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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 19 Feb 2015.
Upland Chronicles: James Chandler was a trailblazing black educator
CARROLL MCMAHAN
James Chandler was the first African-American educator to teach at Sevierville Elementary School.
James Chandler is pictured (extreme right) singing with the Boyd’s Creek Church of God on a WSEV radio program sponsored by Robertson Brothers Hardware Store.
James Chandler attended Payne’s Temple School, where he later taught all eight grades.
Fifty years ago, the nation was mesmerized by the Selma to Montgomery marches taking place in Alabama, part of the voting rights movement that led to the passage that year of the Voting Rights Act. The previous year, on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, prohibiting segregation in public facilities. The entire country, particularly the South, was going through a period of cultural transformation.
Although the African-American population in Sevier County was small, the county dealt with the issue of segregation in the school system at the time. The first mandated integration occurred in the fall of 1963, when a small group of black students enrolled at Sevier County High School.
Led by Mary Bond McMahan, a well-respected black educator who had taught grades one to eight at Pleasant View School for about 40 years, a delegation of black citizens had petitioned the Sevier County Board of Education for integration over the past several years. The reason for the urgency was that eight African-American students were traveling on a bus to Knoxville, some 50 miles roundtrip, to go to high school.
In the forefront of the movement to integrate Sevier County schools was a young, black educator named James Chandler. Mary McMahan had reached retirement age, and Chandler had been teaching some of the students at Pleasant View School for a couple of years.
Born July 23, 1927, James Walter Chandler was the oldest of 12 children of Frank Stewart Chandler and Martha Ellen Chandler. He grew up on a farm at Boyd’s Creek on property that had once been a part of Wheatlands Plantation, where his great-grandfather Louis Lincoln Chandler was born a slave.
Starting out at Payne’s Temple School near his home, Chandler worked hard to receive his education. He lived with relatives in Knoxville while working his way through high school and the University of Tennessee, where he eventually received a master’s degree in education.
His first teaching job was at Payne’s Temple School, where he had once attended himself and was related to most of the students he instructed. He taught eight grades at the all-black school, beginning with the 1949-50 school year.
Known as a strict disciplinarian, Chandler required his students to knuckle down and do their work. Several of his younger siblings were students at Payne’s Temple while Chandler was teaching there. He transferred to Pleasant View School just before the integration of Sevier County High School.
The U. S. Supreme Court 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. However, the delegations requesting integration in Sevier County saw few results until changes on the school board resulting from the 1962 election.
With pressure mounting, the school board appointed a committee that presented the board with five proposals for integration, one of which called for putting the issue off and taking it to the courts.
The school board accepted the committee’s first choice: integrating the high schools in 1963 and all schools by 1965. Surprisingly to some, there was no public opposition within Sevier County to the plan, and very minor opposition from outside sources.
In an editorial, the Sevier County News-Record, forerunner of The Mountain Press, commended the school board:
“The board worked out the plan in a very calm, studious, and thoughtful manner, and it is in this same manner we hope the people of our fine county will react. We believe the basic goodness of man will drown the murky, learned prejudices which have caused trouble in other areas of the south,” the newspaper read.
“Actual integration is over eight months away. We hope these eight months will be used by all of us for some thoughtful soul searching, or at worst, a facing of facts. We have complete confidence the citizens of Sevier County will handle this matter. The goodness of man should pass any test, and we should do it without any homework.”
High school integration occurred without a single incident of protest or racial comments directed toward the cautious black students. The next hurdle came two years later, when the entire school system was finally integrated. Tension was somewhat compounded by the appointment of James Chandler as the first black educator to teach in a school other than an all-black institution in Sevier County.
Chandler proved to be the right man at the right time. The year he began teaching the seventh grade at Sevierville Elementary School, there were 40 requests from parents asking changes from one class to another. Curiously, 39 parents requested that their children be placed in Mr. Chandler’s class. The parents of only one student requested removal.
These requests were evidence of the parents’ respect for Chandler’s creditability as an educator, and their support of the school board’s decision to appoint him. Chandler’s transition from a small country school to one of the largest elementary schools in the state, and from an all-black one to an almost all-white one, was done with ease.
He continued in the school system until he retired in 1984, when he lost his eyesight due to diabetes. He became a minister and married Maxine Winton.
Chandler died May 22, 1988, at age 60. As we observe Black History Month, the contributions made by James Chandler to his community should be recognized.
Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce and serves as Sevier County historian.
The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column or have comments, please contact Carroll McMahan at 453-6411 or cmcmahan@scoc.org, or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S112] Census, 1930.
Name: James Chandler
Event: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: District 14, Sevier, Tennessee
Gender: Male
Age: 3
Marital Status: Single
Race: Negro
Birthplace: Tennessee
Estimated Birth Year: 1927
Immigration Year:
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Enumeration District Number: 0017
Family Number: 104
Sheet Number and Letter: 9A
Line Number: 9
NARA Publication: T626, roll 2271
Film Number: 2342005
Digital Folder Number: 4547919
Image Number: 00952
Household Gender Age
Parent Frank Chandler M 23
Parent Martha E Chandler F 20
James Chandler M 3
Margaret J Chandler F 1
- [S74] Atchley Funeral Home Records, Volume IV, 1987-1999, Larry D. Fox, (Smoky Mountain Historical Society), 20 May 1988.
Chandler, James Walter (B) 60 b. 7-23-27 TN d. 5-20-88 Knox UT Hosp teacher f. Frank Chandler m. Ellen Chandler Boyds Creek Cem Survivors: wife Maxie Yeary 3212 Solway Rd Knox step-dau Wiletta Winton 2 gc Antonio Lindsey m. g-mother Celia Chandler 3 bro Eugene Chandler Knox Mayford CA Michael Knox 8 sis Peggy Chandler Sev Evelyn Moulden Sev Gladys Wilson Sev Jeanette Birden OH Joella Donohoo Sev Edna Neal Knox Maxine Cleveland Knox Anna Ruth Ross OH received masters degree from UT teacher in Sev Co schools for 30 yr mem Boyd's Creek Ch of God.
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