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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER, 1963—PAGE 13
ARKANSAS
1,084 Negroes Attending Public Schools With Whites
LITTLE ROCK
S chool opkned in Arkansas in
September with 13 districts
desegregated—one more than last
^. ear —and with 1,084 Negro chil
dren in schools with whites, com
pared to 271 last year.
This year’s figure includes 718 Ne
groes in a Pulaski County school de-
seg egated by the entrance of one white
child.
The latest district to desegregate was
pine Bluff. It began a voluntary de
segregation plan in the elementary
grades with five Negro children en
rolled in the first and second grades of
three formerly all-white schools.
Three d'stricts, Little Rock, Hot
Springs and Fort Smith, expanded their
previous desegregation and all three
were experiencing protests from the
Negro community that the desegrega
tion was moving too slowly. At Fort
Smith a lawsuit was filed to bring about
further desegregation (See Legal Ac
tion).
No incidents, protests or violence
against desegregation were reported
anywhere in the state.
Here is a rundown on the desegre
gated districts:
Bentonville—Three Negro boys in the
same family are the only Negro stu
dents in the district and they attend
desegregated schools.
Charleston—School officials estimate
they have 15 to 20 Negroes in the dis
trict, all of whom attend desegregated
schools.
Dollarway—The same two Negro stu
dents who attended the formerly segre
gated Dollarway School are enrolled
there again. No other Negro students
asked for assignment to the desegre
gated school.
Fayetteville—School officials estimate
that 56 Negro students are in desegre
gated schools in grades seven through
12. The district continues its segregated
school for Negroes in the elementary
grades and it has 74 pupils.
Fort Smith—Fort Smith’s grade-a-
year plan moved up to the seventh
grade. Thirty Negro children are at
tending two formerly white elementary
schools and one is in a white junior
hiffh in the seventh grade.
Gosnell—An estimated 20 Negro chil
dren from the Blytheville Air Force
base attend both elementary and sec
ondary school grades. The district also
operates Calumet School for Negroes in
•he first six grades with an enrollment
°t about 30.
Hot Springs—Voluntary desegregation
0 the first and second grades was
ar ted, in addition to two high school
v ocational classes previously desegre-
? a tad, and six Negro children are at-
ondmg four predominantly-white ele-
“W schools. Three elementary
n remain all-white and two are
all-Negro.
in ttf 6 T* 16 ordy ^ our Ne S r0 students
sch i d * str ' ct attend desegregated
j S ’ three in the elementary grades
L° ne m the 12th grade.
•hro b — With grades seven
Und U "" ^ Previously desegregated
j; f r a cou rt-approved plan, Little
to Nr 0pened the first and fourth grades
attend^ 065 ’ ^ teen Negro pupils are
e [ e ln ® seven predominantly white
junirf ntary schools . an d 108 are in the
w r and senior high schools.
th e dft 14 Negro children in
^ansfi Ij Ct attend desegregated schools,
school 6 a k° has desegregated its
Pin teams.
enroiwj *. U ® ^ive Negro children are
school A m .l^ree formerly segregated
"’•thdr A s ' x th had been assigned but
pr °blem W because of transportation
s ‘gmnent' * , y six had asked for as-
Pulasf t0 t” e white schools,
tiop „ 1 ^°unty (rural)—Desegrega-
aerally applies only to Negro
Miss
ouri
(Continued from Page 12)
grdless of .
They m where the children live.
Only V^t pay transportation costs.
a . c hievem 1 dren whose educational
l '°n nv n en t * s adequate to the instruc-
Ke
■'Jn p r — “'-icquaie io me mstruc-
ra nsfe r gram will be permitted to
. ^action
'"as Un . parents to the new policy
^equate * w***' ^ was assailed as in-
c Pp osition “ y the NAACP. Also in
^hool p .' Vas the St. Louis Public
f r ° u Ps j- 3 r „°_ ns Alliance, which has
c whs 5 e t emen tary schools in
j* Couj s Tif areas °f north and south
° tc ibl e Hp. 6 alliance has warned that
° Ua l wh,s eg ? gation would force addi-
“fhs. e families to move to sub-
First Day of Desegregation
At Lakeside School in Pine Bluff.
children of men stationed at the Little
Rock Air Force Base. There are 25 of
them in formerly all-white schools this
year: 22 in one elementary school and
three in the junior and senior high
schools of Jacksonville. One white child
is enrolled with 718 Negroes in a for
merly all-Negro elementary school.
Van Buren—A grade-a-year plan
started in 1957 in the 12th grade ended
this year with closure of the only
Negro school. All 55 pupils in the dis
trict now attend desegregated schools.
The one Negro teacher in the Negro
school found a teaching job at Fort
Smith.
Assigns Eight
The Hot Springs school board had
assigned eight Negro children to four
white elementary schools Aug. 28 but
only six are attending—one in Green
wood School, one in Rix, two in Jones
and two in East Side.
Dr. Hugh Mills, superintendent, said
that one of the eight had asked and
been reassigned to a Negro school and
that the eighth had simply been a
mistake in the figures; no eighth had
been assigned. Fourteen had asked for
reassignment to the white schools. Why
seven of them were refused was not
disclosed.
The board is using the state pupil-
placement law, which forbids the use
of race in making assignments. The
parents of two children who were re
fused assignment to the white schools
protested to the board.
Five Enter
Pine Bluff had assigned two Negro
children to the First Ward Elementary
School, one to Broadmoor, one to Oak
Park and two to Lakeside. Five of them
entered school without incident. The
parents of the one assigned to Broad
moor changed their minds and had
their child reassigned to the Indiana
Street School, for Negroes. U.S. High
way 65 runs between their home and
Broadmoor, and they had not been able
to arrange transportation so that their
child would not have to cross the high
way on foot.
Pine Bluff, which is about 40 per
cent Negro in population, has been the
seat of much anti-desegregation activ
ity. The police watched on the first
day but nothing happened .The open
ing day enrollment was 5,040 white and
3,351 Negro.
★ ★ ★
Arkansas school districts on Sept. 24
held their annual elections in which
school board members are chosen and
the voters pass on the school tax rates.
Negro candidates ran in three districts
but all three lost. Two other Negro
candidates had announced: One, How
ard Johnson of Crossett, withdrew from
the race because his wife is a teacher
in the district and would have had to
resign if he won; and the other, E. J.
Nelson of Dumas, was disqualified when
it was found that three of the 21
signers of his petition were not quali
fied voters (20 valid signatures are
required).
At Dermott, the Negro candidate, S.
M. Taylor, lost to W. A. Spratlin, 961
to 289. At Eudora, Dempsey Clark lost
to Alvin Meyer, the incumbent, 853 to
234. All four of those towns—Dumas,
Crossett, Dermott and Eudora—are in
the southeast Arkansas, where there is
heavy Negro population.
At Little Rock, Mrs. John H. Evans
placed second in her race against two
white men for a place on the school
board. The winner was W. C. Mc
Donald, the incumbent, with 3,811 votes.
Mrs. Evans received 2,461 votes and the
third candidate, J. A. Fureigh 1,921.
All of these were quiet races, even
in Little Rock. Only Mrs. Evans, a sub
stitute teacher, made use of the deseg
regation issue. Her platform of 15 items
touched it in four items.
★ ★ ★
The Little Rock school board elected
Russell H. Matson Jr. president on
Sept. 26 by unanimous vote. He suc
ceeds Everett Tucker Jr., who had been
the board president since 1959 when
he and Matson and Ted Lamb survived
a recall election in which three strong
segregationists were voted off the board.
The vote was unanimous for Matson.
The executive board of the Arkansas
Teachers Association (Negro) appointed
a committee Aug. 31 to work with the
Arkansas Education Association (white)
toward a merger of the two groups.
Merger has been recommended by the
National Education Association. The
ATA president, N. P. Marshall of North
Little Rock, said that the work of the
merger committees probably would take
several years.
★ ★ ★
The two white boys who were en
rolled in a Negro elementary school
at Little Rock on the first day of
school Sept. 6 stayed there only one
day. Their father, Carl W. Darnell, said
he had thought it was a desegregated
school, not an all-Negro school.
★ ★ ★
Mrs. Y’Vonn Fitts of North Little
Rock, a white woman who has enrolled
her son in a Negro school in the Pulaski
County (rural) School District, said
Sept. 20 that she was resigning from
the NAACP because it had not kept its
promise to furnish her protection and
legal counsel if needed.
L. C. Bates, field secretary for the
NAACP, said that was the first he had
heard of her complaint and did not
know what he could do about it.
Legal Action
Negro Parents Sue
Fort Smith Board
To Speed Its Plan
A school desegregation suit was filed
Sept. 12 in federal court at Fort Smith
against the Fort Smith school board.
The Negro plaintiffs are Mr. and Mrs.
William Rogers, parents of Janice, a 12th
grader, and Patricia, a 10th grader.
They are represented by George How
ard Jr. of Pine Bluff and Robert L.
Carter of New York, NAACP attorneys.
Mr. and Mrs. Rogers asked the school
board last June to assign their daugh
ters to the Northside High School, for
whites. The request was refused on the
ground that the board is proceeding
with a grade-a-year desegregation plan,
now in its seventh year and in the
seventh grade, and that the board did
not approve of lateral transfers, Supt.
Chris D. Corbin said. The suit says
that the Rogers asked the board in
writing for a hearing on their request
but did not receive an answer.
Their suit says that they and other
Negroes similarly situated are being de
nied their constitutional rights and
privileges in the Fort Smith school
district because (1) Fort Smith is oper
ating segregated high schools; (2) a
dual scheme of attendance areas is
maintained for the purpose of contin
uing segregation; (3) a construction
program is being followed designed to
perpetuate compulsory segregation; and
(4) teachers, principals and supervisory
employes are assigned on the basis
of their race or color.
The suit asked the court for an early
hearing and to permanently enjoin the
Fort Smith School Board from contin
uing with the allegations listed.
The defendants are Dr. Edgar F.
What They Say
Faubus Criticizes Supreme Court
Gov. Orval E. Faubus told a crowd
of 3,000, Sept. 2 at Rector that “the
only way to make integration work is
to set up a police state and cram the
U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings down the
people’s throats with bayonets.” He
added:
“It seems that when the Supreme
Court makes a decision these days, it
is always in favor of the atheists, or
often a comfort to the Communists.
It seems like these days a good God
fearing white man doesn’t have a chance
in the Supreme Court.
“Americans have a right to be dis
criminating when it comes to the choice
of choosing the people they want to
associate with. The government now
says you will accept and associate with
people you don’t care for.
“I don’t care how many bayonets or
federal court edicts, or National
Guardsmen the federal government
calls out—the people will never accept
people they do not like.
“I made my way out of the mountains
by earning my own way—not by dem
onstrating in the streets for something
I did not earn, like some people are
doing now,” he said.
He quoted liberally from the Bible,
attacked the government’s foreign aid
and debt policies and reviewed the ac
complishments of his own administra
tion. The crowd interrupted with ap
plause about a dozen times and gave
him a standing ovation at the end. A
Paragould Daily Press reporter wrote,
“He left little doubt in the minds of
observers that he was warming up for
a sixth go at the governorship title
bout next summer.”
In his office Sept. 10, Faubus told
reporters that the Kennedy administra
tion’s “arrogant attitude toward inte
gration is liable to get it overturned
next year.” He keeps hinting that he
might not support the Democratic pres
idential candidate next year but he
will not be pinned down definitely. As
for his own inactivity in school deseg
regation in Arkansas, Faubus com
mented, “The wise general waits for
a proper time.”
He would not endorse the course fol
lowed by Gov. George C. Wallace of
Alabama but said that the benefit of
that course was to make it more
apparent to the public that “we are
approaching a dictatorship from Wash
ington.” He denounced President Ken
nedy for federalizing Alabama National
Guard and expressed contempt for the
fede al judges of Alabama, who he said
“want someone else to do their dirty
work.”
★ ★ ★
Eugene (Bull) Connor, Democratic
national committeeman for Alabama
and former police commissioner of Bir
mingham, spoke at a meeting of the
Capital Citizens Council of Little Rock,
Sept. 10, attended by about 140 persons.
His theme was that segregationists are
right and cannot lose in the long run,
but that they will have to fight—with
votes and boycotts, not dynamite and
bullets. He spent most of his time criti
cizing the Kennedy administration, the
Birmingham newspapers, and the press
in general for what he called slanted
and brainwashing news reports.
Arkansas Highlights
Thirteen school districts, one more
than a year ago, opened with deseg
regation in September, without inci
dent. The 13 have 1,084 Negro chil
dren in schools with whites, com
pared to 271 last year.
Negro parents of two high school
girls filed suit in federal court at
Fort Smith seeking to end segre
gated high schools and other prac
tices there.
The Arkansas Advisory Committee
to the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights submitted a report on Ar
kansas education and said it was
“Still Separate and Still Unequal.”
Negro candidates sought school
board positions this year in Little
Rock, Dermott and Eudora, but all
three lost.
Harding College at Searcy, a pri
vate institution, admitted three Ne
gro men in its freshman class.
It will take a police state and
bayonets to make integration, Gov.
Orval E. Faubus said at Rector, to
the cheers of 3,000.
Paul, president, and Dr. Roger Bost,
John M. Yantis, Bruce Shaw, Jack Gro-
ber and Douglas G. Rogers, members
of the board, and Chris Corbin, super
intendent.
Recommends Resisting
Shaw, chairman of the board’s legal
committee, told the board at a meeting
Sept. 23 that the committee recom
mended resisting any other effort to
change the board’s grade-a-year plan
of voluntary desegregation.
Corbin said he considered all of Fort
Smith’s schools desegregated up through
grade seven. He said that each of the 25
elementary schools had an attendance
area and that any child in a school’s
attendance area could attend that
school, regardless of race. If a child’s
race is in the minority, he is allowed
to transfer to a school where his race
is the majority. Twenty of the ele
mentary schools are white, three are
Negro and two are desegregated. This
same plan now applies to the seventh
grade, he said.
“We don’t even know how many
Negro children could be in the white
schools. Up to the seventh grade we
make no effort to keep them out. When
a child enrolls at a school we check
to see if he lives in the attendance
area, and if he does, he is admitted,”
Corbin said.
★ ★ ★
The state Supreme Court refused on
Sept. 9 to reconsider its June 3 deci
sion ruling invalid four 1958 laws de
signed to curb the activities of the
NAACP. The rehearing had been re
quested by Attorney General Bruce
Bennett, who sponsored the laws
through the special legislative session
of 1958. The laws were Acts 12, 13, 14
and 16 of 1958.
Under Survey
Public Education
In State Called
‘Separate, Unequal’
“Public Education in Arkansas, 1963,
Still Separate and Still Unequal” is the
title of a report by the Arkansas Ad
visory Committee to the U.S. Commis
sion on Civil Rights. The title gives
the conclusions of the report.
The Arkansas Advisory Committee is
composed of James E. Youngdahl of
Little Rock, chairman; H. Solomon Hill
of North Little Rock, vice chairman;
and Mrs. Gordon McNeil of Fayette
ville, Mrs. Ruth Arnold of Little Rock,
Fred K. Darragh Jr. of Little Rock,
John Gammon Jr. of Marion, Steele
Hays of Little Rock, Prof. Robert A.
Leflar of Fayetteville and Miss Jean
Montague of Fort Smith.
The committee’s special committee on
education was composed of Mrs. Mc
Neil, Miss Montague, Mrs. Arnold, Hays,
Youngdahl and Mrs. Beverly Fisher of
Little Rock and T. E. Patterson of Little
Rock.
“(1) The problem of educational op
portunity for Negro children is insep
arable and insoluble apart from the
(See ARKANSAS, Page 14)