Newspaper Page Text
page 16—AUGUST I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Oklahoma
(Continued From Page 13)
expressed by Neighbors Unlimited is
being met—more orientation for teach
ers of integrated schools. The school
board staged a one-day workshop at
Burroughs last year with the help of
the N. C. C. J. This year it joined with
the P-TA Council in making scholar
ships available for teachers and ad
ministrators to attend the second an
nual Human Relations Workshop spon
sored by the National Conference of
Christians and Jews at the University
of Oklahoma in July.
The most recent activity of the edu
cation committee was publication of a
“report to the community,” which was
distributed in July to every home in
the Burroughs school district. Checked
and approved first by Dr. Mason and
J. J. Morton, the Burroughs principal,
the pamphlet sought to squelch with
facts a number of rumors floating
around the community, the Rev. Mr.
Compton said.
DENIED REPORTS
It denied reports the Burroughs fac
ulty would be integrated in the com
ing year and that buses would be pro
vided to transport white pupils out of
the district. But it gave assurance that
the board would continue to grant
transfers to white pupils requesting
them, that the number of Burroughs
teachers asking change of assignments
was no more than normal, and that
the school census indicated no ap
preciable change in the ratio of white
and Negro pupils in the coming term.
The pamphlet informed patrons that
scholastic standards would be main
tained through a lower pupil-teacher
ratio than exists in most other ele
mentary schools in Tulsa, homogeneous
groupings to allow students to progress
at the level of their ability, and special
education classes for slow learners.
Although school administrators are
reluctant to release any over-all aver
ages in results of achievement tests,
the Rev. Mr. Compton said he is sure
the figure for Burroughs has dropped
somewhat. Tests were given to pupils
in the second, fifth and sixth grades.
It is understood the second-graders
scored three points above the national
norm, while the sixth-graders fell a
little below. It is also understood that
an analysis of the returns by Morton
revealed more of a lag among the Ne
groes in the sixth grade, while the
white students performed about on the
same level. This could be due to a
difference in background that, perhaps,
will disappear by time the second-
graders reach the sixth, or it may be
due to the mobility of the district, the
Rev. Mr. Compton said.
OTHER DIRECTIONS
Besides its school committee, Neigh
bors Unlimited has projected its pro
gram into several other directions. Two
of the most prominent ones are in
watching real estate activity in the
area and in promoting interracial un
derstanding.
“Block” meetings were held to ena
ble neighbors not only to become bet
ter acquainted but to discuss what
could be done to maintain the stand
ards of the community. The real estate
committee won the cooperation of the
Tulsa Real Estate Board in holding a
community meeting, attended by some
200 persons, who heard a discussion
of property values by Federal Housing
Administration representatives. A fact-
sheet was published, pointing out the
cost involved in moving from one com
munity to another. When “trouble”
spots developed—such as when a Ne
gro family moved into a certain lo
cality—N. U. representatives called
block meetings to try to relieve white
home-owners’ fears. The committee also
solicited the cooperation of real estate
brokers in such matters as conserva
tive advertising and limiting the num
ber of signs in a block.
This summer the for-sale signs are
to be seen everywhere throughout
much of the Burroughs district. In the
real estate activity they represent lies
the answer worrying Neighbors Un
limited. There was no upsurge in Bur
roughs transfer applications, according
to Dr. Byron L. Shepherd, director of
pupil personnel and special services for
the board of education. But school of
ficials and leaders of the citizens’ group
know there’s no way of telling whether
the Negro percentage will zoom up
ward at Burroughs until pupils actu
ally enroll in September.
District Judge Bob Howell of Semi
nole County denied the appeals of eight
Wewoka Negro children for transfer to
Johnson Grove, the Negro “wing”
school of the rural Sams District (See
Southern School News, July 1960 and
previous). He upheld the contention of
the Wewoka Board of Education that
the Negro youngsters, some of whom
live within a block of Wewoka’s Doug
lass School, should stay in town and
go to classes.
This is the first time their transfers
have been turned down. For years the
district court has followed a policy of
allowing all transfers.
In the same hearing the judge
reached a compromise on appeals filed
by parents of about 15 or 20 Negro
children seeking transfers to Johnson
Grove from the Butner District. About
12 or 15 of the group are of elementary
age and four or five, high school stu
dents.
The Butner superintendent, W. Paul
Martin, offered on the stand to with
draw his protest of the transfers by
the grade school children if he could
have the high school students for his
district. Judge Howell accepted the
compromise.
Curtis C. Christian, Seminole County
school superintendent, quoted the Sams
superintendent, Robert P. Lyon, as say
ing loss of the eight Wewoka pupils
may cut the Johnson Grove enrollment
enough that it will not be able to op
erate in 1961-62. (State aid is based on
the previous year’s average daily at
tendance.) If that happens, the re
maining Negro pupils at Johnson Grove
will have to be integrated with the
white school in the district.
Dr. William H. Hale, 45, was named
president of Langston University, ef
fective Sept. 1, to replace Dr. G. L.
Harrison, who had voluntarily resigned
earlier.
Hale has been professor and chair
man of the social science department
of Clark College in Atlanta the past 11
years. A native of Krebs, Okla., he was
graduated from high school in McAl-
ester and received his bachelor’s de
gree at Langston in 1940. He did his
post-graduate work at the University
of Wisconsin and the University of
Chicago.
His appointment erased the concern
of many alumni that Langston would
be closed or annexed to a larger state
college or university. A small enroll
ment and high per capita cost of op
eration have led to suggestions both in
and out of the Legislature for closing
the school. The Langston University
Alumni Assn, has opposed this, argu
ing the school represents the only
chance of some Negro youths for a
college education.
The Black Dispatch, Negro weekly
newspaper published in Oklahoma City,
said it should not be too surprising
that Negroes did not give 100 per cent
support to one of their number, Dr.
Frank B. Cox, in his unsuccessful bid
for the Democratic nomination for a
seat in the state Legislature from Ok
lahoma County.
“You would be surprised to know
there are many Negroes in Oklahoma
who do not want integration. They see
danger in the effort that will possibly
rob them of their livelihood. Some fear
to compete in many fields of endeavor
without the shield of segregation. There
are several businesses in Oklahoma
City that could not withstand the pres
sure of competition in complete inte
gration. Any man’s personal security is
his prime objective. Negroes them
selves are not all together on many
forward moves that are being pushed
by some of us. . .
A historic church merger in Okla
homa City combined the congregations
of Creston Hills Presbyterian, a former
white group, and Bethany Presbyterian,
a former Negro group. They wor
shipped together for the first time July
10 but the move was preceded by
months of study and joint meetings of
the boards of the two congregations.
The merger was initiated primarily
because most of Bethany’s membership
had moved into the Creston Hills par
ish, officials said. (A grade school in
that area, Creston Hills, has gone from
white to integrated to Negro.) The new
congregation has a membership of
about 250 persons, about half of which
came from each of the uniting
churches. # # #
Conventions
(Continued From Page 1)
party platform—will not accomplish the
results sought by the civil rights advo
cates.”
Holland suggested the committee not
be specific in phrasing its declaration but
confine the civil rights section to gen
eralities.
The Democrats opened their civil
rights plank with the promise:
“We shall also seek to create an af
firmative new atmosphere in which to
deal with racial divisions and inequali
ties which threaten both the integrity
of our democratic faith and the propo
sition on which our nation was founded
—that all men are created equal.”
Concerning the schools the platform
stated:
“A new Democratic administration
will also use its full powers—legal and
moral—to ensure the beginning of good
faith compliance with the constitutional
requirement that racial discrimination
be ended in public education.”
URGES ASSISTANCE
After setting the 1963 desegregation
deadline, the platform continued:
“To facilitate compliance, technical
and financial assistance should be given
to school districts facing special prob
lems of transition.
“For this and for the protection of all
other constitutional rights of Americans,
the attorney general should be empow
ered and directed to file civil injunction
suits in federal courts to prevent the
denial of any civil rights on grounds of
race, creed, or color.”
The same section also endorsed a fair
employment practices commission,
promised to use the full powers of the
Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960, and
hailed the “peaceful demonstrations for
first-class citizenship” as a “signal to all
of us to make good at long last the guar
antee of our Constitution.”
The platform committee chairman,
Rep. Chester Bowles of Connecticut, said
the civil rights plank was “a better one”
than the generalized 1956 version.
SOUTHERN RESENTMENT
Adoption of the stiff platform, fol
lowed by the nomination of Sen. John
F. Kennedy of Massachusetts as the
presidential candidate, increased south
ern resentment. The Dixie leaders pre
dicted that the Democrats would be un
able to carry several southern states.
Sen. James O. Eastland of Mississippi
attacked the platform, saying:
“The platform was written by the
ADA (Americans for Democratic Ac
tion), the NAACP, and inspired by the
Communist party.”
However, the selection of Texas Sen.
Lyndon B. Johnson as Kennedy’s run
ning mate considerably reduced the
doubts raised over the region’s loyalty
in the approaching elections.
Approval of the Kennedy-Johnson
ticket quickly came from Virginia Gov.
J. Lindsay Almond Jr., Tennessee Gov.
Buford Ellington and North Carolina’s
Practically Unanimous
Arkansas Democrat
‘Let’s See—Ticket, Platform,
The South ... I Think We’ve
Taken Care of Everything’
Baltimore Evening Sun
That Might Be The Key!
Dallas Morning Ni
Gov. Luther H. Hodges and Gov.-elect
Terry Sanford.
There were other southern delegates,
though, who stated they considered the
platform and the candidates still unac
ceptable.
JOINT PROPOSAL
The Republican Party experienced a
similar fight over civil rights but it was
of somewhat of a different nature. In ad
dition to suggestions by the regular par
tisan groups. Vice President Richard M.
Nixon and New York Gov. Nelson Rock
efeller drafted their own proposal on the
subject.
The civil rights subcommittee rejected
the Nixon-Rockefeller proposal and be
gan writing its own. The two GOP lead
ers then promised a floor fight to insure
a strong civil rights stand in the plat
form.
A last-minute compromise ended the
threat of a floor fight and both Nixon
and Rockefeller expressed their approv
al of the final platform. The civil rights
plank stated in one of the opening para
graphs:
“We recognize that discrimination is
not a problem localized in one area of
the country, but rather a problem that
must be faced by North and South alike.
Nor is discrimination confined to the
discrimination against Negroes. Dis
crimination in many, if not all, areas of
the country on the basis of creed or na
tional origin is equally insidious.
“Further we recognize that in many
communities in which a century of cus
tom and tradition must be overcome
heartening and commendable progress
has been made.”
SCHOOL PLEDGE
In regard to public schools, the Re
publicans specifically pledged:
“The Department of Justice will con
tinue its vigorous support of court or
ders for school desegregation. Desegre
gation suits now pending involve at
least 39 school districts. Those suits and
others already concluded will affect
most major cities in which school seg
regation is being practiced.
“It will use the new authority pro
vided by the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to
prevent obstruction of court orders;
“We will propose legislation to au
thorize the attorney general to bring ac
tions for school desegregation in the
name of the United States in appropri
ate cases, as when economic coercion or
threat of physical harm is used to deter
persons from going to court to establish
their rights.
“Our continuing support of the Presi
dent’s proposal, to extend federal aid
and technical assistance to schools
which in good faith attempt to desegre
gate.”
BUSINESSMEN COMMENDED
The civil rights section also pledged
support for legislation to establish a
“commission on equal job opportunity”
and commended “businessmen who have
abandoned discriminatory practices in
retail establishments.”
“We reaffirm the constitutional right
to peaceable assembly to protect dis
crimination in private business estab
lishments,” the platform declared.
Early in the convention there was
some talk that U.S. Sen. Thruston B.
Morton of Kentucky, the GOP national
chairman, might be chosen as Nixon’s
running mate in a move to woo the
South. But Nixon picked United Nations
Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts to be the vice presidential
candidate.
In their minority report, the southern
Democrats stated:
“Increasingly, the loyalty of the peo
ple of the South to their party has been
repaid with scolding and derision. Pre
tending to invoke the Constitution of the
United States, those who are attacking
the South have ignored the fundamental
law of the land—and, in particular, the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution
the United States.
“Despite these attacks, the Democr
of the southern states have sent delegs
to this 1960 convention whose aim v
and is to unify the party and resh
Constitutional government in this la
of ours. ...
“For six years and two months the
has been a rising demand that the Soc
should obey the law of the land, s
called, and establish systems of pub
schools unsegregated as to race or col
This clamor overlooks the fact ti
never has any court decided that a 1
state could be compelled by anyone
set up a system of integrated schools..
“And we the undersigned are here
say that the states of the South will i
be bribed with ‘technical and financ
assistance,’ held out as bait in this pb
form, into sacrificing their children up
the altar of political expediency. . .
“. . . We do shun the kind of demo
racy that from a pinnacle in Washii
ton can tell people all over the land!
what rules our schools should be n
and that if those rules are disobeyed t
right of the people to run these scha
will be taken away from us. To o
minds, that is a burlesque of democrat
living. It is a travesty of real dem
cratic procedure.”
SIGNIFY LOYALTY
At the Democratic convention, the
were rumors of southern confereno
considering a “walkout” but these nev
were given serious consideration. As
when it came time at convention’s e:
to pledge support to the ticket, all b
one of the southerners readily signi
the loyalty statement.
The lone abstainer, Judge Tom
Brady of Mississippi, was given a peril
of grace to consult with his state par
superiors. Mississippi Gov. Ross Bame
who received the state’s 23 votes as
“favorite son” candidate, has called f
a third-party rebellion.
The Associated Press reported in
special survey July 23 that Barnet
suggestion for a bolt was cooly receivi
by other southern political leaders,
said there was no likelihood of a thu
party or independent electors except
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Missi
sippi and South Carolina.
Such a revolt would have little effe
on the presidential election unless »
race is closer than any in the past-
years, the AP stated. # t
Books And
The Issue
The library at Southern Educate
Reporting Service recently recei vl
these books.
RACIAL AND CULTURAL
MINORITIES
by George Eaton Simpson and J. MiW
Yinger. Harper & Bros., 881 pp., P'
In this revision, the authors have co-
centra ted on developments that have J
curred during the five years since n
first edition, paying special attention
desegregation in education.
WHO SHALL BE EDUCATED?
by Warner, Havighurst and Loeb. H 3 *
per & Bros., 190 pp., $3.50.
Covers the extent to which the p u ^
school system offers equal opportun 1
for all children. Included are the scho°‘
place in the status system and desefff
tions of typical status systems.
THE COUNTDOWN ON SEGREGA^
EDUCATION
by William W. Brickman and Staflb
Lehrer. Society for the Advance® 3 "
of Education, 170 pp., $3.50.
A compact reference on the hist 01 -
current situation, and the possible fu®
of segregation in education in the V'
South Africa and other countries. ,
# * 1