Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8 —Nov. 4, 1954 — SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Maryland
BALTIMORE, Md.
gALTIMORE’ S moderate desegre
gation program, involving 52 out
of 186 public schools, gave every out
ward appearance of going smoothly
from Sept. 7 through Sept. 29. The
early word from one white school
after another, following the admis
sion of Negroes, was that everything
was working out fine, that there were
no incidents of any kind to report.
The one hint of coming trouble,
seen in retrospect, was that a group
of parents in South Baltimore had
called the coordinating council of
PTA’s to say they wanted to protest
desegregation. A council representa
tive met with the group, found them
to be angrily anti-Negro, and report
ed back to school authorities the
group’s request, which was to have
the school board call a mass meeting
of persons opposed to desegregation.
School officials declined to sponsor
such a meeting, and the subject was
still being discussed by the group and
the coordinating council when the
picketing and boycott began on Sept.
30.
South Baltimore is the area which
school officials had considered in ad
vance most likely to be troublesome,
if any trouble at all developed. Re
puted to be the section of Baltimore
where racial feelings are most in
tense, the area is heavily populated
with industrial workers, some of long
residence and others of quite recent
vintage who came to Baltimore dur
ing the wartime and post-war influx
of labor from West Virginia, Tennes
see and points farther south.
The educational level of the adults
in the area, or, at least, of the active
segregationists among them, was
indicated by the grammar and spell
ing on signs which appeared on the
picket lines: “Southern Don’t Want
Negroes,” “We Are Not Satisfied With
This,” “We Want Seperate Schools,”
and the like.
LEADERS IN BACKGROUND
What actually precipitated the
trouble has never been exactly de
termined. Back of the supposedly
spontaneous demonstrations some
organizational effort was apparent,
but the leadership remained under
cover. The women on the picket lines
maintained they were “just parents,”
and many of them may not have
realized the extent to which their
activities were being directed by
others.
Prominent in the crowds which
gathered were members of the group
which had been negotiating with the
coordinating council for a mass
meeting, and also persons associated
with the Maryland Petition Commit
tee, an affiliate of the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of White
People.
Whatever the leadership, a large
factor in Baltimore’s trouble was un
questionably the trouble in Milford,
Delaware. The Milford school boy
cott had been covered daily in Balti
more as an important local news
story, since Delaware’s Eastern Shore
and Maryland’s Eastern Shore are
practically one and the same thing,
geographically, economically and cul
turally. That the successes of the
Milford boycotters had the effect of
activating the hitherto non-vocal
opposition in Baltimore was made
evident during the ensuing disorders
by the oft-heard expression “Milford
had the right idea.”
Just what the pro-segregationists
in Baltimore hoped to gain by their
picketing was never made clear. No
bill of particulars was presented to
the city. Some of the pickets ex
pressed the hope that the Baltimore
school board would back down on its
integration policy, as the Milford
school board had. Others said that
a show of strong opposition to de
segregation might make the Supreme
Court change its mind. Still others
had no positive purpose; they only
wanted to make known their opposi
tion to Negroes in predominantly
white schools.
The picketing began on Thursday,
Sept. 30, at Elementary School 34,
which had an enrollment of 575 white
children and 12 Negroes. The prin
cipal was new to the school, and for
this reason may not have sensed that
trouble was brewing. It was learned
later that for two days prior to the
picketing, unusually large groups of
white adults had gathered on a corner
near the school and that a meeting
had been held in a private home,
presumably to plan a course of action.
About 30 pickets, one man among
them, appeared at School 34 approxi
mately 15 mintues before classes were
to begin. Children at the scene were
urged not to go inside, the children on
their way to school were stopped and
told to go home, that there was no
school that day. As a crowd began
milling about, parents approaching
the school with small children turned
back to avoid possible trouble. Other
parents, learning of the disturbance,
came and got their children out of
school. Attendance that day was cut
to 20 per cent of normal.
BOARD ISSUES STATEMENT
Just as the Milford situation was
in part responsible for the picketing
in Baltimore, it was also responsible
for the immediate recognition by
Baltimore school officials, police and
civic groups of the serious troubles
likely to develop from the then small
boycott movement. Police trouble
squads were alerted, civic, labor and
religious groups prepared statements
condemning the picketing and
planned a joint emergency meeting
on Friday, and the school board,
holding its regular monthly meeting
that day, issued the following state
ment:
A11 of our schools are, of course, open
and will remain open. The department
of education and the poHce department
give their fuU assurance that parents
need not have any concern about send
ing their children to school.
We are well aware that it is only hu
man to be somewhat apprehensive about
changes in long-standing customs. It is
equally true, however, that one of the
things that has made the United States
the great bulwark against Communist
and Fascist totalitarianism is the fact that,
by common consent, we accept the prin
ciple of government by law and believe
that adherence to law, especially when it
concerns the rights of our fellowmen, is
a primary obligation of citizenship.
We have confidence that the over
whelming majority of Baltimoreans will
not be misled into thinking anything
good can possibly come from behavior
that serves only to confuse and frighten
children and to interfere with their
education.
Our schools have been open for almost
four weeks without a single untoward in
cident, and in that time Baltimoreans
have amply demonstrated the spirit of tol
erance, understanding and fair play that
has been a source of pride so often in
the history of our city. Let us all con
tinue to work together to maintain that
tradition.
The following morning the picket
ing spread to other South Baltimore
schools, as reporters the previous day
had heard would happen. A man and
woman who had picketed School 34
arrived early at School 22 (11 Ne
groes, 883 white pupils) and exhorted
parents arriving with children to pick
up signs and parade with them. A
crowd soon formed outside the school,
and after that only a few parents
with children, or children on their
own, took a chance on getting
through to the school door. The same
scene was duplicated at School 48 (5
Negroes, 1107 white children), and
at School 98 (17 Negroes, 700 white
children).
DISORDERS AT SOUTHERN
The picketing of elementary schools
that day, however, became secondary
to the disorders at Southern high
school. There, from all accounts, the
students themselves touched off the
trouble, with or without previous
parental prompting. Some of the first
white students to arrive stood on the
steps and urged approaching col
leagues not to enter. Soon about 500
students were milling about. A crowd
of adults gathered, and picketing be
gan. Most of the 39 Negroes in the
student body of 1,788 boys and girls
entered the school in a single group,
along with perhaps half of the white
students.
A heavy detail of police broke up
the first demonstration around 9 a.m.,
telling the students either to go into
Baltimore Sunpapers Photo
POLICE COMMISSIONER BEVERLY OBER, right, and Chief Inspector
Fred L. Ford keep an eye on the disorders at Baltimore’s Southern High
School.
school or go home. Only a few did
the former. At that time, while on
guard against acts of violence and
traffic-blocking situations, the police
were under orders not to interfere
with the picketing or peaceful as
sembly. As a result, crowds ebbed
and flowed about the school all day,
causing some alarmed parents to
come and withdraw their children
from classes.
As ten Negro children (nine girls
and a boy) left the school in a body
at 11 a.m., at the request of their par
ents, a jeering mob moved toward
them in menacing fashion. The police
intervened, allowing the children to
retreat homeward in safety. During
the afternoon the rumor-fed hostility
of the crowd outside the school
mounted fast, and a mob of many
hundreds was waiting for school to
let out.
Police, ministers, and at least one
teacher escorted the remaining Ne
gro children out of the building at
closing time. But the mob was close
to being out of hand, and one Negro
boy was punched in the face before
being led to safety. The police made
several arrests and nearly had a
squad car overturned in retaliation.
In the end, law and order got the
upper hand; not, however, before
Baltimore had been brought face to
face with the shocking possibilities of
a race riot.
POLICE REINFORCED
Police were poured into the South
Baltimore area that night and on
Saturday night to break up any
gangs on street comers and other
wise to head off more trouble. Con
ferences were held between school
officials, high police officers, and
legal authorities to determine the
proper course of action. The initial
decision was to sit tight and hope for
a return of common sense and respect
for the law over the weekend. South
Baltimore ministers agreed to devote
Sunday sermons to appeals for
tolerance and reason, and it was com
monly agreed, also, that three days
of heavy rain would be a Godsend.
Nineteen civic, religious and so
cial welfare groups, representing
what is commonly called the “best
elements” in the whole community,
held their emergency meeting Friday
afternoon and arranged to have a
delegation of four meet with school
and other officials early Monday
morning. Most of the groups, along
with the Association of Commerce
and prominent ministers, prepared
statements which were carried, in
part, by the Sunpapers over the
weekend, along with editorials de
nouncing the violence.
The strongest appeal by far was
made by John H. Schwatka, principal
of Southern high school, on Sunday
via television. Mr. Schwatka address
ed his plea directly to “you in South
Baltimore” for whom and with whom
he had worked for 28 years. He re
minded them of the proud traditions
of Southern, of how its choir had
sung with the Baltimore Symphony
and its band had become “the only
high school band in Baltimore to be
elected to the First Chair Society of
America.” And he pressed home the
point that “Freedom Foundations at
Valley Forge has honored us on six
different occasions so that we are now
the only high school in 29,000 to pos-
s e s s their Distinguished Service
Scroll.”
Then Mr. Schwatka got down to
“October 1, 1954, a Day of Fear, a
thoughtless, witless effort to rule by
force.” He denounced the “trained
and organized agitators” who had
spread rumors of stabbings, school
burnings, armed bands of Negroes
and similar scare stories to parents,
newspapers, police and corner
crowds. “Vicious and cruel,” Mr.
Schwatka called them, with “no sense
of responsibility for their actions.”
He went on to say:
They call the parents and say, 'There
is a riot in school X. Go get your children
and take them home.’
This is an old trick of the trained ri-
otman. Do not be misled by rumors! Ask
his name, address and telephone number
and tell him you’ll call back immediately.
He won’t give you the information. Then
call our office and I’ll give you the truth.
Do not keep your children home. The
police department, under Captain Deems,
will do its utmost to protect them. We in
school will do our best. To keep them
home will handicap them and the school.
The principal warned his television
audience of the privileges that would
have to be taken from the pupils and
the social and athletic events which
would have to be cancelled if stu
dents did not get back to their classes,
and concluded:
I grant the right at all times to aU par
ents and to aU citizens to seek redress on
JOHN H. SCHWATKA
Southern High Principal
any grievance through due process of
law, but I do not concede to anyone the
privilege of taking the law into his own
hands.
We have tried to teach "respect for au
thority” and we wiH not condone intimi
dation, rule by fear, or force to compel
your child or mine to do what he in his
own heart does not want to do.
Look into your hearts, you Southerners,
(that is, persons associated with South-
em high school). Examine your consci
ences, keep up your courage and sense
of decency, to prevent another Day of
Fear in our community.
We need cool heads, sober judgments
and lots and lots of common sense. Stand
up and be counted on the side of law and
order! Bring your children back to school.
PICKETING RESUMED
Despite this appeal, and a call from
the mayor for cool heads, and Sunday
sermons, and reasoned statements
from scores of groups and individ
uals, and not a few prayers for rain,
when classes were due to begin at
Southern high school on a bright,
clear Monday morning, the crowd of
demonstrators was as large as on the
previous Friday. Police tried to keep
the way open to school, but attend
ance was way down. Three men were
arrested, one of whom appeared later
as a speaker at the first meeting held
by Bryant W. Bowles and his
NAAWP in the Baltimore area.
Picketing was resumed on Monday
at School 34, where attendance was
reported to be better than on Friday,
and at the three other South Balti
more elementary schools where they
had been active. Pickets also appear
ed for the first time at a North Balti
more elementary school which has 19
Negroes out of 1,025 pupils in its stu
dent body.
The play was taken from the pick
ets once again on Monday. A gang of
students gathered early at Mergen-
thaler Vocational-Technical high
school (3 Negroes, 1,827 whites) and
urged oncoming fellow students to
join them in a general strike. A large
crowd of them made noisy invasions
of the campuses of five other junior
and senior high schools, picking up
a few followers but in general
getting a cold shoulder, and then
marched downtown to City Hall
where their shouts for the mayor to
appear went unheeded.
The police kept the student march
ers almost continually on the move,
and they went clear down to South
ern high school and swelled the
rumpus there before swinging
through the midtown section once
again, where their ranks were
thinned by foot-weary strikers
dropping out to go to the movies or
home. Actually, the whole student
demonstration sounded worse than it
really was. While anti-Negro remarks
were shouted, most of the marchers
were obviously out on a self-declared
holiday, and they turned the anti
integration movement that day into
something akin to a raucous football
rally.
TOUGHER POLICY URGED
While the students were staging
their demonstration, the four-mem
ber delegation representing the civic,
religious and welfare groups that had
met on Friday was making its rounds.
In brief, the delegation represented
the considerable body of opinion in
Baltimore that city officials should
“get tough” with the pickets and
other disturbers of school peace. Its
members wanted strict enforcement
of two pertinent state laws, one
against inducing children to absent
themselves from school and the other
against creating a disturbance out
side of a school while classes are in
session.
The essence of the “get tough”
policy was that while persons have
a constitutional right to picket and
peaceful assembly and can exercise
that right in front of City Hall, or at
the headquarters of the school ad
ministration or in some other public
place, they cannot do it in front o'
schools without running afoul of the
laws against creating a school dis
turbance or inducing truancy.
The four-member delegation found
school officials still hesitant about
calling for police action against th e
picketing, since they were uncertain
as to the legality and practicalities o'
arresting pickets and did not want t°
make martyrs of the agitators if then 6
was a chance that the disturbance®
would die down in a few days. Th e
delegation then met with the state®
(Continued on Page 9)