SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS-AUGUST, 1962-PAGE 7 in Placements

MACON zation's annual convention in Atlanta. Community Action S. DISTRICT Judge Frank A. Southern Negroes were urged to U• Hooper withheld ruling im­ break down pupil placement laws by mediately on the motion to speed aiding students and parents to apply in Catholic School massive numbers for school transfers. up Atlanta's desegregation pro­ Carter urged a "door-to-door" cam­ gram, but he did remark after a paign to boost applications. Policy Arouses two-hour hearing July 31 that Such a campaign was launched in there was "not a scintilla of testi­ Durham, N.C., by NAACP college stu­ Slight Response mony" to indicate discrimination dents, and some 960 students applied, according to attorney Floyd B. Mc­ against Negroes under the pupil Only slight response was reported to placement plan. Kissick. Another lawyer, S. W. Tucker of Em­ lowering of racial bars in Roman Cath­ "I don't see that you have proved olic schools in the Archdiocese of At­ there are any standards applied to Ne­ poria, Va., said pupil assignment laws are being used as "roadblocks" to lanta (SSN, July). Archbishop Paul J. groes and not to whites," the judge Hallinan said only five Negro Catholic told the plaintiffs. Judge Hooper also genuine integration. Tucker agreed that application drives might be tactically studen ts had registe1·ed to attend pre­ stated during the hearing that h e viously white elementary schools and thought it "significant" that no Negroes useful, but said the U.S. Supreme Court desegregation decision places a positive six to attend white high schools. rejected under the plan had appeared Some 4,700 pupils in 18 elementary at the hearing. duty on school boards to eliminate seg­ regation, and that the burden should and five high schools in the 71-county The district judge delayed his ruling diocese are involved. But the arch­ until he could read a recent federal not have to be on the pupils. Tucker said courts have been "whit­ bishop said the success of desegregation appellate court's decision, which was does not depend on the number of cited as precedent by an NAACP law­ tling down" the scope of pupil place­ l ment criteria and insisting that both transfers. t yer, Mrs. Constance Bakc1· Motley of New York. white and Negro students be subjected In addition to the request to increase to the same standards. Atlanta's school desegregation, the The Newsletter* of* t he* Greater Atlanta NAACP asked desegregation of teach­ Political Activity Council on Human Relations listed ing staffs, citing the U.S. Fifth Circuit schools and colleges in the area which Court of Appeals decision in the Es­ "have accepted or indicated willingness cambia County, Fla., case. Judge Hoop­ Race Relations to accept applications from all." The er expressed surprise that the Negroes list includes: were asking for teacher desegregation, Become an Issue Certain Atlanta public schools (11 of as the plaintiffs originally had brought 21 will be desegregated as of this fall). class action on behalf of pupils. Catholic schools. Mrs. Motley cited the circuit court In Governor's Race (two Negroes attended opinion as precedent for her request. last term; others have applied for ad­ Politics heated up with the official mission in September). The school board's atlorney. Newell opening of the gubernatorial campaign, Edenfield, replied that this decision had Georgia State College (one Negro has Dixieland Jazz for Sanders and the handling of racial relations be­ attended). said that desegregation of students came an issue in the contest between should be settled first. At candidate's campaign opener in Americus the tunes were foot-tappers. Oglethorpe University. State Senator of Augusta Agnes Scott College (beginning 1963- Current Plan 15 and a1·e appealable; the informal and former Gov. Marvin Griffin of 64 term.) The NAACP proposal asked that the transfers are allowed at other times for Bainbridge. Westminster School (Presbyterian­ current pupil placement plan be thrown such reasons as educational programs Georgia Highlights Griffin charged Sanders was being related). out and Atlanta's public schools com­ backed by Dr. Martin Luther King and and change of residence. Segregation in the schools was Trinity Presbyterian School. pletely desegregated by 1965. Under the Dr. Letson said "some" of the pupil others h e described as integrationists. Columbia Theological Seminary. suggested plan, all high school grades placement plan criteria were used in discussed by both major candidates Opening his campaign in Americus, for the Georgia governorship, but would be desegregated by 1963, the judging informal transfer requests, but Griffin said he wanted to join hands In tlte Colleges fourth through the seventh grades by that Negroes wanting to change to Ne­ both promised to keep the public with Governor-nominate George Wal­ September, 1964, and the remaining gro schools are treated in the same school1:. open. lace of Alabama (who was on the plat­ grades by 1965. manner. Special tests given to transfer Federal Judge Frank A. Hooper form and made a brief speech in sup­ High Court Hears Atlanta desegregated its 11th and 12th applicants last year have been aban­ on July 31 heard arguments on an port of Griffin) and the segregationist grades under court order last year and doned, and all students take the same NAACP motion to throw out the governors of South Carolina and Mis­ is adrung the 10th grade this year un­ tests now, he testified. existing pupil placement plan and sissippi to form a solid Deep South Arguments in Suit der the grade-a-year plan. Forty-four new pupils have been ap­ completely desegregate Atlanta's front against integration. In arguing against the pupil place­ proved for transfer when school opens, Sanders said h e was not going to ment plan, Mrs. Motley said "this plan and various athletic events, clubs and public school system by 1965. stand with or with On Tax Exemption is operated to put a burden on Negroes other school activities have been de­ Oral arguments were heard in an Martin Luther King. "I'm going to stand Oral arguments in the case of wheth­ not applied to whites" and is "dis­ segregated, the superintendent reported. appeal case over whether Emory with the people of my state," he said. er Emory University can admit a Negro criminatory on its face." The NAACP University would lose its tax-exempt He called for a halt of racial disturb­ student without losing its tax exemp­ attorney cited testimony that white stu­ Answering Questions status i£ it admits a Negro student. ances at Albany and said that, as gov­ tion were heard by the Georgia Su­ dents were allowed to transfer "infor­ In answering Mrs. Motley's questions The president of Mercer University ernor, he would not tolerate agitators, preme Court. Attorneys for Emory, a mally" to other white schools through­ about the conversion of Key Elementary in Macon said he favors desegrega­ whether it be King or Marvin Griffin. private school near Atlanta, appealed out the school year. School from an all-white to an all-Ne­ tion or hi s school. Sanders accused Griffin of bringing in an adverse decision by Judge Frank "It is known," she said, "that May Alabama Klansmen to create violence gro enrollment, Dr. Letson said the Changing over of a fo rmer all­ Guess of DeKalk Superior Court (SSN, 1-15 is the time when Negroes apply to change resulted from "changing com­ in Georgia. Griffin denied it. July). attend white schools" and that white munity patterns." He said the pupils white to an all-Negro school in At­ Griffin said there is "insidious propa­ Chief Justice W. H. Duckworth re­ students are allowed to make applica­ were sent to white schools because the lanta brought protests to the board ganda" making the rounds in Georgia marked from the bench that he did not tions at other times. "I don't think the pupil placement plan's grade-a-year of education from whites and Ne- that "if we are going to make progress think state law could be construed to court can close its eyes to what every­ provision had not yet reached down groes. we can't maintain our institutions and bar Emory from admitting a Negro body else knows," she told Judge Hoop­ into the elementary level. Slight response was reported to de­ traditions" and that "we must take the student. er. "We are and have been in the process segregation plans of Catholic schools bitter medicine offered us by the fed­ A Negro has not yet been admitted of moving from a segregated system to eral courts." to Emory but the school sought judicial Mass Transfers in the Atlanta Archdiocese. a desegregated system. We make no He contended that during his admin­ interpretation of the laws after an­ Mrs. Motley also attacked what she contention we have moved all the way," istration there was no school desegre­ nouncing it wanted to admit a Negro described as the dual white-Negro he said. gation, and no acts of violence either. to the dentistry school this fall. school system. And she argued that mass Judge Hooper said no attack on the He said the people of Alabama have The superintendent conceded that Sees Possible Conflict transfers, such as those from Key Ele­ segregated Negro elementary schools present plan had been made in the "taken the word 'inevitable' out of their mentary School, were in fact "contro­ "feed" Negro high schools and white higher courts, and no Negro pupil had vocabulary" and that Georgia can do George Dillard, attorney for DeKalb ''ersial." elementaries feed white high schools. complained of discrimination to his the same under his leadership. County, said Georgia's laws requiring The school board opposed the speed­ But Dr. Letson said the descending court. Sanders, who helped guide Gov. Er­ segregation in tax-exempt colleges may up request on two major points: 1) the stairstep feature eventually would Mrs. Motley said the present plan nest Vandiver's "open schools" legisla­ conflict with U.S. Supreme Court anti­ desegregation plan has been approved change the pattern. should have resulted in "substantial de­ tion through the Gener al Assembly last segregation decisions. But in that case, by the court and it was not appealed On July 5, the NAACP attorneys had segregation" last year, instead of being year, said Georgians "need never fear he said, the entire tax-exemption law by the plaintiffs at the time of approval; appeared before Judge Hooper to re­ limited to n ine Negro students. your educational system will have a is invalid and all private colleges in 2) the plan has been administered fairly. quest an earlier hearing on their com­ Judge Hooper, who issued the order padlock put on it at any time while I the state would have to pay taxes on Atlanta's school superintendent, Dr. plaint. At that session, Hooper com­ for desegregation and approved the am governor." endowments. John Letson, explained the dHTerent mented that the Negroes appeared to plan now in use, said the Negro attor­ Both candidates promised the public Officials of the university said Ne­ procedures for handling formal and in­ be seeking "a package deal" for com­ neys had not asked for "wholesale and schools would not be closed because groes had never been admitted and formal transfer requests. The formal plete desegregation after accepting the immediate" desegregation in the orig­ of desegregation, and Griffin added some had been turned down. But it was requests, he said, come between May 1- grade-a-year placement plan. inal suit, on which he ruled in June, "we are going to try to rid ourselves added that Chinese, Koreans and East 1959. The judge praised the attitude of token integration." Indians had been accepted. # # # shown by city officials and the people Schoolmen of both races in Atlanta and said he thought "things were in a very desir­ able status." Residents Irate After Board Says Race is Basis The NAACP lawyer said the present plan calls for the Atlanta Board of Ed­ Decides To Convert School ucation to assign all students according to standards set up in the plan, but Some white residents of Atlanta's in the area into selling their homes to these criteria in practice are applied Grant Park area threatened at a meet­ Negroes. Some threatened to "beat your only to Negro students seeking trans­ ing of the Atlanta Board of Education heads ofT." fer. She argued that a biracial (sep­ to "blow up" Key Elementary School The angry group milled around in arated) system still exists because even rather than see it used by Negroes. the hallways of City Hall for 30 min­ students transferred are done so on a School Supt. John W. Letson had utes and board members were finally basis of race. recommended that Key School, its staff given police escorts to their cars. School Judge Hooper said the court did not and its 300-odd while students, be re­ detectives maintained a special vigil in start out with the assumption that every housed in a portion of Smith High the vicinity of Key. child in school has got to be changed School, another white school in the Protests related to the Key contro­ to another school. Rather, he said, the area which suffered a declining white versy were also heard from Negroes. pupil placement plan sought gradually school population. Dr. Letson said the to eliminate discdmination and "satisfy all­ present Key School could be renamed Spokesmen said that while four the end of the law" without violence. and us~d to house students from John­ Negro high schools (Turner, Washing­ son, Pryor and Stanton elementary ton, Price and Howard) are seriously Use of Placement Laws schools, three Negro schools which now overcrowded, most all-white or nomi­ suffer serious overcrowding. nally desegregated high schools are Scored by NAACP Leader The board so voted and the meeting operating at far less than capacity. An indication of the NAACP's cur­ Also at Americus: Griffin and Guests exploded into shouts and angry threats. Smith Hifclh is in the general vicinity rent view of pupil placement plans was of Howard High, an all-Negro school given in a speech by Robert L. Carter, Alabama governor-nominate George Wallace, the candidate and Augusta lawyer Some protested that transfer of the Roy V. Harris school would panic white home owners which is seriously overcrowded. NAACP general counsel, at the organi-