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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—July 6, 1955—PAGE 3
Integration Plans Told
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
O fficials of school districts
serving four of Arkansas’s five
largest cities revealed their plans or
thinking on integration during June.
None of the four called for integration
this year.
But Hoxie, a small district in Law
rence County in northeast Arkansas,
announced that it would integrate
about 25 Negro children with about
1,025 whites on all levels when the
1955-56 term opens July 11.
The four big districts—Little Rock,
Fort Smith, North Little Rock and
Hot Springs—apparently are taking
the general position that eventual in
tegration in some form is inevitable
and that at least “good faith’’ plans
will be necessary to avoid court ac
tion.
On June 11, the Arkansas State
Conference of Branches of the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People said that any
school district which has not an
nounced or started satisfactory plans
for desegregation by September
would be sued.
At Little Rock, the superintendent
of schools said June 9, for publication
June 12, that under present plans—
which have been in the making since
May 17,1954—integration was at least
two years away and the start would
be made at the high school level.
AWAIT BUILDINGS
At Fort Smith, the superintendent
of schools said on June 21 that if in
tegration comes—and that it wouldn’t
until a two-year building program is
completed—it should begin at the ele
mentary level and be extended grad
ually through junior and senior high
school.
At North Little Rock, the school
board decided on June 20 to present
a desegregation plan July 14.
At Hot Springs, the school board
president said on June 16 that a bi-
racial committee would be appointed
in August to draft plans for ending
segregation.
The school district officials at Pine
Bluff, Arkansas’s fourth largest city,
has not revealed its thinking on the
subject.
Statistically, this is the picture in
the five cities. The first figure is the
total city population in 1950. The sec
ond figure is the percentage of Negro
Pupils in the 1952-53 school enroll
ment.
Little Rock 102,213 24.2%
Fort Smith 47,942 9.0
North Little Rock 44,097 24.8
Pine Bluff 37,162 38.8
Hot Springs 29,307 14.7
Hoxie, which announced its action
uu June 25, will become the third dis-
in Arkansas to mix white and
e gro students since the May 17,1954,
ecision and the first since the May
L 1955, decision.
ihe Hoxie action was announced by
• L. Howell, president of the Hoxie
t e ° arc l Education. He said the in-
gration plan was approved unani-
mou % by the board,
ji . E. Vance, superintendent of
oxie schools, said there would be
ut 15 Negro children in the ele-
entary grades and about 10 in the
S school. He said the total enroll-
would be about 1,050.
er Negro grade school has been op-
l,j . e “ * n the past at Hoxie and the
Port j C ^ 00 ^ students have been trans
it o t0 3 Negro school at Jones-
a j,°.’ ‘3 miles from Hoxie and in an
fining county.
gj. a t° Arkansas school districts inte-
en N ast year - At Fayetteville, sev-
s °ho ? r ° es were admitted to the high
° ' At Charleston, about a dozen
s c k Were admitted to the high
ciaj s J* a t all levels but school offi-
oa ^ aere have declined to comment
in co 6 nu mber, reaction or anything
■jPPection with the action.
th e „ e * ey 1° the Little Rock plan is
hisb '^Pletion of a new west side
> cho °L
plan to do anything until
V hgil t new high sch ° o1 >” Supt.
School • Blossom said. “That high
arid s i. 1S ? n Hie drawing boards now
1957 >> ° U ^ he ready by September
Integration, under the plan, would
begin with three high schools—the
new west side school, the present Lit
tle Rock Central High School and a
new east side school (Horace Mann)
now under construction which will
open in January, 1956, as a Negro
high school to replace the present
Dunbar high school for Negroes.
At the outset, the west side school
would be practically all white be
cause of the residential pattern of
Little Rock. The east side school,
Horace Mann, would have a predom
inantly Negro population.
TRANSFER REGULATIONS
Under present transfer regulations
—which permit students to attend
schools outside their residential dis
tricts if the move is not to a more
crowded situation—the east side
school could become practically all
Negro. And many Negroes in the
Central High district probably would
transfer to Horace Mann.
The Little Rock plan was news to
the general public but Blossom for
several months had been outlining it
privately to interested groups when
they asked for a report on what the
school district planned to do.
“We have to have some process to
go through to accomplish a change
as big as this,” Blossom said. “I think
it will work more smoothly if we take
the smallest group first—and the high
school group is smaller than the jun
ior high group or the elementary
group. Also, it involves fewer
schools.”
The integration plan is subject to
final approval by the Little Rock
School Board, and, in a sense, by Ne
gro leaders. Thus far, there has been
no indication that the NAACP is un
happy with the Little Rock plan.
On the junior high and elementary
school level, the school administra
tive staff is making studies of white
and Negro student population and
residence—preparing for the day
when integration will come at those
levels. Beyond the plan for integra
tion at the high school level, Blossom
isn’t mentioning any dates for publi
cation.
At Fort Smith, School Supt. Chris
Corbin said on June 21, that racial
integration in the public schools
would not take place until a two-year,
million-dollar building program was
completed.
PUBLIC MEETING
Corbin made the remark at a pub
lic meeting called by the Fort Smith
School Board to discuss the integra
tion problem. The meeting was at
tended by about 100 Negroes and
whites.
If integration ever is effected in
Fort Smith schools, Corbin said, it
should begin at the elementary level
and be extended gradually through
^junior and senior high school.
JULY 14 PLAN
On June 20, the North Little Rock
School Board, which previously had
discussed the segregation issue only
to agree that no legal counsel was
needed, decided to present a desegre
gation plan on July 14.
The subject came up when the
board was trying to decide on a loca
tion for a new elementary school in
the Tie Plant area, primarily a Negro
area.
Bogard said he thought desegrega
tion was inevitable. He mentioned a
statement made June 8 by Federal
District Judge John E. Miller of Fort
Smith, in which Judge Miller said, in
part, “There is no attitude to take
other than to enforce the law as it
was declared by the Supreme Court.”
The meeting had been called to de
cide on a location for the new school.
Two areas were under consideration
—one north of a railroad line and one
south of the tracks.
The location south of the tracks of
fers connections with a regular sewer
system. But a school built there,
board members said, would bring
about immediate integration of the
large number of Negro students liv
ing north of the tracks with the white
students living south of the tracks.
By building north of the tracks, the
board could take advantage of the
natural boundary for an attendance
area which the railroad provides. This
way, the new school would become a
predominantly Negro school, leaving
the Rose City elementary school to
For 4 Of Arkansas’ Largest Cities
the south nearly free of Negro stu
dents. But the north-of-the-tracks
location would require the installa
tion of septic tanks.
No location was selected. The board
voted to “proceed with final plans for
the building on the basis of 10 acres
of land in the Tie Plant area.”
HOT SPRINGS
On June 16 at Hot Springs, it was
announced that a special committee
composed of Negroes and whites
would be appointed by the Hot
Springs School Board to study prob
lems involved in bringing about ra
cial integration in schools there.
L. A. Westmoreland, school board
president, said the board would name
the committee at its August meeting.
He said the committee would be asked
to draft plans for ending segregation
in the schools in compliance with the
Supreme Court ruling.
Westmoreland said that the board,
by appointing the committee, was at
tempting to show “intent to comply”
with the Supreme Court decision.
Arkansas discovered on June 8 that
it had a school segregation case pend
ing in federal district court—a suit
which had been filed in 1952 by Negro
patrons against Bearden School Dis
trict 53 in Ouachita County.
The disclosure was made by the
United Press in an interview with
Judge John E. Miller of Fort Smith,
Western District of Arkansas, who
said he would rule on the case in the
October term of court at El Dorado.
State school officials and NAACP
leaders previously had reported that
Arkansas had no pending cases when
the Supreme Court made its May 17,
1954, ruling. The fact that the Bear
den suit still was pending also came
as a surprise to Tom Ford, superin
tendent of schools at Bearden.
Ford and other sources said this
was the picture:
The suit was filed in 1952 in an ef
fort by Negro patrons to obtain equal
ization of facilities. It was not spon
sored by the NAACP. As was custom
ary in a series of suits filed during
the same period in other Arkansas
school districts, the patrons also asked
for integration although their goal
was equalization.
In all the suits filed during that pe
riod, Arkansas’s three federal district
judges upheld the state law requiring
separate schools and the integration
pleadings were a sideline to the main
purpose of the suits—equalization.
Before May 17, 1954, through con
ferences and compromises, agree
ments had been reached in all the
cases. Final orders, dismissals or
withdrawals had been entered in all
the cases except the Bearden case.
NO FINAL ACTION
“We were surprised to learn that
the case is still pending,’’ Ford said.
“We had held a conference and
reached an agreement. We thought it
was all settled. But apparently no fi
nal order was entered.”
Ford said there had been no indi
cation by the Negro patrons that they
would press for immediate integra
tion.
“We think we should be in the
same category as all other school dis
tricts in Arkansas,” Ford said. “We
probably will form some kind of plan,
as many other districts are doing, to
ward gradual integration.”
Ford said the district had about
600 white pupils and 300 Negroes.
On the Bearden case, Judge Miller
said:
“I don’t intend to drag it out with
a long trial. I’ll just call the lawyers
of both sides in for a pre-trial confer
ence, point out the Supreme Court
decision to them, and say ‘That’s it,
boys. What are you going to do about
it?’ ”
He said each integration case should
be considered on its merits “but the
fact has now been established that
segregation is discriminatory.’’
“When you accept that edict—that
segregation is illegal—then you must
carry it out by such means as will
ultimately put it in force with the
least inconvenience and disturbance
FINOS PHILLIPS
Heads White America
as possible,” Judge Miller said. “We
may not like what the court did, but
it is the law and there is nothing any
one can do about it.”
On June 11, the Executive Com
mittee of the Arkansas Conference of
Branches of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple announced the policy it will follow
in seeking an end to racial segrega
tion in the public schools.
The policy statement said the
NAACP would be prepared to file
suit against any school district that
hadn’t started or wasn’t ready to start
a satisfactory desegregation plan by
September. And, the statement said,
the NAACP would be ready to file
suits against any school board which
it believes is not acting in good faith.
The statement said that Negro chil
dren would be taken to white schools
in many districts (not named) for ad
mission in September.
The committee voted to write let
ters to the 228 Arkansas school dis
tricts which have white and Negro
pupils asking that desegregation
plans be adopted immediately. Many
For Discussion
Does such a vital issue (one of
the greatest issues ever to con
front the South) deserve to be
passed off with “the least that is
said about it the better?” That is
what the school administrators
questioned by The Times last week
said.
School desegregation is not just
a bad dream for the white people
of the South. It is a true and real
fact which school men and school
patrons will have to face sometime
within the next few years. Free
and rational discussion will help
bring about a solution acceptable
to all parties.—Osceola Times.
€1§=1x=111sM11s11§111§s1=1§i1s===hSsH:
school boards, the statement said, will
receive petitions this summer signed
by parents of Negro children asking
that integration plans be adopted im
mediately.
The committee also suggested a
meeting of NAACP and state officials
to draw up a state integration policy
and, if possible, to prevent the filing
of lawsuits. The governor, attorney
general, education commissioner and
other interested parties should attend
the meeting, the statement said.
WHITE AMERICA
On June 7, the Capital City Chapter
of White America, Inc., which was
formed April 5 at Pine Bluff, held its
first public meeting at Little Rock.
The meeting was called through a
notice sent to newspapers for release
June 5. The notice revealed for the
first time that the group was headed
by Finos Phillips, operator of a type
writer and adding machine company
at Little Rock.
Phillips said the purpose of the or
ganization was “to oppose desegrega
tion in the public schools, to encour
age lawmakers in promoting the
interests of the white race in legisla
tures and courts and to maintain a
separation of the races, socially, in
schools and churches.’’
The mailing address of the Capital
City Chapter is Postoffice Box 1977,
Little Rock.
Other officers are Mrs. Finos Phil
lips, treasurer, and Dorance Williams,
secretary, who is a sales and service
representative for the Phillips firm.
Phillips said more than 100 persons
had joined the Little Rock branch of
White America, Inc.—many of them
in the week after the Supreme Court
made its May 31 ruling on school seg
regation.
Phillips said an emblem was being
designed for the organization which
members could wear.
“I assure you that our chapter in
cludes some of the most influential
citizens of the city,” Phillips said.
Phillips said the organization was
not against anybody but was “for
promoting the welfare of white peo
ple.”
“We are heartily in favor of colored
people having everything they can
earn themelves, but we don’t think
they should mingle socially, in the
schools or in the churches with white
people,” Phillips said.
Phillips said the organization was
charging $5 per person for initiation
and 1955 dues and that a separate
campaign fund made up of private
donations was planned.
“Our main plan is to build a state
organization of sufficient strength to
elect officers who will be for the
white people and maintaining segre
gation in all social affairs,” Phillips
said.
ON DEFENSIVE
Phillips said the white racg now
was on the defensive and that the
campaign fund would be used for
any purpose that would help protect
the rights and benefits of the white
race.
“We hope to work this thing out
peacefully without any violence any
where along the line, and we believe
we can,” he said.
“We will resist integration from
every legal standpoint,” Phillips said.
A cheering crowd of about 130 per
sons attended the Chapter meeting in
Knights of Pythias Hall.
Speakers included L. D. Poynter of
Pine Bluff, president of White Amer
ica; Rev. L. D. Foreman, pastor of
Antioch Baptist Church of Little
Rock; Amis Guthridge and M. V.
Moody, Little Rock attorneys who
have joined the organization s legal
staff, and Joe Foster of England, for
mer state representative.
BACK DECISION
On June 11 at Arkadelphia, dele
gates to the annual session of the
Little Rock Methodist Conference
(South Arkansas) unanimously
adopted a report submitted by the
Conference Board of Social and Eco
nomic Relations which said:
“We believe that the recent ruling
of the Supreme Court implementing
its decision of 1954 with reference to
segregation of race is wise. We fur
ther believe that, in accordance with
our Christian principles, we should
support and encourage the state and
local authorities in their efforts to ef
fect desegregation.”
On June 12, Rev. Colbert S. Cart
wright, pastor of the Pulaski Heights
Christian Church at Little Rock, in
his baccalaureate sermon to seniors
at the University of Arkansas Schools
of Medicine and Pharmacy, urged
“full and expeditious” compliance
with the Supreme Court decision.
Arkansas, with separate boards
governing the University of Arkan
sas and each of the seven tax-sup-
ported colleges, hasn’t adopted a pol
icy on how to meet the Supreme
Court decision. However, the indi
vidual boards are considering a pro
posal that they join with the other
boards to formulate a joint policy. An
announcement may be made in July.
A survey of the college presidents
(See Arkansas, Page 16)