Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—May 4, 1955—PAGE 5
District of Columbia
WASHINGTON, D. C.
i NXIETIES arising from school in-
-^tegration were discussed frankly
last month by members of the District
Congress of Parents and Teachers.
A three-day workshop on human
relations produced a brisk exchange
0 f opinion between white and Negro
participants from local PTAs repre
senting all sections of Washington.
“We learned a lot and many fears
we re dispelled,” Mrs. Frank Strope,
Congress president, said. “PTAs must
take a hand in solving new problems
posed by integration,” she added.
three main worries
Both white and Negro parents ad
mitted they had worries about inte
gration. In general, discussion cen
tered on these three:
1. That an influx of Negro pupils
will lower academic standards pre
vailing in formerly white schools;
2. That integration will spread dis
ease;
3. That social contact will lead to
intermarriage.
On the question of standards, a
white grade school principal said that
she and a Negro principal had agreed
that there is a threat “because so
many Negro children come to Wash
ington from an inferior classroom en
vironment where perhaps the teach
ers were ill-trained.” She referred to
the large migration of Negro young
sters from the South.
Admitting concern about stan
dards, the Negro principal added: “I
wonder, though, if it isn’t more im
portant to American cultural pro
gress to sacrifice standards to a rea
sonable limit for the additional value
of both groups sharing the experience
of living together.”
EDUCATIONAL LAG
A white junior high principal said
race integration has disclosed a seri
ous lag among some of Washington’s
Negro students. He said that 135 of
300 new seventh-graders admitted to
the former white school he heads had
IQs below 75—the dividing figure de
noting retardation. He said all the
pupils in the three lowest-ranking of
ten seventh-grade classes were Ne
gro.
These youngsters’ achievement, he
said, was on the first-to-third grade
level. “All these children should have
been in special classes during earlier
years,” the principal said. He added,
“so far as I know, none ever was.”
Other Negro pupils in his school, he
said, appear lacking in some specific
subject. “I found one kid today,” he
said, “who couldn’t multiply more
than two times nine.”
The principal pointed out his school
is located in an area of Washington
with the lowest economic level of
both races. He emphasized, however,
that similar problems are facing the
school administrators throughout the
school system.
For years the Negro and white di
visions of the school systems used
separate achievement tests, the prin
cipal said, and there has not been any
genreal comparison of academic
standards. He said many Negro chil
dren have not had the same back
ground as the white children and this
is a “serious handicap” to them.
INEQUALITY REVEALED
Mrs. Theodore O. Wedel, workshop
discussion leader, said: “As we inte
grate, we’re discovering the fact that
the school systems were in no way
equal.”
Another white grade school princi
pal said there was no evidence of
lower academic standards in her
building which has six Negro pupils
and 818 white. Two of the new stu
dents are above average in education,
one is a “slow learner” and the others
are able to “swim with the rest of the
school,” she said.
A Negro mother said she feared her
child of the minority race in a new
school might not get the grades de
served from a new teacher of the op
posite race.
To this, Mrs. Jean Grambs, human
relations consultant, suggested that
parents with such problems should
discuss them openly with the teacher.
“Face to face contact” is the most
important aid in creating under
standing between white and Negro
parents and teachers, Mrs. Grambs
said. She added this should include
visits in each others homes. Mrs.
Grambs, former teacher at Stanford
University, is author of several hu
man relations handbooks.
A white mother asked whether
there are any differences between
white and Negro children in the same
grades with regard to attainment
level. A Negro parent said the PTAs
ought to look into this question and
establish the facts.
A parent from predominantly
white Key School said three Negro
families elected to keep their child
ren in private schools when they
could have sent them to Key this
year. She wanted to know if the PTA
should try to bring these children in
to community activities. A principal
replied he thought it was the parents’
business where they sent their child
ren to school.
HEALTH CONDITIONS
Several parents expressed concern
over “health conditions” at school.
Mrs. Wedel, wife of a canon of the
Washington Episcopal Cathedral,
said “health and disease do not know
anything about skin color.” If it is
true that disease is more prevalent
in one race than the other, it may be
because of poor economic standards,
she said, and “this should make us re
double efforts to get rid of our slums.”
A white principal said there were
reports that venereal disease and tu
berculosis are more prevalent in the
Negro population. Another white
principal said: “Children are not go
ing to get a social disease through
using the same drinking fountains or
toilets.”
The group was told by a Negro
principal that “it may be Negroes do
have more VD than whites” but he
pointed out that persons in higher
economic brackets often might not be
reported as VD cases because they
did not get city health department
treatment.
He added that a recent report
showed no Negroes evacuated from
the Southwest Washington slum
clearance area and tested for TB
proved to have the disease.
Dr. Grace L. Stone, chief of school
health services, said many parents
are worried about scalp ringworm.
“Ringworm, years back, was entirely
in the white schools, and practically
none in the Negro,” she said. Now,
she continued, it’s the other way
around. She said it is a hard prob
lem to control and urged a broader
X-ray treatment program. Ringworm
of the skin is found among both white
and Negro pupils, she said, and is eas
ier to control.
SOCIAL INTERMINGLING
The question of social interming
ling was brought up again and again.
Mrs. Wedel said this is the most basic
fear of many people and that in this
fear intermarriage was the “ulti
mate.”
“My own experience is that almost
always the people who are most
afraid are the people who’ve never
mixed with the other race,” she said.
A published report, she said, showed
fewer intermarriages in non-segre-
gated schools than in those strictly
segregated.
Several parents expressed concern
over conditions at Eastern junior-se
nior high school which has many stu
dents of both races. One referred to
“riots” there. Eastern, and several
other schools, had brief student stay-
away demonstrations last October.
Mrs. Alice C. Hunter, Negro mem
ber of the District Recreation Board,
said the facts showed no problem of
rioting at Eastern, and a principal
warned against magnifying individ
ual incidents. Mrs. Wedel said:
“There are certain groups and indi
viduals who want to prove that inte
gration won’t work and we need very-
much to have the facts.”
Delegates to the workshop agreed
there should be more interchange of
ideas between Negro and white par
ents. They said free discussion dis
pels ignorance—the greatest cause of
prejudices.
PTAs TO MERGE
The District PTA Congress, for
merly a white organization, last fall
opened membership to Negroes. Be
cause of segregation, the city also had
a separate Washington Congress of
Parents and Teachers with an all-
Negro membership. Last month the
two groups agreed to merge, and the
Negro group decided to give up its
national affiliation. In effect, the
Washington Congress will be ab
sorbed by the much larger former
white Congress. The District Con
gress represents 23,000 members and
the Washington Congress, 11,300.
Washington’s largest local white
and Negro teacher organizations ex
pect to merge soon. The Education
Association of the District (NEA)
has approved in principle a plan to
merge with the Negro Columbian
Educational Association. The EAD
has 1,300 members and Columbian
900. Most of the city’s other profes
sional educational groups also expect
to integrate before the end of this
year. Several have done so already.
First of the major teacher groups to
drop race bars were the three former
unions which merged in 1953 to be
come the Washington Teachers’
Union, a local of the American Fed
eration of Teachers.
HAGER NAMED TO POST
The board of education last month
took steps to wrap up the remaining
ends of school desegregation. It
named Dr. Walter E. Hager president
of Wilson and Miner Teachers Col
leges effective with the July 1 merger
of the formerly segregated institu
tions.
Since 1941, Hager has presided at
Wilson, which prior to last Septem
ber enrolled white students only. The
school board designated Dr. Matthew
J. Whitehead, president of Miner
since 1953, a dean of the combined
college with rank of full professor.
Miner has an all-Negro enrollment
although courses have been opened
to all students. Both plants will be
used next September until adequate
new quarters are found.
In another college reorganization,
the board named Dr. Paul O. Carr as
dean with professor rank, and Miss
Hope Lyons as dean with rank of as
sociate professor. Carr is now history
professor and part-time registrar at
Wilson. Miss Lyons was made a dean
at Miner this year.
School Supt. Hobart M. Corning
explained that the new positions will
help meet accrediting agency criti
cism that the colleges are adminis
tratively understaffed. A new job of
registrar and admissions officer will
be filled in the future.
By a 4-3 vote, the school board ap
proved Coming’s blueprint for reor
ganization of the present hierarchy of
department heads, directors and su
pervisors. This job alignment eventu
ally will save the District $90,000 a
year in salaries resulting from aboli
tion of all supervisory posts not nec
essary under integration.
Texas
AUSTIN, Texas
.^TTY. Gen. John Ben Shepperd
came home from Supreme Court
arguments in April with a plea foe
“* Texas Legislature to set up a 15-
aiember advisory committee on edu
cation.
fa a speech at San Antonio on
A P r h 9, the attorney general also
Predicted that the National Associa-
*° n f° r the Advancement of Colored
, ^Ple will try to make Texas a test-
Ul ® ground for segregation cases.
We are likely to see much litiga—
* on sooner than we realize,” Shep-
Perd declared.
^The attorney general noted that
• e 8roes have filed suit for admission
to T eXaS ^ es * ern College at El Paso,
aid eXar ^ ana Junior College, a state-
„ r * nu nicipal college, and for under-
•jj'duate courses at the University of
xas. The state university has ad
s' Swduute students since the
case decision in 1950. It also
tyi. Negroes to other courses
sta ,^ are not provided at the two
u Supported Negro colleges,
wjj^suniing that it is in accordance
^ * ae will of the people of Texas,
as 2°uld begin mapping plans for
lawti to our P resent system of
°n segregation,” Shepperd said.
S C&STITUTE NEEDED
r t . a dv We n °t have a substitute
f 0 *h en it is needed, we may be
djatf, ■ courts to accept imme-
* “itegration.”
added:
gal we don’t know what le-
Texaj erna dves, if any, the people of
erai a Wou ^ choose. Texans in gen-
f°r (.i re Reserving judgment, waiting
tool® “Pal decree. But if we wait
uig ° ur school legislation is go-
e made by federal courts in
stead of our own legislature.
“What we need now is an expres
sion of policy from which we can
proceed to find and evaluate our al
ternatives. We have to know what
we want to do and what we can do
before we can deside what we’re go
ing to do. I hope the 54th legislature
will not adjourn without making a
clear expression, by joint resolution,
of the state’s policy in confronting
the requirements of the May 17 rul-
mg.
ALTERNATIVES SUGGESTED
The attorney general reviewed
several possible changes without
recommendation. These ranged from
abolishing public schools to making
each district completely independent
of state control and repealing all
state segregation laws.
The legislature, which is scheduled
to adjourn on May 11, has taken no
steps to revise segregation laws. Rep.
Joe Burkett Jr. of Kerrville said it is
likely that the advisory commission
suggested by Shepperd will be set
up, to be ready for prompt future ac
tion.
Shepperd recommended appoint
ment of a commission including five
state senators, five state reprsenta-
tives, and five citizens appointed by
the governor.
He recommended that it study all
aspects of the segregation problem”
. . . formulate a plan of legislation
and if necessary draft laws.”
“It would be an interim committee,
working between sessions, retaining
the best school lawyers and making
legal counsel available to school dis
tricts involved in litigation,” said
Shepperd.
Gov. Allan Shivers is expected to
call a special session of the legisla
ture if any state action is indicated
when the Supreme Court writes its
decrees.
When Texas legislators convened
last January, the governor said: “I
recommend that no change be made
in our system of public education
until — and maybe not then — the
United States Supreme Court gives us
its complete mandate.”
Atty. Gen. Shepperd summed up
his plea to the Supreme Court: “It is
our problem. Let us solve it.”
He told Texans on his return:
“Even though we had no problem
at all until it was imposed on us by
the Court, we now have one and
must solve it ourselves, or those nine
men are going to solve it for us in a
manner we may not like. We can
solve it without the high paid law
yers and agitators and public rela
tions counselors of the NAACP. We
have never had any trouble with our
Negro people, and we haven’t had
any problem that we couldn’t sit
down and work out with them and
this will be no exception.
. . To assume that nine fallible
human beings in Washington, all of
whom are appointed by one fallible
human being, can solve the problems
of our 2,000 Texas school districts
better than 181 Texas legislators and
9,011 school trustees, is the idlest
kind of irresponsible day-dreaming.
“. . . I was frankly amazed at the
federal government’s position that
the Supreme Court’s decree should
abrogate state laws. If this happens,
Texas and its school system will
stand pre-judged before the nation’s
highest court. This decision should
have no more effect on non-litigant
states than any other routine opin
ion. But in this case, the federal gov
ernment is asking the Court to hang
states that have not even been tried.”
The Washington correspondent for
Austin, Texas papers quoted Shep
perd as saying that he believed the
Court will order integration begin
ning next September.
Meanwhile, an East Texas legislator
expressed concern over possibility
that a new teacher certification law
might hasten the use of Negro teach
ers for white students in Texas.
Rep. Robert Patten of Jasper raised
the question in debate on a bill spon
sored by the Texas State Teachers
Association and handled by Rep.
Thomas Stilwell of Texarkana. Stil-
well assured Patten that the bill
would not cause any breakdown of
school segregation. It sets up new
standards for certifying teachers.
Patten said he thought it might ag
gravate the shortage of white teach
ers and result in using Negro teach
ers in white schools.
The supply of Negro teachers in
most categories is more than ample,
according to unofficial reports.
“We don’t want Negroes teaching
white children,” Patten commented.
The certification bill has passed
both Houses and awaited signature
by Gov. Shivers late in April.
POLL CONDUCTED
The Texas Poll, a private survey,
meanwhile announced that 45 per
cent of Texans it interviewed say
they would “disobey” or “get around
the law” if integration is required.
The poll included 1,000 adults, with
proportions of whites and Negroes
according to percentage of total pop
ulation.
Thirty-five per cent said they fa
vored gradual mixing of the races
in schools, starting where Negroes
are fewest. Only 14 per cent reported
they would be willing to obey the
law if it requires sending white and
Negro children to the same schools
immediately.
Neither whites nor Negroes favor
quick intergration, the poll disclosed.
Only 32 per cent of the Negroes want
to send their children to school with
white children. Thirty-one per cent
of Latin-American parents voted for
integration.
Attorneys filed suit at Austin in
April asking a federal district court
to abolish alleged segregation of
Spanish-speaking children in public
schools at Carrizo Springs in south
Texas. Parents are asking for dam
ages totaling $200,000 against the lo
cal school board. Ten children of first
through third grades are involved in
the lawsuits. Federal courts have
held that children may be separated
in the first grade where language dif
ficulties are involved—but not be
cause they are Latin-American.”
Sixty-one per cent of those inter
viewed by the Texas Poll expressed
the opinion that white and Negro
children would get along well in the
six to 12 age group, but 70 per cent
predicted older children would not
get along so amicably.
A majority of both whites and Ne
groes expressed fear of “trouble” be
tween parents if integration of
schools comes.
A University of Texas psychology
professor, Dr. Wayne H. Holtzman,
is conducting a survey of 600 stu
dents on the segregation question. In
a similar poll five years ago, he found
that 26 per cent of the students fa
vored abolishing segregation and
only six per cent recommended up
holding the tradition in every re
spect. Results of the new poll are to
be announced in June.
Port Arthur elected a Negro city
commissioner for the first time in his
tory. He is Willie Hollier, a refinery
worker, one of two pro-labor union
members elected to the seven-mem
ber council. Hollier was elected from
a district that is predominantly Ne
gro. His opponent was a Negro. Port
Arthur voters elected a five-member
council majority critical of the pro
longed efforts to unionize retail
stores.