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PAGE 10—JULY, 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
WEST VIRGINIA
Kennedy Praises College
For Its Biracial Policy
CHARLESTON, W. Va.
RADUATING SENIORS AT West
Virginia State College, at com
mencement exercises May 29,
heard from President Kennedy
and Gov. W. W. Barron on the
subject of school desegregation.
As principal speaker at West Vir
ginia State, a Negro institution until
the 1954 Supreme Court non-segre
gation decision, Gov. Barron described
it as “West Virginia’s and perhaps the
nation’s most completely integrated col
lege.”
Upon learning that Barron was to
deliver the commencement address
there, the President sent him the fol
lowing message:
“I understand that you are delivering
the commencement address at West
Virginia State College on May 29, and
I will appreciate your extending on
that occasion my sincere congratula
tions and best wishes to the college
and members of its 1961 graduating
class.
“This institution is proof of the
progress America is making to fulfill
our belief in the equality of man
kind. 1 am especially pleased to learn
that the college’s basketball team won
the championship of the West Virginia
Intercollegiate Conference tournament
in Charleston this year for the first
time.
“The fact that it was also a victory
for good sportsmanship among all par
ticipants, without regard to race, creed
or color, makes the achievement even
more admirable.
“The state of West Virginia is setting
an example of what can be accom
plished through understanding and co
operative efforts for the common good.”
About the President’s message, Bar
ron commented, “There are nearly 1,400
four-year colleges in the United
States. It is, I think, significant that
President Kennedy has especially
recognized the contributions of this
»
(Continued From Page 1)
The only other Negro in a biracial
school graduated this year.
Assignment of 14 additional Negroes
to desegregated schools in Charlottes
ville, Va., made 31 Negroes scheduled
to be enrolled in the city’s two biracial
schools next September. Richmond will
experience its first senior high school
desegregation in the fall with the pro
motion of two Negro eighth graders
from a predominantly white junior
high. Fifty-one other Negroes have
applications in for white high schools.
A third Florida public college en
tered Negroes into white classes in
June. St. Petersburg Junior College,
which has separate campuses for each
race but has no Negro summer school,
had two Negroes in the summer session
on the white campus of the Pinellas
County school.
The University of Miami, a private
school, followed through with its de
segregation policy announced last spring
and admitted about 25 Negroes for
summer classes.
Wake Forest College, a Baptist school
at Winston-Salem, N. C., admitted its
first Negro to a summer class, although
the undergraduate college remains
segregated as a matter of board policy.
Winston-Salem area Negroes can attend
the summer session only if they plan
to transfer the credits to another
college.
Two 18-year-old Negroes became the
first of their race to enter the Uni
versity of Tennessee branch at Martin.
U-T first opened its graduate school
to Negroes in 1952 and its main campus
undergraduate division in 1961.
The Board of Trustees of the Uni
versity of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.,
announced all applications to the col
lege would be considered “without
regard for race.” The Episcopal school
has accepted Negroes in the school of
theology since 1953.
A third Negro enrolled without in
cident at the University of Georgia,
where students rioted earlier this year
when the school accepted its first two
Negro students under court order.
The first school desegregation suit
filed in Mississippi asked a federal
court to order the University of Missis
sippi to admit a Negro college transfer
student. James Howard Meredith, a 28-
year-old veteran, wanted to transfer
from Jackson State College for Negroes
as early as this summer but was
thwarted by a delay in the hearing.
# # #
West Va. Highlights
President Kennedy commended
West Virginia State College for its
extensive desegregation, but a
Charleston Negro leader criticized
the college’s academic program.
The superintendent of Kanawha
County schools contradicted a state
survey report that students take 12
years for 10 years work.
Job discrimination continues
despite school desegregation, the
Charleston branch of NAACP
charged in complaints to the Presi
dent’s Committee on Equal Employ
ment Opportunities.
Kennedy was a vigorous campaigner
for the presidency in West Virginia’s
preferential primary last year, and spent
much time in the Kanawha Valley
where West Virginia State is located.
The college has been a classic case of
desegregation in reverse. The student
body today is almost 70 per cent white
and growing.
On the racial question, Barron said,
“We in West Virginia are notably for-
tlnate in what we have shown the world
that we can practice what we preach
in our public institutions of education.
Our progress in human relations is
outstanding and all of us are better off
because we have made this progress. I
recognize this as one of the great
strengths of our state.”
★ ★ ★
From a prominent Charleston Negro
came a complaint on May 28 that the
faculty of West Virginia State College
has failed to develop a quality educa
tion program that will attract both
superior students and outside financial
support. He was William L. Lonesome,
lawyer, speaking at the college’s annual
alumni luncheon.
“The failure of West Virginia State
College to retain its hold on the nation
wide student is partly, at least, the
fault of the faculty.” He said the col
lege appears to be content with having
a program sufficient only for accredi
tation.
“I have seen little evidence of the
type of dynamic programs and educa
tional experiments which other col
leges have been sponsoring,” Lonesome
said. “I predict that West Virginia State
will continue to experience a shrink
age in quantity as well as quality of
students if the faculty doesn’t become
alive and show more imagination in
formulating its academic programs.”
Texas
(Continued From Page 3)
desegregation” as well as relieve
crowded conditions at the district’s
Carver High for Negroes.
In The Colleges
Gulf AAU Censures
8 Negro Athletes
For Withdrawals
The Gulf Coast Amateur Athletic
Union voted to censure eight Texas
Southern University Negro athletes for
refusing to take part in the “Meet of
Champions” at Houston on June 9.
The incident resulted from a dispute
over segregated seating at the stadium.
In all, 20 Negro athletes withdrew
from the meet, which 5,200 fans attend
ed. Ten patrons took advantage of the
invitation to receive a refund on their
ticket, since some of the main attrac
tions failed to participate. Included
were John Thomas of Boston Univer
sity and Ralph Boston of Tennessee
State.
Texas Southern’s team was censured
by AAU for withdrawing after accept
ing the invitation.
The Houston stadium was picketed
by the Progressive Youth Association,
composed mainly of Negro students
who have been demonstrating for de
segregation of other public facilities in
Houston. Adolph Plummer, a Negro
runner from the University of New
Mexico, was quoted as saying the Ne
groes were threatened with violence if
they crossed the picket line. # # #
What They Say
B’nai B’rith Leader
Says Racial Equality
Is Just About Won’
At the West Virginia State exercises
Henry E. Schultz, New York lawyer,
was presented an honorary degree, tie
is national chairman of the B’nai B’rith
Anti-Defamation League and was
recognized for his work, in behalf of
civil rights.
He said on the day of the commence
ment that the Negro is “entering the
last stages of the march toward legal
opportunity and enmity.” Violence
against “freedom riders” in the South,
ne said, is an indication that white
extremists are getting desperate.
“Generally speaking,” he continued,
“I think the battle lor legal equality
is just about won. I think it wifi take
a great desil longer for members of
minority groups to achieve social
equality.”
★ ★ ★
Brant Coopersmith, who heads the
West Virginia, Delaware and Penn
sylvania division of -B’nai B’rith’s Anti-
Defamation League, said in a visit to
West Virginia June 12:
“I sense a good climate ... a readi
ness for progress. Things are going to
happen here which are good.”
He said there is a willingness in the
state “to meet what is or may be con
sidered a problem—how to create equal
opportunity for all regardless of their
race, creed, color or national origin.”
Cites Reasons
He cited, as reasons for his confidence,
progress in desegregation of public
schools and institutions, the opening of
hotels and restaurants to Negroes and
the creation of a State Human Rights
Commission.
Coopersmith, whose work takes him
into the South, says the most significant
development in race relations has been
the Negro’s growing awareness of how
he can achieve his goals through group
action.
He stressed that the climate in a
community or state determines more
than anything else how people react
to such issues as civil rights. “Society,”
he said, “may compel a person to dis
criminate even if he doesn’t want to . . .
how we discriminate is determined by
society.”
★ ★ ★
Superintendent Denies
Kanawha Students Lag
Kanawha County School Supt. L. K.
Lovenstein said June 9 that, contrary
to a recent state survey, students of
his school system do not take 12 years
to complete what students in other
states learn in 10 years.
Kanawha County is the most deseg
regated school system in West Virginia,
even in the teaching field. A number of
school consolidations have resulted from
the desegregation program, which has
been credited with an annual savings
of thousands of dollars a year.
Lovenstein said Kanawha County
children are slightly ahead of the na
tional average. He and members of his
staff took exception to a report made
for the State Board of Education this
spring.
Lovenstein said, “I want our people
to know our school system is up to
par. We have nothing to be ashamed
of.”
M iscellaneous
Job Discrimination
Charged By NAACP
The Charleston branch of the National
Association for Advancement of
Colored People, charging six firms
with racial discrimination, declared that
school desegregation is only a halfway
measure unless equal employment
opportunities are provided.
Many young Negroes cannot find
work after finishing West Virginia high
schools and colleges, the NAACP de
clared, and must leave the state.
The branch filed complaints June 6
with the President’s Committee on
Equal Employment Opportunities
against six major chemical plants in
the Kanawha Valley. Willard Brown,
president of the Charleston NAACP
chapter, said the committee was investi
gating the complaints.
If they are found to be valid, he
said, in some cases the committee has
authority to cancel government con
tracts with the firms, said Brown.
Job discrimination has been a fre
quent NAAP complaint in West Vir
ginia since the U.S. Supreme Court de
cision of 1954. # # #
OKLAHOMA
Provision For Separate
Schools Left On Books
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.
Six years after Oklahoma
schools began desegregating, state
lawmakers in June dodged the
issue. A proposal to delete from
the statutes a reference to “sepa
rate schools” died in committee.
The provision is deemed null and
void, because of the U.S. Supreme
Court ruhng that school segrega
tion is unconstitutional.
The school measure was part of a 10-
bili package sponsored by the National
Association for the Advancement oi
Colored People in an effort to wipe all
mention of racial segregation off Okla
homa law books.
. Five of the bills were passed by the
House and sent on to the Senate. The
five others—of a more controversial
nature and including the school
measure—were killed in committee.
This occurred when the session-weary
house voted to kill all bills still in
committee as of June 8.
Title 70, known as the Oklahoma
school code, retained the definition of
“separate school district” even after it
was revised May 25, 1955, to eliminate
separate school systems for white and
Negro children.
Ignored Provisions
State officials generally have ignored
the provision on grounds it has been
declared unconstitutional by the Su
preme Court. A move in the 1957
legislature to delete the phrase was
dropped in committee by sensitive
school bloc leaders who wanted to avoid
reopening a fight over teacher salaries.
This time the issue came up in the
House Criminal Jurisprudence Com
mittee, which had been assigned to
study the 10 NAACP-sponsored bills
introduced April 26 by Rep. Red
Andrews, Oklahoma County.
Reps. Gene Howard, Tulsa, and A1
Nichols, Seminole, pushed for consider
ation of all 10 bills, numbered HB 996
through HB 1005, before the committee.
Laws Ineffective
However, Rep. Martin Dyer, Ard
more, said that HB 1000 and HB 1004,
dealing respectively with racial seg
regation on public transportation motor
vehicles and separate schools, would
force the House to make a stand on
integration. He argued this could be
avoided because the laws already are
ineffective. Dyer is from Carter County,
in Oklahoma’s “Little Dixie” area.
Howard warned he would try to force
the five controversial bills out of com
mittee onto the House floor if they
were tabled. The committee voted 2-2,
and the chairman, Rep. Frank Ogden,
Guymon, broke the tie in favor of
tabling the five bills. However, the
five non-controversial bills were ap
proved.
★ ★ ★
The Senate, by a 34-2 vote, adopted
a resolution already passed by the
House calling for continuation of
Langston University, the state’s only
institution of higher learning for Ne
groes, “as an important and integral
part of the Oklahoma state system of
higher education.”
The declaration of legislative intent
was sought by friends of Langston as a
means of ending uncertainty over the
school’s future.
Sen. Louis Ritzhaupt, Guthrie, in
whose district Langston is located, spon
sored the resolution in the Senate. He
said passage of it would end for at least
two years (the period between legisla
tive sessions) the talk of closing the
Negro institution. Such talk, he insisted,
has handicapped school officials in
planning programs.
Langston has been under fire for some
time because of high per-capita oper
ating costs. The economy issue was
raised again before Ritzhaupt was able
to gain Senate passage of the resolu
tion. A number of senators questioned
him about the high per capita cost,
placed at about $300.
Having Hard Time
Sen. Tom Morford, Cherokee, said
this was the highest of any institution
in the state. He also asserted Langston
is having a hard time keeping ac
credited.
Sen. Fred Harris, Lawton, suggested
that, when the State Board of Regents
for Higher Education makes an over-all
study of state colleges, it will recom
mend better use of Langston Univer
sity. However, with the big increase in
the number of young people who will be
attending college, Oklahoma will need
Oklahoma Highlights
Oklahoma legislators left in the ;
state statutes a reference to “sepa-
rate schools.”
At least two more years of fif e
were assured Oklahoma’s Negro uni- ■
versity, Langston, with Senate adop-
tion of a House resolution calling
for continuation of the school.
A check of Oklahoma City Board
of Education records showed the
state’s largest school system has 11
schools with Negro and white stu
dents.
every one of its 18 institutions, even if
functions of some of them are changed,
Harris said.
Morford moved to refer the resolu-
tion to the Senate’s special economy
committee, which had previously put
pressure on the regents about Lang,
ston (Southern School News, June),
But his motion was tabled and the
Senate then voted in favor of the
resolution.
Although the resolution is not bind
ing on the regents, they are expected to
follow the recommendation. In a meet
ing in May members of the economy
committee indicated they would not
close Langston unless directed by the
legislature to do so.
Schoolmen
Oklahoma City Adds
Two More Schools
To Biracial List
Oklahoma City Board of Education
records showed 11 schools, including
two not previously on desegregation
lists, had both Negro and white pupils
during the past year.
Altogether 955 Negroes were re
ported attending classes with 4,936 white
children.
The schools added to the list were
Bryan, whose students are limited to
those in special education programs,
and Emerson, an elementary school a
few blocks north of the city’s downtown
business area.
Bryan had nine Negroes among its 51
pupils. Emerson had two in its student
body of 360. The list included three high
schools, seven grade schools and the
special education school.
One School Inherited
One of the three desegregated high
schools, Star-Spencer, was inherited by
the Oklahoma City school system when
a suburban district of the same name,
located to the east of the city, annexed
itself last year. Star-Spencer has 98 Ne
groes among its 980 students.
Oklahoma City school officials al-
ways have been reluctant to give o ut
desegregation information, particularly
specific numbers of Negro pupils in
volved.
Thus, the check in June uncovered
one surprise: Central High School, al
ways believed to have the greatest
number of Negro students in a biracial
school, ranks second to Lincoln Grade
School.
Central had 276 Negroes in a sin-
dent body of 1,370, but Lincoln had 2®
Negroes along with its 202 other pupil*
Lincoln is one of two biracial schoo”
with a majority of Negro students. 1**
other is Walnut Grove Grade School
with 124 Negroes and 29 whites.
Re-Segregation Cycle
Since the school board’s research a
statistics office checked the figures oaf
once during the year, it could not b*
determined whether Lincoln and W* 1
nut Grove are following a re- segrega
tion trend. Two other Oklahoma
elementary schools, Creston Hills as
Culbertson, have already gone throng^
that cycle—changing from all-white
mixed to majority Negro and then
all-Negro.
Other schools with desegregation **
ported for the first time the past y e j
are Northeast High School, with.
Negroes in a student body of W ’
Edison Grade School, 70 Negroes
a total of 168; and Harmony
School, 11 Negroes in a total of 370- ,
Also biracial are Riverside, with,
pupils, including 66 Negroes, and ^
son, with one Negro among its 543 *
dents. Both are grade schools. *
# *