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PASE 4—AUGUST, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
NORTH CAROLINA
Chapel Hill Adopts Eight-Point
Plan; Desegregates Grades 1-6
Southern School News
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newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
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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.
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MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tennessee
WINSTON-SALEM
hapel Hill desegregated its
elementary schools (grades 1
through 6) Monday, July 9, when
the school board approved an
eight-point plan for geographic
assignment of pupils. Under this
program, an estimated 80 Negro
children were assigned to predom
inantly white schools, and about
70 white children were assigned to
predominantly Negro schools.
In the past, only the first grades were
desegregated except for Negroes as
signed to the Franklin Street Junior
High School at their own request. Jun
ior high schools and senior high schools
will remain segregated unless requests
for transfers by Negro children are
granted.
Eighty Negro children have been as
signed to the Carrboro, Glenwood and
Estes Hills schools. Seventy white boys
and girls are assigned to the Northside
and new Frank P. Graham schools, pre
dominantly Negro.
Parents have until Sept. 10 to request
transfers from schools because of race.
This is in compliance with North Caro
lina’s Pupil Placement Act which re
quires school boards to transfer a stu
dent from a biracial school if he re
quests.
Already, 63 white children have re
quested transfers from the two pre
dominantly Negro schools, and one
Negro child has asked reassignment to
a basically Negro school.
Features of Program
Features of Chapel Hill’s new assign
ment program are:
• All pupils in grades 1-6 will be
assigned to the school serving the newly
outlined district in which they live.
• Pupils applying for admission to
Chapel Hill schools after July 15 will
be assigned individually to whatever
school has available space. (Several
schools, the Negro Northside and Frank
P. Graham included, will have classes
on double shifts during the 1962-63
school year. The transfer of white pupils
is expected to relieve somewhat the
overcrowded conditions of the Negro
schools.)
• Northside students finishing the
sixth grade last June are assigned to
seventh grade in the Graham school.
• Carrboro, Glenwood and Estes Hill
students completing the sixth grade last
June are assigned to the West Frank
lin Junior High School.
• The board will honor all requests
for reassignment when the request is
made because a majority of students are
of another race or because the mem
bers of the pupil’s family are assigned
to another school. (This provision is
in compliance with the state Pupil
Placement Act.)
• Pupils not covered in the first five
sections are assigned to the same
schools they attended last year.
• Any student now enrolled in
Chapel Hill schools but not covered
by the above six regulations should ap
ply in writing to the school board.
• Classes for slow learners will be
set up at Carrboro (white) and North-
side (Negro) with the parents taking
their choice of schools. (The board ex
pressed the hope that parents will
choose evenly between the two schools.)
Opposes Features
The Rev. J. R. Manley, Negro mem
ber of the board, opposed the reassign
ment features made in accordance with
state law, popularly referred to as the
Pearsall Plan) and the assignment of
Negro seventh graders to the Graham
school.
“Couldn’t we operate without spell
ing this out so far as race is con
cerned?” he asked. “If we become too
particular or meticulous, particularly
about race, we might help to down the
Pears-11 Plan.”
Of the seventh-graders, he said:
“We haven’t made an honest effort to
get these seventh-graders to the down
town (white) school.”
Dr. Kempton Jones, board chairman,
praised the new plan as significant be
cause it shifts initiative from the Negro
parents to white parents in making re
quests for reassignment.
The board extended the original time
for reassignment requests from 10 days
to Sept. 10, almost two months. This
was done to take care of parents, such
as faculty and staff members of the
University of North Carolina, who are
away on vacation during the summer.
★ ★ ★
At a meeting closed to the press and
the public, the Raleigh Board of Edu
cation voted to assign 37 Negroes to
North Carolina Highlights
The Chapel Hill school board de
segregated grades 1-6 by adopting
an eight-point program for geogra
phic assignment of pupils. Only first
grades were desegregated in 1961-
62. Under the new plan, about 80
Negro children have been assigned
to predominantly white schools, and
about 70 white children have been
assigned to predominantly Negro
schools. Children requesting reas
signment in accordance with North
Carolina’s Pupil Placement Law
have been given an extended dead
line of Sept. 10 to file for reassign
ment to a school with a majority of
their own race. High schools and
junior high schools still are oper
ated racially separated.
Raleigh and Asheville continued
their desegregation by assigning
more Negroes to predominantly
white schools.
Two school boards, Brevard and
Salisbury, desegregated schools for
the first time on a voluntary basis.
Brevard acted on requests by Ne
gro parents. A special committee
acted on the Salisbury requests, also
by Negro parents.
Indians of Lumberton County re
quested a formal hearing on why
their 38 applications for admission
to white schools were denied. The
county school board will hear the
Indians Thursday, Aug. 9.
Reece Birmingham of Chapel Hill
was unable to get tuition grants to
send his two children to the private
Twaddell School in Durham. The
Twaddell School as of the 1961-62
school year was not accredited. Bir
mingham withdrew his children
from the Carrboro School when it
was desegregated a year ago.
three predominantly white schools in
1982-63. Raleigh desegregation began in
1960-61 with one transfer and continued
last year with eight transfers.
Assignments were 26 from the J. W.
Ligon Junior-Senior High School to
the new William G. Enloe Junior-Sen
ior High School, nine from Oberlin
School to Daniels Junior High School
and two Oberlin tuition students to
Frances Lacy School.
Jesse O. Sanderson, superintendent,
advised the school board to hold a
closed door meeting, stating, “I am rec
ommending that the board give thor
ough study to the matter and not take
action at this meeting.” This was stated
at the regular board session. An exec
utive session was then called.
The board met for an hour, then an
nounced the new assignments. It also
rejected 32 other Negro requests for
reassignment. No reasons were an
nounced for the denials.
★ ★ ★
Using its new geographical assign
ment plan for the first time, the Ashe
ville school board reassigned 32 Negro
students to two previously all-white
schools on July 3. The board also
turned down requests of 11 white stu
dents for transfer from a desegregated
school to an all-white school.
Last year, Asheville lowered the ra
cial bars at one school, Newton, admit-
North Carolina voters approved a
program of tuition grants to parents
who choose to send their children to a
private segregated school rather than
to a desegregated public school. This
vote was taken September 8, 1956.
Many parents have objected to bira
cial schools, but none have collected a
tuition grant.
One parent who has tried to get a
tuition grant is Reece Birmingham,
whose two children were assigned to
Carrboro School in Chapel Hill last
year. He chose to send them to the
private Twaddell School in Durham
rather than the desegregated Carrboro.
When he applied for a tuition grant
last year, he was told that the school
ting five Negro pupils. In the new as
signments, 10 Negroes were sent to
Newton, and 22 were reassigned to
Claxton.
Eleven white students sought to
transfer from Claxton to Ira B. Jones
School, but were denied because the
Jones school is overcrowded.
The school set up its attendance area
rule in June to provide conformity in
city school units. A group of white par
ents in the Grove Park section sought
to have the area resolution amended,
but failed. Several of these parents re
quested the transfer of their children
from Claxton School.
★ ★ ★
Two City Boards
Desegregate Schools
Two city school boards, Brevard of
Transylvania County and Salisbury of
Rowan County, voted to desegregate
schools for the first time. No legal ac
tion was involved.
Wayne Bradburn, Brevard superin
tendent, announced July 26 that eight
Negro students were assigned to the
Brevard junior and senior high schools.
Other Negro high school pupils will
continue to attend the Ninth Avenue
School in Hendersonville.
The Salisbury city school board voted
unanimously to assign three Negro
children to the Frank B. John School
as recommended by a special commit
tee headed by Buck Withers.
Withers said the committee consid
ered geographical, legal and other fac
tors. The school board acted July 25,
a month after the Withers committee
was appointed.
In taking this action, the school board
also denied the request for children of
three Negro families for transfers.
Transfers were granted to the children
of Mrs. H. E. Taylor—Richard Leonard,
Hodge Edward Jr. and Ida Elizabeth.
Reassignment was denied the chil
dren of Colonious A. Ragin, Samuel I.
Hopkins and the Rev. Harley H. Little.
They were said to live closer to their
assigned schools than to Frank B. John.
★ ★ ★
Charlotte Follows
Pupil Placement Law
The Charlotte-Mecklenberg County
Board of Education obeyed the North
Carolina Pupil Placement Act July 25
by approving 29 racial transfers. Twen
ty-seven of these were by white chil
dren and two by Negro children from
biracial schools to schools of their own
race. The board also permitted the re
assignment of a Negro student to a
predominantly white school and denied
requests of five others.
The 27 white transfers included 17
from the predominantly Negro Bethune
School where 61 whites and 371 Ne
groes were assigned. Bethune, which
will have a Negro faculty, still has 44
whites assigned.
The other 10 white transfers were
from desegregated schools, nine from
Dilworth (with 520 whites and 33 Ne
groes) to Myers Park School and one
from Sedgefield Junior High School
(with one Negro student) to Spaugh
Junior High School.
Two Negroes were reassigned from
Myers Park High School to the Negro
Sterling Park School.
The Charlotte-Mecklenberg school
system has assigned 414 Negroes
to seven desegregated predominantly
was not approved by the State Board
of Education. Tuition grants can be
given only for attendance at state-ap
proved non-sectarian private schools.
Birmingham applied for the tuition
grant again this year. The Chapel Hill
school board did not turn him down,
but referred him to the State Board of
Education.
Dr. Charles Carroll, state superin
tendent of public instruction, wrote
Howard Thompson, Chapel Hill super
intendent:
“To the best of my knowledge the
Twaddell School operated throughout
the 1961-62 school year as a non-ap-
proved school. Whether it has removed
the disqualifying deficiencies with a
white schools and one desegregated
predominantly Negro school. The
schools expect to enroll 65,000 students,
rcluding 17,000 Negroes, in September.
★ ★ ★
Two Negro children were approved
July 31 for transfer to an all-white
school in Fayetteville. The school board
had previously assigned four Negro
children to previously all-white schools.
The 1982-63 school year will mark the
city’s first desegregation.
In approving the latest reassignments,
the Fayetteville school board also de
nied appeals of 11 other Negroes for
transfer.
Two School Systems
Asked to Desegregate
Cumberland County and Shelby will
consider lowering racial bars in their
schools soon.
Shelby received its first request July
25 from a Negro seeking entry to a
view to obtaining approval for the 1962-
63 year is yet to be determined.
“There are no private non-sectarian
schools in the vicinity of Chapel Hill
operating in compliance with the pro
visions for an approved school.”
Birmingham’s request last year was
the first tuition grant ever sought in
North Carolina. His request this year
has not yet been formally denied. If
the Chapel Hill board ever denies the
request, Birmingham has the right to
demand a hearing from the school
board. If this does not satisfy him, he
may appeal to the Orange County Su
perior Court.
He is not saying what he plans to do
yet.
white school. Ray Cabaniss filed an ap
plication for his son, Rayfield Cabaniss
to be transferred from the Clevelant
Training School to the white Shell?
Senior High School.
Cabaniss is seeking the transfer, b
said, to provide “better academic edu
cational opportunities” for his son. Ce-
cil Gillatt, school board chairman, sail
this is Shelby’s first request for sud
a transfer.
A three-man committee is studyih
applications of 32 Negro children fc
transfer to white schools in Cumberlatf
County. They are the first requests fff
desegregation made in the count}
Most of the applicants live near For
Bragg and seek entry in the Sprin!
Lake School and Pine Forest Hijj
School.
Legal Action
Indians Seek Entry
Into White Schools
Lumbee Indians of Robeson Count
will have a formal hearing on their r?
quests to be admitted to white school
in the Lumberton city school system 1
The county school board will hear th
Indians Thursday, Aug. 9 at its ne*
regular meeting.
Action by the Indians is in accordano
with the Pupil Placement Act of Norf
Carolina. This is the second year tb
Indians have been denied admission tl
white schools.
The school board turned down &
quests for 25 to enter the Tanglewoo
School and 13 to attend the white hi^
school. Last year the county turns*
back 13 Indians.
Robeson County is in the unique V 0,
sition of operating a four-way segr e '
gated school system, providing separa* 1
schools for whites, Negroes, Indians 8&
Smilings (said to be mixed bloods)
Within the county are five city systeDJ*
Lumberton, Maxton, Red Springs, 9
Pauls and Fairmont, with schools
whites and Negroes. # #
Miscellaneous
Parents Renew Grant Application
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