Newspaper Page Text
VIRGINIA
Fairfax Teachers Organization
Votes To Accept Negro Members
y
:t
:o
ie
' n
le
:s |
i-
'0
>r
ts
in
i-
le
le
t-
ut
in
in
tc
er
iol
RICHMOND
[embers of the Fairfax Edu
cation Association voted 2,-
495 to 405 to drop the word
“white” from the organization’s
membership regulations. Results
of the mail balloting were an
nounced in mid-February.
The action means that beginning with
the 1963-64 school year, Negro educa
tors will be admitted as members of
the FEA.
Arlington County’s Education Asso
ciation desegregated its membership in
1961 and was immediately dropped from
affiliation with the Virginia Education
Association. The state organization at
that time barred local chapters which
accepted Negroes.
Last November, however, the Vir
ginia Education Association granted
chapters the right to desegregate if they
wished. Individual membership in the
VEA is still limited to whites.
★ ★ ★
Board Approves Grants
For Private School Buses
The State Board of Education on Feb.
21 approved the payment of a $20-per-
pupil transportation grant to students
riding private school buses to private
schools in Warren County. Warren
County thus became the first Virginia
locality to ask for and receive grants
under the statute in question, which
was enacted by the General Assembly
in 1959.
However, Warren County, and pos
sibly some other localities, have been
receiving funds for transportation of
children to private schools under an
other law which permits such grants
for private students riding public school
buses.
The statute now being used for the
first time does not set any specific fig
ure for the grants. It says merely that
the State Board of Education, in allo
cating funds to any locality for private
transportation, shall give due consid
eration to the statewide cost of pupil
transportation.
Warren County’s public high school
Was desegregated in 1959, and since
then the high school age students of
the county have been split almost even
ly between the public school and the
Private Mosby Academy.
Virginia Highlights
The Fairfax Education Associa
tion became the second local chap
ter of the Virginia Education Asso
ciation to open its door to Negro
educators.
School desegregation was the ma
jor topic of discussion at a series
of symposiums held at Virginia
Union University in connection with
the visit of three Barnard College
girls to the Negro University in
Richmond.
The U.S. Department of Justice
filed additional legal arguments in
its efforts to force the reopening of
the Prince Edward County Schools.
“. . . The commonwealth of Virginia,
having accepted and assumed the re
sponsibility of maintaining and operat
ing public schools, cannot act through
one of its officers to close one or more
public schools in the state solely by
reason of the assignment to, or enroll
ment or presence in, that public school
of children of different races or colors,
and, at the same time, keep other pub
lic schools throughout the state open
on a segregated basis.”
The government said the tuition
grants program does not change the
situation, and that Virginia still oper
ates schools and thus cannot close those
in Prince Edward.
★ ★ ★
Answering questions posed in a fed
eral district court desegregation suit,
the King George County School Board
on Feb. 27 denied that prejudicial seg
regation exists in the county and said
that three of the county’s schools are
desegregated. (Belton v. King George
County School Board.)
The suit was filed last November on
behalf of a group of Negro children
who claimed that they had been denied
admission to white schools by the State
Pupil Placement Board.
The school board, in its answer Feb.
27, listed a total of 29 non-white chil
dren attending these schools with white
children: King George High, King
George Elementary and Potomac Ele
mentary.
In the Colleges
College Dean Says
White Children’s
Outlook Is Warped
The white children of Prince Edward
County are being reared with the sub
conscious belief that they can defy the
law if their parents fight hard enough
for them, the dean of state-supported
Longwood College declared in a talk
at Virginia Union University (Negro)
in Richmond.
Dr. C. G. Gordon Moss spoke during
one of several symposiums held Feb.
4-5 in connection with a week-long
visit of three Columbia University girl
students to study racial relations.
Prince Edward County’s refusal to
accept desegregation in the schools has
established “in the subconscious minds
of the white children” the knowledge
that they are being educated “at the
expense of 1,500 or 2,000 Negro chil
dren,” said the Longwood dean. Long-
wood, a girls’ college, is located in
Farmville, county seat of Prince Ed
ward.
Dr. Moss told the audience that the
county’s Negro youngsters “are so seri
ously handicapped they will never ap
proach a life of richness they otherwise
could have had.”
Sees One Good Effect
The only good effect of the closing
of the county’s public schools has been
that a few of the Negro children are
being educated outside of the county
and are getting “a far better education”
than they would have gotten in Prince
Edward, said Dr. Moss.
Dr. J. Rupert Picott, executive secre
tary of the Virginia Teachers Associa
tion (Negro), told another symposium
session that Virginia’s now-abandoned
policy of massive resistance to desegre
gation “was only an interlude for the
reluctant.”
“Even the most tolerant evaluator is
forced to conclude that the results did
not live up to promise or expectation,”
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH, 1963—PAGE 15
Panelists and New York Visitors Confer
Barnard College students and men who appeared on panel about Virginia's
“massive resistance”: Rochelle Haimes, James Jackson Kilpatrick, Dr. J. Rupert
Picott, W. Lester Banks, Denise Jackson, Arlene Katz.
Dr. Picott said. He added that “time is
running out for the segregationists.”
Speaking at the same session, James
J. Kilpatrick, editor of The Richmond
News Leader, said that while the courts
had struck down the massive resistance
laws, the overwhelming majority of
white Virginians still oppose desegre
gation.
He said attitudes toward desegrega
tion “aren’t as emotional as they once
were . . . the thing is on a more
rational basis now.”
Kilpatrick said he would guess that
desegregation gradually will spread in
Virginia, but he added that he foresaw
no change in Southside Virginia coun
ties. This is the so-called “Black Belt”
in which Prince Edward County is lo
cated.
W. Lester Banks, executive secretary
of the Virginia NAACP, told the sym
posium audience that Negro leadership
even in Southside Virginia “has come
to realize the only salvation is com
plete desegregation of public schools.”
He said there still are many politi
cians and others in high places who
believe “the Negro has no rights a
white man is bound to respect.”
Visitors from Barnard
The symposiums—which also dealt
with urban renewal and housing —
were arranged in connection with the
visit of three students from Columbia
University’s Barnard College: Denise
Jackson, 18, of Detroit; Arlene Katz,
19, of New York City, and Rochelle
Haimes, 20, of Wyoming, Pa. Miss Jack-
son is a Negro; the other two are
white.
The girls arrived Sunday afternoon,
Feb. 3, and left on Saturday, Feb. 9.
They roomed with Virginia Union stu
dents in the dormitories. They visited
Prince Edward County during their
stay in Virginia.
In an interview with a newspaper re
porter just before they returned to
New York, the girls gave some of the
impressions gained during their visit.
Miss Jackson said she found it inter
esting that although so many Negro
youngsters are out of school in Prince
Edward, there has not been an increase
in the juvenile delinquency rate.
As to the problem of desegregation in
general, she said it appeared “complex
beyond imagination” and that “it would
be foolish for us to venture any ob
servations, because there are no pana
ceas.”
Miss Katz said she was “really
struck by the activity in the South.”
“I think,” she went on, “we must
have heard 10 people—college people—
say this week something to the effect,
‘I’m staying in the South. It offers great
opportunity, and it’s a dynamic com
munity.’ ”
Miss Katz said she learned to think
of the South as “a lot of different things.
I had just thought of it as ‘The South.’
I won’t be as prone to generalizations.”
Pride and Friendliness
Miss Haimes found not only a great
pride in Virginia on the part of Vir
ginians but “even a feeling of pride in
one’s section of the state.”
One thing that impressed them, the
girls said, was the friendliness shown
between whites and Negroes, with op
posing views on desegregation, who
spoke during the symposiums.
In connection with the visit of the
three Barnard girls to Virginia Union,
three girls from Virginia Union spent
(See VIRGINIA, Page 16)
ted
:er-
CK
ier
it'
je-
the
iab
in i
me
mS-
utb
are
fCK
ofi e
ere
eas
★ ★ ★
The Stafford County School Board
™rned down a request by students to
hold
1 a Junior-senior prom at the deseg-
fegated Stafford High School this
spring.
The board directed that a junior class
I of $1,131 be turned over to the
jj . treasurer to be used as the class
S1 res. This presumably opens the way
the holding of a privately sponsored
ce °utside the school.
★ ★ ★
g r ^ lree grades (in addition to the first
*■ w hich already is desegregated)
j> desegregated in the city of
H ,°j next fall under a plan recom-
v w e d to the school board by Supt.
'Jr ■ Kushton on Feb. 25.
r Jftan e ~°ard delayed action on the rec-
A desegregation plan
J U( j ^Presented to Federal District
(Grp 6 ^“ omas J- Michie by March 15.
if ft 1 ^ iiounoke School Board.)
Put inf 6 ^ us ^t°n plan is approved and
tpjg]^ 0 e ffect, about 400 Negro children
R° ano u atten d desegregated classes in
the an 6 next year, as compared with
PProximately 100 this year.
Action
Af;
Supplements
Cl
§uments Against
°sing of Schools
„Th e
L
; L -b. Department of Justice <
^ Us additional arguments
Ns sunni Urth .Circuit Court of A]
- ^ Erl emen Ung the contention th
N°°ls , War d cannot close its publ
sNtfn av °id racial desegregatio
'bool r. ' , rince Edward Coun
, Th e j 0ar d.)
ti ftUar V department cited tl
9 *9, decision of a sped
Nt deraI court at Norfol
<ft tb e ' Almond.)
N in decision, the three judg
LOUISIANA
Orleans Parish Considers Former System
(Continued From Page 14)
» To eliminate any other discrimina
tion in the operation of the school sys
tem or in the curriculum where the
criteria are race or color.
The school board, according to coun
sel for the plaintiffs, is in “clear viola
tion of its constitutional duty and the
orders of this court (and) must be di
rected to present such a plan by the
court.”
The court was requested to order the
board to prepare and submit a “com
plete plan within a set period of time
to be determined by the court.”
“Defendants have had more than am
ple time to make a prompt and rea
sonable start toward desegregation,” the
motion asserted.
The plaintiffs’ petition also noted that
a motion for “further relief” filed in
January, 1962, has brought no action
from the board. And they attacked as
without merit the contention by the
respondents that they could not deter
mine if there were any children in the
parish who wanted to attend desegre
gated schools. The board had made this
plea in an intervention petition last
March.
Said the plaintiffs: “The responsibility
rests with the school authorities under
the guidance of this court to provide a
system of desegregated schools in East
Baton Rouge Parish whether there are
persons who wish to change their
school assignments. Plaintiffs are en
titled to attend schools in a desegre
gated school system and no pupil, Ne
gro or white, can insist upon attend
ing school attended by members of his
or her race only.”
★ ★ ★
State Tuition Grant Plan
Attacked in Court Suit
Louisiana’s tuition grant plan came
under attack in the federal district
court at New Orleans. A suit filed by
Arnold C. Klein questioned the consti
tutionality of the acts establishing the
Louisiana Financial Assistance Com
mission.
Klein, a resident of Metairie, a sub
urb of New Orleans, asked for an in
junction to restrain the commission
from granting financial aid to pupils to
attend private schools. He claimed that
the commission is not impartial in dis
bursing the funds and that Act 147 of
1962 provides for a second school sys
tem, which the state cannot afford.
Klein, without the aid of legal coun
sel, filed the suit himself. He is the
operator of a private school for slow
learners and retarded children.
In response to the suit, James D.
Fountain, director of the state Financial
Assistance Commission, “emphatically”
denied any partiality in the distribu
tion of the grants.
He said further, “We have antici
pated that court action probably would
be forthcoming . . .
“I would like to point out that state
funds appropriated to public education
through the equalization distribution
formula are in essence on a per stu
dent basis. In the event a child leaves
the public school system and enters a
private school the state funds follow
the child. This allows the commission
to make payments to offset the costs of
the child’s education.”
★ ★ ★
Justice Department Files
Questions in Bossier Case
A list of 36 questions directed to the
Bossier Parish School Board was filed
by the U. S. Department of Justice
with the federal district court at
Shreveport. The questions pertain to
the organization and operation of the
Bossier school district, one of four dis
tricts in three Southern states the de
partment is seeking to desegregate be
cause they receive federal aid to “im
pacted” areas.
Among the questions were these:
• Does the school board consider
race in assigning pupils?
• What are the procedures and stand
ards used in assigning pupils to
schools?
• List the schools from which stu
dents are barred because of race.
• How many children residing on
Barksdale Air Force Base or Bossier
Base attend schools operated by the
board? How many of them are Ne
groes?
• How much in federal funds does
the board receive to educate the chil
dren from Barksdale and Bossier bases?
• Have any of the federally con
nected children asked or has any one
asked on their behalf for transfers to
other schools? Who are they? What
action was taken? Have other students
asked for transfers?
Other questions asked for the name,
location, grades taught, capacity and
enrollment of each school in the parish
and the distance from Barksdale and
Bossier bases.
The questions were filed with the
court on Feb. 11. The board was given
15 days in which to respond, with the
answers to the questions, with objec
tions to them or with request for ad
ditional time.
★ ★ ★
One libel suit was quashed and six
others were filed against newspapers in
legal actions growing out of the Cath
olic school desegregation controversy in
New Orleans last year.
Plaintiff in all seven cases was E.
Ross Buckley, Republican candidate for
mayor of New Orleans in 1962. Asking
$100,000 damages in each case, he al
leged that articles published in April,
1962, stated that the archbishop of New
Orleans had threatened to excommuni
cate leading segregationists and had
sent letters to this effect to persons
who had appeared on the platform of a
Citizens’ Council meeting.
The suits charged that Buckley was
identified in the articles as having been
on the platform. He denies that he ever
received any letter threatening him
with excommunication from the Roman
Catholic church.
Suits filed Feb. 13 named as de
fendants the Beaumont (Tex.) Enter
prise, the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette,
the New York Herald Tribune, the
Florida Times-Union (of Jacksonville),
the Memphis (Term.) Commercial Ap
peal, and the Cincinnati (Ohio) Post
and Times-Star.
A similar suit against the New York
Times, filed by Buckley several months
ago, was dismissed the same day. U. S.
District Judge Frank B. EHis ruled
that the New York newspaper had only
minimal contacts in Louisiana.
★ ★ ★
In Washington, a Louisiana law re
quiring that a candidate’s race be des
ignated on official election ballots is up
for consideration by the U. S. Supreme
Court.
Dupuy E. Anderson and Acie J. Bel
ton, Negro candidates who were de
feated in the East Baton Rouge Parish
school board elections last year, at
tacked the law, claiming that it “en
courages racial discrimination by vot
ers.”
A special three-judge court, sitting
at Baton Rouge, had ruled 2-1 against
the plaintiffs, saying: “There is no basis
for saying that a candidate for office
has a right to anonymity. This court
is not disposed to create a shield against
the brightest light of public examina
tion of candidates for public office.”