Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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)