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teN YEARS in review
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1964—PAGE 15-B
VIRGINIA
‘Massive Resistance,’ 4
RICHMOND
irginia’s 10-year school de
segregation story may be
summed up in two phrases: “mas
sive resistance” and “freedom of
choice.”
“Massive resistance,” a policy of un
yielding opposition to any racial mix-
jjig in the classroom, called for the
closing of schools as the ultimate weap
on in the fight.
“Freedom of choice,” adopted as of
ficial policy in 1959 and still in effect,
permits localities—and individuals as
well—to choose between segregation
and desegregation. It was adopted after
both state and federal courts tossed
out key “massive resistance” statutes
as unconstitutional.
Strictly speaking, “freedom of choice”
was policy—but not practice—for a
brief period even before “massive re
sistance” was bom. Here is how the
segregation-desegregation story was
unfolded in the Old Dominion since the
Supreme Court’s decision of May 17,
1954:
On Aug. 28, 1954, Gov. Thomas B.
Stanley appointed 32 members of the
General Assembly to constitute the
Virginia Commission on Public Educa
tion. He directed the group “to as
certain, through public hearings and
such other means as appear appro
priate, the wishes of the people of Vir
ginia” concerning actions Virginia
should take in light of the Supreme
Court ruling.
Opposed to Force
The commission, headed by State
Sen. Garland Gray of Sussex County,
reported on Jan. 19, 1955, that the
“overwhelming majority” of Virginians
were opposed to enforced desegrega
tion.” But the commission did not rec
ommend “massive resistance.” Instead,
it proposed a program under which no
GRAY STANLEY
On the political front, school deseg
regation was an issue in the 1957 gub
ernatorial campaign. Democratic At
torney General J. Lindsay Almond Jr.,
espousing “massive resistance,” won
over Republican State Sen. Ted Dalton
(subsequently appointed to a federal
judgeship by President Eisenhower) by
a vote of 327,933 to 188,538. Dalton, who
favored local option, said after the Nov.
5 election that he attributed his defeat
to Virginians’ reaction to the national
GOP administration’s use of troops in
Little Rock, Ark., to enforce court-
ordered desegregation.
The ultimate weapon in “massive
resistance” was used by Gov. Almond
in September, 1958. He closed nine
schools in three cities, throwing 12,-
700 children out of classes.
After the Warren County High
School at Front Royal opened for the
fall term, U.S. District Judge John
Paul on Sept. 8
directed the ad
mission of 22 Ne
groes. On Sept. 12
the U.S. Fourth
Circuit Court re
fused to stay the
district court or
der, and the same
day Gov. Almond
signed an order
taking over the
school and clos
ing it.
On Sept. 19 the governor took over
and closed Lane High and Venable
Elementary Schools of Charlottesville,
and on Sept. 27 signed a similar order
covering all six secondary schools in
Norfolk. All these white schools had
been ordered to admit Negroes.
“Massive resistance” collapsed, legal
ly, on Jan. 19, 1959, when the Vir
ginia Supreme Court and a special
three-judge federal court at Norfolk
both struck down the school-closing
laws. On Jan. 28 the General Assem
bly met in special session, and by
Jan. 31 completed action on a program
recommended by the governor: estab
lishment of tuition grants so that no
child would be forced to attend a de
segregated school, and repeal of the
state’s compulsory attendance law.
On Feb. 2, 1959, the first public school
MISSISSIPPI
PAUL
child would be required to attend a
desegregated school. A child in a deseg
regated school could receive a public
tuition grant to attend another school,
trader the commission’s recommenda
tion.
°n Nov. 30, 1955, the General As
sembly met in special session to pro-
vide for amending the state constitu
tion so that public funds could be used
33 Wanted for children attending priv-
a te schools. The legislature called for
a referendum on whether a constitu-
“onal convention should be held to
®ake the necessary changes in the
constitution.
The referendum was held on Jan. 9,
and by a vote of 304,154 to 146,164,
trgmians authorized the convention.
e 40 delegates elected to the i
tion
m et on March 5 and amended the
’destitution. Meanwhile, state officials
to have second thoughts on per-
any desegregation, even volun-
Interposition Resolution
biP n ^' e ^- 1. 1956, the General Assem-
tt^Wted a resolution of interposi-
Vir^:-. mter P°sing the sovereignty of
v 'rgini a
against encroachment upon the
pTYed powers of this state, and ap-
q u , g to sister states to resolve a
1 . 0tl °f contested power.” By May,
isl ’ 14 Wa s clear that the state admin-
ba< ^ decided not to imple-
th e a _ ae ^ay plan. Gov. Stanley called
sion , em 61y to meet in special ses-
■ tor ‘
The
Aug. 27.
*hen t i5 0vernor the legislators
lo^ey convened that desegregation
to fljg as " a clear and present danger”
deny state - He recommended laws to
school te fr^ds to any desegregated
school,,’ to dose any desegregated
Tla Ce ^d to establish a State Pupil
Sssi-p ent Board to take over pupil
’fb from the localities.
^«w" em , bly enacted 23 “massive
S- 22* laws and adjourned on
6 Sisb>« ‘ , ov - Stanley signed the new
Ce ySePt 29 ‘
fl]°V s . desegregation suits were
Past j k 1 various localities. Over
^ t otal decade, the number of suits
ota] ed about 50.
All Public
JACKSON
P ublic school desegregation in
Mississippi is still in litigation
and none of the 150 public school
districts has complied with the
U.S. Supreme Court’s “with all
deliberate speed” mandate.
However, in March, 1964, U.S. Dis
trict Judge Sidney C. Mize issued a
temporary injunction for desegregation
this fall of the public schools in the
cities of Jackson and Biloxi, and in
Leake County (Carthage). The order
followed reversals by the U.S. Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals of Judge
Mize’s dismissal of desegregation suits
filed by parents of 64 Negro children
in the three school districts. Judge
Mize had held that the appellants had
not exhausted administrative remedies
on the local level.
After issuing his latest order, Judge
Mize set the three cases for hearing
on their merits. Judge Mize indicated
that the outcome of those hearings
could alter the effect of his earlier tem
porary injunction. As the situation now
stands, the three school districts are
under order to submit by July 15 de
segregation plans for at least one grade,
beginning this fall.
An intervening petition by two white
parents asks an injunction stopping
the Jackson municipal board from de
segregating the city schools. Judge
Mize permitted the white parents to
intervene “because white parents also
are entitled to their day in court.”
Two of the plaintiffs in the Jackson
EVERS
MIZE
Choice’ Mark Decade
Freedom of
desegregation in Virginia took place.
Seventeen Negroes entered the six
Norfolk secondary schools reopened af
ter a one-semester shutdown. And four
Negroes were in classes when Arling
ton’s Stratford Junior High opened for
the new term the same day.
On Feb. 4 Charlottesville’s two
closed schools reopened on a segre
gated basis, a stay of the desegregation
order having been obtained from the
Fourth Circuit Court. On Feb. 10, nine
Negroes began classes at three former
ly white schools in Alexandria, after
the circuit court had refused a stay
of a desegregation order.
On Feb. 18 the Warren County High
School reopened, technically desegre
gated. But the 23 Negroes who had
been assigned there had the building
to themselves; all whites withdrew to
attend a private school, and none of
them returned until the fall.
On Feb. 5, 1959, Gov. Almond ap
pointed a 40-member legislative com
mission to study the segregation prob
lem. The General Assembly on March
31 received the commission’s report,
which said, in effect, that there was
no legal way to maintain total segre
gation short of closing the public
schools. It said it did not believe the
people of Virginia wanted to take such
a drastic step.
Package of Laws
The group recommended a package
of laws to permit localities to decide
whether or not to desegregate then-
schools. It recommended further that
even where a locality permitted
desegregation, scholarships (tuition
grants) should be made available to
any child who did not want to attend
a desegregated school. The assembly
approved the recommendations, but op
ponents of “freedom of choice” came
within one vote of defeating the pro
gram in the Senate.
In Prince Edward County, the seg
regation fight had been going on since
May, 1951, when Negroes filed a deseg
regation suit against county officials.
The case was one of the five on which
the Supreme Court issued its May 17,
1954, ruling.
On June 2, 1959, having exhausted all
legal efforts to prevent desegregation,
the Prince Edward Board of Super
visors voted not to appropriate funds
to operate public schools for the 1959-
60 session. The schools did not open
for that session, nor have they opened
since.
On March 30, 1964, the Supreme
Court heard arguments on whether the
closing of the schools violated the con
stitutional rights of the county’s Ne
gro children. (The State Supreme
Court ruled Dec. 2, 1963, that the clos
ing does not violate the state constitu
tion.)
Since 1959 white children of Prince
Edward have attended a private, segre
gated system. Negroes had no schools
from 1959 to 1963. In September, 1963,
virtually all of the county’s Negroes
began attending the Prince Edward
Free Schools, a privately-financed sys
tem set up through co-operation of
federal, state and local authorities. The
Free School system is scheduled to end
operations in August.
Surry County
On Aug. 24, 1963, the Surry County
School Board voted not to operate
the county’s only white school during
the 1963-64 year, since almost all white
students had enrolled in private classes
of the newly formed Surry Educational
Foundation. The State Pupil Placement
Board had assigned seven Negroes to
the school. The county’s two Negro
schools opened Sept. 5 as usual.
The federal government initiated a
school desegregation case on Sept. 17,
1962, against Prince George County,
Va. The Department of Justice acted
on behalf of children of Negro person
nel at the U.S. Army Quartermaster
School at Ft. Lee.
On June 23, 1963, federal District
Judge John F. Butzner Jr, ruled in fa
vor of the government. He said the con
tract under which
Prince George
County receives
federal impact aid
funds to educate
federally - con
nected children
pr o v i d e s that
these children re
ceive treatment
on the same basis
as other children
in the state. Since
race is no longer
a criterion in state pupil assignments,
children of Ft. Lee personnel cannot be
segregated by race in public schools,
he said. Desegregation began in Prince
George in September, 1963.
30 Negroes
There were 30 Negroes in desegre
gated schools in Virginia during the
spring session of 1959 when the first
racial mixing occurred. During the five
school years since then, the number
each year has been as follows: 102, 211,
536, 1,230 and 3,721.
From four desegregated districts in
the spring of 1959, the number has in
creased yearly as follows: 6, 11, 20,
31 and 55.
The number of desegregated schools
has increased from the 11 in the
spring of 1959 as follows: 19, 43, 75,
140 and 282.
The first desegregation in a state-
supported institution of higher learn
ing occurred at the University of Vir
ginia in 1951 by court order. Today,
six of the 19 predominantly white
colleges have a total of about 46 Ne
groes enrolled, and three others have
had Negroes enrolled previously.
ALMOND
DALTON
BUTZNER
Schools Continue Segregated
James H. Meredith
Now an Ole Miss graduate.
desegregation case are Darrell Ken-
yatta Evers and Reene Denise Evers,
children of the slain civil rights lead
er, Medgar Evers. Evers, a field repre
sentative of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple, was assassinated in June, 1963, as
he returned home from a meeting on
civil rights strategy.
The first development after the 1954
Supreme Court decision was in the
summer of 1955, when Negroes in about
five state cities filed petitions with their
local school boards asking them to
take steps to put in effect the Supreme
Court’s ruling. However, the petitions
were not “officially” received by the
school authorities because of their as
serted illegality—that they were not
certified but merely signatures on a
petition, none of which had been no
tarized.
Numerous legislative enactments
have followed the 1954 decision. De
signed to bolster the state’s segregation
policy and custom, the acts granted
authority to the governor, as well as
local school boards, to close schools
threatened with integration. That au
thority has not been executed.
Just prior to the 1954 decision, the
legislature in a 1953 special session re
pealed the state’s compulsory school
attendance law. The state constitution
still provides in Section 207 that “sep
arate schools shall be maintained for
children of the white and colored
races.”
Several Efforts
Several efforts have been made to
desegregate the state’s colleges and
universities. A former professor at Al
corn A&M Col
lege, C1 e n n o n
King, appeared at
the University of
Mississippi to en
roll in the 1958
summer school.
Highway patrol
men removed the
Negro from the
campus and the
state had him
committed to a
mental hospital
for examination. King was declared
sane after 13 days and he left the state.
Another Negro, Clyde Kennard, con
ferred with state and school officials
about enrolling at the University of
Southern Mississippi (then Mississippi
Southern College) in the fall of 1959.
Local police arrested him as he left
the campus and convicted him on
charges of reckless driving and posses
sion of whiskey.
Kennard later was convicted on
charges of stealing chicken feed and
was sentenced to the state prison. Ne
groes in the state questioned the
charges against Kennard. The state re
leased him after it was determined
that he had cancer and he died later in
Chicago.
Mississippi’s only desegregation in
education began on Oct. 1, 1962, when
James Meredith, a Negro war veteran
of Attala County, Miss., enrolled in
the University of Mississippi by order
of the federal courts. He had trans^
ferred from Jackson State College.
Failed to Stay
A series of legislative and execu
tive actions by state officials had failed
to stop Meredith’s entrance into the
college. Both Gov. Ross Barnett and
Lt. Gov. Paul B. Johnson (now gover
nor) appeared at the university en
trance to block the Negro’s arrival on
the campus under escort of federal
marshals.
Meredith finally gained admission to
the university Sept. 30 and on that
night and through the next day, a mob
attacked the marshals and rioted on
the campus and in the adjacent town
of Oxford. Two persons—a French
journalist and an Oxford citizen—were
killed and over 300 persons injured.
President Kennedy placed 11,000
Mississippi National Guardsmen in fed
eral service by executive order and sent
in an additional 3,000 regular Army
troops to restore order. Meredith re
mained in the school, accompanied by
federal marshals, until his graduation
in June, 1963.
That same month, another Negro,
Cleve McDowell of Sunflower County,
Miss., enrolled in the university School
of Law by federal court order. Later
in September, school officials expelled
McDowell following his arrest on cam
pus for possession of firearms. The
school has accepted no other Negroes.
KING