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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST, 1963—PAGE 15
Virginia
(Continued From Page 14)
Schools will be desegregated to Sep
tember as the result of the assignment
0 f 32 Negroes to previously all-white
schools. The assignments were made by
the State Pupil Placement Board.
On June 14, June 21 and July 1,
members of the Board of Supervisors
me t with school board members to re
quest the latter to reconsider the ban.
The supervisors said they had gone
along with the ban resolution last year
as a possible deterrent to Negro ap
plications to attend white schools, but
that with desegregation now to be a
reality, the people of the county wanted
the ban removed.
On July 6 the supervisors dismissed
the six members of the school board.
Five days later, on July 11, the super
visors reappointed the two members
who had favored reconsidering the ban
—Walter B. Sally and Thomas H.
Jenkins. A new member, Rodger R.
Rinehart Jr., was named, leaving three
more to be appointed.
Besides Oglesby, members not re
appointed were Mrs. R. A. Yancey,
Forrest W. Paulett and Harry Garth.
Commenting on his dismissal, Oglesby
said: “We’ve been trying to tell them
we wouldn’t switch our policy. I’m
relieved they’ve finally kicked us off,
if they want the kind of school board
they can dictate to.”
Oglesby, who retired last year as a
professor of mathematics at the Uni
versity of Virginia, is now teaching
without pay at Rock Hill Academy, a
private segregated school in Charlottes-
j* ville.
★ ★ ★
Five More Districts
Schedule Desegregation
The State Pupil Placement Board on
July 12 assigned Negro pupils to all-
white schools in Prince George County
and in the city of Norton. On July 23
the board assigned Negroes to white
schools in Petersburg and Chesapeake.
Together with a federal district court
order of July 12 assigning Negroes to
white schools in Hopewell, the board
action brought to five the number of
school districts in which desegregation
was ordered during July.
A total of 55 districts are expected
to have biracial classes during the com
ing year, compared with 31 during the
Past year.
The 23 districts to be desegregatec
■or the first time tentatively are slatec
to have the following number of Ne-
groes in schools with whites (figure ir
Parenthesis is the number of school:
10 be desegregated):
Counties
Albemarle, 32 (3); Charles City, 6
I 1 '; Culpeper, 15 (3); Dinwiddie, 7 (2);
rauquier, 2 (1); Frederick, 6 (2);
reene, 5 (1); Hanover, 10 (2); Hen-
w C °' 1 ® (13); King and Queen, 38 (3);
Middlesex, 13 (2); Powhatan, 56 (1);
,,, George, 29 (3); Spotsylvania, 9
, Surry, 7 (2).
Cities
Chesapeake 5 (1); Danville 12 (4);
,r ve U’ 9 (2); Martinsville 1 (1);
ford°, n, Ms (1): Peter sburg, 8 (2); Rad-
4 (1); Staunton, 10 (2). (Two Ne-
wjjit® are attending a high school with
the S ™ Hopewell this summer, but
de* regu lar session has not yet been
ae j*gregated.)
Ne action to the approximately 340
with° e ?. W ^ 10 be attending schools
tricts WtUtes new ly-desegregated dis-
s 'Knm ne ? t & bout 970 additional as
hy u en ~ °t Negroes have been made
trictc 6 Placement Board in dis-
Th Previously desegregated.
new assignments are:
Counties
terfjS er st> 6 (plus 23 Indians); Ches-
George' In 3?. oyd ’ 5; Grayson, 6; King
52; v ’, > King William, 2; Loudoun,
^ibtski ®? mer y> 28; Prince William, 1;
24; s t ~ Roanoke, 28; Shenandoah,
33 ord, 28; Warren, 13; and York,
ARKANSAS
Pine Bluff Starts Desegregation in
LITTLE ROCK
T he Pine Bluff School Board
announced July 8 that it
would begin desegregation volun
tarily in September by admitting
Negro pupils in the first and sec
ond grades to formerly all-white
schools.
On July 26, the board said it had
assigned one Negro to the first grade
and five to the second grade. It said
these were the only Negroes who had
asked assignment to white schools.
Pine Bluff will become the 13th de
segregated school district in the state.
Pine Bluff’s population is about 40 per
cent Negro.
One of the previously desegregated
districts, Dollarway, lies on the edge
of Pine Bluff and actually extends a
few blocks inside the northwest city
limits.
Arkansas’ first White Citizens Coun
cil was organized in Pine Bluff in 1955
and it still is the most active one in
the state.
Once before the Pine Bluff Board
had announced a voluntary desegrega
tion plan—one grade at a time, starting
in the first grade—but that plan was
postponed indefinitely when violence
broke out at Little Rock Central High
School in 1957.
This new plan is the same except
that it will cover two grades each year.
Harvey W. McGeorge, school board
president, emphasized that the plan had
not come from any meeting with bi
racial groups or because of pressure
from any racial group.
However there has been agitation by
the NAACP and other organizations, for
desegregation of schools and other
facilities. And the school board, before
announcing its plan met with four
members of the White Citizens Coun
cil to explain it.
Board Statement
The board’s July 8 statement said:
“In September, 1956, the Pine Bluff
School Board announced its intention
to recognize and discharge its legal
obligation under the decisions of the
U.S. Supreme Court and accordingly
to begin accepting enrollment of child
ren entering the first grade in Sep
tember, 1958, and each year thereafter
without regard to race or color, and
to continue the procedure annually
until it would have been made ap
plicable to all 12 grades.
“Circumstances dictated a delay in
1958 and again in 1959, but on each oc
casion the board restated its intention
to discharge its legal obligation under
decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
concerning desegregation.
“In the meantime, there have been
numerous court tests of various state
laws and various plans. Recent de
cisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
have made clear the legal obligation
of the Board, and have shown the
possible adverse impact on an edu
cational program if a school district
does not accept and discharge its legal
obligation.
coming year. The arrangement will pre
vent transportation of whites and Ne
groes on the same bus.
• Booker T. Bradshaw, Negro mem
ber of the Richmond School Board, was
elected vice-chairman by his colleagues
on July 15. He is the first Negro school
board officer in Richmond in this cen
tury.
• Hilary H. Jones Jr., 40, a lawyer,
was appointed to the Norfolk School
Board. Jones, a native of Norfolk and a
member of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, is
the first member of his race to serve on
the Norfolk board.
Arkansas Highlights
The Pine Bluff school board an
nounced it would begin voluntary
desegregation in September, starting
with the first and second grades this
year and taking two more grades
each year. It assigned all six Ne
groes who requested it to the first
and second grades of four previous
ly all-white schools.
The Little Rock school board,
which is extending its desegregation
plan to the first and fourth grades,
has received requests from 11 Ne
gro pupils for assignment to the
fourth grade of white schools. Pre
viously it had assigned eight first
graders to the white schools.
The Hot Springs YMCA urged the
school board to take steps leading
to orderly desegregation of the
schools.
An all-white jury could not reach
a verdict in the trial of William M.
Howard, Negro charged in the stab
bing of a white boy during a racial
incident at the Dollarway High
School last January.
“Therefore, after careful considera
tion, the board has decided it is in the
best interests of the Pine Bluff schools’
program of education to desegregate
the first and second grades in Sep
tember, 1963. Obviously, this decision
is a very difficult one to make.
“However, the members of the board
unanimously believe that the best in
terests of Pine Bluff’s 8,800 school
children require the board of education
to proceed in compliance with its legal
obligation under the U.S. Supreme
Court opinion, and seek to retain local
control of the administration of the
Pine Bluff public schools.”
The board said it had mailed forms
to 1,274 pupils’ parents on which they
could express a preference as to which
school they wanted their child to at
tend in the first or second grade.
The six Negro children who request
ed it were assigned to four of the seven
white elementary schools. Supt. John
A. Trice said the anticipated enroll
ment in the second grade was 381
whites and 334 Negroes.
Appeal Permitted
Trice said that the plan would not
change the employment of teachers or
administrative workers. In succeeding
years the assignment of each pupil will
be made on his final report card of
the year. Any pupil not satisfied with
his assignment may appeal to the board
within 10 days.
McGeorge said the plan was con
sistent with all laws, including the
Pupil Assignment Act.
L. D. Poynter, railroad employe and
president of the White Citizens Coun
cil, was “definitely not in agreement”
with the plan. He said four members
of the council had met with the school
board, at the request of McGeorge, to
hear it explained.
The Council never had approved the
Dollarway desegregation plan and once
helped get up a petition by 1,200 per
sons asking Gov. Orval E. Faubus
to use “all force” to prevent desegrega
tion at Dollarway.
The Dollarway Board proceeded with
its court-ordered plan, but this year,
no Negro pupils registered to attend
In The Colleges
Miscellaneous
the first grade of the white Dollarway
School.
The Pine Bluff Movement, a deseg
regation organization formed mostly by
college students last winter, denounced
the desegregation plan as “an insult to
every Negro in Pine Bluff and every
Negro in America.” It demanded com
plete desegregation of all grades at
once.
No lawsuit ever was filed against the
Pine Bluff Board though the possibility
of one was often raised both by the
NAACP and by Wiley A. Branton, Ne
gro lawyer formerly of Pine Bluff
who now heads the voter education
project of the Southern Regional Coun
cil at Atlanta and who still represents
the plaintiffs in the Little Rock law
suit.
★ ★ ★
Little Rock Board
Gets 11 Requests
The Little Rock School Board has
received requests from 11 Negro pupils
for assignment to the fourth grade of
white elementary schools in September.
Supt. Floyd W. Parsons said July 10
he did not know when the board would
act on the requests.
The Little Rock board will extend
its desegregation plan to the first and
fourth grades in September. It already
has assigned eight Negro pupils to the
first grade in six white schools.
The parents of 2,200 fourth grade
pupils, about a third of them Negroes,
were invited in June to express a pref
erence as to which school they wanted
their children to attend next fall. From
that came the 11 requests by the Negro
fourth graders, Parsons said.
★ ★ ★
YMCA Asks Action
At Hot Springs
The Hot Springs school board dis
closed July 16 that it had received a
resolution from the Young Women’s
Christian Association urging desegrega
tion of the schools. Harry Howard,
board president, said the board had
discussed it but had taken no action.
The board received a similar request
in May from the Hot Springs branch of
the NAACP.
Hot Springs has one desegregated
class, for high school students, in auto
mobile mechanics. Supt. Hugh Mills
said the class has five Negroes in the
fall semester and one in the spring
semester of the 1962-63 school year.
The YMCA resolution said in part:
“It is our judgment that two courses
are open to the community. One is to
wait for an overt act and respond only
after court action has been taken. This
would place control of our school sys
tem under federal courts rather than
duly-elected officials.
“The second course is to take the
initiative in assuming the legal and
moral responsibility for developing
plans for orderly desegregation. . . .
“Therefore . . . the board of directors
of the YMCA recommends that steps
be taken to insure the orderly deseg
regation of the public schools of Hot
Springs.”
On Aug. 2 the board announced that
it had received requests from the par
ents of two Negro second-graders for
admission to a white elementary school.
President Howard said the board would
act on the request in the next few days.
Last year the board denied four similar
requests.
^ainpto dri ®’ 195; Fredericksburg, 3
ST>° uth V, ’ Lynchburg, 31; Poi
Snia B e ^ Richmond, 239 and Vi
Cities
' ■
r
>•
i
o
In
★ ★ ★
^tin^T developments during Ji
in n. 10ca l schools and sch<
, ^ Virginia:
0u nty’ s ^Hington County Board (t
. <0u ld not ° Vern ing body) indicated
special use permits i
., ** took Private schools. Mei
! ^ld be n " e P° s Ri°n that schoi
k'didjj P en to all races. Republic
S* 0 f nj° r the b °ard and for t
blatant , egate s denounced the sta
t* Cranny.”
arr a ^' ddlesex County Sch(
Provide special b
‘Sned to ,\^° r *be 13 Negro pup
bite schools there for t
Radford College
Admits 2 Negroes
Two Negro students were enrolled
for summer courses at Radford College,
the first of their race to study there.
One was a graduate student in edu
cation, and the other was a transfer
from Virginia Union University in
Richmond who plans to return to Vir
ginia Union in the fall.
Radford’s winter session has not been
desegregated and no qualified Negroes
have applied for the coming year, ac
cording to Dr. Charles K. Martin, Jr.,
president.
Radford is a state-supported college
specializing in training school teachers.
It is affiliated administratively with Vir
ginia Polytechnic Institute, which has
been desegregated since 1953.
White, Negro Teacher Groups
Take Steps Toward Merger
The Arkansas Education Association
and the Arkansas Teachers Association
will set up a joint committee, probably
in September or October, to consider
the prospects of merging. The AEA is
for white teachers, the ATA for Ne
gro teachers.
At the National Education Associa
tion convention July 4, at Detroit, a res
olution was adopted calling on state
affiliates of the NEA to work toward
removal of racial restrictions.
The AEA has a few Negro members
now, Forrest Rozzell of Little Rock,
executive secretary, said.
He said the AEA abandoned its racial
restrictions in 1948 and that more than
1,000 Negro teachers switched to it.
Then the ATA became concerned
about its loss of members, Rozzell said,
and the AEA sent the Negroes’ mem
bership fees to the ATA and urged the
Negroes to return to the ATA. Most of
them did, he said.
★ ★ ★
The Arkansas Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church, in a meeting June
28 at Hot Springs, recommended that
more cities appoint biracial committees
to work out grievances “before hos
tilities occur.”
September
Legal Action
Jury Unable
To Reach Verdict
In Stabbing Case
William M. Howard, 35, was tried
July 16-17-18 in Circuit Court at Pine
Bluff on charges resulting from a racial
incident Jan. 22 at the Dollarway
School.
The all-white jury of eight men and
four women could not reach a verdict
in six hours of deliberation.
The prosecuting attorney said Howard
would be tried again during the Octo
ber term of court.
Howard, a Negro, brother of George
Howard Jr. of Pine Bluff, state NAACP
president, was charged with assault with
intent to kill and carrying a concealed
weapon.
The latter charge was changed during
the trial to carrying a knife as a wea
pon. The penalty for assault is a prison
term of 1 to 21 years and for carrying
a knife the penalty is 30 to 90 days.
The charges came from the stabbing
of Johnny Irvin, 18, a white boy who
was a senior in Dollarway High School
at the time.
★ ★ ★
Gov. Orval E. Faubus restored the
civil and political rights of John Taylor
Coggins of Little Rock July 19. He
was one of five men convicted of the
anti-desegregation dynamitings at Lit
tle Rock on Labor Day 1959.
Rights of two of the other four also
have been restored. One of the five
has died and the other is not yet eligible
to ask restoration.
South Carolina
(Continued From Page 2)
be allowed to intervene as parties de
fendant.
The intervenors offered a lengthy
proposed answer to the complaint that
generally followed the lines of argu
ment laid out in the school district’s
answer.
There was one significant addition.
They asked the federal court to con
sider a plan that would permit three
types of public schools: separate white,
separate Negro and desegregated.
Schoolmen
Funds for ETV
Reported Withheld
At NAACP Request
Approximately $347,000 in federal
funds is being withheld from South
Carolina’s educational television ser
vice at the request of the NAACP, Rep.
Albert W. Watson, D.-S.C., said Aug. 1.
The funds are a part of a $5,000,000
appropriation by Congress and are
distributed to the states on a matching
basis by the U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
The delay involved threatens South
Carolina’s first open circuit ETV ser
vice, planned for this fall, ETV General
Manager Lynn Kalmbach said.
The funds involved had been bud
geted to begin operation of two open
channel stations at Charleston and
Greenville—in the lower and upper
sections of the state geographically.
This is because transmitting facilities
have been made available on a re
vocable basis by commercial stations
in the two areas.
775-800 Schools Affected
Kalmbach says ETV service to 125-
150 schools in the Charleston area and
approximately 650 elementary and high
schools in the populous Greenville area
may be deprived of ETV service this
fall because of the delay.
South Carolina has a closed circuit
ETV program that now extends into
selected schools in each of its 46
counties, generally one white and one
Negro high school in each.
Rep. Watson, who represents the dis
trict which includes the capital of Co
lumbia, said the NAACP obtained a 30-
day delay in making the funds avail
able “purely to allow them time to
look into possible discrimination,” pri
marily, it is understood, in hiring.
He noted that the NAACP request
was not accompanied by any specific
charge of discrimination.
The delay, Watson said, was granted
at the request of Francis Pohlhouse,
and NAACP attorney in Washington.