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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.”