About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1963)
1 JUNE, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—PAGE 19 VIRGINIA Prince Edward Asks No Taxes For Schools Vttk had nad e out- thau ,ent- ho* reino ra* ' I )iintr ?e t° | It 15 3SUT' ittor- 3d ' oW* t ^ #>£ III* ,du' ; ti» RICHMOND P rince Edward County’s su pervisors on May 22 put in line for final adoption in June a tax program that would not pro duce funds to operate public schools. Schools in the county have been closed since 1959 to avoid racial de segregation. The supervisors voted to advertise for public hearing June 7 the same tax rates in effect during the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Last year, federal District Judge Oren R. Lewis of Richmond ruled (Griffin v. Prince Edward School Board) that public schools in the county can not re main closed while schools elsewhere in Virginia are open. This ruling was ap pealed to the federal Fourth Circuit Court. A decision from the appeals court was anticipated in early June. In its issue of May 7, the Farmville Herald, whose editor J. B. Wall has been closely associated with the anti desegregation efforts in the county, de clared editorially: “The people of Prince Edward are not ready to support public education controlled by the federal government, with forced racial integration by the federal courts, or any other agency. The people and the county legislative body have made this plain since the summer or fall of 1954. And they stand there today.” ★ ★ ★ Team Studies Effects Of Closing Schools A Michigan State University research team, operating with a $75,000 grant from the U. S. Office of Education, ar rived in Farmville during the week of May 20 to begin a study of the effects of closed public schools. Heading the year-long study is Dr. Robert L. Green, Negro faculty mem ber of Michigan State, who conceived the idea of the project. Dr. Green said his report would be completed by June 30, 1964. We are conducting this as a piece of pure academic research,” he told re porters. He added that any conclusions or use that any government agency m ight make of the survey findings would be outside the scope of the work of the research team. The team was expected to complete its work in the county by about Aug. 1. ★ ★ ★ Remedial Program Asked of President The National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People an- unced May 17 that it had requested sbirff Kennedy to provide leader- for N° r 3 r! r medial education program County^ 0 C ^ dren * n Prince Edward semSt of Kew York, executive President m5* A**® t0 ** Would « y . 15 that the program th e require e co-operation many govem- e , ntal agencies,” £? V “to be effective, we direction yoT C0I ? e from exe ^ the chief executive.” JWenclosed 2, the ktter a Pehhon signed by in j? ^t Negroes Wilkins den t , e hp n y asking for the Presi de knB Potition said, in part: special;^ T that our country has sent tr essed r^°i f lstan t lands to help dis- Edward Cmf + Pke People of Prince *01 tn at „. Unt y ne ed a program which tty the social PUr .?° se ’ sc °P e ^ Q u al- p r°iects • . an< l technical assistance [provider!! Ch , 0ur government has J anywhere in the world.” ★ ★ ★ *• ^:Z:L ah ° Ut 30 Queens College, S 6y p£"d r°T d May 16 that Ration nmerv c ° nduct a remedial children T. f ° r Prince Edward’s Ihe sturi . thm summer. ^he of Vir!? n tS ’ „ Wor king under the ^ed some g ‘ a Student Help Project, j^hsoring a f!* ey , for the program by f^e. They nkn CUl i y ' Student baseball tds t0 raise additional t efi tfeaturL n h , a Ca rnegie Hall Jhedian, and 1 - 1Ck Gre gory, Negro si« n Ma y 17 n '°y s Jazz stars. execute; A ' MorselI > as - said secret ary 0 f the ms organization con sidered the Queens students “well meaning and intended,” but he added, “it is our hope that intervention by the federal government will make any such other action unnecessary.” ★ ★ ★ Eighty-nine students from Virginia Union University and Hampton Insti tute, both Negro colleges, concluded a survey in Prince Edward in which they reported they found: • There are 1,633 children of school age (6-18 years) who constitute the probable Negro enrollment if the coun ty’s public schools are reopened. • A total of 492 of these children now attend schools outside the county, including 129 who are in schools in other states. • An “overwhelming majority” of parents questioned said they will bring their children home when schools re open. The survey was conducted during the weekend of April 17-18, and rep resentatives of 902 of the county’s 909 Negro households were reached, it was announced. ★ ★ ★ A group of about 50 Negroes, most of them students taking a day off from school, held a demonstration in front of the Lynchburg City Hall May 17, the ninth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision. Under umbrellas because of a driv ing rain, the demonstrators sang “free dom songs” and held a brief prayer session. Then they marched to Dunbar High School and serenaded Negro students who had not joined in the “freedom parade.” The demonstration was planned by Owen Cardwell Jr., a Negro student who attends the predominantly white E. C. Glass High School. The students said they were taking the day off from school in sympathy for the Negroes of Prince Edward County who have had no schools for four years. Six days later, May 23, Henry E. McWane, co-chairman of the Lynch burg Interracial Commission, an nounced that lunch counters of all drugstores in the city and one in adja cent Campbell county had been deseg regated. Several sit-in demonstrations had been conducted in one of the stores. And on May 28, owners of 12 Lynch burg restaurants agreed to desegregate their facilities. Schoolmen Geographical Zone Dropped As Basis For School Choice The Fredericksburg School Board on May 27 amended its grade-a-year de segregation plan to permit students to apply to attend schools of their choice without regard to geographical zones. In the event of overcrowding or other factors which make it impossible to as sign a child to the school he prefers, zones then will be considered, and the applicant will be assigned to a school in the zone in which he lives, accord ing to the revised plan. An earlier plan submitted to the United States District Court in Rich mond on April 2 provided for assign ments on the basis of zones. (Scott v. Fredericksburg School Board.) ★ ★ ★ The Culpeper County School Board on May 13 formally adopted a policy prohibiting racially desegregated con tests in county schools. The policy already had been in ef fect, though not formally stated. Last winter Culpeper’s high school refused to play in a district basketball tourna ment because one of the players on another team was a Negro. ★ ★ ★ Patrons of the private Langley School at McLean, in northern Virginia, ap proved a resolution providing that pu pils will be admitted without regard to race, it was announced May 25. Among the prominent persons whose children attend the school is Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White. Political Action Almond Approved For Court Post After a 13-month delay, a United States Senate judiciary subcommittee on May 28 held a hearing on President Kennedy’s nomination of former Vir ginia Gov. J. Lindsay Almond Jr. to be a judge of the U. S. Court of Cus toms and Patent Appeals. ALMOND It is generally accepted in Virginia that the delay was due to opposition to Gov. Almond in some quarters because of his actions in the school segrega tion controversy. Almond originally supported “massive resistance,” but in 1959 he recom mended, and the General Assembly ap proved, a free dom - of - choice program which permits desegre gation. His accept ance of freedom- of-choice resulted in a sharp break between him and forces led by U. S. Sen. Hairy Flood Byrd of Virginia. An array of prominent Virgin ians appeared at the hearing to sup port Almond’s appointment. There was no word from Sen. Byrd. Almond has served in the judicial post since last Oct. 30, having been given an interim appointment by the President after Congress failed to act on the nomination at its last session. What They Say Patrons Support School Program A group of about 75 white school patrons of Powhatan County met May 6 to discuss ways of keeping public schools open. They adopted a statement which said, in part: “We believe that the public schools are the backbone of a democracy. We know that we already have the neces sary buildings, equipment and teachers. We believe it is our duty and responsi bility to support our superintendent and school board in their effort to preserve the public school system in Powhatan.” On May 15 the school board issued a statement taking issue with a letter dis tributed by public school proponents. The board said, in part: “The statement that ‘every effort is being made by our school board and its legal adviser to keep integration to a minimum’ is not accurate and is mis leading. “The school board and its counsel have no power to keep integration to a minimum and have never purported that they would be able to keep down the volume of integration. That volume Virginia Highlights The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors put in line for final passage a 1963-64 budget containing no funds for public schools, while both sides in the segregation dispute awaited a court ruling on whether schools would be ordered reopened. The chairman of the state Pupil Placement Board announced a policy which, if carried out, would virtually eliminate racial considerations in school assignments in Virginia. In Powhatan County, public school advocates and private school advo cates worked in behalf of their goals, as county and Negro lawyers pre pared for what could be a crucial case in the school segregation con troversy. will depend primarily on the number of applications filed by Negroes, the ac tions of the State Pupil Placement Board, and the actions of the federal court.” The public school group, calling it self Citizens for Public Education, and backers of a private school have been competing for the support of the coun ty’s white parents and their children. Each side feels that it needs a sub stantial number of the children, espe cially those of high school age, in order to conduct an effective educational pro gram next year. In the Colleges Randolph-Macon Desegregated Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg, announced May 10 that race will not be a factor in the considera tion of future applications for admis sion to the school. The board of trustees of the Meth odist-related college issued a statement saying: “The charter of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College does not limit enroll ment on the basis of race, creed or color. The charter will be interpreted in its broadest sense and students will be admitted wholly on the basis of academic and personal qualifications.” Applications for the 1963-64 year al ready have been processed. A college spokesman said he knew of no applica tions from Negroes. tegaZ Action Ability, Distance Dropped As Qualifications Speaking from the witness stand in federal District Court at Richmond, Chairman E. J. Oglesby of the State Pupil Placement Board said May 14 that the board no longer would con sider the academic qualifications of Negro children seeking transfers to white or predominantly white schools. (United States of America v. Prince George County School Board.) Also he said, the distance a Negro lives from a white school generally will cease to be a factor in making assignments. “If a Negro child wants to attend a school on the opposite side of the county, he will be assigned to that school if a white child in his area is entitled to attend the same school,” Oglesby testified. Under the pre vious policy a Ne gro’s application to attend a white school was reject ed if the applicant lived closer to a Negro school. The new policy provides that the Negro will be admit ted to the white school if he lives with in the geographic zone served by the school, even though he may he closer to a Negro school. Standardized test scores had been used by the board in determining the academic qualifications of Negro appli cants. If a Negro applicant’s did not equal the medium score of the child ren in the white school, the application was turned down. Such scores will not be considered under the new policy, Oglesby said. The board chairman told reporters the new policy was evolved as a result of federal court decisions outlawing OGLESBY “dual attendance zones” and academic criteria in assignment of Negroes to schools. Oglesby was testifying in the case in which the Justice Department is seeking a court order for desegregation of schools in Prince George County. The Ft. Lee military installation is located in Prince George. Several Negro army officers and en listed men testified they tried to avoid assignment to Ft. Lee because of the segregated situation. Maj. Sherman S. Marble said that if his two children are returned to seg regated schools next year, he will have “no alternative but to resign from the military service.” Sgt. Bobby J. Chase said he was con sidering sending his three children home to Colorado so they would not have to attend segregated schools next year. Mrs. Viola L. Bressant, wife of an Army captain, testified that conditions at the Bessie H. Mason School for Ne groes are deplorable and filthy. Government Stand On the following day, May 15, during argument of the case, St. John Barrett, a Justice Department attorney, con tended that the United States has authority under its war powers to seek a desegregated education for the child ren of its civilian and military per sonnel. He also argued that “assurances” given by the county in applying for federal impact area aid for education should be construed to mean the coun ty would admit Negro children from Ft. Lee to schools on a nondiscrimina- tory basis. John S. Battle Jr., council for the Prince George School Board, told Judge John D. Butzner Jr., that there was no evidence that the efficiency of Negro troops at Ft. Lee has been impaired by the practice of sending their children to segregated schools. He and Robert D. McIIwaine III, an assistant Virginia attorney general, ar gued that the Justice Department was seeking to accomplish through litigation what Congress has expressly refused to authorize through legislation. They said Congress has refused to authorize the Justice Department to initiate civil rights suits in the name of the United States. ★ ★ ★ Hearing Scheduled On Shutdown Appeal The U. S. Fourth Circuit Court scheduled a June 10 hearing on an ap peal from a District Court order en joining Powhatan authorities from clos ing public schools. District Judge John D. Butzner Jr. also had directed that three Negro children be admitted to the county’s white schools, and this, too, was being appealed. (Bell v. Powhatan County School Board.) The fact that the Appeals Court con sidered the case of unusual significance was indicated by the announcement that all five members of the court would hear the case. The court usually hears litigation in panels of three judges. In a brief filed with the court May 20, the school board argued that Judge Butzner had no right to issue the in junction against closing schools, since there had been no evidence or testi mony to suggest even a threat of such action. In a Richmond Circuit Court pro ceeding May 20, Judge E. W. Hening Jr. held that both the Powhatan school board and the State Pupil Placement Board could ignore 34 applications from Negroes to attend white schools—be cause the applications had been im properly filed. (Powhatan School Board v. State Pupil Placement Board.) The three students which the federal judge had ordered admitted were not among the 37. ★ ★ ★ Two new desegregation suits were filed in Virginia in May, both in the Federal District Court at Charlottes ville. One (Buckner v. Greene County School Board) seeks desegregation of county schools. The other (Williams v. Charlottes- ville-Albermarle County School Boards) seeks to bar construction of a junior high school at the present Bur ley High School, which serves Negroes of the city and the county. The plain tiffs allege that erection of the new building would delay desegregation. ★ ★ ★ The U. S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 10 ordered the Rich mond School Board to eliminate “dis criminatory” school assignment pro cedures. (Bradley v. Richmond School Board.) District Judge Butzner on July 25, 1962, directed the admission of 11 Ne groes to white schools in Richmond, but he declined to grant an injunction prohibiting discriminatory practices in school assignments in the city. The appeals court, in its decision last month, said that the district judge should issue the injunction unless the city moved promptly to end the pro tested practices. Actually, the board already had acted. In March, it threw out the geo graphical district assignment system which Judge Butzner had found ob jectionable.
