Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—MAY 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
School Issue
(Continued From Page 1)
ary ruling in federal court holding
state segregation laws unconstitu
tional.
Maryland
One more Maryland county, Kent
(Negro population ratio: 30 per
cent), has announced desegregation
plans for next fall and at least 15 of
the state’s counties having Negro
children are expected to have some
form of desegregation in effect in
1956-57.
Mississippi
First suits for desegregation in
Mississippi are planned “sometime
this year,” according to NAACP offi
cials. Meanwhile, Gov. J. P. Coleman
has named the first members of the
“watch-dog” State Sovereignty Com
mission which, among other things,
plans to give the “South’s side” of the
segregation-desegregation issue in a
“Voice of Mississippi” program.
Missouri
Eight dismissed Negro teachers at
Moberly, Mo., have charged that race
was the reason for their dismissal in
the first suit of its kind.
North Carolina
Gov. Luther H. Hodges’ Advisory
Commission on Education has rec
ommended tuition grants for chil
dren assigned to mixed schools
against their wishes and authority
for any school district to close its
schools by a majority vote. In a test
of the state’s assignment law, local
school board members have been
held, in effect, state officers.
Oklahoma
Twenty-six more school districts
have taken steps toward desegrega
tion. An estimated 124 Negro teach
ers have been notified that they will
not be rehired next fall. Meanwhile,
plans are going forward to merge
white and Negro PTAs.
South Carolina
A student strike at South Carolina
State College for Negroes at Orange
burg ended after a week, and the
student body president was expelled
Louisville,
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
T ouisville, where roughly one-
third of Kentucky’s school-age
Negroes live, completed its blue
prints for 1956-57 desegregation with
announcement of board-approved
plans for integration of the city’s six
senior high schools. All will be open
to pupils of all races; two will remain
district schools; four, including the
hitherto all-Negro Central High, will
be open to pupils from anywhere in
the city.
The Louisville Board of Education
also approved desegregation of the
Louisville summer high school 1956
term (June 11 to July 20). The city-
wide summer session normally en
rolls about 600. Officials said the
summer session would “give us a
little experience” in integration and
yield “some good values” for kinder-
garten-through-12th-grade desegre
gation this fall.
The Louisville board also received
its first petition to change its plans
for desegregation—and announced
preliminary findings that its flexible-
transfer provision had resulted in
about 50 per cent of Negro parents
whose children were assigned to
white schools next fall requesting
transfers, while about 80 per cent of
white parents of children assigned to
Negro schools sought transfers. The
petition came from 281 parents eager
for a redistricting that would keep
their children from attending schools
“with a predominantly Negro ele
ment,” which they feared would lead
to “social stigma, psychic trauma,
and impairment of scholastic
achievement.” (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
WORKSHOPS PLANNED
For classroom teachers and school
administrators, the University of
Louisville and the University of
Kentucky scheduled summer work
shops in integration problems. (See
“In the Colleges.”)
Kentucky’s General Assembly got
an interposition-study resolution but
let it die in committee. (See “Legis
lative Action.”)
At Frankfort, 110 Jefferson County
SERS Has Unique Reference
Library at Nashville Center
A growing collection of con
temporary data on all phases of
the school segregation-desegregation
question is available to scholars, writ
ers and interested researchers at the
reference library of the Southern Ed
ucation Reporting Service in Nash
ville—the only one of its kind and
scope in the world.
Built around a file of newspaper ar
ticles, which now number more than
20,000, the collection includes about
1,000 books and pamphlets, more than
800 magazine articles, editorials and
letters-to-the-editor representing 220
newspapers, copies of legislative acts,
court decrees, texts of speeches and
reports of various study committees.
Among the documents of current
historical value are the manuscripts
and field reports of the Ashmore
Project on which the 1954 book The
Negro and the Schools was based, as
well as the Supreme Court tran
scripts on both the 1954 and the 1955
hearings.
by the trustees. The students re
portedly struck over legislative acts
and official statements aimed at the
College and the NAACP and in pro
test at the college’s use of food
products handled by Orangeburg
merchants who are Citizens Council
members.
Tennessee
University of Tennessee trustees
voted to postpone implementation of
an undergraduate desegregation pro
gram, while in Chattanooga school
board members (who said March 31
that desegregation would be post
poned “probably five years or more”)
stated that the community was not
ready for the step and that until re
sponsible citizens of both races stand
behind the board in implementing
desegregation no action is possible.
Texas
Two more school districts have an-
Three full-time librarians and a
part-time student assistant maintain
the collection, which is catalogued,
cross-indexed and filed for easy ref
erence. About 65 southern and na
tional daily and weekly newspapers
are clipped each day. The clipping file
now is growing at the rate of 3,000
clippings a month.
Wide use of the SERS library facil
ities already has been made by schol
ars from as far away as California,
Massachusetts, and the Union of
South Africa and by journalists from
such places as Indonesia and France.
Regular use of the collection and of
the SERS press reference service is
made by newspapers, press associa
tions, magazines and radio and tele
vision news analysts.
Facilities of the SERS library and
reference service are always available
to subscribers and news media simply
for the asking—in person, by letter,
telegram or telephone call.
nounced plans for desegregation and
a third has rescinded an earlier an
nounced plan. Segregation and in
terposition are involved in a political
contest over control of the Texas
delegation to the Democratic na
tional convention.
Virginia
A petition asking that desegrega
tion in the schools of Prince Edward
County begin not later than Septem
ber, 1956 has been filed in federal
court in Richmond. In general, Vir
ginia localities are going ahead with
plans to operate schools on a segre
gated basis next fall.
West Virginia
An agreement by the Logan Coun
ty Board of Education and the
NAACP has ended a suit alleging
discrimination, with the county
schools to desegregate next fall and
winter.
Bond Survey
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tied has had any effect on the sale of
school bonds is undetermined since
few issues other than those around
which the cases revolve have been
instigated. Several issues reportedly
have been postponed in Virginia due
to a combination of circumstances—
the segregation question and the re
cent decline in the bond market gen
erally.
Nashville bond brokers told SSN
that absolutely no effect has been felt
on Tennessee school bonds, nor has
there been any hesitancy on their
part to bid on issues in Alabama,
Mississippi or Louisiana, states which
have threatened to abolish public
schools rather than to desegregate
them.
Brokers in Richmond, on the other
hand, have noted that some New York
firms have declined to bid on some
Southern bond issues due to various
uncertainties stemming directly from
the anti-segregation decisions of the
Supreme Court. However, one or two
firms, which had steered clear of
southern school bonds a year ago
again are showing interest in the
southern market, SSN’s Virginia cor
respondent, Overton Jones, reported.
The absence of any trend or pattern
in this regard is demonstrated by the
results of the most recent bond sales
in Virginia and Georgia. On Feb. 15,
1955, Arlington County, Va., which
has a tentative school desegregation
plan, sold $500,000 worth of A-rated
school bonds bearing a net interest of
2.29 per cent. On the same day, the
same county sold $3,350,000 worth of
similarly rated general revenue bonds
at the higher rate of 2.35 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Georgia School
Building Authority pointed to the sale
of $28,000,000 worth of state bonds at
a rate of 3.07 per cent on May 1, 1955,
after the Supreme Court’s initial de
cision. This was compared to the 3.74
per cent interest borne by an equally
large state issue sold Sept. 1, 1953,
before that ruling, Correspondent Joe
Parham said.
NO DIFFICULTIES EXPECTED
The assurance of the Georgia
School Building Authority was dem
onstrated by State Auditor B. E.
Thrasher, Jr., secretary-treasurer,
who said there has been no delay in
the state’s school building program
because of the school decisions or
concern over obtaining funds. He
said the state had been warned of a
“certain amount of scare by all the
publicity, but the financial sound
ness shouldn’t be affected by that.”
And a Georgia bond man said sale
of bonds probably would be “judged
entirely by the availability of invest
ment money at the time the state at
tempts to sell the bonds.” No issues
are contemplated in Georgia in the
near future.
In Louisiana, a bond man who han
dles the school issues for one of the
state’s largest firms said that interest
rates there had not changed until re
cent weeks and then in precise paral
lel to the general slump all along the
economic scale. He pointed out that
U. S. Treasury bonds, for example,
had sold cheaper in the past two
weeks than at any time since 1953.
EFFECTS CALLED NIL
Effects of the segregation question
on Louisiana school bonds, he said,
are nil, though there have been iso
lated instances in which some bond
holders have sold school bonds be
cause of uneasiness over the school
situation. There were only two such
cases in New Orleans, and those were
before the federal court ruling strik
ing down Louisiana’s constitutional
and statutory provisions for school
segregation, SSN Correspondent Leo
Adde reported.
Only other such instance of inves
tors steering clear of school bonds
was reported in Virginia where some
insurance companies have declined to
buy school bonds.
Ky. Completes Plans for School Desegregation
residents petitioned Franklin Circuit
Court to enforce compliance with
Kentucky law forbidding racial in
tegration in the schools. (See “Legal
Action.”)
State teachers groups of both races
held their annual conventions in
Louisville without acting on oft-dis
cussed merger plans. But the Ken
tucky Education Association (white)
welcomed its first Negro delegate
and disclosed that its quiet no-ra
cial-bars announcement last fall had
netted an estimated 100 Negro mem
bers to date (See “What They Say.”)
The redistricting petition signed
by 281 white parents of the Parkland
area was publicized by the Louisville
Board of Education on April 2. The
parents asked that their children be
allowed to attend schools other than
the two to which they have been as
signed (Virginia Avenue and Lucie
N. duValle Junior High, both now
Negro schools). At month’s end the
board still had the petition “under
consideration.”
Petitioners gave several reasons for
their request, including distance,
heavy-traffic crossings, etc. They
added, “We fear that our children
will be stigmatized socially by at
tending schools with a predominant
ly Negro element. We fear that psy
chic trauma to our children’s per
sonalities may result if they are
forced to attend these schools.
“We fear impairment of our chil
dren’s scholastic achievement in
these schools. In view of the racial
tension in this section, we fear physi
cal violence to our children from
the hotheads in both races.”
NO FINAL FIGURES
City school officials do not yet
have final figures on transfer re
quests filed by parents of elementary
and junior high school children.
Charles E. Sanders, director of re
search and records, and a staff vary
ing in size from three to eight, are
still working on the 40,000 cards from
parents of elementary pupils, expect
to complete the job sometime in May
and then process the 10,000 junior
high cards. It was from the first few
districts completed — all involving
changeovers of Negroes to predomin
antly white or of whites to predomin
antly Negro schools—that Carmich
ael was able to report that in such
instances about 50 per cent of Negro
parents and 80 per cent of white par
ents had requested transfers to
schools predominantly of their race.
As reported earlier in Southern
School News elementary and junior
high parents were given an oppor
tunity to list three choices of schools
they preferred. Space or administra
tive difficulties already have made it
necessary to deny a few such re
quests, Sanders said.
The senior high blueprint, an
nounced by the board on April 23,
mirrored the board’s decision not
to redistrict in this field (as it had
done for all elementary and junior
highs). The basic change is simply
that all the senior highs will be open
to whites and Negroes alike this fall.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
The doctrine of interposition got
short shrift from the Kentucky Gen
eral Assembly during its fourth spe
cial sessions of the year.
Sen. Carl J. Ruh, South Fort
Mitchell Democrat, introduced a res
olution on April 12 directing the
Legislative Research Commission to
study the doctrine and determine
“what action, if any, it deems can
be and should be taken by the Gen
eral Assembly to implement that
doctrine.”
The resolution declared that “ac
tions taken by the Supreme Court
have threatened the very sovereign
ty of the states.” But later, on April
16, Sen. Ruh said his resolution “has
nothing to do with segregation.” He
said the court’s decision in the Penn
sylvania sedition case had caused
“consternation” in legal circles, and
that his intent was “merely to stop
this dangerous disease that had
threatened to destroy completely the
sovereignty of the states . .
The resolution died in committee
with the General Assembly’s ad
journment on April 27.
Declaring that the Supreme Court’s
desegregation rulings had “usurped
the legislative powers of the states,”
110 Jefferson County residents on
April 21 petitioned Franklin Circuit
Court at Frankfort to enforce com
pliance with Kentucky laws forbid
ding racial integration in the public
schools.
The suit named Gov. A. B. Chan
dler, Atty. Gen. Jo M. Ferguson, and
Jefferson County Commonwealth’s
Atty. A. Scott Hamilton defendants.
The list of petitioners was headed by
Millard D. Grubbs, Louisville.
“Integration in Kentucky schools
has progressed without incident and
without the mouthings of dema
gogues,” State Superintendent of
Public Instruction Robert Martin
told the 80th annual session of the
Kentucky Teachers Association (Ne
gro) in Louisville on April 13. He
added:
“I would be less than honest if I
did not admit that the integration of
teachers will present a much bigger
problem than the integration of
children. I don’t believe the problem
is insurmountable. But you must in
sist on your rights as teachers and
human beings.”
As usual, the KTA convention
(with about 700 attending) coin
cided with that of the Kentucky
Education Association (7,000 attend
ing) • Though merger of the two has
long been talked, both approved
continued post-convention meetings
and discussions of their merger com
mittees.
Attending some sessions of each of
the organizations was Charles Lett,
a Covington principal, first Negro
delegate to a KEA convention. He is
one of about 100 Negroes who have
joined the KEA since announcement
last fall that its constitution con
tained no racial bars, officials said.
The future of Negro teachers un
der desegregation was “Topic A” at
the KTA meeting—and many dele
gates predicted that, despite merger
talk, the KTA would retain its iden
tity as a separate organization for a
year or two or longer “until we see
just how desegregation works out.
JOB LOSSES SEEN
Many Negro teachers take a “dim
view” of integration because they
fear for their jobs, a guest speaker
told the KTA—“but this is one of the
prices we must be willing to pay 1°
achieve a status that will lead to
first-class citizenship for all of us.
The speaker was Mrs. Jean Mur
rell Capers, attorney and the first and
only Negro to be elected to the
Cleveland, Ohio, city council- A
native of Kentucky she predicted
that “the superior Negro teacher
will survive.” For the “average” Ne
gro teacher, she urged (1) m °^ e
training and education, (2) sta
teacher examinations to provm
standards for licensing teachers, an
(3) intelligent use of the ballot to m
sure fair treatment for Negf 0
teachers. ,
On a bi-racial panel at the KT •
however, another speaker urg *•
“Don’t let integration become a P°
litical football. If you’re not care^
you’re liable to be kicked.
plunge across the goal too qU1< ^ aS
vou mav bounce back.” He '
Wayne Ratliff, supervisor of e ° u
tion in Floyd County.
VITAL QUESTION’
Other panelists termed the NeS*”*
teacher problem a “vital Q uest ?° ve
noting that some in Kentucky ^ 8 p
already “received notice.” Dr. g f
Wilson, of Frankfort, saw this ra^
hope:
“In the larger cities there rn a^ e
Negro schools for years to ■
when they are located in P red
nantlv Negro areas ...”
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