Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12—JANUARY, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MARYLAND
County ‘White’
Schools Report
Negro Increase
BALTIMORE
■jyT egroes attending predomi-
' nantly white schools in
Maryland county schools have
increased by 25 per cent over last
year, according to desegregation
data released for the first time ip
the current school year by the
Maryland Department of Educa
tion.
The increase of 2,069 was the largest
numerical gain since desegregation be
gan outside of Baltimore city in 1955
and places close to 20 per cent of
county Negro pupils in formerly all-
white schools.
The figures for Baltimore city
schools have not as yet been compiled.
Judging by the past, when the city
total is added to the county compila
tion, more than a third of Maryland
Negro pupils will be recorded as at
tending schools with white pupils.
In releasing the county data, Dr.
David W. Zimmerman commented that
the figures represented “steady prog
ress” and a further indication that
Maryland was “moving forward gradu
ally” in the desegregation of its public
schools. “As far as I can learn,” Dr.
Zimmerman said, “no child’s request to
change schools has been turned down
under established desegregation.”
Making evident his satisfaction with
the way things were going, Dr. Zim
merman added:
“The freedom-of-choice plan is
working. The county superintendents
are acting in good faith to carry out
the intent of the Supreme Court and
the tenets of a good school system.
There has been no attempt to deny
any Negro child the opportunity to
attend the school of his or her choice.”
Expresses Surprise
Expressing his own surprise at some
of the increases, Dr. Zimmerman said:
“The figures indicate that there must
have been an easing across the state
of any previous difficulties, real or
imagined. The process of transfer has
been made less complex than before.
Negroes, for their part, are assuming
more initiative in requesting transfers.
They are acting without fear and with
out compulsion, making the change be
cause they themselves want to do it.”
While a few Negroes have tried de
segregation and then returned to Ne
gro schools, Dr. Zimmerman said that
“generally there has been a good ad
justment and desegregation is working
out well. Those who have been sit
ting and waiting to see if the change
is ‘for real’ have found that the doors
are open and have begun to follow
along.”
The number of formerly white
county schools having both white and
Negro pupils has risen in a year’s time
from 317 to 377, an increase of 19 per
cent. The counties have a total of 880
schools (29 more than last year), so
that 43 per cent of the public schools
outside of Baltimore have both white
and Negro pupils in attendance.
In addition, one formerly all-Negro
elementary school in Prince George’s
County this year has two white pupils,
which has the effect of placing the 661
Negro pupils in the school in a biracial
situation. The desegregation data com
piled by the State Department of Edu
cation has been based from the outset
on the movement of Negro children
into white schools and its totals do
not reflect this initial county move
ment in the reverse direction.
Desegregation Pace
The desegregation that began in
county schools in the fall of 1955 (a
year after Baltimore city schools were
desegregated) has progressed at the
following pace:
School Biracial Negroes In
Year Schools Bir. Schools
1955-56
69
1956-57
135
1957-58
184
1958-59
218
1959-60
246
1960-61
283
1961-62
317
1962-63
377
991
1,726
2,771
3,854
5,091
6,737
8,382
10,451
New to the desegregated ranks are
the five school systems in Calvert,
Caroline, Dorchester, Kent and Wico
mico counties. All of them previously
have had voluntary transfer programs
but in past years have not had Negro
Desegregation in Former White
Public Schools
Fall of 1961 Fall of 1962
Total
Biracial
Negroes In
Total
Biracial
Negroes In
County
Schools
Schools
Bir. Sc his.
Schools
Schools
Bir. Schls.
Allegany
34
15
295
34
15
295
Anne Arundel
73
37
1,156
75
43
1,524
Baltimore County
107
68
1,744
114
74
1,821
Calvert
16
—
—
16
1
3
Caroline
10
—
—
11
1
1
Carroll
23
5
51
25
11
85
Cecil
24
12
153
25
13
206
Charles
15
1
21
15
3
44
Dorchester
29
—
—
26
2
5
Frederick
34
21
954
33
20
1,342
Garrett
19
—
—
19
—
—
Harford
26
16
287
26
17
416
Howard
19
8
42
20
10
113
Kent
13
—
—
13
1
1
Montgomery
121
75
3,034
130
86
3,498
Prince George’s
138
36
432
147
53
769
Queen Anne’s
14
—
—
14
—
—
St. Mary’s
19
2
8
19
4
45
Somerset
18
—
—
18
—
—
Talbot
14
3
25
14
3
31
Washington
46
18
180
46
17
215
Wicomico
22
—
—
23
3
37
Worcester
17
—
—
17
—
—
TOTALS
851
317
8,382
880
377
10,451
♦Compiled by the Maryland Department of Education. Data for Baltimore city
schools not included.
applicants. The change this year re
flects in part the increased Negro initi
ative of which Dr. Zimmerman speaks.
In Wicomico County, however, change
came with the actual assignment of
about 100 Negro pupils to five formerly
all-white schools. Only 37 accepted the
assignments, and the remainder re
turned to a crowded Negro school.
While the desegregation data shows
Dorchester County with five Negroes
in two white schools, that situation
prevailed only during the first two
weeks of the school year. Three Negro
girls at one of the schools returned to
a Negro school, giving loneliness as
their reason for abandoning desegrega
tion.
A substantial portion of the total in
crease in desegregated Negro pupils is
recorded in four counties: Anne Arun
del, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince
George’s. The most significant of these
is the increase of 337 Negro pupils and
17 biracial schools in Prince George’s.
The school board in that county
changed its former system of central
ized handling of transfer applications
to permit pupils to apply at their near
est school for admission, with the evi
dent result that more Negroes in more
areas than previously, availed them
selves of the opportunity to attend pre
dominantly white schools.
Relatively Significant
Cecil County also changed its policy
so that children entering school for the
first time could apply at the nearest
school rather than submitting an ap
plication to the school board. Again
the increase in desegregated pupils and
affected schools was relatively signifi
cant, reflecting Dr. Zimmerman’s ob
servation that the transfer process had
become “less complex.”
The largest increase in desegregated
Negro pupils has occurred in Mont
gomery County, which is in its second
year of complete integration. With the
last of its 10 formerly all-Negro schools
closed or converted to other uses prior
to the last school year, any changes
in the current school year must re
flect a Negro population change. The
increase of 464 Negro pupils in 11 ad
ditional biracial schools suggested a
Negro movement into the county, pre
sumably from nearby Washington,
D.C. The county remains so predomi
nantly white that 44 of its 130 schools
have no Negroes residing in their at
tendance areas.
The second largest increase has taken
place in Frederick County, which is
near the end of a compulsory desegre
gation plan. One Negro school after
another has been closed, until only
one small unit remains. The increase
of 388 Negroes in biracial schools
stems mainly from the reassignment of
pupils in a former Negro elementary-
secondary school and the reuse of the
building as an integrated elementary
in combination with a nearby former
white school.
One Exception
The third largest increase has been
registered in Anne Arundel County,
immediately to the south and south
east of Baltimore, where an additional
388 Negro pupils are in predominantly
white schools. The increase from 1,156
to 1,524 has come as the county’s stair
step desegregation plan has moved
from the ninth to the 10th grade, with
one school as an exception in that its
11th grade also is desegregated. Six
additional schools are involved, raising
the percentage of biracial schools to 57
per cent. An additional 60 Negro pu
pils were scheduled to be shifted out
of an obsolete Negro school this month.
Baltimore County, which circles Bal
timore city on three sides, has recorded
large increases in former years but this
year gives evidence of a leveling off
as the end of its desegregation pro
gram has been reached. All of its 114
schools are desegregated in principle,
and most of its former all-Negro units
have been abandoned. But its Negro
population is sufficiently concentrated
to keep the majority of its Negro pu
pils in the remaining all-Negro schools,
while 40 schools remain all-white. This
year it reports an additional six bi
racial schools and an additional 77 de
segregated Negroes.
Two counties, Harford and Howard,
are at the next to the last step in
their transition programs as desegrega
tion has advanced in accordance with
established timetables in the 11th
grade. In Harford, where special trans
fer privileges have in effect desegre
gated all grades, the number of Ne
groes in biracial schools has increased
this year by nearly 50 per cent: from
287 to 416, the fifth largest increase
among the counties. In Howard deseg
regation has not moved as rapidly
over the years but its increase this
year is even larger on a percentage
basis: from 42 Negroes in eight biracial
schools to 113 in 10.
Percentage High
The percentage of change is also
high in Southern Maryland. St. Mary’s
County has gone from eight Negro
pupils in two formerly white schools
last year to 45 in four schools this
year. Adjacent Charles County, which
last year had 21 Negroes in one bi
racial school, now has 44 in three
schools. Calvert County, desegregated
in practice for the first time this year,
has three Negro students in one high
school. All three counties have rela
tively high proportions of Negro en
rollment, and Calvert actually has more
Negroes attending public schools than
white pupils.
On the Eastern Shore, where seven
out of nine counties formerly had de
segregation only in principle, there are
now six of them that have at least
one biracial school. New to the list this
year are Caroline, Dorchester, Kent
and Wicomico. The other two are Ce
cil, previously mentioned as having
simplified its transfer process as an
additional desegregation step, and Tal
bot, which has a stair-step plan that
currently extends desegregation from
grade one to grade nine. Talbot’s 31
Negroes in three schools is an increase
of six pupils over last year.
In westernmost Maryland desegrega
tion has all but run its course. Garrett
County at the western extreme has no
Negro pupils. Allegany County has all
295 of its Negro pupils in predomi
nantly white schools, as was the case
last year. Washington County offers a
slight change in that the sixth grade
of the one remaining Negro school has
been closed and the pupils reassigned
to a predominantly white school. The
shift largely accounts for the increase
from 180 to 215 in the number of Ne
groes in biracial schools.
The three counties that have biracial
enrollments but no biracial classes are
Queen Anne’s, Somerset and Worces
ter. All three on are on the Eastern
Shore, and all three have voluntary
desegregation programs under which
Negroes may apply for transfers to
white schools.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Civil Rights Group Asks
Faster Desegregation
(Continued From Page 1)
• North Carolina (by Richard E.
Day, University of North Carolina
School of Law)—Unless forced by court
decrees, full desegregation “is not like
ly in North Carolina in the foreseeable
future.”
“The North Carolina Pupil Assign
ment Act, as interpreted and applied
by the courts to date, has presented an
insurmountable barrier to anything but
token desegregation. . . .
“Even in communities which deseg
regated voluntarily, the prevailing atti
tude of school officials is one of con
tainment. Desegregation not a result of
court decree has been undertaken with
an eye to preventing a court order for
action on a broader scale. Many in
stances of Negro pupils being reas
signed to previously all-white schools
may be attributed to the fear that
denial of a persistent parent might lead
to unwanted litigation. Even desegre
gation on a geographical assignment
basis has resulted in token desegrega
tion. Boundary lines for attendance
areas have been so drawn that only a
limited number of Negro children are
initially assigned to previously white
schools. In addition, the few white chil
dren living in the attendance area for
the Negro school are, by State law,
given the right to transfer to a white
school, or, if none is available, receive
a tuition grant to attend a State-ap
proved, nonsectarian, private school.”
• Tennessee (by Eugene G. Wyatt,
Vanderbilt University School of Law)—
“Desegregation experience in Tennes
see has been uneven, mostly because
of the extreme variety of conditions ex
isting in the State. The western part of
the State is Southern-oriented . . .
Many western areas have very large
Negro populations. Middle Tennessee,
although rather heavily populated by
Negroes, is substantially less Southern
in its outlook. East Tennessee has fewer
Negroes, but many areas have a moun
tain insularity which makes desegre
gation difficult. . . .
“Educators in the three parts of the
State, however, report many problems
in common. The most frequently met
complaint is that Negro students aver
age 1% to 2 years behind grade level
when they are transferred to white
schools in the upper grades. Negro
leaders see this as additional evidence
of the inferiority of the segregated
Negro elementary schools. On the oth
er hand, the Nashville school superin
tendent, who has dealt with biracial
student bodies longer than any other
official in the State, reports that Negro
students transferred to white schools
in the earlier grades generally are per
forming adequately.”
• Virginia (by Edward A. Meams
Jr., University of Virginia School of
Law)—“In a year or two, all the easier-
to-desegregate communities will be op
erating desegregated schools. Then,
what remains will be school districts
with hardened segregationist attitudes
like Prince Edward County. In the
summer of 1962, Powhatan County, a
neighbor of Prince Edward, threatened
to close its schools in the event the
State Placement Board assigned a Ne
gro to one of its white schools. This
foreshadows what lies ahead for Vir
ginia.
“However, within a year or two, Vir
ginia will have answered, or passed
beyond the need to answer, two critical
questions: Can a county (Prince Ed
ward) close its public schools while the
rest of the State’s schools remain in
operation Is there an affirmative ob
ligation for the State to provide public
Private Schools’
education for all its children? (It jj
difficult to conceive of a State with the 00
pride of Virginia deciding to abandon
public education.) Determined and wise tb
leadership can make it unnecessary f ot th
Virginia to face either of these two to
questions.” u
President Supports
Government’s Action
In ‘Ole Miss’ Case
M
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in
sc:
te
President Kennedy said Dec. 17 that
he and the federal government followed
the only possible responsible course ol
action in enforcing the court-ordered
enrollment of Negro student James H
Meredith at the University of Missis
sippi.
In a nationally-televised interview
with three network correspondents, the
president was asked whether the use
of federal troops at “Ole Miss” would
hurt prospects for enactment of federal
aid to education in the new Congress.
“I suppose in some parts of the country
that is going to be a factor against us,”
Kennedy replied, and added:
“I don’t really know what other role
they would expect the President of the
United States to play. The court made
up of Southern judges determined it
was according to the Constitution that
Mr. Meredith go to the University of
Mississippi. The governor of Missis
sippi opposed it, and there was rioting
against Mr. Meredith, which endan
gered his life.
“We sent in marshals, and after all,
150 or 160 marshals were wounded in
one way or another out of four or five
hundred, and at least three-fourths of
the marshals were from the South
themselves. Then we sent in troops
when it appeared that the marshals
were going to be overrun. I don’t think
that anybody who looks at the situation
can think we could possibly do any
thing else. . . .”
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There were these other Washington
developments in the University of Mis
sissippi desegregation controversy:
• The state of Mississippi took to the
Supreme Court its dispute with the De
partment of Justice and the Fifth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals. In a petition
filed Dec. 13, the state asked the jus-
(Sep D. C., Page 13)
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Enrollment
Changes to Slight Increase
The number of Washington school
children enrolled in private and paro
chial schools increased slightly in 1962,
reversing an eight-year trend, School
Superintendent Carl F. Hansen report
ed Dec. 10.
Hansen said enrollment in the city’s
non-public schools totaled 19,107, com
pared to 18,750 a year earlier. The new
figure constitutes 12.4 per cent of the
District of Columbia’s total school pop
ulation.
Non-public school enrollments had
been gradually declining from more
than 20,000 in 1953—a trend attributed
to high-income families to suburban
communities. The 1962 enrollments
figures did not appear to challenge this
thesis. The non-public school totals in
cluded 12,357 white students and 6,750
Negroes. Comparable figures f° r
were 12,737 and 6,013. ^
The loss of white students
of Negro students in non-public sen ^
shows these schools are “feeling ^
of the transition the san»^
Hansen commented at a P j
1961 ed
effects
we are, nansen commemeu v
conference. He defined the *- rans J tl ar jpt
“the out-migration of child-* 5 ,,
white families from the District.
Figures previously released ( ^
December, 1962) showed that tn e T. a -j r
134,375 public school students in ^
ington, of whom 22,280 are wb ^
112,095 are Negro. The total P ub A#
non-public school enrollment is ’ ^
of whom 34,637, or 22.6 per
white. The total includes all pig-
school-age children in the Distric • . p y
ures are based on tables prepa
the School Attendance Office.
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