Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST, 1964—PAGE 9
SOUTH CAROLINA
150-175 Negroes Expected
In Desegregated Schools
(Continued From Page 8)
api with the stipulation that . . . they
s >ould attend the school to which as
signed by the trustees.”
The letter said the new policy would
take effect July 1.
In its complaint, the government al
leged that it paid $218,939 of the initial
$223,456 cost of Shaw Heights School
and had borne the entire cost (over
$150,000) of subsequent additions to
die school it was being asked to rent.
The grants, the complaint said, came
through a federal school construction
program under which school officials
agreed to make its facilities available
to all children in the district.
In an appendix attached to the com
plaint, the government listed figures to
show that, from 1950 to 1960, the U.S.
spent $910,465 on school construction
in the district while the district was
contributing $6,953.
Says Negotiations Failed
District Attorney Glenn said the suit
was filed only after negotiations with
District 2 officials over the issue had
failed. The complaint asked that the
school district be enjoined from enforc
ing the announced policy.
Arguments before Judge Hemphill
on July 14 followed the lines laid down
in the pleadings. Glenn argued that
extraordinary injunctive relief was re
quired because of the short time before
the opening of the school year.
He said the district’s policy amounted
to a breach of contract with the gov
ernment.
Sumter school attorney Shephard K.
Nash insisted that the district was not
legally bound to educate children of
military personnel living on the base.
He said children of military parents
presiding off the base would be ac
cepted “in accordance with South Caro
lina law.” Whatever assurances the
board gave the government, he said,
were based on the issues at the time
they were made.
Miscellaneous
Gunfire Damages
Home of Negroes
Transfer
Asking
The home of five Negro children who
*ek admission to Dorchester County
white schools in September was dam
ped by four shotgun blasts on the
tight of July 23.
The incident was the most violent
'tat has been associated with school
^segregation in South Carolina. No
°ne was injured by the four blasts, ap
parently small birdshot from a pump
tiotgun, struck the front of the Harley-
tiUe home of Mr. and Mrs. S. B. DeLee,
dpping the front door, the roof and a
window screen.
j The fact that Mrs. DeLee had applied
r transfer of her five youngest chil-
re n to all-white schools of Dorchester
°unty School District 3 (Harleyville-
, S-ille) fi rs t came to light in mid-
y when a Negro newspaper in
^fieston printed the story.
Ve K° T^eCcc children, Van and
ti" ener, have applied for transfer
to ^ ,^ enne 'Jy High School for Negroes
fi- ~ white Harleyville - Ridgeville
■ Elijah, Doretha and Samuel De-
^hool^k to enter white elementary
of 24n C ^ ester ’ s an agricultural county
Cli a >,’°°° Seated just inland of coastal
narIe ston County.
rangeburg Agrees
Participate
Grants Program
^<te(f n ° e k Ur8 ' s School District 5 board,
a large-scale private school
July hi its community, agreed
kitj 0n Pnrticipate in the state’s
8u t ' §rants Program,
tiep la doing so, the public school-
Pfivatg ° l lave actively fought the
kep 6s sc hool movement behind the
n’^ed that a tax hike might
9 Wg e SSary and, furthermore, that if
Percentage of pupils leave the
public schools, the U.S. Supreme Court
might declare the plan unconstitutional.
The drive for the private school was
launched under leadership of Dr. T. E.
Wannamaker when the likelihood of
public school desegregation became
stronger. A federal court hearing on a
Negro suit against the city’s schools
(Adams et al v. Orangeburg School
District 5) was held July 14.
In June, as his group was canvassing
for support of the private school, to be
called Wade Hampton Academy, Dr.
Wannamaker declared, “We know
Orangeburg’s schools will be integrated
by September.”
Parents representing 2,139 white stu
dents in the district which had 3,568
white pupils last year initially ex
pressed an interest in Wade Hampton
Academy.
Number Decreases
But in the face of developments, the
number had dropped to an estimated
600 to 800 at month’s end. Dr. Wanna
maker, in a prepared statement, ad
mitted the number could drop as low
as 300 or rise as high as 1,600.
But, he said, regardless, Wade
Hampton Academy will open on Sep
tember 15.
In the statement, issued July 28, Dr.
Wannamaker said the time has come
for parents to enroll their children in
the school or have their names removed
from the “interest” file.
He indicated the next move would be
to obtain the services of a professional
educator. From his Beaufort County
home, D. Leon McCormick, a retired
employee of the State Department of
Education, said he had discussed the
position with Dr. Wannamaker’s com
mittee.
Gus Speth Jr., an Orangeburg resi
dent and a reporter for The (Columbia)
State, said the school issue seriously
divided the city of 14,000 and that the
infighting between the District 5 of
ficials and the private school group was
intense.
Advertisement Used
The school board announced its posi
tion in a full-page advertisement in the
Orangeburg Times and Democrat. The
ad predicted a tax increase of approxi
mately nine mills for every 1,000 pupils
that leave the public schools for the
private facility. The increase, it said,
would probably not be levied during
the present year.
District 5 Board Chairman L. R. Wells
pointed out that the district’s share of
the $250 annual grant to private school
pupils, as required by law, would be
approximately $80 per year per pupil—
the amount of its supplement to state
aid for public school education.
He noted that the amounts involved
in fixed expenses and in its contractual
relations with teachers could not be
reduced quickly.
The newspaper ad also stated that
“it is the opinion of the school attorney
that the state tuition grants law and
a local tuition grants program will be
considered constitutional . . . only if it
is utilized by a relatively small per
centage of students. It is our opinion
that if the parents of all white students
in School District 5 applied for tuition
What They Say
grants, the U.S. Supreme Court would
consider it unconstitutional as consti
tuting a state means of maintaining
segregated schools and as denying
Negro children equal protection of the
laws . .
The statement in the advertisement
further said that teachers who join the
private school system “have no as
surance that their benefits under the
Teacher Retirement Program will be
safeguarded.”
And it added that if large numbers
of white students enter the private
school, “there will be a big capacity in
the public schools for transferring in
colored pupils. If the private school is
small, there will be very little effect
on the public schools . . .”
The location of the private school
has not been announced and several
Orangeburg ministers said July 14
they were opposed to the use of their
church facilities for secular purposes.
But Wannamaker has said repeatedly
that facilities for the proposed school
would be available.
Orangeburg District 5 was the fourth
of South Carolina’s 108 school districts
to announce formally that it would
participate in the tuition grants plan.
Others have said they are prepared to
do so. No. 3 was James Island of
Charleston County, which announced
its decision July 15.
But at the state level, the South
Carolina Board of Education was ad
vised July 17 that no formal applica
tions had been submitted to it for
tuition grants and that no private
school had yet been inspected and ap
proved under regulations promulgated
by the State Department of Education.
On July 14, NAACP attorney Mat
thew Perry of Columbia said Negro
elements have mapped plans in case
any private school programs are
formally approved by the State De
partment of Education.
★ ★ ★
Teachers’ Association
Ponders Future Course
The South Carolina Education As
sociation is pondering the course it will
take in regard to an NEA directive re
quiring its Southern affiliates to open
their membership to Negro educators.
The 79 SCEA delegates at the annual
convention in Seattle, Wash., opposed
the resolution in a statement read to
the convention by G. C. Mangum,
superintendent of Darlington County
schools.
In it, the SCEA declared that dis
crimination and injustice are far less
prevalent in South Carolina than edu
cators in other areas might believe.
“Our relationships with minority
groups in the past have been highly
conducive to the mutual advancement
of our total society,” the statement con
tinued, “and given adequate time,
sound leadership and freedom from
outside encumbrances, we shall en
hance the educational climate of our
state.”
‘Careful Planning’
The SCEA position paper advised the
national assembly that any proposal
which “changes the present NEA
policy of affiliation of state associations,
such action would counteract long
hours of careful planning to provide
the professional background for maxi
mum educational opportunities for all
children and youth of our state.”
Dr. Carlos Gibbons, executive secre
tary of the 15,000-member South
Carolina organization, said the SCEA
has not decided how to proceed on the
NEA directive, which passed on a voice
Governor Attacks Federal
South Carolina Gov. Donald S. Rus
sell accused a federal official of trying
to “stampede” school districts getting
federal impacted area money into de
segregation moves.
The governor leveled his attack July
17 on James Quigley, undersecretary
of the U.S. Department of Health, Edu
cation and Welfare.
Quigley had met in Charleston a
week earlier with representatives of 16
of the 34 districts in the state receiving
financial aid under the government’s
impacted areas program.
He told them that these districts must
present desegregation plans by Septem
ber or face loss of federal funds.
Gov. Russell, a former U.S. assistant
secretary of state, insisted applicable
laws do not require such imminent
action.
He said he has reviewed the Civil
Rights Act, under which funds can be
cut off, but said he sees “no justifica
tion of this de
mand for panic
action on the eve
of another school
year and after
most of these
schools have fixed
their budgets for
the coming year.”
He noted sev
eral requirements
which must be
met, in his opin
ion, before a funds
cutoff order can be implemented and
said further that any decision would
be subject to judicial review.
He said Quigley had made “prema
ture and ill-advised” comments to the
schoolmen “and he certainly spoke of
matters which are completely unsettled
at this time.”
He called it an apparent attempt “to
stampede these school districts into
RUSSELL
ARKANSAS
HEW Officials Explain
Rights Bill to Schoolmen
LITTLE ROCK
ederal officials met July 21
at Little Rock with public
school superintendents and col
lege administrators from Oklaho
ma, Louisiana and Arkansas to
discuss the new Civil Rights Act.
James M. Quigley, assistant sec
retary of Health, Education and
Welfare, and Francis Keppel,
U. S. commissioner of education,
emphasized that the act will be
enforced and no federal money
will be supplied to any school that
practices racial discrimination.
About 150 schoolmen attended the
meeting with Quigley. About 40 college
men were in a separate meeting at the
same time with Keppel. This was one
of a series of meetings Quigley and
Keppel were holding across the South.
Title IV of the act requires school
desegregation, and Title VI directs the
withholding of federal aid when there
is racial discrimination in any program
supported by federal funds.
Arkansas school districts received
about $3,600,000 in federal aid during
the 1963-64 school year. Of the state’s
415 districts, 329 received $686,238 for
vocational education, chiefly for salaries
of teachers; 264 districts received
$967,416 under the National Defense
vote shortly after the South Carolina
statement was read.
“It’s a matter of deliberative effort
at the moment,” Dr. Gibbons said
July 7.
Under the new order, states with
segregated associations have until July
1, 1966, to open membership. After that
the NEA executive committee is em
powered to take “necessary action”
against affiliates refusing to comply.
The SCEA adopted a resolution at its
annual state convention this spring
which directed that its executive com
mittee study ways to establish closer
liaison with the Palmetto Education
Association, professional organization
for Negro educators in South Carolina.
Community Action
Cheraw Organizes
Relations Board
The Chesterfield County town of
Cheraw, following the lead of several
other communities in South Carolina’s
Pee Dee section, formed a biracial
“board of community relations” July 13.
The 10-man council—five white and
five Negro—was announced by Mayor
Miller Ingram. He said its purpose
would be to discuss and advise on po
tential racial problems.
One of the first items of business
expected to come before the group is
the desegregation of Cheraw schools.
Transfer applications on behalf of 25
Negro children were filed with white
schools in May. The school board ruled
that under Chesterfield County school
regulations the applications were en
tered too late. Negro leaders talked of
going to court but have not yet done
so.
Pressure
precipitate action .. .”
Earlier, the major portion of the re
port on Quigley’s Charleston meeting
with school officials came from P. H.
Bomar, finance director of the State
Department of Education.
He described the schoolmen as
“pretty well shocked” and said all at
the meeting “felt rather helpless and
hopeless.” He said all he could tell sev
eral superintendents worried about
their budgets was to “sit tight.” He
admitted a cutoff would be “a heavy
slap” at many of the school budgets
involved.
Several schoolmen said Quigley had
been unable to supply information on
specific situations, even as to whether
or not a court order to desegregate
was sufficient to comply.
Several S. C. school officials later at
tended a regional meeting in Atlanta
with Quigley on the matter. South
Carolina receives over $4 million a year
in impacted area funds.
Arkansas Highlights
Federal officials told school and
college administrators at Little Rock
that the provision of the Civil Rights
Act requiring nondiscrimination in
any program receiving federal aid
will be enforced.
Gov. Orval E. Faubus was nom
inated easily in a Democratic primary
for his sixth term and will face
Winthrop Rockefeller, Republican,
in the general election.
Education Act for the improvement of
instruction in science, mathematics and
foreign languages; 134 districts received
$155,129 under the same act for guid
ance and testing programs; 66 school
districts received $1,853,900 in impact
aid for operations.
This does not include $1,966,145 re
ceived for the school lunch program
and $1,291,908 for the milk program,
both administered through the Depart
ment of Agriculture and for which the
HEW men could not speak.
Arkansas colleges, according to the
HEW, are scheduled to receive
$1,201,730 in the 1964-65 school year for
student loans, and $2,255,144 in con
struction grants.
There was some uncertainty about
whether the regulations under the
Civil Rights Act could be drawn and
approved in time to affect thg federal
aid during the 1964-65 school year, but
Quigley refused to say that they would
not.
Quigley said that the Civil Rights Act
was a mandate not only for HEW but
for all the federal establishment. He
also said, “We are not going to proceed
with cutting off funds until we have
exhausted all efforts to obtain com
pliance by voluntary means. We are not
here to tell anyone what to do or how
to do it. This is your decision to make.”
If a school district decides to end dis
crimination, then federal aid will con
tinue, he said, but if not, “Uncle Sam
is not going to subsidize you.”
Quigley also said that HEW would
not wait for Negroes to complain but
will ask the districts and the state edu
cation department for information on
compliance. “We will review what you
are doing and make a determination of
whether it is enough,” he said. “If we
decide it is not, we are going to have to
say to you, ‘Can’t you do more and
can’t you do it more quickly?’ ”
Procedure Noted
If HEW is dissatisfied with a school
district’s compliance, this procedure
was outlined: A hearing will be held
and the report of the hearing filed with
Congress for 30 days before any funds
can be withheld. Quigley said this was
designed as a brake against any arbi
trary or capricious action against a
school district.
Quigley said it will be a hard job
both for HEW and the states, and that
what is done in many states will be de
termined by the attitude of state of
ficials. They can do much or little, he
said. “They can do much to aid com
pliance or much to make compliance by
a local school district doubly hard to
achieve.”
One superintendent asked if a district
would be in compliance if it had 1,000
Negro and 1,000 white students, good
teachers and buildings and if both races
were happy. Just from that much in
formation, Quigley said he would have
to say no, but that HEW would have to
look into such a situation to see why
it was that way.
Another superintendent asked if the
HEW would insist on desegregation
where there was no demand for it.
Quigley said that if the school board
had offered to desegregate and that no
Negro pupils applied, this probably
would constitute compliance, but again
he said the HEW would want to in
vestigate to see why this was so.
(See ARKANSAS, Page 10)
KEPPEL