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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY 1957—PAGE 7
Tennessee City Prepares Fall Plan; 300 in Appeal to Eisenhower
NASHVILLE, Term.
T his fall Nashville will be
come the first of Tennessee’s
larger cities to begin desegrega
tion of its public schools. Under a
federal court order, compulsory
segregation will end in the first
grade.
Nashville’s School Supt. W. A.
Bass reports that 3,200 students
will be affected by the integration
program. Of these, approximately
41 per cent will be Negroes. He es
timates, however, that only about
200 Negro children are expected
to seek admission to formerly all-
white schools. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Three hundred clerical and lay church
leaders from 12 southern states ended
a three-day human relations confer
ence in Nashville with a plea to Presi
dent Eisenhower to come South and
“add a personal word of encourage
ment” to churchmen working “to estab
lish a more democratic order” in their
communities.
Backed by a federal court order and
a unanimous resolution of the Nashville
school board, Supt. W. A. Bass is
preparing plans to end compulsory
segregation in the first grade this fall.
There are about 3,200 first grade stu
dents in the Nashville school system. Of
these, approximately 41 per cent are
Negroes. Bass has estimated that per
haps 200 Negroes will seek to enter
formerly all-white schools this fall.
The Nashville superintendent believes
every effort must be made to achieve
communitywide support of the integra
tion program. “Whether we agree with
the Supreme Court decision or not,” he
has said, “we must remember the Court
has spoken in this matter, and, more
important, a federal court in Nashville
has directed us to take the step we are
taking this September.”
8-POINT PROGRAM
To get what he calls community
support at the grass roots, Bass has sub
mitted to both Negro and white Parent-
Teacher Associations an eight-point
Program of action:
!) Establish study groups in the school
communities for the purpose of inform-
‘ ng as many citizens as possible of the
apreme Court’s ruling and the board
°f education’s policy.
2) Make a careful but positive expo
s' 'on of the board’s policy whenever
and wherever feasible.
N °T COMPULSORY
3) Make clear to all school patrons
t desegregation is not a matter of
compulsory integration or compulsory
aac'al intercourse.
, 4 ) Gain and “transmit” the point of
*f w *-hiat the main job of the Nashville
c ools during the coming school year
B ‘° teach children.
) Help people arrive at a common
tin 6rStand ^ teachers must con-
. Ue to teach and not become advocates
either segregation or desegregation.
) Help people reach a general accep
tance of the fact that the public schools
exist for all the children and that all the
children, regardless of race or color,
must be given an equal opportunity.
7) Help people gain the idea of
appealing to reason in solving whatever
problems may rise from desegregating
the first grade.
8) Understand that desegregation is
not just a matter for the board of edu
cation. It is a community matter and the
PTA can do much to assist the board in
making the community become aware
of it.
TALKS WITH PARENTS
In addition, Bass is discussing the
integration program with interested
parents at the schools.
He feels it is particularly important
that Nashville’s labor force be told
what is being done and why. The pos
sibility of a radio-television address
by the superintendent in late spring or
summer also is under consideration. An
experienced school administrator, Bass
feels that a direct, sincere appeal of this
kind could do much to enlist commun
itywide backing.
Ten thousand copies of the board of
education’s resolution and a summary of
the federal court order have been
printed in a small brochure which Bass
is distributing.
A major problem of the Nashville
program, according to Bass, is the
establishment of new school districts.
Under the court-approved plan, new
zones will be designated. Right now
three committees, composed of white
and Negro school leaders, are mapping
new zones in three areas.
LECTURES FOR TEACHERS
On May 9 and 10 Nashville teachers,
particularly first grade instructors and
elementary school principals, will attend
a series of lectures on the integration
question. At this conference, Bass
intends to distribute to first grade
teachers and elementary school princi
pals several books on race relations
which, he believes, will give each a bet
ter insight into the problem. The super
intendent also has a list of books in this
field which he is urging PTA members
to read.
The Nashville superintendent reports
that to date he has received little evi
dence of opposition to the integration
plan. Several persons antagonistic to
the program have called him at his
home, he reports, but he has received
no calls in the past month.
A recent letter received at his office
revealed an attempt by the Ku Klux
Klan to organize in Nashville to disrupt
the integration program. The letter to
Bass, written on the back of the mimeo
graphed KKK membership appeal,
rapped school officials and promised to
oppose integration “until the last
breath is drawn.” It was signed and the
signee’s reported address given.
Bass believes it is necessary to have
the complete cooperation of both Nash
ville newspapers. He feels that coverage
of developments must be complete yet,
at the same time, he is fearful that pre
mature release of news stories could
cause much misunderstanding.
SEES MAYOR, CHIEF
Preliminary talks with Mayor Ben
West have opened the way for future
conferences between Bass, the Mayor
and Chief of Police D. E. Hosse. The
Nashville superintendent is anxious
that in the event of a disturbance
Georg
Jia
(Continued From Page 6)
de ^ ense f° r economic and organ
w *° n al efficiency in an era of gre
r s and the increased Negro partic
jo on hi the political process—accou
r the changed conditions.
S, Tl'ATION ‘BETTER . . . WORSE’
jj ^ Guy Wells, director of the Geor-
Council on Human Relations (for
te i Georgia Interracial Commit-
v sa 'd in an interview in the Macon
:.'f s that the racial situation in the
tj 0ij e Was better in that some modera-
has been shown in public state-
r . ■ ts of some public officials, money-
res ltlg e ff°rts are meeting with better
littl° nSe ’ mini sters are speaking out a
'he K rn . ore firmly and church groups
. “ e ginning to face the problem. Dr.
had Sa ' d) however, that the situation
.Worsened in that there was more
at this time.
e • Wells, a former president of
"’as 813 ^ tate College for Women who
cq. gripped of his title of president
l^r'tus by the State Board of Regents
°t his pro-integration views,
of ..'here is a change in the attitudes
rep re e churches. Speakers who don’t
heiii Sen t the majority viewpoint are
the \ invited occasionally to speak in
churches, he said, and pastors are
ready to move but fear for their se
curity.
Some Negro leaders had told him,
Dr. Wells said, that if the public officers
would make some concessions for high
er learning they would not press for
immediate integration into public
schools.
Sen. Richard B. Russell, addressing
the 66th Congress of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, meeting in
Washington, D.C., criticized proposed
civil rights bills. The present proposals,
he said, infringe on the civil rights of
the many in order to “establish doubt
ful civil rights for the benefit of one
group.”
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Congressman E. L. Forrester of Geor
gia signed a Minority Report to H.R.
6127 (the legislation known as the civil
rights proposals). Rep. Forrester said
the legislation is unconstitutional and
opposition was not on a sectional basis,
but “upon the solid ground that our
liberties are seriously threatened; that
we do not want law by injunction en
forced by contempt proceedings; that
the right of trial by jury must be pro
tected and that religion should never
be made a matter of legislation.”
# # #
school people know what legal measures
are available.
Bass is thinking of preparing a bro
chure which will fist emergency pro
cedures and which will be distributed
to all elementary schools. He is also
anxious that the police who may be
called out to assist in such an emerg
ency get to know the school people in
their area.
By no later than Dec. 31, the city
school board must have a plan for
future desegregation steps, the federal
court has ruled.
WHITE PTA APPROVES
The Nashville Council of Parent
Teacher Associations has adopted a mo
tion approving the city board of edu
cation’s first grade desegregation plan.
The Negro PTA council has not en
dorsed the school board plan.
Bass disclosed that two applications
for teaching jobs have been withdrawn
because of the integration plans.
The superintendent is slated to deliver
a report on the desegregation program
at the May meeting of the school board.
Approximately 300 southern church
leaders concerned with racial tensions
attended the three-day Conference on
Christian Faith and Human Relations
in Nashville during late April.
Sponsors of the conference—the Ten
nessee Council of Churches, Nashville;
the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen,
and a wide range of individual southern
leaders — said its main hope was to
prompt the Christian community to an
awareness that “Christ asks that men
worship not only with their lips but also
with their lives.”
KEEP CHANNELS OPEN’
Principal speakers included:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of
the bus boycott in Montgomery and pas
tor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church, Montgomery: “The church must
seek to keep channels of communication
open between the Negro and white com
munity.
“Men hate each other because they
fear each other; they fear each other
because they don’t know each other;
they don’t know each other because they
are separated from each other. And only
by keeping the channels of communica
tions open can we know each other.”
Col. Francis Pickens Miller, one-time
gubernatorial candidate in Virginia and
church leader: “In the long run you (the
Negro) have everything on your side.
You have world opinion on your side.
You have the law of the land on your
side. You have Christian conscience on
your side.
“You are entering a new period in
which you will stand on your own two
feet, and I know that you are glad of it.
ACCEPTANCE ON PERFORMANCE
“You will continue to work for your
rights, and you have every right to do
so. Nonetheless, it is a fact that the thing
that will give you acceptance in Ameri
can society is not status but quality of
performance—being good doctors, good
lawyers, good teachers, good citizens.”
The Rev. Das Kelley Barnett, the
Episcopal Theological Seminary of the
Southwest: “Christian churches ought
to formulate at the institutional level
a long-range strategy” to break through
segregation barriers. “This calls for in
terdenominational cooperation. By this
I do not mean that it has to be some
great world church, but simply joining
together to face a common problem.”
President Eisenhower, who had been
asked to address the conference, wired:
“Please give my greetings to those at
tending the conference on Christian
faith and human relations and my con
gratulations to its sponsoring body.
“Coming together, united in one faith,
and seeking the common welfare, I am
sure you will arrive at a constructive
approach to the problems of our day. It
is important that new plans and effective
programs be considered if we are to
make the service of God and neighbor
meaningful in our generation. Best
wishes for the success of your confer
ence.”
The President’s failure to speak be
fore the conference and the tone of his
telegram were said to be the reasons
for a return telegram asking the Presi
dent to come South and “add a personal
word of encouragement” to churchmen
working “to establish a more democratic
order” in their communities.
Signed by Everett Tilson, associate
professor of Biblical Theology, Vander
bilt Divinity School, Nashville, the mes
sage said in part:
USE NAME, OFFICE
“The 300 churchmen from 12 south
ern states who participated in the con
ference directed the planning committee
to restate our hope that you will con
tinue to use the prestige of your name
and office to lend support and leader
ship to those earnestly striving to ex
pand justice and goodwill. In many in
stances where men are attempting to
implement their Christian faith and
democratic duty they are persecuted
and harassed, often without sympathy
or support from constituted authority.”
In Memphis approximately 110 whites
and Negroes attended the day-long sec
ond annual Race Relations Conference
at LeMoyne College in mid-April. They
concluded human (or race) relations
have improved in some fields and in
some they may have slipped a bit.
Among the points made: No time can
be set for when integration in Memphis
schools will come—if ever.
Terming segregation “more American
than hot dogs and baseball,” defense
attorneys have called federal interven
tion illegal in the Clinton integration
cases.
The assertions were contained in final
defense briefs filed in U. S. District
Court at Knoxville in behalf of 16 And
erson County residents charged with
criminal contempt in connection with
racial disorders. The attorneys contend
ed, among other things, that federal in
tervention is illegal because only Gov.
Frank Clement had the power to
ask the federal government to step into
the case.
The 16, together with segregationist
John Kasper, are charged with contempt
on grounds they violated Judge Robert
L. Taylor’s permanent injunction against
interference with the school’s integra
tion.
Kasper is seeking a separate trial. The
government has asked that he be tried
with the other defendants. All are free
on bond.
•PASSING THE BUCK’
The defense attorneys—Thomas Gore
of Nashville, Robert L. Dobbs of Mem
phis and Grover McCloud of Birming
ham, Ala. — declared the Anderson
County school board was “passing the
buck” when it demanded that the fed
eral government step in to prevent vio
lence.
The government has until May 1 to file
its final briefs. Taylor has scheduled
oral arguments the next day. He is ex
pected to set a trial date at that time.
Meanwhile, the Sixth U. S. Circuit
Court in Cincinnati has heard Kas
per s appeal from an earlier conviction
of contempt of court in integration dis
orders at Clinton. Kasper seeks to have
the conviction set aside, or, as an al
ternative, have the case returned to dis
trict court for retrial. Kasper claims his
constitutional rights were invaded when
he was arrested and convicted in Knox
ville district court.
The Sixth Circuit Court’s ruling is
expected to have a bearing on govern
ment action against 16 persons charged
with contempt under the same court
order.
In Nashville, Jack Kershaw, segrega
tionist leader, said none of the money
collected for the defense of the 16
Clinton defendants would be used in
behalf of Kasper.
COLLEGE CASE APPEAL
The state of Tennessee has filed an
appeal with the U. S. Supreme Court
from a federal appellate court ruling
against the state’s gradual desegrega
tion plan for state-controlled colleges.
Federal Judge Marion S. Boyd ruled
in favor of the state’s gradual plan and
denied the admission of five Negroes
seeking to enter Memphis State College.
One of them, Ruth Booker of Memphis,
appealed his decision to the Sixth Cir
cuit Court in Cincinnati.
By a two-to-one vote, the appeals
body overruled Judge Boyd and re
turned the case for further action. The
court said the five-year wait under the
gradual plan seemed to be a “non-com
pliance with the declaration of the U. S.
Supreme Court.”
Memphis Mayor Edmund Orgill, asked
at a City Commission session to state
his stand on integration, replied: “I do
not believe in integration of our schools.
I think it would be bad for two prin
cipal reasons — first, the predominant
public opinion is against it, and second,
it would hurt the quality of our teach
ing.
“We’ve had remarkably little racial
trouble in Memphis. This is due in large
part to the wisdom of our Negro leaders
of today.
“. . . In this period of tension we need
to do what we have been doing. Things
are going along very good as it is. The
less talking we do, the better.”
Hodding Carter, editor of the Green
ville, Miss. Delta Democrat-Times,
speaking to members of a Unitarian
Church conference in Nashville: Since
the U. S. Supreme Court rulings on
school segregation, the easy-going
southern climate for tolerance is chang
ing into a demand for conformity of
thought—a demand that is coming from
both races.
FIRST AMENDMENT IN DANGER
“Because of this, the first amendment
to our Constitution is probably in more
danger in the South today than are
either our white or Negro children.”
Gov. Frank Clement, addressing the
Rotary Club of New York on Clinton:
“Those of us in the South think all the
cards should be laid on the table face
up before criticism is offered. Those
things that are wrong when they happen
south of the Mason-Dixon line cannot
be condoned as right when they happen
north of the Mason-Dixon line.”
D. J. Brittain Jr., principal of Clinton
High School, has accepted a teaching
fellowship at New York University.
The 41-year-old educator said he will
teach classes in secondary education at
NYU while studying for a doctor’s de
gree in school administration and su
pervision. The fellowship is effective
Sept. 1.
Brittain, who holds a master of science
degree from the University of Tennes
see, has been principal at Clinton for
14 years. Altogether, he has taught in
Anderson County schools 20 years.
Brittain said his contract at Clinton
High ended with the current school year,
and added: “I am not re-applying for
the job. I have wanted for a long time
to continue my work toward a doctor’s
degree.”
STUDY INCLUDES RACE
Tennessee’s Legislative Council is tak
ing a long-range, comprehensive look
at educational needs in the state from
the first grade through college for the
next 10 years. Included in the survey
is the segregation auestion, although Dr.
James E. Gibbs, director of the public
school survey, would not say just what
aspects of the segregation problem are
being studied.
“We are looking into every phase of
education,” he said, “and we are study
ing segregation as it fits into the overall
picture.” Target date for completion of
the survey of both public schools and
higher education is July 1.
Union teachers of the Chattanooga
and Hamilton County schools have laid
plans to withdraw from the American
Federation of Teachers unless an ulti
matum ordering them to consolidate
with the Negro local in Chattanooga is
revised.
Local 246—the organization for white
teachers of the city and county — has
voted to remain with the parent AFT
at least until its national convention
in Chicago Aug. 19-23. However, if the
AFT’s view of segregated locals is not
revised at the convention, an independ
ent organization called the Chattanooga -
Hamilton County Teachers Federation
will represent the teachers thereafter.
MIGRATORY CHANGES
White population of rural West Ten
nessee has declined at a more rapid rate
than the Negro population from 1950-
55, census studies of the University of
Tennessee reveal. This indicated a re
versal of the West Tennessee migration
trend of 1940-50.
Lack of economic opportunity is the
reason given for both white and Negro
migration from these areas. Saturation
of job opportunities for the Negro in
the North is believed to be the reason
why Negro migration has declined in
the last five years.
Gov. Frank Clement, in late March,
vetoed a bill which would have amend
ed the compulsory school attendance
law.
Admittedly a school segregation meas
ure, it would have permitted parents to
withdraw their children from school
provided they re-entered them in an
other public or private school within
30 days.
# # #