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PAGE 12—MARCH 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Study Made of Child Behavior in St. Louis’ Mixed Classes
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
acial integration in elementary
schools does not magically wipe
out racial differences overnight, and
neither does it create insuperable
problems of child behavior. These are
among the conclusions that can be
drawn from a sociological study of
two newly desegregated St. Louis
classrooms, made by Mary Rose
Warinner of the Washington Univer
sity department of sociology and
anthropology. Mrs. Warinner sub
mitted her findings last month as a
thesis for the master of arts degree.
Mrs. Warinner studied two groups
of students in the fifth and sixth
grades for four months. During the
first part of her study, segregation
was still in effect. During the sec
ond part, desegregation had taken
place.
At School A, the class studied orig
inally had 31 children, 17 girls and
14 boys. After desegregation it num
bered 39, with five Negro and 18
white girls, five Negro and 11 white
boys—a Negro minority of 26 per
cent. At School B, the class num
bered 42 before integration, includ
ing 22 girls and 20 boys. Afterwards,
the enrollment of 43 was divided
among 15 Negro and 10 white girls,
nine Negro and nine white boys—a
Negro majority of 56 per cent.
FINDINGS LISTED
By observation in the classroom
and by sociometric tests of a simple
sort, Mrs. Warinner tried to analyze
the social structure of the classes and
the interaction of the two races. Here
in brief are some of her findings:
1) Positive types of relationship
between Negroes and whites in the
classroom far outweigh negative
types.
2) When a child was approached in
a friendly way, he was more likely
than not to give a friendly response,
regardless of race.
3) When approached in an un
friendly way, the child did not usual
ly give an unfriendly response.
4) Whites and Negroes showed
little difference in initiating positive
or negative types of relationship.
5) Negroes seemed to have a
stronger desire to become members
of white clique groups than whites
did to join Negro groups.
6) Negroes when in a minority did
not stick together as closely as whites
did when they were in the minority
—though both groups tend to turn in
upon themselves in such a situation.
7) Often the “status” or standing
of white children increases when
Negroes come into the classroom.
SOME RACE CONSCIOUSNESS
On the whole, Mrs. Warinner re
ported, desegregtion in these two
classes took place with a minimum
of confusion and conflict. White
teachers and children were anxious
to make a special effort to welcome
and understand the newcomers. It
was impossible, however, to elimi
nate all consciousness of race.
The aim of the school administra
tors had been to attain a level of
desegregation at which the differ
ence between Negro and white was
not noticed, but only the differences
between one individual and an
other. However, during this first se
mester of integrated experience,
racial differences did continue to be
recognized. But evidence of unfair
treatment, malicious discrimination
or patronizing behavior was, Mrs.
Warinner found, very limited.
BEHAVIOR SIMILAR
After desegregation of this class,
Mrs. Warinner observed no name
calling, use of stereotypes or prefer
ential treatment on the part of either
pupils or teachers. The Negro chil
dren’s behavior was not strikingly
different from that of the whites.
There were no marked differences in
dress or personal cleanliness. How
ever, the speech accents of the Ne
groes did make it difficult for them
to communicate with the teacher and
white pupils.
The principal of School A ex
pressed satisfaction with the smooth
functioning of the school under de
segregation. She gave the teachers
much credit.
School B presented a harder prob
lem because its student population
became two-thirds Negro overnight
The teacher at School B had also
tried to prepare her pupils for the
transition. Her optimism before de
segregation was tempered somewhat
afterwards. The Negroes in her room
were slower in almost all subjects
than the whites. They seemed to have
poor work habits and a tendency to
inattention. The result, she felt, was
to lower the academic achievement
level of the whole class. She said that
many of the Negroes were at the
second and third grade level in read
ing ability, though this was a sixth
grade class. The average grade for
the group had been S-plus before
desegregation and fell to S-minus
afterwards.
WORKING HYPOTHESES
From sociological studies else
where, Mrs. Warinner had derived
certain notions which she sought to
check with the St. Louis experience.
Since her findings were limited to
two classes only, they could not, of
course, be considered conclusive.
One hypothesis was that when Ne
groes were in a minority, whites
would feel less threatened as a group
and so would be willing to assimilate
the Negroes in their informal friend
ship patterns. However, Mrs. Warin
ner found that white girls and boys
stuck together even when they were
in the majority. When the Negroes
were in a majority, Negro girls tried
to form more associations among
whites than among their own race.
The Negro boys showed roughly the
same pattern. On the whole, Mrs.
Warinner felt that girls tended to be
more ethnocentric than boys, and
that the degree of ethnocentrism of
either whites or Negroes increased
as the relative size of the opposite
group increased.
Another hypothesis to be checked
was that Negroes when in a majority
might be more wary of displaying
unfriendly gestures. Having occu
pied a traditionally inferior status
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
fficial Oklahoma policy aimed at
speeding desegregation by mak
ing it more profitable has been com
pleted with adoption of new rules for
calculating state aid payments on
transporting pupils.
Also pointing up Oklahoma de
segregation activities in February
were dropping of color barrier in
the capital city’s parks and swim
ming pools (see “Community Ac
tion”) and announcement of plans
by two districts to close Negro high
schools (see “School Boards and
Schoolmen”). But a racial flare-up
in a girls’ basketball tournament
marred an otherwise serene picture
(see “School Boards and School
men”).
The new transportation regulations
were adopted by the state board of
education. The action was a follow
up to the board’s approval in Janu
ary of a new rule combining legal
average attendance of white and
Negro children to determine the
number of teachers for which state
aid will be paid.
NEW FINANCE SETUP
State education department offi
cials say a school district will have
to be fairly well-to-do to continue
segregated educational programs in
1956-57. Few districts with white
and Negro populations, they believe,
will be able to afford operating sep
arate schools under the new setup.
The old rules required two different
types of transportation areas—dis
trictwide for white pupils and coun
tywide for Negroes. Such a “double
transportation” system had been in
effect for years simply because it was
illegal in Oklahoma for white and
Negro children to attend school in
the same classroom. After segrega
tion was ruled unconstitutional by
the U. S. Supreme Court, the state
board of education took the attitude
that some districts, because of un
usual conditions, should be allowed
a little time to comply.
Thus, the more costly “double
transportation” has been permitted
during the current transitional year.
But now the emergency is deemed to
be over. Districts which wish to con-
they might, it was thought, be more
anxious to cultivate the whites when
they suddenly found themselves in a
majority. It was impossible to meas
ure this precisely, but Mrs. Warinner
observed that neither Negroes nor
whites in her classes showed signifi
cant differences in this respect.
MINORITY SEEK ‘STATUS’
It also was expected that Negroes,
because of their second-class posi
tion in society, would tend to do
and say things intended to give them
“status” or standing with the whites,
and that this would be done whether
they occupied a majority or minori
ty position. Mrs. Warinner found
that this was true when Negroes were
in a minority, as in School A, but not
at School B, where they were a ma
jority. Whites when in a minority,
did not seem to be impelled to seek
status. They already had it.
Both the schools studied were lo
cated in areas of similar social and
economic levels among Negroes and
whites. Children of the two races had
played together in the neighborhoods,
though they had not attended school
together prior to 1955.
In observing interaction between
the two groups in the classroom, Mrs.
Warinner found that more friendly
than unfriendly types of contact
took place. Negro reactions were
often much the same as in the case
of whites—that is, they typically re
sponded to hostile gestures either
passively or in a friendly way.
Mrs. Warinner paid special atten
tion to actions by the pupils which
appeared to be designed to give them
“status” with their fellow pupils—
acts like helping another pupil,
amusing him, helping the teacher, or
rebelling against the teacher. She
discovered that when Negroes are in
the minority they tend to make more
moves of this sort, but that when
whites are in the minority they do
tinue segregation will have to bear
the financial burden themselves.
STATE AID CURTAILED
Briefly, the new rule means a
school district will receive no more
state aid for hauling non-resident
transferees than if those youngsters
were picked up at the edge of its
transportation area.
Any attempt to transport either
white or Negro students into separ
ate schools in another district will
have to be a cooperative effort. That
is, the arrangement must have the
approval of the parents (who must
apply for transfers), the district in
which they reside, the district into
which they are to be transported,
and the state board of education.
Here are the criteria on which the
state board of education will base its
approval: (1) The children are trans
ferred from a district which was
non-integrated during the next pre
ceding year; (2) the district will not
receive credit from any area outside
its transportation area; (3) operation
of a bus outside the district’s trans
portation area is approved by the
school board whose area is entered;
and (4) the minimum transportation
program will be determined on the
basis of the district’s average daily
haul and routes covered in its own
transportation area.
Thus, District A is not likely to
send its buses into District B’s ter
ritory to pick up Negro or white
youngsters when it will not be re
imbursed by the state for miles trav
eled beyond its own area.
HOLDOUTS’ EXPECTED
Some school districts—particular
ly those with relatively few Negro
students—are expected to continue
segregated programs despite the
tougher state financial policy. State
education department officials look
for segregation “holdouts” in such
districts as Liberty, Okmulgee Coun
ty, in eastern Oklahoma, and Bos
well, Choctaw County, in the south
east.
Others, possibly, will continue sep
arate schools for elementary pupils
but combine their high schools. That
has been the practice in a number of
districts during the current transi-
not She surmised that perhaps the
white pupils’ consciousness of tra
ditionally superior status counter
acted any tendency to bolster their
standing with other youngsters.
TEACHER REACTIONS
Another thing she watched for was
the action of the teacher toward the
two groups. Did the teacher tend to
scold the Negroes more, and praise
them less? At School A, she found
that the minority of Negroes drew
more of the approving remarks. But
also they were rebuked most often.
Whether this resulted from uncon
scious bias or from markedly inferior
conduct by the Negroes she could not
tell. At School B, the majority Ne
groes seemed to draw disapproving
remarks from the teacher in about
the same proportion as their num
bers.
At School A, the Negro pupils re
belled openly against the teacher
more frequently than whites. This
Mrs. Warinner interpreted as mean
ing that the Negroes here probably
felt more need to seek status with
their white peers, and in doing so in
curred more discipline from the
teacher.
From tests designed to bring out
the pupils’ desire to associate with
particular contemporaries, and their
relative popularity with the group,
Mrs. Warinner tried to sketch the
informal social structure of the class
room. Her most important finding
was that at the fifth and sixth grade,
sex cleavage is more meaningful
than race cleavage. Girls flocked
with girls and boys with boys.
ASSOCIATIONS OBSERVED
At School A, the majority white
girls chose for friends other white
girls overwhelmingly. Four white
girls did choose a Negro girl, but she
was an unusual individual and prob-
tional period. It’s physically impos
sible usually to house all elementary
pupils in a single building, but by
the same token it’s too costly to
maintain two high schools.
The Grant district in Choctaw
County, heart of “Little Dixie,” is
a real question mark. It has an esti
mated 40 to 50 Negro pupils—at least
a bus load — who are transported
daily to a separate high school in
Hugo, the county seat. There are re
ports Negro families in the Grant
district are being offered $5 each to
keep their children at home and not
transfer them to Hugo next autumn.
That plus the expense of transport
ing so many Negro youngsters to an
outside district under the new fi
nancial policy would almost seem to
make desegregation in Grant inevit
able, despite the prevailing senti
ment.
Other difficult situations may arise
in Muskogee, Wagoner, McIntosh,
and McCurtain counties. They all
have districts in which white resi
dents are in the minority.
The board of education at Dun
can in Stephens County announced
it will close Douglass Negro high
school there beginning in September.
Grades one through eight will be
taught at Douglass as usual, how
ever. Desegregation of the Douglass
grade school may affect white stu
dents now attending Lee school, also
in east Duncan. But board members
indicated a “lenient” transfer rule is
planned for these pupils should they
wish to continue at Lee.
The Duncan desegregation move
will affect some 30 to 40 Negro stu
dents.
At Stillwater, home of Oklahoma
A & M College, the school board
disclosed it will shut down Washing
ton high school with a present en
rollment of 43 Negroes, next fall.
The pupils will be sent to Stillwater
high school where the faculty will
remain all white.
Still to be kept at Washington are
ably not representative of the group.
Her own choices were all of white
girls. As for the other Negro girls,
only one chose this particular Negro
for association. She was, Mrs. Warin
ner concluded, striving very hard to
acquire status with white girls and,
either as cause or effect, was unpopu
lar with her Negro contemporaries.
Among the boys at this school, the
same pattern emerged. Only one Ne
gro boy was being assimilated in the
white group. He was not popular
with his Negro fellows, and the white
boys who chose to associate with him
were not popular among the other
whites.
In School B, the majority Negro
girls made more friendship choices
among white girls than among other
Negroes. The white girls, being in a
minority, chose white girls almost
exclusively. One white girl sat in
striking isolation among the Negroes
in the class. Seven Negro girls and
two white girls chose her as the one
they would most like to associate
with.
PUPILS RECOGNIZE ‘STATUS’
In this room all the more popular
girls were white, and the least popu
lar ones were Negroes. Mrs. Warin
ner concluded that despite their ma
jority position the Negro girls occu
pied an inferior “caste”, to the white
girls, and recognized it.
Among the boys in School B, the
Negroes made more choices of
whites, while the whites tended to
choose other whites overwhelmingly.
In only one case did a Negro receive
a friendship choice from a white. He
himself chose only whites and was
not popular with the Negroes. Thus
he was striving to gain admission to
the white group, and had succeeded
to the extent of being chosen for a
friend by one fairly well-liked white
boy.
the grade and junior high school
classes now including some 100 chil
dren. Overcrowded conditions at the
white junior high school made de
segregation there impractical, the
board said.
FOUR TEACHERS OUT
Four of the eight teachers at the
Washington school will lose their
jobs as a result of the move.
Administrative officials in the
Oklahoma City public school sys
tem revealed no faculty changes are
planned at building affected by de
segregation despite dwindling en
rollments in some of them. The ques
tion arose particularly in two south-
side attendance areas each of which
was assigned both a former white
school and a former Negro school in
the board’s desegregating program
last year. Overall enrollments at
Walnut Grove and Bannaker, in one
area, and at Riverside and Woodson,
in the other, have fallen off in recent
years. As a result, teachers have
been asking whether there might be
a consolidation of schools since they
are operating at only 41 to 66 P er
cent of building capacity.
Dr. J. Chester Swanson, superin
tendent, has urged the teachers to
plan their programs as if there will
be no change. The board has taken
a watchful-waiting attitude, with'
holding any move to shut down
buildings until a more definite en
rollment trend is evident. Thus,
school will probably continue at both
Bannaker and Woodson next year
except in the unlikely event all of
the Negro pupils should flock over
to Walnut Grove and Riverside, re
spectively, to enroll.
FULL SWITCH POSSIBLE
No faculty change is planned
either at Creston Hills elementary
school on the city’s east side. Th®
teaching staff is all white although
the Negro pupils now hold about a
3-1 or 4-1 majority. If the studen
body should become all Negro, the
faculty will be switched 100 per ce ^
to members of that race, too, oflJ'
cials say. <■ ■“
A flare-up on the desegregate 11
front occurred at Liberty in OkmU '
(Continued on Next Page)
Oklahoma Policy Aimed at Speeding Desegregation