Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12—OCTOBER, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MISSOURI
Threatened Boycott Dropped;
St. Louis Schools Open Quietly
ST. LOUIS
t. Louis public schools opened
^ the fall term on Sept. 4 with
out incident after the NAACP
cancelled a threatened boycott
over desegregation policies.
The expected enrollment of 113,000
children, which is more than 50 per cent
Negro, was some 5,000 more than last
year. The city first desegregated in 1950.
Mrs. Evelyn H. Roberts, St. Louis
NAACP chapter president, told an out
door rally of more than 200 persons on
Sept. 1 that a “pupils-stay-at-home”
campaign would be deferred pending
“more extensive evaluation” of desegre
gation proposals by the Board of Edu
cation. NAACP leaders said, however,
that direct action and pressure tactics
would be applied unless the school sys
tem put substantial desegregation into
effect quickly.
On the eve of the opening of St. Louis
public schools, the Board of Education
president, Daniel L. Schlafly, addressed
4,100 teachers and administrators at the
system’s annual in-service education
program at Kiel Auditorium. He asked
them to support the board’s policies on
school desegregation.
The job of teachers this year is more
difficult, Schlafly said, “because of
methods which have been used and
which are being urged by certain in
dividuals and organizations that oppose
the policies of the board.” He said the
school system’s emphasis on education
did not mean it was indifferent to de
segregation.
‘Vital Part’
“Integration is a vital part of the edu
cational job,” he said.
Schlafly said he did not question the
right of critics to take issue with the
Board of Education, but he urged critics
to “make sure of their homework.” He
said some methods used by critics were
causing “ominous tensions and di
visions” within the community. The
immediate impact is to make the job of
the classroom teacher more difficult, he
said, but at long range the prospect is
tragic.
“We start our next tax campaign in a
little more than 15 months,” Schlafly
said. “The present tax rate was passed
by a mere handful of votes last spring.
The tissue-thin victory was despite a
vigorous campaign in an atmosphere of
city-wide unity.
“What chance would we have in a city
divided? If we lose our tax rate we lose
everything. We would have only enough
money to run the schools for two or at
Missouri Highlights
St. Louis and Kansas City public
schools began the fall terms smooth
ly after both had promised efforts
for more actual desegregation within
a framework of sound educational
policy. St. Louis school officials an
nounced they would start immedi
ately on a modified open-enrollment
system.
Stephens College, a private insti
tution for women at Columbia, en
rolled its first nonwhite students.
Development of a University of
Missouri branch in St. Louis County is
expected to enlarge opportunities for
St. Louis area Negroes to obtain a
low-cost education.
most three months. This would spell
disaster, not only for the school system
but for the entire city.”
At the Board of Education meeting
Sept. 4, Deputy Superintendent of In
struction William Kottmeyer said school
administrators were examining the pos
sibility of redrawing some elementary
districts to promote further desegrega
tion. This was recommended by a
Citizens Committee to the board during
the summer. (SSN, August).
The Board of Education filed an
answer in U.S. District Court Sept. 5,
denying allegations by the St. Louis
NAACP chapter that the board operated
a segregated school system in violation
of the Constitution.
In its answer, filed by Russell N. Mac
Leod, a board attorney, the board
denied that school administrators had
refused to rezone school boundaries to
eliminate or lessen racial imbalance. It
also denied, among other things, that
teachers had been assigned on a racial
basis. Two board members, James S.
McClellan and Frederick E. Busse, both
lawyers, filed individual answers.
It had been explained at a board
meeting that the board attorney, Leo
Lyng, had been unable to draft answers
that would reflect divergent attitudes
held by board members, some of whom
are not in agreement with board policies
and are against relief sought by the
NAACP. The McClellan-Busse answer,
signed by seven board members, was
filed Sept. 17.
McClellan, at a board meeting Sept.
10, proposed an experimental elemen
tary school having an enrollment and
faculty divided equally along racial
lines. He said such a school would indi
cate the board’s willingness to move to
ward achieving desegregation through
persuasion.
McClellan suggested that the school
have grades four through eight. Pupils
should be chosen carefully, on a basis
of educational ability, responsibility,
cooperation, fair play, and capacity to
get along with others. He said the
school would represent voluntary de
segregation in practice.
Mrs. William L. Smiley, another
board member, opposed the proposal.
She said increased effort should be
made to upgrade educational levels of
all Negro children, not just a selected
few. The board referred the McClellan
proposal to administrators and its own
education committee for further study.
On the evening of Sept. 10, a repre
sentative of the Public School Patrons’
Alliance criticized another group, the
St. Louis Council of Parent-Teacher
Associations, for failure to defend the
Board of Education “when it was under
attack from every direction.”
The thrust was made by Charles B.
Davis at a meeting at the Gardenville
public school, in predominantly white
south St. Louis. He is a member of the
Gardenville parents group of the alli
ance. The question was answered by
Mrs. Frank Mirkay, president of the
P.T.A. council.
Criticism Unexpected
Terming the criticism unexpected but
“typical of the Patrons Alliance,” Mrs.
Mirkay said the P.T.A. had adopted a
position of non-interference in school
administrative procedures.
“Had we called a meeting of the coun
cil during the crisis this summer,” she
said, “we would have had another in
flammatory harangue. You must realize
the council in St. Louis is composed of
31 white and 39 Negro units.”
On Sept. 26 the St. Louis public
schools announced that 1,195 empty
seats—526 in 33 elementary and 669 in
two high schools—would be made avail
able to transfer students under a new,
modified open-enrollment program.
Elementary pupils wishing transfer
were to be moved immediately; high
school students, at the start of the spring
semester Jan. 27.
Superintendent of Instruction Philip
J. Hickey proposed the new policy last
July. It is called permissive transfer
ring, and its objective is to further de
segregation. The Board of Education
subsequently adopted the proposal.
The new policy permits students to
apply for unfilled classroom seats, re-
(See MISSOURI, Page 13)
In the Colleges
Stephens Accepts First Negroes
Stephens College at Columbia, a pri
vate institution for women, enrolled its
first non-white students with the open
ing of the fall term Sept. 10. Three
Negroes and one Asian were among
1,789 students who reported for classes.
For months, President Seymour A.
Smith has said the college would ac
cept any qualified student. Many of the
college’s students are from Southern
states. In all, the student population
represents 49 states and 14 nations.
Negroes have been admitted to the
University of Missouri at Columbia
since 1950, and the number enrolled
passed the 100-mark several years ago.
Since records are not kept by race at
state institutions, precise figures are not
obtainable. The university at Columbia
enrolled about 14,000 students in Sep
tember, an increase of about 750 over
last year. The Missouri School of Mines
and Metallurgy at Rolla, a university
division, enrolled about 3,700.
In St. Louis County, the University of
Missouri took further steps during Sep
tember toward development of a four-
year branch that will greatly enhance
opportunities for St. Louis area Ne
groes to attend the state university. The
branch will be at the old Bellerive
Country Club property in Normandy.
The university took title to the prop
erty in formal dedication ceremonies
Sept. 15.
Gov. John M. Dalton (Dem.) said in
an address that the new branch, for
which the last General Assembly ap
propriated $4,185,000, was a forward
step essential to the everlasting welfare
of St. Louis.”
For three years the Normandy cam
pus has functioned on a small scale as
the university’s Normandy Residence
Center. This has been a joint operation.
The university provided the faculty and
the Normandy public school district
furnished the physical facilities. The
university has now bought the 128-acre
property from the school district.
At the Sept. 15 ceremony, an archi
tect’s model was displayed showing
proposed development of the four-year
university branch over the next 20
years. Gov. Dalton said that in 10 years
the campus would have 10,000 students.
Like other state-supported institutions,
it is desegregated and has Negro stu
dents. The significance for Negroes and
other low-income students is that the
four-year branch will mean lower
tuition costs and obviate dormitory ex
pense.
Low-Cost Education
Both the four-year university branch
at St. Louis and a parallel extension
at Kansas City have been welcomed as
a means of bringing low-cost, tax-sup
ported higher education closer to the
state’s two major urban areas, where
most of Missouri’s Negroes live. In St.
Louis, the same type of benefit is ex
pected to accrue from the St. Louis-St.
Louis County Junior College District,
which started classes last year.
Until 1962 the only tax-supported
higher education in St. Louis was pro
vided by the Harris Teachers College,
an agency of the St. Louis Board of
Education. This institution opened the
September term at its new site in the
old Vashon High School building, with
an enrollment of more than 900 stu
dents.
Harris Teachers College, more than
100 years old, has a faculty of about
one-third Negro and the student body
is about 45 per cent Negro. The college
offers a four-and-one-half-year course
of training for elementary teachers.
There has been some uncertainty
about the future of Harris Teachers
College, largely because of the prospect
that the university branch will even
tually offer a low-tuition teacher
training program. However, St. Louis
school officials say the college serves
a vital function in producing teachers
who are able and willing to deal with
urban problems.
During their course, students at
Harris Teachers College spend a semes
ter as classroom observers in the St.
Louis public schools and another
semester as apprentice teachers. About
85 per cent of Harris graduates enter
the St. Louis system, meeting about half
the system’s annual requirements.
President John D. Whitney said in an
interview recently he was sanguine
about the college’s future. The college
is performing a function, he said, that
is essential to the progress of urban
school systems. He said students from
suburban areas often volunteer to work
in slum areas where they will teach
disadvantaged children.
On-the-Job Training in St. Louis
Miss Eloise Jones, college senior, and Miss Hilda Porbeck, classroom teacher.
WEST VIRGINIA
U.S. Judge Upholds Board
In Dropping Teacher
CHARLESTON
A federal judge ruled Sept. 3
that the Summers County
Board of Education did not dis
criminate against a Negro woman
teacher in failing to employ her
for the 1957-58 school year.
Federal Judge John A. Field of the
Southern West Virginia district also
held that the board’s action, in declin
ing to assign Mrs. Edit Goode, was not
a breach of contract.
The judge expressed his opinion in a
letter to attorneys Willard L. Brown of
Charleston and Paul S. Hudgins of
Bluefield, who began the federal court
action for Mrs. Goode.
Mrs. Goode, a teacher at Lincoln
Elementary School in Hinton in 1957-
58, was hired by the board during the
1955-56 and 1956-57 school years. On
April 16, 1957, County Supt. J. E. Perry
sent Mrs. Goode a mimeographed list
of teacher assignments for the ensuing
year and requested that she complete
the accompanying acceptance form.
Her reply was received in the superin
tendent’s office on April 22.
However, on April 15, the board took
its first step toward school desegrega
tion. Because of the anticipated re
duced enrollment at Lincoln school, the
board asked Perry to inform Mrs.
Goode that there would be no teacher
opening for her during the 1957-58
term.
Probationary Period
The board contended it did not have
a continuing contract with her since
she had completed only two years of
her three-year probationary period.
Members contended the superintendent
acted in error.
Judge Field noted:
“Even when we view the evidence
in the light most favorable to the
plaintiff, it is clear that the statutory
requirements for a valid contract . . .
were lacking.
“The evidence indicates quite clearly
that the requisite statutory acts neces
sary to effect a valid teaching contract
. . . were not accomplished. Accord
ingly, since no valid contract comes into
existence, the plaintiff has no con-
tractural rights, nor any basis for a
claim . . . for the breach thereof.”
Again Employed
Mrs. Goode, after a year’s unemploy
ment, returned to teaching and con
tinues to serve in Summers County
public schools.
Attorneys for the teacher claimed
that the board discriminated against
Mrs. Goode when it employed white
teachers after exhausting the list of all
qualified teachers. They contended that
Mrs. Goode was eligible and should
have been retained.
Judge Field, however, held that dur
ing the transitory period from segrega
tion to desegregation “the board ade
quately discharged the responsibilities
placed upon it.” He continued:
“Members of the board were con
fronted with delicate and difficult prob
lems . . . through the transitory period.
It was necessary for them to consider
the impact from segregation to inte
gration upon the children of both races,
their families, as well as the teachers
in the school system.
“The fact that the plaintiff lost em
ployment for only one year, incident
to the transition, reflects the sound dis-
West Virginia Highlights
Federal Judge John A. Field ruled
that the Summers County Board of
Education did not discriminate in
failing to hire a Negro teacher for
the 1957-58 school year.
A Hinton minister filed a com
plaint with the State Human Rights
Commission charging the Summers
County Board of Education with ra
cial discrimination in the placing of
a principal.
The West Virginia NAACP adopt
ed a resolution calling for full school
desegregation.
A college student group organized
to expand its activity into three col
leges rather than one, and to push
out into other areas.
cretion of the board of education and
gives rise to no cause of action, nor
does it indicate a discriminatory atti
tude against the plaintiff.
“It is interesting to note that plain
tiff . . . has been continuously em
ployed since that one year of unem
ployment. This, to me, at least, is grat
ifying evidence of the good faith of the
members of the board.”
Schoolmen
Board Is Charged
With Race Bias
The Rev. George Thompson of
ton filed a complaint of racial dbcr . ja
nation Sept. 4 with the West
Human Rights Commission agaios
Summers County Board of Educa ,
Thompson alleges the board P a
over E. G. Crawford, a Negro
matics and science teacher, and n ^
a less qualified white teacher o
principalship of Talcott High ><- ^
W. J. B. Simmons Jr., P re f‘W* he
the board, said, “We didn’t fee jj, e
(Crawford) would be accepte
students and patrons. We ha a -
definite threats from the Talco ^
The Human Rights Comrrussi<> ^
created by the 1961 legislature,
to now has concerned itself P r
with organizing local human ^
branches, sampling local op ' I V 0 , j hea r "
racial issue through locally e j^ c rim'
ings and trying to break cJ ° wn u | 3 iic a c '
ination in employment and P
comodation.
Community Action
Full Desegregation
In Education Urg* 5
a
thg $3'
"he West Virginia b ^ c ]\°L c ein en ‘
rial Association for the reS0 luti
Colored People adopted g e pt. 2
its annual state conve jn c ■
ling for full deseg ^lg t Virg^.
rools and colleges of res° b
:he NAACP also ■****£,#* *
a asking for no discrun
hiring of Negro teachers. ^
(See WEST VIRGINIA-