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PAGE 12—NOVEMBER 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Delaware’s State Police
Get Special Legal Course
WILMINGTON, Del.
Tn anticipation of the day
when the integration “show
down” will come to Delaware—
based on the general order of the
U. S. District Court—the Dela
ware State Police force has un
dertaken an indoctrination course
for all its personnel on the legal
aspects of the issue. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
In the meantime, there has been no
change in the number of school dis
tricts of Delaware undertaking deseg
regation policies, although the actual
number of Negro children attending
desegregated schools has increased this
school year—4,497 this year as com
pared with 3,175 last year.
A check made for Southern School
News by Dr. John Parres of the State
Department of Public Instruction, shows
43 per cent of all the Negro children
in Delaware schools are in desegregated
school districts and 36 per cent are in
actually desegregated school buildings.
(See “Under Survey.”)
A comprehensive two-day in-training
service course on the legal aspects of
desegregation was held by the Dela
ware State Police in October with the
sanction of Col. Harry S. Shew, super
intendent.
Throughout the discussions the word
“desegregation” was used, at the sug
gestion of former Chief Deputy Atty.
Gen. Herbert L. Cobin who prepared a
booklet that gave a summary and de
tails of all the important desegregation
decisions since 1896.
MANY INCLUDED
Not only were all state police troop
ers and other officers in on these dis
cussions but also educators and town
policemen from various parts of Dela
ware.
The tone of the session was set by
Col. Shew:
“Continued desegregation in our
school system makes it desirable that
the members of the Delaware State
Police become thoroughly familiar with
the legal, social and practical aspects
pertaining to desegregation.
“This course is aimed at the long
range problems of race relations in the
community which make it desirable and
even necessary that every member of
the police force have an intelligent un
derstanding and grasp of the various
legal, social, and practical elements in
volved.”
BISH, COBIN SPEAK
The two principal speakers at each
of the two sessions were Dr. Charles
Bish, principal of the desegregated
McKinley High School, Washington,
D.C., and Cobin.
On each of the two days, panels
were organized and the state policemen
were invited—even urged—to ask any
question that came to mind. The ques
tions asked ranged from hygiene among
the Negro students going into deseg
regated schools to petty thieving, mor
als, interracial social events and schol
astic standing.
At no time in the discussions was
there any mention made that policemen
had to agree with any of the desegre
gation decisions. The over-all emphasis
was rather upon the oaths of office they
had taken—to uphold the U. S. Con
stitution and the Delaware Constitution
and the background and reasonings of
the various court decisions.
POINTS STRESSED
Some of the points stressed by Cobin
were the supremacy of the U. S. Con
stitution; how the Supreme Court first
came to interpret various laws; signifi
cance of the Plessy v. Ferguson case
and the dissenting opinion in that case
(1896) that spoke of the Constitution
being “color blind”; authority of the
Delaware school officials; laws pertain
ing to rioting, and conspiracy to incite
riot.
The booklet was compiled by Cobin
as a public service and the cost of print
ing was undertaken by the National
Conference of Christians and Jews in
Delaware.
GROUPS STRENGTHENED
It was reported at the meetings that
a number of pro-segregation groups are
being strengthened in southern Dela
ware, including Citizens Council and
several segments of the Ku Klux Klan.
One sidelight on these police ses
sions: When papers were handed out
for visitors to sign, so that the police
would have a record of who attended,
a number of school officials from south
ern Delaware declined to identify them
selves on paper. One school man said,
“It’s best that no one back home know
I was here.”
UNDER SURVEY
Dr. John Parres, director of research
for the State Department of Public In
struction, has issued the following re
port on the Negro-white enrollments
as of Sept. 30, 1957, in the Delaware
schools, including Wilmington which is
the largest district of the state:
Total: 69,342—Negroes and whites.
Negroes: 12,429.
Negroes in actually desegregated
classes: 4,497.
Last year at this same date, there
were 3,175 Negroes in desegregated
classes.
ENROLLMENT TOTALS
Total enrollment of white and Ne
groes in desegregated classes is: 26,991.
Last year, the enrollment was 22,131.
Negroes in segregated Negro school
buildings: 7,932.
Dr. Parres also estimated that 43 per
cent of the total number of Negroes at
tending public schools in Delaware are
in actually desegregated school dis
tricts.
He also estimates that 36 per cent of
the total Negroes enrolled in Dela
ware public schools are in desegregated
classes. Last year, the percentage was
almost 28 per cent.
This school year there are 99 school
districts in Delaware of which 13 have
actual desegregated classes, with vary
ing policies.
In his computations Dr. Parres has
not taken into consideration the school
districts in Delaware (mostly in north
ern Delaware) that have desegregation
policies but because of the nature of
the neighborhoods, do not have Negroes
in the schools.
EXAMPLES GIVEN
Here are examples at random, show
ing the distribution of Negroes in de
segregated school buildings:
Alfred I. duPont Elementary School
(near Wilmington)—Total enrollment
399, including 3 Negroes.
Christiana School (near Newark,
Del.)—220 enrollment, including 11 Ne
groes. This was one of the school dis
tricts recently cited in a U. S. District
Court action and then voluntarily de
cided to desegregate.
Dover (capital of the state)—963 in
the high school, including 10 Negroes.
Last year, there were 20 Negro students
in this school. No reason has been given
for the drop in Negro enrollment. This
school district has been made defend
ant in a recent U.S. District Court case
that asks the desegregation policy, now
restricted to the high school, be ex
panded.
WILMINGTON SCHOOLS
A check on the schools in Wilmington
shows some schools with an overwhelm
ing enrollment of Negroes and few
whites:
Bancroft Junior High School—769 to
tal, including 744 Negroes.
Drew Elementary—424, including
414 Negroes.
George Gray Elementary—969, in
cluding 364 Negroes.
Pierre S. duPont Junior-Senior High
School (located in a predominantly
white neighborhood)—1,519, including
72 Negroes.
Wilmington High School (located in
a more varied neighborhood with a larg
er potential Negro enrollment)—1,262,
including 94 Negroes.
There has been no mixing of facul
ties in any of the desegregated school
districts except in Wilmington.
LEGAL ACTION
Judge Paul Leahy has resigned from
the bench of the U. S. District Court
because of illness. It was his decision
and order that brought Delaware to
the verge of total desegregation.
The decision (C. A. Nos. 1816
through 1822) ordered the State Board
of Education to come up with a deseg
regation plan for all districts in Dela
ware that do not have any plan in
operation. Judge Leahy ordered these
plans to become effective in the fall
of 1957 but an appeal to the U. S. Cir
cuit Court has meant a delay.
His post will be filled by recom
mendation from U. S. Sen. John J.
Williams of southern Delaware. Sen.
Williams is not considered an inte-
grationist but came out with a state
ment (October 1954) that until the
U. S. Constitution is amended, the state
would have to accept the U. S. Su
preme Court decision of 1954.
The annual conventions of the Dela
ware State Education Association and
the Delaware Federation of Teachers
brought out very little that could be
considered as contributing much one
way or the other to discussion of the
integration problem facing souther,,
Delaware.
Jack Caum, chairman of the int^
racial committee of the DSEA ( eot0
posed of supervisors, principals,
teachers of both races), presented
report which in essence was as follow”
This committee had prepared a dozer,
kits for distribution by PTAs, schc^
boards and teachers on the subject of
peaceful transition toward integration
But there has been little or no respond
during the past year. It has also been
difficult to get laymen’s support in sec.
regated school districts in souther
Delaware. Little response has been re
ceived from superintendents or
cipals in segregated (white) school
districts.
BOOKLET PLANNED
The committee now seeks to public
a 16-page book titled, “The Delaware
Story.”
It is planned to feature pictures of
integrated situations, gleaned largely
from desegregated districts but no dis.
trict nor any school would be named
the report said.
The words “integration” or “deseg.
regation” will not be mentioned in the
booklet. It is hoped that the pictures
will tell the stories, said Caum. There
will be no plea for desegregation but
the emphasis will be on American chil
dren working and playing together in
an atmosphere of American democracy
In the meantime at the meeting of
the Delaware Federation of Teachers,
Mrs. Rebecca Simonson, national vice
president of the American Federation
of Teachers, reported that the Supreme
Court decision of 1954 has destroyed
“progress” toward integration of south
ern locals.
She said the decision had produced
(Continued On Next Page)
Missouri Study Shows Pattern of School Attendance
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
H ow the school attendance
pattern changes in a typical
border-state city under the double
impact of compliance with the U.
S. Supreme Court decision on seg
regation and a simultaneous in
flux of Negro population is dem
onstrated by a study made for
Southern School News in Kan
sas City.
Unlike St. Louis and some other
communities, Kansas City still
keeps statistics according to race
of pupils. So it is possible to com
pare the changes in racial mixing
in the schools during the first
three years of desegregation.
As reported here last month, deseg
regation in Kansas City has coincided
with a substantial population movement
among Negroes. Members of that race
used to live in a concentrated central
area north of Linwood boulevard and
west of Indiana avenue. In the past
three or four years they have pushed
out southward and eastward as im
migration swelled their numbers and
taxed the capacity of the already
crowded Negro section.
39 OF 84 SCHOOLS MIXED
This movement has been reflected in
school attendance records as the Kan
sas City system moved to comply with
the Supreme Court decision. Out of 84
elementary schools reporting, 39 have
mixed student bodies today as com
pared with 36 a year ago. However,
there were 30 all-white elementary
schools a year ago, and today there are
38—indicating that the counterpart of
more racial mixing on the fringe of the
migration is a concentration of whites
in other districts.
Of the 39 schools with mixed enroll
ments, 15 have only token Negro ad
mixtures of less than five per cent. Two
more have a Negro enrollment of less
than 10 per cent. Eight have between
10 and 20 per cent. Three have between
20 and 30 per cent. Two have between
30 and 40 per cent. And nine of the 39
have a Negro majority.
The 15 schools with only a token
Negro enrollment typically have two
Negroes to 578 whites, one Negro to 541
whites, two Negroes to 657 whites, and
so on.
28% SUBSTANTIALLY MIXED
Eliminating these 15, it appears that
in Kansas City racial mixing of sub
stantial proportions has occurred, after
three years of integration, in 24 ele
mentary schools out of a total of 84, or
some 28 per cent. Of these 24 substan
tially mixed schools, nine have Negro
majorities and 15 have Negro minorities
ranging from 5 to 40 per cent.
The map on this page shows the
principal changes that have occurred in
the elementary schools during three
years of desegregation. Outside the
black areas, which represent the dis
tricts which had all-Negro enrollments
bounded by the Missouri river and ths
Kansas state line, reported 1.5 per ecu*
Negroes in 1955, but only 0.2 per cent
(that is, one Negro in a total of 542)
today. The Garrison district, on the
north side adjacent to the Missouri
river, reported 5.8 per cent Negroes in
1955 and only one per cent (four Ne
groes in a total of 407) today. The
Karnes district, also on the river, had
19.6 per cent Negroes in 1955, but re
ports 16.3 per cent today. Douglass
school had 99.6 per cent Negroes in
1955, has only 38.3 per cent this year.
TOTAL ENROLLMENT 23% NEGRO
For the elementary schools as a
whole, Negro enrollment has gone up
from 20.9 per cent in 1955 to 23.3 per
cent this year. The following break
down shows where the principal
changes have occurred:
PerCent Per Cent Gain In
1.7
93
2.4
25
5.0
175
42
25
339
42.7
51
155
19
17.7
School Negro, ’55 Negro, ’
Allen
22.9
24.6
Ashland
3.3
13.1
Banneker
95.0
97.4
DeLano
6.0
8.5
Graceland
30.0
35.0
Greenwood
79.0
96.5
Humboldt
17.9
22.1
Kensington
9.1
11.6
Ladd
4.9
58.8
Linwood
19.0
61.7
Longfellow
7.3
12.4
Moore
2.2.
17.8
Woodland
22.6
24.5
Yeager
72.1
89.8
Outside of the areas affected by
the
This map shows the change in Negro enrollments in Kansas City elementary
schools during three years of desegregation coinciding with a massive movement
of Negro population. The black area represents districts that were all-Negro prior
to the 1954 Supreme Court decision and which remain substantially so today. The
numbers in the shaded districts represent the change in the percentage points of
Negro enrollment this year as compared with 1955, the first year of desegregation.
prior to the Supreme Court decision
and still do, a massive increase in Ne
gro enrollment has taken place in some
nearby districts.
At Yeager school, which was all-
white before the Supreme Court deci
sion, the beginning of desegregation in
September 1955 found 72 per cent of
the enrollment Negro. During the in
tervening years migration of Negroes
continued until today the school has
621 Negroes and only 72 whites, a Ne
gro proportion of 89.8 per cent, repre
senting a change of 17.8 percentage
points in three years.
OTHER CHANGES
Immediately east of the Yeager dis
trict, Kensington school has experienced
similar changes on a smaller scale. At
the start of integration here, the Negro
enrollment was 9.1 per cent; today it
is 11.6 per cent with 585 whites and 77
Negroes.
In the Greenwood district, to the
southeast of the former Negro area, Ne
groes have almost pushed out whites. At
the start of integration they numbered
79 per cent of the total enrollment; to
day there are 889 Negroes and only 32
whites, or 96.5 per cent—a change of
17.5 points.
There has been an even more spec
tacular change, proportionally, in the
S. B. Ladd district immediately south
of Linwood boulevard, the former
boundary. In the first year of integra
tion, this school enrolled only 4.9 per
cent Negroes, but in the third year it
has 651 Negroes and 456 whites or a
Negro proportion of 58.8 per cent.
61.7% NEGRO STUDENT BODY
Similarly the Linwood district, also
to the south of the old Negro area, en
rolled 19 per cent Negroes in the first
year but now has 61.7 per cent Negro
enrollment.
On the other hand, some Kansas City
districts have shown an actual decline
of Negro enrollment. The Franklin dis
trict, located downtown in the corner
Negro population movement, enro l
ment as between whites and Negro 53 ^
relatively stable, says Supt. Janie 5 •
Hazlett. ny
High school enrollments g ener ,
follow the same pattern as e ' ein£ i?
schools. East High School has lost
enrollment in the three years of •
gration, starting out at 6.1 per cen
now reporting 4 3 per cent. West J
High started with 15 per cent and
has 12.9 oer cent.
IN MIGRATION PATH .u,
On the other side, Central
School, which lies in the path of t* ■
migration to the southeast, now n 0 f
per cent Negroes (519 in a t° j
1,836) as compared with 10.7 P^*
in the first year of integration.
Junior High started with 29.8 P er ,g3j
now has 57.9 per cent Negron
Negroes to 606 whites). . \o-
Similarly, Manual High Srn 00 ^^
cated in die midst of a heav'l/ ^
area, started with 56.7 per cent an jje-
has 88.3 per cent Negroes (h®
groes to 134 whites).
Otherwise, the high school
ments show little change. N 10 jjaS
High has no Negroes at all, P® tf-
35 in a total of 1,756, Southeast na ^
in a total of 1,900, Southwest an^ 2
Horn have none, Westport h a * i s
total of 1,622. All of these sch° ^
in areas outside the path 01
migration. j. f *