Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 20—JUNE, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
LOUISIANA
Orleans Parish Has Biracial Registration in Grades 1-2
NEW ORLEANS
R egistration began May 29
for first and second grade
pupils who will attend Orleans
Parish public schools next fall
under the unitary, non-racial at
tendance zone procedure ap
proved hy the federal courts as
part of New Orleans’ court-or
dered desegregation.
Parents were required to present
their children, along with birth and
health certificates, on May 29, 30, and
31 at the school of their choice within
the assigned zone or another one. Ad
ministrative decisions on all applica
tions for enrollment are scheduled to
be completed by July 15.
Parental objections to the assign
ments will be received for 10 days
thereafter. School board hearings will
be held when requested and decisions
on assignments will be announced by
Aug. 15.
Under the registration procedure
outlined by Supt. O. Perry Walker,
registration within the assigned school
zone will be accomplished by the par
ents filling out and signing “applica
tions for school assignment.” For chil
dren desiring to attend a school other
than in the assigned school zone, the
parents also must execute an “appli
cation for permit” explaining the rea
sons for seeking a special assignment.
Among the reasons deemed accept
able by school officials for attendance
outside the zone of residence are
these:
• To permit a pupil to remain in a
school where he already is well ad
justed.
• To allow pupils to attend the same
school attended by other children in
their family.
• To permit children to attend a
school which is more convenient by
virtue of the parent’s place of employ
ment, the home of relatives, the avail
ability of public transportation.
• To allow a child to attend a school
which, in the judgment of the admin
istrative staff, is in the best interest of
the pupil.
The registration was conducted un
der terms of the proposal adopted by
the Orleans Parish School Board on
March 11 (see SSN, April, 1963) and
approved, with some modifications, by
U.S. District Judge Frank B. Ellis on
May 17. (See “Legal Action.")
Three Negro Applications
Supt. Walker also disclosed that the
school system had received applica
tions from two Negro girls and one
Negro boy requesting enrollment at the
Benjamin Franklin High School, a spe
cial school operated by the board for
exceptionally bright students.
Judge Ellis directed the board to ac
cept Negro applications for enrollment
in the Franklin school. However, Supt.
Walker said the board has not decided
yet whether to process the applications
or to appeal that portion of Judge El
lis’ order.
The applications were received from
the two girls on April 11 and April 16,
Supt. Walker said. Both students are
now ninth-grade pupils at Xavier
Preparatory School, a Catholic institu
tion. The application from the boy was
dated May 18. He is presently a stu
dent at the L. B. Landry Junior-Senior
High School in Algiers, across the
river from New Orleans.
Schoolmen
Pre-Registration
Plan Established
In Baton Rouge
East Baton Rouge Parish School
Board, under court order to present a
desegregation plan by July 5, has es
tablished a procedure requiring par
ents to sign their approval for next
year’s school assignments.
Distribution of the cards through the
school was begun early in May with
the deadline for returning them set for
May 31. However, there was some in
dication that the return of the cards
was slow in some Negro schools.
The Rev. Arthur L. Jelks, president
of the Baton Rouge chapter of the
NAACP, was appealing to Negro par
ents not to return the cards. He said
their signatures might be taken as
“accepting the present school board
segregation plan.”
Under the procedure, a revival of a
system used several years ago, assign
ments will be based on information
furnished the administrative staff by
Louisiana Highlights
Orleans Parish schools began reg
istering pupils for the first and sec
ond grade for 1963-64 on the basis
of a unitary, non-racial school zone
plan approved by the federal district
court.
East Baton Rouge Parish School
Board revived an assignment pro
cedure based on pre-registration for
the next school year, but the NAACP
warned Negro parents that they
might be “accepting the present
school board segregation plan.”
U.S. District Judge Frank B. Ellis
approved the Orleans Parish single
zone procedures for desegregated
registration of pupils for the first and
second grade and also ordered de
segregation of the Benjamin Frank
lin High School for superior students
next year.
A 50 per cent increase in state
appropriations for tuition grants was
approved by the House of Repre
sentatives.
each individual school. Information re
ceived at the end of the seventh month
of the school year will be the data used
for assignments for the next year.
Parents were asked to indicate their
approval of their children’s assignment,
or if they disapproved they were given
until June 15 to make appeals.
In its meeting on May 10. the school
board approved white and Negro school
faculty assignments for the next school
year, and at a May 16 meeting desig
nated school bus routes for the 1963-64
term.
★ ★ ★
New School Under Way
At Rapides ‘Impacted’ Area
In Rapides Parish, one of Louisiana’s
federally “impacted” areas under pres
sure to desegregate schools attended
by children of federal personnel, the
federal government began construction
on a $239,932 11-classroom school at
England Air Force Base near Alexan
dria.
According to Elmer D. Cain, chief of
the engineering staff of the Housing
and Home Finance Agency at Fort
Worth, Tex., construction of the class
room wing of the school is scheduled to
be completed by the last week in Au
gust, in time for the beginning of the
1963-64 school year. The multi-purpose
wing, including auditorium, lunch
room, storage and dressing room fa
cilities, will be completed by mid-Oc
tober.
Construction of the school was ap
proved after the Rapides Parish School
Board declined a federal request to de
segregate the North Bayou Rapides
School, attended by most of the ele
mentary pupils who live on the air
base property.
According to James M. Quigley of
the U.S. Department of Health, Edu
cation and Welfare, “about half a
dozen or so” Negro children will be
among the 300 pupils eligible to attend
the on-base school. HEW is financing
construction of the school and will pay
the operation expenses. About 12
teachers have been employed.
In Bossier Parish, in northwest Lou
isiana, Supt. Emmett Cope reported to
the school board on May 17 that the
parish has received $359,000 of the
$478,000 to which it is entitled this year
under the aid to impacted areas pro
gram. He said the remainder would be
determined by the federal government
on the basis of current enrollments,
school facilities and appropriations.
Cope also noted that the House Edu
cation subcommittee in Congress had
recommended that funds under the
program be withheld from school dis
tricts that do not desegregate by June
30, 1964.
“Our position has been that we will
not accept any funds that require in
tegration as a basis for receipt and we
will continue to follow that policy,”
Cope asserted.
★ ★ ★
New OHeans Catholic
Schools Expect 72,337
Catholic schools of the archdiocese of
New Orleans, which began desegrega
tion last September, will enroll at least
72,337 pupils next fall.
That number registered for the 1963-
64 school year prior to the end of the
current term, according to an an
nouncement from Msgr. Henry C.
Bezou, archdiocesan school superin
tendent. Registration rolls remain
open, particularly for first and second
grade pupils, in some schools and ac
tual enrollment next September is ex
pected to exceed somewhat the an
nounced estimate.
The figure is well above the 70,808
students who registered last Sept. 6
when the parochial schools opened on
a desegregated basis. “Evidently a num
ber of parents kept their children from
school during the first weeks, possibly
out of fear, possibly just to see how
things would work out,” an archdio
cesan spokesman said.
By October 1, enrollment had risen
to 73,433 and by mid-year to 74,313.
However, that was still somewhat be
low the 75,142 students who were in the
Legal Action
Single Zone Plan Ordered
The Orleans Parish School Board
was ordered by U.S. District Court on
May 17 to “proceed immediately to
register children in the first and sec
ond grades for the 1963-64 school year
in accordance with the single-zone sys
tem presented to this court.”
In addition, Judge Frank B. Ellis di
rected the school board to open the
Benjamin Franklin High School (a spe
cial college pre
paratory school
for superior stu-
dents) to all
qualified pupils
without regard to
race for the 1963-
64 term and to
undertake imme
diate studies to
ward operation of
desegregated kin
dergarten classes
by the 1964-65
school year.
“It is further ordered,” the court’s
decree said, “that any Negro child
who has previously made formal ap
plication to the Orleans Parish School
Board for admission or transfer to a
formerly all-white school, pursuant to
the orders of this court beginning with
the May 16, 1960, order, shall be given
the right to transfer to the nearest all-
white school nearest his home.”
The court set a June 6 deadline for
registration under the approved single
zone plan and the school board imme
diately announced its registration pro
cedures.
In authorizing the board to inaugu
rate its unitary, non-racial system for
the first and second grades, the court
observed: “The board’s plans to adopt
the single-zone system in the first and
second grades is not based on true ex
perience. Until this single zone system
is put into effect, it will be impossible
to determine its precise effect. Hence
is it premature to make definite deci
sions on the long-range plan.”
But the court specifically provided
that Negro children who entered de
segregated first grades in September
of 1960 and 1961, and who will be in
the third grade, may transfer to pre
dominantly white schools nearest their
homes if they so desire.
Next Year’s Experience
Beyond that, the court said, the pace
of desegregation (envisioned by the
board as extending to the fourth grade
in 1964-65 and a grade a year there
after) would depend on experience
gained next year.
Judge Ellis’ decision came a week
after oral arguments in which attor
neys for the Negro plaintiffs objected to
the school board’s proposal on grounds
ELLIS
parochial schools during the 1961-62
year.
Of those pre-registered for the next
school year, Msgr. Bezou’s announce
ment said, 42,521 are in Orleans Parish.
That number compares with 45,220 pa
rochial school pupils enrolled in the
parish as of Oct. 17, 1962, and with
47,914 at the comparable date in 1961.
Of the 1962-63 Orleans parish parochial
school students, 36,050 were white and
9,170 were Negro.
Statistics compiled by the Orleans
Parish schools department of research,
census and planning showed, for the
first time in a decade, that parochial
school enrollment amounted to less
than 30 per cent of the total enrollment
in all elementary and secondary schools
of the parish.
Public school enrollment, up to 97,951
at the end of the first trimester, had
63.95 per cent of the parish’s pupils.
Parochial schools, down 2,694 from
1961-62, had 29.53 per cent (off from
the 32.14 per cent of the previous year).
Private schools, with enrollments up
from 7,501 to 9,905, claimed 6.52 per
cent. All of the parochial schools’ losses
and all of the private schools’ gains
were in white enrollment.
Legislative Action
House Approves
50 Pet. Inerease
In Grants-in-Aid
A 50 per cent increase in state ap
propriations to support Louisiana’s
grant-in-aid private school program
was approved 82-6 by the House of
Representatives on May 30.
Floor leaders for the administration
of Gov. Jimmie Davis proposed in the
House of Representatives that $3.6 mil
lion be authorized from state sales
taxes for distribution by the Louisiana
Financial Assistance Commission for
the 1963-64 school year.
Rep. Lantz Womack of Franklin Par
ish, vice chairman of the commission,
however, said he doubted that would
be an adequate
amount to sup
port the expand
ing program. He
suggested that the
current $200,000
monthly alloca
tion be doubled.
During the first
year of the finan
cial assistance
program, about
$2.25 million was
distributed to help
pay the tuition of 6,250 pupils attend
ing private, non-sectarian schools in
18 Louisiana parishes.
Early in the 30-day session, the
House rejected a proposal to expand
the grant-in-aid program to include
In Orleans
that it did not provide adequate safe
guards against discriminatory assign
ment of pupils. They also said it de
layed for 11 years the completion of
desegregation, did not provide for de
segregation of faculties, did not relieve
overcrowding in present Negro schools
and did not provide for desegregation
of kindergartens and special schools.
In his decision, Judge Ellis granted
some of the reliefs requested regarding
kindergartens, Franklin high school
and Negro children who had applied
for desegregated schools in 1960 and
1961 to transfer to such schools even
though they are now past the first and
second grades.
“Clearly, the board has adequately
borne the burden of excusing itself
from desegregating the total schools
system this year,” the judge declared.
The case is styled Bush vs. Orleans
Parish School Board.
Among other legal actions, Mrs. B. J.
Gaillot Jr., who was excommunicated
from the Roman Catholic Church for
her opposition to desegregation of pa
rochial schools, protested to the State
Court of Appeals on May 3 the dis
missal in a district court of her $100,000
slander suit against a priest who she
claims said in a sermon that Mrs. Gail
lot had been committed to a mental
institution.
pupils attending church affiliate
schools. The move was sponsored by
Rep. Maurice Landrieu of Orleans
Parish and was voted down 69-19.
Ren. John Rau of Jefferson Parish,
a sponsor of the original grant-in-aid
law. criticized the Landrieu bill as “a n
attempt to kill grant-in-aid and to d P .
strov seoaration of church and state."
Overriding a committee renort. fb e
House gave 71-27 anproval to a resolu.
tion urging Congress to call a consti.
tiitional convention to establish a Conn
of the Union to review decisions of the
U.S. Supreme Court which affect
states’ rights.
Another resolution was anTmm><j
nronosing that the U.S. constitution he
further amended to permit legislatures
in two-tbirds of the states to initiate
constitutional amendments.
Tho Hmise approved 69-2. a resoli*.
tip-*-* sponsored bv a kev segregation
Vqgpr eondononing “vovemmpnt V
bnwonet” referring to the movement of
fpderal tfooos into Alabama.
On Mav 29. the House also passed
and sent to the Senate a five-bill
paeVagp doubling the maximum pen
alties for offenses stemming from riots
and sit-ins.
On the same dav. the House reV-m-i
a proposal that the Jefferson Parish
School Board be compensated $250248
for added expenses incurred in pro
viding education for children who
transferred to the public schools after
the parochial schools were desegre
gated last, fall.
Ren. Rau. in sponsoring the bill,
elaimed that 1 023 pupils made the
change when the archdiocese of New
Orleans ordered its schools desegre
gated.
★ ★ ★
‘Several’ More Negroes
Seek Admission at Tulane
Tulane University, which admitted
11 Negroes to its graduate and evenint
divisions last February, has received
“several” more applications from Ne
groes, including some for undergrad
uate study.
A spokesman for the university said
the applications would be processed
routinely and the students notified of
acceptance or rejection.
None of the applicants was identified
Some of the applications were for ad
mission to the college of arts and sci
ences and two were to Newcomb Col
lege, the women’s division of the Uni
versity.
Miscellaneous
Protesters Gather
At School Dance
The annual spring dance at one “•
the desegregated parochial schools ^
New Orleans drew a crowd of P r °^
testers after it was reported that 0
of the Negro students and her d a
would attend.
The dance was held May H at
Joseph’s Academy, where six Neg 1 "
girls enrolled last fall.
A crowd estimated variously fra®
to 100 gathered outside the school * |
ditorium before the dance began. ^
portedly, there were jeers when ^
Negro couple arrived in a taxi. s
moved the crowd back about n ^
block from the auditorium entran^^
the guests arrived and departed,
were no other incidents.
★ ★ ★
Crosses Burned at Schools
In Central Louisiana
About a dozen crosses were j^^lhc r
May 8 at public schools an
buildings in Central Louisiana. ^
A full investigation was launc
the sheriffs office. De st
The crosses were set alig
public buildings in Alexawar ^
Pineville and in surrounding _ — 0 ui
side. Earlier in the day an an ^
telephone call to the Alexan. cr o>''
Town Talk announced that jJeO'
burnings would occur. The ca JC -
tified himself as a member o ta ck
Klux Klan and said the fiery ,„<,*• **
would be “to let the people *
are here.” „
Chief Deputy Sheriff J° h ” js *
neycutt said, “Burning cr ° sh er .
violation of the law an ^ fullest t
be
office will investigate to
our power. Anyone fo “ n be pi
nected with the incident „
cuted to the limit of
c0»'
,r<&'