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PAGE 16-B—MAY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TEN YEARS IN REVIEW
10-Year-Old SERS Began as 4 Unique Experiment
S outhern Education Report
ing Service is 10 years old.
When it was established in 1954,
its founders described it as a
“unique experiment in American
journalism.” They believed that
the experiment would have run
its course within one year. But
the job they set for themselves
has not yet been completed.
The idea for SERS was conceived
in Washington in April of 1954 at a
meeting of the American Society of
Newspaper Editors. A group of South
ern editors gathered to discuss the im
pending decision of the United States
Supreme Court in the School Segrega
tion Cases. Their principal interest lay
in the reporting of the events that
would follow the decision.
They agreed to the desirability of
establishing a central source of factual,
objective, accurate information that
would be readily available without
bias or editorial opinion. From this
meeting emerged Southern Education
Reporting Service, supported financially
by the Ford Foundation, and with a
board of directors composed of prom
inent Southern editors and educators.
Purpose of SERS was—and is—to
collect and disseminate facts on the
school segregation-desegregation situ
ation in the area where laws prior to
1954 had required that the races be
separated in the public schools. This
was the case in 17 Southern and bor
der states and the District of Columbia.
SARRATT BALL
Southern School News, the monthly
publication of SERS, is the principal
medium for providing these facts. It
works with a staff of leading news
paper editors and writers. The paper is
circulated in all 50 states and 44 foreign
countries to people of many interests
and persuasions. In addition to news
media, the subscribers include many
who are on the firing line in school is
sues—judges, government officials, at
torneys, educators, school board mem
bers, students, clergymen and other
religious leaders, sociological research
ers and concerned laymen. SERS has
many unsolicited letters testifying to
the paper’s value and its unique suc
cess in maintaining objectivity on a
highly controversial subject.
Three awards for journalistic achieve
ment have come to Southern School
News: In 1956 the National Newspaper
Publishers Association Russworm
Award “in recognition of outstanding
achievement”; in 1962 the “layman’s
citation for distinguished service in the
public journals” from Texas Southern
University; and in 1963 the Lincoln
University Board of Curators award
for “significant contributions to better
human relations.”
The monthly paper is just one of the
publications and services of SERS. In
1959, the agency was assigned manage
ment functions for Race Relations Law
Reporter, a quarterly edited by the
Law School of Vanderbilt University.
The Law Reporter contains the com
plete texts of court decisions, legisla
tive acts and administrative rules, reg
ulations and orders in the field of
race relations throughout the United
States.
Periodically, SERS publishes a re
vised edition of its “Statistical Sum
mary of School Segregation-Desegrega
tion in the Southern and Border States.”
This pamphlet, which grows with each
edition, contains complete enrollment
statistics, broken down by race, for all
the public schools and colleges of the
17 Southern and border states and
the District of Columbia. Among the
other information presented in cap
sule form are lists, by states, of all
laws enacted to deal with the school
segregation issue and of all court
decisions handed down.
The SERS staff has produced two
books. The first was edited by Don
Shoemaker and published in 1957 un
der the title “With All Deliberate
Speed.” The second, published in 1959,
was edited by Ed Ball and Pat Mc-
SHOEMAKER McKNIGHT
Cauley and was entitled “Southern
Schools: Progress and Problems.” Most
of the writing for these books was done
by Southern School News correspond
ents.
The manuscript for a third book now
is being written, with Reed Sarratt
and Chester Davis as co-authors. It
will tell the story of the decade of
school desegregation, 1954-64.
In addition to its publications, SERS
performs other informational services
that are in constant use. The backbone
of this service is the library. Unlike
Southern School News the library em
braces every phase of race relations
in the United States. Approximately
50 daily newspapers are clipped, to
gether with very nearly every news
magazine and journal of opinion pub
lished in the United States. These ma
terials are indexed under more than
500 separate subject headings. Also col
lected for the library are books, pam
phlets, reports, surveys, studies, texts
SOUTH CAROLINA
State Calm with First
COLUMBIA
n Jan. 28, 1963, Harvey B.
Gantt, a Negro, drove onto
the hilly campus of Clemson Col
lege to register for the School of
Architecture. Behind him was the
power of the federal courts. With
him was the power of the State
of South Carolina.
Thus South Carolina’s educational
color line—a cornerstone of state pol
icy since Reconstruction Days—was
broken. There was no violence, such
as had accompanied the entry of James
Meredith into the University of Mis
sissippi a few months before.
Even though the state did not want
Harvey Gantt or any member of his
race as a student at state-supported
Clemson, neither
did the state want
another outbreak
of racial disorder.
While Clemson’s
lawyers pursued
last-minute ap
peals from the
U.S. Fourth Cir
cuit Court of Ap
peal s directive
that Clemson ad
mit Gantt, the
leadership of the
state called for calm compliance.
Former Gov. Ernest F. Hollings; for
mer U.S. Sen. Charles Daniel, a mil
lionaire contractor and leading indus
try-seeker; and John Cauthen, power
ful lobbyist for textile interests, were
credited with playing major roles in
preparing the state for the eventuality
of segregation.
Another key figure was State Sen.
Edgar A. Brown, dominant figure of
the state legislature for three decades.
As a life trustee of Clemson, Brown
had more than a governmental inter
est in seeing that the school’s progress
was not interrupted.
Laid Groundwork
The Clemson Administration, headed
by President Robert C. Edwards, care
fully laid the groundwork for Gantt’s
reception. When it became imminent,
calls for calm came from churchmen,
business and professional associations
and the news media.
Joining in the plea even while at
tacking the court decision were two
BYRNES
HOLLINGS
leaders who had fought long and hard
for the separate-but-equal doctrine
that the Supreme Court struck down'
in its 1954 desegregation decision. They
were former Gov. James F. Byrnes
and State Sen. L. Marion Gressette.
In the end it was new Gov. Donald
S. Russell, inaugurated only short days
before Gantt’s scheduled entry, who
issued the orders
that assured no
violence would
ensue. After re
portedly rejecting
a suggestion from
U.S. Attorney
General Robert F.
Ke n n e d y that
federal marshals
be sent to help
keep order, Rus
sell dispatched
state officers to
Clemson with orders to seal off the
campus to unauthorized persons.
The approximately 160 newsmen who
gathered to report the event—many
of them veterans of the Ole Miss crisis
and other desegregation battles—had
little to write and talk about on a day
that was as uneventful as it was mo
mentous.
The token desegregation of 1963 came
after almost 13 years of legal attack
on the state’s all-white school system.
South Carolina’s first anti-segregation
case (Briggs v. Elliott) was filed on
Dec. 22, 1950. This case eventually be
came a part of the school segregation
cases that formed the basis of the 1954
decision outlawing discrimination in
schools.
Briggs v. Elliott arose in the Sum-
merton District of Clarendon County,
an agricultural section with a 70 per
cent Negro population. Clarendon re
mains completely segregated today,
even though it has been ordered to
desegregate “with all deliberate speed.”
When the 1954 decision was an
nounced, Gov. James F. Byrnes pretty
well summed up the reaction of the
state when he said he was “shocked.”
But he urged the members of both
races to “exercise restraint and pre
serve order.”
The battle against desegregation in
South Carolina continued for years as
government leaders fought a delaying
action. Named to head the struggle was
Sen. L. Marion Gressette, veteran rep
resentative of Calhoun County. Gres
sette was selected as chairman of a 15-
member special committee, comprised
of five state senators, five House mem
bers and five citizens appointed by the
governor. It was officially named the
State School Committee but has been
known almost from the beginning as
the Gressette Committee. Its duty was
clear—to guard segregation.
With this committee in the lead, the
state built an intricate legal fortress
against segregation. Some laws, such
as the one requiring compulsory school
attendance, were repealed. A number
Negro Admission
GRESSETTE EDWARDS
of others generally increased the power
of local school boards.
Three measures were highly signif
icant. The first cut off public funds
from schools to which and from which
pupils were ordered transferred by the
court. Another revised procedural rules
for appeals from local school board
decisions on pupil placement. The third
specified that school appropriations
must be made on a racially segregated
basis only.
On April 13, 1960, 15 Negro parents,
some of whom had also been plain
tiffs in the original Briggs v. Elliott
case filed a decade before, brought a
new federal suit against Summerton
school officials on behalf of their 43
minor children.
The issues in Brunson et al v. School
District 1 of Clarendon County were
essentially the same as those in Briggs.
Filed almost simultaneously with the
Brunson case was a Darlington Coun
ty action (Byrd v. Gary).
The Byrd case was never thereafter
pressed and the Brunson case lay
dormant for more than two years.
Attitude Changes
In the meantime, the attitude of a
number of government officials and
many leading citizens of South Caro
lina was undergoing a change from de
fiance. At a private press briefing
early in 1962, Gov. Ernest F. Hollings
predicted an increase in desegregation
activity and suggested it was a duty
of the press to prepare the public for it.
At the same time, the legislature
acted quietly to assure that the state’s
schools and colleges would not have to
be closed or public funds cut off when
desegregation was ordered. One method
was the elimination from the bulky
appropriations bill of the tiny phrase
that disbursed school funds on a
“racially segregated basis only.” An
other section of the money bill speci
fied that no institution for which the
General Assembly provided funds
could be discontinued during the fiscal
year.
Some legal authorities said these ac
tions had the effect of nullifying those
sections of the S. C. Code, enacted
after the 1954 decision, which required
school closings.
On May 28, 1962, the parents of 13
Negro children filed suit in the federal
court against Charleston schools
(Brown v. School District 20 of Char
leston County.) The next day a similar
suit was filed from Darlington County
(Stanley v. Darlington County School
District No. 1.)
One reason that Clarendon County
remains segregated is that NAACP
lawyers chose to move first in the
Charleston case. After a trial, U.S.
Judge J. Robert Martin ordered the
Charleston schools to accept the 11 re
maining Negro plaintiffs in September,
1963. They were admitted without vio
lence—the first, and so far the only,
children under college age to attend
public school with whites in South
Carolina. Catholic schools were deseg
regated at the same time.
Judge Martin’s order in the Charles
ton case further required the district
to desegregate completely by Septem
ber, 1964, or submit a plan satisfac
tory to the court. He accepted such a
plan on April 13, 1964.
University of S.C.
On Oct. 31, 1962, Henri Monteith, a
Columbia Negro, filed a federal court
suit, seeking admission to the Univer
sity of South Carolina.
In September, 1963—about the same
time that public school desegregation
took place in Charleston—Miss Mon
teith and three Negro males accepted
without court order, entered the Uni
versity of South Carolina with no dis
turbance. At the same time Lucinda
Brawley, a Negro girl, joined Gantt at
Clemson. Judge Martin had ruled fa
vorably on Miss Monteith’s suit on
July 10, 1963.
Since then, public school desegre-
gatin suits have been filed from
Greenville, Sumter and Orangeburg
counties. They are in various stages
of advancement in the federal courts
of the state.
The South Carolina General Assem
bly has provided an alternative to
white parents who do not want their
children to attend school with Ne
groes. A 1963 act established a tuition
grants program. No pupils are receiv
ing funds under it for private school
attendance at this moment but sev
eral private schools, principally in the
Charleston area, are expected to quali
fy for grants by September, 1964.
MARTIN MONTEITH
of speeches, laws, court decisions anj
numerous miscellaneous publications
dealing with race relations. Altogethe
more than one million items have bee:
placed in the library since 1954
At the end of each operating year
most additions to the library collection
are microfilmed, complete with the card
catalog. The microfilm through June 30
1963, filled 124 rolls of 35mm film, j,
has been purchased by more than 5o
major libraries scattered across the
country.
Dr. Felix Robb, president of George
Peabody College for Teachers and a
member of the SERS Board, has called
the SERS library and publications “the
most magnificent piece of documenta
tion of human behavior that this coun
try or any other country has had on
such a scale.” Similar statements have
been volunteered by others.
Information Requests
Regularly, the SERS headquarters
office in Nashville receives requests
for information, and these are handled
promptly and without charge. Hun
dreds of such questions are answered
in a year’s time.
Each month, press releases based on
Southern School News are mailed to
publications that have requested them.
From this direct mailing list and the
principal news services SERS-gathered
facts are widely disseminated.
A new service added in 1962 is the
supplying of Xerox reproductions of
materials collected for the library.
Since the service was inaugurated, more
than 150,000 of these reproductions have
been supplied.
Reed Sarratt, former executive as. 1
sistant to the publisher of the Winston-
Salem (N.C.) Journal and Twin City
Sentinel, has served as executive di
rector of SERS since 1960. Tom Flake
is director of publications and Jim
Leeson is director of information and
research and editor of the Summary.
Previous executive directors were
Edward D. Ball, now editor and pub
lisher of the Venice, Fla., Gondolier,
from 1958 to 1959; Don Shoemaker, now
editor of the Miami Herald, from 1955
to 1958; and C. A. (Pete) McKnight,
now editor of the Charlotte Observer,
from 1954 until 1955.
Board Chairmen
McKnight, who established the SERS
offices, was elected chairman of the
board of directors on March 14, 1964
Other chairmen of the board have in
cluded Bert Struby, general manager of
the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph and News,
AHLGREN
DABNEY
from 1962 to 1964
Frank Ahlgr<st
>ditor of the
STRUBY
Memphis Com '
mercial ApP ea ’
from 1957 to
1962; and Virg^'
ius Dabney,
tor of the Re
mand Times-
patch, from
to 1957. ,
Dr . Alexan*
Heard, chance ^
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, ^
irch was elected vice-chair _
e board, succeeding Thomas K.
I, editor of the News and ., fre
larleston, S. C., who had he
st since the inception of SEIw- i
fn addition to McKnight, Dr. ^
rratt, Struby, Shoemaker an
%, the Board of Directors nf*
■. Luther H. Foster, president oi
gee Institute, Tuskegee * ns jj to r
a.; Charles Moss, executive c
the Nashville Banner; Dr. j^y
ibb, president of George ^ as
illege for Teachers, which se . ge p-
cal agent for SERS; John eS .
der, editor of the Nashville ^
in; Henry I. Willett supenn
schools, Richmond, Va.; Dr.. Ter sity-
Wright, president of Fisk U- -gp-
tshville; and John N. P°P (jfia-W
d managing editor of the
oga Times. fr0 m **
rhe first grant to SERS y e af-
rd Foundation was for 0 ^ate-
rd grants to date total app r w'i-
$1,800,000, and the latest ^
ce the service through J u " e Jpnt^
in March, the SERS boar pid'
committee to “re-examine ;J
ses and programs of SEtw-
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