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MARYLAND
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY, 1964— PAGE 3
Survey Finds
Both Races Attend
Maryland’s Biracial Districts
Over Half of Maryland Schools
BALTIMORE
M 3 RE THAN HALF of the public
schools in Maryland have
both white and Negro pupils, ac
cording to enrollment data re
leased by the Maryland Depart
ment of Education in December.
State data put the total number of
schools at 1,096 and those with a
biracial enrollment at 572, or 52.2
per cent of the total.
The current school year has been
the first in which the number of schools
with both races enrolled has been more
than half the total. The state figures
have shown an increase of 27 in the
total number of public schools since the
last school year, and an increase of 108
in the number of biracial schools.
The state data, prepared on Nov. 27,
did not include 1963 figures for Balti
more City, which had not completed its
enrollment studies, but the research
staff of the Baltimore Department of
Education had previously prepared
estimates for Southern School News.
The estimates have been used above to
provide a state total.
The state data since 1955 has been
based on the number of Negroes en-
i rolled in formerly all-white schools and
has not included Negroes attending
formerly all-Negro schools in which
white pupils have enrolled. SSN has
! counted both types of schools as
“biracial,” which has accounted for
differences between the state data and
its own. The difference is confined to
Baltimore, which has had a moderate
amount of what is called reverse inte
gration.
Highest Percentage
t
Ten counties and Baltimore City have
at least half their schools with both
white and Negro pupils enrolled. The
highest percentage of biracial schools is
in Harford County, where 21 of 26
schools have both races enrolled, or 80
per cent. Hartford has had voluntary
desegregation since 1955 and 25 per
cent of its Negro pupils attend the
biracial schools.
The second-highest percentage is in
Frederick County, which gradually has
been closing out its all-Negro schools
under a compulsory desegregation plan.
In Frederick, 25 of 33 schools have both
races enrolled, or 75 per cent, and 97
Per cent of its Negro pupils have been
assigned to the biracial schools. The
remainder (50) are in a small Negro
unit scheduled to be shut down.
The number of biracial schools is not
considered a reliable barometer of the
progress of desegregation because in
some districts there are not enough
egroes to desegregate all the schools.
Allegany County, for example, for
several years has had all of its small
number of Negro pupils in predomi-
white schools, but half its
®jchools continue to be all-white. Also,
ontgomery County has every Negro
'■signed to a predominantly white
1 * °y but only 87 out of 134 schools
*** biracial.
^b'ucmlism is least common in three
uthern Maryland districts (9 out of
? s< -hools) and on the Eastern Shore.
. ^1 schools in the nine ‘Shore
unties, 39 have some pupils of both
bb- es enr olled. Nearly half (17) of the
* Qq CIa ^ schools are found in Cecil
^d northern-most of the nine
a ge f ° ne the smallest percent
al e 5 ™ P u Ph s > more than 40 per
school* W ^ om are m formerly all-white
hav S r ^ lree °I the ‘Shore counties
?roe n ° bhacial schools although Ne-
s may apply for transfers.
^oolme
Mary’s County
Has ft.
Policy
l
A
m^hey change to simplify dese
St. Procedure was announced
c bangp ry ,f County in December. T
Previ 0l , ows hU pupils who have r
school S u"- done so to “attend t
hi wb; bich normally serves the ar
apply ? they live” without having
board transfers through the coun
The f education.
[ e tta r ® was announced in
S frn 6SSed to coun ty PTA mer
'hooi 01 Robert E. King Jr., coun
bat “tb U t >e rintendent, who explain
'beet fo'^^ticy has actually been
^<3 ^ n the entire 1963-64 school ye
°W merely being formalizec
Maryland Highlights
More than half the public schools
in Maryland have both white and
Negro children in attendance, newly
compiled state enrollment data has
revealed.
Transfer applications have been
eliminated in St. Mary’s County to
simplify desegregation.
“Full consideration” has been as
sured for steps recommended in Bal
timore County to wipe out remaining
all-Negro school situations.
Schools, buses, extracurricular ac
tivities and teachers meetings have
been desegregated in Caroline Coun
ty and further steps have been placed
under consideration.
Dr. George B. Brain, Baltimore’s
school superintendent, was cited in
December for fostering brotherhood
in the school system.
King said the school board was
counting on PTA co-operation to make
the change “a successful step forward
in its efforts to insure equitable treat
ment for all of our children.”
St. Mary’s is southernmost of
Southern Maryland counties, and about
a fourth of its total enrollment is Ne
gro. The school board desegregated in
three stages (elementary, junior-high
and senior-high grades) in 1957-59, but
as late as 1960 had only one Negro in
a previously all-white school. Interest
among Negroes picked up in 1961 and
again in 1962, and this fall their en
rollment nearly doubled: 89 in four
predominantly white schools this year
in contrast to 45 last year.
In approving the policy change, the
county board said the action was taken
“in furtherance of the mandate of the
United States Supreme Court which
requires the integration of public
schools on a voluntary basis to be ac
complished with deliberate speed, and
in furtherance of what it [the board]
considers to be the expressed recom
mendations of its Committee on Inte
gration.” The resolution added:
“Be it further resolved that trans
portation will be provided for these
youngsters without regard to race,
creed or color. The Board of Education
reserves the right to refuse or reject
these enrollments if not feasible nor
practical because of administrative
reasons.”
★ ★ ★
Board President Promises
Consideration of Proposals
T. Bayard Williams, Jr., president of
the Baltimore County Board of Edu
cation, told the press in late December
that he would give “full consideration”
to suggestions, made earlier in the
month, to eliminate de facto segrega
tion.
The proposed acceleration steps were
contained in a report on school deseg
regation which had been prepared for
the Baltimore County Human Relations
Under Survey
Commission (a statutory county
agency) by the commission’s executive
director, Edgar L. Feingold. The com
mission made plain at its Dec. 18
meeting that the Feingold report, re
leased that day, had not yet had the
commission’s consideration and ap
proval.
Feingold began his report by saying
that nearly 10 years after the Supreme
Court decision, “a little more than one-
half of the total number of Negro
children in the county education sys
tem still attend wholly segregated
schools.” He referred to the four re
maining all-Negro elementary schools
and the one all-Negro secondary school
that together accommodate 2,105 of the
county’s 4,182 Negro pupils, or 50.3
per cent.
Reporting that “the Board of Edu
cation has declared that de facto
segregation will be eliminated in large
measure in Baltimore County schools
by 1967,” Feingold said that the board
was “attempting to resolve the integra
tion of county public schools primarily
by means of its construction program.”
‘It Seems Imperative’
Because of the more “aggressive”
civil-rights activities among younger
Negroes in the county, Feingold added,
“it seems imperative that affirmative,
positive and immediate action be un
dertaken to rid the county of its
segregated school practices.”
Among the steps recommended by
Feingold were “strict” enforcement of
districting policies for Negroes living
in “integrated school districts” and the
application of the “Princeton Plan” to
two areas of the county where white
and Negro schools are close together.
Under the plan, the Negro school
would provide the first three grades
for white and Negro children alike,
while the companion white schools
would enroll the fourth-, fifth- and
sixth-graders, white and Negroes.
Feingold’s recommendations were
based in part on his finding that Balti
more County school officials permit
Negroes to attend an all-Negro school
even though they live in the attendance
area of a desegregated white school. In
Feingold’s words:
“The school system, in allowing Ne
gro students to transfer out of inte
grated school districts to segregated
districts, in effect, has been an instru
ment in perpetuating the very system
the Board of Education has committed
itself to eliminate. In a sort of reverse
fashion, it has fostered preferential
treatment for Negroes in support of
de facto segregation.
“While it is true that some Negroes
are encouraged to transfer out of
segregated schools, this seems to be
motivated more for educational reasons
than for reasons of integration and
there is no quarrel with it.”
Feingold also reported to his com
mission, in reference to two of the all-
Negro units that “the districts served
by Turner and Fleming elementary
schools are drawn carefully to include
all of the Negro population concen
trated in that in that area, and just as
carefully gerrymandered to exclude a
Commission Report Cites
School desegregation in Calvert
County has been described as “no
more than token” by county's Com
munity Relations Commission, estab
lished by legislative resolution at the
last session of the Maryland General
Assembly.
Appointed in late June, the commis
sion consisted of three members by
the county’s Democratic organization,
three by the Republican organization
and a final three named by the county
commissioners.
Devoted mostly to racial aspects of
employment and public accommoda
tions, the group’s report (which two
members declined to sign) had this
to say under the heading of public
schools:
“Integration of Calvert’s public
schools though fair by intent is no
more than token by practice. Elemen
tary and junior high schools continue
segregated, and the high school grades
would number no more than a dozen
Negro students integrated. That there
is here an administrative problem of
major proportions we can understand;
but other countries have dealt with a
similar problem, so why not this
county?”
The only county in Maryland with
more Negro than white pupils in its
school system, Calvert last year had
its first actual desegregation when
three Negroes sought admission to an
otherwise white high school. This fall
the number rose to six at the same
school. In earlier years no Negro trans
fer applications were received.
Naivete Alleged
The commission in its report, pub
lished in December, took issue with
a portion of the legislative resolution
which had said that white and Negro
Calvert citizens “lived and worked
together in amicable and unbroken
friendliness” and had “no problems.”
The commission said that the state
ment showed “a naiveness and per
spective lack that is difficult to com
prehend.”
Declaring that there are racial prob-
Fall of 1962* Fall of 1963*
All
Biracial
Negroes
All
Biracial
Negroes
District
Schools
Schools
Enrolled
Schools
Schools
Enrolled
Allegany
34
15
295
34
17
289
Anne Arundel
75
41
1,524
79
44
1,972
Baltimore City**
189
89
34,259
192
128
65,169
Balto. County
114
74
1,821
125
83
2,075
Calvert
16
1
3
16
1
6
Caroline
11
1
1
11
3
16
Carroll
25
11
85
25
14
209
Cecil
25
13
206
25
17
292
Charles
15
3
44
15
4
53
Dorchester
26
2
5
26
5
24
Frederick
33
20
1,342
33
25
1,402
Garrett
19
—
—
19
—
—
Harford
26
17
416
26
21
543
Howard
20
10
113
20
11
194
Kent
13
1
1
13
0
0
Montgomery
130
86
3,498
134
87
3,600
Prince George’s
147
53
769
152
72
1,225
Queen Anne’s
14
0
0
14
0
0
St. Mary’s
19
4
45
19
4
89
Somerset
18
0
0
18
1
4
Talbot
14
3
31
14
5
48
Washington
46
17
215
46
22
326
Wicomico
23
3
37
23
8
134
Worcester
17
0
0
17
0
0
TOTAL
1,069
464
44,710
1,096
572
77,670
‘Data on Negroes attending schools with white pupils in 23 county schools.
**1963 data for Baltimore are estimates by the city schools’ research staff.
fHas no Negro school children.
white enclave appended to a portion of
the Turner district. Instead of going to
Turner Elementary which is no more
than six or seven blocks distant, some
30 white children were assigned by
school authorities to Dundalk Ele
mentary about a mile away.”
As a matter of “policy,” Feingold
said, “the Board of Education would
not entertain the possibility of a school
population with white students in the
minority. As a result district lines,
transportation practices and reas
signment and transfer policies are
manipulated in such a way as to pre
clude that eventuality from ever oc
curring.”
Feingold also recommended that
school officials take precautions against
school buildings and grounds being
used on a segregated basis after school
hours for recreational and other pro
grams and, in addition, that steps be
taken “immediately” to have a non-
discriminatory employment clause in
all school contracts with private firms
and agencies.
In promising “full consideration,” the
county’s school board president de
clined specific comment on the Feingold
recommendations.
★ ★ ★
Caroline County Reports
On School Desegregation
A report on school desegregation in
Caroline County was released in
December at the request of Southern
School News. The report was one
prepared by Wilbur S. Hoopengardner,
Caroline’s school superintendent, for a
seven-man advisory committee named
by the county school board in October
to assist in major decision making.
The report showed that the county
‘Tokenism’
lems in the county, the commission
added, “It is only the boundless
patience and inherent good will of
Calvert’s Negroes that have spared
this county community the tragedy
and bitterness that have revaged other
places in Maryland.”
Finding, for example, just one eating
place in the county that was “inter-
grated,” the commission called for
Calvert’s inclusion in Maryland’s pub
lic accommodations legislation (enacted
early in 1963) and also for a perma
nent county community relations com
mission. The report concluded, in part,
by saying:
“We would issue a plea to all of
Calvert’s citizens that they not be
snared by the delusion that problems
if ignored will go away.... To be sure,
we are still somewhat isolated, pro
vincial; and there are traditions and
customs of generations’ standing; but
we are not that greatly different from
other communities, farther south than
we, where much more has been done
to eliminate racial injustice than we
have done here.”
has 10 Negro pupils in grades 6, 7 and
8 of one school; two in grades 10 and
11 in another school, and four in a
special-education class at a third school.
Caroline County had its first actual
experience with desegregation in the
fall of 1962 when a Negro girl entered
a previously all-white high school. The
county lies on the Eastern Shore and
is backed up against the lower end of
Delaware in the vicinty of Milford,
where disturbances occurred during the
early days of school desegregation.
About a fourth of Caroline’s school
population is Negro.
In addition to the movement of some
Negroes to previously white schools,
Hoopengardner reported a number of
other aspects of desegregation, in
cluding:
• “Teachers’ curriculum meetings
are held together and ofter include
luncheon and dinner meetings.”
• “All committee meetings which
deal with county problems are mixed
groups.”
• “People traveling to professional
meetings outside the county travel and
lodge together.”
• “The County Council of PTA’s in
cludes all schools in the county.”
• “Extension course classes are
mixed groups.”
• “Now operating mixed adult
classes.”
In addition, the report pointed to
sports programs and musical activities
which included both white and Negro
participants and to the fact that five
school buses carried both white and
Negro students. Plans to merge the
white and Negro teachers organizations
into a single county association also
were announced.
Questions Raised
The report called the advisory com
mitteemen’s attention to several deseg
regation subjects on which the school
board would welcome “advice and
judgment.” These included questions as
to the “integration” of school staffs and
the transportation system, and also “the
problem of school housing as some
schools decrease in population and
others gain.”
The largest subject offered for con
sideration was the one described as
“the policy which provides for con
tinued integration of the school system
through voluntary decisions of the
segment of the population affected
most by the change.” That is, the policy
which makes desegregation dependent
on individual Negroes taking the initia
tive by applying for admission to
schools other than those it has been
customary for them to attend.
★ ★ ★
Dr. George B. Brain, Baltimore’s
school superintendent, was honored in
December at the annual dinner of the
Maryland Chapter of the National Con
ference of Christians and Jews. Dr.
Brain received a citation for “his
enlightened interest in and deep con
cern for developing in children and
youth as well as in the educational
staff a dynamic faith in the brother
hood of man and for his realistic in
volvement in the community and public
education.”