Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965, December 01, 1964, Image 1

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mo^ W7 Factual L Southern 0 mfA AT 2090C 7 V fi 3 H i V VOL-1 NO. 6 N NOISIAIO voii|SIfiDOV „ . 3 3 I b V H S I 1 VIOH030 JO A IN n News £o/ Objective DECEMBER, 1964 Negroes Double Enrollment Segregation-Desegrega tion Status School Districts With Negroes Enrollment In Desegregated Districts Negroes In Schools With Whites Total & Whites Deseg. White Negro White Negro No %t Alabama 118 118 8 549,543** 293,476** 152,486** 88,952** 94 .032 Arkansas 412 228 24 333,630** 114,651** 93,072 28,943 930 .811 Florida 67 67 21 1,001,611* 246,215* 812,268* 174,522* 6,524 2.65 Georgia 196 180 11 752,620 354,850 195,598 133,888 1,337 .377 Louisiana 67 67 3 489,000* 321,000* 61,885 86,248 3,581 1.12 Mississippi 150 150 4 308,409** 295,962** 34,620** 91 Q?9** 58 .020 North Carolina 171 171 84 828,638 349,282 548,705 201,394 4,918 1.41 South Carolina 108 108 16 371,921 260,667 156,346 83,608 260 .100 Tennessee 152 141 61 724,327* 173,673* 459,162* 135,001* 9,265* 5.33 Texas 1,380 862 291 2,086,752* 344,312* 1,500,000* 225,000* 25,000* 7.26 Virginia 130 128 81 733,524** 234,176** 585,491 189,046 11,883 5.07 SOUTH 2,951 2,220 604 8,179,975 2,988,264 4,599,633 1,368,531 63,850 2.14 Delaware 78 43 43 83,325 19,497 78,346 14,484 11,267 57.8 District of Columbia 1 1 1 17,487 123,906 17,487 123,906 106,578 86.0 Kentucky 204 165 164 620,000* 56,000* 540,000* 55,900* 35,000* 62.5 Maryland 24 23 23 565,434 166,861 560,359 166,861 86,203 51.7 Missouri 1,542 212* 203* 818,000* 102,000* NA 94,000* 44,000* 44.1 Oklahoma 1,118 242 200 542,103* 43,954* 324,981* 37,026* 13,923* 31.7 West Virginia 55 44 44 426,821* 21,000* 389,921* 21,000* 18,500* 88.1 BORDER 3,022 730 678 3,073,170 533,218 1,911,094ft 513,177 315,471 59.2 REGION 5,973 2,950 1,282 11,253,145 3,521,482 6,510,727ft 1,881,708 379,321 10.8 •Estimated • *1963-64 (-(•Missouri not included •(Number of Negroes in schools with whites, compared to state’s total Negro enrollment. Southern Education Reporting Service, December, 1964 THE REGION'C*;.. & Whites 2 Per Cent /n Negro Total Attends Biracial Schools T he number of Negroes attending public schools with whites almost doubled in the 11 Southern states this fall. The annual statistical survey by Southern Education Reporting Service found that the South has 63,850 Negroes in desegregated class rooms this school year, representing more than two per cent of the area’s total Negro enrollment of almost three million. Last year, the South’s public schools had 34,105 Negroes, or slightly over one per cent, in classes with whites. This year’s increase represented the largest in the South since the original Supreme Court decisions on school segregation in 1954 and 1955. Earlier this fall, the pre-school figures and estimates available had indicated desegregation would continue at about the same pace as last year and would not reach the two per cent mark. However, the official survey in November uncovered unexpected increases in Lou isiana, Tennessee and Virginia. For the region consisting of the 17 Southern and border states, plus the District of Columbia, the number of Negroes in desegregated schools increased from 315,836 for last year to 379,321 this fall. This provided a percentage increase from 9.2 last May to 10.8 per cent in desegregated schools this year, out of a total Negro enrollment of 3,521,482. Every Southern state showed sharp VIRGINIA U. S. Appeals Court Holds Grants Invalid as Used in Two Counties RICHMOND V irginia’s tuition grants pro- ' gram, as applied in Prince Ed ward and Surry counties, is un constitutional, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Dec. 2. (Griffin v. Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors; Pettaway v. Surry County School Board.) The court said that use of grants by children attending private segregated schools operated by local foundations *akes those schools “public facilities.” Therefore, the court declared, the ^hools come within the scope of the upreme Court’s 1954 decision in the Segregation Cases. The Circuit Court’s ruling applies ^eoifically to Prince Edward and bUrr y counties. The court did not rule ,n the constitutionality of the tuition s^ts law itself. the ruling seemed to say, however, any school which accepts tuition jf^ts money cannot discriminate, on e basis of race, against any applicant ' t admission. k”°nstitutionality °f the tuition grants n Js at issue in a case to be argued • 14 before a three-judge federal g’tft in Richmond. (Griffin v. State r d of Education. See below.) h This Issue l°nthly Reports ^bama Vkansas I ^orida ^rgia ^uisiana . U: . Sls sippi Hi 0f th Carolina r° Uth Carolina lessee le xas “h'ginia ttshingt, ;on .10 . 8 . 2 . 7 . 4 . 5 . 9 . 6 . 3 .10 . 1 . 1 pec ial Article Region ... Pr in( Ce ^ward County, Va 11 In its Dec. 2 decision, the Circuit Court said, in part: . . In Prince Edward and in Surry, the newly-established white schools are nominally no part of the counties’ school systems, but they are in fact the counties’ schools, supported by the counties and, indeed, tailor-made to continue their initially avowed and persistently pursued policy of segrega tion.” The court said the faculties of the private schools consist of teachers who formerly taught in the public schools, and that state law permits these teach ers certain state benefits formerly enjoyed only by public school teachers. Continuing, the court declared: “If such strategic maneuvers resorted to in response to the law’s requirement, pass muster, Prince Edward and Surry have indeed accomplished a remarkable feat, stultifying a decade of judicial effort to bring about compliance with Brown v. Board of Education. But the label applied to these Foundation schools cannot blind courts, or anyone else, to the realities. It is of no im portance whether grants are made directly to Foundation schools or in directly through the conduit of pupil subventions for restricted use as tuition fees. In the circumstances dis closed in the present cases, there is a transparent evasion of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Calls for Injunction In remanding the cases, the appeals tribunal said that the district court at Richmond should enter an order en joining the local school boards from processing or paying tuition grants to parents desiring to send their children to the Foundation schools as long as those schools remain segregated, or “to any other segregated school that is, in effect, an extension of the public school system.” In his original decision in the Prince Edward case, District Judge Oren R. Lewis in effect had approved use of tuition grants in the private schools provided the public schools were operated on a desegregated basis. In the Surry case, Distict Judge John D. Butzner Jr. had enjoined use of tui tion grants in that county “in any school that discriminates in the admis sion and education of pupils on the basis race . . .” The decision of the Circuit Court on Dec. 2 was by unanimous action of the five judges. (See accompanying text.) ★ ★ ★ Another Anti-Grants Suit Argued in District Court Whether enacted “under the banner of ‘massive resistance’ or the more respectable sounding ‘freedom of choice,’ ” Virginia’s tuition grants laws are illegal in that their purpose is to maintain segregated schools, Negro attorneys told a three-judge federal court in Richmond Nov. 20. (Griffin v. Prince Edward County School Board.) The tuition grants program must be declared unconstitutional, because it violates the due process and equal pre- tection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, S. W. Tucker and Henry L. March III said in a brief filed with the court. Tucker and March represent a group of Negroes residing in nine Virginia localities named as defendants in the (See U.S. COURT, Page 11) increases over last year in the number of Negroes in schools with whites. Tex as continues to lead in total number, having risen from an estimated 18,000 for 1963-64 to approximately 25,000 this year. Mississippi, which had none last year, has 58 this year, the smallest number of any state. Alabama increased from 21 Negroes in biracial schools to 94 this year. In Arkansas, the number jumped from 362 last school year to 930 this fall. Florida, which had 3,650 last year, now has 6,524 Negroes in classes with whites, and Georgia, which had only 177 last year, now reports 1,337. Louisiana had 1,814 Negroes in desegregated schools last year and has 3,581 this year, but the figures for both years include Ne groes in predominantly Negro schools attended only by a small number of whites. Sharp Increases In North Carolina, the number of desegregated Negro students increased to 4,918 this year, compared with 1,865 last year. The neighboring state of South Carolina reported an increase from nine in the previous school year to 260 this year. Fall estimates were unavailable in Tennessee but official figures now show that the state in creased sharply from 4,486 last year to a current 9,265 Negroes in schools with whites. Virginia estimates had indicated that the state’s public schools would about double the 3,721 Negroes in desegregated schools last year, but the final figures showed that 11,883 were involved in desegregation. With the beginning of the new school year, the number of desegre gated districts in the South increased 1964-65 Summary The latest information on the status of desegregation in the public schools and colleges of the Southern and border states is provided in the 1964-65 edition of Southern Educa tion Reporting Service’s Statistical Summary, soon to be ready for mail ing. Developments for this school year, the 11th since the U. S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision, are reported for each of the 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, that in 1954 had laws requiring racial segrega tion in their public schools. Several tables summarize information for the region and give comparisons with previous years. The Summary is available at $1 a copy. to 604, an increase of 159 from last year’s 445 desegregated districts. The continuing consolidation of school dis tricts reduced the total number of school districts in the South to 2,951 this year, including 2,220 that have both races enrolled and 731 that either are all white or all Negro in enrollment. In the border area, where consid erable desegregation has occurred in previous years, the consolidation of school districts reduced the total num ber of desegregated districts, although additional districts have desegregated. The border area previously had a total of 3,126 districts, with 771 having both races enrolled and with 716 of these being desegregated. This year, the same (See NUMBER, Page 12) WASHINGTON REPORT Hannah Says Better Schooling Needed to Solve Rights Issue WASHINGTON I mprovement and expansion of educational opportunities for Negroes are the key requirements for solution of the Nation’s civil rights problem, the chairman of the U. S. Comission on Civil Rights said Nov. 8. President John A. Hannah of Michi gan State University, who has headed the commission since it was established under the Civil Rights Act of 1957, said racial conflicts will not be resolved “until we raise a whole new generation of of Negroes” in first-rate schools. He said im provement is needed at every educational level, from the ele- HANNAH mentary classroom through the gradu ate school. Hannah gave his views in a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Under considera tion was a report on a survey made by eight predominantly Negro colleges in the seven-state region of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Job Qualifications The survey found that while eco nomic opportunities are rapidly ex panding in the TVA area, many Negro college graduates are failing to qualify for available positions. “Negro graduates,” the report said, “have a psychological problem to over come. When we tell our graduates they can get a high-level job, they may not believe us. We must convince them that employment opportunities, other than the traditional ones, exist for them.” Many Negro graduates do not take merit examinations for federal employ ment, the study noted, although “gov ernment agencies are among the coun try’s biggest and least discriminating employers.” In the decade from 1950 to 1960, the report pointed out, 94 per cent of the graduates of Alcorn A&M College in Mississippi, a Negro institution, became teachers in their state’s school system. Felton Clark, president of Southern University, a Negro land-grant college in Louisiana, said remedial pro grams are under way at the eight Negro institutions, but that further efforts are needed to upgrade re cruitment pro grams and faculty. “We’re weak in tools,” Clark told panel participants. President Fred (See MARSHALL, Page 2)