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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.