Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12—DECEMBER, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Text of Decision on Tuition
Grants in Two Counties
(Continued from Page 11)
or circumstances present.” Burton v.
Wilmington Parking Authority, 365
U. S. 715, 726 (1961).
We affirm as well warranted Judge
Butzner’s ruling that the plaintiffs in
the Surry County case are entitled to
an award of counsel fees.
Normally jurisdictional questions
would be dealt with at the beginning
rather than near the end of an opinion,
but in this instance we have reserved
the jurisdictional question till now be
cause it can be discussed more con
veniently and more briefly after the
facts and other issues have been fully
presented.
Jurisdiction Challenged
The defendants challenge the juris
diction of the individual district judges
to decide the issues raised and hence
the jurisdiction of this court to hear
the appeals from their decisions. The
argument is that the issues presented
can be adjudicated only by three-
judge district courts designated under
28 U.S.C.A. S 2281. We disagree. The
plaintiffs do not attack the constitution
ality of any state statute on its face;
they contend only that the Virginia
tuition grant statute is being applied
in an unconstitutional manner in the
two comities. The Supreme Court has
ruled in Griffin v. School Board, 377
U. S. 218 (1964), that a single judge !
district court has jurisdiction to hear
and decide the merits of such an ac
tion. That the decision might have re
percussions beyond the counties in
volved or that the resulting order will
run to parties outside the counties does
not defeat the single judge’s jurisdic- j
tion.
“(W)hat is attacked in this suit is
not something which the State has
commanded (the County) to do . . .
but rather something which the county
with state acquiescence and co-opera
tion has undertaken to do on its own
volition, a decision not binding on any
other county in Virginia. Even though
actions of the State are involved, the
case, as it comes to us, concerns not a
state-wide system but rather a situa
tion unique to (the) County. We hold
that the single district judge did not
err in adjudicating this present con
troversy.” Griffin v. School Board, 377
U. S. 218, 228 (1964).
We hold that Judge Lewis and Judge
Butzner had jurisdiction to entertain
and decide the cases heard by them
respectively, and it follows that juris
diction to review their orders is lodged
in this court.
Contempt Motion
Plaintiffs have moved this court to
cite the Prince Edward County Board
of Supervisors in contempt for distrib
uting tuition grants during the night
of August 4, 1964. The plaintiffs assert
that the Board intended these nocturnal
distributions to serve two purposes,
payment of 1963-64 and 1964-65 tuition
grants, each constituting a contempt of
this court. It is first contended that the
increase in the amount of the grants
constituted an indirect reimbursement
to parents for tuition costs incurred
during 1963-64 in violation of the order
of July 2 signed by Judge Bell. That
order could not have been violated on
August 4, since it expired on July 9
when Judge Lewis, with consent of the
parties, entered his permanent decree
enjoining payment of 1963-64 grants.
From the consent order there was of
course no appeal. When the payments
were made, therefore, no appeal from
Judge Lewis’ order was pending, as
Judge Bell’s restraining order con
templated.
However one may describe the in
crease in the grants, it is undisputed
that part of the August 4 payments was
for the 1964-65 school year. Judge
Haynsworth, showing the defendants
the consideration of asking them for a
stipulation that such funds would iw
be paid out pending appeal, did not
enter an order to that effect himself
Therefore, the payment of the grants
did not constitute a violation of a di 1
rect order from this court.
We do not now pass on the motion
for a contempt citation, but remand to
the District Court for further inqum,
into the facts surrounding the
ments. The precise circumstances
there be developed in detail, and we
will then be in a position to determine
whether a contempt of this court has
occurred through a destruction of the
res during the pendency of the appeal
in respect to 1964-65 tuition payments
Judge Lewis is also fully empowered
to consider whether any of the de
fendants has committed a contempt of
his order of July 9 by paying indirect,
ly, as plaintiffs charge, 1963-64 tuition
grants.
The cases are remanded for further
action consistent with the above views
THE REGION
Number of Negroes in Classes
With Whites Almost Doubled
(Continued from Page 1)
area has consolidated to a total of
3,022 districts, with 730 having both
races and 678 of these are desegregated.
The Southern and border region to
gether increased the number of de
segregated districts from 1,161 last year
to 1,282 this year. The combined region
dropped from 6,120 public school dis
tricts to a new total of 5,973, and the
number of these having both races de
creased from 3,027 to 2.950 this year.
Additional districts desegregated in
every Southern state this fall. North
Carolina added the largest number of
Books
and the Issue
The following hooks have been
received by the library of Southern
Education Reporting Service:
BLACK RELIGION: The Negro and
Christianity in the United States
by Joseph R. Washington Jr. Beacon
Press, Boston, 1964, 308 pp.
THE URBAN COMPLEX: Human
Values in Urban Life
by Robert C. Weaver. Doubleday and
Co., Garden City, N.Y., 1964, 297 pp.
RACE RIOTS: New York 1964
by Fred C. Shapiro and James W.
Sullivan. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.,
New York, 1964, 222 pp.
WHITE TEACHER IN A BLACK
SCHOOL
by Robert Kendall. Devin-Adair Co.,
New York, 1964, 241 pp.
SOUL OF THE REPUBLIC: The
Negro Today
by Herbert Aptheker. Marzani &
Munsell, Inc., New York, 1964, 122 pp.
THE MAN BILBO
by A. Wigfall Green. Louisiana State
University Press, Baton Rouge, La.,
1963, 150 pp.
RESIDENCE AND RACE: Report to
the Commission on Race and Housing
by Davis McEntire. University of
California Press, Berkeley, 1960, 409
pp.
MR. LINCOLN AND THE NEGROES
by William O. Douglas. Atheneum,
New York, 1964, 237 pp.
PREJUDICE AND YOUR CHILD
by Kenneth B. Clark. Beacon Press,
Boston, 1963 (Enlarged edition), 247
pp.
ASSURING FREEDOM TO THE FREE
edited by Arnold M. Rose. Wayne
State University Press, Detroit, 1964,
306 pp.
newly desegregated districts of any
state, rising by 44 to a new total of 84.
Texas and Virginia ranked next, adding
27 and 26, respectively. South Carolina
and Tennessee each gained 15, and
Arkansas reported 11 new ones. The
increases in the other Southern states
included Alabama, four; Florida, five;
Georgia, seven; Louisiana, one; and
Mississippi, four (from a previous
zero).
Of the 1,282 desegregated districts in
the region, 1,240 actually have Negroes
attending the same schools with whites,
and the remaining 42 are desegregated
Texas
(Continued from Page 10)
ness.” He testified that rushing the
process might stir emotions.
“A few individuals can create a mob
atmosphere,” Downing commented.
What They Say
Rankin Says South
May Be Fastest
Dr. Robert S. Rankin of Duke Uni
versity, a Democrat appointed by Presi
dent Eisenhower to the U.S. Civil
Rights Commission in 1960, predicted
that the South may solve its racial
problems faster than the North.
The chairman of Duke’s political
science department expressed hope that
some day the commission on which he
serves can be abolished as unnecessary.
Appearing at Rice University, Rankin
observed “I’d rather be a Negro in
North Carolina than in Newark, N.J.
“The transfer of students (from
Negro to white neighborhoods) is not
the ultimate solution,” Rankin said. “In
the South (Negroes) seem to be trying
to get into schools, while in the North,
they are trying to get out of schools.”
★ ★ ★
Gov. John Connally said he has un
der advisement the possibility, pre
viously mentioned, that the state gov
ernment should set up a civil rights
commission to review cases of alleged
discrimination, rather than leaving that
field entirely to the federal government,
where machinery is otherwise provided
for action under the Civil Rights Act
of 1964.
THE URBAN NEGRO IN THE SOUTH
by Wilmoth A. Carter. Vantage Press,
New York, 1961, 272 pp.
A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE
NEGRO IN AMERICA
by Langston Hughes and Milton
Meltzer. Crown Publishers Inc., New
York, 1963 (revised edition), 347 pp.
in policy only. Several of the region’s
districts having only one race enrolled
—all-white or all-Negro districts—also
have announced desegregation policies,
but these are not included in the num
ber of desegregated districts.
24 Per Cent Negro
Statistics from the new survey show
that the region’s total enrollment of
14.8 million students is about 24 per
cent Negro. Although over half of
these Negroes (53 per cent) attend
schools in desegregated districts, only
10.8 per cent actually are in schools
with whites.
In the South, the total enrollment is
almost 27 per cent Negro, and about 46
per cent of the Negro students are in
desegregated districts. Only 2.14 per
cent of the South’s Negro enrollment
is in public schools with whites.
The border area has a public school
enrollment that is 15 per cent Negro,
and 96 per cent of these Negroes are
in desegregated districts. Over half
(59 per cent) attend schools with
whites.
Comparing the Southern and border
areas, the South has 85 per cent of the
region’s total Negro enrollment of
almost three million. But of the
region’s 379,321 Negroes in desegregated
schools, only 17 per cent of these are
in Southern states and the other 83
per cent are in the border areas.
143 Public Colleges
Are Desegregated
In 11-State Area
The 11-state Southern area has 143
desegregated public colleges and uni
versities, according to the annual
statistical survey by Southern Educa
tion Reporting Service.
Desegregation at the college level has
put approximately 31,927 Negroes in
schools with whites, although only
7,051 are in predominantly white
schools. The others are in predominant
ly Negro schools attended by small
numbers of whites. Altogether, the area
has an estimated 537,939 whites in de
segregated public colleges and universi
ties.
Every state in the South has begun
desegregation at the college and uni
versity level. Arkansas, North Carolina
and Tennessee have desegregation
policies at all their public-supported
institutions of higher learning. All six
border states—Delaware, Kentucky,
Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma and
West Virginia—and the District of
Columbia have desegregated all 80 of
their public colleges and universities.
The Southern and border region to
gether have approximately 47,534
Negroes in biracial public colleges,
with about 12,481 of them in predomi
nantly white schools. The exact num
ber of white and Negro students
involved in college-level desegregation
is unknown, since many states report
they no longer keep records by race.
The South has 180 public colleges
and universities that are all-white or
predominantly white, and 126 of these
are desegregated. Of the 39 all-Negro
or predominantly Negro schools, 17
have desegregated.
Eleven Years
Of School Desegregation
At a Glance
The up-to-date facts and figures for each of the 17 Southern
and border states, plus the District of Columbia, and for
the region as a whole, are in the 1964-65 issue of
Statistical Summary
The Summary, now ready for distribution, includes the
latest information available on
• Public school and college enrollments by race for each state
• Negroes in public schools and colleges with whites
• Desegregated school districts
• State laws enacted since 1954
• Court decisions and the status of pending cases
• Effects of desegregation on public school teachers and college faculties
• Desegregation policies for trade and special schools
• Status of desegregation for ethnic groups
• An analysis of desegregation statistics
PRICE: $1 a copy.
SPECIAL OFFER: Purchasers of the Summary are entitled
to obtain, for only $1 more, a copy of "Southern Schools:
Progress and Problems," a book compiled and edited by
Southern Education Reporting Service.
To assure prompt receipt of the new Statistical Summary, the only
source of comprehensive desegregation facts for the 1964-65 school y ea >
send your order on the coupon below to
Southern Education Reporting Service
P.O. Box 6156
Nashville, Tenn. 37212
Please send copies of the Statistical Summary at $1 each
copies of the book, “Southern Schools: Progr®^
and Problems” at file special price of $1 eaC ^
Payment of $ is enclosed
Send to:
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