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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