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PAGE 6—FEBRUARY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
MISSOURI
Portable Classrooms Approved; Racial Issue
ST. LOUIS
n Jan. 14 the St. Louis Board
of Education, which was under
heavy fire from civil rights and
Negro groups last summer for al
leged shortcomings in bringing
about desegregation, approved
construction of 34 transportable
classrooms in the city’s crowded,
largely Negro West End section.
One objective was to end the sys
tem’s controversial bus transpor
tation program, which had been
a source of dissatisfaction for Ne
gro parents and others.
The board approved the action by
vote of 11-to-one after debating and
voting down a proposal by board mem
ber James E. Hurt Jr., a Negro, that
action be delayed for a week in order
that West End parents might be given
a hearing. Hurt’s motion was supported
by three other members, two white and
one Negro. There are three Negroes on
the board, including its president, the
Rev. John J. Hicks.
William Kottmeyer, acting superin
tendent of instruction, reported to the
board that six new elementary schools
being built with 1962 bond issue funds
would fall short of meeting classroom
needs next September. He estimated
that additional facilities would be
needed for 2,800 children in the crowd
ed area.
“Although there has been no appre
ciable new residential construction in
the area since the present school build
ings were originally constructed,” Kott
meyer reported, “schools that once
housed the school age population com
fortably cannot now do anywhere near
the job. In a number of districts, the
number of children is two to three
times the capacity of the schools.”
Chronic Shortage
The West End area was nearly all-
white until a decade or so ago, when
it started undergoing a period of rapid
population change. This was at a time
when urban redevelopment projects
and the razing of slums aggravated the
chronic shortage of housing for Ne
groes. The area is now predominantly
Negro.
Kottmeyer said the board-approved
supplemental emits would provide room
for 1,200 children. In addition, he pro
posed using 17 rooms in Beaumont High
School for elementary school children,
taking care of 600 children; the re
drawing of district boundaries to house
another 600; and the rental of suitable
quarters for another 400, thus taking
care of 2,800 children without resort to
bus transportation.
Under the bus transport program,
some 4,800 pupils, mostly Negroes, now
are taken daily to schools that have
empty classrooms. These schools are
largely in the south and northwest St.
Louis, and in a number of instances
are all-white except for the transported
children. The transport costs $250,000
a year and has been a source of ad
ministrative difficulty and complaints.
Two Negro school board members,
the Rev. Mr. Hicks, president, and
Hurt, vigorously assailed on Jan. 24 the
proposal that Negroes should attempt
to defeat school tax levies and bond
issues as a means of showing dissatis
faction with board policies. They spoke
at a meeting of parents who objected
to the decision to put up transportable
classrooms.
Favor Campaign
Some speakers at the meeting, which
was held at Grace Presbyterian Church
and attended by about 35 persons, said
that if the transportable classroom pro
posal went forward they favored an
anti-tax and anti-bond issue campaign
to shock the board into an awareness
of community sentiment.
The Rev. Mr. Hicks said that such
efforts could defeat the goal of quality
education in St. Louis and could force
closing of the schools.
Also on Jan. 24, the Rev. Mr. Hicks
and Kottmeyer discussed the transport
able classrooms with members of the
education committee of the St. Louis
Branch of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.
After the conference the NAACP group
issued a statement in which it said that
school administrators and the board ap
pear “eager to continue segregation in
education.” The statement said the new
program “continues the ghetto and the
policy of containment of the Negro.”
The Rev. Arthur Marshall Jr., a Ne
gro, chairman of the education commit
tee, is pastor of Metropolitan AME Zion
Church. He said:
“The NAACP recommends a redis
tricting of school boundaries to achieve
maximum integration of schools and
the assignment of teachers to enhance
The Rev. Arthur Marshall Jr.
The NAACP recommends . . .
this. We propose that the board select
school sites in keeping with such re
districting so that each school will be
assured of an integrated student body
as well as integrated facility.”
Commends NAACP
On Jan. 10 the St. Louis branch of
the NAACP was commended editorially
by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for “the
reasonableness of its reaction to a pro
posal by a New York minister that St.
Louis be included in a national boycott
of certain school systems.” The edito
rial noted that the organization’s lead
ers had examined the facts of the St.
Louis school situation and then declined
to go along with the proposal from
New York.
“As the Rev. Arthur Marshall Jr.,
chairman of the education committee
here pointed out,” the editorial said,
“the St. Louis system has moved to
provide for permissive transfers, a spe
cies of open enrollment; it has made
progress in integration of pupils in
volved in the bussing program and it
has acted to integrate teaching staffs,
among other things. A boycott under
these circumstances made no sense, and
the St. Louis leaders had the wisdom
to act on that finding . . .”
★ ★ ★
On Jan. 24, Negro children boarding
a Bi-State Transit System bus after
registering at the new Northwest High
Schools, were the targets of sticks,
stones and bottles thrown by white
youths. Two children and a bus driver
were injured, and two arrests were
made.
The bus driver was cut above the
left eye by glass when an object shat
tered a window of the vehicle. Two
girls were treated for minor injuries.
A 16-year-old white boy who admitted
throwing a stick at a group boarding
the bus was booked for juvenile au
thorities. So was a 14-year-old Negro
girl who allegedly struck another girl
on the head with an umbrella.
Northwest High School is part of the
St. Louis public school system. It cost
$3 million and can accommodate 1,242
students. It opened Jan. 27 for the
spring term with about 600 transfer
students from Beaumont High School.
A motion to combine two opposing
In the Colleges
Problems of
At St. Louis University in January,
149 teachers and other educators com
pleted a pilot one-semester course
called “The Teacher in the Urban Revo
lution.” It was designed to provide in-
service teacher training for middle-
class educators to deal more effectively
with parents and children who are so
cially and economically disadvantaged.
The course was taught by the Rev.
Trafford P. Maher S.J., director of the
university’s Department of Education,
with the assistance of Mrs. Reba S.
Mosby, a Negro, of Harris Teachers Col
lege. The full cost of the course, about
$16,500, was paid by an anonymous
St. Louis donor.
It was expected that a similar course
would be offered next semester at
Washington University in St. Louis.
The program developed as a result of
a meeting of leaders of the St. Louis-
St. Louis County White House Confer
ence on Education with faculty-mem
bers of the two universities and Harris
Teachers College, which is operated by
the St. Louis Board of Education.
At the meeting, Father Maher said in
an interview, it was decided that teach
ers of the St. Louis metropolitan area
should have a chance to learn more
suits seeking to determine legality of
desegregation policies of the St. Louis
Board of Education was granted Jan. 24
by U.S. District Judge John K. Regan.
The actions thus combined are Board
of Education City of St. Louis v. St.
Louis Branch NAACP, and Layne v. St.
Louis Board of Education.
Community Action
Whites Protest
Negro Family’s
Move to Suburb
On Dec. 20, David L. Thompson, a
39-year-old Negro crane operator,
moved with his wife and their four
daughters into a $13,000 home in a pre
viously all-white neighborhood in Jen
nings, a St. Louis County suburb of
St. Louis. Beginning Dec. 28 the home
was stoned several times and a picture
window was broken. On Jan. 5 honk
ing automobiles, with white teen-agers,
moved past the house for two hours,
and firecrackers were exploded.
On Jan. 6 the Thompsons left their
new home. Morris Henderson, a Negro,
president of the St. Louis county
NAACP, said he had advised the
Thompsons to leave until police protec
tion could be assured. During the
trouble, Thompson fired a shotgun at
an automobile after he said he saw an
occupant get out and start to throw an
object. Henderson charged the Jen
nings police with indifference and inef
ficiency. “They seem to be taking the
role of interested spectators,” he said.
Jennings Chief of Police John Obertz,
who has a 20-man force, said Henderson
was making exaggerated statements.
However he joined County police in
warning against violence, and Jennings
Mayor Oliver R. Koeneman announced
that the Thompsons “have all the right
in the world to live in Jennings and we
will give them every protection.”
The Thompsons soon moved back into
their house and at January’s end, the
situation was apparently quiet. The
Thompson children, eight to 14 years in
age, continued to go to St. Louis public
schools, from where the family had
moved.
Under Survey
College Survey
Results Completed
The final results of a survey on the
number of Negro students and faculty
members at Missouri institutions of
higher education indicated substantial
desegregation at various private and
technical or specialized institutions in
the state. The survey was made by
Southern School News and the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch in autumn of 1963.
Findings were published beginning in
the November, 1963, issue of SSN and
continuing in the December, January
and present issues.
Information received from institu
tions as a result of questionnaires sent
to them last fall may be summarized as
follows:
about urban school problems, particu
larly the task of helping disadvantaged
people who, as he put it, “have not had
a chance, through no fault of their
own.”
Difficult to Communicate
Father Maher emphasized that it was
difficult for teachers to communicate
with people of depressed status because
“the habitual vocabulary of the middle-
class person conveys meanings often
completely outside the past experience
of culturally and educationally disad
vantaged people.”
Those who enrolled in the course at
St. Louis University included 11 edu
cators from St. Louis city and 35 from
St. Louis County. Ninety six of the
total group were teachers and 39 were
administrators. Both public and paro
chial schools were represented. The
teacher-students attended class for two
hours each Monday evening. They
spent six hours a week in outside read
ing. They spent additional time visit
ing schools in slum areas.
In one lecture, Father Maher said:
“It is almost impossible for a white
middle-class teacher, clergyman or po-
Missouri Highlights
The St. Louis Board of Education
approved construction of 34 trans
portable classrooms to relieve over
crowding in the city’s congested,
largely Negro West End. One objec
tive was to end the city’s controver
sial bus transportation program, but
Negro and civil rights groups con
tend that it will not assist school de
segregation.
A Negro family moved into the
previously all-white suburban neigh
borhood of Jennings, in St. Louis
County, moved out briefly because
of harrassment, and then returned.
At St. Louis University, 149 teach
ers and other educators completed a
one-semester course designed to give
teachers in-service training in com
municating with and motivating the
economically and socially deprived,
including Negroes.
Final results of a survey of Mis
souri institutions of higher education
indicated a substantial degree of
racial desegregation at various pri
vate and technical or specialized in
stitutions in the state.
Cardinal Glennon College, St. Louis
County—This Roman Catholic institu
tion, whose enrollment is limited to
students who plan to be priests, has
been desegregated since its founding
in 1900. It admitted its first Negro, a
Carib from Honduras, in 1950. In May,
1963, the college graduated one Ameri
can Negro. In a total full-time enroll
ment of 214 students last autumn, there
was one Carib (Negroid) from Hon
duras but no Negroes of United States
origin. A spokesman said:
“. . . . Candidates for the priesthood
are accepted without any question
concerning their race . . . There are in
the high school department (adjourning
this college) several Negro high school
seminarians. When they graduate from
high school, they will be accepted into
the college the same as any other high
school graduates who are properly
qualified academically and spiritually.”
Kenrick Seminary, St. Louis County
—Kenrick Seminary is a Roman Catho
lic institution. It reported that it had
never been segregated, and admitted
its first Negro student in September,
1951, a British subject from Honduras.
In autumn, 1955, the seminary had 201
students enrolled, including two Ne
groes from British Honduras; last
autumn, it had 149 students, including
one Negro from St. Louis.
The Kenrick faculty, 10 in 1955 and
nine last autumn, is composed entirely
of the Congregation of the Mission.
The community has no Negro members.
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis—The
seminary, under Lutheran auspices,
reported that its policy had been one
of desegregation since its founding in
1839. A spokesman estimated that the
first Negro student was admitted about
1910. In 1955, the seminary had one
Negro student in an enrollment of 700;
in autumn, 1963, it apparently had no
liceman to actually understand the
feelings of the disadvantaged, who will
often be Negroid.” He stressed the im
portance of sympathetic understanding,
and of getting across to children that
the teacher is interested in them as in
dividuals, and respects them as persons.
The teacher-students took field trips
to the Banneker Group of elementary
schools in central St. Louis. These
schools are 95 per cent Negro and are
in the most depressed part of the city.
They are under direction of Samuel
Shepard Jr., Negro educator whose
academic improvement project has at
tracted national attention.
In the fifth lecture of the course,
Father Maher said: “We can communi
cate just by putting our hands on a
child’s shoulder. In these early days of
integration in public education, some
may find working with others a strange
and new experience. Caucasians may
find it very strange. They may even
have a little difficulty in touching the
Negro child, but they must examine
themselves, for to the disadvantaged
child, it might be very important to
have an authority figure touch him—
this as a means of communication . . .”
Disadvantaged Studied
Continues
Negroes in an enrollment of 643. The
faculty of about 50 includes no Ne
groes. A spokesman commented:
“Our church has another seminary
in Springfield, Ill., with less definitely
prescribed prerequisites in Hebrew
Greek, Latin, philosophy, science^
literature, social science, etc. Most of
the Negro students for the ministry 0 f
our church are attending there.”
Eden Theological Seminary, Webster
Groves—Eden Theological Seminary,
under auspices of the Evangelical and
Reformed Church, reported that it had
never refused admittance to any stu
dent for reasons of race or color. The
seminary in autumn, 1955, had 144 stu
dents including three Negroes; in
autumn, 1963, it had 146 students, in
cluding three to five Negroes. The
faculty, with no Negroes, totaled 12 in
1955 and 13 in 1963.
Midwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Kansas City—This institu.
tion, under Southern Baptist auspices,
said it had been desegregated in policy
since its inception in 1957. Last autumn
the seminary had 170 full-time stu
dents, including three Negroes, and a
faculty of 15, all white. A spokesman
commented:
“All six of our Southern Baptist
seminaries have admitted Negroes for
years. Our problem has been that too
few of our Negro students ever think
about college and are unequipped and
unprepared to enter college. We would
take many more if they had the neces
sary degree.”
Kirksville College of Osteopathy and
Surgery, Kirksville—This private co
educational institution reported that it
had never been segregated and was
open to qualified students regardless of
race. The first Negro student, admitted
in 1960, dropped out for financial rea
sons, it was said. There are no Negro
faculty members.
The college had 350 students and 60
teachers in autumn, 1955. In autumn,
1963, it had 362 students and 80 faculty
members. It had no Negro students and
no Negro faculty, either in 1955 or 1963.
A spokesman commented: “As yet there
are few Negroes in osteopathic medi
cine. Qualified applicants, both students
and faculty, would be welcomed.”
Kansas City College of Osteopathy
and Surgery, Kansas City—This pri
vate coeducational institution said it
had been officially desegregated as a
matter of policy for “several years” and
had in fact never been segregated. It
admitted its first Negro student in 1959,
but has no Negro faculty members, re
porting that none have applied for em
ployment. In autumn, 1963, the college
had a total full-time enrollment of 37
ents, including seven Negroes.
:ntral Technical Institute, Kansas
—This proprietary technical schoo
rted that it had been desegregate
ially since 1960, and admitted >
Negro student in 1960 or 1961. T e
lty apparently has no Negroes,
autumn, 1955, the institute had a
full-time enrollment of 700. Thff
: no Negroes in resident school,
istimated 25 to 30 Negroes are
id in night school and home s u
ses. In autumn, 1963, the total e
nent was reported as 400, ® c ^ u
Jegro students. Total faculty,
legroes, was reported as 25 in
20 in 1963. ^
7e will graduate our first Negr ^
:ronic engineering technology
. 27, 1963,” said a spokesman ®
ing the questionnaire last fan.
. Louis College of Pharmacy,
is—This private coeducation®
tion has been desegregated o ■
; 1952, and it admitted its to*.
student in 1953, it was re ^ berS .
-e are no Negro faculty me ^
lutumn 1955 the college
■time students, with no tasst o,
a total faculty of 25. In f n ; 0 e
, it had 367 students, includ
roes, and total faculty of £<■
ro enrollment was 14 m
-57, SSN was told. _ void 5
. Louis Institute of Music, • , ^
Lis independent coeducation ^
been desegregated officia J jj, e
uate level since 1955 an ad .
jrgraduate level since 1 ■ jjjo
ed its first Negro student® yet
Negro faculty members n
l employed. . ; te bad 8
autumn, 1955, the instrtu® ^
full-time enrollment ot 1
s, including one Negro. e igh*
, it had 132 students ^Las^
roes. The total faculty
ng the period from 56 to ,
rted. ... Kan 5 * 5
insas City Art Institute,
—The institute is a P rl ^ deS eg;
>nal school, which has jil
ted officially “at least sine ^
. • record as w