A CAT CALLED JESUS'

...She was warned that "black crows and doves don't mate or integrate...

...The high school principal was beseiged by callers who thought, erroneously, that the play was being produced at the school...

...Davis were prominent members of a "watchdog" committee of the California Republican Assembly, a conservative political organization...

...they prepare teenagers for riot and revolution...

...A high school girl who had won a lead role in the play received threatening telephone calls and weird anonymous notes...

...Mrs...

...many of her students gave her encouragement...

...The meaning behind Calvert's statements was abundantly clear...

...Davis faced the committee for more than an hour of questioning...

...Noting the contract had already been renewed, Dail-ard told the women: "All I've heard is gossip and there is no evidence of misconduct...

...Millie Ruplinger, asserted their CRA membership was not related to the campaign against Mrs...

...Davis has been guilty of any misconduct in relation to the pupils or the school...

...Her local affiliate, the -4,150-member San Diego Teachers Association, voted for a full investigation of the accusations against her...

...One neatly-typed letter asked, "Would Walt Disney make a picture like this...

...uscripts of the play—with the inscription "by Geri Turner Davis, drama teacher at Mission Bay high school" added to the front page—began to flood the city and turn up elsewhere in the nation...

...Davis' "qualifications," had decided to plow blindly into: 1) her professional and personal conduct —although local school authorities had cleared her of any charge...

...The play led to relentless intimidation of her, a test of wills between self-appointed censors and unflinching San Diego school officials, and finally a clear warning to California's 150,000 public school teachers that their personal lives and off-duty pursuits would be under surveillance from a state department of education ever-vigilant against "profanity, obscenity, and blasphemy...

...We all felt that the play—with its profanity, use of the words 'nigger,' 'goddamn,' taking the Lord's name in vain—was not the kind of thing that sets a good example for students...

...Davis, and other California teachers, were not to write plays, or other works which the committee considered "cheap and vulgar...

...The play tournament's director began to get phone calls from persons representing themselves as some of the town's leading businessmen, clergymen, and social figures...

...Davis could 4iave been dismissed as just another of the right-wing fringe campaigns ever-present in Southern California life...

...A third woman, a junior high school teacher, was to admit later that she was so upset she had hired a private detective to investigate Mrs...

...The closing and most perplexing chapter of the ordeal had begun...

...Hate mail poured in upon her...

...2) the legally complex area of "obscenity"— although the San Diego city and district attorneys had not seen fit to prosecute...

...Davis was told by a caller, "I'll ruin you, your church, your political party, and your law practice...

...Mrs...

...She submitted A Cat Called Jesus under the pen name "Turner Davis...

...They were kept in the lobby, but one woman carrying a tape recorder and accompanied by a lawyer got in to see the play...

...Lila Buck and Mrs...

...On the advice of its attorneys the city ruled it could not interfere with the production...

...An old antagonist of Rafferty's, newspaper publisher Thomas Braden, who is president of the state board of education, assailed the superintendent...

...He formally interviewed nineteen persons concerning the accusations against Mrs...

...Another said it was "filled with profanity and obscenity and illicit relationships...

...The credentials committee, in questioning Mrs...

...The "cat" in the play is named Jesus by a jail guard's wife, an unsympathetic character who claims to be a good Christian...

...no teacher should be investigated for writing a play...

...The play, set in a North Carolina jail, centers on a thirteen-year old white sheriff's daughter who first mocks and later grows sympathetic toward a twenty-year-old Negro prisoner...

...This is ridiculous...

...We do not condone the play, but there are no adequate legal grounds for any punitive action...

...The committee conferred, then announced its decision...

...Would Pat Boone sing a song with that name...

...If we accept the thesis of these ladies, we would have to declare immoral at least three American Nobel prize winners in literature—Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Faulkner...

...State assemblyman Leo J. Ryan, a school teacher from South San Francisco, was concerned with the arbitrary conduct in the Davis case of Rafferty's department of education— which, he pointed out, on other occasions had been at pains to stay out of teacher-parent squabbles because they were "local matters...

...An attorney who had become associated with Mrs...

...We feel it tends to perpetuate racial tensions, not alleviate and quiet them...

...Superintendent Max Rafferty, insisting he personally had nothing to do with the credentials committee's intervention, said he supported its decision...

...Her students went out of their way to welcome her back to class...

...Nonetheless, a group of San Diego women protested to city officials that the play should not be presented at the publicly-supported civic theatre...

...If we say 'condemn her because she wrote the play' then we condemn everyone who wrote about life from Solomon on down...

...Her insistence that she had not intended blasphemy, obscenity, or immorality— plus a volley of support from students, local school officials, and the teachers associations—would have seemed to act in her favor...

...Davis' closely-guarded, unlisted telephone number was private no longer...

...She did not mention the play to her classes, nor did she encourage her drama students to try out for it...

...They were accused of being "Commies," "nigger-lovers," and "atheists...

...One woman brought in two former students she said would testify against the teacher...

...The two youths, however, told Thorn they did not know what the woman was talking about—that as far as they were concerned Mrs...

...A large group of women had turned up on opening night bearing clipboards and pencils, proclaiming they were reporters...

...Davis' play set off a public furor that lasted nearly a year...

...It was a play, she acknowledged, that ought to seem immoral, obscene, or blasphemous to somebody...

...A public hearing on the charges was set for Sacramento, the state capital, and a heated exchange ensued...

...When the school board had refused to take action against Mrs...

...and 3) the question of "blasphemy"—although this would seem a matter of concern for the church, not the state...

...One caller threatened to "bash your head in...

...Calvert later offered even more illuminating insight into the committee's thinking...

...The Negro is scheduled to be executed for the murder of a rich, amoral white woman who had been his patron and lover until she no longer had use for him...

...Davis was a good teacher and fine person...

...Davis, her critics appealed to a higher court: the California state department of education, headed by Max Rafferty, the ultra-conservative, controversial, and outspoken superintendent of public instruction...

...The woman left Thorn's office, snapping at him in exasperation, "You must be able to find something bad about her...

...Mrs...

...Davis had other supporters...

...Her principal and fellow faculty members at Mission Bay high school were behind her...

...Ryan went to work on proposed legislation to establish more precise, equitable procedures for the department's review of teachers' credentials (preventing, as he put it, "the credentials committee from serving as drama critics...

...Would you please list the obscenities you've just heard in this play...

...Only after some San Diego housewives learned she was the author did her involvement become known publicly...

...Mrs...

...And a newly-hired literary agent sifted through scores of requests (many from schools and churches) to present A Cat Called Jesus to other audiences...

...This is Max in his role as chief censor and it's disgraceful," Braden said...

...It beggars the imagination," one observer wrote later, "to picture a newly-risen Torquemada grilling the penitent applicant, sniffing out the sulphurous signs of blasphemy...

...Davis at any cost...

...Her mail and telephone calls became overwhelmingly favorable...

...The women—fifty strong—picketed the theatre...

...The teachers associations indicated they would press for adoption of a professional practices act so that the profession could police its own members much as the bar association polices lawyers...

...Davis received a letter from the department, stating that the credentials committee ". . . has reviewed your play which raises serious questions as to your qualifications to continue as a member of the teaching profession...

...Davis' teaching contract be held up pending an investigation of the teacher...

...I'm a reporter," one would say...

...Are we now saying to our teachers, 'You shall not write plays, or if you do, you must clear them with Dr...

...Thorn's report, examining the charges of "blasphemy, obscenity, and lewd and lascivious conduct," could only conclude: "There is not a scintilla of factual evidence pointing to any misconduct of the teacher relating to the classroom or outside activities...

...Finally, two days after Christmas, Mrs...

...We must be critical of the derogatory and slanderous remarks made by the accusers against the personal morals of Mrs...

...And to anyone who would write P.O...

...The committee, though it denied a role of censor, had served notice that, regardless of the findings of the teaching profession or the local school board, it would continue to sit in judgment of the private lives of teachers—citing as authority a section of the state law that allows revocation of credentials for "immoral or unprofessional conduct...

...Davis said she "tried to portray the value of individual rights and Christian compassion...

...But we did not have adequate evidence that our attorneys felt would hold up in court later...

...Rafferty...

...There was not one member of the committee who didn't feel she should have her credentials revoked," he said...

...Now, a potent arm of state government had involved itself—nearly nine months after the play had been performed...

...Had she written the words "nigger," "syphilis," "whore," and "jig...

...The campaign also attracted underground volunteers...

...The committee's handling of the matter and Calvert's subsequent statements caused alarm in some circles...

...along with a quotation from J. Edgar Hoover about smut peddlers...

...There was a measure of justice for her...

...Students reported they had heard adults say they would "get Mrs...

...As one of them explained, "Plays like this contribute to the immorality of our youngsters, the high crime rate and illegitimacy...

...At intermission, the women with the clipboards sought out members of the audience gathered in the lobby...

...Several called, solemnly quoted the Bible, uttered a familiar four-letter word and hung up...

...The play's title and earthy dialogue ordinarily might have received only passing notice...

...Davis began sprucing up another play she had stored away—a three-act drama entitled Magnolia Myth...

...Would Lawrence Welk play a tune with this [play's] title...

...Davis had discussed her sex life and raised her skirts in front of her class, that she had served liquor to students in a rented motel room, and that she had been seen necking with a student in a parked car...

...A Cat Called Jesus was presented—and won first prize in the tournament...

...Heretofore, the attack on Mrs...

...The next step for the protesters was an appearance before the San Diego board of education...

...Box 5276, San Diego, an anonymous group called "The Committee for the Defense of Morality" mailed copies of the play (under the heading "Is this play literature, drama, or filth...

...Davis . . . not one of those accusations has been substantiated by evidence...

...In affirming the state's interest in outside activities of teachers, Calvert added, "it makes no difference if a teacher rapes a girl in school or outside the school"—an observation many thought was a remarkable comparison to the act of writing a play...

...Davis •—but not one would make a charge under oath...

...Both women, Mrs...

...Davis, a thirty-two-year old Baptist with a soft Carolina drawl, had always been careful to keep her life as a teacher separate from her life as an occasional amateur writer...

...The committee's admonitions left a cloud over her personal and professional life...

...Schall said "it would be just as true to say the [liberal] California Democratic Council encouraged Mrs...

...After the hearing, Geri Turner Davis went back to teaching at Mission Bay high school...

...Davis] was hearsay—which is usually not admissible in court...

...School superintendent Ralph Dail-ard firmly declined...

...Rumors were spread that Mrs...

...She had, she answered, but had toned down the dialogue before the play was actually performed...

...At the end of the play the Negro is shot by the sheriff...

...Davis to write the play as it would be to contend the CRA acted against her...

...The investigation, made by Robert Thorn, a prominent San Diego attorney, took six months...

...Exposure of the hypocrisy of the woman's Christianity is one of the targets of the drama...

...There is no evidence whatsoever that Mrs...

...and the California Teachers Association came to her defense...

...Mrs...

...Davis—as did San Diego attorney John T. Schall, counsel to some of the protesters and chairman of the county CRA organization...

...Everett Calvert, chief deputy to Max Rafferty, spoke for the group: "We deplore the use of cheap and vulgar language...

...Others noted that two of the San Diego housewives who were vocal critics of Mrs...

...She went to her files and pulled out A Cat Called Jesus, a play about racial intolerance in the South which she had written three years earlier while on vacation in her native North Carolina...

...In Sacramento, under the glare of television lights, Mrs...

...Much of it [the evidence against Mrs...

...When the calls were returned for verification, it turned out that these complaints from "prominent persons" were made by impostors...

...He said he had read the play and found passages containing, as he put it, "sufficient profanity, obscenity, and blasphemy," to warrant an investigation...

...Copied manPHILIP HAGER is a staff correspondent in California for Newsweek magazine...

...In letters, telegrams, and petitions they asked for action by the department's credentials committee, which is empowered to recommend suspension or revocation of a teacher's credentials to the state board of education...

...She and her husband Bruce (a history teacher at another school) endured a barrage of anonymous calls...

...California's Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy, also a member of the board of education, said he was "utterly opposed to an investigation . . . it's wrong and the board ought to admit it...

...But because she was a teacher, Mrs...

...They demanded Mrs...

...She still jumped at the sound of a telephone ringing and looked anxiously towards the door of her apartment when she heard footsteps outside...