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PAGE 16—June 8, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
District of Columbia
WASHINGTON, D. C.
ISTRICT school officials are con
sidering the inauguration of a
new high school curriculum tailor-
made to the needs of gifted, average
and retarded students.
Such a proposal would not have
been forthcoming in the old frame
work of segregation where it was im
possible to find funds to hire enough
teachers to keep pace with an ever
growing Negro enrollment. Local
educators say such an endeavor un
derscores the fact that a school sys
tem has not reached a plateau with
integration, but must keep improving
and advancing.
Proponents of the plan contend the
specialized courses of study would
cure some long-standing school sys
tem ills such as the drop-out prob
lem and the dearth of young people
being prepared for advanced study
in science and mathematics.
DETAILS OF PROGRAM
The new program offerings would
come in four packages instead of the
present college preparatory and non
college high school study plans. These
would be:
1. A new, pre-professional college
preparatory course for gifted students
planning careers in engineering, law,
medicine, science and other profes
sional fields.
2. A general college preparatory
course without specific professional
emphasis.
3. A non - academic, non - college
course for students of average abil
ity who plan to get a job after gradu
ation.
4. A new program, separate from
regular classes, for children with
slow-learning ability.
All of these courses of study would
be offered in various city high schools.
Assistant School Supt. Carl F. Han
sen, author of the plan, points out
this would allow students following
different programs to share general
courses like physical education, mu
sic and art. No one, he said, would
feel set apart or different.
Although the proposal has not been
recommended as yet for board of
education approval, some members
privately are speculating about the
racial make-up of the various stratas
of programs. Hansen has stated “race
has nothing to do with it.”
In connection with the proposed
curriculum overhaul, Hansen would
replace the present standard diploma
system. Graduates would get diplo
mas describing the course success
fully completed. The retarded stu
dents would get a certificate indicat
ing the type of program they fol
lowed.
According to the tentative plan,
a re-built curriculum would be of
fered the academically backward stu
dents. It would include the required
subjects such as English, mathematics,
American history and science—but
on a simpler level than now offered.
It also would contain many trade-
type courses to prepare the slow
learners for jobs.
SEEK SPECIAL FUNDS
Such a slow-learner program, Han
sen said, would hold many students
in school who now quit because of
boredom and inability to progress.
School officials estimate there are
several thousand retarded children
now sitting in regular classrooms.
During its golden anniversary con
vention last month, the District Con
gress of Parents and Teachers voted
top priority to working to obtain
congressional appropriations for spe
cial classes for retarded school chil
dren. The PTA delegates voted to
seek funds for establishment of psy
chiatric services within the school
system.
Last month the district court
judges appointed a new member to
the school board. She is Mrs. Man-
son B. Pettit, wife of a St. Eliza
beth’s Hospital psychiatrist. Mrs.
Pettit on July 1 will succeed Miss
Mary Parker whose three-year term
expires. Reappointment to the nine-
member board were Walter N. To-
briner and Col. West A. Hamilton,
one of three Negro members.
Mrs. Pettit, a former teacher, said
she wants tailormade courses for the
slow and quick child and psychiatric
service for pupils.
“For years,” she said, “we have
ignored the very bright and the very
slow learning child ... If this pro
gram can be adopted it will solve
some of the problems in our school
system.”
As for integration, Mrs. Pettit said
she preferred to make observations
from the vantage point of a board
member before offering any lengthy
comments.
“However,” she said, “it is my per
sonal opinion that there’s no going
back (from the Supreme Court
opinion). It is up to each individual
to make it work.”
CARDOZO TEAM WINS
Elsewhere on the school scene,
Cardozo High School, formerly of the
Negro division, marched to first place
in the first integrated regimental
competition of the Washington High
School Cadet Corps. Placing second
was Phelps Vocational High, a former
Division II school which still has an
all-Negro enrollment. Third place
winner was Roosevelt High, a former
white school.
Two Washington students took
part May 29 on The New York Times
Youth Forum which aired the views
of young people from the North and
South on the problems of integration.
Juliann Bluitt, 16-year-old Dun
bar High School student, said: “Men
are put on earth together. Now we
have become mature enough to re
alize we must come together to work
for the common good.” Miss Bluitt
and Celia Shapiro, 17, McKinley
High, reported to other panelists on
desegregation of schools in Wash
ington.
Miss Bluitt said that her school,
being in a Negro residential section,
had not had any effects, but that stu
dents who had transferred to other
schools were pleased.
Miss Shapiro, whose school has a
predominantly white student body,
described a period of difficulty her
school encountered when integration
began last fall. “If it weren’t for the
parents, we could have done a much
smoother job . . . we all know these
prejudices are inherited,” she said.
RIGHTS OF EVERY CHILD
During the May board of educa
tion meeting, Negro member Mar
garet Just Butcher criticized School
Supt. Hobart M. Coming for delay
ing the announcement of chairman
and assistants for the school system’s
educational departments, now in the
process of reorganization. Coming
said he would make this report at the
June meeting.
The American Friends Service
Committee has published a 16-page
booklet, “The Right of Every Child,”
which describes the one-year ex
perience with Washington school in
tegration. The report comments on
the strengths and weaknesses of the
District integration program, term
ing it a “pioneering effort, necessari
ly involving trial and error.”
The booklet warns those who look
for a “magic formula to give proof
against error.” It adds that students
of the Washington story will find that
“the job of desegregation is feasible
and constructive, even with difficui.
ties and mistakes.”
The booklet describes vestiges of
remaining school segregation and de.
dares the “outline of the dual sy s .
tern in many ways remains as a kind
of residue of the past.” In a number
of “important respects,” the booklet
says the program in District schools
“falls short of full and complete de.
segregation.” The authors are par.
ticularly critical of the option plan
which would let pupils remain in
their present school until graduation,
unless overcrowding resulted.
OPTION PLAN A BRAKE’
“The option plan will act as a brake
on integration as long as it is in
force,” the booklet declares. Com.
menting on this student choice pro-
vision, the book says: “White parents
are particularly subject to social
pressure to keep their children where
they are, influenced by a need to
conform. Negro parents, feeling the
humiliation of segregation and more
often inconvenienced by the segre.
gated assignments, have more incen
tive to move.”
The feature of the choice has the
effect of loading the scales in favor
of the old pattern, the booklet adds,
“unnecessarily prolonging the transi
tion period.” A policy which estab
lishes the same rules for everyone
would be more fair and easier to
enforce, the authors contend.
“Negro schools are not desegregated
as the plan now operates,” the book
holds. It adds that the movement of
both pupils and teachers is one-way
into former white schools. “Some
forthright planning and imagination
are needed to remove the racial label
of ‘Negro school’ in the public mind,”
the booklet suggests.
Florida
MIAMI, Fla.
"C'LORIDA’S legislature, at this
writing in the closing days of
its session, has taken a wide variety
of action on the question of school
segregation. It has:
Adopted a memorial to Congress
urging action to permit southern
states to preserve segregation.
Passed a bill allowing local school
boards to assign pupils to specific
schools.
Turned down a proposed constitu
tional amendment to allow the sub
stitution of a private school system to
prevent integration.
The Senate has scheduled action in
the closing hours on a House-ap
proved bill designed to discontinue
the tenure provisions for Negro
teachers. The Senate also passed and
sent to the House a bill designed to
protect counties from financial loss
should they refuse to operate deseg
regated schools at military bases.
All this activity was marked only
by perfunctory debate and a complete
lack of emotionalism which had been
predicted if and when the segregation
issue arose.
AWAIT COURT DECREE
Several members suggested that
the various actions were futile at this
time because the United States Su
preme Court had not yet acted to im
plement its May 17 decisiion.
A resolution calling for an extra
session to deal with the problem has
been introduced. Gov. LeRoy Collins
said he will call it.
Two men, Sen. Charley E. Johns, of
Starke, former acting governor, and
Rep. Prentice Pruitt, of Jefferson
County, where Negroes make up 63
per cent of the population, have been
responsible for all the bills on the
segregation question.
Johns proposed the memorial to
Congress, which passed both houses.
It asks Congress “to enact such legis
lation or propose such amendments
to the Constitution of the United
States, or both, as may be designed
and calculated to enable the sover
eign states to continue and control
the education of their peoples under
systems as they see fit, including a
segregated system.”
Johns also sponsored the school as
signment bill, which sailed through
the Senate without a dissenting vote.
In explaining his measure, Johns said:
“I am one senator who wouldn’t do
anything to the Negro population in
any way, shape or form. There are
many Negroes in my home county of
Bradford, and I believe all of them
have voted for me every time I have
offered myself for office because they
know I am fair and I always help
them in any way I can.”
Johns said his bill contained “the
best features” of similar laws passed
in Georgia and Misissippi. “Counties
in our state that want to keep segre
gation can do it under my bill,” he
said.
HELD UNNECESSARY
Gov. Collins said of the Johns bill:
“I don’t believe it is necessary or will
serve any useful purpose.”
He recalled that he had asked the
legislature in his first message to
avoid raising the segregation issue
until final action by the Supreme
Court. “I believe that any action
taken on this subject would be pre
mature and may well serve to in
flame the passions of our people un
necessarily,” he said. He added that
the Johns bill “may be innocuous.”
This bill subsequently passed the
House without significant debate and
went to the governor’s office. Final
action there is pending.
Reaction about the state was slight.
The Fort Myers News-Press called
the proposal “meaningless.” It added:
“County officials in Florida already
have authority to assign certain stu
dents to certain schools, based on the
residences of the pupils, the capaci
ties of the schools and similar consid
erations.
However, if the Supreme Court di
rects that Negro children be admitted
to white schools, the order will apply
to all schools supported by public
taxes, whether administered at the
state or local level.
“No state legislature could confer
upon local agencies any authority to
do otherwise than what the U. S. Su
preme Court directs.”
PRUITT’S BILLS
On the same day that the Johns
measure was sent to the House for
its action, Rep. Pruitt introduced a
series of bills to preserve segregation.
One provided that no teacher can
be paid from state funds if he teaches
classes which include both Negro and
white children.
A second proposed a constitutional
amendment authorizing the substitu
tion of a private school system.
Later Pruitt offered his third bill
which, he explained, would abolish
the teacher tenure law “to prevent
Negro teachers from agitating to
teach in classes with white children
because it would give the school
board the right to fire them at any
time.”
Florida’s present law provides a
continuing contract for teachers after
a specified probation period. After
this, dismissals may be made only for
cause.
Pruitt said his bills were not based
on “animosity” toward Negroes.
“I will support all legislation that
will give the Negro race the finest ed
ucational facilities,” he said. “It’s the
social aspect of the problem that I ob
ject to. I don’t believe the welfare of
the Negro race is advanced by inter
mingling. The only way the Negro
will be acceptable to the whites in the
South is by making people want to
associate with him, not by force of
laws.”
MAKE LAW PERMISSIVE
The private school proposal was de
signed to change a constitutional pro
vision adopted in 1885 that the legis
lature “shall provide for a uniform
system of public schools and shall
provide for the liberal maintenance
of the same.” Pruitt’s proposal would
simply make this permissive by
changing the “shall” to “may.”
It added a provision that in the ab
sence of a public school system, the
legislature could provide state aid
for private schools.
Pruitt’s bill went to the House
Committee on Constitutional
Amendments, where it was reported
unfavorably. Pruitt asked the House
to override this recommendation.
The vote, 53-32, was only four less
than the required two-thirds major
ity.
In fighting for his bill, Pruitt told
the House that immediate action was
needed if segregation is to be pre
served. “If you wait until the old
mule is gone, don’t go shut the bam
door,” he said. “The time to act is
when the situation is in hand and not
under pressure. The (Supreme
Court) ruling could be handed down
any day now. When it happens you
are going to find utter chaos in the
school system.”
REQUIRES REFERENDUM
Pruitt said his proposed amend
ment, which would require a popu
lar referendum, is necessary to de
termine if the people “want to main
tain the time-honored and success
ful system of segregated schools, or
whether they favor commingling of
these races in the public schools.”
Opposition was led by Rep. Volie
Williams, Seminole County, chair
man of the committee which turned
down the proposal. He said that it
would invalidate millions in school
construction bonds.
“The Legislature should not be
precipitate in its actions and do
something which may not have to be
done,” Williams said.
Pruitt was successful in getting his
bill to destroy the tenure protection
for Negro teachers through the
House, 59 to 10. It was rushed to the
Senate in the attempt to beat ad
journment deadline June 4.
Although Pruitt said he believed it
is the key measure in his campaign
against integration, state school au
thorities expressed a lack of concern.
Harold Friedman, a spokesman for
the state department of education,
said: “The bill may be aimed at Ne
gro teachers, but it also affects white
teachers.”
The measure says teachers “shall
be retained on a basis of efficiency,
compatibility, character and capacity
to meet the educational needs of the
community.”
PAPER ASKS VETO
The Orlando Sentinel-Star sug
gested that Gov. Collins should veto
all these bills, if and when they reach
his desk.
“The proposed legislation is all
contrary to the views of Gov. Collins
and also at variance with the brief
filed with the U. S. Supreme Court
by Atty. Gen. Ervin.
“Both held that any legislation on
the subject would be premature un
til the Supreme Court clarifies its
ruling and decides how and when it
will be put into actual enforcement.
“The wise course is to appeal to
the court to permit a gradual appli
cation of its segregation order, to
avoid outbreaks of objection and re
sentment which might occur in the
states which insist that there should
be no mingling of the races in the
schools.
“It may be taken for granted that
the Supreme Court will not approve
any of the Florida legislative enact
ments.”
MILITARY BASE SCHOOLS
Latest segregation action in the
Florida legislature is the bill unani
mously approved by the Senate to
guarantee Bay, Hillsborough, Oka
loosa and Brevard Counties against
financial loss from refusing to oper
ate desegregated schools at military
establishments.
Schools in question are at Tyndall,
Eglin, Patrick and MacDill Air Force
Bases. They have been operated as
part of the county school systems,
and enrollment in these schools has
been figured into the calculations on
which the counties receive state
funds for teacher salaries and other
expenses. ..
The counties, under this bill, win
continue to receive funds on the ba
sis of enrollment in the base schools,
although they revert to federal oper
ation Sept. 1 when an order of the
secretary of defense forbidding se
gregation at military bases takes et
feet.
Aside from the legislative prop 0
nents of segregation, most Floridi®^
heeded the advice of leaders to war
and see” what the final Suprem
Court decision would be.
But discussions continued on m° ^
levels of community thought,
television panel pitted Hollis Ri° e
hart, member of the Florida Sta
Board of Control, which administ^
the university system, against *».
Hamilton, Jr., Miami furniture stm
manager who heads Florida
Rights, Inc., an organization d
cated to “non-violent” opposition
tegration. ^
Hamilton charged that the f° r ^
eking desegregation are “comm
st-inspired.” . a
Rinehart replied that “putt 111 ®
mmunist label on anything ^
n’t agree with is typical smear „
:s reminiscent of Sen. McCar
At the state conference of the
>nal Association for the Advan
snt of Colored People at Panam
See FLORIDA on Page 23