Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL, 1964—PAGE 15
Marchers at State Capitol
Supporting civil-rights legislation.
Missouri
(Continued From Page 13)
Some Catholic officials, however, are
reported to fear that the Negro com
munity might interpret any rental ar
rangement as church support for con
taining Negro pupils in the neighbor
hood.
The great majority of Negro families
who have moved into the area in the
last decade are Protestant. In contrast
to the neighborhood’s Catholic schools,
the public schools of the West End
are seriously overcrowded.
To relieve the overcrowding, the
Board of Education has conducted a
bus transportation program. In 1963,
4,800 pupils were taken daily to avail
able classrooms in south and north
west St. Louis at a cost of about $250,-
000. (See other story.)
★ ★ ★
Rev. Hicks Attacks
De Facto Segregation
Sound educational practices must not
be sacrificed in the school desegregation
controversy, the Rev. John J. Hicks,
president of the
St. Louis Board
of Education, told
411 audience
March 15 in Los
Angeles.
“Those of us
concerned with
the problems of
education must
n °t permit the
need for good
education in ev
ery community—
re f r f ess of the complexion of the
so ool to be buried beneath the
avalanche of the integration fight,” he
. 1 ft a testimonial dinner for the Los
Seles School Board,
he Rev. Mr. Hicks, pastor of Union
emorial Methodist Church and a Ne-
Books
a nd the Issue
he following hooks on race re-
jj, l0ns have been acquired by the
nary of Southern Education Re-
Service:
CULT OF EQUALITY
Puhl; , Stuart Omer Landry.
New Orleanj
S, edltion ) 359pp.
l^ft “A Study of the Rac
what u 6 k°°k offers arguments
11 calls the “Cult of Equ
^CRo AND WHITE YOUTH
Hoh p^' rie /'t J. and Bernice ]
Vork 3rt 311(3 Winston, In
1! #j3. 236 pp.
Nation entuck >' Council on
•hors P 10vi ded a grant to
Stu dy 0 c ,, 1959 for this psych
and wv. va3ues and goals c
Cotl >muJr £ outh ^ 3 bord
‘ngt° tli layette County ar
the
hyjo^ t an° the 1
Publ ishffil ' 1 Stewart. Commui
Dp S Lo., Arem, Utah,
^ ad<3it ion to the sermon
.
stanri . tne sermon <
Church r. t3le Eatter-D,
buns a P the Negro, the 1
b hu rc L ls torical supplemi
hurej c w .the Negroid Peo
rlliam E. Berret
gro, said that . teaching preparedness
and the ability to think and live in
a democratic society and a world
community must remain the goal of
educators.
Problems of de facto school segrega
tion will continue for a few years in
the larger cities, the Rev. Mr. Hicks
said.
‘We can be hopeful of a solution be
cause the voices of people have broken
the conspiracy of silence,” he said. “The
issue is clearly before the public eye
and cannot long remain there without
people, who have had contact and com
munication, negotiating a solution in the
whole field of civil rights.”
Emphasizing the importance of
equalizing educational opportunities in
the public schools, the Rev. Mr. Hicks
said the phychiatrists and educators
agree that children forced to study in
a segregated atmosphere develop a feel
ing of inferiority.
“The greatest harm imposed on
children by de facto segregation is the
continuation and deepening of the
sense of frustration and otherness,” he
declared. The lack of motivation among
many Negro youths is a product of
segregation, he said.
The American Negro has felt de
prived, disadvantaged, cheated and ex
ploited, he said. “In the years of these
fabulous ‘sixties,’ he is determined to
collect on a promissory note which is
long overdue,” the Rev. Mr. Hicks
said.
★ ★ ★
Board Approves
Kottmeyer Plan
The Board of Education has approved
a four-point proposal by Acting Supt.
of Instruction Kottmeyer that is de
signed to end the costly bus trans
portation program and keep the school
system on the neighborhood school
concept.
This concept calls for children to
attend elementary schools within walk
ing distance of their homes, wherever
possible.
Under the proposal, the school board
authorized construction of 34 supple
mentary classrooms on playgrounds
of three elementary schools and ad
jacent to the abandoned Public Schools
Stadium. The supplementary units will
accommodate 1,200 pupils.
An additional 420 pupils will attend
classes this fall in 12 borrowed rooms
at Beaumont High School. Kottmeyer
said that seats for 1,200 more pupils
must be obtained unless the pupils
are to be bussed to other neighbor
hoods at a cost of about $60,000. School
administrators oppose transporting
children, in general, as an expensive
and educational disruptive procedure.
Boundary Changes
Kottmeyer’s proposal calls for re
drawing school boundaries wherever
feasible to siphon off children to near
by schools with unused classrooms. Ad
ministrators are working on various
redistricting plans, which they hope
will produce seats for many of the 1,-
200 pupils.
The fourth point of the proposal is
to seek suitable facilities in existing
buildings. Kottmeyer noted rooms were
rented some time ago in seven Protes
tant church facilities to house pupils.
Msgr. James T. Curtin, superinten
dent of archdiocesan schools, said that
Catholic officials “are in sympathy”
KENTUCKY
Governor Kills Executive Order
After Legislature Fails to Act
i mmmmmmmmmMmMm / i
Kentucky Highlights
LOUISVILLE
he State General Assembly
adjourned without acting on
proposed civil-rights legislation
and Gov. Edward Breathitt re
scinded an anti-bias executive or
der issued last year by his pre
decessor.
School-desegregation proponents and
civil-rights leaders expressed dismay
at the two defeats. There were predic
tions of increased Negro demonstrations
in Kentucky as a result.
About 10,000 people—including an es
timated 1,000 whites—had marched on
the State Capitol at Frankfort March
5 in support of a proposed public-ac
comodations bill. In the final week be
fore the Legisla
ture adjourned
March 20, about
30 persons went
on a hunger strike
in the House gal
leries.
The antibias or
der which Breath
itt killed had been
used in behalf of
school - desegre
gation efforts even
though the order
had been challenged in court and had
not been enforced.
Order Cited Often
It had, however, been cited frequent
ly at community and school meetings
which preceded school-desegregation
action by boards of education.
Last year, 27 districts initiated bi-
racial clases, the largest number to do
so since 1956-57.
Former Gov. Bert T. Combs issued
the order prohibiting racial discrimina
tion by state-licensed firms and pro
fessions last June 26 (SSN, July, 1963)
and said at the time that it might be
used against school districts practicing
segregation.
But Breathitt, who was backed by
Combs in his campaign for governor,
said only that he would not rescind
the order until the legislature had a
chance to act on civil rights. He pub
licly supported the public-accomoda
tions bill and when it failed, he killed
the order.
with the needs of the School Board and
are reviewing Kottmeyer’s request with
parish pastors and school officials.
Parents for Integrated Education is
demanding that Negro pupils lacking
classrooms be transported to schools in
other neighborhoods and integrated
into rooms there. The organization is
strongly opposed to the construction of
the supplementary units, saying that
they would intensify the Negro “ghet
to” in the West End.
A Catholic lawyer, cognizant of the
proposal, said that he did not think the
attendance of public school children in
parochial school buildings would be
in violation of constitutional provisions
for separation of church and state so
long as religious symbols were removed
from the classrooms.
Legal Action
Lawyer Reviews
Negroes’ Choice
The first complaint under St. Louis’
new fair-housing ordinance was re
solved with the owner of an apart
ment building agreeing to rent to a
Negro family, it was announced March
18.
Earlier, Morris M. Hatchett, a lawyer
and chairman of the NAACP branch
committee on housing here, reviewed
the new ordinance and told St. Louis
Negroes:
“No longer can you complain about
Jim Crow schools. If you live in a Jim
Crow neighborhood and send your chil
dren to school there it’s because you
want it that way. It’s up to you to
live where you want to live.”
The new ordinance prohibits dis
crimination in the sale or rental of
real property.
The family, which filed a complaint
Feb. 26 with the St. Louis Council on
Human Relations, moved into the six-
family apartment building in a pre
dominantly white neighborhood in the
western part of the city.
W. J. Duford, commissioner of the
council, said the complaint had resulted
from a misunderstanding.
Former Gov. Bert Combs’s anti-
discriminaiton executive order was
revoked by his successor, Gov. Ed
ward Breathitt, as the state legis
lature failed to act on civil-rights
proposals.
The athletic-desegregation policy
adopted by the University of Ken
tucky last year moved nearer imple
mentation as a Negro tried out for
football and another was to be
offered a basketball grant-in-aid.
A prediction that “law and order
will break down in this republic”
if the civil-rights bill is not passed
by Congress was made in a speech
by Negro author Louis Lomax.
An earlier legislative proposal which
would have removed a law requiring
school segregation from the statute
books had been withdrawn in Febru
ary, reportedly to help ease the way for
the public-accomodations bill (March,
SSN).
In the Colleges
UK Negro Begins
Football Practice;
Cage Star Reported
A Negro athlete began football prac
tice at the University of Kentucky and
the school was reported ready to offer
a basketball grant-in-aid to another
Negro athlete.
Both developments broke historical
precedent at the university and in the
Southeastern Conference in which UK
teams compete. The school had acted
last May to make Negroes eligible for
varsity teams, citing the inconsistency
of classroom desegregation and athletic
segregation (SSN, June, 1963).
The football player who went out
for the team without the offer of a
grant-in-aid was Steve Matthews, a
200-pound fullback who had trans-
‘Oh! Captain! My Captain!
O-o-o-o’
Haynie, Louisville Courier-Journal
What They Say
“Integration will give the white man
a creative experience to live in the
world as it is,” said award-winning
Negro author Louis Lomax in a talk
at Louisville.
“Integration is the only live, moral,
spiritual thing going in the western
world today,” he told a dinner session
sponsored by Women United for So
cial Action, a group formed last year
at the urging of the late President Ken
nedy.
Lomax predicted that if the civil-
rights bill now before Congress is not
passed, “law and order will break
down in this republic.”
ferred to UK from the University of
Detroit.
“He is a candidate for the football
team on the same basis as any student
at the University of Kentucky,” said
coach Charlie Bradshaw. “It is the pol
icy of UK that any student can try
out for any of the athletic teams.”
Sports writers, however, gave Mat
thews only a slim chance of making
the squad since he had failed to win
a varsity berth at Detroit and since
it is rare for a player who has not
been offered a grant-in-aid to out
perform those who have been offered
grants.
Star Performer
The case was different, however, with
the basketball player, Wesley Unseld.
He was an All-State performer at Jef
ferson County’s Seneca High School,
twice led the team to state champion
ships, and is being sought by many
colleges. His brother has been a star
at the University of Kansas.
The Courier-Journal in Louisville
reported March 18 that Unseld would
be offered the grant-in-aid in April
when basketball recruiting opens in
the Southeastern Conference.
It was also reported that Unseld’s
family was worried about possible
abuse that Unseld might he subjected
to if he traveled to the Deep South
with the UK team.
This prompted Courier Journal sports
editor Earl Ruby to suggest that UK
should consider quitting the confer
ence. “Kentucky, by remaining in an
all-white conference,” he wrote, “is
in effect giving up almost all hope of
continued prominence in the national
title fight.”
Community Action
Louisville Group
Seeks to Prevent
Panic House-Selling
Residents of a Louisville area under
going major change in racial make-up,
especially since the Supreme Court’s
1954 school-desegregation decision, took
new actions seeking to avoid panic
selling of homes.
Many white residents have moved
from the West End and many schools
which were all-white prior to the Su
preme Court ruling have gradually
become predominantly Negro.
In an effort to maintain a biracial
neighborhood and avoid becoming an
all-Negro ghetto-like area, the West
End Community Council was organized.
One of the council’s latest actions
was a survey taken March 22 to de
termine how many whites would move
from a certain area if more Negroes
moved in.
Preliminary results indicated that a
sizeable majority of those questioned
would remain in their present homes.
They spoke of the neighborhood’s ad
vantages, and cited excellent schools as
an example.
Survey leaders, while encouraged,
expressed some doubt that honest
answers were given by all 700 persons
interviewed.
Among other actions, the council is
campaigning for open occupancy in
parts of the city now allegedly closed
to Negro home-buyers.
Throughout his speech, Lomax was
critical of white church-goers and suc
cessful Negroes.
Middle-class and professionally-
trained Negroes, he said, have been
more concerned with material comforts
than with the cause of desegregation.
Supporters of organized religion, he
said, “have taken the cross and built
Sunday-morning country clubs.”
Still, he added, there are signs of
change. Last year in Birmingham, he
said he saw wives of Negro doctors
and lawyers use their expensive cars
to carry demonstrators, and “the white
Christian has shown something resem
bling a conscience.”
Negro Author Sees Breakdown
Of ‘Law’ if Rights Bill Fails