orfcheirini
(Editor's note: The U.S.
Civil Rights commusion. in
study of public ichool
segregation last December,
reported that the practice
oi segration in the North
differs only in method from
that in the South. What is
"Northern style" school seg
regation, what causes it and
how can it be remedies?
In the following dispatch.
UPI reporters Frederick H.
Treesh. Robert W. Irvin and
Leo Soroka examine the
situation in three cities
cited in the Civil Rights
commission report New
Rochelle, N.Y.; Highland
Park. Mich., and St. Louis,
Mo.)
A UNITED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL TEAM
REPORT
On a bright Monday after
noon in May, 195', the United
States Supreme Court hand
ed down its historic decision
declaring segregated schools
to be unconstitutional.
"Separate educational fa
cilities are inherently un
equal," the court said in a
unanimous opinion. ,
The court ruled on a South
ern case, but the nation was
to learn that segregated
schools in the North - regard
less of how they got that way
- were affected by its find
ings. In I960, New Rochelle,
N.Y., was rocked by a Federal
Court order to desegregate its
94 per cent Negro Lincoln
school. The publicity sur
rounding the case branded
New Rochelle "the Little
Rock of the North."
"It's a shame for them to
take all the abuse when this
(school segregation) is as com
mon in the North as apple
pie and cheese," said Negro
attorney Paul Zuber, who
launched the New Rochelle
litigation and participated in
several other desegregation
cases.
Hempstead, N.Y".; Newark,
N.J.; Highland Park, Mich.;
M iff i 4 SJt t f
SUSPENDED FROM SCHOOL - Armatha Risinger, 15, has
been suspended from school at St. Louis, Mo., for refusing
to take square dance lessons on religious grounds without
having a confirming letter from her minister. She is shown
at home with her father, Jewel Risinger. She was sent home
twice and then suspended although her mother had written
the principal and visited the school on two occasions. (UPI)
Plans Being Made For Investigator
Printed applications for the
new special investigator on
non-support cases will be
available at the district attor
ney's office in approximately
Space Age Projects
Add fo Paper Work
Anaheim, Calif.-WD-Amer-ican
industry is learning that
paper work required for
cpace age projects "multiplies
nearly at the speed of light,"
according to C. B. McKcown,
general man ager of B. F.
.Goodrich Aerospace and Def
ence products, Arkon, Ohio.
"It has been estimated that
the paper to be used on the
Apollo program, if placed
in a single pile, would reach
the moon before the capsule,"
he told a conference of the
American Society for Qual
ity control.
EMBEZZLERS GET DEATH
Moscow - HPIi - Six persons
have been sentenced to death
in Sverdlovsk for embezzling
gold and other precious met
als and gems. Tass news
agency reported Wednesday.
Sixty-two other members of
the ring received prison sen
tences up to 15 years. Tass
said the ring illegally oblain
ed M56.000 worth of goid,
platinum, rubies and other
valuables from Ural
Magadan ore mines.
and
Philadelphia, Chicago, St.
Louis; Gary, Ind. - all scat
tered Northern communities
- have had segregation con
troversies. There have been
dozens more.
A bitter feud involving
picketing .ani school boy
cotts is now in progress in
Englewood, N.J., a fashion
able suburb across the Hud
son river from New York
City.
For a look at how segrega
tion problems develop in
Northern cities and suburbs,
United Press International as
signed reporters to study the
situation in New Rochelle,
where a school was desegre
gated by court' order; High
land Park, where a segrega
tion problem was solved by
negotiation, and St. Louis,
where schools once desegre
gated are "resegregating" be
cause of shifting housing pat
terns. NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y.t
When the school segrega
tion crisis came to New Ro
chelle, N.Y., cooler heads fail
ed to prevail and, in a bom
bast of unfavorable publicity,
the city became the first in
the North to have a public
school desegregated by court
order.
The hilly community in
fashionable Westchester coun
ty, just north of New York
City, has a population of
77,000. Its chara "r is mainly
residential.
Negroes began migrating to
New Rochelle decades ago
from seamy Harlem and else
where, attracted in part by
work in light industry. The
big influx came after World
War II and the Negroes be
came increasingly ghettoized
in the aging and congested
central area. By 1960, there
were 16,000 Negroes residing
within the city limits.
Racial Balance
New Rochelles' schools were
for the most part successfully
integrated. Its high school was
bi-racial and there was a rea-
two weeks, Jackson County
District Attorney Alan
Holmes has announced.
Screening all applicants
probably will start early in
May, he added.
"Clackamas county has set
the qualifications for its spe
cial investigator along civil
service recommendations.
They require two years of
college and two years of law
enforcement experience or its
equivalent," Holmes said.
"Our qualifications will prob
ably follow those lines pretty
closely. The job duties will
be outlined carefully in the
application forms."
Jackson county circuit court
judges now indicate they
would require such an inves
tigator in the district attor
ney's office to check all di
vorce cases involving chil
dren. The Jackson county public
welfare commission probably
will want immediate follow
up on their aid to dependent
children cases involving non
support by the father. Holmes
noted. Deserted mothers will
also want immediate action,
he added.
"We may have created a
monster," the district attor
ney commented. "We indicat
ed to the budget committee
that we will need another
deputy and girl in the office
in the near future to handle
an increased work load."
""" "Lt""""'
Segregation
sonable racial balance in its
two junior highs, considering
the preponderance of whites
in the city. Eight of the city's
elementary schools were inte
grated without an unreason
able percentage of either race.
No Negroes lived near three
other schools.
The ugly duckling in this
picture of apparent racial
harmony was Lincoln school,
an antique (1888) building in
the central city surrounded
by preponderantly Negro
housing. In K60, the 400-plus
student body of Lincoln was
94 per cent Negro.
The board of education con
tended that the imbalance re
sulted solely from housing
patterns and it had no obliga
tion to undo a situation it
did not create. Negroes com
plained the school was inferi
or, that over the years bound
ary lines of the area it served
were gerrymandered to con
tain the Negroes and at times
the school system's transfer
policies were discriminatory:
whites were allowed to trans
fer out, the Negroes were not.
Legal Action
The emotionally charged
situation came to a decisive
stage in 1960 when the board
of education won authority to
rebuild Lincoln school on the
same site. The board's deci
sion was non-negotiable and
the Negroes turned to legal
action.
On Oct. 21, lawyer Zuber
filed a complaint in Federal
Court, Civil Right Commis
sion Investigator Frank Kcp
lan wrote in the 1962 report:
"The complaint, in essence,
was a frontal assault on the
problem of de facto school
segregation . . ."
On Jan. 21, 1961, Judge
Irving R. Kaufman ruled that
the school board had i . years
past gerrymandered the Lin
coln district and had discrim
inated in its transfer policies.
He ordered the board to pre
sent a desegregation plan.
Finding it unsatisfactory, the
judge issued his own order,
embodying free transfers to
other schools but not com
pelling the closing of Lincoln
school. The board appealed,
finally to the Supreme Court,
but lost.
In September, 1961, the
Kaufman plan was complied
with without incident. About
half - the Lincoln students
transferred.
As to how "desegregation"
of Lincoln school worked
after its first full year, Law
Professor Kaplan said:
Sees No Chaos
"There was no administra
tive chaos. Lincoln did not
become more racially imbal
anced; rather, since most of
the white students chose not
to transfer, the percentage of
Negroes dropped from 94 to
88 . . . nor were transferring
Lincoln students greeted with
hostility , . . every effort was
made by both teachers and
students to bring them into
the life of their new schools."
A number of problems still
remain, not the least of which
is what to do with Lincoln
school. Closing it and redis
tributing its student Inevita
bly would tip the racial bal
ance in nearby schools.
Another, according to Kap
lan, is this:
"One of New Rochelle's
two junior high schools prac
tices a rigid ability grouping
which has left few, if any,
Negroes in the fastest classes
and a preponderance in the
slowest. Negro leaders have
branded this type of group
ing a method of segregat'
Negro children and perpetuat
ing the unfair treatment they
have received in the elemen
tary schools , . , unless some
settlement is rea:hed in the
near future the tranquility of
New Rochelle may be dis
turbed again."
But the word most fre
quently heard in New Ro
chelle now is "hope." There
appears to be a mutual rec
ognition of th; magnitude of
the problems and a willing
ness to discuss, where for
merly there was inflexibility
of position.
Controls Board
Said attorney Zuber last
week:
"I think a moderate group
now controls the board (of
education). The structuie of
the new board in New Ro
chelle now makes it more
'conducive to discussions. I
honestly believe they 'e try
ing to do something." .
Dr. David G. Salten who
became superintendent of
New Rochelle schools last
July is hopeful for much 1'ie
same reasons. (The Civil
Rights commission report -scribes
Salten as "a vigorous,
nationally respected educator
who enjoys the confidence of
all factions.)
Dr. Salten said he was en
couraged because:
"First," the board of edu
cation for the first time in
many years commands the re
spect, if not the full agree
ment, of almost everybody in
the community.
"Second, there has been a
reduction in the polarisation
- there is now a group of
moderates. There Is movement
toward the center; it's slow
but on the way.'
Dr. Salten said the school
board is intensively studying
the lingering segregation
problem and has ordered him
to prepare a long-term, com
prehensive plan to improve
the educational quality.
"I hope one of the by
products will be a reduction
of ethnic imbalance," he said.
Dr. Salten said the rigid
ability grouping may be more
indefensible from an educa
tional point of view than
from a segregation viewpoint
and future ability groupings
may be highly flexible.
Attorney Zuber begins ar
guments in a state court next
week on a petition to require
the state to pay the cost of
transporting students from the
Lincoln school area to other
schools. They now are carried
on a private bus at parents'
expense.
Zuber did not name the
New Rochelle school system
as a party to the action.
HIGHLAND PARK, MICH.:
This relatively young city,
surrounded on four sides by
Detroit, has a problem com
mon to many communities
across the nation: race rela
tions. Yet, unlike other cities,
Highland Park has proved it
can settle big racial issues
peaceably, without recourse
to a court injunction. What's
more, the problem of school
segregation was resolved
when white and Negro par
ents banded together to op
pose policies of the school
board, instead of being on op
posite sides.
In 1907, this was a sleepy,
rural area to the north of De
troit. But Henry Ford built a
factory to make Model T's
here and it grew from 4,000
to 48.000 in the decade around
World War I. It grew faster in
the 20's when Walter P.
Chrysler established an auto
firm in the new city.
Recent immigrants-Italians
and Syrians - settled in the
southeast corner near the fac
tories. But many left after
World War II and Negroes
moved in. Their children went
to the Donald Thomson school
and it became predominantly
Negro-nearly 100 per cent by
1961, Most of the white fam
ilies sent their children to
Barber school a half-mile
away.
Redisirict School
In 1961, the school board
redistricted and said children
of either race could go to ei
ther school. Negroes thought
the new boundaries were to
keep Thomson segregated; the
whites were unhappy because
the new bondaries meant some
children would have to move
from mostly-white Barber to
mostly-Negro Thomson school.
Both sides believed that if
the boundaries were allowed
to stand, the remaining white
families would move or send
their children to private or
parochial schools, thus com
pletly segregating Thomson.
As a result, a neighborhood
group-the Massachusetts Ave
nue Improvement association
-filed suit in Federal court
against the school board. Two
white men and two Negro
men were plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs argued Thom
son was being conducted as a
racially segregated school.
Former Federal Judge John
Feikens settled the dispute
out of court. He said he would
rule against the school board
if it came to that-but suggest
ed instead that both sides sit
down and work the problem
out themselves. Both Thomson
and Barber schools were
closed for a week while a com
promise solution was worked
out.
The Thomson boundaries
were slightly changed and it
was reopened as a K-3 (kin
dergarten to third grade)
school, plus some special
classes for mentally retarded
children. Barber continued as
a kindergarten to sixth grade
school with the Thomson chil
dren above the third grade go
ing there.
Crisis Remains
Feikens, now a Detroit at
torney, said the school settle
ment "did not end the critical
problems of segregated hous-
ing that caused the school
crisis." j
"The big problem that re- j
mains is one of housing," Fei- j
kens said, "How are you going j
to keep a school integrated
and have a proper balance be-;
tween Negro and white chil-j
dren ... if white people con- i
tinue to move out and Negroes j
continue to move in? This :
only makes the housing im
balance worse.
"The problem may eventu
ally solve itself if the Massa
chusetts Avenue Improvement '
association can convince the
white people to stay and then ;
educate the Negroes on im-1
proving the quality of their
homes."
Run Down Homes
The neighborhood generally ;
is old, often run-down frame
homes.
Thomson today still has
only a relatively small per-!
cenAge of white children
among its 275 students. Most
classrooms have no more than
five. The building is old but I
. freshly painted and children
bubble with enthusiasm.
"They get along well to
gether," said Walter Zellman,
the principal. "These smaller
children don't have any built
up prejudices and animosi
ties." They probably were too
young to realize what was
happening when they picketed
with their parents carrying
"No Jim Crow School" signs.
In its report on Highland
Park, the civil rights commis
sion said the settlement shows
that "if reasonable men sit
down together, reconciliation
of differences is not impossi
ble."
St. Louis is facing a prob
lem of "resegrega t i o n" -schools
once bi-racial are be
coming all-Negro or predom
inantly Negro because of
ghettoizing housing patterns.
"On the balance, de facto
segregation in the St. Louis
public schools has patently
worsened during the last
seven years," said the U. S.
Civil Rights Commission in its
December report.
It added:
"Not a little 'resegrega
Hon' has developed; that is,
some schools which were pre
dominantly white or substan
tially inter-racial, just after
desegregation, have since be
come all-Negro schools or vir
tually so."
Mrs. Margaret Bush Wilson,
Negro attorney and fourth
generation St. Louisan, drew
a rough map of the city. It
showed the Mississippi river
on the east. On the other three
sides she sketched in a "black
corridor," where Negro fam-
savs
y m
supplies
,w :ms
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ilies live, surrounded by pre
dominantly white neighbor
hoods. "This corridor of concen
tration of Negroes makes it
imposible for complete school
integration on any neighbor
hood basis," Mrs. Wilson said.
Corridor Binds
She said the school system's
multi-million dollar building
program in "black corridor"
neighborhoods had the effect
of "keeping our people in."
Phillip J. Hickey, St. Louis
superintendent of instruction,
said the schools are being
built where the children are.
"No one denies we have re
segregation." Hickey said.
"But there's no intentional
segregation."
James Armstrong Scott, Ne
gro asistant superintendent of
schools who helped with the
school site selection; agreed
with Hickey that schools must
be built near heavy popula
tion areas. He blames the "in
flux of Negroes lntd the corri
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gation problem.
Be that as it may, Negro
leaders say, something must
be done to reverse the trend.
Mrs. Wilson suggests that
the board of education consid
er some other concept of as
signment to schools other than
the present neighborhood
school plan.
Reioning Plan
Miss Roberts said if the
board desired to improve inte
gration it would consider a
rezoning plan.
"We redistrict and rezone
political wards, why can't this
be done on the school bound
ary levels?" she asks.
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The Civil Rights Commis
sion noted that St. Louis also
had a "serious imbalance in
the distribution of white and
Negro teachers."
Wylie H. Davis, author of
the civil rights commission re
port on St. Louis, wrote:
"N o t one predominantly
white school , . . has a Negro
principal. In fact, there are
no Negro principals in any of
the schools . . . whose enroll
ments approximate a 50-50
Negro-white ratio."
Most of the St. Louis schools
with predominantly Negro
student bodies have predomi
nantly Negro faculties; visa
versa with predominantly
white schools. Wylie says
there is no evidence Negro
students suffer educationally
because their teachers are
Negro but there is no reason
why integration of teachers
need wait for a masive change
in the student pattern.
Despite its problems, the
rights commission cites St.
Louis as a place credited with
"remarkable achievements in
human relations" and there
appeared to be "an outstand
ing exception to the general
rule of lack of rapport be
tween school officials and the
Negro community." ..
"The ray of hope is that
the lines of communication
between Negroes and school
officials are open," said a
prominent St. Louis Negro
leader.
Vocational training in St.
Louis schools has no racial
bars but graduates are having
serious troubles gaining ad
mittance to apprenticeship
programs.
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