Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—SEPTEMBER, 1964—PAGE 13
<OUTH CAROLINA
15 Districts Are Desegregated
For First Time As Term Opens
South Carolina Highlights
(Continued From Page 12)
■or the Richland County Citizens Com-
(a Negro group), admitted her
Organization had inspired the applica
tions, adding that it had been working
,’oward the goal for two years.
Seven of the children were admitted
•o Rosewood Elementary school, three
. 0 Withers Elementary, five to Hand
junior High, four to Wardlaw Junior
Righ, one to Columbia High, and two
w Dreher High.
Five of them were children of Mrs.
Hattie F. Fruster, who had to distribute
(ter children to three schools on open
ing day. Only one of them came from
a family prominently identified with
the civil rights movement. He was
Morris Newman, son of State NAACP
Field Secretary I. Dequincey Newman.
Morris became a fourth-grade student
at Withers.
Principals Pleased
The desegregation was accomplished
without a surface ripple and principals
of the schools involved all were pleased
with the outcome. At Rosewood Ele
mentary, one Negro lad was seen play
ing kickball with white classmates at
the first recess on opening day.
Chairman Withers, after noting dur
ing a press conference that “student
behavior and activities were perfectly
normal,” said, “From now on, the pub
lic and news media should be far more
concerned with the educational op
portunity for all our students.” (With
ers has long been known as a stout
defender of segregation.)
Sgt. Shelvie Wheeler, father of two
of the children involved and a 21-year
Army veteran who has lived in Colum
bia since his retirement, said: “The
way in which their admission was
bandied, and the smoothness that exists
here, encourages me even more to
want to fight for my country. I would
also be willing to give my life, if
necessary, for this great city, because
it has shown me that I am a citizen
• It made me want to hug the whole
City of Columbia.”
One incident, which some news re
ports seemed to link with desegrega
tion, apparently was entirely unrelated.
A 16-year-old student at all-Negro
C- A. Johnson High School in Colum
bia was shot and slightly wounded in
the hallway of all-Negro W. A. Perry
unior High shortly before the first
bell
rang on opening day. A Perry stu-
° r j . ax x i j ijvu -
ent > 14, W as arrested and turned over
•o juvenile authorities. Police said they
lieved the shooting was the result of
notion between rival factions in the
wo schools.
Last year Richland District 1, South
arolina s second largest school dis-
Nct, had 19,018 white and 11,707 Negro
ents in average daily attendance.
Richland County District 2
District 2, encompassing suburban
in 1 j Ura ^ areas i n Richland County
Fort i' 15 ’ *Le entire encampment of
w Jackson Army Training Center,
cW _ district in the county to
on f regate voluntarily. It announced
ug - 7 that it had accepted two
‘ sr° glr i s at Dentsville High School.
s in other districts, the school board
PUrrJJ nCet ^ d RR no constructive
for OS€ COU *d be served by waiting
E. p < u ) ; Urt or der to desegregate. Supt.
tjw , n Sht also noted that the dis-
^t'onof , res P° nsibilit y f or the edu-
Th
We re e t ' vo girls admitted, however,
"'ere r ° f miIit ary parentage. They
Sutler o Jean Henr y “d Olivia
“Petieri n Aug ' 31 > when school
mother’ u two girIs arrived with their
bell r= S about 10 minutes after the first
Principal C. E. Young
any , e really did not anticipate
d *nts ZZ h L here. Many of our stu-
*11 of th' 6 atten d e d integrated schools
the country >> Ves ™ other sections of
»hite s ^ nrollme nt figures: 4,258
> r,udl Negroes.
Greenville County
trict U ^. F ar ° lma ’ s largest school dis-
tet >dan n l a 1963-64 average daily at-
^hibuwi °L 46,799 (36,356 white),
d I 9 Negro Pupils among 15
^Pt l one “district county on
Z r iT er c ! among the 55 admitted
1101 to . schoQl officials decided
^it ( Whi T\ itS defense in a desegre-
Hoo, OisTrfct) 9 V Greenville Count V
widespread desegregation was
Conference in Sumter
Supt. Hugh T. Stoddard and Sheriff Byrd
Parnell.
accomplished without serious incidents.
The largest group entered Greenville
Senior High School.
Darlington County
All 13 Negroes anticipated—five ad
mitted under court order and eight
voluntarily—appeared on opening day,
Sept. 1. They entered schools in the
county’s two largest cities—Darlington
(pop. 6,710) and Hartsville (pop. 6,392).
Although the county has only one
school district divided into three areas,
different methods were employed at
Hartsville and Darlington.
At Hartsville, four Negro pupils, ac
companied by their parents, entered
three schools routinely and at the same
time as other children. Area Supt. T.
H. Ulmer called the opening “just an
other day.” At Darlington, nine Negro
children arrived 30 minutes after whites
had entered their classrooms. Then
some Negroes were taken to the area’s
administrative offices and finally to the
rear entrance of a three-school com
plex that was absorbing three of the
students. At least a dozen city police
men directed traffic in the area and
guarded the entrance. Supt. Russell C.
King said the security would be
dropped in a few days.
Although it is a largely agricultural
county in the rich Pee Dee region of
the state, Darlington County has
slightly more white school children
than Negro—7,063 to 6,765 last year.
York County District 3
Seven Negro students, accepted
voluntarily by Rock Hill City schools
after threatened court suits, entered
1,500-student Rock Hill High School
Sept. 1.
Earlier the district school board had
announced that eight Negroes would
attend the high school and two a gram
mar school. No explanation was made
as to why the three others chose not
to attend. Six of those appearing were
transfers from Emmett Scott High
(Negro) in Rock Hill and another from
a preparatory school in Camden.
The Negroes—three girls and four
boys—arrived on the school grounds
after white students were seated in the
auditorium and cafeteria. There were
no disturbances.
Negro sources in Rock Hill revealed
they were pressing for the admission
of nine additional high school students
in Rock Hill this year. They apparently
objected to the failure of the school
board to approve other applications to
the lower grades.
The district’s racial division last year
was 7,558 white and 3,834 Negro.
Anderson District 1
The trustees of Anderson County
School District 1, centered at the textile
town of Williamston (pop. 3,721), said
Aug. 27 they had agreed to the transfer
of a Negro brother and sister—John
and Deborah Rice—from all-Negro
Spearman High to previously all-white
Palmetto High. Both schools are in
Williamston.
Schools opened there on Sept. 2 but
Dr. Walter Trammel, superintendent,
announced the day before that the
Negro students would not enter until
the first full day of classes on Sept. 7.
He said the reasons were “adminis
trative.”
District 1, like all of the Piedmont
industrial county, has far more white
students than Negroes—3,264 to 616 last
year.
★ ★ ★
84 Charleston Negroes
In Schools with Whites
The City of Charleston, entering its
second year of desegregation, peace
fully absorbed 84 Negro children into
its previously all-white schools Sept.
2. It was by far the largest scale de
segregation in the state.
Sixteen school districts in 14 coun
ties admitted Negro students to form
erly white schools—15 for the first
time. In all, some 260 Negroes were
involved.
The state president of the NAACP
said a suit would probably he filed
soon to desegregate faculties in
Charleston School District 20.
Federal court orders, filed in Au
gust, desegregated two school dis
tricts in the state and another school
desegregation suit was filed against a
Chesterfield County district.
Last September, 11 Negro plaintiffs
were admitted after the conclusion of
the first successful desegregation suit
in the state. One of them returned
voluntarily to an all-Negro school
after a few days and another was ex
pelled, reportedly for bad conduct.
In late May, the district, under court
order to effect full-scale desegregation
this year, accepted transfer applica
tions from 77 additional Negroes. All
but two appeared.
District officials said 37 Negroes en
rolled at Rivers High School, nine at
Charleston High, seven at Memminger
Elementary and 31 at Simons Ele
mentary.
No particular security precautions
were evident and in the main Negro
students walked unaccompanied to
their classes. Supt. T. A. Carrere de
scribed the opening as “a smooth one.”
The district, which includes the
downtown area of historic Charleston,
is heavily Negro in school population.
Last year, average daily attendance
figures listed 2,479 whites and 8,683
Negroes.
Legal Action
Two Counties Told
To Desegregate;
New Lawsuit Filed
Federal court decisions called for
ending of school segregation in two
South Carolina counties in August and
Negroes went to court to attack segre
gation in yet another county.
On Aug. 8, 26 Negro pupils filed suit
against Chesterfield County District 2
—the City of Cheraw and the sur
rounding area. It thus became the
seventh school district in the state made
defendant in federal court suits—only
two of which still are pending at the
district court level.
On Aug. 10, U.S. District Judge
Robert W. Hemphill ordered Sumter
County District 2 to admit 13 Negro
plaintiffs in the year-old case of
Private Schools Thrive In 3 Counties
In the wake of public school desegre
gation, three South Carolina counties
have experienced a small boom in pri
vate schools, most of which looked
hopefully to the state’s previously un
used tuition grants program for sup
port.
In the Charleston area, three new
private educational enterprises pre
pared to open Sept. 8 and several other
organizations considered launching
other schools.
Also on Sept. 8, Thomas Sumter
Academy planned to open in an aban-
from 11 ° f a large number of children doned school building in a rural area
^ military families. of Sumter County. But the first to get
under way was Wade Hampton Acad
emy in Orangeburg, which opened Aug.
31.
In all, these five schools will have
approximately 700 children. Three hun
dred enrolled at Orangeburg; 100 were
expected at Sumter, and about 300 in
the three Charleston schools.
Fees Close to Grants
All but one of these schools were
trying to keep their fees close to the
amount expected in tuition grants. That
exception, Charleston College Prepara
tory School, charges each student about
$500, against approximately $245 per
child that can be expected in the dis
trict from the grants program.
The amount of the tuition grant varies
from district to district. It is the sum
of the state’s regular per pupil expendi
ture in public schools plus the school
district’s regular supplement to public
schools.
Participation must be approved by
the school district involved. The district,
in effect, loses that state grant for each
pupil attending a private school and
further must add its own supplement.
The grant is paid to the parents of stu
dents attending private schools.
In addition, any participating private
school must meet rigid standards set
by the State Department of Education.
And grants cannot go to a church-re
lated school, although churches may
lend or lease property for school use.
Declared Void
Such programs, although differing in
detail, have been declared void in other
states and the state NAACP has
threatened repeatedly to contest the
plan in the courts when the first grant
is paid.
In fact, in an aside attack on the
Orangeburg undertaking, parents of two
young Negro children—Earl Wesley Jr.
and Renner Coblin—applied to Wade
Hampton Academy. They were not ac
cepted.
The Orangeburg school, which split
the town into two camps when it sought
to enroll as many white students as it
could obtain in an aggressive campaign,
opened in two locations a mile and a
half apart.
The first through the sixth grades are
being taught in facilities provided by
Northside Baptist Church. The upper
grades, through 12, are located in a
large private home rented by the pri
vate school. It contains a dozen large
rooms to house the 110-odd students
attending school there. The lower grades
at Northside have about 190 students
and eight teachers. There are two
classes each in the first and fifth grades.
The private school group plans to
build a permanent building in the fu
ture.
Dr. T. E. Wannamaker, who is chair
man of the school and who will person
ally teach physics and chemistry in the
top two grades, told an opening day
assembly: “You are pioneers. The pio
neers were known, not only for the
hardships they experienced, but were
distinguished by their strong convic
tions and determination.”
D. Leon McCormac, a veteran educa
tor who held high school positions in
Savannah, Ga., and Columbia, and with
the State Department of Education be
fore retirement, was named superinten
dent of the Orangeburg school Aug. 10.
In the opening assembly, he told the
students: “I hope all of you will accept
this as an adventure. It will require
sacrifice and work and I hope you will
take full advantage of the opportunity.”
Sumter Expected 100
In Sumter County, Thomas Sumter
Academy expected about 100 students
for its opening Sept. 8. John B. Pate, a
trustee of the private educational ven
ture, said recently the faculty and cur
ricula were organized and ready to go.
The school will use the abandoned
Hillcrest School building near Shaw
AFB. It stands across the highway from
the sleek, modem new Hillcrest School,
which was one of three schools in Sum
ter County District 2 that desegregated
at the beginning of this school year.
The three Charleston area schools
ready for this school year are East
Cooper River Private School in Mount
Pleasant, the College Preparatory
School in downtown Charleston and
Miss Mason’s School on South Battery
—the heart of old Charleston. All were
scheduled to open Sept. 8.
Charleston Rep. Nat W. Cabell, an
early advocate of the tuition grants bill
and private schools, said their presence
has “undoubtedly eased tensions in
Charleston.”
The Citadel, South Carolina’s mili
tary college, rejected its first known
Negro applicant, but the University
of South Carolina apparently has ac
cepted between 13 and 15 new Negro
students, including the first to enter
its law school.
Five new private schools, which ex
pect to be the first to draw on the
state’s tuitions grants program, were
to open in three localities.
Negro attorneys attached Orange
burg’s pupil assignment and transfer
plan in a petition to U.S. District
Court.
Harris Marshall
Orangeburg superintendent.
Randall v. Sumter County School Dis
trict 2.
On Aug. 12, segregation fell in
Orangeburg County District 5 when
Federal Judge Charles E. Simons Jr.
instructed the defendant trustees to
accept 28 Negro pupils in its white
schools. There had been only 23
original plaintiffs in the suit (Adams
et al v. School District 5 of Orange
burg County) which was filed last
March 20.
Followed Pattern
These were the first school decisions
by Judges Simons and Hemphill, both
of whom were appointed to the federal
bench in the spring. Their orders fol
lowed the general pattern of those laid
down by Judge J. Robert Martin in
previous decisions against districts in
Charleston, Greenville and Darlington
counties.
The Sumter case differed slightly
from the others in that all of the plain
tiffs were children of military person
nel living on Shaw Air Force Base.
The district, in fighting the desegre
gation move, announced it could no
longer be responsible for educating
military children. The federal govern
ment obtained an injunction on the
grounds it had put up most of the
money to build the schools involved.
Thirty children were listed in the
original suit but many moved away
since it was filed Sept. 16, 1963.
Sumter District 2 covers all of the
largely rural county except the City
of Sumter itself. Shaw AFB is located
10 miles west of Sumter on the Colum
bia highway. Last year the district had
3,460 white students in average daily
attendance and 5,434 Negroes.
No Trials
Neither the Sumter nor Orangeburg
cases ever went to trial. In both cases
attorneys agreed after pre-trial hear
ings that no open-court testimony was
needed. In fact only one of the five
desegregation cases decided in the state
has reached the trial stage. That came
last summer in Charleston District 20
and brought the state its first public
school desegregation in September of
1963.
Testimony in the Charleston case has
been made a part of the record in sub
sequent cases.
School boards in both Sumter and
Orangeburg were ordered to implement
full-scale desegregation programs by
the 1965-66 school year. This too fol
lowed the precedent established by
Judge Martin in the Charleston case
when he gave the school board there
a year’s grace after token desegrega
tion before dropping all racial barriers
to admission.
The Sumter and Orangeburg boards
were given the option of submitting
pupil assignment and transfer plans
devoid of racial considerations. Orange
burg has done this already and prompt
ly had the plan attacked by Negro
petitions just as Negroes objected to
similar court-approved plans in
Charleston and Greenville counties.
(See separate article.)
In both cases the federal courts re
jected school board arguments that
ethnic differences should control
school assignments.
In the Sumter case, Judge Hemphill
held that the Supreme Court’s “de
liberate speed” policy on school de
segregation was not intended to
(See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 16)