President's Council of the Tennessee State Board of Education

Copy of the Tennessee State Board of Education's five-year gradual desegregation plan for public higher education institutions submitted as a defense of a suit against Memphis State University. The gradual desegregation plan outlines that qualified Black students can enroll at higher education institutes with graduate programs for graduate work beginning in the 1955-1956 academic year, and that white students also would be admitted for graduate work at the only public higher education institution in the state for Black students: Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University. Black undergraduate students with senior class standing could transfer to a formerly segregated institution for the 1956-1957 academic year. Black students could transfer for their junior year beginning in fall 1957 and sophomore year in fall 1958. Finally, the plan outlined that new freshmen could begin enrolling in the 1959-1960 academic year.