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PAGE 4—MAY, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Information Clearing House
To Help Plan Desegregation
WASHINGTON
he United States Office of
Education will establish an
information clearing house next
fall to help public school officials
plan desegregation, Robert M.
Rosenzweig, Assistant to the U.S.
Commissioner of Education, dis
closed April 22.
Rosenzweig announced the plan in
commenting on a survey conducted by
the Potomac Institute which showed
that many Southern school officials
would welcome help in preparing for
desegregation. The institute’s report
concluded that the Office of Education
could best meet this need.
Rosenzweig said the clearing house
would serve not only Southern school
officials but those in the North and
West who are faced with segregation
problems. Present plans call for the
clearing house to serve as a center of
information on the experiences of vari
ous communities that have undergone
the desegregation process.
Small Operation
It would be a relatively small opera
tion, using local consultants spotted
throughout the nation. These consult
ants would report on local situations
and desegregation plans used success
fully or unsuccessfully.
The Office of Education intends to
perform a professional service in the
field and not to become a social re
form service, Rosenzweig said. He add
ed that the Office will not be giving
advice on how to avoid desegregation.
The Potomac Institute’s report,
“School Desegregation—Help Needed ”
was written by J. Kenneth Morland,
head of the sociology department at
Randolph-Macon Women’s College in
Lynchburg, Va. The institute is a non
profit organization whose purpose is to
eliminate discrimination and advance
equality of opportunity.
Superintendents Interviewed
Morland and five other social scien
tists from Southern colleges and uni
versities interviewed 34 superintendents
and school board chairmen in 15 city
and 15 county school systems in nine
states—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ken
tucky, North Caroliia, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Six of the school systems included
in the survey have begun desegrega
tion, two have cases pending in federal
court, and the 22 others have not
moved toward desegregating their
schools. Of the nine states, only South
Carolina and Alabama have not begun
to desegregate any schools.
“All of the respondents, including
those on the two states where no de
segregation has yet taken place, realize
that desegregation is inevitable if pub
lic education is to be maintained,”
Morland reported. “And all seem
strongly resolved to maintain public
education and therefore to accept some
d esegregation.”
Louisiana
(Continued From Page 3)
tween the East and the West for the
minds of men, 90 per cent of the people
of the world are colored,” he said. “If
we are going to make any progress
with that 90 per cent, we had better
practice what we preach.”
Judge Wright also commented that
the U.S. Supreme Court should be
made up of three former judges with
judicial experience on the lower court
level, three college professors and three
lawyers out of political life.
‘A Political Court’
“These working together might pro
vide the best prospect of giving the
court the type of perspective I think
this policy instrument needs,” he said.
“The Supreme Court is more than a
law court—it is a policy court, or, if
you will, a political court.
“It is an instrument of government,
and while most judges have the habit,
through long years of precedent, of
looking backward, the Supreme Court
must look forward through a knowl
edge of life, of people, of sociology, of
psychology.
“The Supreme Court is the final in
terpreter of the Constitution, a living
document. It should not be interpreted
with reference to the time in which it
was written but rather in reference to
the present, or, better still, the future.”
# # #
D. C. Highlights
The United States Office of Edu
cation will establish a clearing house
for information to help school of
ficials prepare for desegregation.
Announcement of the plan followed
publication of a survey showing that
Southern school officials would wel
come access to more information on
desegregation procedures.
Assistant Attorney General Burke
Marshall told a House subcommit
tee that a suit against segregated
school districts receiving federal
funds is under consideration. Mar
shall said legislation requiring de
segregation would be preferable to
legislation cutting off Federal funds
from segregated schools.
The NAACP added nine Western
cities to its “target” list of communi
ties practicing school segregation.
Thirty of the officials—88 per cent—
said they would find it useful to have
information on the experiences of other
school systems with desegregation.
Nineteen said consultants on desegre
gation problems would be useful, while
10 were doubtful. Twenty of those in
terviewed said they felt conferences
also would be useful.
Asked what specific information they
would want, the school officials listed
these questions:
How has it worked to desegregate
from the first grade up or from the
12th grade down How has the public
been prepared? Was special preparation
given the teachers and pupils? How
did Atlanta and Memphis integrate so
smoothly and why did Little Rock and
New Orleans have so much trouble?
A majority of the school officials said
the auspices of an information center
to answer these questions did not mat
ter so long as the information was re
liable and valid. Some superintendents
thought a non-federal agency would be
preferable because of the reaction of
their school boards. However, five of
six school board chairmen interviewed
specifically said the U.S. Office of
Education would be an acceptable
source.
“There is little question that the rate
of desegregation will gain in momen
tum as the legal means of opposition
run their course,” Morland wrote.
“Thus there is urgent need for guid
ance in meeting the problems of adjust
ment that more and more communi
ties will be facing.”
★ ★ ★
Bill Would Help School
Districts Desegregating
In a related development, Sen. Thom
as J. Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced leg
islation April 10 to provide federal
loans to local school systems whose
normal revenues have been cut off by
state or county governments because
of attempts to desegregate. Terms of
the loans would be worked out by the
Department of Health, Education and
Welfare.
In a statement describing the bill,
Dodd said:
“These loans will enable desegregat
ing school districts to keep their schools
in operation until such time as state
and county governments are brought,
through one means or another, to rec
ognize the futility of their resistance
to the Constitution and to the moral
insistence of the American people that
equal rights and opportunities be ex
tended to all Americans.
‘Instances Will Multiply’
“There are a number of instances,
and they will multiply in the future,
in which local school boards are trying
to desegregate in compliance with the
Supreme Court decision but are pre
vented from doing so because state or
county authorities cut off the funds
that are necessary to operate local
schools. . . .
“This is a modest proposal but it
meets a specific demonstrated need and
could have a great effect in hastening
the general desegregation of our na
tion’s schools. We know that once de
segregation is successfully carried out
in any new locality, it will spread rap
idly in all directions. . . .”
U. S. May Sue
To Desegregate
Aided Schools
Assistant Attorney General Burke
Marshall told a House education sub
committee April 16 that the federal
government may enter suit against seg
regated school districts receiving Fed
eral funds.
“We are now studying the feasability
of bringing suit to compel those dis
tricts which have already accepted
Federal funds to open their schools to
all without regard to race,” Marshall
said.
He testified before a special subcom
mittee studying segregation in Federal
ly-assisted schools. The subcommittee
is under instructions to produce a re
port by May 17, the anniversary of the
1954 Supreme Court decision on school
desegregation.
Marshall told the subcommittee that
a successful suit of the kind under
consideration “would be the most
effective means of solving the problem
of discrimination in impacted area
schools.”
Impacted Areas
Impacted areas are those which have
large numbers of military personnel
and other federal employes. Schools in
such areas receive federal assistance
for operating funds and construction.
In an appearance before the subcom
mittee in March, Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare Abraham A.
Ribicoff announced that beginning in
the fall of 1963, federal grants would
not be made in behalf of pupils whose
parents live and work on federal in
stallations and who attend segregated
local schools.
Marshall, in charge of the Justice
Department’s Civil Rights Division,
told the subcommittee that pending
bills that would require compliance
with desegregation decisions are pref
erable to those which would withhold
federal funds. He called the latter
course negative and punitive.
Some of the bills pending in Con
gress would set a target date for de
segregation, empower the attorney
general to bring actions for compliance
with court decisions and would provide
technical and financial aid to schools
carrying out desegregation programs.
1,900 Segregated Districts
“We favor the objectives and the
principle of these measures,” Marshall
said. “Eight years after the . . . deci
sion, there are still some 1,900 officially-
segregated school districts in the
United States. In three states not a
single district has moved toward even
token desegregation.”
Marshall said Congressional action
“giving effect to the . . . ruling would
be most helpful if there is to be sig
nificant progress in guaranteeing hun
dreds of thousands of children their
constitutional rights.”
As for bills to withhold federal
funds, Marshall said he had doubts
“unless no other course is available.”
“Denial of funds might, in some in
stances, result in desegregation,” he
said. “On the other hand, the threat of
withdrawal of federal aid might also
result in a decision by the school dis
trict to do without the funds, particu
larly if it is located in an area of rigid
resistance to desegregation.”
Kowalski Bills
Rep. Frank Kowalski (D-Conn.) ap
peared before the subcommittee April
10 to urge enactment of a package of
bills he is co-sponsoring, patterned on
recommendations of the U.S. Commis-
cision on Civil Rights.
A key proposal would require all
school districts to begin first-step com
pliance with the Supreme Court’s de
cision by the fall of 1963.
Urging approval of the legislation,
Kowalski told the subcommittee that
progress in compliance “has been trag
ically slow. . . . This slow pace is a
matter of national concern and of con
cern to the people of my state.”
Similar testimony came the same
day from W. Hale Thompson, repre
senting Americans for Democratic Ac
tion, who called for an end to “the
legalized dawdling which has thwarted
desegregation.”
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, Tennessee.
Second class postage paid at Nashville, Tennessee.
OFFICERS
Bert Struby
Thomas R. Waring
Reed Sarratt
Tom Flake, Associate Director
Jim Leeson, Assistant Director
.... Chairman
. . Vice Chairman
Executive Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com
mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Vander
bilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
Reed Sarratt, Executive Director, South
ern Education Reporting Service
John Seigenthaler, Editor, Nashville
Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, 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.
Stephen J. Wright, President, Fisk Uni
versity, Nashville, Tenn.
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
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Macon
News
KENTUCKY
James S. Pope Jr., Assistant City
Editor, Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or
leans States & Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
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 Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
Garry Fullerton, Staff Writer, Nash
ville Tennessean
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
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MAIL ADDRESS
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NAACP Adds
Nine Major Cities
To Target List
The National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People on April
20 added nine major cities to its list of
“target” communities which, the
NAACP believes, practice segregation
in education.
Robert L. Carter, general counsel of
the NAACP, reported after a three-
week survey of Western cities that
segregated schools exist in San Fran
cisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Los Angeles
and San Diego, Calif.; Portland, Ore.;
Seattle, Wash.; Phoenix, Ariz., and Salt
Lake City, Utah.
The Association said local NAACP
units have been asked to request that
their school boards eliminate segrega
tion, discrimination against Negro
teachers and exclusion of Negro stu
dents from apprenticeship training pro
grams.
23 Previously Listed
Twenty-three other cities outside the
South had previously been listed as
“target” communities by the NAACP.
Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive sec
retary, said that “the 32 cities in which
we intend to act against school segre
gation are but a small part of the
Northern centers which have some form
of discrimination in the school systems.
We anticipate that many of these situa
tions will be rectified through firm
negotiations, but we are ready to go to
court if results cannot be obtained
around the conference table.”
Senators Serve Notice
Of Intent to Bar Funds
Five Senators—four Republicans and
one Democrat—served notice April <
that they will try to amend the ap*
propriations bill for the Department »i
Health, Education and Welfare to ba®
federal grants for racially segregate"
schools and hospitals.
Joining in the move were Sens. J*'
cob K. Javits (R-N.Y.), Kenneth B
Keating (R-N.Y.), Prescott Bush (B'
Conn.), Hugh Scott (R-Pa.) and P aUJ
H. Douglas (D-M.).
The proposed school amendmen
would withhold federal funds from an)
school district unless the secretary
of
health, education and welfare det" r "
mines it is proceeding “in good f altn
toward full compliance with the c ° n ’
stitutional requirement that racial
crimination be ended in public schools-
Keating Charges Attack
On Marshall Prepared
Sen. Kenneth B. Keating (R-N-T-l
charged April 29 that the Senate J*
diciary Committee staff was prepa rlI J“
material attacking Thurgood Marshy
the former counsel of the Natio n j\ |
Association for the Advancement :
Colored People who was nominated
the federal bench by President K en
nedy. .- s
Marshall, nominated to New Yor
Second Circuit Court of Appeals 1 ^ 1
September, is serving under a reC ^ v
appointment pending confirmation •
the Senate. Hearings on the nomiS',
tion were scheduled by a Judi cl
subcommittee for early May. , i
Keating said a Committee staff 10
ber had been assigned to prepare c ’
tain charges against Marshall t0
raised at the hearings.
(See D.C., Page 5) M