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Objective
AUGUST, 1964
the region
33 School Districts Plan to De
x least 83 public school dis
tricts in the 11 Southern
states plan to start desegregation
' programs with the opening of the
1964-65 school year, according to
a survey by Southern School
’ News correspondents.
This new desegregation would give
the 11-state area a total of 527 desegre
gated districts—about one-fourth of the
2256 school districts having both races
enrolled. Another 738 school districts
have either an all-white or all-Negro
enrollment.
Court orders figured in the decision
of 20 districts to begin biracial classes
this fall. The other 63 districts acted
voluntarily, although legal or financial
'■ pressure stemming from the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 influenced several of
these districts. Officials of the U.S.
Department of Health, Education and
Welfare conferred with local school
authorities at a series of regional
meetings and notified them that the
agency would withhold impacted-area
aid funds from segregated schools. The
■ new rights act also provides that the
U.S. Department of Justice could file
school desegregation suits, under cer
tain conditions.
Every Southern state except Louisi-
i ana will experience additional desegre
gation this fall. Virginia reported 24
new desegregated districts, the largest
number of any state. One of these is
Prince Edward County, which figured
in the original desegregation decisions
; of 1954 and now is reopening its public
i schools after having closed them in
i , 1959 to avoid admitting Negroes to
i schools with whites.
In Louisiana, St. Helena Parish was
under court orders to desegregate this
September but local officials have re
fused to submit a desegregation plan.
This is the first case to be referred by
a federal court to Community Relations
Service, created by the new rights act.
Mississippi, the last holdout for seg
regation in the graded schools, has
agreed to begin desegregation programs
in at least three districts this fall, and
in possibly a fourth. All the new de
segregation in Mississippi and Alabama
comes from orders by federal courts.
South Carolina reports it will have
some voluntary desegregation for the
first time.
Districts Desegregating
The number of districts scheduled to
desegregate in each state are: Alabama,
four; Arkansas, eight; Florida, three;
Georgia, four; Louisiana, none; Mis
sissippi, four; North Carolina, 14; South
Carolina, six; Tennessee, three; Texas,
13; and Virginia, 24.
In the border area, only Kentucky
expects to gain a newly desegregated
district. The addition of these 84 dis
tricts would give the 17 Southern and
border states, plus the district of
Columbia, a total of 1,245 desegregated
districts—41 per cent of the 3,028 dis
tricts in the region having both races.
The region’s total of 6,121 districts in
cludes 3,093 that either are all white or
all Negro.
A list of the districts planning to de
segregate follows, with (c) indicating
those complying by court order:
Alabama: Bullock County (c), Gads
den (c), Madison County (c), Mont
gomery City-County (c).
Arkansas: Atkins, Danville, Dardan-
elle, Havana, North Little Rock, Ola,
Russellville, Texarkana.
Florida: Alachua County (Gaines
ville), Bay County (Panama City) (c),
Brevard County (Cape Kennedy) (c).
Georgia: Bibb County (Macon) (c),
Dougherty County (Albany) (c), Mus
cogee County (Columbus), Richmond
County (Augusta).
Kentucky: Shelby County.
Mississippi: Biloxi (c), Clarksdale
(c), Jackson (c), Leake County (c).
North Carolina: Bertie County, Car-
burrus County, Davidson County,
Greene County, Greenville, Henderson
ville (c), Iredell County, Lexington (c),
Martin County, Stanley County, Tar-
boro, Tryon, Warren County (c),
Weldon.
South Carolina: Beaufort County
School District No. 1, Cooper River
School District No. Four (North
Charleston), Darlington County (c),
Greenville County (c), Pickens County,
Rock Hill.
Tennessee: Madison County (c),
Sparta, Williamson County.
Texas: Brazosport, Columbia-Brazoria,
Georgetown (c), Huntsville, Lewisville,
Marlin, Marshall, McKinney, Mesquite,
Orange, South Park, Taylor, Texarkana.
Virginia: Accomack County, Amelia
County, Bath County, Bristol, Bruns
wick County, Campbell County, Car-
roll County, Covington, Giles County,
Gloucester County, Halifax County,
Harrisonburg, Madison County, Meck
lenburg County, Northhampton Coun
ty, Page County, Pittsylvania County,
Prince Edward County (c), Rappahan
nock County, Rockbridge County,
Rockingham County, Suffolk, Williams
burg, Wythe County.
; WASHINGTON REPORT
President Asks School Officials
To Support New Civil Rights Act
WASHINGTON
resident Johnson appealed
to leading public school offi-
1 dais from across the country
July 30 to exercise influence in
their communities in behalf of
Peaceful compliance with the new
Civil Rights Act.
• I You are respected and looked to and
er nulated by those who must lead
Vesica tomorrow,” the President told
: %9 educators who attended a White
douse reception.
■ Your respect for law and order—
( |' 0Ur respect for human rights—will live
°®g after you in the lives of those who
, I °°* to your example now.
“This is a great and golden moment
for America—a moment to unite, a mo
ment to lay aside the burdens of the
past, a moment to move ahead. I trust
to your leadership to help us hold that
course.”
The White House gathering followed
similar sessions the President held a
week earlier with businessmen and la
bor leaders.
Among the educators who accepted
Johnson’s invitation, it was noted, were
several dozen school superintendents
and school board officials from Deep
South states—including some whose
communities have not yet begun de
segregating their public schools.
A year ago, when the late President
Kennedy held a similar White House
: MISSISSIPPI
U.S. Judge Approves Plans
for Biloxi, Jackson, Leake
|. JACKSO
(J S. District Judge Sidne
^ Mize tentatively approve
c u ly 29 plans to desegregal
n tb STa ^ e c ^ asses in Septembt
(y e Jackson, Biloxi, and Leak
school districts.
^ati* 26 a ® reec * to a request from tl
Association for the Advanc
I Colored People that he r
■'•'’'Arp Pl ans in January. T]
” objected to the grade-a-ye
iistj. su bmitted by the three scho
W a C S , asked that desegregatii
accelerated.
I CV etained jurisdiction in tl
ty; Ca '^■CP attorney Derrick B(
h f not se °k to upset tl
fall e ore they become effective tl
'V y sa *d he considered the pla:
es t procedure for amicable ai
orderly desegregation of the schools.”
“I hesitate and am reluctant to put
my judgment up against those who rim
the school system,” he added, “They
are more qualified to establish the best
method, far better than a judge is.”
He said he wifi recall the cases in
January to determine their operation,
and for possible modification.
“Maybe next year two or three
grades and the following year three
or four,” he said. “We’U have to wait
and see. What I want to see is an
orderly desegregation.”
The plans submitted by the three
school boards in the middle of July
call for desegregation of first grade
classes in September and one additional
grade each following fall. The schools
would be completely desegregated in
12 years.
The NAACP asked Mize July 16 to
(See THREE, Page 6)
conference with educators to enlist
their support for his civil rights pro
gram, only a few white Southern edu
cators accepted the invitation.
President Johnson told the schoolmen
that he intended to use all the resources
at his command “to make sure those
who claim rights—and those who deny
them—bend their passions to peaceful
obedience to the law of the land.”
He said no Americans have an obliga
tion or an opportunity “so great as
yours now to serve and shape the fu
ture of our society.”
As he has on other occasions, John
son referred to the current 88th Con
gress as an “education Congress” and
reviewed a number of school aid meas
ures that have been enacted into law.
“Men who neglect their schools
neglect their liberty,” he declared.
Celebrezze and Keppel
The school officials also heard from
Secretary of Health, Education and
Welfare Anthony Celebrezze and from
U.S. Commissioner of Education Fran
cis Kepoel, who addressed himself
specifically to the school desegregation
provisions of the Civil Rights Act.
Keppel outlined the act’s Title TV. de
signed to accelerate the pace of class
room desegregation, and Title VI,
which deals with discrimination in
federally aided programs.
The latter, Keppel stressed, “has the
effect of amend in (r eve~y federal assist
ance law to require that there be no
discrimination in any program receiv
ing federal funds.”
In recent conferences with Southern
school authorities, Keppel and other
officials of the Department of HEW and
the U.S. Office of Education ha->re made
it clear that they will demand prompt
compliance with Title VI in administer
ing such federal aid programs as grants
for “impacted” school districts—of
which a substantial number are located
in the South.
With respect to the Civil Rights Act,
Keppel told the participants in the
White House meeting, “no one can deny
that there are difficulties ahead, or that
problems, long with us, are now grown
(See PRESIDENT, Page 2)
segregate
★ ★ ★
The only public college desegregation
announced for this fall will occur in
Florida. Two counties, Lee and Putnam,
are closing the Negro branches of their
junior colleges and opening the former
ly all-white divisions to both races.
The action in Lee County will result
in the closure of the Dunbar branch
and the desegregation of Edison Junior
College. Putnam County is closing all-
Negro Collier-Blocker Junior College
and merging it with the formerly all-
white St. Johns River Junior College.
Seven private institutions of higher
learning in the South have announced
new desegregation policies to begin this
fall. They are: Sacred Heart College
(Roman Catholic), Cullman, Ala.; At
lantic Christian College (Disciples of
Christ), Wilson, N.C.; Newberry Col
lege (Lutheran), Newberry, S.C.; Wof
ford College (Methodist), Spartanburg,
S.C.; Carson-Newman College (South
ern Baptist), Jefferson City, Term.;
Southwestern at Memphis (Presby
terian, U.S.); and Randolph-Macon
(Men’s) College (Methodist), Ashland,
Va.
The new desegregation at the public
college and university level would give
the 11 Southern states 127 desegregated
institutions, leaving 83 still segregated.
All 80 public colleges and universities
in the border area have desegregated
in practice or policy.
When the new college year begins
this fall, the South will have more
than 130 desegregated private colleges,
out of a total of 291. The entire South
ern and border area will have desegre
gated over 250 of its 438 private
institutions of higher learning.
In This Issue
Monthly Reports
Alabama 1
Arkansas 9
Florida 7
Georgia 2
Louisiana 1
Mississippi 1
North Carolina 12
South Carolina 8
Tennessee 11
Texas 3
Virginia 5
Washington 1
Special Articles
The Region 1
New Teachers’ Group 7
NEW ORLEANS
he St. Helena Parish School
Board continued its 11-year-
old fight against school desegre
gation by rejecting a court order
to devise a plan of gradual tran
sition and appealing to the newly
created federal Community Rela
tions Service for help.
The unprecedented action followed
this sequence of legal maneuvers:
• A mandamus issued July 10 by
the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
directed District Judge E. Gordon West
to devise a three-stage desegregation
plan to be implemented when schools
open Aug. 12. The court sharply
criticized Judge West, among others,
accusing him of shirking his re
sponsibility.
• Judge West on July 13 issued the
required order to the school board and
in doing so fired back at the appeals
court for what he called its “injudici
ously couched” opinion, “an obvious
attack on my personal integrity.” Judge
West set a July 24 deadline for the
board to present its plan.
• The school board, on July 18,
adopted a resolution saying it “must
(See ST. HELENA, Page 4)
Judge E.
‘An obvioui attack.’
LOUISIAN;
tun
Parish Refuses
To Provide Plan
Asked by Court
ALABAMA
School Board Gets Orders
To Start Identical Plans
MONTGOMERY
chool boards in Birmingham,
Huntsville, Madison County,
Gadsden, Macon County, Mobile
and Montgomery received orders
in July and early August to initi
ate virtually identical plans of
new or expanded desegregation—
four grades during the coming
school year and two a year there
after until desegregation is com
pleted at all levels.
Montgomery also faced desegregation
for the first time and Judge Frank M.
Johnson commented before he ruled on
the case that it was the duty of the
school board, not Negroes, to initiate
desegregation.
In all cases, the U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals’ ruling of June 18
(SSN, July) was the dominant con
sideration in the directives of the
judges. The appellate court had ruled
that faster desegregation was required,
setting as a minimum the first, 10th,
11th and 12th grades for the
coming school year and two grades in
each following year until the process
had been completed.
Birmingham schools were desegre
gated on a limited basis last fall, as
were those in Huntsville, Mobile and
Macon County. In Macon County all
white students withdrew successively
from three separate schools.
Birmingham—U.S. District Judge
Seyboum H. Lynne ordered the four-
grade desegregation plan for Birming
ham, rejecting petitioners’ argument
that the plan was still too slow and only
a device to prolong desegregation.
Lynne directed the school board to
advertise in a local newspaper, inviting
Negroes to apply to previously all-
white schools. The advertisements
should appear on three separate days
prior to the Aug. 10 deadline for regis
tration of high school students, Lynne
ordered, and should contain “the time,
place and method of filing applications
for assignment or transfer of pupils...”
His order, as do others, leaves the
initiative of transfers up to the Negro
students, their parents or guardians.
The Birmingham school board said in
its plan that the deadline for transfer
applications in the high school grades
would be Aug. 10. Negro first-graders
would report to the school they would
(See COURT, Page 10)
1