About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1963)
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1963—PAGE II MARYLAND Prince George’s County Plan Approved By Board BALTIMORE I n a rare exercise of its broad visitorial power, the Maryland Board of Education in April passed favorable judgment on the “freedom of choice” desegrega tion policies of Prince George’s County but raised questions as to how the policies are carried out in actual practice. In a statement released on April 6, the state board proclaimed its belief that the county board and county su perintendent “have endeavored to set forth a policy statement regarding de segregation in their county public schools consistent with the policies of the State Board of Education approved on January 30, 1962.” (SSN, February, 1962.) The state agency commended county school officials for “endeavoring to put these policies into practice in a manner that makes no distinction between a white and a colored child.” “There is no doubt that the tempo of desegregation has been stepped up in the county and will continue to gather even greater speed as time goes on,” the state board said, referring to changes in county policy that had brought an additional 337 Negroes into formerly all-white schools in Prince George’s last fall. Although a predominantly white county, bordering on the District of Columbia, Prince George’s has some 10,000 Negroes in its school system, more than any other Maryland school district except Baltimore. Of the 10,000, those in formerly white schools num bered 769 at the start of the current school year. Citizens’ Committee Request The state board action was unusual in that it did not concern any specific charges or county acts for which there are appeal or disciplinary provisions in Maryland law. Rather, the state board said that it was asked by the Prince George’s Citizens Education Committee to “ex ercise its comprehensive visitorial pow er to inquire into the policies and prac tices of the county board to see if they coincide with the policies of the State of Maryland and the law.” The state board conducted its own inquiry, which took the form of a five- our hearing on Dec. 18. Board mem- ers heard attorneys representing the citizens group and county school system, interrogated witnesses and invited ad- tional memoranda. It reached a deci- sion in March but did not make it Public until April. In the summer of 1961, a group of e §ro parents in Prince George’s ap- P^red twice before the county school w ,,. to complain that its policies hnpeding rather than assisting” gregation. One of the parents toS Ugh ^ auspices of the NAACP jy an appeal to the State Board of on the assignment of his t k uiuld. During a hearing in Sep- 0 £ ® r tbe child was given a choice ools and the appeal became moot. count^ 6 Wa ^ e °I the hearing, both the sgj y school board and the state j^ about framing new statements of ivas Sre f ation Policy. The state policy th e pu uushed in January, 1962 and Th e C0Unt y Policy the following month. May C t 0Unty was amended in 10 m ake clear there was no ment^ system ” between Negro ele- uud secondary schools. th e stat C ^ ro P ar ents went back before as (L hoard again in May, this time Ed Ucat - mce George’s County Citizens a whif 1011 ^ omrn ittee to argue through had th att0rney that the state board speedi e e '^ r ’ sc hctional power to order school r ^segregation in a county 1 system. Transitional Period’ Ha ■ state hrf .burned jurisdiction, the its Anri] 3 * <unan imously” declared in had “mc> S Q^ emen * ; *k®t Prince George’s ajid that'- a h ea( T with desegregation >ite “are a sincere and chaice u a e /*Pt to provide freedom of hren rp „ SC „ °°i Attendance for all chil- CK- of race ” c °Unty ard u°ted, however, that the Period” as , s tiii in a transitional s h°uld "transitional practices Practical terminated at the earliest “C da te.” °f he boarr?” eSt ^ 0ns 31136 111 the minds 6lt her ho„ = ’ “* e statement continued, c °Unty’ s n V se °f the language of the lcy statement or “because the testimony in the hearing in some instances indicated practices, regardless of intent, at possible variance with the policies.” One question concerned assignment. The state board noted that county policy called for “unrestricted freedom of choice” regardless of race and then asked: “If this be true, does real freedom of choice exist as stated in the policy, or are children actually initially registered at a particular school, and is transfer to another school possible only after complying with procedures not found in the county policy statement?” A second question concerned bus transportation to the county’s three Negro secondary schools and numerous Negro elementary schools. The board said it appeared that Negro children were transported a “considerable dis tance” to Negro schools although white schools may be closer to their homes, on the understanding that it was a transitional arrangement. The state board did not criticize the arrange ment, although it spoke of having “some doubts.” But its statement said: “The board would find fault with a situation if new and additional bus transportation, either by the establish ment of new routes or the addition of buses or bus runs on old routes, were offered a Negro child to go to a Negro school of his choice although a white child is denied transportation to a distant white school. This is discrimina tion in reverse.” Policy on Construction The state board also said, in respect to school construction, that its under standing of county policy was that “no new classrooms will be provided as an addition to a predominantly Negro school as long as such addition would not be required if the transition policies with regard to transportation were discontinued in this attendance area.” Noting that the newness of the county’s policies may have led to mis understanding by parents and misin terpretations by some school personnel, the state board suggested that the county school superintendent “provide a clear public statement” outlining the procedures that prevail in initial regis tration, transfers, transitional bus transportation for pupils living in areas “not a part of any clearly defined dis trict or attendance area,” and trans portation for Negro children “to at tend Negro schools distant from their homes.” One of the most active members of the state board in the Prince George’s case was Richard A. Schifter, a Washington lawyer residing in Mont gomery County, whose term of office was to expire May 1. Gov. J. Millard Tawes let it be known early in April that he did not intend to re appoint Schifter because Montgomery County already had another person on the seven-member board whereas Schoolmen A committee of the Baltimore Board of School Commissioners was named in April to study a private report, by a group of Baltimore parents, which is believed to be highly critical of the school system’s racial policies. A news article in the Baltimore Sun described the report, not yet made public, as one charging that “district ing and transportation arrangements have been used to retard desegrega tion.” The five-member committee includes the board’s two Negro members and Dr. William D. McElroy, professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University, as the committee chairman. In March Dr. McElroy prompted a board call for a staff report on the progress of desegre gation when he raised the question of whether school districting and trans portation policies were promoting racial segregation. (SSN, April 1963.) Dr. McElroy at the time said that he raised the issue because of problems arising in other large cities and that he had no personal knowledge of the private report on which a few parents had been working since last summer. Dr. George B. Brain, superintendent of city schools, replied that districting and transportation were not used to promote segregation but that, on the Maryland Highlights The “freedom of choice” desegre gation policies of Prince George’s County were upheld in April by the Maryland Board of Education in a rare exercise of its broad investiga tory power. Questions were raised as to how the policies were carried out in actual practice. A five-member committee of the Baltimore School Board has been named to study a private report on school racial policies. Eastern College, a private institu tion in Baltimore, has become a dem onstration site for a group seeking the admission of Negro students. Southern Maryland had no representa tive. The governor said it wa's “right and proper” to replace Schifter with some one from Southern Maryland. The Washington Post and Times- Herald in an editorial gave Schifter credit for a “substantial share of responsibility” for the Maryland Board of Education’s “unprecedented inde pendence and energy in the past 3% years.” The Post described him as “particularly effective in persuading the board to exercise its responsibilities in the matter of school desegregation.” Continuing, the editorial stated: “The Prince George’s County school auth orities have blamed Mr. Schifter per sonally for the state board’s interest in the complaints of Negro pupils and parents there,” The newspaper describ- er Prince George’s as “famous as the county where, nine years after the desegregation decision, the local school board’s lawyers defend as a mere statistical accident the assignment of 90 per cent of Negro pupils to all- Negro schools.” The editorial stated that Schifter also had irritated the Tawes Admin istration by not supporting a college merger plan that Tawes favored. “His reappointment, in the usual course of these things, would be unlikely,’ the Post concluded. Both Sides Win As it turned out, Gov. Tawes ap pointed both a Southern Maryland representative and Schifter in succes sive moves May 1 and 2. This became possible when the other board member from Montgomery County, Mrs. Ken neth F. Cole, resigned to make way for Schifter. Tawes appointed Mrs. William F. Robie of Prince George’s County, the president of the Maryland Congress of P-TAs, to fill Schifter’s place and then appointed Schifter to fill out the term of Mrs. Cole, who had been reappointed in 1962 for another seven years. Mrs. Cole and Schifter are the state board’s two most outspoken advocates of complete desegregation. In mak ing way for Schifter’s return to the board in her place, Mrs. Cole ex pressed a desire to be given a place on a newly authorized board of state college trustees, the members of which will be appointed in June. other hand, “we have not deliberately endeavored to take children of one race and place them in with another.” The combination of Dr. McElroy’s questions and the parental report marks the first significent desegrega tion stir in the Baltimore School Board since racial barriers were dropped in the faU of 1954. Civic Interest Group Pickets Eastern College Picketing of a private college in Baltimore was started just prior to April 1 and a spokesman for the Civic Interest Group said it will continue until Negro students were admitted. The target of the group was Eastern College, a private law and commercial institution in Baltimore’s showplace historic square, Mount Vernon Place. The Baltimore Afro-American re ported that picketing demonstrations were undertaken after Negro students had sought admission to the college and were told, “We’re not considering such applications at this time.” Albert Einstein, administrative vice- president of the college, was quoted as saying that the desegregation question would be taken up at the June meet ing of the college trustees. Baltimore Board Appoints Report Study Committee DELAWARE Bill to Reduce Districts May Face 2 Big Hurdles DOVER bill in the General Assem bly to reduce Delaware’s school districts from 87 to 30 may face legal as well as legislative hurdles. Opposition, on legal grounds, was voiced by Louis L. Redding, the Negro attorney who pressed the legal fight to desegregate Delaware schools. Earlier, several small districts ap peared at a public hearing held by the House Education Committee of the General Assembly to speak against the bfil. Redding charged that House Substi tute 1 for HB 20, which omits the three county Negro high schools from the consolidation program, would per petuate segregation. The lawyer said the bill, sponsored by the State Board of Education, is un constitutional and does not conform with the order from the U.S. Civil Court of Appeals for the 3rd District, which called for a “wholly integrated” school system. Elimination of the Negro county high schools from consolidation would tend to discourage Negro students from en rolling in “non-segregated schools in their own community,” Redding said. Small districts which send repre sentatives to oppose the bill included Arden, Hartly and Frederica. Speaking in favor of the bill was the Delaware State Education Association, the Congress of Parents and Teachers, and the Delaware League of Women Voters. Schoolmen Negro Ex-Educator Seeking Election To School Board A retired Negro educator will seek election to a white school board at Laurel, apparently becoming the first member of his race to run for such an office in the history of Sussex County. James C. Webb Sr., who became principal of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar (Negro) school in Laurel in 1927, will be opposed in his bid by three white men, including Rudolph B. Hast ings, the incum bent. Others in the race are Edward B. Blevins and C. Robert Ellis. The election is May 11. Webb, who re tired in 1952 as chief school offi cer of William C. Jason High School in Georgetown, Del., is a graduate of Morgan State College and received a masters degree from Columbia. Webb is a member of the State Hu man Relations Commission, appointed last year by Gov. Elbert N. Carvel. ★ ★ ★ New Superintendent Knows Problems Wilmington’s new superintendent of schools, although a product of Roches ter, N.Y., will be no stranger to deseg regation problems. Dr. Paul E. Smith, named to replace the retiring Dr. Ward I. Miller in Wil mington, will be leaving a city school system which is charged in a federal court suit with de facto segregation. Smith, who will receive a starting salary of $20,000 at Wilmington, was assistant superintendent of schools at Rochester. While the Rochester schools have not had a segregation policy, compulsory attendance at neighborhood schools re sulted in at least four schools being more than 90 per cent Negro and others having a majority of Negro children. The federal court suit, filed last spring, is pending. Rochester’s current school popula tion is 43,000, about three times that of Wilmington’s. At one time enrollment climbed above 50,000, but dropped to 33,000 by 1947. Since that time it has steadily in creased, largely because of the influx of migrant workers from the South, including many Negroes. Dr. Smith will face a similar problem in Wilmington, where the proportion of Delaware Highlights A bill in the General Assembly to cut Delaware’s school districts from 87 to 30 faces both legislative and legal barriers. A retired Negro educator filed for a post on a white school board in Laurel in Sussex County, appar ently the first of his race to do so. Registration for Negro pupils en tering the first grade at white schools, and others desiring to trans fer, is scheduled for May. Dr. Paul E. Smith, of Rochester, N.Y., has been named superinten dent of schools at Wilmington at a salary of $20,000. white to Negro pupils has steadily de clined over the past few years. Dr. Miller has consistently warned that this is the major problem facing the school system. Negro Registration For White Schools Slated This Month Registration of Negro pupils desiring to enter the first grade at white schools, and other Negroes who wish to transfer in higher grades, will be held this month. The registration will be the third of its kind in compliance with a federal court order which rejected the state’s grade-a-year desegregation plan and opened all grades to all races. The grade-a-year plan was accepted by the District Court in Wilmington but rejected by the U.S. Court of Ap peals for the Third District in Phila delphia. The final desegregation plan reads in part: “In order to carry out the mandate of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District and the U. S. District Court in an orderly manner, the num ber of Negroes desiring to transfer to and enroll in white schools in the dis trict in which they reside must be as certained for the proper organization of the receiving schools . . .” The State Board of Education, in April, sent to all school administra tors a letter advising them that no tices of registration must be posted in at least five conspicuous places, in cluding the schoolhouse. Registration notices were prepared by a number of school districts, but none received at newspaper offices mentioned the court mandate or the fact that Negro students may apply for registration at white schools. Initial registration totals must be submitted to the State Department of Public Instruction no later than May 24. The report must include a statement of the publicity given to the registra tion dates. Miscellaneous Assembly Votes To Leave SREB Delaware’s 122nd General Assembly has passed a resolution to withdraw from the Southern Regional Education Board. But the state must remain a mem ber of the compact for two more years. Both the House and Senate passed the formal resolution without opposi tion. The resolution was passed in the House under suspension of the rules, without being referred to committee as is required of joint resolutions. For the record, it was House Joint Resolution 3, sponsored by Rep. Nor man A. Eskridge, majority leader. “This compact may be a good thing,” he said, “but it is hard to see where it has provided any benefits for Dela ware.” House Speaker Sherman W. Tribbitt concurred: “To my knowledge it has never pro vided any benefit, directly or indirectly, to any Delaware student.”
