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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS —Sept. 3, 1954 —PAGE 3
Delaware
WILMINGTON, Del.
D ELAWARE —a border state di
rectly involved in the segregation
cases before the U. S. Supreme Court
—greets the 1954-55 school year with
an expressed willingness to accept
the decision and mandate of the
court, at least on top administrative
levels.
Regardless of what rank and file
residents of school districts may say
in their respective areas, Delaware is
not only preparing for the transition
from segregation to integration (or
“desegregation,” as some call it) as
soon as possible, but already Wil
mington, the largest community in
the state, and nine other school dis
tricts were ready before the opening
of school to undertake integration on
varying planes.
Within a week after the U. S. Su
preme Court decision, Gov. J. Caleb
Boggs sent a letter to the State Board
of Education, saying:
It will be the policy of this administra
tion to work toward adjustment to the
United States constitutional requirements.
I respectfully ask the State Board of Edu
cation to proceed toward this objective.
Ten days after the Supreme Court
decision, Atty. Gen. H. Albert Young,
who had represented Delaware in the
Supreme Court hearings, declared in
a radio interview that the “separate
but equal” provisions of the State
Constitution were no longer binding
upon school districts.
“Any white school district in Delaware
can admit Negroes immediately, if it so
desires,” he declared. “On the other hand,
school districts that still maintain seg
regation bars are within the law of the
state if they wish to refuse Negroes ad
mission. I say this in view of the fact that
the U. S. Supreme Court has not yet
handed down a mandate in connection
with its recent opinion.”
THREE DISTRICTS OPENED
But the 1953-54 school year in Del
aware concluded with only three
white school districts opening its
doors to Negroes: the Claymont and
Hockessin districts which were di
rectly involved in the litigation; and
the Arden school district, near Wil
mington (a three-room country
school) which admitted Negro chil
dren soon after the decision of the
State Supreme Court on the issue of
“separate but equal facilities.”
The State Supreme Court had ruled
that where Negro facilities were not
equal, those children could be al
lowed to study in white schools until
such time as their own facilities were
improved. The little Arden school,
supported by its community, admitted
Negro children who otherwise would
have had to attend schools consid
ered inferior by their parents.
Soon after the decision of the U. S.
Supreme Court, the State Board of
Education began to explore the
method for moving toward integra
tion.
BIPARTISAN SUPPORT
Its move was bolstered not only by
the attitude of the governor of the
state but also by the attorney general
and most recently by “integration”
planks adopted by the Democratic
and Republican Parties of the state.
The Democratic Party’s plank on
“full citizenship” stated:
Because we deplore the relegation of
any American to a position of second
'•'^ citizenship, we applaud the recent
decisions of the United States Supreme
Court affirming the constitutional right
of all citizens to equal treatment in pub
lic education and recreation. We recog
nize that these decisions will help to
create in Delaware a climate in which
inferior citizenship status will not be
tolerated.
And the next week, the Republican
Party of Delaware stated in its plat
form plank on education:
We promise continued improvement of
the educational program and an orderly
transition to integrated schools with re
organization of school districts where de
sirable and practicable.
The Republican Party also called
for the appointment of a state human
relations commission and declared
discrimination because of race, color
or creed should be abolished.”
'^ lese planks in the platforms of
the Democratic and Republican par-
tl ? s Were odopted in conventions
without discussion and without a dis
senting voice.
From time to time during the sum
mer months, the State Board of Edu
cation and its chief exec ve officer,
Dr. George R. Miller Jr., state super
intendent of public instruction, is
sued statements regarding the tran
sition from segregation to integration.
On June 11, the State Board of
Education declared:
As a general policy, the State Board
of Education fully intends to carry out
the mandates of the United States Su
preme Court decision as expeditiously as
possible. It is recognized that communi
ties differ one from the other in tradition
and attitudes; therefore, the actual car
rying out of the integrative process will
require a longer period of time in some
parts of the state than in others.
The State Board of Education
added this policy:
1. Wilmington is permitted to move
promptly in the direction of integra
tion.
2. Other school authorities in the
state together with interested citi
zens should take “immediate” steps
to hold discussions for formulating
plans for desegregation and present
these plans to the State Board of
Education for review.
At the same time, the State Board
of Education recognized the prob
lems of overlapping Negro and white
school districts and the need for re
appraising the needs for construction
of certain schools or additions au
thorized in 1953 by the General As
sembly.
LATER POLICY
As the date for opening of public
schools drew closer and as the State
Board began to approve a number
of integration plans submitted by
some school districts, the board
adopted another policy:
1. All school districts should im
mediately take steps to develop plans
for desegregation.
2. No pupils, except those with
proper transfer permits, shall be ac
cepted by any school from other
schools unless and until plans from
that school for desegregation in that
area have been approved by the
State Board of Education.
3. In those districts where desegre
gation plans have not been first sub
mitted for review, the status quo
shall prevail on the opening of the
school year.
4. All schools, maintaining four or
more teachers, were requested to
present by Oct. 1 at least tentative
plans for desegregation in their area.
This information will be submitted to
Atty. Gen. Young as an aid to his
presentation to the Supreme Court
in the October hearings.
Also, in the latter days of August,
the State Board of Education author
ized the employment of Miss Virginia
Mason as a consultant in human re
lations for the office of the superin
tendent of public instruction. Miss
Mason had been conducting classes
in human relations in the schools of
Delaware for the past eight years.
And just before school opened, thp
State Board of Education drafted a
series of proposed guides for school
districts, suggesting how the school
officials can proceed to evolve plans
for desegregation.
A quick review of the desegrega
tion program in Delaware follows:
WILMINGTON
Summer schools in Wilmington, the
largest city in Delaware and near the
northern boundary of the state, were
conducted on an integrated basis.
The only opposition came from one
lone citizen dissenter who appeared
at all meetings of the Wilmington
Board of Education to object to any
integration program.
Early in July, the superintendent
of the Wilmington public schools, Dr.
Ward I. Miller, made public a plan
of integration, hoping to receive pub
lic reaction. He later admitted that
there was little reaction of any kind.
A month later, early in August, the
Wilmington Board of Education
adopted a plan for the 1954-55 school
year. In general, it was integration
in the elementary grades but no
change in either the junior or senior
high schools.
Faculties in the elementary schools
were integrated.
Courses not available in the Negro
Howard High School were opened to
Negro students in the Brown Voca
tional (white) School.
The Wilmington school board also
allowed transfers of pupils from one
school to another, provided certain
requirements were met and provided
there was room in the school the
pupils desired to attend.
Involved in the integration plan
were some brand new Negro schools
hailed in the national architectural
world as among the finest schools in
the country.
The decision to hold off integration
in the junior and senior high schools,
Dr. Miller said, was based on a desire
of the school officials to study the ad
ministrative problems attendant to
the larger attendance areas.
Dr. Miller also said he was relying
a great deal upon the principals of
the various schools involved in the
integration plan.
The approximate enrollment last
year in the Wilmington elementary
schools (from the first to sixth years
inclusive) was: 4,610 white children
and 1,873 Negroes.
In the junior and senior high
schools, the enrollment was approxi
mately: 4,577 white and 1,311 Negro
children.
CLAYMONT
Claymont, an incorporated town
almost on the Pennsylvania-Dela-
ware border, was directly involved
in the Delaware-U. S. Supreme
Court case that came up from the
Court of Chancery and the State Su
preme Court.
After the decision of the State Su
preme Court in favor of the Negro
litigants, the Claymont school ad
mitted Negroes from the Claymont
area.
And before the opening of the
1954-55 school year, the Claymont
Board of Education, citing “the sat
isfactory progress” of integration in
its high school during the past two
years, mapped a plan for integration.
The board stated however that only
the lack of adequate classroom space
prevented the immediate end of all
segregation in the district.
The board then asked the Clay
mont Parent-Teacher Association to
form a community-wide committee
on human relations with members
from both Negroes and white resi
dents and that this committee should
function as long as necessary.
In the meantime, integration has
gone forward through all grades
where room is available.
NEWARK
Newark is the seat of the Univer
sity of Delaware. Its board of educa
tion adopted a plan of integration
involving junior and senior high
school students but not in the ele
mentary grades. This means that
Negro students living in Newark—
14 miles from Wilmington—can elect
to attend high school in their town
instead of going to Wilmington’s
Howard High School.
Wilmer E. Shue, superintendent of
the Newark schools, stated that inte
gration of the upper grade students
was “the easiest and most logical
step” for Newark.
NEW CASTLE
The town of New Castle, which
has always been faced with a prob
lem of overcrowded conditions in its
white schools, has launched an inte
grated plan. Specifically, the plan is
for first year children and in all high
school grades.
Other school districts that have
varying forms of integration are:
Rose Hill-Minquadale, near Wil
mington; Conrad High School, also
near Wilmington; Delaware City, 14
miles from Wilmington; Alfred I. du-
Pont School, near Wilmington.
The Dover Board of Education—
the state’s capital and the most
southern town in Delaware to under
take any kind of integration, has
been given permission to try a lim
ited plan. This involves admitting
Negro sudents who graduated in
June from the Negro elementary
school to what is known as the aca
demic course in the Dover High
School.
However, these students will first
have to undergo what are known as
“placement tests” given to all eighth
grade pupils in the Dover Commun
ity School before they make the final
selection of their high school courses.
These tests are to be administered by
the principal of the Negro school who
is a Negro.
Dover has a typical example of the
problem of school administration in
volved in the process of integration.
The Negro and white schools in Do
ver are administered by a board of
education.
But there is also in Dover a brand
new comprehensive high school, built
for Negroes with a Negro faculty and
administered by a board separate
from the Dover Board of Education.
When complete integration takes
place, this new school, built for Ne
groes, may have to be taken into the
Dover school district as part of the
schools in the regular administrative
area.
THE BACKGROUND
Here is the background on the
Delaware story:
With an equal but separate public
school system provided in its consti
tution adopted in 1897, Delaware en
tered segregation litigation in 1950
when the right of the University of
Delaware (a state college) to bar
Negro students from its undergradu
ate schools was questioned in the
Court of Chancery.
Chancellor Collins J. Seitz decided
in favor of Negro litigants and the
trustees of the University of Dela
ware declined to take any appeal. So
the entire university was opened to
Negroes without any distinction as
to classroom participation or dormi
tory privileges.
Next came the public school case,
known as Belton v. Gebhart, Bulah
v. Gebhart. It was also heard before
Chancellor Seitz and involved one
Negro child who wanted to attend a
white elementary school in the vil
lage of Hockessin and eight Negro
students who wanted to attend the
Claymont High School.
The complaint was twofold: (1)
that state-imposed segregation in ed
ucation was in itself a violation of
the Fourteenth Amendment of the
U. S. Constitution; (2) that the fa
cilities and opportunities offered the
plaintiffs in Negro schools were in
ferior to those available to white stu
dents living in the same districts.
The chancellor decided that the
Negro facilities were inferior and
that until such time as the facilities
were brought up to the equal of the
white schools, the Negro children in
those districts could attend the white
schools. The chancellor did not allow
that there should be time for bring
ing the Negro schools up to equality
but that immediate relief should be
offered the Negro students.
The state of Delaware, represented
by Atty. Gen. H. Albert Young, act
ing on behalf of the defendant school
districts and the State Board of Edu
cation, took an appeal to the State
Supreme Court which upheld the
Court of Chancery on the basis of
inequality in facilities but refrained
from even touching on the subject
of segregation per se.
The State Supreme Court declared
that the Negro children did not have
to wait until their schools were
brought up to parity with the white
schools.
The attorney general decided to
appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court
on the grounds that a reasonable time
should be allowed for equalization.
However, pending the appeal and de
cision of the U. S. Supreme Court,
the State Board of Education, after
much flurry in the newspapers, de
cided to allow the plaintiffs to attend
the white schools to which they had
sought admission.
However, this decision applied only
to the white schools actually involved
in the litigation, although the trus
tees of a little country school near
Wilmington decided to take advan
tage of the situation and admit three
Negro children despite frowns on the
part of the State Board of Education.
ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS
But now that the U. S. Supreme
Court has handed down its opinion
on segregation in and of itself and
has wiped out the “separate but
equal” basis for state-imposed seg
regation, there are a number of im
portant administrative problems fac
ing Delaware.
The State Board of Education is
the top educational policy making
agency in the state. Under it comes
the State Department of Public In
struction, headed by the state super
intendent, Dr. George R. Miller Jr.,
with headquarters in the state’s cap
ital, Dover.
There are actually three types of
school districts in Delaware:
Wilmington is virtually a “special
special school district” with consid
erable autonomy. The Wilmington
school district is not under the juris
diction of the State Board of Educa
tion although the Wilmington Board
of Education did ask permission of
the State Board of Education before
it proceeded on its plan of integra
tion.
Special school districts are usually
large districts with high schools. The
trustees or boards of education of
special school districts have a certain
amount of autonomy, but their pow
ers must be exercised in conformity
with the rules and regulations of the
State Board of Education.
State unit schools come directly
under the State Department of Pub
lic Instruction. The school trustees
here do not set any educational pol
icy as do the boards in the special
districts.
In Delaware there are 106 school
districts, including Wilmington, and
also what are known as high school
area districts.
The bulk of the money for public
instruction in Delaware comes from
the General Assembly to all the
schools through the State Board of
Education. Money is allocated to the
schools on what is known as the per
pupil unit system.
However, special school districts
through local taxes can implement
the funds received from the state.
Generally, all schools in the state
are built on a basis of state-local dis
trict participation, but all Negro
schools have been built by 100 per
cent state appropriation.
BOUNDARIES CONFUSED
There is no clearly drawn pattern
of boundary lines between what are
Negro school districts in Delaware
and white school districts. In Wil
mington, for example, all public
schools, Negro and white, are ad
ministered by the Wilmington Board
of Education; however, in Dover, the
state’s capital, the board of educa
tion there administers white and Ne
gro schools but there is also a re
cently constructed comprehensive
high school in Dover which is admin
istered by a separate board.
In Delaware, there are 29 Negro
school districts in areas that draw
children for a single white school dis
trict.
There are also 13 Negro school dis
tricts in areas that contain two or
more white school districts.
And there are 12 Negro schools in
special districts administered by one
board for both white and Negro
schools.
Hence, when the General Assem
bly of Delaware meets early next
year, legislation will be submitted to
merge at least 42 Negro districts with
the nearest administrative white
school district in order to affect a
general integration plan.
SCHOOL STATISTICS
According to the 1953 annual re
port of the State Board of Education,
there were 2,287 teachers and profes
sional employes in the public schools
of the state, including 1,914 white
teachers and principals and 355 Ne
gro teachers and principals.
In Delaware, there is no distinction
as to pay. The schedules are the same
for Negro as well as white teachers
and principals. The standards for
teacher certificates are the same.
For the school year of 1952-53, the
total state funds made available to
the school districts was $20,752,757.
This included $6,924,187 for the
school building program and $13,828,-
■569 for current operations.
The 1952-53 report of the State
Board of Education shows that 52,724
children were enrolled in the schools
of the state, not including kindergar
tens.
The percentage breakdown for that
year follows:
Elementary schools: 81.1 per cent
of the children in these schools were
white and 18.9 per cent were Negroes.
Secondary schools: 85 per cent of
the children in these schools were
white and 15 per cent were Negro.
On the over-all basis, the break
down was:
White: 43,552; Negro 9,172.
In January of 1954, the total picture
was:
White: 44,395; Negro: 9,360.
The per capita current expenses in
day schools based upon average en
rollment were:
1952-53—$300.01; 1951-52—$276.48;
1950-51 — $248.57; 1949-50 — $234.22;
1948-49—$198.46.