1970
The U.S.S.R. and West Germany sign a treaty of friendship in Moscow.
1970
Greorge W. Bush gives up his seat in the House to run for the Senate against Lloyd Bentsen, also a former representative. Bentsen easily wins despite strong campaign support for Bush from President Nixon and Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew.
1970
Marijuana, usually considered a mild hallucinogen is legally reclassified by the U.S. Government from a narcotic to a dangerous drug. Penalties for its possession remain high in many places.
1970 January 2
J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, states that in 1969 there were more than 100 attacks on police by "hate-type" black groups, among which he includes the Black Panthers.
1970 January 3
Mississippi Governor John Bell Williams announces his
intention to submit to the state legislature a proposal to authorize income tax
credits of up to $500 a year for contributors to "private" educational
institutions. The plan is designed to create a "workable alternative"
to school desegregation. That same day, HEW reports that a comprehensive survey
indicates that 61 % of the nation's black students and 65.6% of its white
students were attending segregated schools as of 1968.
1970 January 5
Black children are enrolled in three formerly all-white
Mississippi districts under the watchful eyes of federal marshals and Justice
Department officials. Scores of white parents picket the schools, while others
keep their children home, relying on the new private schools which have been
chartered to circumvent desegregation. HEW Secretary Robert Finch supports a
counter move to cut off tax exemptions for the 300-400 "private schools"
which have opened in the South since the 1964 Civil Rights Act was enacted.
1970 January 10
Four southern governors (Maddox of Georgia,
Brewer of Alabama, McKeithen of Louisiana, and Kirk of Florida) promise to
reject all busing plans designed for their states by the federal government or
the courts. Each moves independently to block the busing order. Maddox asks the
legislature to abolish compulsory attendance; McKeithen reveals no plan, but
describes himself as one "drawing the line in the dust"; Brewer denies
the courts have the constitutional authority to order busing as a device to
achieve racial balance and promises to use his full executive powers to prevent
it; Kirk vows to issue an executive order to block further desegregation of
Florida schools.
1970 January 12
The Supreme Court refuses to review the ruling of an Ohio
State Court which upholds an equal employment plan comparable to the Nixon
Administration's "Philadelphia Plan." The plan requires state
contractors to give assurances that they will employ a specified number of
black workers in projects constructed with federal funds or sponsored in toto by
the federal government. The Ohio contractor who brought suit in the case had
refused to provide such assurances.
1970 January 13
A three-judge federal court orders the Internal Revenue
Service to refuse tax-exemption status for more segregated private academies in
Mississippi. Those already in existence are immune from the ruling.
1970 January 14
The Supreme Court overturns a December 1, 1969 Circuit
Court of Appeals ruling which sets September 1, 1970 as a pupil desegregation
deadline date for six Southern states. The Court sets February 1, 1970 as the
new deadline, rejecting a Justice Department bid for postponement. Four
Justices concur without reservation in reaffirming the conclusion of the Court's
October 29, 1969 ruling in Alexander v. Holmes Board of Education. The words "at
once" are requoted from the Alexander decision.
1970 January 15
Though the day is not yet a national holiday, the
anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. is celebrated with impressive
ceremonies, eulogies, and church services in many parts of the country. Public
schools are closed in many cities; in others, they are kept open for formal
study of Dr. King's work and utterances. In Atlanta, Coretta King dedicates the
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center, which includes his home, the Ebenezer
Baptist Church, and the crypt where his remains are housed.
1970 January 16
Black Panther Warren Kimbro, head of the party's New
Haven chapter, pleads guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of alleged
Panther informer Alex Rackley. Kimbro faces a possible life term.
1970 January 19
Florida Governor Claude Kirk petitions the U.S. Supreme
Court for a rehearing of its January 14 ruling ordering immediate school
desegregation. Kirk claims the state is "financially and physically unable"
to meet the Court's deadline, and says he will instruct school districts not to
change their calendar in midyear. Two attorneys representing school districts in
Louisiana inform the Court that they are encountering insurmountable
difficulties in complying with the Court order.
1970 January 19
The nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court of G. Harrold
Carswell draws the immediate fire of civil rights advocates.
1970 January 20
A Los Angeles District Court judge orders the Pasadena
school district to submit a desegregation plan for its public schools no later
than February 16, 1970. Pasadena is the first northern school district pressed
by the federal government to produce an educational plan in which no single
school has a majority of nonwhite students. The plan is slated to take effect in
September 1970.
1970 January 21
Civil rights organizations and labor groups begin a salvo
of criticism against the Carswell Supreme Court nomination. The NAACP leads off
by condemning his "pro-segregation record."
1970 January 23
The SCLC's Ralph Abernathy sends a telegram to Senate
leaders pleading for "reassurance to the black community that there is...
understanding and support... for our needs." AFL-CIO President George Meany
calls Carswell's appointment "a slap in the face to the nation's black
citizens."
1970 January 27
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Carswell
states: "I am not a racist. I have no notions, 'secretive or otherwise, of
racial superiority." This statement contrasts sharply with a 1948 remark
that Carswell would yield to no man "in the firm, vigorous belief in the
principles of white supremacy." Carswell is also accused of helping form a
private golf club in 1956 in an effort to prevent desegregation.
1970 January 27
South Carolina announces that it will comply with the
desegregation mandate.
1970 February 1
Three districts in Louisiana, two in Mississippi, and one
in Florida comply with the Supreme Court order setting February 1 as the date
for establishing integration. About 15 other states are granted delays by
district court judges, whereas 20 districts choose to disobey the order either
by closing schools or supporting parent-organized boycotts. Vice President Agnew
announces a Presidential plan to appoint a cabinet-level committee to advise the
districts on how best to implement the court's order without causing wholesale
disruption.
1970 February 5
Senators John Stennis and Strom Thurmond demand that
northern school districts be ordered to observe federal desegregation guidelines
in the same way as their southern counter parts. On February 9, Connecticut
Senator Abraham Ribicoff endorses the Stennis Amendment, a rider to the
House-passed education bill then before the Senate. The Stennis bill is a
virtual duplication of the text of the 1969 New York State bill prohibiting the
assignment of students to schools according to race. Ribicoff condemns northern
liberals who blame the South for resistance to integration while, at the same
time, failing to recognize and assail similar policies in the North. He chides
northern communities for their "systematic and consistent" denial of
educational opportunity to black children.
1970 February 6
Some one-third of Denver buses slated to put into effect
the city 's plan to achieve racial balance by busing the city's school children
are destroyed by dynamite bombs believed to have been set by fanatic opponents
of busing.
1970 February 7
The NAACP asks the U.S. government to examine and ban a
fourth-grade Alabama history textbook that "glorifies the Ku Klux Klan"
by claiming that the vigilante organization appeared only sporadically, and then
only to prevent carpetbaggers from taking refuge behind unjust laws.
1970 February 11
Black neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas W. Matthew, head of the
National Economic Growth and Reconstruction Organization (NEGRO), criticizes the
NAACP for its continued harassment of Supreme Court nominee G. Harrold Carswell.
Matthew endorses Carswell, citing his "public renunciation of racist views."
The Senate Judiciary Committee clears the Carswell nomination on February 16.
1970 February 16
President Nixon establishes a cabinet-level task force to
assist and counsel local school districts which have been ordered to desegregate
their schools immediately. The objective is to spare the public school system
undue disruption while, at the same time, insuring compliance with the law.
