Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4 —Oct. I, 1954 —SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Delaware
WILMINGTON, Del.
J| ALBERT YOUNG, Delaware
• attorney general, settled him
self in his Wilmington office to write
the opening of his brief to the U. S.
Supreme Court regarding a mandate
of the court on the question of segre
gation vs. integration in the public
schools of his state.
It was Friday, September 17—
Constitution Day—the 167th anni
versary of the adoption of the Federal
Constitution by the Philadelphia
convention.
And the first sentence in Mr.
Young’s brief went something like
this:
There has been a remarkably peace
ful transition from segregation to partial
integration in a number of the Delaware
schools since the opinion of the U. S.
Supreme Court on May 17 of this year.
Unaware that trouble was brewing
in the town of Milford, some 65 miles
from Wilmington, Atty. Gen. Young
continued to note that since the open
ing of the public schools in the sec
ond week of September there had not
been a single untoward incident
where integration had been under
taken on varying scales in about a
dozen of the 108 school districts of the
state.
Controversy Flares
That night, Sept. 17, a mass
meeting attended by 1,500 men and
women in the American Legion Hall
of Milford precipitated an open con
troversy that rocked all three of Del
aware’s counties and focused na
tional newspaper - radio - television
upon this town of about 6,000 popu
lation (4,800 white and 1,200 Ne
groes).
Ever since the May 17 decision of
the U. S. Supreme Court on segrega
tion, Atty. Gen. Young had been col
lecting data about the various in
tegration plans of the school districts
in Delaware and had been confer
ring with officials of the state de
partment of public instruction.
But on Saturday, September 18, he
had to scratch out his references in
his brief about no incident in Dela
ware. Instead, he confessed he was
even more positive that “the U. S.
Supreme Court in its mandate must
be specific and spell out its opinion
so that there will be absolutely no
question about the ineffectiveness of
the Delaware State Constitution’s
provision of ‘separate but equal’ and
the decree of the State Supreme
Court which upheld the ‘separate but
equal’ doctrine.”
Mr. Young said he also intends to
suggest to the U. S. Supreme Court
that after it has made very plain in
its mandate that segregation per se is
unconstitutional, the matter should
be referred to the local courts for
policing and enforcement.
“How to integrate, in my opinion,”
he said, “is up to the state board of
education of Delaware, but it is im
perative that before the state board
of education proceeds further, there
must be no misunderstanding about
the U. S. Supreme Court decree that
segregation is out.”
This, Mr. Young said, is one of the
lessons learned from what people in
Delaware call “the Milford incident.”
However, there were other lessons
learned from “the Milford incident”
according to state school officials and
newspaper editors of Delaware.
In a way, it was “the week that
shook Delaware” incident. There
were times when violence was feared.
What started off as a purely local
“incident” soon captured the atten
tion and fears of the entire state and
attracted nationwide interest.
Background of Incident
First, about the town of Milford
which calls itself “a city.”
It straddles the two lower counties
of Delaware—Kent and Sussex. The
Mispillion River flows through the
town. It has a mayor, Edward C.
Evans, a board of aldermen, and a
city manager.
The 1950 census report shows a
population of 5,179, with 16.7 per cent
non-white. (City officials have been
saying recently that the town has a
population of about 4,800 white and
1,200 Negroes.)
However, in considering the school
problem of Milford, one must go be
yond the corporate limits of the town.
The attendance area served by the
Milford schools includes a large
farm area, rural, suburban and small
town districts. Accordingly, town of
ficials say that the population of the
attendance area is 14,000 including
about 3,500 Negroes.
Milford itself—a typical “Satur
day” rural city—is the heart of a
farming, produce processing, small
industry and canning country.
The School System
It has two schools: The Lake View
Avenue School for white children,
including elementary and secondary
grades, and the William Banneker
School for Negro children from the
first through the ninth grades.
Negro children who finish the
ninth grade and wish to continue
their education have had to go to the
William Henry School (Negro) in
Dover, 19 miles away.
The first inkling that people of
Milford had that the school board (an
elected board of education of four
members) was thinking of the prob
lem of segregation vs. integration,
was in the middle of August when
the board announced plans for form
ing a committee to study plans for
ending segregation in the town
schools.
No such committee was ever form
ed.
Then the night before school
opened—Sept. 7—the Milford Rotary
Club members heard the news.
Eleven Negro children were to be ad
mitted to the 10th grade of the Mil
ford (white) high school.
According to the Milford corres
pondent for the Delaware State News
of Dover, “Many Milford residents
were surprised to learn when their
children returned from the first day
of school that a number of Negro
students had also registered in the
Milford high school.”
No Prior Announcement
The Milford board of education
had made no prior public announce
ment that this would happen. Dr.
Raymond Cobbs, superintendent of
the Milford school system, when
asked for an explanation, said the
school was merely following the
request of the state board of educa
tion “to furnish schooling to qualified
Negro students in their district.”
The school population in Milford
follows:
White high school (including the
11 Negro students), 595; white ele
mentary schools, 827.
Negro up through the ninth grade:
224.
The annual operating budget of the
Milford schools is around $600,000.
However, while 11 Negro students
had applied for admission and were
admitted to the white high school of
Milford, 20 other Negro students of
Milford who had also finished the
ninth grade elected to go to the Henry
School (Negro) in Dover, 19 miles
away.
And later the state board of edu
cation charged that the Milford school
officials had not sought its advice nor
cleared its plan with the state school
officials before admitting the 11
Negro students into the white high
school.
From the opening date of school
until Friday, Sept. 17, there wasn’t a
ripple on the surface in the Milford
area. Most every one in the state
thought the plan of partial integra
tion was going smoothly.
The calm was suddenly dispelled
when seemingly out of nowhere and
without any known leadership, a
throng of 1,500 men and women
swarmed into the town and headed
for the American Legion home. The
roads leading to Milford were so
jammed that extra state troopers and
special police had to be summoned
to handle the traffic.
The crowd was orderly but angry
about the 11 Negro students having
been admitted to the white high
school in Milford.
A public address microphone was
set up inside the American Legion
home and anyone who had anything
to say just walked up to the mike
and spoke his or her mind and left.
Many Sign Petitions
A table was set up in front of the
Legion home and a petition opposing
the plan of partial integration was
signed there. About 1,000 persons af
fixed their signatures.
The next day, Saturday, Sept. 18,
the president of the Milford board of
education, W. Dean Kimmel, said:
We don’t want to ram anything down
anybody’s throat. We’re the people’s rep
resentatives but we’ve got the law to
uphold.
He said the board had hoped to get
a citizens’ committee together to ad
vise it on integration, that letters had
been sent out to civic and religious
groups but the response was small
and since school opening was ap
proaching, “we decided to integrate
one grade—the 10th grade—establish
ing a policy of gradual integration
rather than waiting to do it all at once
some time later.”
Opponents of the plan said the
school board didn’t have to do it at
this time since the Supreme Court
had not yet fixed a date for the end
of segregation.
Saturday, Sept. 18, ended quietly
enough, though the town of Milford
was jammed with the usual Saturday
visitors, shoppers and standing
around in drug stores and tap rooms
and the talk was all about segregation
vs. integration.
Leadership Emerges
Sunday, Sept. 19, leaders of the
anti-integration plan began to
emerge. The Milford radio station was
asked to broadcast a paid announce
ment regarding a public mass meet
ing in the school the next morning.
The radio station refused. The radio
station at Dover also refused to han
dle the announcement. But the radio
station at Georgetown, Del., about 17
miles away, used the announcement
in an abbreviated form after consul
tation with its attorney.
It was an announcement summon
ing all citizens opposed to integration
to a mass meeting in the school.
There was some opposition to all
this. The Rev. John A. Corrigan,
Catholic rector in the town, at masses
and in a talk over the Milford radio
station, urged his people not to take
any part in the anti-segregation
move. The Milford Ministerial As
sociation (Protestant) said it had
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the South
ern Education Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding
agency established by southern newspaper editors and educators
with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased information to
school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme
Court opinion of May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the pub
lic schools unconstitutional.
OFFICERS
Virginius Dabney Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice-Chairman
C. A. McKnight Executive Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Charles S. Johnson, President, Fisk
Commercial Appeal, Memphis, University, Nashville, Tenn.
Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor (On Leave)
Gordon Blackwell, Director, Institute Charlotte News, Charlotte, N. C.
tor Research in Social Science,
University of N. C. Charles Moss, Executive Editor,
Li • d l r'L it w Nashville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
rlarvie branscomb, Chancellor, Van- 1 '
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Thoma$ R Waringi E ditor char , es .
Virginius Dabney, Editor, Richmond * on News & Courier, Charleston,
Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va. S. C.
Coleman A. Harwell, Editor, Nash- Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
ville Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn. Schools, Richmond, Va.
Henry H. Hill, President, George P. B. Young Sr., Editor, Norfolk
Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn. Journal & Guide, Norfolk, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA MISSOURI
William H. McDonald, Editorial Robert Lasch, Editorial Writer, St.
Writer, Montgomery Advertiser Louis Post-Dispatch
ARKANSAS NORTH CAROLINA
Thomas D Davis Asst. C,ty Editor, j Jenkins. Sfaff ^ RaleIgh
Arkansas Gazette K , ' » 3
News & Observer
DELAWARE
William P. Frank, Staff Writer, OKLAHOMA
Wilmington News Ma ry Goddard, Staff Writer, Ok-
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA lahoma City Oklahoman-Times
Jeanne Rogers, Education Writer, crmTU IMA
Washington Post & Times Herald SOUTH CAROLINA
FLORIDA W. D. Workman Jr., Special Cor-
Bert Collier, Staff Writer, Miami respondent, Columbia, S. C.
Herald TENNESSEE
GEORGIA James Elliott, Staff Writer, Nash-
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The ville Banner
i/rk!Tn!'i/v eWS Wallace Westfeldt, Staff Writer,
KENTUCKY Nashville Tennessean
Weldon James, Editorial Writer,
Louisville Courier-Journal TEXAS
LOUISIANA Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu-
Mario Fellom, Political Reporter, reau, Dallas News
New Orleans Item uior-ikii*
mabyi * kin VIRGINIA
r, | , c ... . , w ., Overton Jones, Editorial Writer,
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer, D . , . , '
Baltimore Evening Sun Richmond Times-Dispatch
MISSISSIPPI WEST VIRGINIA
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau, Frank A. Knight, Editor, Charles-
Memphis Commercial-Appeal ton Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P. O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 5, Tenn.
been informed “that a serious threat
against law and order in our commu
nity is in the making.”
And the white ministers unani
mously urged that such a demonstra
tion scheduled for the next day be
discouraged. The ministers also said
that opponents of integration should
appoint representatives to meet with
the Milford board of education rather
than have a mass meeting.
The Delaware chapter of the Na
tional Conference of Christians and
on Plan Proceeds Smoothly
WILMINGTON, Del.
y^/iTHiN slightly less than two weeks
after the opening of the public
schools in Wilmington, Del. (popu
lation 110,000, of which 15 per cent is
non-white), Dr. Ward I. Miller, su
perintendent of the schools, called a
press conference to report that inte
gration in the elementary schools is
going smoothly without any unfavor
able reaction.”
Wilmington, the largest city in Del
aware and in many respects a north
ern city in a border state, undertook
an integration plan only in the ele
mentary schools.
“The success of our program,” said
Dr. Miller at the press conference “is
due largely to the fact that the people
were kept informed on the plans of
the Wilmington Board of Education
and parents were given a chance to
express their opinions with school
officials and obtain transfers if they
desired them for their children
where space permitted.”
The gist of the press conference:
Six hundred Negro students are at
tending schools that had been, up
until now, classified as white schools.
About 20 white students are attend
ing schools that had been previously
classified as Negro.
Of 14 elementary public schools in
Wilmington, eight have integrated
classes.
The others are located in districts
where the population is either all
white or all Negro.
One previously classified Negro
school—the Pyle school—is half Ne
gro and half white, with a total en
rollment of 299.
The total school population in Wil
mington is expected to reach 14,000,
with about 13 per cent Negroes.
Regarding the transfer of teachers,
four Negro teachers who had taught
in a Negro school are now on the fac
ulty of what used to be a white
school.
Two Negro teachers have been
transferred to another previously all-
white school and one white teacher is
handling kindergarten in what used
to be an all-Negro school.
The transfer of teachers was not
made according to any definite plan
but as they became available and
without relation to the number of pu
pils of each race they would be
teaching.
The Parent-Teacher Associations
were credited with having aided in
the smooth transition.
Jews also took issue with the pro
posed mass meeting and stated that
“segregation has been declared im
moral by the great religious bodies
of the country.”
Violence Feared
The great fear on Sunday night
was that the violence would break
out the next morning. And so a little
past midnight, the school board de
clared that there would be no school
in Milford the next day.
Monday, Sept. 20: About 1,000 peo
ple attended a mass meeting in the
white school. There were no classes.
One of the leaders of the anti-inte-
grationists was Russell Bradley, a
mechanic, also president of the PTA
of the little town of Lincoln, Del., a
few miles from Milford (Lincoln had
been named after Abraham Lincoln.)
School board members and the at
torney of the board attended the
meeting and tried to answer the
flood of questions thrown at them by
many in the audience. The meeting
had opened with the Lord’s Prayer
and the pledge of allegiance to the
flag.
At one time in the meeting, most
of the audience started to walk out
while the president of the school
board, Mr. Kimmel, tried to explain
why the board had allowed the H
Negro students to attend the white
high school. They were called back
by their leaders.
The net result of the meeting was
the presentation of a petition signed
(Continued on Page 16)