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PAGE 12—DECEMBER, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MARYLAND
Report Indicates Good Outlook
For Formerly All-Negro Colleges
BALTIMORE
n air of optimism in Mary
land and Delaware regarding
the future of five formerly all-
Negro colleges is reported by Dr.
G. James Fleming, professor of
political science at Morgan State
College.
‘It is generally felt that these colleges
■will continue to exist into the foresee
able future, despite desegregation of
the formerly all-white colleges and de
spite the early fears that the 1954
Supreme Court decision would make
all of the all-Negro colleges unneces
sary and unneeded,” Fleming finds.
In a reprint of an article which he
distributed in November, Fleming says
the optimism is partly based on the fact
that the all-Negro colleges are no
longer all-Negro.
“They have become desegregated and
are attracting increasing numbers of
white students, and they represent a
cultural and economic asset to their re
spective communities that the com
munity leaders will undoubtedly work
to maintain,” he wrote in a report that
originally appeared in the Journal of
Negro Education.
“Healthy Support’
Citing the “continued healthy support
which the colleges are getting from the
respective state legislatures,” Fleming
gives facts and figures on the growth
since 1954 in enrollment and appropria
tions at Delaware State College and
four Maryland institutions: Coppin
State Teachers in Baltimore, the State
Teachers College at Bowie, Maryland
State College at Princess Anne on the
Eastern Shore and at his own college,
Morgan, in Baltimore.
Other reasons which Fleming sees as
grounds for optimism are these:
“There is also the recognition that
some Negroes of college age, or their
parents, prefer a predominantly Negro
institution for psychological reasons
or for more easily
noticed economic
and social reasons.
The costs of edu
cation tend to be
lower in the pre
dominantly Negro
colleges and there
is more opportun
ity for ‘life-long
social contacts,’ to
use the words of
one student.
“Finally, the
‘Negro’ colleges, by experience, skill
and effort, are considered specially
fitted to work with the products of the
still existing all-Negro public schools,
some of which are still substandard or
bear the scars of past substandardiza
tion.”
After pointing as well to the heavy
population growth and the consequent
growing demand for college accomoda
tions in Maryland, Delaware and the
District of Columbia, Fleming con
cludes:
“All the foregoing elements, together,
indicate that the colleges studied are
today not planning or acting as if they
are going out of business, although all
five institutions are not in equally
strong positions. All the colleges see
themselves becoming ‘changed’—per
haps in program, certainly in racial
representation, certainly in academic
standards.”
★ ★ ★
All Public Colleges
Include Both Races
A survey by Southern School News
has found that for the first time all the
public institutions of higher education
in Maryland have been desegregated in
fact as well as in principle.
Of the 20 junior and senior colleges,
19 have both white and Negro students
in the current year, while the one re
maining two-year college, currently
all-white, had three Negroes enrolled
last year.
For the first time as well, the trend
toward biracial enrollment in former
Negro colleges is readily discernible.
Bowie, Coppin, Maryland State and
Morgan report 234 white students in a
combined enrollment of 4,011. Last year
only “19 plus” were reported, the “plus”
representing the unknown number of
white students at Morgan, where the
administration has shown great reluct
ance to be associated with anything
approximating a racial count.
This year, Dr. Martin D. Jenkins,
president of Morgan, has provided an
estimate of 165 white students in an
enrollment of 2,699 and noted (1) the
figure is an estimate in lieu of racial
Maryland Highlights
Future growth of Negro colleges
has been found likely by a Maryland
Negro educator despite desegregation
of white colleges.
All 20 of Maryland’s public in
stitutions of higher education have
been desegregated in practice as well
as policy, a survey has shown, and
19 of them in the current year have
both white and Negro students. A
white trend toward former all-Negro
colleges has become discernible.
Appearance of pro-segregation
Fighting American Nationalists be
fore social studies classes at a Balti
more area high school has stirred
protests.
The Anne Arundel County School
Board has defended its teacher-hiring
policies against Negro criticism.
Additional administrative duties
have been given the top-ranking Ne
gro in the Baltimore school system.
records or visual count, and (2) that
“white” includes students from Greece,
Iraq, Iran and Hong Kong. Dr. Jenkins
reports that the faculty of 178 includes
21 white staff members.
The most extensive desegregation is
at Bowie State Teachers College, form
erly an all-Negro institution, which this
year has 51 white students in an en
rollment of 366 and six white instruc
tors on a faculty of 27. In addition,
Bowie has a laboratory or demonstra
tion school in which three out of eight
staff members are white, while 98 of the
257 pupils enrolled at the school also
are white. The desegregation resulted
from new suburban housing develop
ments in the Bowie area (SSN, Octo
ber).
Community Action
‘Nationalist* Group
Invited to School;
Some Protests Ensue
Appearance of militant segregation
ists at a Baltimore area high school as
part of a social science course stirred a
small flurry of protests in November.
Representatives of the Fighting Amer
ican Nationalists were invited to state
their views and be questioned by four
classes of seniors at Dundalk Senior
High School in the southeastern, in
dustrial section of Baltimore County.
The Nov. 8 appearance of the seg
regationists, armed with racist litera
ture, was described by school officials
as part of a program in “problems in
democratic living” in which seniors
were exposed to the “extreme right
wing.”
Weston Dean, principal of the Dun
dalk school, was quoted as saying, “The
only way to combat this kind of think
ing is to put these people in a position
were thinking people are free to ques
tion them. By ignoring the existence of
such groups, they don’t go away.” His
stand was seconded by county school
authorities.
The pro-integrationists Civic Interest
Group, which has conducted freedom
rides and other demonstrations in
Maryland, protested the appearance of
a segregationist group under high
school auspices and the distribution of
Political Activity
Baltimore Negroes made their larg
est political gain to date in the Nov. 6
election when for the first time they
obtained a majority position in a dis
trict delegation to the General Assem
bly.
In Baltimore’s Fourth District, one
Negro, Mrs. Verda F. Welcome, cap
tured a Maryland Senate seat as an
independent Democrat. Going with her
to Annapolis are three Negro mem
bers of the House of Delegates out of a
six-man delegation. One is an inde
pendent like herself, while the other
two have been aligned with a district
“hate” literature to students. The CIG
said it had once requested permission
of the county superintendent’s office to
pass out some literature and had been
refused.
Ask “Equal Time’
Subsequently the Baltimore Socialist
Youth Forum requested “equal time”
at the school to present the integra-
tionist point of view. In rejecting that
idea, the principal, Dean, was quoted on
Nov. 24 as saying, “It is not a question
of equal time, since integration was
never under study.” He explained, ac
cording to the Baltimore Evening Sun,
that the social studies classes were
“studying group prejudice at the time,
and this was the group [FAN] that
typified that form of prejudice at its
worst.”
The three segregationist spokesmen
included two South Baltimore high
school students who declined to iden
tify themselves to the press and Rich
ard Norton, 27, who described himself
as the Maryland director of FAN.
The organization had started to re
cruit high school students “all over the
city,” he said. Norton was identified by
the Evening Sun as one of two men ar
rested in October for disorderly con
duct at a drive-in restaurant. Police
said they had pasted swastikas on toilet
walls and distributed literature of the
American Nazi Party.
After Norton’s school appearance, he
told the Evening Sun that the FAN had
no connection with Lincoln Rockwell’s
Nazi group but was affiliated with the
White American Nationalist Party
headed by Emory Burke of Montgom
ery, Ala.
The FAN recruitment drive was be
lieved to be having some success at
Southern High School, scene of dis
turbances in 1954. The 1,900 student
body is now about 21 per cent Negro.
A student FAN member has claimed
150 recruits, although others say it is
more like 30.
Julius Hlubb, the principal, told the
Evening Sun that teachers have barred
the circulation of swastikas and similar
material but have avoided moves that
might dignify the movement or make
martyrs of members. Dr. George B.
Brain, Baltimore school superintendent,
has said recruitment within school
would be a violation of regulations but
activities outside of school are beyond
school jurisdiction.
Schoolmen
Anne Arundel Board
Defends Policies
In Hiring Teachers
The Board of Education of Anne
Arundel County defended its teacher
hiring policies in November, but not to
the satisfaction of a Negro PTA group.
Mrs. John H. Norris, board president,
said “all applications . . . are processed
in the same way” and that “if there is
any discrimination going on I don’t
think we are aware of it.”
In reply, Elmer Thompson, president
of the county Federation of Parent-
Teacher Associations, a Negro organi
zation, said, “I believe that I am speak
ing for the delegation when I say I am
sure we are not satisfied with the an
swer you have given us.”
The federation raised the question of
racial bias in teacher hiring at the Oc
tober school board meeting (SSN, No
vember) . Questions were presented
faction known as the Pollack organi
zation.
Previously the General Assembly has
had one Negro senator and two dele
gates, all from the Fourth District. Mrs.
Welcome as a delegate previously has
proposed various pieces of legislation
related to school desegregation, most
of which failed. Previously Mrs. Wel
come and the Pollack contingent have
been at odds over legislative proposals.
The school segregation-desegregation
issue was not a factor in the elections
which returned Gov. Tawes and his top
officials to office and boosted the Dem
ocratic strength in Congress.
FLEMING
Majority of Baltimore Group
In Legislature Are Negroes
Desegregation in
Maryland Public College^
Predominantly White
Total
Date A
Senior Colleges
Enrollment
Negroes*
Deseg, b
State Teachers, Frostburg ....
.... 1,342
2
1955-V C
State Teachers, Salisbury ....
551
2
1955-V J
State Teachers, Towson
.... 1,900
35
1955-V
University of Maryland
Junior Colleges
.... 16,813
400 plus
1936-C r
r
Allegany Community
.... 218
3
1961-V
Anne Arundel Community ...
411
3
1961-V-
Baltimore Junior
.... 1,991
200
1954-V
Catonsville Community
422
0**
1957-V r
Charles County Community ..
234
17
1958-V( |
Essex Community
405
1
1957-V 1
Frederick Community
273
8
1957-vN<
Hagerstown Junior
541
3
1946-Vi ar
Harford Junior
416
6
1957-V ga
Montgomery Junior
.... 2,367
15-20
1955-V di<
Prince George’s Community ..
591
35
1958-Vf
St. Mary’s Seminary Jr. Col. ..
309
1
1955-V q,
TOTAL
Predominantly Negro
.... 28,784
731-736
Re
W(
to
Senior Colleges
Enrollment
Whites*
ili'
]
Coppin State Teachers
427
5
1955-V ul(
Maryland State
519
13
1886-Vt c u:
Morgan State
.... 2,699
165
1867-Vi its
State Teachers, Bowie
366
51
1955-V re .
TOTAL
.,.. 4,011
234
VO.
all
* Official estimates in absence of actual racial count.
** Biracial student body last year,
t Year of founding.
V or C = voluntary or court order.
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18
(Continued From Page II)
yer, was re-elected president. Other
state officers are Dr. Jerry D. Jewell
and Mrs. Birdie Williams, both of North
Little Rock, vice presidents; Dr. J. F.
McClellan of Pine Bluff, secretary; Mrs.
W. M. Honeycutt of Little Rock, treas
urer; and Mrs. Jessie B. Smith of Holly
Grove, assistant secretary.
★ ★ ★
Salute to Honor Students
Draws Council Criticism
A Chamber of Commerce luncheon
for top scholars of Little Rock high
schools brought a complaint from the
interracial Arkansas Council on Hu
man Relations. For the second year,
the council said, Horace Mann High
School for Negroes had not been in
cluded.
The second annual event was held
in Nov. 5. Guests were members of the
National Honor Society from Central
and Hall high schools, St. Mary’s
Academy (Roman Catholic) and Cath
olic High School.
A statement issued by the human re
lations council said:
“During the critical days in Missis-
which the board answered at its No
vember meeting.
Would “Move Quietly’
Mrs. Norris said, “We want to move
quietly and slowly and progressively.
We have one colored supervisor. But
we are trying to get away from using
these designations ‘colored’ and ‘white’
and just talk about teachers.”
Federation president Thompson said
his group knew of several Negro teach
ers who had applied in Anne Arundel
County and then had been accepted
elsewhere.
After the group left, Mrs. Norris read
a personnel report that indicated the
one teacher mentioned by name had
applied on May 23, had been inter
viewed on July 23 and was sent a job
contract on Aug. 6. The contract was
returned unsigned. A federation official
later explained that the teacher had
taken another job when she feared she
would not hear from Anne Arundel.
★ ★ ★
Negro Schoolman Given
More Responsibilities
A realignment of duties among top
administrative personnel has brought
additional responsibilities to Dr. Hous
ton R. Jackson, highest ranking Negro
in the Baltimore school system.
A former superintendent of Negro
schools who, after desegregation, be
came an assistant superintendent for
staff services, Dr. Jackson in November
was given the additional duty of
bringing about improved administration
and co-ordination of the three pupil
personnel divisions: Guidance and
Placement, Special Services and Edu
cational Testing Services.
The announcement said that in addi
tion Dr. Jackson, “will be responsible
for promoting and planning closer
relationships between pupil personnel
workers and the instructional staff,
(See MARYLAND, Page 13)
sippi more than one Little Rock officii am
made statements to the effect that th we
city had regained its good image je La
tionally, that it had settled its probiff Ch
of desegregation. The omission o the
Horace Mann High School’s ten hone pei
seniors from the luncheon honor:, ing
those from the city’s two other put dr;
high schools and the two Catholic hi; j
schools proclaims to the nation thich
Little Rock’s 'bad image’ in race rebjf c
tions is its true image, that it mistake „
peace for fair play in race relation ^
To honor scholars is most commenl ^
able. But deliberately to exclude thos ^
scholars who have achieved again ^
odds is an outrageous affront to ft
play” sio
The Chamber of Commerce answer-^
ed with a statement including: g t
“We are mindful of the omission*^'
Horace Mann High School studer:
from the Monday luncheon. Howevf
it was our studied opinion that tt
good works of the students so re»;
nized should not go unrewarded u®
we had planned an award for tk
Horace Mann students which wouldb
satisfactory to all concerned.”
The chamber asked for patience.
Political Activity
Negro Candidate
Finishes Second
H
The Negro candidate for a seat
the Board of Directors of the Li* 8
Rock city government ran sec°"
among three candidates in the g ene ;
election Nov. 6. None of the three
didates brought up the factor of
Dr. William H. Townsend, a N®
optometrist, entered the race aga®
Harold E. Henson Jr., a bank
president, and Arthur J. Jones, a
tired lawyer. The final unofficial ret
were: Henson 12,550, Townsend V
and Jones 3,998. ^
Townsend carried nine of ®>
Rock’s 66 precincts, all of the®
Negro areas.
f
Chi
see
tioi
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195
1
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A.
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195
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★ ★ ★
do,
I
ten
anc
196
Segregated Education
Amendment is Defeated
A proposed constitutional a®
ment to guarantee a segregated e“ ^
tion for any who preferred
defeated in the Nov. 6 election W
1!>' f »n
ueieatea in me i\ov. o eiecuv** - ^
817 votes, according to final retu \p co-
The official tally: for, 127,904; ag 8 ^
143,721. «t* r UL
Known as proposed Amendm ^ ^
the measure is similar to a P r0 ^
already appearing in four state ^
(SSN, November). ,. C V ers
Gov. Orval Faubus, who had ^ ^
the amendment, said he had kn 0 ^ ^
a poll 10 days before the election ^ ^
indicated that this and two oCla
posed amendments would be , i ^
by between 75 and 80 per cent ^
voters. „ fr p
He said the result showed h°^ ^ ^
“anti” sentiment can build up ist r
public’s mind. ( to
Of seven proposed amendm ^ hig
the ballot, only one was a PP r ° °ut
provides for the use of voting m
(See ARKANSAS, Page 1
i