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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 Alexander Heard Chairman John N. Popham Vice-Chairman Reed Sarratt Executive Director Tom Flake, Director of Publications Jim Leeson, Director of Information and Research BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ben F. Cameron Jr., Vice-President, Felix C. Robb, President, George Pea- College Entrance Examination Board, body College, Nashville, Tenn. Sewanee, Tenn. Reed Sarratt, Executive Director, Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee Southern Education Reporting Serv- 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, John W. Letson, Superintendent of Miami Fla. Schools, Atlanta, Ga. Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob- Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga. server, Charlotte, N.C. Thomas R. Waring, Editor, The News Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash- and Courier, Charleston, S.C. ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn. Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of John N. Popham, Managing Editor, Schools, Richmond, Va. Chattanoooga Times, Chattanooga, Stephen J. Wright, President, Fisk Uni- Tenn. versity, Nashville, Tenn. CORRESPONDENTS ALABAMA NORTH CAROLINA William H. McDonald, Chief Editor- Luix Overbea, Staff Writer, The ial Writer, Alabama Journal, Mont- Journal-Sentinel, Winston-Salem gomery SOUTH CAROLINA ARKANSAS William E. Rone Jr., City Editor, William T. Shelton, Day Managing The State, Columbia Editor, Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock TENNESSEE FLORiDA . - . Ken Morrell, Staff Writer, Nashville Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami l, u Banner Herald tcyac GEORGIA itAAb Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Macon Ric n hard M - Morehead, Chief, Austin N ews Bureau, Dallas News LOUISIANA VIRGINIA Patrick E. McCauley, Editorial Overton Jones, Associate Editor, Writer, New Orleans Times-Picayune Richmond Times-Dispatch MISSISSIPPI NATIONAL AFFAIRS William Peart, Staff Writer, Jackson Erwin Knoll, Washington Bureau, Daily News Newhouse Newspapers SUBSCRIPTION RATES One year (12 issues), $2, with subscription periods remaining after June, 1965, extended to the successor publication, Southern Education Report. Subscribers have the option of requesting a pro-rata refund. Groups: five or more copies to different addressees, $1.75 each per year; five or more copies to one addressee, $1.50 each per year. Subscription periods re maining after June, 1965, will be extended to the successor publication, Southern Education Report. Subscribers have the option of requesting a pro-rata refund. Add 50 cents to above rates for orders outside U.S. Single copies, any issue, 20 cents each. Ten or more copies, any one issue, 15 cents each. 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.