Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 16—APRIL, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
NORTH CAROLINA
Steps Taken Toward Biracial State Teachers Association
WINSTON-SALEM
G roundwork for bringing
white and Negro teachers
into one statewide association was
laid on the March 19-21 weekend
when the present Negro and white
associations, meeting separately
in Raleigh, overwhelmingly ap
proved resolutions on this issue.
The two associations agreed in prin
ciple, but not in approach, on the idea
of desegregation. The North Carolina
Education Association (NCEA), voted
for dropping racial requirements for
membership. The North Carolina
Teachers Association (NCTA), Negro,
passed a resolution calling for the
eventual merger of the two separate
bodies.
Representing more than 36,000 mem
bers, the NCEA voted to submit three
constitutional amendments to the gen
eral body:
• Delete the word, white, from the
requirements for membership.
• Provide local option for member
units—there is one unit in each of the
state’s 171 school districts—on whether
they choose to admit Negro members.
• Permit the NCEA board of direc
tors to set up more than one unit in
a school district if the local unit re
fuses to desegregate and at least 10
Negro teachers want to joint the NCEA.
Third Step Remains
These proposals have passed two of
the three steps required for passage.
The first step was approved by the
board. The second step came with the
favor of the delegate assembly. The
third step will be a favorable vote by
two-thirds of the entire membership
when general ballots are mailed out
in February, 1965.
The racial issue in NCEA member
ship has come to the front because of
general criticism of racial associations
in the national convention of the Na
tional Education Association. Current
ly, both the NCEA and NCTA are
represented in the NEA, but states
outside the South are represented by
only one state association.
Dr. Frank G. Fuller of Greenville,
president of the NCEA, said:
“This decision puts us in line with
the times. I was very pleased with the
way in which the delegates met their
responsibility. I think they showed
good judgment in their actions.”
No Merger
Passage of the proposed changes will
not mean merger of the two groups or
even the end of the NCTA, Dr. A. C.
Dawson, executive secretary of the
NCEA, said.
The NCTA, however, is not enthus
iastic over the NCEA proposals. The
Negro group approved proposals for
the merger of the two professional
associations. These were presented by
Dr. Lafayette Parker of Winston-Salem,
president, and Dr. Charles Lyons Jr.,
executive secretary.
“We believe the basis of attack on
the dual association question in North
Carolina should be merger and inte
gration rather than absorption and ab
olition,” the NCTA resolution stated.
The resolution called the present NCEA
proposals “only a first step.” The NCTA
also asked that the local option policy
be “held in abeyance until a state
policy acceptable to the two associa
tions has been agreed upon.”
Three-Level Program
The NCTA approved a three-level
program seeking “full merger not later
than 1966.” The proposals were:
NATIONAL LEVEL—NCTA be fairly
represented in the NEA with one board
member, one resolutions committee
Florida
(Continued From Page 3)
The number in white schools tended to
increase in the higher grades.
Plan Working Well
Hall and representatives of the Duval
board insisted that the grade-a-year
plan is working well and has been ac
cepted by citizens of both races.
They asked for at least a full year’s
experience before changes are ordered.
Johnson noted that no action has
been taken by either county to imple
ment Judge Simpson’s order to deseg
regate teaching staffs. This directive,
upheld two months ago by the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals, has been
appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court.
A similar speedup petition, filed with
Judge Simpson by plaintiffs in Hills
borough County, was postponed for a
later hearing.
North Carolina Highlights
Desegregation of the professional
education association of teachers in
North Carolina was approved in prin
ciple by both the white North Caro
lina Education Association and the
Negro North Carolina Teachers As
sociation, but the two groups did not
agree on the approach.
Henry Logan, a Negro high-school
boy, was named most valuable player
as he became the first Negro to play
in a post-season high-school Blue-
White basketball all-star game in
Asheville.
The school districts and Negro
plaintiffs worked out plans for a de
segregation program in cases that
were to come before the U.S. Middle
District Court. Judge Edwin M. Stan
ley accepted the suggested proposals.
Parents of nine Negro children
filed suit against the Lexington City
Board of Education in the U.S. Mid
dle District Court in Greensboro,
asking desegregation of the school
system.
The majority of Negro high-school
graduates are taking no further
formal schooling after graduation,
but a slight majority of white grad
uates are continuing their educa
tion, a five-year survey revealed.
member and “fair representation” on
all NEA committees when a state is
involved.
STATE LEVEL—The board of the
merged group would first include mem
bers of the boards of both the NCEA
and NCTA. The new board in its final
form would include Negroes in propor
tion to membership in the new associa
tion. Staffs of both associations be re
tained in the merger with final positions
and salaries based on qualifications
without regard to race. Certain state
offices for a time after the merger be
alternated between the two races.
LOCAL LEVEL—Guidelines for dis
trict and local associations be similar
to those at a state level. Set up a se
ries of committees, human relations
and other workshops to ease the tran
sition. Local NCEA and NCTA units
sponsor cooperatively meetings, work
shops, seminars and other activities in
inter-group relations. Local NCTA and
NEA affiliates have local option within
a time table for merger in a policy
agreed upon at the state level.
★ ★ ★
Negro Basketball Player
Elected Most Outstanding
Henry Logan of the all-Negro
Stephens-Lee High School in Asheville
completed a successful high-school
athletic career March 26 by becoming
the first Negro to play in the 12-year-
old Blue-White basketball game spon
sored by the Rhododendron Civitan
Club of Asheville.
Logan led the White All-Stars to a
record 109-99 victory over the Blue
All-Stars with 23 points and 14 assists
plus several blocked shots, and was
named the game’s most valuable play
er. Earlier in the month the Asheville
Citizen-Times newspaper had voted
him Western North Carolina’s Player
of the Year.
The Blue-White game features top
high-school seniors from Buncombe
County, including Asheville, on the
White team against outstanding play
ers from bordering counties on the Blue
team. The Civitan group uses funds
raised for the benefit of its retarded
children’s program.
A crowd of 2,600 fans, including 2,-
450 paid, jammed the Asheville-Bilt-
more College gymnasium to see the
game, and nearly 1,000 were turned
away.
Coach Praises
After the game, Coach Martin Ban
ner of the Whites—he is mentor of Er
vin High School during the regular
season—said of Logan:
“I was real glad to see Logan get
the Most Outstanding Player trophy.
I still don’t think he opened up. Maybe
he was a little tight or maybe he didn’t
want to put on a show, but he’s an
even better player than he looked to
night.”
During his high-school career, Lo
gan was a star in both football and
basketball at Stephen-Lee. He was se
lected to Negro all-state teams in both
sports. He led the basketball team to
one Negro state title and a second
place in the state tournament in his
three years of varsity action.
In addition, Logan was elected a co
captain of the White All-Stars.
★ ★ ★
The North Carolina Fund named a
Negro as an assistant director and an
nounced plans for Peace Corps-styled
North Carolina Volunteers of college
students to help battle poverty in the
state. The hind currently is in the
process of selecting 10 committees in
the state to initiate a project to re
duce poverty. More than 50 areas have
offered plans for anti-poverty programs.
George H. Esser Jr., executive direc
tor of the fund with offices in Durham,
announced that the N. C. Fund also will
seek to provide aid to communities that
do not receive major grants.
Dr. William A. Darity, who began
his career as a public health officer
in Charlotte, was named assistant di
rector of the fund in the field of com
munity development. For the past 10
years he has worked internationally
for the World Health Organization of
the United Nations.
He has organized public health edu
cation programs for Arab refugees, has
been professor of health education of
the School of Public Health, American
University of Beirut, Lebanon, and has
been WHO regional adviser on health
education to 17 nations in the Middle
East, Africa and Asia.
North Carolina-Trained
Darity received his B.S. degree at
Shaw University and M.S. degree in
public health from North Carolina Col
lege, both Negro colleges. He earned
his Ph.D. degree from the predomin
antly white University of North Caro
lina at Chapel Hill.
Jim Beatty, a nationally known track
star, heads a program, the North Caro
lina Volunteers, to recruit 100 college
students from both Negro and white
colleges of the state, to work in teams
of 10 at each of the 10 areas selected
for the war on poverty effort. The col
lege students will work for a total
of $250 for 11 weeks with housing and
board provided free of charge.
Townspeople in selected communities
with be invited to “adopt” the students
during their 10 weeks of service. The
other week will include an orientation
program and study at the Institute of
Government in Chapel Hill.
The N. C. Fund is a privately en-
In the Colleges
dowed $14 million organization with a
goal of reducing poverty in North Caro
lina.
Community Action
New Organization
Offers Program
For Chapel Hill
A new organization, Community Ac
tion, Inc., was formed in Chapel Hill
March 22, to work out a positive pro
gram for better race relations. Chapel
Hill, the home of the University of
North Carolina, is currently beset with
a variety of racial protests. Three
whites and two Negroes completed an
eight-day Holy Week fast in front of
the Post Office on Easter Sunday.
Community Action, Inc. is the result
of a proposal by Dr. E. Maynard Adams
of the UNC faculty to the mayor’s Hu
man Relations Committee. The mayor’s
committee and the Board of Aldermen
have endorsed the new agency which
proposes a program of education, work
shops and action “to promote intelli
gent, peaceful progress toward an open
community with the full rights and
opportunities for all.”
The new agency will include two
board members each from these co
operating agencies: Chapel Hill city
council, Carrboro Board of Commis
sioners. In addition, two board mem
bers each would come through
appointment by the UNC chancellor,
the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Merchants
Association and the Ministerial Asso
ciation.
Specific proposed actions include:
• More and better job opportunities
for Negroes through a program of sur
veys and training. Service will provide
prospective employers as well as Ne
groes.
• More educational opportunities for
Negroes. This may include the setting
up of day care centers, nursery schools
and kindergartens. The agency also
will supplement regular classroom
study with after-school assistance to
children whose study is affected by
family or other problems.
• Workshops to include parent edu
cation, interracial discussions of com
mon problems among adolescents and
improved sanitation and appearance of
housing.
Community Action, Inc. hopes to get
most of its working capital from foun
dations, Adams said.
★ ★ ★
Dr. J. Raymond Oliver, a dentist and
member of the Winston-Salem Mayor’s
Goodwill Committee, stirred a heated
discussion on Winston-Salem on March
4 when he announced the organization
of the Citizens Committee for Equjj
Opportunity.
This committee, he said, was formed
to seek more desegregation in the Wi®.
ston-Salem-Forsyth County school sys.
tern. Oliver is a member of the sub.
committee on education of the Good,
will Committee.
After a heated discussion in a sub-
sequent Goodwill Committee meeting
Oliver announced that his new group
would not take immediate action, but
await developments.
★ ★ ★
The city of Gastonia was named an
“All-America City,” one of 11 named
by the National Municipal League and
Look magazine. One of the reasons
cited was the city’s actions to improve
race relations. The award said:
“Schools, restaurants, hospitals, the
golf course and ball park have all been
integrated without incident, and a bi
racial committee meets regularly, de
spite occasional crossfire from extremist
groups. Last year, citizens voted a five-
cent property tax increase to build an
integrated liberal arts college.”
Legal Action
Judge Approves
Plan Providing
Immediate Steps
Judge Edwin M. Stanley of the U. S.
Middle District Court in Greensboro
accepted plans worked out by plaintiffs
and defendants in three school desegre
gation cases, Belo v. Randolph County
Board of Education, Duvissetts v.
Cabarrus County Board of Education,
and Ziglar et al v. Reidsville Board of
Education.
In all three cases, school boards
agreed to assign pupils to schools with
out regard to race in the 1964-65 school
year. They also permitted Negro chil
dren to request transfer immediately
from all-Negro schools to white
schools.
The court has the right to reopen
the case in case of disagreement. At
torneys in the Cabarrus County and
Reidsville cases are to meet with Judge
Stanley in early 1965, before Feb. 15.
to set plans for the 1965-66 school year.
Three Cases
Case by case, here is the situation.
Belo v. Randolph County Board ol
Education—Filed Oct. 22, 1962 by par
ents of 11 Negro students. The schoo
board has since assigned seven Negroes
to a previously all-white school. More
plans are to be made for the 196**"
school year with a conference sched
uled with the court in early 1965.
(See SINGLE, Page 17)
Program Seeks Better Race Relations
Negro students of colleges in North
Carolina are quietly working on a
project to promote better race rela
tions throughout the state. This will be
an educational approach through films
made for television through WUNC-
TV in Chapel Hill, state supported edu
cational television station at the Uni
versity of North Carolina.
Jesse Jackson, president of the stu
dent body of Agricultural and Techni
cal College of Greensboro, appears to
be the liaison man
behind the scenes,
but nob ody is
talking for publi
cation. Jackson is
the A&T student
who a year ago
led a series of
massive demon
strations against
segregation^
downtown
Greensboro. He is
JHV.IVJVI1 ,
also very active
in the State Young Democratic Club.
He is a star football player, too.
After graduation from A&T, he plans
to attend predominantly white Duke
University next fall to study for the
ministry.
Details of the program have not been
announced, but the existence of the
program has been confirmed by Gov.
Terry Sanford through his race rela
tions advisor, Capus Waynick of High
Point. Goal of this effort is to get the
“Negro protest movement off the
streets as much as possible.”
In a recent interview Jackson said
campus leaders of Negro colleges have
held several meetings in connection
with these plans.
★ ★ ★
The American Association of Univer
sity Professors adopted a resolution at
its state meeting March 7 asking trus
tees of all North Carolina colleges and
universities to “employ faculty and
staff on the basis of merit rather than
color.” At that time the association met
on a Negro college campus, North
Carolina College at Durham.
The professors also elected a Negro,
Dr. C. E. Boulware of the host school,
vice president.
In a mail resolution, the association
also affirmed the right of a college fac
ulty member to demonstrate against
segregation as follows:
“Be it resolved that this conference
affirm the rights of faculty members
and students of the colleges and uni
versities of North Carolina to protest
peacefully by constitutional means
against injustices in their communities.
“The practice of public protest against
injustice is well established in our na
tional traditions of freedom and justice;
the right to do so derives from the first
amendment of the Constitution of the
United States, which guarantees to all
citizens freedom of expression, the
right to orderly assembly and the right
to petition the government for redress
of grievances.”
★ ★ ★
Chancellor William B. Ay cock of the
University of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill reported to the Faculty C oun ..
that all UNC jobs are open to all 9
fled persons. “Race is not a qualify ^
or disqualifying consideration,
said. - e
Aycock gave a full report on ^
number of Negroes working for
university and what they do. No
classification is reserved for any 1 ^
he said. “All the jobs are open to
races ... ^
“Discrimination in employment^
contrary to university policy. »tfve
is evidence of a violation, corr
action will be taken. Until su
dence is produced, I hope tha ^
persons charged with the respond
of hiring will enjoy the P resU __. rlS i-
that they are fulfilling their
bilities in accord with university
cy.”
He gave these figures: , i 0 b=
Of 2,545 persons in classifleo- f
under the state, 961, more than• jgj
cent, are Negroes. Negroes . i u <j-
of 538 jobs in technical and
ing nurses, laboratory technics
others. ulcers,
Of 869 office and clerical ^° r Negr oes
are Negroes. There are 2o 92
among 140 skilled workers. - T „- r oe=-
semi-skilled workers, 28 ar ? i u de ''
The 72 unskilled workers ,,. 0 rk erS
Negroes, and the 829 service
involved 694 Negroes. gain®
The issue of campus em P 10 L pt er
up March 2 when the local c erS ity
the American Association o ( j
Professors discussed the
faculty of the college and o
issues.