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PAGE 8—Feb. 3, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Maryland
BALTIMORE, Md.
HE General Assembly of Mary
land convened early in January
for a 90-day session that was historic
from the outset, being the first at
which Negro members took seats.
Three colored legislators, all from
Baltimore’s Fourth district, were
sworn in, one in the Senate and two
in the House of Delegates.
The ceremony departed in no way
from the usual routine but occasioned
more interest on the part of legisla
tors and onlookers alike than is cus
tomary at such times, attention cen
tering particularly on young Harry
A. Cole, the Negro Republican law
yer who won a Senate seat by a hair
in an uphill fight against a Demo
cratic candidate of a theretofore im
pregnable district machine. Mr. Cole’s
opponent did not drop his plans to
contest the election until just before
the session was due to open.
With the preliminaries out of the
way, the overriding concern of the
General Assembly was how best to
fill a 30 million dollar gap between
state income and outgo in a record-
high budget, about 12 million dollars
of the gap representing mandatory
increases in state contributions
toward higher minimum teachers’
salaries and other benefits under a
formula adopted in 1953. Other than
these increases, about which there
was no dispute, schools were not an
issue during the first weeks of the
session.
NO BILLS INTRODUCED
The outgoing Republican attorney
general, Edward D. E. Rollins, had
predicted in Maryland’s Supreme
Court brief that a “deluge of bills
and proposals” would descend on this
session of the General Assembly, urg
ing “everything from the abolition of
the school system in its entirety to
the election of school teachers by
popular vote.” But no such bills were
introduced during the opening
weeks.
Earlier, a segregation matter arose
briefly from an unexpected quarter.
During the evening of Jan. 25.
when the legislative session was 20
days old, copies of two segregation
proposals were distributed in the
upper and lower chambers and in
committee rooms by the Maryland
Petition Committee, an early affiliate
of Bryant Bowles’ National Associa
tion for the Advancement of White
People. The proposals, for which leg
islative sponsors were sought, would
(1) continue race segregation by hav
ing a system of private schools sup
ported by state aid and (2) repeal,
in effect, Maryland’s compulsory
school attendance law by stating that
no white child shall be required to
attend any school which has a col
ored pupil or teacher.
The proposals bore the signature
of Robert M. Fumiss Jr., a Rock
ville, Md., lawyer who represented
the Petition Committee and the
NAAWP in an unsuccessful court at
tempt last fall to reverse the deseg
regation policy of the Baltimore
School Board. Prior to their distri
bution at the state house, the pro
posals had been submitted to the
Anne Arundel county legislative
delegation, and presumably found no
takers.
After the general distribution, no
immediate sponsors turned up either,
but the state superintendent of
schools, Dr. Thomas G. Pullen Jr.,
lost no time in saying that if the pro
posals were introduced, the state de
partment would oppose their pas
sage.
On Jan. 13 The Sun reported that
Sen. Cole was planning to seek the re
peal of Maryland’s oan on interracial
marriages. Interviewed that same
morning by the Maryland reporter
for the SERS, Sen. Cole expressed
what appeared to be genuine surprise
that the news had broken and said
that he had not realized, as a fresh
man legislator, that reporters learned
of bills that had been prepared but
not yet inroduced.
Asked if he intended to introduce
the bill, Sen. Cole said he did not
consider it likely during the current
session. He explained that the bill was
only one of perhaps half a dozen that
he intended to have prepared, all
aimed at erasing racial distinctions
in Maryland laws. He indicated that
he was under obligation to his sup
porters in these matters but that he
would pick his own time for bring
ing the subjects up.
Later that day Republican Sen.
Robert Kimble, the minority leader,
said that Mr. Cole had not mentioned
the marriage bill to him, but “if he
does, I’ll certainly advise him against
it.” Sen. Kimble added, “The people
of this state have taken a tolerant at
titude toward racial matters, but I
don’t think they would be tolerant
toward Sen. Cole’s plan.”
Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin, in his
second inaugural address on Jan. 12,
stood aside from all the political and
governmental Maryland issues of the
day and made a strong plea for “lib
erty, tolerance and brotherhood.”
Speaking of the dangers within this
country as well as without, Gov. Mc
Keldin said that “fanaticism is al
ready here, lurking in darkened
minds and shriveled souls, ready to
creep upon us the moment our backs
are turned.”
The two-term Republican gover
nor, the first in Maryland history,
warned that “the merchants of hate
are busy everywhere and some of
them have risen to high places where
their influence is exerted upon mil
lions.”
“I call you to arms,” he said,
“against the forces of hatred and ig
norance and prejudice, more insid
ious and more dangerous than any
horde that the steppes once ruled by
Genghis Khan might spew upon us.”
Shortly before the inauguration
Gov. McKeldin was one of the dis
tinguished guests at an annual meet
ing of colored Masons, along with
Baltimore’s Democratic mayor,
Thomas D’Alesandro, currently seek
ing a third term, and Maryland’s sen
ior U. S. Senator, John Marshall But
ler. The main speaker was Dr. Sam
uel D. Proctor, dean of the School of
Religion, Virginia Union University,
who told the audience of 800 persons
that “segregation is like placing col
ored persons in a social, economic
and educational incubator; it breeds
the worst by deliberate plan and
then the worst is blamed on color.”
In Virginia, Dr. Proctor said, “seg
regation began in the public schools.
The promise was made when it
started that it would spread from the
schools throughout all of the Com
monwealth, and it did. This is why
it must be abolished in the schools,
so that integration can spread from
the schools like segregation did . . .”
REPEATS PLEDGE
Mayor D’Alesandro presented Dr.
Proctor with a key to the city and
congratulated him for “a wonderful
address.” Gov. McKeldin gave Dr.
Proctor a copy of his book on public
speaking and in a short talk said, “I
will stand for the law.” He was re
ferring to the time during his elec
tion campaign when he was pressed
on the Eastern Shore for an answer
as to which side he represented in the
segregation controversy. The gov
ernor said he represented “the law,”
and hurried off.
The Maryland Commission on In
terracial Problems and Relations, ap
pointed by the governor, made its
third annual report in January on its
efforts to “promote in every way pos
sible the welfare of the colored race
and the betterment of interracial re
lations.” The commission, which also
serves, with the exception of two
non-Baltimore members, as the Bal
timore Commission on Human Rela
tions, noted the following changes in
Baltimore racial patterns and cus
toms:
1. The “successful integration”
achieved in the Baltimore public
school system.
2. The gradual opening of down
town department store facilities to
Negroes.
3. The opening of downtown va
riety and 5 and 10-cent store sit-down
food counter service to Negroes (and
to this development the chairman of
the commission added the on-the-
spot news that Read’s Drug Stores
had just decided to open its 37 soda
fountains and lunch counters
throughout Baltimore to Negro pa
trons, the change having been
brought about by the passive resist
ance campaign of the Committee on
Racial Equality).
4. The expanded employment of
Negro firemen on a nonsegregated
basis by the Fire Department (the
first Negro firemen in Baltimore were
appointed in 1953).
5. The appearance of Marian An
derson at the Lyric Theatre, Balti
more’s principal concert hall, which,
while admitting Negroes to the audi
ence, has had a policy of not allowing
non-whites to appear as performers.
6. The adoption of non-segregation
policy by the Housing Authority of
Baltimore, which builds and runs
the city’s low-rent public housing
projects. “This is a hopeful sign,” the
commission reported, “and should do
much to offset the continued exodus
of white families whenever a Negro
homeowner moves into a neighbor
hood. So long as the latter continues,
it will be impossible to have Balti
more or any other community in the
state characterized by a stabilized
integrated housing pattern.”
While noting the “laudatory ef
forts” in Baltimore to bring about
racial adjustments, the commission
reported that such efforts had not
been extended into the counties of
Maryland, “and it is in these areas
that the most crucial problems of re
adjustment are presumed to exist.”
Taking the line that the Supreme
Court decision of May 17 made school
integration “the immediate or even
tual goal of all agencies of a law
abiding citizenry,” the commission
advised that “definite plans be made
for immediate steps in the creation
of a body of public opinion in the
counties which can intelligently ad
just to a redefined concept of racial
status for Negroes and other groups.”
The commission added:
“Certainly, the experience of Bal
timore City and Milford, Delaware,
in their programs of integration has
valuable lessons for the elimination
of segregation in schools. It is clear,
for example, that a strong and clear
position on integration by boards of
education and by law-enforcement
agencies minimizes the probability
that fringe groups will feel free to
undertake agitation against the law
of the land. The experience of these
communities also indicates that in
telligent planning and the creation
of effective attitudes through full and
free discussion of citizens who are
fully informed may be expected to
vield community-wide support for
reasonable programs of integration of
racial groups, not only in the com
mon schools, but also in other insti
tutions and in other areas of social,
political and economic adjustment.”
THREE RECOMMENDATIONS
To pave the way for changes in
racial status, the commission recom
mended to the governor and General
Assembly that:
1. An immediate and effective ef
fort be made through the Interracial
Commission to ascertain the senti
ments of the citizens of the counties,
through churches and committees of
fraternal groups, on school integra
tion and attendant developments, in
cluding an assessment of anticipated
problems.
2. A program of adult education
among Negroes and among white
people in the counties be encour
aged and, if possible, directed
through the good offices of the com
mission, to the end that local citizens
may have the benefit of such advice
and counsel as they may require or
request from state as well as from
local sources.
3. A program of preparatory edu
cation among the white and Negro
children of the common schools of
the counties be undertaken, in an
effort to reduce their lack of knowl
edge of each other and to increase
their confidence in reputable agen
cies of public improvements.
No action on these recommenda
tions was considered likely until after
the General Assembly session, the
policy of state officials being one of
avoiding any move that might touch
off a legislative hassle over the segre
gation issue. The beginnings of in
terest in the Supreme Court decision,
apart from outright hostility, was
noted in at least two counties, how
ever, as the new year got under way
At a P-T.A. meeting in Jarrettsville
attended by the Maryland SERS cor
respondent but not covered by the
regular press, compliance with the
Supreme Court decision was dis
cussed in an orderly fashion—one of
the first instances outside of Balti
more proper. Jarrettsville is in Har
ford County, about 30 miles north of
Baltimore, and is in the center of a
fertile farming area inhabited by sub
stantial tenant farmers, by a landed
gentry devoted to horses and riding
to hounds and by a few commuters
to Baltimore and many more to de
fense jobs at Aberdeen and Edge-
wood. Negroes represent about 10 per
cent of the population.
The Jarrettsville meeting was held
in a white elementary school which
draws 400-odd children from a radius
of five miles. About 80 parents, all
white, attended. The active circum-
ventionist in the area—a man who
advocates a system of both separate
and integrated schools so that par
ents may have a choice as to where
to send their children—did not attend
the meeting, nor did anyone who
openly spoke for segregation.
The meeting heard the Supreme
Court decision interpreted by one
speaker, a Baltimore lawyer, who told
the parents flatly that there would be
no constitutional way to maintain
separate schools with public funds,
once the final decrees of the Supreme
Court were handed down. Then the
meeting heard from two boys who
attend Southern high school, in Bal
timore, the scene of the worst dis
order during Balimore’s school dis
turbances of late September and
early October.
Here a flashback is in order: Im
mediately after Baltimore’s Southern
high school riot hit the wire serv
ices, New Rochelle high school, in
New Rochelle, N. Y., wired an invi
tation to Southern high school stu
dents to come up and see a school
that has ten times as many Negroes
as Southern and gets along very well.
Southern high school sent, at its own
expense, two boys and two girls for a
five-day visit. Since then the two
boys have developed into public per
sonalities, having been interviewed
bv daily papers, wire services and
television personnel and having been
asked frequently to speak publicly.
VISIT DESCRIBED
At the Jarrettsville meeting the
two boys told of their New Rochelle
visit and how they found that inte
gration could work, if properly
handled. They explained how they
had gone to fraternity meetings,
dances, clubs and other social af
fairs and had been greatly impressed.
But they added that when they re
turned to Southern high school, they
found the atmosphere had changed
so much, with no more racial tension
or opposition to integration, that thev
now felt that their school was “just
as good as New Rochelle.”
Speaking of the earlier trouble at
their own school, they boys said that
the students had got along all right
for three weeks prior to the disturb
ances and that the trouble had been
started by outsiders who had no in
terest in the school. They said that if
students alone had been involved,
they would simply have gone home
for a self-declared holiday, which
was all they wanted.
As evidence that the trouble was
too well organized to be the work of
students, the two boys said that cars
drove up and discharged men and
women with inflammatory signs al
ready prepared, that parents were
called by phone and told that they
had better come and get their chil
dren out of danger or, worse yet, that
their daughters had been stabbed by
Negroes, and that throughout the day
the crowd was stirred up by reports
that must have been started, the boys
felt, by outside elements trying to
cause a riot.
In the question and answer period
that followed the boys’ talk, most of
the questions related to the social
aspects of school integration: dances,
dating and the like. The boys ex
plained that this was something they
themselves had been anxious to learn
on their New Rochelle trip and that
they had found out that while white
and Negro students mixed freely in
all school activities, they went their
separate ways after school. They said
they particularly pressed for answers
about dating and were told on all
sides that whites and Negroes did not
date.
The boys said that at New Rochelle
dances both white and Negro couples
attended but that the white students
danced only with white students and
the Negroes with Negroes—in short
no mixing.
Another meeting attended by this
SERS reporter, again one not cov
ered by the regular press, was held
in Anne Arundel County, which lies
south of Baltimore. Out of a total
county school enrollment of 24,396
students, 4,733, or 20 per cent, are
Negroes. Anti-integration sentiment
have been as vocal in Anne Arundel
as in any other section of the state
In December, however, a County-
Study Group on the Supreme Court
Decision was organized, with the an
nounced purpose of furthering com
pliance with the court’s will.
The second meeting of the study
group, in January, was attended by
30 men and women from about a doz.
en towns throughout the county
Among those present were ministers,
school teachers, an elementary school
supervisor, interested laymen and
the dominant Republican politician
in the county, Sheriff Joseph W. Al
ton, Jr. The membership was equally-
divided between whites and Negroes
and was feeling its way along in a
movement that would not be unusual
in Baltimore City but one that has
no exact counterpart in the counties
of Maryland.
Anne Arundel, like the other coun
ties of Maryland, has been buildine
large consolidated schools to replace
the many small schools throughout
the county, with the result that many
students travel considerable distances
by bus to attend classes. Negroes, for
example, travel up to 25 miles to An
napolis to attend Bates high school,
the only colored high school in the
county.
Members of the study group re
ported that county officials had de
ferred cqnstruction of three consoli
dated Negro schools, pending the is
suance of Supreme Court decrees
and had made an extensive survey to
pinpoint the home location of each
white and Negro child of school age
in the county. They said that the
county school board was currently-
seeking the county commissioner' 1
approval of an 8 million dollar school
construction loan but that no an
nouncement had been made indicat
ing whether new schools were being
planned on the basis of serving a
mixed population or in accordance
with the old segregated system.
OFFICIALS IN QUANDARY
As the study group saw it, school
officials were in a quandary, caused
by the waiting period between the
Supreme Court’s decision and final
decrees. School officials had an
nounced that part of the new loar
would be used to build 20 additional
classrooms at Bates high school
which now has a student body with
more than 400 pupils above the
school’s capacity and growing all the
time. The 20 extra classrooms are
needed at Bates now. But if the
school officials build the 20 class
rooms now, and if before long Bates
students are permitted under an in
tegration program to go to schools
nearer their homes, then the 20 extra
classrooms will not be needed at
Bates but at the schools to whid
Negroes turn to shorten their travel
ing time.
After discussing such problems foj
more than an hour, the group vote 0
as a first step to write a letter to th 0
school board asking about its scho°
building plans in the light of the Su
preme Court decision and making 1
clear that this was one group t* 13
sought only to help with the problem
of integration and not to make
mands for a school here or no sell 00
there.
BAINBRIDGE SUIT
Elsewhere on the school front
federal court suit has grown out
the rather unusual situation at t
Bainbridge Naval Training C ene f
which was reported in the Octo
issue of Southern School News.
white school for the children of
Navy base personnel is operated,
der a leasing arrangement, by ,
Cecil County board of education ^
the post grounds. Seven children
Neffro personnel at the base were
nied admittance to the school in &
tembe-r and told they must atten ^
Negro school in a nearby town- . f
they have refused to do, saying
Negro school is inadequate.