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VOL.
NO. 3
NASHVlLLt, TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
SEPTEMBER, 1956
More Border Areas Mix, Deep South Solid
School Segregation Issue
Plays Part In Conventions
gcHOOL doors were opening this month in 17 southern and border states plus the District of Columbia with 723 school dis
tricts and school units desegregated—186 more than last year—and with racial segregation at the lower school level un
broken in eight states.
The eight are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. In three of
these Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia—some Negroes are attending private and state-supported colleges.
Late August saw .he first violence growing out of a federal court order requiring desegregation this school year at
Clinton, Tenn , (see below and Tennessee report, page 3) and at Mansfield, Texas (see page 12.)
Olatform planks of accommodation
A and compromise were adopted by
both major political parties in their
national conventions last month.
Civil rights—particularly the school
segregation question—dominated the
Democratic national convention in Chi
cago. This issue was a consideration in
practically every decision reached by
candidates, delegates and the party
leadership. As ultimately resolved, the
problem of school segregation-desegre
gation was recognized as a national
rather than a regional problem but with
particular “consequences” for the
“communities directly affected.”
For the Republicans, the question was
resolved in somewhat stronger terms,
but largely in paraphrases of the Su
preme Court’s decision.
BOTH PLANKS ‘ACCEPTABLE’
In both cases, the planks on civil
rights were proclaimed “acceptable” if
not “satisfactory” by all except the
most extreme who had joined issue.
Grover Hall, editor of the Montgom
ery Advertiser and one of the few
southern editors who covered both
conventions, found “agreement all
around that the Republican civil rights
plank is stronger than the Democratic,
though how much stronger is for the
debaters.”
In Chicago, the civil rights issue
flared briefly in an early morning floor
fight on Aug. 15 giving the convention
its first dramatic moment. It ended in a
close but undeniable voice vote favor
ing compromise and party unity. This
came as, after two dull and ill-attended
days, the convention moved into its
third evening session amid an atmos
phere of tension. Efforts within the
platform committee to avoid a minority
report on civil rights had failed.
SOUTHERNERS ‘TOUCHY’
Southern delegations had been made
touchy by remarks of such previous
speakers as Sen. Wayne Morse of Ore
gon, Sen. Paul Douglas of Illinois, Da-
V1 d A. Bunn, Young Democrats presi
dent, and by keynote speaker Gov.
Frank Clement of Tennessee.
As the evening’s program proceeded,
one by one party leaders disappeared
from their accustomed places. Conven-
tion Chairman Sam Rayburn left the
rostrum. Soon National Committee
Chairman Paul Butler followed. Sen.
Douglas was not in his usual place in
the front row of the Illinois delegation,
^he band played on and on. Rep. Mc
Cormack left the platform. Georgia’s
Gov. Marvin Griffin left his delegation.
Forty minutes later, almost as sud-
enly as h e bad disappeared, Chairman
Ka yburn returned to the podium and
rapped sharply for order. The conven-
Ion proceeded rapidly through the
(See CONVENTIONS, Page 2)
Chicago . . .
At San Francisco . . .
‘For Little OF Me?’
The One Issue
Ver* P^duced any major contro-
°f * n ^ ra ^**ng the platforms
both political parties was
public school
pesegregation
^ '—
C it . ere °an educators and lay
e hs find the full information
on this question?
See Page 16
‘B&ldq
—Atlanta Constitution
Private Schools Are Little
Affected By Desegregation
An exclusive spot check by Southern
School News correspondents of
some 50 leading private non-sectarian
schools in 12 southern and border states
indicates that public school desegrega
tion has had little effect on enrollments,
which are booming everywhere.
Private school heads in only three
states attribute the increase in any way
to the Supreme Court decisions against
public school segregation—and not all
of them agree. Some think it may be a
factor in the years to come, “but not
yet.”
THREE CAUSES
A survey of nine Tennessee schools
by SSN Correspondent James Elliott is
perhaps typical of the region as a whole.
While some school administrators say
that desegregation is a slight factor,
in effect they rule it out by assigning
these major causes of the bumper crop
of applications:
1) Increased number of school chil
dren everywhere.
2) Dissatisfaction with current trends
in education in many public schools.
3) Good financial conditions across
the United States.
Few instances are reported of new
schools springing up to accommodate
children in desegregated areas. One, in
Beckley, W. Va., failed for lack of cap
ital. On the other hand, two private
schools in Baltimore that would have
been most immediately affected by de
segregation of public schools—Park
School and Friends School—have
adopted their own desegregation pro
grams.
One school in North Carolina re
ported that “segregation has had an
effect” on its increased enrollment.
“Overall,” reports Correspondent Jay
Jenkins, “reaction seems to be that the
effect of the segregation rulings is diffi
cult if not impossible to measure, but
that it has influenced the thinking of
parents.” One school head in Louisiana
told SSN Correspondent Leo Adde that
enrollment was up because “people
have very frankly told me they want
to get in while they can” since they
feel integration is coming to all but
the private, non-sectarian schools. An
other school head in the same state said
that “integration has subsided as a fac
tor in causing people to register their
children.”
Some of the schools sampled and
comments received from headmasters,
together with reports of SSN corre
spondents, are as follows:
TEXAS—Hockaday School, Dallas:
Knows of one or possibly two cases
where applications may have been in
fluenced by desegregation but it can
hardly be called a factor. Allen Acad
emy, Bryan: Effect of desegregation
slight, if any; believes it will be a fac
tor in the years ahead; increased pop
ulation, higher college requirements
and crowded public schools bringing in
more students. Peacock Military Acad-
emy, San Antonio: School full since
World War H; believes desegregation
will influence future enrollment, but
not now. Kinkaid School, Houston: New
plant and increasing population, plus
general prosperity, have brought more
pupils than school can accept; race
problem not a factor yet.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA—"Ho evi
dence seen of a big boost,” reports SSN
Correspondent Jeanne Rogers. “We do,
of course, have this continuing migra
tion to the suburbs and some nearby
Maryland and Virginia private schools
have benefitted. We think, however,
these children are the ones who would
have attended private schools in the
District had their parents remained
there.”
KENTUCKY—Louisville Country
Day School (for boys): Enrollment up
by 30, as it has been, roughly, every
year since opening in 1951; waiting list
90 to 100; no evidence of any change
due to desegregation of city’s public
schooh. Kentucky Military Institute,
(See PRIVATE SCHOOLS, Page 2)
Pending full enrollment reports later
in the year, Southern School News esti
mates that approximately 300,000 Negro
pupils are in “integrated situations.”
This is an increase of approximately
45,000. An estimated 2,400,000 remain
segregated.
(“Integrated situations” is a term used
to cover Negro children who are attend
ing formerly all-white schools; attend
ing formerly all-Negro schools which
whites have entered; are eligible to at
tend mixed schools in desegregated dis
tricts but are not doing so, or are en
rolled in districts which have just begun
the desegregation process.)
Most of the 300,000 are in the District
of Columbia and the border states.
However, the first breach in the state-
jupported segregated systems of most of
me southeastern states and all of the
Deep South appeared during August in
Tennessee. There, at Clinton High
School in Anderson County, 15 Negroes
were enrolled under federal court order
and 12 were attending classes at the end
of the month. Violence flared in Clinton
as groups described by peace officers as
“mobs” endeavored to halt the integra
tion process. One other incident in
volving violence was reported from
Mansfield, Tex., as the month ended.
School districts desegregating this fall
ur desegregated last year without public
announcement until this time include
three in West Virginia, one in Delaware,
six in Missouri, one in Tennessee, 46 in
Kentucky, 35 in Texas, 85 in Oklahoma
and nine in Maryland.
As against the 723 districts and school
units desegregated, nearly 3,000 (ac
cording to latest count) having Negro
pupils remain segregated as the school
year begins.
Following are the major develop
ments, state by state, during August:
Alabama
By a 12 to 8 margin, voters adopted a
constitutional amendment empowering
the legislature to withdraw aid to, and
even dispose of, any school faced with
forcible integration. Called the “Free
dom of Choice” amendment, its mean
ing and effect were widely disputed in
pre-referendum debate.
Arkansas
The academic year opened with three
small schools integrated (same as last
year) and Van Buren and Little Rock
school districts planning desegregation
in 1957—the latter under a plan ap
proved by a federal district court Aug.
28.
Delaware
Fourteen of 63 school districts with
Negroes had mixed classes as the school
year opened (eight others have an
nounced policies of non-discrimination),
with 4,100 out of nearly 11,000 Negro
pupils in the state in “integrated situ
ations.”
District of Columbia
With an estimated school population
ratio of 65 per cent Negro and 35 per
cent white, the District schools begin
their third year of integration against
the backdrop of a congressional investi
gation into school standards.
Florida
Official confusion appeared over the
mechanics of operating Florida’s wholly
segregated school system under new
laws adopted by the state legislature.
Georgia
The new school year was opening with
segregation maintained at every level of
public education and with higher enroll
ments expected in the segregated 16-
unit university system—especially in
Negro colleges, where a 16 per cent
increase was forecast.
Kentucky
Schools opened to “integrated situa
tions” in all but 15 of the state’s 120
counties, involving 180,000 white and
20,000 Negro children. August also saw
the organization of the first Citizens
Council (prosegregation) in Kentucky
and a protest against desegregation of
Louisville schools.
Louisiana
“Solidly segregated” was the descrip
tion of the state’s school system as the
year began, with new state laws enacted
in an effort to preserve racial separation.
Five school entry suits are pending.
Maryland
School doors were open on a desegre-
gated basis to nearly 85 per cent of
Maryland s Negro pupils. Nineteen
counties plus Baltimore City had deseg
regation programs in effect, with one of
the remaining four counties (one other
has no Negro children) to begin deseg
regation next fall.
Mississippi
An estimated 542,000 school children
ot both races are returning to segregated
classrooms though with physical facili
ties, along with teacher salaries, at a
new high of equality.
Missouri
The third year of integration began
with 120 districts (out of 244 having Ne
groes) affected; 88 per cent of Missouri’s
Negro pupils were enrolled in wholly or
partly integrated system.
North Carolina
Schools “are not expecting any diffi
culty as the school year began on a
segregated lower school basis, with a
school entry effort by Negroes in moun
tainous Swain County. Two Negro
women were admitted to Woman’s Col
lege of the University of North Carolina
at Greensboro.
Oklahoma
“Actual” integration was reported
trom 161 school districts with “policy”
integration in 12 others (where Negroes
did not choose to go to mixed schools.)
Rer-pupil costs were reported “about
the same in 66 districts and lower in
43 others.
South Carolina
Schools opened on a segregated basis
at all levels with an estimated record
high enrollment of 575,000 pupils of both
races.
Tennessee
Violence flared in Anderson County
after 12^ Negroes began attending Clin
ton High School under a federal court
order—the first such instance of deseg-
regation in a state-supported lower
school—but the Negro pupils remained
in mixed classrooms as the month ended
ended.
Texas
More than 100 school districts (the
most recent count shows there were 73
last year) began the school year under
desegregation and the first district in
heavily Negro-populated East Texas-
Port Arthur-announced desegregation
effective m 1957. An estimated 500,000
white and 25,000 Negro students were in
integrated situations without incident
save for a flareup at Mansfield.
Virginia
The state reopened its wholly segre
gated lower schools as the legislature
was embroiled in a special session over
Gov. Thomas B. Stanley’s new “total re
sistance program. Charlottesville, ord
ered to desegregate this month by a
federal district court, won a stay of exe
cution of the order pending a circuit
court appeal.
West Virginia
Twenty county systems began the
year fully desegregated, 21 were partly
desegregated and three remained segre
gated. (Eleven other counties have no
Negro pupils.)
Index
State Page
Arkansas
Delaware g
District of Columbia .... ..' ” g
Florida j~
Georgia 5
Kentucky 5
Louisiana 44
Maryland
Mississippi g
Missouri jg
North Carolina 10
Oklahoma 7
South Carolina 4
Tennessee 3
Texas 12
Virginia 8
West Virginia 10
