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PAGE 10—FEBRUARY—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MARYLAND
Desegregation Shows Top Gain
In County Schools for 1959-60
BALTIMORE, Md.
rvESEGREGATiON in Maryland
U county schools has registered
its largest numerical gain in the
current school year, according to
figures compiled by the State De
partment of Education.
An additional 1,237 Negro pu
pils were enrolled in formerly all-
white schools this past fall, while
the number of integrated county
schools rose from 218 to 246.
Commenting on the newly compiled
county figures (those for Baltimore city
schools are not yet completed), Dr. Da
vid W. Zimmerman, assistant state
school superintendent, said that the in
crease in integrated pupils was above
the five-year average in Maryland,
while the increase in integrated schools
was below previous years. The latter
was to be expected, he added.
“At least we’re moving,” Zimmerman
said. “That’s the important thing from
where I sit. We’re moving; not sitting
still.”
NUMBER CONSTANT
Of the 23 county school districts in
Maryland, 22 have both white and Ne
gro pupils, and of these 13 have some
Negroes enrolled in formerly white
schools. The number of counties with
integrated enrollments has remained
constant since the fall of 1956, with the
exception that the number increased by
one last year when St. Mary’s County,
enrolled two Negroes in a white school
who did not return this fall.
The gain in integrated schools and
the number of Negroes in those schools
has been as follows:
School
Integrated
Number of
Year
Schools
Negroes
1955-56
69
991
1956-57
135
1,726
1957-58
184
2,771
1958-59
218
3,854
1959-60
216
5,091
The 246
schools with both white and
Negro pupils represent 30 per cent of
the 820 schools in Maryland county
schools systems. Since the 820 schools
include both white and Negro units, and
since nearly all the desegregation has
taken the form of Negro pupils enter
ing white schools, the number of white
schools receiving Negroes in much
higher than 30 per cent. The 5,091 Ne
groes who have entered those schools
represent just over ten per cent of the
total Negro school enrollment.
NEGRO TEACHERS RETAINED
No Negro teachers have lost their
jobs because of desegregation, Zimmer
man says.
“Whenever we’ve closed out schools,
Negroes have been assimilated in the
total staff.”
Separate Negro classes at designated
grade levels and, in some instances, en
tire schools have been closed as part of
the desegregation process in Allegany,
W ashington, Frederick, Montgomery
and Baltimore counties. This has meant
desegregating teaching staffs as well as
pupils in these counties and also, on a
more limited basis, in Anne Arundel
County.
Most of the actual desegregation in
Maryland has occurred in and about
urban centers, Zimmerman points out.
The greatest number of Negroes attend
ing formerly white schools are found in
the cities of Cumberland, Hagerstown
and Frederick in western Maryland and
in heavily suburbanized counties:
Prince George’s and Montgomery bor
dering on Washington, D.C., and Balti
more metropolitan area.
The most desegregation of all has oc
curred in Baltimore city, for which sta
tistics for 1959-60 are not yet available.
The additional schools having both
white and Negro pupils in the current
school year are in the following coun
ties:
Anne Arundel 11
Baltimore 3
Carroll 4
Cecil 3
Frederick 1
Harford 1
Montgomery 1
Prince George’s 5
TOTAL 29
The 29 additional schools with white-
Negro enrollments are offset slightly by
the reversion of one school in St. Mary’s
County to an all-white status, making
a net increase in the current year of 28.
The increase in Anne Arundel Coun
ty stems mainly from the fact that de
segregation moved into secondary
schools for the first time this fall.
Previously Anne Arundel desegregat
ed its elementary schools in three an
nual steps. The seventh grade was
opened to Negro transfers in the current
school year and was expected to draw
an increased number of applicants,
since prior to this year only one school
served Negro junior and senior high
school students. The figures show that
the number of Negro pupils attending
predominantly white schools more than
doubled, from 261 to 568.
The other counties with increased
numbers of integrated schools are all
districts in which all grades are open
to Negroes, with the exception of Har
ford County. This county completed its
elementary school desegregation and is
on a grade-a-year plan in the second
ary schools.
Two counties, Frederick and Mont
gomery, are engaged in a systematic
program of gradually closing Negro
schools. Baltimore County has all but
completed its desegregation program.
However, only 59 out of 97 schools have
biracial enrollments, since many schools
serve entirely white residential areas.
There was a gain of four integrated
schools in Carroll County, which lies in
central, mainly rural Maryland. For the
past three years Carroll has had only
one school with both white and Negro
pupils. The jump to five schools with an
additional 25 Negro children involved
is an indication, Zimmerman believes,
of a concerted effort to enlarge upon
desegregation in the county.
TEN PER SCHOOL
Prince George’s County recorded an
additional five schools with biracial en
rollments, with 15 additional Negro pu
pils involved. Now in its fifth year of
desegregation, Prince George’s con
tinues to have just a scattering of Ne
groes in formerly white schools: 255 in
26 schools, or an average of less than
10 to a school. Most of the integration
has occurred in the northern half of the
county, which lies in the Washington
suburban area.
Although the subject of more law
suits than any other county, including
an impending one that National Assn,
for the Advancement of Colored People
lawyers say will be filed soon, Harford
County has a higher percentage of bi
racial schools than any other county
save Baltimore County. Exactly half—
12 out of 24—of Harford’s schools have
both white and colored pupils. Mont
gomery County is close behind with 53
out of 107 biracial schools, while Balti
more County has 59 out of 97.
The percentage figure is not always
significant. In Allegany County, less
than half (15 out of 34) of the county’s
schools has an integrated enrollment,
but integration is 100 per cent complete
in Allegany. The one remaining Negro
school was not reopened this past fall,
and all of the county’s 303 Negro pupils
(along with their teachers) are now in
formerly white schools. Closing the
school required the transfer of about
100 children.
Counties having a gain in the number
of Negroes in formerly white schools
were as follows:
Allegany 105
Anne Arundel 307
Baltimore 101
Carroll 25
Cecil 27
Frederick 232
Harford 55
Howard 1
Montgomery 377
Prince George’s 15
Talbot 4
TOTAL 1,249
Two counties registered a decrease in
Negroes attending white schools—10
less in Washington County and two less
in St. Mary’s.
The change in Washington County
represents a population decline. The
county previously had integrated all of
its less than 400 Negro pupils except
those attending one all-Negro school in
Hagerstown. At the school, grades seven
to 12 have been discontinued, leaving
only the elementary grades.
St. Mary’s for the first time last year
had two Negroes in one white high
school. One was graduated and the oth
er shifted last fall to a Catholic paro
chial school.
The net gain for the counties as a
whole was, therefore, 1,237.
ADDITIONAL STEPS
Of the counties with large increases
in Negroes attending formerly white
schools, Montgomery and Frederick
have taken additional steps leading to
ward the gradual elimination of all sep
arate classes for Negroes. Montgomery
County has integrated about 65 per
cent of its Negro pupils and Frederick
about 45 per cent. Baltimore County,
operating under a more voluntary pro
gram, has about 35 per cent of its Ne
groes in white schools. The change in
Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford and
Prince George’s counties have been dis
cussed above.
Cecil County, lying at the head of
Chesapeake Bay and usually grouped
as one of the nine Eastern Shore coun
ties, has had small but steady desegre
gation increases since 1955. In the past
year the number of biracial schools rose
from seven to 10 (out of 24 schools in
all), and the number of Negroes in those
schools increased from 27 to 54, the lat
ter being about 10 per cent of the col
ored school population.
The only other “Shore” county to
have some integration is Talbot, which
has had a few Negroes in the same two
formerly all-white schools since the fall
of 1956. The number of Negro pupils
this year rose from eight to 12, which
is the highest yet.
Howard County, lying to the west of
Baltimore, has experienced little change
since desegregation began there in the
fall of 1956. The first five grades of
white schools were open to Negroes on
a voluntary basis at that time, and a
grade a year since then has extended
desegregation through the eighth grade
this year. Nine Negro children made the
initial move, and it is largely this group
that has been making its way upward.
This year there are 10 Negroes in three
otherwise white schools.
Charles County also has experienced
little change. Two Negroes have at
tended one white school for the past
three years. In the fall of 1956 there
were five.
Of the nine biracial counties with no
integrated enrollments, all have some
policy under which Negroes may apply
for admission to white schools. Except
for St. Mary’s County, none has had any
actual desegregation. And except for an
isolated instance in Wicomico County,
none has had any Negro applicants.
In each county the desegregation poli
cies, to the extent they have been made
public, extend to all grades, with the
exception of Dorchester County, which
began with the 12 th grade in 1956 and
has been working downward. Seven of
the school systems not desegregated are
on the Eastern Shore and two in south
ern Maryland. In both areas the per
centages of Negroes run well above the
rest of Maryland-
Four Negro boys attending an inte
grated high school at Sandy Spring in
Montgomery County were suspended
after white girls made complaints
against them. A news dispatch from
the rural community reported the
principal of the school, William W.
Miles, as saying that an investigation
had disclosed that the boys jostled the
girls while students were changing
classes in crowded halls. The girls told
the principal that the incidents were
accompanied in some instances by sug
gestive remarks from the boys.
Sandy Spring lies “up-county” in
Montgomery where the percentage of
Negroes runs higher than “down-
county” and where desegregation has
moved more slowly. Desegregation is
substantially complete in the “down-
county” half of Montgomery which is
predominantly a white suburban sec
tion of the Washington, D.C. metro
politan area.
LEGAL ACTION
U. S. District Judge Roszel C. Thom
sen, who has heard all the school de
segregation cases in Maryland, reached
decisions in January on two other con
troversies involving racial segrega
tion.
In one case three Negroes (two of
them bacteriologists at the Army’s
germ-warfare center at Fort Detrick)
brought suit because they were re
quired to sit in the back of the bal
cony at a movie theater operated pri
vately in a city-owned building. Thom
sen granted an injunction against the
theater, saying that the hall was a
place of public assembly, a part of City
Hall, and as such could not be leased
under any terms that contemplate seg
regation.
In the other case a Negro scientist
at the Edgewood Chemical Center
sought to have the court bar the use
of Army water by a private housing
development on the edge of the mili
tary installation because the manage
ment of the development refused to
sell him one of the houses. Thomsen
ruled that the use of government-sup
plied water did not change the private
nature of the housing development and
thus did not make it subject to con
stitutional bans on racial discrimina
tion by public agencies. #■ # #
Desegregation In Formerly White Maryland County Schools
Fall 1955
Fall 1957
Previously
All-White Schools
Previously
All-White Schools
Schools
COUNTY In District
Number
Negroes
Enrolled
Schools
In District
Number
Negroes
Enrolled
Schools
In District
Number
Allegany
.. 34
13
151
36
15
196
34
15
Anne Arundel
.. 64
—
—
67
17
173
70
28
‘Baltimore
.. 82
13
205
93
46
844
97
59
Calvert
.. 16
—
—
15
—
15
Caroline
.. 13
—
—
12
—
11
Carroll
.. 21
2
15
22
1
10
23
5
Cecil
.. 25
2
12
23
3
16
24
10
Charles
.. 19
—
—
17
1
2
15
1
Dorchester ....
.. 31
—
—
31
30
Frederick
38
—
—
39
14
161
36
18
♦♦Garrett
. 21
—
—
20
—
18
Harford
. 23
—
—
24
7
51
24
12
Howard
. 17
—
—
17
1
7
18
3
Kent
. 16
—
—
16
—
13
Montgomery ...
. 91
22
496
10!
47
936
107
53
Prince George’s
.103
8
65
112
17
214
125
26
Queen Anne’s ... 15
St. Mary’s 20
Somerset 22
Talbot 20
Washington .... 45
Wicomico 25
Worcester 17
TOTAL 778
69
47
991
14
18
22
18
48
21
18
805
3
12
184
11
150
2,771
14
19
20
15
50
22
20
820
Fall 1959
Previously
All-White Schools
Negroes
Enrolled
303
568
1,371
39
54
2
582
195
10
1,521
255
12
179
2
14
246
5,091
* Does not include Baltimore city.
Has no Negroes.
North Carolina
(Continued From Page 9)
Instead, they are being taught by a pri
vate tutor in a church basement.
The high school students—about half
a dozen of them—are attending a pri
vate school in Asheville. Most of these
are boarding in Asheville.
GREENSBORO CASE
A desegregation suit brought against
the Greensboro school board on behalf
of four Negro students has become
moot and will be dismissed, Federal
Judge Edwin M. Stanley has ruled in
Middle District Federal Court. Stanley
said:
“Since it is now uncontroverted that
the minor plaintiffs eligible to attend
the Caldwell School have been assigned
to and are now attending that school,
the only legal question presented has
become moot, and there remains noth
ing for the court to adjudicate.”
In the same opinion, Stanley ruled
that a motion in which lawyers for the
four Negro students had asked permis
sion to file a supplemental complaint
would be denied.
Stanley said the Negroes, in the pro
posed supplemental complaint, “are
now complaining of the action taken by
the board in reassigning white pupils,
not the action taken on their own ap
plications for reassignment.”
The Negroes’ attorneys sought to
charge in the supplemental complaint
that the Greensboro board’s action in
consolidating the Caldwell Elementary
School and the Pearson Street Branch
were part of a general pattern of main
taining segregation, except for token in
tegration, in the school system.
(Greensboro has had limited desegre
gation since September 1957.)
CONSOLIDATED
The Pearson Street Branch, which
had been attended only by Negroes, and
the Caldwell School, which had been
attended only by white pupils, were
consolidated by board order last June.
The two units are on adjacent tracts
of land.
Subsequently, the Greensboro board
approved the transfer of all white stu
dents and teachers assigned to the Cald
well School for 1959-60, leaving an all-
Negro school.
Judge Stanley noted that of 245 white
students reassigned from the Caldwell
School, 191 were “reassigned to the Gil
lespie Park School, which, since the
opening of the 1958-59 school year, has
been and still is operated as an inte
grated school.”
He also said that “since it is admitted
that all the minor plaintiffs eligible to
attend Caldwell School have been ad
mitted to and are now attending that
school, and none have applied for re
assignment to another school, it follows
that the court could grant no relief
under the proposed supplemental com
plaint ...”
Three of the four Negro students for
whom the suit was brought are attend
ing Caldwell. The fourth was promoted
to junior high school.
The suit was filed by Readell McCoy
on behalf of his children, Valarie, Eric
and Thetus McCoy, and by James Ton
kins Jr. on behalf of his son, Michael
Anthony Tonkins. All except Thetus
McCoy are attending Caldwell. He is
at Lincoln Junior High School, which
is attended only by Negroes.
A citizens’ committee for Chapel Hill
schools has asked the school board to
spell out in detail its plan for initiating
desegregation next fall.
The 27-member committee also asked
the board of education to include in the
plan provisions for taking the “burden”
for desegregation away from individual
parents and students.
The Chapel Hill board voted last year
to begin limited desegregation at the
first-grade level with the start of the
fall semester in 1960. Negroes would be
assigned to schools according to geo
graphic locations upon request of the
parents, the board said.
The citizens’ committee said:
“It is grossly unfair to place the bur
den for requesting admission to a non-
segregated school on the student and
his parents. Indeed, this course of ac
tion might well lead to bitterness and
acrimony as well as violating the spirit
and law which we are trying to imple
ment.”
The school board took no immediate
action on the request.
A Quaker group, the Religious So
ciety of Friends, had earlier presented
a similar idea to the board. It asked
that the school district be divided into
five geographic districts with each dis
trict having one elementary school.
# # #