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PAGE 12—July 6, 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Texas Advised ‘No Hurry;’ El Paso, San Antonio To Act
AUSTIN, Tex.
^EXAS schools were advised late
in June by Gov. Allan Shivers
that he sees no need to hurry into
desegregation.
The Governor announced that a
statewide study committee will be
set up shortly after the State Board
of Education announces on July 4
its policies regarding distribution of
state funds to desegregated schools.
It has no intention of withholding
funds, but desegregation would, in
some cases, decrease the number of
“teaching units” on which state aid
is based.
Gov. Shivers said he had no quarrel
with the El Paso and San Antonio
school boards, which have announced
plans to abolish segregation, at least
partly, beginning next September.
Most Texas boards, however, waited
until the state board’s July meeting
to make any move toward desegre
gation.
“There is nothing wrong morally
or otherwise with any group which
does not agree (with desegregation)
protesting by any legal means at their
command,” said Gov. Shivers. “I
do not subscribe to the theory of
rabid advocates of desegregation that
it is un-Christian to reject the Su
preme Court’s decision. The decision
reversed other Supreme Court deci
sions covering almost a century.”
The problem needs to be studied
carefully at both state and local lev
els, Shivers said. He recommended
that local as well as state study com
mittees be created.
He added that he does not think
it necessary for any school district
at this time “to take any steps it and
its board do not wish to take, other
than studying the question.”
FUNDS FOK BOTH
The state board decided that state
funds must be paid to integrated as
well as segregated schools, although
the exact basis of paying and ac
counting awaited a policy announce
ment at the July 4 meeting.
Although districts with large pro
portions of Negroes made no move
toward desegregation in June, others
did.
In far West Texas, the El Paso
School Board voted 6 to 1 to abolish
segregation next fall. It has operated
an accredited Negro school of 12
grades. In 1953-1954, the average
iMs£lIllIIIlIIIlIIIlI!iiiii======ggg===
Wide Latitude
El Paso is not the first community
in Texas to abolish segregation in
its schools, but it is the largest.
It is the only large city in the state
that has thus acted on the Supreme
Court’s ruling.
The action of the El Paso school
board is a striking illustration of
the wisdom of the high court’s re
cent decision on the carrying out
of its mandate. That is to allow
local communities a wide degree
of latitude. Where local authori
ties are left free from dictates by
Washington and the lower federal
courts as to exactly how and when
they must comply, the result is
more workable.—Dallas Morning
News.
MillillSEMIlllHHIiliEIHlIiiEilHIi
daily attendance of Negroes was 501.
El Paso showed 24,916 white pupils
in average daily attendance for the
same period—a 50 to 1 ratio of whites
to Negroes.
Spokesmen for the schools an
nounced that Negro teachers will be
retained at the Negro plant next fall,
but the district will be expanded to
include some white students. After
next year, the Negro teachers will
be assimilated in other schools, ac
cording to the announcement.
PLAN ‘BEGINNING’
At San Antonio, Supt. Thomas B.
Portwood announced the “hope to
make a beginning at integration” next
fall. Portwood said the approach is
still uncertain, perhaps by mixing
students in the lower grades. Bexar
County (San Antonio) has a ratio of
nearly 20 whites for each Negro. Like
El Paso, San Antonio has a high per
centage of Latin-American popula
tion. Both also have large military
establishments which have been de
segregated.
Dr. W. T. White, superintendent
at Dallas, urged Gov. Shivers to call
a special session of the legislature so
a statewide policy on desegregation
can be adopted. The Governor said
that he would not hesitate to call a
special session, when he thinks one
is needed, but that such action now
“—without further study, would be a
mistake.”
Cecil A. Morgan, Fort Worth attor
ney and state school board member,
agreed with the Governor.
“What could they do?” Morgan
asked, if the legislature meets on the
question.
The Texas legislature adjourned
on June 7 without discussing the
segregation problem. Rep. Jerry Sad
ler of Hickory Grove, in a northeast
Texas district with many Negroes,
appealed for preservation of segre
gation in a “personal privilege”
speech as the session ended.
“It’s not fair to the Negro and it’s
not fair to the whites,” Sadler said
of the Supreme Court’s decision. He
criticized both state and national offi
cials for lack of diligence in fighting
desegregation, and recommended
submission of an amendment to the
United States constitution to pre
serve segregation.
San Antonio College, tax-support
ed, announced that it will accept Ne-
JAMES OTIS LOFTIN
President, San Antonio College and
St. Phillip’s College
gro students. Two applicants en
rolled. Meanwhile 28 white students
applied for admission to courses at
St. Phillip’s College, formerly all-
Negro branch of San Antonio Col
lege. The courses are not taught at
the white college.
President J. O. Loftin announced
that the two junior colleges “are no
longer segregated.”
University of Texas regents on
July 8 will decide whether to liberal
ize its desegregation. Since 1950, the
university has admitted Negroes to
graduate and professional courses,
but referred non-professional under
graduates to the two state Negro col
leges. Eighteen state-supported col
leges face a similar decision. A few
Negroes have been accepted in re
cent years at some of them.
About a dozen of the state’s public
aid junior colleges have abolished
segregation in recent years, but most
are in areas with few Negroes.
Dr. R. O’Hara Lanier, president
of Texas Southern University at
Houston, resigned in June. No reason
for his resignation was given, but
the Negro press expressed dissatis
faction over the situation. Two years
ago, the TSU board conducted an in
vestigation into alleged “subversion”
at the school. This resulted in resig
nation of two other employes, but
the committee reported it found no
justification for the charge of dis
loyalty.
Texas members of the National As
sociation for Advancement of Col
ored People heard Thurgood Mar
shall of Baltimore, national counsel,
state September 1956 as a deadline
for integration.
A group from the NAACP ap
peared before the Texas Board of
Education’s July meeting to urge
prompt desegregation. A. Maceo
Smith of Dallas, executive secretary,
had announced that petitions will be
filed “almost immediately” in every
Texas school district to admit Ne
groes to white schools.
Gov. Shivers commented that he
“didn’t think Thurgood Marshall
has the authority to amend the Su
preme Court decision” by fixing a
deadline which the court refused to
set.
At Amarillo, in northwest Texas,
a group of Negroes asked the school
board to admit Negroes to summer
school classes with white students.
The board rejected the plea, saying
the step would not contribute to
the “ultimate solution of the pro',
lem of integration.”
Groups of students and facultt
members protested the invitation i,
Gov. Shivers to make the
mencement address at the University
of Southern California. Shivers pm!,
segregation views were cited.
But Shivers spoke, reporting that
he had never had a larger audience
or been more royally received.
He recommended tolerance and
loyalty to principle.
“Only men who are loyal to them,
selves can be tolerant of new ideas
patient with the freedom of expres.
sion, considerate of the right to dis-
agree,” said Shivers. “Without such
loyalty, such true loyalty, them
could be no freedom of speech, free,
dom of the press, freedom of wor
ship, freedom of assembly.”
Taylor, a small central Texas
town, opened a new swimming pool
for Negroes. It brought from Dr. J.
L. Dickey, Negro doctor once named
the town’s outstanding citizen, com.
ment that Taylor “will have less
trouble than any city in the nation
on the desegregation problem.”
“Taylor will just have to satisfy
the U. S. Supreme Court, not us,"
Dr. Dickey said on behalf of the Ne
gro citizens.
Louisiana Asked For Segregation Attorneys
NEW ORLEANS, LA.
J^OUISIANA’S segregation and in
tegration leaders, for two weeks
burrowed in deep study of the Su
preme Court’s May 31 decision, have
swung into action.
Segregation forces, headed by State
Sen. W. M. Rainach of Summerfield,
have asked state board of liquidation
for $100,000 to pay attorney fees, the
attorneys to be used to defend seg
regation in local parishes (counties).
Integration forces June 27 filed the
first official petition with a local
school board requesting “immediate
and concrete steps” leading to early
elimination of segregation in the
public schools.
The segregation forces took then-
step first.
Sen. Rainach met in closed session
June 22 with members of his Joint
Legislative Segregation Committee, as
well as Gov. Robert Kennon, State
Supt. of Education Shelby M. Jack-
son, State Atty. Gen. Fred S. Le-
Blanc and political boss Leander H.
Perez.
Also attending the meeting were
representatives of the Louisiana Par
ish School Superintendent Associa
tion and, in the words of Sen. Rain
ach, “other interested parties.”
RAINACH STATEMENT
Sen. Rainach, following the ses
sion, made this statement:
“We agreed the defense of the
state’s official policy of segregation in
our public schools is a state-wide re
sponsibility.
“The state should step in and as
sist local school boards everywhere
in defending themselves against suits
by the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People seek
ing to destroy our policy of separa
tion of the races.”
Rainach added that the group
wanted to hire “the best legal brains
in the state” to fight integration.
Any special counsel hired, Rainach
added, “will coordinate and guide”
the defense of segregated schools.
It was the first official announce
ment on how the state plans to fight
the high court’s implementation rul
ing of May 31.
Reason for hiring a special coun
sel, Rainach said, was that since pres
ent personnel of the attorney gen
eral’s office are tied up with regular
legal duties, “we decided to request
the liquidation board for $100,000 for
fiscal 1955-56 for the attorney gen
eral’s office to employ special coun
sel to co-ordinate and guide the de
fense.”
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMEN
Meanwhile, less than one week
after the segregation committee’s
meeting, A. P. Tureaud, New Orleans
attorney for the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People, presented a petition signed
by 17 parents of children attending
10 Negro schools to the Orleans Par
ish School Board.
The petition said:
“The federal courts are authorized
to determine whether local officials
are proceeding in good faith.
“We ask them to take immediate
steps to reorganize the public schools
under their jurisdiction on a non-
discriminatory basis.
“As we understand it, they (the
school board) has the responsibility
to reorganize the school system un
der its control so that the children
of public school age attending and
entitled to attend public schools can
not be denied admission to any
school solely because of race and
color.
“Our interpretation of the May 31
ruling means that the time for de
lay, evasion or procrastination is
passed, and it is the duty of the school
board to seek a solution in accord
ance with the law of the land.
C. P. Besse, vice-president of the
board and presiding in the absence
of President Clarence Scheps, said
after the meeting that no immediate
action was planned on the petition.
“Just like Dr. Scheps said earlier,
we are responsible to the state gov
ernment, and our state laws do not
allow integration,” he said.
Asked if the board would consider
the petition at any future meeting,
he said that it “might be” brought
up, but he knew of no immediate
plans to do so.
Tureaud said he was prepared to
re-enter the courts if no action was
taken on the petition. He added: “But
I hope I won’t have to.”
During the course of the lengthy
Orleans School Board meeting June
27, the board discussed routine plans
to authorize a $5 million bond issue
shortly for school construction.
Dr. James Redmond, superintend
ent of Orleans schools, said the $5
million bond issue could be used for
the 1956-57 building program, which
would call for construction of three
white schools, two Negro schools and
additions to three already construct
ed Negro schools.
Tureaud warned the board “any
bond issue which earmarks money
for segregated education is also in
valid.”
Besse declined comment on Tu-
reaud’s remark.
Two long-standing suits filed by
the NAACP for admission of Negroes
in what are now white schools are
due for consideration shortly.
One filed in 1952 in St. Helena Par
ish (county) is awaiting a respon
sive pleading by the district attorney
or school board.
The last continuance expires on
July 5.
A similar case in New Orleans has
its continuance expire Sept. 1.
Tureaud, the NAACP attorney, has
said that “we had an understanding
that we would not press on the cases
until the Supreme Court issued its
supplemental decision.
“Now that those cases (before the
Supreme Court) have been con
cluded, now it’s time for them to
make a move one way or another.”
The status of Louisiana’s colleges
remains unchanged.
Undergraduate Negroes have been
ordered admitted to Southwestern
Louisiana Institute; McNeese State
at Lake Charles, and Southeastern
Louisiana College at Hammond.
Louisiana State University has ap
pealed an order that Negroes be ad
mitted as undergraduates.
All are state colleges.
Three other state colleges—North
east Center at Monroe, Northwestern
State at Natchitoches, and Louisian*
Tech at Ruston, as well as Francis T
Nicholls Junior College at Thibodaux
—remain segregated.
The Family Service Society 0
New Orleans, in a petition delivers
by Miss Elizabeth L. Porter, directs
and signed by 92 persons: .
“We cannot accept or agree W1
the (Orleans) School Board’s unanr
mous opinion that ‘education of bow
races can proceed more effective:
under a segregated system.’
“It is our conviction that childrfl
can learn to live together
through experience and school 1
provides a basic milieu for this. • •
“We urge the Orleans Parish Boa«
of Education (sic) to reconsider i
position and to act promptly in
pliance with the ruling of the
preme Court by immediately dran™
a plan for the integration of
schools of Orleans parish and n
plementing it as soon as possible
lere have been reports that ^
slature may be called bscK
ial session sometime short
iason, reports have it, I s tha . £ j er .
jgation forces want recons^ ^
tidelands oil revenues.
Such a bill was vetoed by
Kennon in early June. meet 5
The Louisiana Legislature ^, er y
in general session for 60 d a J* nU ni'
even-numbered year. In od yjt
bered years it meets for 30 da>
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