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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> (Continued on Next Pag e t J r J s p o / s t tl c t I { 1 ( 1 I t