Federal Judge Warns Tennessee School Boards on Desegregation Stalling Tactics

Press Release
September 10, 1959

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Federal Judge Warns Tennessee School Boards on Desegregation Stalling Tactics, 1959. 246e3c81-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/a1bd0311-b5df-4c84-a45c-4ca73cf1f1ab/federal-judge-warns-tennessee-school-boards-on-desegregation-stalling-tactics. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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    PRESS RELEASE® ® 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS QS THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

FEDERAL JUDGE WARNS 
TENNESSEE SCHOOL BOARDS ON 

DESEGREGATION STALLING TACTICS 

NASHVILLE, TENN., Sept. 10. -- Federal Judge William E. Miller 

on Tuesday ordered the Rutherford County School Commission to 

desegregate an all-white elementary school which serves almost 

exclusively children of air force personnel and sharply questioned 

the board on why the remainder of the county should not be desegre- 

gated. 

The order and warning were issued at a hearing on a complaint 

with motions seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary 

injunction against the County School Commission of Rutherford County 

immediately prohibiting them from refusing to admit Negro students 

into presently all-white public schools pending further court 

rulings. 

The complaint and motions were filed September 2, 1959, by 

attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in behalf 

of 16 Negro children whose parents are stationed at Sewart Air Force 

Base in Tennessee. 

The students attempted to enroll on August 28, 1959 at the John 

Coleman School, a modern structure immediately adjacent to a housing 

development on the air base. They were turned away by school 

authorities on the grounds that the Tennessee state laws prohibited 

Negro and white children from attending the same class and school 

together. Nevertheless, children of many foreign extractions whose 

parents are members of the Air Force and live in the housing 

development are attending the school without difficulties. 

Attorneys for the Negro students charged in their complaint 

that while the John Coleman School is operated by the Rutherford 

School Commission, it was constructed and is being maintained by 

funds supplied by the U. S, Federal Government. The housing 



26 

development, known as the Wherry Housing Development, is 

located on government property and built with federal aid. 

The attorneys also charged that the school was built and 

designed primarily, if not exclusively, to provide an adequate ele- 

mentary school education for children in the housing development, 

However, Negro children who live in the development, as well as 

those residing in the surrounding areas, are herded into crowded 

buses and forced to travel 14 to 16 miles daily to attend an all- 

Negro school in Murfreeboro, 

The attorneys termed this segregated arrangement an “unneces- 

sary burden imposed upon their parents solely because of their race 

and color." It subjects the children to "unwarranted physical and 

health hazards", deprives them of "opportunities for atheletic and 

cultural development", and reduces their "opportunities for educa- 

tional instructions and study", the attorneys claimed. 

NAACP Legal Defense attorneys for the Negro children are 

Z. Alexander Looby and Avon M, Williams, Jr. of Nashville, Thurgood 

Marshall and Jack Greenberg of New York. 

=90S<

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Federal Judge Warns Tennessee School Boards on Desegregation Stalling Tactics

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