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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY I960—PAGE 9
MARYLAND
Faster Desegregation Opposed
By Majority, New Poll Shows
BALTIMORE, Md.
HE MAJORITY OF MARYLANDERS
do not want school integration
to move faster, according to a poll
taken by Sen. J. Glenn Beall (R-
Md), who publishes the only
known public questionnaire in
the state. His latest poll follows
one last August that showed 52
per cent of his constituents fa
vored integration. (See “Under
Survey.”)
New statewide enrollment data
show a close parallel between the
proportion of Negroes in a school
district and the extent of deseg
regation. (See “Under Survey.”)
A busy month of anti-segrega
tion activity in April brought an
end to racial restrictions in Balti
more department stores and ho
tels and also a decision to include
a non-discrimination clause in
city contracts with private firms.
(See “Community Action.”)
Sen. J. Glenn Beall (R-Md) drew
1,672 replies to a questionnaire on pub
lic issues that he mailed to a sampling
of Marylanders. To the question,
“Would you like to see integration in
schools move along faster?,” the sen
ator got a 25 per cent “yes” reply, 63
per cent “no” and 12 per cent did not
answer.
Last August Sen. Beall announced
the results of a similar questionnaire,
to which he had 1,581 replies. That
time the school question was worded,
“Do you favor integration in schools?”
The response was quite different: 51.6
per cent said “yes,” 43.4 said “no,” and
5 per cent skipped the question.
Beall said that he considered the re
plies to be a “true cross-section of how
the people of Maryland feel,” since his
mailing list of 6,000 includes “people
of every profession and trade, of both
political parties, in every part of the
state.”
SEVERAL INTERPRETATIONS
The Baltimore Sun commented edi
torially that the results of Beall’s ques
tionnaires were “subject to several in
terpretations.” The editorial said:
“To favor integration but not want it
to move faster is an enigmatic position
for Marylanders generally, since the
significance of the reply depends on
the section of Maryland under consid
eration.
“The issue is moot, for instance, in
Garrett County, which has no Negro
pupils, and in Allegany County, which
at the start of the current school year
became the first school district in
Maryland to have 100 per cent inte
gration. The issue is also all but fore
closed in Washington, Frederick, Balti
more and Montgomery counties, where
school officials are well along on pro
grams to close out all or most all sep
arate classes for Negroes.
“In Baltimore city the replies to a
speed-up suggestion could have a dif
ferent meaning. Of the approximately
28,000 Maryland Negroes admitted to
formerly white schools since desegre
gation began, 23,000 of them have been
enrolled in city schools. So rapid has
the movement been that 22 schools
classified as formerly white now have
more than 50 per cent Negro enroll
ment. Thus, to favor integration but
not want to see it move faster could
mean a desire for real integration in
stead of the current trend toward re
segregation.
“In seven Eastern Shore counties
and two southern Maryland counties,
on the other hand, no Negroes attend
white schools. And in four other coun
ties the numbers are only of token
size. Here, to favor integration but not
want it to move faster could be inter
preted to mean that the nonsegregation
of school children is approved, just as
long as no Negro children, or a hand
ful at most, enter white schools.”
OTHER QUESTIONS
Two other questions on the question
naire touched on the civil rights issue:
“Do you believe that the U.S. attorney
should intervene in behalf of persons
claiming to have been denied the right
to vote?” and “Do you think that the
Senate rules should be changed so as
to prevent filibusters?”
He received a 59 per cent “yes” on
the first of these, and 54 per cent “yes”
on the second.
ENROLLMENT DATA
The release of enrollment data by
race in April provided the first full
look at Maryland desegregation in the
current school pear.
State Department of Education data
indicated that 28,072 out of 130,076 Ne
gro pupils attend formerly all-white
schools, or 21.6 per cent. Most of the
integration has occurred in Baltimore
city, where 22,981 Negro children (27.8
per cent) attend schools classified as
formerly white. In the 22 bi-racial
county school systems, the integration
figure stands at just over 10 per cent
—5,091 out of 47,549 Negroes in bi-
racial schools.
The relationship between the pro
portion of Negroes in a given area and
the extent of integration is pronounced.
Allegany County in western Maryland,
with the lowest percentage of Negroes
in the state (aside from even more
western Garrett County, which has no
Negro pupils), has 100 per cent integra
tion. Its next-door neighbor, Washing
ton County, with the next lowest Ne
gro percentage, has nearly half its Ne
gro pupils in white schools, leaving
only one all-Negro school serving a
Negro residential area.
Extensive integration also is found in
Montgomery and Baltimore counties,
both of which have less than five per
cent Negro enrollment. Montgomery
County, lying outside Washington, D.C.,
has 1,521 out of 2,861 Negro pupils in
formerly white schools, or 53.2 per cent.
Baltimore County, just outside of Bal
timore city, has 1,371 out of 4,056, or
33.8 per cent. Another county that
stands high in the desegregation per
centages is Frederick, which has inte
grated 582 out of 1,278 Negro pupils,
who represent a little less than 10 per
cent of its school enrollment.
FIVE COUNTIES
All of the five counties with the high
desegregation percentages are those
which have been actively working to
close out separate schools for Negroes.
Most of the remaining desegregation
has occurred on a voluntary basis in
counties with relatively small Negro
percentages: Anne Arundel, Carroll and
Howard counties in the Baltimore met
ropolitan area; Prince George’s on the
border of the District of Columbia; and
Harford and Cecil counties in northern
Maryland. Among these school sys
tems, Harford’s, with 195 out of 1,861
Negroes in white schools, has the high
est desegregation percentage (10.1 per
cent), while Anne Arundel has the
highest proportion of Negro pupils—
16.4 per cent.
As the proportion of Negro pupils
increases from Anne Arundel onward,
integration drops off sharply. Of the
11 remaining bi-racial counties with
Negro percentages ranging from Caro
line’s 23.8 to Calvert’s 50.0, schools re
main separate with two exceptions.
Talbot (32.7 Negro) has 12 out of its
1,340 colored pupils in white schools,
and Charles (45.3 per cent Negro) has
two out of 3,195 in one white school.
The one conspicuous exception to the
general rule is Baltimore city, where
a 49.5 Negro enrollment is second high
est in the state and where more than
a quarter of its colored pupils are en
rolled in formerly white schools.
HIGHER PERCENTAGES
The enrollment data shows Baltimore
city and nine counties as having higher
percentages of Negro pupils than the
previous year, while 11 counties regis
tered white proportional gains and the
remaining three remained the same.
The Negro student percentage for the
state as a whole increased slightly
more than previously: 22.7 per cent Ne
gro compared with 21.8 per cent last
year.
The counties by themselves present
a picture directly opposite that in Bal
timore city. Taken together, the coun
ties registered an additional 19,925
white pupils and only 1,485 new Negro
pupils. The city, on the other hand,
had 4,914 more Negroes and 1,737 fewer
white pupils. All of the suburbanized
counties in the vicinity of Baltimore
and Washington had decreases in Ne
gro percentages in the face of steady
white increases. In contrast, six out of
nine Eastern Shore counties, farthest
removed from urban fallout, had gains
in Negro percentages, and three of
these had small white losses.
Only two counties had smaller num
bers of Negro pupils than formerly—
Kent on the Eastern Shore had a de
crease of eight, and Washington County
in western Maryland a drop of ten.
Otherwise there were few startling
changes, except perhaps the percentage
shifts in Calvert County and Baltimore
city.
The southern Maryland county of
Calvert, with the only school system in
the state to have more Negro than
white children, recorded a drop in its
percentage of Negro pupils from 52.8
to 50.5 per cent, due to a comparatively
large white increase. Baltimore had its
Negro percentage increase from 46.9 to
49.5 per cent and next year is likely to
lead the state in the proportion of Ne
gro pupils.
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
A Caroline County weekly newspa
per in April carried a notice that read
in part:
“All parents who will have children
entering the first grade in September
1960 in any school in Caroline County
are requested to register them at the
school they will attend on Thursday,
May 5, and Friday, May 6 . . .
“Parents who now have children in
one school who expect to enroll their
children in another school in September
by virtue of moving from one com
munity to another or other reasons are
also requested to register at the school
the children expect to attend. Late reg
istrations for students in this category
will be honored only for those students
who are new to the community because
of moving.”
The phrase “or other reasons” can be
taken by the initiated to mean that the
two-day registration period provides an
opportunity for Negroes to seek trans
fers to white schools. Like most other
Eastern Shore counties, Caroline in
past years has not received any Negro
transfer applications.
The approaching Maryland primaries
on May 17 gave little indication during
April of general public interest, despite
the opportunity to express a presiden
tial preference for Senators Kennedy
or Morse on the Democratic ticket. Only
congressional seats and some Baltimore
city and county judgeships were at
stake, and Maryland is not so over
whelmingly Democratic that the pri
mary is the equivalent of, or has the
impact of, a general election.
The most spirited of the congression
al races was that in the Seventh Dis
trict, which covers a broad section of
Baltimore, between Rep. Samuel Frie-
del, a routinely liberal Democrat of
long experience, and Herbert R. O’Con
or Jr., son of the former governor and
senator whose death occurred recent
ly. As the underdog in the party con
test, young O’Conor made his position
clear on a number of issues, including
civil rights.
Terming the “problem of proper and
equitable treatment for American Ne
groes” to be the “most important cause
for domestic strife in the United
States,” O’Conor declared himself for
federal voting referees and had this to
say about school desegregation:
“Legal maneuvers by some southern
states have in many areas denied mean
ing to the 1954 Supreme Court school
desegregation decision; and legislation
to supervise compliance with its provi
sions is now under study by Congress.
Whatever is necessary to carry out the
mandate of the Supreme Court should
be adopted.”
COMMUNITY ACTION
Students from Morgan State College,
with an assist from other Negro repre
sentatives, notably the clergy, staged a
pre-Easter campaign against white-only
restaurants and lunch counters in Bal
timore department stores. They brought
(See MARYLAND, Page 10)
Enrollment In Maryland Public Schools
Race —1959-60 School
School
District Total
Allegany 15,879
Anne Arundel 39,328
Baltimore City 166,721
Baltimore County 81,938
Calvert 4,081
Caroline 4,316
Carroll 10,287
Cecil 9,232
Charles 7,059
Dorchester 6,017
Frederick 13,856
Garrett 4,821
Harford 15,812
Howard 6,990
Kent 3,266
Montgomery 66,603
Prince George’s 65,063
Queen Anne’s 3,624
St. Mary’s 5,678
Somerset 4,312
Talbot 4,098
Washington 18,102
Wicomico 9,922
Worcester 5,315
White
Negro % Negro % Negroes
15,576
303
1.9
Integrated
100
32,875
6,453
16.4
8.8
84,194
82,527
49.5
27.8
77,882
4,056
4.9
33.8
1,969
2,112
50.5
0
3,290
1,026
23.8
0
9,813
474
4.6
8.2
8,653
579
6.3
9.3
3,864
3,195
45.3
.06
3,840
2,177
36.2
0
12,578
1,278
9.2
45.5
4,821
0
—
—
13,951
1,861
11.8
10.1
5,888
1,102
15.8
0.9
2,355
911
27.9
0
63,742
2,861
4.3
53.2
56,779
8,284
12.7
3.1
2,545
1,079
29.9
0
4,196
1,482
26.1
0
2,444
1,868
43.3
0
2,758
1,340
32.7
0.9
17,733
369
2.0
48.5
7,279
2,643
26.6
0
3,219
2,096
39.4
0
442,244
130,076
22.7
21.6
Totals 572,320
* Compiled by the State Department of Education.
OKLAHOMA
Desegregation Predicted
At Second High School
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
National Conference of
Christians and Jews official
predicted Northeast High School
in Oklahoma City will have Negro
students for the first time this fall.
Negro migration into predom
inantly white northeastern resi
dential sections was reported so
rapid that some civic leaders talk
ed of a “slow-down” to stave off
incidents. (See “Community Ac
tion.”)
A scheduled Negro lunch
counter demonstration was called
off after Gov. J. Howard Edmond
son set up a human relations
study committee which later ap
pealed for an end to racial dis
crimination. (See “Community
Action.”)
Alumni of Langston University,
Oklahoma’s only Negro college,
organized a citizens’ group to pro
mote higher education in the
state. (See “In the Colleges.”)
COMMUNITY ACTION
Race relations have been of concern
to residents of Oklahoma City’s north
east area since Negroes began moving
into previously white neighborhoods.
They first began to cross the unofficial
“boundary”—Northeast 23rd Street—in
June 1959. By September a dozen Ne
gro pupils had entered Edison School,
integrating it for the first time.
Donald F. Sullivan, Oklahoma region
director for the National Conference of
Christians and Jews, reported in April
that Negro families have now moved as
far north as Northeast 29th near East
ern Avenue. One family has bought
property on which to build a house on
Northeast 36th, he said.
The migration of Negroes into mid
dle-class white areas has proceeded
much more rapidly in Oklahoma City
than it has in Tulsa, Sullivan com
mented.
He said there is no question that
Negroes will be enrolled in Northeast
High School this fall.
MANY ELIGIBLE
“Many Negroes are eligible to go
there now but they didn’t because they
weren’t sure they would be accepted,”
he explained.
School officials had expected Negroes
to enroll at Northeast last September
but none applied. If Negroes do enter
Northeast this fall, it will become the
second integrated high school in the
city. Central has had both white and
Negro students since the city school
system was desegregated in 1955.
The NCCJ has observed these devel
opments closely through its Committee
on the Changing Neighborhood, set up
late last year.
Slowly over the past several months
the group has sought to lay the ground
work for “peaceful co-existence” of the
races in the neighborhoods undergoing
change.
SOUGHT STABILITY
A couple of neighborhood committees
have sought stability by trying to
persuade white home-owners not to sell
their property to Negroes. While these
groups have not engaged in hostile ac
tions, Sullivan reported in a recent
memorandum to his steering committee,
neither have they tried to welcome the
newcomers to their neighborhoods. The
NCCJ official contended the effective
ness of this movement is declining.
The changing neighborhood commit
tee, on the other hand, continued its
campaign to get whites and Negroes to
gether on a congenial plane.
In a preliminary move toward setting
up a joint parley, the NCCJ steering
committee met with the Negro group
in April. The Negroes included teach
ers, professors and other professional
people who had moved into previously
white neighborhoods. They said no in
cidents had occurred.
TWO STEPS
About a week after this session the
NCCJ steering committee met again
and decided upon the two next steps to
be taken. One is to go ahead with plans
for a joint parley of a few key leaders
of both races in the area affected.
Particular attention would be directed
to possible tensions arising out of inte
gration of Northeast High.
The second step is to meet soon with
a diverse group which the NCCJ hopes
would become a full-fledged citywide
Committee on the Changing Neighbor
hood.
One immediate course of action, the
NCCJ suggests, is to try to slow down
the process of change to minimize the
danger of neighborhood tensions. It is
felt stricter enforcement of zoning laws
would result in more attractive housing
for Negroes, make them less eager to
leave their own neighborhoods.
AVERT DEMONSTRATION
A full-scale lunch counter demon
stration in downtown Oklahoma City
was averted early in April by prompt
action of the state’s chief executive.
The demonstration was planned at the
John A. Brown Co., largest department
store in Oklahoma, which has been the
object of NAACP Youth Council “sit-
down” efforts as far back as August
1958. More recently a token group had
appeared at the store’s basement
lunchroom each Saturday and marched
quietly for two hours. (See Southern
School News, April 1960.)
When it was learned demonstrators
planned to turn out in full force April
2, Gov. Edmondson asked them to call
it off and announced he was setting up
a Committee on Human Relations to
study the whole problem. He said he
personally disapproves of discrimina
tion against any group by commercial
(See OKLAHOMA, Page 10)