Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6—JULY I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
House Rules Committee Kills School Aid Bill
ent standards are “loose” and “nebu-
WASHINGTON, D.C.
coalition of southern Demo
crats and conservative Re
publicans on the powerful House
Rules Committee blocked efforts
to send a federal school construc
tion aid bill to a Senate-House
conference.
The action apparently killed
chances of general school aid legis
lation in this Congress. (See “Na
tional Affairs.”)
Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore)
charged that a bill by Rep. Joel
Broyhill (R-Va) tightening the
District’s non-resident school tui
tion requirements was a “retreat
from desegregation” aimed at
Negro pupils from Virginia. (See
“District Schools.”)
The Washington public schools,
expecting continued enrollment
increases that would cause over
crowding — particularly at the
junior high level—mapped a 63.1
million dollar budget for fiscal
1962. It includes a 3.8 million dol
lar increase in operating funds and
a 10.1 million dollar capital outlay
program. (See “District Schools.”)
After public hearings which produced
largely negative testimony, the District
School Board dropped a suggestion to
raise the mandatory school attendance
age from 16 to 18. (See “District
Schools.”)
Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass),
candidate for the Democratic presiden
tial nomination, discussed civil rights
issues with Michigan delegates to the
Democratic convention. Negro leaders
indicated that they were satisfied with
his views. (See “National Affairs.”)
Minnesota Gov. Orville L. Freeman,
a possible Democratic vice presidential
nominee, told the annual convention of
the National Assn, for the Advancement
of Colored People that the federal gov
ernment should lead legal and moral
support of school desegregation and
should provide financial aid to desegre
gating school districts. (See “National
Affairs”)
Southern Democrats teamed with Re
publicans June 22 to produce the re
quired seven votes on the House Rules
Committee to prevent a Senate-House
conference on federal school aid legisla
tion.
The school bill was stopped despite
tentative agreement by congressional
leaders to strip both Senate and House
versions of their most controversial
features. Vice President Richard M.
Nixon had joined in the unsuccessful
efforts to bring about the general fed
eral aid to education law.
Had the measure gone to conference,
plans called for removing from the
House bill the Powell Amendment,
which would deny federal funds for
schools in defiance of desegregation
orders. The House bill authorized grants
of 325 million dollars a year for four
years to help states build schools.
Under the compromise proposals, the
Senate version would also have been
limited to school construction. As
passed, it authorized 900 million dollars
a year for two years for either construc
tion or teachers’ salaries.
At month’s end, backers of school aid
legislation were trying to persuade the
Rules Committee to reconsider its stand
and send the school legislation to con
ference in the brief period remaining
before the political conventions.
KENNEDY’S VIEWS
Sen. John F. Kennedy met June 20
with Michigan delegates to the Demo
cratic convention and Negro leaders in
what Kennedy called an exchange of
views on civil rights issues. The Negroes
indicated after the meeting that they
were pleased with the senator’s views on
voting rights, housing, employment and
other issues they deemed important.
The meeting was called after Negroes
attending a brief caucus of the Michigan
delegation said they wanted to see “a
little more oomph” in Kennedy’s civil
rights position.
Kennedy told reporters that the meet
ing was not held to gain delegate votes
but “for the common good of the party.”
Gov. G. Mermen Williams, who headed
the Michigan delegation, said the con
ferees “exchanged views on what ought
to be in the platform.”
ROCKEFELLER PROPOSED
Republican Gov. Nelson A. Rocke
feller of New York proposed a broad
program for racial equality in a June 17
address. Rockefeller told a Baptist meet
ing that the federal government should
guarantee every American the right to
vote, equal job opportunities, equal
educational opportunities, the right to
live where he pleases and equal oppor
tunities for government employment
and use of government facilities.
Rockefeller said the Eisenhower ad
ministration has made more progress
toward “insuring justice and equality
for all Americans” than has been made
in any decade since the Civil War, and
added:
“This progress has come to the nation
with little if any help from a Democratic
Party deeply divided against itself. This
division ... is a tragedy, a national
tragedy precisely as it serves to under
mine, to embarrass, to delay full realiza-
tios of the promise implicit in this na
tion’s dedication to the principle that
supreme worth lies in the individual
human being.”
COLLINS ‘ANTICIPATED’
Elsewhere on the political scene, Gov.
LeRoy Collins of Florida, who has been
designated as chairman of the Demo
cratic convention, said June 8 he “antici
pated” that some lunch counters would
be desegregated in his state within six
months.
Collins discussed what he called his
“constructive” approach to race rela
tions at a press conference following the
annual Washington Interfaith luncheon.
He received an Interfaith award at the
luncheon.
Speaking at the luncheon, Collins
urged ' more ‘people to people’ contacts
within our own communities” to help
solve racial problems.
NAACP CONVENTION
Gov. Orville L. Freeman of Minnesota,
a possible vice presidential candidate on
a Kennedy ticket, told the 51st annual
convention of the National Assn, for
the Advancement of Colored People that
the federal government should lead in
bringing about compliance with the
Supreme Court’s school desegregation
decision, and should provide financial
assistance to school systems needing
help in desegregating.
“We should insist,” Freeman said in
a June 21 address to the NAACP meet
ing in St. Paul, “that the federal govern
ment end discrimination in federally-
assisted housing and in work under
government contract. We must insure
effective federal action to support the
voting rights of all citizens.”
The governor admitted that in his own
state of Minnesota discrimination exists
in the field of housing and that “effective
fair housing legislation” is needed.
St. Paul Mayor George Vavoults told
the convention that while schools in
St. Paul are not segregated by law, seg
regation takes place. He said:
“When minority groups are forced by
socio-economic conditions to live in cer
tain ghetto areas in a city, then segre
gation in fact, if not in law, exists.”
PRAISED STUDENTS
Chairman Robert C. Weaver of the
NAACP board of directors praised
Negro college students who have parti
cipated in sit-in demonstrations at lunch
counters throughout the South. He said
he was not disturbed by some of the
students’ dissatisfaction with the area
of progress achieved by the NAACP in
ending discrimination, noting that
youthful impatience with adult caution
is nothing new.
“What is new is the courageous and
effective direct action of Negro college
youth in connection with the sit-ins,”
he declared. “We applaud their actions,
rejoicing that they have evidenced an
appreciation for, and dedication to, real,
functioning democracy.”
Weaver called the NAACP the “most
powerful and successful organization”
ever developed for the attainment of
civil rights. He said the legal basis for
racial segregation in public facilities has
been destroyed and “slowly but surely
we are translating a legal right into a
reality.”
NATION’S POLICE
Louis Radelet of the National Con
ference of Christians and Jews told a
Howard University seminar June 21 that
“the nation’s police, despite their own
personal views on racial disputes, can
now be depended upon to carry out the
law in an increasing number of cases.”
Radelet told participants in a two-
week bi-racial workshop that “police
have shown themselves more and more
able to separate personal prejudice from
professional behavior.” He said Wash
ington police did an “excellent job”
handling school desegregation here.
LOSE SEATS
Preliminary figures released by the
Bureau of the Census indicated that
close to half of the states may gain or
lose congressional seats in reapportion
ment growing out of the final 1960 cen
sus figures. An official estimate made
last year had indicated that only 18
states would have their delegations to
the House of Representatives affected
by population shifts.
A new computation made by the
Associated Press indicated that:
• Rapidly growing California will
gain eight seats in the new census,
rather than the seven predicted earlier.
• New Jersey, Ohio and Maryland are
likely to pick up one seat each not pre
viously anticipated.
• Texas and Michigan probably will
pick up only one seat each instead of
the two indicated previously.
• Illinois, Nebraska and Kentucky,
instead of being unaffected, are likely to
lose a seat each.
• Georgia will hold on to a seat be
lieved to have been in jeopardy.
The Census Bureau must submit final
population figures and its plan for re
apportionment to the President no later
than Dec. 1.
UPHOLD COMMISSION
In a June 20 decision, the Supreme
Court ruled in favor of the constitution
ality of the Civil Rights Commission’s
rules preventing southern registrars
from cross-examining their accusers at
voting hearings.
The court’s vote was 7 to 2. Justices
William O. Douglas and Hugo L. Black
dissented, arguing that confrontation of
witnesses is a right in such cases.
VOTING REFEREES
Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers has
made his first move for the appointment
of voting referees under the Civil Rights
Act of 1960. The Justice Department
action came in two southern counties in
June.
The suit filed in Shreveport, La., asked
the federal court to order the names of
560 Negroes back on the voting rolls
of Bienville Parish, and also sought the
appointment of a referee to register
other Negroes.
In a voting case pending in Terrell
County, Ga., since 1958, the department
notified the judge that it will seek
appointment of a referee when the trial
begins soon.
The attorney general also asked the
FBI to seek voting records in Clarendon
and Hampton counties, S. C., Sumter
County, Ala., and Fayette County, Ga.
The action brought to 12 the number
of counties asked to open their records
since President Eisenhower signed the
civil rights law (Southern School News,
June 1960).
DISTRICT SCHOOLS
A bill sponsored by Rep. Joel Broyhill
(R-Va) to tighten non-resident tuition
fee requirements in District public
schools was denounced by Sen. Wayne
Morse (D-Ore) June 15 as a “retreat
from desegregation.”
At a Senate District subcommittee
hearing on the bill, Morse declared:
“Who are we trying to kid? We all
know its (the bill’s) motivation ... a
fear that some colored children in Vir
ginia who are being denied a public
education in Virginia will get it in the
District of Columbia.”
Instead of charging tuition for chil
dren barred from segregated schools,
Morse said, Congress ought to appropri
ate money for their education in the
capital. He said Congress should be
more concerned with “seeing that no
child is denied an opportunity for an
education” than with closing loopholes.
LITTLE CHANCE
The Broyhill bill, which already has
passed the House but is given little
chance of Senate approval—at least in
its present form—would require tuition
payments for all pupils not living in the
District with their parents or legal
guardians.
In a statement submitted to the Sen
ate subcommittee, Broyhill said this
would provide rules for the District
similar to those imposed by the Wash
ington suburbs. He said the city’s pres-
lous.”
When he introduced the measure last
year, Broyhill charged that District tax
payers were subsidizing the education
of hundreds of Negro children sent to
Washington from southern states to live
with friends or relatives.
School Supt. Carl F. Hansen told the
subcommittee that passage of the Broy
hill bill would simplify the schools’ task
of enforcing tuition payments, but at
the expense of possible harm to some
students.
Hansen said school authorities have
tightened up administration of existing
non-resident tuition requirements, col
lecting more than $74,000 in tuition pay
ments during the 1959-60 school year,
compared to less than $58,000 the year
before.
INCREASED ENROLLMENT
District school officials disclosed that
burgeoning junior high school enroll
ments—attributable largely to the post
war birth rate increase—will require
transfer of some ninth grade classes to
senior high schools next year.
Asst. School Supt. John D. Koontz
said the move would be made reluc
tantly as a “stop-gap.” But he noted
that the District’s 23 junior schools, with
a capacity of 21,500 students, are ex
pected to enroll more than 24,000 next
fall and more than 26,000 in 1961. By
1965, the total is expected to surpass
30,000.
Koontz announced that one of the few
junior high schools with ample space—
Jefferson in the southwest urban re
newal area—will be exempted from resi
dential boundary requirements next
fall, accepting pupils from all parts of
the city on condition that they remain
in the school for an entire academic
year and provide their own transporta
tion.
School Supt. Hansen submitted a
proposed 63.1 million dollar budget for
fiscal 1962 to the Board of Education
June 16. It called for a 3.8 million dollar
increase in the school operating fund
and a 10.1 million dollar capital outlay
program for new buildings and im
provements to existing facilities.
Most of the extra operating money—
about 2.4 million dollars—would go to
hire new teachers and supervisory per
sonnel to maintain the present average
30.7-to-l pupil teacher ratio, he said. It
would provide a 25-to-l ratio in junior
high school classes and expanded coun
seling and remedial programs.
The proposal, which must clear the
District commissioners, the federal
Bureau of the Budget and the Congress
after School Board action, includes
about $840,000 for 117 new teachers and
50 new counselors at the elementary
level and $750,000 for 158 classroom
and remedial teachers in the junior high
schools.
RENEWED REQUEST
Hansen renewed a request denied by
Congress last year for $45,000 to expand
the city’s remedial summer school pro
gram and to add summer courses for
advanced students.
Still pending before this session of
Congress is a School Board request for
a teacher pay raise totaling about six
million dollars a year. Hansen told a
Senate District subcommittee June 8
that teaching is a “critically underpaid
profession” and that the District is at a
disadvantage in competing for qualified
teachers against neighboring suburbs.
The School Board’s legislation com
mittee voted June 16 to drop a proposal
to raise the mandatory school age from
16 to 18. Board member Rowland F.
Kirks had suggested it as a way of deal
ing with the high drop-out rate among
students who reach the optional school-
leaving age, but the plan drew over
whelming opposition at a public hear
ing.
Director Arthur Motley of the Bureau
of Labor Standards, one of the witnesses
at the hearing, said the District “has the
special problem of operating an inte
grated school system in a segregated
labor market.” He indicated that in
creased job opportunities for Negro
youths would do more to cope with the
drop-out problem than an increase in
the compulsory attendance age.
Juvenile Court Judge Orm W. Ket-
cham, who also opposed the change,
noted that the District has not yet
“found a way to require the education
of children even up to their 16th birth
day.” Attendance at school “is not sy
nonymous with acquiring an educa
tion,” he said.
The proposed change also was opposed
by the District Welfare Department and
by spokesmen for teachers’ organiza
tions, who warned of “the disruptive
behavior of those who are forced to
attend school against their will s
inclination.”
District eighth graders have made “s
nificant” gains in scholastic achiever^
during the five years since desegrej
tion, though they still lag behind t
national norm, Hansen reported J L
17. Standardized tests administered \
fall on a city-wide basis show that 1)
trict students “are at least approac
ing” the national average for th
grade level, he said.
MEDIAN SCORES
Median scores on the tests put t
District eighth graders four to eij
months behind the national norm of
in arithmetic and language skills. Scoi
on similar tests administered in 195;
the first year of desegregation—im
cated a lag of from eight to 12 mont
in the same areas.
Hansen said the trend “is deftnitf
toward improvement despite the te
dency for more favored groups to mo
to the suburbs.”
Intelligence tests administered 1;
fall to ninth grade students showed
median I.Q. of 95, Hansen reported. T
national median is 100. He said 58 p
cent of the students scored in the It
average or below-average intelligen
brackets, compared to the national figu
of 45 per cent. About 12 per cent of t
students scored in the superior or ve
superior range, compared to 18 per ce
nationally. # #
Arkansas
(Continued From Page 5)
sas, and Ernest T. Gephart, instruct
at Little Rock Central High School.
The Little Rock School Board fil
a 59-page brief with U.S. District Jud
John E. Miller June 25, asking him
approve the “transition procedur
from a segregated to a non-segregati
school system. The brief answered
motion filed last August by the origii
plaintiffs in the Little Rock integratii
case and 14 new students.
The Negroes’ motion attacked tl
board’s use of the state pupil assigi
ment law. Judge Miller held a twi
day hearing on the motion in Man
and is receiving briefs before makii
a decision.
The board said that its transition pri
cedure, undertaken in good fait
would lead to a constitutionally desq
regated school system with the “dt
liberate speed” required by the U.
Supreme Court.
WHAT THEY SAY
At commencement at Arkansas AM&
College for Negroes at Pine Bluff, E
J. Rupert Picott said that some of tl
things that have happened in Arkans
have provided “great training” in tl
Negro’s fight for equal rights. He
executive secretary of the Virgin
Teachers Assn.
Two Negro men arrested last Augu
after leaving the home of Mrs. L. 1
Bates of Little Rock, state NAAC
president, and convicted in Munidp
Court of carrying concealed weapol
were tried on appeal in Circuit Coin
Judge William J. Kirby affirmed tl
$59 fine against Ellis Thomas, who*
son was graduated this year from Cei
tral High School, but dismissed tl
charge against Dr. Garman P. Fr&
man, a dentist who lives next door
Mrs. Bates. They were arrested l
state policemen late on the night 1
Aug. 12, the day the Little Rock poll'
broke up a segregationist mob mard
ing on Central High.
At least four persons have applied 1
the Little Rock Chamber of Comrnel 1
for the $25,000 reward it offered :
September 1959 for information leadii
to the conviction of the persons 'd
dynamited the school board office, ®
mayor’s private business office and &
fire chief’s city-owned car. Four of d
five white men charged with the dyB*
miting have been tried and convicted.
COMMITTEE APPOINTED
Four claimants for the reward $
represented by the Robinson Sulhv*
& Rosteck law firm, which also repP
sents three of the dynamiting defe» c
ants. Three of those four claimaP
testified for the state against two ‘
the defendants that were convicted. T*
Chamber of Commerce has appoint
a committee to study the claims.
Eight more Negro students, convio
ed in Municipal Court for taking se s
at white lunch counters in down to''
Little Rock stores, were tried in CV
cuit Court on appeal and convict
again. Judge William J. Kirby doubk
the penalties that had been imposed 1
Municipal Court. # #