Round Two in Alabama

With the cry of the bailiff one morning last week, the jampacked courtroom in Birmingham's Federal Building fell silent, stood as Judge H. Hobart Grooms, lanky veteran of more than a quarter century of practice as a Birmingham lawyer, took his place. Beyond the closed courtroom doors, in the corridor, latecomers waited patiently, hoping for a chance at seats.

The main question before the court: Negro Student Autherine Lucy's contempt-of-court charge against the trustees and president of the University of Alabama for having barred her "for her protection" after the riots that followed her admission (TIME, Feb. 20). But Autherine's lawyers, all connected with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had also: 1) charged the trustees and other university officials with conspiring with the rioters. 2) accused Dean of Women Sarah Healy of contempt for barring Autherine from university dormitories and dining halls, 3) filed contempt charges against four men, not connected with the university, for participating in the riots.

Thurgood Marshall, counsel for the N.A.A.C.P., made the first move. After a more thorough examination, he told the court, his investigators had found no evidence to support the conspiracy charge. He asked leave to withdraw it. Over the objections of the university lawyer, Andrew J. Thomas, Judge Grooms approved, also allowed Marshall to withdraw charges against the four rioters, three of whom had already been arrested. After that, the case settled down to the basic issues: 1) Had the university been justified in suspending Autherine for the sake of safety, and 2) should it be ordered to take her back?

Why the Cadillac? Lawyer Thomas tried his best to prove that 26-year-old Autherine Lucy, far from being a woman merely in search of an education, is something of a conspirator herself. In an obvious attempt to establish her as a paid tool of the N.A.A.C.P., he asked her why she had come to class in a Cadillac, and who was paying for her attorneys. Judge Grooms sustained objections to most of this questioning, and Thomas moved on to other ground. Witnesses for the university testified that during the riots Autherine's life had been clearly in danger, that there were even cries of "There's Autherine, kill her!" Other witnesses insisted that university officials and the police in Tuscaloosa had done all they could to protect her.

In cross-questioning, Marshall led J. Jefferson Bennett, assistant to President Oliver Cromwell Carmichael, to admit that the protective efforts of the university could hardly be called vigorous. No students were arrested. The mob threatening Autherine had been told only to "move," and the fire truck on the scene had not been used to hose down and thus disperse the crowd. Assistant to the Dean of Students Henry Sikir agreed that he had seen no action taken against the mob other than "talking to them." Asked Marshall: "Have you reported [any student] in that group to anybody?" Said Sikir: "No, I haven't."

False & Scandalous. That afternoon, Judge Grooms was ready with his decision. He announced that he 1) was taking under advisement the contempt charge against Dean of Women Healy, and 2) had found that throughout the riots the trustees and officials had acted in "good faith." But, he added, "the court does not find and does not conclude that law and order in this state have broken down, or that the law enforcement agencies of this state are unwilling or inadequate to maintain law and order at the university. The court is therefore of the opinion that the order of suspension or exclusion of the plaintiff Lucy should be lifted . . ."

At first glance, the decision seemed to be a clear-cut victory for Autherine and the N.A.A.C.P. But the conspiracy charge, although probably a lawyer's stratagem to make a complaint as broad as possible, proved to be a blunder. It not only inflamed white opinion against Autherine, it also stiffened the attitude of the trustees.

Meeting that night, they formally accused her of making "false, defamatory, impertinent, and scandalous charges," and ordered her permanently expelled. Whether or not Autherine fully understood the legal complaint drawn and filed by her lawyers, the reprisal of the trustees fell on her alone. She was the only target within range of the board.

Legislative Frenzy. Before leaving for Manhattan with Lawyer Marshall for a rest and medical checkup, Autherine Lucy declared herself "shocked by this latest turn of events." But the university's action was only one cause for shock. Last week the four men against whom Autherine's lawyers filed contempt charges for participating in the Tuscaloosa riots slapped Autherine with damage suits amounting to $4,000,000. Meanwhile, the Alabama legislature went into a frenzy of activity, produced a whole series of resolutions and bills to counteract the N.A.A.C.P.'s battle against segregation. Among its activities:

P: A house resolution ordering Autherine to appear Monday as the first witness in an investigation to determine whether the N.A.A.C.P. is "directed or controlled by the Communists."

P: A "house resolution demanding that the university's President Carmichael furnish the names of all students who signed a petition asking that Autherine be readmitted to the university.

P: A senate resolution calling for federal funds to resettle Southern Negroes in the North and West "where [they] are wanted and can be assimilated."

P: Bills to cut off state funds from Tuskegee Institute and from the scholarship fund to send Negroes to school outside the state, should any Negro gain admittance to any white college in Alabama.

P:Another house bill to require all applicants to the university to have character and fitness references from three graduates. Should the bill become law, Negro applicants could hardly be expected to find the necessary documents.

In all the furor over the Lucy case, one thing seemed certain. The N.A.A.C.P. was fighting a united and determined opposition in Alabama, and it could ill afford either the tactlessness or the impatience it has shown in some of its recent actions. Yet there also seemed to be a good deal in what Lawyer Thurgood Marshall said when he insisted that neither Autherine Lucy nor the N.A.A.C.P. were the real losers of this latest round. "You," he told a reporter, "and other American citizens have lost."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.