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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY 1959—PAGE 9
TEXAS
Distribution Of Election Petition
Starts in Houston, Sign-Ups Slow
AUSTIN, Texas
ouston’s school board started
circulating petitions for an
election on desegregation, with
signatures slow. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
A federal district judge set July
30 for hearing a plea for immediate
compliance with an order for de
segregation of Dallas schools “with
deliberate speed.” (See “Legal
Action.”)
An East Texas legislator consid
ered asking Texas to join Florida’s
Legislature in a campaign to pub
licize “the real facts” of race rela
tions in the South. (See “Legisla
tive Action.”)
A rivalry developed in the Texar
kana area over who heads the Ku Klux
Klan. (See “Community Action.”)
Central Texas Methodists again urged
“abolition of racial discrimination.” (See
“What They Say.”)
Attention centered on Houston and
Dallas, where the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People
asked federal judges to order quick
compliance with “deliberate speed” with
desegregation court orders.
At Houston, the school board in a
surprise move began circulating peti
tions for an election on the question of
desegregation. A state law prohibits
paying state funds to any district which
takes the step without approval of its
voters, and also provides for fines
against school authorities who permit
integration without voter-approval.
Pro-segregation members of the
Houston board called for the circulation
of referendum petitions. Mrs. Charles E.
White, the board’s Negro member, voted
against it.
RETURNS SLOW
After a week only half a dozen peti
tions had been returned to Supt. John
W. McFarland, containing about 200
signatures. A total of 46,961 signatures
are needed—one fifth of Houston Inde
pendent School District’s voters—before
the election is held. Petitions were be
ing circulated by many civic organiza
tions but with few takers. There was
no indication that Negroes were circu
lating the petitions. The district has an
estimated 50,000 Negro voters. A
spokesman for the Texas Citizens Coun
cil said its members would refrain
from signing petitions for the referen
dum.
Mrs. White, the board member who
voted against the referendum, expressed
an opinion the state law—never tested
in court—- is invalid. The Dallas dis
trict has tried to get a decision both in
federal and in state court regarding its
status under the referendum act, but
so far has failed.
Houston’s decision to call for petitions
was upon advice of Joe Reynolds, attor
ney for the school board.
VOICES OPPOSITION
Mrs. White objected: “I would like to
suggest the board get together and try
to work out some plan for compliance
with Judge Connally’s decision rather
than go to this unnecessary expense in
trying to evade this decision.”
School officials said the Houston dis
trict would lose $5 million annual state
aid if it desegregates without voter-
sanction. McFarland said this virtually
would close the Houston schools.
Thurgood Marshall of New York,
head of NAACP’s legal staff, meanwhile
told a Houston audience “white and Ne
gro leaders of this community should
sit down and find out why we can’t in
tegrate.” (See “What They Say.”)
Both plaintiffs in the Houston case
(Ross v. Rogers) attended the bi-racial
rally where Marshall spoke at Antioch
Baptist Church. The applicants for ad
mission to white Houston schools are
Delores Ross and Beneva Williams.
PROOF SOUGHT
The Houston board’s attorney asked
the federal court to require proof that
the two Negro girls represent other
members of the race in this area. At
torney Reynolds said the applicants
originally “represented themselves and
only themselves” and had employed
Houston attorneys. They since have
called in assistance from NAACP’s na
tional office, he said, and attempted to
make theirs a “class action.”
Reynolds’ petition alleged that very
few Negroes in Houston desire to attend
integrated schools.
Parents of the two girls conferred
with the board attorney.
‘“What’s wrong with Wheatley?” (the
Negro high school Beneva Williams
would attend) Reynolds asked.
AMPLIFIES STAND
Marian Williams, the father, replied
the school is segregated and therefore
inferior. He explained he is pressing
his suit to end segregation rather than
being primarily concerned with denial
of rights to his daughter.
The Houston Informer, Negro news
paper, said of the conference with the
school board attorneys:
“What looked like a possible attempt
by attorneys of the Houston School
Board to cite the lawyers of the Na
tional Association for the Advancement
of Colored People for barratry was
thwarted by parents of the plaintiffs in
the local school desegregation case.”
U. S. Dist. Judge T. Whitfield Da
vidson set a hearing for July 30 on the
NAACP’s effort to speed up integration
at Dallas. Thurgood Marshall said he
hopes to represent plaintiffs at the hear
ing (Borders v. Rippy—See Southern
School News June 1959 and previous).
The Dallas board employed Henry W.
Strasburger, a widely known trial law
yer, to handle its defense in place of
School Board Atty. Andrew J. Thuss,
who is ill.
The Dallas district also has pending
an appeal for a determination of its
status under the state law requiring ref
erendum approval before integration—
in view of a conflicting order from the
U.S. district court. (Dallas ISD v. Ed
gar).
‘NOTHING GAINED’
Dallas board members commented
there is nothing to be gained at this
point from seeking a referendum, as the
Houston board is doing. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
R. L. Dillard Jr., an attorney and
board member, said the Dallas board
already is under a court order to deseg
regate and that an election would be
only an expression of public opinion.
“Since the law requires a petition by
20 per cent of the qualified electorate,
we’ve always felt it just about impossi
ble to obtain,” added Franklin E.
Spafford, another lawyer and Dallas
board member.
Dillard said he felt an election in
Dallas would go heavily against inte
gration.
Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP’s
chief attorney, told an audience at
Houston (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen”) that he expects to spend
“a great deal” of time there this sum
mer, seeking to speed up the integra
tion of the nation’s largest segregated
school system.
In urging white and Negro commu
nity leaders to confer for a peaceful so
lution of the problem, Marshall insisted
Negro children will achieve as much as
others if given equal opportunity.
“‘If they want to do it on a achieve
ment basis, we of the NAACP are all
for it,” said Marshall. “But let them do
it without regard for race or color.
GROUP STUDENTS
“Put all the smart white students with
all the smart colored students. Put all
the stupid white students with all the
stupid colored students. And put all the
in-between white students with all the
in-between colored students.”
Marshall also struck at critics who
contend the NAACP is Communist-in
filtrated and has broken communication
between white and Negro citizens of the
South. He said equality would never
be achieved until all races have the
right to use the same facilities.
Delay in integration, he insisted,
“gives more time for resistance to
build up.”
METHODISTS ACT
The Central Texas Methodist Con
ference, meeting at Fort Worth, called
for “abolition of race discrimination.”
It adopted a resolution urging each
minister to “exert to the fullest his per
sonal influence” in that direction.
“Progressive steps have been taken
toward the abolishment of discrimina
tion because of race in some of our
Methodist institutions in Texas,” the
resolution added.
An East Texas segregationist, Rep.
Joe N. Chapman, suggested Texas legis
lators join Florida in financing a cam
paign to publicize “the real facts” of
race relations in the South.
Florida’s legislators offered to put up
$500,000 for an information campaign if
five other Southern states do likewise.
Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins vetoed the
proposal.
After conferring with other East Tex
as representatives, Chapman turned the
project over to the Texas Legislative
Council staff for study.
TAX DEADLOCK
The Texas Legislature started its sec
ond called session, and its sixth month
of lawmaking, on June 17. The legisla-
OKLAHOMA
Court Asked
In Effort To
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
ne of Oklahoma’s few de
segregated districts where
Negroes are in the majority
fought in June to save its high
school as transfer efforts by white
pupils threatened to drop enroll
ment below the state-approved
minimum.
The board of education of Ar
cadia in northeast Oklahoma
County appealed to district court
to set aside transfers granted for
next fall to 25 white children in
13 families. Although most of the
transferees are in the elementary
grades, district officials apparently
feared a trend which would cost
the district valuable average daily
attendance at the high school
level. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Two southern Oklahoma districts
wrestled with an old problem—how to
continue operating segregated schools
in the face of financial pressure from
the state. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
The transfer dispute in Arcadia was a
renewal of a struggle that has been
going on for the past two years. This
spring, for the third straight year, the
question of whether white students
should be allowed to transfer out of
the predominantly Negro district
wound up in court.
The school board, with four of its five
seats now filled by Negroes, asked the
court to set aside the transfers granted
the 13 white youngsters by the Okla
homa County superintendent, Carlton
Poling. The board charged that Poling
granted the transfers illegally and that
the 13 white families did not apply in
good faith but, rather, wanted to escape
integrated classes.
Arcadia’s former Negro school was
closed when the district desegregated,
and the combined student body now
uses the building that was the majority
school under the segregated system.
During the past year the district had
an enrollment of 181. Of these 60 stu
dents attended the high school, which
had an average daily attendance of 51.5.
An ADA of at least 40 must be main
tained for a high school to continue in
operation with state-aid funds, unless
it has “isolated” status.
30 PER CENT WHITE
State Department of Education rec
ords do not show a racial breakdown in
the Arcadia enrollment for the past
THURGOOD MARSHALL
Some Time in Texas
tors have been deadlocked over tax
ation. The state faces a deficit of $66
million in its main account by August,
and needs approximately $75 million a
year more to maintain present state
services in the next two years.
Gov. Price Daniel also has stated that
before his term ends in 1960 he expects
to call a special legislative session to
consider the $100 million-a-year pro
gram of public school improvement rec
ommended by the Hale-Aikin study
committee.
year, but in 1957-58 the proportion of
whites was about 30 per cent of the
total.
In 13 separate appeals, one for each
of the families involved in the trans
fers, the Arcadia school board asserted
the transfers were sought solely because
of integration, because Negro pupils
outnumbered the whites.
Robert Johnson, clerk of the board
and the only white member, said all
but a “handful” of the high school stu
dents at Arcadia are Negro. In the grade
school whites make up about 40 or 50
per cent of the student body, he said.
‘TO PRESERVE SCHOOL’
Sid White, attorney for the school
board, who filed the appeals, said “these
folks are not interested in trying to
push integration. But these transfers
are destroying the district, and they
just want to preserve some sort of
school.”
Johnson said the transfers, if finally
approved, will cost Arcadia some $7,500.
It will have to pay about $300 per stu
dent, he said, to the receiving districts,
principally Edmond and Jones. The stu
dents are also lost to Arcadia for state
aid payment purposes.
The appeal petitions charge that Pol
ing, the county superintendent, ad
vised the white patrons they could gain
transfers by producing doctors’ certifi
cates stating attendance at Arcadia
would be “injurious to health.”
‘TRY IT AGAIN’
Poling denied the charge. “I didn’t
tell the parents they could get a doc
tor’s letter and get transfers,” he said.
“They did that before I was ever in of
fice. They saw it worked two years in
a row, and they thought they’d try it
again.”
The dispute dates back to April 1957,
when Arcadia residents waged a bitter
annexation battle. In a special election
they rejected, by a 2-to-l margin, a
proposal which would have annexed
portions of the district to neighboring
Edmond, Luther, Guthrie and Jones and
reduced the area from 55 to 15 square
miles. The late C. E. Grady, former
county superintendent, had warned this
would probably have meant closing the
high school—which then had 45 Negroes
and 15 whites—because of low ADA.
Two months later 22 white students
applied for transfers out of the district
for 1957-58. Grady denied them. He
said none came within provisions of
the transfer statute. This makes trans
fers mandatory if a school district
doesn’t offer the grade sought, because
of topography or health reasons, or the
local school board decides a transfer is
in the best interest of the child.
Parents of six of the students ap
pealed to district court from Grady’s
ruling, citing reasons ranging from per
sonal to physical. One parent offered
a doctor’s certificate in support of his
appeal. On June 27, 1957, District Judge
Clarence M. Mills overruled Grady and
COMMUNITY ACTION
A dispute over leadership of the Ku
Klux Klan in Texarkana came to light.
R. F. Davis, 3311 Glenhaven, Dallas,
made a statement that he is the national
Imperial Dragon, Knights of the Orig
inal Ku Klux Klan, U.S.A.
Davis added that recruiting posters
put up on trees and utility poles in the
Texarkana area are not symbols of the
parent Klan organization but the Ar
kansas Association of Klans.
This brought from George F. Edwar-
des, a Texarkana, Ark., attorney, a
statement that he is connected with the
Arkansas Association of Klans.
“My name is the one you wanted,”
he told the press. “Now print it. I only
ask that after you read this letter you
will leave the other members the same
anonymity that other secret organiza
tions enjoy, unless, of course, you are
willing to obtain and disclose the mem
bership lists of the NAACP and other
secret fraternal orders.”
*OI
Two Negro ministers sued the Staffer
Hilton Hotel in Dallas on charges of
refusing to rent them rooms after ac
cepting reservations. They asked $15,-
000 damages each, charging breach of
contract. They reported they had to
obtain other rooms eight miles away
from the National Baptist convention in
Dallas in 1957.
# # #
granted the transfers for the six stu
dents, saying they were in the best in
terests of the children.
Poling said he used this court decision
as the basis for ruling on transfer
applications submitted to him in 1958.
He granted transfers fo 14 children who
attached doctors’ letters to their ap-
lications and turned down 12 others
who did not have such letters. The
school board appealed to district court
on the 14 granted and the parents ap
pealed on the 12 rejected. The court
sustained Poling on the first group and
generally overruled him on the latter,
in effect approving transfers for all but
one of the children. A different set of
circumstances was involved in one
case, but the school board ultimately
granted this transfer any way.
This year all the transfer applications
were accompanied by doctors’ certi
ficates, and the county superintendent
granted all of the requests.
At the other side of the state, in
Carter County, the rural district of
Graham, which integrated Negroes and
whites at the high school level last year,
was still trying to keep its grade
schools separate.
Roy Emans, finance director in the
state Department of Education, dis
closed Graham school officials applied
in April to have the races calculated
separately in their district for state
aid purposes. On his recommendation,
however, the state Board of Education
voted to require Graham to calculate
the number of teachers it is entitled to
for 1959-60 on a combined ADA basis.
This will mean the Graham district will
either have to close its Negro school
in the Woodford community 10 miles
away or stand the extra expense of
keeping it in operation. None of the
Graham school officials could be
reached for comment on whether they
plan to integrate the elementary schools
this fall.
PREVIOUS DECISION
In about the same situation was the
Fox district, also in Carter County. A
year ago it asked the state board to
declare “isolated” status for Tatums, a
Negro school 10 miles from Fox. This
would have allowed the district to
calculate the ADA separately for the
two schools. However, the state board
ruled it was feasible to put all the
high school students in the same build
ing and ordered the ADA combined
for those grades. This cost the district
an estimated $8,000 to $10,000. Fox was
permitted to continue calculating the
races separately in the elementary
grades for 1958-59.
Emans said Fox will have to com
bine its ADA at both high school and
elementary levels in calculating state
aid from now on. Nevertheless, a Fox
school board member, Jess Phipps, told
Southern School News his dis
trict is “still working” on keeping the
schools segregated this fall and will do
it if at all possible.
# # #
To Void Student Moves
Halt School Closure