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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER, 1964—PAGE 3
(GEORGIA
Walton County Desegregates Without Legal Action
MACON
O ne new school district in
Georgia was desegregated in
October and changes in previous
ly reported desegregation figures
were noted in some others.
The Monroe Area High School in
northwest Georgia voluntarily deseg
regated on Oct. 12. Two Negro girls
attended classes without incident. The
two pupils, formerly students at an all-
Negro Walton County school, had re
quested transfers on the opening day
of school (Aug. 31). One student is
in the ninth grade and the other is in
the tenth.
The actual transfers were delayed
until the end of the first six-week
grading period, partly so that the de
segregation policy could be explained
to the 740 white students at Monroe
Area High School, school officials said.
“Essentially, we talked with the stu
dent body and told them what our
policy was,” one commented. “We ex
plained that it was the law of the land,
and that we had to be law-abiding.”
The Walton Board of Education an
nounced early in September that
transfer applications from the two Ne
groes would be approved. “It took a
lot of soul-searching. We found no
reason, except racial, not to transfer
the students,” Superintendent Clyde
C. Pearce Jr. said.
‘More Control’
School officials said they hoped to re
tain “more control locally” by making
the decision to desegregate without a
court fight.
Monroe has been the scene of racial
disturbances not involving the schools.
There are nine white and three Negro
schools with 3,286 white and 1,786 Ne
groes in the system, according to the
latest available figures.
A total of 36 Negroes (rather than
30, as reported in the October issue of
Southern School News) are enrolled
in Dougherty County schools, which
desegregated under court order Sept. 8.
Desegregation has taken place in the
first, second and third grades and
seven schools are involved.
In Marietta, one of two Negro stu
dents enrolled in a predominantly
white school at the opening of the term
this fall dropped out.
In Muscogee County (Columbus),
two Negro pupils were enrolled at the
start of school. A third, a transfer stu
dent from Hopkinsville, Ky., who ap
plied Sept. 28 has been admitted.
au are attending Baker High School.
Additionally, there are 49 Negroes en
rolled in adult classes with white
adults. As of Sept. 25 there were
32,759 white and 12,412 Negro students
In the Muscogee system. The total of
45,171 is an increase of 3,280 over the
previous year, according to Supt. Henry
Shaw.
Other Sources
The Atlanta Board of Education has
previously declined to give specific
figures on the number of Negroes en
rolled with white students in the sys-
tem. Supt. John W. Letson estimated
‘“'ore than 800.” Through other
sources. Southern School News learned
*6 actual figure is 1,144. Thirteen
schools and grades eight through 12 are
erected in the system, which has an
estimated 59,311 white and 56,409 Ne-
Sr° students enrolled.
^bcteen Negroes are enrolled at
Valley Vocational-Technical
°°1 n oar Rome. Under the original
^outract between the State Board of
. “oution and the Floyd County Board
Education for operation of the school,
re was a racial segregation require-
Uin i '^ le ' oca l b°ard requested re-
v ai of the clause shortly after the
(§ a . began operation. On the same
bS® the fall of 1963, that the state
t j. d agreed to remove the segrega
te requirement, a federal desegrega-
T 6c j i su ' t was filed against Coosa Valley
c 0 , ®. suit w as never tried but the
“'ent J? Ued a consen f order by agree-
t between opposing parties in De
ck er > 1963. The first desegregated
offirT? began 111 March > 1964- School
tie- a S say fbere have been no difficul-
V, 'bat Negro enrollments are
ry successful.”
tj f P^ ler vocational-technical schools
tip. grt ‘^ a f e< f are DeKalb Area School
bonal ^ tl 1 arita \ Oudley-Hughes Voca-
Spt. tSchool in Macon, Valdosta Area
and' a,’, Marietta-Cobb Area School
Albany Area School.
The Manpower Development Train
ing Program administered by the State
Department of Education under Public
Law 87-415 (Manpower Development
and Training Act of 1962), financed 100
per cent by federal funds at present,
has full-time desegregated programs in
Atlanta, Macon, Columbus, Tifton,
Waycross, LaGrange, Athens, Albany,
Brunswick and Dublin. The program
was activated in Georgia in 1963.
★ ★ ★
Racial Incidents Reported
In Savannah High School
Racial incidents were reported at a
Savannah school that desegregated un
der court order in the fall of 1963.
Dr. Thord M. Marshall, superinten
dent of Chatham County schools, said
white pupils have been targets of
intolerance on the part of Negro pu
pils at Groves High. Two fights be
tween Negro and white students at
Groves broke out Oct. 2.
The Savannah chapter of the Na
tional Association for the Advancement
of Colored People immediately wired
the U. S. Department of Justice, asking
for protection of Negro students at
Groves and saying the incidents were
the “last of a long series of nasty
attacks, often violent, against Negro
students in the schools.”
On Oct. 5, Wesley W. Law, head of
both the state and Savannah chapters
of the NAACP, called a boycott of
Groves by Negro students and said
three-fourths of the parents of the 20
Negroes attending the school had
agreed to participate.
School officials said Groves Principal
J. Rife English reported the suspension
for a week of one Negro boy and one
white boy because of a fight they had
on the school grounds. Another inci
dent involved several pupils, including
one Negro, Marshall said on Oct. 5, but
MARSHALL LAW
Georgia Highlights
The 11th school district to desegre
gate in Georgia, Monroe Area High
School in the northwest part of the
state, admitted two Negro students
on Oct. 12. The school board had
earlier decided to accept the Negro
applicants but held up actual ad
mission until the desegregation po
licy was explained to white students
in the affected school.
New figures on desegregated
school enrollment in Atlanta, Dough
erty County (Albany), Muscogee
County (Columbus) and Marietta
were reported.
Racial incidents occurred at de
segregated Groves High School in
Chatham County (Savannah) and
Supt. Thord M. Marshall said Negro
pupils were to blame. Atlanta had
trouble in a desegregated school last
month but no incidents have been
reported in other systems that de
segregated in 1963 or 1964.
Federal impact funds will be re
ceived by four Georgia school sys
tems although three of the four are
still segregated.
no action had been taken in that matter
because responsibility for the fight had
not been determined.
Negro students returned to Groves
Oct. 7 after a meeting on Oct. 6 be
tween parents and the school board.
Marshall said on Oct. 23 that the
board had been given a clear viewpoint
of the Negro pupils and their parents
at the Oct. 6 meeting, but no effort had
been made to present the viewpoint of
the white pupils. He said that white
girls had been pushed in the halls and
classrooms, but they did not report the
incidents for fear of increasing difficul
ties or adding to the tension. He said
white boys were subjected to taunts
from Negro girls.
The superintendent said action would
be taken against any pupil involved in
further disturbances at Groves.
Trouble resulting from school de
segregation has been reported in At
lanta (SSN, October), but no incidents
have been reported in other school sys
tems which desegregated in 1963 or
1964.
At Ac At
In Columbus, a Negro student at
Baker was involved in marching prac
tice with the band on the school
football field when two men from
Phenix City, Ala., approached, talking
loudly about getting “that nigger.”
Police, who said the two men were
drinking, took them into custody and
parents of the Negro boy agreed it
would be best not to push the matter.
As a result of the incident, the Baker
principal asked the Negro boy to drop
by his office each afternoon and report
whether he had experienced any
slights or insults or felt any tension.
None has been reported.
At Ar Ar
The federal government approved
applications for school aid funds in four
Georgia systems seeking money on the
basis that classroom enrollments have
been swelled by federal military or
non-military establishments, although
three of the four have not desegregated
schools.
Marietta, which has one Negro in a
former white school, will receive
$152,670, and it is believed a telephone
call from Gov. Carl Sanders to Presi
dent Lyndon B. Johnson helped secure
the money, although federal impact
program fluids have been withheld
pending approval of proposed regula
tions for administering the Civil Rights
Act.
Houston County, which will receive
$698,942, will desegregate in January,
according to the school board. Cobb
County, which will get $781,737 and
Cartersville, which will get $22,470,
have no desegregated schools.
Legal Action
Judge Restrains
NAACP Lawyers
In Atlanta Case
Atlanta school officials will not have
to give information on pupil transfers
and classroom space to Negroes seeking
to speed up school desegregation in
Georgia’s capital city, until after Nov.
19, according to a restraint order signed
by U. S. District Judge Frank Hooper.
Judge Hooper restrained NAACP at
torneys from taking any further de
positions on these points before a Nov.
19 hearing and even then they will
have to prove that further depositions
are necessary.
A. C. Latimer, an attorney for the
Atlanta Board of Education, said of
ficials are busy with their duties and do
not have time for the repeated giving
of depositions.
The Atlanta school desegregation
plan was upheld by Hooper last sum
mer, and a plea for total and immediate
desegregation was refused, but on Sept.
29 the judge granted a plea by Negro
parents for further hearings on the
contention that the pace of desegrega
tion in Atlanta should be speeded up.
Miscellaneous
NAACP To Continue
Suits on Schools
The Georgia branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People held a four-day annual
convention in Savannah beginning Oct.
22 and along with other resolutions re
solved to work diligently, initiating
court suits if necessary, to induce
school boards to obey the Supreme
Court decision on school desegregation.
Dr. John Letson, Atlanta superinten
dent of schools, said that for a five-year
period, city schools have lost an
aggregate of 2,580 white students and
gained a total of 15,567 Negro students.
He said the figures hold “serious im
plications for future political decisions.”
Letson said: “The larger a city gets,
the larger is going to be the concen
tration of Negroes—and to some extent
deprived whites—in the heart of the
city.” He added that this is the trend
throughout the country.
At Ar At
Rep. Bobby W. Johnson of Warren
County said a group of Georgia legisla
tors will introduce Alabama Gov.
George Wallace’s public school resolu
tion at the next session of the General
Assembly. Wallace’s measure calls for
a national constitutional convention to
amend the U. S. Constitution to provide
that the states retain exclusive control
of public schools.
The legislature will convene Jan. 11,
1965.
TENNESSEE
Association Moves Toward Biracial Policy
NASHVILLE
he all-white East Tennessee
Education Association on
Oct. 30 took what was described
as the first step toward opening
its membership to Negro teachers.
In a meeting at Knoxville, the 10,-
000-member organization of white
teachers adopted a recommendation to
“open the doors of the association to
all persons interested in it.”
The recommendation, submitted by
the organization’s executive commit
tee, was approved by a standing vote.
No opposition was expressed and ob
servers said the vote appeared to be
unanimous.
Before it becomes a part of the
ETEA’s constitution, however, the
action must be approved by a two-
thirds majority vote of delegates to
the 1965 convention of the organiza
tion.
The constitution now provides that
membership “shall be open to all
eligible white persons.”
NEA Resolution
The executive committee, headed by
Supt. C. Howard McCorkle of the
Johnson City school district, made its
recommendation in keeping with a
resolution adopted by the organization
endorsing the National Education As
sociation’s position favoring the par
ticipation of all teachers in the NEA.
Several local teachers organizations,
including those of white and Negro
teachers, previously have merged their
groups in Tennessee.
ETEA is the East Tennessee section
of the Tennessee Education Associa
tion, a statewide teachers organization.
Negro teachers in East Tennessee
have their own professional organiza
tion, which operates as a section of
the statewide Tennessee Education
Conference.
Tennessee Highlights
The first step toward opening its
membership to Negro teachers was
taken by the East Tennessee Edu
cation Association.
A. W. Willis Jr., Memphis at
torney who has participated in civil
rights cases, was elected to the State
House of Representatives, the first
Negro member of the Tennessee
legislature since 1887.
Political Action
Memphis Elects
Negro Attorney
To Legislature
Memphis attorney A. W. Willis Jr.,
who has been active in civil rights
litigation including school desegrega
tion cases, on Nov. 3 became the first
Negro to be elected to the Tennessee
legislature since 1887.
Willis, 39-year-old Democrat, de
feated Garvin Crawford, the Republi
can nominee, by 2,902 votes in a contest
in which more than 200,000 Shelby
Countians voted. He will be one of
Shelby County’s members in the State
House of Representatives which con
venes at Nashville in January.
Another Negro, H. T. Lockard, also
was elected as Memphis’ first Negro
representative on the County Court
(a quasi-legislative body) in more
than 50 years.
But a Negro congressional candidate,
Earl Maclin, in the Seventh District,
in rural West Tennessee, ran third in
a three-man race, won by veteran
Democratic Rep. Tom Murray.
Gore, Bass Win
The Nov. 3 election also returned
Sen. Albert Gore to the U.S. Senate
for another six-year term and named
Democratic nominee Ross Bass for a
two-year Senate term succeeding the
late Estes Kefauver. Bass immediately
resigned his post as Sixth District rep
resentative to take up his duties as
the state’s junior senator.
Willis, vice chairman of the Gov
ernor’s Commission on Human Rela
tions, and Lockard said they would
represent “all of the people regardless
of race, color or creed.”
The new state representative gained
attention two years ago as one of the
lawyers who counseled Negro student
James Meredith in his entry into the
University of Mississippi.
A delegate to the Democratic Na
tional Convention in Atlantic City,
Willis campaigned on a platform call
ing for the development of human re
sources, civil rights, education and
other issues.
One of his objectives, he said, will
be to see that the Governor’s Commis
sion on Human Relations helps to
“reach the goals set out in the Federal
Civil Rights Act.”
Willis is a graduate of Talladega
College and the University of Wiscon
sin Law School. He is a native of
Birmingham, Ala.
Miscellaneous
KKK-Robed Men
Picket at College
A group of men described as Ku
Klux Klansmen appeared at entrances
to Maryville College at Maryville on
Oct. 25 to protest the appearance of
Dr. Eugene Carson Blake of Philadel
phia, stated clerk of the United
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
The men, according to newspaper
accounts, handed out mimeographed
sheets of paper critical of Dr. Blake,
who addressed about 600 area Presby
terians and visitors as part of Union
Presbytery Day.
Motorists driving by the entrances
yelled “trick or treat” at the unmasked
but robed men and Dr. Blake referred
to them as “the men in their little
silly uniforms.”
Maryville College, which has a
policy of admitting qualified students
without regard to race, is operated by
the United Presbyterian Church.
★ ★ ★
Dr. Rupert B. Vance, a sociology
professor at the University of North
Carolina, said in Memphis on Oct. 8
that more economic fields must be
opened to Negroes if the South is to
keep pace with the rest of the nation.
In an address at Hollis F. Price
Library at LeMoyne College, the
author and lecturer said:
“I don’t think the South is being
dragged screaming into the 20th Cen
tury. I think it rather likes it. And I
don’t think the South will stay on the
lower level of the economic ladder.”