Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10—APRIL 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
10th Missouri High School
In ‘Bootheel* Plans Move
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
r J , HE 10th high school to end
segregation in Missouri’s “boot-
heel” section announced plans for
partial desegregation next Sep
tember, reducing to four the num
ber of Missouri high schools that
have not complied with the Su
preme Court decision. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Lincoln University, former Ne
gro college, has nearly 300 white
students and reports what it calls
a rebirth of vitality. (See “In the
Colleges.”)
St. Louis is holding a school
board election with one Negro
candidate and no campaign discus
sion of desegregation. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
With Gov. James T. Blair’s help,
the Missouri legislature for the
first time is considering for floor
action a Human Rights Commis
sion bill. (See “Legislative Ac
tion.”)
Another high school in Missouri’s
southeast “bootheel” section announced
this month plans to start desegregation
next fall. The decision of the school
board at Poplar Bluff, 20 miles from the
Arkansas border, means that only four
high schools in the state next year will
be retaining segregation. All are in the
“bootheel.”
Elsewhere, only scattered elementary
schools have not yet complied with the
Supreme Court decision. It is generally
agreed that for all of them, compliance
is only a matter of time, waiting in some
cases on construction of new schools,
in others on community sentiment. No
organized opposition to desegregation
exists and no state legislation on the
subject has been proposed.
At Poplar Bluff, the last segregated
enrollment figures showed (for 1954)
140 Negroes and 934 whites in high
school, 165 Negres and 2,241 whites in
elementary grades. Most of the Negroes
live in one section of town.
PROCESS BEGUN IN 1954
In September, 1954, the board of edu
cation announced that all elementary
pupils might attend the school nearest
their homes if they wished. Twenty-five
Negro pupils lived closer to white
schools than to the Negro school, but all
of them chose to continue attending the
Negro school. Little pressure for mixing
was reported from the Negro commun
ity. While optional desegregation re
mained theoretically in effect for ele
mentary grades, Poplar Bluff took no
action at the high school level until
now because classroom facilities were
short and it was decided to wait until
a new $750,000 high school was com
pleted.
With completion of the new building
now scheduled for next year, the school
board announced this month that the
junior and senior classes of the Negro
high school will be discontinued next
September. Forty-eight Negroes now in
sophomore and junior classes will be
eligible to attend the senior high school
alongside whites.
NEGRO SCHOOL CONTINUES
The Negro school will continue to
operate grades one to 10, with open
boundaries and permission for any pu
pil to attend the nearest and most con
venient school. Thus some Negroes, as
in the past, will be eligible to attend
white elementary and junior high school
if they choose to exercise the option.
Application for transfer, however, is
subject to review by the superintendent
of schools if reason for attending a par
ticular school seems “superficial or in
adequate.”
The Poplar Bluff decision presumably
will require a similar one by the town
of Neelyville, 18 miles away, which has
been sending Negro high school stu
dents to the Negro high school in Pop
lar Bluff. Sixteen Neelyville Negroes
who would have been eligible to attend
the upper two classes next year will
probably attend Neelyville high school
instead, as they will not be eligible to
attend the new integrated senior high
in Poplar Bluff.
These developments will leave as the
only segregated high schools in Mis
souri two in New Madrid County—Lil-
bourn and New Madrid—and two in
adjoining Pemiscot County— Caruthers-
ville and Hayti. These two cotton-grow
ing counties along the Mississippi River
have relatively large Negro populations
and have made no move to end segre
gation so far.
OTHER DESEGREGATION
In addition to the high schools, there
are in New Madrid County segregated
elementary schools at Canalou, Kewan-
ee, Lilboum, Marston, Matthews, New
Madrid, Parma, Portageville, Risco and
Conran. Enrollment figures for 1954, the
last collected by the state on a segregat
ed basis, showed 1,278 Negroes and
5,375 whites in these elementary schools
—a Negro proportion of about 24 per
cent.
In Pemiscot County there are segre
gated elementary schools at Braggado
cio, Caruthersville, Cooter, Deering,
Hayti, Hayward, Holland, Steele and
Wardell, with total Negro enrollment
(1954) of 1,939 and white 5,825—a Negro
proportion of nearly 25 per cent.
New Madrid and Pemiscot counties
between them next fall will account for
all of the approximately 800 students
still attending segregated high schools
in Missouri. They account for some 3,200
of the approximately 7,500 elementary
students still attending segregated
schools.
RESIDENTIAL CONCENTRATION
Poplar Bluff’s desegregation will
bring to 10 the number of high schools
that have made the change in southeast
Missouri, generally the slowest section
of the state to comply with the Supreme
Court decision. Sikeston, Kennett, Mal
den, Benton, Cape Girardeau, Bell City
and Jackson made their start in the
1954-55 year, Charleston in 1955 and
Morley in 1956. Elementary schools also
have been desegregated at Jackson, but
elsewhere in the region few districts
are attempting this step now, and there
seems to be little demand for it from
the Negro communities. In most cases
residential concentration would place
Three
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
'Y’hree lawsuits seeking admis
sion of Negro students to
white schools were filed as class
actions in federal courts in Okla
homa during March. (See “Legal
Action.”) Two of the cases in
volved public school districts and
the third, a state training institu
tion.
One of the earliest school sys
tems to end segregation at the
high school level announced plans
to integrate all grades next year.
(See “School Boards and School
men.”)
Independent school districts at Morris
and Preston, both in Okmulgee County,
were the targets of integration suits
filed in the U.S. District Court for
Eastern Oklahoma at Muskogee. The
Morris case had been reported in the
mill last month (see SSN for March,
1957).
While the actions were brought on
behalf of the parents of 27 Negro pupils
at Morris and 13 Negroes at Preston,
the attorneys, U. Simpson Tate, Dallas,
and Albert Alexander, Oklahoma City,
said the suits were filed for the benefit
of all school-age Negroes in the two
districts. Tate is a regional attorney for
the NAACP.
Both suits charge the school boards of
the two districts have denied the
youngsters named as plaintiffs their
constitutional rights by discriminating
against them because of their race and
color.
ASK INSTRUCTIONS
The petitions ask the court to issue
permanent injunctions restraining the
Morris and Preston districts from “un
lawfully” discriminating against the
Negro children by refusing to admit
them to the public schools of the dis
tricts “on the same terms and condi
tions” applying to all other students.
Defendants in the Morris suit, along
with the school district, are the board
president, W. E. “Bill” Long, and the
secretary, Mrs. Edith Wilson.
Four of the children tried to enroll at
the Morris school Aug. 24, 1956, during
the regular registration period, the suits
allege, but were refused admission by
the superintendent, James A. Broad-
head. They claim the refusal was “solely
the overwhelming majority of Negroes
in Negro schools even if a formal “de
segregation” decision were announced.
All of the schools in the region which
have desegregated have done so without
friction or “incidents.” Superintendents
report the Negroes have entered into
school life without trouble, and have
been generally accepted by the whites.
Some Negroes have been elected to class
office, others play on school teams.
When Charleston’s school board voted
to end segregation at the high school,
though retaining it in elementary grades
and keeping the Negro high school open
for those who chose to attend, a cross
was burned on one board member’s
lawn and there were mutterings of pro
test in the town. However, the board
stood by its decision and the protests
died down. Only half a dozen or so
Negroes chose to exercise their option
of attending the mixed high school.
Lincoln University, the formerly all-
Negro college at Jefferson City, has
written a “success story” in which
“everybody is happy over a smoothly-
running program of desegregation in
reverse.” Such was the report of Kan
sas City Star staff writer Fred Kiewit
after a recent visit to 800-student Lin
coln University in the state capital.
Shortly after registration for the sec
ond semester began, President Earl E.
Dawson estimated the number of white
students now at Lincoln as “approach
ing 300,” according to Kiewit. That fig
ure includes teachers enrolled for spe
cial night classes and other part-time
students in adult education courses.
In contrast to widespread predictions
of doom for Lincoln when Missouri col
leges started desegregating, Dr. Dawson
says new life and vigor now are being
breathed into the institution. Dawson
believes that after 1960, when the first
“war babies” will be college freshmen
and taxing college facilities everywhere,
on the basis of their race and color.”
Parents of the four youngsters re
fused to sign transfers for them to at
tend school in other districts. Three of
the children have been kept out of
classes throughout the school year, the
plaintiffs state. Thus, it is claimed, they
have been “denied a full year of public
school training.”
GOT TRANSFERS
The suit adds that the parents of the
other youngsters named in the Morris
case did obtain legal transfers for them
but do not plan to do so this spring and
want the children to enroll in their
home district. Under state law a pupil
is ineligible to attend school in another
district unless he applies for and re
ceives a legal transfer.
Morris now sends about 70 Negro stu
dents in its transportation area, includ
ing some secondary pupils from nearby
non-high school districts, to Negro
schools at Grayson, seven miles to the
southwest. Some 25 of them are high
school pupils.
The school board at Morris, which has
450 white students, including 160 in high
school, reportedly has discussed the pos
sibility of integration but has made no
definite plans along that line for 1957-
58. Broadhead has stated that any at
tempt to force integration there last
autumn would have almost certainly
brought trouble in the community.
TWO ARE NAMED
In the Preston case Roy Hudson, the
board president, and R. B. Ross, secre
tary, are named defendants with the
school district.
The suit asserts that two of the chil
dren tried to enroll in the Preston High
School Aug. 24 but were denied admis
sion by the superintendent, Frank W.
Duke. They also refused to transfer out
and have not been in school during
1956-57, according to the suit. The other
youngsters did transfer for the current
year but now want to enter the Preston
schools in September, the petition adds.
Preston has a Negro grade school,
with 63 pupils, located just across a road
from the white high school and grade
school. Thirty-five Negroes are trans
ferred to Negro high schools in other
districts—22 to Beggs and 13 to Okmul
gee.
Supt. Duke said the Preston school
board has discussed the integration is
sue but has taken no definite action in
the matter.
The Morris and Preston suits are the
second and third federal court actions
seeking integration filed in Oklahoma
courts this year. Four Negro students
won admission to a white high school
at Earlsboro, Pottawatomie County, on
a federal court order, effective with the
“Any Good Will Left For
Alabama?”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
it is a distinct possibility that Lincoln
may have a white student majority.
Most of the white students now at
Lincoln are from Jefferson City or near
by towns within commuting range,
Kiewit reported in the Star. His story
continued:
OPPORTUNITIES THE SAME’
“They have found they have the same
opportunities for learning at Lincoln as
they would have had elsewhere. By liv
ing at home, they gain a college educa
tion that, perhaps, would have been im
possible elsewhere because of financial
problems. The college catalog lists the
cost of a year at Lincoln as $550, in
cluding board and room.
“Lincoln offers classes in 18 major de
partments, including agriculture, biol
ogy, business administration, chemistry,
physics, engineering, English, French,
physical education, music, speech, gov
ernment and others. It also offers a mas
ter’s degree in education.
“Typical of the students is Carolyn
Keathley, 19, a sophomore studying
voice as her music major. An older
Are Filed in
spring semester. (Carr v. Cole.)
The other suit filed during March was
noteworthy in that members of the
State Board of Education were named
as defendants. It was the first time since
the U.S. Supreme Court desegregation
ruling nearly three years ago that the
state education agency has been in
volved in an integration suit.
The plaintiff is Veronica June Bailey,
by her father as next friend, George E.
Bailey Jr., Oklahoma City. This suit,
too, was prepared by Tate but filed by
Alexander in the U. S. District Court
for Western Oklahoma in Oklahoma
City.
Named as defendants are Dr. Oliver
Hodge, state superintendent of public
instruction and president of the board;
Roy Craig, Leedey; V. A. Coleman,
Harjo; Tom F. Hames and G. L. Hol-
labaugh, Broken Arrow; Jack Malin,
Idabel and Dion C. Wood, Duncan. In
addition, LeRoy B. Hall, superintendent
of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf
at Sulphur, is a defendant.
The Bailey girl is a 10-year-old deaf
mute who now attends Inman Page
school in Oklahoma City. Her parents
have tried, with the help of NAACP
leaders, to enter her in the Sulphur
school for some time. They insist it is
the only one at which she can receive
proper instruction.
APPLIED IN AUGUST
The suit states that Bailey applied last
August for admission of the girl but was
informed by Hall she couldn’t be ac
cepted. It alleges the rejection was
“solely” on the basis of race and color.
The Bailey suit is also termed a class
action, brought in behalf of “all other
Negro minors in the [state] who are
deaf and dumb to the extent that they
cannot acquire an education in the com
mon schools of the state and who are
similarly situated because of their race
and color.”
The suit asks for a speedy hearing on
the matter. It seeks a declaratory judg
ment on the Bailey girl’s rights and a
permanent injunction restraining the
defendants from denying her and oth
ers of her class admission to the Sul
phur school.
Until now court action seeking to de
segregate public schools in Oklahoma
has been aimed at local district boards
of education. From the start the State
Board of Education has taken the posi
tion that each district should be free to
work out its own integration program.
However, it has, in effect, encouraged
desegregation by adopting state aid
policies making it more difficult for the
districts to maintain separate schools.
Reacting to news of the Bailey in
junction suit, both Dr. Hodge and Hall
insisted the school at Sulphur is ready
School Entry Suits
brother, Allen Keathley, is a senior at
M.U., also majoring in music.
“A pert, blue-eyed girl with blonde
hair, Miss Keathley said she chose Lin
coln because in the first place it is close
to home. ‘I knew it had a fine music de
partment and I decided there was no
need of my going away when I could
learn just as much right here at home.’ ”
Lincoln has a faculty of 78 full-time
and part-time professors and instruc
tors. Twenty-four of them have Ph.D.
degrees and all other regular staff mem
bers have at least a master’s degree.
Eight are white.
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
Nine candidates for four seats on the
St. Louis Board of Education cam
paigned throughout March for the April
2 election, but none of them made an
issue of the city’s school desegregation.
One board member and candidate for
re-election is a Negro—Dr. Walter A.
Younge, who was appointed to fill a
vacancy two years ago. He was the
second Negro to serve by appointment
of the mayor, but none has ever been
elected to the post. Board members are
elected at large, and the Negro vote
alone (ranging from 18 to 22 per cent)
is not enough to elect. Dr. Younge was
defeated by a narrow margin two years
ago, and was appointed by Mayor Ray
mond R. Tucker when a vacancy oc
curred shortly after the election.
For the first time, a bill providing for
a state commission on human rights has
been approved by a legislative commit
tee at Jefferson City. The measure, a
perennial at recent sessions, usually ex
pires quietly in committee. But this
month the House Committee on Gov
ernmental Organizations voted it out,
(Continued On Next Page)
Oklahoma
to accept Negro children just as soon
as funds are available to accommodate
them. Dr. Hodge said “everybody’s
agreeable” and that “it’s just a matter
of finances.”
Meanwhile, a move in the state legis
lature to effect integration of white and
Negro children in state training schools
was still pending but its status was
somewhat in doubt at the end of March.
The action would come in the form
of a resolution, drafted by Rep. Robert
O. Cunningham, Oklahoma City, calling
on the board of affairs to consolidate
the various training schools. The board
now has authority for such a step but
its members and Gov. Raymond Gary
say they prefer to have a legislative di
rective first.
The Cunningham resolution has been
in the hands of the House Committee
on County, State and Federal Govern
ment since its introduction. In mi
March the committee chairman, R e P’
Jeff Davis, Rush Springs, said his group
would, within the next day or „so, re
port the resolution out “do-pass
out recommendation. He added he didn
want it to “die in the committee. H 0 " ,
ever, nothing further has been bear
of the resolution, its fate apparen >
obscured by House preoccupation w 1
a controversial minimum teacher sa a
bill.
Plans to complete the integration P'
gram started in its school system ^
years ago were announced by the 0
District Board of Education in
County. Beginning in September,
the Booker T. Washington school, wn
has been used for Negro elemen^
pupils, will be abandoned and they
be absorbed into the rest of the sy ^
or transferred to adjoining schoo s ’ .
cording to E. F. Cates, superinten
One of the first systems in the _
to desegregate the races in the c
room, Hollis integrated
senior high school students in 1
But the first eight grades were ’ c °” oeS .
ued at Washington school for Neg ^
At that time, Gates said, tentative P ^
were laid to complete integration
all grades after two years.
Closing of Booker T. Washington
affect 43 Negro pupils. In addrtio ^
means the dismissal of Mr. an
(See OKLAHOMA, Page 16)