i | i : Boo * supper bd z iM | INTEGRATION Fear lifts from Clinton By LESTER RODNEY MONTGOMERY In the half-light of 7:15 a.m. I waited for the bus out of Clinton, Tenn., feeling a little better about these United States of ‘America than when I had stepped down from the bus at this same spot exactly 24 hours earlier. I had walked in on a great moment of history. For surely Clinton, Tenn., Mont- gomery, Ala., are the Lexing- tons and Concords of our time. What happened in these 24 hours? A situation had re- versed itself. A reign of ter- ror and violence by a well organized minority who were “proving” that integration could not work in the*South had ended with a long delayed flick of the little finger of federal law enforcement agencies. In a twinkling the entire at- mosphere in the town chang- ed and everybody knew that the Clinton High School was going to be reopened, integrat- ed, with “trouble.” For the first time in a long while, students, mothers and teachers spoke their minds and con- sciences freely. It would be a pleasure to report that Attorney General Herbert Brownell’s law en- forcers moved in because nine courageous Negro children were being pushed, beaten, in- sulted and stoned in the school and on the way home from school for two weeks. Such was not the case. Nor was it the brutal slugging of a white Clinton minister who led six of the children back to the school through rascist threats that brought federal action. It took protests and demands for action from in and around Clinton itself, the bitter wire of the high school. teachers, delegations to the federal judge in Knoxville, telegrams to Brownell from groups like the United Church Women of Knoxville (not New York or Boston, but Knoxville) de- manding that Brownell “pro- secute violations at Clinton, Tenn., of the civil rights acts 18 USC Sections 241 and Zee, os. “Impossible for officials of small Clinton community to cope with national conspiracy of White Citizens Council foc- using on Clinton. er nis national conspiracy requires the use of federal agencies if federal constitutional rights are to be more than empty phrases,” the women wired. xt xt xt On the night of December 4 the blood from the face of Paul Turner and the 110-pound Clinton woman who ran out of arf insurance office to his aid still stained the sidewalk di- rectly across the street from the police station, and the town was gripped by tension, sup- pressed indignation and fear. Three nights later things were quite different. I stood with a large group of citizens on the lawn out- side the police station at about 8:30 p.m. and saw 16 sickly smirking handcuffed prisoners marched briskly to cars tak- ing them to arraignment in Knoxville. A woman from the North who has lived in Clinton for a few years told me: “The people here are just hopeless, they’re so prejudiced. They’re so ignorant it hurts. You can’t talk your mind around here, someone is just likely to hit you if you do. - You see that man over there? He’s a big church man, but I swear if Jesus Himself came down to help those poor child- ren, he’d: beat up Jesus.” New Year's * good orchestra nae \ 2 X * surprises { 3 * prizes * fun and laughter & * favors For Table Reservations - a 4; "| OI FROLIC m H FIVE DOLLARS = PER COUPLE Ex Monday, December 31 2 9 p.m. to 2??? a7, i) 138 East Cordova Phone TAtlow 6668 Tickets at People’s Co-op Bookstore or Pacific Tribune office 337 West Pender 6-426 Main St. Sponsors: Burnaby Social Club | ¥ | 4 ¥ ; x Fishermen‘s Hall ; : =~ SANTA NSA RSA A ROA SARA RA ROA RGA SA RO ROG REA NOS ROG BOA NS BRS SHIA IS EE I The atmosphere in Clinton, Tennessee, has changed since this picture was pe “i eral action, compelled by protests, has ended weeks of intimidation by a minority de to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling desegregating schools. She lives in Clinton, and you dont. But how could she ex- plain the student council vote backing the principal against the racists. Or the statements by the 25 teachers, the forth- right statements of two moth- ers of white high school child- ren to reporters. . ? I had one illuminating con- versation in front of the office of Clinton’s weekly newspaper, the Courier News, which was threatened and taken off some drug store stands because it backed law and* order. “Now don’t go away hold- ing the wrong impression,” this man told me, speaking slowly and carefully. “You should know that maybe 90 percent of us here are against inte- gration. But the thing of it is, we're against this contemptible un-Christian White Citizens Council activities.” To be honest, I said, this sounded like a contradiction to me. “Yes,” he said, “I know it must sound like a contradic- tion.” “Tf,” I said, “you are,against integration, are you for the Negro children not being per- mitted to come back to Clin- ton High School Monday?” “No sir! No siree! I wouldn’t want those children kept out for the world!” he said with an electricity that made the back of my neck tingle. “That would let the un-Christian trash win! Why those Negro children are worth 100 of those contemptible. . . .” A 16-year-old Clinton High School football hero accosted by a racist laughed genially in the racist’s face and said, “I ain’t going to school.to marry DECEMBER 21, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — ed Fed: ui for t that? 5 ‘ a Negro. I’m a-going education, and I suSpe ed what they’re going for ine In the September rioting. Clinton, 47 residents © jaime ton, including self-prOC™ ied foes of integration, orld shotguns, old Second y 3 War weapons and le pant Silver Star veteran, L€0 “ion. Jr., marched bravely ob front and disperse racist” ilization. yer Surely it is wrong % ov simplify the change 12 pe Tenn., (or to confuse Tenn., with Jackson, sippi.) You didn’t look far on that defi” night for tight, hate-@™ wd ance-filled faces in the “ited as the prisoners We? off. tuous for a Northern gals only 25 hours of cre ‘os it for “analysis” of cl eri: must surely be at least 2 the ous a mistake to i8¢ pink direction of things, # that no significant ch@ under way amon Southerners. pus fo The early morninB |. soa Knoxville came dow? portable and I pick@éa up ™Y irpan typewriter and canvas “gin bag. The 24 hours in ttle were at an end. Over sib? coffee joint under %, jg “Greyhound Bus StoP sib ff other one, “White we 0 As the bus ge through Clinton 5 I saw another sis? 1D yger? store windows. It re# ith / i dith for Mayor.” Mere®™ the wore ae : Citizens Council. M en in Clinton’s JatBi g46 vote in history, 1, page resume | Yet if it is not too PF ith | nd "re are 7 nse ite | “day