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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.