LDF and NEA Bring Suit in Behalf of Negro Teachers Dismissed by Tennessee Boards of Education

Press Release
December 6, 1967

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Press Releases, Volume 5. LDF and NEA Bring Suit in Behalf of Negro Teachers Dismissed by Tennessee Boards of Education, 1967. edc4e34b-b892-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/ef23af40-42ac-4f04-9461-6e6a14b8fb68/ldf-and-nea-bring-suit-in-behalf-of-negro-teachers-dismissed-by-tennessee-boards-of-education. Accessed October 11, 2025.

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    NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 

egal ‘efense hand — 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 » JUdson 6-8397 

FOR RELEASE 
WEDNESDAY 
December 6, 1967 

LDF AND NEA BRING SUIT IN 
BEHALF OF NEGRO TEACHERS 
DISMISSED BY TENNESSEE 
BOARDS OF EDUCATION 

Attorneys See Southwide Firing Pattern 

CINCINNATI, Ohio---The U.S. Court of Appeals here was asked today to 

uphold a lower court ruling reinstating several Negro teachers, dis- 

charged when their students were transferred to integrated schools. 

(LDF) are representing Negro teachers from two southcentral Tennessee 

counties. 

Attorneys of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

| | 

The LDF legal effort is being supported and financed in part by | 

the DuShane Fund for Teacher Rights Committee of the National Education | 

Association. 

Avon Williams of Nashville, Tennessee, LDF cooperating attorney, 

told the court today that Negro teachers were clearly discharged be- 

cause of race. 

These teachers, he asserted, were first assigned to all-Negro 

schools, then fired after the Negro schools were closed as part of the 

new desegregation plans. 

Meanwhile, Attorney Williams added, a substantial number of new 

white teachers with less experience and qualifications than the dis- 

missed Negro teachers were hired. 

The discharged teachers are Elvira g. Rolfe and Bernice L. Peebles 

of Lincoln County, Tennessee, and Virginia Scott of Franklin County, 

Tennessee. 

All were awarded a year's back pay as well as reinstatement by the 

Pederal District Court in Winchester, Tennessee, but the respective 

county school boards appealed these awards. 

Another Negro teacher, Theresa Kinslow, is appealing the fact that 

she was not hired by the Franklin County, Tennessee, Board of Education 

at the same time that a substantial number of white teachers with less 

experience and qualifications were hired. 

Mrs. Kinslow's is the first case brought by a teacher applicant 

who was denied employment, rather than an already employed teacher who 

was discharged. 

The discharge of Negro teachers following the integration of 

Negro students has become a common pattern in the middle South where 

substantial integration has occurred, the LDF told the court. 

The cases argued here today are the first such cases from Tennes~ 

see to be brought before a federal court of appeals. 

Other similar cases have been won in Virginia, North Carolina, 

and Arkansas by LDF attorneys. 

LDF Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, James M. Nabrit III, and 

Michael J. Henry of the New York office prepared the written briefs. 
-30- 

NOTE: The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is a 

separate and distinct organization from the NAACP. Its correct desig- 

nation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which is 

shortened to LDF. 

25

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LDF and NEA Bring Suit in Behalf of Negro Teachers Dismissed by Tennessee Boards of Education

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