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PAGE 12—MARCH, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA
State Reports 42 Districts Filed Plans by Target Date
COLUMBIA
orty-two of South Carolina’s
108 school districts had filed
desegregation plans in compliance
with the 1964 Civil Rights Act as
of the target date—March 4.
Earlier, on Feb. 9, State Supt. of Edu
cation Jesse T. Anderson signed com
pliance forms on behalf of the State
Department of Education, assuring
Washington that his department would
administer federal funds in a nondis-
criminatory manner.
Anderson steadfastly refused to re
veal which districts had presented
plans, saying it was a matter for each
district to announce its decision if it
decided to do so.
In the face of pressure from news
papers to release the names of the com
plying districts on the grounds that
they were matters of public record,
Anderson said, “They’re not public un
less I make them public.”
He said he would release the list
only under court order.
‘Freedom of Choice’
Almost all plans submitted were of
the so-called “freedom-of-choice” type
that remove race as a factor in initial
assignment but set up certain criteria
for transfers and assignments.
The plans are similar to those ap
proved by Federal Judge J. Robert
Martin in earlier desegregation suits
against the Greenville and Darlington
county districts, Charleston District 20
and Orangeburg District 5. These dis
tricts and Sumter County District 2,
all of which are currently desegregated
by court order, signed forms attesting
that they are complying with their
court orders.
Richland Districts 1 and 2, both of
which admitted Negroes voluntarily
last September, were among the first to
announce publicly that they would
comply.
Newberry County, which allowed the
transfer of one Negro girl to its white
schools last September, said in January
it would take the necessary steps to
comply but no information as to its
subsequent steps was forthcoming.
Desegregated Beaufort District 1 said
it was among those complying.
Districts Announce
Segregated districts which have an
nounced that they have submitted de
segregation plans include Aiken County,
Kershaw County (Camden), Union
County, Chester County and Chester
field County District 2 (Cheraw). The
Chesterfield District, which is under
court attack (Crawford et al v. Chest
erfield County School District 2), and
Aiken earlier announced plans to
accept Negro transfers at the beginning
of the next school year.
In addition it was learned that tiny
rural Lee County, with a Negro school
population nearly two and a half times
greater than the white, had drafted a
desegregation plan similar but not
identical to the plan approved by the
federal court. Lee was the home of
E. D. (Cotton Ed) Smith, staunch
segregationist dean of the U. S. Senate
before his death in 1944.
Kershaw, Aiken and Chester counties
and Chesterfield District 2 all have
more white pupils than Negroes but the
margin (1,591 to 1,425) is narrow in the
Chesterfield case.
It was presumed, in the absence of
announcements, that other presently
desegregated districts were among
those complying. They are Spartanburg
District 7, Oconee, Pickens, Florence
District 1, York District 3, Horry,
Anderson District 1 and Charleston
District 4. The latter is the recipient of
the largest amount of money in federal
impacted area funds in the state. Most
of the Charleston area’s vast military
establishment is situated therein.
Meetings Held
Supt. Anderson said March 3 that at
least one school district in every county
of the state had held meetings on the
matter and that members of his staff
or that of the state attorney general
had attended.
“Most of the districts are working on
something,” Anderson said.
He had told S.C. school leaders in a
letter revealed Feb. 25 that the so-
called deadline of March 3 (or 4) was
“not a firm dead” and that “a reason
able time” beyond the date would be
allowed districts which expect to com
ply with Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act. This assessment was later con
firmed by James M. Quigley, assistant
secretary of the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
Anderson said that the majority of
the federal funds involved would not
be available anyway before July 1. The
major exception involved districts that
expect to receive a final annual pay
ment in impacted area funds prior to
that date.
David S. Seeley, director of the Equal
Educational Opportunity Program of
the U.S. Office of Education, said March
3 that his office had received only eight
desegregation plans from South Caro
lina, but Anderson indicated that a
number of others had been forwarded
on that day.
No Deadline As Such
Seeley agreed that March 3 was no
deadline as such and that a legal suit
(under Title IV of the Act) “is not
automatic, but if they don’t integrate
voluntarily they will face a suit even
tually.” (Both March 3 and March 4
have been given as the target date.)
Seeley said that in principle the
freedom-of-choice” plans submitted
by S.C. districts are acceptable but that
most plans he had received from South
Carolina do not contain enough infor
mation.
“The crucial point on whether they
are acceptable is how they will be ad
ministered,” Seeley told The (Colum
bia) State newspaper.
He pointed out that it is not necessary
that plans be forwarded via state de
partments of education but that such
a course had been recommended.
He said his office had received some
plans that were forwarded directly to
Washington from South Carolina.
NAACP Objects
The type of plan that has been agreed
to by most South Carolina districts
complying—in fact, by all that have
publicly announced their intentions—
has already been objected to by the
state NAACP.
Originally written by officials of
Charleston School District 20—the first
area in the state to desegregate—and
subsequently agreed to by Judge Mar
tin, the plan was notably enunciated
during the period of Civil Rights Act
compliance by Richland District 1 (the
city of Columbia and its immediate
environs).
The district, which receives slightly
more than $1 million annually in fed
eral funds, voted in a meeting Feb. 3
to comply with the act.
Next year’s parents or guardians, said
Board Chairman Caldwell Withers, will
have the right to make application on
behalf of first-graders or older students
for placement in the school of their
choice.
Five Factors
The decision as to whether they will
be granted their preference will be
based on five factors—preference,
whether the child’s needs can be met
at the particular school, its capacity,
availablility of space in other schools,
and the distance the child lives from
the school.
Applications will be considered . .
without regard to race, color or creed,”
the district said.
It said the regular Spring roundup of
first-graders will be held April 1-14.
At any time before June 1, parents of
any child may request a transfer to
another school.
Applications after June 1, the Colum
bia board said, will be limited to pupils
establishing residence in the district or
those moving from one area of the
district to another.
* * *
A total of 584 pupils in five segre
gated private schools have been ap- I
Legislative Action
A bill that would place a tuition
charge on public-school pupils whose
parents live out of the state was in
troduced in the South Carolina Senate
Feb. 3.
Williamsburg County Sen. W. Frank
Mishoe, the author, said the proposal
would pour hundreds of thousands of
dollars yearly into school district
treasuries.
Mishoe said the Williamsburg
County pupils whose parents live out
of the state number between 2,000 and
3,000. “Their parents are sending their
children here at our expense,” he
claimed.
The senator admitted that the ma
jority of the children he referred to
were Negroes but said his bill applies
to Negroes and whites alike.
He said he feels that $100 a year
tuition would be sufficient.
For some years, South Carolina leg
islators and social workers have ex-
South Carolina Highlights
The State Department of Educa
tion announced that 42 of the state’s
108 school districts had complied
with the requirements of the 1964
Civil Rights Act prior to the target
date of March 4.
Support for a compulsory school-
attendance bill appeared to be
mounting in the General Assembly.
A total of 584 tuition grants were
approved by the State Department
of Education.
The state’s first Negro to attend
college with whites in this century
admitted that his campaign to get
more qualified Negroes to apply to
white colleges had been a failure.
An exclusive Columbia Episcopal
school desegregated.
proved by the State Department of
Education to receive tuition grants.
No money has yet been paid to
parents of these children under the
program designed as a “safety valve”
in the event of widespread public
school desegregation.
The state NAACP has said it will at
tack the program in the federal courts
when the first check is issued.
The General Assembly last year ap
propriated $250,000 to start the pro
gram, although actually the grants,
which amount to $203.75 per pupil per
year, are deducted from the state aid
to the school districts that have agreed
to participate. In addition, the par
ticipating district must add an amount
equal to its per-pupil supplement to
state aid for the the public schools.
All 584 of the approved pupils are
attending five private schools that
opened last September as desegregation
on a limited basis spread. Now 17 of
the state’s 108 school districts and 15
of its 46 counties have at least one
Negro student in school with whites.
Request Examination
All of the private schools involved
had to request an examination by a
team from the State Department of
Education to determine whether they
met the standards promulgated by the
department under provisions of the act.
The fifth and last school so approved
was Thomas Sumter Academy, near
Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter County
District 2, which desegregated in Sep
tember.
In fact, all of the approved schools
are in desegregated districts.
In addition, tuition-grants requests
have come from parents of students at
several private schools, all long-estab
lished, which have not asked the state
department for approval. Among them
are Ashley Hall at Charleston, Camden
Military Academy at Camden, Carlisle
Military School at Bamberg and Aiken
Preparatory School, an Aiken institu
tion that attracts the children of some
of the nation’s wealthiest families.
Grants Approved
The approved schools, the number of
grants approved at each and the dis
tricts from which the students come
are as follows:
Wade Hampton Academy (Orange
burg)—283 students from Orangeburg
County District 5 (the city of Orange
burg).
College Preparatory School of
Charleston—112 students from Charles-
pressed concern about the number of
poor parents, in the main Negroes, who
move to New York, Washington, and
other places and leave their children
in South Carolina with relatives or
friends.
-¥- *
Legislative Support Noted
For Compulsory Attendance
Support for a compulsory school at
tendance law appeared to be mounting
in South Carolina during February.
Such a bill was in the hands of a
three-man subcommittee of the House
Education Committee, headed by Rep.
Harold L. Breazeale of Pickens County.
Breazeale and the subcommitteemen
said they had received a number of
letters favoring the bill.
A note of urgency was added by P.
H. Bomar, top finance officer of the
ton County districts 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 20.
Thomas Sumter Academy (Dalzell)
—99 students from Sumter County
School District 2.
East Cooper River School (Charles
ton)—83 students from the same
Charleston districts that attend College
Preparatory.
Miss Mason’s Private School
(Charleston) — 17 students from
Charleston County districts 10 and 20.
★ ★ ★
Episcopal Day School Board
Drops Racial Restrictions
Columbia’s exclusive Episcopal day
school, Heathwood Hall, now will ac
cept students without regard to race.
The school’s board of trustees, con
sisting of both laymen and clergy, voted
in mid-February to accept any child
“who qualifies as to age, mental ma
turity, emotional stability and predict
able academic success.”
The announcement was made in a
statement by the Rt. Rev. John A.
Pinckney, bishop of the Diocese of Up
per South Carolina. He said the school
“will continue to operate under the
doctrine, disciplines, worship and prin
ciples of the Protestant Episcopal
Church.”
Heathwood Hall offers a kindergar
ten and six elementary grades.
Bishop Pinckney said brothers and
sisters of children currently enrolled,
and other children of Episcopal parents,
still will be given preference to attend
the school, which annually has a long
waiting list.
Subject to these conditions, the
school accepts children of any religious
belief.
What They Say
Gantt Effort Fails
To Encourage Bright
Negroes To Enroll
Harvey B. Gantt, the first Negro to
attend college with whites in South
Carolina in this century, admitted in
an interview in February that one of
his pet projects had failed.
He said he had taken a lead in en
couraging bright Negro students to
apply to white colleges. “Out of 800
top high-school students we talked to,”
the Clemson University senior said,
“only 14 finally applied to white col
leges. It is hard to get them to make
a sacrifice that has been much exag
gerated.”
Gantt’s comments came during an
interview with James Reston Jr. of
the Chicago Daily News. Reston’s sub
sequent article contrasted the views of
Gantt, as an outstanding member of the
rising Negro community, and James
Lide Coker IV, 23, as a youthful mem
ber of the established white aristocracy.
The talk with Gantt took place in
the modest rented house in the town
of Clemson’s Negro section that Gantt,
21, shares with his wife, Lucinda Braw-
ley Gantt, Clemson’s second Negro
student and first Negro co-ed.
The Charlestonian discussed what he
considers as one of the major difficul
ties facing the South Carolina Negro.
“Negroes here have a lot of things
that they are afraid of. It is as if we
were in a dark room for 200 years and
all of a sudden shoved into the bright
light, and blinded .Negroes have been
Charge
State Department of Education. Bomar
said Feb. 4 he “wouldn’t be surprised”
if Congress requires that states enact
such a law before being eligible for
funds under President Johnson’s pro
posed education program.
Bomar is a member of a task force
appointed by Gov. Donald S. Russell
to investigate methods of obtaining
about $28 million in federal funds ex
pected to be available under various
programs for South Carolina. He has
made several trips to Washington for
discussions concering these educa
tional funds.
The state dropped an earlier com
pulsory attendance law in the mid-
1950s as a hedge against desegregation
moves. Bomar estimated that there are
now between 100,000 and 150,000
children not attending school. He said
it would take about $22.5 million if
these children returned to school.
Senator Proposes Tuition
taught for so long that white people
are superhumans, that it is impossible
for them to flunk in school. So Negroes
are afraid they can’t compete.
“It is a terrible psychological feel,
ing, and the parents are worse. They
say, ‘We don’t want our kids to be
special guinea pigs.’ ”
Gantt illustrated this point with his
comments about his failure to talk
many Negro high-school graduates into
attending white colleges.
Gantt, an architectural student who
entered Clemson under court order in
January, 1963, after transferring from
Iowa State, was asked why there had
been no violence during his entry such
as that which attended the entry of
James Meredith to the University of
Missisippi a few months before.
‘Fiasco of Mississippi’
“Because,” said Gantt, “South Caro
lina did not want to have the fiasco of
Mississippi. They are very concerned
about their image, you know. They
consider themselves Southern gentle
men—one of the first colonies. They
are repelled by violence or a troubled
atmosphere. And so we have always
said, if you can’t appeal to a South
Carolinian’s morals, appeal to his
manners.”
Writer Reston said that with some
difficulty he got James Lide Coker IV
to agree, in general, with Gantt's
analysis. Young Coker is the scion of
the family that founded and controls
the Hartsville-based Sonoco Paper Co.,
a company that now operates interna
tionally. The family also has taken a
leading role in agricultural progress
and research.
Said Coker to Reston: “It is true that
we want to maintain an aristocratic
image in this state. . . . Our workers
at Sonoco, many of whom are colored,
give us respect. We give them security.
There is a family spirit about this com
pany. We don’t want to ruin that with
violence or dissension.”
Some Desegregation
Reston wrote that Coker’s town of
Hartsville was a pleasant, well-provid-
ed-for community of 10,000 that was
completely segregated in its schools.
This is not quite true. A sprinkling of
Negroes entered Hartsville’s formerly
all-white schools last September when
Darlington County, in which Hartsville
is located, desegregated its schools
under court order.
Young Coker commented on the
slow pace of desegregation in the
state. “There are two reasons. One is
that the leadership is opposed to it
And the second is the fear of bloodshed
and violence caused by Rednecks. One
thing we want to avoid is a heritage of
hatred. I would much rather have 10
years of slow integration than two
years of violent and bloody integra
tion.”
Said Gantt in reference to “polite
stalling”: “Compliance with the Civi
Rights Bill and with desegregation
has been good where the issue is
drawn. But next to Missisippi. this sta e
is the least desegregated state in t e
Union.” (He was not o.uite correct.
Alabama has fewer Negroes in schoo
with whites than South Carolina.
Legal Action
U.S. Judge Orders
Hospital To Plan
For Desegregation
Orangeburg Regional Hospital hs
been given 60 days to submit a p 311
full desegregation of its facilities.
The order came Feb. 18 f rora ... ^
District Judge Robert W. Hemp
a decision on a case originally ro _
in 1962 by Mrs. Gloria Rackley, 0 . er
Orangeburg school teacher and e
in Negro protest movements. re _
She alleged that she had been
moved from the white wal 1 dn ,® ta ver
at the hospital after she ha
her daughter to the hospital for
merit.
Judge Hemphill, a South Cart ^
congressman until he was appoi
the federal bench last spring, , m jt
if the hospital trustees did no
a plan within the time limit, e
have no recourse but to enter a .
ordered plan “without the 0 f
of those who know the wor =
the hospital best.” 0 f
The Rev. I. DeQuincy Newman^
Columbia, field secretary je*
NAACP in the state, hal , led MA aC?' 5
cision as “a keystone” in the
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