South Carolina One school district in Chesterfield, South Carolina, has fully desegregated; another will enroll 22 percent of its Negro students in predominantly white schools. A district in Anderson County, despite great political pressure, is planning to assign two Negro teachers to each white school and two white teachers to each Negro school. Manatee County (Florida) White students, 12,200; Negro students, 3800 Manatee County has been cited by EEOP compliance staff and by the NAACP leader in Florida as a good example of progress, although statistically it has achieved only 15 percent desegregation-580 Negro students in school with whites. Manatee's distinguishing feature is a superintendent who makes speeches locally and nationally for desegregation, relating it to improved education. The superintendent is a supporter of Title VI and beneficiary of Title IV. In fact, his district gets about $2 million a year in Federal funds for a variety of education programs. As a reward for his early progress under the guidelines, the superintendent lost three Democratic school board members in the recent election, large on the race issue, and his most recent effort to plan for further desegregation next year was rebuffed by the board. At issue: proposed closing of a Negro elementary school, Rubonia, and reassignment of the 70 students to predominantly white schools. At a meeting of the board, the plan was rejected by the Negro faculty and parents, as well as by some outspoken white citizens and the new board members. Manatee County's days as an example of progress are numbered, although it would still be worthwhile to get the superintendent on film with his views. An elected official himself, the superintendent-J. Hartley Blackburnfully expects to be defeated when he faces the voters again in about 22 months. He has been in office 22 years. The school which is the center of the current flap in Manatee is a run-down frame building in a little shanty town several miles from the bigger and better downtown schools (in Bradenton). The principal is a Negro woman who has opposed faculty desegregation in her school on the rather tenuous grounds that "We aren't good enough yet. Give us a year." The school system has 25 teachers in desegregated situations. With all its apparent drawbacks, Manatee County is worth a visit for a chance to get the superintendent on film, for his advocacy of desegregation in the face of fierce local opposition, including front-page editorials blasting all the major decisions that he has made. Some Negro guidance counselors in the Manatee school system, operating as part of a Title IV project, could talk authoritatively about what happens to Negro children going into a desegregated situation for the first time. Jonesboro, Arkansas (Craighead County) White students, 4522; Negro students, 529. Jonesboro School District has admitted two-thirds of its Negro student enrollment to formerly white schools, moving from 6 percent a year ago to about 63 percent this year. The school system has an all-Negro school, grades 1-8, which it expects to close in the coming school year to complete desegregation. Like most other school districts in this part of the country, Jonesboro is struggling over a plan to salvage the Negro school facility which apparently is a good building. The probable solution will be to turn it into a vocational school for white and Negro students, and give it a new name. Present name, Booker T. Washington. Superintendent C. H. Geis and his board chairman, James Lalley, feel they have had excellent community support for their administrative decisions. The board chairman is a young (mid-thirties) executive for a local General Electric plant, which he says is also desegregating. The school system has three teachers "across racial lines," one for each school, and apparently plans no major change in its policy regarding faculty. Jonesboro is a rather unexciting example of progress. The school district is in the Northeastern part of the State and well ahead of the State average in desegregation. The officials are willing but not eager to take part in a documentary. In the presence of his board chairman, the superintendent contributed little of interest during the interview. He provided no leads on community or faculty people who might be helpful in putting together a documentary picture. The key figure in Jonesboro is the board chairman, Lalley, who could be quite helpful with a little encouragement from a TV network or the State education agency. Searcy School District, Arkansas (White County) White students, 2,351; Negro students, 168. Searcy School District adopted a freedom of choice plan for the 1965–66 school year, ceased providing education for some 40 to 50 Negro children from neighboring districts, and proceeded to desegregate its own. What formerly served as a Negro school for all grades from 1-12 has been converted into a desegregated elementary school with more white students than Negroes. With only a small percentage of Negro students, Searcy does not consider desegregation a major problem nor has it been one. The community has quietly accepted the changes proposed by the school administration. One factor in the community support was the favorable attitude of the Searcy Daily Citizen, which has backed the school board in its decisions. The editor, Perrin Jones, is said to be progressive in his attitude toward desegregation and influential in State education policy. School Superintendent James W. Ahlf says that all actions leading to de segregation were carefully and thoroughly explained to community leaders, including the P-TA, Chamber of Commerce, and other civic organizations. Searcy is about 50 miles North of Little Rock, the biggest trade center for miles around. The school district has at least one Negro teacher in all its schools. Its only difficulty in the beginning was that it dropped half-a-dozen Negro teachers whose salaries had been paid by neighboring districts who sent their Negro children to Searcy. For this, the school district was investigated by the FBI but nothing came of it. Ahlf is aware of his vulnerability on faculty desegregation but believes the issue is dead. His district has moved from 441-B to 441 status this year. Guy Perkins School District, Arkansas (Faulkner County) White students, 167; Negro students, 117. The residents of this small rural school district voted, in effect, to desegregate. The vote came about because Superintendent I. H. Fielder proposed to close the Negro elementary school and absorb all the students in the comprehensive school system that has already desegregated at the high school level. A new wing was needed on the white elementary school. The residents voted for the increased tax knowing that the purpose was to achieve complete desegregation. The vote: 93 to 26. Superintendent Fielder has arranged for testing of all his students by a nearby college and expects to know within a few days where each stands. He is certain that the Negro children are behind white children of the same age at least two or three years and hopes to use the specific test information to gear his curriculum to the change. The superintendent is a dairyman who presides over his red-dust domain in a khaki shirt and trousers. Among the possibilities for camera coverage is a breakfast program conducted for about 60 Negro elementary students under Title I, ESEA. The superintendent says all the children in his district are from poor families. He is quite willing, in fact anxious, to participate in the proposed TV documentary. One reason: the white children and parents in his district have been the target of jibes from neighboring communities because of their progress in desegregation and he obviously would like to see the school districts that are making progress get some recognition for it. It would be difficult to find a better example of rural South than the Guy Perkins district. The superintendent is confident that his white and Negro teachers could handle themselves on national television. Okeechobee County, Florida White students, 2,100; Negro students, 300. Superintendent Carl Durrance says Okeechobee County has 41 percent of its Negro children in school with white children. The school district plans to assign white and Negro children to all its five school buildings next year, but will not achieve 100 percent desegregation. A group of grades will be assigned to each of the schools, including what is now the Negro elementary school. The Negro high school was closed last year. However, Okeechobee is considering allowing Negro children in the neighborhood of the present Negro elementary school a free choice for grades one, two, and three. Consequently some children in these grades will still be in school with students only of their own race, although white children at another grade level will be attending the same school on a desegregated basis. This dual use of what is presently the Negro elementary school will prevent 100 percent desegregation by class, and is typical of the flaws in most of the plans examined as possible "success stories." Even so, Okeechobee is ahead of other school districts in Florida on a percentage basis, has exceeded guidelines minimum requirements, and has effected some desegregation with little or no difficulty. Okeechobee is using a Title IV consultant on desegregation, from the Florida Atlantic University. It has met minimum standards on faculty desegregaton, about one teacher per school. Twenty years ago, Okeechobee was still arguing over whether to educate its Seminole children--and some from neighboring counties-but now the community has accepted the Negro students without a ruffle. |