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Factual N U I S I A | * 0 * S \ 3 M JL V - *< o i i i i n o d v S 3 I b V e a | T V I 3h0 3 0 30 Ai I S«3A INfl z booz-h-c-9 3Mnr School News 20/ Objective VOL. 6, NO. 8 5HVILLE, TENNESSEE $2 GEORGIA School Debate Warms As Legislature Meets MACON, Ga. A war of words over whether the state should close public schools to preserve segregation continued in Georgia as the Legis lature opened. The court-approved pupil place ment plan prepared by the Atlanta Board of Education for desegrega tion of Atlanta schools was read to the Legislature but it was be- proved. Gov. Ernest Vandiver and oth ers continued to say Georgia would not yield to integration. Several strong segregation-minded leaders in public and business life began to indicate that some inte gration is inevitable and the schools must not be closed. (See “Legislative Action.”) Two more Georgia school sys tems were presented desegregation petitions. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) The Legislature was bathed in the news spotlight as Georgia’s turmoil in creased over public school desegrega tion. But the war of words over wheth er to close the state’s public schools to prevent integration was waged on many fronts: school boards, letters to the edi tor, editorials, grand jury statements, views of private and public officials, churches, business conferences, cham bers of commerce discussions, rallies and meetings, television end radio. There was no lack of proposed plans in the Legislature, with more than half- a-dozen proposals available. But the pupil placement proposal of fered by the Atlanta Board of Education and approved by U.S. District Judge Frank. A. Hooper seemed to be receiv ing little attention from the legislators. The board adopted this plan in No- BRUARY, I960 vember after Hooper had ordered action on planning for desegregating Atlanta schools by September of 1960. The plan was amended twice in January in an effort to meet some of the objections of Negro plaintiffs voiced to the court. Later in the month it was forwarded to the General Assembly. Late in January, the school board requested the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to dismiss its appeal. The appellate court granted the request, thus leaving the case in the hands of Judge Hooper. In actuality, the plan was not put be fore the Legislature in the form of pro posed legislation. It was transmitted in the form of a resolution of the Atlanta Board of Education and read in both houses. But Fulton County (Atlanta) Rep. M. M. Smith said he would offer the plan as a bill. Smith already has a similar bill in the State of Republic Committee and the new plan would be substituted for this measure. The pupil placement proposal does not mention race but would establish numerous other factors as guides in as signing individual students to new schools when transfer requests are made. The student assignment rules proposed would apply only to 12th grade students in the 1960-61 term, but would be expanded to the next lower grade each successive year until all grades are included. The principal changes required of the original plan by the court give more time for transfer applicants to appeal rejections and remove economic retali ation within the community as one of the factors that could keep a Negro out of a white school. If the plan should be approved by the Legislature, and this is not regard ed as likely at the present, some observ ers believe the legislators also would have to repeal existing laws requiring the closing of public schools in event of integration. If the Legislature takes no action on the plan, it is anticipated that in May some Negro children scheduled to go (See GEORGIA, Page 2) Rights Bill Nearer~tMOor; No Incidents As County Desegregates in Virginia T he House Rules Committee’s decision to hold a hearing on the civil rights bill raised the pos sibility that the proposal might be cleared for House consideration early in February. Desegregation extended into southwest Virginia in January as a fifth county opened formerly all- white schools to Negroes. And Georgians debated throughout the month whether to close their schools or begin desegregating them. The House Rules Committee broke the deadlock over civil rights legislation by announcing a hearing on the bill it has kept bottled up since last summer. A petition to bring the bill to the floor without committee clearance has more than 190 of the required 219 signatures. Thirteen Negroes entered two former ly all-white high schools in Floyd County, Va., under federal court order, making 98 Negroes in desegregated schools in the state. A federal judge also has ordered eight other Negroes admit ted to all-white or predominantly white schools in Alexandria. Georgians began debating whether to close their public schools to preserve segregation after a federal judge ap proved a pupil placement plan to de- (For a summary of 1959 segregation- desegregation developments, see Pages 12 and 13.) segregate Atlanta schools. Existing state laws require the closing of schools in the event of integration. Advisory committees to the Civil Rights Commission have been formed in the last two states, Mississippi and South Carolina. Several seats remain J vu s, urveu open on the committees of both states. Other developments by state: Alabama Gov. John Patterson warned that Alabama’s school placement law will not prevent integration. The governor said he felt sure the U.S. Supreme Court would declare the law unconstitutional the first time it is used to preserve seg regation. (Page 9.) Arkansas Atty. Gen. Bruce Bennett filed early as a gubernatorial candidate and promptly announced that school deseg regation would be one of two main is sues in the campaign. Gov. Orval Fau- bus remained quiet about whether he plans to try for a fourth term. (Page 5.) Delaware James M. Tunnell Jr., the lawyer who represented most of the local school dis tricts in their segregation cases, is among those prominently mentioned by Delaware Democrats as possible candi dates for governor. (Page 11.) District of Columbia A District school board member has asked school officials to consider aban doning the annual racial count of pupils and teachers. Southern congressmen want to crack down on non-resident students attending Washington’s public schools free. (Page 3.) Florida Dade County’s school board ordered 10 classrooms added at integrated Or chard Villa School after the school’s teachers rated the five-month trial a success. Negroes in Tallahassee, in northern Florida, have taken initial steps toward a court suit on desegrega tion. (Page 8.) Georgia Louisiana Democratic nomination for governor. At Washington, D.C., the Jus tice Department asked the U.S. Su preme Court to restore 1,377 Negro vot ers who were purged from registration rolls in Washington Parish. (Page 14.) Maryland A state report shows that an addition al 1,237 Negro pupils were enrolled in formerly all-white schools this past fall, the state’s largest increase so far. The number of integrated county schools rose from 218 to 246. (Page 10.) Mississippi Ross R. Barnett, an uncompromising segregationist, took office Jan. 19 as governor. In his temperate inaugural address, he promised “maintenance of segregation at all costs.” (Page 7.) Missouri An official of the Kansas City public schools reported that the proportion of Negro to white teachers had remained fairly steady over the past two years, although the proportion among students has shown a steady increase since 1955. (Page 15.) North Carolina A motion filed by an attorney for 27 Negro students asks an injunction to prevent Yancey County from operating segregated schools. A citizens’ commit tee at Chapel Hill asked school board members to explain details of the de segregation plan proposed for next fall. (Page 9.) Oklahoma Two Oklahoma communities have taken a look backward at their deseg regation programs. Purcell first deseg regated on the high school level in 1955. Allure started only a few months ago with seven Negro students in its pre viously segregated high school. (Page Slight Rise in Desegregated Districts D esegregated school districts increased slightly in the southern and border states within the past nine months, despite a sharp decline in the number of school districts because of consoli dations. Districts with desegregated schools increased from 734 to 747 during the period, the latest sta tistical summary of Southern Education Reporting Service showed. Ten days after the sum mary was released, Floyd County in Virginia desegregated two schools, making the regional total 748 districts. Consolidations cut the total of school districts in the 17 states and the District of Columbia from 7,874 last May to 6,973 in January of this year. The number of dis tricts with residents of both races dropped from 2,881 to 2,849. Nineteen districts were desegregated at the start of the present school year. This represents the smallest increase since the U.S. Supreme Court’s deseg regation decision in 1954. Of the almost 13 million students en rolled in public schools in the region, 2% million whites and one-half million Negroes are in integrated situations. This does not mean that number of pu pils are attending integrated schools but that their school districts have desegre gation policies in practice or principle. Since the last statistical summary, Florida was the only state with com plete segregation to start initial deseg regation of its schools—two schools in Dade County. Public schools remain segregated in the five Deep South states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina. As an example of how school changes affected a state’s statistics, Oklahoma reduced its school districts from 1,365 to 1,323 by consolidations. However, the number of districts in which both whites and Negroes reside changed from 250 to 251 and the desegregated districts climbed from 170 to 187. School officials in some border states have discontinued reporting racial breakdowns on enrollments. Missouri, for example, reduced its total of dis tricts from 2,890 to 2,143 and stopped giving racial statistics. The number of students in integrated situations there can only be estimated by use of old percentages. Desegregation increased in the public colleges and universities of the South. Of the 195 formerly all-white institu tions, 124 in 14 states are desegregated in practice or principle, compared to 117 in 13 states reported last May. Eighteen of the 30 formerly all-Negro institutions are desegregated. This makes 142 of 225 institutions of higher learning that will accept students of an other race. The number of students, white and Negro, involved in the desegregation at this level is not known since most bor der states no longer report enrollment by race. # # # Two more Georgia school systems have been presented petitions to deseg regate. Chapters of the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People presented the petitions in Cobb County and the city of Marietta, both in the At lanta metropolitan area. (Page 1.) Kentucky The new governor, Bert Combs, won two preliminary rounds in his program to finance improvements in the state’s school system. Both a special session of the General Assembly in December and the new Assembly in January approved his call for a limited constitutional re vision convention, at which school seg regation would be one of the subjects specifically excluded. (Page 8.) Louisiana The votes of strongly vocal segrega tionists helped Jimmie H. Davis win the Segregation-Desegregation Status School Districts Enrollment Situations Total Biracial Deseg. White Negro % Negro White Negro Alabama 113 113 0 497,700 292,300 37.0 0 0 Arkansas 422 228 9 315,806 104,205 24.8 50,172 9,750 Delaware 94 51 19 63,484 ' 14,277 18.4 39,076 7,576 Dist. of Columbia 1 1 1 27,481 90,403 76.7 27,481 90,403 Florida 67 67 1 727,398 192,093 20.9 125,295 25,881 Georgia 198 196 0 667,781 310,753 31.6 0 0 Kentucky 215 172 123 568,360 42,778 7.0 388,000 32,000 Louisiana 67 67 0 412,563 261,491 38.8 0 0 Maryland 24 23 23 454,414 126,678 21.8 396,000 118,500 Mississippi 151 151 ' 0 283,502 271,671 48.9 0 0 Missouri 2,143 214 200 738,000 82,000 10.0 74,480 North Carolina 174 174 7 816,682 302,060 27.0 73,200 4L800 Oklahoma 1,323 251 187 485,996 39,405 7.5 261,840 30,000 South Carolina 108 108 0 344,893 255,616 43.0 0 0 Tennessee 153 142 4 668,300 146,700 18.0 38,494 13,576 Texas 1,581 720 125 1,783,737 279,374 13.5 632,000 33,000 Virginia 129 128 6 617,349 203,229 24.7 74,825 21,743 West Virginia 55 43 43 427,864 24,010 5.3 414,968 24J)10 Region 6.973 2,849 748 9,901,310 3,039,133 23.5 2,521,351 522,719 South Carolina Racial segregation at Greenville Mu nicipal Airport came under attack from two quarters. U.S. Fourth District Court of Appeals heard a suit on the matter in mid-January. And several hundred Negroes protested the racial separation in a “pilgrimage” to the air port New Year’s Day. (Page 11.) Tennessee The Knoxville Board of Education, faced with its second desegregation suit, re-hired S. Frank Fowler, the attorney who helped beat down the first suit. This was believed to indicate the board will fight the suit instead of submitting a desegregation plan of its own, as sug gested by the city law director. (Page 6.) Texas The Texas Supreme Court refused to rule on the state referendum law, leav ing the Dallas School Board in a dilem ma over desegregation. A federal court has ordered desegregation but state law provides penalties for such action with out a referendum. (Page 4.) Virginia An effort by white segregationists to provide private schools for Negroes in Prince Edward County collapsed when only one child applied. Negro leaders announced plans for 10 “training cen ters” to offer basic education and rec reation for school-less Negroes. (Page 16.) West Virginia The state’s two U.S. senators, Jen nings Randolph and Robert C. Byrd, have declined to commit themselves on their final stand on civil rights legisla tion now before Congress. They are co sponsors of an anti-bombing measure. (Page 6.) # # #