Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH, 1964—PAGE 15
Louisiana
(Continued From Page 14)
hildren who could be assigned to three
c , r schools in adjacent attendance
°‘ nes . Census figures, Lindsey said,
z ? oVf that 397 Negro pupils in grades
e through six now live in the Du-
® c q z one but only 175 white pupils in
™ same grade level live in the area.
If approved by the board, the pupils
urrently attending Dufrocq would be
transferred to other schools next fall.
\ similar change would be effected the
following year at the Baton Rouge
junior High School.
Desegregation began in East Baton
Rouge Parish, site of the state’s capital,
in September, 1963, when 28 Negro
12th grade pupils were assigned to four
formerly all-white high schools. Under
the court-approved plan, the next low
est grade will be desegregated each
ensuing year.
★ ★ ★
St. Tammany Parish was commended
Feb. 22 for its efforts to meet the ex
panding educational needs of its grow
ing population, “without federal aid.”
\ A. Larsen, manager of industrial
relations for the Boeing Company,
which is engaged in missile-making ac
tivities in the Gulf Coast area, wrote
the letter of commendation to School
Supt. William Pitcher. Noting that
several hundred families recently have
moved into the parish, with more to
follow, Larsen wrote:
“We are aware of the demands that
have been and will be imposed on the
parish in providing teaching staffs and
school facilities. Citizens of St. Tam
many are to be commended for passage
of the recent $1.9 million bond issue,
the addition of nearly 40 teachers and
the construction of new buildings from
Slidell to Covington. It is significant
that this has been done without federal
j aid.”
St. Tammany Parish last year with
drew its application for federal aid to
impacted areas after several school sys
tems in Louisiana and neighboring
states were served with law suits seek
ing to desegregate schools where such
aid is granted.
★ ★ ★
William J. Dodd, who will assume
office as state superintendent of educa
tion in May, recently discussed his
. plans for improving education in Louis-
■ana. Among them he emphasized job
retraining and noted the availability of
federal funds to encourage and support
, ^oh state programs.
Louisiana is the only state in the
nation which has not moved to partici
pate in this program, reputedly because
of federal requirements that the state
programs be conducted on a biracial
j oasis.
Political Acti c
^cKeithen Elected
Governor; Republican
Gets Sizeable Vote
Prim 11 ^ LIcKeithen, whose Democrat:
, ary victory in January reste
"•as ^ on the “Negro bloc vote” issu
v e lected governor of Louisian
. on 3 jn the most spirited genen
elect
•ion of this century. Racial
played .
IT nunor P ar t i n the campaignin
sta, 1 ret ums from 2,135 of tl
*50.300P r ecincts gave McKeithe
283(501 Charlton Lyons, Republica:
"j-i '® n< t Thomas S. Williams, State
f * p arty, 5,485.
^ the best showing for a Re
has ^ canf -hdate since 1896. Louisian
Price p aa d a Republican goveme
Seilo eaons truction when William Pi
The R(T eId office from 1873 to 1877.
I on ^ -year-old Lyons, a Shrevepo:
5i°r e Won 38 per cent of the vot
triply a ,u ^euhling the percentage an
Public! V, e number received by Re
Francis Grevemberg in 1960
Stuck to Platforms
Aa C i a i »
■oriuai t 1881168 w ere treated only
PJestiof, er? P s or in response to dire
'!then S j reporters. Both M
^tenienf . Lyons hued closely to t
•• Viliam m ^eLr platforms.
v rr d- s °t the States’ Rights Pari
5 federal ore the election, filed si
j'drig t district court at Baton Rouj
on ,5 a Postponement of the ele
that he had been di
■ a f a fnst by state officials,
o n=>.- f anned that only nine
I T’t hirn IS J 1 eterks of court had no1
anrt° f t ^ e time and place f
., ^ge p S6 ^bng the voting machim
V.m ere ,, '.Jordon West refused
the election, but grant
3el on * hearing for March 6.
!> So ifr Standin g tradition of Dem
f ^hti 6s ^ty was cracked in sor
two Republicans, Tayl
I
OKLAHOMA
Negro School Patrons Reject De-Annexation
OKLAHOMA CITY
atrons of an all-Negro school
in Oklahoma County have
rejected a move to de-annex from
a predominantly white district.
The action in an official election Feb.
25 to determine sentiment may result
at Choctaw by children of a group of
disgruntled Negroes.
The vote climaxed several months
of controversy between the group and
the Choctaw district board of education
over alleged unequal facilities at the
Dunjee School.
The protesting Negro patrons had
indicated earlier they would send their
youngsters to the white school if the
de-annexation effort failed. They have
been circulating petitions asking that
Dunjee be de-annexed from Choctaw
and annexed to the Oklahoma City
school system.
‘Vote of Confidence’
The vote was 293 to 89 in favor of
remaining in the Choctaw district.
Choctaw school board members took
this as a vote of confidence and an
nounced a previously scheduled $115,-
000 bond issue election will be held
March 24. This is the date of the annual
school board election.
The bond election was to have been
held in February. It was postponed
because $45,000 to $50,000 of the bond-
issue money is to be used for improve
ments at Dunjee. The situation was
complicated also by a fire that de
stroyed the Dunjee school’s cafeteria
and kitchen Dec. 8, a loss of $110,000
in building and equipment.
The de-annexation move began in
August when 14 Dunjee patrons ap
plied to Raymond Harvey, county
school superintendent, for a petition to
be circulated asking for the change.
The leaders were Antone Bridgett, for
merly a custodian at Dunjee, and C. L.
Sloss, former coach and brick masonry
teacher. Both work in the Oklahoma
City school system now.
Want School Fixed
They appeared before the Choctaw
school board demanding that Dunjee
facilities and curriculum be improved
or that the school be de-annexed. Spe
cifically they called for the addition
of more trade classes and the remodel
ing of the junior high and elementary
buildings.
Bridgett said at the time his group
was “not necessarily as interested in
getting out of the Choctaw district as
getting the (Dunjee) school fixed up.”
“If necessary, we will enroll our
children in the Choctaw schools,” he
said.
This would mean admitting Negro
students to all-white schools for the
first time. At present all Negroes in
the district attend Dunjee, which has
a combined grade school and high
school enrollment of 1,100. The district’s
total enrollment is 3,725.
Early in September the school board
issued a formal desegregation policy
statement. It contained a slight altera
tion of the attendance boundaries be
tween Dunjee and Choctaw and pro
vided for free transfer during the
1963-64 school year for reasons of
minority race and subject matter not
offered in the home school.
For 1964-65 the policy will be per
mitting free transfer “without regard
O’Hearn and Morley Hudson, won seats
in the state House of Representatives
in Caddo Parish, and at least three
Republicans won seats on parish police
juries (county governing bodies).
Seventy-one Republicans and six
States’ Rights candidates had contested
for offices in various parts of the state.
Community Action
CORE Formulates
National Plans
Strategy planners of the Congress
of Racial Equality met in New Orleans
Feb. 14 to plan CORE’s nationwide
program.
“In the North we are concerned with
de facto segregation in schools and
housing.” said James Farmer, national
director, at a press conference. “In the
South, we are concerned with voter
registration, public accommodations
and jobs.”
Voter registration efforts will be ac
celerated in the months ahead, Farmer
said, adding that the need is great in
Louisiana. He said one voter registra
tion drive would be in Plaquemines
Parish, where Leander Perez Sr., arch
segregationist wields great political in
fluence.
Oklahoma Highlights
A move to de-annex a Negro school
from a predominantly white district
in Oklahoma County because of al
leged unequal facilities was rejected.
A federal judge suggested that the
Oklahoma City school board call in
an outside expert for a study to
help determine its desegregation
plan.
Regents of the University of Okla
homa voted to approve off-campus
housing only when the landlord
agrees in writing to accept students
without regard to race.
A human relations specialist said
the schools will be a place to start
the healing process that will follow
the nation’s struggle over civil rights.
to race or color between schools as
long as facilities will provide.”
But 13 Negro children eligible to
attend all-white Choctaw schools en
rolled instead at Dunjee.
The board has repeatedly denied in
adequacies exist at Dunjee. It said
$200,000 has been spent at the school
in the past two years. Land has been
purchased for a new high school and
auto mechanics was added to the cur
riculum in the fall.
Legal Action
Judge Suggests
Outside Study
In Oklahoma City
A federal judge has called for a
study by an outside expert to help
determine what Oklahoma City’s school
desegregation plan should be.
U.S. District Judge Luther Bohanon
made the suggestion at the end of a
hearing Feb. 28 on a permanent de
segregation plan submitted by the Ok
lahoma City Board of Education.
The plan was attacked during the
hearing by a Negro attorney on
grounds it tends to perpetuate racial
segregation in the schools and, there
fore, is unconstitutional.
He asked the board on what legal
authority it bases its neighborhood-
school principle of pupil assignment.
Order Last Summer
The hearing was called to determine
whether the plan, “Policy Statements
Regarding School Integration,” com
plies with the law and with an order
handed down by Bohannon last sum
mer.
He ordered the Oklahoma City pub
lic school system to desegregate pupils
and teachers and told the board to
file a comprehen
sive desegregation
plan. His decree,
issued July 11, was
based on a suit
brought by an Ok
lahoma Negro op
tometrist (Dowell
v. Board of Edu
cation) charging
racial discrimina
tion by the school
board in its pu
pil transfer policy.
The board submitted a temporary
plan Aug. 6 in which it announced
transfers would no longer be based
on race. It adopted the permanent plan
Jan. 14 and filed it in court six days
later.
After a two-and-a-half-hour hear
ing, Judge Bohanon said he would
neither approve or disapprove the plan
at this time.
Asks Investigation
He said he would like for the school
board to have a “disinterested, non.
prejudiced investigation by an expert
in that field (school desegregation)
who could tell us what would be the
proper thing to do.”
He said, if the board didn’t want
to pay for it, he would see if the
plaintiffs, Dr. A. L. Dowell and his
son, Robert, would, and, if they did
not, the court would find somebody
else willing to pay the cost of the
survey.
Bohanon explained later to a South
ern School News correspondent: “I
want the survey to help the whole
program. I want what is done to be
right and proper, with the idea of
continuing integration. I want more
information as to what the board
should say and as to what good-faith
integration under all circumstances
should amount to.”
In the policy statements that made
up its permanent plan the board de
clared its intention to adhere to the
neighborhood-school concept. It said
the race of residents would have no
bearing on establishment of attend
ance area boundaries. But it said pu
pils will be assigned so as to utilize
all facilities as efficiently as possible.
Attorney Charges
This was reiterated by the superin
tendent, Dr. Jack Parker, at the Feb.
28 hearing in questioning by U. Simp
son Tate, Wewoka, attorney for the
Dowells.
It led Tate to suggest at one point
school officials are putting more em
phasis on removing inequities from
buildings than on eliminating racial
segregation among pupils as required
by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions.
At the outset Tate charged the “com
munity plan of zoning schools” has two
frailties. First, he said, there is nothing
in Oklahoma law to authorize the
board to make such a plan beyond a
section giving it the right to designate
schools for pupils to attend and to
draw boundaries.
Second, he said, the plan contributes
to the maintenance of the status quo
and tends to perpetuate racial segrega
tion and, therefore, is unconstitutional.
Parker Testimony
Parker testified that for the 1963-64
school year 46 white elementary pupils
have been transferred out of attend
ance areas of all-Negro schools to
other areas. Questioned closely by
Tate, the superintendent said his staff
made certain as far as it could that
the reasons given were not based on
race but were those authorized under
the new transfer policy.
It permits transfers to obtain a more
appropriate educational program, to
make it possible for two or more mem
bers of the same family to attend the
same school, to allow a pupil to com
plete the highest grade offered in a
school he has been attending and for
other “valid, good-faith reasons.”
Tate asked the superintendent,
“What brought the board to conclude
it should operate (the schools) on a
strictly neighborhood basis? There’s
nothing in the law I can find that
authorizes it.”
Parker replied that the neighbor
hood-school plan is administratively
the most practical way of assigning
pupils and has been followed for many
years.
Attendance Areas
Tate dwelt at length on an arrange
ment of attendance areas that he said,
in effect, keeps Douglass High segre
gated for Negroes, with Moon Junior
High and various elementary schools
serving as “feeder” units. He said that,
as a result, a Negro pupil starting in
one of the elementary schools is des
tined to “go through a segregated
school system.”
Parker replied that attendance areas
on the east side as elsewhere were
established to assure efficient use of
all the units administratively and no
racial implications were involved.
The Negro attorney asked the super
intendent if he feels his and the board’s
duty is no more than to stop overt
acts of racial segregation or if there
is an “affirmative” duty to eliminate
the practice of racial segregation.
Said Parker: “I do understand that
segregation is unlawful, that all of our
own policies and practices should be
such that segregation is not practiced.”
Children Transported
The hearing brought out reports that
some white parents have entered co
operative arrangements to transport
their children out of predominantly
Negro school areas to other areas.
School officials said this has been done
without arrangement with the board
of education.
Jimmy Stewart, former Oklahoma
City branch president of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, testified Negro chil
dren in Oklahoma City have been lim
ited in cultural opportunities. He said
this has caused Negro job applicants
to lag behind whites in placement ex
aminations at government agencies and
private industry.
He said it has been found only the
best Negro high school graduates can
pass the examinations but they pass up
technical-type employment to go to
college. Average Negro students are
not prepared to pass the tests and, thus,
while they may be competent to handle
the jobs in practice, are not in position
to get them, Stewart said.
He also testified that, with the ex
ception of six or seven Oklahoma
cities, when a Negro teacher is elimi
nated from the community, Negro
pupils lose their motivation to improve
themselves. There are no other for
mally trained Negroes to provide such
motivation, he said.
In The Colleges
OU Board Adopts
Housing Policy
The University of Oklahoma regents
have decided to approve off-campus
housing for students only when the
landlord agrees in writing to a non
segregation policy.
The statement adopted by the Board
of Regents Feb. 13 was more liberal
than a resolution recommended by the
human-relations committee of the OU
Student Senate.
The student group said a recent sur
vey disclosed that 78 of 108 Norman
landlords refused to rent to Negro
students.
Of the 108 landlords 63 opposed any
change in regulations and 26 voted in
favor of a policy of desegregation, the
survey showed.
The regents also asked that univer
sity officials exert their influence to
ward elimination of racial discrimina
tion.
What They Say
Carmack Predicts
‘Healing Process’
In Public Schools
An Oklahoma human-relations spe
cialist sees the public schools as a
place to start the healing process that
will follow America’s struggle over
civil rights.
Dr. William R. Carmack, Norman,
predicted efforts will concentrate more
and more on working with schools to
develop ways of teaching good human
relationships.
Carmack is director of the Southwest
Center for Human Relations Studies
on the University of Oklahoma campus.
He described
two phases to the
struggle for im
proved “i nt e r -
group” relations.
The most ur
gent phase, he
said, concerns
civil rights, or
discrimination.
“This is won
with all the tech
niques of the law
court and the
demonstration, but this may leave the
participants even more hostile toward
one another,” he said.
Second Phase
The second phase will concern im
proved human relations, or overcom
ing prejudice, he said. Here old insti
tutions will find new goals and meth
ods more effective, and new social
institutions will be created, Carmack
predicted.
Carmack said a human relations
subcommittee of the Oklahoma Cur
riculum Commission, an educators’
group, has asked his center to set
up a workshop for about 10 selected
communities to deal with human re
lations in the school.
It would explore, he said, ways in
which good human relations princi
ples can be introduced throughout the
school’s curriculum, not in isolated
courses. The workshop, yet to be
scheduled, will bring together teams
of administrators and teachers in a
sort of pilot study.
PARKER
TATE