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Objective
VOL. IV, NO. 3
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
$2 PER YEAR
SEPTEMBER, 1957
Adopt
T egislatures in eight southern
states during 1957 adopted a
total of 35 new measures designed
to prevent, curb or control school
desegregation, bringing to 141 the
total number of such enactments
added to southern state statute
Looks since May, 1954.
A survey by Southern School
News also showed that two gen
erally desegregated border state
legislatures enacted three laws
furthering the integration process
w recognizing the transition as
largely accomplished. One border
state assembly enacted a measure
supported by a pro-segregation
Or ganization and then failed to
ov erride the governor’s veto.
And in North Carolina, an erstwhile
solidly segregated state with some six
aew segregation statutes already on
e books, the legislature declined to
en act further laws of this type.
bi all, 13 legislatures in the Deep
^ u fb, mid-South and border states
ave met since January. The Alabama
^embly, with more than 40 segrega-
° n measures in the hopper, is still in
session. Thus far, three specific bills
and ,
din
a couple of resolutions bearing in-
ectly
on the school issue have been
approved there.
,N DESEGREGATING states
[Among the states with new school
„ s that may be used to curb desegre-
„ lon are five which already have be-
] 0 ’ * n greater or lesser extent, to
We r racial barriers. Arkansas, with
e desegregated districts and as many
^ o re scheduled to take the step this
law^ as four new school segregation
Pol/ Delaware, with an official state
„ c y favoring desegregation, has a
. *aw ]
In
regulating transfer of pupils.
Texas, where 122 school districts
t^' e adopted desegregation policies,
6v ne w laws designed to curb and
e n a n ^ ro ^ back the process have been
feted ' Oklahoma, largely desegre-
iir e d - an ^ Planning further steps in that
hr rt!° n ’ ^rried over in its school law
segj. 6 second biennium since 1954 a
ta in ! on spelling out provisions for main-
segregation. And Tennessee,
n Jr , ^segregation in effect in a small
la,,* district and inaugurated in a
! egr Ur ban center, has eight new pro-
r e ^ti°n statutes.
Lir a ■* ss °uri, where 209 of the 244
(le Se Cia ^ school districts have begun
Ijj-legation, the general assembly in
re Pealed pre-1954 school segrega
56 More Districts Report
Integration, Most Bar It
T he 17 southern and border states plus the District of Columbia will open the 1957-58 school year
with 740 school districts having begun or accomplished the desegregation process but with 2,300 bi-
racial districts still tightly segregated, a Southern School News survey shows.
According to a count at the end of the last school year, 684 districts were listed as desegregated. The in
crease of 56 is accounted for by desegregation plans this fall in 27 districts and tardy disclosure of deseg
regation already under way in 29 other districts, 19 of them in Texas, nine in Oklahoma and one in Ken
tucky.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of districts remain closed to Negroes (or whites) either as a matter of
policy or pending outcome of school entry litigation. The only break in the segregation line running
from Virginia to Florida and across through Louisiana is in North Carolina, where three communities
announced in July that they would enroll a dozen Negroes under the state’s pupil placement statute.
—Nashville Banner photo
Nashville Supt. W. A. Bass (right) talks to a group of segregationists outside
a city school where Negroes presented themselves for registration. Members of the
froup before Bass wear buttons proclaiming “Keep Our White Schools White.”
Nashville, the first large city in the Southeast to begin desegregation under
court order, enrolled 13 Negroes in previously all-white schools. (Story on Page
Three.)
8 Southern Legislatures
35 New Measures
tion provisions which previously had
been declared unenforceable by the
state’s attorney general. And the legis
lature of West Virginia, where all but
two bi-racial districts have ended com
pulsory segregation, removed racial
restrictions and designations from sta
tutes governing operation of schools for
the deaf and blind and the state col
leges for Negroes.
South Carolina and Georgia, with
segregation intact, each adopted five
new laws, all of them designed to
strengthen previous legislation. The
assembly in Florida, also with complete
school segregation, turned down more
pro-segregation legislation than it en
acted, but did approve an interposition
resolution and a bill extending the life
of a committee established to investi
gate groups engaged in promoting
segregation or desegregation.
NORTH CAROLINA DECLINES
In North Carolina, the first of the
South Atlantic states to announce deseg
regation (in three metropolitan dis
tricts), the legislature declined to add
to the segregation programs enacted in
1955 and 1956.
Some of the 1957 legislation followed
trends set in 1955 and 1956. In other
cases the new enactments were unique.
Pupil placement laws were added in
Tennessee and Texas and strengthened
in Alabama, bringing to nine the num
ber of states now having such statutes
on their books. Compulsory attendance
laws were modified in Arkansas and
Georgia, giving seven states legislation
of this type. South Carolina and Geor
gia assemblies gave the governors of
those states broad new powers to cope
with situations arising out of segrega
tion-desegregation incidents, as have
two other states.
Further restrictions on pro-and anti-
integration groups were adopted in
South Carolina and Tennessee which
also have new barratry laws. And in
Arkansas a State Sovereignty Commis
sion, similar to Mississippi’s, was
authorized to investigate the activities
(See LEGISLATURES, Page 2)
States where segregation will obtain
again this year at the lower school level
are: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisi
ana, Mississippi, South Carolina and
Virginia. Only Louisiana and Virigina
will have integration at the public col
lege level.
Of the 740 districts now desegregated,
10 are in Arkansas, three in North
Carolina and three in Tennessee. All
the rest of the districts are in the border
states and Washington, D.C. Prelimin
ary estimates by SSN indicate that an
additional 75,000 white pupils and some
25,000 more Negro pupils will be in
BIKlllllIllllKliaillllllillllllKllKlll
Bulletin
On the night of Sept. 2 Gov. Orval
Faubus of Arkansas summoned the
National Guard and ordered guardsmen
posted about the Little Rock Central
High School grounds, saying he feared
violence there. On Tuesday the Little
Rock School Board ordered Negro stu
dents to “stay away from white high
schools today”—which they did—but it
did not instruct them to report to the
all-Negro high school which they had
attended last year.
(This issue of SOUTHERN SCHOOL
NEWS normally would include only
news of segregation-desegregation de
velopments through the month of
August. However, because of the Labor
Day holidays, SSN did not go to press
until Sept. 3.)
Faubus would not say whether the
troops were ordered out to prevent in
tegration, though he said “that assump
tion might be correct ... it will be left
to the discretion of commanders. There
is a very good possibility there will not
be anv integration tomorrow.”
In Washington on Sept. 3 President
Eisenhower told his press conference
that the U. S. Department of Justice is
taking a hand in the Little Rock dis
pute. He said that he had been in con
tact with U.S. Attorney General Her
bert Brownell, who was to discuss the
matter with the federal judge in the
case. Previously. District Judge Ronald
Davies had ordered integration to pro
ceed and had issued a broad injunction
against any interference with peaceful
integration. (For earlier details see
Page 6.)
Observers in Little Rock told SSN
that Gov. Faubus apparently had chal
lenged the federal judicial authority in
the first contest of its kind since the
U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1954.
The governor said he was taking the
step as the chief executive of the state
sworn to preserve peace and protect
property, and he cited reports coming
to him of impending violence.
“integrated situations,” bringing to
roughly 2 million whites and 350,000
Negroes the total in this classification.
An undeterminable, but undoubtedly
far lower, number are actually in mixed
classes.
MOST REMAIN SEGREGATED
Similarly, about 7 million white pupils
and about 2,450,000 Negroes remain in
segregated systems or are enrolled in
districts which have members of only
one race or no policy governing segre
gation - desegregation.
As schools prepared to open to record
enrollments in most areas, there was a
Inside
Alabama
. 5
Kentucky
. 12
Oklahoma ,
II
Arkansas
. 6
Louisiana
8
South Carolina
2
Delaware
9
Maryland
. . 7
Tennessee . . .
. 3
Dist. of Columbia
14
Mississippi
. 14
Texas
10
Florida
8
Missouri
13
Virginia
. 4
Georgia
. 16
North Carolina
. . 15
West Virginia . .
. 12
Districts Which Have Announced
First Desegregation for Fall, 1957
Enrollment At
State
Arkansas
Kentucky
Maryland
Missouri
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Tennessee
District
Level Desegregated
White Negro
Level
Desegregated
Decision
Made By
Fort Smith
910
90
first grade
board policy
Little Rock
2,740
811
high school
court order
N. Little Rock
534
114
12th grade
board policy
Ozark
475
3
high school
board policy
Van Buren
2,634
87
high school
court order
Caverna
761
128
all levels
board policy
Hopkins Co.
6,823
545
all levels
court order
Lebanon
895
212
high school
board policy
McCracken Co.
5,300
216
all levels
court order
Union Co. (Sturgis)
2,775
339
high school
court order
Webster (Clay)
2,061
60
all levels
court order
St. Mary’s Co.
3,394
104
elementary
board policy
Clinton
809
22
elementary
board policy
Gallatin
377
10
elementary
board policy
Lebanon
1,261
27
elementary
board policy
Malta Bend
188
11
elementary
board policy
Mendon
350
12
elementary
board policy
Neelyville
301
103
high school
board policy
Pacific
409
22
elementary
board policy
Charlotte
17,600
7,688
all levels
board policy
Greensboro
10,985
4,212
all levels
board policy
Winston-Salem
9,316
6,843
all levels
board policy
Hugo
—
—
—
board policy
Kinta
301
45
high school
board policy
Marietta
525
68
high school
board policy
Sand Springs
—
—
—
board policy
Nashville
1,920
1,300
first grade
court order
flurry of litigation and at least one ma
jor school entry effort in an area of the
Deep South.
For the first time in two years Ne
groes were petitioning to attend specific
all-white schools in Alabama. And in
North Carolina and Arkansas there
were legal efforts—which failed—to bar
initial desegregation in Little Rock, the
Arkansas capital, and in Charlotte,
Greensboro and Winston-Salem, North
Carolina.
In two states where there has been
some considerable desegregation in cer
tain areas — Delaware and Texas — no
material change was reported in the sit
uation for this fall.
A summary of major developments
state-by-state follows:
Alabama
Nine Negro families have petitioned
the Birmingham school board for trans
fer of their children to white schools—
the first major challenge of Alabama’s
tightly segregated status in two years.
Arkansas
Five communities, headed by Little
Rock, were desegregating this fall at
various levels. A federal court threw
out a last-minutes state court injunc
tion restraining registration of Little
Rock Negroes in a white high school
there, a move supported by Gov. Orval
Faubus, who said he feared violence.
Delaware
Schools were opening with little
change in the desegregation pattern
which finds schools mixed in north
Delaware but segregated (though in
litigation) in south Delaware.
District of Columbia
Washington’s school system expects
110,000 pupils, the largest enrollment on
record—70 per cent-plus Negro—at the
beginning of the fourth year of integra
tion. Because of a classroom shortage,
6,000 pupils will go to school part-time.
Florida
Public schools at all levels were still
segregated as 900,000 children prepared
to enter classrooms. Three school entry
suits remained active but there was no
reported pressure elsewhere for de
segregation.
Georgia
Segregation continued to be the pat
tern as an estimated 950,000 children
trooped to school. A long-awaited study
of the Atlanta school system showed a
wide gap in achievement between white
and Negro classes.
Kentucky
Six additional school districts plann-
integration programs this fall, bring. *
“integrated situations” to about
districts and about 80 per cent of mb
state’s Negro school population.
Louisiana
The state’s 67-district school system
expected 625,000 pupils, all in segre
gated classes. Only integration is in four
state colleges where court rulings sup
ported Negro registration.
Maryland
St. Mary’s County for the first time
enrolled Negroes in previously all-white
schools, raising to 14 the number of
counties having mixed schools.
Mississippi
As tight money and high interest rates
on bonds slowed down the white-Negro
equalization program, schools were
opening on a segregated basis with no
suits or petitions pending.
Missouri
Schools were opening on an inte
grated basis in all large cities and all
but a few scattered rural communities,
with 209 out of 244 districts having Ne
groes recorded as desegregated.
North Carolina
Three school districts were opening
on a desegregated basis for the first
time, with last-minute court challenges
of assignment of Negroes to previously
all-white schools faltering in state
courts. About a dozen Negro pupils out
of some 322,000 enrolled in the state’s
schools were involved.
(See DISTRICTS, Page 2)