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PAGE 6—APRIL, 1964—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS TENNESSEE Williamson NASHVILLE T he Williamson County Board of Education on April 1 ap proved a three-year plan to deseg regate its school system. Under the plan, adopted voluntarily by a unanimous vote of the board, grades one, two, three and nine will be desegregated when the 1964-65 school year begins in late August. Grades four, five, six and 10 will be conducted on a biracial basis beginning in the fall of 1965 with grades seven, eight, 11 and 12 to be desegregated in the fall of the following year. Supt. W. C. Yates said the plan, which includes a voluntary transfer provision, had the advance approval of a biracial committee appointed last year by Wil liamson County Judge Jim Warren and Mayor Asa Jewell of Franklin, the county seat, 20 miles south of Nashville. Bus Routing The Williamson County Council of Christian Men, a Negro group which also has advocated desegregation of schools, issued this statement following the school board’s action: “While we accept the basic integrat ing plan, we think the bus routing plan should be appealed to a federal court for regulation. “The present school bus system trans ports all children to the nearest school, except Negroes. Negroes will still be furnished special bus transportation to Natchez High School, but white chil dren get no special bus service. In effect, it transports white children to an area and transports Negroes out of an area.” The Franklin-Williamson County Bi racial Committee was appointed by the mayor and county judge last August and, in addition to studying the subject of school desegregation, has recom mended other steps including equal em ployment and operation of playgrounds on a biracial basis. Yates said the committee gave its approval to the board’s plan in a meet ing on March 31. Under the plan, students may trans fer from one school to another located on the same school bus route. If a student wishes to attend a school other than those served by existing routes, he will be required to furnish his own transportation. All school bus routes in effect during the current year will be used again this fall, Yates said. 26 Schools The superintendent said the plan could result in desegregation of all 20 elementary schools and six high schools in the district. Yates said he could not estimate how many Negroes will be eligible to attend biracial schools next year, but said there will be “quite a few.” The system has about 6,000 students, including about 900 Negroes. In a statement, the board said a three-year period is a “reasonably short time” to develop a desegregation program and said the time will be “adequate” in making transportation and other adjustments. “Each child will have the opportunity for transfer without the pressures of compulsion,” the board said. Transfer Applications Parents of students desiring to trans fer will be required to file applications prior to the opening of the school term. Yates said. He also said that students’ conduct would be considered in ap proving or rejecting transfers. The board had agreed some time ago to begin desegregation in the first three grades this fall, but no announcement had been made. It took the additional action after both the biracial committee and the Williamson County Council of Christian Men urged that a plan for desegregation of all grades be adopted. Yates said the results of the first year of the plan will determine what adjust ments should be made in the routing of school buses. Legal Action Madison County Lawsuit Hearing Set for Mav 14 J U. S. District Judge Bailey Brown has set the Madison County school desegregation suit for hearing on May 14. Date for the hearing, which will be held in Memphis, was fixed by the court after Negro plaintiffs requested that it be held as soon as possible. County Adopts 3-Year Desegregation Plan Tennessee Highlights A three-year plan to desegregate all 12 grades in the Williamson Coun ty school system, beginning this fall, was approved April 1 by that dis trict’s board of education. The Madison County school de segregation suit has been set for hearing on May 14 before U.S. Dis trict Judge Bailey Brown at Mem phis. A proposal by the Sewanee Com munity Chest to raise about $40,000 to build four new classrooms at a desegregated school was under study by the Franklin County Board of Education as a deadline neared for the board to amend its deseg regation plan. Desegregation of the remaining six grades of the Knox County school district this fall was approved by the board of education. Athletics, dramatics, band and other school activities will be de segregated when the Knoxville school district conducts all 12 grades on a biracial basis this fall, the Board of Education announced. Two Negro students became the first of their race to be enrolled at Watkins Institute at Nashville, an adult education school. A draft of a proposed “fair prac tices code” including sections deal ing with schools was approved by the Tennessee Commission on Hu man Relatioins and was sent to Gov. Frank G. Clement for consideration. The hearing has been pending since 1983 while an appeal by one school board member, Taylor Robinson, for a jury trial in the case was taken to the U. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Ap peals and to the U. S. Supreme Court, which denied a petition of certiorari on Feb. 17. (SSN, March.) The school board is expected to pre sent arguments in support of a gradual desegregation plan it filed last year in response to an earlier order by the court. Under the plan, the board proposed to desegregate classes in the first three grades of the school system last September. Grades four, five and six were to have been desegregated in the fall of 1964, with grades seven and eight in 1965 and a grade each year thereafter. Proceedings Delayed The suit, however, has not been heard on its merits because of a delay in the proceedings resulting from Rob inson’s plea for a jury trial. Negro plaintiffs are expected to argue that the board’s plan is too slow. They have filed objections to the plan. The Madison County board operates schools surrounding Jackson, in West Tennessee. Members of the Board of Commis sioners of the City of Jackson, who also serve as the Jackson board of education, were named defendants in the suit but the Jackson portion of the case was completed last August when Brown approved a gradual de segregation plan filed by the city. Forty Negro students are attending biracial classes at five Jackson schools this year. * * * Community Chest May Pay For Biracial Classrooms Facing a federal court order to amend its desegregation plan, the | Miscellaneous Franklin County Board of Education at Winchester at the end of March was reported to be considering accept ing a proposed donation of about $40,- 000 to build four new classrooms at a desegregated school. Supt. Lewis H. Scott said the offer was made by the Sewanee Community Chest and, under the proposal, would be used to provide additional facili ties at Sewanee Public School. On March 2, 13 Negro students were transferred from all-Negro Kennerly Elementary School to previously all- white Sewanee Public School under a ruling by U. S. District Judge Charles G. Neese. Nashville attorney Avon N. Williams Jr., counsel for the plaintiffs, filed a motion for “further relief” after about 25 applications for transfers from other Negro students were rejected by school officials because of over-crowding at the predominantly white school. Judge Neese then ordered the board to amend its desegregation plan by creating zones in the Sewanee school district and assign pupils to schools according to their places of residence. Deadline Changed Although the amended plan was to have been filed by March 12, both sides in the case asked the court to move the deadline to April 6 after the Com munity Chest proposal was presented in a conference of board members and attorneys for both sides on March 7. The amended plan, according to some officials, would result in the transfer of some white students from Sewanee Public School to the now all-Negro school. Scott said the proposal to build new classrooms at Sewanee Public School also includes a provision that the Ne gro school would be closed. All Kennerly students then would be transferred to the predominantly white school, under the plan. The superintendent said the Com- Watkins Institute Enrolls Watkins Institute at Nashville, de scribed as one of the largest and old est adult education schools in the na tion, on March 11 enrolled its first Ne gro students. The Rev. C. Garnett Henning, an em ploye of the Division of Christian Edu cation in the African Methodist Church, and Alton C. Gandy, an unemployed laboratory aide, registered for courses in the spring quarter. The institute was founded in 1885 at the direction of the will of Samuel Watkins. The will named the State of Tennessee as trustee and provided that the school be operated by a board of commissioners named by the governor. Frank M. Farris, chairman of the board, said the commissioners agreed last September that “we cannot turn our backs on change.” Statements of Policy The board instructed director John A. Hood to admit qualified Negro ap plicants who, upon reading the school’s statement of policy, expressed the feel ing they were being discriminated against and insisted on registering. The school has operated under a policy of limiting registration to white students 18 or over. But a statement declared the policy is not “in any sense of the word a reflection of a discrim inatory attitude toward the colored race, for whom Watkins bears nothing but good will.” Farris said the policy was the result of the wishes of the late Mrs. Ann E. Webber who left a large bequest to the school for the education of white students. ★ ★ ★ Human Relations Group Approves Proposed Code The Tennessee Commission on Hu man Relations on March 24 approved a draft of a proposed “fair practices code” including provisions dealing with schools, employment and other activi ties. The draft was sent to Gov. Frank G. Clement, who appointed the com mission in January, for his considera tion as an executive order. State Education Commissioner J. Howard Warf told the 21-member bi racial commission, on which he serves as an ex-officio member, that the pro visions concerning schools already were in effect in Tennessee. One of the recommended provisions stated: “All educational programs, vocation al guidance counseling services and all apprenticeship and on-the-job train ing programs of the state shall be con ducted to encourage the fullest development of interests and aptitudes without regard to race, color, religious creed, ancestry, or national origin.” Other sections would call for steps “toward eradicating discriminatory munity Chest now is in the process of attempting to raise the funds. He indicated that the board’s action may depend upon how rapidly the money is contributed. More Transferred Scott also said seven other Negro students have been transferred from Kennerly to Sewanee Public School, the result of an agreement reached during the joint conference. Most if not all these students were children of plaintiffs in the suit, (Hill et al v. Franklin County Board of Edu cation, SSN, January and previous.) Scott said the State Department of Education has given its approval to plans for expanding Sewanee Public School, but he said these plans had not been acted upon by the school board at the end of the month. “We don’t know what will happen just now,” he said. “It’s in a discus sion stage.” Judge Neese still had under advise ment a school board proposal to estab lish a timetable for desegregating classes in each of eight geographical zones in the lower Middle Tennessee county. Schoolmen Knox County Joins City in Extending Desegregation Plan The Knox County Board of Educa tion voted on April 1 to extend deseg regation through the remaining six grades this fall. The district, which voluntarily begin a gradual desegregation program in 1960, now has about 48 Negroes attend ing biracial classes in grades 1 through 6. Approval of the plan to desegregate the remainder of the grades came after Miss Mildred Doyle, superintendent, presented a recommendation to that effect. Action by the board followed a simi lar move by the Knoxville Board of Education, which announced earlier that the remaining six grades would be desegregated in September. (SSN, March.) The Knox County district, which op erates schools surrounding Knoxville, has nearly 16,500 students, of whom about 100 are Negroes. ★ ★ ★ The Knoxville Board of Education, which announced on Feb. 20 that it would extend desegregation to all 12 grades this fall, said on March 22 that athletics, musical training, dramatics, club activities and other phases of the school prgram also will be conducted on a biracial basis. Dr. John Burkhart, president of the Two Negroes practices” by state agencies engaged in granting financial assistance and for bid segregation in any state facility. “All political subdivisions, school districts and other instrumentalities of government are requested to cooper ate ... to the end that any and all discrimination within the state is elim inated,” another section stated. The commission expressed its ap proval of the announcement by the Knoxville Board of Education that school desegregation will be extended to all 12 grades this fall. Cosmopolitan Aspect Foreseen for Colleges Webster Barton Beatty Jr., vice president of the United Negro College Fund, said in Nashville on March 20 that desegregated colleges will become “laboratories of cosmopolitan living.” “Some whites are now going to pre dominantly Negro colleges,” Beatty said during a visit to Fisk University. Many of the white students, he said, stated in their applications they wanted to enroll at historically Negro schools to be among those taking part in efforts to end segregation. Beatty was in Nashville in connec tion with the campaign to raise money for the United Negro College Fund, which is headquartered in New York. He said the fund distributed $2,600,- 000 last year. board said: “We have been desegregating all grams in the lower grades as desegr, gation became effective under tf" grade-a-year plan. Now, as we niov t into all 12 grades, certainly all 0 f t), programs in those grades, such as foot ball and band, will be desegregate I too.” The board informed the U. S. Sixt) 1 Circuit Court of Appeals in Februar, that the remaining six grades in tb system will be desegregated this far 1 (SSN, March.) i Plan Due In June A plan to carry out the proposal it ‘ to be filed in U. S. District Court be- < fore June 5. . < The board during March directed Supt. Thomas N. Johnston to submi- ' a proposed plan to the board for its ‘ consideration at its May meeting. Desegregation of the Knoxville Eve- ning High School and all other special f 1 schools sponsored by the district also will be included in the plan, officials 1 said. The Knoxville district, which begat • ' court-ordered desegregation in I960 has about 220 Negro students attend ing biracial classes in the first six grades of 13 previously all-white ' schools. 1 ' ¥ * * School Superintendents Announce Retirements c Thomas N. Johnston, superintendent of the Knoxville school system since 1955, will retire on July 1 because ol his health, according to an announce ment on March 7 by Dr. John Burk- ^ hart, president of the Knoxville BoaH of Education. I r Johnston has served in the post dur- ing the years leading up to and follow ing desegregation of the system. 1 f The 59-year-old superintendent, who suffered a heart attack several years ( ago, asked the board in 1961 for per mission to retire the following year a But the board reappointed him to an- : ( other three-year term which would ^ have expired on July 1, 1965. a ★ ★ ★ William Henry Oliver, superinten- | ( dent of the Nashville school systerr - since 1957, when it began its grade-a- a year desegregation plan, has announces s his retirement. a Oliver, affiliated with the system tl a total of 35 years, said on March 1 * that he planned to become associa e professor of secondary education a Belmont College this fall. The former principal of East Nash ville Senior High School told sc ^ board members he would like to re on July 1. the date the NashvUj* ^ schools are to be consolidated Q Davidson County schools under new metropolitan government. ^ New School Board A new board of education has ^ appointed by Mayor Beverly Briey govern the consolidated system. Both the Nashville and Davi , County school districts, under ■ court orders, have desegre through the seventh grade. Oliver, as superintendent, ^ an end to violence which mar initial desegregation of N schools in September, 1957. Following the bombing of ^ ton School and other disor e superintendent issued this a PP e i f_^j cs ’" public: “It is time to take U P__ , Oliver has explained the .jg of plan” for desegregation to o , . ( g other Southern cities which u 5 a guide. o e u c c a S I I ( Hi B ★ ★ ★ rmer Clinton Principa 1 ceives Award at r. David J. Brittain, iol ™ e * of Clinton High School at v ^ April 4 was to receive ^ versity’s Ernest O. Mel 0 f » he award, named in 0 ^oo- ner dean of the universi y education, is given aim : itinguished service in ran relations.” wcnden 1 ‘ Brittain, now super® 1 prif Is in Rutherford, N. J-> t>' "at Clinton from i federal court order, sta tS ol in 1956 became the orted secondary school | gregation. _ wo^', segregation at Clin_ o I lessee’s first violence , biracial schools. National >s were used to restore e ^ P school later was damag