Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965, November 01, 1955, Image 1
Factual
Southern School New
VOL. II, NO. 5
NASHVILLE, TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
NOVEMBER 1955
Three Courts Annul State School Laws
School Construction Expenditures Since
(In Millions of Dollars)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
1949
400
Alabama
Arkansas
Delaware
Dist. of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
j f
Virginia
West Virginia
Expended
Approved
Spurred on by rapidly growing numbers of school age
children and by realization of the need for more adequate
building, Southern states have, in the past six years, spent
w approved more than two and a half billion dollars for
construction of new facilities. The figures shown in the
shove bar graph are, of necessity, incomplete. They do,
however, show something of the relative rate of construc-
hon in the states and the District of Columbia faced with
the problem of racial integration in their schools. While
•949 appears to have marked the start of the period of in
tensive school construction, figures for the whole period
in some cases were unavailable. By way of further ex
planation it should be noted that the Alabama figure of
$110 million approved represents an amount of school
bonds authorized by the state legislature but subject to
approval by the voters in a referendum scheduled for Dec.
6. The total of $2,556,500,000 does not include approxi
mately $85 million spent during the period in Missouri
which is not included in the graph.
'• Includes state, local and federal funds
- Expenditures since 1951
3. Program began prior to 1949
4. Expenditures for latest biennium
Negro Teacher Tenure
A- sense of insecurity, marked by a
^nsistent if weakly held fear of loss
, hanging over many Negro
schers is one result of the Supreme
urt’s decisions against public
°ol segregation and subsequent
Patt^ attae * cs on t ^ le South’s biracial
ex i? e< fucation, according to an
N’Ews S * Ve surve y by Southern School
®°Wever, ^ere is no indication
s ion e *^ er this fear or other compul-
Port ^ ea< ^ Negro teachers to sup-
^ntinued segregation in the
j 0 ^ e , r ^ a P s one reason for this is that
tj on osses as a result of desegrega-
sej, ° r Pressure arising from the
Pbioi Se ®regation issue have
apj. te d to less than 300 out of the
‘each mately 75 ’ 00 ° Ne gro school
st^ er ? * n the Southern and border
’ furthermore, apparently few
sch^i e< fucators fear that the public
v e i 0 s °t the region, so long in de-
TjJ^t. w iU be abandoned,
tejjjj. e reasons, plus the fact that
Prof ® * s one °f the better-paying
ar ea I® 118 open to Negroes in an
ip jjj “ere teachers generally are
why supply, probably explains
aon Ce ere has been no widespread
H-g re _ about this aspect of the school
LfiSs i0n ^ Ue stion.
So { DlSc OURAGING’
^Sreu’ ° n!y ' n Oklahoma, where
150 °f Ration has occurred in some
e state’s 1,800 school districts,
has the displacement of Negro teach
ers raised much apprehension. And
even there, John W. Davis, teacher
tenure director for the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People, found in July that
the situation “was not nearly as dis
couraging as a good many people
think.”
At last accounting, 144 teachers and
21 principals had lost their jobs as
a result of desegregation. Only four
teachers had been integrated into
mixed schools and these as coun
selors for Negro students. But one
principal has been promoted to su
perintendent in a “Little Dixie” dis
trict.
Next largest number of displace
ments because of integration was re
ported in West Virginia, where state
school authorities are committed to
a policy of desegregation. Here only
seven Negro teachers and 17 princi
pals have been displaced, with 46 of
the state’s 55 counties desegregated or
moving in that direction. But 83 of
the state’s total 973 Negro teachers
had been integrated along with their
students.
Some displacement reportedly has
occurred in Missouri, but since rec
ords in this highly decentralized
school system are no longer kept on
a racial basis, statistics were not
available. In September, however, the
office of the NAACP teacher tenure
director indicated that the teacher
Is Surveyed
situation in that state had been
worked out satisfactorily.
FIVE IN TEXAS
In Texas, five Negro teachers have
been displaced in Karnes County. In
(See TEACHER TENURE, Page 2)
■■IllllllllglgllEIIIHISIllIIllllEllIIi
.Johnny Can Head
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Beginning with the first issue
of Volume II, Southern School
News has been made more read
able for the busy educator, pub
lic officials, school board attor
ney . . .
The Page 1 summary gives you
the whole month’s activities in
capsule form.
Then, the “lead” on each state
report summarizes what has hap
pened in slightly extended form.
Finally, under the topical head
ings you will find more detailed
accounts of these events: “Legal
Action,” “School Boards and
Schoolmen,” “Legislative Ac
tion,” “In the Colleges,” “What
They Say,” and so on. A new de
partment has been added this
month. It’s called: “Community
Action.”
Only Southern School News
offers a complete, unbiased
monthly roundup of the biggest
education story in the South to
day.
9iSIiIIIsIIIIiiiEs!iSI£ilIls5IsIiIli§Ii
^JOURTS in three states—two of them state supreme courts—struck down
constitutional or statutory provisions for public school segregation during
October.
Again it was a busy month on the legal front, as elsewhere and notably in the
Deep South groups opposed to desegregation drew new recruits to their ranks.
Southern School News counted at
least 21 private organizations oppos
ing compliance with the Supreme
Court decisions that were active in
one or more of the 17 traditional seg
regation states save Kentucky and
West Virginia. Oklahoma reported the
first organization of a Citizens Coun
cil, a movement which was spreading
out of Mississippi into Alabama,
Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina,
Texas and other states.
•
The three major court rulings were
in Florida, Texas and Tennessee.
In Florida, in a case involving ad
mission to the University of Florida
and remanded to the state court by
the U.S. Supreme Court, a 5-2 deci
sion by the state Supreme Court
nullified state segregation laws. How
ever, the court allowed time for in
tegration by orderly procedures.
In Tennessee a federal district
judge held that “the Supreme Court
had said very definitely, if it has said
anything, in its latest pronouncement
that racial discrimination in public
education is unconstitutional and all
provisions, state or local, calling for
racial discrimination must yield to
this principle.” At the same time, and
over protests of counsel for Negro
students seeking immediate admis
sion to Memphis State College, the
court upheld a Tennessee plan for
gradual desegregation of the state
college system, beginning at the
graduate level. It was the first ruling
in any court dealing with a “step-by-
step” integration plan.
In Texas the state Supreme Court
ruled that schools may proceed with
desegregation without regard to state
laws, declaring invalid provisions of
the state constitution and the school
laws which required racial segrega
tion. In the main opinion Associate
Justice Few Brewster called “utterly
without merit” the argument that
Texas segregation laws were un
affected by the U.S. Supreme Court
decision.
•
Reports coming to SSN after school
opening showed meanwhile that sev
en more schools in Oklahoma now
have mixed classes; that one more
county in West Virginia has ordered
desegregation (effective in January),
and that 24 of Kentucky’s 224 districts
have adopted desegregation.
Little or no segregation activity
was reported from the states of the
Deep South, where the accent was on
the organization of protest groups.
A state-by-state summary of key
developments follows:
Alabama
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered
two Negro women admitted to the
University of Alabama without wait
ing for the outcome of an appeal from
a federal district court order opening
the doors of the university to all
qualified Negroes. Several of the gov
ernors attending the Southern Gov
ernors Conference at Point Clear ex
pressed the view that school segrega
tion will not be an issue in the 1956
elections.
Arkansas
A federal district judge at El Do
rado said he expected to order inte
gration at Bearden school district
within • year. The Hoxie school re
opened without incident but with
many absentees. Representatives of
White America, Inc. filed suit against
members of the school board, alleg
ing irregularities, while the board
obtained in federal court a restraining
order against interference with the
operation of the schools.
Delaware
Dover High School (integrated) set
up a unique athletic policy calling for
segregated games away from home
but requiring visiting teams to play
return games in Dover against inte
grated squads. The House of Repre
sentatives passed the pending $44
million school bond bill, retaining the
controversial “C” classification.
District of Columbia
Parents and school authorities were
involved in a controversy over a
teacher shortage and overcrowding
of the schools—conditions traced in
part to administrative problems flow
ing from the integration of the school
system.
Florida
The Supreme Court in a 5-2 ruling
knocked out Florida school segrega
tion as a legal principle, holding com
pliance with the U.S. Supreme Court
decision to be “our inescapable duty.”
However, it said the federal ruling
does not require “a clear legal duty”
to admit Negro students to schools
“at any particular time in the future.”
One of the justices said the ruling did
not go far enough and the other mi
nority member questioned integra
tion on principle. Biracial committees
were at work in one-third of Florida’s
counties to survey the school situa
tion and make recommendations.
Georgia
Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook and Ex
ecutive Secretary Roy Wilkins of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People traded ver
bal blows over the issue of whether,
as Cook charged, the NAACP was
“subversive.” Forty-four Negro par
ents filed a school admission petition
in Waycross—Georgia’s sixth such
petition — while the State School
Boards Association, meeting in Ath
ens, said that the “legal conflict be
tween federal and state authority
must be resolved before local school
boards can do anything more than
study the question of racial integra
tion in our schools.”
Kentucky
Twenty-four of Kentucky’s 224
school districts reported desegrega
tion, involving some 300 Negro chil
dren who were attending mixed
classes.
Louisiana
The state was still awaiting the
outcome of litigation over a $100,000
state fund for use in combating inte
gration efforts and attempts in St.
Helena and Orleans parishes (coun
ties) to gain admission of Negro chil
dren to all-white schools.
Maryland
Mixed classes were reported in
eight of 22 counties having Negroes
of school age, plus Baltimore City.
The Maryland Petition Committee,
opposing integration, renewed its
(See COURTS VOID, Page 2)
Index
State Page
Alabama 9
Arkansas 3
Delaware 14
District of Columbia 5
Florida 4
Georgia 15
Kentucky 16
Louisiana 16
Maryland 10
Mississippi 7
Missouri 14
North Carolina 13
Oklahoma 12
South Carolina 11
Tennessee 8
Texas 6
Virginia 12
West Virginia 5