District Court Gets Franklin School Plans
NAACP Seeks
Total Grade
Consolidation
Attorneys for eleven Franklin
County Negro parents, plaintiffs in the
three-year-old school desegregation
suit, have filed a plan with U. S.
Eastern District Judge Algernon Butler
calling for total desegregation of the
county school system this fall. The
plan, one of three presented to the
Court Monday, proposes that all pre
sent facilities except Cedar Street
School and Youngsville Elementary
School be used.
The plaintiffs' plan calls for
the schools "to be reorganized
to serve the following grades:
Gethsemane, grades 1-7; and
Bunn, grades 8-12; Perry's,
grades 1-7 and Gold Sand, grades
8-12; Edward Best Elementary,
grades 1-7 and Edward Best High ?
School, grades 8-12; Youngsville
High School, grades 1-12; River
side, grades 1-8 and Louisburg,
grades 9-12. It calls for the
clocng of Cedar Street and
Youngsville Elementary schools.
This plan would make elementary
schools out of present Negro schools
and high schools at the present pre
dominantly white schools. This is pro
posed for the opening of the school
year, six weeks from Wednesday.
All children in the districts served
by the named schools would attend
the school in that district under the
plaintiffs' plan.
It also calls for reorganization
of the bus transportation and
orders that "teachers, principals
and school personnel shall not
be dismissed, demoted or passed
over for retention in the system
because of race or color."
The NAACP plan also calls for "All
school facilities, school functions, pro
grams and activities and related or
sanctioned activities and programs, in
cluding athletics to be conducted on a
completely non-racial basis."
Also proposed in the plaintiffs' plan
is a number of restrictions on future
actions by the Board of Education.
This section sets forth a number of
reports on such actions to be Tiled
with the Court and opposing attorneys
ahead of any implementation of the
actions.
Included in these reports would be
such things as racial breakdown of all
schools in the system; the same for
teachers and school personnel, and a
report of all applications for teaching
positions. The Board of Education
would, under this plan, be forced to
report all "new construction, addi
tions, or alterations or modernization
planned or projected."
Also asked (or in the NAACP
plan, presented to the Court is
that the "plaintiffs are awarded
their costs herein including rea
sonable counsel fees." These in
clude fees for clerks and mar
sh alls, court reporter and steno
graphic transcripts, printing and
disbursements, "exemplification
and copies of papers" and doc
ket fees.
Judge Butler stated on June 20,
that he would accept plans from the
plaintiffs, the U x S. Justice Depart
ment, plaintiff-intervenor and ordered
? plan to be presented by the Franklin
Board of Education. He said he would
accept one of the three plans or write
one of his own.
Mrs. Hugh Hayes
Attack Victim
An attack, suffered at the home of
? daughter this morning around 8:30
A.M., proved fatal to Mrs. Clafton
Mundy Hayes, 70, a long-time resident
of Louisburg. Mrs. Hayes, the widow
of the late Hugh Hayes of Louisburg,
was dead when members of the Louis
burg Reacue Service arrived at the
borne of Mrs. E. F. Yarborough on
Main Street here.
Graveside services will be held Wed
nesday afternoon at 4 p.m. from Oak
wood Cemetery here, conducted by
Rev. Norwood Jones, pastor of the
Louisburg Methodist Church, and Rev.
Frank Pulley, Rector of St. Paul's
Episcopal Church.
Mrs. Hayes is survived by three
daughters, Mrs. E. F. Yarborough of
Louisburg, Mrs. James A. Best of
EUicott City, Maryland, and Mrs. Rob
art D. Ward of Charlotte, four grand
children and one great grandchild.
Groundbreaking Ceremonies Held For Center
Officials and friends of Town and Country Recreation,
Inc. are shown above at last Thursday's groundbreaking
ceremonies held at the site two miles east of Louisburg on
the Hickory Rock Road. Pictured left to right are, Conrad
(Buzzie) Sturges. J. Harold Talton, David Daniel. President of
the organization, Walter McDonald, Ronald Tharrington, Ed
Rogers, Al Fox, Mrs. Rachel Phelps, Mrs. Marjorie Leonard,
James Ivey and Wade Moore.
Immediately following the ceremonies Moore's equipment
began clearing a road to the site of the new swimming pool,
expected to be completed in six weeks.
Daniel told the group, "1 think it is significant that we
begin this project today, when there are those who say
Franklin County is declining. When those in high places
criticize us and when we are in federal court. It shows that
we are capable of doing things for ourselves and it shows that
there is still such a thing as private citizenry."
He praised the Board of Directors, most of whom were
present, Talton for his aid in the financing of the project,
Sturges for his legal advice and others. Daniel said the event
came about "after many months, many miles and many
prayers plus many other contacts."
Plans Mean Nothing Until Judge Rules
Editor's Note: The author is now
and has been sime 1901 a member of
the Franklin County Hoard of Educa
tion. With other members of the
Board, the Superintendent of Schools
and the Board's attorneys, he has
studied all three proposed plans and
has been in close contact with all
developments in the three-year-old
school suit. The following it a brief
explanation of what Monday's filing of
three proposed plans means as of
today.
Mass confusion seems to have taken
over since the early reports here Mon
day of various aspects of the three
school desegregation plans presented
to the U. S. Eastern District Court. c
Many people express varying degrees
of concern for portions of one or
another of the three plans and many
have made up their minds that one of
the plans is already the law for Frank
lin County.
By way of clarification, none of the
three plans means anything at all at
this stage. Until Judge Alernon Butler
By Clint Fuller
of Clinton, N. C. selects one or writes
one of his own or takes some other
action, the plans are just paper and
have no bearing whatsoever on the
operation of the schools.
However, once the Judge rules on a
plan and signs it as an order, the
Franklin County system will be ope
rated under that plan, whatever it
might eventually be. Just when the
Judge will rule and what the nature of
his ruling might be is anybody's guess
at this point.
It is premature to assume that the
NAACP plan or the Government's plan
or even the Board of Education's plan
will be acceptable to the Court. A
combination of the three could be
ordered or a complete new method of
arriving at a unitary non-racial school
system might be drawn.
Briefly, here is what the three plans
. propose:
BOARD OF EDUCATION PLAN
An increase in assignment of Negro
(pupils to predominantly white schools
this fall; an increase in the number of
teachers crossing racial lines this fall;
consolidation of Negro high schools
into predominantly white high schools
next fall; and consolidation of ele
mentary grades in the 1970-71 school
year.
NAACP PLAN
Basically, this plan calls for the
consolidation of all elementary grades
into the Negro schools this fall and the
consolidation of all high school grades
into the predominantly white high
schools this fall. It also requires that
the teaching staff be totally desegre
gated and seeks control over future
plans, buildings and hiring practices by
the Board of Education.
GOVERNMENT PLAN
This plan differs with the one pro
posed by the NAACP only in that it
would leave it to the School Board to
decide on where to consolidate ele
mentary schools and high schools. It
calls for -total consolidation of grades
See UNTIL JUDGE RULES Page 6
Officers Blow Huge Still
Prmnklin Sheriff William T. Dement is shown above, center, early last Friday morning as he and his department with ATU
officers, Mike Zetts, right and Don Devano, not shown, prepared to destroy an illegal whiskey still in Harris Township. Franklin
Jailer, W. L. Faulkner, is shown behind Dement. The twin 300-gallon subs, powered by a steam boiler, was blown up around 7
am. Also destroyed at the site were 110 60-pllon mash barrels, six 200-gallon mash boxes and 1400 gallons of mash. The still
was not in operation and no arrests were made. Officers suspected the operation was about to be moved to another location.
School Board Proposes
Three-Step Plan
The Franklin County Board of Education, under order of U. S. Eastern District
Judge Algernon Butler, filed a new plan of school desegregation Monday. The plan
calls for a three step transition to a unitary nonracial school system and would be
completed at the beginning of the 1970-71 school year.
Under the Board's plan, 750 Negro students would be assigned this fall to
predominantly white schools and 45 teachers would be assigned across racial lines.
This would about double the integration of the past year.
For the 1969-70 school year. Riverside, Gethsemane, Perry's and Epsom high
schools would be closed and all high school students would be assigned to
Louisburg, Youngsville. Bunn, Edward Best and Gold Sand high schools on a
unitary nonracial basis.
At the start of the 1970-71 school year all students in the Franklin County
system "will be assigned to schools on a unitary nonracial basis."
Board attorney E. F. Yarborough said, "The Board has the funds and the means
to effectuate this plan. It can be put into effect without considerable degree of
interruption of the continuity of the children's education."
Government
Calls For Total
Integregation
The U. S. Department of Justice,
plaintiff-intervenor in the three-year
old Coppedge vs the Franklin County
Board of Education school case, filed a
proposed plan of desegregation for the
county in U. S. Eastern District Court
Monday.
The government's plan calls
for complete desegregation of
Franklin schools this fall but
leaves the location of grades to
the Board of Education. Unlike
the companion plan presented
by NAACP attorneys in the case,
the Justice Department leaves it
to the Board of Education to
decide whether to put elemen
tary schools or high schools at
present school sites. It prohibits
the location of the same grade in
a district in more than one
school. That is, it forbids estab
lishment of so-called "neighbor
hood schools".
The government's plan calls for
attendance zones to be established for
both races along lines now set for
predominantly white schools. It states,
"All pupils in the district shall attend a
school within their attendance zones,
except that where pupil distribution
may result in unequal utilization of
school capacities based on pupil class
room ratios, the defendants shall as
sign students residing near the bounda
ries of zones in which the schools are
overcrowded to adjoining zones which
have less crowded schools."
The government plan also proposes
that "... no school shall offer a grade
or enroll students in a grade that is
taught at any other school in the same
attendance zone."
In a "Statement" accompany
ing the government's plan, the
Justice Department says, "The
decision as to which grades are
to be offered at each school is,
left to the defendants, so that
federal involvement in the opera
tion of the schools is kept at tl\e
minimum level compatible with
the prompt enjoyment by the
children of Franklin County of
their constitutional rights."
The government's plan quotes state
ments taken from testimony by Wil
liam Stormer, whom the Justice De
partment says is an expert in school
organization.
Giving as reasons for selecting its
plan over "straight^ geographical zon
ing", the government says (1) "The
pairings of the schools will avoid the
continuation of small educationally
disadvantageous high schools;
(2) There are no serious administra
tive difficulties precluding a prompt
transition to grade centers, and the
adjustment can be made with ease and
(3) Consolidation of grades as be
tween white and Negro schools will
automatically result in complete facul
ty desegregation".
The government says their
plan "promises speedier and
more effective conversion to a
unitary non-racial system".
The government's plan, a plan pre
sented by attorneys for the Negro
plaintiffs and one ordered from the
Board of Education were presented to
Judge Algernon Butler Monday. There
is no certainty just when Judge Butler
will rule in the i matter, but time is
running out for the coming school
year. Judge Butler has said if he liked
none of the three plans, he would
write one of his own.
The NAACP attorneys representing
eleven Franklin County Negro parents
and the U. S. Justice Department have
also presented plans. Although worded
somewhat differently, both basically
call for total desegregation for this fall.
With the opening of the fall
term only six weeks away, Supt.
Wan-en Smith said, "If either of
the other two plans are put into
effect for the 1968-69 school
year, the education of the child
ren will suffer."
Smith pointed out that principals
are not scheduled to report for several
weeks yet and that any mass move
ment of books, desks, rerouting of
buses, etc. Would be a tremendous
undertaking.
Charles Davis, attorney to the
Board, said Monday, "The mem
bers of the Board of Education,
the Superintendent and his staff,
and others involved have worked
diligently over the past several
months to come up with a deseg
regation plan that complies with
Judge Butler's order of August
17, 1967. Since Judge Butler has
ordered Franklin County to ful
ly desegregate its school system,
in my opinion the plan adopted
by the Board is the fairest and
most practical plan that the
Board could adopt and still be in
compliance with Judge Butler's
order."
Under the plan presented by the
Board of Education, 45 teachers
would be assigned across racial lines in
the coming year and in 1969-70 "each
faculty shall contain the same approxi
mate percentage of non-white teachers
as there is in the entire system."
The School Board plan is short,
contained in two pages while plans
submitted by the plaintiffs and the
government are several pages long and
spell out future reports to be submitt
ed by the Board of Education as well
as a plan for total desegregation this
fall.
Judge Butler said on June 20, 1968
that he would accept plans from the
Justice Department and the NAACP
and ordered the Board of Education to
present one. He stated he would take
the one he liked or write one himself.
He turned down a three-year plan of
desegregation presented by the Board
on June 20 in compliance with his
order of August 17, 1967.
Industrial Leaders
In Kansas City
J. Harold Talton, Chairman of the
Industrial Development Commission
and Kenneth Schubart, newly appoint
ed Industrial Development Director
are in Kansas City, Mo. this week
visiting an industrial prospect for
Franklin County.
Accompanied by an official of the
State Conservation and Development
Department, Talton and Schubart are
expected to return here sometime
Wednesday. No details were learned
about the nature of the prospect, but a
reliable source reported the threesome
were visiting with an individual con
cern as opposed to making a search for
interested firms.
Deadline Set
Town Tax Collector R. Lee John
son announced that July 31st is the
deadline for buying town privilege
license. Those who don't meet ,the
July 31st deadline will be charged an
extra 5% penalty for late payment,
and a 5% penalty each month will be
charged until paid, Johnson stated.
Johnson urges all merchants, con
tractors, trade people, and all others
who are required by law to obtain a
privilege license, to do so before the
extra cost goes into effect August 1,
1968.