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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST, 1962—PAGE 3
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Pupils Enter Old Triumph Baptist Church
With them is project administrator William Bennett
Improvised Classes Bring
Three R’s to 560 Children
By OVERTON JONES
FARMVTLLE, Va.
J uly normally is vacation time
for school-age children. But
it wasn’t that way for 560 Negro
boys and girls of Prince Edward
County this year.
These youngsters spent part of each
day trying to cope with the three R’s
in such places as churches, an aban
doned store and the lodge hall of the
Loving Sisters of Charity.
Two separate but co-ordinated pro
grams were being held during July in
an effort to give the fundamentals of
reading, writing and arithmetic to Ne
gro children, some of whom have just
reached school age and others of whom
have been without formal schooling for
three years.
One program, which was confined to
the month of July, was conducted by
the Negro Virginia Teachers Associa
tion.
The other, scheduled to continue
through Aug. 17, is the work of the
Student Christian Federation of New
England.
Nine Locations
The VTA classes were held in nine
different locations, mostly in Negro
churches. A total of 51 certified public
school teachers, including at least one
white teacher, participated in the plan
ning or actual instruction. A total of
401 children were enrolled.
In keeping with the same policy it
followed when it conducted a similar
program last summer, the VTA did not
admit reporters to its classrooms.
“We are trying to do a job,” explained
Dr. J. Rupert Picott, executive secre
tary of the VTA. “And while we appre
ciate the value of publicity, what we’re
trying to do here is some stopgap teach-
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(Continued from Page 1)
portation budget is slightly lower, re
sulting in a net reduction of a little
less than $1,000.
Tuition charges will be the same as
last year: $240 for lower school pupils
and $265 for upper school pupils. An
ticipated enrollment is 829 in the lower
school and 515 in the upper.
Legal Action
County and State
Go Into Lawsuit
Over Applications
Tbe Powhatan County school board
Wed suit against the State Pupil Place
ment Board July 3 in a dispute over
e handling of applications, or alleged
applications, of 37 Negro children to
attend white schools. (School Board of
Powhatan County v. State Pupil Place-
ment Board.)
The placement board on June 27 di
rected Powhatan officials to investigate
a genuineness of 29 applications
w ich had been made on official place-
n ? ent forms, and to submit them to the
state board for action. (The eight other
fomT) tl0nS W6re ° n mime °S ra P hed
^? le Powhatan officials said it is not
exr responsibility to determine the
genuineness of the applications, and
e y asked the Richmond Circuit Court
Virginia Highlights
A federal judge directed the
nnce Edward school board to pre
sent to the court by Sept. 7 plans
°r reopening the county’s closed
Public schools.
The Powhatan County school
oard brought suit against the State
upil Placement Board in a dispute
over the handling of applications
rom Negro pupils to enter all-white
schools.
Augusta County was slated to be-
ewne the eighth Virginia school dis-
nct to experience desegregation for
the first time this fall.
Prince Edward Pupils and Mrs. Bennett
The newlyweds came from Harvard
to uphold their position by formal or
der.
The controversy arose because the
applications were left at the school
board office by unknown persons. The
board contends that the applications
should have been left at the schools
involved, and that for this and other
reasons, the applications are not really
applications under the law.
The Powhatan dispute is of special
interest because county officials have
threatened to follow Prince Edward’s
lead and close public schools if deseg
regation is ordered. (SSN, July.)
Several of the Negro parents involved
told reporters they would push their
fight even if it results in the closing of
the public schools. They were quoted
as saying that the Negro schools of the
county are not adequately preparing
students for college.
Other Legal Action
In other legal action in Virginia in
July:
• Federal District Judge John D.
Butzner Jr. on July 26 ordered Rich
mond’s school board and the State
Pupil Placement Board to admit 10 Ne
groes to the predominantly white
Chandler Junior High and John Mar
shall high schools. Both schools already
are desegregated, and additional assign
ments of Negroes had been made for
the fall, but the applications of the 10
Negroes in question had been turned
down. (Bradley vs. School Board of
the City of Richmond.)
• Federal Judge Thomas Michie of
the District Court at Harrisonburg on
July 17 approved an amended assign
ment plan for Winchester’s public
schools, providing for two-grades-a-
year desegregation to begin this fall.
One elementary and one high school
grade will be desegregated each year,
beginning with the first and ninth
grades this September. The plan has no
bearing on the previous assignment of
four Negroes to the city’s all-white
Handley High School—two by Judge
Michie and two by the State Pupil
Placement Board. The desegregation in
September will be the first for Win
chester. (Williams v. School Board of
the City of Winchester.)
• Judge Michie on July 18 approved
plans calling for complete desegrega
tion of Roanoke County’s schools
within six years and immediate deseg
regation of two grades in the county
and one in Roanoke city. Both districts
already had been desegregated but
without long-range plans. (Iseley v.
School Board of Roanoke County;
Green v. School Board of Roanoke
City.)
Schoolmen
Negroes Assigned
To White School
In Augusta County
The State Pupil Placement Board on
July 9 assigned three Negro children
to the Beverley Manor Elementary
School in Augusta County. It was the
first assignment of Negroes to white
schools in the county.
ing, and we want to have no interrup
tions.
“This is some of the best teaching
that’s being done in the state of Vir
ginia. These children need to know that
somebody cares.”
Classes Visited
Reporters were permitted to visit the
classes of the Student Christian Fed
eration in the High Rock and Triumph
Baptist churches and the St. James
AME Church, where a total of 159
children were enrolled.
The SCF program—officially called
the Summer College Educational Proj
ect, 1962—grew out of a talk made at
Yale University in the spring by the
Rev. L. F. Griffin, pastor of First Bap
tist Church (Negro) of Farmville and
president of the Prince Edward County
Christian Association.
The Rev. Mr. Griffin said that fol
lowing his talk, a group of Yale theo
logical students enlisted the aid of un
dergraduate and graduate students of
nine other colleges in setting up the
Prince Edward project. Some of the
young teachers are white, some are
Negroes.
William Bennett, a Harvard divinity
student, and Jean Bennett, a student at
Harvard’s graduate school of education,
had been married only a few weeks
when they began their work with Prince
Edward Negro children early in July.
Bennett is administrator of the pro
gram; his bride is “principal” of the
school at Triumph Church.
Mrs. Bennett has found the work “ter
ribly exciting for a young teacher like
myself.”
Books Contributed
Most of the textbooks at Triumph are
second-hand texts contributed by a
group in New York state. Lack of ade
quate textbooks was said to be one
handicap, but there were 80 copies of
“Exploring New York State.”
At High Rock Church, Ruth Turner,
an Ohio girl attending Harvard’s grad
uate school of education, reported:
“You can see progress with the very
young ones in getting accustomed to
how to act in schools. For the older
ones, it’s hard to get an overall view.
We hope for a half-year average of
reading progression after the seven-
week program is over.”
Sandra Bjerre of Cambridge, Mass.,
who enters Wesleyan University’s grad
uate school of education this fall, had
praise for parents who have been
teaching the children at home. But she
added: “They’ve all been taught some
thing different.”
Richard Zorn of Mt. Vernon, N.Y.,
a Yale Law School student, is work
ing with 11-16 year olds. “We are con
centrating on remedial language arts,
writing skills, speaking skills, etc.,” he
explained. Things that we take for
granted, they do not always know.”
How Successful?
How successful have the two sum
mer training programs been?
The Rev. Mr. Griffin, whose Chris
tian Association sponsored both, told
Southern School News:
“Considering the time element and
the difficulties which had to be over
come, a tremendous job has been done.”
He said he wanted to emphasize that
the programs were in no sense com
parable to regular schooling.
Dr. Picott said it was “terrifying” to
note that 150 of the children in the
VTA classes “had never been inside a
public school room.” Some of these
were first-grade age, but some would
now be going into the fourth grade if
Prince Edward public schools had not
been closed three years ago to avoid
desegregation, he said.
“I only wish,” he added, “that all
American children could have the same
eagerness for education that was ap
parent in the expressions and actions
of these Prince Edward children.”
# # #
Text of Lewis 9 Opinion
In Prince Edward Case
On July 25 U.S. District Judge
Oren R. Lewis handed down a
memorandum opinion in the case
of Eva Allen, et al v. County
School Board of Prince Edward
County, et al. Judge Lewis held
that “the public schools of Prince
Edward County may not be
closed to avoid the effect of the
law of the land as interpreted by
the Supreme Court, while the
Commonwealth of Virginia per
mits other public schools to re
main open at the expense of the
taxpayers.” He ordered the school
board of Prince Edward County
to submit to him no later than
Sept. 7 “complete plans for the
admission of pupils in the ele
mentary and high schools of the
county without regard to race or
color.” Extensive excerpts from
the opinion are reprinted below.
Most of the footnotes and legal
citations have been deleted. Sub
heads have been added.
The infant plaintiffs in the Prince
Edward school case are again before
this Court seeking admission to the
public schools of Prince Edward Coun-
ty, Virginia, on a non-discriminatory
basis—all in accord with the Brown
decisions.
Rather than comply with those de
cisions and the order of this Court, the
defendant Board of Supervisors caused
the closing of all public schools in the
county.
Thereafter the petitioners filed an
amended supplemental complaint rais
ing the following issues:
(1) Whether the public schools here
tofore maintained in Prince Edward
County can be closed in order to avoid
the racial discrimination prohibited by
the Fourteenth Amendment of the
United States Constitution.
(2) Whether the defendants, individ
ually or in concert, have deliberately
circumvented, or attempted to circum
vent or frustrate, the order of this
Court entered herein on the 22nd day
of April, 1960.
Issue numbered (2) was partially de
termined August 23, 1961, and it is not
necessary to repeat those rulings in this
opinion . . .
This Court has repeatedly stated that
the Prince Edward school case would
not be terminated until this or some
other court determined issue numbered
(1), above recited.
State Suit Promised
Upon the assurance of counsel for
petitioners that such a suit would be
filed in the state courts, and upon the
further assurance of counsel for the
Board of Supervisors of Prince Edward
(See PRINCE EDWARD, Page 5)
Augusta is the eighth school district
scheduled to be desegregated for the
first time this fall. Twenty other Vir
ginia districts previously had been de
segregated.
★ ★ ★
8,518 Tuition Grants
Were Paid Last Year
The parents of 8,518 Virginia children
received state-local tuition grants dur
ing the past school year, the State De
partment of Education reported on July
21.
The grants totaled $2,074,690.
The number of grants was 391 above
the 1960-61 figure. However, in that
year, 1,332 white children attending
private classes sponsored by the Prince
Edward School Foundation received
grants, whereas they were not eligible
for grants during the year just ended
because of a federal court order.
The 1961-62 grants went to 8,296 white
children and 222 Negro children, who
lived in 94 of the state’s 132 cities and
counties.
A total of 7,439 of the children at
tended private nonsectarian schools,
and 1,079 attended public schools in
districts other than those in which they
live. It is not known how many of the
children used the grants to attend seg
regated schools and how many used
them to attend desegregated schools.
Of the total cost of $2,074,690, state
funds provided $1,062,695, and local
funds accounted for the remaining
$1,011,995.
★ ★ ★
The Albemarle County school board
voted unanimously July 12 to eliminate
“all school activities which bring about
social contacts” if the county’s schools
are desegregated.
E. J. Oglesby, chairman of the State
Pupil Placement Board, is chairman of
the county school board. Fourteen Ne
groes seek admittance to white schools.
# # #