Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—DECEMBER, 1964—PAGE 9
Arkansas
(Continued from Page 8)
n0 unced its voluntary plan last spring,
Kegro group, led by Dr. Hill, criti
cized it vigorously for allegedly ignor-
jj,g the junior-senior high students and
for other reasons.
Board President Comments
Leon Hoisted, president of the school
board, commenting on the Human Re
lations Council meeting, said the school
board had not yet even discussed the
next step in desegregation and proba
bly would not until after the first of
the year. “Right now we don’t know
what the next step will be,” he said.
•‘It may be two grades or three grades
or may include all 12.”
When the board adopted its present
plan, which covers the first two grades,
it took two things into consideration, he
said. “We wanted to comply without
having to be pushed into it but at the
same time we wanted the degree of
compliance to be satisfactory for all
our school patrons, white and Negro.”
He said the board was pleased with
the working of its plan so far. “Every
thing has gone fine. There has been no
trouble whatsoever. We wanted to see
how the city would accept integration,
*, and I think that it has been accepted
very well.” He said the board would
have this in mind when it considers
the next step.
★ ★ ★
Negroes with Whites
Increase 260 Per Cent
North Little Rock was one of 11 dis
tricts that started voluntary desegrega
tion in Arkansas this year, without any
incidents being reported, for a total of
24 of the 228 biracial districts in the
state.
In one of the new districts, Forrest
City, a single Negro boy was assigned
to a white junior high and later with
drew, leaving 23 districts which have
930 Negro students attending schools
with whites.
1 The districts and the number of Ne
groes in desegregated schools the last
two years are:
District
1964
1963
Alma
16
0
Atkins
26
0
Batesville
11
0
Bentonville
4
3
Charleston
18
18
Danville
12
0
Dardanelle
15
0
Dollarway
2
2
Fayetteville
67
56
Forrest City
0
0
Fort Smith
290
31
Cosnell
20
20
Havana
12
0
Hot Springs
13
6
Hoxie
1
1
Little Rock
213
123
Mansfield
12
14
Little Rock
8
0
01a
14
0
Pine Bluff
11
5
Pnlaski County
53
25
Bussellville
32
0
Te xarkan a
5
0
V ®n Buren
75
55
totals
930
359
Action
Gov. Faubus Wins
Another Term
p a ^fkansas voters gave Orval Eugene
term ^ s ^ xt ^ 1 consecutive two-year
tj Q 35 governor in the Nov. 3 elec-
337,489 votes for him to 254,561 for
hus • ° P Rockefeller, Republican. Fau-
of , 1S , Rest governor in the history
! tert tl3 ^ ansas earn m °re than three
school desegregation, and
bus’ ISSUes in general, dominated Fau-
1 tcr Jns Campa ^® ns for third and fourth
®ten ’ k ave had lesser roles since
Th'
i ^Pecifi ^ me ’ ne fther candidate talked
*aub C f^ y a h°ut school desegregation.
Act ^ °PP°sition to the Civil Rights
who k * s we h known. Rockefeller,
faci a ] as „ a l°ng record of interest in
fiigjj. a h’ s * also opposed the Civil
tribuf ct on grounds that it is con-
'^tion^ to centralization of the
government.
NORTH CAROLINA
84 of 171 Districts Report Desegregation;
39 Newly Desegregated for 1964-65 Term
WINSTON SALEM
C chool desegregation is a real-
^ ity in nearly half of North
Carolina’s 171 school administra
tive units, a statistical survey
made by the State Department of
Public Instruction for school
superintendents revealed Dec. 1.
The survey, the first of its kind taken
in North Carolina, revealed the follow
ing
• Of the state’s 171 school systems,
84 or 49.1 per cent have desegregated.
Of these 84 systems, 39 were desegre
gated for the first time this fall, all
but five voluntarily.
• A total of 274 schools are desegre
gated. These include 264 predominantly
white schools with Negroes attending
and 10 predominantly Negro schools
with whites attending. Most of the pre
dominantly Negro schools were origin
ally all-white, but are located in com
munities changing from white to Negro.
The 274 schools represent 12.8 per cent
of the state’s 2,135 schools.
There are 180 white children attend
ing predominantly Negro schools. These
include eight at the Bethune School in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the first school
in the state to have reverse integration,
120 at Hanes Junior High School in
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, 50 in
Greensboro and two in Fayetteville.
• One Negro teaches at a predomin
antly white school in Winston-Salem/
Forsyth. The faculty of the mixed
Hanes Junior High in that system is
biracial, including 11 white staff mem
bers and six Negroes. A total of 47
white teachers work at predominantly
Negro schools in the state.
• The number of Negroes attending
desegregated schools has increased
from 1,865 in 1963-64 to 4,918 in 1964-65.
This total is 1.41 per cent of the 349,282
Negroes enrolled in North Carolina
schools.
In past years, North Carolina school
systems have not officially kept records
on racial desegregation. Most available
information has been gathered through
newspaper stories.
This year, nearly half the school units
desegregating for the first time did not
even announce they were taking these
steps. There was no violence in any
area where racial mixing took place
in schools for the first time.
★ ★ ★
Durham Board Rules Out
Uniracial Organizations
Organizations active in local public
schols should not be permitted to prac
tice racial discrimination, the Durham
City Board of Education ruled during
a meeting Nov. 9. The school board
action came as a result of a complaint
by two Negro parents, Dr. Howard
Fitts and Dr. James H. Brewer, both
of the North Carolina College facility.
The fathers filed their complaints
against the Rob Roy Boys Division of
the N. C. Boys Foundation, which
operates in Durham schools and which
maintains a Rob Roy Bulletin Board
at various schools.
Both men claimed that their sons’
applications to Rob Roy were turned
down because “quotas were reportedly
filled.” Later, the parents said, the Rob
Roy groups still sought more members
after turning their sons down. The
parents concluded that their sons were
rejected because they were Negroes.
Lew Hannen, school superintendent,
told the board:
“We’ve had an understanding with
all these schools that race is not to
enter into it. . . .in athletics, or clubs,
or anything else. .
Open Enrollment
Durham schools are operating on
an open enrollment system permitting
Negro children to enter the schools
of their choice. This has brought about
desegregation of 14 of the city’s 25
schools with 436 Negroes attending pre
dominantly white schools. This is the
largest number in any school system
in North Carolina.
“We don’t have any right to condone
any operation in any integrated school
that tends to project segregation.”
Hannen said, “I think that’s clear in
all our minds.”
The school board said it will inves
tigate this situation and set a policy
for all groups in all schools to abide by.
North Carolina Highlights
Eighty-four of North Carolina’s
171 school administrative units are
operating at least one desegregated
school.
The Durham City Board of Educa
tion advised that organizations in city
schools will not be permitted to oper
ate on a racial basis.
All but one of the state’s 12 pre
dominantly white colleges have
Negroes enrolled.
Person County must transfer 10
Negro children to the nearest pre
dominantly white school if they so
reguest, Judge Edwin M. Stanley of
the U. S. District Court ruled.
The North Carolina Advancement
School opened on a fully biracial ba
sis with Gov. Terry Sanford as speak
er in Winston-Salem.
A Negro leader contended that it
will be unconstitutional for the state
to spend monies from a $100 million
school bond issue for segregated
schools.
Desegregation Speedup
Program Is Reported
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education is reported to have approved
at a closed meeting steps that would
bring about faster desegregation of the
school system.
First step would be to reduce the
status of three rural area union schools,
schools with grades 1-12, by lopping
off the senior high grades and the
junior high grades and assigning the
students to other schools.
Step two would be to build two
new schools in non-Negro communities
where sites may be found rather than
in the heart of all-Negro areas where
the enrollment would continue to be
Negro.
No official comment has been made
on this meeting, as reported by the
Charlotte Observer Nov. 21.
M iscellaneo us
Governor Speaks
At Inauguration
to begin in about a year, will be the
School of the Arts, also to be set up
in Winston-Salem.
Parents and friends of 82 boys en
tering the school on a six-week ex
perimental basis attended the opening
ceremonies. The school is designed to
reach pupils of junior-high-school age
with above-average potential, but be-
low-average achievement. It is design
ed to inspire the pupils to want to
achieve in school and not become po
tential high school dropouts.
The school also works with teachers,
giving them experience in working
with these children and more knowl
edge on what they can do in their home
schools.
General programs are set up on a 12-
week basis for visiting students and
teachers. They are housed and board
ed in the school plant.
The first group will be invited to
return under the full 12-week pro
gram as much as feasible with their
home school districts. They will be
joined by other students for the full
program.
Everything at the Advancement
School is operated on a fully biracial
basis. This includes not only the stu
dent body and visiting teachers but
the permanent staff of administrators
and faculty.
Hopes for Leadership
Gov. Sanford told the student body:
“I would have North Carolina to be
come the leader in education. There
are better ways of
educating our
youth. You stu
dents are chosen
to help us find
these ways. Your
help will help us.
You are not limit
ed in what you
can do here.
“This program
can become uni
versal. We seek to
be the best in ed
ucation.
“You are part of LINC, which joins
together all the forces of education and
puts to use the best of what is learned.
LINC belongs to everybody who has
something to do with schooling of our
youth. . .
“Winston-Salem should become the
center of experimental education in
America. Along with the Governors
School, the School of the Arts and
other programs, this school will repre
sent the spirit of North Carolina.”
★ ★ ★
Of Special School
Gov. Terry Sanford addressed the
opening ceremonies of the North Carol
ina Advancement School Nov. 8 in
Winston-Salem. This was the second
special school to go into operation un
der the Learning Institute of North
Carolina, referred to as LINC.
The first was the Governor’s School,
operated each summer for gifted child
ren in various areas at Salem College
in Winston-Salem. The third school,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Negro civil
rights leader, listed quality biracial
schools as one of three chief goals for
Negro progress, as he addressed the
Southern Political Science Association,
Nov. 13 at Duke University. The other
two areas were equality in job oppor
tunities and elimination of slum hous
ing.
“Negroes are tragically unemployed,”
King, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and
president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, said. “A Negro
with four years of college can expect
to earn less in a lifetime than a white
eighth-grade dropout.”
SCLC Leader Questions
Use of Bond Proceeds
North Carolina approved a $100-mil-
lion bond issue for education on elec
tion day, but the Rev. F. H. LaGarde of
Edenton, regional representative of the
Southern Christian Leadership Confer
ence, sent a telegram Nov. 12 to Gov.
Terry Sanford, warning the state not
to spend money for segregated schools.
LaGarde wired:
“In the state of North Carolina, 110
out of 171 biracial school units remain
segregated. This means that most of
the money from the $100-million bond
issue will go to segregated schools,
thus further the continuance of a dual
system of education in the public
schools of North Carolina.
“Therefore, I believe that this $100-
million state-sponsored bond issue is
unconstitutional and in direct contra
diction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
which forbids any state-supported seg
regation.
“So, I respectfully call upon you to
call into session the General Assembly
and to ask them to do the following:
“—Withold issuance of bond money to
school units that are segregated.
“—Work out a realistic plan for a
unified system of public school educa
tion in the state of North Carolina in
cluding children and personnel which
would be educationally realistic, eco
nomically sound, legally constitutional
and morally right.”
Legal Action
Court Tells Board
To Allow Transfers
Judge Edwin M. Stanley of the U. S.
Middle District Court in Greensboro
ordered Nov. 19 that the Person County
Board of Education transfer 10 Negro
“to the nearest school attended pre
dominantly by children of another race,
beginning with the second semester of
the 1964-65 school year.”
The action was taken in connection
with Clayton v. Person County Board
of Education, filed Oct. 5, 1964, by par
ents of 10 Negro children (SSN, No
vember) . The children must make
requests for transfer according to
standard procedure by Dec. 20, ac
cording to the ruling.
On Nov. 25, the Person County school
board filed its answer to the suit. The
board claimed that Negroes are not
forced to attend all-Negro schools, and
that it has granted every request by
a Negro to attend a white school. (Cur
rently 29 Negroes are attending two
predominantly white schools in the
county.)
The school board noted, however,
that its schools are racial because child
ren are assigned to schools by district
with separate attendance zones for the
two races. Some of these zones, the
hoard admitted, do overlap.
The court is expected to decide on
overlapping school zones and the as
signment of Negroes to predominantly
white schools only on request.
In the Colleges
Negroes in 11 of 12 White Colleges
Three community colleges were up
graded to four-year colleges for the
1964-65 school year, and 11 of the
state’s 12 predominantly white colleges
have enrolled Negro students this year
in North Carolina. The official state
policy is to operate with no racial bar
riers.
Only the former all-Indian Pembroke
College has no Negroes, but it has en
rolled Negro students in the past.
The three branches of the University
of North Carolina have enrollments of
109 Negroes in Greensboro, 82 in
Chapel Hill and 60 at N. C. State in
Raleigh. Dormitory segregation at UNC
in Chapel Hill was ruled out as a school
policy when school officials learned
that such a rule was on the books.
Applachian State College has enrolled
70 Negro students. East Carolina, where
opposition was expected to be strongest,
has enrolled 45 with nothing said.
Western Carolina has six students en
rolled, including two freshmen, one a
starter on its varsity basketball team.
Other four-year college enrollments
of Negroes are six at Asheville-
Biltmore, six at Charlotte and 20 at
Wilmington, all new schools.
The junior college enrollment in
cludes 49 at Gaston, 21 at the College
of Albemarle and 15 at Central Pied
mont.
Less Than One Per Cent
In spite of the widespread desegrega
tion, only 0.96 per cent of the senior
college enrollment is Negro, 404 stu
dents among 41,848. Negroes represent
7.6 per cent of the junior college en
rollment, 85 of 1,117.
On the whole, Negro students com
prise 1.1 per cent of the total enroll
ment of senior and junior colleges,
489 of 42,965 students.
Negro students comprise a much
larger percentage of the industrial ed
ucation centers of the state, although
exact figures are not available. These
are set up on a post-school basis but
are not considered college-oriented.
Enrollment at the five state-operated
Negro colleges total 9,136 with only a
scattering of white students. Most white
students who enroll in Negro colleges
usually remain not more than a year.
The Agricultural and Technical College
in Greensboro is the only one that has
awarded a degree to a white student,
and this was at the graduate level. No
Negro college under state supervision
has awarded an undergraduate degree
to a white student.
