Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER, 1962—PAGE 3
a
s
tha;
bu:
tria;
this
ryai
evet
anj
hat
m to
hav-
host
hurt
hout
tioa
‘gra-
itioc.
ig ot
suit
;er i
U.S.
chool
tition
idual
enti-
:ndei
terms
that
other
ipsor.
the
you
jn ol
st in
aunty
Cir-
•acted
ficials
door
i. The
’■ublic
. mis
using
i ele-
i high
Negro
since
;ies to
i sep-
newly
30I as
They
being
;h the
ee
tee t°
Right-'
: lead-
ampa-
prob-
attend
; were
vpoint
■f were
rsenta -
i invi'
d the?
group
its *
?s.
f these
regaf"
evens’*
; nne«'
>r Co 1 '
roe th'
TO ^
red tc
soi
i«f,
llted v
TEXAS
Public, Private Colleges
Report New Desegregation
AUSTIN
dditional desegregation was
reported at public and pri
vate Texas colleges.
Weatherford College enrolled four
Negro girls among approximately 325
students. It is a tax-supported junior
college. Hill Junior College at Hills
boro reopened with 185 white students,
after being closed for several years. It
announced a policy of accepting Ne
groes also, but none applied. The same
was reported from Clarendon College
in the Texas Panhandle, which has ap
proximately 150 students, but no Negro
applicants. All these are supported by
local taxes plus state aid.
Arlington State and San Jacinto
Junior College previously had an
nounced acceptance of Negro students
for the first time this fall. Arlington
State, between Fort Worth and Dallas,
has about 9,000 students. No racial rec
ords are kept but a spokesman said
Negro enrollment exceeded the “five or
six” originally estimated. At San Ja
cinto, a public junior college near
Houston, five Negroes enrolled with
approximately 900 white students.
A fourth tax-supported institution to
admit Negroes this fall for the first
time, the University of Houston, count
ed 13 587 students but no figure was
available on the number of Negroes.
A Baptist school, Hardin-Simmons
University at Abilene, also had Negroes
among its 1,080 students this fall.
The University of Texas, which
started desegregation by court order in
1950, first in the state, has an estimated
150 to 200 Negroes among its 21,390
students this fall. The number of Ne
groes enrolled has remained fairly con
stant in recent years, although white
enrollment has risen steadily.
To Enlist King
A University of Texas student group
under the name of “Negroes for Equal
Rights” issued a call for stepped-up
desegregation, and announced plans to
enlist assistance from the Rev. Martin
Luther King. This brought a statement
of concern from the University admin
istration, and coolness from some white
students who have supported equality
for Negro students.
The only segregation remaining at
ihe University of Texas is in varsity
athletics, the marching band, and hous-
mg. White and Negro girls have sepa
rate dormitories. Some dormitories for
me n remain all-white and the re
mainder are desegregated. Apartments
or married students also are segre
gated.
“One need go no farther than Ox
ford, Miss., for an example of how
violence may erupt from an essentially
non-violent incident . . . (two reporters
from The University of Texas paper
covered the riots at Ole Miss) . . . The
crisis there reflects how a situation can
get out of hand when elements from
outside the community involved arrive
on the scene . . .
“Negro students should also realize
that further agitation at the presen
time may cause them to lose the sup
port of some students and administra
tion members who have aided in the
past and continue to do so . . .”
The editorial concluded that three of
the nine Board of Regents members
may be replaced by the new governor
when their terms expire in January,
1963, and that persons more friendly
toward desegregation may be ap
pointed. The board lately has done
nothing to extend desegregation. A year
ago, while it was considering admitting
Negro girls to some dormitories with
white girls, a lawsuit filed by integra-
tionists in federal court to desegregate
all housing caused the board to an
nounce it will do nothing until the liti
gation ends.
Hearing Not Set
The case has never been set for hear
ing by U.S. District Judge Ben Rice
Jr., partly because of an argument over
whether the attorney general should
represent the board or whether it could
employ private counsel, as it sought to
do (Sanders v. Ransom, Southern
School News, December, 1961, and
subsequent).
University of Texas’s Student Asso
ciation has set a referendum for Nov.
14 on questions of desegregating all
university-owned facilities and inter
collegiate athletics. Similar polls in the
past have shown a majority favoring
integration. The referendum was almost
called off, however, after the “Negroes
for Equal Rights” issued their mani
festo. The Student Association lacked
a single vote of mustering a two-thirds
majority needed to rescind the refer
endum call.
Opponents said the referendum would
serve no useful purpose, and that stu
dent backing for desegregation has been
repeatedly expressed previously.
Meanwhile, the Texas Commission on
Education recommended that tuition for
wmm mmmm ummmmmmmmmem
Texas Highlights
Four tax-supported colleges abol
ished segregation in Texas this fall
without notice. Two others reporting
willingness to accept Negroes lacked
applicants.
University of Texas officials ex
pressed concern over the plan of
Negro students to enlist the Rev.
Martin Luther King’s assistance in
speeding desegregation.
Steps to abolish segregation in
public schools were revealed at
Quitaque, Northeast Houston, Brown
field, Patton Springs, Los Fresnos,
Dell City, Meadow, and Winters,
mostly in West Texas.
At Corpus Christi, Negro parents
complained that some children from
the adjoining Four Bluff district
were being transferred rather than
desegregated.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals heard an attack on Houston
Independent School District’s restric
tion against transferring students
from a single family to different
schools.
all residents at 20 state institutions of
higher learning be increased from $50
to $100 a semester. This would raise
about $15 million annually new rev
enue.
The commission approved a two-year
budget of $178,800,000 for higher edu
cation, $4 million more than for the
current biennium. Much of this would
go to cover the cost of teaching more
students.
Enrollment in 19 institutions totaled
110,000 this fall, up nine per cent, a
larger gain than expected. Next Sep
tember the state will take over also
the University of Houston, until now
supported mainly by local taxes and
tuition of about $600 a year.
Enrollment in 37 degree-granting in
stitutions in Texas, other than those
operated by the state, rose from 60,924
in 1961 to 65,078 this year, also a larger
gain than anticipated. This included a
rise from 11,860 to 13,587 at the Uni
versity of Houston, apparently in an
ticipation of it becoming a state uni
versity in 1963.
Enrollment rose sharply at church-
operated colleges for Negroes in Texas,
and to lesser extent at two state-sup
ported schools.
Among church schools, Jarvis Chris
tian College (Hawkins) increased from
405 to 602, Paul Quinn College (Waco)
from 296 to 307, Huston-Tillotson (Aus
tin) from 487 to 582.
Prairie View A&M, state-supported,
(See TEXAS, Page 6)
Texas Southern Honors
,, Negro students proclaimed that
while some progress has been made,
'?. e are not satisfied with existing con-
ohions here at the university.”
They asked that Negroes be given a
wider choice of schools in which they
serve as practice teachers in Austin,
e employed on the faculty, be eligible
j°j. university “queen,” and be given
l employment opportunities as stu-
cnts °n the campus.
Queen Elected
that 1 , adm uu strat i° n spokesman noted
st , tha university queen is elected by
sch e ? ts ’ w ^ out an y participation by
as °°^ a uthorities, that Negroes serve
co -- arc h assistants, and that inter
im ® late athletics remain segregated
Co a , Use other schools in the Southwest
Bv,„ erence have not yet allowed Ne-
s on varsity teams.
gf at j Ve ^ een working for gradual inte-
mad ° n ■ °*. t * le university and we’ve
yea^ „ S1 ^^ can t P ro g r ess for a dozen
firing on administrator. “If they
ffiiriB Martin Luther King into this
backing out completely.
getti n S -°uW remove all chance of us
the Bn voluntary help through
nearly ii ^ e § ents - H would set back
ttiad e • 3 ■ Progress that we’ve
sin Ce iggn^Proving race relations here
the fcj^Pus leaders seemed cool to
m Luther King invitation.
^ Newspaper Comments
said Texan, campus newspapt
“Si^tonally:
histcJ 6 ^aily Texan has a loi
the un- sup P°rting total integrate
•bay com VerSity ’ perha P s this editori
[bust ho-of ^ 3 s ^ oc ^ to many. . . . ii
ler ent p °u*t out the dangers i:
Miich thi t le "uon-violent agitatic
’•Locate new human rights groi
Southern School News
S outhern School News was
presented a citation “for dis
tinguished service in the public
journals” in ceremonies at Texas
Southern University in Houston
on Oct. 18.
Dr. S. M. Nabrit, president of the
university, made the presentation to
Reed Sarratt, executive director of
Southern Education Reporting Service
and editor of Southern School News.
Selection of Southern School News
for the honor was made by a Com
mittee of Scholars of the university.
Dr. J. Reuben Sheeler, chairman of
the committee, read the citation:
“For its devotion to the service of
education in the South during an era
of great social crisis. For accurate sta
tistics bringing truth even to those
blinded by the heat of controversy.
For anecdotal accounts revealing the
range and intensity of views through
out its region concerning the cultural
development of our youth. For reso
lutely and courageously maintaining
itself as a dependable source of cor
rect, unbiased, unemotional facts re
garding the integration of races in the
public schools.”
Basic Policy
In accepting the award, Sarratt said:
“The SERS directors set as basic
policy that the reporting in Southern
School News was to be factual and
objective. By factual they meant ac
curate and complete. By objective they
meant unbiased. They wanted just the
facts, presented dispassionately, uncol
ored by the personal opinions of the
writers and editors, without interpreta
tion. An important adjunct of this
Nabrit and Sarratt
‘For distinguished service.’
policy is that Southern School News
prints no editorial opinions of its own.
It is not an advocate. Its sole mission
is to make available the facts from
which its readers may draw their own
conclusions and form their own judg
ments. . . .
“The subject matter with which
Southern School News regularly deals
is controversial. But the reporting in
Southern School News has not been
a subject of controversy. Partisans
holding widely different opinions on
the issue have found common ground
in expressing their approval of South
ern School News.
“In your citation you attribute ‘cour
age’ to the staff of Southern School
News. . . . There has been no occasion
for courage. Our staff has had a job to
do, and has done it.” # # #
GEORGIA
Judge Declines To Order
Atlanta To Speed Mixing
MACON
‘C’ederal Judge Frank A. Hooper
of Atlanta balked at ordering
an immediate speedup of Atlanta
school desegregation unless the
plaintiffs who made the request
first show that more rapid deseg
regation is feasible.
In a hearing Oct. 30, Judge Hoope
discussed the question with Mrs. Con
stance Baker Motley, Negro NAACP
attorney from New York, who asked
for total desegregation of the publi
schools in Atlanta rather than scat
tered transfers of Negroes to white
schools.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling whicl
said classroom segregation was uncon
stitutional should mean a merging o
Atlanta’s dual white and Negro schoo
svstems instead of gradual transfers
Mrs. Motley argued.
She also said the present plan is op
erated in a way which discriminates
against Negroes.
Board Replies
Atlanta school board lawyers said the
NAACP did not cite the case of a single
specific child.
“I agree with you that the results ob
tained in Atlanta have been very*high
Iv satisfactory,” Judge Hooper said
"There has been harmony and co-op
eration and it has been commended in
a great many news articles and other
media throughout the country.”
The original desegregation plan,
drawn up by the school board and ap
proved by the court, calls for grade-a-
vear desegregation in reverse stairstep
fashion. The NAACP brought on the
hearing with a motion to substitute total
desegregation for the pupil placemen
plan.
Must Show Feasibility
Hooper said he would not consider
plan for more rapid desegregation un
less the Negroes show it is feasible. Mrs.
Motley said the board should be forced
either to speed up or prove that such a
step would not be feasible. The iudg
called this a “rather novel proposition.
Mrs. Motley said the plan is unfa'r
because it forces Negroes to seek trans
fers to white schools rather than de
segregating them automatically. Hooper
commented that the courts have out
lawed discrimination but have not gone
=n far as to force integration for its own
sake.
Mrs. Motley sought to argue that Ne
gro transferees were limited to students
within 10 per cent of the median scho
lastic standard of their prospective
white school. School board attorney
Newell Edenfield said this requiremen
had been abolished in 1962.
The judge took the NAACP motion
under advisement and indicated he
would make no final decision until after
studying the numerous court decisions
cited.
Political Activity
Atlanta Negro
Elected Member
Of State Senate
A Negro will be a member of the
Georgia State Senate in January for the
first time since Reconstruction days.
Democrat Leroy H. Johnson was
elected Nov. 6 over another Negro, T.
M. Alexander, a Republican, in the
state’s 38th Senatorial District in Fulton
County (Atlanta). The district has
about 18,000 Negro voters and 9,000
white voters. Reports of a “write-in”
movement for a white candidate proved
groundless.
Johnson, whose lead was about 4,000
votes in early returns, will be Georgia’s
first Negro lawmaker since 1907 and the
first Negro to be seated in the Senate
since a few years after the Civil War.
A native of Atlanta, Johnson is a
lawyer. Alexander, a native of Mont
gomery, Ala., is owner of an insurance
agency.
An unusual situation came about
when the legislature revised senatorial
districts on a population basis under
orders of a federal court. Fulton
County (Atlanta) got seven senators
but a state court said that only the
voters in a district could vote on a
senator to represent the district, al
though the legislature envisaged a
countywide vote on all state senators.
Negro registration is twice as great as
white in the 38th.
Georgia Highlights
Judge Frank Hooper declined to
order an immediate speedup in de
segregation of Atlanta schools, as re
quested by NAACP attorneys, but
took under advisement numerous mo
tions filed by the plaintiffs.
An Atlanta lawyer became the first
Negro elected to the Georgia State
Senate since Reconstruction.
Gov.-nominate Carl E. Sanders
said resistance against attacks in
the federal courts on Georgia in
stitutions would continue but would
be kept within legal bounds.
Emory University accepted two
Negro students.
Private school grants which will
cost the state $186,544 were ap
proved by the State Department of
Education.
iisais
Another member of the Senate will
be Lt. Gov. Garland Byrd of Reynolds,
who had planned to run for governor
until a heart attack forced him out of
the campaign (SSN, October). Byrd was
unopposed for senator.
Political observers believe the grow
ing weight of the Negro vote in state
and local elections in Georgia will in
evitably affect the pace of desegrega
tion in the schools and in other ways.
Accepting the Democratic guberna
torial nomination at the party’s state
convention in Macon Oct. 17, State
Senator CaH Edward Sanders (who
had no Republican opposition in the
general election) said he will “continue
our fight to keep Georgia schools and
Georgia colleges open and operating
under Georgia control, by Georgia
people, and for Georgia children ac
cording to community needs.”
Sanders promised to “resist attacks
against Georgia’s institutions in the fed
eral cou T ts” but said the resistance will
be within legal framework and violence
will not be tolerated. He urged “out-
s : de agitators” and “all so-called civil
rights demonstrators” to stay out of
Georgia and “settle their own problems
and give us, as honorable men, the
chance to settle ours.”
Amendment Approved
In the Nov. 6 general election, Geor
gians approved a constitutional amend
ment (No. 1) which would “preserve
inviolate freedom from compulsory as
sociation at all levels of public educa
tion (and) require the General Assem
bly to provide funds for an adequate
education for the citizens of Georgia.”
The proposal was passed by the
legislature early in 1961 when there
was hot debate over whether to have
biracial schools or no schools at all.
The so-called “Freedom of Associa
tion” amendment was part of Gov.
Ernest Vandiver’s “open schools” legis
lation package.
The General Assembly removed from
the law books provisions for manda
tory closing of schools in event of court
orders requiring desegregation. But this
action was made more palatable to
white voters by proposing the amend
ment which would have the effect of
permitting white children to avoid de
segregated schools.
In the Colleges
Emory University
Accepts 2 Negroes
Two Atlanta nurses on Oct. 11 became
the first Negroes to be formally ac
cepted as regular students by Emory
University.
Miss Allie Saxon and Mrs. Verdell
Bellamy were told they would be eli
gible to enter Em.pry’s Master of Nurs
ing program in January.
Emory recently won a court test over
whether it could keep its state tax
exempt status even though desegre
gated.
Emory already has two Negroes at
tending special evening classes this ses
sion, but they are not classified as reg
ular students.
★ ★ ★
The Macon Alumni Senate of Delta
Theta Phi law fraternity adopted a
resolution opposing admission of Ne-
(See GEORGIA, Page 7)