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TENNESSEE SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—MAY I960—PAGE 5 Two Boards Adopt Grade-A-Year Desegregation Plans NASHVILLE, Tenn. wo school boards in Tennes see adopted grade-a-year de segregation plans like that in Nashville, while lawsuits seeking court orders to desegregate school systems were filed in Memphis and Chattanooga. The Knoxville Board of Educa tion voted to seek federal court approval of a plan to begin deseg regation in the first grade this fall. Plaintiffs in the Knoxville lawsuit asked the court to reject the “stairstep” plan as too slow. (See “School Boards and School men” and “Legal Action.”) At Kingsport, in upper east Tennessee, the board of educa tion decided to follow the Nash ville desegregation plan without a lawsuit having been filed, but no date was set for it to begin. (See (“School Boards and School men.”) Lawsuits filed for desegregation of Memphis and Chattanooga schools were similar, both asking the courts to prevent assignment of teachers or principals on the basis of either their or the pupils’ race or color. (See “Legal Ac tion.”) An explosion wrecked the home of a Negro city councilman and attorney in Nashville, and a protest demonstration by 2,000 to 3,000 Negroes was met by Mayor Ben West with a statement that store lunch counters should be deseg regated. (See “Miscellaneous.”) Meantime, other demonstrations of several kinds occurred over the state with some disorders and resulting court trials. A boycott by Negroes against downtown stores was evident in Nashville, following failure of Ne gro leaders and merchants to agree on a trial plan of lunch counter desegre gation proposed by a bi-racial com mittee. (See “Legal Action” and “Mis cellaneous.”) State Education Commissioner Joe Morgan announced that students of state universities and colleges who hereafter are convicted of law viola tions may be subject to expulsion. He said the policy will apply regardless of race or the nature of the offense. (See “In the Colleges.”) The Knoxville Board of Education, in a 15-minute session on the night of April 4, voted four to one to adopt the grade-a-year school desegregation plan now completing its third year in Nash ville. Subject to federal court approval, the plan would begin with the first grade this September. Recommended by School Supt. Thomas N. Johnston, the motion for the plan was carried after having failed to get a second a few nights earlier, although a board member said a majority had favored the plan then but was not yet ready to act. Dr. Charles Moffett, who made the motion, said the board had agreed previously that a majority would con stitute a decision and that the major ity would accept and support it. He said he made the motion “not wishing to obstruct the most peaceful and orderly plan possible.” SECONDED MOTION Roy Linville, who seconded Dr. Moffett’s motion, said he “took an oath that I would faithfully discharge the duties of this office. This includes the support of our laws, both local and federal, whether I think they are good laws or not . . .” Linville added: “If we . . . can defy the court in this order (to present a plan for desegregation), our system of law and order has completely broken down and we are no longer protected by the courts in any manner. We as a board are pledged and obli gated to operate the schools, under the law, so that every pupil in the school system will have equal opportunity to reach their maximum in learning, so far as it is in our power to do so un der the law.” Linville also said he thought it bet ter if the court could approve a de segregation plan devised by, and to be implemented by, the school board. ‘GOOD LOSER’ Robert Ray, the board member who voted against adoption of the plan, said “it’s not the first time I’ve been out numbered. I’m a good loser.” However, he contended that a “gen tlemen’s agreement” had been violated when the board refused at the previ ous meeting to defer action for 30 days, and Ray rejected what he called a demand from the press that he resign. In a resolution, the Knoxville board asked “all people of good will” to join “in an attempt to comply with court orders.” The matter “is a community wide problem and requires complete community co-operation in arriving at a solution,” the resolution said, prom ising that the board “will stand firm ly back of its agents in an attempt to comply with all good faith with the mandate of the law and the rulings of the courts.” KINGSPORT ACTION The Kingsport school board adopted the Nashville “stairstep” desegregation plan on April 7. It will become effective “at such date in the future as may appear to the board to be consistent with the best interests of the city as a whole.” Board Chairman M. C. Stone said the plan previously had been approved by members of Kingsport’s City Coun cil. LEGAL ACTION Negro attorneys in Memphis and Chattanooga, along with the chief counsel for the National Assn, for the Advancement of Colored People, filed long-expected suits seeking school desegregation. The suits are similar, both brought as “class” actions so as to apply not only to the complainants but to others similarly situated. Both suits contain a request that was termed “something new” by Z. Alex ander Looby, Nashville Negro lawyer who has been active in all such cases in Tennessee. The Memphis and Chat tanooga petitions ask that officials be enjoined from assigning teachers and principals “on the basis of the race and color of the person to be assigned, and on the basis of the race and color of the children attending the school to which the personnel is to be assigned.” Looby said this would mean that Negro teachers could not be prevent ed from teaching classes including both races. Up to now, all desegregated classes in Tennessee are taught by white teachers in schools which for merly were attended only by whites. MEMPHIS CASE Eight attorneys filed the Memphis suit (Northcross et al v. Board of Education et al) for 18 minors and parents, stating they were acting on behalf of themselves and all other Ne gro children and parents. The suit asks for immediate desegregation of the public schools at all levels. As an alternative, the court is asked to di rect the board of education to present a plan for “reorganization of the en tire school system.” Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb made this statement shortly after the suit was filed: “As mayor, I’m certainly going to back the school board and it is my hope that we will exhaust all legal possibilities in maintaining our posi tion. We have bent over backwards in providing equal facilities, and I further hope that all responsible people will stop, think and consider.” The Chattanooga suit (Mapp et al v. Board of Education et al) likewise calls first for complete desegregation and then for the alternative of “com plete reorganization.” Five lawyers represent the Chatta nooga complainants. They include, as does the Memphis case, chief NAACP counsel Thurgood Marshall and two Z. ALEXANDER LOOBY Lawyer Escapes Injury Nashville Negro lawyers, Looby and his associate, Avon Williams. Attorneys for the Chattanooga school board filed a motion asking the court to eliminate from the suit all issues relative to assignment of teachers. Not ing that the case raised a brand-new question in such litigation ,the board contended that failure to assign Negro teacher to white schools “could not affect the rights of the Negro plain tiffs.” The board’s motion added: “This court should not be called upon to substitute its judgment and discretion imposed by law in said superintendent of schools and board of education in the absence of substantial express statements of fact indicating arbitrary, capricious, fraudulent or illegal action on the part of the superintendent or the board of education.” ATTACK STAIRSTEP PLAN In Knoxville, plaintiffs in the school desegregation suit there (Goss et al v. Board of Education et al) asked Federal Judge Robert L. Taylor to re ject the school board’s grade-a-year plan as too slow and as a means to “perpetuate racial segregation.” They renewed their request for a temporary restraining order and for a preliminary injunction against the board to prevent any further segre gation beginning this fall. In general, the objections to the Knoxville “stairstep” plan are similar to those made against the Nashville plan, now upheld in effect by the U.S. Supreme Court. The complainants asked that the plan be turned down on these grounds: • That it would not eliminate seg regation with “all deliberate speed.” • That the plan does not take into account the period of almost five years during which the Knoxville board (now reconstituted) “completely failed and refused to comply” with provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. ft That a 12-year desegregation period is “not necessary in the public interest” and does not constitute “good faith compliance at the earliest prac ticable date.” ft That the school board has failed to show that any problems of admin istration would grow out of full, im mediate operation on a non-racial basis. • That the grade-a-year plan be ginning in the first grade “forever de prives” the plaintiffs and other Negroes now enrolled “of their rights to a racially unsegregated public educa tion,” thus violating the Fourteenth Amendment, and that no one now in school ever could attend technical and vocational schools, summer courses and specialized training. ft That the portion of the plan pro viding for pupil transfers violates the Fourteenth Amendment by providing “racial factors as valid conditions to support request for transfer.” These factors, it was contended, are “mani festly designed and necessarily oper ate to perpetuate racial segregation.” The last objection refers to the pro vision—an issue in the Nashville liti gation—by which parents may obtain transfer of pupils from one school to another when (1) a student of one race would otherwise be required to attend a school previously serving pupils of the other race; and when (2) a student would otherwise be required to attend a school where the majority of students were of the opposite race. Another suit involving racial segre gation in Memphis was filed by Negro attorneys against Dobbs Houses, Inc., operators of a restaurant at the Mu nicipal Airport. Plaintiff is Jesse H. Turner, a Negro, executive vice presi dent and cashier of Tri-State Bank, who said the restaurant refused to serve him last year. Turner also is plaintiff in a suit seeking desegrega tion of Memphis public libraries. VISITOR FINED One of 12 University of Minnesota students who came to Nashville over the Easter weekend to show their sup port for lunch counter “sit-in” dem onstrators was fined $25 in City Court on a charge of reckless driving. Tom Olson, 26, of Minneapolis was arrested by an officer who said he ran a red light. He was defended by the Negro attorneys who have been de fense counsel in arrests involving the demonstrations, and Negro leaders raised his cash bond . Police said the Minnesota visitors “had been running stop signs and red lights all day.” Another of the stu dents, Phil Schrader Jr., 25, said the arrest “carries the onus of a Gestapo tactic.” STUDENTS FINED Thirty-one Negro college students were fined in Memphis in connection with their refusal to leave Cossitt Li brary and Brooks Memorial Art Gal lery. Trial for 23 of the group, the first arrested, had been postponed when their four Negro attorneys promised to work for an end to the students’ anti-segregation demonstrations. But the “truce” ended when the other eight were arrested after they occupied two reading rooms reserved for whites. Racist John Kasper unsuccessfully sought release from the Davidson County Workhouse at Nashville after serving about half his term on a sen tence for inciting to riot in connection with school desegregation. He con tended he had been sufficiently pun ished because of what he called “de plorable” conditions at the workhouse. Opposing Kasper’s petition, District Atty. Gen. Harry G. Nichol said the prisoner had received Nazi literature and a cash contribution from the lead er of a Nazi organization. An early morning explosion April 19 badly damaged the Nashville home of Z. Alexander Looby, Negro city coun cilman and attorney who is a main figure in desegregation movements throughout the state and is defense counsel for persons arrested in sit-in demonstrations. No one was injured. Later that day, an assemblage of Ne groes and a few white people estimated from 2,000 to 3,000 marched silently from the Negro college area in west Nashville to Public Square. Their leaders had telegraphed Mayor Ben West, requesting that he meet them on the courthouse plaza. He did so. The Rev. C. T. Vivian, a leader in the protest demonstrations against segregated food service in variety, de partment and drug stores, read a pre pared statement to the mayor and the crowd. He charged that Mayor West “has not used the moral weight of his office to speak out against violence and hate mongers.” “By his (West’s) lack of decision, he has encouraged violence by per mitting the police to use their author ity with partiality,” Vivian declared. MAYOR REPLIES West, obviously irate at the accusa tion, replied in a loud voice: “I deny and resent to the bottom of my soul the implications you made in that statement.” The mayor noted that he had been responsible for the end of segregation in the restaurant at Nashville’s mu nicipal airport. But as to privately op erated facilities, he said, “I cannot tell a businessman how to run his busi ness.” West told Vivian he could “ask Alexander Looby what I’ve done” toward maintaining racial harmony. West said: “I appeal to all citizens to end dis crimination, to have no bigotry, no bias, no discrimination.” When asked by one of the student demonstration leaders, Diane Nash, whether he recommended that mer chants open their lunch counters “to all citizens,” the mayor replied, “Yes.” The crowd broke its silence to ap plaud the mayor’s statements on dis crimination. The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith, a factor in local Negro activi ties, commended his remarks. The demonstrators then dispersed quietly. Smith said the protest grew directly out of the bombing of Looby’s home some eight hours earlier, but “we’ve been concerned at other incidents of violence.” PLEDGES NO LET-UP Looby, who with his wife was asleep when a dynamite charge exploded out- (See TENNESSEE, Page 6) EXPLOSION WRECKS NASHVILLE NEGRO’S HOME Broken Windows of Meharry College Framed in Background