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MISSOURI JUNE, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—PAGE 17 St. Louis Publishes Detailed Desegregation Information , I l i i t i i ' r i- of /- 1- r- its its a- ed cy se, on it- ler )m | at to I ter ect ion or I ted re- ige >k' ST. LOUIS etailed information on de segregation of St. Louis pub lic schools was published in May by Supt. of Instruction Philip J. Hickey. The document was called “Replies to 136 Statements, Ac cusations and Criticisms of De segregation Policies and Practices of the St. Louis Board of Educa tion and School Administration. It was compiled in response to charg es of “resegregation” and other com plaints brought against the schools by a 500-member biracial neighborhood sroun. the West End Community Con ference. Association, and bv Negro school b°a-d members, politicians and others (SSN, May). In a background statement the re port noted that the board of education adopted a desegregation program on June 22, 1954, a month and five days after the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in public schools. The program was carried out in 1955, it said, and was implemented in accord ance with the “neighborhood school” concept. “There is no indication that the Su- Dreme Court, in its decision outlawing racial segregation in the public schools, had any intention of destroying the concept of the “neighborhood school,” the foreword said. It contended that the January 1963 District Court ruling in the Gary, Indi ana, case (Bell v. School City of Gary, Civil No. 3346) held that the Supreme Court decision “did not render the neighborhood school illegal even in cir cumstances in which residential pat terns substantially precluded integrated enrollments.” Decision Quoted The Gary decision, handed down by District Judge George N. Beamer is quoted in full in an annex to the St. Louis report. Much of the criticism of St. Louis nublic schools, concerns the fact that those in St. Louis’s West End—an area of heavy Negro residential expansion in the last decade—have become pre ponderantly Negro in enrollment. Critics have said board of education policies have aided this process rather than seeking to avoid it. Supt. Hickey, Deputy Supt. William Kottmever and the majority of the board of education, which now has three Negro members, have contended that ‘resegregation” is not the consequence of school policies but of residential seg regation patterns over which the board has no control. A communication to Hickey from David J. Pittman, Washington Univer sity sociologist, said the West End area was more than 98 per cent white in 1950 and 36 per cent white in 1960. The con clusion was made that “the situation in the West End today is the consequence of the basic problem—the containment of Negroes in specified areas by dis criminatory practices in housing.” Vigorous Denial One of the charges made by the West End Community Conference was that, while the conference was trying to maintain an interracial community, white parents were encouraged by school officials to transfer their children out of the district. The report made a vigorous denial. “White parents have never been en couraged to transfer their children out of the local district,” the report said. “On the contrary, literally thousands of requests for permits and transfers have been refused. Not one transfer has ever been granted when the reason for the request has been racial prej udice.” The report quoted extensively from the St. Louis study made by Wylie H. Davis to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1962. Davis said he had looked over the elementary school transfers granted in the period 1955-1961 and that “the special transfer record does not establish a pattern of abused dis cretion, or even a significant degree of resegregation in result.” It was indicated in the board’s report that in 1955, when schools first were desegregated, Soldan High School in the West End was 74 per cent white and that the 12 elementary schools serv ing the West End had white propor tions ranging from 100 to 45 per cent. By last year Soldan’s enrollment had become 99 per cent Negro and the area’s elementary schools all were more than 90 per cent except for two—where Ne gro proportions were 52 and 72 per cent. The Report The report contained the following information on the present status of desegregation, based on 1962 estimates as to school populations and faculties: “The assignment of teachers to schools with respect to racial identity is an extremely complex and difficult problem. The Negro school population is now densely concentrated in a broad band through the central area of the city, from the (Mississippi) river to the city limits. “In the 1962 racial count, there were 49,154 whites and 60,109 Negro students, 2,245 white and 1,796 Negro professional (certified) employes in the St. Louis public schools. There were 27 elemen tary schools with no Negro pupils and North Carolina (Continued from Page 13) with members from the North in voting unanimously to eliminate the racial clause. Psi includes 4,000 members in campus and 14 alumni chapters. Miscellaneous High School Track moved to Greensboro this year. He is a senior at Grimsely. Winner of a Gen eral Motors scholarship. He plans to attend Duke University. ★ ★ ★ The Governor’s School for the Gifted, which will operate on a desegregated basis this summer at Salem College, will have a nine-member biracial lifr ha* pcil liter *as (of' yet- st»' . a rl' Nc- iJ> de#‘ the yiC' pore Jdis* be' o ei •oft' Star Quits Team h* Racial Protest GrL, S ! ar sc kool athlete quit t Greor, V’’ High School track team tra^ boro May 23 on the eve of Caj.f.1- me ? t sponsored by the Noi afion. 3 School Athletic Assoi Protest** ® oyte > who said he quit as ex Plain segregation in state athletic Greer,™ S stan d in a letter to t «JJ boro Record. He said: Ulent trwfb * re gret the disappoii awolvej • 6 * earn ’ I feel that everyo has been 3 part *h e system tl Rcgro au,? erpetrat * ng 311 injustice 6ven t ir, one winning r call y a \t ♦ igh can feel that he Can, PeteH 3 e .champion unless he 1 men. a gamst all qualified trac * Th ^ attemuf’ ' n on ^ er to emphasize a '"ell as to j- to tke discrimination, 5*® Peopl e d ^. 3te to Negroes that soi *hces f or ® Prepared to make se l ° take thk ?'! a rights, I have decid °Utributj on t 10n as the most definiti R°yte, Ca , n ma ke at present.” I 6 A ^San 6 f t ther ° nce worked 1 are d in r , s friends Service, u arlotte, but his fam Board of Governors. The school is financed by a $225,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and $225,000 from foun dations and industries in Winston- Salem. Dr. Alfonso Elder, president of North Carolina College in Durham, is the Ne gro member. Henry H. Ramm, a vice president and general counsel of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in Winston- Salem, is chairman of the board. Oklahoma (Continued from Page 16) panist and a cheerleader. She was se lected “Miss Basketball of 1962-63.” ★ ★ ★ Whitney M. Young Jr., executive di rector of the National Urban League, said in Oklahoma City May 27 that Oklahoma started out in the forefront of states that desegregated bot re mained in the token stage and now can expect a pushby Negroes for fur ther goals. Young said he is “distressed” by the absence of qualified Negro citizens in policy-making positions, “where they can fulfill the responsibilities of citi zenship.” Missouri Highlights The St. Louis Board of Education released a bound document replying to 136 statements, and criticisms of desegregation policies and practices of the board and administrative of ficials. The St. Louis Conference on Re ligion and Race was organized as a permanent association to combat ra cial discrimination in education, housing, employment and religion. A review to ascertain whether St. Louis public school districts can be re-zoned “so that factual integration will exist where factual segregation is now the rule” was urged by Rob ert A. Sedler, assistant professor at St. Louis University school of law. A suit seeking desegregation was filed in U.S. District Court against Deering Consolidated School District of Pemiscot County, in southeast Missouri’s “Bootheel” area. 34 elementary schools and two high schools with no white pupils. “Although there were 74 elementary schools and 10 high schools with both Negro and white pupils, there were only 10 elementary and four high schools which had substEmtial Negro- white enrollment living in the local district.” (Under a program to relieve over crowding until new schools can be built thousands of children, chiefly Negroes, are sent by bus in classroom units to schools in less crowded districts, often to otherwise all-white schools.) A citizens advisory committee headed by the Rev. Trafford P. Maher S.J., head of the department of education at St. Louis University, is looking into the “resegregation” charges and is expect ed to make its full report in mid-June. In an interim report, early in May, Father Maher’s committee indorsed a board of education proposal to move Harris Teachers College from the West End to the Vashon High school build ing in the Mill Creek Valley area. The proposal involves the closing of Vashon High, which is in an area that has lost population because of a massive urban redevelopment project, and the use of the present Harris building for seventh and eighth-grade elementary center. Strongly Protested The removal of Harris Teachers Col lege from the West End Community was protested by the West End Com- Community Action The St. Louis public schools “reseg regation” controversy stimulated the forming in April of a new biracial group called the St. Louis Ministers and Lay mens’ Association for Equal Opportuni ties. The new group gave impetus to the organization May 29 of a permanent St. Louis Conference on Religion and Race to fight discrimination in educa tion, housing, employment and other fields. Headed by the Rev. Dr. I. C. Peay, a Negro, pastor of Galilee Baptist Church, the association has as its co- chairman the Rev. William G. Lorenz, a white minister, the pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church. It has about 100 members including some six white min isters, and is said to have representation from all major Negro churches. Picketed Board The association was instrumental in picketing the St. Louis Board of Educa tion building April 23 (SSN May 1963) and in bringing about inclusion of a Negro minister, the Rev. Dr. Amos Ryce II, pastor of Lane Tabernacle C.M.E. Church, at the Sunday evening meeting of the St. Louis Conference on Religion and Race at Kiel Auditorium May 19. In a signed statement, the group headed by the Rev. Dr. Peay charged the majority of the St. Louis Board of Education with “resegregation of the public schools, a violation of the intent of the Supreme Court decision of 1954; and that this act of resegregation results in the reinforcement of the Negro ghetto, with all of its attendant evils.” The statement charged the board of education with gerrymandering of school districts, improper use of trans fers, segregation practices in the buss- munity Conference. The interim report of the Maher committee was sharply criticized by the Rev. John J. Hicks, vice president of the board of educa tion. The Rev. Mr. Hicks said the Harris proposal would “definitely add to de facto segregation in the West End.” On May 2, after the Maher committee had approved the action, the school board voted 8 to 4 to close Vashon High and move Harris Teachers College to the Vashon building. What They Say School Board Must Help Minority Child: Professor An assistant professor at St. Louis University school of law, Robert A. Sedler, told the St. Louis chapter of Frontiers International, Negro civic club, May 14 that in the light of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling a school board is under the constitutional duty to do everything possible, within rea son, to offer equal opportunities to the minority child. A school board is not required to maintain a racial balance in every school, and is not required to reshuffle school boundaries to bring about de segregation, Sedler said. But if the school system can educate a child on a desegregated basis, then, under the doctrine of “reasonable alternative,” he declared it must do so. Sedler called on the St. Louis Board of Education to reassign teachers in such a way that children at predomi nantly Negro schools are not taught solely by Negro teachers; to review school zones to determine whether they can be re-zoned to permit factual de segregation, and to permit Negro chil dren in factually segregated schools to transfer to desegregated schools where space is available. Legal Action Pemiscot County Parents File Suit Suit was filed May 6 to desegregate schools in Deering Consolidated School District of Pemiscot County, in south east Missouri. It is charged that implementation of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in that area has tended to lag behind the rest of the state. ing of Negro school children to other districts, discrimination in employment and in assignment of teachers. Also attacked was the board’s decision to build an athletic stadium at Soldan High School and remove Harris Teach ers College. “We are alarmed,” said the statement, “that there seems to be a policy of con tainment covertly discussed and de signed by the power structure of the St. Louis community to keep the Negro in his proverbial place...and that the majority of the board of education and the public school administration are instrumentalities to that end. “We therefore, call upon the St. Louis Board of education to adopt a positive policy which recognizes inte gration in education as a fundamental concept and value in educational and cultural development.” Among other things, the statement CEilled for “an immediate review by the administrative staff of all school and district boundaries and redistricting where necessary to achieve the maxi mum of racial integration.” It called for avoidance of new school sites that would contain pupils in al ready segregated areas, the complete integration of school children in the bussing program, optional transfer poli cies, changes in teacher placement poli cies and the hiring of qualified Negro personnel in nonteaching positions. The statement called on the board of education to provide leadership that would promote “better human relations among all St. Louisans.” It said: “Education should be designed to transmit a way of life. But the neigh borhood school is not good enough for America’s children if it does not fit them for tomorrow’s challenge.” The action (Earline Lewis v. Board of Education, Consolidated School Dis trict C-6, Deering, Pemiscot, Mo.) was filed on behalf of eight Negro children by their parents. Attorney for the plaintiffs is Clyde S. Cahill Jr., Negro attorney of St. Louis and chairman of the legal redress committee of the Mis souri NAACP. It is alleged that the Deering school system is operated on a racially segre gated basis, with one “white” elemen tary school at Deering and a two-room “Negro” elementary school at Goblar. It is alleged the Negro school has four teachers and 100 students and is sub stantially inferior to the white school. It is alleged that there is a white high school at Deering but that Negro students are sent by bus to an all- Negro high school at Hayti. A tempo rary restraining order and permanent injunction are sought. South Carolina (Continued from Page 14) town; (pop. 1,504) announced plans to build a private school in the event of desegregation. Clarendon Rep. Joseph Rogers, vice- chairman of the state’s school (segrega tion) committee, said on May 6 that “the white people of the (Summerton) community .. .will band together to build a private school.” The legislature said no formal plans on the school will be prepared until a tuition grants plans for private schools becomes law. But he added: “Even if the grants bill should fail in the legislature, the people of the district still plan to build a school for their children.” The Summerton area and Clarendon County as a whole have more Negroes than whites. Miscellaneous Advisory Group Asks Extension Of Rights Board A member of the South Carolina Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission went on record May 24 before Congress as favoring the extension of the commission. In doing so, Cheraw weekly news paper editor A. A. Secrest put himself in opposition to the majority of the state’s congressional delegation. The current racial unrest, Secrest told congressional committeemen, em phasizes the need for continuing the commission. He added that failure to extend the hody would be interpreted here and abroad “as evidence of con gressional indifference to personal freedom.” Continuing, he said, “It would be considered by the American Negro as an indication that his elected repre sentatives were becoming indifferent to his aims and aspirations of first-class citizenship.” Secrest said he thought the South Carolina committee had made “signifi cant contributions toward racial har mony” in the state. He said that, despite initial appre hension and opposition, he had heard or read no criticism of the way the South Carolina committee has con ducted its business of “lessening racial tension through understanding and education.” Legislative Action Accounting Asked Of Money Spent In Gantt Action Sen. John D. Long of Union County introduced a resolution May 29 to re quire an accounting of the money the state has spent for measures surround ing the admittance of Negro student Harvey E. Gantt to Clemson College Jan. 28. “The taxpayers are entitled to know how much money is being paid for this damn silly foolishness that is going on all over the country,” Long declared. Sen. Marshall J. Parker admitted that there still are five state highway patrolmen and four South Carolina law enforcement division agents on duty at Clemson. Parker represents Oconee County, which includes most of the Clemson campus within its borders. Parker objection failed the unani mous consent required to take up Long’s resolution. Church Organization Charges Schools Hit By Resegregation
