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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY, 1965—PAGE 9
Florida
(Continued from Page 7)
nuval County was among the lowest
; s tate. SACS also warned that un-
jLs standards were raised, graduates of
‘ al- s high schools would not be ac-
e pted in its member colleges.
Other study groups have reported
deficiencies in schools and classrooms,
-rid an abnormal turnover in teachers.
3 Although citizens’ groups were
formed to consider the warnings, no
ction was taken. School officials say
? he trouble lies in the county’s assess
ment system, real property being on
, he books at about 41 per cent. A suit
jj now in court to compel reappraisal
a t full cash value, bringing onto the
rolls thousands of homes now
exem pt under the state’s $5,000 home
stead exemption law.
★ ★ ★
State Official Named to Help
Counties on Desegregation
Pr. James T. Carmichael of the State
Department of Education was named
Dec. 21 to work with Florida’s county
school boards on questions involving
desegregation under the new civil
rights law.
Dr. Carmichael will serve as liaison
between the boards and the federal
government to prevent loss of federal
funds through failure to observe some
provisions of the law that became ef
fective Jan. 1.
Thomas D. Bailey, state school super
intendent, said many aspects of the law
might be unclear to school administra
tors on the local level. Dr. Carmichael
will advise them.
Florida, with several counties con
sidered impacted areas because of mili
tary or space installations, receives
more than $17 million in federal school
funds each year and another $12 mil
lion in school lunch and other federal
aids. The new law might work to en
danger this flow if its provisions are
overlooked, state officials said.
Supt. Bailey noted that the govern
ment, by regulation, must use “in
formal means” to bring about compli
ance before funds are shut off as a last
resort.
★ ★ ★
Three per cent of the Negro pupils in
Hillsborough County (Tampa) are
now attending classes with white pu
pils, the school board said in a special
report Dec. 1.
G. V. Stewart, assistant director of
school administration, said 509 were en
rolled in formerly all-white schools on
that date. Most, he noted, were in
elementary grades.
“The school board is presently op
erating the school system without re
gard to ethnic labels,” he said in the
report. “This, however, has not always
been true since, until very recently,
there were schools for Negroes which
were regarded as inferior to those pro
vided for other citizens.”
Legal Action
County Cancels
Public Hearing
On Proposed Plan
A scheduled public hearing on Jan. 8
discuss a proposed desegregation
Plan was cancelled by the Indian River
■punty (Vero Beach) school board
a * ter a federal suit was filed to force
reorganization of the school system on
5 nonracial basis.
A series of hearings had been held
2 1 Petitions by two Negroes, Joe
• athan Idlette Jr., and Raymond
harpton, to have their children en-
at 3 w ^rte school.
The school board called in consultants
oelp plan desegregation and work
. near ’ n S completion for public view
p ea the suit (Sharpton v. Board of
Instruction of Indian River
J^aty) was filed in the federal dis-
T* cour t at Miami.
a formal statement after being
■wed with papers on Dec. 7, the
board said:
j, ^ the fight of this development, it
_/®oommended that the school board
' be authorized to defend the
Pubi-^ k a ^° recommended that no
lc meetings be held on the plan out
courtesy to the court.”
ik , T>ee. 22 the board’s attorney,
th e Mitchell, moved to dismiss
4 0 on grounds that the plaintiffs
thg 0t fairly and adequately represent
| -las s mtere f, t °f a class to maintain a
that “ SUit '' The motion also charged
sho^ ^sufficient facts are alleged to
that an actual controversy exists.”
ssked that allegations that
Person , are budgeted and school
e l assigned on a racial basis be
Wi n _ en from the plaintiffs’ petition as
^ hot based on fact.
The board’s motion to strike also
challenged the plaintiffs’ contention that
“many Negro students who reside
nearer to schools limited to white stu
dents are required to attend schools
limited to Negro students which are far
removed from the places and cities of
their residences.” Names and addresses
of each such person should be sup
plied, the school board contended.
No date has been set for a hearing
on the motions.
★ ★ ★
Lee County Revises Plan
Rejected by Federal Court
After its proposed grade-a-year de
segregation plan was rejected by the
U.S. District Court at Tampa, the Lee
County (Fort Myers) school board
drew a new one on Dec. 15. The re
vised plan calls for completion of de
segregation in five years instead of 12.
The start will be made with the first
grade next September, as was pre
viously planned. But the board now
proposes to desegregate the next two
grades in 1966 and three more each
year until the job is done.
School Supt. Robert N. Kreager said
the new proposal is “administratively
feasible” and suggested that it be sub
mitted to Judge Joseph P. Lieb for his
consideration.
The original grade-a-year plan, iden
tical with others under which several
Florida counties are proceeding, was
rejected by Judge Lieb on Oct. 29. He
told the school board to work out a
new proposal with the plaintiffs, com
pleting desegregation in “substantially
less time.”
Other Florida counties are watching
developments in this case with an eye
to possible revisions in their own
plans.
in the Colleges
Negro Students
Reported Attacked
In Race Incidents
President R. W. Puryear of Florida
Memorial College, a private, predomi
nantly Negro college at St. Augustine,
reported Dec. 18 that three students
have been attacked in racial incidents
during recent weeks.
The continued attacks “virtually
make Florida Memorial a college with
out a country,” said Dr. Puryear. “It is
intolerable that such acts of violence
be perpetrated with impunity.”
St. Augustine police arrested one
white man in connection with one of
the attacks. Harold Russell Goode, 20,
of St. Augustine, pleaded guilty on Dec.
8 to assault and battery and vagrancy
and was sentenced to nine months in
jail.
Nevertheless, attacks continued and a
delegation from the college planned to
appeal to St. Augustine city officials
for better protection.
Florida Memorial students, who
discussed a silent demonstration of
protest, were advised by Police Chief
Virgil Stuart to refrain.
Plans To Move
Florida Memorial College is consider
ing a move from St. Augustine to
Miami. A biracial committee, including
prominent Miami civic leaders, has
been seeking a suitable site and de
veloping support for the college in its
new location.
Some opposition has developed,
however, from educators and civil
rights workers. Jack Gordon, a mem
ber of the Dade County school board
who has taken the lead in desegregat
ing Miami’s schools and teaching as
signments, objected that the college is
a segregated institution maintaining
lower standards to accommodate some
students who might not qualify else
where.
The Rev. Edward T. Graham, Miami
Negro minister who has served as
chairman of Florida Memorial’s trus
tees, debated the question with Gordon
before the Florida Council on Human
Relations. The minister pointed out
that Florida Memorial has had a bi
racial faculty for several years, includ
ing several well-known white profes
sors who have retired from Eastern
universities. This year, three white stu
dents are enrolled with about 400
Negroes.
The Rev. Mr. Graham insisted that
the college has a role in helping to up
grade Negro education and predicted
that it would be an influence for good
in the Miami community.
NORTH CAROLINA
Durham School Board Rejects
Racial Exchange of Teachers
WINSTON-SALEM
R equests by a white college
student to do practice teach
ing in a Negro school and a Negro
college student to do his work in a
white school were turned down
Dec. 14 by the Durham City
Board of Education.
The school board voted 4-2 against
the requests for two reasons:
• It felt this problem should first
be approached through its Study Com
mittee on Integration of Professional
Personnel.
• It favored waiting until after a
Jan. 12 hearing of its appeal of a school
desegregation suit by the U.S. Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond,
Va. (This case is the still-active
Wheeler and Spaulding v. Durham City
Board of Education suits, under which
Durham is now operating an open
school setup because federal courts
have not approved any board pro
posal for desegregating schools.)
The two requests involved a white
student from Duke University who
wanted to teach at Hillside High School,
all Negro, and a Negro student from
North Carolina College who wanted to
teach at Durham High School, pre
dominantly white.
Special Committee
George Parks, who heads the board’s
special Study Committee on Integration
of Professional Personnel, asked that
the requests be referred to his com
mittee for consideration. He noted,
however, that his committee will not
meet to make recommendations until
after the Jan. 12 court hearing.
Dr. Theodore Speigner, the board’s
Negro member and also a member of
the NCC faculty, objected.
“I don’t think we need any one
judge or any three judges to make
us do what we know is right or just
. . . To just postpone this operation is
going to make the case worse ... I
think we ought to face up to this now
and tell the judge what we’re going
to do ... If we take the leadership,
we can.”
In an exchange of ideas Speigner
answered a question on whether a
Negro from a desegregated college
should be the first to teach at a pre
dominantly white school in this way:
“I don’t know whether such a stu
dent would be interested.”
Dr. John Glasson said it would be
nice to tell the court “what we want
to do,” but added, “I’d just as soon do
what he (a judge) tells us to do.”
Faculty Desegregation
Commenting that faculty desegrega
tion is coming, Mrs. Annie Laurie
Bugg asked Lew Hannen, superinten
dent of schools, his ideas.
Two questions must be answered, he
said: “Will a teacher be willing to
make the arrangement?” “What will
be the effect of such action on our
educational quality?”
“I don’t know the answer to either
one of them,” he said.
During a question and answer period,
Speigner felt that a Negro teacher gains
psychological” advantages by working
at a predominantly white school. This
in turn gives the Negro teacher an
educational advantage, he added.
He and Carlie Sessoms voted against
the motion. Sessoms said, “I think this
application should be treated like every
other application received.”
★ ★ ★
Guilford County Board
Asked to Close Negro Schools
Negroes told the Guilford County
Board of Education Dec. 15 they
would like to see the county’s three
all-Negro high schools closed by the
end of the current 1964-65 school year.
They added that the predominantly
white high schools should then serve
all the county’s high-school population.
The statement was made as a formal
request by Robert L. Alexander, chair
man of the Greensboro Citizens As
sociation.
Alexander represented one of three
organizations that originally attempted
to present a series of recommendations
to the school board Dec. 5, but were
refused a hearing for showing up late.
The hearing was then put off until
Dec. 15.
The other two organizations were
the local chapter of the National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People and the Concerned
Citizens of Guilford County. All three
North Carolina Highlights
The Durham City Board of Edu
cation refused to approve requests
by a white student to do practice
teaching in a Negro high school and
a Negro student to do practice teach
ing in a white high school.
Three Negro civil rights organiza
tions petitioned the Guilford County
Board of Education to close three
unaccredited predominantly white
high schools.
Four of 10 Negro children involved
in a desegregation suit against Per
son County requested transfers to
predominantly white schools.
support the proposal to close the three
Negro schools.
The recommendations noted that the
eight predominantly white high schools
of Guilford County were accredited
by the Southern Association of Col
leges and Schools, but showed “grave
concern that none of the three high
schools serving predominantly Negro
students” were accredited.
Negro groups want Brown Summit
and Laughlin high schools and the high
school division of Sedalia Public School
closed. They then want the county to
“use all high schools which are now
accredited to serve all children in that
area without regard to race.”
They also want any new school built
to meet the standards of accreditation
and want additional classrooms built
to the present schools to take care of
transferring Negro students. The 500
Negro students “will not justify an
all-Negro school.”
Such a school, the Negroes said,
“would be costly and impractical,
morally wrong and economically un
sound,” and would not be compatible
“with the Supreme Court’s order of
1954 to desegregate the public schools.”
‘Best Possible Education’
“The same organizations are pre
pared to go as far as necessary to see
that every child in Guilford County
receives the best possible education—
no matter what steps have to be taken,”
Alexander said.
Julius Chambers, an NAACP at
torney from Charlotte, told the group
he had the power of attorney for a
number of parents of Negro high-school
Miscellaneous
children. He said, “It is not the re
sponsibility of the parents or the chil
dren to desegregate schools, but the
responsibility of you board members.”
This point is part of the NAACP’s
statewide campaign to get school boards
rather than Negro parents to take the
first steps in desegregation of schools.
The Negro group also asked for a
“plan toward the integration of fac
ulty at all levels at the start of the
next school year.”
Howard Carr, chairman of the school
board, said it may take “several
months” to “come to grips with this
matter.”
★ ★ ★
Hillside High School of Durham, the
city school system’s lone predominantly
Negro high school, was accredited Dec.
1 by the Southern Association of Col
leges and Schools. This is the first time
Hillside has been accredited since it
was formed in 1951. Negro schools meet
the same standards as white schools
for accreditation.
Legal Action
Negro Children
In Person County
Apply for Transfers
Four Negro children in Person County
applied for transfers to two predomi
nantly white schools by the deadline
date of Dec. 20, it was announced by
the county Board of Education.
This action was taken in connection
with Clayton v. Person County Board
of Education, a case filed by parents
of 10 Negro children seeking more
desegregation of county schools.
The board will consider the appli
cations at its regular January meeting,
Walter S. Rogers, assistant superin
tendent, said.
The procedure for application was
outlined by Judge Edwin M. Stanley
of U.S. District Court. He ordered the
school board to transfer the 10 plain
tiffs to the nearest predominantly white
school if they filed applications by Dec
20.
Two of the children sought to attend
the Earl Bradsher School in Roxboro,
and two sought to attend Roxboro High
School.
Gov. Sanford Breaks Ground
For New School
Three special schools started through
the initiative of outgoing Gov. Terry
Sanford shared the spotlight on Dec.
19.
The three schools involved were the
Governor’s School, started in the sum
mer of 1963, the North Carolina Ad
vancement School, opened in November,
1964, and the North Carolina School
of the Arts, to be opened in 1965. All
three are located in Winston-Salem.
Gov. Sanford participated in a
ground-breaking ceremony for the
School of the Arts. He and school
officials dug the first shovel of dirt.
The Advancement School completed
its first program, a six-week pilot pro
ject which reached 70 eighth-grade
boys. This school is designed to in
spire better work from under-achievers
in junior high school who are not
doing as well in school as they can.
Teachers in this school learn better
methods of reaching children who are
not working up to their potential.
Happy Over Results
Dr. Gordon McAndrew, a Californian
who is director of the school, is happy
over the results of a fully desegregated
student body and faculty. He said:
“One of the plusses we have ob
served is the successful integration of
youngsters who in most cases have
not gone to integrated schools.
“You would have expected self-seg
regation when the kids went to eat—not
because of conscious prejudice but just
culture and custom. But there is less
self-segregation in this school than in
any school in the Bay (San Francisco,
Calif.) area.”
Of the 70 students in the first six-
week program, 22 were Negro and nine
were Indian.
The school was to begin its first full
12-week program in January. When
of the Arts
the plant is fully completed, the school
will service 350 students and a large
number of teachers each 12-week
term. Students are selected from
schools throughout the state on the
recommendations of various school
systems.
A group of 100 young people who
have attended the Governor’s School,
held each summer at Salem College
for talented and gifted high-school
students on a biracial basis, met
in Charlotte. They praised the school
as one of enrichment, one of stimula
tion and one of progressive study. They
felt they learned to question every
thing and to think independently.
★ ★ ★
Gov. Terry Sanford commuted the
sentences of 13 civil rights workers
involved in demonstrations in Chapel
Hill in early 1984. Included among the
persons whose sentences were com
muted were Dr. Harmon Lee Smith,
Robert T. Osborn and David Smith of
the Duke University faculty, each given
90 days for trespass, all in seeking de
segregation of Chapel Hill public
places; and William Wynn of the Uni
versity of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill faculty, also given 90 days for
trespassing.
In commuting the terms, Sanford
praised Judge Raymond B. Mallard,
who tried the cases, for his “fairness
and firmness and legal ability.” “He
took the firm position against civil
disobedience,” Sanford said. “We can
not have civil disobedience considered
an acceptable device for any purpose
in North Carolina.”
The governor added that several of
the civil rights defendants were hard
ship cases who could not pay the fines
involved.