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PAGE 18—JUNE, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
SOUTH CAROLINA *
Schoolmen
COLUMBIA
H arrassed South Carolina
schoolmen, many of them al
ready in financial difficulties be
cause of the holdup of federal
funds, struggled during May
through a maze of Washington
guidelines and local advice in an
effort to comply with the 1964
Civil Rights Act.
At month’s end, seven of the state’s
108 school districts had been ruled in
compliance by the U. S. Office of Edu
cation.
Representatives of other districts
gathered in Columbia May 27 to see
what they had to do to get approval.
They got somewhat conflicting advice.
Gov. Robert E. McNair urged the
schoolmen not to panic and rush into
desegregation plans they cannot live
with.
State Supt. of Education Jesse T.
Anderson, on the other hand, advised
districts whose desegregation plans were
not approved to change them.
“I would immediately modify the
plan,” Anderson said, “and let the peo
ple in the community know. We are
living under the Civil Rights law. If
you don’t do it, you’ll be a year be
hind.”
Urges Good Faith
Attorney General Daniel R. McLeod,
speaking at the same meeting, urged
the schoolmen to submit their plans in
good faith. He said it was his opinion
that plans substantially similar to those
submitted by Richland County District
1 (Columbia) and York County District
1 would be approved by Washington.
The Columbia and York plans are
the only voluntary ones in South
Carolina accepted to date. The U. S.
education office has also ruled proce
dures followed in five districts under
court desegregation orders to be in
compliance.
Anderson’s offer to reproduce and
distribute the Columbia plan to those
desiring it was met with applause.
Gov. McNair and Attorney General
McLeod made unscheduled appearances
at the meeting, called primarily to
discuss the new federal aid to educa
tion act which could send more than
$28 million into South Carolina next
year.
Ways of Complying
McNair, one of the Southern gover
nors who met in Washington May 18
to seek clarification of the U. S. guide
lines, told the schoolmen the governors
organized to find ways of complying
with the Civli Rights Act, not to op
pose it.
Both McLeod and Anderson criticized
the Office of Education for not telling
the districts specifically why their plans
were insufficient. McLeod suggested
that districts write and ask what the
plans lack.
Seventy-two South Carolina districts
had received form letters from Wash
ington saying their plans were inade
quate. A total of 98 were known to
have made some effort at compliance.
A Department of Education official said
he understood most of the 10 unre
ported districts had plans ready to sub
mit but were holding up pending fur
ther clarification.
All of the plans from the state have
been of the freedom-of-choice variety
and are similar to those ordered by
federal district judges for districts in
Charleston, Darlington, Greenville,
Sumter and Orangeburg counties. (For
details of the approved plans, see
separate article under Schoolmen.)
Many Hours for Governor
Gov. McNair, who stepped up from
the lieutenant governorship in April
after Gov. Donald S. Russell resigned
to accept a Senate appointment, spent
many hours of his first month in office
grappling with the compliance problem.
He was one of six Southern gover
nors who met in Atlanta May 9 to
plan action against the guidelines set
forth by U. S. Commissioner of Edu
cation Francis Keppel. The governors
contended the guidelines were an il
legal extention of the Civil Rights Act
and decided to meet with congressional
delegations in Washington to seek clar
ification and modification.
McNair called his first press confer
ence as governor May 11. He urged
school districts not to adopt plans that
go beyond those ordered by the courts.
He said he believed in close co
ordination with the federal government
“so long as they don’t try to tell us
how to run our state. Federal money is
our money and we are entitled to our
proportionate share.”
On the same day the S. C. School
(Gressetfe) Committee, watchdog of
Struggle To Comply With Civil Rights Act
segregation in the state for a decade,
issued a statement urging the districts
to make no “final agreement” with fed
eral officials until after the governors’
Washington meeting and until after the
committee had made its recommenda
tions to the General Assembly.
The committee, headed by Calhoun
County Sen. L. Marion Gressette, said
it had studied the guidelines carefully
and found them to be “entirely un
reasonable and dictatorial.” The com
mittee said the regulation would likely
have an end effect that “would be dis
astrous” by producing “utter chaos in
any school system to which they are
applied.”
Gressette appointed a special sub
committee to advise the governor and
the General Assembly on the matter.
To it he named Sen. Rembert C. Den
nis of Berkeley County, Rep. Joseph
O. Rogers of Clarendon County, Green
ville newspaper editor Wayne W. Free
man and Columbia attorney David W.
Robinson, the committee’s chief counsel.
The State Senate, on May 4, and the
House of Representatives, on May 12,
went into secret sessions to discuss
compliance problems. For the House, it
was the first executive session in years.
Not All Approve
This activity in the political arena
did not meet with universal approval
among schoolmen or even legislators.
“I wish the Gressette Committee
would stay out of this,” one legislator
said.
An educator said the legislators were
only arousing emotions and doing noth
ing to help solve a serious problem.
“I don’t like the regulations,” this su
perintendent said, “ . . . but we’re going
ahead with our desegregation plans be
cause it’s coming sooner or later and it’s
better to take the initiative ourselves
and develop something we can live
with.”
When McNair and eight other South
ern governors met in Washington May
18, they agreed to form a committee,
composed of the governor and one con
gressional representative of each state
represented, to seek relief from the
guidelines. They propose an early meet
ing with President Johnson and Secre
tary of Health, Education and Welfare
Anthony Celebrezze.
U.S. Rep. L. Mendel Rivers of
Charleston, chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee, will join
McNair as South Carolina’s members
on the committee.
‘Unanimity of Action’
Rivers immediately termed the guide
lines “silly, ridiculous and insulting to
our state and the South. We’ve got to
do everything possible to keep these
people from running over the state of
South Carolina.” He said the major
benefit of the meeting was “the un
animity of action” among Southern
states.
Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond
said the Southern states “will have to
make their political strength felt be
cause the whole matter is mainly one
of politics.”
Both he and Sen. Donald Russell, his
Democratic colleague, pledged their full
Legislative Action
South Carolina Highlights
Schoolmen, with the help of po
litical leaders, maneuvered in a
confused situation to win approval
of their compliance plans.
Compliance plans of seven school
districts and the State Department
of Education were approved by the
U.S. Office of Education.
Berkeley County desegregation
was revealed, running the total
number of desegregated districts to
18.
Harvey Gantt, who broke the
state’s educational color bar in 1963,
was graduated from Clemson Uni
versity with honors.
Compulsory school attendance
bills before the General Assembly
failed.
A federal judge denied a motion
that he revoke temporary injunc
tions that are holding up payment
of tuition grants to private school
pupils.
co-operation with the governors. Rus
sell, while governor, had, in fact, been
among the first to suggest that the U.S.
Office of Education had gone beyond
the law and that districts should not
be required to do more than ordered
by the courts.
Delays caused by the compliance dis
pute resulted in the holding up of ap
proximately $1.2 million in federal im-
pacted-area funds to 15 South Carolina
school districts that failed to submit
their applications for these funds before
Jan. 3. Seventeen other state districts
beat the deadline and so far have
received 75 per cent of the impacted
area funds due them.
Aiken Affected
Most seriously effected was Aiken, a
one-district county with many feder
ally connected students from the near
by Atomic Energy Commission plant.
Aiken’s compliance plan was one of the
72 formally rejected.
At a school board meeting May 11,
County Supt. of Education Charles F.
Kneece was authorized to borrow up
to $550,000 to pay teachers’ salaries. The
county had budgeted $350,000 in impact
funds for the period.
“Even if the county qualifies later
and receives these funds,” Kneece said,
“we must pay these salaries with the
money we have on hand.”
Kneece said a letter he had received
from HEW Commissioner Kappel indi
cated that Aiken’s desegregation plan,
announced voluntarily in September,
1964 and effective at the opening of the
1965-66 school term, failed to meet Of
fice of Education requirements primar
ily because it did not specify that
“transition grades” be desegregated.
The federal guidelines insisted that
desegregation proceed in at least the
first, seventh and 12th grades. The Ai
ken plan, based on those approved by
federal court judges, permits entry into
any grade if certain criteria are met.
The district approved 64 of 83 trans
fer requests by Negroes on May 5. But
none, as it turned out, involved the
first, seventh or 12th grades. Keppel
noted this fact in his letter.
Board Chairman L. G. McElmurry
said, “The plan which Aiken County
submitted followed a court-approved
guideline and we will stick pretty much
to it until this other guideline is tested
in court.” But he said a study would be
launched to see if the plan could be
brought into conformity with the fed
eral guideline.
The impacted-area assistance pro
gram is an old one, but the delays
might also hurt new programs designed
primarily to help the children of low-
income families, said P. H. Bomar,
finance director of the State Depart
ment of Education. These programs ac
count for $28.6 million of the $42 mil
lion South Carolina could receive next
year.
“If we got these approvals today,”
Bomar said May 18, “I doubt if we
could spend $10 million of it intelligent
ly.” As new programs, Bomar said,
they will require a tremendous amount
of planning, which cannot proceed in
every case until compliance plans are
approved.
★ ★ ★
Two Districts Get
Approval of Plans
With Adjustments
By adjusting compliance plans to
meet standards set forth in the U.S.
Office of Education guidelines for school
desegregation, two South Carolina
school districts won approval from
Washington during May and immed
iately became eligible again to receive
federal funds.
Also accepted during the month was
the compliance plan of the State De
partment of Education. Five districts,
already desegregated under court or
der, also were approved by federal
education officials.
These were the first acceptances re
ceived in the state, although 98 of 108
districts had submitted plans.
The two voluntary plans approved
were for Richland County District 1
(Columbia) and York County District
1. Court-ordered plans, accepted by
Washington after some delay, involve
Greenville and Darlington counties,
Charleston District 20, Orangeburg Dis
trict 5 and Sumter District 2.
Administrative Criteria
These court-ordered plans open all
grades in all schools to Negroes but set
up five administrative criteria to guide
assignment and transfer.
The criteria involve the child’s pref
erence, his educational program, the
capacity of the school to which assign
ment is sought, availability of space in
the other schools and the distance
the child lives from the school.
These criteria have been attacked in \
the courts as vague. Negro attorneys * 1
seem to feel they are capable of being c
administered in such a way as to limit '
desegregation sharply. s
The federal judges, however, did not *
modify the plans and they were used
by the districts in assigning pupils on a ' r
nonracial basis last September.
Former Gov. Donald S. Russell and
his successor, Gov. Robert E. McNair "
urged districts complying voluntarily : 1
not to go beyond the court-ordered f
plans. Most followed the advice. *■
Other Guarantees
The U.S. Office of Education, how
ever, does not consider these plans ade- 1
quate without other guarantees. It did ^
accept the plans from the five districts ! 1
under court order on May 20 but made *
it plain that copies of the plan, sub
mitted voluntarily, would not be ap- e
proved. r
Allen Lesser, director of federally e
assisted school programs, explained that ^
the districts with judge-approved plans
remain under the close jurisdiction of 1
the court which can always order ‘
changes. 1
A week before all five court plans ‘
were accepted, the Orangeburg plan
was returned as inadequate to meet the 1
requirements of the Civil Rights Act.
No explanation was given when it was
accepted seven days later.
S
Criteria Omitted i
York District 1, the first area to gain
approval of a voluntary plan, did not
include the criteria in its proposal. This
and other variations and assurances i .
helped it break the ice on May 8.
The York plan provided that assign- (
ment to schools be based on the choice ‘
of the child. In the event of overcrowd- 1
ing, preference will be given without
regard to race to those living closest
to the school.
Children rejected because of space
will be notified and permitted to make
an effective second choice to a school ‘
with space available. The plan also ®
provides that “students will ride with
out discrimination on the bus serving (
the school to which they attend.”
It pointed out that professional staff '
meetings in the district have been de
segregated for several years and that ‘
Negro and white teachers serve to- ‘
gether on various committees, such as
curriculum development, textbook se
lection, etc.
’ £
‘To Develop Plans’ (
The plan further promised that “the
board of trustees will continue to de
velop plans for further integration of
professional staffs.”
Another important consideration in
winning approval of the York plan was
a provision guaranteeing that parents
would receive the necessary informa-
tion to allow them to exercise their
freedom of choice on behalf of their ^
children.
To implement this, the district mailed
forms to all parents of children enter- j
ing junior high schools or high schools f
next September. It was made manda- (
tory that the parents indicate the school
of their choice on the forms and re- .
turn them to school officials in an en- ]
closed addressed envelope. (
Pupils who normally would continue
next year in the same school they now (
are attending were given letters to (
take home. The letters notified the pa r "
ents of the right of transfer.
House Kills Compulsory Attendance
Compulsory school attendance, one
of the major issues debated by the
1965 South Carolina General Assembly,
failed to win acceptance.
A bill which would have made juven
ile court judges responsible for en
forcing school attendance by children
from seven to 16 was felled by an ac
tion of House Speaker Solomon Blatt.
It was a simple amendment to exempt
his county, Barnwell, from the pro
visions of the bill. This had the effect
of making it special legislation, which
is prohibited by the state constitution.
Blatt, dean of America’s House
speakers, threw his weight behind the
amendment and it passed 81-24 as a
total of 28 legislators switched sides
from an earlier roll call vote on tabl
ing the bill.
Rep. Heyward McDonald of Richland,
one of the measure’s chief sponsors,
bristled when the vote was announced.
“We cannot continue to let the spectre
of integration so panic us that we fail
to meet our responsibilities,” he told
the House.
“We may ignore the statistics on il
literacy and delinquency in this state—
we may fail to meet this need—but we
do so to our shame and to the ever
lasting detriment of thousands of chil
dren in this state. I hope that some
day, if not today, this legislature will
do something positive about it.”
He then moved to have the bill—
unconstitutional as amended—continued
until next year and this was done.
Chief proponent of the bill was
Charleston Rep. Arthur Baker, a mem
ber of the Gressette Committee, the
state’s school segregation watchdog. It
was this committee which recommended
repeal of the state’s original compul
sory attendance law a decade ago.
But the measure ran into determined
opposition. Kershaw Rep. J. C. Arrant,
for one, called it “dynamite” and said
it could lead to forced desegregation.
Arguments Fail
As adjournment neared, Fairfield
County Rep. Purvis Collins, himself
a school administrator, made one last
attempt to salvage something by pro
posing a constitutional amendment to
allow each South Carolina county to
decide if it wants a compulsory at
tendance law.
He said it was obvious that 15 or 20
counties were against such a law and
it would be difficult to get an effective
bill passed.
He entered his proposal May 25. The
General Assembly adjourned on state
wide matters May 28 without action on
it.
★ ★ ★
The 1965 General Assembly again
appropriated $25,000, the normal amount
for operations of the state’s joint school
(Segregation) Committee.
The 15-member committee, common
ly called the Gressette Committee after
Calhoun County
Sen. L. Marion
Gressette, its first
and only chair
man, was created
in 1956 to lead the
state’s battle to
retain its segre
gated school sys
tem.
Some legislative
members were
quoted as saying
they thought the
committee had outgrown its usefulness
in the light of increasing desegregation
in the state.
But committee members and legis
lative leaders came to its defense and
insisted it still had a purpose in the
changing picture. No floor opposition
to the appropriation materialized.
Most of the committee’s funds go into
legal fees.
Submitted April 12
York Supt. Harold C. Johnson said he
did not submit the district plan unta j
April 12. Before that, his board h a j
been in communication with official® |
of the U.S. Office of Education and ,
the State Department of Education.
“We tried to develop a plan accept
able to the U.S. Office of Education
that could be administered effective > j
locally,” Johnson said. . <
York District 1, which includes
city of York, had 2,484 white and % "
Negro students in 1963-64. It is ®°_ i
now desegregated, although the adja
cent Rock Hill district is. Johnson sai^ |
he already had received transfer ■
quests from Negroes but was not rea .
to release pre-registration figures.
i
Columbia Plan ;
The U.S. Commissioner of Ed uca ^_
nnounced the acceptance of th® j.
-imbia plan May 16. Unlike the
lan, it is patterned after the c ° r j a .
rdered plans and includes the cri ®
It was first submitted in Feb ^
nd was the subject of consider ^
negotiation between district 0
nd the U.S. office before acceptan ■
Supt. Guy L. Vam said much 0 ,
(See SCHOOL, Page 19)