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School News
Objective
VOL. Ill, NO. 12
NASHVILLE. TENN.
$2 PER YEAR
JUNE, 1957
SERS to Continue
Grant of $234,916Made
For Next 2 Years" Work
18^o of School Districts
In Region Desegregated
S outhern Education Reporting
Service has received a grant of
5234,916 from the Fund for the
Advancement of Education to ex
tend its activities from July 1 of
1957 to, June 30, 1959, according to
an announcement from SERS
Chairman Frank Ahlgren.
The Fund, an independent agen
cy established by the Ford Foun
dation, provided the original grant
for SERS in 1954 for a period of
one year. In 1955 it appropriated
$213,884 to extend SERS for two
years. At that time it was stipulat
ed that a modest charge be made
for subscriptions to Southern
School News—a policy which has
been in effect since the July (Vol
ume II) issue of 1955.
First chairman of SERS was Vir-
finius Dabney, editor of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch. Dabney was succeed
ed this year by Ahlgren, who is editor
of the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
First executive director was C. A.
McKnight, now editor of the Charlotte
Observer. McKnight was succeeded iri
1955 by Don Shoemaker, editor of The
Asheville Citizen.
LETTER FROM WEISS
Notification of approval of the SERS
application for an extension of its
grant was received by Chairman Ahl
gren May 2. In a letter to Ahlgren,
John K. Weiss, assistant vice-president
of the Fund for the Advancement of
Education, wrote as follows:
At its meeting earlier this week
the Board of Directors of the Fund
voted unanimously to grant George
Peabody College $234,916 for the sup
port of SERS from July 1, 1957
through June 30, 1959.
As I am sure you know, this offi
cial action is only one measure of
the enthusiasm and support which
the Board and officers of the Fund
ieel for this important program. It
will
come as no surprise to you, I
r"- ~ j
know, to tell you that each member
of our Board has individually had
brought to his attention by persons
n °t connected with the Fund the
■tnportance and merit of this pro-
?ram. There can be no question that
ar >d your colleagues on the
f? ard as well as Mr. Shoemaker and
rf staff have done an outstanding
a difficult and sensitive area.
The terms of this grant will be the
88,116 as those of our previous sup-
* or t * lis P r °g ram -
, are looking forward to our
continued association with you and
colleagues with both pleasure
d anticipation.
'ill T 86 ^ >ea body College of Nash-
0 f cpn as serve d since the beginning
n as fiscal agent of the project.
President, Dr. Henry H. Hill, is a
ors) 6r ° f the SERS Board of Direc -
'O'Gren’s letter
Public
was
announcement of the grant
ARi made May 12. In a letter to Weiss,
Sren wrote:
lo r J )ea k* n g for the Board of Direc-
5r a t f 11 ^ tbe staff, I am extremely
tin f° r this evidence of con-
ae d confidence in SERS.
its ^ Ugh Southern School News,
^°rk f r E )u bhcations and reference
nijj- ,or literally hundreds of news
ag eti a .’ Sovemmental and educational
tj on C1 f s aod scholars, the organiza-
*'hole aS endeav ° red to tell the
stor y of school segregation-
r f g ation in the South factually
r8c ial°t C ^ Ve ly. l n these times of
beli ev ension s, the Reporting Service
tioa ** can perform a vital func-
fopn rou gh providing essential in-
Pafj- , Ion which is accurate and im-
p, began publication of South-
\ n ^ H ° 01 - News in September, 1954.
I '-be ter r ? s circulated in all 48 states,
^ 0 W'e v ritoiaes ’ an< i 18 foreign countries,
’’■ion is er ’ Sreat bulk of its circula-
i ^rds In South. It includes school
bjent sc bool authorities, govem-
[W ^ Cla ls, newspapers and radio-
f atof S 10ns > libraries, college adminis-
and interested lay persons.
LUTHER H. FOSTER BERT STRUBY
New Members of SERS Board
SERS Board Picks Editor,
Educator As New Members
FTiwo new members have been
-*■ added to the Board of Directors
of the Southern Education Re
porting Service.
They are: Dr. Luther H. Foster,
president of Tuskegee Institute,
Tuskegee, Ala., and Bert Struby,
editor of the Macon Telegraph,
Macon, Ga.
The two were nominated by a com
mittee of SERS board members con
sisting of Coleman A. Harwell, chair
man, George N. Redd and Thomas R.
Waring. Election was by mail ballot
and was unanimous.
Foster has been president of Tuskegee
since 1953. A native of Lawrenceville,
Va., he received his B.S. from Virginia
State College and Hampton Institute;
his M.B.A. from Harvard and his M.A.
and Ph.D. degrees from the University
of Chicago. He was budget officer of
Howard University in 1936-40 and came
to Tuskegee first as business manager.
Foster is a member of the board of the
Southern Regional Council and of the
Biracial Commission of the Episcopal
Church. In 1954 he served as U.S. rep
resentative on the Commission to Study
Rural Higher Education in India. He
is a director of the United Negro Col
lege Fund and a trustee of the George
Washington Carver Foundation. He is
a member of Phi Delta Kappa and
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternities and is
married and has two children.
Struby, a native of Macon, became
editor of the Telegraph after a career
with the Macon papers which led him
from reporter through executive editor.
He is a journalism graduate of Mercer
University, a former trustee and presi
dent of the Mercer Alumni Association.
In 1941-46 he served wth the U.S. Navy
in the Pacific theater and was released
to inactive duty with rank of lieutenant
commander. Struby is a member of the
American Society of Newspaper Edi
tors and of Sigma Delta Chi profes
sional journalistic fraternity. He is the
recipient of a citizenship award given
by the Macon Young People’s League
for Better Government and a citation
from the Anti-Defamation League of
B’nai B’rith in recognition of contri
butions toward “good human rela
tions.” A member of the Macon Rotary
Club and of the American Legion, he
is married and has two children.
Regular reports, written in a depart
mentalized news fashion, are received
from the 19 SSN correspondents in the
area directly affected by the U. S. Su
preme Court decisions on school segre
gation. The corps of correspondents was
carefully chosen from lists of outstand
ing newsmen in the several states.
Once each year they gather in Nash
ville for a seminar and discussion of
news-gathering problems. The total
journalistic experience of this group
aggregates some 370 years.
Southern School News itself has been
the recipient of numerous awards and
recognition for its objective and factual
coverage of school segregation-deseg
regation. One of these is the coveted
Russwurm Award of the National
Newspaper Publishers Association.
Among newspapers commenting on
extension of the SERS grant were The
Nashville Tennessean and the Rich
mond News-Leader.
The Tennessean said in an editorial
entitled, “SERS Fund Grant Well De
served: ”
“As one of the beneficiaries of the
impartial reporting done by SERS on
a most difficult subject—that of racial
desegregation progress in 17 Southern
States—this newspaper has learned
the value of such a service, not only
to itself but to the readers.”
The News-Leader said in an edi
torial entitled, “A Grant Well Re
newed: ”
“The Reporting Service is doing a
job that is of high value to present-day
writers, and of indispensable value to
historians of the future.”
Special Summary
Of School Data
Again In Print
In response to scores of inquiries,
SERS has ordered a second print
ing of its “Status of School Segre
gation-Desegregation in the South
ern and Border States.”
Copies are available—while they
last—at $1 each, postpaid.
The new SERS publication is a
statistical summary, state-by-state,
of all pertinent data in the field of
biracial education. Cited are school
enrollments, number of districts
and their status, teacher pay, and
information about colleges. The
summary is in loose-leaf form for
handy reference or filing and will
be kept up to date by periodic
supplements at a small cost to per
sons who request them.
Several hundred such requests
have been received from school
officials, libraries, news media and
government offices which received
the first printing.
If you wish a summary, write
SUMMARY,” Southern Education
Reporting Service, P.O. Box 6156,
Acklen Station, Nashville, Tenn.
and enclose $1. A copy will then
be sent to you.
A PPROXIMATELY 18 PER CENT OF THE SOME 3,700 BIRACIAL SCHOOL DIS-
x tricts in 17 southern and border states have begun desegregation
since the U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1954, according to a South
ern School News school year-end survey.
There are 684 districts which have begun or accomplished the de
segregation process. All but seven of these are in the border states. Of
the seven, two are in Tennessee and five are in Arkansas. The states
of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina and Virginia have no public school integration.
(One district in Texas—Flatonia in
Fayette County—long assumed to be
desegregated and so listed in last
month’s SSN map, was disclosed to
have taken no action.)
LEGISLATURES MEETING
Six state legislatures were in session
as the school year neared its end.
Among significant pieces of legislation
were:
Repeal in Missouri of old statutes
authorizing segregation and failure of
similar efforts in desegregating Okla
homa.
Passage of a pupil assignment law
in the Texas legislature—the eighth
law-making body in the region to
adopt such legislation.
Consideration of school-closing laws
and similar “last resort” measures in
Alabama and Florida.
No court decisions dealing with
school entry cases were announced
during the month but litigation con
tinued in several states. A Texas court
put operations of the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Col
ored People under a modified perma
nent injunction.
SSN correspondents report that ad
ditional desegregation steps are ex
pected this fall in Arkansas (Little
Rock), Tennessee (Nashville), Missouri
(nine more districts) and Delaware (a
“general” movement, affecting some
south Delaware districts). Additional
ly, four districts in Virginia (Arling
ton, Charlottesville, Newport News
and Norfolk) are under court order to
desegregate at specified times. Two
school entry suits, described as “key”
cases, were pending in Florida.
A state-by-state summary of major
developments follows:
Alabama
The legislature began its 1957 session
May 7 with a large number of pro-
segregation bills—most of them con
cerned with school-closing—before it
for action. Contrary to predictions,
Gov. James E. Folsom did not men
tion the issue in his address to the
legislature.
Arkansas
Pro-segregation laws were under fire
from a church group. The white Citi
zens Council asked Gov. Orval Faubus
to “order” whites and Negroes to at
tend separate schools at Little Rock,
where high school desegregation is to
begin this fall.
Delaware
Law enforcement agencies were pre
paring for a general desegregation or
der this fall, with special courses of
instruction in police-community rela
tions, after the state’s chief deputy at
torney general said “desegregation in
the public schools (now confined large
ly to north Delaware) will come sooner
than expected—possibly by Septem
ber.”
District of Columbia
District Supt. Hobart M. Corning, 68,
who guided the school system during
three years of desegregation, an
nounced he would retire next year.
Florida
The state legislature neared the end
of its regular session tangled in debate
—but taking no final action—on sev
eral pro-segregation measures, includ
ing a “last resort” local option bill.
Georgia
An Atlanta Negro was re-elected to
the city’s school board and another
Negro was defeated for election to the
board of aldermen in a runoff. A seg
regated audience attended the first
meeting of the state AFL-CIO.
Kentucky
A special survey of two years of
school desegregation in Lexington dis
closed that 30 of the city’s 2,750 Negro
pupils were attending mixed classes
under a free-choice plan.
Louisiana
In the first such forecast from a po
litical figure, Louisiana’s Democratic
national committeeman predicted his
state and other states would eventually
desegregate their schools. Meanwhile,
the state was seeking new trials in
suits which have produced federal
court desegregation orders in four col
leges.
Maryland
The state court of appeals upheld
the legality of school desegregation as
several counties prepared to extend
their integration programs.
Mississippi
Some 1,000 local taxing districts are
completing consolidation into about 150
such districts in 82 counties as the first
phase of a physical equalization plan.
Missouri
At the end of the school year, only
five high school districts in the state
remained segregated, with fewer than
7,500 out of 68,000 Negro pupils in all
Missouri schools still in segregated
systems. Old statutes authorizing seg
regation were repealed by the legisla
ture in a little-noticed action.
North Carolina
Legislators were studying proposed
new laws to open NAACP financial
records and to make “barratry” a
crime. School officials of the three
largest cities disclosed they had been
meeting privately for several years to
discuss mutual problems—including
segregation -desegregation.
Oklahoma
The legislature failed to remove seg
regation sections from its school code
though state school districts generally
are complying with the U.S. Supreme
Court decision.
South Carolina
The end of the school year found
public schools tightly segregated, with
the state legislature in session and
adding more laws aimed at continued
segregation.
Tennessee
Trial of segregationist John Kasper
and 15 other persons charged with
contempt of court in the Clinton dis
turbances was set for July as Clinton
High School graduated its first Negro.
Texas
Legislators adopted a pupil assign
ment law and a measure requiring
elections before other school districts
desegregate (more than 100 have done
so), while a state court issued a modi
fied permanent injunction against the
NAACP.
Virginia
Virginia’s pupil placement law is
being challenged by a number of
school patrons who refuse to sign re
quired forms. A federal judge who
held the law unconstitutional has come
under attack from state authorities.
West Virginia
A special survey of integrated
schools indicated that desegregation
has brought savings which range from
a few hundred dollars to $250,000 an
nually.
Index
State Page
Alabama 13
Arkansas 8
Delaware 7
District of Columbia 16
Florida 11
Georgia 6
Kentucky 12
Louisiana 6
Maryland 12
Mississippi 8
Missouri , 14
North Carolina 9
Oklahoma 5
South Carolina 10
Tennessee 15
Texas 2
Virginia 4
West Virginia 3