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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