Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—JANUARY, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
WASHINGTON REPORT
Justice Department Files
Two Desegregation Suits
(Continued from Page 1)
of the Senate having legislative juris
diction over the program involved, a
full written report of the circumstances
and the grounds for such action.”
Any action to withhold federal funds
must be limited to the specific locality
and program held to be in violation of
Title VI, the regulations stress. The
law includes provision for judicial re
view of any decision to cut off funds.
★ ★ ★
The U.S. Office of Education re
ported Dec. 31 that more than 1,200
school districts, including almost 300
in the South, had notified the govern
ment of their interest in receiving
financial or technical assistance under
Title IV of the Civil Rights Act.
Title IV authorizes the Office of
Education to provide such assistance to
school districts planning to desegre
gate. Congress appropriated $8 million
for the purpose last October.
Almost 300 universities, including 85
in the South, had indicated by Dec. 31
that they would be interested in spon
soring special institutes next summer to
train teachers, counselors and admin
istrators to deal effectively with school
desegregation problems.
★ ★ ★
High Court Declines
To Review Decision
Negroes are mentally inferior. (No. !
512, Roberts v. Stell; see Georgia re
port.)
★ ★ ★
Humphrey Appointed
Rights Co-ordinator;
Aided bv Marshall
Vice President-elect Hubert H. Hum- |
phrey was named by President Johnson |
Dec. 10 to coordinate the administra
tion’s civil rights efforts toward the
“energetic pursuit of equal opportunity
for all people in this nation.”
Humphrey, who immediately started
a survey of federal civil rights activi
ties, is being assisted by Burke Mar
shall, who resigned Dec. 18 as assistant
attorney general in charge of the Civil
Rights Division.
The President appointed John Doar,
who had been Marshall’s principal as
sistant at the justice department, as his
successor.
Designation of the Vice President
elect as civil rights coordinator was
announced by Johnson in a speech to
the Community Action Assembly of
the National Urban League.
Among the agencies falling within
Humphrey’s jurisdiction are the Civil
Rights Commission, the President’s
committees on equal opportunities in
‘If You Think the First
Step Was Hard . .
Engelhardt, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Marshall added that “the policy focus
of federal civil rights efforts in general,
and especially on employment and im
plementation of Title VI (of the Civil
Rights Act), should not in my judg
ment any longer rest in the Department
of Justice.”
In accepting the resignation, Johnson
praised Marshall for playing “ an ex
traordinary role in this significant area
of human progress.”
“In 33 years’ service with the federal
government I have never known any
person who rendered a better quality
of public service,” the President said.
He said he was happy that Marshall
would help co-ordinate civil rights
programs to ensure “a unity of direc
tion and purpose” and avoid dupli
cation.
On Impacted Areas
The Supreme Court declined on Dec.
7 to review a decision of the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals that, before
enactment of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, the federal government had no
standing to sue for desegregation of
schools receiving federal aid under
the “impacted areas” program.
The Supreme Court’s action (No.
473, U.S. v. Madison County Board),
applied to cases involving three dis
tricts—Madison County, Ala., and Gulf
port and Harrison County (Biloxi),
Miss.—which have received more than
$8 million since 1950 in federal aid
under the impacted-areas program,
which assists school districts serving
large numbers of military dependents.
In recent years the justice depart
ment has filed a number of suits seek
ing to end segregation in districts re
ceiving impacted-areas aid. Most of
the suits have been dismissed by courts
holding that the justice department
was without standing to sue.
Under Title TV of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, the department may initi
ate desegregation suits in certain in
stances where individual plaintiffs are
unable to take legal action. Title VI of
the act provides for withholding fed
eral aid funds from segregated activi
ties.
War Powers
The justice department appealed to
the Supreme Court after the U.S. Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals in New Or
leans dismissed suits which contended
war powers could be used to prevent
school boards from racially segregating
children of members of the armed
forces and of civilian employes of the
military.
The circuit court had stated: “No
occasion can arise for the suggested
unprecedented and extremely danger
ous exercise of the war powers to
effect the operation of the public
schools of the state.”
In its appeal to the Supreme Court,
the department said the United States
“because it is indirectly injured and
because it is, in a real sense, the
‘guardian’ of the service personnel af
fected, may represent them in court
when their assignment subjects them
to unconstitutional treatment.”
To receive “impacted area” funds,
school districts agreed to provide gov
ernment dependents with schooling on
the same terms as other children and
“in accordance with the laws of the
state.”
The lower court said that did not
mean nondiscrimination. But the jus
tice department contended that legal
decisions and laws against discrimina
tion had expanded the agreement’s
meaning to include a nondiscrimination
provision.
★ ★ ★
The Supreme Court refused to hear
a contention that its 1954 school deseg
regation ruling should be reconsidered
in the light of asserted showings that
HUMPHREY MARSHALL
housing and employment, the Civil
Rights Division of the justice depart
ment, the Community Relations Serv
ice of the Commerce Department and
the new Equal Employment Oppor
tunities Commision to be established
under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Recommendations Expected
Humphrey met with officials of these
and other government agencies during
December, and was expected to present
recommendations on co-ordinating ac
tions to the President before Congress
convened. There was speculation that
one possible recommendation might be
establishment of a single civil rights
agency to take charge of functions now
scattered among various federal offices.
Marshall, who had headed the Civil
Rights Division since 1961, was one
of the principal architects of the ad
ministration’s civil rights policy, and
played a major role in such racial
crises as the University of Mississippi
disorders.
In his letter of resignation to the
President, Marshall said that “the task
of eliminating discrimination in voting,
education and those places of public
accomodation that are engaged in a
pattern of resistance to the law is
now a straightforward matter of liti
gation, requiring primarily adminis
trative skills, hard work and good
lawyers.”
Doar, a Republican who was brought
into the justice department during the
Eisenhower administration, is a 43-
year-old native of Minneapolis. He is a
graduate of Princeton University and
the University of California law school.
Last June, Doar received the Presi
dent’s Award for Distinguished Federal
Civilian Service, the highest honor a
career government employe can re
ceive.
★ ★ ★
Commissioner Says
Profession Should
Drop Race Harriers
Elimination of racial barriers within
the profession of education is the next
major civil rights challenge facing the
schools, U.S. Commissioner of Educa
tion Francis Keppel declared Dec. 10.
“The end of discrimination in the
schools of democracy . . . will be only
half accomplished if we achieve inte
gration among the children alone,”
Keppel told delegates to Community
Action Assembly of the National Urban
League.
“What is the value of integrating our
students if we, their teachers and ad
ministrators, remain as segregated as
ever?” he asked.
“What good does it do to preach and
teach equality of opportunity to young
sters if we do not practice it our
selves?”
Keppel said potentially excellent
teachers, principals and school super
intendents are being shunted aside by
their colleagues because of race and
I color.
“This is neither moral, nor legal,
Washington Highlights
The U.S. Department of Justice
filed its first two school desegregation
suits under new powers granted in
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Seven federal departments and
agencies handling major government
aid programs announced regulations
for implementation of Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars
racial discrimination in federally as
sisted activities. President Johnson
said every effort would be made to
bring about compliance with the act
without withholding federal funds.
The Supreme Court declined to
review a lower court’s ruling that
the justice department had no stand
ing to sue for desegregation of
schools receiving “impacted areas”
aid funds.
Vice President-elect Hubert H.
Humphrey was named by the Presi
dent to co-ordinate the administra
tion’s civil rights efforts. Burke
Marshall, who resigned as assistant
attorney general in charge of the
Civil Rights Division, was assisting
Humphrey in a study of government
activities in the civil rights field.
President Johnson named John Doar
to succeed Marshall at the justice
department.
U.S. Commissioner of Education
Francis Keppel said elimination of
racial barriers in the teaching pro
fession is the next major civil rights
challenge facing the schools.
TEXAS
Gov. Connally May Ask
For Civil Rights Agency
AUSTIN
G ov. John Connally was ex
pected to ask the legislature
in J anuary to establish a state
service to review civil rights dis
putes, to keep the federal govern
ment from exercising exclusive
jurisdiction in this area.
Connally has made plain that he ex
pects the state “to continue its progress
without the need for outside help.”
This comment came in a conference last
October with LeRoy Collins, director of
the federal Community Relations Serv
ice.
The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964
provides for charges of discrimination
to be reviewed by state or local agen
cies, if such exist, before the courts or
federal government act.
The United Political Organization,
composed mostly of Negroes who have
supported Gov. Connally politically,
urged him to include creation of a state
human relations committee in his pro
gram submitted to the new legislature.
The U. S. Supreme Court’s decision
upholding the federal law’s public ac
commodation provision in two restau
rant cases was viewed here as making
more likely that the state legislature
would act on the subject.
Adopts Ordinance
Corpus Christi’s City Council adopted
an ordinance providing for corporation
court fines of $25 to $200 against per
sons found guilty of discriminating in
places of public accommodation because
of race, color, or ethnic origin. The
ordinance also established a Human Re
lations Committee.
El Paso and San Antonio have ordi
nances similar to Corpus Christi’s. The
Austin City Council has refrained from
adopting any penal provision regarding
nor rational,” he said. “And it is em
phatically unprofessional.”
If educators believe in equality of
opportunity for children, Keppel as
serted, “then surely we must believe
in full equality
of opportunity
within our pro
fession. And act
now.”
The schools
must begin at
once to devote
“their best re
sources and at
tention to the
children who re
quire them most
—the children of
poverty and discrimination,” Keppel
said.
“For too long,” he added, “we have
failed to recognize, and act on our
recognition, that ‘separate but equal’
is not freedom and is not equality—
in the South, in the North, or anywhere
else.”
★ ★ ★
Southern schools at all levels are
falling further and further behind
those of other parts of the country,
Associate U.S. Commissioner of Edu
cation Ralph C. M. Flynt said Dec. 20.
Flynt, a 60-year-old native Georgian
who is rounding out 30 years in the
U.S. Office of Education, gave his views
in an interview with the Associated
Press.
“The present generation of Southern
students is more disadvantaged than
my generation,” Flynt said.
He said the South has not been able
to keep up with the rest of the nation
in developing its educational resources
because of a lack of funds. Even where
Southern states have made major ef
forts to step up their school programs,
he noted, the results have not kept
pace with other regions.
He called for a doubling and re
doubling of educational efforts in the
South.
★ ★ ★
Appointment of Arnold S. Trebach as
director of Howard University’s new
law and human rights program was
announced by the university Dec. 27.
The program, sponsored by the
Howard law school and the university’s
Center for Youth and Community
Studies, is designed to develop teaching
and research projects in such fields as
legal rights of the poor, crime and
mental health, juvenile law, civil rights
and civil liberties.
Trebach, a former official of the U.S.
Civil Rights Commission and the Na
tional Legal Aid and Defender As
sociation, will also serve as associate
director of the center and lecturer in
the law school.
KEPPEL
Texas Highlights
Gov. John Connally was expected
to ask the legislature in January t 0
establish a state anti-discrimination
agency, to keep the federal govern,
ment from pre-empting this field.
A federal judge approved Beau,
mont’s new policy to desegregate
all grades next September, replacing
a grade-a-year plan.
Bishop College announced plans to
send 25 of its students to Southern
Methodist University, also in Dallas
to help Negroes upgrade their edu-
cation and to encourage them to take
graduate training in Texas rather
than going North or East.
Dr. W. T. White defended Dallas
schools against their critics, while
an industrial educational consultant
said Dallas’s peaceful desegregation
deserved wider publicity than it re
ceived.
operation of business firms.
Volma Overton, president of the
Austin branch, National Association for
Advancement of Colored People, issued
a warning to city officials that “a return
to the streets” is likely unless the City
Council establishes a Human Relations
Council and adopts an anti-discrimina
tion ordinance. Earlier this year,
Negroes and some whites staged a sit-
in at the City Council chamber for this
purpose, and a Negro occupied the
mayor’s chair for several hours while
the City Council abandoned its meeting
room.
Overton complained of “tokenism” in
desegregation in Texas. However, pub
lic reports of actual discrimination in
recent months have been almost non
existent.
In the Colleges
Houston Program
To Start In Fall
At Houston, Dr. John E. Codwell an
nounced that a $2.8-million, five-year
“crash program” to assist culturally
deprived Negroes in six public schools
likely will get under way next fall.
The Ford Foundation will finance the
project, one of several planned for
Southern school systems. The purpose
is to assist Negro students in reaching
the national level of academic perform
ance. Texas Southern University, the
University of Houston and Rice Uni
versity will assist in the project.
★ ★ ★
Dr. John H. Furbay, educational con
sultant for General Motors and Trans
World Airlines, told a Dallas audience
that the city’s peaceful desegregation
of schools in September, 1961, deserved
greater publicity than it received.
“We should have played up t ' ie
Dallas integration,” said Dr. Furbray
“We don’t play up our good efforts
enough. It seems we put our w0
merchandise in the window f° r
world to see, like Little Rock and 15
sissippi.”
★ ★ ★
Negroes’ political opportunity is
ing, and one some day may
president of the United States,
fomia Assemblyman Mervyn 1
mally told students at Texas Sou
University in Houston. jj,
Dymally, a Negro, was born
Trinidad, British West Indies.
“Ten years ago, people were sa^
that a Catholic could never be P,
dent, but John F. Kennedy P ^
them wrong,” Dymally said, no in (
rise of Negroes in elective offi ceS -
★ ★ ★
At the University of Texas,
peas
de-
Morris Keeton of Antioch 0
fended “responsible” civil th 31
“morally obligatory, ^ a ^ jt h 35
de-
“dissent has cost us dearly,
also enlarged freedom • • • . yak
Dr. Charles L. Black Jr- ^ de
law faculty, on the same pr°g ,, tfie
scribed as “facile and mis ea , la"’’
idea that citizens may ^ isre B ut
which they consider to be
(See TEXAS, P*g e
4)