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VOL. 5, NO. 11
NASHVItLE, TENNESSEE
$2 PER YEAR;
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MU ’59
1IRRARiFR
MAY, 1959
Court Okays First State Grade-A-Year Plan
i
Fifth Anniversay Total
802 Districts; 22 Added
Since Last School Year
P’ive YEARS AGO this month the U. S. Supreme Court outlawed
A racial segregation in public schools of southern and border states.
That was on May 17, 1954. Another decision followed on May 31,
1955 directing that desegregation proceed with all deliberate speed.
How much desegregation has taken place since the Brown decision
of 1954 supplanted the 1896 separate-but-equal Plessy ruling as the
court-prescribed formula for schooling of southern white and Negro
children?
Statistics kept by Southern School News list 802 school districts
desegregated out of 2,909 biracial districts in the region. All told, the
17 southern and border states have 8,597 districts, of which 5,688 are
not biracial.
By the close of the 1956 school year,
450 districts had desegregated, 270 were
added in 1957, 60 in 1958 and 22 thus
far in 1958-59.
Present prospects are for two dis
tricts to be added this fall. Dade
County (Miami), Fla., has announced
it will desegregate one school. Char
lottesville is slated to become the fifth
Virginia district to do so.
BULK IN BORDER STATES
Of the 802 desegregated districts, 783
are in the border states: Delaware, 12 of
57 biracial districts (plus five all-white
districts which also have policies of de
segregation; Kentucky, 123 of 175;
Maryland, 21 of 23; Missouri, 211 of 244;
Oklahoma, 237 of 271; Texas, 125 of 722;
and West Virginia, all of 43 (plus four
others, all white, which have announced
desegregation as a policy.)
In the mid-South, Arkansas has de
segregated eight of 228 districts; North
Carolina, four of 172; Tennessee, three
of 141; Virginia, four of 129—a total of
19.
No public schools have desegregated
in the Deep South states of Alabama
(113 districts); Florida (67 districts);
Georgia (198 districts); Louisiana (67
districts); Mississippi (151 districts); and
South Carolina (107 district). Florida
and Louisiana do have some mixing at
the college level.
There are about 439,000 Negro public
school pupils in what are referred to
as “integrated situations.” By this is
meant districts where desegregation has
been started or completed but it does
not mean all the Negro children are in
mixed schools. Actually the number
attending schools with white children is
about 140,000.
NO RUSH TO ENROLL
The reason for this is that there has
been no great rush to enroll in formerly
all-white schools. For instance, Lexing
ton, Ky., schools desegregated at all
grade levels in 1955 making 2,750 Negro
children eligible to attend formerly all-
white schools. At the end of the last
school year only 68 had elected to do so.
In Nashville, Tenn., stairstep integration
began its second year last fall with 34
of 230 eligible Negro children entering
the first two primary grades with
whites.
In southern and border states there
are 12,630,344 white and Negro public
school pupils. Of these, 9,660,000 are
white, 2,970,344 are Negro with the lat
ter thus representing 23.5 per cent of the
total. There is a tremendous spread in
the percentage of Negro pupils, ranging
from a low of 5.4 per cent in West Vir
ginia to a high of 49.3 per cent in Mis
sissippi. The percentage generally is
small in the border states, larger the
farther south you go.
While the Supreme Court outlawed
compulsory segregation, it did not order
compulsory integration.
APPLICANTS’ INITIATIVE
In forbidding discrimination by race,
the court held that, all things being
e qual, any child has the right to attend
any school it chooses. The burden of
Proof has rested on the plaintiff, with
the question to be dealt with area by
area; and where school districts have
n ot desegregated voluntarily; children
Who seek to enter schools of the other
r ace must take the initiative.
The Supreme Court’s 1955 decision
left it pretty much to the district courts
to carry out the desegregation mandate,
with the administration to “be guided
by equitable principles.”
“Traditionally, equity has been char
acterized by a practical flexibility in
shaping its remedies and by facility for
adjudging and reconciling public and
private needs,” the court added.
TIMETABLES VARY
Taking this for their cue, district
courts in border states have ordered de
segregation almost immediately in favor
of Negro plaintiffs. Courts in the mid-
South have ordered desegregation but
often have allowed a year to six months
for plans to be formulated. In the Deep
South most courts have not set a time
limit while finding for desegregation.
The late Judge John J. Parker, sit
ting on a three-judge federal court
hearing July 15, 1955 at Columbia, S.C.,
on the Clarendon County case—one of
the original cases decided by the Su
preme Court—made what has become
accepted by many as an accurate inter
pretation of the Supreme Court’s de
cision. Said Judge Parker:
“• • • It is important that we point
out exactly what the Supreme Court has
decided and what it has not decided in
this case. It has not decided that the
federal courts are to take over or regu
late the public schools of the states. It
has not decided that the states must mix
persons of different races in the schools
or must require them to attend schools
or must deprive them of the right of
choosing the schools they attend. What
it has decided, and all that it has de
cided, is that a state may not deny any
person on account of race the right to
attend any school that it maintains. This,
under the decision of the Supreme
Court, the state may not do directly or
indirectly, but, if the schools which it
maintains are open to children of all
races, no violation of the Constitution is
involved even though the children of
different races voluntarily attend dif
ferent schools, as they attend different
churches . .
UPHOLDS LOWER COURTS
The U.S. Supreme Court itself con-
sistently has let stand the decisions of
the lower federal courts. In some in
stances, circuit courts of appeals have
reversed district courts, but in all cases
the high court has declined to alter
decisions from the courts immediately
below it. In most cases, the Supreme
Court simply has refused to review the
lower courts’ decisions, whether from
appellate or three-judge district courts.
This is in conformity with its 1955 de
cision to leave implementation of the
desegregation decree to the lower
courts.
The lower courts have not followed
any set pattern. Pupil assignment laws
have been declared invalid by district
courts in Louisiana and Virginia but
upheld in Alabama, Florida and North
Carolina. Nashville’s grade a year de
segregation plan won district court ap
proval; Hopkinsville’s in Kentucky was
turned down.
More than 200 anti-desegregation
laws have been adopted by Southern
legislatures since 1954. The process goes
on, the Arkansas assembly having
adopted 32 new ones at the session re
cently ended, Georgia’s six more.
# # #
Tlie Long, Long Trail
Richmond Times-Ditpatch
June 1, 1955
Gov. Almond
Target Of A
Pistol Shot
RICHMOND, Va.
i^ov. J. Lindsay Almond and
wJCapitol police believe an at
tempt was made to assassinate
the governor April 10.
The incident occurred as the
governor was walking from the
mansion to the Capitol building,
,both located in Capitol Square,
at about 2:30 p.m.
As he neared the gate of the
mansion grounds, a sharp explo
sive sound was heard.
His bodyguard, State Police Sgt. Jack
Elder, who was walking toward the gov
ernor to meet him, said later the crack
sounded like that of a .38 revolver. Al
mond thought its was possibly a .25
or a .32.
KEEPS GOING
The governor and his bodyguard con
tinued on to the Capitol. Police who
went to the point outside the Capitol
Square iron rail fence from where the
shot appeared to come found a freshly
lit burning cigaret. Five feet away, in
boxwood shrubbery inside the square,
they found a freshly broken twig. Lab
oratory analysis of the twig disclosed
lead fragments on it.
Speculation here was that if a shot
was fired at the governor, the would-
be assassin may have been a disgrun
tled all-out segregationist. Aides to the
governor say he has received anony
mous threats by telephone and mail
charging him with “selling out” to in-
tegrationists.
GOVERNOR’S ACCOUNT
Here’s how the governor himself de
scribed the incident:
“Somebody was taking a pot shot at
me. There’s no doubt about it. I knew
it at the time.
“It was definitely a light-caliber gun,
probably a pistol, because I don’t think
a man would carry a rifle on the street.
I turned around when I heard the re
port, but I couldn’t see anybody over
there.
“The painters [who were working on
the mansion] got excited and a con
vict [on a work detail in the square]
working on the lawn jumped behind a
tree. I thought of stepping behind the
tree, but when I saw the convict, I got
tickled. I figured his life was as good
as mine and I wouldn’t bother him.
There was nothing else to do but walk
to the office.”
Numerous security measures, includ
ing the installation of floodlights around
the mansion, have been taken since the
reported assassination attempt.
# # #
HPhe first statewide stairstep desegregation plan to receive federal
court approval becomes effective in Delaware with the opening of
the new school term this fall.
The 12-year process, beginning with the first grade, was presented
to U.S. District Judge Caleb R. Layton at Wilmington in March and
on April 24 received his approval except for two minor provisions.
(Decision excerpts on page 12.)
Grade-a-year desegregation plans similar to Delaware’s have been
inaugurated heretofore by individual school districts, but this is the
first statewide plan to receive a judicial go-ahead.
At Little Rock, the Arkansas supreme
court upheld by a four to three deci
sion the 1958 legislative act used by
Gov. Orval Faubus to close Little Rock
high schools. (Excerpts on page 7.)
In Virginia, local option replaced
massive resistance as that state’s offi
cial anti-integration policy. The state
wide plan squeaked through the Gen
eral Assembly by a single Senate vote.
Officials from a number of southern
states went to Washington to express
opposition to pending civil rights leg
islation, while Negro spokesmen pre
sented differing views.
Louisiana faced a gubernatorial cam
paign in which segregation leaders said
maintenance of separate schools would
be the dominant issue.
Other developments by states:
Alabama
The state Legislature began assem
bling for a regular biennial session
starting May 5 with new segregation
and civil rights proposals sharing inter
est with the problem of finding more
revenue for schools.
Arkansas
The Pine Bluff School Board, saying
that “under existing state laws it is not
practical to proceed with integration,”
announced it was postponing indefi
nitely its desegregation plan.
Delaware
The state Board of Education pro
posed a school redistricting which
would eliminate all districts which fail
to offer grades one through 12.
District of Columbia
Southern officials testifying before
congressional committees studying civil
Time For Renewals,
Summary Revision
The circulation department has
mailed renewal notices to South
ern School News readers whose
subscription expires with the
June issue. Keep up with segre
gation-desegregation develop
ments reported factually, objec
tively, fully. Renew now!
Add $2 and the name of an
acquaintance to whom you would
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* * *
The sixth printing of Statisti
cal Summary published by
Southern Education Reporting
Service will be ready for distri
bution May 15.
Revised and updated periodic
ally, it includes state-by-state
information on school enroll
ment, numbers of teachers and
teacher salaries, the status of
desegregation, legal and legisla
tive activity bearing on segrega
tion- desegregation.
Data on colleges and universi
ties also will be included in the
current revision.
The summary, including revi
sions, is available at $1 a year
from Southern Education Report
ing Service, P.O. Box 6165, Nash
ville, Tenn.
rights proposals described them as “civil
strife” bills.
Florida
In the first three weeks of the cur
rent legislative session 22 new pro
segregation measures were introduced.
Georgia
A year’s delay in the showdown on
Georgia’s segregation - desegregation
crisis appeared likely.
Kentucky
Louisville announced a new program
for slow learners in a move to reduce
the drop-out rate among pupils.
Louisiana
The head of the state Citizens Coun
cils resigned apparently to run for gov
ernor with segregation the main issue.
Maryland
The General Assembly finally got
around to ratifying the Fourteenth
Amendment at a 90-day session; no ra
cially significant laws were passed.
Mississippi
The lynching of a Negro prisoner by
a mob was viewed by white and Negro
officials as a grave setback to racial
relations.
Missouri
A Negro was elected to the St. Louis
Board of Education, the first of his race
to be chosen for public office in a city
wide vote.
North Carolina
Court hearings were held in cases in
which Negroes seek admission to white
schools in Durham, Greensboro and
Mecklenburg County.
Oklahoma
Faculty integration in public schools
received a setback with the disclosure
of a Negro’s dismissal from his teach
ing job in a mixed school.
South Carolina
Gov. Ernest F. Hollings told congress
men that federal desegregation and
civil rights moves are “clearly uncon
stitutional.”
Tennessee
A. U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals
took under consideration a request that
Nashville’s desegregation be made com
plete in one step instead of one grade
at a time.
Texas
Dallas and Pasadena, a community
near Houston, turned down funds from
the National Defense Education Act.
Virginia
“Massive resistance” as the official
state policy in Virginia was replaced by
a local option plan for pupil assign
ment. The Legislature approved the
policy change by a one-vote margin but
delayed implementation of the new pro
gram until March 1, 1960.
West Virginia
An educator and author said failure
of Negro pupils to fare well on achieve
ment tests is “a reflection of slavery
and isolation” and that “time will take
care of this.”
# # #
Alabama 16
Arkansas 6
Delaware 12
Dist. of Columbia 4
Florida 14
Georgia 15
Index
Kentucky 13
Louisiana 5
Maryland 9
Mississippi 8
Missouri 15
North Carolina 10
Oklahoma 10
South Carolina .... 3
Tennessee 5
Texas II
Virginia 2
West Virginia 13