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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.