Upset by segregationists who intimidated 12 African American pupils at Clinton High School and led them to refuse to return to classes, the Reverend Paul W. Turner, pastor of Clinton's First Baptist Church, met with the pupils on December 4, 1956. That day, he and two other men from Clinton escorted six African American students to Clinton High School, and segregationists beat Turner as he walked away. In August, Clinton became the first Tennessee state-funded public school to desegregate. Turner's courageous walk enabled Bobby Cain, one of the "Clinton 12," to become the first African American to graduate from Clinton High School on May 17, 1957.