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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-