Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Aug. 12, 1965, edition 1 / Page 1
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IF THEY DON'T LIKE WHAT WE ARE DOING, THEY CAN TAKE THEIR CHILDREN OUT By Jack Rider Monday I went a’tilting against the windmills of bureacracy in Raleigh. My lance was an accumulation of 18,614 signatures over letters, cards and personally drawn pe titions by people who joined me in protesting the crude manner in which an admitted 1200 pa tients of North Carolina’s schools’ for the mentally re tarded are being abused. My first stop was in the of fice of Governor Dan Moore, who listened politely to me tell the reasons for my asking an au dience. I told him that firstly I want ed it clearly understood that although I was a 140-per cent racial segregationist I was not protesting the racial inte gration of these state schools and hospitals because I recog nize all too clearly that I had lost that war in last year’s presi dential election when the over whelming. majority of the na tion’s voters endorsed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the face of this I told the governor that I had to accept, if reluctantly, that until this law is repealed public institutions cannot be operated in any man ner that discriminates against anyone because of race, color, creed, or national origin. My mission, I explained, was to protest in the name of these 18,614 petitioners and myself to the summary transfer of 1200 children from Caswell Training School at Kinston and O’Berry Center at Goldsboro without the consent — and in the vast ma jority of instances — over the vehement objections of both the children themselves and their families as well. I told the governor in my more than 40 years in Kinston as an observer of the operation of Cas well that there never had been a time when morale of the staff and the patients was in such a bad state. The governor asked me if I had seen Doctor Hargrove — who is director of the Depart ment of Mental Health. I told him I had not and he had a secretary call and make an ap pointment immediately follow ing our talk. The governor told me he was aware of this problem because it had been brought to his atten tion before, if not in quite the manner I was using. I told the governor I would talk to anybody — even the devil himself if it would help correct the abuse of these chil dren and their families. He said he felt it would be a good idea to talk with Hargrove and get the views of the people who are administering our schools for the mentally retarded and hos pitals for the mentally disturb ed. :THE JONES COUNTY T O U RNAL NUMBER 13TRENTON, N. C., THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1965 VOLUME XVH School Board OK's Faculty and School Calendar for Coming Year Special Meeting of the Jones County Board of Education min utes. Members present: Messrs. F. Rogers Pollock, Jeff J. Conway, W. E. Phillips, J. C. Wooten, Vice-chairman and J. C. West, Jr. Chairman. The members of the Jones County Board of Education met on the above date in the office of the superintendent and after the meeting had been called to order. Chairman West let the group in prayer. The Minutes of the previous meeting were read and found to be recorded cor rectly. The chairman opened the meeting for business. A motion was made by Mr. Wooten, seconded by Mr. Pol lock and unanimously carried that Connie Rene Thompson be assigned to Trenton School for school year 1965-1966. A motion was made by Mr. Conway, seconded by Mr. Woot en and unanimously carried that that the following school per sonel’s resignations be accept ed according to their wishes: Louvenia Smith Gidron, Jones High and Esley A. Robinson, Jones High, Janitor. A motion was made by Mr. Conway seconded by Mr. Woot en and unanimously carried that the following school personnel be duly elected and approved to teach in the Jones County Schools for the school year 1985 1966: Aubrey Lee Little, Jones Cen tral, Driver Education; Daniel, S. Ballard, Jr., Jones Central, Coach; Henry H. Goodman, Jones Central, DlstHBttflVe Ed ucation; Rayburn Rhodes, Com fort; Lucille G. Eubanks, Com fort; Sudie H. Simmons, Mays ille; Irene S. Oliver, Maysville; Marie A. Warren, Jones High School; Willie J. Hayes, Jones High; Timothy J. Autry, Jones High; Elvira Dillahunt Shaw, Jones High; Alyce Warren, Jones High; James E. Ervin, Jones High, Janitor, Ruby J. Wilson, Trenton Elementary, Mary I. Simmons, Trenton Ele mentary; and Louise J. Willie, J. W. Willie Elementary. A motion was made by Mr. Phillips, seconded by Mr. Pol lock, and unanimously carried that the School Opening Cal endar for the 1965-1966 school year be approved. The secretary gave much in formation that had been receiv ed from different sources since the last Board meeting. There being no further busi ness to come before the Board, the meeting stood adjourned. Routine Clearances Account* for 18 Cases in Recorder's Court During the past week trials by Judge Joe Becton and sub missions before Clerk Walter Henderson cleared 18 cases from the docket of Jones Coun ty Recorder’s Court. Donald Ray Shivar of Trenton route 2 was found not guilty of ^on-support and a similar charge against William Andrews of Maysville was withdrawn by the plantiff who paid the court costs. Roosevelt {Garris of Trenton was found guilty of passing two worthless checks which he was ordered to make good and pay the court costs in each. / assault on female charge Ben Bruington was hoi l with leave since Bruing ton is awaiting trial on charge of first degree murder. Roman Milton Jernigan of Kinston was fined $15 and costs for speeding 75 miles an hour and Bobby Ray Jackson of New Bern was fined $10 for reckless driving. Stephen Lemley of Camp Le jeune, Jackie Dixon of Jackson-' wile, Charley Jennings of Cher ry Point and Terry Donald Glo wer of Rocky Mount were each lined $10 for speeding. Ava Riggs Jones of Pollocks dlle .route 1 had a charge of naking an improper turn nol mossed. Others paying the costs for ml lor traffic charges were Lillie deadows Chadwick of Pollocks Divorce Sought An action was filed this week in the office of Superior Court Clerk Walter Henderson in which Clifton B. Smith of Jones County is seeking a divorce from Lillian Mary York Smith, address unknown. The suit al leges their marriage on June 22, 1961 and their permanent separation on June 21, 1962. EXPENSIVE. FIRE , Fife of undetermined origin early Wednesday morning did an estimated $25,000 damage to a packhouse and its contents on the J. W. Poole farm of Kinston route 2. Poole valued the barn at $6,000 and equipment and to bacco stored in an around it at $19,000. Dr. Hargrove, it developed, was out of town, but an appoint ment with Dr. Sam Cornwell, director of the Division of Men tally Retarded, was made and I went to his office. I told Cornwell essentially my position as outlined above to Governor Moore. Cornwell said that the trans fers were a part of the Depart ment of Mental Health’s effort to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that it was the department’s conclusion that in order to comply it was neces sary to establish all schools and hospitals on an absolute geo graphical basis. He reminded that the state operates four schools for the mentally retard ed at Kinston, Goldsboro, Butner and Morganton, and he admitted that the prox imity of the Kinston and Golds boro schools made the job more complicated than it might have been if their locations had not been so close. Cornwell tried to console me with the fact that children who in recent years had been trans ferred from Kinston to Butner and from Kinston and Butner to Morganton had made excel lent adjustment. Each of these being recently opened schools for mentally retarded patients. For a generation Kinston’s was Armed Robbery is Alleged Against Four Leathernecks Four Camp Lejeune Marines are being held in Lenoir Coun ty jail on charges of armed rob bery growing out of a Saturday night escapade south of Kinston. Teen-ager A. B. Dickerson Jr. of Cove City Route 1 and two other youths from the same neighborhood say they were picked up and later assaulted and robbed by four Camp Le jeune Marines; one of whom dropped his pocketbook at the scene of the robbery. The four accused are John Dalesandro, Stephen Lima, Mi chael Schultz and Rex Wren. Jaycees Conducting Survey in Effort Secure Improved Telephone Service In its continuing effort to se cure improved telephone ser vice for every part of Jones County the Jaycee organization is now conducting a survey of several hundred telephone sub scribers. . The reason for the survey is to determine the present levels of use of both local and long distance calls by both business 1 and private telephone subscrib ers and to determine if people using phones would be willing to pay more for an improved 1 service. Doug Connor, who is chair man of the survey team, said Wednesday that only one nega tive reply has been received so far in the survey and he urges all persons receiving the survey form to fill it out and mail or bring it in as quickly as possible. The hope of the Jaycees is ' to secure county-wide toll-free service, but strong support from 1 elephone subcribers in the coun- 1 :y is needed to press for such 1 service either to the telephone ' :ompany or before the utilities ‘ :ommission. Five Jones Arrests Jones County Sheriff Brown Yates reports five arrests dur ing the past week: Robert Lee Gooding of New Bern route 3 was charged with reckless driv ing, Paul Edward Morgan of Pollocksville route 1 was charg ed with speeding 80 miles an hour, Isaiah Hill of Maysville, Joe Bender of PollocksviUe and Talbert King of Trenton route 2 were all accused of being pub licly drunk and Hill was addi tional accused of being disorder ly ville route 1, Caleb Dove of Trenton route 1, James Heath of Kinston, Ben Cox of Kins ton, and Walter McNeal Jr. of Kinston. • jg&yt 4 . ; Railroad Executives Named by Governor Last week Governor Dan Moore exercise one of the duties of his post by “recommending” that the stockholders of the At-1 lantic & North Carolina Rail road give careful ccfnsideration to the appointment of Bud Dix on of Morehead as president, Olin Reed of Kinston as secre tary-treasurer and Don Brock of Trenton as one of the direc tors of the company. The State of North Carolina owns 75 per cent of the stock in the company so the governor’s recommendation was accepted without dissent. ] Principal function of the of- : ficers is to receive and distri- i Irnte rentals from Southern Rail- < ways which leases the trackage 1 Erom Goldsboro to Morehead. i the only such institution in the state. I emphasized to Cornwell that I even had no objection to the use of geographical zoning if it were done on an individual ap plication basis, and above all with the consent of those fam ilies involved. I admitted that I appreciated the difficulty of his department’s position, but that it seemed im proper to me that the civil rights people were accepting all across the nation so - called “Freedom of Choice” plans for the racial integration of public schools. He admitted that the Depart ment of Mental Health had not attempted to “sell” a “Freedom of Choice” plan to the civil rights bureaucrats, since it was the consensus of his directors that a geographical plan would be more acceptable and in the best interest of patient and fam ilies alike to summarily transfer hundreds back and forth between all institutions rather than to have piece-meal integration on the basis of individual applica tions. He said he felt that it was better to have several hundred white children transferred hur riedly to Goldsboro than for one or two to be entered there on the petition of their families. I countered by reminding him that last year in Kinston’s white high school of about 1,000 stu dents there had been only two colored students, but each was there with the full knowledge and consent of his parents. Cornwell admitted that when children were transferred from. Kinston to Butner and to Mor ganton very special care had been taken to consult with the families of the patients involved and no transfers were made ex cept with the full knowledge and consent of the families involved. He said, however, that per haps, in mixing the races they could have moved with similar deliberation, but lack staff to make large numbers of trans fers on short notice while giv ing such careful attention to each patient. Cornwell admitted that there was no medical reason for the transfers, and that they were being made only in the depart ment’s effort to satisfy the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Cornwell also asked me to as cribe to him and his staff the same concern for the welfare of the children that I felt and that was represented in the more than 18,000 petitioners. I told him I was sure that each and all of these involved were utterly sincere, but it sim ply happened to be my convic tion that they had reached a terribly wrong conclusion as to what was the best way to handle a bad program. He said that his staff had to be concerned with what was best for all the patients involved and that if a few were hurt and their families distressed it was unfortunate. I told him that this is exactly the point of the great dialogue going on in the world today: Whether the state had the right to make poeple do things that some isolated official decided was best for them. Be admitted that this is a matter of great concern. And Cornwell concluded that after all families involved do have a freedom of choice in this matter: “If they don’t like what we are doing they can take their children out and see if they can manage them at home.’* I thanked him for his time, Ms courtesies and told him that although I understood the na ture of his problem I differed completely with the manner in which his department was seek ng a solution.
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Aug. 12, 1965, edition 1
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