Ill Four States Pol~ICAL Nc~S in at Least Four Southern States-Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina-Are Consid
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Factual 'OUTHERN CHOOL ~O l. II, NO. 7 NASHVILLE, TENN. $2 PER YEAR JANUARY, 1956 • Ill Four States poL~ICAL nc~s in at least four southern states-Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina-are consid . en.ng r~lutions of "interposition" as a means of evading the U. S. Supreme Court's decisions against segregation m t?e public schools, a year-end survey by SotrrHER.N SC:UOOL NEWs indicates. Legislatures of all four states meet durmg 1956. "Interposition" is popularly equated with the doctrine of nullification. Meanwhile, three more counties in West Virginia ordered desegregation of their schools and a federal court decision m Kentucky resulted in a two-step plan to integrate the schools of Adair County. Discussion of "interposition" first arose in Virginia when the General UIIIUDID II IDDII ~UDUIIUIUDI courses to Negro players. At the Assembly was called into special ses month's end the state was still rever sion to approve a referendum (set for What Is It? berating from the controversy over Jan. 9) on a constitutional convention INTERPOSITION - The Vir the Sugar Bowl football game in which would amend the organic law ginia Resolution of 1798 declared which Georgia Tech contracted to in order to permit expenditure of that the pOW'ers of the fedeTal play the non-segregated University ( public funds for private schooling. government result from the com of Pittsburgh. According to its first proponent, the pact to which the states are par Richmond News Lea.der, "this plan ties, and "that, in case of a de Kentucky contemplates an assertion of funda liberate, palpable and dangercms In the state's first school desegre mental principles, coupled with an exercise of otheT poweTs not gation suit a federal judge held that appeal to our sister states to decide, granted by the social compact, Adair County should open its high by ratifying or rejecting a proposed the states, which are parties school to Negroes Feb. 1, 1956 and constitutional amendment, whether theTeto, have the right and are in that integration in elementary schools the power to operate racially sep duty bound to interpose for ar should be effected by August or Sep arate public school facilities should resting the progress of the evil" tember of this year. In another action be prohibited to the states ..." for maintaining t h e i r rights. the State Court of Appeals banned What was meant by inteTpOsi racial segregation in all public rec In Mississippi the plan is being reation facilities. sponsored by two members of the tion? It h4$ sometimes been as state's congressional delegation, a serted that it meant nothing mOTe Louisiana judge and a former governor, but is nor less than nullification by a A three-judge federal court took opposed by incoming Gov. James P. single state. Madison declared, in under advisement a to open all suit I Coleman. It is under study in Louisi later years, that such wa~r not public schools in Orleans Parish 1 the 1neaning. It is not unlikely I ana by state Sen. W. M. Rainach, ( county)-the state's largest--to all ) legislative chairman of the state that notlting more was intended races. State attorneys asked the fed school program. In South Carolina than to secure, by coopeTation eral court to step out of a local sit state Rep. Joseph 0. Rogers Jr., of among the states, It geneTal ex uation which they said was covered Clarendon County, announced he is pression of opinion. But it is pos by state laws. drafting a resolution which calls on sible that t1te frameTs had in mind the legislature to assert the state's a convention of the states to pass Maryland sovereignty in the field of public upon the Constitution or that Two sets of white parents were education. they planned authoritative inteT haled into Juvenile Court in Balti • pretation by amendment. more County for keeping their chil STUDY GROUPS -Cyclopedia of American dren out of racially mixed schools. As the year ended, nearly 150 study Government. Rather than comply, one family tudy Groups At Work groups and commissions had reported moved to Florida. I or had been authorized to report on NULLIFICATION-An alleged ':Ill APPIIOXIMATELY 150 "study" com the plan for a referendum to permit state or local plans dealing with right of a state in the American Mississippi missions-some made up of lay state support of private schools s c h o o 1 segregation-desegregation. Union, acting in a sovereign ca The state's political leaders debated lt.:::.''advisors" and others of "experts"- which this group considers essential Among the states which have not de pacit1( through a convention of interposition, or nullification, as new • at work throughout the South to forestall "compulsory integration." segregated any of their schools, North its people. to declare an act of pro-segregation legislation was pre a nsidering the effects of the Su In South Carolina, the bulk of pro Carolina and Florida reported the Co'ltqress "null, void. and no law. pared for the January session of the IJS'Jreme Court's school segregation segregation legislation adopted in largest number of community study not binding upon the state, its of legislature. rC;.. ~ons, according to a SOUTHERN May was formulated by the South committees. ficers or citizens." Missouri booL Ntws survey. Carolina School Committee, a legis In a re-survey of so-called "oppo -New Dictionary of lative group. In Mississippi, seven Racial integration became an ac 'vities o£ the bodies, some offi sition" groups, Sotmn:RN SCHOOL American Politics complished fact at the University of Y proposals of the official Legal Edu NEws found 44 private organizations, appointed and others seli- llll l l liiiiiiiiii iiii iiiJIIIIIJ I IIIIID Missouri and state colleges. Accord ",, cational Advisory Committee will be large and small, more or less active lh 'tuted, vary largely with the ing to a special SoUTHERN SCHOOL 6ial policy or public sentiment in presented to the legislature which in 15 states. Increasing activity also injunction against alleged interfer ol convenes this month. NEWs survey, none of the institutions c 11 the states where they are located. was reported from several states and ence by pro-segregationists in the was flooded by Negro applicants. Ia #J In Virginia, South Carolina, Missis On the other hand, the recom communities where pro-Integration operation of the integrated school. .oul , · Iippi and Louisiana, for example, mendations for replacing the public Human Relations Councils are in The decision, expected momentarily, North Caro'lina :Is cs mnnissions on the state level, usu- schools of Alabama with a private operation. may decide constitutionality of A special session of the General ally composed largely of legislators school system, proposed by the Other December developments: Arkansas' school segregation laws. Assembly (perhaps in June or July) lo ar state officials, have been, or are Boutwell Committee, have Jailed lo In the public recreation area was talked following a report from ,,_Ar Delaware • aow, at work on plans for circum- win legislative approval. (which is allied with the school issue an advisory commission on forth U• l'tnting the court's decrees. In such Meanwhile, local-level groups through court interpretation), At Although the month generally was coming plans entailing legislation to ':l quiet on the school front, the segre Jd s:11 border states as Maryland, Kentucky have met with some success in such lanta opened its seven public golf "strengthen assurances of the pres \ 0 ,_. llld Arkansas, the colll11Uttees, rnost proposals as have been advanced for courses to Negroes after a court rul gation-desegregation issue was a ris ervation of our public schools, and \p ing question as the state looked to f lr appointed at the local school school desegregation in Macon, Mo. ing and Green.sboro, N. C., ordered yet not require any child of any race "'ol sale of one publicly-owned but pri ward the 1956 elections. !II J board level, are studying methods In Baltimore, a Community Study to be forced to attend a mixed school \p ~ of Implementing the decisions. Program begun shortly after World vately-leased course and conversion District of Columbia against his will." In a significant de re War n was credited with helping of a publicly-owned Negro course cision by a three-judge federal court rd c States such as Texas and Florida, into an addition to the city dump. In Notice was served on Congress by cy ~ •here state policy seems to be to smooth the way for desegregation. in Richmond, Va. Negro litigants en Kentucky a state court struck down Rep. Adam C. Powell Jr. (D., N.Y.) asking entry in McDowell County •sl ~'¢ :n~ segregation but where pub Eighteen months after the original segregation laws affecting public that an effort would be made to it ,_ Opllllon, at least in some sections, school segregation decision, local schools were instructed to seek relief ch parks and other recreation facilities. amend any federal school aid legis in the state courts and through '"nl ~<~Vors desegregation, have colll11Ut school boards still are appointing In Nashville, Tenn., parents of two lation so as to deny funds to schools North Carolina's school placement lees looking toward eventual school study committees. The Davidson practicing racial segregation. This Av white children filed suit in federal machinery. Yl d~~egation. In fact, Florida lists County, Tenn., board, for example, was expected to bog down federal ft• 8 court seeking admission of the chil Jft wut 25, the second largest num- announced last month it would ap- dren to a Negro school and in Balti aid measures.