The Charlotte News

Thursday, September 5, 1957

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Little Rock, Ark., armed National Guardsmen, who had been deployed the previous day by Governor Orval Faubus to prevent integration of Central High School, this date had sought to break up a New York Times reporter's interview of persons within a shouting, turbulent segregationist crowd estimated to number at around 500, the largest crowd of the week to gather at the school. None of the nine black students who had been turned away by the Guardsmen the previous day had shown up during the morning, the third morning on which whites had appeared in front of the school in apparent support of the Governor's conflict with a Federal District Court order to proceed to integrate the 2,000-pupil white school. The crowd jeered Benjamin Fine, the information editor of the New York Times, while he interviewed several persons among the segregationists. At one point, an unidentified colonel approached and told him that if he conducted interviews again, he would have to leave. Demonstrators then shouted: "He's from the North. He doesn't want the truth." Mr. Fine continued the interviews while flanked by Guardsmen, until the same colonel personally escorted him across the street and onto the school campus. Maj. General Sherman Clinger later called a press conference behind the armed troops to warn newsmen, stating that they would be arrested and fined if they did anything which might be interpreted as inciting a breach of the peace. The crowd cheered lustily when General Clinger, the State Adjutant-General of the Guard, called the press conference. Six blacks, identifying themselves as students at Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, were escorted from the area of the school, saying that they had come to see what was happening. During the previous 12 hours, Governor Faubus had said that he understood that the Federal Government was plotting to arrest him, after which the President's headquarters while he vacationed in Newport, R.I., stated that the information was not correct.

Former News associate editor and editor Harry Ashmore, since mid-1947 associate editor and then editor of the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, had begun publishing front-page editorials condemning the action of Governor Faubus in deploying the Guard to defy the Federal District Court order to proceed with integration, and would receive heavy public criticism from the Governor in return. Mr. Ashmore would eventually, in 1958, be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his fair-minded, stabilizing editorialization during the crisis, helping to ameliorate tension in the community.

In Raleigh, the State Highway Patrol stood ready in case its services were needed in Charlotte, Winston-Salem or Greensboro, where integration was ongoing during the week. The Patrol commander said this date that plainclothes patrolmen had been available as observers at the schools in the three systems, where a total of ten black students had been admitted during the week to previously all-white schools. He said that they tried to prepare for any eventuality which might arise and that conditions had been about what one would expect, being aware of no extreme occurence.

In Winston-Salem, a 15-year old girl had walked quietly into Reynolds High School Auditorium during the morning this date as the first black student ever to attend a white public school in the city. A crowd of curious bystanders was awaiting on adjoining Hawthorne Road in front of the school to watch the student as she arrived to enter the 11th grade. Other students said that she had walked by herself through the tunnel under Northwest Boulevard—where all the best people meet—and had entered the auditorium where an orientation session was occurring. As soon as word had spread that she was approaching the auditorium, newsmen and police rushed toward the entrance, but she had already entered by the time they got there. Police Chief James Waller told reporters that he had not escorted her. Superintendent of City Schools Craig Phillips confirmed that the girl's entry to the school was without fanfare, telling reporters that she had walked onto the school grounds by herself. Following the orientation session in the auditorium, she was scheduled to go to the main building of the school, which could be accessed by either a walk across the grounds or through an underground tunnel, for instructions concerning her schedule for the year before being released for the day. Small groups of persons had gathered early during the morning across from the school, apparently to catch a glimpse of her, not knowing that she was not supposed to report until later in the morning. The police chief had warned unauthorized persons to stay away from the school. She still has one more year before having to learn passages from Macbeth from little 4 x 5 index cards and then match them with the speaker of the lines and provide the general context in which they were spoken. (One never forgets such things when, on a brisk January Sunday afternoon in the Ramada Inn in Charlotte, one has to prepare for that and a Latin mid-year examination the following day. Makes us anxious just to think of it.)

In Charlotte, the second day of integration of three schools in the City system had proceeded without incident this date, after three black students had entered separate schools the previous day, while a 17-year old girl, subjected to some physical attacks the previous day, had stayed home from Harding High School with a sore throat this date, and her father, a minister, said that he would contact a physician during the morning to examine her. A band of about 50 students stood outside Harding prior to school, apparently awaiting the female student's arrival, not knowing that she would not be attending. Two youths had been arrested at Harding the previous day after the girl had been spat upon and struck with a pebble. A 12-year old girl, who had transferred from Myers Street School, entered Alexander Graham Junior High School for the first time this date, having not registered the previous day. She was little more than of passing interest this date. A male student, entering Central High School, had been detained momentarily at the school's entrance in the morning by a small group of students, but the principal had ordered them to clear a path for him. A City police patrol car called for a patrol wagon, but the wagon returned to police headquarters immediately. The sister of the latter male student had been greeted in a friendly manner by several students at Piedmont Junior High School, and there were no taunts or jeers directed at her as she entered the school this date. She had some trouble locating her homeroom—don't we all?—and had been assisted by some of her classmates. Did you ever suddenly forget your lock combination just before class?

In Havana, it was reported that a revolt, backed by some Naval units and Maritime police, had erupted this date in Cienfuegos, a central Cuban city, and that fighting was still in progress. The first reports received via telephone said that the Naval and Maritime police units had joined forces with rebel leader Fidel Castro and had captured police headquarters, the fighting having broken out shortly after dawn. Police had resisted, but Army troops stationed at Cienfuegos were said to have made no move to intervene. Supporters of Sr. Castro were said to be thronging the streets of the city, shouting "President Batista has fallen", "Government has been taken over by military junta headed by Castro's men". Reports from Cienfuegos said that the police chief had refused to surrender his headquarters and ordered police to resist, adding that the chief later had been seized by the rebels and his headquarters surrounded. An aide to the Army commander was reported to have been killed in early shooting. The banks and most businesses of the city had been closed, and one Cuban there said that all authority had broken down. A Cuban Navy plane was circling the city, but Navy headquarters in Havana said it had no information of any outbreak in Cienfuegos, about 200 miles southeast of Havana, and a large port for shipping sugar. The Cuban Navy was reported to have a strength of about 7,000 officers and men, having four frigates, two escort vessels and some smaller craft, such as coast guard vessels. The Army numbered about 15,000 officers and men. The fighting came only a day after El Presidente Fulgencio Batista had celebrated the 24th anniversary of his first coup. In his anniversary speech of the previous day, he had told officers, diplomats and his staff workers that he was determined to finish his four-year term, which would end the following year. He promised to crush any revolution ruthlessly and dismissed rebel leader Castro as a "bloody Communist criminal", after which Sr. Castro's friends denied that he was a Communist.

In Washington, leaders of the Teamsters Union this date denied that the union was corruptly dominated and said that they planned reform at the union's coming convention, but also stated that they would not punish any member for invoking the Fifth Amendment. It was a reply to the AFL-CIO ethical practices committee, which had leveled charges at the union of being infiltrated by corruption and racketeers. The delegation of the Teamsters had arrived nearly an hour late for a hearing before the committee. It was led by union president Dave Beck and the Midwest vice-president Jimmy Hoffa, heir-apparent to Mr. Beck, who was under indictment on charges of income tax evasion and had been accused by the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct in unions and management of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in union funds, having invoked the Fifth Amendment on numerous occasions when called before the Committee. Mr. Hoffa had been accused by the Committee of loose handling of union funds and of association with racketeers, though he had not invoked the Fifth Amendment, albeit not recalling many events about which he was questioned.

The editorial page is here.

As we have fallen behind, full notes on the pages will be sporadic until we catch up.