Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER, 1961—PAGE 13
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Tennessee
(Continued From Page 12)
j^jton if the courses they desire to
pdy are not offered at Negro Austin
jjgh School and there is an insuffi
cient number of requests from Negro
^dents to establish specific courses at
the Negro school. The plan also applies
B white students who request enroll
ment in similar courses at Austin if
^ey are not offered at Fulton.
Desegregation at Fulton was the first
Tennessee applying to high school
vocational and technical courses.
Negro attorneys, however, indicated
jj,ey would file an appeal to the U. S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
One Turned Down
Knoxville School Supt. T. N. John
son said another Negro requested en-
follment at Fulton but was not admit
ted because procedural requirements
ji making a formal application for
transfer had not been met.
The plan was approved in June by
Taylor, who ordered the school board
to present a method whereby Negro
students who reside more conveniently
to Fulton could attend the predomi
nantly white school. (SSN, July.)
Taylor, following a hearing on Sept.
14, granted a request by the board,
however, which asked that no change
be made in the plan as approved by
the court in June.
The school board told the court that
it feared “violent interruption of
schooling” if large numbers of Negroes
were admitted to Fulton, and school
officials estimated as many as 200 Ne
groes might be eligible for biracial
classes if the earlier plan was
amended.
Nashville Atty. Avon N. Williams Jr.,
one of the Negro attorneys in the case,
said it is “doubtful” that an appeal
on the vocational and technical plan
can be completed by Oct. 18 when the
D. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
is scheduled to consider the entire
Knoxville desegregation suit. (Goss et
il v. Knoxville Board of Education,
SSN, September, 1960.)
In The Colleges
Some 70 Additional
Negroes in College
Classes with Whites
Preliminary enrollment figures indi-
ote that about 70 additional Negroes
are attending biracial classes in four
°f Tennessee’s colleges and universi
ties.
Reports from the institutions showed
ftat at least 191 Negroes were enrolled
ior the fall term. This compares with
121 Negro students who attended bi-
^dal classes last year.
Two of the state-supported colleges,
Riddle Tennessee State College at
Murfreesboro and Tennessee Polytech-
’“ c Institute at Cookeville, reported
’“at no Negroes had been enrolled
although a State Board of Education
j^lky which removed race as a fac-
w in admissions has been in effect
since 1957.
Memphis State University, which
J* desegregated its classes in 1959,
T^d 80 Negro students for the fall
* nn compared with 34 last year. The
’’’adents include six in graduate stud-
-es and 74 at the undergraduate level.
^ total of 41 Negroes, including five
^duate and 36 undergraduate stu-
?®ts, enrolled at East Tennessee State
R e ge at Johnson City, compared
^ 33 in 1960-61.
1 ’0 fall term enrollment figures were
Triable at Austin Peay State College,
hrfcsville, which reported eight Ne-
j, students last year. State Board of
t u cation officials said the institution
-s in the process of registration and
“’ailment information was incomplete.
No U. S. Whites at A&I
A
StM Suc th institution governed by the
. te Board of Education is Tennessee
® tate University at Nashville. The
/^twninantly Negro institution re-
jjyd that no American white stu-
ts were enrolled for the fall term
Cj°Ugh two non-Negro pupils from
are in attendance,
increase was noted in the num-
j<>f Negro students attending un-
jj Rfaduate courses at the University
ijj e unessee, which is controlled by
board of trustees. Officials re-
35 Negroes registered for un-
W^aduate classes at the main uni-
jP at Knoxville with figures in-
- 6 on enrollment at branches at
^rflle, Martin and Memphis.
S e university’s first undergraduate
fregat.mn f nr* full .timp crtllffonts
e gation for full-time students
in January, 1961 when three
oes
^ at Knoxville, under a policy
J na 1 -j lrice d three months earlier by the
•W! °f trustees. (Southern School
St 0 > December 1960.) Part-time Ne-
Udents previously had been en
rolled in undergraduate studies in
Nashville.
Another Negro entered previously
all-white undergraduate classes at
UT’s medical unit at Memphis in Jan
uary, 1961.
Officials said 35 Negro graduate stu
dents also are enrolled at the main
university. Negro students have been
admitted to graduate, professional and
special levels since a 1952 Federal
court order.
Miscellaneous
White Girl Again
Reported Enrolled
With Negro Pupils
A seven-year-old white girl is re
ported to have begun the 1961-62
school year at a Sevier County Negro
school which she attended during the
last two months of the 1960-61 term.
Sevier County School Supt. Chan
Huskey said no action in connection
with Monisha Moore’s attendance at
Negro Cynthianna School has been
taken by the county board of educa
tion.
The girl began attending classes in
the Negro school last March 27 after
her father, Bruce Moore, said he be
came dissatisfied with the progress she
was making in her studies at all-white
Underwood School. (SSN, May.)
Huskey said the board takes the po
sition that the student is not officially
enrolled at Cynthianna because she
does not have a transfer approved by
the principal of Underwood.
Miss Earline Evans, Negro teacher at
the school last year, did not promote
the girl to the third grade at the close
of the year.
Huskey said he knows of no devel
opments concerning the girl’s attend
ance at Cynthianna since last June. At
that time he expressed doubt that she
would be given credit for her work at
the Negro school because she was not
considered officially enrolled.
The question of credit, however, did
not arise because she was not pro
moted, he said.
★ ★ ★
Negro Students March
To Protest Dismissals
An estimated 200 Negro high school
and college students appeared at the
State Capitol in Nashville on Sept. 13
to protest the dismissal of 14 students
from A&I State University as a result
of their participation in “freedom
rides” in Mississippi.
The group, accompanied by five
white youths, was sponsored by the
Nashville Non-Violent Movement and
the Nashville Christian Leadership
Council.
A few days earlier, a group of about
18 including five of the former A&I
students picketed the Capitol.
The students were suspended last
June under a State Board of Educa
tion policy dealing with offenses of
misconduct of pupils attending any of
the state-supported colleges and uni
versities.
Gov. Buford Ellington, who sup
ported action by the board in suspend
ing the students after their arrests in
Mississippi, said he had no plans to
discuss the matter with the protesting
group.
What They Say
King Says Efforts
Will Be Intensified
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of At
lanta, president of the Southern Chris
tian Leadership Conference, said in
Nashville on Sept. 28 that his organiza
tion “feels morally bound to intensify
our efforts” in Alabama, Mississippi,
and South Carolina.
“We would have to have some kind
of non-violent demonstrations where
the schools are concerned,” Dr. King
declared as he endorsed plans to re
cruit a “non-violent army” to fight
against racial segregation.
Wyatt T. Walker, conference execu
tive director, said the conference ex
pects to recruit from 100 to 150 persons
next year to be ready to go to any
Southern community to oppose segre
gation.
The Rev. James Lawson of Shelby-
ville, special projects director of the
organization, will recruit the “army”
which SCLC leaders said eventually
would have up to 10,000 “trained and
disciplined” members.
Dr. King told the conference, which
held a three-day annual meeting in
Nashville, that “people would be ar
rested on trumped-up charges like
breach of the peace.” He added:
“If one breaks a law which his con
science tells him is unjust, he should
willingly accept his penalty and stay
in jail.” * # #
NORTH CAROLINA
Carrboro Father Makes First
Test of Tuition Grant Law
CHARLOTTE
or the first time since de
segregation began in North
Carolina in the fall of 1957 under
the Pupil Placement Act, the
tuition grant section of the law is
about to be tested.
A Carrboro father, Reece Birming
ham, has asked the Chapel Hill Board
of Education to provide tuition grants
for his two grade-school daughters who
are attending a private all-white school
in Durham.
Birmingham filed the tuition grant
request after all formerly white schools
in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district
(all controlled by the Chapel Hill
Board of Education) were desegregated
this fall. A total of 34 Negroes is en
rolled in the schools. Only one ele
mentary school, an all-Negro school,
is not desegregated.
Under the North Carolina Pupil
Placement Act, a parent who is other
wise unable to obtain segregated edu
cation for his child may apply for a
grant-in-aid from the local school
board.
The procedure has never been used
in this state, however, and it has taken
several conferences between Chapel
Hill and State Department of Educa
tion officials merely to establish the
procedure for applying for the finan
cial assistance.
The Chapel Hill board approved the
request on the ground that it was un
able to reassign the children to a seg
regated school as the father requested.
The Pupil Placement Act provides that
boards may grant such transfers wher
ever possible.
No Local Money
Because there is no local money al
located for tuition grants and because
the provision for making the grants is
a state law, the Chapel Hill board ap
proved the request and sent it on to
the State Board of Education.
Funds for the grant would have to
be allocated from the state’s contin
gency and emergency fund. Although
the grant law has been on the books
five years, the General Assembly has
never made a direct appropriation to
cover requests similar to the one now
pending.
The law provides that the State
Board of Education must decide
whether the private, nonsectarian
school the child is attending meets
state standards. The board also must
decide the amount of the grant.
It is contemplated that, if granted,
the amount would be approximately
the same as the average cost of edu
cating a child in a public school. In
most North Carolina school districts,
that is less than $200 a year.
N.C. Highlights
As a result of a request to the
Chapel Hill Board of Education, the
tuition grant portion of North Caro-
linas Pupil Placement Act appar
ently is to receive its first test.
A boycott protesting the changing
of a school from all-white to all-
Negro in Charlotte ended two weeks
after school began. Negro leaders
said the demonstration had ac
complished its purpose.
A 16-year-old Negro boy who
stated his own case for a transfer
was admitted to Myers Park High
School at Charlotte—the first Negro
there.
The Carver College case, to de
termine whether separate campuses
should be maintained for Charlotte
and Carver colleges, has been heard
by the North Carolina Supreme
Court. A lower court had held that
construction of a separate campus
for all-Negro Carver was not a
waste of public money.
Schoolmen
Negro Boy States
Own Case; Board
OKs Transfer
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education voted Oct. 3 to admit Don
Alfred Griff to Myers Park High
School. He is the first Negro to be
assigned to the school. The district
now will have 27 Negroes attending
a total of five desegregated schools.
The 16-year-old Negro student stated
his own case for a transfer before the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Edu
cation. Grigg had been assigned to the
11th grade at the all-Negro Sec
ond Ward High
School.
But, he said, he
wanted to go to
“a better school”
so he could be
come an engineer.
On Aug. 30, the
board had denied
his request for
transfer on the
ground that his
home was in the
Second Ward at
tendance district. Grigg appeared be
fore the board Sept. 19 to appeal the
decision and ask for further considera
tion. Grigg, a youngster who speaks
clearly and bluntly, asked his own
questions.
In the board’s letter telling him that
his transfer request had been denied,
Grigg noted the statement that the ac
tion was in accordance with “published
regulations.”
He asked what these regulations
were and was told they meant assign
ment by geographical areas.
“Then it’s obvious your assignments
are made according to race,” he said,
because he said he had white neigh
bors who were assigned to Myers Park
High.
David W. Harris, vice-chairman of
the school board, told Grigg that re
quests from 75 other students who
wanted to go to Myers Park were also
turned down.
Geographical
But Grigg wanted to talk about ge
ographical assignment some more. He
asked the board if its assignment of
white students from Irwin Avenue
Junior High (Old Harding High) to
new Harding High was a geographi
cal decision and if the assignment of
Negro students from Druid Hills to Ir
win Avenue was geographical.
Told that there were other factors
involved, Grigg said: “Well, if students
who live within throwing distance of
old Harding are assigned to a new
school out of their way, why can’t I be
assigned to a school that’s only a lit
tle out of my way?”
“If you’re going to assign students
geographically, then assign everyone
geographically,” Grigg said.
★ ★ ★
Kings Mountain Board
Hears Negroes’ Requests
A hearing by the Kings Mountain
Board of Education was set for Oct.
3 on requests of two Negro students to
attend all-white Kings Mountain High
School.
The board earlier turned down the
request of Mrs. Mable Jackson Davis
that her two children, Leroy, 15, and
Lila Inez, 17, be reassigned from the
recently consolidated Compact-David-
son High School, an all-Negro school,
to Kings Mountain High.
The widow appealed the earlier de
nial and the scheduled hearing is the
next procedural step under the North
Carolina Pupil Placement Act.
The requests are the first from Ne
groes seeking admission to white
schools in Cleveland County. Shelby is
the largest city in Cleveland County.
Mrs. Davis, in her original request,
said her children bypassed the nearby
Kings Mountain High School on an
inconvenient and unnecessary bus trip
to attend the all-Negro school out in
the county.
(See NORTH CAROLINA, Page 14)
School Desegregation Not an Issue
At Southern Governors Conference
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
chool desegregation never
arose as an issue at the South
ern Governors Conference in
Nashville on Sept. 24-27. States
rights and civil rights played only
minor roles.
The conference chairman, Gov. Price
Daniel of Texas, let it be known the
first day of the meeting that the seg
regation issue ought not to be brought
up at all. The governors attending their
27th annual session discussed industrial
development, higher education, imports
and tariffs, nuclear energy and freight
rates.
The conference generally was quiet
and without controversy, except for
the election of new officers at the final
session. The post of chairman had
been expected to be given Gov. Buford
Ellington of Tennessee and the nom
inating committee made this recom
mendation, with Gov. Orval Faubus
of Arkansas nominated for vice chair
man.
Then Gov. Jimmie Davis of Louisi
ana, in an unexpected move, made
nominations from the floor that would
have put Faubus in the top spot and
Ellington in the lesser one. Alabama
Gov. John Patterson quickly seconded
the Davis proposal.
Both nominees tried to get recog-
. . Oh, Well, There’s No
Particular Hurry.’
U! - - ' i
1 'k
' ■ -O'—
Kennedy, Arkansas Democrat
nition from the chair, and Gov. Daniel
nodded to Faubus, who asked Davis to
withdraw his nominations. Davis agreed
and moved for Ellington’s election by
acclamation.
The conference unanimously ap
proved the nominating committee’s
recommendations and avoided a pos- j
sible split between the “moderates” |
and the “Deep South” governors. The
new chairman, Ellington, later said
that if Daniel had recognized him in
stead of Faubus, he would have re
quested withdrawal of his name from
the nominations.
Mississippi’s governor, Ross Barnett,
made no public efforts to promote his
“Southern Unity” movement; but in a
report on highways, Barnett attacked
the “radical and liberal course along
which the United States is being led.”
He called for a return to “conservative
government.”
Negro and white students, carrying
posters urging racial equality, picketed
outside during several sessions of the
governors conference, including the
dinner where Vice President Lyndon
Johnson spoke.
The conference admitted Missouri to
membership, making 17 member states.
At a meeting of the Southern Re
gional Education Board, Gov. Terry
Sanford of North Carolina was chosen
the new chairman. Chancellor J. D.
Williams of the University of Missis
sippi was named SREB vice chairman
and State Senator Clifton Wade of
Arkansas was named treasurer.
The board decided to call a regional
conference in November or December
to hear a report of the Commission on
Goals for Higher Education in the
South. # # #