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PAGE 8—AUGUST, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TENNESSEE
3 Midstate
NASHVILLE
T hree Middle Tennessee
county school systems have
announced plans for initial school
desegregation when classes re
open in the fall.
Voluntary policies were adopted by
the boards of education in White,
Overton and Clay counties. They were
the direct result of a fire which de
stroyed an all-Negro school in Putnam
County last January.
No Negro high schools are operated
by the three districts They had trans
ported their Negro students to Putnam
County’s Darwin School before the fire.
Under plans of school officials in each
of the counties, more than 50 Negro
students will be eligible to be enrolled
in predominantly white high schools
for the fall term.
White County already has registered
36 Negroes at White County High
School at Sparta.
School Supt. William Slatten said the
board’s action in desegregating the high
school also will apply to all elementary
schools.
“Any child in White County may at
tend any school he chooses within the
school district in which he resides,”
Slatten said. “We haven’t tried to cam
ouflage anything; we just made it a
sweeping statement which doesn’t men
tion race,” he added.
Boundaries Unchanged
Boundaries of school districts were
not changed, Slatten said.
The superintendent noted, however,
that most of the county’s Negro stu
dents reside in the vicinity of Sparta,
the county seat.
White County schools have a total
enrollment of about 3,000, including a
small percentage of Negroes.
The Sparta school system, which
operates schools in grades 1 through
8, has about 1,000 students, including
an estimated 75 Negroes. No plans for
desegregation have been announced by
the Sparta district.
Included among the Negro registra
tions were 13 freshmen, Slatten said.
The White County board previously
had furnished transportation for the
Negro students attending Darwin
School and state funds which other
wise would have gone to White County
were paid to Putnam County, Slatten
said.
Schools will reopen Aug. 15 in
White County.
At Livingston, county seat of Over-
ton County, Supt. Illard Hunter said
four Negro students who attended
Darwin would be permitted to enroll at
previously all-white Livingston Acade
my, a high school.
Hunter said Negro leaders in the
district did not favor school desegre
gation “but the fire forced them to ask
admission (of their children) to the
high school.”
A new one-teacher Negro elementary
school was built about two years ago,
Hunter said, because Negro leaders
preferred to “have their own school.”
Overton County has a total enrollment
of about 3.500 students, including
fewer than 25 Negroes.
Hunter said the board had received
no requests for elementary school de
segregation.
Clay County
Mrs. Elsie Vaughn, superintendent of
Clay County schools, said 11 Negro stu
dents who previously attended Darwin
will be eligible for enrollment at Ce-
lina High School in Celina, now an all-
white school, “if they want to enroll.”
The superintendent said that Clay
County has no Negro high schools.
Mrs. Vaughn said the school board
had not taken a formal vote on the
enrollment of Negro students, but “it
was generally agreed” that biracial
classes will be limited to grades 9
through 12.
Registration was scheduled July 30
with classes to begin Aug. 5.
Clay County has 27 other Negro stu
dents in grades 1 through 8 at Free
Hill School, a Negro school. They and
the 11 Negro high school students are
the only members of their race in the
system’s total enrollment of about 1,775.
All three of the superintendents said
they anticipated no desegregation diffi
culties.
“We feel we can work out our own
problems,” Hunter said.
Following the Darwin fire, Negro
students from the three districts as well
as some from Putnam County finished
out the year in temporary quarters.
Four Putnam County Negro students
who attended Darwin were enrolled at
predominantly white Central High
School at Cookeville and Algood High
School at Algood.
Counties Announce Plans For Desegregation
Tennessee Highlights
Plans for initial school desegrega
tion when classes open in the fall
were adopted voluntarily by school
officials in White, Overton and Clay
counties. The White County board
voted to desegregate all grades; the
other two districts scheduled biracial
classes in the high schools.
Desegregation of the Humboldt city
school district at the pace of three
grades a year beginning Aug. 30, was
approved voluntarily by the board of
education.
Jackson and Madison County
school officials filed separate gradual
desegregation plans in U.S. District
Court, but a stay order by U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul
C. Weick delayed further proceed.-
ings.
The question of assignment of
teachers and principals on a non-
racial basis was left unresolved by
the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Ap
peals as it acted upon appeals in the
Chattanooga school desegregation
case.
The U.S. District Court’s approval
of a gradual desegregation plan in
Memphis was appealed in a formal
notice filed by attorneys for the
National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People.
Following a decision not to rebuild
Darwin School, the Putnam County
board of education on May 10 volun
tarily assigned five Negro teachers who
previously served at Darwin to pre
dominantly white classrooms effective
this fall and announced plans for the
admission of an additional 104 Negroes
to biracial classes in all grades. SSN,
June.)
The Putnam board’s action, except
for the Oak Ridge system which de
segregated in 1955 while under federal
control, is the first in Tennessee in
which Negro teachers have been as
signed positions in biracial schools.
What They Say
UK Historian
Asks Peaceful
Solution of Issue
Dr. Thomas Clark, University of
Kentucky historian, said in Chatta
nooga July 13 that the race problem
must be solved peacefully and intelli
gently.
“And it is far too late to turn back
now,” Dr. Clark said in a lecture at the
University of Chattanooga American
Studies Institute.
Dr. Clark praised Kentucky Gov.
Bert Combs’ proclamation banning
segregation by state-licensed businesses
and asserted that “South Carolnia dis
appointed a lot of extremists with her
moderation and peaceful school inte
gration.”
The speaker also referred to Alabama
Gov. George Wallace’s stand against
the enrollment of Negroes at the Uni
versity of Alabama as a “passing wave
of nostalgia.” He added:
“Since 1950 forceful leadership has
developed among the Negroes. Political
influence has mushroomed for the race.
When the white man failed to face
what is by right the white man’s prob
lem, the Negro took it up. I fear today,
though, the confused and intemperate
efforts of young enthusiasts. Frantic
violence, though understandable, is no
answer.”
Legal Action
Madison County,
Jackson File
School Plans
Plans for gradual desegregation were
filed in U.S. District Court during July
by school officials of Jackson and Mad
ison County.
U.S. District Judge Bailey Brown de
layed hearings on the plans as a result
of a stay order issued by U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul
C. Weick.
Pending before the Court of Appeals
is a petition for a writ of mandamus
filed in behalf of Taylor Robinson, a
member of the Madison County Board
of Education, seeking to overturn
Brown's refusal of a jury trial when
the case is heard on its merits.
Robinson’s petition asked the appeals
court to direct Judge Brown to order a
jury trial.
Attorneys said further proceedings in
the cases will depend on disposition of
Robinson’s petition by the appeals
court.
In response to an order by Judge
Brown June 14, the Madison County
school board July 15 submitted a plan
calling for desegregation of the first
three grades in September of this year,
grades four, five and six in the fall of
1964, grades seven and eight in the fall
of 1965 and a grade each year there
after.
The board also proposed to make an
electronics program at South Side High
School available to all qualified stu
dents regardless of race.
Other phases of the county board’s
plan included desegregation of school
transportation, cafeterias, athletics and
other facilities.
Transfer Policy
The board asked the court to ap
prove transfer provisions which would
allow students to request reassignment
to other schools “for reasons satisfac
tory” to them or their parents and
would grant the board authority to
deny transfers on the basis of the dis
tance from their homes to the schools
or the achievement level of students.
The Jackson City Commission, which
also serves as the city school board,
proposed in its plan to desegregate the
first three grades in September of this
year, the next three grades in the fall
of 1964 and a grade each year there
after.
A civil technicians class would be
conducted on a biracial basis under the
plan.
The city’s proposal also included stu
dent transfer provisions, one of which
would give the superintendent author
ity to grant or require reassignment of
students, and provided for the estab
lishment of nonracial geographical
school district boundaries.
Other provisions would give stu
dents the right to attend schools in
which they were enrolled last year,
allow new students to register at the
schools of their choice and authorize
transfers, assignments or relocation of
pupils under the Tennessee Pupil As
signment Law and “appropriate” regu
lations by the school department.
Objections Filed
Nashville attorney Avon N. Williams
Jr., counsel for Negro plaintiffs in both
cases, said objections had been filed
with the court. He said plaintiffs took
the position that the proposed plans are
“too slow.”
Plaintiffs also objected ot the trans
fer provisions in both plans and said
the proposals “fail to take into account
the disparity between white and Negro
schools.”
Negro students now in the sixth
grade or above would not be permitted
to attend biracial classes under the
schedule of desegregation proposed in
the plans, Williams declared.
Judge Brown had set a hearing in
the Madison County case for July 26
and another for Aug. 6 in the Jackson
suit at the time he granted a motion
for summary judgment filed by Wil
liams in behalf of Negro plaintiffs.
Robinson, one of the seven county
school board members, had been turned
down by Brown June 2 in his request
for a jury trial.
William H. Shaw of Homer, La., at
torney for Robinson, also had sought
WALLACE
COMBS
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. The judge also rejected this
request.
Following Brown’s June 14 ruling,
Robinson’s petition for a writ of man
damus was filed with the U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati.
Jackson, county seat of Madison
County, began desegregation voluntari
ly during the 1961-62 school year. Ten
Negroes attended biracial classes in
three schools last year, including four
whose admission was ordered by Judge
Brown. Madison County has no deseg
regated schools.
NAACP Appeals
Memphis Ruling
Attorneys for the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People on July 16 filed a formal notice
of appeal of U.S. District Judge Marion
S. Boyd’s approval of the Memphis
board of education’s gradual desegre
gation plan.
A petition filed by attorneys for Ne
gro plaintiffs asked the U.S. Sixth Cir
cuit Court of Appeals to overrule
Boyd’s May 24 decision.
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 district in
September. (SSN, June.) An addition
al grade would be desegregated each
year.
In his ruling, Judge Boyd rejected a
plan filed by the NAACP attorneys who
had asked for desegregation of all
grades by 1965.
On the same day the appeals notice
was filed, about 100 Negroes presented
a resolution to the board of education
calling for immediate desegregation of
high schools and an end to plans to
stagger school hours. They gave notice
to the board they would wait five days
for action on the resolution’s recom
mendations and said there was a pos
sibility of demonstrations if no action
was taken.
There had been no announcement by
the board at the end of the month.
★ ★ ★
Appeals Court Acts
In Chattanooga Case
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Ap
peals July 8 took action on appeals by
both sides in the Chattanooga school
desegregation case but left unresolved
the question of assignment of teachers
and principals on a nonracial basis.
The three-judge court’s opinion:
• Affirmed U.S. District Judge Frank
Wilson’s rejection of provisions allow
ing transfers of students from schools
where their race is in the minority.
• Ruled that the Chattanooga board
of education is not obligated to provide
“every technical course available” to
Negroes until gradual desegregation is
completed.
• Held that the issue raised by Ne
gro plaintiffs over the school board’s
“notice of intent,” in which parents
were asked to specify in advance
whether their children would attend
schools other than those in which they
were enrolled the previous year, ap
plied only to the beginning of the 1962-
63 term and is not now a question.
Noting that the U.S. Supreme Court
has taken no action on the question of
desegregation of faculties, the tribunal
reversed a portion
of a decision by
retired U.S. Dis
trict Judge Leslie
R. Darr who had
stricken from the
suit in its early
stages a Negro re
quest for desegre
gation of teaching
staffs and other
personnel.
The portion of
Judge Darr’s ac
tion dealing with other personnel was
affirmed, but the question of assign
ment of teachers and principals was
restored to the case for possible future
action by Judge Wilson.
The Opinion
in the opinion, written by Circuit
Judge Clifford O’Sullivan of Port Hu
ron, Mich., the court said:
“We . . . read the attack upon the
assignment of teachers by race not as
seeking to protect the rights of such
teachers, but as a claim that continued
assigning of teaching personnel on a
racial basis impairs the students’ rights
to an education free from any consid
eration of the race.”
Judge Darr, who retired while the
case was still pending in the district
court, had ruled that teachers, prin
cipals and others were not within the
same class as the Negro parents who
filed the suit seeking desegregation of
the system. (Mapp et al v. Chattanoo
ga Board of Education, SSN, January,
1961 and previous.)
The appeals court opinion continued:
“We make it clear . . . that we are
not passing upon the legal question
presented as it relates to the assign
ment of teachers and principals . ■
Nothing we have said need call for anj
present taking of testimony on the
subject of teacher and principal as
signment . . . The district judge ma;
determine when, if at all, to give con
sideration to the question under con
sideration.”
Concurring in the opinion were Cir
cuit Judges Shackelford Miller ®
Louisville and Paul C. Weick of Cleve
land, Ohio.
(See TENNESSEE, Page 9)
DARK
Schoolmen
Humboldt Discloses Adoption
Of Biracial School Program
The Humboldt board of education
announced on July 30 that it has com
pleted plan, adopted voluntarily
earlier in the month, for the desegre
gation of its school system.
Under the plan, Supt. William A.
Sadler said, the first three grades will
be desegregated when classes for the
fall term begin Aug. 30. An additional
three grades will be desegregated each
year until all 12 grades have been
reached, Sadler said.
Humboldt is in Gibson County in
West Tennessee. The school district has
about 2,650 students, of whom about
1,000 are Negroes.
Sadler said he could provide no esti
mate of the number of Negroes who
will be eligible to attend biracial classes
this year.
The superintendent said, however,
that the board had not received any
requests from Negro students to at
tend white schools.
Along with the plan, Sadler con
tinued, the board established boundary
lines for individual school districts
within the system. In the case of ele
mentary schools, he said, the new lines
mark the second set of boundaries
while the lines for junior and senior
high schools are the first to be estab
lished.
All students have been assigne
schools they previously attended, ^
may transfer to schools within v
zones in which they reside, Sadler
plained. Included in the plan is 3
vision under which the boar ^
permit students to transfer to ^ ^
zones. Race is not among the facto ^
be considered in such transfers,
:r said the plan had be uggti
for several weeks by jfufl 1 '
a biracial committee 0 pap
immunity leaders, of
md members of the Bo
and Aldermen. ,
1 S. Adams Jr., chairman o^
conferred with the en i
fee prior to the announce
plan’s adoption. i e ted
:r said school officials com
of the plan, •£*£$#**
ry lines and transfer P an-
two weeks after i pla 11
d that three-grades-a-y
en approved by the to
tried to develop it (*jff ^
ur own situation, Sa „o
>ugh the superintended
students had applied to
, white schools, he ""L *1*
Negro leaders had de
board members to req