Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Factual VOL. II, NO. 6 NASHVILLE, TENN. $2 PER YEAR DECEMBER 1955 Studies, Plans Get Regional Spotlight UTAH I ifuom COLORADO KANSAS v MFX/C0 j i OKLAHOMA 1 i.^ 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)