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PAGE 8—SEPTEMBER I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Desegregation Slated in 14 Additional Southern School Districts
(Continued From Page 1)
opened formerly all-white first grade
classes to Negroes.
Frenship District in Lubbock County,
Tex., voted last spring to desegregate
this fall.
Virginia has five districts desegregat
ing for the first time, the largest num
ber of any state. The State Pupil Place
ment Board assigned Negroes to Fairfax
County schools and to Richmond and
Roanoke. Negroes will be admitted to
Pulaski County and the Grayson Coun-
ty-Galax community by court order.
The big question marks at school
opening were New Orleans and Hous
ton. The Louisiana city was under fed
eral court orders to desegregate but
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis took control of
the schools under state law and or
dered them opened on a segregated
basis. The contest continued in the
courts.
Houston, the nation’s sixth largest
school system, was ordered in August
to desegregate for the first time at
school opening. But the school board
planned to appeal the federal court de
cision.
Here, in more detail, is the state-by-
state situation on school opening:
Alabama
A labama public schools will reopen
segregated at all levels. No federal
court orders to desegregate have been
issued and none seems imminent, al
though Negroes have filed a school suit
in Birmingham and Montgomery Ne
groes have indicated they may take
such action in the capital.
Thus the state’s 113 school districts,
all bi-racial, will remain segregated.
Enrollment is expected to be up about
10,000 over the last official compilation,
which revealed a total of 775,981 pupils
in Alabama public schools—508,722
white and 267,259 Negro. The increase
is expected to be about a third Negro,
roughly the same as the present per
centage of total enrollment.
There are only two integrated col
leges in the state, both private: Spring
Hill College, a Catholic liberal arts in
stitution near Mobile, and Talladega
College, a Congregationalist Christian
school at Talladega, Ala.
The University of Alabama is still
under a permanent injunction to accept
all qualified students regardless of race.
No Negro students have been enrolled,
although several have applied for ad
mission to the University Montgomery
Center (Southern School News, May
and June).
Arkansas
J^ollarway school district at Pine
Bluff has assigned one Negro to the
first grade of the white school for Sep
tember to become the tenth Arkansas
school district to have desegregation in
some degree this year. Last year there
were nine.
At Fort Smith, going up a grade-a-
year, desegregation will move into the
fourth grade, and Van Buren will ex
tend its plan down to the sixth grade
from the junior and senior highs. Oth
erwise there are no known changes in
the desegregation situation in Arkan
sas.
Fort Smith had four Negroes last
year in the first three grades and ex
pects to have four or five this year in
the first four grades. Van Buren had
23 last year in the top six grades. Four
were graduated, but about four are
expected to enroll in the white sixth
grade this fall.
226 BI-RACIAL
Arkansas has 419 school districts
with 226 of them bi-racial. The state
wide enrollment will be about 316,000
white and 104,000 Negro.
Last year the enrollment in the de
segregated schools was 98 Negro and
8,092 white. This year about 101 to 103
Negroes are expected to be in school
with whites, by districts as follows:
Bentonville two, Charleston eight to 10,
Dollarway one, Fayetteville about 31,
Fort Smith about four or five, Hot
Springs four, Hoxie eight, Little’Rock
13, Pulaski County (rural) 10 and Van
Buren 23.
Delamare
'Jpwo additional white districts are
expected to enroll Negro pupils
when Delaware schools open in Sep
tember, making 21 desegregated out of
a total 51 bi-racial districts.
According to records at the State De
partment of Public Instruction, Negroes
have applied at the Seaford Special
School District in Sussex County and
at the Krebs School in the Newport,
Wilmington, State Board District No.
21. It is believed that only one Negro
pupil is involved in each case, with the
Seaford student being a second-grader.
Negroes were allowed to enter the
first grade in all Delaware schools last
year after a U.S. District Court ap
proved the grade-a-year plan. But
none applied at either Seaford or
Krebbs.
Other districts also may receive Ne
gro pupils as the schools reopen, al
though a special first-grade registra
tion was held last May. Delaware has
94 school districts.
The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Ap
peals, which in July struck down Dela
ware’s grade-a-year plan and ordered
integration at all grade levels in 1961,
ordered that the gradual plan be con
tinued in 1960.
It further ordered some 20 Negro
pupils admitted this year. Nobody seems
to know what districts these pupils
now reside in, or whether they still
wish to transfer to a white school. The
State Board of Education has asked a
stay of judgment concerning the 20
Negroes.
The Delaware school population in
September is expected to reach about
81,000, including about 66,000 whites
and 15,000 Negroes.
Delaware has two colleges, the Uni
versity of Delaware at Newark and
Delaware State College at Dover. Both
accept either race.
District of Columbia
, J 1 he District of Columbia, compris
ing one school district, has been
desegregated since 1954. District schools
expect a total enrollment of about 120,-
000 this fall but school officials decline
to offer a racial breakdown until a pre
cise count has been made.
Florida
gEPTEMBER SCHOOL OPENING found four
public and one private school de
segregated in Dade County. Elsewhere
in the state there was no integration.
Estimated enrollment in the Dade
public schools that have integrated was
expected to be approximately 2,300
whites and 775 Negroes. Two schools
newly integrated, North Miami Beach
Junior High and Fblford Elementary,
have one Negro each, with 1,200 and
350 white pupils, respectively. Regis
tration at Homestead Air Base School
approximates 750 white and 22 Negro.
Archbishop Curley High, a private
Catholic school, has enrolled three Ne
groes among its 560 boys.
Negroes have sought to enter white
schools in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Palm
Beach, Escambia and Volusia counties
but have been turned down. Tampa
school authorities reported a “quiet ef
fort” by Negro parents to register their
children in white schools.
Though the state university system is
officially integrated, there will be no
bi-racial classes this year. Two Negroes
accepted at the University of Florida
were dropped for scholastic reasons.
The Board of Control said there have
been no Negro applications so far this
semester.
State school officials estimate opening
day enrollment at approximately 1,000,-
000—about five per cent higher than
opening day last year.
Georgia
^.EORGIA BEGINS THE 1960-61 School
term with complete segregation
prevailing at every educational level in
its 198 school districts.
Approximately one-third of the one
million public school students in at
tendance are Negro. Desegregation pe
titions have been filed with six school
boards over the state but only one,
Atlanta, has been ordered to desegre
gate—the deadline being May 1, 1961.
In higher education, Georgia State
College of Atlanta has been ordered by
a federal court not to disqualify other
wise eligible Negro applicants because
of race but no Negro students are going
to the college.
Kentucky
J^ENTUCKY EXPECTS little change in the
desegregation picture this year, ex
cept for the customary slight annual
increase in classes already integrated.
An estimated 13,000 Negroes will be in
classes with whites.
The state has 210 school districts,
with 173 of them bi-racial. Of these,
124 have desegregated and 49 are seg
regated.
None of the districts will be desegre
gating for the first time, with the pos
sible exception of Bourbon County.
Elementary schools might beat the all
school deadline of September 1961 or
dered by the school board on Aug. 15.
The board’s action was a voluntary re
sponse to requests for Negro admission
this fall.
Estimated enrollment for the 1960-
61 term is 572,000 whites and 43,000
Negroes, for a total of 615,000 students.
In the colleges, eight senior state
schools and the University of Louisville
have desegregated. They expect several
hundred Negroes in a total enrollment
of 28,000.
Louisiana
grxTY-srx of Louisiana’s 67 public
school districts are scheduled to
open in September on a continued basis
of segregation.
But a question mark hangs over the
largest district of the state, comprising
the city of New Orleans. Its 118 public
schools, expected to house 53,000 Ne
groes and 42,000 whites, have been
seized by Gov. Jimmie H. Davis to pre
vent desegregation as ordered by U.S.
District Judge J. Skelly Wright. But
the governor’s action has been chal
lenged in federal court.
Louisiana’s estimated school registra
tion, based on past years increases,
would place white enrollment at about
440,000 and Negro enrollment at some
278,000 for the upcoming year.
Though the Orleans Parish (county)
school is the only board facing the im
mediate order of integration, two other
school boards are under directives to
proceed with desegregation “with all
deliberate speed.” East Baton Rouge
Parish and St. Helena Parish have
been ordered to integrate but no date
has been set nor plan drawn.
Maryland
^lose to one-fourth of all Negro pu
pils in Maryland are expected to be
enrolled for the fall term in formerly
all-white schools. The integration is ex
pected to occur in the same 14 school
districts (13 counties and Baltimore
City) that had some integration during
the past school year.
No integration is anticipated in the
remaining nine bi-racial school dis
tricts, which through late August had
received no Negro transfer requests.
Additional grade's and schools are to
be desegregated in many of the inte
grated districts, all through voluntary
action of local school boards. A rough
estimate is that some 5,000 additional
Negroes will be entering formerly white
schools, raising the state total to more
than 33,000 Negroes in classes with
whites.
The only official enrollment estimate
available is that Maryland in 1960-61
will have a total school population of
587,645, a gain of 15,325 over last year.
If past racial trends hold true, the total
figure would break down to 452,487
white and 135,158 Negro pupils in the
state.
In all, Maryland has 24 school dis
tricts, one of which has no Negro pu
pils. Desegregation policies are in effect
in the 23 bi-racial districts, with 14
having actual integration and nine con
tinuing to have racially separate
schools.
Mississippi
jypssissippi opens the 1960-61 school
year with complete segregation at
all levels of its public schools—elemen
tary through college. And it remains
the only southern state in which a suit
has not been filed to desegregate
schools.
J. M. Tubb, state superintendent of
education, expects the enrollment to be
up 1.5 per cent over last year in the
151 school districts, all of them bi-
racial. The anticipated enrollment is
292,000 whites and 283,000 Negroes, for
a total 575,000 students.
Missouri
'pHE Missouri Department of Educa
tion estimates that total public
school enrollment in September 1960,
kindergarten through twelfth grade,
will be 838,723. The comparable esti
mate for September 1959 was 823,150.
These estimates do not include ap
proximately 40,000 students enrolled at
state-supported universities and col
leges, and at junior colleges supported
by city school systems.
The state’s school districts have been
reduced to 1,889 from the approximate
ly 4,000 districts that were in existence
when the U.S. Supreme Court decision
on school segregation was handed
down in 1954.
It is estimated that Negroes in public
schools in Missouri number between
77,000 and 83,000. The great majority of
these are concentrated in the St. Louis
and Kansas City systems, which have
at least 64,000 of the total. An addition
al 4,000 to 5,000 are in the St. Louis
County public schools.
The St. Louis Public School System
expects a total enrollment of 103,250,
including about 46,000 Negroes. In fast
growing St. Louis County, the expected
total enrollment in public schools is
119,000. Approximately 4,000 to 5,000
will be Negroes. In Kansas City the
most recent available statistics on the
white-Negro proportion in public
schools are for September 1959. The
total enrollment then was 67,672, in
cluding 18,073 Negroes.
Missouri has been estimated by the
State Department of Education to be
more than 95 per cent integrated, but
official figures are not available. The
best guess—and it should be regarded
as a guess—is that there are about 214
bi-racial school districts and of these
200 are desegregated. The non-avail
ability of official information, together
with the telescoping or consolidation of
school districts in recent years, has
compounded the difficulty of keeping
any kind of accurate unofficial box
score.
No changes affecting desegregation of
schools in districts have been reported
as taking place this September. Prevail
ing estimates are that some 75,000 Ne
gro public school enrollees are in de
segregated school districts, and some
35,000 attend schools also attended by
white children.
North Carolina
J\JoRth Carolina expects a school en
rollment of more than 1,100,000
students in 173 districts this fall. About
29 per cent of the state’s public school
enrollment is Negro. Desegregation will
be in effect in eight and perhaps nine
districts.
In Charlotte, Craven County, High
Point, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-
Salem and Chapel Hill, 142,654 students
(96,602 white and 46,052 Negro) are
expected to be enrolled. All these dis
tricts will have some desegregated
schools.
Wayne County, which had three Ne
groes enrolled with whites last year,
was expected to have some desegrega
tion again this year but figures were
not yet available. Yancey County may
have desegregation but that depends on
a court decision, which had not been
made at the end of the month. Figures
for Wayne and Yancey counties are
not included here.
Chapel Hill, with 3,750 students
(2,600 white and 1,150 Negro) will
have three Negro students and 397
white students in Estes Elementary
School.
Craven County, with 8,200 students
(5,500 white and 2,700 Negro) will have
17 students in Havelock and Graham
Barden elementary schools, where the
total enrollment is to be about 2,800.
TWELVE TO ATTEND
In Durham, where the total enroll
ment is to be about 14,472 (7,982 white
and 6,490 Negro), twelve Negro students
are to attend three desegregated
schools with an enrollment of about
3,200. These are Durham High School
with five Negroes among 1,500 stu
dents, Brogden Junior High School
with three Negro among 700 students,
and Carr Junior High School with four
Negroes among 1,000 students. These
figures may change, however, because
the Durham school board still has ap
plications for transfer pending from
more than 200 Negro students.
In High Point the enrollment was ex
pected to be 11,457 (8,845 white and
2,612 Negro), with two Negro students
at High Point Senior High School
where the total enrollment is to be
1,400. Transfer requests were still
pending, however, and these figures
could change.
In Greensboro, where the enrollment
is expected to be 21,275 (14,875 white
and 6,400 Negro), five Negro students
are to attend Gillespie School, which is
to have an enrollment of 530 students
in nine grades.
EXPECTS NINE
Winston-Salem, with an enrollment
of 22,500 (13,000 white and 9,500 Ne
gro), expects eight Negro students at
Easton Elementary where the enroll
ment is to be between 450 and 500, and
one Negro student at Reynolds High
where total enrollment is to be about
1,300.
In the consolidated Charlotte-Meck-
lenburg system, enrollment was expect
ed to be 61,000 (43,800 white and 17,200
Negro). One Negro student was expect
ed at Garinger High School, which is
to have 1,550 students, and one Negro
student, was expected to be among the
330 students at Bethune Elementary
School
Though figures were not availably
desegregation was to continue at N.
State, the Woman’s College of the Unj 0 f
versity of North Carolina and the Uni 1
versity of North Carolina. Last yea^,
about 50 Negro students were enrolls A
in all three institutions.
-so
Oklahoma &
Qklahoka begins the 1960-61 schotgt
year with two additional desegreN
gated districts—Wewoka, with 350 Neys
groes and 1,140 whites, and Sapulp r e
with 375 Negroes and 3,425 white fa
Both desegregated voluntarily bt ci
chiefly for financial reasons. N
Mandatory and voluntary annexation “1
lopped 47 districts off the statewide to n
tal, leaving 1,276. Although it is m ir
known definitely, as many as 10 coul
have been bi-racial, thus dropping tt ei
total to 241. Three districts known t J
be desegregated—Excelsior and Cron a
well in Seminole County and Louis Hi v
in Harmon County—were among thos
that went out of existence. As far j
can be determined on the basis i
available information, the new total ( -
desegregated districts is 189. r
The state’s total enrollment for th
upcoming year is estimated at 545,0ft .
including about 504,125 whites and 40, ,
875 Negroes. Some 266,405 white stu
dents and 30,725 Negroes are in into j
grated districts. Approximately 10,52 2
Negro pupils will be attending 4J
schools with whites.
About 55,000 students attended Okla 9
homa colleges and universities last yea s
—43,000 in public institutions and 12,
000 in independent schools. The tota t
is expected to be three to four pe - t
cent higher this year.
South Carolina
po date, South Carolina has had n
desegregation at any level of th 5
public school establishment, from ele i
mentary levels through the universitj c
The schools are expected to open ft 1
the 1960-61 session with all 108 schoo i
districts segregated. s
The state’s Special Segregation Com
mittee said on Aug. 17 that it antici- <
pated “a peaceful, orderly and progres- i
sive session.” ]
Enrollment for the approaching se* 1
sion is estimated at 356,293 whites ant <
264,216 Negroes—a total 620,509 stu- :
dents. The five all-white colleges esti
mate their enrollment will be 13,15 i
and the one Negro college expects a: -
enrollment of 1,290. <
Tennessee
puBLic schools in Tennessee open for
their 1960-61 terms with six of thf
state’s 154 school districts desegregat
ed—two of them for the first time.
Lawsuits are pending that seek de
segregation at Memphis and Chatta
nooga but decisions appeared unlikelj
before this month’s openings. Kings
port has voluntarily adopted grade-a-
year desegregation but it is not expect
ed to become operative this year.
By a U.S. District Court order hand
ed down last month, Knoxville starts *
grade-a-year program beginning witl
the first grade. The Knoxville city
school system includes 40 schools, 2!
of them elementary. Of the 28 elemen
tary school zones, an estimated 15 at*
bi-racial. Nine of the 15 have been all-
white, six have been all-Negro.
Late in August, Knox County decide!
to follow suit.
Expected enrollment in all KnoxviU'
city schools this year is 18,000 whites
and 5,000 Negroes. First-grade enroll
ment is estimated at 1,900 whites and
600 Negroes. About 83 Negroes were
believed eligible to attend formerly
all-white schools; about the same num
ber of whites may enroll in previously
Negro schools. But officials expected
many to utilize liberal transfer privi
leges as members of a racial minority'
Bi-racial classes will continue 1°
Nashville city schools (through the
fourth grade this year), at Clinton
High School, in the Oak Ridge system
and at Coleman School in Smyrna-
near Murfreesboro. All were desegre
gated by court orders except that 0&
Ridge, which was established under
federal jurisdiction.
Of Tennessee’s 154 public school dis
tricts, 143 are inhabited by both whit® 5
and Negroes. Eleven districts report ®°
Negroes. Six districts have varying
degrees of desegregation, ranging fro® 1
one grade to all 12 grades.
Statewide, public school enrollment-
are expected to total about 675,00°
whites, 148,000 Negroes. Enrollments >®
integrated districts are expected to &
approximately 58,000 whites and 20,00°
Negroes. It was estimated that betwe®®
200 and 250 Negroes may be enroll®®
(See SURVEY, Page 9)