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PAGE 16— Feb. 3, i955—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Term.
gUBDUED talk and quiet activity
which has characterized the seg
regation-desegregation issue here in
recent months crystallized suddenly
into definite public action and com
ment during the month of January.
These were the main developments:
the opening of the 79th General As
sembly, the introduction of the first
legislative proposal designed to main
tain the separation of the races in
the state’s public schools, and a
regional conference of religious, pro
fessional, educational, labor and gen
eral community organizations already
favorably disposed toward desegrega
tion.
As a result, January may be con
sidered a month of “firsts” for Ten
nessee in developments on the issue.
For in addition to the first anti-de
segregation measure being intro
duced in the state legislature, there
were these other developments:
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Perhaps the most important “first”
of the month was the announcement
that Oak Ridge will become the first
Tennessee community to become de
segregated (see story beginning on
page 1).
The first step was taken toward
the creation of a regional organiza
tion through which those groups and
individuals supporting desegregation
in principle may exchange informa
tion and assist Negroes who have be
come subject to economic pressure
stemming from their support of de
segregation.
For the first time, a parent-teacher
organization made public its decision
supporting desegregation.
For the first time, a local branch
of a nationwide civic club endorsed
a proposal designed to maintain seg
regation of the races in the Tennes
see public schools.
Taking the “firsts” one by one here
is what happened:
BILL INTRODUCED
As forecast in the January issue of
Southern School News, State Sen.
Charles A. Stainback of Somerville
introduced in the Senate on Jan. 13
a bill generally considered as an pro-
segregated measure.
The proposal does not mention the
words white or Negro or segregation
or race. But in Stainback’s own
words, “If the bill, incidentally,
should preserve segregation in the
schools, it will be the most beneficial
bill ever passed by the Tennessee
Legislature.”
Known as Senate bill No. 62, it em
powers boards of education to assign
SEN. CHAS. A. STAINBACK
Offers Segregation Bill
pupils to schools they designate, and
provides that “in making such as
signments, the board of education
shall not be limited or circumscribed
by the boundaries of any attendance
areas which may have been estab
lished by such board of education.”
The bill that declares legal author
ity for such action is obtained by
“invoking the police power of the
state to preserve the peace, protect
the health and morals, to improve
the educational advantages and op
portunities of all the pupils of all the
public schools in the state and insure
the peace, health, contentment, hap
piness and general tranquility of all
the people of the State . . .”
The proposal was signed by seven
other senators—all from Middle and
West Tennessee, and all members of
the Democratic party. They are: Sens.
Riley Randel, Columbia; T. R. Ray,
Shelbyville; Justin Thrasher, Selmer;
James Jones, Lewisburg;,and Larry
Bettis of Friendship.
SENT TO COMMITTEE
Stainback’s bill was referred to the
senate education committee after
second reading, and according to ob
servers, there it will remain. It is
known that the proposal does not
have the support of Gov. Frank
Clements’ powerful pro-administra
tion forces in the legislature.
The bill has not been introduced
in the assembly’s lower house.
While there seemed little chance
of the proposal being debated on the
senate floor—much less receiving an
affirmative vote from the senate—its
introduction precipitated three re
lated statements or incidents.
Immediately prior to its introduc
tion—as a matter of fact, the night
before—Cecil Sims, a Nashville at-
ATTORNEY CECIL SIMS
Opposes Stainback Bill
tomey, member of the Southern
Regional Educational Board and a
member of the Davidson county
(Nashville) school board, delivered
an address to the Tennessee School
Boards Association, cautioning state
legislators against adopting legisla
tion to circumvent the Supreme
Court ruling of May 17, 1954—which
declared public school segregation
unconstitutional.
Aware of the Stainback proposal,
Sims declared such a measure was
unnecessary since school boards in
the state already possessed adequate
power to regulate their own affairs.
SEES HARM IN HASTE
The Nashville attorney said “Hast
ily thought up legislation at this time
might do incalculable harm.”
“In the first place, we don’t know
what the Supreme Court order im
plementing its decision will be,” Sims
said. “We’ll do well to know when
the legislature meets two years
hence.”
Prior to the implementation order,
Sims said it is his belief the high
court will appoint a “master” to re
ceive testimony in public hearings in
states affected by the ruling.
Sims added that there has been a
general misinterpretation of the deci
sion.
“The Supreme Court did not hold
that southern states were required
to integrate public school systems,”
he said. “It decided that compulsory
separation of the races was a viola
tion of the Constitution’s 14th amend
ment.”
In effect, Sims said, the Supreme
Court validated separation of the
races by choice of the individual.
Sims suggested to the TSBA mem
bers that Tennessee should adopt a
method integrating the schools on the
basis of students having the right to
select the school they would like to
attend.
In Evansville, Indiana, where a
similar plan was adopted in 1949,
Sims said approximately 95 per cent
of the Negro students attend Negro
schools out of preference.
“Whatever we do in Tennessee, it
must be done on the level of the city
or county board of education and not
become a state-wide pattern,” Sims
said. “Each city or county board must
be in a position to deal with its own
peculiar problems and situations.
“The state could go out of the public
school business,” Sims said, “but it
cannot pretend to go out of it and
pretend to stay in it.
“Mississippi, Georgia and South
Carolina (each of which is consider
ing proposals to abolish the public
school system) have nothing but a
threat,” Sims declared, “and they ad
mit it”
Referring to legislation designed to
maintain segregation based on a
state’s police power—as in the Stain
back bill—Sims said, “That’s been
tried, and it’s finally dawning on
those people you have to have a riot
first.
“You’ve got to presuppose a law
which brings the races together
causes trouble before you can invoke
the police power,” Sims said.
While he did not say the Evansville
plan was the only answer to the prob
lem, Sims said it came as near to
solving the problem as any other
proposal suggested thus far.
Under such a law, Sims said, the
schools are integrated, but in actual
operation, they remain segregated—
not by compulsion, but out of individ
ual choice.
Sims speech to the TSBA, incident
ally, was the first time since the high
court ruling that a statewide educa
tional organization in Tennessee
placed on its convention agenda a
speech on the segregation-desegrega
tion issue.
PTA ANNOUNCEMENT
The Stainback bill also resulted in
the first public announcement sup
porting desegregation by a parent-
teacher organization.
On Jan. 25, a letter expressing
strong opposition to the Stainback
proposal was mailed to all members
of the General Assembly by the Ten
nessee Congress of Colored Parents
and Teachers.
The letter, signed by Mrs. L. C.
Reddick of Nashville, president, said,
in part, “The Executive Committee
and Chairman of Legislation of the
Tennessee Congress of Colored Par
ents and Teachers with a member
ship of over 15,000, takes this means
to not only register strong opposition
to Senate Bill No. 62, but also to re
spectfully request that you cast a
negative vote with respect thereto . ..
It is our feeling that support of such a
bill would be in direct opposition to the
decision of the highest court of the land
and that it would be out of harmony with
the purpose of God.
We feel that the welfare of our great
state will suffer untold harm in such a
move. In this hour, our most unwise move
would be to join the infamous ranks of
those who are pitting themselves against
the inevitable.
It is our feeling that the best interests
of all the people of Tennessee will be
served if the Supreme Court decision out
lawing public school segregation is im
plemented without any attempt at cir
cumvention . . .
The week after Stainback intro
duced his bill the Lions club at Milan
in Gibson county—deep in West Ten
nessee—went on record endorsing
Senate bill No. 62.
In a news release to the press, it
was stated: “The Milan Lions club,
at its regular meeting has gone on
record as endorsing the school as
signment proposal of Sen. Charles A.
Stainback. The bill now pending be
fore the Tennessee Senate invokes
the police power of the state to give
authority to local school boards to
assign pupils to the schools of their
choice. In endorsing the Stainback
bill it was the general belief of this
group that for the continued welfare
and the best interests of the com
munity the proposal should be en
acted into law.”
FISK CONFERENCE
The first step toward the creation
of a regional organization for the ex
change of information on desegrega
tion and to assist Negroes against
whom economic pressure is being ap
plied as a result of pro-desegregation
activity was taken at Fisk University
on Jan. 23.
The proposal was made at a two-
day conference on racial desegrega
tion attended by delegates from 42
religious, educational, professional,
labor, civic and general community
organizations.
As a result of a motion offered by
Dr. Charles M. Thompson, dean of
Howard University’s graduate school
at Washington, D.C., Dr. Charles S.
Johnson, president of Fisk, and his
staff were instructed to study the
feasibility of such an organization,
and make a proposal for its creation
at the earliest possible moment.
The “economic pressure factor”
arose in the conference when Bishop
Bertram W. Doyle of Nashville,
bishop of the CME church’s sixth
district comprising parts of Tennes
see and Alabama, reported Negroes
in two Alabama counties are faced
with the prospect of losing their jobs
if they support desegregation.
(The initials CME formerly desig
nated the Colored Methodist Epis
copal church. The church’s 39 con
ventions are now in the process of
adopting proposals changing the
name to the Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church.)
Doyle said “committees have been
formed in these counties to exert
pressure on our people. The bishop
said the committees are similar to the
citizens’ councils of Mississippi.
The Alabama counties named by
Doyle are Sumter and Hale in west
Alabama, close to Mississippi.
“Between Christmas and New
Year’s, this pressure materialized,”
Doyle said. “Negroes are told they
had better not support desegregation
moves or they will lose their jobs. It
is as simple as that.”
CONCLUSIONS OF PANEL
A panel of experts in race relations
analyzed programs and policies on
desegregation explained by delegates
of the various organizations at the
conference, and reached the following
conclusions:
First, it was agreed that Negroes
must become more “militant” in their
effort to secure the rights accruing to
them as a result of the high court
ruling.
And second, the panel agreed there
is a need for some means of providing
financial relief for Negroes subject to
economic pressure because of thei t
pro-desegregation belief.
Mrs. Ruby Hurley of Birmingham
southeastern regional director of the
National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People, said the
association already has funds for that
purpose in a bank in Memphis.
Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel
for the NAACP, told the conference
“We are willing to cooperate with
any school board or agency, not on
the basis of whether or not, but on
the basis of when and how.”
Marshall, who also addressed a
special Fisk convocation the day be
fore the conferenae, declared that re.
sentment over the Supreme Court’s
ruling is dying down in many areas
“Now, we’re trying to get (the
subject) out in the open; to discuss
it in the open,” he said. “The more
discussion we have the better.”
CLARK CITES FACTORS
Dr. Kenneth Clark, associate pro
fessor of psychology at New York
City College, chairman of the panel
said programs for desegregation must
include three basic factors. They are
1. Educational programs must not
be based on the “1955 thinking” that
“changes in peoples’ attitudes, hearts
and minds must inevitably precede
changes in their behavior.”
2. Statements of support of the Su
preme Court decision by national and
local organizations must be translated
into active support of the movement
3. Means must be provided to pre
vent “retaliation” against white peo
ple supporting desegregation who “by
virtue of social realities are con
strained from making their views
known.”
The conference’s three study panels
discussed desegregation in the organ
izations and communities represented
at the conference. Their recom
mendations:
Creation of human relations com
mittees—such as the one in Rock Hill,
S.C., which is recognized by the city
government—in each southern com
munity.
Interracial, communitywide work
shops specifically created to discuss
desegregation.
Negroes should be encouraged to
register and vote, and thereby secure
representation on city councils and
city and county boards of education
COMMITTEE REPORT
The education study section re
ported that desegregation and inte
gration on the college and profession
al level has been made with a “a
minimum of friction.”
This section also reported that the
delay in the Supreme Court hearings
on implementation of its decision has
provided time for opposition force;
to organize and that some state;
which indicated they were moving to
ward desegregation “have either
stopped or are marking time.”
Furthermore, the education sec
tion reported the southern press
“which on the whole has done a fa 11
job of covering” the desegregation
story, has started “to back up” in h*
editorial comment on the subject.
“In some cases the coverage has
been commendable,” the section r®'
port stated. “But too frequently
editors, who were more constructive
at first, have backed up in their sec
ond and third editorials on the subj
ect.”
Southern Education Reporting Service
P.O. Box 6156, Aclclen Station
Nashville. Tenn.
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