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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH 1956—PAGE II
Study Group Urges Maryland County to Desegregate By Fall
BALTIMORE, Md.
HE FIRST OF A NUMBER of reports eX-
I pected this spring from county-
desegregation study groups was made
public in February. It recommended
to the Howard County Board of Edu
cation that “all public schools in
Howard County be declared officially
desegregated at the opening of the fall
term in 1956.” The board is preparing
) to act on the report by “early spring.”
Howard County, lying southwest of
Baltimore, is partly suburbanized but
predominantly rural county with
4,466 white and 1,085 Negro pupils in
its school system.
The study committee, appointed by
the board of education and made up
of representatives of the parent-
teacher groups in the county, based
its recommendations on “a belief that
freedom of choice will bring fewer
t problems than will compulsory meth
ods.” It urged that county schools be
opened to both races on a priority
basis with first choice reserved for
those who attended a given school
the previous year, second choice for
those living in the general area of
the school and succeeding choices at
the discretion of school officials. (See
“Under Survey.”)
NAACP WANTS ACTION
The legal redress committee of the
Maryland branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People resolved in February
that “suits should be instituted in
( every Maryland county in which suit
able and acceptable plans for inte
grating public schools have not been
put into effect by September, 1956,”
One suit has already been filed
against Harford County. Another,
against St. Mary’s County, has been
reported by the Baltimore Ajro-
, American as being already drawn
and awaiting final NAACP legal ap
proval.
In other developments reported
I about the state: (1) Maryland’s most
recently desegregated school, an ele
mentary school established at Fort
Meade by the Anne Arundel County
Board of Education, opened in Feb
ruary with 24 Negro children in a
student body of approximately 270
and with one Negro teacher in a
faculty of eight; (2) the Anne Arun
del County Teachers Association
moved a proposal to admit Negro
members into position to be voted on
at the annual meeting in May; and
(3) Calvert County, which is the only
county in Maryland with more Negro
than white children, was reported as
having its first joint meeting of white
and Negro teachers in February.
The Maryland General Assembly
moved into the final days of its 1956
session, due to end March 1, without
school segregation or integration be
coming an issue. Representatives of
the Maryland Petition Committee and
Georgia
(Continued from Page 10)
Negroes in the community forced the
decision after he made speeches ask-
ln S colored people to “forget integra
tion.”
Lee, in a speech which was also
published in the Fort Gaines weekly
newspaper, cautioned Negroes that
we have not yet learned how to pool
°ur resources and build even a rec
reation hall for our children.”
Negroes of the community sub-
mitted a petition to the board of edu
cation calling for Lee’s resignation in
the best interests of the Negroes. The
Principal said he, his wife, also a
eacher, and his family had been
hreatened. Lee left the community
shortly after resigning.
LEGAL ACTION
Atty. Gen. Cook issued an official
Phiion that Negro students cannot
a white school gymnasium one
t a week because it would in-
rng e on Georgia’s “social customs
^d traditions.”
The opinion was requested by J. C.
Sgins, Paulding County school
George Washington Williams, who is
running for the U. S. Senate on a
segregationist platform, were report
ed in Annapolis early in the session,
seeking sponsors for bills that would
provide state aid for students attend
ing private schools and allow pupils
to refuse to attend public schools
which have children or teachers of
another race. Neither bill was intro
duced this year. Last year the same
bills were introduced but did not
come out of committee.
The Howard County “citizens’ com
mittee” that has recommended school
desegregation in the coming fall was
organized last July by the county
board of education. Composed of 16
members, representing parent-teach
er groups at 14 white and Negro
schools and the white and Negro
countywide PTA organizations, the
committee held seven monthly meet
ings and in February issued both a
majority and a minority report.
The county, lying southwest of
Baltimore, has at present five Negro
and 12 white schools. The Negroes
represent approximately 20 per cent
of the total school population. The
county, while predominantly rural,
has been undergoing suburban grow
ing pains in recent years. Several of
its schools are presently overcrowded.
The pro-segregation Maryland Peti
tion Committee has had some active
members in the county since the
Supreme Court’s 1954 school decision
and immediately challenged the citi
zens’ committee recommendations as
“not truly representative” of county
opinion.
The majority report, issued with
out names, recommended:
“1) That all public schools in How
ard County be declared officially de
segregated at the opening of the fall
term in 1956, and that this be imple
mented as herein proposed.
POLICY ALLOWS CHOICE
“2) That a policy of attendance in
the public school of individual choice,
subject to the availability of facilities
and to the approval of the Howard
County Board of Education, be es
tablished and announced publicly.
“3) That primary rules of priority
for the board to consider transfers be
established. These are recommended:
“a) First priority is given to stu
dents who have attended the
given school in the previous
year.
“b) Second priority is given to
students living within the
general area defined by the
board for each school to
serve.
“c) Succeeding priorities will re
quire the judgment of school
authorities acting within the
boundaries of sound practices
superintendent, who said Negroes at
Dallas wanted to borrow the white
school gymnasium facilities, but
“people are bitterly opposed to grant
ing the colored people this privilege.”
COMMUNITY ACTION
A “Christian searching” for solu
tions to problems of racial tension
was characterized as the theme of a
meeting of about 75 white and Negro
ministers in Macon.
Negroes at the meeting outnum
bered whites nearly two to one but
pastors of most of Macon’s largest
white and Negro Protestant churches
participated in the discussion. Negro
ministers of the Evangelical Ministers
Union attended at the invitation of
the white Macon Ministerial Associa
tion.
The Rev. Reese Griffin of Bass
Methodist Church (white) said he
thought a good place for churches to
start slowly applying integration
principles would be in vacation Bible
schools and women’s societies.
The Rev. J. T. Saxon, Negro, said
near the end of the meeting that “the
things said here won’t amount to
much until the white ministers can
say the same things to their congre
gations and stay in Macon.”
and the best interests of the
community.
“4) That the progress in school con
struction and staffing be maintained
and improved where necessary to fill
the needs of Howard County’s growth
and that this program be planned to
meet the needs of such school areas
as they develop.
“5) That bus route operations be
desegregated to the same degree that
individual schools are desegregated.
Specifically, all children attending a
given school would ride the buses
serving that school if they so desire.
STANDARDS TO BE KEPT
“6) That scholasic standards be
maintained or improved.
“7) That school health standards be
maintained or improved.
“8) That requests for transfer,
signed by a parent or guardian, be
made each spring in sufficient time so
that replies from the board of educa
tion may be returned before the end
of July of the same year.
“9) That the board of education,
after making its decisions on a plan
of desegregation, announce its plan
to the public outlining its policy, the
responsibilities of individuals and the
dates when specific action shall oc
cur. This recommendation is believed
by the committee to be of extreme
importance. It is urged, too, that this
be done as soon as it is possible to
do so.”
MINORITY REPORT
The minority report recommended
that desegregation be introduced one
grade at a time, beginning with the
first grade, and only after “a thorough
study of racial problems and situa
tions peculiar to Howard County.”
The minority urged that the transfer
choice be given only to those pupils
with more than two years to com
plete at their present school and that
they present a certificate of health
and take an entrance examination to
determine their grade level. Bus de
segregation would be left to the board
of education’s discretion.
County School Supt. John E. Ying-
ling reports that the county board of
education “expects to studv the re
port of the 16-member citizens’ com
mittee and make a decision on this
important matter sometime in the
early spring.”
Paul D. Cooper, superintendent of
schools in Worcester County, was
asked on behalf of Southern School
News to describe the preparations
which a county school system such as
his is making toward the transition
to a non-segregated basis. Unlike the
eight Maryland counties with rela
tively small percentages of Negro
pupils which have desegregated to
some extent in the current school
year, Worcester has a 37.5 per cent
Negro enrollment in its schools and
is in the study phase of Supreme
Court compliance. The county is on
the Eastern Shore, where the tradi
tions of segregation are considered to
be still firmly rooted, and it adjoins
the southern end of Delaware, where
resistance to school integration has
been pronounced.
Cooper responded with several
documents and a chronology of events
since the 1955 Supreme Court deci
sion which serve as an illustration of
what the study phase involves in at
least one county. Included in the ma
terial is a brief description of the size
and shape of the problem in Wor
cester. In addition to the fourth
highest proportion of Negro school
children among Maryland’s 23 coun
ties, it is pointed out that:
“The distribution of population
throughout the county may also have
a bearing on the problem. In many
communities, the racial groups tend
to segregate themselves by place of
residence. Hence, if the children at
tend the nearest school, they remain
more or less segregated. In a rural
community such as Worcester, this
type of situation does not occur.”
BUILDING PROBLEM
Another problem is school build
ings: “While in more recent years a
very considerable effort has been
made to provide all children in the
county with adequate facilities, it is
still true that many buildings hous
ing Negro children appear to be less
adequate than those housing white
children. The worst situations have
been eliminated, but the schools for
white and Negro children in each
community still present a marked
contrast.
“Then, with respect to high school
facilities, all Negro children are
transported from all sections of the
county to one central school. Be
cause of the larger white school
population, it has been feasible to
operate high schools for white child
ren in each community. These condi
tions may tend to increase the pres
sure for integration.”
One week following the Supreme
Court’s decision of May 31, 1955, the
Worcester County Board of Educa
tion announced that it would “attempt
to end the practice of racial segrega
tion in the schools as soon as prac
ticable.” The board said, however,
that in view of the problems involved
and the “lateness of the final decision
of the court,” it did not believe it “to
be feasible or practicable to attempt
any integration of school children
during the 1955-56 school year.”
STUDY GROUP NAMED
Instead of immedate desegregation,
the board of education said that it
would appoint “a countywide citizens
advisory committee to study the
problem and advise the board as to
how it should proceed in the matter.”
The board added, “Every effort will
be made to plan an orderly program
for desegregation to be carried out as
rapidly as may be feasible.”
The 30-member advisory group,
one of the largest among county
desegregation study groups in Mary
land, was appointed on July 12. Its
membership was worked out on a
proportional representation basis,
with 19 white and 11 Negro members
representing 10 white and six Negro
schools. The committee first met on
July 21 and has met monthly since
that time.
Public presentations of the prob
lem by school officials included a re
view of the legal aspects of desegre
gation, the positions taken by the
state and county boards of education,
the courses adopted in other Mary
land counties and the problems pe
culiar to Worcester County. Then,
various possible approaches to deseg
regation are outlined and discussed.
One such approach is described
as “planned integration,” whereby a
policy of desegregating certain grades
in certain years is established. The
advantages, it is pointed out, are that
integration would then be a gradual
process and time would be allowed
to provide needed facilities. The dis
advantages cited are that this would
force integration, rather than merely
removing discriminatory restrictions,
and would result in complete inte
gration in a specific number of years
—possibly so rapidly “that children
of neither race could adjust to it.”
Still another approach is the type
adopted last summer in neighboring
Queen Anne’s County, where the lo
cal board announced that schools
would continue to be operated on the
same basis as in the past; that no child
would be denied admission to any
school because of race; that if a child
wished to attend a school other than
the one he was attending, he might
register by a certain date, with the
board reserving the right to deny ad
mission if it was not administratively
practical to admit the child due to
overcrowded conditions or other valid
reasons.
The comment on this latter ap
proach is; “Some feel that such a pol
icy, while immediately complying
with the law, makes it possible for
the people of the community to make
the change as they feel ready to do so.
On the other hand, it could conceiv
ably result in a rapid change.”
The arguments for and against
these approaches to desegregation are
presented not as the beliefs of school
officials but as what some people are
saying on the one hand, and other
people are saying on the other hand.
The public presentations end up with
the plea that citizens consider all ap
proaches carefully, so that “we may
find a solution fair and just to all.”
Possibly because school officials are
taking pains to air transition prob
lems publicly in a quiet, orderly
fashion and making known their
readiness to listen to the suggestions
of citizens groups, there has not been
much organized resistance reported
in Worcester County. The county
weathered the uneasy period of school
disturbances in nearby southern Del
aware without any report of a con
certed effort to join forces with the
school boycotters. An Eastern Shore
newspaper recently reported a peti
tion circulating in the county in pro
test against any move away from
segregated schooling, but there was
nothing to indicate that the petitioners
had widespread support.
The formerly separate white and
Negro junior college curricula in the
Montgomery County public school
system will be combined in a single
catalogue of courses to be offered
jointly in the semester beginning next
fall. Courses in auto mechanics, dry
cleaning and pressing, cosmetology
and building construction technology
will be offered to both white and
Negro students at Carver Junior Col
lege, the formerly all-Negro school.
Courses in secretarial science, medi
cal technology, medical secretarial,
electrical technology, general business
management and engineering aide
will be offered to white and Negro
students at Montgomery Junior Col
lege, the former all-white school.
The League of Women Voters of
Montgomery County has published a
pampnlet reviewing desegregation
developments to date in its county,
both in the schools and in public
recreation. Montgomery has more
Negroes in formerly all-white schools
than any of the other seven Maryland
counties where some mixing has tak
en place. The integration has taken
place in the “down-county” Washing
ton suburban areas where the num
bers of Negroes are small. Desegre
gation in the “up-county” rural half
of the county, where the precentage
of Negro children is much higher, is
currently under discussion.
The Maryland reporter for South
ern School News in February at
tended one of a number of public
discussions on school integration be
ing held in Montgomery County. This
particular one, sponsored by the
Unitarian Church of Montgomery
County and held at Chevy Chase,
drew an orderly, racially mixed au
dience of both up- and down-county
residents representing both pro- and
anti-integration sentiments. The case
for integration was given by George
P. Guernsey, former chairman of the
integration committee of the Mont
gomery County Council of PTAs and
assistant educational director of the
A.F. of L.-C.I.O. Guernsey expressed
confidence, on the basis of down-
county experiences to date, that
Montgomery could, and should, pro
ceed toward complete desegregation.
An opposing view was presented by
O. W. Anderson, former president of
the Montgomery County Farm Bu
reau and the most prominent spokes
man for the up-county area. While
making plain his own dislike of mixed
classes, Anderson, who said he was
raised on a South Carolina plantation,
indicated his acceptance of the fact
that school integration was bound to
come. His main point was that if it
should come too fast, it would be met
with resistance up-county. Asserting
that complete integration would mean
50 per cent Negro enrollment in some
up-county schools and an average of
30 per cent in all up-county schools,
Anderson reiterated his position that
desegregation should take place at
one grade level at a time over a period
of 12 years. As an alternative, he
suggested that Negro children be as
signed to schools throughout the
county so that there would be no
more than 10 per cent in any one
school.