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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS-^JULY, 1963—PAGE 3,
Desegregated Districts To Total 206 This Fall
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AUSTIN
B y the end of June, 206 Texas
school districts had indicated
they will operate on a desegre
gated basis in September 1963,
compared to 174 in the November
1962 Statistical Summary of
Southern Education Reporting
Service.
Most of the 174 desegregated by
board action following an opinion of
December, 1962, by then Attorney Gen
eral Will Wilson that the state law re
quiring referendum approval is uncon
stitutional.
A survey in June indicated that de
segregated districts in September will
include more than half the state’s Ne
gro students, and about 60 per cent of
all white pupils. While enrollment fig
ures will not be known until after
school starts in September, it is esti
mated that fewer than 5 per cent of the
state’s Negro students will actually be
attending classes in predominantly-
white schools.
Boards announcing new desegrega
tion policies in June included:
Fort Worth, two Negroes enrolled for
adult vocational training in previously-
segregated night classes of the public
school system. The board already had
ordered grade-a-year desegregation to
start in September in compliance with
a court order. (SSN, June, 1963, and
previous)
In the same county (Tarrant), Ar
lington announced grade-a-year deseg
regation to start this fall with an esti
mated 30 Negroes to be enrolled in
previous all-white first grade classes.
The district is shown on Texas Educa
tion Agency records to have 11,218
white and 147 Negro students. Arling
ton State College dropped segregation
in 1962.
Birdville, Tarrant County, with 90
Negro and 9,175 white pupils, will en
roll nine Negroes with white first-
graders in September.
Choice of Schools
to"
re-
iron?
icans
‘eco-
: pri'
oslirc
pres-
■with
i said
Benton ordered complete desegrega
tion on an overlapping attendance zone
plan which apparently will give stu
dents a choice of schools. The district
had 4,967 white and 610 Negro students
enrolled last year.
Waco, the largest Texas district re
taining segregation after Fort Worth,
ordpred bv boa-d action a six-year de
segregation pro-
[issiJ-
front
;s th £
U*
Mccall
litis
gram starting with
the first grade in
September.
Abner V. Mc
Call, board presi
dent who also
heads Baylor Uni
versity (still seg
regated) said the
public school ac
tion is “to avoid
the turmoil and
distress of further
gation ...” A desegregation suit has
r Jo* \- en penc ling in federal court since
,r ' D 0v - 5,1962. (McGrue v. Williams, SSN
ecember, 1962) Waco had 14,227 white
j • Negro students enrolled, ac-
to latest reports.
•'Von' 06 ’ ^ en ^ a b County, near San
sh f
e fed' i
jurifc
ng 11
■the
>f t -oa°y 10 ' or< d er ed desegregation by
actinn T’T,,’ 1
iaitf'
mro"'
30f
ini'
i-ef-
a 'Un t ? C ^ on ' This reversed the com-
it v ys Previous action of 1958 when
against admitting the town’s
:, '- r <ooI V "° ^ e ® ro students to all-white
, Sl Two Negro children will be
schf,., 6 to attend the Boerne high
fe 01 . this fall.
near'
•al'f!
fed' 1
&5fl ,"‘ L UUS tail. The system has about
L^te pupils.
taught \ ear ’ it had four Negro students
Was 0n ^ one teacher. Her contract
Win a year-to-year basis and she
ot be retained.
of*
‘Encouraged’ to File
L ■' be. whi^ Chambers of Grand Prai-
tn
idef S
S*”!
f ed,
> '
i^eral j rece ' ve< I $62,213 last year in
V th e ctt Sa *^ “ we were encouraged
a pj a Justice department to
ling •
rtifli
as« s -
‘■'46 vi.? >ra i r ie, Dallas County, had
c 1962 - It
e and 481 Negro pupils in
expects to enroll 30 to 40
Jin'
;d‘
iol-
&
tif
&
- ltgr< >es 1 -
^de n on S TOO whites in the first
***!> l?,, September under a stair-
Win/^ Program.
.^d it j a U as County, whose board
"J’d ij 2^ Se ® re S a ted without pressure,
Hi ^ . "hite and 444 Negro stu-
H to att ^It expects 67 Ne-
elac en< d tenmerly all-white first
Htm at , SeS in September.
’ Crayson County, adopted
.i 5 s hoty ar . 'desegregation. Latest fig-
H a nr , J? enrollment to be 4,576
S7 579 Negroes.
Hitt(j a , ar( d' orc Iered desegregation:
e > Caldwell Cormty, which
Texas Highlights
Plans to desegrate in September
were announced by public schools in
Arlington, Birdville, Denton, Waco,
Boerne, Irving, Grand Prairie, Sher
man, Martindale, Hale Center and
Kemper City, raising to 206 the
number of districts abolishing seg
regation. Fort Worth and Austin
schools announced a speedup of de
segregation.
Texas A&M admitted three Ne
groes and Texarkana College two,
the first desegregation for both.
A federal judge ordered Longview,
in the East Texas ‘hard-core’ area,
to file a desegregation plan by July
27.
Briefs were filed in the University
of Texas dormitory desegregation
case, with regents contending that
housing is exempt from biracial rul
ings.
A group of Rice University alumni-
attacked efforts of trustees to have
the founder’s will construed so Negro
students can be admitted.
had 184 white and no Negro students
last year.
Hale Center, Hale County, 857 white
and 91 Negro students.
Kemper City, Victoria County, 97
white and no Negroes last year.
Austin, state capital, completed de
segregation started eight years ago; au
thorized Negroes to enroll in the first
four grades—as well as higher grades—
this fall.
Austin’s school board expects 34,000
white and 6,500 Negroes this fall. Last
year 376 exercised an option to attend
desegregated schools, of nearly 4,000
eligible. Until this year, the board had
been using grade-a-year desegregation.
The board at Hitchcock, Galveston
County, tentatively approved desegre
gation starting in the 12th grade. Its
enrollment was 984 whites and 468
Negroes.
St. Mark’s school of Texas, privately
operated at Dallas, enrolled its first
Negro pupil in June.
In The Colleges
3 Negroes Enroll
At Texas A&M
Three Negroes enrolled at Texas
A&M College, the first of their race to
apply.
Two will do graduate work under
National Science Foundation grants.
They hold master’s degrees from Prai
rie View A&M, an all-Negro affiliate of
the other college. The third Negro stu
dent is an undergraduate.
The school also recently announced
a policy of accepting female students.
Two Negro girls enrolled at Texar
kana College. The governing board of
the locally tax-supported institution
said that Lindo Ruth Tolbert and Al-
birda P. Briley are the first qualified
Negroes to apply for enrollment since
the federal court in 1956 ordered the
college to accept all qualified applicants.
(Whitmore v. Stilwell)
West Texas State College at Canyon,
previously desegregated, started re
cruiting Negro basketball players. Jim
my Viramontes, the new coach, said of
the first six players he recruited, three
are Negroes, including two from De
troit.
Legal Action
Longview School Plan
U.S. Dist. Judge Joe M. Sheehy gave
trustees of the Longview school sys
tem until July 27 to file a plan for de
segregation. (Adams v. Mathews, filed
Nov. 23, 1962.)
This marks the first court order in
what Texans generally consider to be
the remaining “hard core” resistance
area of segregation. No school in East
Texas has desegregated, except such
cities as Dallas, Houston and Galveston.
Longview had 4,714 white and 2,361
Negro students enrolled in 1961-1962.
Judge Sheehy ordered the school
board to arrange for desegregation
“with all deliberate speed.”
“In view of the
fact that more
than nine years
have passed since
the Supreme
Court knocked
down the segre
gation of races in
schools, ... I
am going to give
defendants until
July 27, 1963, to
file a plan in this
court for the admission of children in
the schools of Longview on a racial
nondiscrimination basis, with deliberate
speed,” Sheehy said.
Earl Roberts, attorney for the board,
pleaded for more time to orient the
school staff, parents, students and com
munity.
“If en masse total integration is en
tered now, I think we’ll have problems
we may never be able to overcome in
the system,” said Roberts.
Negro student plaintiffs are Robert
L. Adams Jr., Yvonne Adams, and
Thomas Liase.
Judge Sheehy agreed with their at
torney’s argument that continued seg
regation violates the U.S. Constitution.
Dormitory Order
Dismissal Asked
Attorneys for The University of
Texas asked U.S. District Judge Ben
H. Rice Jr. to dismiss a case filed in
1961 seeking to abolish racial segrega
tion in dormitories. (Sanders v. Ran
som, SSN, December, 1961, and subse
quent.)
Attorneys for the three plaintiffs
argued that dormitories are an integral
part of a student’s educational process,
and that the university supervises all
living quarters. Leroy Sanders, one
plaintiff, is no longer at the University
of Texas. Two Negro coeds, Sherryl
Griffin and Maudie Ates, will be en
rolled again this fall.
The university’s brief, seeking to dis
miss the case, said it provides dormi
tories for all races. Those for women
are segregated between whites and Ne
groes. Three men’s dormitories are bi
racial but others are for whites only.
Attorney General Waggoner Carr and
Leon Jaworski of Houston, representing
the university regents, said that only
14 per cent of the 21,000-plus students
live in dormitories, and the other 86
per cent are not necessarily being de
prived of anything.
“What plaintiffs are in effect asking
this honorable court to do is pave ave
nues for social intercourse for them
which is totally unrelated to the educa
tional advantages accorded them and
all other students in the University of
Texas,” Judge Rice was told.
The regents’ brief also noted that the
two Negro girls are members of an all-
Negro sorority at the university.
“Would this honorable court enter
tain for a moment an action that would
force these Negro girls to admit white
girls to their sorority? In principle,
there is no distinction in that situation
and the present one.”
Plaintiffs’ Reply
Sam Houston Clinton Jr., attorney
for the plaintiffs, replied that “in es
sence, all plaintiffs seek is that the
‘white only’ be taken down from Uni
versity of Texas dormitories.”
“Regardless of whether dormitory life
is a part of the educational process, the
fact remains that a dormitory owned
and operated by the University of
Texas, that is to say, the State of
Texas, is a public facility,” said Clinton.
The university officials contend they
have complied with the “deliberate
speed” doctrine of desegregation, start
ing in 1950 with the enrollment of Ne
groes in certain professional and grad
uate programs.
Since 1956, Negroes have been ad
mitted to all classes at the school, and
with access to libraries, dining halls,
etc. on nondiscriminatory basis.
★ ★ ★
Rice Alumni Seek
To Keep Out Negroes
At Houston, a group of Rice Univer
sity alumni took steps to prevent the
enrollment of Negroes.
They asked State District Judge Phil
Peden to reject a plea of Rice trustees
to construe the founder’s will which
SHEEHY
What They Say
Teacher Groups
Desegregation Seen
At Austin, Dr. Vernon McDaniel, ex
ecutive secretary, Teachers’ State As
sociation of Texas, composed of 11,000
Negroes, predicted
an early end to
separate white
and Negro profes
sional organiza
tions like his.
“I don’t see how
we can continue
dual profession
al organizations
when school sys
tems are being de
segregated,” said
McDaniel.
Texas State Teachers Association has
a “whites only” policy.
McDaniel said that the surplus of
Negro teachers is diminishing, but still
exists.
Community Action
Beaumont Urged
To Remove Bars
Negroes at Beaumont presented a
proposal for desegregation, including
private businesses, job opportunities,
and “massive application for admission
to all grade levels of our public schools
on a nondiscriminatory basis.”
Beaumont schools are still segregated,
although Lamar Tech, a state college
there, accepts students of all races.
Ordered
prohibited admitting Negroes. (William
M. Rice v. Waggoner Carr et al, SSN,
March, 1963.)
Trustees are asking the court to strike
down both the anti-Negro provision
contained in the 1891 will of William
Marsh Rice, and also its prohibition on
charging tuition.
The plea of intervention against the
trustees’ view was filed by John B.
Coffee, oilman, and Val T. Billups, for
mer industrialist, both ex-students of
Rice. They contend the will is “clear
and unambiguous” although the trus
tees say it prohibits Negroes in one
provision, and leaves it up to admin
istrators in another.
★ ★ ★
The controversy over desegregating
schools at Georgetown continued. U.S.
Dist. Judge Ben H. Rice Jr. approved
a school board proposal for grade-a-
year desegregation starting in Septem
ber 1964 in the first grade. (Crystal
Ann Miller v. Joe Barnes, SSN June
1963 and previous.)
Price Ashton, attorney for the plain
tiffs, said the case will be appealed to
the U.S. Circuit Court in New Orleans.
Ashton called the board proposal
“nothing but a plan for delay.”
Carl Doering, president of the
Georgetown school board, said it needs
a year to get ready for the change, and
that if conditions justify he would be
willing to see desegregation speeded up
later.
Meanwhile, two representatives from
the committee promoting desegregation
at Georgetown claimed the board was
violating a State Court of Civil Appeals
injunction by adding to a white ele
mentary school. (SSN, June, 1963, Kre-
ger v. Board of Trustees.) The court
held that Georgetown could not spend
bond funds for constructing segregated
facilities.
Spokesmen for the board contended
this would prevent any district, not ful
ly desegregated, from making perma
nent improvements. But W. E. Tinsley
of Austin, director of a bond dealers’
organization, interpreted the court’s
ruling to apply only to Georgetown’s
situation.
He added that the timidity of North
ern and Eastern investors to buy bonds
of districts which have racial segrega
tion troubles has about disappeared,
and that no reluctance to buy appears
now for that reason. In fact, said Tins
ley, biracial districts are considered
likely to operate more economically
than segregated districts.
Stained
Howie, Jackson Daily News
Mississippi
(Continued Fiom Page 2)
Dean Farley said when the applica-
of Cleve McDowell, Negro graduate
from Jackson State College, for admis
sion to the law school was received,
that he reported it to the Association of
University Law Schools with the state
ment that McDowell “would be pro
cessed and admitted if he was quali
fied.” McDowell was found to be quali
fied and was enrolled June 5.
The dean said McDowell has been
received by other law school students
“with courtesy.” He said McDowell was
told when he applied that “the faculty
is not enthusiastic about your coming,
but you will be given every privilege.”
Dean Farley, who joined the law
school staff in 1945 from Tulane Uni
versity, had previously taught at “Ole
Miss” and served as mayor of Oxford
where the institution is located. His
father had served as dean of the “Ole
Miss” school of law.
Successor Named
Joshua M. Morse III, associate pro
fessor in the law school, will succeed
Dean Farley, who recommended his
successor highly. The 40-year-old
Morse was bom at Poplarville in south
Mississippi’s Pearl River County, and
was graduated from the university’s
school of law in 1948. He had practiced
at Poplarville until last year when he
joined the law school faculty.
Before assuming the deanship, Morse
will attend Yale University as a Sterl
ing Fellow during the 1963-64 term. In
the interim, Assistant Dean John Fox
will be acting dean.
Dean Farley recently was listed by
Dr. James W. Silver, chairman of the
Mississippi history department, as one
of 39 faculty members of the profes
sorial ranks who have resigned since
Jan. 1.
What They Say
Jackson Mayor
Refuses School
Negotiations
Mayor Allen C. Thompson of Jack-
son refused to negotiate with Ne
gro leaders on the question of deseg
regating public schools on grounds that
the issue is before the federal court in
a suit.
That position was taken by the mayor
during a round of conferences with
the Negro leaders—ministers and busi
nessmen — look
ing to an end
anti -segregation
mass marches and
demonstrations in
the city in which
an estimated 900
were arrested for
parading without
a permit and
blocking side
walks.
Mayor Thomp
son told the group
that all recreational facilities and public
libraries have been “quietly” desegre
gated under a federal court order.
Mayor Thompson said that no effort
will be made to prevent Negroes from
using these facilities “so long as they
do not try and take them over or create
incidents.”
Mayor Thompson acceded to addi
tional demands by the Negro leaders.
However, he refused to name a biracial
committee.
The first Negro policeman has been
employed and six will be on the force
within 60 days.
Negro leaders have abandoned mass
street demonstrations and are concen
trating on registration of Negroes as
voters.