Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—DECEMBER, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ARKANSAS
Negro Children in Little Rock File New School Suit
LITTLE ROCK
A new Little Rock desegrega
tion lawsuit was filed Nov. 4
(Clark v. Matson) in federal dis
trict court at Little Rock.
The plaintiffs were five Negro chil
dren who applied for admission to de
segregated schools in September but
said they were denied admission be
cause of their race. They first attempted
to intervene in the original Little Rock
case (Norwood v. Tucker) but federal
Judge Gordon E. Young refused to al
low it.
A hearing was scheduled Nov. 21 on
a motion for a temporary injunction
against the school board, to allow the
five plaintiffs to attend desegregated
schools while the case was being liti
gated. On that date, attorneys for the
plaintiffs said that the arguments for
the temporary injunction would in
essence be arguments on the merits of
the case.
The hearing was cancelled in favor
of a trial of the case on Jan. 5, about
three weeks before the start of the sec
ond semester.
The complaint is a full-scale attack
on the school board’s method of operat
ing the Little Rock schools. It says the
board is operating a segregated school
system with token desegregation, that
all professional employes are assigned
on the basis of race and that the Ar
kansas Pupil Assignment Law is being
used in a way to preserve segregation.
The suit, a class action for all Negroes,
asks the court for preliminary and
permanent injunctions to keep the
board from doing those things.
Reviews Court Orders
The complaint reviews the federal
court orders, issued in Norwood v.
Tucker, under which the school board
has been operating since 1956, and says
the board has ignored the court’s order
of 1961 to use the Pupil Assignment
Law in such a way that desegregation
in the Little Rock schools will be ended
and to take steps on its own initiative to
bring about a school system operated
on a nondiscriminatory basis.
Instead of that, the complaint says,
the board still is constructing, main
taining and operating separate schools
for white and Negro students, assigning
white employes to the white schools
and Negro employes to the Negro
schools. But because of prior court or
ders, it says, a token number of Negro
students have been admitted to white
schools.
The declaration says Negro students
may apply for admission to white
schools at the time they enter ele
mentary school, or junior high, or
senior high, and a token number of ap
plications are granted. This procedure,
the complaint says, “places upon Negro
pupils the burden of desegregating the
schools, a burden not shared by white
students.”
It says the school board has drawn
and is using school attendance areas
based on the location of Negro and
white school students and that this is
unconstitutional.
Actions Sought
The plaintiffs ask the court to enjoin
the school board from using school at
tendance areas based on race, to allow
transfers between schools without re
gard to race, to assign the professional
staff without regard to race, to end seg
regation in extra-curricular activities,
to keep the Pupil Assignment Law
from being used as a plan of segrega
tion, to order the board to draw school
attendance areas on a nonracial basis,
to enjoin the board “from requiring
Negro children entering the first grade
or entering the school system for the
first time in a higher grade to apply
for admission to the nearest Negro
school in the attendance area in which
they reside,” and to enjoin the board
“from denying Negro students the right
to attend white junior or senior high
schools on the same terms and condi
tions applicable to whites.”
In its answer, the school board denied
the allegations. It declared that it is
“conducting the affairs of the Little
Rock School District in strict accord
ance with the prior orders of this court
and consistent with the decisions of the
United States Court of Appeals for the
Eighth District.”
The board said the plaintiffs had no
standing to file a class action for pu
pils, that they had no right to sue in
behalf of the professional staff employes
since the plaintiffs do not claim to be
members of the professional staff and
also that the plaintiffs had not used all
of the administrative remedies provided
by the regulations of the school dis
trict and the Pupil Assignment Law.
The plaintiffs are Delores, 13, Roose
velt Jr., 12, June, 11, and Sharon Clark,
7, children of Sgt. Roosevelt Clark, and
Ethel Moore, 11, daughter of Mrs.
Dazzle Mott Moore.
Sgt. Clark returned to Little Rock
from Germany in September, after
school had started, and attempted to
enroll his children in Centennial Ele
mentary and West Side Junior High,
two desegregated schools. Mrs. Moore,
whose daughter entered the seventh
grade this year, had applied to have her
enrolled in West Side but she was as
signed to Dunbar Junior High for
Negroes.
The Clarks say they first telephoned
West Side and were told to take the
children there, but when they arrived
they were sent to the school board of
fice. “We say if Mrs. Clark had been
white when she went there, the chil
dren would have been accepted,” her
attorney, Wiley A. Branton, told Judge
Young on Nov. 24.
Mrs. Moore is a school teacher and
has been employed at the Stephens
Elementary School for Negroes, for
eight years.
Besides Branton, of Pine Bluff and
Atlanta, the plaintiffs are represented
by Harold B. Anderson of Little Rock
and Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker
Motley, James M. Nabrit HI and John
W. Walker of New York. The school
board is represented by Herschel H.
Friday and Robert V. Light.
In the Colleges
Negroes Attending
Biracial Colleges
Total About 51
An estimated 51 Negro students are
attending the predominantly white
state-supported colleges this year in
Arkansas—about the same number as
in recent years.
All but Arkansas A&M College have
Negro students enrolled; A&M is lo
cated at Monticello in Southeast Ar
kansas, 50 miles from Pine Bluff where
Arkansas AM&N College, for Negroes,
is located.
The colleges do not keep records by
race and except for the declaration
that they are desegregated, they furnish
little information. All of them adopted
desegregation policies in 1955 on the ad
vice of the state attorney general, then
T. J. Gentry, who told them that the
Supreme Court decisions of 1954 and
1955 would apply to them also. The
state university was already desegre
gated by then, having admitted grad
uate students in law and medicine
starting in 1948.
Absence of Complaints
Judging by the absence of complaints
from the Negro community, the colleges
accept Negro students who apply and
qualify. The complaints have to do
with segregation rules affecting Negro
students after they enroll, mostly about
housing.
Negro and white students on the uni
versity campus at Fayetteville picketed
the university library, in which the
president’s office is located, in Decem
ber, 1962, because university dormitor
ies were not open to Negro students. In
a statement issued at that time, the uni
versity said all of its facilities except
dormitories were open to Negro stu
dents.
When the Arkansas Advisory Com-
Arkansas Highlights
Five Negro children filed a new
Little Rock desegregation lawsuit.
The suit seeks to wipe out what it
says are school attendance areas
drawn on a racial basis and to end
the use of the state Pupil Assignment
Law to preserve segregation.
In North Little Rock, the Negro
community expressed its displeasure
at the school board’s reluctance to
declare that it would abide by the
Civil Rights Act and by the appoint
ment of few Negroes to a new 74-
member advisory committee. When a
North Little Rock Council on Human
Relations was organized in Novem
ber, the first subject it took up was
the proposed desegregation of the
junior high grades.
mittee to the U.S. Civil Rights Com
mission met Jan. 25, 1964, at Little
Rock to receive complaints, a Negro
sophomore from the university pro
tested the segregated housing and the
segregation in varsity athletics. In the
wake of that, the University Student
Senate, the Charming Club (Unitarian
student group), the Wesley Foundation
Student (Methodist) Council, the Stu
dent Bar Association and Mortar Board
(scholastic leadership group) all
adopted resolutions urging an end to
segregation in housing and athletics at
the university. A little later, the Uni
versity Senate, a faculty group, went
on record for biracial varsity athletics.
But the policy was not changed, and
in August, 1964, two Negro students
sued the university and a federal judge
ordered those two admitted to the
dormitories. Originally the university
had not required segregated housing
but adopted the present policy in 1957
during the Little Rock school desegre
gation crisis.
Under Criticism
The university is currently under
criticism, also, for failing to rehire a
teacher, John L. McKenney, who lost
his job in 1959 for refusing to comply
with Act 10 of 1958, which required all
public school and college employes to
sign affidavits listing all organizations
of which they were members. Adopted
during a special legislation session at
the height of the Little Rock school
crisis, the law was an attempt to pin
point members of the NAACP in the
schools and colleges. It was later held
unconstitutional.
Private colleges in Arkansas, all but
one of which accept Negro students if
they apply, have desegregated their
dormitories, athletics and other facili
ties and activities.
At AM&N College, the Negro student
body has taken a fairly active role in
the Pine Bluff Movement, the organi
zation which has been working for de
segregation of schools, cafes, theaters
and other places.
AM&N is a state school. College of
ficials usually have tried to stay clear
of the Pine Bluff demonstrations, but at
least 15 students have been suspended
from AM&N for taking part in them.
Two of those suspended transferred to
Negro and White State Teacher
Groups Decide Against Merger
The Arkansas Education Association,
for whites, and the Arkansas Teachers
Association, Negro, decided “several
months ago” not to merge but to work
together through a joint committee. Hal
Robbins, white, former high school
principal at Conway, who has been di
rector of the joint committee since July
1, said this in a speech Nov. 16 at a
staff meeting of the state education de
partment.
Robbins said educators must face up
to their responsibilities and furnish
leadership or by default let the courts,
the politicians and extremists provide
the answers. “I think we want to guide
our own destiny,” he said, and the pri
mary goal of the profession must be
“better educational opportunities for all
children and I stress the word all.’ ”
Professional educators, like doctors and
lawyers, must ignore barriers of race,
creed or color in working toward edu
cational improvements, he said.
On that premise, Robbins said, the
AEA and the ATA decided several
months ago to create a joint committee
to study problems of concern to both,
and to maintain their separate organiza
tions. “We are not designed to promote
integration or resist integration,” he
said. “We are here to offer better edu
cational opportunities to all children,
to remove the disparities that exist be
tween the white and Negro systems.
Nor is this a program of social re
form. We are set up to help both sides,
white and Negro.”
The goals he mentioned had to do
with teacher pay, disparities in teacher
loads in classrooms, instructional
equipment, and supplies and facilities.
Among the many problems facing edu
cation in Arkansas he mentioned the
likelihood of more court desegregation
decisions, the possibility of federal aid
being withheld under the Civil Rights
Act and the effect on dual (white-Ne-
gro) systems during school district con
solidation.
the university and sued the university
over its segregated dormitories.
AM&N’s president, Dr. Lawrence A.
Davis, calls the college a “marginal”
school because it barely manages to
maintain its ac
creditation in the
North Central As
sociation of Sec
ondary Schools
and Colleges.
Every two years
he goes before a
legislative com
mittee to make
this report and
seek more money.
AM&N has
davis many critics
among the legislators, all of whom are
white. To them Dr. Davis says, “De
spite its mistakes AM&N has kept down
a lot of problems in the state of Ar
kansas,” a reference to the outlet
AM&N affords for Negro pressure for
college-level education without seek
ing to attend the white colleges.
“AM&N has a function until the state
says it no longer needs a Negro col
lege,” he says, and the change (that
would allow Negro students to attend
the other colleges freely will take time.
AM&N has had an occasional white
student in the past but has none this
year. Its enrollment is 2,200. The uni
versity has 25 or 30 Negro students
among 8,500 whites.
The estimated enrollments at the
other state colleges are: Arkansas State
College at Jonesboro, 10 or 11 Negroes
and 3,917 whites; Arkansas Polytechnic
College at Russellville, 3 and 1,700; Ar
kansas State Teachers College at Con
way, 5 and 2,600; Henderson State
Teachers College at Arkadelphia, 4 and
2,017; Southern State College at Mag
nolia, 4 and 1,912; and Arkansas A&M
College at Monticello, none and 1,300.
Schoolmen
North Little Rock
Negroes Indicate
Dissatisfaction
North Little Rock Negro leaders
continue restive over the actions and
attitudes of the North Little Rock
School Board. During November they
expressed resentment over the board’s
reluctance to say it would comply with
the 1964 Civil Rights Act and with the
composition of a new 74-member ad
visory committee appointed by the
board.
North Little Rock started desegrega
tion voluntarily this year with eight
Negro children in the first and second
grades of two schools.
The board was required to state its
position on the Civil Rights Act when
it made an application for about $100,-
000 to be received under Public Law
874, the federal impact aid law. On
Oct. 29, three of ,the six members
voted for the statement and one of the
nonvoting members wondered if meet
ing the law was worth the $100,000.
Newspaper Comments
The Southern Mediator Journal, Ne
gro newspaper said on Nov. 13:
“The recent meeting of the North
Little Rock School Board in which a
question was raised over whether the
board should file an application for
$100,000 in federal impact aid brought
about a severe and lashing comment
from several citizens and patrons of the
school district.
“A few weeks ago, the board was
plugging and almost begging the school
patrons to vote to increase the millage
rate by five mills because it said the
board needed the additional revenue to
finance new school construction and
teachers salaries [the tax increase was
defeated], now to find the board hesi
tating to file for the $100,000 is most
disgusting and disappointing, the citi
zens said.
“ ‘If the school district is so rich and
can do without the federal money why
is it number three in Pulaski County
in teachers salary? Why hasn’t the dis
trict built a junior high school in the
Jones High [Negro] attendance area,
which is so badly needed?’ they asked.
“The citizens said the North Little
Rock School District has had smooth
sailing in that the Negro patrons have
been most patient in giving the board
every opportunity to work out a plan
of compliance with the 1954 Supreme
Court decision on school integration.
They are unable to see why the Civil
Rights Law of 1964 should be an issue.”
Tax increases proposed by the North
Little Rock School Board in 1963 and
1964 were both defeated, which is not
the usual thing in Arkansas. For this
reason and others, the school board de
cided on the creation of a committee of
74 laymen to “advise and assist” the
board.
The committee consists of 34 persons
who are presidents of organizations in.
eluding seven Negro PTA presidents
plus 40 others appointed by the board
members. Of the 40, Dr. H. Solomon
Hill, president of Shorter College f or
Negroes, who has talked of suing the
board for faster desegregation, ig the
only Negro.
The Southern Mediator Journal said
it was disappointed that “the board still
has the idea that one Negro can ade
quately represent all the Negro patrons
of the School District.” However, the
Journal said having the committee it
self is a good idea, and Dr. Hill was
called a good choice for it since “he is
among the best and highest in intellec
tual, moral and civic attainment.”
Interracial Group Formed
Another sign of discontent among
North Little Rock Negroes came out of
the formation of a North Little Rock
Council on Human Relations, an inter
racial group.
At its first meeting Nov. 12, attended
by about 55, the main discussion was
on the proposed desegregation of the
junior high schools. John W. Smith,
Negro building contractor, said Scipio
A. Jones Junior-Senior High School
was built to accommodate 600 students
and now has 1,300, and that the fact
that both junior and senior high stu
dents attended the same school had
“created problems that are actually an
emergency.”
Smith said a committee would be
formed to talk to the school board
members privately. If that does not
bring desired results, he said, the mat
ter will be brought before the board
publicly.
The Jones Junior-Senior High situ
ation has brought numerous complaints
from Negroes to the board. When Ne
gro students applied in August, 1963, to
enter white schools—the event which
set the school board toward starting its
own voluntary desegregation plan a
year later—they were junior and senior
high students. And when the board an-
(See ARKANSAS, Page 9)
Georgia
(Continued from Page 7)
implementation might now need re
defining.
The case was sent back to Hooper
on May 25 of this year. On June 1 >
the U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
published a ruling in an Alabama case
that desegregation at a rate of two
grades a year would be necessary 0
compliance with the ' dehber
minimum
ate speed” requirement.
roved
Later last summer, Hooper appro
the one-grade-per-year Atlanta P
and refused to order it speeded, n
NAACP Legal Defense Fund shoui
appeal his decision to the circuit co •
however, the appellate coart wo
have to review it in the light o
own ruling that two-grades-a-year
segregation is minimal.
Judge Consented
Judge Hooper consented when Ncf?
lawyers asked for further hear m
therefore, and further asked s
officials to furnish a proposed acce ^
ted desegregation plan in case e
dered a speedup. Atlanta
Accordingly, on Nov. 9, the ^
Board of Education approved a ^
lution calling for desegregation ^
rate of two grades a year start g u t
kindergarten and the first gra ^
the resolution emphasized p ]an
board approved the accelera . gt
only if the federal courts sho
a speedup in the present plan- jj, e
In addition to disagreemen ^ ar gn-
pace of desegregation, and
ment between the school . ^jfatiofl
Negro attorneys over the admin" 5
and organizational structure
attendance. . to coO'
Atlanta school officials w
tinue the present flexible P gJl f e t
mitting rising eighth-graders,
the high school of their c ^uld
only restrictions to their c o gpace j
be residential proximity
availability in the schools.
The Negroes want stricuy ^ &
school zone attendance 1 a “no r "
drawn around each sc ^°f 4 .„ rne ys s3 '
mal,” nonracial basis. A , zon e
by “normal” they “““JJjate •***
would encompass the unr ^ oU gh cirC }.
around each school in a on ly i°
with deviations to compe *J u tilizad 0
over-utilization and un
from school to school.