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bUUlHbKN MJHUUL NtWb—MAT, |?62—PAfczt IV
VIRGINIA
Fairfax County
To Desegregate
ll More Schools
RICHMOND
he Fairfax County School
Board on April 17 approved
assignments of 108 additional Ne-
! fl-o pupils to white and predomi
nantly white schools. Approxi
mately 95 Negroes have been at
tending desegregated schools in
Fairfax this year.
The board’s action will add 11 addi
tional schools to the 16 currently de
segregated in this northern Virginia
county.
Earlier in the month, a spokesman
for the Fairfax County Council of
Human Relations charged the Fairfax
school administration with promoting
I'resegregation.”
Allison W. Brown, Jr., chairman of
the council’s school committee, said that
15 Negro children had been graduated
from desegregated elementary and jun
ior high schools into segregated schools.
George Pope, assistant superintendent
of schools, said that “we presumed the
Negro children wanted to attend the
colored school when they didn’t state to
the contrary.” The Negro children in
question live closer to the Negro
| schools to which they were promoted
than they do to comparable desegre
gated schools, Pope explained,
j Fairfax is one of the three Virginia
localities that have voted to remove
themselves from jurisdiction of the
State Pupil Placement Board in order
to have the authority to make their
own pupil assignments.
★ ★ ★
Placement Board Head
To Teach for $1 a Year
E. J. Oglesby, chairman of the State
Pupil Placement Board, which makes
the vast majority of school assignments
in Virginia, said April 25 that he will
teach next fall at the private, segre
gated Rock Hill Academy in Char
lottesville. He said he will receive $1
a year for his work.
Rock Hill Academy was established
in 1958 when desegregation of Char
lottesville schools became imminent.
Oglesby is now a professor of mathe
matics at the University of Virginia
Engineering School, but he has reached
the mandatory retirement age of 70.
In addition to being chairman of the
Pupil Placement Board (having been
re-elected to that position by the other
two members April 16), Oglesby is also
j chairman of the Albemarle County
School Board.
; He said he feels there is no conflict
,°f interest in his teaching at Rock Hill
and heading the two public boards. He
said the Albemarle Board of Super
visors saw no reason for his proffered
resignation, and that he felt Gov. Har
rison would “think it was silly” if he
'Oglesby) tendered his resignation
from the Placement Board.
Oglesby expressed the view that pri
vate schools are necessary in order to
insure continuance of public education.
; There is no conflict between the two
systems,” he added.
★ ★ ★
Virginia Highlights
One hundred and eight additional
Negro pupils have been assigned to
white or predominantly white schools
in Fairfax County. This is approxi
mately one-fifth as many as the
total number of Negroes now attend
ing desegregated schools throughout
Virginia.
President Kennedy has nominated
former Gov. J. Lindsay Almond, Jr.,
to be judge of the U.S. Court of
Customs and Patent Appeals, caus
ing speculation as to whether the
appointment will be opposed by
U.S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd, with
whom Almond broke three years ago
over the school desegregation issue.
Federal District Judge Oren R.
Lewis extended his injunction pro
hibiting the use of tuition grants in
Prince Edward County as long as
public schools there remain closed.
tendance law in 1959, but made it apply
only in localities whose school boards
and governing bodies vote to come un-
| der it.
★ ★ ★
The Arlington County School Board
J on April 19 voted to modify its rule
concerning dances in school buildings.
In 1959 the board adopted a rule
prohibiting groups that rented school
buildings from using the facilities for
desegregated social activities.
The action taken April 10 eliminates
the prohibition against desegregated ac-
| tivities.
The board’s rule against school-
j sponsored dances, adopted in 1960, re-
| mains unchanged.
★ ★ ★
Of every 100 Negroes of voting age
in Virginia, 23 are registered to vote,
the Virginia Teachers Association (Ne
gro) reported April 21.
“The low registration in the state can
be attributed to the poll tax,” accord
ing to Dr. Tinsley L. Spraggins, pro
fessor of history at Virginia Union
University (Negro), chairman of the
VTA committee that compiled the sta
tistics.
Legal Action
Judge Extends
Tuition Grant
Injunction
Federal District Judge Oren R. Lewis
on April 4 extended the injunction
which prohibits use of tuition grants in
Prince Edward County as long as the
public schools there are closed. (Allen
v. Prince Edward County School
Board.)
Further hearings in the Prince Ed
ward case were set for May 18 in the
district court at Richmond.
The original injunction, issued by
Judge Lewis last summer, was to re
main in force until 20 days after the
State Supreme Court had ruled on the
legality of the closing of schools in the
county.
Political Activity
Texas
(Continued From Page 11)
$1,375,000 bond proposal was rejected
in April, 998 votes to 580. The Lockhart
school board, revised after a recent
election, has promised to come up with
a more modest financial plan.
Accreditation Threatened
The board’s problem is made acute by
the fact that the Texas Education Agen
cy has warned Lockhart schools they
will lose accredited standing unless de
ficiencies are corrected in the Negro
school, and physical education improved
at all schools. The deadline for comply
ing with the accrediting agency’s stand
ards is September 1963.
The system has about 1,650 white and
250 Negro scholastics.
The Austin School Board meanwhile
ordered desegregation to be extended
to another grade in September, 1962.
The district started desegregation at the
high school level in 1955, and has ex
tended gradually downward through
the sixth grade. Next year, the fifth
grade will be added.
The Austin board also announced that
special education facilities, for handi
capped students, will be operated on an
unsegregated basis for all grades start
ing in September.
★ ★ ★
Withdrawal of Impact Funds
Would Have Broad Effect
A review of the impact of proposed
withdrawal of federal funds from seg
regated school districts revealed the
effect would be much broader than
originally reported.
Texas Education Agency explained
that 184 districts, mostly in East Texas,
stand to lose about $4,500,000 annually
they now receive from the federal gov
ernment for educating children whose
parents are employed at U.S. govern
ment installations.
In all, 252 Texas districts this year
are receiving $11,959,209 from this
source. Most of this goes, however, to
51 desegregated districts. Thirteen dis
tricts receiving federal “impacted area”
funds serve white pupils only.
The largest payments go to San An
tonio ISD $1,146,167, El Paso $1,260,668,
Killeen (Fort Hood) $575,333, and a
number of other districts serving mili-
The state court issued its opinion
March 5 (Griffin v. Prince Edward
County Board of Supervisors). The tri
bunal found that the school closing
does not violate the state constitution.
Negro attorneys in the federal case
want Judge Lewis to rule that the
closing of the schools is a violation of
the constitutional rights of the county’s
Negro children. They contend that the
closing violates both the state and fed
eral constitutions.
But attorneys for the county, in
papers filed May 1, argued that Judge
Lewis should direct the plaintiffs to
go back to the State Supreme Court for
a ruling from that tribunal as to wheth
er the school closing violates the fed
eral constitution. The county claimed
that under Judge Lewis’ original in
struction to the plaintiffs, they were
supposed to ask the state court for
rulings on both the state and federal
constitutional aspects, but that they did
not ask for the latter. # # #
Compulsory Attendance
Adopted in Alexandria
The Alexandria City Council on
April 10 adopted a compulsory school
attendance law, becoming the 57th lo-
^lity in the state to enact such legis
lation.
Several speakers appeared before the
b °ard to urge passage, although favor
able action on the measure was con
sidered certain since the councilmen,
I ® they were running for election
ast year, had pledged that they would
®dopt compulsory attendance. Under
ate law, the local school board had
initiate action toward adoption of
fbbipulsory attendance, and the latter
board did not pass the necessary reso-
btion until a few weeks before the
yancil’s April 10 meeting.
The Rev. John C. Davis of Meade
e morial Episcopal Church told the
| Pencil: “There are too many chil-
en in Alexandria carrying door keys
found their necks while both parents
, J 6 work.” He expressed hope that
e compulsory attendance requirement
°uld take these children off the
^eets.
Mrs. Frederick K. Dashiell, president
p the P-TA Council, said a poll of
, ?TA members in the city showed
1 .075
. , in favor of the law, 105 opposed
**14 abstaining.
i < ifginia’s statewide compulsory at-
pbdance statute was repealed by the
^ neral Assembly in 1956. The As-
■Pbly re-enacted a compulsory at-
Ex-Gov. Almond Named to U. S.
Judgeship; Sen. Byrd Silent
Virginia’s former Gov. J. Lindsay
Almond Jr. has been nominated by
President Kennedy to be a judge of
the United States Court of Customs and
Patent Appeals.
The nomination, announced April 6,
touched off speculation in the state as
to whether the appointment will be op
posed by Virginia’s U.S. Sen. Harry
Flood Byrd.
Almond and Byrd, once close polit
ical friends, broke as a result of sharp
disagreement over school desegregation
policies. The break came in 1959 when
Almond, as governor, successfully rec
ommended to the General Assembly the
abandonment of “massive resistance”
and the adoption of the “freedom of
choice” school policy.
Speculation
Much of the speculation has been to
the effect that Byrd would oppose
Almond’s appointment to any judicial
post in which he would handle racial
cases, but that he (Byrd) probably
would not actively fight the appoint
ment to the customs and patent judge-
ship. Some Virginia newspapers have
said that President Kennedy would
have named Almond to a federal dis
trict judgeship but for the fact that
Byrd’s opposition to such an appoint
ment was known.
Almond, who will be 65 June 15, is
a lawyer with 15 years’ experience as
judge of the Hustings Court in Roan
oke. The judgeship for which he has
been nominated pays $25,500 a year,
and the appointment would be for life.
No Word From the Bird
t^-4 ‘8-62
Seibel, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Text of Court Ruling
On Hempstead Schools
(Continued From Page 11)
dent has answered with a general sum
mary of the facilities and staff assets
of the district making the point that
no pattern of discrimination in facilities
or staff is present. He adds that 24 of
the 242 teachers are Negroes and that
all the schools except the Washington
school have at least one Negro teacher.
The affidavit of the Superintendent
states further that the Jackson School
and Annex have twenty classrooms in
service for 533 children and the Frank
lin School, with the Marshall Annex,
has thirty-six classrooms in service for
976 children; the enrollment in the two
schools exceeds the average class size
fixed by the Board of Education for the
district. The Superintendent recom
mended action and the Board approved
the submission to the vote of the dis
trict of a proposal to add, at a cost of
$1,300,000, eleven classrooms to the
Marshall Annex, two classrooms to the
Jackson School, eight classrooms to the
Jackson Annex and certain other sub
stantial facilities to the three schools.
Before the referendum took place a
petition was filed with the State Com
missioner of Education to review and
arrest the Board’s proceedings on the
ground that they would continue ex
isting segregation. By interim decision
the Commissioner authorized the Board
to proceed with the vote on the bond
issue required for the building program
but the Board has rescinded its reso
lution of submission, cancelled the
registration for the election and awaits
the final decision of the Commissioner
of Education and the resolution of the
present litigation. The Superintendent
states that additional school facilities
are needed.
The facts brought forward by the de
fendants do not authorize summary
judgment in their favor. Defendants
show facts compatible with an absence
of responsibility on their part for the
tary families, which have abolished ra
cial segregation.
Legal Action
U. S. Court Approves
Texas City Gradual
Plan; Starts in ’63
U.S. Dist. Judge James Noel ordered
Texas City Independent School District
to begin desegregation in September,
1963, at the top three grades in high
school. This lawsuit was filed (Evans
v. Brooks) in August 1961 (SSN, Sep
tember, 1961).
The court ordered desegregation to be
“stairstepped” downward one grade
annually until the
process is com
pleted in 1973.
Texas City is in
Galveston County.
Schools in nearby
Galveston and
Houston were pre
viously desegre
gated by federal
court orders, start
ing in the elemen
tary grades.
Holman Lilien-
stem, attorney for the Texas City
school board, told the court that a bi_
racial committee appointed in 1959 had
recommended the plan which Judge
Noel ordered. The board had endorsed
the desegregation proposal, but recom
mended giving Negro students a choice
of whether they preferred to attend
biracial or segregated school.
In the Colleges
Schools at TCU
Are Desegregated
Texas Christian University opened
its undergraduate courses to Negroes in
its theology school, and announced that
qualified Negroes will be admitted to its
nursing school next fall. Negroes have
been admitted previously to TCXTs
Brite College of Bible. These and the
Negro nursing students may attend
undergraduate courses with white stu
dents in September.
TCU is operated by the Disciples of
Christ, and is located in Fort Worth,
where public schools are under a fed
eral court order to desegregate in Sep
tember.
At Waco, Baylor (Baptist) Univer
sity’s Student Congress voted 30 to 5
for a resolution urging the administra
tion to drop racial segregation, and ad
mit Negroes. The student congress,
however, voted against desegregating
the dormitories. # # #
racial segregation that exists in the
schools but these facts do not demon
strate that there has not been segre
gation because of race. Segregated
education is inadequate and when that
inadequacy is attributable to state ac
tion it is a deprivation of constitutional
right.
The central constitutional fact is the
inadequacy of segregated education.
That it is not coerced by direct action
of an arm of the state cannot, alone,
be decisive of the issue of deprivation
of constitutional right. Education is
compulsory in New York . . . ; those
for whom education is compulsory by
reason of their age are unqualifiedly
entitled to attend the public schools of
their district of residence . . . ; no one
may be refused admission into or ex
cluded from any public school of the
state on account of race . . . ; and taxa
tion for support of the schools is man
datory . . . The educational system that
is thus compulsory and publicly afford
ed must deal with the inadequacy aris
ing from adventitious segregation; it
cannot accept and indurate segregation
on the ground that it is not coerced or
planned but accepted.
Failure to deal with a condition as
really inflicts it as does any grosser
imposition of it. . . . How far that duty
extends is not answerable perhaps in
terms of an unqualified obligation to
integrate public education without re
gard to circumstance and it is certainly
primarily the responsibility of the
educational authorities and not the
Courts to form the educational system.
... It is unavoidably the responsibility
of the Courts, however, to isolate for
bidden principle and require its exclu
sion from the action of the educational
authorities.
Constitutional Interests
So here, it is not enough to show
that residence accounts for the fact of
segregation and to contend that there
fore the segregation is ineluctable. The
effort to mitigate the consequent educa
tional inadequacy has not been made
and to forego that effort to deal with
the inadequacy is to impose it in the
absence of a conclusive demonstration
that no circumstantially possible effort
can effect any significant mitigation.
What is involved here is not con
venience but constitutional interests. It
cannot be said at this stage that the 1949
adoption of the geographical rule of
school attendance was necessarily free
of an unpermitted effect on constitu
tional interests or that adherence to it
in changing circumstances that perhaps
increased segregation has not become
an infringement of constitutional in
terests ... ; it cannot be said with
certainty that increasing the size of
three school buildings that are pre
dominantly Negro schools will not, in
union with continuance of the existing
geographic attendance rule, transgress
the constitutional right involved. Such
determinations, involving resignation to
the inadequacy of education arising
from the fact of segregation, if possible
at all, must await the completed ex
ploration, no less by defendants in their
performance of their duty than by the
parties in the course of this litigation,
of all the circumstances. It may be that
the depositions that plaintiffs have in
dicated a wish to initiate will result in
the development of data useful to a fi
nal disposition . . .
The pendency of the proceedings be
fore the Commissioner of Education
presents a special circumstance, par
ticularly in view of the scope of his
powers and the flexibility of solution
evidently available under the Education
Law .... Not enough appears from
the papers to appraise the effect of that
application; the present complaint is
necessarily based on state action and it
may be that the action of the Commis
sioner of Education is so integral to
what can be rightly defined as state
action as to require suspension of this
case at an appropriate time to await his
decision.
The imminence of a vote on the
school building bonds has for the pres
ent disappeared and plaintiffs’ motion
to enjoin the vote was, accordingly,
very properly withdrawn as needless
before the date scheduled for argu
ment. It does not, nevertheless, appear
that any useful purpose would be
served by considering the present mo
tion so far as it seeks summary judg
ment on that point. It inures as a mo
tion to strike certain allegations of the
complaint. Those allegations are so
much a part of the matter of the school
building program which is a continu
ing concern of the Board of Education,
that they have a proper place in the
case in its present posture.
Settle order on notice.
/s/ JOHN F. DOOLING, JR.
U. S. D. J.
April 9, 1962. # # #