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PAGE 2—OCTOBER 1955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
8 of Maryland’s 23 Counties Report School Desegregation
BALTIMORE, Md.
YEARLY enrollment figures indicate
that 1,018 colored pupils entered
formerly all-white public schools in
eight of Maryland’s 23 counties this
fall, marking the first moves toward
non-segregated education outside of
Baltimore city, which desegregated
its schools a year ago.
No enrollment figures, even of a
tentative variety, have been com
piled in Baltimore, but the indica
tions are that mixed classes are
more common this year than last,
with more Negro children involved.
Last year there were 1,576 colored
children in 48 of the city’s formerly
white schools. If the number of in
tegrated Negro pupils has doubled
this year, as may likely be the case,
the statewide total of colored chil
dren in formerly all white schools
will be something over 4,000 in a
total school population of 460,000.
Approximately 20 per cent of Mary
land school children are colored.
The greatest change recorded thus
far in Baltimore’s second year of
non-segregated schooling is the in
creased number of Negro teachers in
formerly white schools. Last year
there were six; this fall, 63. Nineteen
colored teachers were in five once-
white elementary schools; thirty-
seven in 10 secondary schools and
seven in three vocational schools. All
staff vacancies in Baltimore schools
are filled by the merit system, with
teachers taken from the top five
places on the eligible list.
INCREASED OPPOSITION
The initial integration steps in
Maryland counties were accompanied
by increased evidence of opposition
to mixed classes. Protest groups
formed in two northern sections of
the state, one in opposition to the
admission of 15 Negro pupils to two
white schools in Carroll County and
the other objecting to 28 colored
youngsters at a white secondary
school at Hereford in Baltimore
County.
In each instance mass meetings
were held, and some white children
were kept from school by protesting
parents; but school officials reaf
firmed their admission policies, and
open resistance petered out after the
first few days of school. The Here
ford school was only one of 14 in
Baltimore County which admitted
Negroes. No parental resistance de
veloped at the other 13. The two
schools in Carroll County which ex
perienced some disturbance were the
only two in the county admitting
Negroes this fall.
The Maryland Petition Committee,
an anti-integration grouo in being
for more than a year, took an active
part in the Baltimore County and
Carroll County protest meetings,
furnishing speakers and soliciting
members. Up until this time the com
mittee had been identified mainly
with efforts on the legislative level
to get laws nullifying the effect of
the Supreme Court decision. An
anti-integration group in Dorchester
County, on the Eastern Shore, also
gained new members in September,
and a new group in Anne Arundel
County made itself known. Resist
ance in Montgomery County, on the
other hand, was not apparent in
September, after a flareup in one
section during August.
All the counties of Maryland
have desegregation under continuing
study, with the exception of two
which have their adjustment plans
completed and Garrett County, in
far western Maryland, which has no
colored school children. In most
counties the problems of adjusting
to a non-discrimnatory admissions
policy are being studied by commit
tees of representative citizens. Some
news along the desegregation study
front developed in September.
The board of education of Harford
County, where Negroes represent
about 10 per cent of the school popu
lation, announced that county schools
would remain segregated during the
Baltimore Afro-American Photo
In Prince George’s County a desegregated class of 30 second graders sings
under the direction of Miss Rose Marie Murray at the Carole Highlands
elementary school at Takoma Park. Janet Barry is the only Negro pupil in
the class. In the background are Mrs. Frances Lindahl, principal, and Miss
Irma Waterman.
1955- 56 school year. The board said
it had “no desire to make any
changes” until the recommendations
of a 35-member citizens study group,
formed in August, were received.
The board added: “This committee
is proceeding with its deliberations,
and giving studied consideration to
the many legal, administrative and
social aspects of the problem. The
board has the utmost respect for the
members of this committee and has
every confidence that they will ren
der valuable assistance in solving the
problems involved in integrating our
schools.”
A 26-member citizens study group
in Talbot County, which lies about
halfway down the Eastern Shore
and has approximately a one-third
ratio of colored to white school chil
dren, reported to the county board of
education early in September that
desegregation was “not practical in
the current school year. The group
recommended that “no later than
May 1, 1956 the Talbot Board of
Education set aside one day on which
the principal of each school in Tal
bot County will be present to receive
applications for transfers for the
1956- 57 school year.”
The study group further recom
mended “that all requests for trans
fers and registrations be acted upon
favorably and in compliance^ with
the Supreme Court’s decision.” The
group also suggested that during
the 1955-56 school year and in the
foreseeable future, all countywide
teachers’ meetings shall be joint ses
sions, combining both white and
colored teaching personnel.”
PRINCIPLE ACCEPTED
The Talbot County Board of Edu
cation accepted the group’s recom
mendations in principle, agreeing to
hold mixed teachers’ meetings this
year and to receive transfer appli
cations before the date specified. The
board, however, said that acceptance
of transfer requests “will be deter
mined necessarily by available
facilities.”
The biracial citizens study group
in Dorchester County, an Eastern
Shore county with 32 per cent col
ored school enrollment and an active
anti-integration organization already
in being, turned down, in effect, a
motion made by a colored member
that would have put the group on
record as favoring a start toward de
segregation this year. The motion
was not seconded and was quickly
superseded by a second one stating
that the original motion would be
“accepted for further study by all
committee members.”
The citizens study group in Kent
County, also on the Eastern Shore,
held its second meeting in September
and decided to concentrate at pres
ent on solving problems and devel
oping policies leading toward the
elimination of segregation in the
county’s elementary schools. School
officials were requested to have maps
and other information on the loca
tion of schools and bus routes and
projected school enrollments ready
for presentation at the group’s next
meeting in October.
TWO STUDY GROUPS
In Anne Arundel County, which
lies immediately south of Baltimore
and has about the same percentage
of Negroes as Howard, the 20-mem
ber study group got down to busi
ness in September, dividing into six
sectionalized subcommittees to study
regional problems in a county which
has industrial, urban, residential,
suburban residential and tenant
farming areas along with seashore
resorts and a large military base.
The full group is to meet twice a
month, and the subcommittees twice
a month. The chairman is Lt. Col.
Dwight C. Brewer of Fort Meade,
who was reported in September as
saying that the group’s work was
progressing “very well” but he
couldn’t say whether it would be fin
ished in “a year, a month or a day.”
A “fact finding” group of Anne
Arundel countians opposed to inte
gration, organized in August, re
ported in mid-September on replies
to questionnaires sent to 4,000 box-
holders in the county. Only 414
answers were received, and of these,
374 favored the continuation of seg
regation while 40 favored integra
tion. A spokesman for the group said
that the results of its survey were
made public “for whatever purpose
it might serve.’ The county has a
school population of 30,000.
The opponents of the admission
of Negroes to formerly all-white
schools in Baltimore and Carroll
counties were generally orderly,
and their meetings and demonstra
tions represented the outbursts of
small segments of the counties’ popu
lations and at no time approached the
intensity of the disorders in South
Baltimore last year. Particularly in
Baltimore County the opponents
were kept in order by immediate
police precautions. Policemen were
stationed at the Hereford school
doors and one officer assigned to
each school bus carrying white and
colored children until the likelihood
of overt acts of hostility was con
sidered past.
At a Hereford protest meeting the
public relations director of the
Maryland Petition Committee, Rob
ert Lee Weisman, was reported as
blaming the Communists and the
United Nations for the “pressure”
that resulted in the Supreme Court’s
school segregation decision. Weis
man was quoted as saying “the sit
uation has been forced upon us by
forces we are not too familiar with
and methods we are not familiar
with.”
At the same meeting Robert M.
Furniss Jr., general counsel and
leading spokesman for the Petition
Committee, was reported as saying
that the American people were vic
tims of “government by newspaper.”
He was further quoted as saying: “I
believe in discrimination. It is my
God-given right to discriminate on
any grounds that I see fit. I am
prejudiced because I think the white
man is a pretty good guy, and it is
time somebody recognized that the
white man has some civil rights.”
PROTEST SURPRISE
Part of the protests in Carroll
County was based on claims of white
residents that the admission of Ne
groes to two formerly all-white
schools had taken them by surprise.
The county board of education had
announced during the summer that
it was not going to desegregate
schools on a countywide basis this
year, pending a report from its citi
zens study group, but that individual
requests for transfer would be con
sidered. It was under this latter pro
vision that 15 Negroes entered the
Union Bridge and New Windsor
schools.
The boycott was on a bigger scale
in Carroll than in Baltimore County,
at its peak affecting 70 children out
of 520 at the Union Bridge school, and
the speeches of a few Carroll coun
tians were much more fiery.
‘ONLY PRACTICAL’ COURSE
In explanation of why Carroll
County had admitted some Negroes
to some white schools prior to the
adoption of a full desegregation plan,
the county superintendent of schools,
Samuel M. Jenness, said that “if we
hadn’t, we would have been in for a
lawsuit.” Jenness explained that he
had hoped that there would be no
applications for transfer this year,
but since some were received, ap
proving them “was the only practical
and reasonable alternative facing us.”
“What I stand on is the law of the
land,” Jenness said. “It’s the only
thing I have to stand on whether
you believe it is right or wrong.” The
county board of education gave him
its full support, refusing to counter
mand his admission of the colored
pupils. The board’s vote to continue
integration at the two schools fol
lowed a public hearing of the oppo
sition.
The Dorchester County anti-inte
gration group, which has taken the
name of Better Dorchester Schools,
Inc., heard from its legal advisor, C.
Awdry Thompson, at a meeting in
September attended by about 600
persons. Thompson, an Eastern
Shore political figure and formerly
a Democratic leader in the General
Assembly, told his audience that the
Supreme Court had recognized the
right of communities to delay inte
gration, since it had not established
a timetable for the change. “Dor
chester County may some day be
ready for integrated schools,” the
Associated Press quotes him as say
ing, “but it is not now. Dorchester
County (where about one in three
are colored) for many years has en
joyed good race relations. I pray to
God that they will continue.”
PRO-INTEGRATION STAND
The strongest words spoken on the
side of integration by a public offi
cial during September were those of
Joshua R. Wheeler, principal of
Kenwood senior high school in Bal
timore County. The Kenwood school,
one of 14 in the county to receive
Negroes into formerly all-white stu
dent bodies, has an enrollment of 47
colored pupils (highest among the
integrated county schools) and 1,877
white ones. In a signed statement
appearing in a county newspaper
Wheeler said:
“Since the decision of the U. S.
Supreme Court in the spring of 1954
that segregation of races in our pub
lic schools was in itself discrimina
tory, those of us interested in public
education have watched closely the
developments in southern states
where steps toward integration have
been taken. In one community after
another we have seen demonstrations
against integration provoked by
those individuals who have refused
to accept the order of the highest
court of our land. Through all of this
we, of course, have all been con.
cerned over how our own respective
communities would accept this inte
gration when it became a reality in
our school.
“When classes started on Sept. ^
we had on our rolls most of the
Negro boys and girls of senior high
school age who reside in our school
district. Immediately our former
students extended a warm welcome
to the newcomers. In the classrooms,
corridors, cafeteria and on the cam
pus school activities proceeded as
usual and included Negro students.
Enrollment has been exactly what we
predicted and attendance has been
normal. In spite of the fact that some
parents may find it difficult to agree
with this order of the Supreme Court
there has been complete acceptance.
Not one incident has occurred which
would indicate otherwise. We have
been completely free of any ugly
demonstrations which have haunted
school districts in this and other
states.”
Integration is almost complete in
Maryland in Allegany County, which
has the smallest number of Negroes
apart from Garrett County, which
has none of school age. Allegany
County up to this year has had two
colored schools, a small elementary
school at Frostburg and an elemen
tary-secondary school at Cumber
land. The Allegany County Board of
Education announced this summer
that * Negroes, starting this fall,
would be admitted to the schools of
their choice wherever possible. A
survey was made to determine what
the choices were.
As a result, the Frostburg colored
school is now entirely closed down.
Its 34 students are enrolled at white
schools in the town, along with 18
Negroes of secondary school age, and
its Negro teacher assigned to the
colored school in Cumberland, where
the student enrollment now is half
what it was last year. Of the 254
formerly segregated colored students
in the county, 145 of them are now
attending 13 of the 31 formerly all-
white schools. Negroes remaining *
the all-colored school in Cumber
land number 109.
WASHINGTON COUNTY
In nearby Washington County
another western Maryland county
with a small colored population, '■>
colored pupils have been admitted to
seven formerly all-white schools-
They represent nearly all of the
colored children living outside the
principal city of Hagerstown, where
the one colored school is located-
They also represent a start towar
desegregation in Hagerstown itse •
where most of the county’s 320-0®
colored students live. The coun 5
school board has said that full Id e , (
gration in Hagerstown must aw
completion of current construct
plans. , c
In Baltimore County, where ^
board of education designated
former white schools as having s
cient room to receive Negro
trants, colored pupils enrolled at 1
half that number. Since the coU ^' t
only has less than seven per
Negroes in its school population,
amount of integration is limited,
colored pupils in 14 formerly
white schools, as of Sept. 13- ^
number per school ranges from
in a student body of 839 at the K
dale school to 47 in 1,924 at the
wood school. i<(Jt)W r
Montgomery County, the ^
county” portion of which ser '^ v j,jte
a sprawling, almost entirely % ot gd
suburb of Washington, D. C-.a 0 ^
a first step toward countywide ^
gration whereby four small-
standard colored elementary s< ^ un ty
were abandoned in the down- jjj
region and colored secondary P.^y
in the same area were given
to enter white high schools.
the first enrollment figures
completed in late September, ^
were 332 Negroes in 13 former ^ jfrf
white elementary schools a .^or
Negroes in 10 formerly whi ®
(Continued on Next Fag