Newspaper Page Text
MGE 20—OCTOBER, 1963—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
TENNESSEE
41 School Districts Desegregated
(Continued from Page 18)
receiving new testimony and argu
ments.
During a conference with attorneys
representing the plaintiffs and the
Chattanooga Board of Education, Judge
Wilson asked the
board to submit a
plan for desegre
gation of voca
tional and tech
nical schools and
a full report on
the progress of
desegregation in
the system.
Judge Wilson
also allowed the
Negro plaintiffs
45 days in which
to present their views on a ruling by
the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
concerning teacher desegregation and
pupil transfers.
On July 8, the appeals court left un
resolved the question of assignment of
teachers and principals on a non-racial
basis. But it affirmed Wilson’s rejection
of provisions allowing transfers of stu
dents from schools where their race is
in the minority and ruled that the
school board is not obligated to provide
“every technical course available” to
WILSON
Florida
(Continued from Page 14)
Tallahassee movie theater Sept. 14 to
protest its segregation policy.
Police asked the demonstrators to dis
perse. When orders restricting picket
ing were ignored, the police moved in
and made arrests. At least 150, includ
ing seven white students, were jailed.
Shortly thereafter, at least 250 other
students formed a procession on the
FAMU campus and marched to the jail
with the announced intention of in
viting arrest and overtaxing the jail
facilities.
They paraded in front of the jail,
taunted police and serenaded the pris
oners.
Sheriff Bill Joyce ordered the group
to disperse. Many did but 104 who re
fused were placed under arrest.
Bonds Set at $500
Bonds for the defendants were set at
$500 each and at one point friends and
community groups were faced with
raising $100,000 in bond money. But
the number of prisoners decreased as
individual investigations were made.
Many were released.
At a subsequent trial, most of the
defendants pleaded no-contest to
charges of disturbing the peace. City
Judge John Rudd handed out 30-day
suspended jail sentences.
He said his “leniency was not a show
of weakness but an act of fairness and
firmness. “If you can’t take my being
fair, then I will deal with you as
severely as I know how if you are
brought before me again.”
President Denies Statement
Repercussions to the demonstrations
involved Dr. George W. Gore Jr.,
FAMU president.
In response to student criticism, Dr.
Gore denied issuing a statement which
was given out in his name by the State
Board of Control.
The statement which the FAMU
president repudiated said:
“I am trying to make them (the stu
dents) realize that all of them came
here to study and get an education.
What they have been doing is a waste
of their time and of ours and is not
in the best interests of the institution
or the students.”
Negroes until gradual desegregation is
completed.
Plaintiffs have objected to “notices
of intent” and other procedures in
pupil transfers.
Purpose of the conference was to
determine what issues remain in the
case, attorneys said.
Chattanooga began desegregation
under court order in September, 1962,
with the enrollment of 50 Negroes in
biracial classes in the first three grades
of certain schools.
Officials said 50 Negro student are
attending predominantly white schools
this year. Under the court’s order, de
segregation was extended to the fourth
grade.
★ ★ ★
Judge Asks Return
Of Two Negroes
To Biracial Classes
The Jackson school system on Sept.
21 was asked by a federal judge to re
admit two Negro students to desegre
gated classes.
U.S. District Judge Bailey Brown,
who in August approved a desegrega
tion plan calling for biracial classes in
the first three grades this year, refused
a request by plaintiffs to reopen proof
in the case.
The two students involved in the
latest order attended desegregated
schools last year but school officials
said they had completed their work at
the respective schools and, under the
court’s original ruling, would not be
assigned to biracial classes this fall.
They are Madeline Walker, who was
transferred to predominantly white
Jackson High School, and Harold
Walker, whose transfer to previously
all-white Jackson Junior High School
was requested by the court.
Court Ruled in August
School officials said, under the court’s
ruling in August, that Negro students
above the third-grade level who fin
ished their work at a desegregated
school last year would not qualify for
assignment to biracial classes.
Thirty-eight Negro students on Sept.
3 began biracial classes under the
court-approved plan, including two
fifth-graders at Alexander School and
a senior at Jackson Senior High who
had attended desegregated classes last
year.
The district, operated by the Jack-
son City Commission which also serves
as the board of education, voluntarily
began desegregation in 1961-62 but no
formal plan was announced. Ten Negro
students attended three previously all-
white schools in the district last year.
Attorneys Avon N. Williams Jr. of
Nashville and Emmett Ballard of
Jackson, representing the Jackson
Chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
filed a motion charging that segrega
tion in the schools was being con
tinued.
Charges ‘Gerrymander’
Williams contended that the school
zoning system was “completely gerry
mandered” and said:
‘Not only does it stop desegregation,
but it brings segregation back to some
schools.”
Judge Brown ruled that “it is not
practical to start rezoning Jackson
schools at this time.”
He also said “the court feels that it
is certainly in the interest of bringing
about an effective and workable de
segregation to have people like Madline
Maryland
(Continued from Page 19)
presently all-white community, by
their radical, hasty, unnatural and un
warranted forcing of the problems in
volving this city.” She added that if
they were following the “Princeton
Plan,” they were doing it “in opposi
tion to the community and parents im
mediately affected.”
At the heart of the community com
plaint which Mrs. Henning brought to
the board was the fact that children
from outside the area had been
brought to “the new $2,000,000 Rock
Glen School, which we struggled for
six and one-half years to accomplish.”
The new school is a combined ele
mentary-junior high, the elementary
wing of which has been opened and
partially filled with children trans
ported from two overcrowded schools,
one nearly all white and the other, as
of last year, about 90 per cent Negro.
The latter contributes 160 pupils to the
new school, while 84 come from the
nearly all white school.
What has happened to the school has
“literally broken our hearts,” Mrs.
Henning told the board. She said that
the children were transported in while
other children living close by were
refused admission and that the “forced
integration” has resulted in “racially
imbalanced classrooms.” Two white
women spoke in support of the school
board.
Superintendent Brain had previously
stated, in a comment on the Hamilton
protest, “They are objecting to the
transfer and distribution of youngsters,
but the students are being transferred
in a manner approved by the city
solicitor and in such a way so as not
to engender segregation.”
Walker in the Jackson High School.”
The judge noted that she had good
grades and was “unusually gifted.”
Judge Brown said he would enter an
order, if necessary, to have the Walker
students transferred to biracial classes.
But Russell Rice, Jackson city at
torney, said an order would not be
necessary.
Under the court-approved plan, de
segregation will be extended to all 12
grades by the fall of 1967. Jackson is
the second-largest city in West Ten-
★ ★ ★
Two Boys Convicted
In Bombing ‘Scare’
Two 16-year-old high-school fresh
men were sentenced on Sept. 20 to a
one-year term in the State Training
School for Boys on charges they placed
anonymous telephone calls saying a
bomb had been planted in desegregated
Obion County Central High School at
Union City.
Their names were withheld because
of their ages, authorities said.
Weldon Hall, principal of the school,
said the first telephone call occurred on
the morning of Sept. 19 and a second
was made to his home the same night.
The school was searched on both oc
casions, but no bomb was found and
classes were held on schedule.
Schools in Obion County, located in
northwest Tennessee near the Ken
tucky line, were desegregated in the
fall of last year under federal court
order.
In The Colleges
Negro Enrollments
Reported Larger
On Three Campuses
At least three of Tennessee’s state
colleges and universities reported in
creases in numbers of Negroes enrolled
in predominantly white classes for the
fall term.
Only estimates of Negro enrollment
were available because no records are
kept by race.
Austin Peay State College at Clarks
ville, which has a total enrollment of
more than 2,100, reported an estimated
58 Negroes enrolled in graduate and
undergraduate courses for regular day
studies.
This represented an increase of 38
over the estimated total of 20 in bi
racial classes last year.
Memphis State University, which
was estimated last year to have 110
Negroes among its 7,500 students, re
ported that Negro enrollment this year
had increased slightly but no estimates
were available.
East Tennessee State University at
Johnson City estimated that from 30 to
35 Negroes are enrolled for the fall
term, compared with an estimate of 35
last year. The university has a study
body of about 5,600.
Twenty-four Negroes were reported
attending Middle Tennessee State Col
lege at Murfreesboro, which last year
enrolled four Negroes, the first during
the regular school year.
Registration had not been completed
on Sept. 30 at the University of Ten
nessee, which in 1962-63 had a total
of 159 Negroes in biracial classes at its
main Knoxville campus and at
branches at Nashville, Memphis and
Martin.
Some Whites at A&I
Officials at Tennessee A&I University,
a predominantly Negro state-supported
institution, also said registration for
the fall term had not been completed
but that some white students had been
accepted for classes. The university
last year reported about 20 non-
Negroes among its 4,136 students, about
six of whom were white.
Although all state colleges and uni
versities are desegregated by policy,
one of the institutions remains segre
gated in practice. It is Tennessee Poly
technic Institute at Cookeville.
★ ★ ★
Miss Lena Will Brown of Pulaski on
Sept. 20 became the first Negro to en
roll at Martin College, a 94-year-old
Methodist institution located in Pu
laski.
John White, public relations director,
said Miss Brown’s admission was “un
eventful.” He said her aceptance was
in keeping with a policy adopted by
the Tennessee Conference of the Meth
odist Church last summer to enroll
students without regard to race.
The college has an enrollment of
more than 300.
Miss Brown is a graduate of Bridge-
forth High School at Pulaski.
★ ★ ★
William Jennings Bryan College has
admitted four Negro students for study
in special courses, Dr. Theodore Mer
cer, president, announced on Sept. 14.
Dr. Mercer said they were admitted
to the private senior college, which has
nearly 200 students, under a policy
established by the board of trustees
that Negroes would be accepted on the
same basis as white students.
The college is at Dayton.
Political Action
Two Negroes Seek
Seats on Board
Two Negroes have filed qualify^
petitions for election to the Meniphjj
Board of Education in a municipjj
election on Nov. 7.
They are Dr. Hollis F. Price, p resu
dent of Lemoyne College, a Negr 0
institution, and the Rev. E. W. Wil.
liamson.
Dr. Price will oppose Edgar H,
Bailey, who was apopinted to the board
last May. The Rev. Mr. Williamson jj
seeking another post on the board,
which has never had a Negro member.
West Virginia
(Continued from Page 12)
those who take “a proper stand” for
civil rights.
During the two-day meeting, a
speaker said the young Negroes of
Alabama and Mississippi took the
initiative in testing segregated educa
tional patterns at Birmingham and on
the University of Mississippi campus.
“They say they’re tired of living as
they have been, and they want a
change.” The speaker was Gloster B.
Current, director of the NAACPs
branches.
He said Georgia was a different case
because of the influence of the Atlanta
Constitution and its publisher, Ralph
McGill. He said Atlanta and Athens
have made great progress toward de
segregation, with the Atlanta city ad
ministration helping to set the tone for
Georgia’s reception of civil rights.
Lack of Negro Votes
One of the biggest troubles in the
deep South, said Current, is a lack of
Negro votes. “Why should the mayor
of Jackson meet with us? He doesnt
need to because only a few Mississippi
Negroes cast votes.”
He called for enactment of President
Kennedy’s civil rights legislation, and
said Sen. Barry Goldwater is “one
presidential hopeful . . . who would
leave civil rights to the tender mercies
of the states—that means leaving civil
rights to the likes of Wallace and Bar
nett.”
First Negro Teachers
Success in Biracial
Report
Classes
By Ken Morrell
COOKEVILLE, TENN.
F ive Negro teachers on Sept. 27
completed their initial six
weeks as members of desegre
gated school faculties in Putnam
County and both they and school
officials termed the transition suc
cessful.
“I couldn’t ask for any better treat
ment,” said 48-year-old Isaac Bohanon.
“It has been wonderful so far.”
Bohanon, for more than 16 years the
principal of all-Negro Darwin School
until it was destroyed by fire last
January, and his wife, Mrs. Amanda
Bohanon, were among five Darwin
teachers who were assigned teaching
positions in predominantly white and
all-white classrooms this year.
Putnam County, about 80 miles east
of Nashville, is believed to be the first
rural school district in the South to
desegregate its teaching staff.
Bohanon said he was confident that
he also expressed the views of his wife
and the other three Negro teachers in
his comments about the first six weeks
in their new positions.
‘Feel Awfully Good’
Supt. E. H. Watson said school of
ficials “feel awfully good” over what
he said had been a successful experi-
“Under the same conditions, I don’t
think it could have been more satis
factory,” Watson declared. “Everything
is progressing nicely.’
Bohanon said that neither he nor
his wife had experienced any com
plaints from parents or students and
that he had heard of none involving
the other three teachers.
Favorable reaction from the teaching
staff and students, he said, “has ex
ceeded our expectations. It just proves
that we have an intelligent group of
people (in the county),” he said.
Bohanon also expressed pride that
the student newspaper, The Charger,
had complimented the student body
at Cookeville Central High School
where he is assigned.
He said the newspaper’s comments
also applied to the enrollment of former
Darwin students in the previously all-
white school.
Decided Against Rebuilding
After school authorities decided not
to rebuild Darwin, four Negro students
were enrolled in biracial classes during
the final months of the 1962-63 year
while other students at the Negro
school completed their work in tem
porary quarters.
With the beginning of the 1963-64
year, however, 105 students who would
have attended Darwin were enrolled in
all 12 grades of six schools, under action
taken voluntarily by the Putnam
County Board of Education.
No incidents were reported.
Bohanon, who is teaching three
courses in world history and one in
general business, has Negro students
in some of his classes.
Teaches Only Whites
But his wife, an eighth-grade teacher,
was assigned to Sycamore Elementary
School which has no Negro students.
The other Negro teachers include
Mrs. Edna T. Beasley, assigned to Park
View Elementary School; Mrs. Agnes
Baylor, Capshaw Elementary School,
and Mrs. Easter Mays, a teacher at all-
tem, which was desegregat .^gjai
grades in 1955 while under ^ ^ hetS
Current said America’s reputation
has suffered from the recent events in
Alabama. “America stands chastened
before the entire world,” he declared
“We cannot talk about apartheid m
South Africa, for we have our own
apartheid in Alabama.”
He also accused the Southern press
of distortion, of spreading misinforma
tion and of failure to acquaint leader-
with the facts.
white Jere Whitson Elementary Schoo
A native Putnam Countian, Boftan
said the facilities at Cookeville te
a 37-teacher school, are super 1
those which existed at Darwin.
The former principal also sa 1 o
Negro students who , cho ol
participate in the band and otn
activities. ft ^
“Everything is open to them, e
clared. . ^
All the Negro teachers hold at
bachelor’s degrees and Bohano
received his master’s degree.
Rotating Systems
Most of the schools to
were assigned operate ° n
teaching systems, in which b our
group of students spends abou
daily with each teacher. ^
Bohanon said he also super'
study-hall periods each day u 1
to his teaching duties. becaJ® e
The Putnam County di st ” ct _ ega te
the second in Tennessee to desfs
its teaching staff. The Oak . all
I
ich erS
control, has employed Negr ^ for
in predominantly white
several years. w kite
Oak Ridge also has ^
teachers and staff mem e ejne nt^.
16-teacher Scarborough
School, an all-Negro school be
residential factors. par*^
The fire which destroy e , ^gj-eg 3 '
School also resulted in * e strict 5 ''
tion of three other schoo
White, Clay and O veI *® rted th<£
which heretofore had transix)
Negro students to the 11
school.
k