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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.”