About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1955)
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.
