Local Issue; 2; Reading, Writing and Race

no earth the earth this was a segregation boundary in the heart of new york city junction boulevard in queens walked down the steps to the east side of the boulevard you enter a school zone and the corona section that is ninety nine percent walk down the steps to the westside and you enter a school zone in the jackson heights section that is eighty seven percent white above it almost tourists traveling to the world's fair he walks away are unaware that they are passing a boundary that symbolizes or the people who lived on either side of the line the mid sixties quite over school integration in new

ad a national educational television network presents a local issue a seven part series of regional documentaries produced by affiliated stations are an e day this week reading writing rates for use in new york city five station wfmt it is probably not right mrs jonah double a neighborhood leader in the fight against the city's school

integration plan lives in this white middle class neighborhood called jackson heights her son goes to this overwhelmingly white public schools ps one forty nine she objects to having it reassigned so that he will cross junction boulevard into this negro middle class neighborhood to help achieve racial balance in ps ninety two a school that is almost entirely negro this transfer will be one of the personal consequences as the board of education puts into effect this month and integration technique known as princeton planned parenthood the idea is to take the enrollment at the school in a negro residential area combine it with the enrollment at the school not quite residential area and then divide the combined enrollment so that you have a balance between the races in both schools in the jackson heights corona pairing all first and second grade pupils in the combined school zone will go to ps ninety two all third fourth and fifth grade people who go to ps one forty nine each school will keep its own kindergarten the result is instant desegregation ps ninety two

will drop from ninety nine percent negro to forty eight percent negro the us won forty nine will drop from eighty seven percent white to seventy five percent white in keeping with the plan the children of mrs wilmore france will also have to walk the extra steps this fall to experience immigration this is france's president of the parents' association of the us ninety two in effect the opposite number ten this is a double in the neighbor dispute i am most vitally for preparing the atlantic and its one point nine and i think its one of the best plans for education and democracy that are going to have to date i think that it will benefit greatly from the family lawyer they play for i am not

we're trying to achieve racial now in new york city i am for integration which now that i will further integration which i hope will come and time go by on a voluntary bay i'm sure it will come by the great joy and goodwill of the american people here and there are great for the human body the expectation that to you i feel

that if the hearing goes through and if we do get the type of teachers who know what they're doing who can own reach each child a level of how healthy mean i think that there will be no problem and i knew that the people with jack definitely not go to the show in the air and dove into effect in that opening day collectively they want to repeal that that they have not been an illegal act there will be very few children involved in hearing where they will be transferred out into a private school to make the pairing more palatable for the white parents the borders brock vs ninety two up from one hundred and fifteen on the list for renovations to the head of the list the job will cost more than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars yes one forty nine build a generation after the us ninety two was renovated four years ago plus sizes in both

schools will be cut to a maximum of twenty seven after school study centers will be set up and specialists in reading art and science will be added to the stats the educational improvements evolved from plans drawn by whites and negroes in the parent's associations of the two schools but special educational advantages impaired schools have not satisfied opponents such as much as a double and others in the white parents and taxpayers organization in queens this group which sprang up last year became the base for a loosely federated movement to block the board of education's entire plan to bring significant desegregation the negro children in the coming year nine or ten months ago the loudest protest was against the use of buses to transport children for integration later when it became clear to the public that no mass blessing of children had been planned protests shifted to the pairing of schools in the four pairings now planned the relatively few peoples will have to be bossed for

distances under a mile on august eleventh at the americana hotel in manhattan the two main opposition groups parents and taxpayers coordinating council and the brooklyn joint council for better education held a press conference on paring it was a public relations circus cocktail sausages and liquor were certain the reporters turned a televised session into a debate i like it five rabbi ryan's body this is rosemarie gunning executive

secretary of the parents and taxpayers council announced that unless the board abandoned its pairings the white parents groups would boycott the schools loses gunning work out of an office at her home in queens has no children what she likes fighting for causes as she did several years ago against fluoridation of the city's water she is a committee woman in new york's conservative party and a strong supporter of barry goldwater for president a few days after the press conference mentioned herman of the wmd at new staff talk to hurt her backyard burning why you were opposed to the voyages of the instance when the parents think of that divide family and community the children and debt of more in one family attending one goal of life spirit that skill they're going to live and it means that the parent i'm able and to read and that can affect the asian to have the

older children take care of the younger children and the silver and who are traveling to the other neighborhood have a sense of insecurity in a strange place a strange name was getting what you wanna do you want to be a neighborhood school constitution center we shall continue our fight in court right up to the us supreme court we shall continue to be a public official to take appropriate action and the fact there are effectively full effect can avoid caine and sound not go the children will not attend public thought of the day you mean that if you keep the children out of the school and definitely that will depend upon a character fits and we i democratic openly about an all of our action we will make recommendations

my point the children this is gunning said will be sent to private schools being set up an apartment houses theaters synagogues and churches if <unk> cummings words come true the spectacle of white parents picketing at ps one forty nine last spring may be enlarged a hundred fold this fall the startling thing about all this and the thing to remember when you see the headline is that new yorkers are fighting again overpowering is that the board of education has gone far beyond caring and it's thinking about the duration today it is preparing a revolutionary change in the city school system that may make obsolete this piecemeal selection of pairs of schools to be integrated the big push for an end to de facto segregation in the north and in may of last year when roy wilkins and other leaders of the unknowable a c p began a nationwide drive to force board of education to break the school ghettos new york city was designated a prime target

in new york a minority group children make up almost the total enrollment so one hundred and sixty eight out of the city's eight hundred and sixty a public schools and the lacy p corps and local integration groups got together and show the reverend milton villainous pastor of a church in the bedford stuyvesant ghetto in brooklyn who had been your pride the citywide committee for integrated school and began a long dialogue with the school board to get it to produce a plan and a specific timetable for desegregation in june the state commissioner of education james e allen gave the committee a psychological it he issued an order to all school systems in the state to come up with specific plans to end racial imbalance in their schools civil rights groups met with our leaders and warned them that they would pull all negro children out of the school that the city did not come up with a timetable for integration in keeping with the commissioners order on february first the board announced its plan not satisfied the civil

rights group's two days later stages the first citywide boycott of schools in new york's history of an enrollment one million pupils four hundred and sixty five thousand state a way that they classrooms in the ghetto schools were empty the board of the direction of its president james donovan had offered a plan to pair forty two schools infringe areas be segregating twenty one of them it also proposed to change the feeder patterns of ten segregated junior high schools to give them better racial balance but for the city why committee this was not enough the board <unk> levison charged had failed to come up with a specific timetable for the segregated not just some but all the schools oh i got the present in my opinion a clear mandate from the people of new york city that they are not satisfied with the halfway desegregation program mr donovan offered and that they're willing to hold their children out of school to see that the negro and puerto rican children as well as the white children get a fair shake in our school

system although defended its proposal the arrest board as commissioner ellen to step in and evaluate its progress in an advisory report but now the word appearing to panic before the civil rights groups the two white opposition group staged a protest of their own at city hall despite snow and rain about fifteen thousand parents came out on a cold march day to put pressure on mayor wagner to keep the board from pairing school the mayor did not act but the board itself backed off it began to prune its list of schools to be paired this incensed mr bill emerson and some of the other integration leaders and within a week they brought up a second boycott because of a dispute over tactics they acted this time without the support of e n double a sleepy and the national office of color still i succeeded in taking out three hundred thousand pupils a sizable show of discontent among parents of children in the ghettos the board at this point seemed to be tackling with any new when that approach gale force the word surprise

commissioner ellen set a new course for the board at a press conference in may he made public a report in which is advisory committee said the board had not done nearly enough to end segregated schools although it did not rule out preparing technique the un report called on the board to broaden its approach through a complete reorganization of the school system they will have to decide for themselves whether or not they expect the report were modified or what they're going to do by indicated my letter to them i hope that they will make it conversations with them as possible and that we think that report offered them a lot of them actually found course of action for the future of education the heart of the island plan with a proposal that would put get all children into an integrated school two years sooner than the president today a child from the center of harlem normally sees no white children in class until he leaves his neighborhood elementary school at the end of sixth grade and then there's a

larger junior high school it cuts across quite a negro boundaries instead of the present rate structure of six years elementary three years junior high and three years high school the un report proposed a restructure of the twelve years of schooling at you for four and four this way a child would spend only four years in a primary school drawing from a small white or negro neighbor he would then go to a larger middle school drawing from both white and negro neighborhoods with shuttle busing provided it necessarily the idea is that the child is bigger now and if necessary he can travel longer distances to school the ninth grade on he would go to an even larger better integrated high school beyond plan doesn't eliminate the neighborhood school concert rather it enlarges the neighborhood concept so the child goes to what for his grade is the neighborhood school the report conceded that for the first four years gatto children would still most likely be going to

segregated schools thusly allen committee dared for the first time to say that it is impossible to de segregate small schools in the heart of the ghetto the ghettos are just too large and said the report not they're planning more pressure and change that fact but the plan did insist that especially unfriendly areas more desegregation and the board had provided for was possible and desirable sixteen days after the report was made public trial the negroes superintendent of newark schools came up with the city's adaptation with this new idea to do your way better integrate experience to hundreds of thousands of boys and girls we will have better at the balance in many more schools and thousands upon thousands of children will have better educational opportunities of their chance to learn we have used the report to a great extent we also use some of the

ideas are on such as marriage rules which are entirely content with the recommendations of our report all in all we're very pleased that we have not reached the point of decision generally go forward as dr gross explain that the plan would move toward reorganization of the schools grade structured this year like taking sixth graders from segregated elementary schools and moving them into partly integrated junior high and why shifting ninth graders from the junior highs into well integrated high schools rezoning a fringe area for immigration would go on as before and next year he promised the first of the true middle schools will be instituted in addition the city's free choice transfer plan will continue that permits negro people that their parents request to be bused to better integrated schools outside their neighborhoods jacob lenders billboards chief of integration planning believes with the growth of the mechanics of achieving racial balance how important are no more important to the

city's integration future than quality education with ten years ever since the supreme court decision of nineteen fifty four it has been the policy of the board of education to secure greater integration in the schools as quickly as practicable a plan proposed with a number sixty four are intended to reduce the gap between policy and practice they are limited by our practicable and they represent sound education for all the pupils involved these plans may be summarized on the two weddings equality of educational opportunity for all children and the promotion of ethnic integration these two aspects are mutually dependent one reinforces the other bus quality education by definition shouldn't blow the fact there are ethnic integration and then thrown back like this provision is often meaningless unless it is accompanied by programs on improved

education in line with this idea of the board has begun a saturation program doubling education services in demo areas were negro children have not had the opportunity to achieve as well as white children the kernel of this planning of the additional pre kindergarten classes in ghetto schools with this added preparation as children reach primaries grades they will be up to the achievement levels of children outside the ghetto a number of educators and some civil rights leaders think that through this program the board is setting in motion educational forces that eventually may break up the ghettos give the child a good education this theory goes and he can get a good job when he graduates a good job makes unable to move to a neighborhood outside the ghetto integrating that neighborhood and eventually its schools as well after some initial reservations civil rights groups backed the gross plan and began working with the board to put it into law a june shuttle special assistant for education with the national and noble a

cpa in new york is one of the leaders consulting with <unk> years why don't you support me not only with the segregated negro schools also that desegregated weight loss and with the regime down that are infringed there is a lot concern of a much larger one in the schools in ghana we have agreed to accept the plan proposed by dr grossman thought by the board of education these reasons he committed himself and schools and what his first year of middle school it's very very special effect patient junior high school and complete integration of high school these plans will be formulated in working sessions with a light a concert community groups and finally we agree to go along with the president kind of went faster growth committed himself

to review the president construction together with the rights groups of the community groups and make whatever changes might be necessary to prevent the creation of a new de facto our agreement and was based not only on revision before a vote on that how is new york and is coming up with a plan new york city has long had a policy of new york city school system has long had a policy since nineteen fifty four recognizing the education on the facts and we have right in other city weary we are deliberately and recognize the problem that they have an educational and legal obligation to do something what is your opinion of the

motivational white opposition who is he at i wanna failed to see the difference between white parents in prince edward county virginia who protest segregation may seventeenth decision of the supreme court organizing private schools and white parents are at record or private school with private wait for their white children to create when world that the bigotry and prejudice it will be responsible leadership i think they're disgraced and it fully disgraced of the country lawyers for parents and taxpayers are beginning to realize that if the group wants to stop the board's widening plans for integration in new york city it has two attack on a scale larger than pairing they have challenge preparing concept in the lower courts and it lost php lawyers who have the organization i've tried to get a referendum on the november ballot that would for bed

transfers of children for racial balance now atlanta courts to approve a balancing of the races does not necessarily help negroes to achieve and could actually impair white students nation airmen asked mr roose to give some specifics on the cortex yet we hope to be able to understand a long parade of people have an expert knowledge in the field of education and sociology would testify on the planet one of education hashtag to the educational that will do all the education of all children white or may grow here in the city of lille it poured out roughly a third of health wanted the lead in the grosso superintendent at dhaka happens louis missouri none of that out nolder education a pedagogy and said the plan like that

was a formal educations plan here will hurd education will live on mr rose the conservative republican backing senator goldwater has threatened political action by parents and taxpayers against any candidate in the fall election who opposes the pa at concept of neighborhood schools at city hall mayor wagner who is considering a dispute in light of election year politics for eighteen months the mayor avoided being drawn directly into the controversy over school integration but the threat of a massive white boycotted a time of negro unrest in the city that forced him to discuss the issue with the eighty leaders and the stem end of this politically sensitive area in this situation and accommodation maybe in the making as part of that the city might give up future use of school parents pairing well effective for integrating isolated racial pockets is not essential to the board's overall plan eliminating the focus of complaint of the militant white opposition the city could still keep its commitment to civil rights groups to work towards citywide integration by reorganizing the school system

we want it quickly i mean some of the experiences in new york for the present moment and you are responsible groups and individuals who would simply only great confusion and conflict than we think integration of excellent the only problem is that we fail what the borders jolie is not integrating with golf in la trying to achieve racial balance but something entirely different because integration mean the intermingling of people of different types different race or racial balance means for letting children according to their column and that we think of them like all american children should they can

get children or not children of one ka one right the school as a toddler the responsibility of transmitting the values of democracy from one generation to another these values are not the same but change and grown with a passage of time a new dimension as they added to the framework of democracy and the new criterion by which to judge the success of our efforts the schools alone gonna bring about a fully integrated society but with these present lands we are trying to discharge of our responsibility to american democracy we shall not be deterred from this effort a national educational television network is presented in

law who is a seven part series of regional documentaries produced by affiliated stations an eating this week you have seen reading writing and rates reduced to new york rhyme y

s this is an e t a national educational television network