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New Texas
AUSTIN, Texas
A nother lawsuit was filed by Texas
-‘•-Negroes seeking to enter white
, public schools during December.
But otherwise there was little ac
tivity on the racial segregation prob
lem. K was > I 11 f ac t, the quietest
month in the controversy since the
U.S. Supreme Court declaration of
May, 1955.
Parents of 20 Negro pupils filed suit
in United States district court at
Wichita Falls for admission to the
Barwise elementary school near the
city’s Negro residential district.
The suit is styled Alfred Avery Jr.
et al v. Floyd L. Randel et al. Randel
is president of the Wichita Falls
school board.
The Negroes, represented by Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People attorneys,
requested a hearing before a three-
judge court. They asked that segre
gation be ended immediately. The
school board previously had an
nounced that Barwise school will be
come a Negro school on Jan. 4, 1956,
after a new elementary school is
opened for white students.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
The Texas legislature is not sched
uled to meet during 1956, unless a
special session is called.
But 1956 will be a political year,
and segregation is a subject on which
candidates have made little expres
sion. There are two announced can
didates for the Democratic nomina
tion for governor, and others will
Suit Seeks
announce before the deadline next
May.
The announced candidates are Sen.
Jimmy Phillips of Angleton and Reu
ben E. Senterfitt of San Saba, former
speaker of the Texas House of Rep
resentatives. Both of them have criti
cized the present state administration,
but neither has mentioned segrega
tion.
MINOR POLITICAL ISSUE
It seems likely that desegregation
will be less an issue in Texas politics
than in some other states. More than
65 school districts have ended segre
gation this year. Others will do so in
1956. But in the East Texas districts,
where most of the state’s Negroes
live, there are few signs of active ef
forts to abolish racial segregation.
A local leader of NAACP was.
killed at Schulenberg, in South Tex
as. But the killing was admitted by
a 15-year-old Negro relative after
NAACP officials had started an in
vestigation of the case. The boy was
sent to a corrective school.
The victim was Herbert Johnson,
60, also a leader in his town’s Amer
ican Legion organization. The motive
for the slaying never was made clear.
U. S. District Judge Joe Sheehy or
dered North Texas State College at
Denton to admit Joe L. Atkins, a
Negro, to its classes in February. The
case was Atkins v. North Texas
State College.
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1956—PAGE II
Entry of Negroes at Wichita Falls
Other Negroes also will be eligible
to enroll at the college under the de
cision.
The University of Texas, largest in
the state, has announced plans for
accepting Negroes at all levels start
ing in September, 1956. It already
offers instruction to Negroes as well
as whites in the graduate and pro
fessional courses.
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
The Houston school district, said
to be the largest segregated district
in the nation, has approved desegre
gated staff meetings. Its board and
an advisory committee still are
studying steps to be taken toward
desegregation of students.
Staff meeting integration was rec
ommended by the 25-member advis
ory council.
The board turned down a proposal
to poll the teachers before ordering
integration at their sessions. Dr. W.
W. Kemmerer, board member, said
such a poll would “only aggravate
the situation.”
While white and Negro teachers
sometimes attend the same profes
sional meetings in Texas, segrega
tion still is practiced generally. The
Texas State Teachers Association in
November sidetracked a proposal to
admit Negro members.
NEGRO PUPILS STRIKE
At Austin, more than 200 Negro
students attending Anderson high
school took a brief walkout in an
expression of dissatisfaction over one
teacher. She was accused of giving a
football star a harder examination
than other students. After a dispute
with the teacher and principal, the
Negro athlete was ordered to leave
school, after which many of his
classmates took part in the one-day
“strike.”
Dr. Irby Carruth, superintendent
of Austin schools, said the problem
would be left for handling by Prin
cipal W. B. Campbell, for more than
20 years the head of the Austin Ne
gro high school.
Thirty-five students were suspend
ed from Stephen F. Austin high
school (mainly for whites) also in
Austin, just before the Christmas
holidays for a walkout from classes
following suspension of one student
for shooting fireworks in the school
building. They were expected to be
reinstated after conferences with par
ents and school officials.
Gov. Allen Shivers appointed a
new Texas Commission on Higher
Education, which will coordinate
more than 20 institutions of higher
learning that are entirely state-
supported.
A M. (Al) Muldrow, a Brownfield
rancher, was named as temporary
chairman. The commission’s first
meeting will be held at Austin on
Jan. 9. Muldrow is a former Texas
secretary of state.
Shivers chose the commission
largely from areas which have no
state schools.
The commission will have super
vision over the budget of each state
school. It has authority to approve
or reject proposed new courses. The
stated purpose is to improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of the
Texas college system. It will choose
a director, who can be paid $15,000
a year under the act.
COMMUNITY ACTION
A Citizens CouncE was chartered
by a Fort Worth group, but the
month saw little organized activity
by either pro- or anti-segregation
groups.
Ross Carlton of DaUas, state chair
man of Texas Citizens CouncE,
promised to teU a home-town audi
ence about “officials of the National
Association for Advancement of Col
ored People who are either Com
munists or members of Communist
front organizations.”
A similar statement by Carlton
previously had been challenged by
NAACP Texas leaders.
Dr. Erie Damall, a Dallas psycholo
gist, charged that extremist groups
are increasing racial tensions in
Texas. Dr. Damall spoke to a Uni
versity of Texas Inter-American
Conference of Psychologists. Organi
zation of Texas Citizens Councils
was cited as an example of such “ex
tremist” activity.
The speaker declared also that
press reports on the Dallas school
board’s statistics regarding education
of whites and Negroes, lacking in
terpretation, served to increase ten
sions.
Court in Oklahoma Holds ‘Good Faith’ Pace Set
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
J^ederal judges in Oklahoma have
rejected a local school patrons’
effort to push racial integration be
yond the “good faith” pace set by the
Supreme Court. (See “Legal Action.”)
The past month also brought comple
tion of desegregation at the college
level (see “In the Colleges”) and
further steps toward merger of white
and Negro professional groups (see
‘School Boards and Schoolmen”).
An opinion handed down Dec. 16
by a three-judge panel dismissed a
uit to force the all-Negro Red Bird
district in Wagoner County to permit
14 Negro pupils to attend schools
nearer their homes. The jurists had
heard arguments Nov. 30 on the peti
tion, brought in behalf of the Ne
groes’ parents by attorneys for the
National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People.
The basic question involved in the
dispute, the panel ruled, was one of
ocal fiscal policies, not of racial dis
crimination, and therefore was out-
s 'de the jurisdiction of the federal
court. But, even if the reverse had
een true, the judges declared they
would not have granted the relief
sought because the school districts
affected had evidenced the “highest
e gree of good faith” in moving to
ward racial integration.
suit (Ernestine Bor rough, et al,
R D^ r ^ en kins, superintendent of
e Bird Dependent School District
i ’ vf a U had been filed in Muskogee
, , the eastern division of Oklahoma’s
r. , era ^ district court. It was heard by
C Alfred P. Murrah of the U. S.
T„j rt Appeals and U. S. District
Walf 6S S' taught and W. R.
j. e plaintiffs accused Jenkins, t
crinv° ^P^hdendent, of racial di
t^tion refusing to cant
® s they obtained last spri:
Birri , Port f r and Coweta to the R
p r district. Encouraged by the S
the lv < “ our t an ti-segregation rulir
form e ^ roes had enrolled this faE
C 0 er ail-white schools at Porter ai
wituy 3 ’ despite the transfers. Th
who r f W a it er two weeks, howevi
J enkins protested.
r anD j est ihed in the hearing he a
Sen the Red Bird school budf
on the basis of the transfers. In par
ticular, he stated, a new school bus
had been purchased primarily to
transport the transferees from the
Coweta district and one additional
teacher had been hired for the school
year at $300 a month. He added can
cellation of the transfers would have
dropped attendance below the point
where the budget could have been
financed.
LOCAL LAW IS ISSUE
In the light of these facts the court
ruled no racial discrimination was in
volved, and the issue was one purely
of local law. It conceded that the stu
dents doubtless would not have trans
ferred to Red Bird had they known
the Coweta school would be open to
them. It acknowledged further “a cer
tain moral inequity” in requesting
plaintiffs to pay tuition to attend the
school located in their home district.
“However, even though the plain
tiffs’ motives for transfer to Red Bird
grew out of a pattern established by
unconstitutional segregation,” the
court wrote, “nevertheless, the basic
controversy before this court is one
between two separate colored factions
over local fiscal policies.”
The opinion pointed out that the
Coweta school district, also a defend
ant in the suit, is not now practicing
segregation, since it has some 30 Ne
gro students—youngsters who did not
transfer out or were able to get their
transfers cancelled in time and those
who are paying tuition.
‘GOOD FAITH’ RECOGNIZED
Said the court: “Because of the de
fendant school districts’ good faith
strides toward complete integration,
this court would have no disposition
to use its equitable authority to com
pel Red Bird to renounce aU financial
right flowing from the transfers in
question for the present school term,
in order to force complete and imme
diate integration. Under the condi
tions existing in the defendant dis
tricts, such districts are entitled to
this added time to complete, in or
derly fashion, their desegregation
program.”
Meanwhile, the status quo prevaEed
in the first suit by the Oklahoma As
sociation of Negro Teachers protest
ing dismissal of one of its members
(Mildred King George v. Joint School
District No. 5 of Kingfisher County).
Only new development was a routine
motion to quash on grounds that de
fendants were not properly served.
Other similar OANT lawsuits report
edly are in preparation but have not
yet been initiated.
Oklahoma Baptist University at
Shawnee became the last of the state’s
private and tax-supported schools of
higher education to comply with the
Supreme Court integration rulings.
Its board of trustees adopted a mo
tion “that the policy of admissions
conform to that of our state-support
ed schools and other accredited senior
colleges in Oklahoma.” The board
said no Negroes have applied for ad
mission to OBU and explained the
action was taken merely to “clarify
the issue for administrative purposes.”
The 18 state-supported colleges, in
cluding University of Oklahoma and
Oklahoma A&M, were opened to Ne
gro students in June. Later, Oklahoma
City, Tulsa and Phillips universities,
all private schools, dropped race as
a consideration in admissions.
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
The Oklahoma Association of Ne
gro Teachers took two steps during
the month looking toward dissolution
of the 48-year-old organization. It
authorized the executive secretary,
F. D. Moon, Oklahoma City Douglass
high school principal, to try to set up
a meeting of the executive commit
tees of the OANT and the 20,000-
member Oklahoma Education Asso
ciation to consider merger of the two
groups. The OEA has opened its
ranks to Negroes, but the latter want
assurance their rights wEl be fully
protected in the larger organization.
They are concerned particularly
about possible discrimination in cer
tain areas of the state, since much
of OEA business is conducted on a
district level.
The OANT also recognized its im
pending demise by approving the hir
ing of a professional historian. He wEl
direct a history-writing project to
“preserve the OANT for posterity.”
Also on the merger front, the Okla
homa Interscholastic Athletic Asso
ciation, composed of 94 Negro high
schools, voted unanimously to join
the Oklahoma State High School Ath
letic Association. Officials explained
the move will make it easier for Ne
gro high schools to schedule games
and will permit a realignment of con
ferences.
Dr. J. Chester Swanson, Oklahoma
City superintendent of schools, dis
closed no faculty changes are planned
at Creston Hills elementary during
the 1955-56 year. Creston HEls, a
question mark in the enrollment pic
ture when Oklahoma City schools
opened their first integrated term in
September, was assigned an aE-white
faculty. Situated in an area of rapid
residential turnover, the school came
up with the city’s only mixed student
body with a majority of Negroes. Ad
ministrative officials decided against
either a mixed or all-Negro faculty
“for the time being.” Now, Dr. Swan
son indicated, successful operation of
the Creston Hills program obviates
any need for change. Teachers, pupils
and parents appear to be working to
gether harmoniously, he said.
Georgia
(Continued from Page 10)
Dr. Holmes said members of the
Lincoln Country club, a private Ne
gro golf club, had agreed to instruct
Negroes who may be unaware of
course courtesies in the ethics of the
game. About 150 Lincoln members
play golf.
Commenting on Atlanta’s accept
ance of the situation, Gov. Griffin said
it is “regrettable that the Atlanta
city administration has chosen to
throw in the towel as far as golf
courses are concerned,” but the state
has no jurisdiction since the city
was not inclined to offer “further
resistance.”
Atty. Gen. Cook said that the state
is powerless to intrude in such mu
nicipal matters.
UNDER SURVEY
Surveys authorizing studies of
school desegregation problems are
underway in three Georgia school
systems.
Supt. Ira Jarrell is responsible for
a survey directed by Dr. Warren G.
Fundley of the Princeton University
education and advisory section of the
Education and Training Service in
the Atlanta city schools. Several spe
cific points in connection with pos
sible desegregation difficulties are
being investigated. (SSN, October
1955)
Similar questions are being stud
ied in the Chatham County (Savan
nah) school system desegregation
survey. The board has directed Supt
WEliam A. Early to make a survey
and report in “seasonable (sic) time”
as to “practicabEity and effects” of
possible future integration.
A special committee of the Bibb
County (Macon) Board of Educa
tion has said it could not commit
itself on integration demands until
completion of a study, the extent of
which in mid-October it could not
assess. Mallory C. Atkinson of Ma
con is chairman of the committee
continuing the study of integration
petitions.
Atty. Gen. Cook addressed the
Conservative Society, a Yale law
school student organization, on “The
Southern View of Segregation.” De
spite objections to his appearance by
the Yale NAACP chapter, the New
Haven Civil Liberties Union, the
John Dewey Society, the Yale Chris
tian Association, the Yale HElel
Foundation and the Young Demo
crats of Yale, Cook spoke as sched
uled. He was interrupted only once,
by a male voice from the balcony,
and wire services reported applause
and laughter, about equafiy mixed,
greeted his address.
Meeting in Tampa, Fla., the South
eastern Advisory Board of the
NAACP, evaluating desegregation
progress in the Deep South, termed
Georgia “one of the most defiant
states,” and Gov. Griffin an “irre
sponsible and emotional” man.
OFFICIALS ACCUSED
Griffin and Cook were accused of
using the segregation issue to “keep
their hands on about two bElion dol
lars in tax money” by John Wesley
Dobbs, treasurer of the Georgia
NAACP chapter, in a fund-raising
meeting in Atlanta.
The conference voted to step up
the school desegregation campaign
in Georgia and to continue a suit
seeking admission for Horace Ward,
a Negro, to the University of Geor
gia law school.