Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—June 8, 1955—PAGE 17
Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA.
FTER nearly a month in confer
ence committee, Oklahoma’s new
school bill passed the Senate quickly,
as a single drop in a torrent of last-
minute legislation, a few days before
the 25th legislature adjourned under
a draped clock at 5:45 a.m., May 28.
Both the school code amendment and
an accompanying $60.5 million com
mon school appropriations bill were
handled in time to escape the last
scatter-shot, 24-hour session.
The 58-page omnibus measure
combines previously divorced white
and Negro school budgets and leaves
Oklahoma constitutionally ready to
accept Supreme Court desegregation
instructions. But in itself, the meas
ure does not encourage integration
or spell out transition methods. It
does put explicit transfer possibilities
into the state statutes to keep the
races apart.
Bathed in a public spotlight in
weeks before the April 5 constitu
tional amendment election (it was the
only issue presented to state voters
during the session), the school bill
faded into virtual obscurity during
May.
While House and Senate education
conferees threshed out financial ap
portionments and formulas, public
attention was focused on such side
lights as a full-dressed filibuster
against removing state sales taxes on
feed, seed and fertilizer and a fruit
less battle by Gov. Raymond Gary
to obtain a cut in the state’s oil al
lowable ceiling.
BOTH HOUSES APPROVE
The code amendment and vitaliza-
tion slipped through the Senate in
the early hours of May 25 after a
sales tax filibuster had ended suc
cessfully at 2:55 a.m. House members
had passed the bill (without reading)
on a final roll call of 110-3 on May
24. Both chambers approved the
$60.5 million appropriations bill on
May 26.
As the House prepared to vote on
May 24, Cleeta John Rogers, Okla
homa City, protested the rush. “Not
a man outside the conference com
mittee knows what’s in the bill,” he
said. “This is a foolish legislative
practice.”
Rep. William Metcalf, Hobart, de
clared the legislature was “abdicat
ing” its responsibilities to make de
cisions and had turned the responsi
bility over to a group of specialists.
“I think it is utterly shameful that
the state attorney general would
plead with the United States Su
preme Court for more time to carry
out the Court’s mandate, and then
have one of his lieutenants sit in
with these conferees and create a
plan to circumvent the Court’s man
date by continuing segregation,” he
said.
TOOK NO PART
Metcalf apparently referred to
Harry Johnson, assistant to Atty.
Gen. Mac Q. Williamson. Johnson
sat in with the conferees as legal
advisor. However, reporters who at
tended meetings said Johnson took
no part in discussions, except to an
swer questions on legal routes toward
the results conferees desired.
Financial, rather than racial, is
sues loomed largest in the confer
ence committee studies, as they had
in the period before the amendment
election. The conference report’s
structure would require an expendi
ture of some $64 million for common
school aid, as against the $60.5 mil
lion ceiling set by Gov. Gary. Meth
ods of paring down and dividing the
final sum were main problems.
State school men had backlogged
numerous levy elections, curriculum
plans, and construction and teacher
employment decisions pending finali
zation of the sweeping new financial
set-up.
Main financial move affecting seg
regated schools was wiping out the
4-mill annual levy earmarked spe
cifically for separate school budgets,
and establishing a mandatory 4-mill
levy going to all schools on a per
capita basis. (This and other consti
tutional amendment measures were
outlined in earlier Southern School
News issues. In general, they change
the tax support structure to raise
more local money for hometown
schools.)
PROCEDURAL CHANGES
In addition, the new bill blueprints
a number of procedural changes,
ranging from permission for school
teachers to switch from teacher re
tirement to social security protection
if they so vote, to new systems for
adopting and purchasnig free state
textbooks. Teacher qualification, sal
ary and contract provisions, as be
fore, make no distinction between
white and Negro instructors.
First statutory change touching on
segregation in the new bill appears
in section 12, 4-22, dealing with pow
ers of the district boards of education.
A new power is inserted: “To desig
nate the schools to be attended by
the children of the district.”
The second change clears the way
for Lawton city schools to obey gov-
vemment orders to integrate the
Lawton district’s school on the Fort
Sill military reservation by next au
tumn. The provision reads:
“Provided further, that any school
district may operate or maintain a
school or schools on any military
reservation which is within the
boundaries of such school district. . .
and in so doing shall conform to all
federal laws and requirements.’
SIGNIFICANT PASSAGES
Other pertinent passages:
“SECTION 15. 70 O.S. 1951. 5-3
is hereby amended to read as fol
lows:
“5-3. The . . . separate school in
each district is hereby declared to
be that school in said school district
of the race having the fewest number
of children in said district. Provided,
that the county superintendent of
schools . . . shall have authority
to designate what school or schools
in the school district shall be the
separate school or schools and which
class of children, either white or col
ored, shall have the privilege of at
tending such separate school or
schools in said school district. Mem
bers of the district school board shall
be of the same race as the children
who are entitled to attend the school
of the district, not the separate
school.”
“SECTION 16 70 O.S. 1951 5-8 is
hereby amended to read as follows:
“5-8. The annual budget of each
school district maintaining separate
schools for white and colored chil
dren shall provide for the support
and maintenance of both the school
or schools for the white children and
the school or schools for the colored
children.”
Under previous laws, independent
school districts built, equipped, oper
ated and fully controlled Negro
schools within their boundaries, with
funds collected from a countywide
tax base, plus state funds. The new
law turns these properties over to
independent districts in toto.
Dependent district (small rural
school) properties and unobligated
funds are to be apportioned by coun
ty superintendents and county com
missioners among dependent districts
on a basis of need by Aug. 15, 1955.
If agreement can’t be reached by
that date, or if any unhappy taxpayer
or school district appeals the distri
bution decision, the state board of
education will make the final divi
sion. It was understood this would
mean pretty much of a status quo
situation among small county Negro
schools, at least until the integration
order is clarified. In any case, the
new law does not upset any present
sinking fund commitments, nor will
it affect any separate school opera
tions during the fiscal year ending
next June 30.
The so-called “free transfer” pro
vision is covered as follows:
“SECTION 18. 70 O.S. 1951. 5-11 is
hereby amended to read as follows:
“5-11. When . . . any . . . school
district having both white and col
ored children of school age does not
maintain schools for both races, the
county superintendent of schools
shall transfer the children of the race
for which a school is not maintained
to a school of their own color in an
other district when the same can be
done with the consent of their par
ents, guardians or custodians, or
without such consent when . . . such
childern can be transferred without
compelling them to walk more than
IV2 miles to attend such school; pro
vided, that such children may be re
quired to travel more than 1% miles
when proper provision is made for
the transportation of such children,
and the consent of the parents, guar
dian, or custodian of any child being
required to travel more than 1% miles
shall not be required when such
transportation is furnished ...”
The section listing reasons for
which the county school superintend
ent may grant transfers, such as travel
hardships, health, etc., have been ex
panded to include the eventuality:
“If the board of education of the
school district in which the child re
sides determines that the best inter
ests of the child will be best served
by such transfer.”
(The transfer rule is important to
both parents and school boards be
cause children switching districts
without approved transfer may pay
tuition fees, and either the sending
district or the state must pay the
receiving district a fee for every ap
proved transfer.)
‘MINIMUM’ SPELLED OUT
In spelling out the “minimum pro
gram” items for which school aid
can be given school district, the new
law specifies “special adjustments” to
meet the cost of transporting chil
dren “when it is necessary to trans
port pupils to a school to which they
can legally attend within an area as-
See OKLAHOMA on Page 23
Maryland
BALTIMORE, Md.
T HE closing weeks of school in
Baltimore brought nearly a full
quota of class dances, banquets, ex
cursion boat trips and other social
activities, with desegregation report
edly making very little difference in
the way such affairs were handled.
Hotels catered to mixed school proms
and dinners this year as readily as
~fy catered is the past to all-white
affairs. A private excursion boat line
altered its racial policy to accommo
date mixed school cruises, and a pri-
v ate amusement park lowered its
c °lor bar to admit Negro students to
lts dance hall with their white class-
m ates (but not to its other amuse-
me nt facilities).
the two all-boy senior high
jchools, City College and Polytechnic
nstitute, both of which now have a
smattering of colored students, dances
hu°^ ler soc * a l activities have been
® d throughout the year with no
c _anges of policy. The same is true
0 all-girl Eastern high school. At
uthern high school, which is co-
ucational and which had the most
a e ^* ous of the disturbances last fall,
cull social calendar has also been
mntained, but an effort has been
t0 stags and outsiders at
exceptions
all-gj r i Western high school,
® re the principal is not in full sym-
y with integration, social func-
itecT * nS ^ e th e school have been lim-
a )° all-girl affairs, and boy-girl
ties have been left to parent
j Ut ? SOrs hip outside the school. The
hotel r Prom this year was held at a
sch ^t one of the junior high
is n • a ^ a * n one where the principal
s ; 0tl °* sympathy with the admis-
all Negroes to her student body,
ter 'hours social activities in the
v ie ^ ave been dropped and a mo-
s ch.
su bstituted for the usual end-of-
y ? ar beach picnic. These two
Ools
are exceptions to the general
social-affairs-as-usual policy in Bal
timore.
Those schools which have held
mixed dances report without excep
tion that no difficulties have arisen at
integrated affairs and that in almost
all instances Negroes danced with
Negro partners and whites with
white partners throughout the eve
ning. Athletic and club activities also
proceeded smoothly along integrated
lines in most of Baltimore’s junior
and senior high schools, which in the
first year of desegregation had only
a few colored students in predomi
nantly white classes and no white
students in colored classes. There
were two minor exceptions, however,
to the untroubled course of integra
tion.
In two senior high schools objec
tions were raised by a few white
parents over mixed classes in swim
ming. School officials conferred with
the parents and told them the swim
ming classes were not compulsory.
Only four students exercised the
privilege of withdrawing. The other
exception concerned a high school
which had been accustomed to using
a nearby commercial bowling alley
for an elective physical education
class in bowling. The class this year
was denied the use of the alleys be
cause two Negro students were in
the group. The class was temporarily
dropped.
NO PARTICULAR PROBLEM
Except for such localized compli
cations and the more widespread dis
turbances in the fall, which have
dimmed in significance, Baltimore
had no particular problems with its
first year of desegregation. There was
talk that in some schools the Negro
children were not doing as well, on
average, as the white children, but
no official analysis of achievements
has been made public as yet.
Thurgood Marshall, chief legal
counsel for the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People, was in Baltimore to address
the fifteenth annual state conference
of the NAACP and told his listeners
that he expected the county schools
in Maryland, now segregated with
out exception, to be integrated
by fall. The basis for Marshall’s ex
pectations was not clearly indicated,
but to the Maryland public at large
there is little evidence that the coun
ties as a whole are actively preparing
for desegregation. Most county school
officials have kept their plans quiet,
pending further court action.
The county most advanced in its
public declarations of intentions is
Montgomery, which borders the Dis
trict of Columbia. The county school
board there has announced in gen
eral terms its plans to integrate
schools as soon as legal barriers are
removed, and late in April it outlined
three initial steps to be taken. These
are:
(1) The merger and absorption of
the colored junior college by the
county’s white junior college and the
Department of Adult Education.
(2) Closing four sub-standard
“down-county” Negro elementary
schools and sending the pupils to
“their new district school, if facili
ties permit; otherwise, transport them
to the nearest school until local con
ditions permit.” At the same time
kindergarten facilities will be made
available to these Negro children for
the first time.
(3) Permitting Negro students in
grades seven through twelve who
live in the Montgomery Blair, Beth-
esda-Chevy Chase and Wheaton high
school areas to enter the secondary
school of their district, if they desire.
The county school superintendent ex
plained that this would allow colored
students to remain in special courses
given only at the Carver high school
for Negroes at Rockville, if they want
to do so.
TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE
The three steps were recommended
by the county school superintend
ent, Dr. Forbes H. Norris, who also
proposed that a Gaithersburg high
school supervisor, Fred Dunn, be
made a special assistant to the super
intendent to carry out the county
integration program and to work on
“community relations.” The school
board members accepted this propo
sal. At the same time, the results of
a questionnaire circulated quietly
among a cross-section of county
teachers were also made known. As
reported by a county weekly news
paper, the Montgomery County Sen
tinel, the questions and answers were
as follows:
“I would cooperate fully in an in
tegrated system because I believe it
is my professional duty to do so.”—
Yes, 351; No, 25; Not Sure, 9.
“I can look forward to teaching a
mixed class with pleasure and assur
ance.”—Yes, 179; No, 124; Not Sure,
64.
“I can look forward with pleasure
and assurance to working with teach
ers of other races.”—Yes, 231; No,
93; Not Sure, 45.
The poll was conducted by a mixed
committee of teachers, and Dr. Nor
ris was quoted as saying he felt the
results were a fair sampling of the
views of the county’s 1,800 teachers.
Montgomery County has conducted
joint white and colored teachers
meetings and study groups for some
time.
TEACHER BAR KEPT
In Anne Arundel County, just
south of Baltimore, where the pro
portion of Negro school children to
the total school population is three
times higher than in Montgomery
County (19.3 per cent as opposed to
6.3 per cent), the attitude of white
teachers toward Negroes appears
somewhat different. In May, for the
second time in three years, a move to
end segregated teachers groups by
admitting Negroes to the Anne Arun
del County Teachers Association
failed to gain a constitutional ma
jority.
The ballots of 501 teachers pro
duced 268 votes for an integrated as
sociation and 233 against it. A two-
thirds majority was necessary to
change the by-laws. In 1953, when the
same issue was up for a vote, the
margin was slimmer; only four more
pro-integration votes than anti-inte
gration votes.
Anne Arundel County was the
scene last fall of one large protest
meeting. Since then a small inter
racial group of persons which has as
its purpose helping implement the
Supreme Court decision apparently
has been gaining in influence. Known
as the County Committee on the Su
preme Court Decision, the group con
sists of ministers, teachers and lay
persons and includes the county sher
iff, Joseph Alton, who is close to Gov.
McKeldin and is considered his chief
adviser on county patronage matters.
In May the governor filled two ex
pired terms on the five-member
county school board, and both ap
pointees were members of the inte
gration study group.
One of the appointees was Dr. Aris
T. Allen, a native Texan and former
captain and flight surgeon in the Air
Force who has made Annapolis his
home since being graduated from
Howard University medical school in
Washington. He is the first Negro ever
to serve on the county school board.
The other appointee was Mrs. D. Ell-
wood Williams, Jr., who has been
active in church and civic work as
a member of the Racial and Cultural
Relations committee and director of
Christian citizenship of the National
Council of Episcopal Churches.
STUDY GROUP RESOLUTIONS
Late in April, prior to the appoint
ment of two of its members to the
school board, the study group passed
and sent two resolutions to the board.
It was resolved that:
“The Board of Education of Anne
Arundel County establish a policy to
arrange that all future meetings or
institutes of teachers in the county
be held without regard to race.
“The board of education of Anne
Arundel County immediately pro
ceed to appoint the commission
which will advise the board concern
ing desegregation of the public
schools of Anne Arundel County.”
The commission mentioned in the
second resolution is one which the
county school board decided to ap
point last fall. Every school princi
pal was asked to suggest commission
members, and a pool of about 100
names resulted, from which fifteen to
twenty-five were to be selected. No
announcement of the commission’s
appointment has been made.