Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—APRIL, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ARKANSAS
Little Rock Board, Negroes Meet;
All 12 Grades To Be Desegregated
(Continued From Page 1)
in 1957 and again in 1958. Since the
NAACP had taken the plan to court,
the school board was under federal
court order by then. In the first year,
Army paratroopers protected the nine
Negro children who were attending
Central High School. In the second
year, 1958-59, Gov. Faubus closed the
Little Rock high schools. During that
situation, the old school board resigned,
and its successors dropped the original
desegregation plan in favor of a grade-
a-year plan and use of the state pupil
assignment law.
The first news that the board was
going to desegregate the last four
grades came after the board had held
a closed meeting March 11. Under
Arkansas law, such meetings are lim
ited to discussion of personnel matters,
but one member, Ted Lamb, said that
one of the things discussed with the
board’s attorney, Herschel H. Friday,
was further desegregation in 1964-65.
He said the board was talking in terms
of desegregating the last four elemen
tary grades.
Other board members would not
confirm Lamb’s report that day, which
was a Wednesday. On the following
Saturday night, the Negroes announced
the picketing and boycott plans. On
Sunday the board president, Russell H.
Matson Jr., announced that the board
was planning to vote further desegre
gation at its regular meeting Tuesday
March 24. At that meeting the board
voted unanimously and without dis
cussion to go to all 12 grades.
Text of Resolution
It was in the form of a resolution
which reads as follows:
“Be it resolved by the Board of Di
rectors of the Little Rock School Dis
trict:
“Section 1. That all 12 grades of the
system shall be desegregated as of the
1964-65 school year.
“Section 2. That for the purpose of
obtaining information preliminary to
initial assignments for the 1964-65
school year, the superintendent shall
cause enumeration forms (which shall
include appropriate provision for in
dicating preference of school for ini
tial assignment) to be distributed as
to the following students:
“(a) Preschool students who will be
in first grade in the 1964-65 school
year;
“(b) Students who will be in the
third grade in the 1964-65 school year;
“(c) Students who will be in the
fourth grade in the 1964-65 school year;
“(d) Students who will be in the
sixth grade in the 1964-65 school year;
“(e) Students who will be in the
seventh grade in the 1964-65 school
year;
“(f) Students who will be in the
tenth grade in the 1964-65 school year.
“Section 3. That for purpose of ob
taining information preliminary to ini
tial assignments for the 1965-66 school
year and for subsequent school years
the superintendent shall cause enu
merations forms (which shall include
appropriate provision for indicating
preference as to school of initial as
signment) to be distributed as to the
following students:
“(a) Preschool students who will be
in the first grade;
“(b) Students who will be in the
Political Action
Sen. McClellan
Negroes have the right to attend
either segregated or desegregated
schools but whites do not, U. S. Sen.
John L. McClellan (D-Ark) said March
19 in the Senate during the debate over
the civil-rights bill. He called this dis
crimination against the whites as he
delivered a rebuttal to Sen. John Sher
man Cooper (R-Ky), who had said Ne
gro citizens should have the right to
choose.
“Where is the equality in that po
sition,” asked McClellan, “when we
say to the white person, ‘I do not care
what you want. You must take integra
tion’?”
“I have heard it said in this cham
ber that a Negro should have the right
to send their child to a Negro school,”
McClellan said. “But when a white
person says, “I would like to have the
same right, ‘he is said to be discrim
inating.”
Arkansas Highlights
The Little Rock school board vot
ed to desegregate all 12 grades next
September. This year it has eight
grades desegregated with 123 Ne
gro children attending classes in 15
formerly all-white schools under a
plan by which two more grades
would have been desegregated next
fall.
Negro leaders at Little Rock
picketed the school board at its
meeting in which the new desegrega
tion decision was announced. A pro
posed boycott of schools was post
poned after the board agreed to some
terms proposed by Negro leaders.
Hendrix College, a Methodist
Church institution, voted to drop
racial bars to the admission of stu
dents.
A U. S. Information Agency crew
spent a week at Central High, mak
ing what it said would be the first
movie sympathetic to Little Rock,
for showing overseas.
seventh grade for the applicable year
of initial assignment; and
“(c) Students who will be in the
tenth grade for the applicable year of
initial assignment.
“Section 4. That the applicable reg
ulations heretofore adopted by the
Board of Directors concerning assign
ments of students shall continue in
force and effect as to all students in all
grades of the system, including, with
out limitation, those applicable to re
assignments.
“Section 5. That the superintendent
be, and he is hereby, authorized and
directed to take, or cause to be taken,
the necessary steps to implement this
resolution and to carry out the author
ity herein conferred.”
Lateral Transfers
One of the board’s policies, since
1959, has been to forbid lateral trans
fers. These are transfers between
schools at any grade except the initial
grade in each of the three divisions,
the elementary, iunior high and senior
high schools. The effect was that a
Negro could apply to enter a white
school only in the first, seventh and
10th grades, which are the entering
grades in the elementary, junior high
and senior high divisions.
The board departed from policy on
its own initiative at the start of the
1963-64 school year by deciding to
desegregate both the first and fourth
grades at that time. This meant lateral
transfers for the Negro pupils in the
third grade who were to enter white
schools in the fourth grade. The reso
lution adopted March 24 is a departure
again by opening the way for transfers
of Negro pupils in the second, third
and fifth grades this year into the
third, fourth and sixth grades of white
schools next September.
But the latter part of the resolu
tion restores the policy against lateral
transfers for the 1965-66 school year
and thereafter. From then on, students
will be allowed to express their pref
erence on which school they want to
Says Negroes
★ ★ ★
A special session of the Arkansas
legislature met March 24, two days aft
er the plans for a Negro boycott of
the Little Rock schools had been an
nounced, for the purpose of enacting
a voter registration law.
Sen. Dan T. Sprick of Little Rock
introduced a resolution, SCR 1, con
demning “outside agitators” in school
affairs. It was adopted without dissent
in the Senate and by a vote of 95-0 in
the House of Representatives.
The resolution said, “The General
Assembly hereby strongly criticizes and
condemns the activities of outside agi
tators who come into the state of Ar
kansas advocating school walk-outs
which are clearly violative of the laws,
morals and dignity of the state of Ar
kansas.”
| attend only when they are going into
the first grade (elementary school),
seventh grade (junior high school) or
10th grade (senior high school). Once
assigned to a school, a pupil is auto
matically reassigned there until he
finishes it and is ready to enter the
next higher division.
Community Action
Negroes Postpone
Sehool Boycott
After Board Acts
A boycott of Little Rock schools
which Negro leaders had planned for
April 6 was postponed on April 3
when the school board voted 4-2 to
make some concessions to demands.
The board issued a statement that
Negro students are eligible to partici
pate in all school activities and that
qualified Negro applicants will be
sought for administrative jobs in the
school system.
This action followed conferences
held after Negroes had picketed to
express dissatisfaction with the pace
of desgregation. Since September, 1959,
the school situation in Little Rock had
been relatively quiet until March.
“We shall continue to demonstrate
until our demands are met,” said a
statement issued March 21 by the
Council on Community Affairs and the
Student Non-violent Co-ordinating
Committee.
The Council on Community Affairs
(COCA) is considered to comprise the
new Negro leadership in Little Rock
(SSN, September 1963), developed in
the last two or three years. It is made
up of representatives of virtually all
Negro organizations and its member
ship includes doctors, lawyers, dentists,
ministers, etc.
Spokesman for COCA said they had
tried without success to establish com
munication with the school board and
that none of the grievances they had
presented to the board had been met.
COCA called in SNCC. William W.
Hansen Jr. of Pine Bluff, formerly of
Cincinnati, white, and Clifford A.
Vaughs, a Boston Negro, SNCC field
secretaries met with COCA for about
a week and they decided on March 21
to stage demonstrations.
White Reaction
Most of the white reaction was in
dignant but not all of it. The Greater
Little Rock Ministerial Association
called for the formation of a biracial
committee—four whites and four Ne
groes—to discuss the Negro complaints.
COCA and SNCC welcomed that sug
gestion and left the way open for the
April 6 boycott to be called off if
“promising mechanics are set up to
resolve the issues we have raised with
the school board.”
White leadership was far from unani
mous about whether to establish a bi
racial committee. Through March,
private conferences were held daily and
statements were issued by both sides.
The board’s decision announced on
April 3 did not include formation of
the biracial group, but on the basis of
the other concessions COCA postponed
the boycott.
COCA presented a four-page list of
six grievances to the school board last
August and received a written reply in
November in which the board dismissed
or refused all six.
Negro Requests
The Negro requests were: That the
board abandon use of the pupil place
ment law; that Negro children in de
segregated schools be allowed full par
ticipation in all school activities; that
the vocational school for adults be de
segregated; that Negroes be employed
at the administrative and policy-mak
ing level in the school district; that the
salaries of school employes, both teach
ers and non-teachers, be raised; and
that the board co-operate in forming
a biracial advisory committee.
To these, the board responded that
it was desegregating in accordance with
a valid state law expressly authorized
by the federal courts; that Negro chil
dren were participating in all activi
ties; that the vocational school already
was desegregated; that employment was
on the basis of qualification, not race;
that salaries were raised any time it
was possible; and that the board itself
was responsible for solving school
problems and that a biracial advisory
committee was out of the question.
Have Choice, Whites Do Not
Pickets Outside Board Meeting
A conference was held later.
The next public development was
the announcement by the Negroes on
March 21 that they would turn to
demonstrations in an effort to influence
the board. Their statement said:
“The Council on Community Affairs
and the Student Non-violent Co-ordi
nating Committee have decided that
the Little Rock Board of Education has
hidden behind the pupil placement law
long enough. Less than 2 per cent of
the Negro school children in Little
Rock attend integrated schools.
“We have petitioned, we have talked
and we have pleaded with the Board
of Education since 1959 when the pu
pil placement law was passed in an
effort to open the minimum dialogue
between the School Board and the Ne
gro community. We are well aware of
the fact that the Board is using the
law to prevent Negroes from attend
ing white schools. We are also aware
that this practice is in direct violation
of the rulings of the federal courts.
The courts have stated that pupil
placement laws cannot be used to hin
der or obstruct the desegregation of
the schools.
“Ten long years have passed since
the United States Supreme Court made
its historic decision, ruling that segre
gation in public schools is unconstitu
tional. Tokenism has resulted in these
schools that permit Negroes to inte
grate. Even though Negro children are
attending so-called integrated schools,
they are not fully integrated in the
school activities, which in effect adds
to their psychological humiliation.
“The Little Rock Vocational School
remains segregated.
“Qualified Negro educators are not
allowed to take part in the administra
tive policy decisions that affect the
Little Rock school system. These deci
sions are on matters that directly affect
the total community and yet Negroes
are barred from these decisions.
“The situation in Little Rock has
reached the point where we must dra
matize to the city, the state and the
nation that the image of the Little
Rock schools as portrayed by the
School Board is a fraud. We have le
gitimate grievances that the Little
Rock School Board has refused to even
discuss.
In the Colleges
“It is after careful consideration of
our problems and how to deal with
them that we have made this decision.
On Tuesday, March 24, we are going
to picket the School Board meeting
On April 6, the 6,500 [7,046 according
to school records] Negro school chil
dren in the Little Rock schools are
going to boycott the schools. We shall
continue to demonstrate until our de
mands are met.”
The statement was signed by Han
sen, Vaughs and Dr. W. R. Townsend
Negro optometrist who is president of
COCA.
Plan Confirmed
Next day, school board president
Russell H. Matson Jr. confirmed that
the board would ratify an extension
of the desegregation plan on Tuesday,
and it was expected that this would
cover all 12 grades.
Dr. Townsend said that would not
affect the demonstration plans, that it
was merely an extension of tokenism
and did not meet any of the other Ne
gro complaints.
Matson and three of the other five
board members, Everett Tucker Jr.,
Ted Lamb and J. H. Cottrell Jr., said
they were willing to talk informally
to the Negroes, but not formally as a
board. They left the initiative on this
to the Negroes, however, and Dr
Townsend said COCA did not plan to
ask for negotiations.
Lamb and Tucker issued individual
statements. Lamb, who for years has
said that the board was going too slow
on desegregation, said in part, u c
unconscionable board performance over
the past three years has been an op®
invitation to demonstrations and la"
suits. We have frittered away the year
courts have given us and made no re ^
headway or plans for total desegrega
tion. The Little Rock school board an
an apathetic community have aske i
this.” , jLg
Tucker, who was president ot
board from 1959 until last fall,
the board’s record and said tha
Negroes were doing themselves an ^
community a disservice with their e
onstration plans. , 24
When the board met on Marcn
(See SCHOOL BOARD, Page 91
Hendrix College Trustees
Remove Race Restrictions
The Hendrix College Board of Trus
tees voted March 18 to admit any quali
fied students regardless of race, color
or national origin.
Hendrix, supported by the Metho
dist Church, is a coeducational insti
tution with about 600 students at Con
way, 30 miles north of Little Rock.
In Arkansas it ranks high academically
and socially.
President Marshall T. Steele said
in a newsletter to the alumni in De
cember that this step was being studied.
After the board had voted, Dr. Steele
said he had spent considerable time in
conference with groups and individuals
discussing the problems of desegrega
tion and the approaches Hendrix might
take to the problems. After the news
letter came out, the student newspaper
said in an editorial that the students
were ready for complete integration.
A college spokesman said no Negro
had ever applied for admission to Hen
drix and that few if any are expected
to take advantage of the new policy.
Three other private colleges in Ar
kansas, all supported by churches, have
previously admitted Negro students.
★ ★ ★ the
he Student Bar Association °
versity of Arkansas School ^
Fayetteville adopted a r< \. , er sit>'
-ch 4 declaring that the jbe
cies for segregated housing varsit) -
ipus and segregation of ® iltio0 al
etic teams were unconstitu
should be rescinded. of
ne hundred of the 107 m ® n ?, ^ on
association cast secret a -
resolution. The count w
43 against.
xyj t f
57 tot
le university athletic teams al ^
; been segregated but m
months all other mem *
thwest Conference have d . ver sW
:gregate their’s. The jj C y
-d on Nov. 22 then adoptea
ontinued segregation on jgseg'
niversity dormitories we . g^d'
ited from 1948, when the W f a v-
! student was admitted on pgtf
ville campus, until the D 1 th e
crisis of 1957. Since ^ e g a ted
has provided a s ^ egr c
hall on campus
en students but no °
C mpn student-