rupert high schools, some white students began a boycott. A group of white parents gathered out side the meeting room of the county board of education, which decided to reverse its desegregation policy. A federal court order returned the Ne groes to the schools more than a year later. Boone County, W. Va.—Students protested and adults picketed against desegregation but Negroes remained in school with whites. Milford, Del.—Anonymous telephone Louisiana (Continued from Page 11-B) ties, maintaining that statistics are no longer kept by race, decline to say how many pupils or schools are involved. Private institutions also play a ma jor role in higher education in Louisi ana. Catholic institutions have been de segregated, for several years. Loyola University in New Orleans began ac cepting students without regard to race in 1949. Tulane University, also in New Orleans, admitted its first Ne gro students in the spring of 1963. A federal court had ruled that as a priv ate institution it could not be forced to 1 desegregate but neither were the racial covenants in its endowments en forceable in law. In its pivotal role in public edu cation, the Louisiana legislature sought to erect a wall of statutes and reso lutions between the schools and the federal courts. In six regular and five special sessions since 1954, the legis lature adopted 131 measures designed to preserve segregation in the schools. As the 1954-64 decade waned, Loui siana looked more toward the “free dom of choice” concept spelled out in several enactments beginning in 1958. Private school cooperatives are encouraged and pupils who attend private non-sectarian schools are awarded tuition grants of up to $360 per year. The program administered by the Louisiana Financial Assistance Commission is financed by $300,000 per month from the state sales tax. By the most recent accounting, 10,- 136 students attending 58 private schools in four parishes will receive $3.5 million during the current school year. The grant-in-aid program has come under sharp criticism from pub lic school officials in New Orleans because the tuition grants exceed the state allocations per pupil to the city schools. Educators in other areas of the state have cited the lack of stand ards for facilities and programs in some of the private schools that have sprung up under the program. threats and protest meetings led to the closure of schools and the resignation of the school board, which had kept its desegregation plans secret until the day before they began. Bryant Bowles held rallies of his National Association for the Advancement of White People. A new school board ousted 10 Negro children and restored segregation. A series of court orders over a period of several months returned the Negro children to the Milford school Baltimore, Md.—A few students pick eted and paraded, but firm action by school and city officials ended the protests within a few days. Anonymous threats of violence had encouraged the students to withdraw from desegregated schools. Washington, D.C.—White students marched and picketed for several days, protesting desegregation at formerly white senior and junior high schools. School officials restored order by the fourth day and enrollment returned to normal. 1955- 56 Hoxie, Ark.—Anonymous threats, a public protest meeting and a student boycott in July and August resulted in school closing two weeks early for the fall harvest. Schools reopened on Oct. 24 with the same Negroes in classes with whites. Chattanooga, Tenn.—The school board declared July 22, 1955, that it would comply with the Supreme Court decision as soon as it could adopt a “specific plan.” On Nov. 15, 1955, a vial of tear gas broke up the first meeting of a 40-member interracial advisory committee appointed by the board. On March 31, 1956, the Board of Education said it was convinced “the community will not accept any form of integration . . . within the near future.” Chattanooga did not admit Negroes to previously white schools until Sept. 5, 1962, by court order. University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa— When a Negro woman, Miss Autherine Lucy, entered the university in Feb ruary, 1956, students and outsiders threw rocks, yelled epithets, attacked cars and threatened personal violence to Miss Lucy. The Board of Trustees excluded her after her third day “for her protection” and later expelled her for accusing the board of conspiring with the mob. The expulsion was up held by federal court. In June, 1963, two Negroes entered the school after a federal court ruling that the 1955 permanent injunction ordering the uni versity to accept qualified Negroes re mained in effect. Nashville, Tenn.—On Jan. 23, 1956, about 300 segregationists from several cities marched on the Tennessee capi- tol. Gov. Frank Clement rejected their pleas to preserve segregation. 1956- 57 Texarkana (Tex.) Junior College— The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the school to admit two Ne groes, but a mob barred them from the school in September, 1956. A shot gun blast was fired at a gas station owned by a Negro leader, and on the campus a Negro effigy was hanged and a cross burned. Texas Rangers dis persed the mob but made no effort to escort the Negroes into the college. The first Negro students enrolled in 1963. Clinton, Tenn.—John Kasper, secre tary of the Seaboard White Citizens’ Council, spoke against school desegre gation, and was convicted on Aug. 31 of contempt of court for violating a federal court order. Demonstrations followed a speech by Asa (Ace) Carter, president of the North Alabama Citi zens’ Council, to a crowd of approxi mately 1,000. On Sept. 1, 2,000 persons in the courthouse square had to be dispersed by tear gas grenades. Gov. Frank Clement sent in 100 state police men to reinforce local officers. On Sept. 2, Clement relieved the police with 633 National Guardsmen, who broke up a crowd of about 1,000 that night. Demonstrations shifted to nearby Oli ver Springs on Sept. 3, and two tanks and 71 guardsmen were sent to break up a large crowd. The next day, nine of 12 Negro students attended class in Clinton High under court order, with many whites absent. The following day, all 12 Negroes were in class and white attendance was back to normal by Sept. 15. On Nov. 17, Kasper, sen tenced to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine on federal charges, was aquitted of state charges of sedition and incit ing to riot. By the end of November, two Negroes had quit school because of harassment and 10 others remained home. On Dec. 14 six Negroes re entered school and a white minister who accompanied them was beaten. Fighting and disturbances in the school caused classes to be dismissed at mid day. Kasper and 15 others were ar rested for violations of the injuction against interference with desegrega tion. On Feb. 14, a suitcase loaded with dynamite exploded in the heart of Clinton’s Negro section, injuring two persons and damaging homes and cars. Kasper was rearrested in March on a second charge of criminal con tempt. Kasper later was one of seven convicted of criminal contempt. Mansfield, Tex.—White crowds gath ered around the school, and stores closed after the school board lost the legal fight to prevent enrollment of Negroes. Gov. Shivers sent Texas Ran gers to disperse the crowds. The three Negroes eligible to attend the school were transferred out of the district, which remained segregated through 1963-64. Clay and Sturgis, Ky.—The Union County Board of Education decided to admit a few Negroes to white schools without a formal desegregation plan. Whites appeared at the schools to stop the Negroes and Gov. A. B. Chandler sent in the National Guard. The students briefly attended the de segregated schools until the attorney general declared them illegally en rolled. The following year, Negroes entered Sturgis under federal court order, but none attempted to enroll at Clay. (See 1957-58.) Henderson, Ky.—A student boycott encouraged by the Citizen’s Council gradually collapsed when the state at torney general said some of its leaders were open to prosecution for conspir acy or sedition. Lamar State College of Technology, Beaumont, Tex.—Police arrested sev eral persons in October for picketing against the attendance of five Negroes, who had enrolled by federal court order. Mercer County, W. Va.—Demonstra tors appeared at the Matoaka school in 1956 and 1957 in an unsuccessful effort to get the board to rescind its desegre gation policy. 1957-58 Little Rock, Ark.—Gov. Orval Fau- bus used National Guard troops to prevent nine Negroes from entering Central High School on Sept. 4. After a period of conferences and legal skirmishing, a federal judge enjoined Faubus and the guards from inter fering with desegregation. Mob action reached its peak on Sept. 23, the first day after Guardsmen had been re moved. A disorderly crowd forced authorities to withdraw the Negro students from the school by midday. After crowds gathered at the school again the next day, President Eisen hower sent federal troops to restore order. The Negroes re-entered the school on Sept. 25, under the protec tion of paratroopers. After violence subsided, federal troops were with drawn on Nov. 27, and federalized Guardsmen remained until the school term ended in May, 1958. Only minor incidents occurred in the school year. North Little Rock, Ark.—After the trouble in neighboring Little Rock, the school board delayed its voluntary plan to admit seven Negroes to the high school on Sept. 9. However, six of the Negroes attempted to enter any way, and a crowd of whites stopped them.(North Little Rock plans to de segregate for the first time in the fall of 1964.) Nashville, Tenn.—Protesting whites gathered at schools and several inci dents occurred when court-ordered desegregation began in seven previ ously white schools. Early on Sept. 10, a bomb destroyed one wing of Hattie Cotton School, which had admitted one Negro the previous day. John Kasper received city, county and fed eral court restraints for opposing de segregation. School attendance returned to near normal by mid-September, with 11 of the Negroes remaining in five schools. Birmingham, Ala.—The Rev. F. L. Shuttlesworth, a Negro minister, was beaten by a group of white men when he attempted to register his two daugh ters at an all-white school on Sept. 9. Ozark, Ark.—Three Negroes dropped out of a desegregated school within Dynamited Schoolroom in 1958 Troubles recurred at Clinton, Tenn. a week, under reported harassment by white pupils. (See 1958-59.) Easton, Md.—Police arrested three pickets at a desegregated school on opening day. Ten sticks of dynamite attached to a partially burned fuse were found on the lawn of a Negro family having children in the deseg regated school. Deale, Md.—The one Negro enrolled in a school with whites withdrew after a cross was burned and bricks were thrown through school windows. Charlotte, N.C.—Taunts, jeers and spit greeted a Negro girl entering Harding High School. After a week of harassment she withdrew, although other Negroes in desegregated schools remained. Greensboro, N.C.—Hecklers shouted and threw eggs at Negroes in a form erly all-white high school. An explo sion failed to damage the home of two Negro children in a desegregated school. Mercer County, W. Va.—Students refused for a time to return to classes at Matoaka High School and roughed up two Negro students before state policemen restored order. At Bluefield, students staged a brief protest demon stration. Welch, W. Va.—About 400 white high-school students staged a one-day boycott and marched through the busi ness section. Sturgis, Ky.—Thirty state troopers were on the scene after incidents in volving booing and stone-throwing when 18 Negroes enrolled under fed eral court order. Heckling and boy cotting dwindled after a week. Four persons were arrested. (See 1956-57.) Jacksonville, Fla.—Mayor Haydon Bums sponsored the organization of an intelligence agency for 28 Southern cities after a series of racial and re ligious bombings. The bombings in cluded a Negro junior high school in Jacksonville. Gaffney, S.C.—Five members of an “independent” Ku Klux Klan were arrested for the Nov. 19 dynamiting of the home of Dr. and Mrs. James H. Sanders. Mrs. Sanders had contributed a “moderate” statement to the booklet, South Carolinians Speak, suggesting initiating school desegregation with first-graders. 1958-59 Clinton, Tenn.—Three dynamite blasts heavily damaged the high school on Oct. 5. Desegregated in 1956, the school had experienced almost a year of calm prior to the bombing. (See 1956-57.) Madisonville, Ky.—After white women pickets caused shoving and squabbling at a newly desegregated elementary school, a federal judge ordered two marshals to the scene. On Sept. 9, state police joined them, dispersed the crowd and made several arrests. Ozark, Ark.—Three Negro girls re turned home after white students caused trouble over their attendance for the second year. (See 1957-58.) Van Buren, Ark.—As the second year of desegregation began, about 50 white students went “on strike” and burned an effigy on the school grounds. Several Negroes withdrew from two schools, but 13 continued to attend classes. Osage, W. Va.—An early-morning dynamite blast on Nov. 10 damaged the desegregated junior high, but offi cials could not definitely connect the bombing with the fact that the school had been desegregated since 1955. There had been no prior incidents. The bomb ing set off a series of bomb scares in the state. Richmond, Va.—Gov. Lindsay Al mond was believed the target of an attempted assassination on April 10, 1959, as he walked across Capitol Square. Speculation was that the as sassin was a disgruntled, all-out seg regationist. 1959- 60 Little Rock, Ark.—High schools re opened in August after a year of inop eration. Police broke up a march on the desegregated Central High by dem onstrators who had gathered at the state capitol and been addressed by Gov. Orval Faubus. On Labor Day, three dynamite explosions damaged a city-owned car, the mayor’s private office and a school administration office. Five men were convicted of the dynamiting. Dollarway, Ark.—Whites beat an elderly Negro man waiting for two Negro children he had escorted to register at the white school. Raleigh County, W. Va.—Enrollment of three Negro girls in a high school with whites resulted in name-calling incidents and a hair-pulling struggle among students. 1960- 61 New Orleans, La.—Whites jeered and booed four Negro first-graders entering two white schools under court order on Nov. 14, 1960. On Nov. 16, violence erupted in the downtown area after the Citizens’ Council called for a mass march on the school board building. The few white parents whose children remained in the schools des pite a large-scale boycott were con tinually harassed and threatened. An almost total boycott was not lessened until the 1961-62 school year, when four additional elementary schools desegregated. (See EVERY, Page 13-B) Florida (Continued from Page 10-B) regated has five Negro faculty mem bers. At the beginning of the ’60s, Negro leaders in Florida gave top priority to school desegregation. A planned strate gy picked target counties in which Negro parents laid the groundwor by seeking to enroll their children m white schools. When refused adrm s sion, they filed suits. School Push Slackened In the last two years emphasis has shifted to other areas of civil rign, and the school push has slackened become part of a larger picture. So suits filed months ago have not oea pressed. The federal government, which s ^ plements school funds in at leas Florida counties rated as impa c areas, maintains steady pressure for desegregation. This was the factor in Monroe, Santa Rosa Okaloosa counties. The U.S. ^?7jn ment of Justice intervened direc . ^ Bay County by filing a suit (u- • Bay County) in 1963. It con ^ that the morale of military P® rs °_ ina at the large air base near Ban ^ City was damaged by segreg schools. omen* The expanding civil rights is beginning to involve school ate d in demonstrations. It has also c j of a political issue in the 1964 ra governor. rour*’ 8 Ten years after the Supreme' ^e- mandate schools have been gated in 16 of Florida’s 67 c But in most cases the amount ing is small and more “tan ^ cent of Florida’s Negro childr attend segregated schools.