About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1965)
SOUTH CAROLINA SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE, 1965—PAGE 19 School Officials Work to Meet (Continued from Page 18) Compliance Terms \ ministration. An important change in volved the sending out of individual notice to parents regarding the rights of transfer. Columbia provided the same guar antee as York in regard to bus trans portation. It also stated: “The school board t recognizes that staff desegregation is a problem that must be studied for the future.” This was the only mention of faculty desegregation other than a ; pledge to hold all professional meetings on a biracial basis. Many such meet ings have been desegregated for years. Implementation Started The district proceeded to implement the plan even before it was accepted. On May 5, letters went to all parents advising them of their right to request ' transfer of the children to any school. Like the York plan, it said that in the event of overcrowding, children living near the school would be given prefer ence and others would be given an ef fective second choice. The letter also stated: “Teachers, principals and other school personnel 1 are not permitted to advise, recom mend, or otherwise influence the de cision. Nor will school personnel either favor or penalize children because of the choice made.” Supt. Vam said he did not consider the plan too dissimilar from what was done voluntarily last fall when 22 Ne gro students were permitted to trans fer to white schools. ment of Education showed that the low- country county has admitted one Negro child to its previously all-white schools since schools opened for the past aca demic year. The survey revealed—and a Berke ley school official confirmed—that a Ne gro girl was attending the second grade at Goose Creek Elementary School in the outer suburbs of Charleston. The Berkeley official said the child is a member of a family that moved into the district after the opening of school, but he declined to say exactly when the child entered. The survey indicated that there now are 265 Negro children attending schools with whites in 61 schools in 16 counties. The new county on the list, Berkeley, is one of the state’s largest, geographic ally. It is located just inland of coastal Charleston and in 1963-64 had 6,046 white and 6,814 Negro children in aver age daily attendance. Clarendon County School District 2 has rejected the transfer applications of 12 Negro children. The action became public knowledge June 3. The children involved repre sented four families. No reason was given for the rejections. Clarendon District 2 is centered at Manning, the county seat. It had 1,224 white and 2,790 Negro students in average daily attendance in 1963-64. The adjoining Clarendon District 1, In the Colleges located at Summerton, was a defendant in the original Supreme Court case of 1954. It remains segregated although still under court order. As far as is known, the three Clar endon County districts are among the ten in the state that have not filed desegregation plans as required by the 1964 Civil Rights Acts. One report said, however, that such plans had been pre pared. Legal Action U.S. Judge Refuses To Lift Injunction Against Payments U.S. Judge J. Robert Martin of Greenville denied on May 26 a request by white parents to revoke temporary injunctions that have held up payment of tuition grants. The parents, all of whom have chil dren attending two segregated white private schools in Charleston, had in tervened in a suit brought by the NAACP against the state-backed grants program. The State Department of Education made its first payments under the pro gram in March, sending the funds to participating school districts for dis tribution to parents. The state portion amounted to $127 per pupil and covered the first semes ter of the school year. The NAACP, however, moved rapidly to enjoin payment. It suc ceeded in stopping the distribution in Charleston, which has three partici pating private schools, but acted too late to prevent payment in Sumter and Orangeburg counties, which have one such school each. School districts in these counties already had mailed the checks. Awaiting Action In refusing to revoke the injunctions, Judge Martin said that the payments were being held up only until a three- judge federal court could determine the constitutionality of the tuition grants law. In matters of this nature, the judge said, “it is the public interest which commends the maintenance of the status quo pending determination of the constitutional question involved.” In the meantime, efforts were launched in several South Carolina communities to establish private schools, presumably with or without tuition-grants aid. Organizational meet ings were held during May at Mullins (Marion County), Cameron (Calhoun County) and Barnwell (Barnwell Coun- I ty)- A recently organized private school in Manning, county seat of Clarendon | County, began receiving applications j for the fall term. Registration is under way in the Manning Baptist Church’s J educational building, where elemen- j tary and high school classes will be held beginning in September. In 1963-64, Clarendon County had a Negro-white ratio of 5,931 to 2,274 but in District I (Summerton), under or ders to desegregate since the 1954 Su preme Court decision, the figures are 2,321 to 327. District 1 remains unsegre gated. Large Negro Ratio As in Clarendon, the areas in which other new private schools are proposed have heavy Negro school populations. None have school mixing but appar ently will have next year under pro grams submitted to the U.S. Office of Education under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In Barnwell, 300 persons gathered May 23 at the first public meeting to hear details of the private school pro posal there. They were told that the school would have no connection with the state or federal government—pre sumably ruling out tuition grants. Dr. Sam Turnipseed of Blackville, chairman of the temporary organizing committee, said costs would be about (See SOUTH CAROLINA, Page 20) State Department’s Plan The State Department of Education’s compliance plan was approved on May 5. Only the basic plan was released in Columbia, promising that all federally assisted programs would be admin istered on a nondiscriminatory basis. But a supplement to it, on file at the U.S. Office of Education in Washington, spelled out other assurances and caused a newspaper reporter to write that the state education department would serve as a watchdog on school district de segregation and report examples of bad faith to Washington. This brought forth a denial from State Supt. of Education Jesse T. An derson, who issued a statement saying that his department would not be re quired to be “an FBI agent or watch dog to force any district to comply with the Civil Rights Act.” He admitted that he did give assur ance that “we will assist all of the school districts to abide by their plans of compliance.” Would Send Concilator He said his supplementary statement assured Washington that when com plaints reach the state department from school district parents, the de partment would send a staff member to the affected district to endeavor to re concile the problem. “In case it is not reconciled, the U.S. Office of Education would be notified,” Anderson’s press release continued. Should the U.S. Office of Education j require the state to withhold funds from the district, the state pledges to do so. “These statements are . . . sound j administrative procedures ... It is | much better for the state department °f Education to work with the district than for the U.S. Office of Education to send a representative ... to do the j things we can and should do within ! the state.” Negroes on Staff Anderson’s supplementary informa- ; hon to Washington also said that ef forts would be made to include more I ffogroes on the staff of the State De partment. He said the position of Ne- Sro supervisor had been eliminated and ds Negro staff assigned to other posi- : Pons on a desegregated basis. Brown Mahon, chairman of the State oard of Education, said his group had J "Ply authorized Anderson to sign the compliance certificate and that subse quent amendments and additions had ^of gone before the board. He said he was disturbed at the pros- heot of the state department reporting •stricts to Washington. The, superintendent, although the “Oard’s chief administrative officer, is ected by the people for a four-year rm and cannot be fully controlled by board. ★ ★ ★ Berkeley County District 18th to Desegregate Berkeley County’s single school dis- ^. lc t has joined the list of desegregated ‘stricts in South Carolina, raising the ot al to 18 out of 108. A May survey by the State Depart Harvey Gantt Awarded His Degree From Clemson The quiet-spoken Negro who brought an end to educational segregation in South Carolina was graduated from Clemson University May 29 with hon ors. Harvey B. Gantt, 22-year-old archi tectural student from Charleston, dis claimed any desire to become a civil rights crusader. He said he does not think of himself as “another Martin Luther King” and seeks a role “at a quieter level” in the civil rights movement. “I’m aware of what’s going on,” he said. “Any Negro who is concerned about his plight and the plight of the South in general is a part of this revo lution. ‘Not a Crusader’ “I strongly support what Dr. King and others are doing. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I’m not a crusader. Just because I happened to be the first Negro to attend Clemson does not make me a Negro leader.” Like most college students, Gantt spent the days immediately before his graduation seeking a job. As a “B” stu dent in architecture, he had offers from j three firms in North Carolina and Georgia and one from a Northern com- | pany. He accepted a job with A. G. J Odell and Associates in Charlotte, N.C. J Odell is president of the American In- | stitute of Architects. Gantt called the job an internship. He said that in the distant future, he | hopes to open his own firm or enter a j partnership in South Carolina. Last summer, Gantt married Lucinda Brawley of near Columbia. She had be- ' come Clemson’s first Negro co-ed in September of 1963, seven months after Gantt had transferred from Iowa State University. During the school year, she dropped j out of school to have their first baby, j born last month. When they move to Charlotte, she hopes to continue her | education at Charlotte College. Contrasting Atmosphere Gantt’s graduation was comparatively unheralded as opposed to his entry in j January of 1963. He won a fast-paced ! desegregation decision in federal courts | that was appealed almost up to the last day. As his entry became inevitable, the state’s educational, business and gov- j ernmental leaders urged calmness, re- I straint and peaceful acceptance. Aware that South Carolina was the last state to have avoided school de segregation in this century, the na tional news media focused attention on Gantt and Clemson. Gov. Donald S. Russell refused an offer from U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy of federal marshals to keep the peace, and dispatched officers of the State Highway Patrol and the State Law Enforcement Division virtually to seal off the Clemson campus to assure that no trouble would result. The entry was without incident. In an interview just before his grad- Harvey Gantt at Commencement Clemson’s first Negro graduate. uation, Gantt paid tribute to the state’s leaders who worked to handle his en trance “on a gentlemanly basis.” He added: “You can always appeal to man ners in the South.” He said his biggest problem after matriculation was getting adjusted to the idea of being a curiosity. He said most of this wore off after six weeks. He said he had seen a change in at titude among his fellow students from one of “cold indifference to general ac ceptance.” But he quickly added that there still is a group at Clemson “that cling to the segregationist tradition. ‘For the most part, they have been mature about this but there are still some,” he said. “Things have gotten progressively better.” He said he had acquired friends from the beginning. “Adjustment was easier than I had expected.” He said Clem son officials had made it plain that it was up to him to determine what ex tracurricula activities he should par ticipate in. He said he and his wife had attended many athletic events and social functions. Gantt said that his stay at Clemson had made it easier for others of his race to attend formerly all-white col leges in South Carolina. Three other Negroes were undergraduates with him at Clemson during the last semester. Only one of them had been previously noted publicly, since Clemson, like other South Carolina state-supported schools, does not announce enrollment by race. He said the biggest disappointment had been his failure, as a member of a group working through the S.C. Coun cil of Human Relations, to induce more Negro students to enter colleges for whites in the state. “The crux of the problem,” he said, “is for Negroes to take advantage of the opportunities they have been de nied for so long and for white South erners to accept Negroes on an equal basis .... “The South will have to move rap idly, but it will take time,” he con cluded. “ . . . I think the South will be a great place to live.” ★ ★ ★ Two More Colleges Drop Racial Bars The Medical College of South Caro- lia at Charleston admitted its first Ne gro student, and exclusive Converse College for women at Spartanburg dropped its racial bars in early June actions. The Medical College move was not unexpected. It had signed compliance forms with the U.S. Office of Education and appeared ready to follow the trend set by other state-supported institu tions of higher learning. With its acceptance June 3 of a Ne gro girl, only neighboring The Citadel and all-Negro S.C. State among state colleges remain segregated—and both have signed compliance forms. But the Converse action surprised many South Carolinians. The Spartan burg school informed its alumnae June 2 and announced publicly June 3 the May 31 decision of its board of trustees to admit all qualified women students. Most Expensive School Converse, a non-denominational col lege best known for its professional school of music, is the state’s most ex pensive school and draws students to campus from a wide area. The student body of about 500 is assessed over $2,000 each in tuition alone for the school year. The college, over the signatures of President Robert T. Coleman Jr., Board Chairman Walter S. Montgomery, and two ranking alumnae officers, wrote its former graduates and leading sup porters that “the trustees reiterate a traditional conviction that admissions of all students should be on the basis of academic and personal qualifica tions.” But it quoted its “Founder’s Ideal” that the college “be really, but liber ally and tolerantly, Christian.” (The school opened in the 1890’s after a be quest from Spartanburg textile magnate Dexter Converse.) Study Committee Converse said its board had estab lished a committee for the purpose of studying in detail the Department of Health, Education and Welfare’s com pliance form. It said that of May 20, it had learned that 1,938 of the nation’s 2,168 colleges and universities had signed the form, including 443 of the approximately 500 institutions in the South. Converse said, “It is specifically un derstood that the assurance of compli ance applies to women students . . .” The school has long had a few male students in its school of music. Converse said that it had received three applications from Negroes, had rejected two and the third had failed to appear for the pre-college examina tion. Its letter to its alumnae stated: “This action (the decision to sign the com pliance form) cannot affect the admis sion of boarding students this fall, as the applications have already been pro cessed for the 1965-66 academic year, and there is a waiting list of well- qualified applicants.” First Negro Student The Medical College’s first Negro student is Sara N. Prioleau, a former junior high school teacher from the Columbia suburb of Hopkins. She has been a member of the faculty of Perry Junior High School, an all- Negro school in Columbia. She will take a summer course in gross anatomy and plans to continue her studies during the fall term. The course she will take this summer is for pre-medical students and teach ers. ★ ★ ★ A Negro mathematics teacher was awarded a $600 grant May 3 by the predominantly white University of South Carolina to attend a summer in stitute for math teachers at the univer sity. In addition to the grant, Carl V. Wil liams, a member of the faculty of Columbia’s all-Negro Booker T. Wash ington High School, will receive an al lowance for his dependents. Williams was one of 75 teachers ac cepted by the institute from 750 appli cations from throughout the United States. The institute, which will run from June 15 to Aug. 10, is financed by a grant from the National Science Foun dation.
