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1 SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY, 1964—PAGE 3 DELAWARE parents Urged to Learn To Live With Integration DOVER yVT ilmington^ s superintendent W of schools has urged parents to learn to live with integration. Dr. Paul E. Smith, in an address Jan. 5 to the Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth sis terhood, cited the benefits of the het erogeneous school, and warned of the consequences if the trend continues away from the city’s school system, which has a predominantly Negro en rollment. One result, he said, would be reseg regation, in which the city would be come a Negro ghetto ringed by a white community. This would probably lead, he said, to a breakdown in separation of municipal and suburban control—at least of schools—and substitution of a metropolitan type of control that would lead eventually to desegregation any way. A second result, Dr. Smith said, would be to deny children an opportunity to gain experience in desegregated situa tions, in which they will find them selves in later years. Unlike their par ents, Dr. Smith said, “these children won’t have the choice of accepting or rejecting people in their environment” on a racial basis. Dr. Smith, who recalled that public schools have long assimilated minority groups into the society, predicted full desegregation. “It will not be next year or even the year after. But in 10 years we’ll see some terrific changes. Look what’s hap pened in the last 10 years.” Rehabilitation of cities may stop the flight to the suburbs, he said, adding that the Wilmington “downtown dis trict must remain vital—as much for the tax base as for living accommodations.” * ¥ * A lack of communications may have helped complicate the problem of plac- Delaware Highlights Parents were urged by the super intendent of schools in Wilmington to learn to live with integration. Difficulty in placing Negro practice teachers from Delaware State College in white schools was attributed partly to a lack of communication. Most of the able Negroes and some white pupils have transferred from a predominantly Negro school in Wilm ington, according to its principal, to attend other schools of their choice. ™ 1 64*wmr ing Negro student teachers from Dela ware State College in white districts in the public school system. That was one supposition advanced by Dr. Elizabeth C. Lloyd in a discussion before the January meeting of the Delaware School Boards Association in Dover. Dr. Lloyd, who heads the state’s teacher certification department, and Dr. Howard C. Row, assistant superin tendent in charge of secondary educa tion for the state, were designated by the State Board of Education to present the problem to the school boards in an effort to place more Negro teachers. The state board, at its December meeting, had received a formal com plaint from Dr. Lima I. Mishoe, presi dent of Delaware State College, con cerning his inability to place Negro student teachers in white schools. The board subsequently named a 16-mem ber committee, which then appealed for a place on the agenda at the meeting of the Delaware School Boards Associa tion. Dr. Lloyd cited significant progress from the meeting, including the fact Louisiana (Continued From Page 2) opened during the 1962-63 school year. However, the tuition grant program has not assured the financial success °f all the new schools. One of them, the Junior University of New Orleans, ■a in deep financial trouble. Twenty- three teachers sued for $9,200 in over flue wages on Dec. 31, causing a delay m re-opening the school after the Christmas holidays. The school con tinued to operate throughout January a her property of Mr. and Mrs. James Sharpe, valued at $11,500, was used as a surety bond. On Jan. 21, James W. Spencer Jr., President of the school corporation, announced that a new source of income ad been arranged that will enable UNO to retain its building on St. hades Street in New Orleans. The Kho °l also operates across the river m Algiers. ★ ★ ★ o ? Ur Lady of Good Harbor Catholic hool at Buras remains closed. The r °°i has been boycotted in a deseg- ^Sation controversy since 1962 and it as damaged by a gas line explosion are last fall prior to its re-opening. Spokesmen for the archdiocese of r * Orleans said that although the tir ^ lrs have been completed for some 1). ’ necessary building permits been granted by Plaquemines said u au thorities. Parish authorities h safe ^ * S ^ ou kt that the building Th Iqg, e , sc h°°l, ordered desegregated in of th on ® w tth other parochial schools ctw? ^chdiocese, was subjected to a ^ctkd 6 k°Ncott after the first few but uays. The school remained open, Jear^ttended, throughout the school Opening Set !ot gp j ’ a school opening date was set ^ofu 3 with an undisclosed num- cials a 'jjldren registered. School offi- to say if any of the reg- were Negroes. But on V Sev °f Aug. 27, the explosion and R ereJ y damaged the structure. -Orleans building contractor t6 Pair s ®^ r °t contracted to make the splits "^ en the required building ^Vera] ^ ere not forthcoming after aid, attempts to obtain them, he Pti ® Work was started without Las been completed. The building has been inspected but certificates of occupancy have not been issued. Luke Petrovich, member of the Pla quemines Parish Commission Council, whose job it is to issue building per mits, said Favrot’s firm had applied for a permit but “just what he was apply ing for, we never were told.” Petrovich said his inspectors toured the building shortly before the work was completed. He said: “The electrical wiring had been cov ered up and so had the plumbing. And the walls seemed to be only painted over—we don’t know if they are safe.” ★ ★ ★ The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board will make its first plea for addi tional financial support since it began desegregation of the schools last fall. The board on Jan. 17 decided to sub mit a three-part tax proposal to the voters on March 17. To be voted upon by property own ers of the parish are the following propositions: • Renewal of the five-mill tax for general operation. (The tax expires this year.) • Authorization for the board to levy up to five mills for capital im provements, to put the school system on a pay-as-you-go basis. • Authorization for the board to levy up to two mills additional tax for gen eral operations. The East Baton Rouge school system is growing rapidly, and became the second public school district in the state to begin desegregation. The 12th grade of four formerly all-white schools received a total of 28 Negro students last fall. The next lowest grade will begin desegregation in each subsequent year. ★ ★ ★ Avoyelles Parish School Board has authorized a comprehensive survey as the first step toward assuring equal educational opportunities for all pu pils in the parish public schools. A resolution calling for the study was unanimously adopted Jan. 14. It requested that physical facilities as well as curriculum be evaluated by the executive committee of the board, for a report by June 2. Avoyelles Parish, in central Louisi ana, is essentially rural in character. In 1961-62 its public schools enrolled 5,928 white pupils and 2,642 Negroes. KENTUCKY State Completes Survey Of All-Negro Schools Spare That Tree! Jurden, Wilmington Evening Journal that more districts are now aware that the problem exists. And she warned that local districts hold the key to the solution. “It is the responsibility of all the dis tricts, for without their cooperation there will be no program.” At the present time, Negro student teachers from Delaware State College, located in Dover, must travel to Wil mington or the three county Negro high schools to practice teach. While one Negro high school is lo cated in Dover, the others are located in Georgetown and Middletown, each more than 25 miles from the college. This has resulted in transportation costs of $1,500 n year. Districts Willing Dr. Lloyd, in citing the lack of com munication, said the meeting revealed that more districts are willing to take Negro practice teachers than was realized. The problem is further com plicated, Dr. Lloyd said, by the fact that Dr. Milford Caldwell, director of student teaching at Delaware State, has been here only since last summer and may not be aware of white schools that would be willing to accept Negro teachers. Some schools, Dr. Lloyd said, have not been approached, and were not aware of the conditions under which Negro student teachers are available. Placement of student teachers in sec ondary education positions poses the biggest problem, according to Dr. Lloyd. Delaware State College has approxi mately 75 practice teachers available, the majority of whom have been placed in schools with a predominantly Negro enrollment. ★ ★ ★ Whites and ‘Able Negroes’ Transfer from Junior High A number of white pupils and “most of our able Negroes” have been lost by the predominantly Negro Bancroft Jun ior High School in Wilmington, accord ing to its principal. He blamed a policy that allows students to transfer out of their neighborhood schools into the school of their choice, if space is avail able. Dr. Earl C. Jackson, the principal, told the Wilmington Board of Education on Jan. 27 that the permissive transfers have affected adversely the academic quality of the school. Bancroft, accord ing to the Sept. 30 enrollment, had a student body of 723 Negroes and nine whites. Dr. Jackson, who has been at Ban croft for a decade, said the adult Negro community must become “sensitized” to the problems faced by predominant ly Negro schools. The schools, he said, must prepare the Negro students to live in an inte grated society. The objectives of Negro education, he said, include the improvement of basic reading, the development of latent skills, and a reduction in dropouts. LOUISVILLE r T' 1 wenty - two one - teacher ■*- schools with Negro enroll ment only were operating in Kentucky during the fall term of the 1963-4 academic year. Another 15 all-Negro elementary schools had only two teachers each, and 10 Negro schools were in the three- teacher category. Ten all-Negro sec ondary schools had enrollments under 103. These are additional statistics con tained in the annual desegregation re port of the State Department of Educa tion. As reported in the January issue of Southern School News, a total of 129 all-Negro schools remain in the state even though 219 have been closed or merged with white schools since 1955. The all-Negro, one-teacher elemen tary schools were listed as: Knifley No. 2, Montpelier and Pelly- ton No. 2 in Adair County; Hiseville and Park City in Barren County; Wil- sonville in Boyle County; Rosenwald in Crittenden County; Warsaw in Gallatin County; Hickory in Garrard County; Summersville No. 2 in Green County; Verda No. 2 in Harlan County; East Bernstadt in Laurel County; Coal Branch in Lee County; Fleming in Letcher County; Beech Grove in Liv ingston County: Union Station and Woodland in McCracken County; Blue Springs, Cedar Top and Summer Shade in Metcalfe County; Bourbon in Pulaski County; and Greens Chapel in Russell County. Entire List The entire list of 129 all-Negro schools included 102 elementary schools with an overall enrollment of 24,560 pupils (54.9 percent of Negro enroll ment in the state is listed in desegre gated schools). The all-Negro schools with the larg est enrollment were listed as Central High in Louisville with 1,685 students; m -' 'Sw*"*** » Kentucky Highlights Details in the state’s annual school desegregation survey revealed that of 129 all-Negro schools still operating in Kentucky, 22 elemen tary schools have only one teacher and 10 secondary schools enroll fewer than 100 pupils. Possibility arose that efforts to de lete racial references from education statutes might be combined in the framework of a broader bill on civil rights. But educators, he said, must realize the sub-culture from which the stu dents come, and must stimulate parents’ interest. “We must make the parents come in and see us, or, if necessary, we must go to them. But somehow we must involve them in the education of children,” Dr. Jackson concluded. ★ ★ ★ A Wilmington man, who worked for the creation of the Delaware Human Relations Commission while a member of the General Assembly, has been named by Gov. Elbert N. Carvel to serve on the commission. Thomas P. Murray, 44, who served in the House of Representatives in the Lexington’s Dunbar High with 1,293 students in grades 7-12; and Louisville’s Russell Junior High with 1,097 pupils. Ten of the 27 all-Negro secondary schools had enrollments of less than 100. These were listed as: Western Junior at Owensboro (89); Palmer Dunbar in Floyd County (17); Mason in Garrard County (42); Dunbar at Mayfield (88); Rosenwald at Harlan (27); Douglass at Henderson (97); Dunbar at Jenkins (55); Drakesboro Community in Muh lenberg County (84); Todd County Training (92); Morganfield in Union County (54). Legislative Action Leaders Discuss Combining Laws Some legislative, education and hu man-rights leaders discussed legislation that would combine a new civil-rights law with old efforts to delete such phrases as “colored children” from education sections of the Kentucky statutes. No firm proposals developed, how ever, during the first month of the 1964 General Assembly session. Gov. Ned Breathitt continued to indicate that he would back some kind of civil-rights bill in the session if the federal Congress had not acted on the issue by that time. Community Action Louisville Changes Rights Commission A reorganization of the Louisville Human Relations Commission provided for the commission to have seven com mittees, including one on education. The other six committees will be housing, employment, communications, religious groups, programming and general advisory. The commission at its meeting on Jan. 17 presented Louisville Mayor William O. Cowger with a medallion in recognition of his “effective leadership in advancing the cause of human relations.” Mayor Cowger and the Board of Aldermen established the commis sion. The mayor also was instrumental in getting the aldermen to pass an ordi nance prohibiting racial discrimination in public business places. (The con stitutionality of the ordinance is now before the courts since a police court judge ruled it unconstitutional.) 1960-62 session, is now a deputy clerk in Wilmington’s Municipal Court. “I suppose the governor appointed me because of my interest in the creation of a human relations commission while I was a member of the General Assem bly,” Murray said. ★ ★ ★ A Negro teacher from Milford, the first of his race to file for public office in that city, finished second in a three- way race for a seat on City Council. But Douglas A. Gibson, who teaches mathematics and industrial arts at the Negro Benjamin Banneker School in Milford, said the campaign provided a wonderful experience and a chance for self-evaluation. Under Survey De Facto Segregation Becomes Issue De facto segregation arose as an issue in Wilmington in January but at month’s end it was unclear whether the city schools would be the subject of a boycott. The leader of the proposed boycott is Stanley E. Branche, Chester, Pa., presi dent of the Committee for Freedom Now, a fledgling civil-rights organiza tion. Branche, who said on Jan. 14 that Wilmington was one on a list of a dozen cities on a boycott list, qualified that statement on Jan. 28. “I have no intention of coming in and running a boycott by myself,” he said. Blanche, who visited Wilmington twice during the month, received a mixed reception from civil-rights groups, some of which pointed to the progress of desegregation in the city schools, while admitting that de facto segregation does exist. The NAACP, for example, on Jan. 20, took a formal stand against de facto segregation, stating that it would “. . . take such measures as are appropriate, including direct action . . .” unless the Board of Education acts to eliminate it. But on Jan. 19, 11 Negro leaders urged that Branche and the boycott be ignored. Among them was Municipal Court Judge Sidney J. Clark, the first member of his race to hold a judge- ship in Delaware. This group, which included another attorney and nine clergymen, cited “significant achievements” and urged that progress continue through “ma ture deliberation” at the conference ta ble. On Jan. 29, 25 top officials from four major civil-rights groups agreed to an alyze and investigate solutions to de facto segregation. The group, which took its action at a closed meeting, included the NAACP, the Committee For Fair Practices, The Delaware Leadership Council, and the Concerned Citizens.