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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER 1955—PAGE 5
D- C. Schools Open New Year with
80 p. c. Mixed Classes
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WASHINGTON quietly started the
second year of school desegrega
tion Sept. 12, and officials estimated
that 80 per cent of the 169 public
schools now have mixed classes.
Three-fourths of the schools en
rolled children of both races last term.
School officials pointed out that many
youngsters changed residence during
the summer. These pupils, under the
rules of desegregation, entered
schools zoned to serve their new
neighborhoods without regard to race.
School Supt. Hobart M. Coming
explained that since his one-year de
segregation program has been com
pleted “every District school poten
tially is an integrated one.”
Some schools still have all-white
and all-Negro enrollments because of
the population makeup of certain
communities.
By mid-October, officials expect a
record-breaking peak registration of
106,000 students, an increase of more
than 2,000 over last year. Grade
schools and high schools will bear the
brunt of the influx of young people,
while junior highs are experiencing a
decline in enrollment.
NEGRO ROLLS INCREASE
Although school officials have not
recorded enrollment by race, it is
believed most of the enrollment rise
represents Negro pupils. This con
tinues a trend which began in 1950.
Unofficial reports state the school
child population this year will be
more than 63 per cent Negro. Last
year the racial ratio was 61 per cent
Negro and 39 per cent white.
On the eve of the new term,
Comings was interviewed by news
men on “Reporters Roundup,” a
weekly network program of the Mu
tual Broadcasting System. Here are
some of the highlights of the ques
tioning:
Question: How is integration real
ly working in the nation’s capital? Is
there a tendency on the part of school
officials, and perhaps the press, to play
down the difficulties as temporary
ones while giving the impression that
we have one big, happy, bi-racial
student body here?
Answer: I don’t think there is any
planned program to play down diffi
culties. Actually, the (integration)
plan has operated in Washington
much more smoothly than we had
expected that it would . . . We’ve had
marvelous cooperation among the
school people, from the press, radio,
television, the general public—and it
is going much better than we had
thought it would. However, I don’t
want to leave the impression that
everybody is entirely happy about it.
Question: If you had the planning
of integration to do over again, would
you attempt to complete the change
in one year?
Answer: I think I would.
MORE PUPIL PREPARATION
Question: Do you think the pupils
of both races were given enough
preparation for the end of segrega
tion?
Answer: I think if I were to have
part in a program of this sort again,
which I think will not happen, we
would stress more than we did this
time the preparation of the children.
I think we did a lot to prepare teach
ers and officers and a good bit to pre
pare the community, but perhaps we
didn’t work quite as much as we
should have with the children them
selves.
Question: Have you learned any
particular lessons in your pioneering
in this (integration) that might be
of value to other school superintend
ents?
Answer: We’ve learned a lot of les
sons. I don’t know of anything that
would be general enough to be of
help to other places. The problem is
so different in different communities
that I would not say that the plan we
followed here, or what we have done,
would be applicable any place else.
Question: Last year the enrollment
of white students in Washington
dropped by an unprecedented 7.7 per
cent, while the Negro school popula
tion increased by 8.4 per cent. Do you
believe this withdrawal from District
schools by white students is an order
ly protest against integration?
Answer: I would have to answer
that in this way. For many, many
years, certainly for the 10 years that
I have been here, that very thing has
been happening. The white popula
tion has been moving out into the
suburbs, and there has been a great
influx into Washington of Negro pop
ulation. Actually, statistics show that
the tendency to move to the suburbs
has not increased appreciably in 1954
—the first year of integration—over
what it was the year before.
Question: People could leave the
public schools and go to private
schools •within the District?
Answer: The answer to that is the
same. The percentage at the high
school level in 1953, before integra
tion, that went over to private schools
was 1.2 per cent. In 1954, exactly the
same per cent of students went over
and that was the first year of integra
tion.
TEACHER PROSPECTS
Question: What is the status and
the future prospects of Negro teach
ers here?
Answer: Actually, in Washington
more than 50 per cent of the teachers
and officers are Negro. Furthermore,
in new appointments coming up,
whereas we heretofore had two
boards of examiners, one for the white
prospective employes, one for the col
ored, we now have one examining
board. Teachers, without regard to
race, take the examination; rated lists
are established without respect to
race; and appointments are made
from the top of the list as need devel
ops, without any respect to race what
soever.
Question: In another five or 10
years, could the student population
in Washington be 75 per cent Negro
and 25 per cent white?
Answer: Conceivably, that is true.
Question: I understand that many,
if not all the secondary schools have
virtually cut out their social pro
grams, dances, etc. Now, do you think
this is a healthy situation? And, if
not, have you urged that these social
functions be resumed?
Answer: They haven’t been elim
inated entirely. I think there has been
a slowing down of the program of
social activities in those schools which
are pretty largely integrated. I think,
however, that as time goes on even
that will not be so true, because in
cities where there is an integrated
school system and has been for years,
social activities go on.
IMPACTS STUDIED
During meetings of the American
Sociological Society in Washington
last month, papers on the early im
pacts of desegregation in the District
were read by Prof. Harry Walker of
Howard University and Robert T.
Bower, director of American Univer
sity’s Bureau of Social Science Re
search.
Results of a cross-sectional attitude
survey, they said, produced these
conclusions:
“The white adult population of
Washington was generally opposed to
the Supreme Court decision. Only
about a quarter of the population
thought the decision ‘good’. The rest
were neutral, disapproving or just
didn’t know. None of the Negroes
thought the decision bad. Almost all
of them thought it good, and a few
gave qualified answers.
“The white population’s reaction
will not surprise too many sociolo
gists, nor will the finding that there
are sharp differences in reaction ac
cording to the social characteristics
of the respondents. A greater pro
portion of the better-educated,
younger and more affluent were fa
vorable to the decision. Professionals
and white collar workers were more
favorable than skilled, semi-skilled
and unskilled workers. Jews were
more favorable than Catholics, who
were more favorable than Protes
tants. Adults with children under 18
were more favorable than those with
out them.”
The men pointed out the analysis
hasn’t gone far enough to reveal the
extent of interrelation between these
and other variables.
85 p. c. of Missouri Negro Pupils Attending Integrated Schools
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
OME 85 PER CENT of Missouri’s
Negro school children—nearly
57,000 out of 67,000— attended schools
at which integration had begun by
the opening of term in September,
State Commissioner of Education
Robert Wheeler reported this month.
Prior to the opening of school,
Wheeler had estimated that 53,600 of
the state’s Negro children would be
in districts which had begun desegre
gation, but actual reports raised the
figure. Advance estimates had indi
cted that 96 of 172 high school dis
tricts having Negro enrollments
would have taken some steps toward
e nding segregation. Figures reported
after school opened showed that 135
the 172 high school districts had
fi*gun the process.
In 69 of these districts, desegrega
tion extended throughout elementary
and high school levels. In the others,
e typical pattern was to begin inte
gration in the high school, with ele
mentary grades planned to be deseg
regated within a year.
The largest change-overs were in
Kansas City, St. Louis and St. Louis
County, which altogether account for
49,535, or 75 per cent, of the state’s
Negro pupils.
In Kansas City, where Negro pupils
comprise approximately 16 per cent
of the total enrollment, segregation
ended in both elementary and high
schools without incident of any kind,
according to the Associated Press.
Segregation had previously been the
rule for 88 years in Kansas City. The
school system had prepared for the
change-over by integrating the tech
nical high school and junior college
last year.
CHANGE-OVER CALM
St. Louis, which integrated its jun
ior college in September 1954 and its
high schools last February, completed
the process in elementary schools
this September. The change was ac
complished with extraordinary calm.
The newspapers reported the event
Mississippi
(Continued from Page 4)
Hu! Sa ^ << * n m y opinion, the decision
the segregation cases does not ap-
y to Louisiana at this time, and the
egrnoo must file a new suit in
in an effort to set aside this
on.
T .
, Ul sian a
^sificati
p ut Louisiana prepares this case and
,. vi , mto the record in the trial court
a N eilCe *° s h°w that the health of
etl t e ® ro ohild and the white is differ-
k> venerea l disease is known
gj. ® ver y common among the Ne-
*re H ,an ^ ^ at health standards
f ere uifferent; their morals a-e dif-
** as ev idenced by the fact that
v e Ly and illegitimate children are
Ihe °° mm on among them and that
bg j U safety and welfare would
tb e ^ Versely affected by a mixing of
Copj. Ces ’ the decision of the Supreme
th^ ^ C0U ^ very well be different
case- >. , Was in the recent segregation
Tp he said.
Vth I c° Ur Sa ^ the case tried in the
big , Molina district court pertain-
schoois „ 3e ® re U a tion in the public
hy ' Vas n °t adequately prepared
^ftharfu* 6 Smith Carolina and
fieen diffe, 66 ”’,,* 6 result could have
On the other hand, he said, the
NAACP began preparing its cases
in 1949 after the court decisions in
Sweatt vs. Painter and McLaurin vs.
Oklahoma, when the court held in the
Sweatt case that there was no way to
equalize separate law schools, and in
the McLaurin case that once a Negro
was admitted to a white graduate
school, he must be afforded exactly
the same treatment as the white stu
dents.
“Based upon the decisions in those
cases, the Negroes prepared their
cases, including the testimony neces
sary to come under those holdings;
and relying on those two decisions, it
was not necessary for the court to
override the separate but equal doc
trine announced in Plessy vs. Fergu
son in order to rule out segregation in
the public schools,” Mansour said.
The Association of Citizens’ Coun
cils of Mississippi, reportedly with a
membership of 60,000, plans publica
tion of its own newspaper. First issue
is slated in October, with W. J. Sim
mons of Jackson, administrator of
the state association and secretary of
the Jackson affiliate, as editor.
The subscription price has been set
at $2 a year. There will be no com
mercial advertising.
Simmons’ address is Room 203, Wal
thall Hotel, Jackson, Miss.
in briefest fashion on an inside page.
Registration showed a total enroll
ment of 90,538, up nearly three per
cent over last year, of whom at least
35 per cent or 31,688 were estimated
to be Negroes.
The rise was led by the elementary
schools, where registration reached
72,446 in the first week as compared
with 69,822 last year. The general
high schools showed a slight drop
from 14,447 last year to 14,420. The
technical high schools, which remain
segregated for this year pending com
pletion of a new building, showed a
gain from 3,225 to 3,672.
Integration of St. Louis elementary
schools means, in practical terms,
that instead of 110 schools of which 37
were for Negroes, as was the case last
year, the city now operated 110
schools of which 37 were almost en
tirely Negro, 61 almost entirely white
and 12 mixed, with Negroes outnum
bering whites in most of them.
RESIDENTIAL PATTERN
Since children are no longer classi
fied according to race, these figures
had to be estimates only. In general,
the school pattern followed the city’s
residential pattern, and is expected
to change accordingly in the future.
Negro residential areas are pushing
westward from the central-down
town area where they formerly were
confined.
Negro schools in the center of the
Negro residential area have remained
Negro, though some picked up a few
whites whose homes fell in the new
districts. On the fringe of the Negro
residential area, and in neighbor
hoods where Negroes are moving in,
the schools were mixed, Negro pro
portions running all the way from 10
to 70 or 80 per cent. In most areas of
South and Southwest St. Louis, un
affected by Negro residential migra
tion, the schools remained almost 100
per cent white.
Negro teachers have been guaran
teed the same tenure rights as others,
and they are being retained in their
old schools as well as being assigned
to schools which have become mixed
in student population. The proportion
of Negro teachers in the system, like
the proportion of Negro pupils, is
steadily rising, partly because the
teacher shortage is more acute among
the whites. Negro teachers in St.
Louis must, however, pass a national
teachers’ test, as well as state tests,
before being hired, and this is counted
on to maintain the quality of the
teaching staff. School administrators
make no bones of the fact that a lower
cultural background among Negro
children creates a tougher teaching
problem at the mixed schools.
TRANSPORTATION COST DOWN
Because of desegregation and pop
ulation shifts, a sharp reduction in
cost of elementary pupils’ transporta
tion was evident. Only 26 buses were
required in the city as against 36 last
year.
Another result of integration was
a drop in the pupil ratio from 38.8 to
37.6 pupils per class for the system as
a whole. In many Negro schools the
reduction was heavier than this. In
others, construction of new buildings
will be required before much change
is noticed. Over-all, a distinct im
provement in the facilities available
for Negro pupils is reported, as, for
example, in the center of the Negro
residential area where desegregation
has permitted what used to be a
branch Negro high school to be con
verted into an additional elementary
school, attended almost 100 per cent
by Negroes.
Up to the last week of September
no friction of any kind had marked
the transition to integrated elemen
tary schools. Officials of the school
system, keeping fingers crossed, at
tributed the calm to three main fac
tors: (1) development over the past
10 years of community attitudes gen
erally favorable to integration in
many aspects of public life; (2) adop
tion of a stage-by-stage integration
plan which prepared the community
over a period of 12 months, high
school student organizations playing
a particularly important part in pav
ing the way for elementary school
change-over; and (3) extensive
neighborhood, school and parent
preparation, with notable coopera
tion from churches of all denomina
tions and most civic organizations.
The only “incident” reported any
where in the state was at Charleston,
in the Delta country of southeast
Missouri. Here, as reported in
Southern School News for Septem
ber, persons unknown burned a cross
on the school board president’s lawn
to protest the enrollment of 27 Ne
groes at the hitherto segregated high
school.
NEGROES CAREFULLY PICKED
Charleston’s school board declined
to reverse its decision, and when
school opened the Negroes attended
classes alongside whites without trou
ble. The Negroes had been carefully
selected by parents and NAACP
leaders, and were instructed to be
quiet and inconspicuous. Young peo
ple likely to “kick up their heels” in
case of excitement were kept off the
streets at night by their families. A
young NAACP leader, who just “hap
pened” to be in town, gave counsel
and guidance to the local families.
Within a few days after school had
begun, tension relaxed; the rumors of
a white student strike had evapo
rated, and the situation appeared to
to be calm.
One Charleston resident reported
that the town (population 5,600) had
been divided into three groups—(1)
the “white supremacy” cross-burn
ers; (2) the great majority of people,
who appeared to support both the Su
preme Court decision and the school
board’s decision to begin desegrega
tion, but hesitated to make a public
issue of it; and (3) the active desegre
gation group, small but noisy.
Said this Charleston observer: “If
groups No. 1 and 3 could have been
chloroformed for two or three weeks,
I think that desegregation would
have been accomplished here without
causing a ripple. As it was, our excit
able No. 1 group accomplished it.
The burning of the cross on the board
president’s lawn made our normally
fence-riding school board members
mad. Their own wives and children
had been threatened, and they now
stood firm behind their decision. On
the other hand, the larger middle
group seemed to be intimidated by
the fiery cross incident, and kept si
lent.”
Jackie Robinson, outfielder, who on
several occasions has addressed high
school audiences when the Brooklyn
Dodgers were visiting St. Louis, told a
predominantly white student assem
bly in suburban Clayton Sept. 14 that
acceptance of Negroes in major
league baseball has helped in deseg
regation of public schools.
Since Negro players are now mem
bers of practically every major league
team, Robinson said, Negroes feel
that if they have the ability they can
strive for professions and opportuni
ties which once were denied them be
cause of race.