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PAGE 8—NOVEMBER, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
VIRGINIA
Teachers’ Organization Votes To Admit Negro Members
RICHMOND
ryiHE Virginia Education Asso
ciation, in annual convention
in Richmond Oct. 29, approved a
recommendation from the board
of directors that Negroes be ad
mitted to membership.
In another action, the VEA, by a
vote of 516 to 327, urged repeal of the
state’s tuition grants program. No
recommendation on this subject had
been made by the directors.
The constitutional change relating to
Negro membership provides that
Negroes may be admitted to the Vir
ginia Education Association if they are
members of local associations affiliated
with the VEA.
So far, only a few VEA affiliates, all
located in northern Virginia, have ad
mitted Negroes. The total number ad
mitted is about 300. The VEA has a
membership of approximately 32,000.
In 1962, the VEA, in annual conven
tion, authorized its local affiliates to ac
cept Negroes if they wished to do so.
As of now, the vast majority of Negro
educators in the state are not in locali
ties in which they may join VEA
affiliates, and thus they are not
eligible for membership in the VEA
itself under the Oct. 29 action.
Rejected Merger
The directors’ recommendation, ap
proved by the convention, rejected a
proposed merger of the VEA and the
Virginia Teachers Association, the
organization of Negro educators. Mean
while, the VTA, also holding its annual
convention in Richmond, voted unani
mously Oct. 29 in favor of merging
with the VEA. It was the 11th consecu
tive year that the Negro group had
urged merger. The VTA has a member
ship of about 8,500.
Commenting on the VEA’s refusal to
merge, J. Rupert Picott, the VTA’s
executive secretary, said his organiza
tion will “continue to work for the
unification of educational forces in
Virginia, without resulting in our
absorption.” He added: “We want to
have a full part in running such a new
organization.”
The motion that the VEA go on
record against tuition grants was made
by James McBlair, history teacher at
George Mason Junior High School in
Falls Church. A routine resolution pro
claiming the VEA’s faith “in our public
free school system” was up for con
sideration when McBlair proposed this
amendment:
“We specifically urge the state, dis
trict and local associations to take
appropriate action to ensure the repeal
of legislation providing for tuition
grants from public money.”
The delegates agreed to vote on the
motion without discussion. A voice vote
and a standing vote were each deemed
inconclusive, so a head count was
taken, resulting in the 516-327 tally.
First Time
It marked the first time the VEA had
gone on record against tuition grants.
Adoption of the resolution to admit
Negroes was made by voice vote, with
no count made.
In addition to urging merger with
the white organization, the VTA criti
cized the State Department of Educa
tion in a resolution reading, in part:
“A continuing disgraceful situation
exists in the State Department of Edu
cation, inasmuch as the Negro members
of the department are housed in
separate and inadequate facilities . . .
Disapproval of this condition has been
made known to the appropriate persons
in previous years, but nothing has been
done.”
The VTA also urged the General
Assembly to enact a statewide compul
sory school attendance law in place of
the local option measure now on the
books, and reiterated its perennial de
mand for the abolition of the tuition
grants program.
★ ★ ★
Earlier, on Oct. 27, the Virginia
Teacher Association’s (Negro) execu
tive board voted to give financial
support to seven Negro teachers fight
ing their dismissals in Giles County.
Financial aid also has been pledged
by the National Education Association,
through its DuShane Foundation, and
the American Teachers Association, ac
cording to Dr. J. Rupert Picott, the
VTA’s executive secretary.
The seven Negro teachers lost their
jobs when Giles County closed its
Negro school last summer and assigned
all Negro students to previously all-
white schools. The dismissed teachers
filed suit (Franklin v. Giles County
School Board) July 29 in the federal
district court at Roanoke.
★ ★ ★
PTA Program Opposes
State’s Tuition Grants
Abolition of the state’s tuition grants
law is proposed in a suggested legis
lative program unveiled at the annual
convention of the Virginia Congress
of Parents and Teachers at Norfolk
Oct. 21.
The 16-point program will be sub
mitted to each of the 20 district PTA
conventions next spring. If and when
any one of the items is approved by
as many as 15 districts, that item will
become a part of the state PTA’s legis
lative program, which the organization
will support in the 1966 session of the
General Assembly.
★ ★ ★
The Prince Edward Board of
Supervisors on Oct. 26 amended the
county’s tuition grants ordinance to
permit payment of grants to children
attending private nonsectarian schools
anywhere in the United States. Previ
ously, the grants were limited to such
schools located in the county. Grants
also will be available, as previously,
to children attending public schools
outside the county.
The change was made at the sugges
tion of the board’s attorneys, who said
it would give the grants program a
stronger legal foundation.
★ ★ ★
No dances will be permitted at Ac
comack County schools this year, it
was announced Oct. 26. Oliver C.
Greenwood, superintendent, declined
to comment on why the school board
decided against dances. Two high
schools in the county were desegre
gated in September.
Virginia Highlights
The Virginia Education Associa
tion voted to admit Negroes as mem
bers and also went on record as
opposing Virginia’s tuition grants
program.
NAACP lawyers said they would
ask federal courts to order local
school boards to take the initiative
in school desegregation.
The former superintendent of the
Prince Edward Free Schools called
on Southern educators to speed up
desegregation of both student bodies
and faculties.
i - mHH
What They Say
Educator Suggests
Southern Speed-Up
Of Desegregation
A recommendation that Southern
educators speed up desegregation of
both student bodies and faculties was
made in an article in the Oct. 17
Saturday Review by Dr. Neil V. Sul
livan, who was superintendent of the
Prince Edward Free Schools during
their one-year existence.
Dr. Sullivan’s article, in the Review’s
education supplement, dealt with his
experiences in what he called “Ameri
ca’s most stubborn county.” He said
that as he looked back on the year, he
realized “how lucky I was to be select
ed (to head the school system) and
even more fortunate to have survived.”
Before public schools in Prince Ed
ward closed in 1959 to avoid court-
ordered desegregation, the county’s
Negro schools were “separate and far
from equal,” according to Dr. Sullivan.
And after four years without any
formal schooling, Negro youngsters
came to the Free Schools “mentally
and emotionally whipped,” he wrote.
But the youngsters, ranging in age
from 6 to 22, “not only recaptured lost
skills, but they acquired new ones
faster than any group of school children
with whom I had previously worked,”
the former superintendent declared.
He said “an important fringe benefit”
that accrued to both children and their
teachers was “in losing the color
concept.”
Dr. Sullivan said the courts listened
for 13 years to the argument that
bloodshed would occur if any attempt
were made to desegregate Prince Ed
ward schools. “Yet,” he continued,
“when the Free Schools were opened,
we found eight white children volun
tarily entering the predominantly
Negro schools. The children studied
together, ate together, rode the same
buses, without a single incident oc-
curing. This is in direct contrast to life
in the community where a strict color
line is drawn and any mixing of the
races is scorned by the white com
munity.”
Calls Faculty ‘Catalyst’
Dr. Sullivan termed the biracial
faculty in the Free Schools “a catalyst
in erasing the color concept.” He con
tinued:
“Young children threw their arms
around their teachers, regardless of
color, and expresed their affection.
They were quick to admit that they
did not think of their teacher as white,
black, or yellow, but merely as their
teacher! . . . Not a single child stated
that he preferred a white or a Negro
teacher, but they were unanimous in
reporting that they enjoyed having
good teachers of all races.”
Dr. Sullivan said most of the 23
youths who graduated from the Free
Schools last June did not plan to stay
in Prince Edward because they saw
no future for themselves there. He
said they were singing “Carry Me
Away From Old Virginny.”
The Free Schools, established through
co-operation of federal, state and local
authorities, were the direct result of
the late President Kennedy’s efforts to
see that Prince Edward Negroes had
schools, according to Dr. Sullivan.
When he left Prince Edward, D,
Sullivan became superintendent 0 ;
schools in Berkeley, Calif., the pog
tion he now holds.
Legal Action
Lawsuits To Seek
Board Initiative
In Desegregation
S. W. Tucker, an attorney for the
NAACP, said Oct. 19 that suits will be
filed asking federal courts to require
local school boards to take the initia.
tive in bringing about desegregation.
In some school cases, Tucker and
Henry L. Marsh HI, another NAACP
attorney, have argued that school
boards had the duty not only to pre-
vent discrimination but also to take
affirmative action to end segregation
But Tucker and Marsh have not
formally asked for rulings to that
effect.
Tucker said the suits also will seek
desegregation of public school facul
ties.
The new lawsuits are expected to be
based on desegregation petitions un
successfully submitted by several local
branches of the NAACP to school
boards last summer.
★ ★ ★
Controversy Centers on Tuition Grants
The following article and ac
companying tables were published in
the Richmond, Va., News Reader on
Oct. 2.
By ROBERT P. HILLDRUP
News Leader Education Writer
RICHMOND
A growing storm of contro-
versy is swirling around Vir
ginia s tuition grant system as
Negro attorneys seek to sound a
death knell for the program with
the aid of the federal courts.
What, then, is a tuition grant?
The Negro lawyers say it is a devious
plan, financed by public tax money and
designed to perpetuate segregation
covertly.
White opponents of the plan say it is
a program which, in some instances,
threatens to undermine the public
school system.
Its proponents, however, proclaim
tuition grants as a sound, non-discrim-
inatory program which preserves free
dom of choice for all in the education
of children.
Expenditure Growing
What cannot be disputed, however,
is that the expenditure of public funds
from both state and local tax sources
in the tuition grant program is growing.
Beginning in the school year 1958-59,
the expenditure for the grants has
grown at about half a million dollars a
year. In that year, 6,932 grants,
amounting to $501,107—all in state
funds—were approved. Last year, 12,181
grants valued at $2,931,455.40 were
awarded.
Since 1959-60, the cost of the grants
has been borne roughly on a 50-50
basis by state and local funds.
Figures on the growth of the program
are kept by the state Department of
Education.
Present law provides for a state grant
of $125 for a child attending elementary
school and $150 for a child attending
secondary school. This is supplemented
by local funds to yield a maximum
grant of $250 or $275, respectively.
The grants are available to parents
who send their children either to:
G A private, non-sectarian school.
• A public school other than one in
the school division in which the child
normally would be enrolled.
Application for the grants is made to
the school division in which the child
normally would be enrolled if he were
not attending school elsewhere.
Use of the grants across the state is
varied and spotty. Heavy utilization
has been made in some areas and little
in others.
Negro opponents say that the grants
are providing the financial lifeblood for
newly-formed private schools in areas
where white opposition to public school
desegregation runs high.
On the other hand, Norfolk, which in
recent years quietly has experienced
growing public school desegregation,
far and away leads the rest of the state
in grant utilization.
The grants are open to all without
regard to race. Negro parents, as well
as white, use them to help pay the cost
of their children’s education in private
schools.
And, in some instances, the grants
have been used to send a child from an
all-white public school to an integrated
school in another locality.
Some Schools Refuse
Not all private schools will accept
tuition grant pupils. Some in the Rich
mond area take tuition grant students
willingly. Others refuse to do so, ap
parently from fear that the federal
courts may some day rule that private
schools which do so may not be segre
gated.
Although the desire by some parents
to keep their children in segregated
education undoubtedly is a factor in
some grant applications, this is not al
ways the case.
Others use the grants to send their
children to private schools simply be
cause they feel the education they
receive there is superior to that which
they would get in public schools.
Tuition Grant Growth Traced
Here is a picture of the growth of tuition grant use and cost in Virginia since
1958-59, the first year for which figures are available.
The figures were compiled by the state Department of Education.
The cost per grant cannot be found by dividing the number of grants into
total expense. This is due to changes in the grant program itself and m
variation of the number of secondary and elementary grants, year by year-
Present law provides for a state grant of $125 for a child attending
tary school and $150 for a child attending high school. These amoun
supplemented by local funds to a maximum of $250 and $275 for elemen
and high school students, respectively.
Year
Number
Total
State Funds
1958-59
6,932
$ 501,107.00
$ 501,107.00
1959-60
4,768
$1,034,392.98
$ 437,851.84
1960-61
8,127
$1,755,543.72
$1,014,582.14
1961-62
8,518
$2,074,690.31
$1,062,694.61
1962-63
9,489
$2,252,995.07
$1,190,418.39
1963-64
12,181
$2,931,455.40
$1,518,394.76
Local Funds
$ 59fi54lif
$ 740,961-#
$i,on^
$1,062,576#
$1,413,060-#
Number of Grants and Value
Locality 1959-60
Counties
Albemarle 238—$ 49,936
Arlington 216—$ 51,262
Chesterfield 120—$ 26,324
Fairfax 526—$121,956
Hanover 35—$ 7,717
Henrico 72—$ 16,125
Norfolk County 39—$ 7,693
Powhatan 26—$ 5,485
Prince Edward None
Princess Anne 158—$ 25,624
Warren 512—$109,502
Cities
Charlottesville 633—$139,820
Norfolk 1,213—$276,527
Richmond 47—$ 10,867
(Variation in year-by-year totals may result from change
grants, respectively.)
by Year in Selected Locality 8
1963-#
1960-61
1961-62
1962-63
421—$ 94,937
277—$ 64,876
162—$ 35,750
788—$186,744
66—$ 14,609
120—$ 27,311
60—$ 12,852
51—$ 12,637
864—$174,104
372—$ 71,926
512—$138,097
475—$116,045
328—$ 53,648
224—$ 51,825
982—$233,287
79—$ 18,824
160—$ 38,506
85—$ 19,242
76—$ 18,884
None
511—$101,801
1,089—$304,116
459—u5
,25^291,°#
693—$189,831
1,684—$388,801
62—$ 15,607
in number of
640—$196,084
1,730—$411,417
111—$ 26,125
applications
499—$118,989
339—$ 79,986
242—$ 58,129
1,104—$251,164
101—$ 23,413
162-$ 35,785 -y - city
Annexed by
1.06—$ 26,529 537-j-P
None . . Re ach
619—$177,795
1,960—$465,856 2,253-S ^
97 -$ 21,191 103 ^
for elementary and seco
Judge Simon E. Sobeloff, chief judge
of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals, criticized the Richmond School
Board Oct. 5, suggesting that the
board had done nothing to carry out
an earlier desegregation order. (Brad
ley v. Richmond School Board.)
Henry T. Wickham, attorney for the
board, replied that the city has a
“freedom of choice” plan under which
any child may apply to attend any
(See VIRGINIA, Page 9)
This has brought on attacks from
some public school educators.
Ironically, some school divisions
actually appear to make a profit from
the tuition grant program.
These divisions receive more tuition
grant students than they approve
grants for their students to attend othe
schools. -ii
What the future of the P rogra f\ r \
be only time—and perhaps the fede
courts—can tell.