About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1963)
PAGE 4—JUNE, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS OUTSIDE THE SOUTH 2 Legal Decisions Offer Different Rulings on de Facto Segregation wo recent legal decisions in- volving Northern school seg regation provided opposing rul ings on de facto segregation re sulting from a neighborhood school policy and from neighbor hood racial patterns. U. S. District Judge George N. Beamer refused in a Gary, Ind., (Bel! et al v. School City of Gary) case to order the school board to end school segregation resulting from natural causes. The federal judge stated the belief that “racial balance in our public schools is not constitutionally man dated.” “Furthermore,” Judge Beamer wrote, “requiring certain students to leave their neighborhood and friends and be transferred to another school miles away, while other students, similarly situated, remained in the neighborhood school, simply for the purpose of bal ancing the races in the various schools would in my opinion be indeed a vio lation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” New Jersey’s commissioner of educa tion, F. M. Raubinger, in a quasi-judi cial decision, ordered the Orange, N. J., school board to adopt a plan that would achieve what was termed a better ra cial balance in an elementary school with an enrollment 99 per cent Negro. The commissioner said that such a sit uation caused a stigma and feeling of inferiority among the Negro children and parents, creating “an undesirable effect upon attitudes related to success ful learning.” ‘Time-Tested Patterns’ On neighborhood schools, the com missioner said: “The practice of assigning pupils to schools near their homes, particularly with regard to children of elementary school age is well established and is attended by educational values that are widely accepted. ... It is the Commis sioner’s conviction, nonetheless, that one or more solutions to the present problem can be developed which will mitigate the existing undesirable con centration of Negro enrollment in the Oakwood school and which can at the same time preserve and protect in great part the values of the time-tested pat terns of pupil assignment.” Reviewing the complaints of the plaintiffs in the Gary suit, Judge Beamer said that consideration of the evidence did not show that the board of education had gerrymandered the school districts or deliberately segre gated the Gary schools according to race. “The problem in Gary is not one of segregated schools but rather one of segregated housing,” he said. “Either by choice or design, the Negro popula tion of Gary is concentrated in the so- called central area, and as a result the schools in that area are populated by Negro students.” “The fact that certain schools are completely or predominantly Negro does not mean that the defendant main tains a segregated school system,” Jud’e Beamer said. The Negro plaintiffs cited decisions in Brown v. Board of Education (To peka, Kans.), Taylor v. The Board of Education (New Rochelle, N. Y.) and Branche v. Board of Education (Hemp stead, N. Y.) to support the argument that the defendant had an “affirmative duty” to cause a racial balance in each school. Notes Concession Judge Beamer stated in his decision on Jan. 29: “The plaintiffs concede the question which they now urge has not been passed upon by the Supreme Court or by any other Court where the Question was specifically present. They contend however that the language ... in the Brown case, together with the language found in certain other cases . . . indi cates that it is the policy of the law that those in charge of the administra tion of our schools are not only p-o- bibited from segregating the races but they also have the affirmative dutv to integrate the races and see that there is racial balance maintained in the schools cited under their supervision. “. . . it must be remembered that in Taylor the Court was dealing with a situation where it fonnd that the School Board had deliberatelv segregated the races in their school district and what ever the Court said there was stated in the light of the Court’s mandate to de segregate a school which was purposely segregated. ... In the Branche case the Court was passing upon a motion for summary judgment filed by the Board of Education. The Court’s ‘Those Alabama Stories Are Sickening. Why Can’t They Be Like Us and Find Some Nice, Refined Way To Keep the Negroes Out?’ opinion was that the Board’s showing on its motion for summary judgment was not sufficiently convincing and that therefore there must be a trial on the merits. Whatever language the Court used in this posture could not be de cisive of the question here.” Neighborhood Schools Discussing neighborhood schools, Judge Beamer wrote: “The neighborhood school which serves the students within a prescribed district is a long and well established institution in American public school education. ... It has many social, cul tural and administrative advantages which are apparent without enumera tion. With the use of the neighborhood school districts in any school system with a large and expanding percentage of Negro population, it is almost in evitable that a racial imbalance will result in certain schools. Nevertheless, I have seen nothing in the many cases dealing with the segregation problem which leads me to believe that the law requires that a school system developed on the neighborhood school plan, hon estly and conscientiously constructed with no intention or purpose to segre gate the races, must be destroyed . . . because the resulting effect is to have a racial balance in certain schools where the district is populated almost entirely by Negroes or whites.” Judge Beamer concluded that “the administrative problem of choosing those who would be transferred and those who would not in a rapidly grow ing school system where the racial complexion of the various neighbor hoods is constantly changing would be almost impossible to solve.” In his Gary decision, Judge Beamer noted that Dr. Max Wolff, a sociology professor testifying for the plaintiffs, had “defined a segregated school as any school where the percentage of Negro to white students was one-third greater or one-third less than the percentage of Negro students to white students in the entire system.” The judge con tinued: “Dr. Wolff cited no authority for his definition of segregated schools other than himself. Dr. Wolff’s definition of a segregated school may be a good so ciological definition, but the Court can find no authority which would indicate that it is a good legal definition. The Court is of the opinion that a simple definition of a segregated school, within the context in which we are dealing, is a school which a given student would be otherwise eligible to attend, except for his race or color or, a school which a student is compelled to attend be cause of his race or color.” Ratios Altered The New Jersey commissioner of ed ucation, Raubinger, ruled on Fisher et al v. The Board of Education of the City of Orange on May 15, 1963. The city had initiated a plan in September, 1962, that resulted in altering the racial ratios in se’’e~al schoo’s, but Oakwood School had remained 99 per cent Negro. Commissioner Raubinger wrote: “The first question to be answered is: Have the Orange school authorities, by intent or design, segregated or at- temoted to segregate the Negro pupils? “No evidence has been presented to establish such a charge. Although pe titioners make this general allegation they advance no proof of deliberate and purposeful action to maintain racially segregated schools or to discriminate between pupils on the basis of race. “The pivotal question in this case is: Does the existence of the Oakwood School as virtually an all Negro school, constitute such an educational handi cap to the pupils assigned to it, that the board of education is duty bound to eliminate its racial imbalance or re duce it within the limits of reasonable ness and practicability consistent with sound educational practice? Negro-Populated “The area adjacent to the Oakwood School is densely populated by Negro families almost exclusively. . . . The boundary lines are regular and the Commissioner finds no evidence that they have been drawn with deliberate intent to make Oakwood an all Negro school. That its enrollment is 99 per cent Negro results obviously from the housing pattern. “It is clear that the ultimate solu tion lies in the free choice of residence and the elimination of segregated hous ing which lie beyond the control of the board of education or the Commis sioner. Nevertheless, the Commissioner is of the opinion that in the minds of Negro pupils and parents a stigma is attached to attending a school whose enrollment is completely or almost ex clusively Negro, and that this sense of stigma and resulting feeling of inferi ority have an undesirable effect upon attitudes related to successful learning. Reasoning from this premise and rec ognizing the right of every child to equal educational opportunity, the Commissioner is convinced that in de veloping its pupil assignment policies and in planning for new school build ings, a board of education must take into account the continued existence or potential creation of a school populated entirely, or nearly so, by Negro pupils.” The commissioner ordered the Orange school board to submit a plan by July 1 to reduce the imbalance in the Oak- wood school. The NAACP’s executive secretary, Roy Wilkins, called the New Jersey ruling “a guide for every community in the nation.” Miss June Shagaloff, NAACP special assistant for educa tion, said the decision would intensify the organization’s desegregation de mands in other New Jersey communi ties—Paterson, Franklin Township, New Brunswick and Jersey City. The NAACP also decided after the Orange ruling to re-emphasize its drive against Northern and Western school segregation based on housing patterns. Robert L. Carter, general counsel of the NAACP, said the drive would involve about 25 states and will seek to achieve its aims through other state commis sioners of education. The states include all those in New England, the Middle West and the Pa cific Coast, NAACP officials said May 18. Presumably, such states as North and South Dakota and Wyoming will be omitted because they have small Negro populations. According to Carter, a survey will be made to determine whether the laws of each state afford a basis for cases such as that in Orange. Efforts will be made to persuade state education commis sioners to establish statewide policies against unracial schools, but where commissioners believe they lack the authority, the NAACP will file cases in in the federal courts. Puplic schools in New York State and New York City came under special criticism by the NAACP in May. Miss Shagaloff urged the New York state commissioner of education, Dr. James E. Allen, to implement the 1961 policy of the State Board of Regents declaring de facto segregation educationally un desirable. She said “that although the commissioner last July reported exten sive segregation-in-fact throughout the state not a single school system has desegregated and up to this day, the commissioner has not taken any action to bring local practices in line with the stated policy.” New York City On the same day, May 21, Miss Shag aloff made similar charges against the New York City Board of Education: “A tremendous gap continues to ex ist between the official policy and the actual practices of the New York City school system. Top school officials and the board itself have simply failed to implement their own policy with a sense of urgency or clearly defined commitment.” Miss Shagaloff insisted that first- graders frequently were grouped ac cording to race. The NAACP planned to meet with Dr. Calvin E. Gross, the new superintendent of schools, as a first step in a new campaign in the city. About 14,000 New York City students Southern School News Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of May 17, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstitu tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation, but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state. Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave., S., Nashville, Tennessee. Second class postage paid at Nashville, Tennessee. OFFICERS Bert Struby Chairman Thomas R. Waring Vice Chairman Reed Sarratt Executive Director Tom Flake, Director of Publications Jim Leeson, Director of Information and Research BOARD OF DIRECTORS Frank R. Ahlgren, Editor, The Com mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala. Alexander Heard, Chancellor, Vander bilt University, Nashville, Tenn. C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C. Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn. Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea body College, Nashville, Tenn. Reed Sarratt, Executive Director, Southern Education Reporting Serv ice John Seigenthaler, Editor, Nashville Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn. Don Shoemaker, Editor, Miami Herald, Miami, Fla. Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga. Thomas R. Waring, Editor, The News and Courier, Charleston, S.C. Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of Schools, Richmond, Va. Stephen J. Wright, President, Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. CORRESPONDENTS ALABAMA William H. McDonald, Chief Edi torial Writer, Alabama Journal, Montgomery ARKANSAS William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar kansas Gazette DELAWARE James E. Miller, Managing Editor, Delaware State News, Dover DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Erwin Knoll, Washington Bureau, Newhouse Newspapers FLORIDA Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami Herald GEORGIA Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Macon News KENTUCKY James S. Pope Jr., Sunday Staff, Louisville Courier-Journal LOUISIANA Patrick E. McCauley, Editorial Writer, New Orleans Times-Picayune MARYLAND Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer, Baltimore Sun MISSISSIPPI Kenneth Toler, Jackson Bureau, Memphis Commercial Appeal MISSOURI William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch NORTH CAROLINA Luix Overbea, Staff Writer, The Journal-Sentinel, Winston-Salem OKLAHOMA Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla homa City Oklahoman-Times SOUTH CAROLINA William E. Rone Jr., City Editor, The State, Columbia TENNESSEE Ken Morrell, Staff Writer, Nashville Banner TEXAS Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu reau, Dallas News VIRGINIA Overton Jones, Associate Editor, Richmond Times-Dispatch WEST VIRGINIA Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the Editor, Charleston Gazette SUBSCRIPTION RATES One year (12 issues), $2. Groups: five or more copies to different addressees, $1.75 each per year; five or more copies to one addressee, $1.50 each per year. Add 50 cents to above rates for orders outside U.S., Canada and Mexico. Single copies, any issue, 20 cents each. Ten or more copies, any one issue, 15 cents each. MAIL ADDRESS P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 12, Tennessee. [ I S] 1 n ti « e d ir V al (■ w I C( ti m w ai Pi B di sc N re ci y< th lit u: co | sc ca of ha de de do su th da mi Pr ‘d, ini ba po ph dil Di mi So Rc on i asi are expected to attend different schools next year under a special bus transpor tation program to relieve overcrowding in racially unbalanced schools. ‘Racial Imbalance’ A special three-man committee ap pointed by the New York education commissioner to study complaints of school segregation in Malveme, N.Y., reported it found “racial imbalance” in the school district. The committee con sisted of Dr. John Fischer, president of Teachers College, Columbia University; Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, professor of psy chology at City College of New York; and Rabbi Judah Cahn. The committee found that if “racial differences were not a fact of fife in this community, the attendance areas as defined could be cited as an excel lent example of administrative plan ning.” The committee also reported observing “no evidence of different educational standards in the schools or “any deliberate action by the Board to create artificial school zones to contain the Negro school population.” But the committee reported to the education commissioner: “In contemporary America, race or color is unfortunately associated with status distinctions among groups of human beings. The public schools re flect this larger social fact in that the proportion of Negroes and whites in a given school is often associated with the status of the school...” ‘Cardinal Principle’ “A cardinal principle, therefore, in the effective desegregation of a public school system is that all of the schools which compromise that system should have an equitable distribution of the various ethnic and cultural groups in the municipality or the school district.” “A ‘neighborhood school’ offers im portant educational values which should not be overlooked,” the committee said, but added: “When a ‘neighborhood school’ becomes improperly exclusive in fact or in spirit, when it is viewed as being reserved for certain community groups, or when its effect is to cr eat ‘ or continue a ghetto type situation i does not serve the purposes of dem° cratic education.” Four proposals for changing the raw- imbalance in the schools were made . the committee but it suggested that “Princeton Plan” would do most to s 3 isfy current complaints. on th: be Bi va en in lat vi< Secret Meeting J. S. Attorney General Robert ^ nnedy met secretly with a iminent Negroes in New York . y 24 and reportedly had a he cussion on methods of solving R° i segregation problems. Lfter the meeting, several of t* 1 ®. >es attending expressed disaPP*^ nt about the session and sai ^ 1 been unable to communicate ^ isident’s brother the seriousn _ : racial situation. The at *® r ? the 1 has not commented publicly c u sis de; Ke PO! er ly mes Baldwin, the Negro writer^ ;ed for the meeting at V Cea tfi- r family apartment at 24 ^ : South after a breakfast ^ re with the attorney g ea ® ;e Marshall, chief of t o* : ,*ts Division of the Depa , r^r. tice, at Kennedy’s home at M bout a - ~ nded the second meeting, , ers Lena Horne and Harry.' e, playwright Lorraine \CP official June Shagaio"- ^ nded in an unofficial capac? ?h ^ ; B. Jones, counsel to M art ^ g’s Gandhi Society, a™ 3 V eSSO r * z Clark, psychology P • College of New York. j{a , aldwin told a press con {^ce ' jarticipants of the co " ke( j a t ^ nedy “were a little ,f h n0 t P*£ nt of his naivete. l a™ No <h£ :d to say it was a failu P afford to look on it as ^ got to be looked at a ^ r Of a dialogue,” the writer sa dozen Negroes and lu( jiM ^ ie second meeting, i:: _-Is- . 3 1 «V( Mi Uqj Pos Vo a*
