Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-09-09

Inc Dack-U0-ScnOOl season, IRA
ditionally time for parental relief
and youthful anticipation. this year
is giving the Nation a disturbing
taste of the fruit of judicial deter
mination to bring about indignation
Of the public schools of the South.
When the fall school term opened,
only one school in the Deep South,
at Clinton. Tenn, had been ordered
to start indignation on the first
day of school, A dozen Negro
youths were forthwith registered,
but when they attempted to attend
classes, white mobs, spurred by agi-
tators from the outside, moved in
noisily to defy the Federal District
Courts Indignation order. Last
Sunday. the National Guard was
sent to Clinton.
Meanwhile, a mob of 500 was
held at bay in Sturgis. KY, by Ma
tional Guardsmen who had been
sent to the scene to prevent rioting
and protect Negroes attending an
integrated school for the first time.
During the week, sporadic vio-
lence, threats of violence and or
ganized protest added to tension in
other Southern communities. And
figures showing that the South has
made but few faltering steps
down the long road to full integra-
ton indicate more trouble to come
in the months. and years ahead.
The Sturgis incident belied the
widespread belief that deep racial
tension over the segregation issue
is confined to the Deep South.
Sturgis, a town of 1900 in a
county where Union sentiment was
predominant during the Civil War,
is only 5 miles from the Illinois
State line. 1t is in Union County,
which has Negro population of
less than 10 per cent. 1t is not an
area of poor whites, having done
well under dual economy of coal
mining and agriculture. Ranking
58th among Kentucky counties in
population, it is ninth in value of
its lands and buildings, and the
average size of its $3.50 farms is
1876 acres, largest in the State.
There is one automobile to every
three persons in the county.
When school opened on Tuesday
white farmers and miners strung a
picket line around the building and
shouted go home or get hurt!" at
the eight Negro children inside. The
following day the size of the line
increased to mob proportions and
the white men became more noisy
and more unruly. The Negro pu-
pills spent the day at Negro. school
in nearby Morganfield, but vowed
that they would be back. That
night, Gov. A. B. Chandler sent a
National Guard contingent to Stur-
gis ito protect all the people"
On Thursday the mob had swelled
to 500. The troops, armed with
carbines and machine guns, escorted
nine Negro youths to the school,
yard. AS the pupils and their sol
dier-eScort started to enter the
building the mob angrily surged for
ward. The Guardsmen advanced
with fixed bayonetS. Several
Guardsmen were struck. Seven
from the mob we're arrested and
fined $40. During the day the
crowd tainted the white children
who remained in the school. Later
many white children, some of them
weeping, left their classes. Several
parents broke through the troops
line and ran to schoolroom windows,
where they shouted for their chill
dren to leave. Some of the children
inside, torn between parental and
civil authority. yelled back: We're
not coming out; the law is the law!"
Trouble in Tennessee
In Clinton last Sunday, 633 Ma
tional Guardsmen with full combat
MISUNDERSTANDING machine guns
and seven tankS-rolled into town
to take over rule from mob which
for three days had held the town
in its grip.
The following night there was
violence in Oliver Springs, 20 miles
from Clinton. when someone started
a rumor that integration in the
towns high school would begin on
Tuesday. Before Mai. Gen. Joe w.
Henry, commanding the Guard unit
at Clinton, could send help, mem
Der of a white mob of $50 was shot
on the main street by a Negro; a
deputy sheriff was shot in the
shoulder as he rode in patrol car,