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PAGE 12—MARCH, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DELAWARE
Board Member Proposes
End of Uniracial Schools
Delaware Highlights
DOVER
LIMINATION OF schools with
all-Negro enrollment, per
haps by this September, was
proposed by a member of the
State Board of Education at its
meeting in Dover on Feb. 24.
The recommendation by Harry D.
Zutz resulted in unanimous agreement
to conduct a comprehensive study of
the status of segregated schools.
Zutz first proposed that the state
superintendent of public instruction
report his findings at the March meet
ing but later agreed to extend the time
limit until the April meeting.
The decision for the study drew
strong support from Dr. Woodrow Wil
son, who last year became the first
Negro to serve on the state board.
President Absent
The action by the board was taken
in the absence of President J. Ohrum
Small, who, like Zutz and Dr. Wilson,
is from the northern end of the state
where desegregation is less of an issue.
Earlier in the month Dr. Wilson and
Dr. Hiram C. Lasher expressed di
vergent views on the desegregation
policies of the board.
Dr. Lasher, who lives in Sussex
County, where the majority of the all-
Negro schools are located, presided at
the February board meeting which di
rected that the survey be undertaken.
However, he did not express an opin
ion from the chair.
Zutz brought up the issue as the
board was on the verge of adjourning.
Zutz Disturbed
“I am disturbed,” he said, “that Del
aware continues to operate segregated
schools with the blessing of the State
Board of Education.
‘We have de facto segregation
whether we acknowledge it or not,
Lasher and Wilson
Divergent views.
and if we are truly interested in a
system of education that is fully inte
grated now is the time for us to look
into how to bring it about.”
Zutz cautioned his four fellow mem
bers against delay.
“We should not wait for others to
beckon with a clarion call,” he said,
in an apparent reference to protests
against de facto segregation in Wil
mington schools from a civil rights
leader from West Chester, Pa.
Boycott Suggested
A comprehensive survey will be
conducted to determine the status of
segregated schools.
The problem of placing Negro stu
dent teacher from Delaware State
College in white schools has been
solved, according to the president of
the predominantly Negro institution.
Divergent views on the desegrega
tion policies of the State Board of
Education have been expressed by
two of the six board members.
schools is both financially unsound and
definitely un-Constitutional.”
In the past, Dr. Wilson said, “The
reasoning has been that the hands of
the State Board are tied.”
But in the light of recent legal de
cisions, he said, “it is apparently un
constitutional to maintain the schools
solely because no one has asked that
they be abolished.”
Dr. Wilson pointed out that “I am
not in favor of closing, or burning
school buildings, per se, to bring about
desegregation.”
Overlapping Districts
But in many instances, he said, white
and Negro districts overlap.
“It is time,” he continued, “that the
board address itself to this problem be
fore we have pickets and boycotts.”
u Dr - Wilson expressed the belief that
“this can be solved without putting the
board in this embarrassing position.”
Dr. Gousha asked Dr. Wilson if the
report should be prepared with a view
toward the preparation of legislation to
submit to the General Assembly.
Legislation Unneeded
I don t think we need legislation to
decide what to do, I think the court has
told us we can’t operate so-called all-
Negro schools,” Dr. Wilson replied.
“Our problem is what to do with
these districts once they are integrated,”
he said.
Some of the barriers which still exist
were discussed by Dr. H. B. King,
assistant state superintendent in charge
of elementary education.
“As long as each of these schools has
a separate board of trustees, and teach
ers on tenure, these schools will con
tinue to exist because the teachers are
going to keep the school open until
they can find another position.”
And the problem of a Negro teacher
finding another position, particularly in
a white school, is substantial, Dr. King
said.
Dr. Wilson disagreed.
“I don’t know why qualified Negro
teachers from schools which are closed
will have to worry about where to
teach,” he said, “since we will have the
same number of children who have to
be taught.”
In any case, he said, “this is not a
valid reason for the continuation of
all-Negro schools.”
Harry D. Zutz
‘We should not wait . . .’
In The Colleges
Student Teacher
Placement Seen
Much Improved
The problem of placing Negro stu
dent teachers from Delaware State
College in white schools has been
solved for this semester, and perhaps
permanently, in the opinion of Presi
dent Lima I. Mishoe.
Dr. Mishoe, who brought the problem
to the attention of the State Board of
Education in December, expressed his
appreciation to the board at its Febru
ary meeting.
“I am authorized by the board of
trustees at Delaware State College to
thank you for the action you have
taken,” Dr. Mishoe said.
Among the actions by the state board
was appointment of a committee from
the State Department of Public In
struction, which arranged a discussion
before the January meeting of the
Delaware School Boards Association.
Among the barriers cited at the
meeting was a lack of communication
between the college, the State Depart
ment of Public Instruction, and the
local school districts.
Meeting Credited
Dr. Mishoe credited this meeting with
the placement of four Negro teachers
in schools that had not used them prev
iously, and another at a school that
had not had a Negro student teacher
in several years.
Among the new districts to take a
Negro student teacher for the first time
was Seaford, which accepted Miss
Ernestine Mumford in business educa
tion.
Seaford is the first school in Sussex
County, the southern-most county in
Delaware, to use a Negro teacher in a
predominantly white school.
Other practice teachers were placed
in Claymont, and Dickinson, near
Wilmington, while P. S. du Pont, also
in Wilmington, after a lapse of several
years, also accepted a student teacher.
Marshallton, also near Wilmington,
offered to place practice teachers. Ac
cording to Dr. Milford Caldwell, stu-
(See DELAWARE, Page 13)
What They Say
Philadelphia NAACP Leader
In Controversy After Speech
Stanley E. Branche, president of the
Committee for Freedom Now, on Jan.
14 suggested a boycott of Wilmington
schools, but it failed to develop.
“One year runs into the next,” Zutz
continued, “but little has been done to
abolish the small schools, with small
enrollments, many of them Negro
schools.”
Zutz took note of the fact that Dr.
Richard P. Gousha, who became state
superintendent in January, will face a
formidable task without much back
ground.
“But we must begin; we can’t wait. I
look to September for the elimination
of de facto segregation.”
‘Time to Start’
Zutz was also critical of the Negro
leadership:
“I realize that it is incumbent upon
the Negro leadership to also do some
thing, and I admit that the Negro lead
ership has been derelict in the past.
“But we need the facts, and this is
the time to start.” .
Zutz suggested that the report also
include pictures of the facilities at the
all-Negro schools.
“We will be mutually appalled at
the information.
“I think we should make a start on
our own, before outsiders come in. We
know the facts and what ought to be
done,” he said.
Dr. Wilson endorsed the views ex
pressed by Zutz, and said the continued
operation of “so-called all-Negro
The president of Philadelphia’s
branch of the NAACP was quoted as
having advocated a “scorched-earth”
policy in that city unless something is
done about school desegregation, but
he later said he was “misrepresented.”
Ned Davis, who heads the Dover
bureau of the Wilmington News-
Journal Co. and covered the convoca
tion speech at Delaware State College,
denied he had misquoted Cecil B.
Moore.
Davis, in the Wilmington Morning
News, reported that Moore vowed that
“if we can’t have equal opportunities
of education, then we’ll bum the
schools down and all be illiterates.”
Statement Criticized
Moore’s statements were subsequent
ly criticized by numerous civil rights
leaders, including Rep. Herman M.
Holloway, the only Negro in the Gen
eral Assembly.
And Dr. Luna I. Mishoe, Delaware
State College president, said he thought
Moore’s remarks on violence were all
“bad.”
“It was not the proper kind of lan
guage,” Dr. Mishoe said.
Dr. Woodrow Wilson, the first Negro
to serve on the State Board of Educa
tion, said he expects no one to “rise
up in arms” in Delaware after such
speeches “but if this is drummed into
people long enough there may be
danger.”
Teachers Accused
Moore, in a subsequent speech at the
Wilmington NAACP’s membership
campaign, accused Wilmington Negro
teachers of allowing de facto school
segregation while they “fatten their
own pocketbooks and bellies.”
In an interview, Moore denied advo
cating a scorched-earth policy.
“We’re not going to bum the schools
down. We’re just going to completely
destroy the curriculum. Because if they
don’t have any students in them to
teach, how are they going to teach
anything?”
This was an apparent reference to a
boycott of the Wilmington schools
which was proposed, but failed to de
velop, in January.
WEST VIRGINIA
Meeting Set on Ending
Negro Public Schools
CHARLESTON
M embers of the State Human
Rights Commission will
confer with the State Board of
Education March 12 about its
recommendations that the board
establish a policy for eliminating
all Negro public schools in West
Virginia.
The hearing for the commission has
been set for 10 a.m., and Director
Howard W. McKinney says the board
has allowed 30 minutes for discussion.
McKinney said the commission will
ask the board for a policy determina
tion on recommendations contained in
the commission’s last annual report.
They are:
• That the board set a date of not
more than five years hence for elimi
nation of all separate Negro schools
within the state.
• That the board adopt a policy of
positive leadership for the desegrega
tion of faculty and administrative per
sonnel.
• That the board adopt a policy of
promoting human relations in the
schools, and that attention be given to
curriculum content and assistance to
teachers in dealing with prejudices and
handling inter-racial activities.
No Study Undertaken
The commission has not undertaken
a full study of school desegregation
but has assembled information which
would indicate there are approximately
88 all-Negro public schools still left
in the state. These are mainly in the
junior and senior high school area.
McKinney says that from his discus
sion of the desegregation problem with
school people he is of the opinion a
significant number of the all-Negro
schools could be eliminated without
any great trouble.
They are centered mainly in six
southern counties. The biggest problem
county, he remarked, would be Mc
Dowell, which has 23 Negro elementary
schools, one three-year junior high
and four six-year high schools.
He said there is evidence that Negro
children are transported by school bus
in McDowell County past all-white
schools to Negro schools.
No Negro Principals
McDowell is a coal mining county
at the very southern tip of the state.
It has had some racial discord back
through the years but not much.
Mainly its troubles arose after the
racial strife in Little Rock, Ark., when
efforts were made to desegregate Cen
tral High School there.
McKinney also said a public policy is
needed in the hiring and placing of
Negro teaching personnel. He said he
knows of no desegregated school in
the state where a Negro serves as
principal.
Likewise, he said, although West
Virginia has a policy of racial desegre
gation in every county system where
Negroes live, there has been no posi
tive effort on the part of school au
thorities to convey through the curric
ula an understanding of desegregation
and what it means to the state and
nation.
★ ★ ★
Kanawha President Denies
Discrimination Charges
Dr. C. Carl Tully, president of the
Kanawha County Board of Education,
said the board supports a policy of
hiring and promoting teachers with
out regard to race.
His statement followed questions
charging racial discrimination. His
comments came Feb. 20 at a meeting
of the Charleston Business and Pro
fessional Men’s Club.
He made it clear that board members
have no legal power to hire or promote
school personnel. All their actions in
this field are on the recommendation
of the school superintendent.
At the meeting Willard Brown, pres
ident of the Charleston branch of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, said a special
committee had conferred recently with
Supt. L. K. Loverstein on charges of
discrimination in the employment and
promotion of Negro teachers.
Brown charged that a “nose count”
by the committee showed there are
109 Negro teachers in the Kanawha
County system now as compared with
134 before schools were desegregated
in 1956. The Kanawha system is the
largest in West Virginia, and consid
ered one of the most desegregated.
West Virginia Highlights
The West Virginia Human Rights
Commission will ask the State Board
of Education March 12 to eliminate
all Negro schools in the state within
five years.
Only one person filing for state
wide office in West Virginia this year
pledged an anti-segregation plank in
his platform.
Out of 157 clerks and stenographers
in the school system, Brown said, only
one is a Negro. He said another con
ference has been arranged on the
problem.
About two years ago Brown said
the NAACP was thinking of bringing
court action in Kanawha County to
gain better opportunities for Negro
teachers.
★ ★ ★
The State Human Rights Commission
has commended Charleston High School
for adopting a preamble to its code
of conduct for students which deplores
racial discrimination.
The student council adopted the pre
amble, printed it on billfold-size cards
and distributed it to all students, with
the hope that they would sign and
keep it.
The preamble reads in part:
“. . . We consider it essential to give
equal opportunity and respect to all
pupils regardless of financial back
ground, race or creed. . . . We are
aware that any practice of discrimi
nation and behavior unworthy of
Charleston High School students breed
internal destruction of our school and
of ourselves. . .
The Human Rights Commission com
mented:
“So responsible an understanding of
the meaning of democracy is a very
great credit to them (Charleston High
students, student council and their ad
visors). Our congratulations and deep
appreciation.”
★ ★ ★
The West Virginia legislature as
sured continued operation of Bluefield
State College on an expanded basis for
at least another year.
The legislature passed a 1964-65 fiscal
budget which included an increase in
funds for Bluefield. Where the budget
of this southern-most state-maintained
college is $584,197, it will be $593,353
next year.
Political Activity
Candidate Brown
Plans to Support
Desegregation
Only one candidate who has filed in
the West Virginia primary election has
taken a formal stand on the school
racial problem. He is Bonn Brown,
Elgins lawyer who is seeking the Dem
ocratic gubernatorial nomination.
Filing for public office in West Vir
ginia closed Feb. 1 for both Demo
crats and Republicans.
A New York Negro, Paul Zuber,
said he would seek the presidential
nomination in West Virginia’s P re ^?j
ential Democratic primary, but he di
not pay his $1,000 filing fee. He said
he would run as a write-in candidate.
Under West Virginia law it is ^
tremely difficult to poll a vote of aW
size as a write-in candidate. Zu
has not yet made an appearance
the state though he has said in
on two or three occasions, as well
in telephone conversations, that
would campaign here.
His reason for seeking the nomin
tion, he said, is to focus national at
tion on the school racial problem w^
exists in America. He decided on ^
Virginia as a battleground because
its experience with school desegr
tion since 1954. u e
Brown said if elected governor, ^
would make every effort to P us _
total desegregation in the schoo
terns which don’t have it. .
Another person with a record
school desegregation field who has
for office is Cecil H. Underw'OO ’ r ,
publican, who is seeking the g° % e
ship for the second time. No Wes ^
ginian has ever before run twi
governor.