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PAGE 2—JUNE 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Status
(Continued From Page 1)
sembly be called to deal with the
whole segregation problem in order
that localities taken to court could
say that the state was moving toward
compliance. As of the end of May,
the governor had not issued such a
call.
In July, a three-judge federal
court at Columbia, S. C., ordered the
Summerton schools of Clarendon
County to move with reasonable
speed toward compliance with the
Supreme Court’s anti-segregation
directive. However, to date there
has been no mixing of races in those
or any other public schools in South
Carolina.
6 GEORGIA PETITIONS
Integration petitions have been
filed with six Georgia public school
boards and a federal court ruling is
expected this summer on the demand
of a Negro that he be admitted to
the University of Georgia School of
Law.
Although desegregation petitions
were filed by Negro parents in a
number of counties in Alabama last
fall, no lawsuits have been reported.
In Mississippi, the NAACP has
said suits are planned “before the
end of the year.”
NORTH CAROLINA CASES
In two North Carolina counties—
McDowell and Montgomery—law
suits were started but as the school
year ended, neither suit was near the
end of the legal trail.
The McDowell case was carried to
the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
as the Negroes sought relief in fed
eral courts. But the circuit court or
dered the Negroes to exhaust rem
edies afforded in state courts first.
This means the Negroes had to pro
ceed under the state’s local assign
ment statute, which the state su
preme court upheld last month as
the case moved up the legal ladder
from the Superior Court.
The Montgomery case was a direct
attack on the constitutionality of
the state’s school law. Federal Judge
Johnson J. Hayes held that: 1) A
constitutional question was not in
volved, hence a three-judge federal
court was unnecessary, and 2) mem
bers of local boards of education are,
in fact, state officers. The case comes
before Judge Hayes again later this
summer.
At Little Rock, Ark., the largest
school district in the state, the
NAACP filed suit in federal court
for immediate integration, chal
lenging the board plan to begin in
tegration at the high school level in
1957.
MARYLAND SUIT DROPPED
The Maryland branch of the
NAACP filed suit in one county and
then dropped the case when county
school officials announced that a
start toward desegregation would be
made next fall.
A suit against a second Maryland
county was filed early in 1956 but
has not as yet been heard. The legal
redress committee of the NAACP
announced that suits would be
brought against all counties that do
not have some desegregation under
way by the fall of 1956.
In Delaware, the school year
closed with a suit filed in the U.S.
District Court by the NAACP asking
the court to order eight Delaware
school districts to desegregate.
RELATIONS TENSE
Throughout the year a worsening
of race relations developed in many
areas. This condition seemed to be
followed by a breakdown of com
munications between the races. And,
as in the case of Georgia, seldom was
there communication between whites
and Negroes on the subject of de
segregation except in rare inter
racial council or church meetings in
some of the larger cities of the state.
The school question as a political
issue, already well entrenched in the
Deep South, developed in other areas
as the school year progressed.
Arkansas’s Gov. Orval Faubus, a
candidate for renomination in this
summer’s Democratic primaries,
gave cheer to anti-integrationists by
saying that 85 per cent of all Arkan
sans were against integration of the
schools now and by endorsing two
proposals for the November general
election ballot—a resolution pro
claiming interposition and a pupil as
signment law to circumvent integra
tion.
JOHNSON A CANDIDATE
James D. Johnson of Crossett, di
rector of the White Citizens Council
of Arkansas, through a series of ral
lies, emerged as the strong man
among the forces for all-out segre
gation.
For the November vote, he is pro
posing a constitutional amendment
on interposition and nullification.
And he has filed as a candidate for
governor in the Democratic pri
maries.
Florida’s political campaign, with
maintenance of separate schools as
the key issue, was the highlight of
the state’s segregation year.
At the outset, there was little dis
cussion of the question and no strong
feelings were expressed among civic,
school or political leaders.
SEGREGATION ISSUE
One candidate for governor, Gen.
Sumter Lowry, who campaigned
solely on a segregation plank,
changed that. Because of his stand,
every candidate gave segregation top
priority and Gov. LeRoy Collins
made it official administration policy
to preserve segregation by “all law
ful means.”
A move now is developing for a
special legislative session to pass
segregation measures, something for
which there was no sentiment prior
to the election.
Gen. Lowry ran second in the pri
mary. But he and the field were
swamped by Collins, first governor
in Florida history to win his nom
ination in the first primary without
a runoff.
State leaders say the election es
tablished two facts:
It fairly well outlined the die-hard
segregation areas and measured the
strength of those who will resist
mixed schools to the bitter end.
It illustrated that the majority of
Florida voters are not willing to
make any or every sacrifice to main
tain segregation.
In Tennessee, where support for
interposition has been developing in
the western part of the state, it is
predicted that the school question
will become an issue in the summer’s
Democratic primary.
PUSH PROGRAMS
During the school year, Missouri,
Oklahoma and West Virginia pushed
forward integration programs with
a minimum of confusion.
In Oklahoma Negroes enrolled in
classes with white children in 271
public elementary and high schools
in a broad southwest-northeast belt
of the state.
The change-over was accomplish
ed with a minimum of fuss. From
school after school came stories of
acceptance of Negro pupils into
white student bodies.
The St. Louis and Kansas City sys
tems, which together account for 69
per cent of the state’s Negro pupils,
brought segregation to an end at all
levels. The majority of districts in
St. Louis County did the same.
85 PER CENT
For the state of Missouri as a
whole, more than 85 per cent or 58,-
000 of the 66,000 Negro students are
now reported attending schools in
wholly or party integrated systems.
Reports of trouble appear to be at
a minimum.
West Virginia’s program for inte
gration completed its biggest hurdle
during the 1955-56 school year.
Starting the 1956 term most schools
will be completely integrated. An
other full term probably will find all
schools in the state’s 55 counties de
segregated.
In Washington, however, school
officials entered the second year of
integration last September only to
find that the job of putting two sep
arate school systems together hardly
had begun.
School Supt. Hobart M. Coming
was quick to state: “Desegregation—
the mechanical moving of people and
things—virtually has been complet
ed, but the merging of the two wings
of schools is far from finished.”
D. C. Seeking More Teachers to Cope
With School Desegregation Problems
WASHINGTON, D. C.
gcHOOL Supt. Hobart M. Corning
told a Senate Appropriations
subcommittee last month that the
school system must have additional
teachers to cope with serious prob
lems posed by racial desegregation.
Corning told the fiscal group cur
rently considering District budget
requests that integration has been “a
whale of an undertaking.” Pointing
out that there is a big difference be
tween desegregating and integrating,
Corning said the latter job will not
be finished for several more years.
“The job can’t be accomplished
without damage to the children un
less the schools are adequately
staffed,” Corning said. He said the
merger of the city’s white and Negro
schools, begun two years ago, has
brought teaching, disciplinary and
social problems that have put an
“unprecedented burden” on the city’s
3,700 teachers.
Corning volunteered the statement
about integration problems in urging
the Senate to grant funds to hire
180 new teachers next fall to start re
ducing over-size grade school classes.
OTHER REASONS
Coming made it clear that inte
gration was only one of several rea
sons for needing more teachers.
Subcommittee Chairman John C.
Year-End Summary
1. Disclosure of citywide
achievement test results showing,
in general, Washington students
failing to meet national norms in
reading, arithmetic and social
studies.
2. School authorities call for
inventory of school system needs
and present educational practices
and standards.
3. Parent campaign to get bud
get inclusion of money to hire 180
new teachers to start reducing
oversize grade school classes.—
Jeanne Rogers
Stennis (D-Miss.) said he was sure
this was true, adding: “But District
schools have undergone great change
and you have to meet the situation
head on.”
“That’s right,” Corning said, “and
that is why we have to have financial
support during the transition from
segregation to integration.” Coming
said District teachers “have gone the
extra mile.”
During the budget hearing, Stennis
closely quizzed Coming and board of
education members as to whether the
public schools had been integrated
“too fast.” Stennis said he was inter
ested in news stories which reported
that, in general, Washington students
are falling behind national norms in
reading, arithmetic and social studies.
He referred to a series of citywide
achievement tests given students after
the start of desegregation.
HASTE QUESTIONED
“Don’t you think you could have
done a better job in meeting such
problems as differences in pupil
achievement if you hadn’t moved so
fast and had been given more time
to prepare for integration?” Stennis
asked Coming.
Corning said he didn’t think so be
cause “problems have to be met daily
just as we’re meeting them now.”
He added that he didn’t think a
grade-by-grade, year-by-year inte
gration plan would have eliminated
any problems either.
Referring to the city’s “academi
cally retarded” students, Coming
said this situation was “discovered”
after the start of integration but did
not result from it.
Mrs. Frank S. Phillips, school board
vice president, said the District’s
“precipitous integration” had made
grade placement of students with the
same achievement level “practically
impossible.”
“We’ve made a lot of mistakes,
particularly on the officer level,” Mrs.
Phillips continued. “We were so
anxious to integrate that we didn’t
weed out the dead wood,” she said.
SUPT. HOBART CORNING
Tells of Teacher Need
Col. West A. Hamilton, one of
three Negro school board members,
said, “This board made haste slowly
in the matter of integration . . . and
I object that Washington integration
has been used as a whipping boy.”
Rowland F. Kirks, another board
member, said: “We don’t think addi
tional teachers alone will solve all
our problems.” Kirks said he and
other board members thought the
school system’s academic standards
“require re-evaluation.” He said they
should be higher and stiffer.
At its May meeting, the school
board called for a regrouping of stu
dents in grade school and junior high
classes next fall more in accordance
with their educational abilities.
Kirks, proponent of the classroom
reorganization, said he found the fact
“alarming that we now have too great
extremes of students within four
walls and before one teacher.”
Kirks told Corning to use every
available device for proper place
ment of students into what he called
“homogeneous groups.” He speci
fically cited use of intelligence and
aptitude test scores, school records
and teacher evaluations.
KIRKS’ PLAN
Classroom grouping should be
based primarily on a student’s aca
demic attainment, performance and
mental age, Kirks said, adding: “To
day we have incompatible groupings
and it’s impossible for teachers.”
If there isn’t space in individual
schools for the necessary groupings
of bright, average and slow pupils,
Kirks suggested youngsters be trans
ferred to buildings other than those
zoned to their neighborhoods.
to comment on charges of Rep. John
Bell Williams (D-Miss.) that re
peated incidents of trouble had made
it necessary to assign special police
details to some District schools.
Williams, a member of the House
District Committee, lambasted Wash
ington integration before a Citizens
Council in Selma, Ala. He charged
the press and radio with censoring
news favorable to segregation.
District Police Chief Robert V.
Murray said his police files on school
incidents and crime “are always
open” to Congress and the press.
Murray’s attitude differs from that
of the school board which in March
denied a request from Williams for
a racial rundown on the number of
incidents of physical violence among
District students and the number of
students found in possession of dead
ly weapons.
WILLIAMS QUERIED
In his address, Williams said:
“We’re going to get that information
because the committee has subpoena
powers.” Reached later at his home
in Raymond, Miss., Williams said he
had no first-hand knowledge of any
school incidents. He said a school
board member told him “things were
so bad in some schools” that full
time police protection was necessary.
For this reason, Williams said he
asked the school board for the facts
and failed to get them.
Murray said he had ordered no
special police detail around schools.
He added that if “we hear that
trouble is brewing, of course we send
men out.” Murray said “there are
not a great many school calls—and
not a high percentage are racial in
origin.”
NON-STUDENTS INVOLVED
Another racial incident that Mur
ray said he could recall was the re
cent beating of a white McKinley
High School student by two Negroes,
both of whom were not students. The
episode grew out of a petition some
students circulated in opposition to
a school prom which later was can
celled.
Asst. School Supt. Carl F. Hansen,
head of city high schools, said “every
body is exercising special alertness
and if there seems to be a problem
in the making, we often notify the
police precinct.”
This was echoed by Eleanor Mc-
Auliffe, principal of Sousa Junior
High, who said: “I’m calling police
today through caution ... to pre
vent trouble. I suppose I call them
for things that I wouldn’t have pre
viously.” She said “there’s been no
spectacular increase in school inci
dents and none of them have been
serious.”
CORNING’S PROPOSALS
The school board asked Corning to
tell them this month how he pro
posed putting the plan into effect.
Corning said he couldn’t see how the
plan “could harm our present school
philosophy,” one of best serving the
individual needs of children.
“It will make it possible for the
bright child to get a better education
and for the less-bright to get a better
education,” Kirks, former law school
president, said. He added it is similar
to the “four-track” high school plan
which will be tried out on city 10th
graders in September. Under the
latter, course offerings will b»
worked out for the bright, average
and retarded student.
Opposing the Kirks recommenda
tion were Wesley S. Williams, Mar
garet Just Butcher and Robert R.
Faulkner. Williams said the schools
are grouping children according to
their abilities now. Mrs. Butcher said
she feared children would be placed
in slow classes because of poor back
ground experiences gained under
segregation.
INCIDENTS SURVEYED
District police and school officials
said last month they are on the alert
to prevent disturbances growing out
of racial integration. They said their
efforts generally have been success
ful.
This sums up what authorities told
Southern School News when asked
DISCIPLINARY PROBLEMS
Most principals of junior and senior
highs with a large number of racially-
mixed classes said they had many
student problems, most of a discipli
nary nature. For the most part, they
said they could handle these prob
lems without police assistance.
John Koontz, Anacostia High School
principal, said: “I have a fight here
a month, just as regular as clock
work.” He said he “wasn’t too con
cerned about this because I can
remember having been a boy once
myself.”
Lynn F. Woodworth, Eastern
Junior-Senior High principal, said
the policeman assigned to watch traf
fic in front of the school spends
“many hours making friends of the
students.” Woodworth added, ‘ He s
like a member of our school family-
Woodworth said at the start o
integration he had received abou
300 students from former Negro
schools “that definitely were problem
children.” He pointed out that w ”. e ”
that many are concentrated im
one roof, you’ve got your hands tul •
PROBLEM PUPILS ‘DUMPED’
Several Negro leaders last y ea ^
stated publicly that some Negro P I ‘ 1I \
cipals had “dumped” their P r0 ‘- > ,®
students into the former w ,
schools. Mrs. Butcher told the sc
board this produced an “unfortuna
situation . . . and one that hurt every
body.”