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PAGE 8—AUGUST, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA
Darlington County Gets Orders
To Admit Negroes With Whites
COLUMBIA
A series of major develop
ments occurred in South
Carolina during July as another
school year drew near. They fol
low:
• A federal court ordered five Ne
groes admitted to Darlington County
schools in September.
• Beaufort County District 1 and
York County District 3 became the sec
ond and third of the state’s 108 school
districts to desegregate voluntarily.
• Greenville County, which gave up
a court fight in the spring and sub
mitted a desegregation plan, announced
that 55 applications from Negroes for
transfer to all-white schools had been
approved.
• Pickens County apparently will
admit voluntarily its first Negroes,
although a positive statement to that
effect has not been forthcoming.
• Attorneys for both sides agreed
that oral testimony would not be neces
sary in desegregation suits against
schools in Sumter and Orangeburg
counties.
150 to 175 Expected
It appeared that between 150 and 175
Negroes will attend biracial public
schools in South Carolina this fall. The
majority will be in Charleston, which
experienced the state’s first public
school desegregation in 1963, and in
Greenville counties.
Charleston City Schools announced
in June that transfer applications from
77 Negroes had been accepted. They
will join nine who were in white
schools last year. Adjacent North
Charleston voluntarily accepted four.
On July 14, Greenville, the state’s
largest district, approved transfers of 18
elementary pupils and 37 high school
students. Sixteen previously white
schools are involved.
These Negro admissions were volun
tary except that a desegregation suit
was pending at the time of the school
board’s decision.
Beaufort School District 1 followed
North Charleston among districts to
announce desegregation plans without
legal proceedings.
The coastal city, site of the Parris
Island Marine Base, announced July 14
that it will admit three Negro children,
dropping racial barriers at three
schools.
Transfer applications were accepted
from Roland Washington (to Beaufort
Florida
(Continued From Page 7)
each Negro attorney at this school at
$200,000.
The suit was dismissed on technical
grounds and an appeal to the Florida
Supreme Court is pending.
Legal Action
KKK Defendants
To Get New Trial
The trial of five admitted Ku Klux
Klan members, charged with conspiracy
to bomb the home of a Negro schoolboy
in Jacksonville, ended without a final
decision.
One defendant, Jacky Don Harden,
was found innocent July 6 by an all-
white federal court jury. Mistrials were
declared for the other four when the
jurymen failed to agree.
The explosion took place last Sep
tember at the home of six-year-old
Donald Godfrey, the only Negro
attending Lackawanna Elementary
School, which was desegregated under
court order. Donald was uninjured.
William Sterling Rosecrans Jr., an
itinerant carpenter from Indiana, pre
viously pleaded guilty to the actual
bombing and is serving a seven-year
sentence.
Rosecrans testified as a prosecuting
witness, telling of contacts with the five
defendants. He said he had been
persuaded to place the bomb in an
effort to intimidate other Negroes who
might seek to register at the school.
All defendants denied the charge and
said they had never discussed the plot
with Rosecrans.
New trial dates will be set for the
four—Robert Pittman Gentry, Donald
Eugene Spegal, Barton H. Griffin and
Willie Eugene Wilson. Because of a
crowded court docket, a postponement
until fall is likely.
Simons and Hemphill
New federal judges.
High School), Craig Washington (to
Beaufort Elementary School) and
Jeanelle Drake (to Mossy Oaks Ele
mentary School).
The Beaufort district received $293,-
170 in federal impacted area funds last
year, ranking in this respect only be
hind North Charleston ($906,300) and
Aiken ($474,620). The U.S., of course,
has threatened to cut off these funds
to districts that remain segregated.
(See What They Say)
On July 31, Rock Hill schools (York
District 3) announced 10 transfer ap
plications from Negro children had
been accepted. Suits have been threat
ened in this industrial city 20 miles
south of Charlotte, N.C., but none have
been filed. The board’s voluntary ac
tion had been rumored for some time.
Supt. W. C. Sullivan, in announcing
the decision, issued this statement: “The
board of trustees . . . after a lengthy
consideration, including a study of the
experience of other school districts who
have faced like situations, as well as on
account of respected and competent
legal advice, has acted favorably on
the requests for transfer of the pupils
... on the high school level . . .”
While this will be the first public
school desegregation in Rock Hill, St.
Anne’s Catholic School there has been
desegregated since 1954.
To ‘Process’ Applications
In mountainous Pickens County, Joe
C. Durham, superintendent of educa
tion of the one-district county, said.
July 28 his school board had decided
to “process” the applications of two
Negro girls to all-white Daniel High
School near Clemson, site of Clemson
University where South Carolina’s first
college-level desegregation took place
in January, 1963.
The girls were not identified but it
was reported that they are both rising
juniors and are daughters of employes
of Clemson University.
Supt. Durham’s statement said: “The
two students who have made applica
tion for transfer from Clearwater High
School (all-Negro) to D. W. Daniel
High School within the time specified
by the board will be processed when
and if they complete their applica
tions . . .”
Summary Judgment
U. S. District Judge J. Robert Martin
issued a summary judgment July 13 in
the long-pending Darlington desegrega
tion case (Stanley et al v. Darlington
County School District).
Earlier, attorneys for both sides had
stipulated to certain facts and agreed
that court testimony would not be
necessary in the case. Several closed-
door conferences were held.
The case was brought in May, 1962
on behalf of five Negro children. Judge
Martin’s order, however, restrained the
Darlington school district, which in
cludes the entire county of 53,000
people, from denying admission or
transfer to its schools on the basis of
He ordered that transfer applications
be made available from July 27 to
Aug. 3 and that applications be re
ceived after Aug. 3. The forms are
available from area principals in three
county cities — Darlington, Hartsville
and Lamar.
School board attorney Benny R.
Greer said he doubted “very seriously”
if the school district would appeal the
summary judgment. “I don’t think there
is anything we can do except comply
with the order. The wording is very
clear.”
Judge Martin’s order includes a
transfer formula similar to ones agreed
to in Charleston and Greenville. It al
lows school boards to consider such
matters as the availability of space, the
educational program offered and the
distance the child lives from the school
in deciding on transfer applications.
Negro attorney Matthew J. Perry, as
he had done in the Greenville and
Charleston cases, filed a petition on
July 27 attacking the formula as being
“vague, indefinite and inadequate.” The
petition said it leaves school boards
with discretionary powers that can be
applied in a discriminatory manner.
It was considered probable that more
than the five Negro plaintiffs in the
court case will apply to Darlington
white schools for the fall term. Darling
ton service station owner Arthur W.
Stanley, whose two children were
among the plaintiffs, said July 14 that
other transfers were being discussed.
Back-to-back pre-trial hearings be
tween federal judges and attorneys in
volved in the Orangeburg (Adams V.
Orangeburg School District 5) and
Sumter (Randall v. Sumter School Dis
trict 2) cases occurred at the Federal
Courthouse in Columbia July 14.
Judge Robert W. Hemphill heard the
Sumter case and Judge Charles E.
Simons Jr. presided over the Orange
burg case. Both judges are new to the
federal bench, having been appointed
in the spring.
South Carolina Highlights
Federal court judges ordered Darl
ington County to accept Negro pupils
in its white schools and agreed that
no further testimony was needed in
school suits in Sumter and Orange
burg counties; Beaufort and Rock
Hill schools voluntarily admitted Ne
groes for the first time and Pickens
County appeared ready to follow
suit; Greenville approved transfer
of 55 Negroes to previously all-white
schools.
An attempt by a Sumter County
board to discontinue educating chil
dren of Air Force personnel, 30 of
whom are suing to enter white
schools, was thwarted by a federal
court injunction.
The first Negro in history enrolled
at Winthrop College, the state-sup
ported school for women.
Orangeburg’s District 5, scene of a
heated fight between public and pri
vate school partisans, agreed to par
ticipate in the state’s tuition grants
program.
Gov. Donald S. Russell accused a
federal official of trying to stampede
school districts receiving impacted
area money into desegregation
moves.
In the Colleges
Attorneys in Sumter and Orangeburg Suits
Matthew Perry, Zack Townsend, Hemphill Pride, Ernest Finney.
The hearings were designed to clear
the way for final action in the actions.
Motions and other legal technicalities
were disposed of.
In both cases, lawyers agreed that
no further testimony would be re
quired. Instead, the court record of
the Charleston desegregation case,
which Judge Martin heard and decided
last summer, was accepted as the basis
of arguments.
In that case, extensive testimony was
introduced to the effect that ethnic
differences between the races provide
the best natural classification of pupils
and produce the best educational re
sults.
This procedure was also resorted to
in the Darlington case. The line of
argument has not been successful on
the district court level in South Caro
lina.
In the Sumter case, Judge Hemphill
ordered the lawyers to file briefs not
later than July 25 and gave them four
additional days to reply.
Judge Simons allowed a group of
white parents to intervene as parties
defendant in the Orangeburg case.
Motions by Negro attorneys for sum
mary judgments are the only matters
left for the courts to dispose of.
Compositions Vary
The racial compositions of the school
districts involved in recent desegrega
tion activities or which are certain to
be desegregated in September vary
considerably.
Average daily attendance figures in
these districts for the 1963-64 school
year were as follows:
Beaufort District 1—white 3,151, Ne
gro 4,549; Charleston District 4 (North
Charleston)—white 12,144, Negro 4,957;
Charleston District 20 (City of Charles
ton)—white 2,479, Negro 8,683; Darling
ton—white 7,063, Negro 6,765; Dorchest
er District 3 (Harleyville-Ridgeville)—
white 682; Negro 928; Greenville—white
36,356, Negro 10,423; Orangeburg Dis
trict 5—white 3,289, Negro 3,796; Pick
ens—white 9,621, Negro 1,280; Sumter
District 2—white 3,460, Negro 5,434;
York District 3 (Rock Hill)—white
7,558, Negro 3,834.
Legal Action
Injunction Blocks
Halt in Schooling
An attempt by Sumter School Dis
trict 2 to discontinue educating chil
dren of military parents living on
Shaw Air Force Base was halted July
29 by a federal court injunction.
U.S. District Judge Robert W. Hemp
hill issued the temporary restraining
order, pending a trial of the case on
its merits, after the U.S. Government
complained that it had paid a substan
tial portion of the cost of the schools
built by the district near Shaw AFB
which is located 10 miles west of the
City of Sumter.
The government, in its complaint
filed July 2 by U.S. Attorney Terrell
Glenn in Columbia and in subsequent
oral arguments, contended that the dis
trict board, in refusing to accept Shaw-
based children, was violating an argu
ment it made in accepting federal con
struction funds.
Judge Hemphill in his decision agreed
with this contention and further or
dered the school district to make ar
rangements for the admission of Shaw
children to its schools in September.
‘Contractual Obligations’
In addition, Stoddard’s letter s
Winthrop College Enrolls First Negro
Winthrop, South Carolina’s state-
supported college for women, admitted
the first Negro in its 77-year history
July 20 when Mrs. Cynthia Plair Rod-
dey, 24, registered in its graduate
school.
The Rock Hill institution thus be
came the first tax-backed college in
the state to desegregate voluntarily.
Earlier the University of South Carolina
and Clemson University admitted
Negroes after court tests.
As in the previous cases, Winthrop’s
desegregation day was accomplished
peacefully. Mrs. Roddey’s entrance was
not accompanied by the fanfare that
attended the initial Negro registration
at Clemson and USC.
The young Negro, an honor graduate
at Johnson C. Smith University in
Charlotte, N.C., and an elementary
school teacher in the Rock Hill
schools, was one of about 500 students
who registered for the second six-week
term of summer school at Winthrop.
The 1963-64 enrollment at the school
was 2,240.
Dr. Charles S. Davis, Winthrop presi
dent, said in a 65-word statement that
Mrs. Roddey had expressed a desire
to pursue a masters degree, would con
tinue to live at her Rock Hill home,
and had expressed a desire that there
be no interviews or pictures during her
registration.
Library Science
Mrs. Roddey signed up for two
courses in library science. She arrived
on campus shortly after 7 a.m., entered
the administration building, went to an
upstairs room, and awaited the start of
registration.
Later she declined to make a ^
ment to a small group of ne '! Q j 0 g-
She appeared annoyed when a P ^
rapher snapped her picture
walked to her first class. gyst
Mrs. Roddey’s admission was|
revealed 11 days before her a ^ jjjll
Earlier, Negro sources in K °~ duat es
said two 1964 high schoo P g^p.
planned to enter the college
tember.
;moer. ggu
Elsewhere, the University o ^ g g r c
Carolina has admitted its
on a part-time basis. A. P- gaid
a Negro mortician in Columbia, ^
July 10 his son, A. P- ,j _ tfeff 0
graduate of Columbia s - r hool,
Booker T. Washington High & ^ e .
taking a refresher course m ^
matics at the university. “ e ' st u-
Sumter County owes the integrity
of its heritage the performance of its
solemn, binding contractual obliga
tions,” Hemphill wrote. “If Sumter
County will not perform as a matter
of honor, the court will enforce as a
matter of right.”
Hemphill said “this is not a case
involving segregation,” but underlying
the case—although not mentioned spe
cifically in any of the proceedings—is
a desegregation suit (Randall et d v
Sumter School District No. 2 et al)
which was filed Sept. 16, 1963 by 14
Negro airmen stationed at Shaw on
behalf of their 30 school-age children.
The case has reached the point of a
pre-trial hearing before Judge Hemp
hill.
Revealed in the government com
plaint was a letter, dated May 11, 1964,
written by District Supt. Hugh T.
Stoddard to Col. Harrison M. Harp Jr.,
Shaw AFB commander.
Stoddard, saying he was acting by
direction of his board of trustees, told
Col. Harp the district could no longer
assume responsibility for the education
of Shaw children, who numbered ap
proximately 970 during 1963-64.
Schools attended by white children
among these were Shaw Heights Ele
mentary School, Shaw Junior Hig
School and Hillcrest High School.
The district offered to lease Shaw
Heights Elementary School to the g° v "
ernment for “a reasonable rent’ la
revealed to be $1 a year.
(A similar arrangement has been
effect in Beaufort County for se ^ ,
years. There, the Laurel Bay Schoo^
turned over to the government for
exclusive use of dependents of Marin
stationed in the area, is now fede
operated and fully biracial.)
itated
that “should some of the children
the base wish to attend the schoo
this district, applications mightbe ^
cepted and considered in the hg
space available and/or other ac
(See 150-175, Page 9)
ith