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
