The Admission of Negro Boys to the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute "A" Course

Abstract

Fifteen Negro boys were admitted to the A Course curriculum at Polytechnic Institute by a 5 to 3 decision of the nine-member Board of School Commissioners on September 2, 1952. This meant that, for the first time in the city of Baltimore, there would be Negro and white children attending classes together in a public school. This historic event happened in Baltimore, a border city with many Southern ways, and it came about through intelligent planning and community action, without recourse to legal action and without arousing a tide of public indignation. Polytechnic Institute, a boy's public school at secondary level embracing grades 9 to 12, has been a part of the segregated public school system of Baltimore for about 50 years. It offers three curricula, all with technical emphasis. Curriculum B and G cover grades 10 to 12, with only B graduates eligible for certification for freshmen standing at college. Obviously, the G curriculum is terminal. The distinctive feature of the school is the A curriculum, a four year specialized pre-engineering course whose graduates generally are certified for and accepted into the second year of accredited colleges of engineering. Pupils enter the course upon completion of the eighth grade. Entrance requirements include eighth grade algebra, an average of good or better in each major subject, and an I. Q. of 100 or more. Applicants also must be at grade level or above in reading ability. This curriculum is offered only at the Polytechnic Institute and is not available at any other white or colored school. It differs from all other school offerings by providing, in addition to a standard high school program, courses recognized by certain colleges as being equivalent to one year of college work in their engineering schools, which accounts for the advanced standing given Polytechnic graduates. The A course includes in the ninth and tenth grades courses that are given in other high schools, but gives some of them at an earlier stage than they are offered in other schools. In the eleventh and twelfth grades, the Polytechnic A course includes the following work which is not offered in any other Baltimore high school: calculus, analytic chemistry, electricity, heat engines, mechanics and surveying. In view of the fact that the A course and its advantages were not available to Negro pupils, a small group of organizations decided, in June, 1952, to secure the admission of Negro boys. The seed of the idea had been planted by the writer in a speech delivered to the Baltimore Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action. After that talk, ADA determined that integration in the public schools would be one of their major projects and they decided to begin with Polytechnic. Nothing concrete was done, however,