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PAGE 6—FEBRUARY—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS TENNESSEE Fight Indicated Against Knoxville Desegregation Suit NASHVILLE, Tenn. T he Knoxville Board of Edu cation hired attorney S. Frank Fowler to defend it in its latest desegregation suit, indicating it will probably fight the suit instead of submitting a desegregation plan of its own, as suggested by the city law director. (See “Legal Action.”) A Negro attorney in Memphis told the Memphis Board of Educa tion a suit will be filed to desegre gate the city schools unless the board comes up with a plan of its own. (See “Legal Action.”) Tennessee teachers, meeting in Nash ville, served notice they will ask the Legislature for big pay raises next year (See “School Boards and Schoolmen.”) Knoxville attorney S. Frank Fowler Was retained at the request of the city Board of Education to defend the board in the new desegregation suit filed in December. (Josephine Goss et al. vs. Board of Education of the City of Knox ville et al.) This gave rise to speculation that the board intends to fight the suit instead of following the advice of T. Mack Blackburn, city law director, to submit a plan of its own for desegregating city schools. Dr. John H. Burkhart, the board chairman, told Southern School News the board will not submit a plan unless Fowler thinks it should, but declined to comment further on the case. “I’m not going to say what we’re go ing to do when we come into court,” he said. “When you defend yourself in a law suit, you keep certain things to yourself. We’re being sued and we re quested that Mr. Fowler be hired to defend us and to defend the way we’ve been doing things which we think ought to be continued.” Fowler, who defended the board suc cessfully in its first suit, said he had not yet had time to study this case. The board must file an answer before Feb. 8. FILES BRIEF Meanwhile, Carl A. Cowan, attorney for the Negro plaintiffs, filed a brief with Federal Judge Robert L. Taylor in support of their demand that 17 Negro children “and all others similarly situ ated” be admitted to any Knoxville school without regard to race. Blackburn appeared before the Board of Education Jan. 4 and urged it to sub mit a plan for desegregation “in order to retain some control over the process.” The board appeared to agree, and C. K. McClain, city trial attorney, was desig nated to handle the case. Three weeks later, however, the board requested that Fowler be retained. “I don’t know what their idea is,” Blackburn said. “The city legal depart ment has no objection to hiring Mr. Fowler. It takes the problem out of our hands. But my opinion is that the smart thing to do is file a plan, either one like the Nashville plan or some other plan.” GIVES WARNING In Memphis, an attorney for the Na tional Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People, warned the city school board it will face a federal lawsuit un less it comes up with a desegregation plan. A. W. Willis Jr., the attorney, said the suit is being prepared now. But, he added, before it is filed, Negroes will make one more attempt to meet with the board “to see if some sort of de segregation plan cannot be worked out.” “If the board offers us any kind of plan, we probably won’t feel so strong ly about filing the suit,” he said. WILL RULE SOON Circuit Court Judge Chester C. Chat- tin said he will hand down his decision in the Highlander Folk School case by about Feb. 15. Chattin presided last November at a hearing in which Dist. Atty. Gen. A. F. Sloan demanded revocation of the tax- exempt charter of the interracial school near Monteagle. The state is seeking to have the char ter revoked on the grounds that the adult education center has been used for the personal gain of Myles Horton, the school’s founder. It also charges that Highlander has engaged in commercial activities in violation of its non-profit charter, and that its interracial classes are forbidden by Tennessee law. Cecil Branstetter, Nashville lawyer representing Highlander, contends the law prohibiting integrated classes has been declared unconstitutional. KASPER BEGINS TERM John Kasper, New Jersey-born racist, began a six-month term in Davidson County workhouse last month for in citing to riot, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his conviction. The tall, slender segregationist had asked to be allowed to serve his time in the county jail instead of the work- house, on the grounds that he might be harmed by Negro prisoners. Criminal Court Judge Homer B. Wei mar ruled against Kasper, however, after W. H. Turner, workhouse superin tendent, said he saw no reason why Kasper should be harmed. The inside facilities of the workhouse are segregated, although outside work gangs are not. Meanwhile Porter Freeman, Antioch, Tenn., feed merchant, said he is circu lating a petition requesting Gov. Buford Ellington to pardon Kasper. Tennessee teachers served notice last month that they will ask the 1961 Legis lature for substantial raises in pay, but the exact amount they will demand was open to interpretation. The representative assembly of the Tennessee Education Assn, noted that the 1959 Legislature had established a teacher salary goal calling for beginning pay of $3,600 for degree teachers, and $5,400 for those with 12 years’ experi ence. It then added: “It is therefore recommended that the 1961 Legislature recognize this declara tion of intent on the part of the 1959 Legislature and take necessary steps to reach the goal established.” Some delegates felt this meant that TEA was asking for the whole amount next year. That would mean raises ranging from $950 a year to $2,000 a year. Others, however, including the or ganization’s executive secretary, Frank Bass, said the figures still represent only a long-term goal of the teachers. 1,000 ATTEND More than 1,000 teachers from all parts of the state were delegates to the Nashville meeting. In other actions, they: • Urged Congress to provide federal aid to education without federal con trols for school construction and gen eral operating expense. • Asked the Legislature to maintain public schools at their present level WEST VIRGINIA Senators Urging Anti-Bombing Legislation in Congress CHARLESTON, W.Va. T he two U.S. senators from West Virginia have declined to commit themselves on their final stand on new civil rights leg islation now before Congress. (See Political Activity.”) A Negro leader has warned that Charleston hotels might be sued if they refuse to accept Negro regis trants. (See “Community Ac tion.”) Gov. Cecil Underwood proposed a 21 million dollar economic im provement plan but made no rec ommendations on education. The administration plans to submit a comprehensive school program to the 1961 Legislature. (See “Legis lative Action.”) West Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Jennings Randolph and Robert C. Byrd, have declined so far to commit them selves on their final stand on new civil rights legislation now before Congress. Randolph said he has always favored moderate legislation in the civil rights field and pointed out that he is co sponsor of the Senate version of the anti-bombing bill, which would make it a federal offense to transport explos ives across state lines for the purpose of bombing schools or churches. Byrd called this bill, of which he also is a co-sponsor, his “main interest” in the field of civil rights. The enthusiasm of West Virginia’s senators for anti-bombing legislation was intensified by the early morning dynamiting of an integrated school at Osage (Monongalia County) in late 1958. Damage ran to $200,000 and no con victions have come from the case. In the House, a petition to discharge the Rules Committee from further con sideration has been circulated. Among those signing it is Rep. Arch Moore of the First West Virginia District. Reps. John Slack, Ken Hechler and Elizabeth Kee, also from West Virginia, have said they will sign it. Rep. Cleve land Bailey on the other hand, says he has no intentions of signing it. The other member of the West Vir ginia delegation in Congress, Rep. Har ley M. Staggers, has not made his plans known. The president of the Charleston branch of the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People, Wil lard Brown, has warned that city hotels might be sued if they refuse to accept Negro registrants. Brown said “We have proceedings prepared to bring a $100,000” suit in behalf of any Negro who has a confirmed reservation and who is refused service. His warning came during a meeting of the Mayor’s Committee on Human Relations, of which he is a member. But Brown emphasized that he was speaking as an individual. He said a hotel refused a room to for mer national tennis champion Althea Gibson when she appeared in Charles ton in December to perform at half time of a Harlem Globetrotters basket ball game. Brown said the same hotel that re fused rooms to Miss Brown and her manager earlier accepted a Negro at torney from Beckley who had reserva tions. Miss Gibson had no reservation. He said the NAACP believes that a suit might be advantageous to integrat ing hotels because “we’re going to make it costly for them to continue to exclude Negroes.” After Brown told of the possible suit, L. Leo Kohlbecker, later elected com mission chairman, said he wasn’t sure he agreed with the NAACP position. Kohlbecker said he thought the prob lem of hotel segregation had a better chance of settlement if it were discussed amicably between hotel men and inter ested groups such as the commission. Gov. Cecil Underwood blueprinted an economic improvement plan to the 54th Legislature Jan. 13 to cost 21 million dollars, advising that “we have now reached the point where talk will not do the job.” West Virginia has more than 50,000 unemployed, many of them Negroes in the coalfield areas. In his message Underwood made no recommendations on education. State School Supt. R. Virgil Rohrbough had said earlier no program would be pre sented. A comprehensive one will be submitted to the 1961 Legislature, he added. A program of vocational education was included in Underwood’s recom mendations. It would retrain displaced workers at a cost of approximately one million dollars. Later, the presidents of the university and 10 state colleges met with Under wood and the legislative leadership to request a 14 to 15 million dollar capital improvement program at the institu tions. It would be financed from tuitions, which now go into the state general fund. A more modest program along the same lines was enacted by the 1959 Leg islature. It nets almost a million dollars a year in capital improvement funds. All state colleges and the university are fully desegregated, and improve ments are set up on a priority basis, with one new building being sanctioned a year. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of Mont gomery, Ala., said here Jan. 24 that he believed “we will have moved a long way toward a desegregated society in the next 10 to 15 years.” He continued: “I feel that we’re in the last stages of resistance in the South. I don’t mean it’s going to end next year, but I do feel that we’re in the last stages of the pow erful, determined resistance, and it is my feeling that within a few years even the hard core states will realize that re sistance is futile and closed schools is an absurd way to deal with the problem. “Now that doesn’t mean there will be an all-out integration in the next five years, but I do feel that resistance will lessen a great deal because of many de velopments that are taking place at the present time.” School closings have given the moder ates a rallying point, he remarked. “Two powerful interests have collided in the South: the institution of segrega tion and the Institution of the public schools. The people up to now have made it clear that when the final choice comes, they will close the schools. “This happened in Little Rock. It happened in Virginia. And it’s happen ing in Atlanta right now.” Although the removal of legal bar riers against desegregation is an impor tant need in the South, Dr. King said, “ultimately we seek integration, which is true inter-group, inter-personal liv ing where you sit on a bus—you sit to gether not because the law says it but because it’s natural because it’s right.” ANOTHER SOUTHERNER Another southerner spoke in Charles ton in December. Ralph McGill, Atlanta Constitution editor, said he believed the people of his city would prefer deseg regated schools to no schools at all. Apparently, they won’t be given an alternative, he continued, because the Georgia Legislature has voted to stop state aid to any public school that ac cepts Negroes. “The Atlanta system has been ordered to integrate by a federal court,” he said, “so you can see that they’re in an al most impossible dilemma.” “The Legislature, of course, hopes that in another year that maybe public opinion will allow them, the politicians, to save face and open the schools,” he said. The students of Marshall College, the state’s largest state-owned college, have endorsed the proposal of their president, Stewart Smith, that Marshall should become a university. The proposal has been submitted to the State Board of education but no action has been taken. Marshall is at Huntington and is de segregated. PASTOR BECOMES EDITOR Dr. Kyle Haselden, pastor of Charles ton’s Baptist Temple and an outspoken desegregationist, said he will resign soon to become editor of two independ ent, inter-denominational magazines. He said he will go to Chicago to be come managing editor of The Christian Century, a journal of Protestant thought, and The Pulpit, a monthly for ministers. The 47-year-old clergyman was of fered the editorships following the pub lication of his book, The Racial Prob lem in Christian Perspective. # # # during the two years beginning July 1, 1961. This would add $15 million to the state’s school building program for the two years. Shannon Faulkner, Tipton County school superintendent, was elected pres ident of the organization to succeed J. A. Barksdale, former state commission er of education and now dean at Ten nessee Polytechnic Institute. URGES CONSOLIDATION In Memphis, Walter P. Armstrong Jr., president of the city Board of Educa tion, urged consolidation of the Mem phis and Shelby County school systems as the “only ultimate solution” of school problems. Armstrong told the Memphis Ex change Club the city board is already anticipating consolidation in the design of its new administration building to be erected in Tobey Park. He predicted the first step toward merger will be taken next year with the introduction of enabling legislation in the 1961 Legislature. i t StB !®f «f jsS * , Q COMMUNITY ACTION The Rev. James D. Glasse of Vander bilt University divinity school was elected president of the Tennessee Council on Human Relations at the or ganization’s two-day annual meeting in Nashville. He succeeds Walter Sharp, professor of fine arts at Vanderbilt. Other new officers are Mrs. Bernard Fensterwald of Nashville, the Rev. John Charles Mickle of Memphis, and James Stokeley, Newport, vice presidents; Mrs. John C. Hull, Nashville, secretary; and John Cheek Jr., Nashville, treas urer. At a dinner meeting, Marion A. Wright, vice president of the Southern Regional Council, told the delegates token compliance with the Supreme Court’s desegregation decision is inde fensible in either law or morals. “Consider for a moment the applica tion of this idea of token compliance to other laws,” he said. “When driving, I will stop at only every 10th red light. I will pay only one 10th of my income tax. As a draftee, I will serve only one 10th of my induction period. I will ob serve only those parts of a business contract which are favorable to me. Such is token compliance. What is the result? Raw, naked anarchy. “And what about its application in the realm of morals? I will bear false witness against my neighbor for only nine out of 10 days—on the 10th day I will tell the truth. I will observe only one of the Ten Commandments. Only every 10th day will I love my neighbor as myself. Such is token morality. What is the result? Universal moral license and iniquity.” DISAGREE City officials of Millington, Tenn., near Memphis, and the Millington Chamber of Commerce were in opposite camps last month over the location of 500 housing units for Navy families sta tioned there. The Chamber of Commerce wants the housing located in the city in order to boost business there, but Mayor Charles Pruitt and other city officials are op posed to having integrated facilities. If the project is not built in Millington, it will be erected on the base itself. Millington already has one integrated housing project for Navy families, Fair way Homes. Eight Negro families live in the predominantly white project. Their children attend Negro schools. WILL TRY AGAIN Nashville Negro ministers said last month they are waging a campaign to get eating facilities at downtown de partment stores desegregated. The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith and the Rev. J. M. Lawson Jr. said new attempts will be made by the Nashville Chris tian Leadership Council to have Ne groes served in the store restaurants. At present there are no eating fa cilities for Negroes in the heart of the Nashville business district. One depart ment store, Harvey’s, formerly had a Negro restaurant but abandoned it be cause of lack of patronage. The council tried in December to get Harvey’s and another store, Cain-Sloan, to serve Negroes in all restaurants, but was unsuccessful. Memphis Negroes threatened a boy cott of the city’s automobile dealers last month after they were barred from the Memphis Automobile Show at Ellis Auditorium. About 300 persons attended a protest meeting sponsored by the Volunteer (SEE TENNESSEE, PAGE 16)