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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER, 1962—PAGE II
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students of whom about 500 are
groes.
★ ★ ★
Paris and Henry County
Desegregate Voluntarily
Fourteen Negroes were admitted to
four previously all-white schools at
Paris on Sept. 7 under a voluntary de
segregation program begun simul
taneously by the Henry County Board
of Education and the Paris Special
School District Board.
The county board approved transfer
of four Negroes into E. W. Grove junior
and senior high schools, two of them in
the ninth grade and two in the 11th.
The Paris district board transferred 10
Negroes into two elementary schools,
one of the pupils in the second grade,
one in the third, four in the fourth and
four in the fifth. Five of the 10 were
assigned to Atkins-Porter School and
the other five to Robert E. Lee School.
City School Supt. W. O. Inman said
the two boards approved the applica
tions for transfer “without any plan.”
He added: “We’re handling this on a
transfer basis,” and he noted that his
board approved “all the applications it
had.”
Petitions for desegregation of both
pupils and school personnel were filed
with Inman and County Supt. Julian
Brewer on May 8 by the Henry County
chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
and the two school boards considered
them jointly. The superintendents had
no comment on the policy to be follow
ed in the future.
The Paris system, which includes
only elementary schools, and the county
system together have more than 5,000
pupils—about 20 per cent of them Ne
groes. The county-operated Grove high
and junior high schools serve Paris and
surrounding area. The county system
also includes both high and elementary
schools outside the Paris district.
★ ★ ★
Two Negro First-Graders
Enter School at Franklin
Two Negro first-graders began classes
on Sept. 4 at previously all-white
Franklin Elementary School, under a
grade-a-year desegregation plan adopt
ed voluntarily by the Ninth Special
School District board of education.
Supt. Emmett T. Strickland said the
students, both girls, registered for
classes on Aug. 29.
Strickland said desegregation of the
school, located about 20 miles south of
Nashville, was orderly.
Another first-grader had registered
for biracial classes last spring but did
not appear at the school when the
1962-63 term began, Strickland said.
The Ninth Special School District
operates the Franklin city schools
which have a total enrollment of about
Q°v, including about 500 Negroes.
School officials announced last winter
ey had adopted a grade-a-year plan
? this fall. The announcement
olio wed conferences with Negro lead
ers.
★ ★ ★
Dickson County Schools
Start \ oluntary Program
Dickson County schools on Aug. 20
admitted 13 Negro students to pre-
lously all-white classes under a de-
Tv 3 *' 011 P^ an adopted voluntarily by
tion a * ckson Co unty Board of Educa-
Walter M. Work said desegre-
<t 10T } J^ as accomplished smoothly and
no dfi&uHigs” have occurred
th fi ^ e ® r ° students were enrolled in
tJ! rst three grades and all are at-
Oakmont School, Work re
ported.
wifi ni k er j* 16 board ’s plan, three grades
.11., e desegregated each year until
. grades are included,
jjj Jj* the Negro students enrolled
g v . e ™^t grade, two in the second and
g as 111 the third. The elementary school
a total enrollment of about 700.
Announced Last Winter
, for desegregation were an-
limm Ce ^ ast w *nter by the board. Pre-
schonT y registration for the 1962-63
montK year was conducted several
Kr o" S ago and at that time 17 Ne-
viousl md J? ated they would attend pre-
Vl °Wy all-white classes.
Tennp System was the first in Middle
v °lunUrily t0 adopt a desegregation plan
the”°H? ty Seat . Bickson County is
mile* , y Dickson, located about 40
w est of Nashville. An adjacent
county, Humphreys, was ordered by
U.S. District Court to desegregate the
first and second grades during the 1961-
62 school year.
Dickson County schools have a total
enrollment of about 4,550 students, in
cluding nearly 450 Negroes.
Work said the board’s three-grades-
a-year plan had been discussed at
public meetings by school officials since
the board announced its adoption last
winter.
Some of the Negro students who are
attending biracial classes also are rid
ing to and from school on biracial
school buses, Work said.
★ ★ ★
85 Obion County Negroes
Attend Biracial Schools
Obion County schools in northwest
Tennessee were desegregated quietly
during August as about 85 Negro stu
dents began attending previously all-
white classes.
“There has been no trouble at all,”
reported Supt. C. D. Parr. “I think
Obion citizens realize that this was in
evitable and I feel they are determined
to accept it gracefully,” he added.
Seventy-five Negro students had reg
istered in June to enter predominantly
white schools following a U.S. District
Court order approving the Obion
County school board’s plan for com
plete desegregation beginning with the
1962-63 school term.
Parr said about 50 Negroes are
attending two previously all-white
schools, about 35 of them at South
Fulton and about 15 at Obion County
Central at Troy. The remainder en
rolled at three elementary schools,
Obion, Woodland and Rives.
Some of the schools opened the fall
term on Aug. 10 with a half day of
classes. Others began classes two weeks
later.
The superintendent said the system’s
transportation facilities also were de
segregated.
As classes began at Obion County
Central on Aug. 10, Principal Weldon
Hall told his 750 students:
“Our problem is not to let anything
interfere with your opportunity to get
an education. The theme at school this
year is to be courteous to everyone.”
Parr said Negroes attending biracial
classes are enrolled in grades one
through high school.
All Grades Included
Under the board’s desegregation plan,
all grades were included. Five of the
system’s 10 school districts have no
Negro students and were not affected.
The entire system has a total enroll
ment of about 4,300, including about
400 Negroes.
U.S. District Judge Bailey Brown on
May 11 approved the desegregation plan
in a case brought by Negro plaintiffs.
(Vick et al v. Obion County Board of
Education, SSN, January.) |
Included in the plan was a “freedom
of choice” provision which gives stu
dents the option of attending white or
Negro schools in the zones in which
they reside. School transportation facil
ities were desegregated within individ
ual zones, Parr said.
Grade-a-Year Rejected
Judge Brown last December rejected
a grade-a-year plan filed previously
by the school board and ordered the
system to desegregate completely be
ginning this fall.
The board subsequently offered a re
vised plan including the “freedom of
choice” provision. Judge Brown ap
proved the provision and said that
while he considers it unrealistic it is
not in itself unconstitutional.
Parents of three South Fulton Negro
students originally brought the suit for
desegregation in October, 1961, com
plaining that they had been turned
down in efforts to enroll at South Ful
ton High School. They also alleged that
the Negro high school at South Fulton
is “unaccredited and substandard.”
In his order last December, Judge
Brown noted that Fulton, Ky, schools
just across the state line from South
Fulton, are desegregated.
★ ★ ★
Jackson Has Six Negroes
In Formerly White Schools
Six Negroes were enrolled in pre
viously all-white schools at Jackson
on Sept. 4, the City Commission an
nounced as the new school term got
under way.
The commission which serves as the
board of education for the West Ten
nessee city system, reported that two
Negro first-graders and two fourth-
grade students were attending pre
viously all-white Alexander Elemen
tary School.
In addition, two of three Negroes who
were admitted to Tigrett Junior High
School in 1961-62 returned to classes
there, officials said. The third was re
ported to have moved out of the city.
The commission admitted the two
Negro students to eighth grade classes
voluntarily during the last school year.
Although no desegregation plan has
been adopted officially by the commis
sion, officials announced last year they
would follow provisions of the Tennes
see Pupil Assignment law in granting
transfers.
No advance announcement had been
made about desegregation of Alexander
School. Education Commissioner R. L.
Paty made the report at a meeting of
the commission shortly after classes
opened.
Paty said those enrolled in biracial
classes were among students requesting
transfers at the close of the 1961-62
year.
★ ★ ★
Bristol Schools Biracial
But No Negroes Register
Bristol, Tenn. schools on Aug. 30
voluntarily began a grade-a-year de
segregation plan but no Negroes regis
tered to attend biracial classes. Classes
began Sept. 4.
Plans for biracial classes in the first
grade were announced by the Board of
Education during the 1961-62 school
year.
Supt. D. F. Adkisson had said prior
to registration that he expected “no
more than five or six” Negro pupils to
register at schools previously for
whites. But none appeared to enroll.
Adkisson said the registration in
cluded no applications for transfers
from one school to another.
Bristol is in Upper East Tennessee
and is bisected by the Virginia-Tennes-
see line along its main street. Schools
on the Virginia side of the twin-city
have not been desegregated.
The Bristol, Tenn. system has an
enrollment of about 4,400 students, in
cluding nearly 300 Negroes. Many of
the Negroes, however, reside outside
the city’s corporate limits in Sullivan
County but attend Bristol schools
through a tuition arrangement, Adkis
son explained.
Three other Upper East Tennessee
city systems, Kingsport, Johnson City
and Elizabethton, as well as Washing
ton County, voluntarily began grade-
a-year desegregation last year.
Murfreesboro High School
Enrolls Negro Freshman
The first Negro student to attend
Central High School at Murfreesboro
began classes on Sept. 4.
A freshman, the student was listed
by school officials as Paul Marchbanks
Jr., son of the Rev. Paul Marchbanks
Sr., a Murfreesboro minister.
Under consideration by the Rutherford
County School Commission (which acts
as the board of education) was a re
quest by another Negro student to
attend Central High. School officials
said, however, the student already had
registered to attend Halloway, a Negro
high school.
Rutherford County schools have
been desegregated since 1959 when
U.S. District Judge William E. Miller
ordered the admission of Negro plain
tiffs to the John Coleman School at
Smyrna which serves personnel of the
Sewart Air Force Base.
Coleman School enrolled about 20
Negro students in 1961-62, and one
other Negro attended Smyrna High
School. County school officials said two
Negro students are attending Smyrna
High School this year and about the
same number are enrolled at Coleman
as last year.
Located in Middle Tennessee adja
cent to Davidson County (which in
cludes Nashville), Rutherford County
has a total of about 8,300 students, of
whom more than 20 per cent are Ne
groes.
Nashville Board Rejects
Vocational School Requests
A request to desegregate the Hume-
Fogg Vocational High School was re
jected Aug. 16 by the Nashville Board
of Education.
The request was filed last winter by
the local chapter of the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of Colored
People.
Supt. W. H. Oliver recommended that
the board turn down the request. He
said: “It is my judgment that the
court-approved plan of desegregation
which our school system has been fol
lowing since 1957 applies to the Hume-
Fogg Technical and Vocational High
School, and that we should adhere
strictly to this plan.”
Nashville schools desegregated the
sixth grade on Sept. 5, under a grade-
a-year plan which has been used as
a pattern in many other cities.
Coyness Ennix, Negro lawyer and
school board member, voted against re
jection of the request. Another board
member, Maurice Pilsk, said such ap
plications should come from students
seeking to enroll in certain courses
rather than from such agencies as the
NAACP.
Ennix told the board that some
courses offered at Hume-Fogg are not
available at Pearl High School, a com
binational general and vocational high
school for Negroes.
Board chairman Elmer Pettit replied:
“We offer every course they wanted at
Pearl.”
Oliver noted that night vocational
classes for adults at both Hume-Fogg
and Pearl are operated on a desegre
gated basis.
In the Colleges
U. of Chattanooga
Turns Down Negro
A Negro girl’s request for admission
to the Univerity of Chattanooga has
been denied, a spokesman for the pri-
Nashville Plan Reaches Sixth Grade
At least 111 additional Negro students
enrolled in predominantly white classes
on Sept. 4 and 5 as the Nashville and
Davidson County school systems ex
tended desegregation to the sixth grade.
Preliminary figures released by Nash
ville Supt. William H. Oliver’s office
showed a total of 363 Negroes enrolled
in seven predominantly white schools,
an increase of 91 over last year. Nash
ville schools were desegregated in 1957
under a grade-a-year plan approved
by the U.S. District Court. The plan
began with the first grade and an addi
tional grade has been opened to bi
racial classes each year.
Oliver’s office said the list of biracial
schools so far this year did not include
one school, Warner, which enrolled two
Negro students in 1961-62. All of the
others were desegregated previously.
Two white students who were ad
mitted to previously all-Negro Pearl
Elementary School last year returned
for classes this year, principal Arnold
Love reported. Pearl Elementary has a
total enrollment of about 540.
The Nashvile school system has a
MOSS
OLIVER
total enrollment of about 30,000 includ
ing more than 13,000 Negroes.
In the Davidson County system which
sur-ounds Nashville, Supt. J. E. Moss
said at least 130 Negroes were attend
ing classes at predominantly white
schools, compared with 110 last year.
Enrollment figures were not com
plete and the superintendent said the
number of Negroes in biracial schools
could range as high as 150.
“We were expecting about 140, but we
don’t have all the reports in yet,” the
superintendent said.
Also under a U.S. District Cour
order, the Davidson County systen
kept pace with the Nashville syster
by adding the sixth grade this year.
Desegregation of the first four grade
occurred in January, 1961, and the fift
grade was opened to biracial classe
last year. An additional grade will b
desegregated each year.
Moss said the county system, whic'
conducted biracial classes in 15 school
last year, added the 16th desegregatec
school with the opening of the fal
term. One Negro student enrolled a
previously all-white McGavock Schoc
in suburban Donelson community.
The county system has a total enroll
ment of about 52,000 students, indud
ing an estimated 2,000 Negroes.
Both the city and county officials re
ported no incidents in connection wit!
the additional desegregation.
Supt. Oliver’s office said it had no
been notified of any disturbance an<
Supt. Moss declared:
“We’ve not had the least bit of trou
ble.”
vate university announced on Sept. 1.
The spokesman indicated, however,
that the university board of trustees
would consider her application if she
reapplies in January.
Board chairman W. E. Brock Jr. re
ported that the girl, whose name was
withheld, has enrolled at Tuskegee In
stitute at Tuskegee, Ala., under a schol
arship.
Another Negro applied for admission
to the all-white university for 1961
summer classes but no action was taken
on the request.
The university opens its 77th annual
session Sept. 17 with nearly 1,500 day
students. # # #
s. c.
(Continued From Page 9)
is near and the newspapers of the state
are supposed to prepare us for it.
“Preparation of the state is supposed
to be rested in the newspapers. They
are to call for law and order at all
costs.”
Mahoney, who is a native of New
England, wrote that “it will not happen
under the present administration, of
ficials say. Incoming Gov. Donald S.
Russell must bear the brunt of the ac
tion.”
Other political insiders think the first
break in school desegregation will come
in Charleston. A member of the state
legislature, who is a lawyer, says that
Negro plaintiffs in the pending Charles
ton public school desegregation suit
(Brown et al v. School District 20 et al)
have exhausted all of their administra
tive remedies and thus only legal de
laying tactics lie between Charleston
and school desegregation.
This informant says that plaintiffs in
other pending desegregation cases in
this state, which has managed to main
tain all-white schools eight years after
the Supreme Court decision of 1954,
have not yet pursued all administrative
relief courses open to them.
Schoolmen
$1,346,260 Allocated
For School Buildings
The South Carolina Educational Fi
nance Commission met Aug. 9 and ap
proved allocation of $1,346,260 for public
school building projects in the state.
The funds will go to 14 of the state’s
46 counties and will be about equally
divided between white and Negro
schools.
Since the commission began allocat
ing money for school building projects
during Gov. James F. Byrnes’ “separate
but equal” program a decade ago, a
total of $212,573,135 has been disbursed
for public school building projects by
the commission. # # #
Florida
(Continued From Page 8)
Tampa. Considerably more desegrega
tion was in the planning stages and
may be effective early in the first se
mester.
Broward
The Broward County school board
assigned a 15-year-old Negro boy to
Stranahan High School in Fort Lau
derdale this fall. He is the first to at
tend a white high school in this county.
Rock Island Elementary and Ever
glades Junior High will have some Ne
gro students for the second year. The
number is expected to be much higher
than the 32 who were there last year.
There was a possibility of desegrega
tion at Deerfield Beach Junior High
and Fort Lauderdale High. School offi
cials announced previously some Ne
groes might be assigned there, but say
this now must await further develop
ments. It appeared, however, that
Broward would have five desegregated
schools and that Negro enrollment
there would pass 100.
Dade
Dade County, which has had deseg
regated schools for three years, has
assigned Negroes to attend with white
children at 14 schools, including three
of the major high schools.
The number of Negroes in mixed
classes probably will exceed 700 when
the final count is made, although offi
cial figures will not be available imme
diately. Most of the schools are in
changing neighborhoods where the pop
ulation fluctuates rapidly. Schools that
have started with a few Negroes have
gained others quickly and have soon
become predominantly Negro.
At least three of the schools will have
white and Negro pupils in fairly equal
proportions this year. There was only
one last year—Arlington Heights Ele
mentary, which will be largely Negro
this year. # # #