Factual OUT BERN CHOOL EWS Objective VOL I, NO. I NASHVILLE, TENN. SEPTEMBER 3, 1954 Reporting Service To Tell School Story By C. A. McKNIGHT LEGAL STATUS OF SEGREGATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS are somewhat long, somewhat weigh­ Executive Director ty. And since SERS is not trying to WITH this first issue of So•uthern compete with daily newspapers, but SchooL News, the Southern Ed­ t·ather to supplement them, these ucation Reporting Service undertakes Segregation required 17 states and District of Columbia initial reports lag behind the head­ a major new journalistic assignment lines in several cases. -to tell the story, factually and ob­ But they are loaded with facts for jectively, of what happens in educa­ the thoughtful reader and student. Segregation permitted 1n varying d egrees 4 states tion as a result of the Supreme The story revealed by the facts is Court's May 17 opinion that segrega­ one of watchful waiting throughout tion in the public schools is uncon­ most of the region, with the begin­ stitutional. nings of desegregation this month in Much has been done-and in a the states of Missouri, West Virginia, short time-to organize the Report­ Maryland and Delaware, and the ing Service. District of Columbia. Mont N Dole • ~to\ Future monthly issues will not only It was in April that several south­ : Minn • -., tl-0\\ em members of the American Society :. ................ "" carry along the chronological story, of Newspaper Editors got together at • -. ~ \ state by state, but will look closely the annual Washington convention to S Dok at key communities, give excerpts .• ldoh0 ---'"'Co""' talk over with representatives of the ; ..... : ~- ........ " from sign.iflcant public addresses, ...... I \ Fund for the Advancement of Educa­ : .,. ...... ··········-· · lowo ,. .•.. legislative proposals and court deci­ sions, report editorial and other opin­ tion the need for such a reporting Neb service. ion from responsible sources, digest important books, magazine articles It was on May 11 that a group of ·. Utah southern newspaper editors and ed­ and other writing on the subject, and ucators met in Nashville and con­ analyze statistical information com­ stituted themselves a board of direc­ piled by state departments of educa­ tors for SERS, electing Virginius tion and other agencies. Dabney, editor of the Richnwnd This initial issue speaks for itself Times-Dispatch, as chairman, and in answer to the two southern news­ Thomas R. Waring, editor of the papers which have voiced the opinion Charleston News & Courier, as vice­ that SERS was established to en­ chairman. courage integration, and to the east­ On June 6, the board held a second ern Negro newspaper which ex­ meeting in Nashville, elected C. A. pressed the fear that SERS was a McKnight, editor of The Charlotte scheme by "Dixiecrats" to thwart the News, as executive director, laid Supreme Court and preserve segrega­ down broad project directives, and tion. designated the George Peabody Col­ But it should be stated again-as lege for Teachers, Nashville, to act as categorically as possible-that the fiscal agent for the project. Southern Education Reporting Serv­ On July 5, formal application for a SERS NEWS BEAT-The 17 states and the District ol occur in other states where segregation has either been ice will not be an advocate for or grant of $99,200 was made to the Columbia shown in black in the map above, where seg­ permitted by law, or where the law was silent on the sub­ against anything, that it will express Fund for the Advancement of Ed­ regation in the public schools has been required by law, ject. The map is from the book, "The Negro and the no opinions of its own on what is ucation. will be the principal news beat of the Southern Education Schools," by Harry S. Ashmore, published by tl1e Univer­ good and bad or wise and unw~. On July 15, the Nashville office of Reporting Service. But facts will also be reported as they sity of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C. and that it will adhere scru.pulously SERS was opened. to the accurate and objective report­ Since that date: ing Service were explained. newspapers and magazines in the and content are concerned. At the ing of facts as it finds them. 1. A central headquarters sta.II has 3. A mailing list of nearly 10,000 non-South, radio and television sta­ outset, it seemed desirable-even es­ This fundamental policy of the Re­ been employed. names has been built up. It includes tions, wire services, federal agencies, sential-to go back to May 17, pick up porting Service has been emphatically 2. Top-Bight newspapermen and governors and members of their ex­ and hundreds of interested private the many loose ends of the public endorsed by the members of the women in the District of Columbia ecutive sta.ffs, chief state school of­ citizens. school story, and tie them together in board of directors, whose personal and 17 southern and border states ficers, members of state boards of ed­ 4. SERS has been incorporated a full and detailed documentary, convictions about segregation cover a have been appointed SERS corre­ ucation, local school administrators, under Tennessee law as a general which would be useful to school ad­ wide range, by the newspapermen spondents. (Their names appear in university presidents and heads of welfare corporation. ministrators, newspaper editors and and women who accepted appoint­ the masthead on Page 4). On July 24- interested university departments, 5. This first issue has been prepared, others as background material for ment as SERS correspondents, and 25, the correspondents attended a public libraries, all daily and weekly printed and distributed. understanding subsequent develop­ by officials of the Fund for the Ad­ two-day seminar in Nashville at newspapers in the region with a cir­ The initial issue is not a prototype ments in the several states. vancement of Education who ap­ which the objectives of the Report- culation of 2,000 or more, leading of future editions, insofar as format Hence, the reports in this first issue proved the grant. Exchange of Correspondence Explains Purpose of SERS (Editor's Note: The following ex­ preme Court's recent opinion and for carrying out these aims. We have boards of education, local superin­ the board unanimously agreed. upon chance of col'l'espondence explains fully the objectives of the Southern forthcoming decrees in the five cases arranged to establish headquarters tendents, local school board chair­ the recommendation of the Execu­ Education Reporting Service and Its involving segregation in the public at Nashville, Tennessee. There a small men; public libraries. (2) In the field tive Director, to avoid such interest­ relatJonshlp to tho Fund for the Ad­ schools. central staff consisting of the Execu­ of government: governors and mem­ ing by-paths and to limit the Report­ vancement of Education, whJcb Is We believe that the primary bur­ tive Director, an assistant director, a bers of councils of state, members of ing Service to its essentially journal­ financing the project, and to George Peabody College for Teachers, Nash­ den for making these adjustments research assistant-analyst, a librarian southern state legislatures, local gov­ istic !unction. ville, which Is serving as flscal agent. 1·ests with the school administrators and a secretary will gather pertinent erning officials; (3) In the field of Since the Southern Education Re­ This eonespondence makes public the and other leaders, both public and information about developments in communications: daily and weekly porting Service is not yet incor­ full record of SERS.) pt·ivate, of each individual communi­ the District of Columbia and the 17 newspapers in the southern states, porated as a non-pront organization, • • • ty, and that the appropriate progt'al'D states whose public school Jaws are magazines and newspapers of nation­ (see footnote) we have made ar­ Richmond, Va. for any one community must be tail­ affected by the recent Supreme Court al circulation, wire services, radio rangements with George Peabody ored to fit the particular circum­ opinion. and television stations; (4) Interested July 5, 1954 College for Teachers to receive any stances. We believe also, however, That information will be assembled citizens. funds available to support the South­ Mr. Clarence H. Faust, President that communities can learn useful from many sources, but the main re­ em Education Reporting Service and The Fund for the Advancement lessons from the experiences of one source will be a staff of 18 field cor­ TO ESTABLISH LIBRARY to p1·ovide fiscal services. of Education another. respondents who will report at regu­ In collaboration with one of the The Chairman and the Executive 575 Madison Avenue The Southern Education Reporting lar intervals the developments in southern u niversity libraries, the Director, with the approval of the New York 22, New York Service has therefore been estab­ their states. In all cases, these cor­ Southern Education Reporting Serv­ Executive Committee and under in­ lished with the aim of assisting re­ respondents will be working news­ ice will also supervise the concur­ structions from the Board, have de­ Dear Mr. Faust: sponsible local and state leaders, and papermen of established reputation; rent filing of all the factual data it veloped a budget to cover the costs A S you know, tl1e several southern particularly school administrators, in in most cases they will be the regular assembles for the use of contem­ of inilial establishment and the first educators and newspaper editors developing practical and constructive education writers of their news­ porary writers and researchers, and year of operation. We wish to em­ whose names appear below have re­ solutions to their own particular papers.