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PAGE 4—JANUARY 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOGl. NEWS
MISSOURI
More Bi-Racial Schools in KC,
But White Enrollments Drop
ST. LOUIS, Mo.
'T' HE number of Kansas City
-*• (Mo.) public schools having
bi-racial student bodies has in
creased each year since 1955,
when the city’s school system de
segregated in compliance with the
United States Supreme Court
ruling.
Of the system’s 97 schools, 53 had
mixed student bodies as of November,
I960. Four years before, when there
were 91 schools, 47 were bi-racial.
Meanwhile, the total white enrollment
declined almost 11 per cent even with
annexations; Negro enrollment in
creased 44 per cent. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Urban League executives from 12
cities called for an end to placing new
schools near established Negro sections
and setting up school districts “along
socio-economic lines.” (See “Commun
ity Action.”)
The Very Rev. Paul C. Reinert, S. J.,
president of St. Louis University, said
on receiving an award for interracial
activities that it is a basic part of the
American ideal to remove all barriers
from obtaining an appropriate educa
tion except intrinsic personal limita
tions (See “What They Say”)
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. told
a St. Louis audience President Eisen
hower never has issued a statement
upholding the Supreme Court’s 1954
decision on public school desegrega
tion. (See “What They Say.”)
had mixed student bodies in 47 of 91
schools. The chief gain in bi-racial
schools was at the elementary level—
41 in 1960 compared with 35 in 1956.
Thirty of the 53 mixed schools are
75 per cent or more white. Fourteen
are 75 per cent or more Negro. In 1956
there were 27 mixed schools with 75
per cent or more white, and 13 with
75 per cent or more Negro.
Slight Per Cent Increease
The percentage of Kansas City pub
lic school children in mixed schools
showed only a slight increase. It was
61.3 per cent in 1956 compared with
61.8 per cent two months ago. Numeri
cally, however, the figure had risen
from 38,455 to 42,192. Negro children
accounted for most of the increase—
11,742 in 1956 and mounted to 15,028
in 1960. The white figure was 26,713 in
1956, increasing to only 26,984 in 1960.
In the school year 1955-56, the
Kansas City system had three schools
with desegregated faculties. This in
volved 113 teachers, 86 of them white.
There now are 11 schools with bi-racial
faculties, involving a total of 471 teach
ers, 268 of them white.
“One formerly all-white elementary
school has a Negro principal,” the re
port said. “Two such high schools have
Negro vice-principals. The Junior Col
lege has a Negro assistant to the dean.
Two formerly all-white high schools
have a Negro counselor. One formerly
all-Negro elementary school has a
white principal.”
Staff Members
School Boards and Schoolmen
Fifty-three of the Kansas City sys
tem’s 97 schools had mixed student
bodies as of November, 1960. Thirty-
seven are all-white; seven are all-
Negro. In 1956 the system had 47
schools with mixed student bodies; 40
all-white schools, and four all-Negro.
Since 1955 the system’s white en
rollment has declined from 48,847 to
48,263, a loss of 584 even though an
nexations of other districts added ap
proximately 3,700 white students dur
ing the period. Meanwhile the Negro
enrollment has increased from 13,891
to 20,040, a gain of 6,149.
These facts were among data released
in December by James A. Hazlett, sup
erintendent of schools, covering some
phases of the history of Kansas City
school desegregation. The data included
information of a type not easily obtain
able in Missouri, since many systems
have discontinued issuance of official
statistics relating to race.
Eight Phases Covered
Phases covered in the Kansas City
data are: (1) number of mixed schools;
(2) percentage of white students in
mixed schools; (3) number of pupils in
mixed schools; (4) percentage of pu
pils in mixed schools; (5) schools with
bi-racial faculties; (6) numbers of staff
and distribution between white and
Negro; (7) numerical increase in staff
and distribution as between Negro and
white; and (8) total student enrollment
and percentage distribution between
Negro and white.
In November 1960, the Kansas City
system had mixed student bodies in
53 of its 97 schools, whereas in 1956 it
Georgia
(Continued From Page 3)
Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, president of
Morehcuse College (Negro) of At
lanta, said in an article in Atlantic
magazine that Negro efforts to end
segregation have not destroyed com
munication between the races in the
South. “The plain truth,” Mays wrote,
“is that, up to a few years ago, Ne
groes and white people in the South
never had honest communications.”
Atlanta Negro integration leader
Martin Luther King told a Boston
audience that the South is upon the
threshold of integration, and non-viol
ence is the only way to attack the
problem posed by those who would
nullify Supreme Court desegregation
decisions.
H. McKinley Conway Jr., Atlanta
businessman, told a meeting of DeKalb
County teachers and education officials
that “wherever the school problem has
been resolved, this has always been ac
complished by putting the school prob
lem in the hands of school officials who
can handle it best. By contrast, every
time the school matter has been taken
over by political leaders, there has
been catastrophe. We ought to learn
something from that.” # # #
In terms of total staff, the Kansas
City schools had 2,485 members in 1956,
and 2,091 or 84.1 per cent were white.
By 1960 the staff had grown to 2,821,
including 2,301 white persons, or 81.6
per cent. The number of Negro mem
bers increased in the period from 394
to 520, or from 15.9 to 18.4 per cent of
the total.
There was an increase of 336 in the
number of persons employed during
the period 1956-60. Of that total, 210
were white and 126 were Negro. In the
period the white staff increased by 10
per cent, the Negro staff by 32 per
cent.
As for total student enrollment,
there were 62,738 students in 1956. This
included 48,847 whites and 13,891
Negroes, or 77.9 to 22.1 per cent. In
1960 the total had grown to 68,303, in
cluding 48,263 whites and 20,040 Neg
roes, or 70.7 per cent white to 29.3
Negro.
Annexation Brings Increase
“During the period total enrollment
has climbed from 62,738 to 68,303, an
increase of 5,565,” the report said. “This
increase is largely accounted for by the
annexation of two districts.
“It is significant that there has been,
during this period, a net loss of 584
white students, although the annexa
tions . . . involved white students only,
and a gain of 6,149 Negro students.”
The proportion of Negroes in the
Kansas City public school population
increased from 20.9 per cent to 30.7
per cent in the elementary schools
from 1956 to 1960. Secondary schools
showed an increase in Negro propor
tion from 17.3 per cent to 26.5 per
cent. The junior college Negro propor
tion, now 8.4 per cent, has increased
only slightly since 1956.
COMMUNITY ACTION
Urban League executives from 12
cities, meeting in St. Louis to discuss
the “unprecedented increase in the ur
ban Negro population during the past
decade and its impact upon local com
munities,” made a number of recom
mendations regarding education fol
lowing their two-day conference in
early December.
They urged discontinuance of the
practice of building new schools in and
near established Negro sections and
the setting up of school districts along
socio-economic lines. They said this
practice tends to “perpetuate school
segregation.”
The Urban League officials recom
mended that special schools be set up,
where needed, to speed up technologi
cal adjustment of non-white immi
grants to the cities. They recommended
greater emphasis on individual coun
seling of students, and to designing
school curriculums to meet cultural
limitations of migrant students, and in
giving special training to teachers who
work with underprivileged children.
Also recommended were programs
in civic education and public affairs
for newcomers and others lacking
knowledge and experience in “effective
citizenship participation.” The Urban
League officials called for more planned
cooperation between white and Negro
leadership in combating “the spread in
indigency, crime, delinquency and il
legitimacy.”
Henry Sheldon, chief of the demo
graphic statistics branch, Division of
Population, United States Census
Bureau, addressed a luncheon meeting
at which he cited migration of South
ern Negroes into Northern cities. He
said the proportion of Negroes in the
Southern population is decreasing
steadily. ^
M. Leo Bohanon, St. Louis Urban
League executive, said St. Louis is a
staging area or “funnel” through
which thousands of Negro migrants
from the deep South flow on their way
to points east, north and northwest. He
said the Negro population of St. Louis
had increased by 100,000 since 1950. He
said Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit
had experienced even larger increases
during the decade.
The Very Rev. Paul C. Reinert S. J.,
president of St. Louis University, re
ceived a special award from the Cath
olic Interracial Council Dec. 4 at a
council tea honoring Father Reinert at
the Most Blessed Sacrament Church in
St. Louis. Father Reinert was cited for
his “significant contribution to the field
of interracial justice.”
Father Reinert said in an address
that it is a basic part of the American
ideal that all barriers to obtaining an
appropriate education should be re
moved, except for intrinsic limitations
based on native ability and motivation.
St. Louis University has been accept
ing Negro students since 1944 and now
has about 225 enrolled, Father Reinert
said.
Educational Opportunity
In the area of education, Father
Reinert said, the American ideal
should be that no boy or girl ought to
be denied opportunity for appropriate
education except for two intrinsic lim
itations. These he named as limitations
of native ability and limitations of mo
tivation. Father Reinert said nobody
has the right to an education from
which he cannot profit, and nobody
has the right to educational opportunity
unless he has the initiative and willing
ness to make the necessary effort.
“Given these limitations,” he said,
“the American ideal should remove all
other barriers: race, creed, geographic
location and economic status.”
★ ★ ★
Addressing the St. Louis Liberal
Forum late in November, the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. of Atlanta,
Negro leader, said he believes Presi
dent Eisenhower has never had an un
derstanding of the depth of the prob
lem of race relations. He cited the
President’s failure to issue a statement
condemning segregation or upholding
the Supreme Court decision on schools.
Dr. King, president of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, said
however he thinks President Eisen
hower is “genuinely a man of good
will.”
LEGAL ACTION
On Dec. 10 at Columbia, in central
Missouri, the owner of a downtown
restaurant refused service to two Uni
versity of Missouri faculty members
and three university students, includ
ing two Negro students. The restaurant
proprietor signed a complaint charging
they refused to leave the establishment.
They were arrested, charged with tres
passing and released on bond for ap
pearance in police court.
The University of Missouri began ad
mitting Negroes in 1950. Approximately
100 Negro students now are enrolled at
the institution, and on the campus they
are treated the same as other students.
In the last few years Negroes have
made considerable headway in gaining
admission to resturants and hotels in
St. Louis, Kansas City and Jefferson
City, the state capital. In many smaller
towns of the state, however, such fa
cilities are still segregated. # # #
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954 declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstitu
tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation,
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tenn.
Second class mail privileges authorized at NashviHe, Tenn., under the authority
of the act of March 3, 1879.
OFFICERS
Frank Ahtgren Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice Chairman
Reed Sarratt Executive Director
Tom Flake, Associate Director
Jim Leeson, Assistant Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com
mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Edward D. Ball, Editor, Nashville Ten
nessean, NashviHe, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
George N. Redd, Dean, Fisk Univer
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Editorial Page Editor,
Miami Herald, Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Assistant Edi
tor, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette
DELAWARE
James E. Miller, Managing Editor,
Delaware State News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Erwin Knoll. Staff Writer, Washing
ton Post & Frmes Herald
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Ma
con News
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
L. M. Wright Jr., City Editor, Char
lotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoma n-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
Garry Fullerton, Education Editor,
Nashville Tennessean
KENTUCKY
James S. Pope Jr., Education Editor,
Louisville Courier-Journal
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
LOUISIANA
Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or
leans States & Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispateh
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tenn.
Forty Libraries Receive
Microfilm Supplement
T he second annual supplement
to “Facts on Film”—a micro
film reproduction of the Southern
Education Reporting Service li
brary—has been mailed to the 40
libraries that subscribe to the se
ries.
All the material collected for the
SERS library from July 1, 1959, through
June 30, 1960, is included in the latest
supplement. “Facts on Film” covers
newspaper clippings, magazine articles,
reports, pamphlets, books, court de
cisions and speeches on file in the li
brary as well as the three SERS pub
lications, Southern School News,
“Race Relations Law Reporter” and
semi-annual statistical summary.
Altogether, the “Facts on Film” se
ries consists of 70 rolls of 35 mm non-
perforated microfilm. The first install
ment of 44 rolls covered the period
from 1954 through June 30, 1958. The
first annual supplement of 14 rolls add
ed all the material collected from July,
1958, through June, 1959.
“Facts on Film” is the only segrega
tion-desegregation documentary of its
kind. It provides researchers through
out the country with a duplicate of the
library at the SERS headquarters in
Nashville.
Series Purchased
The series has been purchased by
Memphis State University, Virginia
State College, Mississippi Southern Col
lege, the Civil Rights Commission in
Washington, the University of South
Carolina, Cornell University, Winthrop
College, the University of Arkansas,
the University of Kentucky, Ohio State
University, North Carolina College at
Durham, North Texas State College,
Dartmouth College, Northwestern State
College of Lousiana, Louisiana State
University, the University of Pennsyl
vania, Johns Hopkins University,
Southern Illinois University, New York
City Public Library (Acquisitions),
New York City Public Library (Schom-
burg Collection), Tuskegee Institute
Southern Regional Council in Atlanta
the University of Georgia, the Univer
sity of Illinois, Radford College in Vir
ginia, the University of Wisconsin
Harvard University, Michigan Stan
University, the Agricultural and Ted
nical College at Greensboro, N.C., p
University of North Carolina, Atlanta
University, Emory University, the U®'
versity of Miami, the University of CM'
cago, New York University Library
Tennessee A&I University, Howa®.
University at Washington, Brook!?
College, Prairie View A&M College an-
Fisk University.
The SERS documentary collection
film now includes over 800,000 items J
source material on race relations, fla-"
of the 70 rolls of microfilm contains ap
proximately 1,100 frames, and in so®
cases more.
The actual filming of the series ^
done by James E. Pike of Tenness*
Microfilms. Pike also is director of r?
storation and reproduction for the S®'
of Tennessee.
Meet Requirements
Positive prints of the series are a v? "
able on Recordak film and may be
on any standard 35mm or
microfilm reader. All the prints to :
archival requirements, being proc^
at or above the specifications establ® 0
ed by the Bureau of Standards. ^
The January, 1960, edition of ,
brary Trends,” devoted to photodaP
cation in libraries, had this to say
the project: 1
'‘There are . .. microtect public 3 *^-
which combine technical excel!*";
with admirable bibliographic coa ^
Outstanding in this respect are ^
Adams Family Papers, published ...
the sponsorship of the Massach^ 1
Historical Society, and Facts on *
published by Southern Education ■
porting Service. Any microtext P u '
tion which fails to meet the stan j
exemplified in these two public „
must be considered unsatisfactory''
ft*" 5
The next annual supplement ,
series, covering July, 1960, to J f
1961, will be filmed next fall. $