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ANY A YOUNG SOUTHERNER
ieia; ^ who has attende d segregated
schools all his life is apt to find
himself in a desegregated class-
id's 1 ' 00111 when goes to college, the
ch 'latest survey by Southern
deatScHOOL News indicates.
«oti More than half the South’s pub-
ea h]jc colleges have desegregated. By
contrast, just over one-fourth of
pn the region’s bi-racial school dis
tricts have desegregated.
y ^ The Southern School News
wyetsurvey showed that of 199 pre-
!S iidominantly white public colleges
116 are desegregated in practice or
^principle. Of 38 predominantly
oint(N e g ro colleges, 14 are desegregat-
Hair
ublic Colleges Desegregated
ed. This makes 130 desegregated
tax-supported colleges in a total
of 237.
No exact figures are available on the
extent of desegregation in private col
leges. Practices vary widely in private
colleges, and some of these institutions
are reluctant to disclose their racial
policies. Some private colleges have
started desegregation in the face of
state laws, still on the books, which
require segregation. Sometimes private
colleges feel that the less said about
their desegregation plans, the better
desegregation’s chances.
Generally speaking, college desegre
gation began sooner and spread more
rapidly than desegregation below the
college level. Of the 17 southern and
border states that maintained compul
sory segregation in their elementary
and secondary schools at the time of
the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision, 12
had at least some college desegrega
tion. Florida is the only state to initi
ate college desegregation subsequent to
the 1954 decision.
In four Deep South states—South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mis
sissippi—all public schools, including
colleges, are segregated. The University
of Alabama still is under federal court
order to accept qualified Negro stu
dents, but none has enrolled since
Autherine Lucy’s tumultuous three-day
stay on the campus in 1956. A suit by
two Negroes asking admission to the
University of Georgia is pending in
federal court.
Desegregation of tax-supported col
leges in the southern region dates back
to 1936, when a state court ordered the
University of Maryland to admit a
Negro law student. When the 1954 U. S.
Supreme Court decision was rendered,
the university’s undergraduate courses
became fully desegregated. Now an
estimated 300 to 400 Negroes attend
predominantly white colleges in Mary
land.
Arkansas took a look in 1948 at the
trend admission suits were taking and
decided to admit a Negro graduate stu
dent to the University of Arkansas.
After the U. S. Supreme Court’s im
plementation decision in 1955, all state-
supported colleges in Arkansas were
desegregated. Now 38 to 40 Negroes are
enrolled in the eight predominantly
white colleges in Arkansas.
West Virginia, Oklahoma and Ken
tucky are other states in which the
Supreme Court’s decision sped college
desegregation.
In the mid-twenties, West Virginia
admitted Negro students to extension
classes of West Virginia University. In
1938, Negroes were admitted to the
university’s graduate and professional
schools. Within days of the 1954 deci
sion, state officials ended segregation
at all college levels.
Oklahoma admitted its first Negro to
the University of Oklahoma in 1948,
but the state waited until after the
Supreme Court’s implementing decree
of 1955 before abolishing segregation
at all colleges.
The University of Kentucky opened
its graduate schools to Negroes in 1949
under federal court orders and in 1955
opened its undergraduate schools with
out further litigation. All eight of the
state-supported colleges and universi
ties are desegregated in practice or
principle.
(See MAJORITY, Page 8)
anal
OKLAHOMA
anal
Vast
fas i
ree i
g R
>n hi
f th
Negro Enrollment Drops
In Desegregated Schools
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
ToUiJ notations of a decline in Ne-
iTar gro enrollment in Oklahoma’s
1 ^desegregated schools appeared in
1 ^October, and worried educators
1M J)egan looking for the cause. (See
acti t Boards and Schoolmen.”)
s ap Oklahoma City administrators
checked first-of-semester enroll-
scopment returns and announced the
5C ? “system now has 11 desegregated
n aF “ c ^°°^ s , two more than last year.
raiA ctua Hy> there are four new bi-
# facial schools, but two of last
(’ear’s group now have all-Negro
itudent bodies. (See “School
boards and Schoolmen.”)
19J A subcommittee of a legislator-
sta *eitizen group studying possible
Reorganization of Oklahoma’s
igher education system was re
tried ready to recommend de
legation of Langston Univer-
dy, the state’s only all-Negro col-
'?e. (See “In the Colleges.”)
idtik- state superintendent of public
“Tpstniction was waiting returns from
S . .,.' e 0101-6 counties in his annual sur-
, e y of the status of desegregation in
1 >onia. (See “Under Survey.”)
Harly M. Day, the Chickasha High
School principal, said he has fewer Ne
gro students than last year.
Actually, he went on, the over-all
high school enrollment is down (from
655 to 620) because of the graduation
of a record senior class last spring and
the entry of an unusually small sopho
more class.
Nevertheless, Day conceded a trend
toward lower Negro enrollments. In
fact, he has been concerned enough
that he has tried to find the reason.
“I m guessing that our white high
school won’t hold the Negroes as well
as the Negro school did,” he said.
LOUISIANA
Governor Calls Special
Session of Legislature
GOV. JIMMIE DAVIS
Orders Special Session
HAD CHOICE
th
jlJR feast six Oklahoma counties re
ec^ils a PFarent decreases in Negro pu
6 r pending desegregated schools.
rat*. ln —
Blaine County desegregated junior
schools were reported to have
j^^d from two to three since last
°ut the number of Negroes at-
them was down from 42 to 38.
jj 3 '*' 10 County’s desegregated senior
Ut .?”? oo!s rose from six to seven,
r °tn 7?^ Negro enrollment dropped
‘2 to 55. Six desegregated junior
have but 56 Negroes, whereas
year five such schools had 68 Ne-
Pupils.
DECREASES
■VW Negro enrollment in Grady
f only desegregated high school,
jC^ha, was down from 82 to 51.
jPor^ 11 an d Jackson counties also re-
The principal explained that, until
last year, Negro students had a choice
of attending their own Lincoln High
or the predominantly white Chickasha
High. The top three grades at Lincoln
were closed last year and all Negroes
in them sent to Chickasha High.
“We had a bunch of Negro students
come over with excellent grades—A’s
and B’s—but over here (in the white
school) they barely get by,” Day said.
“I’d hesitate to say the Negroes are
dropping out because of tougher com
petition in the integrated school.
They’re taking part in all activities
very well, and the white children are
receptive to them.
“We have a good class of Negro peo
ple in Chickasha. They’re pretty well
educated, and I think our Negro schools
did a good job. But when I look at
the permanent records, I’m skeptical.
The kids that made A’s and B’s in
chemistry, for example, don’t do so
well in the white school. However, I’m
sure it’s a psychological block as well
as the fact they’re not as well pre
pared.”
(See OKLAHOMA, Page 16)
On the Inside
State Reports
Alabama 11
Arkansas 13
Delaware 12
District of Columbia 15
Florida 12
Georgia 2
Kentucky 11
Maryland 3
Mississippi 14
Missouri 10
North Carolina 2
South Carolina 6
Tennessee 5
Texas 15
Virginia 7
West Virginia 4
Texts
Arlington, Va 7
Fairfax County, Va 7
Chattanooga, Tenn 16
Special Articles
Maryland Interview 3
Judge John E. Miller 13
State-By-State Summary 16
NEW ORLEANS, La.
j^ov. Jimmie H. Davis, after
weeks of wavering, called the
Louisiana Legislature to begin a
special 12-day session on Nov. 4
in an effort to head off the sched
uled Nov. 14 desegregation of the
first grades in New Orleans pub
lic schools.
With a federal court order di
recting desegregation and pre
venting Davis from taking ad
ministrative steps to block deseg
regation, the governor had main
tained until 24 hours before his
official legislative call that he had
no plans for a session. (See “Leg
islative Action.”)
The Orleans Parish (county)
school board voted to use the
state pupil placement law to de
segregate first grades, a move
they felt would meet the order of
Federal District Judge J. Skelly
Wright to desegregate Nov. 14.
A total of 137 Negroes then
applied for admission to now
white first grades. After more
than two weeks of testing and
study, the school administration
announced that five Negroes had
passed the 17-point program for
transfers from their segregated
schools. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
The Orleans school board re
jected bids on a proposed $10 mil-
ion bond sale after being told the
desegregation issue had boosted
the interest rate on the bonds.
(See “School Boards and School
men.”)
Four candidates, including an
incumbent, qualified for the Nov.
8 election to fill one school board
post in New Orleans. The vote
could indicate public feeling on
whether New Orleanians will ac
cept the limited desegregation
plan advanced by the five-mem
ber school board. (See “Political
Activity.”)
Atty. Gen. Jack P. F. Gremil-
lion drew a 60-day suspended jail
sentence and was placed on “un
supervised” probation for 18
months for his verbal blast at a
federal court in New Orleans.
(See “Legal Action.”)
small decreases, although each
' Jkhool 311 a< lditional desegregated high
^ ln gfisher County Negro enroll-
Sa . ic * to down in bi-racial
t . ‘gh, junior high and elementary
frha
** does it mean?
foy s 4111 H- Hale, Langston Univer-
Mnite < f W President, said he has the
I#, t Hirw deling fewer Negro pupils are
i?H*8e d high school and going to
Decause of the absence of of-
- eij C j recor ds giving an enrollment
,1° sup t ? Vn b y race, he has no figures
“T* nC rt tllat impression. But he said
!? f °bleJ S to do a complete study of the
^turg , ou t of a deep concern for the
°f Negro education.
^Jdidden dUxtra gradualism.
Choices of Negroes in Nashville
Subject of Sociologist’s Study
Dr. Eugene A. Weinstein, Vanderbilt
University sociology professor, sur
veyed 88 Nashville Negro families to
find out why they did or did not chose
to send their children to desegregated
schools. He presented his paper, “The
Negro Family’s Decision to Desegre
gate,” at the annual meeting of the
Tennessee Council on Human Relations
at Knoxville in October. The text, ex
cept for a few excisions, follows:
A good deal has been written in re
cent years concerning the re
sponses of whites to desegregation. Little
in the way of systematic research, how
ever, has concerned itself with the other
side of the coin. Outside of speculation
and occasional case studies, such areas as
attitudes of Negroes toward desegrega
tion, the effects of desegregation on the
Negro child, and effects on the Negro
family remain relatively unexplored.
Today I am going to present highlights
from the findings of a study which has
attempted to take a small step toward
filling this very large and important
gap in our knowledge.
“Under its grade-a-year desegrega
tion plan, Negro families in Nashville
living in formerly white school dis
tricts, with children of the appropriate
age, have what is essentially the op
tion of sending them to either a segre
gated school or to the previously all-
white one. These families constitute an
ideal population to be studied as the
issue of desegregation is not an abstract
or hypothetical one for them; rather it
involves them in real choices with real
implications for their behavior. These
choices are the focus of this report. It
is concerned with such questions as,
What kinds of people make what
choice? How are the attitudes and per
spectives they hold related to their
choice? How are the choices made?
and, What are the reasons given for
them?
“In order to answer these questions,
intensive interviews were conducted
(See STUDY, Page 5)
Gov. Jimmie H. Davis, pressured by
state segregation leaders and the Legis
lature’s joint committee on segregation,
issued a formal call Oct. 28 for the
Legislature to meet Nov. 4 for 12 days.
The session was scheduled to deal
with school desegregation and states
rights, according to Davis’s loosely
worded proclamation declaring the rea
son for the special meeting. These were
the official calls:
“No. 1 to legislate relative to the
school children of the state; and rela
tive to an educational system which
shall include all public school and all
institutions of learning operated by
state agencies.
“No. 2 to legislate for the preserva
tion and protection of the powers and
rights reserved to the State of Louisi
ana and to the people by the Consti
tution of the United States and the
amendments thereto.
“No. 3 to legislate relative to the
police power of the state and to protect
and promote the health, peace, morals,
education, good order and the general
welfare of the people.
“No. 4 to legislate relative to a state
militia.”
Davis’s call for the session came less
than 24 hours after Orleans Parish
Supt. James F. Redmond announced
that five Negro children of 137 who
applied had passed all criteria for ad
mission to white first grades in New
Orleans public schools.
The governor did not list specific
legislation that the session would deal
with but informed sources said that 26
bills are ready for action. One report
edly would interpose the state between
the federal government and the Orleans
Parish school board.
A three-judge federal court in New
Orleans in August struck down earlier
laws designed to preserve segregation
and directed that Davis take no further
action to prevent the court-ordered
plan of desegregation.
New Orleans lawmakers complained
of being left out of planning for the
legislation for the special session since
no Orleans legislator is on the segre
gation committee.
(See LOUISIANA, Page 14)