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PAGE 14—JUNE, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
LOUISIANA
Segregation Ruled Out
In Series Of Actions
(Continued from Page 12)
next fall, Bishop Robert E. Tracy an
nounced on June 6.
In a pastoral letter, he said all Cath
olic schools at the first, second, ninth
and 12th grades would be open for
enrollment without regard to race. De
segregation of parochial schools would
be completed by the fall of 1967.
Legal Action
School Segregation
Faces A Variety
B. Ellis of New Orleans. It included
approval of a plan to desegregate the
school over a four-year period.
Judge Ellis had ordered the school
board to devise a plan by May 14. That
proposal, which entailed desegregation
of the first and 12th grades next fall
and the two next grades each year
thereafter, proved not satisfactory to
the court or to attorneys for the plain
tiffs.
Judge Ellis said it would not meet
standards indicated by the U.S. Su
preme Court and courts of appeals. He
directed the board to hold additional
conferences to devise a plan acceptable
to both parties in the case and to the
court.
variations exist between the two groups
which necessarily include traits of
temperament, thought patterns, learn
ing capacities, and other elements di
rectly affecting the educational poten
tial of the group members.”
A. P. Tureaud, representing the
plaintiffs, objected that “such state
ments were merely hearsay” and their
“validity based on false premises” and
therefore inadmissible under terms oi
the Brown decision of 1954,
“The two cases still rest upon the
same considerations,” said Judge Put
nam, “whether or not desegregation oi
the two school systems should be con
sidered in view of the law of the land.
The court has no choice. It would be
somewhat ridiculous for a district
court to try to overrule a supreme
court or a court of appeals.”
Only two witnesses were called.
Nelson Trahan, father of one of the
plaintiff students, established that the
plaintiffs were till Negroes residing in
.Lafayette Parish. Acting Supt. Charles
Delana said a segregated school system
is in operation in Lafayette Parish.
Of Legal Attacks
The legal underpinning of segrega
tion in several areas of public educa
tion in Louisiana was attacked and fell
during May.
Desegregation of the last remaining
segregated college was ordered May
5. Desegregation by next fall also was
directed in cases involving 18 state-
operated vocational-technical schools
and in separate cases involving public
schools of St. Tammany Parish, Lafay
ette Parish and St. Landry Parish.
Court actions seeking public school
desegregation were filed against the
school boards of Caddo Parish, Natchi
toches Parish, Evangeline Parish, Liv
ingston Parish and Tangipahoa Parish.
Under consideration by U.S. District
Judge E. Gordon West of Baton Rouge
was a case seeking to end segregation
of public schools statewide by halting
distribution of state funds to segre
gated school districts.
In the Grambling College case
(Jamieson v. State Board of Education)
Judge West invalidated state laws des
ignating the state-operated school as
one exclusively for Negroes, but he
termed the “class action” status of the
case “a subterfuge.”
The plaintiff, a white New Yorker
who has been teaching at a Catholic
convent in Lafayette for a year, had
sought admission to Grambling for
herself and other white students “too
numerous to mention.”
Unable To Name
She was unable, however, when
questioned by the judge, to name any
other white person who had sought to
enter the all-Negro college. Asked why
she wanted to attend the Negro insti
tution, two-thirds of the way across the
state from her current residence, Miss
Jamieson replied:
“It is my understanding, it seems to
tne Grambling should be open to any
one. It does not seem farfetched at all
that there are other white people who
would like to go to Grambling.”
In the case applying to the state
vocational-technical schools, Judge
West issued a permanent injunction on
May 7 prohibiting discrimination
against Negro applicants seeking to
enroll at the 18 state-operated schools.
Ten others previously were desegre
gated in other court actions.
Judge West issued his blanket ruling
under terms of Title IV of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.
He said state education officials re
sponsible for the schools are finding
themselves “on the horns of a dilem
ma,’ unable to obey both state and
federal laws, until a federal court order
is issued.
While ordering complete desegrega
tion of the institutions, including five
for Negroes, Judge West reserved to
the schools the right to decide the
qualifications of applicants so long as
they do not include racial considera
tions. The court then declined to hear
a separate case brought by four Negro
women seeking enrollment at the
Avoyelles Vocational-Technical School,
saying that the current ruling applies
also to it.
Judge West on June 2 directed the
East Baton Rouge Parish school board
to accelerate its grade-a-year desegre
gation plan to complete the process by
the beginning of the 1968-69 term.
Desegregation was begun in East Ba
ton Rouge in 1963 at the 12th-grade
level, extended in 1964 to the 11th grade
and was to cover the 10th grade in
1965. Judge West ordered the board to
amend its plan to cover the first and
second grades also next fall and to re
vise its schedule to complete desegre
gation in three years.
He denied requests for desegregation
of teaching and administrative staff.
The order to desegregate the St.
Tammany Parish schools was issued
May 19 by U.S. District Judge Frank
On May 19, the board offered a pro
posal that would complete the deseg
regation process in four years instead
of six as envisioned under the original
plan. The revised plan also would de
segregate the first and 12th grades next
fall, and the second and 11th in the
1966-67 school year. But it provided for
acceleration of the process in 1967-68
when grades three, four, nine and 10
would be desegregated, with the re
maining four grades desegregated dur
ing 1968-69.
The approved plan also provides for
elimination of dual attendance zones
as the plan becomes applicable in the
various grades. Maps and plans for the
nonracial attendance zones are to be
submitted to the court for approval.
★ ★ ★
In the Lafayette and St. Landry
Parish cases, U.S. District Judge Rich
ard J. Putnam on May 12 ordered the
boards to submit plans within 20 days
for desegregation to begin next Sep
tember. The court indicated that it
looked favorably upon the plans sub
mitted by the Lake Charles and the
Calcasieu Parish school boards to an
other division of the court, which set
a timetable similar to that approved
by Judge Ellis above.
Both school boards resisted the de
segregation moves. Both filed answers
to the suit against them, admitting
operation of “biracial” racially separate
school systems but denying discrimina
tion. Both contended the court lacked
jurisdiction.
Representing the Lafayette board,
District Attorney Betrand DeBlanc ar
gued that the school board “has the
power to classify students providing
there is a reasonable basis for the
classification . . . Separation of the
races by law or custom in and of itself
is not proof of an unconstitutional dis
crimination, unless it appears that
there exists no valid ground for such
separation.”
And he said, white and Negro chil
dren “have substantially different edu
cational aptitudes and learning pat
terns ... To mix both races would be
highly injurious, from an educational
standpoint . . . Physical and mental
Miscellaneous
★ ★ ★
Halt in State Funds Asked
If Schools Are Segregated
A sweeping request that distribution
of state funds be halted to segregated
schools was taken under consideration
by Judge E. Gordon West of Baton
Rouge May 21. The suit, filed Feb. 17
on behalf of 25 St. Charles Parish Ne
groes, was amended May 10 to name
as defendants state Treasurer A. P.
Tugwell and state Auditor Roy The
riot, along with the State Board oi
Education and state Supt. William E.
Dodd. Defendants moved for dismiss
al.
During a hearing called on the mo
tion to dismiss, Judge West noted that
state law prohibits the state board
from interfering with the local school
boards over which it has no control.
He said to the attorneys for the
plaintiffs: “You may not like it and
the U.S. Department of Justice doesn’t
like it, but Louisiana does like it, and
that’s the way it’s going to be . . . This
court is bound by the law, even if
some of the others are not.
“There is no question that there are
prohibitions against segregation in
schools,” Judge West asserted. But, he
added, the way to apply the laws “is
to file the right suit, naming the right
defendants.”
Newly Filed
The six newly filed desegregation
suits were similar in language and
method. All alleged that requests to
enroll Negro children in white schools
had been turned down or ignored.
Injunctions were asked to prohibit
the defendant school boards from op
erating compulsory “biracial” (segre
gated) school systems and from assigning
students, teachers and other personnel
on the basis of race. The petitions also
asked that the defendants and their
agents be prohibited from making fi
nancial disbursements on the basis of
race, planning school construction or
conducting extracurricular activities
along racial lines.
As an alternative to the requested
Bogulusa Mayor Announces End
Of City Segregation Ordinances
The search for racial peace in Lou
isiana was punctuated by violence in
several areas during May.
In Bogalusa, negotiations between
the city government and protesting
Negroes resulted on May 23 in an
announcement by Mayor Jesse Cutrer
that all city ordinances requiring seg
regation would be repealed and that
Negroes would be hired for the police
force and other city departments.
White citizens moved for a recall elec
tion.
Bogalusa was the scene earlier in
the month of a white demonstration
staged by the United Conservatives of
Louisiana. Estimates of the turnout
ranged from 3,000 to 25,000.
The march and rally were held May
7 despite the suggestion of Gov. John
McKeithen and Mayor Cutrer that it
not be held. Two of the prinicpal
speakers, Leander Perez Sr. of Plaque
mines Parish and Sheriff Jim Clark of
Selma, Ala., withdrew at the request
of the governor.
Later in the month, a newspaper
photographer assigned to cover a
scheduled integration rally at a Bo
galusa park was mauled by a group
of about 30 white youths and some
$2,000 of photo equipment was de
stroyed.
There was other sporadic violence
involving the races in New Orleans.
Sanity Signs
t «is is no
■ Time fop
■DEMONSTRATIONS |
* ( CREATING
- /NC/DENTS’
pND trouble
NTS
itJfSc--:',
Temple, New Orleans Times-Picayune
City police and the FBI were investi
gating a series of about a dozen fire
bomb attacks on homes, automobiles
and churches of persons involved in
civil rights efforts.
A 21-year-old man was stabbed
to death in a street brawl between
white and Negro groups, which fol
lowed a brick-throwing incident by the
Negroes. Four Negro youths have been
charged with murder.
TENNESSEE
Vanderbilt Chancellor,
NAACP Director Speak
(Continued from Page 13)
which attorneys for both sides had
agreed upon in December.
Sixty-two Negro students attended
oiracial classes in the lower Middle
Tennessee district during the past year.
The Fayette County Board of Edu
cation was accused of denying 38 Negro
children access to white schools in a
federal court suit filed in Memphis on
June 2.
Filed by the National Association for
the Advancement ot Colored People
Legal Defense and Educational Fund,
the complaint contended that Negro
children otherwise are eligible to at-
cend white schools.
U.S. District Court, which was ex
pected to set a hearing date later, was
asked to grant a temporary restraining
order enjoining school officials from
operating a segregated school system.
Seven Fayette county white schools
are involved in the suit. Thirteen of
the Negro students are seeking admis
sion to Fayette County High School
and the other 25 expressed a desire to
enroll at six elementary schools.
The rural West Tennessee county has
been the scene of civil rights demon-
strations over an extended period of
time.
Miscellaneous
Relations Group
Chairman to Resign
The Rev. Sam R. Dodson, chairman
of Gov. Frank Clement’s Commission
on Human Relations, has announced
that he will resign soon.
The Rev. Mr. Dodson, pastor of Cal
vary Methodist Church in Nashville,
said he plans to
leave in July to
become minister
of the American
Church of Athens,
Greece.
No successor has
been appointed.
During the
month, the com
mission an
nounced the ap
pointment of a di
rector and assist
ant director for the 17-month-old ad
visory agency.
Named as director was Mark Israel,
now assistant director for the Ken
tucky Human Relations Commission.
Jerome Diamond, professor of political
science at the University of Tennessee,
was named Israel’s assistant.
★ ★ ★
The Hamilton County Board of Edu- ,
cation on May 13 rejected a request for
a public hearing by George L. Frank,
East Ridge Junior High School guid_
ance counselor who was reprimanded
last month.
Frank, who has notified the board he
will not return to his post this fall, was
cited by the board for failing to follow
instructions from his principal and for 1
permitting subjects including desegre
gation to be discussed in his classroom.
Attorney Manly A. Watson had called
for a public hearing for Frank, his {
client, but the board announced a writ
ten rejection of the plea. Watson said
the case would be taken to the courts.
I
What They Say
Race Distinctions
Will Continue,
Educator Says
Chancellor Alexander Heard of Van
derbilt University said in Nashville on
May 23 that abolition of racial dis
crimination will not remove socio-eco
nomic differences between the races in
the United States.
Heard made the statement during a
forum discussion at Calvary Methodist
Church in Nashville. He analyzed the
South as it has developed in the 100
years since the Civil War.
“Even if we had in the United States
the total elimination of discrimination,”
Heard continued, “differences in status
and achievement associated with color
would remain.” He added:
“The frontier for individual Negroes
and for those concerned about a pros
perous and healthy America moves be
yond simply the matter of discrimina
tion to matters affecting the general
social and economic well-being of the
country and its citizens.
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is but
another step in the social evolution of
the Negro. The insistence on social and
economic gains on the part of Negroes
will not subside.”
Heard said the legacy of many dec
ades of discrimination and handicap
would prevent an early solution to con
flicts and differences based, directly or
indirectly, on racial factors.
Wilkins Urges ‘Pressure."
DODSON
injunctions, the plaintiffs asked for
plans to reorganize the school systems
on a desegregated basis.
Three of the cases were filed in
Shreveport May 4, one in Baton Rouge
May 6 and one in New Orleans May 3.
The case of Jones v. Caddo Parish
School Board was accepted for the
Shreveport division of the U.S. Court to
be heard by Judge Ben Dawkins. The
case of Robertson b. Natchitoches Par
ish School Board was placed on the
docket of the Alexandria division
where Judge Edwin Hunter presides.
And the case of Graham v. Evangeline
Parish School Board went to the Opl-
lousas division, where Judge Richard
J. Putnam presides.
The case of Dunn v. the Livingston
Parish School Board is in the district
court at Baton Rouge, and will be
heard by Judge E. Gordon West. The
case of Moore v. Tangipahoa Parish
was filed in New Orleans and has been
assigned to Judge Frank B. Ellis.
★ ★ ★
The U.S. attorney general on May
28 asked federal district court to ac
celerate the desegregation process in
St. Helena Parish.
A suppVmental petition filed in the
case charged that the parish school
board has violated the desegregation
order of Aug. 6, 1964. The petition
asked that, in the fall, desegregation
be introduced at the first and second
grade levels as well as at the 9th and
10th, and that it proceed two grades
upward and two grades downward
each year thereafter until completed.
The 11th and 12th grades received
several Negro students last fall.
The Department of Justice petition
alleged that the school board has
maintained dual attendance zones in
violation of the court order and has
set requirements for Negroes seeking
transfers not applicable to white stu
dents. The petition asked that all stu
dents be given full access to all school
(See LOUISIANA, Page 15)
Replies to NAACP Critics
Roy Wilkins, executive director of
the National Association for the A -
vancement of Colored People, declar
in Memphis on May 16 that Negroes
should “keep up the pressure”
barriers to desegregation and criticiz
“irresponsible” elements in the C1V1
Ights movement. ,
Addressing about 2,000 members a
a rally observing the 11th anniversary
of the U. »
Supreme c ° urt
school desegrega
tion decision
praisi
; ed
Wilkins .
Memphis f°
“stepping ou
ahead of
areas in
South, Part‘d'
larly in voter reg
istration and P°*
tics.” a
wilkins Referring °
statement re**«
ly by Ed Hamlin, a member 0
Student Non-Violent Coor °!?»CP
Committee, who charged that N- ^
leaders were “another generation
another time,” Wilkins said:
“There is a tendency for f^ e y oVer
people, who must eventually ta ^ e
from their elders, to relieve tha
ing had been done until they aC .
along. They lapse into irresponsi
tions.” i960
“Somebody had to fight befor .
so they could fight after 1965, 3 s0
“Somebody had to clear the or
they could march.” ,, - of
Wilkins pointed to the foun 1 ^7.
the Memphis NAACP chapter in ^ a
which he said came in protes 0 f
“national wave of lynchings,
as one 1
the accomplishments of the P as |:, n0 t
Negro leaders, he said, sho
“even be talking” now about
desegregation. “They’ve had to-
he said. “Let’s get them in sen ^
gether. We have to educate °
dren now.”