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PAGE 4—SEPTEMBER. [961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TENNESSEE
T
140 Additional Negroes Enroll
In Biracial Public Schools
NASHVILLE
T least 140 additional Ne
groes have been enrolled in
biracial classes in Tennessee’s
public school system, according
to preliminary registration fig
ures.
With registration in other districts
yet to be completed, the preliminary
total brings to more than 500 the num
ber of Negroes expected to attend pre
viously all-white schools in nine of the
state’s 154 school systems.
No disturbances have been reported
in connection with the registration.
Sixty-seven additional Negroes reg
istered for biracial classes in Nashville’s
school system, which added the fifth
grade under its grade-a-year desegre
gation plan, preliminary figures showed.
A total of 250 Negroes now are enrolled
in seven predominantly white Nashville
schools under a gradual plan ordered
by U.S. District Court in 1957. (Kelley
et al v. Nashville Board of Education,
Southern School News, February,
1957.)
Two Fewer Schools
The number of desegregated schools
in Nashville decreased from nine in
1960-61. One of the schools, Kirkpatrick,
which enrolled three Negroes last year,
reported no registrants for biracial
classes this year. The other, Lipscomb,
has been closed by the City Board of
Education with its students placed in
other schools.
Dr. Felix Robb
Succeeds Hill
On SEES Board
NASHVILLE
D r. Felix C. Robb, who suc
ceeded Dr. Henry H. Hill on
Sept. 1 as president of George
Peabody College for Teachers,
also succeeds Dr. Hill as a mem
ber of the board of directors of
Southern Education Reporting
Service.
Dr. Hill submitted his resignation
from the SERS board to coincide with
his retirement from the Peabody pres
idency. Dr. Robb was unanimously
elected by the board to fill the va
cancy.
Frank R. Ahlgren of Memphis, chair
man of the board, made this state
ment:
“While we deplore the decision
Henrv Hill made to leave the board,
we are most fortunate in havinv an
able successor in Felix Robb. The
unanimous vote for Dr. Robb confirms
that, moderate statement. Dr. Robb al
ready has made numerous contribu
tions to the success of SERS. and we
are indebted to Dr. Hill for his coun
sel <wer the years.”
Dr. Robb has been dean of instruc
tion at Peabodv since 1951. and has
been a nrofessor of hieher education.
Among his other duties, he was assist
ant to the president from 1947 to 1951.
Tn 1958-60. he was chief of staff of
“The Study of the College and Uni
versity Presidency,” financed bv the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advance
ment of Teaching and soon to be pub
lished.
A native of Birmingham. Dr. Robb
holds decrees from Birmingham-
Southern College. Vanderbilt Univer
sity and Harvard University, and he
also took graduate work at Peabodv.
Prior to ioining Peabodv, he was on
the faculty of Birmingham-Southern
and was a high school teacher. He was
a Navv officer during World War IT.
He is a trustee of Scarritt College
for Christian Workers, was chairman
of the Tennessee Governor’s Confer
ence on Education Bevond the High
School, and has been a member of the
national selection committee for Ful-
bright Awards. He is active in numer
ous civic and religious as well as edu
cational organizations. # # #
Seven additional Negroes registered
at two previously all-white Davidson
County schools which, under a district
court order, also desegregated the fifth
grade in a program similar to Nash
ville s. (Maxwell et al v, Davidson
County Board of Education, SSN, No
vember, 1960.)
Forty-one Negroes last year attended
biracial classes at 11 Davidson County
schools desegregated in the first four
grades on Jan. 23, 1961. School officials
said the total number of Negroes en
rolled in previously all-white classes
for 1961-62 would be at least 80.
Before registration began, Supt. J.
E. Moss estimated that fewer than 100
Negroes would attend biracial classes
this year.
Four Tennessee school districts vol
untarily began grade-a-year desegre
gation plans in the first grade, but two
of the systems reported no Negroes ap
plied for admission to all-white schools.
Preliminary registration figures
showed seven Negroes enrolled in first-
grade biracial classes at Kingsport and
six others in the Johnson City system,
both of which announced earlier this
year that grade-a-year plans had been
approved by their boards of education.
No Negroes Apply
The Elizabethton and Washington
County systems, which also had an
nounced similar plans, reported that no
Negroes had asked to be enrolled at
white schools.
Supt. William Hunt of the Washing
ton County system had estimated six
Negroes to be eligible to attend biracial
classes but explained the students re
mained in the county’s only Negro
school, which he said was in danger
of losing a teaching position because of
decreased average daily attendance.
About 10 Negroes were eligible to
enroll in biracial first-grade classes at
Elizabethton schools but Supt. T. A.
Dugger Jr. said no applications for
transfers were received when classes
began on Aug. 23.
Supt. Dana F. Swick of the Kingsport
system indicated when classes began on
Sept. 5 that at least seven Negro pupils
had registered for previously all-white
schools. Registration was incomplete.
The six Negro first-graders register
ing in formerly all-white classes at two
Johnson Citv schools compare with nine
v'hich officials had expected. Johnson
City classes also began on Sept. 5.
Knox County
Knox County schools, which volun
tarily began a erade-a-year desegrega
tion plan in 1960-61 without any Ne
groes applying for admission to white
cesses reported one Negro second-
m-aden had been enrolled at Mooreland
H°i<*hts School for the new term.
Supt. T. N. Johnston reported that
47 Negroes registered for biracial
classes in Knoxville city schools, which
enrolled 27 Negro first-graders in pre-
vio”sly all-white classes in 1960-61
under a court-ordered grade-a-year
plan. (Goss et, al v. Knoxville Board of
EJvcaHon. SSN. September, 1960.1
Knoxville city schools, scheduled to
desegregate the second grade this year,
started 1961-62 classes on Sept. 6.
Hearing Postponed
U S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor,
meanwhile, postponed a hearing on a
n'an for the desegregation of vocational
classes in two of the Knoxville city
system’s high schools, all-white Fulton
Hi"h School and Austin High School,
a Negro school.
The hearing had been scheduled for
Aug 7 but was delayed at the request
of Negro counsel because of a reported
conflict in schedule.
Other districts conducting desegre
gated schools are Anderson Countv.
which reported 10 Negroes in biracial
classes in 1960-61; Oak Ridge, with an
estimated 100 Negroes in desegregated
classes last year: and Rutherford
County, which enrolled 15 Negroes at
two previously all-white schools last
year.
Schoolmen
Transfer Appeals
For 50 Memphis
Negroes Expected
Negro leaders were expected to begin
appealing the rejected applications of
50 Negro students who sought admis
sion to all-white first grade classes in
Memphis city schools.
Letters informing the students of
their assignment to Negro schools were
Tennessee Highlights
Preliminary registration figures
show at least 140 additional Negroes
enrolled in previously all-white
schools in nine of Tennessee’s 154
school districts for the 1961-62
term. Two districts which volun
tarily began grade-a-year desegre
gation plans reported no Negro ap
plicants for biracial classes.
Appeals were expected to be
filed with the Memphis Board of
Education in behalf of at least some
of 50 Negro students whose requests
for admission to all-white classes
were rejected.
Supt. C. J. Huckaba announced
that he had rejected the transfer of
five Negro students who sought per
mission to attend all-white schools
in Jackson.
The first attempt to desegregate
schools in West Tennessee’s Fayette
County has been made by three Ne
gro students seeking admission to
all-white Fayette County High
School at Somerville.
Twenty Negroes requested per
mission to enroll at all-white Mad-
isonville High School in Monroe
County on Aug. 25 but were turned
down by school principal 0. S. Sex
ton.
Davidson County’s gradual de
segregation plan, which began last
January, was challenged in a brief
filed by attorneys for the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People Legal Defense and
Educational Fund with the U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
An order was issued by U.S. Dis
trict Judge William E. Miller, re
quiring Lebanon officials to show
cause why an elementary school
should not be desegregated. Eleven
Negro high school students, mean
while, requested admission to all-
white Lebanon High School.
sent out by the City Board of Educa
tion after the Negroes applied for trans
fers to white classes on Aug. 28.
“We very definitely will help push
any appeals where the parents want to
appeal,” Mrs. Maxine Smith, executive
secretary of the Memphis chapter of
the National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, said. She
said several parents already had re
quested assistance.
To Consider Individuals
City school board President William
D. Galbreath said a two-man hearing
committee will consider any appeals
and make recommendations to the
school board. He said the board de
cided to reject the applications because
“only in this way will the board be able
to give proper consideration to the
qualifications of the individual student”
under the State Pupil Assignment Law.
Applicants were given 10 days in
which to appeal to the board.
Negro attorney A. W. Willis Jr.,
whose daughter was one of those de
nied admission to a white school, said
he was “positive I am going to appeal
my child’s case.”
Willis is one of the Negro attorneys
who assisted in the Memphis desegre
gation suit (Northcross v. City of Mem
phis Board of Education, SSN, May,
1961), which now is pending before the
U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Placement Law
U.S. District Judge Marion S. Boyd
ruled in April against Negro requests
for immediate desegregation of the
system, declaring that the board of ed
ucation had “openly announced many
months ago its desire to integrate Mem
phis schools through compliance with
the (state) Pupil Placement Law.” Ne
gro attorneys are seeking to overturn
his ruling in the appeals court.
The pupil placement or assignment
law, passed by the 1957 General As
sembly, establishes numerous criteria
for determining which school a student
attends, but race is not one of the fac
tors.
Jackson Rejects Five
Transfer Applications
Applications of five Negro students
for admission to all-white classes in
Jackson city schools were rejected by
Supt. C. J. Huckaba.
Six requests for transfer were made
by Negro students during August but
Huckaba said one of the applications
later was withdrawn. They were pre-
ROBB
HILL
Southern School News;
Southern School News is the official publication of the Southern Education f
Reporting Service, an objective, fact-finding agency established by Southern
newspaper editors and educators with the aim of providing accurate, unbiased ft
information to school administrators, public officials and interested lay citizen 11
on developments in education arising from the U. S. Supreme Court opinion of
hday 17, 1954, declaring compulsory segregation in the public schools unconstit u .
tional. SERS is not an advocate, is neither pro-segregation nor anti-segregation
but simply reports the facts as it finds them, state-by-state.
Published monthly by Southern Education Reporting Service at 1109 19th Av. I
S., Nashville, Tennessee.
Second class postage paid at Nashville, Tenn.
OFFICERS
i
Chairman (
Vice Chairman
Executive Director R
Tom Flalce, Associate Director
Jim Leeson, Assistant Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Felix C. Robb, President, George ]'
Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn.
Reed Sarratt, Executive Director, South- L
ern Education Reporting Service
Don Shoemaker, Editorial Page Editor, | $
Miami Herald, Miami, Fla.
Bert Struby, General Manager, Macon j'
Telegraph and News, Macon, Ga.
Thomas R. Waring, Editor, Charleston
News & Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Henry I. Willett, Superintendent of
Schools, Richmond, Va.
Frank Ahlgren, Editor, Memphis Com
mercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Edward D- Ball, Editor, Nashville Ten
nessean, Nashville, Tenn.
Harvie Branscomb, Chancellor, Van
derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Luther H. Foster, President, Tuskegee
Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
C. A. McKnight, Editor, Charlotte Ob
server, Charlotte, N.C.
Charles Moss, Executive Editor, Nash
ville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
George N- Redd, Dean, Fisk Univer
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Frank Ahlgren
Thomas R. Waring
Reed Sarratt
CORRESPONDENTS
ALABAMA
William H. McDonald, Assistant Edi
tor, Montgomery Advertiser
ARKANSAS
William T. Shelton, City Editor, Ar
kansas Gazette
DELAWARE
James E. Miller, Managing Editor,
Delaware State News
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Erwin Knoll, Staff Writer, Washing
ton Post
FLORIDA
Bert Collier, Editorial Writer, Miami
Herald
GEORGIA
Joseph B. Parham, Editor, The Ma
con News
KENTUCKY
James S. Pope Jr., Education Editor,
Louisville Courier-Journal
LOUISIANA
Emile Comar, Staff Writer, New Or
leans States & Item
MARYLAND
Edgar L. Jones, Editorial Writer,
Baltimore Sun
MISSISSIPPI
Kenneth Toler, Mississippi Bureau,
Memphis Commercial Appeal
MISSOURI
William K. Wyant Jr., Staff Writer,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NORTH CAROLINA
L. M. Wright Jr., City Editor, Char
lotte Observer
OKLAHOMA
Leonard Jackson, Staff Writer, Okla
homa City Oklahoman-Times
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. D. Workman Jr., Special Corre
spondent, Columbia, S.C.
TENNESSEE
Ken Morrell, Staff Writer, Nashville
Banner
TEXAS
Richard M- Morehead, Austin Bu
reau, Dallas News
VIRGINIA
Overton Jones, Associate Editor,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
Thomas F. Stafford, Assistant to the
Editor, Charleston Gazette
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MAIL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 6156, Aclden Station, Nashville 12, Tenn.
sented by three eighth-graders, one
sixth-grade student and two high
school pupils.
Huckaba, who said the Jackson
Board of Education had declared that
it is operating under the 1957 Pupil
Assignment Law, reported that all of
the rejected requests have been turned
over to the board whose members also
constitute the Jackson City Commis
sion.
“They will be considered individual
ly,” Huckaba said, if his action in re
jecting the requests is appealed.
Most of the Negroes seeking the
transfers said they wanted to attend
what now are white schools because
they are nearer their homes than the
Negro schools to which they are as
signed.
Classes in the Jackson system began
on Sept. 5. With an enrollment of nearly
7,000, about 35 per cent of its students
are Negroes.
Three Negro students applied for ad
mission to all-white Fayette County
High School at Somerville on Aug. 25
in what was called the first attempt to
desegregate schools in the West Ten
nessee county.
Fayette County Supt. J. R. Martin
said the students’ request will be re
ferred to the county board of educa
tion.
The Negroes arrived at the school
the day after classes for the 1961-62
term began and left without incident
after a conference with the principal,
J. R. Morton.
Supt. Martin said the students were
reassigned to all-Negro Fayette
County Training School pending a de
cision by the Board of Education.
The students were identified as Ear
line Dowdy, Vaster L. Wright and his
brother, Andrew Wright. They were
accompanied to the school by their
parents and by a county leader of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People.
At Martin’s request, the students
filed written statements on the trans
fer applications.
Officials said the Negro and
schools offer the same courses to s®'
dents.
Fayette is one of two West Tenn*’
see counties which has received ^
tional publicity for almost two 1 ,
in a controversy dealing largely "J
Negro voting rights. With a
tion of about 30,000, more than *•
of its residents are Negroes.
¥ * *
Twenty Negroes Denied
Enrollment at MadisonviU f
tufl’ 1 ';
Twenty Negro students were <•
down Aug. 25 in an attempt to e®,
at all-white Madisonville High ^
in Monroe County.
The Rev. Frank R. Gordon, e ^y
tion chairman for the . fit l
Branch of the National Associab^
the Advancement of Colored ^
accompanied the group which h^ jj
was “received courteously” by !
Sexton, principal of the school-
Gordon said that Sexton ol L r? -
reasons for rejecting the studen^
quest. The NAACP leader eXp Lv ?
that a Monroe County teachers ^
book provides that “no pupil lS ^ I
enrolled in your school who ^
enrolled last year, except by J
of the board of education "
Space Factor
Sexton also said there " -a f
of space in Madisonville HU?
for the students who have b^ :
eling by bus from Madison' ,
Sweetwater to attend all-Neg r0 i-
The principal said two rooms
old high school building, c °” pf
by a state supervisor becau= |
condition, now are being use L-go?' ’
Gordon said Supt. R°y
declined to see the group
but offered to talk with the
individually.
(See TENNESSEE, Pag e
5)