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PAGE 14—JUNE 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Maryland
(Continued From Page 12)
Montgomery County, which has more
Negro children in mixed classes than
any other Maryland county, is extend
ing its “selective integration” program
next fall and adding a touch of compul
sion to it.
In its second year of desegregation,
just completed, Montgomery had 686
out of its 3,017 Negro pupils in form
erly all-white schools, where they were
among nearly 30,000 white pupils. In
the second year more care was exer
cised in the selection of transfer candi
dates than had been the case in the first
year, with emphasis placed not only on
the availability of classroom accommo
dations but also on the adequacy of
programs to be opened to Negroes in
white schools.
Staff conferences with Negro prin
cipals were held to discuss pupils who
might be considered eligible for trans
fers. In determining whether an “ade
quate program” was available at the
school to which a pupil’s transfer was
being considered, the primary consid
eration was the curriculum offered in
relation to the pupil’s “educational
needs.” The needs were interpreted
broadly to include such factors as emo
tional stability and the pupil’s achieve
ment level in relation to that of the
class to which he might transfer.
Much the same program for integrat
ing Negroes into the schools nearest
their homes, when space and programs
are available, will be continued next
fall. Four schools are expected to re
ceive Negroes for the first time, making
mixed classes in 53 out of the county’s
98 schools. An additional 227 Negroes
are expected to transfer to white class
es, with an as yet unknown number
entering kindergarten. About a dozen
Negro teachers are expected to be re
lieved of classes in all-Negro schools
for possible reassignment to integrated
schools.
The one significant change in the
coming school year is that integration
will not be quite so optional for “down-
county” Negro pupils, some of whom
have continued to be transported to
“up-county” all-Negro schools.
“Down-county” elementary and jun
ior-high Negro pupils will not be car
ried by school bus to distant segregated
schools if space is available for them
in nearby integrated schools. If private
transportation is arranged, that is a
different matter. The program will just
about complete integration in the down-
county area, where proportionately few
er Negroes live.
COMMITTEE REPORT
The third-year desegregation policy
was set by the county school board early
in May, following a report by Fred L.
Dunn Jr., chairman of the school sys
tem’s Professional Committee on De
segregation. The only opposition on the
seven-member school board was ex
pressed by Harrison C. King, who was
reported to have felt that the committee
should have consulted with the trustees
and PTA executive committees of the
affected schools to get community re
action. King was quoted as saying that
his fellow board members were “going
too fast and too far” with deseeration.
Prince George’s County has also ex
tended its desegregation program into
a third year. During the 1956-57 school
year, 155 Negroes were admitted to 17
formerly all-white schools, having ex
ercised their option of attending schools
closer to their homes, if space was avail
able for them. The transfers were ar
ranged through individual applications,
and the seven-member county school
board voted in May, upon the recom
mendation of County School Supt. Wil
liam S. Schmidt, to continue the same
system.
The board declared in its resolution,
“The policy of enrollment in the public
schools of the county shall be one of
individual choice, subject to the avail
ability of building facilities, transporta
tion services and to the approval of the
Board of Education of their representa
tive, the County Superintendent of
Schools.” During “this period of ad
justment,” the board reserved the right
“to delay or deny the admission of a
student to any school if it deems such
action wise, necessary and in the best
interest of public safety and commun
ity welfare.”
TRANSFER APPLICATIONS
Applications for transfers were to
have been in the school superintendent’s
office by June 14. Applications were
scheduled to be approved or disap
proved by July 30 and parents notified
of the outcome.
The school board meeting at which
the third-year policy was set was at
tended by an eight-member delegation
of the Prince George’s County Chapter
of the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, the
Hyattsville Independent reported. The
delegation asked if the county schools
were complying with the Supreme Court
decision, in view of the fact that no
teachers had been integrated. County
School Supt. Schmidt was quoted as
replying, “The decision applies only to
the admission of students—that this not
be denied on the basis of race.”
Anne Arundel County, which admit
ted 77 Negro pupils to the first three
grades of 13 formerly all-white schools
in the 1956-57 school year, is scheduled
under its desegregation program to in
tegrate “one or more” grades each year
until full desegregation is achieved. At
the May meeting of the county school
board there was an indication that a
move might be made to speed up de
segregation.
QUESTION OF TIMING
The question of integration timing
was raised by the school board’s first
Negro member, Dr. Aris T. Allen, near
the end of what had been a lengthy
meeting. He was asked, because of the
lateness of the hour, to postpone the
subject until the June board meeting.
Asked after the meeting if he intended
to recommend integrating more than
one additional grade next fall, Allen
was quoted in the county press as re
plying, “I haven’t definitely decided,
but I think some thought should be
given to it. in view of the smoothness
with which integration has gone this
year.”
Allen also questioned a county ruling
that the nearest school bus represents
the nearest school. He told fellow board
members that he could not “personally
see any benefit” from the bus ruling.
But the county school superintendent,
Dr. David S. Jenkins, said that the
schools would lose control over bus
transportation if the 25-year-old rule
were abandoned. The superintendent
explained that severe overcrowding was
prevented at some schools by requiring
that children living in the vicinity
these schools go by bus to more disk 0
schools, if the bus stops were closer,
their homes than the schools were 10
VOLUNTARY PLAN
Charles County, which has a 45.5 r*.
cent Negro school enrollment, allow
Negro children to enter the first grj?
of white schools last fall on a volunk-
basis. The same policy is being contir'
ued for the coming school year.
In the school year just complex
Charles County received and accept
applications from five Negro childr e .'
to enter the white elementary
at Indian Head, which serves a naval
reservation.
Queen Anne’s County on Maryland !
Eastern Shore is also continuing j.'
policy of considering Negro transfer
to white schools, if any Negroes seei
to transfer. In the past two school year;
none has applied.
ll»l mi Wi-JM i i, i
Race relations rarely becomes an is.
sue in Maryland politics, but there were
overtones in May during the town elec,
tion campaigns in Cheverly, which lies
in Prince George’s County. A questior
on the ballot called for the elimination
of ward boundaries and the election of
councilmen-at-large rather than from,
representative wards. Proponents had
said frankly that they feared the ward
system might eventually result in the
election of a Negro councilman.
Mayor Lawrence A. Yates, seekini
another term, favored the charter
change. He was re-elected, but the pro
posal to abolish wards was defeated by
roughly a 5 to 4 vote.
* #t
Five Missouri Negro High
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
HE SCHOOL YEAR JUST ENDING
witnessed no spectacular
changes in the status of desegre
gation in Missouri. A number of
districts completed the transition
to desegregation quietly and with
out incident. By the end of the
year, only five high school dis
tricts in the state remained segre
gated, and one of those had an
nounced plans to desegregate jun
ior and senior classes next Sep
tember.
Altogether, fewer than 7,500 out
of 68,000 Negro pupils remained in
segregated school systems, and
some of these expected to be de
segregated by the start of the next
school year. Out of 244 districts
with Negro enrollments, 193 had
ended segregation by this year.
The total was expected to reach at
least 203 by next year.
All of the high school and most of
the elementary districts which retain
segregation are in the extreme south
east comer of the state—the cotton
growing “bootheel” section of the Mis
souri delta country.
Largest school district to end seg
regation this year was that of Webster
Groves, the last sizable unit in St. Louis
County to make the change. Webster
Groves had operated a Negro elemen
tary and high school which accommo
dated Negroes from other St. Louis
County districts. As the other districts
followed the example of St. Louis City
in ending segregation, Webster Groves
found it possible to close its Negro
school and integrate some 30 high
school and 313 elementary Negroes with
1,300 whites in high school and 3,940
whites in elementary grades. No fric
tion and no problems were reported.
Some Negro teachers at Webster
Groves were retained and a few others
were dismissed. Suit was filed by three
of the dismissed teachers, but dropped
before it came to trial.
TRANSITION COMPLETE
For all practical purposes, Webster
Groves desegregation completed the
transition among suburban St. Louis
districts. The county NAACP issued a
statement hailing the “wonderful prog
ress” made in complying with the Su
preme Court decision.
A similar situation meanwhile was
developing in the state's second largest
metropolitan area, Jackson County.
Kansas City had desegregated both ele
mentary and high schools in Septem
ber, 1955. Independence, the home of
Harry S. Truman, desegregated its high
school at the same time. This spring,
Supt. O. L. Plucker announced that by
September, 1957 the entire process of
integrating the elementary grades will
be completed, and all Negro faculty
members will be employed in regular
schools teaching predominantly white
classes.
Thus Jackson County, like St. Louis
County, will see the end of racial dis
tinctions in school enrollment, through
in both areas some “natural” segrega
tion persists as a result of residential
concentration of Negroes.
Other communities which moved this
year to end segregation in elementary
schools were Bowling Green, New Lon
don and Troy, in the northeast part of
the state; Lexington and Liberty, west
central; Pilot Grove and Slater, north
central; Ironton, Frederickton and St.
Mary’s, east southeast; Warrenton and
Clarence, east. Most of these districts
have relatively few Negroes, but for
one reason or another had delayed in
tegration of elementary grades until
this year. Nine other districts are re
ported ready to make the change with
the start of the school year next Sep
tember.
CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
In the state capital, Jefferson City,
desegregation of elementary schools
was likewise completed during the
year, the high school having been de
segregated in 1954. Some 185 Negroes
and 2,200 whites were involved.
Also in Jefferson City, the formerly
all-Negro four-year college, Lincoln
University, continued to operate with a
steadily increasing white enrollment.
The Kansas City Star called Lincoln a
spectacular instance of “desegregation
in reverse.” Most of its regular under
graduates still are Negroes, but some
300 whites this year attended classes,
either in adult education or in regular
curriculum courses.
Missouri’s public colleges in general
—the University of Missouri at Colum
bia and the five state teachers’ colleges
—continued to operate on desegregated
lines. Negro numbers increased some
what during the year—the university’s
Negro enrollment approximately dou
bled—but officials reported nothing like
a “flood” of Negroes, as some observers
had predicted. At all the colleges, de
segregation had become an accom
plished fact so far as university facilities
went, though in some towns, notably
Columbia, some restaurants and other
public facilities continued to be closed
to Negroes.
One notable case of desegregation
during the year occurred in the boot-
heel town of Morley, where the high
school grades 9 to 12 were desegre
gated, involving 35 Negroes and 600
whites. Another bootheel town, Poplar
Bluff, announced that the upper two
grades of high school would be deseg
regated next September. This would
require nearby Neelyville, which had
been sending its Negro pupils to Poplar
Bluff, to follow suit, at least as far as
the upper two grades were concerned.
Schools Remain Segregated at Year-End
Although some high school desegre
gation has occurred in the bootheel and
in other sections, action at the elemen
tary level has been rarer and two
counties retain segregation in all dis
tricts at all levels. There is little ap
parent disposition by the Negro com
munities to press for changes in this sit
uation. The state government, though
officially favorable to desegregation,
does not bring pressure on local dis
tricts through distribution of funds or
otherwise. State school laws have al
Year-End Summary
1) Out of 244 school districts
with Negro enrollments, 193 had
ended segregation by this academic
year and at least nine others were
planning to end it in September.
2) Webster Groves, last sizable
district in St. Louis County to re
tain segregation, ended it this year.
So did Jefferson City, the state
capital, in its elementary schools.
Independence, home of Harry S.
Truman and last segregated district
in Jackson County (Kansas City),
announced plans to complete de
segregation in all grades next
September.
3) Missouri public colleges and
the state university continued to
operate on desegregated lines, with
Negro enrollments increasing but
not in a “flood” as had been fore
cast.
4) The state political campaign
of 1956 and the St. Louis school
board campaign of the spring of
1957 were waged with almost no
reference to racial issues or the
school desegregation question.
5) With school desegregation
completed, St. Louis was paying
more attention to the problem of
residential segregation created by
an expanding but largely concen
trated Negro district.
ways been written with an eye to pre
venting state interference in matters of
policy in the districts.
There was a flareup of racial feeling
in the bootheel during the winter when
a Sikeston high school girl was raped
and her escort, a Charleston high school
athlete, murdered by a Negro. For sev
eral days, white students demonstrated
and some stayed away from classes, but
gradually things returned to normal as
school officials exhorted students to re
spect law and order. The murderer, be
lieved to have been an itinerant, never
was found.
Missouri went through the 1956 elec
tion campaign with a minimum of dis
cussion of racial issues. School deseg
regation had become such a widely ac
cepted fact over most of the state that it
entered none of the statewide cam
paigns. Both Democratic and Republi
can state candidates appealed to the
Negro votes in Kansas City and St. Louis
in various ways.
James T. Blair, Jr., the successful
Democratic candidate for governor,
promised to support appointment of a
state human rights commission—the
current substitute for FEPC—and made
good on his promise by personally per
suading the House of Representatives to
adopt this legislation for the first time
in several tries. Whether the bill would
pass the Senate, however, was doubtful.
STATUTES REPEALED
No legislation affecting school segre
gation was even introduced except a
bill to repeal the old statutes author
izing segregation in conformity with
the state constitution, which provided
for separate schools unless otherwise
ordered by the legislature. Two years
ago an attempt to pass the repealer bill
failed, opponents arguing that the Su
preme Court had not yet handed down
its final orders in the school cases. This
year there was virtually no opposition
and the repealer went through quietly,
unnoticed in many news dispatches.
The issue was not a significant one in
a substantive sense, since the segrega
tion statutes had already been declared
unenforceable by the attorney general
as a result of the Supreme Court opin
ion. But Negro members of the legis
lature pressed for repeal as a matter
of symbolism. ,
In the St. Louis city election of four
members of the school board this year,
the segregation issue was as absent as
it had been in the state campaign. No
candidate opposed the desegregation
which had taken place in elementary
and high schools, and none even dis
cussed it. A Negro candidate failed of
election though he had served two years
on the board bv mayoral appointment
to fill a vacancy.
So far, no Negro in St. Louis has
been elected to a citywide office like
the school board, though there are sev
eral aldermen and legislators elected
from smaller districts. This fact is
sometimes cited by NAACP and Negro
political leaders who are opposing the
proposed new charter for the city be
cause it provides for a board of aider-
men of whom a majority would be
elected at large. The present board is
composed of aldermen entirely elected
by wards. So far as can be judged the
Negro question did not enter into the
decision of the charter drafters to pro
pose a majority elected at large. They
argue for the change on the ground
that aldermen representing narrow, lo
cal neighborhood interests have for
manv years obstructed legislation of
citvwide benefit to the community as a
whole. The new charter is to be voted
on later this year.
The Human Relations Commission in
Kansas City reported school desegre
gation to be proceeding smoothly, with
no signs of recurrence of the threatened
student strike of 1956.
The St. Louis Human Relations Com
mission turned its attention during
the year to residential segregation, urg
ing real estate dealers and newspapers
to end the practice of discriminating as
to race of buyers in offering real estate
for sale. The Negro residential area in
St. Louis has expanded markedly in re
cent years, but Negroes reportedly still
find it difficult to buy property except
in areas contiguous to the existing Ne
gro district.
Several neighborhood organizations
have been formed in an effort to main
tain housing standards in blocks where
Negro families have begun to move w
Members of these organizations assert
that they are willing to live in a mixed
neighborhood provided it retains &
one-family residential character in
stead of becoming a district of roomin?
houses. At the same time, they argur
that the pressure of the Negro migra'
tion would be relieved if Negroes could
move into any section of the city instead
of only those areas immediately beyond
the present Negro district.
The Catholic church is supporting the
efforts of residents in the transition dis"
tricts to accommodate themselves to tnf
influx of Negroes instead of fleeing
the suburbs in panic, as has happen
in most such areas up to now. Of 1
distinct neighborhoods in St. Louis,
are all-white, 22 all-Negro and 28 art
mixed.
Despite school and other integral
steps, discrimination against Negr
remains a serious problem in St. L° >
it was reported last month at the
nual meeting of the St. Louis Civil D
erties Committee. ^
Union prejudice keeps many ski j
Negroes out of work, said Samue ^
Klein, a manufacturer. He said ^a^
penters, bricklayers and other bun ^
craftsmen who hold union cards ^
northern cities are not permits
transfer here because of their race,
the unemploved in the city are Neg r< *
he estimated. onflOO
Little more than half of the 12
Negroes who would be eligible to
head
it
in St. Louis are registered,
pointed out by Ernest Calloway,
of the local NAACP. y
Residential segregation was c * te ^r e st
Andy Brown, Jr., chairman of the ^
End Community Conference. #