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page 14—FEBRUARY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS NORTH CAROLINA Freedom of Choice Is Upheld in Durham Suit WINSTON-SALEM he U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 27 that the Durham City Board of Education must abide by a free dom of choice decision by U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Stanley on July 7, 1963. This action was taken in the Wheeler v. Durham City Board of Education and Spaulding v. Durham City Board of Education cases, both filed in 1960 orig inally. Judge Stanley had ordered the Dur ham city board to open all elementary and junior high schools to Negro chil dren during the 1963-64 school year, and to open the high schools in addi tion in 1964-65. Stanley also had re fused to approve a Durham proposal for desegregation of schools. The Durham school board filed ap peal of Judge Stanley’s action Nov. 13, 1963. The appeals court heard the case Jan. 20. Board at Liberty The appeals court stated: “The school board is at liberty to propose at any time a revised plan for desegregation, and the District Court is fully empowered to deal with it in ac cordance with this court’s earlier opin- • _ » ion. During the hearing, Marshall T. Spears, attorney for the Durham city school board, said the board had been placed in “an impossible administrative position.” He said some schools had be come overcrowded and faced the dan ger of losing accreditation. He also said the school board would like to present its alternative plans for desegregation. Judge Stanley had rejected a one- grade-a-year plan presented by Dur ham in April, 1963. This plan also in cluded a school attendance area setup, which the judge rejected. Judge Stan ley received the case after the appeals court had ruled Oct. 12, 1962, that the city school board was illegally applying the North Carolina Pupil Assignment Law. Speaking for the Negro plaintiffs, James M. Nabrit in of New York, a National Association for the Advance ment of Colored People attorney, said: “The Durham City school board has had great success in the past with their tactics to delay integration and now they are merely trying to continue with that tactic.” ★ ★ ★ Negroes File Lawsuit Against Buncombe County Parents of 32 Negro children filed suit Jan. 24 in the U. S. District Court in Asheville against the Buncombe County Board of Education, charging that the county discriminated against Negro children in school assignment procedure. Their action came only 17 days after the county school board an nounced an attendance area, step-by- step plan to end school desegregation by the 1967-68 school year. The action, designated Bowditch et al v. Buncombe County Board of Educa tion et al, seeks an injuction to stop the board from discriminating in any manner against Negro school children and professional personnel, starting with the 1964-65 school year. Buncombe County had desegregated its schools voluntarily for the first time in September, 1963, enrolling 12 Negro children in grades one, two and three at the previously all-white Haw Creek Elementary School. Judge Wilson Warlick has not an nounced a date for the hearing. The suit was filed by attorney Ruben J. Dailey. Demands of Suit The Negro suit asks the following: • All Negro children be permitted to enter schools of their choice, nearest their homes. • The school system assign students and professional personnel on a non- racial basis. • Board members and the school su perintendent “be enjoined from contin uing the policy, practice, custom and usage of discriminating against the plaintiffs and other Negro children of Buncombe County because of race or color, and for the other relief . . .” The suit made these claims: Buncombe County operates 25 public schools, but Negro elementary school children are assigned to one of two Ne gro schools, Shiloh or Carver. High- school students in the county must at- North Carolina Highlights The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Durham City Board of Education must permit Ne gro children freedom of choice in attending schools, upholding a dis trict court ruling of July 7, 1963. Parents of 32 Negro children filed suit against the Buncombe County Board of Education, asking that the county desegregate assignments of students and teachers. The suit was filed 17 days after the county an nounced a four-year plan for schools desegregation. The North Carolina Board of Education approved the teacher training program of two predomi nantly white colleges, but deferred action on the program of a Negro college. The State Bureau of Investigation was ordered to investigate leaflets injecting the racial issue into a ref erendum on the proposed consolida tion of the Pasquotank County and Elizabeth City school systems. tend the Stephens-Lee High School, a Negro high school in Asheville. No Ne gro high school is operated by the county. On Jan. 7 the Buncombe County Board of Education adopted a desegre gation plan with the following points: •First-grade pupils of both races will be assigned to the elementary school in their own attendance area. • Promoted pupils will be reassigned to the same school or to the school of higher rank (high school or junior high school) in their attendance area. • A parent or guardian of any pupil of grades 1-4 assigned to a school out side his attendance area may request reassignment to his area school within 10 days after receiving the report-card assignment. • Assignments on this basis will be made in grades 1-8 in 1965-66, grades 1-10 in 1966-67, and grades 1-12 in 1967-68. • Pupils not previously assigned to schools in the county will be assigned according to the new plan in accord ance with their grades in school. • The county school board has the right to change the assignment of any pupil as the need may arise. ★ ★ ★ U. S. District Court ordered the Har nett County Board of Education to ad mit 27 Indian children to white ele mentary schools, in an edict handed down Jan. 2 by Judge Wilson Warlick in Raleigh. His ruling, however, applied only to the 27 children involved in the case. This was the latest action in Chance et al v. Harnett County Board of Edu cation, originally filed Oct. 17, 1960. In dian children have been attending the Dunn High School since 1961. The county operates an elementary school for Indian children, but not a high school for them. Dr. I. Beverly Lake, a Democratic Party hopeful for governor in the party primary, was an attorney for the county. Harnett County also is currently in volved in a suit by 19 Negro children seeking school desegregation, (Felder et al v. Harnett County Board of Educa tion), filed Oct. 9, 1963. Schoolmen Negroes Propose Five-Point Plan For Craven County Negroes filed a petition with the Craven County Board of Education Jan. 7 proposing a five-point plan to deseg regate the county school system. An attorney, Reginald L. Frazier, and four other (Negroes met with the county board Jan. 6 to ask for: • Naming of Negroes to the school board. • Employment of Negroes in other than menial tasks. • Assignment of teachers on a non- racial basis. • Assignment of pupils to schools of their choice. • Assignment of students to schools nearest their home if a geographical plan of assignment is used. The Statesville chapter of the Na tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked the Iredell County Board of Education to desegre gate its schools in a letter to the school board Jan. 13. T. V. Mangrum, vice president of the chapter, signed the letter. It asked for a plan to operate schools on a nonracial basis in pupils, teachers and other personnel. Currently, schools operated in the county are on a segre gated basis. Cities in the county, in cluding Statesville and Salisbury, are operated on a desegregated basis. ★ ★ ★ Teachers Study Proposal To Drop Racial Barriers The all-white North Carolina Educa tion Association announced Jan. 12 that it will study a proposal to drop racial barriers from requirements for mem bership. Dr. Frank Fuller of East Caro lina College, state president of the NCEA, said elective and appointive of ficials of the organization will present a constitutional amendment to drop the word “white” from the NCEA consti tution. This proposal will be brought before the NCEA Delegate Assembly when it meets in March. If the assembly ap proves, it will then be voted upon by the association’s 35,600 members. A two-thirds majority is required for passage. If the amendment passes, Fuller said, local NCEA units would still have the option of admitting non-white mem bers. The NCEA also could establish more than one local unit in a school administrative unit. Negro teachers of the state belong to the North Carolina Teachers Asso ciation. With two state bodies the NCEA In the Colleges The North Carolina State Board of Education on Jan. 9 approved teacher training programs at two predominantly white state colleges, but deferred action on the program at a Negro college. The state plans to operate under a new sys tem of certifying teachers in the future. Teachers will be certified by their colleges rather than by the state board, if the new college program is approved by the state board. Under the present program, the state board certifies teachers upon their graduation from college. The state board approved the teacher education programs of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina College, but deferred ac tion on Winston-Salem State College. The board criticized training programs at all three schools. Students at the two white state-sup ported colleges in teacher training will be certified by the colleges upon gradu ation. Those at Winston-Salem State will operate under the old setup. Winston-Salem State is one of three state-supported Negro colleges special izing in teacher training. It was the only one of the three seeking approval under the new program at this time. Its critics asked for improvement in organization, admission requirements, faculty, physical facilities and other areas. The college also was asked to improve the college curriculum. ★ ★ ★ Dr. William C. Archie, director of the North Carolina State Board of Higher Education, described the state’s new community college plan as an oppor tunity to learn. Speaking before the Faculty Club of Duke University in Durham, Dr. Archie said: “The underlying philosophy of the community college can be rather simply put. These institutions are to provide an appropriate education for every boy has had problems in connection with national organizations. Problems also arise with affiliated Student NEA groups from integrated colleges. Miscellaneous Governor Orders SBI To Investigate Source of Leaflets Gov. Terry Sanford requested the State Bureau of Investigation to inves tigate the source of unsigned leaflets bringing up the racial issue in a Pas quotank County referendum Jan. 14. The proposal to merge the Pasquotank County and Elizabeth City city schools districts into one unit lost by 133 votes. Leaflets passed out among white peo ple urged “our white friends” to vote for the merger and were signed by an apparently non-existent Interracial Group for Consolidation. Another leaflet distributed among Negroes declared that consolidation would perpetuate school segregation. This leaflet was unsigned. “The integrity of elections is at stake,” Sanford said. “We should learn all we can about the use of such un ethical practices.” Wade Bruton, attorney general, or dered the SBI to determine if any laws were violated and to discover who put the leaflets out. ★ ★ ★ Jasper Brown, a Negro father who took four of his children to a previ ously all-white school Jan. 22, 1963 in Caswell County, plans to move to Washington, D. C., he announced Jan. 9 in Yanceyville. He was sentenced on Nov. 19 to 90 days for shooting and wounding a white man, N. L. Oliver Jr., age 20, in con nection with the school issue. and girl without respect to color or creed.” The state’s 1963 Act on Higher Edu cation permits a city, county or area to establish a community college with state help. ★ ★ ★ Food helped to soothe and smooth the path of desegregation in Southern col leges, Theodore Minah of Duke Uni versity said Jan. 30 at Chapel Hill. He addressed the National Association of College and University Food Services meeting at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and at Duke in Durham. He is president of the as sociation. Speaking on “The Role of Food Serv ice in Higher Education,” Minah said: “In many of our Southern colleges and universities the dining halls were integrated long before the communi ties, and this gave the students from the South their first opportunity to dine with members of other races. “This proved to be highly successful in spite of the apprehensions of the adults, except in a very few cases. The students, both white and colored, found that they had many worthwhile and in teresting things to discuss, and soon the atmosphere became relaxed. “This helped to calm the fears of many of the townspeople and they were gratified to learn that this could take place without upsetting their ‘way of life.’ ” ★ ★ ★ Gov. Terry Sanford appointed biracial state commission to administer the North Carolina phase of the federal government’s Higher Education Facili ties Act of 1963. The governor also appointed an integrated advisory com mittee of 12 presidents of public and private colleges to serve this commis sion. State Board Approves Training For Teachers at Two Schools D. C. (Continued From Page 13) The D.C. schools are overcrowded Hobson said, and have inadequate libraries and laboratories, as well aj poorly trained teachers. About f 0Ur out of five pupils in the school system are Negroes. “If we could get 45 per cent of th e school children out for two or thiee days, it would be quite effective ’ Hobson said. He said his plans did call for a boycott by teachers. Suggests “Backfire’ Deputy School Supt. John M. Riec^ told reporters he doubted that a boy. cott would help remedy conditions ia . the schools, and he suggested that the protest might “backfire.” “When it comes right down to j( who loses?” Riecks asked. “The chil- dren are the ones who will suffer.” Riecks said the Board of Education and School Supt. Carl F. Hansen have “time and time again attempted to remedy these things,” and have made some headway despite steady enrol], ment increases. Hobson said the possibility of a boy. cott would be discussed with national CORE leaders at a meeting Feb. 21 in New York City, and with local organiz ations during the month. CORE leaders figured prominently in a one-day boy- cott of New York City schools on Feb. 3, which was observed by about one- third of the city’s pupils and was hailed as successful by organizers of the demonstration. ★ ★ ★ ‘Exchange Visits’ Of Pupils Studied D.C. school officials are studying plans for a series of “exchange visits” among pupils of various schools as part of a program drawn up by the edu cation system’s Committee on Human Relations. The program, to be put into effect this year, was circulated to school of ficials early in January by School Supt. Carl F. Hansen. He emphasized “the need for each school to involve its personnel in an active program of human relations interests and activi ties.” The “exchange visit” plan calls for pupils from one part of the city to visit a school in another part to join in classroom activities, assembly pr°- grams or sports events. Other measures recommended by the Committee on Human Relations in clude: • A weekend camp workshop f° r committee members and two teachers from each school building to consider human-relations education. • An expanded secondary-school ef fort to teach students proper conduct at athletic events. • PTA programs devoted to human- relations problems. • An experimental school camping program for fifth- and sixth-g 1 " 3 e pupils. North Carolina may share in $18 r3 ‘'. lion in funds in three years under act. The new commission will np velop a state plan which will be proved by the U. S. Commissioner Education. It will then be in charge administering the funds. _ One Negro is on the main co , sion, and three Negro college P dents are members of the a body. ii-vilk State Rep. Sneed High of Faye _ is chairman of the commission. • 0 old L. Trigg of Salisbury is the n member. Negro presidents on ^ gS ^e visory group are Dr. Samuel F- p of North Carolina College, Perry of Johnson C. Smith Um ^ and Dr. Kenneth R. Williams o ston-Salem State College. ★ ★ ★ A Negro college choir, * e j C. Smith University choir of has been selected as the officia . (e d casting choir during 1964 by e Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. th e j The choir will record music ^ Protestant Hour, the National f()r Pulpit and the Church of °ie pj.S-A the United Presbyterian Churcn, * * * at the nnbert A. Gaddy, a s f wor Co ]lege- school of North Carolina ^ ^ edominantly Negro school, ° & anted to the lands divisi n 5. Department of Justice n ^ on, D. C. He was named u ^ ^ ors program open to stu g e »"■" 20 percent of their classe .