Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—MARCH, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TEXAS
Rice University^ Trustees Seek
'^0 ■ J \
. ‘.a? 1
To Drop All-White Provision
AUSTIN
T rustees of Rice University at
Houston filed suit in a state
district court to construe the
founder’s will to permit racial de
segregation and the charging of
tuition. (William Marsh Rice Uni
versity v. Waggoner Carr, Attor
ney General of Texas).
William Marsh Rice, a Massachusetts
native who made a fortune in land and
lumber in Texas, in 1891 left his estate
for the establishment of a university
“for the instruction and improvement of
white inhabitants.” His will also speci
fied such instruction would be free.
The trustees asked the court to con
strue the will in the light of current
conditions. Charitable trusts are super
vised by the Texas attorney general.
Specifically, they asked that the word
“white” should not be interpreted to
create “an inflexible barrier to the ad
mission of qualified students without
regard to race or color.”
Reasonable Tuition
The word “free,” said the trustees,
should not prevent charging a reason
able tuition.
Undergraduate enrollment at Rice is
limited to 1,500. While the school does
not charge tuition, it does have various
fees assessed against students, making
the cost of attending Rice about equal
that of state-supported colleges in
Texas.
The school, formerly known as “Wil
liam Marsh Rice Institute” was founded
in 1912 after 12 years of litigation over
the founder’s will. Rice was murdered
in New York in 1900, at the age of 84.
Attract Scholars
The trustees told the court that main
taining educational excellence requires
that Rice University be allowed to de
velop along the lines of comparable
universities elsewhere. They said this
means ability to attract scholars and
funds.
Educators in the Houston area in the
recent past have called attention to the
need for removing racial barriers,
* -
KlillilliiiiS
Texas Highlights
Trustees of Rice University at
Houston filed suit to construe the
founder’s will so that the school
could admit Negroes and start charg
ing tuition, both excluded under the
document signed in 1891.
Fort Worth, Texas’s largest still-
segregated system, announced it had
exhausted legal channels and submit
ted a grade-a-year desegregation plan
to federal court.
City View Independent School
District became the 176th district in
Texas to desegregate, approving the
change in a referendum.
The Texas Senate rejected former
Supreme Court Justice W. St. John
Garwood as a regent for the Univer
sity of Texas. Garwood’s views on in
tegration figured in the controversy.
A bill to repeal the school referen
dum act of 1957, a bar to desegrega
tion, was routed to a legislative sub
committee for study.
among other reasons, because of the big
National Aeronautics and Space Ad
ministration center, which is being built
there. Non-racial policies are promoted
by the federal government, including
grants to schools for education and re
search.
Rice remains the only institution of
higher education in Harris County to
retain segregation. The University of
Houston started accepting Negroes last
year, and junior colleges at Pasadena
and Baytown abolished white-only
standards this school year. Texas South
ern University, a state school primarily
for Negroes, has been biracial in board
and faculty from its beginning and has
had some white students in recent
years. The University of Texas dental
college and cancer research hospitals at
Houston also are unsegregated.
Fort Worth Makes Plans
To Begin Desegregation
Fort Worth made plans to start de
segregation in September after losing
an appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals in Flax v. Potts. A
federal disrict court had ordered the
desegregation in 1961, but appeals de
layed the implementation.
Fort Worth, with approximately 55,-
000 white and 13,000 Negroes in public
schools, is the largest still-segregated
system in the state.
The circuit court ordered Fort Worth
to submit a desegregation plan within
30 days. The board complied by ad
vising the federal district judge it will
desegregate the first grade next Sep
tember and continue on a grade-a-year
program.
“We have presented our views . . .
the federal courts have spoken,” com
mented Atwood McDonald, president of
the Fort Worth board.
The federal government’s order for
desegregation of all school districts re
ceiving “impacted area” funds for
teaching children where enrollment is
increased by military or defense estab
lishments was said to have figured in
Fort Worth officials’ decision not to re
sist further.
“I don’t think we would make a de
cision without considering this aspect,”
commented McDonald. Fifty-two other
Texas districts have received warning
letters from Washington. Several others
have already announced plans to abol
ish segregation by September.
★ ★ ★
Two federal court desegregation law
suits were postponed at Austin by U.S.
District Judge Ben H. Rice Jr. They
are:
Sanders v. Ransom, seeking desegre
gation of all housing facilities owned by
the University if Texas.
Miller v. Barnes, to desegregate pub
lic schools at Georgetown. Judge Rice
told litigants he felt this case was being
(See TEXAS, Page 3)
Demonstrators for Garwood
At the stale capitol.
Legislative Action
State Senate Kills Nomination
Of St. John Garwood as Regent
W. St. John Garwood of Austin was
refused confirmation as a regent of the
University of Texas by the State Sen
ate.
Garwood retired voluntarily from the
Texas Supreme Court a few years ago,
and had accepted the university board
appointment from
Con-
Gov. John
nally.
There was much
criticism of the
Senate’s action,
which came in a
secret session. But
the governor de
cided against
pressing the mat
ter further, de
spite requests
from some sena
tors for him to re-submit Judge Gar
wood’s name.
Sen. A. R. Schwartz of Galveston
gave notice to the Senate that here
after he will not feel bound by rules
GARWOOD
FLORIDA
Dade Report Urges Upgrading Negro Schools
MAIMI
S harp upgrading of teaching in
all Dade County schools with
a predominantly Negro enroll
ment was recommended by the
communitywide Committee on
Quality Education after months
of study.
The committee, composed of civic
leaders and educators, adopted a pro
gram that called for:
• An effort to develop a means of
explaining white culture—the culture
in which they must learn—to Negro
students. This calls for special text
books and teaching techniques.
• Emphasis on the teaching of read
ing in Negro schools “so that no child
shall be allowed to be retarded in
reading ability who can possibly be
taught to read up to his grade level.”
• Employment of the best available
teachers and constant in-service train
ing to augment their skills. The com
mittee suggested specially-trained su
pervisors to push this effort which it
called “vitally important.”
• The use of kindergarten years to
prepare Negro children for rapid ad
vance in reading.
Assay Quality
The committee’s report was based on
work done in the Dade school system
by Dr. Eugene Youngert, an authority
in education techniques. He was
brought in by the school board to
assay the quality of teaching.
Dr. Youngert said the upgrading of
Negro schools was not a substitute for
desegregation but would make the de
segregation process easier.
Negro children in lower standard
schools, he said, “suffer under the
handicap that in school they are at
tempting to learn within a culture to
much of which they are strangers.” He
added:
“Even their spoxen words are in
many instances different from those in
the books, and therefore they have an
inadequate base of known words
through which to learn to read.
“Somehow, vicariously, devices must
Florida Highlights
Dade County school leaders call
ed for a sharp upgrading of Negro
schools to ease the desegregation
process.
Orange County formally adopted
a desegregation plan, which it of
fered as a model to other school
boards facing suits.
Negro students who pioneered in
entering white universities will be
honored at the regional NAACP
conference in Tampa.
Three Negroes gained run-off
spots in a special election to fill seats
in the reapportioned legislature.
The Florida NAACP withdrew its
objections to Miami Beach’s invita
tion for the two national party con
ventions in 1964.
,,,, gMM •• .• •• gM«| """XKWtV'jWWXVV " SjMMMMgSgMg
be initiated to bring ‘school and book
culture’ into the awareness of Negro
children.”
These suggestions were emphasized
by results of a six weeks crash course
in reading for Negro pupils in three
Dade elementary schools during the
summer months.
The outcome, reported a school offi
cial, was “spectacular.”
Many children showed improvement
to a full year ahead of their normal
grade.
The course was carefully organized
with the cooperation of teachers and
parents. Results will be studied for
clues to further upgrading of regular
classes.
★ ★ ★
Orange County Board
Formally Adopts Plan
The Orange County school board,
faced with a federal court order to
desegregate its schools, has formally
adopted a plan to become effective next
September.
Supt. R. Earl Kipp said each child
entering the first grade will be allowed
the option of attending the school
nearest his home regardless of race or
the racial composition of the school.
The school board reserves the right to
assign to avoid overcrowding of specific
schools.
The option will be extended to one
additional grade each year. Students
in higher grades may apply for trans
fer without regard to race but these
will be allowed only as consistent with
existing pupil loads.
The plan has not yet been approved
formally by the federal court. But
local school officials said that it may
have national implications and serve
as a pattern for other schools faced
with the same decision.
Community Action
NAACP To Present
Special Awards
Negro students who have enrolled
in formerly segregated Southern uni
versities will be honored at the re
gional NAACP conference at Tampa in
March.
Special awards will be presented to
James Meredith, Harvey Gantt, Ham
ilton Holmes, and George Allen.
The conference will be attended by
NAACP leaders from Mississippi,
Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.
★ ★ ★
NAACP objections to holding na
tional political party conventions in
Florida have been withdrawn.
After filing formal protests with the
national executive committees of both
parties, the Florida NAACP changed its
mind and is supporting the bid of
Miami Beach to host both nominating
conventions. The NAACP stand was
that school desegregation in Florida
had been painfully slow and was still
only a fraction of what it should be
after eight years.
After some sharp reaction from of
ficials of Miami Beach and some white
Democratic party leaders, Negro mem
bers were appointed to the official in
vitation committee. This, said the Rev.
Leon Lowry of Tampa, state NAACP
chairman, re-established lines of com
munications between the races.
A joint statement by the NAACP and
members of the convention committee
declared that the metropolitan Miami
area “probably has done more than
any other urban area in the South” to
remove racial discrimination.
Political Action
Negro Candidates
Display Strength
In Special Election
Negro candidates, for the first time
in Florida history, showed surprising
strength in the special election to fill
newly created seats in the reappor
tioned legislature.
With a number of Negroes on the
ballot in urban areas, three won places
in the run-off election and one, in
Jacksonville, led the nearest of his
eight white opponents by more than
2,000 votes.
The Duval pace-setter was Ernest
D. Jackson Sr., a lawyer who has been
interested in some of the school de
segregation suits filed in Northeast
Florida counties. As he began cam
paigning for the second primary
Jackson said it was a “wonderful feel
ing” to be the first Negro to lead the
field in a county wide race in Duval
County.
Jackson once was elected peace
justice in an area where Negro regis
tration is heavy. He lost the post when
the area was redistricted before he
could take office.
(See FLORIDA, Page 3)
D<
phis
tano
rece
with
to the extent that votes on confirma
tion shall remain secret. Reporter'
learned the voting line-up on the Gar
wood appointment, and published th
names, an almost unprecedented ever:
There had been no public criticia
of Garwood. On the contrary, Governor
John Connally’s appointments to thi v ,][ e
and other college boards generally hae
been complimented. The other two ap
pointees to the nine-member state uni
versity board, both confirmed by th
Senate, were Mrs. J. Lee Johnson I
of Fort Worth, whose family owns thf
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Rabl
Levi Olan of Dallas.
Political observers surmised that i
combination of factors was responsible
for the Senate’s negative action. 0b
of these was the justice’s out-spoke:i ^
advocacy of a world court, and hi ^
espousal of some liberal causes. How
ever, Judge Garwood had never bee:
an active partisan in politics.
Both Gov. Connally and Sen. Charier
F. Herring of Austin, who normal!
would have lead the effort for confir
mation, were away recuperating ft®
surgery when the Senate acted on Gar
wood. Herring said he had been a?
sured that Garwood would be approved
At
boar
28.’
to i
of t]
to e
Di
prep
Mar
heal
sun;
segi
T
has
the
Cos
whi
wer
before giving his consent for the Sere, ^
ate to consider the appointment in
absence.
West Texans Opposed
Most of those voting against Gar-
wood reportedly came from West Tex
This helped to allay suspicion that of
position in the Senate stemmed ft®
his statement to sports writers
“any errors I make as a member of
Board of Regents will probably b®
the side of integration and acadew*
freedom.” This came in response
question as to whether Garwood *
ored desegregating inter-college a
letics at the University of Texas.
Sports writers have predicted ^
desegregation is on the way f° r *
letic competition in the Southwest ^
ference, to which the University
Texas belongs. Dr. M. E. Sadler, ^
cellor of Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, which has recently st ^
accepting Negro undergraduates, ^
“it’s only a matter of time” untu
stiti
A
fflei
"ft
1
hi
«e
Sel
athleK*
school starts recruiting Negro a 1
“Some time, when our recruiters^
a top quarterback in some Negro ^
school, they may want to bring U P
matter to the athletic committee, ^
imagine if the committee appr° v
the board would,” said Dr. Sadler.
★ ★ ★
Legislators Delay Action
On Desegregation Bill ?
Supporters of bills to repeal ^ ^
regation barriers moved slowly .,
Texas legislature. With the 149- a -^ c3 r-
sion almost half gone, committee
ings .had been held on none of jjoc
poshls for repealing pro-segr®* .
bills passed in 1957. (SSN, Feb ^ g
A committee set a hearing ^ e -
V*
February on H.B. 373 by U e P- jd
Gladden of Fort Worth and ^
other members, to repeal the a . ^ >
quiring referendum approval b
school district can desegrega ®- ^
attorney general of Texas has -jet
act unconstitutional. However, U
announced at the committee ® ipg.
that he was not ready for the h®
and it was postponed indefinitely-