Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) November 15, 1960
Police-Guarded Negro Pupils Jeered
1000 Cheer Withdrawal
Of White Children
By WALTER GOODSTEIN
Jeers and catcalls greeted three Negro girls Monday as they entered previously all-white McDonogh No. 19 school Monday under heavy guard.
The hooting and heckling came not alone from irate adults who saw New Orleans’ long history of segregated public schools come to an end
Children of pre-school age and teenagers from other schools chimed in with insults and blasphemy, electrifying the scene.
CRISIS ‘WONDERFUL’
Although greatly outnumbered, a small band of Negroes who witnessed the assault on Southern tradition was elated.
They were vocal too. Some ventured a jig and heel-clicking on the neutral ground in the 5900 block of St. Claude.
“We’re beginning to win our fight; this is wonderful,” said Mrs. Emma Phillips, Negro, 37, 1222 N. Derbigny, wife of a truck driver and mother of two children.
“Amen, amen,” concurred sev-eral other Negroes in the same pocket.
The white people were more demonstrative.
No sooner were the frightened, frustrated Negro girls escorted into the school when a number of white parents ran into the building to pull their children out.
This produced shouts of approval and encouragement from the large crowds who congregated mostly on the neutral ground between Gordon and Alabo.
1000 IN PROTEST GROUP
The crowd was small at first—200 or 300 at most—but as word got around that McDonogh 19 was one of two schools admitting Negro pupils for the first time, it swelled.
Police estimated the crowd at its height at nearly 1000. This was at about 11 a.m.
It was then that the situation appeared most inflammatory.
Seventy-two uniformed police-
men arrived in two chartered New Orleans Public Service Inc. buses to take up positions around the school.
They joined more than 30 other police officers, uniformed and in
plain clothes and including the top-ranking men in the department.
Police Supt. Joseph I. Giarrusso remained on the scene to direct preservation of peace from at least
an hour before school started until after school let out at 3 p.m.
At his side most of the day was city attorney Alvin J. Liska.
As it developed, police did not have to take action against anyone for getting too far out of hand.
FEDERAL ESCORT
At 2:50 p.m., 10 minutes earlier than the normal end of the school day, principal John Stewart allowed the three Negro girls—unnamed by school officials—to leave.
Again, they were under guard, in company with at least two deputy U.S. marshals each.
They were spirited away in three automobiles, again amid much tension and emotion.
“That the day at McDonogh 19 ended without violence is to the credit of police planning.
Giarrusso issued instructions to his men in no uncertain terms that their job was to preserve the peace.
In the early morning he told The Times-Picayune:
“We are out here with an adequate number of police to cope with the situation – with any situation. Our only concern is to maintain law and order. We are not taking sides. I’ve been enjoined by the courts—as have others—from interfering with the operation of the schools.”
GUARDED ON ALL SIDES
The Negro children arrived with federal marshals in three vehicles at 9:20 a.m. Other children were already in school for more than a half hour.
Two of the girls, pink ribbons in their hair, walked up the long flight of stone steps in front of the building holding the hand of two adult women.
The third Negro child held the hand of an adult Negro man.
And the entire party was guarded on all sides by unsmiling federal marshals.
About an hour and a half later, U.S. attorney M. Hepburn Many and U.S. Marshal Edward J. Petitbon arrived on the scene, shook hands with police officials, chatted awhile, and then entered the school.
When they came out, Many said the desegregation move was accomplished “about as well as could be expected.”
Not alone were the Negro children and the federal guards who
escorted them the targets for heckling and name-calling.
Insults were directed also at mothers who allowed their white children to remain in the school all day.
What effort this may have on subsequent attendance at the school is unknown. On Monday it was sharply reduced at McDonogh 19 as it was at other public schools principally because of the school holiday declared by state superintendent of schools Shelby M. Jackson.
Jackson, under federal court order enjoining him from interfering with a prior court edict to desegregate the schools, was cited for contempt for his action.
MORE VOLATILE
Now that it is known that McDonogh 19 is one of the schools to which three Negro first graders were transferred, the situation there is more volatile.
On Tuesday Giarrusso again plans to have police in force on duty.
On Monday he had formed a cordon of police around the building.
Spectators were ordered across the street on all sides of the city block. In the case of St. Claude, the barrier was set up on the neutral ground.
Riding past the school on occasion was Dr. Nicholas P. Trist, sheriff of nearby St. Bernard parish, political stronghold of staunch segregationist Leander II. Perez.
McDonogh No. 19 is only three blocks away from the parish line and the public school closest to Perez’s bailiwick.
The most explosive period in the vicinity on the school was between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.
It was then that a group of students from Francis T. Nicholas Senior High School, 21 blocks away on St. Claude, arrived with Rebel flags, a white cloth with “KICK” scrawled on it, and insulting Negroes.
They came with lusty voices too, and incited others to greater heights of emotion.
One mother hastily printed some placards and handed them to child-ren to display.
MEDDLING NOT MIXING
For long periods of the day when there was no activity entering or leaving the school building, spirits were kept alive by passing auto-
mobiles bearing Confederate flags. They were cheered heartily.
Negroes motoring past the school had insults hurled at them.
Sporadically, the day’s affair took on a carnival air with stadium yells amended to denounce inte-gration.
“Two, four, six, eight; We don’t wanna integrate.”
There was singing too, mostly “The South Shall Rise Again.”
Not all parents who removed their children from the school after the Negroes were admitted did so because of the mixing issue.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Deloniak took their five children out of school because, said Deloniak, “The federal government is interfering too much with states’ rights. It’s not a matter of segre-gation.”
Deloniak, 40, who resides at 922 Deiery, is a harbor police officer.
Most were like Mrs. Amelia Plunkett, 6321 St. Claude, with three daughters in the school.
Darting across the street to the school building a matter of moments after the Negro children went through the doors, she said: “I’m getting mine out of there just as quick as I can.”
“You’re right, do it. Everybody do it,” was the reaction of her friends and neighbors.
And there was a steady stream of women who followed suit.
