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 June 13, 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<