Newspaper Page Text
Factual
SOUTHEF
mi
n
mi a
VOL. 8, NO. 4
VO * SN 3H
NOISIAIO SNOlilSino
S3 I
vi0^030 JO aiwn
8002 — H — 29 Nfir
r, News
Objective
OCTOBER, 1961
enings Calm for Second Year
U 8R* weS
Memphis “Quietly Places
Negroes in Four Schools
NASHVILLE
T hirteen Negro first-graders
were admitted to four pre
viously all-white schools at Mem
phis on Oct. 3, the first desegre
gation of public schools in Ten
nessee’s largest city.
Police reported no disorders during
the first day of biracial classes al
though school officials said about 15
white children were taken from the de
segregated classrooms by their par
ents.
The move also was the first deseg
regation of any school system in West
Tennessee. Memphis, with a popula
tion of about half a million people in
cluding almost 200,000 Negroes, long
has been identified as a “Deep South”
city.
The four schools in which the Negro
students were enrolled under the state
pupil assignment law are located in
predominantly white neighborhoods
with Negroes residing on the perim
eter.
In This Issue
State Reports
Alabama 5
Arkansas 6
Delaware 5
District of Columbia 1
Florida 1
Georgia 3
Kentucky 14
Louisiana 2
Maryland 8
Mississippi 11
Missouri 10
North Carolina 13
Oklahoma 7
South Carolina 10
Tennessee 1
Texas 9
Virginia 4
West Virginia 6
'Peeial Articles
Regional Survey 1
Remedial Counsel (Okla.) 7
Progress Report (Md.) 8
Dallas Aftermath 9
Rooks and the Issue 11
-it Governors 13
’. "ivil Rights Reports 16
CP
Four of the first-graders were as
signed to Gordon School, which has an
enrollment of 330, and four others
were admitted to Rozelle School, which
has a 364-student enrollment. Three
Negroes were assigned to Bruce
School, largest of the four with 555
students, and two were admitted to
Springdale, which has an enrollment
of 330.
Chosen from 39
The eight girls and five boys had
been chosen from 39 Negro students
who had appealed to the Memphis
Board of Education the previous re
jection of their applications to white
schools.
Although City School Board Presi
dent William D. Galbreath had an
nounced in September that “some” Ne
groes would be admitted to previously
all-white schools, the date of desegre
gation was not disclosed until the
morning biracial classes began.
An estimated 40 to 50 policemen,
equipped with billy clubs, patroled the
areas around the desegregated schools,
and Memphis Police Commissioner
Claude Armour made it clear that no
disorders would be tolerated.
Newsmen and spectators were not
allowed in the school areas, with re
porters kept up-to-date on develop
ments by communiques issued at press
headquarters across the street from the
Board of Education offices.
‘Momentous Importance’
“We want full factual coverage of
this event ... of momentous impor
tance,” Galbreath told newsmen who
attended a press briefing on the night
of Oct. 2, when the plan was outlined.
Reporters, however, had pledged not to
make the plan known ahead of time.
“There was no apparent resistance
to integration,” one police official com
mented as the first day of desegregated
classes came to a close.
Reporters on the scene said the de
segregation of the four schools was
“executed like a well-rehearsed mili
tary operation,” with school board of
ficials and other authorities keeping in
touch with the schools by telephone
and with police by radio.
Attorney Jack Petree, counsel for
the school board, who served as chief
of the operation, backed up Armour’s
statements concerning the use of police.
“This is going to be a thoroughly-
(See MEMPHIS, Page 12)
Negroes Enter Earlington Heights Elementary
Negro children are escorted to the formerly all-white school, one of six new
biracial schools in Miami. The school now has an enrollment about half white
and half Negro.
FLORIDA
Schools Desegregated
In Four County Systems
MIAMI
TVTith almost no advance not-
” ice, four Florida counties be
gan desegregation as the fall term
opened. The breakthrough in
Broward and Palm Beach coun
ties came on the opening day of
school, and some assignments still
are being made.
Already more than 500 Negroes are
attending mixed classes. These include
399 in the schools of four counties and
about 115 in three junior colleges.
The transition was made without in
cident of any kind. School officials at
the 18 desegregated public schools said
classes were proceeding in a normal
manner.
; district of Columbia
Rights Group Urges Speedup
t -*y schools — North, South,
a 1 and West—is slow indeed,”
federal Civil Rights Commis
si Tj>i n on Sept. 25 issued a report
fining sweeping recommen-
,! 0tls to speed up the desegre-
WASHINGTON
IjFclaring that “the nation’s
progress in removing the
, U1 %ing effects of segregation
“ he public elementary and sec-
'nd a:
?ati,
The
in commission s 254-page report
^cation, presented to Congress
HjjJ* e President, was based on com-
W tu ^ ear ^ n S s an d investigations. It
V ,? e second report in a series of
me first, on voting, was published
lo^ and others are to follow on
■itf Jl'K’ employment and the admin-
IOn of justice.
$ t 0 ^ St Tar-reaching of the commis-
T2 education recommendations
0tle > Unanimously endorsed by the
j^amissioners, which asked Con-
to require every local school
9 “Derating segregated schools to
Vji ^desegregation plan with the fed-
t^Sovernment w ^hin six months,
j. T^an would have to provide for
Ill,le diate first step toward com-
° n process.
pliance with the Supreme Court’s 1954
desegregation decision and envisage
complete desegregation as soon as prac
ticable.
The commission’s proposal was sim
ilar to a plank in the 1960 Democratic
platform and to a bill introduced in
Congress by Sen. Joseph S. Clark (D-
Pa.) and Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-
N.V.). There has been no action so far
on the Clark-Celler bill, which did
not receive administration backing.
Federal Funds
Equally controversial among the
commission’s recommendations was one
to withhold from states maintaining
segregated school districts up to 50
per cent of Federal grant-in-aid funds
for education. In the only dissent to
any of the proposals, Commissioner
Robert S. Rankin, professor of political
science at Duke University, objected
that if such action were taken “the
net effect might be punitive.”
“I do not believe that school chil
dren should be made to suffer for the
errors of their elders,” Rankin as
serted.
Other commission recommendations
included the following:
• That Congress consider the advis
ability of new legislation to speed up
federal court action in school cases.
• That Congress provide Federal
financial assistance to local school sys
tems that undertake to desegregate.
• That Congress provide federal
loans for school districts whose state
funds are cut off as a result of de
segregation.
• That Congress or the President
authorize the commission to serve as an
information clearinghouse on pro
cedures and problems in desegregation,
and permit the commission to create
an advisory and conciliation service
for local communities.
• That the President or Congress
direct the attorney general to protect
children, parents, citizens and school
officials against harassment, intimida
tion and reprisal for carrying out de
segregation plans.
• That the President arrange for
desegregated schools on military bases
for dependents of military personnel
who are required by their parents’
assignment to attend segregated schools
in nearby communities.
• That federal assistance be pro
vided to the states for programs de
signed to identify and aid potentially
capable teachers and students who are
handicapped by unequal educational
opportunity.
(See CIVIL RIGHTS, Page 15)
The only protest that came to public
attention was in Volusia County, where
a group of parents who objected to
their children attending the biracial
school in Daytona Beach went in a
body to the county seat at Deland to
protest. They were told they could ap
ply for transfers for their children.
★ ★ ★
Dade Starts Third
Year of Desegregation
The largest desegregation was in Dade
County, where there have been some
mixed classes for two years. Dade be
gan its third year of desegregation with
345 Negro children attending with
whites, in 10 schools.
In every instance, including Earling
ton Heights Elementary, where Flor
ida’s first mass mixing was tried, school
officials reported the situation was nor
mal.
After some shifts in the first few
days, Earlington Heights reported 280
Negroes and 132 white children were
formally enrolled. The school had 360
white children last year, and the total
biracial enrollment was expected to be
about the same. With 52 more than were
expected, Principal William Tango said
two additional teachers must be hired.
A desegregated PTA is being or
ganized.
Changing Neighborhood
The school serves a changing neigh
borhood, with Negro families moving
in as white families vacate. However,
one section of the school district is sol
idly white, and there has been no
change as yet. This leads school officials
to believe that Earlington Heights will
remain mixed for some years to come.
During this period the faculty will
remain wholly white. This is consid
ered an educational experiment, to pro
vide comparative data on the achieve
ment of Negro pupils under white
teachers. A criticism frequently heard
is that the achievement level of Negro
children is often lower because of Ne
gro teachers who may not be as well
trained.
Gladeview Elementary, where 10 Ne
groes joined 385 white pupils, reported
that all was normal. Here are com
ments from other newly desegregated
schools in Dade:
Coconut Grove Elementary (four
Negroes): “Just another school day in
a new school.”
(See FLORIDA, Page 11)
T he South’s public schools
opened this fall without vio
lence for the second straight year,
although desegregation expanded
to 31 new districts that admitted
392 Negroes to formerly all-white
schools. This was the greatest
number of districts to desegregate
with the beginning of any school
year since 1957.
The new desegregation, plus the dis
covery of 12 desegregated districts in
Texas previously unknown, raised to
824 the number of districts having
policies providing for biracial schools.
A survev by Southern School News
correspondents determined that the 17
Southern and border states, plus the
District of Columbia, now have 6,599
school districts, of which 2,805 are bi
racial (having both white and Negro
residents), whether segregated or de
segregated. (See “Desegregated Dis
tricts” table.) The region had 6,663
districts last year, with 781 districts
desegregated of the 2,813 biracial.
Until last year, every fall since the
U.S. Supreme Court’s segregation rul
ing in 1954 had been marked by major
violence involving school desegregation.
Although the 1960-61 term began with
out trouble, the quiet was broken in
November, when whites in New Or
leans marched to protest the admission
of four Negroes to two white schools.
Three major Southern cities opened
their first mixed schools this fall. Dallas
formerly the largest segregated system
in the nation, admitted 18 Negroes to
schools with whites. Atlanta became
the first desegregated district in Geor
gia. accepting nine 11th and 12th grade
Negro students in formerly all-white
high schools. Several weeks after school
opened. Memphis approved the transfer
of 13 Negro first graders to attend the
same classes with whites.
Changes In Picture
The changes in the school desegrega
tion picture during September left three
completely segregated states — South
Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama. The
region’s largest city with a segregated
school system now is Fort Worth, with
Birmingham next in size.
State by state, here’s the location
of the new desegregated districts: Dela
ware four, with two other admitting
Moors or Nanticoke Indians for the
first time; Florida three; Tennessee six;
Texas seven; Virginia eight; and
Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina
one each. (See “New Desegregation”
table.) North Carolina also had another
district admit Indians for the first time
this fall.
Ten of the new desegregated districts
acted under court orders and the re
maining 21 initiated their desegregation
policies voluntarily.
College desegregation also has in
creased since the close of the 1960-61
session. Six public institutions of high
er learning changed their racial policies
on admissions and a new junior col
lege, Anne Arundel Community College
in Maryland, first opened in September
for both races. This makes 146 colleges
known to be desegregated in practice
or principle.
(See COLLEGE, Page 14)
Desegregated
Districts
17 Southern and Border States
October, 1961
Desegre-
State
Total
Biracial
gated
Ala. .
114
114
0
Ark. .
419
228
10
Dela.
92
92
28
D.C. .
1
1
1
Fla. .
67
67
4
Ga. ..
198
198
1
Ky. .
211
172
131
La. ..
67
67
1
Md.
24
23
23
Miss.
151
151
0
Mo. .
1,889
214*
200*
N.C. .
173
173
11
Okla.
1,231
240
190
S.C. .
109
109
0
Tenn.
154
143
13
Texas
1,513
643
149
Va. ..
131
129
19
W.Va.
55
43
43
Totals
1961
*
*
Oct.
6,599
2,805
824
May 6,663
^Estimated
2,813
781