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PAGE 4-A—MAY, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS VIRGINIA Prince Edward Foundation Votes To Plan Next School Year RICHMOND T he board of directors of the Prince Edward School Foun dation in April directed Robert T. Redd, administrator, to proceed with plans for operation of the schools during the 1964-65 school year. Redd was directed to request use for the coming year of the present facilities in church school buildings. The upper grades will again be housed at Prince Edward Academy, which was built by the Foundation. Administrator Redd has reported that the schools are operating within the 1963-64 budget of $353,471.13. ★ ★ ★ Several memorandums were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in April, following the March 30 hearing on the Prince Edward case. U.S. Solicitor General Archibald Cox, in a memorandum which became available on April 7, charged that in Prince Edward, tuition grants “are ‘one-way tickets’ good only for entry to segregated schools.” “In sum,” he said, “the state and county have given significant support to private schools which—whether or not officially encouraged to do so— practice racial discrimination. Such support plainly runs afoul of the constitution when, in a given com munity, it constitutes the only link between the state and education, com mitting all available public funds and the entire weight of official aid in the single direction of perpetuated school segregation.” In the memorandum, Cox said that counsel for county Negroes aopeared “to have abandoned any broad attack on the Virginia tuition grant statute and to confine themselves — as does the United States — to seeking an in- iunction against the use of such grants in Prince Edward County only if they a~e denied the primary relief . . requiring reopening of the public r chools.” Negroes Say Cox Erred On ADril 20, the Negro attorneys filed a memorandum with the court in which they said “the Solicitor General is mistaken as to petitioners’ position.” They said they were seeking an in junction against the use of grants in any institutions “which exclude per sons because of their race.” Attorneys Robert L Carter of New York and S. W. Tu-ker of Emporia, Va., told the court thev d'd not know “on what basis the Solicitor General felt iusti- fied ; n advisin' 1 the court that oetition- ers have modified their contentions.” On April 21, the city of Charlottes ville, an intervenor in the case, filed a brief memorandum extmessing op position to the banning of the tuition grants in nrivate segregated schools. On April 23, the State of Virginia filed a memorandum which sa’d that a '■ourt decision compelling the Prince Edward Board of Supervisors to levy a tax for schools would constitute taxation without representation. The levying of taxes is a “purelv legis lative function,” the state declared. Virginia Highlights Prince Edward County’s private segregated school system for white children made plans for its sixth year of operation in 1964-65, while the county’s Negroes awaited a United States Supreme Court ruling on whether public schools would have to reopen in September. Filing of a motion for desegrega tion of public-school faculties in Charlottesville was among develop ments in five school desegregation cases. Fairfax County made plans to “phase out” its only all-Negro high school and to transfer the pupils to predominantly white schools over a period of several years. The Supreme Court heard arguments March 30 on the Negro plaintiffs’ con tention that the closing of schools in Prince Edward violated the Negroes’ constitutional rights. The court took under advisement the plaintiffs’ peti tion for an order requiring the schools to reopen. (Griffin v. School Board of Prince Edward County.) ★ ★ ★ Prince Edward County School Supt. T. J. Mcllwaine presented to the Board of Supervisors on April 7 two school budgets for 1964-65—one based on schools for all county children and one on schools primarily for Negroes. The board, which has not appropri ated funds for schools since 1959, took the budgets under advisement. The budget for all 3,593 of the county’s school-age children would total $897,000. The one for 1,600 Negro children would total $590,500. The difference in the ratios of pupils and of the budgets reflects opinion in the county that if the public schools are reopened, the vast majority of white children will continue attending the private segregated classes of the Prince Edward School Foundation, leaving the public schools almost en tirely to Negroes. The Negroes are now attending privately financed classes of the Prince Edward Free School Association, but the association is slated to go out of existence this year. Leeal Action NAACP Asks Court For Desegregation Of School Personnel NAACP attorneys filed a motion in federal court at Charlottesville asking an order for desegregation of the faculties and supervisory staffs of the Charlottesville school system. (Allen v. Charlottesville School Board.) The motion contended that the only city schools employing Negro teachers am Jefferson Elementary and Burley High, “which are set apart and oper- Schoolrnen Fairfax County Board Votes To Close Negro High School The Fairfax County School Board voted April 9 to “phase out” the all- Negro Luther Jackson Intermediate and High School and to transfer the Negro pupils to other city schools. The board also voted to close the small all-Negro Oak Grove Elementary School at the end of the current school year. The approximately 60 pupils will be assigned to three other schools. Approximately 155 seventh - grade Negro pupils, previously scheduled to attend Luther Jackson, instead will be placed in intermediate schools in their own neighborhoods next year. The nine Negro teachers affected will be assigned to other classrooms in the school system without regard to race, it was said. Board Member John Goldsmith, speaking for the board, said Luther Jackson School would have grades eight through 12 next year but only grades nine through 12 the following year. Eventually, under the plan, Luther Jackson will no longer be a Negro school, but it probably will continue as a secondary school without regard to race. ★ ★ ★ Total Desegregation Asked In Petitions by NAACP The Virginia NAACP presented peti tions to school officials in several cities and counties, calling for total school desegregation. W. Lester Banks, NAACP executive secretary, told Southern School News that the association hopes petitions will be presented in every one of the 128 biracial school districts of Virginia. Banks has predicted that about 6,000 Negroes will be enrolled in pre dominantly white schools in the state next year, compared with about 3,700 this year. ated exclusively for Negro children.” The Charlottesville system was de segregated at the pupil level in 1959 but there are no mixed faculties. ★ ★ ★ Three school desegregation cases were argued April 27 before the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. In a Surry County case, Negro plain tiffs contend that the state was in volved in the formation of a private school in the county. (Pettway v. Surry County School Board.) The private school was formed last summer after seven Negro children had been assigned to the county’s all- white combination elementary and high school. All white children were enrolled in the private school, and the white public school was closed. The county continues to operate its Negro schools. S. W. Tucker, attorney for the Surry Negroes, argued that the private school is state-subsidized because pupils attending it are given state tuition grants. In a case involving Hopewell, the issue argued before the Circuit Court concerned the timing of school trans fer requests. The State Pupil Place ment Board has set May 31 as the deadline for such requests, hut fed eral District Judge John D. Butzner Jr. of Richmond ruled that the dead line need not be observed. Hopewell officials appealed the ruling on the ground that administrative havoc would result if children were per mitted to transfer up until the opening of school in September. (Gilliam v. Hopewell School Board.) In the third case heard by the Circuit Court, the question was whether two Negro wards of the Greene County Department of Wel fare could be required by the depart ment to attend an all-Negro school. (Buckner v. Green County School Board.) The court took the cases under advisement. ★ ★ ★ Negro plaintiffs in the Richmond desegregation case filed notice of ap peal April 3 from the March 16 District Court order upholding the city’s desegregation plan. (Bradley v. Richmond School Board.) 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 unconsti tutional. 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 1109 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, Tuslcegee Reed Sarratt, Executive Director, Institute, Tuslcegee Institute, Ala. Southern Education Reporting Serv- Alexander Heard, Chancellor, Vander- ice, Nashville, Tenn. bilt University, Nashville. Tenn. John Seigenthaler, Editor, Nashville C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob- Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn. server, Charlotte, N.C. Don Shoemaker, Editor, Miami Herald, Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash- Miami, Ii n ., , -it t Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn. T , , J ki w , ,, ' _ ... . Telegraph and News, Mecon, Ga. John N. Popham, General Managing Thomas R Waring, Editor, The News Editor, Chattanooga Times, Chatta- and Courier, Charleston, S.C. nooga, Tenn. Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea- Schools, Richmond, Va. body College, Nashville, Tenn. Stephen J. Wright, President, Fisk Uni versity, Nashville, Tenn. CORRESPONDENTS ALABAMA MISSISSIPPI William H. McDonald, Chief Edi- Kenneth Toler, Jackson Bureau, torial Writer, Alabama Journal, Memphis Commercial Appeal Montgomery MISSOURI ARKANSAS Robert H. Collins, Staff Writer, St. William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar- Louis Post-Dispatch kansas Gazette, Little Rock NORTH CAROLINA DELAWARE i_ u ; x Overbea, Staff Writer, The James E. Miller, Managing Editor, Journal-Sentinel, Winston-Salem Delaware State News, Dover OKLAHOMA DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla- Erwin Knol , Washington Bureau, homa City Oklahoman- Times Cl ™7n°A U5e Newspapers SOUTH CAROLINA D O II' rj., . I \w ., .,. . William E. Rone Jr., City Editor, Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami The ^ Co|umbia r PORTIA TENNESSEE Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The £ en Morrel1 ' Staff Writer ' Nashville M i i Ban ner aeon News KENTUCKY TEXAS James S. Pope Jr., Sunday Staff, Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bu- Louisville Courier-Journal reau, Dallas News LOUISIANA VIRGINIA Patrick E. McCauley, Editorial Overton Jones, Associate Editor, Writer, New Orleans Times-Picayune Richmond Times-Dispatch MARYLAND WEST VIRGINIA Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer, Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the Baltimore Sun Editor, Charleston Gaiette SUBSCRIPTION RATES One year (12 issues), $2. Groups: five or more copies fo different addressees, $1.75 each per year; five or more copies to one addressee, $1.50 each per year. Add 50 cents to above rates for orders outside U.S., Canada and Mexico. Single copies, any issue, 20 cents each. Ten or more copies, any one issue, 15 cents each. MAIL ADDRESS P.O. Box 6156, Nashville, Tennessee 37212. OKLAHOMA 3 Nominated For School Study OKLAHOMA CITY A n Oklahoma human-relations authority and two out-of-state educators were nominated April 27 to study Oklahoma City’s school desegregation program. The names were submitted to federal court by a Negro attorney. The Okla homa City Board of Education had de clined to hire an outside expert to make the study. (SSN, April.) U.S. District Judge Bohanon of Okla homa City set a hearing for May 13 to decide who of the three persons nom inated should be selected. U. Simpson Tate, Wewoka, who pro posed the names, asked the court to appoint all three men to assure a “fair” and unbiased” study. Tate’s Nominees Tate nominated Dr. William R. Car mack, director of the Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies at Norman and a former speech professor at the University of Oklahoma; Dr. Willard B. Spalding, assistant director of the Co ordinating Council for Higher Educa tion, San Francisco, and Dr. Earl A. McGovern, administrative assistant to the public school superintendent, New Rochelle, N.Y. Tate said all three men had been contacted and had agreed to serve if appointed. He said the study could be completed in two months at an esti mated cost of $5,000. Judge Bohanon indicated in a letter to Tate April 9 that the cost of making and filing the report he wanted might be taxed as costs in a pending court case (Dowell v. Board of Education.) Tate said the plaintiffs, Dr. A. L. Dowell and his son Robert of Oklahoma City, are willing to assume whatever part of the cost the court deems pro per. Earlier in April, Tate said he had learned “there are funds around” to finance the study. The Oklahoma City school board adopted its court-ordered permanent desegregation plan Jan. 14 and filed it in court a few days later. It declares attendance areas are based on geography and building utilization; that special school services are allowed all children who need them; that stu dent activities and faculties are deseg regated and that transfers are given for reasons set out without regard to race, color, creed, religion or national origin. The plan also reiterated the board’s intention to adhere to the neighborhood school concept. At a hearing on the plan Feb. 28, Tate attacked it as contributing to the main tenance of the status quo and tending to perpetuate racial segregation. (SSN, March.) Judge Bohanon said he did not want to approve the plan until he was as sured it is the best. Then he invited the school board to have prepared a “non-biased, non-pre- judiced, independent, expert report on the integration matters of the local public schools.” The board notified the court April 1 that, after careful consideration of all aspects of the situation, it had no plans to employ an outside expert of the type the court indicated it wants. The board said that after receiving the court’s order issued on July 11, 1963, it held a series of lengthy and de tailed deliberations and sought the counsel of as many segments of the community as possible. establishment and maintenance most economical and efficient P 0 ^ system of neighborhood schools community where changes m density and related factors are coi instant ueusny aiiu iciaicu — , and enormous,” the board repo out the whole community. “The board feels that it has ;te good faith and has more than , gr . legal and moral obligations as i stands them to be with regar ^ integration,” Judge Bohanon " , f 0 r The board acknowledged a aS the discussions with various .^ roU ^l p - e nta- policy is applied, and said give tive groups would be invited to advice. woU ld The school officials added they be interested in helping ern P on jerlf planning experts to aid m b „t development of Oklahoma gVa jl* they said they knew of n ° e ^*~ eva luat« able who could appropriately oI their efforts to bring about segregation. regre t a * Judge Bohanon expressed ^ ^ the decision of the board- attor0 e" dated April 9, to the board ^ v Walter Lybrand, he f ld ’ of f' me that the long-range P stand th tegration as filed sh® . , ge v/r 0 ^ searchlight of truth ;” * e b Jrd sh° ul He said he thought the boa “We have caused members of school system’s professional staff, w 0 are highly qualified educational an administrative experts, to devote th en \ selves to careful and detailed study administrative problems related to ^ ibk Reaction Cited The board said reaction to p *^ has been generally favorable r :ised welcome such an appra- .isal- i