About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1955)
PAGE 12—March 3, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Missouri ST. LOUIS, Mo. 'Y^/HEN the seven white and two Negro high schools in St. Louis at the start of the second se mester ceased to restrict admission of students according to race, it was the most important single step yet taken in Missouri toward the end of school segregation. St. Louis, like Kansas City, St. Joseph and numerous smaller cities in the state, is taking down the racial barriers gradually. The process be gan last September with the con solidation of the hitherto segregated teachers-junior colleges. It is sched uled to be completed next September in the elementary schools and the technical high schools. Not a single incident of any kind marred the changeover in the high schools. This was all the more re markable in view of advance in timations that agitators might try to stir up trouble here, as was done in Washington, D. C., and Baltimore last fall. Once the home base of Gerald L. K. Smith, St. Louis is now the head quarters of a disciple of his, John W. Hamilton. Last summer Hamilton called a “mass” meeting to protest against the end of segregation. The city rented Kiel Auditorium to him for the occasion, but not many per sons attended, and no more was heard from Hamilton until January. Then members of his organization turned up along South Grand Boulevard, near the dividing line between Negro and white residential districts, and started handing out inflammatory literature attacking the forthcoming high school integration. AUTHORITIES ALERT In view of this activity, school au thorities and police were alert for possible trouble on Jan. 31, the first day of the new semester. Radio squad cars cruised the neighbor hoods of every mixed school, look ing for agitators or incipient crowds. They found neither. Negroes and white students went calmly to school, and Hamilton’s forces never took the field. There is still some puzzlement as to why they did not. One guess is that Hamilton found so little re sponse to his initial efforts to stir up feeling that he did not consider a foray worthwhile. Another guess is that he may have got wind of the authorities’ plan to deal with him if he did move. The police plan was simplicity itself. Hamilton and any body else who tried to organize a student strike or a parents’ demon stration would have been arrested on charges of incitement to riot and interference with school operations. Superintendent of Instruction Philip J. Hickey gives much of the credit for Hamilton’s failure to the St. Louis newspapers handling of news about him. Both papers have taken the position that they would report any legitimate news created by Hamilton but would not try to make news by building him up. His “mass” meeting last summer got only as much news attention as any other meeting of 100 or so persons would get—a couple of paragraphs in an inconspicuous position. When Hamilton’s workers started distribut ing handbills in January, news might have been made of it, but none was. The absence of trouble on opening day was not made into news either. The St. Louis papers generally have handled integration news with restraint, even under-emphasis. On Jan. 30, the day before high school integration, the papers reported that new boundaries for integrated ele mentary schools had been drawn, to become effective next September, and gave only secondary mention to the fact that high school integration would begin next day. On the day after the first integrated classes were held, the papers carried ade quate but not splashy reports on the event. For example, the Post-Dispatch story ran three-fourths of a column on page 3, emphasized the marked relief from overcrowding in the two Negro schools and quoted Supt. Hickey as follows: “I cannot speak highly enough of the manner in which our high school boys and girls of both races have accepted this step. The strik ing thing to me is the positive, rather than passive, acceptance of the change by the student groups. “It was a heart-warming thing to hear the student leaders describe the responsibilities and obligations of student bodies in a democracy. If this is a fair example of the kind of positive thinking and acting being done by our frequently maligned teen-agers—and I think it is—then I believe we can abandon any fears for the future of our nation when it comes into their keeping.” REASONS FOR SUCCESS According to Mr. Hickey, the suc cess of integration in St. Louis was due to several factors. First, he and his staff and all the principals had engaged in detailed planning well in advance of each step to be taken, trying to anticipate every possible problem. New dis tricts were announced last Novem ber, to give everybody concerned time to adjust to them. Keynote of planning was to limit the dimensions of each problem so far as possible. Thus each principal was en couraged to deal concretely and specifically with the changeover as it affected his own school, but to leave any possible difficulties in other areas to the principals di rectly concerned. Mr. Hickey hoped thus to reduce integration from a big, citywide, spectacular event, with emotional overtones, to a local, neighborhood, rather commonplace matter of “just getting the kids in school.” School officials believe that in St. Louis there were definite advantages in making the high school changes in February rather than in September. This is largely because Missouri has no compulsory high school attendance law. High school enrollments for this reason are more stable during the winter than over the long summer vacation. So the planners knew with fair accuracy just what to expect by way of enrollment at each high school and were able to meet each school’s needs with a minimum of dislocation. Mr. Hickey says that the solidarity of public opinion in favor of inte gration was a factor of incalculable importance. Both newspapers had positively supported each step of integration from the start. Parent organizations, especially in the school districts which were to be most deeply affected, did a great deal of preparatory work well in ad vance. Strong statements in favor of integration were read from the pul pits of all churches. This universal and positively ex pressed support for integration from opinion-forming groups, says Mr. Hickey, created the environment in which success was possible. Had any large elements of the community been opposed or even neutral on the subject, he thinks the story might have been different. EFFECTS OF CHANGE The immediate effects of integra tion on high school enrollment are shown in the table printed on this page. (Since no race records are kept, the Negro figures are approxi mate). As previously reported, the resi dential distribution of Negroes pre determined the results. Sumner and Vashon are both located in the heart of the main Negro residential dis trict, and therefore they remain Ne gro schools, though each has lost about 300 of its formerly excessive enrollment. Soldan-Blewett high school, on PHILIP J. HICKEY St. Louis Superintendent of Public Instruction the west side, lies in the path of the outward expansion of the Negro residential district, and therefore underwent the largest change. It is no longer the smallest high school as formerly. In one semester its en rollment has increased nearly 50 per cent, and 30 per cent of its pupils are now Negroes. The second most heavily affected school is McKinley on the near South side immediately adjacent to Vashon. Here the Negro enrollment is 16 per cent. Since the area served by McKinley is generally inhabited by relatively low-income families, school officials feared that if any friction arose it might be here. John Hamilton evidently thought so too, for his workers did their handbill distributing in the McKinley area. More Negroes than had been an ticipated turned up for enrollment at McKinley, but the change was as quiet as it was everywhere else. Central high school, the next school to the north of Vashon, also inherited some of the Negro resi dential area. Its Negro students number about 150, or 13 per cent of the total enrollment. One Central teacher who had feared trouble and much unpleasantness reported the Negro students so well behaved, and the white students so sincerely anxi ous to welcome them, that every body in the school experienced “a sense of spiritual uplift.” Beaumont, the city’s largest white school, cuts into a corner of the Negro residential district formerly served by Sumner. So Beaumont has a Negro enrollment of 100, or 5 per cent. The three remaining white schools have negligible Negro en rollments or, in the case of South west, none. Thus in the main, the effects of integration in this first semester have been concentrated at three of the seven white high schools. Al though Negro students represent one-third of the citywide total, only one school, Soldan-Blewett, has anything close to a one-third Negro minority. The picture will change of course as population shifts and integration comes fully into play. As of now, all freshmen entering high school must enroll at the school in their districts, but students already in attendance have the option of continuing at their present schools if they wish. Possibly about half of the Negroes exercised this option. One of the Negro schools estimated that 677 of its students live outside the new district, and so were eligible to transfer to a formerly white school. After the new semester started, 343 of these were still at the Negro school. Some no doubt will continue until graduation, others may trans fer to another school later. As the table shows, no significant decline in white enrollment has taken place at any of the schools. Officials know of only one case where a white student’s parents threatened to withdraw the student, because of integration. FACULTIES INTEGRATED Teaching staffs were integrated along with student bodies. Under policies laid down by the board of education, Negro teachers have the same tenure rights as white teach ers. This means that they enter the school system on probation and re main in that status for three years. If they are retained beyond the third year they are presumed to be com petent and can then be dismissed only for cause. If a high school teacher becomes surplus where he has been employed, he is either transferred to another high school or, in rare cases, sent to an elemen tary school. The reduction of enrollment at the Negro high schools created a surplus among Negro teachers, though not a large one. First choice in reassigning these teachers went to Washington Technical high school, which remains segregated for the current academic year and so must employ Negro teachers. The remaining Negro teachers were assigned to formerly white schools wherever they were qualified in the particular subjects needed. Five Negroes were assigned to Soldan-Blewett, two to McKinley, and two to Central. They included teachers in English, biology and physical education. Within a few days after the physical education teacher took over mixed girls’ gym classes, the school officials were get ting reports from white parents that she was the best “phys.ed.” teacher the school had ever had. No attempt was made to apportion Negro teachers in accordance with the proportion of Negro students. Race was simply eliminated from consideration altogether, all assign ments being made strictly on the basis of matching teaching skills available against those needed. All Negro teachers released at Vashon and Sumner have been placed in other high school positions. The changeover in St. Louis at tracted wide attention just because it was so uneventful. One Eastern teacher wrote to Mr. Hickey as fol lows: “My husband and I hope that this will be a good example to other communities where segregation is still the rule. We come from Ken tucky and Tennessee, and at present are teaching in Pennsylvania. Both as a teacher and a Southerner I look forward to the day when there will be no such thing as a color line in our public schools.” And though St. Louis news is not often played up in far away Bom bay, on Feb. 2, the Times of India published a Reuter’s dispatch under this 2-column headline: WHITES AND NEGROES ENROLL TOGETHER St. Louis Schools Erid Segregation ELEMENTARY PLAN Now the city is getting ready for elementary school integration. As previously promised, the board of education on Jan. 30 announced the boundaries for new elementary dis tricts, to go into effect with the start of school next Sept. 8. Of the 116 districts, boundaries of 62 have been revised. Most changes will occur in the central part of the city, and there the greatest redistribution of school populations will take place. This is also the area of greatest overcrowding. Integration is expected to relieve the worst of the overcrowded con ditions, but some additional build ings and classrooms will continue to be needed. Until these new facilities are built, some transfers from schools in the crowded districts may be needed, Mr. Hickey said. During the first year, pupils who are shifted from one district to another by the new boundaries will be given the same option accorded to high school students—that of continuing at their present schools provided the school has room for them. HICKEY HONORED In recognition of his leadership in executing the integration plan, Supt. Hickey late in February was se lected to receive the St. Louis B’nai B’rith award. Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter of the Roman Catholic church also received a special award from the Mound City Press Club, a pre dominantly Negro but racially mixed organization of newspaper and radio men. This was the first public recogni tion permitted locally by the Arch bishop for his pioneer work in integrating the city’s Catholic schools in 1947. While Negro num bers in parochial schools are com paratively small, it is generally agreed that eight years of experi ence with integration there helped prepare the way for action in the public schools this year. In Jefferson City, the legislature appears to be ready to accept state wide school integration as a fact. No bills have been introduced seeking to interfere with it. On the contrary, legislation is on file formally repeal ing the statutes providing for segre gation. These statutes, as well as the state constitutional provision for segre gation unless otherwise provided by law, have been declared by Atty. Gen. John M. Dalton to be unen forceable, as a result of the U. S. Supreme Court opinion last May. Under Dalton’s ruling, local school districts have the right to integrate but, until the Supreme Court issues final orders, cannot be compelled to do so. Although nobody seems inclined to demand legislation making in tegration immediately compulsory, three Negro members of the House of Representatives did file a bill to take the segregation laws off the books. Their proposal ran into some opposition from Democratic leaders from the Southern part of the state, and the Public School Committee at a secret session voted to recommend killing the bill. Negro legislators protested so strongly, however, that Speaker Roy Hamlin ordered the committee to re consider. Within a few days it brought in a new report recom mending by a vote of 8-2 that the repealer bill be passed. The rec ommendation was accepted by the House on Feb. 14—the bill being advanced on first reading by voice vote. HUMAN RIGHTS BILL The Legislature is also considering for the first time a Human Rights bill. This measure, strongly sup ported by the Missouri League of Women Voters, would set up a com mission on human rights to investi gate complaints of discrimination in employment, education, or any other field. The commission would have no coercive powers but would rely on persuasion, publicity and edu cation, The bill has bipartisan en dorsement but has not attracted a great deal of attention. The House on Feb. 16 unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon Jefferson City business houses to open their doors to Negroes. The resolution was offered by an un official committee of the House which called upon the local Cham ber of Commerce to ask for help in getting hotels, restaurants and other business places to drop racial re strictions, which hamper Negro members of the Legislature as well as Negro citizens visiting the capita 1. Rep. John R. Clark, Kansas City Democrat, chairman of the unoffici* committee, told the Chamber Commerce many business houses favored dropping racial bars but at were reluctant to initiate the step- The House resolution denounced the barriers as “unfair, unjust and un democratic.” One of the two leading hotels has admitted Negro legist 3 " tors as guests this year for the firs time. Results of High School Integration Before Integration After Integration School White Negro White Negro Total Beaumont 1,839 1,795 100 1,895 Central 1,005 1,003 150 1,153 Cleveland 1,473 1,499 7 1,506 McKinley 1,184 1,220 240 1.460 Roosevelt 1,754 1,793 27 1,820 Soldan-Blewett 938 996 425 1,421 Southwest 1,625 1,625 0 1,625 Sumner 0 2,269 0 1,984 1,984 Vashon 0 2,006 0 1,700 1,700
