3. SAVE OUR SCHOOLS

In anticipation of the desegregation of the public schools, a small group of concerned white women formed a group called Save Our Schools, known as SOS. The group included Mary Sand, Kit Senter, Betty Wisdom, Ann Dlugos, Peggy Murison, and Helen Mervis. This organization was devoted to the task of keeping the public schools open, and to achieve this task SOS established a car pool to transport white children to the schools each morning. It also provided support for the families and tried to encourage other white families to send their children to the integrated schools. SOS members suffered verbal taunts and physical intimidation at the hands of the angry crowds of white people outside the schools.

HISTORICAL NOTE: In a private interview, Betty Wisdom noted that the white children she transported to school were "terrified" of the New Orleans police. The police, Wisdom maintains, took a neutral role during the early days of the crisis, a role of "referees." The license plates on the cars driven by SOS member were sometimes obscured by the drivers themselves to prevent the angry segregationists from getting their telephone numbers (from cohorts in the Department of Motor Vehicles) and harassing them with late night threatening phone calls. Police ticketed Wisdom because her license plate had been obscured for this purpose.

Several SOS members were Jewish. All braved ostracization by their neighbors and friends. The SOS was very careful to fashion its message purely in terms of keeping the schools open. It shied away from the controversial topic of integrated schools and did not openly support desegregation.

QUESTION: Was SOS right not to support integration openly? What would you have done? When does politics get in the way of principles?

SOS was minimally successful. At the end of the 1961 school year, forty-nine white children remained in the city's two integrated schools. Six hundred and eight four students attended schools in St. Bernard Parish, at least one of which had been quickly established by Leander Perez. Two hundred and eighty six students did not attend school at all.

4. THE GABRIELLE FAMILY

One of the poignant stories to emerge from the desegregation crisis in New Orleans concerned the working-class Gabrielle family.

Despite the intense public pressure on the part of many whites against such a move, James and Daisy Gabrielle insisted on sending their children to the integrated public schools . After November 14, 1960, the two public schools (McDonogh 19 and William Frantz) were virtually empty. The black children continued to attend, enduring the withering comments of the vile crowd. A small number of white children also continued to attend. Most white children were kept home by their parents. Many parents opposed integration because they believed it was not in the best interest of their own children. Centuries of stereotypes were deeply imbedded into the popular consciousness. Fear of the unknown raged. Some parents opposed integration because they were intimidated by public pressure. Young boys home from school were among those in the crowd hurling insults at the black children arriving at school each morning.

QUOTE: James Gabrielle describes the ordeal which had turned his son against him: "So I tried to talk to my boys [attending public school], and my boy says to me, 'I don't want to have a damn thing to do with you.' In plain English,'I don't want to have a damn thing to do with you.'"

The story of the Gabrielle family is an important one to underline in discussions with students. The abuse they suffered was substantial: the home was attacked and set on fire by a mob of whites; James Gabrielle suffered taunts and threats at his city job, and then he was fired; Daisy Gabrielle was assaulted by a group of white mothers as she walked her child home from school. The family eventually relocated to Norfolk, Virginia.

In addition to the Gabrielles, a few other white parents continued to send their children to public schools. Many of these parents were Baptist seminarians. They lost their jobs at a large grocery store. Many were not from New Orleans. Very few white people raised in New Orleans, where the rules about race were ingrained, chose to break with tradition, and conformity, on the issue of school desegregation.

QUESTION: Why did the James and Daisy Gabrielle do it? Why did the Gabrielle family and the other white families brave the rancorous atmosphere and insist on their children attending the two schools? This touches upon the issue of conformity and is an opportune time to define conformity. No doubt many white families refused to send their children to the integrated schools because they feared the opinions, and actions, of their neighbors. Why did the Gabrielle family and the others defy this fear and break with conformity? What made them different?

In contrast to the daily harassment the Gabrielle family suffered, the family also received letters of encouragement and support.

QUOTE: In A House Divided, Daisy Gabrielle offers this quote: "My faith in the people of New Orleans has always been that they are wonderful people and it has never wavered. In fact, I have to proof through the mail. Many, many letters from the people of New Orleans and all the letters are letters of encouragement and admiration...I cried a couple of times when I read those letters because it did make me realize that I have more friends than enemies."

QUESTION: Who represents the white people of New Orleans? Do the angry crowds outside McDonogh 19 and William Frantz represent them? Or do the embattled members of SOS represent that people?

5. BUSINESS ELITE

Scenes of the angry crowds in front of McDonogh 19 and William Franz schools were broadcast across the nation. Once again during the Civil Rights movement the electronic media played an important role. The sight of angry women screaming at black children turned the stomach of the nation. The city was embarrassed. The politicians and the white business elite were afraid the negative publicity would have a deleterious economic impact on the city. The school desegregation issue now touched everybody.

In 1961, Vic Schiro took over as interim mayor once Chep Morrison was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States. Schiro said this about the desegregation crisis: "It was a difficult time for people in this country. We had so many people who were obstinate, and people were not tuned into cooperation."

Prompted by the negative publicity the city had suffered as a result of the desegregation crisis, the white business leaders of the city decided to negotiate with the black leadership in the effort to preserve "peace and order." This was a decisive step towards easing the tense racial situation and developing a solution to the crisis. The business elite of the city comprised members of the wealthy Uptown neighborhoods, men who ran the banks, the law firms, the large businesses in the city. These same men participated in the Mardi Gras organizations such as Momus, Proteus, Rex, and Comus. They were members of the Boston Club, the Louisiana Club, and the Pickwick Club. Not a few of the business elite had grandfathers who fought as Confederate soldiers in the Civil War.

HISTORICAL POINT: Harry Kelleher, Darwin Fenner, and Harry McCall are the three men who played the decisive roles on the part of the white business elite.

On January 30, 1961, members of the white elite held a testimonial dinner for members of the embattled members of the Orleans Parish School Board. The Board, after its initial reluctance, came down on the side of desegregation. Tickets to the testimonial had been sold surreptitously for fear the event would be assaulted by angry crowds. The testimonial was attended by a crowd 1,200 which packed the Roosevelt Hotel's dining rooms. Kelleher said the basic issues of the crisis were public education and the rule of law. On both issues, he said, "This country and the South cannot go backward." After this speech, Kelleher was branded a moderate on race. The role of the elite of a community in shaping the attitudes and actions of the community cannot be overestimated.

The business elite had to persuade the white business elite of New Orleans that change had come, and that accommodating change was in their best economic interest. In the winter of 1960-'61, several major retailers reported a forty to fifty percent drop in sales. Hotel and restaurant business had fallen off by twenty percent.

QUOTE: In A House Divided, Kelleher is forthright on the connection between economic interests and racial change: "The specter of economic pressure certainly tipped the scales in favor of affirmative action."

He is further quoted: "I remember at the meeting of the retail luncheon bureau, we presented the retail sales statistics of Birmingham [Alabama, site of major racial strife and economic disruption]. Its economy had been devastated by mass picketing and disruptive behavior that became prevalent through downtown Birmingham. In essence, we were saying to these merchants, 'Are you willing to ask for this kind of a development in New Orleans? Or are you willing to face realities of this situation, and take constructive steps to solve these problems in a way that is responsible to the community?'"

HISTORICAL POINT: Fifteen members of the white business elite formed an "informal conference" with an equal number of black leaders. Kelleher and attorney Harry McCall were spokesmen for the white group, and Revius Ortique, Lolis Elie, and others represented the black group, which was known as the Citizens' Committee. According to historian Kim Lacy Rogers, "In negotiations that lasted for more than two years, these black and white leaders hammered out the largely peaceful desegregation of the city."

QUOTE: In A House Divided, lawyer Lolis Elie expresses his astonishment that the great decisions in the city were made by individuals who did not hold public office.

"The whites who were really making the decisions, the power structure, they knew damn well they wouldn't be affected by giving some black a job as a cashier or giving some black a job as a sales person in one of the stores, or permitting blacks to go and have a hamburger at Woolworth's or McCrory. That was no invasion on their territory."

"It was the people who run Mardi Gras, the people from the Boston and Pickwick Clubs, the bankers, were the people who were really making the decisions for everybody in the city."

The political leadership in the city took orders from the white elite. In the book Rightous Lives, Elie recalled a 1963 meeting with Darwin Fenner and other white business negotiators: "I remember Darwin Fenner got on the phone to Vic Schiro, and he goes, 'Vic, this is Darwin. Come over here, I want to see you.' And in five minutes, here comes Vic. This agreement is shoved in his face, he signs, it, and leaves. That was the only time a politician was involved."

QUESTION: What motivated the white business elite to become involved in the desegregation crisis?

6. CITY HALL: 1963

By the summer of 1963, the lunch counters on Canal Street were desegregated, and the stores had begun hiring black people above the modern mop and broom level. Picketing and demonstrations continued through 1965. CORE activists picketed segregated theaters and other facilities, and the NAACP Youth Council picketed the downtown stores, in defiance of the older black leaders of the Citizens' Committee who had reached an agreement with the white store owners. Raphael Cassimere, president of the Youth Council, said the merchants on Canal Street had not delivered as many jobs as they had promised.

In 1962, Judge Skelly Wright ordered the first six grades integrated in all the city's public schools. In the same year, Catholic schools were desegregated. Audubon Park, which had been off limits to black people except maids with white children, was desegregated in 1963. After a "friendly" lawsuit that was anything but "friendly," Tulane University became an integrated institution in 1963.

HISTORICAL POINT: To the black population, progress appeared too slow. On September 30, 1963, ten thousand black and three thousand white protesters marched from Shakespeare Park to City Hall. The Freedom March, as it was labeled, was the largest organized protest in the city's history, and it demonstrated the widespread black support enjoyed by the civil rights leaders. The white business elite cooperated with the Freedom March, securing a parade permit for the march and also warning the White Citizens' Council not to provoke the marchers. Neither the mayor nor members of the city council greeted the marchers at City Hall.

On October 31, 1963, Avery Alexander led a group of protesters, including CORE members, to the cafeteria in City Hall. Despite promises to the contrary, the cafeteria remained "white only.

QUOTE: In A House Divided, Alexander recalls the events of October 31, 1963: "We met that morning and decided we were going down and we weren't going to leave until we got what we wanted. We went into the cafeteria. We had four or five hours I suppose, and they wouldn't serve me, you see. They said, 'We can't serve you. Don't you know better than that? You don't understand? Don't you have any manners?' 'I have manners. I'm a minister. That's food. I'm hungry. I want to be served.' They got the manager; he came up, 'You people must be crazy.' They called the police. The police came, 'All right, get on out of here. Okay.' I said, 'I'm not going.'"

QUESTION: Who was responsible for the arrests at City Hall and for the brutal treatment meted out to Avery Alexander? Using the following quotes, explain how each person rationalizes what happened at City Hall on October 31, 1960? How does each person explain their own behavior? Who do you believe? Who do you not believe?

Revius Ortique: "The police were directed by Mayor Schiro to enforce the law and not to permit blacks, any blacks, to eat at the facilities in City Hall."

Joseph Giarusso: "I was not present at the integration of the cafeteria here in City Hall. But I do remember the incident quite vividly. It was a mistake. The police made a mistake. We made a mistake. And there was no reason that it had to be done in that fashion. Another technique probably would have been a better substitute for what occurred, and for the bad publicity we received not locally, not nationally, but I believe internationally."

Avery Alexander: "The doctor said I was injured enough to be hospitalized. It ruined the suit I had on...[Martin Luther] King had taught us that if you're thirsty and there's a water fountain you can have that water but when you start to drink from that fountain, you're broken the law. So be prepared to pay the penalty for breaking the law...I encountered some boys and they said to me, ''Rev, when we saw it on the television we were hollering, 'Kick him, Rev. Kick him, Rev. Why didn't you kick him?' And, I thought about it at the time, but I didn't. I thought about all the things that Jesus had gone through, and I wasn't being crucified. Nobody spat on me. They didn't kill me. They didn't put me in the grave. And I said, 'If Jesus can have all that happen to him, I can go through this little thing.'...After this incident, we were able to cut grass on the neutral ground. We were able to pick up the garbage. Now, strangely, we advanced to picking up the garbage."

Instructions: identify the following people and terms.

Instructions: identify the following people and terms.

1. SOS -

2. Kit Senter -

3. Citizens' Committee -

4. Harry Kelleher -

5. Una Gaillot -

6. John Steinbeck -

7. Daisy Gabrielle -

8. Ruby Bridges -

9. Freedom March -

1. "It was worse than dirt. It was a kind of frightening 'witches' Sabbath.' They were not mothers, not women, but crazy actors playing to a crazy audience."

a) Who wrote this?

John Steinbeck wrote this line in his book Travels With Charlie.

Steinbeck witnessed the spectacle of the Cheerleaders, a group of angry white mothers, harassing the black children attending the two integrated public schools in New Orleans during the desegregation crisis of November 1960. He was repulsed by the behavior of the Cheerleaders, and he thus described them as "crazy actors playing to a crazy audience."

Like Steinbeck, much of the nation was repulsed by the behavior of the Cheerleaders and others in New Orleans during the desegregation crisis. The negative publicity surrounding the crisis threatened economic interests in the city. This threat brought the white business elite into the controversy. Hitherto, the white businessmen had no interest in the matter.

Generally, the parents of these families were fired from their jobs. They were harassed at work and on the street. Neighbors and friends shunned the whites. The pressure was merciless, and much of it brought to bear by the White Citizens' Council, which encouraged economic reprisals on black and white people who tampered with segregation. Ruby Bridges' father was fired from his job.

The Gabrielles were a white working-class family who lived in the Ninth Ward. During the desegregation of the schools in November 1960, James and Daisy Gabrielle decided to keep their children in the public schools. They suffered terrible harassment. Daisy Gabrielle was accosted on the street with her child. The home was burned down. One of the sons turned against the father. In the end, the family relocated in Virginia.

The question is difficult to answer because each person has his or her own answer. Some people were motivated by religious convictions. Some wanted simply to educate their children. Some thought black children deserved a chance.

SOS stood for Save Our Schools. It was a small group of liberal white women, several of whom were Jewish, who were devoting to keeping the public schools open and, although not espoused, to having schools integrated. During the desegregation crisis, members of SOS established car pools and transported white children to and from the schools that were virtually under siege.

SOS did not come out publicly in favor of integration. That topic was simply too controversial. Instead, SOS emphasized keeping the schools open.

Do I agree? The student will give his or her opinion, but remember that SOS might very well have been forced to close if it had been publicly viewed as an integrationist organization. They would have been give the most opprobrious label: communists.

The white business elite did not react. It refused to give Mayor Chep Morrison a simple statement endorsing "law and order," a statement which might have dissuaded the Cheerleaders and others from haranguing the black children on their way to school.

The business leaders were concerned that the bad image conveyed to the nation would hurt the local economy as it had the local economy in Birmingham, Alabama. In fact, the New Orleans economy did suffer, and the business men became determined to achieve a peaceful resolution to the desegregation crisis.

Fifteen white businessmen formed an informal group with fifteen black businessmen. The group worked together to bring about the largely peaceful desegregation of the city.

The Freedom March occurred on September 30, 1963. Ten thousand black people and three hundred whites marched from Shakespeare Park to City Hall. No city official greeted them. The Freedom March informed the city leadership that changes were coming too slowly. It was the largest protest march in the history of the city, and it demonstrated that large numbers of black people were not afraid to walk the streets and demand changes.

Avery Alexander and some CORE activists staged a sit-in the "white only" City Hall cafeteria. City leaders had promised to desegregate the cafeteria, but the promise had not been met. There was apparently a mix-up between City Hall and the white business elite. The police arrested the protesters, but Avery Alexander refused to stand up and was hauled out by his feet. His head bumped on the flights of stairs.

Giarusso stated flatly that the police made a mistake by hauling Reverend Avery Alexander out by his feet. He says the situation could have been handled differently. He appears to have been much concerned with the negative publicity New Orleans received nationally and internationally.

The kids asked him why he hadn't kicked the police men who were dragging him across the cafeteria and up the stairs? Alexander said that Christ had suffered terribly. In comparison, Alexander viewed the treatment he was enduring as "a small thing."

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