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Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
OKLAHOMA voters will be asked
” to erase the Jim Crow line from
their public school budgets in a
statewide constitutional amendment
election April 5. JHR 504, a multi
phase measure that would mean
overhauling the entire common
school finance structure is ready for
presentation after three months of
legislative tinkering.
As the measure headed toward the
polls without apparent organized op
position, the House and Senate re
cessed March 30 to carry explana
tions to members’ respective home
towns. Both chambers are to re
convene April 6, to vitalize some or
all of the provisions if the election is
successful.
The package resolution had been
passed by the House Feb. 15. Hand
led speedily by the Senate, it re
turned to the House for final pas
sage March 9. Gov. Raymond Gary
signed the engrossed joint resolution
that day. State education and capi
tal leaders and patrons’ groups im
mediately launched an intensive in
formation campaign. Dubbing it the
"better schools amendment,” they
emphasized “SOS—Support Our
Schools” as a rallying slogan.
STRONG BACKING
Gov. Gary spearheaded the sup
port appeals. In a speech to south
eastern Oklahoma teachers a few
days after signing the resolution, and
repeatedly in later addresses, Gary
declared: “The success or failure of
my administration to a great extent
depends on the passage of this bill.
I am willing to stake my political
life on this program.”
In pre-election campaigning, as in
the proposal’s trip through both
houses, the issue was presented sole
ly as a financial problem. School
leaders frankly reminded the public
that wiping out the dual budget sys
tem will leave Oklahoma in no dif
ferent legal status than Georgia,
Mississippi, or any other southern
state that now operates two school
systems on one budget.
Both the Oklahoma Education As
sociation and Oklahoma City Supt.
I Chester Swanson, in separate leaf-
ets explaining the entire amend-
me nt, specifically noted in identical
statements: “It (the budget change)
does not do away with the separate
schools for white and Negro chil-
ren. Other provisions of the con-
s itution will still prohibit the in-
egration of our schools until the
supreme Court of the United States
Rally directs how and when segre
gation will come to an end.”
s has been detailed in previous
outhern School News issues, sep-
arate minority schools (nearly all
1 e gro) have been supported con
stitutionally, by annual 3-mill oper
ating and 1-mill building taxes,
levied on a countywide basis. Major
ity schools (almost all white) get
main ad valorem support from with
in their own districts. Complete sep
arate budgets must be maintained.
The amendment proposes a new
4-mill “replacement” levy, to be di
vided among all schools on a basis
of average daily attendance. With
a non-restricted source of revenue,
funds could then go into one kitty
for both white and Negro schools.
School leaders warned the 4 mills
now collected annually solely for
Negro education would instantly be
come illegal when the Supreme
Court hands down its final de
segregation edict. Ad valorem levies
and money allocated from other
sources specifically for Negro school
operation now total about eight mil
lion dollars annually. Should the
amendment be defeated, OEA
spokesmen say they would expect
railroads, utilities and other major
taxpayers to make immediate—and
successful—protests against any sep
arate levy attempted for Negro
schools after the Supreme Court acts.
SUCCESS FORESEEN
Strong confidence in the election’s
success was evident in official circles.
Failure would mean the legislature
would have to return for a special
session if the Supreme Court’s final
orders were handed down after the
Oklahoma body adjourned.
The replacement levy never had
organized opposition, and remained
a minor issue in the long, see-sawing
weeks of legislative committee and
floor debate. Main spokesman against
it on racial grounds was Rep. Guy
Horton of Altus, who had argued
early in the session that the plan
would “open the flood gates to de
segregation.” In the final stormy
House session March 9, Horton again
branded the entire amendment a
“monstrosity” that would “emascu
late the segregation laws of Okla
homa.” He was among five solons
voting “no” against the 107 votes for
the joint resolution.
The joint resolution made its final
entry under imprint of the House
Education Committee, headed by
Rep. Bill Shipley, of Okmulgee.
Shipley had sent out feelers in
January, asking house members’
reaction to a possible “free transfer”
bill that would in effect allow school
boards to keep their districts all
white or all Negro. He said he would
seek such legislation if enough sup
port developed. No further refer
ences to the proposal have since been
made.
The 4-mill levy will stand or fall
with a wide assortment of other pro
posals, all involving finance. Mainly,
Texas
. AUSTIN, Texa
^tTY. GEN. John Ben Shepper
said he would be in Washingto:
t C " ee k of April 11 to present th
l ei ^ as view of the segregation prob
k one s i x southern states
c °urt” i|' ave “friend of the
tj 0 Briefs in the school segrega-
ur-- cases - The state’s officials are
pr etn ® p bat * be United States Su-
m e Court write a decree which
w S‘ ve local school authorities lee-
>n working out integration.
w en r ai }' v Bile the Texas Legislature
^ed T* 0 t Bird quarter of a
» ut u four-month session with-
se-v. iny s *£n of concern over the
I t , bon question,
fifths'* ”1 rec i u ire consent of four-
hou Se ,° . ^e members in either
th e r Produce legislature during
*B°Ueh Illa ^ n ^ er *-he session, al-
of( erfv , emergency measures can be
^ by Gov. Allan Shivers.
The 0 /" FUNDS UPPED
to hj ^-legislature was taking steps
Pew , ease binds for education. The
1957 a, state budget for 1955-
b v e'ar, reat ^ y w ith tentative legisla-
0o °,ooo OVal - wU1 be about $ 1 > 550 .-
thaq u* or 150 million dollars more
sta te spent for the 1953-1955
biennium.
Education will get the largest por
tion of the budget, as well as the
principal increase. Growing enroll
ment and upgrading of facilities are
responsible for the extra spending.
Sen. Ottis E. Lock of Lufkin, a
long-time leader in school legislation
and a supporter of Gov. Shivers,
noted that public schools cost
$388,443,308 in Texas during the 1053-
1954 year. This included $162,577,388
local district funds, $617,642 county
funds, $215,624,402 state, and $9,623,-
876 federal.
For this school year, an increase of
$43,406,986 in the total is in prospect.
More than $36,000,000 of this is state
funds pledged to pay a $400 a year
increase in minimum teaching
salaries starting last September. The
minimum now for a bachelor degree
teacher without experience is $2,804
a year. The average pay, based on
experience and other increments, is
several hundred dollars a year above
the minimum.
HEAVY INCREASE
State outlay for public schools is
expected to run about 10 million
dollars higher next year than now
with another nine million dollars
added the following year.
the resolution would revise Article
10 of the state constitution to unify
the dual budget, ease present ceil
ings on bonded indebtedness and
local ad valorem support, open the
way for a teacher tenure and ex
tended contract program and liberal
ize the use of annual building levies
now limited to new construction.
Also lumped into the package are a
proposed state building fund to aid
distressed districts, and a 15 million
dollar building bond issue ear
marked for colleges and other state
institutions.
SOME CONFUSION
Education forces were confident of
public sentiment for common school
improvements, but admitted mis
givings that the college building bond
“rider” might jeopardize the elec
tion. “People ask me about that pro
vision more than anything else.
That’s where most of the confusion
lies,” OEA president F. E. Willing
ham of Tecumseh said. Schoolmen
leaned heavily on arguments that
the bonds would be paid off from
cigaret tax revenue rather than ad
valorem taxes.
Negro leaders joined in supporting
the amendment. Roscoe Dunjee,
longtime publisher of the Black Dis
patch, weekly newspaper at Okla
homa City, and state executive com
mittee chairman for the National
Association for Advancement of Col
ored People, told SSN he was
“agreeably surprised” at the whole
legislative picture. “The boys are
moving nicely,” he said.
Dunjee spent hours at the Capitol,
watching the debates, and expressed
gratification at the way finance prob
lems were “adroitly kept in the
foreground” without bringing race
questions into the debates.
He also noted, as did Dr. T. H.
McDowell, Oklahoma director for
the National Conference of Chris
tians and Jews, that isolated attempts
to raise racial issues never struck
answering sparks from general mem
bership of the legislature. “There
were ample openings for such feel
ings to break out, if they had ex
isted,” Dr. McDowell said.
EDITORIAL SUPPORT
In a front page editorial March
19, the Black Dispatch urged its
readers to support the amendment.
Dunjee termed the proposal “a sane
and sober attempt to comply with
the Supreme Court decision regard
ing desegregation. It does not say so
in so many words, but in the end the
result is the same. ... it means that
every school child in Oklahoma will
get the same amount of money for
educational purposes. . . .”
The editorial concluded: “The
governor, the legislature, the presi
dents of all of our state colleges, in
cluding Langston, along with our
teachers in the separate schools, are
all out for this bill. This means that
you should throw your support be-
State aid to junior colleges and to
18 state-supported colleges also will
be increased, if the Legislature ful
fills present expectations. There is
considerable sentiment for a re
organization of the state college
system, to eliminate duplication and
to obtain more for the taxpayer’s
money. A study commission recom
mended a statewide board to super
vise all the colleges. The study likely
will be continued during the next
two years, but without any addi
tional board on the state level.
Salaries at the two state-supported
Negro schools are being equalized
with those of similar rank in other
Texas state colleges. The president
of Prairie View A&M, for example,
would be raised from $9,600 to $11,000
a year under an appropriation passed
by the House. This fixed $11,000 as
the minimum for presidents at four-
year colleges.
PATTERN NOT SET
The final pattern of state aid to
two Negro branches of municipal
junior colleges—at San Antonio and
Tyler—is yet to be determined. The
House passed a bill which would
provide $230 a year help for each
student up to 250 enrollment and
$189 for additional students. The
Senate committee approved a bill
for $230 aid up to 500 enrollment
and $189 for extra students at muni
cipal junior colleges.
The Senate bill drew criticism from
SOUTHERN SCHOOL
hind it also. Let’s make one united
effort to support the new plan for
education in Oklahoma. This is a
new day and a new way of doing
things.”
Dr. H. W. Williamston, Idabel,
president of the state NAACP con
ference of branches, said he is “very
well pleased” with the measure. Ne
groes favor the new levy largely be
cause it could smooth inequities in
financing separate schools, he said.
(Example: Muskogee county, with
3,028 Negroes of school age, has ex
actly the same tax base for its Negro
schools as does Kay county, with
only 199 Negro boys and girls of
school age. The counties are eco
nomically comparable and each
enumerates between 10,000 and
11,000 white students).
PTA BACKS DRIVE
The Oklahoma Congress of Col
ored Parents and Teachers an
nounced a concerted drive for voter
support, and moved its annual con
vention up one day to April 6-7, to
avoid conflict with the election date.
The convention, at Okmulgee, was
expected to spotlight desegregation,
at least unofficially. However, Ira
Hall, Oklahoma public education de
partment official and state congress
field agent, said the Negro PTA ex
pects to remain alive so long as
separate schools exist. No disband
ing moves will be made until the
supreme court’s orders actually go
into effect, he indicated.
Twin question marks of the Su
preme Court’s final mandate and the
election’s outcome overshadowed any
questions of Oklahoma school boards’
actual blueprints for operating in
tegrated schools. Court cases filed
after the May, 1954, ruling, also are
held in abeyance until the Supreme
Court rules.
One western Oklahoma school dis
trict, Elk City, was reliably rumored
to be planning to integrate its high
school next autumn, regardless of
legal developments. However, Supt.
Richard Burch told the SSN his
board “absolutely has never even
given it any consideration, and will
not do so until after the final de
cision.” Elk City’s Lincoln school,
with about 40 students enrolled in
seventh through 12th grades, is the
only Negro high school in Beckham
county.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Related developments during the
month in Oklahoma:
Negro candidates campaigned for
both the Oklahoma City mayor’s post
and the councilman’s seat in Ward
2 (largest hub of Negro businesses
and homes) in the spring municipal
primary race. However, neither filing
set a precedent, and segregation was
not a campaign issue. In the mayor’s
race, the Negro candidate polled 445
votes among six contenders, as
against more than 11,000 for each of
the two top candidates.
supporters of the Tyler and San
Antonio schools, as well as from the
University of Houston, which re
ceives state aid for its freshman and
sophomores. This group said the
Senate formula would guarantee
funds for the smaller colleges but
predicted there would not be enough
money left to provide for the extra
students at the University of Houston
and the Negro branches at Tyler
and Houston.
This problem will be worked out
in a legislative conference commit
tee.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Elsewhere on the racial front in
Texas were these developments:
Dr. Hector P. Garcia of Corpus
Christi, a doctor, told a convention
of the Texas Commission of Race
Relations at Austin: “We will not be
successful in stopping communism
if we do not remove all racial preju
dice in this nation... When you
give a man his dignity or restore his
dignity, then you give him an honor
able armor against communism.”
At Amarillo, eight white boys were
seen leaving a crude burning cross
in the driveway of Dr. J. O. Wyatt,
a Negro physician who is seeking
election to the Amarillo school
board. Dr. Wyatt said “I do not
consider this an expression of public
sentiment and it will not alter my
plans at all. I have felt during my
years of residence here that the
NEWS—April 7, 1955—PAGE 15
In Ward 2, one Negro aspirant
gained 709 votes and another gar
nered 58, in a field of seven candi
dates. The incumbent councilman
drew 1,985 and his nearest opponent
767. For the April 5 run-off election,
the Negro Chamber of Commerce
officially backed the incumbent can
didate, on a basis of his help toward
civic improvements for the Negro
community.
President G. L. Harrison of Lang
ston (state-supported Negro univer
sity) sent a letter to all members
of the legislature, advocating trans
fer of the university to Oklahoma
City or Tulsa. Dr. Harrison also sug
gested using $2,500,000 of the pro
posed 15 million dollar bond issue
to meet initial expenses involved in
the move.
Dr. Harrison argued that Lang
ston’s present location, in north cen
tral Oklahoma far removed from
population centers, makes it neces
sary for all students to board on the
campus. Further, he said the uni
versity must drain its operating bud
get to find campus jobs for the
stranded students because there are
no nearby cities or industries to
provide part-time work needed by
at least three-fourths of the student
body.
The letter made no reference, di
rect or indirect, to segregation issues.
No response to Dr. Harrison’s pro
posal had been expressed by April
deadline time.
Virginia
Continued from Page 14
more nearly resemble that of the
white.
Mrs. Sarah Patton Boyle, wife of a
University of Virginia faculty mem
ber, speaking at a conference of the
NAACP here, declared that “the
whole South is readier for brother
hood than we think.”
Mrs. Boyle, author of a recent
Saturday Evening Post article,
“Southerners Will Like Integra
tion,” added the warning that this
“readiness ... is lightly balanced,”
and that many Southerners “are not
beyond the reach of the organizing
opposition.”
She urged advocates of integra
tion to be “right within ourselves”
and to work not just for integration
but for integration with friendship.
McKnight Resigns
Charlotte Position
The resignation of C. A. McKnight
as editor of The Charlotte News,
Charlotte, N. C., was announced on
April 2 by Thomas L. Robinson, pub
lisher.
McKnight has been on leave of ab
sence as editor of The News since last
July 1, when he became executive
director of the Southern Education
Reporting Service with headquarters
in Nashville, Tenn. He will continue
in that position.
people are not like that.”
At Garland, where Russell T. San
born, white, is running for the school
board on an integration platform,
the candidate was advised to take
up with the local board his complaint
that the present Negro school is
inadequate. Sanborn had written to
Dr. J. W. Edgar, Texas Commissioner
of Education. Dr. Edgar replied that
any complaint must be handled first
on the local level. An appeal pro
cedure is provided to state authori
ties and to the courts.
Sanborn said that Garland’s
George Washington Carver School
lacked courses in physics, chemistry,
typing, shorthand, and trigonometry
and that the school has no library,
football team or band. The candidate
said he believed “the most practical
solution is to permit these few stu
dents to attend the white high
school.”
At Dallas, two Negro candidates
announced for the May 7 school
board election. They are Frank W.
Phillips, president of a business
school, and C. B. Bunkley Jr., an
attorney. Both claim backing by
Negro organizations, although the
decision of both men to run re
portedly caused a rift in Negro or
ganizations at Dallas.
The Dallas News recommended
editorially some time ago that the
school board appoint a Negro to a
vacany existing on the Board.