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teN years in review SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY, 1964—PAGE 3-B HIGHER education Decision Gave Impetus To College Desegregation D esegregation of the public colleges and universities in the Southern and border region began as early as 1936 but did no t gain impetus until after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruhngs in the School Segregation Cases. At the time of the first ruling on jtay 17, 1954, the region had 29 insti tutions of higher learning with policies to admit both races. Seven days after that ruling, the Supreme Court indi cated the decision in the cases involv ing elementary and high schools would apply a l* s0 to higher education. The court returned the University of Flori da desegregation suit to a lower court “for consideration in light of the Seg regation Cases . . . and conditions that . n ow prevail.” The pace of college desegregation followed closely that of the graded schools. The number of colleges ad mitting both races doubled in the first school year after the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision and continued to increase at a sizable figure for the next two years. In the 1954-55 school year, the region had 60 biracial colleges and universities, and 39 more ended their policies of discrimination in 1955-56, and 18 others, in 1956-57. By the end of the 1957-58 school year, the region had 128 desegregated public institutions of higher learning. The pace slowed during the middle years of the decade, with five more schools desegregating in 1958-59, three in the next year, and four in 1960-6L Beginning with 1961-62, the deseg regation pace increased in the region’s public colleges and by this year all 79 schools in the border area had deseg regated in practice or policy. The year 1962- 63 added another 25 schools to the list, and 20 more schools acted in 1963- 64. Every border state had begun some college desegregation by the 1954-55 school year and they had completed the process by 1961-62. The last Sou thern states to admit Negroes to form erly all-white public colleges, Mis sissippi and South Carolina, delayed acting until 1962-63, complying only by federal court order. The Southern states still have 95 segregated institu tions of higher learning. The decade ends with 197 desegre gated public colleges, out of a total of 292 schools in the region. Twenty-five of these biracial schools have pre dominantly Negro enrollments. Only 32 of the 197 schools acted by court order, and the other 165 complied voluntarily. Statistics by race on the enrollments in the desegregated schools have been difficult to obtain. The best estimates available indicate that the region has approximately 35,880 Negroes in bi racial public colleges, attending classes with about 573,109 whites. Desegregated Public Colleges and Universities Predominantly White—Predominantly Negro Total Pre-1954 1954-55 1955-56 1956-57 1957-58 1958-59 1959-60 1960-61 1961-62 1962-63 1963-64 Schools PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN PW-PN Alabama 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-1 3-1 7-2 Arkansas ... 1-0 1-0 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1 Florida 1-0 1-0 3-0 5-1 9-1 10-2 20-13 Georgia 1-0 2-0 6-0 7-1 16-3 Louisiana ... 1-0 4-0 4-0 4-0 4-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 6-0 10-3 Mississippi 1-0 1-0 19-6 North Carolina ... 2-0 2-0 2-0 3-0 4-1 4-1 4-1 4-1 6-1 8-1 11-6* 11-6 South Carolina .... 1-0 2-0 5-1 Tennessee ... 1-0 1-0 1-0 3-1 5-1 5-1 6-1* 6-1* 6-1* 6-1* 6-1* 6-1 Texas ... 7-0 9-0 14-1 21-2 23-2 23-2 25-2 26-2 29-2 39-2 40-3 50-4 Virginia ... 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 5-0 6-0 8-0 9-0 19-2 SOUTH ... 17-0 22-0 34-2 44-4 49-5 51-5 54-5 58-5 67-6 91-7 102-15 170-42 Delaware ... 1-0 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1* 1-1 Dist. of Columbia... 1-1* 0-1** 0-1* 0-1* 0-1* 0-1* 0-1* 0-1* 0-1* 0-1* 0-1 Kentucky ... 3-0 3-1 4-1 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1* 7-1 Maryland ... 2-2 3-2 8-4 8-4 12-4 14-4 14-4 14-4 16-4* 16-4* 16-4* 16-4 Missouri ... 2-0 11-1 12-1 12-1 12-1 13-1* 13-1* 13-1* 13-1* 13-1* 14-1* 14-1 Oklahoma ... 1-0 2-0 18-1 21-1* 22-1* 22-1* 22-1* 22-1* 22-1* 22-1* 22-1* 22-1 West Virginia .... ... 1-0 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1* 10-1 BORDER ... 10-2 31-7 53-10 59-10 64-10 67-10 67-10 67-10 69-10* 69-10* 70-10 ! 70-10 REGION ... 27-2 53-7 87-12 103-14 113-15 118-15 121-15 125-15 136-16 160-17 172-25 240-52 *—Indicates all public colleges and universities desegregated. **—Two schools merged. TENNESSEE State’s Rate of Desegregation Is Second Among 11 in South 10-Year SEES Files Placed on Microfilm The 10-year collection of race •*- relations material in the Sou thern Education Reporting Ser vice library has been recorded on microfilm and is available for • research in 50 libraries across the United States. Included in the microfilm collection, known as “Facts on Film,” are news paper and magazine clippings, speeches, '“mphlets, bibliographies and all back 'sues of the three SERS publications— Southern School News, the “Statistical Summary” and “Race Relations Law reporter.” The series is supplemented annually. Locations of “Facts on Film” are: ; : Bahama—Alabama A & M, Normal, ■ Tuskegee Institute; Arkansas— diversity of Arkansas, Fayetteville; ' r —University of California, . Angeles; Connecticut—Wesleyan • ^versify, Middletown, and Yale Uni- s ersity, jj ew Haven; District of Co- 3 ^mbia—Howard University and the 0 , Commission on Civil Rights; i orida—University of Miami, Coral Population (Continued from Page 2-B) and on the West Coast. Non- ] Negro population is almost usively urban, with more than 90 in cities. a Southern states—Mississippi ^kansas—lost Negro population . t .' ee ' n 1950 and 1960. The total in- ias Se ® Negro population in Alabama 5o Pu]°c w hile the increase in !, as L°n for the state as a whole the Mississippi continued as of fjg ^ with the highest percentage , -ose Population, and Negroes com- > ] per cent of the population of Southern state to hold out ^°ols 3ny desegregation of public “U ; South Carolina, second high- 3fst , ®4.8 per cent Negroes, had its ■ear Segregated district this school P >t P d U,atio n shifts have had their t t»y re arnat ic effect in the cities where '■» g u Sati °n occurred shortly after v er, pt | em e Court decision. How- 1 le s that have desegregated f*sis. rn Centl Y and on a more limited yH 0 j wl follow a pattern similar to ^ii s , . f*bington, Baltimore and St. - Hg, . Negro children becoming of tiT ty ’ n Lhe public school sys- *>i» . “ e central city. Atlanta, Mem- ., -<i Birmingham have all wit- ' -legr 0 grease in the percentage UbecJ. ||* ou gh desegregation has in- y* al<^ ® impact of population shifts ;< ‘ cb ari _ r ° u ght about resegregation ^hooi j 6s , m the racial composition Ist ricts and student bodies. child; ren. Gables; Georgia—University of Georg ia, Athens, Atlanta University, Emory University at Atlanta, and Southern Regional Council, Atlanta; Illinois— Southern Illinois University, Carbon- dale, University of Chicago, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, and Uni versity of Illinois, Urbana; Indiana— Purdue University, Lafayette; Ken tucky—University of Kentucky, Lex ington; Louisiana—Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Southern University, Baton Rouge, Northwestern State College, Natchitoches, and Dil lard University, New Orleans; Mary land—Johns Hopkins University, Balti more; Massachusetts—Harvard College, Cambridge; Michigan—University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan State University, East Lansing; Mississippi— University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg; New Hampshire—Dart mouth College, Hanover; New York— Brooklyn College, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Public Library, and New York University Library; North Carolina—University of North Caro lina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Col lege at Durham, and Agricultural & Technical College, Greensboro; Ohio— Cleveland Public Library and Ohio State University, Columbus; Pennsyl vania—University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; South Carolina—Univer sity of South Carolina, Columbia, Winthrop College, Rock Hill; Tennes see—Memphis State University, Fisk University, Nashville, and Tennessee A & I, Nashville; Texas—North Texas State University, Denton, and Prairie View A & M; Virginia—Virginia State College, Petersburg, Radford College, and Virginia Union University, Rich mond; Wisconsin—University of Wis consin, Madison. Gov. Frank G. Clement Called out froops. NASHVILLE P ublic school desegregation has occurred more rapidly in Tennessee than in all but one of the 11 Southern states since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 de cision. The latest figures show that 4,486 of Tennessee’s nearly 165,000 Negro students are attending classes with white students. The 45 desegregated districts represent more than 31 per cent of the state’s total system having both white and Negro students; the percentage of Negroes attending bi racial schools is 2.72 per cent of the total Negro enrollment. This percentage, among the South ern states, is surpassed only by Texas, which has 5.52 of its Negroes in bi racial schools. Three of the desegregated districts— Elizabethton, Humboldt and Water- town—have had no Negroes attending classes with whites. Thirty-three of the districts, more than 73 per cent of the total, began desegregation under plans adopted voluntarily, although some of them acted under threats of lawsuits by Negroes. Federal court orders brought biracial classes in the other 12 districts. In cluding districts in which litigation oc curred after desegregation plans were adopted voluntarily, a total of 15 fed eral suits have been filed seeking de segregation in grades one through 12. As the 10th anniversary of the Su preme Court decision approached an estimated 500,768 of Tennessee’s 852,842 students were in desegregated districts. These estimates included 380,321 white students and 120,447 Negro stu dents. They also reflected totals from the state’s four metropolitan areas— Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis—in which desegregation is under way. All 12 Grades At least nine of the desegregated dis tricts operate biracial classes in all 12 grades. The Knoxville Board of Edu cation and the Knox County Board of Education have announced plans to desegregate the remaining six grades this fall. They will become the first metropolitan area in Tennessee to de segregate all 12 grades. At least two districts have desegre gated faculties. Putnam County has four Negro teachers assigned to pre dominantly white schools. Oak Ridge, which in 1955, while under federal control, became the state’s first district to drop racial bars has four white teachers and staff members assigned to an all-Negro school. Desegregation in Tennessee for the most part has been quiet and orderly, but in the earlier years it was marked by outbursts of violence. The first ser ious violence erupted at Clinton High School in Anderson County in 1956 as it became the first state-supported school to begin biracial classes. Riot ing broke out as a group of Negroes, under federal court order, sought to begin classes in the school. Gov. Frank G. Clement dispatched National Guard troops to restore order. U.S. District Court enjoined segre gation leader John Kasper, a native of New Jersey, and others from interfer ing with the de segregation. Kas per served about 15 months in a federal prison on contempt of court charges. The students were enrolled in the school. Two years later the school was dam aged heavily by a dynamite explo sion. School Dynamiting There also was the dynamiting of Hattie Cotton School at Nashville in September, 1957, as the city began grade-a-year desegregation under fed eral court orders. Both blasts occurred while the buildings were empty and no one was injured. No one has been ar rested in connection with either ex plosion, although one man earlier had been convicted and sentenced to prison for conspiring to blow up the Clinton school in 1957. Kasper also was arrested in Nash ville, on charges of inciting to riot during the disorder accompanying de segregation, and was sentenced to a six-month term in the Davidson Coun ty Workhouse. Since 1957, there have been few in cidents of violence connected with school desegregation. No serious dis orders have been reported in connec tion with the desegregation of Ten nessee’s colleges and universities, all seven of which are open to students of both races. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville was the first state-supported institution of higher learning to deseg regate, admitting Negroes to graduate, professional and special classes under federal district court order in 1952. Plan Rejected Desegregation of two of the other six state-supported colleges and uni versities began in 1956 under a plan later rejected by the U.S. Sixth Cir cuit Court of Appeals. In 1957, the State Board of Education removed race as a factor in admissions to the six colleges and universities under its jurisdiction. Latest figures show that an esti mated 403 Negro students attend classes with 36,510 white students at the uni versity and four other predominantly- white colleges and universities. These include 181 Negroes in biracial classes at the university’s Knoxville campus and branches at Martin, Nashville and Memphis: 58 at Austin Peay State Col lege at Clarksville; 30 at East Tennes see State University at Johnson City; 110 at Memphis State University; and 24 at Middle Tennessee State College at Murfreesboro. No Negroes have been enrolled at Tennessee Polytechnic In stitute at Cookeville. The seventh state institution, Ten nessee A & I University at Nashville, a predominantly-Negro school had three white students among its 4,240 enrollment this year. KASPER No Negro teachers are listed as mem bers of the faculty at the six predom- inantly-white institutions, but A&I has two full-time white instructors and several part-time white instructors. Many of Tennessee’s private colleges and universities also have opened ad mission to students without regard to race. As in the other Southern and border states, Tennessee’s legislature in the earlier years considered the question of school segregation-desegregation. No legislation was approved until 1957 when the General Assembly protested encroachment of states’ rights and con demned the Supreme Court decision. The 1957 assembly also passed a ser ies of nine laws dealing with pupil transfers, permitting voluntary segre gation, establishing pupil assignment, allowing segregation by sex, and re quiring registration of racial organi zations and information on solicitors for litigation. The 1959 legislature made local school boards responsible for enforcing com pulsory attendance and permitted par ents to withdraw children from school for good reason, with school board con sent, and to enroll them elsewhere within 30 days. Most of the laws have not been tested in the courts. But U.S. District Court at Nashville in 1957 declared the voluntary segregation law unconstitu tional in Kelley v. Nashville Board of Education. The pupil assignment law has come under frequent attack by Negro plaintiffs and the U.S. Sixth Cir cuit Court of Appeals in 1962 reversed a U.S. District Court ruling and held that the law was inadequate as a de segregation plan. School segregation-desegregation leg islation has not been considered by the legislature since 1957, and the issue has been raised seldom in political cam paigns in recent years. Figured Prominently But Tennessee has figured promi nently in the public school desegrega tion story. The grade-a-year plan ap proved in Nash ville by U.S. Dis trict Judge Wil liam E. Miller in 1957 served as a guide for many other Southern communities. The suit was among the first in which gradual desegre gation programs were upheld by federal appellate courts. Becoming known as “the Nash ville plan,” the grade-a-year formula also served as model for some districts which began desegregation voluntarily. One section of the “Nashville plan” provided for the transfer of students from schools where their race was in the minority to one where it was a ma jority. This also was incorporated into other gradual desegregation plans in the South. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1963 in two other Tennessee cases struck down the transfer clause.