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PAGE 2—August 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
South, West Texas Schools Desegregate: Shivers Cautions
AUSTIN, Texas
^^segregation moves were an
nounced mostly around Texas’
southern and western edges in July.
But most of the state’s main biracial
districts took a more leisurely pace.
Meanwhile, Atty.-Gen. John Ben
Sheppard warned that districts which
mix students in the public schools
may be headed for trouble unless they
wait for the legislature to change
financing laws.
And Gov. Allan Shivers called on
schools to go slow as he named mem
bers of the Texas Advisory Commit
tee on Segregation in Public Schools.
The committee was to meet in Austin
Aug. 1. Shivers said he believed it
“can come up with the solutions to
many of the critical problems now
facing Texas schools as a result of the
Supreme Court decision.”
Shivers added: “There is too much
rush and confusion at the present. I
hope no district will dash headlong
into action because of fear or pressure
... I hope all districts will be fully ad
vised and prepared before final de
cisions are made.”
Meanwhile, an end of the month
survey showed that a dozen Texas
districts had taken steps to end segre
gation next fall. With the exception
of San Antonio—where the Negro
scholastic population constitutes 7.7
per cent of the total number of chil
dren of school age—desegregation is
taking place in areas of small Negro
population. One of these areas, for
example, is Mission, in the lower Rio
Grande Valley, where Negro scho
lastics are only two-tenths of 1 per
cent of the school population.
Districts now planning integration
have a white scholastic population of
198,569, or 12.3 per cent of the state
total, and 10,503 Negro students, or
4.05 per cent of the total Negro school
age children.
These were the other major devel
opments in July:
1. The State Board of Education
announced that funds for 1955-56 will
be paid alike to segregated or inte
grated schools. Principal criticism of
this policy came from U. S. Tate,
Dallas attorney for the National As
sociation for Advancement of Col
ored People. Tate said “we would be
distressed” if payments to segregated
schools delayed integration.
2. Regents at the University of
Texas announced plans for complete
desegregation by September 1956,
when selective admission for all un
dergraduates will begin, probably
based on entrance examinations. Ne
gro undergraduates will be accepted
this year at Texas Western College,
El Paso branch of the state univer
sity. El Paso public schools earlier
announced plans for integration this
fall.
LEAGUE CONTESTS
3. Officials of the Texas Interscho
lastic League announced that Negroes
attending formerly all-white schools
will be allowed to take part in
League contests, athletic and other
wise. This is subject to review later
by the member schools which make
the League’s rules. A separate inter
scholastic competition for Negroes
has been sponsored for years under
supervision of Prairie View A & M
College.
4. Plans for complete or partial de
segregation starting in September
were announced by public schools in
El Paso, San Antonio, San Angelo,
Kerrville, Harlingen, Weslaco, Mis
sion, and Kingsville.
5. Fort Worth public schools will
remain segregated in 1955-1956, its
board announced. Dr. George D.
Flemmings, president of NAACP in
that city, said it is “willing to go
along” with this decision since the
board is making a study of future
desegregation. Dr. Flemmings said his
group did not expect any overnight
change.
Texas school boards took steps to
study means of integration. These in
cluded Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth,
Austin, and other cities. In northeast
Texas where 90 per cent of the state’s
Negro population is concentrated,
there were few announcements of
future policy.
SUITS ASKED
Both Gov. Allan Shivers and Atty.-
Gen. John Ben Shepperd warned
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS BOARD OF REGENTS, 1955—Cleft to right) Dr. Merton Minter, San Antonio; Mrs
Charles K. Devall, Kilgore; J. R. Sorrell, Corpus Christi; Chairman Tom Sealy, Midland; Claude W. Voyles, Austin;
Lee Lockwood, Waco; and Leroy Jeffers, Houston. Not shown are regents J. Lee Johnson III, Fort Worth; and Dr.
L. S. Oats, Center.
against hasty action. A group of con
servative Democrats, meeting in
Dallas, urged the attorney general to
file suits to enjoin desegregation both
on the local level and in state col
leges.
Shepperd said that districts which
integrate before state laws are
changed may run the risk of losing
part of their school funds, which
have been distributed in the past on
the basis of segregated schools.
For next year, however, the State
Board of Education insisted it will
make no difference. This may be be
cause funds for 1955-56 are distrib
uted according to scholastic popula
tion and average daily attendance in
the 1954-55 school year. Friona is the
only school in Texas to admit Negroes
to white schools in the past school
year. In all, it had five Negroes in an
elementary school with 700 white
children.
GRADUAL PROGRAMS
The districts which decided to be
gin desegregation immediately adopt
ed various plans, mostly aimed at
gradual erasing of segregation. De
segregation was ordered first in areas
where there are large numbers of
Latin-Americans and few Negroes.
Exceptions to this generally were in
places like Eagle Mountain, near Fort
Worth, which has just one Negro
family in the district and no Negroes
of school age. It had 189 white pupils
last year.
A Negro grouD criticized a pro
posal for Amarillo schools to rezone
attendance areas so all Negroes ex
cept 17 will be in districts where
Negro schools are located. David
Hughes, president of the Amarillo
Community Council (representing
the Negroes), said his group would
go to court to contest the boundaries,
if adopted. Spokesmen for the Ne
groes called the plan “a shameful at
tempt at evasion” of the U. S. Su
preme Court’s ruling.
“Gerrymandering . . . has been
ruled illegal by the U. S. Supreme
Court,” the council added.
GIVEN A CHOICE
NAACP PETITION
The NAACP petition to the state
board asked: “1. That you advise the
school districts under your jurisdic
tion: (a) of the nature and the effect
of the responsibility that is placed
upon them by the decrees of the Su
preme Court of the United States;
(b) of the nature and effect of the
responsibility that is placed upon
you, as officers of the state, by the
decrees of the Supreme Court of the
United States, (c) of the force and
effect of the decrees of the Supreme
Court of the United States upon the
state and local laws with respect to
racial segregation in the field of pub
lic education.
“2. That you advise the school dis
tricts under your jurisdiction that
the decrees of the Supreme Court of
the United States of May 17, 1954 and
May 31, 1955, place upon them an
affirmative duty and responsibility to
act promptly and in ‘good faith’ to
make an effectuate plans for the im
plementation of these decrees.
“3. That this honorable board
promulgate and issue a clear and
concise statement of policy with re
spect to its duty and responsibility
in the premises; that that policy be
consistent with the constitutional
principles set forth in the court’s de
crees.
“4. That this board command and
use all of its powers, authority, and
prerogatives to press for prompt and
efficient compliance with the court’s
decrees; and that all of those pow
ers, authorities and prerogatives be
commanded and used to prevent any
willful, or calculated action by school
districts under your jurisdiction to
avoid, impede or circumvent the full
realization of the spirit and purpose
of the court’s decrees.”
Local action in Texas public
schools follows:
Houston — A 25-member biracial
school committee voted to recom
mend that the school board abolish
segregation immediately at the ad
ministrative level of school person
nel. It will hold further meetings on
how best to desegregate. Several
members suggested recommending
that the move begin in 1956. No ac
tion has been taken by the school
board.
Dallas—The city school board in
structed Supt. W. T. White “to pro
ceed with a detailed study of the
problems inherent to desegregating a
major school system.” It defined areas
to be studied. The board added that
it “will be impatient with any undue
pressure designed to provoke a pre
mature alteration of the present
policy under which the system oper
ates.”
L. A. Roberts, superintendent of
Dallas County schools (rural and
small-town), announced that he sees
“little or no hope” to inteerate those
schools during the 1955-56 year.
“There are just too many problems
immediately before us,” said Roberts.
He mentioned the possibility that
some state funds may be lost by in
tegration before the legislature
changes state laws.
TO BEGIN IN FALL
San Antonio—Supt. Thomas B.
Portwood announced that desegrega
tion will begin this fall in all 90
schools there. Portwood said he
would meet with Negro leaders and
teachers to help develop a plan for
gradual mixing and possible re
assignment of teachers according to
school capacities. Students may be
shifted from crowded to less crowded
schools, Portwood said. A Negro high
school and two Negro junior high
schools have less than capacity en
rollment.
Van Zandt County—County Supt.
Wendell H. Oliver said all schools
will continue segregated next year.
Fully accredited 9-month schools are
maintained for both white and Negro
students.
Austin—The school board instruct
ed Supt. Irby Carruth to study means
of integration, perhaps starting on the
high school level this fall. There are
approximately 50 Negro high school
students living in the three white
high school districts and a small
number of whites in the Negro high
school district. Possible rezoning and
a liberalized transfer rule are being
discussed.
Hillsboro — County Supt. John
Ramsey said racial desegregation will
be impracticable. A new Negro school
has been built there. “I don’t think
colored parents in Hill County want
their children to attend white
schools,” said Ramsey. “The Negro
teachers with whom I have had occa
sion to discuss desegregation are not
in favor of it.” Ramsey noted that
the Nesrro school operates on a differ
ent schedule. It holds classes for six
weeks in the summer, and closes an
equivalent time in the fall to let the
students pick cotton.
Harlinqen—By 4-2 vote, the school
board ordered desegregation in high
school starting in September. About
11 Negroes will be affected. They had
been attending a high school sup
ported jointly by several districts in
the area. A committee will study de
segregation on lower grades. It will
include three Anglo - Americans,
three Latin-Americans and three Ne
groes.
U. S. Dist. Judge R. E. Thomason
held that Miss Thelma White, Negro
girl, must be admitted this fall as an
undergraduate student at Texas
Western College, El Paso branch of
the University of Texas. The board
of regents ordered desegregation
ended there before the court acted.
While waiting on formal entry of
Judge Thomason’s judgment, officials
disputed whether the action would
knock out segregation in the whole
University of Texas system. The
regents set integration of under
graduates at the main campus in
Austin to begin in September 1956,
along with beginning selective admis
sions through entrance tests. Chair
man Tom Sealy of Midland said the
regents would resist any effort to de
segregate faster. Graduate and pro
fessional classes have been unsegre
gated since 1950.
Kilgore Junior College offered to
reconsider and accept applications
for admission of four Negroes which
it reiected in 1952. This followed in
structions from U. S. Dist. Judge Joe
Sheehy.
More than 200 conservative Demo
crats meeting in Dallas adopted a res
olution:
“We petition and request the at
torney general of Texas to enjoin, ^
behalf of the white people of El p a$0
and other places where school boards
have taken action (banning segre
gation) to maintain all-white schools
for those desiring those schools and
to enjoin the board of regents of the
University of Texas (which ordered
desegregation) ... in violation 0 f
the state laws and state constitution ”
Gov. Allan Shivers said he would
be unable to accept an invitation to
the meeting. “I have always been op.
posed to splinter political parties and
the organization of third parties,”
Shivers said.
Former state Sen. R. A. Stuart of
Fort Worth retorted: “This is not a
splinter group but the Democratic
Pary of Texas.”
Kerrville—The school board gave
Negro high school students a choice
of attending their segregated school
or enrolling at the white high school.
The county has less than 4 per cent
Negro population.
San Angelo—The school board
voted to end segregation gradually,
probably over a 3-year period. The
district has 7,608 white and 546 Negro
scholastics.
Denison—The school board ap
pointed a committee to study steps
toward integration. Desegregation of
students from Perrin Air Force Base
has been put off because there is no
building for them on the base. The
Perrin children will be transported
to segregated schools in Denison. An
integrated school is planned at Per-
Circuit Judge Tom B. Brady 0 f
Brookhaven, Miss., was principal
speaker at the rally. He called for
impeachment of the U. S. Supreme
Court unless it reverses its ruling.
A Negro editor, Carter Wesley of
the Houston Informer, criticized re-
porting of the segregation story.
“Daily papers of the South are not
free,” he said. “They are slaves to the
tradition of social supremacy for the
whites and social inferiority for the
Negroes.”
The most significant announcement
was by the University of Texas
regents.
It adopted this recommendation on
admission policy:
“The present policy of the Univer
sity of Texas, based on the Sweatt
case, is to accept qualified Negro stu
dents only for graduate and profes
sional programs of study not offered
in either of the state-supported in
stitutions for Negroes. Since the de
cision in the Sweatt Case in 1950, sev
eral hundred Negro students have
attended the university in these lim
ited areas of study. The recent Su
preme Court decision makes it man
datory uoon the university now to
consider further steps regarding the
admission of Negro students. The ex
ecutive committee of the Board of
Regents, composed of Tom Sealy,
chairman of the board; C. W. Voyles,
chairman of the committee; and Dr.
L. S. Oates, Leroy Jeffers, J. R. Sor
rell, and Lee Lockwood, was assigned
this subject for study and has had
the benefit of the advice and counsel
of President Logan Wilson and oth
ers of our administrative staff. It 1S
recognized, however, that the issue
involved represents a basic policy
which should be resolved by the
members of the Board of Regents,
who are accountable to the governor,
the legislature, and the people of
Texas for the management and oper
ation of the University of Texas. It
is therefore, recommended that the
Board of Regents adopt the following
policy resolution:
“1. That qualified students be ad
mitted, without reference to racial
origin, to all divisions of the graduate
school, regardless of whether the de
sired programs of study may be p re5 "
ently offered at the state-supported
Negro institutions.
“2. That, because desegregation has
already been ordered at the local
level in the public schools of the city
of El Paso, effective in the fall of this
year, qualified students, regardless o
racial origin, be admitted this fall
all levels of instruction at Texas
Western College of the University 0
Texas at El Paso, Texas.
MAINTAIN POLICY
“3. That for the time being and un
til the fall of 1956, the present poW*
of admission to undergraduate wor
at the main university in Austin
retained until recommendations
be adopted concerning the w
problem of selective admiss 10
which has been under study f° r
most a year.
“The reason for this last re f°^ e
mendation is that beginning wit ^
fall of 1955, the main university
Austin, as is generally known, ^
receive manv more application 5
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