It's Not Over in the South

    It's Not Over 
In the South 

School Desegregation 
In Forty-three Southern Cities 

Eighteen Years After Brown 

A Report by 
The Alabama Council on Human Relations 

American Friends Service Committee 
Delta Ministry of the National Council of Churches 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

Southern Regional Council 
Washington Research Project 



Acknowledgements 

The organizations preparing this report wish to recognize the contribution of the 
Southern Education Foundation for financial assistance with publication costs. 
We wish also to thank the National Urban Coalition for providing financial and 
staff support toward this and other efforts of the organizations involved. 

~l 



It's Not Over 
In the South 

School Desegregation 
In Forty-three Southern Cities 

Eighteen Years After Brown 

A Report by 
The Alabama Council on Human Relations 

American Friends Service Committee 
Delta Ministry of the National Council of Churches 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

Southern Regional Council 
Washington Research Project 

May, 1972 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Foreword 

Terms . 

Statistical and Legal Profile Charts 

Major Findings and Recommendations 

Leadership Can Make a Difference . . 

i 

iv 

ix 

1 

10 

Districts that Green, Alexander and Swann Forgot . . . . 30 

Obsolete and Inadequate Desegregation Plans . . . . . . . 44 

The Students Involved 

Black Teachers and Administrators 

Transportation 

Second Generation Problems 

. .. . ..... 66 

......... 84 

103 

. 108 



FOREWORD 

Much of the focus of desegregation efforts of the past decade has been on small 
rural districts of the South where resistance to desegregation has often been the 
most determined and violent. But these districts, relatively easy to desegregate in 
the structural sense and subject to consistent legal and administrative pressures, as 
well as to national publicity, were often the first to abandon the formal trappings 
of racially separate schools. 

In the last two years attention has shifted to the urban school systems-not of 
the South but of the nation. In these, the complexities of size, geography, trans­
portation and hypocrisy have made school desegregation an issue which has 
demonstrated that resistance, legal rationalizations, and violence are not peculiar 
to any one region of our country. With only a few exceptions, however, the urban 
school systems of the South have been forgotten, as the national hysteria has 
escalated and the federal government has switched sides in the struggle for equal 
educational opportunity. 

With this in mind six private organizations with a long history of activity in 
the Southern school desegregation movement initiated a project to monitor the 
desegregation progress of 43 school districts in the urban South . This report is the 
result of that project. The organizations involved in its preparation were the Ala­
bama Council on Human Relations, the American Friends Service Committee, the 
Delta Ministry of the National Council of Churches, the NAACP Legal Defense 
and Educational Fund, Inc., the Southern Regional Council and the Washington 
Research Project. 

The purpose of the project was to determine: 

1. The extent of the presence of de jure segregation in school districts of the 
urban South. 



2. The role of the federal government in eliminating de jure segregation 10 

these districts. 

3. The nature and scope of any new problems resulting from lingering vestiges 
of de jure segregation. 

4. The progress being made in moving toward equal education and true inte­
gration in the post-desegregation unitary school systems. 

Forty-three districts representing school systems across the region were selected. 
The districts were selected in order to get a sampling of school systems with various 
student enrollments, with varying percentages of minority students, using different 
desegregation plans, operating under both voluntary and court order plans, involv­
ing plaintiffs represented by government and private attorneys, and which were 
most likely to have taken some new desegregation initiatives in light of the Swann 
v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education decision of April 20, 1971. 

During January and early February of this year our monitors went into these 
school districts to conduct an intensive survey. In most of the systems, the monitors 
interviewed superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teachers. The 
superintendent in Macon, Georgia, refused to cooperate, and attorneys for the 
Chattanooga, Tennessee, system advised school officials not to cooperate since the 
district was involved in desegregation litigation. We made an effort to monitor 
Macon anyway, but we did not monitor Chattanooga. In all other districts, school 
officials were given an opportunity to provide accurate information to the monitors 
as well as share with them their opinions and observations. 

Our monitors also talked with students, parents, and other citizens. Every effort 
was made to validate reports and observations from the community. But the 
organizations involved in this report did not have the personnel, time or other 
resources to make a detailed investigation of all the facts behind each example or 
incident cited. Facts or situations reported herein may have changed since recorded 
by our monitors or there may be some additional information which would put 
them in a different light. We believe, however, that on balance this report repre­
sents an accurate assessment of desegregation in these districts of the urban South. 
Our monitors also used confidential sources in government and school systems. 

We have not attempted to categorize districts as "good" or "bad" because we 
found problems in even the best systems and signs of hope in the worst. For 
example, while many of the districts did not meet our judgment of what constitutes 
an adequately desegregated school system, some such systems are offering good 
educational programs which serve black students. We found some districts that are 
meeting change and grappling with it as effectively as their capacities and the 
burden of the past will allow. Others are quietly yielding to change, knowing they 
can never return to the simplicity of the past but hoping that somehow they will 
be delivered from the confusion of the present. Still others are standing still, not 
really convinced that their condition has changed at all. 

ii 



In any case, the crude recalcitrance of the past seems to be waning. Complex 
issues, showing evidence of apparent sincere and even effective attempts to meet 
the educational needs of all students, and, at the same time, showing evidence of 
continuing injustices, do not make for easy judgments. We have, therefore, been 
reluctant to quickly praise or condemn in this report. But from our experience 
and what we learned, we have made some recommendations. 

To identify school districts for our readers we have referred to their principal 
cities throughout the report rather than giving the formal names of the districts. 
Readers should keep in mind that some districts include only those students within 
the city limits of an urban area, while others include the city plus all or part of 
the surrounding county. In some districts only part of the city is included in the 
district. ALI school districts in Florida are county-wide. The following districts 
are those which have the more formal names (all others in the report are usually 
known by the name of city) : 

Proper Name of School District: 

Georgia 

Bibb County 
Chatham County 

Florida 

Orange County 
Duval County 
Hillsborough County 
Pinellas County 

Louisiana 

Cado Parish 
Ouachita Parish 
East Baton Rouge Parish 
Orleans Parish 

South Carolina 

Richland County District # 1 
Florence County District # 1 
Orangeburg County District #5 

iii 

Name Used in Report: 

Macon 
Savannah 

Orlando 
Jacksonville 
Tampa 
St. Petersbu.rg 

Shreveport 
Monroe 
Baton Rouge 
New Orleans 

Columbia 
Florence 
Orangeburg 



TERMS USED IN THIS REPORT 

1. Ability grouping-"Ability grouping," or "tracking," refers to the practice 
of classifying pupils in homogeneous sections for purposes of instruction accord­
ing to their "intelligence." Such grouping is determined by teachers' assessments 
and/ or standardized test results. 

2. Alexander-"Alexander" refers to the Supreme Court decision in Alexander 
v. Holmes County (1969). More than a decade and a half after Brown, the Su­
preme Court refused to tolerate further delay in implementing desegregation, and 
held unanimously in Alexander that the all-deliberate-speed standard "is no 
longer constitutionally permissible." Plans to bring about complete desegregation 
must be implemented "at once." 

3. Brown-"Brown" refers to the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board 
of Education of 1954 (Brown/), in which a unanimous Supreme Court held that 
segregation of students by race in the public schools violates the command of 
the Fourteenth Amendment. The Constitution forbids any system of "separate 
but equal" schools. In the second Brown decision the following year (Brown II), 
the Court ordered that dual school systems be disestablished "with alI deliberate 
speed." 

4 . Clustering-"Clustering" refers to the method that combines three or more 
schools along the same principles as "pairing" (see definition) to achieve school 
desegregation. 

5. Departmentalization-"Departmentalization" refers to a type of classroom 
organization in which pupils are scheduled to spend a specified period of time each 
day for individual subjects with different teachers. 

6. ESAP-The Emergency School Assistance Program is an act passed by the 
Congress in 1970 to provide federal funds to school districts substantialiy desegre­
gating their school systems. The money is to fund programs which will help school 
districts solve problems occurring because of desegregation. ESAP funds have also 
been granted to non-profit community groups working on desegregation prob­
lems. In 1971 President Nixon decreed that no ESAP funds could be provided for 
districts to buy more school buses required by a post-Swann desegregation plan. 

7. Equi-distant zoning-"Equi-distant zoning" refers to school boundary lines 
which are drawn at exactly the same distance between adjacent schools. In cases 
where a school would become over-capacity as a result of this method of determin­
ing the composition of its student body, its attendance zone would be decreased 
(and adjacent schools increased) by narrowing its boundaries by means of a 
line or lines parallel to those originally proposed. In every case in which such 
a change is necessary, it must be affected in a manner that will increase the in­
tegration factor. 

iv 



8. ETS--"ETS" refers to the Educational Testing Service, a non-profit corpo­
ration organized in 1948 by three groups then active in testing-the American 
Council on Education, the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching, 
and the College Entrance Examination Board. These groups agreed to combine 
their testing functions to provide a unified organization geared to meet the in­
creasing measurements of American education. 

9. Green-"Green" refers to the Supreme Court decision in Green v. New 
Kent County ( l968). This unanimous decision struck down a "freedom of choice" 
desegregation plan which failed to eradicate the racial isolation of black students. 
Green holds that school authorit ies are under an affirmative duty to take all 
necessary steps to eliminate segregation ''root and branch .. , A desegregation plan 
is insufficient unless it actually brings about a unitary system-schools that are 
neither black nor white, but "just schools." 

10. HEW-"HEW" refers to the Department of Health, Education, and Wel­
fare. 

11 . HUD-"HUD" refers to the Department of Housing and Urban Develop­
ment, the federal agency which administers all federal housing projects. 

12. LDF-"LDF" refers to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 
lnc., a private, non-profit civil rights organization which engages in litigation in 
many areas, including school desegregation. It has represented most of the private 
plaintiffs in school desegregation cases. Though once a part of the NAACP, 
the LDF is now a separately incorporated organization. 

13. Majority-minority schools-"Majority-minority schools" refers to all schools 
in which minority (black and/ or Chicano) students are in the majority. Thus the 
category of majority-minority schools includes all schools that are all-black and 
all-Chicano, in addition to schools in which the combined black and Chicano en­
rollments form a majority of the school population. 

14. Majority-to-minority transfer-"Majority-to-minority transfer" refers to 
the process by which, in districts where it has been included in the court order, 
students who are enrolled in schools in which their race is in the majority may 
transfer to any school in the same district in which their race is in the minority. 
Under this provision, the district is obligated to provide transportation. 

15. Non-contiguous zones-"Non-contiguous zones" refers to geographic at­
tendance zones that are not adjacent to one another within a given district. 

16. NTE-"NTE" refers to the National Teacher Examinations, which are 
administered by ETS (see definition) to measure academic and professional 
preparation of prospective teachers. 

17. Office for Civil Rights (OCR)-"OCR" refers to the Office for Civil 
Rights which is located in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of 

v 



Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). It is charged with enforcing Title VI of 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as it relates to HEW programs. Title VI protects 
individuals from being excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or 
being subjected to discrimination in programs or activities receiving federal 
financial assistance on the grounds of race, color, or national origin. OCR has the 
responsibility for enforcement of Title VI, by requiring the elimination of dual 
school systems in illegally segregated school systems as a prerequisite for the 
continuation of federal aid. 

18. Pairing-"Pairing" refers to the method that combines two schools within 
a given district to achieve school desegregation. For example, before pairing, one 
school might be a predominantly black school serving grades J -6, and the other 
might be a predominantly white school serving the same grades. As the result of 
pairing, one school would serve grades 1-3, and the other grades 4-6. Pairing 
techniques could thus be used to merge the former attendance patterns for the 
two schools into one larger attendance zone for both schools. Schools in two non­
contiguous zones could also be paired. 

19. SAT-"SAT" refers to the Scholastic Aptitude T est, a standardized test 
that is administered by the College Entrance Examination Board. Most high school 
students who plan to attend college must take the SAT, since it is commonly 
required for admission . Most colleges use it as only one of several criteria for ad­
mission, but some do have official or un-official SAT cut-off points. 

20. Section "235" housing-"Section 235 housing" refers to a section of the 
National Housing Act under which famiiies of moderate income can receive 
financial assistance from the federal government to purchase new or used hous­
ing. New housing must be located in a development which has been approved for 
the 235 program; the used housing may be located anywhere. The program 
is administered by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) of the De­
partment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

21. Singleton-"Singleton" refers to a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of 
Appeals in Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District (1970). As 
"Singleton" is used in this report it refers to two parts of the Fifth Circuit decision. 

( 1 ) Black and white teacher ratio-The order of the court required the as­
signment of staff "so that the ratio of Negro to white teachers in each school, 
and the ratio of other staff in each, are substantially the same as each 
such ratio is to the teachers and other staff, respectively, in the entire 
school system." It also said: "The school district shall, to the extent neces­
sary to carry out this desegregation plan, direct members of its staff as a 
condition of continued employment to accept new assignments." 

(2) Staff employment, demotion and dismissals-The order of the court 
requires : 

vi 



(a) "Staff members who work directly with children, and professional 
· staff who work on the administrative level will be hired, assigned, 

promoted, paid, demoted, dismissed, and otherwise treated without 
regard to race, color, or national origin. '' 

(b) "If there is to be a reduction in the number of principals, teachers, 
teacher-aides, or other professional staff . employed by the school dis­
trict which will result in a dismissal or demotion of any such staff 
members, the staff member to be dismissed or demoted must be 
selected on the basis of objective and reasonable non-discriminatory 
standards from among all the staff of the school district." 

( c) " ... If there is any such dismissal or demotion, no staff vacancy may 
be filled through recruitment of a person of a race, color, or national 
origin different from that of the individual dismissed or demoted, 
until each displaced staff member who is qualified has bad an oppor­
tunity to fill the vacancy and has failed to accept an offer to do so." 

( d) "Prior to such a reduction, the school board will develop or require 
the development of nonracial objective criteria to be used in selecting 
the staff member who is to be dismissed or demoted. These criteria 
shall be available for public inspection and shall be retained by the 
school district. The school district also shall record and preserve the 
evaluation of staff members under the criteria. Such evaluation shall 
be made available upon request to the dismissed or demoted em­
ployee." 

( c) " 'Demotion' as used above included any reassignment (1) under 
which the staff member receives less pay or has less responsibility 
than under the assignment he held previously, (2) which requires 
a lesser degree of skill than did the assignment he held previously, 
or (3) under which the staff member is asked to teach a subject or 
grade other than one for which he is certified or for which he has 
had substantial experience within a reasonably current period. In 
general and depending upon the subject matter involved, 5 years is 
such a reasonable period." 

The faculty requirements in the Singleton decision were affirmed by the Supreme 
Court in Montgomery v. Carr. 

22. Swann-"Swann" refers to Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (April 20, 
1971). Swann reaffirms and underscores the state's affirmative duty to desegre­
gate and to extirpate continuing effects of past discrimination. The unanimous 
Swann court held that all the techniques of pupil assignment-e.g., redrawing 
attendance zones, consolidating schools, and transporting students-must be 
used to the end of achieving "the greatest possible degree of actual desegregation." 
ln particular, student transportation must be used whenever necessary to eliminate 

vii 



racial isolation of students and the racial identification of schools, so long as the 
health and education of young people are not jeopardized. 

23. Title IV-"Title IV," as used in this report, refers to section 403 of Title 
IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

Section 403 states: "The Commissioner is authorized, upon the application of 
any school board, state, municipality, school district, or other government unit 
legally responsible for operating a public school, or schools, to render technical 
assistance to such applicant in the preparation, adoption, and implementation of 
plans for the desegregation of public schools. Such technical assistance may, 
among other activities, include making available to such agencies information re­
garding effective methods of coping with special educational problems occasioned 
by desegregation, and making available to such agencies personnel of the Office of 
Education, or other persons specially equipped to advise and assist them in coping 
with such problems." 

24. Title VI-of the Civil Rights Act of 1964-See Office For Civil Rights. 

25. Title IX-"Title IX," as used in this report, refers to section 902 of Title 
IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

Section 902 states: "Whenever an action has been commenced in any court 
of the United States seeking relief from the denial of equal protection of the 
laws under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution on account of race, 
color, religion, or national origin, the Attorney General for, or in the name of 
the United States, may intervene in such action upon timely application if the 
Attorney General certifies that the case is of general public importance. In such 
action, the United States shall be entitled to the same relief as if it had instituted the 
action." 

26. Zoning-"Zoning" refers to the placing of school boundary lines. In cases 
where zone boundaries have been drawn to promote maximum desegrega­
tion, assignment of students to schools on the basis of geographic attendance 
zones may meet the requirements of school desegregation. In many cases, en­
largement of attendance zones is necessary, and in others, new attendance zones 
must be drawn to effect school desegregation. 

viii 



TABLES OF STATISTICAL AND LEGAL DATA 

DISTRICTS INCLUDED IN REPORT 

STATISTICAL INFORMATION 

% of Black Total Number of Number of Number of 
or Number 100% 90%-99% 80%-90% 

Name Enrollment Chicano of One-race One-race One-race 
Students Schools Schools Schools Schools 

ALABAMA 

Birmingham 62,278 54% B 89 13-W, 18-B 6-W, 14-B 6-W, 5-B 
Huntsville 35,561 8.15% B 40 1-W, 0-B 19-W, 2-B 10-W, 0-B 
Jefferson 

County 56,332 28% B 81 7-W, 9-B 24-W, 4-B q.w, 4-B 
Mobile 66,417 42% B 81 1-W, 5-B 7-W, 9-B 9-W, 4-B 
Montgomery 37,604 46% B 53 0-W, 6-B 3-W, 12-B 8-W, 3-B 
Selma 6,316 .09% c 12 0-W, 3-B 2-W, 1-B 0-W, 1-B 

59% B 

ARKANSAS 

.8% c 
Forrest City 5,810 58.9% B 16 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 1-W, 2-B 

.1% c 
Little Rock 23,692 43% B 39 1-W, 4-B 7-W, 6-B 4-W, 0-B 

.08% c 
Texarkana 6,634 31% B 11 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 
West Memphis 7,049 49% B 13 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 

FLORIDA 

Jacksonville 114,045 30% B 127 3-W, 7-B 46-W, 5-B 4-W, 0-B 
Orlando 86,705 18.2% B 99 15-W, 1-B 38-W, 3-B 12-W, 1-B 

Tampa 102,728 19% B 126 0-W, 0-B 1-W, 0-B 80-W, 0-B 
St. Peters-

burg 86,880 16% B 107 0-W, 0-B 18-W, -o-B 46-W, 0-B 

GEORGIA 

Atlanta 97,229 72% B 162 3-W, 47-B 27-W, 40-B 5-W, 5-B 
Macon 31,482 45% B 60 3-W, 3-B 9-W, 9-B 4-W, 1-B 
Rome 6,046 33 % B 15 1-W, 2-B 0-W, 0-B 3-W, 0-B 
Savannah 37,712 48.2% B 57 0-W, 1-B 0-W, 2-B 0-W, 0-B 

LOUISIANA 

Baton Rouge 66,502 39.1% B 106 7-W, 12-B 28-W, 20-B 10-W, 3-B 
Monroe 9,911 57% B 18 0-W, 2-B 1-W, 3-B 3-W, 0-B 

New Orleans 107,742 71.8% B 135 3-W, 39-B 13-W, 26-B 5-W, 7-B 
Shreveport 52,896 49.6% B 75 5-W, 26-B 20-W, 2-B 13-W, 0-B 

ix 



% of Black Total Number of Number of Number of 
or Number 100% 90% -99% 80%-90% 

Name Enrollment Chicano of One-race One-race One-race 
Students Schools Schools Schools Schools 

MISSISSIPPI 

Hattiesburg 7,431 46.4% B 15 0-W, 0-B 2-W, 4-B 0-W, 0-B 

Jackson 29,598 64.3% B 53 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 4-B 0-W, 10-B 

Greenville 10,468 65.7% B 16 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 1-B 0-W, 2-B 

Gulfport 8,558 25.4% B 17 0-W, 0-B 3-W, 0-B 2-W, 0-B 

N. C. 

Charlotte 80,066 31% B 104 0-W, 0-B 1-W, 0-B 4-W, 0-B 
Durham 12,161 65% B 24 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 4-B 0-W, 1-B 

Greensboro 30,105 35% B 47 0-W, 0-B 3-W, 0-B 5-W, 0-B 

Raleigh 22,236 30% B 36 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 2-W, 0-B 

s.c. 
Charleston * 9,867 96% B 17 0-W, 7-B 0-W, 5-B 0-W, 1-B 
Columbia 37,333 53% B 56 0-W, 4-B 0-W, 3-B 0-W, 1-B 
Florence 14,445 41% B 22 0-W, 0-B 1-W, 1-B 2-W, 1-B 
Orangeburg 6,723 67% B 11 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 0-W, 0-B 

TEXAS** 

20.7% c 6-M, C-0 10-M, C-4 0-M, 0-C 
Austin 55,565 14.6% B 72 1-B, 1-W 5-B, 18-W 0-B, 17-W 

2.4% c 
Beaumont 14,735 45.3% B 23 0-W, 8-B 6-W, 0-B 

16% c 20-M, 0-C 62-M, 4-C 19-M, 4-C 
Houston 231,493 38% B 231 6-B, 0-W 44-B, 44-W 9-B, 29-W 

Texarkana 6,738 28% B 16 0-W, 0-B 1-W, 0-B 3-W, 0-B 

TENNESSEE 

Knoxville 35,328 17.3% B 66 17-W, 1-B 27-W, 7-B 6-W, 1-B 

Memphis 145,651 53.6% B 162 18-W, 29-B 43-W, 39-B 10-W, 2-B 

Nashville 88,190 27 % B 137 3-W, 0-B 27-W, 0-B 9-W, 0-B 

VIRGINIA 

Norfolk 50,Q70 48.1 % B 71 1-W, 0-B 

Richmond 43,027 69% B 56 0-W, 10-B 

26-M 26-M, 8-C 19-M, 4-C 
TOTAL 2,047,359 2,727 104-W,246-B 417-W,276-B 322-W, 77-B 

*Figures for City of Charleston Constituent District #20 only 
**Minority Schools include not only all schools in which the combined black & Chicano 

enrollment equals the designated ratio, but also all schools in which either the black 
or Chicano enrollment equals the designated ratio. 

x 



DISTRICTS INCLUDED IN REPORT 
LEGAL INFORMATION 

Date of 
Gov't or Last Court 

Voluntary Private Order Under Major Problem Areas 
Plan (VP) or Agency Post- Post- Which District Status Identified 
Court Order with Swann Swann Began of by 

Name (CO) Jnrisdiction Motion? Plan? 1971-72 Term Litigation Monitors 
ALABAMA 

LDF, No New Student assignments 
Birmingham co JD No No 6-19-70 Motion Filed Bad desegregation plan 

No New 
Huntsville co LDF No No 7-26-71 Motion Filed 

Student assignment, disruptions; 
Jefferson LDF, 8-24-71 bad plan, demotions-dismissals, 

County co JD Yes Yes AM. 9-8-71 Pending community reaction, plan violations 
LDF, No New Demotions and dismissals of teachers 

Mobile co JD Yes Yes 7-8-71 Motion Filed Violations of plan, student disrpts. 
No New 

Montgomery co LDF No No 2-25-70 Motion Filed Bad plan; student assignment 
~- Hearing on Student discontent, demotions-dis. 

Selma co LDF No No 6-16-70 faculty Bad plan; student assignment 

ARKANSAS 

Forrest City co LDF Yes Yes 6-27-70 On Appeal 
Community reactions 
Student disruptions; demotions-dis. 

Dev. of Before 
Little Rock co LDF Yes Plan ordered 5-7-71 Court Bad plan; student assignment 

Texarkana VP HEW Not Post-Swann 
Community reaction, demotions-dis. 

1970 District lCT Bad plan 
West Memphis co LDF Yes Yes 8-2-71 On Appeal Bad desegregation plan 

FLORIDA 
No New Bad plan 

Jacksonville co LDF Yes Yes 6-23-71 Motion Filed Student Suspensions 
9-17-71 No New White attitudes, demotions and dis. 

Orlando co LDF Yes Yes AM. 10-8-71 Motion Filed Student assignment, bad plan 
No New 

Tampa co LDF Yes Yes 7-2-71 Motion Filed Student disruptions, suspensions 
7-23-71 No New Suspensions 

St Petersburg co LDF Yes Yes am. 11-24-71 Motion Filed Student disruptions, demotions-dis. 



Date of 
Gov't or Last Court 

Voluntary Private Order Under Major Problem Areas 
Plan (VP) or Agency Post- Post- Which District Status Identified 
Court Order with Swann Swann Began of by 

Name (CO) Jurisdiction Motion? Plan? 1971-72 Term Litigation Monitors 

GEORGIA Plan being District Student assignment, bad plan 
Atlanta co LDF Yes considered 2-70 Court No decision on plan as yet. 

Referral of black students to voe. ed. 
Macon co LDF No No 2-71 On Appeal Dismissals, no extra-curr. activities 

Dev. Sub. Student assignments, campus layout, 
Rome co JD Yes Ordered 12-27-71 4-72 demotions-dis., bad plan 

Private No New 
Savannah co plaintiff, JD Yes Yes 8-31-71 Motion Filed Community reaction, student disrp. 

WUISIANA No New Student assignments, bad desg. 
Baton Rouge co LDF No No 7-22-70 Motion Filed Bad plan, violations of plan 

Monroe co LCOC No No 7-30-71 On Appeal 
Disruptions, violations of plan 
Student assignments, teachers etc. 

No New Student disruptions, 
~ New Orleans co LDF No No 10-12-67 Motion Filed Student assignment, bad plan 
i::: 

1-30-70 Student disruptions 
Shreveport co LDF Yes No March 1972 Pending Bad plan, student assignments. 

MISSISSIPPI Motion No New Transportation, student assignmt. 
Hattiesburg co JD,LDF Yes Yes 7-22-71 Motion Filed Singleton variance, bad plan. 

Dec. '69 No New 
Jackson co LDF,JD Yes Yes 1-72 (Elemen) Motion Filed Transportation 

Private No New 
Greenville co plaintiff Yes Yes 7-1 3-71 Motion Filed No transportation in paired zones 

No New 
Gulfport VP HEW No No HEW Motion Filed Bad Plan 

4th Circuit 
N.C. Reaffirm Student disruptions, 
Charlotte co LDF Swann Swann 6-29-71 2-16-72 Black student expulsions 

District 
Durham co LDF Yes No 7-31-70 Court Bad Plan 

No New In-school segregation, white 
Greensboro co LDF Yes Yes 6-18-71 Motion Filed teacher and principal attitudes 

No New Black student suspensions, community 
Raleigh co JD,LDF Yes Yes 8-7-71 Motion Filed reactions, expulsions 



Date of 
Gov't or Last Court 

Voluntary Private Order Under Major Problem Areas 
Plan (VP) or Agency Post- Post- Which District Status Identified 
Court Order with Swann Swann Began of by 

Name (CO) Jurisdiction Motion? Plan? 1971-72 Term Litigation Monitors 
s. c. 

No New 
Charleston* co LDF No No 7-25-69 Motion Filed Bad Plan 

No New 
Columbia HEW HEW Yes Yes HEW Motion Filed Need for doing something relevant 

Consent decree No New 
Florence co JD Yes No 7-21-71 Motion Filed Bad elementary school plan, tracking system 

No New 
Orangeburg co LDF Yes Yes 7-2-71 Motion Filed Pretty Good District 

TEXAS 

Austin co JD, HEW Yes Yes 7-19-71 On Appeal Community reaction, bad plan 
Private Plain. No New 

Beaumont HEW HEW No No 2-14-67 Motion Filed Bad Plan 

~ 
5-30-70 Sec. No New 

s: Houston co LDF,JD No No 8-25-70 Elem. Motion Filed Bad plan, community reaction 
HEW No New Bad student-teacher relations 

Texarkana HEW HEW No No 8-7-70 Motion Filed Community reaction 
TENNESSEE Order 

3-8-72 
(Submitted) 7-1-70 Violations of plan, community reaction 

Knoxville co LDF Yes Yes AM. 9-1-71 On Appeal Bad plan; student assignments 
5-1-70 

Memphis co LDF Yes No AM. 7-27-71 + Memphis- No deseg. plan, community reaction 
Status of 
Litigation 
Order 
4-20-72 

Nashville co LDF Yes Yes 6-29-71 On Appeal 
Community reaction, suspensions 
Bad plan, student assignments 

vmGINIA 
7-1-71 Suspensions, expulsions 

Norfolk co LDF Yes Yes AM. 7-23-71 On Appeal White flight, transportation 
April, 71 

Richmond co LDF Yes Yes AM. 1-5-72 On Appeal White Flight 
+Board must file two plans from January 12, 1972. They are now in process. 
*FIGURES FOR CITY OF CHARLESTON CONSTITUENT DISTRICT #20 ONLY. 



I 

MAJOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 

Based on the reports of our monitors herein are presented the findings and 
recommendations of this study. We believe these findings are also applicable to 
many urban school districts in the South not included in this monitoring project: 

1. Equal protection. of the laws is still not a reality for the majority of black 
students being educated in the urban South today. 

Urban school districts in the South which have begun or completed the transi­
tion to unitary school systems have frequently not been subject to the same careful 
scrutiny by HEW's Office of Civil Rights, the U.S. Department of Justice, or 
private civil rights and educational agencies as was the case when these districts 
were more rigidly segregated and the school desegregation movement was more 
active. Now that efforts to preserve de jure segregation are less obvious it is 
widely assumed that the vestiges of the dual school system are being eliminated 
and attention can now be turned to other priorities. However, the results of this 
monitoring project indicate that many serious problems remain in urban school 
systems, that the end of even de jure segregation has not been achieved, and that 
the vestiges of a dual system of education based on race are very much present. 

While there has been a change in the overt attempts at resistance and in openly 
racist attitudes which were very much a part of the urban South a decade ago, 
such change has been accompanied by the rise of more subtle and less obvious 
racist attitudes and practices which nevertheless are just as debilitating to equal 
educational opportunity for black students. Unless the task of eliminating de jure 
systems is completed and new strategies are developed for combating lingering 
vestiges of dual education as well as "second generation" problems, much of the 
progress achieved since Brown may be eroded and the momentum painfully 
developed over the past 18 years lost. The illusion of "progress," the inactivity 

1 



and even opposition of federal civil rights enforcement agencies, and the negative 
leadership of the President of the United States now place the movement toward 
equality of educational opportunity in serious jeopardy. 

We therefore recommend that new efforts and resources of the federal, state, 
and local government, as well as those of private agencies, be committed to the 
increasingly complex problems of segregation and discrimination in the urban 
school systems of the South. 

2. At least a dozen major school systems in the urban Soot~ are operating 
under shockingly inadequate and outdated court orders and desegregation plans. 

De jure segregation has not yet been eliminated in some urban school districts 
which were touchstones of the desegregation movement in the South. Despite the 
Green, Alexander, and Swann decisions of the United States Supreme Court the 
affected districts, many of which have long histories of desegregation litigation, 
have taken no voluntary action to eliminate the remaining elements of their dual 
school systems. Also, these districts have not been taken _back into court by 
attorneys of the Department of Justice or private civil rights agencies who 
represent the plaintiffs in these cases. For whatever reasons, the attorneys who 
have the responsibility for monitoring the progress of these districts in complying 
with Constitutional standards clearly enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court have 
failed to file post-Swann motions for further relief. Some of the districts in which 
there has been no post-Swann litigation are: Birmingham, Montgomery, and 
Selma, Alabama; Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Shreveport, Louisiana; Durham, 
North Carolina; Cha·rleston, South Carolina, and Houston, Texas. In one district, 
Beaumont, Texas, HEW's Office For Civil Rights has failed to vigorously pursue 
action needed to eliminate that district's use of a freedom of choice desegregation 
plan which has been ineffectual in abolishing de jure segregation there. This lack 
of enforcement of Constitutional standards by government and private agencies 
has had the effect of making it appear that these standards are not applicable to 
the districts named above. School officials and many citizens in these districts 
believe they are in compliance with the law or that they have cleverly avoided 
compliance. 

We therefore recommend that the federal government and private agencies 
take immediate legal and/ or administrative action to correct these clear denials 
of equal educational opportunity. 

3. Some school districts in the urban South are not only segregated, but also 
do not provide any form of transportation for their students. 

Several major school districts were found to offer no form of transportation to 
students in their systems. In some cases this was due to state laws or policies 
preventing the use of school buses within the city limits of metropolitan areas. 

2 



Other districts have simply not chosen to provide such transportation. The absence 
of transportation provided by the school system means that students have to use 
public buses which places an economic burden on poor students. In other respects 
desegregation plans requiring new transportation arrangements have frequently 
placed a greater burden and inconvenience on black children than on white 
children. Because there is a tendency to put new schools in segregated white 
neighborhoods it appears the trend in the future will be to bus only black students. 

In none of the districts included in this survey were the myths and fears about 
"busing" found to have much foundation. The primary problem is one of 
inconvenience. However, there was some evidence that political leaders were 
deliberately trying to make busing so inadequate and inconvenient as to generate 
more public protest against it. The Nixon Administration's ban on the use of 
Emergency School Assistance Program funds for school buses has meant that 
some districts are unable to provide transportation to poor children or to obtain 
additional buses for after-school activities from which children are often excluded 
(and parents inconvenienced) because of Jack of transportation. 

Therefore we recommend that where busing is required to meet the constitutional 
requirements of desegregation it be provided without cost to the student. We 
further recommend that federal funds be made available to help finance the capital 
cost or other transportation needs in these school districts. 

4. A school district cannot desegregate half-way with success. Faculty and 
student desegregation must go hand-in-hand if there is to be quality integrated 
education and an end to segregation. 

Our monitors found that in those districts which still have a significant number 
of one-race or predominantly one-race schools the school systems had frequently 
attempted to demonstrate their "good faith" by completely desegregating their 
faculties while retaining de jure segregated student bodies. Because of this our 
monitors received persistent complaints from students and parents about the many 
schools which have an all-black or nearly all-black student enrollment but where 
the majority of the teachers are white. Complaints indicated that white teachers 
in such settings not only do not provide adequate models for black students but are 
often uncomfortable, tense, and hostile. It is clear, then, that a school district 
must desegregate completely if it is to successfuJJy work toward the creation 
of an integrated system. 

In those situations where faculty desegregation has occurred there were also 
persistent complaints that well-qualified and experienced black teachers were 
replaced in the teacher crossover by young, inexperienced white teachers. Again, 
this is a significant factor primarily in those situations where a large number of 
white teachers have been brought into a majority black school. If, for example, 
the faculty ratio required in each school under the Singleton provision is 65 percent 

3 



white, 35 percent black, there are likely to be problems if the student ratio at a 
particular school is 75 percent black, 25 percent white, or higher. To a large degree 
that school still retains its identification as being "black" as far as its student body is 
concerned but it will have lost 65 percent of its black faculty in the teacher cross­
over. What many community people are saying is that in this situation the black 
teachers who are transferred out are often the best ones in the school while 
the incoming white teachers are too often unequipped to serve the needs of black 
students. 

In recruiting black teachers even the districts with relatively good recruitment 
programs were found to be merely holding their own in maintaining the same 
percentage of black teachers in the district as was present when desegregation 
began. Few districts were found to have truly aggressive or innovative recruitment 
programs which resulted in a significant increase in the number or percentage of 
black teachers, and some districts were found to be decreasing the number or 
percentage of black faculty. 

We therefore recommend that in those districts where there is a high number 
of one-race or predominantly one-race schools there should be concurrent efforts 
to achieve student desegregation with faculty desegregation. In those cases 
where a unitary system has been achieved but there remain a number of one-race 
or predominantly one-race schools while there is an inverse ratio of black and 
white teachers, attorneys need to re-examine the Singleton concept in light of 
the black community's concern that the district's faculty ratio reflect the student 
ratio in the district. There is considerable evidence to indicate that in any case, 
regardless of the degree of remaining racial isolation in the schools of a unitary 
system, attorneys should request that a school district's faculty ratio equal that of 
the district's sudent ratio. 

We also recommend that teacher associations, colleges, state departments of 
education and local school districts need to give more attention to the problem 
of how more black teachers can be trained, recruited, and employed by school 
districts in the urban South, to insure that black teachers and administrators 
continue to enter the education profession. 

5. Resegregation is an alarming fact of life in many school systems of the urban 
South. This trend has been aided by federal and local state action. 

While not always related to an increase in desegregation, the phenomenon of 
resegregation is nevertheless having a negative impact on the school systems of 
the urban South. We found no evidence of the federal government, local govern­
ment, and school districts cooperating to develop strategies or programs to either 
combat or reverse this trend. There is very little state or regional leadership deal­
ing with this grave problem which threatens to create pockets of uniracial com­
munities in the urban South just as has occurred in other urban areas of our 
nation. 

4 



Manifestations of resegregation can be found in the increasing number of 
"shifting" schools and the permanent place that private, one-race schools are as­
suming in Southern cities. Some school districts are accommodating and con­
tributing to residential segregation by constructing new schools in segregated 
neighborhoods. We found that some federal housing programs are contributing to 
resegregation through the creation of "new ghettoes." We found little or no effort 
by HEW's Office For Civil Rights and the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development to cooperate in order to develop complimentary rather than contra­
dictory policies and goals. In the absence of their creating newly integrated neigh­
borhoods which would make busing unnecessary we found that federal housing 
programs and the lack of a vigorous attack against housing discrimination were 
contributing to racial impaction, "shifting" neighborhoods, and additional racial 
isolation. 

We therefore recommend that HUD and HEW establish a joint task force to 
plan a concerted and aggressive attack on the problem of resegregation in the 
urban South. Such a program should include providing financial and technical 
assistance to school districts and local communities working to deal with this prob­
lem. HUD and HEW should also cooperate to re-examine and reform their poli­
cies and practices which are in conflict with the goal of achieving an end to 
de jure segregation. 

6. Because most school systems are using some means of grouping students 
according to "ability," a large number of black students are congregated in the 
lower academic groups of southern urban schools. 

Our monitors found a large number of classes that are all-black or all-white or 
which are disproportionately of one race. The monitors also found that counselors 
are often the individuals most responsible for guiding students into various special 
schools, groups, curriculum levels, or tracks and that such guidance may be based 
on a counselor's inaccurate or prejudiced, subjective analysis of or reaction to a 
student's ability, interests, attitude, race, or economic background. 

We therefore recommend that (a) HEW should immediately review its policy 
which provides that a class is not segregated if it contains just one student of 
the opposite race. It should also develop a comprehensive policy on grouping, 
tracking, and the use of special schools which result in the disproportionate racial 
grouping or discrimination against black students; (b) HEW and the Department 
of Justice should examine and evaluate the procedures which are used to place 
students at various levels in a school's curriculum. 

7. Widespread student unrest is symptomatic of racism, insensitivity, and in­
justice found in many school districts of the urban South. 

It is our belief that student unrest should be more specifically identified as 
student protest or student conflict. It is important, we feel, to make this distinction 

s 



because many of the problems responsible for unrest have been rooted in student 
protest against the insensitivity and injustices of school officials and other students. 
Much of the protest has resulted from the discrimination against or exclusion of 
black students in school activities. Where these problems go uncorrected or come 
to be manifest in tense day-to-day personal relationships among students, it is 
likely that students will become more vocal, demanding, aggressive, and even 
violent as an expression of their anger and frustration. At this point the line 
between student protest and student conflict becomes very thin indeed. The 
crucial elements in preventing or resolving student unrest were found to be the 
leadership and concern exercised by the principal and faculty, the willingness to 
trust students to assume some responsibility in working out their own problems, 
and receptivity to student concerns and grievances. 

We therefore recommend that school districts in consultation with students be 
required as a part of their plan for desegregation to establish non-discriminatory 
policies and practices which will insure equal participation in all activities of the 
school community (as, for example, the numerically equal representation of all 
racial groups now required of ESAP student advisory committees). 

8. Suspensions and expulsions of students have become so widespread as to raise 
serious questions concerning the effectiveness of these methods to enforce discipline. 

Our monitors found that of the great number of students who are suspended, a 
disproportionate percentage are black. There are indications that many such 
suspensions result when teachers cannot cope with a life-style or behavior that 
does not reflect their own cultural or moral values. In most cases these teachers 
and administrators have been expected to deal with these students with no 
preparation, continued support, or assistance. As a result, the teachers, admin­
istrators, and students are suffering and are having to define and work out an 
ad hoc relationship of co-existence within the already frenzied atmosphere of 
the school. Students who are unable or unwilling to adapt often find themselves out 
of school. 

In some school systems there is no promulgated statement of student's rights 
and responsibilities and therefore each principal or teacher is placed in the 
impossible position of reacting to or evaluating disciplinary problems solely on 
the basis of his own standards of conduct or life experience. The absence of 
such a statement also places students in the precarious position of not knowing 
precisely what their rights are or what responsibilities they must assume for the 
maintenance of minimal order in the school community. 

We therefore recommend that (a) the whole process of discipline in the schools 
of the urban South be more closely examined and evaluated in light of the apparent 
failure of current procedures to have any positive educational or disciplinary ben­
efit; (b) each school district have a uniform and well-understood code of student 

6 



rights and responsibilities which is the result of consultations among students, 
teachers, attorneys and school district officials. Such a code should also include 
provisions for due process in disciplinary actions involving suspensions and ex­
pulsions, and {c) HEW make staff available on a continuing basis for the ex­
press purpose of soliciting, receiving and investigating complaints directly from 
students who experience racial discrimination within desegregated schools and that, 
when investigation proves students have been discriminated against because of 
race by school officials, through school practices, or through school procedures 
(including disciplinary sanctions), Title VI be enforced. 

9. The increased use of police and security guards in school systems of the urban 
South does not seem to have eliminated or significantly decreased the number 
of disciplinary problems in the schools and, indeed, there are some districts in 
which their use has escalated tensions and resentment in the black community. 

The presence of police in the schools increases the chances of a fatal confronta­
tion between police and students at some time in the future. 

We therefore recommend that (a) the whole process of discipline in the schools 
of the urban South be more closely examined and evaluated in light of the 
apparent failure of current procedures to have any positive educational or 
disciplinary benefit; (b) each school district should have a uniform and well­
understood code of student rights and responsibilities which is the result of 
consultations among students, teachers, attorneys and school district officials. 
Such a code should also include provisions for due process in disciplinary actions 
involving suspensions and expulsions, and ( c) police should be removed from 
schools. 

10. Communications and public relations between the schools and the black 
community are very poor. Our monitors found a significant lack of information 
and the presence of misinformation in the community. 

Many citizens still do not feel comfortable in approaching the school system 
for basic information and the credibility of many systems is so poor that people 
frequently do not believe the information even if they receive it. There is little 
undeTstanding of how the school system operates or what problems it is con­
fronting. 

We therefore recommend that (a) school districts understand that it is necessary 
to give special attention to working with the black community and meeting the 
needs of its children if the suspicion, distrust, and hostility generated by years 
of deception and deliberately imposed segregation are to be replaced by trust 
and confidence in the school system, and (b) community relations, parent involve­
ment, and community education programs should be used to serve the needs of 
black families and to improve communications with the black community. First, 

7 



however, school systems must eliminate all remnants of de jure segregation and 
do it in a way that is just and equitable for the black community. 

We also recommend that school districts be required, as a part of their plan for 
desegregation, to institute in each secondary school (or in each school dist-rict ) a 
biracial committee of students, much as some court-ordered desegregation plans 
now require adult biracial committees. School districts would be required to insure 
that these student biracial committees be representative of the student body, and 
that they be of equal racial proportions in composition, that they be active, and 
that they be constituted so as to serve as a channel for the expression of student 
grievances and as a vehicle through which students can offer their opinions about 
fair school procedures and policies. 

11. Successful efforts to end de jure segregation in school districts of the urban 
South are dependent upon the leadership of school officials and political leaders, 
community support, an approximate racial balance in each school, and sensitivity 
to how desegregation plans affect the minority as well as the majority· community. 

Our monitors found that districts which had successfully desegregated had not 
usually done so voluntarily but had , in most instances, responded to federal 
court mandates to abolish de jure segregation. The percentage of black and white 
students in a district seemed to have little bearing on how well or how poorly a 
district developed and implemented its desegregation plan. Whether significant 
new transportation arrangements were required had little bearing. 

Districts in which the school, political, and community leadership made an 
effort to devise and support an effective desegregation plan usually had the most 
successful experiences. Where political leaders sought to capitalize on the busing 
issue, or where the school board resisted mandates to develop new desegregation 
plans, the system's constituency took its cue and community resistence flourished. 
This observation has been made so many times during the past decade of the 
school desegregation movement it is a truism but apparently many school systems 
have not yet learned from the lessons of those who experienced desegregation 
before them. 

Districts which had court or school board appointed bi-racial committees to 
help develop and comment on the desegregation plan were more successful in 
soliciting community support for and understanding of their desegregation plans. 
These committees were particularly helpful in enabling representatives of the 
black community to play some part in the development of the plan or at least 
to comment on those features which affected the black community most directly. 

School systems which were able to achieve an approximate racia l balance in 
each school, thereby treating all areas of the district equally, usually had more 
success than those where a number of disproportionately imbalanced schools 
remained. City-county or metropolitan districts were also found to be more 

8 



successful in desegregating their districts, perhaps because those people resistant 
to desegregation could not so easily move to nearby districts with a more "favor­
able" racial ratio or with less busing. 

12. The overall status of Chicanos in the school desegregation picture is not 
clear because the courts have not yet ruled that Chicanos have been the victims 
of the same type of de jure discrimination that blacks have suffered. However, in 
the two districts we surveyed that have sizeable Chicano enrollments, Houston 
and Austin, it is clear that school authorities have treated Chicanos as minority 
students even if they have not officially designated them as such. 

There are some signs that school officials in Houston and Austin are now 
making some belated attempts to deal with the special needs of Chicano students. 
The percentage of Chicano teachers, still far below the ratio of Chicano students, 
has increased considerably in the last year as the result of special recruitment 
efforts. More effort, although still not nearly enough to meet the needs of the 
community, is being put into bi-lingual programs. Efforts in both of these areas 
should be intensified. 

In both Houston and Austin, Chicanos have learned some bitter lessons from 
the desegregation efforts that have been implemented so far. While Chicanos are 
concerned with equal educational opportunities, they have witnessed the fact 
that desegregation plans have often placed a disproportionate share of the burden 
on blacks. It seems clear that Chicanos will not accept desegregation plans that 
call for the closing of the Chicano schools, one-way busing, and "integration" 
of two minority groups - blacks and Chicanos. Implementing faculty desegregation 
without student desegregation would probably be an even greater disaster in the 
Chicano community than in the black community. Not only do Chicanos have 
fewer teachers, but they are in many ways less assimilated into the Anglo culture 
than blacks. Implementation of Singleton without meaningful student desegregation 
would pose parallel problems to the situation it brought out in many black 
communities-loss of strong teachers, loss of "role-models," blows to ethnic 
identity, and influx of teachers less able to deal with the special problems of 
minority students. 

Therefore we recommend that, if desegregation of Chicanos is ever going to work, 
it must be implemented with the recognition of the community's concern with 
preserving its distinctive culture. Special emphasis must be placed on the ex­
pansion of bi-lingual programs and the development of multi-ethnic curricula. 

9 



II 

LEADERSHIP CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

Our monitors found that leadership was frequently the crucial element of 
difference between districts which had met their constitutional obligations and 
those that had not. Leadership, as manifest in the actions of superintendents, 
school boards, principals, and community organizations, is the subject of this 
section which attempts to show that some school districts and communities are 
trying with imagination and effort to make equality of educational opportunity a 
reality. The inclusion of a district in this section does not mean it has taken all of 
the initiatives it could or should have1 for many of the districts here have serious 
problems that require further action if integrated and quality education is to be 
a fact of life for their students. In Houston, for example, there is a very enlightened 
school board, but very inadequate desegregation plan. Readers should also be 
aware that many of the good things mentioned here were achieved during the 
"crisis" period of transition from a dual to a unitary system. Whether or not 
these districts and others will address themselves to the more complex and 
subtle educational and social problems within the unitary system is still an open 
question. All we can say here is that these communities best met the initial 
challenge and therefore seem to have the best chance of making integration work. 

SCHOOL DISTRICTS 

Our monitors found only four school districts which, in their opinion, had not 
only yielded to complete desegregation but had made a real effort to make it work. 
One other school system, Houston, Texas, merited our monitor's opprobrium 

1The Houston lndepe11de11t School District, for example, is still operating a de jure segregated 
system but is included in this sectio11 of the report because of other positive res11/1s of educa· 
tional and community leadership which our monitor felt makes it distinct. 

10 



because it is still segregated but was cited for efforts which were unique among 
the forty-three districts surveyed. Brief profiles of these five districts are given 
here to illustrate what can be done if school officials and community leaders work 
together to move toward equal educational opportunity. Among the districts in­
cluded is Tampa, Florida, with only a 19 percent black enrollment but where 
new transportation arrangements were required, and Orangeburg, South Carolina, 
with a 67 percent black student enrollment where the primary challenge was to 
retain white support for the public schools. Desegregation in Jackson Mississippi, 
and Greensboro, North Carolina was facilitated by leadership from their school 
boards with the assistance of some creative support from community organizations. 
Mention should- also be made of Columbia, South Carolina and St. Petersburg, 
Florida, which also accepted desegregation requirements with relative good grace 
under sensitive leadership; but these districts are not included here because of 
other factors which make them less exemplary than the other school systems 
described. 

Tampa, Florida 

In spite of national doubts about desegregation and the use of busing to 
achieve it, the Hillsborough County School District has managed to achieve a 
racially balanced school system through the use of extensive busing with little 
public outcry. 

The Tampa system has about l 02,000 students enrolled with a racial ratio of 
81 percent white, 19 percent black. The district's seven-member school board is 
all-white and dominated by persons who might be described as "conservative." 

In 1970, the school district was significantly desegregated under a court order, 
but there were a few all-black schools remaining and some heavily white propor­
tioned schools. The faculty had already been desegregated. Following Swann, 
plaintiffs' attorneys filed a motion for further relief and the U. S. District Court 
ordered the district to develop a plan that would meet the law's requirements. 

The school board instructed the staff to devise a plan which would comply 
with the Court directive and a small committee, chaired by one of the top black 
staff people in the district, was appointed to carry out this assignment. A special 
citizens' group, the School Desegregation Committee, including nearly two hundred 
people representing all segments of the community, was also appointed to share 
in the process of plan development. This group divided itself into a number of 
subcommittees. While the details of the desegregation plan were actually developed 
by the district's staff, the citizens' group did have an opportunity to comment 
on the plan and make suggestions before it was finalized. This process of com­
munity involvement was a crucial first step in gaining public understanding and 
acceptance of the plan. 

11 



In preparing the plan, the staff also used the expertise of the Charlotte, North 
Carolina, superintendent who had faced a similar situation in his district. When 
the plan was adopted, the Tampa school transportation director went to Charlotte 
to see how things were done there. The Florida Desegregation Center staff from 
the University of Miami was also involved in the plan development. 

The plan that emerged created an approximate 80-20 racial balance in every 
school in the county. Because all Florida school districts are county-wide and 
therefore metropolitan in scope there was no real threat of whites fleeing to 
geographically contiguous districts to seek a more "favorable" racial balance. 
The new plan called for busing 52,795 students, an increase of 20,389 over the 
previous year. The plan was supported by the local news media and the Parent 
Teachers Association. 

(For a more complete account of busing in Hillsborough County see the 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's report, "It Ain't the Distance, It's 
the Niggers," released in May, 1972). 

Jackson, Mississippi 

Probably no other school district in the nation is so stereotyped as Jackson. 
Even as a school system that has actively resisted desegregation in the courts for 
seven years, Jackson bas the misfortune of being the capital of a state that has 
come to symbolize the darkest side of America's character. 

What is impressive about desegregation in Jackson, then, is not only that it 
finally happened, but that it happened in the capital of Mississippi. Actually, Jackson 
had taken a giant step toward full desegregation during the 1970-71 school year, 
but that plan left several elementary and secondary schools virtually segregated. 
After the Swann decision, a new plan was developed using extensive busing. 
The plan had the approval of the plaintiffs' attorneys and the school board, and 
a consent decree was issued by the Court. 

Under the plan, 7,000 more children are bused, two educational park plazas are 
to be built to house all fifth and sixth graders in the system, and there will be a 
moratorium on future school desegregation litigation for at least three years. There 
are indications that Jackson's efforts to make its desegregation plan work for its 
30,000 students (64 percent black, 36 percent white) was due to some new 
leadership on the school board, a new superintendent, and the business community's 
realization that public education might very well disintegrate because of the high 
degree of white flight. Jackson's problems arc far from over, but it now has the 
advantage of having a desegregated system in which energies and resources can 
be focused on developing a quality system of education. 

(For a more extensive treatment of Jackson's desegregation progress and prob-

12 



lems, see John Egerton's article, "Report Card on Southern School Desegregation," 
The Saturday Review, April 1, 1972, pp. 41-48). 

Greensboro, North Carolina 

Our monitor was far from happy with what he found in Greensboro, but was, 
at the same time, impressed with the quality of the community leadership which 
he felt had been largely responsible for the acceptance of desegregation there. 

The Greensboro school system has 30,000 students enrolled and is about 35 
percent black, 65 percent white in its student population. The city council 
appoints the district's seven-member school board which bas had at least one 
black member since 1953. The present board has two blacks and two progressive 
whites who generally vote along the same lines. In June, 1971, a U. S. District 
Court ordered the school district to implement a new pupil and teacher assign­
ment plan that had been suggested to the court by the school board. 

The community acceptance of the desegregation order and the maintenance of 
an atmosphere which our monitor characterized as "probably superior to that of 
almost any other city in the South" was largely the work of the Chamber of 
Commerce and other community organizations. Soon after the court order, the 
Chamber's Community Unity Division established a group known as the Concerned 
Citizens for Schools. The name of the organization was carefully chosen so that 
those opposed to the desegregation order would be unable to organize a group 
and, as so frequently happens, name it Concerned Parents or Concerned Citizens. 
Thus, from the outset, the role of Concerned Citizens for Schools was not only 
to mobilize support for the plan and help to make its implementation workable, 
but also to step into the leadership vacuum which is often filled by vocal opponents 
to desegregation. Concerned Citizens is now operating under a grant from the 
Emergency School Assistance Program. 

The Chamber of Commerce and other organizations also financed and sponsored 
several sensitivity sessions in the spring prior to the court order. The Chamber 
realized that a new desegregation order was imminent and was trying to prepare 
the community before it came. These sessions included students, teachers, and 
parents. Many people credit them with having contributed to the relatively peace­
ful opening of school. The Community Unity Division of the Chamber had also 
been sponsoring neighborhood "bull sessions" for the previous year and this may 
have also been responsible for the successful implementation of the desegregation 
plan. After the desegregation plan had been ordered the community voted in 
favor of a bond issue for construction and other school purposes. 

There are other positive aspects to the Greensboro school district. Each high 
school now has one or more black head coaches in at least one major sport 
(football, basketball, track, and baseball) , the Assistant Superintendent o~ Admin-

13 



istration is black as is the Director of Student Affairs. There have been no 
demotions or dismissals of principals, assistant principals, or teachers. In fact, 
there have been both some promotions of blacks to the district's central office 
and the creation of some new black principalships. 

As a result of initiatives by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruc­
tion, a new seventh-grade course, "Africa and the Orient" has replaced the 
traditional "North Carolina History" course. Each senior high school in Greensboro 
is offering a one-semester elective course, "World Culture-Africa." In addition, 
each high school is offering "Ethnic Literature" and "Black Literature," each as 
one semester courses. 

To our monitor, Greensboro is illustrative of "the positive things that can 
happen and the negative things that can be avoided if community leadership, 
black and white, take a hold of things." He pointed out, however, that an 
enlightened majority on the school board was also a critical factor. 

Orangeburg, South Carolina 

After a long history of resistance to all efforts to advance desegregation, the 
Orangeburg school district has made a remarkably enlightened transition to a 
unitary school system. 

The Orangeburg district has a student enrollment of 6, 700 of which 67 percent 
is black and 33 percent is white. Two black professionals serve on the five member 
school board which is, nevertheless, basically conservative. 

Swann was anticipated by the Orangeburg school superintendent who drew 
up a plan similar to one proposed by the NAACP calling for racial balance in 
each school. The Orangeburg district had for years capitalized on the lethargy of 
the federal judiciary to delay the abolition of the dual system. After Swann, how­
ever, the district's case had been remanded back to the judge from the U. S. Fourth 
Circuit Court of Appeals where it had been on appeal since l 970. The handwriting 
on the wall was clear to the superintendent and school board who decided to 
eliminate the dual school system once and for all. 

In making the transition to a unitary system in an area with a history of racial 
confrontations, the school authorities were assisted by small groups of concerned 
white individuals. These people held meetings in their homes and invited school 
officials to talk to their neighbors about the plan and urge their support. 

The school district also used its ESAP money wisely. In August, the district 
used ESAP funds to finance a conference of the district's student leaders at a 
motel in Santee, South Carolina. It brought students together with school personnel 
and officials and community leaders to discuss possible student problems during 
the coming year. The Center for Integrated Education at the University of South 
Carolina assisted with human relations and leadership training. Subsequent 

14 



human relations workshops seemed to have been helpful in bringing students 
together to avert the kind of tension found in most districts. This year, the 
representation on the student council is approximately 60 percent black, 40 percent 
white. 

This district has also used ESAP funds to hire "interventionists" who act as 
liaisons between the schools and the local press. As a result, the local newspaper 
is filled with news stories about public school activities and programs. One board 
member told our monitor that press relations have improved considerably because 
of this effort. 

One black principal was promoted to Assistant Superintendent and his position 
of principal was filled by another black. A black principal replaced a white 
principal at one school. As far as our monitor could tell, black principals do not 
seem to have suffered during the desegregation process. 

The use of "Dixie" and the Confederate flag were voluntarily eliminated by 
the school system this year after they had caused problems in 1970. The golf 
team, which had always played at segregated private country clubs, was eliminated. 
When the black and white high schools were paired to make a two-campus high 
school, one name was given to the newly structured school. The name "Orange­
burg-Wilkinson High School" incorporates the names of the formerly black and 
formerly white schools and is used at both campuses. There does not seem to 
be a problem with the extensive suspension of students as was found in many 
other school districts. Students interviewed by our monitor could not recall any 
major fights or racial conflicts between students. 

Nothing could have done more to provide unity to the Orangeburg school 
system than the success of the merged and renamed high school football team. 
In winning the state championship, the team kept community support and united 
the students. Thus, a combination of yielding to reality, skillful planning, luck, 
and fair play helped the Orangeburg school system hold its white enrollment in 
a stronghold of segregationist academies. The foundation for establishing a success­
ful integrated school system has been laid in Orangeburg. 

Houston, Texas 

After many years of educational mismanag~ment and ultra-conservative leader­
ship, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) is now moving forward 
because of new initiatives resulting from the interaction of a progressive school 
board and an awakening community. Though this report deplores the fact that 
the Houston system still has not remedied the segregation of racial and ethnic 
minorities in its schools, as demonstrated later in this report, the dramatic efforts 
of school officials to provide a quality education for all children-a startling 
contrast to the preceding decade of resistance to change-has somewhat eclipsed 
the struggle for desegregation. 

15 



To understand just how far Houston has come, we must first examine the 
record of the district's school board before 1970. For more than ten years the 
200,000-pupil Houston school system was controlled by a board determined to 
resist any form of federal aid to education as well as desegregation. It was not 
until the late 1960s that the board finally yielded and permitted the district to 
participate in the free lunch program. Even then the board attempted to keep 
the number of participants at a minimum and virtually branded the children as 
welfare recipients. The school board was dominated by people with insurance 
business connections, and it came to light that teachers were being pressured to 
buy insurance from these companies. There was questionable letting of contracts, 
and nepotism was rife. In the fall of 1969, the HISD staff moved into a 
beautiful new $6 million administrative building while the board announced 
that the district was in debt and that free kindergartens would have to be dis­
continued. Severe retrenchments were also made in special reading and music 
programs when a referendum to approve a tax rate increase and school building 
bond issue was defeated. 

In 1960, the school district, under court order, began a grade-a-year desegrega­
tion plan in which students who had been formerly zoned to black schools and 
white schools by race, rather than by proximity, were allowed to attend either 
school in their zone beginning with the first grade. However, the board went so 
far as to authorize cross-town busing of students past neighborhood schools to 
schools as distant as twenty-six miles in order to maintain the racial integrity of 
those schools. 

At the beginning of the first year of desegregation, the principals of the formerly 
all-white schools to which black students had been admitted were instructed to 
provide separate toilet facilities for the black students. Only after considerable 
community protest was the policy of requiring segregated toilet facilities abandoned 
in the fall of 1962, three years after desegregation had begun. 

In 1967 a community group known as Citizens for Good Schools ( CGS) was 
organized to monitor and challenge the educational establishment in Houston. 
After two years of fact-finding, disseminating information, and haggling with the 
status-quo school board, CGS offered a slate of four candidates in the 1969 
election. There followed a bitter election campaign in which the incumbents 
sought to inflame emotions around the desegregation issue. The incumbent board's 
use of busing to preserve de jure segregation enabled the CGS candidates to oppose 
busing and favor neighborhood schools, and support a racially neutral desegrega­
tion plan (one which did not seek to preserve segregation but which did not 
completely eliminate it either). The CGS candidates were victorious. 

Things began to change in the Houston schools shortly after the four new board 
members took office and assumed the voting majority on the seven-man board. 
The status-quo superintendent who had initiated the segregated toilets resigned 

16 



before the composition of the board changed in 1970 and the new voting majority 
immediately went to work to find a new administrator for the district. Ultimately, 
Dr. George Garver came to Houston from a 10,000-pupil system in Michigan. 

In its first five months in office the board appointed nearly a thousand 
citizens to various committees to assist the board in developing progressive 
policies in such areas as human relations, special education, vocational education, 
desegregation, general instruction, etc. The board sponsored a program where 
the 18,000 children in the district's kindergarten program were screened for 
learning disabilities by more than 1,800 volunteers. The volunteer program has 
been expanded to include many services previously unavailable to principals, 
teachers, and students. 

Before the new board had assumed control, the district's desegregation case 
had been reopened as the result of new initiatives taken by Legal Defense Fund 
attorneys. When the new board took office it immediately fired the board's 
conservative attorney and hired a prominent appellate attorney just to handle 
desegregation cases. It also had pupil locater maps drawn up for the first time 
in the district's history and began to develop new desegregation plans to be sub­
mitted to the U. S. District Court. The board saw as its task to "(1) comply with 
the requirements of the courts; (2) act within the constraints imposed upon a 
representative of citizens to whom the massive busing of students was not accept­
able." In preparing the desegregation plans, the board held conferences in all 
sections of the city in order to describe their intentions and listen to suggestions 
of school patrons. School board members also spoke at church gatherings and 
civic groups throughout the city. 

Meanwhile, however, the board anticipated an order requiring faculty desegrega­
tion and called for the immediate transfer of teachers and principals to eliminate 
the racial identifiability of all schools insofar as administrative and teaching staffs 
were concerned. Complying with requirements for faculty desegregation already 
ordered in many other school districts in the South, the board transferred 
personnel so that the racial and ethnic percentage of teachers in each school 
reflected the percentage of teachers in the district as a whole- 64 percent white, 
33 percent black, and three percent Chicano. The board's plan was endorsed by 
the Houston Teachers Association, and the board let the HT A decide how the 
cross-over of the 45,000 teachers would take place. Obviously, the leadership 
of the HT A made the implementation of the faculty desegregation plan much 
easier. The dismissal and demotion of minority group principals and teachers did 
not become issues in Houston, and our monitor heard no complaints on this 
subject. 

When the court finally ordered a desegregation plan, the board strongly urged 
compliance with it (as will be seen later the plan ordered required little desegrega­
tion) . Two prominent white board members took advantage of the order's 

17 



majority-to-minority transfer provision to move their children from schools in which 
they were a racial majority to inner-city schools where their children were in a 
substantial racial and economic minority. This was a dramatic demonstration of 
the board members' leadership. 

The Houston board has also achieved the following in its two years in office: 

Received a $1,042,100 Emergency School Assistance Program grant to 
establish such activities as a Community Leaders Development Program, a 
Human Relations Fall Festival, a Cultural Awarness Workshop for Coun­
selors, Mexican-American Student-Parent Involvement Program with eleven 
bi-lingual social workers, Student Rap Action Groups, two Community 
Development Centers for Quality Education, etc. 

- Reorganized and somewhat decentralized the administration of the school 
district. There now are six area superintendents with significant powers over 
their areas of the city. Two of these area superintendents are black, one 
is Chicano. The Deputy Superintendent and Chief Instructional Officer is 
black and has meaningful powers. He is in fact the number two man in the 
system. 

Initiated management procedures which ended fiscal corruption and saved 
the system much money. 

Opened a High School for Performing and Visual Arts as a "magnet" school 
with a heavy emphasis on multi-ethnic curriculum. Opened Ashford Ele­
mentary as an "open concept" school stressing individualized instruction, 
team teaching, and parental involvement. 

No one, then, can assert with much credibility that the educational system in 
Houston has not significantly improved since the progressive element of the 
board gained control in 1970. As a result of a 1971 election in which the remain­
ing three members of the conservative board were replaced by candidates of the 
Citizens for Good Schools, the board is now entirely controlled by those seeking 
to provide a just and quality education for all children in Houston. 

Another facet of the Houston story has been the organization and empowerment 
of the Chicano community around educational issues. The interaction between 
the progressive school board and Chicano citizens has often been tense and 
characterized by confrontation, but when considered as a whole, the experience 
has been a positive one for the school system and Chicanos. 

The desegregation plan for Houston had included one feature which had not 
been part of any of the proposed plans submitted to the court by the plaintiffs, 
defendants, or outside experts. That feature, drawn up by judges on the U. S. 
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, called for pairing about a dozen elementary 
schools to allegedly achieve greater desegregation. In fact, however, the pairings 

18 



resulted in combining schools that were majority black with schools that were 
majority .Chicano. Thus, new schools were created which were not truly integrated 
in the sense that the white majority in the school system was barely affected. The 
Houston school board saw this as only "statistical desegregation" and appealed 
the decision to the U. S. Supreme Court, but their efforts to get this part of the 
order reversed were unsuccessful. The school board could have voluntarily cor­
rected the situation by including some white schools in the pairings, but it was 
unwilling to take this step. The burden for this desegregation faux pas of integrating 
minority groups must fall on the Fifth Circuit, but the school board was at least 
partially at fault for not voluntarily correcting the situation once it became clear 
there was no alternative through the courts to dealing with the court-ordered 
pairings. 

The Chicano community reacted rather strongly to this kind of fraudulent 
desegregation, and formed the Mexican-American Education Council (MAEC). 
Rallies of 5,000 to 7,000 Chicanos were held protesting not only the pairings but 
also the tremendous Chicano drop-out rate of 89 percent, malnutrition, poverty, 
drugs, etc. Though Chicanos had always been considered as "whites" under the 
dual system, in Texas they were more educationally disadvantaged than blacks. 

With all segments of the Chicano community represented in MAEC, the 
organization became the only grass-roots educational group in Houston. MAEC 
decided to protest the pairings by calling for a boycott and establishing Huelga 
(strike) Schools for students to attend while they were out on the boycott. 
Teachers at the school were required to have a college degree or 90 hours of 
college work, and the Huelga Schools followed the HISD curriculum. The boycott 
was tremendously effective, and some 6,000 Chicano students participated with 
about 2,500 of these attending the Huelga Schools. 

The Houston school board had been reluctant to recognize MAEC as a 
representative community organization, but the survival of the boycott and a 
startling public confrontation initiated by Chicano youth forced the board to 
acknowledge MAEC's presence and power. Throughout September, 1970, the 
HISD and MAEC negotiated the demands of the Chicano community. 

The demands and the subsequent actions of the board are too extensive to 
detail here, but as a result of the negotiations the following occurred: 

( l ) The HISD agreed to recognize Chicanos as a distinct ethnic minority for 
purposes of educational programs. 

(2) By the 1971-72 school year, the number of Mexican-American principals 
in the HISD had increased to 13 from six in 1970-1971 and three in 
1969-70. 

(3) Students and parents who participated in the boycott were not punished 
or reprimanded. 

19 



( 4) By 1971-72, the number of Mexican-American teachers in the HISD 
had increased to 312 compared to 23 1 in 1970-71 and 181 in 1969-70. 

(5) All committees, commissions, and study groups appointed by HISD have 
proportionate representation of Mexican-Americans. 

( 6) Greater emphasis has been placed on providing a curriculum and textbook 
material portraying the role of Mexican-Americans in American history. 

At the end of six weeks, the MAEC felt it had achieved enough success in its 
negotiations to call off the boycott. One Huelga School is still operating with 
about 500 students enrolled. MAEC hopes to establish this facility as a model, 
community-controlled school. MAEC is still a strong and viable organization 
which has had a wide impact on Houston. Chicanos have recently helped to elect 
the new liberal school board, the first black city councilmen, and a Chicano city 
controller. 

MAEC also applied for and received a total of nearly $90,000 in Emergency 
School Assistance Program funds. The programs operated with these funds 
include monitoring the educational system, counseling, and tutoring. The counselors 
visit all schools with Chicano students. They then interview principals, go into 
classrooms to analyze teaching methods, and meet with teachers, counselors, and 
students at the schools. The counselors work with drop-outs and high school 
seniors and provide information about college opportunities and conduct classes 
in bow to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test. 

What our monitor found in Houston, then, was an atmosphere of rpovement 
and hope. The educational leadership may be as good as any in the nation. 
The school board is responsive to the needs of all segments of the community. 
Minority groups are beginning to develop a meaningful power base and are learning 
that such power can be effectively utilized when there are public officials who 
are willing to listen and change. 

But there is still a dual school system in Houston, and therein lies the dilemma 
of the school board, community groups, and civil rights agencies. The liberal 
board clearly feels that to press for greater desegregation (which almost certainly 
would require significant new transportation arrangements) would just add to the 
tremendous white flight that has already taken place. A metropolitan-wide 
desegregation suit would bring better desegregation results, but it would also 
mean the return of educationally and politically conservative members to a 
metropolitan-wide board. The minority community senses this reality and it too 
is hesitant to risk what genuine progress has been made by pressing for the 
uncertainties of greater desegregation. All of this may seem like just more "been 
down so long it looks like up to me" to the determined advocate for greater 
desegregation, but our monitor found these concerns of decent people difficult 
to ignore. Because any meaningful desegregation in Houston seems dependent 

20 



upon the outcome of the Richmond, Virginia, metropolitan desegregation suit, 
the dominant atmosphere in Houston is resignation combined with anticipation. 
In the meantime, they are trying to find out if quality education with justice and 
opportunity can be realized even in a system that is segregated along racial and 
ethnic lines. In the words of our monitor, "If the neighborhood school policy 
(i.e. separate but equal) does not work in Houston, it will work nowhere." 

PRINCIPALS AND ADMINISTRATORS 

Success in desegregating schools depends to a considerable degree on the leader­
ship of administrators and principals who must deal with the realities of a new 
student constituency. The individuals cited here are representative of educational 
professionals throughout the urban South who are working with considerable 
patience and perserverance on the front lines of change, but our monitors found 
that such tough and sensitive leaders were more often the exception than the 
rule in many school districts. The following profiles include Area Superintendent 
J.,awrence Marshall of Houston, Texas, whose introduction to his new position of 
responsibility was a baptism of fire, Miss Lillian Brinkly whose commitment to 
desegregation and parent involvement was severely tested as a principal in Norfolk, 
Virginia, and Mr. F. W. Poates of Richmond, Virginia, who learned that even a 
white principal has to walk a tightrope in a desegregated school. One thing is clear: 
Principals and administrators are learning new skills and utilizing new resources 
because of desgregation. Their leadership is sorely needed on the long road to 
equal educational opportunity. 

Mr. Lawrence Marshall 
Area Superintendent 

Houston, Texas 

Last year there were several serious racial conflicts at Sam Houston High 
School (14 percent black, 9 percent Chicano, 76 percent white) culminating in 
a very serious one in February, 1971 . There has been no problem at Sam 
Houston this year. 

Under the dual system, Sam Houston High School served a low-income, blue­
collar area. It was the center of the old conservative regime that controlled the 
Houston Independent School District. The principal there used to raise $30,000 
to $40,000 for school board elections. H e also used to cut out of books pages on 
subjects like Negroes and the United Nations. And one person said, "He brought in 
every redneck teacher he could find." 

The new principal, Kenneth Wilbanks, who had been assistant principal there, 
tried to move the faculty, but he inherited one of the most racist faculties in 
Houston, and one with no experience with blacks. 

Under the desegregation plan announced just before school opened in August, 

21 



1970, about 300 black students who had been attending all-black Kashmere Hig!1 
School were zoned into Sam Houston. The students did not want to le.~!Ve 
Kashmere and they felt a deep sense of alienation and frustration at Sam Houston. 
Because of the racist white faculty and the lateness of the court order, there was 
no effort to prepare the white students. 

Four racial conflicts occurred during the fall and winter. The main instigators 
were two white coaches who used racial slurs to push their teams to victory. 
During the winter, the decentralization of administration took place, and it was 
announced that Lawrence Marshall, a black principal of an inner-city Title I 
school, would be the Area Superintendent for Sam Houston. Marshall's first day 
on the job was February 2, 1971, and on that day Sam Houston blew up again. 

Students always gathered in the cafeteria before school started. On a Monday, 
200 white students started fighting with 300 black students. The next morning, 
the black students started the fight in retaliation. School personnel broke up the 
fight but not before one student was stabbed and several other students received 
minor injuries. The school was closed down. 

Houston sources feel that the two racist coaches incited the white students to 
give the new black Area Superintendent a reception. Marshall said, "I left my 
office for a week and worked at that school morning to night. I put all my 
resources into that building." He first fired the two coaches (who took jobs in 
suburban districts, which they had lined up before). 

Marshall designed a student questionnaire to find out how the students really 
felt. He formed two student committees, one black and the other white. Members 
were selected by the students. There were no criteria for eligibility so those with 
peer respect and leadership ability were selected. The first day after the school 
was closed, all twelfth-grade students, parents, and their teachers came to school 
for rap sessions. Blacks and whites met separately and then together. The rap 
sessions went on for ten hours. They were repeated the following day with 
eleventh graders, and the next day with tenth graders. Marshall said, "For the 
first time, everyone had the opportunity to vent their feelings. They developed 
mutual respect for each other. The whites said the blacks were never punished. 
For the first time they found out how blacks were being punished." 

The school re-opened on Monday with stiffer, but fairly administered discipline, 
and with a bigger effort to involve black students. Marshall decided there were 
too many students for administrators, so he recommended that another assistant 
principal be brought in. That brought the staff to three white and two black. An 
extremely insensitive assistant principal, whose name kept popping up on student 
questionnaires, was reassigned to "inanimate objects"-i.e., textbooks, etc. 

This year there are black football players, other athletes, and cheerleaders. 
The school is still somewhat tense, but calm. There have been no incidents. 

22 



When asked what accounts for the fast change, the principal said, "There is no 
key. You have to have an attitude change, and get the kids working together. I 
guess being firm, fair, and having an open-door policy to anyone with any problems 
is the answer." 

Miss Lillian Brinkly 
Madison Elementary School 

Norfolk, Virginia 

Two years ago, Madison Elementary School was an all-black elementary school 
located in a lower-income black neighborhood. In the 1970-71 school year white 
children were assigned to it for the first time. These children came from the 
affluent white neighborhood of Larchmont in which reside a number of the city's 
influential citizens. The first year of desegregation was also the first year as 
principal for Miss Lillian Brinkly, a young black woman who had just attained 
her academic credentials for the position of elementary school principal. 

The white parents whose children were assigned to the school expressed their 
displeasure, creating constant problems for Miss Brinkly and her staff. The 
day school opened, a large group of parents congregated in the parking lot. They 
entered the building, went into classrooms to observe the teachers, wandered up 
and down the halls, and converged on the principal's office to demand transfers 
and register complaints. This behavior occurred for most of the school year. The 
parents said that they wanted to go into classrooms to observe the teachers 
because they believed the staff to be unqualified. Miss Brinkly felt that the 
parents were trying to dictate to her and the staff and in effect, trying to run the 
school. Among the most troublesome parents was a white school board member. 
The principal wanted the parents out of the classrooms. 

While believing strongly in parent involvement, Miss Brinkly did not want the 
parents in the classroom disturbing the education program. She asked the central 
office to back her up by instructing the parents that they could not enter class­
rooms, but that they were welcome at the school to discuss their children with 
teachers and the principal. The central office equivocated. It did not want to 
offend the influential white parents. Rather than back the principal, Assistant 
Superintendent Sam Ray (who himself lived in the Larchmont neighborhood) 
worked out a plan whereby the parents could volunteer to work as aides in the 
classroom. 

Large numbers of white parents did get into the classrooms ostensibly as aides, 
but as the year wore on, most stopped coming. Only one or two mothers were 
genuinely interested in working as teachers' helpers. 

The parents created continuing problems for the school. The white-dominated 
PT A decided to do a survey of parent attitudes toward the school. The survey was 
drawn up without consulting any school personnel and was sent out to parents who 

23 



were asked to return their responses to the principal's office in a sealed envelope. 
The PT A leaders made a report to the school board on the basis of the responses 
in which they claimed that an overwhelming number of parents were dissatisfied 
with the school's program, its staff, and principal. The parents sought to force the 
school board to transfer their children to another school. 

Unknown to parents, Miss Brinkly had steamed open every envelope and 
copied each response. When she was asked to speak at the board meeting, she 
revealed what she had done and demonstrated on the basis of parent responses 
that the majority of the parents were favorable to the school, and that only a 
minority of parents had voiced complaints. 

The central office took two other actions to pacify the white parents. As a black 
school, Madison had a seventh grade, but in its first year of desegregation it was 
supposed to teach only grades four, five, and six. At the last minute before school 
opened, however, some seventh graders were assigned to Madison. The absence 
of a junior high program fueled the complaints of parents. Within two weeks, a 
seventh grade program was put back in the school. 

Later in the year, sixth grade students were given an algebra test to determine 
whether students could take algebra in junior high school. Some white parents 
whose children did not make the passing score complained to the testing depart­
ment in the central office which then lowered the score for passing so that these 
few white children would pass the test. But the testing department took this 
action only in behalf of the complaining parents and not on behalf of all other chil­
dren similarly situated. When Miss Brinkly learned what had happened, she told all 
sixth grade children to sign up for algebra if they wanted to, irrespective of their 
score on the test. 

Still another incident developed over a camping experience. All sixth grade 
students in the city spend one week at an outdoor camp operated by the school 
system. Several white parents refused to permit their children to attend this camp 
and demanded that the system provide regular classroom instruction in the school 
during the week that the sixth grade classes and their teachers were at the camp. 
The central office refused to do this. 

The sixth grade teachers were then required to make up special lesson plans for 
the students who remained at the school and were required to return to the school 
every afternoon after camp to correct the work that had been done. This caused 
a double burden for the teachers that week. The principal was convinced that 
the parents' refusal to send their children to camp was a racially motivated fear 
of association with black children in an open and free environment. 

Despite the controversy, complaints, and problems caused by the Larchmont 
parents, Miss Brinkly had quiet background support from white parents who were 
too afraid to express their opinions openly. Miss Brinkly got little support from 

24 



the black community in her struggle with white parents. Black parents never at­
tended PT A meetings in any number. At one particularly crucial meeting, she 
and a few black ministers went door-to-door begging parents to attend. A larger 
contingent of black parents than usual showed up at the meeting, and, although 
they were silent during the meeting, their very presence tended to prevent the 
more outright hostile attacks on the principal and the school. 

Desegregation wrought definite changes at Madison. Miss Brinkly told our 
monitor, "If there is one thing that comes out of the desegregation movement, 
it is that black children are getting equal physical facilities for the first time." 
Prior to integration Madison's lunchroom did not have a health permit, the 
linoleum was worn through to the concrete sub-flooring, the kitchen equipment 
was old and worn out, and one teacher told her the lunchroom had a persistent 
foul smell. The school was not in good condition when it opened in September, 
1970. Although janitors had cleaned the hall floors, they were stiJJ dirty. Miss 
Brinkly was up until 2 a.m . the night before school opened scrubbing the floors 
herself. 

Overnight, the school system put in new kitchen equipment, a new floor, new 
cafeteria furniture, and new food storage equipment. Someone remarked that the 
smell in the lunchroom was gone. In the first year of desegregation, there were 
other minor changes, such as paper towels in the washrooms. The central office 
has approved a new paint job for the entire school and certain remodeling of 
the ceilings to reduce the noise level. 

The Title I Program at Madison is a High Intensity Reading Program, but the 
criterion for admission is that a student can be no more than two years behind 
in reading. Yet there are students in the school who are more than two years 
behind who are not getting the help they need in their regular classes. Miss 
Brinkly has worked with a sixth grade boy who did not know his alphabet. Be­
cause he was ineligible for Title I assistance, she obtained some sandpaper from 
a local hardware store and cut out letters so that the boy could gain an under­
standing of letters through his tactile sense. 

Only five schools in Norfolk have this High Intensity Reading Program. Some 
people believe it was put into the school to help augment the instructional pro­
gram so that the central office could demonstrate to white parents that everything 
was being done to upgrade the quality of education in the school. The program 
does not, and was not designed to, meet the most serious academic needs of the 
children. Neither the principal nor the faculty asked for the program. 

This year, life is much different at Madison. The white parents who had refused 
to accept integration have finally got their children into a private school. The 
remaining white parents accept the situation. A boundary change picked up Navy 
families who were more accustomed to interracial situations and desegregated 
schools than most white families. The presence of Navy children in the classroom 

25 



is a moderating influence on other white children. Children are coming to schoo 
alone, and there are no longer hoards of parents swarming over the school anc 
into the principal's office. Miss Brinkly had decided after last year to ask fo 
a transfer from Madison or resign her position. The superintendent agreed tc 
her transfer, but a week later he rescinded it and asked her to stay at Madison 
His action was based on a letter which he had received from I 00 parents praisini 
Miss Brinkly and the job she had done as principal. Some of the same parents whc 
had caused her so much grief had signed the letter. 

Mr. F. W. Poates 
Elkhardt Middle School 

Richmond, Virginia 

Elkhardt Middle School is a neighborhood school located in a lower-middl1 
income, predominantly white community which is in the annexed part of the 
Richmond City Public School District. Formerly a white school, it has bee1 
desegregated for two years. In the first year of desegregation ( 1970-71) unde 
Judge Merhige's interim plan, Elkhardt was 30 percent black. In the 1971-7: 
school year, it is 56 percent white and 44 percent black. The desegregation of the 
school was not accomplished by pairing it with another middle or junior higl 
school. Blacks and whites live in the neighborhood of the school and the farthes 
distance any pupil is bused is three miles. 

Busing has been an accepted practice in this section of the school district becaus( 
it was formerly part of the Chesterfield County district where 90 percent of th( 
students were bused. The principal has seen incidents on the buses for sever 
years, but nothing he would attribute to desegregation. Aides ride on buses tha· 
transport elementary students. 

Mr. F. W. Poates is principal of Elkhardt Middle School. He has been then 
for seven years, four years as its assistant principal, one year as its principal befon 
desegregation, and two as its princip::il after desegregation Mr. Poates becam< 
principal of one of the most troublesome schools in the system and has weatherec 
some fairly rough desegregation storms in the past year and a half. 

Mr. Poates' most serious problems occurred in the first year of desegregation 
A fight took place between a black child and white one, and was treated in th( 
normal manner and settled to the principal's satisfaction and to the satisfactior 
of the two children. But rumors developed over the incident. Mainly fueled b~ 
white parents, rumors of violence, slashings, and beatings were widely circulatec 
in the community and fed to the press which has a history of opposition tc 
desegregation. A crisis developed and 800 children (out of an enrollment at th< 
time of 1,300) were pulled out of the school. The boycott lasted only four days 
There was a strong PT A at the time, and the principal sought its help in quellini 
the rumors. White parents were brought in by the PT A to monitor the halls witl 

26 



the help of the staff, gradually reassuring parents that the stories circulating about 
the school were false. 

In the first year of desegregation, the school was seriously overcrowded. It had 
a capacity of 930 students, an enrollment of t ,300. Thirteen portables were added. 
Classes were held in the cafeteria and gym. This year, the school is under capacity 
with some 750 students. It serves grades six, seven, and eight. Activities and 
athletics programs which were in existence last year had to be reorganized this 
year because of desegregation. Interscholastic athletics were eliminated but this 
was not due to desegregation. Mr. Poates wishes he had them back. They help to 
pull parents to the school when they wouldn't come for any other reason. Students 
established organizations and clubs which meet three afternoons a week. Special 
bus runs, made possible by ESAP, take the children home after four o'clock. Black 
students have largely taken over the clubs and athletics, according to Mr. Poates. 
White pa rents have been putting subtle pressure on their children to come 
straight home after school. Mr. Poates and his home-school coordinator (also 
made possible by ESAP) went to community meetings, including meetings in the 
black community, to solicit parent support for desegregation, the PTA (which 
is non-active this year) and for student activities. White children are coming 
into the activities gradually, but blacks still control everything, including the 
Student Cooperat ive Association which functions as a kind of student government. 
Mr. Poates feel s that children the age of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders have 
not developed a capacity to deal with real policy issues or to lay down rules and 
regulations. The SCA contributed to the desegregation process by conducting 
meetings two years ago to di scuss interracial relations in the schools. These were 
set up by students and are credited with doing much to set a positive tone among 
students for school desegregation . 

THE COMMUNITY 

Our monitors found some urban school districts where admirable efforts were 
made by community groups to push for desegregation or to make a district's de­
segregation plan work. Community support cannot, however, be effective in a 
vacuum. If a school district is unwilling to demonstrate leadership on its own (as 
has been the case in some of the districts mentioned below) no amount of com­
munity support can be expected to turn the school system around. Some extremely 
energetic and creative community groups can have a healthy impact on the school 
district and even change its leadership, but without leadership on the school board 
and in the superintendent's office such efforts are likely to achieve only minimal 
results. 

In four cities, the League of Women Voters was mentioned as being particularly 
effective in working on behalf of ending the dual school system. The Mobile, Ala­
bama, L WV was a strong supporter of the desegregation plan there and worked 

27 



with a black community organization on a "Make It Work" campaign. The Mobi' 
LWV also sponsored a bi-racial workshop under the same title. The Baton Roug1 
Louisiana, LWV made a study of the extent of desegregation and presented th 
school board with their report, which indicated that the board had failed to carr 
through its own desegregation plan. The study also pointed out that future schoc 
construction sites would entrench segregation. In Austin, Texas, the LWV passe 
a resolution supporting racially balanced schools and the use of busing if necessar~ 
In January, 1971, the Austin LWV submitted testimony to the United Stat( 
Senate Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity in which it indicted th 
school administration for its Jack of commitment to equal educational opportunit~ 
Later, the League prepared a question-and-answer sheet on desegregation whic 
was published in the local newspaper. The Atlanta, Georgia, LWV was among 
number of groups which issued a statement in May, 1971, urging the schoc 
board to use whatever methods necessary, including busing, to desegregate th 
school system. Earlier, the League had been instrumental in forming groups t 
support an anticipated busing order which failed to materialize. 

The news media in several cities were also mentioned as being particularly pos 
tive in asserting the desegregation process. Among the newspapers mentioned wa 
the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, Arkansas, which has been supportive c 
desegregation efforts for more than a decade. 

The Florence, South Carolina, Morning News provided exceilent coverage c 
school programs and curriculum innovations and featured several level-heade 
articles from the viewpoint of drivers, students, and school officials on how busin 
was actually working in the district. The St. Petersburg Times consistently fea 
tured editorials which were very positive in supporting the district's desegregatio 
efforts. At its own expense the paper printed a comprehensive and lengthy, bt 
easy to understand, special section called "Pinellas School Zone Guide." One c 
the appointees to the district's bi-racial committee characterized the Times as "fabt 
lous." The Charlotte Observer has also provided leadership in covering that di! 
trict's tortuous route through the courts, in treating the district's problems an 
potential in a balanced and thorough manner, and in calling for the district to fulfi 
its constitutional obligations. 

Our monitors also identified a number of citizen's organizations which hav 
actively supported desegregation and good education. In Nashville, Tennessc1 
the Concerned Citizens for Improved Schools has been the strongest supporter c 
desegregation in the school district. The bi-racial group has done research o 
problems of desegregation, submitted a conceptual desegregation plan to the U. ~ 
District Court for its consideration, and continues to speak out in support c 
desegregation. CCIS now has an Emergency School Assistance Program grant an 
is working with students in the schools. 

Better Schools - Atlanta has worked for desegregation in Atlanta, as he 
the ACT Educational Program in Mobile, Alabama. ACT has also operated wit 

28 



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an ESAP grant and worked with the Mobile League of Women Voters in desegre­
gation efforts. In Jackson, Mississippi, the Community Coalition for Public Schools 
and J acksonians for Public Education played constructive roles in working to 
finally make the schools in that city unitary. Groups active in Austin, Texas, in­
cluded the Concerned Parents, primarily a Chicano group, and the Tri-Ethnic 
Community Council. In West Memphis, Arkansas, a group made up primarily of 
white parents from a low-income community formed the Concerned Parents 
Organization in opposition to a desegregation plan that established gerrymandered 
zones adversely affecting their children. The zones were such that the poorer white 
children were more likely to be transported to schools far from their homes than 
the more affluent white children who were assigned close to their homes and to 
schools with a higher white majority. The CPO asked for more busing and a 50-50 
racial ratio in each school. 

The St. Petersburg, Florida, Chamber of Commerce's Community Alliance Com­
mittee was involved in commenting on the staff-developed desegregation plans 
there before they were submitted to the school board. Also, in Jackson, Mississippi, 
the Chamber organized the Jackson Education Task Force to support the de­
segregation plan and provide assistance in mobilizing community leaders behind 
the efforts of the school system. The Greensboro, North Carolina, Chamber organ­
ized a similar group called Concerned Citizens for Schools. Chamber of Com­
merce organizations in other cities such as Little Rock, Arkansas; Columbia, South 
Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee, and elsewhere made various statements endorsing 
the desegregation plans of the respective cities, supporting public education, or 
merely calling for "calm." Few Chambers, however, took the kind of initiative 
found in Greensboro and Jackson. 

Other established organizations have been consistently active in behalf of de­
segregation in several cities. The Knoxville, Tennessee, Area Urban League has 
been supportive of desegregation litigation and has conducted a survey of black 
residents on their attitudes toward desegregation. The Memphis, Tennessee, Branch 
of the NAACP has been the main proponent of school desegregation in that city. 
The NAACP Executive Secretary and two members of the NAACP Executive 
Board are now on the Memphis school board. The Pritchard, Alabama, NAACP 
has also work,ed with other organizations in Mobile County to promote desegrega­
tion progress. 

29 



III 

DISTRICTS THAT GREEN, ALEXANDER, 
AND SWANN FORGOT 

Our monitors reported on three districts where no desegregation activity ha! 
occurred for the past three to five years because of lack of initiatives taken b) 
federal or private civil rights agencies. These districts a re not merely delinquent ir 
adhering to Constitutional standards outlined by the U. S. Supreme Court ir 
recent years; they are also in blatant violation of the mandates set forth in the 
Green, Alexander, and Swann decisions. In each case it appears the delay by the 
respective school districts in meeting their obligations has contributed to resegrega. 
tion, racial impaction, and hardened attitudes which will make any future desegre· 
gation difficult. 

BEAUMONT, TEXAS 
Located in eastern Texas, the city of Beaumont has a population of abou· 

117,000. Two school systems in the city, Beaumont Independent School Distric1 
and South Park Independent School District, operate under separate desegrega· 
tion plans. A total of 14,326 pupils a re en rolled in the Beaumont ISO of whi~t 
52.3 percent are white, 45.3 percent are black, and 2.4 percent are Chicano 
With practically the same ratio, the South Park ISO is operating under a court· 
ordered desegregation plan and appears to be complying with its modest require· 
ments for zoning and faculty desegregation. 

At a time when many school officials admit that freedom of choice is no longe1 
an acceptable method for desegregating public schools, the Beaumont Independent 
School District has been unchallenged in its continued use of this approach whicr 
Green permitted only if it "promises realistically to work." It isn't working ir 
Beaumont. 

30 



III 

DISTRICTS THAT GREEN, ALEXANDER, 
AND SWANN FORGOT 

Our monitors reported on three districts where no desegregation activity has 
occurred for the past three to five years because of lack of initiatives taken by 
federal or private civil rights agencies. These districts are not merely delinquent in 
adhering to Constitutional standards outlined by the U. S. Supreme Court in 
recent years; they are also in blatant violation of the mandates set forth in the 
Green, Alexander, and Swann decisions. In each case it appears the delay by the 
respective school districts in meeting their obligations has contributed to resegrega­
tion, racial impaction, and hardened attitudes which will make any future desegre­
gation difficult. 

BEAUMONT, TEXAS 
Located in eastern Texas, the city of Beaumont has a population of about 

117,000. Two school systems in the city, Beaumont Independent School District 
and South Park Independent School District, operate under separate desegrega­
tion plans. A total of 14,326 pupils are enrolled in the Beaumont ISO of whi~h 
52.3 percent are white, 45.3 percent are black, and 2.4 percent are Chicano. 
With practically the same ratio, the South Park ISO is operating under a court­
ordered desegregation plan and appears to be complying with its modest require­
ments for zoning and faculty desegregation. 

At a time when many school officials admit that freedom of choice is no longer 
an acceptable method for desegregating public schools, the Beaumont Independent 
School District has been unchallenged in its continued use of this approach which 
Green permitted only if it "promises realistically to work." Jt isn't working in 
Beaumont. 

30 



Seven years of freedom of choice has produced a system of quasi-desegregation 
within whi<;h 68 percent of the black students in the district are still attending 
segregated, all-black schools. Beaumont maintains eight of its 23 schools as totally 
segregated institutions for blacks, while six other schools have student enrollments 
which are 90-93 percent white. Sixty-four percent of all white students in the dis­
trict attend these six schools. 

In addition to failing to comply with Green and subsequent Supreme Court 
decisions, Beaumont has made no effort to adhere to the standards for faculty 
desegregation set down in Singleton. With a faculty ratio in the system of 34 
percent black, 66 percent white, 73 percent of the black faculty members are 
assigned to all-black schools. All but one of the seven black principals and four 
assistant principals are assigned to 100 percent black schools. Five schools have 
faculty ratios of 90-96 percent white; five schools have faculty ratios of 80-89 
percent white, and five schools have 80-89 percent black ratios. The three black 
staff members in the district's central office deal chiefly with poor and black 
children. 

Beaumont's failure to comply with clearly enunciated constitutional standards 
has, in effect, been sanctioned by the inaction of both HEW's Office For Civil 
Rights and the Justice Department. Both agencies appear to be immobilized by 
jurisdictional questions which have been given little priority and which are un­
resolved even today. 

In 1964, the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in Brown v. 
Hendrix, declared Beaumont's policy of enforced school segregation unconstitu­
tional. The court approved the d istrict's grade-a-year free choice plan which took 
effect at the beginning of the 1965-66 school year; in December, the board 
voluntarily expanded the court-ordered plan to an immediate twelve-year free 
choice plan. After an on-site review in August, 1965, HEW accepted the Beau­
mont plan. Some time in 1966, the court reportedly dismissed its case against the 
school district. But our monitor was told that the court still maintains jurisdiction 
in Beaumont and has reportedly suggested to the school board that it take steps to 
further integrate the schools "before the federal government forces you to do so." 

In May, 1969, a private citizen of Beaumont filed a complaint with HEW charg­
ing that " the majority of the Negro Community and its complex of civic organiza­
tions are thoroughly in disaccord with the lethargy and disconcern of the Beau­
mont Independent School District relative to desegregation of our schools under 
the 'Freedom of Choice' plan." The HEW Office For Civil Rights forwarded the 
letter to the Justice Department on grounds that the district was currently operating 
under a federal court order. There is no evidence of action on the complaint. 

When in 1970 the Justice Department moved against the remaining recalcitrant 
school districts in Texas (including South Park), it again failed to take action 
against the Beaumont ISO. The department explained that it was not an original 

31 



party to the suit and could not enter it unless requested to do so by the plaintiffs 
(all of whom had left Beaumont by this time). 

In the summer of 1971, it came to the attention of the Office For Civil Rights that 
Beaumont was still operating under a freedom of choice plan, and an effort was 
made to determine jurisdiction. The Justice Department reportedly contended 
that it could not enter under Title IX with a "friend-of-the-court" brief, and that 
it did not have a Title IV complaint (in spite of the aforementioned citizen's 
complaint). Recommendations were made within HEW that the Office For Civil 
Rights conduct a compliance review and request a plan for desegregation in Beau­
mont for the 1971-72 school year. Apparently, nothing was done. Freedom of 
choice continues to prevail in Beaumont. 

Meanwhile, Beaumont school officials quietly maintain a "don't rock the boat" 
posture, fearful, on the one hand, their unusual system will be discovered, but 
conscious, on the other, of the need to make some preparation for the day when 
they will be required to move toward a truly unitary system. Afraid their use of 
freedom of choice would be uncovered, the district did not even apply for Emer­
gency School Assistance Program funds. In anticipation of eventually having to 
meet Singleton requirements, this year the district placed 84 percent of the newly 
employed black teachers in schools with majority white faculties. School officials 
have failed to make needed renovations in the black schools because, the black 
community suspects, they are aware some of these schools will have to be closed 
when more significant desegregation comes to the district. 

"Separate and unequal" is very much a part of Beaumont's dual system. The 
all-black high school, Charlton-Pollard, was built more than 40 years ago for 
500 students. Now it holds 1,100. Students tell stories of rats in the auditorium 
and roaches in the food in the cafeteria. The auditorium is too small for all of the 
student body to gather at one time; the heating system is antiquated; the plumbing 
is inadequate. 

Charlton-Pollard has an outstanding football team (Beaumont is reputed to 
have produced more professional football players than any other city in the na­
tion), and the bulk of the revenue for the district's athletic fund comes from black 
athletic events. But Charlton-Pollard has no athletic field of its own and must 
use the one at Beaumont High. When a $350,000 field house was constructed 
at the 90 percent white French High School last year, Charlton-Pollard got a 
temporary "tin" building as a coaches' room. 

Other black schools are plagued by inconvenience and safety hazards which the 
black community feels would not be tolerated at schools where whites are enrolled. 
Carver Elementary, the old Charlton-Pollard school 40 years ago, is located 
near the oil refineries which, ironically, pay property taxes to the South Park 
school district. Whenever the refineries burn off excess gas or there is the threat 
of an explosion, students have to be sent home. Even the newest black school, 

32 



Bethune Elementary, occupies land surrounded on three sides by a river with 
nothing but a low fence separ'.lting the children from the water. During warm 
months, the mosquitoes are so bad the Bethune children are not allowed outside 
during recess. 

The black community is also concerned that Charlton-Pollard is being down­
graded academically. Better black teachers are being transferred from the black 
school to majority white schools. Only a narrow college preparatory curriculum is 
offered at Charlton-Pollard, and it appears to the community that this school is 
being changed to one where vocational training is the priority. Even so, materials 
in the shop are scarce; the home economics department is poorly equipped, and the 
biology laboratory has inadequate resources. The school has no equipment for 
an orchestra, though there are orchestras not only in the white high schools but 
in the lower schools as well. Our monitor received reports that students in black 
schools receive textbooks handed down from the majority white schools. 

In spite of the educational deficiencies of the black schools, they are institutions 
in which the black community takes great pride. The black community has seen 
some of its students choose to transfer to majority white schools only to face 
the task of winning acceptance and "proving" themselves to the white majority 
(black student council members and cheerleaders are present at Beaumont High 
for the first time this year and only in the freshman and sophomore classes). 
Obviously, an all-black school poses no such problems. Some parents are in­
clined to feel there is less reason to wonder whether their children will be treated 
decently by the teachers at Charlton-Pollard and the other black schools than if 
they were in a majority white school. They feel at least that the Charlton-Pollard 
teachers are likely to be more sympathetic and understanding of the needs of 
black students who might otherwise be overlooked or "pushed-out" in a majority 
white school. 

The black community's pride in these schools exists not only because of Charl­
ton-Pollard's athletic prowess or because they have produced whatever models 
for success exist in the black community, but also because the students there have 
achieved a high degree of solidarity and influence in recent years. In 1969, stu­
dents organized and effectively sustained a total boycott of Charlton-Pollard to 
protest the arbitrary refusal to renew the contracts of two popular black male 
teachers. The four-day boycott united the black community and ultimately resulted 
in new contracts for both teachers. 

Since that time, students have held a sit-in in the cafeteria to protest the quality 
of the food and service and treatment of free-lunch recipients. This resulted in 
the transfer of the cafeteria manager and changes in procedures for free-lunch. 
Other problems remain, however. Currently the students are campaigning for a 
black cultural center. The students' maturity and responsibility, not to mention 
the effectiveness of their activities, have earned them considerable respect from 

33 



the black and white commumties. The black community recognizes that these 
students have achieved a certain degree of power and recognition as agents of 
change; such status in a black school obviously compares unfavorably with 
speculations on how such demonstrations of power would be received in a majority 
white institution. 

Beaumont's delay in meeting its constitutional obligations has helped to create 
a climate in which total desegregation will be made more difficult when it comes. 
The black community of Beaumont did not ask for segregated institutions, and 
black people obviously are unhappy with the inferior education and many of the 
conditions which now exist in their schools. But it is clear the black community 
is now reluctant to enter enthusiastically into a new structure for the school system 
which may result in the destruction of symbols of community pride and the 
dilution of student power. The black community has learned through experience 
and observation where the burden for desegregation usually falls; the actions of 
"their" school board have given them little reason to believe things will be different 
in Beaumont. 

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 

Two words characterize the school system of Charleston, South Carolina: con­
fusion and segregation. 

Charleston is on a peninsula bounded by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers; it in­
cludes an area only about four miles long and two miles wide. It was in Charleston 
that school desegregation began in South Carolina. 

In 1962, 13 plaintiffs filed suit against the school district with the assistance 
of attorneys affiliated with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. That suit resulted in 
a U. S. District Court order which granted freedom of choice to the 13 plaintiffs 
only. The order was later broadened to include free choice for all students. Charles­
ton continued to use a freedom of choice desegregation plan until 1969. 

Desegregation in Charleston County began to get complicated in 1968 when 
the eight school districts in the county, including the Charleston city d istrict, 
were consolidated under one school board and one superintendent. The consoli­
dated school boa-rd was composed of one member residing in each of the former 
districts, but each member was elected by the county at large. Nevertheless, the 
eight former districts, now known as "constituent districts," kept their school 
boards (four with elected school boards, four with boards appointed by the 
county's state legislative delegation) , and these boards retained the authority to 
assign students, to hire, assign, and dismiss teachers, and to draw bus routes. In 
other words, financial and some administrative consolidation was accomplished 
at the county level, but the constituent districts retained many of their traditional 
powers. 

34 



Subsequent litigation developed as follows: 

Summer, 1968 - LDF attorneys filed a motion for further relief to achieve greater 
desegregation in the Charleston city district. In September, U. S. District Judge 
Robert Martin ordered the district to file a new desegregation plan for 1969-
70. In December, the school board submitted a response calling for freedom 
of choice. 

Winter, 1969 - LDF attorneys filed a motion to join the other constituent districts 
in the county as defendants in the Charleston city suit. 

Spring, 1969 - U . S. District Judge Robert Martin ordered the Charleston city 
district to work with the HEW Title IV office in developing a new desegregation 
plan. 

Late spring, 1969 - Attorneys for the Charleston city district advised LDF at­
torneys that a new plan had been developed and was being submitted to the 
court. Though board attorneys apparently informed the chief plaintiff's at­
torney that the plan was available for his inspection, the LDF lawyers maintain 
they were unaware of the development of a new plan. 

July, 1969 - Judge Martin granted the motion to make the consolidated school 
board a party to the suit. It appears however, that this did not necessarily mean 
that the constituent districts would be made defendants in the suit. Appa·rently, 
the county board was involved because under the new consolidation arrangement 
the city district alone would not have had the authority to implement any new 
desegregation plan. (On August 5, 1969, Judge Martin wrote a letter to one 
of the plaintiffs' attorneys clarifying his July ruling and stating, in effect, that 
a new suit would have to be brought against the other seven constituent districts 
in order to consolidate their desegregation plans.) 

Late July, 1969 - Either because of oversight or because they did not know the 
Charleston city plan had been submitted to the court, the LDF attorneys failed 
to file their objections to the plan within the standard ten-day period. Accord­
ingly, Judge Martin ordered the new plan to be implemented noting that the 
"plaintiffs herein make no contention that the said agreed plan does not meet 
constitutional standards." The Charleston city system is still operating under 
this order. 

August, 1969 - Plaintiffs' attorneys filed their response and objections to all eight 
desegregation plans in the Charleston County districts, including the just-ap­
proved plan for the city of Charleston. Objections to the city plan included the 
facts that it allowed free choice assignment of teachers, that 87 percent of the 
black students remained in all-black schools, and that whites would continue 
to defect to surrounding districts unless a county-wide plan were established. 
Judge Martin indicated he would accept all the HEW-approved desegregation 
plans of the seven constituent districts. Because of the inability to finance 

35 



further litigation and because of the press of time and work on LDF attorneys, 
no further legal action was initiated in Charleston, and Judge Martin's order 
was not appealed. 

The constituent districts in Charleston County, other than the city district, 
continue to operate under HEW's jurisdiction. Though the Cooper River constituent 
district has an overall enrollment that is 71 percent white, and 29 percent black, 
nine of its 25 schools have enrollments that are more than 93 percent white. 
One school is 99 percent black and another is 91 percent black. In the Johns 
Island district where the enrollment is 67 percent black, 33 percent white, 
one school is 90 percent black and another is 99 percent black. The Moultrie 
district has five schools with a total enrollment that is 57 percent white and 43 
percent black, but it has one school that is 96 percent black, and another that 
is 98 percent white. The St. Andrews district has an enrollment that is 82 percent 
white and 18 percent black, and one school is 93 percent white. There are reports 
of segregated or racially imbalanced classes in many of the constituent districts, 
and it is doubtful that the districts are adhering to Singleton standards in the as­
signment of teachers. Citing certain "pressures," HEW sources report they have 
taken no post-Swann action in the constituent districts. Apparently HEW has not 
conducted on-site compliance reviews in the constituent districts for some time. 

The Charleston city district is now virtually an all-black system. Whites have 
been deserting the peninsula city for the suburbs since desegregation began, with 
most of them fleeing to the North Charleston or the St. Andrews areas. Nineteen 
private segregation academies in the county have a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 
students. Half of the school-age children in the county attend desegregated paro­
chial schools. 

With only one exception, no public school in the city has less than an 80 percent 
black enrollment. The exception is Charleston High, approved by the court as a 
"college preparatory" school but regarded by blacks as a haven for white teachers 
and administrators. Five of the district's ten elementary schools are all-black, while 
three others have only five whites enrolled in each. The remaining two schools 
have 67 whites and 52 whites respectively. Three high schools are all or virtually 
all black. Charleston High is the only fully desegregated school, with a 50-50 ratio 
of whites and blacks, but the faculty is all-white. Charleston city schools do not 
meet the Singleton standard. 

School officials are quick to cite the obstacles to greater desegregation in Charles­
ton. The county is nearly one hundred miles Jong, and the outlying districts are 
sparsely populated. To bus students between the Moultrie District and the city 
of Charleston, it would be necessary to cross the two-and-a-half mile-long Cooper 
River Bridge. To pair schools between the Cooper River District (North Charles­
ton) and the city, officials say it would be necessary to use the main traffic artery, 
Interstate 26, and school buses can' t operate on interstate highways. Actually, 

36 



several surface streets run between the districts. For students to be transported 
between the St. Andrews District and the city, a single bridge across the Ashley 
River would have to be used. These geographical problems would obviously make 
desegregation difficult, but there is no indication they would make it impossible. 

In the meantime, the feeling exists among Charleston blacks that desegregation 
has accomplished little for black students in the other constituent districts in 
Charleston Ccunty. They have observed that black students in desegregated schools 
have been subjected to discriminatory or arbitrary treatment, or that no attempt 
is made to make them feel comfortable in a setting in which they are in the 
minority. Black students told our monitor of the following problems they have 
encountered in constituent district schools. Though there was not time to verify 
all of these allegations, they are important because black students and the black 
community believe them to be true: 

-At Fort Johnson High School (25 percent black) in the James Island District 
no blacks are student council officers. Students say that for the past two years, 
teachers have claimed there was a tie between black and white candidates 
for student council officers, and a runoff was held. The teachers and princi­
pals, all white, counted the ballots and did not tell the students the exact 
number of votes cast for each candidate. Only the white students won. Only 
one black student is a varsity cheerleader. An Interracial Council exists, with 
a black and a white student from each class, but it is inactive. Though black 
students are involved in school clubs, they are left out of parties held in the 
homes of students and teachers. 

-At St. Andrews High School, black students are outnumbered 1,260 to 130. 
Only one black representative is among the 40 members of the student 
council. There are no black cheerleaders. Two black students are on the 
varsity football team. Black band members have refused to play "Dixie," and 
other black students have complained of the use of the Confederate flag. 

They have also complained of the lack of a black guidance counselor. When 
42 black students recently sat in at the principal's office to protest their 
grievances, they were suspended. 

One student said about the protest, "We're so vastly outnumbered here at 
St. Andrews that we had to do something. And you know something? What 
gets us is that not one black leader, not even the one serving on the county 
school board, has bothered to look into the situation over here. It's Teally 
something." 

-At Moultrie High School (38 percent black) the student body officers are 
all white. During the election, two black and two white students were in a 
runoff. The principal then claimed the voting had been "too close" (though 
the students had not been told a plurality vote would not be sufficient). 

37 



He said that the top white and the top black had to compete in another 
runoff. He would not say which candidate had received the plurality of votes. 
Subsequently, the black candidate lost. 

After some protest in the fall of 1971 by black students, a bi-racial committee 
was formed. The black members were selected by the black students, and 
the white members were appointed by the assistant principal. Though the 
blacks did not feel the whites were sympathetic to their grievances, the com­
mittee eventually did recommend there be a fifty-fifty representation in 
school activities. Even though this recommendation was altered by a teachers' 
committee to require proportionate representation instead, the principal and 
the school board failed until spring to act on the recommendation. 

There are still no black cheerleaders. A former student body co-president, 
now a senior, was supposed to be the art editor of the school annual, but was 
dropped from that position after he led a student protest against the exclusion 
of blacks from activities. Black students are barred from participating in 
sports if, in the view of the all-white coaching staff, they "have the wrong 
attitude" or "hang around with the wrong group." 

- At North Charleston High (24 percent black) the student body officers are all 
white. The cheerleaders are all white. There are no black majorettes even 
though the band is fairly well desegregated. When a black student who had 
won all-state and other band honors . tried out for the position of drum major 
last year, the band director selected instead a white student who had received 
no such honors and who had not even tried out for the position. The Afro­
American Club, started after blacks staged a walkout, has one white member. 

The glee club is the only other activity that is fairly well desegregated. The 
lack of representation of blacks at North Charleston seems partly due to their 
not feeling wanted in extracurricular activities; some who were chosen to 
participate later dropped out for this reason. 

There are also reports of successful experiences by black students at other 
schools, but obviously the good news does not travel as quickly as the bad. In 
schools where there is little positive communication between black students and the 
administration and teachers, it is not surprising that problems of concern to the 
students continue to go unresolved. The black community of Charleston has learned 
from these experiences as it has viewed the consequences of desegregation in these 
neighboring constituent districts. 

While the number of suspensions and expulsions outside the city district are 
unknown, attorneys with Neighborhood Legal Services in Charleston report they 
believe the disciplinary actions against black students to be high. One attorney 
speculated that if more desegregation occurred in the county, as many as one 
thousand fewer black students would graduate. Besides those expelled or suspended, 

38 



many other black students are "pushed out" by the insensitivity and nonresponsive 
attitudes of white administrators and teachers. 

Perhaps the impressions of our monitor best express the reasons for the problems 
which frequently result in disciplinary action or " push-outs": "Some black adults 
declare that the white schools into which blacks have moved really haven' t changed 
that much-that they were always prisons and that whites long ago adjusted to 
the regimentation. Black kids just haven't been able to get used to not talking 
in the halls, taking off their hats in the classrooms, watching their language, and 
being subservient to the white teacher who demands that they say 'yes, ma'am.' " 

In the opinion of our monitor, when these students break the rules they are 
usually treated with a minimum of understanding. The students become more 
resentful , and then they a re likely to break more rules. Black students who make 
it known through protests or publication of their grievances that they don't like 
discriminatory treatment are simply branded as " trouble makers," and are subject 
to even more arbitrary treatment and exclusion from participation in all aspects 
of school life. 

It is little wonder then that many black citizens of Charleston feel they have 
little to gain from desegregation. At least in the remaining black schools their 
children are free to participate in school activities to the maximum degree and to 
thereby take advantage of opportunities to develop leadership potential. At least 
black teachers and counselors make an effort to keep black children in school, 
so that they may graduate instead of being " pushed out." 

At least one black community leader advocates black community control 
of Charleston's schools. But at present there is little evidence of even significiant 
black influence. Though there are three blacks on the Charleston constituent 
school board, the boa rd has met on ly four times within the past year, a nd then 
only at the beckoning of the white superintendent who really controls the system. 
The black representative of the city district who serves on the county board is 
frequentJy absent from that body, and has little influence on it. Though all-black 
Burke High School is severely over-crowded, school officials were unwilling to 
alter its attendance area until students staged a successful boycott this March. 

The well-informed and concerned district-wide PT A council has made numerous 
requests to the school board, but in most cases they have been politely heard and 
then ignored. The financial authority for the school district lies with the county 
board of education, and one teacher observed that the district "does not have 
one single program directed at black urban youth." 

Blacks in Charleston feet that to be left a tone is an asset at a time when black 
students in neighboring districts arc encountering desegregated school systems 
where there is little positive educational leadership, and where they are met with 
insensitivity and hostility. Black citizens approached by our mon itor were quick 

39 



to explain that they had no problems in the Charleston city district "because we 
aren't desegregated." One black guidance counselor added that the district has 
"the usual problems of a black ghetto school district." 

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 

The Orleans Parish school system has an enrollment of 107, 742 students of 
which 71.8 percent are black and 28.2 percent are white. Since 1959, the white 
enrollment bas decreased by about 10,000 students while the black enrollment has 
increased by 20,000 students. The decrease in white enrollment is due at least 
in part to the close proximity of two school districts which have substantially 
higher white enrollments than does Orleans Parish. St. Bernard Parish, with a 
black student enrollment of only one to two percent, is contiguous to Orleans, as 
is Jefferson Parish with a 20.2 percent black enrollment. Orleans Parish includes 
almost all of the city of New Orleans and some areas to the north and west of it. 
St. Bernard and Jefferson Parishes are primarily suburban. 

The Orleans Parish school system was an early subject of school desegregation . 
But the lack of legal initatives over the past five years has lulled it into the comfort­
able acceptance of schools which are still highly segregated. Apparently, few mem­
bers of the black community are aware of the status of desegregation litigation in 
their school system. Because they send their children to physically and education­
ally inferior schools, however, they are-or should be-aware that "separate and 
unequal" is very much a part of New Orleans schools. 

Black citizens of New Orleans first petitioned the Orleans Parish School Board 
to end racial discrimination in the public schools in the fall of 1951. When the 
board turned down the petition, a desegregation suit, Bush v. Orleans Parish School 
Board, was filed in 1952, with the assistance of attorneys affiliated with the 
NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Due to delays, legal stratagems by the defendants, 
appeals, and the concept of "deliberate speed," it was not until the fall of 1960 
that token public school desegregation began in New Orleans. Four black students 
initiated desegregation that year; twelve were enrolled in 1961, and I 07 entered 
previously all-white schools in 1962. The last order in the Bush case was filed on 
Oct. 12, 1967, as a result of plaintiffs having moved for further relief pursuant to 
the decision in United States v. Jefferson County Board of Education. No motions 
have been filed subsequent to the Green, Alexander, or Swann decisions. 

The Orleans Parish desegregation plan utilizes what one local attorney refers 
to as "zoned freedom of choice." While the 1967 order assigned students in all 
grades pursuant to a single system of non-racial attendance zones (also known as 
the "neighborhood school concept" ), exceptions to these assignments are permitted 
through a system of "permits" and residence affidavits that allow a student to 
transfer from his zone with little difficulty. 

40 



The effect of the plan is as follGws: For the 1971-1972 year, out of 96 
elementary schools, 30 are 100 percent black, ten are 99 to 99.9 percent 
black, nine are 90 to 98 percent black, and three are 85 to 89 percent black; 
two schools are 100 percent white, and twelve are 90 to 99 percent white. At the 
junior high school level, out of 23 schools, five are 100 percent black, four 
are 99 to 99.9 percent black, and two are 90 to 98 percent black, while two 
schools are 81 to 87 percent white. The only junior-senior high school in the sys­
tem is 100 percent black. Out of fifteen high schools, three are 100 percent black, 
two are 99 percent bfack, and one is 90 to 98 percent black, while one school is 
90 to 98 percent white, and two are 75 to 89 percent white. 

So-of the 135 schools in the system, excluding special schools, 41 are one­
race schools, and 42 are overwhelmingly (90 to 99.9 percent) of one race. 

With little question, the Orleans Parish system of neighborhood schools plus 
the permit and residence affidavit policies make possible this degree of racial 
segregation. Jn a conversation with LeRoy Harper, executive assistant to the super­
intendent and the person responsible for the permits, our monitor found that the 
school system grants between 7,000 and 8,000 permits each year. While the per­
mits offer a kind of freedom of choice to black students which enable them to trans­
fer to schools with a higher white percentage, they also enable white students to 
transfer out of schools in which their race is in the minority. During the first half 
of this school year, the school system granted 3,300 permits, evenly divided be­
tween white and black students. Mr. Harper acknowledged that 90 percent of the 
time, race is the reason for asking for a permit. 

The permit policy, however, does not enable black students to transfer with 
complete freedom. The only significant restriction on whites seeking transfer per­
mits is that permits should not be issued to whites in "precariously racially balanced 
schools." But the permit policy provides that no black student may transfer to a 
formerly white school which has a black enrollment in excess of 30 percent. Black 
students have a priority if they wish to transfer to an all-white school or one with 
Jess than 10 percent black enrollment. 

Another provision allows parents to submit a residence affidavit to the school 
district office indicating that their child does not live at home and naming the 
person with whom he is staying. The school board then sends out a visiting teacher 
to check on these facts. The system grants 1,200 to 1,400 ·residence affidavits 
each year, and school officials believe this policy is greatly abused. Obviously, 
many of the affidavits are either false or the child moves back in with his family 
after the facts of the affidavit have been checked. This process, then, allows many 
students to attend schools outside their zone while their families continue to reside 
in that zone. 

Jn February, 1970, the Orleans Parish School Board voluntarily adopted a 
faculty desegregation plan that sought to "assure that not less than 25 percent 

41 



nor more than 75 percent of the staff in each school will be of either race." Since 
Orleans Parish does not comply with Singleton requirements (the faculty of the 
district is 44 percent white and 56 percent black) , it appears the intent of this 
policy was to achieve some faculty desegregation within the framework of a 
district that bas a high number of one-race schools. Apparently, the school 
board reasoned there would be less problems with faculty desegregation 
and fewer faculty-student problems if the plan allowed an all-black school to 
have a faculty as high as 75 percent black, or an all-white school to have a faculty 
as high as 75 percent white. 

If the school system is strictly judged by its own 25-75 percent formula, its 
faculty desegregation plan has succeeded in only 64 of its 135 schools. The most 
dramatic failures of the system to reach a minority facu lty percentage of at least 
25 percent are found in those schools (18 elementary, five secondary) which have 
black enrollments between 99 and 100 percent, and only seven to 15 percent of 
the faculty white. 

The system also fell short of its goal in 24 other schools ( 16 ele­
mentary, eight secondary) which have black enrollments between 96 and 100 per­
cent and only 16 to 24 percent of the faculty white. In five schools where the en­
rollment is between 91 and 99 percent white, only 13 to 24 percent of the faculty 
is black. 

Though the board's plan allows for both voluntary and administrative transfers, 
it appears it has not been able to comply with its own plan, let alone with 
Singleton requirements. One top administrator in the district office told our 
monitor he didn't think Orleans Parish was quite ready for Singleton. 

Where white teachers are found in predominantly black schools, they are, for 
the most part, young, inexperienced and unable to cope with and respond to 
black students. Some administrators, like Duncan Waters, superintendent of an 
overwhelmingly black district, feel that the district personnel office has sent the 
better black teachers to predominantly white schools in implementing the teacher 
desegregation plan. 

The Orleans Parish School Board is also engaged in a construction program 
which will tend to maximize rather than minimize segregation in the schools. 
School officials maintain they have neighborhood schools and build schools where 
the children who will attend them live. Because Louisiana law does not permit 
state payment for the busing of children who live one mile or Jess from a school, 
the Orleans Parish schools will be built within three-fourths of a mile of the 
population to be served. Two high schools, each with a capacity of about 1,500 
students, are under construction. One will replace the 99 .8 percent black Cohen 
High School. The new school is also expected to be black, although many whites 
live in the district. The other is being built to replace all-black McDonogh #35. 
McDonogh #35, a school designed to serve the academically talented, could 

42 



be easily desegregated by merging it with 95 percent white Ben Franklin 
a scho:>I which also serves the academically talented. Franklin's enrollment 1~ 
now beyond capacity. 

The district has several more new schools planned : an elementary school in 
an integrated area, an elementary school which will be built in a white suburban 
area, a black elementary school to replace McDonogh #37 and Wicher, which 
are now all black; and another integrated elementary school. Thus, the Orleans 
Parish School Board seems content to pursue its construction program with little 
regard for the Swann dictum that, "In ascertaining the existence of legally im­
posed school segregation, the existence of a pattern of school construction and 
abandonment is thus a factor of great weight. In devising remedies where legally 
imposed segregation has been established, it is the responsibility of local authori­
ties and district courts to see to it that future school construction and abandon­
ment is not used and does not serve to perpetuate or reestablish the dual system." 

1t appears that New Orleans is not only segregated, it intends to stay that way. 
Perhaps only the action of the Orleans Parish black community o r the outcome 
of the Richmond, Virginia, metro desegregation case will change that. 

43 



IV 

OBSOLETE AND INADEQUATE 
DESEGREGATION PLANS 

A widespread belief exists that most school systems in the South are now 
unitary and in full compliance with the standards promulgated by the U. S. 
Supreme Court in Swann. Our monitors found, however, that in a number of 
major urban areas, there is little or no reason for such optimism. 

Of the urban districts surveyed, many were found to be operating under court 
0rders which have not been updated since the Swann decision, or operating under 
post-Swann plans where racially isolated schools still exist. Though Swann stated 
that "the existence of some small number of one-race, or virtually one-race, 
schools within a district is not in and of itself the mark of a system which still 
practices segregation by law," our monitors reported that some districts retain 
such schools even though more complete segregation could have been achieved. 

This report recognizes that the elimination of dual school systems is not always 
easy. But it appears that in many cases school districts have moved toward that 
goal only when required to do so by the courts. In the absence of court orders or 
new legal initiatives, many have done nothing. Even when taken back into court, 
many of these districts submitted desegregation plans which the court found to 
be totally inadequate. Thus, 18 years after Brown, some school authorities are 
still reluctant to adhere to constitutional standards of equal protection. 

44 



The following districts are those which our monitors judged to have inadequate 
or obsolete desegregation plans in the 1971-72 school year: 1 

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 

The Birmingham city school system is currently operating its desegregation 
plans under an order handed down by a U. S. District Court on June 19, 1970. 
The plan, developed by the school board in conjunction with HEW, was ap­
proved as a terminal plan by the court. There has been no post-Swann action by 
the plaintiffs' attorneys who are associated with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 

The total student enrollment of the Birmingham district is 66,174, of which 
53 percent are black and 47 percent are white. The school board admits the de­
segregation plan was not intended to desegregate schools but to desegregate zones. 
Our monitor found that because of this zoning plan, the following prevails in 
Birmingham: 

Out of 89 schools in the Birmingham city system, 

18 are 100 percent black; 13 are 100 percent white. 

14 are between 90 and 99 percent black; six are between 90 and 99 percent 
white. 

Five are between 80 and 90 percent black; six are between 80 and 90 percent 
white. 

Superintendent Raymond L. Christian told our monitor he still believes in 
fr ;.:edom of choice, and maintained that racial balance is not a realistic or practical 
gJal. The superintendent also indicated that his district will continue to build 
schools wh;:rc the students are. Indeed, our monitor found that for the current 
school year, the district opened two all-white schools, Arthur Elementary and 
Wright Elementary, and that a new high school now under construction, Parker 
High, will be all black. 

Busing is not a factor in Birmingham since the district operates no school 
buses, and docs not provide any other form of transportation for its students. 

' Our monitors singled 0 111 two districts which they did 110 1 feel belong in this section but which 
should be mentioned as school systems which have as many or more remaining racially 
identifiable schools as other districts cited here. The Mobile, Alabama, school district was 
one of the cases decided by the Supreme Court at the same time as Swann. The district 
subsequelllly del'eloped a post-Swann plan wh.'ch was accepted by the plaintif fs' LDF 
attorneys. Of the district's eighty-one schools, five remain all-black, one is all-white, 
tweh•e have enrollments between 90 and 99 pe1cent black , and three are between 90 and 
99 percent while. The Columbia, South Carolina, district is operating under a voluntary 
po~t-Swann plan accepted by HEW . Of the district's fifty-six schools, three are all-black, 
four are between 90 and 99 percent black, and one is 81 percent black. N o schools in the 
system are racially identifiable as white. 

45 



Students must use the Birmingham Transit System for transportation to school, 
and must pay for this. Our monitor found that the lack of a free transportation 
system is a considerable economic hardship for black students. 

The Singleton ratio is maintained in most schools, but in some black schools, 
too many black teachers have been retained. 

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA 

Huntsville is utilizing what is basically an HEW-prepared desegregation plan 
ordered by a U. S. District Court on July 26, 1971. The plan was appealed to 
the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals by the LDF cooperating attorney, but the 
court declined to grant the appeal. No new motions have been filed. 

The Huntsville school district has a student enrollment of 35,511 of which 
85 percent are white, and 15 percent are black. With 39 schools in the system, 
four have black enrollments substantially above the percentage of black students 
enrolled in the district as a whole: 92 percent, 66 percent, 48 percent, 41 percent. 
Three of these schools and two others have black faculties which exceed the 
district-wide percentage by 10 percent or more. 

JEFFERSON COUNTY, ALABAMA 

Jefferson County is an extensive geographical area which surrounds the city 
of Birmingham and constitutes a separate school district. Within this area, however, 
are also seven "splinter" districts which operate independently of the Jefferson 
County system. Three of these districts have student enrollments that are 90 
percent or more white, and each district has only four or five schools for a 
student population of less than 3,000. The three districts, Vestavia, Homewood 
and Midfield, withdrew from the Jefferson County district in 1969, 1970, and 
1971, respectively, taking with them school facilities which had belonged to 
Jefferson County. A 1959 act of the Alabama Legislature permitted the creation 
of such independent districts. 

Four of the five members of the Jefferson County school board as well as its 
superintendent, Dr. Revis J . Hall, live in these splinter districts, outside the 
school district for which they are administratively and legally responsible. 

A U. S. District Court ordered a desegregation plan for the Jefferson County 
district in the summer of 1971 . Our monitor found that plan to be the result 
of a frenzied and confusing process in which HEW, Justice Department, school 
board, and Legal Defense Fund attorneys each submitted and fought for the 
adoption of their respective plans. As a result, on Aug. 24, 1971, Judge Sam 
C. Pointer issued an order which outlined a number of desegregation options 
within each zone which the Jefferson County school board could implement. That 
order was amended on Sept. 8, 1971, in response to the Jefferson County 

46 



school board's request that it be permitted to use still other options. No hearing 
was held. · 

Jefferson County school authorities have failed to file reports on the implementa­
tion of their desegregation plan with the court as required. This made it impossible 
for our monitor to determine which desegregation options for which zones have 
been implemented by the school board. There is some indication that the options 
which were selected by the board were not in the original court order. 

Judge Pointer's original order failed to provide for any non-contiguous zones, 
and it called for the achievement of a 75 percent white, 25 percent black racial 
balance in each school at the end of a two-year period. The order also included 
th:! splinter districts of Homewood, Vestavia and Midfield, and provided that 
each school in the splinter districts should have a maximum enrollment of black 
students and minority teachers of 25 percent. The withdrawal of these districts 
from the Jefferson County system when the district was under a previous 
desegregation order to dismantle its dual school system is now on appeal to the 
Fifth Circuit. The appeal is based on the fact that the withdrawal of those 
separate districts affected the ability of Jefferson County to further desegregate 
the school system. 

The Jefferson County school system has an enrollment of 56,332 students, of 
which 26 percent are black and 74 percent are white. A total of 6,611 students 
remain in all-black schools, and 8,764 remain in schools which are 85 percent 
or more black. Of the 20 zones created for desegregating the school system, two 
have a total of four schools which are one-race schools. Four other zones have 
a total of twelve schools with student enrollments of 93 to 100 percent of one race. 
Two other zones have a total of eleven schools with enrollments of 80 to 100 
percent of one race in each. 

Out of the 76 schools in the Jefferson County school district, 

Seven are 100 percent black; seven are 100 percent white. 

One is 99.7 percent black; nine are 99 to 99.9 percent white. 

Three are 90 to 99 percent black; 15 are 90 to 99 percent white. 

Four are 80 to 89 percent black; 13 are 80 to 89 percent white. 

School officials maintain, of course, that these figures do not reflect the 
ultimate desegregation of the school system that will be realized at the end of the 
two-year period in Judge Pointer's order. The district is also required to adhere 
to the Singleton standard in desegregating its faculty, but as of now, it appears 
that a majority of black faculty is in the all black or predominantly black schools. 

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 

The Montgomery County Board of Education is operating its desegregation 
plan under a terminal order from the U . S. District Court dated Feb. 25, 1970. 

47 



No post-Swann action has been initiated by the plaintiffs or their Legal Defense 
Fund attorneys. 

Montgomery operates a combination zoning-freedom of choice plan that was 
prepared by the school board in conjunction with HEW. The system has 37,604 
students of which 46 percent are black and 54 percent are white. Our monitor 
found the following in Montgomery: 

Out of the 50 schools in the system, 

Six are 100 percent black. 

Four are 99 percent black. 

Eight are 90 to 99 percent black; three are 90 to 99 percent white. 

Four are 80 to 90 percent black; seven are 80 to 90 percent white. 

The district is also required to adhere to the Singleton standard in faculty 
desegregation. But our monitor found that in 17 schools, the black-white faculty 
ratio exceeds or falls short of the district-wide ratio by at least I 0 percent. 

The 1970 order also required the district to develop non-racial and objective 
criteria for the dismissal and demotion of staff. The district has failed to comply 
with this requirement. The assistant superintendent in charge of personnel for 
the district indicated to our monitor that the district has no plans for developing 
such criteria because "we consider these as unnecessary, and we think we get along 
better than systems which have a lot of stuff written down which is difficult to fol­
low or apply." 

SELMA, ALABAMA 
One of the smaller systems monitored, Selma has a student population of 6,296, 

of which 72 percent are black and 25 percent are white. The school district is 
currently operating under a desegregation order entered by the U. S. District Court 
on June 16, 1970. There has been no post-Swann action by the LDF attorneys. 

Out of the twelve schools in the Selma city system, 

Three are 100 percent black. 

One is 98.5 percent black; two are 93 to 96 percent white. 

One is 88 percent black. 

Eight of the twelve schools in the system reach or exceed a I 0 percent deviation 
from the Singleton standard in the black-white faculty ratio. The Selma district 
also failed to submit a statement of non-racial objective criteria for faculty dis­
missal or demotion as required in the court order. It has also failed to report 
to the court demotions or dismissals that have taken place subsequent to the de­
segregation order. 

48 



LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS 

The Little Rock schools are currently operating under a desegregation order 
of July 16, 1971, issued by the U. S. District Court. This order resulted from 
a post-Swann motion by LDF attorneys. The court's order substantially desegre­
gated the secondary schools, but left the elementary schools virtually untouched. 
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the movement toward com­
plete desegregation increased. and the matter is now back before the district 
court. 

Little Rock schools have an enrollment of 23,692 students of which 43 percent 
are black, and 5 7 percent are white. 

Out of the 40 schools in the Little Rock city system, 

Four are 100 percent black; one is 100 percent white. 

Six are 95 to 99 percent black; seven are 91to99 percent white. 

Four are 85 to 89 percent white. 

All of the schools that are predominately one-race are elementary ones. 

The black-white teacher ratio in Little Rock is 29 percent black, 71 percent 
white. But there are 16 schools that reach or exceed a 10 percent deviation from 
the Singleton standard. 

WEST MEMPHIS, ARKANSAS 

The West Memphis desegregation plan was ordered by a U. S. District 
Court in July, 1971, following hearings at which HEW experts and West 
Memphis school officials submitted different plans. Because West Memphis has a 
student enrollment that is 53 percent black and 47 percent white, and only 13 
schools, the LDF attorneys felt it could easily have achieved racial balance in each 
school. The court, however, rejected the HEW plan that would have substantially 
achieved this end, and ordered instead a plan utilizing attendance zones that tended 
to place the burden for desegregation on low-income whites and blacks. The order 
also required that each school in the district have a minimum 30 percent minority 
race enrollment, whether the racial group in the minority at a particular school 
b~ white or black. 

Each school does indeed have 30 percent minority enrollment. But in most of 
the elementary schools the racial group in the majority reflects the former racial 
identity of that particular school. The three formerly all-black elementary schools 
each have black student enrollments of between 63 and 70 percent. Schools 
that were formerly 99 percent, 98 percent, 96 percent and 84 percent white are 
now 53 percent, 57 percent and 61 percent and 62 percent white, respectively. 
The plaintiffs, now joined by white citizens who want every school in West Memphis 

49 



to reflect a 50-50 racial balance, have appealed the case to the Eighth Circuit 
Court of Appeals. 

DUVAL COUNTY, FLORIDA (JACKSONVILLE) 

The June 23 , 1971, court order for Duval County provided that the desegrega­
tion plan would take effect in two phases over a two-year period. The time 
period allowed for the fact that the plan would require an additional 250 school 
buses, and that some of these could not be secured in time for the 1971-1972 
school year. This provision was not contested by the plaintiffs, but Duval 
County is nevertheless placed in this section of the report because it does not meet 
the "now" provision of Alexander and Swann. 

In the court order, various clusters of elementary schools were each assigned 
a specific percentage of black students. These percentages ranged from 15 to 34 
percent. Our monitor found, however, that of the 44 schools in Phase 1, 14 ex­
ceeded by at least 10 percent the black percentage anticipated by the court, 
many of them exceeding it by as much as 30 or 40 percent. 

The plan for faculty desegregation adhered to the Singleton standard in requir­
ing each school to reflect the district-wide teacher ratio of 28 percent black, 72 
percent white. But our monitor found that in three Phase I schools the black 
teacher percentage was exceeded by at least 10 percent. 

The court ordered that seven black schools in the inner city be closed. Two 
were closed because the school board said they were inferior facilities and also 
because they were in deteriorating neighborhoods and high crime areas. As to 
two other of those schools closed, there was no evidence presented nor any 
findings by the court that they were inferior or inadequate. The court also men­
tioned the inability of the superintendent to keep enough certified white teachers 
at these schools. 

This part of the order was appealed to the Fifth Circuit, but that court found 
"there was no invidious discrimination in the closing . . . . Indeed, the record 
makes it clear that the schools were closed for sound, non-racial reasons ." 

ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA (ORLANDO) 

One would think a school district with only 18 percent black enrollment would 
have little difficulty in eliminating its dual school system, but such is not the case 
in Orange County. The Orange County school board has vigorously resisted the 
efforts of Legal Defense Fund attorneys, with the result that a substantial number 
of black students remain in majority black schools, while an inordinate number 
of all-white or predominately white schools remain. 

At the end of the 1970-1971 school year, eleven of Orange County's 99 

50 



schools were attended by 52 percent of all black students enrolled in the system. 
It was on ·those schools that post-Swann litigation centered. 

U. S. District Court Judge George C. Young excluded from consideration five 
of the schools which he judged not to be vestiges of the district's dual school 
system. Of the remaining six schools, the Orange County school board proposed 
t:-> close Holden Street and Webster Avenue schools because they were valuable 
properties which the board wished to sell for income purposes. They also pro­
posed to zone additional whites into Wheatley Elementary, convert Eccleston 
and Carver into a special education complex_, and develop a special "enrichment" 
program for Washington Shores, the remaining all-black school. 

In his order on September 17, 1971, the judge required the board to zone still 
more whites into Wheatley, but rejected an LDF proposal that it be more sig­
nificantly desegregated by clustering it with two predominately white schools. The 
proposal to close Holden Street and Webster Avenue was accepted. The request 
to convert two schools into special education centers was denied. Eccleston and 
Washington Shores remain black but have the "special enrichment" program 
proposed by the board. On October 8, 1971, Judge Young, accepting a proposal 
which the school board had made to the Fifth Circuit, ordered the pairing of 
Carver with Robinswood, a junior high school which had begun the fall term 
with a black enrollment of about 6 percent. 

The result of the order was the following: 

1970-1971 

Carver Junior High 
Eccleston 
Holden 
Hungerford':' 
Maxey* 
Orange Center* 
Richmond Heights* 
Washington Shores 
Webster Avenue 
Wheatley 
Jones High* 

92.7% black 
100% 
98.8% 
84.4% 
86.6% 
96.7% 
100% 
100% 
87.3% 
86.5% 
84% 

1971-1972 

55% black 
99.8% 
closed 
79% 
79% 
96% 
100% 
99.7% 
closed 
75% 
84% 

*- Indicates those schools ruled as not being vestiges of the dual school system. 

These schools are now attended by 38 percent of the black students enrolled 
in the district. 

The Legal Defense Fund has appealed to the Fifth Circuit, arguing that the 
District Court should not have excluded the five schools from its order on the 
basis that they were not vestiges of the dual school system, that the two black 

51 



schools should not have been closed, and that one of the all-black schools could 
have been feasibly desegregated. 

The LDF also maintains that the court required less than the Singleton 
standard in reassigning faculty and staff of the schools closed under the desegre­
gation plan. Officials have been meticulous in maintaining an 82-18 percent white­
black ratio. Principals were quoted as saying, "I have my quota of blacks." 

ATLANTA, GEORGIA 

Atlanta is basically operating under a desegregation plan ordered in February, 
1970, but there have been two post-Swann actions. On June 10, 1971, the Fifth 
Circuit ordered the existing plan modified to provide free transportation to stu­
dents wishing to take advantage of a majority-to-minority transfer provision. Since 
the Atlanta school system operates no transportation system, transfer students 
had to use public transportation at their own expense; under the Fifth Circuit 
order the district is now paying the cost. In the same order, the Fifth Circuit 
also remanded the Atlanta case back to the district court to determine if it was 
in compliance with Swann. 

On July 28, 1971, the U. S. District Court found that segregation in Atlanta 
schools was de facto rather than de jure. The system was therefore found to be 
unitary. The LDF appealed this decision to the Fifth Circuit in October and 
won the right to submit a desegregation plan in January, 1972. The school board 
had until March 1 to consider the LDF proposal. It is reported that an out-of-court 
settlement is being urged. 

Atlanta is one of the largest school systems in the South, with 97,229 students 
of which 72 percent are black, and 28 percent are white. 

Out of the 162 schools in the Atlanta system, 

47 are 100 percent black; one is 100 percent white. 

29 are 98.5 to 99.9 percent black. 

Twelve are 91 to 97 .6 percent black. 

26 are 91.2 to 99.6 percent white. 

Four are 82.1 to 89.3 percent white. 

Nine are 70 to 80 percent white. 

Four are 60 to 70 percent white. 

Our monitors were not able to obtain exact information on the extent of 
faculty desegregation. But it is reported that while the district-wide teacher ratio 
is 57 percent black, 43 percent white, the general trend in majority white schools 

52 



is for the ratio of white teachers to fall between 50 and 60 percent, while the 
ratio in all.:black or predominately black schools falls between 35 and 40 percent 
white. 

ROME, GEORGIA 

Rome, one of the 81 Georgia districts which came under the Justice Depart­
ment's December, 1969, statewide desegregation suit, had previously been an 
HEW district with a 33-66 black-to-white ratio. 

The city's plan, first adopted for the 1968-69 term and modified each year 
since, combined zoning for the secondary schools with pairing of several ele­
mentary schools, and freedom of choice in most of the elementary schools. It com­
pletely desegregated its high schools the first year, closing the all-black school. 
But by the 1970-71 term, three of its 13 elementary schools were still totally 
segregated (one white, two black). Seven others had extremenly high concen­
trations of whites. This segregation was the result of the use of freedom of choice 
hy most of the city's elementary schools. That any desegregation at all was 
achieved can be credited to the integrated housing patterns in much of the city. 

During the desegregation process, some schools have been closed, while new, 
less w~ll-desegregated ones were opened. In 1971, the two best-desegregated 
schools in the city-Mary T. Banks with a 56-44 black-to-white ratio and Eighth 
\\/ard with a 53-4 7 black-to-white ratio--were closed. Two other elementary 
schools opened, one in a predominantly white upper middle class suburb with an 
enrollment 84 percent white. 

In December, 1971, Rome finally had its first ruling under the state-wide 
desegregation order. The federal district court order focused on the North and 
Sou th Rome areas, and said that the South Rome Elementary School (80 percent 
white) should be closed and its pupils sent to all-black Anna K. Davie. In the 
north area, all-black Main Elementary and the new suburban white school previ­
ously mentioned, North Heights Elementary, were to be paired "unless an ac­
ceptable alternative which will desegregate the Main Elementary School be filed 
with this Court by April I, 1972." No mention was made of West End Ele­
mentary, which is all-white and has only two blacks on its faculty. (In fact, the 
Justice Department had not asked for West End to be desegregated.) 

In the plan it has now submitted to the court, the board agreed to the closing 
of South Rome Elementary. There is no guarantee whites will go to Anna K. 
Davie, since it and all other elementary schools except North Heights and Main 
will still be under freedom of choice. Rather than pairing Main and North 
Heights, the board elected to zone them, although they are only one mile apart. 

Zone lines have been gerrymandered so that the suburban school clearly will 
rer:iain predominantly white, while Main, with a new housing project in the area, 

53 



will continue identifiably black. The superintendent refused to release the pro­
jected enrollment figures for the two schools and said, "I don't care about numbers." 

Children attending free-choice schools will be given priority to attend the one 
closest to their homes, while those living the longest distance from the school 
might be required to transfer. The following year, with the completion of West 
Central Elementary in a white neighborhood, the board hopes to switch to a 
neighborhood zoning plan. (According to our monitor, a native of the city, Rome's 
residential patterns lend themselves to a zoning plan. But past actions of the board 
lead to the suspicion that more gerrymandering will occur.) 

Although three of the district's 21 schools have faculties which deviate from 
Singleton, the court made no ruling on faculty desegregation. 

EAST BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA 
The Baton Rouge school system is still operating under a desegregation plan 

ordered by a U. S. District Court on July 22, 1970. That order was "based 
primarily on the neighborhood concept." There have been no post-Swann motions 
by the LDF. 

The East Baton Rouge school system has 66,502 students, of which 39 percent 
are black, and 61 percent are white. 

Out of the 106 schools in the East Baton Rouge system, 

Twelve are 100 percent black; seven are 100 percent white. 

20 are 90 to 99.9 percent black; 28 are 90 to 99.9 percent white. 

Three are 80 to 90 percent black; ten are 80 to 90 percent white. 

Contrary to the language of the plan, developed by a special committee of 
teachers, central office, and community people, most of the segregation in the 
system exists at the elementary level. 

The black-white faculty ratio in the district is 35-64. But eight schools have 
less than 23 percent black faculty, and 23 schools have more than 45 percent 
black faculty. The system is in violation of the Singleton standard required by the 
1970 court order. 

MONROE, LOUISIANA 
Prior to the 1971 school year, the Monroe school district utilized a desegrega­

tion plan involving freedom of choice, geographic zoning and pairing. At the end 
of the 1970-1971 year, four of the district's 18 schools were between 92 and 99 
percent black, while four others were between 93 and 100 percent white. Mon­
roe's schools enroll 9,911 students, of which 57 percent are black and 43 percent 
are white. 

54 



The district is now operating under a plan developed subsequent to Swann, but 
it did not result from post-Swann motions by the plaintiffs in the district's desegre­
gation suit. Instead, the plans resulted from proposals by a black community 
group, the Black Citizens Council, to the school board. After subsequent refine­
ments were worked out among the board, the BCC, and a bi-racial committee, 
the newly developed plan was filed with the U. S. District Court on July 30, 
1971 , and a consent decree was issued . 

Under this plan, students living closest to a school (within a mile radius) have 
a pre-emptive right to attend that school so long as the racial majority of that 
school does not exceed 70 percent. Students living beyond the mile radius are 
assigned to the nearest school that permits their entrance within the 70 percent 
limitation. Majority students Jiving within the mile radius but unable to attend the 
nearest school because of the 70 percent limit are to be assigned to the closest 
school outside the mile radius that has a majority less than 70 percent. It was 
agreed that two all-black schools, Clark and Lincoln, would remain as "model 
schools." Clara Hall and Carver would remain paired as in the court order for 
1970-71. 

The Monroe school authorities have violated this plan in their assignment 
of students. As a result, eight schools have white majorities which exceed 70 
percent, while three schools (in addition to Clark and Lincoln) have black 
majorities-of 91 percent, 97 percent and 100 percent. 

The black community is now appealing the case, not only because of these 
violations, but because the majority white schools are operating under capacity 
while the majority black schools are overcrowded. Black children have been as­
signed to schools where the black enrollment is in excess of 70 percent, in spite 
of the fact that these students often have to pass schools where the white majority 
has exceeded 70 percent. 

At least half of the schools vary from the Singleton standard. 

SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA 

Shreveport continues to use a desegregation plan ordered by a U. S. District 
Court on Jan. 30, 1970. LDF attorneys have made no post-Swann motions. 

The Shreveport school system has 52,896 pupils, and of these 50 percent are 
black, and 50 percent are white. 

Out of the 75 schools in the district, 

Twelve are 100 percent black; six are 95 to 99.8 percent black. 

Four are 91 to 94.8 percent black; two are 82.9 to 96.5 percent black. 

Six other schools are virtually all white. 

55 



The faculty ratio is 41 percent black-59 percent white. Fifteen schools in the 
system exceed the percentage of black teachers in the system by a variance of 
more than I 0 percent. 

GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI 

Gulfport negotiated a settlement with HEW on a plan prior to Swann, and 
no changes have been made since that decision. 

The Gulfport district has an enrollment of 8,558 students, of which 2, 178 
(25.4 percent) are black. All 17 schools are geographically zoned. 

Out of the twelve elementary schools, three have black enrollments sub­
stantially above the district-wide percentage: 72 percent, 41 percent, 40 percent. 
Three others have substantially low black enrollments: 8 percent, 8 percent and 
6 percent. 

The plan also resulted in the closing of two formerly all-black facilities. 
Only one black principal remains, serving at the 72 percent-black elementary 
school. 

HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI 

In August, 1970, the Hattiesburg Public School District developed and filed 
with a U. S. District Court a consent degree establishing a geographic zoning de­
segregation plan. Following Swann, the plan was updated at the initiative of the 
Justice Department, but provided only for pairing of schools at the secondary 
level. The decree, entered on July 22, 1971, maintained elementary schools 
which reflected neighborhood patterns. A minority of the court-appointed bi-racial 
committee objected to the plan, but its protests and those of the black community 
were ignored by the court, the school board and the Justice Department. 

Hattiesburg's school system has 7 ,431 students, and of these 46 percent are 
black and 54 percent are white. 

Out of the 15 schools in the district, 

Four are 94 to 97 percent black; two are 90 to 94 percent white. 

Two are 78 percent and 79 percent white. 

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 

The Durham, North Carolina, city schools are operating under a July, 1970, 
plan of geographical zoning. 

While the student ratio is 65 percent black, only 49 percent of the faculty 
is black and only 20 percent of the teachers hired this term were black. Three 

56 



schools out of 24-Durham High, Whitted Junior High and Lyon Park Ele­
mentary-deviate more than 10 percent from the district-wide black faculty 
ratio. 

Out of the 24 schools, 

Four are between 92 and 97 percent black. 

One is 86 percent black, and three are 75 to 78 percent black. 

School zones are reported to be flexible and not adhered to or checked by the 
administration. 

The Durham city system is out of compliance with the Winston-Salem federal 
courc decision requiring all state districts to provide transportation from community 
to school for students living more than one and one-half miles from their schools. 
Buses are supplied instead (for blacks and some whites) from station to station. 
As a result, black students must walk long distances to a school station or spend up 
to 50 minutes transferring on city buses to travel relatively short distances. 

In spite of these problems, the transportation committee has not met this year 
and only two new buses have been ordered. Others are on loan from the county 
and state. Bus service has been so inadequate for blacks as to lead to the suspicion 
that the board is using this method to encourage them to attend the schools 
closest to their homes. 

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE 

The Knoxville school system is still using a desegregation plan ordered by a 
U. S. District Court on July I, 1970. The zoning plan was appealed by the LDF 
attorney to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals which then remanded it to the 
District Court after the Swann decision. The school district submitted a new 
plan to the court which essentially maintained school zones. On March 8, 1972, 
Judge Frank Wilson held that the present plan meets the criteria of Swann. The 
LDF attorney has appealed this decision. 

The Knoxville school district has a student enrollment of 35,328 of which 
I 7 percent are black, and 83 percent are white. 

Out of the 66 schools in the Knoxville system, 

One is 100 percent black; 17 are 100 percent white. 

Seven are 95 to 99.9 percent black; 25 are 96 to 99.8 percent white. 

Four arc 64 to 85 percent black; two are 90 to 92 percent white. 

The district-wide facu lty ratio is 1.5 percent black-85 percent white. But our 
monitor found that nineteen schools have a black faculty ratio that exceeds or 
falls short of the district-wide black faculty ratio by l 0 percent. 

57 



MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 

Incredibly, Memphis has continued to operate a zoning plan that preserves it~ 
dual school system even though the school district has been under the jurisdic­
tion of a U. S. District Court since 1960. The school system has always main­
tained that it was operating a unitary system and that any segregation in the 
schools was the result of de facto residential patterns which coincided with the 
district's neighborhood attendance zones. Until recently the court has agreed with 
this position. On March 20, 1972, Judge Robert McRae ordered a minimal 
busing plan for the 1972-73 school year. 

Memphis has 163 schools, with 145,581 students, and of these 54 percent are 
black, and 46 percent are white. 

All but 22 of Memphis' schools are readily identifiable by race, as follows : 

29 are 100 percent black; 18 are 100 percent white. 

26 are 98 to 99.9 percent black; 26 are 98 to 99.9 percent white. 

13 are 90 to 97 .9 percent black; 17 are 90 to 97 .9 percent white. 

Two are 80 to 89.9 percent black; ten are 80 to 89.9 percent white. 

Under the plan ordered for 1972-1973, approximately 13,000 students will 
be bused. However, implementation of the plan will leave 36 one-race schools 
and 44 other schools in which 90 percent or more of the students will be drawn 
from a single racial group. 

NASHVILLE-DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE 

The metropolitan Nashville school district includes 88, 190 students in 137 
schools. The ratio of black to white students is 27 percent to 73 percent. 

An OCR-ESAP investigating team visited Nashville in December, 1971, and 
found that eleven secondary schools and one special education program did not 
meet Singleton requirements. The OCR regional office informed the school system 
that proper faculty ratios would have to be established by the second semester. After 
the school board and the Metropolitan Nashville Educational Association both 
requested that transfers be delayed until the beginning of the 1972-73 year, 
OCR backed off and decided that changes would be necessary at only four of 
the schools. The other eight were declared to be in ' 'substantial compliance" for 
ESAP purposes. 

Nashville is using a post-Swann plan ordered by the U. S. District Court on 
June 29, 197 1. In its deliberations, the court considered plans subm itted by the 
school district, plaintiffs and HEW. 

The school district's plan was rejected because, as Judge L. C. Morton wrote 
in his order, it "constitutes mere tinkering with attendance zones, and represents 

58 



only a token effort." The plaintiffs' plan was also rejected because it would have 
Jeft the actual assignment of students to the school board which the court did not 
feel could be trusted, and because the plan involved some schools in "the outer 
reaches of the county" which would have entailed additional use of transporta­
tion. The plaintiffs' plan was also faulted by the court because it did not include 
a "description of grade organization, structuring the schools, the assignment of 
pupils, or proper description of zoning." 

The plan put forward by HEW, utilizing non-contiguous zoning, pairing and 
clustering, was ordered. Not all aspects of the HEW plan have yielded the results 
anticipated by the court. The court order stated that at the elementary level there 
would be no "school in the system with a black student enrollment of more than 
41 percent. " In fact, 24 schools in the system have enrollments which are over 
41 percent black, and nine of these have enrollments of 50 percent or over. The 
court also projected that "74 schools would have a racial percentage of 16-41 per­
cent black." But only 51 schools have black enrollments within the projected 16 
to 41 percent range. 

At the secondary level, the court order stated that "no school would operate with 
more than 44 percent black" student enrollment. But in reality, three schools 
have 50 percent or more black enrollment; another has 64 percent black enroll­
ment, and another has 72 percent black enrollment. 

The HEW plan also left 20 schools with enrollments which were pro­
jected at 0 to 11 percent black, but which turned out to be between 0 and 8 percent 
black. The court excused this on the basis tha t the schools "are located in the 
far reaches of the county. " Thirteen secondary schools were permitted to remain 
virtually all-white. Judge Morton permitted the school system to proceed with 
the construction of two schools, but enjoined the construction of a new high 
school because it would be located in an all-white residential area. 

The current plan is being appealed both by the defendants and the plaintiffs 
to the Sixth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals. One of the criticisms of the plan by 
the plaintiffs is that the heaviest burden of busing falls on black children. All 
schools with grades one through four are in suburban a reas to which black chil­
dren must be bused from the inner city. 

While the plan certainly has obvious deficiencies, it appears that with some 
adjustments it could be made effective and workable. 

FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA 

In 1970, an HEW "expert" prepared a desegregation plan for the considera­
tion of the U. S. District Court with jurisdiction over Florence County School 
District +; I. J t was so poor and inaccurate that the judge ruled the system would 
operate under a temporary plan until the 197 1 school year. Justice Department 

59 



attorneys reportedly had to accept this arrangement because the HEW plan wa~ 
indefensible. 

During the early part of the summer of 1971, Florence # 1 school officials. 
Justice Department attorneys, and HEW officials were involved in negotiatiom 
which bogged down. The Justice Department was prepared to initiate post-Swam 
motions. But then a delegation of white officials from the Florence #I school 
district went to Washington, apparently at the encouragement of an HEW official 
in the Atlanta office, to talk with a highly-placed Justice Department official. 
The next day, a "suitable compromise" was reached and no motion was filed. 

Though Justice Department attorneys wanted the district to pair some ele­
mentary schools, at the end of the negotiations no schools were paired. The plan 
proposed by the school district was accepted by the Justice Department. The 
school district officials made a verbal commitment to continue to desegregate the 
elementary schools in the system to a greater extent in the future. 

With only 14,445 students and 21 regular schools, Florence #1 could have 
achieved a near racial balance in each school with little difficulty. But though 
the district-wide black-white student enrollment ratio is 41 percent-59 percent, one 
school is 99 percent black, one is 82 percent black, one is 95 percent white, and 
two are 81 percent white. In addition, one school is 72 percent black and two 
schools are 78 percent and 79 percent white, respectively. The schools which are 
70 percent or more of one race are all at the elementary level, and constitute half 
of the total number of elementary schools in the district. 

Florence continues to maintain three schools that are in at least 10 percent 
variance or more with the district-wide faculty ratio of 66-34. 

AUSTIN AND HOUSTON: 
SEGREGATION OF TWO MINORITIES 

Our monitors surveyed two school districts, Austin and Houston, where the 
presence of a second minority group has not yet been seriously dealt with as a 
valid consideration in desegregation plans. In both districts, Mexican-Americans, 
or Chicanos, still have the same official status as whites, or Anglos, when it 
comes to determining how desegregation will proceed. Because Chicanos are 
not considered as a minority group for the purposes of school desegregation, 
majority-minority schools in which Chicanos predominate, or in which Chicanos 
and blacks together form a majority, are not considered minority schools even 
though they are ethnically identifiable as such. 

In Houston, what little desegregation has taken place has been implemented 
primarily between blacks and Chicanos and has left the white population un­
touched. Houston's "desegregation'' plan has actually led to the existence of more 
majority-minority schools on all levels than there were in 1968. In Austin, where 

60 



no desegregation has taken place below the junior high school level, there are 
more major\ty-minority elementary schools than there were in 1968. Moreover, 
there seems to be little doubt that in the eyes of the Anglo populations of Houston 
and Austin, majority-minority schools, whether they are predominantly Chicano 
schools or Chicano schools "integrated" by blacks, are just as "undesirable" as 
majority-minority schools that are predominantly black. 

The non-recognition of racially isolated Chicano schools as minority schools 
in Austin and the cynical labeling of Chicano schools as non-minority schools to 
achieve dubious token desegregation in Houston have both been possible because 
the courts have not yet ruled that Chicanos have the same status as black.; in 
school desegregation cases. Chicanos were not, after all, ever enslaved, at 
least not technically; nor have there been state Jaws requiring the segregation of 
Chicanos in public schools. Unquestionably Chicanos are the subject of con­
siderable prejudice, discrimination, and racism~ but most U. S. District Courts 
(the Southern District Court of Texas in the Corpus Christi case being an ex­
ception) have not been satisfied that such discrimination has been manifest 
in fom1s of state action. 

In the Austin case, the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund has argued, 
convincingly in the view of this report, that school authorities and government 
agencies have indeed made decisions, formal and informal, regarding the con­
structio:t, location and treatment of schools based on considerations of Chicanos 
as a separate ethnic group which should be kept apart from the major racial 
group. They have argued that these decisions have been detrimental to the edu­
cation of Chicano children who have therefore been denied equal protection of 
the law. This question is now before the Fifth Circuit, and a decision is expected 
prior to the 1972-73 school year. 

AUSTIN, TEXAS 

The Austin Independent School District bas an enrollment of 55,565 stu­
dents, of which 65 percent are white, 21 percent are Chicano, and 15 percent 
are black. Until 1955, Austin maintained a strictly segregated school system, but 
after Brown, it began a policy of gradualism, with freedom of choice for black 
students. By 1963, all grades were included in this policy, but only slightly more 
than 900 black students ( 14 percent of the total black student population) were 
enroUed in formerly all-white schools. In 1968 OCR found that the district 
was still operating eight all-black schools, and another ten schools where the com­
bined minority (black-Chicano) enrollments represented more than 90 percent of 
the respective student bodies. 

Meanwhile, the East Austin community had become nearly all black and 

2 For a more thorough study of the educational problems of Chicanos, see Mexican American 
Education Study, Vols. I - Ill, United States Commission 011 Civil Rights, 1970-1971. 

61 



Chicano. The student ratio there was 7 percent white, 45 percent black and 
48 percent Chicano. HEW recommended a desegregation plan calling for some 
redrawing of zone lines and school reorganization, but the Austin school board 
refused to accept it. HEW then initiated administrative hearings against the dis­
trict in 1969. In 1970, the hearing examiner ruled in HEW's favor. When the 
school district refused to comply with the ruling, the Justice Department filed 
suit against the district. 

Austin schools began the 1970-7 l year under a temporary desegregation 
plan drawn up by HEW and ordered by a U. S. District Court. The interim 
order called for the closing of one all-black elementary school (which was not 
carried out until the following year), but left the other black and minority schools 
pretty much intact. It did call for implementation of Singleton. In the school year 
preceding the order, 1969-70, every black school bad a predominantly black 
faculty, although only 16 percent of the teachers in the system were black. The 
court also established May, 1971, as the final deadline for submission of desegre­
gation plans by the Justice Department and the school board. 

The Austin situation took on special significance with the approach of the May 
14 deadline since the new HEW plan would represent the Nixon Administration's 
first formal response to Swann. In a departure from usual form, HEW's plan 
was submitted to the Austin superintendent, with a copy given to the judge 
rather than directly to the judge. After compliment~1g the Austin officials on 
their plan, HEW presented its own plan in the form of "improvements" on the 
district's plan. 

The HEW plan required several non-contiguous zones and extensive new trans­
portation arrangements. Under the plan, all high schools and junior high schools 
would have Anglo majorities while only eight of 54 elementary schools would re­
main between 50 percent and 60 percent black-Chicano. The district's plan, 
on the other hand, used non-contiguous pairing of 38 schools in six cluster ar­
rangements. Although the clustering combined Anglo, black, and Chicano schools, 
it was limited to periodic interracial association between black and white students. 

Rejecting the government's arguments that Chicanos as well as blacks were 
subjected to de jure discrimination by the Austin Independent School District, 
the U. S. District Court ordered implementation of the board's plan for 1971-72. 
While it seemed clear that the Department of Justice would routinely appeal the 
decision in light of the strong plan submitted by the government, the appeal pro­
cess was anything but routine. The announcement of the appeal was accompanied 
by a statement from President Nixon that made three alarming points: (I) he 
announced that in the process of the appeal, the Justice Department would dis­
avow the HEW plan on behalf of the government; (2) he declared his opposition 
to "busing simply for the sake of busing"; ( 3) he said that the administration 
would introduce an amendment to ESAP, then before the House, to prohibit the 
expenditure of ESAP funds for busing. 

62 



The Department of Justice stated in its appeal that de jure discrimination 
against Chicano students did not extend to al l Mexican-American schools as 
originally assumed by the new HEW plan. It asked that consideration of the extent 
of the relief be remanded to the district court. It also recommended that the 
court should decide at which schools there is proof of discrimination against 
Chicanos, and should limit its relief to eradicate the effects of that discrimination. 
The appeal, which is still pending before the Fifth Circuit, also requested that the 
consideration of other approaches to desegregating the black elementary schools 
be remanded to the district court. 

As a result of the school district's plan, the 72 schools in the system have the 
following racial composition for 1971-72: 

52 schools are majority Anglo, and 19 of those schools are over 90 percent 
Anglo. 

20 schools are majority-minority, and 16 are over 90 percent minority. Of those 
16 schools, six are over 90 percent black and four are over 90 percent Chicano. 

In the other six over-90 percent minority schools, the combined black and 
Chicano enrollments are more than 90 percent. 

Thus, 35 of the district's 72 schools are still racially and ethnically identifiable 
as either over 90 percent Anglo schools or over 90 percent minority schools. 
Moreover, 64 percent of a ll black students in the district attend majority-minority 
schools, with 58 percent of those students in 80-100 percent minori ty schools. 

The black teacher ratio in Austin compares favorably with the black student 
ratio, and the district is in compliance with Singleton. Chicano teachers, how­
ever, comprise on ly 4.5 percent of the total faculty, and over 50 percent of all 
Chicano teachers· are still ass igned to majority Chicano schools. 

School d::segrcgation in Austin has so far meant the closing of three black 
schools-the black high school, the black junior high school, a nd one black ele­
mentary school-and has placed the burden of desegregation entirely on blacks. 

Also, the " learning clusters" plan, devised by school officials to satisfy the 
district court order for an elementary school plan that would not involve massive 
transportation arrangements, has not even been implemented. The reason given 
by school officials for fai lure to implement the elementary school plan is that 
the distr ict received only one-ten th of the ESAP funds it requested for the pro­
gram. 

It is little wonder that community people contacted by our monitor regard HEW 
and the Justice Department as well as school officials, with some cynicism. 
Chican os, blacks, and concerned whites were almost unanimous in their assertion 
that the Justice Department had "sold out" the interests of the minority com­
munity in Aust in. One Chicano leader felt that the federal government had used 
Austin "as a political ploy." A white attorney described the case as "pretty much 

63 



of a mockery." A black leader said "it came across to the black community that 
Nixon was only making another political maneuver" with the equivocal appeal. 

The community also feels uncomfortable with another political aspect of the 
case. The chairman of the Austin school board, Will Davis, was formerly chair­
man of the Texas Democratic Party. U. S. District Court Judge Jack Roberts 
was appointed by Lyndon Johnson and is a friend of Davis. Donald Thomas, who 
argued the school board's case, is the personal attorney for Lyndon Johnson. It 
is little wonder that desegregation advocates in Austin suspect that this case has 
more to do with politics than with law and justice. 

HOUSTON, TEXAS 

With 231,493 students (46 percent white, 38 percent black, 16 percent 
Chicano) in a school district covering 311 square miles, Houston was the 
largest school system included in our survey. The school district was first sued 
by an LDF attorney in 1956 after which Houston initiated a grade-a-year, free 
choice plan. Freedom of choice was extended to all grades by 1967, and also in 
that year the Department of Justice was permitted to intervene in the case. It is 
interesting that in subsequent litigation, neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants 
separated Chicano students from the majority population, and together they 
were considered as the "white" enrollment which represented two-thirds of the 
district. 

The school district was ordered to submit a new plan to the court in 1970, and 
ultimately, seven plans were presented for the court's consideration. The LDF 
submitted a computer-designed plan calling for extensive busing. , The Justice De­
partment presented a plan developed by the HEW Title IV desegregation center 
in Florida. The Texas Desegregation Center (also an HEW Title IV Center) 
presented a plan at the direction of the court. The 1969 school board had pre­
sented two plans, and the new 1970 school board presented two plans. 

The two plans presented by the new school board were the "equidistance 
zoning plan" and the "geographic-capacity zoning plan." The equidistance zoning 
plan was modeled after a similar plan in Orange County, Florida, and provided 
for drawing zone lines exactly equi-distant between adjacent schools. Students 
would attend the school nearest their homes, with a voluntary majority-minority 
transfer provision. If a student chose the nearest school in which he was in the 
minority, he was permitted to bump a student of the opposite race. Free trans­
portation was provided. Under the "geographic-capacity zoning plan" a zone 
would be drawn around each school with the size of the zone determined by the 
capacity of the school. 

U. S. District Court Judge Ben Connolly ordered the equidistance plan, but 
this decision was appealed to the Fifth Circuit. A three-judge panel ruled that 

64 



the equidistance plan should be used as a base for the elementary school de­
segregation plan, with the modification of twelve sets of paired schools. The court 
ordered the geographic-capacity plan to be used at the secondary level. 

The plan was supposed to be completely implemented in September, 1970. 
But the board filed a motion taking exception to most of the elementary pairings 
because they desegregated only black and Chicano students, and resulted in what 
it characterized as "statistical desegregation." 

Only in May, 1971, did Judge Connolly finally deny the motion. The school 
board implemented the complete Fifth Circuit desegregation plan in September, 
1971. 

No Swann motion has been filed by either LDF or the Justice Department, 
and none seems imminent. The Justice Department feels it will be virtually im­
possible to prove de jure discrimination against Chicanos in Houston-certainly 
much tougher than in Austin and Corpus Christi. The LDF attorney told our 
monitor, "We recognize there is going to have to be some busing, but there are 
good arguments on the other side . . . I'd like to play a psychological game. I'd 
like to give this so-called liberal board time to play with it." 

The desegregation plan ordered by the Fifth Circuit is little better than no 
plan at all. Of 231 schools in the Houston system, our monitor found that: 

107 schools are majority Anglo, and 44 of those are over 90 percent Anglo. 

116 schools are majortiy-minority, and 82 of those are over 90 percent minority. 

Of those 82 schools, 50 are over 90 percent black, four are over 90 percent 
Chicano. 

In the other 28 over-90 percent minority schools, the combined black and 
Chicano enrollments are over 90 percent. 

Thus, a total of 126 schools are still clearly identifiable as either over 90 
percent Anglo schools or over 90 percent minority schools. 

In February 1970, the Houston school board voted to voluntarily adopt 
Singleton for the 1970-71 school year, and is in compliance. The district-wide 
faculty ratio is 64 percent white, 33 percent black and 3 percent Chicano. Al­
though HEW has said that the Singleton ratio is slightly off in some heavily 
Chicano schools, that deviance occurred because the Houston Independent School 
District concentrated the few Chicano teachers it employed in Chicano schools 
and counted them as minority teachers rather than as white (as HEW did in 
accordance with the court orde.r). HEW and HISD have worked out their dis­
agreement. 

65 



v 

THE STUDENTS INVOLVED 

PARTICIPATION IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 
No clear pattern concerning the participation of black students in student govern· 

ments emerged from our monitoring survey. Efforts to guarantee adequate repre· 
sentation vary greatly from district to district and even among schools within the 
same district. 

The Little Rock, Arkansas, School Board decreed that two representatives to the 
student council, bl ack and white, would be chosen from each homeroom, but the 
officers were chosen by the student body. Therefore, the council is well-integrated, 
but all of the officers are white. In Montgomery, Alabama's J efferson Davis High 
School, 21 percent of the 61 member student council is black, but there arc no 
blacks on the 15-member executive council. 

Texarkana; Arkansas students feel that the system of electing officers to the 
student council is rigged so that there will never be more than a few blacks on the 
council and no officers. To qualify for the student council , students must submit 
a petition with twenty-five s ignatures and then run in an at-large election. The 
at-large election negates the potential of the black vote, as docs a full-slate require­
ment (students must vote for as many individua ls as there are vacancies for a 
particular post or their ba llot is th rown out). In the eyes of the students, the school 
system is merely following the lead of the city government-which, in electing 
school board members and city councilmen, changed from a ward system to an 
at-large system when blacks became politically active. 

Students in Selma, Alabama, found that because blacks were in a majority after 
desegregation began, they won most of the positions during the first year. Now 
students at Selma High are required to vote for an equal number of black and 

66 



white members of the student council, though the student enrollment is 60 percent 
black. To qualify for student council posts, students must submit their names to 
the principal who "screens" the candidates, using his own criteria. Before de­
segregation, students in all the high schools were allowed to make speeches and 
campaign, and there was no screening by the administration. 

In a Raleigh, North Carolina, high schoc::il an assistant principal suggested to the 
students that class officers be selected on a 70 percent white, 30 percent black 
basis. The student body voted for equal representation among black and white 
students. 

Other schools have made efforts to see that there is equal representation on 
student councils. At Wilson and West Florence High School in Florence, South 
Carolina, a "slate" election system is used. Students can construct their own slates 
for student council positions, but each slate must be half black and half white. In 
Forest City, Arkansas, the school board promised that student council and class 
officers would be elected on the basis of race to ensure representation. The plan 
was for one race to hold each position for one semester, and the other race to hold 
that position in the second semester. The student council is currently predominately 
black, the president is black, the vice-president is black, the secretary is white, and 
the treasurer is white. Black students at Rule High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, 
organized themselves so that four of five student council officer positions are now 
held by blacks, and 35 of 52 homeroom representatives are black. 

Throughout the South, our monitors found inadequate representation of black 
students on cheerleader squads. In Jefferson County, Alabama, only one desegre­
gated high school has an integrated cheerleading squad. Few high schools in Binn­
ingbam, Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas, Huntsville, Alabama, and Texarkana, 
Texas, have cheerleading squads that are significantly integrated. At Memorial 
High School in Orange County, Florida, black students were told they did not make 
the cheerleading squad during tryouts in the spring of 1971. Some black cheer­
leaders were added in the fall, but by then they had to start without the right 
uniforms . At Evans High School, many black students tried to become cheerleaders 
but were not accepted by the all-white panel of judges. 

Methods of selecting cheerleaders vary from school to school. Some let all 
candidates for cheerleader be voted on by the student body, while others require 
that the student body vote only on those nominees who pass a screening by a 
faculty committee. 

At Rogers-Herr High School in Durham, North Carolina, the principal and 
dean of girls made up new standards (grades, conduct, etc.) when large numbers 
of blacks attempted to participate in the selection of student council members and 
cheerleaders. But when a bi-racial faculty team selected the cheerleaders outright, 
at majority black Wonder Junior High School in West Memphis, Arkansas, the 16 
cheerleaders were still all-white. Montgomery, Alabama, has a faculty screening 

67 



committee, but Lee High School has only one black cheerleader and Jefferson 
Davis High School has none. 

There are also economic barriers to black participation on cheerleader squads. 
In Forest City, Arkansas, and Shreveport, Louisiana, students must pay for their 
own uniforms and for attending cheerleader workshops. In Shreveport, the uni­
forms cost $75 and the workshops $100. Students in Rome, Georgia, must also 
pay for their uniforms. 

Some schools have qualification requirements that seem to bar black students 
from cheerleader squads. Texarkana, Arkansas students must serve on the pep 
squad for two years before they can be eligible to become a cheerleader, and, as a 
result, there are no blacks on the cheerleader squad. Our monitor in New Orleans, 
Louisiana, was told, but was unable to confirm, that before a student at Beaure­
gard Junior High School (19 percent black) can be a cheerleader, he must first 
be a flag twirler, and flag twirlers train each summer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast 
where they stay with white families. As a result, the Beauregard cheering team has 
no black members. 

At the desegregated high school in Selma, Alabama, students competing for the 
cheerleader squad must have a certain grade average and have been members of 
the pep club-requirements not demanded at the formerly black high school. There 
are black students on the cbeerleading squad (four of 13). 

At many schools, similar problems confront black students who want to be 
majorettes . There are no black majorettes in Knoxville, Tennessee, because black 
candidates cannot get white votes. The school board has included a provision in 
the desegregation plan which insures the election of at least one minority-group 
cheerleader at each high school. 

In Savannah, Georgia, the majorettes at Windsor Forest High School were all­
white, reportedly because the black students who did express interest were told in 
August they must pay $150 for uniforms and equipment. When they were unable 
to raise the money, they were eliminated from participation. At Windsor Forest 
Junior High in the same city, black students were told they weren't qualified 
because they were not used to the "routines" of the white schools. Students in 
Huntsville, Alabama, and Jefferson County, Alabama, told our monitor that they 
knew of no black majorettes at any integrated schools. Even in West Memphis, 
Arkansas, where the band is well-integrated, the majorettes are white. 

The majorettes in Montgomery, Alabama, are selected by the band director and 
a couple of people he selected to be on the committee. Lee High School has no 
black majorettes, and at Jefferson Davis High School, only one of 15 majorettes is 
black. In spite of this, there have been no protests over the selection procedure. 
Forrest City, Arkansas, High School has no black majorettes because of a require-

68 



ment that a tpajorette must play an instrument. This was not true at the formerly 
black high school. 

Ninety-five percent of the majorettes and drill teams in Little Rock, Arkansas 
are white. Each drill team consists of 40 or more female students and performs on 
behalf of a given school at athletic events. Although the black enrollment is no 
less than 30 percent at any high school, the black participation in these programs 
is 10 percent or less. Girls must buy their own uniforms which can cost as much 
as $175 each at Central High School. This factor alone tends to deter black 
participation. 

Discontent with the band itself is high in Selma, Alabama. Of nearly 50 band 
members, only six are black. A combination of factors is responsible for this low 
participation. Students who were band members previously at a black school were 
angry when their director was not chosen to lead the Selma High School band. 
He had won many awards and had more experience than the white director 
eventually chosen. Too, all prospective members of the Selma High band must 
take a test, even if they have had previous band experience. The black students 
also felt that only "white folks" music was played, and said that no routines from 
the black schools were used . The white band director is reported to have said that 
instruments used at the black school were not acceptable, even though that school 
had won numerous awards with those same instruments. 

Forrest City, Arkansas, has two bands. The "A" band performs at half-time; the 
"B" band is a training band. Most blacks are assigned to the "B" band, and most 
quit because of what they consider racism by the band director. Seven black stu­
dents and 60 white ones are members of the "A" band. The bands are also only 
tokenly integrated in Jefferson County, Alabama, where most band directors de­
termine the student's ability "to pay" as well as to play an instrument. 

The Durham, North Carolina, school district does not provide instruments; the 
cost of purchasing or renting these was found to be a barrier to the participation 
in the band of low-income black students. Few bands in Huntsville, Alabama have 
black students. Even though they pass the tryouts, black students say they quit 
either because the bandmasters are considered to be racist or because the cost of 
participation is too great. In Beaumont, Texas, black students are beginning to 
find places in the band at 75 percent white Beaumont High. But black students are 
not allowed in the high school orchestra, because they must have so many years 
"experience," and none of the black elementary and junior high schools (from 
which most of the black students come) have orchestras, as the white schools do. 

School choruses were surveyed. Many were well-integrated in Mobile, Alabama, 
though a special chorus at Davidson High School is all-white. Montgomery, Ala­
bama, has no black soloists. At Hall. High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, the 
soloists are white and a special choir, the Hallmarks, is predominantly white. 
Similarly, Fort Johnson High in Charleston County, South Carolina, has one inte-

69 



grated choir and a special choir made up of its "best" members (all white) for 
public appearances. At Lamar High School in Houston, Texas, a special "image" 
choir that tours about the country is all white. Some black students have tried out 
for it, but none has been accepted. 

A mixed pattern emerges for black participation in school newspapers. The 
editor at Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama, last year was black, and under 
his leadership the school paper won state and local awards. The editor reportedly 
received no scholarship or notice, as the accolades went to his white successor. The 
former black editor is now at the University of Chicago. In Knoxville, Tennessee, 
students said that black student activities are not reported in the school paper, and 
that many students don't read the paper anyway because it costs 15 cents a copy. 

Though the student newspaper in Selma, Alabama has a black editor, only one 
issue of the paper had been published when our monitor was in the district in 
January. The principal reportedly censors the paper, and news of black demands 
submitted to the school in November was not printed. The student papers in 
Shreveport, Louisiana, are reported never to mention racial disturbances in the 
schools. When two black attendants were elected to the Homecoming Court at 
Lee High School in Montgomery, Alabama, the student paper put a picture of the 
Queen and two white attendants on the front page, but ignored the black attendants . 

Election of black students to academic honor societies was found to be rare in 
many of the school districts monitored. Candidates for the National Honor Society 
must not only have a certain academic average, but teachers involved in screening 
candidates also take into account the student's "conduct'', "attitude" and "char­
acter." And at Erwin High School in Jefferson County, Alabama, members of the 
honor society are allowed to approve or disapprove of potential members. Sub­
jective criteria for selecting honor society members tends to work to the dis­
advantage of any student who is "different," whether he is white or black, regard­
less of his academic average, our survey would suggest. 

Our monitors found that black participation in athletics was very good in most 
of the districts surveyed. Indeed, black athletes dominate sports in some schools. 

But some students feel that black athletes are not permitted to participate to the 
degree that their abilities would seem to dictate. A high school basketball coach in 
Raleigh, North Carolina, is reported to have said that no more than two or three 
black students would be permitted to play on the team this year. Seven members 
of an outstanding basketball team at the black school the previous year are attend­
ing that school this year. 

A black basketball coach in Little Rock, Arkansas, was also criticized by com­
munity people for continuing to play two white players of alleged lesser ability 
than some of the black students . Monitors in Selma, Alabama, and Savannah, 
Georgia, reported instances in which black football players were used to move the 

70 



ball down the field for their teams, only to have white players complete the touch­
down drive. 

Monitors also found that authoritarian and rigid attitudes of some coaches 
were responsible for black students feeling that they could not successfully com­
pete on athletic teams. Black students at Vigor High School in Mobile, Alabama, 
complained that they had to have a special attitude of "yes, sir, no sir" to make the 
team. 

The merger of the formerly racially separate high schools in Orangeburg, South 
Carolina, was largely responsible for the development of a state championship foot­
ball team . But there were reports that students with long hair, sideburns, hippie 
clothes or even the "wrong" kind of fr iends (hippies, militants ) are kept off the team. 
Similar complaints came from students at Lower Richland High School in Colum­
bia, South Carolina. There, the football coach went so far as to attempt to control 
attendance at pep rallies by restricting them to those who received invitations or 
signed up in advance. At one school in Orange County, Florida, where a particular 
team is now predominantly black, the principal now chooses the Sweetheart Court. 
It was formerly chosen by members of the team. 

Another concern expressed by students was that coaches frequently do not help 
outstanding black athletes get college scholarships. (In some areas, such assistance 
is no t required because the high school teams are heavily scouted by co lleges.) In 
Forrest City, Arkansas, a black coach said that no real effort is made to get scholar ­
ships for anyone. At Vigor High School in Mobile, Alabama, students complained 
that they were encouraged to participate in sports to make it easier to get scholar­
ships. But in the end, few were forthcoming. Black athletes at Edgewater High 
School in Orange County, Florida, were reported not receiving scholarships nor 
being nominated for " most va lu able player" awards. 

A common complaint regarding school clubs focused on the Key C lubs, a 
service organization composed of student leaders. lt is affiliated with the com­
munity-based Kiwanis Clubs. Moni tors in Knoxville, Tennessee, Savannah, Geor­
gia, Little Rock, Arkansas, Orangeburg, South Carolina, and Texarkana, Arkansas, 
reported that Key Clubs in the schools were a ll-white. In New Orleans, our monitor 
found that Kennedy High School once had a Key C lub, but lost it when the princi­
pal to ld its sponsors to desegregate it o r get off campus. 

Apparently membership in the Key C lubs is by invitation only, and one negative 
vote can keep a student out. An H EW-ESAP review team was told by officials in 
Florence, South Carolina, that black students were invited to join the Key Club at 
West F lorence H igh School, but none wished to join. In T exarkana, Arkansas, any 
student who wants to be considered for membership in the Key Club must obtain 
an application from the principal's office. As black students see it, this procedure 
is used so that the club can be forewarned . 

71 



In Jefferson County, Alabama, Shreveport, Louisiana, Montgomery, Alabama, 
Rome, Georgia, Orange County, Florida, and Monroe, Louisiana, black students 
felt that the. times scheduled for meetings of school clubs and the lack or in­
flexibility of transportation discourage their participation in school activities. 
Many clubs meet after school or at night when it is difficult for black students who 
miss the school bus to get home. At A. C. Flora High School in Columbia, South 
Carolina, a student activity bus was provided when it became clear that transporta­
tion was a deterrent to black participation in school clubs. And in Tampa, Florida, 
local money has been used to purchase and maintain activity buses . 

Our monitors also reported that many black students do not choose to partici­
pate in clubs or activities which were not present in the black schools and which 
are still unfamiliar to them. Only rarely were clubs found to have an affirmative 
or aggressive program to encourage black students to participate. 

In Austin, Texas, our monitor concluded, "Although student achv1t1es have 
generally been integrated, at least on a token basis, students feel that there has 
been no commitment beyond superficial gestures toward making them feel like part 
of their new schools." 

Students in Selma, Alabama, and Montgomery, Alabama, have tried to form 
their own black studies or Afro-American clubs, but have been turned down by 
school officials. Some other districts do have such clubs, sometimes with a few 
white members. 

PROTEST AND CONFLICT 

The majority of the districts visited by our monitors had experienced some 
student unrest since desegregation. Certainly not every school has been affected 
in these districts. There were relatively few disruptions at the elementary and 
junior high level, but in the high schools they were found to be relatively wide­
spread.1 

Our monitors found two types of unrest: student protest and student conflict. 
Student protests usually involve a large number of students with grievances 
against the school administration or school board. Such protests seem to result 
when students have been unable to resolve specific grievances through conven-

1 /n November, 1971, the Charlotte, North Carolina, schoof board asked the Charfotte-Meckfen­
burg Community Refations Commillee to make an inquiry into the causes of student unrest 
and advise the board on the group's findings. The Committee's thirty-one page report was 
refeased in March, 1972. It went beyond the schoof board's request because of a finding 
that the causes for student unrest were often compfex and related to other problems not 
at first apparent. We believe the report is an accurate analysis of problems not only in the 
Charlotte schools but in urban school districts throughout the South. Because it rnlidates 
many of the observations made in this monitoring study and because it contains other 
information which we believe can be generally applied to many school districts of the urban 
Sowh, our readers may want to obtain a copy to supplement this report. Copies may be 
obtained from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Commillee. 

72 



tional channels, or when some small incident triggers the accumulated frustra­
tions and anger over grievances the students perceive and feel deeply, but which 
may or may not have been formally articulated and presented. 

Student conflicts, on the other band, may involve only two students, or a 
small group of students, or large numbers of students fighting each other rather 
than focusing their attention on some authority figure. 

Elements of student conflict may be found in student protest and vice versa, 
but for the purpose of this report we have tried to separate the two. 

Student conflict may involve racial hostility, traditional non-racial intimidation 
and personal aggression, life-style or cultural misunderstanding, and class or 
economic conflict. Incidents of student conflict may indeed occur with greater 
frequency or receive more public attention in desegregated schools than in the 
dual system because of the presence of students representing a wider range of 
economic, class, cultural and racial origins. It must also be understood that the 
sophistication of today's students, in confrontation with the traditional curricula 
and authoritarianism of large urban schools, bas also contributed to the restless­
ness and tension which frequently generate student conflict. 

Specific causes of student conflict are generally more difficult to isolate and 
remedy than are the causes of student protest. But it is not unusual for both 
types of unrest to have racial overtones. 

Most of the unrest identified by our monitors involved student protest over 
issues of symbolic importance as well as over injustices. At Butler High School in 
Huntsville, Alabama, black students protested the use of the Confederate flag and 
other regalia, as well as discrimination in the selection of cheerleaders and major­
ettes. Similar protests broke out over the use of the Confederate flag, rebel mascot 
and nickname, and the song "Dixie" at Dixie Hollins High in St. Petersburg, 
Florida. 

In Norfolk, Virginia, black students at Booker T . Washington High School 
walked out to express their concern that the name of the school would be changed. 
Absence of black representation on the homecoming court generated student 
protest at Abramson High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Later black students 
protested the generally unfriendly atmosphere at class dances featuring white bands. 

Black students in Rome, Georgia, walked out of school to protest the absence 
of black cheerleaders, black counselors and a black history course. Delay by the 
administration of Tara High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in dealing with 
grievances concerning the election of the homecoming court sparked a protest. 
It included demands for a black studies program, co-presidents of every club and 
activity in the school, lowering the flag to half-mast on the anniversary of Dr. 
Martin Luther King's assassination , having black bands play at school dances, 
and the like. 

73 



At two high schools in Monroe, Louisiana, 250 students walked out to support 
their demand for a black studies week. A similar demand for a credited course in 
black studies was also one of the causes of a protest at Nicholls High School in 
New Orleans, Louisiana. In West Memphis, Arkansas, l 00 students walked out 
after a series of incidents insulting to blacks. Subsequent demands were for changes 
of the school colors and the name of the athletic team and mascot, and for appoint­
ment of an equal number of black and white cheerleaders and majorettes, and for 
specific suspension and expulsion procedures. 

Black students and some whites responded to a community call for a boycott in 
Austin, Texas, over the closing of two black schools in 1971 . During the boycott, 
an alternative school staffed with 30 volunteer teachers with teaching certificates 
operated in an old church building. Classes for the first through eighth grades were 
held through Oct. 28 , 1971 , and probably would have continued if financial re­
sources had been available. 

In Charleston, South Carolina, the entire 1,600-member student body of all­
black Burke High School walked out of the school to protest severe overcrowding 
and poor facilities. Dreher High School in Columbia, South Carolina, was closed 
for several days after student conflict and protest over the inaccessibility of the 
school principal and administrative staff to black students and parents. When 
black and white students picketed (on separate days, for different reasons) Abram­
son High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, their pictures were taken by the 
school administration. According to the students involved, the pictures were blown 
up and posted on the school bulletin board with a warning against ever participat­
ing in demonstrations again. Additional walkouts and other forms of student pro­
test were reported in Mobile, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; Selma, Alabama, 
and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 

Many of the student conflicts reported by our monitors seemed to be caused by 
racial hostility. But there were some indications that school administrations were 
either unable or unwilling to help resolve the basic problems responsible for such 
friction. 

Monitors in Nashville, Tennessee; Mobile, Alabama; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; 
St. Petersburg, Florida, and Tampa, Florida, also reported student conflicts which 
temporarily disrupted some schools. Many of the conflicts were started because 
of name-calling, "gestures" used by students, or because of some physical over­
ture by a student of one race toward a student of another. 

In Austin, Texas, racial conflicts occurred in several of the high schools and 
junior high schools that had an influx of black students for the first time. Racial 
tension was worst at formerly 95 percent-white McCallum High. Fights and 
general disruptions continued for several days near the beginning of the school 
year. 

74 



Police, using billy clubs and Mace, were called in to break up a riot which 
erupted at Reagan High School after a fight between a white and a black student. 
Both white and black community sources charged that the police brutality was 
aimed mainly at blacks. The local newspaper implied that the incident was the 
outcom~ of a student "gripe session" held the night before, despite the fact that 
no Reagan students were at the meeting. 

Police used tear gas to break up student conflict at Groves High School in 
Savannah, Georgia, during which windows were broken, scores of desks over­
turned, and fourteen students arrested. Our monitor in Macon, Georgia, reported: 

"There have been some racial conflicts in the schools among students. They 
usually follow a pattern of a white and a black getting into a fight with other 
students joining along racial lines. The white students go home and report the 
incident to their parents. The next day, black students and white parents are 
held apart by the Macon police. Most of the time, the incidents are grossly 
exaggerated by the local newspapers." 

After several racial incidents at Southwest High in Macon, students formed 
their own bi-racial committee, "The Brotherhood of Southwest." One member 
t'Jl-:1 our monitor, "we were tired of sitting still while a bad stituation grew worse. 
This group was formed out of neither love nor hate. We just want to be educated 
in peace."' Student conflict has decreased since the group's formation. 

DISCIPLINE: CODES AND SUSPENSIONS 

A key deterrent to student conflict and student protest is the administration 
of each school. Principals have a high degree of autonomy, and it is likely that 
the atmosphere of a particular school will more or less reflect the principal's 
sensitivity and creativity, or the lack of it, in dealing with school problems. 

To what degree disciplinary action resolves problems or merely compounds 
them depends to a large extent on the wisdom and fairness of individual principals 
and teachers. Our monitor in Norfolk, Virginia, reported that, "Rules are made 
by individual teachers or by a principal. Obviously, with such a vague standard 
it is easy for discipline procedures to be misused." In Austin, Texas, the "enforce­
ment of the rules is at the discretion of the principals." In Monroe, Louisiana, 
"the disciplinary code, in most cases, is left in the hands of the local administra­
tion, namely the principal." 

Our monitor in Texarkana, Texas, reported, "The students said that one of the 
primary problems with enforcement is that each teacher and administrator can be 
an enforcer, and that racist teachers enforce it discriminatorily against blacks." 

In Tampa, Florida, the monitor reported, "The superintendent says that there 
is a systemwide set of student rules. This is true, and this is not true. It is not true 

75 



insofar as all kids in the system are not subject to the same disciplinary action for 
the same alleged offense. It is true insofar as certain procedures for kids disciplined 
are standard." Our Jefferson County, Alabama, monitor reported that, "Rules are 
made (but not necessarily written) by the principal in each school." 

One area where great discretion is possible by principals and teachers is the 
administration of dress codes. Dress codes in St. Petersburg, Florida; Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana and Huntsville, Alabama, have either been eliminated altogether or 
made very broad because previous codes with specific standards had been more 
trouble than they were worth. But some other districts adhere to codes which 
continue to cause problems for students and administrators. 

The specificity of some dress codes ("shirts should be buttoned from second 
button from top to last button at bottom"--Shreveport, Louisiana; "sideburns may 
be 112 of a,n inch below the bottom of the ear and be conventional in depth and 
form"-Texarkana, Arkansas) appears to have little to do with the educational 
process, but the unequal administration of other such codes is a matter of con­
cern to some students. In Selma, Alabama, black students feel the code is more 
rigidly applied to them than to white students. For example, black girls were told 
not to wear hats, though white girls had been wearing them. And there is a limit 
to the length of afros for black males, but white boys can wear long hair. 

At Murphy and Vigor High Schools in Mobile Alabama, white males may wear 
their hair in a ponytail, but black students may not plait theirs. Discrimination in 
the administration of the dress code was also reported in Hattiesburg~ Mississippi; 
Monroe, Louisiana, and Shreveport, Louisiana. 

Our monitor in Texarkana, Arkansas cited the dress code as one of the most 
serious problems in the school system. There, the code seems to apply equally 
to both black and white students. Black students have been forced to shave off 
their moustaches while white students have been taken to the cosmetology de­
partment where their hair has been cut. 

Apparently everybody in the school administration can enforce the dress 
code and this has created a lot of confusion. One teacher may say nothing about 
a "violation" of the code, while another teacher may send the student home or 
to department heads or to the principal. The code is seen by some girls as 
discriminating against those who are poor and cannot afford the pants-suits 
allowed by the code. Girls who have worn slacks or jeans with a tuck-in blouse 
have been sent home under this rule because there is confusion as to what 
constitutes a pants-suit. 

In Savannah, Georgia, a number of parents and students complained to our 
monitor that males are harassed for wearing hats in the hallways. According to 
one report a boy at Beach High was sprayed with Mace or another chemical for 
refusing to remove his cap when requested by a security guard. The dress code 
is apparently unwritten in Birmingham, Alabama, and this causes severe problems 

76 



for black students. One student leader at Phillips High School, who is identified 
as "black, aggressive and alert," was suspended for the rest of the year for wear­
ing a hat. 

Most districts were found to have some form of discipline code or code of student 
conduct. Some are promulgated at the district level while others are prepared by each 
school. There is no such districtwide set of student rules in Texarkana, Arkansas, 
or Macon, Georgia, or Norfolk, Virginia, where our monitor found the lack to be 
a major problem. In Norfolk, a student can apparently be disciplined for an 
action which is not known to be a violation of anything (an elementary student was 
suspended for three days for refusing to remove his coat in the classroom). 
Teachers or principals can make up the rules as they go, and consequently, it 
is easy for discipline to be misused. 

The use of suspensions by principals was found to be a serious problem by 
practically all of our monitors. Suspensions appear to be used too extensively 
and with such frequency that their value as a disciplinary tool may be rapidly 
diminishing. In Florida, a state law provides that no student may be suspended 
for more than ten consecutive days. But there is no regulation concerning the 
maximum number of times a student may be suspended. If a student is suspended 
for I 5 cumulative days in one semester, he automatically fails that semester. 

For any unexcused absence in St. Petersburg, Florida (suspensions are counted 
as unexcused absences), a student receives a zero (the principal can waive this 
provision). In Tampa, Florida, a student loses three percentage points from his 
six-weeks report card for each unexcused absence. When a student has accumu­
lated 15 unexcused days, his situation is reviewed by a committee of teachers and 
administrators before he is failed. 

The 80,000- student St. Petersburg system has recorded the following number of 
suspensions since 1968: 

1968-1969-3,500 
1969-1970-5,500 

1970-1971-8,200 (first year of significant desegregation) 

1971-1972--4,100 (to January 1, 1972) 

A highly placed administrator in St. Petersburg estimated there would be 
between 9,000 and 9,500 suspensions by the end of the school year. He said 
the average suspension is about five days. About 40 percent of the suspensions 
are at the junior high school level, and the rest at the senior high level. He 
estimated that perhaps half of the suspensions are for smoking or leaving the 
campus without permission. Many of the junior high school suspensions are for 
fighting. He also estimated that perhaps as many as half of the suspensions 
involve black students, even though only 16 percent of the students in the district 
are black. 

77 



Our monitor obtained the following information about suspensions for 1971-
72 (to January 1, 1972) at specific schools in Pinellas County: 

Dixie Hollins-543 (23 percent of student enrollment) 

Boca Ciega-307 (13 percent of student enrollment) 

Meadowlawn-136 (11 percent of student enrollment) 

Tyrone Jr. High---84 (7 percent of student enrollment) 

Two black teachers at Dixie Hollins told our monitor they were convinced 
that black students accounted for well over half of all students suspended. They 
said black students are suspended for longer periods than white students for the 
same alleged violations. 

Suspensions are also a major problem in Tampa. By the end of December, 
1970, 1,458 students had been suspended. But by the time students started 
their Christmas vacation in 1971, 2,697 students had been suspended. This was 
an increase from 1.4 percent of the total student enrollment in 1970 to 2.6 per­
cent in 1971. Of the 463 suspensions in September, 1971, a total of 116 were 
for fighting, 35 for smoking, 120 for profanity and disobedience, 94 for miscel­
laneous offenses, 87 for truancy, eight for carrying a knife, and three for 
extortion. 

Two black administrators in the Tampa system alleged that though the total 
black enrollment in the school system represents only 18 percent of all the 
students in the district, the suspensions of black students represent more than 
50 percent of all the suspensions. 

One of the administrators said that if you simply look at the action for which 
the student is suspended, the suspensions are warranted. For example, students 
who are suspended have been, in fact, fighting, using profanity, smoking, etc. 
The administrator went on to state his belief that many of these overt actions 
are caused by more subtle and Jess visible problems, such as the irrelevant cur­
riculum, black students' not wanting to be at the school to which they are assigned, 
the loss of the black high schools last year, and exclusion from many activities­
in other words, not really being a part of the school or having a stake in it. 

From September to December 14, 1971, in Norfolk, Virginia, approximately 
2,000 students were suspended and 59 were expelled. Of this number, 61 percent 
of the students suspended in the senior high schools were black, and 69 percent 
in the junior high schools were black. In 1970-71 there were 4,974 cases of 
suspensions and approximately 300 expulsions. At prestigious Maury High School, 
where 48 percent of the student enrollment is black, 96 percent of the suspensions 
involved black students. Dr. Jesse Allen, the Norfolk assistant superintendent for 
public personnel, attributes the high rate of suspension of black pupils to the 
fact that "we have some racist teachers." He also cited racial and social class 

78 



conflict which has become more visible since students have been brought together 
by desegregation. 

In Columbia, South Carolina, 741 black students and 267 white students were 
suspended during the first three months of the 1971-1972 school term. Estimates 
of the suspensions in Mobile, Alabama, numbered between 300 and 350 during 
the first semester of the 1971-72 term. By the end of October, 1971, 198 black 
students and 95 white students had been suspended in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

In Charlotte, North Carolina, last year there were 6,600 suspensions. By Novem­
ber, 1971, there had been almost 1,100 suspensions and school district staff have 
projected 4,000 to 4,500 suspensions by the end of the 1971-72 year. 

Also, in 1970-71 in Huntsville, Alabama, 584 suspensions were recorded, with 
more than 2,000 school days Jost as a result. At McClenaghan High School 
in Florence, South Carolina, 64 black students and 29 white students had been 
suspended by December of 1971, while 128 black students and 4 7 white students 
had been suspended at Wilson High School. The principal of a high school in 
Rome, Georgia, told his faculty that there had been more suspensions the first 
quarter of the 1971-1972 school year than there had been all of the previous year. 
A knowledgeable community person in Nashville, Tennessee, told our monitor that 
suspensions in that school system had increased 150 percent over the previous 
school year. The director of pupil personnel in Jacksonville, Florida, told our 
monitor that " lots of suspensions" occur at the junior high level, particularly the 
ninth grade. He said there are probably fewer suspensions in high schools . 

Suspensions seem to vary from three to ten days in most school districts. But in 
Montgomery, Alabama; Savannah, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, a device 
known as "indefinite suspension" is used. Montgomery principals use it to avoid 
outright expulsion, but it is nearly the same. A student can return to school only 
when the principal decides to re-admit him. According to our monitor, indefinite 
suspensions "may last a semester, a year-or forever." In one case in Savannah, 
a student with a "surly attitude" was recommended for indefinite suspension. 

Administrative hearings are held in most districts where students are recom­
mended for indefinite suspension. The discipline code in Shreveport, Louisiana, 
provides that students who use tobacco, alcohol or profanity in the classroom, on 
::ampus or on a school bus will be suspended indefinitely. Indefinite suspensions 
also result from disobeying or threatening a teacher. 

Suspensions ca n lead to expulsions in other ways. A Louisiana law states that 
after the fourth suspension a student must be expelled. It appears, however, that 
most principals bend the rule by simply failing to count past four when they 
think it is possible to rehabilitate a student. 

At Rule High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, it is likely that if a student re­
ceives two suspensions within a six-week term, he will have missed five or six 
days, and there is a good possibility of failing all of his courses for that period. 

79 



Students told our monitor that many black students drop out because of the 
harassment they receive from some teachers and administrators and because 
of the futility of trying to make up their work. "Drop-outs, therefore, are, in 
reality, push-outs," the monitor commented. 

Many school administrators maintain that they use suspensions in order to get 
parents to come to the school and talk about the discipline problems of their 
children. However, in Texarkana, Arkansas, our monitor found that suspensions 
for such a purpose can lead to expulsion simply because such a conference with 
parents is required for readrnittance, and some black parents won't come to the 
school to see the principal as required. 

Austin, Texas, students are sometimes suspended over and over again, and there, 
too, parents must come to the school before their child can be readmitted to the 
school. Because it is often difficult for poor minority parents to obtain transporta­
tion to the school or because they are afraid, their children stay out of school and 
are, in effect, expelled. 

Students were found to receive suspensions for a wide range of offenses. A ninth 
grade black student at McClenaghan High School in Florence, South Carolina, 
was suspended for three days because she didn't respond with a "yes, ma'am" to a 
white teacher. When she returned to class the same thing happened again. This 
time the girl was transferred to another class. 

Monitors in Texarkana, Arkansas; Selma, Alabama; Montgomery, Alabama; 
Florence, South Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Jefferson County, Ala­
bama, reported that suspensions resulting from tardiness were frequent, especially 
for black students. Our Nashville, Tennessee, monitor felt that "the almost total 
lack of race relations awareness" on the part of the school system was the major 
cause of the suspensions there. In Durham, North Carolina, the monitor found 
that during the 1970-71 school year at Rogers-Herr Junior High School, large 
numbers of black students were suspended for relatively minor causes. According 
to our monitor, "It was clear that many of the white teachers could not relate to 
black students and often overreacted to situations in the school." 

Savannah, Georgia, Superintendent Thord Marshall told our monitor that in 
1970, he made a great effort to convince principals they should not use suspensions 
as a disciplinary tool since students lost invaluable time. This year, Superintendent 
Marshall urged principals to "suspend freely" and consequently there have been 
more suspensions than ever before. The superintendent's change of policy was 
summed up in his statement that "if they (principals) suspend these leaders, 
they (students) won't have anyone to lead them out." 

Other reasons for suspensions reported by the various monitors were: mis­
behaving in class, walking out of class without permission, fighting, failure to 
stay in for teacher, extortion, cutting classes, possession of drugs, willful dis­
obedience, disrespect for teachers and administrative personnel, defacing school 

80 



property, violating traffic and safety regulations, leaving the school campus with­
out a permit, carrying a weapon, breaking in lunch line, smoking or using alcohol 
on campus, cheating, stealing. Of course, as previously indicated, most school 
districts give arbitrary powers of suspension to the administrators of individual 
schools without specifically spelling out for what offenses a student may be 
suspended. Probably as many reasons exist for suspension, as there are teachers and 
students in a school, and it is clear that subjectivity plays an important role in 
the consideration of what kind of behavior does or does not warrant a suspension. 

So many students have been suspended and expelled that some administrators 
now believe the only way to deal with disruptive students is to establish an alterna­
tive school for them within the school system. 

In Little Rock, Arkansas, there is an "adjustment facility" where suspended 
students may spend from three to ten days in half-day sessions. This special 
school, called Gateway, is funded by ESAP and had an all-black student enroll­
ment when visited by our monitor. The district has also opened another facility, 
the Opportunity School, for 120 students who for some reason have met with 
failure in the system. Some of the students have been suspended; others are passive 
students, or have behavioral problems. Principals, teachers, parents, and local 
agencies refer students to the school which "will not admit students below 
normal intelligence or those who have had overt trouble with the law." Students 
are expected to stay in the school for about a semester. The school is also 
funded by ESAP and has an all-black student enrollment. Entry into both the 
Gateway and Opportunity School is voluntary. 

Savannah, Georgia, lacks such a facility but apparently uses its vocational school 
for the same purpose. One school official explained to our monitor that students 
with disciplinary problems are often sent to the vocational school "to work out 
their frustrations with their hands." The Norlolk, Virginia, school district hopes to 
secure funds from Model Cities to operate a " transitional school" for suspended 
and expelled students. The St. Petersburg, Florida system may try to get some funds 
from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration to establish a similar school, 
and the Columbia, South Carolina system is developing plans for such a school. 
The Continuous Learning Center in Mobile, Alabama, which is only one year old, 
has already found that students have been quick to place negative labels on it. 
According to our monitor, "Students label it a 'thug' school, a do-what-you-please 
school, a gambling den." The school is now 86 percent black. 

Black dropouts are another problem in desegregating school systems. This 
year, 17 percent of the eligible students who last year attended the all-black, 
now-closed Anderson High School in Austin, Texas, did not return to their new 
schools. Another 5 percent of the former Anderson students dropped out by 
January. The administration promised last November to set up an attrition pre­
vention program, including a campus review board and adjustment counseling 

81 



for both suspension and drop-out cases. But sources in the black community and 
the black school board member feel that they are moving too slowly. 

POLICE IN THE SCHOOLS 

Our monitors found that school administrators are increasingly using law 
enforcement personnel as aides in controlling students who are dissident, disrup­
tive, dangerous or just different (the distinctions are not always clear to all 
administrators). 

In Mobile, Alabama, our monitor observed that the school officials "seem to 
have delegated their job of disciplining to the police." At Vigor High School, 
there have been allegations of police brutality from the Prichard Branch of the 
NAACP and other community groups which have demanded police protection 
and the cessation of police brutality. Two black teachers at Vigor were arrested 
when they attempted to intervene on behalf of students in a student-police 
confrontation. 

When Selma, Alabama, black students were meeting at the school to discuss 
grievances and draw up demands to submit to the school administration, police 
were brought in. Students at J. T. Moore Junior High School in Nashville, Ten­
nessee, reported they were being intimidated by a black security guard who was 
threatening to tum them over to the police. Many school systems have a policy 
that police are to come to school only upon the principal's request. But in Little 
Rock, Arkansas, our monitor found that "in practice, regular visits are made to 
potential trouble spots," and in Huntsville, Alabama, police are "in much evidence 
around high school campuses" though they are not stationed in the schools them­
selves. Norfolk, Virginia, used police officers on school buses for the first few 
months of school. Students in Austin, Texas, and Columbia, South Carolina, re­
ported that police maintained a presence in or association with those schools where 
there had been student protests or conflict sometimes even after the immediate 
threat of disruption was over. 

The Savannah, Georgia, school system spends $18,000 a month for a force of 
35 armed security guards who maintain a presence in the halls of some schools. 
Students and parents told our monitor that pupils are harassed by guards for 
hall passes and that the presence of the guards generally causes antagonism and 
tension. Two or three guards are assigned to each school. They are armed with 
loaded hand-guns and tear gas or other chemical sprays. Not all of the schools 
have guards, however. The respective principals and the superintendent use their 
"sixth sense" to tell them which schools do not need them. Usually this means those 
schools which have had no fist-fights. 

Little action has been taken in Savannah against white parents and other 
white outsiders who have flocked to the campuses every time there was a rumor 

82 



of a racial incident. According to students and school officials, white adults have 
instigated mosi of the problems. A school official said that one reason for the 
armed guards was to protect black students from white parents. But students 
say guards and police have done little to discourage harassment. 

Until last January, 1972, the St. Peter~burg, Florida, school system bad an all­
white, 24-member School Security Patrol. One black officer bas since been 
added. Members of the School Security Patrol are deputized under state law. 
They can make arrests of anybody on any school campus; they carry guns in 
the schools, and they work mainly in junior and senior high schools. The guards 
patrol halls during school hours when trouble is "suspected" or when the 
school district is "having trouble." They also patrol schools at night to prevent 
vandalism. The security guards are paid from local money. There are more of 
them in the schools this year than last. 

There seems to be a consensus among the black community in St. Petersburg 
that these guards have too much authority. They are viewed with considerable 
suspicion and dislike by black students. Because of the insistence of white parents, 
the school system is also using policemen in conjunction with the security guards. 

At Tara High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a considerable amount 
of student conflict has occurred, police have patrolled the halls carrying night­
sticks. Jn early January, when black students demonstrated outside the school, 
the principal followed the district policy of requesting police to come to the 
school area (but not on campus) on a "stand-by" basis. That policy provides 
that the police are to come on campus only after the principal has called the 
superintendent after the first outbreak of trouble. 

Also in keeping with the district policy, the principal three times ordered the 
demonstrating students to return to class. Of the 125 students participating in the 
demonstration, all but 35 returned. Those 35 walked to the Valley Park Continu­
ing Education Center. They were followed by a police helicopter and three 
police cruisers, and were told by the officer in charge that they weren't to return 
to school since they had refused to return to class when ordered. In the eyes of 
the students this placed the police in the role of school disciplinarian. 

Police and plainclothesmen have been stationed on the campus and in the 
schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, many of them twirling nightsticks as they patrol 
the halls. The school system has also hired-on more than one occasion-a private 
police force to patrol school halls and grounds. In 1970-71 they were called into 
racially tense Fortier High School. This year, at the request of the white district 
superintendent, they patrol all-black Priestly Junior High. The men carry loaded 
guns on their hips, as well as nightsticks, despite the principals' objection to the 
guns. The mayor of Macon, Georgia, placed police in the high schools of that 
district following several violent student conflicts, and the school board publicly 
objected. 

83 



VI 

BLACK TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS 

Throughout the dark days of segregation in the South the education profession 
was one of the few in which black people could find meaningful work as well 
as status. Black principals and teachers had the education and relative economic 
security which frequently thrust them into leadership positions in the black 
community. These educators were also in key positions to influence and encourage 
black youth who otherwise had few models of success. For all of these reasons 
the black education professional has been an important figure in the develop­
ment and survival of the black community. 

This section is concerned with black teachers and administrators because in 
many places in the South the status and future of black educators has been insecure 
since the beginning of desegregation. There is a widespread concern in the black 
community that unless the education profession is made attractive and promising to 
young people-particularly now when teaching is no longer one of the few professions 
open to blacks-there will be fewer and fewer black teachers and administrators 
in coming years. If the present black teachers and administrators are subject to 
administrative dictates which are racially motivated, if their positions are callously 
downgraded or if the opportunities for advancement within the education pro­
fession suddenly become limited, then young people will no longer see teaching 
as a worthy and promising position which has real status in the community. Too, 
there is concern that without black models in the classroom black children will 
find it difficult to relate to the education that is offered there or to retain their 
identity within an integrated setting. Without black teachers and administrators 
there can be no meaningful integration even when black and white children are 
in the same classroom. 

HIRING AND RECRUITING 

In many of the districts monitored, including Selma, Alabama; Forrest City, 
Little Rock, Texarkana and West Memphis, Arkansas; Atlanta and Rome, Georgia; 

84 



Monroe, Louisiana; Greenville, Hattiesburg and Jackson, Mississippi; Durham and 
Raleigh, North Carolina; Charleston, Orangeburg and Richland # 1 (Columbia), 
South Carolina; Beaumont, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee, and Norfolk, Virginia, 
the district-wide black-white faculty ratios vary 10% or more from the overall 
black-white student ratios. In Shreveport, Louisiana, the black faculty ratio is 
about 9% less than the black student ratio; and in Montgomery, Alabama; Flor­
ence, South Carolina, and Texarkana, Texas, the black faculty ratio deviates from 
the black student ratio by about 7 % . 

In some of these districts, such as Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama; Little 
Rock, Arkansas; Atlanta, and Rome, Georgia; Monroe, New Orleans, and Shreve­
port, Louisiana; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Durham, North Carolina; Charleston, 
and Florence, South Carolina, and Beaumont, Texas, Singleton guidelines for 
faculty desegregation are not being adequately met. Monitors in many districts 
whose faculty ratios approximate their student ratios also reported Singleton non­
compliance. Huntsville, Alabama; Jefferson County, Alabama; Jacksonville, Flori­
da; East Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Greensboro, North Carolina, and Knoxville, 
Tennessee, continue to maintain schools with racially imbalanced faculties. 

In an alarming number of districts, monitors found that the overall percentage 
of black teachers is actually on the decline. The trend is most pronounced and 
ominous in districts that presently have district-wide faculty ratios that vary con­
siderably from their student ratios. In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for example, the 
percentage of black faculty has decreased from 37.7 percent (125) teachers in 
1968 to 30.7 percent (101) teachers in 1971. During the same period, black student 
enrollment increased from 44.6 percent to 46.4 percent of the total student enroll­
ment. 

Hiring methods and recruitment procedures that are at best inadequate and at 
worst racist often prevail in districts where the erosion of black faculty is a problem. 

In Texarkana, Arkansas, the decrease in the number and percentage of black 
faculty from 22 percent to 19 percent between 1970 and 1971 (black student 
enrollment is 31 percent) is the result of hiring practices. Only nine new black 
professional staff members were hired during the last two years (7.5 percent of 
the total) whereas 111 new whites in the same category were hired. The super­
intendent acknowledged that the district neither recruits on the basis of race nor 
visits colleges for recruitment purposes. When there is a need for a math, English, 
or elementary school teacher, the superintendent, assistant superintendent, or 
director of personnel calls one of the colleges "that we do business with and lets 
them know what we are looking for." The district recruits through the teacher 
placement programs at five Arkansas colleges that are all formerly all-white, 
except for formerly all-black (and still majority black) Arkansas AM&N, which 
is being phased out under a reorganization plan. 

85 



The erosion of black faculty is also occurring in Montgomery and Selma, Ala­
bama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Rome, Georgia; Monroe, Louisiana;1 Durham, North 
Carolina; Charleston and Florence, South Carolina, and Memphis, Tennessee. In 
Montgomery, the disproportionate number of new white teachers hired has 
decreased the percentage of black faculty. During the last two years, 418 new 
white teachers, but only 52 new black teachers (11.1 percent of the total) were 
hired. Consequently, the percentage of black faculty decreased from 43.3 percent 
in 1970 to 39 percent in 1971. Although the superintendent claims that black 
and white teachers are recruited at both black and white colleges, no one at the 
local black schools (Alabama State, Miles, Tuskegee) has had requests for appoint­
ments from the Montgomery system in the past year. 

In Durham, the school administration's lack of commitment to securing black 
teachers is reflected in the recruiting "effort." This effort has consistently been 
a failure, with the same two people going on recruiting efforts without success. 
Another problem is the preferential hiring of students' wives from the University 
of North Carolina and Duke University to teach in the system for short periods. 
Although the district requires the National Teachers' Examination for hiring 
purposes, exceptions are often made for student wives who are allowed to take 
the examination later. Meanwhile, the NTE requirement is a drawback for black 
applicants. The present black faculty is 49 percent as compared with the student 
ratio of 65 percent. Of the 43 new teachers hired this year, only nine (20 percent) 
are black. The administration's stated rationale was that blacks had not applied 
for positions as teachers. However, it came to our monitor's attention that a 
secretary or receptionist for the superintendent of personnel was telling prospec­
tive black applicants that there were no openings and that there was no reason 
for applicants to file applications. The monitor corroborated this report by 
sending a test case to apply. When it was brought to his attention, the super­
intendent said that it would not happen again. Durham failed to win approval 
of its ESAP proposal because of non-compliance with Singleton. HEW cited 
Durham High, where school officials proposed trading the entire home economics 
department with Hillside High's home economics department in an attempt to 
avoid hiring more black teachers, as an example of non-compliance. Another 
example reported by the monitor involved the replacement of three black teachers 
who left the Fayetteville Street School prior to the opening of the 1971-72 
school year. They were replaced by three white teachers, although the principal 
specifically requested black teachers and gave names of teachers whom he knew 
were available for employment. 

In Florence, South Carolina, the original teacher ratio of 35 percent black/ 65 
percent white has been criticized from the beginning by black community leaders 

1 /n Monroe, Louisiana, iv.here only 20% of the new teachers hired this year were black, the 
black faculty ratio has been reduced from 46% to 43 % while the student ratio has increased 
from 54% to 56% . Community sources report that black teachers are tricked into resiRning 
for "stupid reasons" and are replaced with wllites when they resign. 

86 



as too low-student enrollment is 41 percent black. Despite cries for more black 
teachers, the ratio of black teachers has been reduced to 34 percent while the 
student ratio has remained constant. The reduction has resulted from hiring white 
teachers both to fill new positions and to replace black faculty who have retired 
or left the district. Moreover, the superintendent issued a press release on October 
20, 1971, stating that the "integration plan requires that the faculty be 32 percent 
black." Although 109 new teachers were hired in 1971, only 21 (19.2 percent) 
were black. The superintendent, mentioning low NTE scores, said that many 
black teachers were not qualified and that the better black teachers go North. 
When an HEW compliance review team visited Florence in December, 1971, the 
superintendent told them that the number of prospective black teachers was de­
creasing and that the decrease justified a reduction in the percentage of black 
faculty. In fact, Florence recruits black teachers on only six predominantly black 
campuses and white teachers on 21 predominantly white campuses. Florence does 
not even recruit teachers at the nearest black college, Morris. As a result of its 
findings , HEW has instructed Florence to form a biracial recruiting team, indicate 
on the district's letterhead that it is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and recruit 
black teachers in and out of state. 

In Memphis, Tennessee, which sends bi-racial teams across the South to recruit 
teachers, a black recruiter alleged that the personnel department is racist and that 
the recruitment is more of a show than a sincere search for qualified teachers. In 
addition, our monitor reported that qualified black graduates of LeMoyne Owen 
College in Memphis are sometimes denied jobs. Although the black student 
ratio is 53.6 percent, many black teachers believe that the personnel department 
is determined to maintain a 60-40 percent white teacher majority. Since 1968, 
the black teacher ratio has been reduced from 44.8 percent to 41.4 percent. 
A group of black teachers is contemplating a class action suit against the Memphis 
school board and superintendent for discrimination against blacks in administering 
the district's NTE policy. Prior to 1960, the NTE was not required for employ­
ment. A policy adopted in April 1960 required that teachers file results of their 
NTE tests as a condition of employment. In 1965, the district revised its policy 
to require a composite score of 1,000, or a score of 500 on the common portion 
of the NTE, as a prerequisite for employment. Applicants with composite scores 
between 425 and 499 could be provisionalJy employed but were required to 

file their score in order to be eligible for tenure. In February of 1972 the board of 
education eliminated the cut-off score requirement for tenure. However none 

of the potential plaintiffs has been rehired. Potential plaintiffs in the suit contend 
that a substantially disproportionate number of black teachers and applicants 

are refused employment or are not retained by the school board because of .the 
NTE policy than are white teachers and applicants. Potential plaintiffs claimed 
that use of the NTE to deprive teachers of employment is arbitrary and unreason­
able because the NTE is not a measure of potential effectiveness as a teacher, 

87 



is not reasonably calculated to determine the competence of blacks as teachers, 
and serves no other genuine educational goal. 

In Savannah, Georgia, although the percentage of black teachers has increased 
between 1968 and 1971 because of the loss of white students and teachers, the 
district has actually lost 46 black teachers while gaining 746 black students. White 
teachers have also fled the public schools in Orangeburg, South Carolina, but the 
superintendent has hired more new white teachers than blacks to compensate. 
In 1969-1971, there were 50 new black teachers (38.8 percent of the total) and 
79 new white teachers. The result of hiring policies has been that, while blacks 
have constituted a majority of the student enrollment (67 percent in 1971) for 
three years, teachers have not yet caught up (54.6 percent in 1971). Black 
teachers are predicting that dismissals will become an issue the next time con­
tracts go out. The superintendent told the monitor that he had a "surplus of 
black teachers." In November, the principal of Ellis Elementary told teachers 
that 27 teachers-all on the elementary level-would have to be released at the 
end of the year, presumably because of the declining enrollment. They expect 
some to be weeded out through the current "evaluation," which was implemented 
this fall without much explanation. All the teachers really know is that they are 
being evaluated on the basis of the NTE scores and observations by their principals. 
(The principal sits in on the class and that one visit is the sum of his experience 
with their teaching methods.) They know they will receive a form evaluating 
their "weak" points, and they will have a conference on the subject with the 
principal or officials, but they have no idea if this could lead to failure to renew 
their contracts. A white principal described the project as "a way to get rid of 
poor teachers in the district." 

A recently initiated teacher evaluation in Macon, Georgia is also a source of 
growing controversy. Many black teachers feel that a combination of the budget 
deficit and teacher evaluations will provide the necessary rationale for a teacher 
cut-off and that the majority of those dismissed will be black. 

Inadequate recruitment and hiring procedures are by no means unique to dis­
tricts where the decline of black teachers has been heaviest. Several districts where 
the faculty ratio is holding its own but is still out of line with the student ratio 
also reported problems in those areas. In Forrest City, Arkansas, community 
sources charge that some white teachers without degrees are employed on a full­
time basis, while no black teacher is hired on a full-time basis without at least one 
degree. They also charge that there is an attempt to discourage the employment of 
blacks-no recruiting is done at the only state-supported black college. 

In New Orleans, Louisiana, the NTE is required for employment and is one of 
the requirements for: promotion. Although New Orleans has a college recruitment 
program, only eight black colleges, compared with thirty-one white colleges, are 
visited. The district also uses a booklet for recruitment purposes described by our 
monitor as "white-oriented" to say the least. A similar brochure to recruit teachers 

88 



for Columbia, South Carolina, was just printed and is a very good idea, according 
to our monitbr. But he also noted that "on the front cover is a white teacher with 
two white students; if the object is to recruit more black teachers, this brochure 
won't do." To Columbia's credit, however, is the fact that a black recruiter visits 
25 black colleges to recruit teachers. Also, a slightly higher percentage of blacks 
are hired than apply. In Texarkana, Texas, where black faculty and student ratios 
(students-27 percent in 1970, 28 percent in 1971; faculty-21 percent both 
years) have remained constant for the past two years, only 7.2 percent of the 
total number of teachers hired in the last three years were black. No blacks were 
hired in 1969, four in 1970, and six in 1971. During the same period, 128 
white teachers were hired. When our monitor asked the superintendent whether 
the new hirings were in line with HEW's December, 1969, criticism of the 
district's failure to recruit and hire any minority teachers, the superintendent 
responded that HEW had never raised a question with the school administration 
about its hiring policies. 

In some of the districts monitored, desegregation has had a de facto, if not 
publicly acknowledged, impact on hiring and recruiting practices. In Jefferson 
County, Alabama, and Birmingham, Alabama, for example, consideration of race 
is not acknowledged as public policy, but is obviously a key factor in maintaining 
existing district-wide faculty racial balance. Our monitor in Greenville, Mississippi, 
reported that the district has interpreted Singleton to mean locking in an inadequate 
45 percent black faculty (black student ratio is 65 .7 percent) and has recruited 
accordingly. In Knoxville, Tennessee, the personnel department reported that they 
give preference to black teacher applicants. In Hillsborough County (Tampa), 
Florida, which established a "quota" hiring policy before desegregation to main­
tain equal student/ teacher ratios, school officials said that when a vacancy occurs 
they designate it as either black or white in an attempt to preserve the 
current black teacher ratio. Examples of an announced policy of hiring 
on the basis of Tace to maintain Singleton ratios were also reported in 
Jacksonville, Orange County, and Pinellas County (St. Petersburg), Florida. Also, 
the NTE is not required in any Florida school districts. The state legislature threw 
it out some years before because black and white college graduates were having 
trouble passing it. 

In Richmond, Virginia, maintaining the court-ordered 50 - 50 Singleton ratio 
meant hiring more whites than blacks this year. When the Richmond City schools 
annexed a portion of the county school district, a number of white teachers 
resigned and the overall black-white faculty ratio showed an increase in the 
percentage of black teachers. Because white students left the system in substantial 
numbers, there was a teacher surplus. Surplus teachers were either used to replace 
county teachers, were hired as school-community coordinators with ESAP money, 
or were otherwise absorbed into the system. As the number of white teachers 
declined, the overall ratio reflected a greater percentage of blacks. Therefore, 
more whites than blacks were hired. 

89 



Recruitment of black teachers varies tremendously from district to district. In 
some districts, such as Little Rock, Arkansas, and Texarkana, Texas, there is no 
active recruitment of black teachers. In many districts, such as Montgomery, 
Alabama; Florence, South Carolina; Durham, North Carolina, and Memphis, 
Tennessee, black recruitment procedures are woefully inadequate . In other districts, 
such as East Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, Louisiana, Raleigh, North Carolina, 
and Columbia, South Carolina, recruitment programs are better, but still do not 
meet the needs of the district. In some districts, more intensive black recruitment 
efforts were reported. In St. Petersburg, Florida, officials reported that they go 
disproportionately to black colleges to compensate for their small number of black 
applicants. Other strong recruitment efforts were reported in Tampa, and Orange 
County, Florida, and Shreveport, Louisiana. 

Intensified efforts to recruit Chicano teachers this year were reported in Austin 
and Houston, Texas. In Austin 49 new Chicano teachers were hired (11.3 percent 
of new teachers). Although Chicanos still make up only 9.5 percent of the faculty 
and 20.7 percent of the students, the new hirings represent a substantial gain from 
last year's 2.9 percent faculty ratio. Stepped-up recruitment in Houston has brought 
a jump in two years from 181 to 312 Chicano teachers. However, only three percent 
of the Houston teachers are Chicano compared with 16 percent of the students. 

ASSIGNMENTS, DEMOTIONS, AND DISMISSALS 

Mistreatment of black faculty, particularly in the areas of placement, demotions, 
and dismissals, was frequently observed in the districts monitored. In many districts, 
implementation of faculty desegregation standards has discriminated against black 
teachers. In East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where teacher placement is a focal 
point of concern in the black community, contacts feel that blacks lost out 
when teacher crossovers were worked out. In East Baton Rouge, as in Durham, 
and Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas, students' wives who teach for 
a few years while their husbands attend local universities account for 
a large percentage of the white teachers. Black teachers tend to have a high 
average of number of years experience. So, when transfers were determined 
on the basis of seniority, experienced black teachers were transferred out of 
black schools in great numbers, and replaced by inexperienced teachers. 

When faculty desegregation was implemented in Mobile, Alabama, black teachers 
were forced to transfer to white schools or face demotions, while white teachers 
bad an option. Black teachers who could not adjust to the "integrated process" 
were dismissed rather than being allowed to transfer. Similarly, in New Orleans, 
Louisiana, sources in the black community reported that if black teachers refused 
a crossover assignment, they were fired, while white teachers who would not go 
to an assigned school were reassigned. Also, it was reported that if white teachers 
bad problems in black ·schools they were allowed to leave. 

In some districts, crossovers were chosen by a lottery method . Unfair lottery 
procedures were alleged in Orange County, Florida, where blacks believe that the 

90 



names of certain white teachers, especially experienced ones, were withheld from 
the pool. At the time of the lottery, black principals objected because they bad 
no voice in the assignment of white teachers to their schools. In Knoxville, Ten­
nessee, the lottery was not merely a chance affair; the names of the teachers who 
participated in the lottery were determined in advance by the personnel office 
and principals. As a result, all of the black math, English, and social studies 
teachers at Vine Junior High School were replaced by white teachers. Black 
teachers were left in the areas of physical education, library, special education, 
and vocational training. In districts where remaining black schools have been 
deprived of their best teachers, the black community is especially perturbed 
with the results of faculty desegregation. Community people and white teachers in 
Jefferson County, Alabama, feel that the most competent black teachers have 
been placed in predominantly white schools and the most inexperienced and/or 
incompetent white teachers have been placed in black schools. The black students 
who are left in the remaining black schools feel that their strongest black images 
have been removed. 

In New Orleans, a black district superintendent said that implementation of the 
faculty desegregation plan by the personnel department resulted in sending the 
better black teachers to white schools and the less desirable white teachers to 
black schools. The assistant superintendent of personnel acknowledged they had 
sent young, inexperienced white teachers who could not cope with black students 
to black schools. 

While Beaumont, Texas, has made no serious effort to comply with Singleton 
requirements, some cross-over assignments have been made in anticipation of 
an eventual order to comply. Assignment of white teachers to black schools has 
occurred only in the case of new teachers or upon request for such reassignment. 
The black community feels, however, that some of its most qualified teachers 
have been transferred to predominantly white schools because the administration 
feels they are " too good to waste" on an all-black student body. For example, 
an outstanding science teacher in the black high school, after being named 
teacher of the year in Beaumont, was transferred to the 78 percent-white high 
school. A superior art teacher, whose students at the all-black high school had 
received national and state awards, was moved to a white junior high school 
when the art teacher there (with a far less distinguished record) moved up to 
the white high school to replace another white there who had been appointed 
supervisor. 

It is clear that the likelihood of problems with crossovers increases not only 
in districts where the school officials do not implement it properly, but also in 
districts which continue to maintain segregated schools. Low district-wide faculty 
ratios also almost inevitably mean that blacks lose some strong teachers in ex­
change for inexperienced ones. 

All of these factors are present in Orange County, Florida, which has the worst 

91 



crossover situation we found. Our monitor reported that the incompetent, in­
experienced, or emotionally unstable white teacher in a majority black school 
is a major problem in the schools and is of great concern to black parents. It 
was also reported that black children in Orange County "lost a year" not only 
because some white teachers were inexperienced and incompetent, but because 
white teachers were angry and not psychologically prepared for the shift. White 
teachers were frightened. Some black children suffered unbelievable abuse by 
white teachers. One black teacher reported taking to the superintendent a black 
child whose chest had been scratched by the fingernails of a white teacher. 
Some white teachers refused to teach. Our monitor was told about a teacher who 
ran films all semester and was later promoted to the position of "supervisory 
teacher." 

Houston, Texas, is another district where Singleton is a big issue. Although the 
issues surrounding Singleton in Houston are complex, it is clear that the attempt 
of the district to implement faculty desegregation without any meaningful school 
desegregation has been one source of concern. Under the present plan, nearly all 
black children attend black schools and are taught by a majority of white teachers 
(the black-white faculty ratio is 66/ 33 percent). Among other things, opponents 
of the present implementation of Singleton feel strongly that it deprives black 
students of most of their models, is damaging to the development of black con­
sciousness, and allows inexperienced and frightened white female teachers to refuse 
to share extra-curricular sponsorship roles and escape the ghetto as early as pos­
sible. 

In many districts, Singleton requirements for "non-racial and objective criteria 
for teacher demotions and dismissals" are either being blatantly violated or are 
failing to provide adequate protection for black teachers. Black teachers in Monroe, 
Louisiana, stated that they no longer teach advanced courses in their fields. For 
example, a black math teacher formerly taught algebra and geometry in a segre­
gated situation, but is now teaching basic math and arithmetic in an integrated situa­
tion. Cases of blacks teaching at a lower level or outside their fields of concentra­
tion were also reported in Jefferson County, Alabama, Raleigh, North Carolina, 
and Florence, South Carolina. Prior to desegregation, Hillside High School in Dur­
ham, North Carolina, had 72 black teachers, and Durham High School had 73 
white teachers. Now they have a total of 56 black teachers between them. This 
loss of 16 black teachers on the senior high school level was brought about by the 
demotion of these teachers to a lower grade level. 

Unfair dismissals of black teachers has been a problem area in many districts. 
In Orange County, Florida, since the time of the crossover, some black teachers 
have been encouraged to retire early. Our monitor also reported that where dismis­
sals or forced resignations have occurred, more stringent standards have been 
applied to blacks. If a teacher has been reported to be incompetent, central staff 
members visit and observe his performance. Black informants believe that incom-

92 



petent whites are provided in-service assistance or are reassigned. When a large 
number of complaints had been registered about white staff members at Holden 
34 supervisors were sent from the central administration. Fourteen teachers wer; 
judged incompetent, but four were permitted to stay in the system. Yet blacks 
judged incompetent are usually asked to resign or are dismissed. One black teacher 
who set a white child firmly in his seat was summarily dismissed after 20 years of 
teaching experience. Qualified blacks are not getting tenure in certain pre­
dominantly white schools in Orange County. No blacks received tenure at Lake 
Silver. Our monitor also reported that black teachers frequently exposed to 
racial slurs and personal humiliations often feel barely tolerated in the pre­
dominately white schools and keep to themselves. Dover Shores and Lake Silver 
elementary schools were mentioned as the elementary schools where black 
teachers are having the most problems. The principal at Dover Shores reportedly 
ridiculed and downgraded a black teacher who is an expert in dealing with slow 
learners. Black community leaders are concerned that more black teachers have 
not fought the discrimination which they have encountered. Our monitor was told 
that when some teachers threatened legal action, pressure against them lessened. 

A black teacher at Rogers-Herr Junior High School in Durham, North Carolina, 
was fired because several white parents had complained about her incompetence. 
This teacher had taught for over 28 years at an all-black school and had less 
than two years before retirement. A white teacher who was previously in the 
same situation (the same parent made the complaint) was afforded the opportuni­
ty to transfer to a non-teaching position until retirement. Also, several black 
teachers in Durham have been placed on probation for the 1971-72 school year 
for being too outspoken in protecting students who were sent home en mass. 

A black teacher at Broadmoor Senior High School in East Baton Rouge, Louis­
iana, was dismissed on the grounds that she was not following the prescribed cur­
riculum. There is strong feeling that the teacher, described by black people as 
"brilliant" and "creative" was unpopular with fellow faculty and the principal be­
cause she is married to a white man and because she used "unorthodox" methods 
which made her enormously popular with her all-white classes. The principal of 
Broadmoor, in his interview with our monitor, implied that he feels the standards 
of "his" school-which sends 95 percent of its graduates to college-had gone 
down since the influx of black faculty members. Another black teacher who was 
repeatedly observed, supervised, and criticized ultimately requested a leave of ab­
sence. In several other cases in which black teachers were being harassed, the 
Louisiana Education Agency was instrumental in helping them obtain transfers. 

In Macon, Georgia, a black teacher whose contract was not renewed actively 
resisted her firing. She was accused of being a Communist because she compared 
Lt. Calley to Angela Davis. This was blown out of proportion by the local press 
and radio stations. However, the black student support she received forced the 
board to reconsider its decision. Her contract was eventually renewed one week 

93 



prior to her departure for Africa. Although her departure brought on a negative 
response from a local radio station, it is felt that her act of resistance will provide 
a reference point for others who find themselves in similar situations. In Forrest 
City, Arkansas, two of three black teachers who were dismissed because of civil 
rights activity have filed suit against the district. 

In Texarkana, Arkansas, where the downgrading of black personnel as a result 
of desegregation is a serious issue in the black community, all of the top black 
personnel-principals, counselors, coaches, band directors-have, in the eyes of 
the community, been demoted. When the black high school was closed, all of the 
black head coaches were downgraded to assistants to white head coaches in the 
integrated high schools. The black band director was also demoted to an assistant 
to a white director and finally retired from the school system. The example of 
the band director's demotion makes a relevant point about the validity of criteria 
used to downgrade a teacher when there are two teachers qualified and only one 
position available. Although the superintendent said that the qualifications of each 
individual were considered in making such decisions, it is obvious that school of­
ficials look only at the paper qualifications and give little or no credit for on-the­
job experience. People in the black community said that traditionally, black teach­
ers have done what needed to be done. For example, if the black community col­
lected enough money to purchase band uniforms, they would then tell the black 
principal that they needed a band director. The principal would either appoint a 
teacher or a teacher would volunteer to be the band director. This teacher probably 
didn't know the first thing about directing a band, but he learned over the years; 
and after ten or fifteen years finally ended up with a band that won district, regional, 
and state championships. People in the black community feel that while the school 
board and officials gave the band director all kinds of honors when he was at the 
black school, they considered him unqualified to direct an integrated band and 
made him an assistant to a white teacher who has only two years' experience but 
has a major in band direction. A similar pattern of demotion was reported for the 
athletic coaches-football, basketball, and track. Other demotions of black band 
directors resulting from desegregation were reported in Forrest City, Arkansas, 
and Tampa, Florida. 

Similarly, in Raleigh, North Carolina, every black authority figure at Ligon 
High School, a formerly all-black high school, has been demoted either by re­
maining at Ligon when it became a junior high school or by going to a white 
school at a lower status. For example, the head football coach at Ligon last 
year is the assistant coach at Broughton High School this year, in spite of the 
fact that the school system simultaneously hired a new, white football coach at 
Sanderson High School this year. Moreover, the demoted black coach has superior 
qualifications to this new coach. In Jefferson County, Alabama, all blacks who 
had been head coaches in segregated situations were demoted to assistant coaches 
when they were transferred to predominantly white schools. 

94 



Other demotions of coaches were reported in Little Rock, Arkansas; Forrest City, 
Arkansas; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Tampa, Florida; and St. Petersburg, Florida. 
In St. Petersburg prior to desegregation, there was an association for black 
referees and umpires. Now there are no black referees at senior high football 
and basketball games; there are black referees at junior high and junior varsity 
events only. 

In St. Petersburg, the main complaint about faculty demotions since desegrega­
tion concerned black department heads. As the result of transfers of black depart­
ment heads from formerly black schools to white schools, there are now only 
two black department heads in the entire system, and both of them are home 
economic heads at senior high schools. 

Before desegregation, the black head of the English department at Gibbs High 
School in St. Petersburg was a female teacher with a master's degree, several 
hours of post-master's education and over twenty years' experience as depart­
ment head. Black students, teachers, and community people described her as a 
proud symbol to the black community. Just before this school year, she was in­
formed that she was going to be transferred to Dixie Hollins High School as a 

regular English teacher. Despite intensive efforts on her part to retain her position, 

her attorney finally received a letter from the school board which explained why 

her transfer was not illegal. Most ( 13 percent) of the black teachers in St. Peters­

burg's Gibbs High School had to be transferred to white schools to bring the district 

into compliance with Singleton. Also, since department heads are annual appoint­

ments decided upon by the principal, there was no guarantee that the white 

principal at Dixie Hollins would not name her as department head. In other words, 

she had no option but to go to Dixie, where she is now a regular classroom teacher. 

Similarly, there are now no black department heads in Tampa, Florida. During 

the first year of school desegregation, department heads were exempt from trans­

fer, but during the second year, many black department heads were transferred. 

Since all remaining black high schools were downgraded and department heads exist 

only at the senior high level, all black department heads were demoted, whether 

or not they were transferred. ln Selma, Alabama, all black department heads at 

the black high school were demoted as a result of desegregation. 

Since the ratio of teachers in Tampa, Florida, is 80 percent white - 20 percent 

black, implementation of Singleton required a massive transfer of black teachers. 

In districts such as Tampa and St. Petersburg, which have a much lower percentage 

of black teachers than white, the chances are mathematically very good that, even 

if crossover procedures are implemented fairly, most, if not all of the top blacks, 

like department heads or head coaches, will have to go. 

95 



PRINCIPALS 

In many of the districts monitored, demotions of black principals subsequent to 
desegregation were reported. Occasionally, as mentioned earlier, they were trans­
ferred to new or already-existing administrative positions that are viewed as 
demotions in terms of prestige, if not in terms of pay, by the black community. 

In 1970-71, at least ten black principals of formerly all-black schools in Jefferson 
County, Alabama, were demoted to assistant principalships. In addition to these 
demotions, one demotion of a black principal to a classroom teacher and two to 
supervisors were reported. Both of these positions, Supervisor of Maintenance and 
Neighborhood Youth Corps Coordinator, were positions created subsequent to 
desegregation and do not have as much responsibility as principalships. 

In Texarkana, Arkansas, which had four black principals before the schools were 
desegregated, there are now no black principals in the system. Two principals re­
tired, one was made an assistant principal at a junior high school, and the other 
is the Director of the Follow-Through Program, which is operated by the school 
system in co-operation with the Model Cities Program. All of the retirements and 
demotions took place as each black school was phased out. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 
which now has five black principals, has lost three black principals since 1968. All 
three of the principals were demoted, two became supervisors and one became 
an assistant principal. 

In Huntsville, Alabama, which had three black principals in 1968, there is now 
only one black principal. One of the principals was demoted to an assistant prin­
cipalship, and another became a director of the EIP program. 

The only black high school principal in Selma, Alabama was demoted to an 
elementary school principalship, and the vice-principal of the black high school 
was demoted to an administrative assistant at another high school. A black 
elementary school principal was demoted to Title I coordinator. 

When Murray Hill Elementary School in Charleston, South Carolina, was closed 
in 1969 and most of its students transferred to Dorchester Terrace, the principal 
was transferred with them as assistant principal. Also, the principal of Corbett 
Edwards Elementary was made assistant principal at Chicora High when Edwards 
was closed last summer. One of the black principals in Rome, Georgia, was 
demoted to "Visiting Teacher" in the central office, and another was demoted to 
a junior high school principalship. Demotions of black principals resulting from 
school desegregation were also reported in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama; 
Forrest City and Little Rock, Arkansas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Hattiesburg, 
Mississippi. 

In Orange County, Florida, the black staff person who is called the "trouble­
shooter" was formerly assistant principal at Jones Senior High School, then princi­
pal at Wheatley Elementary, and at Drew. When his last school closed, he was 

96 



transferred to this position, which blacks consider a demotion. His role seems to 
be limited to maintaining discipline. A new category, "supervising principal", has 
been created since staff integration in Orange County, apparently as a device to 
prevent appointing good black administrators to top principalships or to really 
responsible positions in central administration. The only supervising principals 
are black and have no clear job responsibilities. One of the supervising principals 
was formerly the principal at Webster Elementary before it closed. The other 
supervising principal who is considered a brilliant and well-qualified educator 
and is only a few hours away from his doctorate, was a former assistant at Carver 
Junior High School. He was then sent to Howard Junior High during the crossover 
as the assistant principal, or third in line. Blacks believe that the superintendent, 
aware that Holden elementary would be closed, appointed him principal of Holden 
instead of making him principal of Howard (which is predominantly white). A 
white coach was appointed principal at Howard, and a black transferred from 
another school became assistant principal. Similarly, a black assistant principal 
at Oak Ridge who should have been made principal was by-passed in favor of a 
white. There is a general consensus that blacks are being by-passed when top 
principalships open up. 

In St. Petersburg, Florida, where there are now no black senior high school 
principals, the black community feels that the appointment of the first white principal 
of Gibbs High School when it became clear the school would be substantially in­
tegrated in the near future was the result of a well-planned design by the school 
board and staff. In the spring of 1971, the black principal of Gibbs resigned; up 
until a few weeks prior to his resigning, Gibbs had a black assistant principal for 
instruction , but shortly before the principal's resignation, the black assistant 
principal was transferred to another high school. When the black principal resigned, 
the white assistant principal was named after a few weeks' interval. The black 
assistant principal had been assistant principal at Gibbs for seven or eight years, 
had an M. A. from Columbia University, and was very well-qualified. The white 
assistant principal had been at Gibbs for only two years and before that he had 
been an assistant principal at a junior high school. He was the first white principal 
at Gibbs and was placed there at about the same time the courts were saying that 
Gibbs might end up as an integrated high school. There is a lot of speculation in 
the black community that the black principal, who now works at a local college, 
resigned because of pressure put on him. 

A blatant example of official reluctance to place black principals in integrated 
schools occurred in Charleston, South Carolina. At the end of the 1968-69 school 
year, the superintendent told the principal of King's Highway Elementary that 
he would be transferred to James Island High as an assistant principal because 
King's Highway would become majority white, and white parents would not accept 
a black principal. The principal was alternatively offered the principalship at all­
black Haut Gap High School on John 's Island, but he turned it down because 

97 



the school was inferior and too far away. He accepted the job of assistant principal 
and has since become director of attendance and social work. In the same district, 
the principal of Meggett High on James Island was named director of technical 
information for the county when Meggett became a vocational school and its 
students absorbed by predominantly white James Island and Fort Johnson High 
Schools. The "promotion" is suspicious not only because it is the same district 
where the principal of King's Highway was told that he would not be accepted 
by whites, but also because Fort Johnson was a new school essentially replacing 
Meggett and in need of a principal. 

In Savannah, Georgia, a black high school principal was "promoted" to adminis­
trative assistant when the school became majority white and was replaced by a 
white. A school board member called the administrative assistant an "errand boy." 

In contrast with these examples and the prevailing tendency of school officials 
to assign black principals to black schools, Charlotte, North Carolina has three of 
its six black junior high school principals in formerly white junior high schools and 
three of its 13 black elementary school principals in formerly white elementary 
schools. Also, the black principal at West Charlotte High remained there when 
the school became majority-white. 

In the 1970-71 school years, there has been a large increase in black and 
Chicano administrators, principals, and assistant principals in Houston, Texas. In 
1969-70 there were 115 black and seven Chicano administrators, principals, and as­
sistant principals; in 1971-72 there are 166 black and 16 Chicano. 

While it is clear that many black principals who have been transferred to central 
office positions since desegregation have been "kicked upstairs" it is also clear 
that some black principals have been given genuine positions of authority. 

In Orangeburg, South Carolina, a black high school principal was promoted to 
assistant superintendent and was replaced with another black. 

In Nashville, Tennessee, the Director of the Department of Human Relationships, 
an ESAP-funded program, is a former junior high school principal. He serves on 
the Director's cabinet - the administrative decision-making body of the school 
system. 

In Columbia, South Carolina, three black former principals hold central office 
positions and none have suffered a loss of responsibility or prestige. The assistant 
superintendent for administration was the Title I Coordinator for four or five 
years and previously a principal. The present Title [ Coordinator was the principal 
of a school that was closed this year. Although this job is often a demotion in 
terms of responsibility from the role of principal, he appears to have been given 
power to run his program. Another principal was made the Director of Adult 
Education in a major educational program in Columbia. 

98 



In Shreveport, Louisiana, the Director of Voc:itional Education, who received 
an increase in · salary and responsibility in his new position, is a former principal. 

Often it is difficult to determine whether black principals have been demoted in 
their new administrative roles. The principal of a former black junior-senior high 
school in Jacksonville, Florida, which is now an integrated junior high school, was 
appointed Director of Student Relations this year. Although be is paid by the dis­
trict, there are five people under him who are paid by ESAP. He works with 35 
ESAP junior and senior high school advisory committees. Although several con­
tacts in the black community said that he was " pushed out" and given no real 
responsibility, he claims that he was not demoted. A similar position, Director 
of School Relations, was created this year in Austin, Texas, for the principal of the 
closed black high school. Contacts generally weren't sure about what his role is 
supposed to be, and he was never mentioned as having a strong voice in school ad­
ministration circles. 

ASSIST ANT PRINCIPALS 

The status of black assistant principals is a serious issue in several districts. In 
Tampa, Florida, there were no assistant principals in the two black high schools 
last year, although there are two assistant principals in every other high school 
in the district. The rationale for this is that a school must have 2,000 students 
before it can have any assistant principals-and these schools had less than 2,000 
students. School officials indicated, however, tha t appointment of a black assistant 
principal is high on the list of administrative priorities. The ass istant principal at 
formerly-black, now closed, Marshall Senior High School is now assistant principal 
at a Seventh Grade Center which used to be a black high school. Not only was he 
demoted, but he is the only assistant principal in the system, white or black, below 
the senior high school level. 

In Charlotte, North Carolina, blacks have had the most difficulty in obtaining 
jobs as assistant principals and head coaches because principals decide who get 
these jobs. Efforts by central staff to persuade certain white principals to name 
black assistant principals have largely failed. However, some white principals 
have asked for black assistant principals after realizing that they would be very 
helpful during racial disturbances. 

Some monitors reported that black assistant principals frequently do not play 
meaningful roles. In Orange County, Florida, informants state that black assistant 
principals are assigned only to schools with large enrollments of blacks and that 
their duties are primarily disciplinary. 

In Raleigh, North Carolina, black students complained that "black assistant 
principals are 'janitors'." They corroborated their complaint with a mimeographed 
sheet entitled " fnformation for Students of Needham B. Broughton High School," 

99 



in which the duties of the white assistant principal are listed as "advisor to the 
student council and extra-curricular activities" and the black assistant principal's 
responsibilities identified as "books, supplies, maintenance." 

In Macon, Georgia, when the positions of assistant principal and assistant as­
sistant principal were created subsequent to desegregation, one black assistant as­
sistant principal (who has a master's degree in administration) said that his duties 
are "to tabulate and compile attendance figures and to go to each room and notify 
teachers when to bring their children to lunch." Black assistant principals were 
also described as "powerless" in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

CENTRAL OFFICE 

In most of the districts monitored blacks rarely occupied administrative posi­
tions prior to desegregation. In many districts, such as Shreveport, Louisiana; New 
Orleans, Louisiana; Forrest City, Arkansas; Selma, Alabama; Charlotte, North 
Carolina; and Mobile, Alabama, there were no blacks at all in central office posi­
tions prior to desegregation. Where blacks were in central office positions, with few 
exceptions, they held federal program jobs or were in minor supervisory roles. Some 
school districts still have made almost no progress toward integrating blacks into 
the central office. Selma, Alabama, has no blacks in the central office. In Forrest 
City, Arkansas, the only position that a black has moved into since desegregation 
is "dean of men." 

Where the prospects for black administrative positions have improved, the 
creation of new positions since desegregation that are frequently federally­
funded have been disproportionately responsible. Another trend observed in many 
districts is the concentration of blacks in "special" and/or minority-oriented pro­
grams, such as Title I, that are also federally funded. At best the job security of 
these positions is tenuous, since federal programs may be cut back in funding or not 
refunded at all. 

Since 1968, blacks have secured several central office positions in Charlotte, 
North Carolina. The assistant to the superintendent, a "created position", had been 
principal at a black high school which was closed. Blacks hold other positions such 
as Title I Coordinator, Director of Neighborhood Youth Corps, Public Education, 
Special Education, and School Social Work, Assistant Director of Performing Arts, 
and Assistant Personnel Director. Two out of four Child Development (Title I) 
are black. 

In Nashville, Tennessee, where there was only one black director before desegre­
gation, two additional black directors were appointed with ESAP funds, and a 
black Title I director was appointed. The chief bus dispatcher is also black; and 
blacks hold three academic supervisor positions and four "special" supervisor 
positions-in the School Food Services, Project Follow-Through, Project Oppor­
tunity, and Neighborhood Youth Corps. 

100 



In Little Rock, Arkansas, there were no blacks in the central office staff before 
desegregation except the Assist~rnt Superintendent in charge of Personnel. All of 
the positions, created since then-Director of Career Opportunity, Supervisor of 
Kindergartens, and the Assistant Director of the Neighborhood Youth Corps-are 
staffed by blacks. 

In Norfolk, Virginia, the position of assistant superintendent of pupil personnel 
was created in order to bring into the system a high-level black administrator. He 
exercises authority over special schools, adjustive services, and pupil personnel. 
His office keeps statistics on suspensions and expulsions, and he and the Director 
of Pupil Personnel, who is also black, review and make recommendations on 
student expulsions. His position is one of authority which is used in the highest 
policy meetings of the school district. Blacks gained a representative to the super­
intendent's "Cabinet" for the first time this year in Austin, Texas, with the creation 
of a new post, Human Relations Liaison, which is separate from the four adminis­
trative divisions . 

There is little doubt, however, that some of the black appointees to central 
office positions do not have as much authority as their titles imply. One of the 
two black district superintendents (there are six altogether) in New Orleans, Louisi­
ana, reported that district superintendents do not have the authority to hire and 
fire personnel in their districts. They can onJy recommend personnel. They have no 
duties in relationship to curriculum development or other programmatic duties. 
The district supervisor reported that his main duties are administrative-supervisory 
of the physical facilities, the schools' atmosphere, and serving as a liaison between 
the local principals and the central staff. 

Although the overall position of blacks has improved as far as gaining ad­
ministrative appointments, strong complaints about hiring policies for central 
office positions were raised in some districts by the black community. 

When the Memphis, Tennessee school system was divided into four districts in 
last year's decentralization, two of the four area superintendents appointed were 
black. A black assistant superintendent was also appointed as a result of the 1969 
boycotts. Community contacts charge, however, that all three of these people were 
chosen because they would not " rock the boat". Seniority, degrees, and passing an 
administrative level test are the announced criteria, but our monitor noted that most 
of the black central office staff serves an apprenticeship at Douglass High School. 
Black teachers believe that the black principal at Douglass must approve an ad­
ministrator before he can be promoted to the central office. In Huntsville, Alabama, 
which has no written policy on promotions, black community contacts say that 
you have to be accepted by the ".dub" in addition to meeting academic qualifica­
tions. In East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the black administrator who had served as 
acting director of the federal programs for over a year was passed over when the 
final appointment was made in favor of a white man. There are no blacks above 
the level of supervisor in East Baton Rouge. 

101 



I Fl So th Carolina which bas only two black supervisors and a black n orence, u , . . 

T
. 1 1 C d' t but no blacks above that level, the method of promotion 1s 1t e oor ma or . . 

I f · A black kindergarten teacher who has an M.A. m early childhood blatant y un air. . 
d 

. d has spent a year on a Leadership Development Program Fellowship c ucauon an . . 
. Ed tion recently was selected to teach a summer course at Francis Manon 
in uca h h 1 " 1·t· d" . h S te College for Teachers because s e was t e on y person qua 1 1e m t e area. ;;:e Coordinator of Early Childhood Education, who is white, has only a B. A. 
plus graduate hours. Our monitor, even without trying, found three or four 
black teachers and principals who are more qualified than whites chosen 
for central office positions. In addition, the promotions of two black first and 
second-year teachers as assistant principals at two white schools without regard 
for more experienced black staff members has created a furor among black teachers. 
The Association of Classroom Teachers has confronted the superintendent on the 
issues of unfair promotional practices. Also, the black chosen as the Title T Coordi­
nator is reported to be a pawn of the superintendent. 

The personnel office in St. Petersburg, Florida, said that they post vacancies 
for administrative positions and then a group called the Administrative Selection 
Committee (which has two blacks) makes a recommendation for hiring based on 
the responses to the notices. However, several black teachers claimed that there 
are many black principals and administrators already in the system who are well­
qualified for promotions into higher administrative positions. The black staff mem­
ber with the highest position in the central office has a doctorate but all staff mem­
bers above him, including the superintendent, do not have doctorates. The problem 
of non-promotion of blacks to higher administrative positions was also reported in 
Knoxville, Tennessee. In Jacksonville, Florida, the large increase in black adminis­
trators this year was primarily due to an influx of federal program funds. The black 
school board member said that he considers the low number of black administrators 
and the relatively low positions they occupy one of the main problems in the dis­
tricts. 

In Orange County, Florida, blacks are upset that there are no black deputy or 
assistant superintendents ( the highest position held by a black is Director of 
Federal Programs) and that the few black supervisors appear not to have real 
supervisory responsibility over whites. 

102 



VII 

TRANSPORTATION 

Our monitors frequently found that school systems had incomplete data on trans­
portation for public school students. Accurate information was difficult to obtain. 
Tn Florence, South Carolina, data on the number of children being bused is un­
certain even though information was obtained from three reliable sources. The 
district superintendent told our monitor approximately 8,000 students are being 
bused. But in September the district had released a press statement indicating that 
5,500 students were being transported. Records in the county superintendent's of­
fice, however, revealed that 6,222 students were being bused. 

Our monitors did find, however, that contrary to popular belief, very few 
racial incidents occur on school buses . And there were no reports of significant 
safety problems or instances in which the health or education of students being 
bused suffered. School district transportation directors generally reported that 
buses are still largely segregated because they transport children on a neighborhood 
basis. They said that disruptions on buses are no different from those experienced in 
previous years. 

Our monitors found at least a dozen urban areas in which the lack of an ade­
quate school transportation system is not only a barrier to desegregation but a 
major burden and inconvenience for all children, and particularly for black chil­
dren, under existing pre-Swann or post-Swann plans. In Atlanta, Georgia, for ex­
ample, the school system provides no bus transportation for students because under 
Georgia law, the state can pay only for the transportation costs of county-wide 
school systems, not independent city systems. lt is estimated that approximately 
50,000 children are now transported to school in Atlanta by either cars or private 
transportation. Of that number, about 20,000 use the Atlanta Transit Authority 
buses which charge a ten-cent fare. This expense must be incurred by the families 

103 



of the school children except, under a recent court ruling, where students trans­
ferring from a majority to minority status are reimbursed by the school system. 
A similar order bolds for Memphis, Tennessee. 

Rome, Georgia, students must also rely on public transportation. Last year, 
ESAP funds were used to provide poor children with free rides. But this year there 
are no ESAP funds in Rome, and the city underwrites the cost for children who 
cannot afford the 15-cent fare twice a day. The Texarkana, Texas, school district 
does not provide any transportation for its students, many of whom must pay a 
ten-cent bus fare. In Huntsville, Alabama, students must also use public transporta­
tion at their own expense. 

A minority of the court-appointed, bi-racial committee in Hattiesburg, Missis­
sippi, filed a statement criticizing the school system for not providing transportation 
as a part of its desegregation plan: "The plan requires students on the junior high 
level to travel great distances but does not provide for transportation. We take 
the position that any plan implemented to disestablish a dual system which requires 
pupils to attend schools long distances from their homes should provide for the 
transportation for those pupils. Accordingly, we would urge the Board and the 
Court to include a provision that the district will provide free transportation for 
any pupils residing more than a mile from the school to which he is assigned." 
Little attention was given to this request, and the students continue to use public 
transportation at a cost of 40 cents a day. 

Transportation under the desegregation plan in Norfolk, Virginia, has been 
a burden to all concerned-students, parents, teachers, and principals. All stu­
dents who cannot walk to school (an estimated J 5,000 out of 50,791 students) 
must ride buses operated by the Virginia Transit Co. at a cost of $63 per student per 
year. The necessity of scheduling school openings and closings around the bus com­
pany's schedule has "tied us in knots," according to an assistant superintendent of 
schools. The fare has been a burden on poor families. One board member estimates 
that approximately 600 poor children are out of school altogether because of 
the fare. 

On March 7, 1972 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Norfolk 
School Board to provide free transportation under its plan. In its opinion the Court 
said, "The school district as a part of its plan of desegregation must provide a 
practical method of affording free busing for students assigned to school beyond 
normal walking distance .... The Court cannot compel the student to attend a 
distant school and then fail to provide him with the means to reach that school. " 
The order was upheld by the Supreme Court in May. 

Aside from the cos't, black children frequently have to bear the burden of the 
distance or conditions involved in new transportation arrangements. In the inner 
city of Nashville, Tennessee, black children in grades one through four are bused 

104 



out to majority-white suburban areas. Fifty-three percent of the children who are 
cross-bused in Hillsborough Co·mty, Florida, are black, even though blacks consti­
tute only 19 percent of the students enrolled in the district. Our monitor in Savan­
nah, Georgia, found that in at least ten of 16 cases of paired schools, white children 
attend schools in their neighborhoods while black children in the lower elementary 
grades are bused into these schools. The distance factor for black students is also 
a burden, as in Greensboro, North Carolina, when black children are kept after 
school and miss their bus. White students who are kept after school of course miss 
their bus, too. But they usually live nearer to the school and therefore have a 
shorter distance to walk. 

Students in Texarkana, Arkansas, told our monitor that since the black junior 
high and senior high schools had been closed, they had to walk to the two junior 
and one senior highs in the white community. One of these schools, North 
Heights Junior High, was opened in the fall of 1971 in an area far from the black 
community. Black citizens feel that when the school board found it couldn't keep 
blacks out of this school, members took the attitude that blacks would have to get 
there the best way they could. School authorities, on the other hand, maintained 
that the state does not reimburse the district for busing within the city limits nor 
does the system have the Tesources to bus its "larger students." The district does, 
however, use its resources to provide transportation for children in grades one 
through six. Students in grades one through five aTe bused to schools in the white 
community, while all students in the system attend a sixth-grade center in the 
black community. To the black citizen, this means the school district is willing 
to bus sixth graders into the black community, but is unwilling to bus seventh 
graders into the white community. In the opinion of our monitor, the state law is 
being used by the school board as the reason why it refuses to transport junior and 
senior high school black students. 

As in Texarkana, the lack of a transportation system in Birmingham, AJabama, 
appears to work to the detriment of black students. Our monitor visited an all­
black school with an enrollment of 450 students on a very rainy day and found 
less than 100 in attendance. At West End High School, another all-black school, 
on the same day, the teacher estimated the attendance was off 30 percent. Later that 
day, two all-white schools, Wright and Huffman, in all-white neighborhoods, were 
also visited. The principal indicated that there was no significant effect of weather 
on attendance. 

By denying funds to be used for transportation, the federal government has 
added to the burden of desegregation for black parents. When the Greenville, Mis­
sissippi, school district was required by a U.S. district court to develop a new de­
segregation plan, the plan ultimately accepted by the court called for 2,000 students 
to be bused to four paired elementary schools within the city limits of Greenville. 
The state of Mississippi provides bus transportation only to those students living 
outside the city; to provide buses for the additional students involved in the 

105 



new desegregation plan would have required the use of local funds. The district 
did apply for $188,000 in ESAP funds to purchase the needed buses, but the 
Nixon Administration moved to prohibit ESAP funds from being used for such 
purposes. As a result, no buses were provided because the school district did not 
have the necessary funds. Black children whose parents did not have ready access 
to transportation had to get to school the best way they could. 

There also seems to be some evidence that the cost of providing transportation 
has been used in several cities as an excuse for delaying compliance with con­
stitutional standards. Other cities seem to have deliberately made the use of trans­
portation so inefficient as to strengthen public opposition to it as a tool for achieving 
desegregation. 

School officials in Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama, and Huntsville, 
Alabama, have maintained their districts cannot achieve more complete desgrega­
tion because they do not operate transportation systems. The Jacksonville, 
Florida, school board owns no buses but does contract with 184 private 
individuals who operate buses for the system. When Jacksonville received a post­
Swann court order in June, 1971, the school system found it would need apprnxi­
mately 100 more buses than it used the previous year. The judge recognized, how­
ever, that it usually takes about six months to obtain new buses, and therefore 
ordered a two-phase plan, the first phase to be implemented in September, J 971, 
and the second to be implemented as soon as additional buses could be obtained. 
The court justified this delay with the statement, "To require the purchase of an 
extra 150 buses (at around $I 0,000 per bus) under these circumstances might, in 
the final analysis, work an undue hardship on the school board or the individual 
contractors and waste the taxpayers' money." 

When a post-Swann desegregation plan was ordered for the Norfolk, Virginia, 
school system, the Virginia Transit Company appealed to the City Council for a 
fare increase to handle the additional number of students to be transported under 
the new plan. The fare increase was approved but could not take effect because 
of the Executive Freeze on Wages and Prices. The Norfolk school district then 
sought a stay of the new desegregation plan and asked that it be permitted to 
open the 1971-72 school year under its 1970 plan. The stay was granted by the 
U. S. District Court but was subsequently overturned on appeal to the Fourth 
Circuit. That court ruled, "We are convinced that the school board cannot avoid 
its constitutional duty to desegregate the schools by pleading that the bus company 
might lose money because of the price freeze." The Supreme Court sustained the 
Fourth Circuit, and school opened in September under the 1971-72 plan. 

In Nashville, Tennessee, busing became a major political issue even though the 
school system had transported more than one-third of its students in the year prior 
to the post-Swann desegregation plan. When the district's budget was approved by 
the Metro City Council.in June, 1971, Council members demanded assurance that 
no funds in the budget would be used to purchase buses for the purpose of trans­
porting students to establish a racial balance. 

106 



Now the transportation director says he needs 110 more buses to provide the 
proper quaHty of transportation for the district's students, but the hands of the 
school system are tied because of the Council prohibition. With buses in service all 
but a few hours a day, there is practicaJJy no time for preventive maintenance. 
In the first month and a half of school, an average of twelve breakdowns a day 
occurred. Despite complaints from both black and white parents, the Metro City 
Council refuses to appropriate funds for additional buses. It is no wonder that 
"busing" has an unfavorable image in the NashviJJe-Davidson County School 
District. 

An anti-busing group in St. Petersburg, Florida, Parents Against Forced Busing, 
helped to defeat a millage referendum for the first time in PineJJas County. The 
election was paTtly to secure financing to purchase additional buses. As a result, 
the school board had to borrow $500,000 for 50 new buses needed to create a 
unitary school system.1 

1 For additional information 011 school transportation systems, see the following studies: 
Jt Ain't the Distance, It's the Niggers, March, 1972, by the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, JO Columbus Circle, New York, N. Y. 10019. 
Inequality in Education, Number 11, Marclr, 1972, by the Center for Law and Education, 
Harvard University, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. 
MARC Fact Book on Educational Transportation, March, 1972, by the Metropolitan Applied 
Research Center. inc., 60 East 86tlr Street, New York, N. Y. 10028. 

107 



VIII 

SECOND GENERATION PROBLEMS 

Throughout this report we have cited extensive evidence demonstrating de jure 
segregation is still very much in evidence in school districts of the urban South. 
The elimination of such segregation is clearly the first task of federal and private 
civil rights agencies. 

In recent years, however, we have witnessed the rise of "second generation" 
desegregation problems which have become more visible and disturbing as desegre­
gation has increased. These problems usually result from vestiges of the 
dual school system and become more manifest when some real movement has 
been made toward desegregation. Relatively speaking, these problems have re­
ceived little public attention in comparison to the evils of de jure segregation itself, 
but they nevertheless pose just as great a threat to equal educational opportunity 
and efforts to create unitary systems. "Second generation" problems have been 
the object of few, if any, federal programs or initiatives, but they are deeply dis­
turbing to many many black and white citizens in the urban South. At a minimum 
they mean that desegregation has g;:itten off to a shaky beginning. But the real 
fear is that they may so undermine the movement toward desegregation as 
to seriously threaten its chances for success. 

ONE-RACE CLASSES, GROUPING OF STUDENTS 

While our monitors reported finding numerous one-race classes or predominantly 
one-race classes in the region, there were few reports that a pattern of such clas­
ses exist within the respective school districts. One-race classes are prevalent, of 
course, in those districts which are still operating under inadequate or obsolete 
desegregation plans. At least one deterrent to the creation of rigid patterns of in-

108 



school segregation in unitary districts bas been the regulations of the Emergency 
School Assistance Program which prohibit black children from spending more 
than half of the school day in one-race classes. 

However, under existing federal civil rights policy and regulations it is per­
missible for white students to spend all of their time in one-race classes, and black 
students may spend more than half of the school day in classes which have only 
one student of the opposite race. As a result, black students may frequently find 
themselves in classes which have only one white student because federal policy 
defines a segregated class as a one-race class. 

Our monitor in Mississippi reported finding twelve all-black classes in Green­
ville, five all-white classes in Gulfport, 15 all-black and four all-white classes in 
Hattiesburg, and 157 all-black classes and eighteen all-white classes in Jackson. 
The Greensboro, North Carolina, school district was found to have 34 all-black 
classes, and 124 all-white classes. All-white or all-black classes were found through­
out the West Memphis, Arkansas, school system. Significantly racially imbalanced 
classes were found at one 60 percent-white high school in Columbia, South Caro­
lina, where 20 of 34 English classes were 80 percent black or white, and 13 were 
90 percent of one race. At another majority-white high school, one-third of the 
senior English classes were found to be 80 percent of one race. One-race English 
classes were also found in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and severely racially im­
balanced classes were found in at least 19 schools in Savannah, Georgia. Other 
reports of one-race or racially imbalanced classes come from monitors who sur­
veyed Charlotte, North Carolina; Monroe, Louisiana, and Montgomery, Alabama. 

Because the degree of in-school racial isolation and classroom racial inbalance 
varies so much between and even within school districts monitored, this report 
will focus on the reasons for such isolation and imbalance rather than on the 
statistics involved. 

One-race or racially imbalanced classes were found to result from the follow­
ing: ( 1) one-race schools or schools with a student enrollment of predominantly 
cne race; (2) assignment to classes based on test results, previous classroom 
performance, and/ or recommendations by teachers and counselors; (3) depart­
mentalization, ability, or curriculum groupings; ( 4) remedial efforts; ( 5) students' 
selections of courses based on personal choice; and (6) racial prejudice. Undoubted­
ly, many educators inadvertently create one-race classes when they seek to cope with 
the real or presumed learning problems of black students. Or they may consider 
the creation of one-race classes a problem secondary to the dilemma of what to 
do with black students who do not seem to b~ able to perform at grade level. Fre­
quently unprepared for these students-or educationally unimaginative-admin­
istrators and school systems follow the line of least resistance and initiate pro­
grams and practices which isolate such students from others whose race and 
culture has been a passport to the educational norm. 

109 



Ability and curriculum groupings were found to be responsible for racially iden­
tifiable classes in several school districts. In Norfolk, Virginia, there are "ad­
vanced," "regular," and "modified" classes. Students told our monitor that "ad­
vanced" classes frequently have only one or two black students while many of 
the "modified" classes have only a few white students or are all-black. The Shreve­
port, Louisiana, school system places elementary school children in levels one, two, 
three, or four, according to the child's tested ability in reading and arithmetic. 
Each child is evaluated every six weeks through the use of standardized tests 
and then placed at the "appropriate'' level. In junior and senior high school, 
a system known as "phasing" is used. Phase I is college preparatory, Phase 11 
is possible college preparatory, Phase III is mixed vocational education and aca­
demic training, and Phase IV is vocational education. Students are placed in these 
groups on the basis of their scores Oil the California Achievement Test. Our 
monitor reported that black students tend to fall in the bottom two phases. 

The Durham, North Carolina, school board initiated a tracking system during the 
second year of its current plan. Students are placed in an academic or vocational 
track, on the basis of classroom performance and standardized test scores, as 
early as the seventh grade. Once in the track, the student is locked in it. Blacks 
feel vocational training is the school system's only response to its previous failure 
to provide an adequate education for black children. 

With two exceptions the Monroe, Louisiana, elementary schools place students 
in levels one, two or three. Our monitor reported that the majority of the students 
fall into the third level which is the slow-learner group. Community people told 
our monitor that most black students are in the basic levels of English, math, 
science and American history. The Jacksonville, Florida, system uses a "three­
path curriculum" which includes college preparatory, pre-technical and career or 
vocational education. Ability grouping is used on a "development basis" in English 
and math, and our monitor found that some racially imbalanced classrooms result. 
Ability grouping is also used at the elementary level in the Tampa, Florida, school 
district and is based on an elaborate testing program, a determination of reading 
readiness, and/ or past performance. Grouping at the elementary level is primarily 
in the areas of reading and mathematics, while at the secondary level it is in math, 
science, and English. The groups are labeled "Advanced," "Regular" and "Basic." 
Classes in the "Advanced" and "Basic" levels tend to be racially identifiable. 
Though the Tampa superintendent instructed his staff in a memorandum dated 
Nov. 1, 1971 , that all classes in the school system must reflect a "racial mix" our 
monitor found this mandate was not being followed. 

The Texarkana, Arkansas, superintendent told our monitor that his district 
labels ability groups as "high," "middle" and " low" (the terms in neighboring 
Texarkana, Texas, are "advanced," "middle" and "regular"), but added that no 
student is in any ability-grouped class or classes for more than two hours a day. 
However, the assistant superintendent for instruction sa id that at two elemen-

110 



tary schools, students involved in the Individually Prescribed Instruction Program 
must remain in their group. He also said that some students in the Title I and 
Follow-Through programs at Central and Union elementary schools must also 
remain in their same groups throughout the day. School authorities told our 
monitor that while there are no all-black or all-white classes anywhere in the 
system, "black students tend to fall into the lower track." 

The Florence, South Carolina, school system uses a grouping technique known 
as the "multi-level program" which results in homogeneous grouping for one or 
two periods a day. Students are placed in a particular level of language arts or 
math on the basis of test scores and teacher recommendations. Our monitor found 
that the bottom levels of the language arts program are largely black in the ele­
mentary schools, while language arts classes in the high schools are 70 to 80 
percent black. ln McClenaghan High School, every subject is ability grouped 
in ''basic" and "academic" except that there is an "honors" group for English. 
The "honors" class is about half the size of others, and is nearly all white. Most 
"basic" classes have a disproportionately high number of black students. Out of 
150 ninth-grade students in "academic" English at majority-black Wilson High 
School, only 13 were black. 

In Greenville, Mississippi, the grouping of high school English students results in 
the ·'smart sections" being 24.5 percent black, with an average class size of 
22, while the "slow" sections are 80.6 percent black, with an average class size 
of 27. Thus, even if the grouping practice is valid, it is clear that Jess attention 
is being given to those students who need it most. In the elementary schools where 
there is some grouping, one Title I teacher reported discovering that one of her 
s:cond-grade students had been placed in the slowest group "by clerical error." 
The teacher estimates it will take several months of special work to bring the child 
back up to the level where he can compete with the group to which he should 
have been assigned. 

However well-intended the use of various systems of grouping may be, some 
educators and the black community frequently view these techniques negatively. A 
former black principal in Florence, South Carolina, told our monitor, "In theory, 
it (multi-level grouping) is good but in practice it's not worth a cuss. Bottom­
level teachers say and act like their students aren't smart, and you know what 
that causes." 

Some guidance counselors in Floren\'.e told our monitor that theoretically the 
languag.: arts program might improve skills that would enhance the chances for 
college entry. But they feel such an advantage is offset by the negative psychologi­
cal effects of the grouping which reduces the motivation of many students. One 
cf the couns:!lors said that many black students now want to be in language arts 
because it is easier and their friends are in it. Some teachers in Florence are also 
beginning to question the value of the multi-level approach. 

111 



Though Texarkana, Arkansas, school officials say that grouping was used prior 
to desegregation (on a "more limited basis"), some black parents feel it is the 
school board's response to desegregation. They contend it is the way in which the 
school system continues to try to make black students feel inferior. Grouping was 
also the chief complaint of parents with whom our monitor in Savannah, Georgia, 
talked. Among their complaints were: (I) at the beginning of the 1971-72 school 
year, some schools claimed test scores for some students were late in being trans­
ferred from formerly all-black schools, and therefore many black children were 
incorrectly placed in low sections; (2) test scores are kept secret, and (3) test scores 
are given priority over classroom achievement in placing children. The greatest 
complaint, however, was that their children are getting an even lower quality 
education than they did in the black schools because the lower ability groups 
offer so little and expect so little. When parents at a school in Columbia, South 
Carolina, found their children were being racially segregated within a desegregated 
school because of grouping practices, they made a vigorous protest to the school 
board. The condition was subsequently corrected. 

ROLE OF COUNSELORS 

Counselors were frequently mentioned in the monitoring reports as individuals 
responsible for determining a student's "place" in the school or curriculum. Black 
students in Norfolk, Virginia, said many of them chose the "regular" classes rather 
than the "advanced" because they had been led to believe that white schools were 
much harder, and that they could not meet the standards of more advanced classes. 
A black student from an "advanced" class of Booker T . Washington High School 
was put into a "regular" class at Lake Taylor Senior High School. When she 
sought to get back into the "advanced" class, she was asked by her counselor, 
"Do you really think you can do the work?" When she pointed out that she had 
been in the "advanced" class at Washington, the counselor im,isted that the pro­
gram at Lake Taylor was more difficult. 

In Little Rock, Arkansas, class assignments are left to counselors and principals 
who are still assigning students to "honors" classes on the basis of guidelines pre­
pared in April, 1969. The parents of one black student who had all "A''s and 
one "B" in junior and senior high had to protest to convince a counselor at Hall 
High School that the student should be allowed to participate in "honors" classes. 
A student at Jenkins High School in Savannah, Georgia, observed that black stu­
dents are steadily migrating to the easier courses (i.e. general math instead of alge­
bra) because when they start to sign up for the harder course they receive warnings 
such as, "Do you know what you're getting into?" 

Black students in Forrest City, Arkansas, told our monitor that counselors dis­
courage them from entering the college-bound curriculum. While any student is 
theoreticalJy permitted to choose his own curriculum, in practice counselors en-

112 



courage those students whose attendance, grades or attitudes are not to their liking 
to enter th~ ."basic" program. 

In Greensboro, North Carolina, our monitor heard that black students have 
been given wrong information concerning course requirements for succeeding 
years, so that when a student enters his last years of high school he finds himself 
unprepared to take the courses he wants. A student from Page High School said 
that counselors put black kids in non-college preparatory courses, and that black 
males end up in cabinet-making. Similar stories were related to our monitor by 
black students attending Lower Richland High School in Columbia, South Caro­
lina, where black females are encouraged to go into home economics. Huntsville, 
Alabama, students say the grouping system, into which they are referred by coun­
selors, tends to steer black students into programs which do not prepare them for 
college work. The Shreveport, Louisiana, "phasing system has a similar effect. 

The student handbook at Neville High School in Monroe, Louisiana, carefully 
states that "under no circumstances are you to depend upon a high school official 
to choose the correct course for you. However, school counselors, principals and 
assistant principals or other faculty members will be glad to counsel you at any 
time concerning your program." Our monitor was told that in practice counselors 
suggest that black students enter general courses. 

The monitor in Selma, Alabama, reported that black females are encouraged to 
sign up for sewing and cosmetology classes, but that whites are not encouraged to 
take these courses . Black males are encouraged to prepare for non-professional 
and skilled labor jobs. In the fall of 1971 the social studies supervisor at all-black 
Western High School in Birmingham, Alabama, addressed the student body and 
encouraged them to read and subscribe to Booker T. Washington's philosophy 
regarding their preparation and training. Students at other schools in Birmingham 
told the monitor, "Counselors tell us which classes we will take." 

Monitors in several districts reported feelings among some students and parents 
that counselors are ineffective with students of both races. Black and white students 
in Norfolk, Virginia, strongly condemned guidance counselors as "worthless." 

In St. Petersburg, Florida, members of the district's bi-racial committee said 
that all counselors in the system, blacks and whites, are so bad that they believe 
there is probably no racially discriminatory pattern at all, but rather one of a 
terrible level of counseling. 

fn Columbia, South Carolina, a person who works in a large number of schools · 
told our monitor, "Overall the district has poor guidance counselors, black and 
white, but they are probably especially bad at counseling students of the opposite 
race." At one school in Columbia, two black students used their free period to 
see a white teacher during her free period. The students wanted to ask for some 
information about colleges "because the (black) counselor won't listen to us." 

113 



The black assistant principal walked by, saw the students sitting on the teacher's 
desk talking to her, and sent them out of the room even though they had a pass 
to be there. The students were asked why they were asking the teacher about 
colleges, when she was not a qualified guidance counselor. When the students 
replied that the teacher was the only one who would listen to them, they were 
made to sit in the assistant principal's office until they would say that the teacher 
was not the only one who would listen to them. 

In Orangeburg, South Carolina (where one counselor refuses to talk with students 
wilh long hair), students reported that the schools have almost no catalogs from 
black colleges, and that few white counselors know anything about such institu­
tions of higher education. A student who asked his counselor for information 
about Hampton Institute was told to write for a catalog. Another student who 
wanted an interpretation of his Scholastic Aptitude Test scores was merely given 
a copy of the handbook. 

In Florence, South Carolina, white counselors do not attend guidance workshops 
for high school counselors when they are held at such predominantly black institu­
tions as South Carolina State College. Most black counselors do attend. Black 
students in Texarkana, Arkansas, and in Texas, on the other hand, apparently are 
encouraged to attend black colleges, but are seldom given information about white 
colleges and universities. 

Community people in Austin, Texas, told our monitor that "the counselors have 
a low opinion of blacks and browns," at Johnson High School. Johnson has 
the most black students of any high school, and an overwhelming majority of the 
Chicano high school students in the system. Counselors are reported to make 
little effort to get scholarships for studenl:>, or they set their sights very low in 
light of the possibilities available for minority students. 

According to counselors with the Mexican-American Education Council 
(MAEC - a private non-profit community organization funded by the Emergency 
School Assistance Program), Chicano high school students in Houston, Texas, 
receive little, if any, counseling in the schools. MAEC provided counseling serv­
ices for all Chicano students who graduated from Austin High School (51 percent 
Chicano) in January, 1972, and succeeding in getting most of them into a special 
program at the University of Houston. One MAEC counselor said, "The coun­
selor at Austin just docs not see minority students as potential college students." 
ln all of Houston, MAEC has found only one Chicano counselor in the public 
schools. 

Counselors usually play an important role in guiding minority group students 
into vocational schools. Arnold Vocational School in Savannah, Georgia, has 40 
fewer whites this year and 30 more blacks, so that its enrollment is now 490 black 
students and 17 l whites. As previously noted so:ne students end up there when 
they become a problem in oth~r high sclnols. Others usually go upon the per-

114 



suasion of guidance counselors when they score low on standardized tests and 
are therefore considered unli!cely candidates for higher academic work. Other 
black students choose the prcgram because they need a quick way to earn a 
living, and th::y aren't encouraged to think of college as a possibility. Here is 
another example of counselors having low expectations of minority students and 
servicing them accordingly. 

Our monitor in Richmond, Virginia, reported that vocational education there is 
racially segregated and discriminatory. According to the monitor's report, sophisti­
cated vocational training is being offered to whites and some blacks who con­
currently pursue a high school diploma. Traditional and obsolete occupational 
skills are offered to many black students who are classified as "slow," and are not 
in any regular school program. They have often dropped out or been pushed out 
of the regular school program for various reasons. In Macon, Georgia, the 65 
percent-black vocational school includes grades nine through twelve. Our monitor 
found that it had experienced an increase in enrollment since the beginning of the 
year because black students had been pushed out of the regular schools in increas­
ing numbers. 

In Florence, South Carolina, only two of the high schools have vocational 
centers : Wilson High, with a student enrollment th1t is 45 percent white, and 
S::mthside High, with an enrollment that is 64 percent white. Students from all 
over the district are bused into these vocational centers. The vocational courses at 
Wilson, the formerly all-black high school, are traditional, such as brick masonry, 
carpentry, agriculture, cosmetology. At Southside ~igh, courses such as air­
conditioning, auto body repair, business machine repair and drafting are offered. 
According to faculty members in the district, most black students take or are 
placed in the traditional vocational courses at Wilson. Besides the possibility of 
being referred to "dead-end" curricula, one must also take into account the fact 
that black students may choose Wilson because they want to stay in a school 
w;th which they are familiar, because most of their friends are taking courses 
there, or perhaps they enroll because the traditional courses have a high degree 
of recognition and acceptance to many black students. Another factor which might 
influence their selection is that 90 percent of the vocational faculty at Wilson is 
black, while 90 percent of the vocational faculty at Southside is white. 

CLOSING BLACK SCHOOLS 

Few subjects so strike at the feelings of the black community as the decision 
to close black schools. These schools, often inadequate and poorly equipped, were 
erected by school districts as conscious efforts to maintain dual systems of educa­
tion based on race. Just as the black community was never consulted about its de­
sires to have segregated schools, it was not consulted about building schools in 
its community to preserve that segregation. However, once those schools became 

115 



a reality in the black community, they became center~ for community activities 
and the focal point for the hope that educated black children could escape poverty 
and demonstrate the talents of black people. As one of the few institutions which 
could even remotely be considered to belong to the black community, black 
schools became identified with successful graduates, winning football teams and 
outstanding bands. With all the handicaps of segregation, the black community 
nevertheless worked long and hard to make black schools as good as possible. 

When desegregation came, many of these schools were closed or Jost their 
status as "graduating" high schools. In most cases, the black community again was 
not consulted, and to many black people it seemed that schools which were good 
enough for them were judged to be inferior for whites. Thus, in many districts the 
closing of black schools, and the way in which it was done, came as new evidence 
that the feelings of whites were paramount. This new affirmation of racism has 
done little to insure the success of desegregation. 

The overwhelming majority of schools which have had to be closed because of 
desegregation have been black. Indeed, reports show that in many cases black 
schools were closed, and nearby white schools were allowed to become over­
crowded, merely because the black school was in a black neighborhood. In a 
probable indictment of the dual school system, it was also noted that many­
possibly most--of the black schools were closed because they needed to be. 
Monitors reported numerous black schools suffering from delapidation and inade­
quate facilities, or with dangerous locations near highways, railroads, crime areas 
and the like. 

In fifteen districts surveyed, 61 black schools were closed, and only six white 
ones. 

The closing of two black elementary schools has been an issue in the Orange 
County, Florida, desegregation suit. School authorities said they were closing the 
two schools-which they conceded are sound structurally-for financial reasons 
since they are in commercially valuable areas. In a brief filed with the Fifth Cir­
cuit Court of Appeals, plaintiffs' attorneys pointed out that the commercial value 
of other (white) schools had not been studied prior to the decision to sell the black 
schools. They noted that a nearby white school which was over-crowded and is an 
inferior facility was kept open because officials said it was a "neighborhood school." 
The two in question are neighborhood schools also, but in black neighborhoods. 

In Jacksonville, Florida, seven black schools were closed. The plaintiffs agreed 
to the closing of three, which were conceded to be inadequate, but did not accept 
closing of the other four. The superintendent said the schools "were in miserable 
neighborhoods" and that they were closed because officials knew whites would not 
attend them. A black junior high was closed for the same reason, but the court 
said it might be re-opened later, depending upon the "future improvement of the 
area" and the decision of the board. 

116 



The closing of Willow Creek school in Florence, South Carolina, resulted in a 
mass demonstration by blacks, to no avail. The superintendent told our monitor 
that he planned to reopen Wil!ow Creek and another black school as auxiliary 
facilities, but a week later he told an HEW-OCR team he had no plans for 
either. 

(While sale of public schools to private segregation academies has been fre­
quently noted in rural areas, our monitors found no instances of such in the cities 
we surveyed. In the St. Paul's district of Charleston, South Carolina, blacks pur­
chased a school for a community center. The building was then stripped of all its 
furnishings by the white organizers of a segregated academy. School officials did 
not take any action, and the blacks were afraid to protest lest the building be 
burned. While many former schools, such as those in Mobile, Alabama, remain 
vacant, others are being used as administration buildings, special education centers, 
welfare and food stamp offices, and early childhood education and day care 
centers. A few were taken over by community groups.) 

Tampa, Florida, offered a graphic example of the loss of black identity in school 
desegregation. Blake and Middleton senior high schools (black) were made junior 
high schools because, according to the superintendent, they were too small to be 
high schools anyway. The old Middleton building is now called Memorial Junior 
High. Officially, the high school is named Hillsborough- Middleton, but no one 
ever calls it that. 

Ligon High, the traditional black high school in Raleigh, North Carolina, was 
made into a junior high school despite black protest. Money raised by the Ligon 
PT A and other patrons over the past few years was arbitrarily distributed by the 
school board to the formerly white high schools. The board turned down a request 
from blacks to redistribute money collected at white junior high schools so Ligon 
would have an equal share. 

Some other schools closed and the reasons, given or apparent, include: 

Mobile, Alabama: Four schools closed, all black: Caldwell, on noisy thorough­
fare; Central High, in area of dope peddlers and other hazards; Owens, sub­
standard; Ella Grant, substandard. 

Montgomery, Alabama: Four black schools closed, three white. Booker T. 
Washington High described as "unfit" by the school board and judge, but still in 
use. 

Nashville, Tennessee: Five predominantly black schools closed, one white. 
Four were deemed unacceptable by a study commission, two others "inadequate." 

In Gulfport, Mississippi, the black high school and one elementary school was 
closed, leaving only one formerly all-black high school in use. Under the neighbor­
hood plan, this school is the only majority black school in a 75 percent-white 
district. The black community in Greenville, Mississippi, lost their argument that 

117 



there should be two high schools in the district (the formerly black high school 
being one), and the black school became the junior high. This spring, the 
school board declared there was a danger of overcrowding in the one high 
school, and proposed a new vocational education center to accommodate the over­
load. (Vocational Education in Greenville has traditionally been 90 percent black.) 
The black community fear this will lead to resegregation . 

Six of the seven schools closed in Columbia, South Carolina, under the 1971-72 
plan were majority black. Considerable black dissension ensued over a plan to con­
vert all-black Hopkins High (on which the district bad spent a million dollars for im­
provements the previous year) into a junior high, pairing it with lower Richland 
High School. Black citizens had wanted the Lower Richland area of the district 
zoned to maintain both high schools, but this plan was rejected by a four-to-three 
vote of the school board. Many felt the board's decision was ultimately based on 
the fact that the chairman of the board lives in that area. Another white resident 
of the Lower Richland community, who led the fight to pair the schools, was 
later appointed to the school board. Many blacks finally went along with the 
plan because they were promised by this man that new school colors and mascots 
would be adopted at Lower Richland. They have not been. In the same area of the 
district, a black middle school is under-capacity. Blacks expect an effort to close 
the black middle school in the future. 

Other black schools in Richland County District No. 1 were closed for varying 
reasons. Perrin Thomas Elementary is a relatively new building, but is bordered 
by a railroad switching yard; Howard Elementary is a very old building in a free­
way area; Withers Elementary is on a heavily traveled street; Ridgewood 
Elementary is in a very poor black neighborhood (although the official reason for 
closing it is unknown); Eastover Elementary is close to other schools and too 
small to merit a full-time principal, according to an assistant superintendent; 
Waverly Elementary included a very old building. 

Black parents in Columbia admitted that most of the schools were closed for 
a good reason, but they asked, " If it was good enough for us, why isn't it good 
enough for white children?" 

NEW CONSTRUCTION 

Reports showed that in many cities, despite the national concern over "busing," 
new schools are being built without regard for their ultimate racial composition. 
In some cities, schools are clearly projected to house one race, with busing the 
only solution to their desegregation. In some of these districts, it is obviously 
blacks whom they expec:;t to bus, if it has to be done. To the black community it 
is clear that desegregation does not necessarily me:m the end to discrimination in 
the selection of sites for new schools. If there is going to be a continued burden and 

118 



inconvenience connected with a desegregated school system, it appears that black 
children in many urban districts will continue to bear that burden. 

In New Orleans, Louisiana, an official said he had not considered the race of 
four elementary schools slated for construction because "schools are built where 
the students are." An investigation showed th at one school will be all-black, 
another all-white. Of two new high schoo!s under construction, one is certain to 
be black. Another school is planned in what officials admit is a "mainly white" area. 

The court ordered a moratorium on all school construction in Memphis, Tennes­
see, until that suit was resolved. All the board's proposed buildings would tend to 
maintain neighborhood schools. 

Two new high schools with only a handful of black students opened last fall in 
Jacksonville, Florida. Sandalwood Senior-Junior High School cost $5.l million. It 
is the largest school under one roof in Florida, with a capacity of 3,500-but only 
six of its students are black. Both the new schools are ultra-modern in construction 
with open classrooms, carpeting, air-conditioning and the like. 

A new high school is expected to open in Huntsville, Alabama, in September in 
the upper-middle income area where all the school board members, except the 
black one, live. 

Two new schools were opened in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1970-71, with 
100 percent white enrollment. The superintendent maintains he wiJI build schools 
where the students are, regardless of race. 

Two of three new high school buildings planned in Austin, Texas, will probably 
be racially identifiable. According to an administration projection, Northwest High 
wiJI be 96 percent white. Despite protest from people concerned about the ecology, 
the school board used its power of eminent domain to condemn city park land 
as the site for the new Austin High School. The site is 15 blocks from the old 
school, which was the most integrated in the city because of its excellent acces­
sibility to public transportation. Poor blacks and Chicanos are expected to attend 
the new school in fewer numbers because of the transportation situation. 

One elementary school built in Atlanta, Georgia, last year is 100 percent black, 
and three others are 95 to 100 percent black. Two others under construction will 
probably be equally high in black enrollment. 

Two heavily white elementary schools have opened in Rome, Georgia, and 
another elementary school is planned in an area where a segregated school was 
closed. The new school will be zoned in such a way that it will remain white. 

The only district reporting legal intervention against construction of segregated 
schools was Nashville, Tennessee. There, the district court rejected plans for one 
new high school because it was in an all-white area and approved another because 
it was centrally located. The judge also found that portable classrooms bad been 

11 9 



used to enlarge white schools while classrooms in black schools went empty. Declar­
ing that "portables have been used to maintain segregation," he enjoined the 
board from using portable units for any purpose except to achieve desegregation. 
In the same order, it was noted that schools in outlying areas had remained all­
white. To keep them from becoming "vehicles of resegregation," the judge ordered 
that court approval would be needed for any additions or renovation to schools 
with less than 15 percent black enrollment. New construction was also prohibited 
without court approval. 

Officials in Tampa, Florida, say they have projected the race of new schools 
ul!der construction based upon where black children are being "satellited" from. 
None of the construction, clearly, is in black neighborhoods, but is largely outside 
the city where the white population is expanding. 

The superintendent of schools in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, admitted that 
a new high school and four new elementary schools will be all-white "unless 
blacks are bused to them," and that a new junior high to be built in an all-white 
subdivision will be "tokenly" desegregated. A source told our monitor that the 
NAACP has a bargain with the school board not to contest new school sites if 
other compaints, such as faculty assignment and student grievances, can be re­
solved. 

Black leaders in Florence, South Carolina, fear that in a few years, no schools 
will be left in black neighborhoods. Formerly black Wilson High School is to be 
rebuilt several miles away, between two white private housing developments. Mc­
Clenaghan High, in a transitional neighborhood, may also be relocated. Three 
formerly black elementary schools have 500 fewer students this year, and two of 
them have empty classrooms. Blacks feel this means that they are also being phased 
out. Housing patterns, meanwhile, have not changed, and several low-income hous­
ing projects are currently being built in black neighborhoods. The blacks suspect 
that ten years from now, every child in the area will be bused to schools in white 
neighborhoods. 

In Shreveport, Louisiana, a new high school built at a cost of $400,000 was 
opened this year. This school was built in an all-black housing project. 

STUDENT TRANSFERS AND ZONE-JUMPING 
Student transfers-both in compliance with and in violation of approved deseg­

regation plans-were a major problem in maintaining effectively desegregated 
schools in some districts. 

Under the court order in St. Petersburg, Florida, students were exempted from 
attending the school to 'which they were assigned if the new school did not offer 
courses they wanted to take. Thus, many white students could remain at their 
old high schools rather than attend Gibbs because the formerly all-black school 

120 



offered fewer courses than the white schools. By the same token, many white 
students who were enrolled in Dixie Hollins's exceptionally good vocational pro­
gram simply returned there last fa ll , and tenth-graders in the program have been 
told they will be able to remain next year, regardless of their assignment. Seventy 
white students in a business-machine course at Dixie were transferred to Gibbs 
when it was pointed out the black school, in that case, had an equally good program. 

Until recently, requests for transfers for "medical" reasons represented a major 
effort by St. Petersburg whites to keep from attending black schools. The bi-racial 
committee, which has jurisdiction over transfers, reviewed some 200 medical re­
quests, the majority of which were from white students assigned to formerly all­
black junior high schools. Fifty percent of the students were rejected, and the 
Pinellas Medical Association cooperated by assigning a committee to consu1t with 
the bi-racial committee in each request. As a result, the problem has been elimi­
nated . 

Zone-jumping is a continuing problem, although school officials have not been 
able to determine to what extent students are attending the wrong school or using 
phony addresses to attend neighboring Pasco County schools. 

Senior transfers were allowed under the plans in Florence, and Columbia, South 
Carolina; East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Greensboro, North Carolina. The effect 
in Greensboro was to keep the senior class at formerly all-black Dudley High 
nearly 100 percent black. 

Enrollment in Florence and East Baton Roug;: deviated from projections partial­
ly because of illegal zone-jumping by whi tes. Tactics include lying about residence, 
establishing dual residences, and sending children to live with relatives or friends 
in other zones. 

Transfer permits in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, are a major component of school 
administration. A big "Permits" sign in the administration building directs the 
public to one official who has few other duties than to grant transfers and "residence 
affidavits" (forms filled in by parents and guardians to certify that a child is not 
living at home but in another school district.) 

One official at first denied that a written permit policy exists, although our 
monitor obtained e lsewhere a copy of the document which was adopted by the 
board in 1969 and revised a year later by the administration without the board's 
knowledge. The policy has never been made public. It provides that no black 
student may transfer to a formerly white school if blacks already exceed 30 per­
cent of the enrollment (this is a 72 percent black district!). Blacks have priority 
to transfer to a school which is all white or less than 10 percent black. Permits 
are not issued to whites in "precariously racially balanced schools" nor to blacks 
from schools where the percentage of black students is small. 

Seven thousand to 8,000 permits are granted each year, and the official in 

12 1 



charge said race is the motive 90 percent of the time. About 3,300 transfers had 
been granted out of 3,600 black and 2,000 white requests at the time the district 
was monitored, and the official said the transfers were about equally divided be­
tween black and white. This was a considerably larger number than was reported 
to the court. Transportation is not provided for transfer students, and officials 
believe more blacks would apply if it were. 

Twelve hundred to 1,400 residence affidavits, which are not reported to the 
court, are granted in New Orleans every year, and persons close to the situation 
believe the process is widely abused. Abramson High, for example, is overcrowded 
with whites who are zoned to attend McDonogh High. It has only 19 white stu­
dents and 1,163 blacks. 

In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, white parents in the Blair section took legal guardian­
ship papers on children to keep white students in that area. One family claimed 
twelve students. As an apparent result, of 228 white students assigned to attend 
two formerly all-black schools, only a tota l of 18 showed up. 

Monroe, Louisiana, blacks as well as whites were reported to have elected to 
return to their old schools rather than the ones to which they were assigned. The 
district has a majority to minority transfer provision, but it is rarely used. 

The majority to minority transfer was described as " very important to middle 
class blacks and white liberals" in Houston, Texas, where integration in several 
schools has been benefited by it. This year 2,907 black and 197 white transfers 
(including Chicanos) were granted. Several middle class blacks transferred to 
Lamar High, which is 86 percent Anglo, and to Lamar Junior High , 61 percent 
Anglo. Several white liberal students elected to attend Lincoln High, a 70 percent 
black school in the heart of the city. Two elementary schools have dropped from 85 
to 66 percent black, and from 88 to 49 percent Anglo, respectively, under the 
transfer policy. Two school board members have children among those mentioned, 
and one member would like to see the whole system desegregated by that method. 

WHITE FLIGHT 

With few exceptions, white student enrollment is decreasing dramatically in the 
districts monitored. In most instances, there is a corresponding increase in black 
enrollment. 

An analysis of a January, 1972, HEW survey of 76 of the nation's I 00 largest 
school districts shows that 60 of them lost white enrollment between the 1970-71 
and 1971-72 terms. One-third of the districts with declining white enrollment 
were in the South. Enrollment loss ranged from only one percent in Orange 
County, Florida, to 18 percent in Richmond, Virginia, and 15 percent in both 
Atlanta, Georgia, and Savannah, Georgia - the highest losses in the nation. 

122 



Our monitoring showed that while in the great majority of districts white flight 
is clearly and even primarily rebted to the increase in school desegregation, some 
white mobility is almost certainly related to other national phenomena: declining 
birth rate, inmigration of blacks to the central cities, increased growth of many 
Southern cities, and movement of whites to the suburbs for reasons other than race. 

In New Orleans, Louisiana, for example, there have not been great changes in 
black or white enrollment since the last court order went into effect. Yet over a 
13-year period, white student population has declined by 10,000, while black en­
rollment increased by more than 20,000. 

In Houston, Texas, our monitor noted that in some areas of the city, white flight 
could be related to the desegregation plan-particularly where a small percentage· 
of whites was zoned into a formerly black school. In other areas not dramatically 
affected by the desegregation plan, but where the composition of neighborhoods 
has been changing, there was also a lot of white flight. 

In southeast Houston, Thomas Junior High School in 1969-70 was 70 percent 
Anglo, eight percent Chicano, and 21 percent black. The following year it was 60 
percent black, eight percent Chicano, and 34 percent Anglo. This year it is 75 
percent black, four percent Chicano, and 21 percent Anglo. In the same area, Jessie 
Jones High went from 1 7 percent black two years ago to 48 percent black this 
year. T he overall enrollment at Jessie Jones dropped by half. (Meanwhile, in 
Houston, whites are trying to de-annex a 90 percent white area containing 25 
schools to form a Westheimer Independent School District.) 

Our monitor concluded that school desegregation alone was not the primary 
cause for the tremendous suburban migration of Houston's whites, commenting: 
"There just is not enough desegregation required for that." 

She blamed instead the "metropolitan phenomena," which struck the Northeast 
in the 1950s and is now hitting the Southwest, and quoted a local realtor who 
credited white movement to the "desire of homeowners to have more room to 
raise their families." 

Knoxville, Tennessee, is losing 1,000 white students a year, even though zone 
changes under the desegregation plan are not enforced. As in most districts where 
white enrollment is declining, the number of blacks has increased. 

And in almost all districts, some, if not most, abandonment of the public schools 
by whites can be correlated with the adoption of new desegregation plans. 

In Savannah, Georgia, public hysteria greeted the announcement of the new 
plans for elementary and high schools last summer, and 5,000 white children were 
withdrawn from the system. 

In Montgomery, Alabama, whites moved out of the Cleveland Avenue area in 
droves when it was re-zoned-in such numbers that blacks in the community sus-

123 



pected that the reaJtors who profited participated in drawing some zone lines. 
Since Montgomery is a county-wide district, movement was within the county 
but away from the inner city where whites might have been zoned into black 
schools. 

In Jacksonville, Florida, the superintendent told our monitor that the district 
had lost 7,000 white children since the 1970-71 term, and he expects to lose 
more when the total desegregation plan is put into effect next year. 

Whites in Nashville, Tennessee, have fled to six predominantly white surround­
ing counties, five of which reported unexpectedly large increases in student pop­
ulation this year. The metro system lost 5,300 whites while the suburban counties 
gained 2,400. 

While black enrollment remained fairly stable, about 4,300 whites (3.4 percent) 
left the Norfolk, Virginia, system this year. White enrollment had been decreasing 
at one percentage point or Jess annually before the 1969-70 term. 

Other cities illustrate the trend: 

Little Rock, Arkansas lost 1,683 whites after January, 1970. 

Greenville, Mississippi lost 1,800 whites in 1971, 600 the year before. 

Charlotte, North Carolina lost 1,359 students this year, most of them white. 

Columbia, South Carolina lost 2,710 whites and gained 3,067 blacks. 

Atlanta, Georgia went from 32 percent white in 1971 to 28 percent white this 
year. (It gained blacks, lost whites.) 

Between the 1969-70 and 1970-71 terms, Jackson, Mississippi schools lost more 
than 50 percent of their white enrollment ( 12,000 students). At the present time, 
however, the monitor reports that enroll ment is stabilizing and in some cases in­
creasing. 

Three other districts reported stable white enrollment, but this was, nevertheless, 
interpreted as a net decrease. 

In a typical school year, about 2,000 white students were added to the school 
population in Tampa, Florida, each year. Since there was no increase in 1971-72, 
school officials say they assume 2,000 children who would ordinarily be in public 
schools this year are not. Most of the missing would have attended formerly black 
schools. 

Nearby St. Petersburg, Florida, also failed to increase significantly in white 
enrollment this year as it had in the past. Stabilization there also is interpreted as 
a decrease. Black enrollment increased. 

In Monroe, Louisiana, white enrollment stabilized while black enrollment in­
creased. This was attributed to a number of white children entering private 
elementary schools while blacks entered first grade at a normal rate. 

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PRIVATE SCHOOLS 
In most districts, it is easy to determine at least the minimum number of white 

students who have fled desegregation by looking at the growth of private schools 
in the area. There is a clear correlation between the adoption of desegregation 
plans and the birth of private, segregated academies in the district. 

Jn Savannah, Georgia, 2,245 white students attend twelve private schools which 
were clearly set up to avoid integration. Since 5,000 whites fled the public schools 
this year after a racial balance plan was ordered, at least that many again may be 
enrolled in established private schools or other "segregation academies" set up in 
homes, churches and other private buildings. At least nine new schools are known 
to have opened since the latest plans were announced, and one Protestant church 
school is known to have expanded to accommodate those fleeing desegregation. 

Charleston County, South Carolina, has 19 segregation academies, enro11ing 
4,000 students. 

Nine thousand students (11 percent) are estimated to have left Nashville, Ten­
nessee, public schools. Seven new private schools, enrolling 1,850 white students, 
opened after the June, 1971, court order. Of 13 other private schools in Davidson 
County (Nashville), Tennessee, twelve are almost all-white. 

Twenty-three non-Catholic private schools in Montgomery, Alabama, gained 
2,000 students between 1969-70 and 1970-7 1. Catholic schools in the city are 
a lso virtually segregated since they were built in black or white communities and 
now claim transportation problems as a bar to desegregating. 

Jn Hinds County (Jackson, Mississippi) there are 30 private schools of which 
15 are clearly segregationist academies. These 15 had an enrollment in 1969-70 of 
4, 162 students, and in 1971-72 an enrollment of 8,889 students . Of that total, 
5,312 were in schools sponsored by the Citizens' Council Foundation. 

Greensboro, North Carolina, lost between 800 and 900 whites to private schools 
this year, and the superintendent of public schools says categorically that most 
if not all left to escape desegregation. Shreveport, Louisiana, lost 1,000 whites; 
the district has 34 private schools. Jn St. Petersburg, Florida, there are twelve new 
all-white private schools this year, and 1,600 fewer whites in the public schools. 

Enrollment in Columbia, South Carolina, private schools a lmost doubled between 
last year and this year. One Catholic school increased its white enrollment by 13 
percent. 

The private school movement in South Carolina began at Wade Hampton 
Academy in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in 1964, after 19 black students enrolled 
at Orangeburg High School. Like old-l ine academ ies in other cities, it flourished 
with increased desegregation and last year doubled its enrollment to 900. A new 
segregated academy opened in Orangeburg this year, enrolling 600 students. 

125 



Unlike Orangeburg, where the superintendent says the public schools have 
maintained public support in spite of a strong private school movement, the super­
intendent in Raleigh, North Carolina, complains that 7 5 percent of the people 
who control the city's economy have gone to the private schools and taken a sub­
stantial portion of the leadership with them. 

Norfolk, Virginia, has at least 35 private, non-Catholic schools. While busing 
is an issue in the public schools, it seems not to be in the private ones. All 19 
schools which advertise their services in the Yellow Pages offer transportation. 

A few districts reported collaboration by public officials with private schools: 

A Charleston County, South Carolina, constituent school board member headed 
up a fund-raising drive for a segregation academy. 

In Little Rock, Arkansas, a member of the Chamber of Commerce helped 
organize a school. Four of the seven school board members are reported to have 
children in private schools. 

The city of Houston, Texas, cooperated with the new $1.5 million Northwest 
Academy building by extending a four-lane street in time for its opening. 

While monitors report that Catholic dioceses have frequently made public pro­
nouncements that their schools would not become havens for fugitives from de­
segregation, individual Protestant churches in most cities have participated in and 
often led the private school movement during desegregation. Charleston, South 
Carolina probably leads the region with eleven church-operated segregation 
academies. (A public school official in Charleston advised our monitor that one 
could usually identify a segregation academy by the word "Christian" or "Church" 
in the name. This advice held true for other cities, including Selma, Alabama; 
Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Norfolk, Virginia; Little Rock, Arkansas; Nashville, 
Tennessee; Montgomery, Alabama; Columbia, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia, 
and West Memphis, Arkansas, each of which has at least two racially segregated 
"Christian" schools.) 

SHIFTING SCHOOLS 

The trend towards resegregation--caused by poor desegregation plans, lenient 
transfer policies and, largely, changing housing patterns and white flight-was 
illustrated in several districts. 

In Atlanta, Georgia, 19 schools went from white to black between 1969-70 
and the beginning of the 1971 term. The entire system went from 58 percent 
black in 1961 to 71 percent black in 1971. Some shifting of racial ratios was 
attributed to the schools' policy of letting black students transfer from over-crowded, 
all-black schools to less crowded ones in transitional neighborhoods. As the ratio 
of black to white approaches 50 percent, the whites withdraw. 

126 



No school in Nashville, Tennessee, is more than 72 percent black this year, but 
13 are resegregating under the ct:rrent plan. Resegregation has taken place because 
of white flight, d i~cussed previously, and four "open zone" schools which any pupil 
may attend for their vocational programs. School officials would not cooperate 
wi th the Office for Civil Rights when it sought to investigate transfer policies. 

The Columbia, South Carolina, school board has rezoned 77 percent-black Lyon 
Street E lementary School (which had been projected to be about 48 percent 
black for 1971-72) so that it will be 92 percent black for the 1972-73 school 
year. The rationale for this controversial rezoning, approved by a four-to-three 
vote, was that whites would not be attending Lyon Street anyway, but they might 
stay in or return to the public schools if they were zoned into either of two neigh­
boring elementary schools which have black enrollments around the 50 percent 
mark. School officials admit, however, that there is no assurance this move will 
stem resegregation. 

Three of the ten schools in Memphis, Tennessee, which have shifted from 
majority white to majority black did so because black housing projects were built 
in white neighborhoods. 

East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has had one school shift from all black to 50 
percent white, partially because of whites locating in a section "235" housing 
development in the area. Six other schools in the district, however, have shifted the 
other way. In each case, the shift occurred, essentially, because of changing neighbor­
hoods. Beaumont, Texas, has the same problem, with three elementary schools 
which were all white in 1964 becoming majority black and a fourth approaching it. 
The monitor concluded, "If current housing trends continue (and there is no 
reason to think they won't), and if Beaumont is not forced beyond its free-choice 
plan, these schools will be all black within several years." 

Resegregation was found less likely to occur in metro-wide school districts 
and in districts where there was an approximate racial balance in every school. 
If a school district includes not only the urban area but geographically contiguous 
suburban and rural areas as well , urban development and desegregation is more 
likely to proceed without parents' fleeing to neighboring school systems which are 
still within convenient commuting distance of the central city. 

Other districts have developed desegregation plans which convert formerly black 
schools to middle schools (grades six through eight). The reasoning is that white 
parents are less likely to leave the school system if their children have to be bused 
to center city schools in black neighborhoods for only a few years when they are 
twelve to 14 years old. While these kinds of pians continue to place the burden 
of busing on black children (who are bused out of their neighborhoods for grades 
one through five and nine through twelve), and caters to the racism of whites, 
it nevertheless has been the rationale for some desegregation plans. 

127 



RACIAL IMP ACTION 

Our monitors concluded that the power structure in most Southern cities 
they surveyed has conspired to maintain black neighborhoods with one-race schools. 
The FHA, local planning commissions and housing authorities, urban renewal, 
school boards, highway departments, realtors, and even transit companies received 
credit for contributing, consciously, to racial impaction. 

Federal "235" and low-income public housing developments were the main 
culprits cited . In city after city, it was noted that either by policy or by custom, 
such projects for years have almost always been built in segregated or transitional 
neighborhoods. In the transitional neighborhoods, the effect is to drive out the 
remaining whites, leaving the neighborhood schools all black. School authorities 
have generally cooperated with the housing authorities by building schools in the 
impacted areas. Escape for minority groups is impossible, thanks to real estate 
and financing policies of private business. 

Racial impaction due to federal housing construction practices was noted in 
Atlanta, Georgia; Beaumont, Texas; Montgomery, Alabama; Shreveport, Louisiana; 
Orlando, Florida; Monroe, Louisiana; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Little Rock, 
Arkansas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Florence, South Carolina; Selma, Alabama; 
and East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

Atlanta, Georgia, offered a succinct example of the conspiracy theory in the 
words of our monitor: "The zoning board zeroes in on transition neighborhoods, 
granting variances for apartments to the point of greatly overcrowding the schools. 
The housing authority adds public housing to the area and the highway department 
separates the area from that which is still white by another expressway." 

The Atlanta monitor also found that housing discrimination has become a 
more subtle game than mere housing covenants. Atlanta developers, for example, 
are creating "clubs"-buildings and facilities which are turned over to the residents 
for rental or "membership" purposes and over which the developer can claim 
no control. Advertising placements, attitudes of sales people and controlled 
telephone and mail promotion also contribute to denying new integrated housing to 
blacks. 

All public housing built in Charlotte, North Carolina, during the past four years 
has been constructed in areas that are predominantly black, in areas undergoing 
transition from white to black, or in areas adjacent to one of the other two. This 
construction-plus documented cases of "block busting" and restrictive convenants, 
urban renewal relocation, and highway construction- has transformed a substantial 
portion of Charlotte from majority white to majority black. 

In the Memphis, Tennessee, school desegregation ruling last December, U. S. 
District Court Judge Robert McRae found that while the present school board 
could not be held responsible for rece11t low-rent housing and rent subsidy programs, 

128 



there had obviously been a conspiracy in the past among the school board, realtors, 
FHA and the Memphis Housing Authority to promote segregation in housing and 
schools. He charged that the board of education had "established separate and 
unequal schools in the immediate vicinity of the areas of Negro concentration." 
School officials themselves blamed the FHA and MHA for resegregation of city 
schools. They maintained that the board had protested location of public housing 
and urban renewal projects in racially impacted areas since 1967. 

Knoxville, Tennessee, offers another example of the dilemma blacks face in 
finding homes outside the ghetto. An equal housing opportunity survey for the 
Knoxville Metropolitan Planning Commission in 1969 concluded that "it is dif­
ficult for a black to move to an all-white area not immediately adjacent to existing 
black areas." 

Yet the inner-city neighborhoods in which Knoxville's blacks are trapped are 
being eroded by urban renewal and turned into office sites. Black families evicted 
by the program have been relocated in public housing within the core of the city. 
Federally funded "235" and rent subsidy projects on the city's outskirts are not 
available to blacks, and other low income programs have rental scales actually 
beyond the means of poor families. Moreover, says the Urban League, realtors will 
not show blacks homes in white neighborhoods, and the transit system discriminates 
by failing to provide transportation from black areas to outlying industrial sections. 

Nashville, Tennessee, provides further illustration of the housing problem. 
Nashville blacks are also confined to the core of the city. A black savings and 
loan president testified during a desegregation hearing in 1970 that blacks are 
prohibited from buying homes in white areas because white property owners and 
realtors will not sell to blacks, because they have difficulty financing due to preju­
dice in the mortgage financing business, and because blacks find it hard to get 
hazard insurance in white residential neighborhoods where they might be burned 
out. A school board witness indicated that white real estate men and mortgage 
bankers control and set the Ji mi ts on "block busting." 

The plaintiffs' attorney, Avon Williams, brought out that the board of education 
in Davidson County has cooperated with the Metropolitan Planning Commission 
and the Nashville Housing Authority by locating new schools near federal housing 
developments which it is known in advance will be segregated. 

A white witness for the plaintiffs testified that when she and her family moved 
to Nashville, they were strongly discouraged by local realtors from seeking a house 
in an integrated neighborhood and could not find an agent who would show them 
one. When they found a house themselves, the woman called both the superintendent 
and neighborhood school offices trying to find out about school attendance lines. 
In both instances, she was advised by school personnel that she should not buy 
a house there because black children were moving into the neighborhoods. 

Highway construction to serve Disney World is displacing blacks in Orlando, 

129 



Florida, and threatening to relocate them in a heavily black and growing section 
called Washington Shores. A community source predicted that the combined forces 
of highway and housing construction and restricted housing would lead to all-black 
urban schools by the end of the decade. 

Concurrent suits in Austin, Texas, last year involving three federal departments 
revealed federal schizophrenia on the question. While the Justice Department was 
arguing in U. S. District Court for an HEW busing plan to desegregate Austin 
schools, an organization of blacks and Chicanos filed suit in the same court against 
the Austin Housing Authority and the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban 
Development. 

The Blackshear Residents Organization, which was founded to fight urban re­
newal, sought to halt construction of a federally funded housing project adjacent 
to the municipal airport and the nation's largest waste disposal plant which is 
in the East Austin section inhabited by 82 percent of the city's black and 63 per­
cent of its Mexican-Americans. The suit charged that the housing authority had 
always segregated its housing projects and that by continuing to do so, it per­
petuated the need for massive busing to achieve racial balance in the schools. 
Judge Jack Roberts rejected the Justice Department's busing plan and, according 
to the BRO attorney, went for the lesser of two eviJs in enjoining the housing 
authority and HUD from building the housing project on the East Austin site. 

In his order, Judge Roberts noted a lack of "unity of approach between HUD 
and the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare . .. in recent 
litigation before this court. HUD has vigorously contended in this suit that the 
racial mix in the neighborhood of the Project TEX 1-8 site satisfies the re­
quirements of the Civil Rights Act, while in a contemporaneous desegregation 
suit in this same court HEW has contended with equal zest that minority school 
children in the same neighborhood are so locked in by segregated housing patterns 
that massive busing is required to satisfy the Constitution." 

Two other housing suits are pending in A.ustin. 

130