17 Negroes Fail to Push Bid To Enter Brownsboro School

Athens, Texas
Supt. H. D. Bass of the Brownsboro public schools said Tuesday he doesn't expect further action from
17 Negroes who contacted him Monday in regard to attending the Brownsboro white school,
which opened Tuesday without incident.
"Of course," Bass said, "we can't be sure, but I don't think they will return. Those who came to see me
probably won't enroll in any school. Most of the group doesn't attend school much."
Bass said Negro patrons had told him a representative of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People made a house to house canvass in the area and advised Negroes to "be ready to enroll
in the white school at Brownsboro Tuesday." The NAACP worker came from Houston, Bass said.
"He didn't meet with much success." Bass said, "Most of the Negroes he talked with told him they were
happy with things the they were. He told them, "you aren't co-operative. You aren't trying to better your race."
The group represented five Negro families and included students from the first through the senior grades.
They made no actual demand that they be permitted to register, and announced no intention of returning
when they left the school Monday. They wouldn't have gone through with it if we had allowed them to register, Bass said.
Bass said he knows of no dissatisfaction among the Negroes of the Brownsboro concerning the school situation,
and that the NAACP is the only faction desiring any other arrangement.
The Negro schools, located 10 miles south of Brownsboro, aren’t scheduled to pen until Sept. 17.
The later date was requested by the Negroes themselves in order to allow older students more time for the harvest.
All of the Negro families represented at the meeting with Bass live within one mile of the school, Bass said.
“I reminded them that we have recently completed a new Negro school, and thought they were satisfied,” Bass said.

Source: Dallas Morning News Sept 5 1956

Transcribed by Laura Gregory Calvin

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