We Shall Not Be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia

THREE: “A Qualified Negro” [Includes Image Plates]

chapter three “A Qualified Negro” There is certainly no dispute that no Negroes have ever attended the University of Georgia. We will stipulate that, but we will not stipulate that there was any custom . . . on the part of the authorities to exclude them. —B. D. “Buck” Murphy, attorney for the defendant The [legal] system is based on people getting on the stand and telling the truth. But people who talk about their respect for tradition and integrity and the Constitution get involved in one lie after another. They’re willing to break down the system to keep a Negro out. . . . This is one of the most serious by-products of segregation. The people get a disregard for the law. They see supposedly important people get up day after day on the stand and lie. The reason the whole thing seems funny to watch is that you spend all that time proving something everybody already knows. —Constance Baker Motley, attorney for the plaintiff 48 “A Qualified Negro” Horace Ward’s two-year stint in the military was coming to an end, and he was scheduled to be discharged in August 1955. In July, state attorney general Eugene Cook released a statement to the press disclosing that he had been informed that Ward intended to reactivate immediately his suit in federal court. “It’s ripe for a showdown,” Cook said. “If he wins, all he will do is close down the law school.” Cook was referring to sections of the Appropriations Acts, which prohibited the spending of state funds on any school unit with integrated classrooms. Cook revealed that he and other prominent Georgia attorneys, including former governor Herman Talmadge, Charles Bloch of Macon, B. D. “Buck” Murphy of Atlanta, Carter Pittman of Cartersville, and Durwood Pye of Atlanta, would attend a strategy meeting to decide how best to proceed with the Ward case. Murphy and Pye served as counsel and executive secretary, respectively, of the Georgia Commission on Education, a strategy group made up of top legislative officials and prominent private citizens and created by the legislature to continue segregation in the state’s schools. Cook also disclosed that he was planning a series of meetings with representatives from other southern states who were opposing desegregation efforts and announced his intention to assign two of his assistants to segregation on a full-time basis. “I think the naacp means just what it says about knocking out segregation, and it’s being aided and abetted by a notorious Supreme Court. . . . On the other hand, I think the people of Georgia, except for a few irresponsible people and outsiders, are just as determined that it shall not happen.” Governor Griffin promised Cook that state funds would be made available to any Georgia school system that resisted integration.1 The mere thought that the University of Georgia’s law school might be forced to close if Ward were admitted was enough to create a fair amount of anxiety on the campus, among students and university officials alike. Dean Hosch sent a handwritten note to Chancellor Caldwell on July 12 expressing his concerns. “A delegation of students conferred with me this morning and expressed great concern about the segregation problem facing the Law School. It appears that the recent statements of the Attorney General greatly agitated them.” Board of Regents chairman Robert Arnold was equally concerned , especially after learning from Cook that because Ward’s case would be heard in the equity division of the federal court, there was at least an outside chance that Ward could be admitted. Cook quickly reassured Arnold that Ward still had “a number of hurdles to overcome before a final order is 49 We Shall Not Be Moved issued.” One of those hurdles was a new university rule—created specifically for Ward—which required an applicant to renew his application from time to time. Cook told Arnold that he hoped that the rule “will be scrupulously followed and that the court will respect it.”2 Part of the attorney general’s strategy to thwart Ward’s application process included attempts to derail the naacp. Following the Brown decision, Attorney General Cook led the campaign to cripple Georgia’s naacp, placing the organization on the defensive and forcing it to fight for its very survival. Georgia refined and tightened the offenses of barratry (persistently instigating lawsuits), champerty (providing service or financial assistance...