1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

and the West with similar, or worse, inequalities where less effort is
being made to alleviate them.
Data presented at the <strong>Commission</strong>'s Detroit hearings seemed to show
extreme overcrowding of the elementary schools in the predominantly
Negro Center District, as compared with other districts in that city. 73
Detroit school authorities present at the hearings did not protest.
Twenty-three percent of the total elementary school population of Detroit
attends school in the Center District. It was reported that: 7 *
Fifteen percent of these children sit in classes of 40-44 students
per class. This is in comparison to the following percentages of
children in classes of that size in other districts—
East District
Percent
o. 13
North District . 05
Northeast District . 04
Northwest District . 08
South District . 01
Southeast District . 01
West District. . 05
Sixty-two and one-half percent of all the children in the city's
elementary schools who sit in classes of from 45 to 49 are children
in the Center District.
Does such overcrowding in the predominantly Negro schools of the
Center District constitute unconstitutional inequality?
In the Skipwith case, discussed above, the inferiority of the de facto
Negro and Puerto Rican schools was established in terms of the inferior
quality of their teaching staffs. The New York City practice
of permitting teachers on tenure to transfer to the schools of their
choice appears to be a rather general practice. Without official controls
this too may contribute to unequal schools.
The <strong>Commission</strong> heard testimony on free teacher-transfer practice
at both its California 75 and Detroit Hearings. 78 Reports from Philadelphia
suggest a more sophisticated, but perhaps not novel, variation.
For some time that city's board of education has been urged to assign
new teachers in accordance with its own views as to where they can
serve best. But at present teachers may refuse an assignment and still
stay on the eligible list. In practice, it is charged, white teachers refuse
assignments to Negro or predominantly Negro schools and, after
the list of eligibles has been exhausted, accept appointments to white
or predominantly white schools. The school authorities defend their
position in permitting this on the ground of the serious teacher shortage.
They say they cannot afford to drop an applicant from the eligible
list 77 even though the teacher's rejection of the Negro school may re-
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