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PAGE 6—JUNE, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ARKANSAS
77 Little Rock Negro Students Assigned
To Attend Desegregated Schools Next Year
LITTLE ROCK
he Little Rock school board
announced May 22 the assign
ment of 37 more Negro students
to the formerly all-white junior
and senior high schools for next
fall, including one new school.
With Negro students continuing
from this year, this will make a
total of 77 Negro students in the
white schools next September.
A total of 103 Negro students had
requested assignment to the desegre
gated schools; those whose requests
were denied still have the opportunity
to appeal to the board for a hearing.
The new assignments included the
eighth grade, so that next fall Negro
students will be in desegregated situa
tions in the seventh, eighth, tenth,
eleventh and twelfth grades.
This year’s assignments have gone
by without public comment from any
body except the two Little Rock news
papers, which were calm.
There are 42 Negro students in the
white junior and senior high schools
now (48 were assigned a year ago but
six have transferred back to Negro
schools). Two of the 42 will be grad
uated from high school this year: Sybil
Jordan from Central High (and she
won a $4,600 scholarship to Earlham
College at Richmond. Ind.) and Elsie
Robinson from Hall High.
Pulaski Heights Junior High School
is the new school in the list of those
to receive Negro students next fall.
Last year, no Negro requested assign
ment there. No additional Negroes
were assigned this time to Forest
Heights Junior High School. Pulaski
Heights. Forest Heights and Southwest
Junior High schools have few Negroes
assigned and they have few living in
their attendance areas.
Extend to Eighth
The assignments extend to the eighth
grade next fall under the school
board’s new program of advancing a
grade at a time and of beginning de
segregation only in the seventh and
tenth grades, which are the iuitiT
grades at the junior high S"hool and
senior high school levels, respectively.
Desegregation is to be extended to the
elementary schools, beginning in the
first grade, at a time yet to be an
nounced.
When the board made its assignments
in May, 1961, it assigned 41 new Negro
students to desegregated schools, so
that this year’s new assignments are a
decline of four. Supt. Floyd W. Par
sons was invited to explain how the
board decided how many to assign and
how it selected the ones it did assign.
“In the beginning the Board did not
arbitrarily select the number of stu
dents who were to be assigned, there
is nothing arbitrary about it,” he said.
“The Board’s action was based on very,
very careful study of the information
that was supplied to us by those in a
position to supply it—on the academic
achievement, the intellectual potenti
ality, attendance record, in fact, all of
the criteria of the Pupil Placement Act.
After a very careful analysis, taking
every student individually, it was de
termined that these students that had
been so selected were those who could
function best and function properly
in an integrated situation.”
Negroes Dissatisfied
But the number of assignments and
the theory behind it did not satisfy
the Negro plaintiffs in the Little Rock
school desegregation case nor their at
torney, Wiley A. Branton of Pine Bluff.
Branton, now spending most of his
time at Atlanta on a voting project for
the Southern Regional Council, said
that he would take the school board
back to federal court on the new as
signments and hoped he could get it
done in time to have a ruling before
next September.
“My clients have not been at all sat
isfied with the actions of the Little
Rock school board and the assignment
of Negro students. I feel that the only
resort, unfortunately, is to return to
the courtroom to seek relief because
the Little Rock school board has dem
onstrated that they do not intend to
take the necessary action to correct
what the courts already have ordered
them to do, in the manner they were
told to do, unless specifically told, step
by step, by the courts as to just what
they must do.
“It has gone past a question of setting
up any quota. I think the board simply
should do what the court’s decisions
require of them—that is, to make as
Arkansas Highlights
Thirty-seven more Negro students
have been assigned to the formerly
all-white junior and senior high
schools of Little Rock for 1962-63
compared to 41 new assignments last
year. One new junior high school
will be desegregated, and desegrega
tion will be extended to an addi
tional grade, the eighth.
This will make 77 Negroes in the
formerly white schools next fall,
compared to 42 at the end of the cur
rent year. The Negro plaintiffs in the
Little Rock desegregation were not
satisfied with the number assigned,
and their attorney said he would go
into court with his protest.
A prominent Arkansas business
man, in a speech to an Arkansas
gathering at Washington, D. C., said
that desegregation should be taken
out of politics and left to the school
boards and that under no circum
stances should there be any violence
connected with it.
Marvin Melton, one of the leading
contenders against Gov. Orval E.
Faubus in his try for a fifth term,
dropped out of the race for lack of
money.
signments without regard to race. We
are of the opinion that race is the pri
mary consideration in making assign
ments—it’s still the policy of the board
to assign as few Negroes as possible.
“In view of the continued discrim
inatory practice and assignment policy
at the upper level,” Branton said, it
seems clear that the board is not going
“to lower the racial barriers altogether
and comply with the law all at once.
Since we see all this shaping up now,
we might as well go in for a full-
fledged hearing in court and have it
cleared up once and for all.”
Nettled Board
Branton’s comments nettled the board
members, who snapped that they were
in the best position to decide how to
follow the court decisions and that they
wished Branton would co-operate with
them once in a while. Everett Tucker
Jr., board president, issued the follow
ing statement:
“The Little Rock school board has
been proceeding on the basis that it
is in the best position to evaluate all
of the various factors involved in im
plementing the decisions of the federal
courts. We have done this to the best
of our collective abilities and the as
signment of colored children for the
coming year represents our sincere best
judgment, all things considered.
“It is perhaps obvious by now that
extremists on both sides of the question
will never be satisfied with the manner
in which desegregation is accomplished.
But the board’s primary objective is to
provide the best possible educational
opportunities for the community’s young
people, both white and Negro, and at
the same time comply with the direc
tives of the courts. In my own mind,
I feel confident that we have achieved
these objectives.”
‘Bad Publicity’
R. H. Matson Jr., vice president,
commented, “I think it is deplorable
that we do not get more co-operation
from Branton, especially in view of the
bad publicity the community has had.
I would wish that he would co-operate
and try to work with us instead of
against us. I think we have made great
strides in the integration process. We
have the responsibility for the over
all community and not one segment.
Branton is ignoring that and is think
ing of just the one segment he repre
sents.”
In the Little Rock case (Norwood v.
Tucker) no active matter has been
pending since last October, for the
first time since the case was filed in
February, 1956, but it is still on the
docket. Last October Branton decided
not to appeal when Federal District
Judge Gordon E. Young upheld the
1961-62 assignments made by the board.
But he said at the time that he would
be ready to return to court in the fu
ture if the board did not follow the
court’s decisions. He noted that Judge
Young had told the board that he
would expect more progress (SSN, No
vember 1961).
The school board has never lost at
the district court level but has seldom
won at the appeal level. The last ac
tion taken to the U.S. Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals was Branton’s protest
of the first assignments made by the
current Little Rock board, in the sum
mer of 1959. Not until March, 1961, did
the appeals court ruling come down,
and it was blunt. It said that the board
had used the placement law illegally,
that it must apply the law objectively
to all students, that it must not use
the law to preserve segregation, and,
that it must speed up its plan of de
segregation.
Pulaski County Board
Faces Crucial Problem
Supt. E. F. Dunn presented a crucial
and possibly expensive problem to the
Pulaski County (rural) School District
Board at its meeting May 31 at Little
Rock: Two Negro pupils in the sixth
grade of the Little Rock Air Force
Base Elementary School are being pro
moted to the seventh grade. All white
pupils from this school, which serves
only the children of airmen on the
base, go on to the Jacksonville Junior
High School, for whites. This is the
first time since the Air Force required
the desegregation of the school in Sep
tember, 1959, (SSN, October, 1959) that
any Negro pupils have been promoted
to the seventh grade.
Except for the Air Base Elementary
School, desegregated under a special
arrangement with the Air Force, the
county district maintains strict segre
gation. The board members, who made
no decision May 31, made it clear that
they don’t want to desegregate Jack
sonville Junior High School. But the
county district has about 3,000 “federal
impact” pupils—not all of whom live
on federal property—for which it re
ceives several hundred thousand dol
lars a year in federal impact aid. Abra
ham A. Ribicoff, secretary of health,
education and welfare, has said that
he is seeking ways to cut off aid from
school districts which segregate federal
pupils.
The county district built the Air
Base Elementary School with federal
aid money specifically to serve the
residents of the Capehart Housing on
the air base, which is 12 miles north of
Little Rock. It operated the school with
segregation during its first year, 1958-
59. But parents of Negro children on
the air base protested. For the next
year and ever since, the Air Force has
leased the school from the county dis
trict, then hired the county district to
maintain and operate it. Since then
the school has been run without regard
to race for the children of airmen liv
ing on the base.
If the county board should decide not
to admit the two Negro pupils to the
Jacksonville Junior High School, for
whites, it would assign them to the
County Training School, for Negroes,
grades one through 12, at McAlmont.
The air base is about seven miles from
McAlmont and about two miles from
the Jacksonville school.
What They Say
Businessman Wants
To Drop Segregation
As Political Issue
Take segregation out of politics, a
prominent Arkansas businessman said
in a speech May 1 at the annual Ar
kansas State Society dinner at Wash
ington, D.C. He was Charles H. Murphy
Jr. of El Dorado, president of the Mur
phy Corp. and a millionaire oilman.
He had approached the subject from
its economic side. Arkansas could make
dramatic progress by training its 320,000
illiterates for 20th century work and
putting them to work, he said, but
then most of the illiterates are Negroes.
“Thus we get close to a political issue
and one which has generated more heat
than light in our state,” he said.
Murphy called desegregation “insol
uble as a political issue” and said he
had been told by sheriffs, county judges
and legislators that Arkansas voters
were worn out with the segregation
issue. He said:
“Thus the stage is set to put the
school matter in the hands of the local
school boards, the only public bodies
qualified to give it the earnest and
prayerful consideration that is re
quired. In so doing, we may be assured
that they will go as slowly as they
can and as fast as they must, but in
so doing there must be one firm resolve
on the part of every responsible citizen
in private or public life and that Is
that there will be no violence in Ar
kansas.”
Political Activity
Melton Quits Race;
Blames Shortage
Of Campaign Funds
Arkansas Democrats have nearly
three months from the filing deadline
of May 2 to the first primary July 31.
Men seeking the nomination for gover
nor usually spend the first month
planning and organizing, with just an
occasional speech. But there was a
shock in May this year when one of
the leading candidates, Marvin Melton
of Jonesboro, dropped out of the race
on May 25 without warning.
Melton, immediate past president of
the Arkansas State Chamber of Com
merce and former state senator, had
generally been ranked with Gov. Orval
E. Faubus, former Gov. Sid McMath
and U.S. Rep. Dale Alford as the top
contenders. The other candidates are
Vernon H. Whitten of Mt. Holly, Ken
neth C. Coffelt of Little Rock and
David A. Cox of Weiner, all relatively
unknown in statewide affairs.
Melton said he hadn’t been able to
get enough money for a decent cam
paign. He said this was because of
Little Rock Desegregation
Negro enrollment in the city’s white schools, by years
White Schools
57-58
58-59
59-60
60-61
61-62
62-63
Central High
9
Closed
5
7
13
20
Hall High
0
Closed
3
5
5
7
Technical High
0
Closed
0
0
5
5
Southwest Jr. High ....
0
0
0
0
2
2
East Side Jr. High
0
0
0
0
9
19
Pulaski Heights Jr. High
0
0
0
0
0
2
Forest Heights Jr. High.
0
0
0
0
1
1
West Side Jr. High
0
0
0
0
10
21
TOTAL
9
0
8
12
45
77
All Little Rock senior
high schools
were closed by Governor Faubus
for the
1958-59 year. The above figures do not take into account graduations and with
drawals, although holdovers to the next year are included in the figures.
Arkansas Gazette, May 24, 1962
COX
ALFORD
Miss Sybil Jordan
Graduates from Little Rock’s desegre
gated Central High School.
pressure on the potential givers. Re
luctantly, he indicated that the pres
sure must come from the Faubus ad
ministration.
Before Melton dropped out, the
Women’s Emergency Committee for
(
t
i
I
I
i
i
WHITTEN COFFELT
Public Schools, of Little Rock, had cir
culated a letter among its members
analyzing the school positions of two
of the candidates, McMath and Mel
ton.
By ignoring the other five candi
dates, the committee left it unspoken
that it could not consider them for
governor either because of their posi
tions on the schools (Faubus and Al
ford) or because it did not think they
had a chance of winning. The commit
tee didn’t endorse either McMath or
Melton but its analysis was favorable
to McMath and unfavorable to Melton.
Legal Action
State Court Upholds
Board’s Conversion
Of Rightsell School
The Little Rock school board’s de
cision last year to convert Rightsell Ek'
mentary School from white to Negro
was upheld May 4 by the Arkansas
Supreme Court as being within
rights and without abuse of its discre
tion. When the news of the change
leaked out a year ago, both whites an“
Negroes in the area protested.
The Negroes objected on the groun<j
that a change to an all-Negro schoo
would help perpetuate segregation. AS
the school board held to its decision
it was the white property owners wn
went to court, claiming that their p r °P’
erty would lose in value because of
change (Safferstone v. Tucker).
Rightsell is a 55-year-old school 31
south central Little Rock in an aren
as the Supreme Court noted, that
now and has always been a high-gr 3 ^
white residential section and
homes and buildings within that ar® 3
have, since the erection of the sch® 0
reflected affluence and culture. *0™
still do.”
But the school board’s problem ^
this, Justice Neill Bohlinger wrote
the majority opinion: A year ago
the Rightsell attendance area,
were 300 white pupils and 644 N®fF_
pupils. At the same time, three 3
jacent Negro schools were overcrop
ed. So the court ruled that the cha 3 ^
was all right, even though it me fL
migration for the white pupils and
of value for white-owned property-
The change was made last Septen^
and Rightsell in May completed
year as a Negro school. # *