About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1963)
NORTH CAROLINA SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY, 1963—PAGE 13 Burlington Inaugurates 4-Year Plan for Desegregating System Music at the Governor’s School The leader: a Negro from Detroit. (See Miscellaneous, Page 14.) WINSTON-SALEM ^segregation in the Burling ton school system went into e fEect two ways—of students on the basis of geogranhical assign ment on June 7, and on action bv the Burlington City School Board June 27. The City Council listed a Negro, Dr. y? C. Shanks Jr., among three ap pointees to serve six-year terms on the school board. Dr. Shanks is the first Negro named to the board. A native of Burlington, he is a graduate of Shaw University in Ra leigh, N.C. with an M.D. degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. He served with the Army Medi cal Corps during World War II. Chairman S. Carlysle Isley of the school board announced a four-year geographical plan for total desegrega tion of the city’s schools. The first step was taken June 7 when 53 Negro chil dren in grades 1-3 were assigned to white schools, and seven whites were assigned to Negro schools. Each year three more grades will be desegregated until all 12 grades in public schools will be biracial. Parents, however, have the option of returning their children to their former schools. 47 Decline Moves Of the 53 Negro children assigned to white schools, 13 accepted the new assignment, and 40 returned to all- Negro schools. All seven whites chose to return to their former schools. The Negro lineup in white schools is: Two at Forest Hill, one in third grade and one in first; Hillcrest, one in sec ond grade, and Maple Avenue, five in first, three in second and two in third. Isley said that under the new school assignment policy, “Students in the first three grades will be assigned for the 1963-64 school year on a voluntary basis to the nearest school without re gard to race. The next year, the first s « grades will be assigned likewise. The first nine grades will be assigned the same way the following year. In the fourth year, all 12 grades will be included.” The following groups approved the new policy: City School Board, a Negro advisory committee (of which Dr. Shanks is chairman), the city PTA Council and e ach local Parent-Teacher Association. These groups worked with Dr. L. E. npikes, retiring school superintendent, o set up the new policy. Parents were advised of the plans. p f or the past two years the Industrial education Center has been operated on ® biracial basis for Burlington and Mamance County. ★ ★ ★ Durham Board Transfers Three Negro Students The Durham County Board of Edu- v 10n approved the transfer of three solf r< i students from all-Negro high °°ls to the new Jordan Junior- North Carolina Highlights Burlington inaugurated a four- year, three-grades-a-year desegrega tion plan with assignment of 13 Ne gro children in grades 1-3 to three white schools. The school board also got its first Negro member, Dr. W. C. Shanks Jr. The Durham City Board of Educa tion will submit its new pupil assign ment plan to Judge Edwin M. Stanley of the U. S. Middle District Court July 11. Two districts, the Durham Couty Board of Education and the Rocky Mount City Board of Education, de segregated schools for the first time. Greensboro extended desegregation to seven elementary schools and one high school, but still must act on 169 requests by Negroes for transfers to white schools. Senior High school which will open for the first time in September. Students assigned to the new school were David Curtis Jones, Innsbruck Breeze and Floyd Hayes in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades. They formerly attended Pearsontown and Merrick- Moore schools. A fourth Negro, James W. Audrey Jr., was denied admission because he applied for the seventh grade which will not be taught at Jordan in Sep tember. Kenneth Royall, chairman of the school board, announced the assign ments. In May, a Negro delegation led by Howard M. Fitts Jr. had brought a petition asking the county to operate schools “without regard to race as to teachers, students and other person nel.” ★ ★ ★ The Rocky Mount city school system will open Aug. 30 on a desegregated basis with 15 Negro children attend ing two previously white schools. This action was taken by the board of education June 26 in connection with 22 requests by Negroes for reas signment to white schools. The board will take action on the other seven requests in July. Nine students will be transferred from Booker T. Washington High School (Negro) to Rocky Mount Se nior High School. Six will be moved from Parker Junior High School to Edwards Junior High School. ★ ★ ★ The Statesville city school system received applications from 29 Negro children for transfer to all-white schools on June 24. Supt. A. D. Komegay announced that these applications for reassign ment will be turned over to the States ville School Board. The board said it would consider each assignment re quest on its merit. This is the first time Negroes have ever sought enrollment in white schools in Statesville, Komegay said. ★ ★ ★ Seven Negroes have applied for transfer to white schools in Thomas- ville, it was announced June 26 by W. S. Horton, superintendent. These we e the first requests by Negro chil dren to attend white schools. Two sought reassignment from the Turner Street School to the Kem Steet School. Another asked to move from the Church Street School to Kem St eet. The other four applied for re assignment from Church Street to Ma n St eet Junior High School. The Thomasville school board prob ably will act in July. ★ ★ ★ Six Negro students turned in appli cations for reassignment to white schools in Henderson, it was an nounced June 26 by the Henderson Citv School Board. T. W. Ellis Jr., board chairman, and W. D. Payne, school superintendent, said the applications will be studied, with action to be taken at the July board meeting. Four children asked to enter the E. M. Rollins School, and two said they wanted to attend Henderson High School. ★ ★ ★ A school named for the superin tendent was the target for desegrega tion June 10 when a Negro student applied for transfer to the Hunter Huss High School. The city school board will consider the application at the July meeting. Huss did not announce the name of the student, he said, because it might embarrass the applicant. ★ ★ ★ Wake County, which has no deseg regated schools (system does not in clude Raleigh), will act on 20 applica tions by Negroes to attend white schools. The Wake County school board will act on these requests at its July meeting. Supt. Fred Smith said many of the requests are from children attending the Berry O’Kelly High School, the oldest accredited Negro high school in the United States. Speaking of school board action, Smith said, “We’ve got to face our responsibility. I guess that’s what we will do at our July meeting. The O’Kelly High School, first ap proved in 1923, is in an old structure, built in 1926. Negro parents have com plained often about the condition of the In the Colleges school. It has been transferred to the city school system of Raleigh by an nexation. The county is said to be considering building a Negro school in this area. ★ ★ ★ No change is planned in the assign ment policies of the Alamance County Board of Education, Chairman Henry B. Dixon said June 7. His comment came after it was announced that Bur lington (which is in Alamance County) had assigned 13 Negro children to previously white schools. Dixon said: “A county school system cannot move as fast on such matters as can a city system. There are greater dis tances involved and numerous topics that have to be given thorough dis cussion and draw full understanding. This naturally takes more time.” ★ ★ ★ Seven Negroes are seeking transfers from Negro schools to predominantly white schools in the Raleigh city school system. The Raleigh school board will act on their requests at its July meeting. Last year 46 Negroes attended pre dominantly white schools in Raleigh. Two Negroes asked to attend Needham Broughton High School, and two want to attend Enloe High School. One each applied for transfer to Le roy Martin Junior High School, Jose phus Daniels Junior High School and Frances Lacy School. 3 Negro Groups Protest Raleigh Policy On June 12, three Raleigh Negro groups, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Citizens Coordinating Committee and Raleigh Citizens Association, protested the city’s school policy. The groups in a joint letter to the school board said in part: “There have been no indications that the Raleigh City Board of Education has ever adopted or even considered any plans for the eventual or imme diate desegregation of its school fa cilities. “The continuation of enforced seg regation in public schools is an ugly scar which damages the image of this state and nation in the East-West struggle between communism and democracy.” The letter noted that few Negroes were assigned voluntarily to white schools, and no Negro teachers in struct white children. “You should also bear in mind,” the letter said, “that Negro citizens and pupils as deeply resent segregated schools as they do segregation in li censed businesses on ‘Main Street.’ ” ★ ★ ★ A special assignment committee will study requests from four Negro chil dren for assignment to two white schools in Salisbury. The city school board will take action at its July meet ing. Mr. and Mrs. Herman Anderson seek the transfer of their three children from Price High School to Boyden High School and to Knox Junior High School. Mr. and Mrs. David Pharr asked that their daughter be moved from Price to Boyden. Three Negro children attended the Frank B. John School last year. Board Chairman Carroll Overton assigned the requests to a special com mittee. ★ ★ ★ Greensboro, which operated one de segregated school for the past five years and two for one year, will take action in July on 169 requests by Ne groes for transfers to white schools during the 1963-64 school year. These applications for reassignment are in addition to 22 applications al ready approved for the admission of Negro first grade children to previous ly white schools. In addition the board approved the admission of 16 first grade Negro chil dren to the Gillespie Park School, the (See BURLINGTON, Page 14) High Point Open to All, President Says Virginia dec < ' Continued From Page 12) viuf 011 striking down a Charlottes- w 0u l, PRpil placement plan which tr ansf ” ave permitted students to . er from schools where their race the minority. • At an e ,filed suit June 14 seeking f’ajjj fr the “dual school system” in Conrj, bounty. (Blackwell v. Fairfax school? Board.) Some Fairfax tiffs ^ are desegregated, but the nlain- SToT. that the school board’s re- ^egroes aPPr °,T e some applications from discri,,,- V>as ‘arbitrary, capricious and vrunatory.” d°vvn ® utzn er on June 10 struck totting West Point School Board’s ^Udent t” because it would allow a '■'hick V ° fruiter out of a school in ^rson ,! S . race i s in the minority. (An- % ' ~ st Point School Board.) ^*chi e 0 !rl district Judge Thomas .'year vf ne 3 approved Roanoke’s ?6, ier a i u, Sc " 0 °l desegregation plan in "Rprov^ e .fr the way open for later ^Us e ” disapproval of the “escape , ra ns( er f er which a student could ‘.’’ as in the° m 9 sc k°°l in which his race S?°ol g &n rainor ity. (Green v. Roanoke * h °ol B “ rd j °n June 27 the Roanoke ar d removed the “escape clause,” after being told by counsel that recent decisions indicated the clause would not be approved by higher fed eral courts. Political Action Almond Appointment Approved By Senate The U.S. Senate on June 28 con firmed President Kennedy’s nomination of former Virginia Gov. J. Lindsay Almond Jr. as a judge of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. The nomination was approved rou tinely without a recorded vote. It was reported that neither of Virginia’s sen ators—Harry F. Byrd and A. Willis Robertson—was on the floor when the nomination was acted upon. President Kennedy submitted Al mond’s nominaion in April, 1962. When the Senate adjourned last year without acting on the nomination, the President gave Almond an interim appointment, and then resubmitted the nomination in January. The Senate Judiciary Com mittee approved it on June 27. High Point College in High Point will accept all qualified students, re gardless of race, creed or color, Dr. Wendell Patton, president, said June 19 in a prepared statement. The college’s admission policies were mentioned in a meeting between Ne groes and the city’s biracial committee. Although no Negroes have applied for the 1963-64 school year, the col lege has had Negro students, Dr. Pat ton said. He made this statement: “Apparently there has been some misunderstanding regarding the poli cies of High Point College relative to the admission of qualified students. “We are a private educational insti tution, operating according to the philosophy and objectives stated in our catalogue and welcome applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, creed, or religion. “As a matter of fact, we have had several Negro students—all of whom did outstanding work. No doubt we will have many more in the future ... We do not believe that the emo tional question of segregation versus integration has any bearing on the educational task we are trying to per form. “Acceptances for the incoming fresh man class of September were mailed out in February, 1963. We did not then, nor do we have now, any applications from Negro students. It is late to be applying for admission to any college and the opportunity of anyone apply- Hodges and Williams An honorary degree. ing now for acceptance in the fall would be extremely limited. “However, we welcome applications from any qualified student who needs what this college has to offer and is willing to abide by its rules and regu lations.” ★ ★ ★ Pay of faculty members in Negro colleges in North Carolina is “dis- ) gracefully low,” the American Asso ciation of University Professors re ported in a recent study. I Only Duke University among 19 col leges in North Carolina reporting rated “A”—colleges are graded “A” down to “F”—in average and mini mum pay scales. Top ranking Negro college was North Carolina College in Durham, ranking ninth among the 19 colleges. ★ ★ ★ Wake Forest College in Winston- Salem on June 4 awarded the honor ary degree of doctor of laws to a Negro, Dr. Kenneth R. Williams, president of Winston-Salem State College, located across town from Wake Forest. Dr. Williams, an ordained Baptist minister with a Ph.D. degree from Boston University, shared the spot light with Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges, former governor of North Carolina and commencement speaker, and two ministers who also received honors. ★ ★ ★ Lenoir-Rhyne College of Hickory was urged to accept Negro students June 2 in a baccalaureate sermon de livered by Dr. E. Theodore Bachmann, executive secretary of the board of college education and church vocations of the Lutheran Church in America.
