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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS-^JUNE I960—PAGE 13
FIRE DESTROYS KENTUCKY STATE COLLEGE GYM
Follows Student Demonstrations; Police Suspect Arson
KENTUCKY
Police Say Arson Involved
In Fire at Kentucky State
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
S tate police called the burn
ing of the Kentucky State
College gymnasium “a clear-cut
case of arson with the reported
purpose of closing the school,”
which is predominantly Negro.
The fire at the Frankfort school
followed a series of student dem
onstrations. President R. B. At
wood had withdrawn official rec
ognition earlier of the local unit
of the Congress of Racial Equal
ity, sponsor of a sit-in course.
(See “In the Colleges.”)
In the May primaries, Demo
crats and Republicans nominated
candidates for the U. S. Senate
who had agreed that school inte
gration would be no issue in their
campaigns. (See “Political Activ
ity.”)
The State Department of Education
placed 24 high schools at the bottom
of its ratings, including eight for Ne
groes and eight Catholic parochial
schools. A Negro state board member
suggested that local boards operating
Negro schools “so obviously unfit”
should consider integration programs.
Louisville and Jefferson County
boards announced 1960-61 teacher sal
ary increases ranging from $100 to $800,
with the new county level the highest.
(See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
A survey showed that 2,750 of the
state’s 24,644 classroom teachers have
sub-standard certificates, but the total
staff was described as “the best-quali
fied in Kentucky’s history.” (See “Un
der Survey.”)
On May 2, fire destroyed the interior
of the Kentucky State College gym
nasium. State police, who said the fire
was “a clear-cut case of arson with the
reported purpose of closing the school,”
also kept watch, with Frankfort police,
on the college cafeteria, a target of
student criticism.
President R. B. Atwood called the
gymnasium, built in 1931 at a cost of
$32,000, “a complete loss.” Replacement
Virginia
(Continued From Page 12)
32 Negro students arrested on trespass
ing charges during a sit-down demon
stration at a Richmond department
store Feb. 22. He fined each of the
defendants $20, the same fine levied in
the lower court.
“The record . . . establishes that
Thalhimers is a private corporation and
was operated by private owners and
with private capital. It is under no duty
to serve everyone who enters its store.
It may accept some customers and re
ject others on purely personal grounds.”
# # #
estimates ranged from $160,000 to $300,-
000. Police are continuing their inves
tigation.
The incident followed a series of
student demonstrations and the pres
entation of a list of 26 student griev
ances involving food, cars, dances, stu
dent lounge hours and other regula
tions. On April 29, student leaders
called a halt to demonstrations after
Atwood warned that otherwise the col
lege would be forced to close.
On May 1 Atwood expelled 12 stu
dents and fired two teachers as al
leged leaders of the opposition to cam
pus regulations. These claimed that
they were actually being punished for
participation in protests against racial
discrimination in Frankfort eating
places and other CORE activities,
which had led Atwood to withdraw
school recognition of their group
(Southern School News, May 1960).
ASK HEARING
The fired teachers and expelled stu
dents asked for a hearing by the
school’s board of regents. State Supt.
of Public Instruction Wendell P. But
ler, chairman of the regents, said on
May 9 that the board would hear the
students, as required by state law, but
that the teachers “might have to go to
court.”
For some days the college’s class
rooms were nearly empty. But by May
10, after Atwood had warned that boy
cotting students would lose credit for
the semester, attendance was back to
virtually 100 per cent of some 588 stu
dents.
The college administration, in the
meantime, had relaxed certain of the
protested regulations by agreement
with the student council.
FIRED TEACHERS
The fired teachers, who will be paid
until their one-year contracts end June
4, were Arthur Norman, 31, assistant
professor in the department of educa
tion and psychology, and Robert E.
Boyd, 32, instructor in the departments
of biology and chemistry.
Atwood said an investigation had
convinced him the two teachers fur
nished leadership for the student dem
onstrations. Norman said that he, Boyd,
and the 12 students had not taken part
in these, but that all were members of
the CORE chapter at the school. He
called the school’s action against them
“incredible,” but said the administra
tion had warned against CORE activ
ity.
State Supt. Butler said the regents
met prior to the dismissals and were
told of the campus trouble by Dr. At
wood. “We expressed confidence in
him,” Butler said, “and left it up to
him to handle.”
In Kentucky’s May 24 primary, as
had generally been predicted, former
Democratic Gov. Keen Johnson and in
cumbent Republican Sen. John Sher
man Cooper easily won their party’s
senatorial nominations.
Both candidates made it clear dur
ing their primary campaigns that they
regarded the Supreme Court’s school
desegregation ruling as “the law of the
land” and that school integration would
be no issue for either in the general
election.
The State Board of Education on May
15 rated 16 public high schools (eight
of them for Negroes) and eight Catho
lic parochial high schools as “condi
tionally temporary”—the lowest possi
ble rating.
Don C. Bale, director of instruction
for the Department of Education, said
“this means these schools are right
down at the edge of the water.”
Mrs. John H. Walls of Louisville,
only Negro member of the board, sug
gested the board should take a stronger
stand “against such poor Negro
schools.” She asked why local school
boards making no move toward inte
gration “should be allowed to escape
with Negro schools so obviously un
fit.”
16 SCHOOLS CLOSED
The board took no immediate action
on her suggestion. But the department
reported later that, since 1956, 16 Ne
gro high schools have been closed and
their pupils fully integrated in previ
ously white high schools, and that the
top three grades in five more have
been integrated.
Bale said that of the 40 remaining
Negro high schools, only 10 are “in
real trouble,” while the other 30 are
“large, splendid, and likely to be with
us for a long time.”
The board’s highest rating (“compre
hensive”) went to schools in Louis
ville, Jefferson County and the state’s
larger cities.
PAY RAISES
The Louisville and Jefferson County
school boards announced 1960-61
teacher-salary raises ranging from
$100 to $800, made possible by in
creased state aid (SSN, April 1960).
Most of the Louisville increases were
from $640 to $750 a year, with a new
starting salary of $4,000 for a teacher
with a bachelor’s degree. Officials said
the new scales were considerably
above those in most southern cities,
but $200 to $250 below those in Jeffer
son County schools, where the new
salaries still compare unfavorably with
those in adjoining Indiana counties.
The State Department of Education
reported that 2,750 classroom teachers
of the 24,644 employed in its public
schools this year are teaching with
sub-standard or “emergency” certifi
cates, an increase of 368 over last year.
But these teachers, it said, have a
higher level of college preparation than
did many teachers in the “qualified”
category 20 years ago, because certifi
cation standards are higher than in the
past.
Miss Louise Combs, director of
teacher education and certification,
said that “Kentucky today has the
best-qualified staff of teachers in its
history”—with 70 per cent holding
bachelors’ or masters’ degrees, com
pared with only 46 per cent in 1940.
Of the total staff, approximately 1,-
300 are Negroes, virtually every one of
whom holds a “qualified” certificate.
At its 13th annual convention in
Louisville, the Kentucky branch of the
NAACP re-elected James A. Crumlin
to his tenth term as president.
At the same time, a CORE group
conducted a “sit-in test” in the Kauf-
man-Straus department store. A CORE
spokesman said the attempt was “only
a training session or graduation” for
an earlier school for sit-in demonstra
tors. A store official declined comment
on the attempt, but said Kaufman ex
ecutives “have met a number of times
with local Negroes on this question
and I think we’re coming along fine.”
Crumlin, an attorney for the NAACP
in eight successful school integration
suits in Kentucky, expressed regret
that the other group had formed a dif
ferent organization, “but they have a
right.”
REJECT PLEA
Late in April, Louisville’s Board of
Aldermen rejected by a vote of 11 to
NORTH CAROLINA
Two New Suits Filed;
Sanford Paces Field
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
r I \V0 NEW DESEGREGATION suits
have been filed in North Caro
lina, one against the Durham city
school board and the other
against the Greene County school
board.
Activity has been resumed in
the Yancey County desegregation
suit, filed last October. This is the
case in which the only Negro
school in the county has been
closed since early in the 1958-59
school year. A trial on the pend
ing desegregation suit has been
set for July 11. (See “Legal Ac
tion.”)
A gubernatorial candidate who
endorsed a program that could
mean spending 100 million dollars
more for education during the
next two years led the ticket in
the Democratic first primary. But
a runoff primary is virtually as
sured, because a candidate who
has consistently opposed any de
segregation in North Carolina’s
schools was second. (See “Politi
cal Activity.”)
Lunch counter demonstrations have
continued in some cities and some ar
rests were made. But in Winston-Sa
lem, merchants have agreed to desegre
gate their lunch counters. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
Parents of 161 students (68 families)
filed suit in Middle District Court in
Greensboro seeking to restrain the
Durham city school board from mak
ing pupil assignments on the basis of
race.
The suit is a result of applications
for transfer by 225 Negro students in
the Durham city system last summer.
The Durham board accepted eight of
the requests and desegregation has
been in effect in Durham during the
school year just ending. This is Dur
ham’s first year of desegregation.
The 161 students involved in the suit,
however, were not permitted to trans
fer to formerly all-white schools as
requested.
The suit charges the Durham board
used race in making its assignment de
cisions. It contends parents of the Ne
gro students have exhausted all ad
ministrative remedies under North
Carolina’s pupil placement laws. Fur
ther, it contends that the Durham
board acted arbitrarily and capricious
ly when it held a meeting after the
school term actually began to consider
some of the assignment requests.
The parents also are objecting to the
fact that the school board announced
after the hearing session that all stu
dents not actually represented by par
ents in person had had their requests
one the plea of its lone Negro mem
ber, William W. Beckett, to create a
human relations commission. Other al
dermen said that such a commission
would “substantially duplicate the
work of the state commission” created
by the 1960 Legislature.
In May the aldermen again met
without acting on an anti-trespassing
ordinance drafted by Police Court
Prosecutor John Dougherty. Both
Mayor Bruce Hoblitzell and Dougherty
announced opposition to the measure
after it had drawn fire from white
and Negro groups.
Louisville restaurant owners cited “a
detrimental economic effect” as their
reason for opposing, before the Mayor’s
Advisory Committee on Human Rela
tions, “serving colored persons in their
restaurants at this time.” The inter
racial committee announced that it
“considers any racial discrimination
contrary to the public interest.” Hob
litzell said he believed that, too, and
recommended the committee’s services
to the aldermen, as requested, but re
iterated his opposition to “any kind of
force.” # # #
for transfer denied without further
consideration.
Negro students in Durham set a rec
ord last summer for North Carolina—
and perhaps for the South—by asking
for the 225 transfers at one time.
GREENE COUNTY
A desegregation suit has been
brought for the first time in one of
North Carolina’s far eastern counties
where the Negro population runs about
50 per cent. In rural Greene County
(county seat: Snow Hill), parents of
five Negro students filed a desegrega
tion suit. They were denied admission
to white schools last summer.
They contend in their suit that they
have exhausted all administrative rem
edies available under North Carolina
law.
Three National Assn, for the Ad
vancement of Colored People attorneys
are handling the suit. The Negroes are
asking for an injunction to bar Greene
County’s Board of Education from op
erating segregated schools and denying
the five youths admission to all-white
schools.
Three of the five students are attend
ing the Greene County Training
School (the county’s Negro high
school), which was the scene of a
week-long student boycott during the
1958-59 school year. About 2,900 Negro
students went on strike at that time to
protest conditions in the school. The
demonstration ended after talks be
tween Parent-Teacher Assn, leaders,
including Mrs. Dora Mae Farmer, pres
ident of the county P-TA and mother
of two of the children for whom the
suit is being brought, and county
school board members. The agreement
at that time was based on the board’s
promise to improve conditions in the
Negro school.
SUIT FILED
The suit was filed in U.S. Eastern
District Court before Judge Algernon
Butler. It named the Greene County
Board of Education and Supt. Gerald
P. James as defendants. Plaintiffs are
John Moses Becton, Demetrice Forbes,
Edgar Lee Farmer, Jonathan David
Farmer and Nathaniel Forbes.
The only desegregation east of Dur
ham in North Carolina has taken place
at Goldsboro in Wayne County and at
Havelock in Craven County, in both
instances at schools serving largely the
children of men stationed at military
bases.
Negro students have also attended
formerly all-white schools in Greens
boro, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Dur
ham and High Point this year. But all
admissions have been on a voluntary
basis by action of school boards. No Ne
gro has ever been ordered admitted to
a white school by a federal court
in North Carolina.
YANCEY COUNTY
The trial of the Yancey County de
segregation suit, brought in U. S. West
ern District Court last October, has
been set for July II. Judge Wilson
Warlick set the date on a motion from
Ruben J. Dailey, Asheville NAACP at
torney who is representing the parents
of the 24 elementary and eight high
school students in Yancey County.
Yancey is a sparsely populated
(16,000) county in mountainous western
North Carolina. The county’s total Ne
gro population is about 175 persons, in
cluding the 32 students.
The county’s one-room elementary
school for Negroes closed in the fall of
1958 after it had been condemned by a
grand jury and after Negro parents,
dissatisfied over the employment of a
teacher without a college degree, re
fused to send their children. They
asked the Yancey Board of Education
for transportation to Asheville schools,
where the high school students have
been going for several years. When
only six or seven Negro students re
mained in the Yancey elementary
school, the State Board of Education
ordered it closed because it had too few
students.
NEGROES REASSIGNED
The Negro students asked for assign
ment to Yancey white schools (enroll
ment: 4,000) last summer, but were
reassigned to Asheville city schools by
the Yancey County Board of Education.
It is 40 miles to Asheville from Burns
ville, Yancey’s county seat, where most
of the Negro students live.
This year, the Yancey elementary
(See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 16)