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TEXAS
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE I960—PAGE 3
Houston Delay Refused; Judge Orders New Plan in Dallas
AUSTIN, Texas
S. District Judge Ben C.
. Connally rejected the Hous
ton school board’s request to ex
tend the June 1 deadline for pro
ducing a desegregation plan, de
spite the district’s setting a June
4 referendum on the question.
The judge also warned that the
idea of integrating first where
voters appear most agreeable to
the change would be unaccept
able. (See “Legal Action.”)
U.S. District Judge T. Whitfield
Davidson of Dallas set a hearing
for June 4 on a “salt-and-pepper”
desegregation plan, which the
school board submitted at his sug
gestion. It drew prompt objections
from Negroes. (See “Legal Ac
tion.”)
Voters in Frenship School District,
Lubbock County, approved integration
effective next September. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Segregation-integration issues were
omitted almost entirely from state poli
tical campaigns. Most incumbents were
returned to office. (See “Political Ac
tivity.”)
U.S. District Judge Ben C. Connally
denied the Houston School board’s re
quest to postpone the June 1 deadline
for submitting its plan. (Ross v.
Rogers, Southern School News, May
1960 and previous.)
A referendum on desegregation was
set for June 4, upon petition of the
district’s voters. Integration without
such approval, under a state law, calls
for withdrawal of state funds—in Hous
ton’s case more than six million dollars
annually—and fines against officials
who order the change.
Judge Connally took cognizance of
newspaper reports that the board ma
jority intended to order desegregation
first in the areas where the June 4 vote
shows the greatest approval.
“The people should know that the
areas which want desegregation first
are going to get it,” said Board Vice
President Stone Wells. “And the ones
that vote for it are going to get it first.
That’s what this election is for.”
This brought a
letter from
the judge to the
Houston board’s
attorney,
saying that such a
preferen-
tial desegregation
plan, based upon
the election re
sults, would be
unacceptable t o
the court.
The judge wrote:
“. . . The extended delay which the
On May 31, the Houston board
drew up a “salt-and-pepper” pref
erence plan of desegregation sim
ilar to one submitted a few days
before by the Dallas board. (Ross
v. Rogers, SSN, May 1960 and
previous.)
The Houston board favored leav
ing the exact schools to be inte
grated in September 1961 to be
designated later by Supt. John W.
McFarland and his staff, but includ
ing one each of elementary, junior
high and senior high schools. Al
though the federal court has warned
against using a “popularity contest”
approach to desegregation, it was
indicated that voting in a June 4
referendum might be used as a guide
by the Houston board in determin
ing where there would be the least
opposition to the change.
McFarland has indicated that he
favored starting desegregation one
grade a year in the 12th grade. A
study shows 222 Negroes who live
closer to white high schools than to
Negro schools would be affected by
this change in 1960, if adopted.
CONNALLY
court has granted was for the con
struction of new buildings and for the
preparation of plans and means of ac
HOUSTON SCHOOL BOARD TELEVISES MEETINGS
H. A. Petersen, President, at Left, and Supt. J. W. McFarland
complishing the desegregation on an
intelligent and practical basis . . .
“Your clients must recognize this is
not a popularity contest, but is the
performance of a duty which the law
imposes. In our many conferences and
hearings, I have always been led to be
lieve that some plan similar to those
adopted by other Texas cities, and
which experience has shown to be
workable, will be submitted here.”
Judge Connally had indicated earlier
that unless the Houston board pro
duced a plan to start desegregation in
September 1960, the court would write
a plan. Houston, which is the nation’s
largest segregated school district, was
ordered to desegregate “with all delib
erate speed” three years ago.
Four Texas districts have integrated
by election under the 1957 referendum
law, while 124 others took the step be
fore the law was passed. Two districts
have rejected integration by referen
dum.
SIGNED PETITIONS
Seventy-six thousand persons signed
the Houston referendum petitions,
which the board sponsored, although
its members by a five to two vote rec
ommended rejecting desegregation.
The Houston Assn, for Better Schools
by resolution supported an affirmative
vote on June 4, saying that was the
only way to assure that schools will be
kept open and teachers paid for a full
school year in 1960-1961.
CHARGES PRESSURE
Mrs. Charles E. White, a Negro mem
ber of the Houston board, charged that
pressure was put upon school teachers
to get the referendum petitions signed.
Supt. John W. McFarland said Negro
principals had been called upon to help
get the petitions signed, but that the
action was voluntary.
Because of uncertainty over payment
of state funds next year, contracts for
Houston’s more than 6,000 teachers con
tain a clause providing for “readjust
ment” or cancellation at the judgment
of the school board.
This brought a complaint from the
Houston Teachers Assn, that the pro
vision “threatens the security of the
teaching personnel.”
DALLAS CASE
U.S. Judge T. Whitfield Davidson or
dered a hearing for June 4 on a “salt-
and-pepper” integration plan, which the
Dallas board submitted after he had
called for revision of its earlier pro
posal to start desegregation in Septem
ber 1961 on a grade-a-year basis from
the first grade.
The court had ordered abolition of
segregation “with deliberate speed.”
(Borders v. Rippy, SSN, May 1960 and
previous).
The Dallas board’s latest plan calls
for desegregating schools according to
patrons’ preference, using one formerly
all-white and one Negro school as
pilots. Children could attend integrated
or segregated schools according to the
requests of their parents.
Attorney Henry W. Strasburger said
the Dallas board still preferred its
grade-a-year system, but “willingly”
submitted the voluntary plan in the
belief that it would “practically elim
inate” violence.
W. J. Durham, a Dallas attorney for
the NAACP, filed a dozen objections
to the voluntary desegregation pro
posal. He said one U.S. Circuit Court
had invalidated a similar plan.
“I must frankly say I don’t know
where we are right now,” Durham said
late in May.
A packed courtroom on May 25 heard
Judge Davidson’s decision that the
grade-a-year system must be revised.
The 82-year-old jurist spent almost
two hours reviewing the history of race
relations in the United States and
criticizing “an^eamation.” The integra
tion of Washing
ton, D.C., schools
was pointed out
by the judge as a
bad example.
“Confusion must
follow here in the
transition just as
in Wash-
ington,” he com
mented.
Judge Davidson
indicated that he
DAVIDSON
believes the Dallas board’s plan to in
tegrate the entire first grade in 196:
may be too sweeping. He suggestec
trying voluntary integration first bj
designating one or more schools fo:
education without regard to race.
“Let those integration advocates o
both races have their children trans
ferred there,” said Judge Davidson. “I
that school succeeded, then the entiri
town could be integrated by consen
rather than force.”
Reporters described the reaction t(
Judge Davidson’s courtroom pro
nouncement as “bewilderment.”
Thurgood Marshall, chief NAACP at
torney, commented: “I don’t knov
what the ruling is . . . let me out o
here.”
ONE OBSTACLE
One obstacle to integration could be
the state referendum law. Petitions late
in May were several thousand short of
the 42,000 signatures needed to call an
election, without which Dallas might
lose $2,700,000 a year of state funds and
its accredited standing.
The Dallas City Council of Parent-
Teacher Assns. agreed to help circulate
the referendum petitions. White Citiz
ens Council spokesmen objected that
they did not believe the Legislature in
tended for school boards to take the
lead in circulating the desegregation
referendum petitions.
A Democratic primary notable for its
lack of segregation-integration debate
returned most state officials to office
for another two years. In Texas, the
Democratic nomination usually guar-
antees election.
1 j-'amei won a tnird. ten
on May 7 by 886,419 votes to 606,85
over Jack Cox, ex-legislator fror
Breckenridge. In
one campaign re-
ference, Cox said
he would use the
Texas Rangers to
thwart lunch
counter sit-ins.
But the point was
never repeated,
nor was there fur
ther discussion of
race r e 1 a -
tions during the DANIEL
otherwise-heated campaign.
Although Gov. Daniel did not men
tion the problem in this campaign, h
signed several bills passed by th
Legislature in 1957 to delay integra
tion, including the referendum law o
schools. (See “Legal Action”.)
Atty. Gen. Will Wilson, who ha
been criticized by some segregationists
for not using his official powers more
in this direction, won renomination
over Waggoner Carr of Lubbock,
speaker of the House.
Principal change in the state govern
ment was the election of Jerry Sadler
as land commissioner over the incum
bent, Bill Allcorn. While the office has
no dealing with race relations, Sadler
has attracted attention in the past by
outspoken support of segregation. He is
a colorful east Texan, and has been a
statewide political figure for a quarter-
century.
Frenship School District in Lubbock
County voted 219 to 103 to abandon
segregation in September 1960, after
parents of 17 Negro children had filed
an integration lawsuit. (Simmons v.
Edwards, ssn, February, 1960.)
The Negro children are being carried
seven miles by bus from Reese Air
Force Base to Lubbock, while the
school district operates an all-white
school across the road from the de
segregated military housing area.
Store lunch counters were desegre
gated in several Texas cities—Dallas,
San Antonio, Houston and Austin.
At Marshall, in east Texas, a county
court jury assessed a $425 fine against
a Wiley College student, Joel Rucker of
Bakersfield, Calif., for his part in sit-
down demonstrations in April.
Another Californian, the Rev. Ashton
Texas A&M
Could Lose
Male Status
WACO, Texas
T exas A&M College, whose
students take pride in the
school’s all-male status, may be
come co-educational under an
opinion of the Tenth (State)
Court of Civil Appeals here.
Some of the same arguments
used in urging desegregation of
the sexes at A&M were approved
by the U.S. Supreme Court in its
school segregation opinion. How
ever, the high court has upheld
once the authority of Texas
A&M’s governing board to ex
clude women.
The Court of Civil Appeals
here likewise denied an applica
tion by three women (Allred v.
Heaton) to enroll at the college,
which is located at College Sta
tion, 95 miles northwest of Hous
ton.
But the court said that if a female
applies for some A&M course that is
not offered elsewhere at a Texas state
college, she may be entitled to admis
sion.
“It is our duty to say that in the
event Miss (Margaret) Allred makes
application for admission to A&M to
pursue a course of study leading to a
degree in floriculture (taught in Texas
only at A&M) that she should be per
mitted to do so and not be excluded
solely on the grounds that she is a
member of the female sex,” wrote
Justice Jake Tirey.
The question of admitting women to
the college is a controversial one, hav
ing been injected into political cam
paigns as well as the courts. While
most ex-students and students of the
college apparently favor the all-male
status, there is strong sentiment for
making the school co-educational. One
reason advanced is that it would build
up enrollment, which has not advanced
as rapidly in recent years as at state
co-ed schools.
Another argument presented for the
change is that it would assist in
recruiting athletes. The idea is that it
is easier to get boys to go where there
are girls. # # #
Jones, 64-year-old itinerant white
preacher, was released from jail in
Marshall after posting bond. Jones
earlier obtained service with a Negro
companion at lunch counters in Dallas
and had announced he intended also to
integrate Marshall stores. Officials of
Wiley College, at Marshall, requested
Jones’s arrest after he appeared on the
campus.
OBTAINED SERVICE
At Houston, Negro students from
Texas Southern University obtained
service at the Greyhound Bus Station
cafeteria, previously restricted to
whites. The Continental Bus Station
closed its cafeteria temporarily. Ne
groes picketed several Houston stores.
Twenty-two lunch counters in down
town Austin desegregated after picket
ing by college students, both white and
Negro, and sit-ins at several. The may
or appointed a bi-racial committee but
it hardly went into action before it
dissolved after most stores announced
they would serve all persons alike.
The Campus Guild, a co-operative
boarding house for men at the Univer
sity of Texas, voted to accept its first
Negro resident, Lewis C. Fontno, a
junior in civil engineering. The univer
sity has some integrated dormitories for
men.
President M. K. Curry Jr. of Bishop
College, whose students were involved
in the sit-downs at Marshall, said the
campaign to raise money to move the
college from Marshall to Dallas had
not suffered “extensive damage” be
cause of the store demonstrations.
Approximately one million dollars
has been pledged toward moving the
college to Dallas, Curry said.
Bishop College dismissed a former
communist from its faculty during the
Marshall sit-downs, but Curry said the
professor was made a “scapegoat” by a
“prejudiced press.”
A University of Texas biochemist, Dr.
Roger J. Williams, told a campus audi
ence that civilization’s future depends
upon learning to understand differences
in people.
The doctrine “that all human beings
are substantially alike” is based upon
ignorance, Williams said.
“Hate for a race or an ethnic group
is based upon the mistaken concept of
uniformity within each group,” he
added.
“Every baby bom is an individual
vastly different from others. No one
can stereotype a race and remain
scientifically sound.”
TWO PER CENT
At Dallas, NAACP Field Sect. Clar
ence A. Laws said that only two per
cent of the Negro children in Texas,
Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma
schools are attending classes with
whites.
“By simple arithmetic that means
that at the present rate 50 years would
be required to achieve total school in
tegration,” said Laws.
He predicted that “because of pend
ing court decisions the next year should
witness a greater acceleration of school
desegregation than at any time during
the past four years.”
Northeast Independent School Board
suspended a social science teacher,
Winston McDaniel, 32, for remarks that
were tape-recorded in the classroom by
a student. The teacher reportedly told
the high school students that Khrush
chev is “the greatest man in the world”
and that the pilot of the downed U-2,
Francis Powers, should be executed for
his spy flight.
McDaniel said his remarks were
taken out of context.
Supt. Virgil Blossom, formerly of
Little Rock, said the board felt “the
judgments used along with statements
made in the classroom, reflect conduct
prejudicial to the best interests of the
school district.” # # #