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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY I960—PAGE II
MARYLAND
Teacher Groups Merge; Integration Steps Set
BALTIMORE, Md.
W hite and Negro teachers asso
ciations in Anne Arundel
County merged as plans were set
for desegregation to advance an
additional grade there and in four
other Maryland counties. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
The first Negro woman to enter
the University of Maryland’s
School of Medicine graduated in
commencement exercises at which
Secretary of the Interior Fred
Seaton urged an elimination of
racial discrimination. (See “In
The Colleges.”)
Under the watchful eye of pro
integration pickets, the Baltimore
City Council debated fair-employ
ment and public-accommodation
proposals. (See “Legislative Ac
tion.”)
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
desegregation within the organized
teaching profession in Maryland has
continued with the merger of the
white and Negro teachers associations
in Anne Arundel County. Prior to this
action, Anne Arundel was one of 14
Maryland counties (out of 23) in which
two local associations had been main
tained on the basis of race. The state
wide parent organization, the Maryland
State Teachers Assn., opened its mem
bership to white and Negro teachers
alike in October 1951.
Until the change, the Teachers Assn,
of Anne Arundel County had been open
only to approximately 950 white teach
ers. At their final meeting of the school
integration. How did the year go? The
answer is supplied by County School
Supt. Ralph R. Webster:
“In Allegany County we still have
problems in education, of course, but
integration is not among them. The
past school year found us completely
integrated, both students and teachers.
“The people of Allegany County de
serve every consideration for their ac
ceptance and understanding of the pro
gram as established by the Board of
Education. Next year our enrollment
will be about 16,000, with about 1.8 per
cent Negro.”
Baltimore County, just to the north
of Baltimore city, also completed a
school year in which there was little
new to report on desegregation. Homer
O. Elseroad, assistant superintendent in
administration said:
“We have virtually nothing to report
on desegregation in Baltimore County
because for all practical purposes we
are a desegregated school system. About
one-half of the over 100 schools in Balti
more County have enrolled children of
both races.
“Our experience indicates that de
segregation in our schools is an estab
lished and accepted part of the life of
the community and as such has become
normal operations for the school sys
tem.
“We have approximately 15 Negro
teachers who are teaching in schools
in which there are a very small number
of Negro children. Baltimore County is
opening eight new schools next year
and all, of course, will be opening on a
desegregated basis.”
As a step in Baltimore County’s con
solidation program, and indirectly part
of its desegregation program, the two-
room Bengies Elementary School was
closed in June. The 39 pupils who re
mained in the school will be assigned
next fall to predominantly white schools,
along with their teachers. The county
school board in June voted to turn the
Bengies school over to use by the Ben
gies P-TA as a recreation and health
center.
Baltimore County, as of last fall, had
77,882 white and 4,056 Negro pupils
About a third of the latter attended pre
dominantly white schools.
Caroline County on Maryland’s East
ern Shore has held its annual registra
tion period during which Negro pupils
could apply for transfers to white
schools. As has been the case since
desegregation began, no applications
were received, according to County
School Supt. Wilbur S. Hoopengardner,
Caroline, during the past year, had 3,290
white and 1,026 Negro pupils in its
school system.
LESSEN RIGIDITY
Most of the Eastern Shore school dis
tricts are in the same situation as Caro
line: Schools are desegregated in prin
ciple but no Negro pupils have applied
for transfers. However, other types of
steps are being taken to lessen the rig
idity of segregation lines. In Kent
County, for example, School Supt.
Reade W. Corr report:
“We are continuing to conduct inte
grated meetings, conferences and com
mittee work on the adult level. We are
interchanging observations by teachers
and pupils among our schools as well as
music assembly programs.”
In another Eastern Shore county—
Dorchester—all musical programs, as
semblies and athletic events are open
“by choice” to all people. Also, all
county teachers’ meetings called by the
County Board of Education are racially
combined.
NON-SEGREGATED BASIS
Somerset County, another Eastern
Shore political subdivision, runs all of
its professional school staff meetings,
workshops, child study sessions and
similar activities on a non-segregated
basis. The deadline there for Negro
transfer applications is August 20.
A recent development in Somerset
was the purchase in late May of a site
for a new school to replace an outmoded
Negro school and to make possible the
closing of a second school. Pupils at
tending the latter—a two-room struc
ture at Venton—will be transported to
what will become the new Greenwood
School. The present Greenwood and
Venton schools are the last two Negro-
occupied wooden school buildings in
Somerset.
In response to queries by Southern
School News, Somerset Supt. C. Al
len Carlson wrote:
“Enrollments of colored pupils will
continue to remain high in the high
schools for two or three more years and
then the trend will reverse itself as has
already happened in some of the other
county schools.”
As of July 31 Carlson will be retired
OKLAHOMA
from his long service to Somerset
schools and his place as superintendent
will be taken by John L. Bond, who has
been supervisor of secondary education.
The first Negro woman to be admitted
to the School of Medicine of the Uni
versity of Maryland, Lois Adelaide
Young, graduated in June. Dr. Young
is the 25-year-old daughter of Dr. Ralph
J. Young, of Baltimore, who in 1947 be
came the first Negro on the staff of the
Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine.
An honor student and member of Phi
Beta Kappa at Howard University,
where she did her undergraduate work,
Dr. Young served as secretary of her
medical class at Maryland and was
elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. She will
intern at University Hospital in Balti
more and plans to specialize in oph
thalmology.
Racial barriers in the graduate schools
of the University of Maryland were
dropped althogether in 1951. The Law
School had admitted Negroes by court
order fifteen years previously. The
undergraduate curricula were desegre
gated following the Supreme Court de
cision of 1954.
‘LEGACY OF FREEDOM’
The principal speaker at the univer
sity commencement, where a record
2,899 degrees were awarded, was Secre
tary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, who
urged positive action to expand our
“legacy of freedom.”
“We must see to it,” Seaton said, “that
(See MARYLAND, Page 12)
year, the white members voted 3-to-l
in favor of a constitutional amendment
that extends membership to some 230
Negro county teachers. A spokesman
for the statewide organization said
that the action was “significant” because
it has occurred “in a county of Mary
land which traditionally might be con
sidered southern in culture.”
While the membership vote was uni
lateral, officers of the white association
moved immediately to set up a merger
committee with officers of the Negro
group. The merger committee reviewed
the previous programs and committee
activities of the two county associations
and outlined a program that would in
clude the best from each.
As a result of the merger, 10 counties
and Baltimore city now have completely
integrated professional organizations for
all teachers and school administrators.
desegregation moves
Howard County’s stair step desegre
gation program will reach the ninth-
grade level next September, following
a reaffirmation of policy by the county
school board. The first three grades were
opened to Negro transfer applications
in the fall of 1955, grades four and five
ui 1956, and since then one grade a year,
eading toward complete desegregation
oy the fall of 1963.
Transfer applications previously ha
Rot been numerous in Howard, wh<
1,102 Negro pupils represent 16 per c<
of the county school population. In 1
Past school year there were 10 Negrc
m three formerly all-white schools. T
application deadline for current trar
fers is July 1.
Desegregation also extends to 1
"“th grade next fall in Harford Coun
which began a grade-a-year plan
the seventh grade level in 1958 af
Previously desegregating most of
e ementary schools. Harford, with a
Per cent Negro enrollment, has abc
a enth of its 1,861 Negro pupils in ft
"rerly white classes: 195 in a dozen 1
schools as of last fall,
in a 6 e * g hth grades of all high scho
Anne Arundel County will be open
egroes in the fall, with the excepti
one junior high where the ninth gra
so will be included. In the past yt
fnne Arundel had 568 Negroes in
ormeriy all-white schools. The cour
ni , ..7° schools in all, and 6,543 Nej
Pupils. White pupils numbered 32,875
to esegre S a ti°n will move downwa
grade nine in Dorchester Coun
on 6rS j , e t°P three grades have be
traf * n three successive years. !
ansfer applications previously ha
j n ? received. Desegregation also tal
e remaining elementary grades
Cou nty.
i- ^ a tt 303 of its Negro pupils
; n „ ormeriy all-white schools di
Wect* 16 P , ast year > Allegany County
first 6r ? Maryland became the stat
1 sc nool district to have 100 per c<
Desegregation of Satterwhite District School Reported
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
educed state aid for teacher
salaries, caused by dwindling
attendance, prompted the Satter
white Elementary District in Gar
vin County to close its Negro
school and desegregate the white
one. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
The Sams District in Seminole
County faces probable integration
in 1961 as a result of protests filed
by the Wewoka and Butner boards
of education to transfer of Negro
pupils to the Sams “wing” school.
(See “School Boards and School
men.”)
The Oklahoma State Employ
ment Service, to which many stu
dents turn for summer and after
graduation jobs, announced it is
closing separate offices for Negroes
in three cities. (See “Community
Action.”)
A Tulsa civil rights official charged
a serious Negro unemployment problem
exists in that city. But an employment
service spokesman insisted the percent
age of job-seekers registered with the
agency last winter was no greater among
Negroes than among whites. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
Desegregation of the Satterwhite
school took place last fall but went un
noticed. The change was discovered in
June when State Department of Educa
tion auditors checked the attendance
registers of the district and found only
one register. In past years there had
been two, indicating that the student
bodies of the white school and the Mt.
Zion Negro school in the district had
been merged.
B. H. Thomas, Garvin County super
intendent of schools, confirmed that
desegregation went into effect for the
1959-60 school year. He explained Sat
terwhite had formerly qualified for
three teachers. Two were assigned to the
white school and one to Mt. Zion. After
enrollment fell during the 1958-59 school
year, the district could qualify for only
two teachers for 1959-60 and the school
board decided to put all the students
in one building. The Mt. Zion school is
located in a Negro settlement about
two and one-half miles away from the
Satterwhite school.
State records show Satterwhite had
an average daily attendance of 52 for
grades one through eight in 1958-59.
This is one less than the minimum
needed to qualify the district for three
teachers. Since state aid payments are
based on the previous year’s ADA,
Satterwhite had to cut its staff back to
two teachers in 1959-60 or pay the
salary of the third teacher out of its
own budget. The district chose to de
segregate the white school and dismiss
the Negro teacher.
REMAIN THIS WAY
The situation apparently will remain
this way for 1960-61. The district’s ADA
for the past year was but 37, so state-
aid payments in the coming year will
be based on two teachers.
Thomas said the desegregated student
body at Satterwhite had about 23 Ne
groes and 29 whites. Despite the near
equal division, the integration was ac
complished without objection or “com
motion,” the schoolman said.
He said the district hopes to boost
its average daily attendance a little in
the coming year by sending a bus into
the Negro area and picking up a few
Negro pupils who have been trans
ferring to the Bryant school in the
Pernell District.
Satterwhite boosts to about 190 the
number of Oklahoma school districts
known to be desegregated.
TRANSFER PROTESTS
The Johnson Grove “wing” school for
Negro pupils in the Sams District could
end up next fall with two teachers for
only 10 students as a result of transfer
protests filed in June.
Curtis Christian, Seminole County
superintendent of schools, reported the
Butner board protested all but one of
the 37 applications filed by resident
pupils to transfer out of the district in
1960-61. About two-thirds of the appli
cations were from Negro students, he
said.
The action was not unexpected
(Southern School News, June 1960).
However, Christian said protests also
were filed by the Wewoka board to the
transfer applications of about seven or
eight Negroes. In both cases the Negroes
sought permission to attend Johnson
Grove as they have in the past.
UPHELD BOARDS
The county superintendent upheld
both protesting boards. He accepted the
Butner board’s explanation that it is
to the best interest of the home district
that the pupils attend school there.
Their enrollment will boost Butner’s
average daily attendance enough to
make the district eligible for an addi
tional teacher in state aid, Christian
pointed out. Butner has combined with
two other districts (SSN, June 1960)
and is interested in building up its fac
ulty, he explained.
Christian also supported the Wewoka
board’s stand that the Negroes who
sought transfers there have proper fa
cilities available to them in that county
seat town. The youngsters live within
two blocks of the Douglass school in
Wewoka. During the past year they
attended Johnson Grove, riding with
one of its two teachers, Mrs. Mollie Dun
lap, who also lives in Wewoka. The
county superintendent conceded the
Wewoka board has allowed the transfers
every year in the past.
Twenty-five parents filed appeals in
the refusal of transfers at Johnson
Grove. A ruling was due June 29 in a
hearing before District Judge Bob
Howell at Wewoka.
REDUCES ENROLLMENT
Upholding of the protests would seri
ously reduce the Johnson Grove enroll
ment. Christian said the “wing” school
will be left with only about 10 pupils
this fall. However, the Sams District
could keep the school in operation dur
ing the coming year since its faculty
will be based on the past year’s ADA.
Thus, Johnson Grove could have two
teachers—each with a master’s degree
and drawing $5,000 a year—holding
classes for 10 children.
The main Sams school, now attended
only by whites, also has two teachers.
In 1961-62 the district probably would
be able to qualify for only two teachers
altogether. Thus, it will either have to
put the Negroes and whites in the same
building or assign one teacher to Sams
and one to Johnson Grove. Christian
feels the second alternative is not likely.
REPLACE FACULTIES
In Oklahoma City, where Negro
teachers will replace white faculties at
two previously integrated schools this
fall, the Board of Education personnel
office was still trying to decide how
many additional Negro teachers will be
required. The change will be made at
Webster Junior High School and Cul
bertson Grade School. Both once had
all-white student bodies but became
integrated in 1955 and now have prac
tically all Negro pupils.
In a general revamping of attendance
areas in the city’s east side, Moon, a
Negro junior high, will be made an
elementary school. Much of its faculty
will switch over to Webster. Gilbert
Robinson, personnel director, said he
won’t know how many additional Ne
gro teachers will be needed at Webster
until he learns how many of the Moon
instructors will be requested for Doug
lass High School. Douglass is adding the
ninth grade for the first time in the
fall.
Complicating the situation, Robinson
said, is the fact conversion of Moon to
an elementary building will permit re
ducing the pupil load at Page and Dun
bar schools, thus making a few more
Negro teachers available for duty else
where.
The Oklahoma State Employment
Service operates offices in 23 cities serv
ing all 77 counties. For more than 20
years, all but three of the offices have
served white and Negro job-seekers on
an integrated basis.
The exceptions are Oklahoma City,
Tulsa, and Muskogee. But the OSES
announced in June separate offices for
Negroes will be closed in those three
cities this year. In Muskogee both Ne
groes and whites will be handled
through the central office. In Oklahoma
City and Tulsa new area office systems
are being established.
TOOK ISSUE
About the time of this announcement,
the OSES took issue with the chairman
of the Tulsa mayor’s committee on civil
rights concerning Negro unemployment.
Ohren Smulian, a department store
executive, said 2,000 Negro heads of
families were out of work in Tulsa last
winter. He said this amounted to a pay
roll loss of four million dollars annually.
Smulian further charged that only
20 percent of Tulsa firms employ Ne
groes and that many persons of that
race are “under-employed,” or working
at jobs below their qualifications.
The OSES checked its records and
found only 1,149 Negro job-seekers were
registered with the Tulsa office April 1.
That was the highest total recorded dur
ing the winter. The agency conceded
a record unemployment because of an
unusually severe winter. But it insisted
the percentage of job-seekers was no
higher among the Negroes than among
the whites. The Tulsa Negro office placed
workers on 7,481 jobs out of 38,045 filled
in 1959. In Oklahoma City the figures
were 6,425 jobs filled by Negroes out
of 50,781 placements. # # #