j» JONES COUNTY SCHOOLS PREVIEW OF PLAN FOR ALL COUNTIES
By Jack Rider
This week in the «m«u Coun
ty of Jones where the heavy
fist of federal blackmail and ju
dicial tyranny have combined to
emasculate the public school
system a preview of what’s in
store for every public school sys
tem in the South is being offer
The Jones County school en
rollment was 3095 in the last
full school year and the total
population of the county at the
latest estimate is 11,005, which
includes 5,719 white people and
5,286 colored people, but the
school enrollment of the county
is sljghtly more colored' than
white; in the ratio of about 52
per cent to 48 per cent.
At present Jones County op
erates seven elementary schools
and two high schools.
In the last school year three
of these elementary schools and
one of the high schools Were
totally colored in their enroll
ment although a few white
teachers had been assigned to
them. They induded J. E. Willie
School at Pollocksville, Jr E.
Morris School at Maysville and
the Trenton Colored Elementary
School, and the all-Negro Jones
County High School.
The other schools had been
all-white until recent years when
under federal compulsion ’a
“Freedom-of-Choice” enrollment
system had seen a few Negro
students ask for transfer into
the four white elementary
schools and the white Jones
Central High School. The ele
mentary schools are Comfort
Elementary School, Trenton Ele
mentary School, Alex H. White
School in Pollocksville and Mays
ville Elementary School.
Near the end of the 1967-68
school year the federal bureau
crats from the Health, Educa
tion and Welfare Department
began tightenihg the blackmail
screw on Jones County school
officials by declaring that about
$400,000 in federal tax funds al
located to Jones County would
be cut off if a greater degree of
racial mixing was not obtained
immediately.
Jones County school officials
decided to turn from the arbi
trary contradictions of the HEW
officials and seek more reason
able relief from Chief Federal
District Judge Algernon Q. But
ler of Clinton. Butler proved to
be more arrogant and less intel
ligent — if possible — than the
officials from Washington.
Butler ordered Jones County
officials to have on his desk' by
August 5th (Monday of this
week) a plan to totally integrate
their school system. This was
done, but the plan tendered by
Jones County officials was sum
marily rejected by this Clinton
Caesar.
Faced with the petulant pom
posity of this judicial tyrant
Jones County schools officials
scurried around and came up
■ with another plan. All conceived
in cold fury, and under the con
tinuing threat of that $400,000
larceny of public school funds
from the students of the county’s
THE JONES COUNTY
NUMBER 16_ TRENTON, N. C., THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1968
VOLUME XX
Renovations to
Be Made on Jail
Sheriff W. Brown Yates of
Jones County has been given
the go-ahead by the Board of
Commissioners to bring the
county jail up to sthte standards.
In order to metet state re
quirements the jail will have to
be supervised when in use, fire
poof mattresses and sheets will
have to be purchased, and the
jail will have to be painted and
other minor repaint dime.
The jail has been under sharp
criticism by the state health of
ficers. The move was taken as
part of a state-wide effort to
upgrade jails.
In other action the Board of
Commissioners accepted fhe res
Three Jones Arrests
Richard Midoox of Myrtle
Beach, S. C. was arrested during
the past week far driving un
der the influence. Thelma Dunn
of Kinston was arrested' for be
ing publicly drunk. For assault
ing a female and feeing publicly
drunk, Junius Jones of Wen
ton was arrested.
ignation of associate agricultural
extension agent, George Parham
A school capital outlay of
$19,557.84 was appropriated al
so.
The hiring of “New Career”
workers was approved by the
Board. The new employees will
work in the county agricultural
extension office in cooperation
with the departments of health
and economic opportunity.
Speeding Charges
Monopolize Court
For speeding 75 MPH in a 60
zone, Linwood Franklin Walder
of Amburg, Virginia was fined
|35. Linda Susan Androne of
Florence, S. C., who was charged
with speeding 70 in a 60 MPH
zone, was called and failed, let
ting bond be forfeited. Patrick
Nash Dalton of Midway Park
was fined $26 for speeding 70 in
a 60 MPH zone. William Lee
Harvey of Dayton, Ohio was
fined $26 for speeding 70 in a
60 MPH zone. For speeding 60
MPH in a 50 MPH zone, Herbert
Leurs Brickhouse of Columbia
and Floyd Allen Cornwall of
Banning, California were fined
school system.
And this hastily conceived
blackmail payment includes the
following:
The two elementary schools
in Trenton will be paired with
all ^children in grades one, two
and three forced to attend one
and those in grades four, five
and six forced to attend the oth
er.
In Pollocksville Alex H. White
and J. E. Willie schools will be
paired in the same manner.
At Maysville J. E. Morris
School will be closed and all its
Negro students will be forced
to attend the previously all
white Maysville Elementary
School.
Since Comfort School is the
only school in the western end
of the county there was no Ne
gro school with which it could
be paired so to solve that prob
lem 88 Negro students have sim
ply been assigned to attend it.
Jones County High School un
der this federal dictate will be
come a “junior high school” and
all students in grades seven,
| eight and nine will be forced to
attend it and Jones Central High
School will become a “senior
high school” and all students in
grades 10, 11, and 12 will have
to attend it.
The latest survey of classroom
needs for the Jones County
school system, prepared by the
State Department of Public In
$30.
Carl Heath of Jacksonville
who was charged with having an
expired registration plate and
driving while his license was
revoked, was ordered by the
court to pay $200 and the court’s
cost.
Charles Audrey Tilley of
Swansboro was fined $10 and
cost for failing to stop at a
stop sign.
Charles Edwin Ldghtle of Pitts
field, Illinois was fined $26 for
reckless driving. John Dwight
Garris of Deep Run who was
also charged with reckless driv
ing, had a prayer for judgement
continued on the payment of
cost entered.
structldn, shows a need of 51
additional classrooms immediate
ly and a long-range need of 102
classrooms. How the educational,
authorities can square these
pressing classroom needs with
the arbitrary closing of the J.
E. Morris Schoof in Maysville is
a point not discussed by judge,
nor HEW agent, nor member of
the Jones County School Board.
This then is the pattern. It is
to be applied to every school
district in the South, but not for
the rest of the nation.
Lenoir County presently oper
ates 11 schools. Six of these are
elementary, three are union
schools including all 12 grades
and two are high schools.
Four of these 11 are totally
Negro in their enrollment al
though a few white teachers
have been assigned to them.
The other seven are predom
inately white although an en
forced transfer of some more
than 350 students in the 1967
68 school year did temporarily
get the federal rats off the
backs of the Lenoir County
School Board.
But the ultimate plan for Le
noir County Schools, as preview
ed this week in Jones County is
the pairing of schools whenever
possible, and the arbitrary as
signment of students when not
possible as at Comfort.
This is the plan already being
promoted by Kinston School of
ficials. Of course in “rich’”
Kinston the proposal is to do it
with a bit more flourish: Build
I a multi-million-dollar central
I high school for all Kinston stu
dents in grades 10, 11 and 12,
expensive renovations of brand
new Adkin High and Handsome
Old Grainger High into “junior
high schools.”
Abandonment of Harvey
School, despite the fact that the
most recent survey assigns a
classroom shortage of 76 rooms
in the Kinston system and a long
rang need of 126 rooms.
Where Jones County is being,
asked only to spend a few hun
dred thousand dollars to finance
this total racial integration the
price tage put on racial integra
tion of the Kinston school sys
tem is $5 million, which the vot
ers of the county will soon be
asked to meekly approve.
KINSTON DELEGATE TO REPUBUCAN CONVENTION HIT BY PARTY'S PLATFORM STEAMROLLER
North Carolina has 26 delegates
to the National Republican Con
vention this week in Miami
Beach. Dr. Thornton Hood Jr,
of Kinston is one of the two
delegates front the first Con
gressional District. CEhe, Repub
lican system permits two dele
gates from each congressional
district and four delegates at
large.) . : V j
Tuesday night — or early
Wednesday morning Delegate
Hood got hit by the platform
streamroller of the party as he
walked onto the speaker’s plat
form and tried to gain permis
sion to speak. Permament Chair
man Gerald Ford talked briefly
with Hood but refused to per
mit Hood to speak to the con
vention.
Then the television cameras
zoomed in on Hood and a horde
of reporters began' trying to
find out what he was trying , to
speak about, and why he was
denied the right to speak. Hood
refused to tell the reporters, but
said he might make a statement
on the matter later in the con
vention.
Speculation was that Hood
wanted a stronger plahk in the
ion the Vietnamese
Everett Dirksen,
of' the plat
presided
that
to
since Dirksen has a lot more in
common with Johnson than he
does with the majority of the
members of the Republican Par
ty, and certaily far more than
Hood, who is one of the most
constant and caustic critics of
the present administration. '*
Each year a few jnore people
begin to wondbr about the mad,
mad one-week circus that is
called a National Political Con
vention. Until television brought
this spectacle into nearly- every
home in the nation it was given
precious little consideration by
■the vast majority of the citi
zenry. v ;.. . .
But the National Convention
is the end product of the tiniest
political activity in the Ameri
can system: The precinct meet
ing.
It all begins when the party
chairmen in eachaf .thepation’s
counties calls for ^precinct meet
ings of all the party faithful.
Then on a date set by the chair
man small gatherings are held
in each of the nations thous
ands of polling precincts.
In counties where a particu
lar party may not be too active,
or too well represented all of
the precinct meetings will be
held in a central spot such as
the county court house.
Then when the precinct ipeet
mgs are convened an election is
held of precinct officials, in
dueling a Chairman, vice chair
man and secretary. Then these
officials are generally named to
be delegates to the county con
vention which is also a court
house kind of activity.
When the county convention
is convened another series of
elections is held. County Party
Chairman, vice chairman and
secretary, and another layer of
offices which includes congres
sional district congressional
executive committees, judicial
district executive committees,
solidtorial district executive
committees. These committees
I only activity is to recommend
some member of their respec
tive party to fill vacancies in
these offices.
All county chairmen automat
ically become members of the
state executive committee, which
iini turn elects a state party
chairman.
After the precinct and county
conventions are held the dele
gates to the state convention
who were elected in the county
convention than convene in the
state capital for the state con
vention.
. And it is in this state conven
tion that delegates to the na
tional convention are elected.
Lenoir County this year has
a full delegate to the Democra
tic Convention in the person of
County Party Chairman Oscar
Waller of Woodington, and, of
course, Dr. Hood is Already get
1 ting a “liberal” education in
convention wheeling and deal
ing, this being his second time
around, since he was a delegate
to the 1964 Republican Conven
tion in which Barry Goldwater
wainominated.
When these national conven
tiorfs have completed selection of
Presidential and Vice Presiden
tial and Vice Presidential can
didates for their respective par
ties, then the voter becomes the
target of a lot of oratory.
And the voter marches to the
polls on general election day
wrapped in the myth that he is
helping to elect a president, but
that is not necessarily so. Presi
dents are elected by members
of the Electoral College.
In some states — but not North
Carolina the members of this
Electoral College are listed on
the ballot for their respective
parties and the voters actually
bast their ballot for the electoral
college members rather than for
a specific presidential election.
The winning slate of electors
is bound by law in some states
and by custom in all states to
vote for the nominee of their re
spective party. But this custom
has been violated from time to
time; although no frequently.
And in some states an “un
pledged” slate of electors is
are named.
Perhaps the most unreason-'
able aspect of the Electoral Col
lege is that it happens to be a
winner - take - all proposition.
Whichever slate of electors gets
a plurality in a state gets ALL
of that state’s votes. For in
stance in 1964 Kennedy got 3,
830,085 votes in New York State:
and Nixon got 3,446,419, but
Kennedy got all of New York’s
huge bundle of electoral votes.
It is theoretically possible for
a presidential candidate to get
an overwhelming majority of the
popular vote and still be de
feated. He could carry the elec
toral vote of all 12 of the most
populous states in the nation and
be defeated by the other 38 less
populated states which have the
additional voting edge of one
vote for each senator no matter
how small their population.
This is one more aspect of the
“one-man-one-vote” syndrome
that the supreme court has not
yet dared to toy with, and it is
a fundamental part of the Amer
ican system because the men
who framed the constitution
feared a direct presidential vote,
as they did for. the senate, but
their wise decision on having;
senators elected by the state leg
islatures was junked in 1913,
which was one of the two con
stitutional amendments ratified
in 1913 that have caused the un- \
believable expansion of the fed
eral apparatus. The other, of
course, was the federal income
tax amendment.
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