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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST I960—PAGE 3
TENNESSEE
ejudge Hears Arguments in Chattanooga Case
higher education for Negroes within
100 miles of Chattanooga, he said.
Last year Zion had an enrollment of
77 and a graduating class of 12. Traylor
said $10,000 is being sought for a de
tailed study of just what sort of Ne-
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
Judge Leslie R. Darr
took under advisement mo-
^pEDERAL
mtions by both sides for summary
"'judgments in the Chattanooga
School desegregation case. (See
j^ 0 ;-Legal Action.”)
at. In Knoxville, U.S. District
ec-judge Robert L. Taylor set Aug.
tijg for further hearing on the
Knoxville school desegregation
ioicase. The Knoxville Board of
ro-Education has filed a 12-year plan
hiswith the court, similar to the
Nashville plan. (See “Legal Ac
tion.”)
re- Dr. Benjamin E. Carmichael,
^associate professor of school ad-
itt ministration at Peabody College,
' 'has been named superintendent of
^■Chattanooga city schools. (See
dc“School Boards and Schoolmen.”)
In Chattanooga, U.S. District Judge
Leslie R. Darr took under advisement
motions by both sides for summary
judgments in the suit to desegregate
Chattanooga city schools (Mopp et al
v. Board of Education of Chattanooga
et al).
Parents of Negro children seeking
admission to formerly white schools
asked the judge to enter a summary
judgment ordering the Chattanooga
Board of Education to integrate the
school system completely and immedi
ately, or, alternately, to submit a plan
for integration immediately. (See
Southern School News, July 1960).
The board asked for a summary
judgment dismissing the suit on the
grounds that the four children involved
cannot prosecute the suit as a class
action on behalf of other members of
their race. The board also asked the
judge, if he does not dismiss the suit,
to authorize an advisory jury to pass
upon five questions of fact proposed
by the board.
9
a
26 NEW PROCEDURE
ij
Attorneys for both sides agreed that
if the judge grants the motion for the
advisory jury it will constitute a new
procedure for desegregation cases.
There is no basis in law for such a
jury.
Raymond B. Witt, member of the
board and its general counsel, repeated
the board’s thesis that it is attempting
t° “elucidate” the problems involved
in complying with the Supreme Court’s
1954 decision.
Witt quoted the words of Associate
Justice Felix Frankfurter with respect
to one of the Little Rock cases:
By working together, by sharing in
a common effort, men of different minds
an d tempers, even if they do not reach
agreement, acquire understanding and
thereby tolerance of their differences.
The use of force to further obedi-
ence to law is in any event a last re-
sort and not congenial to the spirit
°t our nation . . . local customs, how-
ever hardened by time, are not decreed
ltl heaven. Habits and feelings they
engender may be counteracted and
Moderated.”
That, said Witt, is what the Chat-
„?°§ a board is trying to do.
h is attempting to exert education-
wfluence in the community so that
habits and feelings will yield
o /hually to the point where acceptance
compliance with the court’s decision
become a rule in the community
a her than an exception.”
on ^kecl that the suit be dismissed
fj^^he grounds that there was no proof
the Negro children represented
y ° ne but themselves.
Attorneys insist
.Attorneys for the children, however,
is formality of a trial
^Jinecessary since there is “no gen-
^ , ISSUe as to any material fact,” and
inte foe judge order immediate
bo=^ afaon th e schools or order the
^d to produce a plan.
Presenting the Negro children were
To , Constance Baker Motley of New
for tb aWyer ^ or tb e National Assn.
Avon e ,£ dvancem ent of Colored People,
C rai „ Williams of Nashville, and R, H.
Mrl Chattanooga,
seej-pj Motley said the school board
foms t conce med only with the prob-
groe s ° w hite students, although Ne-
s chooi C ° nst * tute P er cent "f the city’s
“In ,? opulat ion.
s case no start has been made
to desegregate the schools and they
(the board) don’t even raise a question
as to the time they will start,” she
said. “They have allowed themselves
already five years since the Brown de
cision and made no start.
“The only defense here is that be
cause of community hostility the board
cannot proceed to carry out the de
cisions of the Supreme Court. But that
is no valid reason. The Supreme Court
took notice of adverse effect on the
children and expressly excluded this
as a reason in the Little Rock case.”
EQUITY CASE
Ellis Meacham, another school board
attorney, argued that the suit was not
a class action but a simple equity case,
which should be dismissed because the
four Negro students had not exhausted
the remedies under the Tennessee pu
pil placement law.
This was answered by Williams who
said the argument would not hold up
since the board itself has disregarded
the Tennessee pupil placement law.
‘These children have not exhausted
their relief under the pupil placement
law because the remedy provided by
that law is inadequate to provide the
relief sought,” he said. “The school
board is not operating the schools in
accordance with the provisions of that
law.”
Both sides indicated appeals are
likely if Darr grants any of the mo
tions. If he denies them all, the case
will be set for trial in the routine man
ner.
FURTHER HEARING
In Knoxville, U. S. District Judge Rob
ert L. Taylor set Aug. 8 for a further
hearing on the Knoxville school de
segregation case (Goss et al. v. Board
of Education of the City of Knoxville
et al).
The Knoxville board has submitted a
grade-a-year desegregation plan simi
lar to the Nashville plan, starting with
the first grade this fall. However, at
torneys for the Negro children con
tend the plan is too slow and have
asked Judge Taylor to order immediate
desegregation of the school system.
Meanwhile Tennessee attorneys are
pondering the implications for this state
of the rejection of the Delaware 12-
year plan by the Third Circuit Court
of Appeals on the grounds that it is
too slow (See Delaware report).
There is an apparent conflict between
this decision and the decision of the
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which
upheld Nashville’s 12-year plan. The
Supreme Court later refused to grant
a hearing on the Nashville plan, al
lowing the lower court decision to
stand.
APPARENT CONFLICT
The apparent conflict could be ex
plained, attorneys say, in one of two
ways.
First, there are differences between
the two plans.
Secondly, there may be differences
between Nashville and Delaware as far
as local conditions are concemed, and
what is “deliberate speed” in Nashville
may not be “deliberate speed” in Dela
ware.
In any case, if the Third Circuit
Court’s decision is upheld on appeal
by the U. S. Supreme Court, it will
certainly be used in attempts to speed
integration here. Even before that it
may be cited in the Knoxville case
and in the Chattanooga and Memphis
cases when they come to trial.
HAYWOOD SUIT
In Memphis, Negro citizens from
nearby Haywood County have asked
federal court injunction compelling the
county election commission to allow
Negroes to register.
The suit contended that Negroes
from Civil Districts Two and Nine in
the county were not allowed to reg
ister because “the election commission
knows that more Negroes than whites
reside in Districts Two and Nine.”
Dr. Benjamin E. Carmichael, associ
ate professor of school administration
at Peabody College, has been named
superintendent of Chattanooga city
schools, effective Sept. 1.
He succeeds Dr. John W. Letson who
resigned July 1 to become superin
tendent of Atlanta, Ga., schools.
In addition to being an associate
professor at Peabody since July 1957,
Carmichael is co-ordinator of the Pea
body-Public School Cooperative pro
gram, financed by the Ford Foundation
for research into better teaching meth
ods.
HEADED RESEARCH
Author of many books and articles
on educational problems, he headed the
research team last year that compiled
and analyzed the statistical tables for
“Southern Schools: Progress and Prob
lems,” published by Southern Educa
tion Reporting Service.
Carmichael also developed a science
and mathematics summer school pro
gram for gifted high school juniors,
which has been sponsored by Peabody
and the Tennessee State Board of Edu
cation for the past two years. Financed
by a grant from the National Science
Foundation, the program has been ex
tended to several other states this year.
A native of White Pine, Tenn., he
received his B.S. and M.S. degrees at
the University of Tennessee and his
Ph.D. at Peabody.
Before joining the Peabody staff, he
DR. BENNIE CARMICHAEL
New Chattanooga Superintendent
was successively a teacher in Oak Ridge
public schools, a principal at Etowah,
a principal in McMinn County public
schools, and assistant superintendent
of schools in Marlboro County, S.C.
Five downtown lunch counters in
Knoxville began serving Negroes on a
limited basis July 18 in the first test of
a gradual desegregation plan.
No incidents were reported as two
Negroes at a time were served at each
of the counters.
The desegregation followed months
of negotiations and a general boycott
of downtown stores by Negro patrons,
as well as sit-ins by students from
Knox College.
WHITES PICKET
In Oak Ridge, a group of Negroes
and whites picketed a cafeteria carry
ing signs urging “equal rights for all
citizens of Oak Ridge.”
Nelson Stephens, an employe of Oak
Ridge Institute, said the demonstration
was in protest of “inequalities forced
on Negroes after three months of ne
gotiations which failed to produce fa
vorable results.”
In Nashville, groups of Negro stu
dents and some whites picketed super
markets in Negro neighborhoods de
manding equal employment opportuni
ties for Negroes.
The effort was believed to be the
first step in a general drive by Nash
ville Negroes for better jobs. The drive
will concentrate in four areas: federal
government agencies; firms with fed
eral government contracts; places
where Negro buying power has a di
rect effect (such as department stores,
grocery stores and five-and-tens), and
religious connected establishments such
as Baptist and Methodist agencies.
Former Dean J. Robert Nelson of
Vanderbilt University divinity school
accepted a temporary appointment as
professor of ecumenics at Princeton
Theological Seminary.
Nelson resigned from Vanderbilt in
protest over the expulsion of the Rev.
James M. Lawson Jr. from the divinity
school for his activities in connection
with the Nashville sit-ins (See SSN,
July 1960 and previous).
Earlier in the month, Nelson was
lauded by the Tennessee Council of
Churches, of which he is president.
OUGHT TO EXPAND
The Rev. J. H. Traylor, president of
Zion College in Chattanooga, told the
Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce the
institution ought to expand until it can
accommodate 500 Negro students.
The college, which gives two years
of terminal technical training to stu
dents now, is the only facility for
gro junior college Chattanooga needs,
what courses it should offer and what
it would cost to provide the facilities.
Tennessee Negroes, spurred by the
efforts of the National Assn, for the
Advancement of Colored People and
other organizations, have undertaken a
voter registration drive this summer.
How successful this has been on a
statewide basis is difficult to determine,
but the number of Negroes registered
in Nashville has increased some, and
in Memphis and Shelby County, Ne
gro registered voters now account for
nearly a third of the total—70,013 out
of 227,000.
Special efforts were made in Hay
wood County and Fayette County, two
west Tennessee counties where, ac
cording to the Civil Rights Commis
sion, Negroes have been discouraged
from registering and voting in the past.
As registration closed, 236 Negroes had
registered in Haywood and about 420
in Fayette.
NAACP branches in Memphis and
Nashville sent truckloads of food, cloth
ing and other items to aid Fayette
County families they said were victims
of economic reprisals because of their
efforts to register (See SSN, June 1960).
Public education in the South faces
a standstill unless it can rid itself of
political domination, Dr. W. G. Mc-
Clurkin told an audience at Peabody
College July 7.
McClurkin, director of Peabody’s di
vision of surveys and field services,
took part in a discussion of “The Legal
Structure and Organization of Educa
tion in the South.”
“If the South keeps its schools un
der the wheels of politically divine pi
lots as it has done for almost 100
years,” he said, “public education has
already forged ahead about as far as
money will take it. More fuel will sim
ply increase the rate of drift.”
‘TROUBLE AREAS’
McClurkin identified five “trouble
areas” in southern school organization:
the school districts, the school boards,
the superintendents, the individual
schools and the instruction programs.
Every southern state, he said, “should
adopt measures for forcing boards of
control to listen to and answer directly
to the people for their stewardship of
school affairs.”
“This means a political fight,” he
added, “in stripping county courts and
city councils, county judges and
mayors, and even some school boards
and superintendents of their political
power and patronage.” # # #
MISSISSIPPI
State Agency Grants $20,000 to Council Forum
JACKSON, Miss.
ississippi’s SEGREGATION
“watchdog” agency, the
State Sovereignty Commission,
announced a grant of $20,000 of
public funds to the private Citi
zens Council Forum. The money
will be used to expand the coun
cil’s program to “tell the South’s
story.”
A state official of the National
Assn, for the Advancement of
Colored People said plans are be
ing made to protest the action.
(See “Community Action.”)
Mississippi’s segregation “watchdog”
agency on July 7 announced a grant
of $20,000 of public funds to the pri
vate Citizens Council Forum for ex
pansion of the latter’s nationwide tele
vision-radio program designed to “tell
the South’s story” in the integration
controversy.
Director Albert Jones, former sheriff
of Hinds County (Jackson), announced
the grant. It was approved at an earlier
meeting attended by William J. Sim
mons, president of the Forum and an
official in the all-white organization
dedicated to preservation of segrega
tion. The Forum is a separate corpora
tion of the council.
The Forum has weekly programs
over 316 television and radio stations
in 40 states. It has been supported
solely by the councils and donations
from private individuals.
The grant recalls a legislative con
troversy at the 1958 session when a
bill that was introduced would have
authorized counties and cities to make
donations to private groups supporting
segregation. It was defeated after for
mer Gov. J. P. Coleman bitterly de
nounced the use of public funds for
private purposes and announced he
would veto if it approved.
The 1956 law creating the State Sov
ereignty Commission authorizes it to
cooperate with public and private
groups in the southern “custom and
tradition” movement. The commission
is also authorized by legislative statute
to pool its funds with others in foster
ing programs and movements for pres
ervation of segregation.
DISCLOSES GRANT
Director Jones’ statement disclosing
the $20,000 grant said:
“After a thorough examination of the
comparative facts, the commission
voted unanimously to make the grant
because the members felt an expansion
of the facilities already established and
developed over a period of three years
offered the best possible means of pre
senting the case for state sovereignty
and constitutional government to the
nation.
“We know of no other facility which
offers so much for our cause. Citizens’
Council Forum is to be commended for
its record of solid accomplishment. It
merits the active financial support of
all patriotic Mississippians who should
realize the urgent need for counter
acting the one-sided stream of propa
ganda leveled at the South by most
national news media.”
Gov. Barnett is chairman of the sov
ereignty commission and a member of
the Citizens Council. As a result, the
councils have taken a stronger hand in
the state government under the new
administration.
During the past administration of
Gov. Coleman, the commission re
fused to make grants to private groups.
In the 1959 campaign for the governor
ship, Barnett criticized the Coleman
commission for not offering financial
aid to various segregation movements.
PLANS PROTEST
Medger Evers, field secretary of the
NAACP, said “plans are being made
for a public protest against this crime
committed against the state treasury.”
“The alleged pillage, plunder and
(See MISSISSIPPI, Page 4)