◆ SpookStack

a ve A Te tet hl alate! er Te -s linctudes the house in which he livea and a émell piece of land aur- it. . tion of the school’s char- iter wa mean the institution would have to pay state and coun- ty taxes on all its property. It is now tax exempt. fib Ni Bchool Defended i Miss ustus, a writer of chijat@n’s books and Sunday school lessons, defended the school in al- most an hour and a half of testi- “mony yesterday afternoon. Miss Justus, ,who is secretary-treasurer of the Highlander board of direc- tors, said the achooi has ton- tributed a great deal to the com- munity in which it is located. the county don’t like the Mont- The testimony of Miss Justus, wucwed ¢he long parade of wit- nesses from Grundy county wha teld the committee the péople of eagle institution and feel it has gontributed nothing to the welfare of the county. Before the hearing opened yes- terday morning, members of the {committee visited Highlander Folk school. talked briefly with Horton tand casually thumbed throug bh books in the library. — { “There's some hot stuff here,” jiu Rep, Harry Lee Senter of Bristol, 4Aw, it's nothing you can't find ij. almost any library,” said Sen. {Barton Dement of Murfreesboro, jcommittee chairman, j Tetle of Strike | First to be called was Emmett Thomas, 59, an employe of the Grundy county highway depart- moent. He testified that Horton lhe!ped organize the strike of WPA sirike. “He told ua we'd get :ditions and better pay.” He added/aquare dancing resulted injasked her: - that fhe strike bad better conditions. “Our big complaint was that the jeb superintendent was a alave driver,” he said. “Wa didn't ‘ike him and we got ahed of Aim and got a@ little raise in wages wo6.” ‘ Toamas and Harry Dyer, an- .oyner witness, also aaid they hed seen colored and white children byes together in the pond a. Highlander. ~~ ie The Sext witness, Carl Geary, Ve seer it ad teatified that people from a lander occasionally visited his,it,” she said. 4tore which he ran for seven yearajI can look at television any time near the school. He said he had/and see worse than that.” formed the habit of taking down! ,... 1 aw K the numbers of Hcense plates of cars going into the schoo) but Jost, all of that information when his store burned several yeara ago. early years Hightander ;had or- ganized a canning co-operative to enable families of the community to have additional food during the depression. A sewing co-dperative, she said, helped community eam a -littia extra;Charter and asked Miss Justus if money by making quilts, square|she thought they were being tived | sity dance skirts and pin cushions, She|up to. She replied she did. ie said the school aiso ran @ nursery schoc!,, bookmobile, a recreation program for teen-agers and gave free music lessong ‘to children in. Viength by Representatives Alan iworkera in the county in the early|Horton or wea, at Jeast, “cleared” 1308. He said it was a sit-down|with him before being issued. Asked if Horton had promisediaiso had Miss anything to the workera, he sald,| photographs taken better con-/showing Negroes ' "‘MeCartt said. Ba oe foe “It's a square dance. dustrial “Have you issued any diplomas te —" leaders.” rural ahd industrial -jyou know of?” "TT. didn't know dipiomas were required for rural and industrial leaders,” Miss Justus replied, - With few exceptions, yesterday's testimony was confined to évents which occurred prior to World War . Nearly all the witnesses aaid they had had no contact with the school in recent years. Sewanee Professors Testify Two professors of the Univer- of the South, Sewanee, testi n the school's pei v/s day. They were David Betider- down, professor e“nittry, and ‘leaders that . va Knowledge ge “Don't you know its against the law for whites and coloreds to marry in Tennessee?" McCartt aaked, = . . You air,” che replied. “But 1 didn’t know that « square dance me - Marrisge cere- Miss Justus testified that in its was part of mony.” McCartt then read the purposes women in thejof the school as outlined in its “It gays here one of your pur-| pozes is to train rural and in- - ~~ the community. a She was cross examined at great Hanover of Memphis and Harry Lee Senter of Bristol about a deed she helped execute in 1957, trans- ferring part of the school property to Horton. ; . Senter asked. Misa Justus if she had not, in Tact, violated her responsibility as a trustee of the Institution by giving away its property to an individual. She reptied that the house and the iand ere still being used for activities of the Folk school and that she was confident they would continue to be so used in the future, ‘ “But you have no assurance of that, do you?” Senter asked. “You have no more assurance of that than J do.” J. H. McCartt, committee coun- cil, suggested that Miss Justua’ statement was actually written by She denied the indignantly. He Justus identify & at the schoo! and whites together; Then He + TRACY CITY, Tenn—Sen. Barton Dement, left, and J, McCartt, chairman and counsel of, the legislative committed in- vestigating Highlander Folk school, get their heads together about on a point of strategy. i ett oo. “Do you approve ‘of colored and whites dancing together?” ‘T see nothing immoral oe High} fre we eee ee eee