Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—JANUARY, 1964—PAGE 15
TENNESSEE
Gov. Clement Establishes Human
Relations Commission
(Continued From Page 1)
, To encourage, promote and devel
op fair and equal treatment and oppor
tunity for all persons regardless of race,
color, creed or national origin.
• To co-ordinate and assist local
governmental agencies and commis
sions on human relations in their
efforts to promote better human rela
tions.
t To co-operate with the Tennessee
Council on Human Relations; com
munity, professional, civic and reli
gious organizations; federal agencies,
and agencies from other states in de
veloping public information programs,
leadership and activities “in the inter
est of equal opportunity and treatment
of all racial, religious and ethnic
groups.”
• To conduct research projects and
studies and to make reports on race
relations in Tennessee.
Clement said in his order that “the
public policy of our nation and state
is that all persons are created equal
and that every individual shall have
equal right to life, liberty and pursuit
of happiness regardless of race, color,
creed or national origin.”
‘Public Consciousness’
“A public consciousness exists for
the desirability of establishing and
promoting enlightened leadership and
responsible programs to insure fair
and equal opportunity and treatment
for all racial, religious and ethnic
groups,” the order continued.
Clement released the names of the
16 commission members, while the
other five still were under considera
tion, in order to comply with a Jan. 1
target date he set several weeks ago
for establishment of the group.
In addition to the Rev. Mr. Dodson
and Willis, these members were ap
pointed to serve for staggered terms
of one to three years:
Attorney George Barrett; Matthew
Lynch, president of the Tennesee
State Labor Council; Dr. Charles T.
Morgan, director of development of
George Peabody College for Teachers;
C. Madison Sarratt, vice chancellor
emeritus of Vanderbilt University, Dr.
Charles W. Johnson, professor at Me-
harry Medical College and Dr. Felix
Robb, president of George Peabody
College for Teachers, all of Nashville
and representing the Middle Tennes
see grand division of the state.
Attorney Lee Winchester Jr., the
Rev. C. P. Williams and Msgr. M. F.
Kearney, all of Memphis, were ap
pointed along with Willis as West Ten-
oessee members.
deprives students of the right to make
c otces about their education.
Never on the basis of dictation, but
ri h ^ lrOU **k his right to try and his
/ to . * a ^> can any student accept an
,,, a j Ua ti° n of self so essential to an
1 ude of self-respect,” she said.
A^M*^ er k° ar d member, Dr. Preston
^ cLendon, criticized the remedial
^ c track program in elementary
c i 00 s on grounds of excessively large
tevh^ an< ^ inadequate diagnostic
p ract . H u e s . He said he agreed with the
^boo'f 6 tracking in secondary
★ ★ ★
’Rwn l eUer *° Rep. Charles C. Diggs
se n P School Supt. Carl Han-
first. Xpresse< t interest in “integrated”
Sc hooT aC * e rea ders used in Detroit
school an< ^ sa *d he hoped the D.C.
fevio. , t ex tbook committees would
jj. the Detroit books.
r 6adpf S ^ ac t written to Hansen that the
iiig Published by Follett Publish
es^^ Chicago, “apparently have
lot ence d notable success in the pi-
^ r °*ct in Detroit”
anfi snp°°u S ’ £ earec l to the retarding
Urban ] & . P r °blems of children in
'-cttj ng 0w ~* nc °me areas, have a city
Neor 0 , an< d feature stories about a
U'hitp whose children have a
y for a playmate.
v, * ★ ★
w as ,.
Hon 54011 CORE director Julius
hjhts , an< d Stowall Kessler, a civil-
~®c. jg e f m °nstrator, were acquitted
»Mm! v ° charges that they had un-
jjui Pr a m!i tere ^ the office of Benja-
t ner al ^ * n University on Sept. 6.
h°v,- ar .f SSions Court Judge Andrew
^ r - granted a defense mo-
Representing East Tennessee were
the Rev. Frank R. Gordon of Knox
ville, who also is state president of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People; Dr. Arthur
Graham, Oak Ridge minister; Dr. El
mer P. Gibson, president of Morris
town College; Rabbi Max Zucker of
Knoxville and Dr. Edward J. Boling,
a vice president of the University of
Tennessee, also of Knoxville.
Five Negroes Included
Negro members are Willis, the Rev.
Mr. Williams, Dr. Johnson, the Rev.
Mr. Gordon and Dr. Gibson.
The governor will fill vacancies on
the commission but those named after
the original group is completed will
serve for three-year terms.
Clement’s order provided that mem
bership on the commission represent
all geographical areas of the state, and
it allowed the appointment of such ex-
officio members from state and local
governments as “shall be deemed advis
able.”
It also stated that the commission will
report to the governor on its activities,
adopt its own rules for operation and
will be given stenographic assistance
for its meetings. The commission’s
financial operations will be audited by
the State Comptroller’s office each year,
under terms of the order.
The chairman of the commission at
tended Vanderbilt University and re
ceived his Bachelor of Divinity Degree
f om Yale University.
The vice chairman has been one of
the leaders for desegregation of schools
and other facilities in Memphis and
Shelby County.
iLegal Action
Court Tells Board
To Desegregate
Sewanee Schools
U. S. District Judge Charles G. Neese
on Jan. 2 ordered the Franklin County
Board of Education to desegregate two
Sewanee elementary schools by March
2.
Neese, at the end of a three-day
hearing, said he would rule by Jan.
31 on the remainder of the school
board’s plan to desegregate the district
gradually on a geographical basis be
ginning this fall.
tion for judgment of acquittal, ruling
that the government had charged a
different offense than the one it sought
to prove.
Meredith To Enroll
In Nigerian School
James Meredith, the first Negro
graduate of the University of Missis
sippi, announced Dec. 27 that he plans
to enroll at Ibadan University in Ni
geria next fall to work for an advanced
degree.
Meredith, who now lives in Wash
ington, had previously indicated that
he might return to the University of
Mississippi for
graduate studies.
But he told re
porters Dec. 27
that he would
leave the United
States in April for
travel in Europe,
the Middle East
and Africa before
entering the Ni
gerian university
in the fall.
Meredith also
announced that he would participate
in Washington registration and voting
drives, and in campaigns to obtain
local self-government for the capital
city.
He said he has dropped plans to
devote his full energies to the James
Meredith Education Fund because he
has concluded in recent months that
the task of providing education op
portunities for the underprivileged is
primarily a government responsibility.
Tennessee Highlights
Gov. Frank G. Clement established
a 21-member biracial Commission on
Human Relations.
The Franklin County Board of
Education at Winchester was or
dered to desegregate two Sewanee
schools by March 2 in a ruling by
U.S. District Judge Charles G.
Neese.
Desegregation of high-school voca
tional courses in Chattanooga has
been ordered by U.S. District Court
to begin next fall. Judge Frank W.
Wilson said it would be “unwise” to
start biracial classes at mid-term in
January, as requested by Negro plain
tiffs.
Four separate teachers organiza
tions in Nashville and Davidson
County, two white and two Negro,
voted to merge into one organiza
tion, the Metropolitan Nashville Edu
cation Association.
four white families and four Negro
families, had asked immediate desegre
gation.
The schools ordered desegregated
by March 2 include the all-white
Sewanee school and all-Negro Ken-
nerly school. According to testimony,
Otey Memorial Parish has agreed to
provide rooms in the church for deseg
regated classes.
Other testimony had indicated that
desegregation might overcrowd the
schools.
Board's Plan
The plaintiffs opposed the board’s
plan, which called for desegregation of
students, teachers and other personnel
in the fall of 1964 in Sewanee and other
areas.
Under the board’s proposal, filed
Oct. 31 after Judge Neese directed that
the board submit a desegregation plan,
a timetable was established for biracial
classes in each of eight geographical
zones, made up of one or more civil
districts in the county. (Hill et al v.
Franklin County Board of Education,
SSN, November and December, 1963.)
Nashville attorney Avon N. Williams
Jr., one of the attorneys for the plain
tiffs, contended that the plan did not
provide for elimination of racial seg
regation “with all deliberate speed”
M iscellaneous
White and Negro teachers in the
Nashville and Davidson County school
system voted early in December by a
16-to-l majority to merge their four
separate associations into one organi
zation.
Under the new metropolitan govern
ment for Nashville and Davidson Coun
ty, the two school systems are sched
uled to be consolidated this year.
Dr. Joseph W. Goss, executive secre
tary of Education Council, service
agency for the 3,374 teachers and su
pervisors in the two systems, said the
merger was approved by a vote of
2,817 to 169.
“This is the first large-scale, full-
fledged merger of teacher associations
of different races and school systems to
be accomplished in the nation without
ratios and guarantees to former asso
ciations,” Goss declared.
Goss said the new organization will
be known as the Metropolitan Nash
ville Education Association and will be
chartered by the state when officers
are elected, probably about April 15.
It will replace the City Teachers As
sociation, for white teachers; the Nash
ville Teachers Association, for Negroes;
the Davidson County Education Asso
ciation, for whites; and the Davidson
County Education Congress, for Ne
groes.
The Education Council also will be
disbanded under the merger, with all
of its functions transferred to the new
association.
The merger was approved in a refer
endum on by-laws for the new organ
ization.
and, in effect, amounted to a pupil-as
signment plan.
During the hearings at Winchester,
county seat of Franklin County in
southern Middle Tennessee, Supt. Lew
is H. Scott offered testimony in sup
port of the board’s gradual desegrega
tion plan.
Winchester attorney Pat B. Lynch
represented the board at the hearings.
★ ★ ★
Federal Judge Refuses
Mid-Term Desegregation
U.S. District Judge Frank W. Wil
son on Dec. 21 ruled that “sound edu
cational reasons unrelated to race”
made it “undesirable and unwise” to
desegregate a Chattanooga technical
high school until next fall.
Rejecting a plea by Negro plantiffs
that the school, Kirkman Technical
High School, should be opened to
members of their race at mid-term in
January, Wilson said:
“The vocational courses do not lend
themselves to semi-annual units and
students, completely aside from any
issue of race, are not ordinarily per
mitted to enter a vocational course at
mid-year. It is apparent to the court
that desegregation of vocational courses
at Kirkman Technical High School
should not be undertaken at mid-term,
but rather should begin as of the Sep
tember, 1964, term.”
On Oct. 24, the board submitted a
court-requested plan for desegregation
of high school and adult vocational
and technical courses.
Limited Basis
Under the plan, Kirkman would be
come desegregated on a limited basis
next fall, admitting Negro students to
study courses not offered at either of
the city’s two all-Negro high schools,
Howard and Riverside. (SSN, Decem
ber and November.)
The board proposed that the Chat
tanooga Technical Institute, which pro
vides vocational training for adults, be
desegregated in December, and Judge
Wilson on Nov. 26 approved this por
tion of the plan. Officials said one Ne
gro appeared at the institute on Dec.
9, during registration for the second
quarter of work, and requested in
formation on courses available but did
not make application for enrollment.
In his Dec. 21 ruling concerning
Kirkman, Wilson said “it is not feas
ible or proper that the court should
have to review and analyze each voca
tional course to determine whether it
is, or is not, the same course as is
offered in another institution.
“Rather, any plan for desegregation
of vocational courses should extend to
all vocational courses, rather than
merely to courses that are, or may be
Rev, Smith, Negro Leader,
Returns to Nashville
The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith returned
to Nashville on Dec. 30 to resume his
pastorate of First Baptist Church
(Eighth Avenue) and said that people
of the South have a “much clearer
concept” of race problem than he
found in the North.
The Negro leader left Nashville in
the fall to become pastor of the An
tioch Baptist Church in Cleveland,
Ohio, but his Nashville congregation
invited him to return.
Upon his arrival in Nashville, the
Rev. Mr. Smith said his four school-age
children attended segregated schools in
Cleveland for the
first time. He said:
“Some of jmy
white friends sug
gested that we
should move to
the west side of
town, where the
schools were inte-
grated. They
seemed to think
that this would
solve the problem
—that it would
just go away.”
The minister, who served as presi
dent of the Nashville Christian Lead
ership Conference and participated in
desegregation efforts over a period of
12 years, said he was back in Nashville
to stay.
He said “there is still much to be
‘different’ from those offered at another
institution.”
The judge added:
“It does not appear appropriate . . .
that the court should enter the field
of school policy or school administra
tion beyond the constitutional require
ments with regard to elimination of
racial factors . . .
“The school board should remain
free to adopt or change its policies with
reference to guidance, counseling or
placement of students in vocational
courses as it may see fit, so long as
such policies are not based upon race
and do not have as their primary pur
pose the delay or prevention of deseg
regation in accordance with the plan
herein or heretofore approved.”
Chattanooga is now in its second
year of court-ordered school desegre
gation, with about 1,750 Negroes at
tending classes with white students in
the first four grades at 10 schools.
The question of desegregation of vo
cational courses had been raised by
Negro plaintiffs in appeals to the U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals at Cin
cinnati, which sent this issue along
with others back to Judge Wilson for
further proceedings.
Wilson conducted a formal hearing
on Nov. 15 on the question of deseg
regating vocational courses along with
Negro requests for teacher desegrega
tion.
Faculty Assignments
In his latest opinion Wilson said:
“The desegregation of students in
accordance with the plans heretofore
and herein approved will partially re
solve the issue of teacher and principal
assignment. On the other hand, the
entry of any order at this time with
reference to the assignment of teachers
and principals will affect the gradual
and orderly plan of desegregation
which judgment has dictated should
be ordered.”
In ruling that “there is no cause at
this time for modification of previous
orders,” the judge said his decision
should not be considered as “either
approval or disapproval of present
policies with respect to teacher and
principal assignments.” He added:
“It (the decision) is made without
prejudice to the right of the school
board to undertake on its own initia
tive a modification of its policies with
respect to teacher and principal as
signments, and without prejudice to
the right of the plaintiffs to re-assert
the issue after a reasonable time and
after further progress under the de
segregation plans heretofore and here
in approved.”
Wilson also said his order involving
Kirkman would apply only to voca
tional courses, with desegregation of
other students continuing under the
plan previously approved by the court.
done in Nashville in the way of race
relations—there is much progress still
to be made. The dream that I have
had for this city has not been fulfilled.
We quit the job too soon. There is
much work yet to be done and I hope
we can be at it again quickly.”
★ ★ ★
Father Ryan High School at Nash
ville opened its basketball season on
Dec. 3 with two Negro team members,
the first athletes of their race ever to
play in the Nashville Interscholastic
League.
Willie Brown, who plays at center,
and guard Jesse Porter were the two
Negro squad members at Father Ryan
a Roman Catholic school.
★ ★ ★
Magazine Calls Nashville
Best City for Negroes
“Negroes in Nashville have earned
for themselves more desegregation in
more diverse areas than is enjoyed by
their race in any other major Old
South community,” Jet magazine stated
in its Dec. 5 issue.
In an article entitled “Best City in
the South for Negroes,” the magazine
called attention to school desegrega
tion and employment opportunities. It
said:
“Most of the Negro leaders—and fol
lowers—will admit they live in the
South’s best city, and wouldn’t care to
live in any other Southern or Northern
community.”
Plaintiffs, who include members of
District of Columbia
(Continued From Page 14)
MEREDITH
Teachers’ Groups Vote To Merge