Superintendent

After Brown, the leaders and educators wanted to comply with the courts, yet this would upset the existing school structure. This was the idea for the next forty years. Fisher the superintendent implemented a plan that would eliminate race from being a consideration for admission. Students were allowed to attend any school in the city. But transfers had to be approved by the two principals involved. This wasn’t necessary if the student had moved. District lines only came into play if the school

By 1960, the schools had more African-American children in segregated schools then before Brown v. Board of Education. And the schools continued to be overcrowded. A biracial parents group began to track the progress of desegregation in 1962. The findings were presented in March 1963. Single-race schools had increased by 13,000. African-American children attending elementary schools was 88 percent which had meant a decrease of only 9 percent since 1955. The high school figures told the same story student enrollment had increased by 4,500. The school board was clearly not trying to achieve racial balance in enrollment or faculty. There were 53 all white faculties and 67 all black faculties out of 189 schools.

This report focused on overcrowding of schools as well. Black schools were overcrowded. This was to be avoided by “districting” a school, which was not effective. In 1960, Geprge Brain became Superintendent for Baltimore City Public Schools In 1962, thirty-three schools resorted to part-time classes. These students attended school for four hours a day which meant the loss of thirty-six class days. Parents also suffered, they had to stay home and supervise children that should have been in school. This only affected 4 percent of white students as opposed to 79 percent black students. Obtaining a transfer was made difficult by the rules that they had to be adhered to. In reality free choice was limited by strict transfer rules and school districting. Superintendent George Brain attributed the problems to segregated schools and the departure of whites from Baltimore’s inner city.

The real problem was the board’s insistence on retaining the neighborhood school concept. Brain pointed out that the children were not forced to go to neighborhood schools. Baltimore at this time was a city of segregated neighborhoods. Schools had been built in these neighborhoods that would ensure any desegregation plan would fail. Principals refused transfer requests to keep children in their neighborhoods. “ The departure of whites from Baltimore following Brown added to the problem. In 1960, enrollment in Baltimore’s schools became majority black for the first time.”