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TENNESSEE
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JULY, 1963—PAGE II
NAACP Suit Seeks Desegregation of Shelby Schools
NASHVILLE
A suit seeking complete deseg-
regation of the Shelby Coun
ty school system was filed in U.S.
District Court at Memphis on
June 12 by the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of
Colored People.
The case was assigned to U. S. Dis
trict Judge Marion S. Boyd, but no
date for a hearing had been set at the
end of the month.
Filed in behalf of 21 Negro students,
the suit also seeks desegregation of
teaching staffs.
Named as defendants were members
of the Shelby County Board of Educa
tion, members of the Shelby County
Court, School Supt. George H. Barnes
and County Commissioners Jack Ram
say, Bruce Jordan and Dan Mitchell.
The Shelby County district, which
operates schools surrounding Memphis,
is the only metropolitan-area system
in Tennessee which has not begun de
segregation. It has more than 36,000
students, about 50 per cent of whom
are Negroes.
Action on HEW Request
Plans were announced by the board
several weeks ago for the desegrega
tion of East Millington School in Sep
tember, in response to a request by
the U. S. Department of Health, Edu
cation and Welfare. The department
had asked that all students living at
the Memphis Naval Air Station be as
signed to one school.
Although no time limit was specified,
the NAACP suit asked the court to
direct the school board to submit a
plan for desegregation as soon as possi
ble.
The suit stated that in order to be
acceptable to the plaintiffs, the board’s
plan must include assignment of stu
dents and faculties on a nonracial ba
sis, and operation of school buses, con
struction of new schools and allotment
of school funds without regard to race
or color.
Supt. Barnes said the suit had been
anticipated although a plan for deseg
regating the district’s 58 schools has
been under consideration by the board
for a year.
Says Conferences Held
W. Percy McDonald Sr., board presi
dent, said school officials had formu
lated “what we thought was an ac
ceptable plan” and that it had been
discussed in conferences with NAACP
leaders.
While McDonald would not discuss
etails of the board’s plan, he said it
would be submitted to Judge Boyd
soon and that the board “will definitely
, a ^ e to work it out before the start
°f school this fall.”
Blair T. Hunt, the only Negro mem-
e r of the board, also was named a
e endant in the suit which asked for
declaratory judgment and a “per
cent injunction forever restraining
a eri joining the defendants . . . their
gents (and) employes . . . from main-
or operating a compulsory
cially segregated school system.”
of U ?’ W ^° sa *d he is “for integration
Cau sc “°°l s in an orderly fashion be-
rj , Se „ * believe it is inevitable and
w ' ex P r essed surprise that the suit
l tt ec *- “The NAACP had agreed to
ter ^ board) deal with the mat-
of court,” he declared.
Plan Declared Ready
C kad taken a vote on a plan for
^nt . egation and were ready to pre-
hah * ,*? ibe NAACP whenever they
Us” H de legation that would meet with
Ba Unt continued.
arj 116 ? anc i other members of the
w
declined to discuss details of
in that°? a ^ sa *d the suit was unusual
co^ * , name d members of the county
defend “ '’be county commissioners as
court i tS ’ Tennessee, a county
^bile n, B Ua si-legislative body.)
dren Mg'-’ “ ”
'be suit listed 21 Negro chil-
gj e , fbeir parents as plaintiffs, it
of a jj as a class action on behalf
’ted” ot ber persons similarly situ-
l^Cr^.tbe NAACP in the case
^due^i™ et al v. Memphis Board of
” B c are attorneys B. L. Hooks,
k all ^ garmon Jr. and A. W. Willis
0 t •Memphis, and Jack Green-
^■'torri eW ^ or b-
0, tUsei f^ ^ ee Winchester Jr. is legal
0r the board of education.
★ ★ ★
Withdraws
Bs ” r °vision
^Urie Tudge Marion S. Boyd
d^Pbis p, a PP r oved a motion by the
ar d of Education to with-
^aciaiK u question
*y based transfer
provisi
Tennessee Highlights
The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
filed suit in U.S. District Court, seek
ing complete desegregation of the
Shelby County school system.
A motion by the Memphis Board of
Education to substitute a new stu
dent-transfer provision in its grade-a-
year desegregation plan was approved
June 28 by U.S. District Judge
Marion S. Boyd.
Jackson and Madison County
school systems were ordered by
U.S. District Judge Bailey Brown to
submit desegregation plans during
July.
Pupil transfer provisions ruled un
constitutional early in June by the
U.S. Supreme Court were deleted by
the Nashville and Davidson County
Metropolitan Transitional School
Board from desegregation plans fol
lowed by Nashville and Davidson
County schools.
In a suit filed July 3 in U.S. Dis
trict Court, eight white and Negro
families asked that the Franklin
County school board be directed to
desegregate its school system.
The University of Chattanooga on
June 5 admitted eight Negro gradu
ate students to do graduate work
during the summer session.
from its gradual desegregation plan.
Overruling objections by Negro at
torneys, Boyd approved the substitu
tion of another clause which school
officials contended
would provide for
transfers of white
and Negro stu
dents on the same
basis.
The judge at
the same time
turned down
another motion
filed by Negro at
torneys who had
sought an immed
iate injunction to
prevent the city from continuing school
desegregation on a grade-a-year basis.
The lawyers, representing the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, had contended that de
segregation should be completed in
1965.
Acting in response to the U.S. Su
preme Court’s rejection of similar
transfer provisions in the Davidson
County and Knoxville cases, the
NAACP on June 14 asked the court to
strike down that portion of the Mem
phis plan which provided that students
assigned to schools in which their race
was in the minority could gain auto
matic transfers to other schools.
Negro attorneys contended that the
Schoolmen
The Nashville and Davidson County
Metropolitan Transitional School Board
on June 14 voted unanimously to end
pupil transfer provisions which had
been struck down earlier in the month
by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a ruling on June 3, the high tri
bunal ruled that provisions which al
lowed students to be transferred from
schools because their race is in the
minority are unconstitutional.
The court’s opinion upheld the posi
tion of Negro petitioners who objected
to the provisions in the gradual deseg
regation plans of Davidson County and
Knoxville (Maxwell et al v. Davidson
County Board of Education and Goss et
al v. Knoxville Board of Education,
SSN, June and previous.)
At Knoxville, Supt. T. N. Johnston
said the Knoxville Board of Education
met on June 10, but did not discuss the
Supreme Court ruling. The superin
tendent indicated the board also may
delete the transfer provision from its
desegregation plan in July or August,
prior to the opening of the 1963-64
school year.
“We anticipate no difficulty,” John
ston said, “We will just move along and
treat everyone alike.”
Attorneys agreed that the court’s rul
ing in the Davidson County case also
applies to the Nashville schools, which
have followed a similar transfer pro
cedure since they began desegregation
in 1957.
The two systems now are operating
with a single transitional school board
under Nashville and Davidson County’s
provision allowed white students as
signed to predominantly Negro schools
to transfer to other schools, leaving
Negroes in segregated classrooms.
Attorney Jack Petree, representing j
the school board, only a few hours later |
asked the court’s permission to with
draw the controversial provision and to
approve substitution of the new clause.
Petree said the new plan would allow
transfers to be governed by the Ten
nessee Pupil Assignment Law and
would be administered without regard
to race.
The school board attorney said the
substitute provision would not prevent
white students from transferring out of
predominantly Negro schools, but would
broaden the plan so Negroes in biracial
schools could also request assignment
to other desegregated schools.
Discrimination Claimed
NAACP lawyers objected to the
board’s substitute proposal, contending
that it would discriminate against the
remaining Negro students in the dis
trict. They indicated they would appeal
to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Ap
peals at Cincinnati in an effort to over
turn Judge Boyd’s decision on the
transfer provision as well as his denial
of an injunction.
Petree said parents of both white and
Negro students in biracial schools
would have the right to apply for trans
fers to other schools where classroom
space was available.
The board on May 24 received Judge
Boyd’s approval of its grade-a-year
plan. (SSN, June.) The Memphis sys
tem has just completed its second year
of desegregation, with 44 Negro stu
dents attending predominantly white
classes in the first and second grade.
★ ★ ★
Jackson, Madison County
Told to Submit Plans
U.S. District Judge Bailey Brown has
ordered the school boards of Jackson
and Madison County in West Tennessee
to submit plans for school desegrega
tion.
In a June 14 ruling, the judge set
July 15 as the deadline for the Madison
County Board of Education to present
a plan, gave Negro attorneys one week
to file an answer and set a hearing in
the case in Memphis for July 26.
At the same time, Judge Brown di
rected the Jackson City Commission,
which also serves as the city school
board, to submit a plan no later than
July 20. Negro attorneys were allotted
one week after that date to file an
answer and a hearing was scheduled
for Aug. 6, also in Memphis.
Jackson, county seat of Madison
County, began desegregation voluntar
ily during the 1961-62 school year.
Schools in Madison County, however,
have not desegregated.
During a hearing on a request for a
temporary injunction in January, Judge
Brown ordered the admission of four
Now He Thinks He’s a Cop
McClanahan, Dallas News
consolidated government, which became
effective April 1.
K. Harlan Dodson, attorney for the
Davidson County board, told the tran
sitional school officials:
“As I understand the court ruling,
you may still have sound transfers—re
quested by parents.”
Upon the advice of Gilbert Merritt,
metropolitan government attorney for
the school board, the officials deleted
only Section 6 of the transfer policy,
the provision based on race.
Individual Consideration
Dodson said that school officials in
both systems may continue to grant
transfers but that they must be con
sidered individually. He said other pro
visions for transfer include factors “ad
versely affecting the education” of
pupils.
The attorney said the Supreme Court
additional Negroes to biracial schools
in Jackson. He indicated a month later
that he would order general desegrega
tion of both school systems.
No Jury Trial
In another hearing on June 2, Judge
Brown ruled that the county school
board could not submit the question of
desegregation to a jury trial as it had
requested and also refused to allow
white students or teachers to intervene
in the case.
The question of a jury trial was pre
sented by William M. Shaw of Homer,
La., attorney for Taylor Robinson, one
of the seven members of the county
school board and a defendant in the
suit.
Shaw also had sought permission of
the court for 20 white students as well
as white teachers to intervene in the
case on the grounds that their rights
were in question in the suit.
“It has been held by the Supreme
Court that a segregated school system
is unconstitutional,” Judge Brown de
clared. “The only purpose the interven
tion of these parties could have is to
attempt to convince the court that it
should not follow the law.”
Summary Judgment
Judge Brown on June 14 granted a
motion for summary judgment filed by
Nashville attorney Avon N. Williams Jr.,
representing the plaintiffs, and directed
both systems to proceed to formulate
desegregation plans. He had withheld a
decision on the summary judgment at
the June 1 hearing so that school board
attorneys could study the matter
further.
The judge said that although nine
years have passed since the Supreme
Court’s decision in the Brown case, “we
must consider the present-day circum
stance and what is practical. Even if I
were to feel the Negroes were entitled
to immediate desegregation including
faculties, I have doubts that I would
grant it all at one time.”
Although separate hearings have been
scheduled in the cases, a motion for
severance of the cases is pending. The
suit originally was brought in behalf
of Jackson students and later amended
to include pupils living in Madison
County.
Appeal Expected
Shaw said he would appeal to the U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in be
half of Robinson, but other county at
torneys were quoted as saying they
would not join in the appeal.
Robinson filed a separate answer to
the suit.
Madison County Attorney Jack Man-
hein and Edwin F. Hunt, Nashville
lawyer, represented the other county
board members and concurred in the
request for a jury trial.
City school officials, however, had not
asked for a jury trial.
ruling prohibited racial transfers under
state laws providing for them. He
added, however, that parents of Negro
or white students who feel their chil
dren may not do well in schools pre
dominantly of the other race may seek
transfers.
If such requests are made by parents,
and not as applications under state laws,
Dodson continued, the school board
may grant them.
Attorneys for both sides in the Da
vidson County and Knoxville cases
earlier had indicated the court’s de
cision would affect other systems fol
lowing similar transfer provisions.
★ ★ ★
Eight families, four white and four
Negro, joined in a suit filed July 3 in
U.S. District Court seeking desegrega
tion of the Franklin County school sys
tem in lower Middle Tennessee.
Court officials said it was the first
case in Tennessee in which white and
Negro parents have filed a desegrega
tion suit jointly.
Signed by attorneys for the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, the suit asked the
court to enjoin the board from operat
ing a segregated school system.
The board operates a Negro high
school at Winchester and elementary
schools at Cowan, Belvedere, Decherd,
Sewanee and Winchester.
White parents involved in the suit
are all affiliated with the University of
the South at Sewanee.
In The Colleges
First Negroes Enter
U. of Chattanooga
Eight Negroes were admitted to the
University of Chattanooga’s summer
session for graduate students on June
5, the first of their race to be enrolled
at the private institution.
The board of trustees had voted
earlier to admit qualified graduate stu
dents “without regard to race, color or
creed.” (SSN, March.)
Dr. August Eberle, university provost
who helped supervise registration for
the summer session, said:
“I am delighted that the University
of Chattanooga could and did observe
this historic occasion very much in the
manner of business as usual.”
The Negro students, seven of whom
are teachers, we-e among 152 who reg-
(See TENNESSEE, Page 12)
The Region
(Continued From Page 10)
entered the university’s center at
Huntsville.
Cleve McDowell entered the Univer
sity of Mississippi Law School without
incident on June 5.
Two Georgia colleges, Armstrong in
Savannah and West Georgia in Carroll
ton, each enrolled one Negro student
during the month while in Texas, three
Negroes were admitted to Texas A & M
College and two others began classes
at Texarkana College. Texarkana and
Armstrong are municipal institutions;
the others are state-supported.
University of Chattanooga, a private
institution, admitted eight Negro grad
uate students for the summer session.
A Nigerian student was ordered ad
mitted to Louisiana State University
at New Orleans.
In court rulings and other legal de
velopments, most of the activity oc
curred in Alabama, Mississippi and
Virginia.
U.S. District Judge Daniel H. Thomas
ordered the Mobile County school
board to present a desegregation plan
for 1964-65, while the U.S. Firth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals took under
advisement a decision on whether Bir
mingham should be required to begin
biracial classes in September. In other
Alabama cases, the Justice Department
said it would appeal a ruling that it
has no right to bring suits in Huntsville
and Madison County, and the Univer
sity of Alabama board of trustees filed
notice of appeal to overturn a district
court’s order refusing a delay in de
segregation.
Cases Dismissed
In Mississippi, U.S. District Judge
Sidney C. Mize dismissed desegregation
suits against Jackson and Leake Coun
ty along with others brought by the
Justice Department against Biloxi and
Gulfport school districts. He also de
layed until October a hearing in a case
involving the Biloxi Municipal Separate
School District.
The right of the U.S. Government to
bring a desegregation suit in behalf of
children of military and civilian per
sonnel at Ft. Lee in Prince George
County, Va., however, was upheld by
a federal district court.
In other Virginia cases, King George
County school board was ordered to
admit 38 Negroes to biracial classes this
fall and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals upheld a district court order
enjoining the Powhatan County school
board from taking action to close the
public schools.
Two Negro brothers were ordered
enrolled in white schols in Palm Beach
County, Fla., while the U.S. Fifth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals refused to direct
Atlanta to accelerate its reverse stair
step plan.
Faces Hearing
In Louisiana, the director of a voca
tional-technical school at Lake Charles
faced a hearing on why he should not
be cited for civil contempt for failing
to obey a desegregation order.
A plan for desegregation of Charles-
to, Mo., schools was approved by a
federal judge.
Two Tennessee districts, Jackson
and Madison County, were ordered to
submit plans during July to U.S. dis
trict court.
In Texas, the Longview school dis
trict was directed to file a plan for
biracial schools and a school board
proposal for g ade-a-year desegrega
tion at Georgetown beginning in Sep
tember, 1964 received fede.al court
approval.
Race-Based Transfer Provision Deleted