Newspaper Page Text
SOUT
UNIVERSITY Of GEORGIA
OCT 7 '60
ool New
*©5
0 o
be ■
iout
H 0 I s I A i r - . T “ * £ N 3 H i »
^ o I JL | s , n 0 D V
V I o - n ir, , „ S 3 I u y y g | i
Objective
VOL. 7, NO. 4
:E
$2 PER YEAR
OCTOBER, I960
ink
>ols
’ D ;
n’s
i Ji
South Marks First \ear Without Violence
TEXAS
am
ngs
sch
H
SUf
d i
een
one
it
sch
as
Houston Desegregates;
11 Negroes Admitted
HOUSTON, Texas
E leven Negro children entered
Houston classes with whites
in September, eliminating segre
gation in what had been the na
tion’s largest segregated school
system. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Fredericksburg, a west Texas
town, voted to admit its two Ne
gro students to white schools,
making 130 desegregated school
districts in the state. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
A federal court law suit was
filed to desegregate the Northeast
Houston Independent School Dis
trict. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court
of Appeals set a hearing at Fort
Worth on Nov. 15 to review the
appeal of Dallas Negroes from a
court order approving a “salt-
and-pepper” desegregation plan
to begin in September 1961. (See
‘‘Legal Action.”)
Negroes at Port Arthur, in east
Texas, indicated they would sue
to abolish segregation in schools
there. (See “Legal Action.”)
Atty. Gen. Will Wilson declared that
Texas schools which desegregate to
comply with a court order, like Hous
ton, would not lose state funds, despite
a 1957 state law requiring referendum
approval. (See “Legal Action.”)
A new survey indicated that an in
creasing number of Texans believe
integration should be accepted as in
evitable. (See “Under Survey.”)
E even Negroes were admitted to
lour formerly all-white classrooms in
three Houston elementary schools in
compliance to an order by U.S. Dist.
Nlte Ben C. Connally, upheld by
higher federal courts. (Ross v. Rogers,
se e Southern School News, September
I960 and previous.)
All are first-graders. Tyronne Ray-
r "'°"d Day, age six, was the first to end
'vhat had been the nation’s largest
5
X
Governors
L'rge Study
Of Constitution
HOT SPRINGS, Ark.
\T embers of the Southern
Governors’ Conference
a §reed at their 26th annual meet-
here to urge the study—in
” k and in the nation—of
the Constitution of the United
‘ lates and its principles.”
Segregation otherwise seldom
as touched during the confer-
(Related Story, Page 16)
ence,
Pla
except for occasional ex-
hations of local conditions by
JV em° rs in response to press
°Tlf renCe ^Huiries.
0r new chairman of the South-
■p 1 ^ e gional Education Board,
ton nneSSee s Gov ’ Buford EHing-
’ said the integration-segrega-
(Se e CONFERENCE, Page 13)
segregated school system (125,175 white
and 46,603 Negroes enrolled this year).
Tyrone, the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Marcellus Day, was assigned to a first-
grade class at Kashmere Gardens Ele
mentary School, in a neighborhood
which has many Negro families as well
as whites. His father is custodian at a
bank and his mother a teacher.
The youngster was accepted the day
after regular classes had started. The
announcement came somewhat as a
surprise to newsmen who had expected
Houston school administrators to take
longer in applying the board’s new
policy of screening Negro applicants
for integration.
NUMBERS ABOUT SAME
The other 10 Negroes were admitted
to first grade rooms with white pupils
during the next few days. Supt. John
(See TEXAS, Page 16)
Incidents Accompanied School Openings
In Other Years Following 1954 Ruling
rilHis year, for the first time
A since the 1954 school deseg
regation decision by the U. S.
Supreme Court, the South’s pub
lic schools opened without vio
lence.
Major violence, ranging from
boycotts and mob action to bomb
ings, had marked the school op
ening's in the region for the previ
ous six years.
Southern School News cor
respondents reported no racial in
cidents during the first month of
the new session in the 768 deseg
regated school districts. Seven
teen of the districts for the first
time admitted Negroes to for
merly all-white classes.
The nation’s largest segregated school
system, Houston, Tex., admitted 11 Ne
groes to predominantly white classes
under a plan ordered by federal courts.
The change left Dallas as the nation’s
largest dual school system.
Two other Texas districts, Frenship
and Fredericksburg, desegregated vol
untarily following local elections on
the question.
Virginia had five districts to deseg
regate, the most that any state re
ported. The new desegregation in Fair
fax County, Grayson County-Galax,
Pulaski County, Richmond and Ro
anoke raised to 205 the number of
Negroes attending schools with whites.
Dollarway this year became Arkan
sas’s tenth desegregated school dis
trict in the state’s first peaceful school
opening since September 1956.
At least two additional Delaware
districts admitted Negroes to previ
ously all-white schools. State officials
did not know if more districts than
Seaford and Newport desegregated for
the first time.
FINANCIAL REASONS
Two Oklahoma districts, Wewoka and
Sapulpa, desegregated voluntarily,
chiefly for financial reasons, as they
had announced previously.
Raleigh and Chapel Hill, N. C., op
ened their first desegregated classes.
Yancey County has until Oct. 13 to
Summary of Developments, by States
S tate-by-state, the major de
velopments on school segrega
tion-desegregation during Septem
ber were:
Alabama
Schools opened with no new cases
reported of Negroes seeking to enter
white schools. (Page 13)
Arkansas
The Arkansas Educational Assn, of
white teachers took a stand against
proposed Constitutional Amendment 52.
(Page 11)
Delaware
The State Department of Public In
struction will present the State Board
of Education with a desegregation plan
for all Delaware schools. (Page 15)
District of Columbia
Arthur S. Fleming, secretary of
health, education and welfare, sharply
criticized the continued closing of
Prince Edward County, Va., schools to
avoid desegregation. (Page 4)
Florida
Florida opened the school year with
some school desegregation from the
first grade to the university levels.
(Page 8)
Georgia
F ederal court denied a preliminary
injunction to two Negroes seeking ad
mission to the University of Georgia.
(Page 3)
Kentucky
Two Negroes were included in the
11 appointees to the new statewide
Commission on Human Rights. (Page
13)
Louisiana
New Orleans public schools, ordered
to desegregate by Nov. 14, opened with
a sharp drop in white enrollment.
(Page 2)
Maryland
St. Mary’s County returned to the
list of schools desegregated in fact after
having had no Negroes enrolled with
whites for the past year. (Page 10)
Mississippi
State officials authorized additional
facilities at Negro colleges in the wake
of the largest enrollment in history.
(Page 10)
Missouri
St. Louis transported some 3,200 ele
mentary school children by bus to less
crowded school districts, introducing
Negroes to six schools previously all-
white. (Page 14)
North Carolina
Raleigh admitted one Negro to a
white school, becoming the state’s
ninth district to desegregate. (Page 9)
Oklahoma
White enrollment dropped in an in
tegrated school despite efforts to sta
bilize the surrounding neighborhood’s
population. (Page 14)
South Carolina
A new school desegregation suit was
filed in federal court, this one involv
ing Marion County. (Page 7)
Tennessee
Nashville began its fourth year un
der the court-approved grade-a-year
desegregation plan. (Page 5)
Texas
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap
peals set Nov. 15 to review the appeal
by Dallas Negroes on the “salt-and-
pepper” desegregation plan ordered for
1961. (Page 1)
Virginia
A U.S. district judge threw out Fair
fax County’s grade-a-year plan and
ordered 19 more Negroes admitted im
mediately. (Page 6)
West Virginia
West Virginia’s public schools and
colleges opened without any reported
racial incidents. (Page 8) # # #
Segregat
ion
-Desegregat
ion Status
School Districts
Enrollment
In Desegregated Negroes In
Districts Schools With
Total Bi-
racial
Deseg.
White
Negro
White
Negro
Whites
Alabama
113
113
0
516,135-1
271,1341
0
0
0
Arkansas
419
226
10
316,000*
104,000*
51,000*
10,000*
102
Delaware
94
51
21
63,0881
14,0631
38,8981
7,3991
6,1961
District of Columbia .
1
1
1
27,136t
89,451t
27,1361
89,4511
73,2901
Florida
67
67
1
790,000*
210,000*
129,1861
26,6481
829
Georgia
197
192
0
617,4561
299,1991-
0
0
0
Kentucky
210
173
124
572,000*
43,000*
400,000*
33,000*
13,000*
Louisiana
67
67
0
440,000*
278,000*
0
0
0
Maryland
24
23
23
452,487*
135,158*
410,4821
116,1641
28,0721
Mississippi
151
151
0
292,000*
283.000*
0
0
0
Missouri
1.889
214*
200*
758,000*
80,000*
—
75,000*
35,000*
North Carolina
173
173
9
816,6821
302,0601
109,000*
53,000*
77
Oklahoma
1,276
241
189
504,125*
40,875*
266,405*
30,725*
10,520*
South Carolina
108
108
0
356,293*
264,216*
0
0
0
Tennessee
154
143
6
670,680*
157,320*
86,427*
19,285*
313
Texas
1,548
720
130
1,835,108*
288,859*
800,000*
85,000*
3,500*
Virginia
130
128
11
668,500*
211,000*
178,731*
52,286*
205
West Virginia
55
43
43
427,8641
24,010-)
427,8641
24,010-1
12,0001
Totals
6,676 2,834
768
10,123,554
3,095,345
2,925,129
621,968
183,104
*1960-61 estimates
fl959-60 figures
desegregate its high schools. It would
be the state’s tenth desegregated dis
trict and the first in North Carolina
under a court order.
In Tennessee two additional districts,
Knoxville and surrounding Knox
County, announced desegregation plans.
However, no Negroes applied in the
county schools. Davidson County schools,
in suburban Nashville, have until Oct.
19 to file a desegregation plan with fed
eral court.
ORLEANS OFFICIALS ACT
In New Orleans, Louisiana officials
took no further action to intervene as
four of the five members of the Orleans
Parish school board planned to deseg
regate the public schools Nov. 14 un
der federal court order.
Last year, Southern Education Re
porting Service recorded 19 new dis
tricts admitting Negroes with whites
during the first month of school.
According to the best estimates
available this early in the school year,
the 17-state region has 6,676 districts,
2,834 of them bi-racial. The enrollment
includes about 10,123,554 whites and
3,095,345 Negroes.
Approximately 183,104 Negroes are
attending schools with whites this ses
sion, as compared to the 181,020 re
ported lsst spring. The 788 districts
with some degree of desegregation have
almost three million whites and about
600,000 Negroes enrolled.
TROUBLE DEVELOPED
Trouble resulting from the resistance
to school desegregation developed
within months after the Supreme
Court’s first decision in May 1954. In
the fall of that year, students and
adults demonstrated in Washington,
D. C.; Baltimore; Milford, Del.; and
White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.
In Milford and White Sulphur
Springs the resistance delayed deseg
regation, and the Negro students re
turned to all-Negro schools.
In 1955, Hoxie in northeast Arkansas
admitted about 25 Negroes to its white
schools. Threats of violence and in
timidating telephone calls c used the
school board to obtain federal court
injunctions against interference.
DYNAMITING ATTEMPTED
Also in 1955, a dynamiting was at
tempted on the home of a Negro whose
two children attended all-white schools
in Easton, Md. Later in the school
year, 30 white boys raided a Negro
settlement in Milford, Del., one of a
long series of racial incidents there
dating back to the Supreme Court’s
decision.
The violence accompanying school
desegregation increased in intensity in
September 1956. Tennessee’s governor
ordered National Guardsmen into Clin
ton; the governor of Texas sent Texas
Rangers to Mansfield and later had to
transfer the Negro students from the
district. Kentucky National Guard
troops went into Sturgis and Clay to
control protesting mobs, but the Ne
groes were not allowed to remain in
the schools.
WORST VIOLENCE
The worst violence occurred in Sep
tember 1957 at two of the South’s larger
cities. Hattie Cotton Elementary was
dynamited in Nashville. In Little Rock,
National Guard troops ordered out by
Gov. Orval Faubus prevented nine Ne
groes from entering Central High. Fed
eral troops were sent in to restore or
der, and the schools later closed.
Fear of violence over desegregation
contributed to Norfolk’s closing its
public schools in September 1958. The
schools re-opened in early 1959, and
17 Negroes entered all-white schools
without incident.
Clinton experienced violence again
in October 1958 when a dynamite blast
wrecked the school.
Little Rock resumed operating its
schools on a desegregated basis in the
fall of 1959 but not without trouble.
A bomb exploded outside a predomi
nantly white high school attended by
Negroes. Police stopped a mob march
ing on another desegregated high
school, # # #