Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE, 1965—PAGE II
Florida
(Continued from Page 10)
the National Teacher Examination. An
other Negro teacher has resigned and
will not be replaced.
Porter said Holmes County (Boni-
fay) has announced transfer of 135
Negro children to predominantly white
schools next year, eliminating the jobs
of 10 Negro teachers. Some have been
teaching in the system for as long as
20 years. The FSTA executive said
their dismissal appeared to be a case
of discrimination and asked the state
to investigate. He also suggested that
court action may be taken to preserve
the jobs.
, Thomas D. Bailey, state school super
intendent, said that in most cases dis
missed Negro teachers are those who
fail to pass the NTE.
“I don’t know if anything can be
done about it,” the superintendent said.
“Any teacher, regardless of race, who
doesn’t make 500 on the examination
cannot be issued a continuing contract.
“Insofar as I know I have seen no
evidence of any attempt to brin<* about
mass dismissals. In the first place, I
don’t think there is going to be that
much integration involved to make
that possible.”
In several school suits filed in
Florida, protection of jobs for Negro
teachers has been asked of the courts.
In all cases so far, this has not been
written into final orders.
In The Colleges
A&M Law School
Closing Discussed
The possibility of phasing out the
law school at Florida A&M Uni
versity at Tallahassee, which became
a matter of hot controversy and a law
suit two years ago has been renewed
by the Florida legislature.
In an unexpected action on May 12
the conference committee on the state
appropriation bill wrote in a provision
authorizing the school to be closed
and, in that event, transferring its
funds to Florida State University for
a law school.
FAMU’s law school was attacked by
a group of white and Negro citizens as
an unjustified use of public funds. In
a suit filed in the Circuit Court of
Leon County (Milledge et al v Board
of Control) four plaintiffs alleged that
only a handful of graduates had suc
cessfully passed the state bar examina
tions, although the per-pupil cost was
many times higher than at predomi
nantly white law schools where stand
ards were much higher.
The suit, thrown out of court on a
technicality, kicked up a furore.
Negro educators demanded assurance
from state officials that the school
would be continued. This was given.
But this year’s appropriation bill re
vived the argument. Within a matter
of days the University Board of Re
gents declared publicly that it would
not move to phase out the school, con
firming again that the staff recom
mendation to move the school to FSU
Would be ignored.
The matter was brought up at the
board when Chester Ferguson, chair
man, asked for a “vote of confidence”
m the school. It was given without
comment. Ferguson announced that
this is now the policy of this board.”
The action insures the indefinite con
tinuance of the law school at the 75-
year-old Negro land grant university.
ALABAMA
Courts Continue Action
In Desegregation Cases
(Continued from Page 9)
with the judges last July and called for
the desegregation of grade two in 1965;
three and eight in 1966; four and seven
in 1967; and five and six in 1968. The
court had earlier turned down a grade-
a-year plan beginning with the 12th
and working down.
Under terms of the order, a new plan
must be filed by Jan. 15, 1966.
What They Say
State Senator Says
Perspective Lost;
Calls for ‘Balance’
Some comments during May on the
racial situation in Alabama:
State Sen. Ed Horton of Limestone
County, one of the opponents of a reso
lution backed by Gov. Wallace to urge
school boards not to make any more
compliance agreements with HEW, in a
speech in Huntsville May 10:
The race problem “is causing us to
lose our perspective” and is complicat
ing the solution of other problems fac
ing the state. While the state must re
gain its balance in this regard, Horton
said, “we are not going to wake up
in the morning and find our racial
problems were only a nightmare.” Even
so, “inaction and defiance are not the
answer—they have failed too often in
the past and will fail again in the
future.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Negro
civil rights leader May 10: “Gov. Wal
lace has presided over more integration
than any governor in the United States.
Segregation is on its death bed and the
only thing now is how costly Wallace
and the other segregationists will make
the funeral.” King described Wallace
as a man who “has probably done more
to draw the Negroes closer together
than anybody in the state of Alabama.”
Former State Sen. E. B. Haltom Jr.,
attorney for the Florence School Board,
in a speech May 10 in Birmingham:
“Wallace owes a debt to the people of
Alabama that he is not paying. He owes
a debt to the school children of this
state . . The state has groped for two
years for a solution to the desegrega
tion problem “with no help from the
chief executive of the state.” Haltom
said Wallace was the only man who
can make and remold Alabama today.
He has the right and ability to do it.”
At present, Haltom added, Wallace
enjoys the armor of being a man “who
can do no political wrong” despite his
“political bloopers and inept maneuver
ing ... He can go down in history as
one of Alabama’s greatest political
servants, but if he follows the course
he is now taking, he’ll go down in his
tory as one of Alabama’s greatest po-
In The Colleges
Funds Withheld
From 14 Schools
litical demagogues.”
Haltom added that, in his opinion,
Wallace is the most liberal governor in
Alabama history “except on the issue
of desegregation.”
Wallace Says Government
Uses ‘Vicious Procedure’
Gov. George Wallace said on HEW’s
compliance requirements under the
Civil Rights Bill of 1964:
“. . . Even if Congress had the power,
this business of punishing children
(withdrawing federal funds from
schools which do
not desegregate)
to compel elected
officials to act in
a particular way
is a vicious pro
cedure, heretofore
unknown in a so
ciety of free peo
ple but universal
ly employed in
totalitarian na
tions.
“Oddly enough,
the left-wing liberals who justify the
federal government withholding aid to
children in our nation to compel action
of locally elected officials are the very
ones who loudly oppose cutting off fed
eral aid to communists and communist
satellite nations.”
In Washington, Wallace explained the
refusal of the State Board of Education
to sign any compliance order. We will
resist as long as we can within the
law.”
In other statements, he accused HEW
of attempting to control every school,
adding: “We don’t believe the people
will put up with this.”
WALLACE
The U. S. Office of Education an
nounced June 1 that federal aid funds
were being withheld from 14 state-
operated colleges and junior colleges in
Alabama pending a determination that
they have given their assurances of
compliance with the Civil Rights Act.
A spokesman for the Office of Edu
cation said the colleges in question had
filed Form 441, a civil rights compli
ance statement. These forms, the
agency said, are only to be used by
institutions in whose activities no dis
crimination is practiced, thus placing
them in full compliance with the 1964
Civil Rights Act.
No estimate was available as to the
amount of federal funds being withheld.
The institutions affected by the order
were: Alabama A&M, Alabama State
College for Negroes; Florence, Jack
sonville, Troy and Livingston state col
leges; Northwest Alabama Junior Col
lege, Bay Minette State Junior College,
Enterprise Junior College, Gadsden
Technical Junior College, Southern
Union College, State Junior College,
Wenonah Junior College and the
George C. Wallace Vocational-Tech
nical School and Junior College.
Miss Vivian Malone, whose entry
into the University of Alabama was
temporarily blocked by Gov. Wallace’s
“schoolhouse
door” stand in
June of 1963, be
came the first of
her race to grad
uate from the in
stitution May 30.
She said the
way for other Ne
groes should be
easier.
“The students,”
MALONE She , S3id ’ ‘ <are
much more re
ceptive now than they were two years
ago. I felt I was accepted by my class
mates, people are friendlier now and
more open than when I first came. I
think then that they wanted to, but
were afraid.”
As the routine academic year ended,
there were 10 Negro students on the
university’s main campus, 47 others in
extension centers in Birmingham,
Huntsville, Montgomery and elsewhere.
No serious trouble has been reported
since the late President Kennedy fed
eralized the Alabama National Guard,
forcing Wallace to step aside.
College Desegregation
Predominant^
Predominantly
Total
Enrollment
Negroes in Schools
With Whites
No.-Deseg.
Negro
No.-Deseg.
No.-Deseg.
Predominantly
Predominantly
Predominantly
Predominantly
White Schls.
Negro Schls.
White Schls.
Negro Schls.
Alabama
9—4
2—1
11—5
32,839
3,384
68
0
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
24—15
17—9
11—11
19—1
12—12
5—3
6 6
1—1
11—11
3—0
3—3
6—0
5-5
1—0
8—8
35—26
20—9
14—14
25—1
17—17
6-3
21,985
115,633
34,225
46,749
31,020
42,965
19,356
2,200
13,691
3,714
10,282
6,302
9,136
1,724
51
1,715
71
1,178
2
489
24
0
0
0
10,275
0
9,122
0
Texas
Virginia
SOUTH
Delaware
50—50
21—15
1—1
4-4
2—2
7—7
54—54
23—17
48,208
184,411
42,420
5,704
8,482
4,173
1,035
2,553
132
4,669
8,306
44-70
181—133
1 l
39—28
220—161
619,811
68,792
7,318
36,542
District of Col.
0—0
1 1
2—2
4,500*
769*
17
750
Kentucky
Maryland
Missouri
Oklahoma
West Virginia
BORDER
REGION
‘Estimated
7—7
16—16
17—17
22—22
10—10
1—1
4—4
1—1
1—1
1—1
1—1
8—8
20—20
18—18
23—23
11—11
0
39,000*
39,581
58,000*
60,502
24,487*
1,293
1,150*
4,714
1,100*
925
1,189*
0
1,700*
965
2,500*
851*
1,200*
1,110
980*
4,352
1,100*
923*
325
73—73
10—10
83—83
226,070
11,140
7,233
9,540
254—206
49—38
303—244
845,881
79,932
14,551
46,082
Segregation -Desegregation Status
Districts
With Negroes
Total and Whites Deseg.
Enrollment
In Desegregated
Districts
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
118
411
67
196
67
163
170
108
152
1,379
130
9
24
22
12
3
4
86
18
65
450*
81
White
549,593**
333,630f
1,014,920
686,761
472,923*
299,748
828,638
371,921
724,327
2,086,752*
736,017
Negro
293,426**
114,651f
247,475
334,126
313,314*
279,106
349,282
260,667
173,673
344,312*
233,070
White
131,241**
93,072
817,842
200,127
63,591
34,620
555,997
173,833
475,877
1,600,000*
600,000*
Negro
87,457**
28,943
175,969
133,454
88,677
21,929
207,551
96,196
136,936
245,000*
200,000*
Negroes
In Schools
With Whites
No. %
101
930
6,612
1,337
3,581
57
4,963
265
9,289
27,000*
12,000*
♦Estimated **1963-64
11962-63
ttMissouri not included
.034
.811
2.67
.400
1.14
.020
1.42
.102
5.35
7.84
5.15
TOTAL
2,961
2,223
774
8,105,230
2,943,102
4,746,200
1,422,112
66,135
2.25
Delaware
79
45
45
83,164
19,367
78,942
14,064
12,051
62.2
District of Columbia
1
1
1
17,487
123,906
17,487
123,906
106,578
86.0
Kentucky
204
165
165
607,522
55,215
540,000*
55,215
37,585
68.1
Maryland
24
23
23
566,375
169,207
561,300
169,207
86,205
50.9
Missouri
1,056
212*
203*
818,000*
104,000*
NA
95,000*
44,000*
42.3
Oklahoma
1,090
321
211
555,000*
45,000*
334,000*
38,000*
14,000*
31.1
West Virginia
55
54
54
426,500*
21,300*
426,500*
21,300*
13,500*
63.4
BORDER
2,509
821
702
3,074,048
537,995
1,958,229ft
516,692
313,919
58.3
REGION
5,470
3,044
1,476
11,179,278
3,481,097
6,704,429ft
1,938,804
380,054
10.9
Border-State Schools
Largely Desegregated
(Continued from Page 1)
about 20,000 of its half-million Negroes
are in desegregated districts. Of the
516,692 Negroes in desegregated dis
tricts, 313,919 are in desegregated
schools.
The South has 2,961 school districts,
and 2,223 of these have both races en
rolled, with the remaining 738 being
either all-white or all-Negro districts.
By the end of the 1964-65 school year,
774 of the biracial districts had deseg
regated in practice or policy. This does
not include those previously segregated
districts that have announced compli
ance with the Civil Rights Act during
the coming school year.
The border area has 2,509 school dis
tricts, with 821 having both races en
rolled. All but 19 of the biracial dis
tricts have started desegregation.
Biracial Districts
The 17 Southern and border states
plus the District of Columbia have
desegregated 1,476 of the region’s 3,044
districts having both races enrolled in
them. That means that 1,568 districts
remained segregated and 2,426 districts
had either all-Negro or all-white en
rollments.
Among the Southern states, Texas
continues to have the highest number
and percentage of its Negro students in
desegregated schools. The 27,000 Ne
groes attending Texas public schools
with whites represent more than seven
per cent of the state’s total Negro en
rollment. Tennessee and Virginia have
over five per cent of their Negro stu
dents in desegregated schools. Missis
sippi has the smallest number of Ne
groes in schools with whites—57.
In the border area, the percentage of
Negro students desegregated ranged
from 86 per cent in the District of
Columbia to 31 per cent in Oklahoma.
★ ★ ★
244 Public Colleges
Desegregated in Region
By the end of the past school year,
the 17-state region had desegregated
244 of its public colleges and uni
versities, leaving 59 that did not de
clare a policy of nondiscrimination.
The 244 desegregated schools in
cluded 206 with predominantly white
enrollments and 38 predominantly
Negro. The predominantly white
schools had a total enrollment of 845,-
881 students, which included 14,551
Negroes.
The predominantly Negro colleges
had an enrollment of 79,932 and 46,082
of these students were in schools at
tended by whites. All the border
states and five of the 11 Southern
states have whites enrolled in predomi
nantly Negro schools. Those Southern
states are Louisiana, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The only Mississippi institution of
higher learning that has desegregated
is the University of Mississippi, which
had two Negroes enrolled. Arkansas,
Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee
and Texas have desegregated all then-
public colleges and universities. All the
public institutions in the border area
have desegregated.