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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY 1958—PAGE 3
WASHINGTON, D. C.
. | N the heels of the federal
V/ court decision which sus
pended integration of Little Rock
Central High School, four Negro
leaders met with President Eisen
hower here to urge that the Jus
tice Department join, as a friend
of the court, in the appeal from
the ruling.
While southern congressmen
generally were jubilant over the
suspension of integration at Little
Rock, the Negroes told President
Eisenhower that their people were
“frustrated and angry” because of
resistance and reversals in their
“fight for equal rights.”
Before school begins in September,
the Negroes urged the issuance of a
Presidential pronouncement declaring
“that the law will be vigorously upheld
with the total resources” at the Presi
dent’s command.
CISION ‘OUTRAGEOUS’
leanwhile, Chairman Emanuel Celler
,D-N.Y.) of the House Judiciary Com
mittee called the Little Rock ruling of
U. S. District Judge Harry J. Lemley
“outrageous” and said it would be
scrutinized by his committee which be
gan hearings on civil rights bills June
25.
The Civil Rights Commission, at its
June 10 meeting, weighed published re
ports of violence against Negroes in
Dawson, Ga., as well as accounts that
they were being deprived of their vot
ing rights.
At that same meeting, the commis
sion ordered its staff to begin a nation
wide fact-finding inquiry into laws and
policies governing voting, education and
housing at state and local levels.
ACHIEVEMENT RESULTS
Locally, District school officials made
public the results of citywide achieve
ment tests administered during the
school year just ended—the fourth since
Washington school desegregation.
Gains over the previous year were
reported in most areas although per
formance on a few tests remain static
or declined.
President Eisenhower was asked to
initiate a program providing a planned
approach for solving racial problems
in the civil rights field when the Negro
spokesmen met with him June 23.
The Negro delegation consisted of
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People; Lester B.
Granger, executive secretary of the Na
tional Urban League; Martin Luther
King Jr., leader of the Montgomery
(Ala.) bus boycott and president of the
Southern Leadership Conference; and
A. Philip Randolph, vice president of
the AFL-CIO, who served as principal
Georgia
(Continued From Page 2)
advantage over heavily-populated areas
in the counting of primary votes and
representation in the legislature.
PROCEEDINGS HALTED
Pre-trial proceedings involving four
Negroes seeking admission to Georgia
State College in Atlanta (Hunt v. Ar
nold et al) were halted by Atty. Gen.
Cook when the attorney for the plain
tiffs objected to them being interviewed
separately. Cook said he would file -
motion to require “separation” of wit
nesses at a later hearing.
The Georgia Court of Appeals was
asked to throw out a contempt citation
against the NAACP and J. H. Calhoun,
president of its Atlanta branch. The
case originated nearly two years a-m
when the state Revenue Department
sought to obtain records of the organi
zation to determine its tax status.
Rep. Harold L. Murphy, chairman of
a legislative committee created to
make an investigation of state barratry
laws, said a meeting would be held
July 8 to determine the range of a
Public hearing into improper practices
of law. Murphy, author of a resolution
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA-
Eisenhower Urged To Intervene In Little Rock Case
spokesman for the group when they
talked to reporters.
Randolph said his group was “en
couraged” by the attitude of the Presi
dent who was said to be “very sympa
thetic” while giving no commitment to
a proposed nine-point program.
INTERVENTION ASKED
Besides asking for the Presidential
pronouncement and Justice Department
intervention in the Little Rock mat
ter, the Negro leaders urged the fol
lowing:
A White House conference of lead
ers of both races as a starting point
for restoring “communication between
white and colored southerners who
are troubled by a common fear of re
action.”
A Presidential request for nonpar
tisanship in Congress to clear the way
for a civil rights bill which would ex
tend enforcement of “Constitutional
rights other than voting rights.”
Action now by the Justice Depart
ment to protect voting rights.
ACTION ON BOMBINGS
Justice Department action in the
cases of bombings and violence in the
South, and also in the “brutality di
rected against Negro citizens in Daw
son, Ga., and other communities.”
Presidential recommendation to
Congress to extend the life of the Civil
Rights Commission “to counteract de
liberate hamstringing.”
Federal help, through information
and resources, to communities trying to
work out a program of education and
action in the racial field.
Presidential support in efforts to bar
federal aid to all segregated projects
and programs in the states.
NO COMMENT ON LITTLE ROCK
Also attending the conference were
Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers and two
Presidential aides on minority matters.
The Negro leaders said Rogers made
no comment on the Little Rock deci
sion. W. Wilson White, assistant at
torney general in charge of the Civil
Rights Division, previously said the
Justice Department is considering join
ing an appeal.
Congressional reaction to the Lemlev
decision ranged from Sen. Richard
Neuberger (D-Ore.), who predicted
that the Supreme Court would reverse
it, to Sen. John J. Sparkman (D-Ala.).
who believed Judge Lemley acted
“wisely and correctly.”
After the Washington Post published
the Dawson, Ga. story June 8, the Civil
Rights Commission asked to interview
the Post’s Staff Reporter Robert E. Lee
Baker. Baker had reported that one
Negro had been shot to death by a po
liceman, a second had died after a
police beating, and a third had been
shot by police in Dawson in the last
two months.
VOTE DENIAL REPORTED
In addition, Baker’s story stated that
25 Negroes, including several college-
educated teachers, tried to register to
vote an ! were turned down. Some of
the Negroes said they planned to file
voting complaints with the commission.
However, if they were required to file
in their own names, they might not.
(See also Georgia report.)
It was this issue—what to do if com
plaints were filed by third parties—that
was discussed at the commission’s June
10 meeting. Action, however, was de
ferred.
The Civil Rights Act, authorizing the
commission, directs that the commission
investigate “allegations in writing un
der oath or affirmation that certain citi
zens” have been denied voting rights.
It does not say whether the complaint
must be made by the individual in
volved or whether his name must be
listed in the complaint.
FACT-FINDING INQUIRY
The fact-finding inquiry into voting,
education and housing matters, author
ized by the commission, is aimed at
collecting information on “legal devel
opments” that violate constitutional
rights. A major part of the study will
be the compilation of state laws and
city ordinances, said Commission Staff
Director Gordon M. Tiffany.
Tiffany also declared the study group
would seek “positive” information, such
as collecting facts on communities that
voluntarily ended school segregation in
the hope that others would profit from
their experiences.
Meanwhile, the Civil Rights Com
mission was asked to review the 1954
desegregation decision of the U. S. Su
preme Court.
BEYOND SCOPE
The request was made June 16 by
John B. Minnick of Arlington, Va., an
attorney who is campaigning to reverse
the court’s decision on the grounds that
the Constitution was misinterpreted.
The request, a commission staffer sa'd,
appeared to be outside the scope of the
commission which was established to
hear complaints of civil rights viola
tions.
Retiring Health, Education and Wel
fare Secretary Marion B. Folsom, on
June 24, expressed hope that the ad
ministration will revive its controvers
ial proposal for federal aid to school
construction.
“The problem is still with us,” Fol
som said.
AID CURB DEMANDED
The NAACP, in the meantime, has
renewed demands that any federal
school aid measure include anti-seg-
gregation provisions.
President Eisenhower apparently has
shelved plans to meet with Rep. Adam
Clayton Powell Jr. of New York to dis
cuss school integration.
A Negro member of President Eisen
hower’s staff on June 5 challenged
members of his race to adopt “new
attitudes and new standards of achieve
ment” to meet the demands of an inte
grated society.
‘RUGGED COMPETITION’
“From here on out any Negro who
aspires to anything of consequence in
the United States can expect ruthless
and rugged competition,” said E. Fred
eric Morrow, White House administra
tive officer for special projects.
Speaking to an integrated class of 25
graduates of the Howard University
School of Social Work, Morrow de
clared that doors in industrial and pro
fessional fields are opening to qualified
Negroes in an unprecedented manner
in the United States.
“Negroes will no longer be able to
use the excuse of color to shield in
competence,” he continued.
•PLACES LIMITED’
The Negro, he said, is no longer com
peting for a position or place in the
Negro world but is competing for a
place in American life and the “places
are limited and coveted.”
Religious and racial quota systems
used by many medical schools are
“wasteful” and “immoral,” said Sen.
John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) in a
speech here June 4.
This system of discrimination causes
schools to lose many good students, he
told the 36th annual session of Former
Internes and Residents of Freedmen’s
Hospital.
VACANCIES EXIST
Kennedy also noted that discrimina
tion prevents many medical school
graduates from obtaining approved in
ternships and residencies in the nation’s
hospitals even though vacancies exist in
these positions.
Figures compiled for 1955, the latest
which Kennedy said were available,
showed 11,616 approved internships and
2,013 vacancies. Of the 26,000 approved
residencies, 5,000 were vacant.
Kennedy observed that Howard Uni
versity Medical School graduates in
terned in 13 hospitals 10 years ago as
contrasted with internships in 38 hos
pitals last year.
DISTRICT SCHOOLS
■>
In announcing the District school
achievement results, Irene C. Hypps,
assistant school superintendent in
charge of pupil appraisal, study and at
tendance, said the test scores show that
the Washington schools may be “half
through the woods” in raising student
achievement to national standards.
If and when Washington scores match
national norms, it will indicate District
schools are doing “a superior job,”
School Supt. Carl F. Hansen declared.
He explained that an urban center
like Washington is at a natural disad
vantage in comparing its educational
achievements with national norms be
cause it is “fenced off” from economic
ally and culturally privileged suburbs.
WHAT RESULTS SHOW
The tests were administered to about
one-half of the District’s 110,000 stu
dents representing all school levels. Re
sults showed:
A local median score of 65 for first-
setting up the committee, said at the
time that the investigation would b-
aimed primarily at what he termed
promotion of integration litigation by
the NAACP.
The Georgia Education Commission,
created by the legislature to seek
means of circumventing the desegrega
tion decision, mailed out Vol. II of a
report entitled, “Communism and the
NAACP.” The commission said it is a
listing of evidence given under oath
before the Florida investigation com
mittee on “Communist affiliations of
the national leadership of the NAACP.”
The Civil Rights Commission decided
not to investigate reports that Negroes
are being mistreated in Dawson County.
The Washington Post and Times-
Herald had said Dawson police killed
two Negroes and shot a third, and
colored people are living in “terror”
there.
White and Negro leaders in Dawson
denied there is “an atmosphere of
fear.”
Carl Rountree, editor of the Dawson
News, invited James R. Wiggins, exec
utive editor of the Washington news
paper, to visit Dawson and to deter
mine for himself without interference
whether the town’s Negroes are living
in terror.
WANTED INVESTIGATION
The NAACP and Rep. Charles C.
Diggs (D-Mich.) had demanded an in
vestigation of the situation in Dawson
be made.
In Atlanta, Dr. Herman L. Turner,
chairman of a group of 80 white min
isters in the city who signed a mani
festo on racial relations, was awarded
a citation for distinguished treatment
in human relations at Gammon Theo
logical Seminary.
Gov. Marvin Griffin said if his pro
segregation speech in Little Rock stif
fened opposition to integration there,
“then I have no apology to make.”
Little Rock School Supt. Virgil Blos
som had testified Griffin “had more to
do with strengthening opposition than
anything that happened.”
LACK ‘COMMUNICATION’
Speaking at Morris Brown College
(Negro) commencement exercises in
Atlanta, Dr. Archibald J. Carey, chair
man of the President’s Committee on
Government Employment Practices,
said: “The South is handicapped from
lack of proper communication between
races.”
Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel of
the NAACP, said in Atlanta that the
fight for “first class citizenship” will be
won in the courts and by intelligent
use of the ballot.
In Macon, Atty. Charles J. Bloch told
bar association members that lawyers
have no duty to defend a court which
is derelict in its duty or exceeds its
constitutional authority, in citing “chaos
and confusion” resulting from deseg
regation decisions.
Grand Master John Wesley Dobbs,
an Atlanta Negro, told Georgia Prince
Hall Masons that two-thirds of the
people of the world who are non-white
are more interested in moral issues and
free elections than in color questions
and class Drivileges.
Hugh G. Grant of Augusta, a States’
Rights Council official, said in Wash
ington, Ga., that “rank and file Baptist
folk throughout the South” will revolt
if they “become aroused to the realiza
tion that their leaders are aiding the
Communist conspiracy, which is de
signed to create racial strife in this
country, and the program of the
NAACP. . . .”
# # #
graders given a “readiness” test last
fall compared to the national median of
71. First-graders who attended kinder
garten achieved a median score of 68
compared to a median of 54 for those
without kindergarten training.
A median grade placement of 3.1 in
spelling for third-graders compared to
medians of 3.0 in 1956-57 and 2.5 in
1955-56. Normal grade placement would
be 3.4 since the test is given in the
fourth month of the third school year.
LOW IN MONTH
Third-graders scored 2.9 this year, 2.7
a year ago and 2.6 two years ago on
arithmetic computation. At all levels,
District pupils did not do as well in
arithmetic and mathematics as in other
subjects tested.
Median grade placement of 4.3 in
paragraph meaning for fifth-graders
whose normal grade would be 5.2. Oth
er fifth grade medians were 4.6 in word
meaning, 4.8 in spelling, 4.7 in language,
4.6 in arithmetic reasoning and 4.6 in
arithmetic computation. Fifth-graders
gained a month or more in each sub
ject over last year’s fifth grade scores.
Gains in all subjects tested for junior
high students but with all medians still
falling short of national norms.
FOUR-TRACK RESULTS
For the first time 10th grade test re
sults were reported by levels in the
District’s four-track program of ability
grouping. Medians for honor track stu
dents and those in the regular college
preparatory program were well above
national medians but those in the gen
eral track fell far short.
Students in the remedial basic track
were tested separately for “mental ma
turity.” Results showed that 3.8 per cent
were in the “high average” intelligence
range, 43.5 per cent “low average,” 48.7
per cent “inferior” and 4 per cent “very
inferior.”
Extreme disparities in the perform
ance of students in various parts of the
city were disclosed when achievement
test scores were made public. Widest
divergence between schools appeared in
scores on the Iowa tests of educational
development administered to 12th
grade students. The national norm on
these tests is 50. In one school students
achieved a composite median score of
88 while at another school the com
posite score was 7. Differences between
individual schools were marked at all
grade levels.
Supt. Hansen predicted that achieve
ment levels in local elementary schools
will match national norms within three
years with the help of remedial pro
grams. But it will take considerably
longer than that to bring secondary
student test scores into line with the
national standards, he said, because
“young students now in the secondary
schools have suffered a great deal as a
result of attending segregated schools.”
Intelligence quotient testing of Wash
ington pupils also showed a dispropor
tionate number falling below the
normal IQ. For example, 63 per cent of
the District third-graders were below
100 compared to the national average
of 50 per cent.
Three members of the school board,
whose terms were to expire June 30
were re-appointed for three-year terms
by the judges of District Court.
They are Walter N. Tobriner, who
has been on the board for two years
and has been its president since last
July; Dagny R. Pettit, completing her
first three-year term, and Col. West A.
Hamilton who has been on the board
since 1952 and previously served from
1937 to 1943.
CENSORSHIP COMPLAINT
Reo. Billv Matthews (D-Fla.) June 9
complained that District public school
children were singing new words to
Stephen Foster’s old songs.
He told fellow members of a House
District subcommittee that the line “Oh,
darkies how my heart grows weary” in
Foster’s “Way Down Upon the Suwa-
nee River” now begins with “Oh. old
folks” in some books and “Oh, brother”
in others.
Paul D. Gable, music supervisor for
the District schools, later said that a
textbook committee composed of teach
ers and principals long has refused to
approve books containing such words
as “darkies.”
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