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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—July 6, 1955—PAGE 7
Oklahoma Colleges Opened; Tulsa, Nine Others, To Integrate
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA.
D evelopments in Oklahoma
during June were more numerous
and more concrete than at any time
since the U. S. Supreme Court handed
down its 1954 segregation ban. In
quick succession, regents for higher
education ordered state colleges and
universities opened to undergradu
ates this autumn, and the state edu
cation department advised local
school districts to begin mergers at
once. Ten districts, including metro
politan Tulsa, had announced partial
or total integration decisions by the
month’s end.
The state policy outline for com
mon schools, issued June 17, was ar
rived at in joint conference of the
state education superintendent, the
governor, the attorney general and
the state board. This 1955-56 policy
directive made these points:
1. The state will no longer pay the
bill for two school systems. Negro
elementary schools with average
daily attendance of less than 13 stu
dents and high schools with less than
25 students will receive no aid under
the state’s minimum program un
less isolation is proved. Negro schools,
formerly considered isolated per se,
are thus on an equal economic basis
with white schools. Districts were
not forbidden to hold segregated
schools, if they can raise local money
to pay the cost.
2. All Oklahoma statutes conflicting
with the U. S. Supreme Court order
are officially declared void. Super
intendents were advised it is legal to
organize and teach mixed classes, and
to carry white and Negro students in
mixed school buses. In paying state
aid, mixed classes will be considered
legal, and will be financed accord
ingly.
3. Applications for calculation of
any school or schools as separate
units for 1955-56 will be considered
individually and allowed or denied
consistent with the decisions of the
Supreme Court. The State Board of
Education will assume the district
board of education, in making such
application, has properly and con
scientiously assessed local problems
connected with integration.”
4. Transfers of children, both
'vhite and colored, to schools of the
choice of their parents will be recog-
n ' zed • • • administrative officials
s ould take a liberal attitude in
granting transfers and in cancelling
ransfers where it is believed appro-
Pnate to do so.”
k’O estimates
Dr. Oliver Hodge, state educatioi
Penntendent, and other state lead
ers could make no immediate esti-
? te as to the number of Negri
c ools that would be wiped out b’
e withdrawal of state aid. Dr. j
Pester Swanson, Oklahoma Cib
superintendent, estimated that 30 U
s P . e . r Cent_ T or Perhaps more—of thi
3 , mar £*nal Negro schools witl
enrollments too small to rate stab
foro' WOU ^ ke shut down, therebj
ing some type of integration ii
respective districts.
sevJ 3 1 P ° licy state ment came aft
inar ai Weeks “dividual prelin
>’ statements in which both Go
repeS 9“? and Dr - Hod g® h:
lea vt > d y indicated they wished
local i 6 kur den of decision upc
June -fa°^} districts. However, l
nine t ’ , en the policy was begir
Were t0 take shape, the conferei
exneef r j P ^ ed to announce the sta
ins t ^ a P d * s tricts to begin worl
piSX “ as fast:
da v superintendents th
admir,; k ° ding their annual sprir
discu«- trat j rS ' inference. A pan
Vealed 'uf dev °ted to integration ri
in a ey we re almost unanimoi
°ut Hi Uctance to take action witl
L ' ect state orders.
With tl! ni c tra , tors appeared satisfie
insofar 6 stat e directive, at 1
Piaint T 35 tke lack of Public c
Lr°t. Immediate
T —- or puouc coir
cated' ~? mediate reaction, too, ind
enourk , 6 statement was stroi
Schnei °3. pusk integration forwar
niereer , dlstricts making immedia
the adre- - Clsions ’ n °ted in detail :
Port ,,, mis trative section of this ri
Sem inole, El Ren
dated if- _ anawa . Nuyaka consol
teau’s mgfisher, and Newkirk. P<
h'tegra+f °°i board had announce
°n plans only a few da;
after the May 31 Supreme Court
clarification, and Enid schools had
been opened to a few Negro summer
school students.
Variety of plans was evident in the
early announcements, ranging from
outright integration by school and
residence zones at Tulsa to nominal,
but incomplete integration at El Reno,
and integrated school grounds with
segregated classes at Nuyaka.
Oklahoma’s legislature had ad
journed late in May, after rolling
through a new school finance struc
ture and key constitutional amend
ments affecting schools in final hec
tic days of the session (as noted in
Southern School News issues of
February through June). Unless a
new session is called (none has been
contemplated) legislators will not
convene again until January, 1957,
However, they had explicitly readied
state school finance laws to meet the
expected desegregation order, and
had assumed provisions remaining
in the school law could be automat
ically voided without new legislative
action.
Two lawsuits have been pending
in federal district courts. Both were
presumed to be outmoded when the
defending institutions dropped color
bars in June, but no official dismissals
were recorded.
In the first suit, in western dis
trict court at Oklahoma City, Joshua
White, Ulysses Grant and R’aymond
Johnson, all El Reno residents,
sought admission to El Reno munici
pal junior college, on grounds they
could not obtain desired courses any
where else in their home county. The
El Reno junior college will be open
to them this fall, under a decision re
ported elsewhere in this report.
In the second action, filed in Mus
kogee’s eastern district court Oct. 8,
1954, Mrs. Clyde E. Troullier of
Chickasha took the mandamus route
toward entrance into Oklahoma Col
lege for Women, state-operated four-
year college located at Chickasha.
She too filed suit on grounds that
she was denied equal rights because
she would have to travel to Langston
Negro University while white high
school graduates in Chickasha could
attend college without leaving home.
As noted elsewhere, OCW will begin
accepting Negro undergraduates in
September.
Oklahoma City schools’ research
division completed a population dis
tribution study late in June, on a
basis of results shown in the April
school enumeration. Asking for the
detailed study was the school board’s
first official action following the May
31 edict.
Spot maps now completed revealed
mixed classes likely could develop
in 21 present schools—assuming dis
trict lines were redrawn to cover the
normal attendance area of about one
square mile around each building.
(No decisions have been reached on
changing white and Negro bounda
ries, which are now drawn with no
relation to each other).
Eight white grade schools and one
junior high, and eight Negro grade
schools and one junior high are in
the immediate area of residential
overlap, lying largely in eastern
Oklahoma City. Two white high
schools and one additional white
junior high school were also shown
to have a few potential Negro stu
dents.
Board members, now concentrating
on budgetary and teacher contract
chores, are committed to begin scru
tinizing the problem and reach a
1955-56 policy before the end of July.
Dr. Swanson, who has openly favored
beginning integration as soon as pa
per work can be accomplished, said
Oklahoma City and Tulsa are in vir
tually “identical” situations in terms
of the scope of the systems, popula
tion loads and administrative prob
lems. The Oklahoma City school
membership totals on the final day
of the 1955 spring term were 5,317
in separate schools and 44,701 in
white schools. Tulsa serves approxi
mately 7,000 Negro students.
STUDY QUALIFICATIONS
For the June issue of the Okla
homa Association of Negro Teachers
journal, executive secretary F. D.
Moon compiled a comparative study
of white and Negro teacher qualifi
cations in the state. He examined
state department statistics for the
1953-54 school year, during which
1,536 Negro and 19,104 white teachers
were working in Oklahoma class
rooms.
Moon, who is principal of Okla
homa City’s Douglass high school,
found that 73 out of every 100 Negro
teachers hold bachelor’s degrees,
compared to slightly over 70 of every
100 white teachers. Despite the short
period in which Negroes have been
admitted to graduate training in all
state institutions, 24.7 per cent of
them have master’s degrees as com
pared to a 25.8 master’s degree per
centage among white teachers, he
pointed out.
In the only outspoken dissent
against immediate desegregation in
common schools, a delegation of Ok
mulgee County Negro teachers and
patrons appeared before the state
education board to plead for a delay.
The appeal was made on the day the
state policy was crystallized, June
17.
Their spokesman, Matthew W. Jen
nings, a farmer near Okmulgee, said,
“We want a little more time to get
used to the idea.” The Okmulgee
group urged that Negro teachers be
integrated along with students and
that the hiring of teaching staffs be
based on qualifications rather than
race. Jennings asserted the general
opinion among Negroes in his county
is that integration should be held up
one year to give local school boards
a chance to hire Negro teachers.
Bill Shipley, Okmulgee state rep
resentative and chairman of the
house education committee, who has
been outspoken against wholesale
integration, said only 25 or 30 of the
80 Negro teachers in his county
would have jobs under desegregation
unless school boards absorb the Ne
gro instructors along with the pu
pils.
GARY’S STATEMENT
Gov. Gary, in a 15-minute radio
address, June 24, made it clear that
lagging school boards can expect no
support from his administration.
“I feel sure defiance of the Su
preme Court mandate will not be
tolerated,” he said. “School boards
which might entertain such ideas will
find themselves on their own.
“Certainly the state of Oklahoma
cannot possibly defend such action. I
therefore don’t believe many school
board members will want to put
themselves in the position of being
in contempt of court by openly vio
lating the law.”
The 10 common school districts in
which integration is already decreed
may be summarized as follows:
Tulsa: After the June 21 decision
to integrate, Supt. Charles C. Mason
estimated that fewer than 200 of the
city’s approximately 7,000 Negro pu
pils will attend schools that have been
all-white. He predicted less than 100
white children will be in school areas
predominantly Negro. About 16 of
Tulsa’s public schools are to be af
fected to some degree.
Dr. Mason said his board adopted
a voluntary plan under which a Ne
gro or white pupil may transfer to
the nearest school predominantly of
his own race, if the parents make
such a request. New district bounda
ries were drawn after conferences
Tulsa’s Action
It (the Tulsa school board’s in
tegration decision) is made possi
ble by the fact that of all the major
cities in the Jim Crow states, Tul
sa can have desegregation with
the least violence to long-standing
social custom and racial prejudices.
The school board order sets up
school districts that are geographi
cally compact. They are not gerry
mandering in an effort to put all
colored children in colored school
districts and all white children
into white school districts. Neither
is the board attempting to “direct”
students to specific schools, a dodge
which may be tried in other cities
but which will certainly be knocked
out in future federal court suits.
. . . Let’s speak frankly. Desegre
gation should be possible in Tulsa
without a ripple of discontent be
cause the overwhelming majority
of Negro citizens live on the near
northeast side of Tulsa. It is thus
possible to care for all but a small
fraction of Negro children in school
districts that are contiguous and
geographically sensible.
This will permit the city to con
tinue to hire Negro teachers. It
serves no purpose to pretend at
this time that Negro teachers would
be hired in schools that would be
overwhelmingly white.
—Tulsa Tribune.
with both Negro and white school
principals and were “established on
the basis of making the best use of
the schools’ physical facilities,” he
said.
FILE PETITION
Oklahoma City: Board members
were served a petition June 17 from
the Oklahoma City branch, National
Association for Advancement of Col
ored People. Six Negro residents with
school-aged children signed the re
quest for immediate desegregation,
and authorized the NAACP to repre
sent them in court action if admis
sion to any school is denied on a ba
sis of race or color alone. Board mem
bers took no official action, but
pledged they would consider the pe
tition along with the other multiple
materials facing them in the integra
tion study now in progress.
Poteau: This little district in Le-
Flore County earned the spotlight by
ordering desegregation June 8. Po
teau is in LeFlore County, in the
heart of southeastern “Little Dixie,”
where Gov. Gary had predicted, only
a few days earlier, the desegregation
process might be completed last.
Supt. E. L. Costner said three white
grade schools and one Negro school
will be open to both races. Negro
high school students will be per
mitted to attend the formerly all-
white school there next fall if they
so desire. However, the board will
also furnish transportation to those
desiring to attend a Negro high school
at Spiro, 18 miles away. The decision
affects 12 to 15 Negroes of high school
age. About 40 to 45 students are af
fected on the grade school level. The
town is now zoned so that Negroes
will normally attend their regular
school, unless they choose to apply
for transfers. White children living
in that zone also have transfer priv
ileges. It was indicated these factors
would rule out any integration on the
grade school level this fall.
El Reno: Facing a federal court suit
directed at the municipal junior col
lege, city school board members re
solved June 21 to terminate racial
segregation in the public schools un
der their authority. The junior col
lege, with a normal enrollment of
about 50, was opened outright to all
qualified students.
OPERATE AS USUAL
However, Booker T. Washington,
Negro high school serving about 200
students in 12 grades, will be oper
ated as usual this autumn. The reso
lution also was hedged with transfer
provisions and other qualifications
which in effect will keep grade school
students segregated. NAACP mem
bers, representing the Canadian
County branch, who had presented a
petition signed by 72 parents, ex
pressed dissatisfaction with the in
complete merger picture.
Two such provisions spelled out
were: Pupils may continue next year
in the school they attended last year,
even though it might be in a district
outside their residential area; and
newcomers to either the elementary
or secondary system “may attend the
school commonly attended by other
pupils in the area or section of the
district in which they reside.”
Seminole: Board members voted
June 20 to abandon segregation next
fall. The move will involve opening
a municipal junior college to both
races, dissolving Booker T. Washing
ton Negro high school, and absorbing
some 25 former BTW school students
into the white Seminole high school.
BTW thus becomes a grade school
for the Negro children who surround
it. Attendance at other grade schools
is not contemplated for the Negro
students in grades one through eight.
The BTW principal was retained, as
were three Negro faculty members.
Enid: Also an early entry into the
desegregation picture, Enid’s school
board authorized the superintendent
June 8 to permit two Negro students
to enroll at Enid high school for the
summer session. However, Mrs.
Edith Pinkerton, board president,
said June 24 that no definite plans
have yet been formed for integra
tion this autumn. “We plan to go
along with the state, but doubt if
there will be much actual change in
the school setup here,” she said.
Pawnee: Board members voted
unanimously June 23 to integrate all
grade school and high school classes,
a move affecting some 60 Negro chil
dren. Contracts of the six teachers
who have taught grade and high
school at Lincoln (separate) school in
Pawnee will not be renewed, Supt.
Homer Shaw said. “Attendance
dropped at Lincoln school last year,
as families who anticipated integra
tion but preferred having their chil
dren taught with children of their
own race moved to larger cities.
18 TO ENROLL
Konawa: Eighteen Negro students,
two in high schools, are expected to
enroll at Konawa under the board’s
new integration decision, instead of
traveling to the Negro high school in
Seminole as they have in the past.
The board indicated one factor forc
ing the move was the resignation of
the district’s Negro teacher who
moved to another job in the same
county.
Nuyaka: At the consolidated school,
located in Okmulgee County, Supt.
Luther N. Sowder said he plans a
“get acquainted experiment.” Three
small rural Negro schools in his dis
trict will be abandoned, and about
50 Negro youngsters will be ab
sorbed into Nuyaka school. However,
they will attend separate classes, un
der their own Negro teachers, while
some 50 white grade school children
and 40 white high school students
study under five white teachers on
the same school grounds. Races will
be mixed on the playground, in the
school cafeteria, and on school buses.
The 32 Negro students of high
school age could have been integrated
fully at Nuyaka if they so desired,
but a survey showed they all wanted
to continue attending Rosenwald Ne
gro high school at Henyretta, 25 miles
distant, Sowder said. He said the en
tire transition program is aimed at
eventual full integration.
Newkirk: Newkirk schools plan
total desegregation, affecting some 22
Negro grade school students and
about 15 Negro high school pupils.
Previously, Negroes were transferred
to nearby Ponca City when they
reached secondary school age.
Kingfisher: In a special meeting,
board members decided to close the
doors of Douglass Negro school, and
absorb all its elementary and sec
ondary pupils into previously white
schools. About 80 Negro students are
(See Oklahoma, Page 16)