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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1956—PAGE 7
Racial Integration Is Completed at State Colleges
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
acial integration is an accom
plished fact at the University of
Missouri and the state colleges, but
none of them has been flooded by Ne
gro students, a survey for Southern
School News shows.
In none of the state educational
institutions do the records any long
er distinguish between white and
Negro students. So it is impossible
to compile statistically accurate fig
ures on the Negroes enrolled.
An official of the University of
Missouri at Columbia has this to re
port:
“We now have just short of 9,000
students at Columbia and over 1,900
at Rolla [School of Mines and En
gineering], We have no idea how
many are Negroes. I see a number of
Negroes on the Columbia
Survey of campus, and we have a
Colleges number in our residence
halls, but I would not at
tempt to guess how many—50, 100 or
200, I have no accurate idea. There
are also several at the School of
Mines.
“There are quite a few who live
out of town. Our residence halls are
open to all students, the restrictions
being only those of general policy,
such as that all freshmen women
must live in residence halls, and
Missouri residents who apply before
July 1 are given priority.
FOOTBALL SQUAD
“We had two Negroes on the
freshman football squad last year,
but we have had none on a team
yet. There have been Negroes on the
basketball squad at Rolla but not
on the team. They participate in in
tramural sports, of course.
“We have no record of any aca
demic problem having been raised
concerning Negroes. If teachers
have found such situations they have
not reported them.
“Integration at the University of
Missouri is an accomplished fact.
There are still segregation practices
in the city of Columbia. There is
reason to believe that these are
wearing away and in a few years
may be gone. Many of us believe
that the marvelous progress we have
made is possible because things
have been handled carefully and
there have been no inflammatory in
cidents. Not a little of the credit here
goes to newspapers which have
handled the news carefully and in
telligently.”
Lincoln University at Jefferson
City, long the state’s undergraduate
college for Negroes, continues to op
erate with an increased enrollment,
and it now has some white students,
estimated to number between 10 and
20. Total enrollment this year is six
per cent greater than in 1953 and
nine per cent greater than in 1954.
ALL RACES
Northeast Missouri State College
at Kirksville admits Negro students
on the same basis as others. Says an
official of the college:
“We have on our campus repre
sentatives of all races. We have only
four Negro students, three boys and
one girl. There are 1,577 white stu
dents and 40 colored students of va
rious races. Our colored students, in
cluding the Negroes, are all housed
in the college residence halls with
the exception of one Negro girl who
stays with an aunt in Kirksville. If
she had wanted a room in a resi
dence hall, one would have been as
signed to her.
“The Negro students participate
in sports. Last spring one of the best
members of the track team was a
Negro boy. This fall one of the Ne-
Mississippi
(Continued from Page G)
sidestepped. Gov. Hugh White sug
gested “that is a legislative matter
and should be done without singling
out a particular school.”
COMMUNITY ACTION
Cooperation between white and
Negro leaders, particularly in the
South, to work in a spirit of friend
ship and good will in finding a mu
tually satisfactory solution to the
race question was suggested by John
Wesley Dobbs, grand master of the
Prince Hall Masons of Georgia, in
addressing the grand lodge of the
Stringer Negro Masonic order in Mis
sissippi.
Another speaker, the Rev. Paul
Hayes of Hot Springs, Ark., said dis
turbing incidents in Mississippi and
other sections of the South are God’s
super signs of the coming of World
Brotherhood. He said upon the shoul
ders of Negroes must rest the ballot
and courage to break the pattern of
segregation in America.
Meanwhile, a new Citizens Council
is being formed at Forest, while at
Starkville, Charles A. Johnson, su
perintendent of schools, has been
elected new chairman of the Oktib
beha County council.
The Glendora, Miss., Lions Club in
Jallahatchie County has branded as
an outrage” the slaying there of a
Negro by a white man. In a resolu-
non the club said, “We intend to see
to it that the forces of justice and
right prevail in the wake of this woe-
nil evil.”
Meanwhile, white citizens have
started raising funds to care for the
widow and her five children.
E )r - T. R. M. Howard, wealthy Ne
Physician of the all-Negro tow
°, Mound Bayou, has announced sal
0 most of his property there “be
cause of threats on his life.” He ha
en active in the integration move
6 nt and is president of the Missis
*Ppi Regional Council of Negr
leadership.
Howard is also a national official
in the Elks, and said he plans to spend
considerable time outside Mississip
pi in that capacity. He owns the
Friendship Clinic at Mound Bayou
and also has extensive insurance and
real estate interests.
He said he has sold his home and
the 38 acres adjoining it, as well as
his 753-acre plantation. They were
sold for $185,000. He said he is keep
ing other real estate and properties
valued at $100,000 in the Mound
Bayou area.
WON’T LEAVE STATE
In a statement to the United Press,
Howard said he has no intentions of
leaving Mississippi, but that he
“wouldn’t be surprised if rumors to
that effect haven’t been sparked by
the white Citizens Councils.”
“They would like the colored peo
ple to get the idea I’m scared and
leaving the state,” he told the UP.
“That’s'not true.”
“I’ll stay here and die as an Amer
ican in defending the rights of Ne
groes before I leave,” he was quoted
as saying.
Howard plans to head a delegation
of Negroes to Washington in Janu
ary or February to confer with the
Justice Department about racial in
cidents in Mississippi.
Mississippi’s delegates to the recent
White House Conference on Educa
tion, which included three Negroes,
said here Dec. 9 that they were
unanimous against federal aid for
“maintenance and operation” of pub
lic schools.
On the general proposition, how
ever, they differed.
J. M. Tubb, Mississippi state su
perintendent of education, released
the following statement from the
delegates in a meeting in Jackson
on their return from Washington:
“Some said there should not be any
federal aid of any kind, and some
said federal aid should be given for
school construction without any fed
eral controls.
“It is the opinion of the state group
that President Eisenhower and his
White House conference committee
now have a recommended program
which can be used as a basis for
solving most of our educational prob
lems which confront our nation.”
Supt. Tubb said none of those at
tending panel discussions in which
Mississippians participated “raised
the segregation issue.”
gro boys was on the football squad,
and played in some of the games.
Negro students participate in the ac
tivities of college life the same as
other students. I have detected no
spirit of discrimination or unfavor
able attitude toward them at any
time. They appear to be happy and
content along with the other colored
students from various parts of the
world.
“It has now been nearly a decade
since the first Negro was enrolled in
this college. Colored students have
never created any problems. They
have become an integral part of our
student life. I see no grounds for an
ticipating any difficulty in the fore
seeable future.”
At Southeast Missouri State Col
lege in Springfield, capital of the
western Ozarks, Negroes are ad
mitted on the same basis as whites.
An official of the college says: “I
could not say how many we have
any more than I could tell how many
blue-eyed or black-eyed students we
have. Just from seeing them, I would
guess we have 10 or 12. They share
all aspects of college life and college
facilities. We have experienced no
difficulty.”
CAPE GIRARDEAU
Southeast Missouri State College
at Cape Girardeau, on the Missis
sippi, 30 miles north of the Ohio, like
wise admits any qualified student
regardless of race, and now has
about 10 Negro students in a total of
1,700. There are no restrictions on
participation in sports or other ac
tivities.
“The presence of Negroes on this
campus has been accepted as a mat
ter of course,” says a dean, “with
out fanfare or other demonstration.
They are just students.”
At Central Missouri State College
in Warrensburg, all racial restrictions
were abolished in June, 1954, within
a few weeks of the Supreme Court
decision on desegregation. Few Ne
groes, however, have enrolled so far,
only one being registered at present.
College officials attribute this to the
fact that Lincoln University is 90
miles away and Kansas City, where
college facilities are also open to
Negroes, is only 50 miles away.
“Any Negro who enrolls here will
have all the privileges of white stu
dents in dormitories, food services,
student center, sports and so on,”
says a Central Missouri official. “We
have perhaps as many foreign stu
dents as any state college in Missouri
next to the university. We have had
a number of students from Japan,
Korea, Okinawa, Malaya, China and
other Far Eastern nations. Most of
these people have been very cor
dially received by faculty and stu
dents. We have no race problems and
I do not anticipate any regardless of
the number of students of other races
who might enroll on this campus.”
Northwest Missouri State College
at Maryville will admit Negroes on
the same terms as other students,
but to date has enrolled none.
LEGAL ACTION
Negro teachers and others inter
ested in the effects of integration are
awaiting a hearing in United States
District Court at St. Louis of the test
suit on teacher integration filed in
November by eight plaintiffs against
the Moberly Board of Education and
Supt. Carl Henderson.
Associated with St. Louis and
Kansas City attorneys in arguing the
case will be Thurgood Marshall,
Robert L. Carter and Elwood H.
Chisholm of New York, represent
ing the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People,
which helped prepare the suit after
some Negro teachers, principally in
smaller Missouri towns, were dis
missed following the end of school
segregation.
The plaintiffs, all former Negro
teachers at Moberly, invoke the
Fourteenth Amendment and federal
statutes in behalf of “the right to
contract, to be employed and follow
one’s profession and occupation, and
be eligible for employment as public
school teachers without discrimina
tion because of race or color.”
The Moberly school system, the
petition charges, has adopted a pol
icy or practice of “refusing to em
ploy plaintiffs and other qualified
Negro applicants as teachers, solely
because of their race and color.”
Each plaintiff, it is claimed, has met
all requirements of state law and
the Moberly school regulations. Each
had been employed to teach in the
Moberly schools for at least three
years including the 1954-55 term.
During that year the school board
decided to discontinue separate
schools for Negroes beginning in the
1955-56 school year. On last April 15,
the Negro teachers were notified that
they would not be rehired. Each has
since applied for teaching vacancies
and is ready to comply with any rea
sonable regulation, but all have been
denied jobs solely, the suit contends,
because of color.
The petition seeks damages of $4,-
000 for each teacher, a declaratory
judgment, and an injunction re
straining the Moberly school board
from denying employment on racial
grounds “and from making any dis
tinction whatsoever because of race
or color in the employing of public
school teachers.”
The Moberly Board of Education
filed its answer to the suit in mid-
December. Attorneys Arthur M.
O’Keefe and Austin Walden of Mo
berly based the answer on a flat de
nial that the eight Negro teachers
were dismissed, or their applications
for re-employment rejected, solely
because of race or color. No reason
as to why they were dismissed was
given in the answer, but this point is
expected to be elicited by testi
mony.
The school board admits that the
eight Negro teachers were dismissed
and have not been rehired. It also
admits that if this had been done
solely because of their race and col
or, “such action would have been
illegal, arbitrary, wrongful and vio
lative of plaintiffs’ personal and in
dividual rights, as secured to them
by the laws and constitution of the
United States.” It denies that any
policy or practice of racial discrim
ination in the hiring of teachers has
been adopted by the board.
No date has been set for hearing
of the case.
One more Missouri school system
which had continued segregation aft
er the Supreme Court decision has
now announced that the practice
will be ended. At Sedalia, site of the
state fair in the central section
known as “Little Dixie,” Board
President William F. Brown this
month was quoted by the Associated
Press as telling an attorney for the
NAACP that “we would like to bring
about an orderly and peaceful tran
sition.” Brown said the board hopes
to work out an integration plan by
next June.
Atty. Earl Crawford of Sedalia,
who is a member of the board of
regents at Central Missouri State
College in nearby Warrensburg, said
the NAACP was aware of the prob
lems involved in integration, but that
the Negro population is impatient
and eager for such action, according
to the Associated Press.
Sedalia last year had 263 Negro
elementary pupils in a total of 2,392,
and 129 Negro high school pupils in
a total of 843. The system employs
eight Negro elementary teachers and
11 Negro high school teachers. At
the high school, about one-third of
the Negro pupils are non-residents
from nearby communities.
WHAT THEY SAY
From a recent letter to the St. Louis
Post Dispatch by Henry Winfield
Wheeler, Negro:
“There have been many remark
able changes in race relations in St.
Louis since World War II. If, for the
sake of comparison, one looks back
he will realize with a start that
there were slave sales here 95 years
ago.
in Missouri
“Now there is not a single dis
criminatory act based on race, creed
or color in our municipal govern
ment. Outdoor swimming pools,
parks and all recreational facilities
are shared impartially by all persons.
No one is denied the seat that he or
she desires to purchase in the Amer
ican Theater (stage plays), the Fox,
the St. Louis, and Loew’s State (first
run movie houses), or Busch Sta
dium (National League baseball).
“There are three Negro aldermen,
three state representatives, and
members with rank in the Fire De
partment and on the Police Force;
there are many clerical employes in
our municipal agencies; there are
500 Negro employes in the St. Louis
Post Office, about 25 of whom are
supervisors.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
“There are several hundred in
other federal agencies serving as
typists and clerical workers. Mc
Donnell Aircraft Co., Union Electric
Co. and other industries are employ
ing Negro engineers. Public Service
Co. began employing street car and
bus drivers in April, 1954, the Stat-
ler and the Jefferson hotels and oth
ers now serve Negro patrons; Jim
Crow has fled from the downtown
department stores, cafeterias, the
drug store fountains and the ten-
cent stores. Our public schools were
integrated peaceably and harmo
niously.”
Most St. Louisans agree with
Wheeler that these are “remark
able advances in human relations
for what has always been known as
a border city. Hotels and downtown
restaurants, however, are still diffi
cult for Negroes to get into. The rule
seems to be that Negro visitors from
other cities, here to attend conven
tions, will be served in hotels and
some restaurants, but that local Ne
groes are not encouraged to patron
ize these establishments in conspic
uous numbers. A mixed local organ
ization wishing to hold a banquet
usually finds “everything booked
up” at the principal hotels, and often
has to meet at a Negro hotel or res
taurant.
‘Better Schools’
Thousands of friends of edu
cation, including readers of
Southern School News, have
been receiving the paper “Bet
ter Schools” for the past
year. “Better Schools” is pub
lished by the Citizens Commis
sion for the Public Schools, 2
West 45th Street, New York 36,
N.Y. In January the Commis
sion’s charter expires—and with
it, perhaps “Better Schools.”
That is, unless the paper can be
converted to a subscription ba
sis.
The editors of “Better Schools”
are asking to hear from readers,
who formerly received the pub
lication free, who would be will
ing now to pay a modest fee of
$2.50 for 25 issues during 1956
if “Better Schools” continues.
Thus reassured, they hope to
continue publication.
Tennessee
(Continued from Page 2)
by March, and if his plans succeed,
“we’ll be in Nashville in 30 days.”
A group of about 400 men and wom
en identifying themselves as mem
bers of the Pro-Southerners, ap
peared at a meeting of the Memphis
Park Commission on Dec. 8 when the
commission received a request from
the NAACP to end segregation in
Memphis parks, recreational and cul
tural facilities.
The request was “marked for file”
and consideration of it was deferred.
At the same meeting, decision on
the construction of a proposed swim
ming pool for Negroes in Memphis’
L. E. Brown park, was postponed
until January.
After the meeting, a spokesman for
the NAACP, Rev. Alex Gladney, said
the action by the park commission
would probably be appealed to the
City Commission.