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PAGE 16—JUNE, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
KENTUCKY
Negroes at UK
Made Eligible
For Athletics
LOUISVILLE
he University of Kentucky
Athletic Board May 29 made
Negroes eligible to play on its in
tercollegiate teams and therefore
eligible to compete regularly
against other Southeastern Con
ference squads, none of which are
desegregated.
UK’s action was the first major step
toward desegregating the conference
which has no rule barring Negroes but
has been traditionally all-white.
The board’s action came one month
after it had adopted a policy of deseg
regated athletics. It had postponed im
plementation of the new policy until
UK President Frank Dickey could con
sult with presidents of other SEC
schools (May SSN).
It was reported that only four of the
12 SEC members expressed strong ob
jections to playing against desegregated
teams (some already have competed
against Negroes on non-conference
teams). UK officials seemed confident
that neither UK nor the objecting
schools would be forced out of the
conference. However, some schedule
adjustments were anticipated.
An estimated 170 Negro students are
eligible to try out for teams.
As a practical matter, however, the
decision apparently is up to the
coaches. Since all football and basket
ball grants-in-aid for the current
school year are committed, no Negro
athletes could be recruited for those
major sports until 1963-64.
A player signed up in 1963-64 would
be a freshman in 1964-65 and not eli
gible for varsity play until 1965-66.
The new decision of the athletics
board was the fulfillment of a wish
for Dr. Dickey, its chairman, who
leaves UK July 1
to become exec
utive director of
the Southern As
sociation of Col
leges and Sec
ondary Schools.
Some 18 months
ago he had pre
dicted that de
segregated com
petition in the
SEC was inevi
table and ex
pressed hope that UK could provide
leadership toward that end (SSN, Jan.,
1962).
Momentum for desegregation was
initiated early this spring by the cam
pus newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel
and added to by the faculty and some
trustees as well as by daily newspa
pers (SSN, April).
Early reports from around the con
ference indicated that desegregated
UK teams would encounter little or
no difficulty in scheduling games with
Vanderbilt, Tulane, Georgia Tech,
Georgia and Florida.
The other SEC members are Ten
nessee, Auburn, Alabama, Louisiana
State, Mississippi and Mississippi State.
Mississippi State broke with precedent
last March and, over the objections of
some state officials, permitted its bas
ketball team to compete against Ne
groes in the National Collegiate Ath
letics Association basketball tourna
ment.
Community Action
Law Hits Business
Discrimination
An ordinance prohibiting racial dis
crimination by businesses catering to
the general public was passed by the
Louisville Board of Aldermen May 14.
It is the first law of its kind in Ken
tucky and perhaps the first in the
South.
The Louisville Human Relations
Commission, which submitted the ordi
nance to the aldermen, has been con
cerned primarily about discrimination
against Negroes in restaurants, theaters,
bowling alleys, hotels and motels.
The ordinance provides for fines up
to $100 for violations. After three con
victions, the city could seek an injunc
tion against a violator. Failure to obey
the injunction could result in a jail
sentence.
Passage of the ordinance, which was
backed by Republican Mayor William
Kentucky Highlights
The University of Kentucky an
nounced that effective immediately,
Negro athletes may play on its in
tercollegiate teams. The move broke
precedent over a wide area of the
South, opening the way for desegre
gated competition in the Southeast
ern Conference.
Leaders of the Deep South deseg
regation movement praised Louis
ville’s school-desegregation achieve
ments, but said the city has not done
enough in race relations since.
The first antidiscrimination law in
Kentucky prohibiting businesses
from refusing to serve Negroes was
passed by the Louisville Board of
Aldermen.
O. Cowger, stimulated a drive to get a
similar statewide law through the 1964
General Assembly.
What They Say
Louisville Urged
To Continue Drive
For Desegregation
Leaders of the Negro desegregation
movement in the South came to Ken
tucky to speak at a meeting sponsored
by the Louisville Special Committee
for Birmingham and said Louisville is
not making enough biracial progress
beyond school desegregation.
At a press conference, Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. said the city has “made
some meaningful strides in race rela
tions” in the integration of schools,
but that “no one should feel so much
progress has been made that he can
sit by the wayside.
“The twin evils of housing and job
opportunities are rampant in all areas
of the nation,” he said. “I’m sure they
are alive in Louisville .. .”
The Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, treas
urer of Dr. King’s Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, said: “Louis
ville made one step with school inte
gration but has not made enough
steps.”
Dr. King also said President Ken
nedy should take stronger action to end
racial discrimination.”
In his speech May 29 to an audience
of about 5,000, Dr. King declared that
the Negro, through education, urbani
zation and travel, “is no longer willing
to accept injustice.”
Under Survey
Negro Students
Gain In Louisville
Movement of Negro families from
rural areas and small towns and white
family moves to suburbs are changing
racial ratios
among school-age
children in Louis
ville, the Board
of Education was
told.
S u p t. Samuel
V. Noe, reporting
on the annual
school district
census of chil
dren aged 6 to 18,
gave the board
figures showing:
• The Negro school-age population
has increased 88.7 per cent in the past
10 years while the white school-age
population has declined 9.5 per cent.
• The number of Negro children
rose from 10,397 to 19,618 while the
number of white children dropped
from 52,555 to 47,456.
• The proportion of Negro children
jumped from 16.5 per cent of the total
in 1953 to 29.2 per cent this year.
The census figures are not entirely
comparable with enrollment figures be
cause some children attend private and
parochial schools, and some over age
16 are not in schooL
Political Action
Breathitt Beats
Chandler in Primary
Edward T. (Ned) Breathitt, a 38-
year-old lawyer, swept to victory over
former Gov. and U.S. Sen. A. B. (Hap
py) Chandler, 64, in the Democratic
gubernatorial primary May 28.
In a campaign in which both the
chief candidates courted Negro sup
port (May SSN), the main issues were
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City School Head
System Has No Discrimination
OKLAHOMA CITY
ACIAL DISCRIMINATION is IlOt
practiced in the Oklahoma
City public school system, its
superintendent testified in May.
Dr. Jack F. Parker appeared as a
witness in a federal court suit (Dowell
v. Board of Education) brought by the
father of a Negro student who sought
transfer to a desegregated high school.
Trial of the suit, which tests the
school board’s right to set up attend
ance areas and a special transfer pol
icy, was held May 9 in U. S. District
Court at Oklahoma City.
District Judge Luther Bohanon took
the case under advisement and asked
for attorneys’ briefs. The school board
was given 30 days to file one and Dow
ell’s attorneys, five days thereafter to
reply.
Dr. Parker, last witness in the trial,
denied specifically that Robert Dowell
was refused a transfer to Northeast
High School because of his race.
This was one of the allegations in
the suit brought by his father, Dr. A.
L. Dowell, Negro optometrist.
Young Dowell eventually was grant
ed a transfer, after he amended his
application to state that he wanted to
enroll in an electronics course not
available at Douglass High School.
The Dowells live in Pleasant Hill, a
suburban school district that does not
offer classes beyond the eighth grade.
Young Dowell received a legal trans
fer into the Oklahoma City system and
Oklahoma Highlights
Oklahoma City’s school superin
tendent denied on a federal court
witness stand that racial discrimi
nation is practiced in his school sys
tem.
Two Negro pupils were reported
enrolled in an elementary school in
Midwest City, which has no Negro
population but serves children of
airmen stationed at Tinker Air Force
Base.
Sand Springs apparently would be
the only Oklahoma community af
fected by a pending congressional
bill to withhold federal impacted-
area aid from segregated schools.
The Oklahoma Senate passed a
human rights commission bill that
would give Negro teachers a vehicle
to protest loss of their jobs when
school districts desegregate.
The first Negro president of the
student council of Oklahoma City’s
Central High School was elected in
May.
Dr. Jack Parker
The denial was specific.
was assigned to Douglass, which has
an all-Negro student body.
After attending Douglass for a year
he sought the transfer to Northeast.
Although it was finally granted, he en
rolled in a parochial school instead.
Under the school board policy a stu
dent may be transferred from a school
where his race is in the minority to a
school solely of his race or where his
race is in the majority. The transfer
must be “for the best interest of the
child as a pupil.”
Legislative Action
Bill Would Permit
Job Loss Protest
By Negro Teacher
A human rights bill that would give
Negro teachers a means of protesting
loss of their jobs when school districts
desegregate has passed the Oklahoma
Senate.
The bill, creating a human rights
commission, also would place the state
for the first time officially on record
as opposed to discrimination.
Author of the bill is State Sen. Fred
Harris, Lawton Democrat, who during
May announced his candidacy for the
U.S. Senate seat once held by the late
Robert S. Kerr.
A similar bill originating in the state
House of Representatives also would
set up a human rights commission but
would not go as far as the Senate
measure.
The House bill, introduced by Rep.
Red Andrews, Oklahoma City Demo
crat, makes no mention of state em
ployment. The Senate bill, prohibits
discrimination in any department or
agency of the State of Oklahoma. Pre
sumably this would apply to public
school teachers since their boards of
education receive state aid. The bill
provides for an investigation by the
personnel board into complaints filed
by the human rights commission.
394 Jobs Lost
Fewer than 30 Negro teachers are
believed to be on desegregated school
faculties in Oklahoma. An estimated
394 Negro teachers have lost their jobs
since Oklahoma schools began deseg
regating in 1955.
In most cases, when a district abol
ished its separate school and put Ne
gro and white pupils together, only
the white teachers were retained.
Harris’s bill provides for nine mem
bers of the human rights commission
to be appointed to three-year terms by
the governor, with
the advice and
consent of the
Senate.
With passage of
the bill the legis
lature would de
clare its policy
that any “inhibit-
i n g conditions”
caused by racial,
ethnic or religious
factors are “mat
ters of concern to
to the state government.”
The commission would work toward
removing friction, eliminating discrimi
nation and promoting unity and un
derstanding among all the people of
Oklahoma.
The commission would be empow
ered to hold hearings, serve in a con
sulting capacity to communities, or
ganizations and businesses desiring its
help and conduct research projects
concerning discrimination in Okla
homa.
Passage Recommended
The Harris bill (SB 273) was passed
by the Senate May 13 with emergency
clause attached. It went into the House,
received a “do-pass” recommendation
from the Government Reform Commit
tee and was referred to general order .
(House as a whole) May 22.
The Andrews version (HB 929) aS “
sets up a human rights commission,
would have 11 members—one ft® ^
each congressional district and five 3
large, all appointed by the £ oveI T’° r ' t0
The commission’s job would b®
encourage fair treatment for, to fo® ^
mutual understanding and respec
among and to discourage discrimina
against any racial or ethnic group
its members. -
The bill passed the House May *•
Schoolmen
Only One District Faces Loss
★ ★ ★
The Oklahoma City Council create^
May 28 a committee on community^
lations. It was seen as a long-r^,
move to avoid racial problems m
lahoma City.
Of U.S. Impact Area Aid
Only one Oklahoma district appar
ently will be affected if Congress pass
es a pending bill to cut off federal
impacted-area aid to segregated
schools.
Sand Springs, a manufacturing com
munity west of Tulsa, has a biracial
district but no desegregated schools. Its
superintendent maintains this is be
cause Negro students have never asked
to transfer into white schools.
Few districts outside of “Little
Dixie”—the southeast section of Okla
homa—still operate separate schools
for Negro and white students. Clar
ence DeWees of the state department
of education finance division said he
knows of no districts in that section
receiving impacted-area aid.
Sand Springs received $28,000 in fed-
youth vs. age, Breathitt’s promise to
continue the programs of incumbent
Gov. Bert Combs, and Chandler’s
pledge to revoke the 3 per cent sales
tax as it applied to food, clothing and
medicine.
In the November election, Breathitt
will face Republican Louie B. Nunn.
Racial matters are not expected to be
at issue.
eral impacted-area aid in 1961-62. The
total school budget this year is $1,120,-
000.
★ ★ ★
The presence of two Negro pupils in
an elementary school in Midwest City,
long considered to be exclusively white,
was disclosed as the 1962-63 year end
ed.
This raised the total of desegregated
school districts in Oklahoma to 196.
Oscar Rose, Midwest City superin
tendent, revealed that the district had
Negro pupils five years ago but the
fact was never publicized.
Midwest City is a prosperous com
munity that sprang up with the de
velopment of Tinker Air Force Base,
southeast of Oklahoma City, during
World War II. It never has had a Ne
gro population. However, Negroes often
are stationed at Tinker.
The two Negro pupils enrolled in
Midwest City in 1962-63 are children
of an Air Force sergeant. One is a
second-grader and the other, a third-
grader at Townsend Elementary
School.
Townsend serves all the school-age
children who live on the Air Force
base. It had a student body of 851 as
the school year ended.
Miscellaneous
Student Council Get ?
1st Negro President
Oklahoma City’s Centr ® 1 Q ,- fias
School, desegregated since
its first Negro student cu
dent- , ugb tef
>ria Hobbs, a junior and daw,
e Rev. and Mrs. J. W. Hobbs,
sd in May. . (of-
ie white students put her t .
„ . i n/r- _ fV>nger, v
, 1 said Miss Maybelle Conger, ^
Central speech teacher an
fidante
dents
of ***:
“She’s
■l”
very sweet t
She
groes
lesser
sald held
have B
offices
Central’s stu
council
past.
The
girl’s
ide®‘
the
vie'
lOft
iUp J& 1
tory was tne ^
be
es
Ce®'
impressive,
Conger saidi
nss hobbs cause Ne?‘„.
represent less than half th
student body. a cc oir/
is Hobbs also is a ch
(See OKLAHOMA, Page lO