Newspaper Page Text
Factual
•VO * SN 3 H i. V
10 JO AilS*3AINn
11VH 831CNVD
3 N b08 SO *1 •«
zi ioi-H-6? 3nnr
)0L
Objective
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
$2 PER YEAR
MAY, 1958
As Cartoonists Saw Period I
—Columbia State
—Houston Post
i
—Norfolk Journal and Guide
Locked
—Memphis Commercial-Appeal
To the Fitting Room
Great Game of How-Not-To
—Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Southern Exposure
‘Deliberate
—Baltimore Evening Sun
• • . Poking the Same Fire
—Arkansas Gazette
..
—Dallas Morning News
of ’56
lUTOi^a 7
SUPREME COURT
SCHOOL DECISION
School Issue Surveyed
At 4-Year Anniversary
i~|N THE EVE OF the fourth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision against segregation in the
public schools of 17 southern and border states, a Southern School Ne ws survey showed 764 school
districts having begun or completed the desegregation process and 2,125 bi-racial districts still segregated.
There are 2,889 bi-racial (i.e., having pupils of both races) school districts in the region.
During April, no additional school districts announced plans for desegregation in 1957-58, though fur
ther desegregation in some districts which already have abandoned separate schools was scheduled for
next fall. —
The SSN survey showed further:
• Desegregation had been completed
in practice or in policy in all of West
Virginia’s districts, and about 80 per
cent of Kentucky’s Negro pupils were
desegregated. On a bi-racial district
basis, desegregation had begun or had
been completed in 29 per cent of Dela
ware’s districts, 70 per cent of Ken
tucky’s, 91 per cent of Maryland’s, 80
per cent of Oklahoma’s and 17 per cent
of Texas’.
• Seven states—Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South
Carolina and Virginia—had maintained
segregation at all public school levels.
Some state colleges were desegregated
in Louisiana and Virginia.
• At latest count, there were 1,952,761
white students in “integrated situations”
along with 377,286 Negro students. (An
“integrated situation” describes one in
which pupils of both races are attend
ing the same classes or are eligible to
do so but for one reason or another may
remain in separate schools.)
• Of these totals above, all but 78,842
of the white students and 27,349 of the
Negro students are in the border states
and the District of Columbia. Thus, out
side the border states, about 4 per cent
of whites and 4 per cent of Negroes are
in “integrated situations.”
• Fifteen of 1,354 bi-racial school
districts outside the border states have
begun or completed the desegregation
process since 1954. These districts are
in Arkansas, North Carolina and Ten
nessee. Negroes in actual mixed classes
in these districts number about 270.
• Legislatures in six states have pro
vided by law for the abolition of public
schools ordered by a court to desegre
gate. School-closing is mandatory in
two of them, South Carolina and Vir
ginia, which would cut off state funds.
Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi have
permissive school-closing laws, and in
North Carolina schools may be closed
on a local option basis.
• In these six states are enrolled 59
per cent of the white pupils and 69 per
cent of the Negro pupils in the 10-state
area of the Middle and Deep South.
APRIL ACTIVITIES
Court activity continued at a lively
pace during April.
Arguments or pre-trial maneuvering
began in school entry suits in Birming
ham and Atlanta—the first such suits
in those Deep South states, and deci
sions apparently were nearing in school
entry cases involving the University of
Florida, Miami and West Palm Beach,
Fla.
A leading figure in the southern seg
regation - desegregation controversy,
Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas, lost an
appeal against a lower court injunction
restraining the use of the Arkansas Na
tional Guard to maintain segregation at
Little Rock. The governor’s aides said
he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Also in Little Rock, a court told
the school board it must prove that a
suspension of integration at Central
High School is needed before relief
would be granted.
FIRST TEACHER SUIT
Courts were busy also in Louisiana,
North Carolina, Virginia and West Vir
ginia. In the latter state for the first
time since 1954 a Negro teacher filed
suit charging loss of her job due to ra
cial discrimination.
Two school districts in Maryland
planned further desegregation and a
school district in Oklahoma was con
sidering desegregation for the first time
CURRENT STATUS
This month’s Southern School
News contains a “Current Status”
statistical summary in each state
report, detailing developments in
legislatures, courts, schools and
colleges based on the latest avail
able information. In most cases
the “Current Status” information
may be found just beneath the
topical subheads. Otherwise it ap
pears at the end of each report.
next fall; a second Oklahoma district
apparently had decided not to desegre
gate its high schools.
Two state legislatures completed their
sessions during April. South Carolina’s
took little action on segregation-deseg
regation but Mississippi’s passed a num
ber of new pro-segregation laws, some
of which the governor vetoed.
A summary of major developments
state-by-state follows:
Alabama
A three-judge federal court heard
arguments in Alabama’s first public
school entry suit since 1954. At issue
was the constitutionality of the state’s
1955 pupil placement law.
Arkansas
Gov. Orval Faubus lost an appeal (to
the 8th U.S. Circuit Court in St'. Louis)
from an injunction against his use of
National Guard troops at Little Rock.
He said he would carry the case to the
U. S. Supreme Court. A Little Rock
businessman introduced a plan to place
segregation-desegregation on a volun
tary basis, outside the courts. Mean
while, a chancery judge entered the
Democratic gubernatorial primary
against Gov. Faubus.
Delaware
Segregation-desegregation overtones
appeared as candidates readied for this
year’s elections and the drafting of party
platforms.
District of Columbia
Sweeping changes in the curriculum
of Washington’s schools were an
nounced for next fall as a part of an
effort to deal with “disparities” in edu
cational achievement disclosed by de
segregation.
Florida
Three legal challenges to school seg
regation, one at the college level and
two in the public schools, moved to
ward decision. At Jacksonville a Jew
ish community center and a Negro
school were bombed and Jewish leaders
received mysterious telephone calls
that “all integration” would be stopped.
SERS Offers Library
Collection On Film
Southern Education Reporting Serv
ice has announced production of a
microfilm, “Facts on Film,” containing
its complete library collection of more
than 100,000 items on segregation-de
segregation.
Included in the film are news items
from scores of newspapers, letters to
the editor, editorials and editorial car
toons, texts of court hearings and court
decisions, special studies, texts of leg
islative acts and legislative hearings,
pamphlets and pertinent speeches.
The microfilm is indexed in detail,
and printed indexes will also be avail
able to purchasers.
SERS invites inquiries from inter
ested institutions.
Georgia
Pre-trial legal maneuvering began in
the Atlanta school entry suit, first of its
kind in the state.
Kentucky
Citizens Council charges of “crime
and official misconduct” in Louisville
schools were rejected by the Jefferson
County (Louisville) grand jury, which
commended board of education policies.
Louisiana
New litigation began in the New Or
leans desegregation suit, with the
school board filing a motion to dismiss
and Negro plaintiffs requesting a per
manent injunction against segregation.
The state PTA adopted a resolution
favoring “retention of segregation in
public schools.”
Maryland
Two counties—St. Mary’s and Anne
Arundel—announced plans for exten
sion of desegregation in elementary
schools next fall.
Mississippi
The legislature adjourned after pas
sage of a number of new pro-segrega
tion laws, some of which were vetoed
by Gov. J. P. Coleman. One bill await
ing gubernatorial action gives the gov
ernor or trustees authority to close a
school threatened with desegregation.
Missouri
Members of the newly-established
All pertinent and current statistics
on segregation-desegregation in the
southern and border states to date
appear on a unique color map sum
marizing developments as of May
1958 in this month's SOUTHERN
SCHOOL NEWS (Page 8)
Additional copies of this map,
printed on index card board suitable
for mounting and packed in a mailing
tube, may be obtained for $1 per
copy postpaid. Write to "Map," P.O.
Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville,
Tenn. and enclose check or money
order. The supply is limited.
INDEX
Alabama 9
Arkansas
Delaware
Dist. of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
9
Kentucky
. . . 12
Oklahoma
12
6
Louisiana
. . . 13
South Carolina .
II.
14
Maryland
15
Tennessee ...
14
3
Mississippi . .
4
Texas
16
5
Missouri
. 5
Virginia
7
10
North Carolina
2
West Virginia . .
10
Missouri Commission on Human Rights
were sworn into office. They planned
their first meeting for June.
North Carolina
The state cited its avoidance of de
fiance of the Supreme Court decision in
defending constitutionality of school
laws in two school entry cases.
Oklahoma
One additional school district was
reported leaning toward a desegrega
tion policy while a second indicated a
preference for separate high schools.
South Carolina
The legislature adjourned after
barely touching on the school segrega
tion-desegregation issue. One new law
gives the attorney general power to in
vestigate the records of non-profit
corporations.
Tennessee
Nashville’s year-at-a-time school de
segregation plan was presented to fed
eral court, which heard arguments pro
and con on the grade-by-grade ap
proach.
Texas
An “all deliberate speed” desegrega
tion order was entered in the Dallas
school case. Three hundred white Prot
estant ministers of Greater Dallas
signed a statement calling enforced
segregation “morally and spiritually
wrong.”
Virginia
The state appealed the Arlington
County desegregation order to the U. S.
Supreme Court, contending a lower
court discriminated against white chil
dren.
West Virginia
The first court action since 1954 seek
ing to force desegregation of teachers
was filed in federal court in Hunting-
ton by a Negro plaintiff.
t # #