Evening star., 1961-09-23
Prince Georges Hit
On Pupil Placement
NAACP Sees
'Gerrymunder'
In Districtine
BY PAUL HOPE
star Stan Writer

Dali 4 44NAS4e6s ONSO' @O'-TE1ll
attorney for the National ASso-
ciation for the Advancement
of Colored People has charged
Prince Georges County school
officials with "gerrymandering
school districts to enforce a
policy of racial segregation"
The accusation was made
yesterday in a hearing before
the Maryland Board of Edu-
cation for a Negro city council
man from College Park who has
been trying for two years to get
his son in an integrated school.
County School Supt. William
S. Schmidt agreed during the
hearing to let the boy, Gregory
Lomax, Z, enter the presently
College Park Ele-
School.
The boys admission Monday
will give Prince Georges 81
integrated schools. The other
100 schools are either all white
or all Negro.
The agreement appeared to
establish a new criteria for
transfer in Prince Georges
schools: a desire to attend an
integrated school.
The boys father. Hervey
Lomax, of 8115 Fifty-fourth
avenue, College Park, appealed
to the State board after Prince
Georges officials denied a re-
quest that his son be admitted
to Seat Pleasant Elementary
an integrated school 9 miles
from the Lomax home.
Hits Facilities
Mr.. Lomax lives across the
railroad tracks from all-Negro
Lakeland Elementary School.
The father complained of in
adequate facilities at that
school but said his primary aim
was for his son to get an edu-
cation at an integrated school.
School officials turned down
the request on the grounds
that to approve it would be
admitting there are two school
systems in Prince Georges, one
segregated and one integrated.
Supt. Schmidt said during
the hearing that had Mr.. Lo-
max applied to the College
Park or Berwyn Elementary
Schools nearer his home, the
boy would have been admitted.
Both schools now are all white.
Mr.. Lomax said that yester-
day was the first time he had
been told his son could attend
the College Park or Berwyn
Schools. The hearing was called
off when Mr.. Lomax said he
will enroll his child in College
Park School Monday.
Mrs. Juanita Jackson Mitch
ell, an NAACP attorney, said it
was ridiculous that Mr.. Lomax
had to spend nearly two years
trying to get his son in an in
tegrated school and then be
told when the case finally
reached the State board that
he applied to the wrong school.
Our contention is that the
superintendent'S denial of the
application was in pursuance
of a policy in Prince Georges
of districting schools to per-
petuate a system of racial dis
elimination" Mrs. Mitchell said.
All Held Integrated
In a memorandum filed with
the board, School Board At
torney Paul Nussbaum con-
tended that all Prince Georges
schools are integrated. He said
that integration does not mean
that every school must have
pupils of all races enrolled, nor
that a school is segregated
merely because its pupils are
all of one race.
A memorandum filed by Mr..
Schmidt said that the policy
of enrolment is one of indi-
vidual choice subject to avail
ability of buildings. transpor-
tation, and approval of the
county school board and the
superintendent. In general,
students go to the, schools
nearest them.
According to Mr.. Schmidt,
some 800 Of the county's ap-
proximately 8,100 Negro stu
dents attend integrated schools.
Total enrolment is about u.s.
900.