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PAGE 6—JUNE, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
DELAWARE
Desegregation Is
Issue in Election of Board Member
DOVER
ESEGREGATION AROSE as an is-
sue during the campaign for
a seat on the Dover Special School
District Board of Education, but
the candidate who proposed a
“controlled plan” finished fourth
and last in the race.
Daniel D. Tryon, who said in pre
election statements that he did not
want to see happen in Dover “what
happened in Chester, Pa.,” drew 29 of
1,110 votes cast in the district.
The winner of the seat vacated by
President Paul Baker, who did not seek
re-election, was David H. L. King, who
polled 355 votes. Two other candidates,
Robert D. Bewick and Henry Heller,
respectively drew 341 and 285.
Baker was the only member of the
present four-member board who voted
in 1954 to desegregate the high school
at the academic level.
Under Attack
Tryon’s stand on desegregation came
under attack two days prior to the May
9 election at a public meeting held at
the Negro elementary school in the
Dover district.
“Dover has made no progress in in
tegration,” said Dr. Mary C. Baker,
state secretary for the NAACP and a
teacher at Delaware State College, a
predominantly Negro institution.
“It will take more than a controlled
plan of integration,” she told the candi
dates, “to avoid trouble in Dover.”
Dr. Baker cited particularly the
matter of teacher desegregation, noting
that there are only four Negro teachers
in the three white schools and one
white teacher in the Negro school.
“Is this integration?” she asked.
Cites Example
Dr. Baker told the candidates they
should take no pride in the fact that
Delaware State College is desegre
gated.
She cited an example of a Dover
white girl who graduated from Dover
High School and entered Delaware
State College only “to suffer great
humiliation from members of her own
race.”
She also noted that there are no white
children at the Negro Booker T. Wash
ington school in the Dover district.
“It is a little premature to begin
patting ourselves on the back because
we haven’t had any racial problems,”
Dr. Baker said. “There haven’t been
any, but don’t feel that there won’t be
in the future,” she warned.
TRYON KING
was too late in the year to tell teachers
affected that they will not have a job in
September.
Dr. Richard P. Gousha, state superin
tendent of public instruction, agreed
with Dr. King that the board “has a
moral obligation” to the teachers. How
ever, he said, if the grades are elim
inated the teaching positions no longer
exist.
Find Positions
“We can reduce the number of
teachers without a legal problem,” Dr.
Gousha said, but he recommended that
the board make every effort to find
positions for such displaced teachers.
Both Dr. Lasher and Dr. Woodrow
Wilson, the only Negro on the six-
member state board, argued that the
teachers could accompany the pupils to
the schools they will now attend.
“It’s not quite that easy,” said Dr.
King, who cited the power of local
boards to hire their own teachers unless
they have a vacancy by Aug. 15, when
the State Department of Public Instruc
tion takes over.
And Dr. Howard B. Row, assistant
superintendent in charge of secondary
education, pointed out that the teachers
would not necessarily be certified for
such vacancies as might exist at schools
which the displaced pupils eventually
enter.
Teacher Need
“If the need is for an algebra teacher
it would be educationally unsound to
use a teacher of English,” he declared.
Dr. Wilson argued, in effect, that the
state board has the power to tell the
local boards to hire the displaced
teachers.
“I think we shirk our responsibility
when we allow it to be said the local
boards of trustees shall say what will
happen to them,” he said. “I think it is
our responsibility to reassign person
nel.”
GEORGIA
The board, while voting to take away
the grades, did not come to a clear-cut
decision on what to do with the
teachers.
★ ★ ★
Negro Pupils Register
In Two Sussex Districts
At least two more Delaware school
districts will be desegregated in prac
tice next September, according to May
registration.
Negro pupils, at a special registration
held in mid-May in compliance with a
federal court order, signed up to attend
previously white schools at Selbyville
and Lord Baltimore.
Both schools are in Sussex County,
the southernmost of Delaware’s three
counties and the one where school de
segregation has faced the most resist
ance.
Six Negroes registered at Selbyville
while five registered at Lord Baltimore,
a school which serves the Ocean View-
Bethany Beach-Millville area.
Five of the students who will enter
Lord Baltimore previously attended the
all-Negro Frankford 206 school while
another who attended Frankford 206
transferred to Selbyville.
The other five who will attend Selby
ville were students at the Philip C.
Showell School in Selbyville, which the
State Board of Education voted in April
to reduce rather than enlarge.
Students in the seventh and eighth
grades were given the privilege to at
tend either the Selbyville (white)
school or the William C. Jason (Negro)
school at Georgetown.
Under Survey
Report Classifies
School Buildings
As Unsatisfactory
There are 1,002 students, including
878 Negroes, in 27 school buildings
called “unsatisfactory” in a report on
desegregation presented at the May 21
meeting of the State Board of Educa
tion.
The report, compiled at the request
of Harry D. Zutz, a member of the
board, was presented by Dr. Richard
Delaware Highlights
A candidate who advocated a con
trolled plan of desegregation finish
ed fourth and last in a bid to win a
seat on the Board of Education at
Dover.
At least two more Delaware dis
tricts will be desegregated in prac
tice next September, according to
May enrollment.
Additions to a Negro school were
rejected for the second time in two
months by the State Board of Educa
tion.
There are 27 unsatisfactory school
buildings, 24 of which are Negro, in
Delaware, according to a report
compiled by the State Department of
Public Instruction.
P. Gousha, state superintendent of pub
lic instruction.
Twenty-three of the 27 buildings
called unsatisfactory have an all-Negro
enrollment, and none has more than
two rooms.
The four white schools, with a com
bined enrollment of 124, are also one-
or two-room schools.
Move to Close Schools
Zutz, after Dr. Gousha presented the
report, moved to have all 27 of the
schools called unsatisfactory closed at
the end of the current school year.
“The time has come to close all 27
of these schools on the basis of them
being unsatisfactory from the physical
point of view,” he said.
“If we close them,” Zutz continued,
“we will also accomplish integration.
If the staff thinks these schools are un
satisfactory it’s time we did something
about it.”
But Robert L. D. Allen, a member
of the state board from Sussex County,
where most of the schools in question
are located, asked for time to delib
erate.
Study ‘Incomplete’
“The study is not complete,” Allen
argued, and his view was endorsed in
essence by Dr. Gousha, who admitted
he does “not know what this (the re
port) means.”
But Zutz pressed for a shutdown of
all the schools. “There is no doubt in
your mind,” he asked Dr. Gousha, ‘' nov
that you have inspected these school!
that the students are getting an
adequate education, is there?”
Dr. Gousha agreed. “The inadeq Uat(j
physical facilities reflect an inadequ^.,
education,” he said.
But J. Ohrum Small, president of th e
state board, also suggested that action
be delayed. “We will make this the No
1 item on the June agenda,” he said
“In the meantime,” he continued
“the staff will have the opportunity to
prepare further data and recommenda
tions for the consideration of th
board.”
Zutz Agrees
Zutz ag eed with Small’s proposal
suggesting that “we invite all inter-
ested persons to attend this meeting to
share their views and enable us t 0
achieve integration in an orderly man
ner.”
The issue arose again at the May 28
meeting of the Delaware School Board
Association in Dover.
Dr. Gousha, in essence, reaffirmed his
earlier stated belief that Negro schools
should be eliminated in Delaware. The
dual school system, he said, is an extra
vagance the state can no longer afford.
He suggested that local white boards
assume the initiative in policy matters
pertaining to mergers with nearby Ne
gro districts.
What They Say
Small Unconcerned
By Tax List Delay
In Two Counties
Another year’s delay in adding Ne
groes to the property tax list in Kent
and Sussex counties is of no imme
diate “concern” to J. Ohrum Small,
president of the State Board of Educa
tion.
Small was informed that two of Dela
ware’s three counties would not put
Negroes on the tax list this year despite
a state board reminder that “there shall
be no deletions in taxables because of
race or color.”
Small, in a telegram sent to the Levy
Court of each county, requested that
“you do not accept any assessment list
(See DELAWARE, Page 8)
Views Asked
Another who asked the candidates to
express their views on desegregation
was Mrs. Lillian Sockum, a teacher at
William T. Henry, a Negro school serv
ing Kent County.
All four candidates for the board
seat agreed that Dover is making what
they termed satisfactory porgress.
Tryon, in a campaign statement, said
that “integration is inevitable, because
of space requirements, if nothing else.”
But he said a “controlled plan,” as op
posed to immediate desegregation, is
the answer.
All Delaware districts are under
court order to admit all members of all
races at all grade levels.
Schoolmen
Board Turns Down
Planned Addition
For Negro School
For the second consecutive month
the State Board of Education has re
jected an addition to an existing Negro
school and instructed the students in
the seventh and eighth grades to enroll
at other nearby white or Negro schools.
The latest cutback comes at Frank
ford 206, where the board voted
unanimously to reduce a $220,000 build
ing program by some $80,000 by not
adding two projected classrooms.
In April, the board voted to take
two grades away from the Negro Phil
lip Showell school at Selbyville, also in
Sussex County.
The Frankford action was taken at
the request of Dr. Hiram C. Lasher,
vice-president of the state board and a
Sussex County resident.
Dr. Lasher, during a long and spirited
debate with Dr. H. B. King, assistant
superintendent in charge of elementary
education, said Frankford 206 is not in
a rapidly growing area and that the
school population is nearly static,
Dr. King, in the main, argued that it
Atlanta Plan Returned for More Hearings
(Continued from Page 1)
Schoolmen
15 Transfers Get
Board Approval
In Bibb County
The May 30 deadline for Negro stu
dents in Bibb County (Macon) to apply
for transfers to white schools this fall
passed and the school board announced
that the applications of 15 Negroes had
been approved.
Eight transfer requests remained on
file and awaiting action.
Dr. Leon Culpepper, co-ordinator of
the court-approved desegregation plan,
said Negro students would be assigned
to the following 12 grades: four to
Lanier (boys), five to Miller (girls),
one to Willingham (boys), one to Mc-
Evoy (girls) and four to Dudley
Hughes (vocational coeducational). The
distribution may change when transfer
requests still on file are processed.
The Baptist Ministers Brotherhood of
Macon and Vicinity, a Negro organiza
tion, asked why so few Negro
llth-graders applied for transfer to
white schools and charged that princi
pals and teachers of Negro high schools
were discouraging their students from
seeking such transfers.
Other Communities
Meanwhile, applications for transfers
by Negroes to desegregated schools this
fall were being processed in some other
Georgia communities.
In Chatham County (Savannah), 59
Negroes applied. Forty-four asked to be
enrolled at Savannah High and 15 at
Groves. For the second straight year,
no Negroes asked entrance to Jenkins
High.
D. H. King, assistant superintendent
of schools, said applicants would be
Georgia Highlights
A U. S. District Court was ordered
by the U. S. Supreme Court to con
duct more hearings on Negro com
plaints that Atlanta’s grade-a-year
school desegregation plan is too slow.
Applications of 15 Negroes for
transfer to previously white schools
in Bibb County (Macon) this fall
were approved, with eight applica
tions yet to be processed. But a group
of Negro Baptist ministers charged
Negro principals and teachers were
discouraging the llth-grade Negroes
from applying for admissions to the
12th grade in the white schools.
Fifty-nine Negroes applied for
transfer to 11th and 12th grades in
predominantly white schools in Chat
ham County (Savannah).
A spokesman for a Negro teacher
group protested that of 400 pupils
enrolled in a special state-financed
honors program this summer, only
12 are Negroes.
notified of the decision on their ap
plications by June 15.
A grade-a year desegregation plan
was put into effect in Chatham County
under court order last September. It
applied only to the 12th grade. This
year, the 11th grade also will be de
segregated.
19 Transferred in 1963
In 1963, a total of 42 Negroes applied
for transfer to white schools. Of these,
21 were approved and two changed
their minds, leaving 19 Negroes in pre
viously white schools.
Eighty-one Negro children have ap
plied for admission to the first and
second grades of white schools in
Dougherty County (Albany) this fall.
Four Negroes have been accepted for
enrollment in white schools in Musco
gee County (Columbus) in September.
Clarke County (Athens) and Glynn
County (Brunswick) desegregated
schools last fall.
★ ★ ★
Student Honors Program
Called Discriminatory
At a meeting of the State Board of
Education May 21, Dr. H. E. Tate,
executive secretary of the Negro
Georgia Teachers and Education As
sociation, protested that a state-
sponsored honors program was racially
discriminatory.
An eight-week honors school for the
brightest students in Georgia, paid for
by the state, will open at Wesleyan
College in Macon in June.
Tate objected that of the 400 pupils
enrolled for the honors school, only 12
were Negroes. He also complained that
while there are qualified Neg o teach
ers in the state, none is included on
the 33-member staff of the advanced
summer session.
Competition Held
Pupils for the honors school were
selected competitively for aptitude in
social studies, mathematics, languages,
music, drama and art.
Board member David Rice of Atlanta
told Tate it is “remarkable” that such
a program in Georgia should be de
segregated at all. “You’re making a
mountain out of a molehill,” he told
the Negro spokesman. “You’re just
hurting your cause.”
Tate answered, “I still object to the
state spending $125,000 for this pro
gram with only 12 Negroes in it.”
Tate also asked the state board to
order county and other local school
systems to end discrimination against
Negro teachers in their salary supple
ments. Chairman James S. Peters of
Manchester said the state lacks au
thority to tell local systems how to
spend their funds.
Miscellaneous
Negro Job-Guidance
Grant Is Approved
U.S. Rep. Charles L. Weltner said the
federal Area Redevelopment .
istration has approved a technical
sistance g ant of $80,000 for A
University (Negro) to use in
a bureau to help create new jo
Negroes by giving guidance to e »
enterprises.
★ ★ ★
Seven young Negroes were convi ^.
of violating Georgia’s anti-trespass^^
The cha ges grew out of ^ ese fp^ns
tion decisions at a drive-in ^
which caters to University of
students. The university was “ es u ^-.
gated under court order in 311
1961.
★ ★ ★
Schools providing off-duty
tional services for military
were queried concerning a DeP .^a-
of Defense directive on non "(f per-
tion in civil schooling of m ‘rV a bo<J‘
sonnel. The schools were as ^
policies on acceptance and t ’T. 3
student applicants without 1S
tion.
★ ★ ★
• a OP
E. Sanders, appear*^,
televised P^^grega'
ears of school deseg ^
.rgians are “P^f^
re never closed <>uf
ad troops come u) 0-