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PAGE 16—JANUARY 1961— SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
KENTUCKY
Citizens Asked
To Help Battle
Discrimination
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
'"Phe State Commission on Hu-
-®- man Rights called on com
munities and citizens throughout
Kentucky to help the commission
battle racial discrimination. (See
“Community Action.”)
The State Department of Education
reported that as of June, 1960, there
were 287 Negro teachers serving in
schools with bi-racial enrollments. (See
“Under Survey.”)
»Qft
COMMUNITY ACTION
A two-pronged attack on racial dis
crimination was charted by the newly
organized Commission on Human
Rights in a meeting at Frankfort, the
state capital.
The announced plan was the first in
dication of methods to be used by the
commission in meeting its assignment
to discourage discrimination and foster
understanding.
Earlier meetings had been concerned
with the election of officers and other
organizational matters. (See Southern
School News, December, 1960, and
previous.)
The commission’s plan urges:
• Every community to form an in
terracial council. The councils would
attempt to deal with local human-
rights problems and would advise the
commission.
• All Kentucky citizens to send sug
gestions and recommendations to the
commission.
Rights Denied
The commission charged that many
Kentuckians are denied basic rights
because of their color or ancestry. It
issued a statement saying:
“Some are refused jobs for which
they are well-trained and qualified.
Others are not permitted to live in
certain neighborhoods or are denied
attendance at a certain school, and
still others are denied food and lodg
ing in places of public accommodation.
“Such discriminatory treatment is
wrong . . . There is no place for racial
segregation and discrimination, no
place for second-class citizenship. We
call upon our fellow Kentuckians to
continue to move forward with all
possible haste in seeking to combat
such affronts to basic human dignity.”
The commission, created by the 1960
Legislature, has 11 members, including
two Negroes, appointed by the gover
nor.
Report Shows Increases
In School Desegregation
The State Department of Education
published a desegregation report for
the school year 1959-60 showing across-
the-board increases in the extent of
school desegregation.
Some highlights from t he report
were previewed in the November issue
of Southern School News. Here is ad
ditional information:
Six school districts—Butler, Cumber
land, Grant, Knox, Lewis and Webster
counties — desegregated during the
year, bringing the total to 129 of the
212 districts existing in June, 1960. (A
subsequent merger changed these totals
to 128 of 211).
In Policy Only
Twenty-three of the districts were
desegregated in policy only, leaving
106 districts having at least one school
with a bi-racial enrollment
Of 1,658 schools in the desegregated
districts, 377, or 22.7 per cent, had bi-
racial enrollments. This compared with
19.1 per cent the year before. (See
table for further comparisons.)
The number of Negro teachers em
ployed in schools -with bi-racial enroll
ments increased to 287 from 138 the
year before.
How many of these Negro teachers
were instructing white children is not
brought out in the report. The number
is believed small for several reasons.
In the first place, some of the Negro
teachers were employed in non-teach
ing jobs as librarians, counselors and
administrative assistants. Also, those
who were teaching were for the most
Integration Since 1955-56 in Kentucky*
Integration
1956
In School Districts
Total number of districts 224
Districts with Negroes 184
Districts integrated 30
Per Cent districts integrated 16.0
In Schools
Total schools in
integrated districts 826
Schools integrated 41
Per cent integrated 5.0
In Pupil Personnel
In integrated districts 97,903
In integrated schools 16,981
White pupils enrolled 16,688
Negro pupils enrolled 313
In Teaching Personnel
In integrated districts 3,496
In integrated schools 641
White teachers 639
Negro teachers 2
School Year Ending
1957
1958
1959
1960
221
216
215
212
177
170
175
173
91
94
123
129
50.8
55.3
70.3
74.5
1,742
1,736
1,730
1,658
233
262
331
377
13.3
15.4
19.1
22.7
325,478
362,269
402,000
477,089
128,324
144,079
160,889
181,974
120,307
133,182
149,392
165,645
8,017
10,897
11,492
16,329
11,889
13,384
13,400
14,406
4,821
5,647
6,053
7,095
4,708
5,475
5,915
6,808
113
172
138
287
* Table published by Department of Education, Commonwealth of Kentucky.
part believed working in predomi
nantly Negro schools enrolling only a
few white pupils. Many classes had no
whites.
The districts having Negro teachers
in bi-racial schools and the number of
such teachers were listed as: Louis
ville, 262; Scott County and Elizabeth
town, four each; Fayette County, Perry
County and Newport, three each; and
Adair, Boone, Bullitt and Owen count
ies and Cavema, Erlanger, Georgetown
and West Point city systems, one each.
In attempting to evaluate the desegre
gation program in Kentucky, the De
partment of Education report quotes
from an article by Dr. Robert A. Leflar
in Southern School News, Vol. 1, No.
10, June 8, 1955. It attributes to Dr.
Leflar five key terms which contain the
real meaning of the Supreme Court’s
desegregation rulings. The terms are
“good faith, practical flexibility, prompt
and reasonable start, deliberate speed,
and equitable principles.”
Reasonable Criteria
The Kentucky report then goes on:
“If this explanation can be accepted as
reasonable criteria, there is evidence
that Kentucky is moving forward to
ward meeting its moral and legal re
sponsibility in building a total school
service for all its children in compli
ance with the principle proposed by
the court.
“This evidence is shown, not only
by the facts and figures in this report,
but also by the positive position taken
by most state and local leaders of gov
ernment, since the Supreme Court de
cision May 17, 1954.”
It is noteworthy that the report lists
Knox County, which faces an NAACP
desegregation suit, as among the dis
tricts which desegregated in 1959-60.
The report shows one Knox school,
Flat Lick elementary, enrolling 360
whites and three Negroes.
NAACP attorneys had known of this
situation before filing suit, however,
and had said the admission of a few
Negroes to Flat Lick apparently rep
resented “favoritism” rather than
county-wide policy. (See SSN, Decem
ber, 1960, and previous.)
MISCELLANEOUS
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Negro
civil rights leader, was a visitor at a
special meeting in Louisville of the
board of the five million-member Na
tional Baptist Convention.
The board went on record in vigor
ous support of “sit-ins, kneel-ins (in
white churches), stand-ins, and all
other peaceful protests against racial
discrimination and segregation.” It also
voted a “substantial” contribution to
the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, Atlanta, a civil-rights or
ganization. # # #
Delaware
(Continued From Page 15)
up 60 per cent, the local district 40
per cent.
Building programs in white districts
need the approval by referendum of
the district residents because they in
volve property and capitation tax in
creases. Such referenda are not held
in the Negro districts.
Consequently, construction often be
gins earlier in the Negro districts than
in white districts, where some build
ing programs have recently been re
jected by the voters.
Other large projects in the Negro
construction program are scheduled
at the P. S. duPont school in the Har
rington district ($430,000) and the
Thomas D. Clayton school ($374,000)
in the Smyrna district.
LEGAL ACTION
State Ponders New
Desegregation Program
The State Board of Education has
substantially completed a new deseg
regation program to present to the
Federal District Court in Wilmington,
but it will not be made public prior
to its submission to the court.
The new plan, to replace the grade-
a-year plan rejected by the Third
District Court of Appeals in Phila
delphia, was to be presented Dec. 31,
after the January issue of Southern
School News went to press.
Prior to its regular meeting on Dec
15, the State Board met for three hours
in executive session with Attorney
General Januar D. Bove, Jr., who rep
resents the board in the legal action.
Executive Session
After its regular meeting, the board
again met in executive session to dis
cuss the plan.
Vincent A. Theisen, state board pres
ident, declined to divulge any details
of either meeting.
“The plan will not officially be re
leased until it goes to the court,” he
said.
“After all, we are under court order
and the court ought to get it before
it goes to the press,” said Theisen, an
attorney himself.
None of the other five board mem
bers or officials from the State Dept,
of Public Instruction would comment.
The secrecy ban is a switch from
the board’s policy in 1959 when it
presented the grade-a-year plan to the
district court. It was also under court
order then to present a desegregation
plan.
The plan was due in March. But as
early as December the state board met
with local districts involved in the
suit to discuss areas of agreements and
disagreements.
And in February the state board dis
cussed its plan in open meeting with
about 70 board members and school
administrators from local districts. The
press was invited, and allowed to take
photographs.
Old Suit Pending
While the state board will submit a
new plan at the District Court level,
a suit to continue the grade-a-year
plan remains pending before the U. S.
Supreme Court.
Attorney General Bove filed the suit
in November, but it is not known how
soon the court will hand down a deci
sion.
The case dates back to 1956 when
Negro pupils, represented by Louis L.
Redding, filed suits to enter schools
in seven white school districts.
One of the contentions in the appeal
was that none of the litigants would
ever be able to attend a white school
under the grade-a-year plan.
A substantial number of the liti
gants have already been graduated,
dropped out of school, or moved to
other school districts.
The average salary of graduates of
the 1960 class at Delaware State Col
lege, a predominantly Negro institution
is $3,904.
The range, according to Dr. W. E.
Johnston, Jr., director of student per
sonnel, is from $3,000 to $5,300.
Twenty-one of the 44 graduates are
employed as teachers, nine of them in
Delaware. The teachers work in Mil
ford, Dover, Wilmington, Frankford,
and Selbyville. # # #
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City Schools
Modify Transfer Rules
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
O klahoma City schools have
modified somewhat a strictly
administered policy that prevent
ed Negro students transferring to
schools where their race is in the
minority.
The change, decided upon earlier in
the fall but not announced publicly
brings relief to some Negro families
who otherwise would have children at
tending different high schools. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Despite the modification, the Na
tional Association for the Advancement
of Colored People still plans to fight
the policy, possibly through court ac
tion. (See “Community Action.”)
The NAACP’s chief counsel, Thur-
good Marshall, speaking in Oklahoma
City, predicted 1961 will bring segre
gation tests in Atlanta, Birmingham
and Florida. (See “What They Say.”)
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
, the 30th annual convention of the o,
| lahoma conferences of NAAf
branches.
Another was the virtual absence -
faculty integration in Oklahoma cos
m o n schools.
About 360 Negro
teachers have lost
their jobs in Ok
lahoma because of
desegr e g a t ion.
“Yet, they (the
schools) are call
ing for more
teachers,” said
Stewart.
These are ob
jectives which
will be tackled by
NAACP lawyers when the “sit-in sit
uation” quiets down, declared Stewar
who participated in the talks wiv
Marshall. He said the NAACP has mos
than 1,500 lawsuits throughout fe
United States over sit-ins, and Mar
shall is so busy with them that other
matters will have to wait.
‘Not As Good’
MARSHALL
Ever since Oklahoma City public
schools were officially desegregated in
1955, the Board of Education has fol
lowed a policy of granting a special
transfer to any student who wanted to
change from a school in which his
race is in the minority to one in which
it predominates. This permits any
white students who might live within
the attendance area of the all-Negro
Douglass High School to transfer to
either Central or Northeast, both of
which are desegregated but have pre
dominantly white student bodies.
On the other hand, Negroes living in
the Douglass area have not been able
to transfer to Central or Northeast or
any other high school in the City.
However, under the new modified
policy a Negro student with a brother
or sister already enrolled at Central
may also attend that school even
though the family has moved to the
Douglass area. Board policy previously
had permitted any student to complete
all the grades at the school in which
he first enrolled, even though he moved
from its attendance area.
Until this fall a Negro family that
moved might have one child entitled
to return to Central while a younger
brother or sister would have to enroll
at Douglass.
Hardship Imposed
Because of the hardship this im
posed on such families the school sup
erintendent, Dr. Melvin W. Barnes,
modified the transfer policy.
The decision was disclosed in mid-
December by Merle J. Burr, assistant
superintendent who passes on all trans
fer applications. He reported it in com
menting on an application involving
a 15-year-old daughter of Jimmy
Stewart, former Oklahoma City
NAACP branch president.
Stewart’s residence was within the
Central district by about five blocks
until a re-alignment of eastside attend
ance areas announced by the school
board last spring (SSN, June 1960) put
it in the Douglass district. At the time
the girl was attending Webster Junior
High while her brother, 16, was a
sophomore at Central.
Applied For Both
Stewart applied for transfers for
both of them to attend Central in Sep
tember. Burr approved the boy’s re
quest but denied the one for the girl
on grounds she had not previously at
tended Central. Stewart appealed to Dr.
Barnes, who granted the transfer. This
was when the policy was modified,
Burr said.
The former NAACP official, who is
still on the local branch executive
committee, said probably 100 other Ne
gro youngsters were in the same sit
uation. This was disputed by Burr, al
though he said he could not give a
more accurate total. He expressed
doubt there were 100 other Negro
youngsters who wanted to go to Cen
tral from the re-aligned section.
Burr said the board adheres strictly
to its policy of not transferring a stu
dent to a school where his race does
not predominate because it believes
this to be in the best interest of the
child.
COMMUNITY ACTION
The Oklahoma City school board’s
transfer policy was among matters dis
cussed by local NAACP leaders with
Thurgood Marshall when he visited
here in early December. He spoke at
Stewart insisted that Oklahoma City:
transfer policy is not as good, at leas
from the Negroes’ standpoint, as Nash-
ville’s. There the children are assigns:
to the school nearest them but ma;
request a transfer if their race is it
the minority in that school.
Oklahoma City relies heavily on pre
scribed attendance areas. Thus, there
are some instances in which student
living near a boundary line are obliged
to attend schools which are not the
closest to their homes geographically
This actually applies to the entire sys
tem but some Negroes see it as espe
cially discriminatory to their race.
In his address to the NAACP con
vention here Marshall said color prer
udice in the United States—and at
across the world—is on the way out
He pointed to demonstrations in Afri
can nations just given their independ
ence as proof of this.
“We might say here in Oklahoma la
things aren’t as bad as in New Orlean;
or in Little Rock, or in Mississippi-
you can’t add or subtract personal u
erties. You either have them or y°
don’t.
“We can look back over the 30 ye ar -
the conference has been in opera
in Oklahoma and be amazed at how
we have come. But instead let s ^
to the future. Let’s look forward
putting the NAACP out of busing
Let’s look to cleaning up Oklah
first. I
“It can be done. But we will have ®
stand up to the responsibilities o. 1
tegration. We have to so conduct o
selves as to show that we are rea
for it.
“There is no solution to the P 1-0 ^
through violence. Our fight mus ^
through legal means. If it is to be "
it must be a righteous fight."
Marshall said future test spots
integration “may well be” Atlan
Birmingham or in Florida. These
come in September, 1961, he said., f
TT "
Florida
(Continued From Page 15)
tension or to promote the cause of
man rights in our community,” the
ter said. -
The NAACP announced a
campaign to bring about “true de
racy.”
WHAT THEY SAY
With his administration neari®^ p
end, Gov. LeRoy Collins cond^o . p
urge moderation and understands 1
race relations. . j,v
Very little progress can be jjjei
lawsuits or demonstrations, he
in an address before the Amti-D^yy-
nlatf
tion League’s state meeting at
wood.
“Meaningful progress takes
race relations,” he said, “when P^.
decide in their own minds that tn ^ fpt
tudes of yesterday are not adeqd 3
the realities of today and when^jjjtf
realize that they share the resp°nf ^r
for determining what kind of r ® f
ship will exist in their common 1 ^ /
morrow.” *