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PAGE 16—SEPTEMBER I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TEXAS
Appeals Court Refuses To Delay Houston Desegregatio
HOUSTON, Tex.
T he Houston school board
planned to seek a U.S. Su
preme Court stay of the Federal
District Court order to desegre
gate the first grade on Sept. 7,
after being turned down by the
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.
(See “Legal Action.”)
Dallas voters, by a four to one
majority, rejected proposed inte
gration, as the State Board of Ed
ucation prepared to ask the
Texas attorney general for clari
fication of the status of districts
ordered by federal courts to in
tegrate. (See “Legal Action.”)
REQUEST RULING
Meanwhile, the board’s first request
went to Atty. Gen. Will Wilson for an
official ruling on the position of the
school districts caught between federal
court orders to desegregate and a state
law prohibiting integration without
voters’ approval.
Both Dallas and Houston voters have
rejected integration proposals by heavy
majorities. Under state law, this would
subject the schools to loss of state funds
and accreditation; fines could be levied
against the officials.
ADOPT STANDARDS
Judge Connally issued two orders.
The first left some uncertainty as to
which grade would be integrated this
year, hut the second order spelled out
the schedule.
Joe Reynolds, attorney for the Hous
ton board, was authorized to ask for
a stay of Judge Connally’s order. The
board meanwhile adopted standards for
admission to the first grade. Two
dissenting members claimed the stand
ards would conflict with the court’s
order and be “an affront to the in
telligence of the citizens of Houston.”
NAACP Attorney Weldon H. Berry
indicated he will ask for an injunction
against the standards, which he called
discriminatory.
Houston citizens last June voted two
to one against integration, under a
state law that calls for withdrawal of
state funds (estimated at six million
dollars) if bi-racial classes are con
ducted without voter-approval. A test
of this law is expected soon.
ORDERS APPEAL
In ordering the appeal, Dr. Henry A.
Petersen, president of the board com
mented:
“It is unusual for a judge to sub
stitute his own plan for one submitted
by a school board. But since he did,
we have no recourse but to try and
obtain a reversal to give our own
plan a chance to be accepted and put
into effect.”
The board was hacking a “salt-and-
pepper” integration plan similar to
one ordered in Dallas by U.S. Dis
trict Judge T. W. Davidson. (See
Southern School News, August 1960
and previous.)
“The judge’s (Connally) plan is not
workable,” said Petersen. “It is not
possible to achieve (desegregation) by
the time school starts. I think he has
gone beyond the bounds of his pre
rogative. He eliminates the administra
tors and tells us how to do it. He
should join with us in working out the
details.”
The Houston lawsuit (Ross v.
Rogers) has been pending in Judge
Connally’s court for four years. He
first ordered abolition of segregation
“with deliberate speed” but did not set
a deadline. His newest orders called
for board’s effort a “sham and sub
terfuge” designed mainly for delay.
“We have to appeal,” said Stone
Wells, a board member. “Judge David
son in Dallas recommended the very
same plan that we as a board sub
mitted to the judge here. Apparently
federal judges differ quite a bit in
their outlook on plans.”
The Dallas plan suggested by Judge
Davidson calls for certain schools to be
integrated at all levels, but maintain
ing a choice also of segregated white or
segregated Negro schools.
The Houston school board voted four
to two to appeal from an order by
U.S. District Judge Ben C. Connally to
integrate in September, in a 13-year
stairstep program starting in the first
grade. The kindergarten would be de
segregated in the 13th year.
The school board attorneys first ap
pealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court
of Appeals in New Orleans but the
court refused on Aug. 26 to stop the
order. The board then planned to carry
its case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Supt. John W. McFarland said there
would be no postponement of Houston
school opening, set for Sept. 7.
“We are making all the preparations
that are in our power for obeying the
judge’s order, but we are not ready to
desegregate the first grade in 1960,”
McFarland said. “We got too late a
notice—less than a month before school
was to open. . . . Schools will open on
time . . . We are law-abiding citizens.”
EXPECT 400
Unofficial estimates are that a maxi
mum of 400 Neero children would be
eligible to enroll in presently-white
schools if Judge Connally’s order is
enforced this September.
Seventy-four new Negro teachers in
the Houston schools were given tem
porary instead of regular contracts be
cause of the uncertainty over deseg
regation. New white teachers received
regular contracts. Board member Mrs.
White said this was discriminatory,
but Supt. McFarland said mass trans
fers by Negroes to white schools might
leave Negro teachers idle. “There are
plenty of applicants who can take their
places,” he said of any Negro teacher
objecting to the temporary contract.
Houston is one of the best-paying
school districts in Texas, with minimum
pay exceeding $4,000 a year. Also there
is a large surplus of Negro teachers in
Texas. Many teachers with two or more
degrees work at non-teaching jobs.
NEITHER AFFECTED
Neither of the Negro girl plaintiffs
in the test case will be affected by the
final outcome. Benelva Williams, 18,
graduated from high school in June
and plans to study music in college.
Delores Ross, 13, is an eighth-grader
in junior high, and would graduate
long before the stairstep plan reached
the high school.
Mrs. Earl Maughmer Jr., 46, a Hous
ton school board member, was no-billed
by the Harris County grand jury in
the shooting of her husband, a police
lieutenant, who is now recovering from
the wound.
Mbs. Maughmer has not attended any
board meeting since the shooting. She
said she is undecided about resigning
from the school board.
Dallas cleared the way for a legal
interpretation of its position after
voters by four to one majority re
jected integration in a referendum.
TWO AGAINST
Dr. W. W. Kemmerer, who voted
with Mrs. Charles E. White (a Negro
board member) against the board ma
jority, said “further delay would only
make matters worse.”
“Let’s not fan the flames,” said Dr.
Kemmerer. “If you do, you will have
to take all resnonsibility for anything
that happens. Let’s accept this order,
which is a minimum basis on which to
desegregate.”
The board’s new admission standards
to the first grade call for a “thorough
medical examination” except for stu
dents attending kindergarten or the
first grade last year; written permis
sion from both principals when a pupil
transfers from one school to another;
and transfers only for students doing
accentable work. Where more than one
child in a family attends elementary
school, all must attend the same school.
Dr. Kemmerer said these rules con
flict with Judge Connally’s order and
complicate the admission of Negroes
to integrated schools. Supt. John W.
McFarland said the rules would benefit
the children.
Attorneys for the Negro plaintiffs
complained that the admission stand
ards were designed to thwart Judge
Connally’s order.
U.S. District Judge T. Whitfield
Davidson has ordered Dallas to end
segregation in September 1981 on a
“salt-and-pepper” plan. (Borders v.
Rippy, SSN, August 1960 and previous.)
The district stands to lose three mil
lion dollars of state funds annually,
however, and school officials would be
subject to fines under a state law pro
hibiting integration without voter-ap
proval.
W. C. Graves, Dallas member of the
State Board of Education, said that
body would ask the attorney general of
Texas for a ruling on the question
when it meets in Austin on Sept. 5.
State and federal courts have declined
to interpret the act until a violation
occurs.
The vote against integration at Dal
las was 30,324 to 7,416. The referendum
came after Judge Davidson announced
it would be of no legal effect other
than to furnish a barometer of public
opinion. The judge indicated that if
the voters approved integration, he
might revise his previous order and
call for complete desegration.
Attorneys for the National Assn, for
the Advancement of Colored People
are appealing to the U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals from Judge David
son’s order in the Dallas case.
School in Houston will be integf,'
when classes start Sept. 1. No 0 1
Catholic schools in Houston will be -
Bishop W. J. Nold of the Houston-
Galveston Diocese, announced that the
first three grades of St. Mary’s Catholic
segregated at this time, the annoi®
ment said.
H. H. Riley was named superint*
ent of the strife-tom schools j
Brownsboro, a small town near D;
where violence took one citizen’s
at a school board meeting in J'
(SSN, July 1960.)
The dispute, which involved am “
other things alleged shortcomings .
operating Brownsboro’s Negro scl
resulted from the dismissal of H,
Bass, for 23 years the district’s suj
intendent. The board that fired J
also will resign under an agree®
with Texas Education Commission?
W. Edgar.
The incoming superintendent
been a principal in Brownsboro scb
for eight years, after 16 years as
perintendent at Canton, Texas.
# #
Louisiana
(Continued From Page 15)
pupil parochial school system of the
archdiocese, comprising a third of the
state.
But he has previously indicated that
he would adopt for New Orleans
Cathofic schools the same integration
plan ultimately used by public schools
and put it into affect at the same time
public schools do.
A total of 50,000 of the 90 000 Catholic
school children of the archdiocese at
tend schools in New Orleans. This
gives the Catholic schools a total popu
lation in the city of just over half
what the public schools have.
tion of public schools.
Nonsectarian private schools are au
thorized under a 1960 Louisiana act
and state grants could be paid to the
co-operatives administering the schools.
The state can also sell public school
properties to private educational co
operations if the school is permanently
closed.
While claims were made to the con
trary, the private school co-op plan
seemed to kek strength.
The Carrollton Presbyterian Church
announced it would launch a private
school this fall regardless of the out
come of the public school issue. A new
Pry tan ia elementary private school was
opened in the New Orleans Garden
District.
ARCHBISHOP’S LETTER
The archbishop in a letter to his
churches reiterated his position that
“in principle we are committed to the
racial integration of our Catholic
schools . . .”
Less than 20 per cent of the Catholic
school children of New Orleans are
Negro.
This compares with a more than 50
per cent Negro population in the pub
lic schools.
In his letter to Catholics, Archbishop
ordered a day of prayer for an early
solution to the “race problem in our
midst” and he deplored the possibility
of the closure of public schools.
MILITARY PLANS
Ont. J. B. Sw=>in, chief of staff of
the Eiehth Nm'al District said military
authorities will ask the U.S. Commis
sioner of Education to establish schools
if public facilities are not provided.
He said there are 833 school-a^e
Navy dependents in Orleans Pari~h
and a tot=l of some 1.200 children need
ing schools if dependents of other mili
tary personnel are counted. The U.S.
Office of Education is empowered to
open federal schools on a temporary
basis if local schools are c'osed to
avoid court ordered desegregation.
Charles D. Winters, Louisiana Teams
ters leader, said his union favors
token integration to closure of public
schools. He said the public should pre
pare for compliance with the federal
court order.
A total of 24 private school co-opera
tives either were chartered by the
state or were being organized at the
end of August as some parents pre
pared for the eventuality that public
schools would close.
At the same time one of the state’s
major labor leaders joined those who
have been appealing publicly for the
schools to remain open though integra
tion may come.
In other developments:
1) The navy announced plans for
federally operated schools for military
dependents if public schools close.
2) Several new private schools were
being opened and a State Department
of Education official said 12 individuals
had requested information on how to
establish private, state-accredited
schools in New Orleans.
3) An appeal was made directly to
teachers to "work for continued opera-
URGE OPEN SCHOOLS
The Independent Women’s Organiza
tion said “disastrous conseauences will
follow the closing of public schools.”
The group urged the governor to keep
schools open.
United Clubs Inc., a Negro group,
urged the New Orleans schools be
opened without segregation in Sep
tember to demonstrate that “New Or
leans is not veiled in a cloak of ig
norance which can disgrace this coun
try in the eyes of nations everywhere.”
The State Citizens Council charged
in a newspaper advertisement that
“several national organizations who
have publicly espoused total integra
tion in the South” are behind the
move to keep public schools open. The
advertisement named Save Our Schools
Inc., which denied the charges.
The Committee for Public Education,
another of the groups dedicated to
keeping schools open, appealed to pub
lic school teachers to work for con
tinued public education rather than “a
1S7, am ancl ^dulterf^uc^e
Text of Judge’s Order in Houston Case
U. S. District Judge Ben C. Connally presented the Hous
ton, Tex., school board with a desegregation order on Aug.
4. On Aug. 12, he issued an additional clarifying order. The
full text of the first decision follows:
“The defendant Board of Trustees of the Houston Inde
pendent School District having been ordered on Oct. 15,
1957, with all deliberate speed to abandon its operation of
its public school system on a racially segregated basis and
to devise and adopt a plan looking to the maintenance and
operation of its schools upon a racially non-segregated basis.
“And said defendant having been ordered on April 8,
1960, to file with this court, on or before June 1, 1960, such
plan as the defendant has adopted to this end, for the court’s
consideration and approval, and the defendant having filed
such plan herein June 1, 1960, and having submitted same
to the court for consideration and approval.
“This court here and now finds that said plan does not
constitute compliance with the aforementioned order of this
court, nor does it constitute a good faith attempt at com
pliance, but is a palpable sham and subterfuge designed
_ ! . ,i . . i . -a^. . I 4_.
only to accomplish further evasion and delay.
“It is therefore ORDERED that at the opening of the
regular school term in September, 1960, the public schools
of the Houston Independent School District will be de
segregated, as follows:
“1) Each student entering the first grade may, at his
option, attend the formerly all-white or the formerly all-
Negro school within the geographical boundaries of which
such student may reside;
“2) Effective at the beginning of the regular school term
in September, 1961, the plan set out in Paragraph One above
shall be applied to all students entering the first and sec
ond grades; and progressively, with the inclusion of the
next higher grade each year, from year to year there
after, until complete desegregation is accomplished in 1972.
“3) Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the
transfer of a student at his request, or pursuant to reason
able transfer rules promulgated by the school authorities,
provided only that, in the latter case, the color or race
of the student concerned shall not be a consideration.”
# # #
make-shift (private) system.”
The Junior Chamber of Commt '
of New Orleans said of the school
sue: '■
“The temporary closing of Orle 1
Parish public schools, for even
year, can only disrupt such operat
and grievously retard the continuity
sential to the education of our chili '
and the program of the public schi
system.”
Gov. Davis suffered the first in:
setback of his four-month tenure as
state Democratic central commit
voted 51 to 49 to pledge Democn
electors to the Kennedy-Johnson tic
in the November general election.
Davis worked hard behind the so
with segregation leaders to force
101-member committee to vote instf
for unpledged electors. Kennedy bai
ers, receiving strong support from 5>
Orleans Mayor de Lesseps Morrisc
forces were jubilant over their t»
vote margin of victory. One commit
member did not cast a ballot.
Among the 10 Democratic elect
proposed by the Davis-backed seg
gationists and states’ rights leai
were Rep. John S. Garrett, chairt
of the joint legislative committee
segregation, and Emile Wagner
most vocal segregationist on the (
leans Parish school board and a me
her of Davis’ newly appointed St
Sovereignty Commission.
MORRISON SUPPORTERS
Those on the successful slate of d
tors pledged to Kennedy and Johrt
included several of Morrison’s d
supporters and Atty. Gen. Gremilli®
The attorney general, legal heal
the battle against integration of 1
Orleans public schools, was attad
immediately by a Citizens’ Coin
group.
The Gentilly Citizens’ Council 5
Gremillion in accepting the eW
position “has undoubtedly deserted '
people who elected him and jo®
the integrationist forces.”
QUICKLY REPLIED
Gremillion quickly replied to the 1
tack, pointing out that he particip*
in the Democratic convention in f
Angeles and could not turn his
on the party’s nominees.
Another immediate development
the wake of the Democratic split 0<
electors was the announcement of
C. Treen, chairman of the States’ &
Party of Louisiana central comffli^
that States’ Righters will have a ^
of electors — maybe unpledged
more probably pledged.
Frank Voelker Jr., Lake Provide
was named chairman of the n e *
created State Sovereignty ComnU sS ' 1 '
It met in New Orleans to declat e
backing of Gov. Davis in seizing fv
trol of the public schools system
the local school board. The 13-me 111
commission is advisory.
John J. Brewbaker, former
intendent of Norfolk’ public scb*
said at New Orleans the city
profit from the “bad example”
Norfolk in closing its school. £ *