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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 (Continued From Page 1) 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 ...” (Continued on Page 3)