The Integration Front

It was the first day of registration for the public schools of Nashville, Tenn., and the city (pop. 185,000) had 90 policemen on special alert to quell any trouble that might break out. At some schools, it seemed at times as if the cops might be needed. Groups of white adults and teenagers wearing "Keep Our White Schools White" buttons passed out racist handbills, and a few people noisily heckled grey-haired School Superintendent William Bass as he toured possible trouble spots ("Why do you let niggers come to our white schools?") But beyond that, 13 little Negroes were allowed, more or less in peace, to register in five of 15 newly desegregated elementary schools. Thus, last week, Nashville became the largest city this year to start along the difficult road to integration.

In a sense, it was only natural that Nashville should avoid violence. Relations between the races are unusually good: there is a Negro on the school board, and there are two on the city council. Through meetings of various civic groups, many citizens have been well prepared for the big change. Furthermore, officials decided to go slow by integrating only the first grade this year. But however calm registration day, there were ugly rumblings through the rest of the week.

Racist John Kasper, of New Jersey, though attracting only small crowds, was in town to stir up as much mischief as he could. Parents of six of the 13 Negro children got threatening phone calls. One caller told a mother that her six-year-old daughter would be strung up by her toes. Someone told another mother that acid would be hurled at her son. Said a woman who identified herself as a "Ku Kluxer": "You'd better not send your child to a white school, because we'll beat her to death and bomb your house."

The town blossomed with posters saying: "Honor-Pride--Save the Whites!" and "Save Your Kids! Prevent Race Riots, Murder, Dynamitings and Hangings!" Assistant School Superintendent W. H. Oliver called for police protection after a paper fireball was thrown, burning, on his front porch. Having passed safely through registration day, Nashville is now braced for anything. Says Superintendent Bass: "Our board members are shaking in their boots. There's all sorts of submerged opposition to this." Added a Negro lawyer: "With a lunatic like Kasper around, anything can happen."

Other events on the integration front:

P:In Clinton, Tenn. (pop. 3,712), scene of last year's riots, two 15-year-old Negroes registered as freshmen at the high school, and five more who attended last year finally announced that they would be back. The day passed without incident. Says Principal W. D. Human, who took over from last year's harassed Principal D. J. Brittain, now on a fellowship at New York University: "Everyone I've talked to in town, and I've talked to a great many, expressed hope for a normal and successful school year."

P:In Sturgis, Ky. (pop. 2,222), which also saw trouble last year, Publisher Bud Calman of the News reported: "I've been up and down the street these last three days trying to appraise our situation, and I haven't heard one word which would indicate trouble." Said a school official in nearby Clay: "I don't believe we'll have any trouble--but you never can tell."

P: In spite of one Ku Klux Klan cross-burning a few miles outside of town, Charlotte, N.C. (pop. 158,800) quietly accepted the news that four Negroes will be distributed through the two junior and two senior high schools. Greensboro and Winston-Salem, the other cities that announced they would integrate simultaneously with Charlotte (TIME, Aug. 5), have also avoided any ominous reaction. In all three communities, officials hope that their tiny concession to the U.S. Supreme Court will keep the federal courts at bay, serve as a sort of inoculation against any large-scale integration.

P:In Arkansas, Federal Judge Ronald Davies voided an injunction forbidding Little Rock (pop. 117,000), the most important of five Arkansas communities to begin integration, to allow 15 to 20 Negroes into the white Central High School. The injunction had been handed down by Chancellor Murray Reed of the State Chancery Court after a hearing on a petition filed by the secretary of the newly formed pro-segregationist League of Central High Mothers. Reason for the chancellor's decision: witnesses, including Governor Orval Faubus, testified that integration would inevitably mean violence.

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