Newspaper Page Text
TEXAS
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY 1959—PAGE 3
Mixing Slows
AUSTIN, Tex.
A survey showed 125 Texas
districts are desegregated;
that Negroes choose segregation
in most cases where they have a
choice; and that superintendents
report generally those in inte
grated schools make satisfactory
progress despite some scholastic
deficiencies. (See “Under Sur
vey.”)
The Dallas school board ap
pealed its case to determine the
district’s status under a state seg
regation referendum law. (See
“Legal Action.”)
School Board Attorney Joe Reynolds
of Houston advanced a desegregation
plan for that city in a closed session of
the school board. Details were not dis
closed. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Gov. Orval E. Faubus of Arkansas
spoke at Houston despite circulation of
petitions of protest by clergymen. (See
“What They Say.”)
A gradual rather than rapid desegre
gation of higher education drew favor
from most students attending a Stu
dent Conference on National Affairs
(SCONA) at Texas A&M College. (See
“In the Colleges”)
Houston, the nation’s largest segre
gated school district, heard a desegrega
tion proposal by Joe Reynolds, attorney
for its school board. By Reynolds’ re
quest, the session was closed and no
details were forthcoming on the plan.
“We would like to see that when de
segregation does come, it is done peace
fully, quietly and without violence,”
said Reynolds. “This would be some
thing that no other large southern city
has been able to do.”
COURT-ORDERED
Houston is under a U.S. district court
order to desegregate “with deliberate
speed” but no date has been set for a
beginning (Ross v. Rogers).
Supt. John W. McFarland described
the Reynolds proposal as “very wise.”
“It will help immeasurably if the solu
tion to this question can be arrived at
quietly by board members without pub
licity,” McFarland added.
NOT IMMINENT
Reynolds and McFarland reported
that the discussion of desegregation
does not mean the step will be taken
soon.
“It does mean that the study is be
ing intensified,” McFarland said.
Mrs. Charles E. White, a Negro elected
to the Houston board, will take office
in January. She did not attend the
December session where desegregation
was discussed, although Mrs. H. W. Cul
len, another member-elect, was present.
Mrs. Frank Dyer, board president,
said Mrs. Cullen attended the session
without any special invitation and the
same opportunity had been open to
Mrs. White had she used it.
Houston newspapers said the deseg
regation discussion was the first by that
district’s board in two years.
NEW VANDALISM
Mrs. White, the first Negro ever
e lected to the Houston board, described
as “the work of pranksters” the break-
urg of her automobile windshield as it
Wa s parked outside a church she was
attending. The damage was done with
an air rifle. In November, unknown per-
a°ns burned a cross upon the lawn of
Mrs. White’s home.
Dr. W. W. Kemmerer, a liberal mem-
^r, said he believes the district can
comply with the court order for de
segregation without actual integration,
ue said this could be done by a liberal
ransfer policy, plus additional build-
®g.
Money problems
. The Houston district, however, is hav-
"Jg financial trouble. This stems from an
’°rney general’s opinion regarding a
e w state school budget law, plus the
cleat of a proposal to increase the dis-
( ric t s debt limit at the November elec-
ris. One board member declared
^°Uston schools may have to “close in
arch” unless the financial problems
an be solved.
A proposed teachers pay raise also
e through because of the voters’ op
position to higher taxes. One post-elec-
C [ l n result was the organization of a
r p “Pter of the American Federation of
e achers, AFL-CIO, to work for higher
With 125 Districts Desegregated In Lone Star State
pay. Most teachers belong to the Texas
State Teachers Association, which has
no labor union affiliations.
A state law prohibits any public em
ploye from striking in Texas.
A new survey by the Dallas Morning
News shows that little additional inte
gration has occurred in Texas schools
this school year.
A superintendents’ check indicates
that some 3,250 Negroes are attending
classes with 265,000 white students.
Statewide enrollment totals 1,810,927
whites and 266,974 Negroes.
FEW INTEGRATE
Twenty-six thousand Negro pupils live
in districts which have abolished seg
regation. But relatively few of these ac
tually go to school with whites. Some
districts retain segregation of certain
grades. But many more Negroes have
chosen voluntarily to attend separate
schools, when given a choice.
Nearly 500,000 white students are en
rolled in the 125 integrated districts.
These are mostly in West and South
Texas where Latin-Americans raise a
greater educational question than do
Negroes.
FULLY DESEGREGATED
Segregation has disappeared legally
in Bexar County (San Antonio). The
Edgewood district, for example, has 13,-
000 white and 700 Negro students. Two
hundred and sixty Negroes attend
classes with 2,500 white children. Forty
white children are enrolled at a for
merly all-colored school, along with 440
Negroes.
The largest percentage of Negroes is
at Littlefield, a farming town near Lub
bock. Its 190 Negroes are mixed with
1,776 white students, a step taken at one
stroke in 1956 after a full year of com
munity discussion.
While most Negroes show a prefer
ence for separate schools, where facil
ities are reasonably equal, the predic
tions of “trouble” over integration have
proved largely to be unfounded in Tex
as, the survey showed.
No integration has been attempted in
East Texas, where 90 per cent of the
state’s Negroes live. Educators in other
areas, with relatively few Negroes, ad
mit the method of handling the prob
lem in one area does not necessarily
recommend it where populations and
attitudes are different.
OVERCOME DEFICIENCIES
Negroes first integrated into the high
er grades of Texas white schools gen
erally proved to be inferior students,
lagging a year or two behind white pu
pils of the same age. Those who have
attended white schools for two to four
years, however, are reported to be over
coming their educational deficiencies.
Negroes are playing on many high
school athletic teams, and are more in
clined to star in sports than in studies,
the superintendents say. Negro students
are participating in more extracurricu
lar activities each year—choir, band,
marching squads, and public speaking.
BALLOT AN ISSUE
Two Texas districts, Bloomington and
Pleasanton, voted to integrate under the
law requiring voter-approval for fu
ture integration. The other 123 districts
took the step before the law was passed
in 1957. Boeme voters rejected integra
tion. It now employs one teacher for its
two Negro students.
Dallas and Houston, the state’s two
largest school districts, both are under
federal court orders to integrate “with
deliberate speed.” Neither has a dead
line to meet. Dallas is seeking a court
opinion on its status under the state
referendum law.
State Dist. Judge W. L. Jack Thorn
ton dismissed the case, on the argument
that the Legislature’s permission is
needed to bring suits against the state.
The Dallas school board plans an appeal,
despite complaints from pro-segrega-
tionists that it should refrain from at
tacking the state law.
MOST STAY PUT
Four years experience in Texas since
the U. S. Supreme Court held compul
sory segregation to be unconstitutional
shows that most Negroes will choose
separate schools if these are reasonably
equal to those provided white children.
While most Negroes doubtless sup
port the Supreme Court’s view that
compulsory segregation is wrong, those
in Texas have displayed no great zeal
for attending school with whites when
the bars are down, the survey report
ed.
Several school boards, in fact, have
been requested not to abolish the sep
arate Negro schools.
The larger school systems, where fa
cilities are good for both races, have
found that little integration results
from a voluntary system.
ONLY ONE MIXES
Example: Amarillo abolished segre
gation in 1956. The district has 22,203
white and 1,229 Negro pupils.
One Negro, a part-time student, chose
to attend high school with white pupils.
All others enrolled at separate schools,
reported Supt. Bob Ashworth.
Since classes are taught in summer
school for just one group, desegrega
tion is the rule here. Thirty to 40 Ne
groes have been going to school each
summer in Amarillo with approxi
mately 1,150 whites. They separate vol
untarily in the fall.
Austin’s four high schools have been
desegregated for three years. This fall,
the policy was extended to the ninth
grade in junior high. Approximately
1,100 Negroes are eligible to attend
class in Austin with white students.
Thirty-one chose to do so. Thirty of
these are enrolled in three high schools
and one in junior high. The others at
tend all-Negro schools.
Lubbock has 20,888 white and 2,111
Negro students in its public schools.
Six Negroes are attending class wih
1,103 whites.
The other 2,105 Negroes are segre
gated by choice, reported Supt. Nat
Williams.
In many cases, Negroes pass up a
nearby white school to study with their
own race in a more distant school, the
record shows.
Negroes frequently object to losing
separate schools.
At San Antonio, where desegregation
was ordered early, the East Central Ru
ral High School District maintains part-
segregation.
STRICTLY VOLUNTARY
“One elementary school is segregated
at the request of Negroes,” reported
Supt. Alfred E. Teltschick. “It is strictly
voluntary on their part. As soon as at-
tendence drops, we shall close the (Ne
gro) elementary school.”
The board at Sinton, in South Texas,
wanted to desegregate fully but agreed
to maintain a separate one-room school
for Negro youngsters in the first and
second grades. The request came from
Negro patrons.
At nearby Bishop, officials desegre
gated the junior and senior high classes
two years ago. They had planned fur
ther integration.
“Negroes do not want further in
tegration,” reported Supt. R. S. Morgan.
Edinburg, in the Rio Grande Valley,
also retains a one-teacher Negro school
for first and second graders, by request
of Negro parents.
TEACHERS DISPLACED
Fifty or more Negro teachers have
been displaced in Texas by integrating
public schools. Reports show only three
were retained to teach integrated
classes.
Enrollment of both white and Negro
children is increasing steadily, up 15
per cent in four years. This has pro
vided more employment both for white
and Negro teachers. But the Negroes
lose out in desegregation.
Seven Negro teaching jobs vanished
at Littlefield when it abolished segre
gation. Six lost jobs at Kenedy. Three
Negro teachers each were displaced in
Del Rio, San Marcos, Sinton, and Har
lingen. Borger abolished two Negro
teaching jobs, as did Marion (Guada
lupe County), Woodsboro, Crystal City,
Aransas Pass, and Victoria.
One-teacher Negro schools abolished
included San Saba, La Vemia, Poth,
Laredo, Mason, Nordheim, Dalhart, Pet-
tus and Alpine.
Other districts like Port Lavaca sim
ply failed to fill existing vacancies for
Negroes.
Texas now has about 8,000 Negroes
teaching in public schools. There are
about 65,000 white teachers. Local
boards seldom employ Negroes for in
tegrated schools.
JOB LOSSES
It seems certain that more than 50
Negro teaching positions have disap
peared through integration in Texas.
Usually this has been because local
boards did not choose to keep the Ne
gro teachers.
Harlingen was an exception. It had
three Negro teachers. One died. An
other resigned. The third was assigned
to teach in an integrated school for one
year—then she resigned.
Hondo, west of San Antonio, kept its
lone Negro teacher after abolishing the
separate school in 1955. She now teaches
a second grade class.
Falfurrias (Brooks County) has a Ne
gro teaching music to more than 700
elementary students, all except two of
them white.
South San Antonio Independent
School District employs one Negro,
now teaching six Negroes and six white
pupils at its former colored school.
COLOR LINES FADING
While there has been less integration
of faculty than of students in Texas—
color lines are being erased in some
professional teaching areas.
While Amarillo maintains complete
segregation on a voluntary basis, ex
cept in summer school, its systemwide
faculty meetings are completely inte
grated.
Integration of faculty meetings and
in-service training sessions is spread
ing in Texas even to systems that main
tain segregation of students.
Only 13 of Big Spring’s 340 Negro
pupils attend class with white students.
But Supt. Floyd V. Parsons reported
white and Negro teachers “attend pre
school workshops together, eat together
at faculty dinners, and participate in
Business Education Day together.”
Faculty meetings are integrated at
Midland, Wichita Falls, Northside San
Antonio, Edinburg and Corpus Christi.
SITUATION IN SPORTS
Negroes are taking an increasing role
in sports at dozens of integrated high
schools in Texas, the Dallas News
noted.
While a few all-white schools in the
past have refused to play teams with
Negroes, this apparently has been a
minor problem.
The sight of Negroes and whites
playing the same game has become fair
ly common in West, South and some
Central Texas communities. One or
more Negroes have played in the Texas
Interscholastic League basketball cham
pionship meet here, where teams from
all sections compete.
Participation of Negroes in athletics
at desegregated Texas schools is more
the rule than the exception, although
relatively few of the race attend schools
with white children.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
School bands, choirs and public
speaking teams have been desegregated
in most of the 125 districts. Superin
tendents said little social mixing has
resulted from desegregation, but Ne
groes are being accepted fully in most
school-sponsored events.
Parent-Teacher associations generally
are integrated where segregation has
been abolished. In some places, Negro
parents take an active part in the PTA.
More often, they participate little, if
at all.
Scholastic difficulties have slowed the
participation of Negroes in extracur
ricular events, including sports. But
more are taking part each year in In
terscholastic League football, basket
ball, and other games.
Edgewood High in San Antonio has
three Negro lettermen on its football
first team this fall, with six more on
the squad. The team tied for second
place in District 16-AAAA this year.
Littlefield, another district with a
substantial number of Negroes, has two
Negroes on its high school varsity. The
district has five football teams at va
rious grade levels, and all have both
white and Negro players this year.
MIXED TEAMS
Aransas Pass has three Negroes on its
football squad and three playing bas
ketball. Farwell had a Negro tackle
who earned all-state honorable men
tion. Supt. Jack Williams reported also
that the West Texas school had one
Negro basketball player.
Other schools with integrated teams
include Travis (Austin), Miller (Corpus
Christi), Mathis, Hondo, Kress, Fort
Stockton, Marion, Kenedy, Pettus, Al
pine, Crystal City, Friona, Taft, Bovina,
Dalhart, Del Rio, Laredo, San Felipe
(Del Rio), Bloomington, Woodsboro,
Sinton, Kermit, Mason, Refugio, Wink,
Northside (San Antonio), Flour Bluff,
Pearsall, and Stockdale.
Several others reported that Negroes
had been unable to make their teams or
failed to make their grades.
OPPONENTS OBJECT
San Marcos High integrated for three
years, still has all-white athletic teams.
Some of its regular opponents objected
to playing against Negroes when San
Marcos desegregated.
At Cotton Center, Hale County, offi
cials reported that desegregation ap
plied to regular school work only. None
of its athletics is integrated.
East Texas remained solidly segre
gated.
Dublin, in West Texas, has one Ne
gro child of school age. She has been
attending Dublin elementary school
(white) for four years.
Much of Texas’ school desegregation
similarly has come without publicity.
ELEMENTARY GRADES
Superintendents in Texas districts
which have taken the step generally
recommend starting desegregation in
the lower grades.
Many districts—if not most—started
at the upper classes, however. This re
sulted mainly from the fact there are
fewer students in high schools. Some
districts in West and South Texas
which integrated early were unable to
furnish adequate separate education
for Negroes in the upper grades,
even when they offered substantially
equal facilities to elementary pupils.
RURAL PUPILS BEHIND
Outside the cities, educators almost
unanimously said Negroes had been re
ceiving inferior education. Many of
them dropped out of high school after
integration, being hopelessly behind.
“For best scholastic results we should
start integration in first grade and work
upward,” recommended Supt. I. R.
Huchingson of Wink.
Discrimination against Negroes on
school trips away from home is the
main problem reported by Supt. James
C. Alvin of Nordheim, a Dewitt County
school with 275 whites and four Ne
groes.
VOLUNTARY START
Victoria started integration on a vol
untary basis three years ago. It covered
the first three grades. One grade was
added the following year and two this
fall. Now integrated in the first six
grades, Victoria has 163 Negroes in class
with 2,276 whites.
Most of its 637 Negroes continue to
attend separate schools by choice. The
district plans to extend desegregation
to cover all grades.
Midland integrated its first grade in
1956, and is adding one grade a year.
Twenty-five of its 1,348 Negroes are at
tending slass this year with whites.
Attorneys for the Dallas school board
filed an appeal to the Fifth Texas Court
of Civil Appeals from the dismissal of
its case to test the application of two
new Texas laws. (Dallas ISD v. Edgar
—Southern School News, December,
1958, and previous.)
State Dist. Judge W. L. Jack Thorn
ton dismissed the case because the Leg
islature did not give the Dallas district
permission to sue, as he said is required.
Action on the appeal to the state in
termediate court is not expected be
fore next spring.
UNDER COURT ORDER
Dallas is under a U.S. district court
order to integrate with deliberate speed.
The State law prohibits integration
without approval of the voters. The
Dallas board contends the court order
took effect before the law did; hence it
is not covered by the referendum act.
Also involved is Texas’ Placement
Act, passed by the Legislature in 1957.
This law has never been applied in
Texas. It is similar to North Carolina
and Alabama pupil-assignment stat
utes which have been upheld on their
face by federal courts.
The Dallas board is asking that the
court declare the Texas Placement Act
(H.B. 231) is “not in conflict and is con
sistent with the federal court deseg
regation order. It sets standards on
which students may be assigned to
schools, other than race.
Three thousand cheering Houston
citizens heard Gov. Orval E. Faubus of
Arkansas declare that use of federal
troops at Little Rock was “illegal” and
that federalization of the Arkansas Na
tional Guard under the circumstances
violated Amendment Two of the U.S.
Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
His “Bill of Rights Day” address was
sponsored by a Houston chapter of the
Sons of the American Revolution.
There was minor heckling at the
(Continued On Page 4)