Page Eiffht
THE SUMMER ECHO
Monday, July 11, 1966
Task Force Reports
Teacher Displacement
Is A Serious Problem
“Whenever 20 or 25 Negro
pupils are transferred from a
segregated school, the Negro
teacher left without a class is
in many cases dismissed rather
than being transferred to an
other school with a vacancy,”
Dr. F. G. Shipman, chairman
of the Department of Educa
tion at North Carolina College,
stated in a recent report.
The report is excerpted from
a study entitled “Task Force
Survey of Teacher Displace
ment in Seventeen Southern
States,” conducted under the
auspices of the National Edu
cation Association, financed
jointly by the association and
the U. S. Office of Education,
and appearing in a 61-page
booklet published by the NEA’s
Committee on Professional
Rights and Responsibilities. Dr.
Shipman was a member of a
North Carolina team partici
pating in the study.
“It has been and still is
widely assumed by many white
citizens, school board members,
and school administrators that
Negroes, both students and
teachers,” the report states,
“are intellectually inferior.
From this specious premise, it
follows that ‘quality education’
can be attained or maintained
only if pupils and teachers are
separated along racial lines:
quality education and school
desegregation are viewed as
antithetical.
“What, then, can a commu
nity do to change the situation
when its school district is
forced to deaegreKate, either
under a federal court order, or
by a federal agency enforcing
compliance with a federal stat
ue, or when federal funds
make it advantageous to keep
the Negro children at home?”
Continuing, the report de
clares: “At first they have in
tegrated only to the extent that
the federal court or agency has
stipulated as an acceptable
minimum. In most cases this
means a freedom-of-choice plan,
which places the burden of
choice upon the Negro parents
and children instead of the
school board and administra
tion. Where there is no, or only
partial, faculty desegregation,
the effect of the freedom-of-
choice plan is to maintain stu
dent segregation or to promote
re-segregation.”
States covered in the study
were Alabama, Arkansas, Del
aware, Florida, Georgia, Ken
tucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Mississippi, Missouri, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Virginia, and West Virginia.
The North Carolina report
states that as of June 15, 1965,
“from 80 to 100 professional
employees were affected by de
segregation of pupils. The Task
Force was able to interview 36
teachers who had been dis
placed. Teachers,” according to
the survey, “seemed to be re
luctant to let the fact of dis
placement be known. Apparent
ly the threat of dismissal may
have affected the Negro com
munity’s attitude toward pupil
transfers.”
It was pointed out that some
teachers not rehired have only
been able to find employment
from 200 to 400 miles from
home, with the resulting extra
travel and separation from their
families creating a hardship.
Cases were found in which Ne
gro principals had been demot
ed and Negro supervisors as
signed to classrooms at lower
salaries and their duties as
sumed by white supervisors.
The lack of explanation for
dismissal, in some cases, evi
dence suggests, has given some
teachers reason to question the
quality of their work or to as
sume that their civil rights ac
tivities caused them to fall into
disfavor with administrators.
These activities, in a few cases,
I
jb-
the Task Force disclosed, have
resulted in the teachers being
blacklisted and hindered from
finding positions elsewhere.
“The repeal of the continu
ing contract law by the North
Carolina state legislature,” ac
cording to the booklet, “creat
ed anxiety anung the teachers.”
Another tension-creating fac
tor is the use of the National
Teacher Examination by the
State Department of Education
in determining certification for
both new and in-service teach
ers.
Survey ofilcials state it was
realized at the outset that it
would be practically impossible
to locate every displaced teach
er but conclude: “Adding those
Tho Speorh-Henring Clinic
teachers interviewed to those
cases which have been substan
tiated by the U. S. Office of Ed
ucation or by the NEA Commis
sion on Professional Rights
and Responsibilities, the Task
Force arrived at 668 as the
probable minimum number of
teachers displaced and/or
downgraded for reasons either
directly or indirectly related to
desegregation and integration.
"One of the ironies of school
desegregation,” the Task Force
found, “has been that those
school systems giving earliest
and most complete compliance
to the Supreme Court’s decision
are likely to be the systems
where marked displacement of
Negro teachers takes place.”
u-
■a
SI’KI‘X'H TIIKKAI’ISTS AT WOKK—This Nummer, for (he firHt time,
North ('nrolina Collogc i« olTeriiiK a speech und hearing clinic under
the supervision of Mrs. M. H. Lucas and Dr. L. M. Vanella. The clinic
offers speech and hearing services to students referred by local prin
cipals and school therapists.
The left photo shows Mrs. Gayiielle Raiford administering to Aaron
Kvans the speech peripheral mechanism test—an examination of the
oral cavity. Observing are, left to right, Miss Mozelle House, Mrs. Nannie
Harfield, Mrs. ('larice Wilkinson, and Mrs. Lottie Hillups.
In the center photo. Miss Martha Horne uses the audiometer to
test (he hearing of the subject. The audionvetric tost is one in a series of
tests designed (o better enable (he therapist to work effectively with a
client’s problem. Observing is Kemus King.
Aaron enjoys having his speech recorded, in the next photo, by Mrs.
(iwendolyn llopgood. Also shown are Mrs. Clarice Wilkinson, left, and
Mrs. Caynelle Raiford, discussing the design of the speech clinic drawn
by Mrs. M. II. laicas, instructor of the cass. The design shows eight
roomettes with the requirod et|uipment and supplies.
For First Time
NCC Has Summer Speech - Hearing Clinic
North Carolina College is of
fering this year for the first
time a speech and hearing
clinic through the Speech and
Hearing Center directed by
Mrs. M. B. Lucas.
Working with Mrs. Lucas is
Dr. Lawrence M. Vanella, di
rector of the Speech and Hear
ing Clinic at the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro.
Children with speech problems
will receive therapy Monday
through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m.
There is no charge for the serv
ice.
Teachers enrolled in the six-
week clinic are Mrs. Lillian
Hoover, Forest City, Doris
Bachwell, Roxboro; Mozell
House, Durham; Grace Holy,
Charlotte; Katie Powell, Eliz
abethtown ; Lottie Billiups and
Remus King, Atlanta, Ga.;
Christine Artis, Durham; Mary
Crowe, Lillington; and Gaynell
Raiford, Goldsboro.
Along with the speech clinic,
two other classes are being of
fered through the Speech Cen
ter—Education 568, Principles
of Speech Correction, and Edu
cation 566, Problems in the
Teaching of Speech Correction.
Dr. Vanella is in charge of both
courses, which offer three
hours’ credit each.
Annual Principals-
Supervisors Meet
Here On July 21-22
North Carolina College’s six
teenth annual Principals-Super-
visors Conference will convene
Thursday and Friday, July 21-
22, Dr. F. G. Shipman, chairman
of the conference, announced
this week.
The event, to which principals
and supervisors of all accredited
schools in the state of both races
have been invited, is expected to
attract some 200 persons.
This year’s general theme is,
“Federal Programs, Desegrega
tion, and Excellence in Educa
tion.” Sub-themes will be ex
plored in smaller, intensive
group discussions.
The principal consultant will
be an official of the Department
of Health, Education, and Wel
fare, Shipman stated, with other
consultants being drawn from
the NCC faculty and the state’s
educational associations.
Thursday’s activities will in
clude registration in the early
afternoon, followed by a general
session at which the principal
consultant will keynote the
conference.
Friday morning and afternoon
will be devoted to special inter
est sessions.
llai •vard Program
lias Two from NCC
Samuel V. Thomas of Brook
lyn, New York, and Rojulene
Thompson of Kannapolis, juniors
at North Carolina College, have
been chosen participants in a
special summer program at the
Harvard University Law School,
according to an announcement
by Dr. Joseph Pittman, dean of
the NCC Undergraduate School.
To be held from July 5 to
Aug. 26, the program will offer
enrollees four courses at the law
school, and, in addition, the
students may take courses of
their own choosing at the uni
versity’s summer school.
The program is supported by
a grant from the Rockefeller
Foundation and is designed to
encourage law careers among
Negro students.