Tennessee Higher Education Officials Deny Honor For `Freedom Riders’: The rejection by Tennessee higher education officials of a proposal to award honorary degrees to 13 former Tennessee State University students expelled from the college in 1961 because of the students’ participation in the historic freedom rides has stirred criticism of the action from the college’s president, alumni and some state lawmakers.
“I never imagined the request would be voted down,” said Melvin N. Johnson, president of Tennessee State, referring to the 7-5-1 vote last week by the Tennessee Board of Regents to reject the honorary degree proposal. It was made by Johnson, at the suggestion of several alumni and Nashville civic leaders, including retired Nashville newspaper publisher John Seigenthaler, a top civil rights enforcement official of the Justice Department during the Kennedy administration.
