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PAGE 10—APRIL I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS OKLAHOMA Another Negro High School To OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. T^he dwindling ranks of Negro high schools in Oklahoma will lose at least one more member with the closing of Booker T. Washington of Enid this fall. As in so many other instances in this state, financial necessity was the cause. The Enid Board of Edu cation voted the step in a general economy move lopping 17 teach ers, including eight Negroes, off its roster for next year. The Enid schools are already desegregated but this will throw more Negro students into classes with white pupils. (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Negro youths, continuing a cam paign begun more than 18 months ago, made weekly visits to the lunch counter of a major Okla homa City department store and requested service. During the month white college students joined them, but the store main tained its policy of refusing serv ice to Negroes. (See “Community Action.”) A local committee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews mapped plans for a meeting with Ne gro leaders and residents of newly inte grated residential areas of northeast Oklahoma City. Following a similar session with the white leaders and resi dents, the meeting would be a prelude to a possible bi-racial parley aimed at setting up a “changing neighborhood” project. (See “Community Action”) Enid, seat of Garfield County in northwestern Oklahoma and home of Phillips University, has had Negro pu pils attending classes with white chil dren since the start of desegregation in the state. But the board of education kept Booker T. Washington and Carver schools open for Negro high school and elementary students, respectively, who preferred to be with their own race. By last fall the financial burden of maintaining the Negro high school be gan to tell. Only 120 Negro pupils were enrolled in both junior and senior high grades at Booker T. Washington at the beginning of the school year. Enid High School, at the same time, was bulging with nearly 3,000 students. The board called in a study group of Oklahoma State University professors, who reported the Enid school system was over-staffed. Although no present crisis threatened, a general economy drive was necessary to avoid possible financial trouble in the future, the in vestigators said. ELIMINATE 17 On the group’s recommendation, the Enid board has decided to eliminate 17 teaching positions “so far,” Dr. Carl E. Wagner, superintendent, said. Included are eight positions at Booker T. Wash ington High School. That will mean closing grades seven through 12 in that building and re-assigning the 120 pupils to Enid High School and three other junior highs with predominantly white enrollments. The eight Negro teachers have already been notified their contracts will not be renewed for the 1960-61 school year. Some 360 Negro teachers have lost their jobs previously in Oklahoma because of desegregation. About 10 Negro teachers will remain on the Enid faculty to staff the Carver Elementary School, which will continue serving the Negro popula tion. NEGROES SCATTERED Negro students are scattered through out the Enid school system. Dr. Wagner, who has been at his post only a little more than a year, was unable to give specific figures or even to say how many schools are actually integrated. He pointed out statistics are not kept by race. But he expressed belief the num ber of Negroes now attending classes with whites is small. Enid High School had an initial en rollment for the current year of more than 1,300 students. The three “white” junior highs enrolled, respectively, 493, 455 and 737 pupils. By contrast, Booker T. Washington now has but 10 students in the 12th grade, 11 in the 11th grade and 20 in the 10th grade. There are 12 ninth-graders, 28 eighth-graders and 40 seventh- graders. The small enrollment made it impossible to carry on a full academic program there, Wagner said. “The study group found that it cost one and a half to one and three fourths times per child as much to oper ate Washington as the other high school,” the superintendent said. “And still it didn’t have the same facilities.” FACILITIES LACKING Primarily the facilities lacking were those of a physical nature—gymnasium, stadium, etc.—but the superintendent pointed out, too, that with only 10 sen iors for example, just a minimum num ber of academic courses could be of fered. The cost of operating Booker T. Washington was not broken down. However, in addition to the salaries for the eight teachers—at least $25,000 a year—administrators had to figure the expense of a secretary, two maintenance men and half the pay of the principal, who split his time between Washington and Carver. Closing of Booker T. Washington will leave Oklahoma with 32 high schools having only Negroes in attendance. Be fore the desegregation process began five years ago there were 96. While lunch-counter “sitdown” strikes and picketing of segregated eating places by Negroes in other southern states drew newspaper headlines, young Negro students in Oklahoma City quiet ly continued a campaign, begun in Au gust 1958, to obtain service at a lunch eonette in the John A. Brown Co. de partment store. The students represent the Oklahoma City Youth Council of the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People. Each Saturday they appear at the lunchroom in the basement of Brown’s downtown store about 11 or 11:30 a.m. and ask to be served. Each time they are turned down. The young sters then march in a circle outside the lunchroom enclosure until about 1:30 pm. WHITES JOIN The demonstrators were joined for the first time March 19 by several white students from the University of Okla homa. A reliable source identified them as members of the Westminster Founda tion in Norman. Similar “sit-downs” were staged in stores in Enid and Stillwater but with less success. Later the store demonstrations were suspended as the NAACP Youth Coun cil swung its strategy toward gaining support of the Oklahoma City Council of Churches. That organization led a move to mobilize public support for restaurants that admitted Negro cus tomers. By February of this year the group had a list of 33 Oklahoma City eating places that had agreed to welcome all races as customers. Last month another new tack in strategy was taken, this time by the adult Negro community. More than 25 NAACP representatives, backed by WEST VIRGINIA Students Stage Protests; CHARLESTON, W. Va. r^EMONSTRATIONS AGAINST racial discrimination at public places touched West Virginia’s southernmost city early in March. Students from Bluefield State College picketed Bluefield thear ters and the next week moved to lunch counters. (See “Communi ty Action.”) Sales Management magazine reported in March that West Vir ginia stands at the top of the fist in loss of Negroes from its popu lation. (See “Miscellaneous.”) West Virginia’s first demonstration against desegregated seating practices came March 7 in Bluefield when long, silent lines of Negro college students picketed two theaters. There were no incidents and the demonstration barely attracted a crowd. The Negroes, who identified them selves as students from Bluefield State College, formed a line outside the Col onial Theater about 4 p.m. For an hour they paraded back and forth from the front entrance used by whites to a rear entrance off a parking lot where Ne groes are admitted to the segregated rear balcony. Afterwards they picketed the Granada Theater about a block away, where seg regated seating also is enforced. Bluefield State was an all-Negro col lege until the 1954 Supreme Court de segregation decision. All state colleges were officially desegregated shortly thereafter by action of the State Board of Education and University Board of Governors. Now, said Bluefield’s Negro president, Dr. LeRoy B. Allen, there are about 20 per cent whites among Bluefield’s 620 students. Allen said he assumed the demonstra tions were spontanous among the stu dents. He said he knew of no outside groups working on the campus. Keesling said he had been contacted by students and professors at Bluefield State some two years ago about the pos sibility of lowering color barriers. The subject reportedly has been frequently discussed during recent months among campus groups. The demonstration on the snow- banked streets of Bluefield continued for several days. It finally spread to all three theaters in Bluefield, a coal-min ing center of 20,000 people. Finally, on March 19 the demonstra tion penetrated Bluefield lunch count ers, where Negro students sat quietly waiting for service while police looked on just as quietly. Seventeen male students sat at lunch counters in the Kresge and Woolworth stores. They identified themselves as Bluefield State students. The national field secretary for CORE was in Charleston March 24 to discuss the student movement in the South. He is Gordon R. Carey, a Californian, who spoke at Simpson Methodist Church. MAKES AWARD In New York the National Conference of Christians and Jews presented one of its 14 brotherhood awards for the year to Rev. Kyle Haselden, until recently pastor of First Baptist Church here. Haselden preached his last sermon at the church late in February before leaving for Chicago to assume the edi torship of two religious publications— Christian Century and The Pulpit. Haselden has been an outspoken foe of racial discrimination and was one of the first Charlestonians named last year to the Mayor’s Committee on Human Relations. RICKEY ACCEPTS Branch Rickey, veteran big league baseball figure and the first man to in tegrate major league baseball teams, will speak in Charleston April 26 at a dinner of the Mayor’s Commission on Human Relations. The commission announced March 7 that Rickey had accepted the invitation after first turning it down. Other speakers at the dinner will be U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph, Rep. John M. Slack Jr., Gov. Cecil Underwood and Federal Judge John Field. The Kanawha County Medical So ciety agreed March 8 to become a co sponsor of the dinner. SCHOOL BOARDS AND SCHOOLMEN The State Board of Education spent most of March 14 listening to charges of favoritism and discrimination in the Cabell County teacher pension program, then upheld the county’s pension poli cies. In a formal vote the board approved the Cabell pension plan for the current fiscal year, as submitted by the Cabell Board of Education. Mrs. Hazel Bragg Davenport of Beck- ley was announced on March 13 as Mc Call’s Teacher of the Year. Her selec tion culminates a nationwide search for a teacher typifying the ideals of the profession, the magazine said. Be Closed white and Negro churchmen, petitioned the City Council March 1 for adoption of a city ordinance that would make ra cial discrimination in restaurants and other public places illegal and punish able by fine. Some 2,000 persons signed the petition. It was endorsed by the city and county Baptist ministers’ associa tions as well as the Greater Oklahoma City Council of Churches. The proposed ordinance would have applied to hotels, theaters, swimming pools, retail stores and virtually all other public places, with specific at tention to eating, sleeping and seating arrangements. The matter was referred to the city’s legal department, which reported that the council “does not have the power to enact a ‘civil rights’ ordinance prohibit ing discrimination in restaurants and other places of public accommodation by reason of race, color or creed.” The opinion, written by Ed Moler, chief city attorney, went on: “Regulation of matters of this type is not within the scope of municipal gov ernment. Such power rests in the state and can be exercised by a municipal corporation (the city) only if properly delegated by the Legislature. The state of Oklahoma has not granted this power to municipalities.” The council adopted the opinion without comment. Segregation in city-owned public places was ended, at least theoretically, four years ago by administrative action. Over a period of several months follow ing a meeting of city and NAACP of ficials, racial barriers were lowered on city-owned parks, golf courses, restau rant and restroom facilities in public buildings, and swimming pools. Problems of residential desegrega tion also came up before an unofficial community group during March. It was the steering committee of the changing neighborhood committee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The object of its attention: Tension created by the move of Negro families across the traditional “boundary” of Northeast 23rd Street into white residential sec tions during the past year. The migra tion brought integration last fall to a grade school in that area for the first time. HELD SESSION Under auspices of the NCCJ changing neighborhood committee white residents had held an exploratory, fact-finding session in late February. While some of the persons appeared bitter, a number of others expressed willingness to accept the situation. They agreed to meet later with Negro leaders and Negro residents of the area. The steering committee met in March and tentatively scheduled a session with the Negroes for April 11 preparatory to setting up the joint par ley. “We hope to get a few of the people from each of the two meetings together and see what they can do about being good neighbors,” said Donald F. Sulli van, regional NCCJ director. “We’ll just introduce the people to each other.” The NCCJ steering committee hopes to have someone in each block prepared to introduce any incoming Negro fam ily to its new neighbors. Eventually, the NCCJ officials hope, the northeast Oklahoma City residents will be encouraged to form a changing neighborhood study group like Tulsa’s Reservoir Hill — Burroughs School Neighborhood Organization. It has been credited with stemming the tide of white families moving out of the atten dance area of an integrated school. # # # Negro Population Drops Mrs. Davenport, teacher at Beckley’s Central Elementary School, was selected after winning the Beckley, southern district and state titles in the Federa tion of Woman’s Club contest in 1958. NEW SCHOOL Sacred Heart Catholic Church here has announced plans to build a new $400,000 elementary school. It will be a two-story building with 16 classrooms. An old convent will be demolished to make room for the building. Sacred Heart was desegregated ra cially even before the Supreme Court ruled in 1954. College presidents were directed by the State Board of Education March 15 to use individual merit as a guide in distributing salary increases voted by the 1960 Legislature. The board, which administers nine colleges, adopted the policy with respect to the 10 per cent increase in faculty and administrative salaries provided by the budget bill passed by the Legisla ture. The policy means the money will be passed around on a merit basis—some getting more than 10 per cent and some less—rather than as an increase of 10 per cent across the board. This same policy was used after the 1959 Legisla ture voted raises for college personnel. AWARD CONTRACTS Contracts were awarded by the State Board of Education March 15 for con struction of a new administration and classroom building at West Liberty State College. The building, to be known as Main Hall, will be the first financed from a capital improvement fund set up by the 1959 Legislature. The fund is supported by a $100-a-year student registration fee voted for that purpose. The 1960 made the first appropriation from the fund, $1,200,000 for the West Liberty project. Cost of the new build ing, according to the four low bids on various phases of construction, will be $1,067,018. At West Virginia University a low bid of $4,384,000 was received and accepted March 22 for four new apartment build ings and additions to two residence halls. After approving the bid the Board of Governors authorized the sale of $4,800,000 in self-liquidating bonds to finance the project. The work to be done constitutes the largest university hous ing project ever undertaken. The Wyoming County Board of Edu cation has given authority for the pos sible use of an abandoned school build ing at Pineville as a non-profit junior college. The board also indicated willingness to permit the use of Pineville High School for such a program on a night time basis. The junior college idea originated at a meeting in Pineville last January and had been suggested originally as a pub lic-support project. Legislation approving the opening of such a college passed the State Senate in February but was killed through committee reference in the House of Delegates. NEW PRESIDENT Fairmont State College’s new presi dent will be Dr. Eston K. Feaster, who has been dean of the West Virginia University College of Education since 1953. Dr. Feaster was chosen for the post by the State Board of Education follow ing the death of Dr. George W. Pence. His appointment is effective July 1. He joined the university faculty in 1949 as director of field services for the College of Education. An NAACP official said March 14 that Negro miners are suffering acute hard ships in West Virginia because they are not being included in the coal indus try’s switch to automation. “I found so much destitution and poverty among Negroes in Mercer, Mc Dowell, Harrison and Raleigh counties that I was moved to tears,” said Miss Gertrude Gorman, field secretary for the NAACP in West Virginia. Company and United Mine Workers representatives denied there was any such discrimination. Negroes now comprise only 4.3 per cent of West Virginia’s population, Sales Management magazine said in its March issue. The magazine, which provides statis tics for market researchers and sales or ganizations, puts West Virginia at the top of a list of seven states that have lost Negro population. The West Virginia loss was 26.5 per cent, almost as much as the other six states combined. They were Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas, North Carolina and Georgia. While West Virginia lost Negro population heavy gains in Negro pop ulation were registered in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Mississippi was second to West Virginia in percent age loss, with 14. # # #