Evening star., 1954-05-20
Heads Get
|ntegrationP|an
.ForWe|fare.
Speedup Is Proposed
In Bi-RocioI Program
At ChiIdren's Center,
By John w. Stepp

By John W. Stepp
A recommendation that the
District begin a sweeping racial
integration of its public welfare
institutions today was placed be-
fore the Commissioners.
1t was originally intended that
the proposal be discussed today,
but the press of budget hearings
in Congress will prevent the city
heads from going into the ques-
ton Immediately.
Welfare Director Gerard M.
Shea. with the support of Com
missioner Renah F. Camalier,
would step up a partial integra-
tion plan already in existence by
transferring so Negro boys.
claSsed as "milder" delinquents
at District Junior Village, to the
new Unit 3 at the Children's Gen.
ter in Laurel, Md. Simultane-
ously. the IS white boys-also
mild" delinquents-now at the
Industrial Home School for
White would move into Unit 3.
Shift Due Next Month.
The shift would take place
some time next month when the
new plant is expected to be COM
pleted and dedicated. All the
youths involved are in the 10 to
Is age bracket.
Unit 3 will have a capacity of
225 inmates, according to Mr..
Shea. About $50 of these will
be boys, and 60 girls, with an
other Is boys and girls classified
ready for "pre-release" quarters.
In the first proposed integration
shift, Is white girls would move
from the Home School for White
to Unit 3 at Childrens Center.
This plant will consist of five
cottageS-three for boys and
two for girls; a school building,
administration building. dining
building and release build
ing where children about to be
turned back into society will be
quartered.
Mr.. Shea said that under his
plan further transfers from
existing institutions to Chill
dren's Center would be accom-.
plished, and on a racially inte-
grated basis, as soon as a huge
Unit 4 there is completed, about
June. 1855.
Unit will have a capacity Of
500 children and will consist of
II separate units. mostly cot
tages for living quarters.
Slated for this unit are about
SIS boys and girls, mostly older
delinquentS, now farmed out by
the Welfare Department to pri-
vate institutions. and 240 older,
more aggravated colored delin-
Quent children now living on
the welfare reservation at Blue
Plains
When all the delinquent chill
dren are transferred from Blue
Plains to Children's Center.
structures at the former loca-
ton are to be renovated to be-
come a new Junior Village for
dependent rather. than delin-
quent children in the younger
age range starting at eight
months.
Antiquated Unit to Close.
Completion of all these mass
transfers will enable the de-
partment to close it's antiquated
quarters on Loughboro road,
where Junior Village is now To-
Gated. and the Home School for
White, on Wisconsin avenue.
Mr.. Shea said employe inte-
grafton at all welfare institu-
tions would continue as it has
for years. He added firmly that
he does not expect any diff
Guilty" in any phase of the
integration program.
One major legal question will
have to be resolved, however,
before any inmate integration
may come about in the two
present Industrial Home Schools.
Existing laws specify that the
races cannot be mixed at either.
one Of which is exclusively for
Negro children, the other for
white.
The Commissioners. with the
advice of the corporation coun.
sci, must first decide whether
legislation must be changed by
Congress or whether a simple
administrative order by the
Commissioners will be sufficient.