Newspaper Page Text
.iERN SCHOOL NEWS
. Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
-mg April, Arkansas Atty. Gen.
y T. J. Gentry appeared before the
United States Supreme Court in the
school desegregation cases and on his
return to Arkansas said the justices
appeared to be interested in the sug
gestion that Congress be asked to en
act legislation on the subject.
Integration was discussed at vari
ous meetings. A representative of the
NAACP assigned to Arkansas said
the state was a “bright prospect” for
integration. The formation of a Little
Rock chapter of White America, Inc.,
was announced. In chronological or
der, these were the happenings:
On April 1, nearly 3,000 Negro
school teachers held eight district
meetings of the Arkansas Teachers
Association. The theme for each of
the district meetings was “Facing Ed
ucational Issues in Arkansas,” and
one discussion topic based on that
theme was “A Realistic Look at In
tegration.”
BRIGHTEST PROSPECT’
On April 2, an “educational special
ist” assigned to Arkansas by the
NAACP said in an interview that
Arkansas “represents perhaps the
brightest prospect among the south
ern states for integration, and it is ex
pected to follow its previous pattern
of pioneering.”
Vernon McDaniel, 49, a Negro, said
he had been assigned to Arkansas be
cause the NAACP regards it as a
“favorable” area for integration. Mc
Daniel and two other specialists, one
in West Virginia and one in North
Carolina, were hired by the NAACP’s
Legal Defense and Educational Fund,
Inc., financed by a $75,000 grant by
the Phillip Murray Fund of the CIO.
McDaniel, born at Calvert, Texas,
attended Bishop College at Marshall,
Texas, and Atlanta University, and
is a candidate for a doctor of educa
tion degree from New York Univer
sity. He now is on a year’s leave of
absence as head of the Department
of Secondary Education in the Tuske-
gee (Ala.) Institute’s School of Ed
ucation. Before he went to Tuskegee
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
N apparent green light for inte
grating Kentucky schools this fall
—without waiting for the Supreme
Court’s next ruling—was flashed in
Frankfort on April 6. But it is mov
ing no traffic yet, or none that can
be seen. The reason is clear.
Atty. Gen. J. D. Buckman Jr. an
nounced that his office would initiate
no prosecution (under Kentucky’s
segregation laws, still on the books)
of any school districts deciding to
integrate. But, he added, if any local
citizen objecting to integration should
bring suit, he would by his oath of
office be required to prosecute “until
our Day Law is specifically declared
to be unconstitutional by the Su
preme Court.”
“Of course, as lawyers,” Mr. Buck-
man said, “we know that the Day
Law would meet the same fate from
the Supreme Court as have the laws
of the other states that decree seg
regation. But, until . . .”
This modification of Frankfort’s an
nouncement last summer that the Day
Law remained in force (with the in
ference that the state of its own voli
tion would prosecute any violations),
some educators said, might tempt a
few smaller districts to speed up their
integration plans. But the prospect of
“contentious” litigation, and the be
lief that the Supreme Court soon will
remove this prospect, tended to pre
serve the status quo.
LOUISVILLE TO WAIT
Two days after Mr. Buckman had
spoken, Louisville Supt. Omer Car
michael said, “We have no intention
of taking any action until the Su
preme Court finishes its delibera
tions.” This reaction, a check of school
officials elsewhere in the state indi
cated, was general.
In Louisville the month saw an
easing of park segregation rules as a
seven years ago, he had been at
Washington high school at Pensacola,
Fla., 16 years and served as principal
the last 10 years.
REACTIONS MEASURED
He came to Arkansas in October to
measure community reactions to the
idea of racial integration in the public
schools and to stimulate Negroes to
talk and act on the subject. He has
attracted almost no public attention
and has experienced “no unpleasant
incidents.”
As examples of pioneering, Mc
Daniel cited the voluntary admission
of Negroes to graduate level courses
at the University of Arkansas in 1947
and the integration of white and Ne
gro students last year by the Fayette
ville and Charleston school districts.
’’Arkansas presents a variable pic
ture,” McDaniel said. “There are ex
tremes in terms of resistance and in
in favorable reactions. There are va
riations in how long it will take for
integration.”
NEGROES LETHARGIC
He said that Negroes in some com
munities “have not aroused them
selves to take action” and that he
attempted to stimulate them through
small group meetings.
“There are some anxieties and
fears on the part of the Negro com
munity which account for the indif
ference and lethargy,” he said. “Once
these are described and understood,
there can be action.”
As an example, he said some Negro
teachers have feared that integration
would mean their dismissal.
“We explain that security can be
maintained if they are competent and
organize to prevent discrimination,”
he said. “We point out that other or
ganizations in the community will
come to their aid. And we point out
that the geographic distribution of
the school population will make it
difficult if not impossible to displace
Negro teachers.”
McDaniel said he had discovered
“only a few instances where intimi
dation has been attempted against
direct result of educational difficulties
encountered by the University of
Louisville, interracial since 1950, and
of demands for interracial athletic
contests.
Most of Louisville’s public parks
are segregated—but not its 82 tot-lots
and play-lots, two municipal play
grounds, its five public golf courses,
and its outdoor theatre in Iroquois
Park. The segregation of the park
system as a whole, however, as re
ported in Southern School News last
month, had made it impossible for
Negro students at the University of
Louisville to do botany field work
in the parks with white students.
This was called to Mayor Andrew
Broaddus’ attention by Dr. Philip
Davidson, U. of L. president. And on
April 6 Mayor Broaddus ordered all
city parks, Negro and white, to be
opened to college botany classes hav
ing Negro and white students and
desiring to use the parks for field
studies and research “for properly
supervised study activities.”
In addition, two Negro parks were
ordered opened to “regularly orga
nized classes” from any school having
both Negro and white students or
teachers, and to permit “regularly
scheduled competitive athletic events
involving both white and colored
players.” This was in response to a
long-standing Negro complaint that
Central high school baseball teams
had no baseball diamonds or playing
fields on which to meet white teams
from the Louisville area, neighboring
Indiana, or elsewhere—or to meet
visiting teams having both Negro and
white players.
COUNCIL ESTABLISHED
The Kentucky Council on Human
Relations, whose personnel and ac
tivities have been reported on in
Southern School News, filed incorpo
ration papers in Frankfort on April 8.
Negroes who assume a leadership
role on integration.”
“One teacher was dismissed be
cause her husband was a leader in
the NAACP,” he said. “And a princi
pal was pressured into accepting so-
called equal facilities instead of inte
grated facilities.”
McDaniel said that many Negroes
weren’t talking about racial integra
tion in the schools “for fear or other
reasons.”
“That’s one of my jobs,” he said, “to
get our people to talk about it.”
On April 2, Virgil T. Blossom, su
perintendent of Little Rock schools,
discussed racial integration at a state
meeting of about 250 members of the
Y-Teens and the Hi-Y at Hot Springs.
On April 6, L. D. Poynter of Pine
Bluff announced that a Little Rock
chapter of White America, Inc., had
been formed the night before at Pine
Bluff.
DETAILS WITHHELD
Poynter, president of White Amer
ica, an organization incorporated Feb.
3 in Arkansas to promote the contin
ued segregation of whites and Ne
groes, declined to give details of the
Little Rock group or to name the offi
cers. He said the Little Rock chapter
included “prominent professional
men and women.”
Poynter said delegates from six
counties attended the meeting.
On April 10, Jefferson County
school officials said they would con
tinue the plans to open Townsend
Park high school for Negroes at Pine
Bluff in September, although a small
group of Negro residents had op
posed construction of the school.
The school will take care of 220
Negro students, most of them child
ren of workers at the nearby Pine
Bluff Arsenal.
A group of Negro leaders earlier
had protested construction of the
school. They said they were inter
ested in integration for all Dollarway
District schools and they were afraid
the new school would not be ac
credited.
Mrs. Carl Watkins, superintendent
of the district, said the school would
be accredited.
Heading the opposition were Wil
liam Dove, C. W. Dawson and Charles
Its objective: “To assist private and
public bodies in research and educa
tion for intelligent, planned, and con
structive integration of the schools in
Kentucky . . . professional help will
be provided upon request from the
staff of 11 trained consultants, the ex
ecutive director, and other staff mem
bers.”
The interracial group is affiliated
with the Southern Regional Council
in Atlanta, which, from a Fund for
the Republic grant, has allotted the
Kentucky Council $25,000 for the
three-year period beginning Oct. 1,
1954. This fund will be supplemented
by state membership fees ranging
from $2 to $25. The council’s execu
tive director is a Louisville teacher,
Mrs. Margaret W. Dagen, who has
taught in Kentucky for nine years
and who in 1952 and 1953 received
awards in St. Louis for betterment
of human relations and racial under
standing from the Urban League and
B’nai B’rith. Assistant executive di
rector is Mrs. lone G. Stanley, wife
of the publisher of The Louisville
Defender.
TEACHERS MEET
During the same week in April
Kentucky’s two segregated teacher
organizations held their annual con
ventions in Louisville. Mrs. Dagen,
addressing the Negro group (Ken
tucky Teachers Association), called
for integration of white and Negro
teachers into a single professional or
ganization. “How,” she asked, “can
we expect the schools to integrate
successfully if the teachers’ organiza
tions aren’t integrated?”
Mrs. Dagen criticized the white
teachers’ group (Kentucky Education
Association) for having refused
earlier in the week to cooperate with
KTA on a legislative program deal
ing with integration. (Instead, KEA
had said it would be glad to have
KTA “unite with us” on a three-point
program to increase funds for public
education.)
“As a teacher,” said Mrs. Dagen,
“I am very embarrassed and frankly
rather angry that the KEA should
take this non-professional attitude
Knott. Dawson is an instructor at Ar
kansas A M & N College for Negroes
at Pine Bluff, a state-supported
school.
Fred Moore, superintendent of
county schools, said he thought oppo
sition to the construction of the
school probably was temporary.
NEGRO RESPONSIBILITY
On April 16, a Negro labor leader
said at Little Rock that the responsi
bility for bringing about racial inte
gration in the United States rested
principally with Negroes.
A. Phillip Randolph, president of
the International Union of Sleeping
Car Porters, told a meeting of a local
of the union that “Negroes will have
to learn to fight and pay dearly for
what they want, just as men of all ages
have done.”
Randolph urged the union mem
bers to support the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People in its fight against racial seg
regation.
“Regardless as to how liberal a
white person might be, he is not a
victim of segregation and discrimina
tion and can’t feel as keenly about
them as a Negro,” he said. “Thus, a
white man can’t be expected to fight
with the same interest and vigor.”
On April 18, after returning from
the Supreme Court hearings, Arkan
sas Atty. Gen. T. J. Gentry said he
thought the justices “seemed inter
ested” in his suggestion that Congress
enact legislation for desegregation of
the public schools.
Gentry noted that the justices used
most of the hour allotted to Arkansas
asking him questions.
On April 21, Nat Griswold, execu
tive director of the Arkansas Council
on Human Relations, an affiliate of
the Southern Regional Council, said
Arkansas was a fertile field for inter
racial work.
The council, an interracial group
concerned with working out practi
cal solutions in the field of race rela
tions, hired Griswold last month and
will open an office at Little Rock.
“Arkansas has an excellent leader
ship in the matter of inter-group re
lations and is more ready to do that
which is right than any other south
ern state,” Griswold said.
On April 22, a psychology professor
toward integration. The statement of
refusal to cooperate is not a profes
sional attitude.”
Next day a department represent
ing 85 per cent (16,000) of the KEA
membership, the Department of
Classroom Teachers, voted approval
by a 3-to-l majority of the Supreme
Court’s desegregation ruling as being
“a reaffirmation of our fundamental
belief in the principles of a democratic
society,” and as carrying out “prin
ciples clearly defined in the preamble
of the Constitution and in the Bill of
Rights.”
JOB WORRIES MINIMIZED
Negro teachers were told not to
worry about keeping their jobs in
integrated school systems by Dr. J.
Rupert Picott of Richmond, Va., vice
president of the National Education
Association and executive secretary
of the Virginia Teachers Association.
“They can’t find enough teachers
anywhere,” he said. “Why should you
be disturbed for fear that somewhere
in this integration process you will
lose your job?”
Dr. Picott said that he had “come
to believe in the fair-mindedness of
all our citizens.” He predicted that
the South will learn to accept deseg
regation: “The South can really re
join America through its acceptance
of the responsibility that is the
South’s.”
KTA concern over teacher-tenure
was marked, however. The associa
tion, which voted to remove race re
strictions on membership, approved
resolutions (1) that the KTA “use
every reasonable means” to persuade
boards of education to keep all quali
fied Negro teachers currently em
ployed, (2) that when teacher-force
reductions are necessary in any dis
trict teachers with the highest quali
fications should be kept regardless of
race, (3) that districts employ a Ne
gro teacher for each 27 Negro pupils
in the district who were formerly
transported to schools outside the di
strict, and (4) that Negro teachers
be included in a district’s teaching
force on the basis of Negro pupils in
Kentucky
from Philander Smith College at Lit
tle Rock told members of the Arkan-
sas Academy of Science meeting at
Harding College at Searcy that segre
gation was more sharp on buses than
in any other phase of southern life
and that there it does the most harm, i
The speaker was Dr. Martin Gross-
ack, one of several white persons on
the faculty of Philander Smith, a pri-
vate college for Negroes attended by
two or three white students.
“Awareness of differential treat
ment is at its most obvious point
with the segregated bus. You can’t
usually see two separate schools, two
waiting rooms and other facilities at
the same time and compare,” he said.
“But social comparisons are easily
made for the Negro in the bus situa
tion. The segregated bus is the ideal
situation to promote inferiority feel
ings since you can compare yourself
with both groups at once, check your
comparisons and recheck them as you
ride the bus.”
Grossack said that the segregated
bus often played an important role in
the Negro child’s first lesson that he
is a Negro.
He said many Negroes “first
learned their racial differences when
‘Mother yanked me to the back away
from the whites’ or when ‘I was
slapped for wanting to go up front.’ ”
CORRECTION
Through a makeup error, the April
issue of Southern School News con
tained only the last portion of an ac
count of an incident involving Dr.
John Tyler Caldwell, president of the
University of Arkansas, and Ted E.
Wylie, editor of the Northwest Ar
kansas Times at Fayetteville.
Briefly, the missing portion con
tained these facts:
Dr. Caldwell was speaking March
15 on “Problems of Integration” at a
meeting of the Council of Church-
women of Arkansas in St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church at Fayetteville at
tended by about 100 persons, white
and Negro. Dr. Caldwell asked Wylie
not to report the meeting. Wylie told
the group he would like to cover the
speech if the meeting were not closed.
After a few minutes of discussion
which produced no decision, Wylie
left and Dr. Caldwell completed his
talk.
average daily attendance, the sug
gested ratio being one teacher for
from 14 to 27 Negro pupils, and up
to five teachers for from 109 to 135
pupils.
TEACHER POOL URGED
Another KTA proposal, sponsored
by Dr. Rufus B. Atwood, president
of Kentucky State College, called for
establishment of a state hiring pool -
of qualified teachers, with the state
board of education required to refuse
to issue emergency certificates to
teachers lacking full qualifications so
long as any qualified teachers—Negro
or white— remain in the pool.
Elaborating this point on April 24
at the 8th annual convention of the
Kentucky State Conference of the
NAACP, Dr. Atwood said that emer
gency certificates are issued to teach
ers having less than two years of col
lege training. Currently Kentucky
employs 3,385 such “unqualified
teachers, he said, including 2,384 ffl
regular positions and 951 as substi
tutes. Of the total he had reason to
believe, he said, that only six to 1-
were Negroes—the remainder 0
Kentucky’s Negro teaching force o
1,400 being qualified.
Even if the Supreme Court’s nex {
ruling is issued in June, a representa
tive of the state department of ediica'
tion told the NAACP convention, 1
may be too late to change the ( se ®
regated) setup of most schools *n
time for the 1955-56 school year.’ T
speaker was Sam Taylor, assistant di
rector of the division of supervision-
who said he had “nothing °ffi c ' a ,
report,” but was personally convince ,
that “great progress will be made
the next few years in this state.
On the same point Louisville Boat
of Education President Morton Wal ^
er a week earlier had expressed
lief that integration in Louis'
might begin this fall but would P r °^
ably begin in September, 195®-
gration, he said, definitely woU < 7fl e <l
result in dismissal of any 9 uall ^ e ,
teacher in Louisville, “white or
See KENTUCKY on Page 3