Newspaper Page Text
TEXAS
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST, 1964—PAGE 3
Georgia
(Continued From Page 2)
ee on whether the desegregation
•hich has taken place has been ade-
a te to meet the Supreme Court’s
criteria in the grades covered so far.
Srhoolmen
Two School Boards
Announce Plans
For Desegregation
Two school boards in Georgia an
nounced their fall desegregation plans.
The Richmond County (Augusta)
Board of Education voted unanimously
to desegregate the first three grades in
September. The board accepted the
recommendation of a special committee,
which studied the desegregation prob
lem for the past two months.
It was not known whether the move
would satisfy the group of Augusta
Negro parents who filed suit in federal
court in June, asking total desegrega
tion of the Richmond system.
In Brunswick, the Glynn County
Board of Education directed desegre
gation of the ninth and tenth grades
this fall to comply with a speedup order
issued by the Fifth U. S. Circuit Court
of Appeals. The 11th and 12th grades
in the Glynn schools were desegregated
in the fall of 1963.
School Superintendent R. E. Hood
said that there had been a misconcep
tion that the first grade had been
ordered desegregated. Although this
was the case in a Chatham County de
cision handed down at the same time,
I Hood said, the method of desegregation
, was not specified for Brunswick.
I ★ ★ ★
HEW Officials Meet
With Southern Educators
U.S. Department of Health, Educa
tion and Welfare officials, meeting with
about 300 educators from four states in
Atlanta July 23, said failure to comply
with the new civil rights law could
result in a loss of as much as $56 mil
lion to Dublic schools in Georgia, Ala
bama, Florida and South Carolina next
year.
1 This is the estimated amount of fed
eral funds to be snent in the four states
; ^presented at the meeting, officials
*aid. The figure compares with $38 mil-
bon being spent in the four states this
, l ear , a hd does not include Public Health
ervice and National Science Founda-
I non grants.
r , Voluntary compliance will be sought
l tr°^ e ^ or ^ ern l assistance funds are cut
I ’ n anv school district, however,
® u wley, assistant secretary
HEW, said.
In cases where voluntary compliance
j 15 n ° 4 forthcoming, he said, the act
t Pr° vi des that a hearing can be called
f fi /? Fe an examiner - K the examiner
; • s that a school board or a district
in com Pliance, federal funds
P°uld be cut off 30 davs after the
examiner's report, he said.
Greatest Loss
If schools are not desegregated, tb
^° SS w ould He faced by voca
tia T j sc ^°°f s vstems and federal im
ed areas, Quigley said.
Quigley was asked if a school distrii
_P 5^ He in compliance if it desegre
ed But pi-ovided tuition grants t
u ents who prefer private school
Bg onswered that the question woul
v e to be decided by the commission!
education.
^ figures showed the followin
0, °°f federal funds being spent i
states in 1964: Georgia. $16.
& Alab,ma - $13 325.013- Florid,
‘S.308; South Carolina, 83 734,955
Public Health Service grants to edu
»°nal institutions in 1964 include!
ftOrgia *7,614.000: Alabama. $6.131,OOt
^000* * 8,712 >000; South Carolina, $1
a tional Science Foundation gram
Univ C ° ntracf awar ds to colleges an
tp in 1964 included: Georgi;
Alabama, $973,000: Florid:
-i.000; South Carolina. $867,000.
★ + ★
e fa] 0ll f^ 0n Count y I s considering sev
*o rP P ns f° r desegregation, accordin
bo^ r ,j r ' n Walker, chairman of th
Win b e ^ uca H° n - A special meetin
^btij-f 6 soon to decide when t
m ' a desegregation plan, he said.
Pejj. . , r an d other school officials an
W, before a meeting called by th
Stir) Hobins Chamber of Commerc
and 3 ten d e d by leaders of civic clul
6onJP ornen ’ s organizations. They re
otfi C i , ° n recent meetings with HE!
for c °nceming loss of federal fund
eor^P. °°I Programs in case of non
Scb' a p lCe with desegregation laws.
°°1 Supt. David A. Perdue sai
All Grades in District To Desegregate
Texas Highlights
AUSTIN
HE GOVERNING BOARD of Co-
lumbia-Brazoria school dis
trict ordered desegregation of all
grades starting in September. The
district, in Brazoria County near
Houston, previously had main
tained segregation. It has about
1,700 white and 500 Negro schol
astics.
The district operates schools in two
towns, nine miles apart. Formerly, all
Negroes attended high school in West
Columbia and each community had
elementary schools for both races.
White students attended a segregated
high school in West Columbia.
The new policy will require students
to attend the school nearest their
residence.
★ ★ ★
Houston Independent School District’s
board voted 4 to 1 to desegregate
kindergartens in September, eight years
ahead of the court-ordered stairstep
program. (Ross v. Butler, filed in U.S.
District Court 1956, then styled Ross v.
Rogers).
Houston in September will add the
fifth grade to four elementary grades
previously desegregated under its pro
gram started in 1960.
Joe D. Anderson, a Houston Negro,
had asked the court to order kinder
gartens desegregated so his daughter
could attend the one nearest their home.
However, the school board acted with
out direction from the court.
Secretary John Robinson, in making
the motion to desegregate the kinder-
garden ahead of schedule, commented
that the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in a recent decision not involv
ing Houston had “set forth some broad
concepts as to what it considers as con
trolling criteria” in school desegrega
tion.
Mrs. H. W. Cullen voted against the
motion, saving “I don’t see any sense
in giving it to them an inch at a time.”
Mrs. Charles White, Negro member of
the board who has long been at odds
with her colleagues for not moving
Houston County receives mo’-e than $1
million annually from the federal gov
ernment and this makes up about 25
ner cent of the local school budget.
Houston is second only to Muscogee
Countv (Columbus) in the amount of
federal aid received annually in Geor
gia. he said.
According to the latest figures from
the State Department of Education,
Houston Countv has 12 white schools
with 9,350 white students, and four
Negro schools with 2.923 Negro
students.
★ ★ ★
NEA Desegregation Move
Arouses Discussions
An official of the Georgia Education
Association (white) suggested teachers
pull out of the National Education As
sociation. which has called for desegre
gation of teachers, hut an official of the
Georgia Teachers and Education As
sociation (Negro) savs it is no more
eager to desegregate than is the GEA.
GEA Executive Secretary Frank
Hughes suggested the Georgia organiza
tion might lead a Southern revolt
aainst the NEA in forming a new
Southeastern Education Association.
The dispute arose after the national
group passed a resolution calling for
the 11 Southern states with separate
white and Negro organizations to sub
mit a plan for desegregating by July
1, 1966.
Six of the 11 board members con
tacted, however, said the association is
likelv to remain in the NEA, at least
for the immediate future.
The all-white GEA has 27.006 mem
bers. The all-Negro GTE A, which is
also affiliated with NEA, has mo’-e than
10 000 Ne«ro members.
Dr. H E. Tate. GTEA executive sec-
reta’-v said his group would be ready
to discuss merger at anv time the
other g’-oup wants, but “We’re not anv
more anxious to be with them than
their are to be with us.”
Tate said it was felt his organization
was as good as the other, but the
GTEA has no obiection in principle to
desegregating the two erouos. In some
states, however, he said, “when Negroes
have gone into white organizations, thev
have been entirely swallowed up”. He
cited Kentucky and West Virginia as
examples.
The Negro group would want “some
safeguards” written into any merger
plan, Tate said.
Columbia-Brazoria School District
near Houston ordered all-grade de
segregation to start in September.
Houston’s school board advanced
kindergarten desegregation to begin
this fall, instead of eight years later
at the end of a court-approved grade-
a-year schedule.
Some Dallas Negroes indicated
they may ask the court there to speed
the end of segregation in schools.
An official of the Texas State
Teachers Association said an action
by the National Education Associa
tion may delay desegregation of
Texas teacher organizations here. A
Negro teachers’ spokesman admitted
that members of his race are being
displaced as teachers through school
desegregation.
faster on desegregation, missed the
meeting.
★ ★ ★
At Dallas, which started grade-a-
year desegregation in September, 1961,
Negro leaders talked of filing a law
suit to speed up the process.
The Dallas News quoted a board
member as saying it would not
voluntarily increase the desegregation
pace.
“We are caught in the middle be
tween whites and blacks and I can
tell you quite frankly there will not
be a change in policy either to go
faster or slower without a court suit,”
he commented.
The Rev. Earl Allen, a Negro civil
rights leader, said a major grievance
concerns proposed “re-segregation” of
two schools which had been designated
to receive pupils of both races. He
added that “every available means” will
be used to secure full desegregation of
Dallas Schools.
‘Major Barrier’
“The absence of trouble in Dallas is
no indication that all is well on the
home front,” said Allen, who also is a
regional officers of the Congress Of
Racial Equality. “The major barrier
now is the schools.”
School officials said that the Dallas
district’s policies on desegregation are
not well understood, and that it planned
to issue a booklet explaining steps
which it has taken to equalize educa
tional opportunities for all races.
★ ★ ★
Texas State Teachers Association an
nounced that its House of Delegates
will decide in October whether to drop
its all-white membership policy, -v:
proposed by the state Negro teacht o’
organization.
L. P. Sturgeon, TSTA spokesman at
the National Education Association
Convention in Seattle, opposed there
the resolution which was adopted to
require desegregation of all state teach
ers’ organizations within two years.
Sturgeon said the effect might be to
cause TSTA to postpone its action on
desegregation which is set for October.
A speaker at the NEA convention,
Dr. Keith Goldhammer of the Uni-
What They Say
A retired justice of the U.S. Supreme
Court, Charles B. Whittaker, predicted
that the court may hold some “civil
rights” proposals unconstitutional.
Addressing the State Bar of Texas
at Houston, Whittaker said:
1 Wouldn’t it be a refreshing paradox
if—as I think is indicated—the court,
after all the criticisms that have been
leveled against it,
particularly in ra
cial matters, in
the end turns out
to be the bulwark
that preserved the
rational and law
ful good order of
our nation and,
hence, the nation
itself?”
The jurist, an
appointee of Pres
ident Eisenhower,
retired from the court in 1962
for reasons of health. He was re-
South Park (Beaumont) and
Lewisville, near Dallas, announced
plans for beginning desegregation
this fall, after filing of lawsuits.
A check revealed that all 22 state-
supported colleges are willing to ac
cept qualified students of all races,
although some do not have biracial
student bodies presently.
Negro educators urged continued
special assistance to their race as
“culturally deprived” while seeking
equality.
Former Justice Charles B. Whit
taker of the U.S. Supreme Court said
the Court may yet prove to be the
bulwark for protecting “lawful good
order.” He told Texas lawyers that
the court had not ordered “integra
tion” and criticized “use of catch
words” in race relations.
versity of Oregon, asserted that 15
Negro teachers will be displaced by
desegregation this fall at Lockhart and
Texas City schools. Dr. Vernon Mc
Daniel, director of the Teachers State
Association of Texas (Negro), acknowl
edged that some Negro teachers are
losing jobs over desegregation.
Lockhart is desegregating its high
schools, and closing a 125-pupil
separate high school for Negroes,
which had a principal and seven
teachers.
Three Negro teachers reportedly
were dismissed at Texas City this year,
following desegregation of the high
school in September 1963. (Evans v.
Brooks, filed U.S. District Court,
August, 1961).
★ ★ ★
At Waxahachie, another Dallas area
school, Board President Stuart B.
Lumpkins said that he does not know
of any Negro planning to attend its all-
white schools, although the board
adonted a voluntary desegregation
policy last year. No Negro applied for
transfer to a white school in 1963.
Supt. Irby Carruth of Austin public
schools said the faculty will be de
segregated in September. He did not
give any details.
Lesal Action
Beamount Districts
Plan Desegregation
South Park Independent School Dis
trict (Beaumont) announced through
its governing board that the first eight
grades will be desegregated in Septem
ber and the remaining eight grades in
September, 1964.
Beaumont ISD announced grade-a-
year desegregation plans starting in
September, 1963, but the only applica
tions for admission were for grades
scheduled for desegregation in later
years. (Brown v. Hendrix, filed Sent
17, 1962). ^ '
Attorneys for Negroes were said to
be planning appeals in both cases, as
the programs have been upheld in U.S.
garded as a “moderate conservative.”
He told Texas lawyers that recent
opinions by the Supreme Court in
trespass cases, in which lines were
divided, led to a belief that the
maiority may decide there is “no fed
eral—distinguished from state—legal
basis for compelling ‘integration’ at
least in private entreprenurial estab
lishments.”
‘Scores ‘Catch-Words’
Justice Whittaker also criticized a
current “wide tendency to speak
argumentatively through the use of
catch-words.”
He said such words as “segregation,”
“discrimination” and “integration” are
“often used with little fidelity to their
true meaning.”
“Discrimination” in the legal sense,
he said, “is broadly a synonym for the
Fourteenth Amndment’s prohibition of
unequal protection of the laws . . .”
“Segregation” is in legal effect “but
District Court at Beaumont. The
plaintiffs will seek immediate, full de
segregation.
Supt. Roy Permenter of South Park
estimated that fewer than 100 Negroes
would be placed in formerly all-white
schools under that district’s desegrega
tion plan. Others would remain in
predominantly Negro schools because
of geographic location. The district has
more than 6,000 whites and about 3,200
Negroes enrolled.
At Lewisville, Denton County, near
Dallas, the school board announced
desegregation will begin this fall in the
high school, following filing of a law
suit by Negroes. (Robinson v. Dehay et
al, filed, U.S. District Court, 1964.)
School officials presented evidence to
the court they have acted to desegre
gate “beginning with the school year
1964-1965 Sept. 1, 1964, no distinction
in pupil attendance in the schools of
Lewisville shall be made by reason of
race or color . .
School officials said they expect 14
Negroes to enroll in the formerly all-
white high school in September. About
70 Negroes attend a separate elementary
school. The district has about 1,300
white pupils.
In The Colleges
State Colleges Have
Nonracial Policies
Although some state-supported col
leges in Texas currently do not have
students of all races, all have adopted
nonracial policies.
John Tarleton College at Stephenville,
a four-year branch of Texas A&M, has
no Negro students but has no segrega
tion policy, according to officials.
Another Texas A&M affiliate, Prairie
View A&M, has only Negro students,
but last year reported readiness to ac
cept members of the white race.
The latest formal desegregation in
higher education came this summer
when Negroes entered Sam Houston
State, East Texas State, and Stephen
F. Austin Colleges, part of the six-unit
state teachers’ college system. West
Texas State and Southwest Texas
State previously had been desegregated
by court order, and Sul Ross (at Alpine
in West Texas) by voluntary action.
The exact time of Sul Ross desegrega
tion is unavailable. Board members
said Negroes had attended there but
none currently. An estimated six
Negroes enrolled at East Texas State
this summer, the first of their race to
study there. School officials said the
exact number is unavailable since no
records of racial origin are made.
★ ★ ★
Culturally Deprived Need
Aid, Negro Educators Say
Two Negro educators made pleas
before state agencies for special as
sistance to “culturally deprived”
citizens.
Dr. S. M. Nabrit, president of Texps
Southern University, said it will take
at least 10 years for Negro youngsters
to catch up academically with white
students entering college. Dr. Nabrit’s
remarks were made in defending a re
quest for continued state appropriation
(See TEXAS, Page 4)
another synonym for prohibited ‘dis
crimination’ . .
“The term ‘desegregation’ is a coined
one of awkward and dubious mean
ing .. .
“But the term ‘integration’, though
commonly used as a synonym of ‘anti-
discrimination’ or ‘anti-segregation,’
actually has a very different meaning,
and embraces the concept of mixing—
well illustrated by the transfer of
school children from their home dis
trict to a distant district for the pur
pose, not of avoiding ‘discrimination’,
but of affirmatively ‘integrating’ the
races . . .”
Whittaker said the U.S. Supreme
Court has not yet held “integration” to
he a constitutional right.
The speaker reviewed civil rights
decisions of past years, and compared
the new Civil Rights Law with a similar
act of 1875 which the Supreme Court
struck down in 1883 as unconstitutional.
Former Justice Sees Court Reversals
WHITTAKER