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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE, 1965—PAGE 7
ARKANSAS
41 More Districts Make Known Compliance
(Continued from Page 6)
cial part of a freedom of choice plan,
that actual desegregation in substantial
amounts must occur under it.
Little Rock Requests
At Little Rock, 150 ninth-grade Ne
gro students and 69 sixth-graders re
quested assignment to white or deseg
regated senior and junior high schools
next fall. This does not include Negro
students already in desegregated
schools, nor does it include requests by
pupils who will enter the first grade
in September.
At North Little Rock, 107 Negro stu
dents chose white or desegregated
schools, a disappointing number to the
North Little Rock Council on Human
Relations which had hoped for at least
400. This does not include those who
will enter the first grade in the fall.
At Hampton, Supt. George McDaniel
said 22 students had requested trans
fers from the Negro school to the white
school. The district has 374 white and
205 Negro pupils.
At Wynne, 16 Negro pupils requested
white schools. The district has 1,856
white and 875 Negro pupils.
At Dumas, 36 Negro children enrolled
in the white elementary school and 21
in the white junior-senior high school.
The Dumas school enumeration is 868
white and 1,265 Negro.
At Watson, 21 Negroes chose the
white schools. The district’s enumera
tion is 274 white and 255 Negro.
In Desha Central, 19 Negroes en
rolled in the white school. The enumer
ation is 270 white and 354 Negro.
In the Desha-Drew District at Tillar,
25 Negro students chose white schools.
The enumeration is 187 to 390 Negro.
At McGehee, 24 of the 549 children
now enrolled in the Negro school chose
to attend the white school next fall.
I The district has 922 white students.
Negro parents at Scott, in the Pulaski
County District, met on May 2 and
voted to request that their children be
admitted to the white schools in Sep
tember. There are two Negro schools
at Scott. The Negroes also voted to ask
the PTAs of the white schools at Scott
to meet with them and discuss this
situation, but the white PTAs declined.
Intentions Made Known
. At least 41 more districts let their
intentions to comply with the Civil
Rights Act be known during May.
There are probably many others either
working on plans or waiting for ap
proval of their plans in Washington for
it is known that in the past many dis
tricts have avoided publicity during
these stages.
LEPANTO—Lepanto will desegregate
the top six grades this year. It has 37
Negro pupils in those grades. Freedom
of choice will apply starting in 1966-67
to the fifth and sixth grades, and then
to the four lower grades in 1967-68.
The district has 1.200 white and 116 Ne
gro pupils.
KENSETT—Supt. Aubrey Solomon
said that grades 9 through 12 will be
completely desegregated this fall. Free
dom of choice will apply to the lower
eight grades. Kensett has 450 white and
j 120 Negro pupils.
PLUM BAYOU-TUCKER in Jeffer
son County—All 12 grades will be de
segregated in September under freedom
of choice. Thereafter freedom of choice
will apply in the first and seventh
grades. The district has 109 white and
| 233 Negro students.
HERMITAGE—Using freedom of
choice, Hermitage will open the first
three grades this year, three more
grades next year and the top six grades
in 1967-68. It has 444 white and 474
Negro students.
HOT SPRINGS—The desegregation
plan now covering the first four grades
will be extended to grades five and six
in the fall.
PALESTINE—All 12 grades will be
desegregated under freedom of choice
this year. The district has 314 whites
and 283 Negroes.
HAMBURG—Using freedom of
choice, Hamburg will open grades one,
two, three and 12 this year, grades four,
five, six and 11 the following year and
grades seven, eight, nine and 10 in
1967-68. Supt. S. P. Portis said buses
’ 3nd faculty meetings would be deseg
regated also. The district has 984 whites
and 398 Negroes.
Harrisburg, weiner and
| CHERRY VALLEY—Beginning in Sep
tember, these districts will not have
Negro schools any more but all students
will attend the formerly white schools.
I Cherry Valley has 310 white and 48
Negro students, Harrisburg 1317 and
34 and Weiner 622 and 42.
TRUMANN—Grades one, eight, nine,
| 19, 11 and 12 will be completely deseg
regated in September. The rest of the
grades will be covered in the following
two years. Trumann has 1,967 white and
96 Negro pupils.
MORRILTON—Under freedom of
choice, the top six grades will be de
segregated this year and the bottom six
grades next year.
DE QUEEN—The school board voted
May 3 to comply but has not drawn up
a plan. The district has 63 Negro chil
dren in the elementary grades and 25
in grades nine through 12 who attend
high school in Sevier County District
with De Queen paying tuition. De
Queen has about 1,000 white students.
SEAttCY—The top three grades will
be completely desegregated this year.
Freedom of choice will apply to the
lower nine grades starting next year.
Searcy has 2,374 white and 165 Negro
students.
GRANT COUNTY—All five school
districts have agreed to comply but
two of them, Sheridan and Poyen, have
no Negro students. Leola, with 125
white and 13 Negro students, will de
segregate completely in September.
Prattsville, with 129 white and 68 Ne
gro students will desegregate four
grades at a time starting this year and
starting from the top, Grapevine, which
has 129 white and 68 Negro students,
has not announced its plan.
CONWAY—It will use freedom of
choice in the top three grades this year,
the next three grades next year and
m all 12 grades in 1967-68. By the third
year, the top six grades of the Pine
Street School for Negroes will be
closed. Conway has 2,867 white and 607
Negro pupils.
BAY—It will desegregate completely
this year. The district has 1,180 white
and 20 Negro students.
BLEVINS—Freedom of choice will
apply to all 12 grades this year. The
district has 257 white and 309 Negro
pupils.
JEFFERSON COUNTY—Sherrill, Al-
theimer and Watson Chapel chose
freedom-of-choice plans. Sherrill, 166
white and 433 Negro, will open all 12
grades this year but thereafter only
entering first-graders would have a
choice. Altheimer, 302 white and 991
Negro, will open all 12 grades this year,
thereafter only grades one and seven.
Watson Chapel, 1,812 white and 1,465
Negro, will apply freedom of choice
this year to grades one through seven
and 12, to grades eight and 11 in 1966
and to grades nine and 10 in 1967.
LEE COUNTY—Haynes, Moro and
Brickeys announced freedom-of-choice
plans. Moro, 314 white and 435 Negroes,
will desegregate four grades at a time
starting from the bottom this year.
Brickeys, 143 white and 536 Negro, is
waiting for Washington approval be
fore announcing its plan. Haynes, 71
white and 318 Negro, will desegregate
grades one through four this year, five
next year and six in 1967. Above the
sixth grade, Haynes students attend
Forrest City schools and this will be
continued, according to Foster Norton,
the Haynes principal.
LAKE VILLAGE—Freedom of choice
will apply to the first two grades this
year, to the next four grades next year
and to all grades in 1967. The district
has 948 white and 1,115 Negro stu
dents.
OZARK—The Negro school, Carver,
will be abandoned in the fall and all
children will attend the white schools.
Ozark has nine Negro pupils and 1,239
whites. This will be Ozark’s third at
tempt to desegregate. The admission of
Negro students to the Ozark High
School in 1957 and 1958 failed when
the Negroes withdrew because of har-
rassment.
WABBASEKA—Freedom of choice
will apply this year to grades one,
seven, 10 and 12, to grades two, three,
six, eight and 11 in 1966 and to all
grades in 1967. The district, which has
159 white and 634 Negro pupils, has two
schools for Negroes and one for whites.
LINWOOD—Linwood, 141 white and
460 Negro, will use the freedom-of-
choice system this year in grades one,
seven, eight and nine and will cover
all 12 grades by 1967.
EMERSON—Emerson published a
legal notice in the Magnolia Banner
News announcing that freedom of choice
would apply this year to the first
grade. The district has 269 white and
444 Negro pupils.
MARKED TREE—It will apply free
dom of choice to three grades a year,
starting this year and starting at the
bottom. The district has 1411 white
and 467 Negro pupils.
STUTTGART—The board announced
its plan May 27. It applies freedom of
choice to the first four grades this year,
the next four grades in 1966 and the
top four grades in 1967. The board
pointed out that it is considering build
ing a new high school and that the
present white high-school building is
not large enough to accommodate de
segregation. It also promised desegre
gation of buses and faculty. The choice
plan this year will apply to the first
focr grades in three attendance zones
covering the district
BRYANT—Supt. Joe Lyman an
nounced May 27 that all 12 grades
would be desegregated in September.
Until now, the district’s 25 Negro stu
dents were sent to Pulaski County
(rural) School District schools on a
tuition basis. The district has 1,416
white students.
HORATIO—The school board voted
May 26 to desegregate all 12 grades in
September. The enrollment this year is
400 white and 25 Negro, but the Negro
students were sent to the Sevier County
District school at Lockesburg with Ho
ratio paying their tuition.
MISSISSIPPI COUNTY — Osceola,
Luxora, Shawnee and Wilson Districts
all published legal notices of their in
tentions in the Osceola Times of May
27. Osceola, Shawnee and Wilson said
that entering first-grade pupils could
register at any school of their choice.
Luxora extended the preference privi
lege to the first two grades. Their 1964
school enumerations were: Osceola, 2,-
040 white and 1,412 Negro; Luxora, 598
white and 428 Negro; Shawnee, 490
white and 679 Negro; Wilson, 657 white
and 644 Negro.
★ ★ ★
Effects on Negro Teachers’
Jobs Beginning to Appear
If the Arkansas districts put into ef
fect the desegregation plans they have
announced, numerous Negro classes
and some Negro schools will disap
pear within one to three years. Appar
ently the effect of this is not yet being
felt.
T. E. Patterson of Little Rock, ex
ecutive secretary of the Arkansas
Teachers Association (Negro), said May
26 that he knew of only two places
so far where Negro teachers were los
ing their jobs.
At Monticello, four Negro teachers
have been asked to resign, but Patter
son said he has advised them not to
do so while an effort is made to re
solve the situation in some other way.
At Searcy, the contracts of six Negro
teachers were not renewed for 1965-66,
Patterson said. They were teaching in a
school which was educating 141 Negro
students this year from five other dis
tricts, but next September all the dis-
trits will keep their Negro students,
Patterson said.
★ ★ ★
Organizations Turn
Again to Prospect
Of Eventual Merger
The Arkansas Education Associa
tion (mostly white) and the Arkansas
Teachers Association (Negro) have
again changed courses, this time back
toward merger, eventually. They ap
pointed a joint committee two years ago
to work toward merger but the joint
committee decided not to work on
merger but to work on mutual educa
tional problems. (SSN, February.)
The new policy position was an
nounced May 3 by Forrest Rozzell, ex
ecutive secretary of the AEA, at a
meeting of the Arkansas PTA Congress
at Little Rock. It was established in
policy statements adopted the previous
month by the joint committee and by
the AEA board, he said.
The joint committee in its statement
said its ultimate objective was “a single,
all-inclusive state professional associa
tion and affiliated locals, in which all
members of the education profession,
regardless of race, creed or area of edu
cational responsibility, are actively in
volved in co-operative efforts.”
It listed some immediate goals, de
claring that problems unique to the
members of the ATA must be “frankly
and courageously” dealt with. It said
compliance with the Civil Rights Act
will be encouraged in ways to serve
the eduational needs of all children
and to protect the personal and pro
fessional rights of all teachers. The
statement called for encouragement for
the use of new programs to eliminate
salary differences between white and
Negro teachers and to provide com
pensatory training for all culturally
and economically deprived children.
Rozzell read a policy statement
adopted April 28 by the AEA Board
that expanded on the provision in the
AEA constitution regarding member
ship, which did not by itself bar Ne
groes. It said Negro teachers were wel
come as members—it already has a
few—but that no campaign for Negro
Both Sides Agree In University Suit
A judgment agreed to by both sides,
declaring discrimination unlawful in
any of the operations of the University
of Arkansas, was issued May 6 by
Federal Judge J. Smith Henley.
The trial of the lawsuit (Whitfield
v. Raney) had been scheduled for that
day. Instead the attorneys for the plain
tiffs, Harold B. Anderson of Little Rock
and John Walker of New York and
Little Rock, approached Judge Henley
and the attorney for the university,
Griffin Smith of Little Rock, the day
before about writing a judgment. In
conference they all agreed.
The document is a judgment, not an
injunction. “This is softer than an in
junction,” Anderson said. “The plain
tiffs would be entitled to an injunction
if the university should violate any
terms of the judgment but we have
every good reason to believe that the
university will abide by the agreement
in all good faith.”
Smith said the judgment covered
generally what the university would
have to do to abide by the 1964 Civil
Rights Act and that the University
recognized that. There was no indica
tion that the university was going to
violate the Civil Rights Act in any way,
Smith said. “The judgment leaves the
university a measure of discretion on
how it goes about complying with the
clearly enunciated law. It doesn’t hold
a club over the university’s head be
cause there was no indication that the
university had any intention except to
comply with the law,” Smith said.
Dr. David W. Mullins, president of
the university, said the university would
abide by the order and would comply
in good faith.
Points Covered
The points covered in the judgment:
“It is, therefore, with the consent of
all parties, considered, ordered, ad
judged, and decreed:
“1. That it is unlawful for the Uni
versity of Arkansas to discriminate in
the award of scholarships or the ac
ceptance of applications therefor on the
basis of race or color.
“2. That it is unlawful for the Uni
versity of Arkansas to discriminate in
the acceptance and recruitment of ath
letes or students on the basis of race
or color.
“3. That it is unlawful for the Uni
versity of Arkansas to discriminate in
the acceptance of any student for resi
dence in University dormitories on the
basis of race or color.
“4. That it is unlawful for the Uni
versity to continue to make any other
distinctions in the operation of the
institution which are based solely on
race or color.”
Two Students Complained
This is the result of a complaint by
two Negro students, Robert Whitfield
of Little Rock and Miss Joanna Ed
wards of Pine Bluff, who entered the
University in September, 1964, and were
refused accommodations in university
dormitories. They sued over that but
included in their complaint also a wide
range of requests, asking the court to
end discrimination in the recruiting of
students and athletes, faculty, the as
signment of teachers, etc.
Although only scholarships, athletes
and housing were mentioned by name
in the judgment, Anderson said the
plaintiffs considered that the fourth
point covered all others and that if any
discrimination occurred, relief could
be obtained under it.
The university has been desegregated
as far as accepting students for classes
since 1948. This judgment makes it the
eighth and last member of the South
west Athletic Conference to adopt a
policy of desegregation in athletics.
Intentions
teachers as members would be made as
long as the joint committee was still
working. It said any active member
could run for any office, that appoint
ments would be made on the basis of
professional qualifications only, and
that AEA staff employes would be se
lected on the basis of competence
without regard to race or creed.
★ ★ ★
School Construction
Affected by New Law
The Civil Rights Act applies to
school construction paid for wholly or
partly with federal money, the state
education department was informed
May 19 by Michael Russo of the De
partment of Health Education and Wel
fare, who spent the day in Little Rock
explaining the matter to state officials.
It prohibits racial discrimination by
the contractor in hiring workers for the
school construction, he said. For the first
offense, $25 per employe will be de
ducted from the federal aid available
to the contractor; for a second offense,
the contract would be cancelled and the
contractor would forfeit the rest of the
money due him under the contract.
Russo furnished an 11-page model
contract, approved by HEW attorneys
in Washington. J. Marion Adams, as
sistant state education commissioner,
said “Sure, we’re going to use the sug
gested contract” and reminded that the
state board of education has signed a
statement of compliance with the Civil
Rights Act and is pledged to follow the
law.
★ ★ ★
Keppel Says States May
Be Required to Halt Funds
In reply to a question from the state
legislature as to whether the state
could be required to withhold state
funds from a local school district for
failure to comply with the 1964 Civil
Rights Act, U. S. Commissioner of Ed
ucation Francis Keppel said on May 6
that the answer was yes.
State Rep. Jack Oakes of Woodruff
County asked that question and two
others in a resolution adopted by the
Arkansas legislature earlier this year.
State Education Commissioner A. W.
Ford wrote to Keppel. Keppel’s letter
of reply was made public May 10.
This restriction applies to what are
known as “continuing federally-assisted
programs,” such as vocational agricul
ture, home economics, Smith-Hughes
Act programs, vocational training, dis
tributive education, trade school pro
grams and those under the National
Defense Education Act, in which statq
and federal money is intermingled. For
these programs the Arkansas allotment
of federal money this year is $5,227,689,
to which $1,088,946 is added in state
money. (This has no effect on the
normal state aid to local school districts
which is now running at about $60
million a year).
Ford commented that the answer he
got from Keppel was a continuation of
the tough line being taken by the U.S.
Office of Education.
Later that day, Gov. Orval E. Faubus
said this was an example of the kind
of thing the Southern governors met
May 9 at Atlanta to talk about. (See
Georgia report.) Faubus attended that
meeting and one May 18 at Washing
ton when the governors met with their
congressional delegations. He was hope
ful that the pressure by the Office of
Education would be eased. The atti
tude, he said, is “Let’s implement the
law but let’s do it with reasonableness
and logic to eliminate possible blow
ups.”
★ ★ ★
The Pulaski County (rural) School
Board decided May 11 to delay con
sideration of whether to close two
small old Negro elementary schools at
Mt. Zion and Alexander. The closing
has been recommended by the U. S.
Office of Education and by Supt. E. F.
Dunn.
The board refused to close them at its
April meeting but afterward Dunn said
he had talked to the members indi
vidually and thought the consensus
now was to close them. Instead, the
board voted to wait to see if the gov
ernment approves its freedom-of-choice
plan for another year.
(See LITTLE ROCK, Page 8)