The Charlotte News

Tuesday, August 26, 1958

ONE EDITORIAL

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Little Rock, Ark., that Governor Orval Faubus this date had called on the Arkansas Legislature, in special session called by the Governor, "to defend our rights against those who would usurp them." In a prepared speech, he urged no surrender, stating: "This battle for states' rights and constitutional government is not of our choosing. The issue has been forced upon us and we must either defend our rights against those who would usurp them or else surrender." He sought a bill which would empower him to close the state's public schools, specifically Central High School, against any effort at forced integration. He had said that the measure was necessary to avoid a repetition of the rioting which had occurred outside Central a year earlier when black students had first been admitted, prompting the President to federalize the Arkansas National Guard, which had been deployed by the Governor initially to prevent admission of the black students, and deploy Army paratroopers to make sure that the court orders to desegregate the school were implemented and the students enabled to attend classes unmolested. The proposed bill provided for a school district election within 30 days of closing any school to determine whether it would remain closed or would be integrated. The Governor also said: "I hope that no one of you will be influenced by the words of the weak and fearful, and that no one of you will be misled by the mistaken views of those who would surrender all the rights and privileges we have enjoyed, to an all-powerful federal government and the unwise course of action which it pursues at the present moment. The issues which must be faced and decided by free men have never been easy, and the tasks which must be performed by a people who would remain free, have always been difficult." The Little Rock School Board the previous night had postponed the reopening of Central to its 2,000 students from September 2 to September 8 to allow more time for the Legislature and the Supreme Court to act, the latter having ordered a hearing for Thursday to determine whether to set aside a stay ordered by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals of its own decision which had reversed the District Court decision to delay integration for 2 1/2 years to afford a "cooling-off period". The Governor, in his message to the Legislature, had sought further postponement of the school year to September 15. The school superintendent, Virgil Blossom, announced that three additional black students had applied for admission to white schools, in addition to the seven remaining students who had attended Central the previous school year. One of the original nine students had graduated the previous spring and the other had dropped out of the school during the prior school year because of harassment.

In Alexandria, Va., attorneys representing 30 black pupils had filed a petition in U.S. District Court this date in an attempt to force Arlington County school officials to admit the black students to white schools. The Virginia Pupil Placement Board the previous day had turned down the applications for the pupils to be transferred to white schools. Among the 30 had been five pupils who had been ordered admitted to white schools by an order of the District Court the previous year.

Dick Young of The News reports that no additional black students had been assigned to white schools in Charlotte, as the City School Board this date accepted recommendations of school administrators on applications for reassignment. Requests for reassignment of 23 black students to white schools had been among 44 reassignment applications presented to the Board by the assistant superintendent. Two black students who had enrolled the previous year in white schools had been reassigned for the current school year to Central High and Piedmont Junior High, respectively, in routine assignments by the Board near the close of the prior year. Parents of the 23 black students denied admission to white schools this date would have until the following Tuesday to file formal requests for hearings, as would the white parents. The state pupil assignment law provided for hearings by the Board in all cases where formal requests had been filed. The business of denying reassignment to white schools for black students had been handled in a routine manner, as the assistant superintendent read off the list of 44 names, with their street addresses, and the names of the schools to which assignment had been made and of the schools to which reassignment had been requested, plus the recommendation of administrators as to approval or denial. After the reading of the list, a commissioner moved that the recommendations of the administration be accepted and that in each instance, the recommendation be the decision of the Board. Another commissioner seconded that motion, which was unanimously adopted, with all seven members of the Board present. Only a handful of spectators and newsmen had been present. After the meeting, some members of the Board observed that as many requests from white parents had been turned down as there had been from black parents. Nearly two hours after the Board meeting, the assistant superintendent was still working on the list, tabulating the types of requests, totaling the number of approvals and denials, and preparing the notices to the parents. He said that of the 44 applications, 33 had been denied and seven had been approved, with four others having been assigned to schools different from those requested. Included in the seven approved applications had been five requests by white children, with the other two from black children.

In Monroe, N.C., it was reported that a 16-year old black youth had been sentenced to between 96 and 110 years in prison on seven charges, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the slaying of a white store owner the prior March 21. He had also pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary in another case, at which time he had been shot by a storekeeper in the leg with a pistol as he entered a store after closing hours. He was arrested after the second incident, with a butcher knife in his hand. He was sentenced to consecutive sentences of between 28 and 30 years on the murder charge and 28 and 30 years on the burglary charge, plus between 8 and 10 year sentences on each of five counts of breaking and entering, also to be served consecutively. By pleading guilty, he had avoided the prospect of the death penalty on the original charge of first-degree murder.

In Jackson, Miss., voters cast ballots this date for a U.S. Senator and six members of the House, with the only statewide issue on the ballot being a decision as to whether to simplify the process of amending the state's 69-year old Constitution to strengthen segregation laws.

Court-appointed monitors maintaining watch over the scandal-ridden Teamsters Union had demanded an explanation this date of what union president Jimmy Hoffa was up to in creating his own commission to track down racketeers. The board instructed Mr. Hoffa to furnish by August 28 a "detailed report concerning the reasons for the establishment of the commission, its powers and duties, its proposed procedures, and its proposed relationship to the board of monitors." In a letter to Mr. Hoffa, the chairman of the board of monitors said that the board had learned of Mr. Hoffa's "anti-racketeering commission" only through the public press, and that the commission was being created and appointments made to it without consultation with or notice to the monitors. Release of the letter had coincided with the denial by a District Court judge, who created the monitor board, that he had encouraged Republican former Senator George Bender of Ohio to take up the anti-racketeering job as head of the Hoffa-appointed commission. Mr. Bender had said that he had received such encouragement in consultation with the judge. The court-appointed board was operating under a compromise settlement of a suit against the Teamsters by a group of dissident members who had sought to head off Mr. Hoffa's assumption of the presidency in 1957. In the compromise, Mr. Hoffa had been allowed to take over, with the board as a watchdog over his activities. In his letter to Mr. Hoffa, the monitor board chairman listed certain questions he wanted Mr. Hoffa to answer in detail about his commission, whether it was proposed that the activities of the commission would be limited to alleged "gangster domination" of the union, and if not, what types of conduct would fall within the purview of the commission, whether it was proposed that the commission be established for a set term or terminable at the discretion of the union, whether it was proposed that the commission would conduct hearings, how the commission would fit into the union's present system for the processing of individual complaints and appeals, whether it was proposed that the commissions' recommendations would be made public, the extent to which the union proposed to bind itself to abide by the recommendations of the commission, and how large would be the staff and budget proposed for the commission.

In Beirut, a gunman had shot and killed the secretary of a Lebanese industrialist organization, Abdullah Nurallah, in one of Beirut's traffic-jammed streets this date, shooting him as he left his car near a friend's office.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman had announced this date that a top Communist leader and 182 Communist rebels in Johor state had surrendered in the largest mass surrender since the Government had decreed amnesty nearly a year earlier.

In Copenhagen, it was reported that two Danish territories flanking Iceland in the north Atlantic were seeking to join the latter republic in banning foreigners from fishing within 12 miles of their coasts, a controversy which had Iceland threatening to leave NATO.

In London, it was reported that Ralph Vaughan Williams, dean of British composers, had died early this date at age 85.

On the editorial page, "The Arguments for Urban Renewal", a "photo editorial", presents a series of four photographs of rundown dwellings in Charlotte, taken by News photographer Charlie Kelly. A brief accompanying editorial indicates that the face of the dwellings would get dirtier, and the insides more dilapidated because Congress had failed to provide new urban renewal funding before it had adjourned recently. The failure to approve the funds was a cause for gloom, especially for Charlotte, as it would produce almost certainly months of delay in the key planning phase of the city's program for urban renewal, and until the plans were made and approved, a start on clearance could not even be contemplated. It was Charlotte's second attempt at demolition of its chief incubator of crime and disease.