Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

1 MARYLAND SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH, 1964—PAGE 3 Cambridge Negroes Boycott in Protest of Segregation BALTIMORE 4 snow storm and a Negro school boycott occurred sim ultaneously in the racially trou bled city of Cambridge on Mary land’s Eastern Shore, leaving a cloudy picture of how many school children stayed home for which reason. Mrs. Gloria H. Richardson, chairman of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee, which had initiated the Feb. 11 boycott, said at the close of the school day that her group’s check at county schools showed that the absen teeism fulfilled her prediction that 75 per cent of the pupils would stay home in protest of de facto segregation. Mrs. Richardson has been urging the assign ment of Negroes to the nearest white 1 schools rather than to have desegrega tion depend on Negro transfer requests. In contrast, the Dorchester County school superintendent, James G. Busick, reported that 981 of the county’s ap proximately 2,500 Negro pupils were absent and that at least half that num ber normally are absent in bad weather. His figures placed the boy cott’s effectiveness at less than 20 per cent rather than at Mrs. Richardson’s ' 75 per cent. Busick had warned in ad vance that pupils participating in the boycott would receive failing marks for the day and that parents could be r prosecuted for inducing children to ab sent themselves from school. Busick’s figures for attendance at Negro schools in Cambridge, where Mrs. Richardson has her greatest in fluence, showed 325 absent out of 850 at St. Clair Elementary School and 401 absent out of 954 at Mace’s Lane High • School. Comparative figures for county white schools were not given. Test of Strength The boycott was a test of strength for Mrs. Richardson, who led the civil- nghts demonstrations last spring and °arlv summer which brought Cam bridge to a fever pitch of racial ten don. A token force of the Maryland National Guard has remained on duty ® Cambridge since that time to pre- !erve law and order. The boycott was onenlv opposed by the NAACP in Cam- ridge and bv several Negro ministers, In the wake of the partial boycott i * e industrial develonment committee 0 the Cambridge Chamber of Com- !n , e r ce sa id Negroes were disenchanted | "! , .Mrs. Richardson’s leadership. In ' , tion to stating the NAACP opposi- .. r,n *° the boycott, the committee ,;imed ^at “the three major Negro fo'-w. have denied the use of their . les to her group” and that three rant t Negro ministers left her s. carrying with them the ma- V , the responsible Negro citizens Th ^^anticipated in her program.” w 6 .amber of Commerce commit- ? ich D j lncipal contention was that Mrs. ‘vonn • ° n P resen ted a distorted ’lvin?’ 1C picture °f Cambridge as a ’hvrrie . Communit y whereas unem- fod 19° Was . tiown. payrolls were up CambrtAi neW Industries had located in * *** during the past four years. ’ridze’5 . , the new plants in Cam- ‘■e? . 'ndustrial park, the commit- foftvenil" Gloria Richardson has ' W p] * h>rgotten to mention that a . an 3 have come into this county 0^ ° mp tetely integrated basis.” to^' ^ hlrs. Richardson was ' Easte ’” cess A nne County, also on ore > to assist students at ^tions . te C °hef?e with demon- ^ u rants SainSt segregation in local Kentucky xl" ntinUed from Page 2) ^l issues 0nS hy raising emc ^treop^ 6 ^ things, Johnson’s bi i^cial al °r the laws forbidding ir 0 7 arna ge and declaring th; nuxed unions are illegit: bm a1c ? w °uld have eliminate seL 0bsoIete “Day Law” rc •7 struou^fod schools, and woul 7 from .Jhe term “colored chi’ 77 c ivil. ° 7 er education statutes. bet,- 1 j ts advocates threw the drive to pass :/ '''ere irH rn0 7 atlons t aw and tv. 0tle in ,, r °^ Uce d' on e in the Horn n the Senate. Mrs. Gloria Richardson After boycott: interviews. Schoolmen Baltimore Report Denies Prejudice In Promotions No evidence of racial discrimination in Baltimore school staff promotions was found by an outside consultant en gaged to study charges raised early last summer by a civil-rights group. The report of Dr. Willard S. Elsbree, professor in the Division of Adminis tration and Guidance at Columbia Teachers College, was released in Feb ruary in response to the accusations of the Interdenominational Ministers Alli ance, which had named five Negroes who had been passed over in the ap pointment of principals and vice principals. Dr. Elsbree reported, “There is no evidence whatsoever that Negroes have been discriminated against in recent promotions to administrative and super visory posts. . . . Your consultant has every reason to believe in the integrity of those now charged with this re sponsibility in Baltimore, and he has found not one thread of evidence point ing to discrimination in the five cases which have been challenged.” The Baltimore school board author ized the appointment of Dr. Elsbree on July 31, at the urging of Dr. George B. Brain, the city’s school superintend ent, who had sought to avoid having his own administrative personnel in the position of discussing publicly the qualifications of the five persons named by the civil-rightists. Since then, Dr. Elsbree has examined the records and interviewed teachers, administrators, citizens and the ministerial group. While Dr. Elsbree concluded that “an examination of the current system does not bear out charges that racial dis crimination is taking place” and that “the current selection procedures are logical and workable,” he did not rule out the possibility that “those making decisions may err on occasion.” Grant ing the advantages of Baltimore’s flex ible promotion policies, he recom mended tighter procedures to close “possible loopholes for favoritism or inefficiency.” Uniform Plan Needed “The problems arising in big cities today,” Elsbree told the school board, “make it almost imperative to follow q uniform plan. Although this reduces the range of discretionary power in the hands of the administration, there does not appear to be any alternative that will satisfy the rank and file.” Among Dr. Elsbree’s specific sug gestions were these: • All promotional vacancies should be publicized and the announcement should carry a description of responsi bilities and qualications required for eligibility. • The examination procedure should be more formal with established cut off marks publicized along with the method to be followed in conducting the oral interview. • The evaluation and information supplied to the personnel office by the principals and supervisors regarding the efficiency and qualifications of those whom they supervise should be re viewed. • The possibility of candidates’ being permitted to take the promotional ex amination a second time should be considered. Dr. Brain presented the Elsbree re port to the school board in February with a statement that it was his in tention to appoint a staff committee representative of all levels of the school system to prepare personnel policy changes in line with the report. Political Activity Council Passes Civil-Rights Bill The Baltimore City Council by a 12- to-9 vote adopted an amended version of the civil-rights package urged by the administration of Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin, a Republican. In the final version passed by the all-Democratic council on Feb. 24, the housing section was deleted entirely and the ban against discrimination by establishments serving the general pub lic was amended to provide exemptions for barber and beauty shops, taverns, funeral parlors and cemeteries. The portion of the bill affecting education was left intact. Under the ordinance, all public and private educational institutions, except ing religious schools, are prohibited from denying admission to students on racial or religious grounds. All types of educational enterprises from kinder gartens through graduate schools are covered by the anti-discrimination ac tion, but its effect has not as yet been measured. All of the state-accredited public and private colleges in the Baltimore area already are desegregated, as are the public and parochial schools, the prom inent private schools and a lesser known number of specialized private schools. The principal impact is ex pected to be on private kindergartens and some commercial or secretarial schools. What They Say Psychiatrist Says Board Moves Slowly On Slum Problem A Johns Hopkins child psychiatrist accused the Baltimore school board in February of not having responded to the needs of children in slum schools until pressure had been applied by civil-rights groups. Asking rhetorically “Why all the sudden concern for slum schools?,” Dr. Leon Eisenberg, head of the Children’s Psychiatric Service at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said that civil-rights pressure “makes school boards run scared.” Dr. Eisenberg’s comments were made as a participant in a symposium on Baltimore’s experimental pre-school training program for “culturally disad vantaged” children, which began in February, 1963 (SSN, March, 1963). His Maryland Highlights A snow storm and school boycott coincided in racially troubled Cam bridge, leaving in dispute the effec tiveness of the planned protest against de facto segregation. No evidence to support charges of racial discrimination in Baltimore school staff promotions was found by a Columbia University consultant. The Baltimore City Council adopt ed a watered-down civil-rights ordi nance, striking out sections pertain ing to housing and certain types of private businesses but leaving intact a prohibition against racial and re ligious discrimination by public and private schools and colleges. Trustees of Morgan State College voted unanimously to try to attract more white students to the predomin antly Negro liberal arts institution. A Johns Hopkins child psychia trist accused the Baltimore school board of not responding to the needs of slum children until pressure was applied by civil-rights groups. remarks applied not so much to the ex perimental program, which was inaug urated without pressure, as to Baltimore’s crash program this past fall to transport children on part-time shifts in inner-city schools to less crowded outlying schools. The trans portation plan and accompanying changes in districting and transfer pol icies had been adopted by the School Board last June, after the NAACP had threatened to stage demonstrations (SSN, July, 1963). Asked later to elaborate on his views for Southern School News, Dr. Eisen berg said, “The civil-rights move ment has put the spotlight on a sit uation that has existed for a long time. It has raised questions as to the adequacy of the education that children in blight ed urban areas have been receiv ing, in schools that are not equal but separate, and has provided the big push in large cities to do something toward meeting the needs of deprived children.” It is “in a way unfortunate,” Dr. Eisenberg said, that the pressure to do something about the slum schools has come in the form of civil-rights pres sure. “While some situations may re flect deliberate policy and prejudice,” he explained, “the general condition more often is due to school officials’ in attention and insensitivity to a group, which is inarticulate and has been less inclined to fuss than other groups. When a racial issue is made of the conditions and school officials are ac cused of prejudice and bigotry, they tend to become bitter and defensive instead of conceding past failures and taking constructive remedial steps.” Dr. Eisenberg also indicated his lack of full confidence in the type of cor rective action that racial pressure stim ulates. “I believe it is right to fight gerrymandering and other efforts to preserve racial segregation, but trans portation plans based on putting Negro slum children in middle-class white schools does not guarantee their being able to catch up. “We should be beefing up slum schools with pre-kindergarten training, more special services in the elementary years, more emphasis on quality as well as quantity in their education. The standard approach to slum schools among many school officials is to ad vocate more teachers and smaller classes, which is more of the same methods now in use. We need changes in the curricula of teachers’ colleges, more training in the special problems of slum children, new methods of reach ing children who do not now respond to standard teaching methods. “Nothing indicates that children in slum areas cannot respond, if teachers get through to them, but so far there has been insufficient emphasis on spe cial educational methods or modified techniques to reach them. In a number of cities efforts are under way, but we have been terribly late in recognizing and meeting the needs of the urban child.” In The Colleges Morgan Trustees To Seek More White Students Trustees of Morgan State College voted unanimously in February to sup port in principle an active campaign to attract white students to the college, located in Baltimore, which now has only a scattering of whites in its stu dent body of 2,800. The trustees appointed a four-man committee to study the steps recom mended by Dr. Martin D. Jenkins, president of the college, who had urged that a “vigorous” desegregation effort be made. Also in February, Dr. Jenkins used the occasion of his spring convocation address to explain to his student body why he believes Morgan should be “highly integrated racially.” While saying that he believes “right now” that Morgan “is one of the most effec tive educational institutions in the United States” and that he does not believe “what is colored is inferior,” nevertheless, he told his students, Morgan would be an even better insti tution if it were “substantially inte grated.” “I would say the same thing,” Dr. Jenkins said, “about every other insti- (See MARYLAND, Page 4) Community Action NAACP Leader Notes Interracial Calm In a call for more job opportunities for Negroes, Leonard W. Curlin, presi dent of the Washington County chapter of the NAACP, cited school desegrega tion as a factor in the “almost total in terracial calm” prevailing in the western Maryland county. Describing schools and public ac commodations as “places that stand for something,” Curlin in February re ported that both had been desegregated in Washington County and that the de segregation had taken place “volun tarily—or with a little salesmanship.” In response to the question of Negro employment, Dr. William M. Brish, Washington County school superin tendent, said that there were only 14 Negro teachers in the county but also noted the small Negro school popula tion: about 450 out of 20,000. Ten of the teachers are assigned to predomin antly white classes, while four of the teachers and 132 Negro children remain in a partially desegregated Negro ele mentary school which is gradually be ing converted to other uses. All Negro secondary pupils have been assigned to formerly all-white schools. ★ ★ ★ A former Negro member of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education urged in February that a Negro be ap pointed to fill a vacancy on the board which will occur on May 1. Dr. Aris T. Allen, a Negro physician, was a board member from 1955 to 1961, during which period Anne Arundel adopted and car ried out a gradual desegregation plan. The failure of Gov. Tawes to reappoint him (a white man was named instead) aroused the ire of pro-integrationists in the county. “I feel that a large segment of our population is being deprived of rep resentation in school affairs,” Dr. Allen said, while disclaiming a personal in terest in getting the appointment. Not ing that nearly a fifth of Anne Arun del’s large (over 50,000) school population was Negro, he termed it “inconceivable” that the seven-member school board had not one Negro. With the exception of one county and Baltimore city, the district school boards in Maryland are appointed by Gov. Tawes, who has rarely named a Negro. Of the 24 school districts in Maryland, only five or six have a Negro member. ★ ★ ★ The Baltimore County Human Rela tions Commission urged the county school board in February to act im mediately to have a nondiscriminatory clause in all of its contracts to assure that contractors and unions do not bar Negroes from employment on school' projects. The employment provision was the only section to be adopted immediately by the commission, an official county agency, from the school-desegregation report of its executive director, Edgar L. Feingold. (SSN, January, 1964). The commission on Feb. 5 voted 3-to-2 against accepting the Feingold report in toto, after hearing school officials say that the “Princeton Plan,” which Feingold had recommended in two county situations, would not work be cause the white and Negro schools in contention were not enough alike in size and condition to be paired off. Feingold subsequently conceded that the pairing-off had proved “imprac tical” but said he would propose an alternative to the commission: the re assignment of all pupils in three small Negro schools to nearby white schools and then using the Negro schools as integrated annexes of the integrated white schools.