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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER I960—PAGE 15
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
School Desegregation and Civil Rights Campaign Issues
WASHINGTON, D. C.
S CHOOL DESEGREGATION and civil
rights continued to be promi
nent domestic issues as the presi
dential election campaign reached
its final stages. A Gallup poll pub
lished early in October showed
Vice President Richard M. Nixon
and Sen. John F. Kennedy run
ning “neck and neck” in the
Southern states. (See “National
Affairs.”)
Four leading variety chain store
organizations announced desegre
gation of their luncheon facilities
in 112 Southern cities. (See “Na
tional Affairs.”)
The Supreme Court agreed to
hear arguments in a case involv
ing two Louisiana laws requiring
membership lists of such organi
zations as the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Col
ored People. (See “National Af
fairs.”)
District school and vocational
rehabilitation officials studied an
ambitious proposal for keeping
school drop-outs off the streets
and placing them in jobs or train
ing programs. (See “District
Schools.”)
School Supt. Carl F. Hansen
warned local businessmen that
unless the schools receive better
financial support, they will turn
out citizens who will be suscepti
ble to the agitation of future
demagogues. (See “District
Schools.”)
In a copyrighted report issued Oct.
4, the Gallup poll said it found voters
jn 13 Southern states evenly divided
between Kennedy and Nixon, with 46
Per cent favoring each candidate and
8 per cent undecided.
Three days later, in the second of
their televised debates, the candidates
tangled on civil rights and school de
segregation. Kennedy charged that
President Eisenhower has failed to pro
vide “moral leadership” and “never in
dicated what he thought” of the Su
preme Court’s 1954 desegregation de
cision.
Referring to the disorders that ac
companied school desegregation in Lit-
e Rock, Ark., Kennedy said:
I would have hoped that for the
resident of the United States it would
y e been possible for him to indicate
early the Supreme Court decision was
= 01 ng to be carried out. I would have
°Ped that it would have been possi-
e to use marshals to do so, but ob-
lously under the handling of the case
11 was not.
I would hope incidents like that
de t ^ no ^ ha PP en - I think if the Presi-
th 1S - res P ons ibf e > If R e consults -with
that 6 , Evolved, if he makes it clear
- llle Supreme Court decision is go-
th^ e° ^ carr ’i e d out in the way that
lii ^ upreme Court planned, with de-
Dr speed, then, in my judgment,
beli ln ^ ls ReRmd the action, I
eve we can make progress.”
T HESE ARE QUESTIONS
tio < n° mn ' enting on “equality of educa
te “ n ° Ur schoo,s >” Kennedy noted
of w l. j' Vo per cen t of our population
of ftlte People is illiterate, 10 per cent
pjj Ur colored population; 60 to 70
not our colored children do
blgh school. These are the
■^tions.”
v Ision° n Said there should be “a pro-
tnent whereb y the Federal Govem-
di s t r j cf VVou ld gl ve assistance to those
s chools S vu° do want t° integrate their
. i ‘ "that, of course, was rejected
gress f tae special session of the Con-
activg » w kich Mr. Kennedy was quite
Th "
task 6 f ^* ce President took Kennedy to
not PInJ« = electing , as vice presidential
Most t 8 111311 w ho had voted against
who on t ^ lese proposals and a man
'-a 05655 them at the present time”
bcadei- T erenc e to Senate Majority
“And yndon B - Johnson (D-Tex).
111 the field of executive lead
ership,” Nixon concluded, “I can say
that I believe it is essential that the
President of the United States not only
set the tone but he must also lead, he
must act as he talks.”
★ ★ ★
VARIETY STORE ACT
Four variety store chains announced
Oct. 17 that their luncheon facilities in
112 Southern cities have been desegre
gated. Companies involved were F. W.
Woolworth Co., S. H. Kress & Co., W.
T. Grant Co. and McCrory-McLellan
Stores Corp.
They said they were “conscious of a
great social change occurring in the
United States which has been drama
tized by the student sit-in movement.”
The companies announced that they
reached their decision after confer
ences with Federal, state and local
authorities and other interested groups.
Discussions “which may lead to fur
ther favorable results” are continuing,
they said.
In some 75 per cent of the 112 South
ern cities there “was no prior record
of picketing, sit-ins or other demon
strations,” the statement noted.
★ ★ ★
MEMBERSHIP LISTS
The Supreme Court agreed Oct. 24 to
hear an appeal from the action of a
three-judge Federal court in Louisiana,
which held unconstitutional two state
laws requiring membership lists of or
ganizations such as the NAACP be filed
with state officials.
One of the laws was passed in 1924
to curb the Ku Klux Klan. The lower
court said it was not enforced until
1956, when the state’s attorney general
acted against the NAACP. The law ap
plies to “fraternal, patriotic, charitable,
benevolent, literary, scientific, athletic,
military or social” organizations.
The other law, passed in 1958, re
quires each organization engaging in
“social, educational or political activi
ties” to file affidavits that none of the
officers of any non-Louisiana organiza
tion affiliated with it is a member of
a “Communist, Communist front or
subversive” group.
The lower court said the 1958 statute
“would require the impossible” and
was clearly unconstitutional. The other
law, it said, is governed by a 1959
Supreme Court decision throwing out
a similar law in Alabama as it applied
to the NAACP.
DISTRICT SCHOOLS
District school and vocational re
habilitation officials disclosed Oct. 6
that they are studying a sweeping pro
gram designed to prevent more than
1000 youths a year from dropping out
of school here.
The aim is to provide stepped-up
counseling to encourage youngsters to
remain in school and, that failing, to
establish a new vocational guidance
program to serve drop-outs up to the
age of 21. Such service would include
training courses for the unskilled
drop-out so that he would not have to
accept marginal, dead-end types of em
ployment.
City officials estimated cost of the
program at $75,000 a year, and were
studying the possibility of amending
their budget requests to include the
funds.
HANSEN WARNED
In a hard-hitting speech to the
Washington Board of Trade’s education
committee on Oct. 13, School Supt.
Carl F. Hansen warned that under
financing of District schools is perpetu
ating deficiencies which produce in
adequate citizens.
“If we turn into the community the
inarticulate, the confused and the up
rooted, we are setting the stage for our
own crops of Castros and Khrush
chevs,” he declared.
The superintendent complained that
community leaders have not helped
him manufacture the “ammunition” he
needs to develop the city’s human re
sources to the fullest. He said school
officials themselves have had to carry
the burden of pleading for smaller
classes, higher pay and improved work-
conditions for teachers.
“To date, I have not heard that kind
of voice from the power leaders of
Washington,” Hansen said.
★ ★ ★
NEGRO MINISTERS CHALLENGED
Sterling Tucker, executive director of
the Washington Urban League, chal
lenged Negro Baptist ministers to be
come leaders in working toward har
monious intergroup relations. While
criticizing unsatisfactory conditions, the
ministers should be offering positive
solutions, Tucker said.
In an address to the Oct. 13 meet
ing of the District Baptist Convention,
the Urban League official declared:
“As you bemoan the facts of job
discrimination, figure out ways to en
courage Negro youth to prepare for
expanding employment opportunities
and cooperate with youth incentive
programs.”
In a speech to another local Negro
audience, Municipal Court Judge Aus
tin L. Ficklin told the Federation of
Civic Associations Oct. 22 that “the
city is becoming flooded with young
sters without enough education to get
jobs.”
Like Tucker, Ficklin stressed the
importance of keeping youngsters in
school so that they can acquire the
skills needed for increasing numbers
of technical jobs.
“Now is not the time for the Negro
to brag about recent achievements,”
Ficklin said. “Now is the time for the
Negro to assume his full responsibili
ties as a citizen.” # # #
TEXAS
Court Asked to Approve Grade-a-Year for D alias
DALLAS, Tex.
T he governing board of Dallas
schools, the nation’s largest
segregation system since Hous
ton’s desegregation, asked a U.S.
appeals court to approve a grade-
a-year desegregation plan for
1961. (See “Legal Action.”)
Twenty-nine candidates filed
for four places to be filled on the
Houston school board Nov. 8. Re
tention of the superintendent who
directed desegregation under
court order was injected as an
issue. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Trustees of Northeast Houston
School District voted to resist a
lawsuit seeking racial integration.
(See “Legal Action.”)
Race and religious questions
were debated in the presidential
election in Texas. (See “Political
Activity.”)
An estimated 100,000 Negroes
attended the State Fair of Texas
at Dallas on the day set aside for
honoring Negroes, despite an at
tempted boycott. (See “Miscel
laneous.”)
The Dallas school board asked the
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to
approve a grade-a-year desegregation
program. The case is set for hearing
Nov. 15 at Fort Worth. District Judge
T. Whitfield Davidson had ordered the
board to substitute a “salt-and-pepper”
voluntary desegregation plan for the
stairstep proposal to start in Septem
ber 1951. (Borders v. Hippy, Southern
School News, October 1960 and previ
ous.)
The board had suggested starting de
segregation in the first grade and add
ing one grade annually. Judge David
son had proposed the system that the
board submitted as a subsitute. In
effect, it would provide three school
systems—one for pupils preferring ra
cial integration; another for whites
only; and the third for Negroes only.
Attorney Henry W. Strasburger of
Dallas told the Circuit Court that
Judge Davidson erred in disapproving
the stair-step method of desegregation.
Under the latter plan, said the Dal
las board’s brief, “the integration of
the schools would be expedited and
brought about more quickly in the long
run and with less social disruption and
possibility of violence by undertaking
a period of adjustment and definite
preparation in advance.”
BRIEF NOTED
The brief noted that Nashville’s
grade-a-year method has been upheld
by federal courts.
Dallas public schools enrolled 100,650
white and 23,749 Negro pupils this fall.
Negro elementary school enrollment
increased 1,779 from last year, to total
17,992. Enrollment of Negroes in high
school meanwhile declined 16 to 4,550.
Junior high had 1,207 Negroes, up 92.
White elementary schools reported
64,220 pupils in Dallas, up 674 from last
year; junior high 17,016, up 1,397; and
high school 19,414, up 1,260.
VOTED TO FIGHT
The board at Northeast Houston
School District voted unanimously to
fight a desegregation suit filed by Ne
groes on Sept. 27. (Eastland v. Wheat,
SSN, October 1960.)
The lawsuit came after Houston had
dropped segregation of first-grade pu
pils. Northeast Houston is a suburban
district. Board members based their
decision to oppose the request for in
tegration upon the belief that most
patrons favor continuing segregation
as long as possible.
Trustee William D. Suhr spoke
against the move to fight integration,
but did not vote against it. Suhr said
that desegregation is inevitable, and
that the lawsuit would waste money.
Board President M. L. Wheat said
the community needed time to prepare
an acceptable plan of integration. Ap
pointment of a citizens advisory com
mittee was suggested.
Wheat said that 21 Negroes in the
Northeast Houston district live closer
to a white school than to a Negro
school. This would be the maximum
number affected by the lawsuit at
present.
The Houston Informer suggested that
if another Negro is elected to the board
“he would be a conservative and there
fore out to nullify Mrs. White’s future
actions.”
The attitude of candidates toward
Dr. John W. McFarland, the Houston
superintendent who administered the
desegregation of some first-grade class
es this fall under a court order, be
came an issue in the race. One group
of candidates challenged the incumbent
board to indicate its support of Dr.
McFarland by extending his contract
before the Nov. 8 election.
Candidate Jack Hayden charged that
failure of the conservative incumbents
to extend the contract would indicate
its intention of removing the superin
tendent.
Twenty-nine candidates filed for four
vacancies on the seven-member Hous
ton school board. Members Stone Wells
and Dr. Henry A. Petersen announced
they would not seek re-election on
Nov. 8. Members Mrs. Frank Dyer and
Joe Kelly Butler are seeking new
terms.
Two Negroes are among the 29 can
didates. The board already has one
Negro member, Mrs. Charles White.
in Texas. The usual estimate is that
about 200,000 Negroes can vote among
2,700,000 total strength. It is the largest
Negro voting population in the South.
Arthur DeWitty, a Negro writer of
Austin, said in the Houston Informer,
that the organization was too late to
affect the November election. He as
serted also that Austin citizens had
been given the mistaken idea that the
discussion would be of an educational
nature only.
Several Negro leaders meanwhile
predicted in an Associated Press sur
vey that while Negroes may be like-
minded in voting in Texas, that both
Democrats and Republicans draw sup
port. The AP reporter was told that
NAACP has little or no influence
among Negro voters in Texas.
Most of the political fireworks last
month concerned the presidential race,
with the religious issue a major one.
While former President Harry S.
Truman and others were criticizing
opponents of Democrat John F. Ken
nedy for anti-Catholic bigotry, a group
of Baptist ministers at Waco adopted
a resolution condemning as intemper
ate some remarks Truman has made.
Some Baptist and other ministers
kept up their protests against electing
a Catholic president.
A conservative Democratic state
senator, Dorsey B. Hardeman of San
Angelo, made the most direct appeal
to segregation-minded Texans. He
called Richard M. Nixon and Henry
Cabot Lodge “Republican integrators”
of the public schools.
Hardeman blamed Nixon as part of
the administration that sent U.S. troops
to Little Rock to enforce a school in
tegration order, calling this “a definite
example” of what the South may ex
pect if the Republicans win on Nov. 8.
NEGRO LEADERS
A group of Texas Negro leaders
meeting in Austin voted 44 to 14 to
support the Kennedy-Johnson Demo
cratic ticket. The meeting was moved
from Huston-Tillotson College at the
school president’s request, when he in
sisted that any meeting held on the
campus must be non-partisan. It was
continued at a Negro Baptist Church
nearby.
Plans were made for getting out the
Negro vote. Estimates vary widely on
how many Negroes are eligible to vote
Ground-breaking for a new site for
Bishop College, which will be moved
from Marshall to Dallas, was observed
during the month. This will bring to
the Dallas-Fort Worth area its first all-
Negro college.
Bishop College is expected to open
classes on its Dallas campus in Sep
tember 1961 with two dormitories,
classroom and administration buildings,
and an auditorium.
Dallas businessmen headed by In
surance executive Carr P. Collins Sr.,
raised $1 million to assist in moving
the Baptist-affiliated college to Dallas.
Another $500,000 is being raised
through Negro organizations and Bish
op alumni.
An estimated 100,000 Negroes attend
ed the State Fair of Texas in Dallas
on a day set aside to honor members
of that race. They attended despite
efforts to boycott the fair by the Na
tional Association for Advancement of
Colored People.
The Dallas Morning News reported
that the sign-carrying NAACP pickets
apparently discouraged nobody, as Ne
gro children and adults went to the
fair on free tickets. A Negro picketer
said the demonstration was sparked by
the fair’s policy of segregation on mid
way rides and some other attractions.
# # #