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V Factual *¥0 * SN 3H1V VI0H030 30 All S o 3 A I Wfl nvH ajioNvo 3NH08S0 *1 •« z i ioi—ls 3Nnr 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