Evening star., 1954-05-16

, no more than q rev CnouSanQ
dollars annually ~
,As of 1850, the Washington
schools had the highest pro-
portion of Negro pupils-51 per
cent--of any American city of
over 100000 population, the
study notes. (The Negro pro-
portion is now 81 per cent?
Called Last Citadel"
Washington's school system is
labeled "the last citadel of abso-
lutte segregation" in the. Capital.
The author predicts continued
pressure for integrating it re-
gardless of any Supreme Court
action, because of "the peculiar
nature Of the city's govern
mental structure and of its SYM
bolic Importance as the Nations
Capital"
The author states that the Dis
trict Board of Education "has
officially indicated that it favors
a gradual approach" in carrying
out integration under a court
order. The board actually has
never voted on this question, and
Supt. Hobart M. Corning has
stated publicly that he favors
carrying out an integration
order quickly.
Mr.. AShmore also states that
"the Board of Education and the
Corporation Counsel have held
that while the laws of Congress
have never specifically made seq
regation mandatory, they have
assumed complete separation of
the races in the Washington
schools" The Districts official
position is that the law in fact
does make. segregation manda-
tory.
Little Official Planning.
Main attention in the book is
divided between the South and
the rest of the country.
On the South. Mr.. AShmore
reports these findings:
There has been little public
discussion of integration of the
public schools and no official
planning to accomplish it. Public
policy still opposes it.
Yet many schoolmen and
many politicians concede that
integration is coming-not over
night and not necessarily as a
direct result of the present school
litigation, but as a result of the
larger trends of which it Is a
symptom"
In every Southern State "there
is now the mathematical pos
sibility that Negroes, voting as
a bloc, could swing the balance
OF power" Some white poll
ticians "are now openly seek
ing Negro support"
Some Southern cities have
seen Negroes elected to their
school boards with substantial
white support or appointed by
municipal officials-among them
Raleigh, Roanoke, Nashville,
Newport News, Lynchburg, Rich
mond, Augusta, Atlanta, San
Antonio, Knoxville and Winston
Salem.
Negro School Improved.
Southern States have made
important strides in improving
Negro public education. The 13
States of the South spent nearly
four times as much on school
operation in 1951-52 as in 1882
40, and eight times as much on
school construction, and a far
larger share of this went for
Negroes than formerly.
The South, after generations
of being behind the rest of the
Nation on educational facilities,
is now reaching the point
where there are enough class
rooms and enough teachers to
meet the minimum demand Of
it's children for education.
On the area outside the South,
Mr.. Ashmore makes these points:
Only four non-Southern
States now leave it to local
school authorities to decide
whether or not pupils shall be
segregated. In Arizona it is op-
tional. Kansas permits segrega-
tion in.elementary schools in it's
large cities and in Kansas City
high schools. Wyoming permits
segregation where there are IS or
more Negro pupils, but there is
no indication any Wyoming
communities are exercising this
option. The other State permit
ting segregation is New Mexico.
16 States Ban Segregation.
Sixteen States specifically pro-
hibit segregation. New Jersey
adopted a ban in 1947 and
adopted special legislation to i'm
plement it. Indiana adopted q
ban in 1949. Illinois the same
year adopted a penalty provision
for an old non-segregation law.