Newspaper Page Text
2 V
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Southern School News
Objective
VOL II. NO. 4
ALABAMA
Assembly Calls
For Amendment
Fo Constitution
MONTGOMERY
T he Alabama legislature, called
into a one-day special session
on Sept. 21 by Gov. George C.
! Wallace, unanimously passed a
resolution designed to force an
amendment to the U.S. Consti
tution giving all control of schools
to the respective states.
Wallace said he would wage a na
tionwide campaign to get the required
two-thirds of the states to pass similar
resolutions. The governor said this is
not impossible:
“I tell you that total federal control
of our public school system is not
inevitable and that to fight it is not
futile.
“The resolution I ask you to enact...
will constitute the first step—the first
shot—in a battle to preserve the most
democratic institutions on earth, local
public schools. We are going to take
this crusade across the country . . .
We shall use every resource and power
at our command.”
All Aspects
The resolution stated that states shall
control all aspects of public schools
and declared that federal courts would
have no jurisdiction in school legisla
tion.
Wallace said he would recommend
the resolution at the Southern Gov-
I emors’ Conference in San Antonio,
Tex., in October: “I will ask every
governor there to sponsor a similar
resolution in their state legislatures.”
Wallace said that “many people
throughout this land share our views
of home rule and states’ rights.” He
said many people would lend their
support: “We can wrest control of the
schools away from the all-powerful
oentralized government. It may take
one, two, four or six years, but it can
he done.”
He said he intended to try to get
the resolution passed in all of the other
? states: "We are going to rim a
tull-scale campaign on this thing.”
Superintendent Endorses
State Superintendent of Education
Austin R. Meadows endorsed the reso-
ution, with the statement that he
*ould urge other state school super
intendents to support similar reso-
utions in their states. Meadows
wntinued:
Our resolution, while it was tailored
Alabama specifications, is one that
® completely non-partisan and non-
racia l Hut at the same time is Ameri
can.
, ,^ e are now under the thumb of
th 6ra ^ con trol in public education,
a ° U §H direct and indirect methods.
| I°* ever > I am fully confident we will
^‘ually win the battle against fed-
^ control of schools—because such
ji H°1 would necessarily be used to
~” rc >y the American system of rep-
' democracy . . .
ctat °rship nations have always
w _ n control of their educational sys-
iY ca Pturing the minds and souls of
^ youth, and making slaves of them,
t no * Happen in America, but
Happen unless federal seizure
(See AMENDMENT, Page 7)
Governor Wallace
Endorsing amendment.
MISSISSIPPI
Desegregation
At Jackson
Starts Quietly
JACKSON
r I ^ hirty-nine Negro first-grade
pupils entered eight formerly
white public schools in Jackson
on Sept. 14 under federal court
orders. The elementary school de
segregation—the third to come to
Mississippi — was peaceful and
without incident.
Jackson police and school officials
imposed tight security as the Negro
children entered the schools. Also, 10
Department of Justice officials headed
by John Doar of Washington were
nearby and watched the proceedings.
An unidentified Negro boy, accom
panied by his mother, entered Gallo
way School shortly before 8 a.m. and
became the first of his race to enter
a white school in Jackson since public
schools opened in 1846. He left with
his mother shortly after entering, how
ever, and school officials said the
mother had requested a transfer to an
all-Negro school. Later in the morning,
however, the child returned and the
mother asked that the request be with
drawn.
Jackson school officials had previous
ly approved the applications of 44
Negroes seeking entrance into the first
grade. However, five did not appear
when school opened.
13 Biracial Schools
Fifty-eight Negro first-graders are
attending 13 previously all-white pub
lic schools in three Mississippi school
systems, all under federal court orders.
The breakdown:
• Jackson: 39 Negroes in eight
schools.
• Carthage: 1 Negro in one school.
• Biloxi: 18 Negroes in four schools.
(See 39, Page 8)
VO ‘SN3h.lv
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OCTOBER, 1964
w more colleges, Universities
Open Without Race Restrictions
S outhern colleges and universities started the new academic year
with 15 more institutions accepting both whites and Negroes. Five
of these are public-supported and ten are private.
The 11 Southern states have 214 institutions of higher learning that
are supported by tax funds at the city, county or state level, and 131
of these—or over 60 per cent—now have desegregation policies.
There are 114 predominantly white public institutions that will ac
cept Negroes and another 60 remain segregated. Of the 40 public col
leges for Negroes, 17 will accept whites.
Among the private and church schools, less than half are desegre
gated. At least 136 of the 299 non-public institutions have known
policies admitting both races. These include 111 of the 239 predomi
nantly white schools and 25 of the 60 predominantly Negro schools.
Additional privately operated schools could have desegregated without
public notice.
Slightly More Than Half
Combining the public and private school figures, the 11-state area
has a total of 267 desegregated colleges—slightly over half of the 513
colleges and universities.
Six Southern states had started desegregation at the college level
several years before the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling on school
segregation. Arkansas, the first to act, voluntarily admitted a Negro
to the University of Arkansas in 1948. Court orders compelled
Louisiana, Texas and Virginia to desegregate in 1950, North Carolina
in 1951, and Tennessee in 1952.
Since 1954, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Caro
lina have admitted Negroes to state colleges and universities with
whites. All five acted only by court order and South Carolina was the
last to comply, desegregating in early 1963.
Arkansas, Norh Carolina and Tennessee have started desegregation
at all their public colleges and universities, as have all the bor
der states.
The new desegregation this fall occurred in public colleges of Geor
gia, Louisiana, and Texas; private schools in Alabama, Arkansas,
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Desegregation This Fall
Rises to 139 Districts
N
ew desegregation reported in
September increased to 139 the
number of Southern public school
districts that desegregated this
fall for the first time.
The 11 states in the South have a
total of 583 desegregated districts with
policies to admit Negro students to
the same schools with whites. These
districts represent more than one-
fourth of the 2,255 public school sys
tems having both races enrolled. The
South has another 734 districts that
either have all-white or all-Negro
enrollments.
This year’s increase in new desegre
gation, at the kindergarten through
high-school level, slightly exceeds the
135 desegregated districts added dur
ing school opening in the fall of 1963.
Texas, which accounts for half of the
583 desegregated districts, leads the
11-state area in the number of newly
desegregated districts this fall and last.
The number of new districts acting in
each state this fall and the total de
segregated are:
Desegegated
State
New
Total
Alabama
4
8
Arkansas
11
24
Florida
5
21
Georgia
6
10
Louisiana
1
3
Mississippi
4
4
North Carolina
25
65
South Carolina
15
16
Tennessee
15
60
Texas
28
292
Virginia
25
80
TOTALS
139
583
Complete figures on public school
enrollment still were unavailable at the
(See 139 DISTRICTS, Page 6)
Public College
Desegrega tion
State
White
No. D.t
Negro
No. D.t
Total
No. D.t
Alabama
7- 3
2-1
9- 4
Arkansas*
7- 7
1-1
8- 8
Florida
20-13
11-2
31-15
Georgia
18- 8
3-1
21- 9
Louisiana
10- 7
3-1
13- 8
Mississippi
19- 1
6-0
25- 1
North Carolina* 11-11
6-6
17-17
South Carolina
5- 3
1-0
6- 3
Tennessee*
6- 6
1-1
7- 7
Texas
50-46
4-3
54-49
Virginia
21- 9
2-1
23-10
TOTALS
174-144
40-17 214-131
♦All desegregated.
tFirst number is total of schools, and second
is number of these desegregated.
North Carolina, South Carolina, Ten
nessee and Virginia; and both public
and private colleges in Florida.
New and extended college and uni
versity desegregation by states follows:
Alabama—Auburn University, which
desegregated its graduate division
earlier this year, registered its first
two Negro undergraduates this fall.
The two were among the 12 Negro
students who had desegregated the
first Macon County, Ala., school last
year at Tuskegee. Sacred Heart Col
lege, a Roman Catholic school at Cull
man, accepted its first Negro student
in September.
Arkansas—A desegregation policy
began this year at three private
schools: Crowley Ridge Junior College,
Paragould, one Negro; Hendrix College
(Methodist), Conway, policy; and Little
Rock University, Little Rock, seven
Negroes.
Florida—Lee County closed Dunbar
Junior College, for Negroes, and de
segregated Edison Junior College,
formerly all-white. Putnam County
followed a similar policy, closing all-
Negro Collier Blocker Junior College
and merging the student body with St.
Johns River Junior College. In Sara
sota, New College, a private school
with Congregational-Christian Church
assistance, opened this year without
requirements in regard to race or
creed.
Georgia—A newly opened junior
college, Brunswick College, admitted
six Negroes its first semester. A
branch of Georgia Institute of Tech
nology, Southern Technical Institute at
Marietta, has three Negroes this fall for
the first time. Georgia Tech admitted
Negroes in 1961.
Louisiana—A formerly all-Negro,
public school, Southern University at
New Orleans, had to admit a white
graduate student by order of a federal
court.
(See COLLEGES, Page 2)
WASHINGTON REPORT
$8 Million Fund to Aid School Desegregation
^ This Issue
^°nthly Reports
.. l
.. 3
.. 6
.. 9
.. 2
.. 1
.. 5
..11
..10
.. 4
..12
.. 1
1
1
4
WASHINGTON
N $8 million appropriation for
the U. S. Office of Education
to carry out school desegregation
activities under the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 was approved by
Congress just before it adjourned
on Oct. 3.
The sum was part of a $13 million
total for civil rights activities requested
by the Administration in a supplemen
tal appropriations bill. Funds were also
approved for the new Community Re
lations Service in the Department of
Commerce ($1.1 million); the Depart
ment of Justice ($1.09 million); the
Civil Rights Commission ($2.5 million),
and the Department of Labor ($100,000).
The Office of Education will use its
share of the civil rights funds for activ
ities authorized under Title IV of the
act. These include offering financial and
technical assistance to school districts
planning to desegregate; establishing
training institutes for administrators
and educational staff involved in de
segregation, and conducting a two-year
study of the pace of compliance with
the Supreme Court’s school desegrega
tion decision of 1954.
House passage of the supplemental
appropriation bill came Sept. 22 after
only passing reference to the civil
rights funds. Rep. H. R. Gross (R-
Iowa) unsuccessfully challenged the
allocation for the Civil Rights Commis
sion, and Rep. John M. Ashbrook (R-
Ohio‘ commented that Southern Demo
crats who had opposed the Civil Rights
Act were “strangely silent” about the
funds to ca. ry out its provisions. There
was no response from the Southern
members of the House.
Senate approval of the supplemental
appropriations measure came in the
adjournment rush on Oct. 2. The bill
also provided funds for a number of
other Government activities, including
the new anti-poverty program estab
lished under the Economic Opportunity
Act of 1964.
★ ★ ★
A government report on compliance
with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will
be issued this fall by three agencies
concerned with the act’s enforcement,
former Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins an
nounced Sept. 22.
Collins, who now heads the Com
munity Relations Service established
under the law, said the report, based
on a comprehen
sive survey, will
be prepared by
his agency, the
Civil Rights Di
vision of the De
partment of Jus
tice and the Civil
Rights Commis
sion.
A spokesman
for the Commun
ity Relations
Service indicated
that the report would be ready by the
end of October.
At a luncheon of the Women’s Na
tional Press Club, Collins said comp
liance with the act has been “far
greater than anyone had expected.”
“There is not a single city—North or
South—in which there has not been a
substantial increase in the abolishment
of discrimination since the act was
passed,” he said. Even Mississippi, he
added, contains “outstanding examples
of compliance with this law.”
‘New Bridges’
Collins said he hoped the Commun
ity Relations Service, a conciliation
agency established within the Depart
ment of Commerce, would “build new
bridges so that compliance can be
brought about without the harshness of
litigation.”
He reported that the service has been
asked to mediate in 42 instances, and
has settled two of them. Collins de
clined to identify specific situations in
which the service is involved because
(See CONGRESS, Page 10)
COLLINS
