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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY, 1964—PAGE 7
DELAWARE
Negro Teachers
Have Difficulty
Getting Jobs
DOVER
D elaware state college finds
t virtually impossible to place
its Negro student teachers in
white schools, according to the
college president.
Dr. Luna I. Mishoe made a formal
appeal to the State Board of Education
to "find a sufficient number of public
schools in the state of Delaware which
will accept our student teachers.”
The student body at Delaware State
College at Dover, is predominantly
Negro.
Student teachers are required to
complete one semester of practice
teaching in the public schools to meet
certification standards set up by the
state.
But Delaware State, according to the
statement, finds its efforts “severely
and perhaps unnecessarily limited by
the lack of sufficient public schools
accepting our student teachers.”
Problem at University
Dr. Elizabeth C. Lloyd, who heads
the state’s teacher certification pro
gram, said the problem is also serious
at the University of Delaware, which
has a predominantly white enrollment.
“Both are involved in the shortage of
positions available for student teachers,
but the state college is facing a more
acute situation because of the relatively
small number of downstate public
schools who have opened their doors
to Negro students and teachers.”
While all Delaware districts are
under court order to admit students
of any race, Dover is the only down-
state white district to have desegre
gated its faculty.
Meeting Expected
Dover school officials, it was learned,
will meet with Dr. Mishoe to discuss
placing some practice teachers in its
system in the next semester.
Student teachers are normally as
signed to schools near the colleges, Dr.
Llovd said, but student teachers from
Delaware State Colege are required to
travel to one of the three all-Negro
county high schools, or to Wilmington,
to practice teach.
“The college faces a large transpor
tation problem and we want to find
some satisfactory solution to it,” Dr.
Lloyd said.
The statement from Dr. Mishoe,
which outlined the importance of
teacher training, said “it is no longer
Possible for the few schools accepting
ou r students to carry our practice
teaching load; neither is it desirable to
be limited exclusively to such an ar-
ra ngement.”
Legislative Action
Assembly Retains
Pattern for Aid
^ Construction
,, General Assembly, contrary to
*>hes of Gov. Elbert N. Carvel,
aid tra< btional pattern of state
for construction at white and Ne-
schools.
!o ° nse quently, the state will continue
Psy 100 per cent of the cost at Ne-
^ schools and 60
■ 1 cent at white
with the
40
taxati raised by
th e ! ° n within
* lo cal districts.
le gislaf m ° Ve for
4 on re<4Uir -
4 Jr state to
lion 1 c °nstruc-
*W° sts at a11
Cml, Camefrom
mem- CARVEl
pil ^ ° m Wilmington, where the pu-
PWation is now predominantly
Hfi 49p
Se pt . which passed the House on
^le PUt fbe state aid on a sliding
of bj^PParently based on the number
But/ r ° eS ln eac h district.
‘he gQ ® Senate amendment restored
V; 40 formula and subsequent at-
acr° ss JP the House for a 100 per cent
•>, he board formula failed.
■ ion
q ™ Per cent proponents, includ-
sctt]U V ' Carvel, fought until the As-
- y recessed on Dec. 13.
"Of
bti Ve ’ . ile HB 426 finished its legis-
l°Urney on Oct. 11, it remained
TEXAS
Huntsville Public Schools Adopt
Grade-a-year Desegregation Plan
Delaware Highlights
Most white schools do not accept
practice teachers from predominantly
Negro Delaware State College, ac
cording to its president.
The General Assembly retained a
school construction formula which
awards 100 per cent state aid at Ne
gro schools and 60 per cent at white
schools. Gov. Elbert N. Carvel fought
for 100 per cent at all schools. The
NAACP says it has no immediate
plan to challenge the school con
struction bill in the courts.
in legislative limbo, and was not sent
to the governor, who must take action
within 10 days.
Subsequently, HB 469, which called
for the state to provide 100 per cent at
all schools, was introduced by Rep.
Paul E. Shockley of Wilmington.
HB 469 received 22 of 27 votes
needed when it was called to the floor
on Dec. 4 but the roll call was tabled,
which allowed further consideration.
Rep. Shockley appeared to be making
progress on Dec. 11 when two of the
four Democrats who failed to support
the bill indicated they were having
second thoughts.
Conditions Attacked
But both Rep. Granville T. Lowe of
Laurel, and Rep. George H. Exley of
Harrington, attached conditions. Lowe
said he would want some assurances
that passage of the bond bill would
lead to standardized teacher salaries
throughout the state.
Exley said he would like to see the
passage of HB 469 followed by a sales
tax which he called the “only equit
able tax we could impose.”
HB 469 fell three votes short of pas
sage on Dec. 11, although Lowe and
Rep. Andrew J. Casey, Mill Creek,
voted “yes.”
“I thought I had five votes, but I
guess I didn’t,” Shockley commented,
as he once again placed the roll call
on the table.
On Dec. 12, the bill picked up an
amendment but no new votes.
Increase in Funds
The amendment, by Rep. Wilbert E.
Hocker, Millville, would have increased
the bond issue from S60.175.125 to
$106,875,125, with the $46,700,000 differ
ence to be used to eliminate the bonded
indebtedness of all school districts in
the state.
Many opponents of the 100 per cent
bill had argued it was unfair to dis
tricts already in debt as a result of
past construction.
But HB 469 despite vigorous efforts
by its proponents, died as the Assembly
finished its 90-day session and went
into recess until February.
Gov. Carvel, at five minutes before
midnight on Dec. 16, signed HB 426, a
$60-million omnibus school bond bill
which retains the 60-40 formula.
HB 426 would have become law at
midnight without the governor’s sig
nature.
Legal Action
No Court Action
Seen Immediately
On School Measure
There is no plan to challenge imme
diately in court a $60-million school
construction bill that continues state
aid of 100 per cent at Negro schools
and 60 per cent at white schools, ac
cording to an NAACP spokesman.
Littleton P. Mitchell, state NAACP
president, said on Dec. 18, two days
after Gov. Elbert N. Carvel signed the
bill into law, that he knows of no
forthcoming legal moves.
Other civil-rights leaders, who re
quested that they not be identified,
said the bill was being studied for
possible action.
One constitutional authority said
there may be no basis for a suit until
the bonds are sold and the money ap
plied in a segregated manner.
Mentioned Earlier
The legal issue had been mentioned
earlier by both Gov. Carvel and Sec
retary of State Elisha Dukes.
Gov. Carvel, who endorsed a bill
whereby the state would have paid
100 per cent of the construction cost at
both white and Negro schools, for that
reason delayed signing HB 426, which
retains the 60-40 formula.
Dukes also expressed concern. “If a
court case results, we will not be able
to sell any bonds authorized, since the
first thing we certify is that there is
no litigation,” he said.
AUSTIN
cjblic schools at Huntsville,
70 miles north of Houston, an
nounced plans to start desegrega
tion next September. A grade-a-
year plan will begin in the ele
mentary school. Several other
Texas schools previously an
nounced similar plans for 1964.
Sam Houston State Teachers College
in Huntsville is one of five tax-sup-
ported senior colleges in Texas still
maintaining segregation. Fourteen are
desegregated.
★ ★ ★
The Houston school board became in
volved in a hot argument between Mrs.
Charles White, its Negro member, and
some white board members. After Mrs.
White declared that the board some
times gave the impression it is “anti-
American,” President Joe Kelly Butler
demanded that she apologize. He called
the reference “irresponsible.”
Mrs. H. W. Cullen, another trustee,
suggested that Mrs. White resign.
Mrs. White said she would neither
resign nor apologize.
The Negro member set off the dis
pute, in discussing vandalism at the
schools, by saying there were “rumors
of handclapping and rejoicing at one
of the schools when the President
(Kennedy) was assassinated . . . Re
spect for the flag and respect for the
country cannot be put into the hearts
of children simply by repeating the
pledge to the flag.”
Then she added her feeling that
“board actions, whether intentional or
unintentional, have given the impres
sion we were anti-Americau or anti-
federal government . . .”
At that point, President Kelly de
manded the apology. He said later:
“She has called this board everything,
and I finally just got sick of it.”
Legal Action
U. S. Judge Refuses
To Modify Order
In Houston Case
U.S. District Judge Ben C. Connally
refused to modify his order for grade-
a-year desegregation of Houston pub
lic schools, which began in September,
1960. (Ross v. Butler)
Joe D. Anderson, a Negro, sought to
have the court order admission of his
five-year-old daughter to an all-white
kindergarten a block and a half from
their home, rather than going a mile
and a half to a kindergarten for Ne
groes.
Connally said that Anderson “in
effect is asking that the program for
orderly transition from a segregated
to an integrated school system be
junked and that all of the schools be
subject to immediate integration.”
The judge added that the Houston
school board had wanted to have
kindergartens desegregated first, but
that Negro patrons had expressed the
desire to begin with first graders,
which was done. Kindergarten, voca
tional and adult education classes are
scheduled to be the last desegregated—■
in 1972.
Under Survey
The Texas Commission on Higher
Education, coordinating agency for
state colleges, indicated it will study
in 1964 the “educational gap” between
white and Negro students.
This came to attention recently when
commission members discussed the
need for continuing Texas’ participation
in financing Meharry Medical and
Dental College in Tennessee, in view
of the fact that state medical and
dental schools in Texas have abol
ished racial discrimination. (SSN, De
cember 1963.)
Lee Lockwood of Waco, commission
chairman, said that continuing a dual
system of higher education has been
requested by leading Negro educators,
partly because Negroes reaching col-
I lege too often lack the preparation for
Texas Highlights
Trustees ordered desegregation of
public schools at Huntsville, 70 miles
north of Houston, on a grade-a-year
basis starting next September.
Dissension between a Negro mem
ber of the Houston school board and
other members broke into the open.
A federal judge refused to modify
his desegregation order for the Hous
ton schools, rejecting a Negro pa
tron’s request to abolish segregation
immediately in kindergarten.
Former Gov. Price Daniel branded
as “the most extreme smear of all”
a magazine article by a University
of Texas faculty member implying
that President Kennedy’s assassina
tion could be blamed on “white su
premacy extremists.”
Directors announced that varsity
athletics at Texas Technological Col
lege will be desegregated immed
iately. Two Negroes went out for the
track team at The University of
Texas.
A study of the education gap be
tween whites and Negroes is planned
by the Texas Commission on Higher
Education.
Elementary classes are desegregated
through the fourth grade.
In The Colleges
College Announces
Desegregation
Of Varsity Sports
Directors of Texas Technological
Colege at Lubbock announced imme
diate desegregation of intercollegiate
athletics, following the lead of The
University of Texas and some others
in the Southwest Athletic Council.
(SSN, December, 1963.)
Texas Tech, at Lubbock, first ad
mitted Negroes in 1961 and currently
has an estimated 45 Negroes among its
12,036 students.
Two Negroes at the University of
Texas became the first of that race to
apply for varsity athletics, both seeking
places on the track team. James Means
graduated from predominantly-white
Austin High School in Austin, while
Cecil Carter graduated from Dunbar
High for Negroes at Fort Worth.
Coach Jack Patterson said the Texas
track squad must be trimmed to 40
men by spring, but announced “if any
prejudice is shown at all, it will be in
favor of these boys.”
★ ★ ★
Secret Service men removed Lynda
Bird Johnson, daughter of the Presi
dent and Mrs. Johnson, from Kinsolv
ing Dormitory on the University of
Texas campus in advance of a demon
stration for total desegregation of hous
ing on the campus. Twenty-three per
sons, mostly Negro students, picketed
with signs across the street from the
all-white girls dormitory. Housing for
meeting the standards required at pre
dominantly-white schools.
This brought a request for review
from Clarence A. Laws of Dallas, re
gional secretary, National Association
for Advancement of Colored People.
He said the commission should make
an early, serious examination of edu
cation available to “Negroes and other
minority groups and to provide a single
standard of high education for all citi
zens as quickly as possible.”
“The solution of the problem of Ne
gro professionals, as well as non-pro
fessionals, is not to be found in per
petuating a haven for the educationally
handicapped and inferior, but rather
the elimination of those inequalities
which precipitate handicaps in the
women at the university is racially
separated.
The Board of Regents, however, has
abolished all its requirements regard
ing racial segregation except housing,
which is involved in a lawsuit filed in
U.S. District Court at Austin on Nov.
8, 1961. Integrationists reportedly
raised $2,500 to finance the lawsuit,
which U.S. District Judge Ben Rice has
under advisement.
The University of Texas was deseg
regated on the graduate level in 1950
by U.S. Supreme Court order, and in
1956 all classroom segregation was
abolished.
The only segregation remaining is in
housing, and some boys’ dormitories
are biracial. Negroes also are pushing
for employment of Negro faculty
members at the university.
Lynda Bird Johnson, a sophomore
student, previously had announced
plans to leave the University of Texas
at the end of the semester. She is ex
pected to enroll at some college in the
Washington area.
What They Say
Article Branded
As ‘Extreme Smear*
Against Right Wing
Former Gov. Price Daniel branded
as “The most extreme smear of all” an
article in The Nation magazine, on the
assassination of President Kennedy.
Dr. Reece McGee, a University of
Texas associate professor of sociology
who wrote the piece, retorted that
Daniel and other critics evidently had
not read the article.
It blamed the slaying on the “back
ground and attitudes of the people of
this state (Texas) and city (Dallas)”
and said that Mis
sissippi would
have been an
other likely spot
for such a crime
to occur.
Daniel told a
Young Men’s
Christian Asso
ciation meeting it
is regrettable that
some Americans
attempt to blame
“right-wing ex
tremists” for killing Kennedy when
the facts indicate plainly it was done
by a left-wing Marixst “who had spent
more time in Russia than in Dallas.”
Worse than distortions by Radio
Moscow, said Daniel, are “articles by
otherwise respectable writers in our
own country who . . . associate (Lee
Harvey) Oswald’s act with the “in
tolerance of white supremacy extrem
ists.’ ”
“Thus far, there is not the slightest
evidence that any American extrem
ist group, right or left, advocated per
sonal violence on the president, or
that Oswald had any connection with
any group of otherwise loyal American
citizens.
“Certainly he had no “white suprem
acy” connections, and this group is
hardly known in this state or in Dallas,
(See TEXAS, Page 8)
Race Study
first place,” wrote Laws.
“The answer to the problem of Ne
groes competing with whites on the
graduate and post graduate levels
must be found in providing equal edu
cational opportunities for Negroes from
the kindergarten through college.”
Dr. Lester E. Harrell Jr., TSHE di
rector, indicated that Laws will be
asked to make a presentation of the
problem to the commission’s April
meeting, with some preliminary dis
cussion by the staff earlier. The agency
is looking toward eliminating dupli
cation of white and Negro college fa
cilities, although Dr. Harrell said he
foresees a long-time need for higher
education geared specially to the Ne
gro student.
College Commission Plans