DO NEGRO SELECTEES MALINGER IN THE TEST SITUATION IN AN ATTEMET TO EVADE MILITARY SERVICE

Here, again we have no direct data which enable us adequately to test this hypothesis. There is a large amount of anecdotal material which indicates that in many instances selectees deliberately made low test scores in an attempt to evade military service. In view of the difficulty of establishing the facts, however, and since there is no way of ascertaining whether malingering is more prevalent among Negroes than among whites, we are unable even to estimate the probable influence of this factor in contributing to the observed differential rejection rate.15

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND RATE OF

REJECTIONS

In view of the fact that the situation being studied here is of rejections for educational and mental factors, it is reasonable to suppose that there is a close relationship between rejections and the opportunity the selectees have had for gaining formal educational experience.

Educational opportunities in the Southern States

The differentials which exist, in general, between educational opportunities for white persons in the Southern States and in the Northern States, and between Negroes and whites in the Southern States are too well known to require more than brief mention at this point.

Figure 1 shows graphically the extent of these differentials in terms of current expenditure per pupil in public elementary and secondary schools. Current expenditures per pupil in average daily attendance in 1939-40 ranged from $157 in New York to $7.36 for Negro pupils in Mississippi; the median State expends about $86 per pupil. It is important to observe that, in general the Southern States are to be found near the bottom of the list, with the expenditures for Negroes in these States at the very bottom with almost unbelievably low expenditures. The median expenditure for white pupils in 11 States in the deep South was only $54 per pupil per year, ranging from $77 per pupil in Louisiana to $37 per pupil in Arkansas. The median expenditure for Negro pupils in the 9 States for which data are available was $17 per pupil per year, ranging from $28 per year in Texas to $7 per year in Mississippi.

Figure 2 shows other indices of educational inequality in the States maintaining racially separate school systems for various years when the men now eligible for military service were, or should have been, in school. That the charts in the figure do not include all of the States having racially separate schools is due to the fact that not all of these States report educational finance data by race. The current expenditure for public elementary and secondary schools per Negro pupil enrolled, in nine States, 1931-32, was only 32 percent of the expenditure per white pupil enrolled ($49.30 per white pupil, $15.41 per Negro pupil); in 1939-40 the current expenditure per Negro pupil was only 31 percent of that per white pupil in the nine States for which data are available ($58.69 per white pupil, $18.82 per Negro pupils)," The average annual salaries of Negro teachers in 1935-36 in seventeen States was just 50 percent of that of white teachers ($907 for white teachers, $450 for Negro teachers)." The value of school property per Negro pupil enrolled was only 19 percent of that per white pupil enrolled in 10 States, 1935-36 ($183 per white pupil, $36 per Negro pupil). The per capita expenditure from public funds for the transportation of Negro pupils, 10 States, 1935-36 was less than 10 percent that of white pupils." It is to be observed that for every item the educational opportunities for Negroes are appreciably less than those for whites in the Southern States. And it must be recalled that the opportunities for whites in the southern region are, in turn, decidedly less than those for Negro children in the Northern and Western States. We might well present further stastistics here to indicate the racial differential in percentage of children attending school, percentage of population enrolled in

15 Although it is our conclusion that no one of these three hypotheses may account for the differential rejective rate, it is quite possible that their cumulative effort is significant. 18 David T. Blose and Ambrose Caliver, Statistics of the Education of Negroes, U. S. Office of Education Circular No. 215. June 1943, p. 4.

Doxey Wilkerson, Special Problems in Negro Education, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1939, p. 25.

18 Ibid., p. 31.

19 Ibid., p. 19.

CURRENT EXPENDITURE FOR PUBLIC ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS PER PUPIL

IN AVERAGE DAILY ATTENDANCE - 1939-40 (U.S Office of Education Data)

SOME INDICES OF SCHOOL INEQUALITIES

IN STATES MAINTAINING RACIALLY SEPARATE SCHOOLS

CURRENT EXPENDITURES FOR PUBLIC ELEMENTARY
AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS PER PUPIL ENROLLED

FEDERAL AID FOR EDUCATION

secondary schools and in public colleges, average length of school term, average number of days attended by each pupil, number of pupils per teacher, et cetera. These points of comparison would likewise reveal the low functional level of educational opportunities for Negroes in the Southern States.

In a recent exhaustive study of Negro education Wilkerson summarizes the entire situation, as follows:

"The indexes utilized in this investigation point consistently, in practically every field, to a relatively low standard of public education for Negroes in the Southern States. In general, and especially in rural areas, Negro elementary pupils attend extremely impoverished, small, short-term schools, lacking in transportation service, void of practically every kind of instructional equipment, and staffed by relatively unprepared, overloaded teachers whose compensation does not approximate a subsistence wage. only the primary grades of these schools. The few who finish the elementary The vast majority of pupils progress through grades find relatively little opportunity, especially in rural areas, for a complete standard secondary education. Opportunities for education in public undergraduate colleges are even more limited, and opportunities for graduate and professional study at publicly controlled institutions are almost nonexistent. In most special and auxiliary educational programs and services-public. libraries, Vocational education, vocational rehabilitation, agricultural research, and agricultural and home economics extension-the same low standards obtain. Only in case of one or two Federal emergency programs is there an approach to proportional provisions of public education for Negroes in these States.

"Educational opportunities in all fields are much more nearly adequate for the white population. Though its status is far below that for the Nation as a whole, still, on a scale of relative adequacy, public education for white persons in these States is markedly superior to that for Negroes. For example, the general elementary and secondary schools for white children, as measured by per capita expenditures alone, function on a level which is approximately two and one-half times as high as that for corresponding Negro Schools. The disparity between the general status of education for the two racial groups appears to be decreasing only very slowly, if at all." 20

What these inadequate provisions for the education of Negroes mean in terms of actual situations is well illustrated by the following examples:

"The State agent for Negro education in Mississippi provides the following description of Negro school buildings and equipment in his State in 1933-35: "Of the 3,753 Negro schoolhouses in Mississippi, 2,313 are owned by public school authorities. The other 1,440 schools are conducted in churches, lodges, old stores, tenant houses, or whatever building is available. Last winter, with the aid of CWA, a considerable number of the best buildings were repaired. The Negroes themselves, in some cases, are building and repairing their schoolhouses out of their own meager savings and with their own labor.

"School buildings need to be erected to displace the many little shanties and churches now being used.

*

* *

"There is also dire need for school furniture and teaching materials-comfortable seating facilities, stoves, blackboards, erasers, crayon, supplementary reading materials, maps, flash cards, and charts.

"In many of the 3,753 colored schools of the State there is not a decent specimen of any one of the above-mentioned items. In hundreds of rural schools there are just four blank, unpainted walls, a few old rickety benches, an old stove propped up on brickbats, and two or three boards nailed together and painted black for a blackboard. In many cases this constitutes the sum total of the furniture and teaching equipment."

99 21

Wilkerson further cites Davis' description of a Negro school in east Texas: "The building was a crude box shack built by the Negroes out of old slabs and scrap lumber. Windows and doors were badly broken. The floor was in such condition that one had to walk carefully to keep from going through cracks and weak boards. Daylight was easily visible through walls, floor, and roof. The building was used for both church and school. Its only equipment consisted of a few rough-hewn seats, an old stove brought from a junk pile, a crude homemade pulpit, a very small table, and a large water barrel. All the children drank

29 Doxey Wilkerson, Special Problems of Negro Education, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1939, pp. 151-2.

21 Ibid., p. 29.

from the open barrel which was filled with fresh water only when it became empty. Water was hauled to the schoolhouse and poured through a window into the barrel. There was no blackboard and there were no desks. When the children wrote, their knees served for desks. Fifty-two children were enrolled. All these crowded into a single small room, with benches for but half the number. The teacher and pupils had tacked newspapers on the walls to keep the wind out. Rain poured through the roof, and school was dismissed when it rained. No supplies, except a broom, were furnished the school by the district during the year." Another Negro school situation in Georgia is described by Raper, as follows: "There were still other differences: the 112 Negro children sat upon rough, straight-backed benches and wrote on their knees; the schoolroom was the lower floor of a Negro lodge; it was unceiled, with board shutters at the windows to keep out the wind and the rain. The Negro lodge was used because the county did not provide a schoolhouse; the stove belonged to a nearby Negro church and had to be carried to the schoolroom each Monday morning and back to the church again at the end of the week; in case of a funeral or other church service during the week, the school had to be dismissed.23

The situations described above are, to be sure, illustrative of the very lowest level of educational provisions for Negroes. They are in no sense to be regarded as typical. The average today is undoubtedly much higher than these examples would indicate; and we may, no doubt, find in some communities schools at equally low level for white children. The fact of significance, however, is that thousands of Negro men now of selective-service age attended schools such as these described. It is inevitable that, under these conditions, pupils tend to learn but little and to drop out of school at an early age.

Illustrative of this latter fact are the results of a study conducted throughout the month of September 1943 in the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississipi, and Louisiana. One armed force induction station had kept figures on the educational attainment of all selectees examined, both white and Negro. At this station in July, 49.4 percent of the white selectees had been rejected by the preinduction classification officer and 77.3 percent of the Negro selectees had been turned down. In August, the white rate had dropped to 30 percent, while the Negro rate had increased to 80.7 percent. Following is a summary of the educational status of selectees received at this induction station during June, July, and August, 1943:

It is to be observed that, among Negro selectees, approximately a fourth had not completed the first grade, approximately four-fifths had not completed the seventh grade, and only about 4 percent had completed the eleventh grade. Although comparable data are not presented, it may be stated that the figures for the white selectees are far below those for the Nation as a whole.

22 Ibid., p. 29.

Arthur F. Raper, Preface to Peasantry, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1936, p. 314.