Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10—April 7, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Missouri
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
jyjISSOURI ’S second largest city,
both in population and in Negro
student enrollment, took action in
March to complete the racial integra
tion of its school system at the open
ing of the term next September.
Kansas City, with a population of
456,000 and a Negro school enroll
ment of about 10,000 in a total of
60,000, responded to the Supreme
Court decision last year by immedi
ately combining its two junior col
leges and its two vocational high
schools. Announcement was made at
that time (July 1954) that secondary
and elementary schols would be in
tegrated at the start of the 1955-56
school year.
Early in March the board of edu
cation approved the plan of Supt.
Mark W. Bills for putting the latter
MARK W. BILLS
Kansas City Superintendent
decision into effect. The plan includes
new school maps setting forth re
vised districts for both elementary
and secondary schools. The new high
school districts are shown on the map
on this page.
Heretofore Kansas City has had
nine high and junior high schools for
white pupils, and one high school
for all Negroes in the city. Voca
tional courses for Negroes have been
given at a combined vocational-jun
ior high for Negroes. Vocational pu
pils from the latter school have al
ready been transferred to Manual
High and Vocational School, which
is now racially integrated with Ne
groes slightly outnumbering whites.
EXPECTED RESULTS
The integration plan taking effect
next September is expected to mean
that one formerly white high school
will have a Negro minority of about
10 per cent; the formerly Negro high
school will have a white minority of
about the same size; four formerly
white schools will have small Negro
enrollments; and four schools will
remain substantially all-white. Here
are the anticipated enrollment fig
ures:
School
White Negro Total
Central High & Junior
2813
278
3091
East High
1625
50
1675
Lincoln High &
Coles Junior
283
2074
2357
Manual High & Vocl.
720
916
1636
Northeast High
1753
1753
Paseo High
1671
17
1688
Southeast High
1575
1575
Southwest High
2031
2031
Westport High
1474
15
1489
Northeast Junior
1936
1936
West Junior
604
46
650
Total
16,485
3396 19,881
At the elementary level, one school
is expected to remain all-Negro, 33
will have a mixed enrollment, and
41 will remain all-white. Of the
mixed schools, 11 will probably have
a Negro majority and 22 will have a
white majority.
ENROLLMENT FIGURES
Where Negroes predominate, they
are expected to number between
68 and 100 per cent of the school
enrollment. Where the majority is
white, the Negro minority will prob
ably be less than 30 per cent in most
cases. In two of the white-majority
grade schools, the Negro enrollment
is estimated to run between 30 and
50 per cent. In half of these schools,
on the other hand, the Negro minor
ity will be fractional—less than 1 per
cent.
The high school map reproduced
herewith shows several “neutral”
areas from which students may at
tend their choice of two or more
high schools. Supt. Bills says there
is no relationship between the “neu
tral” areas and the residence of Ne
gro pupils. These areas have devel
oped over a period of years in rela
tion to space in the high school
buildings.
TRANSFER POLICY
Kansas City has had a long-stand
ing policy of granting transfers from
one school district to another upon
parental request, the liberality of
the policy at any time depending
upon the space available in the re
quested building. This policy is to be
continued, but according to Supt.
Bills will be administered without
regard to racial distinctions. No
transfers will be issued to schools
where, in the judgment of the super
intendent, the capacity of the build
ing has been reached.
Under the policy laid down by the
board of education, schools will be
classified as closed, critical, or open,
according to the relationship of their
physical capacity to the enrollment.
Prior claims to any school’s space
will always be reserved to pupils
living within the district. Then the
available classroom space will be
multiplied by the recommended class
size, to determine the capacity of
each school.
When the capacity is equaled or
exceeded by the enrollment, the
school will be declared closed. When
enrollment comes within one class
unit of capacity, the school will be
designated as critical, and transfers
to it will be issued only for limited
reasons, such as the student’s health,
special circumstances of the parents’
employment, completion of the final
grade in a school previously at
tended, etc. All other schools will be
classified as open, and transfers will
be granted on request so long as they
retain that status.
In the high schools, transfers to
open or critical schools will be per
mitted only when certain conditions
apply. These are: to pursue courses
of study not offered in the resident
district; to take advantage of more
convenient transportation; to com
plete the senior year or part of any
year where the pupil was previously
enrolled; to avoid perilous traffic sit
uations; to make for better pupil ad
justment; to permit continuation in
the junior high school.
CAUTION URGED
The board of education was ad
vised by its counsel, Robert S.
Eastin, that great care must be taken
in handling transfers. He said:
“In its practical operation, the
transfer policy should not be used
for the purpose of discrimination.
Two things must be avoided: (a)
forcing a pupil, resident in a district,
to make a transfer; and (b) giving
any preference to pupils of either
race in connection with transfers.”
Speaking more broadly, Mr. Eastin
advised the board: “The sum and
substance of the desegregation rule
is simply that from and after the
adoption of a desegregation policy,
no distinction may be made between
pupils by reason of their color. The
board still has the right to assign
pupils to schools based upon every
consideration which has heretofore
been given weight, other than that
of color. In other words, the board
can still require pupil A to go to one
school and pupil B to go to another
if there is some reason for so doing
other than the fact that one is white
and the other a Negro.
“The test of desegregation is not
what is put on paper but the actual
working of the system. A court may
find that the program adopted by the
board is satisfactory but that the ad
ministration of it is discriminatory.
Emphasis must be placed upon this
factor particularly at the level where
contact is made with pupils and par
ents, i.e., among the principals of
the elementary and high schools in
volved.”
DEBATABLE QUESTION
Mr. Eastin said the most debatable
matter with respect to transfers was
the board’s statement that “every
favorable consideration shall be giv
en to requests for pupils to remain
in schools last attended.”
He pointed out that in the case
of a white student who had been re
districted into a predominantly Ne
gro school, this policy would mean
that the pupil could continue to at
tend his old school, predominantly
white, unless it was fully occupied.
On the other hand, a white pupil who
remained in the same district before
and after integration might not have
the same claim to “favorable con
sideration” of a transfer request even
though his district, in its new form,
might include a heavy Negro popula
tion.
Mr. Eastin concluded that the
transfer policy would be legally de
fensible provided that it was impar
tially administered, with no discrim
ination of any sort and no evidence
that race played any part in the de
cisions.
Most changes in elementary dis
tricts will take place in the northern
one-third of the city’s area, where
the bulk of the Negro population re
sides. Most of the new districts in
that section will be smaller than be
fore, and many pupils will attend
schools closer to their homes.
FACULTY INTEGRATION
In respect to placement of teach
ers and principals, the board re
affirmed its legal right to assign
teachers and other personnel to posi
tions “so as to serve the best inter
ests of children.” Supt. Bills said no
teacher will lose his job. Since learn
ing and educational results are de-
cidely determined by the quality
and permanence of each school’s
staff, the board said, any changes
would be kept to a minimum.
Where additions in staff are re
quired by increased enrollments,
each school situation will be handled
separately. “The present personnel
practice of attempting to match the
abilities and skills of employees to
the particular characteristics and de
mands of the job will remain un
changed,” the board announced.
Under established rules, the su
perintendent is required to “preserve
as far as possible an equal degree of
excellence in the different schools of
the city,” and to transfer teachers
from time to time when necessary to
accomplish that purpose.
Until now there have been sepa
rate programs of competitive ath
letics for high school students, the
Negro schools scheduling games
only with schools outside of Kansas
City. The board declared all high
schools henceforth will belong to the
same league. It further said: “All
activities of a district-wide nature,
whether they be athletic, forensic,
musical or of any other kind, shall be
open to all pupils.”
ST. LOUIS INCIDENT
In St. Louis, where the high schools
were integrated Feb. 1 and elemen
tary schools are to be integrated next
September, one incident of racial
friction occurred at Beaumont high
school a month after 100 Negro stu
dents joined the white enrollment of
1,839. Beaumont serves the North St.
Louis area where racial tensions
erupted in a brief riot when a muni
cipal swimming pool was opened to
Negroes in 1949.
The trouble began when a white
boy squirted water on a Negro girl
with a water pistol.
“There were probably only two
students in the whole high school
who could have caused an incident
like this,” said one teacher. “The boy
was a 19-year-old ‘tough guy’ whose
level of development is well indi
cated by the fact that at 19 he carries
a water pistol. He had squirted plenty
of white girls before. He probably
could have squirted plenty of Negro
girls with less troublesome results.
This particular girl carried a chip
on her shoulder. She went home and
aired her grievance for the benefit
of family and friends.”
Next day, six Negro youths sur
rounded a car in which was riding
a white boy, said to be a buddy of
the water-pistol-toter. Taunts and
insults led to dares to fight, the white
boy got out of the car, and was
shortly on the way to a hospital for
treatment of a scalp wound and cut
shoulder.
Feelings mounted. In one clash in
a school corridor, both white and
Negro youths drew knives, but did
KANSAS CITY REDISTRICTING PLAN
NORTHEAST
NORTH EAST, JR.
MANUAL
BEAST
CENTRAL* BCENTRAI
JR. I
>WESTP0RT
PASEO
E
SOUTHEAST
SOUTHWEST
Map by Frank Kreig
HERE ARE SHOWN the new high school districts for Kansas City, Mo,
approved by the board of education to complete integration with the start
of the school year next September. Lightly shaded areas show the principal
Negro residential districts. Heavily shaded areas are those in which students
have the option of attending either of two or more high schools. According
to school authorities, the “optional” areas continue a practice of the past and
are not related to problems of integration. Generally students will be expected
to attend schools in the districts where they live, as in the past, but a liberal
transfer policy will be followed where school building capacities permit.
not use them. A white pupil reported
that a rock thrown by one of a group
of Negro students struck his auto
mobile, denting the side.
STUDENT ASSEMBLY
At this point, two days after the
initial incident, Superintendent of
Instruction Philip J. Hickey and his
aides went to the high school to
address a special assembly, called
at the request of the Student Council.
There was generous applause from
students and only a murmur of dis
sent when Hickey said the water-
squirting incident occurred because
“a white boy did not display good
citizenship.” Dissenting students felt
that the Negro girl also had erred by
building up the incident too much.
Hickey called the white boy’s be
havior “kindergarten stuff.” He said
he was convinced that the Negroes
who had assaulted the white boy in
a car were non-students “who stuck
their noses into insiders’ business.”
He told the assembly: “We will take
care of those outsiders if you will
take care of the insiders.”
The basketball coach and 14 mem
bers of the team, then playing in the
state tournament, appeared on the
stage and appealed for cooperation
in solving the problem. Other speak
ers were Principal Gammeter, R. M.
Inbody, city director of secondary
education, and two student leaders
who called on their fellow students
to “settle this matter maturely, not
like five-year olds.”
Students returned to class after
the assembly. At noon recess, about
200 white students, most of them
older boys, assembled on the athletic
field and demonstrated for 15 min
utes, chanting “Let’s go home.”
Teachers appeared with warnings
that the demonstrators would be
marked absent unless they returned
to class. All of them returned. No
more demonstrations occurred.
On the following day, Beaumont
returned to normal, though absences
were reported to be 50 to 60 more
than usual. Policemen patrolled the
school and the neighborhood.
NO FURTHER INCIDENTS
Four weeks after the incident
teachers reported that it had app ar ‘
ently been forgotten by all con
cerned.
Mixed classes at Beaumont, a s
at
other St. Louis high schools, are be
ing successfully conducted eve.
day, and the great majority of
dents of both races are getting ak*'
amicably, say the school officials.
Asked whether any differences
academic standards have been 0
served, one Beaumont English teac
er said there seemed to be among
Negro pupils a wider spread betw
the best and the worst than am°^
whites. He attributed part of this ^
the difficulties of adjusting to a s
school situation. He found the
Negro students to be the eq 1
the best white ones.
uai c '
CARMICHAEL SPEAKS a
St. Louis was host in March ^
regional meeting of the Ame
Association of School Administra ^
Addressing a clinic on problems |
integration, Supt. Omer Carrmc
of the Louisville (Ky.) school ^
declared that boards of educate
many sections of the country are _ c .
facing up to the problem of de se , w
gating schools in accordance
Supreme Court decision.
with 4 *
0 ui
“We’ve been contending
i j » r.Arm ic
rights to be leaders,” C arm ' e jb<
said, “and now we’ve got to ta
leadership when the going is t0 . ca lK
Emphasizing his own ‘ 4 ' . ^
southern” background, Carrm ^
said Louisville school offic'ia s
See MISSOURI on Next Pa«