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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. # # #