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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER, 1963—PAGE 17
gouth Carolina
(Continued ftom Page 16)
one “for the benefit of both
suit, filed Aug. 19, as a class
c tion, was b rou gtit by Negro service
-tation owner A. J. Whittenberg on
behalf of his 11-year-old daughter,
naine- It came after Greenville trustees
jected bids for transfer to all-white
Schools by the Whittenberg girl and
jeveral other Greenville Negroes.
5 The district contains all of industrial
Greenville County (pop. 210,000) in the
northwest portion of South Carolina.
The answer was filed in U.S. District
Court at Greenville, the county seat,
bv attorney E. P. (Ted) Riley, who is
a iso state chairman of the Democratic
Party.
‘Best Opportunities’
His answer said the school trustees
had “pursued policies and procedures
uhich in the opinion of the board give
the best educational opportunities to
the school children” of both races.
It continued: “. . . pursuant to the
wishes of the great bulk of parents . . .
Negro children have generally been
assigned to schools attended by other
Negro children and white children have
been assigned to schools attended by
other white children.
. . This policy of voluntary segre
gation . . . has gone on for many years,
and in the opinion of the board, is a
wise policy for the benefit of both
groups.”
The answer said that the “rational
basis” of this policy was the differences
and disparities between the races. It
said the “mean mental age” of white
children in the district was two to four
years ahead of that of Negro children
and that whites would be that many
years younger than Negroes if they
were put in the same classroom on the
basis of academic achievement.
“. . . If such children are grouped
on the basis of chronological age, exist
ing academic standards in the all-white
schools cannot be maintained and the
system of education for white children
will be virtually destroyed.”
The answer alleged that there are
physical, mental and behavioral differ
ences between the races that are largely
genetically determined.
Schoolmen
Boy Withdraws,
transfers Back
To Negro School
The federal court order that brought
about South Carolina’s first public
school segregation, in Charleston’s
hool District 20, cleared the way for
c admission of 13 Negro plaintiffs,
wo had left the district before
,c °°b s opened, so 11 Negroes entered
previously all-white schools. Less than
a ^ er sc hool started, 14-year-
®ddie Alexander, one of the Negro
u ents in Charleston High, transferred
a “ to all-Negro Burke High.
p. o]1 e reas on: ‘He was lonely and gen-
S b dissatisfied ”
the^ 0 ^ °® c * a ^ s announced Sept. 9 that
v y ^ ad en tered Burke, leaving 10
T i° es ,' n sc hools with whites,
eaus epaoned bomb hoaxes continue to
SateH p Uderd evacuations at desegre-
Wg. lv ers High in Charleston. One
tw 0 ]gj 50Ided on the first day of school,
^*he r *
Was no direct relation to de-
sehoolf IOn s ' nce many segregated
shnilav around the state have received
threats in past years.
★ ★ ★
nical jf ® ou th Carolina’s ne
without ? ti0n centers dese
^gan j n adv ance notice when
but u n e Ptember. Negroes ir
Ing th e 11110Unce d numbers are
°Peti e j i cen ters in Greenville
bas i' 3 * 1 year, and Columbi
tion. s ar ted its first year o
Mission v, te fcchnical Educatie
of n , eade d by O. Stanley
:- ch °ol s °' Umbi a. said Sept. 24'
°cal o D /n ltted the Negroes
Th e • Polic y-
1° t° thek° f wbetber to appoi
n f *ct 2n b° ard Charleston’
thf> as caused a public
/V county’s state ser
Wr ’ Nat w re A and vetera n Hou:
Hep. r , Cabel l.
? ec ativ e abeI1 stor nied out of a
%ing thlT/T of th e de
c / fl (op th senator and
‘he fac ts e ” ati0n) ^ *
/ it ‘ci Z eJ Xt da y most of his cc
disn^ U f ° r commer
ssed in executive
MARYLAND
District Enrolls First Negroes With Whites
BALTIMORE
A n additional Maryland school
district unexpectedly attained
the status of having some Negro
children in classes with white pu
pils.
A Negro mother brought four chil
dren on the opening day of the fall
term to previously all-white Princess
Anne Elementary School in Somerset
County at the lower end of the Eastern
Shore. The four children immediately
were enrolled without incident, leaving
only two biracial districts in Maryland
that are desegregated in principle but
not in practice.
Actual desegregation had not been
anticipated in Somerset this fall, since
the formal deadline for transfer ap
plications had passed without any Ne
gro applications having been received.
John L. Bond, Somerset’s school super
intendent, has since explained that
while the first week in August is the
administrative deadline for transfer
applications, it is also school board
policy in Somerset not to stand in the
way of any desegregation move.
The four children, admitted to the
first, third and fifth grades, are the
children of a professor at Maryland
State College, a predominantly Negro
institution in Princess Anne, the county
seat of Somerset. The mother explained
that the family had been away all
summer and thus could not have ap
plied at the designated time. The fam
ily name has not been publicized.
Late in September Supt. Bond said
that the desegregation had presented
no difficulties and that the children
were riding a predominantly white bus
with other children bound for the
same school. Somerset has approxi
mately 2,400 white and 2,000 Negroes
in its county school system. In previous
years Negroes have not exercised their
transfer right under the prevailing
voluntary desegregation plan. Eating
p’aces and churches in Princess Anne
desegregated this past summer in re
sponse to a quickened interest among
Negroes in the elimination of racial
barriers.
Two Lacking
Of the two Maryland biracial dis
tricts still lacking some actual desegre
gation, one of them—Worcester Coun
ty—heard demands by civil rights
spokesmen that county schools be
“physically integrated” by next Sep
tember.
The demands were presented by
representatives of the Student Non
violent Co-ordinating Committee, the
Cambridge Nonviolent Action Com
mittee and the Afro-American Im
provement Association. The students
explained that since racial relations
had become relatively quiet in nearby
Cambridge, there was more time to
take up situations in other parts of the
Eastern Shore.
The civil-righters met in Pocomoke
City with Paul S. Hyde, Worcester
County school superintendent, Mayor
William Talton of Pocomoke and the
city’s biracial commission, which dur
ing the past summer had brought
about the desegregation of the city’s
eating places, movie theater and a
bowling alley.
Dr. Neville A. Baron, Negro mem
ber of the biracial commission sug
gested that Negro pupils be given a
“free choice” of schools and that Negro
teachers be screened immediately for
desegregated assignments next fall.
The students insisted that teachers be
desegregated this coming February and
that pupils by next fall be assigned on
the basis of “proximity to school . . .
rather than color.’
The meeting ended with a commit
ment on the commission’s part to reach
a decision and forward its views to
the county school board.
[rked at the criticism, Cabell issued
engthy statement, accusing Legere of
ing eager to appoint a Negro to the
ard and charging that the senator
•Urols several other members of the
legation.
He said the proposed appointment of
Megro was an attempt “to appease the
leral court” with an “absurd appoint-
ait.”
Legare, denied Cabell’s charges but
mitted that there had been discus-
ms between the delegation and school
ard officials concerning the appoint-
;nt of a Negro.
He then charged that Cabell had
glected the interests of School Dis-
ct 20 while serving as chairman of
^ delegation by failing to call an elec-
n to fill the vacancies on the school
ard.
Rep. Cabell heads a group of citizens
empting to organize a private school.
Maryland Highlights
An additional Maryland school
district enrolled some Negroes in
white classes, raising the number of
biracial districts with actual deseg
regation to 21 out of a state total of
23. The two remaining biracial dis
tricts are desegregated in principle.
Other county developments in
cluded the quiet acceptance of
Negro admissions to four formerly
white schools in racially troubled
Cambridge, the doubling of the num
ber of Negroes in mixed classes in
Talbot County, demands for deseg
regation steps in Worcester County,
and criticism of teacher hiring and
placement in Baltimore County.
The Baltimore school board has
responded to charges of de facto
segregation with a pledge to “do all
it possibly can” to remedy ill effects
of racial imbalance.
Transportation of inner-city chil
dren to outlying schools in Baltimore
to relieve overcrowding brought
heated protests from three sections
of the city in September.
With roughly 2,370 Negroes in a
county school enrollment of close to
5,800 Worcester has a desegregation
policy under which Negro pupils may
apply for admission to white schools,
but no applications have been received
in the past half dozen years. The Wor
cester County Board of Education in
recent months has appointed three
new biracial committees to study
school problems.
The other biracial school district
without actual desegregation is Queen
Anne’s, also on the Eastern Shore. It,
too, has a voluntary transfer plan
without any takers.
Another of the Eastern Shore coun
ties, Talbot, has had a 50 per cent in
crease in the number of Negroes at
tending previously all-white schools:
47 this fall compared with 31 last year.
Two additional schools are involved,
making a total of five with biracial en
rollments.
Transfer Approved
With about 1,400 Negroes in a county
school enrollment of 4,300, Talbot be
gan desegregation with the first three
grades in 1956 amid segregationist agi
tation and a partial school boycott.
Since then desegregation has advanced
upward one grade a year without in
cident, reaching the tenth grade this
fall. But the Talbot County Board of
Education also has approved the trans
fer of an out-of-state Negro to an 11th
grade class, so that in effect only the
12th grade remains segregated.
In response to an inquiry as to any
changes in plans, Talbot County School
Superintendent Gerald E. Richter has
replied that while the county board
reviews the progress of desegregation
from time to time, “there has been no
evidence of need for any type of ‘crash’
program or for any radical departure
from our orderly and gradual transi
tion.”
The city of Cambridge, focal point
of racial tension on the Eastern Shore,
experienced its first extensive test of
school desegregation in September
without manifest difficulties as Negroes
entered two elementary and two sec
ondary schools. The only evidence of
hostility came as white mothers gath
ered in front of one school on open
ing day and exchanged some words
with Negro adults. The gathering was
dispersed by an officer of the Mary
land National Guard, which had been
keeping order in Cambridge since mid-
June.
Revising his opening-day desegrega
tion count, Dorchester County School
Superintendent James G. Busick said
in late September that there were two
Negroes in one formerly white Cam
bridge elementary school, three in an
other, eight in the junior high and
four in the senior high. The only
previous desegregation in Cambridge
occurred last year when three Negro
girls entered the senior high school
and withdrew after about two weeks.
Busick had not anticipated any
trouble on the pupil level, and said
after the first three weeks that there
had been no problems that amounted
to “a hill of beans.” He praised his
principals and teachers for their part
in the smooth transition.
Thirteen Negro pupils on the second
day of school sought to transfer to the
desegregated schools, after previously
having been enrolled at all-Negro
schools, and were turned down. Super
intendent Busick explained in a meet
ing with civil-rights representatives
that it was established school policy,
applicable to Negroes and white pupils
alike, not to permit transfers after
classes had started. The meeting ended
on a cordial note as the names of the
13 Negroes were placed first on a list
of transfers for next year.
Elsewhere in Dorchester County, five
Negroes entered North Dorchester
High School along with the two who
were there last year.
★ ★ ★
Transportation of Pupils
Arouses Racial Hostility
Transportation of pupils from over
crowded inner-city schools to availa
ble spaces in outlying schools aroused
latent racial hostility in Baltimore dur
ing September as white parents car
ried protests to city councilmen and
the school board. While modifying one
small aspect of the transportation plan,
school officials continued with arrange
ments to transfer more children as ad
ditional new buses were delivered.
More than 2,600 elementary pupils
were transported at the outset of the
fall term to relieve schools previously
forced to operate on four-hour morn
ing and afternoon shifts to double the
capacity of their classrooms. Thirteen
sending schools and 16 receiving
schools were involved. The race of the
children was not given, but previous
enrollment data indicated that all but
two or three of the sending schools
were all-Negro or predominantly Ne
gro, and that 11 or 12 of the receiving
schools were white or predominantly
white.
Five more buses were scheduled for
delivery in the first week in October
and eight more by the end of October,
at which times further transportation
to other, less crowded schools was
planned. In addition, 20 portable class
rooms were due to be delivered by
Nov. 1 to help provide a full school day
for part-time children, of whom there
were about 11,000 last year (each ad
ditional class space has the effect of
taking two children off part-time).
The prevalence of part-time school
ing in Negro areas had been made a
public issue early in June by a bi
racial parents group and the NAACP
(SSN, July). The school board re
sponded by approving expenditures for
additional buses (some children previ
ously had been transported) and for
portables to get as many children as
possible off part-time, subject to the
willingness of parents to have their
children sent outside their own neigh
borhoods.
Matching Children
Insomuch as the school staff had
worked right up to opening day at the
twin task of matching up the children
willing to be transported with the
spaces available in receiving schools
and the buses on hand to take them,
the transportation plans were not al
ways fully understood by some of the
parents at the receiving schools. Also,
since the biracial parents group and
the NAACP at the same June meeting
had demanded that school authorities
do more to foster a racial balance, some
white parents got the impression that
Negro children were being transported
to white schools to achieve integra
tion.
An opening-day protest arose in the
Hamilton section of northeast Balti
more, where 95 Negro children were
transported to a school that last year
had 1,176 all-white children. About 100
white parents watched the buses un
load in hostile silence as four white
men distributed circulars over the
name of “White Citizens of Hamilton”
which declared opposition to “forced
integration” and said, “We also do not
want our clean, law-abiding, tax-pay
ing residential section turned into a
battlefield to further the interest of
ambitious Negro politicians and other
subversive groups.”
The parents trooped into the school
to ask the principal and area super
visor why the Negro children were not
assigned to empty classrooms by them
selves; and why the parents had not
been notified of the transfers until the
previous week. They were given this
answer: because school authorities had
not known for certain which children
would go where.
“Did the school board decline to act
until the NAACP charged it with
de facto segregation?” The answer was,
“We don’t have the answer to that.”
Protest Transfers
William J. Raftery Jr., a certified
public accountant who said he had
taken the day off to protest the trans
fers, led a delegation to the school
board that afternoon (Sept. 5) to make
known its members’ feelings. He was
also the chief spokesman for some 300
parents from the Hamilton, Yorkwood
and Garrett Heights elementary schools
who held an outdoor meeting on Sept.
7 to air their objections and to hear
Raftery’s plea for a permanent organ
ization to fight the school board’s ac
tion politically and through the courts.
About 100 parents gathered outside
the Hamilton school on the second day
of classes, but their ranks had thinned
(See ANOTHER, Page 19)
Canvass To Include Negro Colleges
Baltimore County’s teacher-recruit
ment drive next year will include a
canvass of Maryland’s predominantly
Negro colleges along with the pre
dominantly white colleges throughout
the Middle Atlantic States. The de
cision to extend the search for quali
fied new teachers to Negro college
graduates was announced Sept. 19. Two
weeks earlier the director of the Balti
more County Human Relations Com
mission had asked top school officials
if they sought out prospective teachers
at Morgan, Maryland State, Coppin
and Bowie, and had received a nega
tive answer.
Otherwise, probing inquiries by the
county’s Human Relations Commission
and the private Committee on Human
Relations (in September renamed the
League for Human Rights) as to the
status of school desegregation had not
produced tangible results. From the
time questions were first raised in
August, school officials maintained that
they had done everything possible to
further desegregation and produced
their records.
Since 1955, the records show, all of
the more than 115 schools in the county
have been opened to both races, and
10 Negro schools have been closed out.
Only five Negro schools remain, in
cluding the one surviving Negro high
school, which is to be closed by 1957.
Negro elementary pupils have been en
couraged to transfer to desegregated
schools in their districts. Also, 65 Ne-
g o teachers and administrators have
been assigned to desegregated schools.
Yet, in a repetition of the de facto
segregation found in nearby Baltimore
city, the county has more than half of
its small Negro school population (100,-
000 white, 4,000 Negro) remaining in
all-Negro schools, due largely to a con
centration of Negroes in the eastern
industrialized portion of the county.
The records show that as of last fall
there were 1,821 Negroes in desegre
gated schools and 2,209 in all-Negro
schools.
Taking note of the criticism of school
policies, the Baltimore County Board
of Education on Sept. 19 passed a reso
lution complimenting the school staff
for its step-by-step progress in the
elimination of segregation. The League
for Human Rights was not as well sat
isfied. On the same day it issued a
statement which said, in part:
“Now that the Baltimore community
has shown itself sufficiently mature to
accept the integration of Gwynn Oak
Park, what excuse will the county
school authorities now use for failure
to remove the remains of a separate
and unequal educational system. Must
the implicit quota system used in the
hiring and placement of Negro teach
ers continue to make qualifications a
secondary criteria?
“When will the inclusion of a photo
graph cease being a requirement of
each application? . . . How long must
we wait until nondiscriminatory
clauses are included in school-building
contracts? How long must our children
be taught in an environment that bla
tantly displays such undemocratic
practices?”
Edgar L. Feingold, executive direc
tor of the county’s Human Relations
Commission, reported to commission
members on Sept. 25 that in confer
ences with school officials in the wake
of the public hearing he had assur
ances that (1) transfer policies would
be liberalized, (2) more effort to re
cruit Negro teachers would be made,
and (3) white teachers would be en
couraged to accept positions in Negro
schools.