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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