Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1951-05-19
X { N D R.X
co M M Z N T S
COLUMN UNFINISHED
ON EDUCATION

ON EDUCATION
Washington, D. CT consider
last weeks column on education
incomplete-yet in balance. SO
let's consider this something of a
finishing coat to a column unfin-
ished.
In my recent visits in the South,
where the problems of education
for Negro boys and girls are most
acute, | have seen adequate testi-
mony of a growing concern to the
neglect that Negro youth have so
long suffered in their schooling.
There are some noteworthy ex-
nmples to counter the deplorable.
Certainly this matter of equal
educational opportunity is a top
priority issue in the South. All
over the region, Negroes are dis
playing an aggressive alertness to
the inequalities that exist in edu-
cation for their youngsters. The
results has been numerous local
suits demanding equal facilities
and spending for the Negro child.
There is contention that the
South fears the abolition of it's
segregated school pattern at the
elementary and secondary levels,
/ if its schooling for racial minori-
/ ties is not equalized. Thus this
segment of opinion attributes the
up-swing of school construction
/ for Negro students to the South's
apprehensions on the matter of
| segregation.
Although the areas most de-
pressing school-house needs are
seen in its schools for Negro boys
and girls, across the board, the
region has a multi-billion-dollar
/ problem. In short, the South is in
desperate need of money with
which to better its schools, for all
its children. Where Negroes have
given teeth to their demands-all
youth have profited.
So | have seen disgraceful relics
to the past, which at one time con-
stituted the only available school
facilities for Negro boys and girls
replaced by buildings that are
compliment to the region. In the
/ place of these dilapidated unkept
structures are appearing attract
i've, modem functional school
houses designed for best instruc-
tional purposes.
/ can point with pride to the
new Wheatley Senior High School,
built for the Negro boys and girls
of Houston at a cost of 212 mill
lion. In the northern Louisiana
town of Shreveport stands the
Booker T. Washington community
school which cost that city So mil
lion. And the honor roll could go
on and on. We could add John
Hope School in Atlanta, George
| Washington Carver in Winston
Salem, Charles S. Johnson in Tul-
sa. And you could list some in
your state which came, not as
result of litigation-but because
communities became aroused over
their neglect of a vast segment of
their youth population and went
to work.
Commentator is due the Negro
teacher who is showing great pro-
fessional zest. This zeal to attain
professional excellency was clear
/ ly seen by me two or three years
ago when | went to Albany, Ca,
to address a summer convocation
at Albany State College at which
fifty or sixty in-service teachers
took degrees. | can see their faces
now-inspiration in their eyes.
| would venture the guess that
all but two or three of the MEM
bers of that graduating class could
have been my first grade instruct
or twenty-five years ago. Each
of them had gone to school SUM-
mer after summer, year after year,
until the college degree had been
achieved. No doubt, many of them
had been classroom teachers since
leaving grade school.
This urge to advance is evident
all along the line among Negro
teachers. They are in summer
schools during the vacation period
and on the campuses cf the ma
tons leading universities, fall,
winter and spring leave is
provided, ever pressing towards
that higher degree One result
the better trained teacher in North
Carolina is the Negro teacher.
A further indication of the pro-
fessional interest of the Negro
teacher is reflected in the teacher
organizations of the group that
operate in all of the Southern
states except Missouri. Of the APP
proximately 5000 Negro teachers
in North Carolina, 7776 are en-
rolled in the North Carolina Teach
ers Association. The Georgia or
gallization has $500 of a possible
1900 members, and so on.
This has been on Negro teach
ers and Negro grade and high
schools in the South-both will
have to be with us for. a long. long