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PAGE 6-A—MAY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS LOUISIANA 97 Negroes Ask Transfer In Two Grades NEW ORLEANS N inety-seven Negro pupils ap plied for transfer to the 11th and 12th grades of four Baton Rouge high schools in the second stage of the “reverse stairstep” desegregation program begun in Louisiana’s capital last fall. The total included: 36 applications for transfer to the junior class and 19 for the senior class at Baton Rouge High School; 11 for the junior class and two for the senior class at Istrouma High School; seven for the junior class and five for the senior class at Lee High School; 12 for the junior class and five for the senior class at Glen Oaks High School. Applications were submitted April 14-17 under terms of a recently adopt ed resolution by the school board setting up a system of dual high school attendance districts. According to this plan, sophomore and juniors in the Negro high schools were given an option next year of attending either the Negro school they now attend or a white high school in the district. Supt. Lloyd Lindsay said that his decisions on the transfers will be based on the same criteria used last year when 28 of the 38 Negro ap plicants were transferred from Negro to white schools. The criteria are age, academic and social records and resi dences within the geographic boundary of the school to which transfer is sought. Lindsay said parents and students would be notified of the disposition of their transfer applica tions by the end of April. No particular disciplinary problems were experienced during the current year at the four desegregated high schools, Supt. Lindsay said. He at tributed the smooth transition to the efforts of the principals. “I think they deserve recognition for carrying out the federal court’s order in this manner,” the superin tendent said. ★ ★ ★ The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board was told by NAACP President Arthur Jelks Sr. that there will be racial trouble if the board continues to shuffle Negro pupils from one school to another. Jelks, at the April 6 board meeting, was referring to the board’s decision of the previous week to move fifth and sixth grade pupils at Capitol Elementary and South Greenville Elementary schools to the Greenville Elementary School. “Complete integration would solve your problem of school overcrowding,” the Rev. Mr. Jelks said. “Then children could go to the schools nearest them regardless of race. I urge you to speed up the process of integration.” The Rev. Mr. Jelks, accompanied at the board meeting by sveral objecting Negro parents, added: “Things in Baton Rouge are running pretty smoothly now, but what you are doing might lead to some digging into the dual school system you operate. And unless you reverse your decision, there will be danger.” The board agreed to reconsider its action. ★ ★ ★ William J. Dodd—attorney, former lieutenant governor and president of the State Board of Education—was Arkansas (Continued from Page 5-A) Act 10 of 1958. This was one of the laws, since declared invalid by the U. S. Supreme Court, adopted by the state legislature to hamper the NAACP in Arkansas. It required all public school and college employes to furnish as a condition of employment an affidavit listing all organizations to which they had belonged or contributed money in the previous five years. Four faculty members of the Uni versity lost their jobs for failure to furnish such an affidavit. One of them, John L. McKenney, assistant professor of philosophy, did not get his job back when he asked for it after the law had been killed. The AAUP took the position that all four had been illegally dis charged and that McKenny was entitled to his job. The AAUP is a private organization and its censure has no legal standing. However the organization carries great prestige in the academic world and institutions under its censure usually have a hard time hiring top quality teachers. Louisiana Highlights The East Baton Rouge Parish school system received applications from 97 Negroes requesting transfer next fall to the 11th and 12th grades of four previously all-white high schools. In Baton Rouge, the NAACP chap ter president protested the transfer of Negro students from one school to another. He said “complete inte gration” was the answer to problems of overcrowding. William J. Dodd, former president of the State Board of Education, took office as state superintendent of education, succeeding Shelby M. Jackson. Louisiana’s legislature will con vene May 12 with proposals to rein state compulsory school attendance and to establish standards for private and public schools. sworn in April 23 as Louisiana’s state superintendent of education. He suc ceeds Shelby M. Jackson who had held the office since 1948. Supt. Dodd was administered the oath of office under a pecularity of state law that enables newly elected officials to take over before the end of the terms of their predeces sors, if their com- missions are signed by the governor. Change of the gubernator ial administration will take place May 12. In an interview after his inaugu ration, Dodd was critical of Jackson. Dodd said he took the office early “to discontinue expenditures and policies that could cost the taxpayers thou sands of dollars.” Dodd added “lots of changes” will be made in the superin tendent’s office “but most of these will be in methods of operation.” ★ ★ ★ A former gambling casino in Jef ferson Parish (adjacent to New Orleans) has been approved by parish health officers for use as a private school. Approved under the name of the Monticello Academy, the premises re cently was used by students of the defunct Junior Academy of New Orleans, once the largest of the private grant-in-aid schools. When JUNO East first moved into the Jef ferson Parish location after its build ing in New Orleans was sold at auction, Jefferson health authorities closed it because of inadequacy of facilities. However, Dr. Isadore Yager, parish health officer, said the necessary im provements have been made to lighting, plumbing and yard facilities to permit its use now as a school. Legislative Action New Legislature Gets Compulsory Attendance Bill Reinstatement of compulsory school attendance and establishment of standards for private and public schools will be matters before the Louisiana legislature, which convenes May 11. Other items with potential bearing on the school segregation- desegregation issue include a contro versial proposal to permit local school boards to dismiss up to one per cent of their teachers despite the tenure law, and segregationist-sponsored moves to provide for unpledged presidential electors. A bill by Orleans Parish Rep. Maurice Landrieu would require all children between seven and 15 years of aae to be enrolled in a public or private school. It would establish a maximum penalty of 10 days in jail and $10 fine for each day a child is kept out of school. The new state superintendent, Wil liam J. Dodd, called for such a law at mid-month, saying it is needed to give educators and social workers a legal basis in their efforts to get dropouts back on the school rolls. The compulsory attendance section of the Louisiana Revised Statute of 1950 was repealed by the legislature in 1962. Licensing of private and public schools would be required under a measure proposed by Rep. Lantz Womack of Franklin Parish, vice chair man of the Louisiana Financial As sistance Commission. Minimum stand- DODD NORTH CAROLINA Judge Approves High Point Plan WINSTON-SALEM J udge Edwin M. Stanley of the U.S. Middle District Court in Greensboro approved April 16 a school-assignment plan for High Point city schools agreed to by attorneys for Negro children and the school board. This action was taken in connection with the Case of Gilmore et al v. High Point City Board of Education, filed March 13, 1963, by parents of eight Negro children. In the original action, the children charged that they were not reassigned to predominantly white schools because of their race. Their ac tion asked for full desegregation of High Point schools in the assignment of students, teachers and school personnel. After the original case was filed, High Point adopted an assignment plan which set up geographical areas for all schools without regard to race. Schools opened for the 1963-64 school year under this plan. As a result, 35 Negro children are attending predom inantly white schools, but no white children are attending predominantly Negro schools. Judge Stanley did not invalidate High Point’s geographical assignment plan, but he did add another provision. Transfer Rights The court order provides that any student “shall have the absolute right to attend any other school of his or her choice in the High Point School System, teaching the grade which has been assigned . . .” This means that any Negro children living in a strictly Negro geopraphic school district has the right to request transfer to a pre dominantly white school. In addition, if the school requested is overcrowed, a child seeking reassign ment may be assigned to the next- nearest predominantly white school. Either the plaintiffs or the defendants may ask the court to reopen the case in case an issue arises. Under the order, each High Point student will be assigned to a school at the end of each school year. If the student wishes to transfer, he must file with the school board a written application for reassignment within 10 days after he has received his original assignment. N. C. Highlights Two school systems, High Point city and Durham County, and at torneys for Negro plaintiffs worked out desegregation plans that met the approval of U.S. District Judge Ed win M. Stanley. Stanly County school officials ap proved transfer of two Negro girls to a previously all-white school in September—the county’s first deseg regation. Catawba College, all-white, and Livingstone College, predominantly Negro, agreed to a student exchange program. ★ ★ ★ Judge Edwin M. Stanley of the U.S. Middle District Court approved a plan submitted to the court March 31 for Durham County to operate on an open assignment policy. The plan was agreed to by attorneys for parents of 61 Negro children and the Durham County Board of Education in connection with Thompson et al v. Durham County Board of Education et al, filed July 23, 1963. The county school board assigned four Negro pupils to a predominantly white new school, Jordan Junior-Sen ior High, last September. Under the approved plan, the school board will assign in advance all stu dents in the second grade and above. The students are free to request re assignment to schools of their choice, with proper regard to overcrowding and other criteria. All children enter ing the first grade will be admitted to whatever school the parents take them. Schoolmen Stanly County To Desegregate Two Negro girls in Stanly County will be transferred to a previously all white high school for the 1964-65 school year, it was announced April 16 by Luther Adams, superintendent schools. The students are Christine Bro*j and Pamela Grier, both 17, who cur' rently attend the all-Negro Kingvfli, High School in Albemarle, sever/ miles from their home. They live neare- the presently all-white North Stanl? High School, where they have be®, reassigned. The Stanly County Board of Educa. tion reported that the girls were the first Negroes to seek desegregation of schools in the county. The board ap. proved the transfer unanimously. Details of the transfer were worked out through the Albemarle-Stanly County Chamber of Commerce-spon. sored Human Relations Committee. In the Colleges White and Negro Colleges Establish Exchange Program A White college and a Negro college will exchange students, beginning with the 1963-64 school year. The colleges, both private and church-supported, are Catawba College, white, and Liv ingston College, Negro, both in Salis bury. Under this program, students from one college will be free to enroll in classes offered by the other. The two schools will accept grades made at the other on face value. The student then may be graduated without being pen alized for taking courses away from his own campus. Announcement of the program was made April 16 by Dr. Donald C. Dear born, president of Catawba, and Dr Samuel E. Duncan, president of Liv ingston. Catawba, which does not have racial restrictions, has an enrollment of 850 students, all white. Livingstone has enrolled 725 students, one white and the rest Negro. In the past, the schools have ex changed dramatic, musical and religi ous programs. Catawba faculty have taught course at Livingstone a number of years. KENTUCKY — Negro Leaders To Train At Berea ! LOUISVILLE S everal hundred students be ing recruited in the North and East are scheduled to attend Berea College in Southeast Ken tucky next month for special training before going south on a civil-rights program aimed at Ne gro education and voter registra tion. The program is being developed by the National Council of Churches’ Com mission on Religion and Race in co operation with other civil - rights groups. Berea College President Francis Hut chins commented that as far as his school goes, “this is not an unusual event . . . We are known as an in tegrated campus . . We don’t object to having integrated groups come, and at the time they’re coming we’ll have a little space. And we are more south than New York.” Bruce Hanson of the NCC commis sion said a third of the students would eventually work in community centers on crafts and recreation projects, a third in summer schools teaching read ing and other skills, and a third in voter registration. Most of the students are expected to go to Mississippi, according to a report in The Louisville Times, but groups being trained elsewhere are to go to other Southern states. The overall con cept, put into practice by the Student ards as to curriculum, facilities and personnel would be drafted by the State Department of Education and made requisite for obtaining a license. No school could operate without a license. Educators have expressed concern over the quality of the programs of fered by some of the new private schools that sprang up after the enact ment of grants-in-aid administered by the LFAC. Kentucky Highlights Berea College will serve as an ori entation center for several hundred students going south this summer to teach Negroes and increase Negro- voter registration. A six-foot, eight-inch Negro basket ball player became the first of his race to be offered an athletic schol arship to the University of Kentucky. Non - violent Coordinating Committee several years ago, has been growing each summer. ★ ★ ★ UK Offers Scholarship To Negro Athlete Westley Unseld, twice an All-State high-school star in basketball, became the first Negro to be offered an athletic scholarship to the University of Kentucky. The offer was made in person by UK coach Adolph Rupp at the Unseld home in Louisville, several days after South eastern Confer ence basketball recruiting opened April 1. The Uni versity of Ken tucky last year became the first school in the con ference to adopt a policy of desegre gated sports. Some desegre gation leaders in the state prompt ly encouraged Unseld to accept the of fer, but sportswriters speculated that the University of Kansas was a more likely choice. Unseld’s brother is a reg ular on the Kansas team and his coac at Seneca High School recently & cepted a job as assistant coach at Kan sas. It had been reported that more 100 colleges were seeking to recrui six-foot, eight-inch player. Meanwhile at UK’s Lexington pus, Steve Matthews, the first to try out for the football squad, to make it and quit practice before , end of spring training. Matthews, not received an athletic schol Community Action Louisville Gets National Award Louisville received an Ab-A* . i City award from the National jts League and Look Magazine record in racial relations, ^lic- school desegregation and a P accomodations ordinance. Mayor William O. Cowger a c fP p the award April 15 from _ e pre- Taft, former Cincinnati m oy° . ^ g. senting the NML, and _ . Arthur, managing editor of ^ Taft said, “This award is what you have done. But i the fact that there is unfmasn^ ^ ness. It is not based on the ^ you have achieved perfection- g Arthur said, “The entire <-* f e ll 0# based on the love of man °r ^ a y 10 man. Louisville has shown ^ flU t- organized co-operation. 3 re*' standing job could be done _jple- of the nation followed your of ‘W He stressed the importan a g 3 jnj enlightened press” in * he ^^ of discrimination and said racial trouble at Birmingh^^ “can be attributed to an unenns