INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Tuskegee before 1970

Tuskegee, Alabama, the county seat of Macon County, holds a special place in the culture and history of black people and in the civil rights movement in Alabama and throughout the United States. It was not surprising that it hired the first black superintendent of a county school system in the United

   Tuskegee is the county seat of Macon County, which is essentially a rural area. In the 1970s, its population was about 25,000 people. It is situated in the east-central section of Alabama, approximately forty miles east of Montgomery, Alabama, and forty miles west of Columbus, Georgia. It is large in area: 616 square miles. It has several small communities located around the central city of Tuskegee: Shorter to the west, Notasulga to the north, and smaller areas served by their own schools to the east (Nichols) and south (South

   Shortly after the end of the Civil War, white Macon Countians began to reassert their power over the county, despite the activities of the Radical Republicans in Washington and the local black leadership. For example, the home of a black Republican leader, James Alston, was attacked with gunfire in 1870, injuring both Alston and his wife. The incident led to armed conflict between the black and white A constant tension ensued here and all across the South as blacks sought to migrate away from the area while white property owners sought to keep the blacks available as a source of labor while also regaining white political and economic control of the

   In Macon County and all across the South, whites did regain control through violence, intimidation, and economic serfdom through the “crop lien system” or sharecropping. When federal troops were finally withdrawn from the former rebel states in a deal that gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency, the fate of the recently freed slaves hardened into nearly permanent

   The fate of Tuskegee and Macon County might have slipped into the swamp of anonymity that swallowed most of the South, had it not been for the creation of a “colored high school” in 1881 under the initial leadership of Lewis Adams, a local tinsmith. But this school, established with the support of white politicians and merchants, Arthur Brooks and Wilbur Foster, later became the renowned Tuskegee Institute under the leadership of Booker T. Washington and George Washington With this partnership established by the school and community, Tuskegee entered an era of calmer race relationships. However, the seeds for future discord were also sown with the growth of the educated, middle-class black community in Tuskegee. Washington was convinced that political power would follow from economic power, which he was determined to develop through

   Despite the growth of Tuskegee Institute and the national influence of Dr. Washington, white political control of Alabama and Macon County grew stronger. Although the Macon County population was overwhelmingly black, only sixty-five blacks were registered voters in the early 1900s, thanks to the new state constitution, which disenfranchised many thousands of black and white citizens by forcing them to prove their literacy, employment, or ownership of property valued at $300. A poll tax was also enacted, and the local board of registrars was created with wide discretion to enforce these

   While the white citizens of Macon County insisted that they lived in a model community, black citizens were deprived of political power and much more. In fact, the funding for Tuskegee Institute, much of which came from Northern philanthropy, could hardly compensate for the immense difference in educational support from the local community, where white per pupil expenses were $65.18 in 1934, compared to only $6.58 for each black

   In 1923, at the urging of Tuskegee Institute President Robert R. Moton and white landowners anxious to sell their land, the US government built a Veterans Administration hospital for black soldiers from World War I. The hospital perpetuated a system of segregated care but benefited the Tuskegee community by the addition of many more black professionals. The staffing of the hospital by blacks was not without a fight. Whites saw the danger in having blacks in positions of authority as well as the loss of good-paying jobs, but Alabama law forbade whites to nurse blacks. The VA hospital ultimately provided 1,500 good-paying federal jobs for blacks, jobs over which white Macon Countians had no

   Thus, by 1940, more than one thousand black, middle-class professionals lived and worked in Tuskegee, where they formed the “model neighborhood” of Greenwood and sent their children to the “model public school” known as Children’s House on the Tuskegee Institute

   Not surprisingly, the leadership for change in Macon County first emerged from the faculty at Tuskegee Institute. Charles Gomillion, a young teacher, was insulted when a merchant called him “Preacher,” after which he vowed not to do his shopping in local stores. At age twenty-eight, Gomillion discovered that in 1928 there were only thirty-two black registered voters in the area, all of whom were administrators at the Tuskegee Institute or the VA Hospital or owned businesses. In other words, none of these voters owed their jobs and economic welfare to the white Gomillion became the leader of the Tuskegee Civic Association (TCA) that led a long-running battle with the board of registrars and the state of Alabama over the right of blacks to register and vote, culminating in the 1960s. Throughout this struggle, white conservatives clung to power by means fair and foul.

   In January 1941, another significant national event made a tremendous impact on the community. At the urging of Tuskegee Institute President Frederick Patterson, the community was selected as the training site for black airmen. The introduction of black airmen from all parts of the nation, many having never encountered the form of racism known as segregation, created much tension and eventual violence. The trigger was the question of who was responsible for policing these outsiders when they left the military base and went into the town. A confrontation in April 1942 over custody of a drunken soldier led to fighting and a near riot before a compromise was

   Throughout the New Deal and World War II, white conservatives felt threatened by the policies of Franklin Roosevelt and by Supreme Court decisions of the following decades. In Tuskegee, the TCA began a campaign to unseat Sheriff Pat Evans, whose regime of brutality resulted in the death of Walter Gunn in Although the white primary was also struck down in the 1940s by the US Supreme Court v. the actions of the Macon County Board of Registrars continued to prevent blacks from registering. For example, in July 1945, while 200 blacks waited in line to register, ninety of their applications were taken but only ten were When court cases ensued, registrars either resigned to avoid being arrested or went into hiding so that potential black voters would not know where to go to register, even using nongovernmental locations like the general store owned by a known antiblack

   In 1948, Governor Folsom, a reputed liberal, appointed a registrar who actually accepted black registrations. W. H. Bentley from Notasulga was responsible for increasing black registration from about 100 to over 400 in one year, whereupon the other two registrars stopped attending meetings, effectively halting further Nevertheless, by 1950, black voters made up 30 percent of the electorate as compared to 73 percent of the population of the and succeeded in defeating Sheriff Evans.

   The gulf between white expectations and black desires continued to grow, and attitudes of people on the extremes hardened, while more liberal or realistic whites and blacks worked toward compromise. One example of the hardening of attitudes and practices was the effort by local politician Sam Engelhardt, newly elected to the Alabama legislature from the Shorter community in western Macon County. He wrote a bill to close all public schools if the US Supreme Court outlawed segregation of schools. Although the bill failed by a 2:1 margin, it was indicative of the thinking of some

   In January of 1951, the issue of school desegregation changed from “if” to “now” when a black parent asked the school board to provide a course in geometry for her son at Tuskegee Institute High School, the school for blacks, or to allow him to enroll at Tuskegee High School, the white school. When the request was denied, the TCA began to circulate a petition on behalf of the family, but the issue went unresolved. Then in 1954, a black woman named Jessie Parkhurst Guzman, a Tuskegee Institute professor, ran for a position on the school board, losing 3:1 in a vote that mirrored the racial makeup of the

   Problems relating to voter registration continued, as the county moved in fits and starts toward opening up the process. When the Alabama legislature removed the cumulative feature of the poll tax in 1953, for example, the cost of registering was reduced to that of the current year only. The new governor, “Big Jim” Folsom, an avowed liberal, threatened Sam Engelhardt, saying he would “register every damn nigger in the county.” Although his efforts fell far short, progress was made in that

   Following the announcement of the US Supreme Court Brown decision in 1954, a group of thirty-two blacks informed the board of education that they would submit a desegregation petition as part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) national plan. When Engelhardt introduced a bill allowing the board of education to fire any teacher who advocated desegregation, the bill was passed by the legislature but vetoed by Gov. Folsom. Folsom also reappointed Herman Bentley to the board of registrars, but Bentley died in 1955 and the board was not reconstituted until

   During the Montgomery bus boycott of the same period, however, Folsom sat on his hands. Whatever liberal leanings the governor had had, he lost his nerve or changed his mind as the civil rights movement up.

   Meanwhile, Engelhardt seemed to be gaining strength in his opposition to desegregation. In 1957, the senator introduced a bill to redraw Tuskegee’s city limits in such a way as to exclude all but twelve black voters. Charles Gomillion and the TCA held a meeting attended by 3,000 people (500 were able to get inside and the remainder stood outside the church) where Engelhardt’s bill was discussed. The outcome of the meeting was a “selective buying” campaign. Said Gomillion, “We are going to buy goods and services from those who help us, from those who make no effort to hinder us, from those who recognize us as first class This campaign had an immediate impact on the merchants in Tuskegee, putting a fish market and the movie house out of business within a few days. By the spring of 1958, half of Tuskegee’s white-owned retail businesses had failed. Some white merchants were reportedly ready to change their policies but feared the retaliation of Engelhardt and his supporters more than they feared economic

   Senator Engelhardt was undeterred. In fact, he countered with a proposal to abolish Macon County completely by having it divided up and the territory annexed by surrounding counties. The fact that the surrounding counties didn’t want large communities of black people and potential voters in their counties prevented the bill’s

   Meanwhile, Alabama Attorney General John Patterson attempted to halt the boycott as unlawful. He attempted to intimidate local blacks by demanding membership rolls from the TCA, by questioning residents, and by making radio announcements. He had already chased organized NAACP activities from the state by imposing a fine of $100,000 on the organization when they would not submit membership lists. Although Patterson’s actions failed to deter the TCA, he gained the spotlight in Tuskegee and won the governorship in

   The Tuskegee Civic Association was not intimidated by the machinations of Engelhardt and Patterson but might have actually been strengthened by them. Protests and meetings continued throughout the summer of 1957, drawing such noteworthy speakers as Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and Fred Shuttlesworth to the town. Indeed, the protests drew the attention of the national media, with stories carried by Life, Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World

   Macon County and Tuskegee were controlled by five men from four prominent families, and they wanted to retain this control. An independent survey of white residents turned up many who said they feared black domination and blamed outside agitators and Russian Communists for the boycott. However, a significant minority believed that blacks deserved to have political

   In February 1957, Charles Gomillion appeared before the US Senate Judiciary Committee and described the way whites were restricting black voters. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 had established the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the US Commission on Civil Rights. The latter agency began an investigation of the Tuskegee situation based on the data collected by the TCA. In the investigation, white public officials either denied knowledge of the circumstances or refused to answer altogether. The local registrars, ducking an order from federal district judge Frank M. Johnson to turn over voting records and to testify, simply resigned their positions. George C. Wallace, then a registrar in neighboring Barbour and Bullock counties, impounded his records to avoid bringing them to the commission hearings. Wallace made plenty of political hay out of this drama, infuriating Judge Johnson and gaining the name recognition and fame that would catapult him into the governorship. The commission’s findings led to court cases against the local registrars, but their resignation again thwarted the process and no new registrars were appointed until July 1959. Those registrars promptly resigned and the fiasco was repeated the following year, prompting the TCA to request federal

   The Civil Rights Act of 1960 did not create federal registrars as the TCA had requested, but it did create federal referees appointed by federal judges. It also gave the Justice Department authority to sue states for denial of voting rights, leading to the reopening of the Macon County case under Judge Johnson. Although Governor Patterson appointed new registrars in Macon County, they continued to obstruct black applicants in the usual

   In 1960, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Gomillion v. Lightfoot against the proposed gerrymandering of Macon County because the effect of the law was discriminatory. Then in March 1961, the Justice Department investigation ended with the finding that Macon County registrars had “deliberately engaged in acts and practices designed to discriminate against qualified Negroes.” Johnson ordered the immediate registration of sixty-four blacks who had testified at the hearings, ordered the registrars to meet at least two days per month in the city of Tuskegee from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. to examine at least six applicants at a time, to notify the applicants within twenty days of the results of their application with written reasons for any failure to qualify, and to present a detailed monthly report to

   As a result of these pressures for the registration of black voters, the election for local government in 1960 brought big changes, with new leadership that was not allied with Engelhardt. The buying boycott was gradually lifted, and meetings began occurring between the TCA and white liberals over the next few years. The ownership of the Tuskegee News changed hands from the ultraconservative Harold Fisher to Neil O. Davis, who had the backing of banker J. Allan Parker, a member of the biracial committee. The new city government built a swimming pool for blacks and the first public housing was constructed under their

   Throughout the early sixties, things seemed to be moving forward in terms of blacks and whites working together, attacking problems, and winning elections. By the summer of 1963, black voters numbered 3,000, approximately equal with white voters. An additional 6,000 blacks remained unregistered. But in 1962, the TCA decided to pay the legal expenses for a school desegregation court case, Lee v. Macon which was filed the following January by attorney Fred Gray. As a result of this desegregation suit, Judge Johnson ordered Macon County to desegregate Tuskegee High School when the new school year opened in September 1963 and to present a desegregation plan for the rest of the county by December. The city council, school board, and leading white liberals had decided not to oppose the order. The superintendent was C. A. Pruitt, who personally opposed the plan but went along with the order. Applications from black students who wanted to transfer to Tuskegee High School were accepted, and thirteen students were

   Everything seemed to be in order until a meeting of the PTA held on the evening before school was to open. Conservatives hijacked the meeting, asking for Governor Wallace to be called in and the school opening to be postponed. One parent reported that Wallace had “offered to provide transportation for white students to other schools or to call a special session of the legislature to have Macon County’s public schools closed.” Another attendee, a state official whose home was in Montgomery, not Tuskegee, announced that “Montgomery” had a plan to close the public schools and organize a private school

   In fact, Governor Wallace did order the postponement of school for one week. The order was delivered to Tuskegee by a state trooper, and at 6:30 a.m. on the day school was scheduled to open, Tuskegee High School was ringed by 200 state troopers. Two white families attempted to walk through the lines with their children, only to be rebuffed. The following day, Sheriff Jim Clark from Selma, a town more than two hours away by car, and his posse mounted on horses appeared on the school grounds. The following Monday, when school was allowed to open, state troopers boarded the bus that was carrying the thirteen black students to Tuskegee High School and handed out an order from Gov. Wallace denying their entry into the

   The US Justice Department responded by taking out a restraining order to stop Wallace’s interference. Wallace in turn called out the National Guard, whereupon President John F. Kennedy ordered the federalization of the Alabama National Guard and sent them back to their barracks. The following day, Tuskegee High School was desegregated along with schools in

   Local opposition did not disappear, however. A group led by Frances Wadsworth asked Gov. Wallace to invoke a 1957 law that would allow school boards to close public schools and use the funds to operate private schools. Wallace agreed to support this movement. Meanwhile, of the 565 white students expected at the high school, only 125 arrived for classes when the school finally opened. Later that week, the football team voted to disband, and the following day, no white students remained at the high school. The grammar school located on the same property remained all white. Of the 565 white high school students, 130 transferred to Shorter High School and thirty-four transferred to Notasulga High School, both of which were then all white. Some students went to schools in neighboring counties or went to live with relatives in other cities, but most simply waited for the opening of the private

   Macon Academy was first opened in an abandoned mansion across the street from the public school. Donations for the school included $2,000 solicited by Gov. Wallace from state employees. By the time Ulysses Byas arrived in 1970, a building had been constructed on the edge of Tuskegee. By this time, the whites who had originally supported the desegregation effort had abandoned their efforts. Many of these more liberal whites suffered harassment and ostracism from their neighbors, including such acts as cross burnings, threatening phone calls, flattening of tires, and name-calling. The local white churches split because two of the liberal leaders were ministers. Social groups and even families were affected by these divisions. Some families moved out of the area

   The thirteen black students at Tuskegee High School worked hard and won the respect of their teachers (still all white), but they too were subjected to abusive phone calls and other forms of intimidation. Governor Wallace intervened again. The school board had been transporting the white students to Shorter and Notasulga High Schools until Judge Johnson ordered them to stop. So Wallace had the state board of education close Tuskegee High School by stating that its low student population was “not sufficient to justify paying the teachers.” These thirteen black students were then transferred to Tuskegee Institute High School and the Macon County School Board was ordered by the state board to supply transportation for the white students attending Shorter and Notasulga High

   The TCA filed a complaint and requested that the federal courts order desegregation of all Alabama schools. Judge Johnson then ordered that the thirteen black students from Tuskegee High School be transferred to Shorter and Notasulga high schools. The situation at Shorter High School was calm, but trouble erupted when the black students arrived at Notasulga High School. A crowd had gathered, cursing the students on the bus. Selma’s Sheriff Jim Clark and his mounted posse made another appearance. Clark assaulted a black photographer who had slipped onto the bus. The students were denied entry into the school. Judge Johnson again had to step in, forcing the entry of the black students. White students then withdrew from Notasulga High School and from Shorter. Most transferred to Macon Academy. In April 1964, the school in Notasulga was defaced, and the following night, it was burned

   By the time of primary elections in August 1964, black voters outnumbered whites in Macon County. The TCA organized by precincts, hired poll workers, held candidate forums, and endorsed candidates in seven local races: four blacks and three whites, including Charles Gomillion who ran for a position on the board of education. All seven candidates won in the Democratic primary, which at that time was tantamount to winning the election, since there was no real Republican

   In the city of Tuskegee, white registered voters still held a slight majority (1,000 to 900). The TCA also endorsed candidates (four whites and two blacks) for city offices. Meanwhile, an organization called the Non-Partisan Voters League of Macon County (NPVL) developed a platform and a slate of candidates challenging TCA’s gradualist and biracial approach. The NPVL won about 20 percent of the vote, forcing a runoff election. Nevertheless, TCA’s two black candidates for city council won with white support. The new city government appointed blacks to municipal boards and committees, creating a truly interracial government for the first time in Tuskegee. It also created a community action committee, to seek and administer federal grants, and a biracial advisory

   The school board was now chaired by Frances Rush, a liberal white woman who was known for her support of public education. Mr. Pruitt had resigned from the superintendency rather than face more problems with the desegregation efforts, and he was replaced with Joe Wilson. When the 1964–1965 school year started, Tuskegee High School had fifty-nine whites and fourteen blacks. By the end of the school year, the white enrollment had grown to 133. Meanwhile the private Macon Academy continued to grow and add new

   But perhaps as significant, the split within the black community became more pronounced and open. The leader of the NPVL, Detroit Lee, ran for probate judge against the TCA candidate, Preston Hornsby, a white former sheriff who had replaced the brutal Sheriff Pat Evans with TCA support. During this period, young blacks around the nation were pushing for faster change. The Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized a local chapter led by George Ware. Another student group, the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League, was formed to support the Selma movement. These students eventually began to protest the policies of the college and to organize protests against local merchants who did not hire blacks. They desegregated the “white” city pool on May 31, 1965, and the government closed it two days later. They also attempted to integrate the white Methodist Church but were denied entry. Within two weeks, 500 students demonstrated outside the church when they were again denied entry, leading to violence and arrests. They also worked in the rural areas to register local black

   In July 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, Alabama had to stop giving literacy tests to prospective voters. The number of black voters continued to rise as 1,600 new voters were added to the rolls by January 1966. That month brought the death of Sammy Younge, a martyr to the civil rights movement. Younge, a Tuskegee Institute student from the local area, had become active in SNCC. Apparently, he had gone to a local gas station and gotten into a verbal conflict with the manager, Marvin Segrest, over the use of the bathroom. Ultimately, Younge was shot by Segrest and the campus erupted with marches and demands by the students. Tuskegee Institute President Luther Foster, who tried to calm the students, was unable to halt the demonstrations, which included a sit-down strike in the town square by 1,000 students led by Gwen Patterson. Another demonstration a week later resulted in the throwing of rocks and bottles when a deputy sheriff attempted to arrest one of the

   The TCA and liberal whites were appalled by the student behavior. When the next election approached, the split between the older blacks and the students was reflected in the candidates and the campaigning. The NPVL supported Thomas Reed for the state house of representatives, Arthur Scavella for Frances Rush’s board of education position, and Lucius Amerson for sheriff. The TCA supported Jessie Guzman for the state legislature and Frances Rush for board of education but declined to endorse either candidate for sheriff. Amerson won 53 percent of the votes for sheriff, becoming the first black sheriff in Macon County. Reed and Scavella lost their races, but Reed and Attorney Fred Gray later were elected to the legislature (1970), the first black representatives from Macon County. That same year, Lurleen Wallace was elected to the governorship under her husband’s tutelage. She appointed white “constables” in an effort to undermine Sheriff Amerson’s authority, but most white Macon Countians accepted

   In December 1966, Marvin Segrest went to trial in Opelika with an all-white jury for the murder of Sammy Younge. Predictably, he was acquitted. Just as predictably, 1,500 students marched to the downtown area where they defaced a Confederate statue in the square, broke into a liquor store, and threw rocks and bottles at store windows. Students again protested in 1967 when an interracial jury “failed to convict” a white man accused of raping a sixteen-year-old black girl. By 1968, students were protesting the war in Vietnam. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April of that year, more protests were held; this time the students held the Tuskegee Institute Board of Directors hostage for thirteen hours to discuss their demands, forcing the temporary closing of the

   At Tuskegee High School, the black enrollment had grown to more than 50 percent by the fall of 1966. Within the next two years, all white students withdrew, this time for good. Notasulga High School was the only integrated school in the county, probably because whites remained in the majority there.

   Meanwhile, the splits in the black community became deeper—young vs. old, the college vs. the town, the lower class vs. the middle class, the rural areas vs. Tuskegee, the proponents of outright black control vs. the proponents of shared responsibility, and the NPVL vs. TCA. In this atmosphere, a teacher from Tysonville community in west Macon County, Consuelo “Connie” Harper, launched a challenge against the Macon County Community Action (MCCA) program. She said that the agency was not doing enough for the county’s poor people. She wanted to found a Head Start program in her area and went over the heads of the MCCA to get funds directly from Washington. Harper’s criticisms ultimately resulted in the dismissal of agency head, Beulah

   About the same time, rural blacks led by Harper began to criticize the board of education for favoring Tuskegee over the rest of the county in policies and budgeting. Superintendent Wilson promised to equalize teacher-pupil ratios. His actions tended to put the onus for the problems on the middle-class blacks instead of the white-controlled system that had created the conditions in rural schools. In 1969, Charles Gomillion resigned from the school board when criticisms were leveled that white teachers and students who remained in the system were being treated with favoritism. The following year, 1970, the elections sent four blacks to the school board: Consuelo Harper, Dr. Ellis Hall, Dr. J. M. Henderson, and Dr. P. K. Biswas. They joined Frances Rush to form the first black-majority school board. Blacks also won other significant leadership positions: Lucius Amerson remained sheriff, Johnny L. Ford was elected mayor, Thomas Reed and Fred Gray were elected to the Alabama House of Representatives, and James Hopkins, who promised to remove all white employees if elected, was made circuit county clerk. Tuskegee and Macon County were now firmly in the hands of black leadership. It was a new and exciting

   Dr. Joe Wilson resigned the superintendency following an altercation with Shorter community activist Connie Harper, so the school board went about searching for a new leader. During the interim, the principal of Tuskegee Institute High School, Alonzo Harvey, held the

A Note about the

This chapter is largely a summation of the work presented in the book Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee, by Robert J. Norrell. This book is thoroughly researched in primary sources, and no other source was found. I have chosen to use this book rather than spend arduous hours researching since the subject of our book concerns the period following most of these events. On the other hand, the reader who is unfamiliar with the Tuskegee story and milieu may not find Byas’s story and his part in the ensuing drama as exciting and earth moving as it is.