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PAGE 14—August 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Maryland Asks Supreme Court to Say How Far Ruling Goes
BALTIMORE, Md.
jyjaryland legal officials have asked
the Supreme Court to make clear
just how far its school desegregation
mandate extends into other fields of
government activity. This request was
embodied in a statement asking the
Supreme Court to accept an appeal
from a Fourth Circuit Court decision
banning racial segregation in public
bathing beaches and recreational fa
cilities in Maryland. The Fourth Cir
cuit decision was based on the school
desegregation ruling of the Supreme
Court.
C. Ferdinand Sybert. Maryland at
torney-general, and Thomas N. Bid-
dison, Baltimore city solicitor, asked
the Supreme Court to overrule the
Fourth Circuit Court’s decision, and
thus uphold the earlier federal dis
trict court ruling of Judge Rozel C.
Thomsen.
But they also went further by urg
ing the Supreme Court to establish
“guideposts” so that public officials
would know whether the court’s de
segregation decision is limited to pub
lic education, or if it extends into
other areas.
DECREE EXPANSION CITED
Sybert and Biddison said there
have been concerted efforts to expand
the scope of the school desegregation
mandate “into fields of activity not
reasonably comprehended within the
terms of the decisions.
“It is submitted that in vital and
sensitive areas, such as that involved
in the present case, state officers
should not be left to grope and won
der as to the scope and application
of this court’s decision.”
The Maryland case specifically ap
plies to segregation policies which
have been enforced at Fort Small
wood, a city facility located just south
of Baltimore, and Sandy Point State
Park, near the western terminus of
the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Anne
Arundel County. Legal officials are
of the opinion that the Maryland case
could be a test case—at least in the
field of public recreation.
SIGNIFICANCE OF BRIEF
The brief filed by Sybert and Bid
dison has even greater significance in
that they requested the court to make
an overall ruling on governmental
segregation policies, rather than limit
any ruling to recreation.
While Maryland’s chief legal offi
cers were submitting their statement
to the Supreme Court, the state’s 23
counties in July were in some phase
of planning or action toward desegre
gation, following the advice of the
State Board of Education late in June
that they should commence the tran
sition from segregation to integra
tion “at the earliest practicable date.”
Some mixing of white and colored
school pupils by fall appeared cer
tain in some half-a-dozen counties,
and only one county had said flatly
that desegregation would not be pos
sible in the coming school year.
Three counties — Allegany, Balti
more and Washington—made definite
moves to desegregate this fall. In ad
dition, Queen Anne’s County on
Maryland’s Eastern Shore took the
most concrete step to end segregation
yet made in that section of the state.
Both Allegany and Washington
counties are in western Maryland and
they have a two per cent enrollment
of Negro pupils in their school sys
tems.
SPACE LIMITING FACTOR
The Allegany Board of Education
announced plans to “proceed with
desegregation” in September, say
ing that no pupil would be denied ad
mission to any school because of race.
The board reserved the right to limit
or delay admission to certain schools
during the transition period.
The Washington Board of Educa
tion decided to open schools to both
races in the fall, to the extent that
facilities are available. The most im
mediate effect of the decision will be
that schools closer to home will be
open to 46 colored pupils who live
outside the city of Hagerstown and
who up to now have been transport
ed by bus to the city, where the coun
ty’s only colored school is located.
The board said the choice of schools
for pupils living within the city would
be limited by the already badly over
crowded conditions there. It added
that full adjustment to a non-segre-
gated basis would not be possible un
til after completion of several school
buildings now under construction.
Baltimore County virtually sur
rounds Baltimore city and extends
northward to the Pennsylvania line.
About 6.7 per cent of its pupils are
Negro, most living in sections near
Baltimore city. Under the Baltimore
County plan, announced by Edward
G. Stapleton, school superintendent,
four senior high schools, one junior
high school and 23 elementary schools
will be integrated this fall. For the
rest of the county’s 90 schools, the
board of education promised the end
of segregation would be effected “as
expeditiously as possible.” The board
also announced that its transportation
system would be put on a non-racial
basis “to the extent administratively
possible beginning Sept. 1, 1955.”
TOKEN’ DESEGREGATION
On Maryland’s Eastern Shore,
where there is traditional sentiment
against desegregation, Queen Anne’s
County took an important step to
bring about a token end to segrega
tion this fall. And unlike Baltimore
County, where desegregation will ef
fect only selected schools, the Queen
Anne’s policy will be countywide.
The Queen Anne’s Board of Edu
cation issued this statement:
“No child will be denied the privi
lege of attending any school unless
it is administratively not practical
because of overcrowded conditions,
transportation or other valid reasons.”
But — and this is significant — the
board announced that it would con
tinue separate school bus systems for
white and colored pupils. In addition,
since all pupils already are registered,
each individual transfer of a colored
pupil to a white school will have to
be approved individually.
School board officials acknowledged
informally that the decision to con
tinue separate bus transportation
systems will make it improbable that
there will be much integration of
Negro and white pupils this fall.
The Queen Anne’s board said that
a parent may apply anytime for re
registration of his child at another
school, either with the county school
superintendent before Sept. 1, or at
the desired school on opening day. It
explained, though, that an applica
tion to transfer a Negro pupil into a
white school would be denied if he
required bus transportation and his
Negro bus did not go by the schools.
With a school population of 3,200
children, of which 28 per cent are
Negro, the Queen Anne’s board said
it had developed a “comparable”
school system for both white and col
ored children. And in an effort to re
assure pro-segregationists, the board
said, “The school program will con
tinue to be developed in the same
manner as it now exists.”
NEW ANTI-INTEGRATION GROUP
July also saw the organization of
the first new anti-integration group
since the May 31 Supreme Court de
cision. The group, which as yet has
no formal name, was organized in
Dorchester County, which last fall
had a school enrollment of 3,700 white
pupils and 1,740 Negroes. The opening
meeting was unusual in that it was
attended by a mayor, a city council
man and three of the county’s four
members of the Maryland House of
Delegates. Maryland politicians here
tofore have been avoiding public
identification with anti-integration
forces, after the racial issue was
raised in last fall’s gubernatorial cam
paign, and at the spring session of the
General Assembly anti-integration
bills were disregarded as long as
possible and then pigeon-holed.
Between 250 and 300 persons turned
out for the first meeting in the town
of Hurlock, which is situated toward
the southern, or Virginia, end of the
Eastern Shore. The reports of both the
Associated Press and a special cor
respondent of the Baltimore Sun
made it evident that the purpose of
the group, as presently constituted, is
not to fight desegregation outright
but to delay it as long as legally pos
sible. The Sun correspondent quoted
one speaker as saying they wanted
to stall compliance without “making
Dorchester County a guinea pig,”
meaning without having a law suit
and federal court orders. And the As
sociated Press reported that when
one member tried to get the group
to go on record as opposed to de
segregation, he failed to get his mo
tion seconded.
The group chose C. Awdry Thomp
son, former Democratic floor leader
of the Maryland House of Delegates,
as its legal advisor. The day following
the meeting, Thompson issued a state
ment, carried by the Associated Press,
which said, in part: “It was apparent
that the leaders of the group, as well
as the majority present, fully under
stood that desegregation was inevit
able but thought that, in view of the
local problem, it should be delayed
as long as possible.”
A second anti-integration voice
heard in July was that of the Mary
land Petition Committee, which has
been in being for a year and remains
the only such group striving for state
wide recognition. The committee was
associated last fall with Bryant
Bowles’s National Association for the
Advancement of White People in an
unsuccessful court suit intended to
block desegregation in Baltimore.
PETITION GROUP ACTS
In July, a delegation of Petition
Committee members appeared before
the Howard County Board of Com
missioners and asked if the board
could withhold school funds “until
the people of Howard County have
had time to voice their opinion.”
Howard is the home county of the
petition group and has about a 5-to-l
ratio of whites to Negroes in the
schools. According to a Howard
County weekly, the Ellicott City
Times, the delegation was told that
“the board of education and the at
torney general are very capable, and
integration in the schools is their
problem, not that of the county com
missioners.”
Following the meeting with the
county commissioners, a spokesman
for the Petition Committee issued a
statement which indicated that his
group, like the one in Dorchester
County, had legal actions in mind
rather than defiance of the Supreme
Court.
‘PROS,’ ‘ANTIS’ VOTED DOWN
In Montgomery County, which
borders Howard County on the
southwest and the District of Colum
bia on the north and west, there was
continuing action in July, as there
has been every month since early
spring. In June the seven-member
board of education voted down 6-to-l
a motion by an “up-countv” member
to suspend “all work and all steps
toward integration” pending further
study and exploration. In July the
board voted 4-to-3 against a “down-
county” motion to establish an in
tegration timetable under which all
elementary schools would be desegre
gated by the fall of 1956 and second
ary schools by the following fall.
As matters now stand, subject to
further board action, Montgomery
County will proceed in the fall with
the preliminary integration plan
adopted by the board in April. Under
that plan, four substandard “down-
county” elementary schools, formerly
for Negroes, will be abandoned. Some
300 colored children and eight Negro
teachers will be transferred to form
erly all-white elementary schools, ac
cording to tentative plans released
in July by Dr. Forbes H. Norris,
county school superintendent. At the
same time, “down-county” Negro
junior and senior high school stu
dents will have the choice of attend
ing any one of 10 white junior and
senior high schools in their area or
of remaining in the colored second
ary schools at Rockville, the county
seat. About 140 are considered likely
to make the change.
The Montgomery Board of Educa
tion voted a $300 fund to enable staff
members and teachers to attend
courses in school integration at nearby
summer schools, mainly in the Dis
trict of Columbia. In July, one school
board member and 12 county teach
ers, all white, were enrolled at the
school integration workshop at How
ard University. Some Maryland col
ored teachers were also enrolled.
PLAY AREAS DESEGREGATED
Also in Montgomery County, all
play areas under the jurisdiction of
the county’s recreation department
were desegregated for the first time
this summer. The action by the coun
ty recreation department came as a
result of the decision of the United
States Fourth Circuit Court of Ap
peals in the case involving Maryland’s
public beach on Chesapeake Bay. The
state has appealed the decision to the
Supreme Court. The Montgomery
County action pertains to playgrounds
alone, since the county owns no
beach or swimming pool. And all of
the play areas are “down-county.” It
is the “up-county” area which has
the majority of Negroes and the more
open opposition to early integration.
Prince George’s County, which also
borders on the District of Columbia,
took some administrative steps to
ward desegregation prior to the re
port of a citizen’s study group. The
board of education in July approved
four changes of policy, one of which
calls for teachers’ meetings on a non-
segregated basis. Other changes are:
(1) To remove racial reference in
the listing of schools, school direc
tories and similar publications;
(2) To re-assign office space for
administrative and supervisory per
sonnel on a non-racial basis;
(3) To create a staff committee to
advise the board of any problem aris
ing when integration starts.
Last fall there were 6.236 Negro
pupils in its schools, representing 13.5
per cent of the total enrollment.
There were developments in July
in two other Maryland counties —
Kent in the northern part of the East
ern Shore, and Harford, in north-
central Maryland.
STUDY GROUP NAMED
Kent appointed a bi-racial study
group, under the chairmanship of
Walter T. Morris, who is described
in the county press as a “well known
Kent County farmer.” Twenty men
and women from all parts of the coun
ty were named to the group by the
board of education. Negroes in Kent
County schools represented 29 per
cent of the total enrollment last fall.
Shortly after this group was ap
pointed, the Kent Board of Education
announced that “local school officials
will try to avoid any unfortunate
situations which might lead to embit
tered feelings. They plan to move
deliberately and consistently, but not
hastily.”
As for the immediate future,
though, the board announced that it
plans to ooerate schools as they are
for the time being and that it will
meet individual problems as they
arise. The board concluded that the
changeover from segregation to de
segregation will be a gradual pro
cess.
In Harford County, which has about
a 10-to-l ratio of white to colored
students, the president of the board
of education has announced that a
countywide citizens committee will
be asked to make a study of the prob
lems involved in placing the schools
on an integrated basis. The board has
considered the names in each section
of the countv and made up a list of
approximately 25 outstanding citizens
who will be asked to serve in an ad
visory capacity.
The Baltimore Afro-American, a
Negro newspaper, has made a survey
of Maryland’s five state teachers col
leges, following a declaration by the
State Board of Education in June that
“segregation according to race is
hereby abolished in all the State
Teachers Colleges of Maryland.” The
Afro-American reports that “segre
gation in the state teachers colleges
has come to an actual end with the
formal acceptance of colored students
in previously all-white schools.”
The Afro-American found that a
Negro had been accepted for admis
sion to formerly all-white Towson
State Teachers College, just north of
Baltimore, and that additional ap
plications for fall enrollment would
be accepted, even though the normal
deadline has passed. The newspaper
also found that a Negro had been
accepted at a formerly white teachers
college in western Maryland and that
one white student had sent for an
application blank at a former colored
teachers college to the south of Balti
more.
During the first four months of this
year a scientific study of school de
segregation in Baltimore was made
under the direction of Dr. Elinor
Pancoast, chairman of the Depart
ment of Economics, Sociology and
Anthropology at Goucher College.
The study, which included having
trained interviewers talk with prin
cipals, teachers, community leaders
and some of the persons who partici
pated in Baltimore’s anti-integration
demonstrations early last fall, was
sponsored by the Maryland Commis
sion on Interracial Problems and Re
lations and the Baltimore Commission
on Human Relations. It was financed
by the Ford Foundation’s Fund for
the Advancement of Education.
A 32-page pamphlet summarizin'?
the results of the study was published
in July. Some 30.000 copies will be
distributed to educators, public of
ficials, civic groups, libraries, the
press and others throughout the
country with a special interest in
school desegregation. The report does
not urge an end to school segregation
or advocate that other communities
adopt the Baltimore plan of desegre
gating all grades at one time without
special preparations for the change.
But the report reaches “some tenta
tive conclusions, the application of
which to situations in other commun
ities would necessarily be conditioned
by what the Supreme Court recog
nized as ‘the great variety of local
conditions’.” These conclusions are
that:
“The clear positions taken bv the
school board, department of educa
tion, police department and all others
having a part in the first year of de
segregation were a stabilizing influ
ence from start to finish. Nobodv
hedged or said anything that he did
not intend to back up. Baltimoreans
knew at all times exactly where law
and order stood, and their attitudes
were shaped in part bv that knowl
edge. School staff members also knew
exactly what was expected of them
and were strengthened by that
knowledge.
“The fact that some and no c sibh
many members of a community, and
even some principals and teachers,
feel that the ‘time is not ripe’ f° r
integration does not necessarily mean
that integration will not work, f
has been Baltimore’s experience that
non-segregated schools have ?° ne
ahead as smoothly as segregated one?'
even though prevailin'* attitudes to
ward Negroes have undergone no no
ticeable changes. As long as a srhoo
system is dedicated to the iob of edu
cating children, skin colorat’on nr*-
sents no problems that cannot
solved within the framework 0
standard teaching procedures. .
“When Negroes are given them
choice of schools, thev choose
schools that are most convenient
their homes, other fa"tors bein'* eau ■
In Baltimore at least there was a
rush of colored children to whi^
schools iust because the schools we
white. There also was no eviden ■
despite the small amount of m ' x ? s _
that Negroes were deliberately
couraged or prevented from en ^
ing white schools, if they want
be admitted.
“A professional pride of aCC .° ter .
lishment is apparent in most I! ? grS
views with principals and , tea ? tiI1 g
Integration has been a stim 1 * ^ a
experience for many of them ^
source of fresh confidence ®
own abilities to handle children.
“Most of the parental fears o ^
tegration can be dispelled throiL ^
actual experience of integratio ■ ^
titudes towards Negroes as a e jj
are not so easily changed. It ® a -
(Continued on Next rage;