DOCUMENT RESUME ED 025 550 School Desegregation in the Southern and Border States. Southern Education Reporting Service, Nashville, Tenn. Pub Date May 68 Note- 164p. EDRS Price MF-$0.75 HC-$8.30 Descriptors-College Role, Community Action,*Discriminatory LegislMion. *Federal Court Litigation, Free Choice Transfer Programs, *Political Issues, Press Opinion, *School Integration, *Southern States, Supreme Court Litigation Identifiers-*Border .States This report examines the status of school desegregation efforts in Southern and Border States immediately before and after the May 1968 U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that school districts must abandon ineffective freedom-of-choice plans. Separate sections devoted to eventsiir'each state contain specific detail describing the political,legislative, and judicial response to desegregation requirements and the reaction of the press, of the universities, and of other groups in the community. (EF) SCHOOL DESEGREGATION DI THE SOUTHERN AND BOLDER STATES
MAY, 1968 Compiled by Southern Education ReportingService ? U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE
OFFICE OF EDUCATION
THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVEDFROM THE
PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS
STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OFEDUCATION
POSITION OR POLICY.
EDVblitiO
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION
IN THE SOUTHERN AND BORDER STATES
MAY, 1968
COMPILED BY
SOUTHERN bDUCATION REPORTING SERVICE The Region-1 May,1968
THE REGION
The U.S. SupremeCourt's ruling in May onfreedom-of-choice effect on the large plans is expected tohave a considerable numbers of Southernschool districts usingthis method of 27 that although free-choice desegregation.The court ruled on May that had dual plans are notunconstitutional, school systems systems must actaffirmatively to convertto a unitary system. This means that if the plandoes not work, anothermethod must be used. New Kent The ruling, which concernedthree school districts, surprise County, Va., Gould, Ark.,and Jackson, Tenn., came as no guidelines have made to many Southern schoolmen,since the federal similar requirements forcompliance. Harry R. Elmore, deputy estimated that up state superintendent ofpublic instruction, operate under freedom to 90 per cent ofVirginia's school systems reported of choice. At least 41 Tennesseeschool systems were because.of the ruling. as expectingto speed up desegregation
Alabama's largest schoolsystem, Mobile County,had its freedom-of-choice plan thrownout earlier this yearby the the U.S. Fifth Circuit Courtof Appeals, That situation plus Supreme Court's newruling in these other caseshas brought The Mobile protests and pessimisticpredictions in the state. cities of County school board--coveringthe district's three Mobile, Prichard andChickasaw--has approved arezoning plan that would place approximately2,500 Negro stadents in formerly Negro schools. white schools, and1,400 whites in predominantly
The board held the meeting,at which the plan wasannounced, attended and many in the MunicipalTheater.Some 1,000 spectators booed and hooted theboard's decision. WhenJerry Pogue, director (NOW), took the stage to call of the NeighborhoodOrganized Workers for a school board that wasat least 40 per centNegro, several police officers had tobe called to the stageto help maintain predominantly white crowdwalked out order. About a fourth of the of the theater, in U.S. Parents of 20 white schoolchildren filed a motion District Court to intervenein the suit and appealthe appellate for court ruling. The parents contendthat it would be unsafe their children to attendpreviously all-Negroschools, because county "has the relationship betweenwhite and Negro in the deteriorated to such anextent that there nowexists a clear and present danger to peaceand tranquility." The Region-2 May, 1968
attended a protest Also during May, morethan 100000 whites plans for resisting meeting in Mobile'sNational Guard Armory to map formed under the the court-orderedplan, A new organization was The Mobile County name ofStand Together and NeverDivide (STAND). be "thousands" of school board, answeringwhat was reported to nothing but obey protests to its rezoningplan, said it could do court orders and submitthe plan for approval,
Gov. Albert Brewer,commenting on both rulingsagainst innovation of judicial freedom of choice,said: "Because of this decree, the courts are nowdeclaring that a person inthis republic Logically extended, this rule no longer canexercise a choice. lives and where and how can be appliedto determine where a person he can make a living."
A Negro attorney inAlabama, Fred Gray, saidof the Supreme that freedom of Court's rulings "Ourposition has been all along will carefully choice would not eliminatedual school systems...We review all cases in which we areinvolved to determineif there is sufficient desegregation." could have considerable The free-choice rulingof the Supreme Court systems use effect in Florida, since62 of the state's 67 school been classified as some form ofthe plan. Only five counties have what meaning the fully desegregated.Many principals were unsure of the Florida ruling would have fortheir districts, but some plans to achieve districts began talkingof shifting to zoning superintendent, Floyd desegregation increases. The state school freedom-of-choice plan Christian, Observed,"Over the years, the effective has made it possiblefor Florida to movein an orderly and schools, and Florida hasmade manner towardfall integration of meaningful and significantprogress towardthat end."
Although the court'sruling was not expectedto have any significant effect onGeorgia districts,Gov. Lester Maddox was property to so incensedthat he ordered allflags on state-owned Jack P. Nix saidthat be flown at half-mast.State School Supt. choice method, notingthat no systems arerelying solely on the identical to the HEW the wording of thedecision was almost guidelines already ineffect, in some Ve will encounter certainproblems with desegregation the method used isfreedom of our systemsregardless of whether schools," of choice or one inwhich administratorsassign pupils to he said. The Region-3 May, 1968
Few South Carolina schoolmen weresurprised by the ruling, according to reports. State Supt. of EducationC:yril B. Busbee said, "The decision ineffect gives judicial supportto the of Education." guidelines previouslyestablished by the U.S. Office
In North Carolina, Dr.Charles F. Carroll, thestate superintendent, said pupils inthe 169 school systems willcontinue freedom "is to be subject to freedomof choice as long as that administered freely,generously and without fearof intimidation." only if they did Carroll said the decisionwould affect N.C. systems not show good faith inthe use of choice plans. "The court's decision has not ruledout freedom of choice..ifit works,H. he commented.
1 ALABAMA HIGHLIGHTS
school The Mobile City-CountySchool board adopted a new court orders, whichwould zoning plan, incompliance with federal 2,500 Negro students to have the immediateeffect of transferring students to predominantly predominantly whiteschools and 11400 white Negro schools. intervene on the grounds A group of whiteparents filed suit to endanger that the transferof white studentsto Negro schools would the lives of thewhite students. board's action attracted A protest rallyfollowing the school organized resistance group was more than10,000 angry parents; an formed. Supreme Court's The situation in, Mobile,coupled with the U.S. plans, ruling May 27 castingdoubt on the futureof freedom-of-choice Gov. Albert Brewer. brought protests andgloomy predictions from Alabama-1 May, 1968
ALABAMA
Schoolmen
The Mobile County School Board approved May 20 a rezoning plan demanded by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals March 12 as a way of accelerating desegregation in the state's largest school system. Under the plan adopted by the board, which is subject to court review, approximately 2,500 Negro students would attend formerly white schools and 1,400 white students would be transferrred to predominantly Negro schools.
To accommodate some 1,000 spectators, many of whom hooted and booed the decision, the board held the meeting at which the plan was announced in the Mobile Municipal Theater. The board explained it had no choice but comply. The altered school zone lines would overlap many predominantly Negro and white residential areas in the three cities initially affected by the circuit court's order-. Mobile, Prichard and Chickasaw.
District Judge Daniel H. Thomas, who was to review the plan May 27, postponed the hearing without setting a date after federal attorneys asked for a delay to get additional information from the school board.
The appellate court had said March 12 that desegregation was not proceeding fast enough in the state's largest system (with 93 schools and about 75,000 pupils) and that only 2,008 Negroes out of more than 31,000 in the system are receiving desegregated education. It found that freedom of choice had not worked "toward the ultimate goal of a unitary system wherein schools are no longer recognizable as Negro or white."
In directing the Mobile district court to require a lengthy plan for faster desegregation through rezoning, faculty transfers, etc., the court said "each student in the urban areas must attend the school serving his attendance zone (in the absence of) some compelling non-racial reason for transfer." (For details of that order, see report for March, "Legal Action.")
The predominantly white crowd that attended the Mobile board's May 20 meeting was angry. The meeting was marked by frequent outbursts. When Jerry Pogue, Director of the Neighborhood Organized Workers (NOW), took to the stage to address the crowd, about a fourth of those present walked out. He called for a school board at least 40 per cent Negro and said that courses in "black culture and black determination" should be taught in the school system.Several police officers were called to the stage to help maintain order as he spoke. Alabama-2 May, 1968
in the area White parents claimedthat crime and lawlessness school made the transfers where some 500 whiteswould attend a Negro Jacobs, a Negro, concededthat crime dangerous. Mrs. Jacqueline Williamson but thather own children hadbeen forced was rampant at better than to attend the schoolfor years. White children are no Negroes, she said. Mercy Catholic Church, Rev. Leon Hill, pastorof Our Mother of Point Community spoke as a representativeof the Plateau-Magazine desegregation forthwith. Council in urging whitesto accept total it "If we're going to cutoff the dog's tail,"he said, "let's do all at once." Someone in the audience He was loundlyjeered and booed. A white man shouted: "How many childrendo you have, Father?" when he led a ctvil accused Father Hill ofhaving defied the law by protesting parents rights march in Mobile. Some of the comments children to the whims included these: 'Wewill not surrender our desegregation is "too greatand the of a few" and thatthe price of burden is too heavy." movement which Out of the protestingparentsgrew a resistance Also, a suit attracted a crowd of10,000. (SeeCommunity Action.) transfers were dangerous. (See was filedprotesting that the mass Legal Action.) by some whites Harassed school boardmembers, who were asked they would be willingto if to risk going tojail, explained that be, board.members it would accomplishanything. But the result would implement the said; that some "outsideexperts" would be used to court orders. plan, it was No busing is involvedin the board's rezoning believed to be thegreatest yet explained. The mass hostility was in the state. directed at a specificschool desegregation plan the district court When the board filedthe proposed plans with of the necessity May 7, board PresidentArthur F. Smith Jr. said to comply with theappellate to transfer largenumbers of students court's order: which the "The board sincerelyregrets the inconveniences reorganization of attendance areaswill bring to manystudents and parents. it to keep "The board has used everylegal means available to our schoolscontrolled by the localboard of education. Alabama-3 May, 1968
'We deplore that a court decree would behanded down placing Jn the schoolstaff the terrible burden of completelyreorganizing the school system in such a shorttime."
The board had been given until June 1 toprovide its rezoning plan. It requested that the district courtpermit next year's high school seniors to remain inthe schools they are now attending should the rezoning require them tochange schools in their last year.No action on that request was taken inMay.
The board was compelled to conform tothese words in the March 12 decision by the Fifth Circuit:
TWe insist on a new effort to draw zonelines on a non-racial basis... A conscious effort should bemade to move boundary lines and change feeder patterns whichtend to preserve segregation.
"In the future, any boundary lines whichsimply encircle Negro residences without being explainable interms other than race will be constitutionally suspect,To go a step farther, we hold that once attendance zoneshave been properly designated,the student's option to attend the nearest formerlywhite or formerly Negro school outside his zone must be eliminated."
Speaking of the protesting parents atthe hearing and of the movement to prevent the rezoning plan(Community Action), Board President Smith said: "1146 are wholly sympatheticwith those who are protesting. But just about everything we do nowis under court order. And we aren't the court."
Many white parents, according to theMobile newspapers, have said flatly they will not sendtheir children to formerly Negro schools. * * *
Legal Action
Parents of 20 white school children wentinto the U.S. Distrcit Court in Mobile May 29 to appeal for aruling that it would be unsafe for their children to attend previouslyall-Negro schools to which they had been assigned under the system's newrezoning plan.State San. Pierre Pelham filed the motion tointervene as defendants in the sui") under which the Mobile CountySchool Board was ordered to rezone for greater desegregation. Alabama-4 May, 1968
The attendance zone the board adopted wouldreplace an area-option plan under which pupilspreviously could attend schools of their choice within aspecified area. The board was ordered to rezone by a U.S. FifthCircuit Court of Appeals decision March 12. Under the plan adopted by the board, eachpupil must attend the school serving his zone,whether formerly white or formerly Negro.
Pelham said the suit would affect only the20 students, who filed the petition through their parents,but that he intended to file an amendment later to makethe litigation apply in cases of all white students forced to transferto Negro schools.
The suit asked District Judge Daniel H.Thomas to reject the board's proposed zone plan. It also asked the court to require the board to submit a plan based onfreedom of choice. The suit stated "that the conditions in formerlyall-Negro schools in Mobile County are so unstable and hazardousthat it would be unsafe for them to attend such schools."
The suit also alleged that Negro neighborhoods,through which white children must pass in walking toand from schools, are "unsafe" and would "further contribute tothe peril" of the students. Under the Constitution, the stilt said,particularly under the Ninth Amendment, students have the right "to go to andfrom public schools which they attend without fear for their safety orwelfare." Parents, too, have a right to "be free from fearfor their safety."
These rights, Pelham said in his petition, "are asbasic and fundamental as the rights asserted by theNegroes seeking school integration."He reviewed in detail race riots, mob violence and civil disorders throughout the United States overthe past several years:
"This pattern of racial conflict...has now extendedto Mobile County," where the relationship between white andNegro "has deteriorated to such an extent that there nowexists a clear and present danger to peace and tranquility."
The petition cited curfews imposed in Mobile andnearby cities between April 6 and April 12 to curb vandalismand disorder following the assassination of Dr. MartinLuther King Jr. * * * Alabama-5 May, 1968
A three-judge federalpanel heard testimony inMontgomery in early May in a suitbrought by the AlabamaState Teachers Association in an effort to stopAuburn University frombuilding an extension contends that the center in Montgomery. ASTA, predominantly Negro, city already has astate-supported four-year collegein predominantly Negro Alabama State College. Any money availableshould be allocated effort to to it. Building a center, theplaintiffs contend, is an that perpetuate segregation--despiteAuburn officials' statement the center would be open toall. May 2 Dr. Levi 'Watkins, presidentof Alabama State, testified that his college withadequate financing, couldprovide what is envisioned for the$5million Auburn branch inMontgomery.
Dr. Ernest Stone, statesuperintendent of education,said the programs of theAuburn center and AlabamaState would not be the same becauseAlabama State provides mainlyteacher education and is not basically a liberalarts college, as the centerwould be.
Holman Head, MontgomeryChamber of Commerce EducationCommittee chairman, said Alabama State wasnot considered for use in the expansion program because it wasfelt the college "didn't meet the needs."
Dr. Harry M. Philpott,Auburn University president,said Alabama State was not mentioned whenhe discussed with Dr.Frank Rose, University of Alabamapresident, the transfer ofAlabama's present center in Montgomery toAuburn and the expansion to afour-year college.
All of these three witnessessaid there had been no specific study of educational needs inMontgomery County before the passage of the act establishing andfunding the Auburn center.Dr. Watkins said that his college, withadditional money, could provideall the undergraduate courses menilonedin a brochure on the newcenter: liberal arts, business andteaching, and adult education.He said Alabama State could also providegraduate programs:, particularly in political science andbusiness.
Efforts to desegregate AlabamaState, Dr. Watkins testified, have been primarily in teacherrecruitment. Of 86 teachers, he said two are Caucasians, three areFilipinos, three Indian and one Chinese. He said there was one whitestudent in the college, an adultfrom Montgomery. Alabama-6 1.%y, 1968
Joe. L. Reed, executive secretary of the Alabama State Teachers Association, testified that he had talked with State Sen. 00 J. Goodwyn of Montgomery before the legislature acted on the Auburn center and asked Goodwyn not to push the bills. He said Goodwyn told him he had made commitments to white students from Montgomery who are currently attending schools in nearby counties.
The federal panel called for written briefs by May 13 but there was no indication of when a decision would be forthcoming. In addition to requesting an injunction stopping the center, the plaintiffs asked the court to order that any new state inntitutions of higher learning in Montgomery be made part of Alabama State. * * *
The Autauga County school board filed suit in federal court to get permission to reconstruct classrooms at Autauga County Training School in Autaugaville. The justice department objected, contending that the construction would serve to perpetuate segregation. The Autaugaville school is predominantly Negro.
The county system is one of the 99 in the state under a statewide desegregation order. All new construction must be approved by the three-judge court in Montgomery, which ordered the systems desegregated in March, 1967. The court made the state superintendent directly responsible for constructions plans, but ultimately the court has the power to decide.
According to the justice departmentos motion objecting to the construction, the state superintendent notified the school that the construction would violate the court order. The justice department said the training school, with 1,110 students is located only one mile from Hicks Memorial School, predominantly white, with only 267 students.
Even if Hicks were filled to capacity, the government said, the enrollment would not meet the minimum of 525 recommended by the State Department of Education. Despite this, the justice department said, the Autauga board had not proposed to expand Hicks.
Educational opportunities at both schools, the federal motion said, are inferior to those of other schools in the county. U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr0 set a hearing for June 17 on the question. * * * Alabama-7 May, 1968
Community Action
On May 24, more than 101000whites attended a protestmeeting for resisting a in Mobile's NationalGuard Armory to map plans court-ordered rezoning plandesigned to send hundreds ofNegro students to predominantlywhite schools and whitestudents to formerly Negro schools. A newly formed organizationcalled Stand STAND's Together And Never Divide(STAND) planned a rally June 7. president, Lamar Payne, saidhe was campaigning for aturnout of 20,000.
State Sen. Pierre Pelham wasloudly cheered when he told the crowd he would file apetition asking the federalcourt to declare it dangerous to sendwhite children into Negrodistricts and schools. The Mobile County school board,answering what was reported tobe "thousands" of protests to itsrezoning plan, said it could do nothing but obey court orders. Hundreds of Mobile citizens,it was alsoreported, wrote their senatorsand congressmen complaining of the court orderedrezoning.
At the May 24 rally, Sen.Pelham aid the desegregationorder would subject Mobile whitestudents to "inhuman" and"criminal" conditions. Of one Negro school inPrichard, Pelham told the crowd: "I wouldn't carewho told me to send mychildren there (to Blount High School); I wouldn'tsend them."
Pelham said police recordsshowed there had.been morethan 50 investigations of crimesat Blount in January,1967: "Now who wants to send his younglunsinto that kind of mess?"
Mobile has had very little racialfriction over the years, but tempers were reportedhigh following the rezoningplan. * * *
What They Say
Gov. Albert Brewer, who asLieutenant Governor succeeded tothe office on the death of Gov.Lurleen Wallace May 7, expressed"great concern" over the rezoningdesegregation plan in Mobile.In a press conference May 22, be predicted itcould do "irrevocable harmO to the public school system. The Mobile forced desegregationplan, he said, "endangers the peaceand tranquility of a countythat has enjoyed excellent race relations."However, he said he knew ofnothing he could do and had no plans tointervene.He would abide by court orders, he said. Alabama-8 May, 1968
Brewer called the decision "inconceivable" in that itreplaced with "arbitrary" school zones a "democratic plan offreedom of choice." He expressed the fear that it threatens to undermine support of public education in Alabama "at a time when support of our public schools is never more vital." On M'ay 31, following the May 27 U.S. Supreme Court decision that beclouded the future of freedom-of-choice plans, Brewer said:
MWe have seen a gradual and persistent takeover of our schools by the central government. Our people, of all races, have been frustrated by the interference into the affairs of local boards of education."Although Alabamians might not have liked freedom of choice, he said, they "had learned to at least live with this method of running the school systems."
Except for a very small but vocal and suit-conscious minority, the parents of this state, in my judgment, were satisfied with the operation of the freedom-of-choice plan.
"Because of this innovation of judicial decree, the courts are now declaring that a personin this republic no longer can exercise a choice. Logically extended, this rule can be applied to determine where a person lives and where and how he can make a living."
(Brewer was referring both to the Mobile situation in his remarks and the Supreme Court ruling.He said the Mobile board had been denied its autonomy by the Court.)
In another comment (May 29), Brewer said freedom of choice, for both whites and Negroes, "does not address itself to the court." He continued, °It is not a legal question but a social question."
At month's end, he said the step he is taking to fight federal intervention is to flwork harder to elect George C. Wallace president of the United States."
Fred Gray, Negro attorney who handled the case (Lee v.Macon), which led to statewide desegregation of Alabamaschodls in March, 1967, said of the Supreme Court's May 27 ruling:
"Our position has been all along that freedom of choice would not eliminate dual school systems
MWe will carefUlly review all cases in which we are involved to determine if there is sufficient desegregation. In my opinion, in most of the cases we will be going back into court and asking them to change the plan so we can do away with the dual system." Alabama-9 MET, 1968
nomination for the Two run-off candidatesfor the Democratic denounced the Supreme seat being vacatedby Senator Lister Hill Court ruling. led the field James B. Allen, a formerlieutenant governor who court's jurisdiction and in the first primaryMay 7, said: "The system at the review powers must berestricted. We must change our federal level and electfederal judges indistricts, thus making them responsive to thewishes of the peoplerather than to bureaucrats and high-rankingofficials in Washington." judicial His opponent, CongressmanArmistead Selden, said: "This legislation to make trend can be reversedeither by the passage of I strongly the federal judiciary moreresponsive to the people--and president who will support such legislation--orthe election of a appoint judges dedicated tofundamental Americancmstitutional philosophy,"
Although Alabama was notdirecqy involved in thelatest under Supreme Court legislation, allof the state's 118 systems are federal court desegregati9nordefs--99 of them under asingle order. * * *
Under Survey
The U.S. Commission onCivil Rights, meeting inMontgomery in late April and earlyMay, said Nay 1 that someAlabama schools the skills and training are failing toprovide rural Negroes with they need to get the jobswhen employers want tohire them. Industry spokesmen who testifiedin the four days of hearingssaid repeatedly that one of theproblems in complying withnondiscrimination provisions of the1964 Civil Rights Act is thedifficulty in finding qualified Negroes.
A report by the commission'sstaff, which was read intothe record, said the quality ofeducation in Alabama's BlackBelt is "very poor" and countysupport for public schoolsis "woefaly inadequate,"
The commission's staff director,William L0 Taylor, commented at one point that someschools "not only are failingto comply complying with the (1954) SupremeCourt decision, but they aren't even with Plessy v. Ferguson,"
One commission member,Editor Eugene Patterson of theAtlanta Constitution, summed up thecommission's attitudes"Employellrgr schools they can't find qualifiedNegroes, Now we come down to the and find they're not evenseparate but equal. At what point do we start providing theseskills?" Alabama-10 May, 1968
Patterson said he was beginning to feel that "none of usrealize the problems of a Negro parent who sees his child growup...not getting the same vocational training as the white child acrosstown, and knowing what the employer is going to tellhim."
State School Supt. Ernest Stone told the commission thatAlabama is making progress and its goal is to see that"every child is given a salable skill." Stone said that many Negroes attending inferior schools could go to predominantly white schools if they chose. However, some Negroes who testified earlier had told the commission that the fear of economic reprisals kept some from doing that, ARKANSAS RIGHLIGHTS
HEW reported from Washingtonthat 16.8 per cent of theNegro children in Arkansas schoolsattended desegregated schools during 1967-68, based on a survey of144 of the 222 biracial school districts.
The Fordyce, Blytheville,Wynne and Hermitage schoolboards were informed byHEW that their freedom-of-choiceplans were not satisfactory.
HEW inspected the PulaskiCounty (rural) School Districtand made a series of specificsuggestions to the school boardabout changing the uses of the schools,mostly that small or unaccredited Negro schools be closed.
The North Little Rock SchoolBoard notified HEW that it would use freedom ofchoice one more year, pendingthe completion of two new schoolbuildings.
The Jonesboro School Board changedthe boundaries of four elementary school attendance zonesin order to achieve better racial balance in the enrollments ofthe four schools.
The U,S. Supreme Court ordered anend to the use of the freedom-of-choice plan by the GouldSchool District and also ordered the lower court to hear theplaintiffs on the use to be made of a new building on thegrounds of the Gould Negro school.
Both student and faculty groups atthe University of Arkansas at Fayetteville called on theuniversity administration to take steps to wipe out discrimination onthe campus.
The State Training School Board adopted aplan for the reception and classification of juvenilesby which they will be assignedto a school. The board also decided to close theschool for Negro girls during the summer, transferringthem to the white girls schools.
In his call for a special legislativesession, Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller surprisingly listed an item forthe appropriation of about $40,000 to be used toreimburse school boards for legal expenses in desegregationlawsuits, but the bill received achill reception among the legislators and wasdefeated in the House. Arkansas-1 May, 1968
ARKANSAS
Schoolmen
The percentage of Negro children enrolled indesegregated schools in Arkansas in 1967-68 was 16.8 per cent,HEW reported May 28. This is based on a survey of 144 of the 222 biracial school districts. In those 144, the number of Negro children in desegregated schools was 17,746 (compared to about l9,5C0 for all districts the year before and6,807 for all districts in 1965-66).
The HER survey found that in 10 Arkansas districts operating under court-ordered desegregation, the Negro enrollment percentage was 17.2 per cent(3,5l6 out 20,426 enrolled).
The state has nine school districts that have been held not in compliance with the Civil Rights Act of1964 and from which federal funds are being withheld;They are Bright Star in Miller County; Collins in Drew County; Elaine in Phillips County; Hazen in Prairie County; Junction City, Lawson, Strong and Urbana, all in Union County; and Stamps in Lafayette County. Proceedings leading to noncompliance orders have been initiated against two more districts, Village in Columbia County and the Union County District.
The State Department of Education announced May 10 that $301,524 that had been withheld from the nine districts not in compliance had been reallocated to 30 other districts, most of which will use it to improve their summer programs. W. H. Moore, associate education commissioner for federal programs, saidthat Fordyce had been removed from the noncompliance list on April 11 and had reclaimed $68,278 that had been withheld from it. * * *
Reports from school districts:
Fordyce, Dallas County.At a special PTA meeting April 30, the school board announced that HEW had found its freedom-of-choice plan unacceptable and described its intentions for changing itbeginning next fall.W. R. Benton Jr., board president, said that HEW had received a complaint earlier in the yearthat discrimination still existed in the Fordyce system and that the investigation which followed led to the ruling on the freedom-of-choice plan. Arkansas-2 May, 1968
Beginning in September,Benton said, the first and seventh grades of the J: E. WallaceSchool for Negroes will be closedand those two grades will be fullydesegregated in the white school. In 1969, full desegregationwill extend to the second andeighth The details grades. Freedom of choice will be usedin other grades. of the plan beyond1969-70 were not given. Benton said that this plan had been accepted byHEW.
Supt. Jack H. Gresham said thatnine teachers would teach next He did year in classeswhere their race would be inthe minority. not give the breakdown ofwhite and Negro teachers. He also said that the board hoped to have a newhigh school building ready by September, 1970, and that allstudents in grades 9-12 wouldattend there. The new building, which issubject to approval by the voters in March, 1969, is not apart of the new desegregationplan.
Gresham also said that a summerenrichment program, for grades 1-7, financed by federal aid,would have five white and five Negro teachers. Gresham said that the newdesegregation plan was devised by the board working with anHEW team and a representative ofthe state Education Department. The Forkse News-Advocate saidthat the PTA meeting was attended by"rgiZeabie crowd-, innluding about 25 Negroes,"The Fordyce enrollment is about815 white and 722 Negro.
Blytheville, Mississippi County--After atwo-day inspection by five HEW men, Waite Madison ofHEW informed the school boardJune 6 that its freedom-of-choice plan wasnot acceptable. He said that the freedom-of-choice plan hadnot eliminated the Negroidentity of four Negro schools andthat the investigators had found"grossly inferior" conditions in the fourNegro schools.The Blytheville enrollment is about 3,500 whiteand 2,500 Negro.
Wynne, Cross County--C. D. Landoltand a team of HEW men spent Tuesday, June 4 looking over theWynne system, then informed the school board that its freedom-of-choiceplan was not working well enough to be in compliance withthe Civil Rights Act of1_964. He said that full desegregationshould be achieved by 1969 and that a substantial start toward itshould be made in the fall of 1968. Seventy-nine Negro students had attendeddesegregated schools in 1967-68 and about the samenumber had chosen white schoolsfor l968-69, The Wynne enrollment is about 1,900white and 950 Negro. Arkansas-3 May, 1968
North Little Rock, PulaskiCounty--The school board has written a three-paragraphstatement about its desegregationintentions, in response to notice fromHEW in April that itsfreedom-of-choice plan urged was not productiveenough. The HEW people at the same time the board to make a planthat would close the all-NegroJones High Schools the new plan does notpromise that. Nbrth Little Rock has Jones High and the predominantlywhite North Little Rock High and is planning a new high schoolin the Lakewood section of town. The statement says, "the completionof the new junior-senior high school complex will allow theeventual phasing out of thesenior high school section of JonesHigh School" (an earlier versionof the sentence had said that Joneswould be closed). For 1968-69 the board intends to continue withfreedom of choice but step upits faculty desegregation. In 1969-70, the statement says,it will switch partly to attendance zoneswith the completion of a new junior high school in theRosa City section. All students from elementary schools in that partof town, including Rooseveltand Wbodson, two Negro elementary schools,will attend the new junior high.
Pulaski County (rural) SchoolDistrict--HEW officials met with the school board May 7 andsaid that it would have to remove the final "vestiges of a dualschool system" by September,1969. The team, headed by Waite Madison,made numerous specific suggestions, but left it to the board todecide how to proceed. The county district gets more than a milliondollars in federal aid each year, mainly becausethe Little Rock Air Force Base iswithin the district, and has been using thefreedom-of-choice plan for the last three years. In 1967-68, 1,918 Negro childrenattended desegregated schools. The enrollment is about 199000white and 5,000 Negro. The HEW men suggested:
* That Nelson Elementary School,all Negro, enrollment 183, be closed. It is in a rural area in the eastend of the county. The building is more than 40 years old.
* That J. C. Cook ElementarySchool, all Negro, at Wrightsville in the south end of the county,be zoned so that all elementary age children in the area would attendit, White children in that area now go southto Hensley or north to FullerElementary,
* That Viola Harris Junior andSenior High School, all Negro, at MCAlmont, be closed. The location is a Negro settlementhalfwgy between North ',little Rock andJacksonville. The high school is unaccredited. The buildings are less than 10 yearsold, Arkansas-4 May, 1968
* That Sweet Home High School,all Negro, be converted into a junior high serving the nearbyFuller High School, predominantly white. Sweet Home is a village just southof Little Rock. The school is not accredited.
* That Pankey ElementarySchool, all Negro, enrollment 80, be closed.The building is seven years old.Pankey is a Negro settlement on state Highway 10 justoutside the northwest city limits of Little Rock.Little Rock's most affluent residents keep building homes to thenorthwest and they are now within a few hundred yards of Pankey.
* That Shaw ElementarySchool, all Negro, enrollment104, be paired with Oak Grove Elementary,predominantly white, one school taking all children in the first threegrades and the other those in grades 4.60Both buildings are less than eight yearsold, but Shaw is uundercrowded. Thgy arelocated in rural territory to the northwest of North LittleRock.
The board members asked lots of questionsbut did not indicate what they would do. The district has 42 schools,24 of them desegregated, nine all-Negro and the restall-white.The HEW men said that they had not been ableto figure what to do about two Negro elementary schools, HarrisElementary, at the same location as Harris Juniorand Senior High, and CollegeStation Elementary, located in a mostly Negro slum on thesoutheast corner of Little Rock.
Hermitage, Bradley County.Supt. W. W.Robertson called in nine of the 10 Negro teachers at theall-Negro West Side School, one by one, Tuesday,May72and informed them that their contracts would not be renewed tor next year. This was revealed by York W. Williams Jr. of Dermott, Negropresident-elect of the Arkansas (Negro) Teachers Association. A member of the school board, Earnest Williams, said that the board had decided to notigythe Negro teachers because HEW had not responded to thedistrict's proposal to continue using the freedom-of-choice planand that the board was afraid that HEWwould order the district to abolish its dual system. It has only two schools--Hermitage,predominantly white, and West Side, all Negro--and if they werecombined, fewer teachers would be needed, he said.A week later the board received word from HEW that freedom of choice was notacceptable for all 12 grades and the board decided to close the top sixgrades at West Side School and combine them with the Hermitage School. It also then rehired six of the nine Negro teachers. Supt. Robertson said that the three dismissed teachers were selected on the basis oftheir qualifications and preparation, not their race. At the board meeting May 14 at which the new plan was announced, three Negrofathers presented a list of 37 Negro children who attend the WestSide School and said that they wanted to remain at West Side and would notattend theHermitage School. Arkansas-5 May, 1968
The West Side enrollment this year was308.Hermitage School had an enrollment of about450, including 65 Negro children.
Little Rock, Pulaski County- -At theboard meeting May 30, T. E. Patterson moved that the boardappoint a committee to study the U.S. Supreme Courtus new decision onthe freedom-of-choice plan and make appropriaterecommendations to the board. The motion was adopted and boardPresident Edwin N. Barron Jr. appointed Winslow Drummond, William R. Meeks andCharles A. Brown, board members; Supt. Floyd Parsons and DeputySupt. Paul R. Fair; Herschel H. Friday Jr., the boardus attorney;and Jerry D. Perrin, to the committee. Perrin, a former principal now on sabbatical leave, was chosen at the same meetingfor the position of advisory specialist in human relations.
Later in the meeting the board tried once moreto decide whether to go ahead and build a runningtrack at Booker Junior High School.This is an all-Negro school abouttwo blocks from Horace Mann High School, all Negro, both of whichwould use the track. There is considerable oppostion to theproject because of the uncertain future of the two schools. John W. Walker, Little Rock Negro lawyer who represents Negro plaintiffsin the Little Rock desegregation litigation, objected tothe building of the track and went on to threaten the boardwith another lawsuit if it "persists" in operating all-Negro schools. Lavelle Johnson, Negro representative of the NeighborhoodAction Council, an anti-poverty agency in the HoraceMann neighborhood, agreed withWalker, and said that the board would have todo more than either the Oregon Report or Parsons Plan promised to satisfythe Negroes in the east end. Those are two desegregation plans whichthe voters disapproved in the last eight months.Drummond, a lawyer, agreed withWalker that the board would have to act; hesaid that the Supreme Court decision in the Jackson, Tenn., case "coversLittle Rock to a IT.1" Eventually the board delayed the Booker trackbut only because it is trying to reduce the cost from the$182,000 low bid.
Jonesboro, Craighead County--The school boardvoted May 14 to change the attendance zone boundariesof four elementary schools, starting next fall, to achieve more racialbalance in their enrollments. The changes are expected to reduce the Negroenrollment in the North and East Elementary Schools and toincrease in the West and Hillcrest Elementary Schools. The district has about 5,000 white and500 Negro children.
Stuttgart, Arkansas County--Six Negro students weregraduated from Stuttgart High School, May 20, in theschoolus first year of desegregation. Three were in the upper 25 per cent of theclass. The Stuttgart Daily Leader of May 21 ran apicture on the front page of the first two of the six to receivetheir diplomas. * * Arkansas-6 May, 1968
Wbat They Say
Arkansas Gazette, LittleRock, May 29--Commentingwith approval decision, the paper said on the SupremeCourt's freedom-of-choice it is too late in part: "For LittleRock, in the circumstances, now to attemptanother voluntary, dignifiedapproach to meeting the law's requirement for aunified school system. Freedom of than a choice in the Little Rockdistrict has become nothing more device for delay, even forobstruction. The new segregation-minded school board majoritydoubtless will go through themotions of defending itself in court,but there is no reasonfor the rest of us to have anyillusions about the outcome."
Bill Courtney in theWynne Progress, May16---"The crowd of disrupted the Negro students whobarricaded Hill Hall, Tuesday, and University of Arkansas journalismand printing departments,and the Negro students who tore upColumbia University in NewYork, have answered at least onequestion for peaceable people:Now we understand why they were keptout in the past."
Bill Courtney in the WynneProgress, June 61 after theschool board had been told thatit would have to do betterthan the freedom-of-choice plan: "We havereceived orders from the federals to reorganize 'our' schoolsystem to conform with theirideas about how we should handle theinstitutions we support foreducation of our children. Just what we have to do, how we'reto do it, and how we're to pay for it, theyoffer no plan other than lit is a local responsibility; goahead and do it and then weIlldecide if itl s acceptable .1
"They offer no suggestionsabout how we're to pay forthe new buildings which will be necessaryif we have to abandon partof our system. If we understand their demandsrightly (and it-is unlikely that ANYEODY does) we arecalled upon to abandon part of ourschool plant and jam all the studentsinto one part,-..-anything,just so they'll all be together in one greatbig checkerboard family.
'We sometimes wonder if the SupremeCourt ever read Amendment 10 of the United StatesConstitution which is "The powersnot delegated :to the United States by theConstitution nor prohibited by itto the States, are reserved to theStates respectively, or to thepeople." It doesn't say that schools arethe responsibility of eitherthe states or the federals, but ifschools are to be run byfederal edict, then they should be financedby the same iron hand that rules them." Arkansas-7 May, 1968
reading the school board's North Little RockTines, May 30--After statement sent to HEWthat it woald continuethe freedom-of-choice in parts TWe areconfident, plan for another year,the paper commented promise, made to satisfy however, that thisis merely an expedient work out the mechanics the federal governmentuntil school officials that they eventuallywould of what they haveanticipated for months attendance zones forthe city's schools, have to do--draw new happen especially the juniorand senior highs.We expect this to quite soon 0 0 . 0 " to see the Pine Bluff Commercial,May 29--wWe were sorry asking this session ofthe legislature toprovide still governor desegregation another $40,000 tohelp local schooldistricts fight Altheimer elone isinstructive in the courts. The experience of School District has paidout more on this score;the Altheimer costs and still owes than $5,604036 inlawyers' fees and court investment has been one $11,404.53 more0 The result of all this case lostand the other settledout of court 0 0 0 0" reprinted May 17 in The Warren EagleDemocrat in an editorial HEW as the villain inthe the PineIluff Commercial, designated teachers at Hermitage, imbroglio over thefiring of nine Negro because HEW had delayed then the rehiring ofsix of them; this was freedom-of-choice plan so long giving adecision on Hermitage's in anticipation that the school boardfelt it had to make a move be the one the boardhad of the decision,which did turn aat to expected0 with his failure Arkansas Gazette, LittleRock, May 21--"Taxed approved by to support any ofthe outright civil rights measures Congress over the past few years--or, rather,asked by the panelists to explain his votes onthose on KARK-TV's Challenge 168 program passing laws measures--Senator FUlbrightcould say on y that Negroes, he said, 'declaring Negroes to beequal was 'not enough0' to fill a proper 'must have the education0000to develop the talents role in our society.' would help 'alleviate "He had consistentlysupported programs that such areas as education the disparity' betweenNegroes and whites in But, 'I have and health care andwould continue to do so0 voted against the other bills. This has been the bestjudgment of I'm inclined the people of this stateand of most Southernstates0 than it to think that historywill be much kinderto our judgment presently is because now ypu arewitnessing the turnaround....' What history may Mde are inclined tothink just the opposite. irretrievably actually be forced to ruleis that the situation was momentarily in the lost in the vacuum ofleadership that existed and that was quickly wake of the 1954 schooldesegregation decision filled by the demagogues 00.0 Arkansas-8 May, 1968
mWhen Senator FUlbright tells us that education is the only answer in the matter of racialdifferences and that these differences cannot be erased by law, the answers seem even sadder because they cone from a man who quite possiblyhas done more for the cause of education as education than any man presently in Congress. Me, too, know that racial differences, much less racial animosities, cannot simply be made not to exist by declaring them illegal. But we also know that the whole point to the court& recent rulings in this and related fields was that the American Negro could not be geducatedg out of his low estate within the framework of public education as it has always existed in this country." * * *
Community Action
The Arkansas Council on Human Relations disclosed in its May newsletter that it was making a statewide study among the school districts to find out why faculty desegregation was not keeping pace with pupil desegregation. Elijah Coleman, executive director, explained, %live had some general complaints about faculty integration in the state.Most of the school boards tell vs the difficulty is in getting white teachers who are willing to teach in predominantly Negro schools.Mhat wegre trying to find out is whether thatgs really the case or if these school boards are just dragging their feet." * * *
The Pine Bluff NAACP sponsored a meeting the night of May 17 at St. John AME Church to commemorate the 1954 decision on school desegregation.About 15 persons attended. Dr. Robert J. Smith, Negro surgeon and the main speaker, reminded them that dedication and not numbers was the standard for judging the strength of the civil rights movement. He said that the 1954 decision was the beginning of the Negro revolution in America but that the life of the Negro in the south had changed little in the succeeding 14 years. For example, he said, less than 10 per cent of the Negro children in Pine Bluff attend desegregated schools. * * *
The Little Rock Central High School Class of 1958 will have a 10-year reunion June 15 at Hotel Lafayette in LittleRock. This was the senior class in the first year of the schoolcrisis at Central High, the year that federal paratroopers were called out to keep peace at the school. One of the "Little Rock 9," the nine Negroes qho entered Central that fall, was a member of the class. Brooks Hays, a member of Congress at the time, who lost his office to a white supremacist because of his efforts to mediate the situation, will speak at the reunion. * * * Arkansas-9 May, 1968
Three of the 10 church-sponsored kindergartens in Pine Bluff are desegregated, the Pine Bluff Commercial found in a survey reported May 17. Each of the three had one Negro child. Only two of the 10 said that a Negro would not be accepted if one applied. * * *
In The Collees
Petitions signed by 470 University of Arkansas students, asking for an end to racial discrimination on the campus, were presented May 3 to President David W. Mullins. He said, "These are matters we are all concerned about 00.0 We are not in the business of discrimination. I think we should be color blind in regard to any student activities."
The petitions grew out of a memorial held after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, April 4.At that time about 500 students gathered on the steps of the university library to mourn the slain civil rights leader. The petitions were presented to President Mullins by Dana Duke and Mrs. Harriett Jasma, both white.
The petitions ask the university tos
* Integrate all athletics.
* Remove discriminatory off-campus housing from any lists furnished by the university.
* Eliminate de facto segregation in womengs dormitories.
* Eliminate racial discrimination in sororities and fraternities.
* Refuse to allow industries that discriminate to solicit employes on the campus.
* Encourage Negro participation in extracurricular activities.
* Present courses in Negro history, literature and culture.
* Form a permanent student-faculty committee to implement these recommendations. * * Arkansas-10 May, 1968
Faculty members at theUniversity of Arkansas atFayetteville have organized a Committee onHuman Relations, whichissued a The statement of principles.gay 16 signed by 170 ofthe faculty. atmosphere which encourages, statement said thatthere was still "an in the university consciously or unconsciously,racial discrimination" the community. "Despite the officialpolicy of integration and social and personal removal of most legalbars there remain many staff to join us in a We therefore askstudents, faculty and bars. good will common effort toachieve an atmosphereof hospitality and toward all."
The statement made thefollowing recommendationss
* That the universityactively seek Negroemployes,faculty and staff, at all levels;
* That courses inNegro history, literatureand culture be established;
* That more Negrospeakers of note beinvited to the campus;
* That students beencouraged to inviteNegro participation in their organizationsand activities;
* That the universitynot recognize fraternities orsororities individuals whose national or local charters orby practice exclude on the basisof race, creed orcolor;
* That the university usethe full weight of itsauthority to encourage theathletic department to recruitand finance Negro athletes, especially thosefrom Arkansas; housing where 4f That the university keep alist of off-campus the owners agree to acceptall students regardlessof race and refuse to list any others;
* That the universitypromote raaningfulco-operative programs learning in with the predominantly NegroinstituUons of higher the state;
* And that the universityset up an officialcommittee to deal with questions of humanrights on the campus.
* * * Arkansas-11 May, 1968
Political Action
The new state Training School Board voted3 to 2 at a meeting May 23 at Little Rock to begin puttingits desegregation plan into effect by closing the school for Negrogirls at Fargo and transferring them to the school for white girls atAlexander. This is to be done during the summer.
A special session of the legislature wasmeeting at the time and the next day state Sen. Dorathy Allenof Brinkley, which is six miles from Fargo, expressed her indignationand persuaded both the Senate and the House to adopt resolutions askingthe board to rescind its decision.The board met again May 28 but refused tochange its mind. One of the members, Jess Reeves of PineBluff, said that there were only two possible reasonsfor keeping the Fargo school open..to maintain segregation or for "purely politicalreasons."He said he was a segregationistbut that segregation had already beenruled out by the courts; but if someone fromthe legislature came and asked the board to keep the school openonly for political reasons, he would vote to do so.
Sen. Allen was aggravated at losing a stateinstitution out of her county, but Gov. Winthrop Rockefellersaid that that would not be the case anyway. The facilities, several buildings on275 acres, will be put to some other use by the state,he said.
Reeves and Mrs. Esther Long of Ozark and Mrs.Alberta Judah of Little Rock voted for the closing at both meetings.Rev. D. J. Webster of North Little Rock, chairman and onlyNegro member, and Marion G, Ward of Little Rock voted against.There are 95 girls at the Negro school and 68 at the white school.
At the meeting May 23 the board also adopted areception and classification plan devised by the state RehabilitationService, and hired Paul E. Shipley, Lewisville schoolsuperintendent, to be executive director of the program.
There are about 550 juveniles in the four schools.Many of them..maybe 90 per cent of the Negro girls at Fargo..do notbelong in training schools, according to Reeves,they are just children with no one else to care for them.
The board filed its revised desegregation plan May30 in federal court at Little Rock as ordered by JudgeOren Harris. It said that the Negro girls school at Fargo wouldbe closed over the summer and that after that allgirls would be assigned to the school at Alexander, which is near LittleRock, Arkansas-12 May, 1968
As for the boys, the board said it would follow the criteria prepared by the Rehabilitiation Service in making assignments. Boys "who are reacting to acute situational stress" will be assigned to the Pine Bluff school, now for white boys, and those "whose diagnosis indicate antisocial character development" will be assigned to the Wrightsville school, now for Negro boys.
With regard to faculty desegregation the board said that the teachers and staff of the Fargo Negro girls school would be transferred to the other schools and that it had directed the superintendent of each school to give priority to Negro employment on the faculty and staff. * * *
Interviewed on a television program May 16, Sen. J. W. Fulbright (D-Ark.) said that he had opposed civil rightslegislation because he though the best approach to the racial problem was to enact programs that would help the disadvantaged persons develop their talents. The Northern approach in Cangress is to enact bills declaring equality, Fulbright said, while the Southern approach has been to enact legislation that will help Negroes upgrade themselves through vocational training and other educational programs. "Passing laws declaring them to be equa3 is not enough. They must have the education to develop the talents to filla proper role in our society," he said.
FUlbright has two opponents in the Democratic primary this year and one of them is Jim Johnson, the segregationist leader of the state. * * *
Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller (R-Ark.) calleda special session of the legislature May 20 (to deal with fiscal problems) and to general surprise included a request for money to be appropriated from the education fund to reimburse local school districts for the legal expenses of desegregation lawsuits, Such bills have been adopted from time to time in the last 10 years, including one in the 1967 regular session, The 1967 act appropriated $75,000 for expenses incurred in the calendar years 1966 and 1967; $34,563.91 of that has been disbursed to Saratoga, Morrilton, Altheimer, El Dorado, West Memphis, Willisville, Marvell, Rison Dermott and Gould School Districts, (Each district mustprove "extreme financial hardship" to qualify for reimbursementup to 5) per cent of its legal expenses0) The bill was to appropriate the rest of the $751000 Arkansas-13 May, 1968
The governor explained that the Gould School District hadasked him to list the item in his call and that he had made acampaign promise to do so. He said it was not for purpose of defending or prolonging segregation but to make it possible for the schoolboards to Obtain judicial rulings on various questions in thesituation.
When the bill (House Bill 29) was sent up to the legislature, it had the name of state Rep. Jimmie DonMaissack of Star City (which is in Lincoln County with Gould) on it as the sponsor. Maissack promptly crossed it off.The bill was finally sponsored by state Rep. Charles Davis of Springdale, which is inWashington County, in Northwest Arkansas, where there arevirtually no Negroes.
About 10 Negroes, led by Dr. Jerry D. Jewell of NorthLittle Rock, state president of the NAACP, and Johnid.'Walker, Little Rock lawyers, picketed outside the state Capitol Friday, MAY'24 against the bill. Dr. Jewell said it was not "right to use our money against us."He said there would be no legal fees to pay if the school districts would just follow the law.Three other Negro organizations, the Arkansas Teachers Association, the Leadership Roundtable of Little Rock and the Arkansas Democratic Voters Association, notified the legislature of their opposition to the bill.
HB 29 was taken up by the House Education Committee on Tuesday morning, May 28.W. C. Shepherd Jr., president of the Gould School Board, argued for it. But Rep. Ode Maddox of Oden, a school superintendent in Montgomery County where there are no Negroes, commented that "as long as we subsidize attorneys' fees for integration suits we are going to continue these suits" and he said the money should be used for teacher salaries, Rep. Paul Meers of Little Rock said "The Negro feels this money is being used against him. This to him is a symbol. The amount of money is not great but it looms large in his view as a cause."Several other committee members said that it was time for the legislature to stop paying the legal expenses and the committee voted 7 to 3to give the bill a "do not pass" recommendation.
The bill came to the House floor that afternoon.Meers and Rep. Herbert Rule of Little Rock spoke against it, Rep. Paul Bates of Pine Bluff for it. The vote was 36 to 36, with the other 28 members not voting.
Rockefeller had received so much criticism over the bill that he had issued a statement explaining his position,It followsg
"Let me make it absolutely clear that I am irrevocably committed to equal educational opportunities for ALL children in Arkansas,My administration has been based on that idea and will continue to be, I am equally opposed to the use of state funds simply to fight desegregation. Arkansas-14 May, 1968
"At the same time, it is veryoften true that the best wayto to give the local settle legal questionsabout desegregation it school board ibs day incourt. Litigation is often the onlyreasonable This clarification and proper way toclear up confusionabout the law. in court is often thebest means of obtainingcommunity co-operation in the course of actionwhich the local board willfinally pursue.
'Inds right to litigate ingood faith the contentionsof the local boards should notbe limited to the largerand wealthier to employ counsel districts. These districts have the resources burden on a to handle such matters. But it may be a substantial small district with verylimited resources.
"Accordingly, at the requestof syveral of these smallschool districts, I have included inthe call for the specialsession a provision allowing theamendment of Act655 of 1967, which orill boards for certain permit the partialreimbursement of local school legal expenses. By placing it in the call,I provided these districts the opportunity toconvince the legislature ofthe such. merit of their proposal. There is no administration bill as The districts are handlingthe legislation on their own.
"Finally, I am opposed tousing this act forobstructionism. Accordingly, I am asking the sponsorsof this legislation tofurther Board of Education amend the original actto provide that the state under this act. 'may' rather than 'shall'reimburse local districts This gives the state bosrdthe discretionary powerto make a judgment as to whetherthis money will be used in afair and reasonable manner."
The first such reimbursementact was adopted in1959 during the Little Rock schoolcrisis.Under that and succeeding acts a including total of $79,487.83 waspaid out to local districts, not the $34,563091 paidunder the 1967 act. * * *
Le;a1 Action
While the U.S'. Supreme Court'sdecision in three cases May27 blow, it did did not deal thefreedom-of-choice concept a final throw out the choice planused since 1965 by the GouldSchool District. Associate Justice William J.Brennan Jr., reading the unanimous decision, said that the Gouldboard's choice plan "rather than furthering the dismantling of thedual system,...has operated simply to burden the childrenand their parents with aresponsibility which Brown placed squarely on4;he school board," Arkansas-2.5 May, 1968
The court ruled that theGoad board "must be requiredto that appear formulate a new plan, andin the light of other courses fashion steps which promise open to theboard, such as zoning, realistically to convertpromptly to a systemwithout a white school and a Negro school, butjust schools." is so widely It was a landmark rulingsince freedom of choice Arthur Lee Raney et al. used in the South. With the Gould case, Gould School'District et al., v. The Boardof Education of The Kent 7776177 rule n s ar cases from ac son, enn., and ew County, Va.
That Gould got into courtat all, much less in amajor decision "It was a by the Supreme Court,seemed, in retrospect,unlikely. fluke," said John W.Walker, the Little RockNegro lawyer who is represented the Negroplaintiffs. "It was Carrie Dilworth," Gould has no history the way the whiteleaders in Gould look atit. of racial tratiblealthough the StudentNon-violent Co-ordinating Committee worked hard therefor a few years in theearly l9601s. When the 1964 Civil RightsAct was adopted, theschool board decided to desegregate all12 grades in September,1965 under freedom of choice. Seventy-one Negro childrenchose the white 28 of them who wanted to enter school. But because of crowding, the fifth, 10th and llthgrades were rejected--andthat set in motion the events that endedwith the Supreme Courtdecision of May 27. 68, Early Tuesday morning,Sept. 7, 1965, Mrs. Dilworth, now started toward the GouldSchool with about 20 of thechildren A block whose choice had beenrejected, one of them hergrandchild. containing from the school they weremet by 14 State Police cars 19 troopers and15 deputy sheriffs.Supt. T. Raymond Sage had heard that there would be aprotest march and hadobtained an injunction against demonstrationsand meetings "held for the purpose Such a show of force of heaping disgrace" onthe school system. surprised Mrs. Dilworth andalso angered her.
As she says now, lookingback on it, "I wassurprised our find white people would actlike that. I had hoped they would But there was all an openingfor the children if we cameback. these state highwaymen saying wewas going tomarch. I didn't have thinking about." no thoughtsabout what they thought we was
She has been feuding withthe white establishmentat Gould all her life, to the point ofrunning a futile race as awrite-in candidate against the longtime mayor,A. L. Butcher.When the SNCO workers arrived a PM years ago,she furnished them lodging "The and help. Nowadays there is neitherSNO0 nor NAACP in Gould. young people is alittle afraid now,"Mrs, Dilworth says. "It's the old people who makethem afraid. They got a little Social Security and welfare and they'resickly. We got to get a new name and a neworganization." Arkansas-16 May, 1968
Before Sept. 7, 1965, was out, the lawsuithad been filed. In the first hearings Supt.Sage mentioned that the board was planning to construct a new high school onthe campus of the Fields School, which is all Negro.Walker, for the plaintiffs, attacked that on the ground that a new buildingthere would tend to attract Negro students which would keep themsegregated in contravention of the 1954 Brown decision. He asked the court to order the Board to place all new facilities on the grounds ofthe Gould School. Federal Judge Gordon E. Young of Pine Bluffdismissed the complaint April 26, 1966, and Walker appealed to theEighth Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis.
In the meantime Walker had filed a similarcomplaint for Negro clients in the Altheimer SchoolDistrict and Judge J. Smith Henley of Harrison had ruled against them. Again Walker appealed. Because the court reporter in the Gould casebecame ill, the Altheimer case got ahead on it in the appeal processand was heard first by a panel of judges consisting ofGerald ld. Heaney of Duluth, Minn., Donald P, Lay of Omaha and M. C.Matthes of St. Louis. They ruled for the plaintiffs, including aprecedent-setting order to the board to construct all new buildingswith the express purpose of ending segregation.
When the Gould appeal was heard, it wasbefore Judges Martin D. Van Oosterhout of Sioux City, CharlesJ. Vogel of Fargo, N.D., and Floyd R. Gibson of KansasCity. They upheld the dismissal by the lower court in what seemed toWalker to be a clear-out conflict with the decision in the Altheimer case. If the appeals court had sent the case back to Judge Ybung withinstructions to work out some feasible plan, Walker now says, theGould case probably never would have gone any farther than that. Instead the appeals court denied all relief and said that thecomplaint had nomerit, whereas Walker saw it as almost identical to the Altheimer case, So the appeal to the Supreme Court was madeinevitable.
Gould is a farming community of about 1,100population in Lincoln County in southeast Arkansas. The district has two schools, the mostly white Gould School and theall-Negro Fields School, which are about 10 blocks apart. There are 315 white and 477 sohool-age children in the district.About 15 per cent of the Negroes attend the Gould School, the rest go to theFields School.
In the May 27 decision Justice Brennansaid that the dismissal of the complaint by the district court was"an improper exercise of discretion" and cautioned that in the future suchdismissals "will ordinarily be inconsistent with the responsibilitiesimposed on the cwrts by the Brown case." Arkansas-17 May, 1968
Brennan ordered the lower court to hear the plaintiffs on how the new building on the Fields School campus--which has been completed while the case was on appeal--should be used.Walker has amended his appeal, after the building was completed, to ask the court to order the school board to use the Gould School as a junior-senior high school for all students and the new Fields School as an elementarY school for all children.
The Gould Board was representedby Robert V. Light of the Little Rock firm of Smith Williams Friday &Bowen.With Walker for the plaintiffs was Jack Greenberg of NewYork of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the NAACP. * * *
The Marvell School District in Phillips County is under order from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to begin faculty desegregation in 1968 and to complete it by 19690 The boardls attorney, Robert V. Light of Little Rock, asked for a hearing on May 3 at which he told Judge Oren Harris that the board was committed to carrying out the appeals court mandate but that he wanted to have some of the school officials testify abaut problems they had encountered.
The superintendent and his staff have been planning for faculty desegregation since the appeals court ruling in February, Light said. "They are doing this, your honor, not in a vacuum. They are not doing it in an urban community....They are doing it in a rural Mississippi delta county where agriculture is the only activity, where approximately 80 per cent of the population is Negro, where there has been an absolute and complete separation of the races for 100 years in every aspect of community life, broken only three years ago by the initiation of the desegregation of the public schools."Light said he wanted to give the court some idea of what to expect later on as the actual assignment of teachers took place.
Judge Harris declined to hear any such testimony. He said that he realized there were problems but that the testimony would accomplish nothing since the appeals court has already ruled on what is required. Besides such testimony might stir up animosity and make it even harder for the school board to solve its problems, he said. The board has been able to work out its pupil desegregation, he said, and he was confident that it could also work out faculty desegregation, with serious thought and the right attitude. "Between now and August or early September there should be some soul searching," he commented. Arkansas-18 May, 1968
He directed some of hisremarks toward the teacherswho are being asked to teachstudents of the other race. "Somebody could it try. They might find it was notnearly as bad as ihey thought I have was going tobe. I have seen that inother instances. talked to some of theteachers [in otherdistricts] who decided to try it."
The Marvell District had nofaculty desegregation during 1967-68. The district has625 white and 1,675 Negro students. About 230 of the Negrochildren attended desegregatedclasses in 1967-68.
Judge Harris directed theMarvell Board to report tohim by Aug. 1 on its facultydesegregation plans, on itsplans to operate school bus routes on anonracial basis and theprocedure to be used to make sure thatall students and theirparents receive notice annually of theirright to make a choice ofschools. * * *
The remaining charges from thethree dynamitings in Little Rock on the night of Sept. 7,1959, were dismissed by the state May 10 in the Circuit Court ofPulaski County. Dynamite was used that night to damage the LittleRock School Board offices, the private business office of the mayorand a city-owned car used by the fire chief, which was parkedat his' home. This was in protest of the reopening of theLittle Rock high schools on a desegregated basis after they had been closed bythen Gov. Orval E. Faubus for one year to evadedesegregation.
The charges left over were those ofinjuring property with dynamite and they were against E. A.Lauderdale Sr. and Jesse Raymond Perry, both of whom had served timein prison fox the other dynamitings. The prosecuting attorney's office sei.dthat there were various defects in the caseswhich would prevent their ever being brought totrial successftlly at this latedate. * * *
The Little Rock School Board has a rulethat a student who is arrested is automatically suspendedfrom school until the charge is disposed of in court. This rule was attacked May 20 in afederal court lawsuit filed by Johnld.Walker, Little Rock Negro lawyer, for two Negro boys, a senior atHorace Mann High School and a Junior at Central High School, who had beenarrested on misdemeanor charges. Walker said that the application of the rulewauld prevent the Horace Mann Senior from graduating with thisclass and would prevent the llth grader at Central High from takingfinal examinations, thus wasting a year of school work. The case is Robert Doe. v. Barron et al. Since they are minors the real names ofthe two plaintiffs were not used. Arkansas-19 May, 1968
Judge J. Smith Henley of Harrison got the case, but the parties in private conferences worked out a way for the senior to meet graduation requirements and the llth grader to take his exams, and no court action was required. DELAWARE HIGHLIGHTS
elosed May 16 The future of DelawareState College in Dover, Limited commencement after riots by thestudent body,.isuncertain. attendance by invitation ceremonies wereconducted in June, with Guard remained on campus as only. Members of the National graduation 1.tites were heldin a Dover school. policy concerning The State Board ofEducation is pondering a the teaching ofcontributions of minority groups. Delaware-1 May, 1968
In The Colleges
Commencement exercises wereconducted June 3 in a Dover elementary school for 123 seniorsat Delaware State Collepe,which was closed for the academic year onMay 16 by the Board of trusteesafter riots by by the student body. Admission for the graduation program was special pass only, and a carwith six Dover policemen init sat outside the auditoriumduring most of the ceremonies.
Five honorary degrees, including oneto former baseball star Jackie Robinson and another toJohn N. McDowell, chairman ofthe board at Delaware State, werepresented by President Luna I.Mishoe. The Rt. Rev. William G. Ryan, president ofSeton Hill College in militant protests are Greensburg, Pa.,told the graduates that justified--without violence--inseeking equality for theNegro.
Delaware State's enrollment of some900 is more than 80 per cent Negro. 'Msgr. Ryannoted that Delaware State hashad its difficulties, but said that wasnot a unique situation. "Admittedly there is room for improvement atDelaware State. Where isn't there? Look at my alma mater Columbia."
The speaker praised the progressof desegregation at the Dover institution. "Delaware State is a college thatis exemplary for being a truly integratedschoollwhe said.
Absent from the ceremonies--wherethe audience barely outnumbered thegraduatee--were the two key figuresthat led to the closing of the school. One was Leroy Tate,president of the student body, who led a demonstration onMay.10 that prevented officialdedication of a student center in honorof Dr. Martin Luther King.
Gov. Charles L. Terry, atthat time, left the dedication ceremonies after the studentsrefused to allow him to speak.The governor did notattend the commencment servicesbut spoke instead to graduatesiaLord BaltimoreHigh School at Ocean View inSussex County, Del. However, his office was representedby Lt. Gov. Sherman 140 Tribbett, and Mrs. Terrysat in the audience.
There was evidence of trouble atDelaware State as early as March, when the student bodyconducted an academic strike forcertain privileges, and invited a numberof Black Power advocates to campus functions. During one of the functions, awhite photographer was roughed up while attempting totake pictures, and cars ofwhite newsmen were peltedwith rocks as they left the campus. Delaware-2 May, 1968
However, both the administration andlaw enforcement officials were caught by surpriseat the extent of the protest onMay 11 when the governor attempted todedicate the student center. At issue was a protestagainst the board of trustees, at the same ceremony, for not dedicating a new dormitoryin honor of Medgar Evers, another civil rights leader slain inMississippi in 1963.As the dedication ceremony began, Gov.Terry wee introduced by James C. Hardcastle, a Negro member ofthe boardand administrator in theDover school district. Hardcastle called Terry "a friend of highereducation."
As the governor took the stand, he wasinterrupted by a loud roll on a bongo drum and chants from some75 students. The governor backed away from the podium, and Dr. Mishoe arose. "I'd appreciate it very much if you would not interrupt," hesaid. But Dr. Mishoe was also interruptedby another drum roll and more chants.
The governor returned to the stand, pointedhis finger at the group, and saidg "I have no more interest in speaking to you few than ytu have in listening to me," andreturned to his seat.
As other students.1 including Tate, mountedthe platform, state police cars from a nearby troop arrived onthe campus, and the governor departed in his limousine.
Dr. Mishoe, as he took the stand Torthe fourth time, stated that "we are going to postpone thisdedication ceremony in the public interest and to avoid bloodshed.°Earlier, the president had explained that a name hadnot been selected for the dormitory, and that the request from thestudents to name it for Evers 10.d come too late to beconsidered by the board. However, the students, led by Tate, held their own dedicationof both buildings. After the incident, the board president issued astatement which said in part: "A group of..0 students showeddisrespect for their own college, for the highest office in this state,and for the late Dr. Martin Luther King.
"They also displayed a lack of sincerity, sinceit was the students themselves who requested that thestudent center be dedicated in the memory of Dr. King a requestgranted quickly and with full accord by the college trustees."
Two days after the outburst, Tate wassuspended. Dr. Mishoe, in a formal letter to the student leader,noted that he "led a group of students in thecomplete disruption of an official activity of the college."The letter noted that Tate should "solve the matter with the board rather than by furtherdemonstrations." Delaware-3 May, 1968
On May 15, a dgy afterthe news of Tatelssuspension was made public, the college wasclosed to visitors asstate police blocked students from Cheyney andHoward all entrances. "Weave heard that might be invading the campusand we have taken thisprecautionary measure," Dr...Mishoestated.
On May 16, while Gov.Terry was in Wilmingtonto tape a themselves in the television show, some 200students barricaded administration building andrefUsed Dr. Mishoe entrance. David Gov. Terry, working inco-ordination with Atty. Gen. and a National P. Buckson, immediatelyordered 125 state policemen the campus and restore Guard battery of morethan 100 men to enter to leave peacefully order. At this show of force,the students agreed at the student center, the administrationbuilding for a meeting included: reinstatement where they presented alist of demands that resignation of Dr. Mishoe, of Tate, and amnestyfor all protestors, apology from Gov.Terry, new coursesemphasizing African people, an 11-member board of and an increase of theNegro members on the trustees from four toeight. support at the The demonstrations atDelaware State found some University of Delaware inNewark, a predominantly whiteinstitution, body of 6,500. which numbers some50 Negroes among its student Approximately 100 students atthe university, duringthe Delaware but State demonstration, staged asit-in in the student center, quietly departed on themorning of May 17.
However, they made thefollowing demands in apetition presented members to the board of trustees: moreblack professors, and black on the board oftrustees, more Negroes inresponsible executive positions, a black culturalcenter and courses onNegro and African history, active recruitmentof black students,and complete financial aid for disadvantagedblack students.
Make the university relevantto the black and poorwhite Saturdays and Sundays, also community of Wilmington:free courses on for people withouthigh school education."
The students also called forthe reinstatement ofTate and the The granting of all demands ofDelaware State Collegestudents. protestants at the universityincluded both white andNegro students. their list of Even as the DelawareState students presented grievances, the board oftrustees voted to closethe school and Commencement mail the diplomas and gradesto students as of May16. services were cancelled, andall students wereordered to vacate the campus by 3 p.m. onMay 17. Delaware-4 May, 1968
Motels were provided in Dover for those students who were unable to arrange transportation. By May 18, all students were gone and only a small detachment of statepolicemen and Guard personnel remained.
A decision to hold commencement exercises was made on May 19, when the board also announced it would hold summer school beginning June 17, as scheduled. However, there will be no provisions for summer students to stay on campus, and allstudents must leave by 5p0m0A decision as to whether the college will reopen in September has not yet been made.
There has been considerable discussion among members of the General Assembly as to whether the college should be converted into a two-year community college. One such college already exists in Georgetown in Sussex County and another will open inSeptember in New Castle County. Delaware State is located in the state's third county, Kent, which has no such facility. * * *
Schoolmen
The State Board of Education has postponed until july a decision on whether to teach contributions ofminority groups to American society to Delaware pupils. At the July meeting, the assistant superintendent of public instruction is expected to present for board consideration a new policy for selection of school books.
Dr. Howard E. Row, at the June meeting, said the Department of Public Instruction believes all materials should treat the contributions of minority groups, particularly those of Negroes, in proper perspective.
The six-member board, which includes one Negro, agreed with Dr. Rowfs contention that it is just as educationally unsound to put apy minority group into a special classification as it is to ignore it. Dr. Row said the department, in selecting books, will pgy more attention to content, rather thanphysical features, such as print or bindings. LT FLORIDA HIGHLIGHTS
The Supreme Courtls rulingthat freedom-of-choice plansto end school segregation may beinadequate is likely to haveconsiderable effect on Florida schools.
Federal funds for schools arenot a take-it-or-leave.it proposition, a St. Lucie Countyschool official told Kiwanians-- if you.do not complywith HEW they may take it,but they will not leave you alone.
Little Union County inNorth Florida decided todesegregate its three schools completelynext fall, all students goingto the school assigned by their ageand grade groups.
Big Dade Countyys214-school system was an early leader in desegregation but still ishaving troubles.
Fourteen members of theUnited Black Students staged asit-in at the University ofMiami, were arrested andcarried away by police.
A Negro Daytona Beachathlete decided he would goto Minnesota rather than Florida Stateafter receiving "threatening"letters. Florida-1 May, 1968
FLORIDA
Schoolmen
The U.S. Supreme Courtasdecision that freedom-of-choice plans of school desegregation wereinadequate in many cases and should be abandoned is likely to haveconsiderable effect on Florida schools, State School Supt. FloydChristian said in Tallahassee May 27. Sixty-two of Floridaas 67 countyschool systems use some form of freedom of choice, but onlyfive counties--Dadel Charlotte,Holmes, and Okeechobee--have beenadjudged fully desegregated byHEW officials.
Supt. Christian saids "Overthe years, the freedom-of-choice plan has made it possiblefor Florida to move in an orderlyand effective manner toward fullintegration of schools, and Florida has made meaningful andsignificant progress toward that end." In the fall of 1967, Christiansaid, 689,447 white and104,581 Negro children were indesegregated schools,Total enrollment in the state was 929,894 whiteand 288,672 Negro pupils.
County school superintendents were unsurejust what effect the newest ruling would have ontheir systems.Dr. Raymond Shelton of Hillsborough(Tampa) said news accounts of the decision were too bxief and too generalfor him to determine whether thedecision would affect Hillsborough.He noted that Hillsborough is equal to the state level of desegregationwith 18 per cent of its pupils in mixed classes.
Brevard County (CapeKennedy) Supt. Frank Brown said his system is already ahead of thedecision. The Brevard school board had asked the University ofMiami Desegregation Center for an improved plan of desegregation todistribute Negroes at an even ratio in all schools.Some problems in busing are expected,he said, but will be met.
Polk County (Bartow) is in the second yearof a court-ordered freedom-of-choice system and Supt.Shelley Boone was unsure of the rulingas effect. "This big question is what thedecision will do in terns of next year since wehave already planned our building program for next yearand have received our pupilrequests Az assignment," he said,Under the current plan, Polkas54,000 students include 3,000 Negroes indesegregated schools, There are 7,000 whites in desegregated schools. Florida-2 May, 1968
In Stuart, countyseat of Martin County, Supt.Jim Navitsky said he expects no problemsbecause the system already has dropped freedom of choice in favorof a zone plan in which students may choose any school within aparticular zone. The county has eliminated all dual-school situationsabave the sixth grade andelimination await only of the three remainingpredominantly Negro grade schools construction of new facilities.
Pinellas County(Clearwater) announced May 18 it would switch transfer of some to a system of zones,which will result in the high schools, 10 junior 3,000 students. Affected will be nine senior highs and three elementaryschools. The county9s last two all-Negro Academy schools- -Pinellas Junior-SeniorHigh in Clearwater and Union In addition to in Tarpon Springs-.willbe eliminated by the plan. compliance with desegregationguidelines, the new zone systemis expected to correct extremeovercrowding in many schools inSt. Petersburg and Clearwater.The plan was expected to beapproved by the school boardJune 12. **
Collier County (Naples)schools are the subject of acomplaint to HEW officials becausethe school board, in attemptingto comply, approved the phasing out offour all-Negro schools andtransfer of their students to white schools.
Albert Lee, PTA president ofthe all-Negro Pinecrest school in Immokalee, said the plan was"extravagant, discriminatory and prejudicial to Negro studentsgwelfare." Besides Pinecrest, the schools scheduled for phasingout are Bethune at Immokalee,DuPont at Everglades City andCarver in Naples.
Lee said one of the twoImmokalee schools is less than 12 years old and that to phase it outwould be wasteful. He said discrimination and that will result becauseNegroes will lose a community asset the reassignment of Negropupils to a school in awhite growth area "is official surrender to pressurefrom white parents who have declared they will not sendtheir children to schools inthe Negro comnranity." * * *
Compliance with HEW guidelinesis not a matter of choice, St. Lucie County School Supt. BenBryan told a Kiwanis Club meetingin $500,000, Fort Pierce. In response to a question,Bryan said about or 10 per cent,of St, Luciefs schoolbudget comes from federal funds, Florida-3 May, 1968
"Some people get the idea we cantell the federal government to take their money and leave usalone," said Bryant, "but they do not operate that way.They might take the money away butthey would not leave us alone. They would have the Department of Justice in to charge you are not complyingwith the Civil Rights Act of 1_9640 It is not a take-it-or-leave-itproposition but a matter of compliance."
The St. Lucie School Board has beeninformed its system is not in compliance and is in the processof formulating a new plan. * *
A desegregation plan recomnendedfor Palm Beach County schools by. HEW was received with disfavor by theschool board May 20. School officials told the board that if therecommendations were implemented the result would lead to a massexodus of white residents from many districts to avoid assignment oftheir children to schools with more than 30 per cent Negroes in thestudent body.
Director of Attendance Ralph Powell saidstudies have shown white residents leave a district when morethan 30 per cent of the students in a school are Negro. And the HDI plan, he said, could result in a 68 per cent Negro studentbody at Central Junior High, and a 46 per cent Negro studentbody at Belle Glade Senior High.
Palm Beach County will have to accept theplan, however, or present an acceptable new one of its own,in June. * *
The Union County (LakeButler) School Board voted May 20 for total desegregation of its school systemnext fall as a result of failure in the freedom-of-choice approach. Supt. Jim Cason said that only 23 of 1_1256 students had registeredfor the Consolidated School under the freedom-of-choiceplan. The school was built 10 years ago as an all-Negro facility. It has 12 classrooms and, while the 23 volunteer students wereutilizing it at a rate of two per room, the LakeButler Elementary School would be overcrowded,
The board accepted Casongs recommendation tosend all kindergarten through grade 2 pupils to Corsolidated(renaming the school Lake Butler Elementary), grades 3.8 to Lake ButlerMiddle School, and grades 942 to Union County High, Florida-4 May, 1968
Board Chairman Donald Duke saidg"I believe that most of our citizens realize that this is amust. Last year, when we faced the same problem, we had a bigcrowd at the board meeting and there was some opposition. But no one here tonight has spokenagainst it, and I believe people realize wehave no alternative to totally integrate our schools." * * *
In larger communities with many moreschools, however, desegregation is not as easily accomplished. Lr. Gilbert M. Leggett, chairman of the state NAACPs education committee,pointed out in St. Petersburg May 1 that although 52 of PinellasCountyls 107 schools are officially desegregated, often this is only tokendesegregation.
At Boca Ciega High there is one Negroand 1,804 white students. Gibbs High had 966 Negro students and onewhite. Prodding of the school board to materially correctsuch imbalances--by filing suit in federal court, among otherthings--on the part of the NAACP is thought to be a major reason behind theswitch to a zone system for next year. * * *
The giant Dade County (Miami) system of214 schools, although in compliance for years, still hasits desegregation problems. Changing housing patterns and neighborhoodshave resulted, for instance, in a decision to build a newMiami Edison High School within three years in an effort to keepit in racial balance.
_Ctee an all-white school, Edison this yearhad 1,133 white, 551 Negro and 398 Cuban children.Adjacent Edison Junior High is about 50-50 white and Negro. Parents of white students insist they have no complaint aboutEdison being a desegregated school but that they do not wish to send theirchildren into an area that has become commercial and low-incomein recent years. They pushed for a new school in 6 white neighborhood.
The move will be costly, whether it iseffective or not. Proposed sites in the suggested areas ofMiami Shores, an upper-income suburb of Miami, could cost up to$2 million just for the land.
While many Negro parents agree on the need for a newschool in a better neighborhood, some donot. A vocal opponent is Dr. Edwin S. Shirley, whoscolded Negro parents "for trying to run away" from their own identity0 wfou canIt get away from it by going into the white community."Dr. Shirley proposed that the board phase out Edison and several other highschools in the district and build a cluster of senior highbuildings on 87 acres of land the school board owns in the area of MiamiCentral High. Florida-5 May, 1968
less in the "I envision a maximumof seven high schools or county- -maybe one foreach district.It would stabilize the to run to or from," community because thewhites would have no place he said.
Supporting the move, aNegro teacher,Mrs. Fredericka Wanza, people live."A Negro said "ghetto childrenneed to see how other "If we can have this new political leader,Charlie Hadley saidg school then we canhave this thing calledintegration." * * *
May 24 when some A more immediateEdison problem cropped up school auditorium. 500 Negro students staged asit-in protest in the gegro cheerleaders Among their complaints werethat there were no discriminatory or bandmajorettes, that somesocial clubs were and that someteachers displayed theirbias against Negroes. and school Four days of meetingsbetween parents, students It was agreed that officials apparentlyresolved the protest. training cheerleaders and majoretteswill spend part of the summer There will also be a Negro candidates forselection next fall. William Duncan and Pep Club open to allstudents, and Principal investigate any complaint four teachers --two whiteand two Negro--will will not of social clubdiscrimination. One club, the Sub-Debs, be allowed to operatewithin the school, Duncansaid.
Duncan added that he willcounsel teachers whofeel bias toward they feel they cangt Negro students to seektransfers or resign "if be happy at Edison." * * *
in Dade County will The first extensivebusing plan ever tried from Drew Junior begin next fall when morethan 200 Negro students High on Miami Beach. High in Miami will beenrolled at Ida Fisher this year of Drew, with facilities for1,460, had an enrollment High building, 1,650. Ida Fisher, which isthe former Miami Beach had only 572 with roomfor 1,600. populated Ida Fisher is locatedin an area ofSouth Miami Beach within mostly by retirees. There is no Negrosettlement anywhere Miami Beach are usually the city and the fewNegroes who live on student body is live-in domestic helpers. Currently Ida Fishergs pupils being of 24 per cent Cuban with mostof the rest of the Jewish parentage. Florida-6 May, 1968
With the addition of theNegroes, Ida Fisher "willbecome a Martin D. Kavenaugh. truly multi-culturalschool," says Principal He said he had opposedearly plans to move allof Drew's ninth their bloc and we'd graders to Ida Fisher. "The Negroes would have have ours. That's not integration."
To pave the way for thetransfer, groups of studentsfrom each school visited the otherduring late May. * * *
A South Dade Negro leaderMay. I warned the DadeSchool Board that a boycott of segregatedschools in the district will come about next fall. Odell Johns appearedbefore the board to protest studying school problems in an all-whitecitizens advisory board the South Dade district.
An advisory board foreach of the county's sixschool districts advisory was namedlast year, each schoolboard member picking one faur have board member for eachdistrict. Of the six boards, only at least one Negro,Johns said. to keep School Board members repliedthat there was no attempt Negroes off the boards; thateach school board member'sselection was madeindependently and that theyhad no way of knowing any citizens board would nothave a Negro meMber.
Nhite and Negro parents inthe South Dade districthave been arguing for months abouttile location of a newschool to be built Goulds, in the area. Mr. Johns said thatNegro students in the Homestead and Perrine areas areplanning to boycott theirsegregated schools in November. * * *
Long-simmering racial differencesatTampa's Franklin Junior High School flared upMay.17 when a physicaleducation class football Police were game eruptedinto a fight, then aschoolwide rumble. called to restore order.
Trouble began when awhite student said a Negrohad cleated him in the chest duringthe game. When thetwo boys began fighting others in the class joinedin, then students fromother classes poured out of the building.More "mouthing" thanfistfighting members had most followed, said PrincipalLaz Lewis, and faculty of the actual violenceunder control before policearrived. Florida-7 May9 1968
Lewis blamed continuing trouble at Franklin on attitudes the students bring from home. 'When the white students hear Negroes called names at home, or when the Negroes hear whitescalled gwhitey,g they are bound to be influenced by thoseattitudes," he said.
Some 30 per cent of Franklings 900 students are Negro.Following an investigation,the Hillsborough County School Board acted for possibly permanent expulsion of 22 students who were found tohave weapons in their possessionduring the fight. * * *
In The Colleges
Fourteen members of the United Black Students staged a sit-in in the office of University of Miami President HenryKing Stanford May 14 and were arrested by Coral Gables police summoned by Dr. Stanford.The United Black Students had demanded that the university add 30 new Negro professors, add 30 Negro-oriented courses to the curriculum and provide more scholarships for Negroes. A meeting had been scheduled for Thursday, May 16, to discuss theUBS demands but members of the Negro groups said this was just "an administration stall" and moved in on Dr. Stanfordvs office.
After pleas from Dr. Stanford and a Negro civil rights leader, Dr. Theodore Gibson, to leave the office were ignored, Coral Gables police carried the protestors away. They were released shortly after without bail.At a subsequent meeting, the university agreed to addition of six Negro.oriented courses and a review of the curriculum. Also added were 25 scholarships for Negroes. * *
A history professor at predominantly Negro Florida A&M University in Tallahassee said May 20 white teachers hold the key to putting more emphasis on Negro history and culture inthe schools. Dr. Leedell Neyland said2 "One thing white teachers could do first would be to learn more through either formal or informal methods about the Negro race.
"I dongt believe there should be separate courses in Negro history offered at the lower levels, but each unit should incorporate the achievements and contributions of Negroes in an integrated fashion." * * Florida.8 May, 1968
Legal Action
A desegregation suit againstthe Broward County (FortLauderdale) school board may have to berevised in view of the SupremeCourtes recent ruling on freedom-of-choicesystems. Alcee Hastings, Broward NAACP attorney who had filedthe suit, said it was basically asuit against Browardos freedom-of-choicemethod of allowing students to desegregate themselves. The court's ruling removesfrom contention many of the pointsmade in his brief, he said.
But attorneys for the schoolboard said they did not believe the Supreme Court rulingwould hurt their plan ofdefense against Broward's desegregation timetable. * * *
Miscellaneous
Ernest Cook, a Daytona Beach Negroathlete with an "A" average, has decided to go to theUniversity of Minnesota instead ofFlorida State University because, hesaid, he has received several"abusive" letters.
Cook had indicated in December hewould go to FSU, where his ability as a fullback was beingcounted on by the football coach. However, Cook, who will study pre-medat Minnesota, changed his mind after he and his motherand father each received letters. Mrs. Ernest Cook, his mother, saidthe letters "weren't petually threatening, physically, but they wereabusive and carried implications."
Mrs. Cook is employed in a DaytonaBeach elementary school and her husband is chief accountantfor Bethune Cookman College. GEORGIA HIGHLIGHTS
The U.S. Suprene Courtdecided againstfreedom-of-choice incensed Gov. school desegregationplans, and the ruling so Lester Maddox that heordered all flags on stateproperty in Georgia flown athalf-mast. think the decision State School Supt.Jack Nix said he did not will have a significanteffect on school systemsin Georgia, and the attorney for theAtlanta systembiggest in the state, said the same thing.
Atlanta Supt. John W.Letson, meanwhile, respondedto a HEW threat to take a lookat big city systems inthe South, like Atlanta, and prod themto desegregate faster,by saying he was puzzled as to "whatHEW may expect us to dothat we aren't doing already." compliance with An NAACP chapterchallenged DeKalb County's Troup citizens argted over federal desegregationrequirements. said their system wouldact guidelines.Rome school officials education voted to meet requirements.Wilcox County's board of despite a threatened loss to continue afreedom-of-choice plan in danger of of federal schoolfunds. And Walton schools were losing both federal andstate funds.
Complaints that desegregationhad caused Negroeducators to be investigated to be treated "unfairlyand unethically" were by a National EducationAssociation legal team.
In Atlanta, a federaljudge ordered noticefiled with his court 30 days beforeacquiring land for a school soplaintiffs late if in a desegregation case canobject before it is too during they desire. In Macon, suspensionof two Negro teachers racial unrest at SocialCircle was upheld by afederal court. against a And in Savannah a U.S.district court judge ruled of racial Negro teacher's contentionthat she was fired because discrimination. Georgia-1 May, 1968
GEORGIA
Schoolmen flags on state property Gov. Lester Maddox onMay 28 ordered all decision lowered to half-mastin mourning ofthe U.S. Supreme Court plans. The governor barring freedom-of-choiceschool desegregation Congress, and the president accused the nation'shighest court, the He said there of being "soft oncommunism and weak onAmericanism." "haven't got from the national tothe local level who are leaders let's the guts to stand upfor what's right"and who are "saying do what the Communistssay." state and U.S. Maddox issued an officialproclamation requiring half-staff flags at stategovernment facilitiesto be flown at Calling a press from Tuesday morninguntil sundown onWednesday. capitol, the governor conference outside thewest entrance of the May 27 and personally launched into a tirade overthe court decision of Georgia school lowered the capitolflags. The ruling may cause officials to revisedesegregation proceduresin their various systems. director for the Department William J. Page,Southeastern regional and Welfare, saidthe decision meansthat all of Health, Education forced school districts relying onfreedom-of-choice plans will be place according to thedictates to prove thatdesegregation is taking administrators of the Civil RightsAct of 1_964. Noting that school Page said in the state "willnot be surprised"by the decision, be examined andrevised to local desegregationplans will have to Tenn.; and avoid the fate inNew KentCounty, Va; Jackson, Gould, Ark. exact number of school State officials wereunable to pinpoint the freedom-of-choice plans, butPage systems in Georgiathat are using said flatly that nosystems are and State SchoolSupt. Jack P. Nix Supt. Nix said hedoes relying solely on thecontroversial method. have a significanteffect not think the highcourt's ruling will Georgia s 195 schoolsystems. He said the wording of on any of guidelines Monday's decision isalmost identical toHEW desegregation already in effect inthe state. desegregation in some "1We will encountercertain problems with the method used isfreedom of of our systemsregardless of whether to schools," choice or one in whichadministrators assign pupils Nix said. Georgia-2 May, 1968
The state superintendent said officialswill encounter most of their problems with desegregationof schools in the southern half of the state because thelargest concentration of Negroes exists there.
Southern schools are required by law to followHEW guidelines calling for the complete desegregationof public schools by the start of the 1968-69 school year. Schools that do not comply with HEW regulations will not receive federalfunds for the coming year.
Officials of the Atlanta schools said theycould foresee no changes in the biggest system in thestate as a result of the court ruling or of revised U.S.Department of Health, Education and Welfare policies. A. C. Latimer, attorney for the Atlanta Board of Education, said that the latestSupreme lourt decision appears to bemerely a reiteration of one rendered inMarch, 1967, by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal:3in New Orlelns.
He said that sInce the Atlanta board"adopted the philosophy" of the lower court decision, hebelieves that the decision will have no bearing on schoolsin Atlanta.In his opinion, he said, the new high courtdecision does not upset or throw outfreedom-of-choice desegregation plans any more than that of thelower court.
"The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held thatthe freedom-of-choice plan was all right if it worked--that is,if it achieved more and more desegregation," Latimersaid. "The Supreme Court, it seems to me, has pretty much adopted that case."
Supt. John W. Letson meanwhile said thathe is unfamiliar as yet with any plans HEW may have tospeed up desegregation of big-city Southern school systems, which, like Atlanta, arecomplying with court orders to desegregate. This was in response to an inquiry about his reaction to an announcement inWashington by. Mrs. Ruby Martin, director of the HEW Office of CivilRights. Mrs. Martin said HEW will take a look at systems likeAtlanta and prod them to desegregate faster.
"I am puzzled as to what HEW may expect usto do that we aren't doing already," Supt. Letson said. "If there is something HEW thinks we should bedoing, they should at least advise us what itis.
"I know many people would like to seethings accomplished that are not now beingaccomplished, but I see no way of gettingthese things done except with a magic wand that ro onepossesses." The Atlanta superintendent said he sees no"ultimate solution" to the problem of segregated schools as long as currentpopulation shifts and trends in Atlanta persfst. These, he added, result in de facto segregation. Georgia-3 May, 1968
laggard big-city schoo3 A desegregationcrackdown against NAany of these systems in the South wasannounced by Mrs. Martin. order," she said. "No one large systems areoperating under a court into them starting has been monitoringthem. But we will be looking in August." * * *
in Southern A survey releasedby HEW May 27 showed progress plans to be nearly school districts usingvoluntary desegregation court orders. double that of districtsoperating under federal 18.9 per cent of School districts withvoluntary plars reported Court their Negro students indesegregated classes this year. order districtsaveraged only 9.5 per centdesegregation. under a Ceorgia has 10 schooldistricts, including'Atlanta federal court order todesegregate. The HEW survey showed four cent of unnamed Georgia court-orderdistricts averaging 6.9 per their Negro pupils inintegrated schools.
Meanwhile, 125 Georgiadistricts operating undervoluntary plans reported anover-all average ofl3.5 per cent desegregation for Negro pupils.
Georgia ranked seventh amongthe Southern states with9.1.5 per Texas placed cent of its Negro studentsin desegregated schools. last with 309 per cent. firsu with 26.1 per centand Mississippi was * * *
for the The DeKalb County chapterof the National Association Advancement of ColoredPeople challenged DeKalbschool officials federal on whetherthe county system iscomplying fully with Chapter requirements for desegregation. In a statement signed by President Charles E. Price,and sent to DeKalbSchool Supt. Jim Cherry, the DeKalb NAACPcharged that the schoolsystemls pace having to make of desegregation is tooslow and that Negroes are most of the adjustmentsinvolved in desegregation.
It suggested that schoolofficials revise several alleged students to practices in desegregatingschools, including busing schools. schools outside attendance zonesand closing down all-Negro being The NAACP statement alsocharged that attendance zones are drawl "to throttle thestated objective ofeliminating race as a factor in the assignment ofstudents to schools."
It said new schools arebeing opened in the samegeographical which have been closed or areas servedpreviously by Negro schools, NAACP are nowthreatened with closing. As an alternate plan, the suggested placing whitestudents in previouslyall-Negro schools and drawing attendance zonesto equalize the Negroand white population. Georgia-4 May, 1968
"Sound judgment seemsto dictate that the1964 Civil Rights Act should not beinterpreted to mean thatall adjustments for compliance must be madeby Negroes," thestatement said.
Price, assistant deanof Morris BrownCollege, said the assistance while there is DeKalb school systemis getting federal to comply with some doubtthat it is movingwith "deliberate speed federal requirements." * * *
citizens took their An angry delegationof seven Troup County requirements to arguments againstfederal school desegregation by A. W. The delegation,informally led on May 29 Washington. Education Birdsong Jr. ofLaGrange, protestedDepartment of Health, for the separate LaGrange and Welfare(HEW) desegregation demands with and Troup Countyschool systems. The citizens group met (D-Ga), Sens. Herman E. Talmadge(D-Ga.), and Richard B. Russell and Sixth DistrictU.S. Rep. John J.Flynt Jr. (D-Ga.). Rep. Flynt with a The delegationpresented the senators and petition which theysaid was signed by14,000 of the 18,000 registered attempted to set up a voters in Troup County. Rep. Flynt's office Wilbur Cohen. But meeting with PresidentJohnson and HEW Secretary to settle an aide tothe congressman saidthey would probably have and Mr. Cohen. for sessions withrepresentatives of the president staff members The school controversybegan early in May when visited LaGrange for a public from the HEW Officeof Civil Rights meeting on local schooldesegregation. Birdsong said that the all students OCR staff insisted theLaGringe city system consolidate predominantly Negro in grades 7-9 intoEast Depot High School, a would be school. LaGrange High, apredominantly white school, made the city's onlysenior high. "We feel that HEW has "We are very disturbed,"Birdsong said. destroyed a school come intoLaGrange and in about aday and a half Birdsong said that system we had beenbuilding up for years." LaGrange has invested$15 million during the last14 years to The construct one of theoutstanding school systemsin the South. Hollis Hand Elementary HEW suggestions wouldresult in closing the three years ago at a School, a predominantlywhite facility built cost of $1 million, hesaid.
"Segregation and integrationhas nothing to do with our oppcsition," Birdvmg said. "Not one instance offreedom-of-choice violation has occurred inLaGrange." Georgia-5 May, 1968
Sens. Russell and Talmadge heardthe complaints and assured the group they would do everythingpossible to help. However, Sen.Russell stated early in May:"In frankness, I cannot offer any hope for achange (in desegregationguidelines) until there is a change in attitude on thepart of the administrators of the program," as well as a major changein congressional attitudes.
Birdsong said that the community hasformed a movement called "Citizens for Freedom" and claimed amembership of 10,000. * * *
The Rome Board of Education said will meet Health, Education and Welfare desegregation requirementsthrough construction, and faculty and student integration.The board said May 21 it will submit a plan before Sept. 1 for a bondissue for construction of larger desegregated schools thusphasing out the smaller neighborhood institutions. Plans also call for the elimination of the all-Negro Main High School andtransferring of students and faculties to other schools.
The hoard said members of HEW's staffwho reviewed the city's program in April failed tovisit eight of the schools. * * *
The Wilccx County Board of Education hasvoted to continue a freedom-of-choicedesegregation plan, despite warnings from the Health, Education and Welfare Department thatthe system will lose its federal funds if changes are notmade. Meeting in a called session, board members on May 13 heard a large groupof citizens protest further desegregation speedup. The group said they would prefer to lose federal funds.
Specifically, HEW has expressed concern that thefreedom-of-choice plan has not brought about desegregation. HEW has advised Wilcox officials that students at an all-Negro school inAbbeville must be enrolled in a white school there, rather thangiven a choice of Abbeville or a predominantly Negro school inRochelle.
The Wilcox board countered, in an answerto HEW, that the system now used had made progress. The board said the plan in operation for three years, had progressedfrom seven Negro students transferred the first year to a proposed38 this fall.A board official said "this indicates a positivetrend." Georgia-6 May, 1968
The Wilcox system had been questioned byHEW concerning the placement of Negro and white teachers. The board has answered HEW, saying that a like number of Negrostudents (as taught at the closing Negro school) will be assigned topredominantly white schools.
HEW has advised Wilcox Covnty that all federalfunds for the school system will be lost this fall ifchanges are not made in the system.
already has been The Walton Couni.y. Board of Education, wlich :1411:46.1r. threatened with a cutoff of federalschodllraids, has voted against a consolidation programwhich officials say may also cause state funds to be stopped, gy 1 vote of 4-3 the board decided on Mayl4 against the immediate consolidation of LoganvilleHigh and Good Hope Elementary schools with the Yremrc.,ch,Tdols.
Supt. Garfield Wilson said the action may stopstate funds because of a contract that calls for the consolidationby the fall term. Previously, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare threatened to hold up some$3330000 unless federal officials become satisfied with the county's desegregation plan,
Walton County has been the site of protest demonstrationsat both Social Circle and Monroe. "It will cost the taxpayws of Walton County $90,000 to operate those two extraschools next year," Wilson said.He also noted next year's budget will have tobe revised because of the board action. * * *
A team of National Education Association lagyers will cometo Georgia early in June to investigate complaints thatthe state's Negro educators have been "unethically and unfairly"treated as a result of desegregation. Dr. Sam M, Lambert, executive secretary of the NEA, said he has been told "Negro principals are neverused in integrated schools if there is any significant numberof white students."
Dr. Lambert said the complaint was officially made by the Georgia Teachers and Education Association(GTEA), a predominantly Negro group.It is the first such complaint received by theNEA, Dr. Lambert said. "I do not know whether it is true. But we will conduct a preliminary inquiry to see if the evidencejustifies a statewide investigation, court action, or both," he said. Georgia-7 May, 1968
Dr. Lambert announced theinvestigation after a meeting in Atlanta between himself andDr. Horace Tate, executivesecretary 20 to 25 of the GTEA. Spokesmenfor the GTEA say they will present cases to theNEA preliminary investigating team. The cases all involve Negro administratorswho have been "demoted, dismissed, or transferred" onceschool systems are integrated, thespokesmen say.
The investigation will involve two orthree NEA lawyers, and a similar numberfrom the GTEA. The white Georgia Education Association has been invited toparticipate. Dr. Lambert stressed that the investigation would onlydetermine the truth of discrimination charges based on the cases to bepresented by GTEA.
GTEA spokesmen say the cases will mostly comefrom North Georgia, where they say a standard responseto integration orders has been to close Negro schools andoperate only formerly all-white facilities. In such cases, the GTEA charges, theformer Negro principals are never retained in theirprevious capacities, even though they may be better qualifiedthan the remaining white administrators.
Dr. Lambert said that if the GTEAcharges seem warranted, a larger investigation would "Demounted over all the state to seek out similar cases. After that, he said, the NEA would decide what action to take. Possibilities are court suits, sanctions or formal protests. * * *
Legal Action
The Atlanta school system was ordered May 10 tofile notice with the federal district court 30 daysbefore acquiring any land for a school. The notice of site location would berequired so that plaintiffs in the school desegregation case canobject before it is too late if they desire.
U.S. District Judge Frank A. Hooper issued theamendment to his final order in the latest round inthe school case, which has been in court for almost a decadealready, requiring that a full description be included so that the landcould be identified.
The latest attacks on the Atlanta schooldesegregation plan have dealt largely with the placementof school buildings, which plaintiffs have contended were chosen tomaintain and perpetuate the dual school system. Judge Hooper has already ordered the Jefferson decree, the standard school desegregationorder issued by them-r7S0 Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in aneffort to provide uniform decrees, throughout the Southeast. That decree requires affirmative efforts to end the vestiges of dualsystems, including particularly the placement of new buildings sothat they will likely be integrated. Georgia-8 May, 1968
Atlanta school officials havecontended that when they choose a site in amixed area it goes all-Negro before abuilding can be built or shortly thereafter. They also have contended that the great need for new schools isin all-Negro areas where higherbirth rates and in-migration producefar denser concentrations of school children.
The other area of need is in newsuburban areas, which tend to be all-white, schoolofficials assert, and argLe that tobuild anywhere but in these pressure areaswould violate the reighborhood school policy aimed at keepingelementary schools within walking distance of the children that attendthem, feeding each high school from several of these elementaryschools.
Several recent cases have been broughtchallenging the location of new schools in all-Negroneighborhoods, but all have ultimately been dismissed.
Judge Hoopervs amended final judgmentnotes that the court of appeals has in some instances ruledthat objections to construction of a new school were made toolate when the building was virtually an accomplishedfact. Last year the Fifth Circuit virtuallyinstructed one of theattorneys seeking to block the location of aschool in an allNegroneighborhood to go through the originalschool case rather than through separate action.
Judge Hooperfs order notes that while thenotice must be given 30 days before acquisition of schoolland so plaintiffs may object to the location at that time,"all other objections, however, may be made if and when defendants areattempting to violate the provisions of the Jefferson degree,"in other ways, such as failing to properly desegregate faculties andactivities, or other aspects in which they might fail to take affirmativeaction to end all vestiges of the dual system. * * *
In Macon, the suspensions of two Negroteachers during racial unrest at Social Circle earlier this year wereupheld by U.S. District Judge14. A. Bootle. Injunctions have been denied both a group ofNegroes and city and county officialsin connection with the demonstrations.The complaints were filed duringdemonstrations protesting conditiors at the SocialCircle Training School by a group of Negroes who alsoasked reinstatement of LillianHill and Allie Bell Norris. A third teacher was also suspended butdid not seek reinstatement. Georgia-9 May, 1968
Bootle said the teachersfailed to prove their caseafter contending they weresuspended "simply becausethey insist upon exercising free speech inregard to racial matters."He also denied the plaintiffsrequest for an injunctionpreventing interference with the rights of freespeech and rights toattend all-white schools already has an approved in Walton County. Bootle said the county desegregation plan. county In a countersuit, alsodenied by Bootle, city and officials asked for aninjunction preventinginterference by demonstrators with dthepeaceful operation of theWalton County schools."
Bootle said in denyingthe reinstatement of thetwo teachers, "the court finds thatthey were suspended notbecause they protested they left their classrooms or desire toprotest further, but because refused to return at during teachers" hoursand, moreover, firMly the direct instructionof Supt. G. W. Wilson." pupils of the One of the teachers hadcontended that elerentary school had been used asjanitors, cooks and substituteteachers and that the school hadinsufficient equipment andtextbooks. Dozens were arrested duringboycotts of Social Circlestores as well as two schools. * *
In Savannah, U.S. DistrictJudge Frank M. Scarlett ruledagainst Mrs. Lillian Scott in theNegro school teacher's effortto force Judge her reinstatement bythe Chatham County Board ofEducation. Scarlett ruled that the boardacted on "sound educationalreasons" and "within the utmost goodfaith" in upholding Mrs.Scott's dismissal from her job as asocial science teacher atScott Junior High School.
Mrs. Scott, Who had taughtin the system for 17 years,charged that she was a 7ictim ofdiscrimination. School officials had recommended her dismissal onthe grounds 5hat she was nolonger able to maintain classroomdiscipline and displayedinstructional deficiencies.
Judge Scarlett said a hearing onthe case produced no evidence that the Chatham board was"capricious, arbitrary ordiscriminatory... " The board, he said, showed in its dismissal ofMrs. Scott last year. undisputed evidence thatMrs. Scott was "no longercompetent to teach and capable ofmaintaining cEscipline in theclassroom." Georgia-10 May, 1968
Mrs. Scott, wife of Wilton C.Scott, public relations director at Savannah State College,had indicated previously that she intended to carry her caseto the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
Judge Scarlett said in his rulingthat testimony during the hearing on May 1 showedseveral other veteran teachers, both Negro and white, were declined newcontracts for the 1967-68 term. Only Mrs. Scott took herdismissal to court. The case, Judge Scarlett said, did not involveteacher civil service or tenure laws. Mrs. Scott had obtained thesupport of the Georgia Teachers and Educational Associationin her unsuccessful appeals tothe Chatham school board and theState Board of Education. KENTUCKY HIGHLIGHTS
Ths Louisville Board of Education agreed to build a new school to replace a 115-year-o1d structure where parents complained of inadequate facilities.
A plan to racially balance enrollment between an existing school and a new school in Louisville was rejected after white and Negro parents objected.
State Department of Ectocation ordered high schools to teach Negro and ndnority-group history.
Riot, followed by vandalism and looting, broke out in Louisville after a meeting called to demand the dismissal of a policeman accused of using excessive force in arresting two Negroes. Kentucky-1 May, 1968
KENTUCKY
Schoolmen
The Louisville Board of Education agreed to build a newschool by June, 1969, to replace thell5-year-old Samuel Coleridge Taylor School, where parents had complained of inadequate facilities. But Supt. Samuel V. Noe said the new school could not be planned and constructed in time for opening next fall, as theparents wanted.
The parents protested that children were ilbeing damaged for life through their early experience in a 115 -year-old building ° and contended that part of the new school --enough to handlecurrent enrollment--could be built by fall. Nearly all of the 478 children who are enrolled at the Taylor School are Negroes.
The school board said the new Taylor school would have a capacity of 900 pupils to handle the children of familiesin a proposed Urban Renewal apartment project to be built onland that has been cleared since before 1965. The project, however, was still bogged down in financial problems and had not beenstarted.
As a temporary solution, the school board offered to close the present Taylor school at the end of the current year. Children would be transported to another old school about nineblocks awgy. That school was in temporary use by pupils at yet another school which was being remodeled. * * *
The state Board of Education voted to order the teaching of Negro and minority-group history in senior-year American history courses in high schools acrossKentucky. The state Department of Education had been working for more than a year to prepare a unit concerned with prejudice, Negro history and contributions, and related matters, in an effort to encourage local school districts to cover such topics in their lesson plans.These materials, expected to be ready by September, could be used in meeting the new requirement.
The state board said that any school that failed to teadh Negro and minority-group history would be considered "deficient, a factor that could be considered alongwith others in school accreditation, * * * Kentucky-2 May, 1968
A mixed group of Negroes and whites met three top city school officials in Louisville and criticized the cost of textbooks, school physical facilities, the absence of courses in Negro history in the curriculum, and the ability of teachers, among other things, One parent received a round of applause when he complained that his l0-year.old child's reading ability was far below what one might expect of a third grader.A poverty program group represented at the meeting submitted a petition calling for more communication between residents and the school board, more vocational and adult education couTses and for an investigation of the way the school system handled its finances.
A few days earlier, after action by the state Board of Education, the city school system announced that a one.semester course on "The Negro in AmericanCulture" would be offered in all city high schools next fall, * * *
A plan to set up a racially balanced enrollment in two city schools was killed by the Louisville Board of Education after white and black parents objected to splitting elementary grades between the two schools. One board member, Negro lawyer Neville Tucker, who had championed the balanced enrollment plan, at first said he would resign from the board because of the parents'views, but later changed his mind,
Under the balanced-enrollment plan, which was offeredby Supt. Samuel V. Noe, children in grades 1.3 would haveattended one school, and childrenin kindergarten and grades 4-6 would have attunded the other,
The problem of drawing boundaries for the twoschools came up in connection with the opening of oneof them, the new Martin Luther King Jr0 school, set for next fall, Instead of dividing the grades between the schools, the board adopted a planto create two attendance districts with approximately the same racial percentages.
The balanced.enrollment plan was attacked by parents onthe grounds that it would have meant longer walksfor children, split.up families, inconvenience to parents, and weakenedparent.teacher groups because of dividedloyalties between the two schools.
Tucker then rose to say, "I've never been moreheartbroken in my life. It has been one of the major disappointments of mylife to see black parents come to the microphone and say someof the things that have been said here...It seems at thistime all I've stood for has been repudiated." Then he left the meeting* Kentucky-3 May 1968
But a number of Negro leaders asked Tucker to reconsider his expressed intention to resign, and pointed out that if he did quit the board would be without a Negro member.The next day, Tucker returned to the board and took part in the voting on the attendance districts. Tucker said he hoped the board, which originally favored the balanced-enrollment plan, would "continue seeking answers to 'Ileparatism that plagues the public school system in Louisville." * * *
In The Collees
The Black Student Union at the University of Kentucky was said by its chairman, Theodore Barry, to have 45 members, which he said was about half the number of Negro students on the campus. The group was reported working with university officials on recruitment of more Negro students and athletes, * * *
Political Action
Action on a proposed fair employment practices ordinance was deferred pending ftrther study by the Louisville Board of Aldermen. Enforcement would be in the hands of the Louisville and Jefferson County Human Relations Commission) which earlier announced a study of alleged job discrimination in the construction industry and the building trades unions,
Statistics compiled by the U0S0 Department of Labor showed that of 70778 journeymen in nine building trad'is unions in the Louisville area) -)7. 111 were Negroes. And of the 536 persons in apprenticeship programs in those unions, only 11 were Negroes.
An earlier analysis of 18 building trades unions in 1966 showed that of 70132 journeymen, only 356 were Negroes, and more than half were in the Hod Carriers and Roofers Unions, both traditionally Negro dominated. By contrast Louisville and Jefferson County are about 13 per cent Negro in population. * *
Lepl Action
The first suit testing the cityfs open-housing ordinance was settled out of court when a builder agreed to acceptthe advertised price of a home from a Negro couple, The house had been advertised at $159750 in the Louisville newspapers, but the couple reported that they were told there was a "prior option" on the property, Kentucky-4 May 1968
T.leir suit charged that the statement was untrue, and the Jeffer6on Circuit Court issued an injunction restraining sale or rental of the house pending an investigation by the Louisville and Jefferson County Hunan Relations Committee. * * *
A riot in Louisville on May 27 falowed a meeting ofNegro militants and others in a West End Negro neighborhood. The meeting was called to demand the firing of a police patrolman accused of using excessive force to arrest two Negroesearlier in the month. The riot was followed by four days of vandalism and looting, nnstly in Negro neighborhoods.
The arrest of the two Negroes took place early in the month, when police stopped a Negro teacher who was driving a carthat fitted the description of one believed to have beenused in a drugstore theft.A Negro real-estate man, a friend of the teacher, intervened and protested the teacher's innocence.A fight ensued and the two Negroes were taken into austody.
Later, a police department board ordered thefiring of the policeman who took part in the fight.Three other officers were reprimanded. But a city Civil Service Board hearing, conducted without the complaining witnesses, resulted in arecommendation that the fired policeman be rehired.
Mayor Kenneth A. Schmied, who would have thefinal say in the matter, refused to intervene at thispoint and many Negroes believed a radio station's erroneous reportthat the patrolman had been reinstated.
The meeting, arranged by two poverty-programworkers, was billed as one which would be attended byStokely Carmichael, and a large crowd showed up. Instead of Carmichael, however, a volunteer worker for the Student Non-violenceCoordinating Committee spoke, and the crowd was told that cityofficials had prevented Carmichael from landing at the Louisville airport. In reality, Carmichael was miles away on theEast Coast, and said later through a spokesman that he had never planned or intended tovisit the Louisville meeting. Kentucky.5 May, 1968
As the meeting broke up, someyouths atop nearby buildings began throwing bottles. Police, arrving to investigate, were showered with bricks and glass. More police cane and, as officers cleared the intersection where themeeting was held, looting and window.breaking began. A few fires were set.Window.breaking and looting spread a few blocksfrom the first battle and then began occurring elsewhere inNegro neighborhoods. Many of the victims were Negroes. A few hoursafter the first outbreak, National Guard units were mobilizedand began patrolling in support of police.
Before the disorders sputtered to aclose four days later, 11 Negroes had been woundedby gunfire, two fatally;472 persons had been arrested; and damage wasestimated at $200,000.Not a single policeman or NationalGuardsman had been shot. LOUISIANA HIGHLIGHTS
A pilot program to station police officers attroubled schools was adopted by the East Baton Rouge ParishSchool Board in a move to maintain order at certain Negro schools.
The Louisiana School Boards Association has agreed to support the St. Landry Parish School Board in its efforts toestablish a yardstick for transferring teachers to schools of anopposite race.
,The Washington Parish School Board, in the heart of Ku Klux Klan territory, voted approval of faculty integration in the fall for the first time since a federal court order.
Action on a permit sought from the city for construction of a school near the Baton Rouge airport, acontroversy that has fueled racial tensions in the city, has been asked by theEast Baton Rouge Parish School Board.
The real course for Negroes to take is to work within the present system, a board member of the Federal ReserveSystem told graduating students at Southern University in BatonRouge, a predominantly Negro college.
In baccalaureate services, a Methodist pastor told Southern University students that neither black power nor white supremacy will guide a new America.
The use of education to fight poverty and discrimination has never appeared more favorable thantoday, an official of the U.S. Office of Education said in addressing the graduating class of Dillard University in New Orleans.
A mixed group of 18 white and Negro students at Louisiana State University, predominantly white, tried to desegregate eight bars that normally cater to LSU students, with many being refused service.
Reports on results of freedom-of-choice action in school assignments have been filed in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge.
A decision by a special three-judge federal court on Houston, Texas school construction could have wide effects on programs in other areas where building programs are under attack as promoting segregation. Highlights-2 May, 1968
The U.S. Fifth Circuitruled unconstitutional a cityordinance against picketing, involving adispute between Negroes andthe Vest Baton Rouge ParishSchool Board.
Bishop Robert E. Tracy ofthe Baton Rouge Diocese pledgedhelp to Negro citizens seeking moreplaygrounds at a Negro school in Baton Rouge in a move tocurb delinquency.
The New Orleans chapter ofthe National Association forthe Advancement of ColoredPeople asked the school boardto include multiracial textbooks andclasses in Negro history inschool curriculum.
A U.S. Department ofJustice employe and a SouthernUniversity student were acquitted oftraffic charges in BatonRouge city court in action linked toNegro demonstrations followingthe assassination of Dr. Martin LutherKing. Louisiana-1 May, 1968
LOUISIANA
Schoolmen established a pilot The East Baton RougeParish School Board has at one Negro school and one program toprovide police protection white school to guardagainst "hooliganism."Both are junior high at the schools and the superintendentopposed setting up the program such as existed white school on the groundsthere was no "felt need" at the Negro school.
The board voted 9 to 1,overriding staff recommendations onthe controversial issue, to set upthe program to controlroving bands The situation at the of youths who harassboth pupils and teachers. Negro junior high school wasdescribed as getting out ofhand. Two policemen, one from thecity police and one fromthe sheriff's department, were scheduledto be paaced at theschools during the summer classperiod.
Supt. Robert Aertker saidthat he hoped the pilot programwould eliminate the problem andindicated he felt thesecurity measures Peabody, should be ended whenthis occurs. One board member, Ben said, "Unless we try itin a predominantly whiteschool we won't have a good evaluation ofthe whole thing.We could have a cry of discrimination fromthe Negro people."
Aertker said he felt theblard should wait untilSeptember, adding, "I feel we havelost control in this area(the Negro school)." Said Peabody, 411ova in before youlose control. Even if they didn't the do a thing, we'd have theexperience." In urging the program at route Negro school, Aertker saidthat gangs had stopped students en to school, had enteredclassrooms, struck teachersand robbed students. * * *
The Louisiana School BoardsAssociation agreed to join theSt. Landry Parish School Boardin an effort to establish ayardstick for transferring teachersof one race to schools ofpredominantly another race. A conference with U.S.District Judge Richard Putnam will be sought on theissue, according to Supt.Harvey Gardiner.
The school board saidit could accept recommendationsof three teacher groups concerning thetransfer of teachers. The groups, one Negro andtwo white organizations,asked for extra pay for transferred teachers, use offirst-year teachers for transferunder the white recommendationsand use of teachers withexperience under the Negro recomnendations. Louisiana-2 May, 1968
The teacher groups includedthe St. Landry Education Association, composed of Negroes, and theSt. Landry Parish Teachers Association and the ClassroomTeachers Association, both white groups. The parish school board hastransferred teachers in 14 schools, oneto a school ineach of seven wards in theparish, in compliance with a federalcourt order. * * *
The Washington Parish School Boardvoted 7 to 2 to approve faculty assignments for thefall school term in line with afederal court order. It will mark the first time in theparish, which is located in a hotbed of Ku KluxKlan activity, that faculties have been desegregated in publicschools.
Teachers are being notified of theassignments by letter, which they are being asked to sign. This will act as a contract for their positions next school year. Teachers will have until June 7 to respond.
Under the desegregation plan an averageof four Negro teachers will be assigned to previouslyall-white schools. Three white teachers will be assigned to previousTyall-Negro schools.
The school board alsois receiving returns onfreedom-of-choice applications by students. Judge Frederick Heebe of federal District Court, New Orleans, had suspended anearlier plan, which he devised, calling for desegregation on a zonebasis rather than freedom of choice. He later amended his order topermit the choice situation pl'ovided that 20 per cent Negroenrollment in white schools would be achieved. He also ordered that 20 percent of the teachers and staff in white schools be Negroand the same number for white teachers in Negro schools.
Judge Heebe ruled that in no case will choices of any school by any child in the system be denied except forovercrowding or to achieve the percentage of Negro enrollment required. He ordered that only the court could rule on the denial of aNegro childvs application for white school entrance. * *
A permit for construction of a school at Ayan Airportcommunity will be sought by the East Baton Rouge Parish School Boarddirectly from the city-parish council. The school location, at the end of one of the runways, has been the centerof a longstanding controversy that has generated racial tension among the Negro community. Louisiana-3 Play, 1968
Efforts have been made to extendthe runway, which would jeopardize the school.Three earlier applications for the permit have been denied by the council. The school board has taken the position that there is no othersuitable site in the community available for the school.It has been on the drawing boardsince 1960.
The city-parish government isattempting to find a new airport locationfollowing strong resistance by themayor-president, who has cited racial problems thatwouldensue from enlarging the present field. * * *
An 80-Tear-old Negro woman who hadlearned to read and write through Operation Upgrade, turnedto her audience on graduation night andsaid, "I can read and I can write, thanks be toGod." She took the program for two years. * * *
The Livingston Parish School Board created astudy committee to study upgrading pay schedules forcoaches in parish schools, except for Negro coaches. The Livingston Parish Coaches Association estimatedthe pay raise would cost the parish under$30,000, but did not list the Negro coaches becausethey are not members of the association. * * *
In2121(12a2.1221
A change in direction for Negro collegegraduates was urged by Dr. Andrew Brimmer, member of the boardof governors of the Wederal Reserve System, in an address toSouthern University students. He told some 430 candidates for degrees that the graduateshould aim for employment in the white collarpositions of private businesses and not choose "the same oldprofessions."He said that 20 million Negroes cannot move out and form asuccessful all-black community.
Megro graduates should stop lookingfor employment with the government and look toward theprivate sector," he said. He added that 15 per cent of all governmentemployes are Negro. "The move to chase the white businessman outof the ghetto is an extremely dangerous course," he continued. "Our real course is to make the present system work and work for allof us." * * Louisiana-4 May, 1968
students at A Methodistminister toldSouthern University advocates nor baccalaureate servicesthat neither black power Rev. L. L. Haynes,pastor white supremacistswill guide America. Church, said, "Thesetimes demand of the WesleyUnited Methodist responsible to savethis country. masters of thoughtwho will be mnments of shipwreck,but I am sure many of youhave had your low today this is ahomecoming." * * *
has The use of educationto fight povertyand discrimination commissioner for the never looked morefavorable, an associate graduates. Dr. U.S. Office ofEducation toldDillardUniversity that the idea of a Peter P. Muirhead,Washington, D.C., said dream four years major nationalcommitment to education was a completing high school. ago whenmost of the153 students were reached a watershedin its He said, "TheUnited States has Education has neverhad a better boxoffice in the history. Prior to that, Congress than it hasin the last five years. of a rarity,something to federal aid toeducation was something of education was thenationus cheer about inthat the business business." * * * University A group of whiteand Negro studentsat Louisiana State vicinity of the campusthat tested desegegationof bars in the major resistance totheir normally cater toLSU students, finding divided into The group of fivewhites and 13 Negroes efforts. Many of the smaller groups tovisit eight bars inthe area. because they saidwhite customers owners refusedthe students service might cause troubleif Negroes wereserved. leave when the manager One group was servedbut was asked to bartender was discovered Negroes werepresent.At another bar a have but six quoted as saying, "Ihave a gun backhere btt I donut I can only get sixof them so you hadbetter leave,'" bullets0 that bars are notcovered An LSU law professoradvised the students in the CivilRights Act. *
Legal Action parishes were Reports on freedom.of-choiceresults in three Baton Rouge, showingthat filed with the federalDistrict Court at have two or moreteachers at least two of theschool systems will They are Ascensionand Vest of a minority racein eanh school. Parish report didnot Baton Rouge parishes. The East Feliciana cover facultydesegregation efforts, Louisana-5 May, 1968
On student desegregation, the report for Ascension Parish showed that 72 Negro students chose formeay all-white schools. Four schools in the district will remain all white.Remaining all Negro will be six schools.
For West Baton Rouge Parish, the report showed that three formerly all-white schools will be desegregatedwith a total of 132 Negroes.All others in the district will remain segregated. Fifty-three Negro students will attend formerly all-whiteschools in East Feliciana Parish, according to thereport. * * *
In a split decision, a special three-judge panel in New Orleans ruled that a Houston, Texas, school construction programdid not perpetuate de facto segregation. The decision could have far reaching effects on other school programs. There was sharp disagreement between the majority, Judge Richard T. Rives and DistrictJudge Ben Connally, and the Minority, Judge John Minor Wisdom.
Wisdom accused his fellow jurists of sweeping the issueunder the rug when they held that Negro students are notrequired to attend white schools and that "racial imbalance in a particular school does not, in itself, evidence a deprivation of constitutional rights." * * *
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional a Port Allen city ordinancestriking at Negroes who picketed the West Baton Rouge Parish School Board building. The pickets had been protesting what they called "racist policies of theboard."
The court said the limitations of the ordinance were unreasonable and the city had exercised its power in a wgy thatunduly infringes on protected freedom by allowingpunishment for the fair exercise of First Amendment rights, In its ruling, the court said the city "under the guise of regulating conduct reachable by thepolice power had permitted punishment for the expression of unpopularviews." * * *
U.S. District Judge Ben C. Dawkins Jr. in Shreveport said that freedom-of-choice school attendance plans in North Louisiana parishes will be reviewed during hearings this summer.He said he will accept evidence to determine if the plans should continue in the light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down such plans in Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas.The hearings will be held July 23 in Monroe and July 25 in Shreveport. * * Louisiana-6 May, 1968
Community Action
Parents and faculty members of a predominantlyNegro elementary school were promised help by Bishop RobeartE. Tracy, head of the Social Action Department of the Catholic Dioceseof Baton Rouge. In a meeting with representatives of the two groups,Bishop Tracy said that efforts will be made to help alleviate poorliving conditions. Parents and teachers asked for help in obtaining more playgrounds, theconstruction of sidewalks so children can walk safely to school, and the covering of opendit3hes to remove hazards for children. * *
Miscellaneous
The New Orleans chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked the Orleans ParishSchool Board to include multiracial textbooks and classes inNegro history in the school curriculum. Concern about white racism reflected in biased textbooks was expressed by Arthur J. Chappital Sr02 executive secretary of the chapter.He said he had also written the State Board of Education about the matter.
He estimated that 65 per cent of the students in the parish school system were Negro.He said that new textbooks would benefit "the total population of the Orleans Parish schools who willwork, associate and live in a multiracial world." * * *
An employe of the Department of Justice and a SouthernUniversity student, both of whom were charged with traffic violations, were acquitted in Baton Rouge City Court after it was disclosedthey were stopped during demonstrationsfollowing the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.The two men are Kenneth Johnson of Washington, D.C., and Sidney Richmond. Both were stopped separately at the same time and accused of dragging and weavingin traffic. MARYLAND HIGHLIGHTS
Black militants drowned out a Baltimore school boarddiscussion of the competence of a Negro assistant superintendent.
Negro students have demonstrated at the Universityof Maryland and Maryland State College and received assurancesof changes to come.
Continuation of freedom of choice was questioned in Baltimore city and Dorchester County following the Supreme Courtgsruling.
Somerset County voters have defeated the bond issue that was to have expedited school desegregation.
The U.S. Naval Academy may appeal to higher authorities to block a desegregation move by the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.
Several new protests have arisen in Baltimore.
Baltimoregs school system has begun a study of a possible shift to middle-school form of grade organization, believed an aid to desegregation. Maryland-1 May, 1968
MARYLAND
Schoolmen
Nearing the close of its14th school year of desegregation, the Baltimore school system hadits harshest black-white confrontation in May when a school boardmeeting was terminated by the hoots and singing of Negro militants. The subject of the May 28 meeting was the community school programand its embattled director, John O. Hopkins.
A $20,000-a-year assistant schoolsuperintendent since last August, Hopkins has complained that thedevelopment of year-round community services at designated publicschools was being shackled by the educational establishment. His detractors, on the contrary., have asserted that Hopkins turned awayoffers of co-operation and sought to create his own empire withinthe school system.
Only the two Negro members of the school board werepermitted to speak without interruptions at the meetingto discuss the community school program.Dr. M. Thomas Goedeke, who attempted as acting schoolsuperintendent to read a report critical of Hopkins, and Francis D. Murnaghan Jr., boardpresident, were repeatedly drowned out by freedom songs, chantsof "black power" and loud comnents, such as mWeVre taxpayers,too, baby."
The school board had a second all-day closedmeeting on May 31, attended by the incoming superintendent, Dr. ThomasD. Sheldon, who flew down from his presentsuperintendency in Hempstead, N.Y., for the occasion. It was agreed to let the community schoolissue rest until after Dr. Sheldon had taken command onJuly 10
The Baltimore school board has had confrontationswith white protest groups on past occasions, but theracism has been only an undercurrent as whites have opposed "loweringeducation standards" or breaking faith with "the neighborhood schoolconcept." But in the group assembled to defendHopkins the racial nature of the protest was made manifest by suchslogans as "black is beautiful," "we reject white-dominated education" and, the mostunusual of all in Baltimore, "Yankee go home."
Similar themes were repeated outside of theMay 31 meeting by pickets who said r,hey represented a new groupcalled Afro-Americans Concerned about Education. They handed out flyers which read in part: "Tuesday night the white racists tried to fireJohn 00 Hopkins, a black man who is head ofthe community school program.The black members of the school board along with a largeturnout of black people prevented the racists from firing him Tuesday night,but the racists will try again Friday morning[May 31] ." Maryland-2 May, 1968
One school board member, William D. McElroy, toldthe Baltimore Evening Sun that if the school board had voted theprevious evening, would have been 5 to 2 or 4 to 3 in favor of firing Hopkins. A member of the Johns Hopkins Universityfaculty, Dr. McElroy said, "It's clear that Mr. Hopkins hasn't beeninterested in working with the assistant superintendents on suchmatters as curriculum 0.0 He wonft work with the principals. He just wants to take aver."
Hopkins himself in a report made public on May 31said that the primary obstacles to the community school program wereinadequate financing, staff and public information and no finaldetermination of the lines of responsibility. Hopkins has sought full responsibility for schools designated as community schools,removing them from the jurisdiction of thr elementary and secondary schooladministrative divisions, and also wanted a $14 million budget. The school board left the jurisdictional issue to Dr. Sheldonand limited the community-school budget request to$1 million.
A part of the build-up toward the May28 blowup was a school board cancellation of a meeting Hopkinshad called of his citywide "advisory force."A school announcement dated May 7 said-that what had been scheduled on May 9 as the initialmeeting of the task force had been called off, "due to the need foradditional time to clearly define the administrativestructure under which the community schools will operate 0.00"
Some members of the task force said they wouldhold the meeting anyhow, in a church rather than in thepreviously scheduled school. Invitations were extended to about 160 persons,about 50 of whom showed up, with some in African-styleattire. Hopkins said in advance he wauld not be there. "It was decided for me," he told the press.
The highlight of the unofficial task force meeting wasthe reading of a letter, dated April 9, which Hopkins hadwritten to Murnaghan, the school board president.In it Hopkins had called for a strong expression of school board support forcommunity schools to overcome "the petty personal interests"trying to obstruct their development. Hopkins wrotes
"The degree of unprofessionalism, bigotryand narrow provincialism which has been manifested by some in the schooladministration with resp3ct to planning and implementation of the programis shameful for persons who should be operatingin the public interest and with the highest degree of professionalism." Maryland-3 May, 1968
Early in May at a Baltimorehigh school Hopkins spokeat a predominantly white facultymeeting and, according tosubsequent reports ofthose present,said he was "glad" he wasblack and asserted In that white teacherscould not communicatewith Negro students. May 3, Irvin L. Finifter, anart a letterpublished in The Sun of techniques of teacher, complained thatHopkins had "employed the the very same racismthat he purportedlyis so strongly against" divide what was and had "done more todiscourage, demoralize and before." once a solidfaculty. .0 0than anythingI have aver witnessed
The vice-principal ofthe school, Mrs. MargeryUr. Harriss, in the Baltimore in a letter to Hopkins,which was quoted extensively News-American of May 6, saidhe had allowed his"personal bigotry ana animosity toward white people to taint"his remarks.Another teacher, Stella C. Gersuk,wrote 60 School BoardPresident Murnaghan faculty and at that "Mr. Hopkins sneeredat the whites among the (stated by him) whites in general; helaughed at the suggestion that white teachers thinkthey are really teaching."
Hopkins in a subsequentletter to The Sun expressedregret that his remarks had beentaken personally butsaid he hoped "there presentation to insure that was enoughsubstance in the two-hour review every teacherand administrator inthe audience was led to prevent the in depth the specialresponsibilities of educators to often subtle but insidiousvirus of racism frominfecting the minds and behavior of thestudents ..."
Acting School Supt. Goedekeannounced on May 6, after an investigation, that Hopkinsosremarks were not addressedspecifically nation as a whole to teachers in his audiencebut to "problems of the The school where Hopkins and the nation's urbancenters as a whole." spoke, Edtondson HighSchool, has more than 90 percent Negro enrollment unusually high but the staff is abouttwo-thirds white, which is an Negro city degree of white-teacherinvolvement in a predominantly school.
Ourrenqy six secondaryschools in Baltimore aredesignated as community schools, andthere are to be anadditional four in the reports of Hopkinsfs new budget year. In none of the extensive or remarks has there been adetailed explanation of his program what he has been stoppedfrom doing. * * *
Negro rights and aspirationscontinued in May to evokedemands and responses on Maryland campuses.To take the largestinstitution firsts Maryland-4 May, 1968
Dr. Wilson H. Elkins,president of the University ofMaryland, announced on May 27 that theuniversity was seeking moreNegro faculty members, working extensivelyto enroll 30 full-timeNegro students addition of courses from disadvantagedbackgrounds, considering the in Negro life and cultureand reviewing the constitutionand bylaws clauses. of all fraternities andsororities to root out discriminatory
"I assure all who areinterested and concerned thatthe University of Maryland is opposedto discrimination against any groupor individual," Dr. Elkins said in a statementissued "in response to questionsraised by students and facultymembers pertaining toopportunities for Negroes."
Two weeks earlier two separatelyworded faculty petitions had been submitted to Dr.Elkins. One, signed by 142 facultymembers, endorsed a previous call by campusmembers of the Congress of Racial and for Equality for more "blackparticipation" in university life a "blanketstatement" by the universitysaying that discrimination would not be tolerated bythe administration.
The other petition, signed by32 faculty members, called upon the university "to takepositive steps to help bring aboutcomplete equality of opportunity forblack people both within and outside the university community." The second faculty group would not support CORE by name, as thefirst group had, because50 or 100 CORE supporters had disrupted Dr.Elkin's April 24 convocation address in a noisy attempt toair their grievances. The student demonstrators were ejected fromthe field house.
More serious trouble brewedbriefly at the University of Maryland's predominantly Negro branch campus onthe Eastern Shore, known as Maryland State College. Located at Princess Mime in a depressed, tidewater county, the collegehas been subject to student unrest for several years butgained fresh prominence on May 17when Col. Robert J. Lally, head of thestate police, announced an impending student plot to seize a legislativedelegation on tour of the campus.
A party of nine legislators andnine other state officials toured the college that day withoutincident, amid student denial of any plans to seize them ashostages. Col. Lally, who had a contingent of troopers standingby, said afterward, "'We're glad nothing happened, but why itdidn't happen remains to beseen." That was the last heard onthe subjsct.
The legislators tended to beshocked at what they found. "It's a crime that the Universityof Maryland hasn't done more than it has down here,"State Sen. John J. Bishop Jr.,(D-Baltimore County) said. "It couldn't have done worse." Maryland-5 May, 1968
Del. WalterS. Orlinsky (D-Baltimore city) was quoted as saying, "It is perfectlyclear that, among other things, the state is committed to maintaining aracially segregated college system."
The committee chairman, Sen. William L. Hodges (D-Baltimore City), a veteran legislator, referred to the college as a"stepchild" and said, "Something has to be done about it."
Student unrest broke out for real on May 18, following an incident of refusal of service in a Princess Anne eating place, but the demonstrations were peaceful.About 200 students marched through the townls business street with signs protesting discrimination on the even'ing of May 18. On the 20th about 500 marched to the town bank while 100 withdrew their deposits, and on the 21st about 500 staged a mock funeral for "the death of injustice" under thetowers one traffic light.
In a surprise move, Gov. Spiro T. Agnew, who previously had taken a hard line against meeting with student protesters at Bowie State Co.Llege, invited a student delegation from Maryland State to come see him on the afternoon of May 210Dur4ng a 90-minute talk the governor assured the students of some physical improvements at the colllpe and said his staff would begin immediate talks with the "political and economic community" in Princess Anne to eliminate discriminatory practices.
The governor described his talk with the student delegation as "one of the most productive I've ever been in." He added, qily faith in the young people of this couptry has been restored." A studen+. leader, Rotan E. Lee, said, Tde have achieved our goals, and we are very, very pleased with the outcome of the talks." Lee said there would be no more demonstrations.
At Bowie State College, scene of a Negro student takeover in late March, quiet prevailed in May as the trials of 225 students arrested at a "study-in" at the State House were postponed, pending a test case. Gov. Agnew revealed early in the month that he was seeking information from an NAACP youth director, Kenneth R. Brown, who had said that the takeover at Bowie was a diversionary tactic to take the heat off a student plan to burn the college down.
At Johns Hopkins University on May 17 there were two gatherings of students, one white and the other Negro, to voice support of the Bowie students who had been arrested at the State House while seeking an audience with Gov. Agnew. At the white meeting, about 150 students and a few Hopkins faculty members heard speakers espouse the Bowie students' cause. Maryland-6 May, 1968
The Negro meeting, about the samesize but in a different place, consisted of students from Hopkins,Bowie2 Goucher College, Morgan State College and Coppin State Collegeand resulted in the formation of the Maryland Student BlackCoordinating Committee. The few whites in the audience left afterobjections were raised to having "the enemy" in the roan. The tenor of the meeting was a militantdisavowal of Agnew and other white leaders"who only seek to perpetuate the mass oppression ofblack people."
Protesting Negro students at CoppinState College, who had staged mild walkouts in April, met on May 2in an appeal for community support in their efforts to obtain morestate funds for their small campus, located in Baltimore. More than 100 persons turned out, but no members of the Board of Trustees ofthe State Colleges, who had been invited. The students vowed they would actresponsibly and exhaust all peaceftl remedies before tryingstronger measures to improve their college.
Coppin, Bowie and Maryland State have all beenlabeled as "segregation hangovers" by the BaltimoreSun, which has taken the editorial position that "a few plant improvements mayeliminate some of the immediate sourcesof dissatisfaction, but if the three colleges remain essentially Negro collegesthey have a limited future." * * *
Legal Action
Baltimore's city solicitor, George L. RussellJr., announced on May 28 that he wasopening an immediate investigation of city school desegregation, following aSupreme Court decision that cast doubts on freedom-of-choice policies such as prevailin Baltimore. Russell told reporters later the same week that he wasgoing into the matter of the city's extensive defacto segregation in depth and promised a "blistering" report.
A week later, on June 4, Russell said theinvestigation had been halted. He said that his office acts only on the request of a city agency, and "no onehas asked me for an opinion that would start such a probe."No other explanation for calling off the study was offered. Alexander Stark, who heads the City Council's education committee, criticized Russell's backing offand said he would consult with school officials to see whowould make a formal request of the city solicitor's office todetermine the effect of the Supreme Court decision on Baltimore schools. Maryland-7 Mary, 1963
Several study groups in the past have concluded that little could be done to break up the heavy concentraion ofNegro or nearly all Negro schools in Baltimore without an exchangeof students with the outlying, predominantly white BaltimoreCounty school system. The county has been strongly opposed to any exchange,but a slight change ofattitude occurred on May 10, when Milliam S. Sartorius, Baltimore County's school superintendent, said hewould meet with Baltimore's new superintendent, Dr.Sheldon, after July 1 to "discuss the possibilities" of a limited exchange.
J. Paul Tonetti, advisory specialist for civil rights in the Maryland Department of Education, said on May 27 that the Supreme Court's ruling on free choice would have most "relevancy" inMaryland for Dorchester County, which has less than a third ofits Negro pupils in schools with whites. The president of the Dorchester school board, T. Reynolds Carpenter, was reported on May28 as saying the county was considering a central high school for white and Negro students but had no plans under study to further the desegregation of elementary schools. * * *
Political Action
Somerset County voters on May 14 defeated a$2.6 million bond issue that was to have financed construction of a new high school as part of a countywidedesegregation plan. The vote was 3,105 against the loan and only 1,513 for it.
John L. Bond, the county school superintendent, had saidin advance that the county would have to desegregete itssix small high schools by September, 1970 whether the bond issuepassed or not. The county school system had been ordered to desegregate extensively this September and completely by 1970 under adirective from the Maryland Board of Education. The state directLve came after Somerset had had its federal education funds deferredfor lack of civil rights compliance.
Although no opposition to the loan had taken organized form, Bond said after the defeat that "there was a pretty good campaign by word of mouth."On the same day throughout Maryland as well as in Somerset County, votersturned out to defeat a new state constitution which had been under conservative attack as a "liberal" document.A county political observer linked the two negative votes, saying, "They were just prepared to vote against anything." * * * Maryland-8 May, 1968
City councilmen were atloggerheads in Baltimorevs Second Councilmanic District, which isevenly divided between white and Negro voters. Councilman Robert L. Douglass jra, aNegro, accused two white members of thedistrict delegation of delayingschool construction by trying to have a newschool site shifted to a white residential section.
Councilmen Joseph V. Mach andClement J. Prucha denied the charge of delay and said,"Obviously, Councilman Douglass istrying to railroad through anexpensive school-building budgetwhich will cost the taxpayers hundredsof thousands of dollars,while ignoring the wishes of the taxpayersinvolved." Councilmen Mach and Prucha are white, andthey are conferring with whiteresidents as to where the school should be located.
Doubts as to the wisdom ofschool construction plans in the Fourth District were expressed byCouncilman Henry G. Parks Jr., a prominentNegro business man. On May 27 Councilman Parks repeated his concern with five sitesin his district, which woulddisplace about 200 Negro families.Parks suggested that the schoolboard had been pushed into a costly programof replacing obsolete inner-city schools without having sufficientknowledge of the extent to which sections of the inner city wereemptying out.
Negro students at Dunbar HighSchool appealed in May to have a large asphalt "playground" turnedinto a grass playing field and succeeded in having a resolution tothat effect introduced in the City Council. The students said the hard surface wasunsafe for games and was littleused. The high school faculty andadministration supported the student petition. * * *
ammilzAltim The U.S. Naval Academy trainedits big gun, in the person of Rear Adm. Draper L. Kauffman, on theAnne Arundel County Board of Education but through May had not shakenthe decision to shift the children of academy personnel to apredominantly Negro school.
The children of Navy families hwvebeen going to the West Annapolis Elementary School, whichin the past school year was 96 per cent white. Under a redistricting plan,124 children would be bused next September tothe Adams Park ElementarySchool, two miles away, which in the past yearhad only 17 per cent white children. Under the busing plan, the whitepercentage would increase to 39 per cent, while thewhite enrollment at West Annaplis would drop to 80 per cent. Maryland-9 May, 1968
Academy parents protested the shift as a "violation ofthe neighborhood concept" and as a waste of transportation money on children who lived within walking distance of theirpresent school. When the parents failed, Admiral Kauffman,academy superintendent, made a personal visit to the county executive and countyschool board president, saying he was acting in the interest ofthe "morale and welfare" of Navy personnel, who felt they werevictims of "discrimination" because they are transient residents ofAnnapolis.
School board members denied treating Academychildren any differently than other children and expressed the hope that "the Navy will undersuand and go along with the plan." But according to a news account in the Baltimore Sun of June 2,the Naval Academy was considering an appealto the MaTiTand Board of Education. "I think I probably will take it up to thestate board," Admiral Kauffman said. 'We'll have to get the committee together 4..odecide." * * *
Baltimore's extensive school construction plans toreplace obsolete inner-city schools caught somewhite backlash in May as parents, teachers and some schooladministrators from the Third District trooped before the school board to plead for more new schools in their predominantly white residentialsections. Third District spokesmen, including their councilmen,offered figures showing that their district had received fewer newschools than any of the other sixdistricts over the past five years and would be on the short end over the coming five years.
No mention of race was made. But it was the Third District that had new schoolprojects deferred last year when blackmilitants insisted on more school construction funds for the innercity. State Sen. J, Joseph Curran Jr.,(D-Third) put the issue in perspective when he urged the school board to build new schoolsin outlying sectors "to encourage middle income groups to stay where theyare." The alternative, Curran said, was more removal of taxpayersto the nearby county. * * *
The Parents' Council at Western High School, anall-girls school in Baltimore, protested in May against thecompletely open-enrollment policy, which was forcing Western ontoextended-day shifts, Under the policy, adopted by the school board at the urging of black militants, three high schoolswill be on extended-day schedules next September, while five high schoolswill have below-normal enrollments. The overcrowded high schools are predominantly white; the under-utilized schools are predominantlyNegro. ** Maryland-l0 May, 1968
Negro inner-city parents in the vicinity of Johns Hopkins Hospital protested in May against plans for an experimental elementary school, which would have 125 neighborhood children and 125 children of hospital staff members. The school closest to the hospital now has an all-Negro enrollment and staff, and the children of Hopkins personnel go elsewhere to school.
The experimental school is a favorite project of Francis C. Murnaghan Jr., president of the school board, who sees it as an opportunity to introduce pupil and staff integration in the inner city. He had found a white principal and several teachers at an outlying school who were willing to undertake the experiment, which had first been suggested in discussions between the late Supt. Laurence G. Paquin and Milton S. Eisenhower, then president of Johns Hopkins University.A vacant Catholic parochial school was available for the project.
Murnaghan explained the model-school plan at a neighborhood meeting, which was hostile at the outset, because of previous rumors that the "Hopkins" war going to take over the neighborhood school, and became more hostile as Negroes learned that the plans had been advanced without their having been consulted and that a white principal had been picked for the project.
The hostility carried aver to a school board meeting on May 16. Mrs. Elizabeth Murphy Moss, a Negro board member, criticized the model-school plan as "a prestige thing set up for the benefit of Hopkins." James M. Griffin, the second Negro board member, criticized the appointment of white principals in Negro neighborhoods when "black prircipals are available."A white board member, Philip Macht, supported Mrs. Moss's call for a delay in naming the principal. The rest of the board, however, voted for the appointment of Miss Kathaleen V. Kennedy, the white principal.
Murnaghan on May 31 said that the Broadway-Hopkins Experimental School, as it will be called, would be opened this September, "if interested parents can be identified promptly to co-operate with the school staff in planning the school program.Murnghan said the school's staff would be "completely integrated" and enrollment would be voluntary. * * *
Under Survey
The Baltimore school system on May 7 announced the formation of a committee to study the feasibility of amiddle-school arrangement or 4-4-4 organization of the standard 12 Frades.Baltimore currently has six grades in elementary schools, three in junior highs and three in senior highs. Maryland-11 May, 1968
The middle-school plan wassuggested last year by the Mayor's Task Force for Equal Rights onthe premise that it would promote a greaterracial mixture from the fifthgrade onward as children left neighborhood schoolsto attend a larger secondary school. Baltimore's incoming superintendent,Thomas D. Sheldon, utilized the middle-school conceptto alleviate de factc segregation in Hempstead, N.Y., where he has beensuperintendent. * * *
Miscellaneous
Last month's report from Marylandomitted the formal approval in Montgomery County of aplan to bus two dozen Negrochildren from Mashington to the suburban whiteBannockburn Elementary School. The children will be scattered amongthe first, second and third grades in the first example ofcity-county co-operation in the Washington region.Bannockburn parents proposed anddeveloped the plan. The Washington school systemwill pay tuition and bus costs. MISSISSIPPI HIGHLIGHTS
Schools in Quitman County were closed by a student-teacher boybott for more than a week, surrounding events of organizing the "Poor People's March" on Washington at Marks.Teachers were later reinstated by the county board of education.
At Shelby, Some 10100 Negro students who went out on boycott in May remained out of school the remainder of monthvreturning only to take examinations.The protest surrounded failure of Bolivar County School District Five to rehire the principal at Shelby who had been active in politics last summer.
Two Negro teachers at Shelby not rehired by the school district filed suit in Federal District Court to get their jobs back and damages of $100,000 each.
A Clarksdale Press-Register columnist says protests against the dual scbool system in Mississippi are now in a new stage as a result of boycotts in Quitman County and Shelby.
The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill raising state private school tuition grants from 0_85 to $240 a year, without any explanation as to the legal status of tuition grants. Missis sippi-1 May, 1968
MISSISSIPPI
Community Action
A student-teacher boycott closed the fourall-Negro schools in Quitman County in the north Delta for more than aweek in early May, while the "Poor People's March" on. Washington wasbeing organized at Marks. At Shelby, about 30 miles from Marks, anotherNegro school baycott was launched over refusal ofthe school board to rehire Eddie Lucas, principal of the elementary schooldivision. An estimated 1,000 of the 1,100 students enrolled at the12-grade Broadstreet School at Shelby and a majority of the teachers were absent during the May 6-10 school week.
The initial friction at Shelby had come when students and teachers left school following the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. in early April and the town had imposed an 830 .m.curfew. Dimas, who has 13 years experience in the Shelbyschool system, had served last year as campaign manager for KermitStanton, a Negro who wan a post as member of the county board ofsupervisors in Bolivar County.
Lucas contended that "everything was lovelyudoveyuntil we got a Negro elected supervisor." A generalboycott was called by Negro citizens in Shelby. May 3 after it waslearned by Lucas that the Bolivar County School District Three boardhad refused to renew Lucas's contract as a principal andteacher. Sympathetic teachers joined the boycott movement, and on May 9,about 25 teachers of Broadstreet School walked to theoffice of Joel Chapman, superintendent of the school district. The teachers later met with the board of trustees but were told theboard would not alter its earlier decision.
In Quitman County, the caanty board ofeducation decided on May 7 it would take no action against any of theteachers who had walked out with students over an incidentinvolving a worker for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference averrecruiting of persons for the Poor People's March. The boycott emptied the rooms of the all-Negro schoolsin Quitman County, including three elementary schools and the Quitman County IndustrialHigh School. At the latter school, Marks police had arrestedWillie Bolden, a SCLC organizer, onMay 1 on charges he was disturbing the peace at the school grounds.
About 40 students poured out of school and marched tothe courthouse of the tiny Quitman County seat and sat downoutside the jail, demanding Bolden's release. After an hour, highway patrolmen armed with long night stidks routedthe students, injuring several of them. The breakup of the demnstration triggered in turn a mardh on the Quitman County courthouseby hundreds of Negroes on May 2.More than 100 Negro teachers employed in the district took part in the school boycott, which startedMay 2. Mississippi.2 Mey, 1968
County board of Ney Gores Marks,attorney for the Quitman education, said laterwhen the board agreedto take no action principals to tell the against the teacherssTWe instructed the be disaarged, teachers that the boardhad recommended that no one 10 and every and that the schools wereexpected to open by May teacher on duty." voted to accept theterms The Negro teachersmet on May 7 and agreed and return to school onMay 100 Gore said the teachers classes on Saturdayand to make up the sixlost days by holding extending the term bythree days. * * *
Broadstreet School Two Negro teachersat Shelbyls all.Negro back or have filed suit inU.S. District Courtto get their jobs board of be paid damages of$100,000 each.The failure of the and business trustees to rehire themtouched off a school walkout boycott earlier thisspring. of the elementary The plaintiffs areEddie Lucas, principal and Joseph Delaney, a school divisions ofthe 12.grade school, The defendants are social studies teacherin the high school. of the board oftrustees Joel Chapman,superintendent, members Lit Evans, principalof the of Bolivar CountyDistrict Three and high school division.
Lucas and Delaneycharge that they werenot rehired because their support of Kermit of their civilrights activities and Bolivar County Stanton, a Negro who waselected supervisor in for dismissal They also claimthey were given no reason las fall. The board and thatthey have not had ahearing. by the school officials to explore court action seeksdepositions from school the two men. the causes of thefailure to rehire early discovery and The plaintiffsfiled a motion to allow the reasons for thefailure to require productionof documents on 1967-68 school year hasended to renew thecontracts because the beginning of the nextsession. and little tireremains before the granted, it must begranted..0 "If any effectiverelief is to be fixed for the comingschool year," very soon,before plans are the motion said. Mississippi-3 Man 1968
The plaintiffs also moved on an annexed complaint for a preliminary injunction to prevert thedefendants from failing to renew the contracts orhiring anyone else for the positions. In another motion the plaintiffs citedanother case in which the court ruled a schoolteacher or principalwould be constitutionally entitled to re-employment if he can provethat the school officials did not have good cause or exercisesound discretion in failing to rehire him or failed to rehirehim in response to the teacher's efforts on behalf of fuller politicalparticipation for Negroes.
The complaint said that Lucas, ateacher at Broadstreet Elementary School for 13 years and principalfor six years, and Delaney, ateacher in Broad Street HighSchool for two years, are both"highly qualified in urging Negroes to educators." Both, it said, have been active participate in politics. "The reasons for defIndants'refusal to renew plaintiffs'contracts violate plaintiffs'rights under the First and 14th Amendments tothe Constitution," thecomplaint charges.
The suit was the latestfiled concerning Shelby. U.S. District Judge Malliam C. Keady earlierheard a suit and a countersuit In between dissident Negrocitizens in Shelby and townofficials. other cases, Judge Keadystrudk down an 830 p.m.curfew imposed on the town,and in a counteraction bythe town to end the boycott Judge Keady upheld the rightto picket on the public passageways such as sidewalks but ruledagainst intimidation ofthose who chose to buy at the storesbeing boycotted.
In the curfew ruling, the townof Shelby was ordered to stop enforcing two curfew ordinancesand a mayor's proclamationforbidding gatherings of more than five persons onthe.street.
Rmling that the curfew lawoffended First and 14thAmendments, of Judge Keady said it was unjustifiedbecause there was "no state unrest of civil disobedience"in the city. In the two-day hearings, attorneys for the LawyersConstitution DefenseCommittee argued that the curfew made everycity resident a prisonerat night.
Halting a boycott of theBroadstreet School anddiscauraging White a selectivebuying campaign Negroeshave imposed against merchants were cited as reasonsfor the curfew. The protest began contracts of Lucas and when the school boardfailed to renew the Delaney and about 1,000students of the 1,100students in the school walked out of classes. Mississippi-4 May, 1968
The Negro students returned to classes in late May, abbut two weeks after the walkout and boycott began.Although teachers were absent for only a couple of days about 90 per cent of the students missed classes for two weeks. However, with the end of the school term approaching, seniors returned to school and were graduated on schedule.
Delaney, one of the spokesmen for the Shelby Educational Committee, which is behind the boycott, said he thought he had not been rehired because he taught his students that America is basically a racist country. He said he talked about black power but was not a black power advocate. "Dm for total justice for all the people," he said. He said the loss of his and Lucas's jobs and the curfew were just two of several complaints of Shelby Negroes. He said others were the lack of communication between the school board and the black community, no summer recreational program, the failure to provide "quality education" in the schools, vacillation over salary raises and eviction of a Head Start program from a building owned by the school system.
The boycott has cut sharply into the business of the merchants in the municipality of 2,500 people. Delaney said that most of the Negro buying is conducted in the nearby Mound Bayou, a practically all-Negro community. He said that although the boycott is primarily a local movement, it had the support of the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Delta Ministry.
The curfew was clamped on early in April after unrest following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
What They Say
Protests against the dual school system in Mississippi may have entered a new phase in May with the walkouts of students and teachers in all-Negro schools in Quitman County and in Shelby, Curtis Wilkie observes in his cclumn "...And In This Corner," in the Clarksdale Press RegistITT. "Through the boycotts, which were relative y spontaneous, egro forces may have inadvertantly come upon a new means to extract concessions from all-white schoolboards," Wilkie writes.
By refusing to take part in a dual school system, Negroes could cause an upheaval far greater and quicker than the 1954 Brown decision, he believes. In Qiitman County, with no one to tea= the all-Negro schools, the only public institutions left for the children were the predominantly White ones. Mississippi-5 Mays 1968
The issue there was resolved by a compromise. The teachers, who had been threatened with the lossof their jobs if they left their classes, would not be discharged,and they would make up the six days lost during the walkout. However, for short periods of time, the education process inpart of two school systems was stopped by strikes.
"School walkouts are a radical approach to whatparticiptnts consider prob1ems3 but they feel that it isthe only way to achieve their objective," Wilkie says. "It could be that Negroes may resort more and more tothis tactic in an effort to increaseintegration."
*.41. 4E.
Le.gislative Action
The Mississippi House of Representativespassed a bill raising the private school tuition grants from$185 to $240 a year after little floor discussion.No action has been taken on the bill in the Senate, as the 1968 regularsession of the legislature neared an end.
Badkers of the tuition grant bill said thatthe increase was "in line with" the increases in publicschool teachers salaries at the present legislative session. They said that the number of students in private schools securingthe grants is expected to increase to 5,000 next school year. No comment was made that similar private school tuition grants enactedafter .desegregation of public schools have been thrown out by federalcourts in other states, and that a challenge against the Mississippilaw is pending in federal court. * * *
An effort to revive a bill toallow school districts to levy a 10-mill propertytax if they lost federal fundsbecause of failure to comply with school desegregationguidelines, failed in the Senate. MISSOURI HIGHLIGHTS
Dr. William: Kottmeyer, superintendentof St. Louis schools, warned a special statelegislative committee May 17 of terrible consequences if solutionsto big city school problems are not found soon in Missouri.
John B. Ervin, a Negro, who will becomedean of the Washington University school of continuing education onJuly 1, will serve as acting chairmanof the Missouri Commission on HumanRights.
Students at the University of Missouri-KansasCity and Metropolitan Junior College-Kansas City have respondedto the area's racial problems by forming actioncommittees to break down the barriers between white and black. In the first UMKC Human Relations commission meeting May 2, about80 students signed up for various committeesdesigned to take direct action against racial inequities at the university and in thecommunity.
St. Louis University will begin a newscholarship program next year for culturally andeconomically deprived students with an expected firstterm group of 20, the Rev. Paul C. Reinert, S'.J. president, said May 17.
The University of Missouri was awarded a$)42)486 grant May 18 to organize a council in St. Louis fordevelopment of better relations between news media and minority groups.
The number of youths loitering in andaround St. Louis schools is expected to decrease becauseof the work of five policemen assigned to duties in the schools,Capt. Phelan of the police juvenile division said May 10
Five new programs providing265 jobs will be made available to St. Louis high school students fromdisadvantaged areas this summer. The jobs will be provided by the St. Louis Board of Education in co-operation with several businesses andorganizations. Missouri-1 May, 1968
MISSOURI
Schoolmen
Dr. Milliam Kottmeyer, superintendent of St. Louis schools, warned a special state legislative committee May 12 of terrible consequences if solutions to big city school problems are not found soon in Missouri. The Missouri State Teachers Association and the Missouri School Boards Association joined in urging that state aid to public schools be boosted to half the cost of education from the present 34.2 per cent.
Dr. Kottmeyer predicted increasing difficulties if the state does not help the big cities, and quickly. Tde have not yet the misery of New York or Chicago or other big cities," Dr. Kottmeyer said, and then repeated with emphasis the word "yet."
Appearing before an interim Committee on Public School Financing, Dr. Kottmeyer endorsed proposals to hike state aid to districts generally, but made a special appeal for recognition of the problems of the metropolitan areas. State government, he said, is the logical partner for the city in coping with the financial and social problems, not the federal government.
"If the federal government is our partner in this relationship," he declared, "God grant us some more enemies."
The Pruitt-Igoe housing project which is occupied by. Negroes was termed a monstrosity by. Kottmeyer. He said massive urban renewal projects, which shrink the property tax base and provide skimpy payments in lieu of taxes, are helping to create a "crime environment" in St. Louisv inner city, he said.
In turn, the St. Louis system is having grave cbfficulties hiring and keeping qualified teachers, despite attractive salaries, because they fear for their safety. Much has been made of the $6 million in federal aid to St. Louis schools, he said, but it does not make up for the loss suffered by the system as a result of other programs. The federal funds are for supplementary or special category projects, which "donvt reach the real problem of the educational program," he said. Missouri-2 May, 1968
In a letter to membersof the St. Louis Board ofEducation May 18, Dr. Kottmeyer saidthat budget-cutting actionunder consideration by Congress wouldreduce from $4.3 million to $3 million funds to St. Louisschools under Title I.He said that is in addition tocutbacks of nearly$400,000 for St. Louis already contained inPresident Johnson's1968.69 budget. Programs reaching 70,000St. Louis Children, includingthe Rooms of 20 program, theLincoln Opportunity HighSchool, the Vit-A-Lunch programl teacher aides,study-learning resources centers, curriculum materialscenters and various counseling programs would bejeopardized. * * *
John B. Ervin, a Negro, who willbecome dean of the Washington University school of continuingeducation on Jay 1 will serve as actingchairman of the MissouriCommission on Hunan Rights, will it was announced May21. Ervin, commission vice chairman, be acting chairman untilGov. Warren E. Hearnes,appoints a successor toForrest P. Carson, a JeffersonCity lawyer whose term on,the commissionexpired in April. * * *
In The Colleges
Students at the University ofMissouri-Kansas City and Metropolitan Junior College-Kansas City haveresponded to the area's racial problems by forming actioncommittees to break down thebarriers between white and black. In the first UMKC HumanRelations commission meeting May 2, about 80students signed up for variouscommittees designed to take direct actionagainst racial inequities atthe university and in the community.
At the junior college, about50 students, predominantly Negro, have initiated "OperationFriendship" to promote understanding and communication betweenthe races. Leonard Vann, junior college sophomore and a spokesman forthe human rights action group,said efforts had been based on thebelief that most of today'sproblems stem from persons notunderstanding ane another.
"There is only one race," hesaid, "the human race. The race problem is there, but the bigproblem is just relating to each other as human beings." The group has started campaignsentitled "operation touch" and "operationbunk-in" to help replace fear and ignorance with friendshipand understanding, Vannsaid. Missouri-3 May, 1968
"Our group has begun 'operationtouch' in our cafeteria," Vann said, which is really segregatedinformally.
"A lot of naive peoplethink something is wrong with the black man's skin. So we are using this direct contactapproach, using our hand as a symbolof friendship.
"For 'operation bunk-in,' amember of ons race is staying a week with a member of another. If you've never been in theghetto, you don't knowwhat's going on. By the same token, if you've never lived on 15Oth Street, youdon't know what's going on thereeither."
Vann said that the group was planningdances, picnics and summer programs. He said they were not approachingthe problem of discrimination by putting pressure onwhite individuals and groups, but insteadby establishing meaningfulrelationships.
The UMKC human relations groupplans to apply pressure as well as promote understanding,said Richard L. Hoover, UMKC sophomore and chairman of thecommission established by the student council. Committees dealing with such areas ashousing, job opportunities and curriculum analysishave been established. Hoover told about 3_50 persons at ameeting that the commission was prepared totake legal and boycotting action toend discrimination and fight racism.
William:M. Washington, associatedirector of the Kansas City Urban League, said at the meetingthat the present racial crisis, like cancer, would spread anddestroy society if its causes were not treated.
Outlining specific programs of thecommission, Hoover said one of the firstefforts would be to attack housingdiscrimination against university students,especially in apartments that come under the control of federal andlocal fair housing rules. He said the commission would take personsto court who were violating the laws and would attempt toget students to move out ofhousing owned by persons who discriminated.
Hoover said the commission wasattacking the problem at UMKC by trying to make Negro studentsfeel more welcome, and by actively recruiting Negro studentsby sending UNKO students back to their old high schools in theinner city to urge enrollment.
Hoover said the student council may fund aspecial scholarship program to encourageNegro students to come to the university.He also said the commission planned to set uptutorial programs to help students adjust to the universitycurriculum once they get to UMKC. He added, however, that the curriculumitself should be modified to adapt to the Negro. Missouri-4 May, 1968
ability, often He said that Negroes, evenif they have the based upon studentshaving fail at UNKC becausethe curriculum is university can't background. "It is a shame thatthe a white badkground," he said. realize that people arenot all alike in * * *
sdholarship program St. Louis Universitywill begin a new deprived students with next year forculturally and economically the Rev. Paul C.Reinert, S.J., an expectedfirst-term group of 20, would recruit the president, said May17. He said the univerbity aid them in finding students, give themfUll-tuition scholarships, purchase of books part-time employment andaward them grants for and equipment. ability and motivation The students willbe chosen for their requirements, from among those who areunable to meet theusual entrance he said, and will begiven tutoring andspecial instruction to participate in a full assist them in increasingtheir ability to university schedule ofwork. two scholarships Father Reiner announcedalso the awarding of Rights and SocialJustice. by the CardinalRitter Foundation for Human Hunt, a senior at The recipients, bothNegroes, are Miss Lorraine McBride Beaumont High School,and Claude AnthonyPenny, a senior at High School. * * *
$4,486 grant May 18 The University ofMissouri was awarded a development of better to organize a councilin St. Louis for The grant was relations between newsmedia and minority groups. Press. made by the LowellMellett Fund for a Freeand Responsible through late fall. The council will fUnctionfrom early summer will be sent to thefund The work will beevaluated and a report bequest to the by the end of this year. The fund administers a Mellett, Scripps-Howard American Newspaper Guildby the late Lowell columnist and executive. * * *
Community Action Louis schools The number of youthsloitering.in and around St. of five policemer is expected to decreasebecause of the work Joseph Phelan of the paice assigned to duties inthe schools, Capt, youths are juvenile division saidMay l. He said most of the non-students, some of whomhave been expelledfrom the schools halls and sometimes where they cause trouble. They walk through enter rooms while waitingfor friends in school. Missouri-5 May, 1968
Capt. Phelan said loitererswho are juveniles are turned over schools to juvenile authorities. Older youths are taken from the to their homes, and theofficers warn their parentsthat trespassing charges will result if theyouths are apprehended a secondtime on school property. * * *
Five new programs providing265 jobs will be made available to St. Louis high schoolstudents from disadvantaged areasthis summer. The jobs will be providedby the St. Louis Board of Education in co-operation withseveral businesses andorganizations. This was announced May15.
Under two programs, about 200students will be employed 30 hours a week fornine weeks by the Board ofEducation and other governmental agencies. The programs are funded by agrant of $82,500 from the vocational division of theMissouri State Department ofEducation. About 175 of the 200 studentswill work in various departments of the school system, and25 will be placed in governmentalagencies.
Forty graduating seniors willparticipate in a summer training program forengineeringaides at the University ofMissouri at Rolle. Fifteen junior students from inner.cityhigh schools will become trainees in a bank training programoperated by a local bank. The IBM Corp0 is offering anintensive eight.week training program to 10 graduating seniors whodo not plan to attend college. * * *
Through a little-known KansasCity Rotary Club program called 91ouble abaut 730 high school dropoutshave been given a second chance, over the last five years,to complete their work for diplbmas. This was disclosed May 19.
Although many did not persistto graduation, many have used the program's employmentopportunity to finance completionof a high school education.Max H, Koerner, current chairmanof the program, said it isfinanced in Kansas City withoutoutside help. The Kansas City school districtprovides leadership.
Rotary Club members participateby opening jobs in their firms to young people who needthem, Koerner said. Dropouts are directed to school district officialsby high school counselors orfriends. Missouri-6 May, 1968
Koerner said 83 youths presently areemployed and attending school through the program. He said he is pleased that with so little fanfare the DoubleE (for education andemployment) effort has gone so well. "Certainly," he said, "it operateswith a minimum of expense and hopefullywith a maximum of results." * * * yhat They Say
Urban America is beccming thediscard heap of the disadvantaged as blacks andwhites divide into separatesocieties, a St. Louis educator said May16 in theJackson County civil rights symposium at the University ofMissouri-Kansas City. The Rev. Lucius F. Cervantes, director of the St. LouisUniversity social research center and research assistant tohis brother, St. Louis Mayor A. J. Cervantes, said thaturban riots are not caused by the frustrated Negroes, but by whites whodo not provide equal opportunities to the Negro in jobs,housing and education.
The white emigration to the suburbsis increasing segregation and magnifying urban problems,Father Cervantes said. "The black neck of the central city isbecoming surrounded by the white noose of the suburbs," he said.
Cervantes said an indication of increasingsegregation could be found in the percentage ofNegroes enrolled in grade schools. In St. Louis grade schools80 per cent of the students are Negro, while in suburban St. Louis County,nine per cent are Negro.
He added that segregated education wasinferior for the Negro. As an example, he noted that in theSt. Louis area, about twice as much money isbeing spent for educating the suburbanchild as for the urban child.And this inferior education, hesaid, produces persons wibh poorachievement potential. * *
Transport children from ghetto areas tobetter schools or establish ghetto schools that willdraw white people to them like a magnet, a2967 National Book Anrd Winner saidin St, Louis May 13. Jonathan Kozol author of !Meath at anEarly Age.," and a former teacher, saiu in an interview thatblack militants established a school in Roston which has gainedwide white respect. It will open for its third year in September withabout 100 students, of which nearly 30 are white. Missouri-7 May, 1968
Kozol suggested transportingstudents from the Pruitt-Igoe Apartments, a disadvantaged area,to better schools in St. Lovis. He said "busing" was not a badword until a few years ago. But, if the students are not transported,he suggested formation of ghetto schools in which the parents have amajor voice in the choosing of teachers, administratorsand curriculum. * * *
The Kansas City Star said in aneditorial May 2:
"Last March James A. Hazlett,Kansas City superintendent of schools outlined a long-range planto promote integration in the system and deal with specificproblems that generate friction and inequality of opportunity.
"At the time it was generallyagreed that public discussion of the plan would be delayeduntil after the fair housing election April 30. But that election was canceledbecause of the federal law and a new and strongerlocal ordinance enacted. In the interim, the city suffered thedisorders of April in which events in and around schools werefactors.
"So now, it would seeml the soonerthe superintendent's proposals can be considered bythe board and the public, the better,
"In general, it is proposed thatthe district move toward a 'cluster' ormaster elementary school plan thatwould draw pupils from wider geographic areasand thus tend to further integration.
"Specialized high schools that would drawstudents from the entire district are contemplated. The superintendent also suggests that no more strictly neighborhoodelementary schools be constructed so long as there isusable space in other schools. That would mean more busing, Even so, new buildings are needed wherechildren live, and when existing schools are oldand decrepit, they must be replaced. Thus the proposal that the Carver,Booker T. Nashington and Yeager elementary buildings bereplaced by a single elementary campus.
"The superintendent also suggests programsto increase faculty integration and special instruction forteachers in human relations techniques.. He would like the MissouriCommission on Human Rights to determine the degree of integrationand placement policies in the colleges that specialize inteacher training, He proposes constant reviews of books and otherinstructional materials to make certain the content is fair to minority groups. Missouri-e May, 1968
"Finally, Hazlett proposes acitizens group to consider the plan and to test publicsentiment of its varioussections. Hearings and public discussionswould be an important partof the procedure 0 0. * * *
The St. Louis Globe-Democratsaid in an editorial May 13:
"It has been estimated bySt. Louis school authoritiesthat dropped out some1,500 or more ex...students who havebeen expelled or now roam citystreets with. nothing to do butget into trouble,
"That they have been getting introuble is quite obvious from reading the mounting list ofcrimes they commit daily,including murders, holdups, muggings,burglaries, virtually every type of offense,
"Police say they are doing allthey can by apprehending as maqy as50 or more juveniles each week fordowntown crimes.
"But still young toughs: harass.androb downtown business people tb the point that some aregoing out of business rather than face death or beatingsat the hands of these younghoodlums.
41What is the answer? It certainly doesn't lie in merely stepping up enforcement,although this'could help.
"If this problem is to be met,it must be done by preventive measures.
"If school authorities knowthe approximate number ofthose who have been expelled or whohave quit school, they alsoknow who these ycmng people are,
"Some communities meet thisproblem by opening up school gymnasiums and classrooms inthe evening hours for recreational and training programs for young menwho can't make it inday'school. The results have been excellent.
"It has been found thesecitywide programs have been able to materially reduce juvenilecriMe andsalvage the lives of many previously thought to be hopelesscases...." NORTH CAROLINA HIGHLIGHTS
state's largest School desegregationplans in two of the termed unsatisfactory school districts,Raleigh and Greensboro, were Both cities by the Departmentof Health, Educationand Welfare. are threatenedwith the loss offederal funds. victories over the The towns of Clintonand Fairmont won rare the issue of the Department of Health,Education and Welfare on by hearing examiners. pace of schooldesegregation, in rulings High School in A week.long boyrottof all.Negro Central Hillsborough ended after an"interpretation" of thefreedom-of.choice reassignment, of Negrostudents plan hastened theentrance, under to predominantlywhite Orange HighSchool. North Carolina-1 May, 1968
NORTH CAROLINA
Schoolmen
The Raleigh Board of Education was told by theDepartment of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) to prove in legal proceedings that it is complying with federal desegregation requirements or lose all federal funds. The school system receives approximately $900,000 annually in federal funds. The board was given 20 days in which to file an answer and request a hearing.
The Raleigh board was accused of "purmlirig policy and practice of operating a public school system on a raciallysegregated basis," and of failing "to operate its amendeddesegregation plan effectively" and to live up to its agreement to complywith the revised (HEW) guidelines.
HEW found fault with both the Raleigh board's original freedom-of-choice plan and the geographic zoning plansubsequently adopted as a substitute. HEW has advised the board the new plan is inadequate, but the board has refusedto reconsider it.Among other things, HEW alleged that:
* The Raleigh school district "has failed to takeaffirmative steps to implement a plan which would effectivelyeliminate its racially dual school system by the opening of the1968-69 school year, or ab the latest by theopening of the 1969-70 school year."
* The Raleigh school district has not corrected theeffects of past discriminatory practices in the assignment of teachersand other professional staff.
*"The fear of Negroparents and children, caused by the long history of segregation andother discrimination in the school district and by community attitudesand pressures, prevents them from exercising an uninhibited 'freedom ofchoice.'"
*"In the schools attended exclusively by Negro students(the school district) provides educational opportunitiesand facilities that are inferior to those provided...in schools attendedprimarily by white students."
* The school district "has failed to eliminate racialsegregation in connection with its services, facilities andactivities including, but not limited to, construction of schools, specialeducational programs, athletics and other extracurricularactivities sponsored by or affiliated with the schools." North Carolina-2 May, 1968
1967-68, 5,157 of a totalof HEW said that forthe school year which the studentenrollment 5,790 Negro studentsattended schools in added HEW, no whitestudent Negro. For the same year, was exclusively predominantly attended any schoolin the systemwhich was attended by students ofthe Negro race. of Education, invited Mauride Thiem, chairmanof the Raleigh Board zoning plan in detailand to citizens to examinethe geographic before the board convenes make "specificsuggestions" for changes to discuss theHEW charges. * * *
to eliminate its HEW told the Greensborocity school system face the loss ofabuut "racially identifiable"education system or Eleven Greensboro schools are $84ol000 annually infederal aid. Negro students," "clearly identifiable asbeing maintained for from Dr. EloiseSeverinson Supt. P. J. Weaver wasinformed in a letter rights director withHEW. of Charlottesville,Va., regional civil of choice procedure Dr. Severinson toldWeaver that "the freedom desegregating students, andthe has not been aneffective means of unchanged in youradministrative dual school systemremains virtually unit." "falls considerably Weaver was advised thatfaculty desegregation classroom short" of the standardof assigning "atleast two full-time The letter did not teachers" on a desegregatedbasis to each school. identify the 11 schoolscited. that a check of city But the GreensboroDaily News, reported only Negro students. One school records showsthat 11 schools have reported, three of the 11 has anall-Negro faculty, the newspaper faculty member, while seven of the schools haveonly one white of the schools havetwo or more whiteteachers. number of teachers The newspaper reportedthat Weaver said the had more than in schools where moststudents are of a different race to about 105 this term. doubled in the pastyear--from 48 last year "We have stated that wewould employ and assignpersonnel without and continues regard to race," Weaversaid. "This has been our policy operating schools forstudents to be our policy.We are positively not student has ever beencoerced of any one race. To our knowledge no application for a to accept a particularschool or denied his desegregated education." North Carolina-3 May, 1968
The Daily News commentededitorially: "...HEW still hassuggested little in the way ofguidance for local officials who aretrying to provide equal education forall pupils and equalopportunities for all teachers, and who wantto comply with the law, butwho are not willing to destroy a fineschool system by playing anarbitrary numbers game ...." * *
During the month of May, twoNorth Carolina school districts Clinton city and Fairmontcity--won their disputes with the federal government over the paceof school desegregation.Hearing examiner with the Horace H. Robbins foundClinton city schools in compliance elimination of law. He said, "Progress hasbeen made toward the the dual school system,and although the progresshas not been impressive, it is sufficient"to forestall any cutoffof federal aid to the Clinton schools.
"This was only the fifth timein 158 decisions by trialexaminers for the Department ofHealth, Education and Welfarethat a local school board under fire bythe government had won itscase," wrote WashingtonReporterlarnes K. Batten in theCharlotte Observer. In addition to Clinton andFairmont, Batten wrote, two ofRE4Is other setbacks were in SouthCarolina, and one in Alabama.
Five N.C. districts havelost their cases, and four ofthem-- Hyde, Jones and Martincounties, and Wilson city--arethreatened with loss of federal funds.The fifth district--JohnstonCounty-- has since reached an agreementwith HEW that will keep federal funds flowing.
In the 1966-67 school year,114 Negro children in Clinton attended predominantlywhite schools. This year, the number increased by 10, to124 of Clinton's 1,482 Negro pupils. Faculty desegregation increased fromthe equivalent of6.7 teachers in desegregated situations last yearto the equivalent of 12.7full-time teachers this year.
The Clinton school boardhas promised that next year,the number of Negro childrenin desegregated schoolswill increase from 124 to 230. Faculty desegregation willincrease 9) per cent.
In the Fairmont case,Hearing Examiner Irvin N.Hackerman and reached a similar conclusion. Fairmont had 1,036 white students 3_2225 Negro students when schoolsopened last September.Most of the Negroes attendedall-Negro schools, while52 Negroes attended the town's one predominantlywhite school under freedomof choice. North Carolina-4 May, 1968
the Fairmont school officialstold Hackerman that next year school will number of Negroes attendingthe predominantly white have 10 full-time be increased to250. They also offered to instructors teaching acrossracial lines, comparedto seven this year.
HEW announced plans toappeal both the Clintonand Fairmont school desegregation decisions to a three-mantribunal set up to review public appeals. Dr. Charles F. Carroll,state superintendent of instruction, said he doesnot subscribe to theviews that the "I'd call them negotiated decisions represented"defeats" for HEW. settlements," Carroll said,who noted the settlementswill last only so long as the progressof desegregation meetsthe approval of HEW. * * *
closed for On May 21, all Negroschools in Orange County were week staged by the more one day as theresult of a boycott of one than 500 students atall-Negro Central HighSchool in Hillsborough. The boycott began whenstudents objected to theOrange County Board them to predominantly white of Education'stimetable for admitting Orange High School. Under the timetable,freedom of choice would in 1969. have permitted completedesegregation at Orange High May 21, At a meeting of schoolofficials and adult Negroes on Orange County School Supt.G. Paul Carr said an"interpretation" the students. of the freedom-of-choiceplan was made that .satisfied the ninth, 10th andllth The interpretationpermitted the members of reasignment at OrangeHigh grades at all-NegroCentral to apply for Originally, the plan called for the start of thenext school term. September, the ninth for reassignment of theentire 10th grade in after the "interpretation," and llth grades in1969. A couple of days grades had requested 273 of the 392 eligiblestudents in the three reassignment to Orange Highand more applications wereexpected.
The closing of all the Negroschools was ordered after some thrown brief violence at CentralHigh. Some chairs and desks were the school around a room, and severalwindows were broken in gymnasium. * * *
HgW approved a reviseddesegregation plan of theGoldsboro approximately 650 of the Board of Education. The plan calls for school on a city's 4,272 Negro studentsto be assigned to each desegregated basis. Starting in September, thecity schools will be operated on afreedom-of-choice basis. Starting with the 1969-70 school year, onlydesegregated schools will beoperated. * * North Carolina-5 May, 1968
The Winston-Salem-Forsythcounty school board decidedto study the effectivenessof freedom-of-choiceplans in desegregating rejected schools. The decision came afterthe concept, which was not foster desegregation, by the U.S. SupremeCourt in cases when it does T. McMillan, was attackedat a school boardmeeting by the Rev. J. for the head of the local chapterof the National Association Advancement of ColoredPeople. McMillan called freedom ofcboice "a mammoth failure." * * *
office of Dr. Wr. Kenneth Haddock,chief of the civil rights HEW in Charlottesville,Va., "suggested" that theUnion County School Board phase outits all-Negro high schoolgrades by predominant1y white September. Now, 312 Negroes are attending schools with 7,114 whitestudents.Next year, 400 of the2,Q95 Negro students are expectedto be in predominantlywhite schools. The school board had atarget date of 1969 forphasing out the Negro high school grades. * * *
Cleveland Sountyys board ofeducation has been told by an OW investigating team thatfreedom of choice must produce"a substantial increase" in thenumbers of Negroes attendingintegrated schools by next fall orbe replaced by otherforms of pupil assignment.Wilmington city schoolsreceived a similar warning from another HEW team. * * *
The N.C. EducationAssociation adopted a policy onsanctions 25,780 voting by a secret, individualballot of its members, with The vote for the adoption of thepolicy and 5,558 votingagainst. merely adopted a policy, or aset of guidelines, and doesnot impeoe any formof sanctions.The imposition of anysanction under the policy will require anaffirmative vote of two-thirdsof the members of the localNCEA unit, or, in the case of astatewide included vote, a two-thirds majority.Most Negro teachers were not Association has not completed in the poll becausetheir N.C. Teachers a planned mergerwith the NCEA.
Said Dr. A. C. Dawson,NCEA executive secretary, "Ihope no teachers will ever have to usethem (sanctions)." Sanctions, as commonply applied by teachers,most often have involved actionby local teachers to persuadeteachers from other areas notto apply for jobs there. * * * North Carolina-6 May, 1968
In The Colleges Greensboro Daily Newstalked Reporter Robert M.Auman of the University of-NorthCarolina at Greensboro. to some Negrocoeds at the socially isolated. But, as one Auman concluded,"Some of them feel had any gawfulfexperiences. Most of of the girlsput it, few have schoolmates." them feel facceptedgby their white * * *
Political Action first Negrocandidate for governor,Dr. North Carolinals third in a three-man Reginald A. Hawkins,Charlotte dentist, ran nomination, collecting field for theDemocratic gubernatorial cent of thevotes cast. 129,808 votes, orapproximately 18 per field, followedby J. Melville Lt. Gov. RobertW0 Scott led the Scott polled337,368, Broughton Broughton Jr.,Raleigh lawyer. 233,924. for a secondprimary, but Broughton wasentitled to call Hawkins, whose declined to do soin the name ofparty unity. second primary,called Broughton votes would havebeen vital in a will run for governoragain in 1972. 11a quitter." Hawkins said he **
nomination for theoffice of In the race forthe Democratic instruction, beingvacated by the state superintendentof public Dr. A. CraigPhillips, executive retirement of Dr.Charles F. Carroll, Foundation ofGreensboro and former vice president ofthe Richardson Winston-Salem andCharlotte, was the city schoolsuperintendent in Stone, presidentof SandhillsCommunity winner. Dr. Raymond A. primary as the Pines, was eligiblefor a second College in Southern Phillips will face runner-up, buthe declined tocall for one. Republican Joe L. Morganof Marshall inthe November general election. * * *
Legal Action school systenswill be Desegregation suits inat least 26 N.C. according the NAACP LegalDefense andEducational Fund, reopened by Target of the broadlegal to Charlottelawyer JuliusChambers. method of pupilassignment, attack will bethe freedom-of-choice the dual schoolsystem procedurethat Chamberssaid "perpetuates a under federal courtorders in the South." 2he 26 districts are freedom of choice. to desegregate,but continue to use North Carolina-7 May, 1968
Chambers said the recent U.S.Supreme Court decision on freedom of choice means that schoolofficials who continue to uphold that assignment method are "advocatingdisobedience to a court decision." He said freedom of choice "isnftworkable as a desegregation method because it squarely places theburden on Negro parents and their children." Chambers added thrt Negro parents who tryto exercise freedom of choice are intimidatedif they send their children to white schools. He said, "And intimidation, if it isnftin'the'form of overt violence likebombings, shootings and telephonecalls, is hard to prove." * * *
Federal District Judge Wbodrow 'W.Jones was asked by attorneys for a group of Negroes toorder the consolidation ofStatesvillefs Negro and white, junior and seniorhigh schools, the establishment of geographic zoning forstudent assignments in other grades,and across-the-board faculty integration. The schools have been under a court-ordered,freedom-of-choice plan since 1965.
There are no whites in predominantlyNegro schools in Statesville. School officials said 359 Negroes areexpected to cross racial lines in September; they represent26.7 per cent of the Negro sdhool population. During the 1967-68 school year,four white faculty members crossed racial lines to workin all-Negro schools. * *
Federal Judge Algernon L. Butler has yet torule on the question of whether U.S. Attorney GeneralRamsey Clark has the authority to accelerate the desegregation ofJones County schools under provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.Donald Brock of Trenton, attorney for the Jones County Board ofEducation, filed the motion to dismiss the federal action to "eliminate theeffects of past racial discrimination."
Brock contends the Civil Rights Act isnot valid under provisions of Article 3 of the U.S.Constitution. He said the "statute constitutes unlawful delegation of power to anofficer of the executive branch of the government by Congress,without setting up adequate standards to guide and govern the delegatein the exercise thereof."
The U.S. Department of Justice inits reply said that 1,407 white pupils are enrolled inall-white schools while 4,320 of4,648 Negro pupils attend all-Negro schools.The Jones County Board of Education is sticking to its freedom-of-choiceplan, despite the threat it will lose $270,000 annually infederal funds. * * * North Carolina-8 May, 1968
Community-Action
Student groups fromboth High PointCentral High School and quietly since Januaryto William Penn HighSchool have been meeting to predominantly white smooth the'transitionof Negro students William Penn, an all-Negroschool, high schools inSeptember. In September, its will be closed atthe end of the presentterm. white Central High students will betransferred to predominantly Andrews High School. School and thealmost-completed T. Wingate Central High, told a Terry Kearns, studentbody president at that student committees Greensboro Daily. Newsreporter, wWe decided the activities of from Central andWilliam Penn could co-ordinate that next year thetransition both the schools asmuch as possible so that the will be as smooth aspossible." The committees will assure at the top levels outnumbered Negro studentswill have memberships and in student clubs. The of the studentgovernment organization, iron out other committees plan to meetthroughout the summer to details. * * *
Negro teacher While the proposed mergerof the white and organizations has teenheld up, plans for a mergerof the white Teachers Associationshave been proceedingquietly and Negro Parent The N.C. and smoothly, accordingto the GreensboroDaily-News. expecied to merge Congress of Parents andTeachers (white) is Teacher Association in with the N.C. Congressof Colored Parent the white group, 1969. Mrs. Riley. Monds ofHertford, president of said the Negroes haveagreed to the merger. * * *
What They Say will continue Pupils in the statels169 public school systems long as that freedom"is to be subject tofreedom of choice as administered freely, generouslyand without fear ofintimidation," superintendent of public according to Dr. CharlesF. Carroll, state after the U.S.Supreme Court ruled instruction. His comments came long as it does not that freedom of choiceis acceptable only as tend to perpetuatesegregated schools. systems only if Carroll said the decisionwill affect N.C. of those systems did notshow good faithin the use of freedom support of the choice. "The full resourcesof the state are in 'with clean hends,g" units of this statethat come into court has not ruled outfreedom Carroll said. "The courtls decision of choice--if itworks." * * North Carolina-9 May, 1968
Hillsborough Howard Fuller,speaking to striking Negro activist students should students(See Schoolmen), said the Central High School He said, "Whatgood than justintegration of schools. work for more cheerleaders ormajorettes? if your blackgirls cannot be is integration beautiful black mento carry their All the white peoplewant are your balls to the goalline. through an educationalprogram "The time haspassed when we go the white man. If schools don't that does nothingbut glamorize 4.each history atall. We're teach black history,they should not young blackgirls to be tired of a schoolsystem that teaches to be soldiersand dropouts. maids and servantsand young black men around here, thisis going to be a If things don'tstart changing summer forNorth Carolinato remember." * * * president of Chapel Hill, Dr.James E. Cheek, In a speech in described student Shaw Universityin Raleigh, predominantly Negro of a society militancy as "ourlast best hopefor the preservation and equity."He said: characterized byjustice, fraternity the last remainingvestiges "American highereducation is one of the necessity forchange in feudalism, It has advocated of medieval been the mostconsistent advocate the larger socialorder while it has of no changefor itself." between studentanarchism and student Carefully differentiating contemporary said militantstudents have "given militancy, Cheek They havelearned meaning and substanceto American history. what this nationis all better than we havetaught them about dbout." * * * Mary Reynolds Archie, executivedirector of the Dr, William C. director of the in Winston-Salemand former Babcock Foundation graduates of St.Augustine's State Board of HigherEducation, told the institution supportedby College in Raleigh(a predominantly Negro with white power,and the Episcopalchurch), to "join black power bridge the gap with greenpower." achieves a greater measure Dr. Archie said,m4hen the black man hands with thosewho have of political power,then he can join which will acieve moregreen power." He greater economic pmer, for "American commitmentfor equal opportunity said he felt the obligation to everyone" could beachieved, "We have a particular education of the blackreople, improve the publicand private system of education,"Archie who for so longhave had a dual said. * * * North Carolina-10 May, 1968
Dr. Ben Mohr As the baccalaureatespeaker at Elon College, Herbstm of New YbrkCity, presidert ofthe United Church of supported civil Christ, told the graduatesthat white persons who the rights causes in thepast ought not toexpect gratitude from Negroes they supported0 them or wYou don't buy people, nomatter how much you serve "Some of us have had how much yousacrifice for them," hesaid. crisis in the nation. to learn thisthe hard wgy in the present that because we havestood beside our We mistakenly believe that brothers, fought forthem, that they oughtto be so grateful they allow us to maketheir decisions forthem." has gained He said that whitesupport of civil rights causes He only those rights that weredue the Negro fromthe beginning. "for love's added that Christianssupport civil rights causes sake and not as a meansof control." OKLAHOMA HIGHLIGHTS
Oklahoma City showed A study of schoolenrollment figures in to achieve the the Board of Educationhas a long way to go throughout the school 65.35 white-to-Negro pupilratio it wants system. in May that a The Tulsa Board ofEducation was notified filed complaint of alleged racialdiscrimination has been against it through theU.S. Department of!justice.
The steering committeeof an OklahomaCity school board advisory group laid outfour main areas ofstudy by subcommittees as part of theeffort to work out along-range desegregation plan for the schoolsystem. Oklahoma-1 May, 1968
OKLAHOMA
Schoolmen
Figures released in Mayshowed the Oklahoma CityBoard of Education has a long way to goto achieve the racialbalance it considers most workable inimplementing a court-approveddesegregation plan this fall. In other activity, theboard set a policy on transfer of students fromtwo suburban districtsthat is designed not to upset the projectedracial balance in theOklahoma City in a district. And efforts continuedat four schools involved court-ordered pairing to easethe pupils over the transition period. Student bodies at the schoolsheld Student Council electIons looking forward to the1968-69 year.
The Oklahoma City boardhas chosen a 65-35white-to-Negro ratio as the one mostworkable in implementing thedesegregation in the plan. During the 1967-68 yearonly 10 of the 116 schools system had a racial balanceapproaching that ratio. Three are elementary schools, three arejunior-senior high schoolsand four remaining are specialeducation schools. In all but one of the (more than 106 schools, Negroes areoverwhelmingly in the majority (less than 10 per 90 per cent) oroverwhelmingly in the minority cent).
During 1967-68 OklahomaCity schools had15,702 Negro students. They represented 20.9 percent of the totalenrollment of 75,116. One of the board's goals isto desegregate all schoolsin the population of the system in a ratioproportionate to racial entire district.
Figures show, however, that61 of the Oklahoma City schools had no Negro students. In 29 other schools642 Negroes were enrolled, while 26 additionalschools had 15,060 Negrostudents. Most of the Negro schoolattendance was in thenortheast quadrant is greatest. of the city, whereNegro residential concentration Only 885 Negroes, or about5.6 per cent of all Negro pupils, attended schools outside thenortheast section.
Only 58 Negroes wereenrolled in schools in thesouthwest part of the city and47 of these were in fourelementary schools. Another 96 Negroesattended schools in thesoutheast section-- Negro students were all of them in WalnutGrove School. &MB 730 elementarY enrolled in the northeastpart. They included 221 in 13 schools and 443 in six secondaryschools. All but 30 of the latter group were atCentral High School, oneof the four schools involved in the pairing arrangement, Oklahoma-2 May, 1968
Central will become a juniorhigh and be paired withClassen High School in one attendance area.The other pair will beHarding High School, which will become ajunior high, and NortheastHigh desegregation School. The pairing was one ofthe key features of the plan ordered by U.S.District Judge LutherBohanon.
The boardvs figures showfurther that ?klahomaCity'public schools had 59,417 non-Negrostudents during, 1967-68but that fewer than one-third of them, or18,303, attended s6hools with one or Jriore Negroes.
NN, The new transfer policy, adopted bythe school boardMay6, appesto'studentSemoving into the Oklahoma CitysSisatem from M1llw6d and Pleasant\Hillelementaryschool distrcts0 n the recommed,ation'ef Supt.' .Bill Lillard theboard ruled that,Pleasant sill studeatis liLngnorth of Northeast 26th Streetshbuld' attend Kennedy JaaibHigh,School, whichhas been predominantly-Negro. In the past, ailchsi*lents have been assigned to Northeast.
Millwood studktts lIving southof the Northwest Expressway will be assigned toi\IN..1rthdast anesthose living north ofthe expressway, toJohn Mal.ohall,HiellSehool. With these assignments, I,?oard members ,said, thep139jected raclal balances ofwhite-to-Negro students in each schoolwillchange
\, Bdard members have alsoag1gdto extend through next year transfers\;stanted this year but to hold allmajorqty-to-minority until fallhewrequests fortransfere4nto the four schools to be paired. The,majorl,tyeto-minoritytAizsfer rule wae another part of the desegregation planordered by\J,udge Bohanon. It allows students to transfer out oftheir attendancarea from aschool where their race is in themajority to one in\0114ch it ds inthe e,tee, minority0 e \ On the pupil level the processof merging four\separatestudent term 'was already under14ey before the bodies into two for the fall \ , spring semester ended. e, * * *
Senior high students of bothClassen and Central held a ', "political convention" May14 and elected Giessen StudentCounCi1 officers for 1968-69. Each school previously hadselected 2 5 delegates and one candidate for eachoffice. The delegates were to beccme council representatives. All four officers chosen fornext year's combined StudentCouncilwere Cfassenstudents but Central delegates accepted the results with good grace. Three of the four Central candidates were Negroes. Oklahoma-3 May, 1968
from his school, One Central leadersaid some students about the pairing. particularly the Negroes,still are apprehensive each time they But, he said, they aregrowing less apprehensive at Central meet with Classenstudents. The 413 Negro students of its student body. during the past yearrepresented 38 per cent 125, or 11 per cent, Officials expect theNegro total to drop to in the coming year.
At the other schoolsto be paired,Northeast and Harding, students agreed on aboard of directors systemfor Northeast's in the school Student Council next year. In elections conducted at each building to week May 10-17 fourstudents were selected will govern Northeast's form the eight-memberboard of directors that officers some time this Student Council. The board will elect summer.
These procedures led oneschool board official,Merle Jennings, education department, administrative assistantin the secondary accomplish the pairingand to comment that,if the four schools without trouble thisfall, much of the increased desegregation at first credit will belong tothe students. He said students who have settled down and protested and petitionedagainst the pairing worked out specificplans to helpdesegregation work. parents, On a point causing concernespecially to white education, assured that Dr. Jesse Lindley,director of secondary classrooms white students willnot be held backin the desegregated said, efforts to allow Negroes tocatch up. By the same token, he will be made to keepthe Negro studentsfrom being overwhelmed white students. by the educational gapbetween themselves and desegregation plan will Lindley said schoolsaffected by the allows each student to operate under a"grouping" process, which disturbing the progress proceed at his own rateof learning without of another student. their ability Students will begrouped in classes depending on will be in each subject,Lindley explained.A student's ability Thus, determined by tests andprevious performancesin each class. mathematics could be who is good inEnglish and poor in a student pointed in the top Englishclass and thebottom math class, Lindley student will be allowedto progress at his out. In either case, the own rate tothe maximum of hisability. Oklahoma-4 May, 1968
Legal Action notified May 22 bythe U.S. The Tulsa Boardof Education was complaint allegingracial discrimination Department ofJustice that a Tulsa school system. Carl C. Beesley, has been filedagainst the contents of thecomplaint would be board president,said specific had a chance toreview them. made publicafter board members member, said thecomplaint The Rev. RobertBeckstrom, a board of a Negro pupil.No otheridentification was madeby a parent Beckstrom said the indicated by thedepartment, he said. was policy, to attendance-areaboundaries, transfer complaint refers and assignment buildings andadditions to old ones cost of new administering in "It is to theeffect that we are of teachers. Beckstrom said. such a way asto perpetuateracial segregation," comply voluntarilywith Beesley said theboard will try to in the opinionof the justice the Civil RightsAct of 1964 if, in violation. Tulsa department, the TulsaSchool District is districts warned bythe Department 4s one of 10Oklahoma school Welfare this springthat they musttake of Health,Education and requirements et schooldesegregation certain steps tomeet HEW financial assistance. or faceloss of federal * * *
Community Action advisory group set upby the The steeringcommittee of an recommended four areasfor Oklahoma City Boardof Education it met for thefirst time May 70 The subcommitteee study as of Educational 35-member AdvisoryCommittee on Equality group is the board to helpwork out a It was namedby the school Opportunity. Oklahoma City schoolsystem. long-range desegregationplan for the advisory committeeand Dr. Willis Wheat,chairman of the University Schoolof Business former dean of theOklahoma City recommended thesesubcommittees: Administration, saidthe steering group take a look at"some of thestereotype 1) Human Relations--To situation. problems that hangpeople up in aracial-integration the problems andsuggest ways Hopefully the committeecan identify to overcome them,"Uheat said. Schools--To stuiy the Neighborhood Schoolsand Magnet 2) neighborhood schoolconcept advantages anddisadvantages of the at all gradelevels. Oklahoma-5 May, 1968
consider the idea of acentralized 3) Educational Parks--To from all areas. school facilityserving students other schools, Continued Pairing--Tostudy pairing of 4) Classen are to be paired. as Hardingand Northeast,and Central and City that a proposed During May reportscirculated in Oklahoma improvement bond issuewould be used in part $115 million capital The bond issue to promotecross-town busingof school children. went down to defeatin all but oneitem-- program--which later for a contained a proposalfor the purchaseof 60 new buses city-owned and -operatedbus system. Transportation Earl Sneed Jr.,chairman of theCentral Oklahoma the report "absurd."Some of the and ParkingAuthority, labeled to transport schoolchildren authorityls olderbuses have been used with the Board ofEducation. in certain remote areasunder a contract discussed use of thebuses in Sneed said the authorityhad not even a cross-townschool busing program. he had received Foster Estes, schoolboard president, said But he said the telephone calls fromworried school patrons. from the city in school board has notbeen approached by anyone cross-town busing. regard to a lease orto make a proposal on Estes said he is opposedtn the whole ideaof moving children mixture in the schools. He pointed across townto achieve a racial Bohanonls order forpairing schools out that nothingin Judge Luther would require suchaction. SOUTH CAROLINA HIGHLIGHTS
awa
Compliance problems lead anumber of school districts to take steps to end dualschool systems.
A survey indicated theyear-old compulsory attendancelaw is increasing thepopulation of districts thathave implemented it.
Overcrowding remains a seriousproblem in many S.C. schools.
Project T-Square faces a bleakfuture.
Problems growing out ofshootings during February riotsat S.C. State continued to play amajor part in the news.
The General Assembly cleared arecord $375 millionappropriations bill,, including a$200-a-year teacher pay raise.
A federal court struckdown South Carolina'svirtually unused tuition grants law. Elloree's schools were ordered toeliminate the dual school system.
Catholic parochial schools announcedsteps toward complete desegregation.
The problem of interracialcommunications was explored by a panel of outstanding SouthCarolinians.
The Supreme Court's freedom-of-choicedecision caught few South Carolina schoolmen by surprise. South Carolina-1 May, 1968
SOUTH CAROLINA
Schoolmen of Health, Compliance negotiationswith the U.S. Department education scene Education and Welfarecontinued to dominate the districts in various in South Carolina inMay, with a number of stages of ending theirdual school systems. The Columbia school distriet(Richland No. One), threatenedwith the loss of$2 million with HEW and later in federal funds, heldcompliance negotiations the announced it is going to zoneapproximately 10 per cent of district in the firststep in meeting compliancerequirements. Other steps are to comeafter two separatestudies into the district's building needs arecomple-6ed0 One id being done by Title IV grant of the Civil a privatefirm; the other under a Rights Act. Five, officials announced In nearbyRichland-Lexington District next falland: the district'ssingle Negro school they would close Negro stude4ts convert it into ajunior high schoolfor both races. will be sent toother schools in elementary andhigh school grades of its plans, thedistric't in the district.. After winning approval seminars to instructteachers received a Title IVgrant to finance in the teaching ofpupils at alleducational levels. Columbia area, adopted The Brookland-Cayceschools, also in the system, shortly afterlegislative approval a plan toeliminate its dual bond issue forbuilding improvementsin the district of a $2 million According to plans, two that would help itend the separatesystem. be phased out. Negro elementary and oneNegro high school will
Richland District Two, onthe outskirts ofColumbia, announced earlier-approved plans toend its dual system. The details of its schools long-range plan includesphasing out ofall=Negro elementary ending in the1969-70 school year. in two steps,beginning in 1968 and about Meanwhile, a number ofdistricts continued to worry not able to comeinto compliance. loss of federalfunds if they were to balance theirbudget, The Abbeville schoolssaid they were trying Some teacher regardless of a$316,000 loss in federalfunds. elementary classes will positions will be leftvacant and a few be combined. problems became At the same time, morehelp with desegregation districts. The University ofSouth Carolina's available to the school to aid School of Educationannounced the openingof a special office problems of meetingcompliance. the districts withtheir technical * * * South Carolina-2 May, 1968
A survey, taken one year after passage of acompulsory attendance law for South Carolina's schools, showed someindications that the law is helping to bring children backto school. The act, passed in March, 1967, after the absence of such alaw for 12 years, requires attendance by most children from seven to16. However, school districts have until1974 to implement the law.
At the time of the survey, conducted by S.G. Stukes, supervisor of school attendance for the StateDepartment of Education, the 63 districts that have already implemented the law showed an enrollment increase of 510l7 students.The 43 districts that have not yet adopted the law recorded a netdecrease of 599.Many of these, however, are snall rural districts, which arelosing population anyway.
The 63 districts under the law include most of themetropolitan districts and represent three-fourths of thestate's public school population. * * *
South Carolina schools are still struggling with theproblem of overcrowded classrooms, accordingto the 1967-68 annual report of the State Department of Education, which cameoff the nre.9s in May. The report showed that 632 high school teachers werereported to have overloaded classes, while 220 elementaryschools had classes above the recommended 30-pupil limit.
"In both the secondary and elementary schools, there arefar too many overloaded classrooms," wrote Dr.J. Carlisle Holler, director of instruction. Holler called for the legislature to take whatever steps are necessary to "make it unprofitablefor a school district to jeopardize the qualityof education by placing too many pupils in one classroom."
According to Chief Elementary Supervisor%) B.Crowley, 75,000 elementary students were in overcrowded classroons during the 1966-67 school year. * * *
South Carolina's ambitious, broad-scaled program to attack hard-core illiteracy, Project T-Square(Training for Tomorrow), faces immediate cutbacks and a bleak future. Originally planned as a$19 million, two-year pilot program aimed at reaching 25,000 illiterates, T-Square stumbled at the gate.The project, conceived as a model for the nation, wasto have brought together local community action groups and state, local and federal governmentalagencies in a co-ordinated assault on theproblem of basic learning and job training, South Carolina-3 May, 1968
There were various start-up difficulties and staffing problems and the federal contribution for the first yearamounted to only $1.4 million. That will be trimmed to $1 million next year. The cutback forced the project to announce May16 that it will close its state office in Columbia and move it to thelocation of a T-Square facility in Sunter. In addition, the T-Square board of directors ruled out all planned expansion for thecoming year.
This will leave T-Square with centers atFlorence, Sumter and Allendale. Last year these centers placed360 students in jobs at an average cost of$20000 each--a figure considered too high by many officials.'T-Square Director Ruben Gray, the only Negro head of a government-related S.C. agency, saidjob placement was made difficultbecause most students were Negro women and eldeiqy men. The current effort is on recruiting morewhites and younger Negro men. * * *
In The Colle es
S.C. State College, scene of a student riot that wasfatal to three in February, continued as a livelysubject of discussion and debate during May.After several days of demonstrations, three students were killed by highway patrol shotguns on thenight of Feb. 8, during a wild and controversial incident that hasnot yet been subject to public investigation.Subsequently, State students, joined by others, marched twice on the state capitol, oncedisorderly and once orderly, to present a petitionof grievances and demands to Gov. Robert E. McNair and the state senate. During May, these were the majordevelOpments:
* The House, after a lengthy exchange,passed a $6.5 million bond issue to improve facilities at State, but the measuresnagged in the Senate on a Republican filibuster.
* The Senate aired but took no action on severalof the demands made by the State students.
*Chairman Bruce W. White of the State Board ofTrustees resigned and Florence Editor James A.Rogers, a board member, was named to replace him.
* A spokesman for the U.S. Department ofJustice said in Washington the FBI investigation of the StateCollege incident had produced no solid evidence that anyonevs civilrights were or were not violated during the shootings. South Carolina-4 May, 1968
* Cleveland Sellers, aleader of the StudentNon-Violent Co-ordinating Committee(SNCC) and a group of State students Charleston charging the police filed suit in U.S.District Court at systematic pattern of Orangeburg, whereState is located, with a Negroes in that city. of violence, humiliationand intimidation of
Sellers, a South Carolinanative, was indicted May6 on riot charges growing out ofhis participation inthe February disturbances. been arrested on The other plaintiffs wereNegro students who had lesser charges duringthe affair.
The suit, filed May8, seeks an injunction againstprosecutions pending:against the plaintiffsand asks that athree-judge court be convened to considerthe constitutionality ofstatutes under master be named which they were charged.It asked that a special department and that to direct and controlthe Orangeburg police defendant officials to he (the master) holdhearings to allow the The present plans for therehabilitation of the department. plaintiffs contend they werenot engaged in riotingin February, fired upon but were engaged in apeaceful protest when they were by the highway patrolwithout warning. and Gov. McNair, the StateSenate, several S.C. newspapers, the FBI others have called on thejustice department to release most report on the Orangeburgincident. All considered it the impartial probe of theaffair possible. The justice department repeatedly declined on thegrounds that reports ofFBI investigations of the law are discovered, are confidential. It has said if violations it will prosecute.
This has not yet beendetermined, a departmentspokesman said May 27, and the investigationis continuing. "We're just not sure one way or theother," he said. He indicated the investigation may continue foranother month.
The U.S. Commission onCivil Rights, considering aninvestigation of its own, said it washolding up "awaiting theresults of the County justice department." AndCoroner Joe A. Dickey of Orangeburg said he needs the FBIinfomration before holding aninquest.
The FBI report came upagain in the State Senate whenChairman reported May 1 5 on its L. Marion Gressette ofthe Judiciary Comnittee Senate in the findings on four of thegrievances submitted to the petition of S.C. Statestudents. (In a rare move, the various of the grievances were parceledout to the various committees to Senate. Judiciary was the first,and thus far the only one report.) South Carolina-5 May, 1968
Rejected was a report for an openhearing on the Feb. 8 The report incident, saying itwould "serve no useftlpurpose." asking for the noted that the Senatehad joined the governor in department had rejected therequest FBI report. It said the justice but added that ifcriminal charges arebrought by the government, the affair will be fullypublicized. dropped against Sellers The students request that charges be against two whites, and another Negro,and prosecution pressed charged with dischargingfirearms on the StateCampus Feb. 7, were rejected onthe grounds that they werejudicial matters over which theSenate had no atthority. It also refused to condemn the acts of thetwo whites by legislativeresolution.
The bond bill for capitalimprovements at theOrangeburg college was held up for sometime in the House byOrangeburg and nthers. Rep. Jerry Hughes, theHouse Republican leader, Hughes argued that thecollege was growingtoo large for the police in dealing with city, thus strainingthe capacity of its "tribute incidents there. It was also arguedthat the money was a the day after an appeal for disorders." But the moderates carried from one legislator to"do what is right." offered a resolution As the bill went tothe Senate, Hughes constructing or buying setting up a study ofthe possibility of The word an additionalNegro college outsideof Orangeburg. Committee on the grounds "Negro" was deleted inthe Ways and Means No it is no longer legalto designate whiteand Negro schools. action had been taken onthe resolution atmonth's end. funds for The omnibus bond bill,containing $33.4 million in Committee a variety ofprojects in all, clearedthe Senate Finance determined GOP minority intact May 29 but raninto opposition from a other over the S.C.State section and fromother senators over features. eliminate the S.C. On May 30 the Senaterejected GOP moves to State section and then toreduce it to $2 million.Republican filibuster that Sen. Eugene Griffith ofNewberry then launched a sections lasted all night beforefailing.At month's end other of the bill were underattack.
Florence Editor Rogers wasappointed May 27 as newchairman said of the State Board byGov. McNair. Lawyer White, from Union, of other work. He he had to leave thepost because of the press predicted continuing unrest onthe campus, but added,"I'm not running away from that." South Carolina-6 May, 1968
think if we can of the college,White said, "I On the future and have at State who cancontrol the situation get a president the governor,and the respect ofthe students,the legislature, has a wonderfulfuture." the Orangeburgcommunity, the college has split theschool's The selection of apresident, however, associatian is The leadershipof the alumni alumni sharply. segments President M. M.Nance Jr. Other alumni backing Acting Thomas, a faculty NAACP have endorsedDr. Charles H. and the State B. C. Turner, member and civilrights activist. Former President resigned in 1967 afterstudent demonstrations aHarvard-educated Negro, against hisadministration. Director Roy In a relatedmatter, nationalNAACP Executive 26 and said theState of South Wilkins visitedSouth Carolina May admit it was wrongin the deathsat Orangeburg. Carolina should ought to sit those boys back,"he said, "but we wWe can't bring It wouldn'thurt for down and see what wecan do inthe future. McNair to admitthe error andclear the air." * * *
Carolina had abettedthe Charging that theUniversity of South Orangeburg groupdemanded activities of BlackPower militants, an Jones and Deanof Student May 22 that U.S.C.President Thomas F. George Malcolm ofOrangeburg, Affairs Charles H.Whitten resign. the S.C. TruthAbout Civil chairman of a neworganization called the two educatorshad Turmoil Committee(TACT), complained that University's Associationof knowingly permittedmembers of the vehicles for tripsto Orangeburg Afro-American Studentsto use USC charge gasoline onUSC credit and to Mississippiin April and to cards. Whitten had authorized TACT charged thatDr. Jones and Dr. interests of theBlack Power the use of tax funds"to further the said that both menknew of the Black agitators." The group also students and theUniversity of SouthCarolina Power liaison between It charged Negro S.C. StateCollege at Orangeburg. and predominantly during the time of the university was awareof the relationship the S.C. Statedisturbances inFebruary. legislature todismiss the TACT'S statementalso called onth students of S.O.State (allunidentified), three facultymembers and 20 of the agitationof the which the groupalleged is at the core that the Afro-Americanstudents Orangeburg campus. Dr. Jones admitted trips but addedthat had used U.S.C. cars onauthorized student and that no taxfunds student activity fees payfor such expenses wereinvolved. South Carolina-7 May, 1968
Legal Action
South Carolina's long-dormant tuition grants law was struck down as unconstitutional by a three-judge federal courtMay 31. The law, passed in 1963 and first used in March,1.964, to provide financial aid to the parents of private school children, is defective because its history indicates that its purpose, motive and effect is to "unconstitutionally circumvent the requirement that theState of South Carolina not discriminate on the basis of race orcolor in its public school system," the court said.
This language was contained in a one-page opinion filed by Judge Albert V. Bryan of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and District Judges J. Robert Martin and Robert14 Hemphill. When the state first attempted to pay these scholarship grants in1.964, Judge Martin, at the behest of NAACP attorneys, issued atemporary injunction that came in time to stop payment to all but afew parents in two counties,
Under the law, scholarship grants equal to the per-pupil-cost in the public schools were available to students innonsectarian private schools in school districts that approved suchschools. It was first suggested by then Gov. Donald S. Russell(now a U.S, District Judge) after the first public school desegregation took place in 1963.
After a lengthy series of preliminaries, the case was argued before the three-judge panel in Columbia May 13. John Rosenburg of the Department of Justice, which had intervened on behalfof the plaintiffs, attacked the law as a "product of the state's traditional policy of providing segregated education for white children." The government attorney urged the court to examine the legislative history of the act.
Replying to this, David W. Robinson, representing the state, said: TWe submit that the motive doesn't matter, If legislation is bad, a good motive does not make it constitutional,If legislation is good, a bad motive does not make itunconstitutional." He also maintained that if "this act is invalidated, it takes away the right of lower income people to send their children to private schools."He also attempted to distinguish between the S.C.statute and similar laws that have been overturned in other states,
An attorney for an all-white private school in Charleston argued the law could assist Negro parents to put their children in private schools and suggested that his client, East CooperSchool, would accept a "qualified colored child," South Carolina-8 May9 1968
movement has grownto over 40 schoolsin South The private school had publicly tuition grants. Leaders of the movement Carolina without A few have expressed doubt thegrants would receivecourt approval. without them. said the movementwould be stronger * * *
District Seven(Elloree) In a detaileddirective to Orangeburg District Judge DonaldRussell ordered itsofficials schools, U.S. In his steps to end theirdual school system° to take imnediate to stop its Judge Russell alsodirected the system May 20 ruling, and step up faculty dualbusing, consolidateits athletic program jurisdiction in thesuit against integration. Fussell retained Atty. Gen. RamseyClark. the districtbrought by-U.S. directed the systemto As for studentdesegregation, Russell plan and deny thestudent's choice use astrict freedom-of-choice overcrowding at theschool he chose. Later in only because of frowned upon in aU.S. the month, thefreedom-of-choice plan was it is not satisfactorywhen some Supreme Courtdecision, which said dual system. S.C. Atty. Gen. other plan achieves afaster end to the decision might have aneffect Daniel R. McLeod saidthe court's on Russell'sruling. be asked tovolunteer Russell's orderstipulated that teachers member of the minority to change to aschool in whichthey would be a desegregation to the race. If this does notresult in faculty Negro faculty memberwhere extent of at leasttwo white and one assigned for1968-69 they are a minority race,teachers are to be occurs. on thissystera until fullfaculty desegregation inferior schoolsformerly Russell also directedthat allegedly the level of theformerly maintained for Negroesbe brought up to He ordered that anannual report bemade stating all-white schools. and students name, race,grade, school chosen enrollment figures, denied and the of each studentwhose choice was present assignment attending a school of reason forthe denial, numberof students of faculty membersteaching across racial opposite race, number schools are to be The order alsostipulated that all new lines. vestiges of the dualschool located with theobject of eradicating system and theeffects of segregation.
issued in Atty. Gen DanielR. McLeod, in anadvisory opinion County, said May29 that it is reply to a requestfrom Greenville used to participatein doubtful that countyfunds can legally be Use of such fundsfor federally sponsoredanti-poverty programs. believes, but mostother uses educational purposesis valid, McLeod are not. South Carolina-9 May, 1968
poverty can be classed as "It is doubtfulthat the combat of the scope of county purpose orthat it comes within an ordinary that authority to support paupers 0.0It seems apparent a county's implementation of the many programsundertaken in the a number permissible as a proper of the EconomicOpportunity Act are not county purpose." however, that it isdifficult The S.C. attorneygeneral admitted, category into which manyof the programsfall. to determine the sudhas Head Start, qualify. Presumably, thoserelated to education, *
act consolidating Opposition to a highlycontested 1967 legislative carried to the S.C.Supreme Charleston's eightschool districts was constitutionality. Court May 17 as a groupof taxpayerschallenged its violated the SouthCarolina The group contendedthat the measure legislation when general constitution, whichprohibits special legislation shouldapply. efforts to stall The case was carriedto the court after failed in the1968 session of the consolidation,set for July, of last session's the General Assembly.The measure sparked one upstate Republicanlawmakers longest filibusterswhen a group of were thatconsolidation objected to the bill.Underlying considerations school system. would promote moredesegregation in the Court that the law Counsel for the taxpayersargued in Supreme to that the individualdistricts would continue wrongly provides Attorneys for the carry their ownburdens for outstandingdebts. because the school district saidthe law wasbeing challenged during transition,rather present eight boardswould be maintained listrict board. than placing full powerin the consolidated * * *
Political Action "smell" races inSouth Carolina's One of the interesting seats in primary involvesthree school board June 11 Democratic It pits three Richland County SchoolDistrict One(Columbia). solid credentialsin the incumbents againsttwo opponents with Modjeska Simkins, aNegro civil rights movement. They are Mrs. Columbia banking andreal estate, andM. Hayes with holdings in Relations Program ofthe Mizell, white directorof the Community American FriendsService Committee. South Carolina-10 May, 1968
Both have been active in a broad range of civil rightsactivities at the state and local level. MrsSimkins, a former teacher and aunt of Henri Monteith, the Negro girl whose suit broke thecolor line at the University of South Carolina, is a frequentcandidate for public office.This is Mizell's first try.
Both candidates accused the board of closed or under-publicized meetings and not being representative of averagecitizens. Mizell called for prompt compliance with federal schoolgaidelines. (The district is now threatened with a cutoff of federal fundsdue to noncompliance.)
Said Mizell: wWe haven't gone through with 100 years of segregation ...to suddenly throw open the door to total integration. There are suspicions and problems onboth sides. But the board hasn't dealtwith the problem in an open, candid and progressive manner. It does the minimal amount you can get away with."He suggested following "the letter and spirit of the law."Mizell, who was educated in South Carolina, has been a consultantwith the U.S. Office of Education.
Inculabents Heyward E. McDonald, Arthur M. Williams andRobert L. Scarborough generally agreed that the desegregation issue was the most vital facing the board.Lawyer McDonald said the board has acted in good faith, following the law asinterpreted by federal courts in this state. "The guidelines have been changing rapidly," he said. He also urged greater liaison with the Negro population.
Said Williams, president of the S.C. Electric and Gas Company and a board member for 12 years: "If he(nizell) thinks we don't agree with all the U.S. SupremeCourt is doing, he's damned right. But we've got to stay in compliance.We've got to keep our school system in the mainstream of American education."
Statewide, as well as locally, the primary has been lackluster. The only statewide race pits incumbent U.S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings against outspoken liberal John Bolt Culbertson, who cameclose to winning a Democratic Senate nomination in1966. Culbertson, a colorful maverick, claims solid Negro and labor backing butHollings won his seat in1966 on the basis of Negro support and he has powerful Negro leaders in his camp.
There are primary contests in four of the six congressional districts. Racial interest centers on the First District, where Armed Services Committee Chairman L. MendelRivers is opposed by a Negro lawyer, and on theSixth, where 30-year House veteran John L. McMillan, chairman of the House District ofColumbia Committee and long a target of the capital's Negroes, faceslively opposition from Florence attorney Richard Dusenbury. South Carolina-ll May, 1968
The stateus computerizedregistration center announced shortly before the registrationdeadline that Negroes had lostthe registered majorities in the sevencounties where a February check showed them ahead. Heavy white registration erasedNegrc edges in Allendale, Beaufort,Berkeley, Jasper, Lee, Orangeburgand Nilliamsburg counties. In a two-month period,158,746 whites and 36,244 Negroes registered.Even a 2-1 Negro lead in Orpngeburg wound up as a 9,500 to8,700 white majority. Negroes had slightly less than one-third of thestatewide registration.
Community Action
The first step toward otallydesegregating parochial schools in ColutaAa was announcedMay 16 by a Roman Catholic officialin Charleston. The Rev. John M. Bond, assistantsuperintendent of Catholic schools in the CharlestonDiocese, said that first-through- third-grade students at all-NegroSt. Martin Porres School will be transferred in the fall to eitherSbo Peterys Elementary or St. Josephvs Elementary.
The elimination of the first gradeat St. Martinvs will be followed by a study intothe feasibilityofconverting itinto a junior high school. The transfer will involve a totalof 106 students in the three grades. Plans for the desegregation ofthe RoMan Catholic schools in Charleston hadbeen announced earlier and desegregation plans of others in the.state is expected to follow soon.
The problem of interracialcommunications is one of themajor obstacles to be overcome inSouth Carolina and the nation, apanel of diverse South Caroliniansagreed at a May 7 meeting on the campus of the University of SouthCarolina. Brought together before a biracial audience by the NationalConference of Christians andJews, Columbia Chapter, were:
* Matthew Perry, Negro chiefcounsel for the state NAACP, who has brought most of theanti-discrimination suits filed in this state.
* Bishop Ernest L.Unterkoefler, the ranking Catholicprelate in South Carolina.
* James Rogers, editor ofthe Florence Morning Nemand new chairman of the board of trusteesof predominantly egroS.C. State College.
* Robert S. Davis, aColumbia business executive andleading education layman at both the stateand local levels. South Carolina-12 May, 1968 ttte
hoard, Davis, long-timeformer member ofthe Colurnbl.a school South Carolina is "veryfortunate drew applause withthe comment that Other Davis comments:"Less to have MatIshewPerry and theNAACP." South Carolina in race than 90 days ago, a newday was born in to find complacencyhad caught relations. We woke up one morning (referring to the slaying ofthree students during a up with us recognized a5 serious, Feb. 8 riot at S.C.State)... Youth must be to hire Negroyoungsters. deep-thinking people."He urged businessmen events at Orangeburg Rogers agreed withDavis that "the tragic complacency." (home of S.C. State) shocked usout of a comfortable rhetorically, On achieving harnony amongthe races, Rogers asked (Negroes) unless we know "How can we ever cometo understand them deal over the years them as individuals? 000We've missed a great sophistication know no color by not realizingthat talent, brains, lines." * * * South A group of whiteand Negro students atthe University of blessing to provide Carolina have launched aproject with university opportunities for childrenin slum summer trainingand recreational The groupl'also backed areas of theColumbia metropolitan area. raise $50,000 for the by leading Columbiabusinessmen, hopes to jobs for about250 high program, which isexpected to provide sunner workers in the school and college-agestudents, mostly Negroes, as program. advocacy of Negro Negro singer JamesBrown, known for his from a concert stagedin self-help programs,contributed proceeds U.S.C. President Carolina's football stadiumMay 22. At that' event, he was "proud that Thomas Jones told thedesegregated audience that and Negro, have comeforth a group ofuniversity students, white with something for meetingthe needs of the youngpeople..." * * *
What They Say freedom of The U.S. Supreve Court'sthumbs-down decision on choice May 27 caught fewSouth Carolina schoolmenby surprise, but officials said it may cause somechanges for some schooldistricts. State Superintendent ofEducation Cyril B. Busbeesaid, "The decision in effect givesjudicial support to theguidelines previously established by the U.S.Office of Education." South Carolina-13 May, 1968
decision would affect State Atty. Gen. DanielR, McLeod said the approximately one-third of the situation in SouthCarolina, where with the Civil Rights the stateis 105 districts arein noncompliance recent ruling by U.S.District Act,. McLeod said theruling may affect a schools to desegregate. Judge Donald Russell,ordering the Elloree in its provisions. That ruling had an aspectof freedom of choice the court's ruling While South Carolinaschoolmen were expecting that the question hadnot been as it came, manyhad used the point with the U.S. settled as they proceededwith the negotiations Office of Education. wrote editorially that After the ruling,the ColumbLa Record affirmative action to "school boards are nowrequired to take create a 'unitary, dismantle the 'state-imposeddual systems and to "In the Columbia nonracial school system.'"The editorial continued, of schools have not system and others inSouth Carolina, a number of choice. Some lost their racialidentification under freedom mind as 'Negro' and schools are stillidentifiable in the public some as 'white.' and soon, in "Legally obligatoryalterations will be made, white many SouthCarolina districts. To those who complain that reiterated an students will flee thepublic schools, the court cannot be allowed earlier opinion: 'Theseconstitutional principles to yield simply becauseof disagreement withthem." * * *
morning newspaper, Shortly before the court'sdecision, Columbia's Office of Education's The State, continued adebate with the U.S. X=777egiona1 civil rights director,Paul M. Rilling. Replying of defense for hisdepartment's to an editorial,Rilling wrote a letter compliance in South actions in regard toschool desegregation office that Carolina. Rilling stated that itis the policy of his dual school structure "if under a freedom-of-choiceplan, vestiges of a additional remain, the school systemis responsible fortaking whatever of its schools." steps are necessary tocomplete the desegregation The State In an editorial on the same pagewith Rilling's letter, contended that "what HEWis attempting tosay--withoutsaying77:17-- that school officials mustcreate racial balance. "Section "HZW weasels for goodreason," the editorialcontinued. desegregation 'shall not 401 of the Civil RightsAct specified that public schools in orderto mean theassignment of students to this section." overcome racialimbalance.' HEW prefers not to see * South Carolina-14 May,1968
Two S.C. assistant attorneysgeneral discussed school laws before a May 15 meetingof the S.C. Association ofSchool Boards. Clarence Goolsby outlined theresults of a study of stateeducation statutes just completed by ajoint legislative committee andthe State Department of Education.
He said 422 statutoryproposals are being considered. One would create a single schooldistrict in each county. Presently there are 46 counties andl05 school districts.Each county district would have seven electedtrustees. Larger counties would be permitted to have to have more than onedistrict. Board candidates would have 100 signatures of anominating petition to assure an"intelligent board."
Assistant Atty. Gen BenDeBerry discussed civil rightscompliance. He said the question ofoperating in or out of compliancehad never been determined by a courtof appellate jurisdiction. 'While the Office of Education requires progressfrom year to year .... the district courts have expresslyapproved plans if they are 61thout intimidation of students andparents," he said. (The comments of DeBerry came before theannouncement of the u.b. SupremeCourt's decision on freedom-of-choiceplans.) * * *
The Charleston News andCourier had editorial praiseMay 10 It for thee377111311771777777.47717177ement in the port city. hailed the announcementthat East Cooper PrivateSchool plans to build a library and classroomsfor grades 5-8.East Cooper and four other schools inthe area were founded in1964 just after public school desegregationreached the Charleston area. East Cooper parents, denied statetuition grants by a federalcourt injunction, intervened asdefendants in the case, which wasdecided against them in May.
Said the News and Coutier:"These facilities are an exampleof the privateenterp71177riearaTiOn...They represent a sacrifice on part of those who believethe quality education is thebest available for their children."
East Cooper insisted in courtthat it will accept qualified Negro applicants but that nonehave applied. TENNESSEE HIGHLIGHTS
A speed-up in desegregationis expected this fall inat least the U.S. Supreme Court's 41 Tennessee schooldistricts as a result of There were decision in the Jackson,Tenn., freedom-of-choice case. in Robertson and other desegregationdevelopments inTashville, and Nils on c ounties
U.S. District Court wasasked May 21 to blockthe expansion of $4.2 million the University of Tennessee'sNashville Center, a proposed project, because it would"perpetuate a policy of racialsegregation" A&I University. at the center and atpredominantly Negro Tennessee
Five Negro teachers whocharged the WilliamsonCounty Board of Education did not rehirethem on grounds of racialdiscrimination lost their federal courtsuit for reinstatementand back wages on Mayl6.
The president of TennesseeA&I State University forthe past effective 24 years, Dr. W. S. Davis,requested permission to retire Sept. 1.
Teaching of Negro history inboth the Nashville andMemphis school systems was discussedduring the month.
Nashville's revised HeadStart program for 280preschoolers was approvedMay 15 by Mayor BeverlyBriley.
A series of disturbances atCarver High School in Memphisduring the month has led to the creationof a 15-member parentscommittee to try to deal with the problem. Tennessee-I May, 1968
TENNE SEE
Schoolmen expected to sreed up At least 41 Tennesseeschool systems are result of the U.S.Supreme Court's school desegregationthis fall as a Tenn., rejection of freedom-of-choiceplans. Ruling in a Jackson, freedom-of-choice plans case, thehigh tribunal held onMay 27 that could not be used ifother methods areavailable or if they perpetuate segregation. unanimous opinion, Justice 'William J. BrennanJr., who wrote the freedom-of-choice plans said that the court wasnot disallowing all althuugh experience todate indicates theyhave been ineffective in promoting integration. But the court said:
mWhere it offers realpromise of aiding adesegregation state-imposed dual system to program toeffectuate conversion of a might be no objection toallowing a unitary,nonracial system there On the other hand, such a device to proveitself in operation. ways...lfreedom of choice' if there are reasonablyavailable other cited was zoning, must bp held unacceptable."Among the "other ways" promising speedier and "moreeffective conversion to aunitary, nonracial school system." several In Jackson, where thedesegregation litigation began result years ago,City Attorney RussellRice said the immediate "The for Jackson schools willbe "radical changes"by September. main objection the courthad to the City ofJackson plan," Rice student to said, "was the transferprovision which permitted a transfer attend any school in thesystem. The court said that such perpetuated segregation andordered the transfereliminated, and in the that hsreafter students".mustattend the school located district in which the studentlives."
Dr. Robert Sharp,director of the EqualEducational Opportunities Office in the State Departmentof Education, saidmost of Tennessee's 151 school districts "permit achoice of schools iftransportation But he said 41 of is provided by thestudent or in hardshipcases." is of significance." the state's districtsfollo; plans-where "race Eighteen of these systems areoperating under federalcourt-approved Negro leaders can seek plans and it is expectedin these systems that judicial review in view ofthe new decision, Tennessee-2 May, 1968
The 23 others are followingfreedom-of-choice plans without federal court approval. Of these, only the plans ofTipton County and Covington in WestTennessee have not been approved bythe U.S. Office of Education andfederal funds stopped as aresult. Tipton County is involved in afederal lawsuit and Covington,its county seat, has submitted a newplan to federal authorities for their approval.
The remaining 21, most of themin West Tennessee, include the county systems of Lauderdale,Dyer, Lake, Gibson, Hardeman,Chester, MoNairy, Hardin, Henry,Montgomery-Clarksville, Mickman, Maury, Robertson, Sumner, Trousdale andHamilton, and tl,e city systems of Union City, Humboldt, Milan,Alcoa and Franklin. Other school officials throughout the state werestudying the court ruling for possible effects on theirdistricts.
In a flurry of desegregationdevelopments during the month, the Robertson CountyBoard of Education on May25 adopted a freedom-of-choice plan forconsideration by the U.S.Department of Health, Education andWelfare. HgW had requested a plan whereby the distric,t's dual schoolsystem would be eliminated,threatening that federal fUnds wouldbe discontinued.
Supt. J. B. Whitman said theplan approved was a"long-range" program, under which onecentral high school, threejunior high schools and 10 elementary schoolswould be operated. The superintendent said he simply did not knowif the alternate plan adoptedwould be acceptable to federal officials.
Wilson County Supt. AlbertJewell denied charges, containedin a new federalcourt petition filed atNashville, that his system has failed to bring aboutdesegregation of classes, His May 15 statement was in response to arequest by a group of Negroesthat a team ofeducation experts be appointed tostudy a plan for removal of patterns of segregationin Wilson County schools.Wilson County was ordered byfederal court to desegregateseveral years ago and is required to file an annualreport on progress under the plan. Negro attorneys contended the reportshowed unsatisfactory progress and, in some cases, misrepresentedthe picture.
4i. *
In Nashville, the MetropolitanSchool Board voted May 28 to reconsider its earlier decision to rezone65 students in the Cornelia Fort Airport area from Inglewoodto Dalewood School. The action came after a committee told the boardthat rezoning would serve tocreate racial iMbalance at Inglewood. Tennessee-3 May, 1968
"Dalewood, which is the save distancefrom several Negro areas in Inglewood, has no Negrostudents," said Marion E. Smith,spokesman for the committee. "As I understand the recentSupreme Court decisions on schooldesegregation, this rezoning isin violation of the law."
The board voted three to twoto reconsider its action inapproving the zoning proposal.Dr. John H. Harris, schooldirector, said he had never heard of a childbeing described by race at a zoninghearing. mWe changed the students because they werealready being bused to Inglewood," Harris said, declaringthe board tries to send students to schools nearest theirhomes when possible.
The Rev. Robert E. Lemay, ministerof the Eastwood Baptist Church, said he wanted nis daughtertransferred from Inglewood if "racial imbalance" continues. "I would hate to see ty daughterin a classroom that was all Negro,because she is very bright and they are slow," he said. James Hammond, spokesman for a groupof residents in the affected area, presented apetition supporting the boardgs original decision.
Meanwhile, HEW officials in Washingtonreleased figures showing Tennessee ranks third among 11 Southernstates in the percentage of Negroes attending biracial classes. Tennessee was listed with 1804 per cent of its 162,693 Negro studentsin desegregated schools. Texas was first with 26.1 per centand Virginia was second with 20.4 per cent. * * *
Lea2112112a A federal court suit was filedin Nashville May 21 to halt expansion of the Nashville centerof the University of Tennessee on grounds it would"perpetuate a policy of racialsegregation" at the center and at predominantly-NegroTennessee AO State University. Filed on behalf of ftve citizens,including teachers at both institutions, the suit chargedg
"The sole reason for the expansionof the Nashville extension and duplication of degrees isto insure the perpetuation of adual and racially segregated systemof state-supported universities within the city of Nashville." Specifically asking that U.S. District Court enjoin the Universityof Tennessee from spending $4.2 million to build a new Nashvillecenter to be used as a four-year institution; the plaintiffsapplied for a preliminary injunction. Tennessee-4 May, 1968
U.S. District Judge Frank Gray Jr.ruled May 31 that the case would be tried on its merits onJuly 22 withaut an injunctivehearing. This decision followed a meetingwith attorneys for both sides.
Dr. Andrew Holt, UT president, saidthe suit was "based on some misunderstandings of our Nashvilleoperations." Plans for the center, which UT has operated for many yearslargely as a night extension school, called for degrees to begrented it the new facility.
Nashville attorneys George E. Barrettand John Mitchell filed the suit on behalf of theseplaintiffs: Patrick J. Gilpin, a member of the university centerfaculty; Miss Rita Sanders, ateacher at Tennessee A&I; Ernest Tarrell, anA&I stldent; Harold Sweatt, a senior at Wilson County Highschool who said he plans toattend A&I, and his father, PhillipsSweatt of Mt. Juliet, Tenn.
Named as defendants were Gov.Buford Ellington, State Education Commissioner J. Howard Warf, membersof the State Board of Education; the University of Tennessee andits board of trustees; Dr. Holt; A&I University and its president,Dr. W. S. Davis; the U.S. Department of Health, Education andWelfare; and the U.S. Office of Education.
The complaint was filed as a classaction under the 1964 Civil Rights Act and charged that the plaintiffs'rights are violated under the 14th Amendment. "The present expansion plan is reasonably calculated to insure that enrollment ofthe Nashville extension will remain predominantly, if notoverwhelmingly,, white and that enrollment at A&I will remain predominantly,if not overwhelmingly, Negro," the suit stated.
The suit also charged that thestatute creating A&I is unconstitutional and that defendants "have not,and are not, appropriatingsufficient fundings for salaries for professionaland staff personnel, for per pupil expenditures, for libraryfacilities000equal to that of predominantly white state-supportedinstitutions."Plaintiffs contended that state officials areunder a "constitutional duty" to adopt a plan calculated toincrease the percentage of students receiving a desegregated collegeeducation. * *
U.S. District Court Judge William E.Miller on May 16 ruled against five Negro teachers whohad brought suit against the Williamson County School Board chargingthey had been deprived of teaching positions on grounds of racialdiscrimination.Miller said the court cannot substitute itsjudgment for that of the school board in matters relating to teacheremployment unless there is shown an arbitrary exerciseof power. He said there was "no evidence" to substantiate the claims of thedefendants and that there was ample evidence to the contrary. Tennessee-5 May, 1968
not rehired for the The lawsuit chargedthat the teachers were and asked reinstatement 1967-68 school year becauseof discrimination, attorney fees. Plaintiffs along with back payand allowances for J. Farmer, Mrs. Joyce B. included D. B. FullerSr., Mrs. Elizabeth Lee, all of whom Martin, John H. SmithJr. and Mrs. Eva Myers predominantly previously had beenassigned to NatchezHigh School, a white Franklin Negro schoolconsolidated last yearwith predominantly not offeredre-employment and High School. Four of the five were become a scienceteacher at Mrs. Martin turneddown an offer to Bethesda High School. the release of theplaintiffs Judge Miller saidthe record showed occurred after what he was notbased on considerationof race but comparison, usingobjective stardards. called a qualitative standing to raise Specifically, Miller saidthe plaintiffs had no any issueof allegeddiscrimination. * * *
In The Colleges A&I State University Dr. Walter S. Davis,president of Tennessee requested May 30 thatthe State Board ofEducation at Nashville, leave of absenceearlier permit him to retire. Davis, 62, was granted the school, he has this year becauseof illness. A 1931 graduate of of the predominantlyNegro university for more served as president Commissioner J. H. than 24 years. In his letter toState Education duties Sept. 1 andsaid the Warfl Davis asked tobe relieved of his request was promptedby "health reasons." the board, Daviswill Warf said when therequest is approved by the permanent titleof be eligible forretirement benefits and pending before theboard, which president-emeritus. His request is board member:: wdll consider it atits next meeting.A committee of will be named tosearch for a successor. be consulted in the A&I alumni groups haverequested that they state universitypresident selection of a newpresident.Davis is the second recent weeks. Earlier, Dr. QuillE. Cope resigned to step down in Murfreesboro to as head ofMiddle TennesseeState University at His successor join the facultyof the Universityof Tennessee. has not been named. Tennessee-6 May, 1968
Miscellaneous
Dr. John H. Harris, director of Nashville-Davidson County schools, said on May 9 that teaching of Negro history in the system may come in the not-too-distant future. Appearing on an educational television program, he was asked if the addition of Negro history to the school curriculum was a possibility.He said: "The climate is good. I know progress will be made."
In Memphis, a group of students asked the board of education on May 24 to include multiracial textbooks with "meaningful references about Negroes" in the curriculum. This request was similar to one presented earlier by the Memphis branch of the NAACP and a Black Power group known as "the Invaders."
One of the students said one textbook now being used on Tennessee history refers to Negroes as "lazy, irresponsible and bumbling."He asked, 'What can a child who goes to a white school think about me when he sees me on the street but that Dm lazy and irresponsible because thatus the way itus printed in black and white?" * * *
Mayor Beverly Briley on May 15 approved the Metropolitan Action Commissionus revised Head Start program for Nashville and sent it to the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity in Atlanta for its consideration. The program first was submitted in February but rejected by 0E0 because of deficiencies in site locations and in some of the health and medical components.The deficiencies are said now to have been corrected. As revised, the program will include 250 preschool children, slightly more than the 225 included during the past year. * * *
Groups of Carver High School students at Memphis damaged their school on May 20 in a series of attacks that left more than 150 windows broken, one studentus desk in ashes and other debris.Nc one was arrested during the outbreak, which saw about250 younger students "and some outsiders" roving the campus in small groups.
Principal R. B. Thompson, commenting on the disturbance which erupted among students in the cafeteria at first, said: "I donut know who started it. I donut know what started it. I donut know how we can stop it. But weure going to try." Tennessee-7 May, 1968
Two adults had been arrested ondisorderly conduct charges three days earlier in conreltion withother violence at the school. On May 23, a 15-member committee ofparents was formed as a result of the disturbances. The committee was an outgrowth of en earlier meeting attended by about 300 parentsand faculty members called together by-Mrs. Lester Snell,Carter PTA president, and Principal Thompson.
Several members of the Invaders, a BlackPower group, which has submitted a list of "grievances"including demands they be given a place on the campus as an organization,attended the community meeting. The Invaders complained of overcrowdedconditions, inadequate facilities and high cafeteria prices, amongother charges. TEXAS HIGHLIGHTS
ISD Justice complainedthat Houston The U.S.Department of in desegregation. Kilgore failed to make"meaningful progress" abblish dualschools by1969. and Gilmer wereordered to to adjust tothe SupremeCourt's Austin and otherdistricts moved ruling onfree-choice plans. at TexasSouthern Bullock, professorof sociology Dr. Henry "Negro in America"history University, wasemployed to teach a new the 1969 springsemester. course atthe Universityof Texas in for a referendum onan Austin citizensquickly petitioned by the CityCouncil at request open-housingordinance adopted and others. of Universityof Texas people, Yarborough, Smith, a conservative,defeated Don Lt. Gav. Preston for the Democratic supported by racialminority groups, a liberal favored to win inNovember nomination forGovernor. Smith will be aver PaulEggers, a Republican. out againstviolence, and Many Commencementspeakers spoke campusextremists. Texas-1 May, 1968
TEXAS
Schoolmen
Houston ISD has failed to make "meaningful progress" in desegregation, two U.S. Department of Justice attorneys alleged in a letter to the Houston Board. The complaint was referred to Joe Reynolds, the board's attorney. Justice department lawyers Owen Fiss and Thomas Top said 24 Houston school bus routes transport Negro children to predominantly Negro schools, when predominantly white schools Ire available closer to where the pupils live.Some of the routes have been discontinued since the federal investigators made up the list, Houston officials said.All local school buses, except those maintained by the state, are being discontinued by Houston ISD.
The system had during the 1967-68 school year45predominantly Negro schools without any white faculty members; 23 others had some faculty desegregation, usually one or two white teachers, according to the federal report.
Attorney Reynolds said he will ask for an extension of the June 1 deadline for the Houston board to say what it intends to do about these complaints of inadequate integration.
In Dallas, Dr. Marvin Berkeley was elected president of a revamped school board.Dr. Berkeley, personnel director for Texas Instruments, Inc., has been on the board one year. He was a candidate endorsed by the League for EducationalAdvancement in Dallas (LEAD), which elected a majority of the board pledged to more liberal policies than its conservative predecessors. * * *
Health, Education and Welfare investigators told Kilgore ISD it must abolish the East Texas community's dual system by 1969. The district reportedly has one all-Negro.elementary school and one' allZegro junior-senior high. In the latest school year, 18 per cent of Kilgore's 926 Negro scholastics attended class with white pupils. Gilmer also received notice to complete desegregation by next year. Texas.2 May, 1968
Several Texas school systems wereaffected by the U.S. Supreme Court's latest ruling onfree.choice desegregation plans. Included is Austin, whichstarted desegregation in3_954, and established all-grade desegregation onthe free.choice plan several years ago. Austin school officials wereuncertain how they will attemptto comply with the court'slatest ruling. * * *
At Goose Creek, nearHouston, Negro patrons objectedto plans for changing the nameof a school building fromGeorge Washington Carver to Anson Jones, part of adesegregation move.Anson Jones was a Texaspioneer. The building had been used byNegro elementary pupils only, but whitepupils from another building,previously named "Anson Janes" weremoved into it.The former "Anson Jones" building was converted to other purposesby the school board. * * *
At Fort Worth, Supt. JUliusTruelson said individual history teachers will determine how muchtime they devote to material on the achievements of Negroes.The Fort Worth Community Cauncil requested that more data on Negrohistory be included in public school courses.
Dr. Truelson said Fort Mbrthschools had been preparing supplemental.material on the subject for morethan a year, but the use of it will depend oneach teacher. "It is important that our Negro childrentake pride in their heritage,"the superintendent said. Megroes have made importantcontributions to our history." Dr. Truelson said that increasingattention to history of Negroes would necessarily decrease theamount of time to be devoted to other aspects of history. * * *
In The Colleses
Dr. Henry A. Bullock, professorof sociology at Texas Southern University, was appointed by theUniversity of Texas to teach a new course in "The Negroin, America." A Negro, Dr.Bullock will be a visiting professor at the1969 spring semester. He is the author of a prize-winning books"A History of Negro Education in theSouth." Texas-3 May, 1968
said the Dr. Robert Divine, chairmanof the history department, course will beoffered on a regular basis,and that visiting professors He added will be employed until apermanent appointment ismade. for the past that the departmenthad considered offering the course two years, but lacked aqualified instructor.
The University of Texas nextfall will offer a symposium on "The Negro in America," usingvisiting lecturers, historiansand civil rights leaders.
Meanwhile, three members of thepsychology faculty contended that small enrollment of:Negroes at the University ofTexas was the result of discriminationin housing.All university-owned dormitories are open to students ofall races, and so is muchof the privately owned housing. The professors said Negroesclaim "this is not a very pleasant placeto be." They estimated about one per cent ofthe 30,000 students at theuniversity last year fastest in Texas were Negroes. Negro enrollment has been rising junior colleges. * *
A city ordinance to requirethat all houses and apartmentsbe rented and sold without regardto race was adopted by theAustin City Council 3 to 2 after a longperiod of controversy.The council majority declined to submit theproposition to a referendum.As a result, Austin realtors andothers within a week obtained25,124 signatures on petitions to require areferendum.This is three times the number of signatures needed,and the balloting will be held later.
The three city council memberssupporting the ordinance reported they had received threatening letters,which were turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, andstate police. One councilman had a window broken in his home by athrown rodk.
One of the University ofTexas's most militant bladk power advocates, Lawrence Caroline of thePhilosophy Department faculty, will be terminated when his currentcontract expires in one more year. The action was taken on recommendationof the university administration, based on a recommendationfrom the departmental budget council. It cited reasons other than Caroline'sprotest activities.
Caroline, white, has been active indemonstrations around Austin, including one against VicePresident Hubert Humphrey last year. He came here from New York on atwo-year contract. ** Texas-4 May, 1968
At the 1968 commencement ceremonyfor the University of Texas, Gov, John Connally spoke aut against"a philosophy of anarchy" in the land. "...In a complex society and worldthere cannot be absolute freedom without certain anarchy,"he said0 wWe live in a land of relative freedom and opportunity."
Frank C. Erwin Jr., Austin attorney andchairman of the University of Texas Board of Regentss urgedits students and faculty to oppose "irresponsible conduct" such as occurredat Berkeley and Columbia University. "The right of verbal dissent should not becurbed in any ways" Erwin saidsterming as "unadulterated illegal action" the seizing of buildings, ransadking officesand holding hostages. * * *
Political Action
Preston Smith, lieutenant governor, wan theDemocratic nomination for governor aver Don YarboroughsHouston attorney, by 758,654 votes to 621,087. Smith, a conservative, trailedYarborough in the first primary but was endorsed in therunoff by faur defeated candidates. Racial minorities and union labor supportedYarborough.
The Houston Informer, a newspaper forNegroes, charged Smith with bigoT77177177;;TEng strongeranti-riot laws during the campaign. Negro boxes voted very heavily forYarborough (no kin to Sen. Ralph Yarborough). It was Don Yarboroughils fourth defeat in a statewide race, three times for governor.
Smith has been in state office 18 years as alegislator and lieutenant governor. His opponent in November will be Republican Paul Eggers, a Wichita Falls lawyer making his firstpolitical race. Republicans have been doing well in special legislative races in recent months, winning more than half of the vacant seats. But Eggers will be a distinct underdog in the contest with Smith.
The recommended anti-violence lawss from Lt. Gov. Smith, Atty. Gen. Crawford Martins, and Speaker Ben Barnes, will beconsidered at a special session of the legislatures which startedJune 4, if budget and tax priorities can be finished in 30 days. * *
The Port Arthur school board elected a Negro member tobe its president.The other members are white. Wichita Fallselected a Negro to the City Council for the first time. * * Texas-5 May, 1968
Miscellaneous
Dr. Lawrence 41/10 Bottoms ofAtlanta, a Negro Presbyterianminister, said in Pasadena, Texas, thatboth his race and whitesneed to take a Christianapproach to problem-solving. "Too much emphasis has been placed on segregation, orthe lack of it," Dr. Bottomssaid. "The racial problem is not thereal problem. The real problem is Christians are not living as exampleof Christian love." * * *
Controversy raged over a resolutianadopted by the United Conference of the Methodist Church atDallas expressing a "right ofdissent" and disobedience to law whenit becomes a matter of conscience. Several congregations denounced theresolution, as did many individuals in the church. * * *
Other miscellany in Texas duringMan 1968:
* Houston Mayor Louie Walch andthe NAACP jointly announced that a committee will be appointedthere to improve police-community relations. Increased, participation by Negroesin civic affairs is one goal.
* Dr. Kenneth Pitzer,president of Rice University,told graduates at St. Thomas Universityin Houston that "frustrated" student-faculty "extremists" arebecoming a problem in higher education. He said the right ofprotest has been extended to "the level of kidnap and blackmail,"which "unfortunately" has support from some academic peopleand students who are notactually "hard core extremists."
* At Huntsville, civil rightsleader Booker T. Bonner(of Houston and Austin) was assessed a$100 fine for holding a march without a permit, as requiredby city ordinance.A city judge fixed the penalty. Bonner is appealing thedecision to a federal court in Houston.
* Leon Jawerski, formerpresident of the AmericanCollege of Trial Lawyers, said povertyand discrimination must beopposed. But he condemned thos who use"looting and malicious burning" as a means ofgetting their way. ViRGINIA HIGHLIGHTS
HMIs Office forCivil Rights plans toinvestigate school in the desegregation in NottowayCounty.Little change is seen public schools for the pupil desegregationof Henrico County's coming school session.
The story of theclosing of PrinceEdward County's public is omitted from schools to avoidcourt.ordered desegregation accounts in statehistoity textbooksv of racialdiscrimination The University ofVirginia denied rumors in employmentpractices there. steps to improvehigher A group of Southernleaders agreed on at Richmnd. edueational opportunitiesfor.Negroes in meeting of New KentCounty, The U,S. SupremeCourt held in the cases that school boardshave Va., and two otherSouthern localities systems and establish an "affirmativeduty" to abolish dual "unitary" school systems. school boards must Citing a federal courtdecision, HEW says conducive to school locate and constructschools in a way desegregation. May, 1968
VIRGINIA
Schoolmen
The Glaucester County school board adopted ageographic zoning school desegregation plan and authorizedits lawyers to present the plan to a federal District Court judgefor approval. Gloucester has used a freedom-of-choice desegregationsystem. The new plan divides the county into three sections, eachto be served by one of the school systemgs three schools.
The freedom-of-choice plan was randered unworkablewhen large numbers of Negro students chose to attendpredominantly white schools in September, according to schoolboard members. They said it would take costly construction programs toaccommodate students in present facilities under the choice plan. * * *
The Northumberland County School Board reftsed to abandon the freedom-of-choice system as had been requested a month ago in a petition of 500 persons. The petition had been circulated by the Parent-Teacher Association of Central High School, anall-Negro facility.
School Superintendent Thomas W. StaffordJr. said the public school facilities in the county "canaccommodate" the 2,267 pupils in accordance with their choices under theattendance plan. Stafford had been asked to study the situation in viewof requests by 463 Negro students to attend predominantly white schoolsnext fall, in addition to the 60 who are already doing so.
Thomas C. Winstead, presenting the PTA petition,said the present school system is "not meeting theneeds of the students" as a unitary systemwould. "It is time to sit down, air our differences and work for the education of ourchildren," he said.
A. P. Zuger, school board member,replied that complete desegregation could not be achieved bySeptember. Tde would be in complete chaos," he said.
A team from the U.S. Department ofHealth, Education and Welfare (HEW) plans to investigate progressin school desegregation in Nottowgy County, a Southsidelocality adjoining Prince Edward County, where authorities closed public schoolsfive years to avoid court-ordered desegregation.School Superintendent H. L. Blanton said the three-day HEW visit followed a Februarynotification that the school division has not made sufficient progressin eliminating a dual school system Virginia-2 May, 1968 o Blanton said he wouldinstruct.school personnel toco-operate true picture of our with the team. "I want the team to get a system," he said.The superintendent alsotold school board members of comparing that he does not expect afavorable report on the basis Nottowayls situation withthat of other Southsidecounties, Which had their federalassistance terminated, Blanton has advised board members in recentmonths that new schoolconstruction plans idea of ending the for the county shoUldbe prepared with the turned down a dual school system. But county voters recently proposed bond issue forsuch construction. * * *
report showing that The Henrico CountySchool Board received a period, 115 Negro during its 30-dayfreedom-of-choice registration students asked to betransferred to predominantlywhite schools predominantly white schools next fall.Twenty-Negro students in asked to be shiftedbadk to Negro schools, 95 Negroes to the The effect of theregistration will be to add white schools. approximately 1,000 alreadyenrolled in predominantly MWhat it boils down to,"W. Nelson Taylor,administrative assistant startling to the schoolsuperintendent, said, "is there are no changes."
The Region III officeof the U.S. Departmentof Health, Education moving too slowly toward and Welfare(HEW) has found Henrico to be elimination of the dualschool system, and hasrecommendsd that its federal assistance beterminated.Henrico is one of the suburban counties adjoining theCity of Richmond. * * *
The story of the closingof the Prince EdwardCounty public school system to avoidcourt-ordered desegregation,and other aspects school integration policies, of Virginia's old"massive resistance" to in are not mentionedin three booksapproved by the state for use to an article state-required Virginiahistory courses, according by Associated Presswriter Ken Ringle, high The books are "CavalierCommonwealth," used in senior used by the school; "Virginia History,Geography and Government," text for the fourth seventh grade; andwVirginials History," a grade. book is the issue In only one paragraphof the senior high school the 20th Century mentioned, of segregated schoolsin the last half of according to the story.The paragraph statesthat after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decisionoutlawing school segregationg Virginia-3 May, 1968
flGov. Thomas B. Stanley appointed a 32-member legislative commission...to study how this decision affected Virginiags system of public education. In accordance with one of the commissiongs recommendations, a special session of the General Assembly proposed a public referendum to authorize a change in the state constitution to make it possible for the state to pay tuition at private schools ...." Cavalier Commonwealth" was last revised in 1963 and is scheduled for another revision in 1970. * * *
In The Colleges
A special survey on the university's employment practices, prepared and released by the University of Virginia, show that of a total of 5,594 fdll-time and part-time employes, 1,104 are Negroes. Paul Saunier Jr., director of university relations, said he hoped the figures will illustrate that rumors of discrimination at the university "are proving to be unfounded, and that those with any basis at all are being acted upon,"
The report also showed that the six university dtvisions hiring the bulk of "service workers" employ 426 Negro and 260 white persons in full-time positions with retirement rights and other fringe benefits. A total of 206 Negroes and 314 whites are in fdll-time hoday rate positions without such benefits, the figures indicate.
The report was developed in response to Charlottesville-Albemarle County Human Relations Council reports of rumors that Negro service workers were being given an inordinate portion of jobs without retirement rights. Saunier, who also serves as co-ordinator of university prograns on nondiscrimination in both employment and enrollment, said the figures show no discriminatory pattern against Negroes. "BUt it should not be concluded that the pattern is discriminatory against Whites either. The university is operating on a nondiscriminatory basis," * *
Students at predominantly Negro Virginia Union University,in. Richmond took a softer approach to their problems with college officials in a march from the campus to downtown Richmond May 5, and said they, hoped college students across the nation would follow their lead,About one month after some students at Virginia Union seized the administration building and three classroom buildings for several days, the spokesmen called for re-establishnent of communications links and direct meetings between students and administrative officials, Virginia-4 May, 1968
600 to 800 persons This "newattitude" wasexpressed before Monroe Park,after about250 participating in arally at downtown university campus,about a students hadmarched therefrom the said they hopedDr. Thomas H.Henderson, mile away,The students of trusteeswould realize"that VU2s president,and the board the image." we arehere today totry to change will not solve our "Taking over theadministration buildings senior andstudent leader, TWe problems," saidFrank Doggett, a students can meetand co.operateand must show theworld that "This is a officials to solveproblems," he said, work with new approachto the peaceful nonviolentmeeting to show our TWe have problems,but we want to problem."He continueds solve them," * * *
leaders agreedduring two A blue.ribbon groupof Southern Richmond on majordirections to days of informalconferences in Negroes into themainstream of take in attemptingto bring policy committee'héldthe higher educationalopportunity, A and directorfor the newRegional conferenaes toprovide guidance Opportunity, whichis being Institute forHigher Educution the SouthernRegional Education established inAtlanta under Board(SREB). Friday, president meetings presided overby Dr. William In closed portion ofdiscussion of NorthCarolina, a large of the University interested inlow.tuition centered on howto get Negrostudents more being set up inmost states,the Richmond community colleges govexTGETITRa Times.Dispatch learned,Leaders in education, business were inattendance. should financefour or The group agreedthat the institute throughout theSouth to helpcommunity five pilotprojects a year and to provide moreservices forNegro students college systems colleges in theNegro communities. foster enthusiasmfor the two.year concurrenceof the 12.member Three other majorpoints had the policy commissions modify thecurriculuns of Moves must bemade rapidly to 1) students at thosecolleges traditionally Negrocolleges so that for their newjob opportunities. will beadequately prepared support for thebasic operatingcosts 2) Outside financial be private and publicinstitutions --will of Negrocolleges..both out the documentation isneeded to spell necessary,and extensive fiscal problemsof thesecolleges. Virginia.5 May, 1968
3) Eabil:SiautherA state should make a "roleand scope" study of each college within its boundaries..includingwhite and Negro, public and private colleges..to decide'what academicneeds can be met by each institution. Recommendations would thenbe made. Thus, in the long run, students of both racesmight attendcollege because of the program its offers, without regardfor itsracial history.
The institute is being established tohelp implement a report made last August hy SREBvs Commission onHigher Educational Opportunity in the South, which offered some40 recommendations for improving Negro higher education in the region.
Members of the policy group invited tothe meeting in Richmond were BrunsAck A.Bagdon, regional director in Atlanta ofthe Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S.Department of Labor; H. H. Dewar, a San Antonio investment banker; Gov. BufordEllington of Tennessee; T. R. May, executive director of theLockheed Georgia of Marietta, Ga.i Samuel 140 Nabrit of the Southern FellowshipFund of Atlanta; Benjamin F. Payton, president of BenedictCollege of Columbia, S0C.; Mrs. Winthitop Rockefeller of Little Rock; Asa T.Spaulding, retired insurance executive of Durham; Edward A.Wayne, retired president of the Federal Reserve Bank ofRichmond; and three ex officio metbers..Govo RobertlE. Maair of SouthCarolina, President Friday, and Dr. Mitchel B. Denham, a Kentuckyhigher education official. Mrs. Rockefeller and the two governors wereunable to attend the Richmond meeting* **
Legal Actl.on
The U.S. Supreme Court held in a May 27decision that its 1954.55 desegregation decisions did put an"affirmative duty" on school boards toabolish dual school systems and establish "unitary" ones.The decision was rendered in an unanimous decision disapproving the freedom-of-choiceplan of New Kent County, Va., and zoning and construction programsrespectively in Jackson, Tenn., and. Gould, Ark.
Some persons had read the historic1954 decision and its implementing degree of 19% to bemerely negative in that it barred enforced segregation, butdid not require integration. But the U.S. Department of Health,Education and Welfare(HEW) had been saying in its guidelinesfor school desegregation essentially what the Supreme Court saidin the May 27 decision*
"Apparently wegve gone fall circle,"Frederick T. Gray of Chesterfield County, counsel for the New KentSchool Board, commented. "Cases that started out to obtain the rightto attend the school of oneos choice have now resultedin a decision which in some instances will preclude freedomof choice*" Virginia-6 May, 1968
that a freedom-of-choice The court emphasizedthat "we do not hold unconstitutional...Rather, all wedecide plan of itselfmight be system a plan ttilizing today is that indesegregating a dual freedom-of-choice is not anend in itself," boards such as the But the opinion onNew Kent said, "school dual systems" respondent (whichwere) operating state-compelled charged with the at the time of the1954 decree were "clearly affirmative duty totake whatever stepsmight be necessary to convert to a unitarysystem 00.0" of public instruction, Harry R. Elmore, deputystate superintendent estimated that up to90 per cent ofVirginia's school systems effect of the operate on free-choiceplans. He desctibed the decision as "backingup" the HEW guidelines. * * * U.S. Department Citing the decision of afederal court, the (HEW) has said that public school of Health,Education and Welfare schools in a way thatwill officials must locateand construct new contribute to eliminationof segregation. A memoramium from HEW's Office for CivilRights td Dr. Woodrowli.Wilkerson, spelled out the Virginia's superintendentof public instruction policy recently. A copy waspassed along by theState Department of Education tostate schoolsuperintendents, said, it is "clear" On the basis of thecatirt decision, the memo dual structyres based upon that "school systemswhich have operated construction is race have apositive obligationto see that school deliberately used toeliminate the separateschool system." Fifth Circuit Court of HEW cited the April18 decision of the of HEW's guidelines Appeals in New Orleans,which upheld the part that dealt with physical for compliance with the1964 Civil Rights Act sessionts facilities. The pertinent sectionof the 1968.69 school guidelines states: operation as a "To the extentconsistent with their proper locating and designing whole, school systems arealso responsible for of the expanding existingfacilities, and operation new schools, eradicate the vestiges school system as a wholeto seek means to of the.dual system." Virginia-7 May, 1968
Mrs. Ruby G. Martin, director ofHEW's Office for Civil Rights, pointed to the "positiveobligation" the court's decision affirming the guidelines place on schoolofficials to build schools that will draw from a racially mixed group.She said: "This office will be carefully considering this factorin determining the compliance status of individual school systemsin your state. In addition, school construction plans forindividual school districts will be carefuDy reviewed before anydistrict is accepted into fail and complete compliance status." WEST VIRGINIA HIGHLIGHTS
The state president of the NAACP renewed demandsthat results of an investigation of racial tension at BluefieldState College be made public.
A new survey indicates that the median educationallevel of West Virginians is rising. West Virginia!-1 May, 1968
WEST VIRGINIA
In The Colleges repeated what has become The state presidentof the NAACP C. Smiths Release the an almostmonthly requestto Gov. Hulett report on racialproblems West Virginia HumanRights Commission Herbert H. Hendersonof Huntington, at BluefieldState College. what leads you torisk your own wrote Smith,"The NAACP wonders in the field ofhuman reputation for fairplay and integrity rights by thissuppression000" 'statehouse gang' "Can it be that youradministration and the of Atty. Gen.Robertson arecommitted tobehind.the.scene support for governor andthat any revelationsin the and his campaign will hurt his chance "Bluefield Report" byits release through you for votes insouthern WestVirginia?" The Human Rights The report was givenSmith last winter. fhll text of thereport Commission has askedSmith to release the NAACP chapters haverepeated but he has declined.State and local be served" the request butSmith has said "nogood purpose would by making contentsof the reportpublic. In the first, There were two relateddevelopments in May. in his effort towin Atty. Gen, C. DonaldRobertson was defeated Robertsonts defanseof the Democraticgubernatorial nomination. at Bluefield Statecost him support among the administration "woad put the Negroes.Henderson saidRobertsonls nomination days in humanrights Democratic party backto the horse.and.buggy progress 00,0" May 14 was JamesM. Sprouse, The winner of theprimary election Sprouse is regarded as a who was supportedby the stateAFL-CIO. civil rights liberal. State was the The second developmentinvolving Bluefield Christie to grant newtrials to refusal of FederalJudge Sidney after taking partin eight students who weresuspended last fall president. Lawyers for the ademonstration a6instthe college to JudgeChristie's court. students had appealedtheir suspension action taken bycollege officials. He ruled in favorof disciplinary * * * West Virginia-2 Mgy, 1968
Under Survey
President Richard Payne of the Charleston chapter of the NAACP said that 156 of Kanawha County's 2,453 public school teachers are Negroes.Payne said there are six Negroes among an administrative staff of 176. "I have to be honest with myself and you," he added. "Negroes just don't apply for the positions."He said failure by Negroes to make application for available promotions is one of the chapter's biggest problems in dealing with the school board.
Payne also said the survey showed that 1,062.3.9 per cent-- of West Virginia's 26,733 employes are Negroes and that 70 per cent of the minority are paid $350 or less a month. He said only 298 Negroes earn $400 ormore a month, an income figure equalled or surpassed by 15,617 white workers. * * *
More West Virginia children than ever before are staying in school until graduation day.A survey by the West Virginia Education Association showed that the number of high school graduates in 1967 was 40.2 per cent higher in the state than in 1957. During the same 10-year period, total enrollment decreased by 10.6 per cent, a reflection of the state's continuing loss o0 population.
In 1960, the average educational leval of West Virginians was 808 years, an increase of less than onehalf of a per cent over the 1950 figure.The WVEA predicted that the median educational level will show a substantial increase when the 1970 census is taken. * * amattLi2a2E Residents of Charleston have complained abaut the placement of 250 units of rent supplement housing in their neighborhood. The housing program is being sponsored by St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church.
People living in the ward, which has tentatively been selected as a site, have protested to the countyboard of education, saying that addition of the rental units will overcrowd an elementary school serving the area. WASHINGTON HIGHLIGHTS
In a unanimous decision,the Supreme Court heldthat freedom-of-choice plans areinadequate means of compliancewith operate to its school desegregationrulings where they do not abolish dual schoolsystems.
The Department of Health,Education and Welfare reported that about 14 per cent ofthe Negro students inpublic schools schools. of the ll Southernstates are attending desegregated
The Department of Justicefiled suit against thepublic school system of Indianapolis,Ind., charging racialdiscrimination in student and facultyassignment and in the constructionof new schools.
The D.C. Board of Educationapproved new boundary zonesfor secondary schools designedto equalize enrollmentsand promote racial and socio-economicbalance.
Julius W. Hobson, principalplaintiff in the Hobson Nr.Hansen school discrimination suit,announced formation of anonprofit institute intended to improveeducation in Washington through further court action and"watchdog" activities.
A special committee ofschool officials andBoard of Education in memory members received proposalsfor an annual school holiday of Dr. Martin LutherKing Jr. approving The School Board overruledSupt. William R. Manning by distribution in the schoolsof literature of theSouthern Christian Leadership Conference.
Three Board members werereappointed to serve until next Jan 27, when the city'sfirst elected school boardis to take office. Washington-1 May, 1968
NASH1NGTON
National Affairs
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously May 27 that Southern school systems cannot satisfy the constitutional obligation to desegregate merely by offering students freedom of choice in the sohools they attend.
"Delays are no longer tolerable," the Supreme Court declared in deciding three cases that constituted its first detailed rayiew of the adequacy of measures being taken to implement its landmark school desegregation decision of 1954.
The three cases were appeals brought to the high court by Negro parents in New Kent County, Va., Gould, Ark., and Jackson, Tenn. Cgo. 695, Green. v. County School Board of New Kent Countyl No. 805 Ranev Board a Education of the nOuld School District° onroev ar o uo ss oners o e o Jac son.
The Negro parents and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Mind charged that free.choice plans in the three districts had the effect of perpetuating allZegro schools and thwarting the Supreme Court's desegregation decree.The court's opinion, by Associate Justice William J. Brennan Jr., rejected in each case the claim of school authorities that the appellants were seeking "compulsory integration." He said local boards had an "affirnative duty" to see to it that in systems formerly segregated by law, "racial discrimination would be eliminated root and branch."
Tde do not hold that 'freedom of choice' can have no place in such a plan," Brennan wrote. He also rejected the justice department's contention that the plans were unconstitutional because they were calculated to perpetuate segregation. "All we decide today," the opinion declared, "is that in desegregating a dual system a plan utilizing 'freedom of choice' is not an end in itself."School boards have an obligation, the court found, "to come fbrward with a plan that promises realistically to work, and promises realistically to work now."The word "now" was italicized for emphasis in the opinion. Washington-2 May, 1968
In each of the cases, a U.S. Court of Appeals had upheldthe adequacy of the fredom-of-choice plan.However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (New Orleans), which hasjurisdiction aver most of the Deep South states, had heldthat such plans are not adequate unless they serve to break down the dualsystem that previously existed with legal sanction.The effect of the Supreme Courtus ruling was to apply the Fifth CircuitCourtus standard to the_ appeals courts for the Fourth, Sixth andEighth Circuits, sitting respectivtly in Richmond, Va., Cincinnati andSt. Louis.
Jack Greenberg, director=counsel for theNAACP fund who had argued the Arkansas case before theSupreme Court, announced in New York that the fund would immediately reopen manyof the 200 school desegregation cases thatit brought in the South. He said the ruling "will be extremelyuseful in stepping up the pace of desegregation." * * *
About 14 per cent of the Negro elementary andsecondary students in the 11 Southern states attendeddesegregated schools during the 1967.68 school year, the Department of Health,Education and Welfare reported May 27. The percentage pointed to a slowdownfrom the previous pace of desegregation, butdirect comparisons could not be made because of changes in the accountingmethod.
Before last fall, the reported percentageof desegregation had about doubled in each of the three yearssince enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 began. The official figures were 3.2 per cent in 1_964.65,6.5 per cent in 1965.66, and 12.5 per cent in 1966.67. HEWus definition of a "desegregated school" this year was one that had at least50 per cent white students. In the earlier surveys, schools wereconsidered desegregated if as many as five percent of the students were white. Furthermore, smaller school districts that hadpreviously been included in the annual tabulations were not surveyedthis year.
Officials indicated privately that they weredisappointed with the new figures. Some had been reporting that18 per cent or more of the Negrostudents in the Deep South were indesegregated schools.. "Itus a pretty grimpicture," one source said.
The HEW survey showed the desegregationrate in voluntarily desegregated districts was nearly doublethat of districts operating under federal court orders. The percentage of Negroes attending desegregated schools in voluntarydistricts was 18.9, compared with 9.5 per cent in court.order districts.The survey covered 84 per cent of the regionus 11.5 millionpublic school students and 91 per cent of the 2.9 million Negro studentsin the region. Washington-3 May, 1968
States showing the lowestpercentages of Negroes in desegregated schools were Mississippi, 3.9;Alabama, 5.4; South Carolina,6.4; Louisiana, 6.7; and Georgia,9.5.The states with the highest nercentages were Texas, 26.1;nrginia 20.4; Tennessee,18.4; Florida, 18; Arkansas, 16.8; andNorth Carolina, 16.
The justice department filed suitagainst the Indianapolis, Ind., school system May 29, chargingracial discrimination in student The and faculty assignmentand in the construction of newschools, suit was the second federalaction filed against a Northernschool district. The first, filed April25 against a suburban Cook County, district south of Chicago,charged faculty and staffdiscrimination. It was amended by the justicedepartment May 27 to add the charge that elementary school boundarylines and facilities had been allocated so as to "promote and preservesegregation."
The Indianapolis suit wasdirected at a school systemof 108,000 students and more than4,700 teachers.About one-third of the students and one-fourthof the teachers areNegroes. The city onerated a segregatedschool system from shortlyafter World War I until 3.949, whenthe Indiana legislatureoutlawed segregation.
The justice department'sbrief singled out CrispusAttucks High School, built in 1927, as"a racially segregatedschodl... attended solely by Negrostudents and staffed almostentirely by Negro teachers." The brief contended thatracial discrimination had been practiced in"assigning students, designingattendance zones for elementaryschools, establishing feederpatterns to secondary schools and constructing newschools." It said 16 of the elementary and junior highschools have predominantly or all-Negro student bodies andfaculties, and 68 are predominantly white.
"As a general practice,"the suit charged, teachershave been assigned to schools attendedby students of their own race. Attorney General Ramsey Clark,toiho filed the suit, said hehad received a written complaintfrom a parent of Negro students "alleging that said children arebeing deprived of...equalprotection Court far the Southern of the laws." Clark asked the U.S. District District of Indiana to orderIndianapolis school 'officialsto adopt and implement a plan to endthe discriminatory practicesalleged in the brief. * * * Washington-4 May, 1968
District Affairs
The D.C. Board of Education approved new attendance zones for Washington junior and senior high schools May 7 in accord with proposals submitted after a three.month study by a 35-member citizens' committee.The boundary revisions, spurred by last year's decree of Federal Judge J. Skelly Wright in the Hobson v. Hansen . school discrimination suit, were intended to equalize enrollments in accord with school capacity while promoting racial and socio-economic balance in the secondary schools.
Six board members voted in favor of the boundary changes, two abstained and one member was absent. Under the plan approved by the board, next fall's ninth and 12th grade students will be permitted to remain in the schools they attended in the1967.68 school year.About 10,300 students..including 3,300 in senior high schools and 7,000 in junior high schools..will be shifted to new attendance zones.
School Supt. William R. Manning said the school system would equalize course offerings so that none of the transferred students will be deprived of courses in which they had planned to enroll. * * *
Julius W. Hobson, principal plaintiff in the Hobson v. Hansen school desegregation suit, joined with six supporters early in May to incorporate a nonprofit corporation aimed at improving public education in Washington through farther court action and "watchdog" activities. The Washington Institute for Quality Education is seeking about $85,000 from private foundations and church organizations for its first year of activities, Eason announced May26. The purpose of the Institute,according to its bylaws, is to "support litigation and educational studies designed to secure the..9 constitutional rights to the children of public school age in the District."
In the proposed 1968.69 budget, the Institute allots$25,000 for legal fees. Hobson said this would include further activities in the Hobson V. Hansen case. The organization plans a "school surveillance project" to monitor implementation ofJudge Wright's decree. Such surveillance "is necessary to assure poor children.. black and white..the quality of educationheretofore denied to them," an Institute prospectus said, Washington-5 Nay, 1968
A second project outlined in the prospectus would be appointment of a "community review board" composed of repreentativesof business, labor, parents, government and churches to prepare anannual report on "the degree to whichgraduating students can meet the acceptable and minimum standards enabling them to function in oursociety," The Institute also proposed to establish a clearing housefor information on urban education programs,to be distributed to the public.
In addition to Hobson, trustees for the Institute areAina C. Lower, a Civil Service Commission specialist on equalemployment opportunity; Warren W. Morse of the AmericanFederation of State, County and Mbnicipal Employes; P. Bertrand Phillips, deanof student affairs at Tuskegee Institute; the Rev. Henri A.Stines rector of the Episcopal Church of the Atonement;James A. Nashington Jr., provessor of law at HowardUniversity; and the Rev. William A. Wendt, rector of St. Stephen and the IncarnationChurch. * * *
An annual school holiday to honor the memoryof the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was recommended May 23 to a specialcommittee of District school officials and Board of Educationmembers. The holiday, coupled with a special memorial program inthe schools, was suggested by severalcommittee members and spokesmen for citizens' groups.Washington Teachers Union President William H. Simons, who said the commemoration should be held onthe annual anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, said hisdeath "symbolized the struggle of the man to fulfill his goals forthe Nation,"
Other proposals submitted to the committee including naming schools, textbooks or curriculum materials after Dr.King; establishing a memorial library; andestablishing scholarships for deserving students. Board member Benjamin H. Alexander, chairman of the committee, said the board would ask the communityto contribute "dimes and dollars for freedom" to finance anappropriate memorial to Dr. King. * * *
The Board of Education overruled School Supt. ManningMay 1 by agreeing to allow the Southern ChristianLeadership Conference to distribute literature in the schools in anattempt to obtain housing for members of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign.The board's 4-to-1 vote represented a break with traditional school policyto bar distribution of materials not related toschool activities. Manning cited this policy in recommending againstapproval of the SOIC request, but board member John A. Sessions, whovoted with the majority, said "the Poor People's Campaignis likely to be the most educational event to happen in D.C. this year." * * * Washington-6 May, 1968
Three members of the DistrictBoard of Education whose terms were to expirein June were routinely reappointedMay 7 by Judges of the Federal DistrictCourt for the District of Columbia. The three members--the Rev, EverettA. Hewlett, president of the Board, Dr. Euphemia Haynes and CarlC. Snuck- -will serve only until next Jan. 270 when the cityfs firstelected school board is to take office.
The federal judges, who haveselected school board members for more than 60 years, madetheir last round of appointments six weeks ePrlier thanusual, presumably to assure thestability of the lame-duck board, Legislation to permit election of the board was enacted in April,