◆ SpookStack

LEADERS DEFEND SCHOOL IN SOUTH Condemn Attacks on Adult Center—Deny It Seeks to Stir Racial Strife By JOHN N. POPHAM Special to The New York Times. MONTEAGLE, Tenn., Dec. 21 -—A st&tement “strongly con- dermning” attacks on the High- lander Folk School as a “Com- munist-training school” to stir racial strife in the South was made public today. Myles Horton, director of the school, released the statement over the signatures of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Rein- hold Niebuhr, Protestant theo- logian; Msgr. John O’Grady, Na- tional Conference of Catholic Charities, and Lioyd K. Garri- son, former Dean of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin Law School. Highlander, situated on a Cumberland mountain plateau about equidistant from Nash- ville and Chattanooga, is a resi-| — dent center for adult education © 8 ing public school segregation statutes, The commission was also told that a number of persons ac- cused by Attorney General Eu- gene Cook of having Commu- nist sympathies and affiliations had attended the seminar. The statement released by Mr. Horton noted that # four- page pamphlet, bearing the im- print of the Georgia Education Commission, was ‘now being distributed” and that it ait- tacked the Highlander School as communistic, The statement charged that 250,000 copies of the pamphlet were being cir- culated. Action Is Criticized The statement quoted Mr. Horton as declaring that “High- lander did not and does not welcome enrollment of anyone with a totalitarian philosophy whether from the extreme right or the extreme left; nothing bu more troubieé can come from the White Citizens Councils and the Communist party's infiltra- tion into groups seeking 2 demo- cratic solution to our problems Since both are morally bank- rupt." The statement went on: “The attempt of the Georgia Governor's commission to draw from the serious and fruitful deliberations of this gathering sustenance for the efforts of the Southern racists to equate “to study and discuss challeng- ing social, educational and eco- nomic problems confronting in- dividuals and communities in the South.” Dr. King at Meeting Gomiliion, dean of students atidesegregation with communism Tuskegee Institute; Rev. David evokes our strong condemna- H, Brooks of Tallahassee, Fla.; ition. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.) “This kind of irresponsible Negro clergyman who directed demagoguery is obviously de- the Montgomery (Ala) bus signed to intensify the diffi- boycott and Dr. John Hope 2d./culties confronting decent The school, emphasizing labor'a professor at Fisk University. , Southerners who might other- a organizational techniques, was| In October, the Georgia Edu-lwise give leadership in the ad- ounded twenty-five years ago.jcation Commission, headed byijustment necessary for the de- ts sessions are racially non-|Gov. Marvin Griffin, charged segregation which is inevitable.” iscriminatory and from time|that the Labor Day geminar had| The statement also held that af A aie Cie a Scotia LL INF L o time it has come under at-{/constituted a “Communist-train- CO ‘k from protesting groups, |ing school” to promote “meth- . lo ast Labor Day Wweek-end,/ods and tactics for precipitat- — i {Highlander conductéd a twenty-|ing raciaj disturbances.” | - fifth anniversary seminar at| The commission said that it KL ey (.o|which participants discussed/had sent an’ “agent” to “in- bom Ly Q. “the implications of integration |filtrate” the seminar. Commis- ..—_ Valter such groups as churches,/slon officials held that “there c > Lhe achools and trade unions.” assembled at Highlander were C3 PF Among those attending were/the leaders of every major race i da’ Dr, Alonzo G. Moron, president! incident in the South” agince the = <r COot Hampton Institute; Charles'Supreme Court decision outlaw- Cg RS =“ =: Sy SEARCHED___ INDEXED =.) C2 eA f SERIALIZED FILED ___. co — : mas ziqo Y, unis ici 1958 KNOAVILLE e, 1 ha it was “morally indefensible” to distribute material damaging to the reputation of those attend- ing the Lator Day seminar. It urged that ‘the vast majority of Americans irrespective of geo- graphical location join us rather than Governor Griffin in sub- scribing to Highlander's poli- cies of equal opportunity.”