Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1964—PAGE 3-A
ALABAMA
Negroes And Justice Department
Say State Board Showed Control
Alabama Highlights
(Continued from Page 1-A)
maintenance of racial segregation would
n0 t have been possible if the Pupil
placement Act had been constitution
ally applied.”
■phe U.S. Supreme Court in 1958 up-
• held the assignment law as valid on its
face, accepting the finding of a three-
judge panel in Birmingham. The lower
jourt decision warned, however, that
, j], e law might later prove unconstitu
tional in application.
The plaintiffs in the Macon case con-
tand it was unconstitutionally applied
and should thus be invalidated.
Error Admitted
In a brief filed April 10 in the case,
, the state board admitted error in in
terfering with the Macon County
school board by directing it to transfer
pupils, close the school and reassign
the 12 Negroes and 13 faculty members
of Tuskegee High.
“We must candidly admit,” the board
said in its brief, “the actions of the
- state board upon which the temporary
restraining order was issued were
taken improvidently and contrary to
the law of Alabama.”
In rescinding its directives, the board
argued, it had obeyed the February
advisory opinion of the State Supreme
Court, which said the board had no
. such authority over local systems.
“For these reasons,” the board’s brief
said, “the temporary restraining order
should be dissolved and it follows the
i preliminary injunction (requested by
plaintiffs) should not issue.”
The Justice Department, the board’s
brief continued, “obviously is seeking
forced integration and not simply cessa-
, tion of state activities which may be
discriminatory on account of race.”
As to grants-in-aid, the board said
this is not an issue since no grants
were issued nor will they be issued.
Injunction Sought
Plaintiffs also asked that the court
wjoin Gov. Wallace and the state
superintendent of education as well as
die board not to interfere with county
L city boards in desegregation cases.
It would be needless,” the board
a id, “to enjoin it from exercising
authority which it does not possess as
spelled out by the (State) Supreme
Court.” The board said it had no au
thority under state law to desegregate
local schools and hence should not be
ordered to do so.
In response to the plaintiff’s request
that the Macon Academy be made a
party to the orders of file court, the
brief said that the school is private
and that no evidence was offered in
February to prove it had received state
assistance: “All Macon Academy has
received is the active support of the
Governor of Alabama soliciting private
contributions.”
In conclusion, the board urged the
court to follow state law, as interpreted
by the State Supreme Court, and to
discharge the board, its individual
members, including ex officio Chairman
Wallace, and the state superintendent
of education, Austin Meadows.
★ ★ ★
The Macon school board, under court
orders to submit a comprehensive plan
for desegregation in the county, pre
sented its proposal to Judge Frank M.
Johnson in March. It calls for accepting
transfer of Negro students in the 12th
grade to white schools at the beginning
of the fall term and for desegregating
a grade a year down to the first.
Negro attorneys attacked the plan in
April, contending in a petition to the
court that it “fails to abolish the dual
scheme of school attendance area lines
. . . and will impose different standards
on Negro applicants than on whites
already admitted or transferred.”
Further, they contended, the plan is
“an obvious regression from the limited
desegregation effective in 1963 . . .”
The Macon plan, attorneys for the
Negro plaintiffs said, provides for con
tinued initial assignment of pupils by
race; places the burden of desegregat
ing schools on Negro pupils; and fails
to provide notice to Negro parents of
their right to request assignment or
transfer of their children.
Notasulga School Destroyed
By Fire; Arson Blamed
A fire which destroyed the high
school at Notasulga in the early morn
ing hours of April 18 was definitely ar
son, state and local investigators said.
“There is no question in our minds,”
State Fire Marshal J. V. Kitchens said
April 20.
Signs were found on the building
April 17, saying such as “Judge John
son’s and Bobby Kennedy’s school . . .
Godfathers of all niggers.” The word'
“nigger” was written inside a circle
lined with a wreath of small white
flowers. Painted on the side of the
porchway were the words, “You have
been told once.”
Window panes in the door of the
school, which had been attended only
by six Negroes after whites withdrew,
were smeared with black paint.
The Macon County school board or
dered the Negro students at the gutted
school transferred to Tuskegee Institute 1
High School, a public school but lo
cated at the Negro college.
The board rejected the Negroes’ re
quest to reopen the closed Tuskegee
High School. “It would not be physic
ally sound to reopen at this time for
such a small number of students,”
members said. That school was closed
Jan. 31 on the controversial orders
(above) of the State Board of Educa
tion.
The board said that with only a
month remaining of the current semes
ter it would be better to send the stu
dents to Tuskegee Institute High School
to avoid interruption of classroom
work.
The three-judge court ordered Ma
con April 28 to readmit the six to the
Notasulga school complex, of which
the burned high school was one of
three elements. The others, connected
by outside, covered walkways, are an
auditorium and an elementary school.
The court said its orders could not
be negated by violence, and stated an
earlier ruling by the eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals, which said:
“The time has not yet come in these
United States when an order of a
federal court must be whittled away,
watered down or shamefully withdrawn
in the face of violent and unlawful
acts by individual citizens in opposition
thereto.”
Negro plaintiffs and the U.S. De
partment of Justice asked a U.S.
district court, in final rebuttal, to
order statewide desegregation of
schools; to declare Alabama’s 1955
placement law unconstitutional in
application, and to enjoin Gov.
George C. Wallace and the State
Board of Education from further in
terference with school desegregation.
The State Board of Education, in
federal-court briefs, argued that it
lacked authority when it intervened
in the Macon County school deseg
regation issue, that it rescinded its
action closing Tuskegee High School
when it realized its error, and that
The court said there was enough
room in the remaining two structures
to accomodate the six students. How
ever, since they are high-school stu
dents, classroom desegregation seemed
unlikely, leaving the desegregation of
Macon County still in doubt.
The court also indicated April 20
that the Macon desegregation plan (see
above) would not be acceptable. But no
order was handed down.
Gadsden School Board
Offers Gradual Plan
On April 1, the Gadsden Board of
Education offered a grade-a-year plan
for desegregation of schools in that city,
to start with the 12th grade next Sep
tember.
U.S. District Judge H. H. Grooms
of Birmingham said he would not rule
on the suit until the U.S. Supreme
Court reaches a decision on a similar
plan for Atlanta.
Thus, six school systems have filed
similar plans for next fall, in response
to federal court directives. The others:
Birmingham, Huntsville, Madison
County and Mobile. Negroes were ad
mitted in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mo
bile and Macon last September as an
initial step. Macon, however, remained
segregated by reason of white boy-
cotters.
NAACP attorneys protested that the
Gadsden plan is too slow, echoing ob
jections to plans offered by other school
boards in compliance with court orders.
it therefore should not be enjoined
or used as the instrument for state
wide desegregation.
Notasulga High School, boycotted
by white pupils and attended only
by six of the 12 Negros ordered ad
mitted last September to now-closed
Tuskegee High Schol, was destroyed
by fire in the early-morning hours of
April 18. Officials blamed arson.
Negroes assigned to Notasulga
High School were transferred after
its destruction by fire to an all-Negro
high school at Tuskegee. A federal
court then ordered them readmitted
to some remaining part of the Nota
sulga school complex.
Attorney General
Blames Wallace
For School Issues
State Attorney General Richmond
Flowers, at odds with Gov. George Wal
lace even before both were inaugurated
in January, 1963 (SSN, February, 1963),
told a group of Howard College stu
dents in Alabama April 13 that Wallace
has accelerated desegregation in Ala
bama rather than slowed it down.
“I defy any man to show where
we have won a single skirmish in the
last year. I have done more to defend
our rights than any man in the state.
If they had followed my advice, we
would not have a case pending in the
courts to desegregate all the state’s
schools.”
Flowers said that he is a seg
regationist, too: ‘The trouble is, any
man today that opposed Gov. Wallace
is called an integrationist.”
Flowers said he and the governor
broke before either took office. After
Gov. Ross Barnett failed through his
defiance to keep
segregation at the
University of
Mississippi, Flow
ers recalled, he
personally begged
Wallace not to at
tempt the same
thing, but: “Gov.
Wallace told me,
‘I’m going to
make them send
federal troops into
Alabama.” flowers
★ ★ ★
FLORIDA
Teachers’ Group Votes Biracial Policy
(Continued from Page 1-A)
iu retary ’ ^ FEA had made “a fine
| “^ision.”
**' s a great step for Florida,” he
It shows that Florida is mature.”
kggAction
Confessed Bomber
Seven Years
Kith J® 1 . Sterling Rosecrans, charged
viu e *he home of a Jackson
ian e F> r ° boy attending a desegre-
to a sc "°ol, was sentenced April 17
.v e n-year prison term.
tiS jy,y ans pleaded guilty before
The 'T u< Tge Bryan Simpson.
N’egf. y ’ Donald Godfrey, is the only
w£ u PH at Jacksonville’s Lacka-
‘ Last ernen tary School, desegregated
"ere ^ tem ber. He and his mother
Jud g ° ™i ur ed in the explosion.
0r hitiat ^ m P son sa id Rosecrans was
• ^teneg 6 n °* rece iving the maximum
his offense. Considera
tion F»* ven because Rosecrans co-
“‘V- L: ^iib police and FBI agents
■Mgg a , arres t. “You were a tool,” the
51 People 'k Ut a w HH n S tool of oth-
, Tive v
“cted f 0 u Klux Klan members, in-
Conspiracy in connection with
*j4ictin ® y bombing and other racial
’ ^ a< I sought earlier to have
J. g J” es dismissed,
five l0ner °I Atlanta, attorney for
the a H rgUed in a hearing April 10
i -L^etinp e ? dants were guiby onl y
® Lae Lackawanna school on
fie —
' J Oder' J,Xrl these people would not
"if c trrL e n.t,” Judge Simpson
Si” a they did was picket a
' *h e tr .
’ at a date not yet set, is
Florida Highlights
The Florida Education Association
voted to remove all racial qualifica
tions for membership.
The confessed bomber of the home
of a Negro boy attending a desegre
gated school in Jacksonville was sen
tenced to seven years in prison.
A federal judge at Jacksonville
indicated he would not speed up
grade-a-year desegregation in three
Florida counties unless a new Su
preme Court decision changed the
picture.
Lee County school authorities an
nounced desegregation of Edison
Junior College and closing of its
branch for Negroes next fall.
expected to raise some new legal ques
tions. The indictment naming the five
as co-conspirators charges they violated
the rights of the Godfrey boy to at
tend a desegregated school, as well as
the rights “of others similarly situated.”
★ ★ ★
U.S. District Judge Bryan Simpson
on April 20 took under advisement the
petition of Negro parents to speed up
desegregation in Hillsborough County
(Tampa).
He already has under study simi
lar petitions from Duval (Jacksonville)
and Volusia (Daytona Beach) counties.
All three counties began grade-a-
year desegregation, beginning with the
first grade, last September under court
orders. The similarly worded appeals in
the three cases said the pace of com
pliance was extremely slow. In Volusia
County, they alleged, only one Negro
first-grader was affected.
Judge Simpson indicated he would
rule on the three appeals simultane
ously. He told John Allison, attorney
for the Hillsborough school board, to
proceed with the May registration of
next year’s first-graders under the
present plan. This was taken as an
indication he would let his present
order stand unless the ruling in a case
now before the U.S. Supreme Court,
involving the speed of school desegre
gation. changes the picture.
Commenting from the bench, Judge
Simpson said: “The plaintiffs say the
school integration plan is working so
well it should be speeded up, while
the defendants say it is working so
well we shouldn’t rock the boat.”
In the Colleges
Lee County Board
To Desegregate
Junior College
Lee County school officials confirmed
on April 9 a previous decision to de
segregate Edison Junior College at Fort
Myers next fall.
Dunbar Junior College, a branch
for Negro students which opened with
an enrollment of eight students, will
be closed. Those who can qualify will
be accepted at Edison, which had an
enrollment of 563 students at the end
cf last year
The decision was made at the March
meeting of the Lee school board but
was not made public. The news be
came known when dismissal notices,
effective at the end of the present
term, were sent Dunbar Dean Henry
F. Gilmore and the three Negro faculty
members.
Several days afterwards, the school
board said it had received several pro
tests against the dismissal of the Dun
bar faculty. But there had been no
criticism of the desegregation move.
President Charles E. Rollins of Edi
son said plans were being made for
next fall. “This is a policy decision
made by the Board of Public Instruc
tion which we at the college will im
plement during the next academic
year,” he said. “We feel the faculty,
students and the community will meet
the situation with mature and respon
sible behavior.”
First Desegregation
This is the first desegregation in Lee
County, a rapidly growing area in the
Southwest Florida coast. All schools
are still segregated although several
Negro students sought to enroll in
white schools last fall.
The school board’s action coincided
with a push by Negro organizations to
break down racial barriers in educa
tion and employment. One of these
in Fort Myers resulted in the suspen
sion of Ruben R. Robinson, a Negro
teacher, on charges of gross insubordi
nation and incompetency.
Robinson had taught in the Lee
County system for several years. He
was a member of the Fort Myers bi
racial advisory committee which has
been inactive in recent months.
The formal charges said Robinson
openly challenged the refusal of his
school principal to allow him to lead
some of his pupils to a civil-rights
demonstration at the Lee County court
house.
Another count said Robinson passed
out unsigned handbills at a PTA meet
ing criticizing the principal’s actions.
A formal hearing on the charges
v/as set for May 12.
Veteran Congressman Albert Rains,
who finished first in a statewide elec
tion of congressmen-at-large in 1962
but has announced he will not seek
re-election, said in a speech at Au
burn that attacks had been made (ob
viously by Wallace) against the fed
eral government “as if it were some
foreign colossus about to descend upon
us.” Sometimes, he added: “I feel like
I’m in some foreign country where
they’re attacking the United States.”
Community Action
Catholic Schools
To Desegregate
The archbishop of the Mobile-Bir-
mingham Catholic diocese ordered on
April 26 the desegregation of all Catho
lic schools under his jurisdiction—all
of Alabama and northwest Florida.
A letter from Archbishop Thomas
Toolen was read at mass at all the
churches in the area. There are some
80 grade schools and 13 high schools
in the diocese. Enrollment was esti
mated at 25,000.
“After much prayer,” Archbishop
Toolen’s letter to every parish said,
“consultation and advice, we have de
cided to integrate all the schools of our
diocese in September. I know this will
not meet with the approval of many of
our people, but in justice and charity,
this must be done.
“I ask all of our people to accept
this decision as best for God and coun
try. No matter what personal feelings
are, the common good of all must come
first ... We have always tried to give
our Negro people everything we have
given to our white people, especially
in the way of education.”
The letter concluded: “. . . . I ask
all our people to accept this regulation
as best for God and country.”
In Montgomery, two priests said
initial reaction was restrained, non
existent in fact. But one commented:
“You’ve got to give people time to
make up their minds, you know.”