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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.