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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH I960—PAGE II
OKLAHOMA
Two Southeast Oklahoma Districts
Announce Plans for Desegregation
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
ESEGREGATION PLANS for the
coming year were revealed
by two southeastern Oklahoma
school districts in February.
The Holdenville Board of Edu
cation announced it will discon
tinue its Negro elementary school
after the current term. Its pupils
will be distributed among four
other grade schools.
This will complete a desegrega
tion process begun in 1955 at the
senior high school level. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
At Wewoka, which has had integra
tion in athletics and transportation, the
school board voted officially to desegre
gate classrooms at the junior and senior
high levels. Officials explained the ac
tion, expected since last year, was taken
for financial reasons. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Residents of a northeastern Okla
homa City section scheduled their
initial meeting for setting up a possible
“ehanging neighborhood” study. This is
an area experiencing school desegrega
tion for the first time this year. (See
“Community Action.”)
A Negro organization’s drive for an
Oklahoma City ordinance opening
restaurants, theaters and hotels to all
races received support—but not spon
sorship—from a citywide church group.
(See “Community Action.”)
School leaders at Holdenville decided
to complete desegregation of their sys
tem by closing the separate Negro
elementary unit. The decision came
after three years of study.
Chief motivating factors, school lead
ers said, were (1) reducing expenses
and (2) giving Negro pupils better edu
cational opportunities
Holdenville, county seat of Hughes
County, lies just outside Oklahoma’s
Little Dixie area. Negroes are believed
to account for about eight percent of its
population, estimated by the Chamber
of Commerce at 7,000. Generally they
live in the northwest part of town, in a
quadrant formed by the crossing of two
railroads at nearly right angles. There is
also a small settlement of Negroes north
of the city limits.
The junior and senior high school
building stands at the east edge of the
downtown business district. To the
south of the business area is one of the
elementary schools, Central. A second,
Park View, is in the southwest section
and a third, Capitol Heights, is in the
north end of town. Diamond Grade
School lies in the Diamond Country
Club addition on the far east side of
Holdenville, a section of the commun
ity’s better homes. The traditionally Ne
gro school, Lincoln, is north of one set
of railroad tracks and west of another.
HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATES
In 1955, first year of desegregation in
Oklahoma, the Holdenville Board of
Education closed the 9th, 10th, 11th and
12th grades of the Lincoln school. The
24 Negro students involved began at
tending classes with some 300 white
pupils in Holdenville High School.
The following year the board brought
over 21 Negroes from Lincoln to join
about 200 white youngsters in the
seventh and eighth grades.
For the current year, Supt. Francis
Tuttle estimated for Southern School
News, Negro totals are about the same,
but overall enrollments have risen to
410 in the upper four grades and 253 in
the junior high.
The plan to discontinue the Negro
school entirely was unfolded last month
by Tuttle and Orion Wilbanks, board of
education president, at a meeting of
some 70 Lincoln patrons and PTA
members. Most of the Lincoln patrons
appeared satisfied their children would
receive better instruction in the elemen
tary schools than they are now getting.
Under the present setup at Lincoln two
teachers, Mrs. Minnie Hunter, principal,
and Jessie Greenlaw, carry the instruc
tional load for all six grades.
The paramount feature of Holden-
ville’s elementary integration plan is
spreading the Negro pupils among the
four schools now attended by 650 white
children. Tuttle and Wilbanks said this
will be done to “prevent social cliques
and provide the students with more
chance for social adjustment?
However, the superintendent told
SSN another reason for using this
method is that both Park View and
Capitol Heights, the schools nearest the
Negro residential section, are over
loaded now.
“We’re putting only the closest ones
(Negroes) in those schools,” Tuttle ex
plained.
Capitol Heights will get 14 Lincoln
students and nine Negro pupils will go
to Diamond.
Actually Diamond School already has
one Negro pupil. Tuttle said a girl from
the rural area who preferred not to at
tend Lincoln has been going to Diamond
the past two years. He said there was
little objection and it was more con
venient for the school board, which had
to transport her, because her home is
closer to Diamond than to Lincoln.
Another 14 Negro children living
within a few blocks of Lincoln will at
tend Central, while the other nine Ne
gro pupils will go to Park View.
URGES PARTICIPATION
Wilbanks urged the Lincoln patrons
to participate in the Parent-Teacher
Assns. of the schools which their chil
dren attend next fall. He added: “That’s
the way it should and must be.”
Among advantages the Lincoln pupils
will receive in the four other schools
are special reading, science, mathema
tics and other programs, the superinten
dent said. In addition, the officials said
they feel the Negro children will be
better adjusted socially when they enter
junior high and high school if they have
attended grade schools with white pu
pils.
As in nearly all instances of desegre
gation in Oklahoma, the real casualties
will be the two Negro teachers. Their
contracts will not be renewed.
“We realize they are both fine teach
ers,” Wilbanks said. He pointed out not
all phases of integration have proceeded
with the same speed. Hiring of Negro
teachers in integrated systems has not
worked out in some cases, he said, add
ing that “the weakness of integration is
that the teachers have not been inte
grated along with the students.”
Tuttle said this is not morally right
but added that time changes attitudes,
“and the change must be gradual.”
DIDN’T PUSH INTEGRATION
Tuttle said Holdenville had put off
completing integration a couple of years
longer than he would have desired
under ordinary circumstances. But the
Board of Education delayed the move,
he said, because it didn’t want to push
integration faster than people were
willing to accept it and because it hated
to dismiss the Negro teachers.
Finally, however, the financial situa
tion left the board no alternative. The
superintendent explained it has cost the
district $4,500 a year, in addition to
teaching salaries, to keep Lincoln in op
eration.
Tuttle arrived in Holdenville from
Gotebo, Kiowa County, in 1955, just in
time to administer the first phase of the
desegregation plan. He can recall no
trouble resulting from it in either the
junior or senior high school—“not even
anything that might be called an inci
dent.”
WEWOKA TO DESEGREGATE
At Wewoka the Board of Education
voted unanimously Feb. 1 to desegre
gate grades seven through 12 beginning
in September 1960.
The action was foreshadowed last
year when officials said a dwindling sur
plus in funds made integration almost
inevitable (SSN, October 1959). How
ever, the board gave its superintendent,
Ray Claiborne, until March to study the
financial picture and see whether it
would be possible to continue operat
ing the high school grades at the Negro
school, Douglass.
By the time of the board’s February
meeting the answer had become clear.
“According to the figures now avail
able,” said Claiborne, “Til be $4,000 in
the hole at the end of this term. That is,
I’ll lack $4,000 of meeting our current
budget.”
He is hoping to get a supplemental ap
propriation out of $7,000 or $8,000 in
“surplus” funds from the collection of
miscellaneous revenues in excess of
budget estimates. But this would not
provide enough of a cushion with which
to start a new fiscal year, when it costs
about $15,000 annually to keep the
Douglass junior and senior high grades
in operation, the superintendent said.
“Hie only reason we made the move
(desegregation of the upper six grades)
was the financial situation, Claiborne
declared. “We kept Douglass as a sep
arate school for five years but we just
can’t do it any longer.”
Douglass will continue to serve Negro
children exclusively in grades one
through six. Claiborne pointed out the
building is located in the concentrated
Negro residential area on Wewoka’s
west side. The only other grade schools
—Central, next door to the high school,
and Compton, on the east side of town
—are already filled to capacity. Central
has an enrollment of 400; Compton, 160,
and Douglass, 189.
Claiborne estimated 80 Negro students
will be integrated with the white stu
dents in grades 10, 11 and 12 next fall
and another 85 or 90 Negroes will come
over to the white junior high. The lat
ter building is being expanded for the
additional pupils. The superintendent
expects the $150,000 addition—contain
ing an auditorium, three classrooms,
dressing room facilities and a large
lobby—to be ready early in March. But
it won’t be used until fall because the
furniture is not on hand.
Wewoka, which will become the 188th
known desegregated school district in
Oklahoma, has been preparing for the
move several years. The board has kept
the community informed of its growing
financial plight. Athletic programs of
Douglass and Wewoka High already
have been integrated.
Residents of the uneasy northeast
Oklahoma City residential section
scheduled a late-February meeting to
discuss the possibility of initiating a
neighborhood stabilization program
similar to one in Tulsa (SSN, Decem
ber 1959).
It was called by Leo S. Cade, vice
president of the Committee on the
Changing Neighborhood of the Okla
homa City chapter of the National Con
ference of Christians and Jews. The re
quest for the meeting came from Rev.
John Mount of Capital Presbyterian
Church on behalf of the northeast resi
dents. Among the 15 or 20 persons in
vited were leading clergymen, a lay
member of each church in the area, rep
resentatives of several of the neighbor
hoods affected, two school principals,
two PTA presidents, social workers, and
businessmen.
Purpose of the meeting was to dis
cuss what type of “holding action” to
take in view of the migration of Negro
families into previously white neigh
borhoods during the past year. The
trend brought the first school desegre
gation north of Northeast 23rd Street
last fall.
COMMITTEES FORMED
At least two neighborhood commit
tees were organized in an effort to
persuade white home-owners not to sell
their property. They began turning to
the NCCJ for help and guidance after
hearing how the Reservoir Hill-Bur
roughs School Neighborhood Organiza
tion stabilized the residential area
around an integrated school in Tulsa.
Four of the leaders of that organization
were asked to describe their program
at the Oklahoma City meeting.
Donald F. Sullivan, regional director
for the NCCJ, said no change has oc
curred in the Negro-white pupil ratio
in the Burroughs Elementary School
since October. He termed this significant
in view of the fact that Negroes now
account for 58 percent of the Burroughs
student body and white children are
free to get transfers to other schools
under the Tulsa Board of Education
policy.
Sullivan said he understands the real
estate situation in the Burroughs area is
improved and some property is being
sold to white persons.
APPROVE PETITIONS
The executive board of the Greater
Oklahoma City Council of Churches
voiced approval of petitions seeking a
city ordinance that would ban segrega
tion practices in businesses serving the
general public. The petitions are being
circulated by the National Assn, for the
Advancement of Colored People.
Efforts were made in a long board
session to associate the council as a di
rect sponsor of the NAACP plan but no
action was taken on the proposals.
The NAACP-backed ordinance speci
fies hotels, restaurants, theaters, parks,
swimming pools, bowling alleys, sport
ing rinks and retail stores. # # #
Texas
(Continued From Page 10)
Bowl game in Dallas on Jan. 1.
Syracuse Coach Ben Schwartzwalder,
whose Negro players made the com
plaints against Texas to New York writ
ers and television announcers, said in
Dallas that no responsible person from
Syracuse had ever made such charges.
“We are just very sorry the thing has
been magnified like it has and wish it
would all die down,” Schwartzwalder
said in Dallas, where he attended a
coaching school.
Concerning anti-Texas comments
made by Ernie Davis, Syracuse Negro
halfback on the Dave Garroway show
following the game, the Syracuse coach
said:
“He’s just a sophomore. They flew
him up there on short notice. It’s easy
to twist a kid’s words around so he says
some things he doesn’t really want to
say.”
University of Texas officials mean
while continued to press for an investi
gation of the charges by the National
Collegiate Athletic Assn. NCAA spokes
men indicated that the request will be
granted. Texas President Logan Wilson
contended that the Syracuse players’
remarks after the game were unfair,
uncalled-for and unfounded and had
hurt the reputation of the University of
Texas. The university was among the
first to desegregate in the South.
INITIATED EXAMS
President Wilson’s administration ini
tiated selective admission examinations
for all students, when ordering the Uni
versity of Texas desegregated at all
levels. Graduate courses had been inte
grated earlier.
Wilson said one result has been steady
improvement of student performance.
He added that the university does not
seek to become an institution just for
the “elite scholar.” It has nearly 18,500
students.
Of this year’s freshmen, 90 per cent
came from the top half of their high
school graduating classes and 75 per
cent from the top quarter of their class.
“The majority of our students will be
in the average or better-than-average
group,” said Wilson. “But a student with
C grades from a good, tough high school
has a good chance.”
ASK HIGHER TUITION
Presidents of 22 church-related or
private colleges in Texas presented to
the Texas Commission on Higher Edu
cation, coordinating agency for state
colleges, a plea for higher tuition in
state schools, now $50 per semester for
Texans. The low tuition is attracting to
tax-supported colleges many students
who otherwise would attend private col
leges, it was said. The latter charge five
or six times as much tuition as do state
schools.
The church college people also viewed
with alarm the solicitation of private
funds for public colleges, saying this
makes more difficult the financing of
private education. The University of
Texas now is engaged in an effort to
raise 10 million dollars a year from out
side sources, above its legislative ap
propriations, endowment and fees, for
raising its academic excellence.
The state university was praised for
establishing the compulsory admission
test, a move said to be strengthening ed
ucational standards all along the line,
including public and preparatory
schools.
Other colleges now are considering
adopting a standard entrance test for
all Texas high school graduates seeking
to enter college. Each college could set
its own score for admission, but the
questions would be standard.
There is disagreement over the kind
of test to adopt.
SEEK NEGRO COLLEGE
Efforts continued to establish a four-
year Negro college in Dallas, the larg
est southern city without a Negro col
lege. A 1.5 million dollar fund-raising
campaign is under way, headed by Dal
las insurance executive Carr P. Collins
Sr. and the Baptist Church.
The Hoblitzelle Foundation, created
by a Dallas theatre magnate, has do
nated 103 acres of land for the campus.
The proposed college would include a
merger of two existing schools—Bishop
College of Marshall and Butler College
of Tyler—on the new campus at Dallas,
which has a Negro population of about
100,000. Negroes also are taking an ac
tive role in the fund-raising, and the
new college is scheduled to open in
September 1961.
The Episcopal Diocese of Texas, after
an argument in its state council meeting
in Houston, voted to approve the plans
of St. Stephens Episcopal School trus
tees to accept Negro students starting
in September 1961.
An estimated 50 delegates supported
a motion to continue segregation, while
approximately 500 stood up for the
board’s integration decision.
St. Stephens School, located near
Austin, has 142 boarding students and
28 day students. Headmaster Allen W.
Becker said no applications for admis
sion to the preparatory school are pend
ing from Negroes, although some in
quiries had been received in the past.
GET FEDERAL AID
Despite vocal opposition to federal
school aid in some quarters in Texas, a
check revealed that approximately 450
local boards are receiving funds under
the Defense Education Act for help in
science, mathematics and foreign lan
guage departments. Counseling service
assistance is being given to 667 Texas
districts, compared to 257 in 1958-1959.
Applications for federal aid, however,
are less than the funds available.
In 10 years, federal aid has risen from
2.3 per cent to 3.6 per cent of the total
cost of public schools in Texas.
At Dallas, Presidential Aide E. Fred
eric Morrow urged “better communi
cations between Negro and white.”
“We (the Negro people) have been so
busy obtaining our rights, and the
whites have been so busy objecting, that
there is hardly any communication left
between us,” Morrow told an audience
of Negroes.
A similar plea for the United States
to set an example for the world in good
race relations came at Houston, from
Dr. Gardner Taylor, New York Negro
minister, addressing an integrated audi
ence of 900 on Race Relations Sunday.
Two housing incidents involving Dal
las Negroes occurred during February.
The Rev. T. L. Young said he would
ask the U.S. attorney general whether
any of his civil rights had been violat
ed when a group of white citizens called
on the Negro preacher to voice objection
to moving his family into the all-white
neighborhood. Negroes do live in the vi
cinity, but not on the block where
Young bought a house.
The Negro returned his family to its
former home two blocks away, saying
he wouldn’t “dare live where I wasn’t
wanted.” He said all he wanted was his
money back on the new house.
RECEIVES THREAT
In another Dallas neighborhood, pre
dominantly white, a Negro athletic
coach received a bomb threat in the
mail. H. L. Devaughn said other har-
rassing acts had occurred since he
bought the brick house for $17,000 last
November and moved in.
Stones have been thrown at several
windows, breaking them, and eggs have
been hurled at his house.
“I’m hoping this is just a crank,” said
Devaughn of the bomb threat.
At Austin, members of the “40 and 8”
organization of World War I veterans
voted to drop “white” from the national
charter, and to admit Negroes.
# # #
Court Upholds
Marriage Rule
AUSTIN, Texas
he Garland school board’s
ban on extracurricular ac
tivity by married students has
been upheld by the Texas Su
preme Court.
Jerry Kissick Jr., the student,
claimed that his rights under the
federal as well as state constitution
were violated.
Three Texas courts unanimously held
that the Garland board was within its
authority in prohibiting non-academic
activity by students who are married, or
have been married.
Young Kissick, then 16, married his
15-year-old sweetheart in March 1959.
In August 1959, the school board adopt
ed the rule against participation in ath
letics, holding class office or any honor
except valedictorian or salutatorian.
A football letterman in 1958, Kissick
then sued through his father to be ac
cepted on the team. His petition said the
board’s action deprived him of a chance
to earn a college athletic scholarship.
The Supreme Court rejected an argu
ment that Garland attempted to make
“married students second class students
merely because they are married.”
# # #