an equal opportunities committee at work in texas

Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences

An Equal Opportunities Committee at Work in TexasAuthor(s): Elmer Anthony De ShazoSource: Social Science, Vol. 41, No. 2 (APRIL 1966), pp. 99-106Published by: Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social SciencesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41885160 .

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An Equal Opportunities Committee

at Work in Texas

Elmer Anthony De Shazo Associate Professor of Government, Southwest Texas State College

The quest for equal opportunity for all American citizens, irrespective of race, color, religion, or national origin, has accelerated in recent years. Action by the US Supreme Court, the Congress, and a succession of American presidents has facilitated this search. State and local governments have not been uniform in their approach to the matter. The author took advantage of the opportunity to participate in a local effort to deal with the situation constructively. This article tells of the formation of the local committee and relates its successes and fail- ures.

IN Court 1954 the

faced United

directly States

the Supreme issue of Court faced directly the issue of

whether the "separate but equal" doctrine was valid as applied to public school education. Chief Justice Earl Warren, speaking for the unanimous Court, said: "We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does. . . . We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place."1

Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the above case contended that all forms of mandatory racial segregation violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. The Court's reasoning that "separate but equal" is illegal in public education could apply equally well to all other forms of mandatory

racial segregation. In the years since that historic decision this reasoning has been so applied. The extent of its acceptance is reflected in the enacting clause of the Civil Eights Act of 1964 wherein it is stated that "discrimination by reason of race, color, religion, or national origin is incompatible with the concepts of liberty and equality to which the Government of the United States is dedicated." It further de- clares it to be public policy "to pro- mote the general welfare by elimina- ting discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in voting, education, and public accommodations."

During the decade intervening between the judicial mandate and the legislative enactment referred to above, the nation gradually accommo- dated itself to the changing social environment. The pace of change was most rapid in the cities; the small towns and rural areas, particularly in the South, were late starters and slow movers. This study concerns itself with the reactions of a small town in a rural county in central Texas where

Dr. Elmer Anthony De Shazo is associate professor of government in the Division of Social Sci- ences, Southwest Texas State College. He attended Texas Technological College where he received the B.B.A. (1953) and M.A. (1954). He received the Ph.D. from Indiana University (1957), where he specialized in international relations and Ameri- can foreign policy. More recendy, Dr. De Shazo has been appointed chairman of his college's hon- ors programs and is also a member of his city's Community Relations Service. He is also governor of the Texas Province of Pi Gamma Mu and secre- tary-treasurer of Texas Eta Chapter.

99



100 SOCIAL. SCIENCE FOE APRIL 1966

problems of race and color have never been particularly acute but have been, nevertheless, very real to those in- volved.

Small towns across the nation are continually wrestling with their social consciousness. They are fearful of revelations that will bare the skele- tons in their closets or which will ex- pose individual or group hypocrisy in their quiet little hamlets. There is an almost frantic effort to resist change, and, when change seems inevitable, to stretch it out over an interminable pe- riod, using every technique to delay the day of reckoning. That day may produce some form of violence, but in central Texas it has come rather quietly and with only an occasional outburst. Resistance to change goes on, but, as in most places, it seems to be a losing fight. Such is the case in San Marcos.

San Marcos is a small, college-ori- ented town of many contrasts. Like most towns lying around a metropoli- tan hub, it frequently becomes the ob- ject of attention from big-city polí- ticos and social reform groups. There always seems to be ridicule of ineffi- cient and inadequate facilities in the smaller communities, although those in the cities may be little better. San Marcos has received its share of this ridicule.

This community has been affected by many factors contributing to a change in social climate. One of them is a net increase in the population along with a change in the population profile. In 1950 the US Census report- ed 17,840 persons in Hays County of whom 9,980 lived in San Marcos, the county seat. In 1960 the comparable figures were 19,934 and 12,713, respec- tively. The net change reflected was slightly more than 10 per cent for the county, but that in the city was about 30 per cent. The white population of both the county and the city remained

fairly stable during the past decade, but the Latin element has increased while the Anglo element has de- creased. In 1960 San Marcos had a rough division of about 45 per cent Latin, 38.5 per cent Anglo, and 16.5 per cent Negro. There is, then, some reason to be concerned over a possible redis- tribution of political power as has oc- curred in other towns in south Texas.

Between the two Census reports cited above, the US Army closed down its flight-training program at nearby Camp Gary. The immediate effect was the exodus from the local areas of a large number of Anglo families, the resulting short-term depression affect- ing job opportunities and business expansion; some of the vacuum was filled by an influx of Latins and by local residents commuting to the neighboring cities for jobs. But the withdrawal of the Army also removed a force for change with its concomi- tant pressures to lower the discrimi- natory barriers on the utilization of public facilities and accommodations. And the barriers were coming down.

San Marcos quietly accepted the US Supreme Court's school desegregation ruling in 1954 and integrated its sec- ondary public schools in 1955. More recently, after some legal skirmishing, Southwest Texas State College was so quietly integrated that many students were unaware of it for weeks. But, in the face of such change, some over- sights did occur. Segregated rest room facilities and water fountains were theoretically eliminated in the County Courthouse in 1963, but a "white only" sign still remained in the spring of 1965. Also, at the time of ini- tial research for this article, separate rest room facilities still existed in at least one major building on the college campus. And it was not until the fall of 1964 that the elementary public schools were integrated for the students in San Marcos; Negro teachers



EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES 'COMMITTEE IN TEXAS 101

are not employed to teach integrated classes.

The proper political conditions existed for the establishment of an Equal Opportunities Committee in San Marcos for the first time in 1963. The City Council at that time, on its face, represented a pretty fair cross section of the community. The mayor was a respected Anglo businessman, Protestant, and supporter of the Democratic Party. He generally represented the moderately conservative, long-time resident, but he was most cooperative in his relationship with the committee. Four out of five members of the council tended toward a somewhat more liberal point of view, but they represented diver- gent interests. Among them were found represented both the Anglo and Latin business community, both liberal and conservative political philoso- phies, the legal, medical, and teaching professions, and both Roman Catholic and a wide variety of Protestant de- nominations. The council and the city manager were generally sympathetic toward the work of the committee and assisted it in every way to accomplish its objectives.

The San Marcos Equal Opportuni- ties Committee was established par- tially in response to outside criticisms and to forestall possible outside agita- tors from coming in, but also in response to the social consciousness of the community leadership. The council resolution, which passed without dissent, empowered the committee to "work for the voluntary desegregation of all public facilities of the community." The committee was also au- thorized "to examine all alleged denials of equal opportunity to residents of San Marcos in the fields of employment, education, housing, voting, and the use of public facilities," and, in the case of such denials, to rec- ommend remedial action.

During its first year, the committee slowly found its way in regard to both of its spheres of authority, and had modest success in accomplishing its objectives. It developed a substantial amount of information not previously available and held one hearing on an alleged denial of service in a place of public accommodation. Its quiet pres- ence was felt throughout various seg- ments of the community. Now in its second year, the committee has been renamed the San Marcos Community Relations Service to conform to both the terminology and enlarged scope of the federal agency of the same name.

The passing of the resolution set- ting up the committee was relatively simple in comparison to the problem of finding public-spirited citizens to serve on the committee. There are few volunteers for such jobs. The council resolution called for a committee of seven; there have never been more than six, and the committee has frequently functioned with less than that. Nevertheless, the present committee is about as representative as one could expect in a small town.

The educational community in San Marcos predominates on the committee, although this is more by citizen default than by deliberate intent of the City Council. An honest effort was purportedly made to secure other oc- cupational representation. One member teaches in the high school, another at the state college, and two are wives of college personnel. The other two members are a Negro building con- tractor and a Latin retail grocer. As a group, the committee is comprised of both male and female; Anglo, Latin, and Negro; Democrat and Republi- can; Roman Catholic and Protestant; liberal and conservative members. The heavy influence of the college community undoubtedly led to the desig- nation of the high school teacher as the committee's chairman. The most sig-



102 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOB APBIL 1966

nificant weakness in the committee membership is the lack of a representative from the Anglo business community, which person should have been chairman of the committee. No one could be found from this sector of the community who would serve on the committee. The fear of economic re- prisal was a strong factor influencing many refusals.

The vile phone calls and anonymous letters received by the committee attest to the reaction of certain elements of the community to the committee's work. A prominent local businessman further stated that he hoped the committee would do nothing except sit on its hands.

Most of its members brought to the committee a sympathetic desire to deal constructively with the problem at hand. Among the participating members there has been a rare display of agreement, if not unanimity, de- spite the diverse interests represented therein.

In its approach the committee early made two basic decisions. It decided to prepare and distribute questionnaires, and to publicize its work as much as possible. The second decision did not seem absolutely necessary. The groups working for reform in San Marcos are not large enough to have much economic effect on those places of business which do practice some form of discrimination. More- over, a few of them would and did racially integrate, or did not practice such discrimination in the first place, but they did not wish to publicize the fact for fear of boycott from the Anglo community.

Publicity about the activities of the committee was difficult to obtain. Only a few items concerning its work ap- peared in the county and Austin newspapers. As a result, a great many people in San Marcos have never heard of this work and, of those who have, few

have an intelligent understanding of it.

Comprehensive questionnaires were prepared for places of public accommodation, for the schools, and for the churches. Separate questionnaires were sent to various public facilities, the housing authority, the hospital, and the funeral homes. The sole purpose of these devices was to gather hitherto unavailable information about the practices of local institutions and places of business insofar as they related to distinctions among their patrons on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin. Each questionnaire contained intro- ductory paragraphs explaining the reason for the establishment of the committee, the scope of its function, and the purpose of the questions. A stamped, self-addressed envelope was furnished to facilitate return of the questionnaires. The overall rate of return was encouraging; the lack of returns in certain areas was as significant as the plenitude of returns in other areas.

In the realm of public accommodations, questionnaires were sent to gasoline service stations, food-service establishments, and motels. The respon- dents were asked to indicate the nature of the public service, whether they discriminated in any manner on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin, and, if so, the nature of the discrimination. The use of rest room facilities was the primary question asked of the gasoline service stations unless there was a food-service facility associated with it. Nine replies were received from two dozen questionnaires sent out, with no indi- cation of discrimination in the use of these facilities. The largest number of replies, however, came from down- town facilities, with few replies from highway establishments. Private inquiries did reveal that some racial dis-



EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMITTEE IN TEXAS 103

crimination was practiced in these places.

Questionnaires were mailed to 16 food-service establishments. Of the three replies none indicated any discrimination, and this was verified by private inquiries. Only one place of business on the highway was fully integrated at the time of the formation of the committee, and it returned the questionnaire. Two other highway establishments did begin to serve mixed groups of athletes and professional or business clubs when it became finan- cially disadvantageous not to do so. It was in connection with one of these res- taurants that the committee held its only full-scale hearing about an alleged denial of service to a Negro. The pro- prietor justified his position on a purely economic basis, but he was unable to show in what manner his business would be impaired if he served on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Committee inquiries also revealed that racial discrimination was not the only form of discrimination practiced. At least one major highway restau- rant owned and operated by a Latin would not serve migratory braceros coming through from south of the bor- der.

One of the more interesting results of the survey came in connection with the absence of returns from the motels. Questionnaires were sent to 12 business establishments that housed overnight guests in places of public accommodation ; not a single reply was received. All but one of these motels were located on the highway. The committee was unable to determine if this was a conspiracy of silence. But it was a well-known fact that a Negro traveler along the highway could not find commercial lodging in San Mar- cos.

As a matter of information and for the record, the committee sought to obtain official statements of positions

from public facilities and quasi-public service institutions. Questionnaires were sent to the municipal golf course, operated under contract to a private party ; to the director of the local public housing authority, which receives federal funds ; to the county hospital, administered by a religious sect; and to the local funeral homes. The committee received little cooperation in these areas. The public housing authority returned the questionnaire with the simple statement that it was "operated in full accordance with appropriate Federal regulations regarding non-discrimination." As a matter of fact, however, de facto segregation existed because Negro, Anglo, and Latin families lived in separate housing developments, and there was no mixing of families among the three groups.

Four local funeral facilities are available to the people of San Marcos. Two of these are under a single own- ership, merely providing separate facilities for Anglo and Latin clientele. A single reply from this joint opera- tion was the only one received. It ad- mitted of no discrimination in connection with the use of ambulance or hearse facilities. A direct reply was not given, however, in connection with the use of chapel or other facilities. These were "considered on an individual basis, their needs and the needs of others at a given time." Long-time Negro residents, however, attest to the fact that the facilities were not available to members of their race at any of the local concerns.

Replies were not received from ei- ther the golf course, which was known to be segregated, or the county hospital, which follows a form of "separate but equal" policy.

The committee was desirous of col- lecting full information on educational practices in San Marcos because of the large number of educational insti-



104 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOE APBIL 1966

tutions in the area. In addition to the public schools and the state college, there are three church-related schools and a private special school. The questionnaires prepared for these institutions carefully identified the role and scope of the committee and asked only for selected items of information which any school administrator would normally have at his finger tips. The schools were asked whether their facilities were open to all otherwise qualified students irrespective of race, color, religion, or national origin. If they were integrated racially, the year of integration and the character of any problems arising from it were re- quested. A question regarding the ethnic composition of the student body was also included. In addition, the schools were asked about practices with respect to hiring teachers that might involve discrimination.

The Senior High School was the first public school in San Marcos to enroll Negro students along with the regular Anglo and Latin student body. This came in 1955, with no special problems encountered and with only one member of the School Board opposed. Their student body is about 54 per cent Anglo, 40 per cent Latin, and 6 per cent Negro. Negro integration into the Junior High School came in 1961, again with no special problems or serious opposition. Their student body was 37 per cent Anglo, 57 per cent Latin, and 6 per cent Negro. It was not until the fall of 1964, however, that the previously all-Negro elementary school was closed and the Negro student body scattered throughout the public schools of the city. Considerable controversy sur- rounded this final step because it was intertwined with serious growth pains on the part of the whole school system.

The Negro students were progres- sively integrated into an all-white

educational environment from a pre- vious all-Negro one. The Negro teachers, however, were not rehired, since the School Board has long had an un- written policy of using such teachers only in the all-Negro classrooms. Nev- ertheless, Anglo or Latin educators were hired to teach in the all-white or integrated classrooms.

The Negro community in San Mar- cos is small and is mostly concentrat- ed in one section of the town. This minority favored the neighborhood- school concept and preferred to integrate the previously all-Negro school rather than close it. It was their con- tention that a new school could be built on the old site and upgraded at less cost, both in terms of money and personal transportation problems. These arguments seemed valid and correct. Such a solution, however, would have thrown the children of a nearby white, silk-stocking district in with the Negro children, who undoubtedly would have predominated. What- ever the cost, the San Marcos public school system is now fully integrated in its student body - exactly 10 years after the US Supreme Court confirmed its historic decision that "separate but equal" facilities were no longer the law of the land.

The segregated situation in the state college was dictated more by the absence of positive legal action on the part of a Negro plaintiff than by any negative action on the part of local school officials. The charter of the in- stitution and the rule of its Board of Regents were in agreement with state law, that white schools were for white students only. The state was desegre- gating its white schools on an individual basis. A simple court order from a federal judge was all that was required to secure admission of the first Negro student in the spring of 1963. Since that time, there has been an in- creasing number of Negro applicants



EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMITTEE IN TEXAS 105

who are handled in the regular manner and who use all college facilities. Because of their generally small number, however, their influence is yet to be felt in many areas of the college's operations.

The committee received little cooperation in seeking to obtain information from the private and parochial schools. Two schools did not reply to the questionnaire ; one replied but refused to provide information ; a fourth provided full and complete answers to all requests. So little cooperation was obtained from schools in this category that conclusions are based on general information rather than that furnished by the schools themselves.

None of the private and parochial schools presently enrolls any native- born Negroes. With respect to the parochial schools, this is probably due partly to the fact that few if any Ne- groes are found in their local congre- gations.

About one half of the churches re- sponded to requests for information. The character of the replies, however, was far from uniform. Several churches returned the questionnaires with answers to the questions asked; several churches, although returning the questionnaires, left one or more questions unanswered ; and other churches ignored the questionnaire and wrote ambiguously worded letters of explanation. It would appear that in the area of religion the committee found the most sensitive response.

San Marcos's churches resemble those in most small towns in the area. There are Negro churches in most de- nominations which service the needs of the Negro community. Many denom- inations also have Spanish-speaking churches which look after the needs of the Latin community. All denomina- tions have one or more churches for the Anglo community. The one Eoman

Catholic church administers to the needs of all members of that religious group. There appears to be little mixing of ethnic groups in any of these churches, with the exception of the Roman Catholic. Few of them are for- mally integrated. Several of the larg- er churches were apparently hard pressed to find appropriate language for their letters of explanation.

What can be said, then, about the success of the San Marcos committee established to work for voluntary desegregation of community facilities and to investigate alleged denials of equal opportunity to its citizens? Its members feel that the very existence of the committee stimulated an inter- est that might not otherwise have existed. Although little formal publicity was given to its work, the fact that business houses and community groups all over town were suddenly confronted with requests for information about their practices with respect to discrimination among their custom- ers or clientele brought the existence of the committee to the attention of the leaders in the community. A "good government league" found it necessary to include an item in its statement of principles in favor of "equal opportunity for all citizens of the community on the basis of individual merit."

The aims of the committee also provided a guide line to question local candidates for public office. Many candidates, for the first time, were confronted with questions concerning how they would react to issues involving discrimination. The outcome of some local elections was definitely influenced by the candidate's stand on questions involving the work of the committee.

The fact that the San Marcos City Council saw fit to establish such a committee, however limited its ulti- mate effectiveness, at a time when many communities were taking a neg-



106 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOB APRIL 1966

ative approach to problems of racial and religious discrimination, placed the town in the forefront to deal more effectively with other problems as they arose. It undoubtedly made it easier for the community to participate effectively in President John- son's antipoverty program, and for the college to receive a Peace Corps

project, both during the spring of 1965. Rough spots still lie ahead, but they will be more readily overcome by virtue of the experience of the community with the work of its Equal Op- portunities Committee.

Note 1 Brown Versus Board of Education of Topeka et al., 347 United States 483 (1954) .

Book Notes

Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge, Maryland

W. A. McEwen and A. H. Lewis, Encyclopedia of Nautical Knowledge, 1953.

Here, unique in the current field of maritime references, is a true encyclopedia of nautical knowledge. The incredibly exhaustive coverage contained herein cannot be found in any other single-volume source. All terms and phrases are methodically entered in proper alphabetical order under the main entry. The book brilliantly pre- sents and interprets the language and usage of all things maritime. The language and phraseology include the an- cient, the old, and the modern. A wealth of information for individuals, shipping offices, newspapers, maga- zines, radio, industry, libraries, schools, and every place that knowledge of maritime subjects is required.

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York W. K. C. Guthrie, In the Beginning,

1965. Like other peoples at early stages

of their development, the Greeks first explained natural phenomena as the operations of man-like gods. With the ascendance in Greece of philosophical

and rational thinking, however, they began to think of phenomena as the working out of impersonal forces, and the belief in the caprice of the gods gave way to a search for general laws. Distinguished scholar Guthrie traces the gradual course of this intellectual emancipation, brilliantly stressing the continuity of development and the constant influence of surviving mythi- cal concepts on the formulation of phi- losophers.

Dell, New York Paula Seiler, The New Handbook of

Modern Birth Control, 1963. The author's aim has been to make

widely available in easy-to-under- stand, everyday language all the most modern knowledge of birth control. Dr. Seiler is a prominent physician in New York and a clinician for the Planned Parenthood Federation. Some topics : approved mechanical methods, new birth control pills, rhythm, birth control facts and falla- cies, religious attitudes, the law, glos- sary of birth control terms, where to obtain birth control information, in- stant guides to effectiveness, cost, medical requirements, and simplicity of use.



an equal opportunities committee at work in texas

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