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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS —Oct. I, 1954—PAGE 13
Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
I now appears unlikely that Ten
nessee will submit a brief to the U.
S Supreme Court on the politically
hot question of desegregation, al
though Tennessee is one of seven
states that have reserved the right to
participate in future hearings as a
“friend of the court.”
Sources close to Gov. Frank G.
Clement, who must make the decision
on Tennessee’s action, report his
present attitude is one of “watchful
waiting.
On the day the high court issued its
ruling, Clement urged public “calm
ness” and announced he planned to
confer with leaders of both races be
fore making a decision on what
course to follow.
Later, during his successful cam
paign for renomination in the Dem
ocratic primary, he said Tennessee
schools would continue to operate as
they have in the past until the Su
preme Court issues its final decree.
Late this summer, after it became
known that Tennessee had reserved
the right to participate in the Su
preme Court hearings, state educa
tional and legal authorities exam
ined recommendations that could be
incorporated in the Tennessee brief.
It was assumed this was being ac
complished at the governor’s request
and interpreted to mean Tennessee
would play a positive role in the high
court hearings.
As Aug. 18 news story which re
ceived statewide attention said the
Tennessee brief would propose a de
segregation plan beginning in the
first grade and moving gradually
through the other grades in ensuing
years.
Newspaper accounts credited these
recommendations to the late Atty.
Gen. Roy Beeler, Solicitor Gen. A. B.
(Atty. Gen. Roy Beeler died Sept.
23. The State Supreme Court named
George F. McCanless to succeed him.)
Story Discounted
The next day, Atty. Gen. Beeler
labeled the story as “premature.” He
said the recommendation was only
one of many being considered by
state officials.
“We have no plans on specific rec
ommendations,” Beeler said. “All we
have are suggestions. We haven’t
even had a conference with the gov
ernor on the subject.”
Since then, news on the status of
Tennessee’s brief has been scant. At
the time this report was written, nei
ther Gov. Clement nor his top advis
ors would discuss the matter public
ly. Their silence is interpreted to
mean that Tennessee will not partici
pate in the high court hearings.
Reasons advanced for this include:
1. If suggestions are submitted, the
administration places itself on rec
ord one way or the other. This, they
say, might alienate a big block of
legislators and jeopardize the entire
school program in the 1955 General
Assembly.
2. By submitting a brief, Tennessee
might place itself under the direct
jurisdiction of the court sooner than
if it stays out of the case.
3. Many local school officers pre
fer that no recommendations be
made. Local school boards have al
most final authority in setting up pro
cedures for the operation of their
schools and they might well veto any
plan offered by the state.
Others Favor Filing
Some officials, however, believe the
state should take a definite stand.
This group maintains that recom
mendations made by other states
might not apply to Tennessee and
that the state should at least ask the
court to allow the desegregation to
be spread over a period of several
years.
Officials agree that a smooth
transition from segregation to inte
gration will require considerable
time. Many believe that unless some
state makes a strong appeal for time,
the court might order sudden inte
gration.
Meanwhile, Tennessee’s 716,000
public school children returned to
school this fall with fanfare about
possible integration held to a mini
mum. For all but a few students, the
school year began like any other.
In Nashville, Negro students were
admitted to all Catholic schools on a
non-segregated basis for the first
time. Two formerly all-white par
ochial schools had approximately 50
Negroes enrolled, it was reported.
The decision to admit Negro stu
dents to all parochial schools in the
Nashville area came last June after
a meeting between the Most Rev.
William L. Adrian, bishop of the
Nashville Diocese, and pastors of the
Nashville churches.
A directive, sent in letter form to
the pastors, said it is preferred that
the Negroes who do not attend St.
Vincent de Paul (the only tradition
ally Catholic Negro school remain
ing open) should attend the school in
the parish in which they reside.
White students normally attend
school in the parish in which they re
side and under the new ruling can go
to St. Vincent de Paul, provided
there is room.
Five parochial schools open to Ne
groes reported none enrolled this
year. No white students were re
ported enrolled at St. Vincent de
Paul.
Legal Suits Threatened
During the late summer, the
NAACP threatened legal suits in:
1. Memphis after the State School
Board of Education denied five Ne
groes admission to Memphis State
College. The board’s action came in
the form of a resolution unanimously
adopted by the 10 members. They
said it would be a violation of the
Tennessee Constitution and statutes
to admit the students prior to a final
decree by the Supreme Court.
2. Nashville when the City School
Board refused to admit three white
children to a Negro elementary
school. The children’s fathers are two
white professors at Fisk University,
a Negro institution. Last June they
petitioned the board for permission
to enter their children at Pearl Ele
mentary School, arguing that it was
the only public school within walking
distance of their home. The petition
was denied. Action in September
meant the Board stood by its pre
vious decision. Reasoned Supt. of
Schools W. A. Bass:
Until the Supreme Court of the United
States has issued its final decree or de
crees on the question of desegregation, the
Nashville Board of Education is not in a
position to discuss ways and means of im
plementing nor to deal with individual re
quests or petitions.
Committee Approved
Meanwhile, the Davidson County
Board of Education (the county con
tains about one-half of metropolitan
Nashville but far less than half its
Negro population) agreed to set up a
bi-raeial committee of educators to
examine the problems of desegrega
ting the county public schools and to
draft a desegregation plan for future
consideration.
The decision came at a board meet
ing after discussion of a written re
quest from the NAACP to open
county schools this fall on a non-
segregated basis. The request also
asked that a committee of white and
Negro parents of county school chil
dren be named to work out problems
that night arise over the examina
tion of segregation in county schools.
Cecil Sims, Nashville attorney and
school board member, urged that the
board should set up the bi-racial
committee of educators “right away,
but do it with care and intelligently.”
Board chairman Aubrey Maxwell
recommended that the committee of
white and Negro parents be appoint
ed “after the professional group has
organized some sort of plan on this
problem.”
The Board instructed County
School Supt. J. E. Moss to inform the
NAACP committee that the problem
of desegregation “will receive im
mediate and constant attention of
the board.”
Texas
AUSTIN, Tex.
gEPTEMBER saw much activity but
no violence over the segregation
problem in Texas. Developments in
cluded:
Attorney Gen. Jorn Ben Shepperd
announced that he would file a brief
in the United States Supreme Court
although Texas is not directly a party
to the suits decided last May 17.
Negroes petitioned to be admitted
immediately to public schools in Dal
las, Fort Worth and other places.
None was successful.
United States District Judge Ben
H. Rice, Jr. refused a Negro student’s
request for an order which would
permit him to enter the University
of Texas as a freshman.
Roman Catholic parochial schools
were admitting Negro pupils. Figures
on how many were unavailable.
Archbishop Robert E. Lucey of San
Antonio had declared that the Cath
olic Church opposed segregation even
before the Supreme Court held it to
be unconstitutional.
The Texas Association of School
Administrators issued the nation’s
fast statewide survey on quality of
instruction in public schools. The re
port indicated that Negroes fare poor
ly in standard achievement tests in
fae state’s public schools, while
achievement of most white students
is satisfactory.
The TASA report, made to the
State Board of Education, attracted
wide attention. Texas Research
blague, a privately-financed organi
sation, helped pay for the project.
Texas Education Agency plans to
^ntfaue the study along with TASA.
Eighty per cent of the state’s school
children were covered by the survey
which was made during the 1953-54
school year.
Employers and parents were polled
35 well as school people.
Survey Conclusions
These conclusions were reported
‘“Pong others:
elementary school are are be-
tion eac P e< f satisfactorily by the instruc-
Program. The proportion of white
gr ea t entary pupils enrolled is somewhat
Pupils r tbat of Negr0 elementary
school districts large numbers
r each C H Pti ° nal uhildren are not being
Thi s • by instructional program,
distri#!? partic ularly true for the small
is and for Negro schools.
«PeS£? tory P u Pils and non-English
pupils are not being reached to
a satisfactory degree by the instructional
program in many school systems . . .
Early leavers from school reported gen
erally satisfactory adjustment to life, but
also gave evidence of being handicapped
in rising beyond unskilled labor and in
assuming leadership roles. Relatively few
took further training among the “early
leavers.” General success among whites is
somewhat better than among Negroes.
The evidence shows that most high
school graduates attending college do sat
isfactory work. A majority of school dis
tricts reported that they have a few grad
uates who do not do successful work in
college. The general success of white high
school graduates attending college is bet
ter than that of Negro graduates. The
graduates from the large system high
schools are somewhat more successful in
college according to college registrars'
reports. The school districts reported fre
quently that some students attend college
whose ability and aptitude for college
work are doubtful. More than one-fourth
of the districts reported that the propor
tion of high school graduates going to
college was smaller than is desirable in
terms of the abilities of students.
The performance of high school grad
uates entering immediately upon employ
ment and homemaking was found to be
satisfactory with a few exceptions. Nine
teen per cent of the white systems and
35 per cent of the Negro schools reported
unsatisfactory vocational orientation for
such graduates. In general, parents and
employers reported that in most cases
the "products” of the instructional pro
gram are performing satisfactorily.
In most cases the achievements of white
pupils as measured by standard test scores
was very satisfactory; most Negro pupils
were performing unsatisfactorily when
judgments were made on the basis of
tests.
There appears to be a high positive cor
relation between the subjective judg
ments of white pupils’ attainment and
their achievement as determined by
standard tests. Negro pupils, however, did
not fare so well on the objective tests as
they did on the subjective evaluations.
Meanwhile, Gov. Allan Shivers
commented, “We still have a long
way to go in obtaining separate but
equal schools. We want to see Ne
gro children as well as whites have
good schools, the very best.”
Asks Local Responsibility
The Governor, who recently won
reelection on a platform that includ
ed continued segregation of public
schools, predicted that nearly every
body in Texas would be satisfied if
the Supreme Court lets the state and
local districts work out the details of
the problem.
“It would satisfy nearly everybody
except the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,”
Gov. Shivers said.
The comment came as six Negro
parents tried unsuccessfully to enroll
20 Negro children in Hutchins High
School in Dallas. Four Negro chil
dren previously were denied admis
sion to an elementary school there.
J. Harold Jones II, executive sec
retary of the Dallas chapter NAACP,
led both delegations to the Dallas
county schools.
The Negro high school students
were sent to Lincoln High in Dallas,
where the Hutchins district pays
transportation and tuition on trans
ferred students.
Parents of the elementary Negro
students complained that the school
they are assigned to attend does not
open until Oct. 17. It operates the
same number of days as white
schools, but with a six-weeks fall
recess during cotton picking season.
A poll of some Texas school ad
ministrators by Atty. Gen. Shepperd
meanwhile showed an opinion that
both white and Negro patrons pre
ferred to continue patronizing present
schools.
Questionnaires Distributed
Shepperd sent out 102 question
naires to white superintendents and
50 to Negro principals. Carter Wesley,
publisher of the Houston Informer,
Negro paper, urged the principals to
ignore the attorney general’s ques
tions. Seventeen Negro and 79 white
educators had replied by September
18.
One question was:
If the patrons of your district, both Ne
gro and white, were given a free choice,
what per cent would send their children
to the same school now attended?
Seventy-six white superintendents
said most parents would prefer to
continue segregation. Three said the
patrons favor integration. Among Ne
groes, 14 replied that most patrons
want to continue segregation. Three
said most parents would prefer inte
gration.
Forty whites and 11 Negroes said
their districts have buildings located
so that natural zones could be estab
lished to serve substantially the same
student body as before. Thirty-seven
white superintendents and five Ne
groes reported natural zoning of the
races would be impractical in their
districts.
Most replies indicated that some
buildings would be unusable for
schools under the integrated system.
Estimated values of property which
would be made idle ranged from a
few thousand dollars to $200,000.
Atty. Gen. Shepperd also polled
Texas legislators for advice on han
dling the segregation problem, and on
whether they thought he should file a
brief in the pending case. Mr. Shep
perd said that replies were about 50-
50.
The inquiry drew sharp criticism
from State Sen. Jimmy Phillips of
Angleton, who replied that the Con
stitution and laws of Texas require
segregation and that Mr. Shepperd
has the responsibility for defending
the position.
“He is the first attorney general I
ever saw who needed the legislature’s
permission to file a brief,” said Sen.
Phillips.
The attorney general’s staff said
advice is being sought because soci
ological as well as legal problems are
involved, and because the legisla
ture must deal with segregation per
haps next January.
Mr. Shepperd said that Texas
would not be bound by a decree in
the pending Supreme Court cases by
mere filing of an amicus curiae brief.
“The Texas segregated school sys
tem is unique and most Texas citi
zens think Texas should be allowed
to work out her own problems,” said
the attorney general. “We will urge
this view in our brief.”
Democratic Party Platform
The Texas state Democratic con
vention, controlled by supporters of
Gov. Shivers, urged improvement of
Negro schools on a “separate, but
equal” basis.
The University of Texas meanwhile
ran into a dispute over cancellation
of previous approval of four Negroes
to enroll as undergraduates in en
gineering and two in architecture.
The first case to reach public atten
tion was Marion George Ford, Jr.
of Houston.
An honor graduate from high
school and an athlete, Ford was ac
cepted as a freshman in chemical
engineering. Registrar H. V. McCown
later notified the student.
Our administration policy is as follows:
We will admit Negroes for work in
graduate and professional fields provided
the work is not offered at one or both of
the state supported Negro universities. If
the work is offered at one or both of the
Negro universities, it is not our policy to
compete with them for Negro students.
We have ascertained that for the com
ing academic year, 1954-55, Prairie View
A & M College will offer all of the re
quired courses of study for your freshman
year in chemical engineering. Therefore,
because of our admissions policy, estab
lished by the Board of Regents, you are
advised to take your first year’s work in
a state supported school for Negroes.
After you have completed the first
year’s work, which is primarily academic,
you may apply here for admittance to be
gin the professional courses of your pro
gram. Transfer credits will be allowed for
all acceptable work.
In view of the above, I regret to advise
you that your acceptance notice is hereby
canceled and that the registration mate
rials mailed to you are no longer valid.
Young Ford expressed disappoint
ment. A few days later he enrolled in
Wiely College, a Methodist school
for Negroes in Marshall, Texas.
Of the other five whose acceptance
at the state university was later re
voked, two reported registered at
Prairie View A & M, a state college
for Negroes.
University officials explained their
action as resulting from a mistaken
belief that courses sought by the five
Negroes were unavailable at either
of the state-supported colleges for
Negroes. When it was learned that
the courses are taught at Prairie
View, the University registrar said
the acceptances were revoked.
Test Suit Filed
John Winfred Walker, 17, honor
graduate of a Houston high school
brought a federal court suit seeking
to get into the University of Texas.
He contended that facilities of the
state university and Prairie View
are unequal and said his constitu-
tioal rights are being violated. The
case still awaits hearing on an appli
cation for a permanent injunction.
Judge Rice turned down Walker’s
request for a temporary order to ad
mit him to the university.
Asst. Atty. Gen. Burnell Waldrep,
representing the school, said the
court should wait until the United
States Supreme Court writes its de
cree in pending segregation cases be
fore ordering the university to admit
Negroes as freshmen. It already per
mits Negroes to enroll for graduate
and professional courses.
The University of Texas has ad
mitted Negroes to graduate and pro
fessional courses since 1950.
Five more public junior colleges
opened their doors to Negroes in
Texas this year. These are at Whar
ton, Victoria, Odessa, Borger, and
Edinburg. Four admitted Negroes
last year at Amarillo, Big Spring, San
Angelo and Corpus Christi. The
United States Supreme Court this
year ordered a junior college at Wich
ita Falls to admit a Negro.
Only public opposition to enrolling
Negroes in junior college came at
Wharton, in an area where many
Negroes live. Most of the other junior
colleges admitting Negroes serve
areas with few Negroes. At Wharton,
16 Negroes were admitted to a jun
ior college with 400 white students.