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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.” # # #