Newspaper Page Text
page 4—JUNE, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
VIRGINIA
Five Private Prep Schools Vote
To End Federal Military Program
RICHMOND
F ive preparatory schools for
boys announced that they
were dropping federally con
nected military training programs
rather than to sign the compli
ance form required under the
Civil Rights Act.
The five are the Fork Union, Staun
ton, Randolph-Macon, Augusta and
Hargrave military academies. All have
said they would establish and operate
their own military programs.
The board of trustees of Fork Union
issued a statement saying:
“The board of trustees of Fork
Union Military Academy at its annual
meeting held on Friday 21 May by
unanimous vote directed that the Re
serve Officers Training Corps unit
which has been in operation at Fork
Union for 46 years be discontinued at
the close of the present session. The
time heretofore given to the study of
military science will now be utilized
for additional emphasis upon the over
all academic program. The academy
will continue to be operated as a mili
tary school. ’
‘Pressure’ Cited
A board spokesman was quoted as
saying the ROTC program was
dropped not to avoid desegregation,
but to escape pressure from the federal
government. No Negroes are enrolled
at FUMA, a Baptist-related school
about 50 miles west of Richmond in
Fluvanna County.
Col. James C. Wicker, president of
the school, said, “The position of the
Department of Defense that all ROTC
be desegregated precipitated the
thought of further evaluation of ROTC
here, but the main point was the actual
value of ROTC on the educational
level.”
He said the school would continue
to operate its own military program,
including parades and drill, but that
classroom courses in military science
would be dropped.
Col. Wicker said that cutting ties
with the federal government would
bring very little financial loss. The
government has been paying only the
salaries of the military instructors and
has furnished rifles to students, he
explained.
Right to Selection
The decision to drop ROTC at the
Staunton Military Academy was made
by the school’s board in a meeting at
Richmond on Sunday, May 23, and
announced the following day.
In a statement, the board of directors
said:
“In the past it has been the policy
of Staunton Military Academy to se
lect its cadets from fully qualified
students chosen for their scholastic
ability and personal qualifications. The
board of directors feels that the right
to selection of any student should re
main entirely within the province of
school authorities.”
Staunton has had an ROTC unit for
48 years. The directors said the
academy would establish its own mili
tary system next fall.
One of Staunton’s best known gradu
ates is former U.S. Sen. Barry Gold-
water of Arizona.
‘Unacceptable Extent’
Trustees of Randolph-Macon Acade
my revealed May 29 that they had
voted to drop ROTC to avoid what
they called an unacceptable amount of
federal control.
The trustees pointed out that
Randolph-Macon is affiliated with the
Methodist church and “is committed
to the church’s position against dis
crimination because of race, color or
national origin.”
But they said that signing of the
statement of compliance would “com
mit the academy to control by the fed
eral government to an unacceptable
extent.”
The Augusta Military Academy’s
trustees acted May 26 to drop ROTC
but the decision was not announced
until May 29.
A school official said ROTC would
be phased out as remaining classes
complete the program.
Hargrave Military Academy’s execu
tive committee voted to drop the
school’s National Defense Cadet Corps
unit. This program, like ROTC, is
under the jurisdiction of the U.S. De
partment of Defense.
Virginia Highlights
Five Virginia private preparatory
schools announced they would drop
federally connected military pro
grams rather than sign the assurance
of compliance under the 1964 Civil
Rights Act.
The Virginia conference of the
National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People called
on its members to take steps to place
Negroes “in the nearest white
schools.”
A move to force re-opening of
Prince Edward County’s former all-
white Farmville High School was
initiated in federal district court by
an attorney for Negro plaintiffs.
Release of Federal Funds
Ends Prince George Crisis
A delay in appropriation of federal
funds to Prince George County schools
resulted in demands from some county
officials that the schools be closed.
But the crisis ended when the U.S.
Department of Health, Education and
Welfare (HEW) released the federal
money.
Prince George has 2,329 federally
connected children in its schools, out
of a total school population of 5,223.
The large Fort Lee military base is
located in the county.
The county’s board of supervisors
held a special meeting May 18 to dis.-
cuss the financial crisis in which the
schools found themselves. Anticipated
federal impacted-area funds of more
than $303,000 for May had not been
received.
Urges Closing
Frank L. Wyche, one of the lawyers
who helped prepare the county’s free-
choice desegregation plan submitted
earlier in the month to HEW, told
the supervisors to “pay the teachers,
send them home and close the schools.”
The supervisors took no action,
although some indicated they felt that
closing the schools might be justified.
A few days later, HEW released the
Prince George funds. Allen Lesser,
director of federally assisted programs
of the Equal Educational Opportuni
ties program, denied reports that the
Prince George situation had been, a
“test case” under Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act. He said HEW had simply
been following a general policy ap
plicable to all school districts.
Lesser said the release of the money
came because of U.S. Commissioner of
Education Francis Keppel’s “disposi
tion to take the plan (of the county)
as falling within the intent of the
Prince Edward County
general statement of policies under
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964.” Lesser added that the country’s
plan still had not been definitely ap
proved.
Community Action
NAACP Leader Urges
More Entry Efforts
The NAACP’s executive secretary in
Virginia called on Negroes to increase
their efforts to gain admittance to
white schools in the state.
In a letter to NAACP branches, W.
Lester Banks urged Negroes to take
steps before May 31 to place children
“in the nearest white schools.”
Banks criticized the freedom-of-
choice plan widely used in Virginia,
under which children are permitted
to apply for enrollment in any school
in their respective districts.
He said school officials are aware
that “Negro parents are too indifferent,
too afraid and too satisfied and con
tented to accept the responsibility of
helping their children escape from the
damaging effects of a Jim Crow edu
cational system.”
Banks urged parents “not to be
fooled” by the fact that several school
boards had withdrawn from jurisdic
tion of the State Pupil Placement
Board or by pledges of compliance
with the Civil Rights Act. He said that
in most cases, boards still have not
taken positive steps to bring about
racial integration.
Legal Action
Court Rejects
Frederick Plan
The United States Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals on May 24 rejected
Frederick County’s school desegrega
tion plan. (Brown v. School Board of
Frederick County.)
The appelate court returned the plan
to the federal district court at Harris
onburg for further review. It said the
plan was “amorphous.”
The court implied that one reason
for its action was that the county’s
plan seemed to be partial to Negroes.
“Insofar as the proposed plan for
1965 suggests a geographic assignment
plan with greater rights of transfer for
Nero pupils than others are given, it
may raise novel questions as to the
application of the proscription against
minority transfers when the complain
ants (Negroes) are those to whom the
greater rights are given,” the court
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U.S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconsti
tutional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation,
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
South, Nashville, Tennessee.
Second class postage paid at Nashville, Tennessee.
OFFICERS
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John N. Popham Vice-Chairman
Reed Sarratt Executive Director
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ben F. Cameron Jr., Vice-President, Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea-
College Entrance Examination Board, body College, Nashville, Tenn.
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Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala. j ce ' Nashville, Tenn.
. | j i_i j ii j John Seigenthaler, Editor, Nashville
Alexander Heard, Chancellor, Vander- T 3 k , T
... ., kl , ... T Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn.
bilt University, Nashville, Tenn. n cL . CJ ., . ,, ,,
' # Don Shoemaker, Editor, Miami Herald,
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Schools, Atlanta, Ga. Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon
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server, Charlotte, N.C. Thomas R. Waring, Editor, The News
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MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Nashville, Tennessee 37212
said in its written opinion.
Only 120 of Frederick’s approximate
ly 5,500 school children are Negroes.
There has been some desegregation in
the county since September, 1963.
The plan rejected by the court would
have set up a system of geographical
attendance zones for elementary
schools. However, Negroes were to be
given the choice of attending the school
nearest them or the all-Negro Gibson
elementary school.
Negroes Ask Court To Order High School Opened
Counsel for Prince Edward County
Negroes asked a federal district court
to order the reopening in September
of the former all-white Farmville
High School. (Griffin v. School Board
of Prince Edward County.)
Henry L. Marsh HI said in a petition
that the high school should be opened
to relieve overcrowded conditions in
the public school system.
Farmville High School, along with all
other Prince Edward public schools,
was closed in 1959 to prevent court-
ordered desegregation.
Last September, under another fed
eral court order, the public school sys
tem began operating again, but not all
the schools were needed. All but a
handful of the white students of the
county continued attending the private
segregated school system they had
been attending since 1959. The county’s
approximately 1,600 Negroes enrolled
in the public schools.
The high school used during the
past year was the R. R. Moton High,
formerly the all-Negro school. Farm
ville High remained closed.
Increase Expected
In his petition, filed May 20 in the
federal district court for eastern Vir
ginia at Richmond, Marsh said the
number of children attending the pub
lic schools far exceeds capacity and
that attendance is expected to increase
next fall.
He said the Moton school, in a rural
area about three miles south of Farm
ville, the county seat, is not large
enough to accommodate Negro chil
dren and those white children who
might be inclined to attend a “more
favorably located high school.”
“The Farmville High School,” Marsh
said, “is the only single building pres
ently owned by the school board, the
use of which might reasonably be ex
pected to encourage white parents to
enroll their children in the public
school system.”
He also charged that the county
school board had failed to take steps
to “stimulate and encourage public
interest in racially nonsegregated pub
lic schools.”
* * *
Retiring Superintendent
Says Events Misunderstood
Thomas J. McHwaine, retiring after
nearly half a century as superintend
ent of Prince Edward County schools,
told an interviewer that the events
surrounding the beginning of the
county’s school segregation controversy
are not widely understood and have
often been misrepresented.
The Prince Edward dispute began in
1951 when Negro pupils at the old
Moton High School went on “strike.”
“The children were like a bunch of
sheep that followed what they were
told to say,” McHwaine declared in an
interview with reporter Robert Holland
of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
He said what the Negroes of the
county wanted at that time was better
schools, and not integration. The de
mand for integration, he said, was
injected into it later “by outside in
fluences” when the NAACP made de-,
segregation of schools a requisite for
filing suit on behalf of Prince Edward
Negroes. This suit became one of thd
five directly involved in the Supreme
Court’s 1954 school desegregation de
cision.
Cites “Impatience’
An often overlooked fact, according
to Mcllwaine, was that the school board
was moving to improve Negro schools
even before the lawsuit was filed.
“The situation was precipitated by
the impatience of Negroes, and we got
credit for trying to shunt them off,
which wasn’t true,” the superintendent
said.
“Because of overcrowding, we had
to put up temporary buildings (at the
Negro high school site) and they were
promptly dubbed tar paper shacks. But
they were well-equipped and were put
up with the proviso that they would
be replaced with a permanent struc
ture. Our difficulty, the thing that
caused the delay, was finding a site
for the new school. We got it finally
in 1951, and soon after, the architects’
plans were made and we were able
to report.” . ,
By the time the present Moton Hig
School was constructed, the lawsui
had been instituted.
Mcllwaine declined to make a®!
predictions as to the future course o
public education in Prince Edwaru.
Looking back on the turbulence
recent years, he said he was glad 0
be “getting it off my neck.”
★ ★ ★
In other Prince Edward develop
ments: j
• The school board asked the boar
of supervisors May 4 for $747,300 ^
additions to two schools and constr®
tion of a new one, to make po®?
the closing of two outdated __
The board’s program indicated it ^
ticipates that the country’s schools
continue to be attended largely
Negroes, with most whites contin®
to attend private schools.
• Longwood College, state-supP 0
institution in Prince Edward Co
revealed May 7 that it is offeri®? ^
faculty members paid tuition for ^
children to attend private segreg^j_
schools operated by the Pri®®5us
ward School Foundation. Dr. F r e
G. Lankford, president, said ®° s ^y S
or federal funds will be used fCe j
purpose. He said the college was t ^
to make the tuition offer i® ° r ^\ e ges
remain competitive with other c °
in Virginia and elsewhere in see
faculty members.