Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST, 1964—PAGE 7
Mississippi
(Continued From Page 6)
^earning (State College Board) to re
consider his dismissal. The board
supported the decision of the Student
judiciary Council.
McDowell testified he had the pistol
on his person because he had spent the
morning in Oxford seeking federal
marshals to protect him. He said the
pistol had been in his car. On trips
home, he said, he was recognized and
heckled by some motorists. He testified
one motorist attempted to provoke a
wreck.
‘I Was Concerned . . .’
“My intention was to work the prob
lem out with the dean of the law
school,” McDowell told the hearing. “I
did not intend to keep the gun perma
nently ... I was concerned with the
off-campus situation. I was not con-
* cerned on campus.”
Dean L. L. Love testified July 21 that
the university followed the “same pro
cedure” in disciplinary cases. He said
one white student had been expelled
for possession of firearms without his
case being placed before the Student
Judiciary Council, as McDowell’s was.
■ The council recommended McDowell’s
expulsion.
Former State College Board President
T. M. Tubb of West Point testified the
1 board had upheld the rulings of the
university in the case of McDowell and
in other student appeals.
Dr. C. B. Noyes, assistant vice
chancellor at the university, and law
professor John H. Fox repeated testi
mony of the other officials in
disciplinary cases.
McDowell was originally admitted to
the law school under federal court
orders. He was the second known
Negro to attend Ole Miss.
Community Action
Statewide Group
Forms To Support
Public Education
I Mrs. Gordon G. Henderson of Jack-
son announced on July 19 the forma
tion of the statewide Mississippians for
Public Education to help “public of-
i ficials maintain the state’s public
schools in a peaceful atmosphere so
that all Mississippi children may con
tinue their education without interrup
tion.”
Mr. Henderson, president, said the
organization is non-profit and not af
filiated with any other state, local,
regional or national group.
A new Mississippi law authorizes
s tate and local grants-in-aid to permit
Pupils to attend private, nonsectarian
schools as an alternative to attending
court-ordered desegregated schools.
Mrs. Henderson said in a prepared
statement:
Our purpose is to insure that the
Public schools of our communities and
e state are not penalized or disrupted
® any way.
We urge parents and all citizens to
support the school boards in carrying
°Ut the plans pursuant to court orders,
*Jthout any interruption in the public
Vacation of our children.”
Share Conviction
A Mississippians for Public Education
tement said the organization was
ounded on the belief that many peo-
6 throughout the state share their
p r viction that the future progress and
hi W* >er ^y °fi Mississippi depends on
p^ 1 quality aducation for young
^^apters are being formed over the
w e all have the same com-
“ e a ® 0a ^ s ’” Mrs. Henderson said,
®ou 1 commu nity will operate autono-
w y as local situations differ
^Uiewhat.”
Mp E ° da ys before the organization of
p a . T ' Vas formally announced, Mrs.
gj.jp ^rian of Jackson said that state
sgg- fi° r students to enter private,
eut'i e ? ated schools would be “insuffici-
111 Jackson.
ti^ rS ' P er ian, a leader in the organiza-
Sctjooi 31 ^ t ^ le c * ty h® s on ly two private
bed t bounties and cities are author-
f°jj r ° levy an additional tax up to
^ uls to supplement state funds,
of ^ Program calls for yearly grants
de sir e ° r oA'ldren of both races who
School a ^ end private, nonsectarian
citie s S Additionally, counties and
ditfop ? re authorized to levy an ad-
Uient a , tax up to four mills to supple-
nt st ate funds.
FLORIDA
Six More Districts Plan
To Desegregate In Fall
MIAMI
big push to speed up school
desegregation was started by
Florida Negro leaders in July.
With groups actively at work in
all parts of the state, five more
counties announced plans for de
segregated classes at some level
next September. School officials
say the number will be higher
when school work begins.
Firm decisions have been made in
Alachua, Bay, Brevard, Lee and Put
nam counties, with total school enroll
ment of 96,519 at the end of last year.
Marion County had its first desegrega
tion at a summer school and expects
more in the fall.
This assures some desegregation in at
least 22 of Florida’s 67 counties next
fall.
Since the desegregated counties in
clude all of the state’s largest, more
than three-quarters of the Negro school
population is affected. But, since
neighborhood patterns govern school
assignment, the highest estimate of
Negroes in mixed classes is less than
four per cent.
Major Interest
Brevard County, site of the nation’s
moon-shot center at Cape Kennedy,
drew the major interest. Under a fed
eral court order calling for a desegre
gation plan within 30 days, the Brevard
school board made its proposal on July
22.
It calls for full desegregation over a
four-year period, beginning with the
Florida Highlights
At least six more counties will have
some school desegregation in Sep
tember, raising the number in Florida
to 22. About three-fourths of Flor
ida’s Negro population lives in these
counties.
A surprise suit was filed in Ala
chua County on the day the school
board assigned the first Negroes to
white schools.
Two junior college branches for
Negroes will close in September,
illustrating what may be developing
as a trend. The Board of Control has
received a recommendation to close
the law school at predominantly Ne
gro Florida A&M University.
The trial of five men charged with
conspiracy to dynamite the home of
a Negro schoolboy ended without a
decision.
“There might also be persons who
organize private schools in their carport
or storage room,” Mrs. Derian said,
“and ones not qualified to teach—and
who might make a tidy nest egg.”
On July 21, the Citizens’ Council
headquarters in Jackson charged MPE
with “evasion and doubletalk.”
★ ★ ★
The Mississippi Division of the
American Association of University
Women reaffirmed July 11 a resolution
to “keep our schools open and func
tioning.”
The resolution, first adopted at the
1963 annual meeting, said:
“Be it resolved that the Mississippi
Division endorses the American ideal
of public education and strongly urges
that all practical efforts be made to
keep our schools open and functioning.”
Schoolmen
11 Mississippians
Meet with LBJ
A delegation of 11 Mississippi edu
cators, led by State Supt. of Education
J. M. Tubb, met with President Johnson
in Washington July 30. They were
among 309 Southern educators and of
ficials asked to attend the White House
session.
In addition to Tubb, the delegation
included Jackson Supt. of Schools
Kirby Walker; J. A. Graves, president
of the Biloxi School Board; L. S. Alex
ander of Jackson, executive secretary
of the Mississippi (Negro) Teachers
Association; Lester Alvis, chairman of
the Board of Trustees of the Jackson
schools; and R. D. Brown, superin
tendent of Biloxi schools.
first two grades next fall. This will be
extended through grade six in 1965,
grade nine in 1966 and grade 12 in 1967.
Parents will have the option of send
ing their children to the nearest school
regardless of racial makeup. However,
school officials said, the plan would not
force a white child to attend the nearest
school if it were predominantly Negro,
nor a Negro child to attend the nearest
school if it were predominantly white.
In these cases parents could, if they
wished, file application for transfer,
which would be given consideration.
Options Provided
The school board said printed forms
will be sent all parents in the county,
allowing them to list their choice of
schools under the options provided.
Those children who do not seek trans
fer by Aug. 15 will be assigned to
the nearest school.
The school board also asserted the
right to assign or transfer pupils to
make the best use of existing facilities,
“provided such assignment or transfer
is not based on racial considerations.”
A board spokesman explained that
Brevard, one of the fastest growing
counties in the nation, has a serious
problem of overcrowded schools in
some areas. This must be taken into
account in passing on transfer requests,
he said.
Parents dissatisfied with the board’s
decisions may appeal to a special com
mittee. Public hearings will be held on
request.
Robert Petree, attorney for the orig
inal group of Negro plaintiffs in this
case, said objections to the plan will be
filed with the federal court.
The school board’s plan says nothing
about the integration of teachers,” he
added. “We will urge some ruling on
this continuing incidence of segrega
tion.”
Bay County
Bay County, defendant in a school
suit in which the federal government
was a party, filed a desegregation plan
on July 9. It was approved by Federal
District Judge G. Harrold Carswell.
As in the case of Brevard County,
this calls for desegregation of grades
one and two in September, but there
after only one grade a year until segre
gation is eliminated.
The board’s attorneys asked Judge
Carswell to delay the start until Sep
tember, 1965. This was denied.
The federal government filed a com
panion suit after a group of Negro par
ents asked the court to order an end to
segregation. The government’s petition
said the school system was heavily
subsidized by the federal government
to educate children of servicemen at
Tyndall Air Base near Panama City.
This gave the government standing in
court.
★ ★ ★
Unexpected Suit Filed
Against Alachua County
On the same day a surprise suit was
filed in federal court, the Alachua
County school board ordered the first
desegregation by assigning three Negro
students to Gainesville High School.
The three were among nine plaintiffs in
the suit, notification of which was
served on the board shortly after its
meeting ended on July 10.
Board members said they had no
previous word that court action was
under way.
The assignments involve Angelet
Williams, J oseph Marcus Buchanan
and LaVon Priscilla Wright, who had
been attending the all-Negro Lincoln
High School in Gainesville. The school
board turned down another Lincoln
student seeking transfer to Gainesville
and said 17 more transfer requests were
under study.
The suit (Wright v. Board of Public
Instruction of Alachua County) was
filed by Earl M. Johnson, Jacksonville
Negro attorney active in most of the
school suits pending in Florida. The
petition contains the same clauses as
others filed recently in Florida. It asked
that the school board be enjoined from:
• Operating a compulsory biracial
school system.
• Continuing to maintain a dual
scheme and pattern of school zones.
• Assigning pupils to particular
schools because of color or race.
• Assigning teachers, principals and
other school personnel on the basis of
race or color.
• Approving employment contracts,
policies, budgets and curricula de-
Teachers’ Association Staff at Work
Miss Greta Holmes, Miss Elena Izquierdo, Pat L. Tornillio Jr. work on plans for
desegregation of memberships.
signed to perpetuate, maintain or sup
port racially segregated schools.
Alachua County, in which is located
the University of Florida, had the first
example of desegregation in education
in the state when a Negro graduate stu
dent was enrolled in the university’s
law school in 1959. The local schools re
mained segregated, however, and the
school board repeatedly turned down
transfer requests by Negro youngsters.
The latest instance was last spring,
when 15 requests for reassignment were
denied.
Steady Pressure
The pressure on the school board has
mounted steadily. After the July 10
meeting, Chester Yates, chairman of the
Gainesville Bi-Racial Advisory Com
mittee, said school desegregation has
become the principal test of the com
munity’s attitudes.
“We feel that the school situation de
serves more attention than any other
area for the immediate future,” Yates
declared.
School officials said more desegrega
tion is inevitable. This point of view
was endorsed by the Gainesville Sun,
which said editorially that more as
signments of Negroes to white schools
must be expected.
“In time,” the newspaper said, “what
is today the law of the land will become
the feeling of the land.”
Desegregation in Lee and Putnam
counties so far is confined to the junior
college level. In both counties, however,
applications of Negroes for transfer to
white schools is under study.
In the Colleges
Putman County
Merges Facilities
Of Two Colleges
The Putnam County school board
voted on July 8 to close the Collier-
Blocker Junior College at Palatka as a
separate institution for Negro students.
The facilities will be taken over and
incorporated into the St. Johns River
Junior College, which has been at
tended only by white students. The two
student bodies will be merged.
The State Cabinet, composed of the
governor and elected state officials, rec
ommended the step after reports
showed steadily declining enrollments
at Collier-Blocker. At the end of the
fourth year last June, attendance had
slipped to 60 and the faculty had
dwindled to four full-time instructors.
Putnam school officials said enroll
ment had never justified the cost of
maintaining a full, high-quality educa
tional program. Drawing students from
Clay, St. Johns and Putnam counties,
the college had never attracted more
than 100 at its peak.
St. Johns River Junior College, which
was opened six years ago, has grown
steadily and will have some 1,200 stu
dents in the coming year. Plans envision
an enrollment of 1,500 and a faculty of
60 by 1967. Negroes eventually will
make up about eight per cent of the
student body.
Third Case
This is the third case in which junior
college branches for Negroes have been
abandoned. Roosevelt Junior College at
West Palm Beach closed at the start of
the 1963 session, Negro students being
given the option of attending classes at
the Palm Beach Junior College.
The Lee County school board has
voted to close the small Dunbar branch
of Edison Junior College at Fort Myers,
transferring the students to Edison in
September.
This may be a trend in Florida. On
July 24 the Board of Control, which
administers the state university system,
began study of a three-phase plan to
strengthen the law courses in the state
colleges. One step would be to close the
law school at Florida A&M Univer
sity, predominantly Negro, and transfer
students at the University of Florida
and Florida State University.
The University of Florida would have
nrimary responsibility for law educa
tion. A new law center, with a capacity
of 1,200 students, is proposed there.
Operation of the FAMU law school
has been under fire as a costly instance
of segregated education. A circuit court
suit filed last year by a group of private
citizens charged that only five graduates
had successfully passed the state bar
examinations since the school opened.
They put the total cost of producing
(See FLORIDA, Page 8)
Group Seeks Desegregation
Of Teachers Associations
MIAMI
new group known as the
National Educators Move
ment for Human Rights seeks to
remove all racial barriers in pro
fessional teaching organizations
associated with the National Edu
cation Association.
Pat L. Tomillo Jr., who announced
the new group here July 8, said the
NEA gave its blessings to the move
ment during the NEA national conven
tion in Seattle in June. The NEA
convention directed its affiliates to re
move racial requirements for member
ship by July 1, 1966.
The Dade (County) Classroom
Teachers Association in Miami, which
desegregated last year and led the
recent fight to remove “white” from
the Florida Education Association
charter, is behind the new drive.
Tornillo also is executive secretary of
the Dade organization.
Walter O’Brien of the Philadelphia
Teachers Association will take over
from Tornillo as chairman of the Na
tional Educators Movement. Eight
regional co-chairmen will be named to
co-ordinate national efforts.
Florida is the only state as
sociation in the South to have desegre
gated on a statewide basis. Tennessee
and Virginia have a limited number of
local units that have desegregated, and
the North Carolina teacher groups
have approved desegregation in prin
ciple but final action is pending. The
six border states and the district of
Columbia either have desegregated or
merged their separate organizations.
(See various state reports for reac
tions to the NEA desegregation
directive).