New Clash On U.S. School Desegregation Likely

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 13

New Clash On U.S. School Desegregation Likely

<N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MONTGOMERY (Alabama), March 31. A new clash on school desegregation appeared likely between Alabama and the United States Government, after a defiant speech last night to the State Legislature by the Governor, Mrs Lurleen Wallace.

Following the line set by her segregationist husband and predecessor, Mr George Wallace, she outlined a plan to resist a threeman Federal Court which has ordered all schools in the State to desegregate by September.

The 40-year-old Governor, whose speech was broadcast by more than 70 television and radio stations, called on the State Legislature to authorise her to take over all schools in Alabama. She also called on the Legislature to issue, "as an exercise of the police power of this State, a cease and resist order” against the Court which handed down the desegregation order. Her speech recalled Mr Wallace’s 1963 vow to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to

prevent the entry of two Negro students into the University of Alabama. He moved aside, however, when the Federal National Guard escorted the Negroes on to the campus. Mrs Wallace, whose husband is expected to try to

) run for President in 1968 on ■ a segregationist platform, s warned in her address: “I am i serving notice that whatever I power I possess under the i Constitution of Alabama as Governor ... shall be used - to prevent the destruction of > our public school system.”

She said the State, through its police powers, had the right to “take whatever action may be necessary to protect the morals, health and welfare of its citizens—the peace and tranquillity of its people.” If the Court’s integration order was not stayed or struck down on appeal, she said, the Legislature should give her “all powers heretofore vested ... in the State superintendent of education, including, but not limited to, supervisory control with regard to our various local boards of education.”

The State’s police power, she claimed, exceeded the Court. Mrs Wallace added: “Alabama is not the battlefield. The entire nation is the battlefield. Alabama must win this fight, for if she loses, America loses.”