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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL. 1964—PAGE 19 MARYLAND Superintendent Praises Results in Baltimore (Continued From Page 18) , g r ace, although attendance for many his meant long bus rides when deseg regated white schools were nearer [heir homes. Both Negro schools have grades one through 12. The desegregation plan calls for re assigning ninth-graders at both Negro ' schools to other schools this Septem ber' the students in the top three trades in the fall of 1965; the first- grade chidren in the fall of 1966, and ' all the remaining nupils (grades two to eight) in seotember, 1967. Once the flegro classes have been shifted out, the plans call for using the two build ings as biracial schools. The action of the five-member coun ty school board was reported to have been a solit decision, with, two mem- - bers seeking a speedier timetable. Charles H. Reed Jr., chairman of the county board, was reported in the Baltimore Evening Sun as favoring ( eliminatim of the third step: the shift 1 of only the first-grade children in 1966. j “I felt it would be better to integrate I all grades, one through eight, at the |. same time,” he was quoted as saying, “because it would mean no more than another 100 students would have to be shifted and it would hasten the change-over.” Called Too Slow January). The commision in March unanimously adopted a motion that said it was “most anxious to see that the problem of de facto segregation be solved.” The commission’s action followed a series of recommendations by its direc tor, Edgar L. Feingold, on ways to dispense with the four Negro elemen tary schools and one Negro secondary school which continue to serve about half of Baltimore County’s Negro pop ulation. Feingold’s key point was a proposal to close out the four ele mentary schools this June, reassign the Negro pupils to predominantly white schools in the same areas, and then use the former Negro schools on a racially mixed basis as annexes for overflowing desegregated schools. The county commission instructed Feingold to set up a meeting with the county Board of Education so that the commission could formally present, its views. The meeting was scheduled for late March but was postponed to early April. Baltimore County at last count had 2,075 Negroes scattered among 83 pre dominantly white schools, with 2,017 Negroes remaining in the five all-Ne gro schools and 37 schools having all- white enrollments. The county has 97,- 802 white pupils. f The four-sten plan was promptlv as sailed as too slow by members of the Harford County Human Relations Commission, the county chapter of the NAACP, the Maryland branch of the NAACP and teachers at one of the Negro school. The Human Relations Commission, which previously had urged a faster desegregation program, criticized the adopted plan on grounds that it extends segregation nearly an other four years, makes no provision for the employment of additional Ne gro teachers, places limitations on ex isting transfer rights and would leave Negro classrooms empty when class rooms in the county are at a “pre mium.” Teachers at the Harve de Grace Consolidated School met in protest dur- mg school hours and a spokesman pre pared a statement which said in part: We object to the slow process of de populating our school and feel it is demoralizing, derogatory and biased We object to the fact that the plan ■usultingly states that Negro teachers should be carefully selected [for trans- ers to biracial schools]—with compe- tenc Y the criteria. The Board of Edu- [ atl ® n implies that the masses of our ac ulty are competent only in a seg- re ?ated situation.” The county’s school superintendent, 1 u CharIes 'Willis, followed up the ^achers’ statement with one of his j'"’ 71 ' The law against teachers’ hold- ./ /'"stings when they were supposed h c ^ assr ooms “is very clear,” a dding that he considered their Ct “ n “willful neglect of duty.” , ® Harford County Branch of the NAAcp called the four-year program Bothi -L— am desi ° ut 3 surre Ptitious maneuver to delay for another four Count,™ 6 ^ ese £ r egation of the Harford the (^ public schools” and pointed to w as T* *^at while the school board ^ Panning to have formerly Negro sp. 7001113 stand empty, it also was $125,000 for portable class ic,:, a .‘ °vercrowded predominantly lte schools. Th, State NAACP Protests *'hich y[ a * ew ’de NAACP organization, dons brought federal court ac- in jni-?® a ’ ns t Harford’s school board a fresh t ^57 an< i I960, fired off it flegram of protest against what tends t SS < a new Pl an which ex- segf e the original school de- era) Tv 10n Plan approved by the Fed- Ijjg sfrict Court in Maryland.” said, . aoart -approved plan, the NAACP segfgg *[ a for complete school de- The “i 0n i n Harford County by 1963. kachjjj ameful failure” which has left *as a i5 sta ^ s “completely segregated” TfreR , Proteste d. Rossiljjii 3 l' m ° re Sun reported that the "esegj y °f legal action to speed the 3 Publir. 9 1011 Plan had been raised at d°ns r, Meeting of the Human Rela te n e ™ misslon on March 17. The ^ition T S accoun t also spoke of op- ?°Un^ . , lb® four-year plan on the [bhorri r, lts being too swift a change. . ou nty at last reckoning had iC ” 0o l \ es an( l 2,189 Negroes in its system. >h e ★ ★ ★ tu mer (H - j/B havp 7 eps 1° dhninate segrega te Co Ur ,T en advocated in Balti- [["BBUsiojj ^ by its Human Relations Jtls of j l°U°wing earlier discus- facto segregation (SSN, New Demand Foreseen In Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County, immediately to the south of Baltimore, also has heard the first rumblings of a demand to have a program to replace its eight- year-old voluntary desegregation pro gram. The Rev. Warner R. Traynham, an Episcopal priest who heads the county branch of the NAACP, raised the is sue twice in March, describing Anne Arundel as having “a desegregated school system with integration as an option.” A particular target of Father Trayn- ham’s has been an all-Negro secondary school in Annapolis with 2,000 stu dents, more than half of whom, he says, are transported by bus from all parts of the county. Contending that, the bus transportation is a senseless waste of taxpayers’ money,” Father Traynham has urged that the trans ported Negroes be assigned to second ary schools closer to their homes and thereby provide classrooms in the Ne gro school for students now in over crowded secondary schools in the An napolis area. Father Traynham has proposed that the county require all students to at tend schools in their areas, instead of giving Negroes a choice of remaining in an all-Negro school or transferring to a predominantly white school. A desegregation system based on choice, he asserts, “encourages and perpetuates segregation and is there- fore discriminatory. It capitalizes on the natural conservatism of people. Most people, white or Negro, do not initiate social change.” He also has been critical of the limited use of Negro teachers in the county. Under Anne Arundel’s free-choice plan (which also has prevailed through most of Maryland), more than a fourth of the county’s 7,684 Negro pu- pils have entered previously all-white schools. Desegregation advanced on a grade-a-year basis on the secondary level, but grades 11 and 12 were de segregated simultaneously just prior to the current school year in a consoli dated last step. With the close of the transition phase, some further action by the county school board has been anticipated, but no move has been announced. In the Colleges Morgan Launches 10-Point Program To Enroll Whites A 10-point program to stimulate white student interest in the offerings of Morgan State College was adopted in March by the college’s Board of Trustees. A “vigorous campaign” to attract white students to the predominantly Negro college had been proposed ear lier by its president, Dr. Martin D. Jenkins, who had said it was “anomal ous to have the University of Mary land and other institutions integrated, An Apple for Teacher Ford Foundation Grants To Aid Negro Education Mauldin, Chicago Sun-Times and Morgan segregated.” (SSN, Febru- ary.) The trustees in their unanimous ac tion said that segregated institutions were “inconsistent with democratic principles” and that Morgan should be considered in the current reorganiza tion of public higher education in Maryland as an integrated institution. Morgan now has an estimated 180 non- Negro students in an enrollment of about 2,800, but most of them are for eign students rather than local white residents. Some of the steps recommended by Dr. Jenkins and adopted by the trus tees were to expand the evening school, atrrange student exchanges with other colleges, encourage community organi zations to use campus facilities, en courage high school students to visit the college, emphasize the financial aid available without regard to race, en list the support of public and private school systems in promoting the col lege among white high school students and hold conferences with religious, la bor and civic leaders to provide back ing for the desegregation effort. NEW YORK T he Ford Foundation an nounced on April 7 grants for four major programs designed to improve educational opportuni ties for Negroes and children of other disadvantaged families. The grants include: • $895,000 for efforts in the South to upgrade teaching, strengthen curric ula and raise learning motivation and achievement. • $270,000 to Harvard University for legal and educational assistance to help school systems solve de facto school segregation problems and design pro grams for integrated schools. • $200,000 for summer study at priv ate schools and colleges for elementary and secondary-school students from de prived backgrounds. • $696,000 for experiments in New York City on preschool education and job training. “These efforts reflect a growing ap preciation in all parts of the country of the damaging educational, economic and cultural poverty that is the heri tage of too many Americans, both Ne gro and white,” said Henry T. Heald, president of the Foundation. School-Improvement Center For programs in the South, the Foun dation granted $500,000 to help launch a joint school-improvement center in Nashville, Tenn. The center will be conducted by George Peabody College for Teachers, Fisk and Vanderbilt uni versities and the Nashville-Davidson County public schools. Focusing on schools attended primarily by Negroes, the center’s activities will include in- service training of teachers, remedial courses in English and mathematics and special courses for superior students, improved student-counseling programs North Carolina (Continued From Page 17) missal of a principal of 20 years ex perience started a boycott of seven all- Negro schools in Warren County Tuesday, March 31. Their action, spear headed by the local NAACP branch, came after a series of complaints to school officials, including a March 9 appearance before the school board. The NAACP action followed a three- and-a-half-hour Easter meeting. Spokesmen for the NAACP, Robert Blow of Durham and T. T. Clayton of Warrenton, an attorney and candidate for the House of Representatives in the General Assembly, say they are attack ing poor schools, and they want the ouster of James Byers as principal of Hawkins High School. Only 202 of 1,370 students of the 12-grade school attended classes on the first day of the boycott. Byers, the Negroes claim, is not in sympathy with civil-rights activities in the community. The NAACP also wants the end of segregation in Warrenton. Warren County’s 20,000 population is 68 per cent Negro. “The local people feel that Mr. By ers has been in long enough,” Blow said. “The school is not accredited, and the students feel that they are not get ting the type of education needed to continue on to higher learning.” Improved Schools Hawkins school is accredited by the State Department of Public Instruc tion, but not by the Southern Asso ciation of Secondary Schools and Col leges, Byers said. “The main aim of the boycott is to see that all schools in Warren County are improved,” Blow said. Eugene R. Davis, chairman of the Warren County school board said: “As far as I could see, they didn’t like Byers because he did not associate with members of the PTA, didn’t visit homes, and wasn’t a member of the NAACP. “A group of five or six parents want to see Mr. Byers removed. It’s a per sonal thing. He’s doing a splendid job.” About 70 per cent of the Negro school children did not attend school on the first day of the boycott. ★ ★ ★ The Chapel Hill Board of Education approved a change in assignment policy to permit all sixth-grade students to take their choice of junior high schools in the city in spite of a suggestion that Negro teachers could conceivably be assigned to a predominantly white junior high school. This action was taken March 16. It followed a series of boycotts of the Lincoln Junior-Senior High School in February on the complaint that the school is inferior to the predominantly white Guy B. Phillips Junior High School. Supt. Howard Thompson proposed the new assignment policy on the grounds that the present policy which assigns Negroes to basically Negro jun ior high schools and whites to predomi nantly white junior highs may not stand up in court. Under the new policy, parents will be asked which junior high school they want their children to attend after fin ishing the sixth grade. The board will have final assignment power, however, in spite of the parents’ requests. In one case, however, seventh-grade stu dents of the all-Negro Graham School will be assigned to Lincoln Junior High. Chairman’s Statement Thompson said Phillips Junior High can hold all junior-high-school stu dents of the city. Dr. Richard Ellis asked what would happen to seventh- grade teachers at Lincoln if not enough students choose that school. Dr. Rich ard Peters answered: “Is the concern of the board that teachers who are considered competent enough to teach Negro children would not be competent enough to teach white children?” Grey Culbreth, board chairman, said: “We can run ourselves into a lot of trouble if we go too fast here. We cer tainly aren’t going to look good to the county commissioners if we have emp ty classrooms, empty because of our assignment policies.” The vote for the change was unani mous. What They Say Alexander Wants Change In Tactics Negroes will have to live in inte grated communities to get rid of school segregation, Kelly Alexander of Char lotte, state president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in a policy state ment. He said: “School officials are still following a pattern in North Carolina communi ties of assigning Negro children to schools which are peculiar to segre gated districts.” “In the urban centers where rede velopment programs are operated, Ne groes are being displaced from Negro areas to wider Negro-segregated living patterns which result in assignment to Negro schools in these areas . . . and scholarship aid for needy students. The center also will provide books and teaching materials and will support adult-education programs to strength en community interest in the schools and parental motivation for the edu cation of their children. The center’s activities will be developed under a committee representing the co-operat ing universities and schools, which will appoint a director. Vanderbilt also received a $120,000 grant for continued support of its teacher-education program. The uni versity plans to include Negro candi dates in the Master of Arts in Teach ing program and to place teacher in terns in predominantly Negro high schools. Vanderbilt and Peabody have received previous teacher-education grants totaling $1,285,300. The Foundation granted $150,000 to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for an eight-state pro gram to identify talented Negro and white seventh or eighth-grade children from deprived families, and work with them and their parents throughout their high-school years with the aim of plac ing them in college. Pupils from 10 public school systems will be selected for guidance and counseling by 18 par ticipating colleges and universities and the Berea preparatory School in Ken tucky. Most of the grant will be used for the services of guidance personnel, possibly including returning Peace Corps veterans. Participating Schools Schools participating in the program include: Alabama—Spring Hill College and Tuskegee Institute; Georgia—Emory University, Morehouse College and Spelman College; Kentucky—Berea College, Centre College and Transyl vania College; Louisiana—Tulane Uni versity and Dillard University. Mississippi—Tougaloo Southern Christian College; North Carolina—- Davidson College, Duke University and North Carolina State College of Agri culture and Engineering; Tennessee— Fisk University and Vanderbilt Univer sity; Virginia—Mary Baldwin College and University of Virginia. Atlanta University received $125,000 for a summer course to train about 50 Negro elementary-school teachers as reading specialists. The course will be followed by work with teachers in teacher-training methods. The objective is to prepare a core of specialist teach ers for service with schools—such as those in the Nashville area—undertak ing remedial reading programs. The grant to Harvard University for research and assistance on de facto segregation in the public schools will enable scholars from the university’s law school and graduate school of edu cation to co-operate in analyzing the educational and legal aspects of the problem. The project will involve field research and consulting services in a variety of communities. Results of the research will be used in preparing case studies for use by school administra tors and lawyers. The $200,000 program among private schools and colleges for summer work with disadvantaged elementary and secondary pupils will include cultural- enrichment activities and remedial studies in basic subjects. Aimed at increasing the students’ success in school and their chance for college, the program will be carried out in co-op eration with public school systems. The National Association of Independent Schools received $50,000 of the total for programs among six independent day schools in the Boston area. Under a $385,500 grant, a pioneering project in New York City in the pre school education three- and four-year old children from slum homes will be continued through mid-1967. The pro ject was begun in 1962. In co-operation with the city’s Board of Education and Department of Pub lic Welfare, the project is attacking the problem of the retarded achieve ment of children from impoverished families that sets in at the third and fourth grade and is a prime cause of later school failure. The New York City Board of Edu cation was granted $304,000 to continue through 1966 a co-operative work-study program with the city’s Personnel De partment to provide high-school stu dents with job experience in municipal departments and cultural institutions The project began with the aid of a Ford Foundation grant in 1961. “We are encouraging Negroes to purchase homes out of the segregated areas and to utilize the new concept of requesting that their children, re gardless of where they live, attend white schools.”