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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE 1957—PAGE 15
Trial of Kasper and 15
Others Set for July 8
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
T he trial of John Kasper and
15 other persons on charges
of criminal contempt for violating
a federal court injunction against
interference with desegregation at
Clinton High School has been set
for July 8. (See “Legal Action.”)
This announcement by Federal
District Judge Robert L. Taylor
of Knoxville came 10 days after
Anderson County’s Clinton High
School ended its first year of de
segregation quietly and without
fanfare and with the graduation
of the school’s first Negro student.
(See “School Boards and School
men.”)
In Clinton also, the Anderson Coun
tv school board announced the election
of a new superintendent to replace
D. J. Brittain who previously an
nounced his resignation to take an in
structor’s post at New York Univer
sity. (See “School Boards and School-
men. )
And in Nashville, where the city
school system will start desegregation
this fall in the first grade, Supt. W. A.
Bass announced his retirement effec
tive Dec. 31. The school board an
nounced the election of a high school
principal to replace Bass. (See “School
Boards and Schoolmen.”)
The latest development in the con
tempt of court cases (McSwain v.
Board of Education of Anderson
County) arising out of the controversy
over desegregation in Anderson Coun
ty’s Clinton High School occurred on
May 27 when Federal District Judge
Robert L. Taylor in Knoxville set July
8 as the date for the joint trial of John
Kasper and 15 other residents of Clin
ton and Anderson County.
All are charged with violating a fed
eral court order, issued last August by
Judge Taylor, enjoining anyone from
interfering with the peaceful desegre
gation of the Clinton school.
Earlier in the month, after hearing
argument from counsel for the defend
ants, Judge Taylor granted their re
quest for a jury trial.
SEVERANCE DENIED
However, Taylor refused to grant
separate trials for the defendants,
something which had been sought by
Kasper and the other defendants. In
a brief filed by counsel for all de
fendants except Kasper, it was de
clared that the defendants believed it
would be difficult for them to receive
a fair and impartial trial” should
fheir case be heard jointly with Kas
per’s.
John C. Crawford Jr., U. S. district
a ttorney, replied to this plea in the
Year-End Summary
1) Desegregation of Anderson
County s Clinton High School last
August became the focal point of
racial disturbances in the fall and
later in December.
2) A ruling by the state su
preme court held that the Tennes-
see constitutional provision requir
ed segregation in the public
schools, as well as similar state
w s, were rendered unconstitu
tional by the U.S. Supreme Court’s
ec ision in the school segregation
cases.
. 'd The federal court order issued
! n the Clinton school case, enjoin-
eg anyone from interfering with
a peaceful desegregation of the
school, became the source of a
9al controversy over the scope
I" 1 use of the court’s injunctive
-- and precipitated the estab-
15 ment of a regionwide effort to
*? CUre defense funds for persons
arged with criminal contempt of
°urt for allegedly violating the in
junction.
4J Five pieces of permissive leg-
bon, including a pupil assign-
cut law, by the 80th General
^ssembl,
focal
hi were designed to give
T . . school boards the means to
e _ a ‘ n segregated public schools,
sch decision by the Nashville
r ,°°f board, under federal court
er > to start desegregation in the
s t grade next September thereby
e >t the second public school
m in the state to desegregate.
syste
—Associated Press Photo
BOBBY CAIN
Clinton Graduate
government’s brief, saying, “If they
[the defendants exclusive of Kasper]
can establish they did not do the acts
charged, in active concert and partici
pation with defendant Kasper, they
must go free ... All that the defend
ants can really be objecting to is the
possible effect that defendant Kasper’s
presence may have on the jury. Cer
tainly this speculative psychological
assertion does not outweigh the com
pelling considerations of trial conven
ience that dictate a single trial.”
ONE CASE DISMISSED
When Judge Taylor set the trial for
July 8, he also dismissed, at the re
quest of Crawford, criminal contempt
charges against one of the defendants,
16-year-old James Dale Patmore. Pat
more was charged in the Clinton case
as a result of disturbances at the
school last December under the name
of Jimmy Pierce. He was a freshman
at the school last fall but quit school
in October.
He is presently serving a term in the
state reformatory for burglary.
The first year of desegregation at the
Clinton High School ended quietly on
Friday, May 17, the third anniversary
of the U. S. Supreme Court’s ruling in
the school segregation cases, with the
graduation of the school’s first Negro
student.
The student was Bobby Cain, 17, one
of the original 12 Negro students ad
mitted to the school last August.
Not once during the 70-minute cere
mony was there any reference to de
segregation or the disturbance that be
set the school sporadically since it first
admitted the Negro students. At grad
uation time six of the original 12
Negro students (including Cain) re
mained.
NEW CLINTON PRINCIPAL
On May 9, R. G. Grossno, chairman
of the Anderson County school board,
announced the name of the man who
will replace D. J. Brittain as principal
at the Clinton High School. He is 51-
year-old W. Dudley Human, a man
with 24 years in teaching, including
10 years as superintendent of the Mor
gan County schools.
Human received a bachelor’s degree
from Tennessee Polytechnic Institute
in 1933 and a master’s in school admin
istration from the University of Ten
nessee in 1954. He is married and has
one child. Human’s appointment is
effective in August.
While Clinton was ending its first
year of desegregation, Nashville’s
school administrators were at work
preparing detailed plans for the start
of desegregation in the first grade next
fall. Final touches on new school zone
plans were being made in the super
intendent’s office.
Teachers and principals attended
lectures on desegregation (one by
Supt. Omer Carmichael of Louisville).
Nashville’s white teacher association
officially went on record in support of
the board of education’s desegregation
policy, saying, “We join the board in
calling on all people of good will to
assist us in making the adjustment in
our schools that may be demanded by
this monumental change.”
W. A. Bass, city school superinten
dent, continued his program of speak
ing to PTA organizations in the city on
the impending change in the school
system. The largest meeting he ad
dressed was a joint session of PTAs
from three schools on May 13, all of
which will be affected by the deseg
regation plan.
Recalling the events which preceded
the school board’s plan to end com
pulsory segregation in the first grade,
Bass said:
“Your school board adopted this sys
tem with regret. They felt that the
community is not yet ready for this
step, but they were under compulsion
to comply with the Supreme Court’s
decision...
‘WHAT WOULD YOU DO?'
“As parents,” he said, “you can get
mad, cuss us out, call us names. But
I’d like to ask you one question:
What would you do if you were where
we are? Or, you can take what I be
lieve is the best course for all of us
and say to yourself: ‘I don’t believe
in this, but it is the law of the land
and I’ll be a good citizen of the great
est country in the world and abide by
it’.. .
“Somehow, we’ve got to find in our
community the substance of what it
takes to get along with our fellow
man,” the superintendent said. “You
parents can help us a lot in this prob
lem. You can also give us a lot of
trouble if you want to. We hope you’ll
help us.”
In a question and answer period fol
lowing Bass’s remarks the superin
tendent and school board came under
fire of one school patron, a department
store salesman.
QUESTION FROM FLOOR
“Do the people of Nashville have
anything to say about how their
schools are run?” asked Chester Ma
son, the father of two elementary
school children.
“Yes,” said Bass, “but they can’t set
aside a decision of the Supreme Court.”
“Are people of other communities
more intelligent than we are in fight
ing this sickness of integration?” Ma
son asked. “Why can’t Tennessee take
action like Virginia and South Caro
lina against it?”
Bass replied, “The final word isn't
in yet” on the anti-desegregation laws
adopted in those states.
“Will all the parents who request
transfers for their children get them?”
Mason asked. “If not, isn’t that forced
integration?”
There is no guarantee that all par
ents will be granted the transfers re
quested for their children, Bass said.
He described the city’s desegregation
plan as “compulsory desegregation.”
‘MIGHT IMPROVE'
A mother said she was ready to send
her children to school with Negroes. “I
can’t see where it would hurt them
any,” she said. “In fact, it might im
prove their personalities.”
Bass’s effort to prepare the com
munity for desegregation was inter
rupted on May 20 when he entered a
Nashville hospital because of a “di
gestive upset.”
The following day, the 68-year-old
superintendent submitted his decision
to retire to the school board at the
expiration of his present contract on
Dec. 31.
The superintendent' said he was re
signing for “personal reasons.”
NEW SUPERINTENDENT NAMED
Immediately after the receipt of
Bass’s letter of resignation, the board,
in executive session, unanimously
elected W. H. Oliver, principal of
Nashville’s East High School, to re
place Bass.
Oliver received a B.A. degree from
Vanderbilt University and an M.A.
from George Peabody College for
Teachers.
In an interview the day after his
election, Oliver said the school board’s
desegregation policy was the best that
could have been adopted under the
circumstances. He said the cooperation
of the entire community was necessary
to make it work.
Oliver will become an assistant su
perintendent July 1 and become super
intendent effective Jan. 1, 1958.
KNOXVILLE’S 8 PLANS
Under pressure of a lawsuit to de
segregate its public schools, the Knox
ville school board studied eight pos
sible plans of desegregation. The plans,
according to school board sources, had
been under consideration prior to the
suit. In essence, they are:
1) A plan to desegregate all 12
grades during the first month of a
designated school year, such as was
done in Louisville. Such a plan was
considered advantageous because it
would tend to prevent desegregation
lawsuits, keep unity in homes, and
eliminate tensions likely to develop
between students of segregated and
desegregated classes, be in keeping
with “Christian ideals,” make a favor
able impression upon foreigners visit
ing Knoxville, and be “in keeping with
the U.S. Supreme Court decree.” It
was considered disadvantageous be
cause it required “too severe a change
in one year.”
2) Desegregate grades one through
six at the beginning of a school year,
then desegregate grades seven through
12 at the beginning of the following
school year.
ADVANTAGES TOLD
The advantage of this plan, accord
ing to board thinking, would be that
younger children are less conditioned
to racial prejudice and there would be
less opportunity for discrimination by
parents.
3) Desegregate grades one through
six the first year, seven through nine
the second, and 10 through 12 the
third.
The advantage of this plan, accord
ing to the board, is that it would allow
for experimentation at each grade
Ominous Shadow
—Nashville Banner
level. Its disadvantage is that it would
be “too rapid for some elementary
schools in some areas and would likely
create overcrowding in some schools.”
4) The remaining five plans are
combinations of the above with slight
modifications.
The plans were based on suggestions
from elementary school principals, di
rectors and supervisors.
The Ku Klux Klan popped back into
the news in three places in Tennessee
last month.
In Nashville, a Klan member, in an
interview with the Nashville Banner,
estimated membership in the Klan in
Nashville and Davidson County at
6,000. He said 186 persons attended a
secret Klan meeting in the city on
April 7. Asked why only 186 persons
attended the meeting when the Klan
member estimated there are 6,000 KKK
members in the city and county, the
Klansman replied he believed at least
96 per cent of the 6,000 are “silent
members.”
A week later, on May 10, the Nash
ville leader of the Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan said 3,000 to 10,000 KKK
members are expected to be in Nash
ville for a rally on June 8.
PROTEST IN NASHVILLE
The KKK leader, Ernest Carr, is a
sheet metal contractor. He said the
rally will be held to protest desegre
gation in the Nashville schools.
On May 11, segregationist John Kas
per was ordered away from a Klan
meeting on the outskirts of Clinton
and later chased out of a restaurant
near the scene by Klansmen. Kasper
said the meeting was a “colossal fail
ure.”
On May 13, three teams in Chatta
nooga’s softball league withdrew from
the league without giving official rea
son for their action but as an apparent
result of criticism focused on the
league because one of its teams was
sponsored by the KKK.
The withdrawing teams were spon
sored by DuPont, Combustion Engi
neering and Peerless Woolen Mills.
Their withdrawal came shortly after
the Chattanooga Times editorialized,
“‘Are the great national corporations
of DuPont, and Combustion Engineer
ing and Peerless Woolen Mills, part of
the huge Burlington mills, the Chatta
nooga Gas Company and the Ridgedale
Merchants prepared to go with their
teams playing ball with the KKK?”
In other community developments,
the deadline for complying with two
new state laws requiring registration
with the state of organizations pro
moting racial litigation or legislation
passed without any organization reg
istering.
# # #
West Virginia
(Continued From Page 3)
schools in Charleston which were closed
by the desegregation process.
Supt. Lovenstein replied to this criti
cism by saying the aim is to reopen
them later as junior high schools when
funds can be found to enlarge and re
furbish them. They presently are too
costly to operate as mixed schools.
Historic old Storer College at Harp
ers Ferry, closed two years ago for lack
of funds, may be reopened if an appeal
for $200,000 in gifts is answered.
The appeal is for money to renovate
the 90-year-old buildings on the site
of a Civil War battle. Mary P. Dyson,
secretary of the college’s board of trus
tees, said if Storer is reopened it would
be an integrated junior college with
terminal and transferrable credits, and
would include dormitories and boarding
hall.
Storer, founded in 1867, was forced
to close after the Supreme Court’s de
segregation decision. Although its char
ter had no provision that its enrollment
be restricted, the college had all Ne
gro students.
The state of West Virginia contribut
ed $20,000 annually to its support be
cause there was no Negro state college
in the Eastern Panhandle. But after the
court ruling, the state withdrew its sub
sidy and the school was forced to close.
Miss Dyson said the $200,000 is need
ed by Aug. 15. The appeal, she ex-
Dlained, is directed to “all Christians,
alumni and friends of Storer College
and the millions of Negroes” in the
country. Under the plans envisioned by
the trustees, the college would be able
to handle 300 students, more than twice
its peak enrollment at anytime in the
past.
At Davis on May 14 Judge William J.
Thompson predicted that before “too
long” a second state forestry camp will
be established in West Virginia. (The
first desegregated forestry camp for
juvenile delinquents was set up by act
of the legislature last year.)
Thompson, judge of Kanawha Coun
ty’s intermediate court and a prime
mover in the forestry camp program,
spoke at a policy school for state con
servation officers. Youngsters sent to
the camp engage in conservation prac
tices on a big new state park at Black-
water Falls, go to school there, and are
under modified security regulations dur
ing their stay.
Judge Thompson emphasized the val
ue of the program as a conservation
medium, saying:
“It makes it possible for resource
agencies to accomplish needed forest
improvements, recreational develop
ment and the protection projects for
which money would not otherwise be
available. The two programs of human
and natural resource development com
plement each other. The combination
of the two justify the expenditure of
public funds required for the camp.”
Gov. Underwood, asked for his views
later on the forestry camp program,
said he has not been in office long
enough to properly acquaint himself
with the work. But he admitted that
he is favorably inclined toward the idea.
# # #
Reference Microfilm
Inquiries Are Invited
SERS invites inquiries from
educational institutions, libraries
and news media concerning a pro
fessional microfilm, now in prep
aration, of its voluminous refer
ence material. The SERS library
numbers some 70,000 items and is
the only available large collection
of information in this field. The
film will include tens of thousands
of newspaper clippings, magazine
articles, court decisions, important
public speeches, study reports, etc.,
and a complete catalogue on seg
regation-desegregation arranged
for ready reference.