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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER I960—PAGE 7
MARYLAND
5,000 More Negroes
BALTIMORE, Md.
T he fall term will find an es
timated 5,000 additional Ne-
* groes in newly or previously
integrated schools in Maryland.
At least 1,200 of them are to
enter formerly all-white schools
in the 13 (out of 22) bi-racial
nj county school districts where
some integration occurred last
year. The remainder are expected
in Baltimore city.
The major changes are these:
Additional grades have been de
segregated in Anne Arundel,
P1 Charles, Dorchester, Frederick,
01 Harford, Howard and Talbot
. counties. Additional schools have
t been desegregated in Baltimore,
ui Howard, Montgomery and Talbot
a counties. Additional Negro schools
k have been closed out in Balti-
J more, Frederick and Montgomery
I, counties. Additional Negroes are
expected at formerly white
i schools in nearly all of the 13 in-
^ tegrated county schools systems
! and also in Baltimore city. (See
“Under Survey.”)
The school superintendent for
Baltimore County has denied the
J charge of a Negro teacher that
5 she was not rehired after a ma-
t temity leave because of her race.
r (See “School Boards and School
| men.”)
the county’s 4,056 Negro pupils were
enrolled in 59 formerly all-white
schools. More will be enrolled this
year, but the exact number is not
known. The county also has assigned
some 15 Negro teachers to predomi
nantly white schools.
Carroll County, which is predomi
nantly rural, has a voluntary desegre
gation policy under which Negroes
may transfer to white schools. Last
year 39 out of its 474 Negro pupils
attended five formerly all-white
schools. Another five or six are ex
pected at the same schools in Sep
tember.
HARFORD COUNTY
This year Harford County has
opened its ninth grade to Negro trans
fers as the latest step in a grade-a-
year program in its secondary schools.
Its elementary schools were desegre
gated previously. Last year 195 of its
1,861 Negro pupils were enrolled in a
dozen formerly all-white schools. This
year only six more are expected.
While Harford has a special screen
ing process by which Negroes may en
ter white secondary classes in ad
vance of the timetable, this past sum
mer brought no applicants.
The Third, Fourth and Seventh con
gressional districts all lie in Baltimore
city, where desegregation began in
1954, a year ahead of the rest of the
state. If the pattern in the last two
years is repeated, between 3,500 and
4,000 more Negroes will be entering
formerly all-white schools, some of
which by now are predominantly Ne
gro.
This year for the first time Negroes
in the school system as a whole will
outnumber white pupils. Any exact
figures must await the school popu
lation count in October. As of the last
school year there were 22,981 Ne
groes in schools classified as formerly
all-white, which was less than 30 per
cent of the Negro school population.
More of the same is anticipated for
1 Maryland in September, as school de
segregation enters its seventh year.
Additional moves toward non-segre-
gated schooling are planned or ex
pected in the 13 counties and Balti
more city where some integration was
to be found last year. No integration
is scheduled in the other 10 counties,
one of which has no Negro children.
The remaining nine have policies un
der which Negroes may apply for
transfers to white schools, but no re
quests have been received.
To take the counties as they are
grouped for political purposes, the pic
ture is this:
The First Congressional District
takes in the nine Eastern Shore coun
ties where the proportion of Negroes
m school systems generally runs from
24 to 43 per cent. An exception is
Cecil County at the head of Chesa
peake Bay, which has only six per
cent.
Most of the integration has occurred
m Cecil, which last year had 54 Ne-
8^°es in 10 formerly all-white schools,
^is fall an additional 41 are ex
pected to enter the same schools.
REACHES 7TH GRADE
The only other Eastern Shore county
some integrated classes is Tal-
“°t, which began desegregation in the
“ u 'ee lowest grades amid demonstra-
10ns in 1956. Since then a grade a
year has been added without disturb-
^ces, go that integration will be
re ® < -'hing the seventh grade this fall.
4 he number involved last year was
small—12 Negroes in two formerly all-
hhe schools. One new application
w as received and approved this year,
the seven remaining Shore coun-
es have had no Negro transfer re
quests. All have policies covering all
grades except Dorchester, which be-
loS: 3 downward stairstep plan in
• The eighth grade was opened to
e § r o applications this year, without
*hy takers.
three counties
m h 6 ^ econ d Congressional District is
de U P of three central and northern
counties: Baltimore (which
ro j. n °t include Baltimore city), Car-
and Harford. All three were
sid° nS t ^ le sc h°°l districts out-
gj. 6 Baltimore city to enroll Ne-
l^ es in white schools, and all three
ti le - e srtl all proportions of Negroes in
hi R ? ystems —j^t under five percent
3 l , timore County and Carroll, and
per cent in Harford.
ha'
year Baltimore County will
one less Negro school,
°Ut f ntary unit having been c
stn.J^f Ju ne, and eight newly
ducted Schools 0^0,0^ oo c
a small
having been closed
con-
se„„ - schools are opening on a de
legated basis.
°f last year about one-third of
FIFTH DISTRICT
The Fifth Congressional District cov
ers the southern Maryland counties of
Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, How
ard, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s.
The proportion of Negroes in their
school systems ranges from 16 per
cent in Howard, which lies partly in
the Baltimore suburban area, to just
over 50 per cent in Calvert, which
borders on Chesapeake Bay.
By and large the district is generally
considered to be southern in its tra
ditions and sympathies, although Balti
more and Washington suburbanites are
spreading rapidly through former to
bacco fields and melon patches.
The most extensive integration will
occur in Anne Arundel County, which
includes the state capital of Annapolis
and, in its northern half, a substantial
portion of metropolitan Baltimore. Un
der a gradual program of voluntary
desegregation, Anne Arundel this year
has opened the eighth grade in all
high schools to Negro transfers, with
the exception of one school where the
ninth grade is also included.
As of last year there were 568 Ne
groes in eight formerly all-white
schools, which included all the sec
ondary schools in the county apart
from those housing senior highs only.
No estimate of the increase this year
is available.
VOLUNTARY PROGRAM
Prince George’s will have 75 to 80
additional Negroes in formerly white
schools under its program of volun
tary desegregation in all grades. In
part rural and in part Washington
suburbia. Prince George’s last year
had 255 Negroes in 26 formerly white
schools. It began its program in 1955,
when 65 Negroes were enrolled in
eight formerly white schools.
The county has more than 8,000 Ne
gro school pupils, the largest number
in any school district outside of Balti
more city. White pupils this year will
be upwards of 60,000.
On a percentage basis, Charles
County will have much the largest
integration increase in the state. Four
Negro children have applied for ad
mission to the formerly all-white ele
mentary school at Indianhead, and all
four applications have been approved.
If all four children are enrolled on
opening day, they will treble last
year’s integration figure, when two
Negro children attended the same
school.
With the second highest proportion
of Negro pupils (45 per cent) among
county school systems, Charles has this
year completed desegregation on the
elementary level by opening grades
five and six to Negro transfers.
After having had two Negroes in
one otherwise white school in the
in Integrated Schools
1958-59 school year, St. Mary’s County
(26 per cent Negro enrollment) will
again open on a segregated basis.
Since that time, St. Mary’s has com
pleted its desegregation program, per
mitting Negro transfer applications to
all grades. No applications were re
ceived for the current year.
Five years ago 66 Negro pupils were
parties to an integration petition. Sub
sequent improvements of Negro plants
and curricula are credited with the
current lack of interest in a move to
white schools.
FOUR REQUESTS
Howard County has had four new
requests for admissions to white
schools, and all four have been ap
proved. One additional white school
will be affected, if all those admitted
are enrolled. Howard’s gradual deseg
regation program moves upward to
the ninth grade this year.
While Howard has more than 1,102
Negro pupils (16 per cent of the school
population), desegregation through last
year was limited to the entrance of
10 Negroes to three formerly all-white
schools.
The remaining Fifth District county,
Calvert, has a procedure for handling
all requests for transfers among
schools, but it is one that has never
been specifically announced in terms
of Negro requests to enter white
schools since no such requests have
been received.
Calvert is the only Maryland county
with more Negro than white public
school pupils, and this year antici
pates a combined enrollment of 4,288,
an increase of 178 over last year. A
new school will be completed in De
cember.
SIXTH DISTRICT
The Sixth Congressional District
runs from Montgomery County on the
border of the District of Columbia to
the Appalachian highlands of western
Maryland. The district has the smaller
proportion of Negroes in the state:
none in the westernmost county of
Garrett, about two per cent in Alle
gany and Washington counties, nine
per cent in Frederick and just over
four per cent in Montgomery.
The district also has the most ex
tensive integration, relatively speak
ing, of any section of Maryland. Last
year more than half of the 4,811 Ne
gro children in the district attended
classes with white children under pro
grams actively aimed at eliminating
separate Negro classes.
Allegany County opens this year, as
last year, on a completely non-segre-
gated basis. The last separate classes
for its 300-odd Negro pupils were
closed out in June 1958, and both
pupils and teachers reassigned.
Washington County has completed
its desegregation plans to date. Sepa
rate classes for Negroes have been
eliminated in all but one instance: an
elementary school in the county seat
of Hagerstown, while nominally de
segregated, serves an all-Negro resi
dential area in which about half of
the county’s 360-odd Negro pupils live.
No room in other Hagerstown ele
mentary schools is available for these
pupils. As additional classrooms are
provided, it is planned to discontinue
the Negro school and convert the
building to other purposes.
HALF-WAY MARK
Frederick County passes the half
way mark this fall in its program of
eliminating separate Negro schools.
Last year 582 of its Negro children
were integrated into formerly all-
white schools, while 698 remained in
all-Negro schools. The latest steps are
expected to boost the number inte
grated to 740, while 540 remain in all-
Negro units.
The steps include the closing out of
another small Negro school; the exten
sion of integration to the ninth grades
of two schools were bi-racial attend
ance is prescribed; and the opening of
the last of the senior-high grades in
the Frederick (city) high school to
Negroes seeking the academic curricu
lum.
Montgomery County passed its half
way mark last year, and this fall an
ticipates having between 80 and 90
per cent of its approximately 2,900
Negro pupils in classes with white
pupils. All of the necessary plans have
been approved and funds provided to
bring about a complete shift to non-
segregated schooling.
This September for the first time
there will be no separate secondary-
grade classes for Negroes (the last Ne
gro secondary school is being con
verted to an administration building),
and the year will open with one less
all-Negro elementary school (three re
main). Five new schools will have
September openings in the booming
suburbanized county, and six others
are to be ready during the first semes
ter.
A Negro former teacher in Balti
more County, Mrs. Emily Harris, who
left classroom work after six years for
maternity reasons, has charged pub
licly that her request to be rehired
had been turned down on racial
ground.
According to an account in the Bal
timore Evening Sun, Mrs. Harris said
that she had been informed by a
school personnel aide that while the
county needed additional certified
teachers, they should be “white teach
ers.”
“Absolutely not true” was the reply
of Edward G. Stapleton, county super
intendent and secretary of the county
school board, in the same news article.
“It is not a school board policy,”
Stapleton said. “There must have been
some reason other than her race.
We’re trying to get the very best
teachers, white or colored.”
ENOUGH OTHERS
After examining Mrs. Harris’s rec
ord at two county schools, Stapleton
said, “Although she had a good record
we have enough other persons on our
lists.”
Acknowledging that Mrs. Harris is
certified to teach in the county schools
at a time when uncertified teachers
are being hired, Stapleton explained
that “certification is not the only con
sideration.” He did not elaborate be
yond saying that the school board re
serves the right to hire teachers who
will “develop.”
Baltimore County, a largely white
suburban area with less than five per
cent Negro school enrollment, has
about 15 Negro teachers assigned to
predominantly white classes. Most of
them were displaced from formerly
all-Negro schools in the county’s ex
tensive desegregation moves. Summing
up, Stapleton said:
“In Baltimore County we’ve been
very successful with integration. We’re
moving along slowly, transferring Ne
gro teachers to white schools. We’re
doing it cautiously, slowly, carefully.
We’re considering every step we take. 1 '
NO INSTANCE
State school officials know of no in
stance in Maryland where Negro teach
ers have been displaced or dismissed
because of integration. When Negro
classes are closed out, the teachers are
reassigned along with their pupils.
Aside from Baltimore County, Negro
teachers frequently have been assigned
to formerly all-white schools in Balti
more city and to a lesser extent in
four counties.
Maryland has no school law or by
law that says a certified teacher must
be hired ahead of an uncertified one.
It also provides no guarantee that a
teacher who is granted a maternity
leave will get her old job back.
NEW SUPERINTENDENTS
Pupils returning to classes in three
Maryland counties are to be greeted
by new county school superintendents.
Gerald E. Richter, formerly a high
school supervisor in Carroll County,
is the new superintendent in Talbot
Comity. Robert A. Gibson, formerly a
senior high school principal in Mont
gomery County, is the new superin
tendent in his home county of Cecil.
John L. Bond, formerly the super
visor of secondary education in Somer
set County, is now the superintendent
in that county.
The Baltimore Sun reported on Aug.
22 that the white Teachers Assn, of
Anne Arundel County had voted to
accept Negro members. News of the
vote, which, in effect, merges white
and Negro professional organizations in
Anne Arundel, was published in the
July issue of Southern School News.
The Sun news article noted that the
merger was the first desegregation of a
public school teacher organization in
Maryland since Negro and white
groups merged in Cecil, Frederick and
Montgomery counties in the spring of
1955.
Joseph M. Parlett Jr., president of
the Anne Arundel association, was
quoted as saying, “No pitfalls have
been encountered as yet. The move
was long overdue.” # # #
North Carolina
(Continued From Page 6)
ment of about 1,550. This year, that
student will return and enrollment
will be about the same.
In addition, from among four trans
fer requests, the school board has
granted one transfer; a Negro student
is to enter the first grade at Bethune
Elementary School, where the enroll
ment is to be about 330.
This will be the first Negro student
in a desegregated first grade in the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg system.
61,000 STUDENTS
The total enrollment of about 61,000
students is expected to include 43,800
white students and 17,200 Negro stu
dents. Of these, 22,800 whites and 4,200
Negroes for a total of 27,000 are ex
pected to come from the old county
schools district, while 21,000 whites and
13,000 Negroes for a total of 34,000 are
expected from the old city school dis
trict.
Desegregation was never an issue in
the vote, held a year ago, which made
consolidation of the city and county
school districts possible.
YANCEY RULING AWAITED
Whether Yancey County (county
seat, Burnsville) would have desegre
gation depended on a school decision
which had not been made at the end
of the month.
Arguments in the case were heard
by Federal District Court Judge Wil
son Warlick in Asheville in July. At
torneys filed briefs in early August,
and a decision has been expected al
most daily.
Yancey County, which has about
4,000 white students and 33 Negro stu
dents, has been without a public
school for its Negro students for two
years (Southern School News, July
and August 1960).
The Yancey school board, with a
loan of $30,000 made by the State
Board of Education from the State Lit
erary Fund, has built a new three-
room school, which it expects to have
in use when school opens.
If desegregation is ordered, Yancey
would be North Carolina’s ninth com
munity to have desegregation, and the
Negro students involved would be the
first in the state to enter a previously
all-white school as the direct result of
a court order. All other desegregation
has been by voluntary action of school
board so far.
A motion to dismiss a desegregation
suit against the Durham school board
has been denied by Judge Edwin M.
Stanley in Middle District federal
court in Greensboro. The case was set
for argument in Durham on Oct. 3.
The suit has been filed by 165 Ne
gro students who were among the 226
who sought transfers from Negro to
white schools in Durham last year.
The Durham board had claimed that
the suit was a class action and was not
properly instituted under the state
school assignment law.
ENTERS ORDER
Judge Stanley entered an order in
the case, stating that he would, as re
quested, dismiss the suit against in
dividual members of the board, but
would not dismiss the suit against the
board itself, the legally constituted
organization in charge of the assign
ment of pupils.
Earlier, the plaintiffs had asked for
an early hearing on the motion to dis
miss the action, claiming that delay
until September would result in the
plaintiffs being “irreparably injured by
being completely foreclosed from the
opportunity of securing jurisdiction
herein prior to commencement of the
1960-61 school year.”
The suit claims that before the 1959-
60 school year the failure of the Dur
ham school board to admit more than
eight of the 226 Negro students who
applied for admission to previously all-
white schools denied the Negro stu
dents due process of law and violated
the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Harnett County school board
has rejected the requests of four In
dian students for admission to Dunn
High School. This is the second year
requests from Indians have been filed.
The Indians are sent 70 miles a day
to a special school in another county.
The parents contend the lengthy trip
discourages the children as students
and denies them an equal opportunity.
Several eastern North Carolina
counties have small groups of In
dians, some of which attend schools
especially established for them.
# # #