BV2631 323

Abstract

312 member of one of the most important law firms in Indianapolis, and now the father of Shortridge students. In accepting the position Nolan said that as in previous years the Non-Partisans stood for "an absolutely first rate' school system," which they saw as "a racially integrated system." Anticipating the coming furor over busing, he said that since it was the constitutional policy of the United States government to integrate schools, he personally favored "those reasonable tech-niques that permit integration," including busing under some circumstances.11 Some weeks later the Non-Partisans announced the selection of Thomas Binford as permanent chairman. A graduate of Princeton, a Phi Beta Kappa, president of a business corporation, member of boards of banks, businesses, and philanthropic organizations, a Republican, an important figure in the Greater Indianapolis Pro-gress Committee and the Urban League, Binford epitomized the establishment and power structure in Indianapolis. He was a for-mer member of the Citizens School Committee but said he had re-signed from it because he considered it too "narrow." The nominating committee of the Non-Partisans recommended two black candidates, Robert DeFrantz, member of the present board, and Mrs. Johnnie Duke, president of a PTA and member of the Indiana-polis Council of Parents and Teachers. At the nominating session members chose a third black, Reverend T. Carroll Benjamin, pastor of the Second Christian Church, a powerful speaker and the first black to head the National Evangelistic Association of the