Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1956—PAGE 3
Maryland Parents Hold Children Out, Receive Court Summons
BALTIMORE, Md.
'T’wo sets of Baltimore County
x white parents have been haled
into Juvenile Court because they
have kept their children out of ra
cially mixed public schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Oliver T. Shock, who
refused to send a son and daughter
to the integrated Hereford Junior-
Senior High School (928 white stu
dents, 28 Negroes), were given 10
days to comply with Maryland’s com
pulsory school attendance law and
chose instead to move to Florida. Mr.
and Mrs. Roland Howard, whose two
daughters have been absent from the
Cockeysville elementary school (522
white pupils, 20 Negro), are facing
a technical charge after a preliminary
court hearing. The Howards have in
dicated a desire to move to Vermont.
(See “Legal Action.”)
The influence of integrated military
installations on the Maryland school
scene is becoming more pronounced.
The demands of Negro military per
sonnel to have their children admit
ted to nearby white schools rather
than transported to Negro schools led
to partial desegregation in Cecil
County this fall and to the newly filed
law suit in Harford County. In St.
Mary’s County Negro parents are
preparing to bring suit to force the
use of a building at the Patuxent Na
val Air Station on an integrated basis
to relieve the overcrowding at a Ne
gro county school. In Anne Arundel
County the reverse situation has de
veloped: White military personnel
have urged that buildings at Fort
Meade be used on an integrated basis
to relieve overcrowding at a white
county school. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
RESISTANCE STIFFENING
Resistance to integration appears to
be stiffening in Montgomery County,
where desegregation was begun this
fall in the “down-county” Washing
ton suburban half of the county but
is yet to come in the more rural and
more heavily Negro “up-county”
area. A board of education hearing of
the pro-segregation side of an argu
ment over the assignment of teach
ers brought out about 300 persons,
including representatives of two quite
recently organized groups: the Mont
gomery County Chapter of the pro
segregationist Maryland Petition
Committee and a smaller group
known as We, The People. (See
“Community Action.”)
In view of the rural orientation of
the “up-country” area, the most sig
nificant statement was probably that
of the Montgomery County Farm Bu
reau, which repeated its call, made
earlier this year, for a desegregation
program that would start in the kin
dergartens and be spread over a 13-
year period. Speaking for the Farm
Bureau, O. W. Anderson was quoted
in the county press as saying, “If in
tegration comes suddenly, it will be
resisted with every force at our com
mand, unless Negro children and
teachers are spread uniformly over
the entire school system, or at least
to a point where there will be no
Wore than 10 per cent of either in
an y up-county white school.”
. The suit filed by NAACP lawyers
m federal district court late in No
vember is on behalf of Stephen
oore Jr. and 20 other Negro pupils
Versus the members of the Harford
'-ounty Board of Education and the
county superintendent of schools. The
altimore Afro-American reported
®t of the plaintiffs live in Edge-
’ A 'ood, a small town outside the gates
p t " e Army’s Edgewood Chemical
enter. Many of the children live in
integrated government-sponsored
ousing project, and their parents
the integrated military in
flation. The children are within
distance of a white school
are transported 15 miles to a
Ne gro school.
: ^fPhen Moore Jr., the first named
the title of the suit, lives in Bel
r within four blocks of a white ele-
ntary school. He travels three
^ to a Negro school. The remain
ing four plaintiffs are Negro high
school students who live within three
miles of a white school in Aberdeen
but go six miles to a Negro high school
in Havre de Grace. The suit has been
given a docket number—8615 Civil—
but no hearing time has been set.
School officials in Harford County
have not commented directly on the
suit, but Ernest Volkhart, chairman
of the citizens’ desegregation study
group set up by the county board of
education, said that four desegrega
tion subcommittees would be ready to
report “before very long,” after
which the full group would hammer
out its proposed desegregation plan.
“We want a workable plan that
doesn’t have to be changed,” Volkart
said, “and one which doesn’t inter
fere with orderly operations of the
schools.”
ST. MARY’S SUIT
Another impending law suit in
volves an overcrowded Negro school
in St. Mary’s County that seeks the
use of a community building at the
Patuxent Naval Air Station. Under
Defense Department orders, the
building would have to be used on an
integrated basis. NAACP lawyers said
in mid-December that they might be
ready to file suit on behalf of about
30 pupils in a “couple of weeks.”
The cases in Baltimore County of
white parents who have kept their
children out of school because of in
tegration have been heard by Judge
John B. Gontrum in the county’s Ju
venile Court. Judge Gontrum gave
Mr. and Mrs. Oliver T. Shock 10
days to follow one of three courses:
send their children to the integrated
Hereford school, enter them in a pri
vate school or move to a location
where the children could attend an
all-white school. If they failed to com
ply, they would face a charge, similar
to a neglect charge, of causing a child
to be brought into Juvenile Court.
On Dec. 3, after the 10 days were
up, the Shocks left by car for Flor
ida, with Shock telling the press that
“southerners will stick together on
this thing” and that “the southern
colored man knows his place.” A na
tive of Maryland and a carpenter for
the county government, Shock had
been a frequent attendant at meet
ings of the anti-integration Maryland
Petition Committee and was repre
sented by the committee’s legal coun
sel. He had offered to provide trans
portation for his children to attend a
county school which has no Negroes
or to board his children in some all-
white section of the county, but coun
ty school officials were firm in their
unwillingness to have a precedent set
which would circumvent the present
school district and transportation
policies.
SOCIAL SIDE HIT
Both Mr. and Mrs. Shock expressed
particular opposition to the social side
of school integration, citing the fact
that children ate at the same table,
used the same lavatories and “even
took showers together.” By the middle
of December Shock was back at his
county carpentry job, but Mrs. Shock
and the two children, 12-year-old
Flora and 15-year-old Oliver Jr.,
were still away.
In the second case, Mr. and Mrs.
Roland Howard had kept their two
girls, aged 7 and 8, out of the inte
grated Cockeysville school since the
opening day. Judge Gontrum on Dec.
15 heard their statement that they
did not intend to send the children
to the school. The judge’s only action
after the hearing was to instruct the
court’s probation department to file
petitions against the Howards, charg
ing them with creating a condition
which had brought their children into
Juvenile Court. Mrs. Howard has
been reported as telling a visiting
teacher that the family would move
to Vermont, if necessary, to avoid
mixed classes.
Howard works for the county high
way maintenance department, and
thus both cases involve county em
ployes.
In response to an inquiry on be
half of Southern School News, the
superintendent of schools in Alle
gany County has given a special re
port on integration procedures which
is of interest because Allegany has
moved closer to completely non-seg-
regated schooling than any other
place in Maryland. In one of the coun
ty’s major towns, all of the Negro
pupils have been admitted to for
merly all-white schools and the Ne
gro school has been shut down.
However, the Allegany situation is
not typical of conditions in the state
as a whole. Allegany, in western
Maryland, has the smallest number
of Negro school children in the state,
with the exception of neighboring
Garrett County which has none at all.
Negro pupils in Allegany number
only 254, which is less than two per
cent of the total county school popu
lation. Last year under segregation
there were two Negro schools in the
county; one was the small (35 pu
pils) Lincoln elementary school only
two years old in Frostburg, and the
other was Carver high school in
Cumberland, which accommodated
elementary and secondary pupils.
Ralph R. Webster, Allegany school
superintendent, reported: “At the
present time, we have 151 [Negro]
students enrolled in 13 formerly all-
white schools. In 18 other school dis
tricts there are no colored residents,
leaving only one school where Negro
children were not admitted, and that
was due to an existing overcrowded
condition.”
PUBLIC KEPT INFORMED
The county board of education set
the pattern in the situation which
“developed naturally,” Webster said,
and the public was kept informed at
each stage of the proceedings. The
method followed was that of having
the school superintendent write to all
parents of Negro school children ask
ing whether they preferred in the fall
to have their children enrolled at Lin
coln, Carver or a “neighborhood or
district school.” The covering letter
over Webster’s signature read:
“The Board of Education of Alle
gany County, Maryland, in accord
ance with the decision of the Su
preme Court on segregated schools
and the policy as announced by the
State Board of Education has gone
on record as of July 12, 1955 to pro
ceed as quickly as possible with the
program.
“In many situations it will be pos
sible to accommodate all who wish to
attend their neighborhood school,
both elementary and high. In a few
areas the schools are presently over
crowded and to take in a large num
ber of children now could only re
sult in more overcrowding. There
fore, if the board of education, for
any reason, feels it wise to delay or
limit admission to certain schools
during the transition period, it re
serves the right to do so.
“However, we are attempting to
give the parents of all Carver and
Lincoln children the opportunity to
express preference for the school they
wish their children to attend in
1955-56 . . .
“A study of these preferences will
determine whether all requests can be
granted this year. Likewise, it will
give the school principals an opportu
nity to make whatever plans are nec
essary for the changing enroll
ments . . .”
The county newspapers carried the
announcement that the question
naires were being sent to Negro par
ents, and also the subsequent news
that the majority expressed a pref
erence for schools nearest their
homes. The only somewhat surpris
ing development was in Frostburg.
INTEGRATION COMPLETE
Webster wrote: “When the oppor
tunity was presented to the Negro
parents of Frostburg, I anticipated
that the [27] junior-senior high
school students would want to attend
Beall high school [the white facility
in Frostburg], thereby avoiding the
11-mile bus trip both morning and
afternoon to Cumberland’s Carver
high school. I was not sure that all
of the elementary children would
want to leave their new Lincoln
school since it is almost within
shadow of the Beall [white] elemen
tary school. However, they did desire
to make the move and integration is
complete in Frostburg.”
With all of Frostburg’s 62 Negro
pupils enrolled in formerly white
schools, the Negro facility has been
closed and its one Negro teacher ab
sorbed by the Carver high school in
Cumberland.
“It is difficult to appraise accurately
all of the facts that may have entered
into the apparent smooth process of
integration in Allegany County,”
Webster reported. Among the factors
which he said had “some ameliorat
ing influence" were the small per
centage of Negro children involved
hi the change, the county’s previous
experience with joint meetings of
white and Negro teachers, the racially
mixed public recreation program in
the principal city of Cumberland and
ihe good reputation which the local
Negro population has among many
segments of the white community.
Webster added that Allegany does
Regional Teachers’ Salaries and Qualifications
Number of
Teachers
Average Salary
of Teachers
State
icauicn micauons
Percentages with Degrees
White Negro
Dis
placed
Inte
grated
White Negro White Negro Ph.D. M.A. B.A. None Ph.D. M.A. B.A. None Wh Ng Wh
Alabama ....
... 9,202
7,875
$2,771
$2,646
6.9
Arkansas ....
... 11,309
2,916
2,306
1,962
.028
10.6
Delaware ....
... 2,437
440
4,300 for both
.36
24.5
Florida
.. 21,737
6,290
4,150 for both 1
2.2
25.3
Georgia
... 19,007
8,919
3,092
2,931
15.2
Kentucky ....
... 19,793
1,386
2,600 for both
14.1
Louisiana
... 12,422
5,948
3,635
3.206
16.5
Maryland ....
... 12,430
3,022
3,912
4,358
.10
13.7
Mississippi ...
... 9,947
6,821
2,332
1,310
15.0
N. Carolina ..
... 24,943
9,277
3,170
3,275
13.4
Oklahoma ...
... 15,937
1,451
3,442
3,403
25.8
S. Carolina ...
... 11,895
7,241
2,924 for both
.04
13.8
Tennessee ...
... 21,358
3,893
3,133
3,039
18.1
Texas
... 54,028
8,172
3,875
3,286
.07
36.68
Virginia
... 20,729
6,204
3,110
3,169
0.1
10.8
W. Virginia ...
... 15,594
973
3,040
3,040
.06
24.7
59.4
33.5
—
10.0
68.0
21.8
0
0
0
0
58.0
31.3
—
7.7
54.8
57.5
0
1
60
0
59.7
15.1
0
18.0
76.5
5.4
0
0
6
69.7
2.1
.05
14.6
83.6
1.2
0
0
0
0
62.4
22.2
—
6.6
79.3
14.0
0
0
0
0
45.22
40.68 Figures cover both
races)
0
0
0
4
66.0
17.5
—
7.1
74.5
18.5
0
0
0
0
45.9
40.3
.07
8.3
33.5
58.1
0
0
0
0
67.8
17.2
—
1.3
34.5
64.2
0
0
0
0
84.4
1.2
—
20.0
79.7
.08
0
0
0
0
70.4
2.6
—
24.7
73.0
1.3
0
165
0
5
70.4
15.5
.01
9.2
72.4
17.6
0
0
0
0
48.1
33
—
8.9
70.8
20.3
0
0
0
0
60.20
3.05
.02
27.35
72.04
.59
0
5
0
56.7
32.3
.03
15.1
72.5
12.1
0
0
0
0
48.8
26.3
—
25.3
67.2
7.4
0
24
996
83
2^I e & A s STvir N a e g g e^:5 a o5f
not want to be presented as an ex
ample of what can or should be done
aboul integration. The county met its
own special situation in the way that
seemed best for Allegany, he said..
The superintendent of Anne Arun
del County schools, Dr. David S. Jen
kins, agreed in mid-December to
make an immediate study of a special
situation which has arisen at the
Meade Heights school which serves
families stationed near Fort Meade.
The school, built for 390 white stu
dents but currently housing 600, for
merly had the use of temporary mili
tary buildings for overflow classroom
space. The military facilities were
given up when the Defense Depart
ment ordered integration of all post
schools.
In November the PTA of the Meade
Heights school wrote to the Anne
Arundel Board of Education’s deseg
regation study group urging the use
of military facilities on an integrated
basis to relieve overcrowding. It was
understood at the time that the Anne
Arundel Board of Education was not
likely to make any move toward in
tegration until after it had heard from
its desegregation study group. But in
December the Fort Meade post com
mander, Col. Julian B. Lindsey, in
vited county school officials to meet
with him and offered them classroom
facilities on the post, with the under
standing that they could not be
opened solely to white children. The
fact that Supt. Jenkins agreed to
study the proposition is an indication
that the request of the Meade Heights
PTA may be considered apart from
the countywide study of desegrega
tion.
While the Maryland Congress of
PTAs is on record as favoring com
pliance with the Supreme Court de
cision and as standing ready to help
carry out the policies of the State
Board of Education, the Meade
Heights PTA is the first white school
group to seek an integrated policy
for its own school. The children at
the Meade Heights school are mainly
sons and daughters of Army person
nel.
The Montgomery County Board of
Education has endorsed plans to study
the functions and scope of its junior
college program. The study is only
partly related to race relations, since
a special commission on higher edu
cation, appointed by Gov. McKeldin,
has urged immediate expansion of
junior college facilities in Maryland
to meet the coming increased demand
for college educations. Montgomery
is one of the few counties in Maryland
now offering a junior college curricu
lum, and until this fall had both a
white and Negro junior college.
As part of its “down-county” moved
toward integration this fall, the
Montgomery County Board of Edu
cation merged the Carver Junior Col
lege with the Montgomery Junior
College. Carver last year had only a
half dozen evening students taught
by teachers regularly employed in
day schools. School officials had ex
pected these six Negro students and
perhaps six or nine more to enroll
at the white junior college this fall.
But none applied, so this year there
is only one junior college and it is
all white, although open to both
races.
Goucher College, a private institu
tion for girls located near Towson,
north of Baltimore city, enrolled its
first Negro student this fall. She is
Jewell Robinson of Richmond, Va.,
and was elected to be one of two
sergeants at arms of the freshman
class. Most of the public and private
colleges and universities in the Bal
timore area have some mixing in
their student bodies. Morgan State
College, primarily a Negro institu
tion, appears to have six or eight
(See MARYLAND, Page 15)