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PAGE 8—OCTOBER 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Delaware's School Heads
Map Desegregation Plan
WILMINGTON, Del.
'T'he State Department of Pub-
-*-lic Instruction in Delaware
has a desegregation plan for all
the currently segregated school
districts—but will not release it
pending final decision in a court
action.
This was disclosed by Dr.
George R. Miller, state superin
tendent of public instruction, who
added that the plan will not be
made public until (1) it is asked
for by the State Board of Educa
tion; and (2) the seven segrega
tion cases are acted upon by the
U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Philadelphia.
Other developments in Delaware dur
ing September were:
1) Replies in the litigation involving
the Dover Board of Education wherein
the NAACP is asking that the board be
ordered to expand its already estab
lished partial program of desegrega
tion. (See “Legal Action.”)
2) Criticism of Gov. J. Caleb Boggs
for having no comment on the Little
Rock situation. (See “Legislative Ac
tion.”)
3) Stiffening opposition to desegrega
tion by pro-segregation groups. (See
“Community Action.”)
4) A plea for integration by the Rt.
Rev. J. Brooke Mosley, Episcopal bishop
of Delaware. (See “What They Say.”)
Delaware’s General Assembly will
convene soon afer Jan. 1, and it is ex
pected that by then some definite move,
or at least an attempt to adopt a policy,
regarding desegregation will be made.
This was indicated by the attitude of
state Rep. Charles P. West, a Democrat
from the rural area known as Gumboro
in southern Delaware. West, a segrega
tionist, asserted:
“The President’s decision to send
troops into Little Rock was definitely
wrong . . . This was Reconstruction
Day all over again. The President and
the Supreme Court are trying to force
an amended Constitution on the people
—a Constitution amended by the Su
preme Court. If there are no more
states’ rights, there is no reason to send
legislators to Dover any more to make
laws.”
CRITICAL OF BOGGS
On the other hand, Gov. J. Caleb
Boggs of Delaware was criticized by
Young Democrats in northern Delaware
and by a Democratic state representa
tive from Wilmington because the gov
ernor failed to take any stand on the
Little Rock case.
The representative, Paul F. Living
ston of Wilmington, who is the only Ne
gro legislator in the state, said Gov.
Boggs was the only Republican at the
Southern Governors Conference who
had nothing to say, in contrast to Gov.
McKeldin of Maryland who applauded
the use of troops at Little Rock.
Another comment on Little Rock
came from state Rep. James H. Snow
den of Wilmington (Republican) who
said:
“I hate to see anything like this hap
pen, but if we start to undermine our
laws we will soon be in severe trouble.
If the law is wrong, an effort can be
made to amend it. But you don’t amend
the law or change a decision of a court
by throwing a mob around a school.”
The suit filed against the Dover Board
of Education and the State Board of
Education on behalf of three Negro
children is in the reply-and-answer
stage (Dennis et al v. Paul E. Baker et
al). But it may be resolved by the out
come of seven other segregation cases
now before the U. S. Third Circuit
Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
The suit against the Dover board
seeks to have the board expand its de
segregation program so as to take in
seventh and eighth grade Negro chil
dren.
At present, all youths in the Dover
district who qualify by reason of aca
demic examinations are admitted to the
Dover Community School’s junior and
senior high school.
‘STATE RESPONSIBILITY’
The attitude of the Dover board is
that the responsibility for school de
segregation plans and administration is
“squarely on the shoulders of the State
Board of Education.”
Atty. Gen. Joseph Donald Craven, on
behalf of the state board, asked that
this suit be dismissed on the ground
that the complainant “fails to state a
claim against the defendants [the State
Board of Education] upon which relief
can be granted.”
However, U. S. District Judge Paul
Leahy recently handed down an order
calling upon the state board to formu
late a desegregation plan for all school
districts in Delaware that have no de
segregation schedule.
And observers say that the Dover
case may be settled by the Court of
Appeals decision on that order.
STATE PLAN READY
Dr. George R. Miller, state superin
tendent of public instruction, was ready
with his plan of desegregation for ap
proval by the State Board of Education
when it was decided to appeal the Leahy
decision.
The state board was joined by the
seven school districts involved in the
appeal to the circuit court.
David M. Green, superintendent of
the Dover public schools (whose board
of education is a defendant in a segre
gation suit in the U. S. District court),
was asked on Sept. 27 for a check on
the number of Negroes in the Dover
Community School.
“I really don’t know,” Green replied.
“I don’t go around counting the Negroes
in my school any more than I count
the red-headed ones or the freckled
ones.
“However, on Sept. 30, we are going
to make a check — not because we want
to but because the State Department
of Public Instruction is asking us to.”
This is part of the statewide census
of pupils by race that is being taken
for the State Department of Public In
struction. Dr. John Parres, director of
research and statistics, says he doesn’t
know how much longer this distinction
will be continued.
Problems of desegregation were dis
cussed at a three-day meeting in Wil
mington late in September sponsored by
the Council of Churches of Wilmington
and New Castle County and the United
Church Women of Delaware.
One of the principal speakers was the
Rt. Rev. J. Brooke Mosley of the Epis-
North Carolina
(Continued from page 5)
to defend it in a federal court action
brought by the parents of Joseph Holt
Jr., the only Negro to apply to the Ra
leigh board for reassignment to a white
school. Young Holt was turned down.
In the federal district court, Holt seeks
immediate admission to the white high
school, Needham Broughton, and a per
manent injunction against the city
school board to end segregation in Ra
leigh schools. An answer to Holt’s suit
is expected in October.
In a speech delivered Sept. 3, on the
eve of school openings in Charlotte,Win
ston-Salem and Greensboro, Gov.
Hodges said, “The path that North Car
olina has taken on this question is not
identical with that chosen by other
states ... We in North Carolina will not
presume to tell the people of one of our
sister states how they should meet the
problems . . . By the same token, we are
entitled to presume that the citizens of
our sister states will grant to us in North
Carolina the privilege and right to adopt
that course of action which it is felt best
meets the needs and desires of our peo
ple.”
Renewing his plea for voluntary seg
regation, he said of the Negro leaders,
“Can these few citizens seriously be
lieve they are helping remove any real
or fancied stigma from their race by
placing their children in schools former
ly attended only by white children? ...
Do they not know that court decisions
cannot make or remake a society?
Where are the Negro leaders of wisdom
BISHOP J. BROOKE MOSLEY
‘To Secure Elementary Freedom’
copal Diocese of Delaware. In the course
of his remarks, he said:
“Had we American Christians acted
on the principle of God’s desire for
human brotherhood more consistently
in the past several generations, it is
conceivable that there would be much
less for an NAACP to do today—per
haps not so much that an NAACP
would not even be needed to secure the
elementary freedom for American peo
ple.”
ON LITTLE ROCK
Speaking of the Little Rock case and
the governor of Arkansas, Bishop Mos
ley said: “As the just laws of this great
nation bear down upon the Governor
of Arkansas, we do not expect him to
become a better man thereby or even
a more sensible one.
“After the courts have done their
good work, the Governor will probably
be the same man he was before and so
will all the other principals in the
drama. But what will be different is the
amount of freedom which will exist in
Arkansas.”
A report has been received of increas
ing activity among groups in southern
Delaware and of plans to oppose any
order coming from the federal court
that all segregated school districts in
Delaware must desegregate.
When the news came out that a suit
had been filed against the Dover Board
of Education, an official of the school
board there reported he was approached
by a man who said he was an official
of the Ku Klux Klan.
This board member said that the KKK
was “willing to offer its help.”
However, the offer was rejected.
Officials of the Citizens Council in
Delaware say that they do not intend
to foment any violence when and if they
protest desegregation in the schools in
their districts.
# # #
and courage to tell their people these
things? Have they none? . . .”
In Raleigh, National Democratic
Chairman Paul Butler told a southern
regional meeting of party leaders the
party will not let a third party move
ment intimidate it into avoiding a strong
stand on civil rights. He predicted the
I960 platform will take such a stand,
and that the Democratic candidate for
President will urge supplementation of
the civil rights legislation enacted by
Congress this year.
MINISTERS DEBATE
In Charlotte’s St. Peter’s Episcopal
Church, the rector—the Rev. Henry Eg-
ger—said the fact that public schools
are being integrated “doesn’t make it
right.” He said, “It is my contention that
it is not God’s will to mix the races” and
added he was convinced school integra
tion ultimately will lead to amalgama
tion of the races.
The Episcopal church as a denomina
tion has gone on record as opposing
segregation on the basis of race. The
following Sunday, another Charlotte
Episcopal pastor—the Rev. W. A. Wil
kins—answered Egger. Wilkins said ra
cial segregation in the South today has
“all the marks of the slave society of
a century ago.”
Of Little Rock troop action, Gov. Lu
ther Hodges said: “I have to associate
myself with the people of my section
and our two U. S. senators in calling it
a tragic mistake.”
Congressman A. Paul Kitchin of
Wadesboro: “The impatient action of
our President is shocking disclosure of
things to come. The issue of integrated
schools is dwarfed by the precipitous
and dictatorial stab at the rights of an
individual state.”
U. S. Sen. W. Kerr Scott compared the
action to the carpetbagger invasion. He
said it was “a blow at the sovereignty
of the states.”
Mississippi Starts Year
Without Integration Plea
JACKSON, Miss.
/^N estimated 280,000 white and
275,000 Negro children return
ed to public school classrooms in
Mississippi in September for the
1957-58 term on the same segre
gated pattern that has always pre
vailed in the state. There was not
a single petition filed by a Negro
child for admittance to a white
school under the May 1954, inte
gration decision of the U. S. Su
preme Court. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
A significant shift-in-population
trend—whites moving to the sub
urban areas and Negroes remain
ing within the corporate limits—
was disclosed in the city of Jack-
son in a census of educable chil
dren. (See “Under Survey.”)
Methodists initiated a statewide effort
to rid church literature of “biased state
ments” on racial issues asserted in
favor of integration. (See “What They
Say.”)
Mounting increases in college enroll
ments caused two institutions to stop
taking applications for dormitory space.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
CONSTITUTION REVISION ASKED
Gov. J. P. Coleman said continuance
of segregation depends largely on revi
sion of the 1890 state constitution which
he will ask a Nov. 4 special session of
the legislature to authorize in setting
up a convention to be convened next
year. (See “Legislative Action.”)
The editorial board of Citizens Coun
cils of America said “Reconstruction II
has now been officially declared upon
the former Confederate states by the
adoption of the first force bill since Re
construction I of the 1870s.” (See “What
They Say.”)
Classroom teachers and school boards
differed on merits of a third factor to the
present two (education and training)
in gauging salary schedules. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
“Dixie” replaced the national anthem
as opening song at Forest (Scott
County) High School football games.
(See “Miscellaneous.”)
School authorities estimated a one
per cent increase in public school en
rollments at the opening of the 1957-
58 term in September.
The schools opened in 151 districts
compared to 874 in the past, the reduc
tions being under the new Negro-white
Sixteen additional Negro students
have been enrolled in three branches of
the University of North Carolina. Eight
enrolled in N. C. State College in Ra
leigh, six at UNC in Chapel Hill, and
two in Woman’s College in Greensboro.
Their enrollment brings to 28 the num
ber of Negroes in the three emits.
Segregationist John Kasper paid quick
visits to Greensboro, Winston-Salem
and Charlotte on the weekend preced
ing the admission of 11 Negroes to
schools in those cities. In each city, he
attacked actions of the three school
boards. In each, he said he would return
to North Carolina the third week in
September—but he didn’t.
Opening in Winston-Salem on Satur
day, Aug. 31, Kasper spoke to about 200
persons—about equally divided between
whites and Negroes—on the courthouse
square. Whites and Negroes joined in
heckling which drove him from the
square. The crowd heard him in silence,
and when he had finished eight persons
stepped forward to shake his hand.
DENOUNCED BY PATRIOTS
There were no statistics on the num
ber of recruits he gained in Greensboro,
a city in which the pro-segregation Pa
triots of North Carolina, Inc., de
nounced Kasper.
In Charlotte, he spoke to 300 on the
courthouse steps. He urged pressure on
the local school board. “We want a heart
attack, we want suicides, we want flight
from persecution,” he said.
# # #
equalization program designed to bring
Negro schools and opportunities up to
a physical par with those of the whites.
Mississippi now has 70 county unit
districts; 52 municipal separate and
municipal special, and 29 consolidated
districts, including five line districts.
EXPENDITURES INCREASED
Mississippi spends 2.64 per cent of its
total income on public schools com
pared to the national average of 2.29
per cent. Fifteen years ago, the state
spent $31.29 a year on each school child
against the $145.69 today.
Mississippi has problems in other
school areas still to be solved.
Teachers salaries are below those in
other states, and a movement is on foot
to bring them in line. A proposed 10
per cent across-the-board increase will
necessitate an additional $10 million in
the new biennium to the $81 million
the department of education is asking
for the new two-year period commenc
ing July 1, 1958.
The $81 million is actually only $3
million more than was voted at the 1956
session for the current biennium. How
ever, the education department is turn
ing back $3 million because teachers
did not upgrade their educational rat
ings as rapidly as had been anticipated
under the annual increment schedule.
The $81 million is in addition to the
$25,400,000 that will come from local
revenue sources for the 1958-60 bien
nium for an overall fund available of
$106,400,000.
‘THIRD’ FACTOR
Some officials propose a “third” factor
in gauging salaries for school teachers
in order to provide for “merit.” A na
tional teachers examination has been
proposed, based on teaching ability
rather than “book knowledge.”
However, the classroom teacher divi
sion of the white Mississippi Education
Association has gone on record oppos
ing the “third” factor. The opposition
is based on the assertion that “up to the
present time an adequate yardstick has
not been devised for measuring the
effectiveness of a teacher.”
The Mississippi Negro Teachers As
sociation is also opposed to the factor,
but because of fear it will be used
against members of their race to con-
t’nue the disparity in the salary sched
ule between the two races.
Meanwhile, a school census in the
city of Jackson showed an increase
among white children in the suburbs:
an increase of Negroes within the city
limits and a slight decrease of white
children living within the city limits-
It showed that 32 per cent of the white
pre-school children in the municipal
separate school district and 26 per cent
of those now in the educable ranks li ve
outside the city limits.
On the other hand, only three p er
cent of the Negro children in the pre
school age (1 through 5) and four p er
cent in the educable age groups li ve
outside the city limits.
The census listed 14,114 children to
the municipal separate district between
the ages of 1 and 5.
Of the 29,848 between the ages of
and 20, the report showed 23,448 of the
children enrolled in public schools as
of Sept. 13.
SINCE 1953
The shift of white population outsi e
the corporate limits has been note
since 1953. In that year, 87 per cent o
the white children, or 13,029, M® 1 ®
within the corporate limits. In 19oo
dropped to 83 per cent and this y ea
it is down to 74 per cent, or 12,994-
In contrast, the Negro children lh’toj’
within the city remained at 96 per cea
with an increase in the number. ^
The survey showed that of the 1-
children of age five last year, b
now six years old, are in school
for their first time. ^
Officials said the population s “7\m
due largely to new homes being
outside the city limits, yet within
municipal separate school district 3
. flat-
Mississippi Southern College ai ^
tiesburg and Mississippi State Co^
for Women at Columbus had to .
down applications for dormitory s ”
because there was none left. .p.
At the University of Mississippi. t e
sissippi State College and Jackson
College for Negroes, increased e
ments were also noted, but not t
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