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Page 4—JANUARY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Tennessee Legislature to Consider
Measures Dealing With Segregation
NASHVILLE, Term.
/''linton dominated Tennessee’s school
segregation question in December as
state leaders readied for a legislative
showdown on the issue when the Gen
eral Assembly convenes Jan. 7.
Federal court action against 16 pro
segregationists quickly followed new
violence in Clinton. Integrated Clinton
High School closed, then reopened
shortly before Christmas Arraigned
before Judge Robert L. Taylor in Knox
ville on contempt charges, 16 defend
ants face trial Jan. 28.
The arrests and arraignments brought
to a head a controversy of many months’
duration, raising—so observers said—
constitutional questions of first impor
tance. Attorneys general of two south
ern states arrayed themselves on the
side of the 16 defendants and a legal
“defense” fund grew in size as the
month ended.
Sparks From Clinton
The school segregation question will
be foremost in the minds of all state
legislators when the General Assembly
convenes Jan. 7. Surveys indicate a
heavy majority favor action to keep
Tennessee’s schools segregated. The
question is: How?
Gov. Frank G. Clement’s state admin
istration is reported hopeful of passing
a “moderate” segregation bill early in
the General Assembly meeting and then
halting further discussion on the subject
during the rest of the session.
The tentative decision to permit—
and even encourage—immediate action
on the segregation issue is a modifica
tion of an earlier position. A few weeks
ago the administration felt that the seg
regation question should be delayed un
til the governor’s legislative program
has been acted upon.
IMPOSSIBLE TO DELAY
Now, however, the administration
members are reported to feel that the
segregation issue is so hot that it will
be impossible to delay its consideration.
They think it would be better to pro-
igllllliilillllliilBIHIillliiiiilllllilli
For a special report on the situation
at Clinton, see page 6.
ceed at once with the passage of a
measure strengthening the hand of the
local school boards.
Clement is pictured as opposed not
only to any measure which would dam
age the school system but to any bill
expressing defiance of the U.S. Supreme
Court. This was beLeved to include in
terposition.
Two members of the governor’s cab
inet and a legislator close to the admin
istration have stated they favor grass
roots control to meet the school deseg
regation problem.
BOMAR PROPOSALS
James L. Bomar of Shelbyville, in
coming House speaker, is the latest ad
ministration leader to advocate a pupil
assignment law giving school boards
power to transfer students. Bomar said
such a law is being drafted for submis
sion to the 1957 General Assembly.
Speaking before a session of the state’s
city and county school superintendents
in Gatlinburg, Education Commissioner
Quill E. Cope called for leg'slation that
would provide ways and means for local
school boards to handle segregation
problems. Cope said he would resist
any attempt to bring destruction of “our
system of public education.”
Agriculture Secretary Buford Elling
ton was the first member of the cabinet
to suggest that local control may be the
answer to the segregation question.
On Dec. 31, Ellington said a school
segregation bill will be introduced with
administration support. While details
were not disclosed, it was reported that
the bill will give local school boards
authority to assign pupils and teachers
in the schools under their control.
It is expected that the bill will be
introduced in advance of or along with
Gov. Clement’s special message to the
legislature on segregation, which he
has asked permission to deliver during
the first week of the 1957 session.
‘SERIOUS PROBLEM’
“Everyone recognizes the authority of
the Supreme Court, but events [in
Clinton] show that we have a serious
problem on our hands,” Ellington said.
While the statements of these three
men were interpreted by some as a true
to permit legislative action to be taken
which would make it possible to actually
abolish, destroy or cripple this great
public school system.
AGAINST ABOLISHING SCHOOLS
“Any legislation which is passed in
Tennessee which would have as its pur
pose the abolition or the destruction of
our state system of schools or any con
stituent element thereof would jeopard
ize the very foundation of our school
system.
“I have long believed,” he said, “that
the state should vest most of the author
ity for the operation of schools in the
hands of local boards of education and
should keep education as close to the
people as possible.”
—Nashville Banner
indication of Clement’s sentiments at
this time, all maintained they are voic
ing their own opinions and not the gov
ernor’s.
State Sen. Clifford R. Allen Jr. of
Nashville has proposed a bill which
would provide that local school author
ities be given “full responsibility and
power” to make “all policy decisions”
with respect to school integration for
the next two years.
Highlights of the bill:
1) Local school boards would have
authority to determine how fast and in
what manner compulsory segregation
in schools will be ended.
2) For the next two years, school
staffed by white principals and teachers
and schools staffed by Negro principals
and teachers would not change the ra
cial composition of their faculties.
LOCAL AUTHORITY
3) Local boards would have the pow
er to establish school districts, and the
local superintendent of education would
have the power to assign each pupil to
a specified school.
4) White pupils would not be com
pelled to attend schools with Negro fac
ulties, nor Negro pupils schools with
white faculties.
5) White pupils would not be com
pelled to attend schools attended pre
dominantly by Negroes, nor Negro pu
pils schools attended predominantly by
white pupils.
6) School boards could make con
tracts with boards of other counties to
transfer pupils to the schools near them
in the other counties, providing free
transportation for the pupils.
7) Before transferring pupils, school
boards could require them to take tests
to assure they could keep up with the
“usual work and progress” of the class
in the new school.
NO RIGHTS ABRIDGED
8) The act would not authorize school
boards to violate or abridge the con
stitutional rights of any pupils or per
sons.
9) Pupils, parents or guardians dis
satisfied with school boards’ decisions
could appeal to the courts.
10) The act would expire June 30,
1959.
WHAT THEY SAY
Speaking to the state’s city and county
school superintendents in Gatlinburg,
State Education Commissioner Quill
Cope declared:
As a citizen and cabinet member he
has sworn to uphold the constitutions
of the United States and of Tennessee.
If he should defy them, he would be
threatening our form of government.
As an educator he can “never per
mit a situation to develop, without do
ing all in my power to prevent it, which
would bring the destruction of our sys
tem of public education.”
Cope urged legislation that “does not
deliberately defy” the Supreme Court
and that provides for local boards to
deal with segregation problems.
EXPRESSING OWN VIEWS
Cope said he was not giving the views
of Gov. Frank G. Clement, but termed
him “the best informed governor in the
South on the problems that have re
sulted from these decisions.”
Cope challenged the superintendents
to “seriously, conscientiously and
prayerfully try to make up your mind
what your position as an educator will
be” on integration in the schools.
He predicted a flood of bills on the
subject when the legislature convenes
in January.
“It would be possible,” he said, “by
hasty legislation, by giving vent to our
emotions, by laying aside reason, for us
Anderson County school board has
urged Supt. Frank E. Irwin to recon
sider his decision to step down when
his present term expires in January.
Irwin said the resolution “comes as a
surprise,” but declined to say whether
it alters his decision announced early
this month.
The Tennessee Society to Maintain
Segregation has demanded that Law
rence G. Derthick, recently named U.S.
Commissioner of Education and former
Chattanooga school superintendent, re
sign rather than receive a leave of ab
sence from his Chattanooga job.
Arthur A. Canada, president of the
organization, said in a prepared state
ment, the society “pointed out over a
year ago that Lawrence Derthick is a
believer in racial mixing and U.N. one-
world, one-race government.”
If Derthick is granted a leave of ab
sence, Canada said, he would be “in a
position to direct the federal govern
ment’s policies and also supervise its
implementation in the Chattanooga
area.”
“If Mr. Derthick is not an integration-
ist then he owes it to the parents and
taxpayers in Chattanooga who pay his
salary to say so,” Canada said.
Southern School News
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizens
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
May 17, 1954 declaring segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. SERS
is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation, but simply
reports the facts as it finds them, state by state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Ave.,
S., Nashville, Tenn.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Nashville, Tenn., under the authority
of the act of March 3, 1879.
OFFICERS
Virginius Dabney Chairman
Thomas R. Waring Vice-Chairman
Don Shoemaker . Executive Director
Patrick McCauley, Assistant to the Executive Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com- C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob-
mercial-Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. server, Charlotte, N.C.
Gordon Blackwell, Director, Institute Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash-
for Research in Social Science, Uni- ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
versity of N.C. r B , , _
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Vender- if' R T edd ’ Dean ‘ Flslt Umverslt y'
bilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Nashv.lle, Tenn.
Virginius Dabney, Editor, Richmond Shoemaker, Exec. Director Sou.
Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va. Education Reporting Service
Coleman A. Harwell, Editor, Nashville Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn. News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry H. Hill, President, George Pea- Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
body College, Nashville, Tenn. Schools, Richmond, Va.
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA MISSOURI
William H. McDonald, Editorial Robert Lasch, Editorial Writer St
Writer, Montgomery Advertiser Louis Post-Dispatch
ARKANSAS K
Thomas D. Davis, News Editor, Ar- NORTH CAROLINA
kansas Gazette Ja Y Jenlcins , Raleigh Bureau Chief,
DELAWARE Charlotte Observer
William P. Frank, Staff Writer, Wil- OKLAHOMA
mington News Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla-
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA homa City Oklahoman-Times
Jeanne Rogers, Education Writer, „
Washington Post & Times Herald SOUTH CAROLINA
FLORIDA D - Workman Jr., Special Corre-
Bert Collier, Staff Writer, Miami spondent, Columbia, S.C.
Heral <* TENNESSEE
GEORGIA James Elliott Staff Writer, Nashville
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Macon Banner
"2" Wallace Westfeldt, Staff Writer,
\a/ u i rj., . i w/ .. Nashville Tennessean
Weldon James, Editorial Writer,
Louisville Courier-Journal TEXAS
LOUISIANA Richard M. Morehead, Austin Bureau,
Leo Adde, Editorial Writer, New Or- Dallas News
' ea "‘ awn VIRGINIA
pj , . rj.. . | \i» .. Overton Jones, Editorial Writer,
Edgar L Jones Editorial Writer, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Baltimore Evening Sun r
MISSISSIPPI WEST VIRGINIA
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau, Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Memphis Commercial-Appeal Editor, Charleston Gazette
MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Acklen Station, Nashville 5, Tenn.
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Dext of Writ
Attachment Orders Arrest of 16 Clinton Figures
Following is the text of the court
order issued Dec. 5, 1956, by U.S. Dis
trict Judge Robert F. Taylor of Knox
ville in ordering the arrest on contempt
charges of 16 persons at Clinton accused
of interfering with the desegregation
process ordered by Judge Taylor in
the case of Joheather McSwain et al v.
County Board of Education of Ander
son County, Tenn., et al:
As appears of record . . . the court
heretofore on Jan. 4, 1956, entered an
order requiring and directing the dis
continuance of racial segregation in
Clinton High School, said school being
one of the high schools of Anderson
County, Tennessee, and located in the
town of Clinton; that pursuant to f aid
order the school officials of Anderson
County by their official action ordered
integration in the school of Negro and
white students to become effective at
the beginning of the fall term of school
of the present year of 1956; that inte
gration was accordingly put into effect
by the administrative officials and
teachers of the school; that notwith
standing official compliance with the
court’s order of Jan. 4, 1956, opposition
from others than the said officials and
teachers arose, aimed at preventing the
effectiveness of integration and restora
tion of the school as a segregated school;
that in response to a petition of D. J.
Brittain Jr. and others, of Aug. 29,
1956, the court on said Aug. 29, 1956,
issued a temporary restraining order
against one John Kasper and others en
joining and restraining them, their
agents, servants, representatives, attor
neys, and all other persons who were
acting or who may act or have acted
in concert with them “from further
hindering, obstructing, or in any wise
interfering with the carrying out” of
the integration order of Jan. 4, 1956;
that thereafter on Sept. 6, 1956, said
temporary restraining order was made
permanent; that despite the court’s or
der of Jan. 4, 1956 and the aforesaid
injunction, certain individuals have en
gaged in acts of violence toward Negro
students who enrolled in and under
took to attend Clinton High School;
that said individuals have carried on a
deliberate and persistent campaign of
intimidation against school officials;
have organized or joined a White Cit
izens Council aimed at preventing the
effectiveness of integration; have made
threats of violence against persons who
have cooperated with school officials in
their efforts to carry out the court’s in
tegration order; have engaged in pick
eting and congregating in the imme
diate vicinity of the school building for
purposes of intimidation and other de
vices for prevention of the effectiveness
of integration; have entered the school
building itself and engaged in acts of
intimidation and violence for the same
purpose; have instigated acts of violence
on the part of white students against
Negro students; have offered bribes to
white students as a me? ns of inducing
acts of insult and violence against Ne
gro students; have committed acts of
assault and battery against Negro stu
dents on their way to school and against
one or more white persons who have
undertaken to escort and protect Ne
gro students on their way to or from
school; and by the foregoing and various
other similar acts have created a condi
tion of lawlessness within and without
said school of such dangerous and in
tolerable character as to force the dos
ing of the school by the school officials
of Anderson County.
And it having been made to appear
to the court that one or more of the
aforesaid acts in criminal contempt of
the court’s order of Jan. 4,1956, and the
aforesaid injunction have been com
mitted by the following persons, name
ly:
Clyde Cook
Clifford Carter
Zella Nelson
Mary Nell Currier ,
Lawrence Brantley
Henson Nelson
Cleo Nelson
Chris Foust i
John B. Long
J. C. Cooley
Alonzo Bullock
Raymond Wood
William Brakebill
Thomas R. Sanders
W. H. Till ,
Jimmy Pearce
And it further appearmg that a P*‘
tition has been presented to the cou^
by the Honorable John C. Crawford ;
Jr., United States Attorney for &
Eastern District of Tennessee, chargi^
the above named persons with havte
individually and/or in concert '
one or more other persons commit*”
one or more of sa d acts of lawless^
by reason of which they are in said P 6
tition charged with criminal contend
of this court as defined by Title 18, ^
401, sub-sec. 3 of the United Staff
Code, in support of which petition su®.
cient facts by the sworn testimony/^ i
witnesses have been presented to
court to justify the conclusions here
before stated, respecting the acts of la '..
lessness charged in said petition agaia* t
the above named individuals;
It is, therefore, ordered that a wrjf
attachment be forthwith issued e° .
manding the marshal of this court ,
his deputies to attach the bodies of
above named individuals and have to .
bodies before this court in the dm 1 ',.
States Court House at Knoxville, " ^ ;
nessee, forthwith, to stand trial on .
charge of criminal contempt as
in said petition as set out in this ° ^
and to show cause why they show -.
be punished therefor and that a a
of this order be served upon the
individuals at the time they are ap
hended. ... i