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ALABAMA
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE, 1965—PAGE 9
Alabama
School Boards Seek To Comply;
Ignore State Requests for Delay
MONTGOMERY
ocal boards of education,
ignoring the wishes of Gov.
George C. Wallace and a legisla
tive resolution (See Legislative
Action) urging them not to make
any more “compliance” agree
ments with the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare,
flocked to accommodate to HEW’s
directives.
In general, most boards relied on a
freedom-of-choice plan for four grades,
leaving it to Negroes to initiate trans
fer.
At last count, 111 of the state’s 118
local boards had attempted, in one way
or another, to comply—by signing
compliance forms, submitting desegre
gation plans or offering a court order.
Nine systems had already begun deseg
regation, either last fall or the previous
fall. One of them moved voluntarily—
Sheffield, which accepted without pub
licity seven Negroes into previously all-
white schools last fall. The others, all
under court orders which included di
rected extension of desegregation, are:
Birmingham, Huntsville, Madison
County, Gadsden, Montgomery, Macon
County, Bullock County and Mobile.
HEW accepted the plans of at least
13 boards, those of Dothan, Selma,
Alexander City, Tallahassee, Huntsville,
Colbert County, Florence, Enterprise,
Russellville, Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals,
Lauderdale County and Geneva County.
Some promised “total desegregation,”
usually under the freedom-of-choice
plan; others a four-grade beginning, in
most cases also under freedom of
choice.
Reticence Shown
Although many boards tended to be
reticent about what they had agreed
to or how it would be implemented,
the following were known to have
agreed to begin desegregation in the
fall, either by “total desegregation” or
by a four-grade beginning. In virtually
all cases, transfer of Negro students to
previously all-white schools would
have to be initiated by the students’
parents or guardians. The boards in
cluded:
Geneva County, Auburn, Opelika,
Lee County, Piedmont, Cleburne
County, Talladega City and County
Calhoun County, Jacksonville, Flor
ence, Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals, Pike
County Sylacauga, Anniston, Autauga
County, Elmore County, Troy, Escam
bia County and Fort Payne—all these,
and probably others which have not
revealed their plans, in addition to those
mentioned above as having already
started desegregation or already ap
proved by HEW.
W. H. (Zeke) Kimbrough, Piedmont
City superintendent, seemed to capsule
the attitude of all the boards moving,
whether swiftly or cautiously toward
compliance with HEW, when he said:
‘It’s a matter of doing it and not get
ting any money or doing it and getting
money.”
‘Russian Roulette’
However, a federal education official
said May 28 that Alabama was playing
“Russian roulette” with millions of
dollars in federal school aid by con
tinuing to delay on school desegrega
tion.
Allen Lesser, director of compliance
for the U.S. Office of Education, said
the state is far from qualifying for its
share of President Johnson’s $3.2 bil
lion aid-to-education program. The
deadline, he said, is June 30.
Lesser conceded that Alabama could
qualify for at least some of its $35,-
700 000 share for the next fiscal year
even if it delayed desegregation as long
as a year. But, he said, every delay
past June 30 could result in a parital
loss of funds.
Time could very well run out on
t em, he said. “Getting the money
next January is not going to do them
as much good as getting it this fall.”
ince much of the money is designed
to facilitate school construction, he add
ed, it is possible that some of the funds
could be irretrievably lost to the state.
Because state education departments
must demonstrate they will not dis
burse federal funds to segregated dis
tricts, Alabama is considered a prob
lem. The state Board of Education re
fused to sign any compliance agree-
ment, although State Superintendent of
Education Austin R. Meadows did.
Meadows went to Washington in April
(SSN, May) to discuss the problem,
but the state board has refused to
relent from its stand, the one taken
by Gov. Wallace and, by resolution, the
legislature (See Legislative Action).
In essence, it is this: no compliance
agreements should be made until the
Bessemer suit, challenging the consti
tutionality of HEW’s directives, has
been tested in federal court. (See also
Legal Action.)
Although only a few district plans
have been accepted by the govern
ment, Alabama apparently was the
only state—aside from technical prob
lems in Alaska and Delaware—which
remained unacceptable on the state
level.
In addition to the $35.7 million Ala
bama would get under the new federal
school program, about half of the $16
million pending under present govern
ment assistance programs, were in jeo
pardy, according to a U. S. Office of
Education statement to the Birming
ham News May 24. The office said that
approval of desegregation plans by in
dividual districts would qualify them
only for money under the “impacted
areas” act. Only $8,389,900 is so ear
marked for Alabama school districts.
Also under a cloud are some state
colleges and universities, which are due
to get more than $10 million under
existing federal aid acts. The determin
ing factor seemed to be whether the
institutions were governed by autono
mous boards or by the intransigent
State Board of Education. State colleges
at Troy, Livingston, Florence and Jack
sonville are under the state board, as
are the state’s network of new junior
colleges and trade schools. (See In the
Colleges.)
Is Signature Adequate?
Commissioner of Education Francis
Keppel indicated that Meadows’ sign
ing a compliance agreement was not an
acceptable substitute for the state
board’s refusal. Meadows said, how
ever, that negotiations continued as to
whether his signature would be suf
ficient.
The state board is dominated by ap
pointees of Gov. Wallace, who has taken
the position—and prevailed on the leg
islature to take the position—that com
pliance agreements should not be made
until the Bessemer challenge is de
cided in federal court (Legal Action
and Legislative Action.)
Meadows, while stating that the 1967
target date for total desegregation vio-
Legislative Action
After heated debate, both houses of
the Alabama legislature adopted in
May a resolution urging local boards
of education not to make further com
pliance agreements with the Depart
ment of Health, Education and Welfare.
In the Senate, dissenters were par
ticularly vocal, complaining that Gov.
George Wallace, who supported the
measure, had, by various acts of de
fiance, speeded up rather than slowed
down desegregation in all areas of
state life.
The minority in both houses made
some points against the governor’s rule.
This was the first time the popular chief
executive had been subjected to scath
ing attack.
Opponents of the measure, widely in
terpreted as a vote of confidence in the
stewardship of Gov. Wallace, expressed
fear that such a declaration would in
vite a statewide desegregation suit “in
one fell swoop” by demonstrating leg
islative control of schools.
Urges No Action
The resolution asked that local boards
suspend further action and agreements
of compliance pending the outcome of
the Bessemer suit challenging the con
stitutionality of the HEW directives.
(See Legal Action.)
One of the Senate opposition leaders,
Sen. Bob Gilchrist of Hartselle, warned
that if the resolution resulted in an
omnibus, statewide suit, he would go
over the state calling the roll of those
who voted for it.
Gilchrist, who had argued unsuc
cessfully—with others—that the gover
nor had brought more desegregation to
Alabama in a shorter time than any
other Southern governor, told the Sen
ate that it was “flirting with disaster.”
Eleven men, he said, “stood with tears
in their eyes” while others “failed to
listen to the voice of reasons.”
lates federal civil rights laws, has urged
local boards and school administrators
to comply fully with the Civil Rights
Act. Otherwise, he said, the state stood
to lose $70,000,000 in federal school aid
in the next two years.
“Minimum desegregation,” Meadows
told school officials in a Tuscaloosa
meeting, “presently affects only grades
one, seven, nine and 12. However, I
think we’re stronger if we say we’ll
abide by the Civil Rights Act for any
grade. You are better off to go the
whole way.”
County superintendents at the meet
ing were concerned over the abolition
of dual school bus routes. While they
acknowledged that these would have to
be ended, they expressed hope that in
this, as in desegregation of classrooms
and faculties, they would be allowed
some time for adjustments.
★ ★ ★
Teachers’ Pay Banned
If Attendance Drops
The State Board of Education di
rected Negro teachers in the state to
keep their students in school and away
from civil rights demonstrations at the
risk of salary cuts.
With Gov. Wallace presiding as ex-
officio chairman, the board unanimous
ly adopted a resolution prohibiting the
use of state funds to pay teachers and
principals when attendance falls below
63 per cent of normal enrollment.
The directive applies to teachers if
one or more classes are affected; to
principals if attendance throughout the
school drops below the cutoff line.
Faculty members whose students stay
away from school can recover their
forfeited pay only if they make up the
time by holding class on Saturday or
on some other day when school norm
ally is not in session.
Alabama law requires a school to
operate at least 175 days a year to be
eligible for state funds. Thus the effect
of the board’s resolution means that
any day when attendance is less than
63 per cent that day will not be counted
toward the required minimum.
State Supt. of Education Austin R.
Meadows explained: “This puts re
sponsibility on the teacher or principal
to keep students in school.”
Some teachers have been accused of
encouraging school boycotts in support
Sen. Ed. Horton of Limestone said:
“I ask the governor to quit appealing
to the worst in people and appeal to
the best. I ask him to quit continually
rubbing these sores.”
Sen. Vaughan Hill Robison of Mont
gomery said: “I make a prediction that
if this resolution is passed that in the
not-too-distant future we will live to
see this resolution rise up and haunt
us.”
Lengthy Filibuster
Although the minority failed to block
the resolution, finally ending a lengthy
filibuster, Gilchrist said the point had
been made: “We have made it easier
for other people to speak out against
the governor when they feel he is
wrong. For too long, people have been
afraid to speak out. No person should
ever be so loved, so popular, so power
ful that people should stand in fear of
criticizing him.”
Later, in an interview, Gilchrist said
Wallace is the most powerful Southern
political figure since Huey Long.
Sen. E. C. Hornsby of Tallapoosa ac
cused the Wallace administration of
“bluff, blunder and backdown.” Horns
by charged that Wallace had “effec
tively integrated this state, more than
any other state south of the Mason-
Dixon line.” What the state needs,
Hornsby said, “is a real stand, not a
grandstand.” He added that the “strat
egy employed by the governor has set
our state back 100 years.” He ridiculed
Wallace’s entry into presidential pri
maries last year: “All he proved was
that an overwhelming number of peo
ple in those states favored the civil
rights bill.”
Horton said in the long debate: “We
are getting tired of these so-called
‘nigger” resolutions being thrown at us.
You throw them at us and say we’ve
got to pass them.”
Gilchrist said the slogan of the ad-
Widespread desegregation of
schools this fall seemed certain in
all parts of the state, although many
educators doubted that masses of
Negroes would apply for entrance to
previously all-white schools.
Some form of compliance agree
ment had been filed with the U. S.
Department of Health, Education
and Welfare by at least 111 of Ala
bama’s 118 school systems. At least
13 plans had been accepted in Wash
ington. Local boards generally set
up freedom-of-choice plans.
An HEW spokesman said the
status of federal school funds for
Alabama school systems continued
in doubt because of the State Board
of Education’s refusal to sign any
of civil rights campaigns—chiefly over
voting—in Alabama’s black belt.
Sponsoring the resolution was Dr.
James Nettles, who lives in Wilcox
County where Negro pupils have boy
cotted a school at Camden.
The restriction also applies when a
substantial number of pupils are ab
sent for part of a day. That was writ
ten into the resolution after Supt. Mea
dows told the board that pupils in some
instances had answered the morning
roll call and then left classes.
In April, the legislature, in passing
a school appropriations bill, voted a 10
per cent across-the-board pay raise for
teachers. But the appropriation pro
vided that teachers who encourage or
condone mass absenteeism or who take
part themselves in demonstrations are
disqualified from receiving the raise.
Teachers Protest
The Alabama State Teachers Associ
ation, a Negro organization, called the
restriction unfair and asked the board
to rescind its order. In a prepared
statement, the association said the
board is trying to “blame Negro teach
ers for activities they did not start and
cannot stop.”
Absenteeism bothers the Association,
the statement said, “even when pupils
are in the cotton fields and responsible
agencies remain quiet.” The group said
the board had put the burden on teach
ers to “halt a social revolution that is
sweeping the entire world and one
which the President, governors, heads
of states, mayors or supervisors of ed
ucation have not been able to stop.”
★ ★ ★
Twenty-seven Negroes have request
ed assignment to five white Dothan
city schools for 1965-66, according to
a statement issued June 1 by School
Supt. Sam Price Jones.
ministration should not be (as it is)
“Stand Up For Alabama” but “Stand
Up and Rim.”
Before Wallace, Gilchrist said, there
were no desegregation, no demonstra
tions and no trouble. But when Wallace
said, in his inaugural address, that he
had drawn the line in the dust, and
thrown down the gauntlet with his po
sition of “segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, segregation forever,” Dr.
Martin Luther King “picked up that
gauntlet and beat our people over the
head with it.”
The resolution finally passed both
houses, but the opposition it aroused to
Gov. Wallace’s defiant posture, was in
the view of observers, the bitterest in
years against a popular chief executive.
★ ★ ★
Seven of Alabama’s eight U. S. rep
resentatives signed an endorsement of
the Alabama legislature’s resolution
urging that local boards make no fur
ther compliance agreements with the
U. S. Office of Education pending the
outcome of the Bessemer school suit.
(See Legal Action.)
Sen. John Sparkman said he did not
sign because it would have been “a
rebuff” to a majority of the state’s
school boards. Sparkman, Sen. Lister
Hill and Rep. Bob Jones, all Demo
crats, were the only nonsigners.
Sparkman said he “simply could not
go against the school systems in this
state.” He listed two reasons for the
three men not signing:
• “We did not feel that we should
be asked to approve or condemn action
taken by one branch of the Alabama
legislature.
• “The great majority of the school
districts in Alabama have already sub
mitted plans and we were being re
quested daily to help get their plans
approved.”
Resolution Urges Compliance Delay
Highlights
compliance agreement.
Gov. George C. Wallace, his posi
tion unchanged, advised local school
bards against making agreements
with HEW until constitutionality of
HEW’s compliance directives has
been tested in a suit filed by the
Bessemer board. The legislature
joined his position by enacting a
mild resolution.
Major criticism of Gov. Wallace’s
“defiant” stand against school de
segregation mounted.
The U. S. Office of Education said
it was withholding federal funds
from 14 state-operated colleges and
junior colleges until it determines
whether they still practice racial
discrimination.
To date, no assignments have been
made. The schools were not identified.
Jones said, “As in all cases, the
crowded conditions of schools and the
nearness to schools will determine
whether applications for particular
schools are approved.”
Registrations of students in the city
system for the 1965-66 school year was
completed May 28. Forms on which
parents requested transfer of their chil
dren to other schools were turned in
to the superintendent’s office on May 31.
Jones added, “For the next several
days, registration forms will be studied
and parents affected by changes in
registration procedures will be notified
by letter.”
Legal Action
Full Desegregation
Sought at Bessemer
Five Negro parents filed suit in
Birmingham U. S. District Court call
ing for immediate desegregation of the
Bessemer school system.
Filed on behalf of 11 children, the
suit requested a quick hearing and
preliminary and permanent injunctions
against the Bessemer Board of Educa
tion from continuing a segregated sys
tem. The plaintiffs said the Bessemer
system violates their rights under the
14th Amendment and under Title VI
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The suit requests an end to assign
ment of students, teachers and princi
pals on the basis of race, and end to
school construction which would per
petuate the segregated system, and a
ban on funds or budgets based on racial
considerations.
The suit is a class action.
The Bessemer board has itself filed
a federal suit, challenging the consti
tutionality of “compliance” directives
of the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare. (See Legislative Action.)
Attorneys for HEW said May 14 that
Bessemer would not be eligible for fed
eral funds during the coming school
year unless it desegregates. The pend
ing suit would not change that, officials
said. The Bessemer board was one of
seven of Alabama’s 118 school districts
which refused to sign any compliance
agreement.
★ ★ ★
Montgomery, Bullock County
Gradual Plans Approved
Over the objection of Negroes, the
U. S. District Court in Montgomery
upheld in May gradual desegregation
plans offered by the school boards of
Montgomery and Bullock County.
U. S. District Judge Frank M. John
son Jr. ordered both systems to file by
Jan. 15, 1966, plans for complete de
segregation “within a reasonable time.”
Desegregation began in both systems
last fall. Under the plan approved by
Johnson, the Montgomery school sys
tem will desegregate grades two, seven
and nine in addition to those desegre
gated last fall—grades one, 10, 11 and
12.
Bullock will desegregate grades seven
through 12. Parents in both counties
must apply for transfer of their chil
dren by mid-July. The boards are to
report action on the transfer requests
to Johnson in August.
★ ★ ★
A three-judge panel ordered Macon
County school officials to desegregate
the seventh grade in September. This
modification added to Macon’s plan to
add the second grade to grades one,
nine, 10, 11 and 12 which were de
segregated last fall.
The May 16 order was signed by U. S.
Circuit Judge Richard T. Rives and Dis
trict Judges H. H. Grooms and Frank
M. Johnson Jr. Macon’s plan was filed
(See COURTS, Page 11)