Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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