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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1962—PAGE 13
A Result of Overcrowded Schools
>upils from Dozier School in St. Louis board chartered buses for the return trip to
■Mr home school, after a day of classes at Gardenville School. About 4,000
iludenfs ore transported daily in the city school system and the figure will increase
by 2,000 next year.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Professors’ Group Lifts
Allen University Censure
COLUMBIA
'Fhe American Association of
University Professors has lift-
d its censure from Allen Univer
sity, a church-affiliated co-educa-
:ional Negro school at Columbia.
The censure was applied against the
college administration following a 1957-
1958 controversy that resulted in the
release of three faculty members. Then-
Gov. George Bell Timmerman, Jr.,
charged the three teachers with being
linked to communist-connected organ
izations, and the State Department of
Education for a time removed Allen
from the list of institutions approved
lor teacher training in the state.
The strained relations between the
Uegro college and the State of South
Carolina were aggravated during the
1957-58 school year by the presence at
he Negro school of a white Hungarian
refugee, Andre Toth. The attorney gen
eral said at the time that the white stu
dent’s attendance at a Negro school
ras contrary to the state’s policy, but
lo action was initiated toward altering
he situation since a private, not a pub-
«, institution was involved.
Teachers Separated
After Gov. Timmerman had repeated
ly called the attention of the public and
'f the General Assembly to the pres-
Wce of six professors of “questionable
connections” at Allen University and
Benedict College, the teachers were
^Parated from their respective facul-
: Qes - The circumstances of the separa
tions provoked the AAUP action, and
“°th institutions were placed on the
frAUP’s list of censured administra
tions.
In late April, under a new president,
, • Howard E. Wright, Allen Univer-
was removed from the censured
■, t. Dr. Wright said that the action had
“«cn taken as a result of efforts by him-
^If; Bishop Carey A. Gibbs of the Afri-
'on Methodist Episcopal Church, chair-
l"'y i of the university’s board, and
I ot ner administrative officials.
They worked toward establishment of
“iceptable standards of academic free-
°|n, tenure, and had made “appro
bate financial redress” to the three
Ifismissed teachers.
Dr - Wright said the dismissal of the
“free had been “unjustifiable and dis-
j ^Putable in manner” and said they
t ° U i! d £* ven “preferential considera-
° n if they were to seek employment
| “gain at Allen.
The censure of the Benedict adminis-
*i°n, according to the Associated
ass, remains in effect.
oolmen
Kowan Speech
Teachers
^tirs Reaction
Carl Rowan, a Negro official of the
]j b Department, urged South Caro-
s Negro school teachers April 4 to
• °ve out boldly against the despotism
: r custom.”
^°wan, a former newspaperman who
f 0 b ‘ s an assistant secretary of state
at r P u blic affairs, was principal speaker
Dj be annual convention of the Pal-
e to (Negro) Education Association.
S. C. Highlights
Allen University, a Negro institu
tion at Columbia, was removed from
the censured list of the American
Association of University Professors
during April.
Aside from vocal protests over the
threat to withhold federal funds
from segregated schools in “impact
ed areas,” state officials ignored a
challenge to reconvene the state leg
islature to meet the situation.
Negro school teachers were chal
lenged by Carl Rowan to work
against continued segregation in the
state and nation.
Appeals from breach of the peace
convictions were headed in April for
two separate high courts, the Su
preme Court of South Carolina and
the United States Supreme Court.
Two separate incidents were in
volved.
Earlier, in a press conference, Rowan
told reporters:
“Separate but equal schools are im
possible. Separate schools are inherent
ly unequal. The segregated school sys
tem is a vicious cycle.”
Rowan defended the recent statement
by Secretary of Health, Education and
Welfare Abraham Ribicoff that federal
funds would be withheld from segre
gated schools in “impacted areas.”
“It is highly improper,” said Rowan,
“that the federal government should
contribute money to a segregated school
attended by children of American serv
icemen.
Another speaker at the convention
was George W. Jones, a native South
Carolinian who now is executive secre
tary of the American Teachers’ Associa
tion. Urging Negro teachers to “stand
up and be counted” in a fight for pro
fessional equality, he said:
“In America there are over 100,000
black teachers who still suffer discrim
inatory differentials because of race.
They face roadblocks to employment
opportunity and promotion.”
Adverse Comment
The Rowan speech to the Negro
teachers brought adverse comment from
several South Carolina newspapers.
Among them was The News and
Courier of Charleston, which charged
Rowan with doing his race a disservice
by implying that Negroes, “left to their
company, must remain inferior, what
ever the plant and facilities otherwise
enjoyed.”
Other adverse comment came from a
Columbia attorney and civic leader, R.
Beverley Herbert. In a lengthy article
reprinted in several newspapers, Her
bert said that Rowan was, in effect, ask
ing white people to give up their race.
“He knows and we know,” said Her
bert, “that mixed schools mean social
mixing and that means a mixed race.
Self preservation is called the first law
of nature, and race preservation is a
part of it. . . . Neither Mr. Rowan nor
the State Department where he is em
ployed will be able to obliterate this
fundamental, natural impulse. It is hu
man nature.”
(See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 15)
MISSOURI
Union Refuses to Provide Manual
To Negroes in Training Program
ST. LOUIS
ational attention has been
attracted to a controversy
over alleged racial discrimination
in AFL-CIO apprenticeship pro
grams operated by union-manage
ment committees at O’Fallon
Technical High School, which is
part of the St. Louis public schools
system.
The NAACP has attacked the pro
gram at the national level, and the St.
Louis Board of Education has ordered
an inquiry that is still in progress.
(SSN, April.)
On April 27, the Steamfitting Joint
Apprenticeship and Training Commit
tee notified Supt. of Instruction Philip
J. Hickey that it had decided to pull out
of O’Fallon High rather than comply
with a Board of Education ruling, which
required that its training manual be
made available to all students, including
Negroes.
The committee is composed of repre
sentatives of AFL-CIO Steamfitters Lo
cal 562 and the Mechanical Contractors
Association of St. Louis. Its program has
been in operation in St. Louis public
schools for more than 20 years. The
committee has not sponsored any Negro
apprentices. However, the committee
strongly denied to Hickey that discrim
ination was an issue.
Race Motive Denied
“Contrary to what recent publicity
would seem to indicate, there has been
no discrimination in apprenticeship
training because of race, color or
creed,” said Ed Stoltz, executive secre
tary of the steamfitters joint committee.
The only reason the training manual
was denied to two Negroes, Stoltz told
Hickey, was that “we are prohibited
from making the manual available to
anyone not eligible under nationwide
rules.” He said the manual was written
exclusively for apprentices who train
under the National Joint Pipefitter
Apprenticeship Committee, which limits
use of the manual to “those qualified.”
Withdrawal of the manual had been
ordered by the Board of Education after
its use had been denied to Oliver
Parker and Ronald Leonard, first Ne
groes to take the pipefitter course at
O’Fallon. They had been enrolled under
sponsorship not of the AFL group but
of a biracial management-labor com
mittee. There were 22 pipefitters en
rolled at O’Fallon, including the Ne
groes.
The AFL-CIO committee said it
would provide “private instruction” for
its apprentices. State and federal sub
sidies are contingent upon such instruc
tion being carried on inside public
school facilities. Officials said these
subsidies would cease.
To Continue Teaching
Meanwhile Raymond J. Sacks, O’Fal
lon principal, said the school program
would continue. “We will continue to
teach the course for the remainder of
the school year, even if there are only
two students in the class,” Sacks an
nounced.
The Board of Education inquiry
covers not only the pipefitters but 15
other apprenticeship training programs
at O’Fallon. On April 2, Arthur J. Ken
nedy, St. Louis Negro contractor and
chairman of the labor-industry commit
tee of the NAACP’s St. Louis chapter,
said the NAACP would seek court in
junctions to tie up construction projects
if other efforts to get skilled jobs for
Negroes in the building industry failed.
Kennedy said the NAACP hoped to
gain its objectives through the elimina
tion of alleged discrimination in the
public schools apprenticeship training
programs. Failing that, he said, the next
line of attack would be to seek injunc
tions under city and state fair employ
ment practices laws, and the federal
executive order barring discrimination
in government contracts.
Last Resort
The seeking of injunctions would be
undertaken only as a last resort, Ken
nedy said. He expressed confidence,
however, that if work on multi-million-
dollar construction projects, such as
those on the Mississippi riverfront and
in the Mill Creek Valley, were stopped,
public pressure would force the accept
ance of Negroes in skilled jobs.
“St. Louis is on the road to becoming
one of the most progressive cities in the
nation,” he said, “and citizens wouldn’t
stand for a halt to this progress because
of bias by unions and employers.
“Negroes put over the bond issues
that make this progress possible, and
now we are demanding some of the
work.”
Missouri Highlights
The AFL-CIO Steamfitting Joint
Apprenticeship and Training Com
mittee decided to withdraw from
O’Fallon Technical High School of
the St. Louis public schools system,
rather than comply with a Board of
Education ruling that its training
manual be made available to Negro
students. The committee strongly
denied that discrimination was an
issue.
Two of nine students of Lincoln
University suspended for insubordin
ation and other alleged infractions
have been readmitted by the former
ly all-Negro university. The con
troversy arose over attempts of stu
dents to bring desegregation of
bowling alleys.
Voters of St. Louis and St. Louis
County authorized the establishment
of a city-county Junior College Dis
trict at an election April 3. One of
six junior college trustees elected on
the same date was Guy S. Ruffin, a
Negro, retired St. Louis public
school teacher and former president
of the St. Louis branch of the
NAACP.
Razing of about 200 dwellings will
be required for construction of six
elementary schools under the re
cently approved St. Louis school
bond issue program. Four of the new
schools will be built in west central
sections where Negroes have moved
in recent years. Meanwhile, thou
sands of Negro children will con
tinue to be transported to less
crowded districts by bus.
On April 7, the AFL-CIO Carpenters
District Council and employers regis
tered the first Negro ever approved for
training by the Carpenters Joint Ap
prenticeship Committee. This is the old
est and largest apprenticeship training
program in St. Louis and has been in
operation in public school facilities for
26 years.
The Negro apprentice, Taylor Fuller
Jr., 19 years old, will be among 150
carpenter apprentices enrolled in a new
class at O’Fallon in September. He has
been hired by Millstone Construction
Co. He is believed to be the first Negro
approved for training in any of the
AFL-CIO craft unions in St. Louis. He
told a reporter:
“I hope to be something like Jackie
Robinson was to baseball. I hope to
prove good enough so that other Ne
groes can follow in my footsteps.”
(
In The Colleges
Lincoln University
Student Suspensions
Arouse Controversy
A subject of controversy in the Negro
press of St. Louis and Kansas City has
been the suspension of nine Lincoln
University students March 17 in con
nection with efforts of the student chap
ter of the NAACP to bring about de
segregation of bowling alleys in Jeffer
son City, the state capital. The
university has readmitted two of the
students.
Political Activity
Voters of St. Louis county on April
3 gave decisive approval to establish
ment of a city-county Junior College
District. The vote was 78,522 to 38,588,
with a simple majority required for
passage.
The decision will enable the metro
politan area to set up junior colleges.
Under new legislation enacted last
year, the state will put up $200 a year
for each qualified student enrolled. Lo
cal tax support was authorized at the
rate of about $3,000,000 a year.
The Junior College District is ex-
On March 13, student representatives
met with bowling alley officials and
reached an agreement regarding deseg
regation. The session was attended by
Gregory E. Shinert, executive director
of the Missouri Commission on Human
Rights. The agreement was to the effect
that the bowling alleys would accept
bowling leagues under sponsorship of
the university, and that if these leagues
were acceptable to patrons, then racial
bars would be lowered.
Later the same evening, the total
membership of the NAACP Lincoln
Youth Chapter rejected the agreement
and picketed two bowling alleys. Presi
dent Earl E. Dawson, a Negro, asked the
commission to arrange a second meeting
and this was held March 21. Meanwhile,
the nine students were suspended by
the Student Adjustment Committee on
a charge of insubordination to the
President. They had been forbidden to
hold any further meetings or take fur
ther action in the matter without
knowledge and approval of their faculty
sponsor or Dean of Students.
‘In Deliberate Defiance’
“In deliberate defiance of this direc
tive,” said President Dawson, “this
group called a meeting for Saturday,
March 17, and announced to the press
plans for a march and demonstration
downtown. When they proceeded with
this meeting, in spite of a second warn
ing from the Student Adjustment Com
mittee (a faculty committee responsible
for student discipline) they were sus
pended; whereupon they informed the
press that they had been suspended for
picketing, or for their pursuit of their
civil rights. The stories carried in the
newspapers, based on information given
out by them, wound up by making it
appear that we had encountered some
serious opposition to integration here in
Jefferson City.
“The truth of the matter is that the
issue probably would not have received
any more notice or opposition than the
desegregation of other facilities here has
received, had these young people been
willing to handle the matter quietly and
properly. The only excuse that I can
offer for them is the fact that they are
young, and apparently eager to be
known as crusaders for human freedom.
All of us sympathized with their aims,
but we considered their methods both
unnecessary and harmful to the har
monious relations that we have enjoyed
in this community.”
Agreement Reached
At the second meeting with bowling
alley officials, March 21, four repre
sentatives of the university’s Student
Council met with the officials, repre
sentatives of the Commission on Human
Rights, and a local minister. Students
accepted the agreement, which had as
its objective the desegregation of the
alleys in six weeks. Executive Director
Shinert reported as follows on the plan:
“The bowling alleys instructed the
Lincoln University coaches, and they in
turn instructed the Lincoln students—at
Lincoln University. Then, during the
week of April 16, about 80 students
from Lincoln (male and female, white
and Negro) began bowling as a league
at both of the bowling alleys. Nothing
untoward has happened. Everything has
gone along smoothly. Estimates now
(April 24) are that complete ‘open’
bowling could begin, on a selective
basis, within a few weeks. The com
munity seems to have accepted the
idea.”
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of
the National NAACP, flew to the cam
pus April 3 and talked to the suspended
students. They then returned to their
homes. A Commission on Human Rights
(See MISSOURI, Page 15)
pected to offer low-cost higher educa
tion, with two-year terminal, transfer
and technical programs. One effect will
be to greatly extend the college oppor
tunities available to poorer economic
groups, including Negroes concentrated
in the central city. One of the six dis
trict trustees is Guy S. Ruffin, retired
St. Louis public schools teacher. Ruffin,
a Negro, is a former president of the
St. Louis branch of the NAACP.
At their organization meeting, the
new trustees said they would make
every effort to start classes next Sep
tember.
St. Louis City-County Junior
College Gets Voters’ Approval