10-125 Garand Picture of the Day -Clinton, TN 1956

[Mark in Rochester]

National Guard personnel in Clinton, frightening agitators with bayonets, while trying to regain order after riots about school intergration.
Location: Clinton, TN, US
Date taken: September 1956
Photographer: Robert W. Kelley




National Guard personnel marching the streets of Clinton, to regain order after riots about school intergration.
Location: Clinton, TN, US
Date taken: September 1956
Photographer: Robert W. Kelley




The Ritz Theater and Hoskins Drugstore, built in the 1940s under the direction of the War Production Board



National Guard personnel in Clinton, during training, while others keep order after riots about school intergration.
Location: Clinton, TN, US
Date taken: September 1956
Photographer: Robert W. Kelley




In 1956, Clinton gained national attention when segregationists opposed the desegregation of Clinton High School. Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, a court order required the desegregation of the high school. Twelve African-American students enrolled in the high school in the fall of 1956. On August 27, 1956, the Clinton Twelve attended classes at Clinton High School for the first time, becoming the first African-Americans to desegregate a state-supported public school in the Southeast. While the first day of classes occurred without incident, pro-segregation forces led by John Kasper and Asa Carter arrived in Clinton the following week and rallied the city's white citizens. Riots broke out in early September, forcing Governor Frank G. Clement to station National Guard units in Clinton throughout September. Sporadic violence and threats continued for the next two years, culminating in the bombing of Clinton High School on October 5, 1958. With an influx of outside aide, however, the school was quickly rebuilt.

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[Bob Womack]

I lived near Clinton for a while when I was in colleger. Because this incident occurred a year after I was born I knew nothing of it. Interestingly, East Tennessee was a hotbed for abolitionists during the Civil War and contained a few stops on the underground railroad. By the time I was in junior high in the late 1960s, the schools were quite integrated. During my middle year in junior high, my mostly-white football team elected a black gal named "Peaches" as the homecoming queen, entirely on merit. She was a great gal.

The color pic seems to be a modern shot. Main Street Hardware and the phone booth are gone.

Bob

[Bob Seijas]

Ha, I notice the troop in the forground of the last photo has modified his boots by stitching a zipper down the inside. Against regs, but you never had to lace and unlace them. You could keep a nice box lace always in place.