Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—June 8, 1955—PAGE 19
Missouri
ST. LOUIS. Mo.
/YNE Missouri community which
^ can appraise a full school year’s
experience with racial integration at
the elementary level is the St. Louis
County town of Kirkwood. This is a
largely suburban, partly rural com
munity of 20,000 population about 18
miles from downtown St. Louis. It
has a combined senior-junior high
school and 8 other elementary
schools. A new $4,000,000 senior high
school is under construction, to be
ready for occupancy next September.
After the Supreme Court an
nounced its decision against school
segregation in May 1954, the Kirk
wood school board was one of the
first in Missouri to announce that it
would begin integration immediately,
without waiting for the court to hand
down final orders.
Today some of the school officials
say they regret this decision. They
think it might have been better to
wait until the court’s orders were fi
nal, then end segregation in accord
ance with the procedures recom
mended in those orders. Because the
Kirkwood system chose to proceed
without delay, it has aroused some
community resistance which, accord
ing to this opinion, would not be en
countered ofter a final and irrevoca
ble court order.
ELABORATE PLANT
Because of lack of space, Kirkwood
during the 1954-55 school year con
tinued sending Negro high school pu
pils to the neighboring suburb of
Webster Groves, which operates an
all-Negro high school. But it ordered
elementary schools to be opened
without regard to race immediately.
This spring, the board voted to com
plete the desegregation process in
the secondary schools when the new
high school is completed in the fall.
The new building, one of the most
elaborate high school plants in Mis
souri, will become a three-year senior
high school with an enrollment of 70
Negroes in a total of 1,000. The build
ing which formerly housed the white
senior-junior high will bcome a
three-year junior high with 120 Ne-
§noes in a total enrollment of 1,400.
The former Negro junior high will
become an elementary school, serv-
*6 a district populated almost en-
ufely by Negroes.
Integration of secondary t<
as been proposed by Supt. I
endricks and unanimously
.® v ®d by the school board. T
be five Negro teachers at the
. r in a total of 52—one in p
ec * Ucat i°n, one in English, o]
a _ em atics and science, one in i
tea anc * one librarian. Three Is
k rs ^ ave keen assigned to th
in p faculty at the senior high
glish and two in social scie:
? eachers have yet
The - k to m ‘ xe< T elementary sch
signm 01 officials feel that sucl
sitjT entS now mi ght provoke o;
high o? 0I ? g w h‘te parents wher<
ofwhif 10 ? 1 teacher who is in ch
the a 6 C asses T° r only one peri<
would not create a r,
been J?’ Negro teachers ]
n dismissed.
> e »°mes IX district
dem °nstratedV Kirkwood has bee
Parents ' t6d unrest among whi
souther T a new subdivision in tl
element Pa j? of the district. Whe
re draw ary . district boundaries wei
"hitek Wlthout regard to race, the:
served K eS landed in the distri
c *’iidren r tbe Negro school. He
'-Tided *k ^is subdivision a
We Vvp e ^ e Sro school, they wou!
®0 in en a white minority of aboi
Parent, - aI enrollment of 300. Tl
special jf^ediately petitioned for
VhoQj actl °n to permit the neigh
khooi cp °. m ° ve into an adjoinir
■jjj strict which has no Negroe
specmj ^Paration was defeated at
•sspe had 6 k ti0n last Au gust, but' th
‘boot a f aeen Temporarily rendere
“dioolk eW days before, when th
to r.„ ard v °ted to permit all child
Vharl ue atten ding the schoo:
^ a Previously attended.
Nd amf *1°.®’ a sec °nd election we
? r hood tais Time the white neigh
^l r kw 0r ,,!’'"'° n The right to leave th
district. The result is the
Kirkwood now has one all-Negro
school serving a Negro neighborhood,
a scattering of Negroes in three or
four formerly white schools, and one
formerly white school with a Negro
minority of 70 in a total enrollment of
484—about 14 per cent.
FIRST YEAR “A SUCCESS”
School board president Burton
Sawyer, a St. Louis salesman by oc
cupation, says he regards the first
year’s experience as a decided suc
cess, and proof that integration will
gain acceptance despite a communi
ty’s initial reluctance to approve it.
Today, says Mr. Sawyer, he knows
of no significant sentiment for revers
ing the decision and most citizens now
accept it. The secession of one subdi
vision does not in itself represent a
serious loss to the district, he says,
but the school board opposed it be
cause of the precedent it might set.
“Taking the year as a whole, we feel
integration has worked remarkably
well,” says Mr. Sawyer. “There have
been no disturbances like those in
Baltimore, Washington and Delaware.
Such incidents as have occurred be
tween white and Negro students are
no different from incidents between
white students. I believe the commu
nity is now completely prepared for
the completion of integration in the
high school and junior high next fall.”
At John Pitman school, which has
the 14 per cent Negro minority, Mrs.
B. A. Compton, principal, and the
teaching staff say the biggest prob
lem has been the scholastic disparity
between Negroes and whites.
FEW ABOVE AVERAGE
Few Negro children are rated by
standard tests in the above-average
group, says Mrs. Compton. Most are
low average or below average. For
example, the year-end tests in the
third grade showed one Negro and 18
whites above average. In second
grade, the grouping was: no Negroes
and 19 whites above average; 2 Ne
groes and 26 whites average; 7 Ne
groes and 15 whites below average.
The Negro pupils are easily dis
couraged by this disparity, says Mrs.
Compton, and need constant stimula
tion to face up to competition which is
tougher than they have experienced.
They tend to lack ambition and ini
tiative, she says. She wonders
whether poor nutrition and poor
home environment are to blame. They
find it particularly difficult to follow
verbal instructions.
Reading problems are severest
among the Negroes. The remedial
reading teacher finds herself spend
ing most of her time with them. Other
teachers, also, find it necessary to de
vote more than average time to the
Negroes since they are so often the
slowest in the class. Hence, Mrs.
Compton believes, some of the white
children may be neglected.
GENERAL LEVEL DOWN
The general level of scholastic per
formance for the school has definitely
come down, says Mrs. Compton, as a
result of the influx of low-ability
Negroes and the departure of some
high-ability whites who were dis
tricted out when new boundaries
were drawn. Some teachers feel that
this matter will adjust itself in time.
They find a smaller differential be
tween Negro and white pupils in the
kindergarten and first grades, and
believe that several years of joint
training may bring the groups closer
together.
Socially, the whites and Negroes
have got along famously. During
the first two months, says Mrs. Comp
ton, each group was curious about the
other and anxious to make friends.
After the novelty had worn off some
of the Negroes tended to associate
more with each other and the rela
tionship became more natural.
There is little self-segregation,
however, and no discrimination.
Children of both races play together
on the playground. The teaching staff
is under strict rules to see that every
dispute between a Negro and white
is quarantined at once, and settled
before the children go home in the
afternoon. No significant instances of
racial friction have been encountered.
Mrs. Compton asked the teachers to
Tennessee
report on their year’s experience.
Here are highlights from the reports:
PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The
Negro children are quick to take of
fense and are on the defensive when
among themselves. They tease each
other more than whites, tend to be
quarrelsome and fussy—but mainly
when they are among themselves.
They show little initiative. They do
what they are told, but must be told.
After the first few months of self-
conscious mixing, the Negroes seem
to drift more to themselves, though
racial lines are not sharply drawn.
TEACHER'S EXPERIENCE
THIRD GRADE: Integration is
definitely wrong. Negro teachers can
better understand children of their
own race and do them justice. The
Negroes are losing sympathy with
their own children by being mixed
with whites. (This teacher added that
before integration began, she felt that
she could not bear to teach mixed
classes. Her colleagues say that
though she still opposes integration in
principle she probably has more real
affection for her Negro pupils than
anybody on the staff).
FOURTH GRADE: The children of
both races have mixed well. Some of
the Negroes are hard workers, but
need leading, and others are quite
lazy. Most are well-behaved and
clean, the mothers being anxious that
they should appear well at the new
school. Three are making good prog
ress in school work. Some are a little
too aggressive, loud and fussy, with
not enough respect for authority and
a tendency to take too many privi
leges.
SIXTH GRADE: The white child
ren have made a more positive effort
to get along. The Negroes are cross
and fussy among themselves. Some
are less sincere and quick to prevari
cate. Most of them are definitely slow
to learn. They lack reading skill and
show marked inertia, possibly due to
poor nutrition or lack of proper rest
at home. One girl’s school work suf
fers for lack of new glasses, but her
parents have neglected to supply
them, though both are working. In
such matters the parents seem to be
willing to shift responsibility to the
school. The Negroes make their best
contributions to the group in story
telling and music.
BREAK INTO GROUPS
THIRD GRADE: After the novelty
wore off, the Negroes tended to break
into the same two groups as white
pupils—one well-behaved and the
other not. Negroes listen politely
when criticized, but pay no attention
so far as correcting their behavior is
concerned. The white children are
more impudent and assertive but do
try to correct themselves when disci
plined. Three of the Negroes in this
class are studious, three play all the
time, and two need to be watched al
ways. The Negroes generally are
slower physically and mentally.
FOURTH GRADE: There is no
question that the year’s experience
has benefited the Negro children so
cially. They have learned to be ac
cepted or rejected as individuals, not
as members of a group, and kindness
has modified any belligerency in
them. The scholastic differences are
“dreadful.” The individual needs of
the very inferior Negro students just
cannot be met in a class of this size.
The Negroes seem to learn more by
mimicry than do whites. They have
trouble following detailed instruc
tions.
SECOND GRADE: It has been a
very difficult year. The Negroes have
been helped, especially by getting a
sense of belonging and by developing
a sharper feeling of right and wrong.
Some of the white children may have
lost something. They have done
naughty or foolish things in order to
gain attention. In time perhaps all
these things will level off.
FIRST GRADE: The five Negroes
are all below average, and the lowest
in the class. Two of them try very
hard but the other three seem to have
no desire whatever to work. Gener
ally they are careless and destructive
of school property. They are inca
pable of working alone but need con
stant help and encouragement—
which the teacher also needs.
KINDERGARTEN: The experi
ment has worked very well. Negroes
See MISSOURI on Page 23
NASHVILLE, TENN.
HE first year of racial integration
in two previously all-white schools
here ended in late May with the
schools’ officials reporting the transi
tion a success.
Both are Catholic parochial schools.
Officials of each were quick to em
phasize that while integration worked
well in their schools, they did not
want to be placed in the position of
trail blazers who say, in effect, “it
worked for us, it will work for you.”
Said Father Francis T. Shea, prin
cipal of Father Ryan high school, “We
think it is a good thing. We think
it has worked well for us.
“But I don’t want to urge any other
school to desegregate, or to discour
age them from doing so,” he said.
“They’ve got problems that I have
no suspicion of, perhaps, and conse
quently, the conditions we’ve worked
with may be entirely different.”
An official of the other school (Ca
thedral high, on which a separate re
port will be published in the next
issue of SERS), made a similar com
ment.
In early September, 18 Negro stu
dents enrolled at Father Ryan. They
were members of a total enrollment
of 307 students. By June 2,1955, when
three of the Negroes received their
diplomas from Father Ryan, the
number of Negroes enrolled in the
school was 15.
NO UNTOWARD INCIDENTS
Of the three who left the school,
one moved to Chicago with his par
ents, one was found to be a tuber
culosis case shortly after enrollment,
and the third was asked to leave.
He was, said Father Shea, a chronic
truant.
At no time during the nine-month
academic year has there been one
untoward incident which could be
construed as a result of integrating
white and Negro students.
From interviews with students, it
was learned that only once did a
white and Negro student come to
blows. This occurred in a physical
education class. The boys were quick
ly separated, briefly lectured, and
shook hands before they went on with
their games.
Father Shea said he had not been
told of this incident. He was, he said,
convinced that any incident of a se
rious nature would have been re
ported to him.
Said one of the students, a Negro,
“I don’t know of anything that hap
pened that wouldn’t happen in any
other school.”
Father Ryan’s principal credits the
students for the success of the transi
tion there.
But, he said, three other factors
played an important part in acting
as pressure deterrents, and permit
ting the students to work out the
problem among themselves.
ALL TEACHERS PRIESTS
These factors, he said, are rather
peculiar to the Father Ryan situa
tion.
First, all teachers there are priests,
and Father Shea feels that the Cath
olic boy’s innate respect for the
priest made him less prone to take
any action that would incur their
displeasure or embarrass them.
Second, Father Ryan is for boys
only, and as a result, there was no
occasion for concern over mixing
of the sexes as well as the races.
Third, the boys and their parents
were completely informed of the rea
son behind the integration—that the
single Catholic high school for Ne
groes in Davidson County—Immacu
late Mother—was an uneconomic op
eration. The church was maintaining
a separate facility to educate 36 stu
dents. The building was run down.
To place it in proper condition would
take considerable funds.
Because of this, Father Shea said
the white students at Father Ryan
adopted the attitude that, after all,
the Negroes, as Catholics, had as
much right to a Catholic education as
they did. And if their school had to be
closed, there was no place for them
to go except Father Ryan.
“Frankly, I’ve been pleasantly
surprised,” Father Shea said. “I don’t
think anybody has attempted to
cause us any trouble. The city, the
other schools, have been very kind
to us.”
After school opened, Father Shea
said there was only one period when
he was worried—the period during
which anti-integration incidents oc
curred in West Virginia, Washington,
D.C., and Delaware.
“After we got over that without
any difficulty,” he said, “I figured the
kids were working it out O.K. They
were very calm, much more so than
I believed possible under the circum
stances.”
Father Shea said the school officials
adopted no set policy of implementa
tion of integration or guidance.
“We determined that everyone
would be treated just alike,” he said.
“That was our only policy.”
HOLD WORKSHOP
Another development here last
month was a two-day workshop con
ference on a study of the Supreme
Court decision and its meaning to
the community.
Similar meetings have been held
in the past at Fisk University. But
this was the first time such organ
izations as the local chapters of the
League of Women Voters, the Asso
ciation of Churches, Citizens for Pub
lic Schools, Association of University
Women, Council of Jewish Women,
B’nai B’rith, United Church Women,
Council of Colored Parents and
Teachers, have sponsored a discussion
on the decision, much less an inter
racial one.
The conference opened with a panel
discussion on the workshop subject.
Members of the panel were Dr.
George Mitchell, Atlanta, executive
director of the Southern Regional
Council; Dr. Charles S. Johnso’n,
president of Fisk University; Whit
worth Stokes, Nashville attorney and
president of the Nashville Citizens
Committee for Public Schools. Dr.
William van Til, Nashville, Peabody
college professor, was panel modera
tor.
MITCHELL PLAN
Mitchell offered the following plan
for successful integration in com
munities:
1. People of similar cultural back
grounds but of different groups,
should work together on a detailed
plan for achieving integration.
2. These groups, once the plans are
complete, should make their views
and findings known to local school
authorities.
3. Then the school authorities
should evolve a firm plan, with a
solid legal foundation, and support
its enactment with firmness and con
viction.
To those who say minorities should
receive an education and back
ground for self-government before
“turning them loose,” Mitchell said:
“You don’t provide welfare and
then turn people loose.
“By the curious, circuitous process
of democracy, the Supreme Court has
affirmed a doctrine recognized by
England in its recent dealings with
India,” he said. “ ‘First you turn peo
ple loose, then they get their own
welfare.’ ”
325 ATTEND
Approximately 325 people were
members of the panel’s non-segrega-
ted audience.
The second day of the conference
heard SERS executive director C. A.
McKnight deliver a report on segre
gation-integration activities in the
various states affected by the high
court ruling. The group, 180 white
and Negro men and women, then
joined one of five discussion sections,
each considering a separate phase of
the desegregation problem.
Discussed were the role of the
church, civic organizations, planning
for integration in the schools, plan
ning for integration in areas other
than the schools, and how public
opinion is formed.
No resolutions were passed or
group decisions made.
The church group discussed ways
of getting people to practice at local,
congregational level, their beliefs in
the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man.