Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE, 1964—PAGE 15
Mississippi
(Continued from Page 14)
the educational deficiencies of
iQth Uth, ^ 12411 grade Negro chil-
jjen will be attacked.
“Thus, you see, the project is con
ned with construction, not agitation,
with development, not destruc-
- *
tion-
j n The Colleges
grown University
Resources To Aid
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College, a predominantly
Negro college three miles north of
Jackson, and Brown University of
Providence. R.I., most of whose stu
dents are white, have entered into an
agreement for Brown to offer its edu
cational and administrative resources
for an intensive academic development
program at Tougaloo.
Presidents A. D Beittel of Tougaloo
and Bamaby C. Keeney of Brown an
nounced the agreement May 18.
They said the program will be fi
nanced initially by two grants totaling
$245,000 from the Fund for the Ad
vancement of Education, an organiza
tion established by the Ford Founda
tion.
“Five other foundations and one
individual have made additional
pledges of $118,000,” a Tougaloo news
release said, “and more support is being
sought elsewhere.”
Tougfioo, founded in 1869, is sup
ported financially by the United
Church of Christ and the Disciples of
Christ. About half-a-dozen white stu
dents attend the school. Half of the
faculty members are Negroes.
A program director will be appointed
to co-ordinate the activities between
Tougaloo and Brown.
President Beittel last month an
nounced his retirement, effective in the
fall.
★ ★ ★
Governor Announces
Temporary’ Approval
Of Negro at Ole Miss
Gov. Paul B. Johnson disclosed May
'bat the University of Mississippi
“ad temporarily admitted” a Negro
student for the summer term beginning
June 10.
Johnson told a news conference that
e Negro was “temporarily admitted
y acting registrar George Gober, sub-
review by the Board of Trus-
The governor did not reveal the
j. ® ol 'he potential student. He said
e board discussed the matter at its
caif mee ' ln ® hut postponed action be-
l ^ a quorum was not present. The
. ar d, Johnson added, will “look at
cre dentials carefully.”
renew ® overnor ’ s statement followed
Tou ? 'h 3 ' a 17-year-old student at
tro ,7* College, a predominantly Ne-
for . C ,° ege n ear Jackson, had applied
admission at Ole Miss.
Senate Measure
the q* * ayS before Johnson’s disclosure.
Onij ate S ena te approved a bill which
N- e „ r . s P rea d a legal roadblock to the
f erre j 3 admittance. The measure, re-
the Q 0 as “emergency legislation” on
^Urts” 6 / 13 * 6 door, authorizes youth
to c-i, 0 make their records available
hetvf 8eS universities,
a youth dm Ole Miss applicant has
' :ci Patin C ° Urt recortl of arrest for par-
ti 0ns ,? in civil-rights demonstra-
a 3a«ist i, UC ^ a recor d could be used
The ” 1S aPPhcation.
B°a r ^ of 6 ™ 1 r egular meeting of the
of Trustees of State Institutions
hy s g ft er Learning is June 18, eight
“lay, j lQ er 'he summer term begins. It
J° h - ev ar, meet in special session,
know ? newsmen he did not
^apld - S llm e” what action he
•'’agrn’t; e 11 'he board allowed the
3 enrollment.
r °ss-Burnings Hurt
ailSe ’ Stennis Says
g.
J^elanri if, 0111 C. Stennis warned
W Cr °SS-burr,- SS '’ May 7 that re P° r
paging mgs across the state a:
T* 5 * 0rts to defeat the civi
k^Ns ^on before the Senate.
\ a ) dressin g a Delta Count
J d such actions “give 01
SOUTH CAROLINA
Summary Judgments
Asked in Two Lawsuits
COLUMBIA
EGRO ATTORNEYS in two South
Carolina desegregation cases
asked U.S. District Judge J. Rob
ert Martin during May for sum
mary judgments in favor of their
clients.
The effect of the judgments, if grant
ed, would be desegregation of the
school districts involved without court
trials. Judge Martin was asked to de
cide whether he can rule on the issues
as outlined in court petitions, answers
and depositions without additional sup
port of testimony.
The cases involved arose in Orange
burg County (Adams v. Orangeburg
School District 5) and Darlington
County (Stanley et al. v. Darlington
County School District No. 1). He al
ready has taken the Darlington case
under advisement.
Negro plaintiffs objected to school de
segregation plans submitted by authori
ties in Greenville and Charleston and
approved by Judge Martin. The similar
plans established conditions under which
desegregation may begin in September.
Likely Target
Chesterfield County, bordering North
Carolina in the eastern portion of the
state, became a likely target for the
next school suit when the parents of 25
Negro children petitioned a school
board in the historic town of Cheraw
to transfer their children to the dis
trict’s three all-white schools.
In addition, Matthew J. Perry of
Columbia, chief NAACP counsel in
South Carolina, told reporters on May
4 that Negro parents in school districts
not now under court attack have com
municated with him about possible de
segregation attempts. He specifically
mentioned Rock Hill, where Negro
children already have applied for trans
fers. And he said a desegregation suit
pending in Sumter is “ready for trial.”
Judge Martin, burdened with a
heavy criminal docket during an early
May term of court in Florence, did not
get to the school case that arose in the
adjacent county of Darlington—a case
originally filed on May 29, 1962. How
ever, he did hold a closed-door pre
trial conference with attorneys. And at
torney Perry filed a motion for a sum
mary judgment.
Motion Filed
In mid-May, Judge Martin moved on
to Charleston, seat of South Carolina’s
Eastern District Court. There Perry and
his associates in the Orangeburg case,
brought initially on March 20 of this
year, filed a motion for the summary
judgment. The action was taken on May
20.
The judge said the Darlington case
was first in line for consideration and
he returned to Florence for a May 29
conference with attorneys there.
After the meeting he said that law
yers for both sides had agreed there
was no need for testimony in the case
and that there will be no public hearing
since all evidence was contained in
briefs, depositions and admissions filed
with him. He took the case under ad
visement and indicated he would rule
as soon as the press of other work per
mitted.
Judge Martin has handled all de
segregation cases brought in the state
within the past year. It was he who
ordered Negro plaintiffs admitted to
the Charleston public schools and the
University of South Carolina last Sep
tember.
Carried Load
the first, and so far only, desegregated
district in the state.
The motion to vacate said the plan
“only masquerades as one granting
freedom of choice” to Negro pupils. It
attacked the five criteria set forth in
the plan on which trustees will judge
applications for transfer to white
schools.
The five determining factors were:
• Preference indicated by the ap
plication.
• Whether the pupil’s educational
program can be met by the school to
which assignment is sought.
• The capacity of the school in
volved.
• The availability of space in schools
other than those from which and to
which transfer is sought.
• The distance the pupil lives from
such schools.
Court Order
As a rule, the court order accepting
the plan said, “pupils shall be assigned
to schools which they attended the
previous years, except those eligible for
promotion . . . Notwithstanding, how
ever, and as a matter of absolute right,
application may be made . . . for place
ment in another school specified in the
application ... in which case reason
for the requested transfer must be
stated.”
In his order admitting the 11 Ne
groes last September, Judge Martin
said that the district had to desegre
gate completely in September, 1964. He
gave school authorities the right to sub
mit a plan of their own to affect this
and the proposal accepted April 13 was
the result.
Just over a week after the Charles
ton plan was attacked, Negro attorneys
made a similar assault on the almost-
identical Greenville plan.
Greenville’s proposal, announced by
Judge Martin April 27, was the first
voluntary plan ever submitted by a
tax-supported educational unit in
South Carolina. The school district in
the upstate industrial county had a
desegregation suit pending against it at
South Carolina Highlights
Negro attorneys sought summary
judgments in two school desegrega
tion suits and objected to plans for
desegregation submitted by two other
school districts.
Plaintiffs in the original Clarendon
County school suit that became a
part of the 1954 Supreme Court de
cision complained publicly that the
county’s schools are not only still
segregated but inferior to white
schools.
A Negro spokesman said the Uni
versity of South Carolina had already
accepted “one or two” more Negro
students for its 1964-65 term.
The superintendent of Orange
burg’s schools, attacking plans to
build private schools in the area, said
white students who attend such
schools will leave vacancies for Ne
groes in the presently all-white pub
lic schools.
Three independent white colleges
apparently will have their first Negro
students next fall.
il
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Sp lllfm <r
HI ' saps ^
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i
III
i
Civil-Rights Hearing in Clarendon County
Testifying (center): Charles Ragin, an original plaintiff.
the time but only one hearing had been
held in the case.
Largest District
With its plan, the Greenville school
district, the state’s largest with 55,000
pupils in 75 white and 20 Negro schools,
offered a resolution formally accepting
transfer applications from five plain
tiffs in the case (Whittenberg v. School
District of Greenville County).
The Negro motion “to vacate or
amend” Judge Martin’s order in the
Greenville case contained almost the
same language used in the Charleston
motion.
In the developing Cheraw situation,
an unidentified Negro spokesman said
a suit will be instituted if the transfer
applications of the 25 Negro children
are rejected.
The applications were filed on May
15 and the school board agreed to con
sider them at its next regular meeting
on June 15, or at a special meeting be
fore that time.
Reasons Listed
The Cheraw Citizens Committee, a
Negro political and civil-action group,
issued a statement, giving two reasons
for the transfer requests—“the failure
of the trustee board to have the Negro
schools accredited and the reluctance
of the library board to permit Negroes
to use the library.”
The latter comment referred to the
closing of the Matheson Memorial Li
brary, a privately owned but publicly
used facility, last January after a Negro
student attempted to check out a book.
The statement said the closing
“serves notice on Negro citizens that
they will not be readily accepted in any
facet of our town . . . Negroes now be
lieve they cannot hope to be considered
in the matter of jobs, schools or any
other public facility on a friendly and
timely basis.”
Miscellaneous
Clarendon County’s
Original Plaintiffs
Provide Testimony
Plaintiffs in the original Clarendon
County school case complained May 22
that, 10 years after the 1954 decision,
the county’s schools not only are still
segregated but are still inferior to white
schools.
They were among the 20-odd persons
who appeared before the biracial South
Carolina Advisory Committee on Civil
Rights. The group picked Manning,
Clarendon’s county seat, for its periodic
meeting because of the 10th anniver
sary of the U.S. Supreme Court de
cision. The Clarendon case (Briggs v.
Elliott) was one of the package of five
on which the court based its decision.
Original plaintiffs appearing before
the committee included Charles Ragin,
now a Philadelphia industrial worker;
Mrs. Delores Ragin Jones, an Elizabeth,
N.J., housewife; and Thelmaer Bethume,
a farmer in the county.
Ragin said, “My kids are now taking
courses in the seventh grade in Penn
sylvania that I took in the 11th grade.
I’m having to learn along with them.”
Recall Conditions
Mrs. Jones recalled that Negro
schools in Summerton, Clarendon’s
number-two town from which Briggs v.
Elliott arose, were overcrowded and
lacked indoor toilet facilities when she
was a student from 1941 to 1953.
Ragin and Mrs. Jones both said their
poor basic education caused them to
fail at South Carolina State College.
Other testimony showed that modem
schools for Negroes were subsequently
built in the Summerton district, which
has 1,300 Negro students to 300 whites.
Bethune told of troubles that he said
beset him after he signed the 1949 peti
tion that led to the suit. He said his
home was burned in 1957; white merch
ants refused to do business with him;
and an FHA agent told him not to ap
ply for a loan because “I’ll see that it’s
turned down.”
NAACP Leader
Much of the testimony for the Ne
groes was offered by William (Billy)
Fleming, a Manning Negro undertaker
and the county’s NAACP leader. He
charged before an earlier meeting of
the group at nearby Sumter that whites
in Clarendon County enjoy better
classrooms, lunch programs, bus trans
portation and laboratory facilities.
Clarendon County Supt. of Education
L. B. McCord termed the charges
“tommyrot.”
Fleming claimed the science pro
grams in Negro schools were “a joke.”
Dr. E. W. Keller, a physician who is a
member of the Summerton school
board, said, . . those courses are fall
ing behind in every school.”
Fleming charged “the inadequate
state of education” is demoralizing to
Negroes and has contributed to the
acute dropout problem.
No Responsibility
In answer to this, Supt. McCord said,
“We have no moral responsibility to
educate somebody else’s child when he
is living up North and paying taxes
there.”
His reference was to the frequently
heard complaint in lower South Caro
lina that Negro parents leave their
children with friends or relatives and
go to work in the North.
McCord defended segregation before
(See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 16)
What They Say
More Negro Enrollees Are Reported
He and his colleague, Judge C.
C. Wyche, have carried the entire fed
eral court load in the state for nearly
two years. Relief was in sight in June
when newly appointed Judges Robert
W. Hemphill and Charles E. Simons Jr.
go to work in earnest.
Negro objections to desegregation
plans in Charleston and Greenville
were voiced within 10 days of each
other. The first came in Charleston on
April 29 when Negro attorneys asked
Judge Martin to vacate his April 13
order approving a pupil-assignment
and transfer plan submitted by Char
leston’s School District 20. This district
admitted 11 Negro children under court
order last September, thus becoming
opponents an additional weapon to use
against us — one which they are using
to their advantage with a number of
Northern and Western senators.”
He urged Mississippians to “exercise
judgment, restraint, discretion and
common sense.”
The University of South Carolina
already has accepted “one or two”
more Negro students for the fall term,
a Negro spokesman told a Columbia
audience in mid-May.
Matthew J. Perry, a Columbia lawyer
who has been a plaintiff’s counsel in
all successful South Carolina desegrega
tion cases, added that a few other
Negroes had applied to the State Uni
versity at Columbia.
Perry was speaking to the biracial
Columbia Council of Human Relations
on “The Desegregation Decision from
Ten Years’ Perspective.”
The university, following its usual
policy, would make no comment on
Perry’s statements. After its racial bar
riers were knocked down last summer
by a federal court that ordered Henri
Monteith admitted, USC voluntarily
admitted three additional Negro stu
dents.
One of the students Perry mentioned
was identified by his father, Columbia
undertaker A. P. Williams, one of 10
Negro candidates for the S. C. House
of Representatives from Richland
County.
During a political speech, Williams
mentioned that his son, A. P. Ill, an
honor graduate of Booker T. Washing
ton High School in Columbia, will
enter USC in the fall and major in
business administration. Later, speak
ing privately, Williams observed,
“Since Carolina has decided to accept
students on their qualifications alone,
I think Richland County schools
should too.”
(Richland, the state’s third most
populous county, has no public-school
desegregation and no suits are pend
ing against it.)
Looking ahead, he predicted “many
more suits” by Negroes. He added:
“I’m sure the University of South
Carolina is going to see an influx of
Negro students in the years to come.”
On May 11, Perry spoke before a
banquet meeting of Pi Sigma Alpha,
the honorary political-science fraterni
ty at the University of South Carolina.
Discussing the recent Supreme Court
decision favoring the neighborhood-
school concept, Perry said, “I do not
subscribe to the theory of carting chil
dren clear across town just to have
integrated schools,”