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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL I960—PAGE 3
GEORGIA
Public Opinion on School Closings Sampled
Civil Rights Group
(Continued From Page 1)
advisory committees who attended the
meeting agreed there is no civil rights
question involved in lunch counter sit-
ins unless there is police discrimination.
“Purely private discrimination doesn’t
involve civil rights,” said McNeill
Smith, Greensboro, N.C., lawyer and
chairman of the North Carolina advisory
group. “There has got to be a govern
ment angle to it.”
PRINCIPAL QUESTIONS
One of the principal questions at the
educational conference was how to
bridge the scholastic gap between white
and Negro pupils in desegregated school
systems.
Most of the school officials who testi
fied told the commission that Negroes
in their districts have trouble compet
ing with white students when schools
are desegregated. Their estimates of the
Negroes’ academic lag varied from one
to two years, depending on the grade.
For the most part, they said, the lag
can be chalked up to cultural factors,
not native ability. Many termed it a re
sult of segregation itself.
A Negro educator, Dr. Aaron Brown
of New York City, said the lag is often
used as an excuse to perpetuate the
segregation that is responsible for it.
“Considering the cultural handicaps
of segregation, Negroes are doing well
to be only two grades behind,” he said.
Brown is projects director of the
Phelps-Stokes fund.
HIGHER PERFORMANCE
On the other hand, the commission
was told, integration itself sometimes
can result in higher academic perform
ance by Negro students.
Dr. Frank H. Stallings, a professor of
education at the University of Louis
ville, presented a detailed study showing
that Negro students have made substan
tial academic gains in the three years
that Louisville schools have been inte
grated.
Interestingly enough, he said, the
progress seems to have been made by
students who remained in all-Negro
schools as well as those in desegregated
classes. He attributed this to greater ef
forts on the part of Negro teachers who
realize that they as well as their stu
dents may soon be in highly competi
tive situations.
White academic standards, Stallings
said, have not suffered as a result of in
tegration and have even shown a slight
improvement.
PERFORMANCE DROPS
On the other hand, J. L. Darnell, su
perintendent of schools in Creek County,
Okla., reported that white academic
performance had dropped in one high
school there with over 50 per cent Ne
gro enrollment. He attributed this to the
fact that teachers there had to spend
more time with the Negro students who
lagged as much as two to three grades
behind.
Darnell said Negro achievement had
shown a marked improvement since de
segregation but added the improvement
was greatest in the lower grades, least
in the higher.
Both Darnell and other superintend
ents said the Negro scholastic lag is
cumulative, ranging from practically
none in the first grade to two or more
years in senior high school.
Several schoolmen said this may be
an argument in favor of the Nashville
plan of desegregation, which begins with
the first grade and advances one grade
a year.
NO DIFFERENCES
Supt. W. H. Oliver of Nashville told
the commission there are no academic
differences between the 42 Negro chil
dren now attending integrated schools
in the first three grades in Nashville
and their white classmates.
Dr. Fendall Ellis, superintendent of
Charlottesville, Va. schools, told the
commission the Nashville plan would
have been followed by his school board
had it been allowed to do so.
Other suggestions for dealing with the
scholastic lag included these:
• The use of educational television to
improve the standards of all students.
• Grouping children by ability, re
gardless of race, to permit extra help
for those who need it, and allow teach
ing to be pitched at the level of the stu
dents’ understanding.
• Deliberate efforts to give special
guidance and help to children from cul
turally deprived backgrounds. (Dr.
Daniel Schreiber of New York City de
scribed what that city’s schools have
done in this direction through their
“Higher Horizons” program.)
FOUND INTERRELATION
Commission members told the partici
pants they have found a high degree of
interrelation among civil rights prob
lems in all areas since assuming their
posts two years ago.
We have found you can’t separate
schools from housing and housing from
voting,” said the Rev. Theodore M. Hes-
MACON, Ga.
ublic opinion on school de
segregation was sampled in
each of Georgia’s 10 congressional
districts by the Sibley school study
commission.
The commission, created by the
Legislature, will report to the gov
ernor and legislative leaders by
May 1. (See “Community Ac
tion.”)
Negro plaintiffs asked a U.S.
district court to order desegrega
tion of Atlanta public schools in
September. But Judge Frank
Hooper said he would wait until
the Sibley commission reports on
May 1 and set a new hearing on
the desegregation order for May
9. (See “Legal Action.”)
The Sibley school study commission
wound up a whirlwind month of
scheduled hearings in each of Georgia’s
10 congressional districts in an effort
to find out if Georgians wanted to
close the public schools to prevent in
tegration.
Division of opinion were expressed
at each hearing. And if the number of
witnesses heard on one side of the
other could be used as a measure of
opinion, the state’s congressional dis
tricts are divided five to five. But in
some cases individuals on one side or
the other presented only their personal
views and in other cases the witnesses
claimed to be speaking for tens of
thousands of people.
Several generalizations could be
drawn from the hearings:
Opinion on the issue is sharply di
vided.
The five North Georgia districts are
more in favor of local option of pupil
placement plans.
The five South Georgia districts pre
fer to stand by present state laws,
which call for the closing of any pub
lic school ordered integrated.
Preference for keeping the schools
open is more pronounced in urban
centers of greater populations than in
rural areas and small towns.
The hearings were held in Americus,
Washington, Sylvania, Cartersville, La-
Grange, Douglas, Sandersville, Moul
trie, Atlanta and Cartersville.
EXTRA HEARINGS
Since everyone wishing to be heard
could not be heard in the one-day At
lanta hearing, another session will be
held later. A subcommittee is also ex
pected to conduct a hearing in Colum
bus and possibly in other of the larger
cities of the state.
Virtually every county in the five
south Georgia districts in which a
“close-the-schools” attitude appeared
to be predominant have from 30 to 50
per cent Negro populations. In north
Georgia, however, with the exception
of Fulton County (Atlanta), which has
a large Negro population, the propor
tion of Negro to white citizens is much
lower.
The Sibley commission was created
by the 1960 Legislature. It will report
its findings and recommendations to the
governor and presiding officers of the
House and Senate May 1.
A 19-member group, the commission
is headed by John Sibley, a 72-year-
old Atlanta banker and nationally-
known financier. Sibley was bom and
raised in Georgia and graduated from
the University of Georgia with a law
degree.
Observers generally agreed Sibley
had conducted the hearings with fair
ness and patience. At times, he in
jected good-humored comments into
the proceedings to relieve the tension.
At other times, he found it necessary
to rap for order and suppress the ap-
burgh, president of Notre Dame Univer
sity.
Five commission members attended
the conference. In addition to Hannah
and Father Hesburgh, they included for
mer Florida Gov. Doyle Carlton, Robert
G. Storey of Dallas, Tex., and George
M. Johnson, Washington.
Not attending was former Virginia
Gov. John S. Battle, who has resigned
as a member of the commission. His
successor, Dr. Robert S. Rankin of Duke
University, although not yet confirmed
by the Senate, attended, # # #
plause or booing, which he had
banned.
But there were some criticism grow
ing out of the hearings.
Roy V. Harris of Augusta, former
House speaker and strong segregation
ist, charged that questions asked of
those testifying were loaded by indi
cating that all of the schools of
Georgia are going to be closed and that
private school tuition grants from the
state will be illegal.
The Rev. George Clary, a Methodist
minister from Savannah, said that per
sons attending the “small city” hearings
“could possibly be intimidated or
forced to hide their true feelings for
fear of reprisal.”
W. W. Law, state president of the
National Assn, for the Advancement
of Colored People, said the commission
should not by-pass the metropolitan
areas of Macon, Savannah, Columbus
and Augusta.
The commission said consideration
would be given to the need for hear
ings in such cities and said efforts had
been made to select central sites in
each district.
MAYOR’S CHARGE
Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield
said the Metropolitan Assn, to Con
tinue Segregated Education was trying
to influence the commission by a
bombardment of letters favorable to
closed schools and attemping to scare
off local option advocates from appear
ing at the Atlanta hearing. T. J. Wesley
Jr., the association president, called
the mayor’s charges ridiculous and said
his organization got busy only after
receiving reports that HOPE, Inc.
(“Help Our Public Education”) was
drumming up pro integration witnesses
for the hearing.
At each hearing, before those wish
ing to speak were heard, Sibley made
a statement. He said the commission
wanted to obtain views on one of the
most important questions “that has
been before our lawmakers and before
the people in many generations.” He
outlined the background of state law
and federal law and developments that
had made it seem necessary for the
commission to go out into the state
and attempt to ascertain the feelings
of the people.
ACCEPTS FACTS
Certain basic facts, Sibley said, the
commission accepts as true. These
were:
1) “. . . the people unanimously de
sire to maintain public schools.”
2) “. . . the people desire separate
schools for white and colored children,
and they are convinced that separate
schools are for the betterment of both
races. Integrationists are insignificant
numerically.”
3) “. . . the people realize the dangers
of permitting the federal courts to take
charge of and monitor public educa
tion . . .”
Sibley cut off speeches by advocates
of various viewpoints and attempted to
persuade witnesses to shorten state
ments. He questioned witnesses closely
as to whether they were speaking only
for themselves or for organized groups.
In case of the latter, he asked how
many members were in the group,
how many were present when the de
cision was taken, and how the vote
went.
The commission chairman repeatedly
asked those appearing if they under
stood the choices they were making.
These choices generally were in effect
outlined as follows:
1) Do you favor continuing to oper
ate segregated schools under the pres
ent state law with the very real pos
sibility that public schools throughout
the state will be closed and efforts
made to use the private school plan of
grants in aid to individual students
for purposes of education?
2) Do you favor an opportunity to
vote on a pupil placement type of plan
which would allow local option on
school closing to avoid integration and
would permit parents to transfer their
children from schools where pupil
placement regulations are put into ef
fect?
Few of those testifying said they
actually wanted integration and a
number of those who expressed a pref
erence for local option or a pupil
placement plan prefaced their remarks
by saying they preferred segregation
if the schools could be kept open. Sev
eral of those who said they would be
willing for the schools to be closed
said they thought anything preferable
to racial integration in Georgia class
rooms.
The commission has set up an office
in Atlanta. After the supplementary
hearings are completed, the commis
sion, composed of eight legislators and
11 non-lawmakers, will begin holding
meetings to shape up its conclusions
and recommendations.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
As the school study commission con
ducted hearings, there were these
other developments:
The Southern Regional Council re
leased two reports, which it said
showed desegregation of the public
schools has not lowered academic
standards or harmed the academic
progress of white pupils. One report,
“Desegregation and Academic Achieve
ment,” summarizes the testimony of 12
administrators of desegregated school
systems before the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights. The other report, “Racial
Differences in Academic Achieve
ment,” is based on the findings of tests
conducted in Atlanta and in the Dis
trict of Columbia since Washington
schools were integrated.
In a special meeting, 134 Atlanta
area ministers re-affirmed faith in a
six-point manifesto urging solution of
current racial tensions.
U.S. District Court Judge Frank A.
Hooper refused a request by Negroes
that a federal court order desegregat
ing Atlanta public schools be made
effective next September. The Negroes
immediately filed a notice of appeal to
the U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals but
later asked that the appeal be dis
missed.
Judge Hooper said he would wait
until after May 1 to decide whether
to order the Atlanta desegregation plan
activated this fall. He set a new hear
ing for May 9. The Sibley school study
commission, which has been sampling
public opinion in Georgia on the issue,
is scheduled to report May 1.
The court will consider the commis
sion’s report, and any other matters
brought to the court’s attention, before
determining a date for inaugurating
the pupil placement plan for Atlanta
formulated on the court’s order by the
Board of Education, Hooper said.
The Atlanta board had urged the
court to wait until the study commis
sion winds up its work before setting
a date and Hooper said the court
agrees the commission was approach
ing the problem in good faith.
After the Negroes had asked that the
appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court be
dropped, Judge Hooper ordered the
Negro plaintiffs to make clear within
30 days exactly what part of the case
they wanted dropped and to spell out
which of his rulings, if any, they plan
to appeal further.
REFUSES DISMISSAL
Judge Durwood Pye of Fulton Su
perior Court refused to dismiss a $25,-
000 fine against the NAACP or to
throw out a one-year suspended sen
tence given J. C. Calhoun, president of
the Atlanta branch of the NAACP.
Calhoun had been given the sentence
for failure to produce records re
quested by the State Dept, of Revenue
in 1956 and the NAACP was fined by
Pye on a contempt charge when a re
quest for permission to inspect books
for tax purposes was denied.
Charges by the Dept, of Justice that
Terrell County Negroes were denied
the right to vote were denied in an
answer to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling
in the case filed by Terrell registrars.
The court had ordered the suit rein
stated for trial when it overruled a
decision by Judge T. Hoyt Davis, who
had dismissed the suit brought under
the 1957 Civil Rights Act. In denying
discrimination against Negro voters,
the registrars asked for a trial by jury.
PROTESTS START
Sit-down protests by Negroes broke
out in two Georgia cities.
The Atlanta incidents were preceded
by a full-page “Appeal for Human
Rights” advertisement run in news
papers by Negro college students.
Seventy-nine Negroes were arrested
and charged with violating a state
trespassing law, which provides that a
person must leave the premises of any
private firm if requested to do so by
the owner or operator. The law was
passed by the 1960 Legislature.
About 200 Negro students took part
in the sit-down demonstrations, simul
taneously showing up at 10 separate
white eating establishments.
A group of Negro students in Sa
vannah attempted to integrate seven
lunch counters there and three were
arrested.
The Georgia Education Assn, (white)
voted 596 to 510 in favor of local op
tion in the face of a threat that the
public schools might be closed. The
action was taken at the annual con
vention. Last year, a similar resolu
tion had failed to carry.
Frank M. Hughes, GEA executive
secretary, predicted new faces would
be seen on Georgia’s capitol hill and
even in Washington if the schools are
closed.
Jim Cherry, DeKalb County school
superintendent, urged business leaders
to join teachers in their stand for local
option. Later, the Atlanta Chamber of
Commerce adopted such a resolution.
In Athens, the Georgia Congress of
Colored Parents and Teachers urged
the governor and the Legislature to
continue uninterrupted free public
education.
Rep. Charles Gowen, a 20-year vet
eran of the Legislature, said at Bruns
wick he believed the state would accept
token integration in preference to
closed schools.
The Rev. William T. Bodenhamer of
Ty Ty, unsuccessful gubernatorial can
didate in 1957, criticized Gov. Van
diver, saying the Vandiver administra
tion has allowed “moderates” and “so-
called liberals” to gain ground.
Former Gov. M. E. Thompson told
the Valdosta Exchange Club that “it is
absurd to close all state schools just
to keep one Negro from going to school
with white pupils in Atlanta.”
President-elect Rufus C. Harris of
Mercer University, a Baptist college at
Macon, said the threat of closed schools
means that “great hands and hearts
must arise and defend them . . .”
Gov. Vandiver described as “fantas
tic” a published report that he would
go to jail to keep Georgia’s public
schools open and segregated. In con
nection with the same report, U.S. Sen.
Herman Talmadge (D) denied that he
had advised Vandiver on the reported
pian. # # #
GEORGIA SCHOOL COMMISSION OPENS STATEWIDE HEARINGS
Member John Duncan (Left) Talks With Chairman John Sibley