Newspaper Page Text
PAGE &—NOVEMBER, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
LOUISIANA
Negro Plaintiffs Propose Complete Desegregation Plan
NEW ORLEANS
A plan for complete desegre-
gation of St. John the Bap
tist Parish public schools in 1965-
66 was submitted to the U.S. dis
trict court here by attorneys for
277 Negro plaintiffs.
Judge Robert A. Ainsworth gave the
respondent parish school board 30 days,
or until Nov. 9, to file objections to the
proposed plan or to present a desegre
gation plan of their own.
The case, Harris et al v. St. John the
Baptist Parish School Board, has been
in the federal courts since March 1,
1963. It involves a parish school system
which enrolls about 4,500 pupils, 64 per
cent of them Negroes, in six all-white
and 10 all-Negro schools.
Major provisions of the plaintiffs’
desegregation proposal include the fol
lowing:
• Separate school zones for white
and Negro pupils would be abolished
and new zones drawn in order to assign
to all grades in each of the 16 schools
the number of students corresponding
to the normal capacity of the school.
The board would consider neither race
nor color nor present nor prior enroll
ments in drawing the new attendance
zone lines.
• Determination of student assign
ments or reassignments for all 12 grades
would be made by the school board by
counting the children, both white and
Negro, living in the immediate vicinity
of each school and assigning these pu
pils to the particular school nearest
their home until the normal capacity
is reached.
• Parents would be notified in writ
ing before March 1, 1965, of the assign
ment or reassignment of their children.
• Each pupil would be required to
attend the school in the zone of resi
dence, and the school board would have
the right to transfer students to other
schools for good cause based on educa
tional reasons or practical convenience
but not for reasons of race or color.
• All personnel, including teachers,
would be assigned on the basis of
qualifications and need without regard
to race or color.
• All school activities, including
extracurricular, would be open to all
qualified students and no activities
limited as to race would be granted
support of the schools.
• No school budgets or construction
plans would be approved and no funds
would be disbursed on a racial basis.
• New attendance zone designations
as well as reports on assignments, re-
assignments and transfers would be
filed with the court during the first year
the desegregation plan is in effect.
Arkansas
(Continued from Page 5)
Ford also said he planned to seek to
end the $200 differential in the state in
the average salaries of white and Negro
teachers.
★ ★ ★
The Negro boy who had enrolled in
the white junior high school at Forrest
City has withdrawn and returned to the
Negro school. This information came
from sources in the Negro community
who said that a second Negro boy who
had been expected to go to the white
school did not and that the one did not
want to go there alone.
★ ★ ★
North Little Rock Board
Adopts Compliance Terms
When the North Little Rock School
Board met Oct. 29, Supt. F. B. Wright
asked for the usual authorization to
apply for federal impact aid under
Public Law 874. The district receives
about $100,000 a year.
But this time the board had to in
clude a statement that it was prepared
to comply with the applicable pro
visions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Although North Little Rock began de
segregation on a voluntary basis in
September, the board members were
reluctant to approve the statement.
Board Member B. Hurshel Ball
moved that the application and state
ment be approved, failed to get a sec
ond, and President Leon Hoisted started
to go on to the next item of business.
Superintendent Wright interrupted.
After some discussion, Ball made his
motion again, Milton Rhodes seconded
it and those two plus H. Harrod Berry
voted for it. Two new members, W. D.
Todd and James C. Bohannon, elected
to the board in September, did not vote,
saying that they did not know anything
about the law.
Todd said he wondered if meeting
the law was worth $100,000.
★ ★ ★
Court Asked to Vacate
Desegregation Action
A petition was filed Oct. 23 in fed
eral appeals court at New Orleans ask
ing vacation of an injunction which
required desegregation of a state col
lege.
The action was taken in the U.S. Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals by William P.
Schuler, an assistant state attorney
general, who argued that Judge Robert
A. Ainsworth of the district court had
erred in his order of Sept. 17,1963. That
order restrained the State Board of
Education from continuing its policy of
segregation at the Francis T. Nicholls
State College in Thibodaux. Seven Ne
gro pupils were admitted the next day.
Schtder contended the court erred in
holding that Negroes who filed the
original suit could sue the state board.
He admitted that this point has been
litigated on frequent prior occasions but
said he was trying to show the appeals
court that decisions of the U.S. Su
preme Court are contrary to many de
cisions of the Fifth Circuit Court
holding that state agencies can be sued
without their consent.
A. P. Tureaud Sr., attorney for the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, submitted the case without oral
argument.
What They Say
Speaker Advocates
Intensified Efforts
Speaking at the annual banquet at
Dillard University, Leon Wallace, a
1934 graduate and now director of the
insurance service division of the U.S.
Veterans Administration, said: “As
Americans of Negro descent we must
intensify our protestations for better
education and higher achievement for
our people and for all people. As
thoughtful Americans, we must address
ourselves to the role of clearing the
complexion of our society. . .
“Concerted group action gained for
us the right to hold public office, the
right of a proper education for our chil
dren, the right to fair and equal em
ployment opportunities, the right to use
public facilities and public accommoda
tions.”
★ ★ ★
Shuttlesworth Urges
‘Massive Persistence’
“Massive persistence in a non
violent way” is the only means of
overcoming resistance to the Negro
rights movement, the Rev. Fred J.
Shuttlesworth of Birmingham told a
New Orleans meeting of the Southern
Conference Education Fund.
Speaking in the Confederate Room
of the Hilton Inn, the president of the
SCEF and of the Alabama Christian
Movement for Human Rights said, “The
greatest people in this country now are
those who seek to make freedom a
reality.”
The dinner meeting honored workers
in the summer’s integration move in
Mississippi.
The meeting was held in spite of the
protests of the South Louisiana Citizens
Council which called on State Attorney
General Jack Gremillion to prevent the
Rev. Mr. Shuttlesworth from speaking.
Political Action
Race Issues Play
Subsidiary Role
In Board Election
Segregation and desegregation of the
public schools played only a subsidiary
role in the six-way campaign for two
seats on the Orleans Parish School
Board. All the candidates agreed the
school board was bound to comply with
the court’s orders, but their ideas of
compliance ranged from “dragging your
feet” to purposeful and complete de
segregation of each grade affected by
the “stairstep” plan now in progress.
In the Nov. 3 election, the four lead
ing candidates—who now will compete
in a runoff on Dec. 8—-were Darnel A.
Ellis, Victor H. Hess Jr., James L. Ear-
hart and Dr. Andrew Rinker. All ran
far ahead of the other two candidates,
Mrs. Virginia Cox Welch and Louis W.
Schlekau.
Except for the presence of Mrs. Cox
in the race, the segregation-desegrega-
Louisiana Highlights
Complete desegregation of St.
John the Baptist Parish schools be
ginning next fall was proposed in a
plan filed in U.S. District court by
attorneys for the Negro plaintiffs.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals was asked to vacate an in
junction under which seven Negro
students enrolled in Francis T.
Nicholls State College last fall.
A special session of the Louisiana
Legislature, called to consider teach
er salary increases, also will be asked
to approve an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution proposed by Alabama
Gov. George Wallace that would
leave educational matters solely up
to the states.
tion issue may have remained below
the surface throughout.
A white teacher at a Negro Catholic
high school and a matriculant at a Ne
gro state university, Mrs. Cox said she
entered the race to air the school segre
gation issue. “I think a lot of people in
New Orleans agree with me,” she
added.
“I don’t favor overnight integration
of the schools,” Mrs. Cox said. “All I
want is for the school board to live up
to its promise to the courts—to inte
grate on a grade-a-year plan—and
meanwhile to give Negro children in
segregated schools an equal educa
tion. . .
Gives Figures
“There are between 16,000 and 17,000
Negro children in the first three grades
of the public schools—the grades that
are supposed to be integrated—and
only 800 of them are integrated. Mean
while, the rest of the children are in
overcrowded classrooms, and the board
is spending less money on their educa
tion than it is on white children’s edu
cation. All I want is justice, and I think
a lot of people in New Orleans agree
with me. . .
“At the rate we’re going, 12 years
from now, we’ll still have segregated
schools. We’ll still have the NAACP
suing. We’ll still have our school board
and school administrators spending
their time on problems of desegrega
tion. This can’t be good for the city.
It’s not good for the schools. It’s not
good for anybody, least of all the chil
dren.”
Strongest voice raised in opposition
to school desegregation was that of
Schlekau, a certified public accountant.
He agreed that the school board must
comply with the court orders, but he
argued for grants-in-aid to children
who chose to attend private nonsectar
ian segregated schools.
“I believe in stalling as much as we
can in hopes that the conservatives led
by Gov. Wallace (George, of Alabama)
can get through his constitutional
amendment to return control of the
schools to the states,” he said.
“The board and the people are going
to have to realize that the next step is
an attempt to integrate faculties,”
Schlekau asserted. “This is going to
create a greater furore than integration
of facilities. Board members now being
elected are going to have that problem.”
But for Schlekau, as for most of the
other candidates, segregation-desegre
gation was only a secondary issue. The
point of his campaign was what he
called the lack of “businesslike man
agement on the current board.”
Incumbent Ellis, who was appointed
to the board by Gov. Jimmie Davis in
1962 to succeed resigned segregationist
Emile Wagner, pitched his campaign
primarily on what he sees as the need
for an independent voice on the school
board.
Among the proposals Ellis has made,
opposed by the board majority, is one
to study the possibility of separate high
schools for boys and girls. On the
segregation issue specifically, Ellis said:
“I believe in a slow, orderly desegre
gation. My rule is, ‘Obey the courts,
but drag your feet.’ I believe this is
what’s best for the community and
what the community is willing to ac
cept. . .
“If desegregation proceeds to the
point our white people divorce them
selves from the public schools, we are
not going to be a first-rate school sys
tem.”
‘Not an Issue’
Earhart, who ran for the Orleans
Parish School Board in 1962 in a cam
paign with heavy racial overtones, also
soft-pedalled the issue this year.
On the question of segregation Ear-
hart said, “Once the court gives an
order, there is nothing you can do but
comply. Segregation is not an issue. I
favor keeping schools open.” Earhart is
one of the incorporators of the nonsec
tarian Sanctuary Private School.
Though Earhart and Ellis are not
running together on a “ticket” as is the
political custom in Louisiana, both have
the support of the Citizens Council.
Two other candidates ran a joint
campaign. They are Hess, an attorney,
and Dr. Rinker, a pediatrician. Neither
has had much to say about the school
segregation - desegregation question.
Hess in 1960 was active in the move
ment to keep public schools open after
court ordered desegregation began.
Rinker said, “I am not a segregationist
or an integrationist.” The only thing I
WALLACE McKEITHEN
am concerned with is that children get
a fair deal.
★ ★ ★
Race Issues Play Part
In Congressional Contest
Racial considerations played a part ij
the Second District congressional co R .
test between incumbent Hale Boggs
Democratic whip in the House, and
Republican challenger David Treen
Boggs won on Nov. 3 by a vote of 78
087 to 59,502.
Speaking at the bayou town of Lafitte
Oct. 12, Treen was sharply critical of
federal aid to education and Boggs’ role
in promoting such legislation.
Said Treen: “Boggs introduced House
Resolution 6156 in 1959 to provide fed
eral aid for primary and secondary
schools. The U.S. Supreme Court has
shown that the federal government has
the right to control that which it
subsidizes.”
He said he would fight to retain con
trol of schools in state and local school
boards, and he added: “We do not want
our textbooks and teaching assignments
determined by a bureaucrat in Wash
ington. The education of Louisiana’s
children is Louisiana’s own right and
duty.”
Rep. Boggs spent most of his time
stumping for the Democratic presiden
tial ticket, which lost Louisiana by some
117,000 votes. Boggs attributed Sen.
Barry Goldwater’s victory in the state
to “racists.”
Treen said bloc voting by Negroes
gave Boggs his victory margin.
★ ★ ★
Alabama’s Gov. George Wallace,
opening the Bossier-Webster Parish
Fair and Forest Festival at Minden in
conservative northwest Louisiana,
advocated his constitutional amend
ment to vest operation of public
schools solely in the states.
Displaying a copy of the resolution
passed by the Alabama legislature,
Wallace told his Louisiana audience it
calls for “the rights for people to run
their own schools and for those liberals
to get their sticky fingers off.”
Wallace said he was authorized by
Louisiana Gov. John McKeithen, who
was not present, to “tell them in
Minden the governor of Louisiana is
going to support this amendment and
ask the legislature to pass it.”
Later in the month, McKeithen, upon
his return from the Southern Gover
nors’ Conference at San Antonio, Texas,
predicted that the special session of the
Louisiana legislature slated for No
vember would approve the proposed
constitutional amendment without op
position.
McKeithen deplored the failure of the
Southern Governors’ Conference to sup
port the Wallace proposal. The Louis
iana chief executive noted that om>
two conference participants
against the amendment, but that was
sufficient to deny it the unanimous con
sent such measures require under con
ference rules.
Faith in Learning Ability
Of Slum Children Credited
ST. LOUIS
n abiding faith that our
children have the ability to
learn” was given Oct. 25 by Sam
uel Shepard Jr. of the St. Louis
public schools as a major secret of
the Banneker programs’ success
in upgrading school achievement
of slum children here.
Shepard, assistant superintendent of
schools in St. Louis, is in charge of the
Banneker group of elementary schools,
which serves 15,000 children, about 95
per cent of them Negroes, in the near
downtown area.
“The heart and soul of it is hard
work,” Shepard told a conference spon
sored by the Council for Basic Educa
tion, a nonprofit private agency, at
George Washington University.
Other speakers in the Washington,
D.C., conference who discussed the edu
cation of slum children were U.S. Com
missioner of Education Francis Keppel
and Calvin E. Gross, superintendent of
schools in New York City.
Shepard told of the six-year St. Louis
experience in raising achievement
levels of children who live in the city’s
most unpromising area, from the stand
point of low income status and cultural
disadvantage.
“What has made the real difference
is the co-operation we have received
from parents,” he told the audience.
The importance of convincing teach
ers and principals in slum schools that
deprived children are teachable was
stressed by Shepard. He also em
phasized the need for convincing par
ents and children of the need for doing
well in schools.
Shepard said Negro parents who are
victims of racial prejudice and job dis
crimination have difficulty in many in
stances in seeing the value of education.
He added that their attitude must be
changed from one of contempt for
learning to one of respect.
Tells of Difficulty
Shepard told of the difficulty of
stimulating incentive among persons
who live in crowded quarters. In these
homes, two to six families use the same
bathroom, he said.
Many homes have no father present
or the father cannot get a job and has
no status, Shepard continued. “This
drone status of the American Negro
means that some cannot identify with
their fathers—there is no desirable
father image—and the concept of worth
and dignity of self is destroyed,” Shep
ard said.
“Thus a low level of aspiration hangs
over the heads of the children, he: c
tinued. “Can anyone expect tha
such family show anything but an,,
titude of frustration and hostih y-
Shepard said that despite ac * ve j iaS
conditions, the Banneker program ^
gone forward on the assumption
difficulties can be overcome. ^ c j 1 jng
teachers were asked to stop j 0
by IQ,” to put aside condescensw ^
assign homework and to visit tn
and make contact with parents.
Motto Stressed
d told of devices for " ^
s Banneker motto: Succe
Gross described
s an educator ot , be-
hose St. Louis program
tionally famous. faint'
e of prejudice and ^ons
ess, Gross said, many are
lelieve that slum cIu ^ D ced
ly educable and are s tock
slum child is mfen° r
ch little can be don • g r0SS .
ttitude was attacked ^j^ls
the trouble was d
: learned how to ed J
lildren. The slums ot
„ of the nation d .
J
I
F
ar
re
0
de
ac
all
tir
I SIT
I ris
ini
I di
U
ca
er
fo
fil
11
cc
C'c
tl
r<
in
si
V.
N
tl
IT
P
e
1;
i
v
c
a
a
a
a
*
I
r
i
i
t
i