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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH I960—PAGE 13
AAARYLAND
Desegregation Figures
Listed for Baltimore
BALTIMORE, Md.
ith Baltimore city’s figures
now compiled, Maryland de
segregation data for the current
school year shows 28,072 Negroes
in 325 formerly all-white schools,
an increase of 29 schools and
more than 5,000 Negroes in a
year’s time. The increase in Bal
timore city is the smallest in four
years. (See “Under Survey.”)
Pupil placement in Harford
County is being challenged anew
by the National Assn, for the Ad
vancement of Colored People in
a suit filed in U.S. District Court.
(See “Legal Action.”)
School desegregation is back
before the Maryland General As
sembly. A Negro delegate intro
duced a group of bills that failed
to move in the last session. (See
“Legislative Action.”)
Enrollment figures compiled by the
State Department of Education for the
current school year show Baltimore as
having (Oct. 31 data) 22,981 Negroes
in 79 formerly all-white schools, an
increase of only one school and 3,837
Negro pupils over the previous year.
The increase is the smallest in sev
eral years and indicates that the de
segregation movement may be taper
ing off.
About a third of the city’s Negro
pupils are now in schools that former
ly were classified as white or that
have been built since 1954 in predom
inantly white or formerly white resi
dential areas.
ALL-NEGRO SCHOOLS
Two-thirds of the city’s Negro pupils
are in all-Negro schools or in new
schools serving predominantly Negro
residential areas. A few of the latter
schools have a scattering of white
children, but state statisticians do not
include such schools in their five-year
record of desegregation, which is based
on number of Negroes admitted to
white schools.
(One of the statistical difficulties in
keeping desegregation records is that
school systems undergo a physical
change from year to year. State sta
tisticians include 11 of the schools
built in Baltimore since desegregation
began as “formerly white,” even
though they may never have had all-
white status. These are schools that,
because of their location, would have
fallen into the white category had they
been built prior to 1954. Exceptions to
this rule of thumb are new schools
built in formerly white neighborhoods
that opened with almost entirely Ne
gro student bodies and staffs.)
The increase in Negroes entering
formerly white schools in Baltimore
runs as follows (Oct. 31 figures):
1954 1,576
1955 4,601
1956 9,242
1957 14,826
1958 19,144
1959 22,981
With the completion of the Baltimore
figures, the first statewide summary of
desegregation in Maryland for the cur
rent school year has become available.
The data shows Maryland as having
28,072 Negroes in 325 formerly all-
white schools, an increase of 29
schools and 5,074 Negroes over the
previous school year. The 325 biracial
schools represent nearly a third of the
1,001 schools in the state.
Since desegregation became a state
wide policy in 1955, the change has
been as follows (Oct. 31 data):
Desegregated
Negroes
White Schools
Admitted
1955
.128
5,592
1956
.205
10,968
1957
.257
17,597
1958
.296
22,998
1959
.325
28,072
Still missing are current figures on
the number of white and Negro pupils
in the state. By rough estimate, the
28,972 Negroes admitted to white
schools represents between 20 and 25
per cent of Maryland’s total Negro
school population.
LEGAL ACTION^
NAACP attorneys in February filed
their long-expected suit in U.S. District
Court against the Board of Education
of Harford County in the Pettit case.
Administrative remedies previously
had been exhausted in an unsuccessful
appeal to the State Board of Education
last October.
Alvin Dwight Pettit is a 14-year-old
Negro boy who sought to enter the
ninth grade of a predominantly white
high school in Harford County last
fall, at which time only grades one
through eight were fully desegregated.
Under the county’s court-approved de
segregation plan, Negroes seeking ad
mission to secondary schools in ad
vance of the desegregation timetable
must have the approval of a special
screening committee composed of pro
fessional educators.
The NAACP challenged the screen
ing process as unconstitutional from its
inception. The screening was approved
as a transition measure in 1957 by
Chief District Judge Roszel C. Thom
sen, who was subsequently upheld in
Slade v. Harford County Board of
Education by the Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals in a case that the Supreme
Court refused to review.
FIRST OPPORTUNITY
Rejection of the Pettit boy’s applica
tion provided the NAACP with its first
opportunity to renew its legal fight
against the screening process on the
basis of its actual application in a spe
cific instance.
It had been expected from testimony
before the State Board of Education
that the NAACP would make a front
al attack on screening, since it was
freely acknowledged by the county
school superintendent that the Pettit
boy would have been admitted to the
school in question had he been white.
But, instead, the new NAACP suit
contends that conditions in the coun
ty have changed so that screening
should no longer be part of the deseg
regation procedure.
Of particular interest in the case is
the position of the State Board of Edu
cation in regard to the Harford Coun
ty desegregation program. In its deci
sion in the Pettit case the state board
said that Judge Thomsen in his 1957
decree had undertaken “to set up a
plan for the desegregation of schools
under the jurisdiction of the Board of
Education of Harford County” and that
the state board itself had, in effect, no
further jurisdiction.
BOARD STATEMENT
In a pertinent passage on the special
screening committee the state board
said:
“Upon close examination, we con
clude that as the decree is now framed,
it has constituted the foregoing
[screening] committee as an arm of the
court. No power over the assignment
of pupils applying under the decree is
vested in the county superintendent.
Were he to countermand the commit
tee’s decision, his action would be in
valid and would have to be set aside
as violative of the decree, without any
examination of the merits of the con
troversy.”
As the jurisdiction of the state board
is limited to appeals from decisions of
county superintendents, the state board
said, “it follows that it [the board]
lacked the power to review the deci
sion of the professional committee cre
ated by the court.”
The Maryland Commission on Inter
racial Problems and Relations, a nine-
member state agency appointed by the
governor, made its annual report to the
governor and General Assembly in
February, recording that “1959, like
former years, showed a gradual im
provement in the overall situation in
Maryland.”
On the subject of public schools the
commission said: “Desegregation pro
grams in Maryland are varied, accord
ing to local conditions. More progress
has been made in counties with small
percentages of Negroes. However, all
counties have instituted some action
toward compliance.”
The tabular summary of Maryland’s
23 biracial school districts (22 coun
ties and Baltimore city) was as fol
lows:
Status Districts
Transition to non-segregated schools
complete or nearly so 6
Some Negroes attending formerly
all-white schools 8
Desegregation policies determined.. 9
23
The commission concluded: “It ap
pears that the programs of desegrega
tion of public schools in Maryland may
be described as two general types—
(1) Closing Negro schools, and (2)
Keeping other Negro schools intact.”
“Racial practices in Maryland,” the
commission reported, “substantiate the
contention that the most demoralizing
of all denials of human rights in this
country is found in the area of so-
called ‘public accommodations.’ It is
clear that Negroes and other minority
group members still are denied equali
ty of opportunity and treatment
throughout the state in places which
cater to the public.
“This denial violates democratic
practice, gives rise to incidents of an
international character and harmfully
affects foreign relations, causes grave
embarrassment and inconvenience to
minority group members, and demands
serious consideration by all those citi
zens of this state who believe in hu
man dignity.”
The commission recommended state
civil rights legislation.
Verda Welcome, one of two Balti
more Negroes elected in 1958 to the
House of Delegates, introduced eight
bills bearing on segregation.
Most of her bills would eliminate ob
solete references to race in sections of
Maryland school laws relating to mini
mum number of school days, age limits
on admissibility, the use of funds by
certain educational institutions, em
ployment of supervisors and the ap
pointment of normal-school principals.
But one of her bills could be inter
preted as having a sweeping effect on
gradual desegregation in Maryland.
This last bill has two sections. The
first section would provide that the
general system of free public schools
in the state be “open equally to all
persons without discrimination as to
religion, race, sex, class or national
origin.” The second would make it un
lawful for any school superintendent or
commissioner of public education “to
make any distinction or discrimination
in favor or against any teacher ... on
account of sex, religion, race, class or
national origin.”
Present law only forbids making dis
tinctions on the basis of sex in hiring,
assigning or promoting teachers.
ACCOMMODATIONS BILL
Mrs. Welcome also introduced a bill
to prohibit racial and religious dis
crimination in public accomodations,
defined as meaning any “hotel, restau
rant, inn, motel or similar establish
ment regularly engaged in the business
of providing sleeping accomodations, or
serving meals, or both, for a consider
ation and which is open to the general
public.” A fine of $25 to $500 for viola
tions is set forth.
Dr. Brennie E. Hackley Jr., a Negro
chemist at the Army Chemical Center,
Edgewood, Md., is taking his housing
case to the Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals after his suit was dismissed by
Chief Judge Roszel C. Thomsen in
U.S. District Court in Baltimore (See
Southern School News, February
1960).
Turned down as a home buyer in a
large housing development being built
privately near the Army base, Hackley
contends that use by the development
of Army sewer and water services
brings the housing within the constitu
tional ban on racial discrimination by
public agencies.
Thomsen rejected the contention,
finding that the housing development
remained a private enterprise.
CEASES OPERATIONS
The motion picture theater in Fred
erick that was ordered by Thomsen to
cease segregating Negro patrons (See
SSN, February 1960) has, instead,
ceased operations.
The theater was operated in a city-
owned building, hence Thomsen’s order
WEST VIRGINIA
Underwood Considering
Special Legislative Session
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
( "'I considering calling a special
Jov. Cecil H. Underwood is
change.
ravel a problem over a state men-
session of the Legislature to un-
tal health chief.
He has a psychiatrist who re
portedly can qualify for the $20,-
000-a-year post left vacant when
the Senate refused to confirm Dr.
Richard Lilly, director since last
April. But he hasn’t made the
The psychiatrist is Dr. Mildred
M. Bateman, a Negro, who is sup
erintendent at Lakin State Hos
pital. (See “Legislative Action.”)
The Kanawha Medical Society
has sidestepped a proposal that it
help sponsor a dinner for the
Mayor’s Commission on Human
Relations. The commission was
appointed less than a year ago to
bring about better race relations
in Charleston. (See “Community
Action.”)
When the Senate refused to confirm
Dr. Lilly the last night of the session
(Feb. 11), Gov. Underwood was sharply
critical. He called that and the refusal
to confirm Motor Vehicles Commis
sioner Hubert Kelly a “cowardly stab
in the back.”
Following the confirmation session,
where 70 gubernatorial appointees were
confirmed, Underwood said the Lilly
action has caused serious trouble in
the Department of Mental Health, a
fully integrated agency. There is no
body else who can approve payroll or
purchasing vouchers.
He said following the confirmation
session—and has since repeated—that
it may be necessary to recall the Leg
islature to change the law so he can
hire a qualified psychiatrist as mental
health chief.
Under the mental health law no
psychiatrist can serve until he has
lived one year in West Virginia. In the
past all private psychiatrists now prac
ticing in the state have refused to take
the job.
Dr. Bateman is said to have all the
professional qualifications needed to
qualify as mental health chief.
Underwood’s attitude in the past has
always been pro-integration. Both as
governor and as chairman of the
Southern Regional Education Board, he
has expressed himself as wholeheart
edly in favor of desegregation at all
levels of government. If he calls the
special session he undoubtedly will
make his position clear then about Dr.
Bateman.
ANOTHER SUBJECT
In event the Legislature is brought
back here, Underwood also is thinking
of including another subject in the call.
It deals with state school aid and
property assessments, which were con
tained in a bill passed at the recent
session and which he let become law
without his signature. He had listed
that the public must be admitted on a
non-segregated basis.
REFUSED SERVICE
In yet another segregation case,
Thomsen in February found no public
law or policy involved in a restaurant’s
refusal to serve a Negro (Slack v. At
lantic White Tower System, Inc.)
Dismissing the Negro’s suit, Thomsen
found: “Such segregation of the races
as persists in restaurants in Baltimore
is not required by any statute or de
cisional law of Maryland nor by any
general custom or practice of segrega
tion in Baltimore city, but is the result
of the business choice of the individ
ual proprietors, catering to the desires
or prejudices of their customers.”
In the last week of February, 35 stu
dents at Johns Hopkins University—in
cluding five Negroes—staged a brief
sitdown demonstration at a small
restaurant near the campus in Balti
more. Later the same week, Negro band
leader Duke Ellington was refused
service in a Baltimore restaurant.
# # #
five objections to the bill.
Many counties now have property
reappraisal programs under a law
passed in 1958. One of Underwood’s
main fears about the new act is that
the language may prevent a county
from using any reappraisal program re
sults in assessing property for tax pur
poses until the county has completed
appraisal of all real estate.
During the recent session the Legis
lature enacted 39 bills of a total of 109
introduced. Underwood signed 33, let
three become law without his signa
ture, and vetoed two.
The budget for 1960-61, approved the
last day, calls for expenditures total
ling $118,533,000, the highest in state
history. The increase resulted mainly
from the Legislature’s effort to help
the unemployed. Approximately $4,-
350,000 was budgeted for emergency
economic relief, and will be spent on
state park improvements, vocational
education, agriculture and soil conser
vation, and farm marketing.
COLLEGES FARED WELL
No state school aid increases were
approved this year, but West Virginia
University and the state colleges fared
well.
Altogether, the colleges controlled by
the State Board of Education got ap
proximately one million dollars addi
tional for personal services and cur
rent expenses. The university and its
two-year branch, Potomac State School,
got approximately 1.2 million dollars.
The bulk of the new money will go
for across-the-board salary raises ap
proximating 10 per cent. Along with
the raises, institutions with above av
erage enrollment increases got addi
tional funds for new staff members
ranging from one to three per cent.
Failing to pass the Legislature was
a new capital improvements program
for the 10 state colleges and university.
Under terms of the expansion program
the institutions would have been em
powered to sell 15 million dollars
worth of revenue bonds.
Under the 1959 procedure the state
colleges will have around $900,000 an
nually for capital improvements—the
university and Potomac State, $700,-
000. Construction will be financed from
increased tuition totalling $100 a year
per student.
Spring semester enrollment at Mor
ris Harvey College, a segregated pri
vate institution here, is running about
12 per cent ahead of enrollment at this
time last year. Also in the greater
Charleston area is West Virginia State
College, a desegregated school.
Morris Harvey Dean Harry Straley
said the college has enrolled 825 full
time students for the current semester,
and full- and part-time enrollment will
reach 1,400.
COMMUNITY ACTION
j
When the Kanawha Medical Society
deferred action on the request that it
help sponsor a dinner for the Mayor’s
Commission of Human Relations, it was
done, according to the society’s presi
dent, Dr. Milton J. Lilly, to give the
organization “an opportunity to deter
mine the purposes and actions of the
group.”
Lilly told the doctors, however, that
they might leave themselves open to
criticism if they decline to sponsor the
dinner. His remark came in response to
a comment that perhaps the medical
society shouldn’t get involved in
“political questions.”
MISCELLANEOUS
Special ceremonies were held in
Southern District Federal Court here
Feb. 17 in honor of Martin Moore, Ne
gro court bailiff and a student at West
Virginia State College who will get his
bachelor’s degree this spring.
Moore has been bailiff for both
Judge John A. Field and his predeces
sor, Ben Moore, who died two years
ago. Judge Moore presided at the only
school desegregation case held in West
Virginia. It was at Lewisburg and led
to desegregation in several large south
ern hold-out counties. # # #