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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, # # #