The Augusta Courier

Attendance At Washington Schools Will Be All Negro Soon

White People Leaving Nation's Capital To Escape Tyranny Of Court And Eisenhower

Segregated schools are headed back in the nation's capital.

The politicians deserve no credit for this. This is the work of the white folks and the white folks only. As the Negroes move into Washington, the white people move out.

On October 17, 1958, there were 2434 fewer white pupils in the public schools in the District of Columbia than there was on the same date in 1957.

Swamped By Negroes

Likewise, there were 5539 more Negroes in the schools of the District of Columbia than there were last October.

And this October, 74.1% of all the students in the District of Columbia are Negro.

On October 17 of this year, the total number of whites was 29,569 and the total number of Negroes was 84,650.

This is quite a change from the conditions as they existed at the time of the Supreme Court decisions in the segregation cases.

White Pupils Decline

During the last four years the number of white pupils in the District of Columbia has declined by 15,228.

In the same length of time, the number of Negroes in the District of Columbia has increased 55,258.

These figures tell an interesting story. The Negroes are taking the City of Washington and the whites are leaving. They are leaving just as fast as the Negroes come in.

Be All-Negro Soon

If this trend continues for just a few more years, all the schools in the District of Columbia will be all-Negro and there will be no whites left. Then, they will have perfect segregation again.

This will not be segregation by law, but it will be segregation by flight. The white people are fleeing as the Negro approaches. They almost have perfect segregation in Washington now.

At the present time, this is the situation in Washington:

1. Twenty schools are all-Negro.
2. Five schools are all-white.
3. In seventy-four schools from 90-99 of the pupils are Negro.
4. In twenty other schools, the pupils are from 90-99% white.

So, out of 170 schools in Washington today, 119 are almost entirely white or almost entirely Negro.

Safe Prediction

It is a safe prediction to say that by this time next year at least one hundred schools out of the 170 will be all one race or the other.

U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, in its issue of November 14, 1958, says:

"What the nation's capital is finding is what many cities in the North have found—that opening schools to all races does not necessarily bring an end to segregation or result in a general mixing of the races in the classroom. Housing patterns as well as laws, operate to keep the races apart."

The Washington Star

THE WASHINGTON EVENING STAR, on Saturday, November 1, 1958, quotes School Superintendent Carl F. Hansen as saying that he had no practical explanation for the apparent tendency of a school to be almost all-white or all-Negro.

These figures not only apply to the public school system, but also to the District Teachers College. At the present time the District Teachers College is more than 77% colored and it seems that in just a short time it will be for colored teachers only.

However, the strongest trend of all-Negro schools is at the elementary level. Last year, there were 13 elementary schools with all-Negro pupils. This year there are 16. This means that all the white people have moved out.

All the courts and all the soldiers and all the king's men and all the king's horses can't make the white people race mix with the Negroes.

"If the High Court cannot make up its mind whether it is judge or advocate, umpire or prosecutor, how, by all that is rational, can it expect the public to be understanding or appreciative?"

—James H. Gray