Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—DECEMBER, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
FLORIDA
Court’s Refusal to Accept
Grade-a-Year Is Pondered
MIAMI
R efusal by the federal district
court in Tampa to accept the
grade-a-year desegregation plan
offered by the Lee County (Fort
Myers) school board caused con
siderable concern among Florida
school officials.
Should the ruling become a prece
dent, court-approved plans in several
other counties are almost certain to be
revised if petitions are filed asking for
speedier action. Several such petitions
are pending and others are being
planned by local Negro groups.
In the Lee County case, Judge Joseph
P. Lieb withheld a formal ruling until
the school board and Negro plaintiffs
could agree, if possible, on another
plan. If not, Judge Lieb indicated that
he might write one of his own.
Meeting on Nov. 18 to consider fur
ther action, the school board was ad
vised by its attorney that desegregation
must be accomplished “in substantially
less time than the 12 years in order to
obtain court approval.”
More Speed
Although the court gave no guide
lines, said Julian D. Clarkson, the
board’s attorney, it is obvious more
speed is required.
“I do not mean to imply,” he said,
“that the board will necessarily have to
desegregate more than one grade be
ginning in September, 1965.” But he
added that considerable speedup in
subsequent years might be necessary.
Clarkson advised the board to have
a plan by its December meeting to
avoid a charge of stalling.
The board requested a facilities study,
including the location of every pupil’s
home in relation to the nearest school.
The state school department was asked
to furnish technical and clerical help
in getting the job done quickly.
The information will be used in con
nection with future desegregation plan
ning, it was indicated.
Not ‘Open and Shut’
In sending the Lee County plan back
for further study, Judge Lieb said it
was impossible to state exactly what
should be done. “It is not a matter of
open and shut,” he said.
This lack of specifics worries school
officials in several counties who had
considered their major desegregation
problems behind them. These counties
are proceeding under court-approved
grade-a-year programs but in nearly
all cases have approved some desegre
gation among the minimum required.
Speedup petitions have been filed
against the Duval, Hillsborough and
Monroe boards. Wherever these have
come to decision, the courts have re
affirmed the original orders but sug
gested the possibility of stepping in if
more Negroes are not admitted to
white schools.
Judge Lieb’s action is the first defin
ite step in that direction. It has in
creased pressure on school administra
tors throughout the state.
★ ★ ★
Four Klansmen Freed
In Civil Rights Case
Four members of the Ku Klux Klan,
charged with conspiracy to violate the
civil rights of a Negro school boy,
were found not guilty by a Jacksonville
jury Nov. 25.
The verdict was returned in federal
district court after a two-day trial. The
men were accused of plotting to dyna
mite the home of six-year-old Donald
Godfrey, only Negro attending Lacka
wanna Elementary School, in Septem
ber, 1963. No one was injured.
The school was desegregated under a
court order. The indictment specifically
charged the defendants with conspiring
to deny Donald’s constitutional rights
by interfering with that order.
The four defendants, Robert Pittman
Gentry, Barton H. Griffin, Donald Eu
gene Spegal and Willie Eugene Wilson,
were tried on the same charge last July.
The jury failed to agree and a mistrial
was declared.
Rosecrans Testifies
As in the first case, the government’s
chief witness was William Sterling
Rosecrans Jr., an itinerant worker from
Indiana who confessed to planting the
dynamite at the Godfrey home.
Rosecrans, serving a seven-year
prison sentence, related how he was
hired for the job, how the explosive
was stolen and how he fashioned the
charge which was placed under the
Godfrey home. He named those who al
legedly accompanied him and pointed
out the location of the target.
The jury deliberated seven hours be
fore bringing in its verdict.
Schoolmen
St. Lucie County
Junior College
Is Desegregated
St. Lucie County (Fort Pierce) an
nounced its first desegregation at the
junior college level on Nov. 20.
Ben L. Bryan, school superintendent,
said several Negro students had been
accepted at the Indian River Junior
College in both technical and adult
classes. His report was made at a race
relations hearing by the Florida Ad
visory Committee to the U.S. Commis
sion On Civil Rights.
Asked when desegregation would be
extended to the elementary and secon
dary schools, Bryan replied that “it is
hard to say.”
“We feel we are working for the best
interests of the community rather than
toward turmoil,” he said. “It is a grad
ual process.”
No Applications
No applications have been received
from Negro children to attend white
schools, he declared.
All schools in the county have the
same standards of curriculum, teacher
training and pay, he said, adding that
there is no racial discrimination in
these areas.
The St. Lucie school board has been
studying a desegregation plan but has
held back pending clarification of court
decisions affecting other counties.
“We know desegregation is coming,”
said school board member Mrs. Hazel
Jorean. “And we know it has been
slow.”
Separate Junior Colleges
The civil rights group also explored
the need for separate junior colleges
for white and Negro students.
Dr. Maxwell King, president of the
Indian River Junior College, predomi-
Florida Highlights
Refusal of a federal court to ap
prove the Lee County grade-a-year
desegregation plan spread concern
among Florida school officials.
Four men accused of conspiracy to
dynamite the home of a Negro boy
attending a desegregated school were
acquitted by a Jacksonville jury.
St. Lucie County announced its
first desegregation at the junior col
lege level.
Indian River County again denied
the request of Negroes to enroll in a
white school.
Negro teachers were alarmed by
the decision of Dade County to phase
out most of its all-Negro high schools.
nantly white but with some Negroes,
said the institution has “a liberal, if not
ultra-liberal” attitude toward accepting
qualified Negroes.
Even so, the need for a separate
Negro college still continues, according
to Dr. Leroy Floyd, president of Lin
coln Junior College, attended by Ne
groes.
Dr. Floyd said that while the cur
riculum at his college is not as exten
sive as that at Indian River, it serves
a definite purpose. As long as Indian
River is open to Negroes unable to get
the courses they need at Lincoln, he
said, the Negro community needs Lin
coln for the services it does provide.
Experience shows, said Dr. Floyd,
that when white and Negro colleges
are combined, Negro enrollment de
clines sharply.
In general, Negro leaders told the
civic rights group, racial relations are
good, although there is an attitude of
“just drifting along.” The committee in
dicated it will check at a later date on
progress.
★ ★ ★
Indian River Board Denies
Transfers; Plan Sought
For the third time, the Indian River
County school board at Vero Beach
voted Nov. 10 to deny the application
of Negro children to attend a white
school.
At the same time, the board admitted
it was running a segregated school sys
tem and was trying to work out a suit
able plan to end it.
“There’s no use beating around the
bush,” said Dan Richardson, acting
chairman, after the board’s vote. “We
certainly have a segregated pupil place
ment system in this county. We are
working to change this to an integrated
placement law. Until that time we do
not deem it advisable to shuffle stu
dents around.”
The vote was questioned by J. N.
Idlette Jr., an employe at the Cape
Kennedy missile center, one of the
Negro parents involved.
Sees ‘Clear Pattern’
“I agree there is a clear pattern of
segregation in assignment,” Idlette said.
“It didn’t just happen. Someone planned
it. I feel I have the right to request my
child’s transfer.”
Idlette’s request was denied because
his home is nearer a Negro school than
the one he wishes his child to attend.
No reason was given for rejecting the
application of Raymond Sharpton, the
other Negro parent involved.
The hearing was attended by Earl
Johnson, a Negro attorney from Jack
sonville who has appeared in a number
WASHINGTON REPORT
Marshall Says Rights Act
Proves Highly Successful
MARSHALL
(Continued from Page 1)
Harvey Harrington of the University of
Wisconsin said of the Negro land-grant
schools:
“In the long run we hope we can
break down these segregated patterns.
. . . But for now these institutions must
be strengthened.”
★ ★ ★
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been
an “overwhelming success” in its first
five months, Assistant Attorney Gen
eral Burke Marshall said in a speech
prepared for delivery to an Illinois
business group.
Marshall, who heads the Justice De
partment’s civil rights division, said the
law “did what it
was supposed to
do — it brought
under the ma
chinery of law the
means of dealing
with racial injus
tices that could
neither be left to
the streets nor
covered up by
measures of re
pression.”
Marshall re
ferred to Title IV of the Act, which
authorizes the Department of Justice to
intervene in school desegregation suits
Washington Highlights
Improvement in the education op
portunities provided for Negro stu
dents is a prerequisite to solution of
the nation’s civil rights problem.
Chairman Jonh A. Hannah of the
U. S. Civil Rights Commission said.
A study of predominantly Negro
colleges in the seven-state TV A re
gion found Negro graduates failing
to take advantage of new job open
ings.
Assistant Attorney General Burke
Marshall called the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 an “overwhelming success”
and predicted “more vigorous exer
cise” of its school desegregation pro
vision.
Twelve school disputes were
among the first 69 racial controver
sies referred to the new Community
Relations Service, the mediation
agency reported.
of pending desegregation cases through
out the state. Johnson said court action
against the Indian River board was be
ing planned.
“It has been my experience,” he said,
“that school boards come up too late
with too little. They are not likely to do
all that is required under the law.”
The Indian River board has been
working on a desegregation plan for
several months and expects to have an
announcement to make before the start
of the second semester. Marshall Mitch
ell, the board’s attorney who is ar
ranging the details, said it is likely to
go beyond the requirements of recent
court decisions.
School Phaseout Plan Alarms Negro Teachers
Dade County’s decision to phase out
three of its five Negro high schools in
the Miami area as quickly as possible
has caused spreading alarm among
Negro teachers throughout the county.
Faculty meetings have been held at
all three of the threatened schools and
petitions drawn asking for specific in
formation about the future plans re
garding teacher employment.
“What the teachers want,” said C.
Sullivan Culver, a teacher at Mays
Junior-Senior High, “is to find out—
officially, not through rumors—what
will happen to them, to their jobs, when
the schools are closed.”
Mays is one of the schools scheduled
to be phased out. Others are North
Dade and George Washington Carver,
one of the oldest in the county.
qualification of all Negro teachers was
Concern spread among Negro teach
ers after a panel discussion on Oct. 21
at which school board members said
Negro teachers in general were not as
well qualified and many had to be re
trained before they could do the job
expected of them.
Culver said the statements reflected
on all the 1,500 to 1,600 Negro teachers
in the system and prevented the ac
ceptance of Negro teachers by parents
of children in desegregated schools.
“Every Negro teacher feels he has
been treated dirty,” said Culver. “You
are not just talking about people who
are afraid of being phased out. This is a
question of Negro teachers, period.”
Mrs. Jane Roberts, school board
chairman, said no reflection on the
intended. But she
said some individ
ual differences in
qualifications do
exist because of
segregation in the
past.
“We have all
admitted that sep
arate - but - equal
schools are not
equal at all,” Mrs.
Roberts said.
“Many of our Ne
gro teachers, because they went to un
equal schools themselves, just don’t
have the same caliber of training as
white teachers.
“This doesn’t mean they have less
ROBERTS
ability. They have had less opportunity.
I think this school system has the re
sponsibility to help teachers in this
category get the training they missed
out on.”
The Dade County Classroom Teachers
Association, which desegregated last
year, adopted resolutions deploring
“adverse publicity which reflected on
the competencies and abilities of the
Negro classroom teachers of Dade
County.”
Although the school system reported
that more than 20 schools have deseg
regated faculties, Negro teachers say it
is difficult to find a single instance in
which Negro teachers instruct white
students.
Make It a Part
Of His Homework!
Atlanta Daily World
when private plaintiffs are unable to
support the litigation on their own.
“The results thus far have been far
from revolutionary,” he said, “although
we can anticipate for the future that
as the rights created by these titles be
come more generally known, they will
be more vigorously exercised.”
With reference to Title VI, which
authorizes withdrawal of federal finan
cial support—including school aid—
from segregated or discriminatory pro
grams, Marshall reported that govern
ment agencies have been preparing
drafts of regulations for approval by
the President.
From other sources it was learned
that the regulations to be applied by
the U. S. Office of Education in car
rying out the Title VI fund cut-off pro
vision have advanced close to the adop
tion stage, and may be in force by the
year’s end.
★ ★ ★
Implementation and enforcement of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stands high
on the NAACP’s program for 1965, an
official of the organization said Nov. 13
John Morsell said the NAACP will
seek solutions to the problems of racial
imbalance in Northern schools and the
“inadequacy of textbooks when dealing
with the Negro in history.”
★ ★ ★
19 School Issues
Among 69 Cases
Referred to CRS
Twelve school desegregation case
were among the first 69 racial dispute 5
referred to the new Community F e a
tions Service, the Commerce DeP art
ment agency reported Nov. 18.
The service, established under th^
Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a media ^
agency for racial conflicts, began ope ^
tions in August under the direct 10
former Gov. LeRoy Collins of Flon ^
In addition to the school < ^ s * > ) lte Y e( j
cases referred to the service ' nV ^ oUS .
employment and labor practices, ^
ing and real estate, law enfore
public accommodations, public ie pgct
and community tensions, the
SaiA had withdraw 11
The service said it
from 11 of the 69 cases Nin e
ing that it had no role to P ^ er sl
disputes were referred to 0 still
j At* W6 re
or state agencies, ana ^
after deter**'
or staie agcuuiw, *
pending. Four had been se g^th
Of the 69 cases, 38 were in of
and 31 in the North and west^
the communities involved we given
fled, and no further details we ^
on specific cases. The serv ice ^ 0 f
cated that it will f° lloW ® ^ it fof
secrecy on matters refen*
mediation.