the preparations and programs for integration. Also noted are the community is devoted to general

273 Pages·2012·8.14 MB·English

I
DOCUMENT
RESUME
ED 028 210
UD 007 833
By-Hendrick, Irving G.
The Development of a School Integration Plan in Riverside, California: A History and Perspective.
California Univ., Riverside.; Riverside Unified School District, Calif.
Report No- RSS-SMP -M7- 14
Pub Date Sep 68
Note-272p.
EDRS Price ME-$1.25 HC-$13.70
Descriptors-Bibliographies, Board of Education Policy, Board of Education Role, Community Attitudes,
Community Characteristics, Community Study, Community Support,
Educational Improvement, Integration
Methods, *Integration Plans. Mexican Americans, Minority Group Children, Negroes, Parent Role, Racially
Balanced Schools, *School Integration, *Urban Schools
Identifiers-Riverside, California
A report on the history of school integration in Riverside, California, describes
the city and traces the inception of a desegregation plan. Chapters discuss the
developing consciousness of the need for improvement in minority
group education,
the confrontation in 1965 between school officials and minority
group parents, and
commitment of the school board and school administration to total integration, and
the preparations and programs for integration. Also noted
are the community
reactions and problems related to the desegregation of the schools. A final chapter
is devoted to general perspective on school integration. There is an extensive
bib!iography specifically relevant to California. (NH)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE
C=0
OFFICE OF EDUCATION
I
C\1
!THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE
Co
'PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.
POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS
STATED DO NOT NEUSSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCkTION
mom
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
OR POLICY.
LI
A SCHOOL INTEGRATION PLAN
IN
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA:
A HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVE
By
Irving G. Hendrick
The Riverside School Study
A joint project of the
Riverside Unified School District
and the
University of California, Riverside
State, McAteer Project Number IC-14
September, 1968
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
iv
PREFACE
v
.
Chapter
SOCIETY'S MANDATE FOR INTEGRATED SCHOOLS
I.
1
II.
THE CITY, THE SCHOOLS, AND SEGREGATION
21
.
III.
A DEVELOPING CONSCIOUSNESS
50
.
.
.
CONFRONTATION
IV.
82
.
.
TOTAL INTEGRATION
V.
120
.
VI.
PREPARATIONS AND PROGRAMS
154
.
VII.
COMMUNITY REACTION AND EVALUATION
183
.
.
VIII.
PERSPECTIVE
206
BIgLIOGRAPHY
225
.
.
APPENDICES
238
.
A.
City of Riverside Population Chart 1870-1968
239
B.
Riverside Unified School District Pupil Enroll-
ments by Race, 1964-65 and 1967-68
240
.
C.
Political Party Registration and Voting
Patterns,
Berkeley and Riverside, California, 1962-1968
242
.
D.
Elementary School Boundaries, Riverside Unified
School District, 1564-1965
244
.
E.
School District Boundaries, Riverside
Unified
School District, 1966-1967
245
.
.
F.
School Bond Elections of the Riverside City
Schools, 1896-1963
252
.
G.
Freedom School Application, September, 1965
254
.
H.
Statement Made by Superintendent Bruce Miller,
October 18, 1965
255
.
.
.
.
Page
Petitions Received by the Riverside Unified
I.
School District Concerning School Integration
.
257
Issue, September-October, 1965
.
.
.
.
Proposed Plan for Integration, October 18,
J.
261
1965
.
.
262
Casa Blanca Study Group
K.
.-
.
263
Junior High School Integration Plan, 1968
L.
.
.
1--
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
iv
36
1952 Boundary Change, Lowell-Irving Attenaanee Areas
I.
45
Casa Blanca Attendance Area, 1945
.
Riverside Unified School District Board of Education,
III.
143
January, 1965
.
.
Integration of Former Lawell-Irving'Attendance Area,
IV.
162
1966-
.
.
.
.
Integration of Emerson School Area, 1966 and 1968
V.
219
'Boundary Changes
.
.
221
Bussing of Longfellow Corridor, 1968-69
VI.
.
PREFACE
On October 25, 1965, the Riverside Unified School District's
Board of Education adopted a comprehensive plan for the integration of
As of that date, few school systems in
the city's elementary schools.
the United States -- and no school system as large -- had succeeded in
Although the secondary schools in Riverside were not ra-
doing more.
cially balanced, none was as yet in danger of becoming de facto segre-
Three years later, when it appeared that this condition was in-
gated.
deed developing at one school, that challenge too was met.
Rarely are social scientists presented with an opportunity to
engage in a comprehensive study of integration's effects upon white and
minority group children in the same school system.
Almost never 'would
coincidence
of life permit this to be accomplished in a home city.
a
Soon after the board's integration decision was announced, a small group
of faculty from the University of California, Riverside, joined with repre-
The
sentatives of the school district to form the Riverside School Study.
original university participants included Thomas P. Carter (education),
Frederick 0. Gearing (anthropology),Harold B. Gerard (psychology), Jane
R. Mercer (sociology), Norman Miller (psychology), and Harry Singer (edu-
Those from the school district included E. Raymond Berry (asso-
cation).
ciate superintendent), Mabel Purl (director of research), and Jesse Wall
(director of intergroup education).
-
Recently, President Charles J. Hitch of the University of Cali-
fornia asked the staff of the university to carry "thought and research
vi
of the campus directly to the heart of the city."
This, in part, has
been a goal of the Riverside School Study, although the university's
role in it has been directed more toward measuring change than toward
recommending reforms.
Fortunately, the latter have been stimulated in
some measure by school district personnel themselves, based in part on
the study's findings.
The present narrative is the product of my association with the
study, one that has lasted exactly two years.
In a sense it is more of
a prologue to the study than a part of it.
The psychological and socio-
logical evaluations of integration's impact on pupil adjustment and a-
chievement, as well as on the school system itself,
are being undertaken
by my colleagues.
Nevertheless, it was thought appropriate that some
kind of historical record be made of the fascinating social and political
forces which developed along the way from segregated to integrated school-
ing in Riverside.
One of the chief limitations of contemporary history is the diffi-
culty of achieving proper perspective.
A great advantage, on the other
hand, is the availability of an almost overwhelming wealth of informa-
tion.
Wherever possible, which includes most of the report, a heavy re-
liance has been placed on written documents.
Special thanks are in or-
der to E. Raymond Berry, Donald N. Taylor, and Jesse Wall of the River-
side school district for making their files available, for granting
lengthy interviews, and in other
ways rendering repeated assistance.
Numerous other individuals within the school district, the commu-
nity at large, the city and county libraries, historical societies, city
vii
and county offices, and the University of California libraries at
Riverside and Los Angeles, spent many hours of their time in gracious-
ly granting interviews and supplying other forms of information.
Cer-
tainly the resources of this project would have been seriously lacking
without their help.
Properly, appreciation should be expressed to about
sixty persons not recognized individually, without whose heip the project
would have been diminished.
Some, of course, are acknowledged at an
appropriate place in the text and bibliography.
A few have provided in-
formation with the understanding that their names will be kept confiden-
tial.
Special mention must be made of the assistance provided by Super-
intendent Bruce Miller and Richard Purviance of the school district ad-
ministration, Margaret Heers and Arthur L. Littleworth of the school
board, and Robert Bland and Dean C. Newell of the community.
All were
intimately iwyolved with the issue of segregated education in Riverside
between 1961 and 1965.
Wilson Riles, Armando Rodriguez, and Theodore
Neff, all of whom were associated with the California State Department
of Education's Bureau of Intergroup Relations in 1965, generously grant-
ed interviews and supplied documents fram the bureau's files relevant to
the Riverside experience.
To all I am most indebted.
During the past two years the history project has benefited from
the assistance of Lloyd L. Sturtevant, Linda Burchell, Mita Brar, and
Robert Wilde.
The final three months were particularly demanding, and
it was during that period that I was especially fortunate to be assisted
by Annette I. Scarpino, Michal J. Schwartzkopf, Forrest S. Mosten, and
viii
Herbert L. Nickles II. In addition to numerous other duties, Mr.
Nickles also prepared the maps appearing in the text. Without the dil-
igent help of this group, completion of the project would have been
seriously delayed.
Final typing and atpention to details was handled by the central
office staff of the Riverside School Study, under the watchful and
The actual manuscript typing
capable supervision of Jeanne Thornburg.
Their service in this instance, as with that
was done by Ferne Vorhes.
rendered throughout the course of my association with the study, is deep-
The historical project was supported by the California
ly appreciated.
State Department of Education, from funds administered by the Office of
Raymond J. Pitts, project
Compensatory Education, McAteer Projects,,
Without it
Needless to say, that
specialist.
is appreciated.
too
there simply would have been no project.
The help provided by those assisting in this venture was highly
Any inadequacies which the reader finds are clearly attrib-
competent.
utable to the author.
Irving G. Hendrick
Riverside, California
September, 1968
CHAPTER
I
SOCIETY'S MANDATE FOR INTEGRATED SCHOOLS
the
The Riverside Unified School District in California was not
plait for the
first school system in America to develop and implement a
What is
schools.
total desegregation and eventual integration of its
national reluctance in
somewhat surprising, and as much a commentary on
is that its school
this area as on Riverside's progressive att-ttude,
of other "firsts."
integration decision in 1965 entitled it to a couple
city exceeding
It became, for example, the first school system 'in a
through grade
100,000 in population, and with a total kindergarten
implement a full-
twelve enrollment of more than 20,000, to develop and
Another somewhat unique feature of the
plan.1
scale racial balance
able
Riverside experience was that the administration and beard were
weeks after being confront-
to develop and adopt this plan within seven
integration.
ed with a petition from minority parents requesting
state, ap-
Riverside is located in the southern portion of the
San Bernardino-
proximately fifty-five miles east of Los Angeles, in the
population slightly
Riverside-Ontario metropolitan area, an aren with a
this area
By most ctheria, the cities in
in excess of one million.
1
As used
meanings.
'Racial balance" appears to have many and variable
minority enrollment of less
here it refers to a school with a maximum
district
Ideally, each school in a racially balanced
than fifty percent.
See
district average.
would not deviate more than ten percent from the
Balance," The Reporter, 36 (March 23,
Meg Greenfield, "What is Racial
1967), 20-26.