Situation as of 1954. School officials will give no information. • Total enrollment for school district. Public Colleges-Negroes may attend all 8 state colleges at graduate and undergraduate levels. Estimated Negro enrollment in previously allwhite colleges, 33. Private Colleges-Philander Smith, Negro, has had white students. No integration in any other private college. Official State Attitude Pro-segregation. Petitions Filed-15 Little Rock, Pulaski County Special (rural), New- Court Actions Banks v. Izzard (District court ordered "prompt Hoxie School District v. Brewer (District court Kay Wilbern v. Little Rock School Board, sought transfer of white student from desegregated school. Mandamus denied. State of Arkansas v. NAACP, sought to collect $50 per year corporation franchise tax for sevenyear period of operation of organization in state. State of Arkansas v. NAACP Legal Aid and Education Fund Inc., sought $5,000 penalty for organization's failure to register with State Sovereignty Commission. 40361 0-59-pt. 3-2 Roland Smith et al v. Orval Faubus et al and State Sovereignty Commission, filed by NAACP attacking validity of 1957 legislation establishing commission and requiring registration. Ex parte suit filed by W. F. Rector in Pulaski County Chancery Court seeks to determine validity of four 1957 segregation laws. Aaron v. Cooper, federal courts approved Little Jackson v. Kuhn. 8th Circuit Court asked to Pro-segregation Groups White America (dissolved as state organization but local chapters still function independently and are affiliated with Association of Citizens Councils of Arkansas). Association of Citizens Councils of Arkansas, which embraces local chapters of White America and White Citizens Councils. Citizens Committee Representing Segregation in the Hoxie Schools, Mothers League of Little Rock. Educational Fund of the Capital Citizens Council, Christian Alliance, Little Rock. Pro-integration Groups Arkansas Council on Human Relations NAACP Greater Little Rock Improvement League Legislative Action Adopted in November, 1956, by referendum: 1) Initiated act empowering local school boards to assign pupils for reasons other than race. 2) Constitutional amendment declaring U. S. Supreme Court decisions null and void. 3) Resolution declaring state policy of interposition; other states asked to join. Four bills designed to preserve segregation adopted February, 1957, signed by Governor: 1) Creates a state sovereignty commission with broad powers to investigate matters involving segregation. 2) Requires organizations taking action in segregation matters to register with the commission. 3) Removes the requirement, if schools become integrated, that children attend school. 4) Authorizes school districts to hire legal counsel with school funds to defend them in integration suits. Sixteen bills were adopted by the special legislative session of August 1958. Fifteen of the bills were signed into law Sept. 12 to: 1) Shut down schools faced with integration and provide an election within 30 days to determine whether voters want them to stay closed or reopened on a desegregated basis. 2) Withhold state funds from integrated schools and turn over the money to either private or public schools which the students elect to attend. 3) Permit students to transfer to another school of their own race. 4) Assert that no student shall be denied the right to enroll or receive instruction because he refuses to attend integrated classes. This was interpreted to mean that classes could be segregated within an integrated school building. 5) Appropriate $100,000 for the governor to meet expenses connected with the bills. This includes $6,250 for a special assistant to the governor and $75,000 for the cost of holding school district elections. 6) Require a loyalty oath of school teachers and officials which would have them spell out the organizations to which they belong. 7) Provide certain changes in the school taxes which would give some assistance to school districts. 8) Allow recall of school board members if 15 per cent of a district's voters petition for a recall election. 9) Withdraw the power of certain types of organizations to act as attorneys for individuals. 10) Prohibit unauthorized persons from entering school premises. 11) Require organizations aiming to interfere with state control of public schools to submit a list of members and other information to county clerks. 12) Make easier the legal processes required for search of the records of organizations by the attorney general's office. 13) Strengthen the state's anti-barratry laws-making it illegal to solicit lawsuits or to cause acts of violence directed specifically toward causing a lawsuit. 14) Appropriate $19,200 for the attorney general's office for additional financial aid in integration suits. 15) Prevent any organization other than legal aid societies from representing a client in a lawsuit without cost to the individual. Arkansas Arkansas Data in the table above is for the 1956-57 school year. While such a detailed breakdown is not available yet for the current year, initial reports indicate no new districts desegregated, but an increase to 4,497 in the number of Negro students actually in mixed classes. In 1958 Hockessin and Alexis I. DuPont school districts were consolidated, reducing the number of mixed districts to 12. Five all-white school districts in New Castle County have announced they will accept students without regard to race. They are Oak Grove No. 130, 1,510 pupils; Richardson Park No. 20, 993; Yorklyn No. 291, 90; Stanton No. 38, 690; and Mount Pleasant Special School District, 3,267. Colleges The University of Delaware, only formerly all-white tax supported college in the state, has been accepting students for several years without regard to race. Official State Attitude Pro-integration at state level; varied but generally leaning toward desegregation at local level, except in South Delaware. Court Actions In eight cases (Civil Actions 1816-1822) filed May 2, 1956 on behalf of 58 Negro children, federal district court in August, 1957 enjoined practice of segregation and ordered State Board of Education to devise plan for desegregating all schools in the state. Review denied by U.S. Supreme Court. Dennis et al v. Baker et al, seeks to speed and broaden desegregation already begun in Dover. Pro-segregation Groups Christian Americans Segregation Association, Inc., We, the People, Charles E. Boyce, Seaford NAACP Legislative Action None directly. But 1957 legislature adopted laws regulating transfer of pupils akin to pupil assignment laws. (This is maximum. Figure arrived at by mathematical formula that includes among other things total minimum foundation grants, supplements by counties, etc. State assumes rate same for whites and Negroes under minimum foundation law. Practically, may be some differences.) Status of Desegregation Public Schools-None. Public Colleges University of Florida Law School in 1958 accepted a Negro under court order. Private Colleges-Barry College, a Catholic school in Miami, reportedly accepts students without regard to race. Official State Attitude Moderate to strong pro-segregation. Gov. LeRoy Collins, renominated in 1956 as a "moderate" over strong segregationist, sees desegregation as "inevitable." Petitions Filed Most school boards have received petitions as matter of record, but have taken no action on them. Court Actions Hawkins v. Board of Control. First filed in state courts in 1949, case went to U.S. Supreme Court on three occasions. Filed in federal district court in 1957, case resulted in decision that led to desegregation of graduate and professional schools in fall 1958. Gibson et al v. Dade County Board of Public Instruction. Filed first in July 1956, refiled in October 1956, seeks school desegregation. Holland v. Board of Public Instruction of Palm Beach County attacks pupil assignment law. Florida v. Special School Tax District No. 1 of Dade County, to determine validity of school bonds. District and supreme courts held them valid. Board of Public Instruction, Manatee County v. State, testing validity of school bonds, Court held them valid. Pruitt v. Mizell, libel suit growing out of legislative session, ended in $15,000 judgment for plaintiff. Pro-segregation Groups Federation for Constitutional Government Florida States' Rights Council Dade County States' Rights Council Dade County Property Owners Association National Federation for the Protection of White People and Fair Treatment of Negroes Pro-integration Groups Human Relations Council Legislative Action In May, 1955, legislature adopted measure giving county boards of education authority "to provide for enrollment of each child residing in each county who is qualified under laws of this state for admission to a public school and who applies for enrollment in or admission to a public school in such county." Designed to preserve segregation, the bill also provides for study groups, employment of special counsel by local boards and fixes responsibility at the local level. It permits assignment of students to the school "to which he is best suited" and makes the local board's decision "complete and final.” In July 1956 legislature adopted a five-point prosegregation program at instance of Gov. Collins and Atty. Gen. Richard M. Ervin, as follows: 1) Permitting county school boards to assign pupils on basis of intellectual ability, scholastic achievement and sociological and psychological factors. 2) Permitting dismissal of teachers with tenure on a basis of sociological and psychological factors. 3) Giving governor extraordinary powers for five years to "cope with emergencies threatening the peace and tranquility of the state." 4) Resolution condemning U. S. Supreme Court "for usurping the sovereign rights of the states" and asking Congress to offer a clarifying amendment to the Constitution. 5) Setting up an interim committee of three senators and four representatives to investigate activities of pro- and anti-segregation organizations. Over governor's protest a resolution of interposition was adopted early in the 1957 session. At a special session in October, 1957, legislature adopted law permitting closing of schools in any district where federal troops are ordered to enforce integration. |