ustxtxb_obs_1968_05_24_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

west. Most of those who testified were Democrats and of Mexican-American or Indian extraction. Two prominent Indian leaders Raymond Nakai, chairman of the Navajo tribe, and Domingo Montoya, leader of New Mexico’s Pueblo Indians boycotted the Republican meeting. Wendell Chino, president of the powerful Mescalero Apache tribe, blasted the governors for the Republicans’ history of “unfavorable” dealings with the American Indians. Sanchez, during the five minutes he testified and during the brief questionand-answer period, presented well-known and important facts about the impoverished conditions in which most MexicanAmericans in Texas live and work. Sanchez said that more than half of Texas’ Mexican-American families live be low the poverty level. He said the reason for this is a high rate of unemployment caused by a low educational level. “Some 799 of Mexican-Americans have an elementary education or less,” he said. “Much of the blame for the plight of the Mexican-American in Texas can be laid at the feet of state government, dominated by a stagnant one-party system for 100 years.” Desegregation in Houston Houston H o u s to n’s conservative dominated school board is seeking an extension of a June 1 deadline for presenting the federal government with a detailed plan of what it proposes to do to step up school integration this September. Board attorney Joe Reynolds hurried to Washington to confer with Justice Department attorneys about an extension after two other Justice Department attorneys about an extension after two other Justice Department attorneys had filed a twelve-page, scathing letter with the federal courts charging that the system has failed to make “meaningful progress in transforming its dual system into a unitary, non-racial system.” Conservative board officials countered with charges that the government is trying to break up neighborhood schools; one top official vowed he’d go to jail rather than bus Negro children into allwhite schools or vice-versa to comply with federal directives. The matter came to light May 13 when liberal board member Mrs. Gertrude Barnstone publicized the letter and demanded to know what the board is doing to alleviate the complaints. The board passed the matter on to Reynolds. Justice Department attorneys Owen Fiss and Thomas Top wrote the letter to Reynolds, but they also filed a copy with US District Judge Ben Connally of Houston, before whom a specific case against Houston schools is pending. The Justice Department attorneys charged that there is a lack of white students in predominantly Negro schools; a small degree of faculty integration; and continuation of school bus routes which transport Negro children away from nearby white schools to Negro schools and white students from nearby Negro schools to other white schools. The attorneys listed 24 such bus routes; there had been more but, after an earlier Justice Department complaint, a number of the offending routes were discontinued. The board has voted to drop all school bus routes not supported financially by the state, but this will not occur until the end of the current school year. US lawyers noted that the board earlier had agreed to cut all bus routes not supported by state funds by last August. The board later reneged on this and extended the operation of some of the buses through this May. Fiss and Top pointed out that eight of the district’s 45 predominantly Negro elementary schools have no white faculty members. Twenty-three of the 45 schools have some white classroom teachers, in most cases one or two each. The same By a Houston Correspondent of the Observer pattern is characteristic of white schools where Negro faculty members are assigned. School officials again are repeating their charges that the federal government is trying to bust up “our neighborhood schools.” Reynolds told one Houston newspaper from Washington, “The [June 1] deadline is unreasonable, and what is sought by the Justice Department runs contrary to what the Civil Rights Act specifically says an agency or court cannot doforce busing of children to attain a racial balance … They are trying to bust up our neighborhood schools.” Board President Joe Kelly Butler, charging that the federal government is “playing politics” while the district is working on its integration plans, said the board is awaiting Department of Health, Education and Welfare approval of a proposal that would staff six schools biracially. Houston liberals contend that this is tokenism, a step to relieve pressures on other local schools to drop racial barriers. Two secondary and four elementary schools would have staffs 35% Negro and 65% white “with such attractive programs that children will flock to these schools from all over town.” Three conservative board members campaigned vigorously last fall under a “Save Our Neighborhood Schools” slogan. Charges that liberal board members favored busing Negroes into white schools and moving white teachers and principals into Negro schools were made frequently but were denied by the liberals. Houston school board vice president Bob Eckels has commented, “I’m prepared to go to jail before I’ll bus kids from Negro neighborhoods to white neighborhoods and ATHENA MONTESSORI SCHOOL CHILDREN 2-6 Red River at 41st GR 6-9700 or GL 4-4239 vice versa.” Children can voluntarily be bused across school boundaries but the Houston board opposes that. In other matters lately the school board has turned down a proposal to participate in a federally-funded program that would have provided hot breakfasts at schools for children from low-income families. Acting on a recommendation from its breakfast committee, the board, by a 4-2 vote, with conservative Dr. Ed Franklin abstaining, agreed with the recommendation that it not participate. And the board also has made it known that it is considering a compulsory ROTC program for boys in all its high schools. May 24, 1968 9 PROFESSORS . . . . STUDENTS Group subscriptions to the Observer for the summer session will be just $1.00 per student for the six biweekly issues beginning with June 7th if 10 or more subscribe and provided we may mail all copies of each issue in a single packet for redistribution. For 6-week sessions the group rate for the 3 issues published during that period is 50c per student, in groups of 10 or more. We also invite requests from instructors for free sample copies of back issues, as a method of acquainting your students with the Observer. AIMI1111111110. et Z * Since 1866 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jacinto GR 7-4171 e El