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PAGE 12—APRIL I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS MARYLAND Delaware Fewer White Pupils Attend Bi-Racial Schools BALTIMORE, Md. TVTewly compiled enrollment -L ’ data for Baltimore public schools show that the number and proportion of white pupils in bi-racial schools have declined in a year’s time. This is the case to a lesser extent in the school system as a whole. Two schools have reverted to an all-white status and four to an all-Negro status. The number and percentage of Negroes in formerly all-white schools have increased at a slower rate than previously. (See “School Boards and School men.”) The Maryland General Assem bly concluded a 30-day session in early March without enacting any legislation affecting segregation- integration. (See “Legislative Ac tion.”) Harford County school officials have answered a suit by the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People challenging their pupil placement plan. (See “Legal Action.”) Their fall enrollment data processed at last, Baltimore school officials re leased bi-racial statistics to Southern School News. The figures show a drop in the percentage of racially desegre gated schools in the city system and also a numerical and proportional de cline in the number of white pupils in these schools. At the same time, the number and percentage of Negroes in integrated schools increased. A tapering off in the sixth year of desegregation in Baltimore was indicat ed by the first recorded decrease in the number of bi-racial schools—89 in con trast to 90 a year ago—-whereas the fig ure had risen steadily in previous years. The number of all-white schools gained two and all-Negro schools gained four. Five new schools have been added to the system since the fall of 1958. FEWER WHITE PUPILS A large factor in the decreased per centage of white pupils in bi-racial classes is the continuing decline of the white student population. The number of white elementary pupils in Baltimore dropped in a year’s time from 50,057 to 47,613. It now represents 45 per cent of the elementary school population. Negro elementary pupils rose from 54,864 to 57,840, increasing their percent age from 52 to 55. White secondary en rollment continues to gain, but not enough to offset the elementary losses. Total white enrollment is down to 84,194, in contrast to 85,931 last year, and is barely more than half the total school population of 166,719. The current enrollment is as follows (Oct. 31 data): White Negro Total Elementary 47,613 57,840 105,453 Secondary 36,581 24,685 61,266 TOTAL 84,194 82,525 166,719 A factor in the numerical decline of white pupils in integrated classes is the reversion of two schools to an all-white status. Last year one of the schools had four Negroes and 1,180 white pupils, and the other had a single Negro and 605 whites. This year no Negroes are en rolled at the two which has the effect of removing 1,785 white children from the integrated status. CHANGE STATUS Four predominantly Negro schools that formerly had a scattering of white pupils have reverted this year to an all- Negro status. Although only seven white children were involved, the changes have the effect of placing more than 3,800 Negro children in a non-in- tegrated classification. Meanwhile, a few white children have entered other Negro schools, so that what might be termed reverse integra tion has shown a small gain: This year there are 72 white pupils in 11 Negro schools having 15,072 Negro pupils, whereas last year there were 58 whites in 11 schools having 13,686 Negroes. It should be explained that Baltimore school data makes no reference to “white” or “Negro” schools. But for sta tistical purposes in Southern School News, and in order to present a mean ingful description of the desegregation process, schools are classified as Negro if they had an all-Negro enrollment prior to desegregation or if they have been built since that time in predom inantly Negro areas and have predom inantly Negro staffs. Sixty-five out of 144 elementary schools in the city are now bi-racial, while 34 are all-white and 45 are all- Negro. The integrated schools are just under half the total and one less than last year. The all-white elementary schools have increased by two and the all-Negro by three. On the secondary level, 24 out of 37 schools, or 65 per cent, are bi-racial— the same as last year. The two all-white secondary schools remain the same, while the all-Negro secondary schools have increased from ten to eleven. Desegregation is more widespread on the secondary level than in the elemen tary grades. Of the 20 all-white junior, senior and vocational schools prior to desegregation, Negroes now are enrolled in all but two. On a pupil basis, 32,541 white secondary students out of 36,581 are in integrated schools, or 88 per cent. Last year it was 90 per cent. Of 24,685 Negro secondary pupils, 12,156 are in integrated schools, or just under a half (in contrast to 38 per cent last year). Two secondary schools con tinue to have an all-white enrollment, 11 are all-Negro. Two others are nearly all-Negro: One has two white students in an enrollment of 3,148 and the other, two white pupils in an enrollment of 1,965. REVERSE INTEGRATION On the elementary level, 23,567 white children out of 47,613 are in bi-racial schools, or just under half of them. Last year it was just over half. Of 57,840 Negroes, 25,897, or 45 per cent, are in integrated classes. Last year it was 38 per cent. Here it must be remembered that some 15,000 of these are “integrated” by virtue of having a scattering of white children in otherwise all-colored schools. The reverse integration is as follows: Elementary A White 2 Negro 806 " B 2 1,089 C 2 1,282 " D 1 1,504 " E 2 1,456 F 1 1,005 " G 19 588 H 30 1,301 " I 9 932 Junior High 2 1,963 Senior High 2 3,146 TOTAL 72 15,072 All told, out of 82,525 Negroes in all grades, 38,053 are in bi-racial classes, or 46 per cent—a gain of two per cent over last year. Of 84,194 white pupils in all grades, 56,110 are in bi-racial classes, or exactly two-thirds. Last year it was 70 per cent. Taken together, 94,163 out of 166,719 Baltimore school children are in bi- racial schools, or 56 per cent—a slight drop from last year’s 57 per cent. Of the 38,053 Negroes in integrated classes, 22,981 of them are in 78 schools classified as formerly all-white. (Last month in Southern School News the figure was given as 79, but the State De partment of Education refined its figures to eliminate one duplication. The official figure is now 78, or exactly the same as last year). Most of these schools were all-white prior to 1954; 11 have been built since 1954 but are grouped for sta tistical purposes with the formerly white schools because of their location and/or staff. The movement of Negroes into for merly white schools has increased stea dily, although the numerical gain this year is the smallest in several years, as is the percentage increase. The number of Negroes in once-white schools and their percentage of the total Negro en rollment are: issues, concluded its 30-day short ses sion without action on half-a-dozen pro integration bills. The most significant of Fall Number Per Cent 1954 1,576 3.0 1955 4,601 7.4 1956 9,242 13.8 1957 13,603 18.8 1958 20,235 26.1 1959 22,981 27.8 When desegregation began in 1954, only 38 white schools (in contrast to 78 today) reported the entrance of Negro pupils. None had as high as 50 per cent. Nearly half had less than 10 Negroes enrolled, and five of these had only one. Since then changes in racial occu pancy of residential areas have been so widespread that 22 schools classified as formerly white now have Negro enroll ments of more than 50 per cent. Last year there were 17 such schools. The schools in which Negroes have attained the majority include two secondary schools. Sixteen formerly white schools have from 20 to 50 per cent Negro enroll ment, which is the same number as last year. These include two senior high schools. Thirteen (again the same as last year) have from 10 to 20 per cent Negro enrollment, which includes one junior high and three senior highs. White schools with less than 10 per cent Negro enrollment number 27 (five less than last year), and of these 19 have under five per cent. RESEGREGATION TREND To anyone who has watched these percentage figures in recent years, the trend toward resegregation is quite ap parent. Formerly white schools have gradually moved upward from the one- to-10 percent Negro enrollment group to the 10-to-20 per cent grouping and from there to 30, 50 and 90 per cent. Some of the formerly white schools are now above 90 per cent Negro. One in north-central Baltimore has 36 white and 1,309 Negro pupils; another in east Baltimore has 44 white and 1,7% Ne groes; a third in west Baltimore has nine white and 354 Negroes; and sev eral others have equally high percent ages. The racial shift in the schools directly reflects the racial change in the neigh borhood surrounding the schools and is indicative of the white flight to the sub urbs in the face of an expanding Negro population. The change of racial occu pancy in a neighborhood has an initial effect on the nearest elementary schools and gradually, as the change widens, secondary schools also are affected. Thus, one junior high in east Baltimore has shifted from an all-white status in 1953 to having 2,114 Negroes in an en rollment of 2,369. And a new junior high in what was once a white section of west Baltimore opened last fall with two white and 1,963 Negro pupils. The change is not always inexorable. One may note that a junior high in west Baltimore that last year had 1,743 white pupils and 820 Negroes now has 1,957 whites and 820 Negroes, showing a con tinued white gain after substantial in tegration had taken place. Another ex ample is a high school that was the scene of white disturbances when de segregation began in 1954. The white population at the school (junior and senior high combined) rose in the past year from 1,258 to 1,355, a gain that ex ceeded numerically the Negro increase from 265 pupils to 294. The figures sug gest that where neighborhoods are rela tively stable, the schools also are stable. The Maryland General Assembly, which devotes sessions in even-num bered years to the budget and statewide the proposals would have prohibited segregation in restaurants and overnight accommodations. The salaries of teachers of more than 10 years experience were increased through a budgetary appropriation of more than four million dollars and addi tional construction funds were voted for teachers colleges. Otherwise, public schooling was not a legislative issue. The only bill to pass that touched on race relations was one introduced by the only Negro in the Maryland Senate, J. Alvin Jones of Baltimore. Jones was successful in having the subtitle of a state commision changed from "Com mission to Study Problems Affecting Colored Population” to “Commission on Interracial Problems and Relations.” His bill also changed the wording of inter racial relations and omitted the refer ence to the “welfare of the colored race.” The commission, which has advised county school systems from time to time on aspects of desegregation, is already known by the new subtitle, which the Jones bill sets forth. Harford County school authorities have responded in U.S. district court to the suit filed by NAACP attorneys in the case of Pettit v. Harford County Board of Education. Young Pettit is a Negro boy who sought to enter the ninth grade of a white high school in advance of the county’s stair-step desegregation pro gram, which had only reached the first eight grades. Pettit was subjected to a special screening process, which dis trict court previously approved for Ne groes who seek to become an exception to the timetable. It consisted of a review of his scholastic potential and readiness to adjust to a white high school. His transfer request was one of two disal lowed, while four others were approved. SAYS RIGHTS DENIED Pettit, through his attorneys, contends that his constitutional rights are denied by a test applicable to Negroes only and that conditions in Harford County, where desegregation is far advanced, have “so changed as to no longer justify the application of special tests to Ne groes.” The reply filed by county school officials contends that they acted in ac cordance with the 1957 order of the dis trict court and that no racial discrim ination was involved in the denial of the Pettit transfer request. In another case related to school seg regation, NAACP attorneys have sought an injunction by a state court against continued segregation in Maryland’s juvenile training schools. The state now operates four separate institutions for delinquent white boys, white girls, Ne gro boys and Negro girls. The suit was filed on behalf of a Ne gro boy who, his attorneys say, cannot receive rehabilitation benefits in the Negro training school equal to those in the white institution. Desegregation in Baltimore Schools* Number of Schools by Year 1953 1951 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 Elementary White 74 42 37 31 31 32 34 Negro 50 51 46 44 43 42 45 Both 0 38 48 59 59 66 65 TOTAL 124 131 131 134 133 140 144 Secondary-Vocational White 20 11 4 3 2 2 2 Negro 9 10 11 9 12 10 11 Both 1 11 17 21 22 24 24 TOTAL 30 32 32 33 36 36 37 Total White 94 53 41 34 33 34 36 Negro 59 61 57 53 55 52 56 Both 1 49 65 80 81 90 89 TOTAL 154 163 163 167 169 176 181 Students from Johns Hopkins Univer sity picketed a white-only restaurant near their campus in March, while stu dents from Morgan State College picket ed a restaurant and movie theater in a shopping center near their campus. Neither issue was resolved as the month drew to a close, although a severe fire in the restaurant near the Hopkins cam pus rendered the issue there a moot one. The picketing was not new to Balti more, although the incidents in March followed and appeared to be stimulated by similar incidents elsewhere in the South. Negro pickets from Morgan Col lege demonstrated at the same shopping center last year, and there had been earlier protests at other locations. * Data compiled by Bureau of Research, Baltimore Department of Education. Elementary includes elementary-junior high when two are in a single building. Secondary includes grades seven through twelve, special curricula, vocational- technical and general vocational. The 1953 figures indicate that Negroes had been admitted to a special course at one white high school prior to city-wide desegre gation in the fall of 1954. The lunch counters of downtown five- and-ten-cent stores and similar variety stores, along with the counters of a large drug store chain, were opened to seated Negro customers in 1953, follow ing a lengthy campaign by the Congress of Racial Equality. # # # (Continued From Page 11) cording to Dr. William E. Vickery. Dr. Vickery, director of the commis sion on educational organization of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in New York City, meets with faculty members two days each month to evaluate their accomplishments. According to Vickery, “the program seeks to view through the children’s eyes the problems resulting from shift ing populations.” The project includes a school that has radically changed in its enroll ment, two that are in the process of change and one that is expected to change within the next two years. 60 TEACHERS Sixty teachers are involved, with participants this year seeking to deter mine the nature of the problem, the program assumptions, and the neces sary skills. Experimental implementa tion will be added next year, with the third year used to determine the va lidity of the program assumption. The pupils are urged to speak and write about their feelings toward their neighborhood and the people who live there. Many of the pupils, the teachers have discovered, know more about the seamy side of life than they had imag ined. Fighting, gambling and drink ing in their own family situations are common occurrences and the children talk about them freely. Papers turned in by the students are being analyzed by Bruce R. Joyce, an assistant professor of education at the University of Delaware. Both of Delaware’s U. S. senators were criticized by a spokesman from the National Assn, for the Advance ment of Colored People for failing to vote for cloture during the civil rights debate. “Sen. J. Allen Frear’s jocular ‘No’ rang out and Sen. John J. Williams’ mumbled ‘No’ could hardly be heard as unconcern for southern Negro suf frage was registered in the Senate’s defeat of the proposed limitation of de bate bill,” the spokesman said. That was the reaction of Miss Pau line A. Young, director of the Wilming ton membership campaign of the NAACP, who was part of a 15-member state delegation in Washington during the debate. “It is a disturbing picture of irre sponsibility and blindness,” added George A. Johnson, recently retired principal of the Howard High School in Wilmington, another member of the delegation. “A false picture of democracy is be ing shown to the world,” he concluded. Miss Young noted that U. S. Rep. Harris B. McDowell Jr., contrary to Sen. Frear and Sen. Williams, already has endorsed strong civil rights legis lation by signing the discharge petition for House discussion and debate. Alumni of Delaware State College, for the first time in history, have launched a fund-raising drive, with a goal of $40,000 to aid the physical plant. Harley F. Taylor, president of the alumni association, is chairman of the fund drive for the Negro college. “The drive is an historic effort on the part of the alumni association, re quiring cooperative effort and many sacrifices by graduates and friends,” said Dr. Jerome H. Holland, president of the college. NAACP DRIVE The Wilmington branch of the Na tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People, with a membership of 1,990 last year, has set a goal of 5,000 during the current drive. A house-to-house canvas will be used for the first time, according to the Rev. J. Leonard Morgan, branch president. Until now, membership so licitation has been on a personal basis, but the branch has the members now to make a stronger drive for growth, he said. Among other speakers at the mem bership rally was Miss Mabel G. Tur ner, assistant U. S. district attorney in Philadelphia, who reviewed the his tory and accomplishments of the NAACP. She challenged those who oppose its goal as written in its constitution “to promote the economic, civic, political and social betterment of colored peo- P le ” # # #