Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 18—SEPTEMBER, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SPECIAL REPORT
Eight Districts Outside South
Plan Voluntary Desegregation
‘C’lGHT PUBLIC SCHOOL districts
in Northern and Western
states opened the new school year
with announced plans to end seg
regation practices in their class
rooms.
Voluntary desegregation plans were
reported by school officials in Eloy,
Ariz.; Stamford, Conn.; Mt. Vernon,
Ill.; Jersey City, Montclair, Morristown
and Newark, N.J.; and Coatesville, Pa.
Records kept by Southern Education
Reporting Service show that Negroes in
62 communities in 15 states outside the
Southern and border areas have filed
protests or are investigating discrimi
natory practices in public schools. Nine
teen court suits have been filed in con
nection with these protests, and six pe
titions have been presented to state
commissioners of education for quasi-
judicial proceedings.
The states and the number of dis
tricts involved in these controversies
about public school segregation are:
Arizona, three; California, eight; Colo
rado, one; Connecticut, one; Illinois,
nine; Indiana, one; Kansas, four; Mich
igan, one; Minnesota, one; New Jersey,
eight; New York, sixteen; Ohio, three;
Oregon, one; Pennsylvania, three; and
Washington State, two.
Statewide Actions
New York’s and California’s state
boards of education have acted to end
public school segregation. The New
York agency conducted a racial census
in the elementary schools as part of a
planned attack on segregation. In Cali
fornia, the State Board of Education has
adopted a statewide policy urging the
elimination of school segregation.
The New York State census, covering
all but the New York City school sys
tem, found 103 elementary schools with
Negro enrollments of 31 per cent or
more. The board used the 31 per cent
figure as an arbitrary cutoff point, it
said, because “experience dictates that
from this point and beyond school dis
tricts must give added concern to what
is happening in their school districts.”
Although New York City was not
covered in the census, the state agency
will make a separate study of the city
later. The New York Times obtained
comparable figures from the city’s
Board of Education, showing 155 public
elementary schools having over 30 per
cent Negro enrollments.
Dr. James E. Allen Jr., State Educa
tion Commissioner, emphasized in re
leasing his report in July that there
was no evidence that the communities
encouraged de facto segregation, which
results from natural circumstances but
not directly from official government
action.
Elementary Census
The elementary school census cov
ered 837 of the state’s 882 school dis
tricts and made these findings:
• Thirty-three per cent of the 837
districts and 41 per cent of the elemen
tary school buildings were all-white.
• Fifty-nine per cent of the schools
with a biracial student body had Ne
groes, Puerto Ricans, American Indians
and other ethnic groups.
• Negro pupils, which comprise five
per cent of the state’s total enrollment,
attend 46 per cent of the elementary
schools, but in nearly half these schools
the Negroes are less than one per cent
of the individual school enrollment.
Buffalo was reported as having 19
elementary schools with more than 30
per cent Negro enrollments, and 16 of
these had enrollments over 70 per cent
Negro. Forty-four of the schools with
Negro enrollments of over 30 per cent
were in Westchester, Nassau and Suf
folk counties, in the suburban areas of
New York City.
Sixty of the 103 schools reported in
the census were predominantly Negro.
Commissioner Allen said the census re
port would help alert communities to
“potential problems” and assist them in
taking a new look at racial patterns in
the schools.
On June 14, the California State
Board of Education adopted a policy
recognizing that “the elimination of ex
isting segregation and curbing of any
tendency towards its growth must be
given serious and thoughtful consider
ation by all persons involved at all
levels.” When the board meets in Oc
tober, it will consider rules to imple
ment the policy.
Two officials of the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People, June Shagaloff, special assistant
for education, and Robert L. Carter,
general counsel, had appeared before
the board in April. At its May meeting,
the board directed the state superin
tendent of education, Roy Simpson, to
draft new regulations requiring rezon
ing of certain school districts, govern
ing selection of new school sites, and
requiring consideration of ethnic fac
tors in unification of some districts. The
new regulations, which will cover from
kindergarten through junior college,
will be considered at the October board
meeting.
New Jersey’s Governor Richard J.
Hughes said on June 18 that de facto
segregation “is equally harmful as
though it were intended.” The governor
said:
“While ‘de facto segregation’ may be
no one’s fault, its attempted correction
must be everyone’s business, if the
American and New Jersey pledge of
equality of educational opportunity is
to be fulfilled.”
Neighborhood Schools
Discussing the educational policy of
neighborhood schools, Gov. Hughes
said:
“While the preservation of this policy
is essential, where it collides with the
concept of equality in educational op
portunity, its adaption to circumstances
to prevent ‘de facto segregation’ is not
only necessary, but normally feasible.
Lacking such adaptive quality, it could
reach such a stage of inevitability in the
fostering of ‘de facto segregation’ as to
be struck down by a court forced to
choose between it and the constitutional
guarantee of equality in educational
opportunity. I am unconvinced that the
neighborhood school policy is so static,
unyielding and inadaptive as to reach
this result . . .”
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of
the NAACP, said on Aug. 26 that a sur
vey by his organization made it clear
that segregated schools exist in many
non-Southern areas “despite anti-seg
regation state statutes and the U.S. Su
preme Court ruling of May 17, 1954.”
Wilkins said that many of the segre
gated schools resulted from residential
patterns.
“However,” he said, “a substantial
part of it is the result of deliberate
planning on the part of local school
boards to contain Negro children in
particular schools either by gerryman
der of zone lines or by other devices.
Whatever the cause, segregated educa
tion is unconstitutional under the U.S.
Supreme Court ruling. The NAACP
will continue its efforts to rid the coun
try of inferior, segregated schools.”
During the NAACP’s annual conven
tion in Atlanta last July, the organiza
tion’s special assistant for education,
June Shagaloff, told a special workshop
that “considerable confusion” exists re
garding school segregation outside the
South. Miss Shagaloff reported:
“Extensive segregated residential
areas will obviously result in de facto
segregated public schools. School offi
cials, however, have facilitated and ex
tended segregation through discrimina
tory administrative devices in order to
contain Negro pupils within the segre
gated residential area . . .
“In short, school officials have mis
used housing patterns to contain Negro
New York State
Racial School Census
This table, based on a report by the New York State Education Department,
shows the number of elementary schools in school districts outside of New
York City that have 30 per cent or more Negro pupils.
District
Elem.
Bldgs.
In Dist.
30-50% z
Negroes |
O’
cc
of Schools With
o 5 ® u ®
o£
J. ® Ono
in Z Z
Total
WESTCHESTER
Greenburgh 8
3
3
0
0
3
Greenburgh 11
1
1
0
0
1
Mount Vernon -
11
2
1
2
5
New Rochelle
12
2
1
1
4
Ossining 1
5
1
0
0
1
Peekskill
6
2
0
0
2
White Plains
11
1
1
0
2
Yonkers
29
2
0
0
2
NASSAU
Glen Cove
5
0
0
1
1
Hempstead 1 (Hempstead)
6
1
0
3
4
Hempstead 8 (Roosevelt)
5
0
0
1
1
Hempstead 9 (Freeport)
6
0
0
1
1
Hempstead 12 (Malverne)
3
0
1
0
1
Hempstead 15 (Lawrence)
6
1
0
0
1
Hempstead 21 (Rockville Centre)
6
0
1
0
1
North Hempstead 1 (Westbury)
6
0
1
0
1
North Hempstead 6 (Manhasset)
3
0
0
1
1
SUFFOLK
Babylon 6 (Amityville)
5
0
0
1
1
Babylon 9 (Wyandanch)
1
0
1
0
1
Brookhaven 12
3
2
0
0
2
Easthampton 2 (Wainscott)
1
1
0
0
1
Riverhead 2
8
3
1
0
4
Southhampton
1
1
0
0
1
Southhampton 9 (Bridgehampton) ...
1
0
1
0
1
Southhold 7 (Peconic)
1
1
0
0
1
ELSEWHERE
Albany
27
2
2
3
7
Beacon
2
1
0
0
1
Buffalo
80
2
1
16
19
Elmira
17
1
0
0
1
Geneva
4
1
0
0
1
Kingston
15
2
0
0
2
Lackawanna
8
2
0
1
3
Newburgh
8
1
0
2
3
Niagara Falls
24
0
1
2
3
Poughkeepsie
7
2
1
0
3
Rochester
43
2
3
4
9
Schenectady
20
1
0
0
1
Syracuse
33
0
1
1
2
Troy
10
1
0
0
1
Utica
21
0
1
1
2
Wawarsing 2
6
1
0
0
1
470 43 19
Comparable figures for public elementary schools in New York
41 103
City, obtained
from the Board of Education, were:
New York City
E a
® -a
lu cn
588
Number of Schools With
<« <* o°
°!l ”S SS s
05 *- 05 *- *-
T CJ (C O i_ » O
■ « i ® aj 9 l_
8 Z 8=
60 31 64 155
Protest in Englewood, N.J.
Pickets walk in front of Lincoln School.
students within the segregated residen
tial area in separate schools . . .
“The concept of the neighborhood
school is being misrepresented and mis
interpreted to justify and to excuse ex
isting school segregation. The segre
gated neighborhood is used as the pre
text for the practice of ‘containment’
of Negro students.
“In reality, desegregation can be
achieved within the neighborhood
school policy. An increasing number of
communities are demonstrating that re
zoning, the Princeton Plan, assignment
of elementary schools to secondary
schools, site selection, and other meth
ods can achieve greater desegregation
without abandoning the neighborhood
school. In short, just as zoning and oth
er practices have been based on color
to extend segregation, the same tradi
tional methods can be used to deseg
regate. Open enrollment, the only plan
which is not within the framework of
the neighborhood school, is the least
effective plan of desegregation and is
proposed only when the more meaning
ful plans cannot be used.”
NAACP Resolution
At its July convention, the NAACP
delegates approved a resolution calling
upon the branches to insure “the end
of segregation Northern style by all
means available.” The resolution said
in part:
“All forms of segregation and other
discriminatory policies and practices in
public schools outside the South must
be vigorously challenged and eliminat
ed wherever found . . .
“Nor is there a choice either in the
cities or the suburbs between eliminat
ing segregation and improving the
quality of education. Raising education
al standards, however, without elimi
nating existing segregation is simply
‘separate-but-equal,’ a doctrine de
clared unconstitutional on May 17, 1954.
Segregated education in any form can
never provide equal education . .
Dr. James B. Conant, in his “Slums
and Suburbs” published earlier this
year, had stated in his controversial
section on de facto segregation:
“It is my belief that satisfactory edu
cation can be provided in an all-Negro
school through the expenditure of more
money for needed staff and facilities.”
Southern School News reported in
its April and June editions the deseg
regation activity in Northern and West
ern communities. New developments in
these areas are reported below by state.
Arizona
Eloy, a small community between
Phoenix and Tucson, announced in
June it would desegregate the elemen
tary schools in September by rezoning.
Eloy desegregated the high schools after
the 1954 Supreme Court decision, but
continued separate schools below the
sixth grade level for Negroes and for
whites and Mexicans. The Pinal County
NAACP had petitioned the Board of
Education on April 24 on behalf of 47
Negro children.
California
Berkeley—The NAACP announced
that it would ask the Board of Edu
cation “to study and take necessary
steps to eliminate existing segregation
in elementary and junior high schools.”
meeti
Bal
lcies.
Z Fer &
McCr
ty, G
simil:
the {
state’:
Sta1
struct
woulc
A local group of the Congress of Racialist 1- ''
Equality previously had presented befori
similar request to the board.
Oakland—NAACP officials have ai
nounced they plan to file a court suT revl<
challenging citywide practices affectin r ’ ow
Negro students and teachers. TV hey
NAACP and other community groupr^®®
had objected as early as January, 196!
to the zoning for the new Skyline Hig
School. They charged that a zone 1
miles long and two miles wide had beSj^j^
created to exclude »all but wealth;
white students from the school. Th
board refused on Aug. 21 to rezone
to consider studying rezoning for Sky ,
line High. for a
San Francisco—The NAACP, CO0 a w
and the Bay Area Human Relation wou j
Council worked together to prevent tbfused
opening of a junior high school with race
predominantly Negro enrollment. Scho<
officials had announced in June th
zoning for the new Central Junior Hig'
School, which would utilize an abai
doned school building to relieve over'j stin ^
crowding of a predominantly Negn un f e .
junior high school. Both whites a® being
Negroes protested and urged the Boa® tion.
of Education to rezone Central t p..
achieve a better racial balance.
Sit-ins, picketing and threat of a boy Q ree
cott followed the board’s refusal to re
zone for Central. A biracial group (
parents filed suit and U.S. Distric
Judge Alfonso J. Zirpoli urged tt
school officials to resolve the issue wit
community groups before the sched
uled court hearing. At a special boar
meeting, Aug. 21, the San Francis’
school superintendent recommends • a .. j
that Central not be opened and tb
Board of Education approved.
The superintendent had reported o
June 19 that after studying the pro':
lem of de facto segregation, he had ®
“educationally sound program to su?
gest to the board to eliminate
schools in which the children are pr £
dominantly of one race.” The boar
scheduled a meeting for September •
consider the citywide problem.
Th<
expla
is un
‘their
gow
Co
Bath
Hick:
and
(B
noun
and i
Colorado
Ne
were
tt force
No
at th
sion
earli,
to cc
elimi
tutio
Denver’s NAACP chapter has ini® pj egr
ated a community action progra#
which includes the study of racial prs f
tices in the school system.
Connecticut
Stamford, which would have had o®
predominantly white high school a®
one with a majority of Negro, Puer*
Rican and low-income students, &
adopted the Princeton Plan for its hif
schools. Beginning in September, *
students in grades nine and ten atte®
one school, and all students in grad £
11 and 12 attend the other.
segrt
De
trict:
folio
tuck
Illinois
Cairo — The NAACP branch b-
adopted a 10-point program, which &
eludes the demand for “equalization^
educational opportunities for all ch®
dren.”
Centreville—The U.S. Seventh Cirff
Court of Appeals on July 5 affirmed
district court’s dismissal of a school & 1
segregation suit. The suit had charge
that teachers and students were S®P
arated by race, but the district
held that the plaintiffs had not
(See NAACP, Page 20)