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R. T. OSBORNE CANDLER HALL UN I VE RS I T Y OF GEORG I A A THE NS , GA . Index to Volume II Begins on Pg. 13 •sf Factual Southern School News 3P s • Vdis"'- - /tf JUL-6'56 W' .f $ i', y. V - / U S POSTAGE 03 : Objective VOL. Ill, NO. I NASHVILLE, TENN. $2 PER YEAR JULY, 1956 Legislatures, Courts, Boards Holding Stage Index southern public scmools drew near the first full month of summer holidays, legislatures, courts and school boards still held the stage through much of the region. Legislators in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia were awaiting special summer sessions designed to tighten segregation laws. By the end of June the Louisiana legislature had advanced 11 pieces of pro-segregation legislation to various stages of completion. Desegregation began or was announced in at least five districts and in several colleges. Two districts in Delaware made plans for modified desegregation. So did one on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The color bar was dropped in Amarillo, Tex., high schools. Looking toward general desegregation in the fall, Louisville ac cepted Negroes in formerly all-white high schools for the summer session. Courts in several states were promised a busy summer. Florida’s first school entry suit was filed in Dade County (Miami) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced that at least two suits would be filed in Georgia before September. A suit in West Virginia criticized as slow- moving a county which began desegre gation in 1954. Further suits apparently were in pros pect. Speaking at a press conference in San Francisco where the NAACP was in convention at the end of June, Counsel Thurgood Marshall said 30 suits are being processed in eight “intransigent states”—Mississippi, Alabama, Louisi ana, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. A state-by-state summary of major developments during June follows: State Page Alabama .1 10 Arkansas 9 Delaware 3 District of Columbia 6 Florida .. .1 2 Georgia 3 Kentucky 12 Louisiana 8 Maryland 5 Mississippi 12 Missouri l North Carolina 4 Oklahoma 8 South Carolina H Tennessee ? 7 Texas g Virginia 10 West Virginia 2 Alabama A circuit judge’s order, on petition of the attorney general, enjoined the Na tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People from further activity Alabama. The NAACP said it would fight the order. Arkansas Incumbent Gov. Orval Faubus, cam paigning for reelection, said when new segregation laws are enacted as planned, no school board will be forced to mix races while I am governor.” and Christiana, named in suits said they are willing to undertake modified de segregation; five others are standing pat, and another has not yet filed an answer. District of Columbia District desegregation was in the spot light as a Senate and a House committee called for investigation of “lowered standards, juvenile delinquency and present educational patterns.” Florida The state saw its first suit filed (in Dade County—Miami) for admission of Negroes to all-white schools as legisla tors awaited a July call to a special session on new segregation laws. Delaware Two of eight school districts, ■ ■■■llIHIUI l | I II| l gi I ( llIIIII|I| Georgia Entrance requirements at Georgia State College of Business Administra tion were tightened as three Negroes were denied admission. The NAACP an nounced school entry suits will be filed in iISi«ISISIS»lsHBI*HII i l*ligiHiliiit IgiiIIgl i Milton SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS staffers and correspondents from all over the southern and border states gathered in Nashville June 8-9 for their annual seminar. Above, the group (we couldn’t squeeze all of them into the picture) makes plans for extended coverage in 1956-57 and “talks shop” in a seminar room at George Peabody College, close to SSN headquarters. Atlanta and Savannah before next Sep tember. Kentucky Anticipating fall desegregation, Louis ville schools began accepting Negroes at summer sessions and Western Ken tucky College, also for the first time, had enrolled Negro students. Louisiana Of 18 new segregation bills before the legislature, 11 had been approved by at least one house by the end of June and passage was expected for at least fifteen. Maryland Talbot County, on the state’s hitherto segregated eastern shore, accepted Ne gro registrants and advisory groups in St. Mary’s and Calvert counties in south ern Maryland recomr,'ended desegre gation steps. Mississippi One year before the deadline for com pletion of a “foundation” plan to pre serve segregation on a voluntary basis through equal school facilities, less than one-third of the counties had complied with a 1953 Negro-white equalization plan, a study showed. Missouri A survey of a Kirkwood school, near St. Louis, which has completed two years of desegregation, showed that the second year is “harder than the first.” North Carolina The state supreme court ruled the state’s constitutional requirement for segregated schools unconstitutional in' a decision upholding sale of remaining bonds from a 1952 issue as Gov. Luther Hodges set July 23 for a special legisla tive session on new segregation laws. Oklahoma In the first political move involving segregation-desegregation, a political candidate filed a petition for a referen dum on interposition. - South Carolina Shots were fired over the heads of Ne groes attending a Catholic-sponsored meeting in Williamsburg County. A number of students and teachers were discharged at South Carolina (Negro) State College as the aftermath of a stu dent strike. Citizens Councils were re ported expanding in number. Tennessee The state, reported “teetering on the tightrope of moderation,” heard U. S. Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) advocate a five-point plan to restrain the Supreme Court and noted an interview in which Gov. Frank Clement said that no schools in Tennessee will be desegregated unless a court so orders. Texas The Democratic Executive Committee ordered three segregation questions sub With this issue, Southern School News begins its third volume year and something new. The pages are larger. The columns are slightly wider. We believe this contributes to readability. And that is good. What is better, the enlarged for mat makes available the equiva lent of 3.2 pages of additional read ing matter in the new Southern School News without the addition of any more pages. This month, we are including the index to Volume II in the 16-page format so that the reader will not have to cope with a supplement— easily lost in transit or misplaced. Next month and for many months following this extra space will be devoted to special texts, studies and a wealth of factual material for which no room has been available in the past. mitted to a statewide referendum in the July party primary. Virginia The General Assembly was awaiting a special call to act on recommendations of the Gray Commission, which has been inactive until recently. West Virginia A surprise suit was filed by the NA ACP in Cabell County, one of the first areas to announce desegregation in 1954, on grounds the county is “making no real effort to desegregate its schools.” ^lSsSsSiIIil!iilIIiIg!i!(l(lii!ii=iSil!Illig!i)iiiiiiii=i !=!§==!=sis3=S==I==EH=3EE== IIIIIIIIIII iillliilllllllliliifffgiiiniliiiii Second if ear ^Jfardor ■■ w/ ■■ ■ I Faculty ol Missouri School Reviews Two Years of Desegregation ST. LOUIS, Mo. The second year of integration is hard er than the first. So say the teachers and principal at John Pitman school, in Kirkwood, which in June became one of the first Missouri elementary schools to complete two years of experience with desegregation. Kirkwood is a town of 20,000 about 18 miles from downtown St. Louis. Its population is predominantly suburban, with a slightly small-town-rural admix ture. When the Supreme Court decision against segregation came down in 1954, the Kirkwood school board after some lively debate decided to integrate its elementary schools at once, and its junior and senior high school within a year, when a new building would be completed. Practically, the decision meant that one elementary school—John Pitman— became a mixed school with a Negro minority of 13 per cent. Other elemen- tncy schools remained all-white be cause no Negroes lived in their districts. The previously segregated elementary school remained all-Negro, lakeup since the district it serves f Schools is predominantly populated by Negroes, and white chil- . en in the district were given the op tion of continuing at their former schools. The junior and senior high schools are mixed, the junior high hav ing a Negro minority of about 10 per -ent and the senior high slightly less. SAME DISPARITY In June 1955, Mrs. B. A. Compton, principal at John Pitman school, and cr teaching staff gave Southern a H00L News a report on the first year’s ;^ e ^^ ce which emphasized the teach- ' c S ,. nnncuhy in coping with the scho- 'c disparity between Negroes and whites. This year, they report that the scholastic disparity remains just as great, and that it is now complicated by feelings of frustration and defensiveness on the part of the Negroes—feelings which come out in the form of greater aggressiveness, arrogance, and bad temper. During the first year extraordinary efforts were made by both Negroes and whites, both teachers and children, to make the social adjustment to integrat ed school life. The situation was novel and interesting. Now the novelty has worn off. Socially, the adjustment seems to be complete. Nobody minds or even pays much attention to the presence of pupils of another race. But the differ ences between the two groups have become if anything more pronounced, or at least more readily observed. “They are not racial differences,” says Mrs. Compton. “They are differences of cultural background, family habits, educational level, interest in and capa city for learning, parental concern and direction, and so on. It is not the color of the skin that makes these differences. But we would only be fooling ourselves if We failed to take account of them. The fact is we now have in our school one group of youngsters so very differ ent in all these ways that the teaching problem is complicated and the social results in the classroom difficult.” not argument Mrs. Compton is quick to make the Point that none of these experiences constitutes an argument against school integration. She and her staff are not contending that integration was a mis take. Despite the difficulties, not one of her teachers has applied for transfer to an all-white school. She herself does not want to sound discouraged. Next year will be another year, and she hopes that more progress can be reported then. Here is the academic record of the two groups of pupils at Pitman for this academic year, all grades: Negro White Total students ... 59 388 Above average .. 1 107 Average 21 197 Below average ... 37 84 In terms of percentages of each racial group, the figures show that in the above-average group Negroes placed less than 2 per cent, whites 27 per cent; in the average group, Negroes 35 per cent, whites 50 per cent; below average, Negroes 63 per cent, whites 23 per cent. Mrs. Compton says several of the Negroes rated average ranked in the lowest section of that group. Some would have been held back instead of being promoted to another grade, but were advanced because their age and size would have made them incongruous figures in the classroom. Some sixth grade Negroes were found to be still at the primer stage in reading. Some had already been held back for one year or more before they got to Pitman. PARENTS’ ATTITUDE The attitude of Negro parents is not as cooperative as it might be, say the Pitman teachers. Either because of a feeling of strangeness or a lack of in terest, the parents show only slight con cern with their children and participate little in school life. When a child be comes a problem and a note is sent home, the Negro parent often fails to respond. When several notes and a tele phone call bring an answer, the confer ence seldom results in active help to the lagging pupil. One student whose parent was called in reported that she “got a terrible lick ing at home that night”—which was not the teacher’s idea at all. Many Negro parents are both working She Got and have little time to de- a ‘Licking’ vote to advancing their children’s school efforts, and perhaps less knowledge of how to go about it. Some of the teacher attitudes at Pit man may be traceable to their own difficulty in changing over to a sharply altered teaching problem. One new teacher who had just come out of uni versity, where she studied alongside Negroes in a wholly integrated situa tion, did not report nearly so many problems and disappointments as some of those who had been teaching for many years in an all-white school. She accepted integration from the start and began her teaching career within that frame of reference. GRADUAL APPROACH Mrs. Compton still believes, as she did last year, that it would have been pref erable to integrate more gradually— perhaps by mixing each kindergarten group as it entered school, thus taking seven years to complete the process. She also believes that the most retarded Negroes should be given special atten tion in classes for slow children, so that they would not burden the regular classes. Where relatively large numbers of slow learners come into a school, she thinks the class size should be re duced, to avoid undue hardship on the teacher and the other pupils. It is unwise, Mrs. Compton believes, to concentrate all Negroes in one inte grated school. Some white patrons of that school then feel discriminated against and, as in this case, a certain number move out of the district. Among children and some parents, habits grow up of attaching a stigma to the lone in tegrated school. Remarks have been passed about Pitman’s being a “slum school,” though it is a typical middle- class institution in a very middle-class neighborhood. Kirkwood is now building a new ele mentary school so located that it will take over part of Pitman’s enrollment, both white and Negro. When this is completed in 1957 it should be possible to reduce class sizes and distribute the Negro pupils more equitably, Mrs. Compton feels. Has the presence of slow learners among Negroes resulted in actually poorer quality of education for the bet ter prepared white children? The Pit man teachers are not Problem of prepared to say so. Slow Learner They know that the poorer students take more of their time and attention, and some may feel that this will result in future handicaps to the others, but they cannot say and prove that such deterior ation in educational quality has ac tually occurred up to now. HIGH POINTS Here are the high points of teacher reports on the second year of integra tion: FIRST GRADE (Negroes: none above average, 7 average, 5 below average; whites: 17 above average, 31 average, 17 below average.) One teacher says inte gration “may be the Christian thing to do, but it presents many hard problems.” Majority of Negro pupils in her class slow learners, need special attention, may ultimately affect quality of educa tion available to others. SECOND GRADE (Negroes: none above average, 4 average, 6 below aver- (See MISSOURI, Page 5)