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ion a; MARYLAND
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER, 1962—PAGE 13
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BALTIMORE j
F ive Maryland counties were
scheduled to have some Ne
groes in classes with white pupils
for the first time in September,
the largest desegregation change
to occur in the state since 1956.
The five counties raise the total of
school districts having desegregation in
practice as well as principle to 20, out
of Maryland’s 23 biracial districts.
Four of the five counties that had
approved desegregation moves in ad
vance of school openings are on the
Eastern Shore, where desegregation
previously has lagged. They are Caro
line, Dorchester, Kent and Wicomico
counties, with Negro enrollments rang
ing from 25 to 37 per cent. The fifth is
the southern Maryland county of Cal
vert, the only school district aside from
Baltimore City to have more Negro
pupils than white ones.
With desegregation increases also
taking place in previously desegregated
districts, September was expected to
find close to 45 per cent of all Mary
land Negro pupils in schools with
white pupils—the bulk of them in Bal
timore city schools.
Maryland school officials were an
ticipating a statewide public school en
rollment of 638,675 pupils, of whom an
estimated 146,800 would be Negroes.
The 20 districts with actual desegrega
tion have more than 96 per cent of the
Negro enrollment. The three remaining
biracial districts, all on the Eastern
Shore, have policies under which Ne
gro pupils may apply for transfers to
white schools but, through August, had
received no requests.
Three Noted Earlier
Of the five counties having actual
desegregation for the first time, the
changes in three previously have been
reported. (SSN, June and August.)
These are the approved transfer of a
Negro to a white high school in Caro
line County, the transfer of three Ne
groes to a new predominantly white
high school in Calvert County, and the
assignment of around 75 Negro elemen
tary children to five previously white
schools in Wicomico County.
More recent developments are the
acceptance of a Negro girl’s transfer
request to the 12th grade of a white
high school in Queen Anne’s County,
and the acceptance of an unknown
D. C.
(Continued From Page 9)
Under the program, a class studying
a particular piece of legislation might,
for example, go to the Capitol to hear
■t discussed in committees and on the
Uouse and Senate floors.
There is no reason why a member
0 . P 16 Supreme Court might not meet
with some students,” White said.
Among those who will participate in
he workshop program at Paul are At
torney General Robert F. Kennedy,
secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall,
Housing Administrator Robert Weaver,
deputy Assistant Secretary of State
. ar Rowan, White, District Commis-
sioner Walter N. Tobriner and School
Superintendent Carl F. Hansen.
Spons° rs hope that the attraction of
V^ram w *h help make the school
s uizing force in its neighborhood.
Goldberg Appointed
To Supreme Court
Aue^TQ 611 * Kennedy announced o
„ 1116 retirement of Associat
on tk 6 Frankfurter after 23 year
nam"! Supreme Court. The Presider
Uo 1 cffip ^ ecre tary of Labor Arthur .
rg, 54, as Frankfurter’s successo:
f Ur ? kis letter of resignation, Frank
-pi. P. c *tod the counsel of his doctor:
Anril US j Ce ’ suffered a stroke las
since ^ n °t returned to the coui
b e ^f Secretary of Labor, Goldberg ha
Presid ac P ve in the direction of th
plov^ en ! S „ Commissiori on Equal Em
ground °PP°rtunity. His legal back
Cabinet *} rior to his appointment to th
in thp c year > was predominantl
F «e field of labor law.
secondk-; Ur t er ' S re tirement created th
Kennedv U d P I eme Court vacanc y in th
when T y (r dnun istration. The first cam
tired Us lce Charles E. Whittaker re
White and Was re Placed by Byro
Praise^ 61 ?. S fPPointment won gener:
to win Cap it°l Hill and was expecte
Peedy Senate confirmation. ##
Maryland Highlights
Five Maryland counties were to,
have Negroes in classes with white
pupils for the first time in Septem
ber, raising the number of school
districts with some actual desegrega
tion to 20, of the state’s 23 biracial
systems.
An additional five counties have
desegregated one or more new
grades under stairstep desegregation
programs.
Increases in the number of bi
racial schools or in the number of
Negro pupils in biracial schools were
expected in yet another six counties.
A campaign throughout Maryland
to spur Negro transfers to white or
predominantly white schools has
been started by the Maryland
NAACP.
Human relation courses in state
teachers colleges have been urged
by the Baltimore Urban League to
prepare teachers for biracial classes.
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WORCESTER'
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GARRETT
MARYLAND DESEGREGATION:
FALL OF 1962.
(by d/str/cts, w/tr percentage
FL GORES FOP NEGPO ENROLLMENT
NEWLY DESEGREGATED.
PPEV/OUSLY DESEGREGATED.
NO TRANSFER REQUESTS.
number of transfers in Dorchester
County. Both are on the Eastern Shore.
Queen Anne’s, a farming and clam
ming county at the eastern end of
Chesapeake Bay Bridge, has not pre
viously had a request for transfer from
any of its 1,155 Negro pupils, although
it has been amenable to change since
1956. The county has 2,717 white pupils
(last year’s enrollment data).
Dorchester County, an oyster, musk
rat and canning center with pine timber
as an added cash crop, has been the
scene during the past year of “freedom
rides” and other student interracial ac
tivity, some of which stirred hostilities,
and the county school superintendent
warned that the chances of a successful
desegregation program were being im
paired. The tension caused by attempts
to gain desegregation of restaurants
has eased off since then, and the county
is to have its first Negroes in white
schools.
The news release in August of the
Dorchester County Board of Education
said: “We have had a few applications.
‘Bona fide’ applications included within
the board policy will be accepted. No
names will be released until school
opens.”
Reached by telephone, County School
Supt. James G. Busick explained that
he stood ready to release the names
and number of Negro children when
schools opened, but not before that
time. Dorchester operates under a
grade-a-year desegregation plan that
began with the 12th grade in 1956 and
this fall reaches downward to the sixth
grade.
Five counties in addition to Dorches
ter are continuing stairstep programs.
Desegregation this fall has been ex
tended upward to the 12th and last
grade in Charles County, to the 11th
grade in Harford and Howard counties,
to the 10th grade in Anne Arundel
(with the 11th grade included at one
high school) and to the ninth grade in
Talbot County.
Charles County
Charles County, which lies in south
ern Maryland and has a 45 per cent
Negro enrollment, started with a grade-
a-year plan in 1956 but desegregated
two grades at a time in 1960 and again
in 1961 and this year has desegregated
the last four in one move. County
School Supt. C. Paul Barnhart report
ed Aug. 29 that all Negro applications
had been processed and accepted, and
that there would be about twice as
many Negroes in predominantly white
classes as last year, when there were
21 in one elementary school. Two high
schools in addition to the elementary
school will be affected this year.
With all grades through the 11th de
segregated, Howard County by late Au
gust had approved the enrollment of 25
additional Negroes in predominantly
white elementary schools and 42 in
secondary schools, raising the county
total to 109 if all of last year’s pupils
return. County School Supt. John E.
Yingling said in August that “several”
additional schools would be involved.
A semi-urbanized county to the west
of Baltimore, Howard has about a 13
per cent Negro enrollment.
Two-to-One Ratio
The Eastern Shore county of Talbot,
with a two-to-one ratio of white to
Negro pupils, will have one Negro ad
vancing to the ninth grade this fall and
expects to have eight new Negro first-
graders in predominantly white ele
mentary schools. They will bring the
desegregation total to 32 and involve
one additional elementary school.
Last year Talbot had 25 Negro chil
dren in three formerly all-white
schools, one of whom has requested,
and been granted a transfer back to an
all-Negro school. School Supt. Gerald
E. Richter reports no unusual desegre
gation activity and “no problems.”
No desegregation figures in Anne
Arundel and Harford counties will be
available until after schools open. Both
are near the end of stairstep plans.
More than 1,200 Negroes are likely to
be in predominantly white schools in
In The Colleges
Urban League Urges Human Relations Study
Human relations courses in Mary
land’s five teachers colleges have been
recommended by Furman L. Temple
ton, executive director of the Baltimore
Urban League, to give “students some
preparation for teaching in integrated
public school systems.” The recommen
dation promptly drew the “unqualified
endorsement” of the Baltimore Depart
ment of Education.
In a letter to Dr. Thomas G. Pullen,
Jr., secretary of the Maryland Board
of Education which has jurisdiction
over the state teachers colleges, Tem
pleton said he had learned from the
president of the largest of the teachers
colleges that no formal courses in in
tergroup relations were provided, “al
though some thought was being given
to the matter.”
Considering it “altogether unlikely”
that the other four colleges were giv
ing such courses, Templeton pointed
out that “I include Bowie and Coppin
[the two predominantly Negro teachers
colleges] in my consideration of what
seems to be an important area of study
that is not being provided . . .”
Noting the increased desegregation in
Maryland school systems, Templeton
wrote, “I am certain you also will agree
that it would be
desirable to have
teachers prepared,
from the stand
point of being
aware of cultural
diversification and
intergroup rela
tions, to help
make the educa
tional program in
creasingly effec
tive. Teachers so
equipped could
not only perform
more efficiently when assigned to inte
grated situations, but also could do
much to minimize problems in those
TEMPLETON
systems that yet must accomplish that
objective.
“As a case in point, I submit that
there is little question but that much
of the success of integration in the Bal
timore public schools can be attributed
to the community relations study pro-
g am that has been available to city
teachers since about 1948 and other in-
tercultural learning experiences to
which they have access.”
The Urban League sought an early
reply, Templeton said, because “we are
making plans to approach the presi
dents of the teachers colleges to de
velop the subject more fully.”
Copy to Brain
In sending a copy of his recommen
dation to Dr. George B. Brain, Balti
more’s school superintendent, Temple
ton noted the advantages of having
new teachers prepared for integrated
situations and added, “It is entirely
possible that the teacher recruitment
program of your department might be
helped if State teachers college students
have been given a clearer understand
ing of intergroup relations. Such un
derstanding might remove some of their
present objections to employment in
the city schools.”
Dr. Brain indorsed the recommenda
tion and said, “We will be happy to co
operate in every possible way.” The
Urban League had, in fact, touched on
a critical problem as far as Dr. Brain
is concerned. In a lengthy interview
published in The Sun in August, Dr.
Brain made plain his belief that the
teachers colleges were partly responsi
ble for the city’s mounting difficulties
in staffing predominantly Negro schools
in “culturally disadvantaged” areas of
the city.
While professional and public atten
tion has been given to the critical need
to attract qualified teachers to blighted
area schools, Dr. Brain was reported a:
saying, “the voice of the teacher-train
ing institutions has been strangely
silent.”
Faced with the necessity of employ
ing substandard teachers in the school
where the children are most in need o
skilled attention, Dr. Brain said, “Then
is a lag between what the colleges ari
doing and what they should be doing
. . . The curriculum in teacher-traininj
institutions is still geared exclusive!
to the needs of rural ard suburbai
schools.”
When it comes to staffing slim
schools, Baltimore is dependent almos
entirely on uncertified Negro teacher
as recruits. Certified teachers—whit
and Negro alike—for the most part sh;
away. Dr. Brain believes that lack o
understanding and interest amonj
young people is responsible for the sit
uation, which is why he so readily en
dorsed the Urban League’s proposal fo
special courses.
Teachers Indoctrinated
“Colleges,” he says, “take apt stu
dents from typically middle class back
grounds and indoctrinate them with :
methodology and outlook that can onl;
return them as teachers to schools fos
tering familiar middle class concepts. 1
Pullen replied to the Urban Leagu-
letter on Aug. 17. While expressing be
lief that there was no “simple formula'
for the problem the Templeton lette:
had posed, he added, “please be assurec
that I want to explore this whole mat
ter with you.”
He also enclosed a list of the socio
logical courses given at the five teach
ers colleges. After going over the list
Templeton replied on Aug. 27 that ai
advanced course at two of the college;
appeared to be “most closely related'
to what the Urban League had in mind
He pressed for a conference.
Anne Arundel, and more than 300 in
Harford.
Other desegregation changes are
these:
St. Mary’s County in southern Mary
land will have 14 or more Negroes in
classes with white pupils with one ad
ditional school—a junior high—affect
ed. Last year, St. Mary’s was recorded
in state records as having eight Negro
children in two schools, but County
Supt. Robert E. King Jr. reports that
before the close of the school year
there were 14. These and others are ex
pected this fall, depending on the fluc
tuations of Negro personnel at the Pa
tuxent Naval Air Station, which swells
the county population. King reports
that the county this year will have a
kindergarten for the first time and that
it definitely will be unsegregated.
One in Operation
With only one small all-Negro school
still in operation, Frederick County
this fall will have 96 per cent of its ap
proximately 1,300 Negro pupils in pre
dominantly white schools. More than
300 of them will be making the change
for the first time, following the termi
nation last June of the county’s largest
all-Negro unit. The county has some
13,000 white pupils.
Prince George’s County has dispensed
with transfer applications when stu
dents are entering elementary, junior
or senior highs for the first time, so
that only the individual schools know
how many Negroes are entering classes
with white pupils. Asked to make a
guess as to how many there might be,
County Supt. William S. Schmidt said
that “off the cuff” he would say “more
than any previous year, and it could
be as high as 175 to 200 more.” Last
year, Prince George’s had 432 in 36 pre
dominantly white schools. The county
lies partly within the Washington met
ropolitan area.
Requirement Dropped
Cecil County at the northern end of
the Eastern Shore also this year has
dropped a former requirement that
children entering school for the first
time obtain transfer approval if they
seek to enter a school other than the
one they normally would attend. First-
graders and also those who previously
have been in non-public schools or in
schools outside the county may enroll
without formality at the nearest school.
County Supt. Robert A. Gibson says
that from 55 to 75 Negro children may
enter formerly white schools under the
new policy, in addition to 32 who have
requested and been granted transfers.
Cecil previously has had a fourth of its
small Negro enrollment in mixed
classes.
Montgomery County in the Washing
ton suburban area previously absorbed
all of its more than 3,000 Negro pupils
in predominantly white schools, so
that the only substantial changes come
with the opening of new schools. In the
new school year, Montgomery will have
eight new schools, four elementary and
four high schools. The latter will def
initely have some Negro pupils, while
the new elementaries probably will not
since they serve all-white residential
areas. The four high schools will raise
to 80 the number of Montgomery
schools having both white and Negro
pupils. Last year Montgomery had an
additional 35 schools that had from one
to three Negro teachers but no Negro
pupils.
Baltimore County will have eight
new schools in the new school year:
(See MARYLAND, Page 15)