Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10—JANUARY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
NORTH CAROLINA
Concord Negroes Sue
for Full
School Desegregation
WINSTON-SALEM
arents of 47 Negro children
filed suit Dec. 12 in the U.S.
Middle District Court in Greens
boro against the Concord City
Board of Education, seeking full
desegregation of schools as to
students, teachers and other em
ployes.
The action Gill v. Concord City
Board of Education charged that Con
cord city schools are operated on a
racial basis. The Negroes are seeking:
“The complete reorganization of the
dual racial system into a unitary non-
racial system wherein the educational
opportunities offered by the defendants
are made available to students without
regard to race or color, wherein there
are no racial designations in the as
signment of teachers, principals and
other professional school personnel, and
wherein school plans, operation and
all school activities are free from
racial designations and restrictions.”
This action is a follow-up of a pe
tition filed by Negro parents Sept. 3
with the school board. The parents
then sought the formation of a school
board plan for desegregation.
Pupil-Assignment Act
D. B. Austell, chairman of the board,
answered the original petition Sept. 25,
stating that the city school board based
its assignments on the North Carolina
Pupil Assignment Act.
Through their attorney, the Negroes
then filed suit Dec. 12, naming as de
fendants the Concord City Board of
Education and W. W. Hartsell, super
intendent of city schools.
Concord operates five elementary
schools and one high school for white
children and one consolidated school
for Negro children.
The suit seeks a temporary, then
a permanent injunction seeking to pre
vent the school board from:
• Rejecting the transfer of plaintiffs
to previously all-white schools during
the second semester of the 1963-64
school year.
• Assigning students to classes on
the basis of race.
• Making teaching assignments based
on race.
• Approving employment contracts,
budgets and spending of school monies
on the basis of race.
• Constructing any new facility de
signed to continue a segregated edu
cational system.
• Organizing extra-curricular activi
ties based on race.
In the Colleges
N.C. Highlights
Parents of 47 Negro children filed
a federal suit against the Concord
City Board of Education, seeking full
desegregation of schools at all levels.
School Supt. Howard E. Thomp
son told the Chapel Hill Interracial
Fellowship he believed Chapel Hill
would be better off with one biracial
high school than with its present
white and Negro high schools.
The gap between the educational
status of whites and nonwhites in
North Carolina was reported wid
ening.
The plaintiffs suggested an alterna
tive of a court order for the defendants
to make plans for reorganization of the
city school system into a “unitary, non-
racial” setup this (1963-64) school year.
★ ★ ★
Pre-Trial Hearing Set
In Durham County Case
Judge Edwin M. Stanley of the U.S.
Middle District Court will hold a pre
trial hearing Feb. 18 in Durham in a
suit involving parents and guardians of
61 Negro children and the Durham
County Board of Education.
Stanley set the pre-trial date after
conferring with attorneys for both
sides Dec. 17 in Durham. He did not
set a trial date for the case (Thompson
et al v. Durham County Board of Edu
cation), filed July 23, 1963. (SSN, Au
gust.)
Various issues are expected to be
ironed out in the preliminary hearing.
Each side will outline its case to the
judge, including plans, witnesses and
procedures.
In the original suit, the Negroes
charged that Durham County schools
were run on a segregated basis. They
acted after their requests for transfers
had been turned down by the school
board. The board stated that the re
quests for reassignment were made af
ter the deadline set for the 1963-64
school year.
Since then, the board has assigned
four Negro students to the previously
white Charles E. Jordan Junior—Sen
ior High School. The board also has
gone on record, pledging itself to act
on “reasonable” requests for reassign
ment “on an equitable and impartial
basis.”
Miscellaneous
Education Level
Up But Nonwhite
Lag Is Increased
North Carolinians 25 years old and
older are moving upward in education,
according to State School Facts of No
vember, 1963. The nonwhite popula
tion, however, has fallen further be
hind the white population in formal
schooling during the past 20 years,
based on the U.S. Census reports of
1940, 1950 and 1960.
In 1960 the median schooling for all
North Carolinians of this age group
was 8.9 years, compared with 7.3 in
1940 and 7.9 in 1950. By race the
medians were for whites, 7.7 in 1940,
8.6 in 1950 and 9.8 in 1960, and for non
whites, 5.1 in 1940, 5.9 in 1950 and 7.0
in 1960.
(North Carolina in 1960 had a popu
lation of 3,399,285 whites and 1,116,021
nonwhites. The totals included in the
educational figures are 1,810,782 whites
and 496,389 nonwhites in 1960.
The 25-and-over age group comprises
50.6 percent of the total state popula
tion, 53.3 percent of the whites and 44.4
percent of the nonwhites.
Larger Gap In Cities
There is a greater educational gap
between the races in the urban areas
where achievement is greater for both
groups than there is in rural areas.
In both races, the women have more
schooling than the men, but the dif
ference is greater among nonwhites
than whites.
Median years of schooling in 1960
were:
STATE: Total, 8.9 years urban, 10.4;
rural, 8.3; white, 9.8; urban, 11.5; rural,
8.8; nonwhite, 7.0; urban, 7.6; rural,
6.5.
For the state, nonwhites are 2.8
grades behind whites, but in the urban
areas nonwhites are 3.9 grades behind.
In the rural areas, nonwhites are 2.3
grades behind.
MEN: Total, 8.5; urban, 10.0; rural,
7.8; white, 9.2; urban, 11.1; rural, 8.4;
nonwhite, 6.1; urban, 7.0; rural, 5.5.
It is shown that the gaps are greater
between the men of the two races than
in the population as a whole.
WOMEN: Total, 9.5; urban, 10.7;
rural, 8.7; white, 10.3; urban, 11.8; rural,
9.3; nonwhite, 7.5; urban, 8.0; rural, 7.2.
A breakdown on the educational
levels achieved indicate that both races
are upgrading their education. The
number of white persons with no edu-
Students Subject to Discipline
Students who participate in sit-ins or
other types of anti-segregation demon
strations may be disciplined by the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, it was declared Dec. 20 in a state
ment of university policy.
Among 130 persons arrested in re
cent weeks in connection with demon
strations, 28 have been UNC-Chapel
Hill students. If found guilty of violat
ing public laws, these students are
then subject to campus discipline. This
discipline can be as serious as expuls
ion from the college.
C. O. Cathey, dean of student affairs
of the college, announced the campus
policy after a meeting of campus deans
of men, women and student affairs, the
president and vice president of the
student body and leaders of student
judicial councils. Cathey said:
“The names of all students who have
been arrested for trespass and resist
ing arrest have been forwarded to the
office of the student attorney general
who will, upon final disposition of each
case by the North Carolina courts,
forward said case to the appropriate
student judicial council for action.”
Chapel Hill is currently in the midst
of a series of mass demonstrations led
by the local chapter of the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE).
The policy statement was as follows:
“A singular function of the state
university is its social responsibility to
the total community. This university
has traditionally directed efforts for a
more perfect realization of the demo
cratic ideals. Such is the duty of the
‘State’ university as it has been con
ceived.
“It is apparent that the fabric of
democracy is dependent upon its com
mitment to the necessity of law in the
ordering of human activity. The edu
cational institution cannot then con
done the willful disobedience of the
laws, aside from the merits, demerits,
or employment of particular laws.
“Consequently, in accordance with
established university policy, the names
of all students who have been arrested
for trespass and resisting arrest have
been forwarded to the office of the
student attorney general who will,
upon the final disposition of each case
by the North Carolina courts, forward
said case to the appropriate student
judicial council for action.”
Mike Lawler, president of the stu
dent body, said the policy statement
makes a “significant distinction” be
tween “the freedom of the individual
to carry out his beliefs by social action
and the manner in which he does so.”
Dean Cathey said the announced
policy is “nothing new” to the campus.
★ ★ ★
Separate-But-Equal Schools
Nonexistent, Speaker Says
“Separate but equal” has never been
a reality in North Carolina, Watts Hill
Jr., former North Carolina state legis
lator and a member of the Durham
Interim Committee (interracial com
mittee on race relations), said Dec. 7
at the University of North Carolina in
Chapel Hill. He was addressing a meet
ing of the North Carolina Psychologi
cal Association.
The separate-but-equal theory of
education has never been valid, Hill
said, because Negro institutions were
never equal to those of the white man.
He said that 27 years ago, institutions
of higher learning in the state pledged
themselves to keep “separate but equal
college and university facilities in the
state even though these educators
knew that the facilities were not
equal.”
A recent survey, he said, proved
that the “poorest white institution of
higher learning was better than the
highest Negro institution.”
“A BA degree from North Carolina
College (Negro) is not equal to a BA
degree from UNC, and we are not
fooling the Negro by telling them it is,”
Hill declared.
★ ★ ★
Shaw University, nearly a century
old and one of the oldest Negro educa
tional institutions in the United States,
may have to close if it does not get
enough money to clear its $266,000 in
debts by June, 1964.
A Baptist-supported college, Shaw
has received no financial support from
white Baptists of North Carolina. It is
said to be thinking of asking the Bap
tist State Convention, affiliated with
the Southern Baptists, to make an an
nual appropriation to the college. The
state convention supports all other
Baptist colleges in North Carolina.
The American Baptist Convention
has promised to give Shaw $30,000 if
the college can raise matching funds.
The Wachovia Bank and Trust Co. is
helping.
To remain accredited, Shaw must
pay off his debts.
cation increased slightly although the
percentage was reduced between 1950
and 1960. There were 38,570 whites with
no education in 1950 and 38,684 in 1960.
The percentages, however, were 2.5 of
the population in 1950 and 2.1 in 1960.
For nonwhites the numbers fell from
35,555 to 32,143, and the percentages
dropped from 7.6 to 6.5.
White with only some elementary-
school education were 56.2 per-cent in
1940, 51.8 per cent in 1950 and 43.1
per cent in 1960. For Negroes, the per
centages were 75.7 in 1940, 74.1 in 1950
and 64.3 in 1960.
The number of elementary school
graduates increased threefold for non
whites, moving from 3.2 per cent in
1940 to 7.3 per cent in 1950 and 9.0
per cent in 1960. Figures for whites
were 5.2 percent in 1940, 9.7 percent
in 1950 and 9.4 per cent in 1960.
High-school education ratios for
whites were 28.1 per cent in 1940, 32.5
per cent in 1950 and 39.4 per cent in
1960. For nonwhites the percentages
were 9.4 in 1940, 13.6 in 1950 and 23.3
in 1960. High-school graduates totaled
11.7 per cent in 1940, 11.5 per cent in
1950 and 21.7 per cent in 1960 for
whites and 2.6 per cent in 1940, 3.4
per cent in 1950 and 8.7 per cent in
1960.
College attendance percentages were
for whites, 11.8 in 1940, 13.2 in 1950
and 15.3 in 1960. College graduate per
centages were 5.0 in 1940, 5.9 in 1950
and 7.0 in 1980. Nonwhites finishing
some college study were 3.2 per cent
in 1940, 4.7 in 1950 and 6.0 in 1960.
Nonwhite graduate percentages were
1.6 in 1940, 2.7 in 1950 and 3.5 in 1960.
★ ★ ★
Schoolmen
Official Advocates
Single High Sehool
For Chapel Hill
Howard E. Thompson, superintendent
of Chapel Hill schools, said he would
like to see the city operate with one
high school for all students rather than
with its present two high schools,
Chapel Hill, predominantly white, and
Lincoln, all Negro.
He made this statement Dec. 5 before
the Chapel Hill Interracial Fellowship
He said:
“The Chapel Hill School Board a
faced with the problem of place and
price ... We are . . . faced with tb
problem of selling the downtown prop,
erty where the high school is located
If we could sell the property I would
like to see one large integrated high
school in Chapel Hill. I am not sure
however, that the school board would
favor the consolidation of the high
schools.
“If we can’t sell the high school prop,
erty by June, we will have to decide
on a different building plan . . .
“We are trying our best to bring the
different schools in Chapel Hill to
gether in every way. You can’t have
equality in the schools and have dis
cards and different textbooks. .
“When a pupil transfers from one
school to another in town there is
nothing in the transcripts to indicate
whether that pupil is white or colored,
nor should it make any difference what
color they are. We do not know how
many Negro children have been inte
grated with the white children nor do
we intend to find out.”
★ ★ ★
Greensboro city schools will continue
to operate biracially on the same basis
as during the 1963-64 school year, Supt.
P. J. Weaver predicted Dec. 24.
He noted that 200 Negro children 1
are attending 10 predominantly white
schools in Greensboro. Last year, only
Gillespie Park School was desegre
gated. Greensboro first desegregated its 1
schools in 1957 on a voluntary basis.
Speakers Cite Job Needs,
Education Requirements
Jobs are the key to Negro progress,
and Negroes must have education or
training before they can get better
jobs, speakers concluded Dec. 11 at a
meeting of the Good Neighbor Council
in Charlotte. >
The Good Neighbor Council is a
statewide committee appointed by Gov.
Terry Sanford to encourage employ
ment of Negroes in better jobs. The 1
group includes both Negroes and
whites in membership. D. S. Coltrane
is chairman.
Interracial good-will committees
were invited to report to this meeting
(See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 11)
Georgia
(Continued From Page 9)
Dr. Albert E. Manley, president of
Spelman College, approved efforts of
leaders of various civic groups to agree
on total objectives and added: “Unless
the Negroes by and large can increase
their economic status so they can raise
their standard of living they will hardly
be in a position to accept equal accom
odations where they may be found.”
Dr. Harry V. Richardson, president
of the Interderdenominational Theo
logical Center, said: “We must have
unity among our leaders if we are to
obtain access to every public privilege
to which any citizen is entitled.”
Later in the month, Dr. Martin Lu
ther King Jr., president of the South
ern Christian Leadership Conference,
told some 2,500
persons at a
downtown rally
that Negroes are
disappointed with
Atlanta’s racial
image and should
strive toward
equality in all
walks of life.
“We must re
volt peacefully,
openly and cheer
fully because our
aim is to persuade,” he said and cited
statistics which he said proved Atlanta
still has much to accomplish in achiev
ing equality for all races.
Full Desegregation
Leaders of civil-rights groups who
organized the rally say some deseg
regation has taken place in education,
public accommodations, employment,
health and social services, voter regis
tration, housing, law enforcement and
political participation, but say full de
segregation must take place in these
fields.
“We must honestly say to Atlanta
that time is running out,” King said.
Some observers believe that if negoti
ations for further desegregation fail,
new demonstrations may be expected
around Easter.
Meanwhile, on Dec. 14, 275 Atlanta
white, Negro, Protestant, Catholic, an
Jewish clergymen issued a manifes o
imploring civic and religious leaders
“to move without delay” to assure
“equality of rights and opportunity • ■ -
for all people . . . without regard 0
race, class or creed.” Atlanta churc es r
were asked to drop their racial bars.
What They Say
Talinadges Views
Attract Interest
Sen. Herman Talmadge’s l a *' es Vj!j a
on the racial situation, expresse
Washington television interview,
being studied in Georgia. . j.
Talmadge denounced proposed c ^
rights bills but when asked if 1 ^
delusion to believe segregation ^
continue in the South, he sai • ^
course, we know that regar cs v
what the attitude of the peop e ^ gn
be in any area of our country,
the full power and might of toe ^
eral government is brought to bo >
local people cannot withstand 1 • j £)Ca j
“And that is the reason I thin* ^
people should get together an
sider their relations with then - _ j gVe l
man and solve it on the 1 er cive
rather than have oppressive, c
legislation that would destroy re ^
freedom of all of our peop e
process.”
★ ★ ★
A
In a speech at Carrollton, -j a
segregationist Lester Maddox I0ge t-
crowd of about 150 people a £ oUn ty
ing sponsored by the Cairo ^jgja
Citizens Council that wha , t [ a pta.
needs is a George W a ll act " in „ s ta< e
and the State Capitol, and m
as a whole.” go'"
Maddox described the Alab ^ r ic^
“one of the great Am
i.."™ ^ ’