Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6—JANUARY 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TENNESSEE
Chattanooga Board Proposes
Plan To Begin in Three Grades
NASHVILLE, Term.
PLAN TO DESEGREGATE the first
three grades of “selected
schools” in the fall of 1962, with
a grade year thereafter, was filed
by the Chattanooga Board of Ed-
cation. (See “Legal Action.”)
At least three Negro undergraduates
were expected to be admitted to the
University of Tennessee Jan. 3. (See
“In The Colleges.”)
Proposals for system-wide accredita
tion of schools touched off stormy de
bate at the annual meeting of the
Southern Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools. (See “School Boards
and Schoolmen.”)
Chattanooga Board’s Plan
Sets Desegregation for ’62
The Chattanooga Board of Education
proposed a plan to desegregate the first
three grades of “selected schools” in the
fall of 1962, and a grade a year there
after.
The plan, filed by the board Dec. 20
in compliance with the order of U. S.
District Judge Leslie R. Darr, was set
for hearing Jan. 9. However, another
hearing was set for Jan. 3 on the
board’s request to delay the Jan. 9
session until February.
Before filing the plan, the board had
appealed Darr’s order to the Sixth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, and
had asked Darr to withhold the order
pending the appeal.
He refused, however, ruling that in
submitting the plan the board “would
be doing what it will ultimately be re
quired to do.”
Complicated Plan
The lengthy, complicated plan seemed
obscure and open to varying interpre
tations at different points, but these are
its main provisions:
• The board will conduct and analyze
by Sept. 1, 1961, a complete school cen
sus of the city.
• On the basis of this, it will draw
up a plan of single school zones, based
upon location and size of school build
ings and school population, without re
gard to race, and this plan will be an
nounced by Oct. 1, 1961.
• At the same time, the board will
select certain schools to be desegregated
the following fall, and the list will be
announced Oct. 1, 1961.
• Students in the first three grades
living within the zone boundaries for
the desegregated schools will be allowed
to enroll in such schools in the fall of
1962, provided their parents file a writ
ten notice of intent with the board of
education prior to Jan. 1, 1962.
• The board may adjust zone lines
“so as to maintain sound and efficient
organization of individual schools.”
• The board may allow students to
transfer from one school to another if
their race is in the minority in the
school or in the class to which they are
assigned, or “when in the judgment of
the board, upon recommendation of the
superintendent, it is in the best interest
of the student” to transfer him.
• One additional grade will be de
segregated each year in the desegregat
ed schools.
• “In addition, desegregation may be
effected in certain special programs.”
(This is thought to be a reference to
vocational training, specifically men
tioned in Judge Darr’s order.)
• “Desegregation will be effected in
other schools and special programs after
the 1962-63 school year according to
plans to be submitted to, and as ap
proved by, the district court, said plans
to be consistent with the general prin
ciples and provisions of these initial
steps.”
Problems of Implementation
Much of the plan is given over to an
explanation of the board’s attempt to
“elucidate to the community the prob
lems of local implementation of the
(Supreme Court) decision.”
This was the board’s principal de
fense in the original suit and forms the
basis for its appeal. The board contends
that it is complying with the Supreme
Court decision by arranging for event
ual desegregation of the city schools.
The plan was signed by Dr. Bennie
Carmichael, superintendent of the city
schools, as well as by the members of
the Board of Education.
“The proper timing, continuation of
the program of study and elucidation
and careful planning and organization j
of the school system are the essence of |
this plan,” the document said at one j
point. “The board, superintendent and I
administrative staff recognize and ac
cept responsibilities for the development
of full understanding of the plan and
its implementation—to the schools and
classes affected, to the community at
large, and particularly to principals,
teachers, parents and pupils.
“Meetings concerning these problems
already have been held by the superin
tendent and staff with all principals in
the system. As the schools to be deseg
regated are identified, a planned and
continuous program of conferences with
the principals and teachers of the
schools and classes immediately affected
will be initiated in order to develop a
workable, equitable and successful
transition to the single zones.”
Withheld Comment
Avon N. Williams Jr., and Z. Alexan
der Looby, both of Nashville, attorneys
for the Negro plaintiffs in the case,
withheld comment on the plan, pending
further study of it.
Much of the plan was believed to be
the work of Raymond B. Witt Jr., vice
chairman and general counsel of the
board. Witt was the chief advocate of
appealing Darr’s order.
Reporters noticed that Chattanoga
City Attorney Joe Anderson and As
sistant City Attorney Ellis Meacham
neither took part in the appeal nor
signed the plan. Both are serving as
counsel for the board in the suit, but
both were reported as opposed to the
appeal.
★ ★ ★
In the Davidson County school de
segregation case (Maxwell et al v
Board of Education of Davidson County
et al), U. S. District Judge William E.
Miller postponed a hearing on the ques
tion of teacher desegregation.
The hearing, first of its kind in fed
eral courts, had been set for Jan. 3, but
Miller delayed it at the request of Har
lan Dodson, special counsel for the
school board, who had a conflicting case.
Miller did not set a new date for the
hearing, but the district court’s trial
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
D istrict Judge Leslie Rogers
Darr, who must decide the
Chattanooga school desegregation
case, is a stickler for dignity when
in the courtroom and for relaxa
tion when off duty.
Darr, 74, a Methodist minister’s
son from Dayton, Tenn., has been
on the federal bench since a new
judgeship was created for East
Tennessee in 1942. Previously, he
was judge of Tennessee’s 18th
Judicial Circuit for 13 years.
Eight years ago, the state’s two U.S.
senators recommended Judge Darr for
appointment to the Sixth Circuit Court
of Appeals after he had been one of
five jurists recommended by the Amer
ican Bar Association. But President
Harry Truman had another choice.
Key Concept
As to courtroom decorum, Judge
Darr, considers it a key concept of
justice. Twice over the years, he has
allowed jurors to shuck their coats be
cause of the heat — and both in
stances made the newspapers.
“When something genuinely funny
happens,” he once commented, “we all
laugh, and it is good to relieve ten
sion. But I won’t tolerate any sneer
ing laughter that’s
meant to influence
the jury.”
On the subject
of relaxation, the
jurist believes in
leaving his work
in the courtroom
or office when he
goes home.
“If I let myself
worry about cases
at horn e,” h e
says, “I probably
wouldn’t be here today. You have to
learn to put all the cases out of your
mind, no matter how deep your con
cern about them, when you close the
office door.”
Darr credits this policy for his keep-
docket is full from Jan. 9 to the end of
the month, and this appeared to throw
the hearing into February, unless some
other case is continued.
Meanwhile, the county schools (lo
cated in suburban and rural areas
around Nashville) prepared to desegre
gate the first four grades Jan. 23 in
compliance with Miller’s previous or
der (Southern School News, November
and December, 1960).
Ask New Trial
Attorneys for the Negro plaintiffs
moved Dec. 2 for a new trial in the case,
contending that Miller’s order for grad
ual desegregation failed to meet the
needs of four Negro children plaintiffs
who are now in higher grades. If a new
trial is not granted, they asked Miller
to issue a specific order allowing the
four to attend desegregated schools.
These motions will also be heard at the
delayed hearing.
Later in the month, the Negro attor
neys attacked the “transfer request”
notices, which the school board had
mailed to parents of Negro children liv
ing in the zones of formerly all-white
schools. The attorneys argued that a
child so situated should be allowed
merely to go to the formerly white
school on Jan. 23 without having spe
cifically to request a transfer from the
Negro school he is now attending.
School officials said they were merely
taking administrative measures to carry
out Miller’s order, which specified that
parents of pupils be notified of their
rights. They also said it was necessary
from an administrative point of view
to know how many pupils planned to
go where.
Miller is the first federal judge to or
der a hearing on the teacher desegrega
tion question, prompting speculation
that the stage may be set for a test
case, with appeals by one side or the
other all the way to the Supreme Court.
Two other judges, one in Chattanooga
and the other in Escambia County, Fla.,
ing in relatively good health while his
court carries one of the heaviest case
loads in the federal judiciary. Efforts
to obtain more judgeships for Tennes
see repeatedly have been stymied in
Congress.
He has brushed aside suggestions
that he may retire soon, although there
are those who believe he is consid-
ing it.
In a speech at a bar association
gathering a decade ago, Judge Darr
said freedom of individual enterprise
is the basis of democracy’s four free
doms outlined in the Atlantic Charter.
Guiding Force
“Recognition of the individual human
body, the individual intellect and the
individual human soul is the moving
and guiding force in any form of true
civilization,” he said.
As a small-town lawyer in his early
40s, Darr became a circuit judge by
a 640-vote margin when he defeated
the politically canny Judge John T.
Raulston, who had presided over the
famous Scopes “monkey trial” at Day-
ton. The challenger had carried on a
grueling door-to-door campaign.
Born on Nov. 8, 1886, on a small farm
near Jasper, Darr and his brother
raised vegetables and sold them on
the streets of South Pittsburg, not far
from Chattanooga.
Free Admission
Darr was granted free admission to
Pryor’s Institute, a Methodist high
school and junior college, because his
father was a preacher. He got his law
degree at Cumberland University in
1909 and entered law practice at Jas
per. In addition, he helped his father
publish a weekly newspaper, the
Statesman Democrat.
He was married in 1912 to the
former Barbara Raulston. They have
one son and one daughter.
The judge has long been active in
Centenary Methodist Church at Chat
tanooga and has taken part in nu
merous charitable and civic causes. At
one time he was Tennessee district
governor of Civitan International.
# # #
m
an on
tie drench
Judge Darr Demands Dignity
In Court—But He Can Relax
DARR
have rejected teacher desegregation
without a hearing.
In their original complaint, the Ne
groes asked for a sweeping reorganiza
tion of the entire Davidson County
school system, with assignment of
teachers, principals and other school
personnel, as well as pupils, on a non-
racial basis.
★ ★ ★
In the Memphis school desegregation
suit (Northcross et al v. Board of Edu
cation of the City of Memphis et al),
U. S. District Judge Marion S. Boyd set
March 1 to hear arguments.
The suit, filed March 31, 1960, asks an
end of segregation in the city schools
(SSN, May, 1960). In reply, attorneys
for the board insisted on the board’s
right to operate under Tennessee’s pupil
assignment law (SSN, June, 1960).
In setting the hearing date on the case,
Boyd rejected Dec. 7 a request for a
preliminary injunction against con
tinued segregation of the city schools.
He also urged attorneys for both sides
to give “careful consideration” to what
might be done under the pupil assign
ment law.
The law, passed in 1957, lists 19 factors
that school boards may consider in
making assignments, but does not men
tion race. No court has yet ruled di
rectly on its constitutionality, but two
district judges, William E. Miller in
Nashville, and Leslie R. Darr in Chatta
nooga, have held that it cannot be used
as a defense in a desegregation suit.
Officials at the University of Tennes
see in Knoxville said at least three Ne
gro undergraduates are expected to be
enrolled in the university Jan. 3.
One is Theodus Robinson Jr., a grad
uate of Austin High School, Knoxville,
whose application this fall for the UT
freshman class prompted the board of
trustees to change its policy on Negro
applicants (SSN, December, 1960). Pre
viously, Negroes had been admitted
only to graduate and professional
schools of the university.
The UT admissions office said the
other two Negro applicants had not yet
completed the paper work required for
admission, but were in the process of
obtaining transcripts of their credits.
There was a possibility that still other
Negroes would be cleared before the
Jan. 3 deadline.
Officials said enrollment for the win
ter quarter on the four UT campuses is
expected to total 11,604, which is 733
more than last winter. The total in
cludes 9,000 at the Knoxville campus;
1.474 in the UT Medical Units at Mem
phis; 1,040 at the UT Martin Branch,
and 90 at the Graduate School of Social
Work in Nashville. It does not include,
however, about 4,000 part time students
at the UT Evening Division in Nash
ville.
Racial overtones made themselves
heard in Memphis Dec. 1 when the nor
mally peaceful annual meeting of the
Southern Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools exploded in an ang
ry debate over system-wide accredita
tion of schools.
The constitutional revisions relating
to the proposal were held over for a
final vote at the association’s next an
nual meeting in Miami, Fla., but not
before opponents had obtained a straw
vote on the measure. It showed the vast
majority of those present opposed to
system-wide accreditation, three dele
gates in favor of it, and the rest ab
staining.
Horace W. Sturgess of Georgia Tech
charged immediately that the straw
vote was not representative of the asso
ciation as a whole, but proposals for a
mail ballot on the issue were shouted
down.
Meet Minimum Standards
In systemwide accreditation, every
school in a school system would have to
meet the minimum standards of the
Southern Association before any of
them could be accredited. Opposition to
the proposal was based mainly on two
fears:
• Fear of high school principals that
they would lose their traditional control
over the Southern Association.
• Fear of racial integration—not of
schools, but of the association itself.
Although nothing was said directly
about integration in the debate. Many
Louisiana delegates who spearheaded
the opposition to the proposals said pri
vately they felt Negro high schools
should continue to have their own sep
arate association.
At present, the Negro schools are
“approved” (accredited) by the South
ern Association, but cannot be voting
members of it. Negro colleges, however,
have been admitted since 1957.
No major segregation legislation ap
peared likely as the Tennessee Legisla-
NORTH CAROLINA
School Trials
Top Activity
During Month
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
D esegregation trials — some
pending, some in the pre-trial
conference stage and others due
for argument — were the high
lights of school activity in North
Carolina in December. (See
“Legal Action.”)
North Carolina’s governor-elect,
Terry Sanford, will send his two chil-
to Raleigh’s only desegregated school
after he takes office in January. (See
“Miscellaneous.”)
Federal Judge Edwin M. Stanley, sit
ting as judge of the U. S. Middle Dis
trict Court in Durham, heard oral ar
guments in the desegregation suit
against the Board of Education of
Chapel Hill.
There was no indication of when a
decision could be expected.
In the suit, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas
Vickers of Carrboro (adjacent to
Chapel Hill) seek to have their son.
Stanley, admitted to a white Chapel
Hill school. They allege that their son’s
constitutional rights are being violated
by the consistent refusals of the Chapel
Hill board to assign him to what is now
an all-white school.
The first application for the transfer
was made two years ago. The suit was
filed after a transfer denial last fall.
Chapel Hill schools desegregated this
fall for the first time.
To Hear Arguments
After the Chapel Hill case ended,
Judge Stanley was scheduled to hear
arguments in two desegregation suits
against the Durham school board.
The suits are a result of the Durham
board’s refusal to grant transfers to a
number of Negro students last fall and
in the fall of 1959. About 160 students
are represented in the two suits, which
have been consolidated for argument -
The suits attack directly the consti
tutionality of North Carolina s pup>
placement law and, further, ask for de
segregation of all Durham schools, in
cluding teachers, principals and main
tenance workers. Durham schools de
segregated in 1959.
In still another suit scheduled tor
argument during the same term ®
court, the much-amended Caswell
County case will be heard. The suit was
first brought in 1956, was not press
then was revived last year. Twenty
three Negro pupils are seeking admis
sion to the Yanceyville school.
Caswell County has no desegregation
Scheduled For Trial
A suit filed on behalf of eight Negr°
children seeking admission to all-whi t
Mecklenburg County schools has b ee0
scheduled for trial in U. S. Western
District Court in Charlotte in February
Judge Wilson Warlick, in a pre-tn
conference, dismissed the comply
against individual members of
Mecklenburg County school board. 1
left the board itself as a defendant.
The students applied for admission
the Derita School in the fall of ^
At the time, they were applying,
the Mecklenburg County school b ^
before it merged, on July 1, 1959, v *'
the Charlotte school board. The
tenburg schools never desegrega
Charlotte schools have been
ited
desegrf
;ated since 1957. The desegregation P°;
icy of the city board has continue
effect since the merger.
“We expect our children to be trea
ust like the children of any other f
ly moving to Raleigh,” said G°v- e
ferry Sanford. He will take offi ce - s
>, move his family to the govern ^ i
nansion and send his two childre ^
he Murphey School, about a block
i half away. ^
The Murphey School is the 0I j e jgt
n Raleigh that is desegregated. R 8 ^
lesegregated this fall by admitting ^
'legro to the second grade 8 p-
vlurphey School. He is William
jell, seven. jjjd
Terry Sanford Jr. will be in the ^
jrade and Betsy Sanford will be in , ,
sixth. * * ,
ture got ready to convene Jan. 2. <
However, Rep. Harry Lee Sent®,
Bristol said he would introduce 8 1
lution calling for the creation of a I
sovereignty commission” in the s ta >; [
similar proposal failed to pass 18 *
1959 Legislature. $