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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY 1958—PAGE 15 Two Maryland Counties Plan Additional Steps Negro 7,692 V X X X X X Negro V \ \ X N • \ 4,809 \ \ V"o •Tff \ Negro ** ^ \ X ’*£» \ X X 3.607 X \ \ \ X 4,766 \ \ 4,454 *& \ 8,805 *hi te Whi te ■ . White 'h 10,105 7,261 14,020 7,298 14,938 7,522 Resident Cr. 1 Resident Cr. 1 Resident Cr. 1 Births 1946 Births 1950 Births 1957 1940 *12,027 1944 *11,752 1951 =16,327 = 13,712 =18,829 = 22,630 The above graph relates resident births in Baltimore to first-grade enrollment six years after the births were recorded. Note that about half of the w'hite children born in 1951 entered school last fall, whereas Negro enrollment totalled 113 more than the number of births recorded six years previously. This indicates the move ment of white families out of the central city and the movement of Negroes into the city. BALTIMORE, Md. wo Maryland counties in April reported plans for the desegregation of additional grades next fall, as other counties an nounced dates for the filing of Ne- i gro applications for transfer to white schools. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Integration in Montgomery County was slowed down by a county council budget-cutting move that eliminated two educa- • tion items, totaling $754,450, which would have converted the two re maining Negro secondary schools , to other uses. Council President Wilbur N. Baughman spoke in favor of using the Negro high school as an integrated vocational school and said that both the jun ior and senior high schools could continue on a segregated basis, i pending further study. The action was considered in some quarters to be an effort to forestall complete desegregation in the county. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Two suits were filed in U. S. district court by NAACP attorneys. One chal- , lenges gradual desegregation in St. Mary’s County, and the other contests the continuation of segregated bus transportation to an integrated school in Charles County. Also in April, the conspiracy indictments against two an ti-integration school picketers in Tal bot County were stetted. (See “Legal Action.”) 1 A survey of teachers associations in Maryland shows that separate white and Negro teacher organizations con tinue to function in 15 of the 22 coun- ( ties having teachers of both races, al though some mixing of pupils has taken place in 13 counties. (See “Under Sur vey.”) CURRENT STATUS: Second de segregation suit filed in St. Mary’s County, desegregation of school bus asked in St. Charles County suit. Suits filed three days apart in the U. S. district court in Baltimore fol lowed the decisions of the state Board , of Education in February that both cases raised legal questions beyond its administrative province. The first case (Gilbert G. Hart Jr. v. Board of Education of Charles County) involves a Negro second-grader who attends a formerly all-white school at Indian Head but whose request to ride the white school bus has been denied under a county policy of not desegre gating school transportation at this time. The suit contends that the boy is de nied the right to ride the school bus that goes by his home “solely because of his race or color.” The county’s offer to transport the boy on a Negro school h us was rejected by his mother as a violation of “her rights to equal pro tection” under the Constitution. NAACP attorneys have asked the court for an “arly review. The second case (Thomas Conrad Groves et al v. Board of Education of St. Mary’s County) involves a Negro boy and his sister, ages 13 and 14, who were denied admission to a white high school last fall because the county de segregation program initially opened only the elementary schools to Negro transfer applicants. The two Groves children were among 66 Negroes who went into district court in 1956 seeking admission to white schools in St. Mary’s County. Chief Judge Roszel C. Thomsen ruled then that the plaintiffs had to exhaust their administrative remedies by first apply ing to the schools of their choice and, if denied admission, taking an appeal to the state Board of Education. The present suit contends that the Groves children have now exhausted their ad ministrative remedies and that the de nial of admission deprives them of a constitutional right. ACTION SHELVED The legal action against two segre gation demonstrators in Talbot County, hanging fire since September, was shelved in April when the county pros ecutor, Henry P. Turner, accepted medi cal testimony that one of the defend ants had a heart ailment. The defend ants, L. Francis Berry and Mrs. Elsie Andrew, had been arrested on the opening day of school last fall for pick eting in defiance of police orders. They had been indicted by a county grand jury on several conspiracy counts. The motion to have the case removed from the open docket to the stet docket was entered by Turner, after Berry had presented a medical certificate. “Obvi ously, I don’t want to endanger the man’s health by prosecuting him for a misdemeanor,” Turner told the court, citing the case load in the current court term as another reason for deferring action. “The purpose of these arrests was to avert a riot,” he said, “and since that threat no longer exists, we can place the case on the stet docket.” Turner explained that the action did not amount to a dismissal but took the case out of the active status. CURRENT STATUS: 21 of 23 bi- racial school districts desegregated. The Montgomery County Council put at least a temporary stop to plans to close out all the Negro secondary classes in Montgomery County by eliminating the budget items that would have (1) converted the substandard Lincoln Junior High into a warehouse and maintenance shop and (2) expanded Carver Senior High into an integrated junior high school. The county council as keeper of the county purse strings thereby overruled the county board of education, which decided on the two moves by a split vote last January. The closing of the Lincoln school has been part of the in tegration planning for some time, and Negroes gradually have been trans ferred to other schools to make the closing possible. It is expected that the school board will go through with its plans to terminate instruction at Lin coln, since the building is not considered fit for classroom use. The conversion of Carver to an inte grated junior high was a proposal of more recent origin and in the nature of a school economy move. The profes sional school staff committee on de segregation has based its plans for in tegration in 1958-59 on the closing of the Lincoln school and the use of Car ver as a combined Negro junior-senior high. At the same time, the county su perintendent sought $1,698,500 for a new junior high in the same area. The school board sought to save $1 million of that sum by dropping the plans for a new school and using an expanded Carver in its place. FURTHER STUDY NEEDED The county council quashed the plans after arguments that the closing of Car ver should have further study in the light of vocational training needs in the Major Developments Since 1954 1) The immediate acceptance by state and local officials of the May 17, 1954 decision and their ex pression of willingness to move toward compliance. 2) The removal of all racial bars in Baltimore schools at the start of the 1954-55 school year. 3) The admission in the fall of 1955 of some Negroes to formerly all-white schools in eight of Maryland’s 23 counties. 4) The expansion of desegrega tion in 1956-57 that brought mixed classes to five additional counties. 5) The short life of anti-inte gration demonstrations in the face of prompt police action and lack of public support. county. Nearly all the Carver students are taking vocational courses. Observers close to the situation consider the ac tion to have been an effort to delay integration or at least to preserve the present desegregation timetable. The school board members who favored the Carver closing are now disturbed over the unsettled problems that remain, both in terms of the need for a new junior high and the need to house school maintenance personnel. The board of education for St. Mary’s County announced in April that volun tary desegregation would be extended next fall to grades seven, eight and nine. May 14 was set as the registra tion date for prospective transfers and for all pupils entering first grade next fall. St. Mary’s opened all its elementary schools (grades 1 to 6) to Negroes last fall on the basis of individual applica tions. Four applications were received from Negroes seeking admission to ele mentary grades, and all four were ap proved by the school board. None of the four pupils exercised his transfer right, so no mixing occurred. READY FOR REQUESTS The Kent County Board of Education has reaffirmed its policy of standing ready to consider Negro requests for transfers to white schools and has set May 18 as the deadline for transfer ap plications. In past years in this and most other Eastern Shore counties, no applications have been received. From the Eastern Shore county of Worcester, School Supt. Paul D. Cooper reported: “Our policy permits the trans fer of any child from any school he now attends to any other school upon proper application. To date there have been no applications for transfer. Trans fer application dates have become rou tine. An announcement is made in the early summer, and applications are ac cepted up to the week before the open ing of schools. The exact dates have not been determined this year, but I antici pate no change in this.” Anne Arundel County will desegre gate its fifth and sixth grades next fall, making all grades of all elementary schools open to both races in the third year of its transition program. The first three grades were desegregated in the fall of 1956, and the fourth grade this past fall. Under the policy established by the county board of education in 1956, desegregation was to have pro ceeded at the rate of at least one grade a year. Carroll County, which in the past two years has had one integrated school, after having two in 1955, has announced a continuation of its policy of receiving Negro applications for transfer to white schools. The school board in an April statement said that it would continue to operate existing schools and exist ing bus routes “for as long as need for such facilitities exists.” Somerset County, which ranks third among Maryland counties in percent age of Negro pupils in its school sys tem (41.6 per cent), is proceeding with its voluntary desegregation program, which so far has not resulted in any transfer requests. A deadline for trans fer applications has not as yet been set for the fall semester. Somerset’s school superintendent, C. Allen Carlson, reports that since the beginning of 1958 three new schools have been in use for Negro pupils. A new eight-room consolidated school has replaced three two-room Negro schools. A modem three-room building has taken the place of an old two-room structure, and a former four-room school has been moved to new quarters on an eight-acre site. Queen Anne’s County, which lies on the Eastern Shore, has announced the continuation of its policy of voluntary desegregation and set June 1 as the deadline for Negro transfer applica tions. No applications have been re ceived during the past three years in which the policy has been in effect. POLICIES REMAIN No change in present policies has oc curred in Caroline County, which is one of the two Maryland counties where desegregation has been discussed by school officials but no desegregation program announced. Baltimore County anticipates close to total desegregation. The assistant su perintendent in administration, Homer O. Elseroad, reported: “Practically all of our 90 schools are desegregated, and several new schools that are opening this fall, plus a couple of schools which had been segregated because of severe crowded conditions, will be operated on a desegregated basis next September.” Harford County is proceeding under its court-approved plan which provides for the desegregation of all six grades of three additional elementary schools next September. Ten elementary schools and the sixth grade at one high school are currently desegregated, and the re maining elementary schools are to be opened to Negroes in September 1959. The grade-a-year desegregation of sec ondary schools is scheduled to begin with the seventh grade this fall. White and Negro teachers have sep arate associations in 15 of Maryland’s 23 counties. Seven counties and Balti more City have integrated teacher or ganizations, and the remaining county has no Negroes. The Maryland State Teachers Asso ciation, with which the local groups are federated, has been integrated for the past five years. Its meetings and activi ties include both white and Negro teachers, and it has a Negro member on its executive board. The counties having separate teachers associations include Anne Arundel, Charles, Har ford, Howard, Prince George’s and Tal bot, in all of which some integration of pupils has taken place. American guides at the United States pavillion on the grounds of the Brus sels Worlds Fair include a 22-year-old Baltimore Negro girl, Delores Alston. Interviewed by the Berlin correspond ent of the Baltimore Sun, Miss Alston said she had already been asked ques tions about Little Rock, Montgomery and the Emmett Till case and antici pated more integration queries from fair visitors. Asked how she answers such ques tions, Miss Alston said, “I tell people that we recognize the problem in Amer ica and are doing something about it I mention the Supreme Court decision, and I try to point out that these inci dents represent progress in most cases.” CURRENT STATUS OF COL LEGES: All public colleges deseg regated in practice or principle. 18 private colleges desegregated. # # # i Tennessee (Continued From Page 14) bring chaos,” she said. “In an educa tional institution teachers cannot do their best in the midst of excitement and turmoil.” One of the principal objections raised by the plaintiffs was that the separate schools, as they now exist, were not Cfual, particularly in the fields of spe- 1 cial education. They said the vocational training program offered Negro students w as inadequate and that classes for Mentally retarded Negro children and i those with deficient sight were also in adequate. Supt. Oliver said the board of educa tion is working on plans to provide the Negro children with the same training received by white children in these fields. He said education in this respect * s inadequate for both white and Negro , students. fewer disturbances Another main point of testimony for tbe plaintiffs was they believe there will . less trouble and fewer disturbances u the entire system is desegregated n ext fall than if it is done one year at a time. Witnesses urging immediate desegre gation were Ennix, Dr. Herman Long, director of the race relations depart ment of the Congregational churches with offices at Fisk University, and Mrs. Preston Valien, a sociologist and wife of Fisk’s sociology department chair man. All three agreed that the grade-a- year plan did not, in their opinion, meet the requirement of “all deliberate speed,” established in the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court in 1954. UNIT PLAN OFFERED Dr. Valien was the educator who recommended that the court order de segregation over a two-year period on the “unit plan.” He said the more peo ple there are involved in any change, the less res’stance to change. He said also the erade-a-year plan deprives too many children of their “freedom of choice” provided in the 14th amend ment of the U. S. Constitution. Judge Miller gave attorneys for the plaintiffs and school board 24 days in which to file briefs supporting their arguments. A decision in the case is expected by mid-May. The trial of Frederick John Kasper on charges of inciting to riot resulting from the disturbances that marked the beginning of school desegregation in Nashville was postponed from April 4 until the May term of court. SERVING TIME The reason is that Kasper is serving a one-year sentence in the federal penitentiary in Tallahassee, Fla., for contempt of federal court for violating an injunction against interference with the peaceful desegregation of Clinton High School. The legal hassle between two rival groups of the Ku Klux Klan went to federal court in Chattanooga April 25. Eldon R. Edwards of Atlanta, Ga., who says he is the founder and leader of the U. S. Klan, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, filed suit against the Dix'e Klan, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for alleged infringement of copyright. His suit asks the court to enjoin the Dixie Klan from using the Kloran (a ritual) and costumes, insignia and other para phernalia used by the U. S. Klan. The Dixie Klan, in an answer filed with the court, denies all of Edwards’ allegations. The Dixie Klan reply not only denied that Edwards originated or authored a Kloran, but said, as a mat ter of fact, Edwards had copied ver batim the Kloran, constitution, laws, ritual, insignia, customs and names which have been in general use by various Klan organizations for a num ber of years. No date has been set by the court to hear the suit. On April 6, Vice President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India, arriving in Nashville to deliver a speech at a Fisk University convocation, touched on the desegregation subject briefly in an in terview. He said: “It is clear to us that you are trying to effect some kind of harmony among the races, and that even now, the pro cess is at work. This is important to the people of Africa and Asia, and it will improve your relations with those countries. As to what must be done, that is something you musk ask the colored people themselves. But I would ask you to speed up.” Mrs. Daisy Bates of Little Rock, Ark., president of the Arkansas conference of the NAACP, said the “decent police” of Nashville meant the difference in the degree of violence experienced by Nashville in desegregation when com pared to the situation at Little Rock Central High School. WHY FEW CHANGED? Here as “Woman’s Day” speaker at Lee Chapel AME church, Mrs. Bates said she was curious why only a few Negro children enrolled in the formerly all-white schools in Nashville, although many were eligible. She said she hoped every child who was eligible to attend a desegregated school here would do so next year. Mrs. Bates received a scroll from the Nashville branch of the NAACP for her “courageous stand” in the Little Rock controversy. CURRENT STATUS of segrega tion-desegregation in Tennessee: LEGISLATIVE ACTION: 8 laws and a resolution dealing with school segregation enacted. COLLEGES: All state-supported colleges desegregated in practice or principle. Five private colleges de segregated. # # #