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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER 1958—PAGE II
Florida
(Continued From Page 10)
after three years of operation, no Negro
is attending mixed school classes any
where in the state.
Three suggestions for possible action
were made by the state official:
State subsidies for private segregated
schools.
Segregation by sexes.
Voluntary integrated schools.
Florida NAACP officials promptly
praised Odum for his “frankness” but
warned that any attempt to use public
funds for private segregated schools
would be bitterly opposed.
“Much money has been wasted seek
ing ways of bypassing this decision and
nothing has been achieved by such eva
sive measures,” said Robert W. Saun
ders, NAACP field secretary. “We call
on all officials to work diligently for a
peaceful and final conclusion to the
question of ending segregation.”
The proposal to segregate by sex in
stead of race was made by Judge L. A.
Grayson of the Criminal Court of Hills
borough County.
“I have not the faintest doubt but
that the race mixing in the lower grades
of our schools, to the extent that it will
be done in the South, if it is done at all,
will eventually strike down the barriers
between white and black,” said the
judge.
“It would seem to me that if we must
have it, it would soften the blow and
postpone the evil day indefinitely if co
education were stopped in all the pub
lic schools.
With integration talk flying, the feel
ing grew that the issue will be hot when
the 1959 legislative session starts in
May.
Dewey M. Johnson, president-desig
nate of the Senate, said members have
been meeting for the past six weeks on
a plan to transfer public schools to pri
vate corporations to avoid court-or
dered mixing.
Johnson said most lawyers in the up
per body agreed segregation cannot be
maintained in public schools.
PROGRAM STUDIED
“Anticipating that we in Florida may
be faced any day with a federal court
decree forcing integration in our public
schools, a group of senators has been
seeking to develop some program that
would meet the requirements of the
U.S. Supreme Court and still not force
white children to attend schools with
Negroes,” said Johnson.
The mechanics of the plan have not
been developed, he declared, but it
would provide basically for patrons of
any school to organize themselves in
community corporations.
These groups would have authority to
buy school property for a nominal or
token smn, and operate private schools
based on tuition fees paid by students.
State and county funds, however,
would be used to underwrite these fees.
OPPOSITION FORESEEN
While the plan appeared to be gath
ering steam, it was certain of tough
opposition. Rep. Tom Beasley, House
speaker-designate, said he would “think
a long time” before voting to abolish
public schools.
“However, if everything else fails, I
would agree to go to a private system,”
said the man who will preside over the
House for the next two years.
State School Supt. Thomas D. Bailey
said a partially subsidized private school
system might provide Florida with a so
lution to integration problems.
‘If the federal courts will allow state
and local participation in financing and
professional coordination at the state
level, I feel it is entirely possible a pri
vate school system could be developed
that would offer quality education,”
Bailey said.
Atty. Gen. Richard W. Ervin said he
was convinced a legal plan for private
education could be devised.
TEACHERS TAKE STAND
Lines already were being formed. The
Powerful Florida Education Association
strongly opposed abandonment of
hepublic school system. Its leaders are
taking steps to reiterate and buttress
JLat stand. Gov. Collins warned that
fearful consequences” would follow
abandonment of the public school sys
tem.
With the discussion spreading
°f key legislators predicted thi
school system will remain but tl
ature would consider giving par
tr,°* Ce subsidized private sc
Ley objected to sending their
to integrated schools.
Sen. Johnson said the Sene
Would not call for an end to al
schools—a move that would
constitutional amendment.
Nobody wants to abolish
schools right now,” he said. The
U1 ion plan would supplemen
education at this stage, he added, al
though it might take over after a long
trial period—probably 10 to 15 years.
Dade’s Rep. John B. Orr Jr., whose
lone stand against segregation bills
three years ago won him the Freedom
Foundation Award for courage in pub
lic life, was defeated by a 20,000-vote
margin in his runoff race for re-elec
tion. Orr’s stand for gradual compliance
with the Supreme Court decision was
the sole issue in the bitter campaign.
Gov. Collins said he did not interpret
Orr’s defeat as a sign that Dade County
had become “less liberal” but that Orr’s
stand was too “extreme” for his con
stituents.
On a state level, a strong move was
developed by a states’ rights group to
elect a chairman of the State Demo
cratic Executive Committee. Richard D.
Barker of Jacksonville, the group’s can
didate, said segregation was the “most
important issue” in the movement.
At the showdown, Barker received
only 14 votes and ran third to incum
bent James Milligan of Orlando.
The committee, however, adopted
with only one dissenting vote a resolu
tion calling for the election of federal
judges.
It praised members of Congress who
have fought to preserve segregation.
COMMUNITY ACTION
Integration was the biggest issue at
the triennual general conference of the
Protestant Episcopal Church at Miami
Beach.
Florida’s Gov. LeRoy Collins set the
keynote by calling on the 14,000 dele
gates and visitors to “produce a plan
to end racial conflicts with respect for
Christian conscience and with respect
for law.” Such a plan should be ideal
istic, Collins said, but also embrace rea
son and common sense.
“I think the most tragic aspect of our
national racial dilemma is lack of effort
to find a constructive way out of the
darkness,” he said. “The people are
anxiously waiting for new ideas.”
A large number of resolutions were
offered on the subject. They ranged
from repudiation of the Supreme
Court’s “moral leadership” to calls for
full integration.
The House of Bishops voted, 73 to 58,
for a resolution which compared dis
obedience of the Supreme Court seg
regation mandate to outright revolu
tion.
“The right of civil disobedience and
of revolution should be undertaken by
Christians only for the gravest reasons
of conscience and as a last resort,” the
statement said.
The Bishops were rebuffed, however,
by the House of Deputies. In a stormy
session, a “middle ground” resolution,
proposed by the Virginia delegation was
adopted instead of the stronger stand
by the clerics.
It urged churchmen and all Ameri
cans to “work together in charity and
forbearance toward the establishment
without racial discrimination of full op
portunities in the field of education,
housing, employment and all public ac
commodations.”
Sponsors said the resolution would
“unite, rather than divide the people
of the church.”
The Hadassah, organization of Jew
ish women, holding its 44th annual con
vention on Miami Beach, urged its
members to “rise up against the spread
of hate and bigotry in the U. S.” as
shown by religious and racial bombings
and the school integration crisis.
Dr. Miriam K. Freund, national pres
ident, said: “Professional hate mongers
will exploit the school problem unless
decent Americans in the North as well
as the South act to quell violence and
foster obedience to the nation’s laws.”
A move to ban the only Negro stu
dent from the John Marshall Bar As
sociation was defeated by the law stu
dents at the University of Florida. Ac
tion took place in a closed meeting and
members would not discuss it. Debate
was on a motion to restrict member
ship, now open to all students, to “mem
bers of the Caucasian race.”
The peaceful outcome has led some
members of the legislature to question
the cost of maintaining a separate law
school at Florida A. and M. University
for Negro students.
The separate FAMU law school,
which has graduated only six students,
has cost Florida taxpayers $525,632.75.
While a full faculty and administrative
staff must be maintained for accredita
tion, enrollment has never exceeded 19
students.
# # #
DELAWARE
Education Heads Defer Disclosure of Mixing Plans
DOVER, Del.
he Delaware State Board
of Education, whose respon
sibility for formulating state-wide
school desegregation plans was
affirmed Oct. 16, announced it
will wait until all legal formalities
are concluded before making such
plans public. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
The burden was placed on the
state board, rather than on the in
dividual district boards, Oct. 12
when the U. S. Supreme Court
declined to review an order from
the U. S. District Court in Dela
ware.
Dover school district, only desegre
gated district outside of Delaware’s
northernmost New Castle County, re
ported that 11 Negro pupils are enrolled
in its high school. This compared with
17 who made the transition when the
high school was desegregated in 1954.
(See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
TEACHERS’ RESOLUTION
A resolution calling on Delaware citi
zens to support school desegregation
was adopted during the 40th annual
convention of the Delaware State Edu
cation Association. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
A five-year report on Delaware State
College (for Negroes) by President Je
rome Holland cited neglect of the Negro
institution between 1931 and 1950 but
noted plans for continued expansion to
meet anticipated enrollment increases.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
The state Board of Education met Oct.
16, three days after the U.S. Supreme
Court declined to review lower court
decisions ordering the state board to
formulate a statewide desegregation
plan. A 63-minute executive session
was devoted to the questions posed.
Five board members (one member
was absent) and the superintendent of
public instruction attended the meeting.
Other state administrative personnel, as
well as two newsmen, were requested
to leave.
The secretary to the board also left,
and apparently no formal minutes were
kept. The board, at the conclusion, is
sued a handwritten statement which
said in part:
“The state Board of Education met in
executive session at the conclusion of
its regular meeting... to consider the
consequences of the refusal of the U.S.
Supreme Court to grant a review in the
desegregation cases.
AWAIT COURT ORDER
“At the conclusion of the session it
was announced no public statement
would be made until such a time as the
U.S. District Court for the District of
Delaware had considered and an
nounced the form of the order, which,
in all likelihood, would require the
court approval before any such plan
could become effective.”
The seven districts involved in the
case, filed in May 1956, also had little
to say for the record.
James M. Tunnell Jr., representing
Laurel, Milford, Seaford, and the
Greenwood districts, said only, “our po
sition has been supported.” He added
he didn’t know “in what manner we’ll
proceed.”
The other defendant school districts
were John M. Clayton (which serves
Frankford and Dagsboro in Sussex
County), Clayton, and Milton.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to re
view the order was hailed by Louis L.
Redding, attorney for the seven Negro
children seeking admission to the all-
white schools.
Atty. Gen. Joseph D. Craven had ar
gued for the state board that the re
sponsibility for desegregation belonged
to the districts. Craven did not com
ment on the decision.
RESPONSIBILITY THE ISSUE
The Supreme Court action apparent
ly is the final one, with further legal
moves presumably exhausted,. Both the
state and the districts argued that re
sponsibility, rather than desegregation,
was the issue.
The Supreme Court denial upheld the
July 15, 1957, decree of former Chief
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Leahy.
Judge Leahy, who has since retired,
ordered the state board to submit a
plan of desegregation to take effect by
September 1957.
This order was blocked by the ap
peal to the Third Circuit Court. The
court of appeals order of July 1, 1958,
would have put the plan into effect last
September, but this was in turn
blocked by the appeal to the U.S. Su
preme Court.
Redding says he will move “prompt
ly” to have the district court amend
the original order to Judge Leahy, call
ing on the state board for a plan. Red
ding is awaiting the new court of ap
peals order before proceeding in the
district court in Wilmington.
THREE MORE FRESHMEN
Dover, the only school district outside
New Castle County with a desegrega
tion program, admitted three Negroes to
the 1958-59 freshman class of the Dover
High School, bringing the total Negro
enrollment there to 11 for the current
term.
This compared with 17 Negro fresh
men enrolled in 1954 when desegrega
tion of the high school began. Since
then, a total of 35 Negroes have been
admitted, including two who entered as
sophomores.
The decision to accept Negro pupils,
at the high school level only, was taken
by the board of education following a
Negroes Attending Dover
High
8th 9th 11th 12th Grad.
1954- 55 17
1955- 56 8 10
1956- 57 4 8 7
1957- 58 1 3 4 2 2
1958- 59 3 2 2 4
public meeting shortly after the Su
preme Court decision in May, 1954.
COURSES NOT AVAILABLE
Academic courses, including lan
guages, are not available at the Wil
liam W.M. Henry Comprehensive High
School, which is located near Dover
and serves Negro students from
throughout Kent County.
Negro pupils seeking to enter Dover
High School are required to pass an
aptitude test given to all eighth grade
graduates. The only Negroes admitted
are those who have graduated from
Booker T. Washington elementary, the
Negro school located in the Dover Dis
trict. The Dover Board of Education
has administrative responsibility for
Booker T. Washington.
According to figures compiled for
Southern School News, two of the
original 17 Negroes admitted in 1954
were graduated. One, a girl, is now at
tending Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
BACK TO NEGRO SCHOOL
Seven of the 17, at the end of the first
six-week term, asked to be allowed to
return to William Henry. Subsequent
enrollments in the freshman class have
been eight, four, one and three (see
table).
The Dover Board of Education, which
now includes one Negro member elect
ed two years ago, has declined to broad
en the program. A suit to do so at the
sixth and seventh grade levels (Dennis
et al v. Baker et al) is pending.
Supt. David M. Green says the limit
ed desegregation program has in no way
affected the educational program.
SPORTS SCHEDULE AFFECTED
But the sports schedules have had to
be revamped as relations were severed
with five schools in Kent and Sussex
counties which maintained segregated
schools.
These include bordering Caesar Rod
ney, Seaford, Laurel, Millsboro and Mil
ford. Millsboro’s football team walked
off the field in Dover when Dover sent
in a Negro player.
Caesar Rodney offered to play against
Negroes in Dover if Dover would, in
turn, play only whites when it visited
Caesar Rodney. The Dover board re
fused to enter such an agreement.
Consequently, opponents were sched
uled from New Jersey, northern Mary
land, and northern Delaware. Of nine
opponents this year, two are from out
of state, both from Maryland.
CALL FOR SUPPORT
The 40th annual convention of the
Delaware State Education Association
Oct. 22 unanimously approved the fol
lowing resolution:
“WHEREAS, the events of the past
year have shown clearly that certain
elements in communities over our
country have refused to accept the
court-ordered desegregation of public
schools and that the resultant confusion
has brought about irreparable interrup
tions to the education of our boys and
girls, and
“WHEREAS, community leaders have
been reluctant to assume their true re
sponsibilities toward the education of
their young citizens and have, in some
cases, even employed evasive tactics to
circumvent the execution of legal or
ders, and
“WHEREAS, we, as teachers and ad
ministrators of the schools of Delaware
recognize that the desegregation of the
public schools will be carried out
throughout the state and that our chil
dren may be subjected in some areas
to pressures and tensions that will pre
vent an effective approach to the order
ly transition from a segregated to a de
segregated status; therefore
“BE IT RESOLVED, that we urge, as
the professional educational leaders of
Delaware, the citizens of the state of
Delaware to demonstrate convincingly
in their communities that their children
will not be subjected to the confusion
and disorder that rules in other parts
of our nation and that we practice, as
adults, the same principle of respect
for and obedience to law and order that
we teach our boys and girls in their
schools.”
Continued expansion of Delaware
State College, to cope with an estimated
25 per cent increase in enrollment by
1960, is advocated by President Jerome
H. Holland.
The recommendation is included in a
special five-year resume submitted to
the board of trustees by Dr. Holland,
and covers his tenure as president of
the state-supported Negro college near
Dover.
Among the recommendations is a pro
posal for a new science building and
adequate housing for faculty members.
Funds for capital improvements, and
operation, must be approved by the
General Assembly.
ASSEMBLY NEGLECT NOTED
The Assembly has not always been
kind to Delaware State, according to
Dr. Holland’s report.
“The fact that the state of Delaware
did not expand the college’s physical
plant from 1931 until 1950 was evidence
of a form of neglect during a period
when many other Negro colleges were
in the midst of a building boom,” he
says.
Lack of suitable buildings, coupled
with a lack of employment opportuni
ties in lower Delaware, “meant that the
college . . . has not been able to draw
any appreciable number of students
from the state of Delaware. The situa
tion is now changing . . .”
EXPECT 400 ENROLLMENT
Of the current 300-plus enrollment,
“63 per cent are from Delaware.” Dr.
Holland predicts that the student popu
lation will increase to at least 400 in the
next two years.
In addition to increased state appro
priations for operations and capital
improvements, Dr. Holland favors an
increase in student fees.
He termed “significantly low” the
$550 annual tuition for in-state students,
$750 for out-of-state students. The fees
should be gradually raised over a period
of years, Dr. Holland said.
E. Washington Rhodes, Philadelphia
Negro publisher and attorney, told the
Wilmington Branch of the National As
sociation for the Advancement of Col
ored People, “The Negro is not trying
to get into white schools, but is simply
trying to enter American public
schools.”
Rhodes, while noting that the NAACP
needs money now more than ever, said
“it needs even more the support of
more Negroes.” There is too much
apathy, even among Negroes, he said,
in working for and financially aiding
the objectives of the NAACP.
# # #