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$7.27 Factual SOUTHI •VO * 0 N 3 H 1 V noisiaia jnaiiistnoDv S 3 I V b 8 I 1 V I 0fe03 9 JO All£«3AINf1 z 8002-u-g? 3nnr )L NEWS UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA 1' AUG 6’57 Ob; lective CS/ VOL. IV, NO. 2 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE $2 PER YEAR AUGUST, 1957 Court Rulings, Board Plans Mark Month Twelve of these East Tennesseans comprised the federal court jury which con victed seven persons last month on contempt charges for having conspired to in terfere with desegregation of the Clinton High School. The others were alter nates. Jury foreman was Powell May (front row, second from the left). 7 Found Guilty, 4 Freed At Clinton Trial’s End KNOXVILLE, Tenn. 4 t 2: 09 p.m. July 23, ten men and two women filed into the well of ‘ the federal court room in Knoxville and stood quietly facing Fed eral District Judge Robert L. Taylor. The air in the room was oppressive. The court room’s airconditioning system had been fighting a losing battle all day against the constant opening and closing of doors as spectators, defendants, attorneys and reporters moved about restlessly awaiting the jury’s decision. The jurors had retired to deliberate the case at 10:20 a.m. They had lunched for an hour and a half. Now they were standing before the judge 40 minutes after they returned from lunch. 18 ORIGINAL DEFENDANTS This was the end of a trial which grew out of disturbances at Anderson County’s Clinton High School last No vember and December—a trial that started off with 18 original defendants hut due to vagaries of life and one death, a trial that ended with 11 de fendants. The oppressive atmosphere of the room became charged with unspoken emotion. At 2:10 p.m., the voice of tall, white haired Powell May, the jury foreman, spoke: “We find the following defend- ents guilty: John Kasper, Lawrence Brantley, William Brakebill, Alonzo Bullock, Clyde Cook, Mary Nell Cur ler, Willard Till. We find the remain- defendants not guilty.” Jury Foreman May, a retired West- { ern Union operations manager, did not even read off the names of the de- endants who were acquitted—Clifford arter, a jobless truck driver; Edward Nison Nelson, a grocery clerk; Virgil eo Nelson, Henson’s brother and a ^rpenter; and Raymond Wood, a "°usepainter. r .. jury’s verdict, which took less an a minute to deliver, ended a trial had been more than six months I ^“Uilding. And at the same time, it J 'he stage for new legal develop- I ■ * n the case as defense counsel I Ij^^iately informed Judge Taylor y will file motions for a new trial. Cl yiL RIGHTS DEBATE .yh e trial opened on July 8. On the j j , e day the U. S. Senate started its | q u at P on the civil rights bill and the I sh^i'° n whether trials by jury utd be eliminated in cases involving j r , . na l contempt of court arising from Clal issues. I Ik, '• t), e e 16 defendants who were still in I ! ate Case when it came to trial (four b^f r re ceived judgments of acquittal J dia, 16 Case went to the jury) were ^Urt ^ w *th criminal contempt of ?, n ® rounc ts they allegedly vio- *he injunction issued last fall by 'hth ?' ay l° r prohibiting interference ! Uin* P^ceful desegregation of g n High School. j Really, they were charged with ! ^Sating on the route Negro chil- • iti °jlowed to and from the school th^ f °rt to intimidate and prevent *e re £ oni attending school. And they Pay n, a, f ’ e d with beating up the Rev. list . '. Turner, the young white Bap- 3i-o c *, ,r j}f ter who accompanied the Ne- H>r e Udren to c l ass on Dec. 4, shortly V J" the school closed temporarily res t of the week, the key charge was that the defendants had conspired with Freder ick John Kasper, the 27-year-old white Citizens Council leader, in their effort to keep the Negro children out of the school. Kasper has already been convicted once of violating the injunction. He has appealed this sentence to the U. S. Supreme Court. At the outset, Judge Taylor had let it be known the government would have to prove three basic points re lating to the activities of each defend ant before they could be found guilty as charged: 1) The defendant had notice of the injunction. 2) The defendant conspired with Kasper. 3) The defendant committed the overt act charged. JURY AND COUNSEL The first two days of the trial were devoted to selecting a jury. Thirty-one veniremen were questioned by both government attorneys and various members of the defense counsel (there were 18 defense attorneys of record) team, a team which varied in size daily from eight to 10 members. Of the 19 jurors excused, four were Negroes, one of whom said under ques tioning he favored segregation of the races. Of the 10 men and two women se lected for the final panel, all except one, as indicated by interviews with reporters after the trial, believe in ra cial segregation. The one juror, a man, said he was neutral on the question. During the questioning of veniremen, defense counsel made it clear that there was a division among their ranks. Kasper was represented by his own at torney, J. Beniamin Simmons of Wash ington, D.C. The remaining defendants were represented by the 17 other law yers, a group headed by Robert L. Dobbs of Memphis as chief counsel, a group which had been brought to gether by the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government. FEDERATION FINANCED DEFENSE The federation, a pro-segregation or ganization with headquarters in Nash ville, financed the defense for all of the accused except Kasper, through the “Freedom for Clinton Fund.” The fund, according to its chairman, Jack Ker shaw, a Nashville realtor, had received approximately $8,000 in contributions “from all over the country” and had spent $6,000 by the time the trial start ed. The government’s case against the defendants became readily apparent as the first few days of testimony got underway. Here’s the way it shaped up: Notice of injunction—The government witnesses testified that Kasper had no tice of the injunction because it was JUDGE ROBERT TAYLOR Significant Factor actually served on him last August when it was first issued as a temporary restraining order, that Cook actually read the injunction in the office of An derson County’s sheriff, that Till had the injunction explained to him at a September school board meeting and later discussed it with school board members, that Bullock and Mrs. Cur rier had it explained to them by a Clinton attorney, and that Mrs. Currier also had it explained to her on separ ate occasions by members of the Clin ton police department, that the remain ing defendants had notice of the in junction and its content through its wide publication in local newspaper, over radio and television. TESTIMONY OF CONSPIRACY Conspiracy with Kasper—Government witnesses testified Kasper was seen talking to Till in company of five Clin ton High School girls on the day after his arrival in Clinton last August. They testified Kasper made his intentions clear five days after his arrival in Clinton by telling the principal of Clin ton High School, D. J. Brittain, to either remove the Negro students from the school or resign. They testified that Till and Cook helped found the Tennessee White Cit izens Council. They testified that Kas per and Cook aided a group of Clinton youngsters to form a club known as the Tennessee White Youth. They tes tified that Kasper attended Citizens Council meetings and the youth club meetings with the other defendants. They testified that Clinton High School was free from internal trouble from the time the Labor Day disorders were stopped until Nov. 20—the date Kasper was acquitted on state charges of sedition and inciting to riot. They testified that from Nov. 20 up to the closing of school on Dec. 4 internal problems in the school increased. WEEKLY MEETINGS They testified that from September through the end of November, Kasper and the defendants—as individuals and in groups—were seen meeting together at least once a week in a Clinton cafe owned by the late John Gates, a friend of Kasper’s and a Citizens Council member, one of the original defend ants, who died in an insane asylum. They testified that on the dates Nov. 27, 28, 29 and 30 and on Dec. 3 and 4, all of the defendants except Kasper and Till had at various times congre gated on the route the Negro children (See CLINTON TRIAL, Page 2) TTalf a dozen key decisions—including the conviction of seven .1. A principals in the celebrated Clinton, Tenn. case—announcement of desegregation begun or planned in 25 more districts and halting of integration plans in Texas dominated July developments in 17 southern and border states. Three North Carolina cities—Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston- Salem, accepted a dozen Negro pupils into previously all-white schools in the first desegregation announced in the eight-state Southeast and Deep South area where resistance to the U. S. Supreme Court de cisions has been strongest. Meanwhile, the cities of Port Arthur and Galveston in Texas, to gether with some smaller communities, dropped fall integration plans because of a new state law which gate without a vote of the people. A Missouri survey showed that nine more districts have desegregated and that six more plan to do so in Sep tember. Oklahoma had one more de segregated district, with two more planning a similar move in the fall. Arkansas also reported desegregation in effect in Lincoln (Washington County) and planned in an additional district—Ozark—making five such oper ations scheduled for the state in Sep tember. Revised Southern School News fig ures showed 694 school districts deseg regated as of the end of the last school year. Approximately 3,000 remained segregated. In September, according to present indications, 18 more districts will de segregate, raising the number to 712. Of these, only about 15 will be in states outside the border region. The districts include the larger cities of Nashville, Tenn., and Little Rock and Fort Smith, Ark., together with the three North Carolina cities. ® In key court decisions the Fourth Circuit Court sustained a ruling against Virginia’s pupil placement act, and the schools of Dallas, Tex. were ordered to desegregate, but at no specific time. A suit against Florida’s placement act was dismissed while the Fifth Circuit Court ruled against a lower court which dis missed a desegregation suit in Dade (Miami) County. A federal district judge in Delaware, in the first decision of its kind, ordered wholesale desegre gation of segregated schools in the state. The state of Mississippi reported difficulty in floating school bonds, as did the university system of Georgia, where the state auditor blamed the “segregation bugaboo.” However, At lanta accepted low bids on bonds for 10 new schools, including seven for Negroes. A summary of major developments state-by-state follows: Alabama A bill gerrymandering most of Tus- kegee’s Negroes out of the city limit and thus out of a vote in municipal affairs became law as Negro voting, rather than school desegregation, dom inated the state’s affairs. Arkansas Little Rock, planning high school de segregation in September, heard pro tests from segregationist groups but said it would go ahead. One more dis trict was reported to have desegregated and another announced desegregation for September. bars aid for schools which desegre- district court which had ordered dis missal of a school entry suit against segregated Dade (Miami) County. Meanwhile, the same district court dis missed a suit challenging Florida’s 1956 pupil placement law. Georgia Two Georgia gubernatorial candidates were debating the degree of segrega tion which each espoused. The Georgia Education Commission got a go-ahead on a $376,000 campaign for a nationwide defense of the state’s segregation policy. Kentucky Both Louisville and its county, Jef ferson, said there would be no integra tion of faculties in desegregated schools for the time being despite a request from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Louisiana An effort to remove Democratic Na tional Committeeman Camille Gravel, who endorsed the partv’s 1956 civi * 1 2 3 rights plank and predicted eventual school desegregation, apparently was stalled by a ruling of the national com mittee. Maryland A district court decision upholding Harford County’s “selective integra tion” (screening of prospective Negro students) plan was under fire from the NAACP, which announced an appeal. Mississippi High costs of Mississippi’s equaliza tion program were borne home in in creased budgets and mounting interest rates for school bonds, the latter de velopment causing the state to with draw a $10 million offering and to clan smaller offerings to in-state investors. Missouri A survey showed nine more school districts desegregated with six others planning a similar move in September. North Carolina In the first projected desegregation in the Southeast, three Piedmont cities accepted 12 Negro punils for enrollment in previously all-white schools under the state’s Pupil Assignment Act. Oklahoma Tentative settlement in a federal court case opened the state school for the deaf to Negro registrants. Some faculty integration in Oklahoma City may occur this fall because of the clos ing of two Negro schools. South Carolina An effort by some ministers to obtain “moderate” expressions of sentiment on school segregation-desegregation was INSIDE State Reports Alabama 4 Kentucky 10 Oklahoma 12 Arkansas . 7 Louisiana 5 South Carolina 13 Delaware II Maryland 12 Tennessee 6 Dist. of Columbia 10 Mississippi 15 Texas 8 Florida 14 Missouri 14 Virginia I* Georgia 2 North Carolina . . 3 West Virginia 9 Special Features Clinton After the Trial 6 Norfolk-Newport News Case Decision. 16 Fifth Circuit Court Rulings in Dallas, Dade County Cases 8 and 14 Text of Decision in Delaware Cases. I I Delaware In the first such ruling of its kind, a federal judge ordered all school districts of the state desegregated. State and local authorities planned to appeal to higher courts. District of Columbia Washington’s school board approved a request for $58.2 million to operate the schools in fiscal 1959—a record budget for the desegregated system. Florida The Fifth Circuit Court reversed a disclosed by Gov. George Bell Timmer man, who criticized it by inference. Tennessee Zones for first grade integration in the schools of Nashville this fall (under court order) were disclosed as op position mounted. In a nationally prom inent case, a jury at Knoxville con victed seven and acquitted four de fendants in a contempt-of-court case involving disturbances last year at Clinton. (See COURT RULINGS, Page 2)