Newspaper Page Text
Factual
VOL. II, NO. 6
NASHVILLE, TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
DECEMBER 1955
Studies, Plans Get Regional Spotlight
UTAH
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COLORADO
KANSAS
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TEXAS
gTUDiES, recommendations and plans—on both sides of the school segregation question—highlighted the school
month in 17 southern and border states.
Virginia’s legislature met at the end of November in special session to consider a plan for pupil assignment and
state-supported private schooling, the latter entailing a decision on whether to summon a constitutional convention.
The first major private school plan was laid before Georgians when their state’s education commission endorsed in
principle legislation to implement a 1954 constitutional amendment. At Hoxie, Ark., some parents long embroiled in
a controversy over the desegregated school system planned to set up a private school—perhaps the first of its kind
in the South.
i
Two Southwestern and one Midwestern state, shaded in the map above
have, in varying degrees in the past, operated their public schools under
statutes of permissive segregation. They now are in the process of remov
ing racial barriers from their school systems. This month, Southern School
News reports on these developments, state by state.
‘Permissive Segregation’
States Surveyed for ’55
Last year Southern School
News asked three prominent
newsmen in Arizona, New Mex
ico and Kansas to report factually
on segregation-desegregation de
velopments in their states—states
which had “permissive segrega
tion.’’ A year later SSN returns
to these three states and, with the
help of the same newsmen, re
constructs the picture in the late
fall of 1955.
Kansas
By Anna Mary Murphy
Education Writer
The Topeka Daily Capital
TOPEKA, Kansas
Jcive Kansas first-class cities report
complete school integration as the
fall semester nears its end.
A survey shows the remaining
ei ght first-class cities have begun to
'ntegrate all races in their classrooms
but anticipate it
will be several
years before seg-
[ regation is ended.
Prior to the
Supreme Court
<>urt ruling, Kansas statutes per
mitted racial segregation only in
e ementary schools of first-class cities
j^d in high schools of Kansas City,
irst-class cities are those with over
15 ;W0 population.
chose cities which now have com-
P ied with the Supreme Court de-
j lsi0n ar e Lawrence, Pittsburg, Sa-
wf’ Atchison and Hutchinson. The
cit" 1 * S tbe ordy one ^ first-class
tion S Wb * cb never practiced segrega-
eight cities with partial deseg
regation are either waiting for build-
gs to be completed or are using
P ion plans to gradually integrate
ne races.
option plans used
j n “rough the option plans, children
eha° nS Way or an °ther are given the
c j lo . Ce to attend the school of their
into ICe r thUs bringing some Negroes
few f ?^ mer “H'White schools but
sp w hite children into previously
legated Negro schools.
Pr<w° - SUits have been file d this fall
Ksr, eSt ' n ^ features of the Topeka and
City plans.
h’AArn° Pe ^ a su ft was filed by the
*Pvol u 0n behalf of the children
five tu tbe original suit, one of
decjjjo “ r h 1 8 ° n tbe Supreme Court
threj^ 5 beard earlier this fall by a
j\j(j 'l Uc f§ e district court panel. The
Ed u s ru ^ e d the Topeka Board of
a 1Q n is proceeding “in good
Meanwhile, Louisville, Ky., an
nounced a 12-point “free choice” de
segregation plan to take effect in 1956
in the region’s ninth largest city
which has a Negro population ratio
of 15.6 per cent. And Washington,
D. C., reported that all but 22 of its
169 public schools now have racially
mixed classes.
The courts were busy, too.
A federal judge in Alabama dis
missed a suit filed by a group of Ne
gro teachers, citing in his decision
the 11th Amendment to the U. S.
Constitution. A junior college in
Texas was ordered opened to Ne
groes, and again in Hoxie a special
judge was expected to rule in De
cember whether a temporary injunc
tion restraining pro-segregationists
should be made permanent.
Activity by “opposition” groups
continued, particularly in the Deep
South. Texas Citizens Councils
claimed 20,000 members in 12 cities.
A new pro-segregation group was or
ganized in Houston. Southern School
News now counts at least 24 private
organizations active in opposition to
the Supreme Court decisions in all
save two states of the region.
Two minor outbreaks of violence
over the school issue were reported—
one in Tennessee and the other in
Florida. These and other key devel
opments are described in the individ
ual state reports and in the state-by
state summary which follows:
ALABAMA
A federal judge, dismissing the suit
of Jefferson County Negro teachers
charging salary discrimination, cited
the 11th Amendment and held that a
suit against a school board consti
tuted a suit against the state of Ala
bama, which could not be sued under
the Constitution without its consent.
Alabama’s 10th Citizens Council was
organized north of Birmingham.
ARKANSAS
A prominent retired federal judge
from Kansas City will hear (on Dec.
8) testimony on whether a temporary
injunction granted against pro-segre-
gationists in the Hoxie school con
troversy should be made permanent.
A resident judge previously had held
that Arkansas has no laws requiring
racial segregation in public schools.
DELAWARE
At Milford, scene of last year’s
school disturbance, a controversy
broke out over cancellation of the
traditional Thanksgiving Day football
game between Milford (segregated)
and Dover (integrated) high schools.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
All but 22 of the District’s 169 pub
lic schools reported they had racially
IndeX mixed classes. The proportion of Ne
gro students in the District system
State Page was set at 64 per cent.
Alabama 4
Arkansas 9 FLORIDA
Delaware 10 Florida’s state PTA Congress called
District of Columbia . 7 for “ realistic planning” for school
Florida 12 integration in a split-vote resolution.
Georgia 12 Unidentified men attempted to set
Kentucky in fi re the home of Allen Platt, whose
Louisiana 14 ® ve children, alleged to be Negroes,
Maryland 8 were ousted from a Lake County
Mississippi ’ ^ ' ^ li white school, then technically re-
Missouri i4 stored by a court ° rder -
North Carolina 13 • GEORGIA
Oklahoma 15 Georgia’s Education Commission
South Carolina 6 endorsed in principle six proposed
Tennessee 16 legislative measures to set up a pri-
T f xas _ 5 vate school system in a step to im-
Virginia 3 plement a 1954 constitutional amend -
West Virginia 7 ment providing for private schooling.
faith” to end segregation but criti
cized the option phase of the plan as
not being “the final answer.” Other
Kansas cities with option plans were
watching the Topeka suit.
The third annual step of the grad
ual integration program in Topeka
gave children an option of attending
the school in the district where they
now live or the one they attended
prior to integration.
As part of this step, the city was
redistricted, incorporating three pre
viously all-Negro districts in the
overall pattern of 22 elementary
school districts. One Negro school
was placed on standby because it
was within two blocks of a white
school which had empty seats. To
peka’s junior and senior high schools
have not been segregated for many
years.
STEP THREE
Through step three, 489 of the city’s
898 Negro pupils now attend former
all-white schools. The remainder
either live in a district little changed
on the new map and therefore have
no option, or they have chosen to re
turn to their old schools. The city’s
elementary enrollment is 8,738.
Of the 386 Negroes who had an op
tion, 315 are attending former all-
white schools and 71 preferred to
remain at their former buildings. Of
the 92 white students who had an
option, 89 elected to attend their old
schools. No white children chose to
attend a former Negro school. Five
elementary schools have no Negroes
enrolled.
Kindergarten children got the
same option with regard to the
(Continued on Page 2)
To the Parks
s
SOUTHERN .- i
CREATIONAL FACILITY
—Arkansas Gazette
KENTUCKY
Louisville announced a 12-point
“free choice” desegregation plan for
1956 affecting 30 per cent of the state’s
Negro pupils. Studies are under way
in some 50 other school districts.
LOUISIANA
A ruling was expected this month
on a challenge to a $100,000 state ap
propriation for legal aid to fight pro
integration suits. The state was also
awaiting a hearing on a 1952 suit ask
ing that all New Orleans schools be
opened to all races.
MARYLAND
The pro-segregation Maryland Pe
tition Committee added a fifth county
—Montgomery—to its area of organ
ized activities. The first desegrega
tion suit since the May 31 Supreme
Court decision was brought in Har
ford County.
MISSISSIPPI
Both sides were preparing for legal
action in school controversies by
building up cases, reported SSN Cor
respondent Kenneth Toler. Incoming
Gov. J. P. Coleman, who is now at
torney general, said he planned to
challenge the constitutionality of the
14th Amendment to the U.S. Consti
tution. NAACP attorney Thurgood
Marshall said “we shall insist that
the University of Mississippi open its
doors to Negroes.”
MISSOURI
The mixed faculty issue was de
bated in Kansas City after charges
that 59 reserve teachers were not
now teaching because they are Ne
groes. Most of Missouri’s other large
school systems reported they have in
tegrated teachers along with pupils.
NORTH CAROLINA
Gov. Luther Hodges pledged to
continue to work to solve the segre
gation problem along with “continu
ance of our public schools,” while
school men and other administrative
spokesmen talked more in terms of
preserving the school system than of
abandoning it. However, the “volun
tary” segregation plan advanced by
the governor came in for continued
criticism.
OKLAHOMA
The Oklahoma Association of Ne
gro Teachers opened a campaign to
regain teacher jobs with a suit in
Kingfisher County. White and Negro
high school football teams played
Oklahoma’s first regularly scheduled
game in Oklahoma City.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Opposing elements in the school
controversy consolidated their posi-
(Confirmed on Page 2)
Lower Court
Park Decision
Is 6 Affirmed’
By Edgar Jones
\^ ITH the single word “affirmed”
the Supreme Court on Nov. 7
made clear that its May 17, 1954 de
cision on the unconstitutionality of
racial segregation in public educa
tion extended to public beaches, parks
and golf courses. The cases involved
bathing facilities in Maryland and the
Bobby Jones golf course in Atlanta,
Ga.
(Reaction and developments state-
by-state will be found in the individ
ual state reports.)
The judgment sustained by the Su
preme Court was that of the Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals, delivered
March 15 at Richmond, which ruled
out segregation at Sandy Point Park,
a bathing beach operated by the state
of Maryland on Chesapeake Bay, and
at Fort Smallwood, a public beach
belonging to the city of Baltimore.
Appellate Judges Dobie, Parker and
Soper reversed a district court opin
ion of Judge Rozzel C. Thomsen that
the May 17, 1954, decision of the
Supreme Court was “limited to the
field of education.” (For text of the
appellate court decision, see Southern
School News, April, 1955.)
Judge Thomsen, who got the segre
gation cases only two months after he
went on the federal bench, following
long service as president of the
Baltimore school board, held that
segregation in the narrow field of
recreation has little, if any, tendency
to retard the education or mental
development of Negro children. He
noted that the Supreme Court “has
refrained from deciding or even
clearly indicating the extent” of its
1954 non-segregation principles “in
fields other than education.” He con
cluded that “certainly they apply
with greatly diminished force, if at
all, in the narrow field of public
bath and swimming facilities.”
‘AUTHORITY SWEPT AWAY’
The Fourth Circuit Court of Ap
peals noted that the district judge,
Thomsen, had not felt free to disre
gard earlier Maryland decisions
which had held, on the authority of
the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision in
Plessy v. Ferguson, that segregation
of the races in athletic activities in
public parks or playgrounds did not
violate the 14th Amendment if sub
stantially equal facilities and services
were furnished both races. The
appellate judges said, “Our view is
that the authority of these cases was
swept away by the subsequent de
cisions of the Supreme Court.”
Reviewing latter-day decisions of
the Supreme Court on segregation
matters, the court of appeals declared
that it was “now obvious” that seg
regation cannot be justified as a
means to preserve the public peace
merely because the tangible facilities
furnished to one race are equal to
those furnished to the other.”
Pointing out that the Supreme
Court in its 1954 school decision had
indicated that the “psychological fac
tors” involved in segregation must
(Continued on Page 2)
