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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.