Newspaper Page Text
page 4—APRIL, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
McKnight Elected Chairman
Of SERS Board of Directors
SERS Board Members After Meeting
Reed Sarratt, re-elected excutive director; C. A. McKnight, new board chairman;
John N. Popham, newly elected board member; Dr. Alxander Heard, new vice-
chairman; Bert Slruby, outgoing chairman.
NASHVILLE
A. McKnight, editor of the
• Charlotte Observer, was
elected chairman of the board of
directors of Southern Education
Reporting Service on March 14,
succeeding Bert Struby, general
manager of the Macon Telegraph
and News.
The board, during its annual meet
ing in Nashville, elected Dr. Alex
ander Heard, chancellor of Vanderbilt
University, vice-chairman succeeding
Thomas R. Waring, editor of the News
and Courier, Charleston, S. C. Reed
Sarratt was re-elected executive direc
tor.
John N. Popham, general managing
editor of the Chattanooga, Tenn., Times,
was named to membership on the board
for a three-year term succeeding Frank
R. Ahlgren, editor of the Memphis,
Tenn., Commercial Appeal and a form
er chairman of the 13-member group.
Ahlgren asked not to be re-elected.
Board members re-elected for the
ensuing three years were Dr. Luther
H. Foster, president of Tuskegee Insti
tute; Don Shoemaker, editor of the
Miami, Fla., Herald, and Struby.
McKnight, the new chairman, was
the first executive director of SERS,
having established its offices in Nash
ville in July, 1954, and managed its
activities until May, 1955, when he
was succeeded by Shoemaker. Previous
board chairmen have been Struby, from
1962 to 1964; Ahlgren, 1957 to 1962;
and Virginius Dabney, editor of the
Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch, 1954 to
1957. Waring had been vice-chairman
since the inception of the organization.
The board agreed to appointment of
a committee to “re-examine the pur
poses and programs of SERS and to
report to the board giving its judg
ment as to the programs the organi
zation should carry out in the future.”
Appointed to the committee were
Heard, chairman; Dr. Foster, Popham
and Sarratt with Chairman McKnight
and Struby, the past chairman, to serve
as members ex-officio.
SERS is operated under grants from
the Ford Foundation. Its present grant
extends through June 30, 1965.
SERS edits and publishes Southern
School News and also is publisher of
Race Relations Law Reporter, which is
edited in the Vanderbilt University
School of Law. The organization main
tains a large race-relations library in
its Nashville headquarters and pro
vides microfilm reproductions of its
vast collection of published materials
for 51 major libraries throughout the
United States. Major SERS functions
also include an information and re
search service for news media, authors,
governmental officials and others.
Board members present at the March
meeting were Dr. Foster, Dr. Heard,
McKnight, Charles Moss, executive edi
tor of the Nashville Banner. Popham,
Sarratt, John Seigenthaler, editor of
the Nashville Tennessean. Shoemaker,
Struby and Waring.
DELAWARE
Board Member Says Small Units
Should Be Closed as Undesirable
DOVER
ELAware’s . SMALL schools,
most of which have an all-
Negro enrollment, spawn juvenile
delinquency and crime and ought
to be closed, in the opinion of
Harry D. Zutz, a member of the
State Board of Education.
Zutz, who initiated a comprehensive
survey by the State Department of
Public Instruction of the status of Ne
gro schools at the Feburary meeting,
continued his attack at the March 19
meeting of the board.
In addition to displaying photographs
of all schools with an enrollment of
100 or less, where he said students are
receiving an inferior education, Zutz
succeeded in having the board hold up
approval of additions to two small
schools with a predominantly Negro
enrollment.
In one instance, he caused the board
to reverse itself after it had approved
a $78,900 addition to the Du Pont Ave.
Negro school at Lewes.
Action Deferred
Subsequently, the board, on a motion
from Zutz, also deferred action on a
proposed $78,000 addition to the Rich
ard Allen Negro school in the George
town Special School District.
However, the board unanimously
appoved construction of a new school
at Slaughter Neck at a cost of $484,000,
and renovation of Bridgeville 220 at a
cost of $247,000.
It is anticipated that both schools
will, in the immediate future, have
an all-Negro enrollment.
Construction plans at each were ap
proved only after assurance from Dr.
Richard P. Gousha, state superinten
dent of public instruction, that the
buildings would be usable under com
plete desegregation.
Additions Opposed
Zutz, along with board member
Woodrow Wilson, the only Negro on
the six-member body, is particularly
opposed to additions to existing small
Negro schools.
That was the point he made as he
caused the board to reverse itself after
it approved the addition to the Negro
school at Lewes.
The Lewes project consists of the
Delaware Highlights
Harry D. Zutz, a member of the
State Board of Education, continued
his efforts to prevent additions ot
existing small schools, most of which
have an all-Negro enrollment. Small
schools, he said, breed crime and
delinquency.
The president of Delaware State
College, which has a predominantly
Negro enrollment, protested a re
duction in his school’s budget as
proposed by Gov. Elbert N. Carvel.
A Delaware judge said organizers
of school boycotts will face a jail
sentence if they appear before him.
addition of two classrooms to a Negro
school with an enrollment of 130 in
eight grades.
“Would this addition be necessary if
we were to take grades 7-8 out and
shift them to the Savannah Road
(white) school?” Zutz asked.
Children ‘Cheated’
“These children are being cheated of
an educational opportunity, because
their school is not equipped to supply
a program available elsewhere in the
district,” he added.
As evidence, he cited that the white
school has an enrollment of about 200
in grades 7-8 compared to 29 at the
Negro school.
“Let’s look at the possibility of using
the facilities at the Savannah Road
school, and moving the children over
there,” he said.
Dr. Hiram C. Lasher agreed that the
board might well hold up the project
“until we know a bit more about it.”
A move by Zutz to rescind earlier
approval was seconded by Dr. Lasher,
and received unanimous approval.
The project at Georgetown, also
consisting of a two-room addition, was
deferred for the same reason.
“I’m not convinced it’s in the best
interest of the children,” Zutz com
mented.
Later, Zutz displayed photographs of
schools with an enrollment of less than
100, which he called “no credit to any
one who lives in Delaware, which is
proud of its educational system.”
All but two of the schools—Arden
and Iron Hill—are located in Kent and
Sussex counties in the southern portion
of the state.
Juvenile Delinquency
Zutz said the small schools are where
“crime and juvenile delinquency have
their beginnings.”
Dr. Lasher, in rebuttal, pointed out
that there is less crime in rural areas,
where he lives, than in the cities.
“Maybe so, but sometimes we think
the country boys come to the city,”
Zutz said.
Zutz lives in Wilmington, the state’s
largest city.
In the Colleges
Delaware State
Leader Protests
Reduced Budget
A proposed reduction by Gov. Elbert
N. Carvel of the budget at Delaware
State College has drawn a protest
from its president, Dr. Luna I. Mishoe.
Dr. Mishoe, appearing before the
Joint Legislative Finance Committee of
the General Assembly, said that a re
duction of nearly $100,000 in requested
funds would force the predominantly
Negro state college to drop one of
PERKINS MISHOE
three proposed new departments.
While Delaware State College re
quested $770,950 for the next fiscal
year, Gov. Carvel recommended only
$685,850.
The budget for the University of
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstitu
tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at I 109 19th Ave.
S., Nashville, Tennessee.
Second class postage paid at Nashville, Tennessee.
OFFICERS
C. A. McKnight Chairman
Alexander Heard Vice-Chairman
Reed Sarratt Executive Director
Tom Flake, Director of Publications
Jim Leeson, Director of Information and Research
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
A'exander Heard, Chancellor, Vander
bilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
John N. Popham, General Managing
Editor, Chattanooga Times, Chatta
nooga, Tenn.
Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea
body College, Nashville, Tenn.
Reed Sarratt, Executive Director,
Southern Education Reporting Serv-
ice, Nashville, Tenn.
John Seigenthaler, Editor, Nashville
Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Don Shoemaker, Editor, Miami Herald,
Miami. Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, The News
and Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
Stephen J. Wright, President, Fisk Uni
versity, Nashville, Tenn.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Chief Editor
ial Writer, Alabama Journal, Mont
gomery
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette, Little Rock
DELAWARE
James E. Miller, Managing Editor,
Delaware State News, Dover
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Erwin Knoll, Washington Bureau,
Newhouse Newspapers
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The
Macon News
KENTUCKY
James S. Pope Jr., Sunday Staff,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Patrick E. McCauley, Editorial
Writer, New Orleans Times-Picayune
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Jackson Bureau,
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
Robert H. Collins, Staff Writer, St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
Luix Overbea, Staff Writer, The
Journal-Sentinel, Winston-Salem
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
William E. Rone Jr., City Editor,
The State, Columbia
TENNESSEE
Ken Morrell, Staff Writer, Nashville
Banner
TEXAS
Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
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MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6155, Nashville, Tennessee 37212.
Delaware, a predominantly white col
lege and Delaware’s only other four-
year institution of higher education,
was approved at $5,807,489, as submit
ted to the governor.
But the Joint Finance Committee is
not expected to submit its version of
the budget until mid-April or later.
Dr. John A. Perkins, president of
the University of Delaware, in his ap
pearance before the JFC, also stressed
the future role of Delaware State Col
lege.
Dr. Mishoe, in opposing a reduction
in his budget request, pointed to recent
growth at the college, which has in -
creased from 356 in 1960 to 720 in
1963-64 academic year. A decade ago
the enrollment was less than 100-
While enrollment has doubled in e
has
past five years, the faculty increase
not kept pace, Dr. Mishoe said.
The present faculty, Dr. Mishoe sal
is 54, compared to 44 five years ag°;
President Perkins of the Universi^
of Delaware also cited expansion, no
ing that the current undergraduate
tal of 3,995 at his school will climb
(See DELAWARE, Page 5)
Legal Action
Judge Says He May Sentence
Boycott Leaders to Prison
Organizers of school boycotts may
end up in prison, according to Judge
Elwood F. Melson of the New Castle
County Family Court.
Judge Melson told the Joint Finance
Committee of the General Assembly
he is ready to send boycott organizers
to jail if they appear before him.
Judge Melson appeared before the
JFC to request an additional $20,000
in the Family Court budget of $270,000,
submitted by Gov. Elbert N. Carvel.
Judge Melson told committee mem
bers from the Senate and House of
Representatives that “anyone under
the age of 16 who is illegally and
habitually absent from school is de
linquent.”
Anyone who contributes to this tru
ancy, he said, whether through threats,
persuasion or any other means, “is con
tributing to the delinquency of a mi-
„„„ >»
nor.
These people, he said, should be
punished according to law.
“Punishing such men might make
martyrs of them, but if I am sitting
. . gzjcb
on the bench and I i ee ] t ? j a «f
men are deliberately flouting
and principles of our civiliza 0 ^
I intend to send them to J au -
judge said. Ju dge
Among those who agreed vn
Melson was Sen. Walter
chairman of the JFC. iot& eI
Judge Melson’s son, himself a
state senator and currently a P ^ a t-
master in the Family Court,
tacked school boycotts. dt-^
He said that school bo >' cot ‘ ’ i£m s, *
and civil disobedience camp is
which the violation of t ® . r tb e
praised, break down respec
law in the minds of youth.
“The law is a whole clo * h ’ deS tr«f
you break it in one place yo
the entire piece,” Melson sai • ^ ^be
Sen. Hoey also agreed s e rV
younger Melson, who form
on the JFC with the senator. ^ ^
“We are coddling these P a °P
very time we should be enf