Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY—PAGE 3
TENNESSEE
Nashville’s Grade-a-Year Plan Clears U.S. Supreme Court
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
he U.S. Supreme Court al
lowed Nashville’s grade-a-year
desegregation program to stand,
refusing by a six-to-three vote to
hear an appeal from lower courts.
It was the first decision by the
nation’s highest tribunal on a
graduated desegregation plan of
this scope, and the Nashville
Board of Education continued to
receive inquiries about the plan
from southern school administra
tors. (See “Legal Action.”)
As Nashville seemed assured of
nine more years to meet the court
requirement of “all deliberate
speed,” moves seeking public
school desegregation were made in
Knoxville and in Memphis.
A new lawsuit was filed in federal
district court at Knoxville, replacing
litigation which was dismissed earlier
this year on technical grounds. (See
“Legal Action.”) The Memphis Board
of Education received a petition from
a group of Negro parents and denied
their request on grounds they repre
sented a “special interest” group. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Racist John Kasper, released after
serving his second federal sentence in
connection with desegregation disor
ders at Clinton, returned to Tennessee
to await U.S. Supreme Court action on
his appeal of a state court conviction
for inciting to riot at Nashville. He said
he would continue to campaign for
segregation but “in a different man
ner.” (See “Miscellaneous.”)
Nashville’s grade-a-year desegrega
tion plan for city schools, with its
transfer provision for members of
racial minorities, has become the first
eraluated program of its kind to clear
the U.S. Supreme Court.
By a six-to-three vote, the tribunal
refused on Dec. 14 to consider an ap-
oeal from lower court approval of the
“stairstep” program now in its third
year. The process began in the first
grade and will continue under federal
district court surveillance until it
reaches the 12th grade in 1968.
The decision was considered certain
to quicken interest throughout the
South in the plan which was the out
growth of a long-pending lawsuit filed
by parents of Negro children (Kelley
et al v. Nashville Board of Education).
City School Supt. William Henry Oli
ver terms the procedure “best for
Nashville” without making recommen
dations to other school systems.
ONE VOTE SHORT
Provision in the Nashville plan for
transfers of pupils from one school to
another proved to be the only point of
difference reported by the Supreme
Court justices. The transfer feature had
been scored sharply by counsel for the
Negro plaintiffs seeking further appeal,
and three members of the court fav
ored hearing arguments on this one
phase of the plan. That was one vote
short of the number needed under
usual court procedure to call for oral
argument of a case.
The provision in question allows
transfer of any pupil, on application
of his parents, from a school where
the majority of pupils are of a race
different from his.
Chief Justice Earl Warren and Asso
ciate Justices William O. Douglas and
William J. Brennan said thev thought
the court should make a ruling as to
the transfer aspect because the plan
explicitly recognized race as an abso
lute ground for the transfer of students
between schools, thereby perpetuating
rather than limiting racial discrimina
tion.”
(For more detailed accounts of the
Nashville case, see Southern School
News for May, July, August, Septem
ber and October 1959.)
brief order
The decision, considered one of the
most significant in a school desegrega
tion case to come from the Supreme
Court since implementation of its “all
deliberate speed” ruling began, was
contained in a brief posted order.
Attorneys for the Nashville Negro
Parents and for the National Assn, for
the Advancement of Colored People,
had called for immediate, complete
desegregation of all grades. They in
dicated they might refile their petition.
Z. Alexander Looby, Nashville law
yer who has been active in all deseg
regation moves in Tennessee and is
one of the city’s two Negro council-
W. H. OLIVER
‘Best for Nashville’
men, said he wanted to talk further
with his clients before deciding defi
nitely whether to seek reconsideration
of the case.
Even though a new petition is prob
able, he added, “I don’t know whether
it will do any good. I doubt that it
will.”
He declined further comment.
In New York, Thurgood Marshall,
chief legal counsel for the NAACP,
noted that the Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals at Cincinnati, in upholding
Federal District Judge William E. Mil
ler’s approval of the Nashville plan,
had emphasized the continuing sur
veillance of the district court over the
desegregation process by retaining jur
isdiction of the case until the transi
tion is complete.
“This is very important,” Marshall
commented.
OLIVER PLEASED
Nashville Supt. Oliver, who took
office during the school system’s first
year of desegregation (1957-58), said
he was “immeasurably pleased” by the
Supreme Court’s action.
“We have sincerely believed all
along,” he said, “that this was the best
plan for Nashville, Tenn. We shall con
tinue to carry out the plan, the Lord
willing, with honesty and fairness to all
concerned.”
Discussing queries he has received
from other school administrators, Oli
ver said: “I always give them all the
information I can . . . but I don’t ever
suggest that it might be the best plan
for another place. Every school system
has its own problems to contend with.”
The chairman of the city board of
education, Elmer Pettit, summed up his
reaction to the decision this way: “Our
plan was based on our best judgment
with three things in mind: Obey the
law of the land and at the same time
fulfill our obligation to provide the
children of Nashville with the best
educational opportunities possible. We
feel the Supreme Court has shown
faith in us and we appreciate their
confidence.”
Mayor Ben West, who has generally
refrained from comment on the school
segregation issue but has kept in close
contact with the board membership,
said simply: “Our school board is try
ing to give every child the best educa
tion possible.”
An additional phase of the decision
as upheld was the declaration that
Tennessee’s school preference law,
which would have authorized three-
way school systems—white, Negro and
mixed—was “patently and manifestly
unconstitutional on its face” because
it provided for continued legal segre
gation. The Nashville board had asked
shortly after the law was enacted in
1957 whether it could be invoked in
lieu of the grade-a-year plan then in
its initial stages.
44 NEGRO PUPILS
With the first, second and third
grades now desegregated, the Nash
ville plan has directly reached nine
formerly all-white schools in bi-racial
zones. These schools at recent report
had 44 Negro pupils among their total
enrollment of 4,402. Three other
schools in bi-racial zones have no Ne
groes enrolled. No schools previously
limited to Negroes have any white pu
pils.
According to estimates, about 145
Negro children of the first three grades
live in zones of schools attended by
whites and some 75 white children re
side in zones of Negro schools. Thus,
parents of approximately 100 Negro
children and of all 75 white children
utilized the transfer privileges this year
to avoid attendance as members of a
racial minority.
Nashville’s city school system in
cludes only about 40 per cent of the
total public school enrollment in the
metropolitan area. It is far outstripped
by the fast-growing Davidson County
system, which serves the teeming su
burban territory. But the Negro popu
lation lives largely within the Nash
ville city limits. County schools have
relatively few Negro enrollments and
continue entirely segregated.
As to how city schools are getting
along with desegregation, Supt. Oliver
told out-of-town newsmen that things
have continued peaceful inside the
schools almost from the start.
“The only real trouble we ever had,”
he recalled, “was with adults outside
the schools” who demonstrated briefly
but soon were halted by police action
after Hattie Cotton School was dyna
mited—a police case not yet solved.
NEW KNOXVILLE SUIT
In Knoxville, a new lawsuit was filed
against the city school board and school
administrators, asking that 17 Negro
children named and “other persons
similarly situated” be permitted to
attend any grade or high school main
tained by the city without regard to
race.
The suit in many respects followed
the wording of a previous bill filed in
federal district court in 1957 but dis
missed by Judge Robert L. Taylor last
June 1 because it had not been amended
to include three school board members
elected after the litigation began.
The court declaration alleged that the
plaintiffs had sought either admission
last fall or later transfers to four schools
in the Knoxville system and had been
turned down “solely on account of said
plaintiffs’ race or color.”
FEB. 8 DEADLINE
Although the suit asked that racial
bars as to school attendance be removed
in time for the opening of the January
semester, Judge Taylor gave the de
fendants until Feb. 8 to plead or answer.
This made it appear unlikely that any
outcome of the case would become
effective before the 1960-61 school year.
The new Knoxville case is styled
Josephine Goss et al v. Board of Edu
cation of the City of Knoxville et al.
Defendants include the five board
members,. Dr. John H. Burkhart, Robert
B. Ray, Edward C. Woods, Charles R.
Moffett and Mrs. Gilmer H. Keith;
School Supt. Thomas N. Johnston; R.
Frank Marable, supervisor of child per
sonnel, and five other school admini
strators—Buford A. Bible, acting and
assistant principal of East High School;
L. Gale Gardner, principle of East;
Robert H. Cardwell, principal of Park
Junior High School; Donald E. Black-
stock, principal of Mountain View
Elementary School, and William M.
Davis, principal of Fulton High.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs include
Carl A. Cowan of Knoxville, Z.
Alexander Looby and Avon Wi'liams of
Nashville, and Jack Greenberg and
Thurgood Marshall of New York.
A letter and petition to the Memphis
Board of Education, reportedly bearing
the names of 100 Negro parents of 175
children, demanded an immediate inte
gration plan for Memphis schools and
criticized the board for allegedly having
“openly and notoriously ignored the
Constitution” in failing to desegregate
up to now.
The board, with a single dissent
among its members, refused to recog
nize or act on the petition and said in a
letter that “we cannot recognize any
group representing specialized interests
as representatives of the public at
large.”
The letter accompanying the petition
to the board was signed by Dr. Vasco
A. Smith Jr., NAACP education com
mittee chairman. Calling for action at
the board’s next meeting, Smith said:
“We call your attention to the fact
that desegregation is already operating
smoothly in some of the school districts
of this great state of Tennessee, yet our
school board has not made any tangi
ble effort to operate our school system
within the framework of the Constitu
tion but has stubbornly defied the
highest ‘Law of the Land.’ ”
Smith contended it would be “sediti
ous if not treasonous” for the board
members, all reelected to new terms, to
resume office in January without
having “sincere and honest plans” for
desegregation. He expressed the group’s
willingness “to address ourselves to the
inexcusable, so-called problems facing
desegregation of our public schools.”
The NAACP official said names of
the petition signers were withheld be
cause of the “possibility of harassment
on the part of a small minority.”
School board President Walter P.
Armstrong released the board’s reply to
the NAACP letter and petition follow
ing a meeting on Dec. 15. He said the
only member who dissented from the
reply was Mrs. Lawrence Coe. Mrs. Coe
told newsmen without elaboration that
“I differ with them (the other mem
bers) on the interpretation of our con
stitutional duty.”
The letter sent to Smith said “. . .
our responsibility is to the citizens of
Memphis as a whole and not to any
particular segment of those citizens.
For that reason, we cannot recognize
any group representing specialized in
terests as representative of the public
at large, and have consistently refused
to meet with such groups on that
basis.”
APPLIES TO ALL
Armstrong declared that the board’s
policy applies to all groups, including
those which are anti-NAACP.
The letter continued: “We are aware
that it is to us that the determination
of policies under which our school
system is to operate has been entrusted
by the citizens of Memphis as a whole,
with legal and reasonable limitations;
and we are likewise aware of the com
plexity of the legal and practical con
siderations involved. We propose to
carry out this mandate by carefully
studying and analyzing those consid
erations, and adopting the course
which ultimately in our judgment ap
pears most beneficial to the community
as a whole based upon that study and
analysis.”
Joining Armstrong in the letter were
members Julian Bondurant, Mrs. Ar
thur N. Seessel Jr. and John Shea.
Smith said the leadership of the
Memphis NAACP branch had preferred
to put their request in a letter “rather
than go straight into court with our
case.” He later said the reply from the
school board would be considered by
the entire NAACP board before any
further comment would be made.
Although no suits have been filed to
date for desegregation of Memphis
public schools, suits are pending for
desegregation of other public facilities,
particularly the zoo, library and trans
portation facilities.
Frederick John Kasper, the racist
from New Jersey whose activities have
punctuated Tennessee segregation de
velopments for the past two and a half
years, was released Dec. 16 from the
federal correctional institution at Tal
lahassee, Fla., after serving his second
term in connection with disorders at
Clinton.
Back in Knoxville, where he stayed
with Lee R. Foster, a contractor and
supporter of Kasper’s activities, the
self-styled “rabble-rouser” said he ex
pected to continue his efforts for seg
regation “in a different manner” and
probably would write a book. He also
indicated he favored a political party
devoted to fighting integration.
Meantime, in Washington, attorney
J. Bernard Simmons filed with the
Supreme Court an appeal from Kas
per’s six-months sentence and $500 fine
imposed by a criminal court at Nash
ville in connection with the brief
flurry of disorders near several schools
when the first grade was desegregated
in 1957.
JOHN KASPER
Another Appeal—New Approach
Kasper was convicted of inciting to
riot after having been arrested on
numerous charges by Nashville police.
He also was among those named in a
federal court injunction obtained by
Nashville officials to halt demonstra
tions in connection with desegregation.
KasDer, who hinted he might decide
to make Nashville his permanent home,
actually owes about $1,500 in fines and
court costs in addition to facing time
in the county workhouse. His appeal,
contending that his conviction is an
infringement upon his right of free
speech, is to be answered by District
Atty. Gen. Harry G. Nichol for the
State of Tennessee on or before Jan. 2.
On four previous occasions, the Su
preme Court has declined to schedule
arguments on appeals by Kasper from
other convictions.
Waiting to catch a bus at a Talla
hassee bus station, Kasper drank cof
fee given him by a restaurant owner,
said he had “no regrets” and that “I
would do it the same way again.” His
two federal terms, on which he served
almost 14 months, were imposed on
convictions for contempt of federal
court by violating terms of injunctions
against incitement when Clinton High
School was being desegregated.
As to the institution he was leaving,
Kasper said “it is very difficult there.
It is integrated, you know. No one
likes it—the prisoners or the guards.”
He said he had worked on a pick-
and-shovel detail but broke his toe and
was made a cellblock orderly.
SATISFACTORY PRISONER
Warden E. R. Goodwyn said Kasper
had been a satisfactory prisoner, earn
ing a month off his term for good be
havior, and was involved in only one
incident, not provoked by him. Last
July, Kasper was slugged in the face
by a Negro inmate, apparently pro
voked by publicity about Kasper’s ac
tivities. The Negro was moved to an
other prison.
Kasper said he still believed there
are “up to 60 million people in this
country who will not accept integra
tion.” But he declared he now is
convinced that violence will not help
the cause of segregation.
“The problem is political and must
be solved by politics,” he said.
Recalling a Florida legislative inves
tigating committee’s questioning as to
his activities friendly to Negroes while
living in New York several years ago,
Kasper remarked:
“I’ve got to clean up my character.
You know—that legislative committee
thing here. I never made a secret of
my early life. I thought then you
could educate the Negro. I learned
differently.”
A poll was reported by the public
opinion committee of the Tennessee
Federation for Constitutional Govern
ment to show public opinion strongly
opposed to racial integration at Mem
phis State University.
A member of the committee. A. S.
(Pete) Ingram of Jackson, said the poll
was conducted by running an adver
tisement in several weststate news
papers, inviting readers to indicate
their sentiments by marking portions
of the ad and mailing clippings to a
Jackson post office.
Ingram said 492 people replied and
27 of them marked the clipping to
show they favored “racial mixing” at
MSU. He said 28 of the 492 indicated
they favored paying taxes to sunoort
integrated institutions. All but 39 of
the clippings received, he declared, ex
pressed favor for calling on Gov. Bu
ford Ellington to “use the state’s police
power to maintain separate schools.”
Ingram said the public opinion com
mittee included 17 other members from
all three divisions of Tennessee.
Nashville Councilman Z. Alexander
Looby, in the news frequently as an
attorney in desegregation lawsuits, has
become the first Negro to head a per
manent City Council committee. Vice
Mayor Sanders Anglea said Looby was
named rules committee chairman on
the basis of seniority.
Looby on several occasions has been
elected to preside over council sessions
in Anglea’s absence. Both he and
Councilman Robert Lillard, also a Ne
gro, have been active for several years
on committees, though not as chairmen.
# # #