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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1964—PAGE 7-A TENNESSEE Civic Group Finances Enlargement Of Biracial School NASHVILLE T he Franklin County Board of Education at Winchester on April 18 received a $50,000 check from the Sewanee Com munity Chest Committee for con struction of four new classrooms at newly desegregated Sewanee public School. Supt. Lewis H. Scott said construc tion is expected to be completed in time for the opening of school in September. Scott said plans call for the now all- Negro Kennerly Elementary School to be closed at the beginning of the new school year with more than 30 Negro students now attending the school to be enrolled at Sewanee Public School. Under an order issued Jan. 2 by U. S. District Judge Charles G. Neese, 13 Negro students were enrolled in the previously all-white school on March 2. (Hill et al v. Franklin County Board of Education, SSN, January and previous.) Zones Ordered The following day, the court directed the board to amend its gradual desegre gation plan by creating zones in the Sewanee school district and assign pupils to schools according to their places of residence. Kennerly School also was ordered desegregated, but no white students sought admission to the Negro school. School officials said they originally agreed to enroll 19 Negro students at . the Sewanee school and rejected re quests from about 25 others because of insufficient classroom space. The Community Chest agreed to con- Teimessee Highlights A $50,000 check for the construc tion of new classrooms at a newly desegregated school was presented to the Franklin County Board of Edu cation by the Sewanee Community Chest Committee. Scholarship requirements for ath letes at Memphis State University are the same for Negroes as they are for white students, Dr. C. C. Hum phreys, MSU president, said. The Johnson City Human Relations Committee recommended complete desegregation of the city school dis trict. duct a fund-raising campaign for money to finance the four additional classrooms. During conferences between both sides in the suit, school officials agreed to accept seven more Negroes at Sewanee Public School. At the request of the plaintiffs and the board, Judge Neese postponed the deadline for the board to amend its plan, pending outcome of the fund raising campaign. Dr. Charles Winters, a member of the Community Chest Committee, said April 11 that the board had agreed to build the classrooms. Dr. T. Felder Dorn, chairman of the committee, said the agency had ob tained the funds in the form of a loan from a bank and that a public sub scription program would be carried out to repay the loan. At last report, about $30,000 of the funds had been pledged. Dr. Winters said if bids on the construction are too high, the money collected will be returned to the con tributors. The proposed construction also is subject to approval of the State Board of Education. Miscellaneous MSU President Says Sports Scholarships Open For Negroes Dr. C. C. Humphreys, president of Memphis State University, said April 6 that Negro athletes are eligible for scholarships on the same basis as white students. Humphreys told newsmen the state ment did not represent an announce ment of a new policy. “There has been no policy,” he said. Humphreys said “a student now in school can go out for any team. It is up to the coach whether he wants him to have a uniform.” Any student recommended by the coach to the athletic committee for a scholarship is eligible if he meets other admissability requirements, he added. Memphis State, which began admit ting Negroes in 1959, has no Negroes on its athletic teams at present, Humph reys said. ★ ★ ★ T. J. Griffin, chairman of the Free dom Committee of the National Asso ciation for the Advancement of Colored People, in April charged the Memphis Board of Education with “discrimina tory practices.” In a letter to Hugh H. Bosworth, board chairman, Griffin said that dem onstrations last fall ended after it had been “stated several times that these problems could be solved without dem onstrations.” Large groups of Negroes last fall staged demonstrations protesting dou ble-shift schedules at some Negro high schools. Community Action Full Desegregation Urged By Group Complete desegregation of schools was the principal recommendation of the Johnson City Human Relations Committee April 7 in a letter to Mayor Ross Spears Jr. Spears released the contents of the letter, but made no comment concern ing whether action will be taken on the recommendation. The committee established, to serve in an advisory capacity to the mayor, urged that the Johnson City Board of Education complete desegregation of all schools as rapidly as possible and that the all-white Science Hill High School be desegregated in all grades beginning this September. The committee’s letter said the cur riculum in Negro schools is not on the same level as that in the white or pre dominantly white schools and contended that all students, regardless of race, are entitled to the same offerings of subjects for study. Johnson City schools voluntarily be gan desegregation in the fall of 1961 and now have 36 Negroes in biracial classes in the first three grades at four schools, in addition to several Negro students at tending vocational training classes. The district, which has about 6,100 students, including about 700 Negroes, is in upper East Tennessee. ★ ★ ★ Negroes resumed demonstrations in Nashville on April 27 and their leaders said they would continue until their de mands, including complete school de segregation, are met. Many Negro junior and senior high- school students participated in the dem onstrations, which were directed pri marily toward support for a local pub lic-accommodations ordinance. Nearly 100 people were arrested dur ing the first week of demonstrations, which resulted in minor injuries to 18 demonstrators and seven policemen. School officials asked police to help prevent “agitators” from enticing stu dents to leave their classrooms for the demonstrations, which were joined in by some white persons. Nashville and Davidson County schools have desegregated the first seven grades. Under federal court-ap proved plans, one additional grade is to be desegregated each year. MARYLAND Sensenbaugh Named State School Head BALTIMORE Dr. James A. Sensenbaugh, school superintendent of Frederick County, was named in April as the next Maryland super intendent of schools. Selected by jhe Maryland Board of Education, yr. Sensenbaugh will succeed Dr. Thomas G. Pullen Jr., retiring at of May after serving since hi setting forth Dr. Sensenbaugh’s Tialifucations, the state board stressed *^ Lat during his eight years as Jjrwerick County’s superintendent he as effected the complete integration ° the public schools . . . with the ex- JPhon of one two-room [Negro] ool which will be closed this year . . » ^jariier in April the state board had . the Maryland Commission on jj rrac ial Problems and Relations that j^ould appoint a state superintendent SuKmL comrn itted to desegregation, of ^ Uently the executive secretary e interracial agency personally ap- the board’s choice. vi °usly an assistant superinten- haufflf 1 ^timore County, Dr. Sensen- his v. burned as superintendent to q c °unty :956 rederic k reo a# When deseg- iX 011 had n °t * tl under Hang" Predomi 5 \ t t ^ I c * I i ■■■ 1 rur al coun- ?V °gSn S gan / ”al el "”. of ffrad- the “"Nation of ?at e ^ ne segre- saall L* 0stl y ! ^d ard and *ub- Hicfc ?’ schools Sd '°°l no serve d the county’s Negro The eou? v tion a h° ut 1,400 pupils. % nt y has about 14,000 white pu- , Th, _ -ateg A—'- C1 “ cl u oi me state Doara ’’’tit js r^t the one remaining Negro SENSENBAUGH '‘dicateg ,? Unceme nt of the state board ’’ait ^ the one remaining Negro ^Uld e closed out this June, which co^,, 6 Fr ederick the third Mary. For a to abolish all-Negro classes. j.. recount of Frederick’s pro- ■ Sc i>SN ’ December, 1959.) y 5 kach e j^ e , ri k au Sh, now 54, received from r <^’ mas ter’s and doctor’s de- Jfpon ° lumbia University. >6 J^thement, Dr. Pullen will be- 1 ent of the University of Maryland Highlights Maryland’s top public-school post has been awarded to a county su perintendent who directed one of the most comprehensive desegregation programs in the state. Steps to accelerate school deseg regation became a subject of dis cussion during April in three county districts. A racial question on the University of Maryland’s student application form has been made an issue by the state interracial agency. ★ ★ ★ Speedup Proposals Bring Discussion and Controversy Steps to accelerate school desegrega tion stirred discussion and controversy in three Maryland counties in April. In Baltimore County, opposition arose to recommendations in a staff report of the county’s Human Relations Commis sion that the pupils in three all-Negro elementary schools (and possibly a fourth) be reassigned to predominantly white schools as of next September and that the former Negro buildings be used as annexes “on a racially mixed basis” to relieve overcrowded condi tions at other county schools. The staff report was presented to the county Board of Education as pickets outside represented a county chapter of the Maryland Petition Committee, a segregationist group of about 10 years’ standing. Three county councilmen also expressed opposition to the plan, and “forced school integration” became an election issue for some congressional candidates entered in Maryland’s May 19 primaries. Thorough Study The president of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, Mrs. John H. Norris, told the press on April 23 that a thorough study of desegregation progress in her county had been under way for two or three months. Mrs. Norris said she had asked the county superintendent, Dr. David S. Jenkins, to make the study and present recom mendations as soon as possible. Announcement of the study followed criticism from at least three sources. An outgoing county grand jury in April called attention to the continued exis tence of all-Negro schools in Anne Arundel and questioned the “direction and extent” of compliance with Su preme Court decisions. A county spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality said in April that official ex planations of procedures which it had received did “not represent any con scious effort” to comply with the coun- (See MARYLAND, Page 8-A) GEORGIA Plan For Bibb County MACON A DESEGREGATION PLAN of the Bibb County (Macon) Board of Education was approved April 27 by U.S. District Court Judge W. A. Bootle, who ordered it into effect “forthwith.” The board set May as the period in which appli cation may be submitted by 11th grade students for transfer to the 12th grade of a different high school. Only transfers of 12th grade students will be permitted in September when desegregation begins, with the 10th and 11th grades to be included in 1965-66, the ninth in 1966-67, the eighth in 1967- 68, the seventh in 1968-69, the fifth and sixth in 1969-70, the fourth in 1970-71, the second and third in 1971-72 and the first grade in 1972-73. Judge Bootle rejected objections to the plan raised by Negro plaintiffs, who had filed the desegregation case against the board in August, 1963. He also denied an injunction sought by the plaintiffs against the board, saying they “do no need” it since “they already have more than that. The solemn promises of the members of this stable board made to this court through their counsel and through the testimony of their officers are stronger than an in junction.” But Judge Bootle retained jurisdiction in the case. The Bibb County Board of Education is a self-perpetuating board. The junior and senior high schools are segregated by sex. The judge made no ruling on the plaintiffs’ request that teachers, prin cipals, supervisors and other profes sional school personnel be assigned on a non-racial basis. He said the court might consider it at a later date. ★ ★ ★ In Columbus, U. S. District Judge J. Robert Elliott ruled April 2 that Mus cogee County’s grade-a-y, r school de segregation plan is “reaso- able and legally adequate.” Under the plan, the schools will be desegregated a grade-a-year, beginning with the 12th grade in September. Four Negroes have been accepted for enroll ment in previously all-white schools. Judge Elliot said, “The plan has already been put into operation and every request has been approvd. There is no need for judicial interference.” Dr. William Henry Shaw, superin tendent, said three Negroes would enter Baker High and one will enter Colum bus High this fall. Pupils who failed to apply for transfer within a 15-day ap plication period in February “forfeited any further right to transfer,” Shaw , .said. Georgia Highlights A federal district court ordered Bibb County to desegregate next September under a grade-a-year plan suggested by the board of education. A similar plan was approved by a court for Muscogee County. Albany, scene of past racial trou ble, registered 81 Negroes to enter first and second grades in white schools this fall. Desegregation methods were be ing studied by a committee of the Richmond County (Augusta) Board of Education. A federal appellate court heard arguments on whether desegregation should be speeded up in Chatham and Glynn counties. Earlier, Negroes had said that the gradual desegregation plan was inade quate, the city and county still main tained attendance areas that would retain segregation, and the burden should not be on the Negroes to apply for transfer to the predominantly white schools. A. J. Land, board attorney, defended the gradual plan, saying chaos could result if complete desegregation were ordered at once. ★ ★ ★ Eighty-one Negro children registered for the first and second grades at previously white schools in Dougherty County (Albany). A week of registra tion for the fall school term, ordered by a federal court, ended April 10. An estimated 1,700 Negro students in Albany are eligible for the first and second grades. Earlier, T. R. Finley, coordinator of the Dougherty County school system, said the registration “went as smooth as glass and there were no incidents” in the South Georgia city, which has been the scene of several racial upheavals. In March a federal court had ordered the school board to desegregate the first and second grades of its public schools and two vocational schools this September. The board previously had adopted a grade-a-year plan and it had been approved by U. S. District Judge J. Robert Elliott. Negro parents, how ever, appealed and the Fifth U.S. Cir cuit Court of Appeals ordered the modification. The Negroes registered at the school they want to attend in Dougherty County but under the approved plan they will not necessarily attend these Approved schools. Student assignment will be made on the basis of proximity to the school, student capacity and avail ability of transportation facilities. ★ ★ ★ The Richmond County Board of Edu cation (Augusta) appointed a special committee to study methods by which local schools wifi be desegregated. The move came after Superior Court Judge C. Wesley Killebrew ruled in effect that portions of the act establishing the county board and pertaining to separate schools for white and Negro students are unconstitutional. Three Negroes from the Augusta chapter of the NAACP asked for de segregation of the schools in April, 1963. The board petitioned the court for Clarification of its separate schools clause and the court upheld a demurrer to the petition filed by the Negroes. ★ ★ ★ The U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Ap peals has taken under consideration arguments on swifter school desegrega tion in two Georgia systems. Circuit Judge Griffin Bell of Atlanta said it was indefinite when a decision would be handed down. The Georgia systems are Savannah and Brunswick, where the 12th grades were desegregated last fall. Glynn County (Brunswick) voluntarily de segregated. Chatham County (Savan nah) did so under court order. Mrs. Constance Baker Motley, NAACP attorney appearing before the federal appellate court, asked the court to rule out legal defenses of racially segregated schools under any theory. “It is essential for this court to put to rest the question of whether this can be litigated again,” she said. Ten Years Ago Mrs. Motley noted that the U. S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated public schools ten years ago, and has reaffirmed the ruling four times. She said arguments over the basic issue of segregation were taking more time and causing more delay in desegregation. “The way to stop that is to rule now,” she said. Complete desegregation of the Glynn County system and desegregation of the first four grades in Chatham County, plus two a year thereafter, was asked. Questioning Mrs. Motley at length about specific requests relating to each city, Judge Bell said, “You say you are against gradualism, but you pray for that in your brief.” Mrs. Motley said that only partial de- (See GEORGIA, Page 8-A)