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PAGE 2—AUGUST 1959—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
District of Columbia
(Continued From Page 1)
Court’s 1954 desegregation decision as
“the supreme law of the land.”
The committee was scheduled to
complete action on a civil rights bill
Aug. 4. It then goes to the House Rules
Committee headed by Rep. Howard W.
Smith (D-Va) where it is expected to
encounter delaying efforts.
For the first time since his 1952 elec
tion campaign, President Eisenhower
gave an indication of his personal atti
tude toward racial segregation. He told
a White House press conference that
where such segregation denies equality
of opportunity in the economic and
political fields, it is “morally wrong.”
The President has repeatedly refused
to state whether he agreed or disagreed
with the Supreme Court’s 1954 school
desegregation decision. He has stated
it would be “completely unwise” for
him to discuss this or any other Su
preme Court case, since he has taken
an oath to defend the Constitution.
‘APART FROM LEGALISMS’
Against this background, a reporter
asked the President July 8 whether he
regarded racial segregation as morally
wrong “quite apart from the legalisms
of the situation.” President Eisenhower
said he supposed the reporter meant
segregation that interferes with a citi
zen’s equality of opportunity in both
the economic and political fields, and
added:
“I think, to that extent, that is mor
ally wrong, yes.”
In a special message to the 50th an
nual convention of the NAACP the
President expressed the hope the or
ganization would meet with “continued
success” in fighting for civil rights.
“No one is blind to the fact that
much hard work remains to be done in
this basic field of human relations,” the
President said. He added “the power of
public opinion” had been “instrumental
in making effective the guarantees of
our Constitution and laws.”
ACCUSED OF EVASION
But Mr. Eisenhower was roundly
criticized in later sessions of the New
York City convention. Walter Reuther,
AFL-CIO vice president and head of
the United Auto Workers, said the ad
ministration has been characterized by
“nothing but evasion and hesitation” on
civil rights.
“When the Supreme Court handed
down its historic decision, that provided
an opportunity for courage and leader
ship from the White House,” Reuther
said. “Instead of courage and leader
ship in the White House, we had a
vacuum and into that vacuum came
the Faubuses and the hate-mongers.”
In another address to the NAACP
convention, Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey
(D-Minn.) called on the administration
to “consider the importance of balanc
ing our moral budget.” He also blamed
Congress for failing to support the Su
preme Court decision.
Former New York Gov. W. Averell
Harriman told the convention Mr.
Eisenhower should have declared his
opposition to school segregation years
ago. “We cannot but regret that he has
not stood up on this issue,” Harriman
said.
Robert C. Weaver, who was state
rent commissioner under Harriman,
charged school segregation followed the
pattern of residential segregation and
told the NAACP that it “cannot fight
for racial integration in public schools
and acquiesce in segregated suburbs.”
In a report issued July 9—four days
before its convention opened—the
NAACP said southern segregationists
lost ground on every front last year.
The report said 1958 was “the begin
ning of the end” for advocates of
“massive resistance” to the Supreme
Court desegregation ruling. It claimed
the NAACP recouped its 1957 member
ship losses during 1958 and had a total
income of more than $1 million for the
first time in its history.
PREDICTS BILL PASSAGE
House and Senate Judiciary commit
tees grappled with civil rights bills as
Congress headed for an August show
down on legislative proposals. In the
Senate, Democratic Whip Mike Mans
field (Mont.) said Congress would be
“very fortunate” to adjourn by Sept.
1. “The reason is that we are going to
get a civil rights bill through,” Mans
field added.
But in the House, Speaker Sam Ray-
bum (D-Tex.) denied a columnist’s re
port that he and Senate Majority
Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex.)
have agreed that a new civil rights bill
must be passed by Congress.
“I have no agreement whatever with
Sen. Johnson on the matter of civil
rights,” Rayburn said July 17. He de
clined to predict whether Congress
would act on pending civil rights pro
posals in this session.
Before the House Judiciary Commit
tee was a subcommittee—approved
measure which would recognize the
Supreme Court’s school desegregation
decision as “the supreme law of the
land.” The bill included the broad
“Part III” enforcement power authoriz
ing the attorney general to seek court
injunctions enforcing school desegrega
tion. Also in the bill was the admin
istration’s “moderate” seven-part civil
rights program. (See Southern School
News, July, 1959.)
In the Senate, southern members of
the Judiciary Committee invoked an
unwritten committee rule July 27 to
delay consideration of civil rights leg
islation for at least one more week.
Sen. Olin D. Johnston (D-S.C.) asked
that the subject be postponed for a
week, and Chairman James O. Eastland
(D-Miss.) said it has long been com
mittee custom to grant such a request
by any member on any bill. But it can
be done only once.
This left before the committee a mo
tion by Sen. Thomas C. Hennings Jr.
(D-Mo.) to take up the two-part bill
approved by his Constitutional Rights
Subcommittee July 15. Hennings said
he expected his motion to be approved
Aug. 3.
The bill would extend the life of the
President’s Civil Rights Commission
beyond its scheduled expiration this
fall and would require states to pre
serve voting records and produce them
for federal inspection to determine
whether Negroes’ rights have been
violated.
PLAN AMENDMENTS
Hennings said once the committee
begins considering the bill, he will of
fer “a number of strengthening amend
ments,” including some pertaining to
school desegregation.
Eastland, noting the bill has been
described as a “skeleton” by some
strong civil rights advocates, com
mented July 20 he was for “taking it
out and burying it”
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DISTRICT SCHOOLS
District School Supt. Carl F. Hansen
called for “a concerted drive” to boost
achievement levels of students in the
third, or general, track of the Washing
ton high schools’ four-track program
of ability grouping.
Standardized test scores for the
senior high schools, released by Han
sen at a July 9 press conference,
showed students in the third track—
about one third of the high school
population—trailing behind national
achievement standards.
Hansen said he was “very well
pleased” with achievements of students
in the top two tracks—the rigorous
honors program and the regular col
lege preparatory course—whose test
scores placed them well above na
tional medians.
Median scores for the remedial basic
track were far below national medians,
but a number of individual students
scored high enough to be placed in
other tracks.
As was the case with test results at
other school levels, announced earlier
this year, the high school scores showed
a pattern of steady improvement for
pupils in the capital’s desegregated
school system. Compared to last year,
high school scores were up in seven
test categories, unchanged in 27 and
down in two. Hansen said this was
progress, “but not significant enough
to make any fuss over.”
He voiced particular concern over
the third-track students—those who are
not planning to go to college. In the
19th grade, for instance, their medians
ranged from 19 in “quantitative think
ing” to 39 in “correctness of ex
pression.” The national median is 50.
Hansen said the scores indicated that
“a sizeable number” of the general stu
dents ought to be assigned to the basic
track. He also raised the possibility of
stepping up the number of required
fundamental subjects in the general
program.
Commenting on “the impression that
track four is a kind of educational
purgatory where the student is lost,”
Hansen declared: “It just isn’t so.”
The District school board approved
an operating budget totaling almost
$51.2 million for the fiscal year starting
July 1, 1960. The proposed budget
would be almost $4.3 million higher
than the amount appropriated by Con
gress in July for the current fiscal year.
Accounting for much of the increase
are salaries needed for teachers to take
care of expected increases in elemen
tary and junior high school enrollments
and to reduce pupil-teacher ratios in
elementary schools to 31 to 1.
Hansen called the proposed budget
“definitely moderate in relation to the
needs of the school system” and added
that “every item in it can be strongly
defended.”
Besides the added teachers, major
budget requests include salaries for 51
elementary school counselors—about
half the number school officials say are
needed; six social workers; 25 librarians
and reading experts for vocational and
junior high schools, and 42 clerks for
larger elementary schools.
The budget also includes a fund re
quest for a free lunch program for
about 7,000 needy pupils in elementary
schools. A “pilot project” to provide
free lunches to about 2,000 pupils was
approved by Congress this year.
Attorney Walter N. Tobriner, who as
a school board member played a sig
nificant role in planning the school
system’s desegregation five years ago,
was unanimously re-elected to a third
one-year term as board president.
On the day of his re-election, To
briner told a reporter; “Just as people
are known to move to the suburbs be
cause of the quality of their public
school systems, so suburbanites can be
induced to come back into the city if
we are able to offer them the same
kind of excellence in education.”
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Districts
(Continued From Page 1)
Clayton, Delmar, Ellendale, Greenwood,
Gumboro, Lincoln, Lord Baltimore,
Millsboro, Milton, Roxana and Shelby-
ville.
118,000 EXPECTED IN D.C.
District of Columbia — Completely
desegregated since 1954, Washington,
D. C. schools this year are expected
to enroll about 118,000 pupils. At last
year’s racial ratio of 74.1 per cent, this
would mean some 30,500 would be
white and 87,500 would be Negro.
Florida—The only state of the Deep
South expected to begin desegregation
for the first time this fall, Florida also
for the first time will exceed the mil
lion mark in enrollment. An estimated
886,000 white pupils and 214,000 Negro
pupils are expected.
In Miami, the Dade County Board of
Public Instruction has said it will go
ahead with its plan, announced last
year, to admit four Negro children to
the Orchard Villa elementary school.
The other 63 school districts in the
state will remain segregated. However,
Negro leaders have announced Negro
pupils will be presented for admission
to white schools in various parts of the
state.
BASED ON TRENDS
Georgia—On the basis of last year’s
enrollment and increase trends for the
past several years, Georgia schools ex
pect to received 1,007,900 pupils this fall.
Of this total, some 689,400 will be white
and 318,490 will be Negroes.
All 198 school districts will remain
segregated, including Atlanta which is
under federal court order to present a
plan for desegregation by Dec. 1. It is
expected no effort to implement such a
plan would be undertaken before the
fall of 1960.
Kentucky — Anticipated enrollment
for the state’s 215 school districts is
582,000, including 540,000 whites and
42,000 Negroes. With 123 of the 175
biracial districts already desegregated
in practice or principle, no new de
segregation plans have been an
nounced. Two school districts—Daviess
and Owen counties — have announced
plans for extending desegregation pro
grams already in effect. In Daviess
County, the program will be extended
to eight more schools, bringing the to
tal to 10. In Owen County, eight more
schools will be affected, doubling the
total desegregated last year.
Louisiana — In 67 school districts
across the state, enrollment is expected
to total 698,000, of which 429,000 will
be white and 269,000 Negro.
ALL CONTINUE SEGREGATED
All districts will continue on a segre
gated basis, including New Orleans
where the parish school board has been
ordered to present the federal district
court a desegregation plan by March
1, 1960.
Maryland—443,910 white and 131,330
Negro pupils are expected to be in
Maryland’s estimated total enrollment
of 575,240 this fall.
Twenty-one of the state’s 23 biracial
school districts have begun desegrega
tion. In seven, there had been no actual
classroom integration.
Anne Arundel County Board of Ed
ucation announced in the spring that
its gradual desegregation program
would be extended in September to the
seventh grade. The program began in
the first three grades in 1956. An esti
mated 100 Negro pupils are expected
to move into desegregated schools un
der the broadened program, bringing
to almost 400 the number of Negroes
attending desegregated schools.
LITTLE CHANGE
Mississippi — Little change is ex
pected in enrollment this fall. Last
year the state had 276,326 white pupils
and 268,905 Negroes. All 151 of the
state’s biracial school districts will re
main segregated.
Missouri — A slight enrollment in
crease is expected to move Missouri’s
total to about 800,000 of which some 10
per cent is Negro.
No plans for new or extended de
segregation have been announced. The
state reports 211 of its 243 biracial
school districts desegregated. About 95
per cent of the state’s Negro pupils
reside in desegregated districts.
North Carolina—A total enrollment
of 1,015,714, including 721,160 whites
and 294,554 Negroes, is expected. One
more school district has announced
plans for desegregating two schools.
This will bring to five the number of
district which have begun the process.
There are 174 districts in the state.
FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL
The most recent desegregation was
announced by the Craven County
Board of Education. The district, with
4,841 white and 2,565 Negro pupils, will
desegregate two schools at Havelock.
Each school now has an enrollment of
about 750. Both will be attended by
some 15 Negro pupils, all children of
military personnel at the Cherry Point
Marine base.
The action of the Craven board was
similar to that of the Wayne County
Board of Education last year which
desegregated the Meadow Lane ele
mentary school set aside exclusively
for children from the Seymour Johnson
Air Force Base. Two Negro children
have been assigned there for the fall
term.
Other desegregation in North Caro
lina will be at Charlotte, where a high
school and a junior high school each
have been assigned a Negro pupil; at
Winston-Salem where three Negro
children have been assigned to the
Easton elementary school; and at
Greensboro where seven Negroes have
been assigned to Gillespie.
Oklahoma — A total enrollment of
520,000 is anticipated, including 39,000
Negroes.
TWO ADDED TO LIST
Two districts are expected to be
SERS To Get New Assistant
To Director And Librarian
The McCauleys are leaving.
Patrick E. McCauley, assistant to the
SERS executive director, and his wife,
Mrs. Imogene Morgan McCauley, head
librarian, are moving this month to
Charlotte, N. C., where he returns to
the daily newspaper field as editorial
writer for the Charlotte News.
Edwin Goins, former United Press
newsman and more recently on the
staff of the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-
Ledger, is joining SERS to take over
part of McCauley’s duties.
Mrs. Marybeth Wrenne, assistant li
brarian, succeeds Mrs. McCauley. Mrs.
Elizabeth Fryer of the Nashville public
library has been employed as an assist
ant librarian.
Mrs. McCauley helped launch SERS
in 1954 under its initial director, C. A.
(Pete) McKnight, now editor of the
Charlotte Observer. McCauley came
into the service later that year. He
formerly was on the news staff of the
Huntsville (Ala.) Times.
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added to the list of desegregated. They
are: Ardmore, which disclosed only re
cently that it has had a policy of de
segregation for some time and at times
has enrolled some Negroes in white
schools; and Alluwe in Nowata County
which will desegregate for the first
time.
Extension of current desegregation
programs is planned in Oklahoma City,
where nine schools will have integrated
student bodies, two more than last
year; and in New Model and Chicka-
sha.
South Carolina — Approximately
608,000 pupils are expected to enroll,
including 349,000 whites and 259,000
Negroes. All 107 of the state’s school
districts will continue to operate on a
segregated basis.
16 PER CENT NEGRO
Tennessee—About 815,000 pupils are
expected to enroll in Tennessee’s 153
school districts, 684,600 white and
130,400 Negroes. Negroes are expected
to account for 16 per cent of the total
enrollment for the coming year.
Three school districts will continue
desegregation programs begun in 1956
and 1957. They are Nashville, Clinton
and Oak Ridge. Nashville will extend
desegregation to the third grade, under
its court approved grade-a-year de
segregation plan. Some 225 Negro stu
dents are eligible to enroll under this
plan.
Oak Ridge will continue to operate
under its desegregation program, begun
in 1955. Clinton High School, desegre
gated in 1957, also will continue on
that basis.
NO NEW DESEGREGATION
Texas—A total enrollment of 2,049,-
459 is expected, including 1,772,973
white pupils and 276,486 Negroes. No
additional school districts are expected
to desegregate, though Victoria will
likely extend its gradual desegregation
another grade.
Houston and Dallas are under court
orders to desegregate and Negro lead
ers have said application for admission
to white schools likely will be made in
Galveston.
Virginia—Of the anticipated 850,000
pupils, expected to enroll in Virginia’s
129 school districts, about 638,000 are
white and 212,000 Negro.
Charlottesville’s Board of Education
has announced its will inaugurate a
desegregation plan for the first time.
Under a local pupil assignment plan,
nine Negro children have been as
signed to Venable elementary school
and three to Lane High School. Both
schools were among those closed last
fall when ordered to desegregate. They
were permitted to reopen in February
on a segregated basis after federal
court was told the district would begin
desegregation this fall.
In Norfolk, the school board has
recommended to the state Pupil Place
ment Board that two additional Negro
pupils be admitted to white schools,
bringing the total to 19. One of them
would go to a high school already
desegregated, the other to an elemen
tary school. This would represent ex
tension of Norfolk’s desegregation to an
eighth school and to the grade school
level for the first time.
Federal court has ordered 12 more
Negro pupils admitted to white schools
in Arlington County. Seven of them
have been assigned to a junior high
school which had admitted four Ne
groes last winter. The others would go
to schools not previously desegregated,
four to a high school and the other to
an elementary school.
The Warren County high school at
Front Royal was desegregated last
year and enrolled 21 Negro pupils—
but all white students remained in a
private school. Since then a new Negro
high school has been completed, and
some observers believe the Negro pu
pils will go there either by choice or
by assignment.
Public schools were abolished in
Prince Edward County when the
county board of supervisors refused to
appropriate funds for their operation
after a federal court refused to stay an
order to desegregation this fall.
At Alexandria, where nine Negroes
were admitted under court order to
three schools last winter, no change
was expected.
West Virginia—A small increase in
enrollment is expected to bring 469,975
pupils into the schools of the states
55 county districts. Negroes are be
lieved to constitute about 5.4 per cent
of the total.
All 44 of the state’s bi-racial school
districts — and some of its one-race
districts — have policies of desegrega
tion. No plans for extension of these
programs have been announced.
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