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PAGE 12—AUGUST 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Maryland Court Decision
On ‘Screening’ Appealed
BALTIMORE, Md.
hief U.S. District Judge
Roszel C. Thomsen’s decision
in the Harford County school
case, upholding “selective integra
tion, ”is to be taken on up to the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Attorneys for the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People filed notice of ap
peal and posted bond on July 26,
as one of them declared that the
special screening of Negro appli
cants to white schools placed a
“clearly unconstitutional burden”
on Negroes. (See “Legal Action.”)
The professional staff advisers to the
Montgomery County Board of Educa
tion have recommended that two more
white schools be opened to Negroes and
that an additional 256 Negro pupils be
admitted to these schools and the 49
schools previously desegregated. This
would place just over half of the county
schools on an integrated basis and
mean that just under a third of all
Negro pupils would be in mixed
classes. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Mrs. Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Balti
more attorney for the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People, said that her organization
definitely would appeal Chief District
Judge Roszel C. Thomsen’s decision in
the case of Stephen Moore Jr. v. Board
of Education of Harford County. Mrs.
Mitchell said that the appeal, formally
noted on July 26, would be filed as
soon as a transcript of the court pro
ceedings became available.
Harford County’s plan to screen
Negro applicants to white high schools
imposed a “clearly unconstitutional
burden” on Negro pupils, Mrs. Mitchell
said in an interview. “No other state
has proposed such a thing, not even in
the Deep South,” the NAACP attorney
declared. “Harford County is going the
South one better.”
Mrs. Mitchell also said that inasmuch
as Harford County has only 1,400 Ne
groes in a total school enrollment of
14,000, there was no reason, in her
opinion, why there should not be imme
diate integration. If a Delaware court
could order complete integration, she
explained, there is “no reason why we
can’t have the same in Maryland.”
COMPLICATED PROCESS
The screening process to which the
NAACP objects is part of a somewhat
complicated desegregation program
adopted by Harford County. Under the
program 11 out of 18 elementary schools
will be desegregated this fall; three
more in September, 1958. In addition,
provision is made for Negro students to
apply for transfers to white high schools
earlier than the desegregation schedule
allows, provided they make an advance
application. The transfer provision is
effective this fall, under the following
conditions of the county school board:
“Such application will be evaluated
by a committee consisting of the high
school principals of the two schools
concerned, the director of instruction
and the county supervisors working in
these schools.
“These applications will be approved
or disapproved on the basis of the prob
ability of success and adjustment of
each individual pupil, and the commit
tee will utilize the best professional
measures of both achievement and ad
justment that can be obtained in each
individual situation. This will include,
but not be limited to, the results of both
standardized intelligence and achieve
ment tests, with due consideration be
ing given to grade level achievements,
both with respect to ability and with
respect to the grade into which trans
fer is being requested.”
FOR TRANSITION ONLY
In his written opinion, made avail
able in July, Judge Thomsen pointed
out that the screening process would
apply to Negro transfers only during
the transition period of desegregation
and that the county school superin
tendent, Charles W. Willis, had testified
that transfer applications “will be ap
proved or disapproved on the basis of
educational factors, for the best inter
ests of the student, and not for other
reasons.” Judge Thomsen wrote, “I
have confidence in the integrity, ability
and fairness of Supt. Willis and of the
principals, supervisors and others who
will make the decisions under his di
rection.”
The idea of screening Negro appli
cants for admission to white schools is
not new in Maryland, although it has
not previously been put on such a for
mal basis as in Harford County, where
the creation of a special educational re
view board has met the approval of
Judge Thomsen. In Montgomery Coun
ty the screening is called “selective in
tegration” and was used during the
second year of desegregation there.
Talbot County on the Eastern Shore
reviewed the educational qualifications
of Negro pupils to be admitted to white
elementary schools, and programs in
other counties suggest similar processes
of selection.
Somerset County, for example, in
serts a public notice in county news
papers that “the Board of Education
for Sumerset County will receive re
quests for permission for children to
transfer to schools they would not nor
mally attend.” The notice adds, “Such
transfers will be reviewed by the board
of education in light of available facili
ties and the qualifications of the pupil
seeking transfer.”
The Worcester County Board of Ed
ucation announced during July that
applications for transfers must be filed
with the board of education not later
than Aug. 30, in order to be considered
for the 1957-58 school term. The board
there did not say specifically that the
qualifications of an applicant would be
taken into consideration. The announce
ment said only that “the board of edu
cation reserves the right to deny such
transfers for any good and sufficient
reason.”
ST. MARY’S BEGINS
St. Mary’s County in southern Mary
land is beginning desegregation for the
first time this September in the ele
mentary grades, “where administra
tively feasible.” Negro pupils had until
July 1 to make transfer requests, and
the school board was to take action on
the requests soon after Aug. 1. The
local county weekly, the Lexington
Park Enterprise, reports that only a
small number of Negroes sought trans
fers. The actual number of applicants
was not released. As of last fall, St.
Mary’s had 3,788 white and 1,426 Negro
school children.
Montgomery County, which lies on
the outskirts of Washington, D. C., is
to have two additional integrated
schools this fall under the plans pre
pared by the Superintendent’s Profes
sional Committee on Desegregation.
Fred L. Dunn Jr., chairman of the com
mittee, reported that a survey of stu
dents in six all-Negro schools turned
up 284 requests for transfers to schools
nearer the pupils’ homes. Of the 284
requests, 256 have been granted. Only
28 of 77 requests for kindergarten ad
mission were granted, Dunn said, be
cause “space or program was not avail
able.”
Two more integrated schools in Mont
gomery County would mean that 51
out of a total of 100 schools would have
mixed classes. The additional transfers
would raise the number of Negro pupils
in integrated schools to 963, or nearly
a third of the county’s 3,000 Negro
school population. During the past
school year Montgomery had 54,456
white pupils, about half of whom were
in schools with some mixed classes.
NORRIS’ FINAL REPORT
The outgoing superintendent of
schools in Montgomery County, Dr.
Forbes H. Norris, left in July to give a
summer lecture series at the Univers
ity of North Carolina on “Critical Is
sues in Education.” The county school
board was widely criticized by county
newspapers and civic groups for not re
newing Dr. Norris’ contract and for not
giving the public a bill of particulars
on its reasons for ousting him. Dr.
Norris did not formally protest the
move, but in quitting the county he
left with the board a six-page summary
of achievements during his four-year
tenure. On the subject of desegrega
tion Dr. Norris said, “This school sys
tem has moved farther and faster than
any other county in the state,” and
standards of instruction in the class
room have been maintained.
Dr. Norris’ place was to be taken on
Aug. 1 by Dr. C. Taylor Whittier, until
recently the assistant superintendent of
schools in Pinellas County, Florida.
After his lecture stint, Dr. Norris will
assume the superintendency of schools
in Briarcliff Manor, N. Y., at a reported
salary of $16,500, which is $2,000 above
what Montgomery County paid him.
The Maryland Commission on Inter
racial Problems and Relations, a bi-
racial state agency established in 1951,
has found that there is a “great need”
for its assistance in bringing about full
implementation in Maryland of the Su
preme Court’s school desegregation de
cisions. The commission in the past has
worked most conspicuously in the field
of public accommodations, notably in
efforts to end discrimination in theaters
and hotels and also stores. Persuasion
and publicity are its main tools, since
the commission lacks legal authority to
order changes.
In its annual report covering activities
in 1956 the commission has this to say
about education:
“Education for the purposes of the
commission is divided into two groups:
public and private. In the State of
Maryland, public education provides for
approximately 72 per cent of the edu-
cable population, 28 per cent being
cared for through private institutions
of learning.
“With the Supreme Court’s ruling of
May 17, 1954, and the immediate imple
mentation of said ruling by the Balti
more City Department of Education
being effected generally in a rather
smooth manner, the attention of this
agency has been directed toward serv
ice to the counties of this state.
HANDLED LOCALLY
“This service has been limited be
cause of the desire of all county boards
of education to handle this matter on
a local basis so as to combat problems
which are peculiar to their own coun
ties. Nevertheless, the commission
serves as an agency ready to assist
whenever called upon.
“As may be evidenced by a knowl
edge of situations in several counties,
there is a great need for assistance
from this agency working jointly with
the State Board of Education and local
county boards of education to bring into
fruition the fullest implementation of
the Supreme Court’s May 17. 1954 rul
ing relative to public education.
“Baltimore City has made rapid
strides toward integrating its schools,
as may be evidenced by the following
statistics:
TOTAL NET ROLL, OCTOBER 31, 1956
Elementary (Kindergarten, Grades 1-6 and
Opportunity Classes — White. 53,752; Col
ored, 47,033; Total. 100,785; Mixed, 46.045.
Secondary — White, 30,573; Colored, 16,130;
Total, 46,703; Mixed, 29,787.
Vocational (including Occupational and Shop
Center) — White, 3,758; Colored, 3,750;
Total, 7,508; Mixed, 3,179.
Grand Total—White. 88,083; Colored. 66,913;
Total, 154,996; Mixed. 79,011.
“The number of Negroes in formerly
all-white schools in Baltimore is now
double the number in the 1955-56
school year.
ON OPPORTUNITIES
“In a statement for Southern School
News commenting on desegregation’s
effect to date, Dr. John H. Fischer,
superintendent of public instruction,
says, ‘On the basis of our experience it
seems clear that by desegregating our
schools we have substantially improved
the educational opportunities of Negro
children without reducing in any way
those available to white children.’
“Of the 794 schools in Maryland
counties, Baltimore City excluded, 138
now have mixed enrollments, or 17 per
cent of the total. Three of the desegre
gated schools are new ones which
opened on a mixed basis. The remainder
are formerly all-white schools. This
means that 21 per cent of the county
schools that were all-white prior to a
year ago now have mixed enrollments.
“Because the number of Negroes in
any one school is small, 89,929 white
pupils are in schools that contain one
or more Negro pupils, while only 1,727
Negroes are in mixed schools. Thus,
40.6 per cent of white county pupils
are in desegregated schools this year,
while only 4.2 per cent of Negro county
pupils have left all-Negro schools to
attend mixed ones.”
# # #
Oklahoma’s Deaf School
To Be Open to Negroes
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
TENTATIVE SETTLEMENT in a
federal court case in July
opened the way for the Oklahoma
School for the Deaf at Sulphur to
accept Negro children. (See “Le
gal Action.”)
Closing of two Negro elemen
tary schools in Oklahoma City for
economy reasons raised the possi
bility that the capital will have its
first integrated faculties on a reg
ularly scheduled basis during the
coming year. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
An alleged effort by a Negro farmer
to force desegregation in an eastern
Oklahoma town by burning the Negro
school failed when the district board
decided to rebuild it. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Dr. Melvin W. Barnes, who succeed,
ed Dr. J. Chester Swanson as Okla.
homa City superintendent July 1, re
vealed Walnut Grove and Riverside
may each get one Negro teacher as ;
result of the pupil realignment. He ex.
plained that both schools happened to
have vacancies in the kindergarten ajr
both Negro schools had good kinder
garten teachers.
The superintendent stressed that, if
such assignments are made, it would
not be done “simply to promote in*«_
gration but because it would m a ke
good sense educationally.”
Walnut Grove and Riverside would
become the first mixed schools in
Oklahoma City to have integrated fac.
ulties, if the projected assignments
materialize. However, a degree of fac-
ulty integration occurred in 1955-55
when a white man taught two or three
music courses at Douglass High School
on a half-day basis.
Attorneys reported they reached
agreement in a pre-trial conference in
a lawsuit (Bailey v. Hodge) filed in
March in the U. S. District Court for
Western Oklahoma by the parents of a
10-year-old Negro deaf mute.
The couple, Mr. and Mrs. George
Bailey Jr., Oklahoma City, has asked
for a declaratory judgment on the
rights of their daughter, Veronica.
They had also sought a permanent in
junction restraining the defendants, the
State Board of Education and the su
perintendent of the training school,
from denying her admission to the in
stitution on grounds of race and color.
The pre-trial conference was held
before Judge W. R. Wallace. He told
newsmen later the parties had reached
agreement on admission of the Bailey
girl to the Sulphur school but indicated
no permanent injunction would be is
sued because it was unnecessary.
DECREE BEING WRITTEN
A proposed decree was being drawn
up at deadline time and was to be pre
sented to Judge Wallace for his signa
ture. Fred Hansen, assistant attorney
general of Oklahoma, who represented
the defendants, said it will provide for
admission of not only the Bailey girl
but any other Negro child similarly
situated and otherwise qualified. He
said this will be effective with the term
beginning Sept. 2 and for any subse
quent term, as long as they make time
ly application.
The case did not arouse much con
troversy. Dr. Oliver Hodge, state su
perintendent of public instruction and
one of the defendants, contended all
along Veronica Bailey would be ad
mitted to the Sulphur school whenever
she applied at the beginning of a se
mester.
Preparation of the decree in the Bai
ley case was delayed somewhat by a
difference of opinion among the attor
neys over its wording. U. Simpson Tate
of Dallas and Albert Alexander of
Oklahoma City, attorneys for the Na
tional Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, argued the court’s
order should contain the permanent in
junction they had sought.
INJUNCTION ‘UNNECESSARY’
Hansen, on the other hand, saw no
necessity for the injunction, “since the
state has already said what it’s going to
do.” His original proposal stated a spe
cific denial of the requested injunction.
The final decree was expected to trace
a course somewhere between the two
positions.
The Oklahoma City Board of Educa
tion and its top administrative officials
were reported late in July giving quiet
consideration to the possibility of as
signing Negro teachers to otherwise
white faculties at two elementary
schools.
The situation which presented this
possibility arose from the closing of
four elementary schools in the system
for economy reasons. Two of the aban
doned schools, Bannaker and Woodson,
had all-Negro student bodies. They
were located in near-south side neigh
borhoods with multi-racial residential
patterns (Mexican, Indian, Negro and
white inhabitants).
Shifting Bannaker’s pupils to nearby
Walnut Grove school probably will
give the latter a predominantly Negro
student body for the first time in 1957-
58. Riverside school, which will take
the Woodson pupils, will likely still
have a non-Negro majority.
3 MOSTLY NEGRO
The shift in pupils will make Walnut
Grove the third integrated school in
the city with a preponderance of Negro
pupils over white youngsters. On the
east side, Culbertson, where about one-
fourth to one-half of the students were
Negro at the end of the 1955-56 year,
had swung over to a Negro majority
when the term ended this spring. And
at Creston Hills, also on the east side,
the proportion of Negroes had in
creased steadily until it is believed now
only a few white pupils remain. The
exact breakdown is unavailable. Cul
bertson will retain its white faculty,
however. Creston Hills switched from
white to Negro teachers in 1956-57.
Lincoln, a third east side desegre
gated school, had approximately 25 per
cent Negro membership and will keep
its white teachers.
Officials at Webster Junior High
School expected its Negro total (130
out of 400 in 1956-57) to go higher for
the coming year but pre-enrollment so
far has not borne that out. Franklin
Junior High School, which will take on
some 75 or 80 more pupils as it adds
another grade in its expanding voca
tional program, expects to receive
about 10 more Negroes. It had 25 the
past year.
EXTENT OF MIXING
Altogether last year some 1,150 Ne
groes attended classes with about 2,700
white students in Oklahoma City in
1956-57. Of these, 100 Negro students
were integrated with 1,300 whites at
Central High School.
Tulsa’s public school desegregation
changed only slightly last year from
its 1955-56 status. Dr. Charles C. Ma
son, superintendent, reported racialk
mixed classes in four elemental
schools, two junior high schools and
one senior high school. They were vir
tually the same schools that had at
least some degree of integration in the
first year. Principal change was in the
dropping of Central High School from
the integration list and the adding
Roosevelt Junior High.
Most of the desegregation, from the
standpoint of numbers, again occurred
in the Red Fork area of Tulsa’s west
side. Webster High had 26 Negro#
with 792 whites and Clinton Juni° r
High, 37 Negroes with 1,010 whites.
OTHER TULSA SCHOOLS
Other mixed schools and their Negro
and white enrollments were BurroUgn-
Elementary, 7 and 982; Emerson E| e '
mentary, 34 and 394; Hawthorne £le
mentary, 4 and 900: Patrick Hen^
Elementary, 2 and 1,180; and Rooseve
Junior High, 1 and 1,543. Thus, 111
gro pupils attended school with 6,
white students during 1956-57.
Dr. Mason said he expects no ad<h^
tional schools in the system to beco
integrated during the coming year,
does he expect Negroes to become
majority at any school. No raci
mixed faculties are planned either,
said.
It appeared for a time that the P a
district, in Okfuskee County, might
forced to mix its white and Negro
dent bodies because of a fire. But
rangements were made at the r#) 11 ,
of the Negro patrons, school om
said, to continue segregation.
FARMER ADMITS ARSON Nc . [
The West End school, serving a
gro community two and one-half i
east of Paden, burned to the g 1 "® ef
July 7. Subsequently, a Negro f 3 ^
and church deacon, Eli Watkins* p
was arrested and charged with aP ^ p t
Officers said he signed a st ater ? ve J
telling how he set the fire. He vval ( j e r
preliminary hearing and is free m
$2,000 bond awaiting district court
in September. ., to
Childless himself, Watkins is sal
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