State of the Soutern States

72 NEW SOUTH/FALU1968 STATE OF THE SOUTHERN STATES This round-up of events, developments and trends in civil rights, justice, politics, employment and other aspects of southern change, advancement and setback, comes from the Southern Regional Council staff and professional reporters. ALABAMA The three-judge federal court which dom of choice and institute a system of supervises Alabama's statewide school de zoning, consolidation, or pairing in order segregation suit rejected on October 18 to end the dual school system. pleas from both Gov. Albert Brewer and Meanwhile, Mobile schools-which are the Alabama Education Association, which not covered by the statewide desegrega represents most of the state's 21,000 white tion order but are under a separate suit teachers, to modify an order of August 28 enrolled 2,800 Negro children in formerly directing 76 school systems to carry out white schools and 253 white children in extensive faculty and pupil desegregation. formerly all-Negro schools. This compares Governor Brewer arg ued that the with 632 Negro children who enrolled in court's order imposed " an impossible formerly all-white schools last year. The task" on local school superintendents and Mobile school system, the state's largest urged local officials not to cooperate with with 75,000 pupils, is operating under a the Justice Department, which he called limited zoning plan to achieve desegre "our adversary." gation. The court found, however, that 57 of Also on the education front, Gov. the 76 school districts had already com Brewer gave the teachers a four per cent plied with the court's directives or had pay raise as the new school year began. submitted good reasons explaining why A study by Auburn University's sociology they could not comply. department indicated that nearly one-half The remaining 19, the court said, either of the state's 3,230 teacher graduates from " failed to comply or fai led to state any the class of 1968 fai led to enter the teach acceptable reasons for noncompliance." i ng profession. Low pay was cited as a These were directed to appear in court p rime reason for the loss. on November 18 to show cause why they Former Gov. George Wallace, the third should not be required to abandon free- party presidential candidate, raised an es- • STATE OF THE SOUTHERN STATES 73 timated $300,000 at a triumphant "home party had not complied with the state coming" celebration on Sept. 21 . Some law regardi ng qualification of candidates. .. 200 persons attended a $500-a-plate In a split decision, a three-judge federal luncheon honoring the former governor, court upheld Mrs. Amos' ruling, but the anothe r 1,300 attended a $25-a-plate din U. S. Supreme Court reversed the deci ner, and the day ended with more than sion and ordered the new party's nomi 15,000 Wallace partisa ns paying $10 to nees listed on the ballot. This meant that attend a giant rally at Montgomery's Gar two slates of presidential electors pledged rett Coliseum. to the National Democratic nominees After several false starts, Mr. Wallace would appear on the Alabama ballot. named his vice presidential running mate State Sen. Tom Radney of Al exander - retired Air Force Ge n. Curtis E. LeMay. City, who had previously indicated he Earli er, Mr. Wallace had reportedly settled would run for lieutenant governor in on forme r Gov. A. B. (Happy) Chandler 1970, announced he was quitting politics of Kentucky for the spot, but backed out in Alabama. As a delegate to the Demo after Mr. Chandler refused to modify his cratic Convention, Mr. Radney supported stand as an advocate of desegregation. Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts Later Mr. Chandler charged that south for the presidential nomination. As a re western oil interests were controlling the sult of this support, he said, his family Wallace campaign and they had dictated received threats of viole nce, and several the decision to drop him. acts of vandalism were committed against Another Wal lace critic, however, his property. charged that the state of Alabama was In Tuskegee, where Negro voters out financi ng the Wallace campaign. State number whites by an estimated three-to Rep. Bryce Graham of Fl orence filed a one, Mayor Charles M. Keever, a white suit in federal court in Montgomery to moderate who has held office for four prevent Mr. Wallace from usi ng any state years, won reelection by a two-to-one resources in his presidential effort. Mr. margi n over Thomas Reed, a Negro busi Graham charged that "enormous amounts nessman. However, Frank Bentley, a Ne of state money, personnel, and property gro, defeated an incumbent white City have been and are bein g fl agrantly and Counci lman, John Sides. Negroes now unlawfully sq uandered." U. S. Di strict have control of the five-man city gov Judge Frank M. johnson, Jr., dismissed the erning body. suit, saying it was a matter for the state, Negroes were elected to city governing rather than the fede ral courts. bodies for the first time in the cities of Meanwhile, Mr. Wallace disclosed that Homewood, Jacksonville, and Uniontown. his personal net worth is somewhere in Laura Industries Inc., a Selma firm the neighborhood of $77,000, most of which manufactures ladies sportswear, which is in real estate and securities. has signed a contract with striking mem All three of the state's Republican Con bers of the International Ladies Garment gressmen-john Buchanan, William B. Worke rs Union. The contract will gain Dickinson, and Jack Edwards-announced the 500 e mployees a 30 per cent in crease they would vote for Mr. Wallace if he in wages and benefits over a three-year should carry the ir districts and the presi period. Th e strike was o rganized 14 dential e lection were thrown into the months ago with the support of ministers House of Representatives. who were active in the Southern Christian A slate of candidates offered by the Na Leadership Confe rence. At a victory cele tional Democratic Party of Alabama was bration on October 9, Ramelle MaCoy, deni ed position on the November 5 gen a union representative, declared: "This e ral election ballot in a ruling by Secre union doesn't have any black members, it tary of State Mabel Amos, who said the doesn't have any white members, and it 74 NEW SOUTH/FALIJ1968 doesn't have any green or purple mem Force General Ralph P. Swofford in charge bers. It just has members .... There are of the agency, now known as the Ala some people who don't want working bama Programs Development Office. He people to stick together, because when will administer the state's role in both working people stick together, they not Appalachian as well as Office of Economic only have something to say about work Opportunity programs. ing conditions, but they also have some The OEO announced that it was asking thing to say about the way this town, the Department of justice to investigate this county, and this state are run." "suspected financial irregularities" in the Also in Selma, an integrated local un administration of the Southwest Alabama ion of the United Steelworkers of America Farmers Cooperative, an organization of called a strike against Bush Hog Inc., a some 2,000 small farmers which markets firm which manufactures a brush cutting truck crops cooperatively. SWAFCA first machine and which is owned by Earl won approval from the OEO nearly two Goodwin, co-chairman of the finance years ago despite a veto by the late Gov. committee of the Wallace presidential Lurleen B. Wallace. campaign. Despite the impending investigation, In Montgomery, members of the Amal the OEO announced it was granting gamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Work SWAFCA another $595,751 for continued men of North America struck the Frosty operation. Morn meat packing plant in demand for a In lowndes County, an OEO grant of union contract. Union representatives $1,105,305 put into operation the first , claimed that more than one half the comprehensive medical program in Ala plant's 250 workers were on strike, but bama. acknowledged that most of the strikers The Rev. Charles Sullivan, a 27-year-old were Negro while most of those who stay Roman Catholic priest in Mobile, said he ed on the job were white. Company was asking a leave of his duties until the guards armed with shotguns stood at the replacement of the Alabama Diocese's plant entrances where the pickets march 82-year-old Archbishop Thomas j . Toolen, ed, and Bobby L. Adams, a union repre whom Father Sullivan called "incompe sentative, said local police failed to re tent." Bishop Toolen sai d no leave had spond to a request to provide protection been requested, but rather that Father to the pickets. Sullivan had "abandoned" his priestly In a more unusual strike, 700 inmates duties. of Atmore State Prison staged a sit-down Bishop Toolen also canceled a forum in protest over food, working conditions, in Mobile at which Catholic laymen and and medical aid at the state penal insti priests were to discuss Pope Paul VI's tution. Prison Commissioner A. Frank lee encyclical on birth control. said no demands were met, but that he Also in Mobile, the body of E. C. De wou ld be "glad to talk with prisoners loach, a 30-year-old Negro employee of about their grievances." Twenty leaders the State Docks, was found hanging by of the strike were transferred to Mont the feet in a dese rted school.

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