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Praise for NO EASY WAY NO EASY WAY As president of the Riverside Unified School District, Arthur Littleworth led the effort to desegregate Riverside’s public schools. His memoir provides a firsthand account of the challenges of school desegregation and is an outstanding record of that historic time. U. S. Senator Dianne Feinstein INTEGRATING RIVERSIDE SCHOOLS—A VICTORY FOR COMMUNITY VICTORY RIVERSIDE SCHOOLS—A INTEGRATING No Easy Way unveils Arthur’s genius to recognize core behaviors and institutions that undermine a just society, along with his courage, talent and humility to engage and build community to create opportunity for all people. Timothy P. White Chancellor, California State University “Build hope” – Littleworth, says. This is his mission throughout in this memoir as he dreams of racial integration in Riverside schools and as Ed board member, tackles harsh realities on barrio ground and carpeted board rooms to make it come true. All this at the heels of the Watts riots and the Civil Rights movement at large, these accounts take us into the heated debates and Littleworth’s struggles, discoveries and hard-won strategies to move schools away from segregation. Littleworth, a lawyer, uses interviews, meeting minutes, news articles, collaboration with UC-Riverside, rare photographs, court and government documents to build his case, yet, it is more than that – this is a map and conversation on how to put out the fires of despair, prejudice and shape a positive future of life in the hearts of our children, communities and nation at large in these times. Juan Felipe Herrera Poet Laureate of California I am filled with gratitude, inspiration. Excerpts . from the Foreword by V. P. Franklin Arthur Littleworth’s memoir and the remembrances of others who participated in the school integration efforts in Riverside offer insightful testimonies for understanding the history of the quality integrated education movement in the United States in the 1960s. No Easy Way’s personal perspectives reveal how major changes were brought about in the way of doing things. Parents, community leaders, and school officials achieved an important victory; hopefully we will learn from, and be inspired by, their success. from the Introduction by Susan Straight The truth is simple: I would not be the writer and professor I am today without the experiences I had during my entire public school education in Riverside. Sitting with Art Littleworth . it all came back so vividly to me, and I watched the animated hands of this man who’d orchestrated change. Including Interviews With: Esther [Velez] Andrews William O. Medina LITTLEWORTH Robert Bland Walter Parks Tyree Ellison Dell Roberts Judge Charles Field Wanda [Poole] Scruggs Justice John Gabbert Sue Strickland Craig Goodwin Jesse Wall Doris [Doskocil] Haddy Ruth [Bratten] Anderson Wilson Barbara [Wheelock] Hamilton Dorothy Wissler Denise Matthews NO EASY WAY Integrating Riverside Schools – A Victory for Community A Personal Reflection Arthur L. Littleworth, Esq. Copyright © 2014 by Arthur L Littleworth, Esq. All rights reserved. Photographs by Douglas McCulloh reproduced by permission. Photographs and clippings from The Press Enterprise, and The Press-Enterprise newspapers reproduced by permission. Photograph from the Davis Enterprise reproduced by permission. Published in the United States by the Inlandia Institute. www.inlandiainstitute.org Library of Congress Control Number: 2014950086 Trade Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9839575-5-3 Hard Cover: ISBN 978-0-9839575-7-7 Manufactured in the United States Book design by Geographics Cover photo: Vintage postcard of Riverside, California, ca. 1960, courtesy of Steve Lech, author of Riverside in Vintage Postcards. Contemporary photographs in No Easy Way contributed by Douglas McCulloh. Douglas McCulloh is a photographer, writer, and curator. His exhibition record includes Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; Musée de l’Elysee, Lausanne; Musée Nicéphore Niépce, France; and Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City. McCulloh’s fifth book, The Great Picture: Making the World’s Largest Photograph (with The Legacy Project collaborative) was published in 2011 by Hudson Hills Press, New York. He is a four- time recipient of project support from the California Council for the Humanities and has curated fourteen exhibitions, including three for the California Museum of Photography. His latest curatorial project focuses on international blind photographers and has traveled to museums in Moscow, Mexico City, Seoul, Denver, Florida, and Washington D.C. among other locations. The old order changeth, yielding place to new. Tennyson, Morte d’Arthur (1842) This memoir is dedicated to all who helped make integration in Riverside a success: the determined parents who wanted an equal education for their children; the Board of Education and the educators who worked tirelessly to facilitate a resolution that would meet the needs of all students in a changing world; the community that rallied to keep the peace and maintain the integrity of Riverside; and the individuals who stretched their vision to see the future and became a small part of the history of the United States. CONTENTS FOREWORD ........................................................................................................ iv EDITOR’S PREFACE ..........................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. x CHAPTER 1—Prologue .........................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2—MINORITY SCHOOLS .................................................................9 Irving School .......................................................................................................... 9 Lowell School ...................................................................................................... 12 Casa Blanca School ............................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER 3—THE STATE OF THE LAW ......................................................... 17 Brown v. Board of Education ....................................................................................17 Growth and Federal Financing in Riverside ..........................................................19 Gerrymandering to Achieve Segregation ............................................................... 20 De Facto Segregation .............................................................................................21 Other Types of Discrimination ...............................................................................23 CHAPTER 4—BACKGROUND FOR INTEGRATION ...................................... 28 Summer of 1963 ................................................................................................... 28 The San Dimas Conference, 1963 .........................................................................29 Compensatory Education ..................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 5—THE WEEK OF HELL .................................................................37 Tuesday—The Burning of Lowell School............................................................... 37 Tuesday—The Board Meeting: The Call for the Closing of Lowell and Irving Schools ..................................................................................... 40 Wednesday—What to Do with the Displaced Children .......................................... 44 Wednesday—The Boycott ..................................................................................... 46 Thursday—Meeting with the Boycott Leaders ...................................................... 47 Friday Morning—Meeting with the Teachers ........................................................ 52 Friday Noon—Urgency: Promise Only What We Can Do ...................................... 52 Friday Evening—Meeting at Irving School............................................................ 56 ii Friday Midnight—Superintendent Miller’s House ................................................. 60 Saturday—Meeting of All City and School Officials ..............................................62 Saturday Noon—Meeting with The Press-Enterprise Newspaper ..............................63 Television Coverage ..............................................................................................64 Over the Weekend—More Meetings, but No Resolution..........................................64 Monday Morning—Washington School ................................................................66 Monday Afternoon—Grant School Meeting: Integration in Principle .....................68 The Community-at-Large Reaction ......................................................................72 The Integration Pledge .........................................................................................76 CHAPTER 6—THE INTEGRATION PLAN .......................................................79 The 30-Day Period ............................................................................................... 79 The Master Plan of School Integration ..................................................................81 Approval of the Integration Plan ........................................................................... 84 Implementation of the Plan ...................................................................................88

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