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PAGE 12—MAY I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TEXAS
Dallas, Houston Under Court Orders To Announce Plans
HOUSTON, Texas
B oth Houston and Dallas,
the state’s two largest school
districts, are under federal court
orders to announce desegregation
plans during the month. (See
“Legal Action.”)
Lunch counters were integrated
at some Galveston stores, while
there was agitation for similar ac
tion at Marshall, Austin, Long
view, Houston and some other
places in Texas. Sit-downers were
fined in Marshall. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
The Texas Commission on
Higher Education is investigating
the desirability of discontinuing
aid for Negroes, and some white
students, to attend colleges in
other states since most public col
leges in Texas are integrated.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
Campaigning by candidates in
Democratic primaries was marked
with practically no reference to
racial problems. (See “Political
Activity.”)
Despite steadily rising education
costs, Texas is spending relatively less
on schools than it did ten years ago,
a state teachers’ association survey
showed. (See “Under Survey.”)
A state advisory committee on civil
rights reported that progress is being
made but warned against too much
haste in pushing for racial equality.
(See “Under Survey.”)
Both Dallas and Houston are under
court orders to produce desegregation
plans during May.
U. S. District Judge Ben C. Con-
nally confirmed by letter that he ex
pects the Houston School Board to file
a plan for dropping segregation by
June 1. (Ross v. Rogers, Southern
School News, April 1960 and previ
ous.)
The U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap
peals denied a motion for rehearing by
the Dallas School Board of an order
for it to submit a desegregation plan
by May 1. (Borders v. Rippy, SSN,
April 1960 and previous.)
A hearing on the Dallas case is
scheduled to be held by U. S. District
Judge T. Whitfield Davidson sometime
during May.
CIRCULATE PETITIONS
Meanwhile, both Houston and Dallas
school boards were circulating peti
tions for referendum elections. Unless
a majority of a district’s voters ap
prove, under Texas law a district
stands to lose its state funds (usually
about 40 to 50 per cent of its total in
come). School officials also are liable
for heavy fines.
The Dallas district has been unsuc
cessful in efforts to obtain state or fed
eral court interpretation of its position
in the conflict between state law and
federal court orders. No legal prob
lem will exist in either city if a ma
jority of voters approves desegrega
tion. However, observers generally
predict that the referendum majority
in both places will oppose the move,
even by court order.
The Houston board seemed certain
to obtain the 52,000 signatures needed
to call the election and Dallas also was
expected to order the referendum soon.
Board attorney Joe Reynolds esti
mated that May 28 was the earliest
date possible for holding a school elec
tion in Houston.
Dr. Henry A. Petersen, chairman of
fhe Houston board, noted that it would
lose 6.5 million dollars a year in state
funds and accredited standing for its
school system if desegregation takes
place without voter approval. Houston
is the nation’s largest segregated school
system.
‘NO ALTERNATIVE’
Judge Connally’s letter said the
court has no desire to prescribe the
desegregation method, but that unless
the board acts he has no alternative
“but to grant the relief which the
plaintiffs have sought” for abolishing
segregation.
Supt. John W. McFarland of Hous
ton recommended that integration be
started in the 12th grade, when it
comes, and be extended downward
gradually. Achievement tests for stu
dents transferred from one school to
another also were suggested by Mc
Farland, who would prohibit any
transfers by students in the lower half
scholastically. The latter proposal, Mc
Farland added, was not firm but might
be “necessary” by later developments.
Three other proposed desegregation
plans have been presented. School
board advisory committees suggested
(1) desegregation at all levels but re
stricted to a few schools initially and
(2) grade-a-year desegregation start
ing in the first grade. The third plan
advanced by attorney Reynolds would
desegregate first the districts where
voters indicate there would be the
least resistance.
None of the proposals has been
acted upon yet by the Houston board.
Mayor Lewis Cutrer meanwhile ap
pointed a 40-member bi-racial Hous
ton Committee on Race Relations to
consider problems other than schools.
One of the first to come before the
new committee is how the city should
handle lunch counter sit-downs.
43,000 NAMES NEEDED
At Dallas, 43,000 signatures are
needed for a desegregation referendum
election. Board members signed the
petition, saying the district will lose
2.7 million dollars a year in state funds
if segregation is removed without
voter sanction.
“The board is desirous that everyone
sign the petition if agreeable,” said
Franklin E. Spafford, an attorney and
new chairman. Dr. Edwin L. Rippy,
chairman since 1953, has retired from
the board.
The Dallas News predicted that the
board will present a grade-a-year de
segregation plan starting in the first
grade, patterned upon Nashville’s. It
also may call for a one-year transition
period before actually integrating
classrooms.
This “adjustment” year would pro
vide for special training of teachers in
bi-racial classes, according to this pro
posal.
Galveston became the second city in
Texas, following San Antonio, to an
nounce integration of downtown lunch
counters.
At Dallas, two ministers, one white
and one Negro, ate together at a S. H.
Kress lunch counter.
Elsewhere, Negroes were rebuffed in
their efforts to obtain service at all-
white dining places.
Thirty-five students from two all-
Negro colleges in Marshall were fined
$50 each in city court on charges of
failing to leave a business establish
ment upon request of the owner. The
action followed eight days of demon
strations by students from Bishop and
Wiley colleges, a period which saw 130
state and local police summoned to
keep peace in the east Texas county,
which has more Negro residents than
white.
C. B. Bunkley Jr. of Dallas, attor
ney for the students, said the convic
tions will be appealed to a county
court from which a direct appeal could
be made later to the U. S. Supreme
Court.
In all, 71 Negroes were charged with
law violations.
County court charges were filed
against 57 students for unlawful as
sembly or illegal picketing.
Students at the two Negro colleges
called for boycotts of Marshall stores.
An interracial commission composed
of five Negroes, five white citizens and
a white chairman, retired appeals court
justice Reuben Hall, proved ineffective
in the Marshall episode. For 80 years,
racial differences in the city had been
solved largely by negotiation through
the committee.
DISMISSED
Dr. Doxey A. Wilkerson, an admit
ted former communist from New York,
was dismissed from the Bishop College
faculty when his record was revealed
during the sit-down controversy, al
though college officials said Wilkerson
had nothing to do with the demon
strations.
President M. K. Curry Jr. claimed
newspapers attempted to make Wilker
son the “scapegoat.”
Wilkerson asserted: “I’m the fall
guy, so to speak. It’s just a case of
I’m a guy from New York in east
Texas—and you know how that is.”
The Dallas News reported in a staff-
written article from Albany, N. Y.,
that Wilkerson and his wife both were
connected with the Jefferson School of
Social Science in New York, which
the New York Legislature investigated
for pro-Communist activity. Wilker
son publicly resigned from the Com
munist Party in 1957.
His wife, Mrs. Yolanda Wilkerson,
was described as “an uncooperative
witness” in the 1955 New York legisla
tive investigation. Mrs. Wilkerson, still
employed as head of the testing pro
gram at Bishop College, was defended
by its president as a victim of “char
acter assassination by association” in
publicity over the city’s racial strife.
EFFORTS UPSET
While no official report was availa
ble on this point, the revelations were
said to have upset efforts to raise 1.5
million dollars for providing a new
campus for Bishop College, under
previously announced plans to move it
from Marshall to Dallas.
Fifty-five Negro college students
were jailed at Marshall during the
demonstrations, mostly for violating a
state law against picketers carrying
signs closer than 50 feet together at
the entrance to a business establish
ment. This act was passed more than
10 years ago to restrict picketing by
labor unions.
A few students, black and white, at
the University of Texas meanwhile in
dicated they may start sit-downs to
desegregate eating facilities in Austin
stores.
STUDENT SUPPORT
The Austin Commission on Human
Relations sponsored the move, which
drew support from some students at
local Episcopal and Presbyterian the
ological seminaries.
However, reporters said a rally to
discuss the problem, which drew ap
proximately 150 persons, did not draw
any from Huston-Tillotson College, a
Negro school here.
Other lunch counter demonstrations
took place at Beaumont and Longview,
both in east Texas, where Negro popu
lation is heavy.
State District Judge A. R. Stout of
Waxahachie told the Travis County
(Austin) Bar Assn, that “massed,
planned sit-downs” in business estab
lishments are illegal.
Such action is “certainly trespass,”
said Stout. “It is close to violating—
in fact, I think it is—our state right-
to-work statute.”
The owner has a legal right to oust
unwanted persons “and I think has the
duty to exercise it,” Stout declared.
The jurist expressed some doubt that
federal courts would uphold use of
force by state or local police to remove
citizens during sit-downs, but said
there is no question about the au
thority of the owner to do so.
SEES COURT APPROVAL
Tom Reavley, an Austin lawyer,
added in a Dallas speech that he be
lieves use of police to evict unwanted
patrons would be upheld by the U. S.
Supreme Court.
“The argument will be made in the
‘sit-in’ situation that the use of state
police to enforce the store owner’s
discrimination becomes state action
and therefore forbidden by the federal
constitution,” Reavley told a confer
ence on race relations at Southern
Methodist University.
“I would not think that the court
will go this far. If it did, it would be
saying that the store owner could
forcibly evict on his own part, but he
could not employ the assistance of the
police authorities. This would reach a
result calculated to encourage vio
lence.”
The department of Christian social
relations of the Episcopal Diocese of
Texas, sent a five-page memorandum
to 141 churches urging support for bi-
racial committees to seek settlement of
racial problems.
IN THE COLLEGES
The Texas Commission on Higher
Education ordered its staff to report on
the necessity for continuing state aid
to send college students to other
states. Integration of state colleges in
Texas may call for a change, the com
mission indicated.
While the program involves some
other students, most of the $80,300 in
out-of-state scholarships next year
will go for Texas Negroes.
For many years, the state has pro
vided funds to send Negroes to college
in other states if they wanted degrees
unavailable to them in tax-supported
Texas schools.
Since 1949, Texas has participated in
the Southern Regional Education
Board’s 16-state compact designed
mainly to improve the educational op
portunity for Negroes.
The Texas Commission on Higher
Education in April ordered its staff to
see whether the program is needed
any longer for this state.
SENT TO MEHARRY
Most of the scholarship aid has gone
for Texas Negroes to study medicine
and dentistry at Meharry Medical
School in Nashville. However, qualified
Negro applicants now are being ac
cepted at the University of Texas’
medical schools in Dallas and Galves
ton and at its dental college in Hous
ton.
Deans of the two medical schools re
cently noted a scarcity of qualified ap
plicants and Galveston at least plans
to fill some vacancies with out-of-
state students.
Ralph T. Green, director of the Com
mission on Higher Education, said 30
Texas Negroes are studying medicine
and eight training to be dentists at
Meharry Medical School. Texas guar
antees Meharry $2,000 a year scholar
ships for 17 Negro medical students
and $1,500 each for eight dental stu
dents.
The students also receive state-paid
round-trip railroad fare to the out-of-
state school, and in some cases receive
small additional assistance, Green said.
The scholarship payments go directly
to the college and Texas students still
must pay tuition on the same basis as
residents of Tennessee.
Southern Regional Education Board
in 1961 proposes to raise Texas’ quota
payment to Meharry College from $46,-
000 a year to $79,500. This would be
at the rate of $2,250 each on 30 medi
cal students, and $1,500 each on eight
dental students.
TWO PROGRAMS
Funds are paid through Texas A&M
College for scholarships in two pro
grams. Since A&M does not admit
women, it sends female applicants for
veterinary medicine degrees to other
states, with Texas assistance. A&M has
the only veterinary medicine degree
program in Texas. One Texas girl is
attending Oklahoma State University
on a $1,500 state scholarship and two
others will enroll there next fall.
Another Texas girl is studying vet
erinary medicine at Kansas State Uni
versity, also with state aid, although
this is outside the Southern Regional
agreement.
One group of Texas boys is sent to
other states by A&M. These seek de
grees in forestry. A&M offers no de
gree in that subject. East Texas State
College is establishing such a degree
program but it is not yet accredited,
said Director Green.
Through an SREB contract, Texas
A&M is training 22 Louisiana men to
become veterinarians.
The University of Texas, A&M and
other Texas schools, in fact, receive
more payments from other states
through SREB than Texas pays to send
its students away. One point to be in
vestigated by the State Commission
on Higher Education is how far these
payments go toward the actual cost of
educating the visitors.
The commission and Legislature also
may consider the effect upon other
states if Texas withdrew from the
SREB program. Few southern states
have integrated colleges as fully as
Texas, and none has facilities for sepa
rate colleges for Negroes in such
courses as medicine.
The SREB program has decreased
the pressure for integration in south
ern colleges.
ASK FULL SUPPORT
The Commission on Higher Educa
tion was asked by Houston officials to
recommend full state support for the
University of Houston, which now re
ceives only part-support on its fresh
man and sophomore students.
The university said present tuition
rates of more than $600 a year are too
high for most students, and that the
state should take over the institution.
State colleges in Texas charge resi
dents $100 tuition for nine months.
The University of Houston has 11,-
383 students enrolled this spring.
A University of Texas faculty com
mittee protested the oath requirement
for scholarships under the 1958 Na
tional Defense Education Act passed
by Congress. The committee said it had
no objection to a loyalty oath but said
the law goes beyond regulating overt
conduct and attempts also to “regu
late belief.”
Texas voters on May 7 will choose
Democratic nominees for most offices,
which is usually equal to election.
The campaigns have been notably
free of racial discussions.
A Dallas minister, H. Rhett James,
was defeated in April for the school
board but drew 7,478 votes, the high
est ever cast in such a contest for a
Negro in Dallas.
Mrs. Tracy H. Rutherford, incum
bent, defeated James by more than
two to one majority.
Texas State Teachers Assn., urging
the Legislature to raise salaries by at
least $400 annually, said the state rela
tively is spending less on public
schools today than it was 10 years ago.
The association said 27.68 per cent
of the state’s budget now goes for
education, compared to 29.67 cents in
1949-1950. Attendance has increased 51
per cent during the decade.
School spending has increased con
siderably during the period, but other
state appropriations have risen even
more, TSTA said.
SAYS PROGRESS MADE
The Texas advisory committee to the
U. S. Civil Rights Commission said
that progress is being made in com
batting discrimination, but it warned
against moving too fast.
“We firmly believe that substantial
progress already has been made, and
that the trend will continue unless the
progress is impeded by undue exter
nal pressure or some other cause that
may arouse the resentment and stimu
late the opposition of our people,” the
committee said.
It asserted that Negroes in Texas
have political equality and said efforts
to abolish the state poll tax indicate
the effort to improve participation in
politics is continuing.
The report also stated:
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE:
“Judges are elected ... in Texas and
no evidence was found of any racial
discrimination in this regard. No Ne
groes are currently serving on any of
the Texas courts, but there are num
erous members of other minority
groups now serving on the bench. The
state bar of Texas is fully integrated.
In a few areas of heavy Negro popu
lation the law enforcement agencies
are not integrated. In most of the state,
however, police departments, sherifEs
departments, etc., are integrated.
“It appears that in numerous in
stances Negroes and other minorities
receive more severe punishment than
do white persons for like crimes of
violence against white persons, such as
assault, murder and rape; but in most
areas, and as regards most other
crimes, they are reported to be dealt
with more leniently than white per
sons for similar law violations. This
situation is deplored by leaders among
both minority . . . and majority groups,
and is rapidly improving.”
EDUCATION: The report cited 126
school districts out of 1,581 which have
integrated and pointed to numerous
integrated colleges. It said state laws
enacted about three years ago have
virtually halted desegregation, and
added, “In east Texas, where the situ
ation is quite different from that ob
taining in other sections of Texas, be
cause of the heavy concentration of
Negro population, it is not surprising
that the communities did not move
forward with integration as readily as
did communities in other parts of the
state. All who look at the problem
realistically understand that the solu
tion will be more difficult of attaining
in the areas where the Negro popula
tion is concentrated, than in those
where the percentage of Negroes &
comparatively small.” # # 4