ATLANTA, May 17, 1954 (UP) - The cost of equalizing school facilities for Negroes in 17 segregated-by-law states would be at least $500,000,000, a United Press survey showed today. Some states have spent more on Negro schools than on those for white children. Negroes are being admitted to some college graduate schools, heretofore reserved for whites.
This is how the public school equalization program, as of last year, was working in some of the states:
South Carolina: Negro schools getting $25,000,000 for buildings, white schools $14,000,000.
Florida: In 1952 the per pupil spending for school buildings was $66.78 per Negro pupil compared to $59.84 per white pupil.
North Carolina: Since 1949 about $300,000,000 spent on equalization program, on a spending ratio of 70 percent for Negroes, 30 percent white.
Coincident with today's Supreme Court ruling, Negro leaders released these figures and statistics on education:
In 1945, there were 350 Negro medical students in America and only 45 of them were attending non-segregated colleges. Now there are 700 Negro medical students and 300 of them are in non-segregated colleges.
There are 72 medical colleges in the country and 51 of them have admitted Negro students. Nine of the 51 are in the South.
It took federal lawsuits to open some of these universities to Negroes. But in most cases the barriers were dropped, the leaders say, as a consequence of the white man's conscience prodding him to take action.
There are 31 Negro colleges in America.
In 1900, the life expectancy of the American Negro was 32 years compared to 45 years for the white man. Now, however, it's 57 years for the Negro and 65 for the white.
