Newspaper Page Text
page 14—OCTOBER 1959—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
VIRGINIA
Federal Judge Directs
Galax To Desegregate
Floyd County,
In January
RICHMOND, Va.
^THIRTY-FIVE ADDITIONAL NEGRO
J- children entered formerly all-
white public schools in Virginia
in September, bringing the total
to 86. There were no reports of
violence or other significant in
cidents.
The number of Negroes in de
segregated classes increased from
30 last spring to 86 this fall, since
21 of the Negroes who were tech
nically listed as integrated last
spring actually were attending a
school boycotted by white stu
dents. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Prince Edward County became
the first community in the South
to effect actual abandonment of
public schools. About 1,500 white
students began attending a pri
vately-financed school system,
while most of the county’s 1,700
Negro children had no schools to
attend. (See “Community Ac
tion.”)
A federal district judge ordered
14 Negroes in Floyd County and
one in the city of Galax admitted
to white high schools in those
communities when the new se
mester begins in January. These
will be the sixth and seventh Vir
ginia localities desegregated and
the first in Southwestern Vir
ginia. (See “Legal Action.”)
BO
SCHOOLMEN
In summary, this was the desegrega
tion picture in Virginia, as compared
with the situation last spring
1) The number of Negroes in inte
grated schools increased from 51 to 86.
(However, 21 of the 51 were integrated
in name only last spring, since they had
Warren County High School all to
themselves.)
2) The number of integrated schools
increased from 11 to 16.
3) The number of communities with
integrated schools increased from four
to five.
Here was the picture in each affected
locality last month:
Warren County (population: 14,200
whites, 1,200 Negroes)—20 Negroes in a
high school with about 400 whites.
When a federal court ordered Negroes
admitted to Warren County High School
in the fall of 1958, the school was shut
down under the state’s then-existing
law closing all integrated schools. About
800 of the 1,000 students began attend
ing a private school quickly set up by
the Warren County Educational Foun
dation.
Warren High reopened in February
after the collapse of the school-closing
law, and 21 Negroes reported. The
whites continued their private school
ing.
NEGROES RETURN
When Warren High opened this fall,
20 Negroes came back (one had finished
school), along with 417 whites. A slight
ly larger number of whites signed up
to attend the private segregated school
operated by the Educational Founda
tion. The private system was financed
by contributions last year, but a tui
tion fee of $220 is being charged each
student this year.
The foundation’s private school be
gan classes on Sept. 24 with about 450
children. The former Virginia Gentle
man restaurant has been enlarged to
serve as the school building.
Principal Glen Sunderlin told the
students on opening day to avoid any
unpleasantness or friction with the pub
lic high school students.
Norfolk (Population: 221,400 whites,
77,900 Negroes)— 22 Negroes attending
seven schools with about 11,900 whites.
Last spring 17 Negroes attended six
formerly all-white secondary schools in
Norfolk. Prior to the opening of school
this fall the city school board recom
mended the admission of two addition
al Negroes, one of them to an elemen
tary school.
The state Pupil Placement Board
turned down the recommendation, but
after a hearing in federal district court
in Norfolk, Judge Walter Hoffman or
dered the two admitted, along with
three others. Thus the state placement
board was by-passed, as it had been
previously in Norfolk and in other de
segregated communities in Virginia.
During the hearing members of the
state board said they had placed about
450,000 children, and that in no case had
they assigned a Negro child to a white
school. They testified, in answer to the
judge’s questions, that they could not
Georg
la
(Continued From Page 9)
mentation in every effective way open
to me.”
Gov. Ernest Vandiver said the com
mission’s proposals would contribute
nothing to the solution of racial prob
lems.
Atty. Gen. Eugene Cook said the
recommendation should be opposed by
the sovereign states.
State School Supt. Claude Purcell
said Georgia school superintendents
believe they can maintain segregated
classrooms. Dr. Purcell said no specific
plans have been outlined to him, but
numerous talks with superintendents
throughout the state have revealed op
timism over the situation.
He said schools in more populous
counties would be subjected to court
tests but rural area systems will re
main pretty much as they are.
Present school segregation statutes
are “buying time,” the educator said.
The Atlanta Board of Education re
ported Negro enrollment in the city
schools continues to increase while
white enrollment decreases.
For the 1959-60 term, 3,202 more Ne
groes and 1,272 fewer whites were en
rolled than last year. The current
ratio in the system is 57.9 per cent
white and 42.1 per cent Negro. Last
term it was 60.6 per cent white and
39.4 per cent Negro.
WHAT THEY SAY
The NAACP does not think it will
be necessary to establish desegrega
tion “beachheads” in the South this
year as it did in Arkansas and Vir
ginia, an NAACP national official said
in Atlanta. Closter Current said branch
offices of the organization will be able
to cope with the situation in their own
districts. He added that he thinks most
southern state officials who have op
posed desegregation are convinced clos
ing of the schools is not the answer to
the problem.
COLEMAN INTERVIEWED
Mississippi Gov. James P. Coleman,
interviewed in Atlanta, said he was
impatient with southerners who adopt
a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude and
say the segregation issue is putting the
South out to pasture politically.
The Southern Regional Council is
sued a report picturing private schools
as expensive and generally unaccept
able substitutes for public schools. Con
clusions were based on a survey in
Virginia.
James H. Gray, editor of the AI-
bany Herald, sharply criticized ad
vocates of “token integration” in speech
to the Tifton Rotary Club.
Almost 35,000 students were enrolled
by state colleges.
Chancellor Harmon Caldwell of the
University System said state-supported
schools had 33,452 students last year
and the total would be up about three
per cent in the present term.
Public college education is still com
pletely segregated in Georgia, although
Negroes won a suit at Georgia State
College in Atlanta, in which they con
tended admission requirements dis
criminated against them because of
their color.
J. Roy Grayson, an East Point park
superintendent, was fired because he
allowed white boys and girls to dem
onstrate water safety techniques in a
Negro swimming pool. The City Coun
cil fired Grayson, who had held the
job for seven years, by a 5-to-3 vote.
Grayson said he would appeal to the
City Personnel Board for reinstatement.
Several Negro parents petitioned the
city council at Savannah to permit
their children to play in a white play
ground located next to a white school
in midtown. No official action has been
taken on the petition.
# # #
conceive of a situation in which they
would assign a Negro to a white school.
Charlottesville (Population: 25,600
whites, 5,400 Negroes)—12 Negroes in
two schools with about 1,200 whites.
Charlottesville was the only Virginia
community to begin desegregation this
faff.
Three Negroes entered Lane High
School and nine entered Venable Ele
mentary. The opening, on Sept. 8, was
quiet. A few adult spectators sat out
side Lane in parked automobiles to
watch the children enter, but there
were no incidents.
ENROLLMENT DOWN
The white enrollment at the schools
—about 750 at Lane and 450 at Venable
—was in each case about 100 below last
year, and the total was several hundred
below normal enrollment prior to the
schools’ closing under the state’s no-in
tegration laws a year ago. Apparently
because they do not wish to attend in
tegrated schools, about 540 Charlottes
ville children are attending private
schools operated by the Charlottes
ville Educational Foundation. Robert E.
Lee School, for the elementary grades,
occupies two new buildings recently
erected for the purpose. Rock Hill
Academy, for high school students, is
scattered in several buildings temporar
ily, pending completion of permanent
classrooms now under construction.
Operations of the schools are to be fin
anced partly through state tuition
grants made to the children under re
cently-enacted laws.
Public School Supt. Fendall R. Ellis
announced that plans had been dropped
to experiment with separation of stu
dents by sex in some grades this year.
Arlington County (Population: 152,-
600 whites, 8,300 Negroes)—23 Negroes
attending three schools with about 4,000
whites.
Four Negroes attended a junior high
school in Arlington last spring. Twelve
others entered formerly all-white
schools on Sept. 1 as the result of court
orders, extending desegregation to a
high school and an elementary school.
No incidents were reported, other than
the painting of signs on the sidewalks
around the high school telling the Ne
groes to go home.
Later in the month, federal District
Judge Albert V. Bryan ordered seven
more Negroes admitted to the elemen
tary and junior high schools already
desegregated (Thompson v. Arlington
School Board). The local school board,
according to testimony, had taken no
action on the seven applications because
it did not want to “veto” the state Pupil
Placement Board’s rejection of the chil
dren’s applications.
On Sept. 21, before a standing-room
audience of about 200 persons, the Ar
lington School Board voted 4 to 1 to
discontinue permitting official school
dances and to leave the sponsorship of
“non-integrated” social activities to
private adult groups.
RENTAL BASIS
Under this plan, school facilities will
be rented at $6 a night to “responsible
adult groups sponsoring non-integrated
social events similar to those held last
year and limited to students of the
school and their dates.”
In proposing the plan, board member
Barnard Joy said that Virginia is “over
whelmingly opposed to integrated
dances.”
The dance ruling affects all Arling
ton schools, not just those which are
desegregated.
James G. Stockard, who cast the lone
vote against the plan, described it as a
“subterfuge, pure and simple.” His mo
tion to leave the matter up to the “good
judgment of the student body, the par
ents, and the school administrators”
failed to get a second.
The Arlington plan for handling
dances is similar to one in use in Nor
folk.
Alexandria (Population: 78,500 whites,
9,400 Negroes)—Nine Negroes attending
three schools with about 2,700 whites.
Alexandria’s desegregation situation
is exactly the same as it was in the
spring. One high and two elementary
schools are desegregated.
Prince Edward County (Population:
8,600 whites, 6,500 Negroes) — Public
school system abandoned.
The Prince Edward School Founda
tion on Sept. 10 inaugurated what the
Richmond Times-Dispatch termed “a
unique experiment in American educa
tion.”
The foundation began operating a pri
vate school system for about 1,500 white
(See VIRGINIA, Page 15)
North Carolina
(Continued From Page 13)
to test the Yancey County board’s action
in a federal court.
In Chapel Hill, the school board did
again in September what it had done in
August—denied the transfer request of
10-year-old Stanley Vickers to a white
school. It left Chapel Hill’s public sec
ondary schools segregated for another
year, although the board has already
adopted an assignment policy for next
year which apparently could result in
desegregation (if requested by an indi
vidual parent) at the first grade level.
(The University of North Carolina, also
in Chapel Hill, has had a few Negro stu
dents for several years.)
TO APPEAL
Conrad O. Pearson, Durham attorney,
said the board’s decision in Vickers’ case
would be appealed to federal court as
soon as papers could be prepared.
The September session’s re-enactment
of the August theme also included the
resignation of Henry P. Brandis Jr.,
board member and dean of the Uni
versity of North Carolina Law School.
Brandis had just taken his seat on the
board in August when the Vickers as
signment came up.
Brandis said: “After hearing and
weighing their statements, I felt and still
feel that the action of the board’s ma
jority was essentially grounded on race
and therefore constituted a denial of
Stanley Vickers’ constitutional right. I
think the Vickers family should not
have been placed in a situation in which
they can vindicate the child’s constitu
tional right only by going to a federal
court.”
Brandis added: “There is some chance
in the long run that the majority’s action
will lead to more rapid integration under
judicial compulsion.”
Brandis said he did not believe the
board’s announced policy of beginning
desegregation next year was sufficient
reason for the denial.
Pearson said the board “doesn’t have a
leg to stand on.” The appeal to federal
court, he said, will be based on the 14th
Amendment and the contention that the
assignment was refused solely because
of race.
Later, the Chapel Hill board named
John W. Clark Jr., a U. S. Public Health
Service employe at the University of
North Carolina, to replace Dean Brandis.
Clark is a native of Carrboro which is
adiacent to Chapel Hill.
Elsewhere in the state, desegregation
was being accepted routinely and caus
ing little public concern.
Charlotte. Winston-Salem, Greens
boro and Wayne County are continu
ing desegregation this year. It is the
third year for the three cities and the
second for Wayne County.
High Point’s first year of desegrega
tion, involving a Negro girl in a senior
high school and another in a junior high
school, has caused no public reaction.
And in Craven County, 14 Negro stu
dents are attending two previously all-
white schools in Havelock. Enrollment
is about 750 in each of the two schools
involved.
LEGAL ACTIO
Federal Judge Edwin M. Stanley, in
U. S. Middle District Court in Greens
boro, has ruled that a suit by two Ne
gro students seeking assignment to
white schools in Durham should be
dismissed.
The suit was brought in behalf of
Jocelyn McKissick, 16, and Elaine Rich
ardson, 13, whose transfer requests were
rejected by the Durham School Board in
1957.
Two weeks after Judge Stanley’s rul
ing, however, the Durham board con
sidered a renewed transfer application
for the McKissick girl and granted it.
Judge Stanley ruled the Negroes “did
not even attempt” to comply with state
laws regarding assignment of pupils. He
said the suit was “deliberately calculat
ed to give rise to a class action rather
than assignment of individuals to par
ticular schools.”
Judge Stanley ruled specifically that
administrative remedies under North
Carolina’s pupil placement laws were
not exhausted before federal court ac
tion was started.
He did, however, permit the case to
stay on the docket for 10 days to permit
the plaintiffs to file a motion to keep the
case alive. This, in, turn, would have
permitted adequate time for state ad
ministrative remedies to be exhausted,
had that been necessary.
Judge Stanley ruled the Richardson
child was not entitled to have her case
kept alive, however, because there was
“a total lack of proof” on her part of
“her residence, distance of any school in
the Durham school system from her
home and other relevant factors . . .”
He also ruled that the state Board of
Education and its members were not
proper parties to the action and dis
missed the action against the state
board.
Stanley said the children failed to
seek admission to a specific school but
merely sought admission to the “nearest
integrated school.”
“If the plaintiff had any intention of
even attempting token compliance with
the statutes dealing with the assignment
of pupils, it is inconceivable that they
did not list the school to which they
desired reassignment,” Judge Stanley
said. He said the applications required
the name of the school and the grade
to which assignments were requested.
A significant factor, Judge Stanley
noted, was that the Negroes, after being
granted an appeal hearing on the board’s
denial of reassignment “elected not to
appear at the hearing, either personally
or through counsel.” He said there was
no legal basis for such action.
BOARD CRITICIZED
At the same time. Judge Stanley was
critical of some practices of the Dur
ham school board:
“The conclusions herein reached are
not to be construed as my condoning de
liberate practices on the part of school
boards which result in the perpetuation
of enforced segregation in public schools.
“The court heartily disapproves the
method employed by the Durham City
Board of Education in giving assignment
notices, and particularly the delay in
making assignments. Some of the resolu
tions adopted by the board regarding the
applications of these plaintiffs strongly
suggest that reassignments were denied
solely because of the race and color of
the applicants.
“A different conclusion could easily
have been reached had the plaintiffs
performed the simple duties imposed
upon them bv state law before applying
to this court for relief . . .”
OTHER ACTION
In other legal action, steps have been
taken in U. S. Middle District Court to
require the Greensboro board of educa
tion to present a plan for “a systematic
and effective method for eliminating
racial discrimination” in Greensboro
public schools.
Attorneys for four Negro students
asked the court’s permission to file
claims that the school board only con
tinued “a general pattern” of racial dis
crimination by changing Caldwell
School from an all-white to an all-Negro
elementary school.
The claims were contained in a pro
posed supplement to a suit filed earlier
on behalf of four pupils who were denied
assignments to Caldwell School for the
1958-59 school year, when it was an all-
white unit.
The proposed supplement to the suit
contends that the board, on July 21, as
signed the four Negro students to the
Caldwell School, but at the same time
reassigned all the white students at the
school to other Greensboro schools for
this year.
The supplement also said the board
acted prior to this school year to re
assign all white members of the school’s
faculty and administration and replace
them with Negroes.
The four students were originally as
signed to the Pearson Street Branch of
the Washington Street School—all-
Negro units. The Pearson Street Branch,
however, is on the Caldwell School (for
merly all-white) campus. This summer
the Greensboro board consolidated the
Pearson Street Branch and the Caldwell
School into the Caldwell School. It is
staffed by Negroes and attended only by
Negro students. The board earlier
granted nearly 200 requests for transfers
from white students who normally
would have attended the school.
Gov. Luther Hodges praised the resi
dents of North Carolina’s five cities and
two counties which have desegregation
this year by saying they had exhibited
“a great deal of wisdom and restraint.”
The governor declined to comment
specifically on any school board’s action,
but he warmly praised the “peaceful re
sponse” of citizens in Durham, Winston-
Salem, Greensboro, High Point, Char
lotte, Havelock (Craven County), and
Goldsboro (Wayne County).
As another indirect token of his feel
ing, Gov. Hodges appointed G. Douglas
Aitken, Charlotte banker and a member
of the Charlotte City School Board for
several years, to the state Board of Edu
cation. Charlotte has had desegregation
for three years and Aitken has been one
of the leaders in the quiet transition.
Arkansas Rep. Dale Alford, speaking
to a Greensboro meeting of the Guild
ford County Chapter of the North Caro
lina Defenders of States Rights, said
there will be violence in all sections of
the country when Negroes are in all sec
tions. The blame, he said, should be
“placed squarely on the Supreme Court.”
He was introduced by the Rev. James
P. Dees of Statesville, an Episcopal rec
tor and president of the North Carolina
Defenders of States Rights.
A few days later, also in Greensboro,
former Rep. Brooks Hays, the man Al
ford beat, said Negroes must not be
blamed for the court’s decision.
“We must cultivate minorities,” he
said. “We have driven them into the
hands of extremists.”
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