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PAGE 2—JULY 1957—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Knoxville, Tenn. Board Asks Federal
Court to Dismiss School Entry Suit
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
'T'he Knoxville Board of Edu-
* cation has told a federal court
that “speed and complete deseg
regation should not be attempted
in Knoxville.” However, in reply
to a school integration suit, the
board said a “prompt and reason
able start toward the solution of
these problems” has been made
and that the suit should be dis
missed. (See “Legal Action.”)
An organization has been
formed in Nashville seeking com
munity-wide support to preserve
racially segregated schools under
segregation laws passed by the
1957 General Assembly. (See
“Community Action.”)
John Kasper plans to take his con
tempt conviction to the U.S. Supreme
Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals
in Cincinnati upheld his one-year pri
son sentence. (See “Legal Action.”)
A Ku Klux Klan rally in Nashville
fizzled when approximately 150 robed
Klansmen attended. Klansmen were
quoted as expecting from three to seven
thousand. (See “Community Action.”)
While Nashville’s school system
pushed plans to end compulsory segre
gation in the first grade this fall a
group dedicated to the continued op
eration of racially separated schools an
nounced its organization in late June.
Named the Parents School Preference
Committee, the group is headed by
Chester W. Mason, chairman, and Ed
win W. Hill, secretary-treasurer.
The committee, according to Mason,
bases its demands on two segregation
laws passed last winter by the Tennes
see legislature. Mason said actions and
purposes of the committee are in “full
conformity with Public Chapter No. 11,
Acts of 1957.”
TEXT OF ACT
The act, according to Mason, reads:
“Section 1. Be it enacted by the Gen
eral Assembly of the State of Tennes
see, that boards of education of counties,
cities and special school districts in this
state are authorized to provide separate
schools for white and Negro children
whose parents, legal custodians or guar
dians voluntarily elect that such chil
dren attend school with members of
their own race.
“Section 2. Be it' further enacted, that
this Act shall take effect from and after
its passage, the public welfare requir
ing it.”
“What we are asking,” said Mason,
is that the school board take cogni
zance of this law and see to it that the
children of Nashville are sent to schools
of their parents’ choice, be they white
or colored. This is the board’s respon
sibility to Nashville. They cannot in
good faith ignore it any longer.”
CIRCULATE PETITIONS
Workers are in the process of cover
ing all parts of the city soliciting signa
tures of parents on petitions stating
their school preference, Mason said.
“Reports so far show that parents and
other citizens contacted seem to wonder
why the school board has taken no pub
lic notice of the passage of the volun
tary segregation bill . . . and the pupil
assignment law, and they wonder why
they have never been consulted as to
their wishes or ideas on this matter.”
However, members of the school
board said there are no changes planned
in the school program for next fall.
Elmer Pettit, acting chairman, said the
board had been informed early in May
that the committee was circulating pe
titions asking that the segregation laws
be enforced.
Under federal court order, the Nash
ville schools are taking the first inte
gration step this fall. Nashville is the
first large school system in Tennessee
ordered to begin desegregation. Under
the court ruling, a complete desegrega
tion program must be presented to the
court not later than Dec. 31.
ADVISED TO CONTINUE
Pettit said school hoard attorney Ed
win Hunt had advised the board to con
tinue with the court-approved plan,
since the parents’ group “apparently
misunderstood” the new law, in feeling
that its enforcement would prevent in
tegration.
In a letter May 10 answering the in
quiry of Mrs. Thomas Bland, school
board secretary, concerning the petition
to avoid integration by use of the new
law, Hunt said the law does not author
ize the boards to continue with white
and Negro schools, and add a third
class of schools which would be inte
grated.
Hunt said he had been told by an
author of the bill that the act would
serve only to prevent compulsory inte
gration by allowing voluntary transfer.
The board’s plan for September also
allows parents to request transfer of
their children.
BOARD CHALLENGED
Earlier in the month Donald David
son, author, Vanderbilt University pro
fessor and state chairman of the Fed
eration for Constitutional Government,
challenged the school board to make
use of the new laws to answer the in
tegration order.
In a prepared statement Davidson
said:
“. . . They [the state laws] are now
in force, and they are valid unless and
until they are ruled invalid by court
decision. Nashville parents have the full
and unquestionable right to demand
application of these laws. It is not only
a matter of ordinary prudence for our
school officials to inform our people
about their rights under these laws. It
is their legal duty for them to do so.
In fact, it would be highly imprudent
as well as a dereliction of public duty
for them not to take these laws into
full consideration in making their
plans . . .”
KLAN RALLY HELD
A widely-heralded Ku Klux Klan
rally in Nashville fizzled when 150 of
the estimated 3,000 to 7,000 Klansmen
expected showed up.
Four speakers, three unidentified and
Emmett Carr, Grand Titan of Middle
Tennessee, Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan, lashed out at the Supreme Court,
the Red Cross, the Community Chest,
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, and
warned of “mongrelization” of the
races.
Originally intended to he a three-
state rally, the meeting attracted Klans
men from Nashville, Memphis, Chat
tanooga, Clinton and Maryville, accord
ing to Carr. The hulk, he said, were
from Davidson (Nashville) County.
John Kasper announced in late June
he had helped organize a white Citi
zens Council in Nashville with “21
charter members.” He said the organi
zation planned a rally in Nashville in
July.
Kasper, in a newspaper interview he
sought in Nashville, declined to name
the “21 charter members” or the place
of their meeting. He said officials of
the new council will be disclosed later.
“The charter members are ‘hard
core’ people,” Kasper said, “and many
more are needed. I’m much more en
couraged after coming than before I
arrived.”
Kasper declared it was “absolutely
necessary” to bring in “outside help”
to Nashville in order to “retain racial
privacy,” due to the lack of what he
called an articulate local segregation
leadership.
Earlier in the month Kasper urged
the Knoxville city school board mem
bers to resign if die U. S. district court
orders racial integration in the Knox
ville schools. Kasper said he was ap
pearing before the board to get infor
mation on what the board was plan
ning to do about a suit filed by a group
of Negro students seeking admission to
white high schools in Knoxville. The
suit is pending in federal court.
Kasper declared of integration: “If
you are against it, and resign in pro
test of any federal order, it could have
the greatest possible effect on the state
legislature. It could mean a special ses
sion.
“If you do not believe in mixing races
and have the backbone, you will resign
in a body.”
Board Chairman Andrew Johnson
replied: “You talk about backbone or
the lack of it. I believe that it is cow
ardice to suggest that we resign. I have
no intention of resigning simply be
cause of the problem we have to face.
“I for one intend to uphold the law.”
Other board members endorsed his
statement.
UNDER SU
In its annual report released in June,
the Tennessee Federation for Consti
tutional Government charged the state
administration had failed “its citizens at
every crucial point.”
Signed by state chairman Donald
Davidson, the report hit Gov. Frank
Clement and Atty. Gen. George Mc-
Canless for failing “to assert the rights
of the state” through a nullification
edict and intervention on behalf of the
16 Clinton citizens arrested for violation
of a federal court injunction.
The report noted the organization’s
action in sending a questionnaire to
state political leaders on the segrega
tion issue, its proposals for a legislative
program to head off integration, its
“freedom fund for Clinton” to finance
the defense for the accused Clinton
citizens, and its program of furnishing
legal advice to persons involved in fed
eral segregation cases.
The report criticized the segregation
legislation passed by the 1957 legisla
ture as “clearly not a secure bulwark
against the encroachments of a social
istic and tyrannical federal govern
ment” and rapped the “Tennessee Mani
festo” for failing “to declare the uncon
stitutional decisions of the Supreme
Court null, void and of no force.”
The report said the organization now
has members in 75 of Tennessee’s 96
counties and that membership has
more than doubled in the past year.
The city school board in Knoxville
told the U.S. District Court June 28 in
reply to a school integration suit that
“speed and complete desegregation
should not be attempted in Knoxville.”
The board, however, said in a brief
that it has made a “prompt and rea
sonable start toward the solution of
these problems” in “complete good
faith” with the U. S. Supreme Court’s
1954 segregation rulings.
Last Jan. 7, 12 Negro students and
their parents filed a suit seeking ad
mittance to white schools. The case
will be tried before Federal Judge
Robert L. Taylor. A date for the hear
ing has not been set.
SAY NO DISCRIMINATION
The answer said that prior to 1954
the Knoxville city schools were in
essence following the Supreme Court
mandate of separate but equal facili
ties.
In administering this policy, the
answer said, there has been no dis
crimination against the Negro and the
school board has adhered to the en
forcement of the same standards of
education for Negroes and whites.
The answer gave these figures:
Number of white students: 18,585 or
81.2 per cent.
Number of Negro students: 4,284 or
18.8 per cent.
Number of white schools: 32 or 74.2
per cent.
Number of Negro schools: 11. or 25.8
per cent.
Number of white teachers: 697 or 81.8
per cent.
Number of Negro teachers: 155 or 18.2
per cent.
Average salary of all teachers: $4,082.
Average salary of white teachers
(men): $4,221.
Average salary
(men): $4,485.
Average salary
(women): $4,027.
Average salary
(women): $4,102.
Expenditures in
(since 1954):
White schools: $2,942,585 or 69.08 per
cent.
Negro schools: $1,317,152 or 30.92 per
cent.
The answer said “an unwise and too
hasty attempt to carry out the order
of the Supreme Court will seriously
disrupt and impede the education of
the pupils of Knoxville both white and
Negro.”
Faculty conferences have been held
to discuss the question of integration,
the answer pointed out. About a month
ago, the board published several plans
for integration which it said it was dis
cussing. These ranged from complete
integration in one year to the end of
integration grade-by-grade beginning
with the first grade. In all, eight plans
were listed.
The U. S. Court of Appeals in Cin
cinnati has upheld the prison sentence
imposed on John Kasper for his p art
in the Clinton school integration riots
last August. In Washington, J. Benja.
min Simmons, attorney for Kasper, said
the conviction will be appealed to the
U. S. Supreme Court.
of
of
Negro
white
of
Negro
building
teachers
teachers
teachers
program
MISCELLANEOUS
Letters from “Save Our Schools,” an
organization which says it aims to es
tablish private schools if public schools
are integrated, have been reported in
Knoxville.
The letter was signed by Mrs. Wade
Keever, chairman of the organization’s
steering committee. She has been close
ly associated with John Kasper, but
she told newsmen Kasper had nothing
to do with the letter.
The letter said the aim of the organ,
ization is “to establish private, non-
sectarian schools which will answer the
needs of children, parents and teachers
who believe in maintaining racial pri
vacy and separate schools for white and
Negro children.”
TWO REFUSED
Memphis State University has refused
to admit two Negro women for under
graduate study during the summer ses
sion because they applied too late. May
24 was the deadline for undergraduates
to register.
Petitions asking that segregation of
the races be maintained in the South
are being circulated in West Memphis
by a Negro organization.
M. D. Hemphill, president of the Mid-
South Public Relations Bureau, said
more than 1,100 Negro volunteers are
spreading the petitions in West Mem
phis and over the mid-South in an ef
fort to keep segregation in schools and
churches.
“I was bom in Arkansas and reared
in the South. And I have interviewed
thousands of Negroes in all walks of
life. I have found very few who favor
mixed schools,” Hemphill said. “They
want their own schools but equal
rights.” # # #
Two Kentucky Colleges Join to Plan
Extension Courses for Frankfort
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
rrhiE University of Kentucky
and the formerly all-Negro in
stitution, Kentucky State College,
will cooperate in offering exten
sion courses in Frankfort begin
ning next fall. (See “In the Col
leges.”)
Gov. A. B. Chandler, tossing his
hat into the 1960 Presidential
ring, reiterated his belief that
“this integration business is a
situation that must be met.” (See
“Political Activity.”)
The Henderson city school board
took under consideration a Negro re
quest to speed up its integration pro
gram, initiated for first-graders only
last fall. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Ala
bama Negro bus boycott leader, told
Kentucky State College graduates that
the Supreme Court’s desegregation rul
ing had opened a new era for Negroes.
(See “What They Say.”)
campus, but when conditions warrant
graduate or noncredit courses may be
offered off-campus.
Undergraduate courses will carry
KSC credits, and undergraduate and
noncredit students will register on the
KSC campus. Graduate courses will be
offered for UK extension credit, and
graduate students will be registered by
extension with UK.
Kentucky State regents also an
nounced approval of a $460,000 building
program for a new library, a student-
union building, and an alumni guest
house.
tion for a consolidated Negro school,
saying, “Give us a first-class school
with adequate equipment and teachers
of our own race and we will send our
children to it.” But the bond issue for
such a school was rejected by an over
whelming vote, and both county and
city systems last fall began their par
tial integration programs.
The Supreme Court’s
gation ruling opened a
1954 desegre-
new era for
The University of Kentucky, which
has had several Negro students an
nually since 1949, teamed with Ken
tucky State College in June to an
nounce cooperative extension courses
for the Greater Frankfort area begin
ning next fall. Faculty members from
both institutions and other qualified
persons will teach the courses.
The cooperative plan was approved by
the UK board of trustees in mid-June,
by the KSC board of regents a week
later. It was announced as a joint ef
fort to “meet the growing needs in
the Greater Frankfort area for contin
ued education and training for state
government employes, business, indus
trial and professional groups, high
school graduates, educators and other
individuals who may desire to broaden
their intellectual and cultural horizons.”
The program is expected to increase
greatly the interracial character of col
lege extension classes in Kentucky’s
capital city. (Kentucky State, with a
predominantly Negro faculty, has had
only a handful of white students in
such classes during the past two years.)
Classes will be held chiefly on the KSC
At the 49th annual Governors’ Con
ference in Williamsburg, Va., on June
25, Kentucky’s Gov. A. B. Chandler an
nounced he would enter “two or three”
Presidential preference primary elec
tions in 1960 “to see what happens.”
He said he didn’t blame Dr. Robert
R. Martin, state superintendent of pub
lic instruction, for supporting the fed
eral school aid program (“he is a pro
fessional educator and all of them are
for it”). But he opposed federal school
aid himself—“but not for the reasons
southern people usually give, because I
believe this integration business is a
situation that must be met.”
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
Four Negro women on June 10 asked
the Henderson city school board to
speed up an integration program they
deemed “too slow.”
Initiated last fall for first-graders
only, the program in the city and an
elementary-school integration program
in the county precipitated brief white
student boycotts.
The Negro delegation criticized the
present program as a handicap to Negro
children scholastically, and said that
the one Negro high school in Hender
son lacks adequate courses in geometry,
music, physical education and shop.
MAY GO TO COURT
If board action on a complete inte
gration program is not forthcoming, the
delegation said, they “will be willing’’
to seek court action.
In 1955, as reported in Southern
School News, hundreds of Henderson
County Negro parents signed a peti-
Negroes, the Rev. Martin Luther King-
Alabama Negro leader, told Kentucky
State College students at their 69th
graduation exercises on June 2.
Normally held on the KSC campus
the exercises were moved to the gyrn-
nasium of the desegregated Frankfort
High School to accommodate an over
flow audience.
King said, “This is no time to be
good Negro anything. You simply hare
to be a good teacher, not a good Negro
teacher—a good preacher, not a g°°°
Negro preacher. Doors will be openiO-
to you now that were closed in
past. You have got to resolve, there
fore, to do your job so well it can
be excelled . . .”
annot
30.
spoken
Three eastern institutions—Harva
Yale and Dartmouth—in June
ferred honorary degrees on Louis'™^
Supt. Omer Carmichael, recipient.
May of the honorary doctor of laws .
gree from the University of Kentu
Another Louisville news-maker,
R. Branham, made more news on •
The former Detroiter, whose 0 ^
ken segregationist sentiments ^
fall resulted in temporary refHjjjr,
Louisville school officials to admit
was one of 225 students graduated
Male High School. ^
Earlier in the spring young Bra ^
had won a “superior rating” in th e __
gional and state high school P°*A-
reading contest. His announced ^- s .
tion is to enter the University of
ville, then become a lawyer. «
# *