Wednesday Open Thread: African Americans and The Struggle for Education Equality

Happy Hump Day POU!

Before the Little Rock Nine, there was The Clinton Twelve.

In the summer of 1956, Clinton High School admitted the first black students into integrated classes since the landmark Supreme Court decision on Brown v. The Board of Education in 1954. Located in the eastern Tennessee city of Clinton, Clinton High School was among the southern educational institutions that preserved segregation in schools. The all white public schools had full amenities for white students, while the schools for black students were without indoor plumbing, let alone a library, cafeteria or spaces for physical education.

After years of delay, a Federal District Court judge named Robert L. Taylor ordered the Anderson County, Tennessee School District (where Clinton High School was located) to follow the law and end segregation.

The first black students to be registered into the school were known as “The Clinton 12.” However, the historic victory for Tennessee’s desegregation movement came at a cost.

Bobby Cain enters Clinton High School on the first day of desegregation.

The students met at the all-black elementary school, Green McAdoo School, and walked together to the high school. There were no problems the first day, but the next day there were threats of violence.

Students in the original Clinton 12 spoke of being harassed and assaulted by angry white students. Alfred Williams, one of the original 12, said “You couldn’t possibly get anything learned or done, because you were constantly afraid that the white kid next to you was planning to kill you.”  Mr. Williams was eventually expelled after pulling a knife on a group of white students that were threatening to kill his brother, Charles. The episodes of violence were escalated when John Kasper took the lead in organizing terror against Tennessee’s desegregation movement.

Kasper was the founder of the White Citizens Council, an ethnocentric organization that sought to preserve the principles of Jim Crow. Kasper was also a mentee to Alabama Ku Klux Klan leader and political speech writer Asa Carter. When Carter finally arrived in Clinton to assist  Kasper with his pro-segregation activities, city officials had to appeal to Tennesse Governor Frank Clement for help.

Local officials asked Governor Frank Clement for help. Clement agreed to call out the National Guard. Unlike Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who a year later used the Arkansas National Guard to block desegregation in Little Rock, Clement sent 100 highway patrolmen and 600 National Guard soldiers to restore order.

While waiting for state law enforcement officers to arrive, white Clinton citizens formed a “home guard” to try and protect their town. They even confronted the white mob.  Harold McAlduff, a member of the home guard and World War II veteran, said “I’ve flown 26 missions in the war, and I’ve never been more frightened in my life than that night in Clinton.”

The highway patrol arrived first in a long line of police cars with their lights flashing.  Greg O’Rear, the head of the highway patrol, climbed out of his patrol car, threw his shotgun over his shoulder, and said, “Boys, it’s all over.” And it was. The crowd broke up and went home.

The National Guard arrived the next day with tanks and 600 men, and stayed for two weeks. However, acts of intimidation continued after they left. Crosses were burned on the lawns of faculty members. Shots were fired into homes of two African Americans. Dynamite was thrown in the African American neighborhood. The school principal, David Brittain, sent his family away from the house after receiving bomb threats.

In December, a white Baptist minister, Paul Turner, decided to escort the black students to school. When he left them, he was attacked by several whites and severely beaten. The same day a couple of white men tried to enter the school through a back door. They were confronted by the home economics teacher, who was also the principal’s wife, and a student. Brittain closed the school for five days.

The beating and school closure shocked the community. In a local election all the White Citizen Council candidates who were opposed to desegregation were defeated. Eventually hostilities were reduced.

In 1957 Bobby Cain became the first black student in Tennessee to graduate from a desegregated public school. A year later Clinton High School was destroyed by a bomb detonated at night.  Several nationally known figures, including evangelist Billy Graham, and local citizens raised money to rebuild the school. No one was ever arrested for the bombing.

The original Clinton 12 eventually had to move to another school in Oak Ridge, Tennessee after Clinton High School was severely bombed. Over 150 sticks of dynamite were used in the October of 1958 explosion. The school was later rebuilt with donations from various celebrities and national public figures.

The Clinton 12 were:
Maurice Soles, Mary Ann Dickey Jones, Gail Upton, Alvah McSwain, Ronald Hayden, William Latham, JoAnn Allen Boyce, Alfred Williams, Robert Thacker, Regina Turner Smith, Bobby Cain and Ana Caswell.

Read their stories here.