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PAGE 2—MARCH 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Missouri School Reports on Second-Year
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
AviNG just concluded the second full
year of desegregation, Soldan high
school in St. Louis is operating more
smoothly with a 50 per cent Negro en
rollment than it did with a 33 per cent
Negro minority during the first year.
Such is the report of Principal Glynn
Clark at the St. Louis high school
which has undergone the sharpest
change as a result of the ending of ra
cial distinctions in conformity with the
Supreme Court decision of 1954. (For a
report on Soldan’s first year, see
Southern School News, February,
1956.)
Soldan is located on Union boule
vard in the middle-class west end, in
the midst of a rapidly changing neigh
borhood which in the past 10 years has
witnessed a heavy influx of Negro fam
ilies. Before desegregation, the well-
equipped school building was under
employed. White families were moving
to the suburbs and the Negro families
who were taking their places had to
send their children to one of the two
all-Negro high schools. Soldan’s enroll
ment dropped to 900 the year of the
Supreme Court decision.
ENROLLMENT ROSE
St. Louis high schools were desegre
gated in February, 1955. The natural re
sult was a steep rise in enrollment at
Soldan to 1,400 in 1955-56, of whom
about one-third were estimated to be
Negroes. This year the white exodus
has continued. In addition to children
whose families have moved to the su
burbs, a substantial number of students
transferred to the newly opened O’Fal
lon Technical High School, which has a
$6 million plant full of the latest gadgets
of a type to appeal to young people
bent on technical training.
Like all high schools, O’Fallon is un
segregated, but because of its geograph
ical location there are proportionately
fewer Negroes than at Soldan. Some of
the transferees probably switched to
escape the increasing Negro enrollment
at Soldan, though there are no signs of
a general, organized “flight.”
In any event the combination of a
drop in white enrollment, the continued
rise in Negro numbers, and a redis
tribution of student population result
ing from the opening of O’Fallon has
left Soldan with an enrollment of 1,250,
somewhat less than last year, of whom
roughly half are believed to be Negroes.
POPULATION UP
Thus Soldan’s Negro population in
one year has gone up from about 430
to about 600, while the white enroll
ment has fallen from close to 1,000 to
around 600 or 650. (Since no school rec
ords specify the race of students, exact
figures are unavailable.)
Despite this change in the student
body, Principal Clark believes that the
second year of desegregation is working
better than the first. His staff and the
observations of a visitor confirm his
opinion.
The elusive thing called corridor and
class-room morale appears to be higher
than it was a year ago. There is less
consciousness of race. The original feel
ings of strangeness and artificiality
have disappeared. Through experience
in day-to-day working together, stu
dents of both races have learned to
judge each other as individuals.
As each group learns that the other
Court Cases
(Continued From Page 1)
NAACP officials were ordered to pro
duce records in a tax investigation, and
one was jailed until records were pro
duced.
KENTUCKY—Gordon v. Collins, dis
trict court accepted Webster County
school board’s plan for full desegrega
tion on a “voluntary basis,” effective in
September, ordered similar program for
Hopkins County in Mitchell v. Pollack,
and for the high schools in Union
County in the case of Garnett v. Oak
ley. Dishman v. Archer, district court
ordered Scott County board to deseg
regate elementary schools in Septem
ber, 1957. Wilburn v. Holland, Mc
Cracken County school board was or
dered to submit a desegregation plan
by March 15.
LOUISIANA—Ludley v. LSU Board
of Supervisors, Bailey v. State Board of
Education, Lark and St. Julien v. State
Board of Education, temporary injunc
tions were granted restraining LSU,
Southwestern Louisiana Institute,
Southeastern Louisiana College and
McNeese College from implementing
legislation requiring “certificates of eli
gibility” from applicants. Louisiana ex
rel. LeBlanc v. Lewis, injunction against
NAACP granted by state district court,
appealed to state appellate court which
ruled jurisdiction lies with federal court
comprises individuals of greatly vary
ing characteristics, the tendency to
identify students by their racial group
lessens, say officials, and both Negroes
and whites find a greater degree of se
curity and understanding in classroom
relationships. There is noticeably less
tension, less strain, less anxiety.
NO ALTERCATIONS
An altercation between two students
of different race is no longer automat
ically regarded as a racial conflict.
There were no “incidents” during the
first year and this year even the possi
bility of one reportedly has ceased to
seem real to faculty and students.
The visitor, however, finds no spirit
of self-conscious evangelism. On the
contrary, the very matter-of-factness
with which integration is accepted on all
sides testifies to a virtually complete
transition from thought patterns ap
propriate to segregation. There is no
excitement among students and teach
ers about a “great experiment.” The ex
periment is a fact, and is accepted as
such in the same way as other circum
stances of school life.
One way in which the new feeling
may be manifesting itself is in a rising
attendance record. As in other schools,
Negroes at Soldan showed a higher de
gree of absenteeism and tardiness than
whites. But so far this year attendance
averages 93.6 per cent as compared with
88.5 per cent in the first year of deseg
regation and 89.7 per cent for the second
term of the 1955-56 school year. The
average is still below the 95 per cent
which St. Louis high schools are ex
pected to maintain, but a five-point
rise at a time of marked expansion of
the Negro enrollment indicates that
substantial progress has been made in
reducing Negro absences.
Partly this is said to be the work of
an assistant principal, a Negro, one of
whose special assignments has been to
approve attendance among both races.
His work among white students, inci
dentally, has been as effective as among
Negroes.
MORE NEGRO TEACHERS
There are 10 or 12 Negro teachers in a
total of 55, as compared with seven in a
total of 83 last year. Principal Clark
gives all of them high praise. Not a
single complaint has been received this
year from a white parent against any
Negro teacher. All have master's de
grees from leading universities, experi
ence and zeal. For Negroes, teaching is
one of the most highly paid jobs avail
able in St. Louis. Those who can qual
ify rank relatively higher in the Negro
community than do white teachers in
theirs.
Principal Clark himself is new to
school administration, having trans
ferred to Soldan from the superintend
ent’s staff, where he was in charge of
guidance and testing. He readily admits
that the Soldan appointment was not
fiercely sought, the changing character
of the student body being regarded as
making it a “tough” school to run.
Some teachers find it hard to adapt
to desegregation, he believes, because
they do not recognize the enormous
difference between teaching children
from well-adjusted middle-class fam
ilies and teaching those of less priv
ileged background. The average stu
dent from a good, stable home already
has the desire to learn and usually some
to which defendants earlier had sought
to transfer the case.
MARYLAND—Cases in Anne Arun
del, Carroll, Howard and Talbot coun
ties seeking to enforce school segrega
tion statutes rejected by county courts,
now under appeal to state court of ap
peals, docketed as Heintz v. Board of
Education of Howard County. Moore v.
Harford County Board of Education,
district court ruled plaintiff must ex
haust administrative remedies.
MISSOURI—Dixon v. Webster Groves
Board of Education, case charging dis
crimination in teacher hiring dismissed
on motion of the defendants.
NORTH CAROLINA—Carson v. War-
lick, mandamus denied by Fourth Cir
cuit Court in action brought against
district judge to hear Old Fort deseg
regation case on its merits and permit
supplemental petition. District judge
previously had ruled administrative
remedies provided by Pupil Placement
Act must be exhausted. Circuit Court
affirmed decision in part. NAACP v.
Eure, state supreme court affirmed su
perior court decision severing civil and
criminal actions in NAACP test of laws
under which state may seek to curb
organization’s activities.
OKLAHOMA—Carr v. Cole, four
Negro children admitted under court
order which calls for full desegregation
in Earlsboro school district by 1957-58.
SOUTH CAROLINA—Bryson v. Aus-
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habits of study, he says; whereas a
boy from a fatherless household whose
uneducated mother works brings to
school an altogether different problem
for the teacher—the problem of “moti
vating” him to do the kind of school
work more fortunate children do as a
matter of course.
SLOW LEARNERS
Negroes as a group are slow learn
ers not because they are Negroes, Clark
believes, but because of their cultural
and family background, which has been
affected in so many ways by years of
segregation. To cope with them requires
new techniques, flexibility and imagi
native enterprise on the part of the
teacher.
Does this mean that white students
in a mixed situation get less attention
and therefore a lower standard of edu
cation? Not, says Principal Clark, if the
teacher and the school system take ade
quate account of the differences in
learning aptitude which exist among all
students of whatever race, and organize
to solve the problem.
St. Louis high schools are currently
operating “two-track” curricula in Eng
lish and mathematics, one for fast learn
ers and one for average or slow stu
dents. The math requirements can be
met by taking either a general math
ematics course, or algebra, geometry
and trigonometry. In English, the bet
ter students begin at a more advanced
level and move on faster, while slower
students take the regular work. Negroes
are to be found in both the advanced
and the slower groups. Academic apti
tude is the sole criterion for enroll
ment in the advanced classes.
MORE DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS
Clark believes there may be more dis
cipline problems at Soldan than at some
other schools, but he does not recognize
them as problems resulting from deseg
regation. They are individual problems,
he says, which flow from the family and
social situation in which many Negroes
happen to live.
The neighborhood from which Soldan
draws most of its students—especially
the area into which Negro migration
has been flowing—is primarily one of
apartments, multiple-family homes, and
rooming houses. The family background
and social environment of such a neigh
borhood is bound to be different from
tin, three-judge federal court ruled
federal court proceedings should be
stayed until state settles issue raised by
dismissal or resignation of 18 teachers
in Elloree who refused to sign state
ments concerning their NAACP affilia
tions.
TENNESSEE—Roy v. Brittain, state
supreme court ruled Tennessee school
segregation laws unconstitutional in
affirming chancery court decision deny
ing injunction against use of state funds
for desegregated Clinton High School.
Booker v. State Board of Education,
Sixth Circuit Court overruled district
court’s decision approving gradual de
segregation at Memphis State College.
Kelly v. Nashville Board of Education,
federal district court approved gradual
desegregation plan to begin in first
grade in September, 1957, but ordered
that plan for completing process be
filed by Dec. 31, 1957. Frederick John
Kasper was cited for contempt in fed
eral court (now under appeal) and
acquitted in state court of charges of
sedition and inciting to riot for his role
in Clinton disorders.
TEXAS—Bell v. Rippy, district judge
dismissed case second time, after U.S.
Supreme Court affirmed Fifth Circuit
Court order that case be heard on its
merits. Jackson v. Rawdon, U.S. Su
preme Court affirmed circuit court de
cision that adverse public opinion is
insufficient grounds to deny Negroes
admission to Mansfield High School.
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Desegregation Experience
those in a well-to-do district of single
family homes.
During the first semester of desegre
gation at Soldan, informal studies were
made of distribution of pupil grades as
between Negroes and whites. As re
ported here a year ago, the studies
showed a rise in the failure rate after
Negroes joined the student body. In
freshman English, for example, failures
had amounted to 5 per cent with an all-
white student body and rose to 11.6 per
cent during the first semester of deseg
regation. No new studies along this line
have been made and none are expected.
Soldan teachers say such studies now
could only tell them what they already
know, that they face a different teach
ing problem now from the one they
faced under segregation.
COME FROM SOUTH
Immigration of Negroes directly from
the South continues. Some come to St.
Louis with their parents, others are sent
here to stay with relatives. Usually the
Negro student who has had his elemen
tary training in the South shows marked
deficiencies as compared with those
who have attended St. Louis elementary
schools, all-Negro or mixed. Two girls
who had been on the eighth grade
honor roll in Mississippi flunked in their
first semester at Soldan.
Soldan’s success in making the tran
sition to desegregation has been at
tributed in part to the intensive com
munity organization that preceded and
accompanied the change. Churches,
business men, parents’ clubs and other
social groups worked actively to pro
mote acceptance of the Supreme Court
decision in its application to the neigh
borhood.
One of two Missouri lawsuits over
teacher integration—the first such suits
in the nation—has been dropped. Dam
ages of $145,000 had been asked by two
Negro teachers from the Webster
Groves Board of Education, on the
ground that they had been dismissed
solely on account of race.
Webster Groves, a suburb of St.
Louis, desegregated its schools last year,
and as a result some Negro teachers
were dismissed while others were re
tained. The suit was filed by Ruth Dixon
and Albert C. Shaw. Their attorneys did
not file answers to defense motions,
however, and Circuit Judge Douglas L.
C. Jones of St. Louis County sustained
a defense motion to dismiss the action.
DECISION AWAITED
Another teacher tenure suit against
the Moberly Board of Education has
been tried in U.S. District Court and
awaits decision by Federal District
Judge Roy W. Harper in St. Louis.
In an action relating to residential
segregation, Dr. Howard P. Venable,
Negro ophthalmologist and faculty
member at St. Louis University, filed
suit in U.S. District against the St.
Louis suburb of Creve Coeur, charging
a conspiracy to prevent him from build
ing a home there.
Dr. Venable obtained a building per
mit last April but after he had started
District court ordered immediate deseg
regation, and petition for postponement
was denied by Fifth Circuit Court.
Whitmore v. Stilwell, contempt pro
ceedings against president of Texar
kana Junior College dismissed. State of
Texas v. NAACP, temporary injunction
granted. Avery v. Randal, Fifth Circuit
Court ordered trial of Wichita Falls
case previously dismissed by district
court as “premature.” Barnes v. Calvert,
case seeking to halt use of state funds
for education of Negro undergraduates
at the University of Texas dismissed by
state supreme court.
VIRGINIA—Davis v. Prince Edward
County Board of Education, district
court refused to set deadline for deseg
regation. Atkins v. Newport News
School Board and Beckett v. Norfolk
School Board, after issuing memoran
dum holding the state Pupil Assignment
Act unconstitutional on its face,” dis
trict court set Aug. 15 deadline for be
ginning desegregation. Allen v. Char
lottesville School Board and Thompson
v. Arlington County School Board,
Fourth Circuit Court affirmed decisions
ordering desegregation by start of 1956-
57 school year in former and by Jan.
31 in latter case. Dobbins v. Common
wealth, state supreme court reversed
conviction of Negro parents, under
compulsory attendance law, who had
refused to send their children to inferior
school.
construction of a $55,000 residence the
town’s aldermen voted to condemn hjj
property for a public park. In the fee.
eral court suit Dr. Venable charges ;
“clear-cut case of racial discrimination 5
and asks $12,000 damages together with
an injunction against Creve Coeur of.
ficials.
With the racial factor still much in
dispute, Webster Groves voters last
month declined to authorize a bond is.
sue for a single new junior high school
as recommended by the board of edu-
cation.
The opposition favored building two
schools instead of one, and succeeded ij,
blocking the two-thirds vote necessary
to pass the bond issue. At various times
during the citizen controversy, charges
were made or hinted that racial inte
gration was involved. Some backers of
two new schools said only thus could
racial “tension” be allayed. Some oppo-
nents of the site chosen for the board of
education’s proposed single school ob- ’
jected that pupils would have to walk
through an unincorporated Negro slum
area to reach it.
Just before the election, however
both sides declared that the racial ques
tion was not a major factor and tha:
educational issues caused the contro
versy. A new bond election is expected
to be held.
Democratic Gov. James T. Blair Jr
this month appointed a Negro to the
Kansas City Police Board, one of his
major appointments. The appointee is
Dowdal Davis, publisher of the Kansas
City Call, a Negro newspaper, and is
the first Negro to be appointed a police * *
commissioner for either St. Louis or
Kansas City. The appointment was
highly commended by the Kansas City
Star. *
In St. Louis, a controversy arose over
the decision of a citizens’ board, which
is drafting a proposed new charter, to
organize the future Board of Alderme:
on the basis of seven elected at large
and seven by districts, with a board
president also elected at large.
Negro political leaders and the presi
dent of the local branch of the Na
tional Association for the Advancement
of Colored People charge that this pi®
would deprive Negroes of proper repre
sentation. Under the present charter all
28 aldermen are elected by wards with
only the board president chosen city
wide. Four of the present aldermen are
Negroes, reflecting the residential con
centration of Negro voters, who repre
sent between 20 and 25 per cent of tn f
total.
Sponsors of the new plan denied an;
intention to disadvantage the Negr®
community, and contended Negro®
would have as much represents^
under the new plan as they have no*
if not more. Despite Negro criticism 1
board voted to write the new plan ®
the charter for submission to the vo e
this year.
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WEST VIRGINIA—Pierce v.
'.ounty Board of Education, con
esegregation agreed upon at hearj*
/ilkinson v. Harrison County r
'ducation, agreement reached inP. .
rial hearing for admission of 35 N®. a
hildren to four specific schools.
- Si
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(Continued From Page 1)
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