Newspaper Page Text
VOL 2, NO. 11
NASHVILLE, TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
MAY, 1956
School Issue Enters Spring Campaigns
The Southern and Border Region As School Year Nears End
'OLORad'q ^
!KANSAS
As the southern and border regions enter the last month of the second school year since the Supreme Court’s
1954 decision against segregation, the pattern of essential compliance, while varied, follows geographical lines and
population ratios.
As shown in the map above, the border states (lightest shade), including Texas, have moved toward desegrega
tion. East Texas (dark shade), where live 90 per cent of the state’s Negroes, has no mixed classes while some 67
school districts in the western and southern portions of the state have lowered racial barriers.
The five Deep South states (darkest shade) are the areas of strongest opposition to desegregation; several have
adopted new legislation to maintain separate schools.
In between these two areas (medium shade) are the mid-South states including two (Arkansas and Tennessee)
which have some desegregation but also some strong opposition movements and attitudes. While neither Virginia
nor North Carolina has any desegregation below the college level, local situations and state policies and attitudes
do not parallel the resistance of the Deep South. Florida is included in this category because, though official policy
is hardening against desegregation, the state supreme court has declared school segregation laws unconstitutional.
Study Shows How School
Bond Market Is Affected
T'Ihe market for southern school been thwarted in an effort to sell
bonds has been more affected thus bonds in the nation’s financial cen-
far by general business conditions
than by the Supreme Court decisions
on school segregation, though litiga
tions now pending in state courts may
have a bearing on this situation, a
Southern School News survey has
disclosed.
In general, southern brokers do not
hesitate to deal in southern school
bonds, but some northern and eastern
firms reportedly have been reluctant
to enter the market. Still, no adverse
effects to bond ratings have been de
tected, and few changes in interest
rates have been traced directly to the
segregation-desegregation question.
Bond men in Nashville, Atlanta
and New Orleans maintain that such
interest rate changes as have occurred
a r e due more to general declines in
the bond market than to the segrega
tion issue. Bond people in Virginia,
however, report that school money
m that state is costing one-half of one
Per cent more, although school bonds
■u some instances have sold at lower
rates than general revenue bonds.
buyers said off
This view seems to be shared by
ew York bond men who, according
° The New York Times, “agree that
rrowing may be costing southern
school builders from one-fourth of
Pe per cent to three-eighths of one
Per cent more interest.”
^ The Times also noted that “while
° southern school bond issuers have
ter, investors during the last two
months have been less willing to sub
scribe to new issues of southern
school securities.” The Times cited
no examples.
No adverse effect of the school de
cisions has showed up as yet in the
ratings given municipal and state se
curities by Moody’s Investment Serv
ice, the nationally recognized source
of classification for such securities.
Moody’s ratings do not cover all bond
issues. Only issues exceeding $600,-
000, and only in localities which sup
ply the required information, are
rated by the service.
CASES PENDING
Perhaps the greatest source of un
certainty now in the school bond
market is not so much the lack of
buyers as the litigations pending in
the courts of three states. Such cases
are on the state court dockets in
Virginia and North Carolina.
In Florida the supreme court last
month ruled a $34,500,000 Dade
County bond issue valid, holding that
segregation was not a proper ground
for contesting it.
Generally, these cases seek injunc
tions against issuing or selling school
bonds authorized in pursuance of the
“separate but equal” doctrine which
has been declared void by the U. S.
Supreme Court. Whether the very
fact that some cases are still unset-
(See BOND SURVEY, Page 2)
SSN Circulation
Up, Paper Goes
Into 48 States
r J'His issue of Southern School
News is being mailed to sub
scribers in every one of the 48
states and Hawaii, Puerto Rico
and Alaska.
Other copies go overseas to
Australia, Belgium, Cuba, West
ern Germany, the United King
dom, France, Haiti, Holland, In
donesia, Japan, Portugal, Sweden,
Switzerland, Union of South Af
rica and Thailand. SSN also has a
substantial readership in the Do
minion of Canada.
Now in its twenty-first month
of continuous publication, the pa
per reaches an audience of thou
sands of educators, school boards
and PTAs, public officials, news
paper editors, library patrons and
lay persons. In one instance it is
being received by every superin
tendent in a state school system
and in other instances by any
where from five to 30 members of
school boards and study commis
sions.
Four-fifths of the circulation of
Southern School News is in the 17
southern and border states. Lead
ing these states in the procession
of subscribers is North Carolina.
Tennessee and Texas are in close
competition for second place and
are followed by South Carolina,
Alabama and Missouri in a near
tie for third.
J>ublic school segregation and attitudes toward the U.S. Supreme Court s
decision have become live political issues at the state or congressional
campaign levels this spring in at least seven southern and border states,
according to reports of Southern School News correspondents.
The seven states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North
Carolina and Texas.
Meanwhile, school desegregation moves were announced in areas of five
states. The states and areas were:
Arkansas: one community.
Maryland: one county, with the
present outlook for some form of de
segregation in force by fall in at least
15 of the state’s 22 counties having
Negro children.
Oklahoma: 26 more districts taking
steps toward desegregation.
Texas: two more districts. (One
other rescinded an earlier announced
plan for desegregation.)
West Virginia: one county.
•
Elsewhere in the region, spokes
men for various points of view de
bated the effect of the school segre
gation-desegregation issue and ra
cial tension on industrialization and
unionization.
For example, the chairman of the
Arkansas Industrial Development
Commission said that industry is
shying away from some southern
states because of their attitudes on
integration. But in South Carolina
the director of the State Develop
ment Board said that such reports
were “absolutely without founda
tion.” In a public statement the pres
ident of the U.S. Chamber of Com
merce, who is a Mississippian, said
that northern industrialists will take
a second look before exchanging
labor and union tension in the North
for racial tension in the South, while
in North Carolina, Georgia, Okla
homa, Kentucky and Louisiana no
effect was noted.
And at the statehouse level, Flor
ida’s Gov. LeRoy Collins reiterated
some of what he had said in March
(SSN, April). While he knew of no
specific instances in which plans to
locate in Florida have been aban
doned, Collins added: “Many indus
tries . . . are definitely not interested
in establishing plants in commu
nities that have racial tensions, or
where there may be explosions of
violence.”
•
Members of a United Steel Work
ers local near Birmingham threat
ened to withdraw from the AFL-CIO
unless they are assured “union funds
will not be used to further integra
tion in the South.” In South Carolina
industrial leaders charged national
labor unions with having stimulated
reports of southern racial troubles in
an effort to keep industry from the
South.
In the same state, the president of
the South Carolina Federation of
Labor said he had “definite and offi
cial” information that the AFL-CIO
had not, as alleged, donated funds to
the NAACP.
“Rumblings” of local union dis
content over national policies were
reported in Georgia and there was
unconfirmed talk of the possibility
of an all-white, pro-segregation un
ion organization. On the other hand,
“no dissension” was reported from
Oklahoma and Texas. Louisiana re
ported “bare mention, and no agita
tion” over the issue as CIO and AFL
unions were merged.
A state-by-state summary of these
and other major developments fol
lows:
Alabama
Gov. James E. Folsom has given
his approval to a “freedom of choice”
bill—the first legislation dealing with
school segregation he has signed. In
campaigning for Democratic nation
al committeeman, Folsom has de
fended his racial stand and has found
it under heavy attack.
Arkansas
The stage was set for a hearing in
the suit against the Little Rock
school board when a federal judge
said the issue is whether the board’s
“gradual” desegregation plan meets
the U.S. Supreme Court’s require
ments. Gov. Orval Faubus has ap
proved two proposals designed to
circumvent desegregation by popular
referendum.
Delaware
An SSN survey showed that in the
area south of the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal (Delaware’s “Ma-
son-Dixon Line”) most residents are
vigorously opposed to desegregation.
However, in this two-county area
boards of education officially are
willing to study “feasible” plans
though litigation is anticipated be
fore there is any action.
District of Columbia
The school curriculum in the
Washington schools may be re
vamped next fall along four lines to
meet the needs of children with
widely varying achievement rates.
Florida
An official eight-man committee
has been named to seek legal sanc
tions for the maintenance of segre
gated schools—an aftermath of the
U.S. Supreme Court decision order
ing immediate entry of Virgil Haw
kins, a Negro, to the University of
Florida Law School. The decision
also has been appealed.
Georgia
Voices of both opposition and
moderation are being heard on the
school segregation-desegregation is
sue as official state policy continues
against desegregation. In an allied
field, nine state parks have been
leased to private citizens in a move
designed in part to avoid desegrega
tion of these facilities.
Kentucky
Louisville (where live about one-
third of Kentucky’s Negro children)
has completed plans for desegrega
tion next fall with about 50 per cent
of Negro parents and about 80 per
cent of white parents requesting
transfers under the flexible transfer
system. In Frankfort, 110 residents
have filed suit to compel enforce
ment of the state’s school segregation
laws.
Louisiana
A state court “permanently”
banned activities of the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People after failure of the
organization to file its membership
lists under a 1924 state law. An ap
peal is planned—probably to the U.S.
Supreme Court. The New Orleans
school board has apoealed a Febru-
(See SCHOOL ISSUE, Page 2)
Index
State Page
Alabama 5
Arkansas 10
Delaware 10
District of Columbia 16
Florida 4
Georgia 9
Kentucky 2
Louisiana 12
Maryland 13
Mississippi 15
Missouri 8
North Carolina 6
Oklahoma 8
South Carolina 14
Tennessee 11
Texas 12
Virginia 3
West Virginia 16
