NVCR 2
Page 6

 through schooling now based largely on merit, I hope, but they're largely limited
 to a certain level of development by position in companies, and above that, not
 much.

H: Would the TFCG have supported more resources for African American schools
 and education under the auspices of being separate but equal, or did you feel
 that they were equal?

K: Oh no. There were black schools that were understaffed. There were positive
 good black teachers, positive good white teachers also, as far as that goes, but
 there was no inclination at all in the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional
 Government to make their schools second-rate. We wanted to make them just
 as good as they could make them, and [allow them] to have enough money to do
 so. We certainly advocated black leadership in that area, as well as other places.

H: I understand that you don't want to name the names of the African American
 individuals who were members of the group, but can you tell me, for example,
 what occupations they were? Do you recall off-hand?

K: No, I don't.

H: Would you consider the TFCG effective in accomplishing its goals?

K: Well, we failed utterly, of course. Compulsory integration did occur; we were
 opposed to that. We were effective in bringing to the forefront reasonable
 conversation, civilized exchange on the subject, and perhaps prevented some
 more rabid folks from stirring things up unnecessarily.

H: Why do you think the TFCG was ineffective and failed to accomplish its goals?

K: Well, because the government had successfully integrated public schools, they
 had successfully violated the idea of freedom of association. They have
 successfully manipulated, by zoning and assignment and busing, a population in
 most schools that they consider to be sociologically beautiful. They have
 deliberately put schools on border-lines between white-folk community and
 black-folk community so that the school will receive influx from each direction.
 This all basically and absolutely flies in the face of the idea of freedom of
 association. It's very unwise [in terms of] productive development, which is
 continually resisted by both groups, to some extent. There are schools that are
 supposed to be integrated, but they're not [because black and white students do
 not mingle within the school they have separate clubs, etc.]. I'm not too familiar
 with it, but I understand [that,] in many areas of the north, there are schools that
 will be solid black. The few whites that go there are lost like wood chips on dark
 water.