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PAGE 6—JANUARY, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS ALABAMA New Suit Asks Mobile Schools For Total Plan MONTGOMERY petition asking for total de segregation of six grades in the Mobile school system, together with faculty desegregation, was filed in U.S. District Court in Mo bile Dec. 23. The new suit was filed before U.S. District Judge Daniel Thomas. It asked for desegregation of the first and sec ond grades in the city-county school system and the desegregation of all high-school grades, nine through 12. The court was asked to enjoin the school board “from continuing policies designed, intended and having the ef fect of minimizing school desegrega tion.” The petition noted that only seven of 15 Negro applicants for transfer were accepted in previously all-white schools last September and that only two of 20 applicants had been accepted the prev ious fall, when the school system was first desegregated. The rejected Negro applicants, ac cording to the suit filed by NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney Derrick Bell Jr., were condemned to “Negro schools which are inferior to white schools.” Critical of Board Bell’s petition also was critical of the board for allegedly failing to assure parents of Negro students of their rights and for not making it known that Ne gro students will not be denied equal treatment by teachers and other faculty personnel in white schools. The suit asked the court to require a “reasonable start” in the 1965-66 school term to “terminate the policy of assign ing all teachers and other faculty per sonnel on the basis of race or color.” The school board already is under federal court order to desegregate the 1st, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. The order followed a formula for minimum compliance laid down by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals June 18, 1964 (SSN, July, 1964). The formula, calling for desegrega tion of the first, 10th, 11th and 12th grades this school year, followed by two grades a year thereafter, from the higher grades down and the lower grades up, has been applied by all fed eral judges in Alabama in their orders to school boards. The formula calls for desegregation of all grades by 1969. Eight Districts Desegregation began with four dis tricts—Macon, Mobile, Birmingham and Huntsville in the fall of 1963—joined by four others last fall—Montgomery, Ma dison County, Bullock County and Gadsden. All desegregation was court- ordered. (SSN, September and Oc tober.) The total was 94 students in the eight districts where desegregation came for the first time last fall or was expanded. All districts are under orders to sub mit plans for further desegregation to the respective courts in January. If the minimum formula is imple mented, Mobile would desegregate the grades mentioned in Bell’s suit next fall. However, he sought a liberalized admission policy, desegregation of fac ulties, etc. ★ ★ ★ Alabama was directly affected by the U.S. Supreme Court refusal Dec. 7 to rule on Justice Department efforts to compel desegregation of public schools near military installations. The Ala bama case involved schools in the Huntsville area, site of vast federal space and rocket installations. (See Washington report.) The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap peals had ruled that “no occasion can arise for the suggested unprecedented and extremely dangerous exercise of the war powers to effect the operation of the public schools of the state.” The Supreme Court let the appellate de cision stand. Miscellaneous Tuskegee High Again Accredited Tuskegee High School—ordered de segregated in the fall of 1963, then closed in January of 1964 because of a total boycott by white students—was reaccredited Dec. 2 by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Alabama Highlights A petition seeking total desegre gation of six grades in the Mobile school system was filed in U.S. Dis trict Court. The new action also sought faculty desegregation. State Sen. Ryan deGraffenried of Tuscaloosa, runner-up to George C. Wallace in the 1962 gubernatorial primary, said in a speech that public excitement over the race issue seemed to be subsiding. Accreditation was withdrawn after the school was closed. Only the Negroes ordered admitted remained in attend ance. The school reopened with de segregated classes last September. Enrollment was down from the previous average of 250, but a substantial num ber of white students went back to class with 14 Negro students. ★ ★ ★ Gov. George C. Wallace sent a special Christmas message to the founders of Macon Academy, a private white school organized in 1963 to accomodate the students boycotting Tuskegee High. His message read: “I extend congratulations to the fine people who founded and developed Ma con Academy on their courage and determination. These people refused to surrender when their school system was taken over by the federal court system. It will take determination and spirit such as that shown by these fine people if we are to retain our individual li berty and freedom.” Wluil They Say DeGraffenried Says Race Issue Begins To ‘Settle Down’ Former State Sen. Ryan deGraffen ried of Tuscaloosa, runner-up to George C. Wallace in the 1962 gubernatorial contest and an unofficial candidate for the 1966 race, said in a Montgomery speech Dec. 11: “. . . In the race field, things are be ginning to settle down. I only hope that both sides will refrain from influencing people emotional ly so that we can accomplish some thing.” The race issue is important, he said, but it is not the only issue. The state cannot afford to be “bogged down in race to the exclu sion of all else.” In the 1962 cam paign, deGraffenried was generally re garded as a moderate segregationist. He warned against the danger and futility of defiance. He has been outspoken in his insistence on law and order. Reflecting on the Nov. 3 defeat of the Deomcratic Party in Alabama, the chairman of the State Democratic Exe cutive Committee told a Mobile audi ence in December that Alabama has “gotten out of the mainstream of American political life.” He said the reason was “the emo tional issue of segregation,” which gave Alabama to Sen. Barry Goldwater, ousted five Democratic Congressmen and defeated many Democratic office holders on the local level. “We have become more like a colony than a state,” Judge Roy Mayhall of Jasper said. “We need to get back into the United States. This nation can’t exist as 50 separate countries.” He said that in the campaign before the general election “the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations raised the segrega tion issue for emotional effect.” Their real purpose, he added, “is to control the economic life of the country.” Alabamians should know, Mayhall declared, that “we are part of this country and we can’t fight the federal government.” Young people have been led to feel that “they do not need to respect our courts or our laws,” May hall said. That attitude can lead to trouble, he added. ★ ★ ★ Much of the same note was sounded by outgoing Congressman Carl Elliott of Jasper, loser in the Democratic pri mary last June after 16 years in Con gress. At a testimonial dinner in Birmingham, he said he regretted not having done more “to heal the breach that is splitting our state from the rest of the country.” DE GRAFFENRIED ARKANSAS Rights Act (Continued from Page 1) court has approved. Mrs. Martin said it could. Whitmore said that desegregation was moving smoothly in the Pine Bluff and Dollarway districts because both school boards had taken pains to edu cate their patrons to the requirements of their programs. This takes time, he said, but “it’s much more important to work with deliberation than it is to have immediate compliance.” Determan said it had been deter mined that the school lunch and milk programs were designed to furnish nourishment, not as aids to education, and so desegregation is not required to take part in those programs. But this aid still must be distributed “on an equitable basis” among schools and pu pils of different races, he noted. To Smooth Desegregation Federal programs under the Civil Rights Act to smooth the desegregation process in local school districts were also described to the schoolmen. Mrs. Martin said these programs could be the most far-reaching under the act and expressed disappointment that they did not appear to generate much excitement at the meeting. There are three of the programs. One is technical assistance, in which either consultants are sent to the local dis tricts or material such as reports, films and other information is furnished to the district for its information and guidance. Another covers in-service training of teachers in desegregation problems or the employment of special ists on these problems, for which fed eral grants will be available. The third is special training in desegregation problems at colleges, for which teachers may receive grants for their fees and expenses. ★ ★ ★ Another request for relief of over crowding of Jones Junior-Senior High, for Negroes, at North Little Rock was made Dec. 10 and was immediately turned down. Some of the Negro students could be transferred to the white junior high schools at mid-term, it was suggested by John W. Smith, Negro building con tractor. Leon Hoisted, board president, answered, “You can’t burst into any school in the middle of the year. The white junior highs are crowded, too.” The Jones School situation has been a sore point with the Negro community for several years, both because it is crowded and because both junior and senior students attend the same school. ‘Crowded Situation’ Smith said at a school board meeting: “What plan does the board have to do something about the crowded situation at Jones? It was built for 600 and now there are 1.300 students. I am asking the board to look into this situation. I have six children and if they are not getting their share, then it is my duty as a parent to counsel them to see that they get their share. There are three junior high schools for white children and none for the colored children.” Hoisted said the Negro community was no more concerned about this than was the school board. He said the board had twice asked for higher taxes to build a new Negro school and twice the increase had been “turned down by both the white and Negro communi ties.” Supt. F. B. Wright said the board had needed the tax increase to build a new Negro elementary school, and then would have converted Lincoln Elemen tary to a junior high for Negroes. The last money from the 1960 construction bond issue went to complete Crestwood Provisions Mrs. Ruby G. Martin Civil rights lawyer. Elementary, for whites, he explained, and “we are at a standstill until we can go back to the people again and ask for more millage.” What They Say Newspaper Criticizes Civil Rights Law The Arkansas Democrat of Little Rock has made plain before its disap proval of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Two of the paper’s editorials in De cember included the following: On Dec. 1: “Burke Marshall, assistant U. S. attorney general, who heads the civil rights division in the Justice De partment, calls the new civil rights act an overwhelming success. It is a dismal success in one respect. It writes into free America’s law an act which be longs in a Communist code. Look at the following citation from Title VI of the new act; ‘No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiv ing federal assistance.” The Democrat then listed school dis tricts among the agencies that will be affected by that provision and con cluded, “If it isn’t repealed, or sharply Arkansas Highlights How the new Civil Rights Act will affect public schools was ex plained Dec. 7 at a meeting of school officials and others at Little Rock. Negro plaintiffs in the new Little Rock desegregation lawsuit filed 32 questions for the school board to answer before the trial. Legal Action Explained toned down, as we believe it will be a blackjack should replace the torch which the Statue of Liberty holds aloft ” On Dec. 12: “Federal aid not only will be used as bait for speeding inte. gration but that assistance will give the U. S. Office of Education under the civil rights law direct entry into local school matters. . . . Now it has a mandate from Congress to take an active part in as sisting desegregation of public educa tion facilities. . . . Direct federal control of education will start Jan. 4 when the civil rights law goes into effect.” Community Action Citizens’ Council Meets in Texarkana A meeting was held the night of Dec. 10 at the Grim Hotel, the main down town hotel in Texarkana, for what was called the remobilization of the Tex arkana Citizens’ Council. Thirty-eight persons attended, and 35 signed mem bership cards; 460 persons had been invited. The Citizens’ Councils appeared in Arkansas in 1955 as a direct result of the 1954 Supreme Court decision and were active for several years, especially in opposing school desegregation at Hoxie, Little Rock and Dollarway-Pine Bluff. But little has been heard from them in the last four or five years. The Texarkana meeting was organ ized by W. V. Brown Sr., a lawyer; G. A. Couch, owner of an electrical firm; Weldon Glass, in the insurance busi ness, and Robert Beeson, pharmacist. The meeting was publicized in advance in the local papers and one of the speakers, Dr. Medford Evans of Jack- son, Miss., consultant to the Citizens' Councils of America, spoke the day before the meeting to the Texarkana Kiwanis Club. The other speaker was Richard D. Morphew of Jackson, Miss., public relations director of the Citizens' Councils of America. Their theme was that Communists are involved in a conspiracy to over throw the existing order in the world with racial agitation. ★ ★ ★ The Arkansas Project of the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) announced that it would move its headquarters in January from Pine Bluff to Little Rock. SNCC now has offices at Pine Bluff and Helena, and plans to open offices at Camden, El Dorado and Texarkana, in addition to Little Rock. James O. Jones, 21, Negro, heads SNCC in Arkansas, assisted by William W. Hansen Jr., 22, white, both of Pin e Bluff. They said the Little Rock head quarters would be maintained by Miss Arlene Wilgoren, 22, of Boston, a grad uate of Brandeis University, who was sent to Arkansas in August from the SNCC office in New York. Negroes File List of Questions For Board in Little Rock Suit Negro plaintiffs in the new Little Rock school desegregation lawsuit (Clark v. Matson) filed 32 questions Dec. 18 for the school board to answer before trial which was scheduled for Jan. 5. This is done under a federal court procedure designed to shorten the amount of testimony to be given during a trial. All the questions dealt with the school board’s policies and record in desegregation. The school board says it stopped using school attendance or registration areas in 1959 and since then has as signed pupils to schools according to the criteria in the state pupil assignment law. The Negroes contend that the board has used the assignment law in an unconstitutional way to limit the amount of desegregation, and that the board should have an attendance area for each school with all pupils in that area attending that school. This would mean that whites would be in the minority in some schools. Some of the questions, which were written by John W. Walker of York and Little Rock, one of tomeys for the Negro plaintiffs, to • “Set out with particularity^ geographic registration areas of school and attach a map which such areas to your response. • “List the names, addresses, set* * attended and reason for assl *P" ar e thereto of all white students w ^ presently enrolled in schools o their ‘registration’ areas.” u • “During the 1961-1964 sC ear - years, what was the number, on a ^ er . by-year basis, of Negroes whose p ence for attending Horace School [for Negroes] was deIU< T' eSS of • “Set out the name and a * each white student who has e jjjc assigned to predominantly Negr schools in Little Rock.” yob • “Are there any obstacle will prevent the racially »°^ dents 10 inatory assignment of alt _ . erl ibe r the public schools for the „ 1965 school term? If so, list tn