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PAGE 4—FEBRUARY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
OKLAHOMA
Negro High School To Be Closed;
White School Faces Desegregation
OKLAHOMA CITY
A Negro high school in Okla-
homa has lost its accredita
tion and will be forced to close
after the current year. The result
ing shift in students may bring
desegregation to a neighboring
white school.
The action by the State Board of
Education climaxed several years of
efforts by the all-Negro board of Clear-
view, Okfuskee County, to keep
Grades 9 through 12 in operation de
spite declining attendance.
The school barely escaped closing
last year after a warning from the
state board (SSN, April).
The Clearview high school students
will have their choice of three neigh
boring schools to attend next year.
Only one of these, Weleetka, is biracial
at present.
Officials of the other two districts—
Spring Hill, at Pharoah, and Okemah—
indicated they will take the Negroes if
they transfer to their schools.
11 Small Schools
Clearview was one of 11 small
schools notified by the state board at
its Jan. 24 meeting either that they
will not be accredited next year or
that their accreditation depends on
whether they can qualify for equaliza
tion aid.
Clearview was the only all-Negro
school in the group. However, one of
the others, Ron in Harmon County,
has been desegregated for several
years.
Dr. Oliver Hodge, state superinten
dent of public instruction, said the
state board felt Clearview’s top four
grades should not be accredited be
cause the program offered is inade
quate and it appears the district will
not qualify for equalization aid. The
district has insufficient local revenue to
keep the high school going without
state aid.
Hodge said he visited Clearview
during January and found only 39 stu
dents enrolled in Grades 9-12. High
schools must have at least 40 in average
daily attendance to qualify for state
aid.
Clearview, with a population of 200,
is 80 miles east of Oklahoma City, a
few miles south of U. S. Highway 62.
Few Negroes
Okewah, the county seat, is nine
miles to the northwest of Clearview.
No Negroes live in town although
there are a few families in the out
lying area. Their children of high-
school age transfer to Boley, an all-
Negro school in the same county, while
those in grade school transfer to Clear
view.
C. E. Oakes, Okemah superintendent,
said his district will accept any Negro
high-school students from Clearview
who transfer to Okemah. So far, he
said, no one has contacted him about
it.
He expressed the belief the Clear
view Negroes will choose to go to
either Spring Hill High School at Pha
roah or Weleetka High School. Both
are closer to Clearview than Okemah,
he said.
Weleetka, described a year ago as
the first choice of most of the parents
if the change had to be made, is only
six miles away. It is desegregated al
though the proportion of Negro pu
pils is small.
Pharoah is also six miles away. Its
school, Spring Hill, has only white stu
dents because no Negroes live in the
district.
Willingness Expressed
Dr. Hodge said the Spring Hill su
perintendent, Earl Pippin, told him his
district is willing to take the Clear
view transferees. Spring Hill has been
expecting this for some time, Hodge
said. One reason for its favorable atti
tude is the declining average daily at
tendance its own high school is suffer
ing. The Negro students would boost
the ADA figure well beyond the
danger point.
However, last year J. C. Bush, Clear
view school board clerk, indicated the
Negro patrons preferred not to send
their children to Spring Hill. He ex
plained the school is small and has no
more courses to offer than does Clear
view.
Since the closing of El Reno’s Booker
T. Washington High School in 1963,
Oklahoma has only 28 all-Negro high
Oklahoma Highlights
The all-Negro Clearview High
School was told by the State Board
of Education it will not be accredited
after this year, meaning it will have
to close.
The Oklahoma City Board of
Education adopted a “permanent”
policy on school desegregation and a
federal-court hearing on it was
scheduled for Feb. 28.
Oklahoma City Negroes vowed a
concerted effort in 1964 to move Ne
gro families into white residential
areas, indicating more schools will
be desegregated.
The newly elected president of the
Oklahoma City Board of Education
promised that Negro teachers will
be assigned to white schools if they
are qualified.
schools. When the action against dear-
view becomes effective at the end of
this school year, the total will drop to
27. Oklahoma had 96 Negro high
schools at the time of the U. S. Su
preme Court’s implementation ruling
of 1955.
Legal Action
Board to Maintain
School Boundaries
By Neighborhoods
The Oklahoma City Board of Educa
tion, in policy statements adopted in
January, declared its intention to stick
by the neighborhood school concept.
Although it insisted that the race of
residents will have no bearing in the
establishment of attendance boundaries,
the board asserted that pupils will be
assigned so as to utilize all facilities as
efficiently as possible.
The document, “Policy Statements
Regarding School Integration,” was ap
proved by the board Jan. 14 and filed
in U. S. District Court Jan. 20.
This was in compliance with a de
cree handed down July 7 by U. S. Dis
trict Judge Luther Bohanon ordering
the Oklahoma City public-school sys
tem to desegregate pupils and teachers
completely.
He instructed the board to submit a
comprehensive desegregation plan. It
filed a “temporary” plan Aug. 6 in
which it announced it would no longer
transfer pupils on the basis of race and
assigned five Negro teachers to biracial
-chools immediately.
Now the board has put on the federal
court record the permanent plan, or
policy, under which it intends to
operate the schools.
Judge Bohanon granted a motion by
the board’s attorney, Walter A. Ly-
brand, for a hearing on the policy
statements and scheduled it for 9:30
a.m., Feb. 28.
A notice to attorneys in the case,
Dowell v. Board of Education, from
Miss Vera Howard, court clerk, quoted
the judge as saying the policy state
ments deal with “pupil integration,
faculty integration, gerrymandering”
and other matters.
The hearing, she went on, is to test
whether the policy statement fully and
adequately comply with the law, and
the court will hear evidence presented
by either party to determine the suffi
ciency of the policy statements.
The “permanent” plan just adopted
by the board is similar to the one filed
last summer.
Establishment of attendance areas by
which pupil assignments will be made
will be based on two criteria, the board
stated: That they represent logically
consistent geographical areas that sup
port the concept of neighborhood
schools, and that there will be as effi
cient as possible utilization of the
building facilities available.
Boundary Adjustments
The boundaries will be adjusted
when necessary to utilize facilities bet
ter, when this can be done without
destroying significantly the neighbor
hood school principle, the board said.
Also, new attendance areas will be
formed within the district - to incor
porate new schools into the total school
district pattern as the community
grows.
“Under no circumstance will the
board consider the race of the residents
of any area in the school district either
in the establishment or the adjust
ment of attendance area boundaries,”
the policy stated.
Location of residence will be the
factor that determines eligibility to at
tend school “in the overwhelming
number of cases” and “in no instance
and under no circumstances” will race
play any part in decisions about school
attendance eligibility, the policy added.
Special transfers will be granted only
for valid, good-faith reasons and in
no case will these reasons be based in
whole or in part on race, color, creed,
religion or national origin, the board
promised.
A “rich variety” of student activities
will be carried on within and among
all schools in the districts and such
activities will be desegregated, the
board said.
The board pledged the use of care
ful evaluation of the overall qualifica
tions of each candidate in making de
cisions on the employment, assignment
and promotion of all personnel. Only
Community Action
Negro Housing Drive May
The Oklahoma City Board of Educa-
ion’s announced policy of assigning
pupils to schools by attendance areas
egardless of race may be put to an
arly test.
A Negro group pledged in January
in all-out drive in 1964 to move Negro
amilies into previously all-white
reighborhoods of Oklahoma City.
Elimination of segregation in housing
vas one of 10 pledges made Jan. 5 by
he Oklahoma City branch of the Na-
ional Association for the Advancement
if Colored People jointly with its
outh council.
Another pledge called for a battle
.gainst school dropouts.
E. Melvin Porter, branch president,
aid the migrations will be made into
every area of the city to “bring about
i. balance” — that
j, to keep white
copulations from
hifting to escape
he desegregation
of neighborhoods.
Porter said there
is no question
that, if Negroes
penetrate residen
tial areas that
have been strictly
white, under
present board of
education rules a number of schools
will be desegregated.
Traditionally most of the Negro
population of Oklahoma City has lived
on the east side, with some isolated
pockets close to and to the south and
southwest of the downtown business
district. In recent years, however,
some Negro families have moved into
the previously all-white northeastern
section, and several schools there have
been desegregated.
Porter said the big problem now is a
shortage of families willing to move
into an all-white area.
“We have a number of offers from
white homeowners willing to sell to
Negroes,” he said, “but these outnum
ber the Negroes willing to move.”
Since news of the NAACP program
was published, Porter added, “we’ve
gotten a least nine definite offers to
sell and we haven’t gotten nine Negro
families ready to buy or move.”
Gives Reasons
He expressed belief Negroes are
holding back because, first, they don’t
want to be “guinea pigs” and, second,
they don’t want to isolate themselves
and run the risk of harrassment or hav
ing their property damaged. He said
he does not believe the Negroes’ atti
tude stems from any desire to keep
PORTER
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstitu
tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation,
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tennessee.
Second class postage paid at Nashville, Tennessee.
OFFICERS
Bert Struby Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice-Chairman
Reed Sarratt Executive Director
Tom Flake, Director of Publications
Jim Leeson, Director of Information and Research
BOARD OF
Frank R. Ahlgren, Editor, The Commer
cial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
Alexander Heard, Chancellor, Vander
bilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
DIRECTORS
Reed Sarratt, Executive Director, South
ern Education Reporting Service,
Nashville, Tenn.
John Seigenthaler, Editor, Nashville
Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Editor, Miami Herald,
Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, The News
and Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
Stephen J. Wright, President, Fisk Uni
versity, Nashville, Tenn.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Chief Editor
ial Writer, Alabama Journal, Mont
gomery
ARKANSAS
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ia nsas Gazette, Little Rocl
DELAWARE
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Delaware State News, Dover
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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Newhouse Newspapers
FLORIDA
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Herald
GEORGIA
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Macon News
KENTUCKY
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Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Patrick E. McCauley, Editorial
Writer, New Orleans Times-Picayune
MARYLAND
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Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
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Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
Lui* Overbea, Staff Writer, The
Journal-Sentinel, Winston-Salem
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
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State, Columbia
TENNESSEE
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Banner
TEXAS
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reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
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Editor, Charleston Gazette
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MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Nashville, Tennessee 37212.
recently the superintendent, Dr. Jack
Parker, outlined the board’s long-range
thinking on ways to carry out hiring
on qualification, including use of a na
tional teacher examination (SSN, Jan
uary.)
An opportunity to apply for and be
equally considered for any positions
that may be available in the school
system will be given to all without re
gard to race, color, creed, religion or
national origin, the board said.
Finally, the policy statements com
mitted the board to a willingness al
ways to meet with citizens interested
in making their views known about
any issue involving the schools. This
willingness to meet also extends, the
board said, to any group “having ap
parent legitimacy,” official or other
wise, and will give serious attention
to their views and recommendations-
What They Say
Test Plan
their children in all-Negro schools.
“You have Negro families who live
in this area (the east side) who have
tried to get their children into schools
completely out of this area,” he said.
Porter said another major drawback
to the program is that white home
owners willing to sell are asking prices
“where the profit would be more than
it should be.” He said the NAACP will
not have Negroes pay more than the
market price for homes and will not be
a party to any “block busting” efforts.
So far, Porter said, the offers to sell
are from about three different areas
of the city besides the northeast. The
northwest section, where some of the
city’s finest homes are located, is in
cluded, he said.
The dropout battle will be waged
principally by the youth council. Negro
young people will be encouraged,
through lectures, panel discussions and
school workshops, to complete their
education through high school at least.
It will be pointed out, Porter said, that
the Negro’s future depends on educa
tion. The youths will be told that, be
cause of automation Negroes will need
technical “know how” to get good jobs.
In fact, he said, because of some em
ployers’ reluctance to hire Negroes,
they’ll have to be “over-qualified” to
win out.
Race of Teachers
Will Be No Issue
Negro teachers, if they are qualified
will be assigned to white schools j n
the Oklahoma City system, the new >
elected board of education presided
has promised.
Foster Estes, industrialist and banker
from the Capitol Hill (southern) sec
tion of Oklahoma Cty, took office a
the board’s annual organization®
meeting Jan. 6. He succeeded
Warren Welch. .
Speaking to several hundred teac £
ers and school officials attending
meeting, he said, among other t in
that the sch*>‘
board will c0 £
tinue to "ink*
progress m
segregating * 1
schools during
administration.
Later, he told *
Southern Sch
News correspond'
ent the board
tSTES educational °P
(See OKLAHOMA, Page 5)