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LOUISIANA Orleans Board SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL I960—PAGE 15 NEW ORLEANS, La. T' he Orleans Parish Court of A Appeals ruled that the state Legislature, not school boards, have the right to say whether schools will be integrated or seg regated. Orleans Parish school board members look to the de cision as a means of getting around a federal court order that the board present a plan of integra tion by May 16. (See “Legal Ac tion.”) The father of two white chil dren, in a move unprecedented in Louisiana, filed suit in federal court to intervene in a Negro at tempt to desegregate public schools in East Baton Rouge Par ish (county). He claimed deseg regation would have a detrimental effect on his children. The parent’s suit is now under advisement along with the entire question of whether the East Ba ton Rouge and St. Helena Parish schools will be desegregated. (See “Legal Action.”) Students of Dillard University, a Negro institution, demonstrated quietly under a strict set of self-imposed rules of conduct as they joined the protest movements against race discrimina tion in the South. Four days after the one-day protest marches, four white youths burned a cross in front of the university and placed two anti-integration signs on the campus. (See “In the Colleges.”) Studying School Decision lacked equal facilities. The complaint is not now justified, he said, because of a change in facili ties in St. Helena. At New Orleans, the Orleans Parish Court of Appeals said that the Legis lature reserves unto itself the right to classify public schools as all-white or all-Negro or to say whether a school should be integrated. The interpretation of the appellate court was sought by the state attor ney general’s office, since the law giv ing the Legislature the power to des ignate the race of schools has not been tested in state courts. U. S. District Judge J. Skelly Wright, who has directed the Orleans Parish school board to present an in tegration plan by May 16, had ruled the state law unconstitutional. SAYS CANNOT COMPLY Atty. Gen. Jack P. F. Gremillion said after the appellate court ruling that the Orleans Parish school board cannot comply with Judge Wright’s order. The board does not have the authority to say which schools are for white, which for Negro, and which are integrated, the state official said. “The New Orleans schools will not be integrated unless the Legislature consents to it,” Gremillion added. Lloyd J. Rittiner, president of the parish school board, said he would meet with Judge Wright to find out where the school board stands. The school board had not made pub lic any plan it might be readying for Judge Wright. Members of the board had been waiting for the appeals court decision. UNDER ADVISEMENT Judge Wright, sitting at Baton Rouge, took under advisement the re quest of Negro attorneys for a sum mary judgment to integrate the pub lic schools of East Baton Rouge and St. Helena parishes, and six trade schools. He also took under advisement a motion for intervention filed by a white man, R. O. McCraine of Zachary, who says that integration of the East Baton Rouge schools would be detri mental to his two children. J. Y. Sanders Jr., attorney for Mc Craine and a former U. S. representa tive, filed the surprise intervention move in New Orleans a week before the summary judgment request was argued. The effect would be to name Mc Craine a defendant in the Negro suit. Sanders said: “The Supreme Court stated that segregation of white and colored chil dren in public schools had a detri mental effect on colored children. It seems to me that the courts of this country should consider the effect of integration on white children. “I cannot conceive of a court feel ing they should consider the effect on colored children alone. It is our pur pose to present to the court the un- disputable fact that a policy of inte grated schools will have a detrimental effect on white children of the com munity.” Sanders filed affidavits that said that Negroes in the five-year period end ing in 1954 had 10 times more illegiti mate births than whites, and that Ne gro girls between the school age years of 10 and 14 had 22 illegitimate chil dren to one for white girls of the same age. Other affidavits listed 70 cases of venereal disease among Negro children under five years old to one for white, and 955 Negro cases of venereal dis ease in the 6 to 18 age bracket to 23 white. Only 33 per cent of Negro children tested were ready to read at school entrance time as compared with 80 per cent of the whites, another of the 19 affidavits said. In arguing for the summary judge ment, Attorney A. P. Tureaud at tacked the Louisiana public placement law as it became the central point of interest in the hearing. He said the placement law applied, apparently, only to Negroes since “not a single Negro child” is attending a white school in Louisiana. LAW UNTESTED The Louisiana placement law, pat terned after an Alabama law upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court, has not been tested in Louisiana courts, either state or federal. Judge Wright, during the Baton Rouge proceeding, repeatedly ex pressed interest in the legal implica tions of the 1958 law. Dist. Atty. J. St. Clair Favrot of Baton Rouge said the Supreme Court has recognized the rights of school boards to decide where they’re going to put their pupils. The law, he said, with regard to pupil placement is con stitutional and the “plaintiffs must show where it is unconstitutional.” St. Helena Parish Dist. Atty. Dun can Kemp told Judge Wright that the suit against the public schools of his parish had been filed originally in 1952 because Negroes and whites Dillard University students drew up a 10-point rule of conduct for orderly anti-segregation demonstrations. About 200 students paraded on the front lawn of their expansive campus front ing U. S. Route 90 in the Gentilly area of New Orleans. Students at the private school marched under the direction of Ern est Kinchen Jr., carrying banners pro claiming “United We Stand,” “Action With No Violence,” “Human Rights vs. Southern Dogma,” “Filibuster—No Ac tion—Just Words.” Largest of the signs read “Desegre- (See LOUISIANA, Page 16) MISSOURI Racial, Economic Patterns Figure in Defeat of Bonds ST. LOUIS, Mo. r^IVERSE RACIAL AND ECONOMIC ^--'patterns in the city of St. Louis apparently had some relation to the defeat of the St. Louis Board of Education’s school construction and fire-safety bond issue propos als at a special election March 22. Depressed Negro areas went heavily for the bonds, but not enough to offset negative votes from substantial home owners in white south and southwest St. Louis. In the election, a proposal to in crease the school operating tax by 26 cents—bringing it to $1.77 on each $100 assessed property valu ation—was approved by 65,830 for and 36,832 against. Only a simple majority vote was required for passage. The two bond issue proposals, total ing $29,525,000, required favorable ma jorities of two thirds of those voting. Both got substantial majorities and only narrowly failed of passage. It is expect ed the Board of Education will resubmit both, either in the immediate future or next summer. One of the proposals was for issuance of $24,297,000 in bonds for school con struction, expansion and modernization. This received 62,101 favorable votes and 35,784 against. It was 3,155 votes short of the two-thirds majority required. The other proposal was for issuance of $5,238,000 in bonds for fire safety im provements needed to bring school buildings into compliance with a new city ordinance. The vote was 63,295 for and 32,790 against. The proposition failed by only 761 votes. EARMARK FUNDS Of the 26-cent increase in the school operating tax that St. Louis voters did approve, 22 cents, or 85 per cent, was earmarked for the instruction depart ment and will go largely for a $600-a- year salary increase to teachers and for hiring 105 new teachers to cope with in creased enrollments expected next year. It was brought out in Southern School News (March 1960) that the St. Louis school construction bond issue proposal was for 14 new elementary schools, 11 additions to elementary schools and 10 elementary school playground expan sions, as well as for a new Northwest High School and other facilities. A great part of the elementary school improvements was intended for pre dominantly Negro central and west cen tral parts of St. Louis, particularly in the area of recent Negro residential ex pansion. In these areas, the character of neighborhoods had shifted in many in stances from single family to multiple dwellings, and the number of children —chiefly Negro—to be accommodated in school districts had increased drastically. By contrast the improvements intend ed for the predominantly white south and southwest parts of St. Louis were relatively minor. These neighborhoods are quite static and slow to change, and are regarded as politically conservative. They have not been subjected to the population pressures that prevail in the transition areas, and in some sections the population is heavily Catholic, so that children attend parochial rather than public schools. GOT SUPPORT The special school election March 22 was preceded by a very intensive cam paign on behalf of the bond issues and the tax increase. Both major newspa pers gave enthusiastic support. So did a long list of political and civic organi zation, Catholic and Protestant and Jewish leaders, the Chamber of Com merce of Metropolitan St. Louis, and school-related groups such as parents and teachers. The metropolitan press pointed out in editorials that unless the tax increase passed St. Louis would be offering less to prospective new teachers than 18 of the 28 St. Louis county school districts. It was brought out that St. Louis stood 15th among the 18 largest cities in school spending per pupil and eighth among the 14 largest cities in the Great Lakes-Great Plains region. Before March 22, the St. Louis expenditure was $353 a pupil. SCHOOLS CROWDED With regard to urgent need for new elementary schools, the newspapers em phasized the crowded situation in the west central section, an area of recent Negro expansion. The Post-Dispatch published photographs showing crowd ed conditions in classrooms and lines of Negro children waiting to board busses for transportation to other less crowded districts. Each day some 1,500 children are taken in chartered busses from their own districts to less crowded schools. Against this background, with no offi cial or public mention of racial or eco nomic differences, the voting returns in dicated some relationship between the racial and economic character of neigh borhoods and the degree of support giv en to the proposals for improving the public schools. Only three of the city’s 28 wards showed a majority against the tax in crease for raising the pay of teachers. These were the Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth Wards in south St. Louis, an area of individual white home owners. In the heavily Negro sections, including public housing projects, the vote by wards ran as high as 15 to one in favor of the increase. In the case of the defeated $24,297,000 bond issue proposal for new schools and other purposes, only four of the city’s wards failed to give the bond issue a simple majority. These were the Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth again—all in south St. Louis as aforementioned—and the Twenty-Seventh Ward in northwest St. Louis, where there has been contro versy about placement of the proposed new Northwest High School. The construction bond issue proposal received less than a two-thirds majority in 12 other wards of the city. These in cluded eight in south St. Louis and four in chiefly white areas of home owners in north St. Louis. The predominantly Negro wards in the central and north central part of St. Louis gave the pro posal heavy majorities. It was a similar story in the case of the $5,238,000 bond issue for school fire safety improvements. Only the Thir teenth Ward in south St. Louis failed to give this even a simple majority. Of the thirteen others that failed to give the defeated proposal a two-thirds majority, most were in south St. Louis. The mas sively favorable vote was in the heavily Negro wards. OFFICIALS RALLY While very disappointed in the out come of the bond issue election, St. Louis school officials rallied quickly and began plans for resubmission of the proposals. Supt. of Instruction Philip J. Hickey blamed the failure of the bond issue propositions on the fact that many voters were unfamiliar with the city’s newly introduced voting machines. Commenting on the outcome, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said editorially: “If the school board is to have better luck the next time it submits the construction and fire-safety bond proposals, it will have to do some intensive missionary work in south St. Louis. Defeat of the two proposals . . . can be traced directly to the refusal of a substantial bloc of home owners in 10 wards in south and southwest St. Louis to take on the mod est financial burden of retiring the bonds.” With considerable pride, St. Louis Supt. Hickey and Asst. Supt. William Kottmeyer published tables in March showing achievement of eighth grade- high pupils in reading, language and arithmetic for five consecutive terms. The tests are administered in the eighth month of the eighth grade in order that children may be placed in the three- track educational system in the city’s high schools. The three-track program was adopt ed in 1957 (SSN, Jan. 1958) to provide a high school curriculum suited to the wide range of interests, abilities and achievements of the public school pop ulation. The proportion of Negroes in elementary schools in St. Louis now is estimated at 50 per cent, and the overall proportion of Negroes in public schools is moving toward 50 per cent. Taking the national achievement level at 8.8, the new St. Louis report showed that St. Louis pupils as a group are at national norms in reading and arithme tic, and a month ahead of the national norm in language. This is contrasted with the 1957-58 first term, when the St. Louis level for all schools was five months below the national norms in reading and arithmetic, and six months below in language. “In view of the large number of in migrants from all parts of the country and an unprecedented movement of pu pils within the city, these achievement figures are highly commendable and in dicative of the vigorous efforts of our teachers,” Hickey said. FACE PROBLEMS While neither Hickey, Kottmeyer nor the report made any reference to the race or economic status of school chil dren, St. Louis has had to face educa tional, financial and social problems in recent years arising out of in-migration of Negroes from southern states. There also has been a great deal of movement within the city because of the razing of Negro slums in land clearance and ur ban redevelopment projects such as Mill Creek Valley. St. Louis elementary schools are di vided administratively into five groups according to geographical area. The Banneker and Turner groups are heavi ly Negro in school population; the Ash land and South Grand groups have 25 to 30 per cent Negroes, and the Long group has practically no Negroes. A comparison of achievement levels for the five consecutive terms from the first half of 1957-58 to the first half of 1959-60 shows the Long group well ahead of the other four at the outset and still running well ahead. The two heavi ly Negro groups were well behind the other three at the outset and they are still behind. But the two heavily Negro elementary school groups, Banneker and Turner, have shown impressive improvement. Banneker, in one of the city’s most de pressed areas, had median scores of 7.7 in reading, 7.6 in language and 7.8 in arithmetic for the first term of 1957-58. For the first term of 1959-60 (this me dian based only on pupils certified to high schools in Tracks I, H and IH) the Banneker median levels were 8.2, 8.3, and 8.3 respectively. COMING CLOSER The heavily Negro Turner group made similar improvement. Neither group is up to national norms, but they are coming closer. The Long (virtually all-white) group had median scores of 9.3 in reading, 8.9 in language and 9 in arithmetic for the first term 1957-58. These scores were brought up to 9.6, 9.3 and 9.6, respective ly, in the most recent reading. That, of couse, is well above national norm. Hickey said that the percentage of freshman students enrolled in the high school Track I program, the most de manding of the three levels of study, had risen from 13 per cent in the fall of 1957 to 23 per cent in the fall of 1959. He attributed this to better instruction in elementary schools. F. W. Woolworth Co. stores in St. Louis and East St. Louis were picketed in March by members of the Congress of Racial Equality. Demonstrators out side of the company’s stores carried placards protesting against discrimina tion. A joint statement from Miss Wanda Penny, chairman of the St. Louis group, and Homer Randolph, chairman of the CORE chapter in East St. Louis, made it clear that the demonstrators were ob jecting to the Woolworth concern’s poli cies in the South and were demonstrat ing here in support of lunch counter sit- down strikes in southern cities. The demonstrators included students from private and publicly supported colleges and universities in the St. Louis area. The City Council of University City, in the St. Louis environs, approved in mid-march the establishment of a nine- member Commission on Human Rela tions. The commission will be an advis ory group to foster racial and religious tolerance. Establishment of the commission was approved following the defeat by the City Council Feb. 8 of a controversial bill aimed at prohibiting racial descrim- ination in public places. (SSN, Feb. 1960) The move to get a public accommoda- . tions bill passed in University City was the outgrowth of an incident in which four Washington University students were denied service at an off-campus restaurant Feb. 14, 1959. The students included three Negroes. (SSN, March 1959). One of the functions of the new Uni versity City Commission on Human Re lations will be recommending legisla tion to “eliminate discriminatory prac tices arising from prejudice.” University City has few Negroes at present but is in the path of the present westward course of Negro migration in St. Louis proper. The United States Civil Rights Com mission reported in Washington in March that it had received no com plaints from Missouri alleging denial of voting rights because of race. It said it had received one complaint from Mis souri in the last two years concerning education and 26 others in a miscellany of subjects. # # #