Evening star., 1949-02-03
Petitions Ready
|0n Gloucester
School Bonds
Bourd Screens Names
Before Asking Court
To Call Referendum
First OF a Series.)
BY Alex R. Preston
Skor Stoff cevvasnanaan&

BY Alex R. Preston
stor Staff cerrespendent
GLOUCESTER, Va, Feb. 3.-Cir-
culation of petitions for a referen-
dunn on a bond issue to equalize
white and Negro schools has been
completed.
School Supt. j. Walter Kenney
and the Gloucester County Electoral
Board are screening between $50
and 900 names to determine whether
the qualifications Of signers comply
with State law.
Stanley T. Gray, Gloucester drug
gist who Is chairman Of the School
Board, is confident that more than
the required 800 names will be certi-
fed as meeting the requirement
that they be of persons qualified to
vote.
IS Per Cent Of Negro Voters Sign.
"A large proportion of the signers
were colored people" Mr.. Gray said.
j. D. Cooper, colored, principal
of the Gloucester County Training
School for Negroes, estimates that
more than rs per cent of the
qualified Negro voters signed the
petitions.
Mr.. Gray said he probably would
not call special meeting Of the
School Board until early next week
at which time the board will adpot
a resolution calling on Circuit
Court Judge j. Douglas Mitchell to
order q referendum.
The referendum question will be
on the matter of issuing between
$3.50, 600 and 81 ,000, 900 in bonds, the
exact amount to be determined
later. The money would be used to
used to build a new white, as well
as new Negro high school offer
ing substantially equal facilities.
Adjudged In Contempt.
Reason for all Of this activity at
this time is that Mr.. Gray, Mr..
Kenney and the other two School
Board members, Otis Hogge,
Achilles merchant, and Wallace
Fletcher, a chicken raiser and
farmer of Pampa. have been ad-
judged in contempt Of court by
Federal Judge Sterling Hutcheson
They are awaiting imposition of
penalties in April but the court in
dicated 1t would consider any steps
taken to equalize facilities before
then.
Negroes initiated court action in
ls47, claiming Unequal facilities in
Gloucester and King George Coun-
ties. Last July Judge Hutcheson
issued injunctions against school
|ofhcials Of both counties which, in
effect. ordered them to equalize
facilities.
When school terms opened Sep
tteunber 8. a group of 20 Negro chill
dren, led by their attorney, unsuc.
cessfully sought admittance to the
white Botetourt High School here
The same day,,ta group of 10 wa.
denied adn1ittance At the white
King, George High School, in King
George Courthouse.
Reopened Earlier Suits.
Shortly thereafter, attorneys for
the Negroes reopened the earlier
suits, claiming that no equalization
had been carried out in either
county. On September "A, Judge
Hutcheson ordered officials in both
counties to show cause why they
should not be cited for contempt.
Subsequently, King George school
attorneys reached an agreement
with counsel for the Negroes to con-
tinue the complaint until Septem-
ber l of this year. Voters of King
George County since have approved
a $150,000 bond issue for a new
Negro high school.
No such agreement having been
reached with school officials here,
however, the court adjudged the
officials in contempt, and they are
to face the judge for imposition of
penalties during the April term.
Much has been said here about
the reported refusal of Negroes to
sign referendum petitions. Judge
Hutcheson took note of these re-
ports when he handed down his
contempt citation.
Changes in Law.
George De Hardit, counsel to
the School Board, recalled that the
1948 General Assembly passed an
act which changed the law govern
ing petitions for referenda, effective
last June. Formerly, he explained.
"freeholders," or landowners, were
required to sign, but now qualified
voters" are specified instead. Mr..
De Hart, who was Commemorative S
attorney for 10 years before he re-
tired from that Office last year, said
the change in the law held up prog
ress on petitions then being cir
culated, calling for a bond issue for
$750,000.
The papers were withdrawn and
new ones prepared for signature of
qualified voters. He said, however,
that seven Negro leaders were given
petitions to circulate among other
members of the race but that none
had signed. He added that he had
been informed some Negroes had
been advised" not to sign.
Martin A. Martin, colored, attor-
ney for the compliments, denied
that the lawyers had so advised
Negroes.
Mr.. Cooper, who serves as vice
president of the Gloucester County
Training School Parent Teacher
Association, said. I'VE weren't even
approached by the School Board or
told anything about the petitions.
We never got the petitions and we
had no way of knowing whether
they were approved by school
officials or not"
Agreement Reached.
Last month, however, the Negro
PTA reached an agreement with
the School Board to sponsor the
circulation of petitions among
Negro voters. William H. Carter,
colored, a former treasurer of
Tuskegee Institute, heads the PTA.
While out Of the county, he wired
DR.. l.. j. Morris. colored physician