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PAGE 4—AUGUST I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
WEST VIRGINIA
Negro College, Desegregation Victim,
Absorbed by Harpers Ferry Monument
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
PROMINENT OLD INSTITUTION,
Storer College of Harpers
Ferry, has finally passed out of
existence after almost 100 years,
a victim of the Supreme Court’s
desegregation ruling of 1954.
With the signing of a bill
by President Eisenhower which
brought Storer into the Harpers
Ferry National Monument, it
ceased to exist as a private col
lege. Storer has been inoperative
for several years. (See “In the
Colleges.”)
West Virginia State College,
Negro institution until 1954, has
hired a white assistant dean. West
Virginia State has been slowly
shifting from a predominantly Ne
gro to a white college through
heavy enrollment of white stu
dents. (See “In the Colleges.”)
West Virginia University gave
up its second attempt in two years
to bring Negroes into its football
program when a Clarksburg
youth decided to enroll at Purdue
rather than the university. (See
“In the Colleges.”)
Enlargement of the Harpers Ferry
National Monument by absorbing
Storer College was authorized in an
Eisenhower-signed bill. Approximate
ly 30 acres and buildings on the cam
pus are included.
Several historic structures associated
with the Civil War are on the campus.
They include the John Brown Fort,
relocated on the campus property
many years ago.
The monument, situated at the con
fluence of the Shenandoah and Poto
mac rivers, is the site of the 1859 raid
by abolitionist John Brown.
STATE SUBSIDY
Storer was one of the first Negro
colleges founded after the Civil War
and operated with success until the
1954 Supreme Court ruling. For some
years prior thereto, West Virginia had
paid a $20,000 annual subsidy to the
Storer College trustees.
When the State Board of Education
decided, after the court ruling, to de
segregate all state colleges it decided
also to stop the subsidy. This meant
the difference between profit and loss
for Storer and it soon closed.
Several times since the trustees have
tried to reopen the college, but without
success. Finally, U.S. Sen. Jennings
Randolph sponsored legislation to have
it taken over as a training center for
National Park Service personnel.
A similar training center is operated
in the West for employes of that re
gion.
Storer was established Oct. 2, 1867
and chartered the next year.
ASSISTANT DEAN
West Virginia State College Presi
dent W. J. L. Wallace, Negro, an
nounced July 20 that Dr. Edwin D.
Hoffman of New York had been hired
as assistant dean. Hoffman, white, holds
degrees from City College of New
York and Columbia University.
He becomes the 16th of his race to
be hired at West Virginia State. The
faculty numbers around 80.
This institution in totally desegre
gated Kanawha County was the larg
est Negro institution in West Virginia
prior to the 1954 Supreme Court rul
ing. But it has been gradually losing
its identity as such.
70 PER CENT WHITE
Today, approximately 70 per cent of
the students are white. In the main
they make up the commuter-type stu
dents, who travel to and from school
each day. The dormitories, which hold
almost 500 students, are occupied
mainly by Negroes.
Bluefield State, on the Virginia-West
Virginia border in Mercer County, has
had a white dean for two years. He is
Dr. E. J. Scrafford. Of the 27-member
faculty there, three are white.
Bluefield has had some difficulty
since 1954 keeping its costs down and
attracting students, but West Virginia
has had no difficulty whatsoever. Im
mediately after the State Board of
Education ordered state colleges de
segregated, white students began en
rolling.
NO SUCCESS
West Virginia University has sought
twice in the past two years to recruit
Negro athletes for the football team
without success. Last year the boys
said they would go elsewhere because
the climate for their entry at the uni
versity was not right.
This year two more such athletes
were invited to come to the univer
sity and were offered scholarships, but
when one decided against the offer the
other chose Purdue. They were from
Clarksburg’s Washington Irving High
School.
According to a university spokesman
they didn’t want to be the first to en
ter the university on athletic scholar
ships.
Negroes are enrolled at the univer
sity and have been attending classes
in the undergraduate schools since
1954. In the graduate school Negroes
have been admitted for more than 12
years.
One of the reasons sometimes as
signed for Negroes not going to the
university is its affiliation with the
Southern Conference, an association of
southern colleges and universities. No
other school in the conference plays
Negroes.
APPOINTED TO BOARD
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood appointed
Charleston lawyer Charles C. Wise Jr.
July 20 to the University Board of
Governors to replace Dr. Thomas L.
Harris of Parkersburg. Harris had
served on the board for 15 years.
Wise, 49, will serve for nine years.
An open house was held July 23-24
at the University Hospital, last of sev
eral units to be completed in a 33 mil
lion dollar medical center on the univer
sity campus.
The medical center was approved by
the 1951 Legislature and it has been
built from proceeds of a penny tax on
soft drinks and soft drink powders. It
will be for the training of doctors,
dentists, nurses and pharmacists and
will be desegregated.
ENROLLMENT RECORD
Morris Harvey College here, largest
private college in West Virginia and
segregated, set a new enrollment rec
ord with the second summer term, now
under way.
Dr. Harry Straley, dean, said that
1,260 students registered for the 1960
summer session. This represents a five
per cent increase over last year.
Most of the 1,260 students are
teachers renewing their certificates or
upgrading them. Straley said there has
been a sharp increase in the number
of students from other colleges at
tending summer classes at Morris
Harvey.
HOUSING COMMITTED
West Virginia Wesleyan College at
Buckhannon, desegregated but with a
very small Negro enrollment, called a
halt in mid-July to enrollment of
women for the fall term. All available
female housing had been committed.
It is the first time in Wesleyan his
tory that enrollment has been cur
tailed. Enrollment of freshmen women
has tripled since 1956 to 245 in the
term beginning two months hence.
COOPERATIVE ACTION
The president of West Virginia Uni
versity and the state-owned colleges
have committed their institutions to a
program of cooperative action designed
to meet the state’s needs in higher
education during the next 10 years.
The action came at a meeting of the
West Virginia Assn, of College and
University Presidents early in July.
Highlights of the meeting included:
1) A recommendation to establish
an office to carry out a program of re
search and public relations.
2) A disclosure that West Virginia
colleges will need 95 million dollars
worth of physical facilities by 1970.
3) An anticipated 50 per cent in
crease in the number of college stu
dents in the state by 1970.
The state advisory committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights de
cided July 7 to conduct a study of
racial discrimination in the field of
employment in West Virginia.
Chairman Miles C. Stanley of
Charleston said commission members
also decided to continue their studies
of possible discrimination in public
housing and in education.
Stanley also announced that two new
members were added to the commit
tee, bringing its total to seven of a
possible nine. The appointees are Mrs.
P. R. Higginbotham of Bluefield and
Dr. W. J. L. Wallace, president of West
Virginia State College.
Dr. Wallace was appointed chairman
of the subcommittee to study educa
tion; Stanley of the subcommittee to
study employment; and Howard Cor
coran of Wheeling of the subcommit
tee to study housing.
Veteran State Sen. Herbert Trau-
bert of Follansbee lost a battle in the
State Supreme Court July 6 to nullify
295 Hancock County ballots cast in the
Democratic primary in the First Sena
torial District.
The court’s decision leaves un
changed the primary election results,
which means defeat for Traubert by
William Tompos of Weirton. Traubert
has been chairman of the Senate Edu
cation Committee for several years.
During his years as chairman sev
eral pieces of legislation were spon
sored by him that removed from the
West Virginia code laws permitting
segregated schools in West Virginia.
Traubert was an advocate of desegre
gation in the Legislature.
Lacy I. Rice, Martinsburg lawyer and
banker, was elected president of tile
State Board of Education July 11. He
succeeds James Ansel of Moorefield.
Dr. J. H. Murry of Gary was elected
vice president, and H. K. Baer was re
elected executive secretary.
During its July meeting the board
accepted a $749,654 bid for construction
of a women’s dormitory at Glenville
State College. The board also approved
plans for more than $3,750,000 worth
of improvements at four other colleges.
In other action the board approved
a motion for Bluefield College to sub
mit a plan to establish a branch at
Welch. Like Bluefield, it would be de
segregated.
Presidents of colleges under the
State Board of Education informed the
board on July 11 that they would ask
for a 15 per cent pay increase in their
1961-62 budgets for administrative and
faculty personnel. And they said they
would request a 10 per cent raise for
non-administrative personnel, 15 per
cent more for current expenses, 15 per
cent more for general repairs, and 25
per cent more for equipment.
APPOINTED
The governor’s office confirmed July
20 that B. Fred Hill, principal at
Stonewall Jackson High School here,
will be appointed executive secretary
of the State Teachers’ Retirement
Board. The appointment will be effec
tive Aug. 1. He replaces Dr. Richard
E. Hyde, who is retiring.
State aid to the public schools of
West Virginia will be approximately
$500,000 greater this year than last. The
total going to the 55 counties, accord
ing to the State Board of Education,
will be $59,242,000 for the fiscal year.
Thirty counties will lose state aid due
to population losses. # # #
Mississippi
(Continued From Page 3)
misuse of public funds during Recon
struction when Negroes helped to ad
minister affairs of the state of Mis
sissippi did not compare in the least to
the way in which the present Missis
sippi administration is creating un
necessary jobs for patronage and mis
using the taxpayers’ money through
gifts and grants to private organiza
tions such as the Citizens Councils,”
the NAACP secretary said.
“Every Negro and white citizen in
the state as per the action of the State
Southern School News
Southern School News Is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. SERS
is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation, but simply
reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tenn.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the authority
of the act of March 3, 1879.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com
mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Edward D. Ball, Editor, Nashville Ten
nessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.
Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Assistant Edi
tor, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette
DELAWARE
James E. Miller, Managing Editor,
Delaware State News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Erwin Knoll, Staff Writer, Washing
ton Post & Times Herald
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Ma
con News
KENTUCKY
Weldon James, Editorial Writer,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or
leans States & Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
L. M. Wright Jr., Assistant City Edi
tor, Charlotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
Tom Flake, Staff Writer, Nashville
Banner
Garry Fullerton, Education Editor,
Nashville Tennessean
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones. Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
OFFICERS
Frank Ahlgren Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice Chairman
Marvin D. Wall Acting Executive Director
Jim Leeson, Assistant to the Executive Director
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tenn.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk Univer
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Editorial Page Editor,
Miami Herald, Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
Sovereignty Commission in its gift of be served by the selection of textbook
$20,000 of public funds to the Citizens
Council has indirectly become a sub
stantial contributor to an organization
whose prime objective is to keep Ne
groes ‘second class citizens’ in this na
tion of plenty.”
Also protesting the grant was the
Rev. Richard Ellerbrake, pastor of St.
Paul’s Evangelical and Reformed
Church of Biloxi and a member of the
state advisory committee to the federal
Civil Rights Commission. He branded
the donation “a flagrant violation of
the democratic principle that public
funds are to be used only for that
which is in the best interest of the
public.”
“I doubt that the half of the state’s
citizens who are colored would approve
the grant, nor do many intelligent
white citizens who see in it only con
tinued foment of discord and group
hatred upon the people of Mississippi,”
the Rev. Mr. Ellerbrake said.
He said in a letter to Commission
Director Jones that “if the commission
is truly concerned with constitutional
government then it is rather foolish to
use extra-constitutional means to pro
mote your aims.” The minister also
characterized the grant as “immoral as
well as wrong.”
WHAT THEY SAY
The Mississippi Congress of Parents
and Teachers, in recent convention, re
stated its opposition to Gov. Barnett’s
proposals for inclusion of laymen on
the state textbook rating commission
and for enlargement of the purchasing
board to give him immediate control.
The rating commission measure was
passed by the 1960 Legislature, but the
other measure was rejected in the
Senate after winning House passage.
The governor’s proposals stemmed
from criticism levelled at some of the
textbooks by the Daughters of the
American Revolution, the state depart
ment of the American Legion and a
legislative investigating committee.
“We definitely feel that the educa
tional interest of our children can best
by our dedicated and competent edi
cators,” the congress said.
A group of south Mississippians ha'
drafted for filing a suit to gain rea!
portionment of the Legislature on
population basis. Efforts to win legi
lative action have been blocked I
less-populated counties with repress
tation in excess of that held by t 1
larger political subdivisions.
Under the 1890 constitution, legisl
tive seats were allocated evenly
three grand divisions of the state S
distributed to counties in each wit
out regard to population.
The suit alleges that “a majority
the present Legislature, as well as
majority of previous Legislatures, i 1
spired by selfish motivating influend
have failed and refused to make a si
gle reapportionment during the past
years.” '
The suit will ask that the legisl
tors—140 in the House and 49 in i
Senate—be elected by statewide vo
rather than by counties in 1963.
# * '
SSN Schedules j
Annual Seminar \
For This Month
NASHVILLE, Tenn- 1
gouTHERN school news corres-
pondents will gather in Nash
ville Aug. 12-14 for their annual -
seminar.
The correspondents will discuss
segregation - desegregation trends
in the 17-state region and proced
ures for covering these develop
ments for Southern School News- j
Several members of the board of
directors of Southern Education e
Reporting Service will attend the 1
seminar. Regional representatives c
of major national publications als° J
will be present. 1
The two-day weekend meeting t
will include luncheons and a din' a
ner, in addition to business ses- a
sions. r
''' t