Newspaper Page Text
MARYLAND
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—NOVEMBER, 1962—PAGE 7
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Georgia
(Continued From Page 3)
gyoes to Mercer University, a Baptist
institution in Macon.
Mercer trustees, on motion of Presi
dent Rufus Harris, recently appointed
a committee to consider a policy of
admitting students without regard to
race.
Schoolmen
13 Private Schools
Get State Approval
For Tuition Grants
Dr. Claude Purcell, Georgia superin
tendent of schools, told the state board
of education that 13 private schools
had been ap
proved for state
tuition grants.
Forty of 92 pri
vate schools from
which applications
were received
have been ruled
on. He said 13
were definitely
approved, four
given tentative
approval and one
approved condi- purcell
tionally.
Grants approved by the State De
partment of Education will cost Geor
gia $186,544 and there are several
hundred applications still awaiting a
ruling.
The tuition grant is part of the 1961
open schools legislation. Race is not
mentioned in the law but the grants
are designed for pupils who want to go
to private schools to avoid desegregated
schools.
Several of the private schools ap
proved for grants are outside of the
state.
★ ★ ★
R. I. Grigsby, assistant commissioner
of education and director of the
Health, Education and Welfare Depart
ment’s division of school assistance in
federally impacted areas, said the Gov
ernment is conducting surveys in the
South to determine which federal prop
erties contain 200 or more children who
leave the reservation each day to at
tend school in public—and racially seg
regated—districts.
Educators in Georgia, where only
°ne school district is desegregated, are
worried over whether public schools
2* survive without federal funds,
/'ey are concerned because segrega
tion policies may deny them such fi
nancial support. The effect on Georgia’s
1 Participating county and city school
systems, all of which are segregated,
would be tremendous, it is agreed.
ll
ief
s said
loyed
teacitf
sident
rtmeri
San A
pital f
330 be-
and '
;ases. i
' oni0 ,: Immunity Action
the®
Negroes in Albany
Halt Demonstrations
Ant’
''Segregation demonstrations wer
1 : but n< ^ by Albany Negro leader:
• i an 3 voter registration campaign an
^ white C ° n ° m ' C boycott of downtow:
merchants was being continuec
early 6 board had not replie
to Rp 1S mon th to a formal reques
* se §regate the schools. Dr. W. r
it see^ person,
white
irt ofj
t con*-
„><= r >
in V
gra ‘5
nb
king £
SSN,
•Ptegr ,° n ' a Negro who heads the p:
"W e if 10n , Albany Movement, ss
a matt aVent bro ught suit, but it’s j
the boa^ bme - We wanted to g
the mff, a reas onable time to consii
We’ll v er ’ bf the board doesn’t rej
fj. ave no alternative.”
t#issi 0 6te ^ n Negroes were denied ;
0 the white schools Sept. 4
pr0 t r
the V
oes V
hr ee
ms Criticizes
ar Hett, Vandiver
Ho
^ Nan^i ns ’ executive secret,
freement ^ ssociat ion for tht
feting 0 t ^Colored People, at s
« ic bed n e or g an ization in R
{?W and o Ross Ba rnett of R
V ‘ e °rgia, Gov - Ernest Vandiv
^■iki
^° r tap 3 *^ ^ an diver criticized
; r ' s than t L ng tbe “wrong road,”
C>or Z° y, ears ago the G
in , y Predfp t C °i d J ng t0 Wilkins
irJ he streets” ^ “ b i? od wouI
r the TTr,- a Negro tri
University 0 f Georgia.
Teachers
Of State’s
BALTIMORE
jl/l’ ARYLAND TEACHERS at their
95th annual convention
called for “swift completion” of
school desegregation and urged
local white and Negro teachers
associations to merge, as racial
issues involving teachers became
a dominant issue on the school
front in October. Among the de
velopments were these:
• The Negro teachers association in
Harford County was absorbed by the
larger white association in a unifica
tion move.
• The principal of a Montgomery
County elementary school brought suit
in Federal District Court on the ground
that he had been denied housing in a
new development. Earlier, the Mont
gomery County Education Association
had declared it “impossible to find suit
able housing” for Negro teachers.
• The NAACP in Charles County
declared that 80 per cent of the Negro
teachers had to seek housing in Wash
ington because of local restrictions.
• The Anne Arundel County Board
of Education was asked to study racial
discrimination in teacher hiring.
• Discrimination in teacher assign
ment was charged against the Balti
more school system.
• A Southern School News survey
found 1,454 Negro teachers in eight
school districts serving on integrated
school staffs.
Reiterates Belief
Meeting in Baltimore for their 95th
annual convention, the Maryland State
Teachers Association reiterated its be-
Hef that “the ideals of human justice,
individual liberty and democracy de-
Call For ‘Swift
Public School
Completion’
Desegregation
Maryland Highlights
Maryland teachers in convention
called for “swift completion” of
school desegregation and urged mer
ger of local white and Negro teach
ers associations.
White and Negro teacher organi
zations in Harford County merged.
Housing for Negro teachers be
came an issue in Montgomery and
Charles counties.
Discrimination in teacher assign
ment was claimed in Baltimore city
and Anne Arundel County.
A survey found 1,454 Negro teach
ers in eight school districts serving
on biracial staffs.
An additional 60 Negro pupils in
Anne Arundel County are to shift to
a predominantly white school with
closing of the Negro structure.
mand the swift completion of desegre
gation in our public schools.”
The assembled teachers commended
the Maryland Board Of Education for
its desegregation policy statement of
last January and also commended
“those school systems which have
made substantial progress in this area.”
By formal resolution, the voting dele
gates of local teachers’ organizations
recommended that “complete integra
tion in Maryland public schools should
be lawfully, fairly and expeditiously
effected.”
Turning to their own associations,
the teachers renewed their stated be
lief that “unified effort will solve the
problems facing the educational pro
fession and its members more readily
than will fragmented effort.” The ex
perience “of those local associations
which have integrated formerly sepa
rate groups into one association” have
borne this out, the delegates said.
Unity Resolution
With only a whisper of the floor fight
that the same issue drew a year ago,
the delegates rejected some more force
ful wording proposed by the Mont
gomery County unit and agreed to a
resolution recommending that “in those
counties where separate local associa
tions still exist, these associations de
segregate their membership in order to
realize the advantages which would
accrue to them by combining into a
unified association.”
The convention commended the
teachers of Harford and Howard count
ies “who during the past year have
made it possible for all teachers to be
long to a single professional organiza
tion representing all the teachers of
the county.” The mergers in Harford
and Howard counties raised the num
ber of school districts with a single
teachers association to 13. Eleven
counties continue to have separate
white Negro teachers organizations.
The merger in Howard County previ
ously had been announced (SSN, Oc
tober) . The Harford merger had its
first public notice in the convention
commendation, the unification having
taken place just before the teachers
met.
Reached by telephone, Ronald S.
Webb, president of the Harford County
Teachers Association, said that his
white membership had voted about 18
months ago to accept Negro members
and that a committee since that time
had been working on merger plans
with the all-Negro Harford County
Education Association.
With agreement reached on Negro
chairmanships of selected committees,
the Negro organization was disbanded
and its members absorbed in the Har
ford County Teachers Association,
Webb, a high school principal, ex
plained. Previously elected white offi
cers will preside until the next election
in December, 1963, with an agreement
that a Negro will be co-chairman of
the next nominating committee.
The full membership met for the first
time on Oct. 15, and the first dinner
meeting is scheduled for January.
The issue of housing for Negro teach
ers has arisen in two counties, but not
in a third, similarly situated county.
Early this past summer, the Mont
gomery County Education Association
registered its awareness of the fact
that the county’s booming white sub
urbs were substantially closed to Ne
groes with the result that many Negro
teachers employed in the county had to
live in Washington.
The association’s Delegate Assembly
on June 7 adopted a resolution that
said the association’s housing service
“has found it impossible to find suit
able housing for its Negro members
and difficult to find housing for other
minority groups.” The assembly pledg
ed the support of the membership to
fulfill housing requests from “all edu
cators” in the comity.
In Federal District Court in October,
the Negro principal of a predominantly
white Montgomery County elementary
school charged that, after making a
deposit, he was refused a house in a
new development near the school.
The principal, Roland E. Barnes, sued
(See MARYLAND, Page 10)
What They Say
State School Official Pra ises Desegregation
In Schools This Fall as ‘Splendid Progress
The additional desegregation this fall
in Maryland is seen as “splendid prog
ress without incident” and “a natural
course of events” by Dr. David W.
Zimmerman, Deputy State School Su
perintendent, who serves as an informal
co-ordinator of desegregation develop
ments for the Maryland Department of
Education.
“People are making desegregation
moves on their own with a minimum
of persuasion,” Dr. Zimmerman said in
a recent interview.
“The lack of fric
tion or untoward
incidents indicates
a willingness to
accept the Su
preme Court de
crees and the
Maryland Board of
Education’s state
ments of policy.
The gradual prog
ress has been tak
ing place in Maryland since 1955 and I
would expect it to continue.”
With five Maryland counties having
some Negroes in classes with white
pupils for the first time, Dr. Zimmer
man was asked if he knew of any par
ticular reason why desegregation had
taken place where it had never taken
place before. He replied that he knew
of “nothing new” to explain the
changes. “All we know is that when
the climate is favorable, people do
things. So we must conclude that the
climate must have improved.”
As to Demonstrations
Reminded of the “freedom rides” and
other integrationist activities on the
Eastern Shore, where most of the new
school desegregation has taken place,
Dr. Zimmerman said, “It is hard to
assess how the Negro movement gen
erally is influencing the desegregation
of schools.
“The demonstrations and allied activ
ities aimed at restaurant discrimination
undoubtedly bring about a cohesion of
group interests and could make people
more conscious of their personal roles
in desegregation. On the other hand,
the resistance that the demonstrators
have encountered in some communi
ties could make parents reluctant to
have their children in the forefront of
changes in the school pattern. It is
difficult to say what the effect on
schools has been.”
Turning to the development in Salis
bury, largest city on the Eastern Shore,
where 40 Negro children have been
received in white schools for the first
time without incident, Dr. Zimmerman
thinks the reason for the change is
more apparent:
“Salisbury has moved as a commun
ity. A biracial committee appointed by
the mayor was successful more than a
year ago in bringing about the deseg
regation of restaurants, movies and
motels. A favorable climate was fos
tered, and the schools were a natural
next step.”
Dorchester Retransfers
Asked if he knew why three Negro
girls had transferred back to a Negro
school in Dorchester County after
complaining of the “silent treatment”
they received in a white high s’hool,
Dr. Zimmerman said that he had neen
surprised and did not know the reason.
He added that he did know that one
of the five county superintendents hav
ing mixed situations for the first time
had done “a lot of preliminary ground
work preparing pupils, parents, teach
ers and the community for the change."
Some preparation is necessary. Dr.
Zimmerman believes: “Younesters
b' ing to school the reactions of adults.
We s hod administrators have a re
sponsibility to prepare pupils who may
or may not play with Negro children
outside of school. If youngsters have
not had any previous experience with
members of another race and have
heard inflammatory statements in their
own community, some groundwork is
needed.”
Types of Preparation
In response to questions as to what
types of preparation he has in mind,
Dr. Zimmerman said, “At the high
school level a constructive step is to
meet with leaders of student govern
ment and student organizations, explain
that new students are coming into the
school, as is their legal right, and throw
the question out to them: How are we
going to receive them? Let the students
pick up the ball from there, and if a
smooth transition becomes their own
program, they will work as a unit to
bring it about.
“On the elementary level, the situa
tion is different. There cannot be too
much explaining to young children in
advance of the change. Rather, much
depends on the way a teacher intro
duces the new children and gets the
class working together without being
too obvious about it. If the teacher
treats the colored child naturally as one
of the group, the other children will
follow along. By and large, young chil
dren react naturally on their own, al
though the type of community of
course makes some difference. Games
and the playground are common ‘lev-
elers.’”
Statewide Picture
Looking over the desegregation pic
ture in Maryland, Dr. Zimmerman
noted that of the 23 biracial school dis
tricts, Montgomery and Allegany coun
ties had assimilated all their Negro
pupils in white schools; Frederick and
Washington counties were close to that
goal, and Carroll County is “moving in
that direction.”
Carroll, he explains, “has announced
that next year there wi'l be no first
grade at the consolidated colored
school, which means that Negroes en
tering school for the first time will
have to go to the school in their geo
graphic area.”
In these five counties, Dr. Zimmer
man explained, “the Negro school
population not onlv is a small fraction
of the white population but also it is
scattered, in the past requiring either
scattered small schools or long bus
runs. It is relatively easy to absorb the
children in the white schools of their
areas. The trend is one that might be
seen as the elimination ®f inefficient
school units.
“Some other counties have small per
centages of Negro pupils, but they are
concentrated rather than scattered.
Baltimore County, for example, has de
segregated all of its schools but has a
large Negro concentration at Sollers
Point in the eastern, industrialized part
of the county. It may be a long time
before the schools serving that section
are closed or changed.
“Still other counties pose a different
problem in that their Negro population
is as large or nearly as large as the
white population. There are too many
Negro children to be assimilated in the
white schools, and too many substantial
Negro schools simply to abandon them.
So, the changes in these counties come
more slowly. As we have seen in Bal
timore city, the racial composition of
the schools depends to a large extent
on where people live.”
Turning to the counties that have
stairstep plans, Dr. Zimmerman noted
that desegregation had moved upward
this fall to the ninth grade in Talbot
County, the 10th grade in Anne Arun
del, the 11th grade in Harford and
Howard and the 12th grade in Charles,
while it had moved from the top down
ward to the sixth grade in Dorchester
County.
“All of these counties are nearing the
end of the transition,” Dr. Zimmerman
says, “and that will be that. Some large
Negro schools will continue in opera
tion, unless their pupils drift away. No
body can predict what eventually may
happen to the good, strong Negro
schools in which Negro communities
take pride. They may become stronger
rather than wither away. We can’t tell
yet what will happen.”
‘All Schools Are Not Equal’
Asked whether Negro pupils have
more of a choice of schools than white
pupils in that they can stay where they
are or transfer, Dr. Zimmerman said
no: “We are seeing an extension of an
old transfer right. In Maryland we have
tended to allow students to attend ‘the
big high school in town’ rather than
a more local school, if that has been
what they wanted. All schools are not
equal, you know.”
The one remaining unknown factor
in Maryland desegregation is the ex
tent to which Negroes in some counties
may be assigned initially to all-Negro
schools and then given the opportunity
to transfer to desegregated schools, if
they so desire.
Asked whether he knew how many
counties based their original assign
ments on race, Dr. Zimmerman said,
“No county follows this practice be
cause that would not be legal.”
ZIMMERMAN