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June 13, 2007
Congressmen Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.) today introduced a bill to authorize a study of the site of Green McAdoo School in Clinton, Tn., to evaluate the national significance, suitability and feasibility of designating the site as a unit of the National Park System.
"We honor what happened at Green McAdoo and the people who made it happen. The Green McAdoo site is important to the Clinton community, but also to the cause of justice and equality in America," said Congressman Wamp. "This bill is the first step in determining whether the site can be preserved and will remain a part of our nation's history in the National Park System."
"The students of Green McAdoo were the first wave of a movement of citizens who helped change America forever. They were ordinary people with extraordinary vision who answered the call of justice," said Congressman Lewis. "And through their sacrifice, through their struggle this nation witnessed a non-violent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. The dedication and commitment of the Clinton 12 to a cause greater than themselves helped found a New America and moved this nation one step closer toward laying down the burdens of race and class."
The formerly segregated all-black Green McAdoo School and all-white Clinton High School played a vital role in the school desegregation crisis that preceded and followed the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The Federal District Court in Tennessee issued an order on January 4, 1956, requiring desegregation of Anderson County schools no later than the fall term, 1956.
On Aug. 25, 1956, 12 students from the Green McAdoo School, later dubbed the "Clinton 12" met at the school before walking together to the all-white Clinton High School to become the first African-American students to effect the integration of a southern, state-operated school. On September 1, 1956, Clinton became the first southern town to be occupied by National Guard troops in an effort to quell violence sparked by protestors from all over the United States that were opposed to school integration.
In 1958, the newly integrated Clinton High School was destroyed by dynamite that most assumed was placed by segregationists. The community had the students back in school in four days at an abandoned elementary school in neighboring Oak Ridge, Tenn. Anderson County rebuilt Clinton High School, and it and the Green McAdoo School are the only remaining schools associated with the Clinton desegregation crisis.
The Green McAdoo School National Historic Site Study Act of 2007 would authorize a study to determine the suitability and feasibility of designating the site as a unit of the National Park System, which would include cost estimates for any necessary acquisition, development, operation and maintenance of the site and identify alternatives for the management, administration and protection of the area.
Once funds are made available for the study, the Secretary of the Interior will submit a report with the findings, conclusions and recommendations within three years to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources and the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
In August 2006, Congressman Wamp and Congressman Lewis, a pioneer in the civil rights movement, were in Clinton to dedicate and celebrate the opening of the Green McAdoo Culture Center and Museum at the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Clinton High School.
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