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PAGE 2—SEPTEMBER I960—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Tennessee
(Continued From Page 1)
board shall submit a plan to the court
or be required to desegregate com
pletely at once. A virtually identical
case is pending at Memphis. (See
“Legal Action.”)
U.S. Sen. Estes Kefauver of Chat
tanooga won renomination over Cir
cuit Judge Andrew T. Taylor of Jack-
son with almost 65 per cent of the total
vote. Taylor scored Kefauver’s support
of civil rights legislation and his “lib
eral” stands on other issues. (See “Poli
tical Activity.”)
A discharged Negro teacher in Fay
ette County retained a lawyer to con
test the school board’s action. He said
he was fired because he registered to
vote; the board said it was because he
had been convicted of a criminal
offense. (See “School Boards and
Schoolmen.”)
Grade-a-year desegregation of
Knoxville city schools was set to start
in the first grade Aug. 31 under an
opinion handed down by U.S. District
Judge Robert L. Taylor.
The court on Aug. 19 held in favor
of the board of education’s plan sub
mitted last April to start desegregated
classes in the first grade under a 12-
year program. The plan is virtually
identical to Nashville’s, which is enter
ing its fourth year and has been tested
through the U. S. Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the 17 Negro plantiffs
in the lawsuit (Goss et al v. Board of
Education et al) had no comment im
mediately as to a possible appeal of
the decision. But school officials said
they expected to begin following the
plan even if the case is taken to
higher court.
Judge Taylor said in the lengthy
opinion he considered the gradual ap
proach the best means to “avoid the
violence and acts of school terrorism
which, in other desegregated areas,
have destroyed the orderly atmosphere
in which good schooling can thrive.”
‘HONEST EFFORT’
The court said “evidence shows be
yond question good faith on the part
of the (school) board in making an
honest effort to find the solution of
a very troublesome problem, namely a
plan of desegregation that would best
fit the needs of the Knoxville area and
at the same time implement the de
cision of the U.S. Supreme Court in
the Brown case (Brown v. Board of
Education)
Judge Taylor said the grade-a-year
proposal “seems to offer more safety
and more assurance for an orderly
progression toward a fully unified
school system. Under the evidence,
there is less danger of disorder—more
hope of steady progress.
“When the risks, of which this court
is cognizant, are taken into account,
Plan Nine (grade-a-year) seems to
meet the tests laid down by the Su
preme Court,” the opinion stated.
Citing “traditions, ways of thinking,
aspirations, human emotions” as ele
ments in the issue of desegregation,
Taylor said his court had had experi
ence with both stable and explosive
emotions. This was in obvious refer
ence to the disorders growing out of
court-ordered desegregation of nearby
Clinton High School in 1956 and sub
sequently.
NOT CERTAIN
Although the court “rather antici
pates that the emotions of the people
of Knoxville are under control,” Judge
Taylor admitted he did not know this
for sure. He noted that he was wrong
in such an expectation previously, pre
sumably in the Clinton case.
In a reference to the contention by
the plaintiffs’ attorneys that their
clients would never be affected by de
segregation starting in the first grade,
the judge commented:
“If the transition is made success
fully, these plaintiffs will have had a
part. Moses saw the land of Judea from
Mt. Pisgah, though he himself was
never to set foot there.”
The court held the Knoxville plan
“deficient” in one respect. Taylor said
it precluded Negro students now in
school from ever taking specialized
trade courses at Fulton High School.
Some such courses are not available in
a Negro high school. School officials
were instructed to present a plan
“within a reasonable time” which
would provide such technical courses
for Negroes, but the judge did not
specify that the courses be on an in
tegrated basis before the grade-a-year
plan reaches the high schools.
As in the Nashville grade-a-year
clan, the Knoxville plan makes pro
vision for transfers of pupils from one
school to another in certain instances
involving racial factors.
Here are “valid” occasions for a
parent requesting a pupil’s transfer:
O When a pupil would otherwise be
required to attend a school previously
serving pupils only of the opposite
race.
® When a pupil would otherwise be
required to attend a school where the
majority of pupils in that school or
in his or her grade are of a different
race.
City Schools Supt. Thomas N. John
ston said that when transfers are re
quested under these provisions, chil
dren will be sent back to schools where
they would have gone under the pre
vious segregated basis.
Knoxville has 28 elementary schools,
of which about 15 serve bi-racial areas
according to zones recently established
by the school board. Nine of the 15
schools have been all-white, six all-
Negro.
80 ELIGIBLE
According to estimates, some 80 Ne
gro first-graders are eligible to enter
previously all-white schools and about
the same number of whites could at
tend previously all-Negro schools.
However, Johnston said there were
indications that less than one-fourth
the eligible Negroes would attend de
segregated classes and probably all
of the whites would transfer out of
formerly all-Negro schools.
Officials expected to make it pos
sible for a parent to obtain a transfer
at the school his or her child would
have attended under segregation, rather
than going to the newly zoned school.
Teachers are unaffected by the de
segregation plan.
Dr. John Burkhart, president of the
Knoxville Board of Education, said he
expected no “serious trouble” from the
public. He expressed belief “the vast
majority of our citizens will accept the
ruling with good grace and will stand
behind the board . . .”
28 DISTRICTS
It was noted in the plan that the 28
school districts were being established
“based upon the location and capacity
(size) of school buildings and the latest
enrollment studies without reference
to race . . . for the administration of
the first grade and other grades as
hereafter designated.”
Judge Taylor had taken the case un
der advisement Aug. 11 after extended
hearings in which attorneys for the Ne
groes who filed the suit urged the
court not to “rubber stamp” the Nash
ville plan.
One of the lawyers, Avon Williams
of Nashville, criticized the school board
for not having desegregated previously
while considering eight other plans
since 1956. Judge Taylor interrupted to
declare that when “frightful lawless
ness” developed at Clinton and other
places “it caused the board to take
note. It didn’t know what would hap
pen. I think that members of the
board, when faced with an era of law
lessness caused by this attempted de
segregation, just hesitated . . .”
The judge said the Knoxville board,
its membership later largely recon
stituted, “had a tremendous responsi
bility to see that the public welfare
was promoted and not to do anything
to cause injury to children of both
races.”
‘UNDER SEGREGATION’
Williams replied that he considered
the board honorable and to have good
intentions but said its members “grew
up under segregation, a system which
precludes developing of an over-pro
tective attitude toward little Negro chil
dren who are here now.”
Williams argued that the Supreme
Court left school boards no authority
to “look for hostility” in considering
desegregation. He contended the Knox
ville situation was different from Nash
ville’s — that Nashville has more Ne
groes than Knoxville with lower pupil
achievement levels and that the cities
have different “racial climates.”
17 MONTHS BEHIND
Supt. Johnston called gradual de
segregation necessary because “Negro
children in Knoxville schools are one
year and five months behind the
whites” in American Achievement
Tests. Intelligence quotients of Ne
gro pupils were declared “four, five or
six points lower” than those of whites.
The school system’s supervisor of
child personnel, R. Frank Marable, said
the transfer policy “will work the same
as it has for 23 years except we will
ignore the color barrier.” He added:
“If a pupil has a valid reason for
wanting to be transferred, I would give
it consideration and then make the
transfer if the situation warranted it.”
When questions arose in the hearing
about the proper school level for be
THE NEW CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL OPENED LATE IN AUGUST ON SITE OF BOMBED STRUCTURE
Anderson County Students Attended Oak Ridge School While Dynamited Building Was Being Replaced
Clinton High School’s 950 Students l
Move into New an d Larger Building
By GARRY FULLERTON
O CLINTON, Tenn.
n the principal’s desk in the gleaming new
Clinton high school lies a plain red brick. Set
into it is a metal plate with this inscription:
“A Building Brick for Brotherhood from the San
Francisco Junior Chamber of Commerce. Nov 5
1958.”
The brick is symbolic of the aid that flowed to
Clinton from all parts of the nation to help rebuild
the school wrecked by three massive dynamite blasts
the night of Oct. 5,1958.
Nearly 950 students returned to classes in the brand new
building Aug. 29 after two years of commuting to an im
provised high school in an unused elementary school build
ing in nearby Oak Ridge.
More than half the students and many of the teachers had
never known the 1927 building, which the blast wrecked.
But even those who remember the old school can scarcely
recognize it now, except for the auditorium, the gymnasium
and the library, which escaped serious damage.
the high school this fall.
In September 1956, angry crowds shouted as they listener
O the speeches of John TCllQrtAr anH
to the speeches of John Kasper and other segregationis
leaders. They attacked the cars of Negro tourists, beat
white Baptist minister who escorted Negro children t
school. Scared but determined National Guardsmen poure
into the town, set up a bivouac on the high school campu
and kept order until a federal injunction went into effect.
Today Clinton is just about like any other Tennesse
small town. It is bursting with pride, just as any communit
would, at the new brick, steel and glass structure housini
its high school.
TOOK TWO DAYS
MORE ADEQUATE
The new school, far more adequate for the needs of An
derson County than the old one, will accommodate 1,000
students instead of 500. It also includes modem equipment—
an electronic language laboratory, industrial arts and motor
repair shops, and home economics classrooms—which the
old school lacked.
The school is guarded night and day to prevent a repe
tition of the 1958 terrorism, but there is no longer the ten
sion that existed four or even three years ago. This is true
despite the fact that a dozen Negroes are enrolled again in
“There’s a wonderful spirit of co-operation in this com-
munity, said W. D. Human, the high school principal, “and
that bombing brought it out. We had to clear out Linden
School over in Oak Ridge and move as much of our equip
ment as we could salvage over there, and we did it all in
two days and started classes again.”
The total cost of remodeling what was left of the old'
school and adding on the new wing came to about $750,000 !
according to James A. Newman, Anderson County superin
tendent of schools. Of that amount, $45,000 came from the
federal government and about $50,000 from private indi
viduals, civic groups and other communities, largely as s
result of a drive sponsored by columnist Drew Pearson.
In recognition of these contributions, an aluminum plaque
has been mounted on the lobby wall facing the main en
trance of the new school. It reads:
“This memorial is dedicated by the people of Anderson
County with gratitude and appreciation in recognition oi
Drew Pearson and world-wide friends for time, materials,
funds and labor contributed to restoring the Clinton high
school building, dynamited on this site Oct. 5, 1958.”
ginning bi-racial enrollments, the su
perintendent said first-graders are
hardly likely to be prejudiced. He com
mented: “. . . I have found that little
children love just about everything and
everybody.”
Knoxville becomes the fifth school
district in Tennessee to institute school
desegregation.
CHATTANOOGA CASE
Meantime, at Chattanooga, U.S. Dis
trict Judge Leslie R. Darr still had un
der advisement motions for a sum
mary judgment in the school desegrega
tion case there (Mapp et al v. Board
of Education et al).
He was expected to announce his de
cision shortly as to whether (1) Chat
tanooga city schools must be desegre
gated completely and immediately, (2)
the school board must submit a plan
for desegregation, or (3) the suit should
be dismissed.
presidential nomination and because
the race was considered a major test
of strength between liberal and con
servative political philosophies.
When Kefauver finished with 64.6
percent of the vote cast in the Demo
cratic primary Aug. 4, scores of poli
tical leaders and many writers gave
his victory varying interpretations.
On one point there was general
agreement: Both Kefauver and Taylor
were surprised at the outcome. The
senator himself had expected to win
rather narrowly.
Kefauver will have Republican op
position in the November election but
it is expected to be only “token” de
spite the fact Tennessee’s electoral
votes have gone to the GOP in the
last two presidential elections.
three years, contended he was beta;
punished because he was among Ne
groes who combatted a tradition am
registered to vote.
Yancey asked the FBI to investigate
Last month, he said he had employe:
an attorney to seek a hearing befori
the school board and plead for his re
employment.
ASKED FORGIVENESS
NEGRO VOTE
The board asked further that, if the
suit is not dismissed, the court appoint
an advisory jury to consider five ques
tions of facts raised by the board.
It was considered unlikely that a
decision would be reached in time to
affect the Chattanooga schools during
the 1930-61 term. A suit also is on file
at Memphis (Northcross et al v. Board
of Education et al), which corresponds
to that at Chattanooga.
Meantime, in a case seeking desegre
gation of buses on Memphis streets, a
three-judge federal court ordered the
suit held in abeyance until the State
Supreme Court can decide whether
the state segregation law of 1905 ap
plies both to streetcars and buses.
The law requires separate seating of
of the races aboard streetcars; there
were no buses or electric coaches then.
For the first time since Reconstruc
tion days, Negroes voted in the pri
mary in west Tennessee’s Fayette and
Haywood counties. These counties have
been the scenes of recent investigations
by representatives of the Civil Rights
Commission.
Discussing the Kentucky convictioi
Yancey contended he was only 19 year
old at the time and that Paducah ha-
no planned recreational facilities o
supervised program for young people
He said he had “asked forgiveness o
these circumstances” and felt “withii
my heart that I have been forgive:
by man and God.”
Members of the school board sai<
they had “neither the desire nor in
tention” to embarrass Yancey by pub
licizing the reason for his dismissal
They said they had done so only in th-
face of Yancey’s public challenge o
their decision.
About 600 Negroes were reported
registered to vote in cotton-growing
Fayette County and some 225 in ad
jacent Haywood. An official said pos
sibly half of them voted.
It is in Fayette County, bordering
Mississippi, that reports have persisted
of an economic boycott against Negro
registrants. However, in both Fayette
and Haywood, the voting was without
untoward incidents.
In Memphis, a Negro bank executive,
Jesse H. Turner, was elected to the
Shelby County Democratic Executive
Committee. He was the first Negro to
gain such an office there since the
Reconstruction.
The state education department r*
ported that at least 22 of Tennessee
95 counties and six of its 58 city scho
systems have new superintendents f<
the school year now starting.
MISCELLANEOUS
Seven downtown stores in Chatta-
nooga desegregated their lunch coun
ters under a plan agreed to by th?
merchants in negotiations through 8
group of clergymen. It was accom
plished quietly and with no untowai^
events.
SCHOOL BOARDS
AND SCHOOLMEN
U. S. Sen. Estes Kefauver of Chat
tanooga, admittedly “running scared”
for renomination to his third term,
piled up a 214,512-vote majority over
a circuit court judge, Andrew T. (Tip)
Taylor of Jackson.
The campaign and its outcome got
national attention because of Kefau
ver’s previous candidacies for vice
president and for the Democratical
A new controversy gathered impetus
in Fayette County, this one involving
a Negro high school teacher who was
discharged last April by the county
board of education.
The board said it fired Allen Yancey
“with reluctance” after learning he had
been sentenced for a sex offense in
Paducah, Ky., six years ago. Yancey,
a mathematics and science teacher at
Fayette County Training School for
Large rewards were offered in Cha
tanooga for solutions of a series 1
bombings or dynamitings in Negro res
dential areas. The offers followed fo l
blasts over a period of five weeks >
sections newly occupied by Negro:
The Justice Department said in Was!
ington the FBI would investigate t!
bombings.
The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., vJ
was expelled from the Vanderbilt Um
versity divinity school in Nashville la-
March in a controversy growing 01
of his participation in sit-in demo 11
strations, has been assigned as past c
of a Negro Methodist Church in neigb
boring Shelbyville. # # ;