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PAGE 10—AUGUST, 1962—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TENNESSEE
Court Instructs Memphis To Submit Plan
For Accelerated School Desegregation
NASHVILLE
. S. District Judge Marion S.
Boyd has ordered the Mem
phis Board of Education to file an
accelerated plan for desegregating
its school system.
In his July 16 order, Judge Boyd al
lowed the board 60 days to submit a
new plan but asked that it be done,
if possible, within 45 days in order that
it could become effective with the open
ing of schools on Sept. 4.
William D. Galbreath, president of the
board, announced that school officials
are “studying several different plans but
I think it hardly possible to put any one
of them in effect with the start of
classes.”
Galbreath said the board probably
will ask Judge Boyd to allow it to con
tinue to operate under the State Pupil
Assignment Law “with an accelerated
number of Negroes placed in white
schools.” He also said the board may
prefer to allow the court to draw up
its own plan.
“We have no assurance any plan we
would draw up would be acceptable to
the court,” Galbreath continued. “We
would be sure of court approval if we
operated under their orders.”
Review Denied
Judge Boyd’s order for an accelerated
plan came about three weeks after the
U.S. Supreme Court refused to review
a decision by the Sixth Circuit Court
of Appeals which struck down the de
segregation plan initiated last year in
Memphis city school. (SSN, July.)
In effect, the Supreme Court’s refusal
to review the appeals court ruling up
held the lower court’s decision that
Tennessee’s Pupil Assignment Law
could not be used as a desegregation
plan. (SSN, April.)
In its March 23 ruling, the appeals
court reversed a decision handed down
by Judge Boyd last year that the
board’s adoption of the pupil assign
ment law had ended compulsory racial
segregation in the Memphis schools.
(Northcross et al v. Memphis Board of
Education, SSN, May, 1961.)
Thirteen Negro first-graders were en
rolled in four previously all-white
schools under provisions of the assign
ment law last fall and 42 Negro chil
dren are seeking transfers to predomi
nantly white schools for the 1962-63
school year.
Largest in State
The Memphis school system, largest in
Tennessee, has a combined white and
Negro enrollment of nearly 110,000.
After the Supreme Court refused to
review the board’s appeal in the case,
both Galbreath and attorney Jack Pet-
ree, counsel for the board, expressed
doubt that a new plan could be formu
lated before the beginning of the new
term.
School officials indicated that any new
plan likely will operate on a single set
of boundary lines for school zones.
Under the present system, one group
of boundaries applies to white schools
and another to Negroes, and the two
often overlap.
The assignment law lists 22 factors
upon which the assignment of students
may be based. While race is not among
the factors, the appeals court said the
law was inadequate as a desegregation
plan and directed the board to devise a
“realistic plan for the organization of
the schools on a non-racial basis.”
★ ★ ★
Court Holds Knoxville’s
Plan ‘Too Complicated’
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Ap
peals on July 6 ruled that the Knoxville
Board of Education’s plan to allow Ne
groes to attend biracial vocational
classes at Fulton High School is “too
complicated.”
U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor
was directed to “require an amendment”
which would enable Negroes at Austin
High School to attend vocational classes
at the predominantly white school when
courses desired by the students are not
available at Austin, a Negro high school.
The court noted that one Negro stu
dent had been denied a transfer for
more than a month, during which time
a commercial art course in which the
student sought to enroll was added to
the curriculum at Austin.
A plan offered by the board provided
for a delay in approving transfers until
authorities could determine whether
there was a sufficient number of stu
dents at Austin to warrant setting up
courses not offered at the Negro school.
Tennessee Highlights
The Memphis Board of Education
has been instructed by U.S. District
Judge Marion S. Boyd to submit an
accelerated plan for school desegre
gation.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals on July 6 rejected as “too
complicated” a plan offered by the
Knoxville Board of Education for
desegregated high school vocational
classes.
Knox County Board of Education,
which voluntarily began a grade-a-
year desegregation plan in 1960, has
announced that two additional
grades will be open to biracial
classes this fall.
Preparing to desegregate the first
three grades in 16 schools under
court order next month, the Chatta
nooga Board of Education an
nounced on July 27 that previous
transfer provisions will continue to
be followed.
Frank G. Clement, Tennessee’s
governor from 1953 to 1959, won
nomination to a third term in the
Aug. 2 Democratic Primary.
An initial meeting of the Chatta
nooga Citizens Council was attended
by about 250 persons on July 24,
and officials said an organizational
session will be held in about a
month.
But the appeals court said this plan
“offers too much opportunity for a
transfer to be stopped either by the
transfering principal or the receiving
principal.”
Judge Taylor in 1960 ordered the
board to submit a plan for biracial high
school vocational classes as he approved
a grade-a-year desegregation plan for
the entire system. (Goss et al v. Knox
ville Board of Education.) During the
past year, 52 Negro students in the first
two grades attended previously all-
white schools.
The appeals court on April 3, in re
sponse to a petition by Negro attorneys,
ordered that the desegregation plan be
accelerated. On June 25, the board of
education said it would file an amend
ed plan calling for two additional
grades instead of one to be desegregated
this fall.
★ ★ ★
Evidence in Dynamiting
Considered Insufficient
Evidence in the 1958 dynamiting of
Clinton High School is insufficient to
obtain an indictment, Assistant Attor
ney General Phil C. Mason informed
Anderson County Criminal Court on
July 16.
Attorney General J. H. McCartt had
indicated a few days earlier that there
was a possibility that evidence in the
case would be presented to the Ander
son County Grand Jury.
Sheriff Glad Woodward, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and other law
enforcement officers have investigated
the explosion for three and a half years.
The blast occurred on Oct. 5, 1958,
two years after Clinton became the first
state-supported high school to deseg
regate its classes under court order.
Schoolmen
Knox Speeds Plan;
Chattanooga Keeps
Transfer Policy
Two additional grades instead of one
will be desegregated this fall in Knox
County, surrounding Knoxville.
The Knox County Board of Educa
tion announced the speedup on July 3
in an apparent effort to bring the coun
ty’s desegregation pace up to the level
of Knoxville’s city schools.
Supt. Mildred Doyle said the new
policy calls for admission of third- and
fourth-grade Negroes to pceviously all-
white classes this fall with an additional
grade to be desegregated each year
thereafter.
Previously, only the third grade had
been scheduled for desegregation this
year under a plan adopted voluntarily
by the board in 1960. Last year, the first
and second grades were desegregated
in policy although only one Negro stu
dent was enrolled in formerly all-white
classes.
Miss Doyle said the board’s policy will
allow a Negro student to attend either
the school in which he is enrolled al
ready or the nearest predominantly
white school, provided the pupil is in
grades one through four.
The Knox County system has an en
rollment of nearly 33,000, of which only
300 are Negroes.
Acting as a result of an order by the
U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the
Knoxville city board of education on
June 25 voted to speed up its desegre
gation program by providing for bira
cial classes in the third and fourth
grades this fall. (SSN, July.)
The city board said it would file such
a plan for approval by the U.S. District
Court under whose order it desegre
gated the first grade in 1960.
★ ★ ★
The Chattanooga Board of Education,
preparing to begin desegregation of its
schools next month, has announced that
it will base transfer provisions on poli
cies in effect before biracial classes
were ordered by U.S. District Court.
Dr. Bennie Carmichael, superintend
ent, said on July 27 that a 10-point
transfer plan for
first - grade stu
dents which has
been in effect for
several years will
continue to be
followed.
Students in the
second and third
grades, he said,
will be allowed to
continue in the
school which they
attended last year
although they may now be zoned in a
new school district.
U.S. District Judge Frank Wilson on
March 1 ordered the board to desegre
gate the first three grades in 16 desig
nated schools at the beginning of the
1962-63 school year and, thereafter, to
follow a stairstep plan which would
bring desegregation to all grades in the
entire system by September, 1968.
The board appealed that portion of
Judge Wilson’s ruling, however, which
struck down its proposed admissions
and transfer provisions.
Stay Order Denied
Dr. Carmichael’s announcement that
transfer provisions will be based on
policies in existence before the Fed
eral Court order came after the board
was denied a stay order by the U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, pend
ing an appeal on the admissions and
transfer ruling.
The board had not asked that the
entire proceedings be delayed. Neither
did Negro attorneys who appealed other
portions of Judge Wilson’s ruling.
School officials said parents request
ing a transfer of a child from his pres
ent school zone must submit written
application to the superintendent by
Aug. 10.
After that date, they said, the num
ber of Negroes who will be assigned
to previously all-white schools and the
Miscellaneous
About 250 persons attended an initial
meeting of the Chattanooga Citizens
Council on July 24.
Two out-of-state leaders in the Citi
zens’ Councils of America addressed
the meeting which was believed to be
the first effort to establish such an or
ganization in Chattanooga. They were
Dr. Medford Evans, former University
of Chattanooga faculty member who
once was chief of security training for
the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission,
and W. J. Simmons Jr. of Jackson,
Miss., editor of the Citizens’ Councils
of America publication.
Dr. Evans, now a consultant for the
parent organization, announced that an
organizational meeting will be held
within about a month from the initial
session. At the next session, he said, a
nominating committee will present a
slate of directors and a proposed char
ter of incorporation.
Dr. John P. Hoover, who presided as
temporary chairman of the group, was
named chairman of a nominating com
mittee.
Both Evans and Simmons called for
number of white students who will be
assigned to previously all-Negro schools
can be determined.
Latest estimates available from school
officials showed that 68 Negroes reside
in seven previously all-white districts
and that 84 white students reside in
three formerly all-Negro zones.
Four of the remaining zones in which
the desegregation ruling is applicable
have no white students, and two dis
tricts have no Negro students, school
officials explained, based upon infor
mation they said is available.
In striking down the board’s proposed
transfer plan, Judge Wilson said the
board has a right to “modify zones” if
it is done “without regard to purely ra
cial factors” and may adopt any “rea
sonable and proper” transfer plan “so
long as such plan is not based upon
race . . (Mapp et al v. Chattanooga
Board of Education, SSN, March, and
previous.) The order, however, ap
proved single school zones.
The board said it interpreted Judge
Wilson’s ruling to order all of the chil
dren in the affected zones to attend
desegregated classrooms. It told the
Court of Appeals, which also denied the
stay order on July 17, that under the
plan 51 white students in the Clara
Carpenter School district would have
to attend the formerly all-Negro school.
None of the 10 factors in the pre
vious transfer plan mentions race.
Dr. Carmichael said the board has no
basis for granting transfers to first-
graders except under the existing poli
cies or “by special consideration and
recommendation by the superintend
ent.” He also said any transfer plan
“would have to be within the ruling of
the federal district judge.”
★ ★ ★
Negro Request Studied;
Resistance Is Urged
The Madison County Board of Edu
cation has taken no official action on
a request by Negro leaders that it de
segregate its school system, according
to Supt. James Walker.
Walker said the request, presented
several weeks ago by Jackson-Madison
County officials of the National Associ
ation for the Advancement of Colored
People, remains under study by the
board.
Three Negroes were enrolled in the
Jackson city schools, a separate system,
under a plan adopted voluntarily by
the Jackson Board of Education last
fall. Members of the Jackson City Com
mission make up the school board.
Madison County Court on May 15
adopted a resolution opposing desegre
gation and urged the board to “use all
legal means to resist forced integration”
of the West Tennessee county system.
(In Tennessee, county courts are local
governing bodies.)
On June 29, about 1,000 persons, in
cluding members of the Madison Coun
ty chapter of the Tennessee Federation
for Constitutional Government, heard
an address by Dr. Medford Evans, a
consultant for Citizens Councils of
America.
Speaking on “the communist program
of forced racial mixing,” Dr. Evans said
racial segregation.
“Tonight is the time to take a stand,”
Simmons continued, declaring that
Citizens Councils are interested in mak
ing segregation a major issue in po
litical campaigns.
Arthur A. Canada, formerly affiliated
with the Tennessee Society to Maintain
Segregation, was among those listed on
the nominating committee. Membership
cards fixing dues from $10 to $100 on
a temporary basis were distributed.
★ ★ ★
Highlander Properties
Auctioned for $43,000
Physical assets of what was once the
Highlander Folk School near Mont-
eagle were sold for $43,000 in a public
auction on July 7.
The court-liquidated school had been
the center of controversy during its 30
years of operation because of the de
segregated adult education workshops
it conducted.
Highlander’s furnishings and equip-
CARMICHAEL
Chattanooga Group Forms
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Frank G. Clement
Democratic Nominee
qu
Th
oul
unless organized opposition to desegre
gation is developed, “we face destruc
tion of the Southern way of life, Amer
ican independence and security and a
the fruits of Christian religion in thi
world.”
Ralph Lewis, president of the Mel
esus School PTA, who presided at th
meeting, said “the people of Madisa
County will continue such meetings i
this and other activities as long as th
NAACP continues to agitate.”
A group of nearly 100 Madison Com
tians appeared before the school boar
earlier to express opposition to the re
quest for desegregation.
Dr. W. R. Ball, president of the Jack
son-Madison County Chapter of tk
NAACP, asked the board to end seg
regation in elementary and high schoo.
this fall.
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Frank G. Clement im ;
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Gets Nomination
For Governorship
por
alo
Former Gov. Frank G. Clement w« p
Democratic nomination to another ten w jj
as Tennessee’s chief executive on Au| pi e
2. Thi
Unofficial returns from nearly all ( tim
the state’s 2,687 precincts gave Clemei are
a 91,000-vote margin over his nearei cial
opponent, Chattanooga Mayor P. I seg
(Rudy) Olgiati. I:
The third major candidate in the pri fou
mary race was Memphis Public Work per
Commissioner William W. Farris whos «
vote fell about 9,000 below Olgiati’s. legi
Clement, who was Tennessee’s gover are
nor from 1953 to 1959, faces Republics «
nominee Hubert Patty in the No vert Sta
ber general election. A victory in tl ere
Democratic primary, however, is vii cer
tually equivalent to election. *
None of the three major candidates! anc
the Democratic primary mentioned tl enc
question of school desegregation in thei the
campaign speeches across the state. 1 cap
fourth candidate, L. A. Watts of Men by.
phis, said he favored racial segregate b
and declared:
“I will do everything in my power i
governor to maintain segregation. I wi
not sell out to integrationists for votes
Watts, a businessman, did not ca®
paign actively and he received only
scattering of votes. No tabulation vn
made on his total vote, pending the off
cial canvass.
(See TENNESSEE, Page 11)
Co\
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Council
ment were sold at auction last D
cember.
Included in the latest sale were re
estate and other physical assets, inclu c
ing the house once occupied by Myl'
Horton, founder-director of the priva 1
institution. Horton established an ad 11
education center at Knoxville after &
U.S. Supreme Court last Oct. 9 refuse
to review a lower court decision whi c
revoked its charter.
The charter was revoked on grouB c
that the school violated Tenness*
segregation laws, that beer had be®
sold illegally on the premises and tflj
the school had been operated for t"
personal gain of Horton. The State S' 1
preme Court upheld the revocation 6
the latter two points but made no t®
erence to the segregation laws.
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Meeks '
Tracy City purchased the largest sh&
of the property, including 100 acres 1
the school’s 175-acre tract, seven la**
front lots and one house. The rema#
der was sold to other buyers.
Highlander had been the subject (
several investigations over a period 1
many years.
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