Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965, October 01, 1959, Image 13

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Newspaper Page TextSOUTH CAROLINA SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER 1959—PAGE 13 Clarendon County Object Of New Move For School Reassignment COLUMBIA, S.C. outh Carolina’s public schools opened the 1959-60 academic year on the traditionally segregated basis, although the par ents of some 78 Negro children of Clarendon County were petition ing to have their children reas signed to white schools. Local school authorities and state offi cials joined in statements indicat ing there would be no integration of those schools, however. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Gov. Ernest F. Hollings admon ished the press against giving ex cessive or sensational play to segre gation developments and said he would refrain from comment on such developments as much as pos sible. (See “What They Say.”) At month’s end, South Carolina Ne groes were preparing for a three-day meeting in Columbia as a testimonial for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus boycott leader and ad vocate of non-violent resistance to seg regation. The meeting will be one of a series under the aegis of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. (See “Community Action.”) A Citizens Council in Charleston County is drafting a statement urging further development of housing areas for middle class Negroes. (See “Com munity Action.”) School officials of all three districts of Clarendon County were petitioned just prior to the opening of the 1959-60 school year by Negro parents seeking admission of their children to white schools. At latest count, approximately 78 Negro pupils were involved in the requests for reassignment, but no such requests have been granted. The district number two school board (in East Clar endon) notified the parents of the two Negro children seeking reassignment that “it is impossible to grant the re quest.” The board cited regulations, adopted some time ago, requiring that applications for transfer be submitted at least 40 days before a new school term. ASK REASSIGNMENT Meanwhile, the applications for reas signment of 44 Negro children in the Summerton district and 32 in the Man ning district have brought no public re action from the school boards affected. The county superintendent of education, however, (the Rev. L. B. McCord) said flatly: “There will be no integrated schools in Clarendon County.” Lincoln C. Jenkins, Jr., the Negro attorney in Columbia who is represent ing the petitioning parents, told the press in early September he did not ex pect favorable action on the petitions but indicated he was prepared to take the issue further if the parents decided to do so. He has been associated as counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in other legal matters but says the NAACP is not involved in the current effort. No legal action, other than the filing of pe titions, had been reported concerning this latest Clarendon County school matter by the end of September. (This pending matter has no connec tion with the Briggs v. Elliott lawsuit which originated in the Summerton dis trict of Clarendon County and became one of the five suits involved in the de segregation decisions of the U.S. Su preme Court in 1954 and 1955. The lat est development in the Briggs v. El liott case was a July, 1955, ruling from a three-judge district court at Colum bia that the district should remove ra cial barriers to admittance “with all de liberate speed.” Nothing has been done toward school integration since that time.) The developments in Clarendon County came without warning and brought admissions of surprise from several school officials. Gov. Ernest F. Hollings, at a Sept. 1 press confer ence, expressed confidence “the situa tion in Clarendon County will come out all right” but refused to elaborate. (See “What They Say.”) South Carolina’s special Segregation Committee met Sept. 8 and issued a statement to the effect the local Clar endon County officials “are acting en tirely within state law and have the matter well in hand.” Sen. L. Marion Gressette, chairman of the committee, indicated there was no cause for alarm concerning possible desegregation of the Clarendon schools. WITHOUT INCIDENT The Clarendon County schools opened on schedule without incident. Negro applicants for reassignment did not pre sent themselves at the white schools they seek to enter. South Carolina law requires the shut ting off of state aid to white schools re quired by court decisions to accept Ne gro students. The same law shuts off funds in the same manner from the Ne gro school from which a pupil is trans ferred to a white school. The law has not been invoked thus far, since no court orders have actually resulted in a transfer of pupils. The state Educational Finance Com mission on Sept. 10 approved a $1,641,- 000 allocation for school projects. This brings to almost $191,166,000 the total amounts allocated for school construc tion and improvement since South Carolina initiated a school equalization and expansion program in 1951. South Carolina public schools will have in excess of 600,000 students en rolled in 108 districts this year. School officials will not have valid data on cur rent enrollments for some time, but their best estimates point to a total of between 612,500 and 613,000 public school pupils for 1959-60. Of this total, an estimated 260,100 will be Negro and more than 352,400 white. NEW DISTRICT The only new school district in the state is one formed by referendum this year in the lower portion of Florence County. Since that district has no Ne gro high school, the students of this new district are attending high school classes in nearby Williamsburg County. Negro high school facilities within the new district are expected to be avail able for the 1960-61 school year. A 10-year comparison of Negro en rollment and attendance figures in South Carolina has revealed what the state Department of Education calls “notable” advances. A major achieve ment during the period was the elimi- natfon of numerous small, inefficient schools and their consolidation into larger units with better facilities for teaching. At his Sept. 1 press conference, Gov. Ernest F. Hollings advised the assem bled newsmen to give straight, factual, and non-sensational coverage to events affecting racial segregation. “I am not trying to tell you how to run your business,” he volunteered, “... but I ask that you use discretion and keep your stories in perspective.” The discussion arose out of questions concerning the filing of school integra tion petitions in Clarendon County. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Said the Governor: “It will be my policy to refuse com ment as much as possible . . . This does not indicate any lack of interest, or any fear, or undue concern.” DISCOUNTS ‘RUMORS’ The governor indicated his remarks stemmed from some displeasure over news stories which referred to “ru mors” and “unsubstantiated reports” concerning developments in Clarendon County some years ago. Sen. Olin D. Johnston, who with Sen. Strom Thurmond has been calling at tention to northern racial troubles in recent weeks, reaffirmed his position Sept. 21 in a speech to a school group at Orangeburg. He said: “Our dual system of schools is the best in the nation and the relationship we have between the races is the envy of those upon whom integration has been forced ... In the face of much unreality and great danger, there are those in our country who favor inte gration in our schools ... It is not good for the white children or the colored children. Both will lose if integration is forced upon us ... “Moreover, the colored teachers have a lot to lose at the very outset of any integration movement. They should not permit a few imported rabble-rousers to interfere with and stifle their means of livelihood or the good work they are doing for the young of their race.” State Sen. L. Marion Gressette of Calhoun County, chairman of South Carolina’s special Segregation Commit tee, had this to say on Sept. 4 before the Greenville Kiwanis Club: “South Carolina has acted, is now act ing and will continue to act in good faith in providing equal educational op portunities as between the races. Both white and colored have good, equal fa cilities. This has been accomplished by the willingness of the people to pay their tax money for the support of the schools.” With respect to the latest integration petitions in Clarendon County, Sen. Gressette said: “You may rest assured that we will continue to watch the situ ation in Clarendon and elsewhere over the state with a view to making such recommendations to the governor and General Assembly as may be deemed appropriate. We do not anticipate mak ing any additional recommendations for the forthcoming session of the legisla ture. The present laws on the subject appear to us to be adequate for the present.” U. S. Sens. Olin D. Johnston and Strom Thurmond called the attention of the Senate to a New York Times re port that a number of Negro parents in the New York area were sending their children South to segregated schools. Sen. Johnston commented: “Obvious ly, integrated schools are not providing the so-called better education for Negro children which the Supreme Court al leged. ... I seriously believe that if the Supreme Court paused for a second look ... it would not rule that integrated schools are superior to segregated schools. . . .” Sen. Thurmond said: “If the people of New York, with their relatively low ratio of Negro to white population, find it so difficult to operate their schools and maintain law and order, I cannot fathom how their political leaders can expect the people of the South to bow to their political demands that they ac cept an even more mammoth mess than their own people are willing to stomach.” A Southern Christian Leadership Conference is scheduled to be held Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Columbia. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., is to be chief speaker at the conference, to be held at the First Calvary Baptist Church and at Colum bia’s Township Auditorium. Others listed as participants include Dr. Benj amin Mays, president of Morehouse College, Atlanta; the Rev. C. K. Steele, Negro leader of Tallahassee; the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, of Montgomery, Ala., an associate in the program of non-violent resistance to segregation; and the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth of Birmingham. Local arrangements are being handled by I. S. Leevy, Negro funeral director of Columbia, and the Rev. Matthew D. McCollom of Orangeburg, an NAACP official and leader of movements against segregation in that city. The Columbia conference is described as a movement for increased Negro registration, educa tion, and participation in civic affairs. In a letter to members of the banquet committee, the Rev Mr King wrote: “While T appreciate bping considered worthy of such recognition—the real importance of the Crusade for Citizen ship Dinner is that it will honor and pay tribute to the many individuals and groups in the South who are blazing the way toward first class citizenship for our people. Their courage and dedica tion will help to hasten the day when our homeland, America, will be in truth ‘a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.’ To work for this day is the Christian duty and civic responsibility of all Americans who care about the future of our great country.” HOUSING PROBLEM The North Charleston Citizens Coun cil devoted much of its Sept. 3 meeting to a discussion of the need for suitable subdivisions for Negro occupancy. Ed Roberts, chairman of the council, was quoted in these words in The News and Courier of the following day: “We think some adequate land areas should be developed for middle class Negro residents. . . . Many of our middle class Negro citizens have no place to go. The Citizens Council may be able to help in some way by taking a positive approach to this problem. We certainly think that the Negroes should have the opportunity to own a decent home in a decent neighborhood, according to their means.” # # # NORTH CAROLINA Seven Districts End First Month Operation In Comparative Quiet CHARLOTTE, N.C. "Tk esegregated schools operated peacefully, with minor excep tions, in seven North Carolina localities as schools throughout the state ended the first month of the 1959-60 school year. Enrollment is estimated at 1,120,000; about 29 per cent of the total enrollment is Negro. The Durham school board, one of three localities with desegre gated schools for the first time this fall, admitted one more Negro stu dent to a predominantly white school after hearing a group of ap peals from previous transfer denials. The school board in Chapel Hill re affirmed its August decision to delay desegregation another year. The Charlotte school board held de segregation to a minimum—one Negro girl in a school attended by about 1,500 white students—by denying transfer re quests from eight students who had appealed earlier denials. Some of the Negro students in Yancey County are attending a private school, following assignment to schools in Ashe ville which would have involved a daily round trip of 80 miles. Federal District Judge Edwin M. Stanley has ruled that a two-year-old suit involving the assignment of two Negro students by the Druham School Board should be dismissed because the plaintiffs did not attempt to comply with state liws regarding assignments. An effort has started in federal court to require the Greensboro School Board to offer a systematic plan for the elimin ation of racial discrimination in school assignments. In Durham, classes for 14,157 pupils opened quietly as desegregation began. Two Negro students entered Brogden Junior High; two entered Carr Junior High, and one entered Durham High School. A sixth student, assigned to Durham High, returned to the city from a summer job and entered later in the month. The assignments were made from among 225 transfer applications con sidered during August by the Durham school board. Later in the month, the board recon sidered 173 of the pupils whose transfer requests had been denied. The board admitted Jocelyn McKis- sick, 16, to Durham High School as its third Negro student. It then rejected all other appeals which included: 100 for reassignment to all-white elementary schools, 47 to white or previously all- white junior high schools, and 26 to Durham High School. The McKissick girl’s assignment was one of two denied by the board in 1957. It was from the decision then that the federal court case arose against the Durham board. This is the same case on which Judge Stanley ruled earlier in September. (See “Legal Action.”) At its hearing on the 173 cases in which transfer requests were heard on appeal, the Durham board ruled that unless a child’s parent or someone standing in the place of the parent were present the appeal would not be con sidered. At the beginning of the hearing, Con rad O. Pearson, chief counsel for the National Association for the Advance ment of Colored People in North Caro lina, presented papers showing he had power of attorney for all the parents involved. Pearson said: “The applicants’ funda mental objection to the assignment and denial of the request (for reassignment) is that the Durham City Board of Educa tion is maintaining a school system on the basis of race contrary to the 14th Amendment of the United State Con stitution.” REQUESTS READ A board member read all the requests for a hearing on the transfer appeals to be certain that any parent who wanted to be heard would have an opportunity. But the approximately 80 parents pres ent chose to let Pearson speak for them. At the end of the hearing, the six- member board went into a closed session and spent two hours deliberating. It ruled later that an appearance by coun sel in lieu of a parent would not be acceptable. Commenting on the board’s decision, Chairman Frank L. Fuller said the board had reaffirmed its original deci sions and “decided what we did the first time would stand.” During the month, two Negro schools in Durham had bomb scares. They were Whitted Junior High, which has 1,000 students, and Hillside School. The scares were both anonymous telephone calls. The first, on Sept. 4, at Whitted, was a man’s voice. The second, at Hill side, on Sept. 8, was a woman’s voice. Police found nothing at either school, and students returned to classes after brief searches. PRIVATE SCHOOL In Yancey County, plans w:re made by white and Negro citizens to provide private education for 28 Negro pupils pending some final decision on the Yancey County Board of Education’s decision to send all the students to Ashe ville city schools. The case had its origin last year when a small, one-teacher school for Negroes —the only Negro school in mountainous Yancey County—was condemned. Last year, the Negro students were assigned to Asheville. Most of them made the 80- mile round trip daily. This summer, however, plans had not been completed for a new Negro school building, and most of the students (there are fewer than 30 in the county) asked for assignments to white schools in Burnsville, the county seat. The Yancey County board, however, renewed its agreement with the Ashe ville school board to send all the Negro students to Asheville. A formal assign ment to that effect was made in August. The students, however, declined to attend the Asheville schools. A few of them made the trip on the county’s school bus the first few days of school, but the number never reached half the 28 students involved. The Yancey school board, meanwhile, has charged in a public statement that a few Negro residents are trying to force school integration against the will of the majority of the county. The board said repeated efforts on its part to put in motion a plan to build a new Negro school had been rejected by spokesmen for the Negroes involved. JOINT MEETING The board said that a joint meeting in mid-September of the board, the Yancey County commissioners (the governing, taxing body), some of the Negro par ents and their attorney, Ruben Dailey of Asheville, had resulted in a repeti tion of the Negroes’ stand in favor of integrated schools. It said offers of a temporary building, of teaching at home and of a new, modem building were rejected. Meanwhile, white and Negro residents in Yancey County and Buncombe County (County seat: Asheville) formed the Burnsville Educational Project to provide private instruction for the 28 Negro students. Seven of them entered Allen High School in Asheville, a private Negro girls’ school operated by the Methodist Church. Four of the seven high school students are boys, and it was the first time in the history of the girls’ school that boys had attended. In Burnsville, the same group estab lished a class for the elementary stu dents. They will be taught by a Negro tutor in the basement of Griffith Meth odist Church. The Burnsville Education Project hopes to raise $3,500 to cover the cost of the operation. Attorney Dailey said earlier he expects (See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 14)

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Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965, October 01, 1959, Image 13