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ool News
Objective
VOL. IV, NO. 5
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
$2 PER YEAR
NOVEMBER, 1957
This map shows statistically the status of segregation and desegregation in the
17 southern and border states and the District of Columbia which, prior to 1954,
had laws requiring school segregation. The number above the diagonal in each
state represents the number of school districts having both races; the number
below the diagonal, the number of districts which have desegregated in policy
or practice; and the percentage figure designates the proportion of Negroes en
rolled to the total school population of the state. Thus, the Texas figures should
be read: 841 biracial districts, 122 districts desegregated and 13.7 per cent of the
state's total school enrollment Negro.
South Hurt Industrially?
‘Yes’ and—Mostly—‘No’
J_Jas the school segregation-desegre
gation controversy, with its occa
sional strife or promise of strife, set
back industrialization of the southern
region—a region which has grown in
dustrially by leaps and bounds since
World War II?
Southern School News asked a num
ber of its correspondents in key south
ern and border states (states all
affected by the U. S. Supreme Court
decision) to address the question above
to industrialists, industrial developers,
financiers, public officials and others in
terested in the post-war economic
build-up of the South. Several border
states were included in this survey be
cause of the status of their schools,
their economy, and the likelihood that,
if migrant industry did balk at moving
into areas of present or potential racial
tension, these states might benefiit.
RESULTS analyzed
close analysis of the results of the
?SN survey indicates some contradic-
ions and a not-unexpected answer to
h rt , ” UeS ^° n ' '*^ S re f=* on being
The answer is—Yes, and No, with
®uch if not most of the weight on the
Contradictions are numerous. Ar
ansas spokesmen are divided on the
ect of the Little Rock crisis. North
J**olina, which has a little school in-
i gration, finds that the racial question
never raised by industrialists while
r er-state Oklahoma, which has a lot
is ?"^ e S ra h° n ! reports that the question
py , ln § raised—and that it is being
v 0ltec l to Oklahoma’s apparent ad-
tr a ^f ky industrial developers. Con-
ary w j se> Maryland reports no mention
1 me issue.
South Carolina reports: “Officials are
c j la J lncec l that northern repetition of
are ^* a t segregation controversies
j.i., Urt mg the South is part of a
SfowtL 346 e ^ ort to divert industrial
re . " ar *d expansion into their own
0 r S iristead the South.” The ac-
re Pot-t° n * S ec ^ oe d in Alabama. Florida
bjj by name the movement of an
“mna r ' f ' *° fbat state because of the
de rate” attitude of its governor.
R ^? Es maintained
dustr^i^^? 6 ’ * n mos t of the region fil
ing * a ^tion apparently was continu-
the “*■ i° r near previous rates (given
money” situation and the fact
far w^° S } Pl ar *t relocations are planned
iul v "Vance.) Between January and
rjaj- 0 Ibis year, for example, Ala-
^ d ' Georgia, northwest Florida and
southeast Mississippi reported $610,341,-
000 in outlays for new or expanded
plants. Georgia itself reported an ad
vance from fourth to third place na
tionally in the location of heavy in
dustry during the last dozen years.
SSN correspondents often agreed that
a candid picture of the situation is hard
to come by. One reported that some
development spokesmen, naturally, have
to be “cheer-leaders.” Another said
that “industrial enticement is conducted
in such a hush-hush atmosphere and
businessmen are so reluctant to make
statements which they believe to be
true but still might be harmful to the
regional economy that on-the-record
comment is nil and frank opinion from
even protected sources is not wide
spread.” Further, of course, it is pointed
out that industries favoring one loca
tion over another are reluctant to en
danger their consumer relations by
statements of any kind on the segrega
tion-desegregation issue.
Following are reports from members
of the SSN corps of correspondents in
a number of states where the issue has
been raised or where it is being exam
ined here in the hope of shedding light
on the whole problem:
ALABAMA Correspondent William
H. McDonald reports: Lt. Gov. Guy
Hardwick [recently] took issue with
newspaper and magazine articles which
have reported that “segregation con
troversies had cooled the interest of
industry” in locating in the South.
“These stories are, I think, part of a
desperate effort to stem the tide of in
dustry from flowing southward.” He
said officials working on southern in
dustrial development have reported “no
instance of the racial question adversely
affecting this southward movement”
. . . Others agree. Director of industrial
division of Montgomery Chamber of
Commerce said in early October,
“We’ve had more nibbles from prospec
tive new industries in the last few days
than previously.” John M. Ward, exec
utive vice president of the Alabama
State Chamber of Commerce, said: “I
don’t anticipate that Little Rock will
have any effect.” However, he qualified
this confidence with the statement that
“it takes time—months and maybe
years—for these things to be felt” . . .
Although total expansion is down in
1957 from the previous year, this can
be attributed to the national tight
money policy (Ward said). Total capi
tal investments for new and expanded
industries in Alabama for the period
Jan. 1, 1957 to Aug. 31, 1957 amounted
(See INDUSTRY, Page 2)
^ansas
D 6!a **-e
St ' Columbia
Index
°nda
56or gia
II
Kentucky
14
Oklahoma
7
6
Louisiana
16
South Carolina
15
12
Maryland
4
Tennessee
3
II
Mississippi
8
Texas
5
14
Missouri
12
Virginia
10
9
North Carolina
13
West Virginia
8
Court, Legislative Action
In Fore; 761 Areas Mixed
/^ourt action and legislative and political activity in the backwash of the Little Rock controversy dom-
^ inated segregation-desegregation news in the 17 southern and border states in October as 10 additional
school districts were disclosed to have been desegregated.
Political leaders in most Deep South states were critical of President Eisenhower’s dispatch of federal troops
to the Arkansas capital, and the Florida legislature, currently in session, adopted a resolution of condemna
tion as well as a new statute providing for immediate closing of any school to which troops are sent to enforce
integration. The Florida law was the 142nd piece of pro-segregation legislation adopted in the South since
1954.
New districts desegregating include nine not previously disclosed in Kentucky and one in Texas.
The Texas district, Pleasanton, v
the first to hold a referendum on de
segregation under new Texas laws
which deny state aid to a district de
segregating without a vote of the
people.
There are now 761 desegregated
school districts in the 17-state area
(plus the District of Columbia) out of
2,980 districts having pupils of both
races. Thus, 2,219 remain segregated.
In kev decisions, the U. S. Supreme
Court (1) directed Florida Neero Virgil
Hawkins to appeal his denial of entry
to the University of Florida law school
to federal courts—refusing to permit
the bypassing of state courts, (2) re
fused to review a lower court decision
holding Virginia’s pupil placement act
invalid and (3) denied a hearing to
John Kasper on his conviction of crim
inal contempt of court charges growing
out of last year’s Clinton, Tenn. dis
orders.
In Texas, a federal court ordered
Houston—the nation’s largest segre
gated school district—to desegregate
fbut at no specific time) and in North
Carolina the state’s pupil placement act,
once held not unconstitutional on its
face, appeared to be approaching its
first real court test in a Raleigh school
entry suit.
“Little Rock” was the dominant sub
ject of political gatherings and pro
nouncements. The “backwash” from in
cidents there spread as far as West
Virginia where, for the first time in
nearly a year, there were school dem
onstrations.
In Washington, President Eisen
hower’s aides released “notes on the
legal principles” that have guided the
President in his handling of the Little
Rock situation. Among other things, the
“notes” said: “When an obstruction of
justice has been interposed or mob
violence is permitted to exist so that
it is impracticable to enforce the laws
by the ordinary course of judicial pro
ceedings, the obligation of the President
under the Constitution and the laws is
inescapable. He is obliged to use what
ever means may be required by the
particular situation.”
A state-by-state summary of major
developments follows:
Alabama
State officials believed the Alabama
pupil placement act, which they said
was different from Virginia’s invalidat
ed law, would stand up in court as a
test neared in Birmingham.
Arkansas
A stalemate continued at a troop-
occupied Little Rock high school as
state and federal officials sought a solu
tion to the controversy involving Presi
dent Eisenhower and Gov. Orval Fau-
bus. Glasses went on more or less nor
mally at the school.
Delaware
State Police conducted a two-day in
doctrination course on the legal aspects
of school segregation-desegregation in
anticipation of an eventual “show
down on the issue. A survey showed
43 per cent of all Negro children in
desegregated districts and 36 per cent
in desegregated buildings.
District of Columbia
Washington’s school board president
said the schools face the dangerous
problem of a “disproportionately high”
ratio of Negro students. Unofficial esti
mates show white enrollment has de
clined from 56 per cent in 1945 to 30
per cent this year.
signed to enforce integration and failed
to readopt a “last resort” measure
vetoed by Gov. LeRoy Collins at the
session last June.
Georgia
A group of 60 southern segregation
leaders met in Atlanta to discuss tight
ening of voter requirements and plans
SERS Book
To Appear
Nov. 13
Couthern Education Reporting Service
and Harper and Brothers have an
nounced publication, Nov. 13, of a new
book, With All Deliberate Speed: Seg
regation-Desegregation in Southern
Schools.
Nationwide announcement of publi
cation came with a special CBS tele
vision program Sept. 29 from Washing
ton, D.C., “Report on Integration,”
featuring SERS Executive Director Don
Shoemaker and three correspondents
of Southern School News: Weldon
James, Kentucky; Joseph B. Parham,
Georgia, and W. D. Workman, Jr.,
South Carolina. With moderator Griffing
Bancroft of CBS, the four discussed
With All Deliberate Speed and various
aspects of the segregation-desegrega
tion story in the southern and border
states.
The new book, which is a symposium,
has eight contributors in addition to
the SERS newsmen named above. They
are Bert Collier of the Miami Herald,
Edgar L. Jones of the Baltimore Sun,
Robert Lasch of the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch, Robert A. Leflar, professor of
law at the University of Arkansas and
former Arkansas Supreme Court jus
tice; Patrick E. McCauley, assistant to
the director of SERS; Wallace Westfeldt
of the Nashville Tennessean, Glen Rob
inson, assistant director of research,
National Education Association, and
former assistant to the president of
George Peabody College; and Jeanne
Rogers of the Washington Post and
Times-Herald.
Florida
The legislature adopted
a measure
where federal troops
A FACTUAL SUMMARY
With All Deliberate Speed is a factual
summary of developments in the first
three years since the U.S. Supreme
Court decision of 1954 against public
school segregation. Harpers describes it
as “an objective, firsthand report on
the measures taken by southern and
border states to comply with or counter
the Supreme Court’s historic ruling.”
Shoemaker has written a foreword
and an editor’s afterword and is the
editor of the volume.
Collier’s chapter, “On the Hustings,”
describes political developments in the
17-state area affected by the Supreme
Court decision.
James, who is associate editor of the
Louisville Courier-Journal, contributes
the chapter, “The South’s Own Civil
War,” which discusses the pressure
groups on both sides of the issue, the
effects on industry, labor, press and
church activities.
Jones, who is the author of the chap
ter entitled “City Limits,” writes of the
impact of the question on the larger
metropolitan areas of the South.
WRITES OF BORDER
Lasch, contributor of “Along the
Border,” writes of desegregation de
velopments in the fringe of states from
(See SERS BOOK, Page 2)
for presenting their argument to the
nation, but no special southwide or
ganization was expected to result.
Kentucky
Eleven additional Kentucky districts
were shown to have “integrated situa
tions,” bringing the state total to 114.
A federal court postponed a desegrega
tion order for Fulton city high school.
Louisiana
Court-backed integration at four once
all-white colleges continued “remark
ably uneventful” with between 160 and
175 Negroes in attendance. A survey
showed the peak was 650 during the
1956 summer session.
Maryland
A survey showed the number of Ne
groes attending formerly all-white
county schools doubled this year, with
some re-segregation.
Mississippi
A Mississippi editor outlined a 10-
point program for “the day the heat of
integration” is put on the state, and
Gov. J. P. Coleman called a special leg
islative session to modernize the Con
stitution and tighten segregation laws.
Missouri
A special study made of Kansas City
showed how the school attendance pat
tern of a typical border-state city was
being affected by the U. S. Suoreme
Court decision and an influx of Negro
population.
North Carolina
In what bids to become the first real
test of the state’s ounil placement law,
the Raleigh school board filed an an
swer to a suit by a Negro seeking ad
mittance to a high school.
Oklahoma
The state became a sounding board
for expressions of federal policy and
interstate legislative policy on the
states’ rights issue and the Little Rock
controversy.
South Carolina
The Little Rock situation brought
numerous expressions from public offi
cials condemning President Eisen
hower’s action. A group of ministers
published a booklet of “moderate”
statements on race relations contributed
by laymen.
Tennessee
John Kasper, figure in the Clinton
and Nashville school disturbances, was
taken into custody in Washington pend
ing a new appeal to the U. S. Supreme
Court after the court had once refused
to hear his appeal from conviction for
criminal contempt. Eleven children re
mained in integrated Nashville schools.
Texas
Pleasanton became the first Texas
community to vote to integrate its
school system under new state laws. A
school official at San Marcos said too-
rapid integration had hurt Negroes and
caused them to drop out of school. A
federal court ordered Houston to de
segregate but set no time limit.
Virginia
The U. S. Supreme Court struck a
blow at the state’s placement law by
refusing to review a lower court deci
sion holding it invalid in the Norfolk-
Newport News case. Segregation debate
dominated the forthcoming guberna
torial election.
West Virginia
Tensions attributed to the Little
Rock situation set off a chain of dem
onstrations in three communities, break
ing a year’s calm.
# # #