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VOL. 5, NO. 10
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APRIL, 1959
Civil Rights, School Issues Debated
T he civil rights issue came in for mounting debate as the South
approached next month’s fifth anniversary of the U. S. Supreme
Court's desegregation decision.
Not since the court’s 1954 ruling has the closely-related rights ques
tion been under such widespread and bitter discussion.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights itself came under continuing
attack in parts of the South where its activities have been branded as
an invasion of states’ rights.
TEic U.S. Civil Rights Commission in March conducted a conference in Nashville, Tenn., at which school officials described
their experiences with desegregation of public schools. Members of the commission are, from the left, former Gov. Doyle E.
Carlton of Florida; Dean Robert Storey of the Southern Methodist University law school; Commission Chairman John A
Hannah, president of Michigan State University; former Gov. John S. Battle of Virginia and the Rev Theodore Hesbureh’
president of Notre Dame University. ’
Ciuif Rights Cl
-ommiSSion
Conference Is Told Of Wide Variety
Of Experiences By School Officials
By GARRY FULLERTON
^chool superintendents from 13 states agreed on five common factors in reporting a wide variety of
desegregation experiences to the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights in Nashville last month.
Some of them, such as Dr. Carl F. Hansen, of Washington, D.C., preferred total, immediate desegrega
tion of their school systems to any gradual plan. Others, such as Dr. Hugh Bryan of Leavenworth, Kan.,
and W. H. Oliver of Nashville, said a gradual plan is best.
All agreed, however, that each community is different and must find its own solutions to its school
problems.
These were the common factors in two
days of discussions at the commis
sion’s conference on school desegrega
tion problems:
•Press, radio and television bear an
unusually heavy responsibility in segre
gation-desegregation.
•Negro students on the whole lag
behind white students in academic
achievement at the same age or grade
level. Some systems found Negro stu
dents do better after desegregation,
others that they do better if left in all-
Negro schools.
PARENT OPTION
•Some degree of option by parents or
free transfer from one school to another
is a feature of almost all desegregation
plans.
• In most systems there has been little
or no integration of teachers, and Negro
teachers have been thrown out of work
in some places by desegregation.
•School desegregation is inescapably
tied up with other education problems
on the one hand, and with segregation-
desegregation in other areas, on the
other hand.
60 PERSONS ATTEND
Approximately 60 people attended the
conference as participants or observers.
The meeting was open to the press but
closed to the public. Chairman John A.
Hannah presided behind a long, green-
covered table flanked by the flags of the
United States and Tennessee. With him
were the other commission members,
Dr. Robert G. Storey, John S. Battle,
Doyle Carlton and the Rev. T. M. Hes
burgh.
Each superintendent gave a 10-minute
description of how his school system
began desegregation. He then was ques
tioned by commission members and
other participants.
One of the sharpest statements at the
conference came from Nashville’s Supt.
Oliver.
‘NOT BRAGGING’
“Desegregation in the Nashville city
schools has been exceedingly tedious,
very painful and terribly difficult,” he
told the commission. “We are thankful
that things have worked out as well for
us as they have ... We are thankful that
our children are all in school getting an
education, we hope in peace and safety.
But we are not bragging. The cost has
been too great for this.
“I should say that the one big problem
is that the mixing of the races in the
public schools is contrary to the will of
a majority of the people.”
A different experience was described
by G. B. Wadzeck, superintendent of San
Angelo, Texas, schools.
“We are now in our fourth year of
integration,” he said. “We have had no
serious problems, and our students seem
to be well adjusted. We have made no
effort to force social acceptance. We
sincerely believe that the extremists on
both sides of this issue will disgrace our
nation if they are not held in check. We
also believe that the Negro race has no
more desire for mixing the races than
does any other race.”
Dr. Hansen took the occasion to an
swer two widely circulated accusations
against the District of Columbia schools.
One was that academic standards had
suffered as a result of desegregation,
and the other that disciplinary problems
had increased.
Standard achievement tests show that
D.C. students fall below the national
norms, he said, whereas they exceeded
them prior to 1953. The explanation for
it is that Negroes are now included in
the tests, and they were not before, he
said.
ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL UP
“If we tested white pupils separately,
they still would exceed the national
norms,” Hansen said. “Furthermore the
academic achievements of all students
in the system have been slowly rising
since desegregation.”
As for disciplinary problems, they are
not the result of desegregation, he said.
“The difficulties have long existed,”
he added. “The difference is that their
impact upon the total community is
(See HEARING, Page 2)
D irectors of Southern Education
Reporting Service at their annual
meeting March 15 received reports on
two special projects and adopted a
broadened SERS program for the 1959-
60 fiscal year.
The projects include a book being
prepared for summer publication on bi-
racial education in the South for the
period 1952-57 and Facts On Film, re
cently completed microfilm of the SERS
library.
Other action included:
• Adoption of a $340,000 budget for
the 1959-1961 biennium.
• Re-election of four directors:
Coleman A. Harwell, editor, The Nash
ville Tennessean; Dr. Henry H. Hill,
president, George Peabody College for
Teachers; C. A. McKnight, editor, The
Charlotte Observer; and Dean George
N. Redd, Fisk University.
Commission Membership
Subject Of Discussion
A s Congress debates this
month whether to prolong
the life of the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission, there appears some
doubt whether the present mem
bers will accept re-appointment.
A correspondent who covered
the commission’s Nashville con
ference on school segregation re
ported four of the members in
dicated they did not want to con
tinue on the commission, while a
fifth refused to say what he would
do.
Later, however, John A. Han
nah told another reporter it is
“out of order entirely for me or
any other member of the commis
sion to speculate on the subject.”
Dr. George Johnson, former
dean of Howard University law
school, was named by President
Eisenhower last month as the
sixth member of the commission.
He will fill out the term of J.
Ernest Wilkins who died earlier
this year.
Set 1959-
• Approval of a report on the recent
merger of business operations of the
Race Relations Law Reporter and
SERS. Responsibility for editorial con
tent of the Law Reporter continues in
the hands of the Vanderbilt Univer
sity School of Law.
• Instructed the SERS headquarters
staff to study possibilities of broaden
ing coverage of Southern School News
beyond the southern states to other
areas in the nation where major popu
lation shifts are taking place.
The book on southern education, as
yet untitled, will be published in the
summer. It is based on data gathered
from the 17 southern states under a
grant from the Fund for the Advance
ment of Education.
The material, collected by a team di
rected by Dr. Bennie Carmichael, co
ordinator of the Peabody-Public School
MODERATE’ PROGRAM
In Washington, both House and
Senate of the 86th Congress began hear
ings on the Eisenhower administration’s
“moderate” civil rights program.
South Carolina’s new governor, Ernest
F. Hollings, said at Columbia he con
sidered both the commission and its
program unnecessary and that it would
get no help from him in establishing an
advisory committee for his state.
COMMITTEE SOUGHT
A commission staff member scouted
around Mississippi for an advisory com
mittee for that state but left without
saying what success he had.
Officials of two northern Louisiana
parishes (counties) refused to open
voter registration records to a commis
sion representative.
And in Missouri the state Commission
on Human Rights issued a report saying
discrimination was being practiced in
education, employment, housing and
recreation.
Meanwhile, the count of desegregated
school districts remained at 801 of
2,890 biracial districts in southern and
border states. This includes Wayne
County, N.C., which was reported last
month, and one district in Texas pre
viously reported but not heretofore
added to the total.
Other developments by states:
Alabama
Democratic Party officials, tom by
dissent over the segregation issue, held
a stormy session at which domination
of the state committee by party loyalists
or anti-loyalists was the principal
issue.
Arkansas
The General Assembly gave approval
to 32 more segregation measures and
adjourned after a session in which only
two of the measures stirred debate.
Delaware
A U.S. district court completed hear
ings on the state’s stair-step integration
plan and is expected to hand down a
decision late this month or early in
May.
District of Columbia
District commissioners reported the
capital’s population of 825,000 now in
cludes 438,000 non-whites, 53 per cent
of the total, with the Negro population
continuing its steady rise.
Florida
On the eve of the Legislature’s open
ing, strong sentiment developed for a
“parent option” school measure.
Georgia
Debate swelled on the segregation-
desegregation issue as a court decision
neared in the face of a state law re
60 Program
Co-operative Program, deals with sev
en phases of education—enrollment and
attendance, revenue, expenditures, per
sonnel, transportation, buildings and
equipment, and special services—as
well as with population and industrial
developments from 1952 to 1957.
The book will be in two parts—a
narrative section for the lay reader
and a statistical section for the scholar
and researcher.
The mass of data collected by SERS
is included in upwards of 700 tables.
These will be boiled down to some 65
tables for publication.
All the raw data will be added to the
SERS library for use by students and
researchers. It also will be microfilmed
and added to Facts On Film and
made available separately for research-
(See SERS BOARD, Page 2)
quiring closing of any integrated
school.
Kentucky
University of Louisville trustees
named a Negro educator head of the
department of sociology—first of his
race to become a department head at
a desegregated southern university.
Louisiana
Three persons were injured and six
arrested following a racial outbreak in a
community near New Orleans.
Maryland
Baltimore County planned to desegre
gate three additional schools this fall,
leaving two all-white schools in the
county.
Mississippi
Gov. J. P. Coleman said “counterfeit”
segregation experts are weakening the
state’s ability to preserve segregated
schools.
Missouri
An official report said Missouri,
though a leader in desegregation, still
has some segregation and discrimina
tion.
North Carolina
Negroes were told in two federal
court decisions they must exhaust ad
ministrative remedies under state law
before appealing to higher courts for
admission to white schools.
Oklahoma
The state Board of Education an
nounced another all-Negro high school
will be closed.
South Carolina
The threat of integration continued to
be reflected in measures under con
sideration by the Legislature.
Tennessee
The General Assembly wound up its
biennial session at which one school
segregation bill was approved.
Texas
Houston studied a proposal calling
for selective “area” desegregation rather
than on a “grade” basis.
Virginia
The General Assembly reconvened at
the end of March for a session at which
new school legislation will be con
sidered.
West Virginia
Education officials failed in their ef
forts to get legislative approval of a $15
million increase in school money.
# # #
Index
State Page
Alabama 3
Arkansas 10
Delaware 8
District of Columbia 6
Florida 14
Georgia 7
Kentucky 11
Louisiana 8
Maryland 2
Mississippi 12
Missouri 11
North Carolina 4
Oklahoma 14
South Carolina 13
Tennessee 9
Texas 5
Virginia 16
West Virginia 15
S€!2S Hoard
Directors Meet,