About Southern school news. (Nashville, Tenn.) 1954-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1963)
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JUNE, 1963—PAGE 9 g‘ mi- low !gro ties. sit- jple ele- ligh JWB who icia! that ; 36 sis 00& sys- bout I is 3 hool light egro Kennedy at Nashville . an anvil or a hammer . . .’ TENNESSEE Supreme Court Outlaws Race-Based Transfers tile- )£ egr 3 kin? sys' l by fe* eg*® 1 is * an 11 o ^ the** Cl*" rio^ pal e )bif; ys 0 ;ce^t ^af 1 ' loca- m 01 f tb e ,d ^ 9) (Continued from Page 8) state colleges and universities except the University of Tennessee, which is controlled by its own board of trus tees. Dr. West, appointed to a two-year term, began his duties when the board held its regular May session. ‘Will Do My Best’ Commenting on his appointment, Dr, West said: “I feel that is an honor to have re ceived this appointment from Gov. Cle ment and I will do my best to be of service to all of the people of Tennes see. I hope that I will contribute my part as a member of the board.” A native of Flemington, N. J., Dr. West received his B.A Degree in 1925. his M.S. Degree in 1930 and his Ph.D. Degree in 1937, all from the University of Illinois. He was conferred the LL.D. Degree at Morris Brown College in At lanta in 1955, three years after he be came president of Meharry. Dr. West served as professor of chemistry and head of the Department of Science at Morris Brown College from 1925-27, before joining the Me- harry faculty. Until 1938, when he was aamed chairman of the department of lochemistry, he served as an associ ate biochemistry professor. Dr. West also served as acting chair man of the division of basic sciences m 1947 and headed the biochemistry e partment until 1952, along with other duties at Meharry. J. he new board member is affiliated ■ 1 numerous national organizations, me uding the National Society for nppl ec j Children and Adults, the erican Chemical Society and others, e has contributed technical articles c hern° s t S ^° na ^ ^ ourn£ds ' n *he field of ★ ★ ★ ^ e gro Recommended F°r Chattanooga Board fi^” e \r aPPOintment of a “weU-quali- °f Ed G ^ r ° to Chattanooga Board bv T Ucatlon was recommended May 14 and n V s (Bookie) Turner, city fire ^Police commissioner. City e r recomrn endation was read to the omission after it had approved £^°usly the appointment of G. kear t o amS ’ a businessman, to a six- S ar _ 1111 on the school board, was nom j, na t e d by the school board, lecte^j l Stl ?, fr" om a list of persons se- Co mmitt y t SC B°°1 board nominating also i h ,.K e , ^ was reported that the list Tur^p Uded . the na ™ of a Negro, sure he *'?T J 4 sed Sams and said “I’m 6v er, j n Jr 1 do an excellent job. How- Pleased ;c e ., near future I would be mended , e sc fr°°l board recom- '°r memK -qualified Negro leader Basic fai „r shlp on the school board. Slr abilit v t' S f W0U H indicate the de- ° Ur Ponnl!:- hav “S over one-third of °Ue 0 f lon represented in at least Mayor t?? f choQl Board positions.” sta teinent ; 3 P \ Kelley also read a matnj-g ^ which he said “we have s Jhp in thio res P° ns *ble Negro leader- ^r actioL C °? mUnity - 1 am P roud of k tlrest in nth at 3 time when there is ^e been W areas • • • Negro citizens remittees a PP° ln -ted to boards and j Bey, r -w, 01 Clt >’ government. This to havp SUre ’ must . ooutinue in or . to continue m or- Station j n ooutrnunity-wide repre- a matter !f a / rS . of government. This Nations ” baSIC fairness and good Teachers in Nashville Merge Organizations Teachers in the Nashville-Davidson County metropolitan area have voted overwhelmingly to merge their four teachers organizations which now com prise Education Council, Inc. According to a survey by a six- member team from the National Edu cation Association, the vote was 2,566 for a single organization and 328 op posing the plan. Both the Nashville and Davidson County school systems have separate organizations for white and Negro teachers. Under the new metropolitan government, the city and county sys tems will be consolidated. Legal Action U. S. Court Accepts Grade-a-Year Plan; Appeal Is Expected U. S. District Judge Marion S. Boyd on May 24 accepted a grade-a-year de segregation plan for Memphis public schools. Negro attorneys said, however, they will appeal the decision to the U. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals at Cin cinnati. Under the plan approved by Boyd, biracial classes may be conducted in the first four grades in 41 of the 81 elementary schools in the system in September. Also accepted as a part of the plan was a provision to allow the transfer of students from schools where their race is in the minority, a feature at tacked by Negro attorneys. In approving the grade-a-year plan, What They Say President Stresses 4 Obligation 9 Of Nation \s Educated Citizens Declaring that the “question of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities,” President Kennedy emphasized the “obligation” of the educated citizen in a three-hour visit to Nashville on Mav 18. An estimated 33,000 people turned out to hear the President’s address commemorating the 90th anniversary of the founding of Vanderbilt University and the 30th anniversary of the Ten nessee Valley Authority. Metropolitan Police Chief Hubert Kemp estimated that at least 150,000 people lined the streets to watch the President’s motorcade. While two signs reading “Remember Mississippi” and “Kennedy for King, Goldwater for President” were observed in the crowds along the motorcade route, most of the signs seen from the airport to Vander bilt Stadium extended a welcome to the President. It was the first official visit of a President to Nashville since 1934 and Gov. Frank G. Clement, Mayor Beverly Briley and other officials as well as the public provided what Kennedy called “a very generous welcome.” Also on hand for the ceremonies were U. S. Sens. Estes Kefauver and Albert Gore, U. S. Reps. Richard Ful ton, Ross Bass, Robert A. Everett and J° e L Evins of Tennessee, and Ala bama Sens. Lister Hill and John Spark man. Clement, Briley and other officials greeted the President at the airport and accompanied him to the stadium and the luncheon which followed at the Governor’s Mansion. The President later in the day visited Muscle Shoals and Huntsville in Ala bama. (See Alabama report.) Introduced by Dr. Alexander Heard, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, the President devoted a major portion of his address to civil rights although there was no indication the subject was discussed privately with any of the state or local officials. Declaring that the nation is “now en gaged in a continuing debate about the rights of a portion of its citizens,” Ken nedy said: “That will go on, and those rights will expand, until the standard first forged by the nation’s founders has been reached—and all Americans enjoy equal opportunity and liberty under law.” The President continued: “But this nation was not founded solely on the principle of citizen rights. Equally important—though too often not discussed—is the citizen’s respon sibility. For our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. But the question of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities. Each can be neglected only at the peril of the other.” As to Equality Kennedy asserted that “equality of opportunity does not mean equality of responsibility.” He added: “All Americans must be responsible citizens, but some must be more re sponsible than others, by virtue of their public or their private positions, their role in the family or community, their prospects for the future or their legacy from the past. Increased responsibility goes with increased ability—for ‘those to whom much is given, much is re quired.’ ” The President said he referred in particular to the “responsibility of the educated citizen.” Among the “obliga tions” he cited included “. . . your ob ligation to the pursuit of learning . . . your obligation to serve the public . .. your obligation to uphold the law . . .” Kennedy declared: “You have the responsibility, in short, to use your talent for the benefit of the society which helped develop those submitted last September by the Mem phis Board of Education, Judge Boyd ruled against lawyers for the NAACP who had filed their own plan seeking desegregation of all grades by 1965. The Memphis system, now in its sec ond year of desegregation, admitted 13 Negro first-graders to four previously all-white schools in September, 1961, using the Tennessee Pupil Assignment law as a guide. The U. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Ap peals ruled, however, that the assign ment law could not be used as a de segregation plan and returned the case to Judge Boyd who ordered an ac celerated plan. (No-rthcross et al v. City of Memphis Board of Education, SSN, April, 1962.) The U. S. Supreme Court refused to review the appeals court de cision. Including the 13 Negroes who en tered biracial classes in 1961, a total of 44 Negro students in the first and sec ond grades were enrolled in previously all-white schools at the beginning of the 1962-63 school year. The school board enrolled the addi tional Negroes under its grade-a-year plan, which Judge Boyd allowed to be come effective pending a hearing. It was this plan the district court ap proved. In his ruling, the judge said the plan was “fair and realistic” and “one which can be made to work.” He said the court was “very much impressed with the earnestness and efficiency with which the board drew up its plan.” “Too much haste is not . . . conducive to the sound solution of the problem,” the judge declared. Boyd said the primary purpose of the NAACP plan “apparently is speed and more speed without proper considera tion for costs or consequences.” He also said the U. S. Civil Rights Commis sion, during a meeting in Memphis last summer, recommended that “the Nash ville Plan be adopted.” The plan approved by Boyd is simi lar to the Nashville plan which has been in effect since 1957. The controversial transfer provision, which on June 3 was rejected by the U. S. Supreme Court in the Knox ville and Davidson County cases, was described by Boyd as not “a mere de- Nashville Studies Faculty Desegregation “The biggest undecided element re maining in Nashville, besides the val idity of the transfer program, is the question of the integration of school faculties and staff,” according to a re port prepared for the Nashville Com munity Relations Council. Written by Eugene G. Wyatt, Sunday editor of the Nashville Tennessean and associate director of Race Relations Law Reporter, published by Vander bilt University School of Law, the re port was distributed on May 2 at the council’s eighth annual workshop in Nashville. W. H. Oliver, superintendent of Nash ville schools, told those attending the workshop that school officials intend to adhere strictly to the grade-a-year de segregation plan which began in 1957. “Some say the grade-a-year plan is too fast, others say it’s too slow,” Oliver commented, “but until the courts say otherwise, it will be our plan.” In his report, Wyatt noted that the U. S. Supreme Court had under con sideration provisions of transfer plans similar to the one included in the Nashville desegregation program. School faculties and staff “are still fully segregated, although various pro fessional groups and the administra tion machinery of the system itself is integrated to a considerable degree,” the report continued. While petitions for teacher desegregation have been included in several Tennessee suits, Wyatt said, “thus far the courts have OLIVER WYATT either refused such an order or re served judgment.” He added: “A recent decision in nearby Bowl ing Green, Ky., however, indicates the rule may be breaking on this score as well.” Wyatt said that “community accept ance has been more than many people expected” and “after a slow start, the program has resulted in an amount of desegregation which can no longer be called merely token. Among white peo ple, even those with rather strong pro segregation tendencies, there is an at titude of fait accompli.” But the “problem of social contact which intensifies in the high school grades has yet to be faced in Nash ville,” the report stated. Wyatt was one of four panelists who discussed “Nashville School Integra tion: Past and Prospect.” Others were Miss Ruth McDonald, primary super intendent of Davidson County schools; the Rev. Kelly Miller Smith, minister of First Baptist Church and Reed Sar- ratt, executive director of Southern Ed ucation Reporting Service. “Before we allowed our daughter to be the first Negro child to enter a white school in Tennessee,” the Rev. Mr. Smith said, “my wife and I searched ourselves wondering if we had a right to submit her to such a task. We decided to let her play a part in history. The dangers of accepting the humiliation of segregation were worse than pioneering in a worthy cause.” Miss McDonald commended the co operation between the races in deseg regation of the county schools. She also said that while some Negro students do well in their school work, she described the work of most as below average. talents. You must decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvil or a hammer, whether you will give to the world in which you are reared and educated the broadest possible bene fits of that education ... If the pursuit of learning is not defended by the edu cated citizen, it will not be defended at all . . .” The President expressed the hope that “all educated citizens” would ful fill their obligations in politics, govern ment and other fields. He said: “You will find the pressures greater than the pay. You may endure more public attack than support. But you will have the unequaled satisfaction of knowing that your character and talent are contributing to the direction and success of this free society.” Special Responsibility Declaring that the educated citizen has a special responsibility to uphold the law, the President said: “. . . He (the educated citizen) knows that law is the adhesive force in the cement of society, creating order out of chaos and coherence in place of anarchy. He knows that for one man to defy a law or court order he does not like is to invite others to defy those which they do not like, leading to a breakdown of all justice and all order. He knows, too, that every fellow man is entitled to be regarded with decency and treated with dignity. Any educated citizen who seeks to subvert the law, to suppress freedom, or to subject other human beings to acts that are less than human, degrades his inheritance, ig nores his learning, and betrays his ob ligation . . . “In these moments of tragic disorder, a special burden rests on the educated men and women of our country to re ject the temptations of prejudice and violence and to reaffirm the values of freedom and law on which our free society depend.” STIMBERT vice to perpetuate school segregation.” He added: “There is absolutely nothing in the law which requires every single school to have an integrated student body.” Dr. E. C. Stimbert, school superin tendent, estimated that 600 Negroes would be assigned to 27 previously all- white schools and 375 white stu dents would be assigned to 14 pre dominantly Negro schools in Septem ber. Officials indi cated, however, that the number would be reduced sharply by those who seek trans fers to other schools. William D. Galbreath, school board chairman, said from 250 to 400 Negro students likely would attend biracial classes in 27 predominantly white schools. Under the plan, the fifth grade would be desegregated in 1964 with an addi tional grade each year thereafter until all 12 grades would be included by 1971. Also included is a provision which would allow the board, in its discre tion, to desegregate more than a grade each year, Stimbert explained. Derrick Bell, NAACP attorney, had this to say about the plan: “If America’s space program pro ceeds on schedule, we will put a man on the moon by 1970. This is a year before the city’s plan would complete the desegregation of the Memphis schools.” Bell also declared that the “preserva tion of peace cannot be purchased at the price of denying the constitutional rights to Negro children” as he said the case would be taken to the appeals court as soon as a transcript of the dis trict court hearing is available. In his arguments before the court, Bell said: “By ruling compulsory segregation unconstitutional, the Supreme Court implied that compulsory integration is required.” Among those who testified in behalf of the board’s plan were Stimbert and W. H. Oliver, superintendent of the Nashville school system. Boyd’s decision came at the close of a two-day hearing. The Memphis school system includes 50,953 Negro students and 54,684 white students. Officials said, however, the number of Negroes in the first six grades totals 33,179 compared with 30,- 248 white students. Negro attorneys also had requested (See TENNESSEE, Page 10)
