About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1963)
PAGE 14—JULY, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS OKLAHOMA Three Schools Desegregated By Legislature OKLAHOMA CITY ESEGREGATION OF THREE state schools for mentally retarded persons has been quietly ordered by the Oklahoma legislature. The action came during the closing days of the session early in June and escaped general notice. A section ordering admission of pu pils to the schools without regard to race, creed or color was inserted to ward the end of a bill (SB 175) ap propriating monies for capital outlay for various state agencies. This was done by a Senate-House conference committee, and the measure was passed the last day of the session, June 14. Gov. Henry Bellmon signed the bill June 25. The desegregation feature was spot ted the same day by L. E. Rader, di rector of the Department of public welfare. The department officially took over operation of the schools July 1 from the mental health department as part of a move by the legislature and the governor to free $11.5 million in earmarked welfare funds. The institutions affected are state schools for mentally retarded persons at Enid and Pauls Valley and Hissom Memorial Center, under construction near Sand Springs. The latter com munity, located near Tulsa, is one of the few in Oklahoma still maintaining segregated schools. The Hissom center is expected to be completed in Janu ary, 1964. Immediate Certification The new law requires the mental health board to certify “immediately” to the Oklahoma Public Welfare Com mission the name, age, sex, diagnosis and county of residence of each men tally retarded child in the Taft State Hospital. This is the institution that cares for Negro mental patients and mentally retarded persons. Under the law the welfare commis sion must admit to the other three in stitutions by July 1, 1964, the mentally retarded Negroes now at Taft found to be eligible for such transfer. Rader said this means about 50 re tarded Negro children at Taft will have to be taken care of in the three schools within a year. It also means the wel fare department will consider Negro children along with whites for admis sion to the schools. Six years ago the Oklahoma School for the Deaf at Sulphur was desegre gated after the filing of a federal court suit (Bailey v. Hodge) by the parents of a 10-year-old Negro girl from Ok lahoma City. (SSN, August, 1957.) ★ ★ ★ Human Rights Commission Bill Signed Into Law Before adjourning, the Oklahoma legislature also passed a bill creating a human rights commission and it was signed into law by Gov. Bellmon. Oklahoma Highlights Desegregation of three state schools for the mentally retarded was ordered by the Oklahoma legislature in a bill appropriating capital outlay funds for various state agencies. The Oklahoma City Board of Educa tion proceeded with plans to build a new junior high school for Negro pupils although a legal attack on its student transfer policy was still at issue. The new Oklahoma City Commun ity Relations Committee, created to avert racial disputes, organized and indicated educational problems will be among these it will study. A national Baptist group said Ne groes should be given better oppor tunities but that racial desegregation is morally wrong. Authored by State Sen. Fred Harris, Lawton Democrat, it provided for nine members to be appointed to three-year terms by the governor. The law placed the state officially on record for the first time as opposed to racial discrimination. (SSN, June.) Since it forbids discrimination in any agency or department of the state, the law was viewed as a possible ve hicle for Negro teachers to protest loss of their jobs when school districts de segregate. What They Say Group Of Baptists Says ‘Integration’ Is ‘Morally Wrong’ The American Baptist Association has declared that Negroes should be given better opportunities but that “integration of the races” is morally wrong. The statement, made in a memoran dum to President Kennedy, was adopted by delegates to the associa tion’s national convention in Oklahoma City June 20. It was drafted by Dr. Albert Gamer, president of the Florida Baptist Insti tute and Seminary in Lakeland, Fla. “Our sentiments are that the Negro should be afforded greater opportuni ties for achievement and encouraged to win respect for himself in public life,” the statement read. “We have deep moral and religious convictions, how ever, that integration of the races is morally wrong and should be resisted.” Legislators Criticize Civil Rights Proposals Delegates to the Southern Regional Conference of the Council of State Governments in Oklahoma City criti cized President Kennedy’s proposed civil rights program. Among those who issued verbal at tacks on the program were Marion H. Crank, speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives; and Mississippi legislators Clarence B. Newman and Frank E. Shanahan Jr. Shanahan also asserted that racial (See OKLAHOMA, Page 15) Schoolmen Oklahoma City Plans New School For Negroes; Transfers Attacked The fate of Oklahoma City’s pupil transfer policy is still in doubt but the board of education is going ahead with plans to build a new junior high school in the Negro residential section. The board let a $1,753,000 contract June 25 for construction of Franklin Junior High at Northeast 13th and Missouri streets. Scheduled for completion by Sep tember, 1964, Franklin will provide a second junior high, along with Moon, to feed Douglass High School. Both Moon and Douglass have only Negroes in attendance. The new junior high not only will take some of the pupil load off Moon but will also allow elimination of the ninth grade at Douglass. Moon had 1,350 students in 1962-63, which was near capacity. But Douglass was seriously overcrowded, with a pupil membership of about 1,600 to 1,700, including 600 to 700 in the ninth grade. It is expected the two Negro junior highs, when Franklin is completed, will have a combined enrollment of about 2,000 pupils. An effort will be made to divide this equally between the two schools. This will leave about 1,000 for Douglass. School board officials are not giving, at least openly, any particular consid eration to the effect on these plans of a possible court overthrow of the spe cial transfer policy. The policy provides that a student may transfer from a school in which his race is in the minority to one in which it has a majority. In a pending U. S. District Court suit (Dowell v. Board of Education) the Oklahoma City school district is accused of administering the policy in a way discriminatory to Negroes. The plaintiffs say Negro students cannot get transfers to desegregated schools ex cept to obtain courses not available at all-Negro schools. They assert the same is not true of white pupils seeking transfers. Regarding the possibility of whole sale Negro transfers across town should the legal attack on the policy be upheld, an administrative source said chaos would result and the board could not afford the cost of the trans portation that would be required. NORTH CAROLINA Burlington Approves 4-Year Plan (Continued From Page 13) city’s lone desegregated school. Gil lespie Park enrolled 38 Negroes last year. Three Negroes who completed the ninth grade at Gillespie in 1963 have been assigned to Smith High School, opening for the first time in September. Requests for reassignment are six to Aycock School, six to Brooks School, 27 to Gillespie Park, seven to Grimsley High School, 31 to Hunter School, 20 to Jackson, 17 to Joyner, 26 to Page High. Also 10 to Kiser Junior High School, six to Lindley Elementary School, one to Lindley Junior High School, five to Murphy High School, one to Porter School, three to Proximity School and four to Smith High. Most of the children seeking trans fers live near the schools to which they applied, P. J. Weaver, school su perintendent, said. After the school board acts, dissatis fied parents may appeal the decision. First grade assignments already made are to the following schools: Joyner, Central, Mclver and Porter, one each; Hunter, 5; Lindley, 9, Mur- phev, 4, and Gillespie Park, 16. This is the laregst number of Negroes to seek transfers since Greensboro first admitted Negroes to two previous ly white schools six years ago. ★ ★ ★ Two Negro children requested trans fers to white school June 7 in Guil ford County. This county (except Greensboro and High Point, both cities) has no desegregation. The Negro children asked reassignment from the Negro Rena Bullock School to the white Sedgefield School. “This marks the first time in recent years that the county schools have re ceived such a request,” Supt. E. P. Pearce said. The county is likely to act in July. Pearce also noted that 17 Negro children have applied for reassign ment from the county system to two white schools, Archer and Smith High, in the Greensboro city system. ★ ★ ★ County, City Schools Form One System A new school system, the City- County School Board of Winston- Salem and Forsyth County, was bom July 1, the result of a merger of the Winston-Salem city and Forsyth County systems. Racially, the new system stands as follows: • Three Negroes are members of the combined school boards, Alderman Carl H. Russell and Attorney Richard C. Er win of the city and Dr. Lillian B. Lewis of the county. The new board has 12 members, to be eventually reduced to eight, • Two elementary schools, Easton with 19 and North with one, both of the city, were desegregated during the past school year. The city-county ad ministered Industrial Education Center was desegregated. No county schools were desegregated. • There were no requests from the old county school system by Negroes to attend a white school although it was announced that the new system would operate on a geographical sys tem. County Negroes attend the con solidated Carver School with grades 1-12. • Mr. and Mrs. Harold L. Kennedy, both attorneys, filed requests for the transfer of their three sons from Negro schools to the white Brunson School. Twin sons Harold and Harvey, in an accelerated sixth grade class at Diggs School, and Michael, enrolled in first grade at Fairview School, are the children involved. • North Elementary School appar ently will become a Negro school with possibly a few whites enrolled. During the past school year, North opened with 240 white students. Enrollment was dropped to 180 when a Negro girl was enrolled. When 390 Negro children were transferred from two overcrowd ed Negro schools, Carver Crest and Kimberley Park, 167 of 180 white chil dren assigned asked for transfers to Lowrance School. As a result, the white principal from last year was as signed to Lowrance, and a Negro was named principal. The new school board must act on these and the Kennedy requests for transfers as well as the routine re quests. • Two Negro children were en rolled in the special summer program for academically and artistically tal ented children at Dalton Junior High School. They were Bobbietta Dobson and Linda Vick, both ninth graders. In the past two years, a separate pro gram had been operated at Anderson Junior High School for Negro chil dren. The minimum required did not enroll at Anderson this summer. The two girls were then accepted at Dalton. Marvin Ward, now superintendent of the consolidated system, said, “The ad mission of these girls was an effort to take care of an existing problem . . . We were not thinking in terms of de segregating this summer program . . . We’ll take the matter under study and decide how the program will operate toward the end of the next school year.” ★ ★ ★ The extension of the Charlotte- Mecklenburg school sysem’s geo graphical assignment system will mean the attendance of Negroes at six pre viously all white schools, it was announced by the Charlotte-Mecklen- burg Board of Education. Four schools will be desegregated on the basis of geographical assign ment. They are elementary schools, Elizabeth, one; Villa Heights, two; Wil- more, four, and Seversville, eight. Orig inally, 78 Negro children were eligible to attend 12 schools, but only 15 chose to transfer. Two junior high schools, Sedgefield and Alexander Graham, will be de segregated on a promotional level, with sixth graders moving up from two de segregated elementary schools, Sedge field and Derita. Under the new assignment program, 82 white children were assigned to Negro schools, but all of them chose to return to their present white schools. Only Bethune School will continue as the Negro school with white students enrolled. Six schools, including Bethune, op erated on an interracial basis last year. The lone Negro at Myers Park High School was graduated in June. ★ ★ ★ The Chapel Hill Board of Education reassigned 77 Negroes from Negro schools to predominantly white schools, rejected 19 requests by Negroes for transfers to white schools, and heard criticism of its policies from the May or’s Committee on Integration. Chapel Hill dropped its geographical assign ment policy and boundaries June 7. The transfers were made June 15. In making reassignments Dr. How ard Thompson, superintendent of schools, announced a policy based on these points: Legal Action • There will be no geographical as signments. • Residential location of the school population, availability of classroom space, and the maintaining of equality in size of classes will be the basic factors. • Double shift classes will be avoid- ed. • Dr. Thompson will assign first graders on an individual basis. • Most students were assigned to the schools they attended last year. Dr. Thompson used these points as reasons for refusing to transfer 19 Ne gro students to predominantly white schools. The students have the right to appeal to the school board at its next meeting in July. Race was not involved in the trans fers, he said. Miscellaneous Governor’s School Opens With 400 The Governor’s School opened Mon day, June 10, on the campus of Salem College with a desegregated student body, faculty and governing board. Gov. Terry Sanford, who requested the founding of the school, spent a half-day with the young people and spoke at the formal opening. A student body of 400, including 30 Negroes, selected from rising juniors and seniors in North Carolina high schools, is studying free of charge in one of the following areas: English, social science, natural science, mathe matics, foreign languages, drama, dance, art, choral music and instru mental music. This school is serving as a work shop to promote an eight-week summer program for gifted and talented high school students. It is a three-year ex periment financed by $225,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and $225,000 from foundations and indus tries in Winston-Salem. ★ ★ ★ Education, not demonstration will pave the road to first class citizenship for Negroes, Gov. Terry Sanford told Negro leaders of North Carolina in Ra leigh June 25. This meeting was called with the idea of preventing violence in various anti-segregation movements in the state. Durham Pupil Assignment Plan Faces July Federal Court Test Judge Edwin M. Stanley of the U.S. Middle District Court will hold a hear ing July 11 on the new pupil assign ment plan set up by the Durham City Board of Education. This action is part of the ruling Oct. 12, 1962 by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (Wheeler v. Durham City Board of Education and Spaulding v. Durham City Board of Education) that Durham was applying the North Caro lina Pupil Placement Law in “an un constitutional manner.” The school board was ordered to submit a suitable plan to end “existing discrimination.” Negro plaintiffs in the case will file several objections to the Durham plan. They claim that it provides only for desegregation of elementary schools and seeks delay in desegregation of junior and senior high schools. The city plan does include the pro motion of two elementary Negro school graduates to two predominantly white high schools. The board assigned graduates of Walltown and Crest Street schools, both Negro, to predominantly white Carr Junior High School. In the past these students had been assigned to the Negro Whitted High School. The Durham school board apparently is awaiting Judge Stanley’s ruling be fore taking action on 115 reassignment requests made since school closed. These include 38 requests by Negroes to attend predominantly white schools. The Durham Interim Committee is keeping watch on the progress of de segregation in schools through its edu cation committee headed by Asa T. Spaulding. ★ ★ ★ A suit filed by parents of eight Negro children against the High Point City Board of Education will be heard Oct. 25 by the U.S. Middle District Court in Greensboro. The case (Gilmore et al v. Hig^ 1 Point City Board of Education) w^s filed March 13, 1963. Judge Richard son Preyer will hold a pre-trial con ference Oct. 17. A class action, the suit seeks f 1 ^ desegregation of High Point schools in assignment of students, teachers 311 other personnel. . Attorney D. P. Whitley reported » the High Point school board June the status of the case. . t Since the suit was filed, High has set up a new pupil ass *® nE ^j 1 j S program on a geographical basis, program assigns some Negroes to w ^ schools and some whites to Nes 1 ” schools. a No Negro requested transfer fr° Negro to a white school this ye 3 *' school closed, the board reported. ★ ★ ★ U.S. Judge John D. Larkins Jr- ^ fused to grant a preliminary injun j against the Greene County sc ^ board to discontinue “the opera i ^ a dual, segregated school sys Greene County.” „ _, j, t>. In the suit (Farmer and Greene County School Roar 0 ^i\is boys, Obedian Farmer and e Edwards, are seeking transfers white Greene Central High ★ ★ ★ yS fudge Edwin M. Stanley of the _ ddle District Court will hold J 16 al conference in Asheboro, a case in which a Negro is ’i. enroll in the white Trmlt ;A t#° e case will be heard wi*U\ „£+— +v,o rvrp-trial hearing
