The Augusta Courier

Alabama Legislature Declares Ruling U. S. Court Void in Segregation Cases

STRICTLY PERSONAL
By ROY V. HARRIS

Is it interposition or integration?

In most Southern states that's the issue.

In most of the Southern states you can pay your money and take your choice.

The statement is true because all of us know that if the Supreme Court of the United States is the final judge of the legality of all of the bills which are being passed by the legislatures of the Southern states to preserve segregation that the Supreme Court will declare all of them illegal.

If they had the gall and the nerve to declare segregation as now practiced illegal, they also will eventually declare all of the bills which are now being passed to set up private schools, and other schemes to avoid that decision, to be unconstitutional and illegal.

So, most of the bills the legislatures are passing are only delaying tactics and they provide an excuse for more law suits and more litigation.

Eventually the litigation will reach the Supreme Court of the United States and there is no doubt about what that bunch of buzzards will do.

Now, this isn't entirely true in Georgia and one or two other states.

It isn't true in Georgia because the Governor of this state has said that he will cut off the money from any school and any institution that mixes the races.

As long as we have a Governor who stands firm on this ground and is willing to go as far as our Governor says he will go, we can keep segregation. Governor Griffin says that he will use the National Guard and the State Highway Patrol to see to it that the races are not mixed in a single classroom in this state.

So long as we have a Governor like Governor Griffin who will cut off the money and close all the schools when the races are mixed we can keep segregation. This is true because if both the white and Negro schools in your county are closed by order of the Governor, the white people and some of the Negroes will become so incensed that they will see to it that the Negroes get back in their own schools in less than twenty-four hours.

Otherwise, there will be a hot time in the old town for a few nights.

But this isn't true in the other states. Some of the other states have pussyfooting Governors who haven't the courage or the nerve to do what ought to be done and what they would like to do.

Some of these states have pussyfooting politicians other than the Governor who do not have the nerve or the courage to stand up and be counted.

Many of these states who have a Governor who is on the other side of the fence or a pussyfooting Governor will eventually integrate unless we can now put into effect the doctrine of interposition.

Our schemes to avoid the Supreme Court decision will be knocked down as soon as they hit the Supreme Court.

Now, that makes interposition more important than ever.

What is interposition?

Interposition is the situation wherein a state interposes its sovereignty against the sovereignty of the federal government when the federal government, or some agency of the federal government like the Supreme Court, has usurped power which the states did not grant to it, or its agencies, in the Constitution.

Now it is proposed that the Southern states interpose their sovereignty and stand up and tell the federal government that the state is a sovereign government itself, that the federal government is attempting, through its

South Carolina,
Georgia Expected
To Pass Similar
Resolutions as Soon

The Legislature of Alabama has declared the Supreme Court decision in the segregation cases null, void and of no effect.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, January 17, 1956 by a vote of 82-4 and late in the afternoon of Thursday, January 19, 1956, almost unanimously without a roll call.

The measure now goes to Governor Folsom for his signature or veto.

Political Suicide

The resolution was passed through the legislature without the cooperation of Governor Folsom or his support.

It is believed that Governor Folsom is opposed to the resolution, but the leading politicians of Alabama say that even Governor Folsom should have sense enough to know that it would be political suicide for him to veto such a measure.

If Folsom should veto the resolution it is believed that both houses will pass the resolution over his veto.

This is the first interposition resolution to pass the legislature of any state.

Slaps Supreme Court

Alabama has taken the lead and has defied the Supreme Court.

The text of the resolution is almost identical with the one adopted by the Georgia Commission on Education and recommended to the legislature by Governor Griffin of Georgia.

The resolution provides that it is the determination of the State of Alabama to protect the Constitution of Alabama and of the United States; that the states did not delegate to the federal government, or the Supreme Court, the right to prohibit segregation in the public schools of the states and that the Supreme Court of the United States has usurped this power.

Contest of Powers

Therefore, a contest of powers has arisen between the State of Alabama and the Supreme Court of the United States, and, therefore, the state appeals to its sister states to decide the issue. In the meantime Alabama declares that the decision of the Supreme Court is null, void and of no effect in the State of Alabama.

This is open defiance of the decision of the Supreme Court.

Alabama takes the lead and the eyes of the nation will be turned on the rest of the Southern states to see how far they will go.

It is a definite certainty that Governor Griffin will again call on the legislature of Georgia to adopt the same resolution and that the legislature with practically no opposition will adopt the interposition resolution before it adjourns at the present

STRICTLY PERSONAL
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Supreme Court, to usurp powers which the state governments have never granted to the federal government and let them know that as sovereign states we will not submit.

Now the gist of interposition is an act of the legislature declaring the Supreme Court decision rendered in May, 1954, which declared segregation to be illegal, to be null, void and of no effect because the Supreme Court, under the Constitution, had no authority to render such a decision.

That is interposition.

But we must go further and not only pass the resolution or act of the legislature. We must stand by our action. We must defy the federal government and let the Supreme Court know that we will not abide by the decision and that we will go further and prohibit the federal government from enforcing that decision in the boundaries of our respective states.

In the past, many states, when they have interposed their sovereignty against the usurpation of power by the federal government made it a crime for a federal marshal or any federal agent to attempt to enforce the act of Congress, or the decision of the Supreme Court, as the case might have been.

At one time the House of Representatives in Georgia passed a bill providing that if a decision of the Supreme Court should be attempted to be enforced by a federal marshal that the federal marshal should be hung.

Of course, we don't have to go this far.

Now, if enough of the Southern states will interpose their sovereignty then we will get action and we will get a hearing from the federal government and we will get some action on this question of integration, or mixing of the races.

But unless we have nerve enough to do this, we are not going to get action.

Now, the essence of any interposition resolution adopted by any legislature is the declaring of the Supreme Court decision to be null and void.

Any interposition resolution which does not so declare the Supreme Court decision in the segregation cases null and void isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Now, there is a movement on foot to get a few Southern governors to adopt a watered-down resolution which does not declare the Supreme Court decision in the segregation cases to be null and void and to straddle the fence on the question.

It is a part of the conspiracy that after a few Governors have done this that a very prominent member of the Congress will call a meeting of the delegation in the Congress from the states in the deep South and that they will then adopt a resolution calling on the states to adopt the watered-down interposition resolution.

Behind this movement is a lot of so-called liberals and a lot of scared Southern politicians.

By joining the movement for a watered-down program of interposition they hope to accomplish two things. They are:

1. To defeat the interposition movement now on foot.

2. To save the hides of a bunch of weak-kneed Congressmen who haven't had the nerve to do anything about this situation before.

Now, we people of the South must not fall into this booby trap.

This is the first time we have heard from these weak-kneed politicians. Some of them have kept their mouths shut and others have said that the whole question of segregation is one to be worked out on the local level.

This interposition movement takes the fight away from the local level. This interposition movement becomes a national movement. This interposition movement places the fight on the national level. The interposition movement puts the fight into the Congress. This interposition movement eventually will take the fight to the people of the forty-eight states of the Union.

This interposition movement is an appeal from the decision of the Supreme Court to the people of the Nation.

These weak-kneed politicians and so-called liberals know that the doctrine of interposition is catching the imagination and the fancy of the people of the Nation and the movement is growing by leaps and bounds.

This weak-kneed bunch of politicians whom we have been sending to Congress have discovered that their political lives are in jeopardy.

If they get into the fight at this late date they know the people are going to ask them where they have been all these years while we folks back home have been making the fight.

They know that they are going to be asked why they have changed their minds and decided that instead of being decided on the local level that it must now be settled on the national level. They are trying to save their lazy hides. They know that they are about to be caught and to be exposed-and they have got itching feet and they can't stand pat.

So, in a desperate effort to save themselves, they are trying to sabotage the movement and to lead the people of the Southern states astray.

They led us astray once before when they agreed either expressly or impliedly to transfer the forum of the fight from the Congress of the United States to the Supreme Court. They took this action because they wanted to get off the spot and they didn't have the nerve to intelligently make the fight in the forum of the Congress.

They were able to dodge the issue by letting the fight be transferred to the Supreme Court.

They thought that by permitting the fight to be moved across the street to the Supreme Court building that they would be able to escape

South Carolina, Georgia Expected To Pass Similar Resolutions Soon
(Continued from Page 1)

sent session.

Similar Resolution

A similar resolution is being studied in the State of South Carolina and may be introduced and passed at the present session there. A committee is now making a thorough and complete study with a view to introducing practically the same resolution in Columbia.

A similar resolution has been prepared for introduction in the Virginia Legislature and it is believed that the Legislature of Virginia will follow suit.

As a matter of fact, the doctrine of interposition originated in the beginning in Virginia. It was espoused first by Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and by James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution.

Richmond Newspaper

It has been revived recently in Virginia by the brilliant young editor of the Richmond News-Leader. James Jackson Kilpatrick.

After several weeks of research and study, Kilpatrick came out with a special edition of the Richmond News-Leader in which he devoted eight full pages to the doctrine of interposition and submitted to the people of Virginia a proposed resolution for adoption.

The resolution advocated by Kilpatrick was substantially adopted by the State of Alabama and with a few variations is being re-written for introduction in other legislatures.

Watered Resolution

Even though Kilpatrick and the Richmond News-Leader have been the leaders in the movement to declare the decision of the Supreme Court null, void and of no effect, there is a strong movement in Virginia to water the resolution down to where it will be of no practical use or effect.

The proposal in Virginia is to strike out the provision declaring the Supreme Court decision null, void and of no effect.

With Alabama taking the lead in such a decisive matter, interposition is on the march and it will move throughout the South.

It is believed that before the year is out that at least a half dozen states will have followed the example set down by Alabama.

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responsibility for the final decision.

Now if we let this group throw us into this booby trap so that they can save their hides then we don't deserve to be saved from the terrible consequences of the mixing and mingling of the blood of the white and Negro races.

I think there are enough politicians on the local and national levels to see through this scheme and to defeat it.

We can't have our legislatures passing any watered-down resolutions. These resolutions must go all the way and declare the Supreme Court decision null, void and of no effect and provide the machinery for an effective resistance against the Supreme Court decision.

We must interpose the sovereignty of our states against that of the Supreme Court with all of the force and all of the power of our sovereign states.

Any compromise means defeat. Any compromise means destruction of our way of life. Any compromise means integration in the end.

Now, the beauty of interposition is that it changes the umpire. If we make our interposition effective we remove the Supreme Court as the umpire.

We know we can never win so long as the Supreme Court is the umpire.

When we throw the sovereignty of the states against the sovereignty of the federal government we create a contest of powers. We say that the states have the power to regulate their schools and run them as they see fit. The Supreme Court says it has the power to dictate.

Now, with a contest of this kind between the states and the Supreme Court you know how the Supreme Court will decide the issue if it is the umpire.

The Supreme Court is one of the contesting parties. The Supreme Court would decide in its favor.

If we permit the Supreme Court to remain the umpire in this contest we would be in the same position that you would be in if you had a law suit in court and the other party to the suit is permitted to be both the Judge and the jury.

How could you win if you must go into court with the cards stacked against you like that?

Now, how can we win in a contest with the Supreme Court if the Supreme Court is to be both the Judge and the jury?

We have got to change umpires to get a fair decision.

By interposing the sovereignty of our states against the usurped powers of the Supreme Court we change umpires.

The people of the forty-eight states in this instance become the umpires.

If and when we adopt these resolutions of interposition declaring the Supreme Court decision to be null, void and of no effect and providing for our states to see to it that that decision is not enforced, then we say these decisions shall not be effective in our particular states unless and until the Constitution of the United States is amended taking away from the states the right to run and manage their own schools.

Now, some people will say why be hasty. Some people will say let's wait and see.

Now, let's see the answers: If we wait then we have acquiesced in the Supreme Court decision and if we acquiesce in the Supreme Court decision we will have by our silence agreed that the Supreme Court had the power and the authority to render the decision which it rendered.

If we are going to contest the power of the Supreme Court we must speak up now and we must let it be known now.

Let's not let our silence give consent.

Now, we are all right in Georgia as long as we have Marvin Griffin, or someone like him, as Governor. But we may not always have a man like Marvin Griffin as Governor. We might elect one that is on the other side of the fence or we might elect one of these weak-kneed pussyfooters.

In either of these events we would be out of luck.

So, we can't take any chances. We must interpose. We must remove the Supreme Court as the umpire in this particular case.

A lot of people outside of the South will go with us on interposition who would not go with us on purely a segregational fight.

These people are worried. They all know that if the Supreme Court is permitted to usurp power which it does not have on the question of segregation that it establishes a precedent and the Supreme Court will continue to usurp power.

They fear that they will eventually usurp power which will destroy us.

So, if we make this solid issue over the contest of power between the states and the federal government, we will get a lot of help and a lot of support from outside of the South.

And I repeat to you that unless we in the Southern states do interpose our sovereignty with all of the strength of our command that some day we will have integration or a mixed race here.

So, it is time for action now. It is time for positive action.

This is no time for pussyfooting or watered-down resolutions.