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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY, 1961—PAGE 7
g^NESSEE
fCnoxville Negroes to Enter White Vocational School
NASHVILLE, Term.
U S. District Judge Robert L.
• Taylor has approved a plan
. Knoxville Board of Educa-
' on to admit Negro students to
deviously all-white high school
-ocational classes beginning this
*11. , „
In what attorneys said was the first
•5, district court ruling dealing with
desegregation of Tennessee high school
vocational classes, Judge Taylor on
■jjte 15 accepted, with one modifica-
Ijn, the board’s plan to allow Negroes
■j attend vocational classes at Fulton
gjgh School.
Judge Taylor outlined what he called
possibly one exception” to the plain in
j memorandum opinion at the close of
3 { O ur-hour hearing. He called upon
jn school board to present an addi
tional plan whereby Negro vocational
ctudents could attend biracial classes at
jolton if they reside more conveniently
to the previously all-white school.
Under the plan, students attending
Kegro Austin High School may trans
fer to Fulton for vocational courses un
der certain conditions. Both schools
offer vocational and technical courses,
tut a more extensive program is avail
able at Fulton.
Judge Taylor asked for the special
plan for vocational classes in August,
I960, when he approved grade-a-year
desegregation for all Knoxville schools.
(Goss et al. v. Knoxville Board of Edu
cation, Southern School News, Sep
tember, 1960.) Twenty-seven Negro
first-graders enrolled in seven pre
viously all-white elementary schools as
a result of the action.
Any desegregation at Fulton would
be the first at any Knoxville public
school above the first grade.
Provisions
The plan for vocational classes pro
vides that students at either Austin or
Fulton may transfer to the other school
for technical courses not available to
them in their own school or which
cannot be established because of a lack
of a sufficient number of students. It
also specifies that vocational courses
®ay be established at either school if
enough qualified students are available
by combining groups from both schools.
Negro attorneys objected to the plan,
calling it “too narrow and restricted,”
and took issue with provisions requir
es that transfers must be approved by
a student’s parents and the principals
of both schools. Any rejection may be
appealed to the school superintendent
and from there to the Board of Edu
cation.
Students transferring for technical
courses would become full-time pupils
since they include three hours in voca-
honal study, three hours in English,
‘nathematics and other subjects related
the field of study in which they are
*ngaged.
Judge Taylor, declaring that his court
13 not going to do anything to cause
in uproar in the school system,” cited
33 an example of the single objection
“* e possibility of a Negro student who
nves near Fulton and possesses qualifi-
*®hons to enter Fulton but is required
** “go across the city” in order to enter
Austin.
‘Slow and Deliberate’
This court is going to go slow and
liberate but at the same time follow
■be law,” he said as he asked the board
0 restudy this phase of the problem
and try to present a plan that will meet
difficulty if it is a real difficulty.”
Judge Taylor said he felt the board
made a “good-faith effort” to com-
' ' v ith his order.
Negro attorneys, who had sought im-
fdiate desegregation of all Knoxville
hools, have appealed Judge Taylor’s
. approval of the grade-a-year plan
TJ. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Ap-
which is expected to hear the
q* at its next term, beginning in
etober. They said the possibility of
J'j^aling his latest decision so that the
s 3 re question might be heard at the
j?® time is under study,
b^hool officials said no estimate could
N'ade at this time on the number of
( o e f r ° students who might be eligible
^transfer *° vocational courses at Ful-
¥ ¥ ¥
j^hiediate Desegregation
en ied; Appeal Expected
District Judge Marion S. Boyd’s
Mr_ c ^ on of a plea for immediate de-
^fmgation of Memphis city schools
Si expected to be appealed to the U.S.
jj Circuit Court of Appeals.
9 UofP 0 attorne y A.. W. Willis Jr. said
ot * ce of intent to appeal already had
Tennessee Highlights
A plan submitted by the Knoxville
Board of Education for the admis
sion of Negro students to formerly
all-white high school vocational
classes was approved by U.S. Dis
trict Judge Robert L. Taylor.
Negro attorneys in the Memphis
desegregation case were expected to
file within the next few day an ap
peal with the U.S. Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals, seeking to reverse
U.S. District Judge Marion S.
Boyd’s rejection of a plea for imme
diate desegregation.
Two Negroes enrolled on June 12
at the University of Tennessee’s
Martin Branch.
Tennessee A&I University at
Nashville placed on disciplinary
probation 14 students arrested in the
Jackson, Miss., “freedom rider”
demonstrations.
The Board of Trustees of the
University of the South at Sewanee
voted to adopt a policy of consider
ing all applications for admission of
students “without regard for race,” a
policy heretofore extended only to
the institution’s school of theology.
been filed and that lawyers for 18 Ne
gro students seeking immediate deseg
regation of all schools in the system
were engaged in a study of the district
court record in the case.
★ ★ ★
In The Colleges
First Negroes Enter
UT Martin Branch
In West Tennessee
Two 18-year-old Weakley County
Negroes on June 12 became the first of
their race to enter the University of
Tennessee’s branch at Martin, in West
Tennessee.
They were listed as Leroy Simmons
of Greenfield and Miss Jessie Lou
Arnold of Martin. The Negroes, first
cousins, were enrolled in the institu
tion’s education department and began
classes with 315 white students on June
13 as the summer quarter got under
way.
The Martin branch operates under
policies established by the University of
Tennessee Board of Trustees, which an
nounced in November, 1960, that Negro
undergraduate students would be ac
cepted beginning in 1961. On Jan. 3,
three Negroes entered classes at the
main university at Knoxville which had
admitted Negroes to graduate, profes
sional and special levels since a 1952
federal court order. (SSN, February.)
A university official said enrollment
of the Negroes at the Martin Branch
had resulted in no incidents and had
caused little comment.
The two students are 1961 graduates
of the Weakley County Training School
in Martin.
A&I Places ‘Freedom
Riders’ On Probation
Tennessee A&I University at Nash
ville announced on June 2 that 14 stu
dents arrested in Jackson, Miss., during
“freedom rider” demonstrations have
been placed on disciplinary probation.
The Negro university’s discipline
committee mailed letters to the stu
dents notifying them that they had
been denied the privilege of re-enter
ing, continuing their education or en
tering graduate school because of a
violation of a policy established by the
State Board of Education.
State Education Commissioner Joe
Morgan said similar action was possi
ble in the cases of several other A&I
students who have been arrested since
June 2. The 14 placed on probation
were among the first two busloads of
“freedom riders” arriving at Jackson to
protest segregated bus terminals.
Action against the A&I students came
after they were convicted of breach of
the peace charges.
★ ★ ★
Sewanee To Disregard
Race Of Applicants
The board of trustees of the Univer
sity of the South at Sewanee voted to
consider all applications for admission
to the school “without regard for race.”
Announcement of the action came
following an annual meeting of the
board on the campus June 8.
Since 1953, when the board voted
that all applications for admission to
the university’s school of theology must
be considered without regard for race,
five Negroes had been admitted to the
school of theology. The latest action by
the board applies the same policy to the
entire university, owned by 21 Epis
copal dioceses in 13 states.
No Negro has been graduated from
the university. Four of the five admit
ted to the school of theology have been
engaged in graduate work during sum
mers only and the fifth, the only Ne
gro student to attend regular Septem-
ber-to-June classes, failed to make
acceptable grades.
Dr. Edward McCrady, vice chan
cellor, said no one had been refused
admission because of his race. He said
two Negroes applied for admission to
undergraduate schools but neither met
entrance requirements.
James Arthur Cohen, a Negro high
school mathematics teacher at Win
chester, has enrolled in the Summer
Institute of Science and Mathematics,
becoming the first of his race to attend
any section of the university other than
the school of theology. He began classes
on June 28.
★ ★ ★
Three days before the board’s action
was taken, Sewanee awarded an hon
orary doctorate to Thomas R. Waring,
editor of the Charleston (S.C.) News
and Courier and leading segregationist.
Criticism for awarding the degree to
Waring, a Sewanee graduate, came
from Episcopal Church sources and
from Dr. Eugene P. Kayden, professor
emeritus at Sewanee and translator of
Boris Pasternak.
Dr. Kayden failed to appear to claim
an honorary degree that had been
scheduled for him, having announced
10 days before commencement exer
cises that he would decline to accept
an honorary doctorate from the same
platform with Waring. He said, “I
would be degrading Pasternak.”
Editorials Cited
The university awarded the degree to
Waring for what it called “his forth
right and compelling editorials.”
In a report to the trustees, Dr. Mc
Crady discussed the segregation ques
tion as it has affected the university.
He said:
“As you all know, I’ve always taken
the position that there has been a great
deal of misguided zeal in connection
with racial reforms in recent years.
The attempt to enforce integration by
legislative and coercive measures seems
to me to have set back the cause of
good will and brotherhood by many
decades.”
Schoolmen
Summer Courses
For Negroes End;
Attendance Small
Knoxville City School Supt. Thomas
Johnston on June 19 ordered closed the
first summer school scheduled in more
than two decades for all-Negro Austin
High School.
Johnston said he took the action
when it became apparent that Negroes
opposing the idea of a segregated sum
mer school had “evidently talked the
students out of reporting” for classes.
The school was closed when only about
30 high school students, fewer than
one-fourth the number who had reg
istered a week earlier, showed up for
classes on opening day.
Austin’s summer school principal,
Dewey Roberts, accused Negro min
isters of “interfering” with the plan for
the summer classes.
School Picketed
Six Negro ministers began picketing
the school during registration, and
Johnston said the number of pickets
increased to about 35, including stu
dents and others, by the time classes
were to have started.
A spokesman for the Knoxville chap
ter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People dis
claimed any responsibility for the pick
eting.
The school had been planned for stu
dents to make up regular work, gain
extra credits and for those desiring ad
ditional study in a particular subject.
Sewanee Honors Editor
Vice-Chancellor Edward McCrady, left,
congratulates Tom Waring, editor of
the Charleston News and Courier, who
received an honorary degree from the
University of the South.
White Girl In Negro
School Not Promoted
A seven-year-old white girl who at
tended a Negro school near Strawberry
Plains from March 27 through the end
of the school term on May 31 will re
main in the second grade next year,
Sevier County School Supt. Chan
Huskey said.
Huskey said that the girl’s Negro
teacher, Miss Earline Evans, did not
promote Monisha Moore at the close of
the term. He said, however, that he
had not discussed the student with Miss
Evans and that he learned of the teach
er’s action when she submitted her
school register a few days after classes
were dismissed for the summer.
Miss Evans said that Monisha, who
had been attending an all-white school
in the county until her father, Bruce
Moore, became dissatisfied with the
progress she was making in her studies,
is expected to return to Negro Cyn-
thianna School in the Kodak Commun
ity when school reopens.
“There was no way I could call her
a third grader,” Miss Evans said, “she
was doing first grade work.”
Miss Evans said the girl’s parents
had told her that Monisha would re
turn to the Negro school.
Supt. Huskey, who earlier indicated
there was a question about whether
Monisha would receive credit for her
work at Cynthianna, said the matter did
not come up because she was not pro
moted. He said she had failed to re
ceive a transfer from all-white Under
wood School which she attended pre
viously.
Whal They Say
Grade-a-Year Plans
Criticized At Race
Relations Parley
Grade-a-year school desegregation
was criticized by Dr. Herman H. Long
of Nashville in a keynote address at the
18th annual Institute of Race Relations
at Fisk University.
Dr. Long, a Fisk professor and di
rector of the institute, charged that a
Negro pupil selected for entry into a
white school must “prove that he is
good enough to be in the same school
with white children.”
Grade-a-year plans for desegrega
tion, he said, are “designed to reduce
to the barest minimum the number of
Negro and white pupils who have the
opportunity to know each other as
fellow human beings.”
Wide Representation
More than 100 delegates from 33
states, India, Rhodesia and the Union of
South Africa attended the two-week
institute, which closed July 1.
During the institute, numerous
speakers expressed their views on
almost every phase of the segregation
issue. The session was sponsored by
the Congregational Christian Church
es’ race relations department, the Na
tional Council of Churches’ department
of racial cultural relations and Fisk.
Kennedy Action Predicted
Dr. Robert Harris, political science
professor at Vanderbilt University, pre
dicted that the Kennedy Administra
tion will take strong executive action
in civil rights after Congress adjourns
this slimmer.
“Even if Congress does nothing about
civil rights, the President can do much
by executive order to strike at dis
crimination,” he declared. Charging
that “the South is actually in bondage
to the Negro,” Dr. Harris said, “its pol
iticians are so obsessed with maintain
ing separation of races that some gov
ernors never make a move without
thinking about the Negro.”
Burke Marshall, chief of the civil
rights division of the U.S. Justice De
partment, said his agency is powerless
to prevent arrest of “freedom riders”
by local authorities in the South but he
expressed a belief that such arrests will
be held invalid.
Dr. Milton Rokeach, psychology pro
fessor at Michigan State University,
told the institute that “we should dis
card the old idea prejudice exists only
along racial lines . . . Race prejudice
does not exist in the minds of indi
viduals but is forced on them by
society. Left to themselves, they would
choose their friends along belief lines
rather than racial lines.”
More Demonstrations
Thurgood Marshall, chief legal coun
sel for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, said
there will be more demonstrations
against racial segregation in the South.
Mrs. Anna Arnold Hedgeman, special
consultant for the American Missionary
Association, declared that Negro col
leges in the South are unique “in terms
of interracial, international students
who can find their qualified Negro
leadership which fully comprehends
the revolution which calls for freedom
here and across the world.”
The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., pas
tor of the Scott Memorial Methodist
Church at Shelbyville, Tenn., told dele
gates that in his opinion “ a law is not
valid if it continutes to infringe upon
civil liberties.” Released from Vander
bilt University Divinity School for
“civil disobedience” during the 1960 sit-
in demonstrations in Nashville, the Ne
gro minister is program consultant for
the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference. Lawson said the “non-viol
ent demonstrator who practices civil
disobedience, however, must be pre
pared to accept the consequences of his
behavior. He must be prepared to co
operate even if arrested and jailed.”
Calls For Firmness
A specialist in school desegregation
problems for the NAACP Miss June
Shagaloff, said time for preparation is
not the determining factor in smooth
ing a community’s change to desegre
gated schools. “No matter how much
time community leaders have had to
prepare for desegregation,” she said,
“they are still going to run into stiff
resistance unless they handle the actual
transition firmly and positively.”
Miss Shagaloff suggested four steps:
(1) announce the desegregation policy
clearly and firmly; (2) restate the pol
icy firmly if there is resistance to the
announcement; (3) make it clear that
the law will be enforced; (4) indicate
that pupil placement laws and other
similar means will not be used to dis
courage desegregation.
Mrs. Frances Levenson of New York,
executive director of the National
Committee Against Discrimination in
Housing, told the institute that urban
renewal projects in some Southern
communities are being used “as a kind
of tool to frustrate school desegrega
tion.” She charged that some local offi
cials in charge of urban renewal clear
partially desegregated neighborhoods
and rebuild them on a strictly segre
gated basis.
Urban Renewal
Booker McGraw, special assistant for
intergroup relations in the U.S. Hous
ing and Home Finance Agency, said the
Kennedy Administration “does not in
tend, however, for slum clearance to
become a guise for Negro clearance”
and agreed with Miss Levenson that
any such use of urban renewal projects
is designed to slow school desegrega
tion.
Herbert Hill, another representative
of the NAACP, said that legislation
authorizing the Department of Labor
to withhold federal funds from unions
which bar Negroes from job training
will be introduced in Congress soon. A
labor specialist, Hill said “the NAACP
will attempt to develop labor laws
which may be as important to Negro
workers as school desegregation rul
ings were to Negro children.”
Dr. Fred Routh, executive director of
the Michigan Fair Employment Prac
tices Commission, also emphasized the
relationship between housing and school
segregation-desegregation. “The real
problem to be faced in the North today
is the problem of housing,” he said.
(See TENNESSEE, Page 13)