Tales from Tennessee Lawyers

12. Executions and Race Relations

EXECUTIONS AND RACE RELATIONS 171
12 EXECUTIONS AND RACE RELATIONS The following account of a legal public execution, the first story in this chapter, is the only one available for inclusion in this book, although in early times public hangings were rather common in Tennessee and other states in the Upper South. The second story in this chapter provides a description of the historic Highlander Folk School and the racist activities that occurred during efforts to revoke the school’s charter. The next story is related to typical Ku Klux Klan activities in the South up until the 1950s. 206. “PUBLIC HANGING IN TIPTON COUNTY” Do you remember the public hanging of the Negro Andrew Sanders? I was present that day. I was also in the courthouse and heard Attorneys Blackwell and H. S. Young argue the motion for a new trial, which Judge Flippin overruled, pronouncing the death sentence. There have been only three legal executions in this county since the Civil War. Sanders was the only public one. L. P. Reaves, who was sheriff, executed Sanders. The other executions were held in enclosures in the jail yard. Now, the death sentence is executed in Nashville, at the state penitentiary. To the credit of the good citizenship of Tipton County, it can be said that we have never had a lynching in the county. Judge “Lynch” has never held jurisdiction here. Written by Judge William A. Owen, Covington, and published in the Covington Leader, April 9, 1931; provided by Russell B. Bailey, Covington mayor and Tipton County historian 172 Tales from Tennessee Lawyers 207. “THE HIGHLANDER FOLK SCHOOL” I have been an advocate of equal protection against all race or other types of discrimination. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, I represented the Highland[er] Folk School located in Monteagle, Tennessee. Myles Horton, who was president [founder] … started an adult education program near Monteagle to educate coal miners and help them in that geographical area. Later on, the school undertook to educate and to assist in the field of equal protection, civil rights, women’s rights, and the education of like nature. The adult education program continued in the field of civil rights, and people that were interested in that field would be taught to sit in protests where discrimination, in restaurants, for example, was taking place. I recall that a black professor from North Carolina with a Ph.D. degree was teaching there when an effort was made to revoke the charter of Highland[er] Folk School. One morning very early he came to see me because the case was in progress. I asked him why he was getting up so early. He said he had to go back to North Carolina for a couple of days and that he had to get up real early to go because there wasn’t a single restaurant, hotel, or motel between Monteagle and his home in North Carolina that would serve a black person. Martin Luther King came to Highland[er] Folk School as a teacher and participant. Rosa Parks, who refused to go to the back of the bus, and Septima Clark and many other black citizens either taught or were attending classes at Highland[er] Folk School, seeking to educate in the areas of methods and procedures, seeking to destroy the terrible discriminations. At this time, the attorney general for Arkansas, Bruce Bennett (now deceased), and a group from Alabama was seeking to have the charter of the school revoked. The governor and the legislature, at the request of the governor, held hearings, and a resolution was adopted to direct the local attorney general to institute a proceeding to revoke the charter. The highway patrol, sent to the school, claims they were selling beer at the school and were letting blacks and whites sit in the same classroom. That was one of the specific charges. They raided the school but found nothing to justify the charges. The highway patrol then raided the school, checked out the library, and pushed the employees around. Septima Clark, who was well known in the area of civil rights and civil liberties, was hauled off to jail. Later on, a judge declared that the sealed warrant was void on its face. Judge Chatten was the circuit judge at that time. He later became EXECUTIONS AND RACE RELATIONS 173 a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. I’ve often said that...