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VOL. 6, NO. 6
Survey Shows Pattern Varies
In College Desegregation
/College desegregation, which
^ began in southern and border
states before the U. S. Supreme
Court’s 1954 decision, is ahead of
that at the elementary and sec
ondary level, a Southern School
News survey shows.
In most states, college desegregation
started at the graduate level and was
extended later to undergraduates.
However, the number of Negro stu
dents actually in integrated college
classrooms in the 17 southern and bor
der states is relatively small.
A dozen southern and border states
had initiated college desegregation
prior to the 1954 desegregation ruling.
In addition to these 12 states, one
other, Florida, now has desegregation
at its state university. In South Caro
lina, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama
all state colleges and universities, and
virtually all private colleges, are seg
regated.
Here is a state-by-state summary of
the college segregation-desegregation
picture in the 17 southern and border
states and the District of Columbia:
Alabama
Integration exists in fact in only two
Alabama colleges, both of them private.
Spring Hill College, located near
Mobile, has 30 Negro students in a to
tal enrollment of 1,400. A Catholic lib
eral arts college, Spring Hill is one of
the state’s oldest institutions of higher
learning. It was founded in 1830.
Integration began in the slimmer of
1951 when several Negro sisters from
convents at Mobile were admitted to
summer school classes so they could
maintain their teacher credits. Negro
sisters were later admitted to Satur
day classes during the regular term.
In September 1953, three Negro men
were admitted to the college’s evening
classes. In his commencement address
in June 1954, shortly after the Supreme
Court school decision, the Very Rev.
Andrew C. Smith, S.J., college presi
dent, said Spring Hill would abide by
the decision. Three Negro men and
three women—all freshmen—were ad
mitted to regular semester classes the
following fall.
TWO WHITE STUDENTS
Talladega College, at Talladega, has
two whites in an otherwise all-Negro
enrollment of 300. Approximately a
third of the faculty of the Congrega
tional Christian school is white.
When Talladega College was chart
ered in 1867 it was declared open to
all. However, white enrollment has
always been small, some years non
existent. One of the two present white
students is Greek; the other is the
daughter of a faculty member.
The University af Alabama, scene of
the riots over the admission of Negro
coed Artherine Lucy in 1956, is still
under a permanent federal district
court injunction to accept qualified Ne
gro students, but none is now enrolled.
Miss Lucy was expelled for her public
attacks on the university in the after-
math of the riots. The expulsion was
upheld by the federal district court in
Birmingham.
Arkansas
In policy all the public colleges and
universities in Arkansas are desegre
gated and have been since 1955 or
earlier, though not all have students
°I the other race.
Among the eight private colleges in
~*e state, three church-supported col
leges have policies of admitting any
Qualified student.
All the desegregation on the college
level has been voluntary. There has
been no lawsuit or incidents.
The University of Arkansas led the
Wa y by admitting a Negro graduate
student in 1948. It was influenced by
lawsuits in surrounding states in
which the Negroes invariably won the
ri ght to attend state-supported uni
versities.
The number of Negro students in
creased gradually and later they were
a drnitted to undergraduate courses.
As a general rule the university ac
cepts qualified Negro students for
graduate or undergraduate work not
otherwise available in the state. This
year it has 15 Negro students (in a to
tal enrollment of 5,500). Negro stu
dents are not housed in university
dormitories but use the university
cafeterias and all other student facili
ties.
The seven state-supported colleges
changed their policies on Negro ad
missions in 1955. A few weeks after
the second Supreme Court ruling on
public school desegregation, the pres
idents of the state-supported colleges
asked the state attorney-general
whether that ruling applied to them.
Some of them said they had received
applications from Negro students.
The attorney general, T. J. Gentry at
that time, ruled the Supreme Court
decision did apply to institutions of
higher learning.
Since then all but one of the colleges
for whites has admitted Negro stu
dents; the one, Arkansas A&M College,
is at Monticello, which is 50 miles from
Pine Bluff where the state college for
Negroes, A.M.&N., is located. A.M.&N
has had no applications from white
students.
Both Pine Bluff and Monticello are
in southeast Arkansas, a region of
heavy Negro population.
This year the Negro enrollment in
the formerly all-white colleges is esti
mated at 38, with the largest number
at the university.
Of the private colleges, the College
of the Ozarks at Clarksville and Ar
kansas College at Batesville, both
white schools, and Philander Smith
College at Little Rock, for Negroes,
accept any qualified students.
However Arkansas College, in north
Arkansas where there are few Ne
groes, has had no applications from
Negroes, and Philander Smith has had
only one white student in recent years.
Philander Smith is a Methodist in
stitution. College of the Ozarks and
Arkansas College are Presbyterian-
supported.
As far as is known the other five
private colleges have not become in
volved in the racial situation. They
did not reply to queries for this sur
vey.
Delaware
Delaware’s two colleges, one pre
dominantly white and the other pre
dominantly Negro, accept students of
both races.
The University of Delaware, at New
ark, accepted Negro students prior to
the Supreme Court decision in 1954.
One of the early Negro students, and
the first of his race to play on the
football team, was admitted to the
Delaware bar this year.
But the university, with 2,500 stu
dents, has made no attempt to count
its Negro pupils, according to Elbert
Chance, director of public relations.
“Delaware has, and will, admit any
students who qualify, regardless of
their race,” Chance said.
Negro students, he said, are admit
ted at both the graduate and under
graduate level. A majority of the grad
uate students, he said are teachers.
Delaware State College, at Dover,
has about half a dozen white students
and a total enrollment of about 350,
according to Dr. Anthony Gaines, di
rector of public relations.
“We have had more white pupils in
some previous years,” Gaines said.
Several years ago the class valedic
torian was a white student.
In addition, Delaware State this year
has resumed its extension program
after a 10-year lapse and is instructing
a selected group of 15 employees from
International Latex Corp. in a course
in organic chemistry.
Some of the faculty members at
state college are white. The president,
Dr. Jerome Holland, is a Negro.
All facilities at both the University
of Delaware, and Delaware State are
open to all students.
District of Columbia
Every college in the District of Co
lumbia is open to all qualified appli-
(See COLLEGES, Page 12)
BRAR1CS O g ■ T"^ 1
wtr btates Edge
Near Showdown
rpwo Deep South states with
completely segregated public
schools edged toward possible
showdowns early in December on
classroom desegregation.
The Atlanta school board, act
ing in advance of a Dec. 1 court-
decreed deadline, settled on an
18-point pupil placement plan. It
is similar in many ways to Ala
bama’s with one important ex
ception—Atlanta’s would start at
the 12th grade and move down
ward a grade a year.
Any such plan would have to re
ceive approval of the Georgia General
Assembly meeting in January. Georgia
law calls for closing of any school
forced to desegregate and it was prob
lematical whether this statute would
be altered by the Assembly.
In neighboring Alabama, federal
authorities reported a plan under con
sideration for desegregating a school
attended by children of service per
sonnel at Redstone Arsenal, near
Huntsville.
Alabama Gov. John Patterson, fore
seeing trouble, indicated he would use
the National Guard to portect life and
property if the federal government at
tempts to desegregate the school.
Other developments by states:
Alabama
The Legislature, in session since
January, adjourned on Nov. 12 after
having approved a record education
budget and school construction bond
issue and adopting new laws strength
ening the state’s legal barriers against
integration. (Page 1)
Arkansas
The Little Rock and Dollarway
school boards, which have been the
center of segregation-desegregation
controversy, went into their Dec. 1
ALABAMA
Governor Threatens Use of Militia
If Redstone School Desegregates
G
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
iov. John Patterson threat
ened Nov. 13 to call out the
National Guard to protect life and
property if the federal govern
ment attempts to integrate a
Huntsville school serving the
children of Redstone Arsenal per
sonnel.
The Justice Department had
announced earlier in Washington
an integration plan for Madison
Pike School at Huntsville was be
ing considered along with another
at Abiline, Tex., which serves
Dyess Air Force Base.
“I view this as the opening bat
tle of an all-out war to complete
ly destroy our customs, traditions
and way of life,” Patterson said
of the news. He pledged unyield
ing resistance. (See “What They
Say.”)
The Alabama Legislature, in almost
constant session since January, ad
journed Nov. 12, having approved a
record school budget and school con
struction bond issue. The Legislature
also strengthened the state’s legal bar
riers against integration.
However, Patterson’s bills to give
him powers to close schools where killed
and the governor pocket vetoed a
measure which would provide state
tuition grants to individual pupils on
demand. Voting laws were buttressed
in an effort to hinder mass registra
tion of Negroes. (See “Legislative Ac
tion.”)
The Birmingham Board of Education
disclosed Nov. 24 it had rejected the
petition of 135 Negro parents who
sought an end to school segregation.
(See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Predicting violence, Gov. John Pat
terson threw down the gauntlet in No
vember to the federal government’s
announced plans to integrate a Hunts
ville school which serves Redstone
Arsenal personnel.
The governor said he would call out
the National Guard if necessary.
“If integration is forced on any
school,” he said, “there will be vio
lence. And when violence occurs, the
problem becomes one of law enforce
ment. It is no longer a school prob
lem.”
Patterson referred to a Justice De
partment disclosure in Washington
that plans were being worked otgt^to
integrate a school serving military '
personnel stationed at the missile cen
ter.
‘INTEGRATION AND MISSILES’
“It is inconceivable,” the governor
said, “that the federal government
would go so far as to jeopardize its,
missile program at such a time of na
tional peril just to force intermingling
of the races at Huntsville. The federal
government will soon learn that you
cannot mix integration and missiles in
Alabama.
“I view this as the opening battle
of an all-out war to completely de
stroy our customs, traditions and way
of life. There will be no cooperation
with those who seek to destroy us. We
will resist every step of the way. We
do not intend to comply with the
wishes of our enemies.”
Patterson said he regretted the Leg
islature had killed two bills he had re
quested to give him powers to close
any school threatened with integra
tion. (See “Legislative Action.”) But,
he said, the state has “adequate tools
to. protect Alabama from integration.”
He mentioned specifically the School
Placement Law, which has been held
valid on its face by the U.S. Supreme
Court, the freedom of choice amend
ments and the independent school dis
trict plan. The latter permits individ
ual schools to withdraw from state and
local systems and set up their own
autonomous districts. (See “Legislative
Action.”)
In addition to these, Patterson said,
he has “inherent powers” as governor.
Dr. Raymond L. Christian, superin
tendent of Huntsville city schools, said
the school in question—Madison Pike—
is not operated exclusively for children
of Redstone military personnel.
“There must be some misunderstand
ing,” he said. “Not more than 50 per
cent of the enrollment is made up of
military dependents.” He gave the total
enrollment of the school as 1,064; of
these, only 571 are children of Army
personnel, he said.
Children of Negro servicemen at
(See ALABAMA, Page 8)
election with members on both boards
facing opposition. (Page 3)
Delaware
Counsel for Negro children asked a
federal court of appeals to reverse a
district court order approving the
statewide grade-a-year desegregation
plan which went into effect with the
fall school term. (Page 16)
District of Columbia
An official enrollment report showed
a record school population of 117,884,
of whom 27,481 were white and 90,403
Negro. The percentage of Negroes was
76.7, compared to last year’s 74.1 per
cent. (Page 10)
Florida
With two Dade County schools de
segregated, appeals to violence to pre
serve segregation appeared simultane
ously in several Florida cities. Crude,
wooden dummy rifles bearing anti-in
tegration placards were seized in
Miami, Tampa, West Palm Beach and
St. Petersburg. (Page 11)
Georgia
Because of Atlanta’s approaching
showdown on court-ordered desegrega
tion, a leading educator said the Jan
uary session of the General Assembly
would be the most important since the
post-Civil War Reconstruction. (Page
16)
Kentucky
A new state administration, pledged
to immediate and substantial salary
increases for teachers and public school
improvements takes office on Dec. 8.
(Page 14.)
Louisiana
Suit was filed in U. S. district court
seeking summary judgment to abolish
desegregation in Fkist Baton Rouge and
St. Helena parishes (counties). (Page
15)
Maryland
Frederick County moved toward
gradual elimination of separate classes
with no adverse reaction to the use of
two Negro teachers in predominantly
white classrooms. (Page 7)
Mississippi
Public opinion split over whether
appointments should be accepted to the
state Advisory Committee to the U. S.
Civil Rights Commission. (Page 5)
Missouri
The U. S. Supreme Court denied a
hearing for seven Negro teachers who
charged discrimination in the loss of
their jobs when Moberly schools were
desegregated. (Page 6)
North Carolina
A group of Negro pupils who must
travel by bus to classes in Asheville
filed suit against the Yancey County
school board for admission to white
schools. (Page 9)
Oklahoma
A degree of stabilization was re
ported in a changing neighborhood
around a desegregated school in Tulsa.
(Page 7)
South Carolina
An official of the NAACP said legal
efforts would be renewed to desegre
gate schools in Clarendon County,
which figured in the U. S. Supreme
Court’s 1954 desegregation decision.
(Page 2)
Tennessee
Federal Judge William E. Miller,
who ordered desegregation of one
school in Rutherford County, refused
to grant a request for a similar order
affecting all the county’s public schools.
(Page 4)
Texas
Negroes at Littlefield, in West Texas,
voted to continue integration after a
Negro committee had petitioned for
re-establishment of a school in their
section. (Page 5)
Virginia
Segregationists began an attack on
he administration of Gov. J. Lindsay
Almond in what appeared a possible
“all-out war” on the chief executive
for his abandonment of “massive re
sistance.” (Page 2)
West Virginia
Osage dedicated its rebuilt school,
blasted in a still-unsolved bombing on
Nov. 10, 1958. (Page 11) # # #