Newspaper Page Text
ARKANSAS
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MARCH, 1965—PAGE 15
Majority Compliance Foreseen
(Continued from Page 14)
criminatory manner, it was declared.
How many grades to desegregate at a
cme? Each district must carry the
burden of justifying any delay in mak
ing its plan apply in 1965 to all grades.
No plan will be approved which works
only from the top grades down. “It will
be essential for approval that there be
in all instances desegregation which
begins without restriction in the lowest
grade levels.” This includes kinder
garten. To start with grades 1 and 12
“will be regarded as entirely insuffi
cient. The real question for any dis
trict is the extent to which it wishes to
risk disapproval of its plan.”
Foster said every plan must provide
assurance that steps will be taken to
remove racial discrimination in hiring
and assigning teachers.
J
South Carolina
(Continued from Page 12)
efforts to end all forms of segregation
in hospitals and other facilities and
said it was “the beginning of the end”
to racial segregation of public facilities
in South Carolina—something he said
was the prime objective of the state
NAACP in 1965.
On Feb. 21—three days later—New
man announced the next target would
be the hospital of the Medical College
of South Carolina at Charleston—and
presumably the medical college itself.
The announcement came from New
man and State NAACP President Ar
thur Brown. Brown said he soon would
request a meeting with Medical Col
lege Hospital officials to discuss the
‘ deletion of discriminatory practices.”
The plaintiff in the Orangeburg suit,
Mrs. Rackley, reportedly now lives in
Virginia. While in Orangeburg, she was
dismissed from her teaching job after
she had been arrested in a downtown
antisegregation protest march. The ar
rest and dismissed resulted in a tempo
rary boycott of Negro schools.
On behalf of her daughter, she was
also one of the plaintiffs in Adams v.
Orangeburg School District 5, the suit
|hat led to desegregation in the city
last September.
Political Action
The ultimate test, he said, is whether
the plan in fact ends a dual school sys
tem. Freedom-of-choice plans are
probably only transitional. Recently the
courts have been ordering nonracial
geographic attendance zones installed,
Dunn was reminded.
★ ★ ★
Negro PTA Asks Board
For Biracial Policy
The Morrilton School Board re
ceived a petition Feb. 18 from the Sul
livan High School PTA asking that the
new high school, under construction
and to be used next fall, be biracial
when it is opened in September. Sul
livan High School is for Negroes.
The petition asked for an answer
within 30 days. It was signed by A. R.
May tubby, president; Mrs. Mattie Mc
Daniel, secretary; Mrs. Cleadymay
Davis, corresponding secretary; J. E.
Ponds, chaplain, and E. Robertson,
reporter.
The petition said, in part, “We, the
parents of Negro children of high
school age in Morrilton sire concerned
that their educational opportunity is
such that they can compete in an auto
mated society. To compete they must
be exposed to the best possible educa
tional experiences. The educational
opportunities our children are receiving
at Sullivan are not in any sense equal
to those received by white children in
Morrilton High School. Sullivan is rated
‘A’ by the state Department of Educa
tion while Morrilton High has the
highest rating that the North Central
Accrediting Association can give. There
is no need here to begin to enumerate
the quantity and quality differences in
curriculum for this is well known to
parents and board members alike.”
★ ★ ★
North Little Rock Group
Urges Full Desegregation
About 20 Negroes led by John W.
Smith, chairman of the Committee on
Education of the North Little Rock
Council on Human Relations, asked the
North Little Rock School Board on
Feb. 12 that all 12 grades and the fac
ulty be desegregated next fall. Smith
said this would save the cost “of a
court battle you know we have already
won.”
Board President Leon Hoisted had
a written answer ready, which said the
board was considering the second step
of its desegregation plan and that its
intentions would be made known be
fore the end of the school year in May.
North Little Rock Negroes have been
pressing the board for two or three
Legal Action
years to desegregate the high-school
grades, chiefly as a means of relieving
crowded conditions at Jones Junior-
Senior High for Negroes. Smith’s state
ment at the board meeting was the first
time they had gone further, asking for
desegregation of all 12 grades and the
faculty.
★ ★ ★
The state Blind and Deaf School
Board will sign an assurance of com
pliance with the Civil Rights Act, Gov.
Orval E. Faubus said Feb. 8. He said
the board did not believe this would
effect the operation of the schools. The
board operates a school for the white
blind, a school for the white deaf and a
third school for Negro blind and deaf,
all three in Little Rock.
★ ★ ★
When it became known that the lead
ers of the Arkansas Teachers Associa
tion (Negro) and the Arkansas Educa
tion Association had decided not to
work toward merger of the two, the
ATA came under severe criticism from
Negro leaders.
Because of that, President Edwin L.
Hawkins and Executive Secretary T. E.
Patterson said in a new statement Feb.
15 that the ATA fully supported the
1964 Civil Rights Act, including the
provisions for desegregation in educa
tion, and the National Education Asso
ciation resolution calling for desegrega
tion of all NEA affiliates.
They also said that improving the
quality of education of all children in
Arkansas is “more important than any
positions of status which might be
sacrificed.”
Community Action
Relations Council
States Position
On Rights Law
The Arkansas Council on Human
Relations, an interracial group, released
a “position paper” Feb. 2 giving its rec
ommendations and interpretation of the
1964 Civil Rights Act.
The paper begins with a preamble
which says, “Last year this country
witnessed the most far reaching civil
rights event since the Emancipation
Proclamation: The Civil Rights Act of
1964 was passed. Last year was also the
10th anniversary of both the Ar
kansas Council on Human Relations
and the Supreme Court’s famous school
desegregation decision. For a short
while ten years ago there were hopeful
indications that Arkansas would quick
ly move to provide equal and open
NEWMAN
HEMPHILL
Democrats Prepare
To Pick Candidate
Amid confusion, last-minute mane
^ering and name-calling, Democrats
^outh Carolina’s sprawling Seco
Congressional District prepared
.Month’s end to pick a candidate to co
est for the seat vacated by Republic
Albert W. Watson.
After a headline-making series
events, three men—all relatively u:
*®own politically—were set for
'mirlwind campaign before a spec:
™J ar y on March 23.
The special election was triggered 1
atson’s resignation Feb. 1 from ti
CWl gressional seat he won as a Dem
Cra *’ fifst in 1962 and again in an u:
C °?*f s t e d 1964 primary and election
ith Watson all but assured of ti
nomination at a specially call
^onvention March 5, the Democrats d
®d to follow custom and undertal
o expense of a primary,
inally former Richland Coun
nnrbia) Rep. Martha Thomas Fit
loser in another special electii
early 1962 to succeed the late Co:
essman John J. Riley, posted h
'ntrance fee of $750.
til remaine d the only candidate ui
ortly before the noon filing dea<
Cou ° n 20- Finally Lexingti
y er ^ Rep. Preston H. Callison, lav
ei~>i SOn a f° rrne r state attorney gei
’ Posted his fee.
hj a > ea in a hectic half-hour, Colun
p Vation Army leader, Maj
' duller, and Greenville lawy
Mr s p. 0 ^ Culbertson entered, ai
C °lumH ltZgerald ’ 3 member of tl
drew • 13 ® a ' va ti°n Army board, witl
m favor of Fuller.
Plaintiffs Ask Court Ban
On Use of Assignment Law
Negro plaintiffs in the new Little
Rock school case (Clark v. Matson)
declared in a federal court brief filed
Feb. 4 that Little Rock school board
should be enjoined from using the state
pupil assignment law. They said ex
perience has shown that the board will
use the law to circumvent court rulings
against segregation.
The five Negro children in the suit
all have won admission to desegregated
schools, but Judge Gordon E. Young
had yet to rule on the requests that the
board be enjoined from using the as
signment law and that it be ordered to
desegregate its faculty and staff.
In the brief, the plaintiffs said the
school attendance areas that were in
existence when the district started de
segregation were still being used by the
board in making initial assignments
and had not been redrawn on a non
racial basis. Negro children about to
enter the first grade attend pre-school
roundups at Negro schools and white
children at white schools, it said.
“The importance of the pre-school
roundup cannot be pushed aside for, in
effect, it operates as a pre-registration
session where students are encouraged
to express school preference on racial
basis and therefore tends to promote
and perpetuate segregation,” the brief
said.
Similar System
A similar system operates where
sixth-grade pupils are getting ready to
be promoted to junior high and where
ninth-grade pupils are getting ready for
high school, it said. Counselors from the
white schools are never sent to the Ne
gro schools and the board “thus official
ly and effectively encourages and
psychologically prepares Negro stu
dents to express preferences for Negro
schools,” it said.
The brief contended that it is the
Negro students who want to attend
white schools who are subjected to
serious scrutiny and the only ones to
whom the criteria of the pupil assign
ment law are applied. If they express
no preference for a white school, it
said, they are virtually ignored and
their records are forwarded routinely
to a Negro school.
“The crux of this theory which shows
the defendants’ use of race in operating
the school system is that Negro teach
ers are qualified to teach Negro stu
dents but unqualified to teach white
students,” it said. The board was de
clared to be telling Negro students, in
effect, that “you are inferior and there
fore cannot be taught by white teach
ers” and Negro teachers that “you are
only fit to teach Negro children.”
★ ★ ★
El Dorado filed a desegregation plan
March 1 in federal court at El Dorado,
as ordered Jan. 25 by District Judge J.
Smith Henley in Kemp v. Beasley. The
plan would desegregate the first two
grades in September and two more
grades each year until all 12 grades
are covered. Pupils would express a
preference as to the schools they
wanted to attend. The school board
would make assignments on a non
racial basis under the state pupil
placement law. The plaintiffs, who are
high-school students, have until March
20 to file objections.
Officers of Arkansas Council on Human Relations
Newly elected treasurer, the Rev. A. M. Roberts Jr.; vice-president, Dr. William
H. Townsend; secretary, Mrs. Frank M. Cordon; president, the Rev. Walter B.
Clancey.
education opportunity to all of its
citizens. Plans were announced and
steps were taken toward peaceful and
good faith compliance. But Arkansas
leadership failed to meet its moral and
legal obligations and permitted and en
couraged disorderly and futile defiance
which proved to be extremely costly to
all citizens of this state.
“Today we have come full circle.
Though some strides have been made,
integration in any real sense in Ar
kansas is still to be accomplished. Most
of the things which should have begun
in 1954 still await to be begin in 1965.
Time was lost, educations were inter
rupted, fears, hatred and suspicions
were aroused and economic growth was
thwarted. But today the prospects for
resolving the complex issue of our time
are more encouraging. Experiences in
ignoble futility have not been forgot
ten. Expensive lessons about our great
federal constitution have been learned.
In many communities integration has
been accepted without distress. Most
significantly, the Civil Rights Act of
1964 has been passed and there is little
doubt that it will be vigorously en
forced.”
BOOKS and the Issue
The library of Southern Education
Reporting Service recently received
the following books:
THE NEGRO POLITICIAN: His Suc
cess and Failure
by Edward T. Clayton. Johnson Pub
lishing Co., Chicago, 1964, 213 pp.
THE SOUTH AND THE SOUTHERN
ER
by Ralph McGill. Atlantic-Little,
Brown and Co., Boston, 1964, 307 pp.
GUIDE TO FAIR EMPLOYMENT
PRACTICES
by Theodore W. Kheel. Prentice-Hall,
Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1964, 127
PP.
THE NEGRO CHALLENGE TO THE
BUSINESS COMMUNITY
edited by Eli Ginzberg. McGraw-Hill
Book Co., New York, 1964, 111 pp.
WHAT MANNER OF MAN: A Bio
graphy of Martin Luther King Jr.
by Lerone Bennett Jr. Johnson Pub
lishing Co., Chicago, 1964, 237 pp.
PRIVATELY DEVELOPED INTER
RACIAL HOUSING
by Eunice and George Grier. Uni
versity of California Press, Berkeley,
1960, 264 pp.
FEDERALISM AND CIVIL RIGHTS
by Burke Marshall. Columbia Uni
versity Press, New York, 1964, 85 pp.
THE QUEST FOR THE DREAM
by John P. Roche. The MacMillan
Co., New York, 1963, 308 pp.
STUDIES IN HOUSING AND MINOR
ITY GROUPS
edited by Nathan Glazer and Davis
McEntire. University of California
Press, Berkeley, 1960, 228 pp.
THE NEGRO PROTEST
interviews by Kenneth B. Clark.
Beacon Press, Boston, 1963, 56 pp.
ETHNIC PATTERNS IN AMERICAN
CITIES
by Stanley Lieberson. The Free
Press of Glencoe, New York, 1963,
230 pp.
INTEGRATING THE URBAN
SCHOOL: Proceedings of the Con
ference on Integration in the New
York City Public Schools
edited by Gordon J. Klopf and
Israel A. Laster. Teachers College,
Columbia University, New York,
1963, 126 pp.
A SOUTHERN PROPHECY: The
Prosperity of the South Dependent
upon the Elevation of the Negro
(1889)
by Lewis H. Blair, edited by C. Vann
Woodward. Little, Brown and Co.,
Boston, 1964, 201 pp.
MISSISSIPI NOTEBOOK
by Nicholas von Hoffman. David
White Co., New York, 1964, 117 pp.
(Ulus.)
CRISIS IN BLACK AND WHITE
by Charles E. Silberman. Random
House, New York, 1964, 370 pp.
THE DEEP SOUTH IN TRANSFOR
MATION
edited by Robert B. Highsaw. Uni
versity of Alabama Press, University,
Ala., 1964, 175 pp.
A MANUAL OF INTERGROUP RE
LATIONS
by John P. Dean and Alex Rosen.
The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, 1955, 194 pp.
THE SOUTHERN MYSTIQUE
by Howard Zinn. Alfred A. Knopf,
New York, 1964, 267 pp.
ASSIMILATION IN AMERICAN
LIFE: The Role of Race, Religion and
National Origins
by MUton M. Gordon. Oxford Uni
versity Press, New York, 1964, 276
pp.
THE POLITICS OF MIS-REPRESEN-
TATION: Rural-Urban Conflict in the
Florida Legislature
by William C. Havard and Loren P.
Beth. Louisiana State University
Press, Baton Rouge, La., 1962, 293 pp.
COME OUT THE WILDERNESS: The
Story of East Harlem Protestant Parish
by Bruce Kenrick. Harper and
Brothers, New York, 1962, 220 pp.
A LOOK DOWN THE LONESOME
ROAD
by Ralph Creger, with Erwin L. Mc
Donald. Doubleday and Co., New
York, 1964, 223 pp.
THE CHALLENGE OF INTERRACIAL
JUSTICE
by Daniel M. Cantwell. Divine Word
Publications, Techny, HI., 1959, 101
pp.
RACE RIOT AT EAST ST. LOUIS:
July 2, 1917
by Elliott M. Rudwick. Southern
Illinois University Press, Carbondale,
1964, 300 pp.
WHO SPEAKS FOR THE SOUTH?
by James McBride Dabbs. Funk &
Wagnalls Co., Inc., New York, 1964,
398 pp.
THE NEW EQUALITY
by Nat Hentoff. The Viking Press,
New York, 1964, 241 pp.
CASTE AND CLASS IN A SOUTH
ERN TOWN
by John Dollard. Doubleday Anchor
Books, New York, 1937 (Third Edi
tion), 496 pp.
MY PEOPLE IS THE ENEMY
by William Stringfellow. Holt, Rine
hart and Winston, New York, 1964,
149 pp.
FOLLOWING THE COLOR LINE:
American Negro Citizenship in the
Progressive Era
by Ray Stannard Baker. Harper &
Row Publishers, New York, 1964,
311.
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND EM
PLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR
MINORITIES
by Dale L. Hiestand. Columbia Uni
versity Press, New York, 1964, 127
pp.
PROGRESS AGAINST PREJUDICE
by Robert Root. Friendship Press,
New York, 1957, 165 pp.