More than 200 people gathered at the Sewanee Elementary School on Jan. 19 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of the Franklin County Public School System. Some guests came from as far as New Jersey, Atlanta and Asheville, N.C., to be a part of the event, which was organized by the Sewanee Civic Association.
Nine years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, eight local families sued Franklin County to force integration of the system. The plaintiffs were four black families and four white families; the participants were the Bates, Cameron, Camp, Goodstein, Hill, Sisk, Staten and Turner families. The suit, which was successful, was unique because it involved both white and black families as plaintiffs.
Marvin Goodstein, one of the original plaintiffs, spoke eloquently about the time of the lawsuit.
“Perhaps the most serious obstacle to desegregation was the word ‘But.’ People would talk about their support for the [Brown v. Board of Education] decision, and then they would say, ‘But,’ and describe a litany of concerns about it,” Goodstein said. “They were concerned that desegregation would harm the quality of education, that it would require tax increases, that it would bring about ‘undesirable’ contacts between groups of young people.
“And they were wrong. The Supreme Court’s decision was the right one,” he said. He described how the families in Franklin County joined together to bring this change to the local level.
Felder Dorn, who was president of the Sewanee Civic Association (SCA) 1963–64 and led the fund-raising effort, described how the Civic Association studied the school situation and recommended that four new classrooms be added to the Sewanee Public School. “The Kennerly School was a grossly inferior building,” Dorn said, “and we agreed that Sewanee residents would bear the cost of the school addition.”
SCA held a town meeting on March 30, 1964, to initiate a fund-raising drive for the new rooms at the school. They estimated the cost to be $50,000, he said, “all of which came right here from this community.”
Although not everyone in the community favored integration, Dorn said, people understood that it was time for it to happen. “The four rooms we added to this place stand as a monument to the vision and the generosity of a very special community,” he concluded.
Juliette Larkins Taylor, daughter of plaintiff Emma and Samuel Hill, described how hard it was to attend Clark Elementary in Winchester after the integration began, and the fear she felt on the bus and in the classroom. Her mother, however, encouraged her by word and example; Hill had been trained at the Highlander Folk School.
“As kids, aged 11 and 12, I don’t think we understood that we were a significant part of history,” said Robin Bates, a plaintiff with his parents, Phoebe and Scott Bates. “We went with our father to the black school, taking books and talking about what was happening. We knew we needed to stand up for what was right.”
Plaintiff Dora Turner’s daughter, Sandra Turner Davis, recalled being 10 years old as she entered Sewanee Public School.
“It was scary,” she said. “There were some good times, and there were some bad times, but we learned as much as we could. Sewanee people are peaceful people.”
Pam Taylor, daughter of plaintiff Sara Staten, noted that she was grateful that this event was organized to recognize and remember this important work.
“I walked into school that first day fearless because my mother was fearless,” she said. “She instilled love in us. She carried no bitterness in her heart,” Taylor said. “She knew that black children everywhere, not just in Sewanee, needed the same education,” Taylor said of her mother.
Doug Cameron, whose sister, Ann, and parents were plaintiffs in the case, recalled how much race relations had changed since 1964. “There were still water fountains and bathrooms for ‘colored’ and for ‘white’ people,” he said.
“My favorite quote is, ‘There are times when one has to choose between what is easy and what is right,’” Cameron said, “It took courage, but our parents did what was right.” Cameron was joined on stage by his brother, Bobby Cameron, and together led the gathered crowd in singing, “Oh Freedom!”
During the question-and-answer period, members of the audience recalled their own stories from this time.
Ruth Ramseur reminded the group of the great courage of the Rev. David Yates, rector of Otey Parish during this period, who integrated the parish before the school system. Otey Parish hosted tutoring for black students the summer before integration so that they would be ready for the new school year. This tutoring program was featured in an October 1964 issue of the magazine The Living Church.
At the site of the new historical marker outside of SES, University Vice-Chancellor John M. McCardell noted that at the same time integration was happening at public schools in Franklin County, Congress was engaged in the debate over the 1964 Civic Rights Bill.
“This community is truly special, truly strong,” McCardell said. “If there’s anyplace to hope to see progress continue toward justice, it is here,” he said. “Courageous people in this little community stood up and prevailed,” he said. “And it shows that when a community decides to do something, it can make a difference.”
SCA board member Lizzie Duncan unveiled the marker, with help from children attending the event. The group then moved across the street to Otey Parish’s Brooks Hall for refreshments, conversation and videotaping of oral interviews about this historic event.
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