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1i. Hillside .
Ber-Relay High School
16 John Muir
r------1
DESCRIPTION OF THE BERKELEY SCHOOLS 1960
The flats [also called southwest Berkeley) is
roughly that area betWeen Sacramento and the Bay. It
contains most of Berkeley's industrial section. In the flats in 1960, 8,824 families were living on less than $4,000 a year; pupil turnover was extremely high (some children had attended ten schools in four years). Fifty-five to sixty percent of the children came from one—parent families. Forty percent of Berkeley's ele— mentary school children attended south and west Berkeley
schools. The flats schools in 1960 included:
2 Minorlty No. Race Teachers Grade1 of Otherz Orlen—
School
Franklin 143 98 7 73.4% 1 0 Primary
Columbus 804 503 31 66.8% 2 O
is kindergartén through
2Chicanos at this time were counted as part of the majority.
3 . Orlentals were counted as part of "other minority".
The foothills is that area nearest the center
of the city, contiguous to the main business area and
30
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Description of the Berkeley Schools
around the western boundaries of the University of California. Apartment houses and large older houses predominate. Many graduate students, young professional peeple, small business men, blue collar workers, foreign students and many one—parent families live here. Many Oriental families live in the northern section of this vicinity. Incomes are for the most part modest. The
foothill schools in 1960 included:
Other Total Name of non“ % non- Teachers School Students Negro Cauc. Cauc. N O
Jefferson 681 78 152 33.8% 2 3 (mostly oriental)
*Washington 674 121 144 39.3% 2 3 K-6 (many orientals)
other similarity)
Le 546 166 57 40.8 1 1 (Le Conte belongs here - not by geography but by similarity)
*Indicates a Demonstration School of the UniVersity of California's School of Education.
The hills include the area around the Claremont
Hotel and the area east of Oxford Street up into the
Berkeley hills as far as the Regional Parks. Here the
31
Description of the Berkeley Schools
professional people live, many university-connected, to
a large extent college graduates, many successful busi
ness men, and many retired. It is definitely an upper
socio—economic area here. The hill schools in 1960
included:
Other Total Name of No. of non- non— Teachers School Students Negro Cauc. Cauc. N O
John Muir 449 4 4 1.8% 0 0
There were three junior high schools in 1960 including:
Burbank 1,074 689 97 73.1% 15 l [in flats, now called West Campus)
Willard 1,002 415 78 48.9% 3 l ibetween the Claremont area and the Lincoln~Longfellow area, hence, a very diversified student body)
.11 LAU' J l Iservlng the northermost of the flats schools and the hill schools, now called King)
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Description of the Berkeley Schools
Other Total non— % non— Cauc.
No. of
Students
Name of
Berkeley High 3, 068 874 196 34.9% 7 2 one comprehensive high school for the whole city, grades 10—12)
McKinleX 119 66 3 58.0 1 0 Continuation School
(now East Campus)
Home Teaching 14 7 1 57.1% 0 0
The Feeder School Pattern in 1960 was as follows:
Franklin Part of Washington Lincoln
Columbus Part of Longfellow
to Burbank Junior High School (now West Campus)
Emerson
John Muir
Le Conte
Part of Lincoln Part of Longfellow Part of Washington
to Willard Junior High School
Cragmont Hillside Jefferson
Oxford Thousand Oaks Whittier
to Garfield Junior High School (now King)
City Population (1960 Census)
73.8% Caucasian, 19.6% Negro, 6.6% other non-Caucasian
(At this time Chicanos were l'isted as Caucasians.)
1960 School Population
60.3% Caucasian, 32% Negro, 7.7% other non-Caucasian
Description of‘the Berkeley Schools
1963 School Population
54% Caucasian, 37.3% Negro, 8.7% other non—Caucasian
(Source of figures — The Hadsell Report]
For the purposes of this history, we will use the words Negro and Caucasian when those were the desCTiptiVe words of the time, or the choice of the people involved. When the change to Black and White and Chicano takes place, we will use those descriptive
words.
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Chapter III
FROM STAATS TO HADSELL — A GIANT STEP FORWARD
There was no time, nor sufficient accomplishment in the improvement of minority education, for the liberal School Board to rest upon its laurels.
It had to tend to important "in house" responsi— bilities. when at long last, in June 1902, it‘finally passed its fifth try for a bond issue to improve the schools' facilities, the Board had to dig in and put those funds to work. Architects were hired, plans approved, bids let and finally accepted. Disappointment was strong over the shrunken Value of the bonds‘ purchas— ing power because of the four-year struggle to pass them. Many long anticipated improvements were impossible to accomplish with the funds available . The results fell far short of the demonstrated needs and could not come up to the standards set. But there was no aIternatiVe to proceeding with the best job possible under the cir— cumstances,
A real blow to the Board occurred in January 1961 when Dr. Sanazero resigned to accept a responsible position in Illinois working for the Association of American Medical Schools to evaluate curriculum and methods of selection of medical students. HoweVer, by July the Board, having reviewed many able nominees for his position, unanimously chose Dr. Sherman Maisel, a professor
of business administration at the University of California
35
A Giant Step Forward
and a respected financial consultant. He had a rare dedication to excellence in public education and two teenagers who helped him "keep in touch". A local newspaper, The BerkeleX Review, (since gone out of business) commented that many CitiZens regretted the Board had not seen fit to appoint a local businessman to fill Sanazaro's spot.- The Board, however, had sought out a real expert to help guide it in its fiscal responsibilities and felt justified in its judgment when in the spring of 1965
Dr. Maisel was appointed a gmrernor of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington.
No large-scale educational changes were initiated during this period, but many innovative pilot programs were begun under John McCollum, Director of Elementary Curriculum, and Esmer Clark, Coordinator of Secondary Education. In June 1962 Superintendent Wennerberg wrote to the Ford Foundation asking its support in meeting some of Berkeley's school problems. He cited Berkeley's unique student body, with one—fourth placing in the lowest tenth percentile and one—third placing in the upper tenth percentile on standard intelligence tests. He stated that of the school population, 46% belonged to minority races and gave these interesting facts about the city and its schools:
— Team teaching in science was begun and science teacher training initiated.
- Extracurricular cultural enrichment, museum trips, and excursions to the University and San Francisco
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A Giant Step Forward
were offered through funds donated by the Junior League and help given by the University YWCA community service women.
— Berkeley schools and the city Recreation and llealth Department had united to establish both a music camp and a science camp at CaZadoro, :1 city—owned campground. [Editor's note: Many who approved ......_ JJAHV - . 1 .9 . .. . these projects were disappointed that Caucasian children from outside the district were admitted before sufficient effort had been made to publi— cize the availability of camperships for minority children within the district.)
— Study halls were provided at the YMCA and at some churches for students unable to study at home. (Dr. Nichols had pioneered these study halls at his own church.)
- The Downtown Business Men's Association hired a firm of analysts to survey economic conditions in Berkeley. Stores began to make important hiring changes. (Editor's note: These changes came about largely as a result of many years of per— sistent campaigning by NAACP and CORE, using picket lines and delegations of protest in behalf of minority employment.) Hinks, Berkeley's largest department store, hired its first Negro clerks and held frequent meetings to inform sales personnel about interpersonal relations and means of improving them.
— There were presentations of science for parents, explanations of new methods and materials in math, displays of appropriate children's books to help parents develop reading-readiness in their pre’1' '1 1 i school children and tovhelp in the selectiogof library books for their older children. The Ford Grant was requested to allow the District to expand these pilot efforts. Mr. Wennerberg further stated that he felt the climate was right in Berkeley for an all-out attack to meet its now—acknowledged problems
and concluded: "It may be that Berkeley can demonstrate to the nation that minority groups can become an asset to
a community. We may prcnre that many 10w IQ scores denote
A Giant Step Forward
a lack of opportunity more than a lack of mentai capacity and that teenagers can become better known for their talents than for their delinquency."
Despite these sincere but modest efforts and the beginning of a more equitable hiring and placing of minority teachers, very little had been accomplished in bettering the total education of minority children. And it was already eight years since the Supreme Court had given its momentous interpretation that "separate but equal education" was unacceptable under the Constitution of the United States of America.
Another black pressure group stepped forward to remind the Board of these facts. This 1was the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), whose delegates visited all Bay Area school superintendents to apprise them that CORE was wholly dissatisfied with the inaction di5p1ayed by school districts toward any but sporadic contact betWeen children of different racial groups. All other superintendents turned a deaf ear, but Mr. Wennerberg
invited the CORE delegation into his office and listened
to them. They complimented Berkeley schools on the small progress already made, but indicated they were far from satisfied with its still largely de facto segregated schools. They urged that a thorough study, followed by appropriate action, be undertaken. Mr. Wennerberg agreed and recommended such a study to the School Board.
When CQRE presented its case at the school board
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A Giant Step Forward
meeting on September 19, 1962, its chief spokesman was Wilfred T. Ussery, president of CORE. He argued his case eloquently, remarking as an opener:
gulya‘ole inaetion leaves the Board morally 'inert'. We believe that you, the Board of Education, cannot refuse to assume responsibility for segregation, merely because You did not foster it. If de facto segregation means inferior education, school authorities have both an educational and a'moral responsi— bility to take affirmative steps to eliminate such segregation. > He asked that the Board investigate the extent of segregation in Berkeley schools and its relation to motivation, academic excellence and delinquency.
Mr. Wennerberg recommended that a huge, broadly representative committee, with delegates appointed by all pertinent organizations in the city, be established to perform this study for the schools. The Board concurred that a study should be made but decided the kind of committee suggested would be unwieldy and ineffective. It agreed to appoint its own committee and asked for nominations from the community. On December 12, 1962, after careful deliberation, it announced the membership of that committee which was composed 36 lay members - two from each elementary and secondary school district to assure all areas of the city would be fairly repre— sented, plus several representatives at large. Rev. John Hadsell, an Emerson parent and Presbyterian minister who
was director of Westminister House bordering UC campus,
accepted the responsibility as chairman. Tom Wogaman,
A Giant Step Forward
Assistant to the Superintendent, was assigned as staff liaison and Ruth Wesley as secretary, and the committee went to work.
Its operating credo was that "a recognition of basic human rights and dignity is the solution to the problems of discrimination, that until this recognition is achieved, the majority and minority alike will diminish in worth and dignity as human beings."
When the committee first assembled, there was little unanimity of opinion evidenced. Few anticipated the magnitude of the report they would finally submit. The prevailing View was that some plan embracing compensatory education and open enrollment would be offered, "topped off by a stream of platitudes".
But the committee was a courageous one and willing to really work. It studied the existing laws. It exposed itself to a liberal confrontation of studies about the undeniable effects of segregation on achieve— ment. It discovered the facts about Berkeley's own degree of segregation in October 1963. It verified statisties that de facto segregation existed in overwhelming measure (see map at front of chapter). The hill schools were predominantly of one race. At John Muir the student body was 98% Caucasian, at Emerson 95%, at Hillside 96%, at Thousand Oaks 95.1%, at Oxford 93.4%, and at Cragmont 92%. In the flats Lincoln was 96.8%
Negro, Longfellow 89%, Columbus 72%, and Franklin 63.1%.
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A Giant Step Forward
There was one fairly mixed junior high school - Willard. Garfield was primarily white and Burbank predominantly Negro. There was only one large comprehensive high school, so it was inevitably desegregated, though far from integrated. Achievement statistics reflected tremendous and disturbing differences in the black and the white schools.
While the committee members, shocked into realization of the debilitating and harmful effects of segregation, moved along in their crucial studies, the whole country was daily made aware of historical events
occurring in the South. Martin Luther King, Jr. -
powerful, appealing and apparently indefatigable - was leading his people in nonviolent rebellion against the many injustices of their daily lives. The Alabama Bus Boycott, having proved successful, led to a concentrated nonviolent attack on segregated lunch counters and rest— rooms, to the garbage collectors' strike for better pay and better working conditions, and eventually to the dramatic march from Selma to Birmingham to demand full recognition as citizens of these United States. No citizen of Berkeley could remain unaware of Dr. King‘s constant pressure for integration as the answer to both black and white America's health and surViVal. The even more amazing March on Washington, where thousands gathered around the reflection pool between the Washington Monu—
ment and the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King's moving
A Giant Step Forward
speech, "I Have a Dream", could not but affect all sensitive people and urge on them the necessity for integration.
This background of growing and compelling national concern for civil rights helped to move the 36 members of the Hadsell Committee into a more understand— ing and cohesive whole. » Besides studying papers about the negative effects of segregation on achievement of minority children, they looked into successful and quasisuCcessful methods to overcome this weakness in our educational delivery of basic skills and basic human understanding. They studied the Princeton Plan (a divi— sion of classes by grade level between two existing
schools to achieve desegregation), sister schools, open enrollment efforts, compensatory education in huge doses and redrawing of attendance lines at both elementary and junior high levels. They sought a solution that would be fair to all children a_n_d one that would not incense any one group of parents. But they were frustrated by the barriers of segregated housing!
Less complex (but later to become highly contro
versial) was their solution to the problem of segregation
within the secondary schools which resulted from quite inflexible assignment to ability groups — in one junior high school as many as 17 ability groups in English.
The committee's recommendation was to reduce the number
of tracks and make assignments to them more flexible.
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A Giant Step Forward
Later, in the reacting "staff report", the recommenda— tion was sharpened to include guidelines for four achievement groups:
GrouB 1 — student can and will learn and
. w-Av "id-A on his own to an outstanding degree. I'JA 1'1 _. 1 - -
He handles abstractions and sees relationships g - 1
readily. lie shows high
verbal achievement .
Grou 2 - This student can and will achieve on
____ ukllicv H15 own. He handles abstractions and sees
relationships with moderate skiil-ifuHe ranges 43*“... 1 1 _.
______. “m5 from s}ightly below? to slightly above grade
v I ---—-- level in quantitative and/0r verbal achievement.
61-0112 3 — This student is not consistently self— vr v 1—
7 directive. He bapdles abstractions and handles
relationships with difficulty. Hgrgiiges from
average to below grade level' in [‘77 1 1
and/0r verbal achievement .
GrouB 4 - This student is not self~directin Ho é: 4-.- ,1 V. V g
He is unable to handle abstractions and see
relationships. He has poor command of basic 1 -- - - -
skill; 1:16:“ is level in
quantitative and/0r verbal achievement .
In addition, it was recommended that placement of a student into junior high school from sixth grade should be upon recommendation of his sixth—grade teacher rather than left to the discretion of junior high school counselors who, according to many Negro parents, "pushed their children into lower tracks regardless of ability".
When the report was given to the School Board on
November 19, 1963, it proposed some junior high redis— tricting, a minimal amount of elementary redistricting, a revised tracking system, a compensatory education proposal and again following the direction of the
Staats Report - active recruitment of minority staff,
A Giant Step Forward
stepped-up integration of all school staffs, stepped—up opportunities for student contacts between schools, a course in intergroup relations, more books and courses on minority peoples.
Two weeks later and again in January 1964, the School Board held hearings on the committee's recommen— dations. An enthusiastic response was given by most of the Speakers at both of these well attended meetings. Sixty—five groups or individuals spoke - mostly in sup— port of the report's conclusions. The exception was a very negative reaction from representatives of Berkeley Citizens United, a conservative, older group. Although negative public reaction was slow in developing, a great deal of quiet concern was expressed privately by people
who wanted to respond affirmatively to the issue of
social justice which dominated the report but felt it went too far, by others who felt genuine fear of Negroes or "hoodlums" at Burbank, and by people who intellectually believed in integration but weren't sure their children should be manipulated. No one wanted to be called a racist or a bigot, but many were so labelled if they demurredin any way_ The Berkeley Daily Gazette took a poll of its readers and declared that its results proved that 80% of the people were against the report, a far different result from what had appeared to be true at the open meetings.
At the January 23 meeting a suggestion was made
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A Giant Step Forward
by Marjorie Ramsey, an English teacher at Burbank and put forth as an alternative to the Hadsell Report's proposals for redistricting the junior high schools. She felt that the revisions recomnended would do too little to effectively end segregation in these schools. She had studied a paper by psychologists who suggested that a 14—year-old was in a very vulnerable transitional stage of maturation:
...definitely outgrowing the limitations of the
lower grzf1desu . ana procqeéiggél'lalgicvliyugn
preparation for the grades. L F
U yet be in a favorzible position to meet the stresses
and competition of a big sltrenudfis high school.
- 9” . . . Indixudualization of instructlon, guidance a“: " '
bum...“ and counseling are of peculiar importance at this
age.
Miss Ramsey, therefore, proposed setting up a
ninth-grade school for the entire city, where special services appropriate to this age group could be provided without the "babyishness" of the 7th and 8th grades or the too—early sophistication of the big (3,300 student) high school. She further proposed that Burbank Junior High be the site for this all—city school-for 14-year— olds (9th gradors) and that the 7th and graders be carefully assigned between Willard and Garfield to create integrated student bodies- Burbank would thus become a "good school"; no family of any 9th grader could feel unjustly assigned because all 9th graders would be
together. These proposals later became known as the
"Ramsey Plan" and to all intents and purposes of further
A Giant Step Forward
discussion superceded previous junior high school re— districting schemes.
The Board of Education was not yet ready to act upon such controversial changes as the Hadsell Committee
had put forth. It needed to know:
l. The educational implication of the Hadsell Report and, now, the Ramsey Plan
2, Recommendations as to implementation of the report, including a timetable for action
3. Estimates of required financing and sources of financing.
The Board, therefore, instructed the Superintendent to take the whole report to his educational staff for in— depth study and reaction. A task force of 39 members was charged with answering the Board's questions. The task force was divided into seven teams under the guidance of an executive committee and the general Chairman, Milton Loney.
While the staff committees started on their job of evaluation, a group of parents calling themselvas Parents'_Association for Neighborhood Schools (FANS), seeing a‘threat to the status quo and neighborhood schools, began to meet with the hope of creating a respectable forum by which to voice their dissenting opinions to the contemplated changes. Mr. Wennerberg had meanwhile resigned as superintendent, though he planned to stay on his job until the following summer.
Working with his staff committees, he urged adoption of
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A Giant Step Forward
the Ramsey Plan and suggested more drastic changes in elementary school redistricting. Opinions of staff regarding the junior high school redistricting were now concentrated on the Ramsey Plan and were far less unani— mous than the public hearing had seemed to indicate, though there apparently was at that time a majority acceptance of the other proposals. Garfield teachers were particularly vehement in their objections, voting 57 to 7 against the Ramsey Plan. They prophesied an unhappy end to their fine, prestigious , academic school if many "under—achievers from Burbank" were to register there.
Time was short. A solution by mid—May was necessary if Substantive change was to take place by the time school opened in September 1964. While the staff committees worked long and fruitfully, the community became more of a battleground regarding the dreaded effects of integration, particularly elementary integration, although it had not yet been even proposed in any radical form.
As the staff met that summer at Asilomar (conference ground on the Monterey Peninsula] to share their opinions and reactions with each other, away from the "battleground", the community's fears were quoted daily in the Gazette:
"Everyone will move out of Berkeley and it will become an all-black city like Washington, D.C."
"Garfield will become a mediocre school." 47
A Giant Step Forward
"Why try a plan that has not been tested?"
"There will be violence in the schools." The less fearful clamored for social justice and spoke effectively and in unison for the anticipated changes.
PANS was Officially started on May 5.
At long last, on May lglthe Board officially received the staff proposals. At a meeting of about 3,000‘ peeple in the Community Theater, in an atmosphere charged with emotion and partisanship, it listened as person after person marched to the microphone to express his deeply felt opinions, whether pro or con. The most moving presentation was that of Mrs. Amanda Williams, Negro president of the Burbank PTA, who spoke for all of the parents of that school, first commending the Board, then the committee and staff reports. She said:
We do not ask for special privileges for the Negro child (which has been.the custom with the white child). We only ask that each child despite his Ln -2---- " V c in. lA-l-D color be given equal consideration and opportunity, and where he is deprimed because of residential location and lack of equal community interest in hi» ---------
We feel that all the possible tools of compensatory education are necessary to enable all children to compete with any other children. . . We do not L1 1 - - ____......._v.a- . a "G UU llUL believe that placing Negro and white children in close proximity to each other in a classroom is going to automatically improve the performance of the Negro child, but it will, moat likely, insure " AUI n______ 4.410 greater interest and effort on the part of the teacher, in order that the whole class perform academically well, and thereby the Negro child is positively affected. .
She proceeded to comment favorably on the proposed changes