Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12—MAY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Mississippi to Market First General
Obligation Bonds for ‘Equalization’
Ambassador to the North
JACKSON, Miss.
M ississippi is going to market
May 29 with its first general
obligation bonds authorized by
the legislature for financing a
building program to equalize fa
cilities in the state’s still-segrega
ted public school system. Ultimate
cost of the facility-equalization
has been estimated at $120 million
by the State Department of Educa
tion. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
The reorganization of the equali
zation program sharply reducing
the number of school districts and
attendance centers has raised a se
rious question in the relationship
of the local district and county
school boards. Thus far, schools
and districts in 71 of the 82 coun
ties have been consolidated under
the program designed to discour
age integration efforts. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Gov. J. P. Coleman’s assertion that
Mississippi is enjoying a “tranquil state
of race relations” has been disputed by
the Regional Council of Mississippi
Negro Leadership at its annual meet
ing April 26 at Greenville. (See “What
They Say.”)
ASKS TRUTH CAMPAIGN’
A1 Kuettner, United Press Atlanta
bureau manager who won the Sigma
Delta Chi national award for distin
guished service in general reporting,
said in a speech at Biloxi the need is
for a “truth campaign” by newspaper,
radio and television industries in the
handling of the segregation issue (See
“What They Say.”)
Resolutions denouncing “encroach
ment on the right to vote, freedom of
speech and assembly and denial of the
constitutional right of education” were
adopted at the sixth annual meeting in
Greenville April 26 of the Regional
Council of Mississippi Negro Leader
ship. (See “What They Say.”)
Hodding Carter, editor of the Green
ville, Miss., Delta Democrat-Times,
said on a panel at Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, N. J., that there are
only extremes in the field of race rela
tions in the South. (See “What They
Say.”)
Gov. Coleman has opened an all-out
campaign to gain legislative approval of
a convention for the modernization of
the state constitution of 1890. He says
Mississippi is trying to operate in this
jet-plane age under laws drafted in an
ox-cart era.
Major opposition to the convention
comes from legislators who contend that
“a new constitution at this time could
easily endanger our heritage, our way
of life and many things we hold dear.”
That is the position of Sen. Hugh Boren
of Tupelo, one of a group of 20 legis
lators who met in Jackson recently to
chart ways of defeating the convention
proposal.
Sen. W. B. Lucas of Macon, secretary
of the group which favors changes by
amendments submitted to the people
rather than in a convention, disagrees
with Gov. Coleman “that our constitu
tion is outmoded.”
will “choose the ground and select the
time for this fight.”
It may come at a special session in
December, the regular assembly con
vening the following month, or be made
an issue in the reelection campaigns of
the legislators in 1959.
“Mississippi is going to have a new
constitution—it can’t live without it,”
the governor said. “I have every confi
dence that the people have discontinued
the practice of sacrificing their own
progress in order to pacify the harmful
whims of a few obstructionists.”
Gov. Coleman will be a candidate for
one of the delegate posts if the conven
tion is called. “I am not going to set a
force in motion and walk off after it
gets started,” he said.
the leadership of a man who takes the
position we do not have the right to
meet and discuss a problem as vital as
rewriting all the basic laws of this
state,” Sen. Evans said.
OPPONENTS ORGANIZE
Legislators opposed to a convention
but favorable to changes via the amend
ment route organized while Gov. Cole
man was absent from the state on an
industry-hunt to Chicago and New
York. He was bitter at their “behind my
back” action. He called them a “pitiful
minority of wild-eye saboteurs.”
Sen. Earl Evans Jr., of Canton, presi
dent pro tern of the Senate and chair
man of the anti-conventionists, said “in
this free country it is not required that
legislators or other free men secure
prior approval from the governor to
meet and discuss matters.”
“I’m not so sure that' would be true
if a new constitution is adopted under
A1 Kuettner’s address was before the
annual meeting of the Mississippi
United Press Broadcasters Association.
He said that eight southern states are
confident they can maintain most of the
segregation practices, and named them
as Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi and Louisiana.
The winner of the domestic reporting
award for his objective reporting on the
segregation issue said “some of them
(states) have given up on the fringes,
but in such basic areas as public
schools, they are as strongly segregated
as ever.”
Kuettner gave the press credit for
“changing the nation’s thinking on the
race issue from a regional to a national
basis” and called for a “truth cam
paign” by newspaper, radio and tele
vision industries in the handling of the
segregation issue.
“Honest newsmen from North and
South, searching for nothing more than
the truth, deserve some real credit for
educating the public on this problem,”
he said. “We need a continuing truth
Clarksdale, suggested to council mem
bers that Negroes boycott “Uncle Toms.”
“We are being held back by members
of our own race more than by the white
Citizens Councils,” he said in charging
that some Negroes in the delta area
“are being paid by the Citizens Coun
cils to do certain things.”
campaign, giving all sides a chance to
be heard.”
SEND RESOLUTIONS
Copies of the resolution adopted by
the Regional Council of Mississippi
Negro Leadership have been sent to
Gov. Coleman, as well as President
Dwight Eisenhower and members of
Congress.
Asserting that “as long as the 986,000
Negroes of Mississippi are denied their
God-given American rights there will
be no tranquil era in Mississippi,” the
council “deplored the effort being put
forth by Gov. Coleman to give the out
side world the impression there is a
tranquil state of race relations in Mis
sissippi.”
The council urged the governor to
appoint a bi-racial committee to study
ways of improving race relations.
R. L. Drew, funeral home operator of
OTIS RECOGNIZED
Dr. J. R. Otis, former president of
Alcorn College for Negroes, was recog
nized by the council with the “Man of
the Year” award for his refusal to be
“intimidated while at Alcorn College.”
He was head of the state-owned land
grant college at the time of a recent
student' strike resulting from newspaper
articles by Prof. Clennon King critical
of the NAACP. (See Southern School
News, April, 1957.)
He said he requested the resignation
of Professor King, a native of Georgia,
because his articles injected the college
into the controversial segregation issue
and not in an effort to interfere with
the professor’s freedom of sceepch.
Editor Hodding Carter, a panelist at
the third annual academic week end at
Rutgers, said the Supreme Court deci
sions on integration has forced “even
the rational leadership among southern
whites to fall into line.” He said “mod
eration is gone among Negroes and
whites.”
Carter was quoted as saying that the
furor southern whites are presently
making over Negro rights will ulti
mately die. He said the South has
already made concessions to the Negro
and will continue to make them except
in the area of school desegregation.
‘MODERATE’ HURT
“If you preach moderation in the
South today you can be hurt or even
(Continued On Next Page)
9 More School Districts Desegregated in Missouri
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
fT^HE NUMBER OF MISSOURI school
districts to end segregation has
risen from 184 to 193 this year,
and is expected to reach at least
202 districts, out of 244 having Ne
gro enrollments, next year. This is
the outlook emerging from a sur
vey by Southern School News
based on unofficial reports to the
office of the state commissioner of
education. The reports are unoffi
cial because the state office, re
garding Missouri’s desegregation
as very largely accomplished, no
longer collects statewide statistics.
Nine elementary schools scat
tered around the state have ended
segregation this year, bringing 465
Negroes and 4,900 whites into
mixed classes. Nine more are ex
pected to end segregation at the
start of the next academic year,
involving 200 Negroes and 4,000
whites.
No change in the high school picture
is anticipated except at Poplar Bluff, a
southeast Missouri town 40 miles from
the Arkansas border which, as pre
viously reported, expects to integrate
the senior and junior grades of high
school next September. This leaves only
four high schools in the state operating
on a segregated basis. All are in the
cotton-growing “bootheel” section of
southeast Missouri.
cially reported ready to make it with
the start of the academic year next
September. One or two may postpone
the change another year, but in all of
them segregation is reported definitely
on the way out. They are:
Oak Ridge (Cape Girardeau County,
southeast section, Mississippi River ter
ritory), 16 Negroes, 137 whites.
Mendon (Chariton County, Little
Dixie), expected to absorb 12 Negroes
now attending Triplett schools, which
will be closed.
Gallatin (Daviess County, northwest),
10 Negroes, 377 whites.
Pacific (Franklin County, east, di
rectly west of St. Louis area), 22
Negroes, 409 whites.
Clinton (Henry County, central west),
22 Negroes, 890 whites.
Fayette (Howard County, Little
Dixie), junior high, 50 Negroes and
200 whites.
Lebanon (Laclede County, south cen
tral, near Ozarks area), 27 Negroes,
1,261 whites.
Tipton (Moniteau County, central
Missouri near Jefferson City), 16
Negroes, 323 whites.
Malta Bend (Saline County, Little
Dixie), 11 Negroes, 188 whites.
tary level was at least five years away,
because “the community is not ripe for
teacher integration.” Last August, when
the kindergarten at Dubois school
closed, Negro and white children at that
level attended the school nearest to
their homes. The closing of Dubois
school at the end of this year will com
plete the transition.
WOULD INVITE ATTACKS
“Should a rewrite of our constitution
be had it will invite attacks by those
who are unfriendly, and perhaps for
many years we will be uncertain
whether or not the document will stand
the test,” Sen. Lucas said. “We would
be opening the door to groups who
would bring pressure to bear to have
the new constitution interpreted to their
liking—and no better example can be
had than the U. S. Supreme Court Black
Monday school integration decision.”
“Until conditions become more stable
and certain, I just cannot favor a re
draft of the foundation of our every
law,” he said.
Gov. Coleman insists that the needed
changes require a convention rather
than their submission in amendments
to the electorate. He is especially inter
ested in revising sections dealing with
industrialization, which was “foreign” to
the state’s agricultural economy of 1890.
WARNS OF ‘BATTLE’
Determined to gain legislative
approval of the convention, the gover
nor served notice on opponents that
they can “prepare for a battle royal,
right down to the precinct level.” He
DISTRICTS DESEGREGATE
The elementary districts which have
closed their Negro schols and integrated
the white and Negro enrollments this
year are:
Pilot Grove (Cooper County, in the
so-called Little Dixie area of north
central Missouri), 8 Negroes, 133 whites.
Iron ton (Iron County, in the mining
district southwest of the St. Louis
metropolitan area), 11 Negroes, 370
whites.
Troy (Lincoln County, northeast), 45
Negroes, 700 whites.
Fredericktown (Madison County, east
southeast farming section), 13 Negroes,
745 whites.
New London (Ralls County, north
east, Mark Twain country), 22 Negroes,
247 whites.
St. Mary’s (Ste. Genevieve County,
southeastern section along the Missis
sippi) , 16 Negroes, 100 whites.
Slater (Saline County, Little Dixie,
central Missouri), 319 Negroes, 1,970
whites.
Clarence (Shelby County, northeast),
22 Negroes, 193 whites.
Warrenton (Warren County, eastern
section, between St. Louis and Colum
bia), 16 Negroes, 557 whites.
ONLY BOOTHEEL LEFT
When these districts have completed
compliance with the Supreme Court
decision, less than 7,800 of 67,000
Negroes in the state’s schools will
remain in segregated systems. Of these
about 1,000 are in high schools—all in
the bootheel area—and 6,800 in elemen
tary districts of whom the preponder
ance are in the bootheel section.
Two bootheel counties remain vir
tually 100 per cent segregated—New
Madrid and Pemiscot—and no discern
ible movement is afoot to change the
situation there. In other counties near
by, desegregation has been accomp
lished in high schools and some elemen
tary districts. The great bulk of the
Negroes in Missouri attend school in St.
Louis or Kansas City, and are now end
ing their second year of desegregation
in these metropolitan communities.
In some cases, the existence of a
separate Negro school reflects residen
tial concentration of Negroes, and even
a nominal adoption of an integration
plan will not change the actual situa
tion very much. Wherever such a situa
tion exists outside the bootheel, how
ever, Negroes when they reach high
school age now are eligible to attend a
desegregated institution.
The lower house of Missouri’s legis
lature at Jefferson City this month de
feated a bill to create a state human
rights commission of 11 members ap
pointed by the governor. Democratic
Gov. James T. Blair had supported such
a commission during his campaign, and
after election had privately influenced
legislators to report it out of commit
tee. The commission would have had
subpoena powers and would have been
authorized to receive and investigate
complaints of racial discrimination in
employment, places of public accommo
dation, etc. It was strongly supported
by the state League of Women Voters,
opposed by organized hotel men. In the
House, it received 76 votes with 33
against—three short of the 79 affirma
tive votes required to pass.
No bills have been introduced in the
legislature dealing with school integra
tion or segregation. The question has
been left entirely to local school dis
tricts, and no effort has been made to
use state financial aid for pressure in
either direction.
moderator, for helping influence St.
Louis (Catholic) University to admit
Negro students beginning in 1945. Pa
rochial schools followed. Today all
Catholic hospitals also are integrated
with respect both to patients and per
sonnel.
More than 9,000 persons turned out to
hear the Rev. Martin Luther King of
Montgomery, Ala., speak in St. Louis
April 10 to raise money for his cam
paign against bus and other segregation
in that city.
Dr. King counseled Negroes to avoid
bitterness and hate in their struggle for
full civil rights. “We must not indulge
in violence of any kind even though we
may become victims of violence,” he
said. “Our purpose must never be to
defeat the white man, nor shame him.
It must be to win his understanding.
He urged intelligent use of the ballot
as a major Negro weapon.
Dr. King paid tribute to St. Louis for
the “quiet and dignified way in which
school integration had been accom
plished.
St. Louis has twice had a Negro
member of the board of education by
mayoral appointment to fill a vacancy,
but no Negro has been elected for a full
term. St. Louisans held to that pattern
in the April 2 school board election
when they narrowly defeated Dr. Wal
ter A. Younge. He ran fifth, with four
to be elected. The fourth candidate
polled 52,513 votes and Younge 48,261
Dr. Younge also had been defeated
when he ran in 1955, then was aP"
pointed to fill a vacancy on the ground
that he had polled the most votes o
OTHERS PLAN MOVE
In addition to these districts which
have already made the change, nine
other elementary districts are unoffi-
TEACHERS, TOO
One of the last St. Louis County com
munities to complete desegregation is
Wellston, a suburb just west of the St.
Louis city fine. The school board voted
this month to close the all-Negro, four-
room Dubois elementary school in June,
and to integrate the three Negro teach
ers along with the pupils in the Well
ston system beginning next September.
Wellston’s high school was desegre
gated in September, 1955 but a member
of the school board told the county
NAACP that integration at the elemen-
Racial integration in parochial schools
of the St. Louis Catholic archdiocese
has strengthened the church here,
Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter was quoted
as saying last month in Ave Maria, na
tional Catholic weekly.
Archbishop Ritter ordered the end of
segregation in parochial schools in
1947, and threatened with excommuni
cation parents who for a time consid
ered fighting the change. His act has
been credited with helping to pave the
way for smooth desegregation of the
St. Louis public school system after the
Supreme Court decision.
In an article by James Rorty, Arch
bishop Ritter was quoted as saying:
‘Our people met with courage and
credit the challenge of an old wrong
that had continued for too long a time.
It is good that Christians be called upon
to act the principles of their faith. I
would not have had our church in St.
Louis avoid this test, and now, having
met it, I see that it is strengthened in
all its members.”
the unsuccessful candidates. In tbi®
election he had the support of (be
AFL-CIO political education conunk'
tee, and of some ward party organiza
tions.
A plan to establish three separate
basic curricula for public high sen 1 *’
students in St. Louis was approved >
the board of education this month.
der the plan, pupils will be placed ^
superior, normal or low achieverne ^
groups according to intelligence s®
achievement tests, attitude and int£ ‘;
ests. Each group will then P roC U
through high school on its own
ulum, adapted to the abilities of
members. Details of the curricul ’
which will go into effect no later tn
next February, remain to be wor
out.
The three-track plan has beeni
preparation for several years and is
not to be a result of racial desegr|* t
tion. However, the mixing of stu ^
groups of sharply varying achieves®^
COUNCIL CREDITED
Rorty gave credit to the St. Louis
Catholic Interracial Council, founded in
1944 with Rev. Patrick J. Mallow as
ability, which has been one - w
quence of integration, is believe
have accelerated development 0 ^
plan. At the same time, integration ^
helped make physical facilities i° r , gr
plan available by promoting S 1
flexibility in the use of buildings- ^
of
•bool