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OKLAHOMA
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY. 1963—PAGE 13
NEA Principals Demand
Discrii
ination End
OKLAHOMA CITY
A national principals’ group
demanded an end to racial
discrimination after some Negro
convention delegates were turned
away from motels where they had
reservations.
A strongly-worded resolution was
passed unanimously by the 4,000 dele
gates attending a meeting here of the
National Education Association’s de
partment of elementary school prin
cipals during April.
Robert Eaves, executive secretary,
said at least 15 Negroes were turned
away from motels in Oklahoma City
where they had confirmed reservations.
Others had to move from an out
lying motel to a downtown hotel be
cause no restaurants in the motel area
would serve them, he said.
This happened as delegates arrived
for the four-day convention early in
April. The furor appeared to evaporate
when the convention and visitors’ bu
reau of the Oklahoma City Chamber
of Commerce quickly found alternate
accommodations for the Negro dele
gates.
But on the second day of the con
vention a resolution was adopted which
stated:
“We again strongly urge educators
to direct their efforts toward devel
oping that complete interracial under
standing which alone can achieve hu
man dignity, opportunity and happiness
for all Americans.”
Eaves said the NEA, parent organi
zation to the elementary school prin
cipals’ group, took a similar stand in
1955 and reaffirmed it every year
through 1959. For the past three years,
however, no such resolution has been
brought to the floor, presumably be
cause it already was on the books as
the department’s policy.
Eaves said the school principals met
in Oklahoma City only on the assur
ance there would be no racial discrimi
nation.
Louis F. Evans, manager of the
chamber’s convention and visitors’ bu
reau, expressed regret. He said the
alleged discrimination occurred in
“isolated instances.”
There is no way of knowing how
many Negroes were well pleased with
iheir reception in Oklahoma City, but
I know personally that more than 200
were placed with no difficulty,” he said.
Marian Cranmore, president of the
department, apologized personally to
the Negroes who encountered difficulty.
Community Action
Organization Asks
Oklahoma City
To End Housing Bars
f cor nmunity organization has called
3n end to race-based housing bar-
" ers ® Oklahoma City to prevent con-
n ration of any racial, religious or
ethnic group.
ouf S f UC ^ a suggestion were carried
0 f ’ " would result in desegregation
many more Oklahoma City
Public schools.
^ special committee of the Urban
of re ^ eas ed in April the results
• SI ’L' mon th survey of Negro hous-
5 m Oklahoma City.
, In its
th at r feport the committee concluded
eoumf 1111 blighted conditions ac-
muni vT the crime and com-
munity 6 < ** seases m the Negro com-
Unsatisfactory Answer
■nto ''tv, 0 conc l ut led the Negro migration
City 6 nor iheast part of Oklahoma
^ e groe*^ S answer satisfactorily the
for t i s bousing problem, especially
Oklaho 6 ow 7 income family. Most of
in repJ^f Oity’s school desegregation
area. nt years has occurred in this
Th
effort s S ? ct ‘ on has also seen organized
10 renia' encour age white residents
Elation 1° promote harmonious
Neg rn t ..fween whites and incoming
ta Milies.
jPHk^ommittee making what was de-
“PpraLsai^ 3 * •^ rst accurate > factual
beaded u ° f m M or ity housing” was
City att y Arnold Fagin, Oklahoma
.Tlv
attorney.
^egro ^ n f y showed that, while the
10 yeaiV atl0n has nearly doubled in
” >e groes ]' 6 ® eo S ra Pbical area in which
lately fv, 1Ve has remained approxi-
L tl d I960 th slze ' Between 1950
a °hia p , e Ne g r o population in Okla-
x 1,017 - Nmi lumped from 22,664 to
^egrocg j. y 7a Per cent of the city’s
re ferr er i 1 1Ve m the area commonly
Mi ^ti 0n aS of the “ east ai de”
of some Negro families
Oklahoma Highlights
The alleged failure of some motels
to honor Negro delegates’ reserva
tions led a national school principals’
convention to take a strong stand
against racial discrimination.
An Urban League committee called
for an end to race-based housing bar
riers in Oklahoma City to prevent
concentration of any racial, religious
or ethnic group.
The date of a federal court trial
of the Robert Dowell racial discrim
ination suit against the Oklahoma
City school board was set for May
9.
across the traditional Northeast 23rd
Street “boundary” has led to the de
segregation of a high school and four
elementary schools in the area in the
last few years.
The remaining 25 per cent of the
Negro population, according to the sur
vey, is scattered among three other
smaller areas—southtown, westtown
and Walnut Grove.
The committee said “containment” of
the Negro population has created a
slum and blighted district that “har
bors every social and physical illness.”
Despite new housing additions designed
to relieve the bulging boundaries and
population, it declared, a congested
housing situation and inadequate
homes still exist for Negroes.
Conditions Cited
The committee spelled out some of
these conditions:
Some housing doesn’t meet basic
minimum standards for dignified hu
man habitation; at least half of the
dwellings occupied by Negroes are
without private baths; one-third are
without running water; one house in
three is totally unsanitary due to over
crowded conditions; rent averages
$28.80 a month for a single-family
dwelling, and owner-occupied units
have an average market value of
around $3,500.
Some Negroes, seeking a more de
sirable environment for their families,
have succeeded in crossing traditional
“boundaries” and moved into formerly
all-white neighborhoods, the commit
tee’s report related.
Practically all of this movement has
occurred in the northeast part of the
city.
The committee suggested that artifi
cial race-based housing barriers be
removed to prevent the concentration
of any racial, religious or ethnic group.
Removal of such barriers, the report
said, would reduce social tensions and
provide for utilization of the “total
Oklahoma City housing market for all
of our citizens.”
Economically sufficient Negroes, now
restricted, then would have the oppor
tunity of choice, thus providing mod
erate and lower income housing for a
large segment of the Negro population,
the committee said.
The constant in-flow of Negroes has
strained present boundaries, the com
mittee observed, adding that urban re
newal will present even more prob
lems in relocating families.
Finally, the committee said good
housing alone is not the answer. The
solution to the Negro housing problem
and its accompanying social ills, it de
clared, must come from better oppor
tunities for Negroes in employment and
education and participation in over-all
community life.
Under Survey
Trial Date Set
On Suit Charging
Transfers Unfair
Trial was set for May 9 in a feder
al court suit charging racial discrimi
nation by the Oklahoma City school
board in administration of its transfer
policy.
The case of Dotveil v. Board of edu
cation was scheduled to be heard
by U. S. District Judge Luther Bohan-
on of Oklahoma City.
A Negro student, Robert Dowell,
through his father, Dr. A. L. Dowell,
an optometrist, contends the school
board has been guilty of racial dis
crimination in maintaining attendance
areas and a policy of special transfers
in the Oklahoma City school system.
Meanwhile, the board of education,
on advice of its attorney, Walter A.
Lybrand, officially adopted April 10
what he said has always been its policy
on special transfers for students whose
race is in the minority at a school. He
said developments during the Dowell
case prompted his recommendation.
The board’s resolution states:
“It is the policy of the school board
to consider, pass upon and to practical
ly always grant the applications of
parents for the transfer of their chil
dren from schools where the children’s
race is in the minority to a school or
schools solely of the child’s race or in
which the child’s race is in the ma
jority, providing that transfers under
policy last above described be granted
only when it is the opinion of the par
ents of the child and the district that
such transfer is necessary for the best
interest of the child as a pupil.”
Lybrand told SSN this has been the
board’s policy but the students in seek
ing transfers have not always stated
the reason on their applications. He
added:
“Since the opposing attorneys (in the
Dowell suit) brought up the point in
the court case, we recommended the
board pass a resolution to require that
in the future on every application it
be stated exactly why the student is
asking for a transfer.
“We’ve instructed personnel to do
what they’d always done but to keep
a written record of it. It’s highly tech
nical, mainly to give proof, but we
wanted it in writing so the issue
wouldn’t come up again.”
Under Survey
Rights Committee
Must Meet Again
Another meeting of the Oklahoma
civil rights committee is necessary be
fore its study of school desegregation
in the state is complete.
Savoie Lottinville, chairman, said the
group met April 23 but Dr. Jack Dod
son, University of Oklahoma sociology
professor, had not completed his sta
tistical analysis of data gathered in the
survey. All the statistical work is done
except for that involving Tulsa, Lottin
ville said.
The committee’s next meeting is
scheduled May 22.
Lottinville said the group, an ad
visory committee of the United States
Civil Rights Commission, will work on
racial problems in housing next.
One problem, he said, exists in Okla
homa City, where some Negro delegates
to the national convention of the De
partment of Elementary School Princi
pals of the National Education Asso
ciation found motel reservations not
honored.
He said the committee will get in
formation on which facilities are de
segregated and statements of policies
from hotel and restaurant associations
in a move to avoid such situations in
the future.
In The Colleges
Langston University
Again Defended
Langston University’s president, who
only two months ago said criticism of
the institution appeared to be at low
ebb, has spoken out in its defense again.
Dr. William H. Hale testified before
the State Senate Higher Education
Committee. Members were critical of
Langston’s per capita cost, highest of
any Oklahoma college.
They wanted to know why Lang
ston’s per capita cost is $924.41. By
contrast the figure for Northeastern
State College at Tahlequah is only
$355.81.
Dr. Hale replied: “Because of our
isolated condition and the economic
level of the parents of our students,
we have to supply more support for
our students.”
Langston is the only institution with
an all-Negro enrollment in the Okla
homa system of higher education.
Dr. Hale said Langston had to fur
nish more student support because
there are no local jobs for them, and
that moving the university to a larger
city would remedy that situation.
TEXAS
Court Approves Fort Worth Plan
AUSTIN
S. District Judge Leo Brew
ster approved a grade-a-year
desegregation program for Fort
Worth, the state’s largest still-seg
regated school system. (Flax v.
Potts-SSN April 1963 and previ
ous).
First-graders and adult education
night classes will be desegregated in
September 1963; second grade and
kindergarten in September 1964; and
other grades follow, one per year. The
school board had opposed desegrega
ting the adult classes and kindergarten
on the ground that they occupied a
different legal status because the stu
dents pay tuition.
On the other hand, the judge re
jected most of the proposals by attor
neys for Negro plaintiffs designed to
speed up desegregation. Atwood Mc
Donald, school board president, called
the court-approved plan “one that we
can live under.” There was no estimate
of how many Negroes will be attend
ing school next fall with white pupils
in Fort Worth. The system has about
55,000 white and 12,500 Negroes en
rolled.
Judge Brewster delayed kindergarten
desegregation for one year, saying it
would allow time to cool the tempers
of “extremists.”
“It is well known that there are
Texas Highlights
A federal judge modified Fort
Worth’s desegregation plan to start
in September.
Sterling City, in West Texas, de
segregated by board order. Four
other districts, with military installa
tions, announced plans to abolish
segregation in September, following
previous announcements by two simi
larly placed districts.
The American Association of Uni
versity Professors censured Sam
Houston State College for dismissing
Dr. Rupert C. Koeninger, partly for
his pro-integration activity.
University of Texas Student As
sembly decided against withholding
annual activity fees from the athletic
department as a protest against bar
ring Negroes from varsity teams.
adult extremists on both sides of the
segregation issue who put their own
prejudices ahead of the welfare of the
school children and the community,”
Brewster commented. “To desegregate
kindergarten classes at the beginning
would make the small children pawns
of those extremists.”
The court knocked out a school board
proposal to require that each Negro
enrolled in a formely all-white school
must report first to the principal of
the Negro school which otherwise he
would be attending. Judge Brewster
termed this discriminatory.
Under the court’s order, “each first-
grade student, regardless of race or
color, shall be permitted to go to the
elementary school nearest his home for
the purpose of enrolling just as if there
had never been any racial segrega
tion. . . ”
Schoolmen
Sterling City Ends
Segregation Policy
The board of trustees at Sterling City
in West Texas voted to abolish its seg
regation policy effective immediately.
However, reports to the Texas Educa
tion Agency did not indicate that the
district has any Negro students; only
231 whites enrolled.
★ ★ ★
The U.S. Department of Health, Edu
cation and Welfare reported in Wash
ington that four more Texas districts
had indicated they will desegregate in
The Region
(Continued From Page 1)
“qualified” Negroes as day students,
beginning in the fall of 1964, while the
board of trustees of Mary Baldwin Col
lege, a Presbyterian women’s school at
Staunton, Va., voted to consider admis
sion of applicants without regard to
race.
Several Negro undergraduates are
expected to be enrolled at Duke Uni
versity at Durham, N.C., this fall, under
a policy adopted by its board of trus
tees last year.
Pending Court Cases
In developments in federal court
cases still pending, hearings were de
layed until this month in three Missis
sippi suits while the U.S. District Court
set May 9 as the date for hearing a suit
charging racial discrimination by the
Oklahoma City school board in admin
istration of its transfer policy.
A federal judge at New Orleans or
dered the Orleans Parish School Board
to enroll first- and second-grade pupils
on the basis of unitary nonracial at
tendance districts. Oral arguments on
the board’s proposal for redistricting
zones were set for May 11.
Presented to federal courts for con
sideration were plans by the Freder
icksburg, Va., school board, which pro
posed grade-a-year desegregation, and
by the Durham City Board of Educa
tion in North Carolina, which offered
a proposal for automatic promotion of
children from two all-Negro elementary
schools to predominantly white junior
high schools.
Federal Judge Harrold Carswell re
served judgment in the Leon County
desegregation suit in Florida.
Negro plaintiffs asked federal courts
to reject desegregation plans proposed
by school boards in Roanoke, Va., and
Frankfort, Ky.
In Alabama, U.S. District Court re
fused to order the Mobile school board
to present a desegregation plan within
30 days and the Huntsville Board of
Education asked dismissal of a suit
seeking desegregation of its school sys
tem.
A pre-trial hearing was set for May
10 in a federal court suit filed by the
U.S. Department of Justice against
Prince George County School Board
in Virginia.
State Legislatures
The legislatures of South Carolina,
Delaware, Florida and Texas considered
measures related, directly and indirect
ly, to the school segregation issue.
Attention on school-race legislation
appeared to be the greatest in South
Carolina, where a tuition-grant bill
awaited action by the House of Repre
sentatives. The House in April passed
a measure eliminating “class actions” in
school transfer suits in state courts
while the Senate rejected a proposal to
require segregation by sex in the public
schools.
On April 25 and 26, Attorney General
Kennedy conferred with the governors
of Alabama, Georgia and South Caro
lina during a tour which took him to
all three states. The reception with
which he was met was varied.
In the field of athletics, athletic
director Bobby Dodd announced that
Georgia Tech would play against bi-
racial teams in Atlanta in the future,
and the University of Kentucky adopted
a policy of desegregated athletics.
The Maryland Board of Education
upheld the “freedom-of-choice” policies
of Prince George’s county school dis
trict.
Negro attorney, Earl J. Amedee of
New Orleans, announced he will be a
candidate for governor in the Louisiana
primary in December and Earl J.
Wright, a Negro labor leader, said he
will seek election as lieutenant gover
nor.
September rather than lose federal
funds for teaching children of military
personnel.
These districts are Mineral Wells,
Palo Alto County, with 2,819 white and
170 Negro children in average daily
attendance; Burkbumett, Wichita
County, 2,142 white and 64 Negroes;
Potter County CSD No. 3 (near Ama
rillo), 644 white; and Connally ISD,
McLennan County, 1,396 white. Ne
groes from Potter CSD No. 3 apparent
ly are now being transferred to Ama
rillo (which is desegregated) and
those from Connally ISD taught at
Waco, which has a dual school system,
but is under attack in federal court.
Abilene ISD and Colorado CSD (Del
Valle, suburb of Austin) also listed by
the federal agency for desegregation,
previously had taken steps to abolish
segregation. (SSN, February.)
Another system receiving “impacted
area” funds from the federal govern
ment launched a study on the effect of
(See TEXAS, Page 15)