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District of Columbia WASHINGTON, D. C. n iSTRICT OF COLUMBIA school U officials are keeping up with their one-ye ar integration schedule. Come midyear—January 31—and 1,200 Ne gro and white junior high students will graduate into high schools near est home. This means that the last racial bar rier to high school admittance will have been dropped as new boun daries go into 100 per cent operation. Already the majority of District grade, junior and senior high schools have some mixed classes, since all new students were required to follow the new integrated school zones in September. Besides the movement of graduates this month, “no other school changes will be made at this time,” School Supt. Hobart M. Coming told the board of education at its December meeting. This is in accordance with his master integration plan. Coming said that requests of other students — primarily grade school youngsters—to transfer to buildings nearer home will be considered this spring. Such transfers were permitted this fall for senior high students living within new non-racial school boun daries and for junior high and ele mentary students where space and faculty were available. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM Currently, school administrators are working out a reorganization of top officer jobs to eliminate dual po sitions, necessary under segregation. The new job lineup will be given the school board in February, although officers will not assume new duties until September 1955 when integra tion will be complete. It is a ticklish and uncomfortable task, school officers stress, to realign their own duties and those of col leagues. They fear that changed ti tles and functions may result in hurt feelings and even charges of discrimi nation from members of both races. “Guess it’s just human nature,” said one officer, “but if you’re an associate superintendent today, you do wonder what you’ll be tomorrow.” Said another: “As long as my work is for the good of children, they can give me any old name.” Coming has assured his staff they need not fear a reduction in force— tbe dreaded “RIF” in government circles which often follows a change in administration. There is work enough, ci be done, for all of us,” Corr stated. And there appears tc TYPICAL EXAMPLES for example, there are two asso ciate superintendents in charge of junior high and vocational schools, nese jobs could be split between ,.® two types of schooling—quite "“went in nature. . bere are two associate superin- ndents in charge of grade schools ith one officer having a second big Ponsibility for curriculum plan- I V jjf\ A Sain, the jobs could be di- f ™> °ne for administration and one i. ^ ov erseeing the course of study. o_ p nt il this fall, District schools f sistan^ Un< ^ er duplicate sets of as- ' ,} * an d associate superintendents, With 1 "*? 611 * keads and supervisors. . “e start of integration, these istJ? 0nS technically went out of ex- te 06 as the officers worked as a . s ’ tporning said this was vital to °°th, orderly transition period. Nesrr? a «T’ in 1116 Past, white and operat- 0 ** 1061 ^ knew little about the the c i° n °* each others’ divisions of staff 6 °°t system, although mixed numk*, ee t*ngs had been held for a oer.of years. R Thr RTS T ° BOARD Just the insistence of Margaret school , t * ler > ^egro member of the a gener l 31 ^’ < t' orn tng gave the board ftiinistj. .. report °n his plans for ad- Urge<l , 1V . e revamping. He was ®Utcher° ° j more specific ■ by Mrs. w 3 secon d Negro board : theN" eS ' ey Wiliams, who r about e ^ ro community is anxious “^ s Ure officer assignments. ; ^ave be!? nCeS °* continuing status hig said ?, 30 cleari y stated,” Com- hirberi n Ulat no officer need be dis- or worried about the final outcome of the reorganization as far as his particular position is con cerned.” Coming continued: The reorganization of the administra tive and supervisory staff will be accom plished by assigning to each individual general city-wide responsibility for some phase of the school operation—and this without designation as to race. Planning for such a reorganization is not a simple matter. It involves a careful analysis of the abilities and experiences of individ uals in relation to the various needs of the school system. It is not, therefore, a process which can be hurried if the results are to be satisfactory to the school system and to the individual officer con cerned. The school officers have been working cooperatively, as teams, for three months meeting many of the problems jointly, Coming said. It is true, he added, that the direct su pervision of many functions held by these officers under the dual system will remain with the same officers. This will be necessary until the re organization has been completed, he said. “In the meantime, all the officers are busily at work for the general good of all of the schools and all of the children,” Corning emphasized. AHEAD OF SCHEDULE Coming reminded board members that he is ahead of schedule in his integration program, referring to the speed-up this fall in allowing many young people to enroll in schools nearer home where there was room. “Any phases of the integration process not yet accomplished,” Coming said, “should not be con sidered as errors or deficiencies but rather as elements of in qpm pleteness at this time which were inherent in the original plan and which will be accomplished by September 1955.” Coming declared: It is important that members of the board of education and the general public evaluate the progress that has been made in terms of achievement and of the sincere and wholehearted efforts and determina tion of all teachers and officers through out the school system to do a successful job of desegregating the schools of Wash ington. Mrs. Butcher, who in November accused Corning of being dilatory in integrating the school administration, said she had since been advised of several steps taken towards staff merger. She said regarding sports there was a “gratifying indication of progress.” Both white and Negro officials took part in planning the city’s first all- star football team which last month was victor in a post-season game with the winners of the Catholic parochial school league. In the past, the competition was between the Catholic league and the best team of the white public schools. The city all stars included both Negro and white players. The game is sponsored by the Washington Touchdown Club and The Washington Post & Times Her ald. Coming reported further that offi cers of both races planned the inter racial basketball schedule which starts this month. He said that a bi- racial committee has just completed recommendations on revising ath letics rules which have been sent to all principals for study. Near the close of the December board meeting, Member Robert F. Faulkner was for a second time de feated in an attempt to have the board rescind its policy of assigning pupils to schools without regard to race. In October, Faulkner unsuccessful ly argued that parents should be al lowed to transfer children out of schools where they are in a small racial minority. In renewing his effort, Faulkner said the reasonableness of his propos al was supported by press reports that “persons high in authority” un derstood the Supreme Court would take emotional strains of parents and children into account in dealing with desegregation. Faulkner told reporters he re ferred to a recent statement by President Eisenhower. The Presi dent commented on the emotional strains and problems involved in in tegration during a November press conference. Mr. Eisenhower’s re mark drew considerable press atten tion because Chief Executives tra ditionally refrain from talking about cases pending final Supreme Court action. The school board’s rule of pupil assignment is “rigid and arbitrary,” Faulkner contended. He cited the following make up of school regis tration, according to a November pu pil accounting taken by race: CITES STATISTICS “We have 156 schools. In each of 44 schools—two senior highs, four junior highs and 38 grade schools— there is a minority student body of 1 to 5 per school, totaling 112 pupils. “In each of 11 schools—two junior NAACP, AVC Briefs Score WASHINGTON, D.C. Attorneys for Negro plaintiffs in the original four State segregation cases have asked the Supreme Court to order desegregation as fast as ad ministrative and mechanical proce dures can be completed in various communities. The consolidated brief, filed by Thurgood Marshall, general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and 20 other lawyers, recommended that September 1955 would be a reason able deadline in most instances. “Certainly to indulge school au thorities until September 1, 1956, to achieve desegregation would be gen erous in the extreme,” the NAACP brief pointed out. “All decrees should specify September 1956 as the outside date,” it contended. The integration process could be effected much faster without incon venience or injustice, the attorneys said. “Much of the opposition to forthwith desegregation does not truly rest on any theory that it is better to accomplish it gradually,” they continued, adding: “In consider able part, such opposition stems from a desire that desegregation not be undertaken at all.” The attorneys asked the court to lay down strict limitations to avoid “any invitation to procrastinate.” It would be paradoxical indeed, they said, if, in the instant cases, it were decided for the first time that consti tutional rights may be postponed be cause of anticipation of difficulties arising out of local feelings. “Piecemeal desegregation of schools,” the brief said, would in crease tension. It urged that if the court decided on a gradual system that there be “minimum safeguards” to prevent injury to Negro children. There must be safeguards, too, against gradual adjustment having no specific ending, the brief said. The September deadline would give the states ample time to com plete “prerequisite administrative and mechanical procedures,” the lawyers stressed. “Surely, appellants’ rights are not to be enforced at a pace geared down to the very customs which the Four teenth Amendment and implement ing Federal laws were designed to combat,” the brief reasoned. The attorneys cited evidence that gradualism, far from facilitating the process, may actually make it more difficult. They said any sort of so- called delayed “deadline” plan will be used by opposition forces in com munities “to firm up and build oppo sition.” “At least in South Carolina and Virginia, as well as in some other states affected by this decision, state ments and actions of government of ficials since May 17 demonstrate that they will not use the time allowed to build up community support for de segregation,” the brief said. Various “piecemeal schemes” have been sug gested and tried, the brief pointed out “These seem to be inspired by the assumption that it is always easier and better to do something slowly and a little at a time than all at once,” the brief said. It continued: “As might be expect ed, it has appeared that the resist- SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—Jan. 6, 1955—PAGE 5 highs and nine grade schools, there is a minority student body of 6 to 10, totaling 84 pupils. “In each of 15 schools—one senior high, two junior highs and 12 grade schools—there is a minority student body of 26 to 44, totaling 236. “And in each of 7 schools—one sen ior high and six grade schools—there is a minority student body of 26 to 44, totaling 222.” Faulkner said in these 77 schools the minority race numbers 654 and the majority (in all but a few cases, Negro) totals 46,927 students. Of the remaining 79 schools, Faulkner said, 39 have a wholly white or Negro student body (8,388 white and 22,796 Negro). In the re maining 40 schools, the minority stu dent body is over 100 per school, he said. “These undisputed facts demon strate clearly that in practicable application the school board rule is rigid, unreasonable and arbitrary,” Faulkner said. Mrs. Butcher told Faulkner he should be ashamed of his reactionary proposal to drop the anti-discrimina tion rule. DANCE CANCELLED A traditional Christmas dance was cancelled at an integrated Washington high school because the principal decided that students are not ready for the social mingling of races. Dr. Charles E. Bish said “I believe I made an unpopular decision.” Bish, head of one of the three for mer white high schools where stu dents staged a brief October stay- away demonstration against mixed classes, said the question of the dance arose in normal fashion. “It would be hard to say which came first, the McKinley Christmas dance or McKinley itself,” Bish said. Early in December, he continued, the student body began to buzz with conjecture about whether the affair would continue this year. Bish talked to his student council. Students agreed it seemed bad to de prive classmates of a dance because of the presence of Negroes this year in their school. The principal, however, called in the executive council of the Parent- Teacher Association. “We discussed many angles of the dance—and came to no conclusion,” Bish revealed. Next, the council invited three Negro parents to discuss the matter with its members and later listened to views of student leaders. In general, Bish said, the students said they felt “we could have gone ahead with it,” and the parents ‘Gradualism’ ance of some people affected by such schemes is increased since they feel arbitrarily selected as experimental animals. Other members in the com munity observe this reaction and in turn their anxieties are sharpened. “Piecemeal desegregation of schools, on a class-by-class basis, tends to arouse feelings of the same kind and these feelings are height ened by the intrafamilial and intra school differences thus created. It would be hard to imagine any means better calculated to increase tension in regard to desegregation than to so arrange matters so that some chil dren in a family were attending seg regated and others unsegregated classes. Hardly more promising of harmony is the prospect of a school which is segregated in the upper parts and mixed in the lower.” The American Veterans Commit tee, Inc., has also filed a “friend of the court” brief. The AVC previously filed a brief when the first arguments were heard, and again in December, 1953. The AVC brief, arguing that “the public interest does not require ex tensive delay” in desegregating schools, concludes with: “Most of the people of the South respect the Constitution. They will comply with firm directives em bodied in decrees of this Court. The more positive the ruling, the greater will be its acceptance. We believe that the future course of desegrega tion in the South will substantiate the experience of public school de segregation in New Jersey: . . that the best way to integrate is to do it.” would have gone along if school offi cials guaranteed being able to “con trol a calculated risk.” Bish said he queried several Wash ington Catholic high schools to find out how they held integrated dances and also asked the question of the long-integrated New Rochelle, N. Y. high school. The latter school played host to students from Washington schools in October to show them how integration had worked out in the wealthy suburb of New York City. These integrated schools replied that white boys were told they must bring white girls to dances and Ne gro boys must bring dates of their own race, Bish said. As the parents and students con tinued to discuss the matter, Bish said, such questions arose as “who does a Cuban student dance with and the same with a Hawaiian stu dent?” “I tried to get the whole subject of the dance talked up within the stu dent body,” Bish said. “I don’t want whisper campaigns about something like this ... that’s demoralizing to all concerned,” he said. Some of the white students felt that if the dance were called off, they “would run scared of a situation,” Bish said. Others felt they would be socially disgraced by attending a mixed affair, he reported. In the final analysis “it was up to me to decide,” Bish said. “I said no dance,” he added. “You see,” Bish said, “community attitudes must be taken into consid eration as long as taxpayers are in volved ... in public schools you have a captive audience, so to speak.” FEARED ‘INCIDENT’ Bish said he kept thinking that perhaps one of his white girl students might bring “say, an ex-serviceman ... and this boy might decide to take a flyer and cut in on a Negro girl during the evening.” Then, Bish said, there would be an incident and it would make newspaper headlines. “That we must avoid,” he stressed. “We must be able to control such factors without making news,” Bish said. “We must work into the social problem gradually on a factual—not emotional—basis,” Bish said. In reporting to parents, Bish said: “I told them public schools are not like private schools; public schools are supported not only by parents of students but by all taxpayers of the community, and therefore communi ty attitudes are involved. It is a ques tion of sensing readiness for such a move. Next year we may be ready, but just now we are not.” Bish said “Things have been mov ing very well in the field of integra tion, and I don’t want to risk em barrassing incidents at this time.” He said McKinley would operate on a socially integrated schedule “when we feel we are ready and can handle the situation with dignity and calm ness.” The Bible Club already is op erating on an integrated basis. The formal Senior Prom, scheduled for February, will not be cancelled, Bish said. There are no Negroes in the midyear graduating class, how ever. In another former white high school, the principal said “no Christ mas dance will be held.” She added that a community Christmas sing will take its place. “I feel people get a spirit of closeness through singing,” she said. “It always makes you feel good.” “My white students have been real sports about sacrificing their social activities this year,” she said. “Some times,” she added, “I feel real bad when they say ‘but we’re giving up everything that is important in our last year in school.’ ” Dances have been foregone this year in all integrated District high schools. The decision has been that of the principals who best know the readiness of their own student body. PANEL DISCUSSION Elsewhere in Washington, the Southwest Citizens Association spon sored a panel discussion on integra tion by five graduates of Jefferson Junior High in the Southwest com munity who now attend mixed senior highs. The five student panelists agreed that integration in classrooms and sports is “on the way to success” but were divided on the question whether students were ready for social inte gration.