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SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—AUGUST, 1964—PAGE II
TENNESSEE
Court Orders Wilson
NASHVILLE
S. District Judge William E.
• Miller on July 31 ordered
jhe Wilson County Board of Edu
cation to assign teachers and other
school personnel on a nonracial
basis beginning in the fall of 1965.
While the guestion of teacher deseg
regation has been involved in several
suits by Negro plaintiffs in Tennessee,
Miller’s order was the first in the state
directing a local board of education to
disregard race as a factor in the hiring
2nd placement of teachers and other
personnel.
The district judge also ordered the
board to submit a detailed plan by Jan.
4,1965, on how it proposes to carry out
J the court’s directive.
Miller also approved a plan by the
board to allow students in all grades to
attend the school of their choice this
fall. The plan was submitted by the
board on May 1 after Miller had ruled
that his 1961 order restraining the dis
trict from maintaining racial segrega
tion in policy, practice or principle had
not been followed.
Began in 1962
The district began desegregation in
January, 1962, under Miller’s original
order which applied to all 12 grades.
I (Sloan et al v. Wilson County Board
of Education, SSN, February, 1962, and
previous.)
During the past year, about 25 Negro
students attended biracial classes at
two elementary schools and at Lebanon
High School.
Negro plaintiffs returned to court,
however, complaining that Negroes
were being assigned to all-Negro
schools and that white students were
being assigned to all-white schools de
spite the court’s original order.
Under the new proposal, any student
will be permitted to enroll at the
school of his choice. The plan also pro
vides that any “dissatisfied” student
wishing to transfer from one school to
another would be required to show
“good cause” for making the change.
The question of teacher desegrega
tion arose as the court considered
arguments by attorneys on the board’s
plan.
Miller, in his 1961 order, had reserved
judgment on a request by Negro plain
tiffs for the desegregation of the teach
ing staffs.
Alabama
(Continued From Page 10)
and that no action would be taken
against any student for conduct during
May, 1963, except for truancy.
The appeals court said in its opinion
>t was assuming that the assurance
w as made in good faith but ordered
J udge Allgood to issue a temporary re
straining order against the board.
Nashville attorney Avon N. Williams
Jr., counsel for the plaintiffs, told Mil
ler at the latest hearing:
“Negro parents, although they are
a little more open-minded and cos
mopolitan about this matter, will not
send their children to an all-white-
staffed faculty partly because of fear
for what might happen to the child
under an all-white faculty.”
Williams asserted that the plaintiffs
were “tired of reserving” action on
this phase of the suit as he contended
the school board’s plan included no
provision for elimination of segregated
faculties.
Attorney John J. Hooker Sr., also of
Nashville, counsel for the board, told
Judge Miller the board was willing to
try to develop a plan for nonracial as
signment of teachers and other per
sonnel. But he said the order might
be “impossible to comply with at this
time.”
Contracts Signed
Hooker noted that the board already
had signed contracts with teachers for
the 1964-65 school year.
Williams objected to a request by
Hooker for a delay.
“The relevant issue is not whether a
teacher wants to be transferred to an
other school, but is whether these chil
dren can get an adequate education to
compete with this highly competitive
world,” Williams declared.
In his ruling, Miller declared:
“I think they (the board) have shown
good faith and have come up with a
good-faith plan.”
The judge also pointed out that the
board had not been under a court
order to desegregate school personnel
and that he felt it should be given
time to formulate a plan.
Two Other Districts
Two Tennessee districts had deseg
regated teaching staffs last year. They
were Putnam County, which volun
tarily assigned several Negro teachers
to predominantly white schools, and
Oak Ridge, which for many years has
had desegregated faculties under a
policy adopted when the system was
under federal control.
The Wilson County Board of Educa
tion operates both elementary and high
schools in a Middle Tennessee county
just east of Davidson County (Nash-*
ville.)
The original suit by Negro plaintiffs
resulted in the first federal court order
in Tennessee calling for desegregation
of all 12 grades at the same time. It
also was the first case in which more
than one school board was named as
defendants in the state.
The 10th Special School District,
which governs Watertown schools, were
defendants in the original suit. These
districts, however, were not involved
in the latest court action.
Legal Action
^ hat They Say
Desegregation Suit
Legislative Council
Advised on Grants
JTie Alabama Legislative Council was
|°ld July 9 that any tuition-grant legis-
•ation aimed at preserving school
legation would be “patently un-
c °nstitutional” under recent federal
C °}JU decisions.
-Jp 16 advice came from Director
I artes M. Cooper of the State Legis-
a^ve Reference Service. Gov. George
r MJace had requested the council to
, ec °ntmend some such measure for
e &slativ e action.
„ c °oi
5>U,
Per said that while the U.S.
9»eme Court has not outlawed state
h e u° n ^nts as such, “the corut has
y- . that the use of tuition grants in
& P ^ lri .* a as a device to perpetuate seg-
could be enjoined.” And, he
a federal district court in Vir
tu^? rec ently ruled that in that state.
fo» 1011 grants could not legally be used
pj.; Punil’s attendance at a segregated
y ate school.
a final decision is reached in
Cooper said, “we cannot really
"’hat good it would do to enact
^ania 0 ” l^ion-grant legislation in Ala-
the U , e tuition-grant laws
, °ks are useless,
th,
■°oper
now on
he added.
; nt> c -*p r essea nis opin’on belore
Count ee ~ ] ' u dge panel in the Macon
^ants g ase a ' so condemned tuition
Hooi^ used to support segregated
Filed for Negroes
A suit seeking desegregation of all-
white elementary and high schools at
Madisonville in Monroe County was
filed July 30 in U.S. District Court at
Knoxville.
Filed in behalf of 19 Monroe County
Negro students, the suit requested the
court to order desegregation beginning
this fall.
Plaintiffs charged that Madisonville
Negro high school students are trans
ported 12 miles to a Negro high school
at Sweetwater and that some of the
Negro elementary pupils are trans
ported to a Sweetwater elementary
school while others are forced to pass
up a Madisonville white school on their
way to a Madisonville Negro school.
Near White Schools
Charging that the board maintains a
“dual set of school zones,” the suit also
contended that plaintiffs reside in areas
surrounded by white schools but they
have been denied admission because of
race.
The suit stated that the only Negro
high school is located at Sweetwater
and that the only two Negro elemen
tary schools in the county are Park
City at Madisonville, the county seat,
and High Point at Sweetwater.
Plaintiffs contended in their suit that
they would meet all requirements for
admission to any school.
Nine of the Negro students are seek
ing admission to the white high school
County to Desegregate Teachers
Tennessee Highlights
Desegregation of teachers and
other school personnel in the
Wilson County school district, begin
ning in the fall of 1965, was ordered
by U.S. District Court at Nashville.
Negro plaintiffs asked desegrega
tion of all-white schools at Madison
ville in a suit filed against the Mon
roe County Board of Education in
U.S. District Court at Knoxville.
Shelby County school officials pre-
ceeded with plans for their court-ap
proved desegregation plan to be
placed in effect this fall after Ne
gro plaintiffs said they would not
appeal a U.S. District Court ruling.
Part of a federal judge’s ruling call
ing for residential zoning of school
districts will be appealed by the
Franklin County Board of Education,
according to a spokesman for the
board.
Claude C. Bond, a Negro principal,
has been named as co-ordinator of
general education in the Chattanooga
school system.
Three Negro students have been
accepted as the first of their race
to be enrolled at Southwestern at
Memphis, a four-year liberal arts col
lege.
The annual Institute of Race Rela
tions in Nashville was told that there
has been a sharp rise in the number
of those favoring school desegrega
tion.
at Madisonville, while the other 10 are
asking desegregation of elementary
schools in Madisonville, located in lower
East Tennessee.
No hearing date in the suit had been
announced at the end of July.
★ ★ ★
Shelby Schools Prepare
For New Plan This Fall
The Shelby County Board of Educa
tion continued its preparations to place
its court-approved desegregation plan
into effect this fall following an an
nouncement by Negro plaintiffs that
they would file no appeal in the case.
“We have our plan and intend to go
ahead with it,” Supt. George Barnes
said, after an attorney for the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People said it would adopt a
wait-and-see attitude to determine how
the one-stop desegregation plan is car
ried out.
The statement came from Russell B.
Sugarmon Jr., as the NAACP allowed
a July 16 deadline to pass for appealing
the U.S. District Court’s approval of the
plan.
The plan, approved on March 3 by
U.S. District Judge Marion S. Boyd,
called for desegregation of all 12 grades
in the district’s 58 elementary and high
schools. (SSN, March.)
Surrounds Memphis
Shelby County, which operates
schools in the area surrounding Mem
phis, desegregated the Millington Ele
mentary School voluntarily last Sep
tember.
Under the court-approved plan, stu
dents may transfer from one school
to another if they have the approval
of their principals, the county superin
tendent and the board.
Barnes said on July 17 that students
may transfer any time, but that ap
plications should be made as early as
possible in order to avoid over-crowd
ing in some schools or grades.
The district has about 41,300 stu
dents, including about 13,215 Negroes. •
★ ★ ★
Franklin County Plans
Appeal on Zoning Issue
The Franklin County Board of Edu
cation at Winchester announced on
July 14 that it will appeal a portion
of a U.S. District Cotut ruling which
called for residential zoning of school
districts.
A spokesman for the board said the
ruling, handed down on June 23 by
U.S. District Judge Charles Neese as he
approved the board’s timetable for ex
tending biracial classes throughout the
district, constituted an “arbitrary,
forced method of desegregation instead
of the orderly transition heretofore re
quired by the courts.”
Neese’s ruling required the zoning of
the individual school districts in the
southeast Middle Tennessee county and
called for students to attend the schools
in their respective districts.
The defendants in the suit, the school
board and Supt. H. Lewis Scott, con
tended that it was sufficient to open
the doors to all students and let parents
decide which schools their children
would attend.
Neese’s ruling was interpreted to
mean that some white students would
be required to attend what now are
all-Negro schools under a residential
zoning plan.
The district began desegregation on
March 2 after Neese had ordered the
admission of a group of Negro students
transferred from an all-Negro school
to Sewanee Public School.
Kennerly Elementary School, an all-
Negro school also in Sewanee, was
ordered desegregated at the same time
but no white students applied for
transfer to the school.
Four new classrooms are scheduled
to be completed at Sewanee Public
School with the opening of the fall
term and school officials have indicated
that Kennerly School will be closed,
with its remaining students transferred
to Sewanee Public School.
Under the board’s plan approved by
Neese, other schools in the district will
be desegregated on a geographical area
basis. The timetable calls for biracial
classes to be extended throughout the
county by the 1968-69 school term.
The plan is the first in Tennessee in
which desegregation was ordered on a
geographical area basis.
Schoolmen
Negro Appointed
To Major Post
In Chattanooga
The Chattanooga school system on
July 8 named Claude C. Bond, a Ne
gro principal, as co-ordinator of general
education.
Bond, since 1956 the principal of
Howard High School in Chattanooga,
will be in charge of instruction in all
of the district’s 50 schools. He is be
lieved to be the first Negro named to
such a post in the South.
A native of Brownsville, Tenn., Bond
will hold the third position from the
top in the school system, outranked
only by the superintendent and the
assistant superintendent.
★ ★ ★
Claiborne County school officials
said they were making arrangements
for the use of a temporary building to
house students of Rosenwald School,
the only Negro elementary school in
the Tazewell area, which was destroyed
by fire on July 22.
Supt. Clyde Nevils said some of the
parents of the 50-pupil school urged
him “to get a place for the children
to go” when the fall term opens.
Some of those with whom he talked,
Nevils said, “didn’t want to be mixed.”
★ ★ ★
The Memphis Board of Education
announced on July 24 that it has no
plans for a cultural exchange program
in Memphis Negro and white high
schools.
Hugh Bosworth, board president, said
he had been authorized by the board
to make the following statement on
reports that such a program was under
consideration:
“There is no program for an inter
change at this time, and the board has
no plan for such a program.”
Richard T. Ely, president of the
Memphis Citizens’ Council, and several
others appeared before the board and
said they believed that such a program
would cause “tense” racial relations in
the city.
Ely said that a social exchange be
tween Negro and white schools of such
programs as bands and other student
organizations would be “like lighting
a match to a powder keg.”
The plan was first suggested last
spring at a meeting of school officials
and Negro leaders.
In the Colleges
College To Admit
Three Negroes
Southwestern at Memphis announced
on July 29 that three Negro students,
the first of their race, will be admitted
to the four-year liberal arts college
this fall.
Dean Jameson Jones said the Negro
students were accepted under a policy
adopted by the college’s board of direc
tors in April, 1963, to consider applica
tions from qualified students without
regard to race in admitting day-class
students.
Jones said the applications were the
first ever submitted to the college by
Negroes. Southwestern is a Presbyte
rian-related college.
★ ★ ★
Maxie Tyrone Collier of Waverly
has been awarded a scholarship by
Vanderbilt University and will be
among the first group of Negro under-
(See TENNESSEE, Page 12)
Community Action
Survey Indicates More Support
For Desegregation of Schools
Dr. Paul B. Sheatsley, director of the
Survey Research Service, University of
Chicago, told the 21st annual Institute
of Race Relations in Nashville on July
4 there has been a sharp increase in the
number of those favoring school deseg
regation.
Sheatsley was one of the speakers
during the two-week institute attended
by 200 human relations officials from
30 states and three foreign countries.
Held at Fisk University, the institute
is sponsored by the Race Relations De
partment of the Board for Homeland
Ministries of the United Church of
Christ, a union of Congregational
Christian churches and the Evangeli
cal Church.
Sheatsley said that less than one-
third of the white population in the na
tion favored school desegregation in
1942, compared with 50 per cent in
1956 and “a substantial majority” at
the present.
White Southerners
Among white Southerners, he said,
the number of those in favor of school
desegregation had risen from two per
cent in 1942 to 16 per cent in 1956 and
to 30 per cent in 1964.
Seventy-five per cent of Northern
whites, he said, are in favor of school
desegregation now, compared with 60
per cent in 1956 and 40 per cent in 1942.
Much of the discussion during the
institute dealt with the new civil rights
law and its expected effect in various
fields of race relations.
Dr. Herman H. Long, institute direc
tor and president of Talladega College
in Alabama, told participants that there
is now a broad-scale use of federal and
presidential powers where a “vacuum
of unwillingness” once existed.
‘New Confidence’
Long said the “new confidence” is a
result of experiences brought about
since the 1954 Supreme Court school
decision.
Among other speakers were Dr.
Thomas F. Pettigrew, associate profes
sor of social psychology at Harvard;
Dr. Vivian Henderson, head of the
Fisk department of economics; Mrs.
Constance Baker Motley, an NAACP
attorney who has been associated in
numerous school desegregation cases;
George Schermer, former director of
the Philadelphia Commission on Com
munity Relations; Theodore A. Smed-
ley, law professor at Vanderbilt Uni
versity, and Herman Edelsberg, Wash
ington attorney.
The institute was held during the
first two weeks in July.