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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER, 1963—PAGE 9
DELAWARE
House Passes Construction
Bill With Racial Overtone
DOVER
i n omnibus school construc-
i\- tion bill that would put the
amount of state aid on a sliding
scale, apparently based on the
number of Negro pupils in a given
district, passed the House on Sept.
11 by the margin of one vote.
The bill, which would authorize $61,-
’51145 °f bonds with the State of
Delaware to pay $43,380,097, received
28 votes, one more than required. Three
members of the 35-unit body voted
against the bill, one member answered
present, and three were absent.
But HB426 drew strong opposition be
fore it passed the House, and the path
in the Senate appeared to contain sev
eral road blocks, including a rival
school construction bill.
Rep. William T. Best (R-Rehoboth),
GOP minority leader, urged the defeat
of HB426, a replacement for HB141, the
original construction bill which was
amended 16 times and then considered
beyond salvage.
Warns House
“This bill is based on rewarding dis
tricts for being less integrated,” Best
said. “The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People,” he
warned, “has already threatened to
bring suit if this bill is passed, because
it is discriminatory. If the suit is
brought we will have killed school con
struction for another year. By passing
a bill like this we’re asking for
trouble.”
Subsequent litigation, he said, could
tie up school construction funds in
definitely “and put school construction
further away than if we took our time
and passed the right kind of bill.”
Traditionally, the state has paid 100
per cent of construction costs at pre
dominantly Negro schools but only 60
per cent at predominantly white schools.
The legislative move to change the
pattern arose in Wilmingon, Delaware’s
largest city, where the total pupil popu
lation is now more than 50 per cent
Negro.
An amendment to the original bill
put many Wilmington construction
projects on a 100 per cent basis.
Unsuccessful Attempt
Rep. Best was unsuccessful in an at
tempt to get J. Ohrum Small, president
of the State Board of Education, to
agree during House debate that the
construction formula was based on the
Percentage of Negro students in a given
district.
It is simply that more attention is
oeing paid to individual school popu-
ation movements,” Small said, and
added that the bill also reflects the
ability of some districts to meet better
eir construction needs than others.
e bill, he said, is also based on as-
se^ed valuation in the districts.
Rep. Everett Hall (R-Newark) was
Mother to speak forcibly against pas-
a ge of HB426. He asked Small three
th eS fi° nS ’ k'h got an answer to only
swe- St ° ne ' questions and an-
“Have you checked with the
mivM e u general t° see if this bill
|nt be unconstitutional?”
SMALL: “No.”
fj ou Tf you were sitting in my
Rill ui Sea *’ wou ld you prefer House
ono ,, ^ the original bill) or this new
ne (HB426)?”
U'an^ t Speaker °t the House, Sher-
tj on j /^RItt ruled that the ques-
Stnaij 1 not P er tain to the bill and that
9u Was given the floor to answer
Icsisl"*^ 3 ab °ut HB426, not any other
Ration.)
**AT.1?« “All . 1
this on •> . ri| ="t, will you answer
ti° n i e , future school construc
ted be based on this sliding
'bn thrT’ ^'"'bbitt held that the ques-
T rou L, not Pertain to HB426.
r each es tk appears certain when the bill
'♦as r,.,- . Senate. Even as the House
tannin HB426, Sen. Margaret R.
SB223 f (R-Marshallton) introduced
a Piount ° provide $57.6 million, the
State p or 'ginally approved by the
SB223 ard ° f Education -
r cst 0re :, with I°ur exceptions, would
The L 16 traditional 60-40 basis.
" 0 uld l cep tions, Sen. Manning said,
v °cat: 0n g| Sc n°°ls for the handicapped,
tra Rition a ii SC ^ 00 ^ s tn all three counties,
Sf>e eial r a R~Negro schools, and two
''Rere tv 8Ses in New Castle County,
^rbed j-? gr ° schools have been ab-
the 1 ° t W ^*t e school districts. She
° e *ped i , a te , r w as a temporary move
e the absorption.
Rep. James McGinnis
The margin: one vole.
Rep. William T. Best
Calls bill ‘discriminatory.’
Schoolmen
Negroes Teaching
White Students
In Four Districts
Dover became the fourth school dis
trict in the state to desegregate its
faculty, when classes opened in Sep
tember. Other schools that previously
assigned Negro teachers to white or de
segregated schools include Wilmington,
Newark, and New Castle.
Dover, which desegregated the aca
demic division of its high school in 1954,
has four non-white teachers in pre
viously white schools. None of the other
three districts has revealed the extent
of its faculty desegregation.
Each of the Dover teachers, according
to Dr. Dustin W. Wilson, superintend
ent, is teaching desegregated classes.
Dr. Wilson, who this year replaced
David M. Green as superintendent, says
that the faculty was actually desegre
gated in 1962 when Mrs. Marguerita
Smith, a Panamanian by birth, was
named to teach Spanish in the four
elementary schools in the district.
Spanish Dropped
Spanish, at the elementary level, was
dropped this year because of lack of
funds, Dr. Wilson said. Consequently,
he added, Mrs. Smith agreed to teach
the sixth grade at the Central Ele
mentary School.
Sixteen teaching vacancies existed
when he assumed the Dover post, Dr.
Wilson said. Three Negroes were sub
sequently recommended for appoint
ment by Dr. Wilson, and each was
approved by the Dover school board.
All three are certified by the State De
partment of Public Instruction.
“These were by far the best qualified
candidates,” Dr. Wilson said. “Many of
the applicants for the Dover faculty had
been fired from their last two or three
jobs,” he said.
Named to Faculty
Named to the Dover faculty, in addi
tion to Mrs. Smith, were:
Mrs. Dorothy George, who formerly
taught for eight years at Booker T.
Washington elementary school, an all-
Negro school within the Dover district.
Mrs. Janice McNair, a graduate of
Kent State University and a teacher in
Ohio for two years in Cleveland and
CRC Recommends 90-Day
Desegregation Deadline
Delaware Highlights
A $61 million school construction
bill passed the House by one vote
after a debate about its racial over
tones. HB426 faced certain trouble in
the Senate, where a $57.6 school con
struction bill was introduced the
same day the House bill passed by
the margin of one vote.
The Dover Special School District,
which desegregated at the high school
level in 1954, now has four non-white
teachers for desegregated classes at
formerly white schools.
Many small Negro schools may
soon be shut down if the State Board
of Education secures legislative per
mission to close schools with less than
100 pupils. Presently, the state board
may close only after the enrollment
has fallen below 15 for three consec
utive years.
two in Columbus. Her husband is a
dentist at Dover Air Force Base.
Elory Holden, who will teach in the
Central and East elementary schools in
addition to all art at Booker T. Wash
ington.
★ ★ ★
Slate School Board
Seeks Closing Power
The State Board of Education on
Sept. 12 voted to seek discretionary
power to close schools with less than
100 pupils, the majority of which have
predominantly Negro, or all-Negro en
rollment.
Current law allows the state board to
close or consolidate schools only after
the enrollment has fallen below 15 stu
dents for three consecutive years. The
proposal to ask the General Assembly
to amend the school code came from
Harry D. Zutz, a board member from
Wilmington.
Zutz brought up the issue after Ne
gro pupils from an all-Negro school in
Townsend sought without success to
enroll at the white school, which claim
ed it didn’t have the facilities to handle
them. A compromise was eventually
worked out, according to Dr. H. B. King,
state superintendent in charge of ele
mentary education, and the white school
took the upper three grades.
Only 10 Remain
But, when the fourth, fifth, and sixth
grades were accepted at the white
school, only 10 pupils remained in
grades one through three at the Negro
school, Dr. King told the board.
“It’s a disgrace in this day and age to
be dispensing education for children
they could get far better in a larger
school,” Zutz said.
The majority of schools with less
than 100 pupils are located in the two
lower counties of Kent and Sussex.
Thirty-two such schools exist in Dela
ware, according to January, 1963, en
rollment statistics, the latest available
from the State Dept, of Public Instruc
tion.
New enrollments were compiled as of
(See DELAWARE, Page 11)
Education
These are the four recommenda
tions on education made by the
Commission on Civil Rights in its
1963 report presented on Sept. 30:
Recommendation 1.—That the Con
gress enact legislation requiring every
local school board which maintains any
public school to which pupils are as
signed, reassigned, or transferred on the
basis of race, to adopt and publish
within 90 days after the enactment of
such legislation a plan for prompt com
pliance with the constitutional duty to
provide nonsegregated public education
for all school-aged children within its
jurisdiction. In the event the board fails
to adopt or to implement, the Congress
should authorize the Attorney General
to institute legal action to require the
adoption or implementation of such a
plan or any other plan the court finds
more appropriate and consistent with
the equal protection clause of the 14th
amendment.
Recommendation 2.—That the Con
gress authorize the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights to provide technical and
financial assistance to those school dis
tricts in all parts of the country which
are attempting to meet problems re
sulting from school segregation or de
segregation. Such technical assistance
should include the results of long range
research on the development of methods
and techniques to meet the educational
needs of all underprivileged public
(Continued from Page 1)
and experts in civil rights in the field
of education” to discuss equal oppor
tunities in education.
• Congress revise the urban renewal
law to assure that urban renewal and
federal highway programs will not im
pede local efforts to desegregate schools
in the neighborhoods affected by con
struction piojects.
• The President direct the Secretary
of Health, Education and Welfare to
require that federally assisted voca
tional education programs be adminis
tered on a nonsegregated, nondiscrim-
inatory basis, and that federal funds
be cut off if state agencies fail to
comply.
• The Government withhold grants
from federally impacted school districts
unless they agree to assign children to
schools without regard to race.
Unanimous Backing
All of the commission recommenda
tions had the unanimous backing of its
six members: Chairman John A. Han
nah, president of Michigan State Uni
versity; Vice Chhairman Robert G.
Storey, president of the Southwestern
Legal Foundation; the Rev. Theodore
M. Hesburgh, president of Notre Dame
University; Robert S. Rankin, chairman
of the political science department at
Duke University; Spottswood W. Robin
son III, former dean of the Howard
University law school, and Erwin N.
Griswold, dean of the Harvard Univer
sity law school.
The commission submitted its report
while a last-ditch effort was being made
in Congress to extend its life. Created
under the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the
commission has been extended at two-
year intervals. Barring a further ex
tension, it was to end its activities at
midnight Sept. 30, with another 60 days
to wind up its affairs.
A four-year extension of the com
mission was recommended by President
Kennedy as part of his civil rights
program, which still awaits action in
Congress and probably faces a Senate
filibuster.
One-Year Extension
With action on the civil rights bill
not yet in sight, Senate Democratic
and Republican leaders moved in the
last week of September to authorize a
one-year extension of the commission
by tacking an amendment of that nature
to a minor bill. But the maneuver ran
into strong opposition from Southern
Senators, and their objections were in
tensified Sept. 30 following submission
of the commission’s report.
After two days of debate on the ex
tension, the Senate voted 70-to-15 on
Oct. 1 to continue the Commission for
one year. The House approved the ex
tension on Oct. 7, and President Ken
nedy was expected to approve the leg
islation promptly.
In its section on education, the com
mission report found:
“The determination of most Southern
school boards to employ every contri-
school pupils. This would include the
development of appropriate classroom
materials and curricula to meet the
needs of minority groups. As a part
of such a program the Federal Govern
ment should sponsor teacher training
to develop understanding of the prob
lems of underprivileged pupils.
Recommendation 3.—That the Presi
dent call a White House conference of
distinguished educators and experts in
civil rights in the field of education to
discuss how the Federal Government
can assist State and local school boards
in solving the problem of how to give
all American children an equal oppor
tunity for an education.
Recommendation 4.—That the Con
gress remove from the urban renewal
law* the requirement that a community
facility (such as a school) shall benefit
the renewal area to an extent of at
least 80 percent in order for the munici
pality to receive full credit for the cost
of the facility against its share of the
total cost, where such restriction works
as a Federal impediment to voluntary
local action aimed at eliminating or
reducing racial imbalance in schools in
or near the renewal area; and further,
that the President direct the Adminis
trator of the Housing and Home Finance
Agency to consider the probable effect
of urban renewal plans submitted for
his approval upon the racial composi
tion of schools, to the end that Federal
funds for urban renewal shall not be
vance to evade or avoid desegregation
continues to thwart implementation of
the School Segregation Cases. Even
token desegregation usually has come
only after a lawsuit is threatened or
prosecuted. The Commission has found
no evidence that this resistance is dis
sipating.”
But the report devoted a major por
tion of the education section to de facto
segregation in school systems outside
the South. School segregation is wide
spread in the North and West “because
of existing segregated housing patterns
and the practice of assigning pupils
to neighborhood schools,” the report
noted.
“Whether this northern-style segre
gation is unconstitutional has yet to be
considered by the Supreme Court, but
the contention that it runs counter to
the equal protection clause is being
vigorously asserted,” the commission
said.
“The increase in the nonwhite popu
lation in the cities of the North and
West since 1950 has had a severe impact
on the public school systems,” the re
port said. “Besides a higher birthrate
and the white exodus to the suburbs
where housing is not generally available
to Negroes, the factors creating school
segregation include the arrival of non
white newcomers who tend to settle in
those parts of the city where nonwhites
already live.
Reasons Cited
“This is due partly to low economic
status, partly to a desire to be near
friends or relatives, and partly to their
inability to find housing elsewhere. An
additional factor in some places is the
large and disproportionately white en
rollment in private and parochial
schools.
“All these factors make it difficult to
achieve racial heterogeneity in the
public schools even when a school
board desires to do so.
“In the 16 school systems in the
North and West on which the Com
mission assembled data, the percentage
of nonwhite pupils greatly exceeded the
proportion of nowhites in the total pop
ulation. On the whole, the percentage
of minority-group children in the pub
lic elementary schools is about double
he percentage of nonwhites in the total
population.”
The commission reported that four
states—New York, California, New Jer
sey and Illinois—have adopted broad
policies aimed at reducing racial im
balances in the schools stemming from
segregated housing patterns. The report
itself attempted to make no definition
of imbalance and suggested that “the
resolution of this conflict must ulti
mately come from the Supreme Court.”
But it also stated, “In spite of all
efforts to achieve racially heterogeneous
schools, it seems inevitable that many,
particularly in the large cities, will
retain a large degree of racial imbal
ance until discrimination in housing and
employment are things of the past.”
used in a manner to promote racial
segregation in the public schools.
*The most acute problems of de facto
segregation in the public schools of the
North and West are in the large cities.
The schools in these areas are the oldest
and are properly considered part of
the slum blight which urban renewal
was designed to help eliminate through
Federal assistance. The Federal urban
renewal law requires a city to pay part
of the cost of each renewal project.
The city may earn credit toward its
obligation by constructing new public
facilities, such as schools. But if these
facilities derive more than 20 percent of
their use from people living outside of
the renewal area, the city loses part
of the credit toward its obligation. This
discourages any local policy to locate
and district a school to promote a ra
cially heterogeneous school population,
if, to achieve this objective, more than
20 percent of the pupils would have
to live outside of the renewed area
and be included in the school’s attend-
anc area.
It has also been found in earlier re
ports that urban renewal projects (and
Federal highway construction projects)
have, by design or accident, become
natural barriers between neighborhoods,
thus rendering school desegregation im
practicable. See U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights, Civil Rights U.S.A., South
ern Schools 1962 at 183-184 (1962).
Recommendations