Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10—JUNE, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
FLORIDA
Schoolmen
MIAMI
L ocal school officials from all
parts of the state met with
Florida officials and Washington
representatives in Tallahassee
May 27 to learn, if possible, where
they stood on desegregation un
der the Civil Rights law.
Thomas D. Bailey, state school
superintendent, said that superintend
ents and board members from 37
counties whose desegregation plans
had been rejected initially by the fed
eral authorities were called to the
capital for the discussion.
They have until June 15 to make
revisions acceptable to the federal
government, in order to receive funds
under the various aid programs. The
“second chance” extension, as it was
called by some state officials, was con
tained in a letter from Francis Keppel,
U.S. Commissioner of Education, to the
state superintendent on May 14.
“It is recognized,” Keppel wrote,
“that in some cases additional time
will be required for this effort and in
the meantime we wish to avoid any
unnecessary delay in making funds
available to local school districts which
wish to comply with the Civil Rights
Act and which are badly in need of
funds for the current year.
Initially Rejected
The counties whose plans were
initially rejected were Baker, Brad
ford, Calhoun, Citrus, Collier, DeSoto,
Dixie, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden,
Gilchrist, Gulf, Glades, Hamilton,
Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Holmes,
Jefferson, Lafayette, Liberty, Madison,
Marion, Martin, Nassau, Okaloosa,
Okeechobee, Osceola, St. Lucie, Santa
Rosa, Seminole, Sumter, Taylor, Union,
Wakulla, Walton and Washington.
Considerable confusion existed over
the districts whose proposals have been
approved by the federal authorities.
Supt. Bailey said his department
“believes” that 15 have been approved,
leaving 15 of the state’s 67 counties
with an unclear status. Some of these,
the superintendent said, probably will
have their proposals turned down un
less satisfactory revisions are made.
The confusion was compounded by
federal action in handling funds for
impacted areas near military and space
installations. It was announced on
May 14 that $900,000 of these funds
already allotted was being held up
in eight counties.
Those listed were Pinellas, Seminole,
Columbia, Glades, Jackson, Santa
Rosa, Volusia and Walton. Of these,
Pinellas, Volusia and Santa Rosa have
had some school desegregation for
some time and Pinellas, in particular,
considers its system fully desegregated.
The name of Santa Rosa was in the list
of counties whose desegregation pro
posals were rejected but those of
Pinellas and Volusia were not.
Complaints Received
There was no official explanation of
why funds for Pinellas County were
withheld. But federal officials said
complaints had been received about
desegregation in Volusia and these
were being investigated.
“The fact that some counties haven’t
been approved doesn’t mean that they
have been rejected,” said B. Alaen
Lillywhite, assistant commissioner of
education in Washington, in forward
ing information to Florida.
“We are swamped with assurances
and desegregation plans that we
haven’t had time to process. It will be
a while yet before we know where
some counties stand.”
Impact funds were sent to seven
counties which were under court
orders to desegregate. These are Es
cambia, Brevard, Duval, Hillsborough,
Leon, Orange and Bay. None of these
appeared on the rejected list and their
plans were presumed to have been ac
cepted.
Subject to Review
Three others—Monroe, Okaloosa and
Clay—received impacted area funds
before the Civil Rights deadline. The
federal authorities indicated, however,
that their plans are subject to review
before more money is forthcoming.
Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Dade,
Lee, Palm Beach, Polk and Sarasota
counties, according to Tallahassee
records or their own announcement,
have received official notification of
federal approval.
This left a number of counties
still awaiting word of some kind. They
included Alachua, Indian River, Lake,
Levy, Manatee, Pasco, Putnam and St.
Johns.
Bailey said that information from
Washington about the status of the
school districts and educational insti
tutions is “skimpy.”
Meet To Clarify Status Of Compliance
“I also believe that all the state’s
junior colleges have been approved,”
the state superintendent said, “but
the letter from the Office of Education
had a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ in it.”
Many of the districts whose plans
had been rejected were not trying to
avoid compliance, he said, but lacked
guidelines on which to base their
programs.
This was the situation that prompted
the May 27 meeting in Tallahassee
Present were local officials from 35
counties. The federal Commissioner of
Education was represented by Richard
E. Day of Washington. Day told the
Florida schoolmen that the federal
government was interested in desegre
gation, not integration. “We don’t have
to do anything to mix races if you
don’t do anything to separate them,”
he said.
Guidelines already supplied were
given again but some returning par
ticipants said little light was shed on
the situation.
In an interview on May 4, Supt.
Bailey said that he fears federal
interference in the schools more than
he does the loss of money under the
U.S. Education Act of 1965.
“I don’t want the State of Florida to
become an arm of the federal govern
ment,” he said. “The counties have to
comply with the federal act to get the
money. They have to integrate. The
federal government is more interested
in integration than in education.”
Florida Highlights
School officials from 35 counties
met in Tallahassee May 27 in an ef
fort to clarify their status under the
Civil Rights Act. Desegregation pro
posals of about 15 counties were “be
lieved” to have been approved.
Thirty-seven were rejected but sev
eral of these submitted revised plans
and two received unofficial word they
had been approved.
Federal funds for impacted areas
were held up for eight counties, in
cluding three considered desegre
gated for some time.
A large Negro high school in Key
West, to which 143 white students
had been assigned under a court or
der, was ordered closed.
The State Department of Educa
tion promised to investigate reports
of wholesale discharges of Negro
teachers as Negro schools are phased
out.
A surprise move by the legislature
opened the way to phase out the
Florida A&M law school but the
Board of Regents promptly assured
the 75-year-old Negro institution no
action would be taken.
Says Integrity Questioned
Asked if the state education depart
ment was going ahead with plans
based on federal allotments, Bailey
replied:
“How can we? This is the most
frustrating thing I have ever seen.
They question your integrity in Wash
ington. There are legal problems. You
can’t get a straight answer to any
thing.”
With almost all the counties on the
rejected list restudying their situation
and considering what steps to take,
a number went ahead with plans.
The St. Lucie County (Fort Pierce)
school board voted May 12 to speed up
desegregation planned for next Sep
tember by applying it to the summer
school program.
“Summer school classes are small,”
said Supt. Ben L. Bryan. “I think it
will be good preparation for the fall.”
The extent of desegregation will de
pend on the number of applications for
the various courses available. The
board has also received applications
from 143 Negroes to transfer to pres
ently all-white schools next Septem
ber. A preliminary check indicates that
(Continued from Page 3)
“Although the 14th Amendment pro
hibits segregation, it does not command
integration of the races in the public
schools and Negro children have no con
stitutional right to have white children
attend school with them.”
The Supreme Court gave no explan
ation of its action in these three cases,
and its refusal to review a case ordi
narily does not indicate approval or
disapproval. But John D. Pomfret,
writing in the New York Times, noted:
“There is a pattern, however, in the
three Appeals Court rulings. This is
that while school boards are under no
constitutional obligation to act to cor
rect school segregation that emerges
from segregation in housing, they are
not prohibited from doing so.”
Chief Judge Clement F. Haynsworth
of Greenville, S. C., wrote the Fourth
Circuit Court’s decisions in the Hope-
well and Richmond, Va., cases. The
court upheld Richmond’s “freedom-of-
choice” school attendance plan, and
Hopewell’s zone system, under which
children go to their neighborhood
school regardless of race.
The court said in the Hopewell case
that operation of neighborhood schools
is proper even though it might mean
some of the schools are all-white and
others all-Negro. Judge Haynsworth
wrote:
“The Constitution does not require
the abandonment of neighborhood
schools and the transportation of pu
pils from one area to another solely
for the purpose of mixing the races in
the schools.”
Desegregation of residential neigh
borhoods has been called crucial to
working out long-range social prob
lems. Dr. Leslie Dunbar, executive di
rector of the Southern Regional Coun-
all grades will have some desegrega
tion.
Firm assignments were being held
up pending clarification of the federal
decision on the county’s freedom-of-
choice program—first rejected, then
reworked and sent back for a second
try. Bryan said it was difficult to go
ahead until final decisions were made
on some $243,000 in grants anticipated
under new legislation.
“I feel we have now met all require
ments,” he said.
On May 27 the board was notified
by telephone from Washington that its
new proposals had been “tentatively”
accepted.
On the same day a similar message
was received by neighboring Martin
| County. Both were awaiting official
notification.
Palm Beach County, which received
swift federal approval of its desegre
gation plan which it considered the
most complete in Florida, was faced
! with strong protests by the local Coun-
| cil of Human Relations. That body
asked the Department of Health, Edu
cation and Welfare to make “an im
mediate investigation and re-evalua-
tion.”
cil, spoke at a meeting of U. S. Com
mission on Civil Rights advisory com
mittees in Atlanta on April 13. Dunbar
told the representatives:
“I can think of nothing which is as
important in the South as a breakdown
of the patterns . . . which prevent Ne
groes from living in any neighborhood
they please.”
Dunbar said one of the major racial
problems in the country is the increas
ing percentage of Negro school children
concentrated in urban areas, while
growing numbers of white families
move to the suburbs.
“The movement to the suburbs is
building the kind of America ... in
which we live apart from each other
as rigidly as we can,” he said.
Civil rights lawyers believe the Su
preme Court eventually will rule on
the constitutionality of de facto segre
gation. Justice William O. Douglas has
indicated that he thought the court
should have reviewed the Kansas City
case. Judge J. Skelly Wright, of the
U. S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia, has predicted that the Su
preme Court will rule de facto segre
gation unconstitutional. (SSN, March.)
He said last February:
“It is inconceivable that the Supreme
Court will long sit idly by watching
Negro children crowded into inferior
slum schools while the whites flee to
the suburbs to place their children in
vastly superior, predominantly white
schools.”
Decision in Massachusetts
A federal judge in Massachusetts
earlier this year did order de facto seg
regation ended under the 14th Amend
ment. U. S. District Judge George C.
Sweeney told the Springfield School
Committee on Jan. 11 that it must pre-
A telegram sent federal authorities
on May 9 by the Palm Beach council
said: “A careful study indicates that
the boundaries of most elementary
school districts in Palm Beach County
have been drawn to conform to pre
viously zoned Negro school districts
with gerrymandering of boundaries to
retain the pattern of segregation.”
Complete Surprise
Supt. Robert Fulton said the com
plaint was a complete surprise.
Palm Beach’s plan, which drew spe
cial commendation from the federal
officials, called for redrawing all
elementary school boundaries without
regard to race. Junior and senior high
school students may attend the nearest
school regardless of racial makeup.
Mrs. R. W. Glasner, council chair
man who signed the protest, said a
number of Negroes had complained
about the new boundaries.
“We were stunned,” she said. “We
felt we had been taken in. We believe
our objections will be obvious when
they (the Washington authorities)
examine the boundary maps.”
Mrs. Glasner was one of those in
vited by the school board to help pro
mote community acceptance of the
far-reaching desegregation plan.
Protested by NAACP
The Brevard County desegregation
plan, one of the first to receive federal
approval, was protested by the Mel
bourne chapter of the NAACP.
The group, in a letter to Washington
on May 25, demanded that federal
funds for the county, which includes
the nation’s space center at Cape Ken
nedy, be withheld until improvements
are made.
Complaints centered on seven schools
in which Negroes are predominant. The
NAACP said facilities are lacking and
serious overcrowding is general.
Robert Hudson, chairman of the
Brevard school board, pointed out that
the county’s desegregation plan had
full approval of the courts and the
federal education officials. “School of
ficials cannot understand why anybody
can criticize the procedure without
criticizing the federal court order,” he
said.
Hudson said it would have been
more constructive if the Negro group
had brought its complaints to the
school board instead of taking them
to Washington without prior consul
tation.
★ ★ ★
The prospect of desegregation has
forced the closing of the Micanopy
Junior High School, actually an ele-
Contested
pare a plan “to eliminate to the fullest
extent possible racial concentration in
its elementary and junior high schools.”
Judge Sweeney wrote:
“. . . it is neither just nor sensible
to proscribe segregation having its ba
sis in affirmative state action while at
the same time failing to provide a rem
edy for segregation which grows out of
discrimination in housing or other eco
nomic or social factors.
“Education is tax-supported and
compusory and public school educators,
therefore, must deal with inadequacies
within the educational system as they
arise and it matters not that the inade
quacies are not of their making.”
The judge also said that “even if all
schools are equal in physical plant, fa
cilities and ability and number of
teachers and even if academic achieve
ment were at the same level at all
schools, the opportunity of Negro chil
dren in racially concentrated schools
to obtain equal educational opportuni
ties is impaired.”
New York State’s Court of Appeals
has affirmed the right of the Commis
sioner of Education to order a school
district reorganized to promote integra
tion. The court on March 18 upheld the
order of Commissioner James E. Allen
Jr. for better racial balance in the ele
mentary schools of Malveme, L. I. The
5-2 vote of the state’s highest court
dealt only with the commissioner’s au
thority.
“Disagreement with the sociological,
psychological and educational assump
tions relied upon by the commissioner
cannot be evaluated by this court,” the
decision said. “Such arguments can
only be heard in the Legislature, which
has endowed the Commissioner with all
but absolute power, or by the board of
regents, who are elected by the Legis
lature and make policy.”
De Facto Segregation
mentary school, in Alachua County,
about 10 miles from Gainesville.
Under a freedom-of-choice plan
adopted by the Alachua school board,
a number of Negroes applied to at
tend the predominantly white school.
This triggered a large number of white
pupils for transfer elsewhere.
After studying the situation, County
School Supt. William S. Talbot said
the school would be left with only 45
pupils and two teachers, insufficient
for efficient operation or accreditation*
The board “reluctantly” ordered the
school closed and the pupils transport*
ed to Idylwild Elementary School in
Gainesville. Idylwild is to be desegre
gated in September.
Legal Action
U.S. Court Order
Causes Closure
Of Negro School
A federal court order on May 4 re
quiring Monroe County (Key West)
to permit students living on a Key
West Navy base to attend the nearest
school regardless of race has had an
unexpected result.
Monroe County officials said it
forced a large number of white stu
dents into predominantly Negro Doug
lass High School. Dr. Harold Campbell,
chairman of the Monroe County school
board, said the board “freely admits”
that conditions at this school are “de
plorable,” even though it is accredited
by the Southern Association of Col
leges and Schools.
A number of white families on the
base protested the decision and the
school board announced it might seek
a rehearing to ask for a relaxation of
this provision. Then, after a closed
meeting on May 27, the board an
nounced that Douglass High School
would be converted into a temporary
junior college and all students would
be assigned elsewhere.
Unanswered Questions
Just how this would affect the white
and Negro students, and how the court
which retains jurisdiction would view
the step, remained unanswered ques
tions. A local school official said the
decision left “a mountain of problems."
The suit (Majors v. Board of Public
Instruction of Monroe County) has an
unusual history. It was filed after
Monroe County, under federal pres
sure, announced its system was “fully
desegregated.” The two principal
plaintiffs disavowed the suit, claiming
it was filed without their knowledge.
Nevertheless the plaintiffs’ attorneys
pressed the issue.
On May 4, Federal District Judge
Charles Fulton gave almost complete
approval of the desegregation plan
submitted by the country but turned
down the proposal that would have
allowed white families on the Navy
base to send their children to a school
other than the nearby Douglass High,
if they wished.
Monroe County said 143 white chil'
dren were assigned to the Negro school
as a result. This is the basis of the
present controversy.
Community Action
Desegregation Plans
Reported A Threat
To Negro Teachers
Negro teachers in Florida wer
alarmed by the prospect that ‘ whoj e '
sale dismissals” will result when
segregation plans go into effect
many counties next September,
ports were numerous that many
tracts held by Negro teachers were
being renewed.
Gilbert L. Porter, executive sec l s ,
tary of the Florida State Teachers ^
sociation, a Negro group,
wouldn’t call it a trend yet, but
a beginning.” . T m a .
Porter, after a conference i n
hassee May 25, cited a number o
amples. to
Monroe County, which P 1 , ne3 rt
phase out three Negro schools ^
year, expects to eliminate the i^ers
about 30 teachers. Six Negro te ^
there already have lost their ^
Porter said, because they failed o
(See FLORIDA, Page H)
said: