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PAGE 14—NOVEMBER 1958—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TENNESSEE
Rebuilding Of Bombed Clinton High Stirs Argument
The Clinton High School was rocked by three dynamite blasts the night of Oct. 5.
The result is shown above. Damages to the school were estimated at between
$250,000 and $300,000. Insurance covers $73,000 of the loss. The Anderson County
Board of Education, which operates the school, has asked for federal aid to repair
the damages on grounds the damage occurred as a result of the board’s compliance
with the federal orders to desegregate.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
lmost a year of calm at inte
grated Clinton High School
ended when three blasts reduced
much of the building to rubble and
set off a new sort of controversy.
The question: Who should pay
for rebuilding when a school is
wrecked as an outgrowth of the
segregation-desegregation issue?
Many Clintonians and other
Tennesseans, including Gov.
Frank G. Clement, thought the
federal government had an obliga
tion, having required integration
through its courts. President Eis
enhower in a press conference de
plored the incident but expressed
reservations about U.S. responsi
bility to provide money.
The issue was unresolved as private
contributions poured in from through
out the country, and school officials ac
cepted them provided no “strings” are
attached.
MOVED TO OAK RIDGE
Meanwhile, the school’s student body
was moved to a former elementary
school that had been vacated at nearby
Oak Ridge. Ten Negro students made
the trip in a bus not shared by white
children. School Supt. J. A. Newman
said “it just happened that way.” (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
John Kasper retained Raulston
Schoolfield, who was impeached last
summer as a circuit judge, as his chief
attorney in a trial to start at Nashville
Nov. 3. Kasper called for more than 200
defense witnesses as he faced a charge
of inciting to riot. (See “Legal Action.”)
Former Gov. Jim Nance McCord was
campaigning for the office as an inde
pendent against Democratic nominee
Buford Ellington, calling for “open pub
lic schools” with “calm confidence.”
(See “Political Activity.”)
Three heavy blasts early on the morn
ing of Oct. 5 left much of the Clinton
High School building a shambles. It put
the East Tennessee town again in the
center of national attention, and the
problem of providing funds for repair
ing the damage took on national aspects.
Estimated loss was $250,000, of which
$73,000 was covered by insurance. The
Anderson County school board expect
ed to get some federal funds to help
rebuild. Voluntary contributions were
rolling in from throughout the country,
and the board agreed to accept them as
long as there were “no strings attached.”
At the end of October, there were no
indications that a solution of the crime
was in sight. It was believed definitely
linked to other blasts of schools and
religious institutions in the South. Au
thorities considered it a “professional
job.”
CALLED BY GOVERNOR
Gov. Frank G. Clement quickly sum
moned Anderson County officials to
Nashville for a conference. All vowed
that education of the school’s 870 stu
dents would not be interrupted. Church
es in Clinton offered their buildings. Of
ficials at nearby Oak Ridge promptly
offered use of an empty elementary
school building there—vacated because
of housing changes at the atomic energy
installation.
The Oak Ridge offer was accepted.
After three days of meeting at the
damaged school while the new quarters
were being made ready, the students
were driven in 15 school buses and in
automobiles to their improvised place
of education on Oct. 9.
Ten of the 11 Negro students (one
was suspended in September for carry
ing a knife) rode in a single bus with
no white students aboard it. School Supt.
J. A. Newman said no system of bus
loading was followed and “it just hap
pened that way.”
WHITE STUDENTS SEPARATE
When no white students entered the
bus with the Negroes, Newman told
Southern School News, “we didn’t
force any of them.” He added that some
additional seats on the bus were taken,
however, by adult educational person
nel.
Reporters at the scene said “some ten
sion” was apparent among the boys and
girls although the whites and Negroes
ostensibly ignored one another. One
white boy told a newsman the Negroes
would have been “beaten up” had they
been on a bus with the whites. But most
of the youngsters said nothing about it.
School Principal W. D. Human told a
reporter: “I never saw a community
come together and work as hard as this
one after their school was destroyed.
There were over 200 working at one
time, cleaning, moving furniture, get
ting the unused building ready to open.
They did in three days what normally
would have taken weeks to accomplish.”
The students once more adequately
housed, education officials turned to the
problem of repairing the vast damage
to the sprawling brick structure erect
ed in 1927 and twice enlarged. The night
before the explosions, the county school
board had met to discuss the serious
need of new buildings for other schools.
Suddenly, the problem had mounted.
SEEK FEDERAL AID
County officials and school board
members decided rapidly that they
should look to the federal government
for financial aid. They prepared a state
ment for President Eisenhower, and a
delegation went to Washington.
Basing their request on two federal
laws providing aid for public schools in
so-called federally impacted areas, the
Clinton group met on Oct. 8 with two
White House staff members, Rocco C.
Siciliano and Edward A. McCabe. They
were unable to see the President but
the letter they left for him stated:
“There can be no doubt that these
criminal acts of dynamite terrorism are
directed toward the conscientious ef
forts of the Anderson County school
board to comply with the decisions of
the United States Supreme Court and
the orders of the United States District
Court with regard to the integration of
races . . .
‘CONTRARY TO CONVICTIONS’
“It is our determination, and we con
sider it imperative, to keep the public
schools . . . open and operating in ac
cordance with the law. Although the
integration of Clinton High School was
contrary to our personal convictions,
we have sought to carry out our duties
in accordance with the law and to abide
in good faith by the orders of our fed
eral courts.
“However, at this time Anderson
County is not in a financial position to
restore or to replace this building . . .
The financial means are not available on
a local level...”
The county officials urged the White
House to consider a program which
would provide (1) federal financial aid
to communities financially burdened
because of federal court integration
orders and (2) legislation to set up some
form of insurance program for schools
as protection against loss from dyna
miting and other violence.
TWO POSSIBLE SOURCES
U.S. Commissioner of Education Law
rence Derthick, former superintendent
of Chattanooga schools, ordered an im
mediate study to determine what sort
of emergency federal aid might be forth
coming. As a result, two U.S. programs
were cited: one which might provide
construction funds for a school in which
federally-connected students have in
creased by five per cent or more in a
two-year period, the other involving
maintenance and operating money in
volving federally-connected enrollments
in locally-owned schools. Parents of
some Clinton students work for the
Atomic Energy Commission at Oak
Ridge.
But immediate prospects for a large
grant from Washington seemed dim.
The maximum appeared to be between
$20,000 and $30,000. President Eisen
hower said at a press conference Oct.
15 that some federal aid might be avail
able but operation of schools is primarily
a state and local responsibility. He add
ed that the U.S. can’t step in with money
every time something goes wrong with
a school from a water faucet on up.
OFFICIALS PIQUED
School officials at Clinton were
piqued, and so was Gov. Clement.
School board member R. G. Crossno, one
of the delegation, said the group got an
official “run-around, heave-ho and pass-
the-buck.” Another member, O. C.
Mayes, said “integration ... by court
order caused the building to be blown
up, and it is the responsibility of the
federal government.”
Board member Ralph Shanlever com
mented: “The President said operation
of the schools is a local matter. I wish
they had held that view two years ago
when we were forced to integrate.”
Gov. Clement said Eisenhower’s state
ment “shocked, amazed and dismayed”
him.
If the federal government “provides
fixed bayonets” to enforce a law, the
governor contended, it should “certainly
look with favor upon public officials
who have done their best” to abide by
that law. He added: “The people of a
community should not be held respon
sible for the acts of terrorists who often
are from out of the state.”
CONTINGENCY FUND
Clement reminded the delegation that
he will not be governor after Jan. 15
but he said he would suggest that the
1959 legislature “take under advise
ment” the possibility of a state con
tingency fund to meet needs caused by
such occurrences in the future. Legal
difficulties stand in the way of provid
ing state aid at present, state education
officials reported.
School Supt. Newman, back at his
office in Clinton, told Southern
School News that private contributions
were mounting. Crossno, speaking for
the school board, said such gifts will
be welcome—but the school will not be
rebuilt “as a memorial to integration
or segregation.”
Newman reported that about $6,000
had arrived three weeks after the blasts
as a result of a drive led by newspaper
columnist Drew Pearson, who visited
Clinton Oct. 15 and started a nation
wide campaign.
SOME FEDERAL PROTECTION
Meantime, it seemed clear that the
Clinton students and faculty had a
measure of federal protection now they
were without previously. Their leased
school building at Oak Ridge is the
property of the U. S. government and
under its protection, although the
county has agreed to see that is it
maintained without damage or loss.
The handful of Negro pupils attended
mixed classes in about the same at
mosphere they did at Clinton. They
tended to stay together, left pretty
much alone, and white students con
tinued to feel they were under no com
pulsion to integrate so far as transpor
tation facilities were concerned.
Supt. Newman said he considered it
noteworthy that “before 1956, when
this situation started in the high school,
all the county school buses were inte
grated—and nobody thought anything
about it.”
He explained that Negro elementary
school pupils rode the same buses as
white high school pupils. However,
Negro high school students were trans
ported in a separate bus to a segregated
school in an adjoining county, there
being no high school for Negroes in
Anderson County.
The trial of John Kasper, New Jer
sey-born racial agitator who recently
sought unsuccessfully to register as a
Tennessee voter, was scheduled to start
Nov. 3 at Nashville, where he was
indicted last year on a charge of incit
ing to riot.
As Criminal Court Judge Homer B.
Weimar overruled a motion to quash
the indictment, Kasper said he wanted
more than 200 witnesses to testify in
his behalf. The state submitted a list
of 34 prospective witnesses, including
several newsmen who covered the dis
orders accompanying first-grade de
segregation of Nashville schools in
September, 1957.
Kasper retained as his attorneys
Raulston Schoolfield of Chattanooga,
who was impeached as a Circuit Court
judge and removed from office by the
state legislature last summer, and his
law partner, Excell Eaves. A third at
torney, J. Alfred Smith of Nashville,
withdrew shortly after Kasper named
him because “our principles are not
the same.”
CONTEMPT APPEAL HEARD
Two weeks previously, attorneys for
Kasper and six residents of Clinton
argued before the U. S. Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals at Cincinnati that
their trial at Knoxville on contempt of
court charges was unfairly conducted.
The court took the case under advise
ment.
Kasper was sentenced to six months
in jail on a charge of violating a Fed
eral Court injunction against interfer
ing with integration of Clinton High
School. The other six defendants,
charged with being in a Kasper-led
group which precipitated rioting in
August 1956, got probated sentences
ranging from 15 months to two years.
Nine additional defendants were freed;
one died in a mental hospital soon after
the charges were filed.
Attorneys for the Clinton residents,
keeping their case separate from that
of Kasper, declared their appeal was
“based on principle” despite the fact
U. S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor
suspended all fines and sentences other
than that against Kasper. They said
they plan to go to the U. S. Supreme
Blasts, Damages Listed
Chronology of major bombings
and bombing attempts involving
southern schools and religious
institutions in 1957 and 1958:
Sept. 10, 1957—Hattie Cotton
School, Nashville, damage, $71,000.
Nov. 12,1957—Six sticks of dyn
amite and partly burned fuse
found alongside Temple Beth-El,
Charlotte, N.C.
Feb. 9, 1958—Thirty dynamite
sticks and partly burned fuse
found at side door of Temple
Emanuel, Gastonia, N.C.
March 16, 1958—Temple Beth-
El, Miami, damage $30,000; Jew
ish Community Center, Nashville,
damage $6,000.
April 28, 1958—Jewish Com
munity Center and James Weldon
Johnson Junior High School for
Negroes, both at Jacksonville,
Fla., damage minor; 54 dynamite
sticks and partly burned fuse
found at Temple Beth-El, Birm
ingham.
June 29, 1958—Bethel Baptist
Church (Negro), Birmingham,
damage minor (previously blasted
in December 1954).
Oct. 5, 1958—Clinton, Tenn.,
High School, damage estimated at
$250,000.
Oct. 12, 1958—Temple of He
brew Benevolent Congregation,
Atlanta, damage estimated at
$200,000.
Court if they are denied rehearings by
the court of appeals.
MSU CASE
At Memphis, the state of Tennessee
asked a federal district court to throw
out a lawsuit filed by four Negroes
seeking admittance to Memphis State
University. State Atty. Gen. George S.
McCanless said the plaintiffs should
take the case through the state courts.
The suit grew out of a state Board of
Education order in September delaying
integration at MSU a year after Presi
dent J. M. Smith said he feared vio
lence. Eight Negroes had passed en
trance examinations.
Four of the eight asked Federal
Judge Marion S. Boyd for a prelimi
nary injunction to halt the delay, basing
their action partly on the recent Su
preme Court decision against suspen
sion of integration at Little Rock.
The state’s motion to dismiss the in
junction proceeding said: “There are
available to plaintiffs adequate and
complete remedies for the wrongs of
which they complain in the courts of
Tennessee which the plaintiffs should
be required to resort to and exhaust
before invoking the jurisdiction of this
[federal] court.”
Judge Boyd took the matter under
advisement.
A former governor of Tennessee, Jim
Nance McCord, created a ripple in an
otherwise placid general election cam
paign by running as an independent
candidate against the Democratic nom
inee for governor, Buford Ellington.
The 79-year-old McCord declared in
his opening campaign address that “re
sponsibility to the youth of Tennessee
demands open public schools. There is
much turmoil and uncertainty in the
future of public education throughout
the South. This future we must face
with a calm confidence on the part of
all our citizens that our schools shall
continue to operate.”
This statement was in reference to
Ellington’s position as “an old-fashioned
segregationist” who would “close a
school to prevent violence or blood
shed.”
‘SCHOOLS MUST CONTINUE’
McCord said: “While my whole back
ground reflects a philosophy of segre
gation of the races, the public school
system . . . must continue to grow,
uninterrupted by lawlessness and vio
lence . . .
“My idea is the local school boards
will operate their schools, and the state
. . . will only come in when the peace
and quiet of community life is dis
turbed, for the purpose of preserving
law and order. I propose to be a con
stitutional governor and to enforce all
laws of the state under that constitu
tion.”
Ellington’s supporters countered that
Judge Andrew Taylor, running in the
primary with McCord’s support, cam
paigned on a somewhat stronger pro-
segregation stand than did Ellington.
KASPER BACKS REPUBLICANS
Republicans have token candidates
for both governor and U. S. senator,
and several other independents will be
on the Nov. 4 ballot. Among them are
Knoxvillians Lee Foster and Tom
Gouge, running for governor and sena
tor respectively with the endorsement
of racist John Kasper. Foster has been
an associate of Kasper and posted his
$2,500 bond in the pending ineiting-to-
riot case against him at Nashville.
Kasper said if Foster and Gouge are
elected “Tennessee will be able to de
fend its public schools by the armed
might of a volunteer militia, which will
meet force with force, violence with
violence and bayonets with bayonets
wherever and whenever the federal
government assaults Tennessee as it
has in Arkansas and elsewhere.”
Officers in East Tennessee’s McMinn
County escorted Kasper and Foster to
the county line when they sought to
hold a rally in Athens Oct. 28 after be
ing asked to “move on.” Police Chief
Ray Johnson said “we’ve got a nice,
quiet town here, and we don’t want
any trouble. It would have been per
fectly all right for Foster to speak here
if he just hadn’t brought that fellow
(Kasper) with him.”
NEGRO CANDIDATE
For the first time since the Recon
struction, a Negro is a candidate in a
countywide election in Madison County,
in strongly pro-segregationist West
Tennessee. The Rev. U. Z. McKinnon,
an NAACP leader, is running against
three white men for one of the coun
ty’s two seats in a state constitutional
convention.
McKinnon disclaimed racial aspects
in his candidacy, declaring he was
seeking support from “people of good
will of both races.” Seventy-two per
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