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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—APRIL I960—PAGE 5
TENNESSEE
Board Rejects Demands for Desegregation
NASHVILLE. Term " ...uu * .1 1 r
NASHVILLE, Term,
r r , HE Chattanooga Board of
-*■ Education rejected demands
by Negro parents for total imme
diate desegregation of the city
schools. The March 7 action made
it practically certain a desegrega
tion suit will soon be filed in that
city. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Nashville School Supt. W. H.
Oliver told the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission March 22 that Nash
ville’s grade-a-year desegregation
plan is working smoothly and sat
isfactorily. He was one of 17
school officials who took part in
the commission’s second annual
conference on desegregation prob
lems at Gatlinburg, Tenn. (See
“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
Further praise for the Nashville plan
came as a Knoxville newspaper an
nounced it has learned that the school
board there will propose a similar plan
to the federal court April 8. The board
is under instructions from Judge Rob
ert L. Taylor to come up with a deseg
regation plan by that date. (See “Legal
Action.”)
Lunch counter, restaurant and library
sit-ins by students continued to dom
inate the news in Tennessee. While
special bi-racial groups sought solutions
in Nashville and Memphis, Gov. Buford
Ellington charged the Columbia Broad
casting System with “instigating” a
Nashville sit-in March 25. The network
immediately denied staging the affair
and demanded an apology. (See “Com
munity Action.”)
A separate issue was raised when
Vanderbilt University expelled the Rev.
James M. Lawson Jr., a Negro, from its
divinity school for his actions and state
ments in connection with the sit-ins.
The action stirred a nationwide storm of
protest and Lawson received offers of
scholarships at Yale and other divinity
schools. (See “In The Colleges”)
Circuit Judge Andrew T. Taylor of
Jackson, a candidate for the U.S. Senate
against Sen. Estes Kefauver, attacked
civil rights legislation now pending be
fore Congress and said he is “unalter
ably opposed” to any similar bills.
Meanwhile in Fayette county, the three-
member election commission and the
registrar of voters turned in their re
signations, complaining they had been
“harrassed” in their duties by the Fed
eral Bureau of Investigation. (See
“Political Activity.”)
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
The Chattanooga Board of Education
rejected on March 7 a demand by three
Negro parents that total integration be
started in the city schools immediately.
The board said, in a prepared state
ment, that any other decision would be
premature and to the detriment of “the
vast majority of white and Negro chil
dren.”
It seemed certain that the parents will
file suit against the board to compel de
segregation of the schools. They are
James R. Mapp, president of the Chatta
nooga branch of the National Assn, for
the Advancement of Colored People,
Mrs. Josephine Maxey and the Rev. H.
H. Kimon.
Before writing their letter Feb. 24 de
manding total integration, the parents
had attempted to enroll four of their
children at Glenwood School, an all-
white school. They requested the chil
dren be admitted there because of
crowded conditions at the Orchard Knob
and East Fifth Street schools they had
been attending.
The school board said it had “never
questioned the legality of the constitu
tional principles enunciated by the Su
preme Court, although individual mem
bers of the board may have questioned
the wisdom of the decision.”
IN FIRST STAGE
“The court recognized that implemen
tation of these principles would require
the solution of varied problems,” the
board continued. “It placed upon the
school board the responsibility for
elucidating, assessing and solving them.
In attempting to make the problems
clear to the community, we are in the
first stage of compliance with the Su
preme Court’s decision. This step has
not been completed and cannot be com
pleted by the school board alone.
“The board of education has been
delegated the responsibility for public
education in this community. We are
convinced that a substantial majority of
Tennessee
Segregation -Desegregation
Status
Number of districts, 153: 142 biracial; 4 desegregated.
Total state enrollment: 668,300 white; 146,700 Negro.
Enrollment of desegregated districts: 38,325 white; 13,752 Negro.
Enrollment of 13 desegregated schools (est.):
7,982 white; 169 Negro.
Enrollment by desegregated districts and by schools:
Anderson County
White
Negro
7,620 white, 28 Negro
Clinton High
883
11
Nashville
17,522 white, 12,181 Negro
Buena Vista Elem.
320
9
Caldwell Elem.
953
1
Clemons Elem.
453
4
Fall Elem.
358
5
Fehr Elem.
367
6
Glenn Elem.
470
8
Jones Elem.
417
8
Tarbox Elem.
137
2
Warner Elem.
883
1
Oak Ridge
6,833 white, 393 Negro*
Oak Ridge High*
1,219
40
Robertsville Jr. High*
968
60
Rutherford County
6,350 white, 1,150 Negro
Coleman Elem.
554
14
TOTALS
7.982
169
"Oak Ridge enrollment by races is estimated. Records are not separated
the people we serve strongly prefer the
continuation of our schools in accord
ance with the historical pattern. We are
also fully aware that a substantial min
ority of the community desires com
pliance with the Supreme Court’s de
cision.
“Ordinarily the wishes of the majority
would be a clear directive to the school
board. When the wishes of the majority
are in direct conflict with the Constitu
tion of the United States, we know that
the Constitution must somehow prevail.
There could be no law if each commun
ity had the right to interpret the Con-
stitution in its own way.
“Your school board has attempted to
elucidate the problems and will con
tinue in its efforts. We have met many
long hours with various groups—pas
tors, business leaders, a representative
union group, Negro groups—always
working toward understanding of the
court’s action and its significance to the
community.
“We earnestly seek your understand
ing.”
PLAN CALLED SATISFACTORY
In Gatlinburg, the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission was told March 22 that
Nashville’s grade-a-year plan for school
desegregation is working smoothly and
satisfactorily.
W. H. Oliver, superintendent of Nash
ville schools, told the commission’s sec
ond annual conference on desegregation
problems that Nashville officials had
tried their best to administer the plan
“honestly, fairly and with integrity.”
“We don’t say it is the best plan for
any other city,” he said, “but we do say
it is the best plan for ours.”
Commission Chairman John A. Han
nah called Oliver’s report “very en
couraging,” and other Southern educa
tors indicated they were impressed
with Nashville’s plan.
13 PER CENT
Oliver said that 42 Negro students are
now attending integrated schools in the
first three grades under the plan. They
represent about 13 per cent of the 317
who are eligible to attend integrated
schools, he said, the others having taken
advantage of the plan’s transfer pro
vision to attend schools where their race
is in the majority.
The superintendent told the commis
sion there is no appreciable difference
in the academic performances of the Ne
gro children and their white class
mates.
Oliver, who also appeared at the com
mission’s first educational conference in
Nashville last year, was the only school
official to take part in both meetings.
(For further details of the conference,
see separate story, Page 1.)
The Knoxville Board of Education will
propose a desegregation plan similar to
Nashville’s grade-a-year plan when
it comes into federal court April 8,
the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported
March 27.
The paper said it had learned that
the board had studied many different
plans but had agreed the Nashville plan
would be most satisfactory. Among the
other plans considered were the Ala
bama and North Carolina pupil place
ment plans under which a student must
apply for admission to a particular
school.
Judge Robert L. Taylor told the board
to bring a desegregation plan into court
by April 8.
Dr. John Burkhart, board chairman,
has refused to divulge what plan, if
any, the board has agreed on, but add
ed: “I believe it would be impossible to
come up with a brand-new plan, be
cause every conceivable arrangement
has already been proposed and some of
them adopted.”
Student-led sit-ins continued spo
radically in two cities during the month
and special bi-racial committees in
Memphis and Nashville tried to work
out acceptable solutions.
A dramatic climax was provided
March 25 when Gov. Buford Ellington
charged that a Nashville sit-in that day
had been “instigated and planned by,
and staged for the convenience of the
Columbia Broadcasting System.”
In a prepared statement, the governor
termed the alleged network action “un
questionably the most irresponsible
piece of journalistic trickery I have
ever heard of.”
CBS officials from New York to Nash
ville immediately denied the charges
and the following day CBS President
Frank Stanton wired Ellington demand
ing an apology.
Ellington replied: “I have nothing to
retract and nothing for which to apolo
gize.”
PREPARING FILM
The governor’s charges were appar
ently touched off by the presence in
Nashville of two CBS documentary
camera teams who were preparing a
film called “Anatomy of a Demonstra
tion.” It is scheduled for showing April
24.
Richard McCutchen, producer of the
film, acknowledged his cameramen had
sat in on a meeting from which other
members of the press were barred, but
denied emphatically that he had any
prior knowledge of the sit-in demon
stration which broke a three-week
truce.
BI-RACIAL GROUP NAMED
Hopes for an acceptable solution to
the sit-in problem in Nashville were
pinned on a seven-man bi-racial com
mittee appointed by Mayor Ben West
March 3 at the urging of many religious
and civic groups.
As the committee began discussions
with student leaders from Fisk and Ten
nessee A&I State universities and
American Baptist Theological Semi-
nary, the students agreed unofficially to
call off the sit-ins to give the committee
a chance to work.
When it still had not reported any
thing three weeks later, however, they
resumed the sit-ins. The committee im
mediately issued a statement through
one of its Negro members, President
Stephen J. Wright of Fisk, deploring
the new sit-ins and calling for “public
patience.”
“The committee assumed its duties in
good faith and has labored diligently
and as speedily as such a body could,”
the statement said. “Moreover, the com
mittee had hoped to furnish the mayor
with a report at the close of its meeting
today (March 26).
“The committee now finds this impos
sible, but is willing to continue its la
bors toward a solution. Further, the
committee believes that if any progress
is to be made there must be concessions
on the part of all parties concerned.”
One white restaurant, the Post House
restaurant in the Greyhound Bus ter
minal, did begin serving Negroes during
the month. The restaurant at the Nash
ville airport has been desegregated for
several years as have cafeterias in many
Nashville colleges and the Methodist
Board of Education.
The ire of the Negro community was
aroused by new charges filed against
79 Negro students originally arrested in
the sit-ins Feb. 27 and by 67 additional
arrests made during the month. Many
of the students have drawn fines of $50
for disorderly conduct, but still face
state charges of conspiracy to interfere
with trade and commerce.
VISIT LIBRARIES
In Memphis, a dozen young Negroes
staged a sit-in at McLellan’s variety
store March 18 but were not arrested.
The following day, however, 41 Negroes,
including five newspapermen, were ar
rested when they attempted to use the
facilities of two public libraries.
The students who took part in the
demonstrations came from Owen and
Le Moyne colleges and some Memphis
business schools, as well as two Negro
newspapers.
Thirty-eight of the demonstrators
later drew fines ranging from $25 to $50
in city court, where Judge Beverly
Boushe insisted segregation was “not an
issue” in the case. He said the fines were
imposed for violation of a city ordinance
and had nothing to do with race.
Later the same day 23 more Negroes
were arrested at Brooks Memorial Art
Gallery and one of the libraries. All
were students at LeMoyne.
EXCHANGE IDEAS
On March 25, the Memphis City Com
mission met with members of the Mem
phis Committee on Community Rela
tions, a biracial group, to discuss the
sit-ins. Both Mayor Henry Loeb and
Dr. Paul Tudor Jones, president of the
committee, said the two groups had “ex
changed ideas” in an atmosphere of
good will and had agreed to meet again.
The committee later issued a state
ment calling for “planned, voluntary
and constructive change” in the Mem
phis community.
“We believe this is necessary for the
ultimate welfare of our community,”
the statement said. “We feel that the
Negro segment of our population is in
adequately represented in local govern
ment and toward the end of rectifying
this condition, we respectfully request
that the City Commission give consid
eration to the appointment of qualified
Negroes to membership on the various
boards and agencies which operate un
der the jurisdiction of the commission.”
A separate issue was raised by tht
Nashville sit-ins when Vanderbilt Uni
versity announced the dismissal of the
Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., a Negrc
student, from its divinity school.
Lawson was dismissed March 3 b>
the executive committee of the univer
sity’s board of trust because of his
“strong commitment to a planned cam
paign of civil disobedience” in connec
tion with the sit-ins.
The young minister had not actually
taken part in any of the demonstrations
himself but had coached students in
JAMES M. LAWSON JR.
Student’s Ouster Protested
South Carolina
(Continued From Page 4)
“we will not tolerate any such pilgrim
ages, assemblages, or demonstrations at
the State Capitol Building or anywhere
else in South Carolina ”
The statement continued:
“While initially the incidents were
confined to student movements, we now
have definite proof that outside, selfish,
antagonist groups are taking part . . .
We also know that regardless of intent,
there can be no point to any further
incidents or demonstrations other than
to breach the peace and cause violence.
“This we will not tolerate. We have
had sufficient evidence, in my judgment,
from incidents (elsewhere) . . . that re
gardless of the purpose, groupings to
gether, parades, pilgrimages, sitdowns,
silent marches, or whatever they may be
characterized, are explosive in nature.
We shall not allow such explosive situa
tions to develop in South Carolina.”
The governor warned whites as well
as Negroes, spectators as well as dem
onstrators, against congregating or act
ing in any manner or in such numbers
that might threaten to upset peace and
good order.
MASSED MARCH
Despite the governor’s warning, other
demonstrations followed, highlighted by
a massed march by Negro students at
Orangeburg. Some 350 were arrested
following a melee in which tear gas and
fire hoses were used to break up the
crowd of an estimated 1,000 Negroes.
(See “Community Action.”)
On the heels of the Orangeburg inci
dent and similar developments else
where, President Eisenhower comment
ed that peaceful assemblages and order
ly marching in the streets were “not
only constitutional, they have been rec
ognized in our country as proper since
we have been founded.” The president
expressed a desire that bi-racial com
mittees be formed in all communities to
help solve racial problems.
HOLLINGS ANSWERS
These drew another statement from
Gov. Hollings. Declaring the President
“confused both as to the facts and the
law,” Hollings said:
“We indulged peaceful demonstra
tions as long as they remained peaceful
and could be maintained peacefully.
However, after three weeks of such in
cidents in numerous cities of South
Carolina, it became perfectly obvious
to everyone on the scene in South Caro
lina that things were getting out of
hand. Demonstrators, even though they
carried Bibles, were intent on being
jailed and promoting violence, and ob
servers were intent on their communi
ties not being taken over by national
antagonistic groups, even under the
guise of the Bible and the national an
them.
“As governor, with positive and over
whelming proof for these conclusions, I
could no longer concern myself only
with constitutional guarantees of free
dom of assembly and redress of griev
ances. I had to take cognizance of the
explosive nature of these circumstances
and assume my primary responsibility
for maintaining the public peace . . .
One does not need a bi-racial commit
tee or conference to determine the re
sponsibility and authority of the gover
nor and peace officers of South Carolina
to maintain the public peace, and we
will have no such confusion over law
and order in South Carolina . . .
“The President and everyone should
understand that the measures we have
taken are to primarily protect the safe
ty of the colored people and he ought
not to enter into what he himself has
termed ‘a local matter for local author-
‘ty-’ ” # # #
techniques of non-violence in special
workshops sponsored by the Nashville
Christian Leadership Council, a Negro
ministers’ group affiliated with the
Southern Christian Leadership Council
of the Rev. Martin Luther King.
The ouster touched off a storm of
protest in academic and ministerial cir
cles from New England to California as
well as in Nashville itself. These were
the principal developments:
• Chancellor Harvie Branscomb has
tened to assure students that Lawson’s
expulsion in no way affects the univer
sity’s policy of admitting qualified Ne
groes.
• Lawson’s fellow students at the di
vinity school and most of the faculty
members signed statements strongly
protesting the dismissal and asking that
he be reinstated.
• The university student senate
adopted a resolution upholding the ad
ministration’s action in ousting Lawson.
• The faculty senate, however, began
a study of dismissal procedures with a
view toward developing a consistent
policy which the university could adopt
in future cases of the Lawson type.
• Dr. Liston Pope, dean of Yale di
vinity school, who spoke at the dedica
tion of Vanderbilt divinity school’s new
quadrangle March 21, strongly criticized
(See TENNESSEE, Page 16)