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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)