Black Teens Dancing On TV Leads To School Bombing

 

Jan. 19, 1958, to some In the Jim Crow South it was considered a mortal offense for Black teens to have fun, or at least show they were by dancing on TV. On Saturday the 18th students from the Howard School, a negro school, appeared on WDEF’s Saturday afternoon show “Dance Party” this led to threats against the school and students being called into the Chattanooga Daily Times.

 While this was after the Brown vs Board of Education decision Tennessee was only slowly

desegregating and had just built the Howard School in 1954, at a cost of $2 million dollars which was quite a sum for a southern state for a Black school.

 An explosion at the school fortunately happened early on a Sunday morning with no one in the building. The bomb was home made and was a type of pipe bomb with dynamite caps. It blew out over twenty windows and destroyed several doors. The blast cracked plaster and damaged hot water radiators. Damages were over a $1,000 ($10200 in 2023 dollars)

 The Chattanooga Daily Times reported that they had notified the police they had received threats to the school after the dance program had aired. The police reported that they too had received reports that people objected to the program and that one woman reported her sone was going down to the WDEF studio and ‘Wreck the place.’ Even though the police had this information the officers on Duty Saturday night apparently thought any threats were actually pranks. Police Chief E.H. Brown said that although someone had called saying they were going to blow up the school his men felt it was a prank based on the voice and some details. He said that it would be followed up on now and every effort was being made and a full-scale investigation was taking place.

 A second explosion went off in the neighborhood of the city’s Black YWCA club at 1:00 am on the morning of Jan. 27. This explosion caused only some broken windows in the neighborhood.

 After this second explosion rewards were offered by the Tennessee Law Enforcement Officers Association, The Colored Voters Association and the Men’s Civic League as well as the School Board. These rewards didn’t seem to have any effect as no arrests were made by the time of the March School Board meeting where the Howard School PTA demanded to know if there was any evidence.

 The school was also evacuated the following November for a bomb threat. While there was a clear pattern of intimidation being made against students and Negro activists in the city no arrests were ever made. 

Sources:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604142627/?terms=%22Howard%20School%22&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/585720284/?terms=%22Howard%20School%22&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604440901/?terms=%22Howard%20School%22&match=1