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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER I960—PAGE 5
..VIRGINIA
SRichmond,
Roanoke, 3 Other Districts To Desegregate
an RICHMOND, Va.
rn
*4 v egro children will enter for-
o{ L ' merly white schools in five ad-
tS Jitional Virginia locahties this
*t ; e ptember, bringing to 11 the
number of desegregated school
'' districts in the state,
fy The Negroes will attend white
schools at Pulaski and Grayson
counties under court order. The
m State Pupil Placement Board as-
m E igned Negroes for the first time
>r f 0 Fairfax County and the cities
of Richmond and Roanoke. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Prince Edward County will be-
r gin its second year without public
schools as whites continue their
r, program of private schools and
Negroes continue their system of
n “training centers.” (See “Commu-
n nity Action.”)
At least 170 Negro children will at
tend predominantly white schools in 11
Virginia localities during the 1960-61
school year. There were 103 Negroes
in integrated schools in the state dur-
■ ing the past school year.
Negroes living in Pulaski and Gray
son counties in western Virginia will
(enter white schools by court order.
Fairfax County and the cities of Rich
mond and Roanoke will be integrated
as the result of State Pupil Placement
' Board assignments. Six other commu
nities will continue integration begun
' last year, with additional Negroes in
volved in some instances.
Here was the outlook, as of the end
of August, in each of the 11 districts
that will have desegregated schools:
Richmond
* Two Negro applicants were assigned
to the white Chandler Junior High
School by the State Pupil Placement
Board on Aug. 15. Two others were re
jected on the ground that they lived
closer to a Negro school than to
Chandler.
— When the two girls—one 12 years
old and the other 13—enter the eighth
grade at the formerly all-white school,
d will mark the first school desegrega
tion in this former capital of the Con
federacy. Chandler will have a stu
dent body of about 700 this year.
P The three-member Placement Board
®oid it made the assignments “on the
“osis of factual information furnished
y the public school authorities of
Richmond city.” The board added that
d found “no reason other than race
or failing to assign” the two appli-
ea nts to the school.
Chandler Junior High was the cen-
® er of a controversy from earlier this
i Jear - The school board had planned to
ic coriv crt the school from white to Negro
r US \ but dn April the board voted to
tl icka* 11110 as white school during the
^*>0-61 year. The board explained its
v ersal by saying that there was
ve rwhelming sentiment” among white
' Publj c • Vlrgui * a ’ s superintendent of
hr. jj a ^ nstru< dion Aug. 15, succeeding
'dent “ p aschall who now is pres
et William and Mary.
PUPIL PLACEMENT BOARD CONSIDERS NEGRO APPLICATIONS
From Left, Chairman E. J. Oglesby, A. L. Wingo, E. T. Justis
residents of the area against the con
version, and also that the Chandler
situation threatened to become an is
sue in the June councilmanic election.
Chandler is located on a business
street, which serves as the dividing line
between white and Negro residential
areas in Richmond’s north side. The
two Negro girls who will attend the
school have been going to a Negro
junior high located farther from their
home than Chandler.
A suit to desegregate Chandler, filed
by six Negro children on Sept. 2, 1958,
is still pending in the federal district
court at Richmond (Warden v. Rich
mond School Board).
Richmond will be the only one of
the state’s desegregated districts in
which Negro school population exceeds
the white.
Roanoke
On the same day (Aug. 15) that it
assigned the two Negroes tt> Chandler
School in Richmond, the State Pupil
Placement Board also made the first
assignments of Negroes to white
schools in Roanoke, the state’s third
largest city.
Four Negroes were assigned to Mel
rose Junior High, three to West End
Elementary and two to Monroe Elemen
tary. The applications of 30 other Ne
groes were denied.
The board issued this written state
ment explaining its action:
“Inasmuch as the local school au
thorities of Roanoke city have applied,
at the request of the Pupil Placement
Board, criteria and standards dealing
with the transfer and assignment of pu
pils of different races to the schools of
that school division, which are regard
ed by this board as valid and reason
able, and since through the applica
tion of these criteria and standards the
local school authorities are not in a
position to oppose legally the . . . as
signments and transfers, the Pupil
Placement Board takes the following
action . . .”
On Aug. 23 Federal District Judge
John Paul denied the city’s motion to
dismiss the case of 28 other Negroes
seeking admission to Roanoke’s white
schools.
Fairfax County
Fairfax County in northern Virginia
■trill have desegregated schools for- the
first time this fall as the result of State
Pupil Placement Board action on Aug.
4.
Two Negro boys were assigned to the
first grade of Belvedere School and a
Negro girl to the second grade at Cedar
Lane School. Twenty-three other ap
plications were denied.
Placement Board Chairman E. J.
Oglesby said that the assignments were
in accord with Fairfax’s grade-a-year
desegregation plan, which was filed
with the federal district court at Alex
andria in July. (Southern School
News, August 1960.)
The plan calls for the desegregation
of the first and second grades this year
and then one grade a year for the next
10 years.
Although Fairfax will be experienc
ing integration for the first time, two
of its next-door neighbors—Arlington
County and the city of Alexandria—
already have desegregated schools.
Pulaski County
Fourteen Negroes will enter the for
merly all-white Pulaski High School in
September as the result of a federal
court order of April 21. (Crisp v. School
Board of Pulaski County; SSN, May
1960).
The Negroes will be in a student
body with about 1,225 whites.
Since Pulaski has no Negro high
school, all its Negro high school stu
dents previously have been attending
Christiansburg Institute in neighboring
Montgomery County. About 120 Pulaski
Negro children will continue attending
the Montgomery school.
Alexandria
The State Pupil Placement Board on
Aug. 15 assigned 12 of 16 Negro ap
plicants to white or predominantly
white schools in Alexandria. One of the
five schools involved—Jefferson Elem
entary—previously had not been inte
grated.
At least 26 Negroes will be attending
predominantly white schools in Alex
andria, as compared with 16 last year.
Arlington County
Arlington, home of many federal em
ployees who work in Washington, D. C.,
will have 34 Negro children in predom
inantly white schools this fall, as a re
sult of 12 assignments by the State
Pupil Placement Board’s on July 25.
Arlington schools to be desegregated
for the first time, with the number of
Negroes in each case, include: Jefferson
Junior High, two; Page Elementary,
one; Henry Clay Elementary, two; and
Claremont Elementary, one.
Other desegregated schools ip the
county will be Washington-Lee High,
six; Stratford Junior High, 20; and
Patrick Henry Elementary, two.
Charlottesville
The number of Negroes in two pre
dominantly white Charlottesville schools
will increase from 11 to 20 as a result
of assignments by the city school board.
Lane High will have seven Negroes,
as compared with three last year, while
Venable Elementary will have 13, as
against eight last year.
Ten other Charlottesville Negro stu
dents sought a federal district court
order at Harrisonburg for assignment
to white schools, but they were turned
down. Judge John Paul on Aug. 15 held
that Charlottesville was fairly admin
istering its desegregation plan (Allen
v. School Board of Charlottesville).
“It is the opinion of the court,” said
Judge Paul in a memorandum, “that
the plan of desegregation has worked
well, with the minimum of friction in
Charlottesville ... It is true that the
school board has not undertaken to en
ter upon what may be total desegrega
tion of the schools or to enlarge or
alter the plan of March 30, 1959. But
present actions, in my opinion, are in
accord with the decisions of the Su
preme Court . . .”
Grayson-Galax
Federal District Judge John Paul of
Roanoke on Aug. 23 ordered eight
Grayson County Negroes admitted to
white schools in either Grayson County
or Galax. Some Grayson high school
students attend a Galax high school
under an arrangement between the two
communities.
A lawyer for the children said they
would enter the Galax school. Neither
Grayson County nor Galax has had in
tegration. A Negro child had been
ordered admitted to a Galax school last
year but she did not actually enroll.
Floyd County
In another order on Aug. 23, Judge
Paul directed that seven Negroes be ad
mitted to predominantly white high
schools in Floyd County.
This will bring to about 17 the num
ber in the two schools, as compared to
13 last year.
Warren County
The State Pupil Placement Board on
Aug. 4 assigned one additional Negro
to the Warren County High School.
Nineteen Negroes attended the school
last year, and the number is expected
to be about the same this year.
A petition from eight Negro pupils
seeking to enter Warren High was
denied by District Judge John Paul on
Aug. 17. In effect, he upheld the local
school board’s desegregation plan,
which provides, among other things,
that no child will be forced to attend a
school in which the student body is
predominantly of the other race.
Norfolk
Federal District Judge Walter E.
Hoffman gave Norfolk Negroes until the
(See VIRGINIA, Page 6)
KENTUCKY
State Expects Slight Increase in Integrated Classes
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
ENTUCKY PREPARED TO BEGIN its
sixth year of desegregation
with a slight increase expected in
integrated classes, no new dis
tricts with announced plans, and
one district—Bourbon County—
scheduling all-school integration
by September 1961.
Overall estimates for 1960-61;
124 of 173 bi-racial districts de
segregated (106 in fact, 18 “by
policy”); 37 districts with no Ne
gro pupils; and 49 districts with
no announced plans. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
With school integration not an
issue for either Democrats or Re
publicans in the November elec
tion, Negro leaders sought to in
crease Negro registration and
served notice on both parties that
neither yet could claim their vote.
In Louisville their slogan was
“51,000 voting Negroes will de
segregate Louisville”—a reference
to the refusal of the Democratic
Board of Aldermen to enact a
general desegregation ordinance
or to appoint a human rights
commission.
Aides of Gov. Bert Combs said he
would soon announce membership of
the State Human Rights Commission
and that this bi-racial group would pay
particular attention to the sit-in de
mands in Louisville. (See “Political
Activity.”)
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
State school officials expected little
change in the pattern of Kentucky’s
integration program in 1960-61, a pat
tern that as long as three years ago
found “more than 80 per cent of
school-age Negroes in integrated situa
tions,” and since then, with another
district or two desegregated for the
first time, and with a few others ex
tending their program to additional
schools or classes, has raised that per
centage a few points.
Some of Bourbon County’s elemen-
ary schools, it appears, might join the
“new” list during the current year.
The county board of education on
Aug. 15 ordered all its schools inte
grated by September 1981, but ap
pointed a citizens’ committee to de
termine the earliest feasible time —
before the deadline — for integrating
elementary schools. The decision was
prompted by a request earlier in Au
gust for admission of Negroes to all-
white Bourbon County High School
and North Middletown High School.
There are 300 school-age Negroes in
Bourbon County and 333 in the cbunty
seat, Paris, an independent district,
where the schools remain segregated—
including all-white Paris High School
and all-Negro Paris Western.
Not including the impending Bour
bon County change, the overall esti
mates for the state’s 210 districts (120
county districts, 90 independent dis
tricts) are: 124 of 173 bi-racial dis
tricts desegregated (106 in fact, 18 “by
policy”); 37 districts with no Negro
school-age population; 49 districts with
no announced plans.
Total public-school enrollment (sev
en per cent Negro) is expected to
exceed 615,000, with perhaps 400,000
white and 33,000 Negro pupils in de
segregated districts, some 13,000 Ne
groes actually attending classes with
whites.
Eight desegregated state colleges and
the University of Louisville are ex
pected, as usual, to number several
hundred Negroes in a total enrollment
of 28,000.
POLITICAL ACTIVITY
School integration has not been a
major-party political issue in Ken
tucky since the Supreme Court’s 1954
ruling. Demands for integration in
other areas, however, have warmed up
Negro get-out-the-vote drives for the
November elections, particularly in
Louisville, where bloc voting, if
achieved, could make or break either
the Republicans or the Democrats in
populous Jefferson County, a pivotal
factor in any close race.
Actual sit-in activity in Kentucky
(chiefly in Lexington, Frankfort, and
Louisville) has been small, perhaps be
cause a number of lunch counters, res
taurants, hotels, and movie houses are
already desegregated. But support for
its goals of further desegregation is
strong in the Negro press and among
Negro leaders, particularly those irked
by the repeated refusal last spring of
the Louisville Board of Aldermen to
compel desegregation by ordinance or
to appoint a city human rights com
mission.
One of the aldermanic reasons cited
was that the State Human Rights Com
mission, authorized by the Legislature
last spring at Gov. Bert Combs’ behest
but not yet appointed, could best
handle the problems of further de
segregation. Late in August, aides of
Gov. Combs said he would soon an
nounce membership of the bi-racial
commission, and that this group
would pay particular attention (it is
an advisory body only) to the Louis
ville situation.
In midsummer Louisville Negroes or
ganized the Non-Partisan Registration
Commitee, one of whose co-chairmen
is Woodford R. Porter, first Negro
elected to the Louisville Board of Edu
cation. Their aim is to increase Negro
registration from some 21,000 to the
largest number eligible. Their slogan
is “51,000 voting Negroes will desegre
gate Louisville.”
A registration rally at the Jefferson
County Armory on Aug. 23, with the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of Mont
gomery and Atlanta as chief speaker,
drew 9,000. King criticized the White
House and both parties in Congress for
“anemic leadership,” advocated “wider
use of the wonder drug of voting,” de
cried Negro apathy at the polls, and
urged Negroes to “add the dimension
of stand-ins at places of voter registra
tion” to “the creative movement of
sit-ins, wade-ins, and kneel-ins”—all
on a “non-violent and peaceful” basis.
IN THE COLLEGES
The Kentucky State College Board
of Regents on Aug. 10 gave a five-hour
hearing to two faculty members dis
missed after campus demonstrations
last spring, but postponed a decision
in the case. # # #