Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

* PAGE 8—April 7, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS Kentucky JNCREASING Negro participation in desegregation discussions marked recent weeks in Kentucky. Speakers or consultants of the Kentucky Council on Human Rela tions, with an interracial board of prominent Kentuckians, were active in 19 counties of the state. Their aim, under the chairmanship of Dr. Hugh A. Brimm, Carver School of Missions sociologist, is “working together for better communities for a better Kentucky.” Council representatives urge white and Negro leaders in various com munities to get together for indi vidual discussions of desegregation problems, then encourage mixed- group discussions of problems and plans at the grassroots level, and offer consultative services and writ ten material on community self surveys. Vice-chairman of the council is Dr. Charles H. Parrish Jr., Negro sociologist on the University of Louisville faculty. Consultants in clude white and Negro professors, school administrators, and P.T.A. leaders. The board of directors has similar representation as well as lawyers, bankers, ministers, writers, businessmen, and lay representatives of church groups. BROTHERHOOD MEETING White and Negro students from 18 colleges in Kentucky and Indiana’s Hanover College met in Louisville during Brotherhood Week, sponsored by the Kentucky chapter of the Na tional Conference of Christians and Jews, to discuss racial and religious tensions and means of erasing them. The panel discussion of 42 students was moderated by Dr. Gordon W. Lovejoy of Guilford College, N. C., at the Seelbach Hotel. Some of the conclusions reached by the panelists, as reported in The Courier-Journal, follow: “Prejudice begins at home. Many racial and religious hatreds that have no basis in fact today exist because they have been handed down NEW ORLEANS, La. ^ITH virtually no significant de velopments in the segregation issue during March, public attention continued to be focused on the strug gle over revenue from Louisiana’s tidelands oil revenues—estimated to be worth some 500 million dollars. Late developments were high lighted by a seeming split between two forces seeking the oil moneys. Last month it appeared as if pro ponents of using the oil money for education, and those who favored a big highway program, had resolved their differences in a compromise which appeared equitable to both sides. However, in recent days the pro-highway group declined to go along with an immediate division. NEW OPPOSITION GROUP Some political observers have pointed out that the rise of a new, third pressure group has caused this change. This new group opposes both highway and education plans on the grounds that they both call for heavy bonding of the state’s financial fu ture. The new “pay-as-you-go” group is asking for a slowdown of all spend ing until: o An adequate survey is made of the state’s tidelands potential. • A comprehensive “pay-as-you- go” program, including both high ways and education is drawn up. SCHOOL BUILDING PLANS Meanwhile, education forces, head ed by State Sen. W. M. Rainach, chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Segregation, have gone ahead with their plans for a giant school building program to equalize facilities. They are asking for a total of 225 million dollars for primary and sec ondary school construction over the next 10 years. The money would be divided this way: from generation to generation. “Young people must recognize this and base their opinions on their own experience. And, when they become parents, they must be care ful not to influence the opinions of their own children. “The students agreed that most of the resistance to desegregation in the nation’s schools comes from par ents, not students. About half the students said their parents were prejudiced in some degree. “Some minority groups that are victims of bias are themselves guilty of discrimination, the students de cided. These include sororities, fra ternities, and other groups that limit membership to one race or re ligion, they said. “Most of the students agreed that fanatical action on racial problems would create more tension than it would prevent. They recommended that the problem be attacked steadily through schools and civic and other organizations.” PARENTS ORGANIZATION In Louisville a white organization called “Parents on Our Block,” with a citywide membership of 40 or 50, invited two Negroes to its March 14 discussion of “What We Can Do to Smooth the Path to Desegrega tion.” The two were Mark Anthony, deputy tax commissioner of Jeffer son County, and Ike Ferguson, an undertaker. The group decided that its mem bers should (1) use personal in fluence in parent-teacher associa tions and other organizations to en courage calm discussion of desegre gation problems; (2) establish rela tionship with Negro leaders; and (3) engage in person-to-person discus sion with those worried or apprehen sive about desegregation. The group, which devotes itself to study of moral and spiritual values in the home, normally meets in the home of a different member each month. Mr. Anthony invited it to meet in his home in April, to- • A total of 99 million dollars to be spent over the next three years to equalize school systems. • Some 33 million dollars to be divided equally between the state’s 67 parish and city school systems, ac cording to average daily school mem bership. • An additional 126 million dollars for providing the school districts $50,000 each for the next seven years, with the remaining money to be shared according to enrollment in creases. In addition, education forces are asking for another 25 million dollars for colleges and trade schools. BILLS TO BE OFFERED It is expected that bills appropria ting such sums to the state depart ment of education will be presented to the next session of the Louisiana legislature, which opens May 9. The 30-day session is prohibited from considering any but fiscal matters, unless authorized to do so by a two- thirds vote of both houses. It is expressly prohibited from con sidering tax increases, and the gov ernor is prohibited from calling a special session of the legislature dur ing the period 30 days prior to the opening and 30 days after the close. Meanwhile, highway forces, headed by Sen. James Sparks, chairman of the Joint Highway Committee, have also drawn up a series of bills which will be introduced at the May session. They call for: • Dedication of 15 million dollars per year for the next 20 years from tidelands oil to the state highway department, the money to be bonded on a year-to-year basis to take care of spending needs as outlined by a survey conducted by the Automotive Safety Foundation. In those years when money is appropriated directly to pay for the program, the highway department would be specifically prohibited from issuing any bonds. Courier-Journal Photo VICE-PRESIDENT STRICKLER Relates University of Louisville’s Experiences gether with some Negro parents, and the invitation was accepted. Another Louisville organization, the Eastern Council on Moral and Spiritual Values, invited Negro par ticipation in its March 31 meeting to discuss “Adequate Financing for Our Schools.” Speakers scheduled were City School Supt. Omer Car michael, Jefferson County Supt. Richard Van Hoose, and Dr. Kenneth P. Vinsel, executive vice-president of the Louisville Chamber of Com merce. CARMICHAEL’S REPORT Supt. Carmichael, after 12 ap pearances before church groups, civic clubs, and P.T.A.’s in his year long effort to “create a favorable climate of opinion” for the change to desegregation, reported that his au diences had raised “many a frank and to-the-point question,” but that “no one has yet asked me an un pleasantly aggressive or antagonis tic question.” Mr. Carmichael said on March 28 that he had collected from school principals and Parent Teacher As sociations more than 100 lists of problems to be considered in the impending change to desegregated • Appropriation of 25 million dol lars immediately, to go along with 20 million dollars appropriated by the January special session of the legislature, to be spent on a pay-as- you-go basis. RIFT DEVELOPS The apparent rift between educa tion and highway forces is still sur rounded by some mystery. At one time last month the two groups had patched up their differences, and ap peared to be heading to a quick solu tion. In fact, reports have it that Gov. Kennon was on the verge of calling a special session for mid-March, in which the actual division of the state’s tidelands moneys would take place. Suddenly, however, the highway forces dismissed the idea and declined to request the governor to call the special session. (Gov. Kennon had previously announced he would call such a session if requested to do so by the Joint Highway Committee). When Sen. Rainach’s committee then requested on behalf of the edu cation forces that the governor call a special session, the governor said one was not necessary. FEDERAL AID SCORED Meanwhile, Sen. Rainach’s com mittee met in Baton Rouge in mid- March and scoffed at the idea of pro posed federal aid to school construc tion as “too little, too late”— and too likely to put strings on segregation. In the words of Sen. Rainach: “It was the sense of all present that we should not accept federal aid for public school construction if it means federal control.” Another important event on the Louisiana political scene has been the alignment of Sen. Rainach with State Supt. of Education Shelby Jackson. Jackson has consistently refused to make any public comment on inte gration-segregation, saying instead, that his department was “consider ing the matter but was not ready to schools. From these, he said, a mas ter list will be compiled and mimeo graphed for use in schools and dis cussion groups throughout the city. The master list is expected to be ready for distribution sometime in April. Mr. Carmichael “guessed” that the Supreme Court would hand down its next school ruling before the sum mer recess, and would call for a five- year pattern of change. In that event, he said, Louisville schools would initiate desegregation in September, 1955, and would complete the process considerably ahead of the expected schedule. UNIVERSITY’S EXPERIENCE On March 1, Vice President Woodrow M. Strickler of the Uni versity of Louisville, first university in the South to enroll Negro under graduates and to hire a Negro faculty member gave a five-year summary of the university’s experience with desegregation. He spoke to the 10th National Conference on Higher Edu cation in Chicago. The University, Mr. Strickler said, was “pretty worried” in 1950 when it decided to admit Negroes, but that its “trepidation” was totally unwarranted; it never had the slightest trouble in changing over into an interracial school. Excerpts follow: “Negro fraternities and sororities have been organized. Negroes have attained positions of campus leader ship. They live in the dormitories, attend university classes, and play on varsity athletic teams. “The only difficulty the university has faced has not been the fault of the Negroes. The institution rents a swimming pool for swimming classes and uses parks for botany classes. The organization owning the swimming pool prohibits attend ance of Negroes; City parks are op erated on a segregated basis. Con sequently Negro students must be prohibited from these classes or classes abandoned. “The problem has been solved satisfactorily by simply asking Negro students not to enroll in classes using rented facilities, or by asking them to be certain to work out substitute measures with their teachers, as in the case of the botany make a statement.” While Jackson has still not made a public statement on the matter, Sen. Rainach’s committee has been work ing in close harmony with the state department of education. Attending the recent series of closed meetings in Baton Rouge in which the overall financial needs of the giant school building program were ironed out, were representa tives of: The Louisiana Education Association, Louisiana Classroom Teachers Association, Louisiana School Board Association, Louisiana School Superintendents Association, and Supt. Jackson. PEREZ BACKED The education forces of Sen. Rai nach have also recently announced their support of Louisiana political leader Leander Perez. Perez, who is district attorney of two Deep South parishes (counties) below New Orleans, has been a vig orous backer of segregation at all costs and for extension of Louisiana’s tidelands boundary. He was also a leader of the now almost-defunct States Rights political party. It was Perez who originally wrote the constitutional amendments upon which Louisiana’s fight to maintain segregation is being based. The amendments — themselves amended on the floor of the state legislature— allow the state to invoke its police power to maintain segregation for the public good. Sen. Rainach’s education group recently met with Perez and en dorsed Perez’ claim that Louisiana’s tidelands boundary extends three leagues—rather than three miles— into the Gulf. The state legislature at its session last year, adopted a reso lution, also authored by Perez, which defined those limits to its seaward boundary. In the course of the recent meet ing, N. B. Hackett, Baton Rouge, executive secretary of the Louisiana Education Association, termed the tidelands boundary question “of vital classes. “Evidence has been presented in some institutions that Negro students have been handicapped by an infe rior educational background... In the experience of the University of Louisville this problem has had little importance, because a vast majority of the Negro students come from a large Negro high school which is equipped and staffed in every way to prepare qualified students ade quately for college-level work. This condition has operated to prove that there is no racial basis for inferior performance. EFFECT ON STUDENTS “For the average white student, the appearance of Negroes as class mates and participants in student ac tivities has had little, if any, sig nificance. They have been sym pathetic or indifferent. Negro stu dents have been accepted in direct proportion to their capacity for con tributing to student life. “When the process of desegregation is as abrupt as it has been at the University of Louisville, where al most overnight a Negro college was closed, its property sold and its stu dents absorbed in other schools of the university, it can be expected that Negro faculty members will, for an interim period at least, very likely lose their jobs as teachers.... “If Negro schools are abolished, it seems inevitable that some quali fied faculty members will be forced from the teaching profession, be cause it is likely that colleges and universities will continue to lag in adding Negroes to their faculties in the same proportion as they add white jeople. On the other hand, it seems plausible that, as the demand for qualified teachers continues to grow, the displaced Negro teacher will find a proportionate increase in the number 1 of job opportunities available to him. . . . “Negro citizens will continue to contribute in increasing measure to the planning and operation of pro grams of higher education. It is necessary that this be so, because only in this way can many of the complicated problems of desegrega tion be solved intelligently and with out incident.” importance to the state government.” He added: “The needs for education far ex ceed what we have been able to pro vide in the past. “If something is not done to provide additional funds for the schools, we must ask that additional taxes be levied for support of the schools.” The political alignment of Sen. Rainach with Perez and Education Supt. Jackson has thrust the soft- spoken upstate legislator into the po litical spotlight. VIEWS ON SEGREGATION His name has been mentioned late ly as a possible candidate for g° v ' ernor in the 1956 election. However Rainach has said he has no intention of seeking the post. Discussing seg regation, Rainach said: "J “It is our feeling that we should preserve segregation, but we thin* that in preserving segregation tn state has a high moral obligation provide adequate and equal facility for every school child, both whi e and Negro. “Provision of facilities for then educational opportunity is a pad 0 our program of work.” Rainach has also reported to G°'„ Kennon that the “most critical ne e of the state at this time is not o the equalizing of school facilities the raising of all schools to minin' standards of adequacy. NEW TERMINOLOGY SEEN Meanwhile, in other happ en j n ^ around the state, the presiden Dillard University in New O r * e predicted that the phrase “equa cilities” would pass by comP le ' during the lifetime of the y 0 ^ D ujs generation. Dr. Albert Dent made^ statement during dedicatory cere , nies for a new Negro grammar s in New Orleans. -• Dr. Dent predicted that the terminology would be “schools 0 See LOUISIANA on Page 9 Louisiana