Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10—MARCH, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
President Proposes U. S. Aid for Desegregating Districts
(Continued From Page 1)
D. C. Highlights
junction suits in civil rights cases.
Sen. Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.) said
the message “has many earmarks of a
political stump speech” and Sen. John
Stennis (D-Miss.)
said that “if these
shocking propos
als are adopted,
many clear and
basic provisions of
the Constitution
would be trampl
ed and ignored.”
Sen. Clifford P.
Case (R - N.J.)
said the Presi
dent’s proposals
fell “far short” of
the measures which have been recom
mended by the Civil Rights Commis
sion. But Case said he was glad the
President “has now recognized the need
for legislation not only in the field of
voting rights but in other areas.”
Commission Says
Much Accomplished
But More Remains
In a 207-page report on civil rights
progress over the past century sub
mitted to President Kennedy on Feb.
12, the Civil Rights Commission de
clared that “more forces are working
for the realization of civil rights for
all Americans than ever before in
history.”
But the commission added that citi
zenship is not yet ‘fully-blown or fully-
realized for the American Negro. There
is still more ground to cover.” In ac
cepting the report at the White House,
Kennedy commented, “we still have
some length to go.”
The commission’s report, entitled
“Freedom to the Free,” called the Su
preme Court’s 1954 school desegregation
decision “the most momentous event”
in civil rights during recent years.
“The decision was the culmination of
years of effort by Negro litigants to
give the 14th Amendment an interpre
tation consonant with its history and
the history of our republic,” the report
declared.
‘Dead Letter’
“From this decision has flowed a se
ries of court decisions making it clear
that segregation is a dead letter in
every area of public activity. Imple
mentation of school desegregation has
been slow, especially when impeded by
the full range of power of some South
ern state governments.”
But the commission said that events
of the eight years following the deci
sion have made it clear that violence,
school closings and even token com
pliance will not suffice to block even
tual desegregation.
Discussing “the tack ahead,” the re
port said that in the South “progress is
slow and often painful, but it is steady
and it appears to be inevitable.’
In the North, the report said, resist
ance to equal treatment of the races
still exists and has even increased as
Negroes have made new gains.
“In the South, (the Negro) has strug
gled to get into the neighborhood school.
In the North, he is fighting to get out
of it. While he seeks and has largely
found identification with the main
stream of American life, he has suffered
more than others from its occupational
and technological dislocations,” the re
port stated.
Debate Continues
As to Problems
Of D. C. Schools
In Congress, among District officials
and in civic organizations, debate con
tinued on District school problems
brought into the limelight by racial dis
turbances at a citywide high school
championship football game last
Thanksgiving Day.
Public attention centered on charges
of lax discipline in the city’s desegre
gated public schools. The charges were
set forth in the report of a citizens’
committee named to investigate the
Thanksgiving Day disorders (SSN,
February, 1963).
On Feb. 20, District School Supt. Carl
F. Hansen proposed a program of action
to cope with problems he said had
In a civil rights message to Con
gress, President Kennedy called for
legislation to provide federal tech
nical and financial assistance to
school districts in the process of de
segregation. He also asked for elimi
nation of the “separate but equal”
doctrine from the Morrill Land-
Grant College Act, and for four-year
extension of the federal Civil Rights
Commission.
The Civil Rights Commission re
porting to the President on civil
rights progress since the Emancipa
tion Proclamation, called the Su
preme Court’s 1954 school desegre
gation decision a landmark, but said
much still needs to be done to fur
ther Negro rights.
The Department of Health, Educa
tion and Welfare announced that it
will set up elementary schools on six
military installations in South Caro
lina, Georgia and Alabama to pro
vide nonsegregated education start
ing this fall for military departments
who now must attend segregated
local schools.
As the debate over conditions in
the District of Columbia’s desegre
gated schools continued, School
Supt. Carl F. Hansen proposed that
the school board permit corporal
punishment and suspension or ex
pulsion of unruly pupils.
“brought this school system to a point
of crisis.”
The superintendent asked the District
Board of Education to:
• Make it easier for school officials to
suspend or expel unruly students.
• Establish immediately a new sys
tem of teaching disruptive children in
special classes after school hours.
• Lift the school board’s ban against
corporal punishment.
• Launch a major effort to augment
the District school budget to improve
services and ease overcrowding.
Reverses Positions
Hansen’s proposals on corporal pun
ishment and expulsion of unruly pupils
marked reversals of his own previous
positions, and met
with opposition
from some mem
bers of the school
board and com
munity organiza
tions. The super
intendent said he
had become con
vinced that the
schools could cope
with some difficult
students only by
the threat of
physical force or exclusion from school.
He said the schools “are being re-
The Department of Health, Education
and Welfare announced Feb. 21 that it
will build nonsegregated elementary
schools to be operated starting this fall
at six military bases in South Carolina,
Georgia and Alabama.
The HEW announcement was the ex
pected sequel to previous commitments
by the department to provide govern
ment schools for children whose parents
live on federal installations in areas
where only segregated schooling is now
available.
U.S. Commissioner of Education
Francis Keppel said the secretaries of
the Air Force and Army had been noti
fied that HEW plans to provide on-base
elementary schools at these installa
tions:
Fort Jackson and Myrtle Beach Air
Force Base in South Carolina; Fort
Stewart and Robins Air Force Base in
Georgia; Fort McClellan and Fort
Rucker in Alabama.
Temporary Facilities
New temporary school facilities will
be built in most instances, HEW an
nounced. In other cases, existing struc
tures will be converted for use as class
rooms. Keppel estimated the cost of
construction at about $2 million.
Associate Commissioner of Education
Arthur Harris said Mississippi had not
been included in the plans because of
pending school desegregation litigation
there.
HEW had announced almost a year
quired to supply many of the functions
of the home and the church” and “have,
assumed the responsibility of holding
young men and women off the labor
market, off the streets and out of trou
ble, even if they do not profit from
being in school as it is now conducted
and despite the fact that the resources
needed to devise a realistic work-school
program for many youth, most of them
capable of learning to earn, are not
available.”
Hansen declared that “it is high time
to release public education from the
pillory to which it has long been fast
ened, and to redefine the purpose of
education and the pupil’s responsibil
ity to make use of it.”
Legislation Introduced
Legislation to permit corporal pun
ishment and expulsion of unruly pupils
was introduced in the House of Repre
sentatives Feb. 26 by Rep. Basil L.
Whitener (D-N.C.). Whitener criticized
School Board President Wesley S. Wil
liams and other board members who
had opposed or voiced reservations
about the superintendent’s proposals.
The board itself took Hansen’s recom
mendations under advisement for later
action.
Williams said he doubted that the
board would act favorably on the cor
poral punishment and expulsion pro
posals. But Hansen told reporters Feb.
28 he was reasonably confident that his
program would be put into action.
“When the dust settles, I think it is
unlikely that there will be much of a
division between what we have recom
mended and what people (who now
oppose the recommendations) want to
see recommended,” Hansen said.
Adviser Proposes
Biracial Groups
For Communities
Presidential adviser Chester Bowles
proposed Feb. 15 that biracial com
mittees be appointed in every com
munity in the United States to analyze
civil rights problems.
In a speech on “Emancipation: The
Record and the Challenge” to students
of Lincoln University, Oxford, Pa.,
Bowles called for a quickened pace to
ward total desegregation in the North
and South.
He suggested that the proposed local
committees, working under the spon
sorship of a national committee of lead
ing citizens, could help to develop
agreements on racial policies and
close a “moral gap” between American
beliefs and actual practices.
“This moral gap,” he warned, “can
become an increasing danger to our
survival as a free society.’ ’
Special Responsibility
Bowles said American Negroes bear
a special responsibility, “for in the
course of removing our national curse
ago that after the fall of 1963, it would
no longer regard segregated schools as
“suitable” to receive federal funds for
the education of children whose par
ents live and work on federal property.
The legislation governing aid to “fed
erally impacted” school districts re
quires the Commissioner of Education
to provide education for children living
on government installations if the avail
able local schooling is not “suitable.”
In an effort to avoid a crash program
of on-base school construction, HEW
has attempted to persuade affected
school districts to institute desegrega
tion. The department reported progress
toward this goal in 15 Florida and
Texas school districts. The Justice De
partment has filed desegregation suits
against schools serving Biloxi-Gulf-
port, Miss., Shreveport, La., and Hunts
ville and Mobile, Ala.
Three-School System
Assistant Secretary of Health, Edu
cation and Welfare James M. Quigley
revealed Feb. 27 that the department’s
program of on-base school construc
tion could establish a three-school sys
tem around the bases—a nonsegregated
school on base and segregated schools
for whites and Negroes in the nearby
communities. The news brought prompt
protests from civil rights organizations.
Incredible,” was the reaction of Roy
Wilkins, executive secretary of the
NAACP in New York, who called for a
change in the HEW program.
of racial discrimination, the Negro can
force all Americans of good conscience
to re-examine their sense of value. ..
“And this reawakening can give a
new tone, a new vigor and a new hon
esty to the American nation,” he added.
“Regardless of color, most Americans
now know in their hearts that the time
for explanations is over and that the
time is here on the great frontier of
civil rights.”
Bowles said Northern criticism of the
South’s racial policies is “sheer hy
pocrisy,” and warned that laws and
court decisions alone cannot solve civil
rights problems. He cited the example
of Washington, where, despite racial
desegreagtion, 80 per cent of the
schools have predominantly Negro en
rollments.
★ ★ ★
Washington’s schools also served as
an illustration in a speech delivered
Feb. 23 by President James M. Nabrit
of Howard Uni
versity. He told
the Washington
Real Estate Brok
ers Association
that the District
schools had
proved that the
doctrine of “sep-
erate but equal”
education could
not work.
“With the re
moval of the veil
of segregation here,” Nabrit said, “it
was fully exposed to the view of every
one that inequality automatically ac
companies segregation. Here in Wash
ington, D.C., under the concept of
separate but equal, there was greater
effort than elsewhere to produce
equality in the school system.
“The failure to achieve equality un
der the conditions of separation in the
District of Columbia is not only to be
expected but is also indicative of the
shocking disadvantages which Negroes
have had to suffer in the Southern
states.”
Poll Shows Majority
Would Not Limit Aid
A substantial majority of Americans
would oppose limiting Federal educa
tion aid to only those public schools
with desegregated classes, according to
a copyrighted Gallup Poll survey re
leased Feb. 12.
The Gallup Poll asked a sampling of
voters throughout the nation: “If the
Federal Government in Washington
decides to give money to aid education,
should this money go to ALL public
schools, or should it be withheld from
schools which fail to integrate white
and Negro students?”
Aid to all public schools was favored
by 72 per cent, while 21 per cent said
it should not go to segregated schools.
Seven per cent had no opinion. In the
South, 80 per cent favored aid to all
public schools, while 15 per cent said
it should not go to segregated schools
“Fantastic . . . ludicrous,” said Leslie
Dunbar, director of the Southern Re
gional Council in Atlanta.
“We have to be practical, and have
a workable program,” said Quigley. He
said the local school boards would be
given the option of operating the on-
base schools and would receive federal
grants for doing so. He said the chil
dren living on the installations prob
ably would be given the choice of at
tending on-base nonsegregated schools
or off-base segregated schools.
‘Salt-and-Pepper’
Both the NAACP and the Southern
Regional Council noted that Federal
courts have refused to permit Houston,
Dallas and Nashville to set up such
three-school systems, sometimes re
ferred to as “salt-and-pepper plans.”
For the NAACP, Wilkins sharply at
tacked HEW’s plan “to continue sub
sidizing Jim Crow schools.”
For the Southern Regional Council,
Dunbar said: “Far from penalizing the
local school district for noncompliance
with the Constitution, the Federal Gov
ernment will be, in the HEW plan, ac
tually rewarding them financially.”
Quigley said HEW had no authority
to operate the on-base schools once
they are built, and that either local
schools boards or the Defense Depart
ment would have to run them. The De
fense Department might, he conceded,
direct all on-base children to attend the
nonsegregated on-base schools.
and 5 per cent had no opinion. In other
regions, the percentage favoring aid to
all public schools ranged from 67 to 71
while those opposing aid to segregated
schools amounted to 23 or 24 per cent
of the sample.
Committee To Review
Apprentice Programs
Establishment of an advisory com
mittee to study racial discrimination in
the nation’s apprenticeship training
programs was announced Feb. 27 by
Under Secretary of Labor John F.
Henning.
Henning said that as the Labor De
partment’s manpower administrator, he
would serve as chairman of the group,
to be known as the Advisory Commit
tee for Equal Opportunity in Appren
ticeship and Training. The committee
is expected to have about 15 members,
representing labor, management, edu
cation, minority groups and the public.
They will be appointed by Labor Sec
retary W. Willard Wirtz.
The under secretary said the com
mittee will be responsible for advising,
developing, reviewing and promoting
more efficient programs and policies
in apprenticeship and training admin-
stration. Labor unions and manage
ment have been criticized by Negro
and civil rights groups for alleged
widespread discrimination in the ap
prenticeship program.
★ ★ ★
The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 18
rejected a request by the State of
Mississippi that it review the orders
entered by the Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals in the dispute over the enroll
ment of Negro James H. Meredith at
the University of Mississippi.
The Supreme Court’s action left the
lower court free to proceed with the
pending contempt charge against Mis
sissippi Governor Ross R. Barnett and
other state officials.
Books
and the Issue
THE LONG SHADOW OF LITTLE
ROCK
by Daisy Bates. David McKay Co.,
Inc., New York, 234 pp.
As one of the central figures in the
school desegregation at Little Rock,
Ark., in 1957, Mrs. Bates was closely
associated with the nine Negro stu
dents who enrolled at Central High-
She provides a first-hand account of
the events.
THE SEGREGATIONISTS
by James Graham Cook. Appleton-
Century-Crofts, New York, 376 pp.
The author, a former newspaperman,
interviewed the leading figures of the
Citizens’ Councils, the National States
Rights Party, the Ku Klux Klan, and
other organizations working to main
tain segregation in the South.
A CENTURY OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
edited by William Brickman and
Stanley Lehrer. Society for the Ad
vancement of Education, New York,
293 pp.
The contributions cover the history
of higher education from 1862 to 1962.
The book also includes a chronology 0
higher education and a bibliography °
the history of higher education.
A TALE OF TEN CITIES
edited by Eugene J. Lipman and Al
bert Vorspan. Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, New York,
344 pp.
Subtitled “The Triple Ghetto m
American Religious Life,” the boo
studies the relationships of Protestan
Catholics and Jews in Boston, Cleve
land, Los Angeles, Muncie, Nashville
New York City, Philadelphia, Plain.'
view on Long Island, and Minneapo i
and St. Paul.
HER NAME WAS SOJOURNER
TRUTH
by Hertha Pauli. Appleton-Century
Crofts, Inc., New York, 250 pp.
During the 19th century, Sojourn
Truth, an uneducated former slave,
known across the country f°r
preachings on religion and freedom-
CHANGING PATTERNS OF
PREJUDICE COi
by Alfred J. Marrow. Chilton
Philadelphia, 271 pp.
Dr. Marrow, former chairman ol
York City’s Commission on ■ tnte ’[ gT u g-
Relations, analyzes prejudice an
gests steps toward a solution.
RUSSELL
HANSEN
U. S. To Build 6 On-Base Schools
NABRIT