CASWELL COUNTY
Cesspool Of Crime In Efducation
Separate But Equal Schools In Caswell County j
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■ The above photos are scenes of some of the de
plorable conditions existing In schools provided
f«r Negroes in Caswell County, North Carolina.
The top photo diows a yonngster drinking water
from a dlppei*. There being no water on the
school grounds, it Is brongbt In buekefei by the
students a quarter of a mile away. The wash past
on the wall are the only facilities provided for
Cleaning hands and faces. The middle photo is
that of a white school, located In the same
vicinity. It is a modem brick stmetiire, steam
heated, inside toUetSi well lighted rooms and
l^ractlci^ly every convenience a modem school
should have. Note the buses in the pictnre which
haul the white children to and from school whUe
the Negro children must get there as best tiiey
can. The bottmn photo is that of one of the tt
one-room Negro schools in which one teacher is
the instructor for seven grades—first to seventli.
Negro preachers In the County fought succe«-
fuily efforts on the part of a local Negro eltiien
to organise Negroes for the purpose of securing
better schools. Such preachen are '‘highly
respected” by the whites.—More photos Page 8.
N. C. Mutual To Enter
State Of New Jersey At
Beginning Of New Year
The North CaroHna Mutual
Life Insurance company added
one more state to the list in
which it now operates. It was
announced at the home office
here this week that the company
has set up a branch office in
New Jersey.
G. W. Cox, vice-president and
agency director, and one of the
Icey figures who did much of the
planning preliminary to the ex
pansion into New Jersey, re
vealed here this week that the
company began operations in
that State on Dec. 1.
The city of Newark was se
lected as the base for the com
pany operations. Addition of
New Jersey, eighth largest state
in the country, to the list of
states In which the company now
maintains offices, brings the
total to ten, including the Dis
trict of Columbia.
Cox hailed the move as a
step toward realizing distinct
benefits to the residents of New
Jersey, especially the Negro
citizens, and to the company as
well.
“Establishment of a branch
office of the-North Carolina Mu
tual Life Insurance company in
New Jersey will open up invest
ment opportunities where before
there had existed tremendous
color discrimination,” Cox as-
' li. G. Spellman (left) former manager of North Carolina Mu
tual Life Insurance Company District Office in Richmond, Vlrgliila,
Who is being transferred by the company as manager of the new
office being opened in Newark, New Jersey. At right Is L. Z.
Craft, former assistant manager of the Durham District office who
will hold the same position in the Newark office.
serted. He also pointed out that
the office will enable more Ne
groes to own homes and proper
ty through the company’s FHA-
backed loans, will provide in
creased employment opportuni
ties and in general “create a bet
ter economic environment, tat
Negroes in all avenues of hu
man endeavor.”
To back up this claim, the
vice president and agency di
rector disclosed that $500,000
has been earmarked for loans
to New Jersey citizens in the
(Please tura to Page light)
FOB TBIBTf YEARS THE OVTSTANDING ITEEKLY OF THE CAROUNAS
Sntered at Second CUutg Matter at the Post Office at Durham, Aorth Carolina, under Act of March 3,1879.
VOLUME 30—NUMBEB ^ ^ “
DURHAM, N. C., SATURDAY, DEC. 13, 1952
PRICE TEN CENTS
Democracy On Trial
At Nation’s Capital
Washington, D. C.—^The show
down battle on segregation was ||
staged this week and the out
come placed squarely up to the
highest court in the land.
The Supreme Court, called on
to decide whether segregation is
legal or not, began hearing arg
uments on both sides from attor
neys in five cases dealing with
segregation In public schools.
Attorneys spearheaded by the
NAACP legal staff are contend-
'ing that segregation per se vio
lates the constitution, and are
asking the court to give such
a ruling.
Although a decision is not
expected until sometime next
year in the five cases, whatever
decision the Court makes will
have a tremendous effect on
this country, particularly in the
South, which since the 1896 rul
ing declared that separation of
the races is constitutional if
equal facilities are set up, has
banked lieavily on the separate
but equal piiilosophy.
The five cases now before the
court sre conoemed wMft seg
regation in public schools in
Kansas, Virginia, the District of
Cglumbia, Delaware and South
Caroline. Although these cases
deal specifically with segrega
tion in education, the Court’s de
cision is expected to set an im
portant precedent for similar
rulings in segregation in trans
portation, public recreation and
(Please turn t» Page Sight)
-s-t'-.;:'
8IABT1® SOMETHING — Brooklyn Dodder second boaemjut JaeMe Robinson (2nd
» Jwnpert ta • teapot last week over the -Tonth Fomm- broadcaat when he aoei
5*? against Nerro players. Jaclde wJB be the hevnote m
tlM Tttskesee Aluiniil Association of New York. Shown with the star player, left to rtoht.
& Enhanks, Assertion treasurer. Miss Martha Sumter, chairman, Tnskcce* Hrhrlarshta
BbSi Otrtte U Dew, WewavMas PhotoJ
•be dlfUMr
•re: Aljeri
U. s. Delegation To United Nations
Urged To Support African Freedom
The United States delegation
to the United Nations was to
day urged to take "a course of
action which will identify our
country with the hopes and feel
ings of millions of Africans and
which will bring our Western
friends and allies to a realization
that their own best interests lie
equally in such identification.”
This proposal was submitted
to Ambassador Warren Austin,
Vice Chairman of the American
delegation, by Walter White,
executive secretary of the Na
tional Association for the Ad
vancement of (Colored people, on
behalf of the NAACP and repre
sentatives of 30 other church,
labor mivic and fraternal or
ganizations.
Faced with “a whole series of
critical policy decisions relating
to events in various parts of
Africa,” the United States “can
not surrender the great human
issues Involved to considerations
of expendiency,” the joint
memorandum asserts. “We dare
not act in a way that will shut
off the United Nations as the
last hope of millions of increas
ingly desperate Africans and
thus drive them down the dark
paths of violence and anarchy,
manner consistent with our
We have to think and act in a
great purpose, which is to help
bring into being a world of free
men whose freedom will give
them the will and the strength
to turn back and dissipate the
forces of despair and Soviet to
talitarianism.”
Citing the demands for in
dependence in Tunisia and Mo
rocco, the passive resistance
movement in the Union of South
Africa, and the outbreak of ter
rorism in Kenya, the memoran
dum nftaintai^ that “it would
be vain to hope that these Af
rican issues can lie minimized,
vorced from the mainstream of
NEW YORK American world policy and ac-
tumed aside, or somehow di-
tion.”
These developments, the
memorandui^ continues, are
“bound, unless the world reacts
swiftly with wisdom and in
telligence, to move from vio
lence to greater violence, from
uncertainties to Irrevocable acts
and decisions.”
The reversal of United States
policy to include these issues on
the agenda of the General As
sembly is praised. However, the
position the United States will
take in debate on these ques
tions has not been made clear,
the memorandum charges. “The
policy and action of the United
States in these matters will
have the most profound effect,
not only on our present and fu
ture relations with the awake
ning peoples of Africa, but with
those of AsliB and the Moslem
world as well,” It points out.
The memorandum warns a-
gainst attempts to placate our
allies in Western Europe who
are the principal cplonlal pow
ers seeking to retain domination
over Europe. Such action, It as
serts, “could leave us. in a small
and fearful circle of Isolation,
hands joined with our tremb
ling friends, while outside great
masses of people surge blindly
in search of some betterment of
their lot, and stagger into the
arm! of the worst tyranny that
awaits them if we do not offer
them the hand of aid and friend
ship.”
Signers of the memorandum
include Walter White, National
Association for the Advancemete
of Colored People; Roger Bald
win, International League for
the Rights of Man; Harold
Isaacs; John Collier; Rev. MaU'
rice Dawkins and Rev. Donald
^Harrington, the Community
I Church; (j^rge Houser, Con'
[gress of Racial Equality; Cla-
SGT. JAMES W. SHEPHERD, JR., (left) Charlotte, is con
gratulated by Maj. Gen. Wayne C. Smith, commanding general of
the 7 th Infantry Division, after receiving the Bronie Star Medsl
with “V” device for valor during ceremonies in Korea. Shepherd,
whose parents live at 1006 E. Third Street, Charlotte, is a platoon
sergeant in Company C., 32nd Regiment.—(U. S. ABMT PHOTO).
rence Senior; A. J, Muste, Fel
lowship ot Reconciliation; John
Neven Sayre; Murray Frank,
World Assembly of Youth; Har
ry Emerson Fosdick; A. Philip
Randolph, Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters; Arthur L.
Swift, Jr., Alfred Baker Lewis;
George Schuyler; Rev. Phillips
P. Elliott, First Baptist Church,
Brooldyn; Lester B. Granger,
National Urban League; Michael
J. Quill, Transport Workers
Union of America, CIO; Grant
Reynolds, Omega Psi Piu Pra-
temlty.'
Also Alfred McClung Lee,
Unitarian Fellowship for social
Justice; Laura T. Lovelace, AI*
pha Kappa Alpha Sorority; SI-
mer Henderson,Ainerican Couq-
(Please turn to Page Eight)
23 One Room
Schools; Seven
Classes In Each
BT L. K. AUSTIN
I have just left Caswell Coun
ty of which YanceyvlUe is the
county seat or capitol. It will be
recalled that it was in Caswell
County, near Yanceyville, that a
Negro was sentenced to two
years on the roads for lookink
at a white woman 75 fieet away
and was about to accept sen
tence until the CAROLINA
TIMES intervened, disclosing
this saga of southern persecution
of illiterate and helpless Ne
groes.
At the invitation of a form»
citizen of Caswell County, whose
name for obvious reasons I will
not disclose, I visited the rura|
areas on an inspection tour of
the schools provided for Negro
citizens. Although the popula
tion is estimated to be about
evenly divided, the schools pro
vided for Negroes are at>out tiie
worst to be found In any county
in North Carolina, if not the en
tire South.
As one rides along the coun-
ry roads and beholds the hun
gry looking wiiites, the fear
strickened Negroes and the
shacks called school houses, pro-
./idcd for Negroes, it is not hard
to recall the story of “The Town
God Forgot.” Here if. nothing
else, one meets the full impact
of that pernicious system known
as “separate but equal” facilities
in education.
23 One-Room School Houses
The pictures carried in this is*
sue of the CAROLINA TIMES
do not teU the full story of the
23 one room school houses in
which seven classes, ranging
from the first grade to the seven
th, are taught by one lone teach
er. The facilities of these schools
include outside toilets, no bus
transportaion, and no water on
the grounds of the most of them.
In one of the schools, known as
Trinity teanch, I found students
forced to bring water In tin
buckets for a distance of a quar
ter of a mile. The library in
most of them Includes a comer
‘n which the number of books
run from about one-half dozen
to probably 50. In most instances
there is a rough crude table on
which students may read or
write if they are able to find
anything &om th« Ufluted books
for that purpose.
StUl Using Oil I.amp^
The 23 one room school houses,
generally speaking, have win
dows on but one side, the op
posite side being used lor black
boards. The front and back are
likewise without windows. Play-
groimd equipment, if it ever ex
isted, Is a thing of the past. The
schools are, generally speaking,
lighted on dark days with old
fashioned oil lamps and heated
with potbellied iron stoves. A
few of them through the ef
forts of the Parent-Teachers
Association are for the first
time installing electric lights.
The desks are worn and show
signs ot many years »ise, pro
bably having served a long num
ber of years in the white schools,
finally ending up in the Negro
schools as castoffs.
No Hot Lunches
The lack of bus service refer
red to above, forces students
from she years and older to walk
from one to four miles and back
to school per day or get there as
best they can. The limited space
and facilities make it impossible
to have any provision made for
hot lunches or even sandwiches
and the students, many of whom
must leave home as early as
o’clock in the morning and walk
long distances, must go without
food all day if they kre unable
to bring enough with them to
last until they return home.
$3.5# Per M*Bth Jsnltars
As an improvement over
previous years, janitorial service
is being furnished this year by
e State. The practice is to have
oie of the larger boys enrolled
in the schools given such jobs at
the stupendous salary of $3.50
per month. To earn such salary
he must arrive at the school ear
ly oiough in the morning to
make fires and clean the bulld-
Ings after the other students
leave in the afternoon.
In spite of it all, the teachers,
who are working uwkrr circum
stances that are purely criminal
for them as well as the studnts,
inske the best they esn ot a bad
siuation. An effort had bwn
mwte. in metH imtlmmrii, to tMy
up th* dilapidated school shadn
I found flowers in vMsa^ ^
(PtettM turn to