At Issue; 35; Experiment in Ignorance

Any tea at issue opening take one standby National Educational Television presents at issue a commentary on events and people in the news. At issue this week, experiment in ignorance and on the spot view of the only county in the United States without a public school. Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia, 99 years ago about 30 miles from here at Appomattox Courthouse, the Civil War came to an end. Yet the vestiges of that conflict are still at issue here. 10 years ago when the United States Supreme Court announced its famous desegregation decision, one of the five cases it covered

originated here in Farmville. For five years after the decision, Prince Edward's school system remained segregated and unchanged. But in 1959, the Supreme Court ordered implementation of its earlier decision and rather than desegregate, the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors closed the public schools. A private school system was organized for white children only. An offer to set up separate schools for Negro children was rejected by the Negro community. For four years, Negro children who were able got their education in other counties and other states. By 1963, a desegregated free school system was established through private funds. It was attended mainly by Negroes plus a handful of whites. But the white private schools remained open and the public schools remained closed. Last week, the United States Supreme Court decided that Prince Edward County had deliberated too long and directed the Federal District Court to take

the necessary steps for the reopening of the public schools. I am Al Prometer. This week, at issue visits Farmville, Virginia. Reverend L. Francis Griffin felt a deep and personal joy in the decision. He now heads the NAACP for the state of Virginia, but still lives in Farmville, where he has been working, preaching, and prime moving for more than 15 years. The Supreme Court case bears the names of his children. I am pleased as our other Negroes in Prince Edward County, Virginia, that the court has finally made its decision. The ruling may not be as strong as we would have liked. However, it does seem to vindicate the position of the Negroed children in Prince Edward County and guarantees them some relief in the fall. Farmville has one editorial page printed regularly on Tuesdays and Fridays here in the Farmville Herald.

J. Barry Wall is the Herald's editor. He is also a member of the Board of the Private All White School. When the Supreme Court announced its decision last week, J. Barry Wall responded with this editorial. Under Virginia Law and the Virginia Constitution, Prince Edward has the right to support public schools or not to support public schools. Under the recent Supreme Court ruling, this right has been taken away. Instead, the court has declared that it has the power to all of the Prince Edward Board of Supervisors to leverage taxes for support of public schools. Under what law of this power is derived is not stated. Private schools serve white students. They have been an operation throughout the county's educational crisis. But the Negroes of Prince Edward County have experienced what has been called an experiment in ignorance, four years without educational

facilities. Last year, a partial resolution was reached with the formation of the free school association. Through the association, Negroes and whites, if they choose, can attend free schools, such as this one, Moton High School on the outskirts of Farmville. The project was inspired and encouraged by the United States Department of Justice. Its one-year operating budget of $1 million was provided by private contributions. The free school association will end its work soon. The Supreme Court decision, when implemented, will make its continuation unnecessary. The principle of Moton High School is James Cooley. His challenge was a unique one. To bring back to formal and disciplined education, 560 students who have not seen schoolrooms in the past four years. Mr. Cooley, how successful have you been in re-acquainting students with classroom work?

Well, we feel that we have been very successful. We are pleased with the progress that has been made here. The children have responded well to our program. They are very enthusiastic and they seem to be highly motivated. We think we are making progress. Is it ever possible to completely make up for the time lost? Well, I don't believe, actually, that we could ever compensate for the loss of time entirely of these students. But we do have an enriched program, which we think is far beyond what you would find in most rural consolidated schools. And this will go a long way, of course, to help make up for some of this loss that these children have experienced. In what age groups are the difficulties most evident? Well, in the lower age groups, we have our school divided into two areas. The lower school and the upper school and the 13, 14, 15-year-old students seem to experience more difficulty in reading. This has been a terrific

problem with us, and we have been working on it since the beginning, but I think we have made remarkable progress under circumstance. A free school class in general science. Most of these students had no access to schools prior to the formation of the Prince Edward Free School Association. The general science teacher is Mr. C. J. Cuffey. This morning class, we're going to continue our discussion of matter. And as you know, matter is anything that has weight and occupies space. First of all, we would like to know what are the units of matter and what is the molecular theory? Carrie, would you go to the board and put up the units of matter and the molecular theory for us? Mr. Cuffey, what age groups do you have represented in this class? I have 13-year-olds represented in this class. How would they compare would you say

in achievement with a normal school situation? Well, the 13-14-year-old age group is compared to the seventh grade in the greatest system. What effects have you noticed of the lack of schooling of the last few years on your students? Well, there have been some lack of skills, such as reading and writing, but I think that with a year of free schools, I think that they have ironed out some of the difficulties, and there still has to be a great deal of work to be done to bring them really up to par. Have you employed special methods for this purpose? Well, we believe in a utilization of many methods, and we use the lecture method in large group instruction. We use the demonstration method. We use socialized recitation, and we experiment in class particularly, because this is a science class, and we try to do as much as we can, and also we have educational television, which has been a boom to our particular classroom. Well, this particular

age group had experienced school before, and I was wondering if you have noticed any special resistance in returning to the regimented routine of a school? Well, I don't think at any of the students see the free schools as regimentation. I think they see it as something wonderful, and I think at all of them like it, and there is a great amount of enthusiasm on their part, and they are actually working and doing their best. Thank you. While Carrie is putting the molecular theory on the board and the units of matter, we'll have Lydia to begin reading our reading assignment. Chemistry is the study of the composing of matter. It is the science that treat of how things are made, how they are put together, and the changes that take places in these things under different conditions. Chemistry. In the auditorium, some students talk with Leonard Swig.

Martha Bailey is one of the students who did not go to school at all for four years. Martha, what were you doing for those four years? During the four years, I attended the training centers, and the crash programs set it up in the county. Crash programs were carried on by students from Queen College, New York. Well, what were the aims of that crash program? Mostly it was to keep us from forgetting what we learned. We weren't at the rate advanced in grade level. It was just to keep us together. Martha, you're 17 now, and ordinarily, you'd be just about graduating from high school, but what grade are you in? I'm not in the definite classification. I'm in eighth grade home room, but I'm taking both ninth and tenth grade subjects. Martha, I understand your family plans to leave this state, possibly go to Maryland. Well, if that happens, you'll be going to an integrated school. Do you think that will help you? Yes, I think it will help me both educationally and socially, because here in the state of Virginia, and in our county, it's usually the knee grows to themselves and the whites to themselves.

But if I get away and I'll be able to mix a mingle with the crowd, I think it will help me improve the life. Well, thank you very much, Martha. Thank you. There are two white students in this high school, and six attend the elementary free schools. One of the seniors here is Dick Moss. Dick plans to attend Colby College in Maine this fall. He is the son of the dean of Longwood College, a girl's teachers college in Farmville. Dick, why did you come to the free school? Well, for the past four years, my father's been fighting for the reopening of the public schools and the county. When he found out about the free school being open as far, he told me about it in a lot of part of the summer, and asked me if I I'd want to go there, and he left a decision up to me. I could have gone back to prep school, as I have been in fact going to the past four years, and he asked me if I'd go, and I told him that I would, because I thought it's something I could do for him and show my appreciation for

what he's been doing. Have you had any trouble with old friends or other people in Farmville, because you've come to the free school? Well, I haven't had any trouble with my old friends, because most of my friends now in college, and they don't, they're doesn't bother them. They're not integrationists to say, but they don't care. It doesn't matter to them one way of the other. In the beginning of the year, I did have a little trouble from what we call red next. Boys lived in the country. They kind of hackled me at first when I was by myself, every now and then back in October, maybe, but now I've had any trouble to have anything lately. Dick, why don't more white students come to the free schools? Well, I think it's mainly because the way the parents have just say brainwashed them and thinking that it's completely wrong thing to do, that they shouldn't be in school with college children. I don't think it's so much that young, the teenagers themselves, it is a parents who instill us in the mountains. Thank you, Dick. Residents of Prince Edward County opposed to integrated schools.

Established the Prince Edward Academy in 1959 as an all-white tuition-charging private school. 70 students will graduate here next week. 1,250 are enrolled throughout the county. The Academy opened when the County Board of Supervisors refused to authorize funds for the public school system, which the Supreme Court had ordered to integrate. A non-profit corporation, the Prince Edward School Foundation, operated the Academy at first through private donations, and then by tuition grants. But in 1961, the Federal District Court ruled that the state and county could not support private schools as long as the public schools remained closed. Since then, parents have been paying tuition charges of $250 to $275 a year. Some students who cannot afford to pay receive scholarships from the foundation. Officials of the school feel that they have been treated badly by the nation's news media. Students have been advised not to answer questions for our cameras.

The President of the Prince Edward School Foundation, Mr. Roy Pearson, expressed his position. Mr. Pearson, why did the members of the Foundation find it necessary to establish the Prince Edward Academy? The case has been in court for all these years, and when we received the orders in the county to integrate the schools in September 1959, they decided to continue the case in court. The local board of supervisors did not provide any money at all for the operation of public schools, and the children of both races were faced without any public schools. So the white people had decided years ago that if such a situation occurred, they would establish a private school system to educate their children during the interval. The cases were being fought out in court. At that time, educational grants were available from the state of Virginia and the county of Prince Edward. To all students, regardless of race,

origin, our creed, and money was available, and after our school system was established, a group of white citizens in the county also organized a similar entity for the express purpose of setting up a private school system for the Negroes during this period that the cases would be fought out in court. Could you give us some insight as to what's operation? Yes, I'd be very glad to. We've operated primarily at the beginning in Sunday School premises of churches and fraternal organization buildings and in a few private buildings. And the second year, we put on a building campaign to raise funds to build this nice academy that you now see. And this is our fifth year of operation and we have a total of 59 teachers scattered throughout the county. We are operating a very first-class school,

which has been credited each of the five years of operation. We graduate somewhere between 56 and 58 percent of our graduates go off to schools and universities of higher learnings, and they have been successfully enrolled in eight different states. And we feel that we have achieved our original objective to provide an excellent education in a private school system for all the white children in Prince Edward County, whose parents wanted to send their children to our schools, regardless of their ability to pay. Now, each of the last three years, you know, the federal court issued an injunction, which prevented all citizens from residing in Prince Edward County. I'm obtaining educational grants from both the county and the state, so long as the public schools remained open. Now, of course, the decision has just been passed on by the U.S. Supreme Court,

and we know that people now have some guidelines what they might be able to do next. But it's a feeling of the people in Prince Edward County that when the public school systems were established, say something like 40 or 50 years ago, there were two objectives laid down, and the first and most important was to provide a high level of education in the classrooms. And secondly, which is very secondary, and much lower on the scale was to provide adequate physical facilities. And it's a feeling here that the two races cannot be educated in the same classrooms and continue to maintain that high level of education. It hasn't been done in New York City. It hasn't been done in Washington. And three years ago, the federal government was very insistent that the level of education should be further improved to keep pace with the students

in Russia. And now, on the other hand, they're insisting on wide scale integration, which the experience has shown in Washington in particular, in New York and other places, that the level of education goes down when you try to mix the two races. And another thing has been proven in Washington is, when you force integration, the white people move out of the area. And the schools become re-segregated. I don't know how they're going to solve that problem. What has been the foundation's reaction to the Supreme Court decision of last week? I think most people feel that the white people also should have rights under the 14th Amendment. It should not be a one-way street. The negatives are maintaining that the federal court should force white children to go to school with the niggas. And I'm in favor of, and the rest of us down here in favor of giving everyone freedom a choice. If they want to send their kid children to an

integrated school, they can do so. But if they want to have them educated with the members their own race, either white or black, the parent should have that option. Mr. T.J. McElaine is a superintendent of public schools without a school system. He's required by law to prepare a proposed operational budget each year. So he does and submits it to the Board of Supervisors. Knowing in advance, he'll get no money from Prince Edward County. Mr. McElaine came to Columbia first in 1918 as a school teacher. Mr. McElaine, can you get the public schools operational by September? I hope so if we can get the decisions made by the Board of Supervisors and the funds were pushed to operate. How soon does that decision have to be made for you to get going? Well, we would like to know, before the end of June, if possible, what will your major problems be in getting schools open? Of course, the major problem is the employment of teachers

and finding experienced teachers as possible. Are you talking to teachers right now? Well, I have applications from teachers, but I'm unable to make any offers to any teachers, because you're uncertain of the okay. Because I'm uncertain of the olden, uncertain of available funds. Mr. McElaine, I understand some schools will never reopen anyway. Can you tell me about those? Well, they're probably 11 small schools, one in two and three run train buildings, which probably would never be opened again. And where are those buildings, and who went to school there? Those buildings were scattered all over the county, and they were largely used by Negro pupils. Longwood College is doubly segregated, all white, and all women. Most of the girls here are content to pursue their education without becoming involved in the problems of Prince Edward County. But as Dean Moss is an exception, so are some of the students.

Dana Brewer and Donna Humphlet are seniors. Donna, what activities are you involved in that directly concern the free school system of Prince Edward County? Well, at the beginning of the year, the campus newspaper staff met with members of the free school newspaper staff, and we helped them with organization, had a right news stories, makeup, that sort of thing, and helped them with editorial policy, gave them hands. That's Dana, what about you? We attempted to establish a biracial movement here by having a student conference of students both Negro and White. It was the first to my knowledge that has ever been held in this county. Our object was human understanding on a personal level, and we feel that we achieve this. Donna, you are editor of the school newspaper, the Rotunda. You've written editorial's favoring the integration of the schools here. Can you tell me about those? Well, I have written several editorials mostly. It was saying deploring the school situation here,

and calling for a public school system. Also, we had an editorial that advocated the integration of the local theater, the only theater in town, but that was censored. Who censored that? A member of the administration, the acting president. Foreignville is a town with a college, but not a college town. About 1,400 Virginia women attend Longwood State Teachers College. Dr. C. Gordon Moss, academic dean at Longwood, was born in nearby Lynchburg and first came here to teach in 1926. When integration became an issue, he openly took an unpopular stand. Dr. Moss, we met your son Dick this morning out of the free school. I'd like to know if you ever considered sending him to Prince Edward Academy. Really not for a single moment, despite the fact that he would have had the same faculty as he

would have had the previous year, I should say, and I have no qualms about any of them whatsoever. The school buildings would have been different, yes, but buildings mean a little in education. The reason I gave it no consideration at all was simply that it was founded upon the principle that I could not accept and that I dare not subject my son to the principle that there should be differences between the opportunities given people because of the color of his skin. As a historian, a student of history and a teacher of history, why do you think there's such vigorous opposition to integration here in Prince Edward County? Well, first of all, I'm asking that negatively. I do not believe, I can see no reason for believing

that the citizens of Prince Edward County are any more southern than any other southerners. I can't believe it's based upon the merely general in-born places we have in regard to racism. I suspect that a far more compelling reason is that desire to retain the attitude of condescending patronage to the negatives and attitude which has given them great salving of conscience in the years and I suspect a feeling of generosity. Beyond that, there must be other reasons and I, as a historian, think I see an economic cause of the greater bitterness here. An economic cause in all likelihood, few people, if any in the county, are actually aware of. It lies along this line.

In Prince Edward County, there are no industries that require skilled labor of any real degree. All of the labor force needed in Prince Edward County is unskilled labor and obviously less educated labor. And I suspect, though I do not believe any person in any individual is really conscious of it, that the ultimate reason here is to do away with public schools to avoid the expense of them, to maintain a private school for those white children who can afford it and to allow the Negroes' yes but possibly also even to pour a white people to go without education and thereby

maintain a plentiful, cheap, laborable supply. Thank you very much Dr. Morris. Spokesmen for segregation in Prince Edward County schools view the Supreme Court decision as a potential disaster for their cause and will use every legal means to maintain all white schools, including the Academy. Negro leaders believe they have won a battle but the extent of the victory is not quite clear. Implications for the future are summed up by Anthony Lewis who reports on the Supreme Court for the New York Times. The Supreme Court's decision on the Prince Edward County school case should make clear to the officials of that county and of the state of Virginia that they cannot so easily escape the responsibility for providing public education for their children. The case also has importance elsewhere in the South because other communities there have looked

on Prince Edward as a symbol of resistance to the desegregation decision. In Mississippi, for example, the problem of desegregation may arise next fall for the first time in full force when court orders for desegregation are expected to take effect and they will have to contend with a new principle that one county cannot give up public education in a state while others continue it. But what has happened in Prince Edward also can be important in the urban centers of the North for we have seen in the Free School Association what can be done for children who come to school for the first time in an uneducated state as many children from culturally deprived communities from the slums in the North also did. This is NET, National

Educational Television.