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VOL- 10' NO. 12
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News
Objective
JUNE, 1964
High Cou
GEORGIA
Atlanta Grade-a-V
Subject to More Hearings
uestions ‘Deliberate Speed’
MACON
I ''he U. S. Supreme Court on
May 25 sent back to federal
d strict court for more hearings
complaints by Negroes that the
Atlanta reverse-stairstep desegre-
i gation plan is too slow to be called
all deliberate speed.”
Hie plan has been under attack sev
eral times by Negro plaintiffs and each
time U.S. Judge Frank Hooper has up
held the grade-a-year desegregation
schedule which began in 1961 when
the 11th and 12th grades were desegre
gated.
Chief Justice Earl Warren read a
brief unsigned Supreme Court opinion
which said: “In light of the develop
ments at and since the argument (in
the Atlanta school desegregation suit),
we deem it appropriate that the nature
warren hooper
and effect of the board’s resolution of
April 8, 1964, be appraised by the dis-
ftct court in a proper evidentiary
hearing.”
The resolution to which reference
vas made was one in which the board
I ^id grades eight through 12 would be
i operat ed on a nonracial basis, with
choice, proximity and capacity
taken
mto account in assigning stu
dents to schools.
Fewer Criteria
. ^en the Atlanta desegregation plan
es approved by Judge Hooper in 1960,
included 20 criteria for transfers,
e new schedule puts transfers on the
3i^ C °! space available, transportation
distance from home to school.
a ? w 'ii be required to give first
second choices.
T'Vi
e Supreme Court told the district
^nd "though Atlanta’s com-
is e ff°rt to effect desegregation
*<«,’’ the entire Atlanta plan
re ce e tes ted in the light of three
Supreme Court decisions.
One is the Prince Edward County,
Va., ruling of May 25 in which Justice
Hugo Black wrote that the county must
reopen its public schools on a desegre
gated basis, and saying, “There has
been entirely too much deliberation
and not enough speed.”
The second is a case involving public
parks in Memphis, Tenn., in which
Justice Arthur Goldberg said in a rul
ing a year ago that a desegregation
plan that might have seemed “sufficient”
in 1955 was not necessarily so any
more.
The third involves a ruling last year
by the high tribunal that a Knoxville,
Tenn., school desegregation plan was
unconstitutional because, Justice Tom
Clark stated, it was “a one-way ticket
leading to but one destination . . . con
tinued segregation.”
Officials Reported Relieved
Atlanta school officials were reported
relieved that the court had gone no
further than it did in ordering a new
hearing in federal district court.
Supt. of Schools John W. Letson said,
“There was some feeling that the court
might use the Atlanta case to redefine
‘deliberate speed.’ ”
Dr. Rual Stephens, deputy school
superintendent, said the court did not
act to strike down gradual desegrega
tion, as carried out in Atlanta’s grade-
a-year plan, and “All of it adds up to
a delay which I assume the school board
regards as favorable as far as the basic
plan is concerned.”
The counsel for the Negro plaintiffs,
Donald L. Hollowell, said the remand
ing of the case to the district court
at least indicates the Supreme Court
“has not given approval to the plan in
its present status.” He added, “That
hollowell letson
which was considered deliberate speed
eight or nine years ago is apparently
not considered deliberate speed now,”
but he admitted that the decision “left
something to be desired.”
(See ATLANTA, Page 6)
Handwriting on the Wall
&
Herblock, Washington Post
D. C
Tribunal Hints
It Will Insist
On Faster Pace
WASHINGTON
I n two major opinions handed
down May 25, the U. S. Su
preme Court strongly hinted that
it will insist on more rapid com
pliance with school desegregation
decrees than the “deliberate
speed” criterion it laid down in
1955.
“The time for mere ‘deliberate speed’
has run out,” Justice Hugo L. Black
wrote in the opinion directing Prince
Edward County, Va., to reopen its pub
lic schools, “and that phrase can no
longer justify denying these . . . school-
children their constitutional rights to
an education equal to that afforded by
the public schools in the other parts of
Virginia.” (See Virginia report.)
The opinion said “there has been en
tirely too much deliberation and not
enough speed in enforcing the consti
tutional rights which we held (in 1954)
had been denied Prince Edward
County Negro children.”
The same note was sounded in the
case involving Atlanta’s gradual de
segregation plan. (See Georgia report.)
In sending the Atlanta case back to
the lower court for reconsideration, the
Supreme Court in a brie c , unsigned
opinion admonished the lower court to
bear in mind that times and circum
stances have changed since 1954.
Underscoring its interest in prompt
action, the tribunal on June 1 granted
an NAACP request that it send im
mediate notice to the district court at
Richmond of its Prince Edward de
cision, rather than allow the formality
to be carried out under normal routine
(See TRIBUNAL, Page 12)
VIRGINIA
Prince Edward County Told
It Must Reopen Schools
RICHMOND
r |'' he U. S. Supreme Court ruled
May 25 that Prince Edward
County must reopen its public
schools.
The court said that closing of the
schools in 1959 to avoid desegregation
violated the constitutional rights of Ne
gro children.
A week later, on June 1, according to
a request from plaintiffs’ lawyers, the
court speeded up normal procedures
with the aim of expediting reopening
of the schools. The high tribunal or
dered that its May 25 decision be sent
to the U. S. District Court of Richmond
“forthwith.” This meant that the formal
notice of the Supreme Court’s action
reached the lower court about three
weeks sooner than would have been the
case if usual procedure had been fol
lowed.
In the May 25 opinion, the Supreme
Court said the district court could re
quire Prince Edward’s Board of Super
visors to levy taxes in order to finance
the public schools.
The majority opinion was written by
Justice Hugo L. Black.
Two Justices Disagree
Two members of the court—Justices
Tom Clark and John M. Harlan—dis
agreed with the holding that the fed
eral courts are empowered to order the
reopening of the public schools, but
In This Issue
Slate Reports
Alabama ..
Arkansas ..
Delaware
District of Colum
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi ....
Missouri
North Carolina
Oklahoma ....
South Carolina
Tennessee ....
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia
bia
4
. 7
. 6
1
. 2
1
.11
9
, 5
.14
,12
13
8
.15
3
.16
. 1
8
Special Article
NAACP Fund Convenes
Text
Prince Edward County .
.10
otherwise they joined in the majority’s
opinion.
The majority declared that “the time
for more ‘deliberate speed’ has run out,
and that phrase can no longer justify
denying these Prince Edward County
children their constitutional rights to
an education equal to that afforded by
the public schools in the other parts of
Virginia.”
At another point, the court said that
in Prince Edward “there has been en
tirely too much deliberation and not
enough speed” in enforcing the consti
tutional rights set forth in the Supreme
Court’s 1954 school desegregation de
cision.
The Prince Edward case was one of
the five which figured in the 1954 ac
tion. Since that time, the case has been
up and down the line in the federal
courts, and the Prince Edward situation
also has been the subject of litigation
in state courts.
Upheld District Court
In its May 25 decision, the Supreme
Court specifically upheld Federal Dis
trict Judge Oren R. Lewis, who had:
• Enjoined the payment of tuition
grants in Prince Edward County as
long as the public schools there were
dozed.
e Held that “the public schools of
Prince Edward County may not be
closed to avoid the effect of the law of
th^ land as interpreted by the Supreme
Ccfcirt, while the commonwealth of Vir
ginia permits other public schools to
remain open at the expense of the tax
payers.”
The county had asked Judge Lewis
to abstain from enforcing his rulings
pending settlement in the state courts
of legal questions relating to the Prince
Edward situation. When he refused, an
appeal was taken to the Fourth Circuit
Court.
The Circuit Court reversed Judge
Lewis, saying he should have deferred
ruling until the state courts had acted.
Negro attorneys appealed that decision
to the Supreme Court, which granted
certiorari and later heard arguments on
March 30 of this year. (The Virginia
(See COURT, Page 10)
NAACP Legal Fund
By JIM LEESON
r NEW YORK
^ U.S. Supreme Court rul-
Edty' 11 ? 8 i* 1 May on the Prince
r pUounty, Va., and the At-
Jsed ’, ^ a '’ school cases will be
^greg s P ee d the pace of
'V hAArt> n k er g’ director-counsel for
^orial f P Defense and Edu-
^ that “ Un ^’ ann °unced here on May
0 f V e , Pe to get an accelerated
rub
.°>gs.
des<
, his
egregation” from the
^ er .VI C /i a * e counse h Mrs. Constance
>id ei r,'i ey ’ ex Plained that when
J*®ct thp °gether, the rulings “will
> from f ourse of school desegrega-
! ; now re on out .” “I think it is
meet t! grade - a -year plans no
the requirements of ‘all
U she -r 1 - This concept has run
d plans to push for complete
and immediate desegregation in most
of the 76 cases it now has pending on
elementary and high schools in 13
states. This includes the three Mis
sissippi districts under orders to initiate
desegregation this fall, Mrs. Motley
said.
Prior to the latest Supreme Court
rulings, Mrs. Motley said, “delay has
been permitted for the sake of delay
per se.” The Atlanta case shows that
the comments on speed in the Prince
Edward case have general application
to other school cases, she added.
“The time for ‘deliberate speed’ has
run out,” Mrs. Motley said. The civil-
rights lawyer said that the “future
seems to suggest even greater difficul
ties” but that she did not expect any
state to put up “massive resistance,”
except possibly Mississippi.
Greenberg and Mrs. Motley com
mented on the court’s rulings at a
press conference held in conjunction
with an “Anniversary Convocation”
Plans Moves for Acceleration
observing the 25th anniversary of the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund and the 10th anniversary of the
U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling on
school segregation.
Civil-rights leaders, educators, pub
lic officials and legal officials gathered
for the convocation held May 27-28 at
the Americana Hotel. Several speak
ers during the sessions related the solu
tion of civil-rights problems to coping
with larger problems of society—pov
erty, unemployment and illiteracy.
The Fund’s chief counsel, Greenberg,
explained new programs being started
“to make a social reality out of the
legal victories we have won.” In ad
dition to making motions for accelerated
action in pending school cases, the
Fund will provide scholarships for stu
dents of both races to enter desegre
gated schools and colleges, and the
organization’s Southern school co
ordinator will work at the local level
to inform Negro parents of opportuni
ties for their children to attend newly
desegregated elementary and high
schools.
Dr. John W. Davis, former president
of West Virginia State College and now
director of the Fund’s Department of
Teacher Information and Security, will
administer the new Herbert Lehman
Fund program. For this work, the fam
ily of the late Sen. Herbert H. Lehman
of New York made a $60,000 grant
through the Carol Buttenwieser Loeb
Foundation and the Adele and Arthur
Lehman Foundation.
Experimental work already has been
conducted at the elementary and high-
school level by Miss Betty Stevens,
who later will be joined by two other
school co-ordinators.
Greenberg explained that Miss Stev
ens had conducted campaigns in Ala
bama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and
Virginia communities, resulting in about
500 more Negroes applying for desegre
gated schools for next fall. She informs
Negroes of their rights to attend de
segregated schools, publicizes enroll
ment dates, assists in filling out
applications, and helps allay fears that
parents may have, he said.
“This program seeks to fill the gap
between court edict and the reality of
follow-through in the daily lives of
citizens,” Greenberg said. “She signed
up 80 youngsters in Albany, Ga., in a
single week; 50 in Jackson, Tenn., in
two weeks; and 100 in Richmond, Va.,
in two weeks. She also launched cam
paigns in Tampa, Fla., Lynchburg, Va.,
and Huntsville, Ala.”
Earlier in the week, Greenberg had
announced an anonymous gift of $500,-
000 made to the Fund. “There is reason
to believe that . . . the main burden
of the entire private legal effort for
equal Negro rights will in practice
have to be borne by the Legal Defense
(See FASTER, Page 2)