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PAGE 12—APRIL, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS LOUISIANA Orleans Board Rejects Broadening Of Desegregation; Gets New Plea NEW ORLEANS 1 1 '’he Orleans Parish school board on March 9 reiterated its rejection of a plea by a Negro parent-teacher group for a broad ened base of desegregation in the elementary schools. Four days later, on March 15, an addendum to the petition of the New Orleans Parent-Teacher Association Council was delivered to the board asking for even further broadening of school desegregation and desegregation of professional and nonprofessional staffs. By unanimous vote, the school board approved a report by President Lloyd J. Rittner recounting the circumstances surrounding the petition of Oct. 28, 1965, asking for desegregation of all elementary grades from kindergarten through the sixth. Rittner said in his statement to the board March 9: “As a result of this extensive study (ordered by the board in October), and based upon its prior experience, this board is convinced that granting the request contained in the petition to immediately broaden the base of integration to include all the elementary grades from kindergarten through the sixth grade, is not feas ible either from an administrative, fi nancial or educational point of view; and that this board’s previously adopt ed plan of gradual desegregation of the public schools of this parish, is infinitely more sound than the course of action suggested in the aforesaid petition. “This board is aware of all the prob lems set forth in the subject petition, but is satisfied that said problems have absolutely nothing to do with broaden ing the base of integration in the ele mentary schools of this period. “Furthermore, this board has found that many of the conclusions drawn by petitioners from facts presented in their petition are erroneous. For ex ample, the size of an elementary school has no relationship to the achievement level of the students enrolled therein. A comparison of the results of achieve ment tests given to students in the sixth grade of 41 Negro elementary schools in March, 1963, indicate that in the schools which comprise the up per quartile in population a slightly larger percentage of students scored at or above the national average than did those students in schools which comprise the lowest quartile.” Goals Listed The board said its goals and the goals of the staff are: “(a) To raise the achievement level, and the quality of instruction, and to improve the curriculum of all the pub lic schools of this parish. “(b) To increase the number of con sultants, and assistant principals at the junior high school level and in the larger elementary schools. “(c) To alleviate overcrowded con- Legal Action ditions which exist in some of the schools of this parish. “(d) To find the additional financial support necessary to accommodate the anticipated continued growth of the public school system of this parish; and, “(e) To accomplish all the foregoing while continuing to comply with the orders of the federal court to desegre gate the public schools of this parish with all deliberate speed.” In its March 13 communication to the board, signed like the previous ones by William J. Washington as chairman of the Social Action Committee, the New Orleans PTA Council said: “Integration is a total process which is not completed until all students at all grade levels and the professional staff as well as the non-professional staff are assigned without regard to race, color or creed.” The group made three specific re quests: “1. That the Orleans Parish School Board will broaden the base of inte gration to include all grades from kin dergarten through high school in Sep tember 1964. “2. That all employes, professional as well as non-professional, will be em ployed without regard to race begin ning in September, 1964. “3. That assistant principals will be employed and assigned to all schools where the enrollment is in excess of the recommended maximum of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.” Crowded Negro Schools Concerning crowded conditions in Negro schools, the PTA Council said: “Great concern and promise of relief from overcrowded conditions in the Negro elementary schools were ex pressed in a hearing of April 24, 1963, before the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana with the Honorable Frank B. Ellis presiding and in a document purported to be an answer to our petition of Oct. 28, 1963, addressed to the president and mem bers of the Orleans Parish School Board, signed by Mr. O. Perry Walker (su perintendent) and dated Nov. 25, 1963. “The research done by members of this committee shows there is still pla- tooning and overcrowded schools and classes in excess of the maximum for accreditation by the Southern Asso ciation of Colleges and Schools and approved by the Louisiana State De partment of Education.” The petition listed 35 of the city’s 42 Negro elementary schools and cited enrollment figures which, it contended, showed the schools or classes within the schools to be overcrowded. ★ ★ ★ The largest private nonsectarian school in the state, supported largely by the state-financed grant-in-aid pro gram, closed in March due to financial Judge Takes St. Helena Case Motion Under Advisement Motion for a court order to force prompt desegregation of St. Helena Parish public schools was taken under advisement March 6 by U.S. District Judge E. Gordon West of Baton Rouge. Following hearing on the petition, Judge West said the St. Helena Parish school board would have “ample time” in which to work out a desegrega tion proposal. At torneys for the National Associa tion for the Ad- vancement of Colored People had requested that the board be given 30 days. Attorney Nor man Amaker con tended that the school board had acted in bad faith and that the “integrity” of the court’s 1960 desegregation order was at stake. Federal Judge J. Skelly Wright in that year ordered both the St. Helena Par ish School Board and the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to submit desegregation plans. Succeeding Judge Wright, Judge West last year received and approved WEST the East Baton Rouge desegregation proposal. But Judge West pointed out that no time limit has been set for the St. Helena board. Furthermore, he said, it has been “standard procedure” for school boards to wait until they have been given definite deadlines before acting. Judge West said he believed the St. Helena board had acted in “utter good faith” in this matter and that the board would have been in bad faith had it not exhausted every legal remedy to maintain the school system “as they thought it should be.” Counsel for the plaintiffs argued that an order to prepare a plan of desegre gation had been in effect since 1960 and that further steps now should be taken even though “some persons” re gard the 1954 decision of the U.S. Su preme Court in Brown v. Board of Education to be “one of the truly re grettable decisions of all time.” This drew a retort from Judge West who noted that he had used the quoted phrase last year in ordering the East Baton Rouge school board to present a desegregation plan. “I stated that in a previous decision,” Judge West declared, “and I reiterate it today.” and other difficulties. Tuition grants to its pupils were suspended. Junior University of New Orleans, East, a 12-grade school that began op eration in 1963, was ousted from its high-rise building on St. Charles Ave., which was sold at auction Feb. 28. Efforts were made during the first two weeks of March to obtain new quarters for the school in Jefferson Parish. Four sites were chosen by JUNO authorities and each was de clared unsuitable for school purposes by Jefferson Parish health officials. On March 11, the Louisiana Financial Assistance Commission, which admin isters the state grant-in-aid program, suspended monthly tuition payments. As of the beginning of the current school year, 921 pupils at the school were approved for tuition grants, which in September totaled $29,464. In announcing the commission’s de cision to suspend the grants, James Fountain, commission director, said the school ceased to exist at its St. Charles Ave. location on Feb. 27 and that the commission would watch to see what develops. May Be Reinstated “As soon as the (school’s) director shows the commission he has a bona fide school in operation, these grants will be reinstated,” Fountain said. He asserted that under commision rules a school must show that it has buildings and qualified teachers if children attending are to receive the state grants. JUNO operates a separate campus on the West Bank of the Mississippi. Initially the only facility of the private institution, in 1962-63 it enrolled 420 pupils who received $108,548 in tuition grants. With the opening of the East Bank school last fall, the West Bank JUNO enrollment dropped to 254 pu pils who, in September 1963, received $8,108 in grants. ★ ★ ★ Earlier in the month, two citizens’ organizations had some things to say about the tuition-grant program. The First District Parent-Teachers Associa tion on March 5 urged the state legis lature to revoke the grant-in-aid pro gram entirely. The program, said an adopted reso lution, has been subject to many abuses Political Action Louisiana Highlights A request for broadening elemen tary-school desegregation was re jected by the Orleans Parish School Board, while yet another plea for extending desegregation to all grade levels and to professional and non professional staffs was made by a Negro parent-teacher group. Grants-in-aid to pupils attending Louisiana’s largest private, non-sec tarian school were suspended after the school’s main building was sold at auction. A Negro honor student at one of Baton Rouge’s desegregated high schools applied for enrollment as a freshman at Louisiana State Univer- sity which thus far has admitted Negroes only to its graduate divi sions. In a Founder’s Day address, South- em University’s president recounted the growth in status of the state’s principal institution of higher learn ing for Negroes. A federal court took under con sideration a motion for prompt deseg regation of St. Helena Parish public schools. Gov.-elect John McKeithen said he would “stand in a schoolhouse door way to resist integration attempts.” and public funds should not be used for private organizations. On March 2, the President’s Coopera tive School Club adopted a resolution demanding that “the governor and state legislators make available to public- school children an amount of monies equivalent to those being allocated to tuition-grant students.” The Orleans Parish School Board re ceives from combined state, local and federal sources $329.99 per year per pupil in average daily membership. Meanwhile $360 per year is allocated to students attending nonpublic school under the grant-in-aid program. At the same time, said the resolution, private schools whose pupils receive tuition grants also are eligible to re ceive directly from state funds an additional $44.77 per pupil for lunches, milk, textbooks, libraries, and library books. This brings the total for tuition- grant pupils to $404.77 per pupil. ★ ★ ★ The First District PTA called on the state PTA organization to reaffirm its position in favor of a state compulsory attendance law. Statistics of the 1960 U.S. Census were cited showing that Louisiana has the highest rate of il literacy among the 50 states. Also noted were the demands of a progressively higher level of education for employ ment. The resolution said an unedu cated and unskilled populace will in crease the cost of welfare services and crime containment in the community. The state’s compulsory attendance law was amended in 1958 to make it unoperative in desegregated school dis tricts. That provision was further amended in the first special session of the legislature in 1960, repealing compulsory attendance outright. This act, however, was declared unconstitu tional by the federal courts in that same year; and the ensuing legal con fusion has never been dispelled by the legislature. ★ ★ ★ In Rapides Parish, in central Lou isiana, moves were under way to build a new consolidated school for Negro children in the area around Pineville and to win voter approval for consoli dation of white high schools in the south end of the parish. The Rapides Parish School Board has called for a bond election May 5 on a $491,000 bond issue to build the Negro school. Purchase of a 15-acre site is under negotiation. Negro elementary-grade children in Wards 9, 10 and 11 now attend the Kelso Elementary School, which may be closed if the construction of the new school is approved. High-school students in the three wards now are transported to Alexandria. ★ ★ ★ The Rapides Parish Classroom Teach ers Association on March 17 was called upon to police its own profession in order to forstall attacks on the state teacher tenure law. Dr. Tandy W. McElwee of the North western State College, director of test ing service and associate professor of education, made the recommendation. He said proposed amendments to the state tenure law would allow school boards to dismiss 1 per cent of the teachers under tenure without cause. The amendment was proposed last year ostensibly to permit local school boards to weed out incompetent teach ers, but Dr. McElwee said, it is not known what they would do. Louisiana’s basic teacher tenure law was enacted in 1936 establishing pro cedures and criteria for teacher dis- (See ORLEANS. Page 13) McKeithen Ready to ‘Stand in Door’ “I am prepared to make the sacri fice of standing in a schoolhouse door way to resist integration attempts,” Gov.-elect John J. McKeithen said in a New Orleans interview on March 10. He said he would do so “should it be considered beneficial to the state by our finest constitutional lawyers.” McKeithen had returned recently from visits to Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas and Gov. Paul Johnson of Mississippi. He said he hoped soon to visit Gov. George Wallace of Alabama and Gov. John Connally of Texas. After that, he said, he hopes to visit President Johnson. Prior to his trip to Little Rock and Jackson, McKeithen said he wanted to discuss with other Southern governors “what course we should pursue in the presidential election.” Of his hopes for a conversation with the President, McKeithen said: “Cer tainly the tidelands oil issue will be one of the thing discussed. The civil- rights issue is another. “And I would think Mr. Johnson would want to talk with me about how Louisiana will go in the 1964 Presi dential election.” “Under No Obligation’ Previously he had said, “Our rela tions with the Johnson administration will depend on the administration. We’re under no obligation to him.” McKeithen scored a hard-won vic tory over Republican Charlton Lyons in the March 3 general election. In the political vein, the governor- elect fired a bolt at one of the state’s strongest segregationist political lead ers, William N. Rainach, former state senator, first chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Segregation, and member of the State Sovereignty Commission. McKeithen was sharply critical of mckeithen RAINACH Rainach’s support of Lyons. “I will appoint much more intelligent men to the State Sovereignty Commission than Mr. Rainach,” he asserted. “I’ll let it go at that.” A few days earlier, Rainach, who ran third in the 1960 Democratic guber natorial primary, said of the governor: “The longtime state sovereignty and segregation people welcome John Mc- Keithen to our ranks. We take the po sition that a deathbed conversion is better than none at all—and we hope he sticks. “We hope what he has to offer will be intelligent and we hope it will be leadership.” Analyzing his victory over Lyons, McKeithen on March 5 said the rural vote and part of the state’s conserva tives made him the next governor. ★ ★ ★ The Public Affairs Research Coun cil, a private research agency, also made an anlysis of the Jan. 11 primary in which John J. McKeithen defeated de Lesseps Morrison to win the Demo cratic nomination for governor (SSN, February). Race, religion and urbanism were listed as major factors in that election. “It can be seen,” said PAR, “that 11 of the 16 parishes in which Negroes made up the lowest percentage of reg istered Democrats were also among the 16 parishes from which McKeithen re ceived his highest percentage of votes. Conversely, “12 of the 16 parishes having the highest percentage of reg^ iste ed Negroes were among the parishes from which Morrison rec ,f*^ his highest percentage of votes, PAR analysis continued. The study also showed that Moin son, a Catholic, was strongest in ur areas of the southeast part of the s ^ McKeithen was strongest in ■ areas of the west and north an the parishes without major urban c ters. . _ In the Jan. 11 primary run-off. Keithen accused Morrison of ® „ bargained for the “Negro bloc vo • In the general election, McK e ' carried 14 of 15 Negro precincts in ^ leans Parish but Republican C Lyon’s vote was quite large there ^ McKeithen carried two Negro P re ^^. in Baton Rouge, Lyon led in fi ve - lar returns were recorded in nantly Negro areas of Caddo, K a Iberville and Calcasieu paris eS - ★ ★ ★ A final and official tally of Caddo Parish on March 5 sho'' j aC tc veteran legislator Rep. Wellbo gg- was defeated. An outspoken s tionist and six-term dean of tne ^ Parish delegation, Jackson e g j. in the March 5 general elec io B. Johnston Jr., 31, an attorn , e An official recount of the foCf Johnson 21,122 to Jack’s 21,U3- other representatives were c r011 pd- of them Republicans, in the robin election. ^960-^ Rep. Jack was active in the i ^ legislative fight against dese of the Orleans Parish schools.