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School News
Objective
VOL. IV, NO.7
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
$2 PER YEAR
JANUARY. 1958
Court Activity Highlight
j^euieiv Reviewed
Critics Applaud SERS’s 3-Year Report
of School Month
/^ourt activity was reported in eight southern and border states as
the calendar year closed on the regional school segregation-deseg
regation controversy.
In Texas, for the first time since 1954 a federal circuit court ordered
a lower court in effect to “go slow” in setting a time limit for deseg
regation.
According to a Southern School News survey, for the first time at
year-end there were no reports of additional desegregated schools
anywhere in the region. Last January one additional school district
was reported in the desegregation column for a total of 672 districts.
SSN files show that 90 desegregated during calendar 1957 for a cur
rent total of 762 of 3,008 bi-racial districts—no change since November
With All Deliberate Speed, the SERS
summary of the first three years’ devel
opments following the 1954 Supreme
Court decision, was published Nov. 13
by Harper and Brothers. The book has
now reached thousands of readers the
country over. It has been featured on
five television shows (including Dave
Garroway’s NBC “Today,” Richard
Hottelet’s CBS morning news program
1 and Dumont’s “Night Beat’”) and a
number of radio programs.
A second printing is contemplated.
Following are excerpts from reviews
in leading newspapers and magazines
received before press time.
Charlotte News
The chief value of the book is in its
I portrayal through imagery and fact of
the tremendous complexity of issues
which political spellbinders have fash
ioned into such simple black-and-white
terms ... It succeeds in setting three
years of turmoil in perspective . . .
Samuel Lubell in The New York Times
The reader will find With All Delib
erate Speed an excellent, dispassionate
wrap-up of the essential facts of our
intensifying school crisis . . . The weak
ness of this symposium lies in its lack
t of interpretative depth ... A more
penetrating kind of reporting is needed
to bring home to the American public
the full implication of this struggle over
whether we are to be racially one na
tion or two. Still in any “war” it is
something to get the facts straight—
and the objectivity shown by the SERS
] reporters is something of which the
whole newspaper profession can be
proud.
The Macon News
If you’re looking for a stirring and
militant argument on either side of this
bitterly fought issue, this is not the
book for you. But anyone who wants
calm facts, reporting the good with the
j bad, regardless of point of view, will
find this book a valuable source . . .
Such a report might well be dry and
• ^gy reading. This book is not. Al
though they were perhaps handi-
'apped in some degree by their effort
!“ objectivity, the writers who have
nirned out this book presented their
wealth of material in crisp, readable
style.
Paul Flowers in the Memphis
Commercial Appeal
Described by editor and publisher as
®n objective, firsthand report on the
measures taken by the southern and
' fi® r der states to comply with or counter
•be Supreme Court’s historic ruling,”
ls 239-page book traces without bias
passion events since the first deseg-
egation decision was handed down
» 1954.
Creed Black in The Nashville
Tennessean
bjectivity on this issue does not
easily ' But Nashvillians should
have to be convinced that this vol-
succeeds in that respect, for the
Well i t ^ le men w fi‘° prepared it is
°f i/ nown here . . . Both as a record
to ijft ^ as g° ne before and as an aid
jjj derstanding what may be expected
°f n ^Bire, *t belongs in the library
them i ^^Berners who would call
mselves informed on one of the
i l°r issues of our times.
Perc y C. Hill in The Milwaukee
•jn Journal
is £ sternest discipline of journalism
1 *hi c k re P ort a great controversy, on
fiSvvi f ° ne ^ as Bis own strong private
f IOns an d feelings, so factually
^tiess air ly that no reader can even
fiaiid W “ ere the writer himself would
-Balle nee< * * or SUC B reporting and the
n ge to such discipline have never
> ** Hat® than , in the aftermath of
raci a i ’ ® u P reme Court decision against
se Sregation in public schools. The
• I) 601 Education Reporting Service
vie] a,s Been superbly filling the need
iot> Tw _ fcet * n g the challenge through its
lSchool News.
&th 6r ^ Deliberate Speed puts to-
an d summarizes in orderly book
f
1
form the story that those monthly is
sues have told during the first three
years of struggle . . . With All Delib
erate Speed is dramatic and moving
only as the facts may so affect a per
ceptive reader. In style and content, it
is strictly a text for the student of the
subject. If one really wants to be
thoroughly informed, from a source he
can rely on, this is it . . .
Edith Evans Asbury in The New York
Times
The impact on the South of the Su
preme Court decision against public
school segregation is described in a
book published last week.
Most of the writers are reporters for
southern newspapers. Most are south-
em-bom and southern-educated and
are parents.
They tell unemotionally and factually
of the compliance, non-compliance and
'J'he Negro proportion of public school
enrollment has increased in 22 of
31 major cities of the South since 1954
and has exceeded the statewide enroll
ment ratio in 25 of them, a survey by
Southern School News showed last
month.
The school statistics reflect current
migration trends in that (1) the Negro
city enrollments as a percentage of
statewide Negro enrollments are in
creasing in 12 of 16 states; (2) border
state Negro percentages exceed, or are
increasing more rapidly than, Negro
percentages in other states of the
region.
As the table on page 2 illustrates, the
trends hold up in most cases, and are
emphasized in some, when the com
parison is carried back to the 1951-52
school year, two years before the Su
preme Court’s school segregation deci
sions. School authorities explain the
1954 slump, which sharpens the 1954-57
comparisons, by recalling that this was
a year of economic recession which
frequently is reflected in school enroll
ments.
In the urban centers, Negro enroll
ment percentages range from a high of
71.2 in Washington, D.C., to a low of
8.3 in Tulsa, Okla., one of the nine
cities where Negro percentages have
conflict that has followed the court’s
action.
Anthony Harrigan in the Charleston
News and Courier
On the whole, the contributors have
done the same good job that they do
in writing for Southern School News.
The reader is furnished a clear picture
of the status of “segregation-desegrega
tion” in 17 states . . .
It is hard to say what audience this
book is addressed to. With All Delib
erate Speed is not the sort of book the
ordinary serious reader would enjoy. It
is repetitious—necessarily so—and cov
ers in detail the racial news stories of
the last three years . . .
This book is designed to be accept
able to persons with clashing views.
And it is unlikely that, within the lim
its of its design, the book could have
been better prepared.
Certainly, the quality of the indi
vidual reports is vastly superior to what
has passed for news of the South in
most of the nation’s newspapers and
magazines these three years past.
C. A. McKnight in the New York
Herald Tribune
When the final history of the tumul
tous school desegregation years is
written, this little book will surely be
a primary source of information . . .
With All Deliberate Speed avoids
evaluations and makes no predictions.
It is documentary stuff. Yet the several
chapters are so interestingly and tightly
written that it reads like an adventure
story.
That is not to say that the volume
is for the historian only. On the con
trary, nothing yet published quite so
succinctly and so dispassionately de
tails the dramatic story of the southern
region’s tortured adjustment to the 1954
Supreme Court decision. Its cool objec
tivity is a refreshing contrast to the
violent and strident reporting of the
daily press, radio and TV.
(See REVIEWS, Page 2)
declined slightly since 1951. The de
clines range from one-tenth of one per
cent in Raleigh, N.C., to 2.7 percent in
Shreveport, La. Three of the nine cities
showing such declines are in North
Carolina. In addition to Raleigh, they
are Greensboro (one half of one per
cent)- and Winston-Salem (six-tenths
of one per cent).
Other significant increases in the
Negro percentage of enrollment are
noted in Wilmington, Del., up 10.9 per
cent since 1951-52; Miami, Fla., and
Louisville, Ky., each up 6.6 per cent;
Richmond, Va., up 8.4 per cent'; Kan
sas City, Mo., up 6.5 per cent; Charles
ton, S.C., up 7.0 per cent.
In proportion to the total state’s
Negro enrollment, city Negro enroll
ment stood at a high of 70.8 in Mis
souri and at a low of 3.7 per cent in
Mississippi.
Negro enrollment in the cities com
prised more than half the states’ total
Negro enrollment in two states—Mary
land and Missouri. It was about one-
third of the states’ Negro enrollment
in four—Delaware, Kentucky, Okla
homa and Tennessee; and a quarter or
better in two—Florida and Louisiana.
Only in Delaware, Florida and Mary
land was urban white enrollment as
much as one quarter of the state total
(See ENROLLMENTS, Page 2)
1957.
However, the first court challenge of
lower school segregation since 1955 in
the four Deep South states of Alabama,
Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina
appeared at Birmingham, Ala. Negro
parents filed suit to gain entry for their
children at two all-white schools.
Another SSN survey showed that
during 1957 legislatures in regular or
special session adopted 35 additional
pieces of pro-segregation or pro-inte
gration (one measure) legislation. This
brought the total since 1954 to 142 legis
lative measures growing out of the U.S.
Supreme Court decision on schools. In
1956, 84 bills were adopted.
Thirteen legislatures met during 1957.
The Georgia and Louisiana legislatures,
preparing for 1958 sessions, are ex
pected to take up additional measures
to augment or strengthen present seg
regation laws.
Court activity during December-
much of it involving suits filed earlier
and still pending—was reported all the
way from Alabama to Delaware.
MAJOR COURT ACTIONS
According to legal observers, signi
ficant court actions included the follow
ing:
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court: Reversed a
district court in the Dallas case which
had involved a mid-term desegregation
order.
U.S. District Court, Birmingham:
Suit filed by Negro plaintiffs asking that
state’s pupil placement law be declared
unconstitutional and four children be
admitted to all-white schools.
Virginia Supreme Court: Upheld
state’s placement law in a case which
involved white plaintiffs only.
U.S. District Court, Nashville: Asked
to approve a “parents’ preference plan”
for further desegregation of the Ten
nessee capital city’s schools. (Nashville
desegregated at the first grade level
An SSN Special
What is actually going on inside
Little Rock's famed Central High
School? SOUTHERN SCHOOL
NEWS asked reporters to interview
students and teachers to get the
full story. The reporters' notes ap
pear in an SSN exclusive on Page 8.
with the beginning of the 1957-58 school
year and is under court order to plan
for further desegregation.)
Elsewhere on the school front a re
port on Louisiana’s school system for
the past biennium and legislative fiscal
plans in Mississippi were said to reflect
a stepping-up of activities in these
states to make schools for both races
physically equal under a continuing
policy of lower school desegregation.
A summary of major developments
state-by-state during December fol
lows:
Alabama
In the first legal challenge of segrega
tion in elementary and primary schools
in the state, suit was filed in federal
district court on behalf of four Negro
children. The plaintiffs ask that the
state’s pupil placement law be declared
invalid and that they be allowed to at
tend the schools nearest their homes
without regard to race.
Arkansas
Though federalized National Guard
troops were withdrawn from Central
High School during the Christmas holi
days, Little Rock still was the center of
the segregation-desegregation contro
versy in this state. Pro-segregationists
said the campaign to drive nine Negro
students out of the school will never
stop. An official of the NAACP, which
is engaged in court actions concerning
its operating in the state, said the Neg
ro children will never quit.
Delaware
Lawyers for Negro plaintiffs and for
defendant local school boards filed
briefs in an appellate federal court
agreeing that authority to plan and
order school desegregation lay with the
State Board of Education.
District of Columbia
Student achievement records of se
lected grades in three elementary
schools were made public in rebuttal to
parents’ complaints that “low stand
ards” were driving students of the
Georgetown area into private schools.
On the national scene, a third south
erner was named to the six-member
Civil Rights Commission and a Mich
igan educator was appointed chairman.
Florida
Decision was expected in January in
the 18-month old federal court cases
challenging the validity of the state’s
pupil assignment act. Though no de
segregation has been attempted in the
state, there were intimations of con
cern and suggestions of worsening race
relations.
Georgia
More proposed bills affecting racial is
sues were reportedly under prepara
tion for the legislative session which
opens Jan. 13, as a second manifesto on
race relations was issued by 33 min
isters, this time in Columbus.
Kentucky
The seventh desegregation suit in the
state since 1954 was filed against the
Owen County school board. Kentucky
State College (predominantly Negro)
reported an increase in white enroll
ment for evening classes in a program
begun last fall in cooperation with the
University of Kentucky, while a Negro
football star at the University of Louis
ville won sports plaudits.
Louisiana
The annual report on Louisiana’s
school system for the l at ' 1 ' -56 school
year (released last month) effected ef
forts to equalize white anc. Negro edu
cational opportunities. Orleans Parish’s
(county’s) new school board president
pledged an all-out fight “by every legal
means” against desegregation as ordered
by federal courts in a decision now
under appeal.
Maryland
School bus segregation in a county
where desegregation of the schools
themselves has begun became an issue
before the State Board of Education.
The gradual desegregation program of
a second county, St. Mary’s, also is be
ing challenged before the state board,
while in a federal appea court the
screening procedures of still another
county, Harford, will undergo a legal
test.
Mississippi
In efforts to speed up equalization of
white and Negro schools and to protect
accreditation of two Negro colleges, the
state legislature has programmed 55.7
per cent of the state’s general revenues
for the next two years for public edu
cation. Negro leaders mapped plans for
a voter registration drive.
(Continued on Page 2)
Alabama 10
Arkansas 8 & 9
Delaware 14
Disf. of Columbia 4
Florida 14
Georgia 5
INDEX
Kentucky 3
Louisiana 5
Maryland 16
Mississippi ||
Missouri 7
North Carolina .13
Oklahoma 10
South Carolina . ... 12
Tennessee 3
Texas 6
Virginia 15
West Virginia . . .12
Negro Enrollment Rising
In Cities, Survey Discloses