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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: